Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance (107 page)

Alex reached down and pulled her to her feet. “Get your gun,” he murmured.

She’d left it leaning beside the wood pile. She retrieved it and held it at the ready, scanning, searching. Belle dashed down the stairs and herded the other dogs up to the porch. The dogs shied to the right as they followed, and Lilly suspected the hellhound was there, but she could no longer see it.

A tree near Alex shuddered and suddenly he burst into action, swinging his blade and hacking at whatever had come at him. Lilly saw blurred shapes merging in the darkness and she fired, aiming for what she hoped was their massive heads. She picked two off while Alex cut down others like weeds.

A growl came from behind her and she spun to find two dark creatures with blazing eyes and long, curved teeth standing there. She stumbled back, trying to aim at the same time.

Something launched itself from the porch. Belle’s hellhound. It sank its teeth into the throat of the hellhound closest to her and shook, towing the bigger beast away from Lilly. The other turned in surprise, giving her a chance to aim and fire. Its head exploded.

She could hear frantic growls and yelps of pain coming from nearby, followed by sudden silence. Belle’s phantom hellhound solidified for a moment. It had blue eyes, she realized. As she took aim at its head, the creature stared at her with resignation Lilly couldn’t mistake. The hellhound in her cross-hairs braced, ready for the death sentence that Lilly had the power to give.

But she couldn’t pull the trigger. As horrendous, as vicious as this killer might be, it had protected Belle and it had protected Lilly.

She lowered her rifle.

“What are you doing?” Alex demanded, moving in front of her and raising his machete.

“No. No, Alex. Not that one.”

“It’s not a dog, Lilly. It doesn’t belong here.”

Lilly grabbed his arm, refusing to let him slaughter this wretched creature. No, it didn’t belong. It was an outcast. An outlier. Like Alex. Like Lilly. It had acted outside of its instincts or perhaps it had been driven by instinct older than the cursed body it inhabited.

It didn’t belong and yet…

“Maybe it can, Alex. If it has a chance.”

The hellhound eyed Alex suspiciously as it backed away, then turned and dashed up the stairs onto the porch, rubbed its body down the length of the Great Dane’s, before it bounded over the railing and into the trees. Alex stared with his mouth open, unsure what to make of it. Of any of it.

He turned back, staring at the bodies littering the clearing. Six of them. When he’d seen them emerge from the shadows, his only thought had been to protect Lilly. She would not be ripped apart by them, not while Alex still had strength enough to lift his weapon. Not while he still breathed. He was still shaking from the power of those emotions.

Exhausted and strangely wide awake, he moved from one corpse to another. He put his blade through their hearts and whacked off their heads—even ones that Lilly had shot dead on. This time, it wasn’t luck that had guided her bullets. It was aim. She’d
seen
them. He didn’t know how or why, but he knew it was true.

He finished his task as fast as possible. In the morning, he’d burn the remains, but right now he just wanted to get Lilly and her crazy dogs into the cabin. Her face was pale, her blue coat splattered with hellhound blood. It hurt to think of the danger she’d been in.

When the door closed behind them, he pulled her tight against him.

“You could have been killed,” he said, his voice breaking. Emotion he didn’t understand washing over him.

“The hellhound…it protected me, Alex. Just like you do.”

None of this made sense, but Alex had seen the hellhound attack its own, just as Alex had fought one of his own when Jared had threatened Lilly. While Alex had battled the other hellhounds, the blue-eyed one had defended Lilly’s dogs. When the other hellhounds had cornered Lilly, it had saved her life.

He cupped her face and kissed her with his mouth open, pouring all of his confusing, anger and relief into it. His other hand started on the fastenings of her coat and her fingers were there to help. He pulled back, watching as they both fumbled with the thick coat and cumbersome buttons. Her eyes were heavy lidded. But they spoke, those crazy, beautiful eyes. And he understood everything they said.

Her coat fell to the floor in a synthetic swoosh and beneath he found a beautiful woman with intriguing curves, soft breasts and skin that felt like satin. For a moment, neither of them moved.

Nothing had changed and yet everything was different. For him. For her. Maybe forever. He thought he should speak, but he his feelings overwhelmed him, and he couldn’t find the words he wanted to say.

“No,” Lilly interrupted before he could try. “Just this. Now.”

She pulled off her shirt and Alex forgot everything else anyway. She stood in front of him in a simple white bra, her skin like alabaster in the dim light. Her pants rode low on her hips, below the rounded belly. For a moment he could only stare. Gently, he touched the silky curve of her breast. The softness, the weight of it. It unhinged his mind and all thought fell into the void it left behind.

She unbuttoned his shirt and he shrugged out of it, pulling his undershirt over his head while she unfastened her bra. When she pressed against him again, skin to skin, he groaned.

Lilly took his hand, palm snug in his, and lead him to the bedroom, where the covers were still mussed from their morning. So many things had changed in the few hours that had passed. Grateful for another chance to be with Lilly, Alex made long, slow love to her and he didn’t even try to pretend it was anything less.

***

They dozed for a while, holding each other in the cool shadows of the bedroom. There was no pulling away, this time. No emotional withdrawal by either of them. They said very little, and yet Alex felt at peace. If he could have found a way to freeze those moment for eternity, he would have gladly committed to living them over and over again.

Much later, Lilly slipped from the bed, donned his flannel shirt, and went out to the kitchen. She returned after a minute with two glasses of water and concern on her face. “Have you seen Belle?”

Worried, Alex got up and helped her search. Belle wasn’t on her bed or by the couch or the door. Lilly finally found her in the closet off the bedroom, circling as she hunted for a place to lie down, but the closet was too small for such a massive creature.

Lilly watched with bewilderment. “What does she want?”

Alex put his arm around her shoulders. “I don’t know much about dogs either, but most animals need to feel safe when they have their offspring.”

Lilly looked at him with shock. “She’s having the puppies?
Now
?”

He shrugged. “That’d be my guess.”

The cabin was small with few isolated places, and none big enough for the Great Dane. At last, Alex turned the coffee table on its side and pushed its legs up against a corner of the wall, creating a triangular box just large enough for Belle to stretch out. Lilly lined it with old towels, talking to Belle in a soothing voice as she coaxed her over. The corner was cozy and away from the other dogs, and after a few apprehensive sniffs, Belle seemed to give it her approval.

Before the big dog could climb in, though, a loud thump came from outside and the other dogs began to bark again. More hellhounds? Dreading what she’d see, Lilly followed Alex to the window to look out. Two massive paws with long, jointed digits held onto the sill and a black head with blue eyes looked in.

Lilly recoiled and Alex cursed softly. They both turned in surprise as Belle hobbled over to where they stood. The dog groaned as she went up on her hind legs, resting her paws on the window sill. On the other side, the hellhound lowered its head and pressed its nose to the glass. Belle did the same.

“Are you seeing this?” Alex whispered.

Lilly nodded. She saw. She even understood in a strange and twisted way.

“Alex, what if that hellhound is the father?”

She knew he’d come to the same conclusion. There was no surprise in his eyes as he stared from one animal to the other. The hellhound made a low, whining sound and Belle yipped in response before lowering her paws and making a slow, pained path to the enclosure they’d made for her.

Lilly turned away from the window and went to assist Belle. She put water near the dog and stroked her fur as Belle moaned through the start of her labor. Alex paced, moving from one window to another, worried that the hellhounds would come back. Worried that one of his fellow soldiers might have heard the gunshots from earlier and follow the sound to the cabin.

They should talk about that. About what he planned to do once the snow stopped coming down. But Lilly couldn’t bring herself to broach the subject. She was afraid she might cry and beg this man who was as much a stranger as a lover, to never leave her. She knew it was ridiculous to feel so passionately about him.

They’d only met two days ago. Next week, they might not even like each other. Yet Lilly couldn’t make herself believe any of it. She didn’t make instant connections with people, especially men. But from the moment he’d touched her on the trail, she’d been connected to Alex. He’d become a part of her and she wanted the chance to know if he might become a permanent piece of her life.

“Lilly,” he said, drawing her attention.

He was at the window that looked out on the porch. She came to his side, letting him pull her in front of him. His chest warmed her spine as he reached over her shoulder and pointed. On the rug by the door, the blue-eyed hellhound waited like a sphinx with front paws crossed, head up and ears pricked. She could see it clearly now. The phantom shadows had shivered away, leaving behind a solid form.

“You see it, don’t you?” Alex asked.

She nodded. “I don’t understand it, but yes. I see it. Clearly. Yesterday I couldn’t see them or hear them at all. But now I can do both. Why?”

Alex shook his head. “I don’t know.”

She didn’t say it, but a theory had been forming while they worked on Belle’s enclosure. It was vague, incomplete. Yet it resonated inside her and made her think.

“I’ve changed since you came here, Alex.”

He gave her a sideways look, waiting.

“Knowing you, believing in the existence of your world. Knowing how little time we have together. I’ve never been one to race headlong into a relationship.”

She blushed and drew in a shaky breath. Was that what they had, the two of them? A relationship?

“I always guard myself. Make sure it’s safe before I commit. But…from the first moment when I looked into your eyes, I knew…I knew you were special. A broken heart would be worth what I might have with you. However short. However deep.”

His eyes glimmered with understanding and a gentle smile curved his lips. “I thought you looked like a soft, blue treat. I wanted a taste. I still do.”

Tears pricked at her eyes, but she didn’t let them go.

“Look outside, Alex. There’s an evolution going on here. We just have to see it.”

Confusion furrowed his brow, but he shifted his gaze to the window and looked at the blue-eyed hound standing vigil over a house of humans and dogs. Blue-Eyes stared intensely back. Lilly took a deep breath and moved to the door.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Letting it in.”

Everything inside of Alex wanted to fight her logic. Let a hellhound in? Let it close to Lilly?

She’d opened the door before he could stop her, if that’s what he’d meant to do. Because her words had worked like some dark and forbidden magic inside him. Evolution, she’d called it. He felt the truth of it down to his bones.

He’d lived his life in an echo, seeing humans. Understanding their existence but never experiencing what it meant to feel, to care…to touch. And now that he had, he saw his world in a different way.

He’d believed that he didn’t belong here. He’d broken laws by touching Lilly, by protecting her…by taking all of the sweetness she offered him. He’d thought those laws were sacred and to break them would somehow sully the world of humans. Lilly believed differently.

She saw a place for him here. A place at her side, in her bed, in her heart. And more than anything, Alex wanted that place. He wanted that chance to belong. To her.

And here was this hellhound—
a fucking hellhound
—proving it could happen. A testament to the unpredictability of life right in front of his eyes. The hellhound stood and looked through the open door and into the cabin, with its cozy fire and fragile inhabitants.

Alex swore he knew what it thought. It wanted in, but it didn’t feel worthy.

“Come on,” Lilly coaxed.

It turned those laser-bright eyes on her and tilted its head. Alex understood that, too.

Demented female.

Alex moved to Lilly’s side, took her hand, and echoed the invitation.

“Come.”

The hellhound stepped over the threshold, gave them another confused but grateful glance, and went straight to Belle. It jumped into her enclosure with lithe grace and lay down beside her, nose to nose. She licked its face and moaned.

Alex looked outside one last time before he closed the door. The snow didn’t seem to be coming down so fast anymore. By morning, this storm would be over, but a new one had begun…a storm of change, perhaps.

It took Belle hours to give birth to her three black puppies. Like the hellhound, they had big heads and long legs. Like their mother, they had velvety fur and soft ears. Alex wondered what their eyes would look like when they opened. Would they be pale blue or white lanterns? Or would they be chocolate brown like their mother’s?

“They’re cute,” Lilly announced, staring down at the ugly creatures with delight.

Alex laughed, but in a strange and probably completely wrong way…they were.

But all through Belle’s long and arduous labor, Alex had heard hellhounds baying and knew that with dawn, the next battle would come. One he might not win, but one he would fight with all his might. Because if he did survive, if he did destroy his enemy, he wouldn’t be returning to the Beyond. He didn’t care about the afterlife. He cared about
this
life that had been offered with no expectation that he would accept it.