Beautiful Bargain

by Skye Jones

  “Sadly, for you, Slim, it isn’t,” Jackson said. “Milly is more important to me than anything.”

  “He’s telling the truth,” Angel supplied, unnecessarily pointing to Jackson and giving me wide eyes.

  Crap, I needed to talk to Jackson alone because nothing was more important than getting the cure. I wasn’t scared of Slim. I didn’t relish the idea of him sharing my living space after what he’d done to me, but he didn’t scare me because I had more than enough protection here.

  “Jackson, can I talk to you outside for a moment?” He narrowed his eyes at me and grabbed my arm but instead of heading outside, he hauled me out of the library and into one of the side rooms.

  “Swear to God, babe, you ask me to let him stay here and I’m going to see red. I want him fucking cold in the ground.”

  I needed to approach this carefully. Slim’s death wasn’t something I wanted on my conscience, not if he could help us because I still wanted to find the cure. For the sake of humanity and for the sake of my own nearest and dearest, I had to put getting the cure front and center. We were all in danger while the Foamers roamed the earth, spreading their sickness with no available antidote.

  “Jackson.” I pulled him to a chair and sat him down, then I crawled up on his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. I felt safer in Jackson’s arms than anywhere else, and ironically right then I needed to feel safe; from him because I was about to piss him off. “I get what you’re saying but think about it. I’m not immune to the virus like you are, and if I get bit, I’m going need you to kill me before I turn into one of those things. Or you will be leaving me to a horrible fate where I roam the outside of the perimeter wailing at night.”

  He shuddered, and it reverberated through me.

  “Or… we work with Slim.” I watched his face. He thought about it, so my words had reached somewhere deep inside, but he didn’t seem convinced.

  “I won’t let you get bit.” His jaw jutted; firm, determined.

  “I’m sure Slim thought the same about his sister.”

  “Slim’s not me; he’s not Altered.”

  “No,” I said, and carried on, once more choosing my words carefully. “But he’s highly trained, was in the military—and not any old branch, but special forces—and he’s big and strong. I expect he thought it would be enough. Jackson, do you want to have to kill me, or lock me in a shed hoping against hope you can find a cure? What if my parents get bit?”

  His jaw worked as he considered what I said. And then I added my final bargaining chip. “You can always kill him once we have the cure.”

  A scary light glowed in Jackson’s eyes, and a grim smile stretched across his face, but then he sobered. “What if it’s a ruse? He gets in here and then lets the Ravens overrun us?”

  “Don’t give him the codes to the door; lock him in his room at night. Or make him sleep downstairs. Convert one of the rooms at the back and lock him in when it’s dark. Plus, Alex, Ivan and pretty much Angel, are nocturnal. They can watch out at night, and we’re all up in the day. Doc’s an early riser. I can’t see a time when he would be alone to sneak around the house doing stuff.”

  “Okay. What about the fact he wants to bring a Foamer here? A goddamn Foamer! He could cause havoc if he let her into this house.”

  “He won’t,” I said. “I saw his feelings for her when I got inside his mind. I didn’t know then who she was, only that he’d do anything to protect her. Let him bring her here and put her in one of the outbuildings, chained. She won’t be a threat. To be honest, from what I saw in his mind, she’s at an advanced stage, a wreck. I don’t know if the cure could save her now, but he’s determined to get it and you can work with him to do so.”

  “Shit.” Jackson scrubbed a hand over his face, weary. “I don’t fucking like it. I’m going to tell Slim to go on home and call me tomorrow. I can’t make this decision on my own. I’m going to put it to a vote. All of us. Tonight.”

  I kissed him on the mouth. It was meant to be a quick, affectionate peck, but he pulled me in, big arms around me, solid thighs under me, hungry mouth taking from me. It was heaven, and I closed my eyes and fell into the kiss. He ended it after long moments and stood, taking me with him. “Come, let’s go tell him to call tomorrow and tonight we’ll vote.”

  After dinner that evening, Jackson excused the five of us, and left my parents with Ivan and Angel as we headed into the library. He poured everyone a stiff drink, and then ran through the events of the day for Alex’s benefit.

  “I can’t fucking make a decision on this one. My head’s not in the right place. I want to kill him, nothing less, but I recognise that…” He cleared his throat. “I’m not rational when it comes to Milly.” He shot me a sheepish glance, and I thought it was the first time I’d seen him truly wrong-footed. “I know the rest of you love her, but you don’t seem as…”

  “Cavemen-r-us?” Doc supplied with a grin.

  Alex laughed, and Jackson gave a small smile. “One way of putting it. Milly gave some great points as to why we should let him work with us, and I’m going to let her go through them again, then we’ll vote.”

  The guys nodded. I stood, took a sip of my drink, and then spoke. “I’ll keep this quick.” I ran through my reasons with them again. Then ended my sales pitch with, “We have a bargaining chip. We promise to keep his sister safe, but we let him know that if he double crosses us once, we kill her. Head off, dead.”

  Ben gave me an admiring smile at those words.

  “I understand Jackson’s desire to kill Slim. I’m the one he hurt, and I get moments where I want to hurt him right back, but there are bigger issues. Even if the rest of you don’t care about those bigger issues anymore and only care about keeping me safe, you can’t. Not for certain in a world where the diseased are getting smarter and stronger and there is no cure.”

  Doc’s face convinced me I had him on my side. I didn’t know which way Alex would go, despite our talk earlier.

  “Okay. Let’s put it to a vote.” Jackson stood. “Do we let Slim come here and help him, or, do we tell him we will, but then put him and his brain-dead sister in the ground tomorrow?”

  “Hands up for putting them in the ground.” Jackson’s hand went up. I hadn’t convinced him.

  I sighed, and Ben put his hand up too, giving me an apologetic look.

  “No one else? Doc? Alex?” Jackson prompted, but they didn’t move.

  Jackson sighed. “Who votes for letting him come here and working together, getting the cure… and then killing him.” I bust out laughing as Jackson added those last words but clamped it down when he shot me an angry glare.

  My hand went up, as did Doc’s, and finally Alex held his hand up, but then he spoke. “I have a caveat. We let him come here, bring his sister, and we work together to find the cure, and if he proves trustworthy in that, we let him live.”

  “What? Why? Why the fuck should we let him live?” Ben turned on Alex, eyes blazing with fury.

  Alex didn’t flinch. “Because we will need allies if we’re going to make a new world, and revenge killing isn’t the way forward. I didn’t say don’t punish him. I’m sure you could take him and hurt him, scare him, torture him the way he did Milly. An eye for an eye demands it, and I understand as such, but I don’t think you should kill him. It will make you look untrustworthy to any others. We need to make new contacts, set up a new resistance.”

  “Or…” Jackson looked at them all and something wary stole across his features, a rare uncertainty. “We get the cure, and we pass it on to others to take up the fight and we take our share of it, so we can always keep Milly safe, and we fuck off to find a new place. Like this one, but where no one knows of us. We drop off grid and live our fucking lives.”

  Ben put his hand up, and Doc knocked it down. “Not a vote, asshole.”

  “You’re the asshole,” Ben snapped back. “Not wanting him dead after what he did to Milly. Fucking pussy.”

  Doc didn’t even stand as
he hauled his arm back and punched Ben hard in the face. The big guy flew off his chair and onto the floor.

  “Shit!” I shot to my feet and rushed to Ben.

  Doc moved me out of the way and leaned over Ben. “Milly herself wants it this way. You and Jackson ought to do more listening and less bleeding of your testosterone all over the fucking place and you might make better decisions. Bravery is all well and good, but bravery without brains, without rational thought, is a dangerous thing.”

  “Why don’t we go and join the others?” Alex offered me his arm and tried to guide me out of the room, but I shrugged him off with a smile.

  “In a minute. Can you all leave Ben and I alone?”

  They looked at me but gave various nods and sighs, then filed out of the room. When they’d all gone, I went over to Ben who had propped himself up by one of the bookshelves. I slid down until my bum was on the hard parquet floor and sat next to him.

  “I think you’re maybe even more protective of me than Jackson,” I said to him. He didn’t answer. Then I went further, saying what I’d wanted, but been scared to. “I think you’re angry too, because you’re still scared you might hurt me if you change. But I don’t worry you will, Ben.”

  “I can’t control it, Milly. It isn’t something I can stop or start, and when I’m in that body, I don’t have control.”

  “You won’t hurt me.” I was convinced of it. I didn’t know how, but I was.

  “I might.” He let out a shuddering breath and turned anguished eyes my way. “I honestly might, Milly.”

  I kissed him, and he groaned and pulled me into his arms. He kissed me with a scary hunger, demanding and needy at the same time. We were practically humping against one another as we carried on kissing, hugging, and squeezing, but then he pulled away alarmed and pushed me back so forcefully it hurt.

  “Ben?” I went to reach for him, puzzled, my feelings hurt.

  “No,” his voice was all wrong. Guttural and gurgling.

  He began to tear at his hair, his clothes, wild and terrified. “Leave,” he growled at me. “Leave!”

  Shit, what was wrong with him? I watched in horror as he ripped his shirt off only for the bones of his shoulders to crack and pop as he wailed in pain. Oh, Lord, he was changing.

  He turned to me and his eyes were glowing a preternatural, unearthly yellow. I swallowed hard and stood on shaky legs. I needed to make it to the door and out of the room. I didn’t fear him, I had said. And I hadn’t when I had seen him shaking on the floor, even though the other men warned me away, but now, like this? I had to admit my confidence had been misplaced. He terrified me.

  Backing away from him, I gave a shriek as he scrambled across the floor, half running, half crawling. He got to the massive table and pulled it as if it weighed nothing until it was in front of the door.

  What the hell? “Ben?” I said, scared and uncertain. Why would he lock me in?

  He grinned at me, manic. “Stay with us.” His mouth could hardly form the words. His s on stay was a long drawn out hiss of a sound. Shit, he wasn’t in control, his beast was, and I better be right about it not hurting me because it wasn’t acting in the friendliest manner.

  “Won’t hurt you,” he said with a cry as his arms rippled, popped, and jerked. It was horrific, and I looked away. Not wanting to see the pain he must be in, not able to bear it.

  If he didn’t want to hurt me why had he sealed me in with him?

  Low, agonized groans and grunts rent the air, and I forced myself to look. He was ripping at his trousers, his arms now massive, covered in short, wiry hair, his chest too. His face, oh God his handsome face was a mess. Yellow eyes, a pronounced muzzle but not a full one, and when he panted huge teeth and a long pink tongue were on display.

  Finally, his clothes gone, Ben jerked twice more and fell to all fours. He was changed. As much as he would be, I thought. Still not a wolf, but not a man either. Some awful, in between hybrid that should have been terrifying, but wasn’t. Not to me. Because I knew Ben was in there.

  He stared at me with his preternatural eyes and then walked to me.

  I froze. My heart beat hard enough to hurt, but I couldn’t move an inch as the beast that had been Ben prowled toward me. When it reached me, it scented me, ran its nose right up the length of my neck, and I couldn’t stop the whimper that escaped.

  Then, this horrifying apparition gave a happy grunt, licked my neck, and lay down at my feet. It lay down at my fucking feet and snorted, like a content Labrador.

  In utter shock, hands shaking like crazy, I reached down and tentatively rubbed the coarse fur on his underside. He rolled onto his back and put one elongated, hairy arm, with a claw on the end, in the air. I smiled, recognising the body language for more tickles.

  Holy hell, I was giving a belly rub to a werewolf.

  Ben let this go on for a moment or two, then he stood, shook himself, and ran around the room. He came back at me, went down on his front legs and play bowed. Although they were more huge muscular arms than legs, and his hands were clawed but not full paws.

  Call me crazy, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to get into a game of rough and tumble with a werewolf, but he seemed to think it was a fine idea. I mirrored his body language, dropping down onto all fours and putting my head down, and he gave a happy yip, then careened around the room. Unfortunately, in doing so, he sent a shelf flying and it hit me on my side as it crashed down. I squealed, more in shock than pain as the blow only glanced off me, but Ben turned and stared, his yellow eyes growing brighter.

  Then he lifted his big head to the ceiling and gave a long, heartbroken howl. All along my arms my flesh pimpled in reaction to the plaintive melody.

  Loud bangs at the door had me whipping my head around.

  “Milly! Milly, are you in there? Fuck.” Jackson’s voice rose in terror. “Open the fucking door. Ben, you hurt her and you’re dead, brother or not.”

  “We’re fine,” I shouted back as Ben snarled and lunged at the door like a rabid animal. Okay, maybe he wasn’t all that in control in this body, but he wouldn’t hurt me. My instincts had been right. He’d either break through that door and savage Jackson, or harm himself trying.

  “Go get the guns,” Jackson ordered.

  I ran to the door, keeping enough distance that Ben wouldn’t accidentally get me in the wood chipper that his mouth and claws had become.

  “No, listen to me,” I yelled as loudly as I could, which was damn loud because I was angry. They were putting theirs and Ben’s lives in danger for no reason. “I’m okay, we’ve been playing, but you’re making him angry, so go away.”

  “What on earth is going on?” I recognised Ivan’s cultured tones with their tinge of a European accent.

  “Ben is… he’s not himself, and he’s in there with Milly,” Doc answered.

  “I said fetch the guns and a machete,” Jackson said again, totally ignoring me.

  “Oh. My. God!” I screamed the word God, so loud and shrill that Ben gave a whimper and stopped his actions, shrinking back a little. “Sorry, baby, did that hurt your ears?” I gave him a gentle pat, and then turned back to the door.

  “Listen to me, Jackson. You get a gun, or a machete, and we are through. I will walk out, do you hear me? Please tell all you males, human or vampire, simply go away. You’re making him worse. I am fine. We’ve been playing and now he’s half demolished a door, and I think it’s tired him out. We’re going to sit and I’m going to read to him until he changes back. You all need to fuck off. Do you hear me. Just… fuck off!”

  Silence, and then Alex. “Okay, Milly, we’re taking Jackson away now.”

  I heard scuffles, what seemed to be a struggle, and I wondered who was taking Jackson away and how, but I knew they wouldn’t harm him, and that was all that mattered. He’d be furious, but not hurt.

  I turned my attention back to Ben, or rather the werewolf, and went to the back of the room where there were a few cool children’s books. I didn’t know what sort
of mental capacity he had in his werewolf body, but I found what I was looking for, the Edward Lear poems, and sat down.

  “Come here,” I beckoned Ben over.

  At first, he ignored me, staring still at the door, breathing heavily, listening.

  “Ben, they’re gone. Now come here. Come on,” I talked to him in low soothing tones and patted my knee. “Come here, come on; come lie with me.”

  He walked away from the door, but not without turning and giving it wary glances every now and again, each glance accompanied by a low, rumbling growl.

  “It’s okay,” I soothed as he neared. “They’re gone. Come, lie here.” I patted the floor next to me, and he did as I asked. He laid down, on the floor and put his head on my lap as I petted him and began to read.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Jackson: Rage, Rage, and More Rage

  Jackson ground his teeth.

  Slim was arriving tomorrow.

  Slim, the piece of shit who had tortured his Milly, arriving here, in Jackson’s territory.

  He’d had to tell the sick fuck he could come and stay and bring his diseased sister because they’d voted on it. Then, he’d had to sit idly by as Milly was locked into the library with Ben in full-on werewolf mode. To say he wasn’t happy was an understatement.

  He was fucking livid and didn’t know what to do with it. If he let the guys see this, he was sure Alex would initiate a coup and take over, which frankly, he’d be well within his rights to do, because Jackson? His head wasn’t on right, and he knew it.

  The idea of Slim breathing the same air as Milly made his gut churn and his chest ache. The man had laid hands on her, had hurt her, humiliated her. The only thing that kept him from going postal was the fact that he knew he’d diminish himself in the group’s eyes, and he’d always been the one to lead them. He needed to keep the volcanic rage inside him locked down, but it was fucking hard.

  One thing he was certain of, Slim wouldn’t be staying in this house.