Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (33 page)

“You bitch!”
he
snarled
, gra
bbing for me with his free hand,
but
when the sun touched hi
m
,
and
he
quickly pulled
back as
little wisps of smoke
rose from his blistering skin
.

“That’s Miss Bitch to you,
über douche
!” I smugly informed him.

“Give me my ring back
or I
swear to God I
will kill you,” he snarled.

I flipped him off and backed out of the office, through the garage, minding to stay in the sun, and
hurried
out the open garage
bay
doors.

“What’s wrong, d’Artagnan, scared of a little bit of sun?” I taunted.

d’Artagnan,
snarled,
glaring at me from the garage as smoke rolled
from his skin
where he received some exposure when he tried to follow
.
“Give me back my ring!” he
yelled
.

“Blow me,”
I said and grabbed my crotch with one hand and held my other up and flipped him off, his finger spinning around my middle finger.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

Was that a smile threatening to break?

“Why are you back?”
I asked, attempting to be slightly civil even though I wanted nothing more than to watch the smug bastard, who had taken so much from Tanis, roast in the sun.

d’Artagnan flipped me off.

“Real mature, old man,” I
said, making a face and
rolled my eyes.
“What kind of sick asshole are you?
Did you seriously just try to thrall me into kissing your punk ass?”

He
chuckled, nodding his agreement.
“Obviously my brother has a big mouth.
You shouldn’t know of thrall...
or my ring.”

“I
tend to
bring that out in him,” I admitted.
“Again, why are you here?”

“That’
s none of your business,” he smugly informed me.
“Give me back my ring.”

I looked up at the sun and smiled contently; for once it was a cloudless
,
sunny day.

“No,” I said with a satisfying sigh when he growled under his breath. “
If you don’t tell me what I want to know,
I’ll throw your ring into the Pacific and you’ll be a nightwalker for
ever...that is of course, if you don’t have an alchemist you can pull out of your ass.
”

d’Artagnan snarled and threw a jug of oil at me,
and
I ducked in time
to avoid taking the gallon of oil to the face
.

“Temper, temper, Nosferatu,” I
scolded
.
“Come on, humor me.
You know you look a
ll sparkly and shit in the sun. H
ell, you look like a depressed closest
ed
sausage jockey
with bad taste in women.
I bet you look Ziggy Stardust’esque
when
sparkling in the sunlight.”

“You are testing my patience, woman,” he
warned, but once again, the corner
s
of his mouth twitched
.

“
Oh
,
über douche
,” I
dramatically said
and
batted my lashes at him, “there a
re still six hours until sunset, and I have nowhere else I rather be than right here making your life a living hell, just as you made your brother’s a waking nightmare
for more than three hundred years
.
Maybe you’ll get talkative
, maybe you won’t, either way, you pissed off the wrong bitch
.”

d’Artagnan huffed and
sat on the roof
of Mr. Hairychin’s Bronco
and
glared at me, a soft
growl
rolling from his throat.

“Ooh, scary,” I
said, and shook in faux terror
.

He gave me a look before shaking his head. “You’re different,” he mumbled
, sounding aspirated yet gratefully surprised
.

“Yes, I suppose I am,” I agreed in an attempt to be
, once again,
slightly civilized since he was being, well, semi-civil. The old adage about attracting more flies with shit than honey...or vampires with blood than bitches in this case, might have been the better route to take in order to get the information Tanis needed.
“Your little brother says I’m immune to thrall, and that’s it’s rare but not entirely unheard of.”

d’Artagnan chuckled. “My little brother lies exceptionally well; immunity to vampiric persuas
ion is only found...never mind,” he quickly caught himself and I huffed; I wanted to hear what Tanis obviously lied to me about. And of course,
d’Artagnan
noticed my disappoi
ntment and it amused him. “You
a
re a cheeky bird,” he said, slipping into a British accent which he caught before he started rambling like Tanis. “I see that your ability to get Ashtons rambling and opening up, spilling their dark secrets
,
is obviously
a demonic talent which I need to make a more conscious effort into resisting.”

I nodded; that plan back
fired but I wasn’t going to
let it get to me at the moment, especially since he was still semi-civil.

“You put a whole new meaning to
the words
smug and pompous,” I i
nformed him and he smiled wide. “Can I
ask
...never mind,” I said and shook my head.

“Yes?” he sang.

“It’s...never mind,” I
said with a heavy sigh
and pulled my hair
tie out
before combing
my fingers through my hair, looking at the ground.

d’Artagnan huffed and I fought to keep from smiling. “Obviously you want to ask something so just ask it already.”

I looked up at him and batted my lashes and his head tilted to the side. “Why did you do that to your brother?”
I whispered; that wasn’t what I was going to ask at all
,
but I had to know.

“Do what exactly?” he asked, his pupils dilating as if he was trying to thrall me again.

“Take away his future,” I
clarified
; that wasn’
t the most important thing to know, not in the least, but I needed to have some reason to
not
kill him.
No one would simply do that to their own blood, their little brother, without having a reason.

d’Artagnan opened his mouth to answer just as
Tanis pulled up,
the
SUV’s
tires screeching as he slammed on the brakes.

Damn it!

Instantly d’Artagnan’s mouth snapped shut and he shook his head.

Tanis
was out of the
SUV
in a fraction of a second.
“
Duckie, are you well?”
he asked,
hurrying to me and cupped
my face between his hands.

“
Yeah, couldn’t be better
,” I
assured him and
smiled wide.

“Where is d’Artagnan?”
he whispered, not believing me in the least.

I laughed.
“Oh Nosferatu,” I sang, “come out, come out, wherever you are.”

“Give me back my ring!” d’Artagnan s
narled
from the garage.

Tanis’ head snapped towards him, and he
instantly
positioned himself in front of me.

I
purred in perverse pleasure
.
“No
.
”

“What in bloody hell
is going on?” Tanis asked, confused.

It was
hard not to laugh in
that
situation, not that
the
lovely situation had ever
happened before to anyone in
recorded
history, but
was
still funny.

“Your jackass brother tried to thrall me into kissing him, so with my obviously brilliant acting skills, I slipped his ring off.”
I held my hand up and wiggled my grease-covered fingers in the air at the snarling vampire.
“And stabbed him in the hand with a knife…that was the
second
highlight of my day.”

A
gain
,
the irate vampire
growled in frustration and threw stuff out of the garage, but it was more than obvious that he wasn’t actually trying to hit me that time.

Tanis
chuckled.
“I have to say
, Duc
kie, that….wow. All I can say is
…you are simply brilliant.
”
He softly
brushed his lips against mine
,
getting a loud groan from his brother.
“How did you know who he was?”
he whispered.

“Your rings are the same,” I said with a shrug. “O
nly your stone is red and his is black.
LIKE
HIS HEART!” I said loudly to
iterate my point.
“Anyway, he smells funny.
So, can I throw it in the ocean since he wo
n’t talk?” I asked and batted my lashes
.

“I swear to god, I will kill you!” d’Artagnan
snarled
.

“Blah blah blah,” I
mocked, rolling
my eyes.

Tanis laughed again and kissed my forehead.
“No, that
would not be advisable or very nice
.”

Huh?

He slipped the ring off of my finger and put it on his.
“Tell me, B
rother, why are you here?”

d’Artagnan groaned in frustration. “You sound like that broke bitch next to you.
Why are you here? Why did you do it? Why did you take away your brother’s future?
”

His impression of me was pretty damn bad.

Tanis cocked an eyebrow. “All very agreeable questions.”

d’Artagnan gave him a look. “If I didn’t answer that overly persuasive bitch’s demand for answers, I sure in the hell am not about to answer yours. Give. Me. My. Ring.”

Tanis shook his head. “Once again, I am ashamed to call you brother.”

“Thank God for that,” d’Artagnan
dramatically said with a huff
. “Since this garage smells like sweat, grease
,
and, what I can only describe as,
dog’s
ass, I will tell you why I am here
so I can get the hell out of this should-be-condemned piece of shit garage
:
I got tired of being on my own.
You and Georgiana are my family
,
after all, even though you did try to kill me the last time I saw you.
Isn’t the Ashton family motto ‘Let bygones be bygones and move on with your life’? Thus,
I thought it’d be nice to spend some time with my family.”

There’s no way in hell he missed his family
.
That’
s total crap!
Even I can smell the bullshit from here.

“What are you omitting?” Tanis asked, studying his brother intently.

d’Artagnan laughed, it was slightly evil and completely up to no good.
“This and that.
You know I won’t show my hand until I’m ready.
So, back to the problem at hand, little brother.
I’m not going to ask again
: give
me back my
god
damn ring.”

Please, oh please, let me call the boys and sic them on him!

“Swear an oath that you
shall
not hurt Jay Dee, or any of her friends or family
, her pack or tribe,
out of retribution, either emotionally, physically or spiritually.”

He can’t be serious.

“Fine,” d’Artagnan groaned, rolling his eyes, “I swear it, a binding oath, that will prohibit me from hurting
those
whom
she
hold
s
dear and consorts with, minus my blood of course,
and
that hold her dear, minus my blood
.
As I spea
k it, I believe it, so help me G
od.”