Wicked Games - Moon Kissed Part 31

Chapter 23.

"B astard!" Bella kicked the steel door for the third time to no avail.

She paced.

Here she'd thought Severo had resolved to make this work. And the only way she could possibly foresee that happening? Let the werewolf decide.

If it accepted her, Severo could banish his apprehensions and worries that she'd never be safe around it. And if the werewolf tore out her throat...Well, there wasn't much of a way to argue if that happened, was there?

Rationally, she understood his fear. So much had happened to them since coming together. He could have never antic.i.p.ated that his girlfriend would be transformed into a vampire. And then to face losing her should the werewolf protest?

This might be the safest place for her during the full moon, but having blooded her teeth, Bella had lost all trace of fear. And she was hungry.

She gave the door one more good kick but succeeded in only denting the steel.

Shouldn't she have superpowers by now? she thought. The other vampires were so strong, they'd rip this door from the hinges.

Though she had noticed many changes since the transformation, Ivan had said it would take until the next full moon before she was completely a vampire. Whatever that meant.

Right now her senses increased. She could smell the gunpowder in the plastic containers at the back of the a.r.s.enal. And though night had fallen and she hadn't switched the light on yet, she could see very well.

Stalking to the table's edge, she grabbed hold of the stainless steel. The corner of the table bent. "So I am stronger." She glanced to the door. "But not strong enough for that mother."

Maybe if she pried out the hinges?

Searching for a tool, she grabbed a crowbar and hammer and went to work.

A ghostly howl outside made her stop pounding. Another howl sounded closer to the house.

"He must not have gone far away. Is he coming for me?" Bella leaped onto the counter and peered out the ten-inch-high gla.s.s-block window. It was impossible to see through the distorted blocks.

She jumped down and resumed pounding at the door. One hinge pin popped out and clanged onto the cement floor.

She positioned the crowbar beneath the next hinge pin but paused. "Do I really want to do this? Do I think I'm some kind of big bad vampire now who can take on anything in my path? I don't think I can win against a werewolf."

But she didn't have to win; she just had to seduce.

Gla.s.s crashed to the ground. Bella guessed it was the patio door that Severo had only just reinstalled a week earlier. The werewolf had entered the house.

She worked at the second of three hinges, but it wouldn't budge no matter how hard she hit it with the hammer. Instead of creating more noise, she set down the tools and bent before the door to listen.

Snorts and huffing breaths sounded. Far away. The werewolf was probably walking through the kitchen. Talons scratched across marble. The thunder of each footstep-it was not running, but was slowly taking the foyer's measure-rocketed her heartbeat to her throat.

He was looking for her. He must smell her. h.e.l.l, the werewolf could smell her from miles away. Now his head must be filled with her scent.

Her vampire scent.

"There must be deodorant for hiding vampire pheromones," she muttered. "Just...let him be calm, to see me before he rages."

And she closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips to the steel door. See me, she repeated over and over. Know me.

The wolf stalked the hallway toward the a.r.s.enal. A bang outside the room shook the wall. It seemed angry, impatient to find the creature it scented. It was on the hunt.

On bent legs, Bella twisted to eye the a.r.s.enal. What kind of weapon would work against a werewolf? Not a lethal weapon, one that contained silver, but something to hold it back if it intended to take off her head. Something to pin it to the ground while she ran for the garage and hopped in the car to speed off to China.

She didn't want to die. And to be ripped apart by her lover was not on her top-ten list of adventures.

But she did want it to recognize her-if only for a moment-and know that she had not changed. Sure, she now needed blood to survive. But her heart had not altered. Her soul needed Severo...and the werewolf.

A bang against the door pushed in the steel in the shape of wide knuckles. A chilling sc.r.a.pe of talons down metal sent a s.h.i.+ver up the back of Bella's neck.

The werewolf howled. Bella did not recognize it as that "I see you and want to mate with you" kind of howl with which he usually greeted her. This one was low and menacing.

A p.r.i.c.k to her lower lip made her jump. "Now is no time for the fangs." Try as she might, she could not will them back up.

The vampire she had become was prepared to fight for survival.

Two more fist marks bulged in the door. The middle hinge, partly released, cracked in half. A kick brought the door down inside the room.The bullets and guns and knives sitting on the counter behind Bella clattered to the floor as she backed into it. Her hip bone hit the steel, and she winced but did not take her eyes from the approaching threat.

The werewolf seethed, its fangs descending along its extended jaw and glistening with saliva. It howled at the sight of her and stalked up in two long strides, forcing her to jump onto the counter and crouch defensively.

"It's me," she cried. "Severo, see me!"

It snarled and tossed back its head. The muscles strapping its shoulders pulsed as it did a caveman chest pound. Powerful thighs flexed. It stomped. One paw swept across the counter, to Bella's right, tearing the steel in four jagged lines.

Blood drooled down her chin. She'd bit her lip. The blood scent must enrage the wolf beyond measure, she thought. "h.e.l.l, I can't sit here and take it," she said aloud.

She dropped to the floor and thought to crawl away, but a hand connected with her side. One blow swept her across the room and out the door. She skidded along the waxed marble floor and slammed into a wall with a groan.

Blood seeping from her thigh, Bella scrambled along the floor. Behind her the werewolf stalked at a distance, as if it planned to play with her, exhaust her before the killing.

"You're not playing fair!" she shouted and scrambled to her feet.

Das.h.i.+ng toward the front door, she reasoned that outside the werewolf would have her at an advantage. The garage door was behind her, behind the werewolf, so reaching the car was out of the question.

Veering right, Bella headed toward the bedrooms. Perhaps the smaller rooms and the furniture would impede the werewolf. For a few seconds.

"Severo, I love you!" she called back. Gripping the door frame, she swung herself into a bedroom.

She slammed the door and locked it, knowing the gesture was futile.

In proof, talons ripped through the wood as if it were fas.h.i.+oned from mere leather. Bella stumbled backward, her spine colliding with the bed. She scrambled across it to the other side. The werewolf pushed the door into the room. On all fours, it lifted its head and sniffed.

With one leap it soared across the bed and knocked her on the floor, its deadly taloned fingers on her shoulders and its knees pinning her feet.

Bella screamed.

She was beyond caring about hurting Severo's feelings. Obviously she'd been wrong. The werewolf did hate vampires. It didn't matter if its alter ego was s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g one and claimed to love her. All that mattered was instinct.

"Please," she said, her voice reedy and s.h.i.+vering with fear. "Please."

Just...please.

The werewolf sniffed her body. The graze of its teeth over her breast shocked her. Its canines didn't break the skin, but it wasn't a s.e.xual touch by any means. Panting and emitting a low growl, it sniffed along her neck. Its tongue swept out to lick under her jaw.

Tasting her? Why not get it done with? And please, if she were to die right now, she much preferred losing her head to being...

munched.Oh, Bella, don't even think it.

Turning her head, she winced as the fingers curled and talons dug into her shoulders. Not deeply, but it wasn't aware, obviously, how easily it could damage her tender flesh.

Feeling her heart finish the race, she whined miserably and shook her head. The scent of her own fear was like bad cologne wafting in the room.

But the werewolf's earthy scent was sweet to her. Her lover.

Don't forget it is your lover. The man who claimed you as his mate.

"No!" She bashed her elbow across the werewolf's snout and scrambled away. The werewolf snarled and leaped for her. It gnashed its teeth but halted abruptly, short of biting her on the cheek. "You know me. Remember me? I'm the same Bella. The same one."

She dragged herself up over the edge of the bed, kneeling, and stepped off the other side. Slowly, she backed away. The werewolf would not kill her before she could give it her all. This vampire was willing to fight to win her lover.

"You once said you loved the smell of fear on me. Recognize it now, Severo. And know I am yours."

Something clicked in her brain. Bold courage. A willingness to die to achieve her greatest desire. Trust.

She trusted this man would make the right choice, no matter his form.

Bella drew her shoulders straight and lifted her chest. Drawing in a breath through her nose, she found a strange calm amid the chaos.

"Very well, wolf boy." She bowed her head and looked up through her lashes. "You like it rough?"

The werewolf slashed the bed, taking out some cotton stuffing.

"You think you're such a beast? All he-man and stalking me?" Tracing her tongue over her fangs, she smiled widely. "Come to me, werewolf. Take me if you can."

Unzipping her pants, she slid them down and tore open her s.h.i.+rt. The werewolf licked its maw.

Slowly, she slinked around to the end of the bed. Tilting her head, she put back her shoulders. The s.h.i.+rt slid off, leaving her naked.

Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s sat high and her nipples hardened.

A throaty growl signaled her lover's desire. She loved that growl.

Turning, Bella bent over the bed, placing her palms flat on the sheets. "Take me. I am your mate. It's death or mating. Your choice."

A heavy hand slapped the back of her neck, shoving her face against the bed. A sharp talon cut into her skin. And then it entered her and gratified its instinct.

Bella cried out at the pleasure of the intense friction. If this was to be her last breath, she would breathe it gladly.

The wolf howled its familiar boon of triumph, and then it was gone, leaping over the bed and das.h.i.+ng out through the patio door.

Bella collapsed on the bed. She breathed heavily. Her heart still had not started. And her lips were slick with her own blood.

But she had won back her lover.

Severo s.h.i.+vered and came fully awake with a start. He was naked, lying on the icy flagstones by the pool. As he moved something slashed his ankle. It was gla.s.s, scattered everywhere.

The werewolf had broken into the house last night. He'd tried to hold it back but not even he could stop his beast.

"Bella."

Rus.h.i.+ng inside, he didn't want to think of what he might find. Blood put a metallic taste in his mouth, and the scratches on his arms and palms indicated a struggle.

"Please be alive. I'm so sorry, Bella!"

He jackknifed as he rounded the corner to the bedrooms and ran right into a white towel, stretched out to receive him.

"Thought you'd need this," she said. A sweetly wicked smile curved her red lips. "Cold out there last night?"

"You're..." He eyed her up and down as he wrapped the oversize towel about his waist. She was dressed in a sheer pink negligee that revealed the tawny areolae on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and the thatch of dark hair at the apex of her thighs. "Okay?"

"Peachy." She strode past him into the kitchen and straightened a stack of mail he'd been avoiding for days. "And you?"

"Besides being frozen, I'm...The werewolf didn't get to you? You were safe in the a.r.s.enal?"

She pointed over his shoulder. Hard to miss the havoc in the foyer. The front door had slashes through it. The walls had been clawed and Sheetrock was busted everywhere. He couldn't see the a.r.s.enal door, but a memory of last night flashed before his eyes.

The steel door clattering to the floor...Bella's eyes flas.h.i.+ng wide with fear...The werewolf approaching...

"Tell me," he said, fighting against the horrid vision.

She leaned in and kissed his jaw, then tapped his chin. "The werewolf loves me."

"It...didn't harm you?"

"I got a nasty slash down my thigh, but I don't think it was intentional. The werewolf was initially out for blood. But then it calmed down. I dared it to take me. Then I offered myself to it."

"Offered yourself?" he said, his voice falling.

"We had s.e.x. Just like old times." She kissed him again, this time pulling his head in for a long, deep, hard connection, mouth to mouth. "Mmm, you taste good the morning after, you know that?"

"So the werewolf..."