Wild and Free

by Kristen Ashley

  “Xun’s bike and the weapons,” he stated simply as we went, throwing his sword to the side.

  “Gotcha,” Chen replied.

  He got on the Sportster, which was parked at the side of the alley.

  Instead of running for the hills, for some lunatic reason, I got on behind him and away we went.

  Again, I did not run or fight or even say a word when he took us back to the alley behind the Chinese restaurant. I continued to do none of these things as he got off the bike, grabbed my hand when I alighted, and he took me to the still-opened grate, down the stairs, and back to the basement room.

  However, I did yank my hand from his and advanced swiftly into the room when we got there, whirling and demanding to know, “There are werewolves?”

  He studied me closely but did it replying immediately. “Yes.”

  “Are you a werewolf?” I asked.

  His answer came slower, his body tightening visibly as he took his time doing it, but he eventually said, “Yes.”

  “The ones whose heads you cut off,” I stated, but it was a question.

  “I don’t know,” he answered, and kept the impossible, unhinged, but apparently true information coming. “But they move like me and have my strength, though they can’t transform. So my guess…vampires.”

  “So you’re a vampire too.”

  Another hesitation before he stated, “Yes.”

  “That’s impossible,” I declared.

  He opened his mouth, bared his teeth, and I jumped back a foot when two razor-sharp fangs snapped over his eyeteeth.

  “Holy fuck,” I whispered, my hand snaking up to curl around my throat.

  The fangs retracted before he said, “Nothing to worry about. I’ve already fed.”

  “On”—I gulped—“blood?”

  He shook his head but said, “Yes, now—”

  “Human blood?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he clipped and moved toward me. I moved back as he kept speaking. “Now—”

  “You feed on human blood?” My voice was rising.

  “Fuck,” he hissed. He stopped moving toward me but went on talking, and he did it sharply. “Yeah. I do. I’m a werewolf vampire. I transform to wolf and I feed on human blood. The bitch I had earlier didn’t feel a thing, got off while I was doin’ it to her, just like they all do. I’ve had her before, though I ’spect, you in the picture, I won’t have her again. And I didn’t harm her.”

  “So that’s not another one to add to your body count for the night?” I asked.

  “Nope,” he answered casually.

  I felt my brows go up. “She got off on it?”

  “Helped I was fuckin’ her at the time, but yeah, she did. Bitch begs me to bite her. Seein’ as I need the blood, it works for me.”

  More of what he said hit me.

  “Me in the picture?”

  “You might have missed it with all that’s gone down, but told you straight up you were mine.”

  He did.

  He did do that.

  It was uh-oh before.

  Now it’s a big, steaming pile of smelly uh-oh.

  I looked side to side, still backing up, now whispering, “This shit is crazy.”

  “It is. Absolutely,” he agreed, and him doing that made me stop and look back at him. When I did, he continued, “Until tonight, I didn’t know there were others like me. Obviously, there are. And obviously something’s up, because I never saw another like me, not in all the years I’ve been on this earth. You hit town and they’re everywhere.”

  “Me?”

  “You.”

  “Why?”

  “You felt I was in danger?”

  I shook my head but admitted, “Yeah.”

  “Knife through the gut, pain so extreme you’re sure you’ll bleed out in a second?” he pushed.

  Oh God, how did he know?

  “Yeah,” I whispered.

  “Felt that too, earlier tonight, when those guys were chasing you. Never felt that before in my life. Knew exactly where you were and had no idea how I knew. Knew exactly what you were the minute I laid eyes on you. You calm down, take a breath like I told you to do, I figure you’ll know it too.”

  I was taking no breath and trying to feel anything, so I shook my head. “I just want to get out of here. Get out of here and go home.”

  That not being home to my apartment, but home to my dad’s compound.

  Though, it wasn’t a compound, exactly. But considering the amount of guns he owned, the tall fence he’d built around the place so “no motherfucking asshole can be in my business,” and the land he had (because when he said he didn’t want anyone in his business, he meant it), I teased him by calling it his compound.

  I didn’t know if he could protect me from vampires and werewolves.

  I just knew he’d die trying. And he had enough ammo to make that fight last awhile.

  “What’s your name?” Abel asked.

  I blinked out of my thoughts and focused on him.

  “Please take me to my hotel room so I can—”

  He interrupted me again, “After I set those vampires on fire, seein’ as I’m not takin’ any chances, that’s where I went so I could get your shit. They were crawlin’ all over it, got a whiff of me, came after me. That ended swords against pipe in an alley. So you aren’t goin’ to your hotel room.”

  Shit!

  “How did you know which hotel I’m staying at?”

  His gaze traveled over me, then back to my face. “You a biker bitch?”

  This correct assumption did not prove he also had clairvoyant powers, just deductive ones. I was wearing a leather choker, feather earrings, leather wristlet on one arm, abundant silver bangles on the other wrist, a Harley tee, faded jeans, and motorcycle boots—my uniform when I wasn’t at work (though, I didn’t always wear feather earrings…or bangles).

  And, incidentally, he was in much the same outfit. His jeans more beat up, his tee older, faded, and totally kickass, and obviously he wasn’t wearing a choker, earrings, or bracelets. Though he did have a chain wallet attached to his belt and a number of rings on his fingers.

  “I would use the term ‘motorcycle aficionado,’” I snapped. “But yes.”

  “Bikers stay at one place in Serpentine Bay.”

  He was right. I’d been there before with my father. It was a biker mecca. Every biker worth being called a biker went to Serpentine Bay at least once before they died. Dad had taken me on my eighteenth birthday, but he’d been here five times.

  And when in Serpentine Bay, bikers stayed at one of two places: the campgrounds north of town or the biker-friendly hotel on the water called The Chain, also north of town.

  I gave up on that and asked, “What do they want with me?”

  “What’s your name?” he asked back.

  I shook my head.

  “Could do this all night, and will, you don’t tell me your name,” he warned.

  “Lilah,” I gave in. “Uh…Delilah Johnson.”

  He stared at me a second before he lifted a hand, ran it through his dark hair, and looked to the floor, muttering, “Terrific. I’m named after the brother who was murdered and you’re named after the bitch who stole her man’s strength and betrayed him to his enemies. Fuck.” His eyes came back to mine and he dropped his hand. “We’re screwed.”

  “I would never do that,” I hissed.

  “Good to know,” he kept muttering.

  Our conversation was way off target so I commenced in getting us back on track.

  “Seriously, honestly, please listen to me.” I leaned toward him. “I want to leave.”

  Suddenly, I wasn’t ten feet away from him.

  Suddenly, I was pressed to the wall and held there by his body.

  “Searchin’,” he whispered, his different colored eyes burning into mine. “My whole life, searchin’ for something, missing something, something I did not know. Until I found you. And my whole life is a long fuckin’ life to be needing somethin
g I could not find.”

  A long fucking life?

  He looked in his early thirties.

  “So Delilah,” he went on, “you aren’t leavin’. You aren’t getting your ass killed. You’re stayin’ right here where I can keep you safe. And the first thing you’re doin’ is takin’ a goddamned shower so you stop reekin’ like those fuckers who laid their hands on you and tried to take you from me before I even gave you our first kiss.”

  Our first kiss?

  Yep.

  A big, fat, steaming pile of uh-oh.

  “You scare me,” I shared.

  “I’ll stop doing that, you get used to me,” he replied.

  This was doubtful.

  I lifted my hands out to the sides (the only place I could move them) and dropped them. “This whole thing terrifies me, everything about it, and there are lots of everything about it, including the fact you took seven lives in one night all in front of me.”

  “You said you didn’t want to die. Do you want me to die?”

  At his words, that pain sliced through me again, gutting me in a way I could not hold back my wince.

  “Yeah,” he whispered, his quiet word eradicating the pain like that simple piece of proof of him alive, breathing, and talking had that power. Something, by the way, that freaked my shit way out. “They wanted you dead,” he continued. “They wanted me dead. But they got dead. And hopefully Wei and Xun will get that wolf so maybe we can get some answers. Now I need to get out there and help them so you need to take a shower, put on my tee, and get some rest, because whatever shit is happening, I know one thing…it’s only just begun.”

  I stared up at him knowing I should do everything I could to get the hell away, get to my dad, my dad being the person who would make me safe in a way that was safe for me, just as I knew I wasn’t going to do that.

  I was going to take a shower, put on his tee, and try to get some rest.

  Because I had a feeling he was not wrong.

  And there was the not-so-insignificant part of the whole night where I knew he was in danger, reacted to it violently, and led Chen to him without knowing how I did it.

  I’d come to Serpentine Bay on a quest and I had a feeling I’d found my Holy Grail.

  It was just that my Grail was scary as shit.

  “I need to call my dad,” I said quietly.

  He moved away three inches, reaching in his back jeans pocket and pulling out his phone.

  He handed it to me.

  I took it, tipping my head down to stare at it in my hand because this surprised me and made me feel a lot more protected and a whole lot less of a kidnap victim.

  “It’s after two in the morning,” he stated, and I looked up at him.

  “Right,” I whispered.

  “You call him, you’re gonna freak him. You two close?”

  “Very.”

  “Can he take care of himself?”

  “Absolutely,” I answered firmly.

  “You want reinforcements.” Although a statement, it was also a guess.

  I nodded.

  “I hear that,” he said. “But I’ll ask you to give me the rest of the night, see if the boys got that wolf, see if we can get anything out of him, this meaning you’ll have more information to give your dad so he knows what he’s getting into.”

  The idea of telling my father I’d hooked up with a werewolf vampire and was unexpectedly under attack during my vacation quest to Serpentine Bay was not one I relished.

  The good part of this was that Dad would totally believe me. I knew that sounded screwy, but he would. He was just that kind of guy.

  And he loved me that much.

  The bad part of this was that Dad would totally lose his mind, rally his brothers, and ride on Serpentine Bay ready for a fight and willing to go down in order to take out any being, natural or supernatural, who was a threat to me.

  “I’ll wait until morning,” I said.

  “Good,” he murmured. “You keep that phone. It’s good you have one, just in case. I’ll get Jian-Li’s before I find the boys.”

  I nodded, though I did this ignoring his “just in case” comment.

  “Where’d you leave your purse?” he asked.

  “I, uh…” I thought about that evening’s events, remembering I had my purse when I went to the bathroom in that bar. I also had it when I left the bathroom and saw the men at the mouth of the hall and instinctively knew they were after me (another thing that freaked me, and not just that they were after me, but that I knew with one look they were). I still had it when I turned the other way and ran out the back exit.

  I threw it aside somewhere in my dash.

  “It’s somewhere between the Mad Helmet and where you found me,” I told him.

  He nodded. “I’ll see if we can find it.”

  “Thanks,” I said softly.

  “Shower.”

  It was me nodding that time.

  “Rest,” he went on.

  That would be impossible.

  I nodded again anyway.

  He held my gaze before he said, “You’re safe, Delilah.”

  I took in a deep breath.

  He watched me do it, looked back into my eyes, stepped away, then, in a blur, he was at the steel door, opening it.

  He went through and didn’t look back when he pulled the door closed behind him.

  Chapter Two

  Torture

  Abel

  Abel walked through the back door of the restaurant.

  He smelled her and looked left.

  Jian-Li was sitting in her armchair in her office drinking tea, the standing lamp arched over the chair giving off soft light that barely cut the dark.

  Waiting up for her sons.

  Waiting up for him.

  He turned that way, stopped in the door, and leaned against its frame.

  “Everyone is safe?” she asked.

  “So far,” he answered quietly.

  She took a moment to let that sink in.

  “There are others,” she said softly.

  “Yeah,” he confirmed.

  She drew in breath through her nose, took a sip of tea, then stated, “And they’re evil.”

  He felt his jaw get hard, but he made no reply.

  He didn’t need to. She knew what had happened to Delilah and she could guess where her sons were now.

  “We knew this,” she continued.

  “Guess my instincts were right. Just took two hundred years for that shit to come about.”

  She nodded once and said, “Then it’s good we’re prepared.”

  Abel said nothing. They’d be talking about this, just not now. He had a wolf to hunt and, if he found him, hopefully successfully interrogate.

  “We’re prepared, Abel,” she said again.

  “Yeah,” he replied but went no further with that. Instead, he told her, “Gave my phone to Delilah. Need to borrow yours.”

  Her brows went up. “Her name is Delilah?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s lovely,” she said.

  It was. It was also apropos. She was a temptress.

  But he knew that. He’d been dreaming of her for over a hundred years.

  The reality was better.

  Even stuck in his thoughts, Abel still saw it shift over Jian-Li’s face and felt his stomach tighten when he did.

  “You’re full?” she asked.

  “I am, sweetheart,” he answered gently.

  She took another sip of tea, but she did it knowing she couldn’t hide behind that cup.

  She knew the hole he had inside, a hole that had never been filled. He’d shared it with her, his Jian-Li—his baby girl, his sister—the last in six women of her line that grew to be his confidant.

  She knew he was searching for something, knowing for years it was not there to find.

  Until thirty years ago, when the empty feeling became something else. A clawing in his gut that got stronger and stronger, year after year, until it got to a point
it couldn’t be ignored. It took an extreme effort of will to live day to day without jumping on his bike and riding the roads until he found whatever it was that would make the pain stop.

  That night, the pain had stopped.

  And Abel knew that, forty-five years ago, Jian-Li would have given anything to be the one who filled that hole. From birth, she’d grown up with him in her life. She’d loved him since she knew what that feeling meant. He’d loved her since before she was born.

  But she’d fallen in love with him when she was in her twenties.

  She was not the one who would fill the hole, and he’d helped raise her and knew he’d watch her grow, turn beautiful, age, and die. He’d done that before, too often. So he couldn’t give her that, even in the lesser way he might have been able to give it to her.

  “I’m happy for you, Abel,” she said.

  He straightened from the jamb. “Jian-Li—”

  She lifted a hand and waved it, interrupting him. “I had that.”

  He felt the squeeze in his chest. “I know.”

  “I wanted it from you, but that was long ago,” she continued. “But you know I found it elsewhere. It’s just that he wasn’t long for this world.” Her next words were said with her eyes still kind but sharp on him, communicating more than what she was saying. “It takes time, but you come to terms with the fact that you were blessed, having once had it at all.”

  She’d found a good man, Ming. He’d made her happy. He’d given her three strong, smart, loyal sons. He’d accepted all that was Abel into their family as Jian-Li’s mother’s husband had done, and her mother’s husband before him, and the mother before that, all the way back to the first who had found him and raised him from a pup.

  But Ming had died twenty years ago, leaving Jian-Li broken in a way no one could fix, the second time she’d had to experience that, the first being with Abel and living day to day knowing she’d never have him, until she met Ming.

  It was the measure of the man, and of his wife, that their three sons stood by her side, strong and stalwart, living their lives but keeping the family together to make certain their mother never endured another painful break that wouldn’t heal.