Lost (11 page)

Kelly
came to herself, realizing what she’d just allowed the Curse to do
for her. And for once she didn’t care.

“
Never forget Gene, you’re no different than
she is, and the exact same thing can happen to you. I might be a
whore, I’ll grant you that,” I snarled, once I’d entered into his
personal space. Loren growled so loudly, an excited shiver
fluttered in my stomach. “But you boy, are no more than
my
puppet. Want to see
me pull your strings?”

“
Fuck that.” His hand came up to grab my arm and I let him.
“We're going to talk, right now.”

“
We are talking, but if you’ll calm down, I’ll give a longer
discussion a try.”

Loren exuded the most chilling, unrestrained sounds, whirling
to pace behind Marcus like a leashed tiger. I knew he would burst
into action soon enough.

At least he still showed
some
restraint.

“
Just shut up Sara.” Gene’s flickering eyes bored into my
face, like he was trying to see through me. “You’re blocking
me.”

Most of
the time, I allowed him my surface thoughts, even though it
required a continuous conscious effort on my part. He’d always had
access to me, but not anymore. I didn’t answer him.

“
I don’t like this,” Loren grumbled, and Gene
turned.

“
It doesn’t matter what you like Loren. Sara
is
my
girlfriend,” Gene roared with spittle flying from his lips.
His fist closed to grind on my bones, but I didn’t
flinch.

I'd been dealt far worse.

“
That unfortunate chapter has come to a
close. Now Gene, she’s
mine,”
Loren retorted with an arrogant sneer on his
full, tempting lips.

I stared
at him over Gene’s shoulder. My arm screamed its pain, but to react
would bring attention to it, unleashing hell on Gene’s very near
future. I didn’t want Loren and Marcus to rip him to shreds right
in front of me.

I was
perfectly capable of doing that myself.

“
Is she now?” He turned back to him.

When his
fingers clenched down again, I wondered when it would
break.

Without
thought, my hand automatically closed around his throat. My eyes
brightened a bright ruby red to match the chunky streaks in my long
hair. The Curse had always been so good to my fashion
choices.

“
Speak Fido, or I’ll put your muzzle on.”

“
Don’t you fucking talk to me like that.
You
used
to know
your place.”

His hand raised to backhand me, but I caught his fist a
second before he would’ve backhanded me. Loren’s hand closed over
mine, and with his other he pried my steeled fingers away from
Gene.

“
Chill, my love,” he said neutrally, for that was all his was
capable of in his current state. I was surprised he had managed the
deceptive tone of voice, because that was a far as it
went.

His eyes, the cruel lines of his face, right down to his
coiled muscles were tightly locked, all ready for death. It was
difficult for him to just not kill what had pissed him off, always
allowing himself that luxury in the past.

I’d been
in similar instances more times than I could count, when my quarry
had to be brought in alive, but I was too far gone to remember that
when Max let me completely off of my leash.

My
brothers had always talked me down, or just joked with me to break
the tension. They never judged, because even with their age and
experience, the same thing happened to them on the
occasion.

“
Yes, dad.”

You better stop calling me that.

Okay, pop.

He growled for me, but when he turned to look back at Gene,
it turned deliciously animalistic.

“
I don’t know about you, but I’m done,” Loren said to Gene.
His over-sized fangs snapped a half inch away from his opponents
face.

Gene
winced, and I stepped back from him. He’d never tried to hit me
before, but I knew it was more his Curse riding him than an actual
conscious thought.

“
You will never hurt what’s mine,” Loren continued frigidly,
and crushed his closed fist around Gene’s lower arm. Gene’s face
went sheet-white, to an almost greyish pallor. “Do you like pain,
Gene? You’re not like Marcus, are you?” Loren shoved his face into
his opponent’s. “I hate little boys, who think they’re
men.”

“
I do everything I’m supposed to. I go on the hunts…” Gene
grunted brokenly, staring at his mangled wrist.

I felt the rush of energy in the air and knew Loren was
holding him both by enthrallment, his magick and pure physical
force. He wouldn’t take any more chances with me so close, whether
I could take care of myself or not.

Would you rather beat the shit out of him?

Nah, you’re doing fine.

“
I know exactly what you do on those hunts, even now that
you’re one of us. They protect you, and it’s sad because you really
do need it. Sara is always one step ahead of you…”

“
Most of the time, she’s a step ahead of us too,” Marcus
inserted, and Loren nodded respectfully.

“
You don’t deserve to stand among our rank as Hunters,” Loren
said emotionlessly. “I don’t even understand why Maximus and
Corrine suffer you to live.”

There
was a loud crack, followed by several more. Knuckles always did
that. When Gene cried out, I didn’t react. There was no surge of
vengeance I’d suspected I would feel, no rush of happiness or
sadness. I couldn’t even call it resignation. Nothing
mattered.

Loren
took hold of Gene’s shirt, dragging him forward to meet him face to
face. They stared at each other silently, a conversation that
required no words to understand the topic.

There
had never been a more obvious threat.

Loren took him by the shirt, and threw his body away from us,
espresso eyes shining a deep scarlet. I waited for him to continue,
but he didn’t. He stayed at my side, and refused to move. His eyes
kept cutting back towards the house.

I had to
admit I was surprised.

The scum
still breathed. It was his lucky day. Never had I seen Loren give
anyone a moment of forgiveness. There wasn’t any getting back on
the good side.

“
Fucking converts. They don’t know how to
take real pain. Wait until the Council
really
gets a hold of him.” Loren
shared a knowing look with Marcus. “They’re a bunch of worthless
pussies.”

I
would’ve taken offence to that…

You know damned well you are not one
of
them
.

He’s right, Sara. I don’t know a convert
anywhere near your status, even the ones that have years on your
life.
Marcus nodded his agreement to
Loren, with hard unyielding eyes which had seen Gene as a friend
only a day before.

I knew more than enough about what Marcus
had
gone through in his past with the
Council. He’d made the mistake of fighting the establishment in his
youth. And those punishments for his hasty crimes were harsh and
very immediate. He’d been stubborn and pigheaded, still was if you
asked me, but he’d learned that fighting was hopeless. He hadn’t
given up, but taken a page out of Max’s book, and drastically
changed his tactics to fight just as brutally. Only now he was
'political'.

I heard
Gene groan, but I didn’t afford him the slightest glance. My eyes
were only for Loren. He’d stopped breathing, still as a statue
while he stared back at me like he didn’t believe me
real.

He was
the most incredible, savage being I had ever seen.

Gene sat
up on the grass, his eyes far calmer and sedate now. His face was
embarrassed when he came down from his rage high. I guess there was
something about flying blind that really woke a person
up.

“
This isn’t over.”

“
As far as I’m concerned, it is.” Marcus
walked up the steps with Kelly, and tossed the words over his
shoulder. “Gene, you have ten minutes to get
your
shit out of my
house.”

Kelly stopped dead in her tracks to stare
up at him. She hadn’t expected it, and that said more than enough.
Marcus couldn’t hide
anything
from her.

This
possibility hadn’t crossed my mind either. Threats or not, they
were friends and I’d thought that would count for something when it
came down to it.

Little one, when I need something, it
is
you
that is
there. When we are on the hunt,
you’ve
always have my back, trying
to protect me because of my ties with your sister. He has always
been a self-centered prick, but until you and Kelly came, so was I.
There are better things to find in life than the emptiness I had.
Out of the two of us, who do you think figured that
out?

“
Marcus, you can’t be serious,” Gene protested
disbelievingly.

“
Quite,” Marcus continued in a bored tone. He leaned against
the railing with Kelly tucked under his shoulder. “The best thing
to ever happen to you was Sara, and you blew that right out of the
water. The very worst thing for you was becoming a vampire, because
you fucked that up too. You can’t handle what you are,
buddy.”

“
I didn’t blow it with her, she blew it
with
me
,” Gene
objected. “She just had to be with that
cocksucker…”

“
Don’t blame this on last night. It was going on a whole lot
longer than just that,” Marcus said quietly. “I’ve watched you
treat her like shit since figuring out that you couldn’t control
her, like the other women you’ve dated. And the only reason I
didn’t interfere is because she didn’t ask me to. Sara is perfectly
capable of ripping you to shreds and she never did.”

“
She couldn’t do shit,” Gene scoffed, but his eyes were
downcast. It disproved his own words, as he wasn’t even confident
enough to look me in the eyes and say it.

My eyes flickered from Loren’s cold,
relentless face to Gene, to
really
look at him. He seemed older, beaten and used up.
I was finally seeing the changes in stark constant. He wasn’t the
same man anymore and hadn’t been in a long time.

“
Last night when you came home, you were
thinking about everything that happened. What really happened and
not just what
you
think did,” Kelly said, aggrievedly. “I’ve seen those kinds
of thoughts in your head before, with other women. But then, you
didn’t have the balls to do it.”

I
winced. Even Kelly had paid attention to what I’d so effectively
ignored.

“
So?” Gene turned his wintry blue eyes on her, and Marcus’s
lip curled dangerously.

“
We saw it. Not only that, but we saw what
happened from the blonde’s perspective, who is currently rummaging
through my refrigerator. I’ve also seen Sara’s side now, and you
know what?” Marcus said, snidely. “Sara was the
only
one thinking of their
significant other at all last night. She was the only one who
thought of anyone’s feelings and how what she did affected you. The
fact that she cared that much makes me sick.”

“
Of course I thought of her!” Gene stood with his fists
clenched at his side.

“
Yea, you did.” Marcus sighed. “You thought of how hurt she
would be, and how you could get back at her for wanting Loren more
than you. Now, that I’ve seen everything undiluted and unbiased,
all I have to wonder is why she didn’t leave you
sooner.”

My throat burned. I fought so hard to not do two things I
really needed to do. One was to run away as fast as I could. The
other was to run towards the house and drag the blonde out of the
house by the hair.

Again, I had let my emotions take control, and it had cost
me. I should’ve noticed her far before now. Even with all of these
basic mistakes, Loren and Marcus still thought me above
average.

The
blonde bitch was a very recent human convert, who was far less
experienced than Gene. She was no match for me, and it made the
need to tear her apart almost infantile, but still
tempting.

“
She’s really here?” I whispered to myself, and Loren
nodded.

“
Do you want me to end her life?” Loren asked.

Gene stirred. “You don’t have any power here, Loren. You’re
on Cornwall territory.”

“
However, I do,” Marcus said, walking back down to the first
step. He waved his hand, and all of my haphazardly packed stuff
disappeared from the porch, replaced with a huge pile of clothes
and miscellaneous items without boxes or bags, including his bed
tipped on its side.

At least
Gene had made a miniscule attempt to make my stuff moveable. I
almost laughed bitterly, but somehow I resisted.