by Lynn Red
Lily was lying there, with her beautiful blue eyes open, breathing silently.
“Hey,” she said, in a voice so soft it could have been feathers falling. “You finally awake, big guy? Not another false alarm is it?” she asked.
And then, when she scooted nearer her broken, bruised, battered husband, Lily giggled when she felt his thickness against her. Damon thought that hearing her voice probably felt to him like the rain did to desert animals. It filled him, pushed life into his extremities.
“I guess you are, huh?” She said with a smile that warmed him. “I guess you’re not too hurt to do that?”
“With you?” Damon said, smiling even though it hurt his cracked lip. “Never too hurt.”
“You sure about that?”
She kissed Damon’s stubbly cheek softly, and ran her fingers in a trickle down his bare skin.
“You weren’t about to get up earlier. I doubt even… even this… was happy about anything.”
Lily’s fingers curled expectantly around Damon’s swell, and she took a soft breath, as his heat filled her palm.
He grinned. “You didn’t try that, did you?” Damon flashed her one of his disarming, impossibly charming half-smiles. His green eyes glittered in the moonlight that crept halfway up the side of the bed. “I bet if you did, I wouldn’t have slept so long.”
Lily fought a laugh, bit her lip, and slid his length between her thighs.
“It feels like… like this,” Lily whispered, “is where you’re supposed to be.”
He took a breath, shuddering as the promise of her sex pulsed softly against him. Moving an arm under her naked body, Damon pulled Lily to him. He slid one aching hand down her side, curled his fingers around her thigh. Parting her legs slightly, he could effortlessly touch the rest of her perfection.
“Can I tell you something?” Damon said softly, as his fingers found their home, pushing softly inside Lily’s entrance.
She quailed, smiled again, and nodded.
“Anything you want, whenever you want. Are you sure this is okay?” she asked. “I don’t want you to throw out your back.”
She giggled so sweetly, so softly, that Damon felt a rush hit him right in the face. At first, it was a flush that reddened his cheeks. He pushed his fingers deeper, circling them against that place she loved so much. Slowly, he painted her walls with pleasure.
Lily opened her mouth, taking a slow, deep breath, and Damon enveloped her bottom lip between his, sucking gently. He ran his tongue up and down, then inside her sweetness, exploring every line, every high and low. It seemed like eternity before either of them pulled away.
“The baby,” Damon whispered, kissing Lily’s neck, as his fingers and her breathing, both quickened. “I can’t believe it… We’re going to have a baby.”
“Unnn… Uh-huh,” Lily gasped. “A boy. A little boy.”
At that, Damon stopped cold.
“How do you know?”
“Quit stopping so much,” Lily said, with a naughty grin that flashed in the moonlight. “It doesn’t bother you that I can possess your friend. You don’t question my weird mind trips. Knowing the baby’s a boy, though is just too much.”
She couldn’t help but grin, and then let out one of her heart-breakingly adorable giggle-sighs.
“Yeah, okay,” Damon breathed, as he started aching to feel Lily on him. “I guess I should’ve learned not to ask so many questions.”
Lily started to shiver, her tiny muscles gripping Damon’s fingers, and then pushed him over on his back. She moved on top of him, taking him in, before pleasure took her too far.
“Oh, my God,” she said, lurching forward and resting her hand on the mattress beside Damon’s head. “I didn’t hurt you, did I? I got so carried away, I—”
Damon reached out and slid one hand over Lily’s mouth, the other gently around her neck, and he pulled her to him. Her lips were moving, silently, sucking at the palm of his hand. Her glimmering eyes wide open. He almost lost himself in them.
“You could never hurt me, even if you tried. You could have jumped on me, when I still had a chest full of broken ribs. It’d still be you, and I wouldn’t care.”
His voice was so soft, and so close, that it felt, to Lily, like he was inside her mind. The heat from Damon’s breath slid around his hand and tickled her cheeks. She reached down, cupping him with her trembling fingers, and eased him just inside.
His shudder and her moan both filled the air. Damon eased into Lily, and she moved her hand away. He tasting her kiss so fully and deeply that he felt it in his belly. Lily’s tongue swirled inside his mouth. Tasting her, smelling her hair that cascaded down on either side of his face was almost too much .
The deeper he went, the harder it was for Lily to concentrate on keeping their lips together.
Finally, Damon sucked a final kiss off Lily’s full, bottom lip, and she rolled her chin nearer her chest, resting her forehead against his.
“I couldn’t live without you,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to.”
“What makes you… God, you feel good,” Damon groaned, interrupting himself. “What makes you think you’re going to have to live without me?”
Their motions slowed, but didn’t stop. The gentle friction punctuated pauses in their words, but neither Lily, nor Damon, wanted to stop feeling the other move against them.
“I’m just scared,” Lily said softly.
A hot streak ran down her face, and onto Damon’s.
“I don’t want anything to happen.” She said.
“Hey now, Leroy,” he said, with a grin, clenching his jaws to fight the building tension inside him. “Don’t worry, all right?”
“You’ve never called me that,” Lily said, with a little grin. “It’s like Grandpa Joe’s in the next room.”
Neither of them could help it. Giggles turned to laughter, and, before they knew it, all the tension, and the fear, and the pain vanished.
Damon clutched the small of Lily’s back, matching her motions with his own. She threw back her head. The moisture running down her neck was sweat instead of tears.
“I can’t,” she said, her breath growing short and quick, “I can’t imagine being without you.”
“You don’t have to,” Damon whispered, then grabbed Lily’s leg, and flipped over on top of her.
As he eased all the way in, he let out a pained wince, and then laughed at himself.
“Got a little ahead of myself.” he said. “Damn, that wrist is a mess.” He let out another laugh.
“Are you okay?” Lily said, gasping a little, at the end.
“Never been better,” he said, and then silenced anything else she had to say with a kiss that surrounded Lily’s mouth.
He felt her tremble underneath him. The tiny muscles inside her constricted around him.
They just watched each other, eyes locked, mouths an inch apart, as their breath came quicker. They both paused, and then exhaled – each staring at the other as pleasure overwhelmed them.
“I can stop this right now,” Damon said. He rolled to the side and held Lily against his chest. Softly, he swirled his finger on the upper part of her back, right between her shoulder blades. “We can run. We just… get on the bike, and leave all this behind.”
Pushing up on one elbow, Lily leaned over and kissed his chest.
“You don’t want to do that,” she said. “You love Poko, and you love Hunter like a brother. You love your pack.”
“Yeah,” Damon said. “But, I don’t want you in danger. More than anything, you’re what matters to me.”
Lily shook her head.
“You are who you are, Damon. You’re the leader of the Skarachee. I know you’re trying to show me how much you love me, but please believe me when I say this, okay?”
She rolled him onto his back and straddled him again, forcing him to look into her eyes.
“Damon King, I love you because of who you are, not because of what you are. I love that you won’t turn your ba
ck on your friends, or on Poko, or even – and, I know you’re not going to like this – but, not even on the brother you hate.” Lily took a breath, thinking about how to continue. “You know what duties you have, and you stand up to them. You just… I dunno, swallow it, and go on. You know? I wouldn’t feel the same way about you, otherwise.”
Damon reached up and ran his thumb along Lily’s lip, then down her chin. He nodded, but said nothing, for a moment.
“I love you,” he finally said, “because you never give up. You won’t let me feel bad. You won’t let me get all down, and cynical, and…”
He trailed off, running his finger along Lily’s collarbones. Absent-mindedly, he plucked at the fang that hung against her chest.
“And what?” she asked, urging him to continue.
“And even Devin,” Damon said. “I don’t know how you possibly have enough compassion in your body to care enough to try and understand him, but… Thank you, for that, too.”
Lily bent down and kissed him, slow and warm and soft.
“We each have the things we’re good at.” She kissed his chin. “You’re a leader. You fight, you rescue. You do the big things, the dangerous things. As for me? I’m just me.” she shrugged.
“You’re the hero,” Damon said. “I get the feeling that you always were.”
*
“Where’s Lily going?” Hunter asked, looking up from his midnight hamburger patty snack. He watched Damon came out of his room, carrying a couple bags for Lily and helped her to the car. “Isn’t it kinda late for pretty much anything? It’s half past four. Also, uh hey, glad you’re feeling better.”
“Gotta go see Poko,” Lily said. “I told him I’d go as soon as Damon was awake and coherent. And I’m mostly keeping my word.”
She and Damon shared a glance, and a kiss.
“Are you okay with this?” Damon asked, as soon as she was out the door. “With this Joram Blight business, and with the whole pack thing… I don’t even know where I stand, and I’m the alpha. There you are eating burgers without a care in the world.”
Hunter looked at him for a second.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hunter said. “I mean, yeah, I am eating hamburgers, but I’m not sure why you think I don’t care about anything going on.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Damon said, rubbing his shoulder and wincing a little.
“Yeah, you did.”
Hunter popped open two beers and set one in front of Damon.
“You’re so caught up in everything,” he said, “that you can’t see reality an inch in front of your face. And I can’t really blame you. I mean, I get it. Since I met Cat, I really, really get it.”
“Yeah?” Damon asked, taking a long drink. “So, you like her?”
“She’s fuckin’ great, man. Of course I like her!” he started getting really excited. “We’ve spent like three days together, and I’m pretty sure… okay this is going to sound stupid, but I think she’s the one. Lily said that’s what it was like for you guys.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Damon said, smiling fondly. “But… I mean, back on topic – the fight and everything. I don’t want you to do something you don’t want to do. I’d hate for you to feel pressured to help just because you happened to wander in to the middle of a big, giant shitfest. You thought you were coming to play some videogames and eat some wings, you know?”
“Look,” Hunter said. “There are a lot of things in life we can control, right? We can pick friends, we can pick who we run around with, pick what kind of car we drive. Right?”
“Yeah, sure,” Damon said.
“But we can’t pick our brothers. We can’t pick our parents, or where we’re from, or who we love, right?”
Damon smiled. “Yeah. I get the feeling I know where you’re going.”
“You probably do,” Hunter said. “But I’m going to say it, anyway, because I’m… a little bit drunk, and I want to.”
Damon took another long drink and kicked a chair out from under the table, signaling for Hunter to sit. They were both leaning on their elbows and staring at each other.
“Go right ahead,” Damon said.
“Yeah.” Hunter began. “I mean, yeah. Anyway,”
Hunter looked back and forth for a second, then grabbed Damon’s hand, like he was about to arm wrestle him.
“You know what? Fuck it. I’m just gonna say it. I love you like a brother. I love Lily like a sister, because of who you are to me, and I think Poko’s about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. And… and Cat? I can’t get her out of my mind.”
Damon laughed, but he knew what Hunter was talking about. He just squeezed his friend’s hand and listened.
“My life is… There’s nothing in it without you guys.” Hunter continued. “I mean, sure, a job sanding stone, and riding motorcycles on the weekend in the desert, but without you guys, it’s nothing. You’re my brother… and now, you’re my alpha. You’re the leader of my pack – of my family. Why wouldn’t I be happy to fight for you?”
“Is it just that you feel obligated?” Damon asked. “Because sometimes, I feel like that. Like I’m not making my own decisions.”
Hunter stared straight into his eyes.
“No,” he said. “Not for a single fucking second. You know what else?”
Hunter paused for a drink, and then kept going.
“I know we’re going to win. I know that whatever this horrible, ancient evil is, it can’t stand up to us.”
“How?” Damon asked. “It’s older than… history, I guess.”
“Because,” Hunter said, “I’ve got you, and you’ve got me, and you’ve got Lily, and we’ve all got each other. And no matter what you think of him, Damon, your other brother? He’s… let me put it this way – when I was carrying him back to the back of Poko’s cave, he didn’t say anything, except how much he wanted to prove that he wasn’t as bad as you think.”
“That’s what Lily said,” Damon told him. “She’s… better than me.”
“No, she’s not. She’s just more forgiving. But, we both need to sleep. From the way Poko was talking, we don’t have long. And just so you know,” Hunter grabbed Damon’s shoulder. “I’m scared as hell, man. I’m not stupid. But, I know we can rely on each other. I want you to look at me, and say you believe in what you’re doing. Tell me you believe we can win, because right now, I need that, and so do you.”
Damon finished his beer, and when Hunter squeezed his hand again, he stared him right in the face. For a second, he paused, considering what he was going to say. Then, he decided to stop thinking.
“Yeah,” Damon said. “We got this. You, me, and Lily? Even Devin? Poko somewhere in the background, doing whatever he does? The spirits, howling? Yeah, we can do it.”
Even as he said the words, Damon felt his heart start to believe them.
-16-
Devin put his hands up the second I approached him.
“Again?” he said. “I don’t want… I don’t want to relive all of this. It hurts.”
Poko nodded to me.
“It is necessary, young one,” Poko said. “We must find the Blight before he’s upon us. As we spoke when Lily was gone, this is the way you show your courage. Your actions before now were only partly of your doing. You reliving them, and helping to lead us to Jacarth – that will be your coming of age as alpha of the Carak.”
“But, Poko,” Devin said. “It’s my whole life. Lily knows everything about me, things I’ve never told anyone.”
“So, she does,” Poko said, turning to me. “Have you spoken of them?”
I shook my head. “No, of course not. I won’t, either. I told Damon that that you didn’t rape Cat. You almost tore yourself apart trying to keep her safe. That’s all I said.”
Devin looked at the ground and chewed on his lip. The way the light from Poko’s fire bounced off his hair, he was striking. The scars on his cheeks were white in the flame.
He looked back at
me, staring straight into my eyes. The pale yellow in his irises almost wept with the pain that I knew he felt. He swallowed, hard. “Okay,” he said softly. “I’m ready.”
Devin intercepted my hand when I was about to cover his eyes to enter his memory. He held me there for a second.
“Anything you see in there… I’m not proud of any of it,” he said.
There was mist in his eyes.
“I’m not proud of anything – not a single thing – that I’ve ever done, until…”
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “Damon forgives you.”
It was a little shred of a lie, but not much of one. I knew when it was all over with, Damon would come around. He always did.
“Really? My brother cares about me?”
He looked like he was about to fall apart. His voice got a little thick.
“I don’t deserve it. I deserve for him… for all of you… to hate me.”
“No,” I said. “No, you don’t. No one deserves that. Nothing that happened was your fault. Like Poko said, you came here, and you didn’t run when you had the chance. You could have shut me out, but you let me in. You two are more alike than you know.”
Devin sniffed and clenched his jaws. “Huh? Me and Damon?”
“He won’t let me see him cry, either.” I said, giving Devin half a smile. “Lay back, okay? I won’t hurt you, and I promise I won’t say anything to anyone about what I see.”
Devin closed his eyes and lay back against the cold, stone wall. But, instead of taking his hands away from mine, he kissed my palm, and then pressed my hands to my eyes. They were wet with tears.
“I might not let you see me cry,” he said, “but I’ll let you feel it.”
“It’s okay,” I whispered again. “Later on, we can talk about anything you want. Okay?”
He sniffed again.
