Kiss Me Deadly (24 page)

The scent of musk grew strong. Nikolaus made eye contact with David and one of the new guys, who stood offensive before the pack. Arms arced at their sides and jaws tight, they were ready for action.

“This is happening,” Severo ground through a toothy scowl. He lifted Truvin until the vampire’s feet left the ground. “Leave, Drake.”

“No!” Nikolaus plunged into Severo’s chest, successfully knocking him to the ground. He met the leader’s stunned obsidian eyes. “Kila is my family. You have a beef with one of us, you have a problem with me.”

He didn’t have to rally the tribe to attack, for all around them it had begun. Truvin swung a punch at Severo, clocking him even as Nikolaus held the wolf by the shoulders. “Back off!” Nikolaus warned the idiot vampire.

And Truvin could not protest, for he was lifted from behind, and spun to defend himself.

Severo lashed up with a strike so fast, Nikolaus hadn’t time to comprehend its speed. Claws dug through Nikolaus’s cheek—but he did not release his prey.

“I don’t want to be your enemy,” he said. Spitting his own blood out to the side, Nikolaus then slammed Severo’s shoulder into the concrete.

Rolling to his side, he then stood but was dragged back down by the wolf’s powerful grip. Contact with the cement rubbed the flesh from his arm.

“You were not my enemy,” Severo said. He twisted Nikolaus’s arm behind his back and pressed his cheek to the sidewalk. “Until now. You want to stand with the bastards in Kila? Be my guest.”

“You can put your claws and fists to me all night,” Nikolaus growled out of the side of his crushed mouth, “I can bounce back—”

“—until dawn?” Severo laughed. “All I have to do is keep you occupied a few hours, then stand back and watch you fry, vampire.”

The affront at using the term
vampire
was quite enough. Nikolaus rolled, toppling Severo, and kneed him in the kidney. The wolf yelped like a mutt put down by its master.

A glance surveyed the periphery. Two wolves down, and one vampire standing with a pack member’s claws imbedded deep in his chest.

He didn’t see Truvin. And the warehouse…it was on fire!

Slam!
As he was punched from behind, Nikolaus’s palms slid across the ground and the breath left his lungs as he was momentarily flattened.

“The building,” he managed to shout. Pushing up, he elbowed Severo in the jaw, but the wolf bounced right back, swinging Nikolaus around by the shoulder and a hank of his hair. “I need to get inside,” Nikolaus said.

He took the wolf’s claws to his gut.

“Your precious storage burns to the ground, vampire.”

“There’s a woman inside.”

Severo chuckled deeply and dug in his claws. “I’m surprised at you, Drake. Attempting such pitiful deception to end the match. Don’t think you can last until sunrise?”

Fisting Severo in the gut, Nikolaus put all his strength behind the move. He wasn’t sure, but that might be a kidney he just pushed up into the rib cage.

Severo landed on the ground, sprawled and choking blood.

Little concerned over his torn gut, Nikolaus lunged after him, gripping the wolf by the hair and stepping hard onto his chest. “There’s a witch inside the warehouse. She’s tied up and can’t escape.”

“Vampires burning witches? How original. Filthy bastards.” Severo spat at Nikolaus. “You were once a vampire of integrity, Drake. I respected you. Now you’ve sunk to new lows.”

“Believe what you wish.” Nikolaus punched, and he felt Severo’s jaw pop from the hinge. “I’ll be right back.”

Slamming the wolf against the sidewalk succeeded in knocking him out. Probably not for long. But it gave Nikolaus escape.

He dodged by a vampire bent over, spitting blood and unaware of the wolf leaping at him from behind. Nikolaus spun into a roundhouse kick and met the wolf as it soared to land on the vampire’s back—but did not. The wolf yowled like a wounded puppy and tumbled away.

Had the wolves started the warehouse fire? Dashing up the steps, Nikolaus briefly wondered about Truvin. He hadn’t marked him in the brawl. Had he slipped out? To set the witch on fire?

He had to trust that Truvin would not do something so cruel when the entire tribe battled for their very lives right now. A battle that Nikolaus must participate in—but not until he stopped a witch burning.

T
he flames consumed the doorway to the warehouse. There was but this door, which led to a foyer and then another door into the main warehouse, and roof access. All the windows were shut up with steel plates. A sprinkler system had been installed years earlier, but obviously it wasn’t doing the job on the outer walls.

Nikolaus hoped it had turned on inside.

Without a second thought, he walked through the doorway. Flames attached to his legs and arms and hair. The crackle of the blaze drowned out the sound of his gasping breaths. Unconcerned for his own danger, he kicked at the interior door, which fell to emit clouds of thick gray smoke.

Drinking in the smoke and choking, Nikolaus plodded blindly forward. He felt water spatter his arms. The sprinklers were working. But had they saved the witch?

Though he still could not see a thing, he knew instinctively to walk straight forward. They had tied her up in the center of the—

A body slammed into Nikolaus. “Ravin?”

“So much—” she coughed and clutched his arms; only now did Nikolaus realize his sleeves had burned away and everywhere she touched him it ached with raw flesh “—smoke.”

“You’re free.”

“A spell. Air. It’s all gone. Can’t…breathe. Help…”

She collapsed and Nikolaus caught her in both arms. Overhead the ceiling showered cold water and the smoke had begun to settle.

Racing for the door, where the flames mastered the wooden frame, he paused, just under a sprinkler. Holding Ravin there for what seemed an eon, because he just wanted to get her safe, Nikolaus steeled his impatience. If her clothes did not get soaked, then she risked burning. And he wasn’t sure how much flame it took to kill a witch, only that it wasn’t going to touch this one.

Nikolaus stepped outside and entered the dawn. A rosy sheen painted the horizon, topped by a copper band of sky. There were no vampires to be seen, and the few wolves remaining groaned and loped about, favoring their injuries.

As he descended the steps, Ravin in his arms, he brought the attention of the six or seven wolves up to him. From the left, Severo appeared, limping, and blood dripping from his nose, but he walked straight and pushed up his chest at the sight of Nikolaus.

Stopping before the pack leader, Nikolaus stood there. Come what may, at least he had rescued the witch.

Not the witch.
Your lover
.

The woman he loved.

“You went into a burning building to save a witch?” Severo asked.

Nikolaus looked over Ravin’s wet face. He wanted to see happiness curving her kiss-bruised lips and the aftereffects of orgasm softening her every muscle. Easy, sated. In love. He’d do anything to see that expression on her face one more time.

“Someone had to.”

“But—” Severo swiped his mouth with a palm and rubbed the blood along the torn thigh of his jeans. “She’s a witch. And you’re a…And—and the sun!”

Just as if it were announced, a flash of gold touched the sky. Morning had arrived. Nikolaus felt it warm his face.

Severo backed up, a leeriness to his hunched back and sulking posture. He was unsure of Nikolaus now. And the pack followed their leader’s reluctance, stepping back a few paces.

Bending his knees, Nikolaus set Ravin carefully on the sidewalk. He stroked the wet hair from her face. Two fingers to her carotid felt a strong pulse. She had inhaled a lot of smoke, but that wasn’t going to kill her.

In the distance, fire sirens alerted them all.

“We need to take a hike,” one of the pack said.

Nikolaus looked up to Severo, who remained quite stunned. “I love her,” he offered. “She’s bewitched me.”

“You are bewitched? That means you’ve taken her blood. And…to survive?”

“It’s called a phoenix. The dude’s a phoenix,” Severo’s right-hand man offered, then stepped back. “We need to leave, Severo. I can see the fire engine down the street.”

“Yes, disperse and retreat,” Severo ordered.

Nikolaus gathered Ravin into his arms and followed the wolves down the block away from the scene. Before they parted, Severo turned to Nikolaus. “A phoenix?”

“You have not marked me as an enemy tonight, Severo. I give you my word.” And then Nikolaus offered, “I’m sorry. I’ll hold myself personally responsible for Truvin Stone. He won’t go near wolf territory. That, too, is my word.”

“Your word is good,” Severo said. The wolf bowed, and then with a look to Nikolaus, and after receiving a nod, he touched Ravin’s hand. “We will always be allies,” he said to her.

“Good to know,” she said on a raspy whisper. Her voice was still weak from the smoke. “I’m taking a break from hunting vampires for a while, though.”

The morning light glinted in Severo’s grinning eyes. “I can guess why. Until we meet again.” He turned and trotted off with his pack.

Nikolaus kicked in the door to his flat and set Ravin down.

“You’re big on the dramatic entrance, you know that?”

Chuckling, he bent and kissed her soundly. “You taste like smoke.”

“You look like a roasted pig.”

He drew out his arm and saw the red, burned flesh. Pain didn’t exist when standing so close to his woman. “Doesn’t hurt a bit.”

“Yeah, well, it looks awful. Come on, big boy.”

“Where we going?”

“Soon as I find your bedroom, we’re going to do something about healing those burns.” They glided down the hallway, Nikolaus shedding his tattered shirt in their wake. “We should do something about your hairstyle, as well.”

“What’s wrong with the hair?”

Tugging him into his bedroom, Ravin pulled Nikolaus across the room to stand before the black marble vanity. She snuggled up to him as he examined the damage in a half-circle mirror. Flames had eaten away most of his hair and did a nasty number to his entire right side, including his neck, shoulder and arm.

“You up for some blood sex magic?” she asked his reflection.

“It’s going to take a long, drawn-out session of sex to take care of this mess,” he said.

“I’m up for it, lover.”

And that was the best offer he’d had all day.

He sat in the living room, legs crossed, head tilted back across the sofa. Gorgeous black hair spilled over his shoulders. Ravin knew it wasn’t her Nikolaus, because he was in the shower, waiting for her to join him—and he’d already shaved his head bald to expose the tattoos. She liked them, and hoped he kept the look.

She’d wanted to get a drink of water, and now, on the way to the kitchen, she paused to glance over her shoulder.

“Tell me one thing,” she said to Himself. To turn and face him would grant him too much respect. She rapped her fingernails across the marble countertop. “Who was the love spell for?”

Not-Nikolaus’s chuckles simmered in a curl of sulfurous brimstone. “Finally figured that one out, eh, witch?”

Crossing her arms over her stomach, she leaned against the counter, studying the floor. “You planned this all along. But you couldn’t know that I would get pregnant.”

“Life is crazy, isn’t it? Witches can fall in love with vampires, without hindrance of a spell, and vampires can be enslaved beyond their darkest nightmares. Of course, I do know everything about you—now, then and what is to come.”

He spoke the truth. She had fallen in love. And it hadn’t taken a spell to make it happen.

Like the wind, Himself’s breath stole over her cheek. He stood right at her side, his closeness sending a million creeping corpse worms under her flesh.

“Your son will be one of the most powerful vampires to walk this earth. He will have his father’s strength and lust for blood, combined with his mother’s magic. Born bewitched. I cannot wait!”

“You’ll never have him.” As she said the last word, she faltered. It would be a boy? “Nikolaus and I will protect him with all our resources.”

“Won’t matter. The child is mine. Nikolaus Drake made a deal. But you mustn’t fret, dear one. I don’t want the thing as a newborn. Toddlers are frustrating. And teenagers? Too much work. I’ll come for the boy when it is time. And there’s nothing in this realm you can use against me to stop it from happening.”

And like that, Himself was gone.

And Ravin felt Nikolaus’s arms embrace her even as she crumpled to the floor.

He held her close and whispered in her ear, “I’m sorry. It’s done. But we will be vigilant. If we cannot prevent Himself from taking our son, the very least we can do is make him strong and resilient to the devil’s influence.”

“Is that possible?”

“We’ll make it so.”

And he kissed her, a kiss so bittersweet Ravin didn’t want to think about this moment ever again. And she would not. She would look to the future—in the arms of her vampire lover.