Dana studied her son for a long moment before turning an inquisitive gaze on Cara. “Nothing can get past those walls out there, Cara. That, I can promise.”
Though Rafe nodded in agreement, he said, “What about what’s in this house?”
Dana didn’t quite get what Rafe was saying. “No one here would hurt Cara.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Rafe countered. “Who’s to say that ghosts can’t cause their own kind of damage to someone who is open to them?”
“Ghosts?” Dana echoed.
Rafe nodded. “Who is to say what can and can’t hurt someone so unlike the rest of us?”
It was the first time Rafe had actually addressed the differences between them. With him, her inner wolf wanted dominance. The she-wolf wanted to reach out to Rafe, but the darker aspects of her soul were getting in the way.
“So you’ll sign on as Cara’s sole guardian?” Dana asked Rafe.
“For a night or two. Then we’ll return,” he answered.
Dana again looked to her. “You’re okay with this, Cara?”
Cara nodded.
Dana gave them both a last once-over before stepping away from the door. “He won’t like this,” she said.
“I’m sure you can help with that,” Rafe replied. “And you know where we’ll be.”
“So will those bloodsuckers, most likely.”
“I hope not,” Rafe said, and Cara saw that some of the strength of his will had been inherited from his mother.
The standoff was over. Rafe had chosen to be her champion, although he had no real notion yet of what he had signed on for. Did that make him a hero, or merely misguided in his affections?
A delicious warmth overcame Cara when Rafe took her hand. He liked to touch her and wasn’t afraid. Slinging her bag over his shoulder, Rafe nodded to his mother and tossed Cara a quick look that said Here we go.
* * *
Leaving his father’s house might have seemed like a stupid move to some, but it was based on solid reasoning. If vampires were like bloodhounds on a scent, Cara’s lingering fragrance in and around the estate would occupy those bloodsuckers’ cravings for some time. By taking her away, Rafe hoped Cara might have a brief respite from all that before they tracked her again. The bonus in all this was having Cara to himself.
He didn’t dare lead her through the park or anywhere else on foot. With monster deflection in mind and a plan to try to leave no trail for others to follow, Rafe headed for the garage.
There were six cars parked there for him to choose from. He picked a small silver sedan that would blend in well with other cars on the road.
After opening the passenger door for Cara, he climbed behind the wheel to find the keys conveniently dangling from the ignition. The engine turned over with a soft roar, and they headed out. At the front gate, the guards waved him through, and then he and Cara were on their own.
“I wonder if you realize how powerful this thing is between us,” he said.
Cara’s gaze slid to him. She said, “Yes.”
“If this location change doesn’t work, we’ll try something else to avoid the monsters,” Rafe explained.
“You live near the water, and water can divert them,” Cara said.
“Water?”
“It’s what kept that vampire from seeing me on the beach. Salt water is a purifier,” she said. “The smell distracts vampires by hampering their sensitivity to things around them. They hate it. Avoid it.”
He said, “You’re serious?”
Green eyes gleamed when they turned his way. Cara had just given him another lesson in a course titled Vampires 101.
Those green eyes of hers did more than that, though. The seductive quality of her gaze produced enough heat to ease his tenseness. He began to relax as his mind retrieved images of him and Cara in the park, backed up against a tree, and how badly he had wanted to kiss her.
He wanted that same thing now.
“I have never been alone with a wolf like you,” she confessed.
“I consider that a point in my favor,” Rafe returned lightly. “It will be okay. You can rest and I’ll stand guard.”
“Do you understand why I wasn’t allowed to be with others, Rafe?”
Several reasons came to mind, most of them having to do with her parents and the many forms she could take, but Rafe didn’t say so.
“I’ve never been safe for anyone to be around. And I’ve certainly never been with someone willing to break down the barriers that have been erected for their own good,” she said.
“Is that what I’m doing? Breaking barriers?”
“Yes.”
“I’m willing to take my chances and see where this leads,” Rafe said.
“Maybe that wasn’t your choice, and our attraction is being guided by invisible hands,” she suggested.
“Whose hands would those be?”
“Your parents’. My parents’. The imprinting phenomenon you keep thinking about could be derived from chance, or fate.”
“Maybe all of those things combined,” Rafe said.
“You believe that?”
Rafe nodded.
“I can read your thoughts, you know,” Cara confessed.
“So, what am I thinking now?”
“You want to kiss me,” she said.
Of course he did. Having Cara next to him drastically threatened his vow to not take advantage of her while she was in his care.
“It really is too late to fight the truth, and too late to question how we got this close so quickly,” Rafe said. “It doesn’t actually matter how, does it? Only that it happened. You do get that, Cara?”
He pulled the car to a curb near enough to his building for them to get to it quickly. Cara’s only response to his remarks was a slow blink of those mesmerizing emerald eyes.
He turned off the engine and faced her. “From what I’ve witnessed, you fight for the right side, just as your parents did. You want to stamp out the evil that comes your way, and that objective makes you dangerous only to the bad guys.”
Cara shook her head. “The spirit inside me is harder to control than anything you could imagine. She twists me into shapes I see only in my mind, and her hold on my soul doesn’t diminish over time. That’s where she resides, Rafe. In my soul.”
She took a breath before continuing. “There’s no option for releasing that spirit and no way to predict what she might do if I let down my guard. Vampires and demons want that spirit released. Death is their accomplice. If they can’t have that spirit, then they will make do with the body sheltering it. Guess who that is.”
“I thought the Banshee’s deal was to predict oncoming death, and only that. Are you saying my understanding is wrong?”
“Wrong, yes, because of what happened all those years ago.”
“How wrong?”
“The dark spirit can never be freed,” Cara said.
Rafe thought that over. “You said freed. Does that mean you could release it if you wanted to, or if you found a way?”
“We made a pact to protect her, and that pact can’t be broken.”
“Who agreed to such a thing?” he asked. “Did they understand the consequences of such a vow?”
“My ancestors knew very well what they had agreed to. Those were the ancestors this spirit helped. If it wasn’t for her help, I wouldn’t be here. My mother wouldn’t be here. My family’s bloodline wouldn’t exist.”
“It’s a her?” he said.
“The Banshee is a female spirit, or the closest thing to it. She can only exist within a female host.”
Cara’s explanation shed more light on things. She was bound to this dark spirit because of a blood vow by a family member in her past. This might mean that she could conceivably get rid of that spirit if she had a mind to, and instead s
he chose to honor that ancient pact.
Rafe nodded in understanding. “You said that instead of calling death to someone in your family, this spirit saved a life, and in doing so, went against its purpose for existing.”
Cara nodded. “And we agreed to save the spirit, in turn.”
“By passing it along in your family from soul to soul, which in essence hides it,” Rafe said.
“That was the deal, yes.”
“Yet other creatures seem to be able to find you and the Banshee with relative ease.”
“And so some of us have become her protectors. We keep her safe.”
He hadn’t considered that line of reasoning, and it came as a surprise. Cara wasn’t just unlucky to be inhabited by the dark spirit she spoke of. She was its guardian.
Or was she its jailer?
He didn’t have a clear picture of what would happen if Cara were to release the spirit. The whole thing sounded ominous and inconceivable. It was no wonder that Cara had tried to keep the Banshee from appearing by shape-shifting away from it. Like his task of protecting the people of Miami, Cara was looking out for the spirit and had no choice in the matter.
“What would happen if you didn’t adhere to that old vow?” he asked.
“Dark forces would come to deal with us all for that past transgression, and for harboring her.”
Hell, that sounded bad. It also sounded like supernatural payback.
They were parked and couldn’t afford to linger in the open, though Rafe wanted to remain close to Cara. He was beginning to comprehend the direness of Cara’s position and the little effect he could have on something so serious.
She had said dark forces would come after them.
Damn it. All this made his job as a cop seem like a cakewalk. Because would anyone have liked the sound of that?
Chapter 20
No shock registered on the handsome face of the Were facing her. Cara found the whole idea of sharing confidences strangely intimate. Like their kiss in the park, talking things over with Rafe was also a new experience for her. By accepting Rafe as a confidant, she was allowing him a fair amount of power in their relationship. How he might direct that power was the question.
She was tired. Sleep had always been difficult, and it would be a luxury tonight if she managed to close her eyes. Things at home had been straightforward. All that mattered was living day by day to fight creatures that sought to limit her freedom. That wasn’t so simple when others became involved with her story, and when Rafe had so quickly found a way to earn her trust.
He opened her car door for her but didn’t offer a hand. His reluctance to touch her wasn’t born of fear. It was a compassionate attempt to give her time to process what they meant to each other.
He gestured for her to precede him toward his apartment building. Their arms brushed when she did, and that slightest of sensations again set her senses ablaze.
“Cara?” The tender quality of Rafe’s voice amplified her body’s sudden buildup of heat. She couldn’t let down her guard, but she was better prepared for ghosts and demons than the delicious distraction Rafe Landau posed.
The adrenaline surge that hit her now was similar to fight-or-flight syndrome. Yet Rafe wasn’t the enemy. She couldn’t take her eyes from him, and her body tingled all over. He had caused her to question the future and had made it clear he would have preferred to have her all to himself, with no dark spirit standing in the way of their union. Rafe was ingrained in her thoughts now and was therefore haunting her, still.
“The beach isn’t safe tonight,” he warned. “Too many people might be out, enjoying a late-night rendezvous, which could potentially bring more trouble if there do happen to be any vampires around. We should stay inside until dawn. I’d be willing to bet that sunrise can’t be too far off.”
He was avoiding the next question he probably wanted to ask her by circling the conversation back to the vampires. Still, she knew what Rafe might be thinking after telling him more details about the Banshee.
“I can’t release the dark spirit, Rafe. I can’t ever do that, and it would be useless to suggest such a thing.”
He said, “I do understand about promises and vows, Cara.”
As they reached the stairs that led to his apartment, she said, “This means I can never be free in the way you might wish me to be.”
“Maybe you’re wrong about what I wish,” he returned, pausing on the stairs to look at the beach. Thankfully, he changed the subject. “Is anyone out there?”
“No one that should concern us at the moment.”
Rafe sighed with relief and used a key to unlock his front door. Then he waited for her to precede him inside. A light switch near the door illuminated the room with a wash of soft ambient light. It was easy for Cara to like what she saw.
The space was relatively small and not crowded with furniture. The flooring was a cool gray tile. Closed shutters on two front windows blocked out the night and the view. Rafe’s furniture consisted of a leather couch with a small table beside it and a pair of fabric-covered chairs. Three interior doors led to other rooms. One of those would be his bedroom.
She turned her attention to the wall of glass that led to the balcony where she had first seen Rafe and the trouble he was in. Only a faint trace of the vampire he’d brought here remained. Most of Rafe’s surroundings smelled like him.
The apartment was the exact opposite of the luxurious Landau estate, and it suited Rafe’s personality. Free of pack rules and onlookers, Rafe could be his own man here.
Ocean sounds pervaded the room. Though the glass doors were closed, the rhythmical lull of waves washing onto the shore created a backdrop of comforting sounds that Cara welcomed.
“Home sweet home, small and simple,” he said, watching her.
“This is more like my home,” she told him. “Minus the trimmings.”
“Hell. I have trimmings?”
Cara resisted the smile she felt tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“I’d like to hear more about where you live,” he said, dropping her bag and crossing to the windows to make sure the shutters were closed tight. He pointed to one of the interior doors. “The bedroom is over there. Bathroom is to the right, and the kitchen is opposite. I don’t suppose you ate whatever my mother fixed for you tonight, which was probably a good thing. She was a great cop. As a cook, she’s not quite so special.”
He waited a few beats before adding with a lazy smile, “You do eat normal food?”
The teasing was supposed to put her at ease, and worked. Rafe wanted her to like his home enough to feel comfortable. Everything he had done tonight had been for her, and she was learning a lot about Rafe Landau in bits and pieces.
“Do you have tea?” she asked, because he was waiting for her to speak.
“Sure. How about something terribly fast food–like to go with it?”
“Anything would be nice, as long as there’s a lot of it,” Cara replied.
When he offered her a dazzling, contagious smile, Cara couldn’t quite recall the last time she had let herself enjoy a moment like this, however brief it might turn out to be.
This sense of having encountered unexpected happiness wasn’t going to last, of course, because that would have been asking too much. She and Rafe weren’t people with typical needs and wants. And they had too many secrets left that hadn’t, out of necessity, been shared.
* * *
Dressed in her own clothes, Rafe’s houseguest was no less seductive than she had been in his shirt and not much else. Cara seemed to prefer black—a black shirt and loose black pants. She had dared to kick off her boots, which might have meant that she would stay put for a while.
She had sleepy eyes. Now and then, her dark lashes lowered over them. She sat on the sofa with both hands folded in her lap as if she were a prim and proper schoolgi
rl instead of one of the world’s most dangerous creatures. She had already removed the bandage on her hand.
Rafe noticed how frequently her gaze returned to the glass doors. She probably yearned for the water he had first found her near, but they both knew it would be a bad idea to let her go. Impossible, really. The goal was to evade vampires, not to send them an invitation.
It was 5:00 a.m. when he finally looked at the clock. Only a couple hours of seclusion were left, and then Cara could swim to her heart’s delight while he found a way to finagle another day off from work—an especially difficult request with the investigation of that body underway. Harboring a sexy hybrid werewolf in need of a guardian wouldn’t cut it as an excuse with his human boss.
He was curious about that body, though, and how deeply it might be wrapped up in Cara’s business. Had it been deposited near the wall as a warning for the pack harboring Cara? Could the damage to that human have been caused by the same creature that had gotten close enough to Cara to break a few bones in her hands? The thought of that made him sick.
He hadn’t kissed Cara again. True to his own personal promise, he hadn’t gone near her, though waning willpower kept him riveted to the chair by the front door.
She had eaten a sandwich and drunk four cups of tea. Neither of them had slept, because who could have on a night filled with so many dark deeds?
Cara didn’t talk or offer any more confidences. She didn’t request a shower or look around the other rooms. Her gaze connected with his every few minutes, inviting him to get out of the chair, but he refrained from acting on his instincts. The result of ignoring all those feelings and physical desires for closeness was a thickening of the atmosphere that made the room seem even smaller than it was.
Though the coffee in his mug had gone cold, Rafe drank it.
Guilt was also part of his new dilemma. The pack would have discovered more details about that murder in the hours before dawn, and he should have been there with them. He would have been there if he had left Cara in his family’s care, but again, that hadn’t been a choice.
His wish to keep her in his sight was strong enough to override other necessities. That’s the way the imprinting process worked. Though still in the early stage, the compulsion to mate with Cara took precedence over most other things. Until they fully mated—on a bed or elsewhere, with him settled between Cara’s thighs—every waking thought revolved around personal needs that both of them were pretending to ignore. Cara also felt these needs. He saw it in her big green eyes.
The Black Wolf Page 14
