Tall, Dark and Paranormal: 10 Thrilling Tales of Sexy Alpha Bad Boys

by Opal Carew

  I couldn’t connect the man who’d so tenderly held his son, who had refused to allow me near him lest the boy be hurt when I left, with the one who spoke so calmly of both killing and fucking me.

  Definitely possessed by Satan.

  Without another word, I walked away. Adam’s voice followed me down the trail. “What the hell? You think you can leave me here?”

  “Just did.”

  “I will kill you!”

  “Redundant.”

  “I will tear out your guts and strangle you with them. I will drink your blood; I will bathe in it.”

  “Original.”

  And pretty scary. Nevertheless, I had to get to Luc and take him away.

  I ran all the way to the mansion, grabbed my stuff, and tossed everything into the trunk except the dart gun, Cassandra’s knife, and my cell phone. Those I placed on the front seat. I stared at Adam’s pistol for a second, then realized he wouldn’t have helped me out by loading it with silver, and left the thing in the trunk. Around my waist I secured a fanny pack with my money and travel documents.

  As I climbed behind the wheel, a howl rose toward the descending moon. Uneasy, I glanced at the swaying swamp. That had sounded close.

  I floored the accelerator, spewing grass and dirt until I fishtailed onto the highway. Then I used one hand to dial frank. Since it was the middle of the night, I wasn’t surprised when his machine answered.

  “Your loup-garou is confined in a cage in the swamp about a mile east of the Ruelle Mansion. If you have a problem finding him, call Detective Conner Sullivan and have him take you to the place where Charlie died.” I hung up. “The first time.”

  I didn’t consider where I was going, what I was doing, or how I would hide from Adam for the next fifty years. I focused all my attention on getting to Luc and getting him gone.

  The moon was nearly down; the sun would soon be up. I parked in front of Adam’s trailer. I’d walked halfway to the door before I went back and grabbed the knife. I tucked the weapon into the pack at my waist.

  A few seconds later, hand poised to knock, mind occupied constructing a stupendous lie for Sadie, the babysitter, I hesitated, then tried the doorknob. The door swung inward without a sound.

  After glancing over one shoulder, then the other, I scampered inside. I’d been bent on doing anything it took to get to the child and then kidnap him, but strolling into a house uninvited made me uncomfortable.

  I crept down the hall. In the first room, Sadie slept. I pulled the door shut and moved on to the room illuminated by a night-light. A gaggle of boy toys—a football, a bat, a deck of cards that appeared to have been the victim of fifty-two pickup—were strewn across the floor, as well as several dirty T-shirts and a dozen smelly socks.

  Luc lay on top of the covers, arms and legs flung apart with wild abandon. I let out the breath I’d been holding in a rush and Luc’s eyes snapped open. He must have been a real treat to get down for a nap as a baby.

  I put my finger to my lips, and he grinned as I hurried across the floor to kneel at his side. Before I could speak, he flung his arms around my neck and hugged me. What I wouldn’t give to be able to trust like that. After this, I probably never would.

  “We’re going on a trip,” I whispered. “Do you have a suitcase?”

  “You and me and Daddy?” he whispered back.

  “Just you and me.”

  “Is that okay with Daddy?”

  “No,” said a familiar voice from the door.

  Chapter 36

  Adam leaned against the wall just inside the room. He wore jeans, a sleeveless shirt, tennis shoes. His bracelet gleamed dully in the half-light from the hall. Now that I thought about it, he hadn’t had that bracelet on in the cage. Then again, something like that could fall right off your paw.

  “How did you get out?”

  Confusion flickered over his face. “Out?”

  I cast a glance at Luc, who looked back and forth between us. I needed to get Adam away from the boy, especially since I might have to kill him.

  “Let’s discuss this outside.”

  He gave Luc a stern glare. “Stay here.”

  Adam headed for the front of the house, and I followed, fingers surreptitiously unzipping the compartment that held the silver knife.

  Outside, the night was completely dark. The moon was gone; the sun wasn’t yet up. I pulled out the weapon, tightening my fingers around the hilt. “I’m taking Luc.”

  Adam faced me, saw the knife, and laughed. “Didn’t we do this already? I’m not a werewolf.”

  He was so different from the man I’d left in the swamp. Sure he looked and sounded the same, but the snakelike coldness had left his gaze and the nasty smirk no longer twisted his mouth. When he spoke he didn’t say evil, hurtful things. At least not yet.

  “I saw you change,” I said.

  Something flickered in his eyes. “When?”

  He didn’t deny it, and even while I’d seen the truth, believed it, too, somewhere inside I must have been hoping for a miracle. “You don’t remember?”

  “Just tell me when and where.”

  “About an hour ago. Where Charlie died. I left you in a cage.”

  He cursed.

  “How did you get out?” I repeated.

  He ignored my question, clenching and unclenching his fists.

  “I’m not going to let you hurt Luc.”

  Fury spread across his face, and quick as a forked tongue, his hand shot out and grabbed the knife by the blade, taking it away with an ease and quickness that was mind-boggling. He flipped the weapon end over end and it stuck in a fence that separated the trailer park from a used-car lot.

  I fought the urge to run. “I’m not leaving without him.”

  “You aren’t leaving with him, either. He’s my son.”

  “You lied to me.”

  “I lie all the time, cher. Anymore I wonder if I even know what’s a lie and what isn’t.”

  “You said you weren’t the loup-garou.”

  He sighed. “I’m not.”

  “And I should believe an admitted pathological liar?”

  “Believe what you want.”

  Maybe the loup-garou wasn’t harmed by silver. Maybe all the tests I’d run on Adam had been a waste of time. Hell, maybe he could slip through bars, or at the least bend them with his superhuman strength.

  Adam started for the trailer.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To tell Sadie I’ll be back in an hour. I have to go into the swamp.”

  “What? Why?”

  He ignored me, disappearing inside for a few moments before coming out again, then grabbing me by the arm. “You’re going with me.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  He could easily strangle the life out of me and toss me into the swamp as alligator bait. I was starting to think he’d done it before.

  His grip tightened. “I leave you here and you disappear with Luc. I don’t have time to search for you. I can’t leave New Orleans until the new moon comes.”

  I was so surprised he’d admitted that, I allowed him to shove me into the passenger seat of my car, where I promptly got a dart gun up the ass. I moved the paraphernalia out of the way as he skirted the front fender, then got behind the wheel.

  His gaze flicked over the gun. “So that’s how you did it.”

  I didn’t bother to answer.

  He picked up the weapon, checked the ammo, found it empty, and tossed the thing into the backseat.

  “Why are we going into the swamp?” I asked.

  “I have something to do.”

  “I don’t suppose I can convince you not to.”

  “No.”

  “Frank Tallient will wonder what happened to me. When he gets here—”

  “He’s coming?” The glare he shot my way was downright cold. This was the man I’d left in the cage. “What did you do?”

  I swallowed and forced myself to answer. “I told Frank where he could find th
e loup-garou.”

  “When was that?”

  “Less than an hour ago.”

  Some of his tension eased. “We’ll be there before him.”

  “He’ll raise a stink if he can’t find me. You can’t leave Luc alone.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “If you kill me, you’ll fry.”

  The death penalty was alive and well in Louisiana, though I didn’t know for certain if they actually fried people anymore, or how often.

  “You think I’m going to kill you, cher?”

  “You’ve killed before.”

  “I’ve risked more than I’ve ever risked in my life to protect you,” Adam said softly.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You will.”

  We remained silent for the rest of the drive to the mansion, as well as the hike into the swamp. The sun was up. The day was going to be another scorcher. Nevertheless, I couldn’t stop shivering.

  Adam was insane, if not a werewolf. He was going to kill me and probably everyone I’d spoken to about him. Cassandra, Detective Sullivan, Frank. Had he killed Mrs. Favreau?

  He’d most likely killed Charlie, the mystery stranger, and Mrs. Beasly. Such carnage was beyond my comprehension. But what really made me ill was the idea of leaving Luc in Adam’s care. What would happen to the child with a monster for a father?

  I stepped into the clearing first, stopping so abruptly, Adam nearly ran me over from behind.

  The cage was still there; the lock was still locked.

  And Adam was still inside.

  Chapter 37

  Dizziness washed over me and I swayed. “What—? Who—? How—?”

  Adam rushed to the enclosure, saw the lock, and turned. “The key.”

  I was having trouble breathing, so I sat down and put my head between my legs. After a few minutes, the black dots receded.

  When I glanced up, two men, so alike in appearance and yet so different, stared back. Now that they stood together, how could I have thought they were the same? One look into their eyes and the difference was obvious. The Adam in the cage was evil; the one who’d brought me here was not.

  “Twins?” I asked.

  They shook their heads, and their hair swirled around their shoulders.

  “My great-great... well, several-greats-grandfather.” The Adam outside the cage jerked a thumb toward the one inside. “Henri Ruelle.”

  The naked man bowed.

  “The picture,” I murmured.

  Henri smirked. I hated that smirk.

  “Obviously taken before you became a loup-garou.” Considering my trouble photographing them.

  “Obviously,” Henri returned.

  “Why would you leave it on the wall where anyone could see?”

  “I only wanted you to see.”

  “Grandpere likes to confuse people.”

  He’d confused me all right.

  “You said your family wasn’t cursed.”

  “No. I said, ‘Some say we are.’ “

  “I specifically asked if you’d been cursed to run as a wolf beneath the crescent moon.”

  “I’m not.”

  “You look so much alike. Couldn’t you at least cut your hair? Make some distinction?”

  “The better to protect me, my dear,” Henri said.

  I glanced at him, then back at Adam. “You protect it?”

  “Hey!” Henri protested.

  “There will always be a loup-garou of Ruelle blood. If Grandpere dies, the next Ruelle male becomes the beast.”

  “You.”

  “Then Luc.”

  So many things were starting to make sense.

  “Your father and grandfather?”

  “They couldn’t bear knowing what they might become.”

  “Pussies,” Henri spat.

  “Who did you piss off?” I demanded.

  “I didn’t know she was a voodoo queen. She was—” Henri shrugged. “A slave. I wanted her, I took her.”

  “You raped her?”

  “No.” Confusion flickered over his face. “She was mine. I never understood what she was so angry about.”

  I rubbed between my eyes. “Why didn’t she just turn him into a bug and squash him?”

  “Too easy,” Adam murmured.

  “Dismemberment would have been too easy.”

  “She called on the moon goddess to make me a beast.”

  I lifted my head. “What?”

  “Queen of heavens, mother of creatures, lady of the wild, patron goddess of the outlaw werewolf, the instant I heard your name, deesse de la lune, I knew you were here for me.”

  I glanced at Adam, who shrugged. “He’s been obsessed with you from the beginning, but he couldn’t figure out if you were here to help or hurt him.”

  “Diana is a huntress,” Henri continued. “You rule all dark forests; you command the moon. Queen of witches, daughter of Satan.”

  “I think you’ve got the wrong Diana.”

  “I’m cursed by a woman who calls on a moon goddess, then you arrive? How can that be a coincidence?”

  “It’s a hundred and fifty years later!” I shouted.

  “Time means nothing to me.”

  I suppose after the first century, that’s true.

  “Listen,” I said. “My name is just a name. It was my grandmother’s, and you can bet your everlasting life she wasn’t a moon goddess.”

  “Did you come here to make me stronger, to be at my side until we ruled the world?” Henri asked.

  Did this guy listen? “I don’t think so.”

  “Then you came to cure me, and you have to die.”

  “Huh?”

  “The one thing Grandpere fears is being cured. He likes what he is. He doesn’t want to go back to the way he was.”

  “In life I was at the mercy of forces I could not change—weather, government, stock market, death. Now everyone is at the mercy of me. Like this, I’ll never be hungry or poor again.”

  I looked at Adam. “I thought you were poor now.”

  “I want none of his money.”

  Couldn’t say I blamed him.

  “I can understand cursing Henri,” I said, “but why the entire line?”

  “Curses are funny that way,” Adam said. “They tend to hang around for more than a generation.”

  “You’re certain killing him will curse you?”

  “I can’t kill him and find out!” Adam shoved a hand through his hair. “I’ve spoken with voodoo experts; they all say the same thing. A curse like this is on every Ruelle born until the curse is lifted. And that I don’t know how to do. No one does.”

  “So what, exactly, is the curse?”

  “He is an evil, soulless thing. A selfish prick who cares only for himself.”

  “Wasn’t he that already?”

  “I didn’t know him before,” Adam shrugged, “but most likely.”

  “I’m right here,” Henri muttered.

  “Under the crescent moon he runs as a wolf,” Adam continued as if Henri hadn’t spoken. “He murders innocents and creates more werewolves.”

  “Like Charlie.”

  “Yes.”

  “He told me he has to change under the crescent moon.”

  “He does. Many more nights of being a beast that way.”

  “A blessing, not a curse, if you ask me,” Henri said. “I like to kill.”

  “We didn’t ask you.” God, he was annoying. “Why did I see Charlie under a half-moon?”

  “Charlie was a werewolf; Grandpere is a loup-garou.”

  “My head hurts.”

  Adam’s mouth tightened. “Grandpere wasn’t bitten; he was cursed. Those he bites rise and run as wolves within twenty-four hours—day, night, doesn’t matter. After that, only the full moon compels them to shift. Under any other, it is their choice.”

  Which made as much sense as anything else around here.

  “What about him?” I jerked my thumb toward the cage. “When the moo
n isn’t a crescent?”

  “He’s a man—or as much of a man as he can claim to be.”

  “Sounds like less of a curse.”

  “The longer he’s in human form, the more violent he becomes when the wolf is upon him.”

  I scowled at Henri, who examined his fingernails. I considered all that I knew and all I did not. “When did you find out about the curse?” I asked.

  “Luc’s first birthday.” His face softened. “Family tradition. By then you’re in love with the boy. You’d do anything to protect him.”

  “I couldn’t find a record of Luc’s birth.”

  Adam cast Henri a suspicious glance, and Henri shrugged. “Less people know of us, the better.”

  “Once your father told you the truth,” I continued, “he killed himself?”

  Sadness flickered over Adam’s face. “I was old enough to watch over Grandpere, and by then I’d had Special Forces training. Didn’t know I’d need it for this.”

  “Your father left you alone to raise your son, protect that thing, and find a cure? He couldn’t stick around to help?”

  “Knowing what was to come preyed on his mind, drove him over the edge.”

  I got the feeling Adam was talking as much about himself as his dad.

  “When I was a boy he would be gone certain nights and come home beat to hell. He was a gentle man, a scholar. He didn’t know how to fight; he had no idea how to counteract evil and violence.”

  Henri snorted but refrained from comment for a change.

  “Your mother?”

  Adam looked away, refusing to meet my eyes. “She left the instant she knew the truth.”

  No wonder he’d been so worried I’d leave him and Luc behind. Every other woman in his life had.

  “My father asked me to enlist,” he continued. “I’d always been fascinated with weapons, interested in military history; I believed he wanted me to be happy. Later I understood he wanted me trained to do the family dirty work better than he had been.”

  “You plan on taking the easy way out when Luc’s old enough to protect that monster?”

  “I’d let the curse fall to me before I’d leave him to suffer.”

  “You’ll like it,” Henri whispered. “You’ll see. The power is exhilarating. With one stroke you can kill or impart life everlasting.”