“Okay. But I’ll be back to check on you.”
“Not you, baby. Just him. You stay.”
“What is this stay?” Lothar snapped.
Nick set the tray aside and willed himself out of bed, hiding a wince.
“You need to rest.” Danielle tucked herself under his arm to stabilize him. “Really, you heal so quickly, is it too much to ask you to spend one day in bed?”
“Tell your guard dog to stand down and I will do anything you ask.” He grinned at her.
“Pathetic,” Lothar said.
“You’re no better. Admit it, she’s got you around her finger.”
Lothar’s eyes darkened to jet.
Danielle was breathing hard, her eyes as dark as her counterpart’s. She held out one hand as if to stop Lothar in his tracks. Her fingernails bit into Nick’s back.
“She’s going to do some serious damage to both of us,” Nick said.
“She must eat.” Lothar showed his teeth. “She was busy saving your hide last night.” He looked at Danielle then, and his expression softened. It was like seeing a completely different man. Stalin was gone, and Romeo had taken his place. “Among other things,” he finished.
Nick noticed the turtleneck sweater Lothar was wearing. Saw a faint bruising beneath it.
“Wonderful,” Nick said, realizing who must have bitten him, then he stopped. “Wait? Hunt, as in?”
“We require fresh meat,” Danielle said. “Not all of the time, but human food does become unsatisfying.”
“I eat mortal food,” Lothar said. He looked at her. “But for others, things of mortal world are never enough to satisfy.”
If that wasn’t a euphemism, then Nick needed to hand over his man-card. He wanted to rip into Lothar, would have if he wasn’t such a mess. “Give me a couple days, Comrade. You look at her like that and . . .”
Danielle slipped out from under his arm even as Lothar crossed the room. She came between them, looking at Nick from over her shoulder in warning.
“He’s Lithuanian,” she said. “Calling him Comrade is like asking to lose your head. The only reason you’re alive is my body between the two of you.”
Ah . . . Good to know. He craned around Danielle. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.” He meant it too. Their fight was personal; there was no point in bringing anything else into it.
She spoke to Lothar quietly in Lithuanian and he backed down. Turning, she pushed on Nick’s chest, getting him to sit with a pathetic lack of force on her part.
“I would appreciate it if you two somehow called a truce. We have bigger issues. Like vampires in the forest, in case the both of you have forgotten. We thought there was only one left, a female, but it appears there are more.”
Her scent was eating through his brain cells and he didn’t care about vampires. “Bigger issues than Romeo here?”
“I need to leave. Don’t you see? Once I do, you’ll think more clearly.”
Lothar snorted and Nick wanted to slug him.
Danielle spread her hands in defeat. She said something to Lothar in his language. Nick just loved having them talk behind his back.
“In English,” he said.
“Help him with what?” Lothar said.
“You know what. His instincts. This isn’t Lithuania. He wasn’t raised knowing who and what he is. He has no idea what’s happening to him.”
“Neither do you, Darling.”
She growled.
Nick smiled. “Why don’t you just finish him off for me, baby.”
“You stay out of it,” she told Nick. She turned back to Lothar. “There are techniques for controlling his aggression. You’re a better teacher than I am. I will be with you two so you don’t . . .” She glanced at Nick, then finished in Lithuanian.
“English,” Nick said.
“Shut up,” she told him.
She’d had it with them. He knew he should do something to calm her down, but he hoped she would turn her aggression on Lothar, so he didn’t. She peeled back her lips unnaturally far and growled at him.
Nick lifted one finger to his mouth. “I’m shutting up now.”
“All right. You need to get better. Kendra can take care of you. I will check on you later.”
“On one condition.”
Her brows narrowed.
“You have your partner there leave the room for thirty seconds.”
“Thirty seconds. Why?”
“He thinks he can convince you to leave me,” Lothar said. “Let him try.”
Nick detected a slight strain in his voice. Lothar wasn’t so confident after all. It seemed they had that in common. The door closed. Nick held out his hand to her.
Danielle came, but she did it muttering under her breath. She shoved her hand in his. “Thirty seconds. This had better be good.”
“It will be.” He pulled her face toward his. Her eyes widened like she’d no idea he was going to kiss her. For a girl who was also monster, she sure was naive. A lock of hair flopped over her face and he moved it out of his way. “Thirty seconds,” he said, then kissed her. She returned him at first with hesitance, then with fire. Her fingers twisted in his hair and her lips searched his eagerly.
Abruptly she broke away, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Wait,” he said.
“No. No more. I have to go.”
“Be back.”
She took another step away from him. “Just stay safe for me, okay?”
“I’ll be here.”
Shaking her head she left, the door closing behind her. He hated that she was leaving with Lothar. Hated it more than anything ever before. More than Jason’s death or Genevieve’s cheating on him. More than the friend he’d lost to shrapnel.
This was just wrong.
As awesome as she was, he’d never meant to smother her to death. Nick eyed his tray, hungry again. He took up his plate and forked his eggs. Danielle thought they were all about pheromones and DNA but that couldn’t be true. All his life he’d known he was different. She filled in the blanks for him.
Werewolves.
And he was one of them. Sort of. He felt the bandage over his neck. Nick set his plate aside and pulled himself out of bed. The room swam and he breathed until it stopped. Either he’d lost more than a few swallows of blood, or Lothar had given him some pretty powerful meds. Maybe both.
He went to the bathroom and switched on the light, blinking. He worked free the bandage on his neck and tossed it into the trash. Nick took a clarifying breath and lifted his eyes to the mirror. He looked like he’d been hit by a truck. He forced himself to focus past the bruises and scrapes, studying his neck. He saw two scabbed over fang marks surrounded by deep purple bruises. He shook his head. What else could it be? Either he’d been bitten by a large snake, or it really had been a vampire.
He looked at Danielle’s teeth marks on his shoulder. That scar somehow bound her to him.
Nick really didn’t feel like sleeping. It was the last thing he wanted, but he knew Danielle was right. He needed to heal. He decided to be a good boy and go back to bed. If she didn’t show before dark, he’d go looking for her.
He remembered his gun. Was it still in the forest? It was probably smashed. Nick found his clothing and checked his back pocket for his phone, ready to call Danielle and ask her about it, but his phone was broken. He threw the pieces into the kitchen trash.
Nick changed his mind about sleeping and decided to go after a phone instead. Conveniently, there was a black turtleneck sweater on his dresser. Nick grimaced as he gave it a good sniff. Yeah, it was Lothar’s, all right.
He was beginning to feel like part of a harem.
Nick put on the sweater anyway. Since he didn’t own any turtlenecks, he didn’t have much choice. He worked it over the neatly tied splint and pushed up the sleeves. He had to give the prick credit for knowing what he was doing.
Nick went downstairs. When Kendra saw him, she left a customer waiting. “Oh, no. I promised Danielle you would spend the day in bed.�
�� She grabbed his arm. His good arm, thankfully. “Go back upstairs. You really need to stop getting yourself hurt. Love makes you clumsy.”
He opened his mouth to argue, then let it go. “I need to borrow your phone. Mine was crushed when . . .” He stopped himself. “When I fell.”
Kendra pulled it out of her back pocket and pressed it into his hand. “Here, now go.”
It was pink with rhinestones. “Just my color.”
He made his way back upstairs, then scrolled down to Danielle’s number and hit send.
In rang, and rang. Frustrated, Nick glared at the phone and considered tossing it at a wall. It seemed his patience had gone the way of his sanity.
“Yes, Nick,” he heard finally.
He lifted the phone to his ear. “How did you know it wasn’t Kendra?”
“I knew. Your heart rate changed.”
He’d give that some thought later. “You didn’t happen to see my pistol out there last night?”
“I wasn’t thinking about your gun, but I’ll look. I’m about to head out now for lunch.”
“Ah, have a good one?”
“Thanks. Hey, Nick?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Your gun is useless against them, so don’t even try.”
He leaned back against the counter. “Then what do I need?”
Silence. “Don’t, just don’t.”
“What do you expect me to do?”
“Get well. I will check on you later. Goodbye.”
He glared out the window.
“Goodbye,” she repeated.
“Yeah, bye.” He set Kendra’s phone aside. Then he picked it up again. Jason’s cell was the first number on her favorites menu, followed by Greg, her parents, and himself. She’d added Danielle to the end of the list.
Nick rubbed the fang marks on his neck. They were starting to itch.
Jason . . . It couldn’t be, could it?
But Greg had found the body. Wouldn’t he know the difference between an animal attack and a vampire? Then again, who would?
Nick dialed Danielle. It rang twice, three, four times. It went to voicemail. Either she was ignoring him, or she was, well, a wolf. And wolves don’t carry cellphones.
He deliberated, then spoke. “I just want to know one thing. Was my brother killed by a vampire?” He pressed the end button on the touch screen. He didn’t have to like it, but there was nothing for him to do now but rest. Nick went to bed, struggling to find a position that didn’t aggravate his injuries.
Chapter Fourteen
Danielle went to check on Nick late that afternoon. She stopped outside his door, listening to him breathe. He was asleep, she determined. She was glad he’d listened to her for a change.
She still had to prepare herself before opening the door though. This, with Lothar, with Nick, was more than she’d bargained for. What she needed was some time to think on it. Danielle shook her head when she realized what she’d done. Maybe she’d been with Lothar too long and he was rubbing off on her.
She was tempted to invite Kendra on a girls’ day. Not that she was into that kind of thing, but it would get her away from the boys.
Pushing open the door to Nick’s room, she slipped inside. He had his good arm flung over his eyes as he lay sprawled over the covers, fully dressed.
“You were supposed to stay in bed,” she whispered.
Lothar’s black sweater fit snugly against Nick’s biceps and chest. Lothar was long and lean, aristocratic. Nick was a powerhouse built to storm his way into the proverbial castle with both guns blazing. They were so different from each other. How could they both draw her like they did?
Danielle went through her bag and pulled out his gun, placing it on the counter. The metal was twisted and unusable. Probably just as well. With Nick’s swollen head, he’d go out hunting vampires with it. Then again, she looked at his battered body. What was there to stop him from going to a sporting goods store and buying another one?
Nothing, save her.
“You’ll get yourself killed,” she said.
“Then don’t make me fight them alone.” He opened one eye, then slid his arm away.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” Nick sat up with only a slight wince. “How was lunch?”
“Good. Deer.”
“I’m impressed.”
Danielle shrugged.
“What’s your watchdog up to?”
“He’s sleeping.”
“Why are you standing all the way over there?”
“Because it’s better for you.”
“Let me worry about me.”
“You need to learn to control your impulses before they get you hurt.” Her gaze flicked over him. “Again. That’s why I can’t take you hunting with me. Besides, you’ll slow me down.”
“I’m flattered.”
She narrowed her eyes in warning. “I admit, last night is a blur, but I remember you. I saw you bite that vampire like it was personal. Lothar made you stop.”
“He’s in charge. It’s his call.”
“It was because of me. You’re afraid of losing me.”
She wasn’t ready to go there. “It’s the pheromones talking. How did it feel to be away from me? Not like this, I bet.”
“It was different, but you’re wrong.” He eased out of bed and walked up to her stiffly. Reaching out with his good arm, he brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “My brother was killed by a vampire.”
“Yes.”
His hand slid from her cheek to her neck, then over her shoulder. She swallowed, her skin tingly. He slipped his arm around her waist.
“We’re about more than pheromones,” he said.
It was getting increasingly hard to think. “Others know more about Carriers than I do. I’m afraid I don’t pay as much attention to that stuff as I should.” She backed away. “Lothar’s family has lived in this castle there for hundreds of years. Some werewolves choose to live there, training adolescents to track and hunt. Others come to rest after difficult encounters with monsters.”
His chin jerked up. Something she’d said had gotten his attention. “Monsters, as in plural? You mean vampires, or are you suggesting there are more?”
“There are more, although vampires are our current epidemic. Wraiths and zombies are prevalent too.”
Nick sat on the end of the bed as if he’d heard enough.
Danielle took a chance and sat next to him.
“Has it always been like this?” he asked.
“Yes. And if we don’t keep them under control, the human race will be in serious danger.”
“I want to go there.”
“Lithuania. Yes.”
“Can we go without Lothar?”
“He was born there. It’s his home. His sister is
there, with his niece and nephew.”
“Too much to hope for, then. I can handle that I guess, as long as he gets it.”
“Gets what?”
Nick bumped his shoulder against hers. “You really are surprisingly naive, but I like it.”
She pursed her lips.
“You bit him, didn’t you?”
She winced before recovering herself. “That is between him and me.”
“It was a simple deduction.”
She should have known better than to think Nick wouldn’t notice the change between her and Lothar.
“It’s not that simple,” she said.
“Try me.”
Danielle stood, no longer wanting to be next to him. She swallowed through a dry throat. “He was assigned to me years ago as a Mentor. Technically, we should have parted ways by now. But he stays with me.”
“Mentor?”
“He taught me what I needed to know about being a werewolf.”
“Can’t compete with that. And neither would I want to. I joke about him, but he’s your friend, and I get that.”
Nick was trying, which was great and all, but it just made things harder for her. Two good males, and one f
emale. Not to mention that sleeping with either one would get Nick murdered and Lothar sentenced to death. “There are limitations to my relationship with him,” she said slowly.
“What kind of limitations?”
“I can’t sleep with him,” she said, in Lithuanian so he wouldn’t know.
“Don’t start that,” he said. “In English.”
Danielle checked out the window. “Maybe later. I have to go. I still have a job to do.”
“Be back by morning.”
“Or?”
“Or I will come looking for you, and that’s a promise.”
She believed him. “If I’m out all night, I’ll need to sleep.”
“You can sleep here. I’ll be up by dawn. You can have the bed all to yourself. I just want to know where you are.”
“I don’t know.”
“Back by the time I wake, deal?”
If she didn’t agree, he’d probably come looking for her and get himself hurt again, or rub Lothar the wrong way and get himself hurt.
“Fine, deal.”
* * *
Danielle came out from under her changing spot in the forest. She brushed her frazzled hair off her face. They’d found nothing during the night. She and Lothar had even gone inside the caves. They’d picked up day old scent patterns, but no sign of vampires.
She found Lothar waiting for her in front of the cabin, his back to her and his shirt in his hand. It was predawn. His skin looked luminous in the white light of a full moon.
“We can use Nick as bait,” he said from over his shoulder as she came up behind him.
“That would make things easier for you.”
“Taip.” Lothar rubbed a hand over his face. She wasn’t used to seeing him that way. He looked like he could use a vacation. Or something.
“Get some sleep,” she said.
“And you?”
“I promised Nick I would be there by dawn.”
“When do you sleep?”
“While I’m there, I guess.”
He showed his incisors.
“He thinks he needs to watch out for me.”
“Of course he does. He is too drunk on you to know he cannot keep you safe.”
Nick was drunk on her pheromones. She knew that, but she didn’t like Lothar’s cutting tone. Danielle turned away. “Maybe I should just leave.”
Tangled Moon Page 14