Hot Decadent Rising (Breath of Darkness) (36 page)

She was sitting down to eat with a pack
of wolves. It should’ve frightened her, but it didn’t. Not really. Seeing them
eat was shocking. They could really put it away. She knew they were no threat
to her. She’d just started to sip her second cup of coffee when Eli, wearing
absolutely nothing, rushed into the kitchen. He looked furious. All the guys
fled the kitchen so fast she didn’t even see them move. One minute they were
sitting there and the next they were gone.

“You have an exceptionally hot, sexy
body. I love looking at you. I really do. But…” Mouth half open she stared at him
for a few seconds, and then she busted out laughing.

“You think scaring the hell out of me is
funny?”  He glanced down at himself. “I’ll be right back.” He turned to
leave.

 “Wait.” When he didn’t stop she
spanked his bare ass. Why? Why not? He had a very nice ass. The kind of ass
that begged to be spanked.

Growling, he spun around. “What?”

“How did I scare you?”

“You were gone when I woke up.” He
didn’t give her a chance to respond. He walked out of the kitchen.

Momentarily shocked by his irrational behavior
she stood there for a short period before she followed him out of the kitchen
determined to set him straight. If they had any hope of lasting as a couple she
needed to make sure he thought twice before getting all bent out of shape over
something as silly as her getting out of bed and leaving him to sleep.

She wasn’t surprised to find him
standing, fully clothed, at the bottom of the stairs glaring at the other guys.
“What’s your excuse? Why didn’t you wake me up?” He didn’t raise his voice, but
he was clearly mad at them.

“They wanted to wake you up, but I told
them to leave you alone,” she lied.

Though the moment she spoke all the
other guys turned their heads and stared at her, with shocked expressions, Eli
didn’t even glance at her. “And you listened to her?”

“Why not?” she asked.

“One of you should’ve had enough sense
to wake me up.”

He still didn’t turn to look at her. She
wasn’t letting him get away with ignoring her in front of them. “I’ve always
viewed getting my ass out of bed as a personal responsibility. Don’t you think
you’re being just a bit overdramatic, Eli?”

A few of the men chuckled, but it was
obvious they tried to hide it by coughing and covering their mouths as they
looked away from her.

Eli kept his back to her. “Not now, Kara.
Go up the room and get dressed.”

“No.” He finally turned his head to look
at her so she continued, “I won’t lie. I’m disappointed that you woke up on the
wrong side of the bed. I thought last night was quite satisfying. I woke up
with a smile. Judging your foul mood it must not have been that satisfying for
you.”

At that moment he turned his entire body
to her. “Quite satisfying? That’s it?” Revealing his very sharp lengthened
canines he smiled at her as he locked his burning golden gaze with hers. “In my
opinion our lovemaking was inconceivably incredible last night.” The low,
nearly indiscernible growl accompanied his voice caught and held her captive.
Her entire body tingled as erotic memories of their night played like a movie
through her mind. “Go up to the room and get dressed.” After abruptly pausing
the best ever movie that ever played out in her mind, he turned away from her
to address the guys. “Go out and…”

“No,” she interrupted. “I will not go
upstairs to get dressed until I’m damn good and ready to do it.”

“Go out and check the entire perimeter.
We will be leaving within the hour,” he finished, and then he turned to face
her. “Didn’t I tell you to go upstairs?”

Frowning, she glared at him. “You sure
did.”

“And yet you didn’t do it.”

“I wasn’t damn good and ready yet.” She
was so mad at him for getting mad and acting like a jerk because she’d broken a
rule by leaving him in bed alone. His obvious assumption that she had to cater
to his every demand was despicable. She wasn’t going to bow down to him. She’d
had a terrible morning. Being led to believe her mom was trying to communicate
with her only to discover it wasn’t her mom was no picnic. Worried she would
have a meltdown and start bawling like a baby, she decided to get away from him
for a few moments. “I am ready now.” She turned away from him.

***

Eli
stared at her as she walked up the stairs, though she looked good in his shirt,
that didn’t have anything to do with his inability to take his eyes off her. He
was shocked when he touched the surface of her mind and realized Jeremy had
managed to get into her head and communicate with her. It meant he was near.
Too near. He should’ve known the vampire was close enough to mess with her.

When he heard the lock on his bedroom
door click he ran up the stairs. Gripping the handle in his right fist, he
knocked on the door with his left. “Open the door, Kara.”

  “Go away.”

She was standing too close to the door
for him to break it down so he decided to wait her out. “I need to talk to
you.”

“Later. I’m getting dressed.”

“I wasn’t mad at you.” He gathered from
her thoughts that what bothered her the most was that she believed he was mad
at her.

“Liar.”

He listened as she walked away from the
door. “I was worried.” Worried wasn’t even close to describing the fear he felt
when he realized she wasn’t in bed with him. In the few seconds it took to get
down the stairs and make his way into the kitchen many terrible scenarios of
what could’ve happened to her while he was asleep crossed his mind. He was so
panic-stricken that he didn’t even smell the bacon until he entered the
kitchen.

“Whatever.” Deciding she was far enough
away from the door, he ripped it off its hinges and tossed it aside. Shaking
her head she looked down at the door and rolled her eyes. “I hope that wasn’t
your way of trying to convince me that you aren’t mad at me.”

“I’m not mad at you.”

“I locked the door for a reason. I
wanted a moment to myself. Just because you can break it down it doesn’t mean
that you have a right to invade my privacy.”

“With all that has happened I panicked
when I woke up and you were gone.” It was the truth. He wasn’t mad at her.
Surprisingly, he didn’t even get mad at her when she challenged and outright
defied him in front of the pack. Honestly, he thought it was just as funny as
the rest of the pack did when they nearly choked in an attempt to hold back
their laughter.

“You lost it. You barged into the
kitchen naked and acted like a jerk, and then you tried to order me around and
you wouldn’t even look at me. Obviously no one ever taught you to hide your
nuttiness.” She glanced down at his crotch. “Pun definitely intended.”

“I didn’t dare look at you for too long.
I would’ve laughed.”

“Since when is laughing bad?”

“It isn’t bad. Not always. But this morning
it would’ve been. You will never be as physically strong as the males in our
pack. It’s up to me to make sure they understand that you are above them. You
are my equal. Anyone stupid enough to test that will answer to me. It’s
imperative for your safety that I make sure every member of our pack
understands that I’ll never tolerate them using you to test me, or play games
with me as they did this morning.”

 “How were they using me to test
you?”

“They were using you to test my reaction
to them separating us and pulling you aside.”

“They didn’t separate us or pull me
aside. I went downstairs on my own. I asked where the kitchen was so I could
make coffee. When I went into the kitchen they followed.”

“Did they say anything to you?”

“When they first saw me one of them
asked what you were doing.”

He nodded. “You told them I was
sleeping, right?”

“Yes.”

 “What happened after that?”

“The one who asked what you were doing
took me to the kitchen and others followed.”

“No. That isn’t what I meant. What was their
reaction to you telling them that I was sleeping?”

Appearing to mull over the question she
drew her bottom lip between her teeth as she looked up at him for a few
seconds. All of the sudden her eyes widened and she released her lip. “Those sneaky
rats! They were amused by it. They looked around at each other as if they were
sharing a funny secret. I just thought they were being weird. Wait.” She took a
step toward him and, fists clenched at her sides, she squared her shoulders as
if she was prepared to take him on in a fist fight. In her dark brown eyes he
saw the anger and pain buried so deep within her heart that it was eating her
up. He also saw a brief flicker a golden flames in her eyes. Though she’d only
taken his blood once it was already changing her. He hadn’t expected it begin
so quickly. “Are you telling me that I was doing something wrong by going
downstairs to make coffee while you were sleeping?”

“No. Not at all. I told you that they
were testing
my
reaction to being separated from you this morning. It
wasn’t a clear explanation of what was really happening. You’ve been targeted
by a vampire. They wanted to see how I would react if I thought it had gotten
to you while I slept.”

“That’s sick.”

“Does that mean you forgive me for being
mad at them when I found them in the kitchen with you?” he asked.

“Yeah. But I think you should do a lot
worse to them than just get mad and make them check the perimeter.”

“Don’t worry, babe. I plan on going
outside in a few minutes to deal with them. I’ll make sure they regret messing
with us.”

“Good.” She turned her back to him. “I
need to tell you something, but you’re going to be mad I didn’t tell you
earlier.”

“Come here.”

She faced him but she took a step back
rather than go to him. She looked so sad. So entirely broken. “Jeremy got into
my head this morning. He talked to me. He pretended to be my mom. I know I
should’ve woke you up and told you as soon as it happened, but I wasn’t sure if
it was real.” He held his hand out for her. She looked down at his hand. “I
didn’t know if it was a just a messed up dream, or if it was real.” She met his
gaze as she closed the gap between them and took his hand. “I didn’t want to
wake you up over something stupid.”   

“Nothing that has anything to do with
you could ever be stupid to me.” He ached to just hold and comfort her, but
before he was able to take her in his arms his pack called out to him. It was a
warning. Jeremy was close to the house.

“What is it?” she asked, obviously
hearing the howls.       

He wasn’t about to leave her behind. The
only other wolf he would ever allow to watch over her at that moment was Cain
and he was with Max and Grace. “The vampire is close. Get dressed and meet me
in ten minutes on the front porch.”

“You’re leaving?”

“No. I’ll be close.”

“How close?”

“Close enough to hear you whisper my
name if you need me.”

“In your head or a real whisper?”

“A real whisper.” 

The moment Eli stepped foot outside he
knew they were in serious trouble. Demetri wasn’t even trying to hide his presence.
He was standing in his dragon form less than a hundred yards away. The pack had
circled him. They would attempt to hold him back though they didn’t stand a
chance. Like it or not demons had powers far greater than any other
supernatural being. If he wanted to proceed he would, killing them all, push
his way through them.

First, he made sure his pack understood
they weren’t to attack. Then, remaining in his human form, Eli began to make
his way toward Demetri. He hoped like hell the demon had had a reason to want
Kara alive. He couldn’t think of reason for it to matter to him, but something
motivated him to heal Kara the first time her father’s men had beaten her and
left her for dead. Demetri also took his human form. 

“Why are you here?” Eli asked.

“You took something very important to an
unsavory acquaintance of mine. I’ve come to help him take it back. It’s nothing
personal. It’s part of a business arrangement.”

“I’m sure you don’t expect me to hand
her over to you.”

Demetri shrugged. “I don’t see why not.
You handed Mia, a pure blooded female Lycan, over to Joseph without a fight. As
I remember you actually carried her for miles through the forest with your pack
pursuing you to kill you. Why would you die for Kara? We both know she isn’t
your true mate. She’s human. According to your laws she can’t belong to you.”

“You aren’t taking her away from me.”

Demetri’s gaze shifted ever so slightly
to his right. At once Eli was made aware of the fact that Mary and Leland were close
by, hiding just beyond the tree line. He was also aware of Jeremy beneath the
ground nearby. He was wounded. Too weak to travel above ground. His body was
healing. With each passing second he was regaining his strength. Once he was
fully rejuvenated, he planned to kill Kara for deceiving him.