Dangerous Lovers (212 page)

There was screaming. Children cried out for their mothers, and mother’s cried out for their lost children. That didn’t matter, what mattered was finding the paranormal Jacobs wanted. I was determined to find them, to be the one who would catch them. I still felt the need to prove myself, even though I had already done that. I wouldn’t be on the team if I hadn’t. It didn’t matter to me, I had to be the best.

Jacobs had described the paranormal to us, a young woman, fiery red hair. She wasn’t a normal paranormal, there was something…wrong about her. Jacobs had mentioned that she was a Werebird that was mentally disturbed and walked around half-shifted.

I saw her, she was herding children into the house that was already searched. I ran in after her, but she was gone. All that was left were three children and a mother hunched over them, trying to protect them. I called out the warning. That day those children and mother were taken from their home and tortured for days until Jacobs was convinced they had no new information to give us. We never caught the red-headed paranormal, but we had destroyed innocent people’s lives.

I pulled myself from the memory and focused on the movie, on Audrey, anything but my own horrid past.

The movie progressed and I couldn’t help but watch Audrey’s reaction for the most of it. Her smile grew bigger and bigger as the movie went on. She stared wide-eyed at the screen. She was near the edge of her seat when it happened.

I didn’t think that anything could sound as beautiful as her voice, but I was wrong. For the first time since I met her, she laughed. Laughing was a freedom offered to those who could feel completely free from all worries and enjoy a moment completely stress free. A real laugh was a small piece of freedom. And that is what Audrey was doing. She was laughing. She let out a second laugh, before she stopped as if shocked by her reaction, then she continued to laugh. She turned to me and smiled widely. She looked completely open at that moment. My breath halted. Gods there was nothing more stunning than her at this moment.

Audrey moved to hold my hand. She leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Thank you, Gabriel,” she whispered and went back to her previous position.

The rest of the movie didn’t even register for me. I couldn’t get over how she was acting so free with me. My body reacted uncomfortably. This wasn’t something I could rush. This wasn’t just a one-night romance. This was different.

A new feeling that had been building started to show itself, and I felt the natural reaction of fear swamping my body. I couldn’t love this girl, I wouldn’t do that to her. Then I remembered how it felt for her to say my name. There was something so right about it and that made me think of different times she would say it. Lost in my fantasies for the last ten minutes I didn’t realize that the credits were rolling and Audrey was still smiling.

“That was…it was amazing. Thank you, Gabriel. Thank you!” She threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. Pulling back slightly, her eyes watched mine as if waiting for the colors to change as they did when we were surrounded by paranormals, but in the human world they would remain blue, only not to her. She told me that she could see the different flakes of colors in people’s eyes when their moods shifted. Audrey said that she did that as long as she could remember. I knew when she said that she was holding back. There was something that she remembered. Something she was scared to share yet. But then her eyes shifted to my lips and all other thoughts vanished. I waited. I wouldn’t kiss her unless she kissed me first.

She moved tentatively as if I was the scared animal. She was centimeters away and it was taking all my self-control not to force my lips on hers like a starved man. She made feel that way though. Like I couldn’t get enough of her. Her quiet strength, her broken spirit that was slowly repairing, she was damaged, but she wasn’t shattered. There was time for her to repair. Finally she moved in. She barely touched my lips with her own. Then, she became a little braver.

My hands clutched tightly at the arm rest, even though all I wanted to do was pull her closer and kiss her deeply. But I knew this was a step she needed to take. A moment she needed to own. I resisted and closed my eyes against the beating she was doing to my mind. Finally, she scooted a little closer. I knew this part would be difficult for her, so I slowly opened my mouth for her, allowing her the option. She moved for it slowly at first, then moved a little quicker. Soon we were kissing the way that I had wanted to kiss her what seemed like hours ago, but I knew was only a few moments. I didn’t hold her as I wanted to because I wanted her to have the option to move away when she wanted to. I didn’t want her to feel trapped, not right now, not when she was in control. I didn’t want to see the fear of her being trapped in her eyes again.

When she pulled away, she was blushing and her swollen lips made me want to pull her back. I licked my lips grabbing the last taste of her. She looked away for a moment and she looked like she was about to say something. I knew that she was going to try and apologize so I moved in before she could.

“Thank you, Audrey.” I grabbed her hand and kissed it, my lips not moving until she looked into my eyes. She smiled slightly, not the smile I was hoping for, but it was more than enough at the same time. This was all new to her, and I had to remember that. I had to remember that she wasn’t like another girl off the street. “You ready?” She nodded. I was about to let go of her hand, but she tightened her hold on me. As we walked out, she told me again about some of her favorite parts. She had told me that it was her very first experience at a movie theater. She allowed me some more insight of her past telling me how, while they had a small TV in their house, she never watched all that much. She got a bit quiet after that.

“Audrey, you know you can tell me about your past.” She looked up at me. I could see the fear coursing through her. The past that she could remember scared her.

“I … I’m scared.” She whispered, I thought that she would deny it. Deny that she remembered anything that she didn’t want to tell me. The way she had been for the past week. When we left the theater we still had about an hour before Elijah would show up. I placed my hand on the small of Audrey’s back. I felt her breathing shift slightly. It became deeper, and I felt a shiver shake her body.

“Audrey, I promise you are safe. I will not hate you because of your past.” I pulled her a little closer to me. Her hair was falling back into her face, it was on the closest side to me and as much as I wanted to push away the strands, I knew she preferred them there. She wanted to still hide them, hide from the world. She thought herself a monster, I knew that much, but looking down at her I couldn’t see it. I kissed the top of her head which she wasn’t expecting. I wasn’t expecting it. My nose filled with her enticing scent. She looked up at me and I controlled my expression.

“I would hide in my room most of the time. My father wasn’t a bad man; he would spend time with me when he wasn’t busy. I loved him.” She tripped over the word loved, and I knew that she wanted to say that she still loved him. He was her father and even after her horrible past, she still loved him. “He didn’t mean to hurt me so much, it was the only way he knew how to punish. Most times I deserved it. I understood the rules and yet.” She paused, biting the inside of her lip, which was a new bad-habit she picked up from Nixie, who bit her lip when nervous.

“You wanted more.” I understood. She sheepishly nodded trying not to look up at me again and I realized it wasn’t out of fear this time, she was ashamed. She was ashamed that she wanted more than what her father would allow her to have. I didn’t realize how much her father’s approval meant to her. How much he meant to her. “What happened to your mother?”

“I killed her.” Audrey looked me straight in the eye when she said it. She didn’t look like she felt sad or remorse, the only thing I could see from her was acceptance. “My father reminded me every birthday. She didn’t survive, but I did. I think he hated me a little bit for it. Yet he always called me his little survivor.” Audrey never seemed to talk about her family in such a carefree manner before. I didn’t know why but this apparently was a safe topic for her. I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to tell her that her father was wrong. That so many things I knew from her father, he was abusive and obviously didn’t love her in a healthy way. I couldn’t tell her these things though, even if they had my blood boiling and my vision turning red.

“What about your father?” Her question snapped me out of my cloud of rage. I looked down at her and she was watching me expectedly.

“I had one.” She looked down disappointed; I knew that she was still working on the courage to ask questions when the conversation seemed to have ended. I waited a little longer. She looked back up at me and laughed a little. She stopped as soon as she started as if unsure of herself.

“That was a joke right?” She looked up at me so hopeful that I didn’t have the heart tell her that I wasn’t really joking. I knew how hard it was for her to deluge information about her past, how could I not do the same for her?

“Yes.” I leaned down and kissed her head once again. “My father was also a shape-shifter, he was strict. He demanded the best from me while he was around. He believed that paranormal creatures should stick with their own kind. He didn’t really like the clan ideas, but since there was no real way to reverse the way the paranormal world was set up, he tried to keep me around our own kind as much as he could. It was easier then since the clans were still forming.”

“How old are you?” Audrey blurted, her cheeks reddened to the point that she looked like an overripe tomato. I wanted to laugh at her expression.

“Shape-shifters, like many paranormals, have longer life spans. Ours, much like the weres, range up toward seven hundred years. I would be twenty-six years old in human years, actual years…130.” Her jaw had dropped. I lifted my finger up under her chin and closed it. “I am considered to be quite young. Especially with the position that I hold, but with a father who demanded only the best from me, it was hard not accomplishing everything he wanted. He wanted a son who would be a killer and that is what I am.”

“I don’t think that you are a killer.” Audrey bravely moved her arm around my waist and pulled me into a timid sideways hug. Gods it felt wrong to have her hold me like this. I felt like I didn’t deserve her, but I wouldn’t give her up for anything. Not now.

“That’s because you don’t know the real me. This person now, I don’t know who he is but I am starting to like him more than the real me. You make me better Audrey.” I didn’t look at her. Instead, I pulled her to my chest and held her close.

I don’t know how long we stood there when Elijah came to a screeching halt next to us.

“Fools! Did you not notice the Were that has been on your trail for the past half hour?” The wraith actually sounded mad. He remained in the car and rolled up the window he had just yelled through.

I opened the door for Audrey. Looking around, I couldn’t see any people that looked like a paranormal. Paranormals were easy to spot if you were one yourself, or if you knew what to look for.

Audrey slid in, trying to hide the fear in her body, but she failed with her stiff movements and her right hand moved to touch the stitching. I didn’t try to grab her hand to stop her from counting, she needed to do it to calm down.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Audrey

When we arrived back at the cabin I had counted the stitching three times. Stone didn’t turn around and try to comfort me. I was disappointed yet I could also see that he was trying to look around. He would open his window a crack and take deep breathes. Elijah would shoot him a look and the window would go back up. It was as if they were having silent conversations that I wasn’t privy to. I wanted so badly to ask, but Elijah’s face was in a fierce, dangerous scowl. I was scared to look into his eyes because I was scared that I would finally see something in them. I was scared that I would see that the anger had Increased tenfold in his eyes.

I climbed out of the car. Nixie waited by the cabin door. She nervously wrang her hands together, but seeing us, she let out a long breath.

“Gods, I was so worried about you guys!” She rushed over and hugged me.

“Elijah…” Stone started but when Elijah got out of the car his eyes were focused on the woods.

“We don’t have time.” He looked back at us. His voice never changed from its expressionless tone but the words sent shivers down my spine.

“Can we at least…” Nixie started, but when Elijah’s black eyes turned to her, she stopped talking.

“No. At best we have an hour before York descends on us.” Elijah said.

Nixie tightened her hold on me. I couldn’t tell, but I was sure that we were both shaking now.

“There is a lake nearby I am sure that I could hide us. At least sing them away.” She offered sounding smaller and quieter than the so alive and bubbly Nixie I knew.

“There are too many.” Elijah stated. Then he turned his gaze on Stone. They stared at each other for several moments. Stone abruptly looked away.

“So what, you want us to stand for an hour and wait for them to attack? We wait for our deaths? No thank you!” Nixie let go of me and started to pace.

I felt hopeless. I didn’t know the past between the York clan and Nixie, or Stone for that matter. They both looked nervous, and Stone hadn’t moved. His jaw ticked as he looked out toward the woods. Elijah watched me now. I didn’t know what to do. The world started to feel too open, too free, too much space. Too much space. Too much space. My breathing hitched and became irregular.