Twice Cursed (4 page)

“
Rubbish.”

Sean’s jaw tightened. “Rubbish? You’re
a superb orator, Edward, but it’s obvious your listening skills
need work. Not more than eight hours ago, Ernst Volkmann himself
said we need the year to be sure. Or is the word of our head
geneticist not enough for you?”

With a smug look, Parr
spread his hands. He was in his element, with all eyes, including
Lily’s, focused on him. His self-righteous expression said it all.
“What our intrepid leader doesn’t yet know, is that I’ve since
spoken with the good doctor. While it’s true, he would
prefer
to have the
girl’s blood intact for a year, Dr. Volkmann admitted by the next
full moon, enough time will have elapsed from her initial
contamination, that a forced transformation would most likely be
without incident. Therefore, I’ve more than proven my argument.
You, however, have proven nothing except your desire to keep your
human pet.”

Pet? Throwing back her
covers Lily stood up, ignoring the shiver that jolted through her
exposed flesh from the chilled air.
Well,
fuck you very much!
And what was all that
other crap…
most likely be without
incident?
Didn’t they realize they were
playing with fire? Doctors warned in no uncertain terms what would
happen if they let Parr have his way, forcing the Alpha to change
Lily prematurely. Not to mention, it wasn’t what she wanted. It was
obvious no one gave a goddamn about that minor detail—except
Sean.

After everything that happened—the
horrible deaths, the living in fear—these fickle Weres were willing
to put clannish pride before their own safety. Fists clenched, she
needed to calm her anger in order to maintain focus.

Sean stood slowly, his face grim. Even
through his block, Lily sensed every muscle in his body pulse, down
to the little muscle in his jaw as he bit back on his anger. Lily
could almost hear the blood pounding in his head. Even without the
benefit of her psychic sense, she knew exactly how Parr had
coerced, if not out and out threatened, Volkmann. The little doctor
may have been a heavy weight in the medical world, but against Parr
and his henchmen, he didn’t stand a chance.

Sean’s eyes were as black
as his mood. “Edward, everyone here knows what you’re capable of,
even if they won’t admit it. I don’t have to venture much of a
guess as to what you said, or more likely
did
, to get Dr. Volkmann to give you
what you wanted.”

Parr opened his mouth to argue, but
Sean held up his hand. “Enough! This discussion is over.” In the
tone of the Alpha, he gave his edict, his voice never faltering as
he stared down Edward’s glare.

Lily was not to be touched.

Parr’s entire diatribe on tradition
and law had just backfired. The alpha had ruled, and according to
their laws and the precedent Parr had just spent days expounding,
the matter was now closed. Or was it? Lily could see the
backpedaling scheme hatching behind Parr’s narrowed
eyes.

“
This human has our Alpha
wrapped around her finger, even as her legs are wrapped around his
back! Our laws vary for no one. I have declared it unequivocally,
she must be changed or cast out…
but
…under these extenuating
circumstances, and considering the Alpha’s unwillingness to rescind
his verdict, there is only one choice left. The human must be
imprisoned until she is no longer of use to us.”

Chaos exploded, with the majority
demanding that Lily stay, in essence, under house arrest, but also
demanding that Sean distance himself from her in exchange for a
quorum and a temporary peace. The Alpha’s ruling may have been
absolute, but the decision had come at a price. In their eyes,
shunning her was the only way Sean could prove he had the
Compound’s best interests at heart, and not his own.

Grabbing the first thing she could
find, Lily hurled a delicate, porcelain egg against the wall like
her own personal grenade. Severing her hijacked mind link, she
picked up a pair of sweat pants from the end of the bed but threw
them down in disgust. Did they honestly think she was the type of
woman who sat around waiting for her fate to be decided? Yeah
right, when pigs fly.

Stalking across the room,
she picked up her leather jeans from one of the club chairs facing
the fireplace, and jammed her legs into them. She threw on a
plunging, black v-neck sweater and her leather jacket, stuffing her
feet into her biker boots as she mumbled to herself. From the side
table, she grabbed her black wool scarf and her gloves, and was out
like a shot, slamming the door behind her.
Hell hath no fury?
Bullshit! Forget
scorned, and try threatened and pissed off. They hadn’t seen
anything yet.

She looked like something out of
Hell’s Angels, as she stalked across the frozen snow toward the
great hall. Without stopping, she kicked open the double doors.
Sweeping the room with a single glance, no one had to guess who
she’d come for.

In one fluid motion, Lily grabbed a
ritual lance from the sidewall and sent the lethal, steel tipped
spear racing toward Edward Parr’s head. Fear flashed across the
man’s face and he jerked sideways, barely avoiding the razor sharp
edge. The lance grazed his sleeve, tearing his robes and pinning
the shredded material to the center of the chair behind him. The
spear pierced the wood to its core, impaling the painted crest on
the back of the chair, Parr’s crest.

Visibly paled, the man grabbed the
hilt, but the lance wouldn’t budge. Throwing his hands off in
disgust, he narrowed his eyes and took a step toward Lily. Sean
growled, moving away from the Alpha’s chair closer to Lily, but she
put up a staying hand. This was her fight.

Parr stopped, his eyes darting around.
She could see his Machiavellian mind clearly weighing the pros and
cons of harming her in plain sight. Rearranging his robes, he shot
her a slow, arrogant smile. “Hot-blooded. I’ll have to remember
that,” he said, as his eyes swept Lily’s body.

“
In your dreams, old man.
The only thing you need to remember about me, is to watch your
back.” Lily’s gaze swept the room. “I have to thank you gentlemen
for including me in your deliberations. It’s such a comfort knowing
my well-being is so high on your list of priorities.” Her voice
dripped with sarcasm.

“
These proceedings were
closed! How dare you!” Robert Stanton, delegate from the Avian
collective, yelled, as he came to stand beside Parr.

“
Oh, come on,” Lily shot
back, cutting the man off midsentence. “You can spare me the
self-righteous outrage and the surprised face, Robert. While you
and the rest of your cronies were busy deciding my fate, you forgot
I have my own specialized set of skills. Did you honestly expect me
to accept whatever you dictate and come quietly? I mean, really—do
you know me at all?” Lily’s tone was matter-of-fact, but her gaze
was deadly.

Parr’s face was a mask of
indifference. “Don’t look so annoyed, my dear. We mean you no harm,
and let us remember that evolution is a painful business, and
that’s all this amounts to, really, the advancement of our kind,”
he replied, his voice like silk.

Staring him down, Lily crossed her
arms in front of her chest. “We both know that’s not the case here,
you pompous gasbag. You’re not looking for these people to
progress; you’re looking to revert them centuries. How does that
qualify as evolution, or are you really as deluded as you
sound?”

Parr’s face hardened. “Weres need a
blunt reminder of the rich and powerful culture we once had. We are
completely different from your kind, superior in every way.
Unfortunately, allowing such proximity to humans and, of course,
the resultant fraternization, has all but obscured that fact.
Eventually, you’ll understand. But don’t be dismayed. Weres have
always had a weakness for humans, titillating creatures that you
are.” His eyes drifted over Lily’s lush curves.

“
Council tenets may have
made our illustrious Alpha inaccessible to you for the time being,
but I’m sure another, more
satisfying
proposition can be
arranged.” He hissed out the ‘
S
’ in satisfying, the lascivious
tone making Lily’s skin crawl. His snakelike tongue darted out
wetting his thin lips. He smiled arrogantly, sending her a mental
image of her, naked and submissive, kneeling before him.

A heavy oak chair hurtled past,
splintering just inches from where Parr stood. His arm shot upward,
shielding his face from the debris. Across the room, a menacing
growl pierced the air. Sean’s gaze seethed as his eyes shifted from
blue to yellow, his body crouched, seconds from phasing.

Deadlocked, Lily’s eyes moved quickly
from one man to the other. This was exactly the reaction Parr
wanted, and Sean was playing right into his hand.

“
He’s baiting you, Sean,”
she said, keeping her voice steady and calm. “Don’t give him what
he wants. He’s no threat to me. You know it, and he knows
it.”

Sean’s muscles rippled and
constricted beneath his skin. If he phased and attacked, everything
they hoped to accomplish would be lost. Lily reached out to him
with her mind. In his anger, he let the wall keeping her out of his
head crumble, and Lily saw the effort it took for him not to kill
Parr right then and there. His protective fury raged red and black,
and her heart squeezed.
“Don’t do this,
Sean. Can’t you see it’s a trap?”
Her
voice was like a feather as it floated across his churning
mind.

His eyes flashed to hers, and his mind
calmed. She sent all her love along their shared mind link, leaving
the channel open for every telepath in the room to see and feel the
depth of their commitment.

Sean straightened. His eyes were still
narrowed and furious, but at least now, they were blue.

Mitch tossed Lily another lance. She
caught it with one hand, and stood with her legs shoulder width
apart, twirling it once front of her, like a Japanese bo staff.
Council members shifted nervously in their places, clearly uneasy
at having her this close and armed, especially after her obvious
show of solidarity with the Alpha and his hunters.

Lily brought the lance to a
halt, the sound of the blade a sharp
whoosh
as it cut the air. Her gaze
swept the room. Most expressions were anxious, but Sean’s lips
curved upward. The words, ‘
that’s my
girl
’, feathered across her mind, and she
blew him a mental kiss.

A few of Parr’s men took a step
forward, but Lily stood her ground, sliding into a defensive stance
and holding the lance across her body with both hands. Sean and
Mitch moved in, flanking her sides. “Not everyone’s drinking the
Kool-Aid, Lily. Problem is, they’re just too chicken-shit to stand
up to Parr,” Mitch offered. “But the rest of us have got your
back.”

Lily pushed the lance out from her
body, its bladed edge pointed right at Parr. “I know that Mitch,
and I won’t forget it.”

Moving a step forward, Lily skillfully
twirled the lance once more, bringing it up and over her head in
one graceful motion. Holding it aloft it with both hands, she
paused for effect. Smiling coldly, she quickly swept its blade
within inches of Parr’s men in a deft downward pass. As they jumped
back, she caught the lance’s shaft with a practiced hand and
brought its blunt end down with a bang. “I’m out gentlemen, and if
you’re smart, you won’t try to stop me.”

Fixing Parr with a hard stare, she
continued. “And just in case the pack blowhard here decides to
twist my words when I’m gone, I want to set the record straight. I
intend to do whatever I can to help your doctors fight this virus.
I will make myself available to them should they need me, but I
will do so from a distance. By turning your back on a leader whose
loyalty is apparent in everything he does, you’ve done nothing but
prove to me how fickle you are.

“
If all it takes is someone
to wave nostalgia and fear mongering under your noses for you to
turn on each other, then you don’t deserve the leader you have, or
his allegiance. I have no intention of allowing myself to be
turned, ever…and for anyone who thinks otherwise…” Lily tilted the
blade of the lance toward her hand. Without flinching, she slowly
ran her thumb over its sharp edge, her eyes never leaving theirs as
blood tricked down her wrist. “Well, I think you get the
picture.”

Lily stormed off, feeling dirty. Sean
had his hands full with only a select few to help him. She was
truly on her own. Had she been foolish? No. She had made her point,
and everyone there knew it. Now all she could do was hope common
sense would prevail, and that things would get back to normal—well,
as normal as things could be in a community of
supernaturals.

Yesterday, she had been certain it
eventually would. Now, not so much. But it no longer mattered.
Either way, she was headed home to the New York. Problem was, this
time it no longer felt like home.

***

Lily sat up. Bleary eyed, she peered
around the darkened room. Outside, the sun crept its way over the
horizon, cutting a pink and gold swath through the dark landscape.
Her mind was silent, except for the dull ache that had settled
behind her eyes from lack of sleep, and the dull throb in her hand
where she had sliced her thumb open on the lance.