by Dawn Kirby
“So you’re a novelty, they found out and now they’re after you, am I right?” Drew asked coarsely.
“Pretty much,” I sighed.
“When I found out that buffoon was using me to get at you, I broke it off with Mark right then and there,” she said bitterly. “There’s a lot I can put up with, but I draw the line when it comes to you, sweetie.”
She put down her tweezers and poured something orange into the wounds on Raine’s arm. His fingers twitched a couple of times as it seeped in, but that was the only reaction I saw. Without a second thought, I started running my fingers through his hair. If it helped me relax, maybe it would work for him.
“How did you find out Mark was using you?” Raine asked her.
“After a couple of drinks, Mark couldn’t keep his mouth shut,” she told him. “He said Mr. Man is out to make some deal with a guy named Michael and Leah is all he wants. This Michael guy wants you alive, but Mark and his highness couldn't care less. Mark told one of his buds earlier he’d do whatever it took to get you. Even if it meant killing you.”
“You realize you just crossed a dangerous man?” Raine asked her.
“Bring it on! There is nothing I wouldn’t do for Leah.” She threaded her suture and proceeded to stitch up his arm. “You two look like y’all get too much sun to be vampires and I seriously doubt I’m looking at two normal men.”
“Kale’s a werewolf,” Raine told her.
His eyes told me with one glance not to say a word about him. Under the circumstances, it was probably better not to. I zipped my lips and kept my mouth shut. Drew’s eyes were on Kale anyway. They got bigger as she slowly took him in from head to toe. Her citrus smell filled the room. So much so it felt like I was standing in the middle of an orange juice factory. She flashed him a gorgeous smile and winked. Werewolves obviously didn’t scare her anymore than vampires.
“I suppose the jack ass is really a wolf, too,” she asked Kale, specifically.
“A dangerous one,” Kale answered her. “So’s Mark. You might want to steer clear of them for a while. Dane’s the pack leader in this area and Mark doesn’t give up easy.”
“I think I made myself perfectly clear earlier,” she told him. “Mark knows if he shows up at my doorstep again he won’t be getting a warm welcome.”
“Just be careful all the same,” Kale suggested. “Whether you want to be or not, you’re involved. Dane will go after you if he thinks it’ll help get him what he wants.”
“Gotcha,” she said clicking her tongue. She glanced up from her stitching to look at Raine. “I take it you’re a werewolf too?”
“Nah, he belongs to Leah,” Kale said, winking at his little brother.
“Take good care of her or this arm would be the least of your worries,” she said, a sweet yet stern smile on her face.
“He already has,” I said to Kale. “That’s how he got hurt.” I glanced at the kitchen window to see Judith looking in. The anger I’d seen in her eyes before Raine kicked the door in her face was nothing compared to what I saw now. “I guess I should have shut the blinds before I let you guys in.”
“Don’t worry about it, Leah,” Kale said, waving at Judith. “It’s not like Dane doesn’t already know Drew’s your friend and we’re helping you.”
Drew stopped suturing long enough to get a good look at the vampire peering through the window. “I’m gonna guess she’s not on our side?” she asked turning back to Raine.
“She’s the reason this whole thing started,” Raine answered.
“Is she a vampire?” she asked.
“Sure is,” Kale piped in. “You’re patching up her handy work now.”
“Wonderful. Is there any way you can get your hands on some antibiotics?” she asked them. “I doubt either one of you guys can heal as fast as Leah can.”
“Granny keeps them around the house,” Kale answered. “We never know when we’ll run into problems during our runs.”
“When you get home take two of whatever she has that might fight off an infection, and then one a day for at least ten days. Lord only knows what kind of bacteria lives in a vampire’s mouth.” Raine nodded and she turned her head to look at me. “Sweetie, where are you staying?”
“With us,” Raine answered quickly. “They know better than to show up there.”
“Forgive me if I’m not convinced,” She said holding up Raine’s shredded arm.
“He said, they know better than to show up there,” Kale reiterated. “Everywhere else is fair game.”
“Well that makes me feel loads better,” Drew mumbled.
It was nearly daylight by the time she finished sewing up his arm. We waited until the dark of the night sky faded before we headed outside. Seeing what she’d done to Raine, Drew was more than happy to let Kale go outside and make sure she was gone.
He backed his ‘Vette out of the garage, while Drew and I cleaned up. Kale thought it would be best to take the towels with us and dispose of them at the house. If we had them, nobody else could smell Raine’s blood. Before we left I made sure every drop of his blood was off the floor. Nothing was keeping Dane from busting in the door once Judith opened her mouth.
“Thanks, Drew. I owe you big time,” I told her gratefully. We stepped outside to wait for Raine.
“You call me if you need anything else,” she said, giving me a hug good-bye. “I mean that. Anything.”
“I will,” I assured her. “Get Kale’s number. You need to be able to get help if Mark shows up. I’m no good against a werewolf.”
She winked at me, waving her phone in her hand. “Honey, I’m way ahead you. You better go. If you wait too long, you’re gonna hurt those pretty green eyes of yours. I’m assuming you left your sunglasses behind?”
“They’re in my purse back at the house,” I confessed.
“One of these days, Leah,” Drew said shaking her head.
“Let’s go now.” Raine’s deep, concerned voice came out of nowhere. He locked the door and quickly pushed me towards driver’s side of the Jeep. He handed me the keys and slid into the passenger side. As I waved goodbye to Drew, I scooted into the seat. “I didn’t know your eyes were sensitive.”
“It’s alright, we’ll be home before it gets too bright,” I assured him.
Somehow the drive back to Donovan’s house went by a lot faster than the trip away from it had. In no time at all we were headed up the private road leading to Donovan’s house. I snickered a little when I saw the name of the road on the sign. It read “Lunar Drive”.
As we came up the driveway, I saw how big the house actually was. The front of it looked like a southern plantation style mansion. The house, including the shutters, was white. Thick columns every fifteen feet supported the second story of the house. All the windows I could see were as big as the one I had in my room. I wondered how many rooms there actually were.
The sightseeing tour came to an end when my eyes began to water. Raine guided the wheel as I shielded my eyes with my hand and sped up the driveway around to the garage. He turned off the motor while I hurried inside the laundry room door. By then my eyes were watering so much it was difficult to distinguish walls from doors. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for him to join me. He put the bag of bloody towels on the washer and then ran past me into the kitchen, shutting each and every blind he passed.
“Thank you,” I said gratefully. I wiped the tears from my eyes, relieved to be inside.
“Next time I’ll let you get whatever you want before we leave,” he said, winking at me.
We both collapsed at the kitchen table. May had already loaded it down with food. Pancakes, bacon and eggs sat waiting for us to enjoy. I couldn’t wait to have some of the coffee brewing in the coffee pot. May popped out of her apartment the second we sat down.
As soon as it was ready, she got us all a cup of coffee and took her place at the table. I was already enjoying mine by then. Raine shook his head and waited for his to cool off. If May noticed, she didn’t s
ay anything.
“Are you both okay?” she asked. Her eyes were fixed on the bandage around Raine’s arm. “Kale called and told us you’d been hurt. What in the world happened?”
“We’re fine, Granny. Don’t worry about this,” he said, gesturing at his arm. “Leah’s friend already took care of it.” He tried his best to reassure her with a soft smile, but it wasn’t working. The look I saw on her face was the same worried look my mom had given me not long ago. “Judith was already at Leah’s house, waiting for us.”
“Please tell me you fell,” she said quietly. I watched as her soft, caring eyes filled with dread.
“I can’t,” he said honestly. “And it’s not a fingernail scratch either.”
“She’ll go straight to Dane,” she told him. For the first time her voice sounded hard and cold. “You know she will.”
I hadn’t seen May so stiff before. She sat there, not moving, no doubt trying to figure out what to do next. Her grandson’s life was on the line and she didn’t want to let him go. I could smell sweet magnolia perfuming the air around her. Not only was May a kind, caring woman, she was strong, too. Her scent said as much.
“I know what she’ll do, and maybe it’s time to stop hiding,” he told her. “All these secrets aren’t helping anybody.”
Pride replaced dread. “You have become something your father never could,” she said, patting his hand. “A man.”
“Thanks, Granny,” he said. “But the truth was bound to come out sometime.”
May turned to face me, looking me over from head to toe until she was satisfied I wasn’t hurt. I got a soft smile when she was finished. My neck has never been the focus of so much scrutiny in all my life.
“The next time you see your friend, you tell her thank you for me,” May said to me.
“I will. We’re just lucky she’s training to be a doctor.” I glanced at Raine’s arm and remembered what she said. “Drew told him to take some antibiotics. Kale said you would have some.”
The second the words left my mouth; she was already pulling a medicine bottle out of the cabinet by the refrigerator. She took out two pills and handed them to him.
“You’ve got a good friend,” she said sweetly. “I only hope she is as understanding as you are.”
“She is,” Raine told her after he swallowed the pills. “And I think Kale may have met his match.”
“What makes you say that?” She came back to the table and looked back and forth between the two of us.
“He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face,” Raine said smiling at me.
“Did she like him?” May asked.
“I think she did. Especially after she found out he’s a werewolf,” I told her.
“Unfortunately,” May sighed, “Kale hasn’t found a woman that could resist him. Y’all may as well dig in.” May smiled and motioned to the buffet laid out in front of us. “If Kale’s been left in the company of a pretty girl, I doubt we’ll see him till later.”
May’s cooking was twice as good as it had been the night before, but tension, fear and exhaustion had left me with little to no appetite. Raine’s hunger however, seemed to be insatiable. The more he ate, the better he looked. Raine still looked exhausted, but at least the color had been restored to his face.
As soon as every scrap of food was devoured, May and I got up to clear the table. Raine chipped in and loaded the dishwasher. Once the kitchen was in perfect order once again we shuffled back to the table for one last cup of coffee. For an hour we sat at the table and talked. Vampires and werewolves never came up once.
I found out May loved to shop. From the sound of it, she had Drew beat ten times over. Instead of shopping for herself, she liked to buy things for other people. During her latest trip she bought all the kids in a local shelter swimming suits and gave their families season passes to Six Flags, along with three hundred dollars apiece. May said she’d wanted to make sure they had enough money for food and a few souvenirs as well.
Kale, I found out, was a landscape designer. He owned his own company and did most of the work himself. He’d personally designed the layout and planted every bush, flower and tree on the grounds. The installation of the swimming pool and hot tub had been a complete surprise to Donovan, but as it turned out, a welcome one.
Unfortunately, we never got around to what Raine did for a living. He looked so tired I decided not to ask. It wasn’t something that would kill me if I didn’t know. With the calluses on his hands, I assumed he worked for Kale anyway.
Chapter Fourteen
I was about to slip my shirt off when Raine knocked on my bedroom door. His stormy scent wafted under the door.
“Come on in,” I hollered from the dressing room.
“Would you mind helping me a minute?” he asked, opening the door. “I’d like to take a shower, but I’m not sure I can get my shirt off. My arm’s a little stiff.”
I let the braid fall out of my hair and I walked back into the bedroom. It felt great to let it hang loose again.
“Sure. Lead the way,” I told him. The shower wasn’t going anywhere. “It’s probably better if you don’t use it too much anyway.”
He opened his bedroom door and I was pleasantly surprised. His room was as clean as mine. The messiest part was the easel in a corner by the window. Even it was an organized mess of tubes and huge sheets of paper. Pencils of all colors lined the tray at the bottom. There was a built in computer desk on the wall beside the easel, housing a bunch of rolled up papers and a laptop. A fax machine and scanner sat beside the computer.
While he sat on the bed to take off his shoes, I went to see what was in the corner. I couldn’t imagine what all the tubes were there for and was very curious to find out. If it bothered him, he didn’t say anything.
Once there the tubes were the last things on my mind. Sitting on the easel was a detailed drawing of a huge red brick house. According to the description off to the side, it had four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and two living areas in it. The second floor looked like it might be a loft.
“Do you like it?” he asked coming up behind me.
I hadn’t seen or heard him move. He lifted up the complete drawing to show me the basic plans. Just like I’d suspected, the upstairs was designated as the office/ loft. The downstairs also had a game room attached to a sunroom in the back.
“This is amazing,” I whispered. “Where did you find these plans?”
“My mind.”
“You did this?” I asked, turning to face him.
“David taught me what he could and I went to school for the rest,” he said, twirling a strand of my hair around his finger.
“You’re an architect?”
He nodded his head and smiled slightly. “I like designing the homes the best. Donovan had me design most of this house. Well, the newer parts anyway.”
“From what I’ve seen, you did a great job,” I told him truthfully. “Where do you work?”
“I don’t. I enjoy my time way too much to tie myself down at some company.”
“Do you build them, too?”
“Not the houses,” he said, sounding a bit disappointed. “Once the plans are sold, my part is over. I build furniture though. Sometimes I have to get Kale to help me with the bigger pieces. That canopy over your bed nearly killed us both.” He snorted a little. “I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to make that.”
“I had no idea,” I said. “Did you make anything else in the house?”
“If it’s made out of wood, I did,” he shrugged. “I don’t do leather or upholstery. Granny picked out all those.”
Not only was he handsome beyond belief, but he had an awesome gift. His hands I thought were rough enough to pass for landscaping work, but I never expected this. I saw the furniture differently now. It wasn’t something that was put together in a factory on an assembly line. It was made by hand. By his hands.
I ran my hand softly over his, admiring what they could do. He had a few ro
ugh calluses on them, but other than that the skin was soft and warm. When my fingertips ran up his right arm, I remembered why I’d come in here in the first place.
“After you’re done in the shower, I’ll help you put a fresh bandage on your arm,” I offered quickly. “Just come on in, okay?”
“Help me get out of this shirt? I really need a shower.”
One second I was handing him his t-shirt and the next I was crushed against his chest by one huge arm. My feet came off the floor when he stood up. His lips were on fire. His tongue softly played with my lips, and mine followed suit. My tongue touched his, intensifying our kiss. My body tingled with every caress of his sweet lips. I wrapped my arms around his neck and prayed the moment would never end.
I’d never been kissed like that before and I didn’t want it to end. It stoked a fire in me I didn’t know was there. His warm lips sent chills up and down my spine. My body trembled at the sensation. And then he pulled away.
I opened my eyes in question. He put a finger over my lips and smiled. I wasn’t done yet and it didn’t really feel like he was either. His eyes were bright blue and wild. There was a look on his face I’d never seen on anyone. It was neither happy nor sad. It just made me want to kiss him again.
“I’ve been waiting to do that all night,” he said still holding my body tightly against his. “I hope I didn’t cross a line.”
“Next time, just do it,” I whispered. “And no, you didn’t cross a line. There never was one.”
He let me down slowly and ran his thumb across my lips. “I’m gonna go take a cold shower now,” he said. “I’ll see you when I get out.”
“Don’t take too long,” I called as he walked towards his bathroom.
I pulled myself together and went back to my own room. I left my bedroom door cracked so he wouldn’t feel the need to knock when he finished his shower. I made my way through the dressing room and pushed the bathroom door closed.
My lips still tingled from that wonderful kiss. I took my clothes off and stepped into the shower in a daze. The hot water helped ease my new found feelings. They were still there, but after a few minutes in the shower, they dissipated enough to make it through shaving my legs without nicking a major artery.
