Once Bitten (3 page)

The
bald man threw her to the ground, his heavy boot landed on her chest. Rage
painted his face as he glared. He pressed down on her chest, over her heart.

“Stupid
witch,” he spat.

Frantically,
Lila tried to push him off of her. Pain was shooting through her chest as she
gasped for breath. She slammed her fists into his calf and ankle with no
effect. Her ribs groaned, having no more room to give. Just when she thought
they would crack from the pressure, he was gone and a rush of cold air filled
her lungs.

She
rolled onto her stomach but before she could push herself to her feet, a hand
grasped the back of her scrub pants and pulled her up. Gabriel was moving with
her clutched to his side before she could even get her feet on the ground.

He kept
a firm grip on her, otherwise she would have landed on her face. His long
strides would have been impossible for her to keep up with. He was faster than
she could ever hope to be. They were at the Jeep within seconds.

Lila
sprung for the passenger seat at the same time that Gabriel tossed her toward
it. The momentum sent her sprawling across both seats. She managed to move just
in time for Gabriel’s large body to land in the driver’s seat.

“Go,
go, go!” She held onto her seat as she saw the three men running for them. The
sound of the engine roared and the Jeep leapt forward.

They
jumped the curb to get onto the road, the Jeep’s tires squealing in their wake.
The smell of burning rubber filled her nose, but they left the smell behind as
they took off down the street. Looking behind them, she could see three figures
chasing them but soon they were nothing more than specks on the dark horizon.

 
“Fuck!” The sound erupted from Lila’s
throat, a primal combination of a yell and a piercing scream, which helped
relieve some of the tension that had built up in her from the fight.

Taking
several deep breaths, she tried to calm her racing heart. She groaned from the
ache in her chest that had been left there from the man’s boot. Her hand over
her heart, trying to slow the racing beat, she turned to stare at Gabriel’s
profile in the darkness.

Watching
in horror as his teeth shrunk back down to normal, her head swam. His large
callused hands gripped the steering wheel with enough force that she was
surprised it didn’t crumble beneath his fingers. The sharp points of his dark
nails dulled and lightened.

Whatever
calm she had tried to gain before vanished. Her heart pounded and she couldn’t
seem to catch her breath. Her mind raced.

“What
the fuck are you?” She gasped before black clouded her vision.

* * * *

Gabriel
shot his hand out to hold Lila’s body in the Jeep just as she slumped to the side.
The last thing he needed was for the girl to fall out through the door and land
on the pavement.

 
He slowed down, reached over her
unconscious form and buckled her into the seat before doing the same. Cursing,
he righted himself and reached for her worn leather purse that was sitting on
the back seat. With the bag on his lap, he opened it and removed her wallet.
Her license was in the first pocket and after he read off the address to
himself, he shoved the bag and wallet between the seats.

Gabriel
knew Lila Connelly. She drank Coors Light, cussed like a sailor, and had the
sexiest dark blue eyes he’d ever seen. The naughty nurse image she created in
his head every time she walked into his bar after work was hot enough to keep
him up at night.

All the
nights she would come in, always with her friends, were too much for him. It
was impossible to concentrate with a raging hard on and knowing that he was
never going to be able to do anything about it. Lila was human and humans were
off limits except for the occasional casual physical encounter. He had a
feeling that with Lila, once would never be enough.

Friday
night wasn’t a night she typically came in, so when she had with Carey in tow,
she caught him off guard. He had been able to get it and keep it together until
she had done something she had never done before. She had flirted with him. She
had gone so far as to bat her eyelashes, push out her chest, and joke with him
when he had taken her order.

The
scent that wafted up from where she had sat was enough to put him on edge. He
knew that smell, but he had never smelled it on her before. It had taken every
last ounce of will power he had to keep himself from pulling her off that
stool, throwing her across the bar and burying his face between her thighs. To hell
with the onlookers.

After
that he had avoided her like the plague.

He cast
a glance at her still form. There was no avoiding her now, not after what had
just happened.

When he
had caught the scent of the warlocks on the air after closing up the bar, he
had pursued them. He should have called his brother Kaleb, who had been
upstairs in their apartment with their cousin Declan, but he had followed the
three on his own while he could still pick up their scent. After all, they were
in his territory and werewolves were nothing if not territorial.

After
hearing Lila and her friend discussing magic so openly earlier, the fact that
they were in his territory at all had been even more alarming. Warlocks hunted
witches.

When he
had gotten close enough and discovered that it was Cole—the warlocks’
second-in-command—who had ventured with his cronies over the territory line, he
knew there was going to be trouble. If Cole was around, it was an order from
the top, not just some random hunt. They’d never leave a hunt empty handed.
They’d be back.

He
could never let something happen to the woman who had just saved his life. But
he was faced with a bigger problem now. How was he supposed to keep her safe
and stay away from her at the same time? Not to mention there was now the issue
of her seeing him halfway transformed.

Gabriel
found her house easily enough. He had been raised in Cantor and knew the area
well, so even though the house laid off the beaten track and down a long curved
drive, it only took him a few moments to find. In fact, he liked the little
green house. It blended in well with the surrounding trees. The camouflage was
something he could appreciate.

The
moon reflected off the tin roof. There were no lights on except for a single
dim bulb that was lit over the front door. He parked close to the steps that
led to the narrow porch and cut off the engine. After finding her keys, he
grabbed her bag and went up to the front door.

When he
found the right key to unlock the solid wooden door, he pushed it open and flipped
on the first light switch he found. A small table lamp shone next to the beige
couch. He tossed her bag next to the couch onto the hardwood floor and turned
back to get Lila out of the Jeep.

His
breath came out as puffs of smoke in the cold air. He didn’t know how she, as a
human, could stand driving around in a Jeep without the doors on. It did
nothing to protect her from the frigid night air and while it didn’t bother him
in the least, it had to bother her.

Gabriel
unbuckled her from the seat and gathered her slumped form into his arms. She
was light and he carried her easily. Her head fell back and her long blonde
hair fell loose from where she had tied it back. He left the rubber band on the
ground where it had fallen and carried her into the house.

He
couldn’t help but notice that she smelled different. Lila had always smelled
distinctly human with a mixture of lavender and chamomile that clung to her
skin, but now there was something else. Something
magical
.

After
gently placing her body on the sofa, he closed the front door and locked it.
They had a lot of things to talk about, but for now he would wait for her to
wake up on her own. Judging from the way she had reacted to him, he knew she
had never seen a werewolf before, even one who was only partially changed.
After all, why would she have?

He
wandered around her house as he waited, although there weren’t many places for
him to wander. The living, dining and kitchen areas were all part of one large
room in the open floor plan. Three bedrooms lay off to the side as well as one
small bathroom. He didn’t dare venture into her bedroom.

Going
to the fridge, he pulled out an unopened bottle of water and took it with him
to stand in front of the large stone fireplace. There were still ashes inside,
indicating that she used it often. Putting the water down, he threw in a few
logs that had been left piled next to the iron poker and shovel. They were
perfectly dried and were able to catch and hold the flame easily.

He was
staring in the fire trying to figure out how to approach the situation when he
heard her stir behind him. Gabriel picked up the water and sat in the plush
chair that was next to the couch. When her eyes opened, she focused on him
immediately. Her face was clouded with confusion but after a second, her eyes
cleared and she sat up, her back rigid.

Gabriel
leaned back in the chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. “Let’s
play a game.”

Chapter Two

A game?

Heat
radiated from the fireplace. Lila pulled her jacket off and set it next to her
on the couch while she figured out how to respond to Gabriel’s request.

She had
a hard time believing that she had fainted, but since she was sitting on her
couch with no recollection of how she got there, she could only come to that
conclusion. It made her a little bit uncomfortable that he knew where she lived
and that he had let them into her house as easily as he had.

The
clock on the mantle said it was five to three, so she knew she hadn’t been out
long. That fact made her feel a little bit better about the entire thing. At
least he hadn’t been sitting there for hours with nothing to do except stare at
her. She hated feeling vulnerable.

“What
kind of game?”

“I have
questions and I know that you will have questions. You ask one and then I’ll
ask one. Twenty questions style.”

She
nodded. It sounded simple enough and Lord knew she had plenty of them racing
through her mind at that moment. She started with the most obvious.

“What
are you?”

“Werewolf.”

“Like
I-turn-on-the-full-moon-and-eat-people werewolf?”

“That’s
more than one question. It’s my turn.”

“Wait a
minute!” He was delusional if he thought one-word answers were going to satisfy
her.

The
corner of his mouth lifted. “Wait for your turn.”

She
frowned but didn’t argue. In all the years Lila had known him, she had never
known Gabriel to be anything but nice to her. She never saw him as a threat and
she didn’t now.

“Are
you a witch?”

His
question caught her off guard. “A witch? No.” Her conversation with Carey at
the bar came flooding back. Their talk of magic and spell-casting had obviously
given him the wrong idea. “Do you turn on the night of the full moon and run
around eating people?”

“No, I
don’t eat people.” He gave a quick shake of his head, a grin on his face. “I
can turn anytime, but yes, I also turn on the full moon. That’s the only time I
can’t control it. What were you doing at the gas station?”

“Getting
gas.”

He
raised his brow.

“I was
on my way home. Who were the men attacking you?”

“Warlocks.
The leader, the blond who you hit with the tire iron, is Cole. He’s the
second-in-command.”

“But
why did they attack you?”

“Even
though that’s more than one question, I’ll answer it. To put it simply,
warlocks and werewolves don’t get along. Warlocks don’t really get along with
anyone. They were in my territory and I followed them to the gas station where
they discovered me. They would’ve killed me there, but that’s when you
intervened. Lucky for me.”

She
wished she had hit the bastard harder.

“My
turn,” he said when she opened her mouth to ask another question. “Cole called
you a witch. I heard you and Carey talking earlier. Have either of you
practiced any magic lately?”

Lila
didn’t want to tell him about the drunken soul mate spell. It was too
embarrassing. The last thing she wanted anyone to believe, especially Gabriel,
was that she and her friends were desperate. She also didn’t want to lie to
him.

“You
could say that.”

He
arched his brow and waited for her to elaborate.

“Last
weekend, a couple of my friends and I had a girls’ night. We were drinking and
bullshitting around and somewhere in the mix Carey suggested we cast a spell.
We did.”

“What
was the spell?”

She
cleared her throat. “Not your turn. Are the warlocks going to come back?”

Gabriel
hesitated and Lila stiffened. They had barely gotten away before, how were they
supposed to get away from them again if they came pounding down her door?

“I don’t
want to scare you.”

“Just
spit it out.”

“After
what happened tonight, I believe they’ll be back for blood, mine and yours. I
don’t know what the warlocks—or Warriors of Locke, as they prefer to be called—are
up to. I do believe that they were here because the magic that you conjured,
whatever type of magic it was, was strong enough for you to appear on their
radar. You need to be careful.”

He
brought the water bottle up to his lips and drained what was left. Lila flopped
back against the cushions, kicked off her shoes and put her feet up on the
coffee table. She rubbed her face and eyes, deterring the sleep that was trying
so diligently to overtake her.

This
had been one of the longest days she could remember.

“What
was the spell you and your friends cast?”

She
kept her hands over her face when she responded, unwilling to lie to him but
unable to look him in the eye. “Carey said it was to find our soul mates.”

The
deep baritone of his laugh caused her to peek at him through spread fingers.
Her face warmed but she ignored it and let her hands drop onto her lap.

“Now I’ll
have to watch out for the human who comes beating on your door professing his
undying love for you on top of everything else. We wouldn’t want the poor
lovesick fool, your soul mate, getting caught in the crossfire.”

“Har-de-har-har.”
Her chin lifted a fraction of an inch. “What do you think I should do?”

“You’re
in a pile of shit.”

“Really?
I hadn’t noticed.”

He got
up from the chair and her eyes followed him as he walked into the kitchen. He
found her recyclables and tossed in the empty bottle before striding back over
to where she was sitting. Much to her surprise, he sat down next to her. The
distance between them a mere few inches; the heat that radiated from his body
warred with the chill that had settled on her skin.

She
leaned back so that she was able to see his face and waited for him to say
something. He frowned, his eyes downcast.

“I find
myself unable to leave you here to fend for yourself. I doubt the warlocks will
leave you in peace; I doubt they’ll leave me in peace for that matter. It looks
like we’re stuck together for the time being.”

Lila
folded her arms across her chest. “You’re more than capable of leaving whenever
you choose. Don’t feel obligated.”

The
brown of his eyes flashed. “Don’t get huffy. Maybe that came out wrong. I didn’t
mean to offend you.”

She
snorted.

“Okay,
let me break it down for you even if you don’t like it. I am obligated. You
saved my life and that’s something that I can’t ignore, even if I wanted to.
Cole and the other warlocks will be back in one way or another. They may not be
able to find you here, tonight, but it’s only a matter of time. Not only would
they want you because they think you’re a witch, you also threatened them.”

“I
never threatened them.”

“You
did. You attacked them. If you had been a vampire, it would be the same thing.”

“So
they’re free to attack whomever they choose and we’re supposed to ignore it?
They attacked you. Were you just supposed to let them kill you?”

“Yes.
Warlocks think they’re better than every other faction of the Netherworld. They
compare themselves to royalty—especially Cole and his family. Cole, the Warrior
Prince of Locke, I believe is his official title.” Gabriel smirked.

Lila
stood up from the couch and paced in front of the fireplace. Questions,
questions and more questions. There wasn’t enough time in the day to get all
the answers she wanted, all the answers she thought she deserved since her life
was on the line.

“Lila,
sit down.”

“Don’t
bark orders at me, werewolf.”

He
leaned back on the couch, his dark eyes following her as she stomped back and
forth. He must think she was overreacting. Maybe she was, but she didn’t really
care at that moment. She had to calm down but that was one of the furthest
things from her mind.

She
came to a full stop in front of the fire and stared at him, trying to form a
cohesive sentence. “You talk about things like I’m supposed to know what they
are. The Netherworld. Factions. I don’t understand what any of that gibberish
means. I feel like I’ve been living in the dark for the majority of my life and
now I’m faced with a situation I don’t know how to deal with because I don’t
understand it.”

“I’m
sorry if this is too much for you.” When she didn’t say anything, he continued,
“The Netherworld is what we call our world—the supernatural world, I guess you
could call it. There are different factions that make up the Netherworld. The
werewolves, warlocks, witches, vampires, shifters, fae and dragons.”

Her
eyes went wide. “Dragons?”

“Yes,
dragons. I’ve only met one in my life and that was enough for me. Even though
they can walk in human skin, I doubt you’ll ever see one. They tend to be
reclusive.”

“Huh.”

“Ask me
whatever questions you want and I’ll answer them if it means keeping you safe.”

Her
hands landed on her hips. “You mean you’ll answer only the ones you deem as
relevant.”

“Not
every secret out there is for me to tell. I respect you for saving my life, but
even I have to draw the line somewhere. The fact that you know as much as you
do at this moment is enough to land me in hot water. If you had been anyone
else… well, let me just say neither one of us would be in this predicament
right now.”

“You
would’ve killed me?”

“No,
but I would have handled it.”

“What
does that mean?”

His
eyes didn’t waver from hers and she knew she wouldn’t get any more information
out of him. She had reached her limit to the answers she was going to receive
for the night about his hidden world.

“So
what now?”

“I’m
going to crash on your couch.”

Her
teeth caught her bottom lip. “Fine,” she said after a minute. She doubted he
would have listened to her if she had told him no. Perhaps she wouldn’t sleep
as deeply knowing he was in her house on the other side of a thin sliding door,
but she would be able to sleep. If he left her alone she doubted she would be
able to sleep at all.

“There’s
a guest bedroom you can use.”

“I’m
going to stay between you and the entry points. I can’t watch every window, but
I’ve never seen a warlock who would stoop to climbing in a window. It’s beneath
them.”

“You
know an awful lot about warlocks.”

“When
you grow up with your uncle who works in Netherworld politics, you learn to pay
attention. I may not be able to tell you who is a Republican or Democrat or who
has communistic ideations, but I can tell you who is a threat to me and mine.”

She
didn’t know how to take his words. Leaving him sitting on the couch, she went
into the extra bedroom to gather a pillow and some blankets for him. It was the
only hospitable thing she could think of doing at that moment. He was a
houseguest, after all.

 
When she went back into the living room,
he was standing up, one arm on the mantle as he stared into the fire. He turned
around when she put the items on the couch but didn’t say anything.

“I’m
going to bed,” she told him.

 
He nodded. “Goodnight.”

“Night.”
She went into her bedroom and slid the door closed between them.

* * * *

What
started out as tossing and turning eventually turned into a few fitful hours of
sleep for Lila.

After a
hot shower that helped to relieve some of the aches and pains lingering from
the fight, she had collapsed into her bed only to stare at her ceiling for
almost an hour. She could hear Gabriel walking around the living room on the
other side of her door a few times, but otherwise he remained quiet.

She had
seen enough with her own eyes that night that made her believe everything he
told her. What she was going to do about it was another problem to add to her
long list of problems. And she had no ideas.

Finally,
with the thought of Gabriel only a few feet away and the knowledge she had her
gun tucked in her bedside table, Lila fell asleep feeling marginally better.

The
sound of the shower turning on in the guest bathroom woke Lila the next
morning. She stumbled out of bed and dragged herself into her own bathroom, her
eyes still closed. Washing her face and brushing her teeth did almost nothing
to help wake her up.

She
made her way into the kitchen and bee-lined for the coffeepot, ecstatic to see
a fresh pot sitting there, waiting for her. Pouring herself a cup, the aroma
wafted up. She stared out the kitchen window as the caffeine slowly entered her
system as she drank, her eyes opening more and more with each sip.