Moonlight Calls (Demon's Call Series Book 1) (13 page)

Ailis stepped
closer and pulled me into an impulsive hug, unaware of my musings.  “I’m so
glad you’re-” She tensed.  Clutching me tighter, she drew in a deep breath
before leaning away to look into my eyes.  Her own eyes had turned silver, and
her long canines flashed when she spoke.

  “Where the
hell have you been?”  She asked in that rich alto voice that scared the shit
out of me.  What had set her off?  I didn’t know what to do, so I pretended
everything was normal.

“I spent the
night with my date.”  I said calmly.  She leaned close to me again and inhaled
deeply, scenting me.  This was too creepy.  I pushed away and she let go of my
arms.

“Mya,” she all
but hissed.  “What in the hell have you been doing?”  I looked at the ground. 
Jesus, could she really smell what I had been doing?  I had taken a shower for
God’s sake.  Note to self, vampire noses are more sensitive than a narcotic
dog’s.

“God Ailis,” I
said shortly.  “What do you think I’ve been doing?  I spent the night with my
date.”  It wasn’t like she had any right to be jealous.  We had already decided
that our attraction to each other was probably just a vampire hormone thing.

She laughed
without humor.  “I think you’ve been off fucking your wolf.”  She said harshly. 
“What I want to know is why.  Have you sided with them?  Is that how the young
vampires found out about you?”  Her eyes narrowed.  “Were they hiding
something?  Did you send them to get rid of me while you were safe with him?”

I stared at her
for a moment, completely confused by her sudden anger.  What the hell was she
babbling about?  Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I wouldn’t be surprised
if she could hear an audible
click
as it all slid into place.  Not a
vampire.  A
wolf.
  Flashes of the previous evening re-played in my
head.  The strange magnetism, flashes of those glowing eyes, and the chain with
the Celtic knot work- a twin of the one on my stray dog.  I dropped into a
plastic chair, my legs going weak.  The dog?  I put my elbows on the patio
table and dropped my head on my folded arms. 
God damn it.
  If there
were vampires out there, then why not werewolves, or unicorns, or sparkly
fairies farted rainbow dust.  I felt my lips twist into a sick grimace. 
Fuck
my life.

I hadn’t felt
Ailis move behind me, and I jerked as her hand touched my shoulder.  “You
didn’t know?”  She said more gently.  “I’m sorry to just spring it on you like
that.  I mean, I’ve smelled him since I first met you.  I thought you were just
hiding it from me with all that dog stuff.  I just assumed you knew…” she
trailed off with a shrug.

Damn me to
hell.  The truth had been right there staring me in the face.  Why would I
think that a man like Christian would be interested in a plain girl like me?  I
had been getting weird feelings about him.  I had known better.  I had known he
wasn’t human.  But…a
wolf
?  Oh God…  I had sex with the
stray dog
.

 I should have
recognized those bright green eyes.  They really had been glowing when we made
love, glowing just like that fucking dog’s eyes.  No, I corrected myself; it
wasn’t a dog that had been showing up in my back yard almost every day.  It was
a
werewolf.
  I slumped forward and banged my head on the table.

“God Ailis, I’m
sorry,” I said miserably, my breath bouncing back at me from the plastic
surface.  “If I’d realized what was going on, I would have been back here in a
second.  I sure as hell didn’t set up some elaborate plot to get rid of you.” 
I closed my eyes.  She had called me all night, hoping I was okay.  Not knowing
if I was out on the town or being eaten alive.  But I had been too busy having
mind-blowing sex to answer the stupid phone.  Self-centered?  W
ho, me?

She just shook
her head.  “It's a good thing that you weren’t here.  They were waiting for me
when I got home.  You usually get home first.  If you’d been here they would
have you right now.”  Her voice was deadly, and her eyes still sparked with
remembered anger.  “Of course, they wouldn’t have had you for very long…”  She
was right.  I was glad I hadn’t been here.  Not because of the other vampires,
but because of the killer standing beside me.

I wondered how
the vampires could have found me, given that I was supposedly masked by my
powers, but I had a bad feeling that I knew the answer.  The blond haired youth
and the brown haired one- they had to be the vampires from the mall.  Maybe
once they saw through whatever was hiding me it became ineffective.  It was my
fault they’d come here.

“I called your
cell phone all night.”  Ailis said in agitation.  “The rogue said that the
wolves beat them to it.”  She shook her head.  “But when my master contacted
the Father Alpha, he denied it.  I thought… well, maybe he
was
 just a
human and I was overreacting- in which case you were probably safer with him
and away from whatever was going on here.”

“Wait, what? 
Who?” 

“The leader of
the American packs.”  She flapped a hand as if this was inconsequential.  “I
don’t get it,” she said, running a hand through her flaming hair.  “Why would
the wolves take you and then lie about it?  Forget that- why would they let you
go?”

I shook my
head.  I had even less idea what was going on than she did.  “I really don’t
know.”  I sighed, exhausted.  I was starting to look at my life in a whole new
light.  And it scared the living shit out of me.

“Well, this wolf
of yours,” she asked urgently, “what did he do
to you?  What did he
say?”  I met her eyes and felt my face growing hot.

 “What do you
think?”  I asked, my voice flat.

She gave me a
waspish look and snapped at me.  “I know that.  I mean what else.”

I told her about
our night, trying to remember if there were any details that were important. 
It was difficult, as the whole night had different meaning when I realized what
the hell I had been doing.  Pun intended.  But Christian hadn’t said or done
anything to indicate that he had any particular motive other than the obvious. 
He had watched over me while I slept.  The really hopeful part of me wanted to
believe that he had been trying to protect me from the attack. 
Delusional
.

“I don’t know
what the hell is wrong with me.”  I said forlornly.  “I’ve never slept with a
guy on the first date.”  I was angry with myself but honestly, I was completely
bewildered at my behavior.

Ailis regarded
me for a moment, her brows drawn together in a frown.  Then the expression
slowly melted into surprise.  She started laughing.  I narrowed my eyes at her,
not really up for teasing.

“Well,” she
said, breathless with laughter, “that would explain a lot.”

I was not
amused.  “Would you mind sharing the joke?  And if the punch-line is
‘
my
roommate is a slut,’
then I’m evicting you.”

She arched an
eyebrow at me.  “First of all,” she said with barely repressed laughter, “vamps
and weres don’t carry human diseases.  And you don’t have to worry about
getting pregnant, since vamps are sterile, and weres nearly so.”  She shrugged
and grinned.  “So you see- a one-night stand with a supernatural is safer than
an actual relationship with a human.  By all means, knock yourself out.”  Now
she really was laughing at me, and my shoulders slumped in resignation and relief.

Let her think I
had been worried about getting pregnant.  The fact that I couldn’t have
children with normal human men either was none of her business.  No need to
advertise the fact that I was a complete failure as a woman.

She looked at me
inquisitively.  “What I was going to ask before you interrupted was if you had
any strange feelings when you were with this guy?” 

I narrowed my
eyes at her suspiciously.  “There were some odd things.”

“Such as...” she
prodded, her sweet voice dripping with innocence.

 “If you saw
him, you would understand.”

 “Did he give
you the warm tingles in your tummy?”  She asked, barely suppressing a grin.

“I
am done with this conversation.”

She schooled her
face into seriousness.  “Really Mya, I am being serious.  Did he make you feel
strange?  Like all you wanted was to be with him?”

“Fine,” I said
warningly, “but if you laugh at me, I’m getting a stake and some garlic.”  She
made a face, but gestured for me to get on with it.

“It was like I
lost all of my inhibitions.”  I looked at my hands.  “I was just so attracted
to him.  And my stomach kept doing this rippling thing.”  I gestured to my
midsection and shrugged uncomfortably.

“I can’t really
describe it.  At first, I thought it was the wine, but by the end of the night,
I felt like I was floating- almost like I was high or something.  The thought
did occur to me that maybe he had given me a drug or something, but I don’t
know why he would,” I ended lamely.

Ailis’s laughter
was a warm ripple.  I stood, bracing my palms on the table.  “I’m getting the
garlic.”  It wouldn’t do a thing to her.  But the stereotype pissed her off.

She just sighed
and shook her head.  “You are quite a piece of work Mya Stevens, you know
that?” she asked in disbelief.  “You not only
accidentally
hook up with
a werewolf, but I think you managed to shack up with an
alpha,
of all
things.”

 “Explain,” I
commanded, glaring at her.

“Those things
you were feeling were because of his power.  You said you felt like you were
drugged.  Well, you were.  Alpha wolves emanate power, and you are sensitive to
supernatural creatures.  Look how easily you react to me- and that’s when I’m
not even
doing
anything.  You were probably soaking up all that power
like a sponge.”  She shook her head in mock sympathy.  “And the poor guy
probably didn’t stand a chance against whatever magical pull you have.  I
know
it’s your latent power, and it still affects me.”

She laughed. 
“What I wouldn’t give to have been in your shoes last night.  I hear wolves are
extremely aggressive lovers.”  I chose to ignore that comment.  Her eyes were
beginning to turn silvery.  I really didn’t want to know.

I groaned.  “So
not only did he lie about what he was, but he also used some sort of
supernatural power to trick me into sleeping with him?”  I was beyond irate. 
Couldn’t I have one good thing in my life?  Was everyone out to trick me and
use me?  “God damn it!”  I slammed my hand onto the flimsy plastic table.

Ailis just
shrugged.  “Wolves are generally very practical creatures.  To him it would
seem pointless to seduce you to get you alone and then not take advantage of
the situation.  And besides, no matter how much you want to deny it, you have
some influence of your own.” 

Seeing that this
didn’t make matters any better she patted me awkwardly on the shoulder- but I
could tell she still didn’t get it.  Vampires didn’t look at sex the same way
humans did.  I think casual sex mixed with sharing blood was sort of the norm
for her culture.  She wouldn’t understand that I was not wired that way.

“I’m sorry,
Mya,” she said gently, all trace of humor gone.

“Yeah, well, so
am I,” I said acidly.  I should have known that the whole damned thing was too
good to be true.  Of course, no one could just want me for who I am, especially
a man like that.  It just had to be some sort of elaborate lie.  I turned and
looked at Ailis.  The bruise was healing rapidly, and the scars on her arms had
vanished.  I sighed.  She would be fine.  We would clean up the house and
everything would go back to normal.

I resolutely
ignored the nagging doubt that accompanied that thought- a habit that was
becoming a dangerous pattern with me lately.  And what did she mean, implying I
had been just as guilty as Christian when it came to using magical influence?

We spent the
rest of the day cleaning up the house.  I had no idea how we were going to
explain this to the landlord, but Ailis promised that she would take care of it
and I didn’t ask questions.  After my second shower of the day, I shuffled into
the kitchen in my camisole and shorts, hunting for sustenance.  I wasn’t
extremely fond of the thought of eating, but I was starting to feel ill from
going full tilt all day on one mug of coffee.

I rummaged
around in the fridge, finally coming up with the stuff for sandwiches.  I
offered one to Ailis and she reluctantly accepted, stating that she hadn’t
eaten all day either.

I finished my
sandwich and got out my notes from one of my nursing classes.  I was sitting in
the living room trying to anchor myself in the real world when my cell phone
rang.  I picked it up without looking to see who it was.

“Hello,” I
growled, in no mood to talk to anyone I knew.  I almost dropped the phone when
Christian’s voice purred over the line.

 “Hello
darling.  How are you this evening?” he asked in that deep, deep bass.

Tears welled up
and I wanted to throw the phone.  Instead, I said, “Don’t call me again,” and
hung up.  When he called right back I put the phone on vibrate.  I had really
wanted him to be a good thing, the
bastard
.