Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (39 page)

“Why do I
owe you?
” I finally
asked to pacify the strange pup
who was bouncing with excitement next to me.

“She said ‘dress’!” he beamed with a face consuming smile.

This pup is completely nutter!

“Is
dress
a profanity in your home?”
I asked to pacify him.

“Might as well be,” he
said with a shrug
.
“My sister hasn’t worn a dress in years.”

I snarled and my
hands tightened on steering
wheel
.

“I am well aware of that,” I hissed. “
Marsha Heder is on me shite list despite your sister telling me to let it go.”

However, the idea of Jay Dee in a sexy slinky designer dress
was
very agreeable
to both heads.

Jarvis looked at me confused.
“What does
that train pulling cow have to do with anything
?”

Bugger!
He
does not
know.
Shite.

I shrugged and turned
the stereo up
.

“No, no, no!” he shouted over the music. “Y
ou know something I don’t,” he
accused and
turned the music off.
“Spill, Count Suckula.
What do you know
that I obviously don’t
?”

“
Regrettably, Mr. Jarvis,
tis
not my story to tell. You must
understand and respect that.”

He pouted
in
his
seat during the entire ferry trip, and then he laughed like a lunatic
when we reached the mainland
.

“If you don’t tell me,” he said, “
I won’t tell you how to end each of my sister’s arguments regarding the present you’re about to get for her
before they can even leave her lips
.”

Bollocks
.
The mongrel
had
a good counteroffer, an unarguable one.

Damn it.

“Damn it,” I huffed.

I told
Jarvis
what
Jay Dee had
to
ld me, and his response was much the same as mine: a
dark
,
menaci
ng growl rolled from his chest
and
his hands balled into fists on his lap.

“I
could not agree more, Pup,” I said.

“We can make a detour to that
bitch’s trailer on the way back
,” he suggested, studying the thin
, white
lines on the inside of his arm. “
It will only take a moment, unless of course you want to torture her, in which case we should go tomorrow morning so we aren’t pressed for time.”

I laughed.
It
was
rather amusing
, finding out that I
had
something in common with
the
puppy, even if it
was
merely
revenge and homicidal tendencies.

“As much fun as that sounds
,
let us
do as your sister wishes
and let it go
...
f
or now.”

“For now,” he dryly agreed.
“Accidents do happen,” he reminded me with an evil grin.

To my surprise, I was smiling in much the same way.

“What are those?” I asked, motioning towards
his arm
.

Jarvis
shrugged
and looked
back to the thin, white lines
. “
Blood
trophies,” he said, as if I sh
ould have known what they were.

“Consolation prizes?” I mused.

“
The c
onsolation prize is death,” he said quietly, stealing the mirth from me. “When we take a life of another wolf, the scar is a permanent reminder on us. I have six, but not
once
have I second guessed or felt guilty about...protecting my baby sister is all that matters to me,” he said in a tone that was so level that it was terrifying. “
So what are we shopping for, and why did I need to come,” he
cheerfully asked, seemi
ngly going from one extreme to the other in mere seconds
.

“
You are here for two reasons,” I explained
, slightly intrigued by the realization that there truly was two sides to Jarvis Lightfoot—the young college student who was just starting to make his mark in the world, even if it was only his world the mark was being made in, and the werewolf
-
Indian warrior who would stop at nothing to protect his sister
—and I
honestly r
espected him for both.
“One,
to pick out the camera and laptop you want, the
gift your sister actually want
ed
.
The second is to
drive one of the vehicles back.”

“Huh?” Jarvis looked
over at
me confused.

He was
a smart kid; it
would
register soon enough.

“Wait, what?
” he choked. “
You’re getting her a car?”

I nodded.

“Dude, I wa
s kidding about that car thing...
well
,
not really, but I was.
You’
re seriously insane.”

I rolled
my eyes. “I am
not nutter.
”

“Could have fooled me, Nutter Butter
Suckula
,” he scoffed.

“
Mister
Jarvis, you have to remember
the century in which I was born.
In the seventeenth century, courting a woman would require jewelry and paying a fee to her family for simply marrying her.
A car
is
considerably cheaper than
traditional
means
when you take into consideration
the rate of inflation over the past three hundred years.
”

His mouth
hung
open and his eyes were wide.

Buggers, that did not come out how I had intended for it to come out.

“I am
not trying to court your sister for marriage,” I quickly explained.
“I do
,
however
,
want to express
my
gratitude for her companionship and what we might have if she is willing to work around some things.”

“Like the fact that you’re a vampire?” he
pointed out appallingly
.

“That specifically,” I dryly agreed
, well aware that I was asking for the near impossible
.
“What kind of car would your sister fancy
,
and what do you want?”

I
didn’t
care
to continue
the
conversation.
There
were
horrible complications
when it pertained to
vampires having relationships with humans; blood, mortality, how delicate they
were in comparison
….the list
was
endless.
In good conscience
,
I could never turn someone, regardless of how much I
cared for them...loved them.
It simply wasn’t an option.

“You don’t have to get me
anything,” Jarvis mumbled. “And I’m not putting out regardless of how many pretty things you
try to
buy me.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“Jay
is just one of those
ridiculous Mother Teresa types that always wants something for someone else, regardless of her needing it or not.”

I was already well aware of that, but what I wasn’t aware of was that
Jarvis
was just
as ridiculous as his sister.

I pulled into an electronics store, ignoring his
mumbled
complaints.

“Get out of the
bloody
car and pick
out what you want and will need,” I snapped at him. “
Jay Dee is going to kick me arse for the car, so I
might
as wel
l get her what she really wants
in order to get some positive points on me side.”

Jarvis made a face.

“I will throw you over me shoulder and carry you in there like a bin lid,” I warned.

“Huh?”

“Like a kid,” I clarified and he stuck his tongue out at me and thankfully got out of the bloody car.

For the first thirty minutes
,
he complained
while he
looked at the cheapest
ITEMS
he could find.

“I will make a scene,” I warned.

“I can’t wait to see my sister beat your ass in front of everyone,” he mumbled and started shopping.

“What about this one?” he asked, motioning towards a camera.

I looked at it and shrugged.
“
Electronics are Steffen’s thing,
”
I said and
pulled my
mobile out and dialed.
“
Steffen
, will you please help
Mister
Jarvis with his electronics questions?”
I asked.

“
Of course. Put him on
,” Steffen said with a chuckle
.

“Thank you, Cousin,”

I handed Jarvis the mobile and
he was
off and running after that.
Both of them were rambling so quickly that I couldn’t understand either of them, so I wandered around.
I like
d
shopping
, what posh Brit didn’t? However, I already had everything here,
or Steffen
had it since he loved his electronics—he still uses a bloody eight-track to listen to the Bee Gees
;
according to Steffen you can’t listen to
disco
on anything but an eight-track
.

However, the strange puppy with me, and his beautiful sister,
didn’t have any of it so I
shopped as well.

“
I swear to god if that pillock mongrel breaks her new car
,
I will kick his arse.
Why is he driving
as if he is
a retarded kid in a candy store, s
lamming through all seven gears
?!
” I groaned, watching the red sports car driving in front of me swerve back and forth for no apparent reason.

We went to four different dealerships until I found the right car.
Jarvis was trying to pick some used Japanese import because it was cheap.

Jay Dee
was
all about performance an
d engineering, a total car buff, so shopp
ing for a cheap Japanese econ
o-
box was out of the question.
Her bedroom walls
were
covered with posters of pinup girls on the hoods, or leaning against, beautiful classic
trucks
,
there was a
large x-ray print of an internal combustion engine,
many
impressively detailed pictures of the insides of various mechanical devices,
and
hundreds of
classic
muscle cars
.