We could all see without the light, but I think it made him feel better to not be alone in the dark with a vampire. I opened the door with my silver key. Dracula carried the mattress for me along with the small air pump and a sleeping bag. I’d also brought a lighter and as we entered the dungeon, I lit some candles on a nearby table.
“I’m sure you can see without these, but I’d feel bad about leaving you down here in the dark,” I said, gesturing toward the candles.
The large oak door at the back of the room was thick and heavy, covered in silver rivets and reinforced silver brackets. I opened this door with the same key, and as I pushed it open he said, “You can stay if you like. Or, was I wrong to think you found some comfort in my embrace?”
“I was hired to find you, not sleep with you,” I answered.
“We do not have to sleep,” he said, sounding like bottled sin.
“You don’t know what you are asking for,” I said as I inflated the mattress and tried to ignore him.
“And you do not realize what you are refusing,” he pointed out.
“The things I would do to you tonight would not be kind, and I have no desire to use you.”
It was true. I was in a touchy mood and didn’t want to take it out on him any more than I had already. If I ever did touch Dracula sexually, it would be with tenderness, not frustration. As soon as this thought crossed my mind, I shook my head. What had come over me?
“No one has had such consideration for my feelings in a long time. In fact, most people just assume I do not have any. I would be gentle,” he purred.
“I would not.” As I said this I moved purposefully toward where he stood beside the Garrotte. I walked over to the small highly polished wooden platform. Along the back of this, was an upright plank with a narrow seat attached. Above the seat, slightly more than shoulder height on most people was a leather strap. This strap was attached to a crank on the back of the board. I pushed him onto the seat and tightened the strap around his throat before he had time to object.
He did not seem alarmed in the slightest as I tied his hands behind his back around the board and took a seat on his lap. I opened the long robe and ran my hands over the smooth expanse of his chest. Fine hairs reflected in the candlelight which I traced with a finger to the top of his black silk pajamas.
“I’ve been told you have a thing for redheads, is that true?” I asked.
“Yes. I do love red hair. But that may be due in part to the length of time it has been in my dreams. Death has flickered through my mind for many years now, with flaming hair and amber eyes.”
The urge to touch his hair was too much to resist. It was soft and damp, almost like wet silk between my fingers.
“My dreams didn’t do you justice,” I sighed. “I have dreamed of you since I was sixteen, so I guess you could say I’ve known you for almost ten years now.” I brushed my face against his as I said, “I always knew I would find you somehow, but part of me didn’t believe you were really real. You have no idea how it feels to realize that the man of my dreams is real. My tall, dark stranger is finally at my fingertips and I cannot possibly allow myself to do the things I have wanted to do in my dreams, because I’ll be honest, they weren’t wet enough for me.”
“It must feel something like meeting the woman of your dreams and having her tie you up instead of kissing you goodnight,” he said softly.
“I can’t kiss you,” I whispered against his chest as I rubbed my face over the soft hair. “Because, I wouldn’t be able to stop.” I rose from his lap with a sigh, released his wrists, and loosened the strap across his throat.
“Goodnight.” He smiled sadly, still sitting on the wooden platform.
“Goodnight.”
Leaving him was difficult, but I managed. When I walked back in the kitchen to replace the key to its usual hook Luther was waiting for me. Like the true friend he is, Luther didn’t ask nosy questions about what had gone on in the bathroom while he was out of the room. He was loyal to Marco, but I had known him longer. That must have put him in an awkward position. We discussed the bizarre events of the night over some hot chocolate before realizing it was two o’clock.
“No wonder I’m tired,” he said as he yawned. “Where should I sleep tonight?”
“You can sleep with me,” I said without thinking.
His eyes widened slightly.
“Don’t look at me like that. I know pack members are comforted by being close to one another, and I’ll be honest, I could use some comfort right now. Besides, I trust you. I can actually sleep with you.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said with a sarcastic smile, “but you’re not pack.”
“I would have thought the same thing, but it worked with Marco.” As I said this I knew I was admitting to having slept with Marco. Of course, we actually slept, even though I’m sure most of the pack thought otherwise. However, Luther was never one to judge, which was one of the reasons we’d remained friends.
“Then lead the way, cause I’m exhausted,” he said, yawning again.
Luther followed me upstairs and stripped out of his dress clothes to his boxer shorts and t-shirt while I put on some pjs. It might have been weird if I’d thought about it, but I didn’t. It just seemed natural that I should be able to turn to one of Marco’s wolves for comfort, especially Luther. I snuggled down underneath the covers facing the door and Luther crawled in behind me. Without hesitation he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me back against the curve of his body. Luther’s long legs fit into the curve of mine and I sighed, enjoying his warmth.
“What shampoo do you use?” he asked as he breathed against my hair.
“What does it matter?”
“I like it.”
“Go to sleep prima donna. We can discuss beauty products in the morning.”
“It is morning,” he teased.
“Go to sleep,” I said as I yawned.
With that final request, Luther squeezed me tightly and I fell asleep.
*****
When I opened my eyes early the next morning, I was alone. I rolled to my back as I called, “Luther? Are you still here?”
“I’m here,” he said, walking out of the bathroom. “You wouldn’t happen to have an extra toothbrush, would you?”
“There’s one underneath the vanity I haven’t opened.”
I stretched and yawned while Luther brushed his teeth. A few minutes later I heard him getting in the shower. Since there is a wall of rock separating my shower from the rest of the bathroom, I walked in and brushed my teeth without having to see my friend naked.
“So, what will you do with him?” he asked about Dracula.
“I honestly have no idea.”
“Really? You bring a guy like that home with no plan whatsoever?” He laughed. “What prompted that decision? I mean, besides being hired to find him and he’s obviously attractive.”
“I’ve been dreaming about him since I was sixteen years old.”
It sounded like he dropped a shampoo bottle. “Run that by me again.”
“You heard me. Shortly after I was attacked I started dreaming about Dracula. Only, I couldn’t remember his face once I was awake. When I saw him last night, I recognized him.”
Luther was quiet for a minute. “I’m not sure how to react. That’s really fucked up.”
“I know. It gets worse. There’s this huge mural on the ceiling at The Hunter’s headquarters, and he’s on it.”
“What do you mean he’s on it?”
“I mean the mural contains images of him, Dracula, or whatever his real name is. I was always told those paintings were of the first Hunter sent to Earth. Apparently, that’s him.”
“Jesus. How old does that make him?”
“More than two-thousand years old. I’m too confused about everything to calculate it exactly.”
“They sent a vampire?”
I shrugged, then realized he couldn’t see me through the shower wall. “I don�
�t know how he became a vampire. I’ve known they existed since I was little, but never actually met one before last night.”
“You knew these things were real when we were kids and you never said anything?” He sounded genuinely disappointed.
I laughed. “Do you know how stupid I would have sounded?”
“I would have believed you,” he said, sounding sincere. “Wait a minute. Did people on Terra make vampires too?”
“I have no idea. These are all things I would eventually like to discuss with him. You know as much about that now as I do.”
“I still can’t believe I didn’t know about vampires. Marco knew too and he didn’t tell me either.”
“Get over it,” I teased. “They’ve always kept their numbers low and stayed out of sight. They’re very low-profile as a species. At least, they have been in the past.”
“You know you still haven’t answered my very first question. What are you going to do with him now that he’s here?”
“I’ve offered to let him stay with me.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I’m not going to turn him over to the Vampire Council without knowing more about what is going on. When I look into his eyes I feel so bad for him. It’s like his heart is broken.”
“Well, I think Marco will be more understanding than Alfred,” he said.
“Really? I expect they’ll both want to kill me.”
My stomach growled loudly and I was grateful for something else to think about besides Dracula.
“I’m going to go start breakfast.”
“I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
I had just put on a pot of coffee when someone knocked at the door.
“Good morning, Kat,” I said with a yawn as I stepped aside for her to come in.
Kat looked like hell. She obviously hadn’t slept. Sure, it was Saturday morning, but she never wore sweats in public.
“Where is he?” she said immediately.
“Where is who?”
“The man you left with last night, where is he?” she insisted.
She looked almost desperate as I led her to the kitchen. I sat Kathryn down at the table and poured her a cup of coffee while I shared what I knew about Dracula.
“It looks like you were right about how soon I would meet him,” I said.
“Huh?”
“Don’t you get it, Kat? He’s the man from my dreams.”
“Mine too. So, where is he?”
“Have you heard a word I just said?”
“Of course. It looks like the first Hunter sent here was the first vampire too, but you don’t know how yet because he wouldn’t tell you. You’ve been dreaming about him since you were sixteen, and apparently he’s been dreaming about you too, but you don’t know for how long. AND, knowing your ability to find the wrong sort of man, he’s probably heinously evil. So, where is he?”
“He’s in the dungeon.”
“Can we touch him?”
“No, Kat, we can’t touch him.” I laughed.
“Fine,” she said angrily as she walked to the fridge. “I want an omelet then.”
She started putting ingredients on the counter about the time Luther walked in wearing my red bathrobe and a smile. Of course the robe only came to just below his knees and didn’t close enough in front to cover his chest. Her jaw dropped.
“Good morning, Kat.” He smiled and started pouring himself some juice.
“Just friends huh?” she bellowed, and Luther nearly dropped his glass. “You were helping her with him?” She pointed in the general direction of the door that led to the dungeon. “I’ll bet.”
“Calm down, Kat, it’s not what it looks like,” I said.
“Well it looks like you had a nice ménage a trios going on here last night! You know what I had?! I had to ride home with Elijah, king of the lead foot! He nearly ran us into a tree! I’m risking my life just to get home, and you’re over here getting it on with a hot werewolf and a vampire.”
By the end of this speech, she plopped down at the table again, put her head down, and started to cry.
“You think I’m hot?” Luther asked. I smacked his bare chest lightly with the back of my hand. “What?”
“Kat, first of all, we did not have a ménage a trios last night. Second, why did you and Elijah go together in the first place when you both argue so much about his driving? You know how you two get.”
“Because he knew you’d be there with someone else,” she sobbed, “and if anyone was there who knew Charles, I didn’t want them to see me alone.”
I knelt beside Kat’s chair as I asked, “Have you tried talking to Charles?”
“I don’t wanna fucking talk to him.” She flung her arms around me and wailed, “He’s just another lying son of a bitch.”
“Do you love him?”
“No, I don’t love him,” she cried, “I’m just—”
“In love with him,” Luther finished.
“Ah, I’m so disappointed,” she groaned as she pulled back from me. “I really liked him, Lilith.”
“I know.”
I got up and Luther cracked eggs while I looked for some cheese.
“I thought I’d finally managed to find a nice guy,” she said and stifled another sob. “And Marco said he probably faked orgasm.”
Luther dropped an egg on the floor, but Kat didn’t seem to notice.
“If it makes you feel any better, I know the guy got his ass kicked,” Luther added hopefully.
“Really?” she asked, “By whom?”
“Marco, who else?”
“Did he hurt him bad?”
“He nearly killed him,” Luther replied.
This was all news to me, so I asked, “Why would Marco do that?”
“He figured you would ask that if you ever heard what happened. What he told me was, ‘I care about her and Kat is like her family.’ Does that make sense to either of you?”
We both nodded gravely.
“Good, because I don’t want to get into trying to explain Marco’s feelings, like some fucked up therapist.”
After breakfast Kat left and Luther had walked back into the sitting room when the door in the hallway banged open. I jumped as Alfred came storming through and flung something angrily onto the table.
“Alfred, what’s going on?” I had never seen him so upset.
“You made the papers,” he hissed.
I picked up the paper with trembling hands and looked at the cover. One half of the page was me entering The Dread Moon with Marco. They’d managed to get a picture when I’d whispered in his ear. It looked very intimate, and we looked happy together. The headline read, “Leader of the new organization H.A.V.O.C. openly admits to having a relationship with local pack leader, Marco Barak, owner of the new club The Dread Moon. This picture was taken of the happy couple upon arrival at the grand opening of the werewolf club with a Jamaican flare.”
I flipped numbly through the pages, not able to really read anything else. However, on page five there was another picture of me leaving the club, half concealed underneath Dracula’s cloak with Luther just visible on the other side of us. The caption beside this picture read, “Added security for the alpha’s main squeeze, or is she leaving the club secretly with two men?”
Chapter Eleven
“Is this why you were so eager for me to leave town?!” he yelled.
I couldn’t deny there was some truth to his words. “Alfred, I—”
Luther came running in, still wearing my bathrobe, “What’s going on, are you all right?”
The look Alfred gave Luther made me shiver. Never in my life had I seen such rage.
“What the hell is going on here?” he shot at me and I jumped.
“It’s not what it seems,” I said in what I hoped was a reassuring tone.
“You’ve got about five minutes before you both see what I am capable of.” His threat was unmistakable. It wasn’t the fact that Alfred had made a threat that upset m
e. I was upset because he had threatened me.
“Don’t you trust me any more than that? I found the vampire last night at the club. Luther helped me bring him here because I had nowhere else to put him until I could figure out what’s going on.”
Alfred was frighteningly silent and my voice shook as I continued, “Luther and I grew up together, Alfred. We’re not having sex, he’s like family.”
He turned his gaze to me once again and the hatred I saw there hurt. “You have that monster in my house?”
“Now wait a goddamn minute,” Luther began.
“I’m not talking about you,” Alfred hissed, “one monster at a time. I’m talking about the vampire. Where is he?”
I didn’t answer and he said menacingly, “Are you protecting him?”
“Alfred, you don’t know anything about him.”
“And neither do you! You don’t know what he’s capable of!”
“You can’t kill people on principle!” I yelled. No matter how hard I tried to fight it I felt tears burning my eyes.
“I’m going back,” he said. “Jacob doesn’t know I’m here.” He glanced at Luther and then back to me. “You take care of this shit, and I’ll be back tonight.”
He stormed out of the room before I could say anything and I jumped when the door slammed. It took me several minutes to realize Luther was holding me. I was shaking so hard I would have hit the floor otherwise.
“I never thought Alfred would speak to me like that,” I said shakily.
“The people we love always seem to hurt us the most,” Luther said as he sank to the floor along with me. I couldn’t seem to stop shaking. “Take me for instance, my ex-wife attacked me. I didn’t even know she was a werewolf. I mean, I knew she was a bitch, but I had no idea she was the real thing.”
I laughed in spite of myself. “I love you, Luther,” I said as I wrapped my arms around him. “And I’m not going to attack you.”
“I love you too,” he whispered. “Do you need me to stay?”
“Maybe, but if you do, keep out of sight. I don’t know how he might react if he sees you again.”
Since it was still morning and Alfred said he would return that night, Luther left to get more clothes. While he was gone, I called Alek. I was so upset I could barely talk as I tried to tell him everything that had happened.
Lilith Mercury, Werewolf Hunter Series (Boxed Set, Books 1-3) Page 59
