Standing Before Monsters (Vorans and Vampires) (7 page)

Like she was suffering from a rash, the woman continued to rub at her arms as she tried to explain, “I’m sorry, but I’ve had a bit of a crush on you, I guess. I mean, I know you and Nicola are dating; but I’ve enjoyed spending time around you.

“I was never comfortable in the pack house. I mean, I enjoyed some of the girls, but the males could get a bit creepy the way they looked at me. None of them ever dared try anything with any of the girls, if they weren’t interested. They would have had Eric to deal with if they had, even if we couldn’t take care of them our selves.

“Just being here, with you and Logan has been such a nice change. I guess that just makes me feel closer to you and, of course, you were the one that came and saved us that night in the forest. When I opened my eyes and saw you, I was frightened for only a moment and then you threw me a shirt to cover my nakedness. I know that you saw me, both that way and as a wolf also, but you didn’t recoil or take advantage either.

“I like those qualities and you. That’s all I’m trying to say.”

A moment passed as Nick tried to think of what to say, but suddenly Charlotte cursed as tears began to run down her cheeks. “Ah, this is so ridiculous! I itch all over. Can you get my back?”

Seeing her discomfort and wondering what new reaction she was going through from her bizarre werewolf physiology, Nick rubbed her shoulders and felt the tension caused by her reaction ease. “Try my arms, please,” Charlotte asked of him seeming more curious about something than needing him to scratch her. He merely rubbed the skin with his palms gently and as he did the woman shook her head and sighed.

“Did Eric say if we imprint on the one who can sense our pheromones or something similar?” she asked refusing to look at him. The girl still rubbed her front including having to scratch at the flesh under her top.

“No, why?”
Nick asked suddenly worried.

“Everywhere your skin touches me, the itching stops. It’s like we blend our oils or something and it goes away,” the woman sighed. “I’m allergic without you. This is so ridiculous. Damn Katie for bringing this curse on us!”

He wanted to tell her that she didn’t mean it, but he knew that she hated the curse, if not the woman who had accidentally brought it on her and her brother. She wasn’t a hateful person, but this curse had robbed her of the life she had wanted. The wolf ruled too much of her world to rejoin civilization and the pressure of her preferred profession was as stressful as her brother’s. They doubted that they could maintain their composure as either a lawyer or doctor.

Suddenly she squirmed in his hands and Charlotte pulled up the halter top. Her back was too him, but as he attempted to back away she grabbed both his wrists forcing his hands over her breasts to cup them. Releasing a contented sigh of relief, the girl kept her hands over his. He didn’t need to move them, she simply needed the contact.

Unable to help himself from asking, he questioned into the back of her head, “Really?”

“You have no idea. I was about to run to the kitchen to get a knife and cut them off they itched so badly.” She looked down and joked, “Sorry, girls.”

Glad that it was daylight and Nicola couldn’t walk in and stumble across a very awkward situation, the man shifted his face to her shoulder. The brief touch made her shiver in relief. “You know I can’t do this all day and night. First off it’s really inappropriate and secondly I have things to do that will take me away. You’re going to need sleep at night. Am I going to have to lie in bed next to you all night or you’ll itch yourself to death?”

Shaking her head, Charlotte replied, “I don’t know. Maybe I can try taking a bath a minute. Maybe washing off my skin will settle me down the same way?”

Keeping her back to him, Charlotte removed his hands and leaned down to pick up the top from where it had landed on the floor. Artfully keeping him from seeing what he had just held, the woman hurried into his room and the master bath. He had a tub and shower combination. After nearly two months of living with him, Charlotte had even managed to let him bring in some of her favorite shower and bath items. It was like sharing with a wife whom he had never married. His vanity was half covered with makeup, facial scrubs, shampoos and conditioners and dozens of items that he didn’t even know what she used them for in there.

Hoping her plan would work and free them from having to virtually become Siamese twins; Nick sat and opened his computer. He wanted to distract his mind and try not to think about the beautiful woman bathing in his master bath. The feel of her warm, smooth skin was different from Nicola’s, he mused. While the vampire was as soft and smooth to the touch, her skin was cooler. Even the taste of his blood couldn’t bring a vampire up to a normal human temperature.

Still, Nick knew that he loved her and touching Nicola was just as pleasurable as Charlotte had been. The problem was that he admitted he enjoyed Charlotte and not just getting to touch her or look at the dark haired beauty. With or without her pheromones trying to pull them together, the man was attracted to her. His body could love both, but his mind dictated that he choose just one.

“Nick!” the cry from the bath sounded like Charlotte was in great pain.

The laptop was tossed aside on the couch as an afterthought as he hurried to find the woman. She was crying as she tried to dry her skin rapidly. Seeing him at the door, the female werewolf basically threw herself at him while still naked. Rubbing against him Charlotte explained even as her frustration made her voice come out in choked sobs, “It was... like acid... b-burning my skin. I couldn’t take it anymore. I’ve never felt so much pain in my life. Turning into a wolf hurts less, Nick.

“I don’t know what else to do,” the girl cried as she finished and turned towards him hugging her body to his.

He had just seen the beautiful woman in her entirety, and not for the first time. She was clean of hair as if shaving meticulously could stop her from being reminded of the wolf she would turn into whether she wanted it or not on the full moon. Being early spring, her skin was still porcelain white due to her European ancestry.

Shaking his head, a sudden thought dawned on him. “Hang on, I have an idea.”

He stepped back and removed his shirt before tossing it to the nude woman. “Put it on.”

Without touching her again, he waited for Charlotte to pull his shirt over her. It wasn’t long enough to cover her crotch and rear entirely, but that wasn’t his worry as much as the other result he desired. “Do you still itch where it’s touching you?”

Thinking only a moment, the girl shook her head. “No, but it might just be that I touched you a moment ago.”

“How about your legs?”

“My lower legs still itch though not too badly,” she admitted. While her upper body and thighs had rubbed against him, Charlotte hadn’t finished rubbing all of her skin against him.

He went into the bathroom pulling his bath towel from a hook. It hadn’t been washed since they had left before putting it into the hamper. Nick knelt in front of her trying not to look at her exposed areas as he concentrated on her lower legs. He rubbed them down quickly and rose once more to look in her brown eyes.

“How does that feel?” the man asked knowing that he had avoided touching her with his hands so that only the towel had been against her skin.

“The itching is all gone, though it’s probably more being held back for now,” Charlotte confessed looking more at ease.

Going to his gym bag, Nick tossed her the shorts he had worn for only half an hour. The girl made a face at the idea and he shrugged, “They may not be as tight and flashy as yours, but they should stop you from itching.”

After pulling the shorts into place for modesty’s sake, Charlotte asked, “Do you think that we beat all the symptoms? I mean, if we’re stuck together, since it looks like I am bonded to you anyway.”

Again he was forced to shrug, but this time because he couldn’t truly answer the question. Nick tried though as he said, “We’re only on day one. Eric seems to believe that if your needs aren’t met by this first full moon, you may be in heat until the next one.”

“
Gah, in heat! I can’t believe that my body’s more like a dog than a girl. Now I get to have the same problems a human girl has and get to add a wolf’s being in heat. This sucks!”

He couldn’t dispute the complaint, but at least they had found a stop gap on the pain so he wouldn’t have to be around her at all moments of the day. If Eric’s beliefs were true, then neither of them
was ready to go to the final extreme. He liked Charlotte, and had to admit she was very attractive; but being forced into sex by a strange werewolf problem wasn’t the choice either of them wanted to make.

An hour later found the two on the couch. Charlotte was reading a magazine while Nick was looking through the internet for more possible leads on the feline hunters, as well as checking some of the local police and FBI sights he wasn’t supposed to have access to, while checking to see if they had left any evidence around the city of late. While the voran had contacts in a few precincts and even the FBI, he hated to go to his sources and allies at the drop of a hat without trying his hand at detective work.

He had been a part time reporter off and on for most of the last century. It was a job that helped steer the general population from the truth about some of the darker things that were best left to the imagination and not their beliefs. While some people needed to know or had their run ins with vampires that Nick couldn’t make pretend to not have seen what they had seen, those often became his contacts and many owed them their lives. Some owed them their careers as well, since revealing to their superiors that there were vampires involved was as good as saying aliens had landed. Having someone who knew and understood the truth was often a relief outlet that let people get on with their lives. He was also the one they called when something supernatural happened.

Charlotte sat facing him on the couch and she had placed her feet under his leg as if the extra touch was needed to keep her addiction to him in check. Why the women in his life felt that he should be their foot warmer was beyond his understanding, but Nick couldn’t say that he wasn’t used to it. Nicola and even Geni had pulled that on him during the winter.

Trying to ignore the woman as she did much the same, music played on his surround sound system keeping them from having to listen to each other’s breathing. He could still smell her scent, but since donning his clothing to relieve the pain and itching it had lessened to something that might have been sprayed on by a perfume bottle in a light mist.

When keys fumbled in the lock outside, Nick didn’t even bother calling that it was unlocked. He had felt the presence of Logan coming while he had been in the elevator. When the voran wasn’t actively seeking out the radar like blips on his supernatural radar, his range was more limited; but no supernatural being entered his building without some notice.

As he entered, the big man glanced to the pair of them on the couch with a slightly raised brow of surprise. While the two had been known to share the couch from time to time, Logan could tell that there was something up if only from his sister’s choice of wardrobe.

“Did you decide that you like wearing his clothes as more than just as a shirt to sleep in now?” he asked being a little snide in his remark.

Frowning, Charlotte countered with her own question, “So how is Kate dealing with things?”

Shock registered on his face and he tried to wiggle out of the trap he had just stepped into, “Who? You mean Kate from Eric’s pack?”

“The Kate from Eric’s
pack, the one who turned us into freaks, the one who must have called you because she needed you. Do I need to go on?”

His frown at his sister’s derisive tone let them all know that she had indeed caught him in his attempt to mislead them, “It wasn’t her fault. She was barely conscious when she reached out to me on that stretcher and scratched me. How did you guess anyway?”

“Well, doctor, apparently we are on the same clock. Nick had to call Eric before I became a danger to everyone at the gym.”

While her words registered on him, Logan’s face suddenly wrinkled in distaste. “What is that smell?”

Nick found his hand moved to stroke her lower legs as if calming an angry pet almost of its own volition. The scent of her pheromones was increasing in her agitation at her brother. While he found it sweet as the one the werewolf wanted to bond with, apparently her brother as a werewolf was somehow picking up the scent negatively.

“That would be my werewolf pheromones!” the woman replied throwing out her hands
aggravatedly.

Laughing even as he held his nose, Logan shook his head and informed her, “Kate smells like perfume, a type I would like. You almost smell like a skunk.”

“That’s because I am obviously not meant to attract my brother!” she complained and threw a pillow. It was a throw pillow, Nick thought contemplating the appropriate use of said item in amusement.

“Are you going to have to go to Eric’s and find a mate or is there another way to make it go away?” he asked starting to wave at the air as if that would make her scent move away from him.

“Did you make Kate’s scent go away for her?” Charlotte asked turning his question against him still feeling peevish after her horrible morning.