Night Angels (Beast & Beauty) (7 page)

“Smart mouthed, aren't 'ya?”

“I can be, when I feel the urge.”

“Well shut it, okay. Or I'll shut it for 'ya.”

“Tank!” Roxy protested.

“Just letting him know who's the boss, babe.”

“Oh I do apologise,
Mr Tank
. I didn't realise I had a new
boss
.” Kyle knew he was deliberately winding him up, but was quite enjoying it.

“
Shut the fuck up, smartass
,” Tank snarled in his face, bristling with annoyance.

The tone of voice suggested Kyle really should do just that, and he did.

“Can I introduce us all?” Roxy asked Tank, in a conciliatory tone.

“I suppose so, and then you can teach him a few manners and lay down the law. Straighten him out girl, okay?” Tank replied, giving him a hard look down his nose.

“Sure babe...” she said with a smile at Tank and a glare at Kyle for being so uncooperative and unpleasant. He glared back.

Fuck her! In fact, fuck them all...

He did however feel a little churlish now that he thought about his behaviour, but he couldn't get past the ruined life phase at the moment.

“So...” she began, “Tank is our leader, of course... and this is Tank's mate Kat, that's with a K.” She pointed to the beautiful dark haired woman he was playing cards with before.

“Hey, boy,” Kat said slowly, with a deep sexy purr and a long assessing gaze. Her eyes flashed at his in a strange way, as if she wanted to eat him alive or something.

“Hi Kat,” he replied quickly, and then he diverted his attention back to Roxy.

“Over there eating the cold can of beans, disgusting creature that he is, is Ryder, and sitting next to him is Angel.”

“Hi kid,” Ryder said, raising a spoonful of beans in greeting.

“Well
hello cutie
...” breathed Angel, with a wink in his direction.

“Hi guys,” he replied, a touch embarrassed at being called a
cutie
. What was with the women here? They were all a little too friendly for his liking.

“And finally, Max and Saffy.”

“Yeah, cool bro,” Max said with a thumbs up.

“Hiya honey,” Saffy said in a sweet voice, blowing him a kiss. He noticed the swell in her stomach. Saffy was pregnant. Heavily pregnant. He wondered about that for a second.

Babies, what the hell would they be?

“Right, introductions over, I'll show you our room, shall I?”

“Our room?”

“Yeah, we get our own space to share.”

“Don't I get my own?”

“You're with me, remember?”

“No I'm fucking not!”

“Get used to it kid,” Tank said sternly. “She's your mate. And be fuckin' grateful about that 'cos she's a doll in case you haven't noticed. We're all paired here. Apart from Mutt. And nobody in their right mind would wanna pair with him, crazy fucker....”

“Mutt's mad, Mutt's nuts...  Fuckin' loooooneeyyy,” Mutt muttered with a weird little smile on his face. To Kyle's surprise he fell to the floor and started to crawl about like a baby, sniffing at the furniture and the other guys' legs and feet. Then he rolled onto his back and kicked his legs in the air in hard jerks, his arms flailing around him. Kyle raised his eyebrows at his strange display.

Was he putting this on?

“You sure are one helluva crazy, old pal,” Tank affirmed. “Now up you get Mutt. And no licking my feet today, okay?” He held his hand out to him.

“Is it Sunday? I want my Linda...” Mutt said, taking Tank's hand and being pulled strongly to his feet.

“No not today sweetheart,” Roxy interjected, moving forward and giving him a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. “I'll tell you when it is love, okay?”

She released crazy Mutt, ruffling his wild brown hair, and flashed her eyes at Kyle, beckoning with her head to follow as she left the room and entered a small corridor. She walked to the end and stood between two opposing doors.

“That's the bathroom and this is our room.” She pointed out, as she let him enter first, and then followed him in, closing the door. She stood leaning against it as he looked around, his eyes returning to her after his quick take in. “Linda was his sister by the way. Mutt's... He goes to the graveyard, to pay his respects on a Sunday if we're nearby. It's his way of dealing with... well, you know. It makes me cry sometimes, the whole thing. I can't bear it. It's almost like I did it to mine and God knows I might have well as, considering. Anyway, I go with him, to keep him company and just in case he has one of his funny turns, like that one, just now. He needs looking after, you see. We all help out, as best we can. He's a good guy, so full of heart, he doesn't deserve this...”

He was momentarily surprised at her emotional outburst and at a loss for words. But then again, what did he expect? He was fast realising this was a family, of sorts. Of course they'd take care of one of their own. Guard them fiercely. Love them even. Mutt obviously had serious problems, based on his brief observation.

“Right, yeah, I guess you've got to do what you can. Such a shame... about Mutt. Sorry.”

“So... what do you think of our little bit of paradise?” She changed the subject rapidly, with a cheeky smile and a wide sweep of her arm. He looked around the room once more. There wasn't much to say. It had white walls, dark wood slatted blinds, a wood tiled floor, and one large chest of drawers with a black lamp on top. A simple white duvet sat on the wooden bed. It was spartan, to say the least. No girly stuff was evident anywhere. No make up, hair brushes, perfume... Roxy was very low maintenance, unless she'd hidden it all somewhere. Not that she needed any maintenance or enhancements. Apart from the dark lipstick she wore, she was definitely
au naturel
. And so damn gorgeous, he kept noticing, every five seconds it seemed.

“It's okay. Apart from the bed I've been ordered to share,” he said with a small grin in return.

“It's just for sleeping on. I'm not forcing myself on you, I have my pride.”

“Glad to hear it,” he said, sitting down on the bed.

“Kyle?” she began questioningly, sitting down next to him.

“Hmmm?” He turned his head to look at her.

“Can you call a truce? While you're here. I know what I did was really out of order, from your perspective. But I had really, really good reasons. I've been searching for someone like you for a long while, you know?”

“Oh yeah, our fateful meeting, destiny, and all that fucking crap...”

“Please don't start on me. It really
was
just like that, you don't understand how we are yet... Our kind... We're instinctual... And we've got a sixth sense about things, we kinda
see
stuff. It'll come to you as well, in time. Then you'll realise, I was right... about us,” she replied in a heated emotional voice, breathing heavily, and staring into his eyes all the while with such an earnest, open expression he was actually moved. His eyes dropped to her voluptuous denim covered chest, which was heaving up and down with such a force it took his breath away. He tried to focus on the situation logically. But her deep and meaningful look worried him. This wasn't just an average 'boy-girl fling' going on here. It was all out, for life, possession.

“Look Roxy, I'm having a hard time accepting all this. Don't expect me to act like we're best friends all of a sudden. I'm not sure I can ever forgive you, you know, let alone pal up.”

“I'm not asking for that. Not yet. But can you stop hitting me over the head with the guilt trip all the time. It's done now. Please?”

“I can't promise, but I'll give it a try,” he compromised.

She stuck out her hand. “So, a new start then... as best you can...” He took her offered hand and shook it. He tried to ignore the fact that her hand felt very pleasant in his. He had the distinct impression that if she pushed it, he'd have problems refusing her advances. She was so very beautiful, dazzling up close, pleasant, kind, and welcoming in nature. Added to that she had the sweetest little ass he'd ever seen. Watching her ride her bike had been a real turn on. Her long wavy hair whipping in the breeze was more than hot as well.

His eyes dropped to her bare legs, so tantalisingly close.

Mmmm, what a pair of beauts they were... In fact, the whole of her was... Just incredibly, incredibly beautiful...

He tried to stop himself thinking the erotic things that she had stirred up in his mind, but he couldn't. An image of the two of them naked on the bed had fixed itself in his head. He felt a rush of the wildest heat run through him and his throat dried instantly, so much so that he almost choked. He coughed and stood up, trying to concentrate on other things as he turned to face her.

“Right then, full moon. What's gonna go down?” he asked with a steely determination, trying to be cool.

“We go on the rampage, babe,” she purred far too cutely. Why was she turning him on when this was so serious a subject? He forced himself into the issue at hand.

Rampage? Well yeah, that was one way to put it...

“Is there any way to stop us
rampaging
?”

“We tried a pit but it didn't work.”

“What's a pit exactly?”

“A deep hole in the ground, what else? But some of us got out, somehow... jumped on each other probably...”

“Tried anything else?”

“Loads of things. Nothing's strong enough to keep us in. We're out there, and it's a matter of 'damage limitation' as Tank puts it...” she laughed.

“So where d'you go, running amok?”

“In the farmers' fields. There's tons of food, pigs mostly, and it seems to work, the distraction of animals, I mean.”

“I see,” he replied, digesting this information. So raw meat was on the menu tonight. He'd kill for the first time. And even though it would be an animal that he'd be targeting, a sheep, or a pig, he felt uneasy about it. He was actually nauseated at the thought of ripping into something. Hopefully he wouldn't know much about it, would he?

“Are you aware, of what you do?” he asked her, hoping she'd say no.

“Only a little, here and there. But it's like a dream, that you have no control of. It's a form of madness, you know. Moon madness. Your mind is taken over, your body too. We lose the free will to change when we want to, because it's forced upon us...” She paused and looked at him with concern on her pretty features. “... and there's something I really need to tell you. I'm so sorry Kyle, but you'll find your beast really difficult to handle this first time. Because you haven't even had your 'rush' yet. That's the first time you change and it's so intense. The full moon isn't the best time for the 'rush' to happen. I didn't stop to think and my timing was kinda off, I feel so bad about that, so sorry.”

A chill ran up and down his spine.

“In what way will it be difficult?” he asked in a quiet voice, feeling more than a little alarmed at the prospect.

“Fast and painful. I'm really sorry,” she replied, reaching up and touching his arm gently.

“Oh good, anything else you want to hit me with, while I'm down?”

“No, that's the worst of it. But I want you to know, I'll be there for you the whole way. I'll try and help as much as I can.”

“Roxy...
What the hell.
...? Fuck!” He put his head in his hands and sat down again. Tears pricked at the back of his eyes. Suddenly, it all caught up with him and it was overwhelming. He wasn't about to bawl in front of her though, and tried to hold them back. But he couldn't stop one tear escaping, and it ran down his face. He wiped it away quickly with the back of his hand, smearing it across his cheek. “Do you mind leaving me for a bit? I want to be alone,” he croaked, looking up at her in appeal.

His new heart thumped hard in his chest, with a surprising intensity, as she picked up his hand and kissed it, rubbing her blissfully soft lips back and forth across his skin. He stopped breathing as she lifted her forefinger and traced the dampness on his cheek, her eyes soft and caring. His mind swam with her tender, sweet gesture. He was weakening, and fast. He pulled himself together with a lot of effort, and a deep breath, and withdrew his hand from hers.

“Roxy... Give me a minute, right?” he asked again, in a much firmer voice.

She stood and left the room. He sat on the bed, deep in thought, and struggling with his emotions. He took a series of deep breaths and stood up, pacing around. 

He could handle it. He'd felt pain before and he'd survived.

But that wasn't his biggest issue anymore.

What he wasn't sure he could handle was Roxy. She was invading his thoughts, and too fast. Melanie seemed to be pushed to the back of his mind. How could this be, considering how heated and intimate they'd been? Unless it was the 'new him' taking over? Maybe he was attracted to his own kind now?

Or maybe I'm just more attracted to Roxy, full stop?
He thought with a shocking realisation.

Melanie had bowled him over, shaken him up and forced him out of his self imposed, solitary world. But now that he was out, he really wasn't sure he wanted her any more. She hadn't played on his mind. He hadn't ached for her. In fact, she'd hardly entered his thoughts. But then again, he'd had a lot of heavy stuff going on.