“Suppose I was to consider this, how would I know when I’ve found him?”
For the first time Annabel smiled, and if it was possible with skin as dark as hers, she blushed.
“There is no mistaking him. You will know him,” she said confidently. Annabel rose to her feet and produced a piece of paper seemingly out of thin air. “I can be reached at this number. Our time is your time. As long as we have searched, we are in no hurry. However, your discretion is of course appreciated.”
“Of course.” I took the number and saw Annabel to the door where she thanked me again.
My discretion, did that mean I couldn’t tell Alfred? I had not told him what Mathias said about the voice being a form of vampirism for fear of what he might think of me. How could I tell him this without explaining my interest?
*****
A few hours later I was trying to make the decision I’d made sound like a good one.
“I thought it was the best thing to do in the interest of equality.”
Alfred just stared at me blankly so I went on, “The council had to know something like this might come up from the decision they made. So, it should come as no surprise.”
“What about everyday people? You think they enjoyed hearing that werewolves are real?” he spoke finally.
“Probably not, but after a shock like that, what are a few vampires?”
Alfred got very quiet. He was quiet for so long I was certain I did not want to hear his answer.
“You know I love you, Lilith,” he said quietly. “I’ll keep my mouth shut about this, but don’t ask me to help.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I said hotly. “I just don’t think it’s right to help out one group and then treat another like they’re less than human.”
“That’s because they’re not human, Lilith.” His voice was cold and I took offense.
“Do you think I’m human? If so, then why not them?”
He didn’t immediately respond, and that stung worse than an insult. “You don’t think of me as human, do you?”
“Of course I do, but you’re different.”
“Wrong answer, Alfred, wrong answer,” I said softly.
That night I went to bed alone for the first time in six months. I was still awake at midnight, reading a collection of the works of Edgar Allan Poe when I heard a soft tapping noise against my balcony window. I didn’t hesitate to open the French doors. Since Kat had thrown rocks at my window before, it was her I expected to see.
I opened the doors and something smacked me hard between the eyes.
“Shit, I’m sorry, Red,” a familiar deep voice said in hushed tones.
I looked up and found Marco Barak perched on a tree limb directly in front of my balcony. I put a hand to my aching forehead and clenched my eyes tight against the pain. I heard Marco leap from the limb onto the balcony, and before I could open my eyes, he was removing my hand from the injury. It had been almost three months since I’d seen Marco, and when I opened my eyes my anger began to fade.
Marco Barak looked better in jeans than anyone had a right to. The pair he was wearing that night only made it more difficult to be in the presence of one of the sexiest men I’d ever seen.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered as if he were comforting a small child.
I felt the soft cotton of his thin white t-shirt pressed against my face, and underneath it, the warm skin of the alpha werewolf I’d been dreaming about. He pressed a kiss to my forehead, and it actually felt better.
“I’ll live,” I said as I breathed deeply of his wonderful scent. Marco always smelled better near the full moon. I knew it was werewolf pheromones, but I didn’t care. I loved the way he smelled, and I breathed him in. “It’s late, Marco.”
He pulled back, giving me the opportunity to look up at his handsome face. He had let his hair grow a little longer, and it looked good on him. Strands of dark chestnut hair hung over his eyes as he smiled down at me. “I’ve missed you, Red.”
I had missed his voice. Marco had one of those wonderfully rough, deep voices. It was the sort of voice someone usually had from too many cigarettes and too much whiskey, but it was just his natural voice. I knew Marco would never have reacted the way Alfred did earlier, and with a pang of guilt, I looked away from the emotion in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked softly.
“Am I that transparent?”
“No. I’m just that observant.” He looked shrewdly toward the open balcony doors, then back to me. “You had a fight?”
“Let’s just say Alfred didn’t want anything other than human in his bed.”
“Did he say that to you?” Marco growled menacingly.
“No, he didn’t have to. Look, I really shouldn’t be telling you my problems.”
Marco stepped back from me and seated himself in one of the two small chairs near a round wrought iron table that sat on the balcony. “I asked,” he said, motioning for me to take the other seat. “Indulge me.”
I told Marco everything that had happened lately, and with him I didn’t leave anything out. I didn’t feel the need. Marco had never judged me.
“See, you needed to tell me this,” he said as he pointed a finger at me. “This guy likes werewolf blood. Considering the fact that I’m opening my new club next week, this is need to know information. After all, a lot of my pack is sure to be there.”
“I’ve heard it advertised, The Dread Moon, right?”
“That’s right,” he answered with a smile, “the first commercially advertised werewolf club. Of course, it’s open to the public. It’s the one place where people know they can go to mingle the animals.” He winked.
“Where did you get the name?”
“It has a sort of reggae/Jamaican flavor to it,” he said, talking with his hands. “Actually, that’s the reason for my late visit. The grand opening is next weekend. It will be televised and I was hoping you wouldn’t mind being seen in public with me.”
“That’s sweet,” I said, smiling, “but haven’t you heard? I’m to be the head of H.A.V.O.C. All other division leaders will answer to me. It’s already been in the news all over Terra. They’ve announced it on the radio here, and before I went to bed tonight I saw my face plastered on the ten o’clock news.”
“Yes, I saw it.” He laughed softly.
“It’s not funny! I just ran into town for some fertilizer for my roses.”
“Red, you were wearing a shirt that said ‘pour some sugar on me.’ What did you expect?”
“Well, that was only one day after the announcement. I honestly didn’t think I’d have to worry about paparazzi at the nursery.”
He laughed again, and the deep rumble of his voice floated across my skin. “Well, at the very least it will be some good publicity for H.A.V.O.C., and it will show me, leader of the pack, as an upright law abiding citizen.”
“And it will make it look like the only reason I’m heading up the division is because I’m sleeping with you.”
He grew very serious then. “But you’re not sleeping with me, Red.”
I hadn’t meant to bring up a painful subject. “No,” I said, “but it will certainly look that way.” I sighed. “Things aren’t over between Alfred and me, we just had a disagreement.”
“A disagreement? With a man who doesn’t even think of you as human? Red, if it’s not over now, it soon will be.”
I wanted to cry, but I didn’t want to do it in front of Marco. He slid out of his chair and knelt before me, resting his head in my lap. After several minutes of me silently stroking his hair Marco suggested, “Tell him it’s political. It is really.”
“It may be political, but politics didn’t bring you to my balcony tonight.”
He looked up at me then, and before he could say words I was afraid of hearing, I said, “I’ll go. I’ll think of something.”
Whatever he was going to say seemed to be forgotten. “Excellent. I’ll pick you up at nine Friday.” Marco stood up and walked towa
rd the rail. “I suppose I should leave.”
“I suppose you should,” I agreed. But I didn’t feel like making him go. Instead I walked to the balcony doors and just looked at him, reclining against the railing. Marco moved toward me like a true animal of prey. When he was only inches away he reached up and took hold of the door frame.
Leaning in just short of contact he whispered, “Let me in, Red.”
“I’m sorry, Marco. Not tonight.”
He kissed my forehead again, and I enjoyed watching him walk back to the railing. A brief glance over his shoulder, and he was gone. With all that was already on my mind, there was no way I would be sleeping any time soon. So, I called Alek. He was the first person that came to mind, and I went with that instinct.
“It’s late,” his smooth sexy voice answered.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”
“Not at all. That wasn’t a complaint. Now what is it that has you calling me in the middle of the night?”
While I started telling Alek what happened, I made my way downstairs to take a sleeping pill or two. I figured I’d talk to him until they took effect. We’d talked so much over the past few weeks about so many things, he practically knew my life’s history, and I his. The only thing I hadn’t told Alek about was Mathias. I was never sure how safe it was to talk about wizards to other wizards. They always seemed to have a history, and I didn’t really want to know that my ancestor had ruined the life of one of his relatives as well.
“You obviously have some unresolved feelings toward him,” he said about Marco. “I say go. After all, it is a good political move, in my opinion. Perhaps, it will make up for the ‘sugar,’” he said, laughing.
“I should have left that part out.”
“While we’re on the subject of your love life there’s something I’ve been thinking about, if I may ask?”
“Go ahead.”
“You’ve shared with me the unfortunate circumstances of your attack, and you say that your scars remain?”
“That’s right.”
“And you are bothered by these scars. They remind you that you’re not who you used to be.”
“Thanks for the psychoanalysis.”
“Let me finish. I wondered how it is that at seventeen, so soon after your attack, you ended up swimming naked with one of the Icarum.”
I laughed. “Is that all? Well, it so happens that only a few months before Julius Blight, that’s the naked Icarum—”
“I gathered that much—”
“—was attacked by a couple of werewolves.”
“And? What happened to him?”
“They tried to tear his wings off.” I paused. “So you see, we had something in common. Neither one of us was exactly what we used to be, and we became close while I helped him to recover. Fortunately for Julius, all Icarum have a natural immunity to the virus. So, the only thing that changed for him was the scars.”
“This is before you came back after training?”
“Yes, I stayed on Terra for a year and a half. I was the one who found Julius.”
“You rescued him? What of the wolves?”
“I slaughtered them. Julius was my friend. I went berserk.” I paused again. “It frightened me. I’d never reacted to anything like that before. But, the way I handled the situation led my father to believe I was ready to hunt on my own. So, a few months later he assigned me to Earth and Alfred, and I’ve been here ever since.”
We talked a while longer, and the sleeping pills finally began to work.
“Get some rest, darling, you’re starting to ramble.”
Since he never said goodbye, that was the end of my conversation with Alek, after which I was finally able to get some sleep.
Chapter Six
I was relieved when Alfred informed me over breakfast the next day that he would be leaving Friday morning and wouldn’t return until Sunday. Being my partner wasn’t the only job Alfred had with The Hunters. He helped my dad with all sorts of what I called “spying efforts,” among other things. This meant I didn’t have to tell him about Marco, because he wouldn’t be around to know. Keeping this from him should have bothered me more. I wondered what my relief said about me, but tried not to dwell on it. After all, I was still angry with Alfred and that could have something to do with it.
We spoke very little over the next couple of days, and I forced myself to pretend I didn’t mind sleeping alone. It was Friday morning when he finally approached me in the kitchen.
“Are you planning to shut me out forever?” he asked softly.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you spoke to anyone who wasn’t completely human,” I said stiffly. I was still angry about what he said a few nights ago. Though truthfully, it was what he didn’t say that hurt the most.
“Lilith, I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant to say.”
“But it’s what you said, Alfred. You don’t think of me as human.”
“Are you dumping me?”
“No, but this isn’t something I can get over in a few days.” I looked him in the eye and let every bit of the pain I felt be seen. “You hurt me, Alfred. Don’t do it again.”
He walked over to where I sat and knelt down in front of me, turning my chair slightly so I faced him. “I’m really sorry,” he said, taking my hand in his. “If I could take it back, I would. It’s really not what I meant to say.” And through his touch I knew what he said was true.
“What did you mean to say?”
“I meant to say that I don’t think of you as human, but I don’t think of you as anything less.”
I started to say something, but he stopped me. “Lilith, I’ve seen what vampires can do. You’re not like that. I wasn’t trying to insult you. I appreciate that you want everyone to be equal, but the fact of the matter is they are not the same as us.” He paused. “Please, let me try again. You’ve known me long enough to know I’m set in my ways. You have to understand that back in the day we didn’t try to treat everyone as equals … we just …”
“Killed everyone, I know.”
What Alfred said made a lot of sense, but I was still hurt.
“It’s still gonna take me a while,” I said.
“I never meant to hurt you,” he said.
I leaned forward and kissed him softly. “I know.”
After Alfred left I felt like crying. Instead, I called Kat and told her what happened.
“And you called Alek instead of me?!” she yelled.
“Look, I knew you had to open the shop early, so I didn’t want to wake you,” I explained.
Kathryn Roberts ran a decorating shop in town, soon to expand next door into a coffee shop once she got some more help.
“Admit it, you just like the sound of his voice.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“You want me to fake a British accent?” she joked.
“That won’t be necessary,” I assured her.
We talked for a few more minutes and Kat agreed to come over and help me find something to wear that night. When I opened the door she hugged me, her dark brunette curls falling across my face.
“I’m so proud of you,” she said.
“For what, screwing up my life so thoroughly? Must be entertaining.”
“For doing this anyway. Alfred had no right to say what he did. I’ve known him for years too, and I love Alfred, but that was wrong. He should know by now how you would take a comment like that.”
“You would think, but that’s not why I agreed to go with Marco tonight.”
“Then why are you going?”
I wondered for a minute if I should tell Kat the truth. I told her the political bullshit and then decided to tell the real reason. “Because I couldn’t stand the thought of him going with anyone else.”
To my surprise, Kat got sort of misty eyed. “I’m sorry. It’s just that you two obviously care for each other,” she sobbed.
“Kat, I’m sorry if I—”
“You didn’t.” She sniffed, r
egaining some control.
“I can’t just throw away what I have with Alfred. I’ve loved him most of my life.” I hesitated. “There’s something between us, but I’m not in love with Marco.”
Kat looked at me like she was about to explain something to a particularly dense child. “The way you look when you talk about him, if that’s not love I don’t know what is.”
Marco said the event was formal, at least for VIPs in attendance and that included me. After looking through my entire closet, we both decided I should wear the same black dress I had worn to The Hunter’s Ball. After all, the same people would not be seeing it. The dress did seem perfect for the press to see me in. It covered my breasts, but revealed enough skin to still be sexy. Kat left just before I started to get ready and said she would try to be there too, since it was a public event. She loved club Red, Marco’s other establishment, and was dying to see what he had done with The Dread Moon.
For the first time in years, I was ready early. I sat on the built-in bench in one of the bay windows downstairs and watched storm clouds gather over what was, only hours before, a clear night sky. The wind whipped the tree tops mercilessly, and I decided to step onto the porch. I locked the door and took my small evening bag with me. The cold wind tore through my thin dress and I cursed myself for not remembering to look for a matching jacket. It was only the second day of February, but the weather was unseasonably cold. Though I much preferred it to the sweltering summer we had just endured, I still wished I had brought a jacket.
I was just about to go back inside when I saw headlights at the end of the driveway. My heart fluttered uncomfortably in my chest, and my stomach seemed to be doing flips. “This is not a date,” I kept telling myself. “You shouldn’t be this excited.” But I was excited. A long black limousine pulled up in front of the house, and had barely come to a stop before Marco stepped outside. No amount of self-lecturing could have kept me from getting excited when I looked at him. He was wearing a tuxedo and looking better than rain to a desert. His dark hair hung in layers, the longest of which reached just below chin level and shined underneath the porch light like it had been polished. The top of his shirt was unbuttoned, and a bowtie hung loosely around his neck. Through the open shirt I could see the beginning of the dark hair on his chest that I knew ran in a fine line down his stomach. I had never seen Marco completely naked, but that didn’t stop me from remembering what I had seen and imagining what I hadn’t.
Lilith Mercury, Werewolf Hunter Series (Boxed Set, Books 1-3) Page 55
