The Dark-Hunters (674 page)

Fang lay on his side, quiet and still. He had one arm tucked under his head while his eyes danced around the room as if looking at all the shadows to come alive and attack him.

And still he managed to look delectable to her. Even with his shaggy hair and unkempt beard. Even though his body was much thinner, he still sent a jolt of desire through her.

“What are you thinking?”

Those dark eyes met hers and held her spellbound. They also stole her breath. “How grateful I am that you didn’t give up on me.”

She took his hand into hers and squeezed it gently. “Wolves aren’t the only ones who are loyal, you know? We bears have a pretty good reputation in that department too.”

Dev knocked lightly before he pushed the door open. His jaw dropped as he saw Fang awake. “Holy shit. The wolf lives.”

Aimee got up to pull the tray from his hand and set it on the dresser. “Why did you think I asked for broth?”

“Thought you’d had a head injury or something.”

She rolled her eyes.

Dev shut the door and came forward to stand next to Fang’s bed. “So when did you get the last one?”

“A few minutes ago.”

His look hardened. “Alone?”

“No. Kyle was with me.”

That didn’t help his glare in the least. In fact, it intensified. “Damn it, Aimee. You risked the cub?”

“He’s not just a cub.”

“You’re right. He’s the passenger who fell off the short bus. Damn, Aimee, of all the people to take with you into a fight—”

“Dev!” she snapped, her own anger igniting. She was in no mood for his lecture.

He shook his head. “You know the kid. He doesn’t exactly think most of the time. The bricklayer left half his stash at the factory.”

Irritated, she pointed at the door. “Get out.”

When he refused to do as she said, she pushed him through the door, then slammed it in his face.

“That was really rude, sis,” he yelled from the hallway. “You actually hurt my tender little feelings.” His voice sounded like a kid’s.

“You have no feelings, Devereaux. That bus passed you by a long time ago.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot. Fine. Be that way. I have more important things to do anyway. I have a hangnail that needs my attention.”

Aimee rolled her eyes again as she took the broth from the tray to Fang who had been remarkably quiet through their exchange.

“Is he always like that?”

She wished she could say otherwise, but she couldn’t. “Basically, yes.”

Fang took the bowl from her and sipped from it like a cup. “It’s a wonder you haven’t killed him.”

“Isn’t it, though?”

He paused as if he realized what he was doing. He gave her a sheepish look. “I’m supposed to use something to eat this, aren’t I?”

That question touched her deeply. That he would be concerned about offending her after all he’d been through. It was unexpected and it warmed her. “Don’t worry about it. I know you’re starving.”

Fang nodded. She was right about that. His stomach ached so badly that it was all he could do not to attack. He downed the soup quickly and then swapped her the bowl for the glass of water. “You know, I could really use a steak right about now.”

“Your body isn’t used to real food. Carson’s been keeping you on IVs and we’ve hand-fed you liquids all this time. I don’t want to make you sick by putting something solid in you until I talk to him.”

Fang looked down and realized just how thin he was. “Damn. I’m half my size.”

“Not quite, but it will take time to heal.”

Still, he shuddered. He didn’t like looking like this. Most of all, he didn’t like this weak feeling. He was a fighter, not an invalid. “I need a bath.”

“Can you stand?”

That question seriously offended him. “I’m not helpless.”

“Oh, look!” Aimee exclaimed in an exaggerated falsetto. “Mr. Macho is back in all his glory. Hello, Mr. Macho, it’s so not good to see you again. But you know, Mr. Macho, that you’ve been bedridden to the point that your legs aren’t used to carrying your weight and you’re not really human. So if you want to get up and fall, gods forbid I do anything to stop it. After all, I live for
America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Should I fetch a camcorder now?”

He wanted to be angry at her. At the very least offended, and yet he found her strangely entertaining. “Shut up and help me get to a bathroom.”

“Okay, but you might want to put some clothes on before Maman, Papa, or Dev has a stroke. On second thought, we want Dev to have one, but my luck it’ll only be Maman or Papa who sees us and that wouldn’t go well for either of us.”

Smiling at her humor, he dressed himself in a pair of jeans and a shirt. And as he tried to stand he realized just how right she was. His limbs were like walking on damp noodles. But with her help, he was able to get to the bathroom and into the tub. He dissolved his clothes as Aimee turned on the water and adjusted the temperature.

“Should I ask about how at ease you are with me naked?”

She pulled a towel down and set it next to the tub. “I have many brothers.”

“That you’ve seen naked?”

She dropped her hand into the water to test the temperature. “
Bear
naked many a day and more times than I’ve ever cared for. Plus I help Carson out in the clinic.” She folded her arms on the edge of the tall, claw-foot tub and rested her chin on her hands. It was an adorable pose and made him wish he had the strength to pull her into the tub with him and ease the ache in his groin.

“If it eases your ego, you are a very attractive wolf.” She handed him a washcloth and bar of soap, then placed a razor, shaving cream, and mirror on the floor within his reach. “However, I do need to leave before Maman or Papa happen to catch me alone with you. Neither of them would be happy and I went through too much to save your life to have them end it now.”

Fang really didn’t want to be alone again. He’d spent so much time that way these last few months, but he knew she was right. The last thing he wanted to do was get her into trouble.

“If you need me, call.”

He nodded as she walked out the door like a normal person. But she wasn’t normal and neither was he. They were two animals who had no business interacting with each other.

Sighing, he lathered the cloth and set about cleaning himself up so that he didn’t offend his own olfactory glands. Gah, how had Aimee stood being near him? He was disgusted by his own scent.

The shaving was a little harder than the bathing. He’d never quite gotten the hang of it on his best day.

Hissing, he flinched as he cut his chin.

Aimee was there immediately. “What happened?”

Surprised, he frowned. Had she been listening in on him? “I cut myself.”

She grimaced at the sight of the pooling blood. She grabbed a piece of tissue and covered it. “Goodness, wolf. Can’t I leave you alone for three seconds?”

“I never could do this sh—stuff right.”

She took the razor from him and carefully raked it over his cheek. “It’s not that hard.”

He waited until she pulled the razor away to rinse it before he spoke. “And again, I ask you how it is you’re so good at shaving men.”

She laughed. “I’m a bear and I have a lot more area to shave than just the face.”

He arched a brow at that, then tilted his head to look at her legs as if trying to imagine what they looked like underneath her jeans. “Yeah, you do.”

Aimee took his chin in her hand and forced him to lean his head back so that she could shave his neck. Her gaze slid down his ripped muscles to where his erection was plainly visible in the water. Heat covered her cheeks. While she might be comfortable with his nudity,
that
was another matter entirely. And it was something she’d never seen before.

Since she’d never felt the quickening, she’d never mated with a male. Not that she was naïve or uneducated about what males and females did. She knew all the nuances of sex as her brothers felt more than free to share the most embarrassing facts of their premarital exploits, but …

She’d never experienced it herself.

And until Fang, she’d never really been all that curious about what she’d been missing. But now she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to taste Fang. What he would feel like inside her. Even though he was fierce, she knew he’d be gentle. Loving.

Forcing her attention back to his neck, she admired the perfect curves that made up his jawline. He really was a gorgeous man. Even emaciated and worn.

Focus, Aimee.

The problem was, she was focused. Just not on what she needed to be focused on.

Fang licked his lips as she finished shaving him. He tried to keep his hands over the stiff part of himself and he hoped to the gods that she wasn’t able to see it. But it was hard and he was in excruciating pain over it.

Pulling away, she put the razor up on the sink. “I know you’re not helpless, but do you need me to help dry you off?”

The mere offer of it made his cock jerk in expectation. “Um, no, I think I can do it.”

“You sure?”

He felt himself harden even more. “Pretty much. Yes.”

“All right. Can you use your powers to take you back to bed while I clean up in here real quick?”

And keep her from seeing just how bad he wanted a taste of her? “Absolutely.”

She frowned at the word that had come out as a strange squeak. “Are you okay?”

Fang cursed silently at himself. “Fine.” Or at least as fine as a man dying of unsated testosterone poisoning could be.

She gave him a suspicious scowl. “You don’t seem fine. You seem a bit agitated.”

“Absolutely great.” He flashed himself out of there so fast that he forgot to dry off.

He cursed as he realized what a mess he’d made of his bed. Growling at himself, he used his powers to set everything to rights before he conjured a pair of flannel pajama bottoms for himself. But they did nothing to hide his erection that now formed a solid tent at his crotch.

Put her out of your mind.

Yeah, right. Her touch was as branded on his senses as her scent and there was no relief in sight.

Kill me.…

He sighed and forced himself to turn over. But the moment he did, he felt a powerful shift in the air. One that could only herald the arrival of an extremely powerful entity.

Ready to battle, he crouched in the bed to find Thorn standing just inside the door.

“What are you doing here?”

Thorn gave him a piercing glare. “It’s time for you to earn your keep, wolf. You ready?”

CHAPTER 17

“Earn my keep?” Fang said slowly to Thorn, enunciating every word just so that there was no miscommunication. “Are you out of your fucking mind? I just got back and I can barely stand on my own. What do you want me to do? Bleed on them?”

Thorn laughed. “You sound rather robust to me.”

Whatever. The man was high if he thought for even one second that Fang could do much more than what he was currently doing. Sitting. Thorn definitely had to be on something.

Fang leaned back on the bed to glare at him. “What do you want exactly?”

“An end to the mistreatment of small, fluffy dust bunnies. But that doesn’t seem feasible at present, so in lieu of that I want you to know that while Xedrix and company may have assisted you and Aimee, they are still demons to be watched and executed if need be.”

Yeah, that really sounded like something he was raring to do. Sign him up … never. “Why aren’t you sending them back to Kalosis if they’re such a problem?”

He looked extremely disappointed. “They don’t really fall under my jurisdiction. Charonte demons are a different entity and have a separate pantheon they answer to. It doesn’t mean we turn a complete blind eye to them, but so long as they take it easy on humanity—which means they’re eating the corrupt and not decent upstanding citizens, and their gods keep them in check, we don’t worry about them … much.”

Thorn manifested a five-by-seven photo and handed it to him. It was of a man in his early twenties whose heart had been torn out of his chest. “This, on the other hand, is what concerns us. Or more to the point,
me
and thereby you as default.”

While gruesome, it was a scene Fang had seen several times since coming to New Orleans. “It looks like a typical voodoo sacrifice.”

“Well, slap my ass and call me Sally if you’re not bright. It is part of a summoning ritual for a Grand Laruae.”

That was a term a wolfwere didn’t hear every day. In fact, he had heard of it never. “A what?”

Thorn’s features were completely impassive. “Badass demon with a superiority complex who picks his teeth with the bones of infants. Let’s just keep it simple and say he’s a demon I want out of the human realm. ASAP.”

“And why can’t
you
go after him?”

Thorn looked extremely perturbed by his question. “That’s a long story for one night when I’m under-the-table drunk. In the meantime, the shortest and simplest version is politics, which really chafes my ass. Believe me, I don’t like it any more than you do. In fact, I’d like nothing better than pinning this bastard’s warted hide to the nearest tree, preferably an oak one … but let’s not go there. Unfortunately, I, personally, can’t touch him without war breaking out.”

He indicated the photo with a jerk of his chin. “Phrixis has taken out some of my best people over the centuries and I’d give anything short of my soul to put him out of commission once and for all.”

Fang looked down at the face of the kid in the photo. His features were contorted by fear. Poor kid hadn’t stood a chance and that set off his own anger. One thing Fang had never been able to stomach. A bully. Thorn was right. This asshole needed to be stopped.

Thorn pinned him with a lethal stare. “You, my little
loup-garou,
are the best weapon in this battle since our VD maven won’t see
you
coming and neither will Phrixis.”

“What about the priestess?” he asked since Thorn had brought her up. “What do you want me to do where she’s concerned?”

“Her, I’ll take care of. There’s no treaty where she’s concerned so I have free rein to do with her as I will. Bitch going to rue the day she decided to unleash Phrixis on the world.”