Bad Boys and Billionaires (The Naughty List Bundles)

by Synthia St. Claire

  Damon narrowed his vision, revved his engine one last time, and skidded to a stop.

  A moment later, he was bounding through the air with strength, with speed that he’d never had. One step carried him four feet. One bounding leap went ten.

  Damon felt his brother just inside the house, and dove forward, driving his hands through a shutter, spraying wood shards all around. An instant later, he closed both his fists around his brother’s throat, and yanked with all his might, pulling him through the window and throwing Devin to the ground.

  With teeth flashing in Damon’s new, silver-tinged vision, his brother sprang to his feet, snarling.

  Damon unleashed a throaty, husky roar.

  Devin’s dagger-like teeth glimmered in the moonlight, and he took a wild slash. His claws caught Damon across the chest, cutting deep.

  “What hope... do you have... like that?” Devin said, his voice halting, mocking, and painfully tight in his throat.

  Damon’s feet left the ground. Hands were now crushing his throat. No, not hands. Claws.

  With little more than a flick of the wrist, Devin hurled his brother backwards, battering him against sunbaked bricks. He knelt down and stared deep into Damon’s eyes, yellow irises burning as Devin’s claws scratched the sides of Damon’s neck.

  Damon sucked air, as best he could, but he was fading.

  His vision went gray, then it went black.

  “No,” he whispered, rasping over the clawed hand that crushed his life. “Not like... this...”

  Eighteen

  It wasn’t until the moon was high in the sky and the little pool of light on the floor spread along the entire bottom step of the cellar that I summoned the courage to move.

  Okay, to be honest, saying that I did it on my own is a little dishonest. I was sitting on the floor, crouched low and trying to listen for anything that I could when there were a few banging sounds outside, and the walls kinda shuddered.

  The stairs were, I figured, about ten steps from the floor to the ceiling. That far underground, it was hard to hear any voices, or really figure out what was going from the banging and the booming, but there was definitely something violent happening.

  When it all started, my first instinct was to grab the tooth that hung around my neck and squeeze it with all my strength. I clenched my eyes shut and stared deep inside myself, visualizing Damon. I saw him come through that cellar door, the moonlight framing his beautiful body.

  I imagined him descending the stairs, looking down at me with those soft, smoldering green eyes, and then picking me up and taking me away from all this... this pain, and this darkness.

  And then I heard the other noise.

  “Are... hello?” The tiniest voice I’d ever hear called out. “Is someone there?”

  “Who’s that?” I called back. “Cat?”

  I knew her voice when I heard it, but she sounded so vulnerable, so defeated, that it hardly seemed possible. Knowing her other option was to have been killed by Devin, this one was better, but not much.

  “Is that you, Cat?” I asked again when she didn’t answer the first time.

  With my hands on the concrete floor, scooting forward to make sure I didn’t step on any nails, or bump into a saw blade or something, I moved in the direction of her voice. “Talk to me, Cat, I can’t get to you unless you make noises.”

  “How’s that?” A voice boomed upstairs. It sounded like Devin, but he was so crazed, so ferocious, that he wasn’t himself.

  Who could he be... oh no, no I can’t think about that. Probably just some other desert dweller. Caraks fight all the time right? Maybe just another one of them?

  Momentarily I clutched the fang again, hoping against hope that the strained, ragged gasping that I suddenly heard through the floor above my head wasn’t Damon. No time to think about that, anyway.

  “Talk to me, Cat,” I said again.

  A few feet away, ahead and off to my left, I heard trembling breaths. The sort of frightened, shaking breath that you take when you’re trying your best not to be heard, but you still have to breathe.

  I stopped bothering with talking. Cat was too messed up with fear to respond. I kept talking at her, to try and calm her down, but didn’t expect a response. But I never lost ear-shot of her breaths.

  “Everything’s fine, Cat,” I said with a low, smooth, soothing voice. “Nothing’s wrong. You and I are down here, and Damon is coming. Damon’s going to make sure we’re safe.”

  Her hitching, clenched breaths started coming more evenly.

  “That’s it, calm down. Everything is okay. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

  “You think that’s going to work?” After his latest shriek, Devin laughed, and a sickening crunch of boot on face met my ears. I shook my head, simply refusing to listen. Damon was coming. Damon was safe and he wouldn’t let me suffer. He promised.

  Yeah, he promised a lot of things. My damn doubt wouldn’t leave me alone.

  I pushed past it, gritting my teeth and refusing to give in to that negative, awful bullshit. Someone else needed me, and I wasn’t going to let her down on account of my pointless worrying.

  “I’m coming, Cat,” I said. I heard a little whistle join the end of her rattling breaths. Broken rib? Punctured lung? Didn’t matter. I had to get to her and that’s all there was to it. “Are you on your side? If you’re not, try to roll to your side. And reach out in the direction of my voice. I promise I’m not going to hurt you. I’m down here just the same as you.”

  Something scuffed on the floor, and I immediately reached for it, glad it was fingertips and not a rat.

  “Is that... Devin? No!” Cat shrieked and pulled her hand back, then started crying.

  Whatever that monster did to her, I hope Damon gives him back twice as much. No time for this, no time.

  “No, no, honey, no, it’s me, it’s Lily.” Swallowing my own fear, my own worry, I used my calmest voice. “Everything is fine. Give me your hand.”

  Slowly, tremulously, the fingertips extended again. How I wished that damn moon was somewhere else. I needed to see her. I wished I could do that wolf-smelling-the-air thing, but I had to make do with what I had.

  “Come on, Cat, I know you’re scared, but everything’s okay. Give me your hand.”

  I was firm, but soft, just like I remembered seeing whenever television detectives had to question a terrified witness. “Good, Cat, just like that. Be strong for me, I’m scared too and I need you.”

  Cat sniffed, and swallowed. I heard her suck on her teeth. “L... Lily?”

  “Uh-huh,” I said. “It’s me. It’s your friend Lily. Give me your hand so I can feel you and know you’re okay.”

  When I felt her fingertips touch mine, I ignored another explosion from outside and stretched my hand out further, wrapping it around hers and just holding her still.

  A moment later, Cat’s terror burst out in wracking, almost painful-sounding sobs. I felt her anguish coursing through me, but there was nothing I could do except push myself to my feet and wrap my arm around her.

  “Y... you don’t even like me, Lily,” she sniffed, then whimpered. “You never did, I’m a h – horrible monster and I was always mean to you and...”

  I smoothed Cat’s hair and pulled her close. Almost instantly, I felt her against my shoulder, and I wrapped my arms around her shaking body.

  “Everything’s fine,” I said to her slowly, patiently. “We’re both okay, I promise.”

  For a second, she just shook and I just held her, stroking Cat’s back and letting her let go of her fear. It took about the time of two massive thudding sounds outside before she took a deep breath, held it, and stopped quivering.

  “I’m okay,” she said. “I just... he threw me down here and I didn’t know what was happening. Devin, he said he was going after you because of some...”

  She started breathing heavily again.

  Standing, I pulled her up too. “Are you hurt?” I said softly.

&
nbsp; “No, no, he didn’t hurt me except the throwing me down the stairs thing,” she half-laughed and half-sniffed. “I’m sorry I didn’t call, I couldn’t find my phone.”

  I smiled, glad that the darkness hid my nervous laughter. “It’s fine, Cat, really. There’s nothing you could have done. It’s...” I sighed. “A long story. But yeah, don’t worry about that. You’re not hurt?”

  “No, I don’t think so. He pulled off the gag and pushed me. Just my wrist kind of hurts, and,” she paused as something hit the wall right above us hard. “Uh, what was that?”

  “Come on over this way,” I said, urging her nearer the stairs. I didn’t want to be anywhere underneath those noises if that floor collapsed. “Let’s...”

  A shotgun blast, or near enough, hit the cellar door. The whole room around us seemed to shake with the impact. My ears rang, and rang. I fell to my knees, clutching the sides of my head to try and muffle the horrible sound.

  “Lily?” Cat said. Her voice was stronger, but almost drowned out by the noise. “Lily! What is that? Are we going to die?”

  I reached out and grabbed her hand, pulled her down to my level and huddled her against me. With our backs to the concrete stairs, there was no safer place. Well, except back at home, in Damon’s arms.

  Those big, strong arms.

  The image carried me away for a moment, away from the horror and the cold and the dark. Away from the musty, awful hole Cat and I were banished to.

  Another soul-shattering thud brought me right back.

  It was metal on metal that time, or something on metal, at least. Roaring, crunching, ripping sounds filled our cellar. Obviously, whatever had broken out above us was too wild to be held by walls.

  “You won’t hurt... her!” Damon roared above all the racket. I’d recognize that voice anywhere, any time. My heart immediately jumped up into my throat. “Do whatever you want... with me... you won’t hurt... her!”

  “Oh my God Lily, what’s happening? What is going on?”

  “I think they’re... uh... they’re fighting,” was all I could manage to say.

  A lump in my throat kept me from saying more.

  “Yeah? You think so?” Devin was out of control. Where Damon was obviously furious, Devin wasn’t even... he didn’t sound human. It sounded like every single word ripped at his throat. His voice was so fearsome and unhinged that I almost felt sorry for him. “How’s that? You like that? Your mate is mine you... you...” A snarl ripped through the air, Devin’s voice carried away by his agony.

  A sickening thud rang out.

  And then another and another.

  Each time I heard the sound, my teeth rattled, my body ached.

  My stomach lurched. I don’t know how, but clear as day, I saw what was going to happen before it did.

  “Get down,” I said to Cat. “Stay there.”

  The instant we both huddled down and covered our heads, I felt a sucking rush of air as the cellar door was peeled back. Each hinge groaned, creaked and gave way one after another. Bolts being torn out of the concrete fixture made such a horrible scraping that my ribs ached.

  “Lily!” Devin screamed, wild with lust or madness, it didn’t matter. “If you want to see your sweet Damon, you’ll come to me. Now!”

  My stomach, already tied in a knot, lurched.

  If he’s the one screaming for me, then...?

  Cat tugged on my hand, trying to keep me from going to him, but I shoved her away. “No,” I whispered. “He’ll come down here if I don’t go up there. Whatever you do, don’t move until I say so.”

  “If... if you’re sure,” she said. “If that’s what you want.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’ll—”

  My voice trailed off, my thoughts carried away by worry for myself, but mostly for Cat and Damon. I heard Cat grind her teeth as I stuck my hand out, feeling the cold, rough concrete rasp under my palm.

  “Lily?” she said softly, barely above a whisper. “Do you have a plan or something?”

  “Get UP here! I’ve got Damon busted up, he won’t last long.” Devin growled, then snapped his jaws. I could only imagine what kind of shape he was in. “Unless you want me to rip hip apart, you’ll come up here right now!”

  “Lily!” Cat said again, reaching out and grabbing my arm as I slid around the stairs. “Do you have a plan?”

  I chewed my lip and paused for just a moment. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m gonna... see what happens. Stay down here. Don’t worry. If Damon really is up there, he won’t be hurt. He’ll help us. I just know it.” I swallowed hard, forcing my panic down into my stomach.

  “NOW!”

  “Yes, I’m coming,” I said. “It’s dark, I have to be careful.”

  I turned the corner around the bottom of the stairs, and, looking up to the top, a pale, sickly light framed a massive black form. “Devin,” I said under my breath, as the awful shape flexed its shoulders.

  From where I stood, he filled the entire doorway from shoulder to shoulder. His waist was trim, and it looked like clothes hung in tatters off his legs, but the way the light drowned him out, I couldn’t see any of the details of his body.

  “Li... ly...” came in a whispered groan from the left of where Devin stood, and immediately I knew what it was, but I willed up the stairs, one trembling footfall at a time. “Lily,” he groaned so pitifully I hurt for him. “Lily... no...”

  Nineteen

  “You hear that?” Devin snapped his elongated jaws at the air. When he spoke, his voice was taut and pained. “He’s begging! This is the Skarachee alpha? This mess? He hardly even fought!”

  Every shred of my being wanted to lash out, or charge him or something, but too much was at stake. Too much hung in the balance for me to give in to stupid impulses. Suddenly, an idea flashed into my head.

  “I,” I had to pause to swallow the bile in my throat. “I am, Devin, I... wow, you’re so strong, so powerful. You really are the true alpha.”

  He grunted and snorted and laughed, shuffling from side to side and then backing up so that the swinging overhead lamp illuminated his features. So bestial and ferocious, but at the same time, I couldn’t manage to tear my eyes away. His muscles rippled, flexed and relaxed with each clench of his twisted, clawed hands.

  Under the stairs, Cat moved a little. Please don’t do anything stupid, please... I heard a shuffling sound and then she let out a sigh.

  Damon took a deep breath that rattled when it left. I knew that if I could just hold on for a few moments he would heal enough to make another move, but looking at the thing in front of me, I had no idea how any normal person – even one as big as Damon – could do anything.

  Black fur blurred the lines of his figure, but Devin’s pale yellow eyes shot a chill straight through me. “That’s it,” he said in a near-whisper. “That’s it, come here.”

  I took another step forward, almost unconsciously extending my hand. No matter how awful he was or how much hate I felt, I couldn’t stop myself. Some sort of otherworldly force pulled me to the monster at the top of the stairs. He took a stuttering step backward again before again demanding that I hurry.

  “Come!”

  I advanced toward him slowly. Buying time, wasting time, whatever it was, I needed Damon to wake up like five minutes ago.

  I punched at his prone body with my toe.

  “Hey! I didn’t say anything about trying to wake sleeping beauty!” Devin’s hand shot out much further than I expected his reach to extend and he grabbed a handful of hair, almost yanking me off my feet.

  He shook me, claws scraping the sides of my face. Flattening his palms against my cheeks, Devin squeezed and turned my head back and forth, studying me.

  “I’ve always liked you best, you know,” he said in that grotesque, pained voice. His breath went ragged and hard. “Ever since we were together way back when, I—”

  I nodded, pretending the one date at a pizza buffet could be considered a relationship. Somehow, I managed to bury snarky Lil
y for long enough to keep up the act.

  Devin’s lips pulled away from those long yellow teeth as I rotated his position just enough that even with his hands on my face, I could see Damon out the corner of my eye.

  Come on, come on, come on... Get up damn you, get up!

  Humming in my mind, the path Devin’s fingers took down my cheeks burned into me. It wasn’t that I was scared – I was past fear, past terror, into a numb cocoon – it was that Damon really needed to hurry.

  “That’s nice,” Devin growled. “Don’t you think? See, Lily? I can be... unnn... tender. Don’t you like that?”

  Nodding, I said, “Yes, it’s very nice, Devin. You make me feel so good, so taken care of and safe.” I shot another glance to Damon, who stirred just slightly.

  I channeled my thoughts, willing him to life. The little stir was all he had in him, at least right then.

  “Just... imagine it, Lily,” Devin started in, snorting between the words, twisting his head back and forth like he heard or saw things that weren’t there. Or maybe he did. “All this could be ours. We Caraks could take over the whole place. Look at him.” He poked Damon with his foot. “That’s not much of a leader. He’s all the Skarachee have.”

  Have you seen this place? What a beautiful kingdom. A desert, a trailer park, and some huts.

  “Uh-huh,” I said.

  Damon stirred again. I thought really, really hard.

  “Answer me!” Devin demanded, grabbing my hair and forcing me to look in his face. “Don’t you want that?”

  “Yes, yes, of course! It sounds wonderful, it...”

  “What is it? What gives my mate pause? Do I need to dispatch that cub?” Devin flicked a glance to Damon and pulled an almost comically long knife out of his belt. How had I not noticed that before?

  “B... but how could you kill him with that? You two have torn each other to shreds and then just—”

  “Healed?” Devin snarled. “Let’s see him heal through this.” He bent and touched the blade to the side of Damon’s face.

  The metal against his skin made a sickening squealing, screaming sound, and when he pulled it away, there was a black scar where it had been. “Silver,” Devin said, curling his horrible lips back in a grin. “If nothing else you’ve heard about us is true, that is, at least.”