Shift Into Me (Werewolf Shifter Romance) (The Alpha's Kiss) (13 page)

“I...” it was just colors, nothing else. A sea of colors, twisting and flickering. “Colors and sounds, nothing else. None of it makes sense. I feel hot,” I was vaguely aware of pain in my hands, burning where I touched Damon. “Very hot.”

“Good, keep going. Look for what you cannot see.”

“I’m hearing laughter? Or water dripping? I can’t tell, it’s so clouded, so... wait, I’m seeing something. I’m seeing... it’s her,” my voice trickled out of me. The whole world seemed to compress on my body, crushing the air in my lungs so hard they burned.

“Drowning,” I said, gasping. “I feel like I’m drowning. Like water is...”

“Stay with him,” Wilton urged.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, a stable hand; an anchor holding me to the ground. “I’m here, Lily,” Hunter said, his voice an ancient, echoing whisper. “I’m right here. Stay with him, do what the shaman says.”

“Who is it?” Wilton asked. “Who is it you see?”

Flame blasted the palm of my hands. I almost let go, but latched on tighter. “The woman... from the courthouse... the...”

Her will was too strong. “She’s pushing me out, I’m losing him,” I said.

“Hold on just a second longer,” Wilton said. “Where has she come from? What does she want?”

I didn’t need to probe Damon’s brain to answer that question. But still I held.

“Lily? Where is she from? Who is she and what does she want with Damon?”

I knew, but couldn’t explain. I saw, but couldn’t speak.

My consciousness recoiled, and all at once, Damon was himself again.

He shook his head back and forth, then opened his beautiful green eyes – his were
supposed
to be green – and stared straight at me. “Lily?”

The breath in my chest was hard, heavy, and sweat ran down my face. “I’m here,” I said. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him for a moment. “I’m here, you’re here, everything’s fine.”

He stood up, using me for a little support, and looked around the room at all the staring faces. No one else could, but I felt his soul shudder. A ripple moved through him, and then calmed.

“Did you recognize the force?” Wilton said in a hushed voice. “Do you know what has happened to the Alpha?”

I nodded. “I’ve seen her before. I’ve seen her with Carrell, the—”

“The rogue wolf,” Wilton said. “I should have known. Ah, I should have seen it.”

“What are you talking about?” Damon asked. His voice was rattled, but I felt his strength.

“He is levat... a rogue Skarachee. He left the pack to pursue dark arts. Such is not against the traditions, but I’ve long suspected his intentions.”

He looked at me with calm eyes. “You’re young, your power unhinged and uncontrolled. He is very old and very wily. Don’t blame yourself. I’ll be surprised if even I can track him. He’ll certainly go into hiding now. If he’s connected to this demon, if she is his servant, he’ll know she was found.”

Wilton chewed on the other corner of his mustache, which sent all the stuff in his beard to jingling. “He’ll certainly go into hiding while he takes control of our Alpha.”

“Is there any way to get to him?” I asked. “To stop him before he starts—”

“A war,” the old man said, nodding. “Of course, it all makes sense.”

I grabbed his shoulder. “But how can we stop him? We
can
, right?”

“Well,” the old man said, “I don’t know for sure. I’ve heard tales of things like this, but the reality of a warlock and his demon, this is quite beyond me. Though if the stories are true, the two of them are connected; if we can kill his demon, or banish her, then the master will perish, too.”

I nodded. “Damon.” I turned to face him. His eyes were back to sparkling, his face full of color. “Do you mind being bait?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Bait? For... what?”

“For a demon.” My voice was so calm and rational that the absurdity was almost too much. “If this Carrell guy is trying to control you by using this demon, that means he has something he wants from you, right? Maybe these murders were all a ruse to get you here so he could have her possess you?”

“Did you just say ‘ruse’?”

“Shut up,” I said, cracking a grin. “I found this.”

Damon’s eyes opened wide when he read the paper I stole from the courthouse. “This isn’t the first time?”

“Oh my, you’ve stumbled upon something incredible.” Wilton patted both of us on the shoulder. “This is remarkable. He
did
. I remember this. I remember the ancient elder being here, what, sixty years ago? It was such an occasion that everyone was abuzz.”

“Right,” I cut him off. “But Poko was too strong. Much too strong, so he had to wait. And now, he thinks he can pull one over on a less experience Alpha.”

Damon gritted his teeth. He was pissed again, but it was a different kind of pissed. “Poko might have been able to do it on his own,” he said. “But this guy doesn’t realize I’ve got friends. Lily.” Damon turned to face me. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but I trust you. Whatever you think will work, I believe in you.”

I swallowed, hard. For some reason, hearing him say that stuff in the middle of his pack shook me to the core. “Are you sure?”

Damon wrapped his arms around my waist. “I’m the Alpha,” he said. “When I say things, I
always
mean them.”

––––––––

M
y stomach lurched.

Just thinking of Damon as a piece of bait got my guts roiling. But, it had to be done. I was determined to keep my back straight and my mind sharp, for Damon if nothing else.

“I know you don’t want to do this, but let’s get it over with,” he said. “The sooner we get this done, the sooner we’re back in Arizona, alone, just the two of us.”

“Promise?” I asked. I felt like a dumb little kid, lost and alone, and holding my hand out for someone to guide me.

Of course, the guide I wanted was about to get chained up to a chair and used as demon bait.

“I promise. We’ll see Poko, and Grandpa Joe, and everything will go back to how it’s supposed to be. Perfect.”

Damon yanked a sheet of burlap out of a knapsack. He laid it across his chest, covering his exposed skin, and kicked the chain up onto his lap. With a heavy heart, I wrapped his legs, and then draped one over his chest, waiting for a wince, or the smell of burning.

Nothing happened, so I did another. I hated it, hated every second of what I was doing. I hated the plan we hatched and everything else. Damon closed his eyes and squeezed them. I knew he was fighting the demon, even if he wouldn’t admit it. I swore that when he opened his eyes again they had gone a little fuzzy, a little glazed over, but he was still himself.

“Why can’t we just leave?” I asked him as I latched a padlock. “Why can’t we just go home?”

He shook his head, eyes fixed on the floor. “I’d love to. That sounds better than anything I can think of right now, but this is my life, Lily. This is our life.”

“It just... sorry,” I said, chewing my lip. It wasn’t fair, what I was doing. It wasn’t right for me to complain. Not right then. I knew what I was getting into when I conned my way into this trip.

“Make them tighter. It has to be convincing.” Damon gritted his teeth, ignoring me.

Neither Wilton nor Hunter could put the chains on him without burning themselves, so it fell to me. There was a burlap sheet between him and the silver, and the idea was that when I had him bound, we’d pull the sheet out from underneath.

Wilton thought that if he was in pain, the demon in his mind would sense that he was weak and try to strike. His logical path was long and twisted, but the gist of it was that first of all, demons are untrustworthy, and second that she was probably trying to figure out how to get a leg up on Carrell.

The end result, according to Wilton, is that Carrell would show up, pull the demon into the physical world, and then... somehow... we banish the demon, which was supposed to get rid of Carrell, too.

He mused that Damon was more Danness’s tool than Carrel’s. She wanted to use Damon’s strength to control her master which... would make
her
the master. Thinking about it got my head spinning almost as much as probing brains did.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” I asked Damon, who winced as the edge of one of the chains slid around the side of his covering and seared him. “I’m terrified that we’re doing this, and you’re gonna get stuck and then—”

“Lily,” he said. “Look at me. Look into my eyes. This is me talking, I’m right here. Stop that for a second and come here.”

His voice was so soft, so comforting, that even when he was about to be put through utter agony, he was able to make me feel stronger. For a second, I let myself get lost in those burning green eyes with their silver-gray flecks.

“Sit here,” he commanded. “I want to feel your weight against me before you go.”

Facing him, I slid my legs around either side of his waist and got as close as I could. His heat burned through the fabric. He opened his lips for a kiss, but I paused an inch away to let his breath slide down my neck. As I drank him in, I realized I was doing it because I worried I’d never have the chance again.

“What if something happens?” I said, not really wanting to give voice to my concerns. “If this all goes bad, or we’re wrong, or...”

Damon shook his head. “Listen to me,” he said. “Actually, first kiss me.”

His words were just as forceful as if he’d grabbed me and pushed me against a wall, grinding his body into mine. I opened my lips around his, tasting, sucking, and then letting him fill me with his swirling tongue. My knees went weak, my mind got fuzzy and for the briefest second, everything was the way it was supposed to be.

Then I felt the cold silver that held his arms to the chair, and reality came right back.

“Mmm,” he moaned. “God I missed you.”

“Oh shut up,” I said, blushing feverishly even though we were alone. “The last time we did this was like eight hours ago.”

Still, I smiled. “How do you get me like this? I’m absolutely terrified that whatever trick I can do with my head is about to fail and land us in a world of shit. I’m so scared. All I want to do is run away and join the circus or sell vacuums or whatever people do when they run. You and me, that’s all I care about. And here you are, somehow making me smile and blush.”

“Would you take ‘werewolf magic’ for an answer?”

I leaned close and kissed him again, pressing my lips to his and staying right with him. I pulled away and put my cheek to his, relishing the vague sharpness of Damon’s afternoon stubble.

“What’s that? Are you crying?” His voice was so soft, so tender, that I could hardly believe it. “Do you trust me?”

I sniffed and intercepted the drop halfway down my cheek. “I just can’t imagine anything happening to you. We’re so... I just...”

“Hush, Lily,” Damon said. He had the same kind of tone I imagined he’d use to talk to a baby. It was so calming, soothing, and so heartbreakingly vulnerable that I just had to kiss him again. In that instant, I knew he was as scared as me, but he’d never show it.

He was being strong, for me.

Strong like I was going to be for him.

“Let’s promise each other something,” he whispered in between desperate, hungry kisses. “Okay? I probably don’t have very long before that demon takes my mind again. Promise me before it happens.”

I nodded, concentrating on not falling apart.

“This is you and me, right?” he asked.

“Well there’s Wilton and Hunter and—”

He shook his head insistently. “No, no, they’re not here right now, are they?”

“I guess not.”

“It’s just us. You and me. Right?”

I sniffed. “Right.”

“We came all the way out here to do something – to figure out some murders. And... it’s so much more than that. I feel like Poko sent me here knowing full well you weren’t going to let me go alone. I feel like—” he stopped short, and blinked twice then shook his head. He was confused, I saw. He was being taken again but he fought back fiercely.

“He wanted to teach us to rely on each other?” I finished for him.

For the first time in a half a minute or so, I pulled back far enough to see Damon’s face. He opened his eyes and studied mine. “I’d be dead if it weren’t for you,” he said. His words pierced straight through me. “You’ve saved me more times than you can possibly know.”

“I... I don’t know what to say about that, I just... you’re the strong one,” I said. “You’re the big one. I rely on you too much.”

I don’t know why it all came at once, but there it is. Once I get started with a train of thought there isn’t much I can do to stop. “I should be stronger. I want you to be able to rely on me just like I do on you and...”

All Damon did was smile. “You’re beautiful,” he said. “And you’re kind and you manage to keep yourself going way after I’d give up. I don’t say it enough, anywhere near enough, but I
do
rely on you. I need you more than anything in the world, Lily.”

If him kissing me and breathing on my neck got me a little wobbly in the knees, that sent me into a full on swoon. Could all of that actually be true? He wasn’t just saying things to make me feel better, or to shut me up, right?

“That’s...” I stopped myself. After all, he was the one tied up with silver chains and about to be burned like absolute hell. All I had to do to be strong was to wait.

“Yes,” he said in a soft whisper that was like velvet leather on my ears. “Remember. I’m the Skarachee Alpha. I finally actually feel like I am. I’m sacrificing for my pack. I’ll hurt for my duty. But you’ll hurt worse. If anything, you’re the one who is making this all possible.”

Damon paused and cleared his throat. “If it weren’t for you, I would be... well, I guess I wouldn’t be me anymore. You’re the only reason I’ve still got a mind.”

“Oh stop it,” I said. “You’re trying to flatter me. It’s working beautifully, but still, you’re trying to flatter me to get me to stop blubbering.”

“I’d never do that,” he said with a very serious tone in his voice. “I never want you to shut up, not ever. Unless I’m trying to fix my bike and you’re confusing me. Smile.”

Damon’s the sort who doesn’t joke very much, but when he does you know it’s actually from the heart instead of just a defense mechanism like, well, me.