Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance (101 page)

The shadows had grown impossibly long and the sun hovered until the last moment before it fell behind the western ridges. Grainy dusk rushed out from the horizon and dropped into the canyons and gullies. The trees became dark giants and the cold, an enemy.

Anxiously, Lilly watched the snow coming down faster now. Thick and steady, it blustered around them, making her cheeks sting. Her feet were frozen, her skin numb. She was glad they’d reach the SUV soon, but she still didn’t know what she’d do when they got there.

Alex’s limp had grown more pronounced as they walked and his shoulder brushed against hers. Through the layers of coats and cold, she felt a spark that raced over her flesh and settled somewhere low and deep. How did he do that? Was it some otherworldly superpower?

The ground sloped sharply to the road below and Alex lost his balance. Lilly reached out to steady him, putting his arm over her shoulder and her hand around his waist. Even through the fleece coat, she could feel the steel bands of hard muscle. She might provide a bit of balance, but if he went down, she was going with him.

“How bad are you hurt, Alex?”

“I’m not hurt.”

“Then why are you limping?”

He immediately shifted away from her and stumbled to his knees. She reached to help him up and found the sleeves of his coat stiff and tacky with blood. How much had he lost? She took his face between her hands, the feel of his skin a shock to her system. His cheeks were icy.

“Alex, look at me.”

He raised his eyes and focused on her face, but it seemed an effort.

“Where’d you learn to shoot a rifle like that?” he asked, slurring the words.

“YouTube. Alex, where else are you hurt? Your leg and…”

“Arm. Shoulder. Fucker took a chunk out of my ribs.”

Lilly cursed softly, looking around as if for an answer. In the distance, a wolf obliged with a long, mournful serenade. At least she thought it was a wolf. It sounded far away, but what if she was wrong?

“We need to get inside,” Alex said, the words thick and slow. “Shelter.”

“You think?”

She moved behind him and heaved, helping him to his feet and then ducking under his arm again to get a grip on him. The dogs raced ahead as she and Alex navigated the steep slope to the dirt road and her vehicle, parked just where she’d left it. Thank God.

His bulk, gravity, balance—it all seemed to be working against them. Stubbornly, he tried to shrug off her support.

She gave him an aggravated look. “Are you afraid I’ll think you’re a sissy if you lean on me?”

Arrogance gleamed in his amused glance. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

“Spoken like a man.”

“And I am not a man.”

There was no missing the anger in
those
words. Nor could she miss the disappointment that lodged somewhere beneath her breastbone. For reasons she didn’t want to analyze, his denial of humanity hadn’t bothered her nearly as much as that one.

“Are you also immune to pain?” she asked sweetly.

He hesitated before letting loose a soft, annoyed sigh. He shook his head.

“I didn’t think so.”

When they reached the SUV, he leaned against the side while Lilly opened the hatch for the dogs. Dutifully, they jumped in and made themselves comfortable on their blankets. Even Belle, though she had to be asked twice. Harley waited to be lifted like the royalty he thought himself to be. She closed them in and moved to stand in front of Alex.

He looked pale and sweat beaded his brow. He scanned the gloaming with worried eyes. His tension coiled around her.

“What’s going on, Alex? Do you hear something?”

He considered his answer. She could almost see him moving the words around in his head as he searched for the right order.

“Bad things,” he said at last, his voice gruff, low. “They’re coming.”

“I’d say they’re already here.”

He shook his head. “Not yet.”

“You mean things worse than hellhounds?”

She hadn’t said it loudly, but the cold seemed to ride her question, making it whip around them. She felt the echo, the frosty bite of fear. The sound of a stone bouncing down a rock-strewn hill made them both face the textured darkness. It had gathered into a tight cocoon over the landscape.

“Got any bullets left in that rifle?” he asked.

She shook her head. “There’s some in the glove box, though.”

He narrowed his eyes at something she couldn’t see. “You won’t make it.”

He’d said it so softly, she thought she’d misheard until a man stepped out of the trees. For a second, she was relieved. A man she could see had to be better than hellhounds she couldn’t, but then she noticed the machete he gripped in his hands. He didn’t lower it when he saw them.

“Do you know this guy?” she whispered.

Alex nodded, but he wasn’t glad to see the newcomer. He straightened, hiding his weakness and injuries with a stiff spine. He didn’t reach for his weapon, but she’d seen how quickly he could draw it. In the chilled silence, he watched the man approach. There might be recognition in his expression, but Lilly saw no welcome.

“Where is Caleb?” the stranger demanded.

“Dead,” Alex answered.

The stranger cut his eyes to Lilly. In the SUV, five dogs barked fiercely and frantically, clawing at the glass and making it muddy with dirt and saliva. Could she make it back to open the hatch before this stranger…what? Chopped her in half with his machete? Is that what she expected him to do? For all she felt inexplicably safe with Alex, this new man…not so much.

“Thank you for aiding my friend,” he said in a kindly voice.

Beside her, Alex stiffened, as if a threat had come hidden inside the hollow words of gratitude.

“Anyone would have helped him,” she answered cautiously.

“You weren’t afraid?” the stranger asked.

Lilly glanced at Alex’s drawn face, trying to read the undercurrents of the conversation. But Alex didn’t look at her and his expression gave nothing away.

“Of course I was afraid. Only a fool wouldn’t be.”

That seemed to amuse the other man. “I imagine you saw things that you thought only lived in nightmares,” he went on.

She kept her breath steady, but her pulse hammered out of control. Hidden mines lay waiting in this innocuous exchange. Like the hellhounds, she could feel them, even if she couldn’t see them.

“What do you mean?”

The question startled him and she felt the apprehension in Alex escalate. She hoped her expression looked as emotionless as his, but beneath the surface, panic ricocheted inside her. Alex shifted his weight away from her and, so calmly she almost didn’t realize what he was doing, he positioned himself slightly in front of her.

“Does she know the consequences of helping you?” the stranger asked Alex with concern that felt empty in the frosted twilight.

“She found me after it went down, Jared,” Alex answered evenly. “There will be no consequences. She saw nothing. She did nothing wrong.”

“But she will,” the stranger said.

The certainty in his voice stroked Lilly’s fear and trembled through her limbs. What consequences? What wrong did they expect her to do? It took everything not to blurt the questions, but Lilly felt the foreboding in the air and knew that anything she said would be dangerous. Alex had told her humans weren’t meant to know about hellhounds. Lilly was smart enough to guess he’d understated the situation.

“She
will
talk, Alex,” the man called Jared said. “She’s human. She won’t be able to help herself.”

Denying that she had anything to talk about seemed pointless. This man had made up his mind. Everything in his tone, in his demeanor, in his expression told her that. But saying nothing implied guilt.

“Finding an injured man and helping him is hardly breaking news,” she said.

Jared smiled. “But that’s not all you found, is it?”

She should have stuck with the guilty silence.

“Have you ever heard of Abaddon?” Jared asked.

“No.”

“But you’re familiar with hell?”

“I might have heard of that one.”

“And the devil? You know him?”

Her mouth was dry and her fingers shook. “Not personally.”

He smiled, as if her answer had pleased him. She glanced at Alex from the corner of her eye. He looked pale and the snow clinging to his coat turned pink before it melted, but if he was in pain, he didn’t show it. He stood straight, his gaze steady.

“Leave her alone, Jared,” Alex said.

Jared ignored him.

“Abaddon is the devil’s devil. He’s what demons fear.”

Lilly took a shallow breath, hoping he couldn’t hear the dread rasping through it. “Glad I don’t know him, then.”

“Yes. You should be very glad. Hellhounds are the work of Abaddon.”

Lilly knew her laugh would sound forced and denial would ring false, but he was watching her reactions and she couldn’t pull off the stony countenance Alex had mastered.

“Interesting,” she said with as much detachment as she could muster. “But I’ve never heard of Abaddon and I don’t believe in the devil or hellhounds.”

“I would’ve thought seeing was believing,” Jared said.

“Maybe it is. If I see one or the other, I’ll let you know.”

His eyes narrowed. That was the only clue Lilly had that Jared meant to attack. Alex had seen it coming, though.

Alex moved swiftly, shoving her out of the way. She fell to the hard, cold ground just as a machete hissed through the air where her head would have been. She rolled as the stranger swung again, hacking down at where she lay. Alex met the man head on, weapon ready, blocking the blow. Lilly saw the flash of his tarnished eyes a moment before Alex slammed into the stranger and both men crashed into the Range Rover.

“Get in the car, Lilly,” Alex shouted. “Go. Get out of here.”

On hands and knees, Lilly scrambled around the front end of the SUV and stumbled to her feet. Inside the cargo area, the dogs barked like maniacs and scratched at the windows, racing from one to another and testing the strength of the mesh barrier that kept them confined. Her heart pounded like a damn war drum as she fumbled her keys from her pocket, slipping and skidding on the icy surface.

She chanced a look back. Alex fought for his life against his bigger, uninjured opponent.

Fought for his life and
hers
.

Against one of his own.

The magnitude of that hit Lilly in waves as she wrenched open the driver’s door, tossed the rifle in first, and flung herself in after it. She shut the door and locked it before she popped the glove box open and snatched the shells out. Her fingers shook as she reloaded.

The snow was coming down in droves now, so thick and blustery that she couldn’t see through it. Alex and Jared were blurry shapes in the pelting blizzard. What now? Drive off?
Leave
the man who’d helped her?

The dogs had steamed the windows. The sound of them in the enclosed space made her want to clap her hands over her ears. Bodies banged into the vehicle, rocking it.

Lilly revved the engine but she couldn’t see behind her to reverse, couldn’t go straight ahead unless she wanted to ram the SUV into the boulder. She could try a U-turn, but what if she hit them?

“Screw it,” she said and opened her door, coming around with the rifle locked and loaded. Jared had Alex pinned against the Range Rover, a short, lethal knife at his throat.

“Let him go,” Lilly said in her best Clint Eastwood voice.

The stranger didn’t even look up.

“Let him go or I start shooting. I may not look like much, but I killed two hellhounds I couldn’t even see.”

The words banked against the seething hostility and created a blockade that couldn’t be ignored. She knew she’d just confessed to something this man considered a crime, but she also knew he’d already condemned her. She stared down the barrel and fired a warning shot that whizzed past his head and into the forest behind them.

The stranger hadn’t expected it, but Alex had seen her in action and was ready. He slammed his forehead into Jared’s nose, gaining enough distance between them to bring his machete around. The blade sank deep into the stranger’s chest. Jared looked down, stunned—by the pain or the reality, Lilly didn’t know. A wobbling step back landed him in a deep drift. His knees gave and he sank.

Alex followed Jared, his expression hard as he leaned down to pull the machete out. He wiped the blade on the other man’s sleeve and spat blood in the snow beside him.

Coldly, he said, “The rules don’t apply to her.”

His legs were unsteady when he faced Lilly again.

“Is he dead?” she whispered, looking on with wide eyes.

“As good as.”

Alex hesitated and Lilly looked up in alarm. Was he going to stab him in the heart and chop off his head now? He swayed again, blinking in the driving snow. Even if he wanted to, he obviously lacked the strength. Lilly rushed around to the passenger side and opened the door.

“Get in, Alex,” she said, trying not to think of the man dying in the cold. The man who’d meant to kill her. Both of them.

Alex didn’t move. Blood dripped from a new wound on his forehead. His cheek was swollen, his eye puffy and bruised.

“I can’t go with you, Lilly. More like him will be coming. For me.”

And for her, if she was still with Alex. She heard it in his voice, saw it in those startling eyes.

“I won’t leave you to die,” she said.

“If you don’t leave me,
you
will die.”

“So far I’ve managed to hold my own,” she told him. “Don’t make me shoot you, Alex. Get in.”

He tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace.

“Get in,” she repeated, using the rifle to point for good measure.

Alex stared at her for a long moment without speaking. Confusion, respect, disbelief—all of it glimmered in his
On-Golden-Pond
eyes. He shook his head.

“Humans,” he said with a hint of disgust.

But he got in.

Alex might be hard to break, but he’d sustained some serious wounds, first from the hellhounds and then from his
friend
. By the time Lilly pulled up in front of her sister’s cabin, his skin was ashen and his eyes dull. He was conscious enough to help her get him out of the vehicle, but Lilly had to manhandle him through the front door and onto the bench just inside. He faded in and out as she worked him out of boots and coat, trying to figure out what she should do next.