A long fucking life?
He looked in his early thirties.
“So Delilah,” he went on, “you aren’t leavin’. You aren’t getting your ass killed. You’re stayin’ right here where I can keep you safe. And the first thing you’re doin’ is takin’ a goddamned shower so you stop reekin’ like those fuckers who laid their hands on you and tried to take you from me before I even gave you our first kiss.”
Our first kiss?
Yep.
A big, fat, steaming pile of uh-oh.
“You scare me,” I shared.
“I’ll stop doing that, you get used to me,” he replied.
This was doubtful.
I lifted my hands out to the sides (the only place I could move them) and dropped them. “This whole thing terrifies me, everything about it, and there are lots of everything about it, including the fact you took seven lives in one night all in front of me.”
“You said you didn’t want to die. Do you want me to die?”
At his words, that pain sliced through me again, gutting me in a way I could not hold back my wince.
“Yeah,” he whispered, his quiet word eradicating the pain like that simple piece of proof of him alive, breathing, and talking had that power. Something, by the way, that freaked my shit way out. “They wanted you dead,” he continued. “They wanted me dead. But they got dead. And hopefully Wei and Xun will get that wolf so maybe we can get some answers. Now I need to get out there and help them so you need to take a shower, put on my tee, and get some rest, because whatever shit is happening, I know one thing…it’s only just begun.”
I stared up at him knowing I should do everything I could to get the hell away, get to my dad, my dad being the person who would make me safe in a way that was safe for me, just as I knew I wasn’t going to do that.
I was going to take a shower, put on his tee, and try to get some rest.
Because I had a feeling he was not wrong.
And there was the not-so-insignificant part of the whole night where I knew he was in danger, reacted to it violently, and led Chen to him without knowing how I did it.
I’d come to Serpentine Bay on a quest and I had a feeling I’d found my Holy Grail.
It was just that my Grail was scary as shit.
“I need to call my dad,” I said quietly.
He moved away three inches, reaching in his back jeans pocket and pulling out his phone.
He handed it to me.
I took it, tipping my head down to stare at it in my hand because this surprised me and made me feel a lot more protected and a whole lot less of a kidnap victim.
“It’s after two in the morning,” he stated, and I looked up at him.
“Right,” I whispered.
“You call him, you’re gonna freak him. You two close?”
“Very.”
“Can he take care of himself?”
“Absolutely,” I answered firmly.
“You want reinforcements.” Although a statement, it was also a guess.
I nodded.
“I hear that,” he said. “But I’ll ask you to give me the rest of the night, see if the boys got that wolf, see if we can get anything out of him, this meaning you’ll have more information to give your dad so he knows what he’s getting into.”
The idea of telling my father I’d hooked up with a werewolf vampire and was unexpectedly under attack during my vacation quest to Serpentine Bay was not one I relished.
The good part of this was that Dad would totally believe me. I knew that sounded screwy, but he would. He was just that kind of guy.
And he loved me that much.
The bad part of this was that Dad would totally lose his mind, rally his brothers, and ride on Serpentine Bay ready for a fight and willing to go down in order to take out any being, natural or supernatural, who was a threat to me.
“I’ll wait until morning,” I said.
“Good,” he murmured. “You keep that phone. It’s good you have one, just in case. I’ll get Jian-Li’s before I find the boys.”
I nodded, though I did this ignoring his “just in case” comment.
“Where’d you leave your purse?” he asked.
“I, uh…” I thought about that evening’s events, remembering I had my purse when I went to the bathroom in that bar. I also had it when I left the bathroom and saw the men at the mouth of the hall and instinctively knew they were after me (another thing that freaked me, and not just that they were after me, but that I knew with one look they were). I still had it when I turned the other way and ran out the back exit.
I threw it aside somewhere in my dash.
“It’s somewhere between the Mad Helmet and where you found me,” I told him.
He nodded. “I’ll see if we can find it.”
“Thanks,” I said softly.
“Shower.”
It was me nodding that time.
“Rest,” he went on.
That would be impossible.
I nodded again anyway.
He held my gaze before he said, “You’re safe, Delilah.”
I took in a deep breath.
He watched me do it, looked back into my eyes, stepped away, then, in a blur, he was at the steel door, opening it.
He went through and didn’t look back when he pulled the door closed behind him.
Chapter Two
Torture
Abel
Abel walked through the back door of the restaurant.
He smelled her and looked left.
Jian-Li was sitting in her armchair in her office drinking tea, the standing lamp arched over the chair giving off soft light that barely cut the dark.
Waiting up for her sons.