A Cursed Embrace (WG 2) (10 page)

Gemini’s wolf carri
ed the other demon child, clenching his jaws tighter when it stirred. It still lived. I growled at it. Man, I hated these things.

Aric leaned down on one knee when we reached the path. “You may not want to watch this,” he said without glancing up.

I knelt beside him to assure him that I didn’t want to leave him, and that I’d had my fill of being scared. “I’ve seen this much, Aric. I’d rather know what to do. In case more are out there.”

He nodded.

And ripped the demon’s head off like he was cracking a lobster.

The demon child’s innards spilled like tiny maggots. Aric tossed the body onto the hard ground. Almost instantly the parts dissolved in the sun. I cringed. “Do they need sunlight to die?”

“No. Just air once you decapitate them. I did it out here because the added breeze helps.”

As the leftover bits of demon child floated away in the light wind, the stench around us was cut by half. In the silence that followed, the urge to explain myself compelled me to speak. “I didn’t know how to kill it. Sorry I wasn’t more helpful.”

Aric shot me a halfhearted smile. “You didn’t die. That’s good enough for me. But the general rule of thumb is, when in doubt, destroy the brain or heart.” He brushed his hands on his black sweats. “If you can’t, rip off the wings to render it flightless until you’re able.”

His voice sounded more didactic than warm, lacking the usual affection I’d grown to adore and crave. So I kept discussing the demon child because I didn’t know what else to say. And if we stopped talking, I feared we’d never speak again. “He was fast. It took us a while to catch him.”

Aric stood when I did. “I suppose they’re born fast to increase their chances of survival.”

“Have any ever survived?”

“Not that we’ve heard.” He wiped his large hands against each other. “Yet anyway.” The demon child screeched like a mini-pterodactyl and wriggled inside Gemini’s mouth like a mound of snakes. “Do you want to kill it?” Aric asked him.

The wolf turned his massive four-hundred-plus-pound body to where Taran stood with her arms crossed. Gemini, the human half, had his arm draped around her. She curled against him when she saw the little booger start to flap its bat wings. “I’d better do it,” Koda said, jogging up to us.

The wolf tossed the creature in the air and rushed back to merge with Gemini. Koda yanked it out of the sky when it attempted to flee, tore it in half like a French roll, dropped it on the ground, and walked back to Shayna as if he hadn’t just ripped evil in two. It took a lot to ruffle a werewolf’s feathers. A Wird sister’s feathers? Not so much. Aric should have done the honors. Shayna’s skin mimicked the color of my butt.

Aric’s eyes widened as the air cleared and his gaze shot down to my foot. “You’re bleeding,” he growled.

Blood soaked through my tattered running shoe, staining the white laces crimson. My survival instincts naturally forced me to ignore pain. Though that didn’t mean my injury didn’t throb, especially when the white leather chafed against the bite marks. I shrugged. “Yeah. The little evil bastard bit me when—”

Aric yanked me in his arms and growled some more. “
Emme
. Celia’s hurt!”

My tigress circled my arms around his neck, allowing me to cuddle and draw in the scent of water crashing over stone. “It’s no big deal, Aric. I’m fine. I just need some antiseptic.”

Aric sat on the edge of the porch, draping me across his lap. His strong chiseled arms curled around me. My cheek fell against his bare chest and our bodies melded and relaxed into a state of tranquility. The breeze lifted strands of my long hair, teasing his smooth skin and carrying the scent of budding tulips to my nose. His wolf murmured something softly. My tigress responded with a gentle purr. It was all so beautiful, sensual even. Until Koda pulled my sneaker and sock off in one hard tug.

Gasps, muffled shrieks, and rumbling chests dragged me back into reality and kicked me in the face. The demon child’s serrated fangs had sliced my instep and peeled the thin layer of skin away from the bones. Veins spluttered like tiny hoses, releasing my body’s precious fluid in squirts. Blood dribbled between my toes and discolored my nails.

Okay. Maybe I needed more than a little Neosporin.

The 3-D view clenched my stomach like an iron vise. Bile bubbled against my throat, and the stinging pain I’d shoved back returned with a nauseating vengeance. I no longer had a foot; I had a mangled piece of meat with digits at the end. I curled farther into Aric, focusing on his strong, clean scent and not my raw flesh. “Son of a bitch,” Taran muttered. Soft cotton enclosed my foot. “I’ll hold pressure. Emme, start healing.”

Emme’s soft healing light brightened Aric’s golden skin. My eyes centered on his dark pink nipple, stiff from the soft wind, I supposed. He growled again. Okay, maybe just tense from the anger surging through his well-muscled physique. Concern for him beat back the preoccupation with my injury until it no longer mattered. After all, Emme’s gift would mend me. But in no way did it spare Aric from worry. “Shhh,” I whispered in his ear. “I’m okay, wolf. I swear it.”

And I was. Against Aric’s body, I definitely was. His presence allowed me to abandon the disturbing images of the day and erased the thoughts of my skinned flesh and oozing vessels.

Aric stroked his stubble cheek against mine. “I shouldn’t have left you.”

My lips met his briefly as my fingertips slid lightly against his chest, itching with the need to play with that perfect nipple. I withdrew, wondering if the other was just as delightful. Yup. Absolutely. My tigress rolled her eyes, reminding me I could have witnessed more than a little areola action if only my inner nerd hadn’t marched forward waving her geek banner with all the grace of a two-year-old on roller skates.

Aric’s honey-colored eyes searched mine. They always spoke of power and strength. This time they whispered with more intensity, and a hell of a lot more fire. “I won’t leave you again,” he promised.

My arms fastened around him, returning his embrace. “Thank you . . . for caring about what happens to me.”

My words carried a great deal of emotion. Most beings demonstrated little to no sympathy for me. Then I’d met Aric. Initially I presumed his wolfish impulses caused him to assume a protective role. Altercations with other wolves stomped that theory to bits. Wolves in general didn’t feel compelled to protect—
Aric
did. Despite not belonging to his pack, he cared about me. For some bizarre reason, he cared more than it seemed possible.

Taran’s hard wipes to my foot forced me to acknowledge that Emme had completed her healing. Aric lifted me, his pace quick as he returned to the path. My head whirled around to my family as we disappeared around the bend. “Where are we going?”

“I need to get you home. My wolves will keep your sisters safe.”

I wiggled my foot. Wine-colored splotches painted my smooth pink skin. “But I’m fine now. We need to tend to the bodies.”

“No. You don’t. The
weres
we have in the local homicide unit have been
called
. They’re on their way and will take care of matters inside the mill.”

The matters he spoke of no doubt involved identifying the victims and notifying their families. I nibbled on my bottom lip. “Do you think they’re local?”

The wind picked up, and so did the roar of the river. “Hard to tell with the number of tourists Tahoe gets.”

“I guess.” I wiggled against him so he’d put me down. He didn’t. “You realize I can walk.”

“You’re not wearing shoes.”

“Aric—”

A throaty, frustrated growl found its way out of Aric and heated his face. “Celia, my wolf failed to keep you safe. Cut him some slack and allow us to care for you now.”

My narrowed eyes slowly softened as I absorbed the extent of Aric’s culpability. My tigress took protecting my sisters seriously. When she failed, guilt dug hard enough to rupture my spleen. As a beast, I understood. As a female, I also recognized Aric’s need to be chivalrous. And yet had any other male carried me then, I’d have
shifted
him into the ground, kicked him in the head, and stomped back to the car. But because it was Aric, I relaxed against him, allowing both him and his beast to tend to me. I kissed the edge of his jaw. “All right. But just this one time, wolf.”

Aric huddled me closer. “I was convinced the danger lurked outside the mill. And I believed the sour stench was related to the woman’s violent death, not the presence of demons. I wanted to protect you by keeping you away from the fight and thought Gem’s wolf would be enough to keep you safe.”

“Well, now we know for next time.”

Aric tightened his jaw. He didn’t say it, but he left me the impression there might not be a next time. My tigress wasn’t so sure about that. The evil I’d witnessed terrified me, more than any other magical entity I’d encountered. And yet it triggered such hate and anger that even now my fangs begged to protrude and tear out the throats of those who threatened to shadow the world with darkness. Hell existed for creatures like that. My tigress yearned to send them back, and my faith demanded they never return. I wasn’t
were
, but at that moment I understood their loyalty to the earth.

Aric slowed as the trees thinned out and we reached the grassy knoll near the bakery. Human voices pricked my ears. “Where the hell is your brother? He and Beverly were supposed to meet us hours ago!”

A man wearing jeans and a thick jacket loomed over a young woman on her cell phone. She disconnected the call and glared at him. “For the last time, I don’t know. Tara and Bill said they haven’t heard from them, either.”

“We’re going to lose the damn deposit on the raft ride!”

The woman’s growing annoyance and underlying aroma of fear made her smack her partner’s arm. “Will you shut up about the damn deposit! What if something happened to them?”

My eyes widened, but I kept my mouth shut until Aric placed me in the passenger seat of his Escalade. I motioned toward the alley. “Could the screams you went after have come from those missing people?”

Aric watched the storefront of the antique shop as if he expected someone he knew to step onto the cracked walkway. “It was that same couple we passed before we entered the forest. I recognized the man’s cologne the closer we neared where they’d been taken.”

I stilled. Taken. As in gone forever. Aric clasped my hands, sensing my anger and sadness. “What took them?”

Aric shook his head. “I don’t know. When we left you with Gemini at the mill, we picked up a bizarre scent. I’ve never smelled anything like it. It stank of dark magic and death, but the prominent aroma was human. We tracked it, and the couple, until they vanished.”

My brows knitted together. “It didn’t rain, though. How could so many fresh scents vanish so quickly?”

An odd sense of gloom filled the car and shadowed Aric’s light brown eyes. “My guess? Something with wings carried them away.”

C
HAPTER 7

Aric s
lipped into the driver’s side and cranked the engine while I absentmindedly clicked my seat belt in place. I thought of the demon children twins, small enough to stomp, yet hard to catch and equipped with a mouthful of sharp incentives to discourage anyone from trying. The wolves had killed them before they’d grown too big. But had others managed to venture into adulthood? “You think there are grown demon children out there?”

Aric pulled onto the road, passing all the quaint little shops that had withstood the passage of time. “My nose tells me the scents are too distinct to be the same creature, but I can’t come up with another reason that couple disappeared without a trace.”

“And yet the demon children don’t explain the deaths of the men.”

Aric rubbed his five o’clock shadow, his eyes narrowing when they glimpsed my foot. “No. What they did to you and how they tore that woman apart reinforces the theory that they’re cannibalistic creatures.”

I swiveled my foot a few times. The skin felt a little tight due to the dried blood and the freshly healed muscles. “Yep, definitely like piranhas with wings.”

Aric reached for my hand. “More of a reason I don’t want you involved in this shit.”

My fingers interlinked with his. Considering that I’d been chomped on like a bucket of chicken, now wasn’t the time to argue that he needed my help more than ever. I’d wait until his wolf calmed before I made my argument. Aric’s reason stood no chance against his riled beast, especially since my injuries remained on the forefront of his mind.

Five SUVs passed us on the way out of town. Aric gave a stiff nod to the first one. I recognized the last truck as Paul’s. “Why did you call Paul here? Is he a homicide cop?”

“He’s actually a forensics specialist, but not a cop. His eyes and sharp nose pick up things even most
weres
would overlook. I’m hoping he’ll find something we missed.”

I crinkled my nose. “I find it hard to believe you’d miss anything, wolf.”

Aric’s hand released mine to find the nape of my neck. I rubbed my cheek against his arm, seeking more of his touch. He smiled softly. “I didn’t search as hard as I could have, knowing I’d left you alone. But when Koda heard Shayna scream, none of us were sticking around to continue the hunt.”

I straightened, unease and guilt making me think twice. Maybe Aric’s Elders had a point about my presence distracting him from his duties. He stopped the car at the town’s only traffic light and pulled me to him. He kissed me deeply, groaning almost as loudly as I did when an impatient driver and his very loud horn alerted us that the light had turned green. Aric released me, winking before resuming our trek out of town. “Don’t even think it, sweetness. No way in hell was I not going back for you.”

I gripped the edges of the leather seat, panting softly and trying to regain my composure. Aric planted one hell of a smooch, laced with a great deal of sizzle and emotion behind it. I believed his caring for me was genuine, although I still marveled as to why. Regardless, I couldn’t help wondering whether maybe the wolves would have found the couple if they hadn’t abandoned their efforts. A thought I couldn’t bear to contemplate. We didn’t speak again until we passed the exit for the Stampede Reservoir on 89. “Aric, if there are demon children—grown ones, I mean—wouldn’t they have left a royal mess long before this?”