by Kali Argent
“Zerrik.”
“The Lieutenant? The one with the complexion the color of baby powder?”
Deke erupted into deep, rumbling laughter. “That would be him.”
Unable to find anything more suitable, Roux shrugged and pressed the frozen bag to her cheek, hissing when the coldness burned her skin. “So, vampires don’t burn in the sun, I gather.”
“Nah, that’s a myth. Their eyes are sensitive to light, though, so most prefer to be indoors during the day.” He opened a narrow drawer beside the oven to retrieve a clean dishtowel and held his hand out for the blood bag. “Garlic doesn’t effect them, and holy water is just water.”
“I’d surmised as much.” She accepted the cloth-wrapped bag and pressed it to the side of her face again. “I figured out pretty quickly that most of the myths were just fiction.” Clearly, she still had more to learn. “Can I ask you something?”
“I’m sure you have several things you want to ask me, and I’ll answer anything I can.”
“True, but this is different.” A lot had changed during the morning, changes that had forced her to rethink leaving Trinity Grove on her own. “That offer? To get me out of the city? Is that limited time or open-ended?”
“Have you changed your mind, kitten?” He leaned back against the counter, portraying a picture of ease, but his shoulders and neck tensed at her question. “Decided to stay?”
“I haven’t decided,” she answered slowly, staring down at her boots. “And you didn’t answer my question. Is that offer just for tonight?”
Pushing away from the counter, Deke closed the distance between them and slid two fingers under her chin, tilting her head up until she had no choice but to meet his gaze.
“Roux, I promised I’d help you, and I’ll keep my word.” He moved closer, sliding his free hand down her arm to her wrist, where he traced circles over her jumping pulse with his thumb. “If that’s tonight, tomorrow, or a year from now, you just say the word. When you’re ready, I’ll do whatever I can to help. However…”
As always when he touched her, Roux’s heartbeat tripped into a gallop, and she had to swallow twice before she could ask, “What?”
Deke dipped his head, rubbing his lips against hers in a light, chaste kiss. “I’m glad you’ve decided to stay.”
“I haven’t decided,” she repeated, but her words and tone lacked conviction. “I’m, uh, I’m kind of tired. Do you mind if I…”
“You need the rest, kitten. Take my bed. It’s more comfortable, and I have to leave soon anyway.”
“What time does your patrol end?”
“Midnight.” He gave her a nudge toward the hallway. “Make yourself at home, but please, do not leave the house while I’m gone. You know what? Don’t even answer the door.”
“Deke, it’s going to be okay.” She could see the distress in the lines of his face, and it was easy to guess the real reason for his concern. “Don’t worry.” Slipping the ball chain off over her head, she dropped Deke’s dog tags into his waiting palm with a smile. “I’ll be here when you get back.”
* * * *
The doorbell rang just after eight o’clock that night while Roux was in the kitchen, rummaging for something to eat. Moving with deliberate slowness, she made her way to the front door, but stopped with her hand poised over the doorknob.
“It’s me!” a cheerful, feminine voice called from the front porch. “I come bearing gifts.”
Roux unlocked and opened the door, frowning when Abby breezed past her and headed straight for the kitchen. “Barbie? What are you doing here?”
“I brought food.” Abby busied herself at the table, pulling black, plastic containers with clear lids out of a large paper sack. “And wine.” Holding up a dark bottle, she waved it back and forth by the neck before placing it on the table with a thud. “Do you like fajitas? I also picked up some tacos, and Peter sent a tin of fudge brownies.”
The more frantically she spoke, the more Roux began to worry. “I like tacos,” she answered, shuffling closer to the table. “And brownies.”
While the extended nap had helped to clear her mind, and the hot shower afterwards had eased her tense muscles, her whole body still hurt like the ten shades of hell. With three scratches across her forehead, and a brilliant, multicolored bruise sweeping down the left side of her face, she painted a gruesome picture. No wonder Abby still wouldn’t look at her.
“Not that I don’t appreciate this, but again, why are you here? Are you checking up on me?”
Dropping the last container onto the table, Abby wheeled around, placing her hands on her hips, and glared. “So what if I am?” A suspicious sheen welled along the lower lids of her bloodshot eyes. “Everyone is talking about what you did. Phelps has been abusing his position for a long time, but no one has had the courage to stand up to him or even report him.” She sniffled as her gaze traveled over Roux’s swollen face. “You’re something of a hero in town.”
“No.” Roux shook her head firmly, wincing when it caused her cheek to throb. “What I did was stupid, not heroic.” She wrinkled her nose. “Will you stop looking at me like that? I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. You look like—”
“I got my ass kicked by a werewolf? Well, I did, and now it’s over.” Folding her arms over her chest, Roux narrowed her eyes, fighting to hold the expression even when it hurt. “I’m. Fine.” Sighing, she dropped her arms and nodded sideways to the table. “Let’s eat before it gets cold.”
Abby pursed her lips like she wanted to say more, but after a pause, she shook her head and helped to divvy up the food. For a while, they ate in companionable silence, but Roux hadn’t even finished her first taco when Abby started talking again.
“There’s going to be an inquiry. There always is when a guard dies, so it’s pretty routine. One of the Wardens will probably want to talk to you, but just stick to the facts, and you’ll be fine.”
“An inquiry? What’s a Warden?”
“The Wardens comprise the royal guard. They don’t leave the estate often, leaving Deke and the others to do their jobs. When a dispute arises among the guards, however, they have to do an inquiry.”
Lowering her taco to her plate, Roux swallowed hard enough to make her throat burn. “Abby, they’re going to find out that I lied.”
“No, they won’t. Not if you stick to the facts.”
“Yeah, well the facts are that I told everyone I was Deke’s freakin’ companion.”
“Which you are,” Abby added, a smug smile twisting one corner of her lips. “I registered you as soon as I’d heard. Though, I may have altered the records so that it says you were registered before lunch.”
Roux choked, coughing so hard it made her whole body ache. “You didn’t!”
“Oh, I did, and you’re welcome.” Abby pushed her plate away and propped her elbows up on the table. “You’ll need to get a marker in the morning, some token that we can engrave with the registration number, but it’s done.”
“What would happen to Deke if the royal guard or whoever found out I wasn’t his companion?”
“They’ll execute him,” Abby answered quietly.
Roux thought about it for a moment and nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”
She hadn’t just put herself and Deke in danger, she’d implicate Abby in the lie as well. Roux knew she could be stubborn and selfish, but while she liked having her head firmly attached to her neck, she wouldn’t let anyone else take the fall for her mistakes. Especially not Deke, not after everything he’d done for her.
Gods, something was very wrong with her. Not because she wanted to save his life—okay, maybe that, too—but because she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
“What’s a mating bond?”
With her signature smile, Abby lifted a metal tin from the table and shoved it toward Roux. “Brownie?”
Despite her desire for answers, Roux never had been able to resist anyth
ing chocolate. So, she took a brownie, then grabbed a second one, giggling like a little kid when Abby laughed at her.
Once she sobered, she tried again. “So, about this mat—”
“Wine!” Popping up from her seat, Abby rushed across the kitchen. “I know Deke has some wine glasses here somewhere,” she said as she dug through the cabinets. “Ah, here we go.”
Roux placed her feet on the chair, tucking her knees under her chin while she watched. Seeing Abby so flustered amused her, and she nibbled at her brownie as the other woman scuttle around the room. When Abby hurried back to the table with two glasses and poured a generous amount of red wine into each, Roux couldn’t stop the snort that escaped her nose.
“Okay, enough,” she said, interrupting Abby’s babbling about different types of dessert wines. “I don’t care if it’s a port or a sherry or a glass of grape juice.” That didn’t stop her from taking the offered glass. “Tell me what a mating bond is.”
“I really shouldn’t say anything.” She took a gulp of wine and began pacing the floor beside the table. “I mean, it’s not my place.”
“When we met at lunch, and I wasn’t exactly friendly, you said ‘I see.’ What did that mean?”
Abby looked at her with a sigh and took another long swallow of her wine. “You didn’t trust me, of course, but you didn’t actively hate me until I hugged Deke. Then you wanted to claw my eyes out, right?”
“Pull your hair out by the roots, but close enough. And that has something to do with a mating bond?”
“You were jealous.” Abby waved her hand back and forth, fluttering her fingers. “That’s not a strong enough word for it. You were…possessive.”
“Yes.” No point in denying it when they’d both seen it. It didn’t answer her question, though. “Stop being so cryptic and just tell me what it means.”
“You’re doing it again.” Abby stopped pacing and glared. “You’re being purposely thickheaded. Don’t you read?”
“Sorry, there wasn’t a lot of time for casual reading while I was running for my life,” Roux answered, throwing the blonde’s sarcasm back at her.
“It’s an intrinsic bond between two souls fated to be together.”
“Soul mates? Me and Deke?” Roux tossed back the remainder of her wine. “Okay.” Grabbing the bottle, she refilled her glass to the brim and took another drink. “No, I mean, that’s crazy.”
“Werewolves and vampires exist. A virus wiped out most of humanity. There are places in the world literally called the Deadlands, and mutated Gemini hunt us all.” Huffing, Abby placed her glass firmly on the table and fisted her hands on her hips. “Soul mates are crazy, though. Perfectly sensible deduction, cupcake.”
When she put it like that, Roux couldn’t think of anything to say except, “We’re going to need more booze.”
Abby scoffed. “Is it really such a bad thing?”
“What? That I have no choice but to—”
“Oh, please, of course you have a choice. Stop being so dramatic.”
“Fine, just tell me one thing, Barbie. Take out the romantic notion of some epic, destined love, and what’s the bottom line? What do I have to do?”
Abby finished the last of her wine and poured another glass. “There’s no bottom line, Roux, and you don’t have to do anything. No one is going to force you into something you don’t want, but this isn’t just about you anymore. So, how about you try to get over yourself?”
“Okay, I think you’ve had enough to drink.” Her sudden anger didn’t make sense, unless… “You have a thing for Deke.”
“What? Don’t be ridiculous.”
Jealousy bubbled inside her, simmering just beneath the surface. No, not jealousy. What had Abby called it? Possessiveness. The idea of Abby wanting Deke didn’t bother her, not much. However, when she thought about the tiny Barbie doll acting on those feelings, it filled her with unadulterated, animalistic rage.
Roux set her glass aside and rose from her seat. Narrowing her eyes, she moved around the table, stalking toward Abby with a slow, measured gait. The rational part of her mind demanded to know what the hell she thought she was doing. A more primitive part of her, a piece of her she hadn’t known existed, only cared about one thing.
“Deke is mine.”
“Of course he’s yours,” Abby agreed, standing her ground with her hands planted on her hips. “Now, will you stop snarling at me and pass the brownies?”
“The…” Roux shook her head, easing out of her tense posture. “Uh, yeah, sure.” Still a little dazed by her near-violent reaction, Roux reached across the table for the dessert tin. “What the hell is wrong with me?”
“It’s just the mating bond. I’d like to tell you it gets easier, but from what I understand, that’s not really the case.” Her gaze flickered toward the digital clock display on the microwave. “Oh, shit, I have to go. Curfew is at sundown,” she explained when Roux gaped, “and I have to pick up Peter from the bakery.”
“But, I still have more questions.”
Taking Roux’s hand, Abby squeezed gently. “Talk to Deke. And don’t forget to come by the registration office in the morning.” She squeezed Roux’s hands once more and smiled before she released her. “Seriously, talk to him.”
She watched Abby sashay to the front door, but called her back before she could leave. “I just wanted to say…”
“Yes?”
Returning Abby’s smile, Roux nodded once. “Thanks, Barbie.”
Once alone, Roux spent a few minutes cleaning away their mostly uneaten dinner, boxing it up and moving the containers to the refrigerator. Maybe Deke would be hungry when he returned from patrol. Then she cleaned Abby’s glass in the sink and sat it aside to dry while she refilled her own.
With only her thoughts for company, Deke’s modest, two-bedroom home felt too big and depressingly empty. Deciding she needed a distraction, she took her wine and the remainder of the brownies to the sofa in the living room. There, she curled up in the corner of the cushions and used the remote the flip on the television.
Nothing new had been released since the Purge, but she found a reshowing of one of her favorite movies. Twenty minutes into it, however, the restlessness returned, and her thoughts began to wander. Sitting still didn’t agree with her. She had no one to fight, no one to hide from while she feared for her life. The fridge and cabinets contained plenty of food. Indoor plumbing was just as amazing as she remembered.
None of it felt right, though. She should be doing something, not sitting around indulging in chocolate and wine. Especially not when Cade and the other guys were still locked away in the Bastille. Unfortunately, she didn’t know how to free them, and even if she could, she had no way of getting them out of the city. Deke would be the most logical person to ask for help, but she’d already caused him enough suffering. Next time, Roux didn’t know if she’d be able to talk her way out of trouble.
On top of everything else, she had to worry about some weird, soul bond now. Abby hadn’t given her a satisfactory answer, but she didn’t want to go down that conversational road with Deke, either. Abby had made it sound like some big, romantic overture to be coveted, but Roux just knew that it made her act like a psycho.
It explained several things, not just about her behavior, but about Deke’s as well. The way he’d kissed her in the bakery, how he always seemed to find a reason to touch her. He constantly worried about her, whether she had enough to eat or if she needed medical attention for nothing more than a black eye.
In the woods the night before, she remembered thinking Deke would have ended Phelps’ miserable existence if given the provocation. If the werewolf hadn’t released her when he had, he probably wouldn’t have lived to see the sunrise. As it stood, he’d only made it a few extra hours before pissing Deke off again.
She had to wonder if the captain’s reaction would have been so violent had Phelps threatened anyone besides her. While he’d sounded angry,
he hadn’t been in a big hurry to defend Bethany. She felt confident that he wouldn’t have let anything happen to the young woman, but she doubted he’d have killed for her.
Roux sat there for so long, trying to work out what she knew and what she felt, she nearly jumped out of her skin when the front door opened.
“Why is the door unlocked?” Deke demanded, entering the living room to flop down on the sofa beside her. “Brownies?”
“Abby came by. I guess I forgot to lock the door when she left.” She sat her wine glass on the coffee table and offered him the tin of brownies. “How was patrol?”
“Quiet, thankfully. What did Abby want?”
“Just to check on me.” He looked so tired, almost adorably so, and she didn’t want to bombard him with questions, but she had to ask about the inquiry. “She said that a Warden might want to talk to me about what happened today.”
“Probably.” His broad shoulders lifted in a shrug. “It’s just a formality. Tell the truth, kitten, and you’ll be fine.”
“Abby registered me,” she told him, her muscles tense while she waited for his reaction.
Slowly, Deke sat up on the cushion and angled toward her. “How do you feel about that?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.” She was more interested to hear how he felt about it. “I’m grateful that she thought to cover my ass, and since I’ve already decided to stay, I suppose it’s only going to help.”
Deke pressed his lips together, but it didn’t hide the amusement that glinted in his eyes. “I thought you hadn’t decided.”
“Deke, please. I have no idea what I’m fucking doing.”
She wanted to ask him what it meant to be a mate, how it different from being a companion. She wanted to ask him a million questions, but she didn’t know if she was ready for the answers.
“I’m glad Abby registered you, and I’m glad you’ve decided to stay.” Inching closer, he brushed his fingertips down her bruised cheek and sighed. “It saves me the trouble of having to convince you.” He leaned in even closer, his lips hovering just an inch from hers. “Just so you know, I was prepared to pull out all the stops.”
