Darlings of Darkness: A Vampire Anthology Part 26

I wasn't expecting Shaz and Raoul to be throwing punches like they were in a bar fight. Raoul had a heavier fist, but Shaz had actual brawling experience. I could only a.s.sume Shaz had been watching my back while I fought with Zoey.

Raoul let loose with a fist that knocked Shaz back on his heels. Shaz's instant reaction was an elbow to Raoul's jaw, followed by a head b.u.t.t that sat the large man down on his a.s.s.

Arys stepped between them before I could ask. Jez stood her ground in the doorway, but her watchful gaze never missed a thing.

Despite my attack on her, Zoey really didn't want me. She was all about her father. Seeing him down, she rushed me but veered to the side as I moved to meet her. I fell for her fake out, and she had no problem clearing my reach. With fangs bared, she covered the s.p.a.ce between her and Raoul.

Arys released a blast of power straight at Zoey. At point blank range, the shot hit her square in the chest with enough force to move an elephant. I never had time to react before her body struck me and knocked my feet out from under me.

We were airborne, a tangle of fur that snarled and growled. The sound of shattering gla.s.s screamed through my sensitive ears. The world rolled before my eyes, and I identified the patio doors as we smashed through them. I did my best to tuck and roll as the shards sliced into me, leaving a hot burning sensation everywhere they touched.

Upon clearing the doors, Zoey and I were thrown apart. Each of us. .h.i.t the wooden deck hard. I landed in a heap against the ma.s.sive barbeque, my legs splayed, and my body aching.

Jez called my name as she fumbled to get to me without cutting herself. I lifted my head to indicate that I was ok, but the red blotches staining my fur said otherwise. I caught sight of the particularly large chunk of gla.s.s protruding from my side and panic set in.

As I scrambled to my feet, I noticed the growing pool of blood beneath Zoey's still body. I began turning circles in a desperate attempt to dislodge the gla.s.s shard from my side.

The entire frame of gla.s.s had shattered out of the side that we'd gone through. Shaz and Jez had ducked through but stepped carefully as the broken gla.s.s crunched beneath their weight. Shaz peeled off his shirt and began tearing it into strips while Jez approached me with her hands held up in caution.

I whimpered softly to let her know I was alright, not wound up enough to attack. With a gentle hand against the side of my face, she turned my head away from my body so that I couldn't see them picking the gla.s.s out of me.

A fresh commotion erupted inside. The unmistakable sound of bodies colliding carried through the broken door.

"I'm going to watch the light fade from your eyes as I drain every last drop from you, wolf." Arys's voice shook with a menace that I'd never heard from him before. "If Alexa's hurt, consider yourself a walking dead man, Raoul." Another series of smacks and bangs were followed by a grunt of pain.

Please G.o.d, I thought. Just let this end.

I yelped when Jez withdrew the largest shard from my side. Shaz came to hold my muzzle lightly in his hands. One finger stroked the side of my nose. When she pressed a piece of his torn shirt to my side, I whimpered and tried to pull away.

"It's ok, Lex," he whispered, but his voice betrayed the worry that he tried to hide. The stink of fear on him tantalized my senses as it chilled me to the core. "Just hang in there."

The sound of more gla.s.s crunching reached me as Raoul stumbled through the hole where his patio door had been. His eyes went to Zoey, and he fell to his knees beside her, unaware of the gla.s.s digging into his legs.

With the faintest twitch of her tail, I knew Zoey wasn't dead. I watched Raoul bend down to bury his face in her silky fur, and I held my breath in antic.i.p.ation.

Arys appeared in the shattered doorway. His shoulders sagged when he saw me. "My beautiful wolf..."

He never moved closer. He merely stared at me with a sadness that looked so wrong in his blue eyes. With my face in Shaz's hands, I could only look up at my dark vampire as the pain began to set in on a deeper level.

"I think that's all of it," Jez said, tossing a chunk of gla.s.s aside. "You have some nasty cuts, Lex. You need st.i.tches."

h.e.l.l no, I thought. I don't do needles.

I took a tentative step, and the pain slashed through me. I think I had a broken rib or two. My leg was numb, and fatigue was setting in from the blood loss.

I sensed Zoey's movement before she even twitched a muscle. I made as if to lunge, but I wasn't close enough.

She opened her eyes and leaned into Raoul's exposed throat with fangs bared. My eyes widened in horror and disbelief. Blood, warm and lupine spattered my face as I cleared most of the gla.s.s debris in a jump.

I stopped short of an attack when I saw clearly that all four of her fangs were buried to the gum, a gruesome, mortal wound. He'd bleed out in a matter of minutes at best.

Raoul stared at me as the blood gurgled in his windpipe. I recognized the challenge in those coal black eyes even as the light ebbed out of them. He was willing to fight me away from his daughter even as she killed him.

My heart constricted with emotion and blood loss. I took a respectful step back as guilt washed through me. I'd known she wasn't dead.

'No, my love,' Arys's honey sweet voice came from the shadows of my mind. 'He chose this death. He doesn't even struggle.'

Arys was right. Raoul clung to that stupid wolf as if he were a boy and his dog, stroking her black fur, so like his own.

I whimpered and growled, unable to watch this without being able to act. A key player in my life, no matter how positive or negative, was dying before my eyes. I couldn't do this. Zoey had to die.

"Alexa, don't." Shaz's command was softly spoken but a command nonetheless.

Shaz stood behind me as if he'd grab my tail to hold me back. I didn't give that wolf enough credit for how well he knew me. "It's not your fight anymore. It's over now."

How could it be over? The b.i.t.c.h was lying in a pool of blood and still wasn't dead. In seconds, Raoul's body went limp, his hands relaxed in Zoey's fur.

My continuous growl became a snarl when she struggled to her feet, leaving Raoul face down in the broken gla.s.s. She stank of blood and death. My every instinct demanded that I finish her off.

"She's not going to make it far," Jez came to stand next to me, and I longed for my human voice. "Let her go."

Were they all completely mad? This was insanity. I looked to Arys for support but he gave no indication as to what he thought was best.

'I can't let her walk off this property alive,' I conveyed.

'That's your decision to make, but she'll be dead before she reaches the edge of town.'

I couldn't stop the snarling and snapping at the air. I was infused with this hate that filled me to capacity. My very nature demanded that I kill her after everything she'd done.

Zoey met my eyes with a look of clear understanding. She was running on borrowed time, and she knew it. Even if she survived the coming day, I would come for her.

Her muzzle was matted with Raoul's blood. One leg dragged awkwardly behind her, and she was a ma.s.s of cuts. The few steps down to the gra.s.s below the deck proved to be an obstacle, and she stumbled a few times while looking back at us, expecting an attack.

The battle between wolf and human raged inside me as it had so many times before. I wrestled with conflicting urges and emotions. I hated myself when she disappeared from sight.

I padded up beside Raoul, and with my muzzle in his hair, I sniffed for any sign of life. Nothing. I felt physically ill. Something broke inside of me, deep down, in a place that I hadn't acknowledged in so long.

If this all had nothing to do with me, why did I feel like it was my fault? I should have killed her the moment I stepped in the house. I'm sorry, Raoul, I thought, Sorry it all had to end this way. If only you'd told me sooner. If Arys was aware of my thoughts, he gave no indication.

As the adrenaline began to subside, the pain reached intolerable. My side continued to trickle blood, and a wave of dizziness led the blackness to close in on me.

"Shaz," Jez's voice sounded so very far away. "She's blacking out."

I went down on my face in a slick puddle of blood and crushed gla.s.s.

Chapter Twenty.

In my incoherent dreams, I saw the black wolf, the one that I so admired in my wistful youth. Images sputtered and jumped from one to another. The past flashed by, in all of its horridly disappointing glory.

I'm still not sure if it was my guilty subconscious or really Raoul, but the scent of him was so real. I wanted to reach out and touch him, to sink my fingers into his soft fur. I'd curled up against that fur when the change was still so new and surreal. I couldn't touch it, though; my fingers went right through him when I tried.

The pain of my broken heart far surpa.s.sed that of my battered body. In my unconscious state, I mourned the loss of the black wolf as surely as if it were the loss of some great part of me. How would I go on without him?

At some point, I had the vague sensation that I was held tight in loving arms. The scent of my white wolf soothed and lulled me into deeper sleep.

I'd shifted back to my human form. I had a moment of worry as I wondered where my clothing was, but soft material wrapped around me, and the thought vanished. I allowed the scent of Shaz to comfort me as I accepted the returning darkness.

When I finally awoke, with a blinding headache, I was safe in my own bed. Shaz held my arms pinned above my head so that I couldn't lash out at Fox as he went about cleaning and st.i.tching my wounds. Sheets covered my b.r.e.a.s.t.s and pelvic region, but the rest of my lacerated body remained exposed.

The faint light of the approaching dawn cast a pretty, pink glow on Kylarai who sat at the foot of my bed. Her encouraging smile was a welcome sight.

I resisted the urge to fight off the two men that insisted on poking and prodding me. Fox was just doing what we paid him well to do, and Shaz was ensuring his safety as he did so. I let out a low moan as pain stabbed through my side. A white bandage was wound tightly around my ribs just below my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. I hurt when I breathed.

Ky was injured but clearly ok, which made the agony more bearable.

"You may have a concussion. Take note of any extreme headaches, vomiting or dizziness over the next day or so." Fox's touch was as gentle as his soft, brown eyes. This wasn't the first time he'd tended my wounds.

"Where's Arys?" I coughed as the words stuck in my dry throat.

When Shaz was sure I'd behave, he released my arms and handed me a gla.s.s of water from the night table. He frowned in response to my words, but I wanted to know.

"It's sunrise," Kylarai's gentle voice was soothing. "He spent the last few hours cleaning up at Raoul's. He said he'd take care of everything. No worries." Though she directed a smile at me, her grey eyes went to Shaz in apology.

"There we go." Fox gave a tug on the final st.i.tch, and my stomach turned at the sensation. "No shifting for three days. You should be well enough by then."

"Thank you, Fox," I whispered, reaching out to accept the fuzzy blanket that Shaz drew up over me.

Fox rose to leave but paused on the threshold to the hallway. His cheeks flushed, and his eyes were downcast. "I'm sorry about Raoul. This is all very unfortunate. Call me if you need anything else at all." Before we could reply, he ducked out of the room. His feet scuffed down the hall in his hurry to leave.

Ky made as if to follow him, but Shaz motioned for her to stay seated as he followed Fox to the front door.

"How do you feel?" I asked when we were alone. "I was worried."

She laughed softly then winced in pain. "You were worried? This is just a flesh wound. I hear you challenged the patio door."

"It challenged me." I fussed with the pillow at my back, careful not to move too fast. The thought of ripped st.i.tches was creepier than st.i.tches in general.

"Lex," she touched my ankle through the blanket. "What happened with Raoul ... it's not your fault." Was my self-blame so common that it was now expected?

If I closed my eyes, I could see the ebony wolf running to take down my attacker before he could steal my innocence away. I saw him as the hero that he'd been to me as a teenage girl, a blossoming woman.

The truth was, I had indeed given myself to him, my reward to the prince who'd rescued me. It was my own youthful naivete that led to my first heartbreak. I had expected a fairytale romance, and he'd been a werewolf. He acted on instinct and accepted my gift.

I confessed none of this. I accused him of manipulating and taking advantage of me because I'd never been able to deal with being nothing more than a bedmate to him. My childish picket fence dream had gone up in smoke. It wasn't meant to be, or at least, not for me.

But ultimately, that hadn't been Raoul's fault. He was the most selfish man that I knew, but he had died willingly. The paradox made my brain throb.

I accepted the hand that Ky extended to me. "I just wish we'd cleared the air."

She nodded; she understood the absence of closure. "Arys said he'll be by after sunset." She hesitated and looked at the doorway as if expecting Shaz to appear. "They got into it pretty bad. Playing the blame game. You know. Arys wanted to heal you but Shaz wouldn't let anyone but Fox touch you."

I sighed. There was n.o.body to really blame for the drama and tension between Shaz and Arys but me. How did I get myself into these situations?

"Did Kale take care of you? He better have." I grinned when a full-fledged blush accompanied her reluctant smile.

"He was a perfect gentleman. I didn't once get the impression that he was wondering what I taste like."

"Oh, he was. He's just had a few centuries to practice hiding it."

We laughed lightly together but it was strained. Forced. I could tell that Kylarai had cried upon learning of Raoul's death. Her eyes were bloodshot, and the tangy scent of salt lingered on her skin.

When Shaz returned, she gave my hand a warm pat before excusing herself despite my insistence that she stay. As soon as we were alone and those green eyes met mine, I started to come undone.

On the bed with me, he took my hand so that it lay clasped within his. "Are you ok, Lex?"

"Yeah, I'll live. I promise. Don't blame Arys. It was all circ.u.mstance."

"That's not what I mean." He shook his head, causing his platinum hair to fall into his eyes just the way I loved it. "Are you ok? Do you want to talk about what happened with Raoul?"

He gave me a look that said he knew there was so much more than I'd been letting on. Tears flooded my eyes, and I made a pathetic attempt to blink them away.

"I let him die thinking I hated him." My lower lip trembled, and I felt the sob seconds before it broke from me.

I couldn't say anymore, and he didn't push me. As he pulled me carefully into his arms, I sunk against his comforting embrace.

For the first time in a long time, I dropped all my guards and allowed myself to feel raw emotion as I sobbed into the hollow of his neck. So recently, I'd held Raoul in much the same way as his hot tears streaked moist paths along my skin.

I hated that I hadn't realized. I hadn't known it was the last time we would ever have a chance to leave our bitterness aside. Perhaps, that was our closure. If only I'd known.

The entire day pa.s.sed in bed with my white wolf at my side. When Arys came by that evening, I had just convinced Shaz to go to work. I insisted a day of healing had already done wonders for me. He didn't want to leave me, but after I promised to stay home with Kylarai, he begrudgingly went and swore that he'd be back after last call.

Arys filled me in. He'd arranged Raoul's house to look like a break in. The authorities labeled him a missing person of interest in the murders of his lovers. They could launch a nationwide manhunt, he would never be found.

Arys grasped my chin so that I was forced to meet his eyes. I felt the quiver of power begin deep down inside.

"I know it's my fault that you were hurt so badly. I can't tell you how terrible I feel." The strange silence surrounding us thickened. "Your wolf is right. I don't deserve to have what it is we share."

His admission, though touching, was wrong. "Arys, that's not true. I know you'd never do anything to intentionally endanger me. I trust you."

I realized then that we were all carrying around guilt. And whatever for? It wasn't doing any one of us a d.a.m.n bit of good.