Coveted - Book 3 in the Gwen Sparks Series (29 page)

“Someone say my name?” Dorian’s voice filtered through the alley. The air in my lungs thinned as I gasped. Fury consumed him, his body wound so tight his muscles strained against his skin. He wasn’t wearing his leather jacket, or his sunglasses which I thought was odd. Dorian didn’t go out without shielding his eyes from the world. His eyebrows were drawn together, his mouth pressed so tight it formed one line against his hard face.

He walked down the alleyway, his footsteps the only sound. Both Timmy and Roy stood motionless, staring at Death as he neared them. The closer he got the colder the temperature fell. Ice began crystalizing on the brick walls. My teeth rattled against each other and my entire body convulsed against the sudden coldness. My breath clouded in front of me as I took shaky breaths.

“D-Dorian,” I stuttered before I stopped talking altogether. My teeth were clanging together too much and my bones shaking, causing my muscles to ache. He shot me a look just as angry as the one he gave Roy and Timmy. And I felt myself inwardly cringing from the eye of the storm brewing beneath his surface.

Roy and Timmy took his distraction as a sign to run, but as fast as they were, Death was quicker. Dorian popped out of existence in front of me and appeared at the other end of the alley, blocking the rogue’s escape. Roy skidded to a stop, but Timmy wasn’t quick enough. He slammed right into Dorian’s chest, stumbling back a couple feet.

Dorian snatched the rogue’s throat in his hand and lifted Timmy up off the urine stained ground. Timmy flailed in his grasp, his legs kicking out as strangled gurgles hissed from his mouth.

“Patience, Demon,” Dorian said, speaking in a calm tone. His voice was in complete contradiction to the volcano of rage emanating from his body. Roy took off in the other direction, heading toward the other exit. Dorian shoved his arm out, a simple gesture that didn’t look all that powerful, but it forced Timmy’s body all the way down the alley. My eyes followed his flying body until it smacked into Roy’s back and they both crumpled to the ground.

Dorian appeared right beside them in a flash. Fisting Roy’s shirt, he hauled him up right when his fist descended. The sickening crack of fist meeting flesh was enough to make me quiver in revulsion. I stood frozen against the dumpster, staring as Dorian repeatedly introduced Roy’s face to his hard punches.

Timmy was up and racing toward the other end of the alley before I realized he’d even moved. Dorian let go of Roy, his body crumpling to the ground. He shot his arm out and Timmy’s entire body went still, caught in mid-run. I glanced at Dorian, worried I was about to witness another beating. What I saw caused my mouth to fall open in disbelief. On the wall just behind Dorian was the shadow of two large wings. I stared at them, then at Dorian. There were no wings coming out of his back. I blinked; convinced I was imagining the design on the wall. But the expanse of feathery wings still spanned the brick.

Wisps of fog rose from Timmy’s shirt. If I didn’t know better I’d think he was on fire. It didn’t take long; the mist lifted out of his body, disappearing into the cold breeze. Timmy collapsed against the concrete, his body already starting to flake away.

Dorian turned back to Roy, but not before flashing me a look that froze me from the inside out. He grabbed onto the remaining rogue, hauling him up and dragging him over to me. Both men stood in front of me, though Roy wasn’t exactly standing on his own. Roy’s dazed eyes stared at me. Blood streaked in thin rivulets down his mangled face. I pressed harder against the icy brick behind me, my stomach threatening to expel the food I had just eaten.

“Do you see her?” Dorian growled. When Roy didn’t respond, he shook him a few times. Roy blinked like he was seeing me for the first time.

“If you, or any of your other brethren, ever even think about her I’ll slay each and every one of you. It’ll be you begging for end by the time I’m done. Understand?” He shook him again and Roy mumbled something that sounded like ‘yes’.

“Now be a good little messenger and relay the message.” Dorian threw him away like a piece of trash he was done with. Roy stumbled, landing on his knees before scrambling up and staggering down the alley. He would heal, but he would also need blood to do so. I was trying very hard not to think about his future victim.

The alley seemed like it was pressing in on me. Dorian’s presence filled the air all around us, artic and pissed. My body was sore from trembling but growing numb. I couldn’t feel my fingers or face anymore.

Dorian looked up at me, his eyes still dark and rolling with hellish clouds. He watched me for what seemed like hours. I didn’t dare speak or look away, afraid of what his reaction might be.

He took a step back, hanging his head and taking a deep breath to calm himself. I waited, still shocked speechless by the chaos I had just seen. Water on the dumpster beside me began dripping. Dragging my eyes away from Dorian; I noticed the ice was melting. Like a vacuum had swept through the alleyway, the cold air rushed away.

Dorian cleaned his bloody knuckles off on his jeans, sweeping his hair out of his eyes and looked at me again. His mouth turned down in the corners when he took a step forward and I flinched. It wasn’t that I was so much afraid of Dorian, but I’d never seen him so outraged before. It shocked me.

He advanced toward me, stopping just in front of me. “I scared you,” he stated, running his hands up and down my arms. “You know what scares me?” With his forefinger he tipped my chin up so I’d meet his eyes. “The idea of a world without you.” He didn’t wait for my reply, instead his mouth claimed mine—hard and possessive. His tongue slipped between my lips, tasting and dancing with mine. He clasped my face in both hands and chased away the cold clinging to my bones. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and held him tighter.

When the kiss broke, his gaze caressed my face. “What the hell were you thinking roaming the streets by yourself?”

 “I had things to do, and I brought the dagger with me.”

“And how many did you kill?”

“None, you sort of interrupted before I had the chance.”

Dorian’s face was still hard. “If you had a chance to kill them, then you should have done it swiftly. Biding your time with these creatures will only get you killed.” He lifted my arm and examined the blade that was still clutched in my hand. I had held onto it so hard and trembled so much that my fingers ached when he peeled them off the hilt.

“It has blood on it.”

“I stabbed one in the stomach.”

A ghost of a smile passed across Dorian’s face but vanished just as quickly. “I believe it was the forehead Kiah told you to stab.”

“Tried,” I responded. “The guy caught my hand before I could deliver the blow.”

One eyebrow rose up and creased his forehead. “That cage idea is looking better and better. Restraining you seems to be the only way of preventing you from doing something foolish.”

The earlier elation Dorian’s hot kiss stirred died out. Why did things have to be so hot and cold with him? One minute I yearned for him and the next I wanted to punch him in the face. He was so condescending sometimes, while others times he did just the right things to ignite my attention.

“I just want to go home.” I walked around him and headed for the opening.

* * *

I hijacked Dorian’s tub when we got back to his place. It was an old-style claw foot porcelain goddess. Dorian didn’t own bubble bath (surprise, surprise) so I squeezed his body wash into the water and slipped beneath the bubbles that smelled like him.

I rested my head against the curve of the tub and closed my eyes. A lot had happened today, but it was the strange old man that visited my mind that was occupying my thoughts. Who was he and why in the world did he want me to find him? And the music, even now if I concentrated hard enough I could hear the hint of piano in the back of my mind.

The sound of the door opening and closing made me open my eyes. Dorian strolled through the bathroom like it was nothing. Though the bubbles were covering my bare bits; I wrapped my arms around my chest just in case.

“Um, hello?”

“Hey.” Dorian did a head nod and sat down on the toilet so that he was facing me. He leaned over, resting his elbows on his knees and just watched me.

“What are you doing?”

“Want to tell me what happened today?”

I shrugged. “Not particularly.”

“Gwen,” he said in warning.

I laid my head back down and closed my eyes again. “I’m trying to relax.” I inhaled a breath of Dorian-scented air. Using his soap for bubble bath might not have been a good idea.

“Are you still pissed about last night?”

I cracked an eye open. “You mean when you were being the World’s Biggest Prick? Nah, I’m over it.”

Dorian made a noise resembling a grumble. “I’m sorry.” He made it sound like he was grinding glass between his teeth. Apologizing wasn’t one of his strong suits, or any man’s for that matter—angels not the exception apparently.

Grumbling myself, I opened my eyes again and knew until I addressed his questions, relaxation would not be mine. “Listen, I’ll discuss everything with you if you agree to one thing.” He waited, not giving his confirmation until he heard the stipulations.

“This,” I signaled between the two of us with my forefinger. “stops.”

“What do you mean?”

Among everything else, I had thought about Dorian a lot today and our strange dynamic. I was confident in my decision, even if saddened me.

“This,” I repeated. “This bizarre thing between us. I thought it would be okay to have fun with you, but it’s turned into a complicated mess. Are you my friend? My lover?”

“Well in order to qualify me as your lover we would have had to—”

I held up my hand to stop him. “That’s not the point. The point is, somewhere between ‘just being friends’, I bent my fingers to mimic quotation marks, “we slipped off track and became friends with benefits.”

“Worst benefits ever. I haven’t even gotten to fu—”

Again, I held my hand to cut him off. This conversation wasn’t going at all the way I had planned it in my head.

“You need to stop kissing me, stop putting your hands on me. Understand? I appreciate your help with the rogues, but that’s all you can do for me.”

Man, that sounded a lot harsher once I said the words. By the look on Dorian’s face he agreed. What he didn’t know, was that staying away from him romantically was going to be just as hard for me as it was for him. Even now, I fantasized about him joining me in the tub.
Dorian scented bubbles definitely a bad idea.

He nodded awhile as he thought about something. “Sorry, cupcake, no deal. I know what I want and I want you. I’ll kiss you, caress you and tease you senseless until you get it through that thick skull of yours and admit you want me just as bad.” He stood up and my body tensed. Was the relentless teasing starting now?

He bent down, resting his arm on the tub. “You care too much what society thinks. That is why you haven’t given in to what you want, isn’t it? You’re afraid of the whispers that will follow if people hear you’re with me when just weeks before you were with Aiden?” He grabbed a washrag, submerged it into the water and then trailed it over my arms. “You forget one very important thing.”

“What thing,” I whispered.

“I may not be able to see your future, but I can still sense your soul. I feel the craving within it whenever you look at me.Feel me. Kiss me. Don’t pretend for one second I’m in this alone. You can try to fool me with words and hard stares, but everything in here,” he tapped the space over my heart, “contradicts everything you say and do.” He stood up, placing the washrag on the rim of the tub and walked to the door. “Maybe for once you should listen to it instead of the voices of others.” And with those parting words, he left me alone with my thoughts. And boy were there a lot of them.

“Who do you suppose he is?” Lauren asked. All three of us were sitting on the sofa. I’d just got done telling them about the musical old man. Dorian sat extra close to me to assist in driving his point home.

“I don’t know,” I said. “There’s something very…odd about him though. I think he wants me to find him in the realm of the dead, so maybe he’s a ghost. I mean, he’d have to be right?”

Dorian nodded. “Or a demon. It could be another one of the Veil’s tricks or Holly’s or the VC’s.” He looked over at me and snorted. “It’s nice to know I’m not the only one you piss off.”

Lauren and Dorian shared at laugh at my expense. I scowled at both of them. “Harhar, jackasses. Now can we figure out a way to put an end to all of this so I can return to my life in Flora?” I gave each of them a pointed look. Their laughing ceased, but Lauren still smiled.

“Well, tracking down the Veil’s headquarters is next to impossible,” Lauren said. “I’ve been working on uncovering their secret hideout and came up with nada. Your best bet to ending the chaos is to find and kill Holly.”

“Tempting, but she’s flown the coop. Not even the NAWC can track her.” I thought for a minute but my mind kept wandering back to the old man. He was just too curious not to examine more closely. “I need to go to the ghostly realm.”