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

by Opal Carew

  Gabriel nodded. “For a few years, yeah. Of course, Quinn liked to play dirty.”

  “Hey, I had no control over my change back then.” He tried to sound pissed off, but she didn’t think Quinn did anger. She didn’t think he was made for it. “Whenever I got excited or frightened, I’d grow claws. One of the lucani defense mechanisms. We learn how to control it as we get older, but Gabe has a few scars to show for it.”

  “So do you.” Gabriel turned to replace the staff on the wall and she noticed the faint scar of claw marks near the waistband of his jeans.

  “Yeah, but you never gave me a hassle about yours.”

  “Then I guess I was too easy on you.” Gabriel stopped in front of Leo and held out his hand, which Leo didn’t hesitate to take, letting Gabriel pull him to his feet. And he didn’t let go.

  Jealousy rose, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. Goddess, how stupid was she? Forcing a smile, she reached out to ruffle Leo’s too-long bangs.

  “Did you learn a lot, bud?”

  Leo nodded, looking a little unsure now that he was standing in front of her, unsure how she would respond. “It was cool.”

  Her smile softened at the excitement in his tone. “Then you’ll have to show me. But how about after we get something to eat? I bet you’re hungry.”

  Now he gave her the tiniest bit of a smile, as if trying to remember how to do it, and the jealousy abated. A little.

  “How about a snack?” she said. “I’m in the mood for chocolate.”

  Gabriel laid his hand on her forearm as she turned to go, stopping her in her tracks. His hand felt slick and warm against her skin, making her heart pound. “Shea, give me a minute. Leo, go with Quinn, okay?”

  Leo didn’t even hesitate. Just nodded and followed Quinn down the stairs.

  “Did you find anything?”

  She dropped her gaze and she knew Gabriel would know she was lying. But she wasn’t ready.

  Not yet.

  “I need more time to go through the rest of journals. There’s a lot of information. I just…need some time.”

  When she fell silent, she held her breath, knowing he wouldn’t let her off the hook that easily. Of course, he wanted to hear what she’d learned. But she couldn’t. Not yet.

  “Fine.” Surprise made her gaze jump back to his, staring down at her with compassion. “I’ve got a question for you.”

  Gabriel dropped his hand and she nearly grabbed for him, restraining herself at the last minute. She needed something to hold onto and he was fast becoming her rock.

  “If I tell you to shoot me, will you do it?”

  Her mouth dropped open. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  He walked to a large chest on the back wall and pulled out one of the drawers. “Just what I said. If I tell you to shoot me, will you do it?”

  Had he lost his mind? “Why would you tell me to do that?”

  He turned to face her again, a small revolver in his hand. It looked downright silly there, feminine. Walking back to her, he held out the gun, butt first, determination etched on his face. “I won’t be taken by Dario’s men. If it looks like I will be, I want you to kill me. I won’t let them have that pleasure. So, can you do it? Will you shoot me if I tell you to?”

  Could she? Gabriel stared at her with his steady dark gaze, hair loose around his shoulders.

  The man was gorgeous. He had the body of an Etruscan god—broad shoulders, wide chest, narrow waist and muscular legs. But it wasn’t just the size of his body, so much as the way he held himself. His confidence.

  She transferred her gaze to the gun in his hand, a Beretta Px4 Storm. Like the one she’d had to leave behind in their apartment in the city.

  Grasping the weapon by the butt, she pointed the muzzle down and away. She checked to make sure the safety was on then checked to see if it was loaded. Yes to both questions.

  She wasn’t afraid of guns. Her father had trained her well, and she’d become proficient over the years, though the only thing she’d ever shot had been targets.

  She would shoot anyone who tried to take Leo. But could she shoot Gabriel?

  She shook her head and looked away. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I could pull the trigger.”

  “Come on, baby, you know you want to hurt me.”

  His tone teased a reluctant smile out of her. “Yeah, you’re a bastard, but I still don’t know if I could do it.”

  “Let’s hope you don’t have to find out.”

  He turned and walked down the stairs.

  She took the gun to her room and hid it in her backpack then returned to the kitchen where the guys had a smorgasbord of junk food laid out on the table. Quinn had made sandwiches, enough for all of them. But chips, pretzels, cookies, candy and soda littered the table as well. All the things she’d tried so hard not to let Leo get hooked on. A habit she’d picked up from her mom. The first time she’d tasted chocolate, she’d been fifteen. Her dad had given her a Godiva chocolate bar as a birthday present.

  Of course, she’d been hooked after that and, when she’d started to make secret forays into the nearest town, chocolate was always the first thing she’d buy.

  The males congregated at the table, talking about weapons and fighting, guy stuff. She pulled herself onto the counter to munch Double Stuff Oreos and watch the testosterone show. Men were interesting creatures, particularly in the way they dealt with each other.

  Quinn and Gabriel appeared to be on their best behavior, she assumed because of Leo and, for that, she wanted to kiss them. Both of them. Okay, maybe she’d give Quinn a hug, but Gabriel she wanted to keep in her arms for a while.

  And that was probably the worst thing that could happen. But damn, he was fascinating.

  “When did you know what you are, Gabriel?”

  Leo’s boyish voice rang out through the rustle of bags and the background music of AC/DC coming from a small CD player on the counter.

  Gabriel didn’t hesitate. “My dad started my training at birth, I think. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know what I am.”

  Must have been nice, she thought, to have a purpose in life from the time you were born. She’d grown up without one, never knowing from one day to the next what life held for her. She hadn’t cared until she’d realized there was more to the world than their house and the forest. Then she’d discovered ballet and thought she’d found her reason for living.

  “Where’d you grow up?” Leo asked.

  “Mostly southeastern Pennsylvania.”

  “What about your mom?”

  Gabriel paused before answering. “I didn’t see my mom much.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it wasn’t safe.”

  “Why?”

  Shea was sure Gabriel would redirect Leo’s question. He surprised her.

  “Because those men that are after you, they’re after my mom, too. She didn’t want anything to happen to me until I could defend myself.”

  Leo’s expression hardened into one she’d never seen. It was mean with determination, anguish and fury. “They killed my parents.”

  Grief, biting and terrible, knifed through her.

  Gabriel nodded. “Yeah, they did. And that’s why we’re here. The women need us to protect them. They have power, but they’re not fighters. We fight for them.”

  Leo looked over at her. “I’ll never let anything happen to you, Shea.”

  Tears she couldn’t control sprang to her eyes but she blinked them back and smiled at her brother, forty pounds of skin and bones with too-long dark hair, big brown eyes and a solemn expression.

  “I know, bud.”

  “Hey, Shea.”

  Gabriel’s voice drew her attention. She couldn’t read his expression. There was something in his eyes, something she wanted so badly to decipher.

  “What?” she asked, but didn’t get answered.

  The phone rang.

  Chapter Twelve

  Quinn waited for Gabe to get the phone b
ut the guy never acknowledged its ringing.

  Hell, his gaze didn’t stray from Shea for the slightest second. Probably didn’t even hear the phone, if his expression was anything to go by. He’d never seen Gabe so fixated on a woman before. Any other time, Quinn would jump for joy. Now…

  With a sigh, Quinn snagged the receiver off the wall.

  “Speak fast.”

  “Quinn? Quinn, is that you?”

  The voice on the other end of the phone froze him in place.

  Shit, not now.

  He had to swallow to loosen his tongue. “Hey, Tammi. How’s it going?”

  Gabriel turned to stare at him.

  Oh, sure, now he had the guy’s attention.

  “Quinn, it is you.” The young woman sounded so happy, guilt practically knocked him on his ass. “I thought you fell off the face of the earth. I had to badger your boss all day to get this number. Where are you?”

  “Sorry, I…had to go out of town on the spur of the moment. We got notice of an audit at one of the clubs in Maryland. Is something wrong?”

  Tammi huffed and, in Quinn’s mind, he could see the woman the outside world believed to be his girlfriend. A twenty-two-year-old Villanova master’s student in theater policy, Tammi Graves was blond, blue-eyed and brilliant. Except for the fact that she considered him the perfect boyfriend. She thought he was a normal guy with a normal life, a steady CPA for a chain of clubs and restaurants.

  It was scary how much she didn’t know. Would never know.

  Quinn closed his eyes and turned away from Gabriel’s intent stare and Shea’s unspoken questions.

  On the phone, Tammi laughed, a sexy little trill that didn’t do a damn thing for him. “No, sweetie, there’s nothing wrong. I just wanted to talk. Are you busy? You didn’t call last night and I got a little worried.”

  Christ, he didn’t need this now. Not now. He hated this fucking charade. It wasn’t fair to Tammi, but Cole Luporeale, Legate of the American Legio, the lucani army, insisted he put on the show of a normal life, including a human girlfriend.

  “I’m fine, Tam. Just busy. Didn’t get back to the hotel room until early this morning.”

  “Where are you staying? The receptionist sounded really strange.”

  Stifling a slightly hysterical laugh, he took a deep breath. “A dive. Couldn’t find a real room. There’s some convention in town.”

  “So when are you coming home? I miss you already.”

  The pain in his chest tightened and he found himself trying to massage it away. Christ, could this get any worse? “Soon. Listen, I’ve got to get moving but I’ll call you later, okay? We’ll make plans for dinner when I get back.”

  “Okay. Don’t work too hard, Quinn.”

  “Never. See you soon.”

  By the time he hung up the phone, the weight on his chest had morphed into a blinding pain behind his eyeballs.

  Silence reigned in the room. Even Leo seemed to know not to intrude.

  Quinn drew back his fist and hit the wall as hard as he could. Fire shot through his arm and shoulder and down his spine. It cleared his mind of everything but the pain. At least this pain would heal.

  “Quinn.” Gabriel’s voice sliced through the tension. He ignored Gabe and pulled back again. Before he connected, Gabriel grabbed his wrist.

  “Quinn, you’ll break your hand and we don’t have the time.”

  “I hate this, Gabe. I fu—” He caught himself before he singed Leo’s ears. “I just hate it.”

  He looked up, found Gabe nodding in agreement. “I know. It sucks. But the alternative, if you’re discovered—if any of us are—is worse. That can’t happen.”

  “I know.” He took in a deep breath, held it then let it out again. “I know. But I don’t have to like it. She’s a nice girl. I don’t love her. I’ll never love her. She deserves more than that. And so do I.”

  Gabriel heard the frustration in Quinn’s voice, saw the pain in his eyes. He knew where it came from and ached for his best friend. Still, he understood Serena’s reasoning. He couldn’t resist a quick look at Shea. He understood those reasons too well.

  He released Quinn’s wrist. “It’s been a long day. For all of us. Why don’t we chill out for a while, get some rest. I’m hoping Matt will get back to me tonight so we can leave. If that’s three in the morning, all the better. Shea.” He turned, found her gaze glued to his, questions he didn’t want to answer right now in her eyes. “Take Leo back to bed, try to get some sleep. I don’t know when we’ll go, but when it’s time, we’ll move fast.”

  She paused then nodded, and he was almost sorry she didn’t fight him. He’d given her an order and typically she didn’t take them well. Instead, she nodded at Leo and they left.

  His gaze followed them all the way out the door.

  When he turned back, Quinn’s grin was shaky but there.

  Gabriel glared at him. “Don’t start, furball. Come on. I want to do a little recon.”

  * * *

  Shea lay with Leo on the bed he’d slept in last night.

  He’d fallen asleep the second his head hit the pillow. His sleep patterns were going to be completely screwed up.

  Listening to his deep, even breathing in the dark, her hand stroking his back, Shea wasn’t tired at all.

  Her heart ached for Quinn. She wasn’t exactly sure what had happened, but she could piece together enough to make sense. Quinn had a girlfriend who knew nothing about his real life. A life he couldn’t disclose without putting a lot of people in danger.

  Shea had grown up knowing there were other races in the world besides humans, races like the lucani and the winged folletti and the half-hided salbinelli.

  What would Quinn’s girlfriend do if he told her the truth? If he told her he could grow fur and become a wolf? Would she laugh and think he was joking? Think he was crazy? Would she run screaming if he showed her?

  Would she still want him?

  She wondered, for like the millionth time, what a normal life would have been like. To grow up in the suburbs with parents who were school teachers or accountants. To believe magic meant pulling a rabbit out of a hat and that people who could scramble your brains with a muttered spell or children who could make things burn with the touch of their hands only existed in the movies.

  Would she want to be so clueless?

  Blessed Goddess, no.

  Sure, there were scary things in the world, but being clueless didn’t mean they wouldn’t get you. She’d much rather know what was coming.

  Which was where her parents had gone wrong. They had withheld information and, somehow, she’d known. She’d run away, thinking she could find answers to all her questions in the outside world.

  She hadn’t found a damn thing. And her parents had died.

  Heavy footsteps stopped outside their door. She forced herself to close her eyes and breathe slowly when Gabriel pushed open the door to the bedroom.

  He had to be able to tell she wasn’t asleep but he didn’t say anything. Seconds later, he pulled the door closed. Seconds after that, she heard them enter a room down the hall.

  Might as well forget sleep. She needed a cup of tea.

  In the kitchen, waiting for the microwave to finish her water, she stood in the open doorway that led to the garden at the back of the house, barely visible in the deepening shadows of early evening. The scents of oregano, basil, thyme and rose calmed her, reminded her of her mom’s greenhouse, where she’d grown her flowers and herbs used in spell-casting.

  Stepping out into the garden, she ran her hands over the herbs, plucking a lemon thyme leaf to crush and hold to her nose. The sound of running water caught her ear and she let her gaze run over the garden until she found the small waterfall burbling from a rocky outcrop at the edge of the tree line.

  The water flowed in a steady stream out of the earth, down the fall and into a rock pile before seeping back into the ground. Even in the dusk, Shea saw the runes covering each rock. A shrine to the Moon God T
ivr. Made sense considering this was a lucani safe house and the wolves worshipped the Moon God in particular.

  She should make an offering. Even though she wasn’t lucani, it couldn’t hurt to have another god on her side. But she didn’t have a traditional votive—a small statue or vase used as an offering.

  Looking around, she spied the pale glow of white moon flowers. Perfect.

  After snapping off a few blooms, she stood in front of the shrine and pricked her thumb on a sharp rock. Rubbing a few drops of blood on the petals, she tossed the flowers into the water.

  “With my blood and this offering, I ask for your protection, Tivr. Lend me your strength to battle those who would harm my brother.”

  As the flowers hit the water and nestled in among the rocks, a howl split the air. Startled, she took a step away from the spring. Were there real wolves in these forests? Or had Quinn decided to take a stroll?

  A gray wolf emerged from the trees, its loping gait steady but not threatening. Stopping at the top of the fall, the animal sat, staring down at her. He was huge and should have made her fear for her life. But Gods, he was gorgeous, sleek and muscular. And there was something about the way he looked at her, something about his eyes…

  Oh, wow.

  She dropped into a curtsy, the action a completely spontaneous response to the presence of a god.

  “Tivr, Lord of the Silver Light. I am honored by your presence.”

  The wolf didn’t come any closer, just stared at her for several moments before inclining his head and letting loose another howl.

  Power emanated from him and his beauty amazed her. She wanted to run her fingers through his fur, which looked more luxurious than any mink or sable ever could.

  Could you pet a god? Probably not.

  So she held her curtsy, even though it hurt her leg to do so, and waited for him to move first.

  After a few seconds, he hopped down from the top of the fall to sniff at the flowers she’d offered, then sat at her side, caught her fingers lightly in his teeth and tugged on them. It took her a few seconds to figure out that he wanted her to sit. So she did, cross-legged on the ground in front of the shrine.