Dangerous (Courting the Darkness Saga) (13 page)

Mica nodded.
“Yeah.”

“So let me guess, he
went after someone’s mate.”

Mica nodded again.
“Yes, he gets it into his head that they want him too.”

“Whose mate did he go
after?”

“The
alpha’s
.”
Drake rolled his eyes and shook his head as Mica continued. “He stole her away
for several days, against her will I might add. When they caught up with him it
wasn’t pretty. I wasn’t far behind. I had tracked him there as well. When I
arrived they were getting ready to cut out his heart. I couldn’t let them do
that. He had saved my neck more than once in the vampire wars…I had to save
him. You saw the shape he was in. I had to kill the alpha to rescue him.”

Drake stroked his chin
in thought. “I wonder why they would wait three hundred years to avenge their
alpha.”

“I don’t know, but if
they’re after Caleb, they’re after me too. After all, I’m the one that killed
their alpha.”

Drake shot Mica an
irritated look. “That thought crossed my mind too. Yours and Caleb’s actions
have left me with no choice.”

Mica cocked an eyebrow.
“Your meaning?”

“Call Caleb, tell him
to pack a bag for himself and pick up a few things for the boy. They’ll be our
guests until this is over.”

Mica shook his head. “I
don’t think Caleb would want—”

“At this point I don’t
give a fuck what Caleb does or doesn’t want. He is living in my domain, and
will do as he’s told. It seems that they were going after the boy to get to
Caleb. I could feel Sherry’s attachment to the boy. I don’t want her getting
hurt. I would imagine that you would have the same concerns for Desiree as well.”

“Yes, but—”

“I’m not finished.”

Mica gave Drake a cold
glare. “Why do I get the feeling that I’m not going to like this?”

***

“Drake knew that I
wanted to talk to him, and he’s avoiding me. That’s the only reason I can think
of that he and Mica took off so fast,” Sherry said to Desiree as she eased into
the chair at the diner.

“Mica just said that
there was some unfinished business that they had to take care of from a couple
of days ago. He didn’t act like it was a big deal to me, but he did say that it
had to be resolved today,” Desiree said.

“Sure,” Sherry said as
she studied the menu. “I personally think that it’s an excuse.”

Desiree smirked.
“Trouble already?”

Sherry turned her head
and saw the waitress approaching the table. “I’ll tell you in a minute.”

A young, pretty blond
approached the table. She wore blue jeans, an orange t-shirt that read ‘Eat at
Joe’s,’ and had on a short, black apron tied at her hips. She smiled and said,
“What can I get y’all to drink?”

Sherry smiled back at
the waitress. “I’ll have tea.” She saw Desiree nod. “Make it two teas.”

The girl pulled her
order pad from her apron pocket and scribbled down two teas. She tapped the pen
on her pad,
then
looked over her shoulder. When she
looked back the smile had disappeared. She hesitated,
then
spoke. “
Do
either of you ladies know that guy in the
booth over there?”

Desiree looked past her
and saw Sean sitting in a booth across the room staring at their table. Frowning,
she said, “Yeah, we know him.”

The waitress let out a
relieved breath, her smile returned. “Good. He’s just been staring so intently
at y’all that I was afraid we had a stalker situation going on. He’s gorgeous,
but his look is so intense that he’s kinda scary.”

Desiree shrugged,
then
glanced over at Sean again as she spoke to the
waitress. “We’re fine. He won’t bother us.”

“Okay, I’ll take your
word for it. Are y’all ready to order now or do you need more time?”

Sherry folded the menu
and handed it to the waitress. “I’ll have the turkey bacon club.”

Desiree handed the waitress
her menu as well.
“Cheeseburger, well done, with the seasoned
fries.”

“Great! I’ll place your
ticket and be right back with the teas.” She left and returned almost
immediately with the teas, placing them in front of Sherry and Desiree. “I’ll
be back in a few minutes with your lunch.”

Desiree took a sip of
her tea then said, “You were saying?”

Sherry glanced at Sean
again then back to Desiree. “Wait, are you just going to let this go?”

Desiree shrugged. “I’m
sure Drake sent Sean to watch over us. I’d really be pissed if we hadn’t
already been kidnapped from this very diner yesterday.” She shrugged again.
“Hargrove is still out there. Maybe it’s for the best…at least for now.”

“I see your point, but
I still don’t like it.”

“Me either, but hey, I
like breathing too.”

Sherry smiled. “Yeah,
breathing’s good.”

Desiree laughed.
“You’re killing me. I need you to finish telling me why you think that Drake is
avoiding you, because from my standpoint he is doing anything but.”

Sherry looked away,
toying with her glass. “Things were going great until we arrived at the
warehouse.”

“And?”

Sherry shrugged then
glanced back at her friend. “It all started when he heard my thoughts and
answered me in my head.”

Desiree worried her
bottom lip with her teeth. She winced then said, “Go on.”

“All of a sudden
everyone is calling me a queen. It was kinda fun when
he
did it, but when everyone else is doing it, it’s kinda creepy.”
She sighed. “I demanded that he tell me what’s going on, and he just said that
we’d talk later. I thought when Caleb and little Mica left that he’d talk to
me, but he had something else on his mind and…here we are.”

“Honey, I need to ask
you something really personal, and I don’t want you to get mad, but it’s
important.”

“Okay.” She picked up
her tea and took in a mouthful.

“What are your feelings
for Drake?” Sherry nearly spewed the tea. She coughed a couple of times,
then
opened her mouth to object to the question, but Desiree
held up her hand and continued. “I’m not askin’ to be nosey. We’re past the point
of warnings. You’re in too deep now.”

“Now you’re starting to
scare me.”

A tear slipped out of
the corner of Desiree’s eye. “I wish I had been successful in scaring you away
yesterday morning, but fate had other plans, and now it’s too late.”

“Too
late for what?”

“For
you to leave and live a normal life.”

Sherry gave her a weak
smile. “Des, I have no intensions of leaving. I’m happy with my life the way it
is at the moment. As for being normal…well, to tell the truth, there is
nothing
normal about either of us. I’d
accepted that a long time ago. I thought you had too.”

Desiree sniffed,
then
smiled a little. “You’re right, we’re not normal. I
gave up being normal a hundred years ago. What is normal anyway, right?”

Sherry nodded.
“Right.”

The smile left Desiree’s
face as she searched Sherry’s eyes. “Damn it, it’s still nagging at me. I feel
it in my gut that you’re just trying to make me feel better.”

Sherry huffed out a
frustrated breath. “Des…look, what I
need
most from you is for you to stop this. I can read your
pity
for me in your expression, and to tell the truth it’s starting
to piss me off.”

“I don’t pity you, I—”

“Let me finish. I’m so
happy and proud for you that you have finally found a great guy. Yes, being a
vampire is a huge issue to overcome, but like I said before, we’re not normal
either. The short time I’ve been around you two as a couple I can see that he
loves you very much. And if I’m correct in my assumptions, you love him too.”

“Yes, but—”

Sherry threw up her
hands.
“But what?”

“We’re talking about
you
and Drake, not
me
and Mica.”

“You know something? I
could choke you right now.”

Desiree threw out her
hands. “What?”

“I thought you were
supposed to be my friend.”

“Sherry, I
am
your friend. I love you as a sister.
I’m just trying to protect—”

Sherry shook her head.
“Don’t you get it? I don’t need you to protect me. What I need from you is your
support. Stop feeling sorry for me and be happy for me. Please, just let me
feel a small fraction of what you feel without the guilt.”

“Guilt?”

“Yeah, I kinda feel
guilty for wanting to be with Drake because I know that you don’t approve.”

“But with Drake?”

“Des, I know you don’t
like him, but—”

“It’s not that I don’t
like him Sher; he’s dangerous.”

“And Mica’s not?
Besides, a little danger adds spice to your life. It keeps things exciting.”

“I think that this kind
of life might be a little more excitement that you’re prepared for.”

Sherry smiled. “I’ve
had more excitement in the last two days than I’ve had in my entire life. It
made me realize how dull and boring my existence has been so far. Drake makes
me feel things that I’ve never felt before.”

“Sher, they have a word
for that. It’s called lust.”

The waitress set the
plates down on the table. Desiree waved her on.

Sherry felt the heat
flood her face. She knew that the girl had to have heard at least Desiree’s
comment. “I won’t deny that I felt that from the moment I laid eyes on him.
It’s more than that, Des. Is it love? I don’t know. I’ve never been in love
before, but I know that I care for him deeply and I think he cares for me too.”

“Sher, I know that you
don’t like me calling you naive,” Sherry frowned. “But you are clueless about
Drake’s feelings for you.”

“Okay, wise one,
enlighten me,” she said sarcastically. “If you know so much, then tell me how
Drake really feels about me.”

“He
more than cares deeply for you.”

“And you would know
this, how? Has he said something to Mica?”

Desiree shook her head
and took a small bite of her cheeseburger, chewing it thoughtfully before she
spoke again. “He didn’t have to. Everyone knows.
Everyone but
you, apparently.”

Sherry shrugged.
“You’ve lost me.”

Desiree put her cheeseburger
down and reached across the table, placing her hand over Sherry’s. “He’s
claimed you as his mate.”

Sherry’s mouth gaped in
stunned silence.

“You carry his mark.
That’s why you’ve heard all the ‘queen’ remarks today. You are their queen now.
And I guess, since I am Mica’s
mate, that
makes you my
queen too. This is why
I
feel guilty,
and why I said it’s too late.”

“But…how?” she sputtered.

“Don’t feel bad. When
Mica marked me I was clueless too. I found out when Caleb went into a rage and
nearly killed me because of it. The others can sense it.” She squeezed her
hand. “Eat your lunch. I have a feeling that you’re going to need all the
strength you can get for what lies ahead.”

Chapter Fifteen

Mica took out his cell
phone and called Caleb.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Caleb.”

“Did we forget
something? We haven’t even made it home yet.”

“Uh, you and the boy
need to come back to the warehouse. Drake’s insisting, if you get my drift. He
said to bring whatever you’ll need for a few days, and stop somewhere and pick
the boy up some things too.”

“You’re kidding,
right?”

“Afraid
not.”

“We just left. The boy
hasn’t even seen where
he’s
gonna live yet. Can’t this
wait a day or two?”

“It’s not a request,
Caleb.”

“Damn it, Mica! Where
the fuck does Drake come off giving me an order?”

“That’s a rhetorical
question.”

Caleb sighed into the
phone. “I know. I know. I’m just venting. Can you at least tell me why?”

“He thinks your pack is
going to target the boy next to get to you.”

“I can protect my son.
Why would he care anyway, we’re not vamps?”

“Drake’s queen is fond
of the boy, so is Desiree. He doesn’t want to see her hurt.”

“About that…since when
does Drake have a queen? All the years I’ve known him he hasn’t had a mate.”

“It was a bit of a
surprise to me too. I never figured he’d take a human for a mate.”

“You did.”

“I know.”

“No offense, Mica,
but—”

“Caleb, you’re
objecting like you have a choice. You don’t and you know it.”