NOT DEAD YET: A Lucy Hart, DEATHDEALER Novel (Book Two) (23 page)

Lucy had plopped down in Gabriel’s Jag without thinking.  She suddenly froze and looked over at Gabriel with deepest apologies in her eyes.  “I’m so sorry.  I should have found something to put over the seat.” 

The seats were Italian leather, and even though they were probably scotch guarded, they were a buttery tan color that begged to be caressed.  Blood would most certainly stain the hell out of them.

Gabriel chuckled.  “Don’t worry about it.  I have blood soaked fiancée coverage through Enoch Industries.”

She glared at him.

He held up his hands in surrender.  “Really, it’s okay.  I have a detailing wizard that can get any stains out of the upholstery of this car.”

Lucy raised an eyebrow.  “Wizard… as in he’s highly skilled, or he’s an actual wizard?”

“The first one.  I don’t think I could afford to have a wizard on retainer.”

Lucy scoffed.  “Really?”

Gabriel got this look on his face, as if he were remembering something very unpleasant.  “Yeah... well, they don’t usually take money as payment.  So yeah, only the truly desperate go to wizards.”

Check, no wizards... ever.

Lucy suddenly wondered if Abbey would ever start charging for her services.  She’d already proven to Lucy that she was one hell of a mystical bodyguard.

Lucy took a deep breath and decided she couldn’t put it off any longer.  She had to call her Gram. 

“Can I use your phone?”

Gabriel had it out and handed to her in less than a heartbeat. 

She tapped in her grandmother’s home phone, and she picked up on the first ring… not a good sign. 

“Lucybean... where have you been?  We’re all worried sick about you!”

Lucy told her that she was fine—not an outright lie.  Besides being covered in her own blood and the blood of her enemies, she didn’t have a mark on her.  The warrior werewolf spirits had been quite thorough when they’d healed her.  So a little omission wouldn’t hurt.

“But everyone’s been calling looking for you.  And you missed your bridal party,” Gram said.  “Are you sure something isn’t wrong?”

“I’m positive.  I’m fine.  No big deal.  But I’m staying the night at Elaina’s.  A sleep over kind of thing.”

“Elaina?”  There a note of scorn in Gram’s voice.

“Yeah, Elaina.  She’s Gabriel’s cousin.”

“And you’re sleeping over at her place tonight?”

“Yes... ”

Okay, this is weird...

Oh crap, I just stepped in it, didn’t I?

“Elaina’s standing right there with you, isn’t she?”

Gram sighed, “And you’re with Gabriel, aren’t you?”

“It’s a long story.” Which, it was… a hell of a long story.

“Let me talk with the wolf!”

Lucy’s back straightened.  She didn’t like the tone of her grandmother’s voice, not one bit.

“No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I’m a grown woman, and no, you’re not browbeating my fiancé just because I’m spending the night at his place.”  Oh crap, I really did it this time.  There was no way in hell that her gram wouldn’t go ballistic over that little confessional nugget. 

“Lucinda Marie Hart!”

“Gram... Gram?” Lucy picked up a receipt from the car console and crumbled it up just inches from her cell phone.  “I’m losing my reception...” and then she hit end call.

And then she turned her phone off... well, Gabriel’s phone.  Her phone was probably on the side of the road somewhere between home and wherever in the hell it was the Double Mint twins had taken her.

“You’re really asking for it,” Gabriel said as he powered his Jaguar through the twisty streets of San Bernardino.  

“Do you want to be the one she freaks out on if she got a look at me right now?”

Gabriel gave Lucy the once over.  “You’re right.  Good call.”

“Anyways, I’ve never even seen your apartment.”

“Oh, so this is just a convenient way of inviting yourself over.”

Lucy glared at him.  “What part of being kidnapped and tortured and nearly killed is convenient?”

Gabriel glanced at her and grinned.  “Hey, girls can be devious.”

“Just drive wolf-boy.”

Gabriel smiled.  “You’re so cute when you’re surly.”

Lucy was about to say something scathing about his parentage when the Jaguar abruptly stopped and she looked out at a large, upscale apartment building.

She looked up.  It was a tall sucker.

“Let me guess... penthouse?”

“Nah, that’s Dante’s place.  I’m the fifth floor.”

Lucy looked at him with surprise.  “The whole fifth floor?”

Gabriel sighed and rolled his eyes.  “Maybe we should take you home.”

Lucy pulled open her door and swung her bare feet out onto the sidewalk.  No way was she going home.  She wanted to see her man’s digs.  She just couldn’t believe that she hadn’t seen it before... what had she been thinking?

He could have all sorts of secrets hidden in an apartment... and in an entire floor of an apartment building he could have rooms of secrets hidden.  Hell, he could have rooms of secret girlfriends hidden away too.

Lucy pushed that thought right out of her head.  Thinking like that would surely drive her crazy, in no time.

But he had you on the side the entire time he was with her...

Yeah, but that had been the homicidal bitch’s idea... and we hadn’t started out to fall in love.  It was just something that happened while we were pretending to be in love...

She was about ten feet away from the front doors to the apartment building when she saw the sudden look of shock on the doorman’s face.  He looked like he was looking at a ghost.

And since she was covered in enough blood to merit a blood drive at the Red Cross, she couldn’t really blame the poor guy.

He wasn’t exactly young... late thirties.  But he had a soft look to his face, as if he hadn’t had too hard of a life.  Maybe this was his part time job while he went to college?

His nametag read Jerry, and he looked just about to reach for the phone, no doubt to call the police, or for an ambulance.  But when he saw Gabriel behind her, coming up from the rear, his face got that relieved look to it... and he suddenly looked even younger.

“Paintball game,” Gabriel said as they approached Jerry, and he pulled the door open for them.  “It’s a hell of a brutal game.”

“Shall I call for some fresh clothes for the lady?” he asked helpfully.

Lucy was just about to say yes, when Gabriel said, “That’s okay.  I already have some.”

Lucy just stared at him as he led the way to the elevators.  She glared at him as they waited for the doors to open silently, and then for them to close with a whisper. 

“I’m not wearing anybody’s castoffs!”  Especially if they’re hers!

“I doubt my cousin would have stocked any used clothing here for you... you know how she is.  She won’t even buy vintage couture.”

“Oh...” Lucy felt a flush of embarrassment.

They exited the elevator, and he led her down the hall to a deep mahogany door.  The turn of a key and the door opened.  Lights turned on by themselves.  Motion sensors. 

The place was just gorgeous.  Floor to ceiling windows, deep, dark carpeting, and high ceilings.  A luxury apartment if she’d ever seen one.

Lucy felt bone tired, and wanted nothing more than to curl up somewhere and die... but she was covered in blood, dirt, and probably some other icky fluids.  She needed a long hot shower and a change of clothes.  Gabriel was suddenly not beside her.  Lucy looked around the apartment, and then he was just suddenly coming out of a door further back in the apartment.

Werewolf speed.  A royal pain in the rear end to get used to.

“I put some sweats and what Elaina considers a t-shirt in the bath.  There are plenty of towels, and she even stocked toiletries she said you used.”

Lucy wrinkled her nose.  “How would she know what I use?”

Gabriel rubbed his index finger over the end of his nose.

Oh... she could smell it on me.  Makes me wonder what else the weres could smell on a person, and what that all told them.

Lucy shook her head and pushed those thoughts out of her head.  Priorities.  Shower, fresh clothes, and then sleep.  She desperately needed some sleep.

She followed Gabriel further into the enormous apartment—and dang if it didn’t take up the entire fifth floor.  He directed her into the bathroom and pointed to a kitchen sized trashcan.

“For your clothes,” Gabriel said.  “I’ll burn them in the incinerator in the basement myself.  Just to make sure none of your blood falls into enemy hands.”

Lucy shivered just thinking what that dress tailoring witch could have done with her blood.  But they’d have to figure out what blood was hers and what had been that of the Double Mint twins.

But still, good idea. 

Gabriel turned on the water to let it warm up, and then departed, closing the door behind him.  Lucy slowly peeled out of her clothes.  They were mostly still wet, but in some places the blood had dried.  Which made them stick to her body in odd places. 

She stepped into the hot spray of the shower and let the water wash over her, drowning out everything as it cascaded and ran over her tired, tender body.  Her injuries might have healed perfectly, but she still felt sore, and her flesh was ultra sensitive to the touch.

After who knows how long she started to wash herself, lathering up with her favorite body wash—it was still strange that Elaina had known exactly what she used, with just a casual sniff.

Werewolves...

She lathered and rinsed her hair, and then repeated and repeated and repeated.  Thank god Elaina had even guessed her conditioner correctly, because Lucy’s hair would be stripped of all its natural oils by the time she washed all the blood and gore out of it.

Finally she turned off the hot water.  Wow, but Gabriel must have an industrial sized water heater.  She toweled off, rubbed her hair dry, even though she found a hair dryer—still in its packaging—under the sink.  She pulled on the sweats and the t-shirt, and didn’t feel a bit self conscious about not wearing a bra or panties.

She was going to be sleeping... for a week.  She so didn’t care what she looked like.

Gabriel was waiting for her outside the bathroom door.  He had also changed into a pair of jersey shorts and a t-shirt. 

“Don’t we make the cute pair?”

Gabriel smiled and led her across the hall, through a pair of double doors, and into another enormous room.  This one was without a doubt the biggest bedroom she had ever seen.  She approved of it immediately.  She’d always been one for scope in her bedrooms.

She crawled up onto the bed.  The covers were already pulled back, and she slithered under the silken duvet and the Egyptian cotton sheets.  They were freshly laundered, but still smelled of Gabriel.  She lay on the pillow and looked up at her fiancé.  He was standing on the other side of the bed, his eyes intent on her, but his body rigid.  He looked so adorably insecure.

“I didn’t come here to sleep alone,” she said with a smile.  “And lose the shirt.”

Gabriel obediently pulled his shirt up over his head and dropped it to the ground before slipping into bed with her.  Lucy was so tired, she just crawled up on to him, burying her face in his strong, broad chest and inhaling deeply.  Just touching him, smelling him, made something inside her relax.  She had no name for it, no words, but it was immediate.  And as she felt Gabriel’s arms wrap around her she fell instantly asleep.

~*~

Lucy woke to the feel of sunlight warm against her skin, to the rhythmic sounds of someone else breathing, and to the warm soft feel of Gabriel’s bare chest—she was using him as a pillow.  She breathed in and smelled the sun on his skin, and something else, like the forest... and she knew right away that he smelled of pack.

Gabriel smelled of pack... what the hell did that even mean?

But it soothed her, and Lucy pressed her ear to his chest, right where his heart was.  It beat.  It beat for her, she knew that.  Though so much had happened, and they hadn’t been able to spend much time together—which was ironic, since what was keeping them apart the most was the planning of their wedding.  And that was going to be the beginning of their life together.

Forever... with Gabriel
.

Gabriel stirred beneath her, and she moved slowly until her lips were kissing the flesh of his chest.  He even tasted good.

And in that moment, Lucy decided that this was the moment they were going to be together for the first time.  No waiting around for some archaic wedding night deflowering.  No, Lucy was going to live her life by her own rules.  And that meant her love life too.

She leaned up and pulled and wriggled until her nightshirt slid off over her head.  Then she pushed down her sweats, slipping out of them.