Let Them Eat Cake (9 page)

She put her head down on her arms on the desk and moaned as he worked the shoulder knots into submission. Mumbling around her arms she whined, “He said the Emp likes to feed off men, but will occasionally take a woman if she is hungry enough and one is readily available—or if they’ve been denied other prey. And if the man or woman happens to be paranormal, it’s even better. Whoever she chooses will be paralyzed, including their vocal cords. They won’t be able to call out for help. I won’t be able to hear them call for me. But the victim will still experience the full range of fright and pain preceding their death. How can I protect these people if I can’t hear them scream?”

“We can only take this one day at a time, Maria. We’re in this together. Maybe those who can walk in the daylight will take shifts patrolling the streets? I don’t know what the answer is, but we’ll find it. Are you finished with your paperwork?” he asked, patient concern obvious in his tone.

“Yeah. I’m done here.” She sat up and stretched. “Why don’t we go home, and you can take my mind off freaking weird women who can’t handle their feet being criticized and my growing concern over how high the body count is going to climb before this is finished?” she said.

“Ummm. Sounds like a plan. I’d like to take you to my place and spread all this incredible hair out on my pillow and make you shriek in passion. But I have a feeling you’d prefer we go back to your home in case someone needs you during the rest of the night.”

She glanced back at him and smiled. It was incredible that she felt such a connection with this man in so short a time. Already she listened for his step, his deep rich drawl soothed and excited her, and if he wasn’t in the same room with her she ached from missing him. She felt a little ridiculous—all clingy and dependant. Something she’d never been. She could barely manage to have him out of her sight. This was not good. But she refused to dwell on the coming pain of separation. They could have years together. Even a few short decades.

“You’re right. I
would
like to stay home. Did you bring a car?” she asked.

“Yes, I have my car. Did you, well…fly to the club or drive?”

Maria laughed. “The boys brought me in their car. They left a little while ago, knowing I’d leave with you.”

“Damn straight.”

She allowed Justin to pull her to her feet and guide her to the door, thoughts of stripping out of the outfit she wore in a teasing dance uppermost in her mind. She hadn’t changed her clothes and she could feel Justin’s eyes on her as she bent to pick up the black bag under her desk before they left.

She stretched into the movement. Taunting him with the view of her ass, she knew the thong hid very little of her assets. Justin had already switched back into his jeans and T-shirt. She knew he didn’t want to take a chance on being seen outside Sins with half his ass hanging out. She missed the blatantly sexual costume but still appreciated the sight of the man in tight jeans.

On the way to the car, Maria’s cell phone rang. “This is Maria,” she said. “Shit, I’ll be there in just a few minutes. Try not to confront him.” Disconnecting the call, she looked at Justin. “I’ve got a problem to take care of,” she sighed. “A rogue werewolf is calling in a few of his friends to help terrorize a female.” She started to open her mouth to suggest she meet him at her apartment.

“I’m going with you,” he stated emphatically. “I want to get a better handle on your life.”

Noticing the flex of his jaw muscles and the hard look in his eyes, she decided she didn’t have time to argue. Maybe he was right. He needed to see just what being Sentinel meant if she was going to work with him. And if she wanted to share more than phenomenal sex and the occasional paranormal meltdown, she’d better see how he responded to the reality of her life.

“Fine,” she said. “But I get to drive.”

His eyebrows rose at her pronouncement but he handed over the keys to his black SUV without a comment.

Maria filled Justin in on the ride over. “The mother of the girl is the one who called me. The family who lives in the house we’re going to are all Were, and the rogue is an old boyfriend of the daughter’s, but they weren’t mated. It seems this werewolf has decided he wants a harem and the girl is objecting to being a part of it. When she said no, he started hitting her. He threatened to call in a couple friends and said if she didn’t want him, they’d all have her and she’d change her mind about being his toy. There is a younger brother in the house as well, but the father is out of town on business.”

“So we don’t know how many friends the rouge Were has invited over?”

“Or if they’ll arrive before we do or while we are trying to deal with him.”

They pulled up to a sprawling green ranch house on the outskirts of town about twenty minutes later. Seeing several cars parked in the driveway, Maria swore as she stepped out of the car and turned toward him. He watched in amazement as she opened the backpack she’d been carrying when they left the club and started pulling out weapons, strapping them on. “Looks like company has arrived. Do you have a gun?” she questioned, as she fastened a thigh holster on her leg over the top of her right boot and slid it down into the leather so it was partially hidden.

“Yes,” he replied, as he watched her adjust a long, wicked-looking knife in a sheath slung across her chest.

“Silver bullets or lead?” Maria took out a couple of silver shurikens, Asian throwing stars, and looked down at herself. He could see how, dressed as a Gothic slut, she didn’t have a lot of options for her weapons. He watched the expression on her face as she contemplated sticking a star over each boob under the barely-there bodice, and he winced at the thought of the razor-sharp points cutting into her skin.

“Lead,” he replied, raising his eyebrows. “Give me those. I’ll stick them in my back pocket and try to stay close to you. I know how to use the stars but they’re not my weapon of choice.” Maria nodded and handed the stars to Justin.

“There are a couple of boxes of silver ammunition in the backpack. See if any of the gauges are right for your gun. Lead will hurt but not stop a Were. Silver will kill them if it is a shot to the heart or head, and a thigh or gut shot will drop them with the probability of slow, painful recuperation. I’ll try to contain the rogues, as we have holding cells and a court of sorts if we need them. But I’ll tell you right now…I normally don’t get the chance to take a Were to trial if they’ve freaked out.” She watched as he found silver bullets to fit his gun and made the change, impressed at his forethought when he slipped extra bullets into a spare clip and stuck them in a front pocket.

Justin added a knife to an ankle scabbard. He knew this night would be a test of sorts—Maria would be watching to see if he could handle himself. The discussion on how to best control a rogue werewolf seemed a little surreal.

“Stay to my left side and slightly behind as we go in the door. I don’t plan on being polite and knocking. I have no idea of the layout of the home, so be prepared for anything.” She touched the hood of the last car as she headed up the short driveway to the front porch.

Her features were grim as she commented, “Still very warm. Must have arrived a few minutes before us.”

The windows were all covered in heavy drapes pulled shut, with no light shining through, so there wouldn’t be an opportunity to see what lurked beyond the door. Justin’s muscles tensed, ready to spring as Maria turned the handle on the off chance it would be unlocked. Well…surprise, surprise. The new arrivals must have been in too much of a hurry to lock the door behind them.
Lucky for us
, he thought. Kicking the door in would have made more than enough noise to alert the rogues to their presence. Then again, considering how Maria had just flicked her fingers to open her bedroom door last night, maybe there wouldn’t have been any noise after all.

Maria glanced back once and seemed satisfied when she saw his stance and preparedness. She knew he was combat trained. He thought if the idiots had been human, she wouldn’t hesitate, knowing the fight would be a walk in the park for him. But the unknown of involving him in battle for the first time with a paranormal would give her pause. He didn’t blame her—he still had a few questions himself.

On-the-job training sucked.

Maria faced forward and pushed open the door to enter the house. She was greeted with the sight of a short hallway and silence.
Not a good sign
, she thought to herself.
Somebody make some noise.
Opening her vampire senses, the useful feature allowing her to recognize when anything with blood pumping through its veins invaded her space, she concentrated on the house. To the right she sensed two heartbeats behind a closed door, and at the back of the house she counted four others. She would have bet anything she’d find the mother and son in this room, but she raised her hand to Justin, two fingers held up, and pointed at the door.

She breathed a little easier when she heard some noise from the back. She could only hope movement meant she’d arrived in time to save the girl. In a quick motion, she stood to one side while she turned the knob and swung the door inward. Yep. Mother and son out cold but breathing in slow, steady cadences. A fast glance around the room showed overturned chairs and broken curios, obviously torn apart in an earlier fight.

“They’re alive,” she whispered to Justin. “The others are in back. Let’s go get the girl before we take care of these two.” At his nod she hurried down the hall. She could hear someone crying, begging to be left alone, and a shouted obscenity followed by what sounded like a fist hitting flesh. She ran in the direction of the remaining heartbeats, Justin right behind her.

As she ran, she called to Brian in her mind.
“Going to need some help, Bri. Rogue with victims injured and possible casualties. If anything’s left when I get finished with them. Call the doc and bring him out just in case with a security squad, will ya? Werewolf home, Jensons.”

“Got it, be careful.”

She snorted. Her innate predatory nature kicked in. More than ready for a fight with something she knew she could control, she reached the room at the end of the hall.
Careful my ass
, she thought. She wanted to hit something.

Chapter Seven

The scene in the family room looked better than he’d expected. The girl appeared battered and bruised, and tears streamed from her eyes, but she’d heal. The three
men
, and he used that term loosely, were intent on tormenting their new plaything. They’d stripped off her top and stood around her in a loose circle, one of them groping the young girl while the others made suggestions of what to do next. The growing finger bruises across her chest, a black eye and a bleeding lip attested to their rough treatment. But she still wore her pants. They’d arrived before the men could rape her.

Justin didn’t have time to breathe before Maria took one leap, a good six feet across the room, and pulled the girl protectively behind her. She gave the little blonde a shove in Justin’s direction and shot up a clenched fist to smack the man who’d been holding the girl—right in the nose. Justin winced at the sound of breaking cartilage.

“Gee, fellas. This hardly seems fair. Three big boys like you against a little slip of a girl. Can I play?” Maria taunted.

Justin pulled off his shirt to cover the sobbing girl-child in front of him. By the time he pushed her out the door and told her to sit down for a minute outside while he helped Maria, all hell had broken loose.

One man stood in a corner of the room, his body contorting as he ripped off his clothes and started to change from man to wolf.
Shit!
They did not need to fight a wolf in this small space. For a brief second, the question ran through his mind if the fictional stories about a werewolf’s bite turning a human into a wolf by the next full moon were true.

I really need more information about paranormals before I attempt to do battle with them.
Without another thought for his own safety, he pulled out his gun and shot the half-man, half-wolf in the upper leg. The sound reverberating out of the creature’s mouth as it howled in pain and agony and then crumpled to the floor made the short hairs on the back of Justin’s neck stand out.

The body reverted in a quick flash to a naked man, and Justin glanced at Maria, who was still trading blows and kicks with the other two men. Well, to be accurate, she moved through them like a whirlwind, connecting with her hands and fists while they attempted to land even one blow. In his fast check on her, he didn’t see any blood or reddened skin.

He turned his attention back to the Were on the floor. He didn’t know if the werewolf he’d shot would heal from the silver bullet fast enough to be a threat again, but he figured he didn’t want to take the chance. As he strode across the room, he whipped out some of the reinforced plastic Zip-ties he’d grown accustomed to using for prisoner restraint in the Special Forces. He always carried a supply of the ties in his car, and out of habit he’d stuck some in a front pocket of his jeans. In a smooth, practiced motion, he held the man’s arms behind his back, wrapped the little black piece of plastic around the wrists and inserted one end through the small hole. He tugged tight and let the lock engage. He hoped the restraint would have to be cut off, that the Were couldn’t generate enough strength and leverage to break the tough plastic strands. He bent and bound the man’s legs together around the ankles as well.

When he finished, he turned to see what else he could do to assist Maria. He saw her working on beating the largest of the men to a bloody pulp. The rhythmic slap of her blows accompanied the third man’s groaning sobs as he clutched his groin a few feet across the room.
Nice to know a well-placed kick to the balls will work on werewolves,
he thought, as he moved to grab the man’s legs and pull him away from the wall holding him upright. With a knee to the Were’s back, Justin repeated the restraining process, pulling out his last two ties to bind the man’s hands and feet to match his friend. The Were gagged in agony…must have been some kick.

Justin puzzled over his strange, happy feeling in discovering Maria could take care of herself. He’d avoided relationships for a long time, understanding there were people from his past that could always catch up with him. He realized on one hand that she would be able to handle the situation if someone ever came looking to even the score, and yet he knew he would never want her to face them alone. Which meant he would always want to be by her side.

Since he wasn’t one-hundred percent sure the Zip-ties would be enough to hold the moaning man if he recovered from Maria’s kick anytime soon, he added an insurance policy and used the butt of his gun on the man’s head.

“You stupid bitch-Sentinel. You have no right to interfere in my pack’s business,” the last Were growled.

Maria laughed and taunted the man. “Gee, Nathan. You’d think after the last time I busted your ass for trying to force someone to do your bidding, your tune would have changed. Guess a year of confinement for not following paranormal law wasn’t enough to bring you to heel.”

Well, her taunts answered one question
, Justin thought. The werewolf knew who and what he fought.

With a roar the man charged Maria. Justin moved forward with the intention of blocking the threat. Before he could get near them, he stopped and watched in amazement as she met the man’s rush, turning him in her arms and securing the Were with his back to her chest. She pulled his head to one side and bent over him, sinking her fangs in his throat. The way she fed from the man included none of the slow sensual teasing and careful penetration she used when taking Justin’s blood. This constituted primal feeding.

So why did it turn him on to watch her? He could feel his body sit up and take notice as he answered his own question…because he remembered what it felt like to have her mouth sucking on him while he slammed into her cunt. He rubbed his hand over his straining cock, trying to readjust his jeans to his shaft’s expanding girth. He met Maria’s gaze over the neck of her subdued snack.

She pulled back and licked a few drops of blood from her lips, never losing eye contact with Justin. She worried about how he would react. “Sleep,” she commanded, and the Were dropped in front of her.

“I’m sorry, Justin. When I take someone’s blood I have a window of opportunity to command his actions,” she explained. “I apologize if seeing me attack him bothered you. I didn’t think,” she said as she watched his eyes, waiting for a hint of condemnation.

She’d seen him take his shirt off to cover the girl but had been able to tune out the thought of his naked flesh when she’d been busy. Now the sight of him distracted her. She wanted to go to him, to run her fingers along his muscles. And her tongue. She could see his cock push against the restraining fabric of his jeans. She licked her lips again and he groaned.

“It didn’t bother me in the way you believe it did,” he replied. “All I can think about is getting your sweet mouth on my skin.” He grinned, obviously trying to lighten the mood. “What can I say, I’m a vampire groupie.”

Maria rolled her eyes in amusement and shrugged away her growing arousal. Turning, she surveyed the room. “Nice work. What are those things you used to tie up the Weres?”

“Zip-ties. We used them a lot in Spec Ops and I still use them for police work. They are less bulky than handcuffs and are very effective on humans. I’m not sure how well they’ll hold up on paranormals, but I added encouragement for them to stay put.”

“I can see you did. Again, good work and a great idea—we’ll have to cuff a few Weres and vamps with those tie things and see if they can get free. It would be great to be able to use these. My bookends will have called the pack I use for holding prisoners. They should be arriving soon and we can turn these three over to them. Brian and Matt are sitting outside with the doctor we paranormals use. I want them to check out the girl and her mother and brother. The doctor will make sure the werewolf you shot will heal. Not that I really want him to. Where is the girl?” For all she cared, the creep deserved a lasting reminder of his crime.

“I told her to wait outside the door. I’m hoping she did. I didn’t want her going alone to discover her mother and brother the way we found them.”

“Good point,” Maria said, as she moved to the door and looked down the hall. The girl sat on the floor, curled into a tight ball with her head bent over her knees, crying. “Hey, doll baby, it’s all over. We’ve taken care of those three. They won’t hurt you anymore and I promise they’ll pay for what happened to you tonight. Let me help you up and take you to your momma,” she crooned.

“Brian, please bring the doctor in. This girl is hurting.”

As Maria helped the girl to her feet, she motioned Justin back when he moved to help. “You are a very masculine reminder of tonight’s events,” she whispered, shaking her head.

Understanding, Justin backed away. The girl would be leery around men for a while. Justin wondered if paranormals had psychiatrists. He figured why not, they seemed to have many of the same troubles humans did. Murder, rape, power issues…and he felt sure those were only a few of the problems Maria dealt with as Sentinel. Seemed to be a full-time job.

They saw the front door open as they walked down the hall. Carefully, Brian and Matt helped the girl out of Maria’s arms as they murmured silly nonsense to her. Justin could see how the girl would view them as non-threatening.

A group of six men—the Were pack, Justin assumed—came in, and with rough competence escorted the prisoners out. He nodded as they signaled approvals with thumbs up and disappeared out the door with their captives. He watched Maria give comfort and exchange words with the now conscious mother and young boy…watched as she reassured herself of the family’s recovery by talking with the doctor.

He continued to watch and marvel as she whispered something in the girl’s ear that made the poor child smile through her tears. And smiled himself when Maria finally turned to walk toward him.

Her slow strut echoed through his soul. Still dressed in Gothic leather, with soft breasts overflowing her corset and big, blue-streaked hair, she hadn’t broken a sweat during the fight. And he would be taking her home.

“Take me home, handsome,” she whispered when she got closer.

“Love to. If you’ll answer just one small question.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Tell me what happens if a Were bites me while they are in wolf form? Hell…what happens if they bite me in any form? Would I want to howl at the moon the next time it becomes full?” His voice remained steady, never rising in tone.

Maria looked up at him. She realized now that Justin went into the fight with at least a small part of his mind wondering if he could have been turned into a werewolf if something went wrong. And he hadn’t hesitated.

She smiled. “No. It burns like crazy and might make you a little sick, but werewolves are born, not made. If a werewolf’s mate is human, the first marking bite given after the wolf claims the mate will alter their genetics and tie the chosen individual’s aging to the wolf’s lifespan.”

Maria realized that she would need to spend some time educating Justin on the different species. It wasn’t fair to expect him to just jump in without knowing the hazards.

“There is speculation that a werewolf doesn’t pick a mate, but is somehow driven by scent and internal makeup to find the one true genetic companion for each wolf. And it can be another wolf or human or another species of warm-blooded other. But it hasn’t been proven yet. So unless you are some werewolf female’s chosen, there would be no changes.” She tucked her arm around him as they walked out the door and headed toward his car.

“Great. It’s nice to cross one question off my list.” Shrugging in acceptance, he turned to her, his gaze hot and lust filled. “There are a couple of hours until dawn and I promised myself I’d get to ravish you at least a few times tonight. And I always keep my promises.” Justin winked at her and she stumbled, his hands warm against the bare skin of her back.
Oh, yeah. Time to head home.

Maria started stripping as she reached her bedroom. “I have got to take a shower,” she announced. “The longer I leave this blue crap in my hair, the harder it will be to wash out.” She knew all she had to do was wave her hand and the shower would be unnecessary. But after tonight’s revelations and the fight with the Weres, she wanted the soothing ritual of the water and the comfort of her bathroom.

The drive home and subsequent time to think left her feeling cranky. The taste of Nathan’s Were blood was a nasty reminder of what he’d done to Anissa this night. The girl would heal physically, but it would be some time before the emotional scarring faded.

She tried to concentrate on her surroundings, letting the room soothe her frayed nerves. She loved this bathroom. It had been one of the main attractions when she bought the penthouse. A close second was the fact she could dive off the roof any time she wanted.

She looked around the large room at the pale yellow walls and the beautiful, raised-bowl, robin’s egg-blue sinks and the large Jacuzzi tub in the same color. The tub beckoned to her sore muscles, but she knew the hair dye would leave a horrible ring. She sighed in resignation and turned to the shower. It wasn’t like the huge glass-block shower would be a hardship. It boasted three spray nozzles and a removable shower wand, with a center bench she could sit on, adjusting the spray to beat her tired sinews into melting puddles.