Were-Devils' Revenge [Were-Devils of Tasmania 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (9 page)

Clutching Rose to her chest, Angel swore on her sister’s grave that her daughter would never be responsible for a single drop of were-devil blood being spilt. Though she knew already that her brothers were starting the trail of destruction that Zelda had foretold.

Queensland, Present Day

“Lena, you can’t take on the whole were-devil population by yourself,” said Gabriella in exasperation. She had thought Lena losing weight had been deliberate, but now she wasn’t sure. She was looking gaunt, and the anger Adam seemed to have induced in her was not helping. They were sitting in a café in Airlie Beach, but the beauty of the sun catching the waves on the beach in the front of them seemed a long way from Lena’s thoughts.

“I don’t intend to,” Lena replied. Her green eyes flashed, but she turned away from Gabriella. She was blocking her thoughts. Gabriella wondered why. “Just the ones up here that are trying to kill us.”

“You don’t know that,” said Gabriella. “Our grandmother made it very clear Adam has been paranoid since the war.”

“Since his sister died you mean.”

“That was a long time ago, and no one killed her.”

“She died of a broken heart,” Lena replied. She looked sad. Gabriella shook her head. Neither of them had met this great-aunt that had somehow taken over Lena’s imagination. She was sure it had something to do with the breakup she had with Zachary, but Lena got very prickly whenever she approached this subject. They were still friends, but since her return from Tasmania something was definitely wrong. Gabriella was sure this was what she was blocking and wondered why. As children they had always been close, even though Gabriella’s father being human like her grandfather meant she was more human than ghost. Lena’s father, a Magnussen, was full-blood ghost.

“Our grandmother thinks that if Marianne’s death had anything to do with the were-devils, that it has just as much to do with the original curse,” Gabriella reminded her cousin. “After all, we know there was something about two generations, and that’s now up.”

“All the more reason to do something,” said Lena, rubbing her arm. “I tell you, Zachary and I are both aware of were-devils being here. And it’s much stronger than before we left. We are pretty sure they’ve been near our boat.”

Gabriella felt a twinge of alarm. While she didn’t want anything to do with this feud, it was going to be hard to avoid becoming embroiled if the feud came to her.

“No one’s seen Wilson, either, for days,” Lena added. “I think something’s seriously wrong.”

“Wouldn’t you know?” Gabriella was good at reading ghosts’ minds if they were there with her but knew they could read signals from much greater distances.

“I would know if he was dead,” said Lena slowly. “But if he was injured or unconscious, his signal would be weak.” She looked closely at Gabriella. “You were the last person to see him.”

Gabriella shifted uncomfortably. He had been in perfect health, but he had been unusually affected by the Richards boys. Had that led him to make some stupid misjudgment because he had not been concentrating? Had he run into the were-devils Lena and Zachary had sensed for some time in the Whitsundays?

“You said you thought our grandmother might think we were needed to help solve the curse,” said Gabriella, feeling increasingly frustrated that there were things she didn’t know and understand.

Lena looked at her sadly. “Only if we’re brave enough.”

“What do you mean?”

Lena shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know, but I have dreams of our great-aunt that really make no sense.”

Gabriella frowned. Why on earth would Lena be dreaming about Larissa, Angel’s long dead sister that they had never met?

“Promise me you’ll be careful,” Gabriella said finally.

Lena looked out across the ocean. “I will do what I have to do.”

* * * *

“Do you think she could be in some way the answer to the curse?”

It was early evening, and the brothers were working out in the gym. Everyone else on the island was either having cocktails or a pre-dinner stroll. Mitch looked at his brother, putting down the weights he had been lifting. Sweat covered his brow.

“I don’t know,” Mac replied. He kept pumping, not looking up.

“She is one of them,” Mitch said. “Even if mostly human. But she’s hot for us both, too. There must be a reason.”

“You’re more optimistic than I that fate is that kind,” Mac replied.

“This is how I see it. That damn curse was because our granddad
didn’t
follow his lust.”

Mac looked skeptical.

“Love then, whatever. We have a chance to put it right. Our instincts are saying she is right. Perhaps we should listen to them.
Both
of us. Then we get to go
against the natural instinct to fight over our women as well.”

“You’re forgetting one thing,” said Mac, who had been thinking of little else.

“Which is?”

“Gabriella has to agree. We don’t know she won’t turn us over to her family, or at least be repulsed at the thought. The curse came upon us because our kind turned their backs. Who’s to stay it won’t be the reverse this time?”

“So how do we tell her?”

Mac finally put the weights down and turned to his brother. “I don’t know. But when we do, I need to be able to tell her I didn’t kill that dickhead I dumped in the cave.”

The brothers looked at each other as the reality dawned on them. They would have to go and check him out.

“The cave has a ton of water,” Mac said. “Maybe we should take food.”

They did so reluctantly. Their desire for Gabriella was the only thing that made the thought even possible.

As dusk was descending, they made their way to the cave, doused in the spray that Auntie Kate had provided. They hoped he would still be in human form as that would be easier for them to predict what he might do. If he was still alive.

They sensed Wilson from the cave edge. There was a coldness that made both of them shrink back. He was all bat. Mac hoped he was still tied up as they hovered on the outside and let their eyesight adjust. He was, and angrier than ever. He swooped at them, but the tie meant he was pulled up short of the opening.

“If it was up to me, bat brains,” said Mac, “I’d leave you to rot. Count yourself lucky we are fond of Gabriella.” He threw the food into the depths of the cave. Returning, they knew they didn’t have long. They would have to deal with Lena and Zachary quickly if they were going to. But first they needed to decide what to do about Gabriella. He had told her he didn’t do one-night stands, and he wanted to make good his promise. He wanted to offer her as much as she wanted to take. But he knew it would be better to go slowly. She had opened herself up to them both separately. Could she manage two, as well as knowing who they were?

* * * *

Gabriella felt restless. Seeing Lena, on top of the tension at her great-aunt’s funeral, had put her on edge. She desperately wanted to forget all the difficulties her family had and look ahead to a future without such feuds. She wanted to be normal and could well understand how her mother and grandmother before them had fought for normality by marrying humans.

This thought immediately took her mind to Mitch and Mac. It was a welcome distraction as she felt her body tingle all over imagining just one, let alone the two together. Though neither had discussed the idea openly, she was sure it was what they were thinking, and the idea of a life with both men was, if not normal, then the type of abnormality she was sure she could deal with.

There was no major event on at the resort, so short of a major disaster, Gabriella had the night off. She was not feeling hungry and decided to take a walk along the beach. On the other side of the island, accessible at low tide, was a cave halfway up a ledge where she could sit and dream as she watched the stars come up.

It was a long walk, over an hour, and she was so deep in thought that she missed the spot and had to double back. As she did so, she thought she caught sight of movement over the rocks from where she had just been, and stood still watching. But the rocks stayed in shadows, and the only movement was the rippling of the water gently touching them. She turned to the cliff and pulled herself up until she found her cave, too high for the water to ever reach. She sat there on the sand floor, looking out across the moonlit water, and let all the tension of the day seep from her. This was her home, here in Queensland, where she was at peace. Whatever the war with the were-devils brought, they would not force her to flee where she had grown up.

She was aware of them before she saw them. How they had crossed the sand unobserved she was not sure. She must have been too immersed in her own thoughts to be aware of the real world. When she first saw their silhouettes, it seemed as though they were part of her dream and that her longing for them had managed to make them materialize. She thought about yelling out to them but, not wanting to break the spell, closed her eyes and silently called them to her instead. Surely they would feel the call if indeed they were meant to be with her.

Time drifted. Gabriella wasn’t aware of any noise, no scrambling up the cliff or falling rock. But before she opened her eyes she knew they would be there.

“Are you sure?” Mac asked from the edge of her cave. He was watching her, drinking her in, looking, she was sure, for something more than just acquiescence. He had said he didn’t do one-night stands. This was a one-woman man, and he didn’t want to be hurt again.

“If you both are,” Gabriella replied.

The brothers looked at each other, and then Mac cleared his throat. “We’re sure, but you need…”

Gabriella leant forward and put her finger over his mouth. “Not now,” she said. “Later there will be plenty of time for talking.”

Mac groaned, a hand gently tracing down her bare arm. “You know I would never mean to hurt you,” he whispered.

Gabriella wondered at the hurt this man had felt and brushed her lips over his. Like a man being offered salvation, he returned the kiss with force, pulling her to him as their lips and tongues joined, warm and tasting of salt.

“My brother is very greedy,” said Mitch softly from behind her. Gabriella could feel his lips on her bare shoulder, the heat from his body cocooning her.

“Not as greedy as I’m feeling,” said Gabriella, as she sat back against Mitch, watching Mac. Both men were dressed only in shorts, their bare torsos glistening as if they had run the length of the beach to find her. Her white dress had buttons down the front, and she pulled Mac’s hands to them. He didn’t need any more guidance. As Mitch licked and traced along the edge of her ear with his tongue, Mac undid her buttons slowly. By the third one the tight dress opened and her bare breasts spilled out of its confines. Both men moaned, Mac leaning forward to take each breast gently in his hands, massaging them as Gabriella pushed her head back into Mitch, savoring the feeling of having two men undress and pleasure her while clearly delighting in the experience.

Mac took a nipple in his teeth and pulled and licked as Mitch did the same with each of her ears. She felt hands over her legs and breasts, and she was no longer sure or cared whose hands were whose, only that the feeling was so intense that she thought she might come just from the sheer excitement of being sandwiched between two men. They had asked her what she liked, and she hadn’t known. Now she knew without any doubt that what she liked was these two men doing whatever they wanted with her.

After what seemed to Gabriella like a long, pleasurable sojourn, Mac pulled back and returned to undoing more buttons. He seemed to delight in taking his time, amused as Gabriella began squirming as her imagination inflamed her desire.

“I think she’s getting impatient,” said Mac, grinning at the effect they were having on her. He brushed a hand up her leg, and Gabriella moaned.

“Stop teasing,” she said, trying to sound petulant but only succeeding in showing just how much she wanted them.

“I wonder if she’ll get even more turned on if we go even slower,” said Mitch.

Gabriella turned her head, trying to frown at him, but Mitch answered the look by bringing his lips down over hers. She lost herself in the kiss, in Mitch’s hands cupping her breasts, and then finally in Mac licking her belly button that was now exposed. She felt totally in their control and was more than willing to be so. The feeling was exquisite.

Mac’s hands returned to the remaining buttons. Finally, the last button was undone and Mac pulled the soft, silky folds of her dress away from her legs where until now they had hidden the sliver of her thong and the folds of her thighs. Gabriella had been kneeling until now. Mitch pulled her back into his lap, and she extracted her legs from beneath her. Mac knelt between them, and tickled the inside of her thighs, edging closer to the thong. The anticipation had Gabriella trembling, and the casual brush over the material turned it to a shudder.

“You’re beautiful,” said Mac. “I’d like to stay here forever.”

“Mmm,” agreed Gabriella, not trusting herself to say anything else.

“Do you think we should take off her thong, little brother?”

“Do you think she wants you to?” asked Mitch, one hand from behind slipping under the side of the thong. Gabriella wriggled.
Yes please!