by Lexi Blake
It was at this point I discovered that ogre bones are stronger than human bones. If you shoot a human straight in the sternum, said sternum will usually oblige and break under the force of the bullet. Not so with the ogre. The ogre’s sternum chose to reject the bullet and send it back to its original owner. I felt the bullet sting my right thigh before it buried itself somewhere in the forest.
I was bleeding but even without taking the time to look at it, I knew it wasn’t as bad as I’d dealt with before. I could still move the leg, so I called this round a draw.
Neil sank his teeth into the ogre’s thigh and held on for dear life. The ogre tried to shake him off, but Neil was persistent. I watched his furry body swing from side to side as the ogre slung him around. It occurred to me as his spinal column was sent shifting in new directions that his birthday was coming up and I knew just what to get him. I was going to have Dev buy him his own personal chiropractor.
Raising my gun again, I tried to take aim at the monster’s neck. Hitting him in his thick skull was an invitation to more painful ricochets, so I would go for something softer. I fired a couple of times before hitting my target. The bullet found a meaty part of the ogre’s neck and released a fountain of blood. Neil was drenched before he realized what was happening. He let go and stared at me like I had meant for the blood to hit him.
“Sorry,” I shouted across the woods.
The ogre staggered, shaking his head. He was still as strong as a bull but the black dogs were back and they were two mad pups. They leapt into the fray, not at all worried about being covered in blood. They reveled in it. As the blood coated their fur, they seemed to be drawn into the fury of the kill. They gnashed at the monster’s flesh with their sharp teeth and held on with their claws.
The ogre swatted at them, trying to get them off his body. He stumbled back, knocking the dogs against the trees around him.
Shuck and Barghest were having none of it. In fact, it seemed to make them dig in even more. As his foot hit the place where the Hunter had left his long circle of rope, I heard a small snapping sound and then the ogre was hoisted into the air by one leg. He was caught in the Hunter’s trap, his massive body dangling over the ground.
The black dogs, satisfied they had done their job, let go of their prey and came back to me, thumping their tails happily. They sat back on their haunches and looked up at me, probably hoping for a treat. I’d made a serious error not smuggling in Snausages.
Neil changed again. Now he was a lovely human coated in thick ogre blood and so obviously not happy about it. “Thanks, Z. I look like Carrie at the prom.”
“Again with the sorry.” I watched the ogre sway back and forth. He tried to pull his body up to reach the rope but he was a tubby ogre despite his obviously low carb diet. His arms just wouldn’t reach. The rope creaked, though, and I was worried it wouldn’t hold his massive weight for long.
I approached the swaying ogre, his blood flow slowing but not stopping. As a creature of Faery, he had decent healing powers, but the cold iron I had managed to pump into his body affected him. He groaned and when he looked at me his eyes were sad, like he didn’t know quite what was happening but he knew it was bad.
“Don’t you dare, Z,” Neil said, coming up behind me. “That thing tried to kill all of us. Just because he bats those big, ugly eyes now doesn’t make him any less a killer. Get it over with.”
I knew Neil was right, but I still felt bad as I leveled my Ruger and took aim. If he’d been left alone, he would be at home in his Unseelie forest where everyone knew not to roam about. He would have been fed and taken care of. Here he was a pawn and like all pawns, I had to sacrifice him.
I squeezed the trigger and the cold iron entered the ogre’s brain through his large eye. There was a mighty twitch and the tree holding him shook. Within seconds, the light that animated him was gone, leaving nothing but blankness on his face.
Lowering the weapon, I sank down to the ground and finally took a look at the wound in my leg.
“How bad is it?” Neil asked, wiping blood off his face with the back of his hands. He knelt down and took a look himself.
“It’s already healing.” That vampire blood I took from Daniel every couple of days always did the trick. The bullet had torn a hunk of flesh out of my thigh but it was closing nicely.
The dogs jumped happily around Neil, and he smiled as he batted them down. They had enjoyed the play and liked running with him.
“Down, boys,” Neil tried commanding in his best alpha voice. The dogs just licked at him. Neil isn’t and never would be an alpha. “Fine,” he said, giving up. He walked back toward the pond. “I’m going to get the ogre blood off me and then we can discuss how we’re going to save Lee from his new lady friend.”
Neil walked off with the dogs and they all jumped into the pond.
I watched the ogre sway and wondered how many more unique creatures would be sacrificed before we uncovered the traitor. I only hoped one of them would not be my husband.
Chapter Fifteen
“Why do I have to carry them?” I asked, following Neil through the forest carrying his precious vintage pajamas. They had looked kind of starchy since Neil liked his clothes perfectly pressed, but the fabric was quite soft. Chad sprang for the best for his boy, so it seemed.
Neil stopped and the black dogs followed suit. All three were quiet for a moment, scenting the air and looking for those clues that completely got past the old human sniffer. I stood there, holding my cargo, completely unnecessary at the moment. It was kind of nice though. With Neil there had been no discussion of going back for reinforcements or dropping me off someplace safe. In his mind, I was the reason his ass was out here in the first place so I was damn sure coming along for the ride. I was also being forced to play the role of sherpa. It was a trade-off. Neither Danny nor Devinshea would ever have asked me to lug their crap around, but they would have fought like hell against me coming along on the “let’s save Lee from the creepy chick” mission.
“You have to carry them because I need all my senses. So stop your bitching.”
“No, you don’t,” I shot back because I liked my bitching. I was good at it. “All you need is your nose. Have you caught it yet?”
He pointed in a direction that led across the woods and up a steep hill. “I’m getting the distinct scent of cheap beer and laziness coming from that direction. It smells like home.”
He began trudging his way to his destination, not caring that he was walking perfectly naked through a strange forest with two dogs at his heels. I felt much more self-conscious, but that had nothing to do with my clothing and everything to do with the scary undead thing at the end of this quest. I could only hope she’d done what she promised and kept my wolf alive.
“What’s Lee’s place like anyway?” Unlike Neil, I’d never been invited in. Lee lived in the same building I lived in, but the boys and I had the penthouse and Lee had a single two floors below us, next to Zack’s apartment. Dev owned the building so the small apartment was one of the perks of working with me. Actually, now that I thought about it, I kind of owned the building, too. I was married to Dev, so that made me Lee’s landlord. I was going to have to rub that in.
After I rescued him.
“It’s about what you’d think. There’s lots of beer, an old television. The only real furniture he has besides a bed is a Lazy Boy. It’s surprising he keeps the women just coming on through,” Neil commented. “I guess he’s packing some serious heat under his lazy exterior. I offered my design skills, but he politely turned me down. Well, he growled a lot and told me to mind my own business.”
“Women? As in plural? More than one?” The thought of Lee and a string of women was somewhat unsettling. I always kind of took Lee for a monk. He was the definition of emotionally unavailable. He was a lone wolf and by his nature tended to push people away.
Neil turned briefly with that know-it-all smile he got when he knew the good gossip and I didn’t. “He’s cons
idered the stud of choice among the unattached Dallas she-wolves. I’m sure his number is in the women’s restroom of the local wolf bar with the tag line ‘get it here.’”
My mouth dropped open. “Are we talking about the same wolf? Lee isn’t exactly a ladies’ man. He’s the most charmless man I’ve ever met. He doesn’t even look at women.”
“Well, honey, I don’t know about looking,” Neil said, taking back up his naked hike, “but he sure likes playing with them. I’m kind of lying though. I know what it is about Lee they all like.”
“Spit it out.” I wanted to know.
“Okay, so like most of the odd non-human creatures, werewolves have trouble with fertility. Unless you and Dev get it on in close proximity, it can be hard to get a wolf pregnant. Not surprisingly, this makes a lot of wolves slightly obsessed with having babies. Also not surprisingly, there’s a small faction of female wolves who don’t want to be broodmares for the next generation of puppies,” Neil explained. “Most of the male wolves I grew up around measured their masculinity by whether or not they could impregnate a female. It’s an instinct. When I was fifteen, my dad tried to pair me with another fifteen-year-old. Unfortunately, my proposed mate’s name was Jane instead of John and it just didn’t work for me.”
He’d been kicked out of his pack for his refusal to mate with the females. I hadn’t realized how young he’d been when he was expected to try to become a dad.
“Lee doesn’t have that instinct,” Neil continued. “Take Zack, for example. He’s been dating Lisa for a month or so and they aren’t using anything. He’s actually hoping she turns up pregnant so they can get married.”
“Wow, that’s fast.” It wasn’t unheard of for two wolves to get married without first proving their fertility, but it rarely happened. They tended to like to know they were compatible first.
He shook his head. “No, it’s not. It’s normal in the wolf world. You humans take your fertility for granted. Anyway, Lee is willing to use protection and he doesn’t get obsessed with the women he screws, so he has a parade of happy women coming in and out of that sad apartment.”
“I had no idea.” It was odd to think of Lee having a life outside of work. He had a whole second job as the she-wolves’ booty call.
“Yeah, I think he wanted to keep it that way,” Neil allowed. He shook off his guilt at having let me in on the secret. I was surprised he managed to keep it from me for this long. “Of course, if he really wanted to keep it that way, he shouldn’t have gotten himself made into a love slave and forced me to walk through the woods to save his ass. Zoey, seriously, don’t give him a hard time about it. He’s private. It would bug him if you knew.”
“He knows everything about me.” He did that thing where he sniffed me from top to bottom at least twice a day. It was invasive and I’d strangely gotten used to it. Now I didn’t even stop what I was doing, but it had the side effect of him knowing every bit of my business. He knew how often I had sex and with whom.
“That’s his job, Z. He takes it seriously. He considers you to be his responsibility. I think he loves you a little. You’re like the sister he didn’t know he wanted. Zack told me their mom died when they were young. Their dad kind of drifted in and out, so Lee had to raise him. It’s second nature to protect the people he cares about. I think he’s happy with his life right now.”
“I’m glad you like him.” It warmed my heart that Neil finally had a father figure. My dad had been good to Neil, but he needed another wolf to look up to.
“I like him a lot, Z. I didn’t expect him to accept me but he did. He even asks me how Chad is doing from time to time, and I never give him too much information. He’s a good man.” Neil stopped and pointed. “He’s also in that scary house about two hundred feet that way.”
I took a deep breath and got ready for my second fight of the evening. “Okay,” I said, putting down my cargo. Neil wouldn’t want it any closer to the fray. “I promise that once we save him I won’t give him a hard time about becoming a female vamp’s love slave.”
Neil looked at me like I had lost my damn mind. “Are you kidding? I was talking about his string of one-night stands back home. We’re so giving him a ton of shit about this. We’ll be giving him hell about this night forever.”
“Agreed,” I said with a smile as I changed the clip in my gun. I was happy because it would have been hard not to tease the crap out of him about this particular incident. The good news was the cold iron should work on this faery vampire as well as it had on the ogre. She didn’t care about silver, unlike the Earth plane’s vamps. In this case, her Fae nature was more important than her undead status.
I studied the small house in the middle of the forest. It was completely incongruous against the wild nature around it. The cottage had been painted white and stood out starkly against the greenery. It was like a lighthouse for people lost in the woods at night. I was sure many a roaming hunter had thought he could get a hospitable meal and a place to sleep when he came across this small brugh. Of course, it wouldn’t be long before he became the dinner and settled here for the longest of sleeps.
It struck me that the baobhan sith’s residence could have been any number of houses in the woods from faery stories. Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, all could have been set in these woods, and it wasn’t just the structures. There was a feel to the forest here in Faery. It was as though it was a living creature all on its own and it hungered. It called to the wild things of the world and let them know they had a home here.
I suddenly felt very much a stranger in this strange land. Despite my misgivings, I forced myself to follow Neil.
We moved quietly forward. I was aware that both of the men in the house had crazy strong senses. It remained to be seen if those senses came into play when under the baobhan sith’s spell. The rest of the Hunter’s personality and will had seemed to go by the wayside, so it was possible, but we had to be careful.
Neil moved silently though the thick trees and I followed, doing my best to move as quietly as he did. The dogs caught on to the game and became serious. One took to my side, Shuck, I think, and the other stayed with Neil.
Flattening himself against the side of the cottage, Neil made his way around toward the door. When he reached the open window, he stopped and took a careful peek in. When he turned back, his eyes were wide and he motioned me to come over. He leaned close and whispered straight into my ear. “Forget what I said earlier. I know why the chicks dig Lee.”
I moved in, getting close to Neil. There was a fire in the hearth, and it gently illuminated the windows of the cottage. Lee was standing in the middle of the room. Oh, holy crap. I knew why they liked Lee, too. Lee might be a werewolf, but he was hung like a horse. It took everything I had not to giggle at the erotic tableau before me. It was like walking in and finding your dad with his girlfriend. I finally understood why Lee freaked out when he caught me without my clothes on. I tried looking anywhere but at that pretty damn big part of him.
The vamp was having some fun with her newly acquired harem. Apparently this part of the woods was clothing optional. The female vamp was kissing Lee, her tongue plunging into his mouth while she held his head back with one hand. With the other hand, she stroked that part of Lee the ladies liked, and it was ready to play.
The Hunter, for his part, watched the scenario in a daze from one side of the bed. Since he had no creepy vampire to play with his junk, he was flying solo. He had worked himself into quite a state. I didn’t want to see that either.
“He’s going to kill me,” Neil said under his breath.
“What does he expect us to do? Leave him there?”
“He would probably prefer death to you seeing him like that.”
“Too bad,” I said because that wasn’t going to happen. “I have a promise to keep.”
I walked around to the door and kicked that puppy open with the flat of my foot. All eyes flashed around to me.
“Hey, how you doing, guys?” I s
aid with a cocky smile.
I’ve found that when faced with weird creatures that are probably going to kill you, it’s always best to go in with a positive attitude. Pessimism doesn’t do anything but bring you down in a fight, so I put on my happy face and held my gun out. “Surprised to see me? Well, Vampira, I told you I want my wolf back. Why are all you faery bitches trying to steal my stuff? You want a wolf? Go find your own. That one is taken.”
If he hadn’t wanted me to claim ownership, then he shouldn’t have made a blood oath to serve me. That oath went both ways. It was an old vampire ritual, but I took it seriously and I knew Lee did, too. Lee had promised to follow me and lay down his life in service of me. I promised to treat him fairly, and part of fair in my book was saving him from a lifetime’s slavery to a vampire chick.
“I’m shocked you managed to get away, though I see you found some help,” the aforementioned vampire chick hissed as she turned and looked back and forth between me and Neil. She stared at Neil, and it made me think twice about having brought him along with me.
The black dogs moved to their master. The Hunter seemed dazed, but let his pets come to his side even as he moved to protect his new friend. He and Lee took up protective stances around the sith.
The vampire smiled now, her lips turning up in a sly grin. She gestured toward Neil with an exceedingly confident smile. “Another hunter looking for prey. We’re not so different, little girl. We both use men to do our bidding. We both know they’re but helpful tools to be used and discarded.”
Neil snorted. “That’s Zoey’s problem, lady. She can’t discard any of them. She just keeps marrying them. If she doesn’t stop soon, we’ll be looking for a bigger place.”
The vampire was paying close attention to Neil, who was already obligingly naked for her. She held out her hand and the boys let her pass. She wasn’t doing anything threatening and I’d already killed once this evening. If I could talk her into giving up Lee, I would still leave without firing a shot.
