Crave the Night (7 page)

Rafe looked around. The room was large and
airy with a pale pine floor and large, comfortable-looking
furniture grouped around a fireplace. Near the window stood a small
white table and two chairs. It looked like a room people used for
themselves instead of for formal entertaining. There was even a
painting on one wall—the image was formless and abstract, but
splashes of greens and muted reds made it stand out. It was the one
thing he’d seen with some color.

Then he understood. Lila had taken him to
the part of the house that was her personal space. There was even a
stack of books on an end table. He’d read some of the same titles.
Apparently they shared a weakness for spy thrillers.

She hadn’t talked nearly as much as he
had, but in other ways she was revealing herself. That meant she
trusted him. The thought made his chest hurt.
What’s she doing here, tangled up with
Masterson?

His exploration brought him to an open
window, one of the tall kind that could be used as a doorway to the
patio beyond. Through it, he could smell the warm stone and the
tingling wash of pine on the breeze. There were more tables and
chairs, spangled by light glittering from the pool. All it needed
was people. He was used to his large family, always with kids,
always with voices raised to be heard over the roar of
conversation. This house was so damned quiet.

Tentatively, he raised a hand to reach
through the window to the swath of sunshine beyond.

His palm touched something as hard as glass.
Its temperature was the same as the air around him, but the
unyielding surface was slick and solid. A thrill of fear rushed
through him. He’d promised not to leave the house, but surely that
didn’t imprison him completely? Even from the garden?

Rafe pushed, putting all his weight,
and then all his muscle against it, straining until his arms shook.
It didn’t budge. He was trapped, well and truly unable to touch the
world beyond the bland white walls.
No,
this is impossible for a wolf to stand!

How am I going to
protect my Pack?
Wild panic fountained up, squeezing his
ribs until his lungs refused to fill with air. Rafe paced from
window to window, throwing them open and testing himself against
each possible route of escape. By the time he had circled the
perimeter of his invisible cage, sweat slicked his skin, cold with
the need to run away.

Frustration peaked as he got back to the
original window. He backed up twenty paces, eying the apparently
empty space. He took a running start, piling up speed and kicking
from the hip.

The force of the blow knocked him from his
feet, but nothing gave.

It was no good.
You made a vow in the presence of a fey
. He’d
just become another casualty of Lila’s magic. Animals chewed off
their own limbs to escape a trap. He didn’t even have that option.
He was stuck.

Rafe scrambled to his feet, almost dizzy
with the need to fight back.

Calm, calm, calm.
He reined in his skittering nerves, forcing them under
control.
Running won’t help. There’s
nowhere to go.

He stood mute and stiff as Lila returned
with a tray of food and coffee, arranging it all on the table by
the window.

“
I can’t get out,” he said, hearing
the tremor in his voice.

“
I know.” She kept setting out the
food and drink. “I heard you.”

The weirdly domestic moment made his head
hurt. He was a prisoner, but she served him with her own hands. She
wanted him to coerce his people into giving up their home, but she
listened with bated breath to every story of their small-town
lives. He could feel her fear and loneliness, but she had all the
power. Beautiful and terrible, she held him.

“
Did you understand what I said?” he
ventured, struggling to keep his voice light. “I’m
trapped.”

“
You traded yourself for your father.
I know you haven’t forgotten that.” She sat down, gesturing for him
to take his chair.

His temper lurched, filling his voice with
rage. “Do you have any idea what it feels like?”

“
No.” The look she gave him was filled
with pain. “No. But my sisters have told me.”

“
Are they prisoners?” He forced
himself to sit down, though his limbs tingled with the need to
move.

“
They gave up a lot to help me come
here.”

Her oblique answers fuelled his fury. “Like
what?” he shouted.

She bowed her head, her gaze fixed on her
plate. “I don’t want to talk about that. We were having a pleasant
conversation. Tell me more about your nephew. Tell me more about
anything.”

He picked up a glass, but in a twist
of anger, he squeezed until it shattered in his hand. Glass and
water splattered the table, a thin stream of blood dribbling from
his fingers. “I can’t. I tried but I can’t pretend anymore. I can’t
eat with the woman who threatens my wolves. Who has me
caged!
”

“
Look,” she said, her mouth twisting
down. She stared at the blood, her face turning a sickly white. “I
don’t want to hurt your Pack. I really don’t. But I’m not going to
apologize for trying everything I can to save my own
family.”

He wiped the blood from his hand onto his
napkin. It stung like fire, the bright red feathering into the
pristine fabric.

She flinched. “Here. Let me do that.”

He snatched his hand away. “I can
manage.”

Anger flickered in her eyes, but it
collapsed almost at once. “I know I’ve done everything possible to
make me your enemy. I don’t expect you to forgive me. I meddled
with vows and magic when I was drowning in anger, and now . . . one
way or the other, I’ll be the one who pays.”

Rafe tried to untangle what she was saying.
Sadness poured off her like a smoky perfume. She crumpled her own
napkin into a ball, unable to meet his eyes.

She cleared her throat, drawing herself up
in her chair. “That doesn’t mean I’m not serious about needing Wolf
Creek. We can play the get-to-know-you-game, and it’s lovely, but
it won’t change anything. I like you—a lot—and I understand your
position, but I can’t give up. Not yet. Not while I can still
fight.”

Rafe snarled with frustration, a low rumble
that ripped from deep in his chest.

“
I’m sorry,” she said, rising from the
table. “Whatever you think of me, know that’s the
truth.”

She started toward the door, then paused,
not bothering to turn around. Her spine straightened, as if she
were gathering her nerve. “You can finish your lunch here. Feel
free to sleep in any bedroom you like. As you can see, there’s no
way you can leave.”

Rafe jumped up. “Lila! This doesn’t solve
anything.”

Lila wheeled to face him. Her devastated
expression ground into Rafe’s soul.

His mouth went dry, his gut suddenly hollow
with the hopelessness of their positions. “Lila . . .”

She took two steps toward him and then
reached up to lay her hand on his cheek. Her touch was cool and
gentle, feather-soft. Rafe felt it deep inside him, not simply on
his skin but all the way to his core.

“
I see you struggling so hard, working
against such odds.” When she spoke, her voice was so soft he could
barely hear it. “I don’t know what else I can tell you. I need what
you have, and I don’t know how to make you give it to me. Not
without feeling worse than I already do. The only thing left is a
sacrifice, and it will either be yours or mine.”

With that, her hand slipped away. Rafe was
left staring down at her, speechless with a wild sorrow. She was
adamant, but he couldn’t accept her words. He’d seen flashes of who
she really was. Surely there had to be another path to follow.

He grasped her arms, pulling her to him. Her
eyes flared, but she didn’t pull back. His lips met hers with all
the force of his outrage. She made a noise of protest, but it soon
softened to something else, a low, throaty cry of hunger. The sound
of it went straight to his belly, melting his body in a painful
heat. She tasted like no female he had ever known, sweet and tart
at once like the honey of a citrus flower. He deepened the kiss,
plundering the softness of her mouth, feeling the soft sigh of her
breath on his skin.

For that moment, as long as the kiss lasted,
she was his. All was simple. There was no trickery or plots, no one
pulling their strings.

He felt the moment she responded, leaning
in, adding her own soul to the exchange. As they moved, finding new
angles, her long lashes brushed his cheek. The delicacy of the
touch moved him, making him fold her tighter in the circle of his
arms.

When he finally broke away, they were both
short of breath. Neither spoke.

Lila stroked his cheek again, her thumb
tracing the sensitive skin of his lips. Then she put one forefinger
to his mouth, silencing him.

“
Let’s leave it like this. Unspoiled.”
She leaned in, sealing her words with a soft, quick kiss, and left
the room.

Since when has it been
the girl who didn’t want to talk about it afterward?

Rafe’s entire being felt bruised. He’d
kissed her out of need and frustration, but that had only fuelled
his desire for her. He felt like an engine about to burst its
valves.

He’d spent the rest of the day prowling the
house and avoiding Lila, who was clearly avoiding him. For a time
he’d sat with the sleeping prisoners, but mostly he had to keep
moving, testing every door and window like a dog whining to get
out.

He adored her. He hated her. She
fascinated him. Eventually he’d settled on a bedroom as far as
possible from
her
corner of
the house. It faced the direction of Wolf Creek.

This room had a bed and a desk. He sat in
the desk chair and glared out the window, watching the azure sky
turn to an indigo dusk. His watch had stopped since he entered the
fey-built house but, since it was only the end of summer, the hour
had to be late. He hadn’t heard the servants moving around for at
least an hour, though he had no illusions that there wasn’t
something prowling the halls. He’d firmly shut the bedroom door,
jamming a second chair under the handle.

He’d come to two conclusions in the course
of the day—besides the fact that Lila kissed like a teenaged
wolfboy’s stormiest fantasy. First, he was absolutely a prisoner
and second, Lila’s family history held the key to unlocking this
mess. As the baby of the family, she had gone her own way until
something happened. That mysterious event made her older sisters
sacrifice a lot so that Lila could be here in Wolf Creek. That was
what kept Lila glued to her purpose.

Family involvement wasn’t entirely
surprising. Few things were stronger motivators. Talking to Lila
about his childhood had sharpened his need to protect his own kin.
If he got out of this mess in one piece, he’d consider his wild
oats sown. Maybe think about starting a family. Be there for when
his Dad was ready to let a few things go.

Strange how that future—the one he’d
always expected—now felt oddly incomplete. Maybe it was because
he’d kissed a fey. Maybe that would make him crazy for the rest of
his life.
La Belle Dame
and
all that.

A rapping on the window glass snapped him
out of his broodfest. The room had grown dark. Rafe blinked the
night into focus, only to see Darak’s battle-scarred face floating
in the night sky. He pulled open the window.

“
Fido’s balls, talk about nightmare
visions.”

Darak leaned his elbows on the sill, giving
him a fangy smile. He looked perfectly comfortable, clinging to the
wall like a gigantic bat. “That any way to treat your good
fairy?”

“
Don’t talk to me about
fairies.”

“
Been having fun, eh?”

“
There’ve been moments exactly as much
fun as sticking your hand down a live garbage disposal. How’s my
dad?”

“
Pissed off, but otherwise healthy.
He’s ready to tear off your tail for putting yourself in danger for
his sake.”

“
Figures. Never could say
thanks.”

“
He’s talking all-out Pack aggression.
The only question in his mind is how many allies to call
in.”

Rafe swore softly. “No frackin’ way. Numbers
don’t matter against magic. There’ll be too many casualties. Plus
there are still hostages here.”

“
You’re his kid. That trumps
everything. He can’t sit on his backside, and he can’t surrender.
It’s just not in him.”

“
Tell him to wait.”

Darak made a face. “I’ll try. You’re okay,
right?”

“
Sure. I’m just stuck here. Like you
said, the vow became real.” Rafe poked the invisible shield just
inches in front of Darak’s nose.

“
Fascinating.” Darak poked his own
finger through to Rafe’s chest. For him, the barrier simply didn’t
exist. “And kind of fun from this side of the force
field.”

“
I need a serious Plan B.”

“
I figured I’d have to help save your
ass, so I had a computer whiz I know do some digging.”

“
Who?”

“
Another wolf. A computer prof from
Pack Silvertail. I was out in Fairview last winter and met him and
a werecougar who’s a freelance reporter. They’re good with the
research.”

“
And?”

“
I wanted to know what they could find
on Miz Lila. Figured you wouldn’t have access to much tech, being a
prisoner and all.”