by Cecy Robson
This time, when Gemini closes the back door, it’s less forceful. Yet his anger remains.
Another were approaches carefully, keeping his gaze lowered as he opens an old piece of leather fabric stained with wine-colored splotches. Gemini drops the knife in the center of the cloth, growling words I don’t understand as he folds each corner over the knife, muffling the mouths that continue to sing.
“Get the knife back to the Den,” he orders, securing the knife with twine.
“Do you want us to follow you back?” the were asks.
“No,” Gemini tells him. “The Elders need to settle the knife and seal it in the vault. Otherwise, it will need to eat and search out prey. I don’t want to spend the night hunting demons to feed it, or tracking it if it flees.”
If it flees . . .
Apparently, I’m not the only one disturbed be this news. The were straightens. “How long do I have to get it to the Elders?”
“Not long,” he answers, tightly. “Go.”
And he does, breaking into a run and peeling away in his truck.
Gemini slips inside. I place my hand on his shoulder. “Tell me you were kidding about a knife, partial to breaking into creepy songs, running amuck in Lake Tahoe in search of demons to eat?”
He frowns. “Why would I joke about something like that?”
Humor is apparently lost on the Guardians of the Earth. I blame it on all the scary things they’re forced to mutilate, oh, and possibly global warming.
He and his twin growl at the pack of weres gathered in front of us. I pull up the blanket covering me as they scatter. Weres are used to being naked around each other in human form, but I’m not a were, and because of it, they’ve never seen me naked.
Until tonight, cause, don’t I know how to put on a show?
The next set of growls from him and his twin have them all hopping inside their vehicles and cranking the engines. The lights from the cars in front of us cast a gleam against the angles of his face, sharpening the menace plaguing his features.
He’s angry, and he should be. As a non-were different rules apply to me, one of them being they shouldn’t stare at his naked girlfriend.
He powers across the blue slate-lined double driveway, causing the dusting of pine needles covering it to stream past the window. I wait until we clear the wrought iron gates at the entrance to the compound before placing my hand on his thigh. But it’s not until we pass the miles of stone wall surrounding Misha’s property that I speak again.
“That probably looked pretty bad, huh?” I ask.
He clenches his jaw tight, enough to strain the cords along his neck. “Which part? The part where I find you surrounded by vampires pouring champagne over your naked body?”
“Um . . .”
“Or do you mean getting the call that a parasitic demon has infested your leg and is attempting to make your body its nesting ground—then watching it try and claw its way to your heart?”
“Ah . . .”
His steely eyes cut my way. “Or perhaps you’re referring to the she-vamp licking your thigh in a way I should only touch you?”
Yeah, he’s a little irate. I start to defend Edith, but she is Edith and those were some pretty suggestive licks.
“Baby,” I say.
“Don’t.” He huffs. “Nothing you say changes the fact that you’re working for the leeches.”
“You know why I’m doing it,” I tell him. I groan when he all he does is stare ahead. “I have to protect my sister.”
“No, I have to protect her, and you,” he fires back. “I can’t do it if I don’t know where you are.”
“I didn’t mean to run off, but we needed the relic of Dirpu.” He narrows his stare. “Well, we did,” I insist. “And FYI, I totally snagged it. It was in Egypt.”
“I know,” he snaps. “Reports of fire raining down in Giza was my first clue to your whereabouts.”
“That was an accident,” I say, pointing at my right arm. Its stark white appearance glows like a strobe at the mention, lighting the dimness of the cabin and blanching the rest of my olive skin. “You know how she gets when . . .”
“Your life is in danger?” he offers when my voice trails.
I press my arm against my belly, stroking it with my other hand. My right arm is a combination of magic I was born with, and magic as old as time. My left is all me, my original fire and lightning.
I have complete control over the power radiating through my left arm. My right, not always, especially when she’s angry.
“It happens, Tomo,” I add quietly.
He stiffens at the sound of his real name. When we’re alone at night, or at times when I want to feel close to him, it’s the name I use instead of the nickname he goes by. I don’t feel close to him now, not with his anger erecting an invisible wall between us. But I want to.
I love him. I don’t want to go back to how we were all those months we were apart, miserable, hurt, and bitter. It took so much for us to reconcile. The last thing I want is for something else to drive us apart.
“It only happens when you’re in places and situations you shouldn’t be,” he says.
He’s still angry, but his quieting voice assures me he doesn’t want to be. “The relic of Dirpu opens portals to the demon domain,” I explain. “I couldn’t chance the Dark Legion seizing it once its location was leaked.” I twist to better see him. “Try and understand, whatever evil is threatening to rise could have used it to summon a warrior demon, an evil spirit, or something just as deadly to kill Celia and her baby. I can’t let that happen.”
He pulls onto the highway leading back to Dollar Point. “Was that how the leeches spun it?”
“What?”
We’re driving fast, too fast. He eases his foot off the accelerator as we round the curve and Lake Tahoe comes into view.
“Taran, at last count there were two-thousand, seven-hundred, and thirty-eight documented relics of power. At least half can open portals, a third can summon darkness, and close to eighteen can bring on Armageddon and divide the sun in half.” He glances at me. “Did the vamps happen to mention that?”
No. But holy shitballs. I cross my arms, the motion turning off the fluorescent bulb that is my right arm. “Well, now there’re one less to worry about.”
He punches the gas, accelerating up the hill. “You can’t go after every relic that presents itself—no one person can—which is why my pack works as a team to secure each that’s located. How do you think we found the dagger?”
I knit my brow. “Are you talking about that fucked-up singing knife?”
He scrunches his face. “Don’t insult it, it can hear you.”
“It can hear me?” I glance out the window in the direction of the woods, then back toward the lake where the moonlight streams rays of silver light across the gentle waves, waiting, just waiting, to hear O Fortuna begin to play. “You’re not kidding, are you?”
He shakes his head slowly. “The Dagger of Aberlemno sees all, knows all.”
I still. “Please tell me it’s not one of those things that can split the sun.”
“It’s not.”
My shoulders slump. “Oh, good—”
“But its brother can.”
Its brother can. Awesome.
I keep my comments to myself, obviously. God forbid I piss off the knife, its evil fork brother, or whatever the hell. “This world is messed up.”
“I know, Taran,” he agrees. “Which is why I need to spare you from it.”
“It’s too late to shut my eyes and pretend the boogie monsters don’t exist, love.”
Again he quiets, the intensity in his watchful eyes growing more severe. “You can’t keep doing this, Taran,” he says. Regardless of the brewing anger overtaking his form, he eases the SUV around another curve. “Not to yourself. Not to us.”
“I’m not trying to hurt us,” I add.
“But you are,” he tells me. “When you disappear without telling me where you’r
e going, and what you’re up to, you’re betraying my trust and our relationship.”
“That’s not my intent,” I say, hoping my tone reflects how bad I feel.
He sighs. “But it’s the result.”
I’ve hurt and likely embarrassed him. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and once more here I am, adding another flat stone and taking a step closer.
“You wouldn’t have let me go,” I point out.
I’m not trying to be difficult, nor am I anything close to defensive, at least not this time. When it comes to the bad guys, my role in the secret world of the supernatural has always been muddled. That changed when my sister became pregnant with the first of several children prophesized to rid the world of a new evil that’s rising.
Without meaning to, Celia became a target. As a result, I delegated myself to stand in front of her, doing my best to shield her from the encroaching arrows.
I don’t want to die. If I’m being honest, I’m scared shit-less. But I’m more scared of losing Celia, and what will happen if the Dark Legion succeeds in killing her babies before they have a chance to be born.
Gemini meets my gaze, it’s brief, but more than enough to silence my thoughts. “You’re right,” he says. “I would have found a way to keep you.”
I stroke my right hand when she twitches. She does that when deep emotions rile her and her power awakens. It’s the reason why fire rained down in Giza and the Sphinx is now sporting a new tan. It wasn’t my intention to mar a monumental treasure, but when you’re fending off another curse, inadvertently wake a skeletal army (also, not my fault), and unleash the skin burrowing demons protecting the relic you need, everything goes to hell and things get blown to shit.
“All those times you left to fight during the supernatural war, you ignored my pleas to stay,” I remind him.
“I didn’t ignore them,” he says. “As a were, I’m sworn to protect the world, and because of it, I was obliged to leave you.”
“And I’m obliged to protect my sister,” I remind him.
“It’s not the same thing,” he says, his voice gruff. “You’re being used. Can’t you see that? The vampires have the means to ghost you around world, not for the earth’s or the Alliance’s gain, but for theirs. Each relic is power they accumulate to do as they wish, regardless of what the rest of us need or desire.”
“I know,” I say quietly. “But whatever relic I find doesn’t just go to any vampire.”
“No,” he says, his voice lowering. “It goes to one of the most powerful in existence.” He looks at me. “As the only known vampire with a soul, Misha will one day be unstoppable.”
“He will,” I agree, lifting my face in his direction. “But the only reason he has a soul is because Celia returned it, giving him back some of his humanity, as well as his heart.”
“You’re giving him too much credit,” he counters.
“And you’re not giving him enough,” I press. “He loves her, Tomo, and because he does he’ll protect her, using the relics if it comes down to it.”
“Is that what he told you?” he asks, hints of his anger returning.
“He didn’t have to. I just know he will.” I ignore his growing anger, keeping my voice calm. “You can’t dismiss what Misha and Celia have been through.”
“Do not insult my alpha by comparing his matehood with Celia to whatever affections that leech feels toward her.”
“That leech helped save her life.” The memory of that day causes my eyes to burn and my arm to twitch. “She wouldn’t have made it without him and the fate of the world would already be decided.”
“It doesn’t absolve him from all those times he risked her life and now yours. I won’t have you working for him, Taran.”
He’s tapping into his inner beast. I have an inner bitch and she’s just as effective. “And I won’t have my sister in danger. Not if I can help it.”
“By putting out fires better handled by weres?”
I shrug. “Every bit helps.”
“Not when all it helps are the vampires.”
“Gemini, do not let your hate for the vamps cloud what I’m trying to do for Celia, Aric, and their baby.” He doesn’t budge, which only frustrates me more. “After what they’ve been through, they deserve some peace and happiness.”
“Not at your expense!” he growls. He pulls into our neighborhood, slamming down the parking brake in front of our house just to glare at me.
I glare right back. “I’m not going to let her die,” I say. “Not if I can help it.” I swing open the door and step out, fumbling with the blanket as I limp forward and a sharp sting tears up my thigh, burning my skin.
Chapter Two
Here’s the thing about being a badass, you have to walk the walk and talk the talk. The talk, I think I have down. The walk, not so much. Holy shit. My leg is pulsating, as in throbbing, and pounding, and taking on a life of its own. I grip it, uselessly trying to stop the swelling spreading up to my ass. Each pop and pull against my skin feel like a boil pushing through, following the same path that demon took when it tried to burrow its way to my heart.
I trip over the blanket that smells like wererat, causing my boobs to spill out, just in time for our evil neighbor Mrs. Mancuso to step out onto her porch. Christ, it’s like she waits for me.
“Taran Wird!” she shrieks. “Are you naked?”
“No, I have a fucking blanket.”
Considering I have boils the size of quarters scattering along the length of my leg at warp speed, it’s the best comeback I have.
Gemini appears out of nowhere, wrenching me into his arms to keep me from falling on my face, but not quite managing to keep the girls in.
Flashing my boobs doesn’t upset Mrs. Mancuso. No. Not at all.
“You are naked!” she screams at me.
“No, shit,” I snap, gathering the blanket closer.
Of course, Mancuso doesn’t stop there. “Take your disgusting body and your even more disgusting suitors elsewhere!”
“I did. Your son-in-law says, hello,” I fire back.
“You whore.”
Gemini hoists me in his arms. “Damn it, woman, don’t you have children to lure into your gingerbread house!”
It’s the last comment I manage before the quickly forming boils singe like fire against my skin and I coil in anguish.
Gemini launches us up the wooden steps. “Taran,” he says. “The demon’s venom is fading.”
I know it is. He doesn’t have to tell me. Another wave of pain claws its way up my chest, the agony making me curl into Gemini’s chest.
Mrs. Mancuso is still yelling, still name-calling and her support hose likely still in a bunch. For once I don’t care. My leg and butt are spasming out of control, causing the rest of my body to quiver.
I gasp, struggling to speak. “What’s happening?”
“The demon’s venom numbs its prey to allow it to nest,” he explains. His feet pound against the wood floor as he races me back to my room. I make out the picture of my sisters and I in the hall, but not much more. “Now that it’s fading, your body is reacting to all the damage it caused.”
What feels like an ivy of thorns digs into my skin. I bite down, not wanting to scream or fire up my arm. But I’m already plenty pissed and so is Sparky. Heat spreads the length of my limb, making it jerk. I clutch it to me when Gemini grunts.
“Don’t,” I tell her. “You’ll hurt him.”
It seems ridiculous for me to speak to my arm as if she’s an entity in and of herself. But as much as my right arm has become a part of me, she’s not the original.
The original was eaten by a crazed werewolf.
“Easy,” I whisper against the skin, trying to stay calm and keep her calm as well.
She responds for the moment, just a moment. But that’s not how she’ll stay.
My new arm was created from a combination of were magic as old as the earth and my matehood with Gemini. It, I mean, she’s differ
ent, maybe even weirder than me and my sisters.
My head spins as another rush of pain builds, this one stronger than the last.
I’m in my bathroom, I think. Voices echo around me. Celia is here, so is Aric. They groan, coughing.
“Parasite demon?” Aric asks.
“Yes,” Gemini replies, his voice tight.
“Oh, God,” Celia says, sounding sick.
“Celia, I need you to leave,” Aric tells her. “The smell can’t be good for you or the baby.”
“Where’s Emme?” Gemini asks.
“She’s coming.”
It’s the last thing Celia says before she disappears. Gemini growls low and deep. “Where is she?”
“Easy,” Aric says, his voice barely below a snarl. “She’ll be here soon.”
With me hurt, both are on edge, their beasts close to pushing through their human counterparts and taking charge.
“I’m turning on the water,” Aric says. “I mean your mate no harm.”
In the world of humans, and under similar circumstances, one man wouldn’t have to reassure another this carefully. But weres are more beasts than human when their mate is injured, and the need to protect them overshadows reason.
If Celia was present, Gemini’s wolves would recognize her as Aric’s lover and Gemini wouldn’t take offense to having another alpha male so close. But she’s not. She’s trying to find Emme. At least, that’s what I hope.
Another strong stab of pain pelts through my leg, sharpening as it intensifies and making me whimper.
I scrunch my face, my nails digging into Gemini’s arm when he goes ballistic and his twin wolf punctures through his back.
The wolf snaps his fangs, just barely missing Aric’s face. “Babe, don’t,” I stammer.
I lift my arm to stroke his face when an odd red light swarms my line of vision, blinding me.
Growls thunder, the pure viciousness within each beating against my ears. More wolves arrive. I think I see Koda but I can’t make out the others. My pain escalates, making me scream.