Good Intentions (67 page)

“I think I probably need to sleep in my own bed and decompress a bit. I’m sure I’l see you again soon enough.” “Stil friends?” he asked. “Yup. Always.” As she walked to her car, Wade caught his eye. “Ah’m gonna fol ow Taylor home, make sure she gets in alright,” he said. It was more of an offer for a favor than a firm plan. Alex just nodded grateful y. “I don’t have the words, man,” he sighed. “Yeah. That’s pretty much how it goes. Y’al take care,” Wade nodded at Molly and Onyx before he got into his temporary SUV. “Wuz good meetin’ ya.” “Night,” Onyx smiled. She and Molly waited until both Taylor and Wade had driven off. Then they calmly walked up close to Alex. Onyx slipped a hand up his dirty, bloodied leather jacket. “So,” she said. Molly touched the other side of the jacket. “So,” she echoed. Alex felt his heart race. He wasn’t really sure what to say. Onyx could tel . “You look like you’re about to explode,” she observed with no small amount of satisfaction in her small smile. “Yeah,” Alex swal owed. “I’ve, um, got to take care of Lorelei, though.” “You should. She seems pretty awesome now that she’s not hiding from us. Anyway, we’re gonna go home, tear each other’s clothes off and make love until we pass out,” Onyx nodded. “Probably take the morning off to stay in bed together, too,” Molly added.

“That’s…um,” Alex blinked. “Any idea when you’l be able to see us?” Onyx asked him. “Um. I don’t know. Soon. I want it to be soon.” “I want it to be sooner,” Molly winked. “You’ve got to make up for Onyx cheating me on that coin toss.” The pair kissed him on either cheek before they walked to their car. Alex watched them go before he got back into the Towncar. finally, it was just he and Lorelei again. She was curled up against the passenger’s seat on her left side. “How are you?” he asked gently. Her eyes fluttered open. “I am very much in love.” His smile was tender. “You’re still in a lot of pain?” Lorelei nodded, closing her eyes. “Yes.” “We can go inside. We’l be alone. But I think we might be more comfortable back in the hotel. I didn’t stop to check out. Seems like I could probably take better care of you there with the extra space and privacy.” “That would be wonderful, Alex.” He reached out to touch her face, smiling a bit as she kissed his palm. Then he turned to the task at hand, starting the car and heading off. In the silence that fol owed, Lorelei remained curled up onto the passenger’s seat to watch Alex drive. Street lamps and the headlights of passing cars floated by, bringing him from shadow to light and back to shadow again. There was little traffic, nor much in the way of other delays. He drove with his eyes on the road. “How are your hands?” Lorelei asked.

“Tender,” he sighed, “but getting better, I guess.” For most of the ride, Alex was unsure if he should spoil the silence. Once they came into downtown, Alex observed, “You’re very quiet.” “I am thoughtful,” Lorelei said. She was also clearly very tired, but her tone held nothing but soft, quiet affection. “About what?” “In al my life, I have only occasionally been in danger,” she explained softly. “Yet only with you have I learned what it is like to feel safe.” Alex opened his mouth to say something more, but then closed it. Lorelei understood. There was much to say, but not while he was trapped behind the wheel of a car. Comfort and privacy were not far away now. She watched him as he drove, studying his movements and his demeanor with weary but interested eyes. Her soft smile remained. They didn’t park in the hotel’s garage, opting instead to abandon the car on the street nearby where there wouldn’t be cameras. Lorelei was pleasantly surprised when he wordlessly picked her up in his arms and carried her the entire way to the door, then to the elevator, and even to the door to the honeymoon suite. She kept them concealed from the eyes of others, holding close to him to enjoy the shelter and support of his arms. Not for the first time since his escape, Alex felt grateful that none of the vampires nor the sorcerers had bothered to steal the wallet out of his (now tattered) leather jacket. He let her fish out the key card to the door while he held her. Lorelei opened the door for them both and he carried her inside. The lights were still on. “We really need our own place,” Alex said. “I will see to it very shortly, my love,” Lorelei assured him. “Don’t…no,” Alex shook his head. His face turned toward hers to give her his undivided attention. “Lorelei. I’m not really worried about that right now. I’m only worried about you.”

Lorelei touched the side of his face with one hand. “There was too much to say in the car,” she said simply. “For both of us. You can put me down if you like.” He looked around the room. “We both need to get cleaned up, but I don’t know if…wil a bath be okay for you? I don’t know how hurt you really are or if…?” “A bath would be wonderful,” Lorelei nodded. “If you would share it?” “That’s what I was planning, yeah.” He brought her to the spacious tub but sat her down on the soft bath mat beside it. “My turn to take care of you tonight.” She watched him as he got the water running. Then he threw off his jacket, kicked off his shoes, and knelt next to her. “You need sex to heal, don’t you?” Lorelei nodded. “Your desires will make me feel better, but your pleasure and satisfaction provide much more.” She offered a faint smile. “The farewel you received from the witches offered some small relief.” “I have to confess that sex isn’t the first thing on my mind right now. But I want to help you however I can. Would it hurt you? I mean, even if it heals?” His lover shook her head gently. “Do not try to force yourself, Alex. I could endure, yes, and soon it would only help me, but even I have limits to my lusts. As beaten and weary as I am at this moment, I want only to be with you. Al else will come in time.” Alex nodded. He stroked her matted, bloodied and filthy hair. “You don’t have to hide what you look like from me, y’know,” he said. “It doesn’t take much effort at al .” He shook his head. “Show me.” Lorelei nodded. She looked down for a moment, then back up. It was as if Alex had blinked, but he had not. One moment, he was staring at a beautiful but battered woman. In the next, she was still beautiful, but even more bruised

and bloodied, and now there were horns. Wings. The tail. An animalistic, predatory change in her eyes. A red tone to her skin. He didn’t care, and she could see it in his expression. She reached up to touch his face again. “I was so afraid, my love.” “You stopped calling me master,” he observed with a slight smile. “You didn’t go so far tonight to rescue a slave,” Lorelei smiled back. “I suspect we would both prefer to save ‘master and slave’ for play from now on.” He swal owed hard, afraid to ask the question that plagued him. “You could have freed yourself from me with that crown, couldn’t you?” “Yes,” she nodded. “To seize a crown in hell is to break al bonds. I would have been freed. Other lords would have fought to conquer me, and perhaps triumphed…but perhaps not,” she shrugged. “Why didn’t you take it?” “To what end?” she asked softly. Her gentle tone was a sharp contrast to her wicked features. “To rule a corner of hell would be to lose you—unless I were to keep you there. How could I do either? Alex…you are a very bright young man, but you are young at that. I could have found a way to escape you at almost any turn had I wanted my freedom. “Lydia did not lie to you about everything. I have manipulated you. Used you for my own needs. Pressured you into things you found uncomfortable simply to further my desires. I have been awful. You suffered so much pain and your friends were endangered, al because of me. I am a monster. I will always be a monster. Whatever they did to you tonight…you were hurt so much. And you see what I am. I don’t understand why you do not reject me. I don’t know why you still want me.” “No,” Alex shook his head, “I owe you everything. I knew you were a demon when I first kissed you. I’ve known what you were al along. I made my own decisions.” “But they hurt you so much. Al because of me.”

“I’m over it.” “You’re not,” Lorelei countered gently. “You’re different now. I felt…Alex, you wanted to die.” He looked down at the floor for a long moment, thinking. “I remembered a lot of things that never happened to me. It’s al stuff that happened a long time ago to other people. I guess maybe they were me. I don’t know. I remembered a lot of fighting, and dying over and over, and being very lonely and hurt.” He shut his mouth, frowning as if to push through too much emotion al at once. He shook his head. “I remember pieces still , but it’s mostly fading. But when they gave me that stuff, when Lydia was trying to make me choke on it, I remembered everything like it had al just happened two minutes ago. “So in the beginning, yeah, I guess I just wanted it al to end. But I didn’t want to lose you,” Alex shrugged. “I would never want to lose you. I was so afraid of what they would do to you. So once I started sorting out my head again, al I could really think about was finding you.” “Do you feel sorted out now?” “I think so. It’s not so hard to think straight anymore.” Alex glanced at the tub. It had fil ed up enough to get in. Alex finished undressing. Lorelei studied him as he moved. For the first time he didn’t feel the least bit self-conscious in front of her. He helped her out of the remains of her nightgown and carried her into the warm, comforting bathtub. “You are changed,” Lorelei told him. “More sure of yourself. It’s in your movements, in your face. In your voice. You’re still my Alex, but something seems to have settled for you.” Alex frowned a bit as he searched for words. He reached for a washcloth, pulling it through the water before raising it to Lorelei’s face to gently clean away blood and grime. “I kinda feel like my life just makes more sense now. Not al the craziness. Not you, real y, no offense,” he grinned a bit, “but everything else. Like why I’ve always felt so lonely, y’know?” “Drew told me that you always seem to expect things to come to a bad end. Perhaps this is some holdover from

another life. Or lives.” There was a slight shimmer in her eyes as she looked at him. He continued his gentle work. “You must have done a lot of fighting in your past.” “Yeah. I guess so.” He shrugged. He didn’t know where to begin. Lorelei al owed him his silence for some time as he bathed her. “My love,” she finally said very softly, “there is such sadness in you.” “I think I’ve had my heart broken a lot,” he told her. “I remember that more than the fighting or the dying. The faces are there, but I can’t really describe any of them. It’s like I’ve got one name after another on the tip of my tongue.” His eyes fell away from hers. The words came out slowly. “I’ve been cheated on. A lot. I’ve been abandoned. Rejected. Betrayed. And I’m pretty sure that whenever it looked like it might actually work out, I’ve…died. Or she did. Or both of us. But I don’t ever remember being happy for very long at al . Just long enough to know that I was really in love, and then it al fell apart.” He took a long breath. A tear fell from his eye. “Mainly I just remember being very hurt and very lonely.” “Then perhaps we are not so different after al ,” Lorelei suggested. She watched him for a moment more. Her words sank in for him. She could feel it. Lorelei reached up to touch his jaw with her fingertips, turning him to look up to her. “I love you, Alex. And while I cannot speak for Rachel, I can promise that no angel would give her heart to a mortal lightly or frivolously or by mistake. She may seem a bit…odd,” Lorelei granted with a slight grin, “but I promise you she knows exactly what she does. “We will both love you for the rest of your days. We have no intention of al owing those days to be short. And when those days finally pass…I speak only for myself, but I will find you in your next life, and I will love you then, too.” “You don’t know how much it means to me to hear you say that,” Alex managed to mumble. “Says the man who literally fol owed me into the Pit and slew a Duke of hell because he would not give me up. Who rejected the charms of a succubus because she had harmed me. I know, Alex,” Lorelei said quickly, raising her other hand to his opposite cheek. “I feel your desires, even those that repulse you. You know she taunted you to torment us

both, don’t you?” “Yeah,” Alex nodded. “I’m sorry, Lorelei. I’m so sorry.” “Do not be. You have no reason to apologize. Alex, none know better than I what one such as Lydia is capable of doing to a mortal man. Had you fall en to her charms, I would have…I would have been hurt by her, but you would be blameless. “Being with me makes you terribly vulnerable to seduction. I hoped this would be a happy flaw. You know what I expect of you, and what I do not. You like being pursued. Anyone would. But this…Alex, you have no reason to feel guilt or shame.” “I almost…” His words came out in something just short of a sob. “If she had kept coming onto me like that, I don’t know how much longer I could’ve held out.” “You held out more than enough,” Lorelei told him. “Long enough to free yourself. Long enough to free me. No one is unbreakable, Alex. But you are made of stronger stuff than anyone might ever guess.” Gingerly, she moved in on Alex in the tub. Lorelei took up a place in his arms much like that which she had enjoyed al the way up to the room. “Let it go, my love,” Lorelei told him. Her head leaned against his neck, her arms coming around his body. “You bear too much sorrow tonight already. Let it out.” He sniffed. “I’m not sure I’ve really got more tears,” he said. “Kind of sorry for that. I won’t hide anything from you, Lorelei.” “I know.” “It’s…it’s kind of awkward to ask this. Something I’m afraid of, real y. How much did you get from Rachel and I being together?” Lorelei smiled fondly. “I regained my wings.” It was an obvious enough thing, but worth pointing out. “You asked

before if I enjoyed being with you less than I enjoyed you being with others. Alex, you and Rachel…it’s as if I’m a part of you both. I know how you love her. Your feelings for her are every bit as beautiful as what you feel for me. I would do anything to keep you together.” “She said about the same thing for you and I.” “I am not surprised.” Lorelei smiled up at him. “Lorelei,” he said softly, “I don’t want to drift away you. Ever. That’s the one thing that I still really worry about. You’re closer to me than anyone…except that with Rachel I felt the same way. And it was like I didn’t have to say anything at al . I felt like she could read me like a book. A lot like you do.” “It sounds like we al find our way,” Lorelei suggested. “But doesn’t that cheapen it for us? Or for her and I?” Alex asked. “I don’t…I don’t want to sound like I’m playing favorites. I don’t know if I really could. You’re the most important person in my life, except saying that seems unfair to Rachel…but not saying it seems unfair to you.” “I feel your love for me, and it feels in no way subordinate to any other. I feel your love for her, and for others. I have no fear of sharing my primacy with Rachel. This will be a chal enge for al three of us, but we want it. We al want it. The best thing you could do for me and for Rachel is to throw caution to the wind and carry forth with both of us. And with the rest of your relationships,” she added encouragingly. Exasperating as her attitude was, Alex could only laugh. He cuddled Lorelei close. “I have no clue how I’m going to handle al of this.” “I’l help,” Lorelei assured him. “No jealousy. No competition. I told you what I want for you. For us.” After a pause, she added, “I’l be very happy to keep your date book for you.” “That’s…insanely sexy.”