Red Satin Lips (9 page)

His father was waiting for him out in the living room . He’d love to just lay here with his mates, but knew he couldn’t. Swinging his feet off the bed, Lars sat up and ran his hand through his hair.

With everything destroyed at their home, today he and Gage would take their woman shopping. He hoped like hell that his brother and his circle of friends wouldn’t bother them.

“
Would you like me to go with you?”
Gage asked behind him.

“
No. Stay here with her. I don’t want her alone at all until this threat is gone. I think my father just needs to talk while mom sleeps.”
He got up and stretched, clothing himself the way his people did.

“Hmm, love the way those pants fit. You have a nice ass,” Tamara said and rolled over, hugging his pillow as Lars turned to her. “Why don’t you invite your parents to go shopping with us? I think your mom needs a distraction as badly as I do. I know we can’t have my mom’s services until this is all cleared up.” She sat up, holding onto the pillow.

One of her breasts was bare for him to see and Lars bent down, sucking on her nipple.

“Hey, stop! Listen to me,” she said trying to dodge him, but he slid his hand around her back and held her there till he was done.

“Now, what were you going to say?” he asked, grinning at her. Tamara’s face was flushed and she had to take a deep breath before she spoke.

“I thought we could go to some mall away from all this. One that no one would think of, there are a ton of them out there.” She leaned back into Gage’s arms.

“I’ll discuss it with my father, but I don’t see why not. Let Gage see to your needs this morning. Join us when you are ready.” Lars laughed hearing Tamara’s squeal behind him. Gage was always hard and ready to go in the morning, but then again, ever since finding Tamara, they both had been.

He adjusted his cock in his pants before stepping into the living room. His grandfather, Michael and his father were all sitting on the couches waiting. “Morning, grandfather how are you feeling?” Lars asked and grabbed a cup of coffee that room service had brought up for them.

“Fine, thank you for helping your grandmother. She’s still cussing me out over scaring her so bad I’m afraid,” he grinned and took a sip of his coffee. “How is Tamara doing?”

“She had the same reaction you did, but seems to be doing well. Have you heard anything?” Lars sat down next to his father.

“No, it’s too early. They’ll be out hunting tonight.” His grandfather looked at him. “I don’t know if you are aware of this, but after the reading from the other, there is a small part of him left inside me. Tamara might have the same thing. It’s nothing to worry about. I think it’s his way of saying thank you for trusting him with our brains. If I’m not mistaken, it’s kind of like a calling card. When we’re in trouble, he’ll be there.” His grandfather shrugged his shoulders, but the thought of someone monitoring his woman did not sit right with Lars.

As if sensing his thoughts, Alton reached over and squeezed his shoulder. “It’s not like he’s reading her all the time. I think it would send him like an impulse if she was hurt or something. I’ve studied it this morning and it really does seem to be harmless.”

“I’ll still check it out later. Right now I wanted to know what you are going to do? How bad is the house?” Lars relaxed a little while his father explained that the main house was gone. Only the carriage house remained.

“Before you even ask, your mother wants all of us to live there. She’s going to need us all with everything gone,” his father asked, and he nodded.

“Of course we’ll be there for her. Are you going to rebuild?” Tamara asked, coming into the room and crawling onto Lars' lap. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, red cowboy boots and a sweater.

“Yes. Lars and Alex both were born there, as was I.” His father looked at Tamara. “Are you going to be able to handle living with all of us, Daughter?”

She looked over to where Lars' mother came into the room and smiled at her. “I’m going to try.” Tamara leaned over to him. “But just in case you start to act up again, I’ll sic mom on ya.” Tamara nodded to his mother before curling up on Lars again.

Not only was his father stunned, but so was his mom. Tears filled his mom’s eyes and his father cleared his throat. “You go right ahead, my Angeline knows who the boss is in this family,” Trevor said looking at his wife when she sat down in his lap.

“Really, you/re the boss?” She tapped her finger to her lips. “What about that night…”His father covered her mouth with his hand.

“Hush, we have children here,” he grumbled and they all broke out laughing.

“Did you ask your parents?” Tamara asked Lars.

“Ask us what?” Angeline asked, standing and walking to the breakfast table.

“As with you, everything you owned is pretty much gone except a few things. Tamara thought you might enjoy an outing with us shopping. We could make a day of it at some unknown mall,” Gage said as he strolled into the room.

Lars reached up his hand went to the back of Gage’s neck and squeezed it as he leaned down to place a kiss on the top of Tamara’s head. That’s when Lars noticed Tamara rubbing the side of her temple.

“Tamara, is something wrong?” As soon as the he said the words, both Lars and Gage snarled. The mental attack on Tamara was a powerful one. It took everything in him to focus on the protection wall they had created for her.

A hand was placed on his shoulder, then another. Alton and their fathers had joined in to protect Tamara. A scream pierced the air and the attack stopped as quickly as it happened. Lars held his breath as he focused his attention on Tamara. “Are you okay?” He pulled her tighter against his chest.

“The pain is gone. It was sort of like having a migraine, but a little worse. I’m weak, but okay. I could hear her. Not like it was before. She knows the hunters are out for her, but she’s not afraid. Then she went on about another gift.” Her eyes got big. “Lydia!”

She grabbed the front of his shirt. “Find Lydia now, please!”

He looked up at Gage, who shook his head. No one had seen her since the attack yesterday. Even with their connection, there was nothing there.

“Call in the team, see if any of them have heard anything from her,” Lars asked Gage, but he was already doing it as he stepped away and stared to dial their personal cell numbers.

“I’m sure she’s okay, Tamara. You know how she loves to take off. After the explosion I’m sure she went off to regroup,” Lars tried to reassure her, but inside he had a really bad feeling.

His mother took her hands and pulled her up into a hug. “I’m so sorry daughter. Let’s do this mall thing. Maybe it will help with getting our minds off of everything for a little while.:

That’s when he smelled it, fresh blood and death. Lars slowly stood. Alton moved to his right as Michael went towards their room. Gage moved in next to the women as did his father. Black smoke once more started to fill the room when Tamara and his mother noticed it.

They both held onto each other looking at the ground. “Lars?” Tamara questioned.

Placing his finger on his lips, Lars watched as Jander appeared in the room with the demon that had shown up last night. “I owe you an apology.” Jander glided over to Tamara and bowed.

“I used your link to her to find her and I’m afraid she doubled back finding you, not me.” he turned to Gage and Lars. “Would you allow me to help place a barrier around her to protect her from other attacks? Neither this woman nor anyone else will be able to attack her again once I erect it.”

“You left your mark inside her. Why didn’t that protect her?” Lars stepped forward. “She is already weak.”

“My mark informed me of the attack. I wasn’t able to reach her in time, but I do have the connection now and she knows it. If you are worried about the offspring she carries, the protection would also carry to them. When they are born, each one of them will have this added protection. Call it my gift for allowing this to happen.”

He looked to his grandfather who had more than once dealt with these beings. “Grandfather?”

Alton stepped up to him and nodded. “It is a great honor and will help protect your woman and children. It is rare to receive such a gift and I’ve only heard of it twice before.”

Jander flinched as did the Demon. “They’re here.” They disappeared as fast as they had appeared along with his grandfather.

Behind him, his father screamed and fell to the floor. His mother ran to him and held Trevor in her arms as she looked up into his face. “Your grandmother is gone.”

“No!” Lars stumbled before Gage wrapped his arm around his waist. Tamara’s arm circled him as his grandfather’s cry filled the night.

Chapter Seven

She pulled the blanket over her shoulder and watched as Gage paced back and forth in front of her. Tamara was all of a sudden so tired. Lars and his parents had gone to help Alton, while Gage and her father worked to find a safe place for them all to go.

At first her father told Gage they all should go to his house, but Gage had shaken his head. “No, we don’t’ need your home destroyed too.”

So the both of them paced and tried to figure out a place they could go until finally  Tamara sat up and snarled. “Sit! You’re driving me nuts.” She tapped her fingers on the sofa.

“Okay, this is what we know so far.” She reached for her orange juice, taking a sip. “This woman is old and she wants the old days back. What were the old days like?” She looked to her father who sat down across from her.

“We killed what we fed off of. There were no rules, more or less. The elders had privileges that others didn’t.” He snorted. “They even had a ball introducing a new elder and dinner was, of course, a lineup of humans just for that elder to feed off of.”

“That’s it!” She jumped up and started to pace back and forth.

“Hey, you told us to stop,” Gage teased and wrapped his arms around her. “What is running through your head?”

“We need to throw her a party,” Tamara turned into his arms. “She wants attention. We're going to give it to her the old fashioned way, but we need to cancel the warrant.”

“What?” They both yelled at the same time. “Are you out of your mind?” her father added.

“She just killed your mate's grandmother and your own mother!” her father yelled and glared at her.

“Are you going to stand there and yell at me or are you going to listen?” she ground her teeth together and waited till both of them had quieted down.

Oh, Tamara knew the bitch was listening to everything she said. She might not be able to break into her head right now, but she could hear everything they said now that she knew where they were. It was one of her gifts to focus on a room and listen in on everything around her.

She had felt the slight shift in the room when both men had stopped their pacing and sat down. “We were already planning a Masquerade Ball, we’ll just change the location and the purpose. This will be her Blood Ball, of course we’ll have to invite some humans for her one's that don’t have families.” Tamara tapped her lips and smiled when her father finally caught on. scanning the room.

“It would be no problem to bring in humans, but will she stop the killings until the ball? Do you really think she can handle Alex? You know he has a thing for you?” her father asked testing the waters.

The room warmed just a slight bit and they both knew they had her. Gage looked from Michael to her trying to understand what was going on. “
Listening.”
One word sent on their private path hoping the bitch didn’t have access to it.

He straightened and scanned the room. “We should have a name for the Ball. Since she’s a woman we could call it the Satin Lips Masquerade. Maybe have all the women wear dark red lipstick to honor her. We could announce it through the press. Make it a big event for humans too, but you’re right. How am I going to plan this if Alex is a threat…?”

The presence in the room was gone and she sighed. “I don’t know how long she’ll be gone, but this woman is pissed that her party was canceled long time ago. She feels as if she was thrown aside and she won’t stop. Maybe if we give her this party, we can trap her somehow. If we cancel the hunt order, maybe she’ll feel it’s safe enough to come.”

His father shook his head. “Do you really believe she’d be stupid enough to do that?”

There was no warning. Alex’s body fell out of nowhere to land on the top of the coffee table. He had no eyes. An outline of a pair of lips in satin red lipstick was on the center of his forehead. The work of the other man was evident as a knife wound ran from his throat to his belly and Tamara knew his heart was gone. She held her stomach and ran for the bathroom.

Even in the service she’d never seen anything like this. It was the most hideous thing she’d ever seen. The toilet was in sight, but already her stomach was reacting violently. What little she had in her belly came up and spewed in her hand and toilet as she leaned over it.

She broke into a sweat, her stomach heaving again and again. “Tamara!” Lars yelled and ran into the bathroom and knelt beside her.

“I’m here.” He brushed her hair back away from her neck and a cool compress was placed behind there. “I’m so sorry you had to see that baby. I don’t’ know how to make this stop. Every time we turn around these pests are doing something else to us.”

Wet tears dropped down on her back of her shoulders and she gazed over her shoulder at him when the retching stopped. “Not your fault, Lars.” She took the wash cloth from the back of her neck and wiped her face as she leaned against the tub.

“I’m sorry about your brother. I never wished for this for him. I think when this is all said and done the three of us need to take a long trip. Maybe Scotland, I’ve never been there,” she looked up to see Gage standing in the doorway.

“She’s sent the message. This bitch wants her party and no one is going to stop it. We need to cancel the death warrant.” Tamara held up her hand, stopping Lars words. “It has to be known to the others that we did this. She’ll pull back now as long as we’re planning her introduction to the elders. It’s obvious she’ll even kill her lovers over it, but that does not mean they have to actually stop hunting.”