Lucille had won the duel fair and square, assuming Vivienne’s place beside Clarence as the new head bitch of the pack. Most times I’d have rather been born a shifter as opposed to a vampire, but in that, at least, I’d never have to worry about becoming anyone’s bitch.
I was awkwardly draped out, but I wasn’t moving a muscle. Instead I hummed beneath my breath. An old Patsy Cline song that I’d discovered years ago seemed to help soothe the savage beast in him.
Slowly, bit by bit, I felt him start to relax. Felt his muscles begin to uncoil and his breaths turn less shallow and more full. He was scenting me, familiarizing himself with me again.
Finally, with one last whoosh of breath, he turned his face into my palm, and instead of nuzzling or licking me as he usually did when claiming me as his, he brushed his lips over the crease. He pressed down hard, as though he meant to keep me with him forever. The kiss was warm, slightly wet, and tugged at things down low in my body.
The kiss wasn’t quick or simply a peck. It was the type of kiss a human gave to another when the love between them was a bond deep and sure. It was the type of kiss that broke me out in a wash of goose bumps and had me cocking my head because there hadn’t been anything faintly brotherly about it. I swallowed hard and tried to mask my confusion when he finally opened his blue-green eyes and looked back at me without flinching.
“Mercer?” I said again softly, mostly because I didn’t know what else to say.
I wanted to ask him what that kiss had meant. Wanted to tell him to back off. To scoot back a little. To leave me alone. But another part of me wanted to scoot in, to pull his face toward mine and tell him “you missed.”
The thought was so ground shaking that it caused me to sharply pull back out of his grip, staring at him with what I hoped was an absolutely “don’t touch” kind of a look, but I wasn’t sure I’d pulled it off.
Sighing deeply, he dropped his hands slowly to his lap and rolled his shoulders.
What the hell had just happened between us? What the hell was that? I was so confused. So out of sorts that I felt like an idiot who’d forgotten how to string simple words together.
So instead of saying anything, I tugged mama’s blanket up around my chin and tried to pretend that it’d all been in my imagination, that I’d been knocked around by Clarence one too many times and I was still hallucinating.
A grin broke out across his handsome face. “Glad to see you made it, Scar. It was touch and go there for a minute.”
“Huh?” I frowned deeply, even more confused.
Had it been a joke? One I’d misunderstood? My God, that last bump to my head must have been a doozy.
He ruffled my hair. “Nothing. But seriously, why were you out there tonight? Alone?” He lifted thick brows, waiting on me.
And I didn’t know whether I was coming or going right then. It also hurt way too much to think about all that nonsense. Mercer loved me. But he didn’t, like, love me, love me.
I was his sister. Kin. I was imagining things where there was nothing to see. Life was as it had always been between us.
I hugged my arms tight to myself, feeling suddenly strangely small and weird. “I, uh...” I shook my head and tried again. “You heard him, Mercer,” I finally snapped.
I hadn’t meant to, but the night had been hell, and now all I wanted was to sleep it off and forget it all had happened.
He nodded slowly. “Your bogeyman is back.” He said it slowly. It wasn’t a question, and I didn’t treat it as one.
“What do you mean my bogeyman? It’s not just mine, Merc. It’s everyone’s. All the humans, even Veilers. His tastes are indiscriminate, and you know it. I told you all this before.”
My hands were waving wildly. I was upset. No, scratch that, I was beyond pissed at Clarence’s dismissal. Of the way he’d treated me, of everything that’d been done.
I was also ashamed that everyone—including Mercer—had seen me so low. I didn’t handle shame well, and I never had.
“Hey”—he grabbed my hands, squeezing them tight—“it’s okay.”
“Okay! Okay!” I yanked out of his grasp, clenching my hands tight to my biceps as I stared out the bay window, looking at the violet-tinged sky full of silvery clouds and stars. “I’m not freaking, okay. Nothing about this is remotely okay. The bogeyman is a monster, a beast, and he...he—” I choked, my stomach rolling as the vivid images of both Faith and Patience tore through my brain like a wrecking ball.
Mercer was up and out of his chair and scooting me deeper inside the nook so that he could sit beside me. His hands were on my cheeks, and his thumbs rubbed gently back and forth.
The texture of his hands had always been one of my favorite memories. The night I’d been reborn, it’d been Merc who’d found me, who’d rescued me. He’d lifted me into his arms, and with the strength of a shifter, he’d held me with only one arm while his other hand had reached for my face.
He’d rubbed my cheek in much the same way he currently did, and that was when I’d learned just how sensitive my new vampire flesh was to the world around me. Mercer’s hand had felt like steel wrapped in the softest velvet.
It still did.
And normally I loved the rare moments when he touched me like this, but I was still shaken up from the kiss earlier and couldn’t find the comfort from it that I usually did.
He must have read that truth in my eyes because his hands dropped soon after.
“You’re not alone in this, Scarlett. I won’t let you be.”
I gave a forced laugh. “You don’t have a choice. You heard what Clarence said. None of you can help me.”
His nostrils flared, and immediately the light of the beast filled his eyes again. Not violent as before but frustrated.
Moved to sympathy for him, I found myself falling back into old habits. Vampires weren’t generally so touchy-feely unless we were having sex—or feeding, of course. But I’d been raised with wolves, and they were. Touch was rarely about sex. Touch was a tonic for them, a way to calm the constant beating of the monster that lived inside them.
Touch was comfort.
I dropped my hand to his blue-jeaned knee and lightly ran my fingers back and forth. His lashes feathered, and he trembled. His shoulders drooping, he slowly opened his eyes and gave me a weak grin.
“I swear, Scar, you’re gonna be the death of me someday.”
I frowned. “Don’t say that. I might hate you sometimes and want to roast your liver over a fire, but I’d never be the death of you.” I chuckled, waiting for him to join in.
The air between us tightened instantly, and the weird feeling of earlier came crashing back as the intense moodiness filled his gaze once more. His hands dragged slowly up his arms, and again his presence took up my space. His nose was close to mine, his lips a hair’s breadth away.
“You can never die, Scarlett. I won’t let you.”
I frowned.
He planted a tender kiss to my forehead that lacked the fire and heat of the one he’d placed on my palm earlier, then he sat back.
“I may not be able to follow you into the hunt, but I can at least guide you to someone who can help.”
He pressed his fist into my chest. I glanced down and saw something poking out from between his fingers.
Turning his hand over, he opened his fingers to me. On his palm lay a white embossed card with a single name on it and a phone number beneath: Harlen.
I shook my head as I took the card. It was the second time I’d been told to go see that human.
Standing, he stared down at me. “He’s someone you should never do business with.”
I lifted a brow.
“He’s also the only one I’d trust to steer you right.”
Sadness, anger, and longing flitted through his gaze. That final one made me shiver.
“Merc, you aren’t gonna do anything stupid, are you?”
“Scar, I’ve told you before to steer clear of Clarence, haven’t I?”
Hi
s words were soft, but they shivered with anger. Yeah, he had. Basically, but not in so many words.
“Merc, what’s wrong with the Alpha? I saw something tonight that I—”
“You saw nothing!” he boomed. “Nothing! Say it.”
But I had seen something. Something terrible. Mercer knew. That wasn’t rage coming out of him. It was bone-deep fear.
“I...I saw no-thing.”
He growled from inside his chest, and I couldn’t help cringing, curling in on myself. Immediately he stopped, and again that frustrated look pinched his brows.
Shoving two fingers through his hair, which he’d caught up in one of his sexy buns, he turned to the side.
In profile, the man was simply stunning. He’d kissed my palm, and suddenly I was thinking crazy thoughts, like making fangy puppies with him. I groaned, wrapping a hand around my middle. Confused. Horny. And tired. Not a great combination.
He clearly misinterpreted my groan because he shook his head and said, “You need to rest. Scarlett, just...” He squeezed his eyes shut as his chest rose and fell harshly. What was happening to my brother?
That steely mask slipped over his features. Without saying another word, he turned on his heel and was gone, leaving me hurt and baffled.
Chapter 12
Scarlett
Mercer was powerful enough to strip the title from Clarence. He was also backed by most of the more powerful shifters in our pack. Tonight something evil had touched our Alpha. Something twisted and wrong.
That attack hadn’t been him.
I’d done nothing to provoke the level of violence he’d exhibited. Thinking through my interaction with him, I tried to find a plausible reason he’d done as he had, but I kept drawing a blank.
Clarence had never been the nurturing type, but his attack tonight had been ruthless and with deadly intent. Whatever had happened, it’d scared Merc too. It also made me realize that I could say nothing to anyone of my suspicions. Even speaking of them would be a deadly mistake.
I’d also called Carter with the bad news. He hadn’t been happy. But then, I hadn’t expected him to be.
The Silver Creek PD were still doing their thing, tracking down whatever leads they could, no matter how big or small, but Sharp Elbows, my bogeyman, hadn’t struck again. There was nothing more I could do right then. I’d hung up only after I’d made Carter promise to call me if he learned anything else.
I was sitting at the kitchen table, nursing another mug of disgustingly cool blood, but I needed it. Mercer had used twelve Baggies on me.
The sight of those empty bags in my garbage bin had chilled me, letting me know just how damn close I’d really come. Deep down, I’d known it had been bad, but I’d had no idea I’d been so close to death.
Immortality was really a farce. We totally could kick the bucket. Especially when the wrong person knew all the ways to make sure our second death remained permanent.
I had only two Baggies to spare. I needed to make a run to the blood dispensary in town, but that would have to wait till morning.
My nerves were twisted and knotted, imagining Mercer rushing up to the Alpha’s home and demanding the blood duel. Mercer should have probably done it a century or so ago.
Clarence had already lost the majority, and it seemed as if he might have lost much more than that too.
But for reasons that were Mercer’s own, he’d still refused to invoke the right of blood duel. I could sense the unrest and discord simmering like an almost boiling pot of water. I wish I understood why Merc was waiting, but I didn’t, and I’d never ask.
Picking at a clump of congealed blood with my nail, I speared it and brought it to my mouth. When I first started drinking blood to survive, it hadn’t been uncommon for me to upchuck when my tongue came across a slimy bit.
After a while, I’d begun to think of them as tapioca balls, so today they were just tasty bits of squishy goodness. Sighing, I pushed my half-drunk mug aside and got to my feet. The sun was less than an hour from rising; I was tired, mentally and physically.
But more than anything, I wanted to stop thinking about why Merc had kissed me as he had. Wanted to stop obsessing about something so stupid, wanted to stop wondering what tonight had meant.
It’d been some time since I’d seriously entertained the foolish notion of falling in love with my brother, but feelings—once begun—were way too easy to turn back on, even when one thought them long dead. Especially when the object of two decades’ worth of desire suddenly seemed to finally see me.
But I had bigger fish to fry right now, and my love life—or lack thereof—was at the very bottom of my list of things that mattered. More than ever, I needed to remain focused on stopping the bogeyman from stealing any more hearts.
With an angry jerk, I tossed the stoneware mug into the sink. It landed with a heavy thud, splattering blood onto my very white kitchen counters. My normally spotless kitchen looked as if someone had accidentally taken a meat cleaver to an arterial vein.
With a weary sigh, I rubbed my brows.
I’d clean it tomorrow.
I turned on bare feet and was headed toward my room when a sudden knock on my door had me turning directions.
I sniffed and then grumbled beneath my breath. I should just not open the door, pretend I’d heard nothing, and go to bed.
“I ken you’re there, Vampire. Open up.”
I glowered at my door, stopping inches from the doorknob and crossing my arms. James tapped at the door.
“Open up, or I’ll huff, and puff, and blow the house down,” he said, his voice thick with gravel, causing my body to tighten and swirl with hot need all over again.
I could pretend that it was James’s kiss that was still affecting me somehow, so that any male voice turned me on, but it wasn’t true, and I knew it. Merc had awakened an old hunger in me, and I was pinging on all cylinders.
“Vampire, I hear ye breathing.”
I clenched my jaw, then snapped, “Damn that bloody Scottish brogue of yours, James.”
After marching the last steps toward the door, I flung it open and glowered at him. His eyes were silver pools of laughter. His hair had fallen into his eyes, and he had a day’s worth of scruff shading his square jaw.
My fingers twitched, and I hated the fact that for the first time since my rebirth, I was obsessing about not just one man but two—both polar opposites.
“What do you want?” I eyed him, making sure to keep my thoughts off my face.
His rapscallion smile faded slowly, and he took a step forward. His toe brushed the very edge of the demarcation between my front porch and my living room. I lifted my brow.
It was considered bad form for any Veiler to enter the domicile of another without first gaining consent. It wasn’t that we couldn’t; there was no magical barrier keeping us out. It was more an unspoken rule passed down through time immemorial and one we all adhered to. A sort of “honor among thieves” sort of thing.
“Invite me in,” he said with that soft brogue.
I looked back up at him. The sun was close to rising; he should have gotten at least five hours of sleep or more since I’d seen him last at the Alpha’s house. But when I looked at his face, really looked at it, there was a definite shade of purpling beneath his eyes and broken red veins in them as well.
“I’m tired, James.” I started to close the door. “Tired and not in the mood for anymore shifter non—”
He slapped his hand on the door, halting its progress.
“No games, Vampire. I came to see how you’re doing. That’s all.”
The sincerity in his tone caught me off guard, and it also irritated me. “Why? Why do you suddenly care? I’m so sick of all the games.”
“Ye can trust me.”
I snorted. “Can I? How? You were there tonight. You saw what the Alpha did to me. None of you did a damn thing to stop it, either. You all just stood around like a pack of—”
“Animals?” he said softly.
> And I growled, hating that he sounded sorry. Hating the fact that it bothered me that not even Mercer had stepped in to stop it. Yes, it was pack life. One never came against the Alpha, and if someone had come to my defense, they’d have surely been signing their death warrant. Not to mention the fact that if any of them had stepped up to defend me, it would have weakened me in the eyes of the entire pack.
All that, I knew.
But it was hard not to have human feelings. Not feeling as if I’d been abandoned, not resenting the fact that the world I lived in was an eat-or-be-eaten sort of place. I knew no one could have helped me, but that didn’t stop me from hating them all just a little bit because they hadn’t.
Maybe someday when I was a century old, I’d stop thinking so much like a human and more like a cold-blooded killer, but for today, it hurt.
“Whatever.” My lashes fluttered, and I tried to shove the door shut once again, but again, he wouldn’t let me.
“What the hell do you want?” I barked at him, tossing my hands up. I was being polite. I could have just slammed it in his face, but again, I was still much too human for this world.
“I want to see that you’re okay, female. That’s all.”
“Why? Why does it fucking matter to you?” It wasn’t often that I swore, so when I did, you knew I was pissed.
And I was. The silence of the house had kept my resentment at bay, but seeing one of the shifters on my doorstep was bringing it all out, and I knew I was being unreasonable and stupid and even a tad hypocritical, but sometimes it was hard to be anything but.
What had happened tonight had affected me more than I’d anticipated. Receiving a death threat—and even hatred—from the pack was one thing. I’d always been able to tolerate it and even to some extent understand it, but I’d placed faith in the Alpha.
I hadn’t realized just how much until he’d torn it to ribbons tonight and made me question everything I thought I knew.
“It just does, okay. Now invite me in, Scarlett. Please.” The last word came out strained.
Whiskey, Vamps, and Thieves (Southern Vampire Detective #1) Page 14
