Dylan (Bowen Boys) (15 page)

After she disappeared around the next
stand of trees, they took off after her, both of them running all out to beat
her there. Just as they came up to the house, her headlights winked off and on
through the trees. Dylan went to the back of the house, and he stayed in the
front. Khan knew that there were at least two people in the house, and one of
them was a wolf. Khan fucking hated wolves.

He reached for her as she got out of the
truck and walked to the house
. “Two inside. One female and the other a male
wolf. There are none in the front yard.”

“There are two back here.”
Dylan paused,
and he could feel him getting pissed.
“Okay, just one back here, too.”

Khan might have laughed if he wasn’t so
afraid for her. She went up to the door and pulled her weapon. He could smell
the silver from his station on the front porch. When she knocked, he moved up
to the other side and waited.

Dylan knew where the key was to the back
door. He was to shift, get the key, and unlock the door before shifting back to
his cat and moving into the house from the rear. When the door opened, Khan
stood at the ready.

“Hiya, girl. I thought I’d come by and
see if you needed anything?” He knew it was her friend the moment she said “hiya.”
“Pretty night, huh? Wanna come out and hang with me a while?”

“I can’t tonight. Maybe if you can come
back later, we can talk then. I’ve sort of got some company.” Jack nodded.

“Okay. Give me a hug, and I’ll be on my
way. I miss you in town.” When Casey leaned forward, Jack wrapped her arms
around her and jerked her forward. As soon as she was clear of the door, Khan
moved in. He saw a flash of gray come at him, and then black. Khan knew that
Dylan had gotten in.

It was over in seconds. The wolf was no
match for Dylan’s pissed off cat. As soon as he killed the wolf, Khan shot out
the front after his brother and after the other wolf. Khan caught the darker
wolf just as he was shifting and killed him instantly. Both men stood still in
the moonlight and raised their noses to the sky. There were no other animals in
the area.

They both padded to the truck, and Dylan
jumped inside the bed and tossed down their bags. Lifting it in his mouth, he
went to the slower smoother part of the river that ran by the house, and both
of them leapt in. Neither wanted to go back home smelling like a dog.

“She had this right, you know.” Khan
looked at Dylan as he dressed. “Jack. She knew where the jump point was to the
second. She’s spent a great deal of time here.”

Khan nodded, still remembering just how
perfectly she’d timed it for them. “She would have been able to do this on her
own, too. We helped, don’t get me wrong, but she would have pulled it off.”

Dylan nodded and pulled on his boots. “I’m
in love with her. I know that you understand that, but I really am in love with
her.”

Khan nodded. “Yeah, don’t kill me, but
me, too. I love Caitlynne very much. But Jack…well, there is something so mean
and loveable about her.”

Both men were laughing as they walked
back to the house. Jack was just coming out of the house with another woman
when she saw them. She dropped everything and ran toward them. Dylan caught her
in mid-jump as she wrapped herself around him.

“You hurt?” she asked. Dylan shook his
head. “Good.” She slapped him.

“What the fuck was that for?” Dylan sat
her down as he rubbed his jaw. He didn’t sound the least bit pissed and
realized he’d expected the hit from her.

“You were supposed to wait for us if
there were other wolves in the area. Not run off like some macho shit and take
care of it all on your own. Do you have any idea how terrified I was that—?”

Dylan yanked her to him and kissed her. Khan
looked over at the woman who’d come up beside him and smiled down at her. He
could smell the wolf on her.

“Did the wolf hurt you?” She shook her
head. “All the same I’d like for my brother to look you over when we get back
to the house. He’s a good doctor.”

“And you think I’m not?” He looked at
Jack when she laughed. “This ass just said I’m stupid.”

“I most certainly did not. I said I
wanted to have my brother look you over. I said he was a good doctor and you
got all nasty like I insulted you or something.”

“Down boy, she’s just nervous. It’s not every
day that the big bad wolf comes knocking and then shifts into a man.” Jack
smiled at the two of them. “Casey Snow, I’d like for you to meet my leader,
Khan Bowen. And this is my soon-to-be-husband, Dylan Bowen.”

“Pleased to meet you.” She shook both
their hands. “What do we do about the mess in the living room? I’m not cleaning
it up.”

It took them nearly an hour to drag the
body out and bury it. By the time he and Dylan had finished that, the girls had
gotten the house cleaned up and locked down. Jack was setting the traps when he
came up behind her.

“The wolf might have hurt your friend.”
She nodded. “How did he hurt her? If he raped her, I’ll—”

“He didn’t rape her, but she might need
a few stitches in her leg. When he tried, she pulled a knife on him, and he
rammed it in her leg when she dropped it getting away. It’s not bad, but it is
a little nasty.”

He started to turn away when she stopped
him. “Khan, I wanted to thank you again for coming with me. I might have gone
in half-cocked, and having to make sure you two didn’t put me on my best
behavior. Thanks for that.”

He nodded and headed to the other truck.
He wasn’t sure if she was telling him that she’d had to babysit them, and
that’s what kept her alive, or he’d just misheard her. He decided for the sake
of feeling like an idiot and asking her to explain he’d just think he’d
misheard her. Nodding to himself, he climbed in the truck with Dylan. Twenty
minutes later, they were on the highway headed home.

~~~

The wolf was dead. He couldn’t locate
the human, and he still didn’t have the woman and her information. He kicked
the chair nearest him across the room and watched its broken pieces join the
other splintered pieces on the floor. He was going to have to do something. The
fucking trial was in two days. He had to find her and keep her from going to court,
and he had to do it over the next two days.

Moving through the house, he didn’t
encounter anyone, human or vampire. He had a staff, small, but they should have
been somewhere within the walls. When he stopped to listen, he realized that
other than his own heartbeat there was no one within the walls, and only a few
wolves inside the gates of his home. Closing his eyes, he reached for them and
suddenly knew a touch of fear. They weren’t there.

It took him several tries before he was
able to summon one of the few who should have answered, and this man was not
responding well. He sounded drugged and out of sorts. Lucius materialized at
his side to find the man dying and his body wasting away.

“What has happened to you?” When the man
reached for him, Lucius backed away quickly. “Don’t touch me.”

“Poisoned, sir. We’ve all been
poisoned.” The human servant coughed, and great clods of blood poured from his
mouth. “The butcher, sir. He sold us all tainted beef.”

Tainted beef? He had no idea there was
even a butcher in this small village, but to have one with tainted beef? He
looked around for the first time in centuries at the place he’d called home. It
was still as if he’d only just moved here.

There were no cars here, the streets so
narrow that the horses and carts that had been so plentiful when he’d come here
nearly two hundred years ago were the only thing that would pass in them. The
buildings had thatched roofs and no glass in the openings of the windows. The
man who now lay dead on the straw-filled mattress was wearing rough clothing;
woolen, he supposed, and patched a great many times. Lucius stepped back and
into the next room.

A fire burned low in the fireplace. A
crock filled with water sat next to it with a ladle. The table was a worn
sliver of wood over two cut logs, and the chairs were only another part of the
same tree. Going into the street, he saw the same things. Flowers growing in
large hewed logs, broken pottery, and rocks. Lucius sat on one of the many
benches and thought about what he was seeing.

“They never moved on. I never let them,
and they died because of that.” Lucius called out for anyone around. There was
no answer, as he had suspected. They were all dead. An entire village of people
had died because he’d never told them to explore. Standing, he brushed off his
clothing.

“They have deserted me is what they’ve
done. In my greatest hour, they have left me to fend for myself.” He moved
toward the outskirts, occasionally calling for anyone to answer. “Stupid
ignorant cattle. After all this time, they have left me alone and in my
greatest hour. To hell with them all.”

He turned back to the village and set
fire to the first building, then several more. By the time he’d materialized in
his home, the village was aflame, and as there was no one to put it out or to
even call in the fire brigade, the town burned to ash by the next evening.

By the time he woke the following
evening, he had come to a decision. He couldn’t stay there any longer. He had
no one to feed him, and the house would go to ruin if there were no villagers
to make improvements. He knew just where he wanted to go, too.

To the capital. He would go to
Washington DC and find the girl himself. And if on his journey he found the
human, he would take care of him, as well. Satisfied with his new plans, Lucius
went through the house looking for anything that would lead someone to realize
that he was a vampire. When he found only a few items, he materialized at one
of the finer hotels, in their best suite. He moved about the room and made adjustments,
most of which had to with keeping his room dark when he rested. He also
realized he’d have to find someone he could trust to watch over him.

But first things first…he had to find
dinner. Walking along the streets, he found plenty to catch his eye, but very
few that he felt were what he’d consider worthy of drinking from. It took him
nearly an hour to find one human, and less than ten minutes to kill her. He
took the first human he could find back to where the body of the first lay and
killed her, as well. He had to find the human female, Crosby. When he found her,
he decided that she would die, too. He’d had enough of this to last him for
several lifetimes.

He looked the rest of the night for a
suitable servant. What he found coming out of the large building just in front
of him was even better.

The panther moved with the grace of a
cat. Lucius loved the blood of all cats, but panther held a special kind of
love. It was the first thing he’d fed on when he’d turned. It had filled his
cells like nothing he’d had since. He moved behind the man and was ready to
touch him when he turned suddenly.

He was young, probably in his early to
mid-twenties. His face was a sculpture’s dream…sloped nose and high cheek
bones. His eyes were that of his kind, dark and beautifully surrounded by thick
lashes. Lucius did enjoy the occasional male in his bed, but not as much as he
did their counterpart. But he would make an exception for this one.

“You will come to me.” The boy shook his
head. “I did not ask. I said you will come to me.”

Again he shook his head, and Lucius
found himself proud that the panther, a mere child to him, thought to throw off
his compulsion. Lucius reached out his hand for him and watched as he
struggled. But in the end, he came to him.

“My brothers, my parents, they’re
expecting me.” Lucius nodded as he folded him into his arms. “I don’t think
this is a good idea.”

“Of course it’s not. But it’s much too
late for you now.” He took him to his room and let him look around. “You stay
here with me tonight, and in the morning, I will set you free. Would you like
that?”

The boy nodded. “I’d like to call my
mom. She’ll be worried, and I hate to worry them. There’s a bunch of stuff
going on at home, and I really would hate to have her worry.”

“Later. You may call them later.” Lucius
sat in the chair and watched his lover. “You would like something to eat,
perhaps?”

He declined, but Lucius ordered him a
meal anyway. He knew growing boys were always hungry, and this one would be no
exception. When the meal came, Lucius helped the boy sit after dismissing the
waiter. The manager had come, too, to see what he was doing in the suite, but Lucius
had straightened him out as well.

As the boy ate, Lucius moved up behind
him and pulled him into a web. It was one he used all the time, where the human—or,
in this case, panther—would think that Lucius really was their lover, and would
enjoy anything and everything he did to them.

He nipped at the back of his throat and
drank a small drink from him. He nearly climaxed then, because the boy was a
pureblood. Licking along his neck to his shoulder, Lucius nipped him again and
again, leaving a trail of blood running down his back to soak the shirt.

“Take off your clothes. I wish to see
what I shall have tonight.” He stood up, and Lucius undressed him. He lovingly
folded his clothing and put it on the end of the bed. He wasn’t sure why he did
this, as the boy was going to be dead by sunrise, but it made the boy smile,
and he was glad for that.