Devil Hills: #2 Luna & Lydia

by Diroll-Nichols, Karen

  “She thought she was helping. She thought…” Lydia closed her eyes. “Her family had a car accident and they were all killed. Her father had called at the facility, he was a lawyer, and he was asking questions. I read about it in the paper a few days later. She kept telling me we should tell someone. Now. We should get them out. Now.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “So that’s how I knew what they were. So in the grand scheme of things…” she continued without inflection in her voice, without looking over at him. “I made friends. Lots of friends when I was out and about. People who owed me favors, people I did favors for and people I learned to steal from. I found foster homes for them with people like them who could help them once the drug was out of their system. People who could protect them…I hope. They were about twenty when I overheard the ghoul talking with one of the new doctors. They were selecting people from other facilities to breed them with…trying to make them stronger and under their control. I don’t know why. I’m sure it’s not for the good of the world,” she said dryly.

  “You don’t know Gaudarville?”

  “You mean…like are we friends? I’ve seen him in the papers. On TV…he’s a politician,” she shrugged. “I don’t get into that stuff so I don’t pay attention. Should I?”

  Jude exhaled slowly. “I don’t know…I really…am getting an idea…”

  “Now it’s your turn,” she said with a growl. “What the hell did you do to me?”

  Jude raised his hand and pulled the collar of his shirt down, showing off the small bite mark, the open wound that, like hers, sent a rush of sensual heat through him when she touched it.

  “Alright. I bit you. You wouldn’t let go of my wrist. So we’re even, big deal,” she grumbled, blinking when he abruptly guided the SUV to the side of the road, the emergency blinkers set to on before he turned to her.

  Let’s just not mention the tiny voice inside her head that had ordered her to bite him; ordered her to mark him so all the other females would acknowledge it and realize they had no chance.

  “Ever done that before?” He felt the rise of jealousy inside him, uncertain of her answer.

  “No! Of course not!”

  “Why me?” The words came out soft, relieved.

  “I…I told you…you pissed me off,” she turned away from him. “I am not crazy.”

  “Lydia, I haven’t said…”

  “Others have. I told them when I was little. I told them I saw a huge cat in my dreams and she…she talked to me,” Lydia forced the words between her lips. “I’m not crazy.”

  “This cat told you to bite me?”

  She swung around on him, glaring at the humor she heard in his voice.

  “You know what a shifter is,” he watched her tongue come out, dragging moisture around her lips as she nodded very slowly. “You…marked me, Lydia.”

  “Marked you? I bit you…I was really pissed off…you were messing with my time line…” She frantically searched through the bits of information she had about shifters. Aside from getting them away from the ghoul, she really wasn’t that interested in their life or history. “I don’t really know anything about shifters. Just that the people I’d known since they were babies had to get out of there before she could hurt them more. What am I missing?”

  Jude knew his sanity was slipping the minute he raised the center armrest and slid across the seat, closer to where she was scrunched into the corner against the far door. His hand went to her neck, one finger crooking into the collar of her shirt and sliding it out of his way.

  “What does this do to you, Lydia?” Jude leaned over, dragged his tongue around the ridge he’d created when he marked her. He felt her body shiver, heard the quick sup of breath she held and refused to release right away.

  “Am I going to die?” She whispered, going on when he groaned. “It’s okay, it really is...but I’ll take one of those facilities with me.”

  “Does it feel like death, Lydia?”

  Jude growled, this tone low and filled with need. He raised his head far enough to meet the wide green eyes seconds before his mouth covered hers, sweeping in and taking the kiss he’d dreamt of the night before. He bit the full bow of her lower lip, his tongue surging inside, tasting and stroking hers, urging her to join in the play.

  Lydia felt parts of her body come to life with an explosion she had no idea was possible. It was bad enough when he teased and licked over that damn mark on her shoulder. That sent shivers and wild lightning straight to her clit! She never knew her nipples would get wrinkled like that from a kiss! Pushing against her shirt at the same time she was positive her panties would be soaked when she showered later that night.

  And all from that mark?

  A virus, came the whimpered voice inside her. He poisoned her.

  Jude’s palm slid up her arm, onto her shoulder and into the hair at the side of her face, his thumb stroking along her jaw. He wanted more. He wanted the taste of honey and spice that coated her lips, the taste of hidden promises she’d never given to another.

  Her lips softened, pulled back and returned to his mouth, her tongue out to draw over his lower lip before she settled down against his mouth.

  He felt her palm against his chest, slim fingers curled around the edge of his shirt.

  He pulled his mouth from hers, kissing along her jaw and down her throat. Her body pressed closer. The small, firm outline of her breasts tempted his sanity. Her throat arched for the teasing nips he offered until he reached the mark. A low, husky cry left her lips when he bit down, her body stiffened and pressed hotly against him. He could smell her, weaving the sweet scent through him like wildfire.

  Lydia pushed hard against him, eyes wide and panicked.

  “What did you do to me?”

  “I kissed you and you kissed back,” he answered, leaning in and resting his forehead against hers. “It’s called passion, kitten. Nothing else. I find you attractive…appealing…and obviously your body finds me equally appealing.”

  “I’ve kissed guys before,” her head shook adamantly. “It was okay. It was…”

  “Boring?” He suggested dryly.

  “What does the mark mean? Tell me!”

  “It means you marked me as your mate.” He lifted his head, watched his words sink in, pale lashes blinking.

  Digesting. Denying. Her head shook slowly but he nodded in response, just as slowly. His hand went to the side of her face, stroking gently and smiling at the way her lashes closed, her face rubbing against him. It lasted almost a minute before she jerked back, banging her head on the closed window.

  “Lydia…”

  “Get away from me,” she shoved against his chest, swearing at the useless hand with the cuff on it. She stared at him. Studied him. “What are you? Where you’re taking me…what are they?”

  Jude lifted his palm, watching her face as he pulled his claws out to show her. Wild, wide eyes flew from his claws to his face and back. She didn’t know the difference in the types of claws predators had. Not yet. So he chose which question to answer.

  “Most of the wolves in Devil Hills have a Canadian Wolf heritage. MacKenzie Valley. Morning Star Lake wolves also hail from there,” Jude watched her as he spoke.

  “A wolf. A wolf bit me…” Lydia swayed slightly and collapsed in a graceful heap against him.

  “Well…” Jude pushed a long breath of air between his lips, one hand up and rubbing over the back of his neck. He laid her against the door, pulling a blanket from the back and covering her lightly. He slid behind the wheel, tapping in the number to Seth and holding his breath until a voice came through.

  “Jude? I’ve had a couple dropped calls. We had a little problem with some tracking devices on the poles outside town,” Seth clipped his headset in place and paced his office. “Are things alright? Any information about them coming for Luna?”

  “Things have gotten a little…complicated.”

  “You know I hate complicated,” Came the low growl.

>   “I need information, boss.” He knew he didn’t sound normal and Seth was nothing if not perceptive.

  “Where are you?”

  “On the road. Left Gaudarville and before you spring a leak, did you hear about the explosion, the arson, just outside Montreal two or three nights ago?” Jude guided the SUV back to the road.

  “It’s one of the places we were watching. What about it?” Suspicion edged each word. He knew his people didn’t do it. They were trained too well to just get a notion and go off without a plan. One he usually created.

  “I don’t even fucking know where to start,” he growled, low and harsh. “Luna…she’s there? Right? Please fucking tell me she’s there and with the sheriff.”

  “I can check real quick, but believe me, if she wasn’t, Sage would be tearing apart the county. She’s working out at the Wild Raven and the town’s watching out for her,” Seth answered immediately.

  “And she is marked and mated. To him.”

  “Jude, what the hell are trying to get at?”

  “I’m pretty damn sure I have her twin sister in the SUV with me.” Jude kept his voice low. “She’s the one who blew the facility the other night. After she got all the shifters out. Get some sources out in Montreal. I can probably get her to give me the names of the people acting as foster parents to the people she liberated, but it might take time. Trust isn’t exactly in her vocabulary.”

  Seth fell back to lean on his desk.

  “One more time,” he said very slowly.

  “No shit,” Jude countered. “She says she has a thumb drive full of information she can’t crack. I’m heading to Devil Hills with her now. We’re about two days out,” he listened to the soft groan. “I don’t think she knows who she is. All the paperwork she has with her, lists her as Lydia Jones. She says she was created in a dish and popped into the oven for nine months. She’s lived at the facility all her life. Hold on a sec…” he lifted the small phone and snapped several pictures of Lydia, putting it back into the holder and tapping over the small keys. “Pictures incoming. Lydia Jones.”

  “Can this get any more convoluted?” Seth opened his mail, his eyes closed for a long minute as the photos came into clear focus from a couple angles. “Identical.”

  “Boss, trust me, you got no idea. I’ll try and type up what I know and send it off to you tonight.”

  “She came with you willingly?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far. She’s not exactly docile, believe me. If she stayed at that facility, it was by her choice. She played them…” He watched her slowly come awake. “And she played them damn well. Enough that she got almost thirty of them free and in shifter friendly homes to help them overcome the drugs in their system.”

  “We never knew who was helping shifters escape from some of the facilities. You believe she was responsible?”

  “You can ask her…she passed out for a bit…Lydia Jones…Seth Anderson, my boss.”

  “Oh, good, I can file a complaint and have your sorry ass hung out to dry on some distant mountain,” she growled at him, her eyes on the phone.

  “Has Jude been less than a gentleman, Miss Jones?”

  “Do you sanction kidnapping?”

  “I prefer the term protective custody,” Jude returned smoothly, flashing a grin at her with a hint of canine. She yelped and stared.

  “Jude is a highly respected, well trained employee. If he thought you were in danger…”

  “I’ve been taking care of myself since forever. Oh, poor me, I need a big bad male to suddenly tell me my life sucks and I need his help to overcome that.”

  “Appearance is identical but the voices and tone, decidedly different.” Seth closed one eye and almost laughed. “If you’ll come to Devil Hills and help us with whatever you might know, I’ll be more than happy to return you to Montreal once we’ve got it all sorted out. Would that be satisfactory to you?”

  “I’m wearing hand cuffs,” she began sweetly. “You really think I believe anything either of you are telling me at the moment?”

  “Handcuffs, Jude?” Seth ran a palm over the back of his neck.

  “Don’t judge,” Jude shot back. “She’s a wildcat and co-operation is not in her vocabulary.”

  “Did you ask her nicely?”

  “Yeah, boss, each time I caught her stealing from patrons at the events she attended. Or the time she bit me or tried to shoot me.”

  “Snitch!” She hissed at him, trying to cross her arms over her chest only to come up short since one was attached to the console.

  “A thief.”

  “Cat burglar,” she informed him arrogantly.

  “Apt name considering…”

  “Uhh…boss…” Jude interrupted sharply. “You remember what Luna’s problem was when they first found her?” He hoped Seth was as quick as he’d always been.

  “Shit,” the word dragged out low and long.

  “Yeah. So let’s say things are…complicated at the moment. Needless to say, I felt it best to remove her as quickly as possible from Montreal before either Dr. Morgan or Gaudarville located her and took her.” Jude glanced over at her. “Gratitude is a little long in coming, though. I’m thinking she hasn’t had her distemper shots yet.”

  “And you wonder if we’re getting along,” she murmured. Her fingers rose, touching the mark on her shoulder. Part of her wanted to say something. But a bigger part of her told her, loudly, that the mark was personal. Something between him and her. Male and female. Nothing to do with the facilities or this man on the other end of the phone.

  “Any help Jess could offer, I’d appreciate it. She said her last shot was about two weeks back,” Jude tapped the switch, sending the wipers out to sweep the light rain from the windshield.

  “I’ll talk to him. Do you think you were followed?”

  “There’s no way anyone would connect us,” Jude thought over the last few days. “But hell…I don’t know. Every time I saw Lydia, she wore a different wig and looked different. As far as I know and from talking to her, the people at the facility didn’t know she was escaping at lights out and returning before breakfast.”

  “Good. That’s good. Did Gaudarville know about her existence?”

  “Yeah, I’m pretty sure on that one. I heard him talking with Morgan. If they couldn’t get Luna back, he wanted Lydia. Morgan bulked and finally told him she was gone and they didn’t know where she was,” Jude considered his next comment. “I think she’s been pushing it too long, Seth. She’s thin…and tired.”

  “Gee, thanks…” Lydia turned away from him, pulling the blanket closer.

  “And she’s always cold.”

  “Were the shots always given at the same time each month, Miss Jones?”

  She pouted. Finally sighing. “Yes…no…no, not always. They took blood on Mondays. Mine was all over the charts so they adjusted whatever they were giving me based on whatever they found in the blood test.”

  “The times they gave you the shot early, was it after one of your excursions?” Jude asked thoughtfully, a glare aimed at him despite the gleam in her eyes.

  Lydia considered this, frowning and tilting her head as if looking at a spreadsheet of dates and times in her head. Her eyes flew to his, her nod slow.

  “Yes. Yes…how did I miss that…”

  “Adrenaline…or hormones…one of the doctors here would be able to tell,” Seth said thoughtfully.

  “Usually by the time I got back, I was so tired, I’d just fall on my face in bed and not think about anything until things started making noise in the morning,” she looked toward the phone. “What were they giving me? You know. Both of you. Why won’t you tell me?”

  “I think you might want to wait until you get here, Miss Jones. Please. We have a doctor familiar with the drugs they used who can more easily answer your questions.”

  “What did they want me for?”

  “I can only guess at that one, I’m afraid. Your usefulness to Gaurdarville being at the top of the list.”


  “Why is he so important? What is he involved with?” She demanded angrily.

  “The purist parties to eradicate shifters around the world,” Seth said without pulling punches on his answer. “That includes using drugs if necessary.”

  “But the ghoul wanted them for breeding. She was…was creating more…”

  “To use in her experiments. Less attention drawn to her that way. Easier than grabbing people off the streets. No missing person’s reports if she creates her own test subjects,” his voice was cold, hard and angry. “No complaints if she convinces a woman to give birth to a child and then takes that child from her.”

  “Why me? I’m not…” Wide eyes flew to Jude, her chest rising and falling hard and rapidly. “Oh god…you knew…you know…”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Gotta go, boss,” Jude quickly found an opening and pulled the SUV onto the wide edge of the road, his belt released and hands quickly throwing the arm rest out of the way. “Lydia! Breathe, damn it! Take in…Christ…” his mouth crashed down on hers, a hot savage kiss meant to drag her from wherever her mind had gone.

  She felt the air finally rip through her lungs, her body shaking and mouth pulled from his. She gripped his shirt with both hands, gripped and shook. His hand went to the back of her head, holding her against him and while she worked at breathing.

  “Breathing now,” she said in a little voice, but not minding the warmth at all. She felt him exhale, his arms pulling her closer, if possible. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Lydia, I didn’t know you were unaware. The idea…hell, I can’t imagine not knowing…but I wasn’t raised like you were, either,” he finished softly. “They kept a lot from you. Have you ever seen anyone shift in front of you?”

  “No…not really…I saw Sasha…after…she was beautiful…all deep midnight and sparks of gold in her fur,” she recalled with a shudder. “I’m so tired. So confused.”