Bash, Volume III (15 page)

Bash

Weekends at the whore hotel are always crazy, but this one more than most and they’d called me in to help. Bobcat could run things without me most nights, but it seemed every man in Chattanooga was looking for a flesh-and-blood way to get off tonight.

Bambi came in the front and smiled at me, and I ran through the schedule in my head as I looked at the clock. “Everything okay?” Unless I was mistaken, she hadn’t been with her last john more than ten or fifteen minutes, and he’d wanted an hour.

“Yeah, he shot his wad faster than he expected, but didn’t ask for any of his money back. You got anyone waiting?”

For the first time that night, we didn’t have any johns waiting in the lobby, and I waved her over to the seating area. “Nope, but I doubt it’ll be long before someone else walks in.” Slick had reported she seemed to have finally settled in and come to terms with things, so we hadn’t tried to move her. I was a terrible judge of women, but she seemed fine to me.

I handled two more phone calls, directed the maid to the room Bambi had vacated, and was about to sit down and talk to her when I heard the distinct sounds of an Audi V10 engine. I knew the vampire who drove it, and tried to listen for Belinda’s voice to see if she was close to being finished, but she was too far away for me to hear unless she was being loud.

I nodded to Gavin — the second most powerful vampire in the territory — as he stepped in. “Belinda’s still with someone else, she isn’t scheduled to be too much longer.”

He breathed in, and turned to Bambi a few seconds before looking back to me to say, “She’ll do.”

“I don’t think she’s your type. Let’s stick with Belinda — I know she does it for you.”

Bambi stood and looked at Gavin, then me. I saw the moment she realized he was a vampire, but instead of looking scared, she looked interested. I shook my head at her. “He plays rough, doll.”

Gavin smiled at Bambi, and I groaned inwardly as I realized he’d set his sights on her. He’s used to getting who and what he wants, and denying him would be a political nightmare, if he could convince her she wanted him.

“I do,” he told her, his smile gentle, and not the predatory one he usually gave, “but if you’re good with me having dinner while we play, I’ll back off if I sense you’re in true distress.”

Bambi looked at me, and I shrugged. “He has no reason to lie.” I told her what he typically paid Belinda, but pointed out he could get rough with her.

“Yeah,” Bambi said, her eyes meeting Gavin’s. “But she’s human and you have to be careful. I got no problems feeding you, and I know how to… give you more.”

I lifted my eyes at her, but let the two of them work it out. Gavin paid me when they came to an agreement, and I told them what room to use.

Bobcat had been in the office, and he stepped out and asked, “You sure that’s a good idea?”

I shook my head. “Not at all, but she wanted to, and he wanted her. We’ll be in a tight spot if he roughs her up, but we’d have been in a tight spot politically if I’d tried to nix their deal.”

He nodded. “Any more rumors about how the meet next weekend’s likely to go?”

He wasn’t asking about the meet so much as the vote of whether to let other shapeshifters into the RTMC, and I told him, “Bud and Duke seem to think the vote has a good chance of going our way, though they’re going to have to let the naysayers put limits on initial numbers. No more than five percent of the total number the first three months, and then a schedule for how many can be added every six months after. They’re still debating fight rules, too. Sounds like fights will be relegated so everyone has to stay human if everyone involved isn’t the same animal.”

We discussed possibilities and politics until another john showed up, and then there was a forty minute crazy period with johns coming in and girls finishing with their previous customers, so the office was busy for a while, but it had emptied out again when Gavin and Bambi came back in.

Normally, the john leaves when he finishes, so I gave him my undivided attention when he walked in, worried there’d been a problem.

“I’m going to pay to keep her for a week,” Gavin told me, clear he was telling me and not asking. “If it works out, we can negotiate your fee to release her to me permanently.”

I looked at Bambi a few seconds, then back to Gavin. “Have a seat? I’m going to take her to the back and talk to her.”

He nodded, leaned against the wall, and I motioned Bambi to follow me.

“Do you know what kind of relationship you’ll have with him, if you let him keep you?” I asked as the door closed and I pushed the button to electronically soundproof the room.

“I hate that sound.”

“Deal with it, we’re having this conversation where he can’t hear.”

She nodded. “Yeah. The Abbott doesn’t allow his vampires to keep slaves, but the exception is when one of his people takes on a wolf as a companion.”

Abbott’s daytime bodyguards were wolves bound to him metaphysically, so they had no choice but to do his will, which meant he had a hard time telling his people they couldn’t do the same. He only let the highest ranking vampires do it, but Gavin was his second, so there’d be no issue.

“You’re willing to let him invade your mind, enslave you so you don’t have your will?”

“Yeah. I like him, and I think I’d enjoy taking care of him, being his sustenance.” She shrugged. “I know he can
make
me like him, but I don’t think he did. I’d like to spend a week with him, see how it goes.”

“You sure this isn’t because you know he’ll finish breaking the ties to your old Alpha?”

She shrugged again. “Can’t say the thought didn’t go through my head, but it isn’t my primary reason.”

“Okay, but I’m going to ask him to bring you by in two days so you can check in with Bobcat and Slick. How much did you tell him a week would cost him?”

I lifted my eyebrows at the dollar amount she gave him, as it was nearly twice what I’d have expected him to pay. “Okay, then. Gavin’s powerful — in another territory he’d easily be the Master. He and The Abbott are tight, so always remember you’re smack in the middle of supernatural politics. Once you’re Gavin’s, if you have a problem then Abbott’s the only one you can go to. Neither the MC, or Randall, will be able to step in.”

As we watched them pull out of the parking lot, I told Bobcat, “If this works and he takes her on, it might be the best solution any of us could’ve hoped for.”

“Best for the MC. Jury’s out on how it might work out for Bambi.”

I couldn’t argue with him, but it was Bambi’s choice, and she was being well paid.

Bash

Brain helped me with the planning, and I knew this would mean something to Angelica, but I had no idea if she’d shoot me down again or throw her arms around me as she accepted my proposal.

I’d let the subject drop for months, but my instincts told me it was time to bring it up again. I’d rented a cabin just outside the Savage Gulf Wilderness area so we could run in the same woods we’d first had sex as wolves, but first, we were going to hike to the base of Fall Creek Falls.

She didn’t know it, but her dad, Brain, Duke, Dawg, Gonzo, and a couple-dozen other members of the MC weren’t too far behind us. They’d have to time it so she didn’t smell them, but Brain and I had made a trip earlier in the week and I knew where to get her in relation to the falls so the air currents carried the smells of people hiking into the holler away from us.

I put her on the back of my bike and we rode over Signal Mountain, down the backside, through the valley, and back up the next mountain.

There’s nothing quite like riding your bike on curvy mountain roads with no traffic, with the love of your life hanging on, leaning with you in perfect synch as if you’re both one with the bike.

I hadn’t realized it until she rode with me after she came back, but I’d been comparing women on the back of my bike to her since I’d met her. No one else gave me the total trust she did, no one else rode as if they were an extension of me and the bike.

She’d worn the backpack during the ride, but I took it from her, adjusted the straps, settled it on my back, and pulled her into my arms. “Love you, Princess. No one else has ever ridden with me like you do.”

We cut up with each other on the hike down to the falls, and as I maneuvered her where I wanted her at the base, with the falls thundering around us, mist rising up, she gave me an odd look and said, “What’s up, Bash?”

I smiled and took the backpack off, pulled the ring case from it, and told her, “Your dad set me up with a jeweler who’d mix my metal with others to create the right kind of alloy for rings. I got the metal from your Sig we melted down, had it mixed with titanium, and then crafted.”

I pulled out her ring and went to my right knee. “Angelica Elizabeth Wright, will you marry me, and will you forever bond your soul to mine?”

She looked up as the movement around us caught her eye. Her dad and a portion of the Atlanta and Chattanooga MCs were here, in a semicircle around us.

Her eyes showed irritation, but her expression quickly changed to pleasant surprise, and a smile lit her face. She doesn’t like surprises and had been ticked at first, but then realized what this was, and she liked having them here.

Her gaze landed on the ring and grew big before she took it from me for a closer look. The sides were delicate vines coming up, complete with tiny wings that appeared to be leaves at first glance. The prongs holding the large solitaire diamond at the top were crafted to look like a tiara, if one looked closely.

“Wings, for either Tink or Angel, and a Princess tiara at the top. You put a lot of thought into this.”

I nodded and stood, my heart beating so fast it’s a wonder I didn’t fall over. “Will you marry me, Princess?”

She handed me the ring back and my heart fell into my stomach, but then she held her left hand out, fingers splayed, and said, “Put it on me, Bash.”

I really needed to hear her say it, but I’d take what I could get, so I slid it on her finger, and then had to find my balance again when she flung her arms around my neck and held me tight.

“Yes, Bash. A thousand yesses! I’ll marry you, and I’ll do the relationship binding. I don’t want to spend my life with anyone else. Making my ring out of the gun I used to… shit, maybe it’s fucked up, but I can’t imagine anything more romantic, anything that could tie us together closer.”

I closed my eyes, held her, and felt her warm, vibrant, happy energy in my arms, and gradually the sounds of the waterfall came back to me, and I remembered we had an audience.

Her dad was looking at me when I opened my eyes, and he walked to us and put his arms around us both. “Take care of my baby girl, Bash.” He caught Angelica’s gaze and told her, “You take care of him, too, Angel. Marriage is a two way street. Takes work on both sides.”

“Yeah, Daddy. I learned by watching you and Mom. We’re gonna be fine.”

* * * *

Angelica

I couldn’t stop staring at the ring on my finger, but I had to, in order to wrap my arms around Bash for the ride back down the mountain.

My dad had arranged for an engagement party down in the valley. Their bikes had been parked further down the road, past the parking area, so I hadn’t seen them when we arrived.

Now, we were nearly three dozen bikes making our way down the mountain, and I was once again reminded what it meant to be part of the MC through one of the brothers.

Part of me couldn’t believe Bash had asked my dad for my hand before officially popping the question, but then when I really thought about it, I realized Bash wouldn’t have done it any other way. He’d always been upfront with my dad.

I hugged my dad again when we reached the restaurant, and he held me tight, and probably a good fifteen seconds longer than was polite, but I didn’t care. I understood, since I’d accepted Bash’s property patch, there’d been a power shift, and today just solidified it. In the past, people treated me a certain way because my dad was President of the Atlanta RTMC. Now, though, if someone needed to fight for me, it would be Bash. Now, people saw me as engaged to the Sergeant at Arms of the Chattanooga RTMC — I was still Bud’s daughter, but it was secondary. This wasn’t exactly the archaic “giving away” of centuries before, but it wasn’t too terribly far off, either. I had a good job, could handle a gun, could fight my own battles, but in the world of the MC, I belonged to a member. I’d belonged to my dad before, and now I was Bash’s ol’lady.

When my dad literally handed me back to Bash, my fiancé pushed a stray piece of hair away from my face as he said, “You’re thinkin’ awfully hard, Princess.”

“It isn’t every day a girl gets engaged. Give me some slack!”

Brain stepped towards us and offered his arms, and I moved into them for a hug. “Congrats, Angelica. And, if he ever does you wrong, let us know and we’ll gather ten or fifteen people to kick his ass.”

I laughed and stepped out of his arms. “He gets out of line, I’m capable of handling him.”

Duke stepped to me for a hug as he said, “Damned straight you are, Punkin. Happy for you.”

Dawg was next, and I noted everyone went quiet as we hugged. He kissed me on the cheek before he let me go and said, “Couldn’t happen to two better people, but all I gotta say is, better Bash than me. Never thought I’d see him settle down to one woman, but you’re good for him.”

Everyone else who’d come hugged me and shook Bash’s hand, and then we went inside for a barbecue feast.

Bash

Tonight would be tricky, but it was important. We’d ridden back up the mountain, just the two of us this time, and we were in the cabin I’d rented.

“We’re only about four miles, as the wolf runs, from our spot in Savage Gulf,” I told her as I held her. “We’re here two nights. I vote we spend tonight in human form, and then run as wolves part of the night tomorrow night.”

“Yeah,” she said, snuggling into me as I held her. “Sounds good.”

I took a breath and spoke before I lost my nerve. “There’s something else.” I didn’t want to fight with her, and desperately hoped she’d be okay with this. Especially since I was on my own, without Dawg around to help me navigate potential arguments.

I pulled the sheet of paper from my back pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to her as I explained. “Duke went with me to Randall’s so I could get his approval on the wording, since we’re naming three people in a blood ceremony.”

Four bodies, two souls, fused into one. We are strong. We are a unit, and only the one already permitted in shall be allowed to intrude.

She looked at it a few seconds, likely reading it through several times, before saying, “So, he didn’t actually approve of naming him.”

“His preference was that we do the bonding without stating
no one shall intrude
, but conceded to this as long as Dawg is at least a hundred miles away when we do it.” I brushed her hair away from her face. “Dawg’s in Atlanta, Princess.”

“You want to do this tonight?”

“Yeah, either tonight on the cabin’s deck, or tomorrow night in the cave, which means we’ll have to
change
again while we’re in the woods.” When she didn’t say anything, I added, “As long as you’re wearing my engagement ring, you can put the wedding off a year so you can plan something extravagant and over the top, or we can do it next week. I won’t push you on the wedding date, but I can’t explain enough how much my wolf needs to be bound to you.”

“When I went to Randall’s house Monday night, I asked him about it as well. I’d been working my nerve up to telling you I’d be okay doing it, not because I need to, but because I understand
you
do.” She reached up, cupped my cheek in her hand. “I know you won’t have sex with someone else. I trust you. I’m not doing this because of a lack of trust.”

How did I get so damned lucky? I pulled her to me and told her, “The last time I had sex with someone, before we officially got together, it was empty. Unfulfilling. I don’t want anyone but you.”

* * * *

Angelica

We spent some time in the hot tub, just relaxing in each other’s arms. When the moon was up, the crickets and tree frogs chirping, I asked, “Do you think maybe we can sit on the ground under the huge oak tree?”

“Yeah, I was kind of wanting contact with the earth, too. You about ready?”

We dried each other before walking down the three porch steps and across the grass, naked. I sat first, and Bash sat in front of me so our knees touched. We both produced a claw, drew blood, and touched it to the other’s chest and then our own. We crossed our forearms and held hands. My right hand to his right hand, left hand to left hand. My right knee to his left, and my left to his right.

I felt a buzzing at my hand, and I focused on my contact with the earth and on letting the earth’s energy travel through me and to Bash. Before long, we had more energy flowing through us than a non-Pack wolf should ever have, and we both kept pulling in more, and more. This was one of the few times it was legal for us to play with energy, with
magic
, and I think we both wanted to make it as big as we could.

Finally, Bash said the words, then I said them, and then our voices joined as one as we said them together.

The energy changed, two frequencies merging so they became the same note. I saw the two of us running as wolves when I first came back, saw us working on my car when I was a teen, saw us on his bike, saw the two of us riding side-by-side, and then saw why the metal my gun had meant something to him. I would never look at him as a monster, and whether it was because he wasn’t a monster, or because I was one, too, didn’t matter. What mattered was that I would always see him as Bash, the love of my life — and I’d be his partner.

As the spell or ceremony or whatever it was wound down and I became aware of the real world around us again, I tested the bond.

Can you hear me?

Yeah, but I didn’t think it would work right away.

With the amount of energy we poured into it? I’m surprised we’re still in two bodies.

He smirked and pulled me into his lap. “I love you, Princess. I wish I could promise I’ll outlive you. What I
can
promise is I’ll never willingly leave you, and if something happens to me, I’ll want you to go on without me.”

I’d gotten his deepest thoughts, and he’d apparently picked up on my fear of falling for someone so completely and then losing them.

I wasn’t prepared to talk about it, though, so I changed the subject. “Randall said we should consummate our union multiple times before we’re around Dawg again.”

His grin told me he’d be more than happy to follow this particular directive, and I squealed in protest as he flung me over his shoulder and carried me in the cabin, caveman style.