Dylan (Bowen Boys) (19 page)

The human was shredded. Parts of his
body were strewn about the hotel room and had splattered on the windows and
walls so badly that he’d been sure that he’d killed more than one person. But
it had only been the one human. And before he could clean it up, he’d had to
leave and feed, with the idea to come back and put things back to pristine
order. With, of course, the exception of the human.

But he’d been too long. Someone from the
management staff of the establishment had been there when he’d returned with
all manner of police. He watched for a long while, wondering if they would know
it was him, hoping really that they would say his name, but they only said
unknown assailant. Lucius even thought of showing himself but didn’t at the
last minute, knowing that he had to get to Small and the woman.

And now he had her. Or at least knew
where she was. Getting to her was proving to be tricky, even for him. The girl
had more silver on her person than he’d ever seen a human have before. But she
would prove to be no challenge once he was able to get her.

The man she was with was a panther. Lucius
had actually thought of taking him and making her do as he wanted by holding
the man in his grasp. He had a feeling, though, that the girl wouldn’t play
fair. She seemed to be a little unstable, and worst yet, as a female he knew
she’d be unpredictable. He didn’t need a complication right now. Time was
running short.

He materialized near the place where he
knew her to be and waited. She’d have to come out of the house sooner or later,
as would the man she was with. He shivered when he thought of the spell he’d
nearly crossed when he’d tried to go onto the ground where she was. The place
had been warded against him, specifically him. That bastard wizard had been up
to his old tricks again.

Lucius had tried to kill him off several
times over the years. The man had been crafty and free with his magic. Every time
Lucius thought he was getting closer to his goal of ruling over the human, the
wizard would appear, and he’d be thwarted once again. He was going to kill him
as soon as he freed Small and had all he needed. And what Lucius wanted was
power and money. With that he knew he’d be king.

Bored with watching the house, Lucius
moved back to his hotel room. He only had a few hours before sunrise, and he
thought he’d find a human to fuck and to feed from before going to sleep. But
when he got there, his room had been touched. Someone had been inside of it and
had…cleaned it.

Looking around the room, he’d been
amazed at the touches that he’d discovered. He thought about his house in the
village where he’d grown up and the townspeople there, and he realized that
he’d never been this clean before, his things so straight, and most of all, his
sleeping chamber so nice smelling. He realized then that his bed had been
neatly made twice now. Every time he left for the night, he’d come back to it
made. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, he thought about the spotty
workmanship that his servants had done all the while he’d been keeping them
around him.

Lucius remembered at the last second
that he couldn’t go back to the village and make them pay for their laziness. They
were all dead. Happy about that, and relieved actually that he’d not have to
sully himself with them, he realized that it was now too late for him to leave.
Closing up the room, he laid down. He smiled, thinking of the girl and all he
was going to do to her once he had her.

There was no doubt that he was going to
kill her. But he was going to make her suffer. Not like he’d done to the human,
but suffer greatly. He was going to take her first. Then when she was still
sated from sex, he was going to cut into her slowly and watch her die. A kind
of killing that he’d perfected over the years, one that took time, energy as
well as a high tolerance to hear someone scream and scream a great deal. He was
going to enjoy killing the girl.

Closing his eyes, he felt the sun take him.
The higher in the sky it raised, the more his body began to shut down. Two
hours after the first rays of the sun touched the earth, Lucius was dead to the
world, quite literally.

~~~

Jack opened her eyes and quickly shut
them again. The room was much too bright and too crowded. Opening them slowly,
she looked at the people sitting around in different positions of sleep and
frowned. She supposed that they had come to see if she was going to hurt Dylan
again.

“How do you feel, my dear?” She looked
over at George, her new father-in-law. “I heard that you had a very easy time
of it. Dylan, however…well, he’s been put to bed by his brother. He didn’t take
you hurting all that well, I’m afraid.”

“He’s a wuss. He kept telling me he was
sorry, and I’d finally had enough.” She looked around again at the sleeping
people. “Is he still bleeding? I hadn’t meant to slug him all that hard, but it
was hard to concentrate on not screaming when he was speaking nonsense.”

“So he said. No, he’s not bleeding, but
I wish I could have seen his face when you hit him.” George roared with
laughter. “I think you’re going to have splendid children. I’m hoping that
you’re going to have a passel of them for me and the missus to spoil. But Dylan
said that you made not a sound when he bit you. He said that it was what made
him know it wasn’t going to work, having an easy time at it and all. And I will
think on the ‘wuss’ part. He is very touchy when someone calls him that.” Jack
tried to sit up but lay back again. “You’ll be weak for a little while. I
nearly said a few days, but I don’t think you’ll ever follow any rules that
others put to you, will you?”

“Not if I can help it.” She had heard
George say that Dylan said he knew it wouldn’t work. She wasn’t a panther, and
closed her eyes against the pain that caused her. She’d wanted it so badly. She
turned to look at George when he cleared his throat.

“Are you hungry? I was about to go down
and have a nice snack. If you were to go with me, I could have a bigger one and
blame it on you. Corrine wants me to watch my weight. Says a fat panther is
sloppy.” He snorted, and she laughed softly. “I’ll bring you something up if
you’d prefer.”

She sat up slowly. She didn’t hurt now
after all the pain she’d had before. She felt really good and amazingly hungry.
When she stood up, George reached out for her but didn’t touch her. She was
getting used to that, the sort of no touching, yet helpful, way the men acted
around her. Kissing, she’d figured out, was fine so long as you cleared it with
the male. Hugging, too. But no lingering touches at all. They were halfway down
the stairs when Monica joined them. She looked as fresh as a daisy.

“The babies woke me when they got hungry,
otherwise I’d still be napping.” She moved to the sink to wash up. Jack sat down,
hunger beating at her. She leaned back in the kitchen chair and waited to get
some energy before she tackled a snack. But Monica had it under control.

“I wanted a snack, and George said he’d
help me down here. I asked him to join me, so I’ll fix it.” Monica shook her
head. “I don’t want to put anyone out. Just give me a—”

“Just please. I love to play in this big
kitchen. And I remembered how I felt afterwards. I was tired for a week, I
think. You just sit. Your energy will come back, and you’ll feel really great. Especially
after you shift.”

“It didn’t work.” They both looked at
her, and she looked at George. “You said that Dylan knew it wouldn’t work. It
didn’t, right? That I didn’t become like him? I’m simply a pain in the ass
human.”

“Oh no, dear. I’m terribly sorry. You’re
a panther. Well, you’re more than likely going to be a pain in the ass human,
as well, and I believe that trait will flow over into your cat, but that’s for
you and Dylan to work with. As a matter of fact, it worked very well, and quickly,
too. I’m thinking that the old tale that all humans die during the change…. Are
you all right, Jack?”

She nodded from her position. She should
get used to having her head between her legs, because she’d been that way a lot
lately. When the door to the kitchen opened, she didn’t even have to look up to
know it was Dylan. He had a scent now that she could smell, and it made her
hungry. For him.

“Behave.” She smiled at the thunder in
his voice. She peeked up at him when he knelt down in front of her. “How you felling
this morning? Any better?”

“If you say you’re sorry again, I will
hit you.” He rubbed his nose, which looked good and had no sign of the earlier
abuse she’d given it. “I feel great. For a panther, I guess. It worked.”

“Yes. You’re just like me.” He leaned
into her ear. “Except for a few more interesting parts that I would love to
explore a bit more. You game to go out and shift?”

Shift. Was she ready? Yes. No. She had
no ideam and sat up and looked around. What if she screwed it up? What if she
couldn’t go back? She wasn’t terrified as much as scared shitless. He grinned
at her and stood up.

“We’re going outside for a while.” He
pulled her up off the chair. “Dad, could you please tell the others that we
want to be alone until she gets used to this? She might have a few…issues.”

His dad laughed and told him he’d make
sure they weren’t bothered. “Remember that there’s still a mad man out there,
and if you come across him, just have a snack or two on him. Vampire blood is
something like a fine wine to us, or so I heard.”

George was still laughing when they went
out the door. She held Dylan’s hand tightly, for some reason a little more
afraid of this than she’d ever been going into a room blind. Jack told him
that.

“You’re going to do just fine. I’ve
never heard of anyone having such….” He walked for a few feet before he
continued. “When I bit you, I expected you to scream…was ready for it,
actually. But you didn’t make a sound. Not even a small whimper. I didn’t…I
fully expected that it hadn’t worked.”

“You were so afraid of hurting me that I
didn’t want you to think you had. I’ve been hurt before. Badly, as you know. But
when I’m on an assignment I have to….” She, too, walked a little ways, thinking
how to tell him how she felt. “There are times when it’s not feasible, not even
safe to acknowledge that you’re in pain. If you do, then you’re as good as
dead. You don’t last long in the field when you act like a big baby.”

He seemed to understand and reached for
her hand. When they were just on the inside of the stand of trees, she turned
to him, just remembering to ask him something. She’d been in a hotel room when
they had started her change. How did she end up back at Walker’s house?

He flushed and looked away before
answering. “I thought I’d killed you when you passed out. I called for Khan,
then my dad. Mom came with them and started barking out orders like a drill sergeant
on maneuvers. Had me terrified I’d disappointed her. She even had the hotel
management doing what she wanted without a single question. We brought you back
here so that you could rest, and I’d have a little more people around so that I
wouldn’t wake you every minute to ask you how you were feeling.”

She laughed. She simply couldn’t help
it. Big bad Dylan Bowen, the calmest man she knew, had lost it. She was still
smiling about it when he told her it was time. She realized then that they’d
gone deep into the woods now. Nearly to the lake, he told her to strip, and he
did the same.

“You have to trust me on this.” She
nodded. “Think of your panther. You know what I look like, so think of her in
those terms. She’ll come on her own, but you can’t fight her. She’s stronger
and will come forth without hurting you if you let her.”

The image of a sleek black cat came to
her mind. She was huge, and when she snarled at her, Jack smiled back. She and
her cat were going to butt heads, she knew. When she opened her eyes to ask
Dylan what to do next, she was looking at him from a different perspective. And
things looked…brighter. She looked up at her husband.

“You did it.” She looked down at her
body. “Christ, Jack, you look beautiful. And much bigger than Monica or
Caitlynne.”

She took offense to that and didn’t know
why she snarled at him. He laughed and finished taking off his clothes. She
watched him as he stretched his arms over his head and shifted. Her breath
caught when he was suddenly standing before her as his cat. He moved toward her
slowly, and she backed up, suddenly not sure what he wanted from her.

“You run now and he’ll chase you down. Don’t
move just yet. He wants to mark you with his fur.”
She lay down,
trying her best not to run.
“Good girl. He’s sort of hoping you’ll be a good
cat, but we both know that you won’t be, will you?”

She looked up at him, but spoke to
Dylan.
“You are two different beings, aren’t you? You’re both cat and man,
but not one in the same.”

“So will you be. I don’t know why it happens
that way, but I think it’s actually easier that way for us. Two different—Christ,
Jack come back here. He’s going to be pissed.”

She nipped at him and took off. Something
inside of her said to run, and she ran for all she was worth. Leaping over logs
and bushes, she felt the dirt beneath her paws and knew that the experience
would only get better as she spent more time as a cat. Trees blurred by her,
small animals ran. She was nearly to the other edge of the trees when she
suddenly tumbled and rolled. He’d caught her.