A Cursed Embrace (WG 2) (15 page)

“Did he mention what could happen to Aric for disobeying his Elders?”

Shayna turned her head. “Not exactly.”

I frowned. “What did he say?” Shayna slipped her arm off me but didn’t answer. “Shayna, please tell me.”

Shayna regarded me closely, appearing torn. “Being with a non-
pure
, especially one who’s not even
were
, sort of soils his reputation.”

My insides twisted. “I’m
soiling
Aric’s reputation?”

Shayna reached for me. “Ceel, this is not your fault. Aric’s pack doesn’t know or understand what we are, and I think it scares them. Koda, Liam, Gemini—it’s different for them. They’re not of pure blood; they don’t have to follow the same rules.”

I gawked at Shayna, not knowing what to say. Aric openly defied his Elders by being with me. That was bad enough. But to know his status had plummeted because of me broke my heart. I buried my face in my hands, hating my “weirdness” more than ever. “I can’t stand anyone looking down on him. And I can’t stand being the cause.”

Shayna’s thin arms embraced me, the extent of her concern showing through the way she clutched me. “Ceel . . . you’ve waited so long for someone like Aric. Don’t let those haters take that away from you. Just be with each other, enjoy each other. The other stuff, it’s just not worth it.”

Emme’s soft hand stroked my hair. “They just don’t know you, sweetie. I’m sure with time they’ll see how wonderful you are and accept you completely.”

Emme’s head consisted of cotton candy houses and kittens wearing pajamas.

Taran slammed her palm on the table. “You know what?
Screw.
Them.
If Aric doesn’t give a shit what his Elders say, then damn it, neither should you.”

I didn’t agree. Aric’s anger at Anara demonstrated he very much cared. While he didn’t hold Anara in the same regard he held Martin, Anara’s remarks had affected him. So had Martin’s insistence that he break all contact with me. Except instead of listening to his Elders’ commands, Aric had chosen to spend the night with me. In words, and the way his body had moved against mine, Aric had pledged his commitment to me. I thought of Aric’s touch, his grin, and how he had so easily found his way into my heart, despite the walls my beast had secured to protect us. If Aric faced danger at the hands of his pack, he would do so with me at his side. I loved him. I did. And I’d be a fool to let him go.

The ceramic yellow mug cooled in my hands before I spoke again. “You’re right. If Aric wants to be with me, I’m not going to stop him.”

“That’s our girl!” Shayna lifted her tea. “To Celia, and her hottie big, bad wolf.”

Taran winked my way. “It’s been a long time coming, Ceel.”

Emme hit her cup against mine. “And to good times ahead.”

I hadn’t quite taken a sip of my tea when Shayna’s cell phone rang. She grinned when she saw who called. “Hi, puppy,” she answered cheerfully.

Koda’s voice lacked the same enthusiasm. “We located the couple.”

Shayna’s eyes swept to me, knowing I could hear. “Are they all right?”

“No. We found them in pieces.”

C
HAPTER 11

Pitbull
’s music usually made me want to dance. Not tonight. I barely registered the beat, despite how the heavy bass thrummed hard enough to shake my seat. My eyes wandered toward the front doors of the club, searching for any signs of Aric.

Gemini’s calm voice drew me back to our booth. “Don’t worry, Celia. He’ll be here soon.” Gem sat next to Taran, close, but not quite touching. An amazing feat on his part considering the tiny red dress she’d squeezed her perfect curves into.

Koda and Shayna had taken advantage of the open area on the dance floor. It was still early in the night. The club hoppers had just slowly begun to trickle in. Yet the anticipation of Aric’s arrival slowed the minutes, slowed the seconds. He’d promised to show tonight, just like he had every night for the past several days. But every night I’d arrive home from the hospital expecting him to be there, only to be disappointed.

“I’m sorry, sweetness,” he’d called last night to say. “Every time I try to leave, we get a new lead I have to act on.”

“It’s all right,” I answered. But each day that passed made me think things were definitely not all right. It had begun with that mutilated couple. Slowly, more and more bodies of men were being unearthed from desolate locations in both California and Nevada. The packs from each respective state had banded together. Giving Aric’s prestige, he led or organized the majority of the hunts. Yet every decaying corpse they found had perished over a period of weeks. No fresh leads. No survivors. Nothing to explain what was happening.

My eyes scanned the area, taking in a group of males ogling three young women at the bar while their shy, awkward friend focused on her drink as if it somehow had the power to make her prettier, wittier, or maybe just a little more desirable. Before we met the wolves, I was frequently the odd gal out on the town—ignored by the hunky guys drooling over my sisters and left to chat with the designated driver about his ongoing bout with acne, if he bothered to speak to me at all. I knew how the young lady felt. It was all I could do not to collectively slap the little punks upside their overly gelled heads. She probably had a lot to offer, if they’d just give her a chance to see the real her.

I tugged at the bottom of my chic little pale blue dress, a recent purchase to look nice for Aric. So much had changed since I’d met him. Yet despite reaching a deeper level of physical intimacy with him, I remained that girl. And as I saw her glance hopefully at the male closest to her, maybe I always would.

The males of “Bad Dates Past” snubbed me out of fear, and their collective desire to lure my sisters to bed. The wolves didn’t snub, and they sure as hell didn’t fear. They embraced me as part of their group, though I couldn’t comprehend why. Was it due to their pack mentality, my connection with Aric, or just the fact that they were kind despite their preternatural instincts to maim and kill? As I watched the behemoth Koda embrace Shayna with total adoration, I smiled and leaned toward the latter.

My smile faded as more minutes passed. I hoped Aric wasn’t having second thoughts or that his Elders weren’t overworking him to both punish and keep him away from me. The wolves must have sensed my worry and longing. Koda bought me another beer. Gemini included me in their conversations, and Liam—well, he tried.

He adjusted his arm around Emme. His opposite hand rubbed the top of his head, spiking his short blond tips to frightened porcupine proportions. “Did Aric tell you we’re hunting elk this summer?”

I shook my head, both because he hadn’t and, well, because I didn’t want to hear the deets.

“We’re heading to Idaho.” He grinned like a kid posing for his Little League picture. “There’s nothing like feeling the vertebrae of a seven-hundred-pound bull crunch like popcorn between your fangs.”

“Mmm.” I nodded. “I’ll bet.”

“And you know what the best part is, Celia?”

No. And please don’t tell me.

“We can snack on one all day and still bag more to bring home!” He jutted his chin proudly. “Blood makes good gravy.”

Emme stiffened against him. I couldn’t be sure because of flashing club lights, but something told me her skin hadn’t been green when we’d first walked in. Liam gave her a wink. “Don’t worry, angel. I promise to bring you back the heart.”

“The
heart
?” Taran’s tone sounded more annoyed than sickened. “What could she possibly want with a goddamn elk heart?”

Liam frowned. “Sandwiches.”

Emme inched her way out of the booth. Yep. She was definitely green. I leaned forward. “Are you okay, Emme?”

Her lips puckered into a grimace. “I just need some air.”

I started to follow, but Liam slipped out. “It’s okay, Celia. I’ll go with her.”

Because that’s what Emme needed—more tales of blood and entrails. “Hey, Liam. Have you asked Emme about her day?” Liam shook his head. “Maybe you should.” I smiled when he gave me the thumbs-up. Good thing for Emme it didn’t take much to distract Liam. I watched them until they disappeared through the side emergency exit. Patrons weren’t allowed to step through the door, but only a masochistic bouncer would confront Liam. Like me, the wolves naturally leaked the “don’t make me eat you” vibe and pretty much ran whatever territory they occupied. I stared at the door as it closed behind them, hoping Aric would magically appear.

Gemini quietly interrupted my thoughts. “I don’t think Aric is going hunting.”

I rolled the beer bottle in my hands. “Why? Liam makes it sound like a good time.”

Gemini’s dark almond eyes brightened as he rubbed his goatee. “Because he doesn’t like being away from you. He’s had a difficult week without you.”

My gaze dropped. I’d killed things. Lots of things. Most times, quite brutally. But I wasn’t cold-blooded. And I carried remorse like a second skin. Humans found me intimidating—scary even. Yet those few who knew me—really knew me—would not have been surprised by my blush.

“I hope you’re right,” I said almost silently.

Taran placed her hand on Gemini’s shoulder, igniting a blue spark beneath her fingertips. Her irises blanched from blue to white, then back again, affected by the strength of Gemini’s wolf. “What about you? Are you going?” Her smile and tone carried a spark of their own. I thought for sure Gemini would beg to bask in her awesomeness.

I thought wrong.

Gem gawked at her palm like she’d slapped a dead rat on his shoulder. “Ah . . .”

Taran dropped her hand, and slumped her typically ideal posture. Aric had made Gemini his Beta based on his strong leadership skills and his ability to make thought-provoking statements.

Yeah. Right.

I took a sip of my beer and almost choked on it when Emme screamed. I bolted across the dance floor toward the side exit, Koda and Gem at my heels. The door flew off its hinges as I crashed through. The alley extended into the next lot, where a new restaurant was currently under construction and where Emme’s screams turned from terrified to pained.

Gemini and Koda rushed toward her cries. “Stay behind us!” Gem ordered.

Screw that!

My hair whipped behind me as I bolted through the alley, my claws and massive fur-lined body shredding through my new dress as I
changed
. My tigress form skidded around the corner and into the half-erected building, taking everything in in a single glance. A pile of vampires slashed into Liam near a freshly mortared brick wall. He wasn’t fighting back. His four-hundred-pound wolf form curled around Emme, shielding her from the vampire’s razor-sharp nails.

My paws dug into the concrete, propelling my body into a wide leap to tackle three of the vampires skewering Liam. Blood spewed as I clawed out the first one’s heart and the wolves dismembered the first of their prey.

I faced the other two, my fangs snapping and itching to bite. Something flew past me, severing their heads before I could strike. Shayna had flung a razor-sharp sphere she’d converted from a metal trash lid. She spun with a dancer’s grace, driving Misha’s elongated hairpin into the chest of a vampire leaping from the second story.

I nudged her back with my rump and knocked a she-vamp’s head clear from her shoulders just as a wave of electrified energy stroked my fur in the opposite direction. Taran had stumbled through the opening in her ankle-breaking shoes, throwing streams of blue and white lightning like javelins and jolting three vampires to cinders.

The skeleton frame of the building rattled as Koda collided with an enormous vampire. His large red wolf sank his fangs into a vamp’s neck, tearing his jugular open. The vampire’s blood splattered like rain against the support beams before converting into ash as the droplets dribbled down the thick metal.

My claws had burrowed into the stomach of another vamp when I caught sight of one stalking toward Emme. I chuffed loudly to draw attention, but she failed to acknowledge me, crying as she cradled Liam’s limp human form against her. I abandoned my kill and rushed toward her. Before I could reach her, Emme slammed a forklift into the vamp with her
force
, crushing his chest inward and instantly destroying his heart. She’d used her anger to react, all the while whispering to Liam that she loved him and begging him not to leave her.

I edged backward, my animal instincts alert for the next attack. Two more vampires circled Gemini. But when his wolf sprouted a second head, and a new wolf leapt from his body, the odds evened and body parts flew through the air like hail. To anger a two-wolf being was to meet a bloody and painful death.

We formed a circle around Emme and Liam as the scent of vampire saturated the open area. Dozens more leapt down from the support beams, hissing. My head jerked around. Where were all these vampires coming from? But there was no time to question, only to act.

Shayna lifted a discarded shovel in her hands. As she twirled she transformed the scoop into a deadly blade and sliced off the head of the closest vampire. Liam howled, his pain resonating through his fury. I roared and attacked—his injuries were severe. We needed to get him to safety to give Emme and his wolf time to heal him.

I leapt onto two vampires, my urgency to help Liam making me exceptionally vicious. My back paws held one while my fangs severed through the other’s neck. His blood and remains mixed to form a nasty paste, temporarily blinding me and giving another vampire time to jump onto my back. My body was stronger and tougher than an average tiger’s, but it didn’t make me invulnerable. The vampire hacked into my hide while another carved into my chest.

I surrendered to my tigress and set free the beast that didn’t recognize remorse—only survival. She clawed and chewed, ripping several vampires completely in half. The legs of one kicked sporadically in the air until I dug out the heart of the body it belonged to.

Two other vampires surrounded Shayna. Both attacked at once. She stabbed one through the heart at the same time she flung a spike into the eye of the other. We fought hard, but there were too many vampires and not enough of us. I knew this. And thankfully, so did Taran.