Dangerous (Courting the Darkness Saga) (11 page)

Drake laughed softly.
“Calm down, Vixen.”

She pointed toward
Shadow. “I find a traitor in my home and you find this funny?”

“He is just a child.”

“What?”

“He is just a child,”
he repeated. “If he were here to harm you he would have done it a long time
ago. My guess is he is hiding from something or someone, and you were safe.”
Drake nodded toward the cat. “Reveal yourself.”

The air around the cat
shimmered and formed into a boy of about twelve. His black wavy hair was long
and in bad need of a trim. He was a handsome kid with large green eyes.
He looked away, clearly ashamed of his nudity.

Sherry opened her top
drawer and tossed him a t-shirt. “Here, put this on.”

He slipped it over his
head and mumbled, “Thank you.”

Sherry sat down on the
bed next to Drake, studying the boy carefully. “Wait, I know you.” He nodded.
“Oh my god, y
ou’re
Mica…you’ve grown so much, I didn’t recognize you. Honey, we thought you were
dead.” She brought her hand up to cover her sob as her eyes filled with tears.
“Your poor mother.
I’m so sorry. We thought you had burned
in the fire too. If we had known….”

His bottom lip
quivered. “I should have died with her.”

Sherry rose from the
bed and walked to the other side, taking the child into her arms, hugging him
to her. “Don’t ever say that.” She took a step back and took a good look at
him. “Why didn’t you come to me? I would’ve opened my home to you.”

He winced. “Aunt Sher,
I did.”

She cut her eyes at
him, shaking her head. “I meant as a human boy. Your mother never told me that
your father was a shifter. I had no idea that this was even possible.”

Drake looked between
the two.
“Mica?
That’s not a real common name.”

The boy shrugged. “My
mom said that I was named after my father’s best friend.”

Drake’s frown deepened.
“Sherry, how did you know his mother?”

“Celia was in our
coven, and she was one of my best friends.”

“Did you know Mica’s
father?”

Sherry shook her head.
“Celia was very secretive about him. Then they had a fight or something and she
never saw him again. A few weeks later she found out she was pregnant with
Mica. We begged her to tell him about the child, but she refused. She said it
wasn’t safe, whatever that meant.”

Drake smiled for the
first time since discovering the boy. “The pieces are starting to come
together.”

Sherry tilted her head.
“I don’t understand.”

Drake gestured to the
boy. “You know the boy’s father’s best friend.”

“No, I don’t…
I
….” Her eyes widened.
“Desiree’s mate,
Mica?”

Drake nodded. “Mica’s
best friend is—”

“Caleb.” Sherry
interjected. At the mention of Caleb’s name the boy’s eyes grew fearful as he
backed away toward the door. Sherry grabbed his arm. “You know the name.”

Mica tugged at her
grip. “Please, Aunt Sher, lemme go. I don’t want you to die too, like my mom
did.”

Her grip tightened.
“The fire wasn’t an accident?”

The tears streamed down
his face as he shook his head and tugged harder to get away. “When the men came
they were pounding on the door, shouting for Caleb to come out or else. My mom
was so scared, Aunt Sher, and I was too. She told me to run and hide. I ran
into the kitchen and shifted into a cat for the first time. I didn’t even know
I could do that. I hid behind the couch and I saw everything.”

Sherry sat down in the
chair and pulled him into her lap. “Tell me.”

“Mom shouted at the
door and told those men that she hadn’t seen or talked to Caleb in ten years
and that they needed to leave. They didn’t believe her. They busted down the
front door and four of them came into the living room. They were big men like
him.” Mica pointed toward Drake. “They told her that they came for the whelp. She
shouted, ‘You can’t have him!’ Then their leader shouted something about
defying the alpha, and when he did they all changed into giant black cats. I
watched the leader strike my mom down with his claws.” His shoulders shook with
grief. “Aunt Sher, Mom’s eyes were open and she was covered in so much blood…she
didn’t move. I knew she was dead. I was little, but I had seen enough movies to
know what a dead body looked like. I wanted to run to her, but I was scared.
Then the leader ordered the other three to search the house and find the whelp.
I didn’t know what a whelp was, but if they killed Mom for it I wasn’t sticking
around to find out what it was, so I snuck out an open window and ran. When I
looked back over my shoulder I saw the fire. I knew Mom was already dead so I
kept running, and I didn’t stop until I came here. I had nowhere else to go.”

Drake reached over,
picked his pants up off the floor, and fished the cell phone out of the pocket.
He flipped it open and pressed the speed dial.
“Mica.”

The sound of Drake’s
voice drew Sherry’s and the boy’s attention.

“Where’s Caleb
?…
Call him and have him meet us at the warehouse…There’s someone
he needs to meet.” Drake listened quietly to what Mica was saying. “Yes, bring Desiree…this
may concern her too.” There was another pause, and Sherry could tell that
Drake’s patience was wearing thin. “Because it’s time your friend learned that
there are consequences for his actions…. No, this doesn’t have anything to do
with Hargrove or what happened in Tennessee. It has something to do with his
pack…. I know, I know.” Drake looked at Sherry and young Mica. “Be there in an
hour.”

Sherry squeezed Mica’s
shoulders and felt him tremble at the prospect of meeting his father. “Drake,
what did you tell Mica that you know?”

“I’m not a hundred
percent sure I know what happened between Caleb and his pack in England. I know
he did something to cause them to turn on him, and I do remember Mica rescuing
Caleb from the pack’s alpha three hundred years ago. Caleb nearly died from his
wounds and refused to talk to me about what happened. I know that Mica knows
what happened, but he didn’t talk about it either. The vampire wars had just
ended and Caleb needed a fresh start, so all three of us set sail for America.”

Mica nodded sadly,
then
he looked up. “Aunt Sher, do you know what a whelp is,
and why they killed Mama for it?”

Sherry exchanged a
nervous glance with Drake and he nodded. “A whelp is a cub or a baby. They were
after Caleb’s child.”

“Me?” His eyes filled
with fresh tears. “Mama died protecting me.”

Sherry hugged him tight
and let him cry. “Honey, it wasn’t your fault. There was nothing you could do
to prevent it. She loved you very much and wanted to protect you.”

Chapter Thirteen

Sherry gave Mica a pair
of sweat pants to go with the t-shirt, along with a pair of wool socks. She
frowned. “Drake, he can’t go out in public like that. It’s the middle of
February and he doesn’t even have a pair of shoes, much less a jacket. It’s
cold outside.”

Mica shrugged. “Aunt
Sher, I can just phase back into a cat.”

“No, you just spent the
last two years as a cat. You need to acclimate yourself back to human life. You
know, hold intelligent conversations,
eat
human food,
stuff like that.”

He wrinkled his nose.
“I am a bit sick of
Fancy Feast
.”

Sherry bit her lip to
keep from laughing. “I bet you are.” She ruffled his hair then sobered her
expression. “You are
not
changing
back into a cat, at least not today.”

“Yes,
ma’am.”

Drake reached for his
pants again. “I’ll call Sean and have him get the boy some clothes, shoes and a
jacket. I told Mica to meet us at the warehouse in an hour, so we need to get
ready.”

Sherry nodded. “Mica,
go into the kitchen and fix
yourself
a bowl of
cereal.”

“But I’ve already eaten
this morning, Aunt Sher.”

She turned his
shoulders toward the door. “Don’t argue with me. Go get yourself a bowl of
cereal and give us a few private moments to get dressed.”

He smiled excitedly.
“Can I have any kind I want?”

She smiled at his
enthusiasm and ruffled his hair again. “Help yourself to whatever’s in there.”

“Thanks,” he said as he
took off toward the kitchen.

Sherry shut the bedroom
door,
then
felt Drake’s arms around her from behind. His
hands slipped beneath her robe to cup her breasts. She closed her eyes and
leaned into him as his lips nibbled on the curve of her neck, sending
gooseflesh down her arms. She groaned as the now familiar throbbing settled
between her legs. “Mmmm,” she moaned. “We don’t have….” He ran his hand down
her body and slipped his fingers between her legs, halting her speech as he plunged
two fingers into her wetness. As she rode his fingers she felt his erection
press into her. She took a ragged breath, her body pulsating for release. “No time,”
she panted.

He growled into her ear,
then
nipped at her neck. “We will make the time, vixen.
I haven’t had my fill of you yet.” She whimpered as he withdrew his fingers,
then
turned her toward the bed. Slipping the robe from her
shoulders he said, “Bend over the bed and place your weight on your hands. I’m
going to take you from behind.”

Sherry felt his hands
grip her hips as she bent over, and the engorged head probed her slick opening.
She reached between her legs and wrapped her fingers around his hot flesh, guiding
him in and squeezing as she ran her hand up and down the length of him. A smile
touched her lips at his approving growl. “I could get used to this.”

“So could I,” he said
as he rocked his hips forward.

She felt the size of
him stretch and fill her as he slid in to the hilt. She swallowed hard,
shuddering at the sensation. He only paused for a moment before he thrust his
hips, pulling out only to enter again and again. She brought her hips back to
meet his, with each stroke fully penetrating, fueling the need until it
consumed them both. The climax took her by surprise as her entire body quaked
with the sensation, her core pulsating around him. He pulled her hips back one
last time, forcefully, bringing her upper body up against him. He ran his
tongue over the vein at the crook of her neck, and she felt his fangs pierce
her skin, but strangely there was no pain associated with it, only an intense
feeling of euphoria. She came again with him as she felt him feed and his hot
cum fill her.

***

The heavy wooden doors
opened on their approach. The two guards at the door bowed as Drake and Sherry
crossed the threshold. Sherry pulled Mica closer to her as she looked around.
The place was full of vampires, and most compared in size to Drake. Sherry
noticed that the majority of them refused to make eye contact and bowed their
heads. “Stay close to me. I don’t want you to wander off in here, it might not
be safe.”

Mica’s
eyes saucered as he gawked at the huge men.
“Uh huh,” he said weakly. “Not much chance of that.”

“You are both safe
here,” Drake said. “No one would dare harm you.”

Sherry took a deep
breath then nodded. “Let’s get this over with.” She looked around the room. The
large open area was tastefully decorated in bright Marti Gras colors. The room
contained many chairs and couches. The furniture was deep brown leather, the pieces
large and apparently specially made to accommodate the warriors. The colorful
carpet stretched the length of the room, its main pattern the
fleur-de-lis
. Matching pillows were scattered about the room. The
photos and paintings on the walls were of New Orleans in different stages in
history. “Looks are deceiving. I would have never guessed this place existed
from outside. It rivals Mica’s mansion.”

Drake smiled. “It’s
nice to hear the approval in your voice. We’ve made a great many improvements
since Hurricane Katrina. As with everyone in New Orleans, we lost a lot when it
flooded.”

“Desiree was so adamant
about not wanting to come
here,
I thought it must be
like a dungeon or something…you know, dark and dank. It’s actually quite nice.
It’s very…colorful, for lack of a better word.”

“I find it comfortable.
Ah, there’s Sean.” Drake motioned for Sean to approach. “Sean is one of my
bodyguards.”

Sherry studied Sean as
he approached. As with all the vampires she had noticed since coming in, he was
gorgeous, tall, blonde, and built, but not nearly the size of Drake or Mica.
“Bodyguard?”

“Gopher, lackey, errand-boy….”
He chuckled.

Sherry hid her smile
behind her hand as Sean approached.

Sean bowed to Drake.
“Sire, Mica, Desiree, and Caleb are waiting for you in the library. I would add
that Caleb is a bit nervous. I believe he thinks that he is in trouble or
something.” Drake nodded. Sean studied the boy. “I have also laid out an
assortment of clothes in the library for the boy. I’m sure something in there
will fit him.” Sean looked to Sherry. His eyes widened a bit with a look of
surprise,
then
he bowed. When he rose he looked back
to Drake. “The new queen has a son?”