Twice Cursed (34 page)

Lily’s eyes were on the
floor. How could she argue with him? Did she want to go with them
simply because she was afraid of being left alone, or did she have
a death wish like Terry had accused? Or was it pride?
Her case, her deal.

Sean lifted his hand again, and drew
his fingers along the curve of her cheek, gently raising her chin
until their eyes met. “Lily, you and I have always told each other
the truth, and this situation is no exception. It’s a gamble, but
my gut tells me this goes beyond the attacks in the city, and I’m
willing to bet the vampires are just as stumped as everyone else
involved. I’m hoping they’ll be receptive, because odds are, they
need all the supernatural help they can get.”

Letting go of her chin, he
picked up his bottle and placed it upside-down in the drain. He’d
had enough—of beer and talk.
“It’s for the
best, love. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to
you because of a decision I made. You’re my life, my
heart.”

Sean’s voice feathered across her
mind, the intimacy of it robbing the breath from her throat. He
leaned in to kiss her gently, then raised his fingers to brush the
hair away from her eyes.

“
I love you too,”
she answered, sending as much trust and warmth as
she could along their shared mind path.

“
I’d better get Jack, the
night’s wasting,” he said, and pushed away from the
counter.

“
Wait,” she said, pulling
on his hand.

He exhaled, his shoulders slumping as
he turned.

“
Don’t be like that. I get
that neither of you want my scent to add fuel to the fire and bait
the vamps, but I had a thought. Unless Hollywood has it completely
wrong, vampires have abilities just like Weres, right?” She glanced
up at him hopefully, but the man just crossed his arms again, not
giving an inch.

She exhaled, blowing stray strands
from her forehead. “Are all Weres so pigheaded or just the ones in
my life? Admit it; what I’m saying makes sense. If vamps have
talents similar to other supes, wouldn’t they stack the odds in
their favor and have a telepath on the council? Or at least in
their guard? They would probably pick through my brain as a matter
of protocol before we even got through the introductions, and there
you’d have it, proof positive.”

Sean didn’t say a word, but the muscle
in his jaw worked overtime. Considering he walked the fine line
between overprotective mate and Alpha of the Brethren, it was no
mystery as to which arguments he was biting back, and Lily knew it.
In the end, her theories were valid, and she’d bet dollars to
donuts that Sean already knew there was a telepath on the council.
Perhaps that’s what worried him.

“
All right.” He spit out
the words like they were wrapped in barbed wire. “However, you need
to stay close and listen to me. I mean it, Lily. I let you take the
lead at the morgue, but this is my jurisdiction. None of your
vigilante style antics, and for all our sakes, speak only when
spoken to, and think before you answer.”

Lily pursed her lips slightly, raising
her chin a notch. She lifted onto her toes to press a kiss to his
lips. He may have acquiesced, but she was smart enough to know at
what possible cost. She slipped her arms around his waist and
looked up at him, resting her chin on his chest. “I may be
hot-headed, but I’m not stupid. You’ll get no argument from
me.”

Jack walked back into the kitchen, a
smirk on his face. “Ha! I’ll believe that when I see
it!”

“
Eavesdropping, Jack?” Lily
asked.

“
Nah. More like
reconnaissance,” he said with a chuckle. “You two are about as
obvious as water is wet, so can we go, please? I’m getting gray
from all the time we waste talking.”

Sean’s shoulders shook, and Lily
glanced at the young hunter across the hard muscled expanse of the
alpha’s chest. “You’re a gray wolf, Jack; you couldn’t get any
grayer if you tried.”

“
Ha, ha. Since you wheedled
your way onto this pleasure trip, why don’t you stick a couple of
those homemade stakes of yours in your boot?”

Sean shook his head. “No weapons. If
we go in armed, it sends a bad message. Besides, my guess is,
they’ll search us beforehand.”

Jack raised an eyebrow but didn’t say
a word. Lily stepped back from Sean, and pulled open the thin
utility drawer at the end of the counter. Reaching in, she grabbed
a handful of pencil sized pieces of wood, all with razor sharp tips
and notched for a small, concealed crossbow.

“
Would you look at that?”
Jack said in surprise, stepping up beside her. He picked up one of
the stakes and turned it over in his hand. Each stake had perfectly
flared wings and a weighted silver tip. “You’ve been holding out on
us, huh? You make all these yourself?”

She nodded.

“
Where’s the
bow?”

“
Second drawer on the
left.”

Jack reached in and took the mini bow
out. The weapon was barely half the length of his arm, but its
precision was unquestionably deadly. “You are one scary bitch,
aren’t you? I think maybe we need to do something about
that.”

Lily chuckled, but at the same time,
took the bow out of Jack’s hand and put it back in the drawer along
with the stakes “Another time, maybe. Sean’s right. No weapons
tonight.”

“
If we’re going to go, then
you need to clean up. You still stink like cat.”

She glanced down at her clothes. “I’ll
only be a minute, and I need to let Ryan know we’ll meet up with
him later.”

***

The vampire underground and its
sanguinarian population thrived in New York City. The place was a
veritable playground, where every fetish imaginable was indulged.
Shadow houses dotted Manhattan’s grid, sanctuaries for vampires
sampling the city’s pleasures a little too close to dawn, and
havens where donors could be accessed without the least threat of
repercussion.

A veil had been drawn across vampiric
life, with access forbidden to outsiders. Of course, Sean had
legitimate justification in requesting a temporary stay in that
ruling, and permission to approach their inner sanctum had been
granted, surprisingly.

With Lily in tow, he and Jack crossed
Jane Street, heading west toward the Hudson River Greenway. Their
destination was a hip new hotspot on Vestry Street, a dozen or so
blocks south in the heart of trendy Tribeca.

Despite the cold, Sean put the nix on
taking a cab, not wanting anyone, not even a random cabbie, to be
able to pinpoint their destination. He quickly scanned the street
and the alleys ahead of them. The invitation of Warm Were blood on
a cold night was tempting for any vampire, and the last thing they
needed was an ambush from the shadows. Odds were, they would need
all their reserves for the main event.

“
Well?” Jack
prompted.

Sean frowned at the younger wolf’s
mounting impatience, and shot him a warning look before he nodded
the all-clear. “Take your enthusiasm down a peg, boy. As of now,
this is a non-confrontational parley, nothing more than a good
faith transfer of information in hopes of preventing further
bloodshed.”

Jack huffed. “Bullshit. One of theirs
killed one of ours.”

With a sigh bordering on aggravated,
Sean ran a hand through his hair, stepping up to the corner to wait
for the light to change. Traffic still flowed in a heavy northbound
pace on the Westside Highway, passing in a blur of car horns less
than a block from where they stood.

“
We still don’t know all
the particulars about that, and I’m not starting an all-out war
over a random wolf, hundreds of miles from where he belonged. It’s
no secret there are Weres who partner with the undead, and even
those whose tastes stray toward the unthinkable.”

Jack snorted. “No shit. I haven’t run
into one yet, but as far as I’m concerned a silver bullet to the
head is too good for them.”

“
What are you two talking
about?” Lily asked, her face surprised by Jack’s grunt of
disgust.

The wind off the Hudson was high, and
Sean slipped his arm around Lily’s shivering frame. For someone so
small, she carried the weight of everything she’d witnessed over
the past months with such strength. Anyone else would be downing
cocktails of Prozac and antipsychotics. She knew so much already,
but it was times like this when he realized how much she had yet to
learn. A protective knot twisted in his stomach, and again the
feeling warred with his sense of duty. Perhaps Lily was right to be
so averse to the idea of being turned. It truly was a whole new
world for her.

He sucked in a cold breath and pointed
for them to take West Street, following the quieter road southbound
along the highway. Construction scaffolding lined buildings along
the inside edge of the street for what seemed like miles, offering
them shelter against the wind. They slipped easily under the metal
frame and ducked inside the plastic sheeting. Lily’s shoulder’s
visibly relaxed with the sudden drop in wind shear, but Sean kept
her close regardless.

“
I’m not sure I know how to
answer that question without it reeking of bias. Right or wrong,
every culture has unwritten codes of behavior. Opinions about what
is acceptable and appropriate. In that respect, Weres are no
different from anyone else, and, like other groups, we change with
the times, or at least try to,” he said, fixing his eyes on
her.

“
Nevertheless, there is one
taboo regarding the undead that will probably never change.
Vampires, their narcissism and the atrocities they commit, have
branded them a depraved race by most Weres. They are considered so
obscene, anyone who panders with them is an outcast the eyes of the
Weres. Even basic friendship is frowned upon, but to have relations
with a vampire is unconscionable.”

“
I assume by relations you
mean sex, right?” Lily asked, unwinding her scarf from her
neck.

They had all warmed up, and Sean slid
his arm from around her shoulders, but kept her hand wrapped in
his. He nodded, twining his bare fingers with her gloved ones.
“It’s unthinkable, regardless of existing treaties. Vampires are
dead, and their bodies are reanimated in a way most supernaturals
find abhorrent. After all, we have living blood running through our
veins, too. To make matters worse, vampires lump all daylighters
together, regardless of species or race. Weres, Fae…it doesn’t
matter to them. In their eyes, we are no more than a step above
human, and they consider themselves the master race.”

“
Jeez, and all those
vampire romances portray them as so anguished and long
suffering.”

Jack laughed. “Yeah, what a shocker
for all the teenage girls hoping for their own brooding vamp. Go
team wolf!”

Sean shot him a look. “Quit
it, Jack. There are enough of the angst-ridden varieties still
pining for their humanity to make our treaties worthwhile. As for
teenage vampire romances, the world has been spellbound ever since
Bram Stoker published
Dracula,
so go figure.
Our
species will
never
commingle, but the vampires
who retain shreds of their humanity give us hope for a peaceful
coexistence. Now, I’m not saying the wolf in the morgue had
anything to do with breaking the taboo, but it’s a possibility we
can’t ignore until we gather more facts. Lily, you were able to see
the attack, and that information gave us a rough estimate of the
vampire responsible, but the events leading up to it, and whatever
was said between the victim and his attacker were garbled,
right?”

Lily nodded, lifting her
hand to tuck a few windblown strands back into her
Laura Croft Tomb Raider
style braid. “The way it felt in my head was similar to a
glamoring, but not. It felt as though the vamp picked through the
Were’s memories and jumbled them beyond recognition
after
he was dead. I’m
not even sure that’s possible.”

With a huff, she pulled her left glove
off with her teeth and shoved it into her pocket, letting go of
Sean’s hand to do the same with the other. A faint smirk danced at
the corner of his mouth, and he chuckled inwardly at the classic
Lily move. She was fidgeting, something she always did to channel
tension before the hammer came down on a situation.

As expected, she had changed into her
leathers before they’d left the apartment. It was as if she donned
a certain persona, like superman changing into his tights and cape
in a phone booth. Lily was gutsy and bold, and for some reason, she
needed the outward show. Not that Sean minded. His eyes swept her
shapely legs, noting the tight fit of her pants and how the black
leather showcased every curve not covered by her short jacket. She
might be freezing, but for him, she was hot enough to melt the ice
floes on the Hudson. Need, unexpected and intense, flashed through
him, thickening his groin. Lily tilted her head in his direction
raising one eyebrow, and he answered with what he hoped wasn’t a
leer, squelching the urge to have her loosen more than just her
scarf.

He refocused on the street ahead,
clearing both his mind and his throat. “The confusion you
encountered while reading him is certainly something we can put to
them as questionable, but remember, for all we know, the vampires
are just as concerned about what’s been going on in this armpit of
a city as we are.”