by Cecy Robson
“I flew in from Colorado last night.”
“Oh?” I sipped on my orange juice. “What’s there?” Besides the countless droves of weresluts you’ve bedded?
Aric smirked. While he couldn’t read my thoughts, my tone probably screamed, Caution: bitchy Latina ahead.
“My mother, Celia.” He glanced out the wide diner windows with a panoramic view of Lake Tahoe. The breeze had picked up, sending a ripple of blue waves to splash against the sandy shore. “It’s where I grew up. Where I used to find my peace.”
I finished the last bit of my biscuits and gravy and moved on to the eggs. I could relate to what Aric meant. The mysticism of the lake welcomed us like humans never had. I knew my sisters and I had found our home when we visited the area.
I stopped playing with my eggs and met Aric’s gaze when he said nothing more. “What did you need peace from?”
“Here. This situation between us.”
Sadness filled my lungs like water and drowned my hopes. I thought he was saying good-bye. So his next words surprised me. “Have you been seeing that moron, Celia?”
“Huh?”
Aric leaned back in his seat. “The vampire. Have you spent time with . . .” Aric swallowed hard, barely able to spit the name out. “Misha.”
I stared at my eggs as if they would somehow give me a clue how to answer. How could I tell Aric that the first time Misha called, I’d scrambled to my phone, expecting it to be him? And when it wasn’t, how it made me long for Aric’s call more?
Unlike Aric, Misha had called me, every day, sometimes more than once. At first our conversations revolved around our near-death experience on the night of the fire, when we’d taken on a master vampire, his army of ravenous, bloodsucking monsters, and, oh yeah, his psycho gal pal witch. I’d saved Misha’s life. And I’d inadvertently returned his soul. And although my sisters and I first became involved with him to help clear him of a crime, somewhere along the way he’d become a friend—a self-absorbed, often arrogant, flirtatious, O-positive-worshipping friend, but a friend nonetheless. And one I felt protective of just then. Misha wasn’t perfect, except he also wasn’t as awful as the wolves liked to believe.
I looked up from my eggs. “I don’t want to discuss Misha with you.”
The truth of my words hit Aric hard. He raised his chin and tightened his jaw. The waitress bustled over and dropped off the check. I reached to pay my share. Aric lifted it away. “At least allow me this.”
Aric reached for my hand upon catching my crinkled brow. “I’m sorry. I just thought . . .” He sighed. “A few dead males have been discovered scattered around the area,” he whispered, out of the range of human hearing.
My tigress sat up in attention—unsure why Aric had changed gears and itching to protect me from the latest evil threat. “Are they leftover food from the vampires infected with bloodlust?”
Aric’s thumb teased the center of my palm. “That’s what I thought at first. However, they weren’t in the same condition as the others. And they were also all male—human males. Not a female in sight.”
I took a chance and laid my other hand on top of his—a brave move on my part. I was never this forward. My curved fingers stroked between the ridges of his knuckles. “What do the victims being male have to do with anything?”
Aric watched my movements, surprised, I supposed, that I’d returned his affection. “The infected vampires didn’t discriminate—male, female, human, were—it didn’t matter. Something else killed these men.”
Great. Another hungry killer. Just what Tahoe needed. I opened my mouth, just to shut it again, remembering Taran’s dreams. My sister possessed the unique gift to generate and manipulate fire and lightning as a weapon. She could also alter memories to some extent. And while she couldn’t predict the future, she did have the ability to sense different types of magic—were, vampire, and witch. Could she have also sensed something darker? “Aric, could this have anything to do with demons?” Aric’s hard stare told me something I didn’t really want to know. I rubbed his knuckles harder. “This is the part where you accuse me of being ridiculous.”
“How much do you know about demons?” he asked instead.
I shook my head, not realizing at first how hard I’d gripped his hands, until he shifted his grasp and caressed my fingers. “Not much. Just that they’re wicked bad and don’t belong here. Right?”
Aric lifted my hand to his face and brushed them against the stubble of his beard as if he’d done it a million times. “You’re right. They don’t belong. The power of good keeps them in hell. The strongest occasionally surface, except they’re never strong enough to stay for long.”
“How long is too long?” A millisecond seemed too much to hope for, especially judging by Aric’s serious disposition and the way he seemed to beat back a growl.
“Somewhere around five minutes.”
The image of someone with a stopwatch and a demon patiently waiting to be dragged back to hell didn’t follow evil creature protocol. Something had happened with enough witnesses to gauge the passage of time. My voice cracked, though I’d insisted it shouldn’t. “How do you know?”
Aric leaned closer, his tone lowered. “As guardians of the earth, weres have encountered an array of evil throughout the centuries. About ninety years ago, a demon appeared in Ireland, called forth by a dark witch seeking more power. My great-uncle had been hunting her. She’d violated several laws and needed to be put down. He and his wolf pack of five found her too late. She’d already called him and another forth.”
“Did the wolves kill him?”
“No. It’s damn near impossible to destroy a demon, Celia. You can hurt it. You can weaken it. Ultimately, you’re just buying time until it’s ordered back to hell.”
More good news. I cleared my throat. “What happened?”
“The pack found the first demon on top of her.”
I shuddered. “Killing her?”
Aric shook his head, his jaw setting tight. “No.”
My eyes widened, and I shriveled inward. “Oh my God.”
“He vanished when the other revealed itself. They fought the evil for about five long, agonizing minutes. By the time he disappeared, only three wolves remained.”
Across from us a group of teens laughed. The one in a UCLA sweatshirt pushed his buddy in play. Obviously they hadn’t heard Aric’s tale. I only wished I hadn’t, either. “And the witch?”
“She killed herself. The wolves then destroyed the spawn thriving in her dead uterus.”
“Oh.” I said it as if he’d just explained how to change a tire. What I really meant to say was “Oh, shit!”
I glanced at my uneaten food. Something told me my appetite wouldn’t return any time soon. I worked up my courage. “You think demons are being called forth?”
Aric shrugged. “There are rumors. The good news is very few beings of magic are able to summon such a strong evil. And like I mentioned, their time is limited. But something appears to have shifted in the demon realm. We just don’t know what it is yet.”
“Could they have killed those men? I mean, if they’d summoned them with some kind of magical, demon, evildoers artifact?”
Aric smiled at my attempt to lighten our conversation. “No. That shit only happens in movies. Like I said, it takes magical power to call magical power. The one doing the summoning has to possess a certain amount of mojo to get through.”
Aric’s large hands covered mine easily, stimulating the growing heat. It comforted me, and I wanted to just relax and enjoy it, but I needed to voice my fears. “Aric, Taran’s been having dreams. Bad ones. They involve what we think are demons, attacking us.”
“How many?”
“Excuse me?”
Aric watched me carefully. “How many demons appear in her dreams?”
“I don’t know. Lots of them. She describes them like a swarm of locusts.”
The tension in Aric’s powerful shoulders built. “I’d never heard of so
many at a time. And no one has ever been able to bring forth two simultaneously. That’s why the one assaulting the witch disappeared when the second arrived.” Aric lowered our hands. “The rumors flying around and the mysticism of Tahoe energizing the air could be affecting her dreams. Try not to worry, okay? I’m here now to help keep you safe.” He said it. And I think he meant it. Yet he couldn’t hide the underlying concern in his voice.
“Okay, but if these demons didn’t kill the men, what did?” Aric didn’t answer, but the way he regarded me made me suspicious. “You don’t think I had anything to do with this, do you?”
“Of course not, it’s just that . . .” Aric’s hold tightened. “Tracking is one of my stronger traits. My wolf picks up the scent of death easily. I was the one who found the bodies while hunting the infected vampires and dismissed them as more of their victims. I should have suspected something else at play.” He let out a long breath. “My Elders feel I’ve been distracted lately. They believe if it wasn’t for my lack of focus, I would’ve recognized that a different being had killed the humans and possibly saved lives.”
My tigress pawed inside me and chuffed with annoyance. “Aric, you’re the chancelor of students at the Den. When you’re not teaching your young wolves arithmetic and dismemberment, you’re the driving force in helping to protect the area from evil. Of course you’re distracted! You carry a great deal of responsibility on your shoulders. They need to back the hell off and—”
Aric’s grin cut me off and made my heart pound hard enough to muffle the toddler throwing a set of utensils across from us. He leaned over the table and brushed his soft lips against my cheek, reminding me why the fearless tigress had fallen so hard for the big, bad wolf. “My duties keep me busy, yes, but I’ve always managed . . . until now.” His eyes bored into mine, turning my blood into liquid fire. “You’re my distraction, Celia. You came into my life and knocked me on my ass. It’s hard to concentrate on anything else.”
The portly waitress hustled by to fill our water glasses as our emotions locked us together with invisible straps. “Would you folks care for anything else?”
A cup of your best ice cream, down my pants, please.
Aric slowly released me and pulled out a wad of clipped bills. He shoved a few into the small pleather folder. “Are you ready?”
To straddle you? Sure.
I nodded and half stumbled from the booth, my head spinning from Aric’s words. The way he spoke in that deep tenor voice and the terms he’d used to express his romantic feelings shoved back my fear and stimulated my desires. Aric noticed my lack of grace. He didn’t chuckle or comment like I’d come to expect. The strong angles of his face held nothing but seriousness—smacking me back into reality more than a dip into the freezing-cold lake.
Aric reached for my hand as we walked to the car. I gripped it tight, wanting to hold on to the moment. For someone who professed his feelings for me, he didn’t appear happy. If anything he seemed torn.
Aric settled into his seat after opening the door for me. He peeled onto the road, his voice lowered. “After giving it a lot of thought, I worried my Elders were right, and believed maybe some distance between us might help. That’s why I haven’t called.”
The way back to my house gave the passenger-side view of the woods. The thick firs whirled by me in a blur. My throat tightened with angst. I wasn’t sure what Aric might say next. “Did it help?”
Aric stayed silent for several breaths. “No. It just made me miss you more.”
I would have thrown my arms around him if it hadn’t been for his ominous tone. It reinforced that our connection might be a bad thing. He didn’t say anything else until he parked in front of my house and twisted his body to face mine. I unbuckled my seat belt and crossed my legs, resting the side of my head against the seat. To anyone watching, I appeared calm, possibly even bored, my feline side feigning a state of complete relaxation. But Aric’s beast scented my fear, sensed my tightening muscles, heard my racing heart. For the first time in years, I was close to having someone special. And yet he still seemed so far away.
Aric’s palm curved against my cheek, and his thumb stroked me gently. The light trickling through the sunroof shimmered in those baby browns. I wanted to touch him, but my natural defenses kicked in, and so did my shyness. So I waited and watched, mesmerized by his rugged good looks and the way his thumb rhythmically passed against my skin.
“Celia, I can’t ignore my duties as a pureblood,” he said softly. “But I also can’t dismiss what’s happening between us. I’d like us to try to have something, providing you want to as well.”
Aric’s hand trailed against my brown locks, lightened with the gold tones of my tigress. I inched away, worry for him preventing me from accepting his caress. “What about your Elders?”
“If I can catch who murdered the men, it would prove to them I haven’t abandoned the responsibilities to my pack.”
“Then let me help you. I could—”
That oh-so-familiar “you can’t help because you can’t heal” expression played across Aric’s features like a violin, completely cutting me off. “Celia, did you miss the part where I explained that these creatures rape women and are so atrocious the world’s power banishes them back to hell within five goddamn minutes?”
I tapped my foot impatiently against the car matt. “Did you, Mr. Leader of Wolves, miss the exploding body in my house? Aric, evil not only knocked on my door, it brought leftovers and displayed them across my threshold like a UPS package.”
“No shit. Which is more of a reason you should stay away from this mess.”
I narrowed my eyes. Yeah. Like that had any effect on him. “I know you think you can protect me by keeping me out of this—”
“Not if you don’t let me. And not if you ignore me when I tell you to keep out of trouble.”
“You act like I go out in search of danger.”
Aric counted off the error of my ways one finger at a time. “Vampire court. Storming a crazed vampire’s estate—twice.” He added two fingers on that one. “Consorting with the undead. Tracking an infected vampire in a stolen vehicle. And don’t get me started on getting trapped in a raging inferno.”
I crossed my arms defensively. “I don’t consort with the undead.” He tightened his jaw. “Much.”
We glared at each other. He’s really sexy when he broods, my tigress sighed. Shut up and focus, I hissed back.
I cleared my throat. More than once. My beast had a point. “Aric, if the wereraccoon is somehow related to this thing consuming humans, it knows where I live. It knows where my family lives. I get that you don’t want me fighting alongside you. Except you need to understand that I have to keep my sisters safe. So if you don’t want me with you, that’s fine. But you can’t stop me from protecting my family.”
Aric growled, more with frustration than anger, knowing I’d stomped his argument with my mighty, if not stubborn, logic. Take that, big shot.
Aric rubbed his forehead and swore under his breath. “You have to promise to stay with me at all times. You are not to hunt this thing on your own—that includes going off alone with your sisters. I’m not sure what we’re up against, or what it can do. If my Warriors or I are not with you, you are not to engage it. And if anything else wanders onto your property, I should be the first call you make.”
I probably shouldn’t have smiled considering I just willingly volunteered to go after yet another scary monster . . . who also likely slithered in from hell.
Aric shook his head. “Don’t look at me that way, Celia. It would destroy me if you were hurt.”
“How could a little kitty like me get hurt with a pack of supermacho wolves on my side?”
Aric didn’t find my attempt at humor funny. “Shit. What did I just get you into?”
“You didn’t ‘get me into’ anything. I think the wereraccoon managed that on his own.” I sighed. “Look, Aric, I also hate being the source of your problems. If helping you kill
Tahoe’s latest superbeastie alleviates your situation with your Elders, let me.”
“Don’t for a moment think you’re the cause of my problems.” Aric leaned forward, sweeping his lips across my crown line. “What goes on between you and me is none of their damn business. But if eliminating this threat will shut them up, it’s more motivation for me to hunt and kill it.”
Aric wanted to mean what he said, except distress swept around his aura like a noose. Had I been of his kind, would his Elders have been as upset? Probably not.
“The purebloods are plentiful,” Aric continued as if trying to convince us both. “My Elders need to stop demanding that I associate with were-only females.”
Demand? Aric had practically growled his last statement. As one of the strongest weres in history, he didn’t like being told what to do. Even by those considered above him. I didn’t know much about wolves, or weres in general, and feared what the consequences his decision to pursue me might bring. So it only seemed right for me to help him hunt. Maybe he was right. In killing this monster, perhaps he’d prove he hadn’t lost his focus or abandoned his duties.
Stress further tightened Aric’s muscles. My tigress convinced me to comfort him through touch. I rubbed my face against his. “What will happen if they continue to insist that you do?”
Aric groaned, low and deep. His reaction had nothing to do with his Elders and everything to do with our contact. “Let me worry about it.” He cupped my face in his hands. “You and me, we can take things slow and see where it leads us.”
Aric tilted his head toward mine. This time I didn’t deny him. I think he only meant to give me a small peck. But when my lips parted, and the tip of my tongue met his, his beast growled with need. And so did mine.
