Dylan (Bowen Boys) (8 page)

“Yes. I’ve belonged to you since I first
saw you bleeding on my deck.” He rubbed his jaw. “You have a hell of a right.”

“And a left, too, if you ever fuck with
me again.” She pulled his mouth down to hers and kissed him deeply before
continuing. “Now go to sleep. I need my rest after that.”

He laughed when he rolled to his back,
taking her with him so that she was laying over him. She closed her eyes when
she felt his fingers trail up and down her back in a steady motion. She was
drifting off when she felt his hand slow then stop. His soft snore was the last
thing she heard for a while.

Chapter Six

Kirby was sitting at home, enjoying his
quiet time, when his phone rang. It was his personal phone. He was surprised
when he didn’t know who the caller was.

On the off chance it could be his wife
or daughter, he answered with a laugh. “Don’t tell me you miss me already,” he
said. “You’ve only been gone for less than a day. You didn’t run out of money,
did you?” He laughed again but realized no one was saying anything on the other
end. “Sally?”

“I have her and your pretty daughter,
too.” His blood froze in his veins. “If you want to see them again, you’ll go
and find that cunt Crosby and bring her to me.”

“Don’t hurt them. Please, I beg you.
Don’t hurt—”

“You should have taken care of her when
you had the opportunity. I told you what I wanted. I made it perfectly clear
that she was to be dead. What did you do? You let her get away from you, and
now she’s out there.”

He heard his wife scream in the
background. Kirby stood up and realized he couldn’t go to her, couldn’t do
anything because this man had her in his grip. He sat down slowly and brushed
at the tears on his cheeks. He’d sent them away to certain death if he didn’t
find Crosby.

“I’m sending you help. He will be able
to track her much better than any of you will ever dream of doing. You’ll treat
him as if he is me, an extension of me. If I hear one thing, I don’t care how
small, I will rape your daughter and have your wife record it and send it to
you. Do I make myself clear?”

“She’s only ten years old. Please, I beg
of you—” The dial tone rang in his ear, but he wasn’t through begging. “Please.
Please, I’ll do whatever you say, but please don’t hurt her.”

Kirby laid his head on his table and
sobbed. He’d loved his wife more than he’d ever dreamed possible when he first
saw Sally. She’d been standing with another woman at a fundraiser. She’d been wearing
a dress that was very unflattering to her. The color made her look washed out, but
when she turned to him and smiled, he fell head over heels in love with her
just like that. Then he did again when, fourteen months later, she became his
wife.

No one could believe how happy they
were. Each time they were invited to an event, he would not leave her side, nor
she his. Then a few months later, when she told him she was pregnant, he knew without
a doubt that he was the happiest man alive. But complications set in.

She was dying. Three months into her
pregnancy, and she was dying. The doctors had no idea why or how to treat her,
but as she lay there breathing her last breaths, their unborn child grew
weaker. Kirby had prayed harder than he ever had for anything. Then a man came
into the room.

“You will owe me if I save them.” The
man said nothing else but stood near the bed that held Kirby’s only happiness.

“What do you mean you can save them? The
doctor said that they were both dying, that there was nothing we could do.” He
looked down at her, and then at the man. “Did you do this? So that I could owe
you? Get one of your buddies out of prison? I won’t be blackmailed like that.
If you can save her, you damned well better.”

He was up off the floor in seconds, his
throat gripped tightly in the man’s large hand. The man held him several feet
up and looked him in the eye. Kirby saw his death and that of his wife and
child there. It was as if he’d recorded it and was now showing it to him.

“Say you’ll owe me and I will save them
both.” Kirby looked at his wife again and nodded. He was dropped to the floor, where
he fell to his knees. As he stepped back to the bed, Kirby had a moment to
wonder what he’d done. Then the man changed.

It wasn’t his physical body that changed
so much as his entire being. He seemed to grow larger, his face wider. When he
opened his mouth, fangs dropped into razor-sharp points. Kirby stood up to go to
Sally when the man raised his hand, and then Kirby couldn’t move.

“I will take her blood and give her mine.
The child will also have it through her link with her mother. She will not be
as I am, vampire, but when I need her, either of them, they will come. You will
be able to do nothing to save them.”

“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want you
to do this. Please. You have to—”

“It is too late.” He seemed to strike at
his wife’s throat, his mouth covering her pulse. Kirby knew that he was
drinking from her, taking away her blood when she was already so weak and could
not afford to lose it. Then he lifted his head, his mouth covered in blood, and
he licked his lips. Smiling at Kirby, the vampire bit into his own wrist and
pressed it to Sally’s pale lips. Whispering something in her ear, Kirby watched
as she drank from him. After a few minutes he pulled away from her, and Kirby
was sickened to see her reach for him again.

“I will require you to make some records
go away. I want them destroyed, and any other information you find on a man by
the name of Jerry Small. Anything,” the vampire said, to which Kirby nodded. “I
will come to you when I have need of you again.”

“Again? I thought you said you only
needed me to do this favor for her life.” The man smiled again and shook his
head. “You think I’m going to do whatever you want for the rest of my life?”

The man looked at Sally, who was
watching the man hungrily. He looked away from her and at the man. He tipped
his head at him and smiled again.

“You will, because if you do not, I will
take from you what I have given. I never said that I would only ask a single
favor of you. I said you would owe me.” He took a step closer to Kirby, almost
touching him. “And you do.”

He had disappeared from the room, but not
his life. Over the next ten years, the vampire had come by seldom, but always
with a job Kirby was to do without question. He had learned the hard way not to
ask questions. The knock at his door startled him from his memories, and he
went to answer it.

“I’m here to help you. Lucius sent me.” He
bumped Kirby as he brushed past him and into the house. “I’ll be staying in the
master suite, and you can sleep down here.”

“But I—” The man turned to look at him
with a smile he’d seen Lucius use before. It said “fuck with me and I’ll fuck
you up.” Kirby nodded.

“I’m a wolf, did he mention that? My
name is Deveron. Anyway, I’ll be looking during the evenings for that bitch
that you let get away. I can’t let someone see this giant wolf sniffing around,
now can I? I like my meals to be brought to me on a tray and left outside the
room. I want steak at least once a day, rare, and no vegetables. And chocolate.
I love chocolate.”

Kirby nodded, making notes on a scrap of
paper he’d pulled from his pocket. By the time Deveron had finished, Kirby had
two pages of his wants and a list of places to find the things Kirby had no
idea how to get. But the one he knew he was going to have the most trouble with
was the women.

Deveron wanted two a day. He wanted them
on the plump side: “More to pound into, if you know what I mean” he’d said when
Kirby had stared at him. He didn’t, but said nothing. Kirby was also to call
off work so that he could be at Deveron’s beck and call. Kirby had already
called off for that day, thinking to get the garage cleared out without the
women there to pester him.

He thought he’d give just about anything
to have them there doing just that. When Deveron went up the stairs to check
out his new “digs,” Kirby went to his office to call his secretary. She
answered on the first ring.

“I won’t be in for the rest of the week,
Miss Black. I have caught a nasty flu and I don’t want to waste my energy
coming in there to not get my rest.” She asked if she could get him anything.
“No. I’m going to be fine. Just make sure you don’t leave early because I’m not
there, and no taking a longer lunch.”

After hanging up with her, he made a
call to the bar that Deveron had told him to get the hookers from. The man
asked who it was for, and Kirby told him. The man seemed a little pissy after
that.

“You tell him that if he hurts one of
them I’m going to tell his master. I won’t have him beating them to shit so
they can’t work. You tell him that Sheppard told you that.”

“I will, sir. I promise.” Kirby told him
that he needed two women a day for an unknown amount of time. “And he would
like them at the same time.”

“He’ll get what I send him and nothing
more.” The line went dead, and Kirby laid it gently into the cradle. He knew
this man was going to kill one of the prostitutes and he was going to get
blamed for it. Forty minutes later, someone was at the front door.

~~~

George watched the young girl at the
stove. She seemed to be enjoying herself, so he sat still at the table and
grinned. She had Dylan’s scent all over her and she didn’t even realize what
had happened to her. When she turned and saw him there, she flushed.

“I didn’t hear you come in. I was hungry
and thought…you’re Dylan’s dad.” He nodded. “Yeah, thought so. He looks like
you. Want something to eat?”

“Yes, that would be nice.” She filled a
plate and handed it to him. When he started to protest at taking her breakfast,
she waved him off.

“I’m doing this to keep from running. I
want to.” She looked at the door, then back at what she was doing with the
bacon. “I’ve never been one to stick out a relationship, and this one has the
markings of being more than a little bit over the wall strange.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” He bit into the
eggs and moaned. “Oh my, this is very good. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten more
fluffy eggs.”

“It’s the baking soda. Why can’t he be
like a normal person, a man? Why a fucking panther?” She broke four eggs into a
bowl and started whipping them hard. He wanted to point out she was nearly at
the meringue stage, but didn’t.

“He is what he is…still a man but with a
bit more.” She snorted. “I don’t think you believe me.”

“No, I do. But if there was ever an
understatement, that’s it.” Khan walked in and frowned at him, but George
offered him a bit of his breakfast instead of speaking. Khan looked at Jack.

“I don’t suppose I could have one like
that, could I?” Khan sat down at the table as if she’d already answered him. “I
could use some coffee, too, if there is any.”

“I don’t do coffee, and that machine
looks like something from the next century. Have at it if you want any.” She
got another dozen eggs out of the refrigerator and another pound of bacon.
“What kind of pack or whatever is this?”

George had his mouth full so Khan
answered. “It’s not a pack, but a group. Ours is a family, and that’s what we
go by. Packs are wolves. We’re cats, not dogs.”

“Well la de da, mister know it all. I
was just asking. There was no need for you to get all pissy with me.” She
slammed his plate in front of him. “You should remember not to piss on the hand
that feeds you, moron.”

Khan opened his mouth and closed it
twice before he sat and dug into his food. Before she could make her own
breakfast another of George’s sons walked in the door. Reed nearly hugged her
when she offered to make him something, but backed off at the last second. She
looked at him oddly but moved back to cooking.

“You know it’s sort of hurtful the way
you jerk-offs avoid touching me. I didn’t do anything to that family. And I
didn’t kill that little girl.” Her back was to them and she missed the look
between them all. “I might be a lot of things, but I don’t kill children.”

“They didn’t touch you because of me.” George
looked at Dylan when he came into the room. “You’re my mate and they know it.”

She looked at each of them, and Reed
dropped his head, his face bright red. She looked back at Dylan and glared. George
was glad he was there to see this. He had a feeling she was going to strip a
hunk of hide off his son.

“You told them not to touch me? You
actually told them that we had sex and now they can’t come near me because of
it? Why, you chauvinistic asshole.” She slammed the spatula down on the counter
and eggs went flying. “How dare you? How dare you treat me like I’m some sort
of plague to them.”

“I didn’t tell them anything. They can
smell me on you.” George knew the moment she got it and so did the rest of
them. Dylan was a little slower.

Jack looked at Reed, who still had his
head down. She snapped at him to look at her. His head came up like she’d
yanked it up. George felt a tightening in the room and looked around to see
whose panther was showing. No one. He looked at the girl again.