Red (23 page)

Authors: Kate Serine

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Paranormal, #Fantasy

BOOK: Red

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Chapter 28

I got out of the cab and warily took in my surroundings, watching the shadows for any movement as I strode to the front door. The house was still and dark, cluing me in that Gran and Eddie had yet to return. Entering the empty house after the little rat episode didn’t thrill me, but I sure as hell couldn’t stand there out on the porch forever where any and everything could take a crack at me.

I took a breath and went inside, relieved when nothing fanged and furry jumped out at me from within the shadows. I rolled my shoulders, releasing the tension that had been waiting there ready to uncoil at the sign of an intruder, and felt a little ridiculous for having been so uptight in the first place. It was just a rat, for crying out loud. Sure it was a huge, glowing-eyed, vanishing-into-thin-air mutant rat, but a rat nonetheless. What harm could it really do?

Still, I flipped on a couple of lights as I made my way up the stairs to my room, glad to call it a night.

As I climbed the steps, I replayed the evening, frowning as I remembered the way Vlad’s face had transformed with fury when I’d called things off. It made me wonder what I would’ve been walking into had Amanda not been my driver tonight. I liked to think I would have refused him anyway, that my instincts would have warned me off, but I couldn’t be sure. I’d tried to resist him before—even just a few days ago—and had always ended up right back in his bed.

So what was different this time?

Sure, I was pissed about the whole thing with the Mistress, but that alone wouldn’t have been enough to give me the strength to resist his hypnotic call. It was like some invisible barrier had sprung up, protecting me from the effects of Vlad’s talents. Maybe it was just that for the first time since I’d met him, I could see through all the bullshit.

Exhaustion settled into my bones, making my feet heavy and my ears ring as I entered my bedroom. I frowned, suddenly feeling disoriented and off balance. I grasped the door frame to steady myself, then shoved off, forcing my feet to keep moving. A flash of heat washed over me only to be followed by a wave of arctic cold that made the hairs on my arms stand on end. I stripped off my jacket and absently tossed it on the ground as I studied the gooseflesh pimpling my skin.

“What the hell?” I murmured with a shudder. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought—

Every muscle in my body stiffened, suddenly on alert. In one swift motion, I drew my gun and spun around, leveling the weapon at the silhouette leaning back against my headboard.

“Unless those bullets are silver, you might as well not even bother.”

I gasped, instantly recognizing the soft, gentle voice. As the shadows parted, the intruder rose to his feet and walked cautiously toward me.

I swallowed hard. “Seth.”

He offered me the gentle half smile I had always adored. “Hello, Red.”

I stared at him as he slowly edged toward me, not daring to believe he was standing just a few inches from me. My hand trembled so violently, the Glock slipped from my grip and fell to the floor with an ominous thud. Seth bent and retrieved the weapon, then set it on top of my bureau for safekeeping.

His pale green eyes glinted with a feral light as he warily returned my gaze, feeling me out. His thick waves of golden brown hair were cut shorter than the last time I’d caught a glimpse of him, and a day’s growth of stubble covered his powerful jaws, but other than that he hadn’t changed at all in appearance since the day we’d met.

But in demeanor, he was almost beyond recognition. Gone was the peaceful spirit and quiet optimism that had hung about him like a palpable force in the air. The Seth Wolf who stood before me now was wary, toughened, and hardened by centuries of being hunted. If he hadn’t already shattered my heart, it would have broken now at the sight of him.

“I hear you’ve been looking for me,” he said, his words cutting through my shock.

I blinked, then shook my head, clearing away the haze of long-buried emotions trying to overtake me. “I have a few questions for you,” I replied, my voice little more than a whisper.

Seth nodded grimly. “I thought you might.” He lifted his hands, wrists pressed together. “Go ahead.”

I jerked back a little. “What are you doing?”

“Isn’t this where you arrest me?”

I sighed and pushed down on his arm with my fingertips. “Don’t be ridiculous. I know you didn’t murder anyone.”

Seth’s brows arched. “Do you?” he asked with a bitter laugh. “Well, then could you convince me? Because I’m not so sure.”

We sat side by side on my bed, leaning against the headboard as I took in what Seth had just told me.

“How long do the blackouts last?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It varies. Some nights they’re just a couple of hours. Other times it’s the whole night and into the day.”

“And when you come out of them?”

Seth’s breath was shaky as he exhaled slowly. “My entire body aches like I’ve taken a beating and I’m covered in blood. And I’m always completely naked.”

“Naked?” I repeated, shaking my head. “With your type of curse you don’t have to strip down to transform. Why would you be naked?”

Seth gave me a hopeless shrug. “I have no idea. Side effect of the blackouts, maybe? None of it makes any sense to me.”

“That doesn’t mean you murdered anyone,” I insisted, my hand instinctively covering his. “It means you need some help to sort things out.”

Seth clasped my fingers and turned his head toward me. “I’ve missed you,” he said softly, his voice thick. “Every single day my heart ached for you.”

I tried to swallow the tightness in my throat, but my voice was still strained when I asked, “Then why didn’t you come back for me? Or come to me after we came over?”

Seth looked away again, staring intently into the shadows that filled the corners of my room. “I didn’t want you to suffer anymore because of me. I was trying to protect you.”

“God!” I cried. “What
is
it with you men? I’m so sick of all of you
protecting
me and making me miserable in the process! Save the gallantry for a princess. I don’t need it.”

Seth’s mouth curved up in one corner, betraying his amusement at my reaction. “So I’ve heard,” he admitted. “You know, you’re quite a legend among the Tales these days. Everyone knows you, fears you—and hates me for what I did to you.”

“Everyone but me.”

When sorrow twisted his features, I reached out and cupped his cheek. “Someone recently reminded me that we write our own stories, Seth. I’ve been blaming you all these years for what happened to us, for getting dumped into the Here and Now, for what my life has become. But, the truth is, I
chose
to fall in love with you. And I’ve
chosen
my life as an Enforcer. I’d make the same choices again, if given the chance.”

Seth covered my hand with his. “Are you happy, then?”

I nodded, smiling a little as I remembered asking the same question of someone else just a few days earlier. “Almost.”

He laughed bitterly. “Then you’re further along than I am.”

“What’s holding you back?” I asked.

Seth leaned forward and pressed his forehead to mine. “I can’t seem to stop thinking about you.”

I closed my eyes, wishing he had told me such a thing years ago—or even a couple of weeks ago. It would have made all the difference. Now . . . Well, hearing his confession made me feel peaceful, complete somehow. But more than anything, I felt . . . ready. For what, I wasn’t sure, but at that moment I knew some critical barrier to moving on had just been breached.

“I wanted to see you after I came over,” he continued. “I wanted to apologize, see if you’d forgiven me and, I don’t know, maybe even still loved me a bit. I knew you were watching over me—I could feel it every time you were near.”

I pulled back enough to frown at him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Seth looked down, averting his gaze. “Once a coward, always a coward, I guess.”

I shook my head. “Seth, you’re—”

My words were suddenly cut off by his lips upon mine. They were as soft and gentle as I remembered, even as he took my face in his hands and deepened the kiss. But as nice as it was, kissing Seth no longer filled me with the heat and desire it once had. Something had changed.

Apparently, he felt it, too.

After a moment, he drew back and let out a sigh heavily laden with sadness. “I waited too long, didn’t I?”

I nodded slowly. “I’m so sorry,” I told him, genuinely pained to say so. “But I actually think there’s someone else.”

He sighed again, then pressed another kiss to my forehead. “I’m the one who’s sorry, Red. For everything. If only—”

Seth’s head snapped up abruptly, nose raised. I heard him sniff a couple of times, catching a scent in the air.

“What is it?” I whispered, knowing such tension in his muscles all too well.

Seth held his finger to his lips, then slid lithely from the bed. As he moved, a faint shimmer encased him as the spell that bound him to his curse transformed him into the pale white wolf I remembered. Although he was easily three times bigger than any normal wolf, he moved silently as he slunk toward my closet.

I crawled to the end of the bed on my hands and knees, anxious to see what he was tracking. Just as I made it to the edge, the mattress protested under my weight, creaking loudly. I grimaced and cursed under my breath.

The sound might as well have been a gunshot for the effect it had. Seth lunged forward with a ferocious snarl just as something dark and shadowy burst from my closet. He snatched the creature up in his powerful jaws and swung his head in a quick motion, snapping the intruder’s neck, then trotted over to me and dropped the furry mass at my feet. He looked up at me expectantly, awaiting my response.

I ran my hand lovingly through his fur, then crouched down to get a closer look. “Another rat?” I gasped, reeling from the realization that the creature had been lurking in the darkness all along.

Seth transformed at my words and stayed in a crouch next to me. “Another one?”

I nodded, watching the nasty little beast at my feet, half expecting it to dematerialize. “Or maybe the same one, I don’t know. I had one come at me earlier tonight. It vanished into thin air before I could kill it.”

“A familiar,” Seth announced, rising to his feet.

I frowned at him. “What? Do you mean like a witch’s familiar?”

“Exactly. Someone sent it here,” he told me. “I can feel the magic on it. It’s similar to how my curse feels. It’s probably a real rat but has been enchanted.”

I shook my head, confused. “Why?”

He shrugged. “No clue. Maybe as a spy.”

I closed my eyes and let my head fall forward on my shoulders as I mentally rotated pieces of the puzzle, trying to get them all to fit together in a picture that made sense. “Shit.”

“What?”

I opened my eyes and stood up so I could level my gaze at him. “Please tell me you don’t know Dave Hamelin.”

Seth shrugged. “Not really. I just met him in passing when he did some work for Caliban at the restaurant. I was there for a meeting with Caliban and a couple of the investors but we had to call off the meeting when Caliban went ballistic because he saw a rat slinking around—apparently, he’d been having some trouble with them. Anyway, he called Hamelin in to take care of it. Kind of creepy.”

“Dave or the rats?” I drawled.

Seth gave me a cockeyed smile. “Take your pick. He had a cute little apprentice with him, though. She seemed nice enough.”

“Apprentice?” I’d never heard anyone mention that Dave had an apprentice. Not even Alice had said anything about it when we talked to her.

“Yeah,” Seth said, poking the dead rat with the toe of his running shoe, “she and I talked for a couple of minutes while Dave went over the bill with Sebille. I guess she was just learning the ropes. Had been a waitress or something but needed better money so she could concentrate on her acting career.”

“What was her name?” I asked, not liking where the trail was headed.

Seth’s brow furrowed as he tried to recall the woman’s name. “Sorry. I can’t remember. Julie something.”

I ran my hand down my face as another piece of the puzzle fell into place. “Was it Spangle, by any chance?”

“Yeah,” Seth replied quickly. “How’d you know?”

I exhaled slowly. “Because it just fucking figures.”

“I’m not following.”

“Julie was the first murder victim,” I told him.

Seth’s eyes widened. “What?”

“And Dave Hamelin committed suicide,” I continued. “We thought it was unconnected to the murders, but I’m beginning to think otherwise.”