I glance around my surroundings and breathe in more of the wretched demonborn stench. When I finally pinpoint the scent, I'm looking across the hood of my truck down the line of motel rooms at an older nondescript sedan sitting in a parking spot at the other end of the building. It's the only other vehicle here besides Ronan's and mine, and I can see four men sitting inside with the windows down. I immediately duck backwards to put the cab of my truck between them and me, then study them more closely through the windows.
The men are just sitting there staring avidly over at Ronan's door. If they even took notice of me when I pulled into the motel lot, they're paying no attention to me whatsoever now. Obviously, they haven't scented what I am, or they'd be all over me instead. I'm thankful for the shift in the breeze that brought their scent to me. Even if the wind happens to shift in their favor, they still might not catch my scent. Their sense of smell isn't as keen as mine. I think their own stink makes it hard for them to scent anything well unless they're very close.
I don't know why they're here and so fixated on Ronan's motel room door, but I can guarantee it's not anything good. Death and chaos follow their kind wherever they go, and I'll be damned if I let them anywhere near Ronan, who's human and vulnerable. The violent protective rage that suddenly surges up inside me at the mere thought of them hurting him has my she-wolf instantly bristling and eager for a fight. I need to get to Ronan, so I can warn him and protect him. And if all else fails, I'll lead them away and kill them all if I have to. No one messes with my man. No one.
On a whim, I fluff my hair and yank the V-neck of my tight-fitting sweater down to show a whole hell of a lot more cleavage. I saunter confidently toward the motel door with swinging hips and bouncing breasts. Hopefully, the four demonborn will think I'm just some hussy here to have a good time with Ronan. Then I can get inside to warn him about the threat outside his door and keep him safe.
I feel their eyes on me as I move out from the side of my truck and into view, but don't look in their direction. I don't hear the sound of car doors opening, so I know my plan is working so far. I flip my hair over one shoulder, strut right up to Ronan's door, then knock on it, trying for an air of nonchalance as I wait for him to open it for me.
Several moments pass, and I begin to fear that Ronan's not in there as I feel the wind shift direction again. I hold my breath, hoping my scent doesn't somehow manage to find its way to the four demonborn until the lock finally turns. As the door starts to swing open, I'm already pushing my way inside.
"Hey, baby!" I say in a loud and suggestive tone for the benefit of the four demonborn. "Are you ready for a good time?"
I briefly register the shocked look on Ronan's face as I hurry past him into the room, a shiver of want and need already settling over me at his body's proximity to mine. I kick the door shut behind me, then lean back against it before finally taking a good look at Ronan. His hard gorgeous body is hidden beneath a long black leather trench coat, and with the hood pulled up it gives him a dark and mysterious appearance that's both threatening and sexy as all hell. He looks like he belongs in one of Wyatt's assassin video games. His eyes gleam covetously as they flick down over my body and heat with desire. I glance down to do the same to him as I breathe in his delicious earthy musk and see that he's holding his gun down by his side. Yet again, I wonder who exactly this man is.
"What are you doing here?" he asks, his tone clipped and irritated, despite the fact that he's staring longingly at my mouth and the potent and virile scent of his arousal is already rising to my nose.
"We have a problem," I answer in a breathless whisper as I frown at him, not happy with his mixed signals even as my body reacts with a deep throb of desire.
Ronan breathes in deeply with a slow languid blink as he reaches up to push the hood down off of his head. Then he steps closer, his big body pressing me against the door. I can feel his cock thickening against my stomach inside his jeans as he nuzzles his nose against my cheek.
"Yes," he says in a husky voice, his warm breath feathering my skin as his mouth moves to hover over mine. "We do." His free hand glides up along the side of my neck and into my hair, cupping the back of my head in a firm possessive grip. He shakes his head infinitesimally. "I can't resist you, sugar."
"Ronan," I murmur as I meet his eyes and fall into their deep-blue depths.
My thoughts go haywire and scatter. I forget everything but Ronan and what he's doing to me, how he makes my body come alive and the way his eyes are boring into mine with heat and fire. My nipples tighten and pebble. My sex feels slick and so achingly empty inside. I part my lips in an invitation for what we both yearn for in this moment, what we both need, a release for the scorching passion burning between us.
His response is a low rumbling growl as he fists my hair in his hand, followed by the hard and wondrous press of his lips against mine. My body melts into his kiss, welcoming his tongue into my mouth to tangle with mine as I slide my hands inside his coat to find the hem of his black T-shirt. I slip them under the soft fabric and find warm skin over rock hard muscle that trembles under my touch. He moans into my mouth, and I hear a dull thunk just before his other hand snakes around my body and slips under my shirt. He must have put the gun on the table that I noticed near the door. His calloused palm feels like heaven as he skims his hand along the soft sensitive skin of my lower back, his fingertips slipping just under the waistband of my jeans. His deep drugging kisses, along with the sting of my hair still tangled in his fingers, has the she-wolf and the woman in me eager and panting for this man. My God, I never knew a kiss could be like this, could make me forget everything else.
When he finally pulls away panting for air, I'm left lightheaded and wanting as I mewl in bereft longing. I want more. I need more. I want everything.
He looks at me, his eyes brimming with a wondrous and bemused awe. "Lyric-" he says in a warm rumbling purr, but his next words are cut off by the crash of breaking glass as the motel room's large window suddenly shatters right next to us. "Motherfucker!" Ronan shouts as I gasp in shock.
He whirls us away and puts his body between me and the flying glass, using his leather coat to protect us from it, just before a flaming glass bottle comes tumbling through the now nonexistent window. It smashes apart as it hits the floor at the foot of the bed. Fire instantly ignites with a loud whoosh, then streaks across the carpeting and swiftly spreads up onto the bedspread. Holy shit, that was a Molotov cocktail. Yeah, we have a problem alright, a problem we're trapped right smack-dab in the middle of because I was too wanton and horny to warn him about it like I planned.
10
RONAN
One minute I'm kissing Lyric, lost to this deep visceral desire that has me about to take her right here against the door. The next all hell is breaking loose when the window shatters next to us. Glass flies everywhere as I swear and whirl to shield Lyric with my coat, just before a fucking bottle bomb lands in the middle of my goddamn room.
The bottle bursts on the floor and flames race across the carpeting, spreading quickly to engulf the bed. Thick black smoke billows up toward the ceiling, and the smoke detector starts squealing like a banshee. Fuck, we need to get out of here now, before we're caught up in it. Fire can't directly kill a trueborn werewolf, but it will hurt like a motherfucker and take an eternity to regenerate compared to the other wounds we can quickly heal. I have no interest in experiencing either again, and I'm sure as hell not letting the fire touch Lyric's flawless silken skin.
"We gotta go now!" I turn to snatch up my gun off the side table and shove it in its holster. I grab my ninjato from where it's still leaning against the wall by the door as a stunned and wide-eyed Lyric watches me swiftly buckle it around my waist. Then I grab her hand and turn for the door. Nothing else in here means shit to me, and can be replaced. "Stay behind me!"
"No, wait!" Lyric cries, but I'm already flinging the door open and leading her outside.
Before I take two steps outside, a baseball bat
is flying at my head, but luckily I'm expecting an attack of some sort. After all, that bottle bomb didn't throw itself. I register the burly fucker holding the swinging bat, and the telling scent of sulfur, as I drop Lyric's hand and surge toward him. The last thing I want to do his step back and get hit with the tip of the bat, the part with the highest peripheral speed.
I slam my left shoulder into my attacker's swinging arms, blocking the blow as I wrap my left arm around both of his elbows to restrain them. I deliver a brutal blow to his face with my right fist that produces a satisfying crunch of bone. He topples to the sidewalk along with his bat in an unconscious heap. I step back as I move my attention to the next threat, the three other demonborn closing in on me. I pull my sword free from its scabbard and whirl it in the air next to me with a nonchalant twirl of my wrist, grinning ferally at the three hard-looking men. They look like filthy rejects from a biker bar. What is it with demonborn and motorcycles, or not bathing for that matter?
I long to draw my pistol and put a bullet in each of their greasy heads just for sport, since it won't kill them, but refrain from following the urge. I won't fire my gun unless I have to since the last thing I want to do is draw in the authorities or any witnesses before I can get Lyric and myself out of here. Besides, I don't need a gun to kick the shit out of these poser assholes.
I'm not sure how they found me here, but I can hazard a guess as to why. They were probably friends with some demonborn I killed, and now they're looking for a little payback. They warily move in a little closer, one with another steel bat, the second a tire iron, and the third is carrying a wicked-looking machete. I imagine they plan on using that to take my head. Well, that's not happening, and I'm about to put the hurt on these fuckers for coming after me, and by extension, Lyric. That pisses me off more than anything. No one fucks with her, no one.
"Give it up," the demonborn to my right says. "It's four against one."
The one I just dropped starts to stir on the ground next to me. I lunge to the side and slash his throat open deeply, severing his neck and sending up a geyser of arterial spray into the air. I sidestep the blood as I grip my sword in both hands and lift it diagonally in front of me in a defensive position. "Make that three to one," I say with narrowed eyes as my smile widens maniacally. "Sounds like my kind of odds."
"Ronan," Lyric says in a panicked tone as she comes up behind me and touches my arm. "They're not what they seem. They...they can really hurt you."
I hear real fear in her voice, that I know is for my wellbeing since she thinks I'm human, but it's about time she knows the truth about me anyway. Obviously, I'm not capable of letting her go like I need to, so I might as well let her see the real me. It's not like I can hold back and hide my true speed and strength for this fight. We don't have the time for that shit.
"Don't you worry about me, sugar," I tell her. "I can handle myself."
"So sure of yourself, are you?" the one with the machete says, his eyes flashing a demonic red that the other two echo a moment later. They all snarl at me with ragged lengthening teeth set in faces already starting to morph into their misshapen humanoid wolf forms.
"See, Ronan," Lyric says from my left, her voice still edged with worry. "They're not human."
"I know," I say in a firm and confident tone. I wonder what her reaction to my statement is, but don't dare to take my eyes off my foes to look at her.
Without another word, I abruptly charge forward and swing the blade in a deadly arc that catches the machete wielding demonborn on the wrist as he attempts to lift his weapon and block my attack. Too slow, motherfucker. The sharp steel cuts deep into bone. He roars out in pain as he drops the machete and grabs at his now useless and blood-drenched hand that's dangling by a mere scrap of tissue.
I attack again and shove the sword deep into his chest, then give it a hard and vicious twist that destroys his heart and cuts off his cries of pain. I pull the blade free, stepping out of the path of an arcing spray of blood as he drops to the ground like a stone. Then I spin to face my next attacker and catch the swinging tire iron on my sword, the heavy blow reverberating painfully up my arm. I manage to keep my grip on my weapon and retaliate by shoving the tip of the blade brutally into his throat. I twist it and yank it back out, then watch him fall gurgling in his own blood to the sidewalk.
I whirl around, ready to face the final demonborn, just as the guy goes flying past me and slams into the side of the building with the metal pipe clanging to the concrete next to him. I notice that his head is lolling to the side in an odd position that definitely isn't compatible with life. I turn a vicious smile of satisfaction Lyric's way and see her she-wolf in her glowing silver eyes and her lips pulled back in a snarl. The girl snapped his neck, then tossed him like a rag doll. Is it wrong that I find it hot as fuck?
I only have a moment to dwell on how badass she is when I become aware of an almost scorching heat at my back. I turn to see that I'm next to my motel room window, and it's already an inferno in there and spreading to the adjoining rooms. It won't be long before the whole place goes up. We need to get the hell out of here.
"Grab that one next to you!" I yell at Lyric as I sheathe my sword and survey the area. I don't see anyone else, and I'm happy that I'm the only guest in the motel right now. Though it is odd that the motel night manager hasn't come outside with all the commotion out here, and it makes me worry for the poor guy's wellbeing.
I squat to pick up the one she threw against the wall beside me. I lift him up easily and chuck him through the window into the burning room, knowing the flames will take care of the body quickly. For some reason, demonborn burn easily once they're dead. Maybe it has something to do with the demon inside them. I don't know, but whatever the reason, it sure makes disposing of them simple.
I hurry over to one of the bodies as Lyric passes me with another and follows my lead. Within moments, all four are disintegrating in the rising flames. Good riddance. The only thing I hate more than vampires, are demonborn.
"Get in your truck and wait for me," I say. "I'll be right back."
She nods and does as I say without arguing or questioning me, and from the stunned and shell-shocked expression on her face, I'm not surprised. But I know she's going to have lots of questions later. I guess I'll figure out how to answer them when the time comes.
I jog toward the front of the building as Lyric climbs into her massive silver pickup truck, that for some odd reason, suits her perfectly. When I reach the motel office, I find the door hanging partially open. Shit, that's not good. I peek through the gap, and see a pair of unmoving denim clad legs on the floor amid a large pool of blood. The rest of the poor guy is hidden behind the check-in desk. No wonder no one cares about the still blaring smoke alarm. I can imagine the kind of treatment those demonborn gave the poor middle-aged man, and my only consolation is that I'm sure it was quick since they didn't want to alert me to their presence with a lot of noise.
"Son of a bitch," I mutter as guilt kicks me in the gut.
I always try my damnedest not to drag the innocent into this dangerous business of killing monsters, but sometimes things happen that are beyond my control. However, it didn't make me feel any less guilt when it happened. Now I'm even happier those fuckers are dead and can't hurt anyone else. I turn away with a sigh and hurry back to Lyric. I take a moment to toss a few matches on the areas of blood-covered sidewalk, the blood catching fire immediately and burning away swiftly, before going to my car.
"Follow me!" I holler at Lyric as I fling the Mustang's door open.
She nods in reply from where she's sitting in her truck as the blazing motel reflects dazzlingly off her windshield. She's gripping the steering wheel in white-knuckled hands with a dazed expression.
I unbuckle my sword and toss it in the backseat, then climb in and start the car. I back out and drive to the motel's entrance, not glancing once toward the office and the poor man inside since I can't bear to look. I stop and look both directions along the da
rk highway and thankfully see no other vehicles in sight. Then I pull out onto the road and slam my foot down on the gas pedal, noting in my mirror that Lyric is still right behind me. Relief floods me. Good. I need to get her out of here before she gets caught up in this mess right along with me.
Good God, I never should have followed her out of that club last night. She's too young...too innocence for the likes of me, but it's too late now. That realization only adds to the heavy weight of guilt on my shoulders as we drive away from the raging conflagration that's already rising up into the night sky behind us.
11
RONAN
I turn off onto the same access road I used when I went hunting last night and pull to a stop once we're out of sight from the road. Lyric's huge pickup comes up behind me as I kill the Mustang's engine, and the night envelopes us as her headlights wink out. Overhead, the soft glow of the waxing moon illuminates the weed infested gravel road that winds off into the trees ahead of me. I can hear an owl hooting somewhere through my open window, along with the rustling of the dry turning leaves in the trees surrounding us. I can smell the fading exhaust of our vehicles amid the comforting and familiar scents of the forest at night.
I huff out a sigh as I reluctantly get out of my car and walk back toward the passenger side of Lyric's truck. Good God, I've never had to explain what I do to anyone before. Hell, I've never discussed anything about my life with anyone at all. Not to mention, I have no idea how she'll react to finding out I'm a trueborn and not the human she thought. This is all new and unfamiliar territory for me, and I hate the unsettled and anxious feeling that slithers around in the pit of my gut.
Rogue Heart Page 7