“Do you think anything is broken?” he asked around a mouth full of toothpaste.
“I don’t know.” I tried to stretch and winced against the pain in my ribs. “Maybe.”
He put away the toothbrush and pulled me closer. “I would be glad to help you recover,” he suggested smoothly. “Though I doubt your lover would approve.”
The smile was involuntary as I took in his lovely features. “I appreciate the offer, but you’re right about Marco. I don’t think he would tolerate me spending another night with you.”
“What about the other werewolf staying here?”
“His name is Bade, and we’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it.” He looked confused by the expression. “I’m not going to worry about it now,” I explained.
“Oh, I had never heard that expression before. You know, I do not get out much,” he said with a grin.
After I assured him we would all be fine, I walked Dracula to the balcony. He gave me a chaste kiss goodnight, and leapt over the railing. I heard the swish of his cape, and he was gone.
By the time I got back downstairs, I was already starting to ache. I knew what would work best for Bade and myself, but I wasn’t sure I had the nerve to suggest it. Richard and David had already gone, and Alek was examining Bade’s injuries.
“It’s impressive work,” he said, “but he’s still weak, and there’s a chance these could reopen.” Alek stood up and turned to me. “What will you do with him?”
I looked to Luther before I said, “I was thinking he should sleep with me.”
Alek looked a bit startled and Luther started to protest loudly.
“I don’t mean have sex with him,” I yelled over Luther. “I mean literally sleep. It worked before when I was hurt and I slept with Marco. He said that werewolves heal more quickly when they are next to other werewolves.”
“Yes, pack members,” Luther said. “He is not a member of the pack. You can’t be seriously suggesting this!”
“Well I am,” I snapped. “Bade is near death, and that is my fault.” I unzipped the front of my suit enough to show some of the massive bruising without indecently exposing myself. “Look at this. There’s no telling how many internal injuries I’ve sustained. It hurts to breathe, I can taste blood when I cough, and I’m starting to feel dizzy.” I closed the zipper as I said, “You can stay too, if you feel better about it Luther, but I’m sleeping with Bade tonight. Otherwise, I’d hate to think how we’d end up by morning.”
Alek helped Luther bring Bade upstairs before he excused himself to treat his own minor wounds and get some rest. “I’ll check on you in the morning,” he assured me with a kiss on the forehead.
“What do you want me to do with him?” Luther asked sulkily.
“Put him in the tub.”
Without another word Luther began to fill the large tub while I tried to sit in the chair by the door. It was difficult to find a position that didn’t cause immediate and sharp pains in my ribs. I think Dr. Williams had hurt me worse when he flung Bade on top of me. Bade had come to again and he sat on the floor propped against the tub while I explained to him what we were doing. He was covered in dried blood, and there was no way he was going in my clean bed without being washed. Besides, the wounds still needed to be cleaned.
Bade laughed and then frowned at the pain it apparently caused. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for an invitation to your bed, love. Though I’d much prefer it to be under different circumstances.” His charming Australian accent seemed to be even thicker when he was in pain.
“I’m flattered, but I can barely move.” I smiled weakly. “Don’t get your hopes up.”
“Marco is going to shit,” Luther said angrily. He stood beside the tub with his hands on his hips still pouting.
“Then don’t tell him about it yet,” I said. “I think that once I explain the circumstances he’ll be more reasonable than you think.”
“Tomorrow night is the full moon gathering. He’ll expect me to be there. Once you two are out, you’re likely to stay that way for days until you’re healed. What the hell am I supposed to tell him?”
“The truth.” I gasped as another sharp pain hit me. “I never want to lie to Marco. Tell him the truth.” I collapsed against the chair and gave up on trying to remove my boots.
Luther knelt at my feet and started taking off my shoes. “Maybe he will understand,” he said more gently. “You do seem to have a way with him, but he would definitely beat my ass for this.”
“You won’t be hurt for helping?” I asked.
“Not for helping you,” he said, “but I don’t know how he’ll feel about me helping Bade.”
“Tell him I asked you to. Besides, you haven’t been helping Bade really. You’ve done all of this for me. You were helping me, and by staying tonight, you’ll be helping me to heal.”
“What about Bade? He’ll be in the bed too, won’t he?”
“Just don’t touch me,” Bade suggested.
“There you go,” I said, gesturing toward Bade. “Problem solved. Now the question is: will you mind seeing me naked, because I can’t get myself undressed?”
Luther laughed softly and said, “I think I can handle the shock.”
“I’ve got scars, Luther. I’m not perfect.” I felt awkward at the thought of Luther seeing my scars, but I was in too much pain to let it bother me as bad as it normally would have.
“Nothing’s perfect, Lilith.” He smiled kindly as he reached for me. “I can’t imagine there’s anything underneath your clothes that will change the way I feel about you.”
“Unless you’re gay, I think you’re wrong,” Bade said with a smirk.
“That’s not what I meant, you pervert,” Luther retorted. “Lilith and I grew up together, I love her. Nothing will ever change that. Of course I find her attractive.” He winked at me as he said, “But that ship has sailed.”
“Can you stand up, love?” Bade asked.
I managed to get to my feet, but it took effort. I swayed slightly while Luther unzipped the catsuit and peeled it from my upper body. He removed my weapons and placed them in the chair. “Here,” Luther said as he turned me around, “prop against the wall while I help you step out of this.” He slid the suit down the rest of my body and helped to steady me with a hand on my thigh while I stepped out of it.
When I turned around, I couldn’t bring myself to look Luther in the eye. I was too worried about what he was thinking about my unsightly scars.
“I’ve seen worse,” he said softly as he tilted my chin upward. “It’s the bruises that concern me.
I looked down at my ribs and groaned. My entire torso was scattered with bruises. It looked like someone had splattered me with purple and black paint.
“I don’t remember taking this much of a beating,” I said as I leaned on Luther for support.
“Your ribs are probably broken.”
“Probably. But I can’t go to the hospital, and neither can he.” I gestured toward Bade. “There’d be too much explaining to do.”
“So, what now?” Luther asked.
“Well, I was planning to take a shower, but seeing as how the pain keeps getting worse, I suppose I’ll have to get in the tub with Bade.”
Bade grinned from ear to ear while Luther sat me on the tub, and helped him to get in. Bade was much paler than usual. He’d lost a great deal of blood, and even an alpha werewolf has his limits. I really wasn’t concerned about being naked with him. Bade didn’t have the strength to hurt me, even if he was a danger, which I no longer believed he was.
“I guess I’ll take a shower then,” Luther said while I slid down into the water.
I sighed as the heat helped to ease some of the terrible pain. I could hear Luther stripping behind me, but didn’t look. The water was almost too hot, however the slight tingling sensation helped to distract me from the stabbing pains in my ribs.
“Here,” Bade said softly, “let me help you.”
I turne
d around and let him wash my back and hair. When it came time to rinse, I wasn’t capable of leaning back to dip my head in the water, so Bade poured handfuls over my head.
“Will you let me check to be sure you aren’t cut anywhere?” he asked.
I looked over my shoulder at Bade and he didn’t appear to be teasing me. He placed one of his big hands at the back of my neck and said, “Relax, I’ve got you.” With that, Bade lowered me back into the water. While I floated with my head in his hand, Bade examined my ribs with something close to expertise.
“You seem to know what you’re doing.”
“My mother was a nurse.”
It seemed strange to hear Bade mention his mother. I hadn’t really thought of him as having family, but that was stupid. Everyone had a family, even if they weren’t still together.
“Where is she now?” I asked.
“She died,” he said softly. “You know,” Bade said as he ran his hand over my lower abdomen, “these aren’t that bad.”
“They’re not on your body.”
He helped to bring me to a sitting position and I realized Bade had not once tried to grope me.
“Her and Marco were the same, really,” he commented nostalgically, “always trying to see the good in people. But, all people are not good.”
Strands of wet golden hair clung to his face, and I reached up almost involuntarily to brush them back. “And some people, are not all bad,” I said softly.
I helped Bade to wash the rest of the dried blood from his back. He slid down in the water so I could wash his hair. For a few minutes, I forgot how awful I felt and lost myself in the beauty of Bade. Even if he was still my enemy, there was nothing wrong with admiring him. His golden hair slipped through my fingers like spun silk. The otherworldly color never failed to give me pause. It complemented the pale icy blue of his eyes.
“Is this your natural color?”
The look on Bade’s face was wicked as he smiled up at me. “Haven’t you noticed?”
I looked down the length of his body and felt myself blush. “It matches.”
His smile let me know he would have laughed had it not caused so much pain. I continued to scrub gently over some small cuts near his hairline.
“What are we doing here?” I asked softly.
“Bathing.”
“No,” I said. “I mean us. How did you and I end up in a tub together?” I ran my hand down his chest and rested my fingers above the silver stud in his left nipple. “Even with the enactment of the werewolf code, you are my enemy.”
“Then why did you save me?”
“Because you didn’t deserve to die tonight. I’d never forgive myself if I’d left you to bleed to death in the mud like a dog.”
“I’m just an animal, love,” he said gently, putting his hand over mine.
“You’re wrong, Bade.” After a minute I asked, “How did your mother die?”
I thought he wasn’t going to answer at first, but then he said, “She was working at a clinic in Sydney. They treated werewolves secretly. Lycanthropy is much more wide spread in Australia than most people are aware of.” He paused to stroke my hand. “She was attacked by one of her patients. I found her.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, nothing seemed adequate. “I’m so sorry, Bade,” I whispered.
“I was eighteen,” he said. “Her car was in the shop, and I’d gone to pick her up that night. The same wolf attacked me, only I survived.”
“That’s awful.”
He rose slowly from the water and ran a hand through his long hair. “It’s been ten years, and I still miss her,” he confessed.
“You were attacked the same year I was then, I was fifteen.”
“I couldn’t even get drunk properly for my twenty-first birthday.” He smiled sadly.
“How did you end up here?”
“I moved to be with her sister who lived in Miami. Of course, I refused the offer to live with my aunt and uncle for fear of attacking them. Eventually, I found my way here.”
“All of this heart to heart stuff is touching, but it’s above and beyond your call of duty,” Luther said to me sarcastically.
I hadn’t even noticed he was out of the shower. I turned to see him wrapped in a red towel, and standing over my shoulder. He helped Bade and I out of the tub and dried me while Bade propped against the door frame and dried himself.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“What about the full moon tomorrow night?” I asked as Bade slid underneath the scarlet sheets.
“What about it?”
“You’ll still transform, right? Isn’t that a bit messy for silk sheets?”
“Not for me,” Bade said, “not for Marco either. We can both shift form without the um … mess,” he assured me with a smile.
“So, what will happen tomorrow night?” I asked.
“I’m not sure really. I’ve never been injured this badly right before the full moon. But, I suspect you’ll just have an oversized teddy bear to keep you warm,” he teased.
I couldn’t help laughing at his description, and it hurt. I had seen Bade’s wolfman form before, and he was definitely not a teddy bear. Luther helped me to the edge of the bed and announced, “You two make yourselves comfortable, I need a drink.”
“Is he really that afraid of what Marco will do to him?” I asked Bade.
“Yes. But I think you’re right about Marco. He wouldn’t have let me bleed to death in the mud either.”
I crawled painfully forward, and Bade moved back the sheet for me. “Let me press myself against your back,” I said. “Most of the bruises are on my chest and ribs, and your entry wound is on your back. I think if we press those parts together, it will work to our benefit.”
“I know I’m hurt bad when I don’t even feel like pointing out how dirty that sounds,” Bade said as he rolled over to face the door.
I slid up onto the pillows and pressed my breasts against his back. “By the way, stop trying to fight my battles for me.”
“You noticed that, huh?”
“You weren’t exactly subtle.” I wrapped my arm around his ribs and placed my right hand over the injury on his chest. “There’s only one alpha male for me, Bade.”
“Things change,” he said softly as he placed his hand over mine.
*****
My injuries must have been more severe than I had suspected. I went into an almost comatose like state as soon as I closed my eyes. I slept through the full moon completely. I came to once for a few minutes and recognized Luther’s scent as he curled up behind me. Bade was still unconscious, and I buried my face against his hair before dozing off again. I could feel a scab underneath my hand where it still rested against his chest.
I didn’t know how much time had passed when I recognized another familiar scent. It was clean, like aftershave mingled with soap. But underneath all of that was the smell of fur, and leather, and Marco.
“Hello, Red,” his rough sexy voice whispered against my ear.
“Marco.” I almost got up, but he stopped me.
“Shh, you need to rest. You were hurt pretty bad.”
“How did you get in?”
I felt him smile against my cheek. “Fear for your safety gave me wings,” he teased. “I jumped through your balcony window. You really should learn to keep that thing locked. Don’t worry, no one will know I’m here. I’ll leave the same way. One of these days, you’ll let me in your front door, Red. I wouldn’t want to spoil that moment by walking out of it before I’d been invited in.”
I could feel Bade’s slow even heartbeat beneath my hand and was suddenly afraid of what might happen to him.
“What about Bade?” I asked as I watched the way his hair reflected like brightest gold in the morning sun.
“Luther told me what happened,” he said softly. “I couldn’t have left him to die either. How can I be angry at you for not doing something I couldn’t have done? I’ll be gone before he wakes up.” He sighed. “I’d rather he didn
’t know I was here.”
“Why are you here?” I snuggled back against him and realized that Marco had once again separated our bodies with a sheet.
“Because the only way for you to heal faster than sleeping with an alpha werewolf, is to sleep between two of them.”
Bade and I dozed off and on for the rest of the week. When I woke up, Marco was gone, and my balcony doors were still unlocked. Bade left fully recovered except for a slight pinkish tint to his skin where the gaping wound used to be. He assured me that would fade soon also, and thanked me for my “mercy on an unworthy animal.”
That night I started to write to Dracula and found a note waiting for me.
Write me when you are awake.
I wrote back to let him know I was all right, and we somehow got into a discussion about the letter Alfred had sent me on Valentine’s Day. I still cried when I thought about it. Dracula seemed a most likely choice of confidant when it came to understanding heartbreak.
I am truly and deeply sorry that you chose to trust someone who was too much of a fool to see you for who you are and what it takes for you to trust someone. Does he not realize that he will never find another woman like you? I have looked, and they do not make them. Everyone else is like a sugar substitute in a world where all you want is some real sugar to make your damned coffee less bitter. Sorry, but I am no poet. (By the way, I did love coffee before everything started to taste like ash.)
I would threaten all manner of vengeance, but you made it clear I cannot fight your battles for you. I am not your avenger. Now, this is the part that you have no doubt been dreading. If I did not write this part, I could not rightfully call myself a man, now could I? So, I will make this as sincere and to the point as I can manage … know that anytime you remember the feel of my arms around you, it need not be only a memory. Think of me for comfort, for solitude, let me be your refuge. Know that whatever he made you feel, I am also capable of, both good and bad. However, I would never intentionally cause you harm. Let me hold you until his memory fades, till the nightmare you suffer is only a distant dream. I am haunted by the sweet smell of your hair and the way you sigh in your sleep … I meant this letter to be of some comfort, but now I am starting to whine. If you need more than a memory to comfort you … you can call me, any time.
Lilith Mercury, Werewolf Hunter Series (Boxed Set, Books 1-3) Page 75
