Reaper's Justice (35 page)

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Authors: Sarah McCarty

Tags: #Werewolves, #Paranormal, #Fiction, #Romance, #Fantasy, #Western, #Historical

BOOK: Reaper's Justice
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“They hurt your mind.”
Systematically, ruthlessly, permanently. He debated buttoning the shirt. “
They
were damn good at it.”
Her fingertips grazed his sleeve. “It doesn’t show.”
He turned away. “Thank you.”
She went with him, her hands sliding around his chest, settling on his skin. Warm. Dainty. Pure. His cock hardened at her touch and his beast rumbled its pleasure. He removed her hands from his chest. She stepped around and put them back. His fingers closed around her wrists. She stopped him with a shake of her head.
“Don’t.”
“Why?”
“I need to touch you.”
He yanked her hands free and held them wide. “I don’t need your pity.”
She shook her head. Tears hovered in her eyes. For him.
“It’s not pity.”
The beast snarled. At him or at her? “Looks like it to me.”
“That’s because you can’t see.”
He saw everything. Her soft heart, her pain. The future he’d delivered her into. “What do you think I should see?”
Not fighting his grip, she stepped forward and rested her cheek against his chest, whispering softly, “Me.”
Ah hell.
He didn’t have the strength to push her away. He let go of her hands. They went around his waist. He didn’t know what to do with his.
She squeezed gently. “I’m so sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
She shook her head again. Tears eased the friction of her cheek against his chest.
Damn it
, she was crying. He started to push her away. The beast snarled. At him.
She resisted the pressure. “Put your arms around me, Isaiah.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
He did. “Now what?”
She snuggled closer. “Wait.”
“For what.”
“Just wait.”
He did, breathing in her scent, counting her heartbeats, her breaths. She was calm, he realized. It was against his nature to stand still and just let things be, but this was . . . nice. The beast stopped pacing. The pain faded, and as he rested his cheek on Addy’s head, the beast calmed. A few more minutes and he felt almost peaceful.
“Better?” Addy asked quietly.
He kissed the top of her head. How did she do this to him? “Yes.”
She straightened the front of his shirt, her touch as soft as her voice. “Cole taught me that, too. When I first got home, I had such nightmares and they’d stay with me during the day.” Her gaze skirted his. “I used to think I could hide from them.”
He understood that. He tipped her chin up, needing to see her eyes. “And?”
Her smile shook with the strength of the memory. “Cole would find me wherever I was, take me in his arms, and then he’d just hug me until the demons went away.”
Like she’d found him. “Guess that means I’ll have to try harder to be civil to his ass in the future.”
She sniffed and traced a pattern in his chest hair. “I’d appreciate it.”
They stood that way for a few minutes longer. He holding her, she holding him, the two of them together, building their own world amid the backdrop of the gurgling stream and the singing birds. Their own strength. His beast rumbled its contentment. Turning his head, Isaiah pressed a kiss to her hair. His sweets.
Gradually tension slipped into Addy’s muscles. Her hand flattened against his chest. Her scent changed. He held her, waiting for whatever it was.
“Were there other women Reapers?”
She was jealous.
“Everyone taken was male.”
Her fingers rubbed against his shoulder. “But you had women.”
He kept his arms around her, battling the growing tension in her the only way he knew. “Women were forbidden to us.”
She rested her forehead against his chest. “Blade says Reapers are very attractive to human women.”
“Blade says too damn much.”
She went silent, but the tension grew. He wanted the peace back.
“What are you asking me, Addy?”
“You know.”
Son of a bitch. “No, I don’t. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t guess well.”
The rubbing stopped. So did her breathing. He waited. So did his beast. Finally she turned her face to the side and whispered, “I fell into your bed so easily. Was I just one in a long line of women falling there?”
How was he supposed to answer that and keep his pride? Tell her she was the third woman with whom he’d had sex and the only one to whom he’d made love? Did he really want to look that much of a fool?
“Hesitation is never good.” She tried to take a step back. He didn’t allow it. They’d come too far together for running away. And worrying about his pride, he realized.
“Yeah, but probably not for the reasons you’re imagining.” The broken breath might have been a sob. Hell, he wasn’t interested in other women. What was the point of faking it?
“We were forbidden contact with women.”
“But you were with me.”
“Yes.”
He could actually feel the blush heating her cheeks. “You knew what to do with me.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve probably been with a hundred women.”
“No.”
“Fifty?”
“No.”
She cut him a glance from beneath her lashes. “Ten?”
“Goddamn it.” She jumped. He gritted his teeth. “Before you, I had two women, and they used their mouths.”
Naturally, she looked up then. A mixture of shock, relief, and—son of a bitch—fascination filled her expression. “I could use my mouth?”
Ah, hell.
His cock went hard in a rush. Fisting his fingers in her hair, he lifted her mouth to his, kissing her hard and deep before admitting, “Anytime you want.”
He expected her to back off. Her gaze didn’t leave his as he straightened. Little by little, the tension within her lessened. A small smile hovered on her lips.
“You were a virgin.”
Shit. This time he was the one to let go and she was the one to hang on.
“So were you,” he growled.
Her smile broadened, with pleasure, he realized. “Yes, I was.”
He let her pull him back. “You didn’t seem to mind.”
She grabbed his hand and tucked it around her back. “I didn’t think it could have been more special, but I was wrong.”
She wasn’t disappointed. He went back to hugging her. “But?”
“Knowing I’m the only one who knows you that way.” She snuggled closer and kissed his chest. “That just makes it perfect.”
Yeah, it did. Holding her mouth to his skin, he hummed his agreement. “It was perfect.”
She gave a nip that set his senses aflame. “Are you talking about my jealousy, or the first time we made love?”
He smiled. “Both.”
“I should warn you that I’m not very calm about you being with anyone else.”
“Good, then you’ll understand when I tell you I don’t like you being friendly with Blade?”
“Blade? But he’s harmless.”
He stored that away to tell Blade. Sometime when he was being more arrogant than usual. “Harmless or not, the beast wants to rip his heart out when you smile at him.”
She blinked and leaned back. “That’s pretty violent.”
“It’s always violent.”
“I don’t think my beast is as mean as yours.”
“Maybe.” But he’d never heard of a kind and benevolent beast. “Or maybe it just hasn’t made itself known.”
She frowned at him. “Maybe I have a nice beast.”
He didn’t have the heart to take the delusion away from her.
She pursed her lips. “I think I’ll call it Jessica.”
She was going to give her beast a name?
“What do you call yours?”
“The beast.”
Leaning back against his hands, she shook her head at him. “You haven’t even tried to get along with it, have you?”
She had no idea what she was talking about. “Not really.”
“No wonder you’re fighting all the time.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it fighting. More of an armed truce that kept falling apart.”
“What happens when it falls apart?”
“If the beast wins, then I change.”
“That’s the only time you change?”
“Yes. High emotions seem to give it the upper hand.”
“Can you control it?”
“To some degree.”
She frowned at him. “Show me.”
“I’m not a damn side show.”
“I never thought you were, but it’s only logical that I’m curious. You say I’m changed. I need to know what that means.”
“I can only change when I’m mad.”
“You can’t control it?”
“I told you no.”
“Then how, I mean why . . .” She pushed her hair out of her face. “Why did they even create you?”
“To kill.”
“Who?”
“Whomever they wanted dead.”
“If you can’t change at will, how could they even know you could do what they wanted? I mean—”
“The beast likes to kill.”
She blinked. “Oh.”
“Exactly.”
Isaiah couldn’t blame Addy for her withdrawal. He couldn’t blame her for her questions. He just didn’t have the answers she required.
Blade’s soft call slid beneath the breeze, rustling the leaves.
Addy turned her head and listened. “Blade’s calling.”
“You’ve definitely got Reaper ears.”
She touched her ear. “I do?”
Nodding, he motioned toward the campsite. “A human would never have heard that.”
Stepping back, he held out his hand. Water dripped from his hair in a cold trickle down his back as she took his hand in hers and turned it over. She ran her index finger down the center to his wrist, coming to a halt at his pulse. She held it there a second before meeting his gaze with hers.
“Your hands were shredded.”
“Excuse me?”
She licked her lips. “I didn’t wake up until yesterday. A lot of the damage had healed. It looked weird,” she told him, as if he didn’t know. “Like open wounds without the blood.”
He knew that stage. It wasn’t something he’d ever wanted her to witness. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I want you to understand something.” Squeezing his hand, she whispered, “I watched you become whole again after I thought I’d lost you. It was a miracle.” Stretching her hand flat over his, she pressed the other against the back, balancing him in the heat and strength of her touch. “Even though this doesn’t feel real to me, and if I hadn’t seen that, I’d be telling you now that you’re insane—”
“I am.”
She shook her head. “No! Awful things were done to you and maybe like the men who came back from the War, some of the memories stay and haunt you, but you’re not crazy.”
“You don’t know what goes on inside my head.”
“You’re not in mine.”
She let go of his hand. Again, he expected her to step back. And again she didn’t. “My beast likes yours.”
He blinked.
“And I like you, and I’m sure if there ever comes a time when this seems real, I’m going to be very mad at someone. But right now, I can’t see it as all bad. The beast brought you back to me.”
She smiled and stood on tiptoe to kiss him softly. “And for the first time in thirteen years, I don’t miss my worry stone.”
As her lips met his, he thought with satisfaction,
Because you have me.
18
 
WHEN THEY GOT BACK TO THE CAMPSITE, BLADE WAS nowhere in sight. The hairs on the back of Addy’s neck stood on end even before Isaiah held up a hand for caution. She looked around, saw nothing out of the ordinary, but still she knew, just knew, something was amiss. Where was Blade? Deep inside there was a stirring, the feeling of something evil coming to life. Her beast? This wasn’t the time for them to be introduced. She took a step backward, against a tree. The breeze kicked up. With it came the scent of blood and . . . others. Something had happened to Blade.
Isaiah caught her arm and yanked her to him. Pressing a hard kiss on her lips, he shoved her back the way they’d come. “Run.”
She went as quickly and as quietly as she could, her heart thundering in her ears, her breath catching in her chest. Reapers. Reapers were here. Images of giant wolves with bloody jaws drove her forward.
No. Dear Lord, no. Run!
They needed to run.

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