There was that girl. I’d come to fall hard for her while following orders and doing my duty. She could be a way to get at the council. It was expressly forbidden for me to date her. Yet, I’d come to see the quiet beauty for who she really was. She was everything good about the world, sweet and kind, never saying a callous word to anyone. She had no need to grab attention, even though she was stunningly beautiful. Her dimpled smile lit up my world, though those smiles hadn’t been for me. She didn’t even have to wear revealing clothes to make me wonder, which only made her hotter. To imagine what I would find underneath her layers of clothing, gave me pause every time.
I could see why Paul fiercely protected her honor in the locker room or wherever when the guys talked about wanting to bang her. I could say nothing without revealing what I felt for her. I wasn’t even supposed to know her as well as I did. So I said nothing. Did nothing, but watch while Paul dated her for a time, defended her always and others asked her out. I had to sit back and let Flynn decide if he was going to take a chance with her. Bros before hoes and all that. No she wasn’t a hoe and I’d probably kick anyone’s ass who said otherwise. But the saying held. Flynn was my brother. Maybe not in blood, but in every other way.
Tipping back the Goose, letting the liquid fill my gut, I hoped I could reach oblivion even if for a short moment. Then maybe I could do my wingman duty for Flynn tonight.
Chapter Four - Flynn
Fresh from the shower, I headed out front when I couldn’t find Luke anywhere in the house. Sure enough, the guy sat on the front deck bench with an ashtray full of remnants next to him. I also spotted the bottle he held that was now half empty, just like the look in his eyes.
“Back with the cancer sticks, huh?” I asked, feeling like a nancy. I hated that my disgust came through. Something was eating at my friend and I needed to coax it out of the guy.
Luke didn’t respond to me. Instead he drew on the lit cigarette causing the end to flare and burn. The fun guy he’d been seemed to be burning out as well. I wasn’t against the smoking and drinking as much as I knew the reason why he was doing those things. He let out a long stream of poisonous gas from his mouth. Next, he chugged at the bottle like it was water on a hot day.
Collapsing on the bench next to him, I covered my face with my hands especially my nose. I didn’t want second hand smoke, but this conversation needed to be had if we were going to make it through this weekend. “Dude, do you mind? I’d like to breathe,” I complained through my palms.
The guy didn’t even bat an eye. He snuffed out the cancer stick by stubbing it in the ashtray only to stay silent. “What the hell?” I asked. We’d known each other since before we were in diapers. At least that’s what our mother’s told us. I didn’t need to spell out my words. He would know what I wanted from him.
“My dad came to tell me my new assignment in his grand plan,” he muttered looking put out as he should be.
I understood more than anyone else that the fallen archangel wanted his son to be his prodigy. Unfortunately, what his father wanted was not what the council wanted from him. The guy was being pulled in different directions, everyone expecting him to do their bidding. I saw my friend’s hand pull out the pack of cigarettes only to stop and glance my way before stuffing them back in his pocket.
“Sorry man, I don’t know how you do it. But all this smoking and drinking isn’t helping. You reek like a sewer,” I said. “They’ll be here soon. Maybe you should go shower and brush your teeth.” I hoped he would take the hint. My phone rang breaking the silence. Luke stood and walked over to the railing leaning over it no doubt about to polish off that bottle of Goose.
Pulling my phone out, I answered it. “Yeah,” I said. I hadn’t recognized the phone number, but the picture made it clear who was calling.
Not bothering with hellos, I heard, “There’s a party tonight. Are you coming with?” Her voice crooned sexily over the line sending a bolt of lust to the lower regions of my body.
Shaking my head, I remembered she was on the phone and not standing in front of me. “Can’t,” I finally said.
Sighing before she spoke, I began to wonder when she’d gotten her hands on my phone to program her number in it. “Who is she?” Amanda asked.
“There’s no she,” I said knowing there would be soon. And I had no intentions of getting into that discussion with her.
“Who’s with you?” she asked pointedly.
Now she was crossing the line into annoying. “Luke,” I said flatly.
She’d laid the trap. I could almost hear the wheels turning inside that pretty head of hers. “So,” she began. Her voice had changed. It leaked with sly enthusiasm from just that one word. I closed my eyes because that two letter word was precarious. Every time that word came out of her mouth it meant danger was around the corner. “Nina’s with me, maybe we should come hang out with you guys.”
Lying would be the easiest solution. But somehow I knew she would know when I was doing it. “I don’t think that would be such a good idea.”
Her voice came out clipped yet controlled. “Like I said, who is she?”
So much for not getting into this, I thought “You wouldn’t know her,” I replied truthfully.
“Let’s get this straight,” she began. “I know I don’t own you but we made an agreement.”
“So,” I retorted, throwing her favorite word back at her. I was going to tell her that this had all been preplanned, which it had been. In fact, I’d change the meeting place to show her a little respect. I didn’t want to parade another girl around town if she had already told people we were together. I wasn’t as heartless as Brody and Shelli thought.
“Don’t bother,” she said. Here it comes, I waited. But she surprised me. “Get this girl out of your system. I know how you are, but I expect you will never let me find out if you stray.”
How in the hell was I supposed to answer that? So I didn’t. “Flynn,” she said a moment later.
“Yeah,” I replied, still perplexed by this girl.
“Are we in agreement?” she pressed on. I wondered if her face held the frown I could hear in her words.
She had to be the strangest girl I’d ever been with. “Sure,” I said. It had been what I’d agreed to, a partnership. And now it seemed like the deal included an uncomplicated relationship with mutual giving and taking.
There was a breath of silence before she broke it. “Good, because I have plans for us,” she proclaimed. “We will rule the school. You’re like the king to my queen,” she added confidently.
Okay, that really wasn’t in my plan. But whatever, I wasn’t going to knock a gift horse in the mouth. “What about Jay and Kathy?” I asked. Everyone knew, although it wasn’t spoken aloud, that those two had an unearthly beauty about them. They also had the longest standing relationship in high school history that began in junior high.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll agree about those two but if you ever mention it in public, I will deny it. The point is we make a powerful couple and next year we will be on the throne.”
I wasn’t quite sure if I understood her meaning. Was it the homecoming or prom court or school in general? But now wasn’t the time, I heard a car in the distance and knew the twins would be getting there soon. “I, ah, gotta go.”
Silence. I expected her easy demeanor to change. She’d surprised me again. “Talk to you later lover boy,” she crooned, sounding again like the girl she’d been when she first called. She was definitely an eccentric one. But it may make things interesting in the meanwhile. After my quick goodbye, I hung up. Luke’s posture straightened from the causal position he had a second ago.
The guy just stared out into the trees in a battle ready stance. I looked at the empty bottle that hung in my friend’s hands. He’d managed to drink the whole thing by himself and I wondered how he was still standing. Following Luke’s eyes out into the distance, I saw movement. Someone or several someones were headed our way. Coming to my feet, I hoped Luke
was sober enough to be effective in a fight. Just then, six figures came stepping through the tree line that bordered the gravel drive.
Chapter Five - Luke
My head was swimming, but I had to focus in case there was danger. All my senses told me it was friendlies.
A loud noise erupted from Flynn’s pocket. It was the opening line to Bon Jovi’s classic song “Shot through the Heart” And you’re to blame. You give love a bad name sounded out.
I watched while my friend pulled his phone out and studied the screen a second before shoving it back in his pocket. No doubt some girl that wasn’t’ important to him.
When the pack came out of the woods in arrow formation onto the gravel drive, I let the question of who was on the phone go.
“Chris,” Flynn said, greeting the head of the shifter pack.
“Thought you guys were here. We felt a demonic presence in the woods,” Chris said looking around trying to figure out who might be with us.
Flynn frowned. “We haven’t been in the woods or rather I haven’t,” he said excluding me from the demon category.
Chris looked at his people in turn. A few shrugged. There were six in all. Three girls and three guys who were are all mated. Weird for teenagers to be mated, but the shifter clan was different. This group had open relationships under Chris’s youthful leadership. From what Flynn told me, the guy felt they were too young to be tied to their betrothed forever. When Flynn and Tamera, Chris’s sister, locked eyes with each other, I wasn’t the least bit surprised.
I didn’t remember all their names, but things looked serious. I didn’t bother with pleasantries.
Tamera glared at her brother. “I told you. I know his scent.”
A tall boy, who stood next to her, glowered. That must be her mate or betrothed, whatever. The guy didn’t seem to be on board with the whole open relationship thing.
Not feeling like a confrontation between Flynn and the guy, I hopped over the rail of the porch and down to where they stood. The diversion worked and all eyes were cast on me. “Look, I’ll go check,” I offered. Getting away from here held a lot of appeal.
Chris tilted his head in assent and said, “We’ll continue to head east.” He pointed in the direction past the house opposite where I was facing. “I don’t think whatever it is, is still back that way but you're welcome to check.”
Turning back to Flynn, I said, “Hang here in case the girls show up.”
Flynn eye’s held a hint of reservation. But I knew he wouldn’t say anything in front of the pack that would suggest I was too weak in any way to go by myself.
Happy to be free of the upcoming events with the Luca sisters, I moved into the woods at a dead run stretching my legs after a long car ride. My head barely buzzed from the alcohol, but I could feel its properties wearing off quickly as I moved across the forest floor.
I didn’t have the nose of a wolf, but my sense of smell was much better than your average human. So far, I didn’t smell anything that didn’t belong. It wasn’t like I knew the smell of demons verses a human, but I was looking for something not native to these woods.
It wasn’t until I passed the old camp site that something different caught my attention. Coming to a full stop, I scented the air. It was a sharp metallic scent that gave me pause. Blood. Somewhere, not too far. This time, I walked not ran trying to be the bloodhound I wasn’t. There was a breeze and I didn’t know how far that scent had been carried.
Between looking at the ground and scenting the air, I finally saw where the blood was coming from. Moving quickly, I was soon kneeling on the firm earth where an unconscious girl lay. Her body looked broken. She was bleeding from a wound somewhere in her hair from what I could tell. There were no visible wounds, yet she was bleeding. Her golden locks were streaked with the stuff, turning some of her hair dark in the choking light that peeked through the trees.
Not knowing her injuries, I looked over her body quickly and clinically. Her top which hugged her waist and left an inch of creamy skin bare looked unmarred. Her jeans didn’t look torn either and leaving the skin they were painted on covered. I could have felt around for injuries but that just seemed wrong. No blood, I had to assume she was fine there.
However, I did feel her wrist for a pulse and found one. Lowering my head, I checked her breathing and she was. After pulling a few leaves from her hair, I scooped her up in my arms. If I thought the movement might wake her, I would have been wrong. She was limp and almost lifeless in my arms.
Moving with a burst of speed, I covered the distance between trees and brush, leaping over fallen branches and snapping twigs along the way. If I didn’t have a helpless girl in my arms, I might have enjoyed the peace and the solitude these woods had to offer with nothing but chirping birds and scurrying animals foraging for food.
Flynn was still on the deck when I made it back. The pack was long gone.
“Open the door,” I demanded, when I made my way up the steps.
The guy moved quickly to open the door and I made my way through. “What the hell happened?” he asked animatedly.
Draping her slight body on the sofa, I checked her vitals again hoping I didn’t do any further damage by moving her. “I found her like this,” I said, leaning over her to listen for breath.
“Is she alive?” he asked, worry in his voice.
My hand on her wrist again, I silently counted the beats of her heart. “Yes.”
“You think she’s the demon they were talking about?” he asked. I couldn’t see him, but I felt him hovering over me.
My head was back listening for the strength of her breathing. “I don’t know.” Just because we were supernatural beings didn’t mean that we could tell each other by sight or even smell. “I need to heal her.”
~Flynn~
“Wait,” I said to him. The guy was a bleeding heart but we didn’t know who or what this girl was.
“What do you mean wait?” he asked, with narrowed eyes.
Throwing the guy my duh look, I said, “We need to think about this first. She could be dangerous.”
“Dangerous,” he said, as if that were a joke. “You and I are dangerous, so she’s outnumbered.”
“Did you, like, rescue her?” I asked.
Finally, I saw his brain kicking in. “No,” he said.
I didn’t give him time to think. “So maybe someone got away from her. I mean if someone tried to kill her, they could have finished the job.”
Thinking, he blinked a few times. “What if the shifters scared her attacker away?”
Tilting my head from side to side, I couldn’t argue the point. “Chris said they felt a demonic presence.”
“Even if she’s a demon it doesn’t make her evil. I mean look at you. You’re not evil,” he said, with a straight face.
Shaking my head, I said, “And you’re an angel but that doesn’t make you good.” His eyes flashed. Quickly, I added, “I’m not saying you aren’t good, but you’re no saint.”
He nodded and I breathed a sigh. “Either way, I can’t just let her die,” he said.
“You said she’s breathing. If she’s a demon won’t she heal?” I asked him, with my arm holding him back from her.
“And what if she’s human,” he said and then pushed me aside. Next thing I knew, the glowy thing with his hands lit up her head.
Damn. “I’ll go get some towels or something,” I said, getting to my feet. It wasn’t like I wanted the girl to die, but I wanted to be smart about it.
“Get some bleach,” he said.
Stopping mid stride I turn back to the guy. “What the hell for?” I asked.
“The scent of the blood in case the shifters come back,” he said.
Heading to my destination, I wondered if Luke thought he’d found a lost puppy he could somehow keep. He was protecting her scent from them. I mean from what I saw she was cute. But cute didn’t always mean cuddly. It could very well mean deadly.
Chapter Six - Luke
Fl
ynn was down the hall and out of sight when I was done. My light faded back into me and I watched the girl's eyes flutter open around a smattering of freckles. Her eyes, evergreen like the forest we just left, found mine. She leaned her upper body so fast cowering against the back of the couch for a second. Her long golden hair, was so striking, I want to put my hands on it. There was just something intoxicating about the girl, I feel drunk just looking at her.
No Mercy (Cambions 2.5) Page 3