Scarlet Heat (Born to Darkness) (26 page)

“No, it doesn’t,” Addison said fiercely. “Why
shouldn’t
you be a couple?”

“Because I’m a vamp and he’s a were,” I said.
“Not to mention the fact that he probably hates me now.”

“How could he hate you?” Addison asked, squeezing
my hand. “You’re gorgeous and sweet and—”

“Broken,” I finished for her. “Addison, I’m
broken.
The time I spent with Celeste,
the things she did to me, let other people do—it broke something inside me. But
with Victor…”

“Yes,” she prompted softly.

“With Victor,” I continued, forcing myself to go
on. “It’s almost like…I’m starting to heal. He’s so kind and patient…so
gentle.
I never would have believed it
when I first saw him but, Addison, he’s one of the gentlest men I’ve ever met.
I don’t feel afraid with him. I feel protected…cherished.” I ran a hand through
my hair. “That’s how I
felt
anyway.
Now I’ve gone and ruined everything.”

“By having one lousy little fight? No way!”
Addison declared. “Corbin and I fight and disagree all the time but I wouldn’t
want to be with anyone else.”

“Yes, but the things I said to Victor…” I
swallowed the lump that wanted to form in my throat. “I reminded him that our
relationship is only temporary, Addison. I practically said I was out the door
the minute the Laws of Ownership were fulfilled.”

“Oh, hon…I’m sure he didn’t take you seriously,”
she protested.

“Yes, he did. You should have seen the look on
his face—so hurt and angry. Oh, Addison…” I put a hand over my eyes. “Why did I
have to drive him away like that?”

“Well, it
does
sound like he was getting kind of possessive,” she said thoughtfully. “I
think that’s a were thing too—Corbin was actually counting on it when he bonded
you to Victor in the first place. But maybe it’s time to set some ground rules
before you go much further.”

“That’s the thing—we’re not going
anywhere
. Except for this pack thing,
tonight.” I looked at my watch. “If he shows up.”

“He’ll show,” Addison assured me. “He knows you don’t
know the way to the council meeting place by yourself and he won’t let you go
alone. You’ll see.”

I was less convinced than my friend, but I let
her get me up and continued trying on outfits. We finally settled on a simple
little black dress that outlined my curves without clinging to them too
obviously. It had a modest neckline that showed just a hint of cleavage, and
the hem fell to just above my knees. The shoes that went with it were sensible
low heels and Addison had brought a plain gold chain to wear with it.

“You won’t be needing that,” a low voice said
just as she was about to put it around my neck.

“What?” I turned to see Victor standing there,
dressed in a pair of dark slacks and a maroon shirt with a black tie. The
outfit looked oddly formal on him—probably because I’d never seen him in
anything but jeans before.

“I said you won’t be needing that.” He stepped
into the room and motioned to the necklace that Addison was still holding.

“Hello, Victor,” she said, nodding at him but standing
her ground by my side. “Is wearing jewelry against were customs or something?”

“No. I just have something else I want…I
need
Taylor to wear.” He held out one
large hand and I saw a single strand of elegant pearls lying across his palm.

“They’re beautiful,” I breathed, looking up at
him. “Where did you get them?”

“They were my mother’s,” he said roughly.
“She…gave them to me when I was banished from my home pack.” He cleared his
throat. “They’re supposed to be for my wife to wear on formal occasions. I
understand if you don’t want to—”

“Of course I’ll wear them,” I said quietly. I
went to stand in front of him. “Would you put them on me?”

He fastened them around my neck, and I shivered
at the feel of his big, warm hands brushing my nape. A bolt of desire shot
through me, and I pressed my legs together. God, of all times for the heat to
come back… I heard Victor inhale and knew he was sniffing me, scenting my need.
If I hadn’t screwed things up so monumentally between us, I could have asked
for his help but of course now that was out of the question.

I wanted in the worst way to turn and hug him, to
bury my face in his chest and say I was sorry, but I wasn’t sure how he would
react to that. Would he think I was just using him, making up so he would help
me hold off the heat? I would never do that—I genuinely cared for him.
Genuinely…loved him? No, that couldn’t be right, could it? There was no way I
was falling for him…not with all our differences. Not with my awful past. And
yet, the feeling persisted. It was confusing to say the least.

“There,” he said at last, breaking into my
confused reflections. “Finished. You can look now.”

I went to stand in front of the bathroom mirror
and admire the pearls. They lay like little moons against my newly tanned skin
and complemented my simple black dress perfectly.

“You look wonderful, roomie,” Addison said
softly, coming up to stand by my side.

“Wonderful, nothing—she looks fucking gorgeous,”
Victor said roughly, joining us. In the mirror, we made the perfect couple and
I couldn’t help remembering the dream I’d had where he was hugging me and our
little girl. I wished I could tell him about that dream but it was ridiculous—almost
as ridiculous as me thinking I loved him.

“Thank you, Victor,” I said softly, caressing the
single strand of pearls with my fingertips. “For letting me wear them. Even
if—”

“They look good on you,” he said abruptly,
looking away. “You ready? It’s almost nine.”

“I know.” I glanced again at my watch. “I guess…I
guess I’m ready if you are.”

“Come on then, let’s go.” He started to take my
arm but Addison stepped between us.

“Wait a minute. What’s going to happen at this
council tonight? Is Taylor going to be safe?”

“As safe as I can make her,” Victor growled.
“Don’t worry, Addison—I’ll protect her. With my life, if I have to.”

She nodded approvingly. “I’m glad to hear it.”

“I’m
not,” I said. “Is it really
that serious, Victor? I mean, I barely touched her!”

“That doesn’t matter. The fact is that you
touched her at all—they’ll want to make you pay for that. The same way they
want to make me pay,” he growled.

“Why do they want to make you pay?” Addison
asked.

“Because of me,” I said quietly. “It’s because
I’m a vampire, isn’t it? Because you allowed yourself to be bonded to a
fanger.”

“Don’t call yourself that,” he said fiercely.

“But it’s true, isn’t it?” I demanded. “You’re
being punished because of me.”

Victor sighed. “It’s true that other weres don’t…understand
me being with you. They don’t like it and wouldn’t allow it if I was part of
their pack. Calling us out to the council tonight is their way of punishing me
for going against the natural order and marrying outside my race.”

“What?”
Addison demanded. “What is
this—the nineteen freaking fifties? What’s wrong with those bastards?”

Victor shrugged. “That’s how most weres feel
about vamps. To be honest, vamps feel the same about weres.”

I frowned. “I guess that and the smell thing is
why you don’t see more mixed couples.”

Addison raised an eyebrow. “The
smell
thing?”

I glanced at my watch. “I really don’t have time
to explain—it’s fifteen to nine, and I have a feeling this isn’t something we
can be fashionably late to.”

“You’re Goddamn right about that,” Victor
growled. “Come on, we have to go now.”

“I’ll leave with you.” Addison gathered her
things quickly and eyed Victor. “Now don’t take this the wrong way, but Corbin
did
say that if you needed backup…”

“Right,” Victor said dryly. “Like the other weres
don’t hate me enough. They already think I’m a traitor to my race, all I need
is to bring in a fucking four-star vamp to seal the deal.”

“But if it’s going to be that dangerous—” Addison
protested.

Victor shook his head decisively. “I don’t think
so. Look, it’ll be all right, Addison. I just need to go and take my beating
like a good little wolf. Then they’ll leave us alone.”

His words troubled me, but I assumed he meant we
would have to bow and scrape and apologize—at least I hoped that was all that
would happen. Despite Victor’s warnings, I couldn’t imagine they would actually
try to
beat
either one of us. Would
they?

Before I could ask him, we were out the door with
Addison on our heels. She got into Corbin’s Mercedes—a big step up from the
crappy little Focus she drove back before they were together—and waved at me.
Then she made a quick little phone gesture, holding the thumb and pinky finger
of her right hand to her ear—
call me when
it’s over. No more secrets.

I nodded a promise to her—
you got it, roomie—
and she drove away.

I turned to Victor. “Okay, so where is it? Are we
driving somewhere?”

“Nah, we can walk it. It’s the next field over
from mine.” He took my hand. “Come on. And whatever you do, stay close to me.
The moon is almost full—it’s a bad night for this. A really fucking bad night.”

And with that he pulled me into the wild lands
surrounding his house.

Chapter Twenty—Victor

I didn’t know why they called it Skull Rock. It
was just a big, flat boulder in the center of the field the local pack used as
home base. It had a few cracks and hollows and lumps but none of it looked very
fucking skeletal to me. Still, the local weres seemed plenty proud of it,
especially Pack Master Wainright and his daughter LeeAnn who stood on one end
of the boulder looking important.

The rest of the weres were gathered around the
boulder—more than I had thought, actually. There were about thirty males in the
pack and twice as many females.

Male weres have a higher mortality rate at birth
than females and they also get weeded out by dominance fights and battles over
territory. So there are always more females than males in any given pack—which
probably explained some of the baleful looks Taylor was getting. The idea of a
vamp taking away what they probably thought was a perfectly eligible bachelor
male wolf made them livid. Of course, if any of them knew about my curse, they
wouldn’t want to touch me with a ten foot pole. But they were ignorant of it
and I hoped to keep them that way.

Speaking of the curse, I was worried about it but
not as much as I might have been. After being kicked out of my own pack, I had
sought out help on my own and found it in the form of an old Hindu holy man who
taught Transcendental Meditation. I had spent most of the afternoon meditating
and repeating my mantra—
I am calm. I am
centered. I am one—
with the result that I felt a little more in control of
myself.

I had let the meditation slide for a long time
after moving to Tampa, mostly because the curse hadn’t been bothering me, and
anyway, who was I going to hurt if I changed? I lived alone. Now that Taylor
was in my life, I realized I needed to get back into it in a big way—even if it
didn’t look like she was going to be in it for long. And if you think the idea
of a big guy like me sitting in lotus position and saying
Ommm
is hilarious, let me just tell you that the thing I turn into
when the curse hits is
not
very
fucking funny. So it’s worth it.

I’ll be fine,
I tried to convince myself as
Taylor and I stood hand in hand before the Skull Rock.
We both will.

Except the moon was beaming down overhead, only
one night from being full and the brand on my lower back was burning like a hot
wire buried just under my skin. It was probably glowing as well—which was why
I’d made sure to wear a dark shirt—and I could feel the beast moving around in
my subconscious, eager to come out.
I am
calm. I am centered. I am one,
I told myself.
I can handle this. I
have
to handle this.

Taylor’s hand was cold in mine—I wasn’t sure if
it was because she needed to drink or because she was scared. Either way, I
couldn’t really help her. I couldn’t feed her here—it would be seen as the
worst kind of insult to the pack. The best I could do was squeeze her hand.

“Gonna be okay, baby,” I murmured from the corner
of my mouth. “Just hang in there.”

“I’m trying.” Her voice was soft and uncertain,
and I felt my heart twist in my chest. God, how I wanted to protect her! Even
if she didn’t feel for me the way I felt for her, I wanted to put myself
between her and danger, to keep her from any harm. I swore to myself again that
I wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her, wouldn’t tolerate a single person
putting so much as a finger on her. She was
mine,
and I would die to keep her safe.

“Wolves, bitches…and vampire,” Pack Master
Wainright began, addressing us all from the rock, which was about two feet high
and gave him a definite height advantage. “We are gathered here today to
redress a wrong that was committed against your Alpha Bitch, our own LeeAnn
Wainright.”