To Crave a Blood Moon (16 page)

“We're going after them. Tonight,” Lily explained. “Before they move.”

At Sebastian's arched brow, Luc answered. “We're going to blow up the warehouse.”

Air hissed out between his teeth. While silver was the most common method used to kill a lycan, being blown into a million fragments was another. Sometimes EFLA and NODEAL employed that measure when they tracked down a nest.

From Ruby's wide eyes, the plan was news to her.

“Any additional help would be appreciated.” Luc's tone turned matter-of-fact. He motioned to several crates sitting on one side of the room. “We need to make sure all the charges are clear and unobstructed around the perimeter. And explosives positioned on every floor of the building. No one can survive. We're looking for total incineration.”

“We have to go back in there?” Ruby's face paled, and Sebastian felt a surge of protectiveness.

“Ruby's been through enough,” he spoke up. “I'm taking her to the hotel.”

She gave a small jerk, clearly startled at his words. “I don't need a babysitter, thank you. I'm a big girl.”

“You're coming with me.”

Their gazes clung. The air crackled between them. His hands flexed at his sides. He'd carry her if he had to. She wasn't putting herself at risk anymore.

“Wait.” She blinked, shaking her head, color heightening her cheeks as she came to a sudden realization. “If Gunter's in there during the explosion—”

“Your curse will be broken,” Lily finished, reaching over to give her hand a small squeeze, smiling kindly.

Ruby returned her smile. A shaky sigh spilled from her lips, and she closed her eyes in a long relieved blink.

“I'll stay and assist however I can,” Darius volunteered.

Luc nodded, eyeing Darius warily, as if he was unsure whether he wanted his help.

“What the hell?” Gideon shrugged. “Came all this way. Suppose I will, too.”

“Oh, no, you don't.” Kit shook her head fiercely. “Claire will have my head if anything happens to you. You have a baby at home waiting for Daddy. Rafe and I will help. Not you.” Rafe nodded in agreement.

Gideon scowled. “Claire knew I was taking a risk coming here. I'm in.”

Shaking his head, Sebastian stepped forward and closed a hand around Ruby's arm, the warmth of her flesh instantly familiar and sweet. “Let's go.”

He'd spent enough time in that warehouse. As had Ruby. He'd fantasized about revenge for weeks, but now he cared more about keeping Ruby safe. He owed her that.

He wasn't inclined to risk her another moment to the bastards prowling that warehouse. He would let the others rig the explosives. They'd do the job right. Kill Gunter.

Right now Ruby needed him. He wasn't leaving her until this was over.

He faced his brother. “See you back at the hotel. Be safe.”

With one hand wrapped around Ruby's, he hurried them from the building to wait out the outcome across town.

“Why did you come back for me?” She spoke quietly where she sat on the backseat of the cab, looking out the window rather than at him. Anywhere but him. She gnawed the edge of her thumbnail. A bad habit she thought she'd outgrown long ago.

With his face shaved, body clean, dressed in a simple black t-shirt and jeans, he was overwhelming to her senses. Her gaze skittered to him. Outside the cell, he seemed even larger, his shirt stretched taut over his defined chest. And who knew
that
face hid beneath all that hair? Her heart beat an erratic rhythm in her too-tight chest. Gorgeous in a very David Beckham way. The square jaw, the chiseled lips that looked made for kissing.

She felt his answer before he even spoke, felt it rise up inside him and reach out to her.
Bewilderment. Anger
. The anger was not with her, but at himself. This she knew.

She lowered her hand from her lips. Her fingers floated above the seat for a moment, the barest tremble over his. The urge to wrap her fingers over his hand seized her.
He came for me.
Her throat grew tight. That was more than anyone else in her life would do. He cared enough to track her down, find her and keep her from returning to that nest again. Sitting beside him, so close she could smell the light scent of shampoo, something inside her loosened, unfurled inside her chest. Then she regained her senses and snatched her hand away to fist it in her lap.

“I don't know.” He scratched his fingers through his short-cropped hair. “We seemed connected in all this. I couldn't be done with any of it until I knew you were safe. Free.”

“Well.” She fingered the edge of the seat. “Now I am. So you're done.” She moistened her lips, her mouth suddenly dry at speaking words she didn't want to be true.

“Almost.”

She sent him a sideways look on the seat, gazing at the hard line of his jaw. A muscle flexed in his taut cheek and her insides quivered—all the way deep, to
the core of her. Where she remembered him. Where the hard burn of him had filled her. Thrilling. Terrifying. Wrong.
Right
.

“What do you mean, almost?”

“When they set off that bomb and Gunter's dead, then it will be truly over.”

Her nails dug into the upholstery. “That shouldn't be too long.”

Tension swam between them. Except for the driver, they were alone again. Every fiber of her being radiated with awareness of him, his arm so close it nearly brushed her. His tightly-muscled body hummed with vitality beside her. Strength. Power. Her palms itched.

When they finally arrived at the hotel, she slid out eagerly from the cab. Side by side, they entered the luxurious hotel. At the front desk, Sebastian acquired a room for her on the same floor as his. “Your room is next to mine,” he murmured as the elevator ascended. “Just knock if you need anything.”

She moistened her lips. “Thank you.” He unlocked her door and handed her the key. Their fingers brushed and air hissed from between her teeth at the contact. Breathless, she heard herself saying, “I don't think I can be by myself. In this city. Not yet.”

He stared at her for several moments. The feral chill in that dark gaze made her want to shiver, flinch, look away. She held her ground, releasing her breath
when he broke eye contact and walked past her into her room.

Now they were truly alone again. Like before. No driver to bear silent witness. In a clean room. With a large, tempting bed.

She unhooked her money belt and dropped it on a table. Moving to the small bar, she asked, “Drink?”

“No, thank you.”

She poured herself a glass of something goldenbrown. She couldn't make out the label, but it burned going down. She filled it a second time, gasping when his large hand covered hers. “Don't.”

“What?”

“You don't have to drink yourself to oblivion. It's almost over. Tomorrow you can go home and put it all behind you.”

“Really?” Her head snapped back, the drink spreading like fire through her belly. Her eyes collided with his. “And what about you? Will I forget you?”

He flinched. A muscle jumped wildly in his jaw.

She reached for the glass again, her voice hard, bitter over the heaviness in her chest, the tight ache surrounding her heart. “Because that might be hard to do.”

“What do you want me to do about that now, Ruby? I can't take it back. Not any of it.”

“Do you even care? Are you even sorry?”
She heard the sharpness of her voice, felt the rise of heat in her face and knew that she was dangerously close to snapping.

“Sorry? Sorry for being something that had to either fuck you or devour you.” He dragged a hand through his hair and flung himself away from her; stood before the window. He faced the city skyline. The night burned with a thousand lights.

She drew a shuddering breath.

His voice continued in a low, dark rush, “Hell, yes. I'm sorry. Sorry for what I am.” His dark eyes glittered, sucking her in, spiking heat inside her. “Sorry that when you look at me all you will ever remember is the suffering we shared together.”

She shook her head. His regret, the hurt he felt, reached inside her, twisting her stomach.

Her mother warned her of this.
You cannot take others' hurt inside you, Ruby. You can't cure them of it, so don't make it your own. Throw up your walls, do whatever you can to protect yourself.

Easier said than done. Especially where he was concerned. All she ever did around him was
feel
. He was impossible to block. And she had learned to block over the years, as her mother advised. To some degree. Otherwise, she couldn't function. But with him, Sebastian… Her heart wouldn't close itself. So she felt his regret, and wondered why she didn't feel
the same. Why did she only want him to take her in his arms?

“Don't.” She moved to his side and touched his shoulder. “Don't hate what you can't help being.”

Her words brought her up hard. Had she not done that very thing for most of her life? Didn't Adele nag her to embrace her gift? Although she doubted she could ever open up shop declaring herself clairvoyant and charge thirty dollars an hour, she could learn to better accept herself.

He looked down at her, his gaze pulling her in. “I guess you know something about that.”

She laughed nervously. How could she forget? He knew her secret. “Not many know that about me.” She wished he didn't. Wished she could take back the confession. She would give anything for him to not look at her as her own family had… a freak of nature.

His gaze drilled into her and she began to feel something else beneath the tension of the moment. His skin beneath her hand began to spark and tingle, warm. “You're not cold anymore,” she murmured, moistening her lips. “Before, when we were locked up, you were so cold.”

“I've eaten.” His lips twisted. A full mouth, she now appreciated, teeth a blinding flash of white. “I'm no longer a walking corpse.”

He lifted a hand and brushed the hair back off her shoulder. She jumped at the contact. His thumb grazed her cheek and he tilted her face up to his.

Step back. Move away, Ruby
.

Instead, she gazed up at him, his face limned in red from the city lights outside their window. He looked menacing, but she didn't care. Danger had become as natural to her as the air she breathed, and she discovered she craved this particular brand of danger.
She craved him
.

Tonight her curse would end, and she would go back to Beau Rivage. She could forget that she had ever been some terrible creature of myth. She could forget him and pretend that she had not given herself to him on the floor of a dirty cell, like a pair of wild animals.

“You know what I'm feeling,” he murmured, his eyes penetrating. “So why are you still standing here? Letting me touch you like this?”

She swallowed. She did know. And the desire swelling through him, the hot sexual need, should have her demanding that he leave.

Except she felt it, too. Deep inside her. It drove her to the edge. Drove her to forget everything except the hot pulse of lust.

“I've always been safe. Done what I should.” Except for this trip. This trip had been her first foray into the unknown. And after everything that had happened,
she should have learned her lesson about taking risks, venturing into the unknown. But she still stood here. Welcoming danger head-on—
him
. “Tomorrow I'll be safe again.” Human. On a plane to the States.

She licked her lips. The memory of his hands on her hips, warm and firm, anchoring her for his every penetrating thrust, flashed through her head. Her hips tingled, as if she could feel his hands on her again, now, holding her for his driving pleasure.

Her voice slipped past her lips. “I want you. Without the fear.” No rushed, desperate coupling. She wanted it to be right this time.

“Ruby.” The callused pads of his hand chafed her cheek.

She thought of those few dates she had risked over the years… the men that had repelled her with their lukewarm emotions, their lack of interest reaching her before their drinks even arrived. Or those whose obnoxious and lewd thoughts made her skin crawl.

“You don't want me. This is the lycan talking. Your libido is overactive now. It's one of the many changes—”

“No.” She shook her head. He was the first person she ever felt this way with—it was him. “It's not that. It's me. You.”

“You only think—”

She cut him off again. “I want it to be right.” She motioned to the bed.

He started to remove his hand from her face. She grabbed his wrist, fingers circling the hard bones. She turned her face, pressing a desperate kiss to the center of his palm. Opening her mouth, she tasted his salty skin with her tongue.

He swallowed, his throat working, voice strangled. “It can't erase the last time.”

“Last time wasn't… bad,” she quickly asserted. Just desperate. Wild.

And there had been the fear, the overhanging threat that he could snap and possibly surrender to his hunger.

She shook her head. Maybe he was right and she did want to wipe out the memory of the first time. Who cared? It didn't change her wanting him, needing him right now.

“Just show me how it can be,” she whispered. His eyes scanned her face for a long moment before he moved. Just a fraction. Indecision warred inside of him, his dark eyes gleaming.

Sweet torment. Craving
.

Gratification curled through her. He wanted her. He could not resist.

Her heart hammered a violent tempo as his head dipped. His mouth was inches from hers when the explosion rocked the night.

They jumped apart, swinging to face the window, staring out at the burst of red-gold against the city skyline.

“It's done,” he murmured, and she sensed his concern. His fervent desire for the others to be safe. She prayed for the same. For all of them to be safe… especially Lily and Luc. They had probably saved her life, plucking her off the streets when they did.