I was losing weight. I could fit into my tight jeans again. Just barely, it was true, but still, I hadn’t been able to do that for almost a year. And my jeans that were supposed to be loose were loose. I was very pleased, and kept exercising. But I had a little chocolate here and there, too. Devlin saw to that, with his Godiva gift baskets, and the occasional chocolate body paint.
I was spending more time with Venus, and things with Dev were still going well, too. We hadn’t fought since the night of Diana’s deflowering, which was probably some kind of record for us. With work on both of our parts, his stamina was still increasing, just as his sensitivity was decreasing. I was pleased, but hoped it would take a while to return, though I didn’t tell him that. I was afraid with his prowess returning, some of his rampant desire would also emerge again. And I was happier with him being only “a few times a week” sort of man now.
I had long ago caught up on the email-work, and was also taking care of some of the return calling for the voicemail system. True to T’s word, the caseload had decreased a bit, though not by much. But I could keep up with this level of business, if I worked most weekday mornings. I liked getting a paycheck, even if I went nowhere to spend it, and Devlin insisted on paying for everything I ordered online, like food, pet medications, clothes for Venus, and yes, even the new Vampire Hunter D book that had come out in late November. Some of the steady business of Solutions, Inc. was Theoron being a lot like his father, being unable to pass up interesting work, or work that was lucrative, as most jobs that came in usually were. But most was because Terian wanted his own share of the business now.
T had mentioned on one of his visits that Theo, he, and Tears had discussed making him a partner too, though Theoron said he wanted to wait a few more months to make sure that Terian still wanted the same thing after Sundown had her baby. “But I think he’s going to,” T finished, a pleased note in his voice. “And I’m happy to have him on board. He’s helped so much this fall. We wouldn’t have made it, without him.”
I was happy for Terian too, but happier still for T. He seemed okay now, like his old self, despite being thrust into his father’s role at such an early age. He was an adult now, and looked so like Danial I found it hard to look at him sometimes. He still visited with his father once a week, but he wasn’t mourning anymore, and Serena seemed to be happy with his attentions. I didn’t know what to feel about that, but decided since they were both happy, it wasn’t my business.
Best of all, Titus teleported my parents to Hayden in secret finally to see Venus on December first. My parents didn’t believe at first she was my daughter, but my mom was overjoyed to have another granddaughter to spoil. Venus was her normally perfectly charming self. Devlin, too, was on his best behavior, though my mother refused to talk to him, or look at him. But I’d told him to expect that, and he bore it in silence, if with his jaw clenched, and his eyes tinted red.
My mother and I had a side chat about Theo, when I showed her where the ladies room was. And it was there, in my sewing room, she told me that Theo had been by with Elle and Jenny, and that she had seen at once that they had something going on.
“I’m sorry,” my mother said, hugging me. “I didn’t want to tell you in a letter—”
Anger at Theo flared briefly, then I let it go. “When was this?”
“Three days after the funeral,” she said quietly. “They have come every week ever since then with Elle, and sometimes Theoron—”
“You must be the only one besides me who still calls him that.”
“That’s his name, and I refuse to call him T. Theoron is a beautiful name, a fine name—”
I stifled a laugh. Like mother like daughter.
“—anyway, they came to our house for Thanksgiving, too. I haven’t said all the things I wanted to say to either of them, because I wanted to see Elle, and you wrote about how you weren’t seeing her—”
“Is she all right? How does she look?”
“Sad, a little withdrawn, and a little too old for a teenager,” my mom said with authority. “But some of that was the way she was dressed. You know what these young girls wear nowadays, almost nothing. I could see her bra straps.”
I nodded, trying to hide my smile.
“But she was in good spirits, despite everything,” my mother said, oblivious. “Though she doesn’t seem to like Jenny at all.”
That made me feel better, and then bad, because I didn’t want Elle to be unhappy. Then I realized my mother was saying it in part to make me feel better, and most likely it wasn’t as bad as all that. “It’s okay, if she likes her,” I said, wiping away a tear. “She’s cougar, like Elle. And it will be good for her to talk to another female, especially as she’ll be going off to find a mate in a few years.”
My mother nodded, but she said nothing, her eyes worried as she hugged me.
* * * *
Finally, on the week before Lash was set to be released, things seem to take a turn for the worse again.
Sundown was attacked in broad daylight, and it was only Terian teleporting her to safety that saved her from being taken. It was obvious she’d been mistaken for me, and that it was Ulysses. It hadn’t helped that a pair of werebears had tried for her, and that Terian had said they weren’t real bears, but “amateur sorcerers of low standing, and little knowledge,” who were wearing the skins they had taken from Devlin’s men. With his magic, he had killed them both, and taken the skins, returning them to Titus. I’d wondered if one had been Nick’s, but wasn’t sure, and didn’t know how to ask without seeming insensitive. But one I discovered later was Klara’s, the werebear Nick had been seeing on the side. And the inevitable thing happened.
Titus let slip somehow in front of Serena, or within her hearing about Klara, and that she had been the reason Nick had gone to town that day. I could hear her screaming at him in her room later that night, and when he emerged, he slammed out of Hayden in a rage.
I heard her quietly crying in her room, but I didn’t go to her. I’d felt guilty all along for saying nothing, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her, especially as it seemed in those past weeks that she was over Nick, and maybe falling for T, though I knew she still saw Nick and the other bears as she had all along. Instead, I finished off the rest of the Godiva basket Devlin had sent me in guilt-induced binge. It wasn’t a lot of calories, as I’d let Venus eat a lot of it too, but it was a lot for me to eat after dieting for so long, and it made me a little sick. The chocolate tasted like ashes, not good as it should’ve, because I felt so bad about not telling her about Nick and Klara, no matter what Dev and my reasoning had told me to do.
I continued target practicing every other day, and made it a habit to practice with not only my .38, but my new explosive bullets gun as well. I hated to waste the time, but I also didn’t want to be a bad shot if Ulysses somehow found a way to get to me. And no matter what, I was getting to the point where I needed to get outside for a while. I’d been under house arrest for almost a month now, and even long walks outside with the dogs couldn’t cut it. Darkness was also lame again one morning after a long walk, and though I worried about her, it cleared up as before in a few days, and I put it off as a strained muscle.
There was still no change with Danial. I visited him every day for a while, but the stillness of him unnerved me, and I took to reading my book when I sat with him for an hour or so every other day. I tried to talk to him too, but didn’t know what to say. And he never responded, or moved. There was only his shallow breathing to show he was alive, and a very, very slow heartbeat.
But perhaps the worst thing was finding out that Ulysses had not sold Danial’s blood, as we had suspected. Devlin came home on Wednesday night pale as snow, his eyes traumatized. I hugged him, and asked him what was the matter. He said Ulysses had finally played his hand. He’d showed up at one of Devlin’s meetings, but he hadn’t been the Ulysses Devlin had previously known. He’d drunk Danial’s blood, and was now a vampire himself, and not a young weak
vampire, but young powerful vampire.
“This changes things,” Devlin said quietly. “While he is not a Ruler, he isn’t persona non gratis anymore either. If he gives a pledge to one of the other Rulers, he’ll be accepted as a vampire living in their territory. And I won’t be able to touch him, at least above the law.”
“But won’t they want revenge for Danial?”
“They’ll get his pledge, wait till he relaxes in a few years, and then drain him dry,” Devlin said resolutely. “For the most part, I don’t allow any vampire over a few hundred years to live in my territories, Sar. This country is young, so it’s not a problem. There are many older Vampires in the Far East, in South America, and in Europe. But Samuel and Perseus are both older than I, almost eight hundred, I think. Michael, he’s younger than I am, and I don’t know what he does to keep control from slipping out of his hands. But you need to have at least a century on the most powerful you are Ruling, or you lose your edge on them. And then you get dethroned, which usually means you die.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Wait until he challenges me,” Devlin said easily. “That is all I can do anyway, according to vampire law. And it must be that is what he’s after. If he beats me, the others would have to accept him as Ruler. And by vampire law, everything I have would be his to dispense with. My wealth, my blood, my life.”
“That’s the angle,” I whispered.
He nodded, hugging me. “Don’t worry,” he said in a consoling voice, a devious look in his shining eyes. “I intend to crush the son of a bitch before he learns to run on his new supernatural feet. Lash is going to be out in a few days, and his first order of business will be dealing with Ulysses. He is now subject to the same weaknesses I am: he can no longer move about in the day and he’ll need blood and shelter from the sun. We have the two skins back, so that’s less resources he has to work with. And he has lost men. He’ll also need to rest up for a week at least, if not two to get control of his altered body. So we have a little while to plan.”
I was not prepared for what he said next.
“I want you to pick Lash up at the prison, Sar. Teleport close to there. He’ll be waiting for you outside, near the doors. After he gets in the car, drive to a park, and give him his weapons. Bring him back here by teleportation after, and say nothing to him.”
I looked at him. “Why me?”
“He’ll be calmed by you, because you’re female,” Devlin said quietly. “He might fight one of the men, or Titus, even T. And I can’t go in the day, but there is no way I’m leaving him there one more minute than he has to be there. Call if there are any problems, and don’t stop anywhere, to or from.” He hugged me close. “But remember, I don’t want you to be with him. I doubt he will make any moves on you when you first see him, but I wanted to say it now. Remember, he is with Gina. And you are only to be with me while you are living here under my roof, unless you Oath to me.”
“Okay, Dev.” What else could I say? I’d counted the days until Lash would be back, but the truth was he’d moved on, after I’d rejected him. And I’d wanted Lash to be with Gina, to have someone of his own. He seemed to be happy with her. I couldn’t say I was free now, and why didn’t he dump her. That wasn’t fair to him or her, much as I might want that. And it was probably what was best for him, not to be involved with me again.
* * * *
I was hesitant as I drove into the parking lot of the police station. But this is where Devlin had said Lash would be waiting for me to pick him up. I was also nervous. It had been almost six weeks since I’d seen Lash, since I’d heard his voice.
What will he say to me? What will I say to him?
I looked at the entrance, saw him there, waiting beside the doors, and did a double take to see him smoking a cigarette.
Lash had never smoked to my knowledge. He’d never smelled of cigarette smoke, either.
I watched him, feeling disgruntled. I’d hoped for some kind of big reunion scene, even after Devlin’s speech asking me not to touch Lash. How old was I, thinking this was a movie? Should I call him Trystan, or Lash? And why am I so fucking nervous?
I pulled up near him, causing Lash to raise his head. He put out his cigarette in the sand receptacle, then tossed the rest of it in the garbage. Then he was sliding into the car beside me, but he didn’t look at me. I didn’t speak, remembering Dev’s instructions. I took him to a local park that was a few streets over, and parked, though I didn’t shut off the truck. I handed him his weapons: the whip, then the knife, then the gun. Lash put them on one by one, and then seemed to relax a touch. “Please, drive me home, Sar,” he said softly, looking out the window.
I nodded, and drove him back to Hayden. Lash went immediately up to his room, and stayed there for the next hour. Per Devlin’s instructions, I’d purchased ten small fish from a supply store earlier that week, and put them live in a large tank of water on the floor of Lash’s room. I apologized to them for what was surely going to happen to them, but I told them it would be fast, and there were worse deaths. It wasn’t really reassuring to me, but at least Devlin hadn’t asked for rabbits, or mice.
Lash came down later, and paused in the doorway, studying me. After so much time apart from him, it was odd to feel him watching me again.
“What is it?” I asked, looking up at him from my sewing. “Were the fish okay? I wasn’t sure what kind you liked best, so I got trout—”
“They were good, Sar,” Lash said in a raspy voice. “Thanks for getting them for me. I had to change badly. It was a relief to be snake again.”
“How often do you need to change?” It was hard for me to believe I’d known him so long, and never asked him that. But how much did I know about him really? For all we’d talked, he’d rarely talked about himself. I knew a lot about his tastes in movies and books, but not too much else. Killer, assassin, weresnake, part Spanish, had once eaten people, was born back around 1900-something in Florida, had once—well, now twice—been in jail, worked construction in his youth, loved sex/good in bed, and liked to hide his emotions. That about summed it up. Oh, and seemed to still want to get in my pants, maybe.
“I like to do it every week or so,” Lash said, looking at me with interest. “I can’t do it too much more than that, because I can’t guard Dev as well as a snake as I can as human.”
I got up and went over to him, touching his arm gently. “Would you like me to make you something to eat? Eggs? Bacon? Pasta?”
Lash reached out for me in a deft movement, pulling me close and embracing me tightly.
“Lash—” I began hesitantly.
“Shh,” he hissed. “Don’t talk. Let me hold you, and breathe in the scent of you, Sar.”
I hugged him to me, going silent. He held me for about ten minutes, breathing deeply, his arms tight around me. But it wasn’t a sexual hug. It was a hug of recovering something that he’d been apart from for a long time that he cared for, something that had been lost but was now found.
I realized abruptly why he seemed to look so rough to me. Something was pricking my cheek, where it rested against his face. I looked up in shock to see Lash’s lower face was dark with stubble, around his chin, and his upper lip. I gaped at him.
“Has it really been that long since you’ve seen a man close up?” he said, grinning widely. “I have something else to show you then, little girl.”
“Why didn’t you have stubble, those days we were together?” I asked, unable to restrain my smile.
“I shaved,” Lash said, quietly giving me a faint smile, mirth in his eyes. “Surely you’ve seen a man shave before?”
“But Theo never had any—”
“I can’t say why he didn’t,” Lash said flatly, his expression turning angry almost immediately. “It might be that he wasn’t born were. But it’s true that for most weres, no matter which animal, that our human hair grows very slowly, almost like an animal’s. I only need to cut my hair every three months or so. It grows only an inch in
about that time. It’s the only thing that doesn’t regenerate on us easily. And my facial hair grows just as slow.”
That hadn’t been true for Theo. His hair grew as fast as mine did.
“But I’ve never seen any of the foxes with beards, or anything,” I said, disbelief still strong in my voice. “Everyone’s always been clean-shaven, always. Frankly, I didn’t think weres could grow facial hair for some reason.”
Lash seemed to shake himself a little, and his next words were missing an angry tone. “It’s true that most weres don’t like facial hair,” he said thoughtfully. “Vince once said it like this: if you can be covered with fur as an animal, when you are human, you want to feel human. That means smooth, bare skin.”
“Why are you suddenly growing a...beard, a guess?” I didn’t see sideburns, but maybe they would take longer?
“Just a goatee,” Lash said, laughing. “And a short moustache. I’m not going for the mountain man look.”
I just looked at him, still trying to get my mind around the concept. This was going to take some getting used to.
“For a change,” Lash said, laughing a little at my expression. “Devlin said he was going to do it, too, though he can easily go back and forth, when he renews his body with blood. And it seemed like a good idea, in jail. I didn’t want to be too pretty in there.”
“It’ll take some getting used to,” I teased. “But it suits you.”
“I’m also tired of looking so young,” Lash said, and his face broke into a grin. “God, I’d never have thought I’d hear myself say those words again! But it’s true. Some of the clients I met when I first got back from Florida didn’t believe I was the ‘real’ Lash. This might help add a few years onto my face.”
It was true that he looked rougher, even with just the 1/3 of an inch of growth on his face. But he was still handsome, and he still looked only about twenty-five, if that.
“Do you not like it?” he said, rubbing his cheek gently on mine. “Am I too scratchy?”
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