Once Bitten (22 page)

 
“He did. Or tried to, anyway,” he said,
checking the mirrors.

“Are we
being followed?” she asked, resisting the urge to turn around and look, instead
glancing in her own side view mirror.

He
shook his head before he merged into the heavy traffic. “No, I don’t think so.”

She
relaxed in her seat and put her head back. That had been too close. It just
made her want to hide under her bed until this mess was over with, although now
she doubted it would ever be over with. She was Gabriel’s mate and with him she
also accepted the crazy world he belonged to.

“Don’t
ever do that again,” Gabriel said after a minute.

“Do
what?” she asked, confused.

He
glanced over at her. “Take a risk like that. I’m beginning to think you’re a
thrill seeker.”

She
laughed. “Adrenaline junkie, that’s me.”

“I’m
serious, Lila,” he said, frowning.

“Hey,
you didn’t have any bright ideas and that was the only thing I could think of
on such short notice. It worked, didn’t it?”

He
sighed and concentrated on the road. “I just don’t want anything to happen to
you.”

“I
know. I don’t want anything to happen to you either. That’s why I did it.”

Gabriel
was silent so she reached forward and adjusted the dial on the radio before
resting her head against the window. The soothing alternative rock that came
through the speakers relaxed her. Trees flickered past her line of sight in the
darkness. The sun was gone and the moon only provided a small amount of light.

She
dozed on and off for over an hour, the sound of rain hitting the windshield
waking her up. Rain had started to fall steadily, making visibility near
impossible. She sat up in the seat and pushed her hair out of her face,
glancing over at Gabriel.

He
remained focused on the road although she noticed he had turned down her music.
The noise probably bothered his sensitive hearing, something that she hadn’t
thought about before. There were so many things she would have to think about
from now on.

 
It amazed her how much had changed in
just a small amount of time. They were, for the most part, on the run. She was
mated with a werewolf. Life as she had known it had been turned on its head;
all traces of a previous life were gone.

The
only thing she regretted about the past few days was that her friends were now
involved and in danger. She didn’t know how they were going to find Andrea now,
if it were even possible. If it was ever going to be possible.

Only a
few days before she and Gabriel had been nothing more than casual
acquaintances. She never could have imagined their relationship going in the
direction that it had. Sitting at the bar the other night, she had been hoping
for a quick and easy one-time thing. She should have known that Gabriel was not
a quick and easy kind of guy. Lila was thankful for that.

He had
become an important fixture in her life. Hell, she had mated with him. Although
she still didn’t completely understand what the bond was between them, she knew
that he wasn’t going anywhere. She didn’t want him to go anywhere. She was in
love with him.

Lila
turned in the seat as much as the seatbelt would allow and leaned back against
the door and studied him.

He
looked too big for his seat. He already had it pushed all the way back and his
knees still looked like they were going to hit the dashboard with the slightest
movement. There was no way he was comfortable and yet he still drove all those
hours and didn’t complain about being cramped.

He
lounged in the seat with one hand on the steering wheel. His other arm was
propped on the door. The window was open and the little bit of water that
managed to get into the car fell onto his thick forearm and slid down his
bronze skin. Her breath caught in her throat.

She
couldn’t help it when her nipples tightened painfully. Lila shifted in her seat
to relieve the now familiar ache that was building. It only made it worse. Why
weren’t they home yet?

* * * *

Gabriel
felt her eyes on him. When it began making him feel uncomfortable, he asked, “What?”

“What
do you mean ‘what’?”

“You’re
staring at me.” He glanced at her. In the darkness of the Jeep, he could see
her heavily lidded eyes almost as if it were day.

“I am.”

“Why?”
he asked, his brow raised.

“You’re
sexy as hell. You know that?”

Her
answer wasn’t what he had expected and he was at a loss for words. When he
looked over at her again, he saw her breasts straining against the soft fabric
of her shirt, her nipples peaked. He rolled up the window and took a deep
breath. Her arousal was obvious and something he would have noticed earlier if
the wind hadn’t been blowing in his face.

“I’m
just saying. I could just…”

She had
his full attention and he wasn’t going to let her just trail off with her
words. He wanted to know. “What?”

“Well,
one thing I could do is lean over there and put your cock in my mouth,” she
told him. His eyebrows shot up and he looked at her. He shifted in the seat,
trying to make room as his dick swelled and pressed against the inside of his
jeans.

“Or I
could pull my pants off, spread my legs and play with myself while you’re stuck
over there driving.” He gripped the steering wheel with both hands to stop
himself from reaching for her.

He
grunted and cleared his throat. “That would be cruel,” he told her, but he knew
he wouldn’t stop her if that’s what she wanted to do. He wanted her to do it.
His cock was demanding it.

“It
would,” she said, her palms gliding over her abdomen to rest between her spread
legs. His eyes followed the movement of her hand.

“It’s a
good thing we’re almost at the house then, isn’t it?”

A
flicker of headlights in the rearview mirror caught his attention for a second,
but when the vehicle turned he ignored the hair that had stood abruptly on the
back of his neck.

“It is,”
she said, her hand snaking up his thigh.

Why
weren’t they at the damn house yet? He couldn’t stand being forced to wait to
take her, if only for a couple minutes, but he wasn’t going to stop on the road
somewhere and risk exposure. He wanted her, but he’d take her home first. If
only she’d stop touching him for long enough to be able to get there.

When
her driveway came into view, he breathed a sigh of relief. He pulled in, the
Jeep rocking on the gravel and she sat up in her seat. He could sense her
excitement, a combination of being relieved to be back home and being able to
get him inside the house. Happiness welled up inside him.

He
stopped the Jeep a few feet from the house and hopped out. He grabbed their
bags out of the back and followed behind Lila as she all but ran for the door.
She waited for him, smiling as she rested her hand on the doorknob, under the
shelter of the front porch.

Rain
pelted the ground, drowning out everything else. He raced up the steps behind
her and dropped the bags to the porch floor. She moved her hand as he put the
key in the door and unlocked the deadbolt and the knob. Slipping the keys in
his pocket, he stopped her as she began to turn the knob.

She
glanced down at his large fingers wrapped around her small wrist and then back
up at him. “Wha—”

His
mouth crushed hers, erasing anything else she had been about to say. Her lips
parted instantly and he delved his tongue inside the warm recesses of her
mouth. He felt her arms wrap around his neck and he pushed her against the
solid wooden door, pulling her up to his height.

Her
thighs gripped his sides and he held her bottom, his palms massaging her
through the thin denim. A moan caught in her throat and he pulled away from her
delicious mouth. Seeking her neck, he teased the sensitive skin to her
shoulder. The wound he had left on her from the night before was still red, but
healing nicely. A permanent reminder that she was his.

His
tongue traced the marks his teeth had left and he heard her sharp intake of
breath. Her head tilted to the side, she arched her back. The mark she had left
on his chest pulsed with life as he kissed her mating scars. It was too soon to
bite her again, but he would do it again. And soon.

The way
it had felt to sink his beast’s teeth into her flesh and claim her for himself
had been like nothing he had ever experienced before and nothing that he would
ever experience with anyone else, even if he had that chance. It was Lila he
wanted, forever and always. Even before the chaos that they now found
themselves in, he had loved her.

He
loved her now, more so with every passing day. Every hour. He had always loved
her. And now he finally had what he wanted. He had her and he’d always have
her. They were bound for life and no matter what happened, he’d stay with her
until the end.

Slowly,
he let her body slide down his. When she was standing, he stepped back, forcing
himself to stop touching her. Stop kissing her, if only for a minute. When he realized
that he had never actually spoken the words aloud, he was angry with himself.

She
smiled at him, her face lighting up. Not questioning why he pulled away, she
pushed open the front door and lifted the bags from where he had dropped them
on the porch. Biting his lip, he tried to think of exactly what he wanted to
say when ‘I love you’ didn’t seem like enough.

An
unfamiliar sound met his ears and he turned his head toward the end of the
driveway. The rain was still pounding the ground and the tin roof above his
head, making it impossible to hear. He stepped toward the edge of the porch,
looking out across the yard. A large raccoon ran out of the tree line and
bolted across the yard, startling him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned
back to Lila. She had tossed the bags just inside the door and was looking at
him expectantly.

“What
is it?” she questioned, her face etched with worry.

“Raccoon.
Nothing to worry about,” he said, turning back to her.

She nodded
and stepped inside the doorway. Before she got more than a foot inside, his
hand lashed out to hold hers. Stopping her, she looked at him expectantly as he
stood in front of her.

His
heart was bursting with all the things he wanted to say to her. He saw no
reason stopping him from saying them now. He wanted to. With everything they
had been through she had the right to know how he felt about her. He loved her
and while he hoped that she already knew that, he had to say it. He had to know
if she felt the same about him as he did about her.

“Lila,
I—”

He
never got to finish the sentence.

Blood
sprayed across her beautiful face before he even heard the boom of the gun. He
blinked in surprise. Her piercing scream and the sound of shattering glass made
his ears ring. That’s when he felt the pain in his chest and realized that the
blood she was covered in was his.

Chapter Eleven

Lila
watched in horror as Gabriel fell to his knees, clutching his chest. The blood
poured between his fingers, soaking the front of his shirt as he gasped for
air.

His
eyes widened in shock as he looked at her and she screamed as he started to
fall back. She grasped his shoulder to keep him from falling onto the porch,
then pulled him forward. He moved his legs, pulling them free from the path of
the door and she dragged him into the safety of the house.

She
felt the rush of air above her head and heard the whiz of the bullet before the
telltale boom of the second shot being fired. The bullet embedded itself
somewhere in the room behind her.

Two
figures ran out from the woods and judging from the bald head, she knew it was
the warlocks they escaped from at the restaurant only hours before. The red
head lifted the rifle again but she slammed the door shut before he fired.

Locking
the knob and the bolt, she crawled over to Gabriel’s side. He was gasping, his
large palm locked over the wound on his chest. Blood seeped between his
fingers.

“Ah,
fuck,” he groaned, his voice weak.

“You’re
bleeding.”

He
nodded his head and started to lift his hand from his chest. As soon as he
released the pressure, blood poured from the wound.

“No,
no. Keep the pressure on,” she snapped at him.

It was
beyond her to help him at that moment, not with the descending warlocks
determined to finish the job. Grabbing her bag, she dumped the contents on the
floor. The hard metal of the 9mm in her hands was a welcome feeling as she
lifted the heavy weapon from the floor.

She
knelt in front of the window next to the door and peeked out into the darkness.
They were still coming for the house, only just yards away. Taking aim, she
shot three times through the glass. It exploded, shards of glass raining down
on her porch, but her aim was true.

The red
head carrying the rifle was knocked off his feet. The firearm flew from his
grasp, landing several feet away from him. She didn’t know if he was dead or
not but she didn’t wait to find out.

Firing
off two more shots, she missed the bald warlock both times. He darted to the
side, but lifted his palm as he ran. The broken glass lifted from the porch and
rained in on her. She ducked, but not fast enough to avoid all of it. Small,
jagged pieces tore at the skin of her cheek and kept her from firing another
round.

“Come
on,” she whispered to Gabriel. She had only minutes before the warlock tried
something else. She had to keep Gabriel from bleeding out on her living room
floor. She had to get them to a safer place.

After
picking up the extra clip from the floor, she put both the gun and the clip in
the back of her pants and grasped him under his arms.

“Can
you stand?”

“I… I
think so.”

She
helped him to his knees, keeping her hand over the small bleeding entrance
wound on his back. Blood soaked his shirt and ran down his arm as he kept the
exit wound on his chest covered. He managed to climb to his feet, wavering
slightly when he stood.

Two
steps and he was gasping. There was no way she’d be able to get him out of the
house without him collapsing on her. Discarding any plans of going out the back
door, she veered him toward her bedroom. His arm slung over her shoulder, she
tried to help steady him. By the time she got the door closed and locked, she
knew she had asked too much of him.

She
knew this kind of wound and while she didn’t know what would happen inside a
werewolf’s body compared to a human’s, she could guess from what he had already
told her and what she had seen with her own eyes.

Fast
healing. But he couldn’t heal if he kept aggravating the wound. One thing after
another entered her mind and she acted as quickly as she could. Putting as many
doors as she could between them and the warlock seemed like the best idea. When
they got to the bathroom, he slumped to the floor with her help.

“We…we
have to get out…out of here,” he said.

“We can’t
go anywhere with you like this.”

“I…I’m
fine.”

“You’re
not fine. You’ve been shot and you’re bleeding like crazy.”

Grabbing
a towel from the rack, she held it to him. “Move your hand,” she instructed,
pressing the towel against the wound as soon as he did.

His
skin was pale and he grimaced as she applied pressure.

“They’ll
come in…after us.”

“There’s
only one left that I saw. I shot the other one.”

“Is…is
he dead?”

“I don’t
know. Are you having difficulty breathing?”

“I can’t
take a deep breath.”

She
felt around the wound with her other hand. It was as she expected.

“Your
rib is shattered.”

“I’ll…heal.”

She
shook her head. “I can’t wait for you to heal.”

“Not…long.
Feels better…already.” He wasn’t quite as pale as he had been a second before,
but she doubted he’d be his old self any time soon. At least she knew he wasn’t
going to die on her.

The
sound of splintering wood made her jump. The back door. He was inside, although
if there was one or two, she didn’t know. Hell, since they’d last seen them at
the restaurant they would’ve had plenty of time to call in their buddies.

 
Fucking
warlocks.

“Stay
here,” she whispered.

“Where…are—”

“I’m
not going to play this cat and mouse game anymore.”

“No,”
he bit out, trying to push himself to his feet.

She
stood in front of him. “Please, stay here.”

Lila
didn’t give him a chance to argue with her. She locked the bathroom door from
the inside and pulled it shut behind her, casting a brief glance at Gabriel before
she did so. He was still trying to pull himself up, grasping the edge of the
sink.

“Lila,”
she heard him breathe as she shut the door.

She
stood at the end of the bed, waiting for the bedroom door to be broken down
like her backdoor had. With her gun in hand and the extra clip tucked in her
pocket, she pointed the weapon at the door. And she waited.

The
door slammed open, but to her disappointment it wasn’t him kicking it down. She
fired off two shots before she realized he wasn’t standing there, instead it
had been the force of her living room chair being thrown into the door that had
broken the wood.

The gun
flew from her hand and into the living room, crashing in front of the
fireplace, before she even realized what was happening. With a low menacing
laugh, the bald warlock stepped up on the chair and over it to enter her
bedroom.

Backing
up, she tried to put distance between them, his large size looming over her,
but there was nowhere to go. The back of her legs hit the mattress and so she
moved to the side. He was cornering her.

Her
sweaty palms fisted at her sides, she watched his every move. She didn’t know
how she was supposed to stop him now that her gun—her only defense—was gone. Her
back pressed against the wall as she watched him take one slow step after
another in her direction.

“What
do you want from me?” She knew it was a stupid question to ask, but at that
point she was willing to say anything if it meant slowing him down. His
sardonic laugh terrified her as it filled the room and her hair stood up on
end.

He
stopped and cocked his head, his dark eyes evaluating her. “At first we wanted
only to take you to Dis, but now…now I don’t think you’ll have the privilege of
meeting him. You’ve all but murdered Fioran and have tried to kill me. Not to
mention that little stunt you pulled back at the restaurant. You’re lucky you’re
not dead already.”

Keep him talking.

“Are
you the one who took Andrea?”

“Who?
Oh, the red haired witch,” he said with a smile. He was thinking about her and
the disgusting look that crossed his face made her boil with rage. All of the
things that he could’ve been thinking about ran through her mind and she felt
herself tremble with tightly controlled rage.

“Hopefully
she’s dead by now,” he said after a moment.

“You
bastard!” she screamed, launching herself at him. “What have you done to her?”

 
He didn’t bother using magic to knock her
to the side. He used his fist instead. It felt like iron when he struck her
face, knocking her to the floor. The air rushed from her lungs and she gasped,
pushing herself up to her knees.

There
was rustling in the bathroom, but she didn’t allow herself to look in that
direction. She didn’t count on Gabriel coming to her rescue, but she hoped that
he had enough sense to get away if she didn’t survive the encounter. The
warlock didn’t seem to notice, instead he was smiling at her, the corner of his
mouth lifted in a twisted grin.

What
felt like a hand grasped her neck and pulled her to her feet. Her oxygen was
cut off as she was lifted from the floor. The warlock stood a few feet away,
his hand stretched out in front of him as he mimicked what she felt. Holding
her neck, there was nothing there to pull away. His magic strangled her with as
much force as his fist would’ve had. Choking, she kicked her feet, hitting
nothing but air.

Her
body was hurled across the room. She crashed into the wall above her bed and
fell face first onto the mattress.

“I’m
going to kill you, witch. But before you die, know that I’m going to kill your
little pet too. I hear him in the bathroom. He’s injured. He won’t be able to
fight me when I tear his head from his shoulders.” She saw the lethal blade as
he pulled it from behind him, the silver catching the moonlight.

Trying
to push herself to her hands and knees, she realized she couldn’t move. He had
her pinned with his magic as he descended on her. His shoes thudded on her
floors as he lifted the blade.

The
bathroom door exploded, the splintered wood showering out in all directions and
covering her. The warlock twisted toward the sound, but a scream died in his
throat as Gabriel leapt from the bathroom, growling. He was fully changed,
nothing but the beast that had scared her to death in her kitchen. Now he was
the most welcome sight she’d ever seen.

His
teeth sunk into the warlock’s neck as he leapt for the window, taking the
warlock’s flailing body with him. They crashed through the glass and Lila
pulled herself from the bed, no longer pinned. She stumbled over the chair that
still blocked the bedroom door and found her gun in front of the fireplace
where it had landed.

Running
out the front door, she followed the sound of screams and growling. When she
saw the slight movement out of the corner of her eye, she stopped. The red
headed warlock was still on the ground where he had fallen, but his hands were
moving. She didn’t know what he was doing, but there was no question in her
mind. She couldn’t leave him alive.

He had
tried to hurt her and Gabriel. And he knew where she lived. If he somehow
managed to survive, he’d be back and he’d bring others. There was no way around
doing what had to be done. Resolved, she walked to him, raising the gun.

“Witch…”
he breathed when he saw her, his face red. He was bleeding from the holes in
his gut where she had shot him. “You…will…die. You will…all…die. Andrea…”

“Andrea?
What about Andrea?”

“Cole
will…kill her. You…will lose.” He licked the blood from his lips. “Do it…then.
Shoot…me.”

Hatred,
anger and despair whirled inside her. She didn’t know what they had done to her
cousin, but she wouldn’t stop looking for her. She’d never stop. Andrea wasn’t
gone yet.

“Fine,”
she spat, raising the gun and pulling the trigger.

* * * *

The
bloody haze cleared as he shifted back into his human form. It was a much
slower and more painful transition since he still wasn’t fully recovered. He
probably wouldn’t be fully recovered for at least a couple of days. He was
lucky the bullet hadn’t pierced any vital organs. Even a werewolf couldn’t
survive a shot to the head or heart.

 
The warlock was dead, his mangled body
lying among the trees. He could still taste the blood in his mouth. Disgusted,
Gabriel spit it out.

The
sound of the gun had him sprinting toward the edge of the woods. Lila. He had
to get to Lila. He broke through the edge of the trees and when he did, it was
her he saw. She still held the smoking gun, but she was looking down at the
still body of the red headed warlock.

He didn’t
move, afraid that she would shoot him if he scared her by calling her name. Her
shoulders slumped, she looked defeated. She had tried to protect him by facing
the warlock alone. What made her think that way, he didn’t know. She should
know that no matter what happened, he’d never leave her to face any adversity
alone.