Scarlet Heat (Born to Darkness) (11 page)

“I guess it could be spelled to hurt someone—most
likely me,” I said, frowning. “That’s pretty strong dark magic though. And we’d
have to get a witch to test it to be sure.”

“I know a witch you could ask,” Taylor said. “I
can get her information from Addison.”

“Get it,” I said, still glaring at the trap. "If
somebody left a spelled trap on my land, I need to know it. Anybody who’d go to
that kind of trouble isn’t going to give up easily.”

Taylor went pale—well, paler than usual, anyway.

“Do you think this has to do with me coming here?
Coming to stay with you?”

I shook my head. “I doubt it. More likely to do
with the fact that my land is right beside the place the local wolf pack runs
on full moon nights. I didn’t know it when I bought this place or I would have
looked a little harder.”

“You think they’re trying to run you off?” she
asked.

I shrugged. “They made a few overtures but I put
them off—I thought they got the message that I like going it alone.”

“Is that a problem for weres? When you decide to
be a, uh, lone wolf, the other wolves don’t like it?” she asked.

I was surprised at the astuteness of her
question.

“That’s it exactly,” I said. “Especially if the
lone wolf is an Alpha. The pack leader might not want another Alpha near his
territory. So it
could
be him.” I
shook my head. “I guess we won’t know for sure until we find out who put down
the trap.”

“I’ll get the information from Addison and set up
an appointment with the witch—we can go tonight if you want to. Unless you’re
going to, you know, change again,” Taylor said.

I shook my head. “I only
have
to change on the one night of the month the moon is fullest. I
can hold it off all right the rest of the time. So don’t worry—you won’t have
to see too much more of my wolf.”

“Oh really? That’s too bad.” To my surprise, she
sounded disappointed.

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Too bad? Why would
you say that?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just…I
liked
your wolf. He was so big and
cuddly—kind of like a living teddy bear. He kept me warm while I was sleeping—I
mean
really
warm and that’s hard for
me. I’m always cold since I was turned.”

“He
is actually
me,”
I reminded her.
“I
was the one
cuddling you and keeping you warm last night.”

“Oh, I know.” She blushed a pale pink. “I
just…it’s hard to think of you and the wolf as the same being. You’re just so
different in that form. Less, I don’t know…less threatening. Not that you’re
threatening now,” she went on hurriedly. “But you’re just less…less scary as a
wolf.”

I couldn’t help laughing. “You must be the only
person I know who thinks a huge wolf is less scary than a man.”

“Animals aren’t deliberately cruel,” she said
softly. “I mean, they may do savage things sometimes but it’s because of
instinct, not because they want to hurt someone on purpose. You know?”

I nodded. “So animals are safer than men—is that
what you’re saying?”

“Pretty much.” She crossed her arms over her
chest protectively. “Sorry, I’m not saying
you’re
cruel or anything. I guess I just like animals better than people
sometimes, that’s all. They’re less…complicated.”

I had to agree with her there—I felt the same way
a lot of the time. In fact, most weres and shape shifters do. There’s a
prevailing feeling among my kind that having an animal side makes you more
straightforward, less likely to bullshit or double cross somebody in a deal.
But it seemed strange to hear that sentiment coming from a vamp. Of course, I
was beginning to get an idea of what she had been through at the hands of
Celeste and Roderick so maybe it wasn’t so strange after all.

“Well…” Taylor sighed. “Let me go call Addison
and see what I can find out. Maybe we can figure it out tonight.”

“Good idea,” I said. “Uh, your clothes should be
done in a minute. I put them in the dryer right before I nearly stepped in that
damn trap.”

“Speaking of the trap—look at it.” Taylor’s eyes
were wide.

“What?” I looked at the tangle of gray fabric
where I had shed my sweatpants, expecting to see the silver teeth grinning at
me. But the trap wasn’t there—it was three feet away from the sweats and lying
right in front of the refrigerator, which was where I had been going to go
next. Not only that but it was open again, its silver teeth gleaming in the
overhead fluorescents since the sun had finally sunk behind the trees outside.

“Holy shit,” I muttered, staring at the thing.
“Did you see it move?”

Taylor shook her head. “No. I didn’t see anything
the whole time we’ve been standing here talking.”

“Me either,” I said. “That’s it—we have to find
out about this damn thing tonight. I don’t want it in my house one second
longer than it has to be.”

“We should put it in a box or a bag—something
strong,” Taylor said. “Something it can’t…can’t bite through.”

“I’ll find something,” I told her, looking around
the kitchen. “You get the broom—I don’t think we should touch it.”

“Okay.” She came into the kitchen easily now—the
sunlight was gone and there was no need for her to fear. I made a mental note
to get some shades put up right away—we might even stop by Home Depot tonight and
get some cut. I didn’t want a repeat of today’s near accident.

We wound up pushing the trap into a big old
Tupperware cake container my Mom had given me years ago, when I first moved
out. Taylor shoved it with the business end of the broom (which it snapped shut
on, making us both jump, by the way) and I cornered it with the Tupperware
until it pretty much had no choice. Once we got it squared away with the thick
plastic lid in place, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Nice cake carrier,” Taylor remarked, smiling at
me. “You do a lot of baking?”

I shook my head. “Sorry to disappoint you but I’m
not one of those guys who’s secretly really good in the kitchen or anything. I
just keep that big old thing because my mom gave it to me when I first moved
out. Well, actually she baked me a cake and gave it to me in this container and
then I just kind of never gave it back. It reminds me of her.”

“Oh, is she…did she pass away?” Taylor asked
sympathetically.

I shook my head. “No, she’s alive. I just can’t
see her. My dad either.”

“Oh…” Taylor hesitated, clearly uncertain what to
say about that. I could see by her face she wanted to ask why but didn’t want
to step on my toes. I took pity on her.

“I was shunned by my pack,” I explained stiffly.
“After that…when that happens, you can’t talk to anyone in the pack anymore.
Not even family.”

Taylor frowned. “That’s horrible. I’m so sorry,
Victor.” She put a hand on my arm and squeezed briefly before letting me go.
“My parents don’t talk to me either. Ever since I was born to darkness they
call me ‘the bride of Satan.’ As if I
wanted
to be this. As if I
chose it.”

“I didn’t choose what got me shunned either,” I
said, relieved that she hadn’t asked me the reason behind my expulsion from the
pack. “It’s just something I live with.”

“Me too.” Taylor sighed and then motioned at the
trap contained in the Tupperware. “You think that’ll hold it?”

“I have no idea.” I frowned. “I’m going to keep
an eye on it. You get us an appointment with that witch—we need to get to the
bottom of this.”

“Will do, as soon as I get my clothes.” She
nodded and smiled at me. “You know, you may not be able to bake but any man who
does laundry is all right in my book.”

“Don’t forget the part where I turn into a big
cuddly wolf,” I pointed out, grinning at her. “It’s not every guy who can do
that.”

“Very true.” Taylor smiled at me but I thought
there was something troubled in her eyes. “I, uh, should go. Get my clothes, I
mean.” She turned away abruptly.

“Okay,” I said, still keeping half an eye on the
trap. I wondered again who had put it on my land and why. I knew the local pack
leader, a were named Marcus Wainright, from one very brief meet and greet when
I had first moved into the area. He was an Alpha in his fifties who seemed to be
stern but fair. Putting a spelled trap on my land didn’t seem like his style.
His daughter, LeeAnn, however, was a real piece of work.

For a moment I considered the possibility that
she might have something to do with it but then I dismissed it. LeeAnn was a
spoiled little princess—Alpha bitch of the pack on account of her father’s
status—not because she’d earned it. But she didn’t strike me as malicious—just
selfish and willful. She’d made a play for me when I first came to town, which
I had declined—very politely—I didn’t want to give her any reason to claim
offense. I had no interest in that kind of woman and even if I had, I wouldn’t
have wanted anything to do with her. You can’t date the pack leader’s daughter
and not join the pack.

But ruling out Marcus and LeeAnn still left me
with a big question. “Who put you out there?” I muttered, eyeing the trap. “I
guess we’ll see.”

Chapter Eight—Taylor

“If you’re after a spell to dissolve your
blood-bond, forget it,” Gwendolyn LaRoux said the minute she opened her front
door and invited us in. She lived in Ybor City with her grandmother in a small
wooden bungalow painted pale yellow with white trim—I had gotten her address
from Addison.

“That’s not why we’re here,” Victor said stiffly,
as we followed her into a large living room filled with shabby but clean
furniture that looked like it had been new back in the seventies. “And how do
you even know about us being bonded, anyway?”

Gwendolyn shrugged. “A witch knows.” She was
pretty, with
café au lait
skin,
delicate features, and striking jade green eyes lined with heavy black makeup.

“You talked to Addison, didn’t you?” I said.
“What did she tell you?”

Gwendolyn settled on a worn armchair and nodded
at Victor and me to take the faded floral print couch opposite.

“She’s just worried about you, that’s all. She
wants to be sure you’re doing okay.”

“I just talked to her when I got your address,” I
said as we sat down. “She knows I’m fine.”

Actually, my conversation with Addison had been a
little one-sided. She seemed sure that Victor was going to abuse me in some way,
though I had assured her otherwise.

I had wanted to talk to her more about the weird
feelings that had come back even more strongly since I had fed on Victor the
second time but we hadn’t had time. And besides, I was
embarrassed
. How did I tell my best friend I had a terminal case of
the hots for my new werewolf husband? Even now, after touching myself over and
over, I was still uncomfortably aware of his wild scent and the heat from his
big body radiating against my side. God, what was going on with me?

“You may be fine
now,”
Gwendolyn said darkly, pulling me out of my uncomfortable
reflection. “But a vamp and a were being bonded…I don’t know.”

“What
don’t you know?” I asked,
feeling suddenly worried. “What are you talking about?” Did she sense what was
going on with me? Did she know what was happening?

“Never mind. You’ll find out soon enough, if you
haven’t already.” She shrugged mysteriously, making me want to grab her and
shake her. Damn it, I needed answers! Not evasions and mystical witch sayings.

“Cut the crap,” Victor growled. “Taylor and I
aren’t here to talk about our bond. We want to find out about this.” He nodded
at the Tupperware container with the silver trap, which he was carrying in a
large plastic shopping bag. Very carefully, he removed the plastic lid and
placed the container, bag and all, on the coffee table.

Gwendolyn looked in the container and recoiled.

“How dare you bring a cursed object into my
house?” she demanded, glaring up at him. “This was made in the Shadow Lands—I
don’t want it here.”

“Well, I don’t want it on my land, either,”
Victor growled. “Which is where I found it when I put my fucking foot in it
last night.”

“We want to know who put it there and why,” I
said quickly, leaning forward on the faded couch. “And we thought since you’re
a witch, you might be able to tell us.”

Gwendolyn frowned. “Well, it’s true that an
individual witch’s magic leaves a personal signature behind but I don’t
recognize this one. Whoever did it, though, they’re very strong. And very into
the dark arts.”

“Do you know anyone like that? Could you give us
a name—someplace to start?” Victor asked.

“Even if I could, it wouldn’t help you,”
Gwendolyn pointed out. “It’s not the witch you should be looking for, it’s just
a business deal for them. Whoever he or she did the spell for—the one who put
this trap on your land to hurt you—
that’s
who you ought to be after.”

“Can you get any kind of a, I don’t know, a
reading on it?” I asked. “Give us a general idea of who’s behind it?”