To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (111 page)

“Would you taste just as good, I wonder?”  Whatever he was, he did have good diction, but it just made him scarier.  He reminded me of Hannibal Lecter, only he was younger and uglier.

Bile rose in my throat when I saw the hunger and depravation in his eyes.  This was one sick creature—no way could he be human with that snake-like tongue of his—and I had no idea if that hurt or helped my chances of surviving.  But one thing was clear to me now—he didn’t know I was Evren.

He grinned in pleasure when he saw the revulsion in my face.  “Don’t you remember who I am?”  He leaned close and even though I tried my best to lean away, he held me immobile with his grip.  Tears of helpless frustration and revolt stung my eyes at the wet swipe of his tongue on my cheek.

“Don’t you know what I am?”

His question broke through my haze of panic and confusion.  A terrible sense of recognition mixed with fear gripped my heart when I realized exactly what I was dealing with.

Zekan.

His cruel laugh filled the air, and he obviously rejoiced in seeing my horror.  “
Yes,
” he whispered, flicking his tongue on my cheek again even as I renewed my struggles.

“The insects told you what we are, didn’t they?”

Insects? 
He was calling Lucian and Dyvian insects?  Zekans referred to Evren as insects?  Wait a minute, they were calling me an insect, too?

I laughed.  I couldn’t help it, even though fear was still squeezing my heart.

The sound surprised and incensed him, and he slapped me hard on the cheek.

My cheek flamed in pain, but I kept on laughing.  His anger revealed a chink in his armor.  I had to provoke him more.  It was my only chance to escape.  “Insects?  When was the last time you checked the mirror,
worm
?”  Did he think he was the only one good at name-calling?

The redness of his eyes darkened in hatred.  It made me pause because I couldn’t think of any reason he should hate me.  Besides the worm thing, that was.  But I pushed the distracting thought away almost as soon it occurred.  Understanding was for later.  Now was all about surviving.

The moment I had been waiting for all throughout our exchange came when he lifted his hand to strike me again.  I closed my eyes and used all my effort to turn myself invisible like Lucian and Dyvian taught me.

Ice sheathed my skin, and I had never been so glad to feel cold.  The Zekan cursed just as I jerked free from his hold.  I had deliberately goaded him, hoping he’d be provoked into hitting me and leaving even just one of my wrists free.

“Lucian,”
my mind cried out helplessly and I began running again.  It was silly and stupid to cry for him, I knew, but my mind didn’t seem to understand that.
 “Help me.”

“What is it,”
The Voice demanded.  I almost stumbled in shock.  But crazy or not, I was too desperate to mind that I was conversing with a voice inside my head.  Who knew?  It could have been an undiscovered power of the Generation X of Evren.

“It is,”
The Voice didn’t hesitate to confirm for me.

“It is?  Why didn’t you tell me sooner?  Do you know how worried I’ve been about my sanity?  Do you—”

“Delilah, concentrate.  What’s happening?”

Oh, right. 
“A Zekan attacked me, I’m on the run, and I’m invisible.”

“Where are you?”

I told The Voice my location and tripped on a blasted cactus right after.  A
cactus
.  Its needles pierced through my skin.  Blood slowly tricked out, and I gasped at the stinging sensation enveloping my legs.

Something hit me from behind, and I looked up just in time to see the Zekan trip on my invisible body and fall on top of me.  I scrambled away but the Zekan was no idiot and his hands swiped and scratched, trying to take hold of whatever invisible limb of mine he could grab.

I kicked wildly, but he still caught hold of my leg.

The Zekan laughed at hearing my shriek.

“What’s happening,”
The Voice demanded.

Unable to shake my leg free, I took a deep breath, then used all my strength to punch the Zekan in the face.  It was enough to have his face snap to the other side, but not enough to loosen his grip. 
Damn, damn, damn.

The Zekan spit at me, and I almost groaned as a pool of saliva landed on my neck.  It was official—Zekans were the grossest things on earth, and they fought dirty, too.

“Had enough?” he yelled, his arm clawing roughly in the air to take better hold of me as I worked on wriggling out of his grasp.

“Delilah,”
The Voice growled, but I couldn’t answer.  Taking another deep breath, I decided on another tack and bit my attacker on the wrist as hard as I could.

He tasted just as bad as I feared, and his skin had a slightly rubbery texture to it.  But the ploy succeeded, and he grunted in pain and surprise, his grip loosening a bit as his body automatically reared back.  It gave me the perfect opportunity to kick him where it would hurt most.  I took the opportunity, of course.

He let go of me completely, and I got to my feet and ran again, this time making sure there were no life-threatening cactuses in my way.

“Delilah, focus on an image of Lucian, and he’ll know what’s happening.”

I focused on an image of Lucian right away, and even though I was busy running for my life, my fashion-obsessed brain couldn’t avoid lingering a little on choosing the clothes he’d wear.  He’d look good in a pinstriped suit.  And Italian shoes—

“That’s enough, Delilah,”
The Voice said dryly.

I almost blushed until I remembered that The Voice wasn’t Lucian.  It only sounded like him.  And that, I decided, was something I really had to figure out later—among other things.

The Zekan’s curses were all I needed to hear to know he was still dangerously close behind me.  Evren were fast, but Zekans were apparently just as fast.  Their hearing was just as good, too, because even though I swerved in all directions to confuse him, the Zekan used the sound of my passage to follow my trail.

Common sense urged me to fly but my mind recoiled at the thought.  I didn’t have enough confidence in my flying abilities.  What if I took too much time adjusting my body mass?  The Zekan might catch me before I could even lift myself an inch off the ground.  And since neither Lucian nor Dyvian had taught me how to conjure my dragon, having the Zekan’s ass whooped by my inner Evren sidekick was out of the question, too.

My strength showed signs of flagging, warning me about the little time I had left before I wouldn’t be able to continue running.  I definitely shouldn’t have acted weight-obsessed this morning and stuck with whole-wheat toast when there were so many protein-rich foods on the table.

But the moment I stopped running, the Zekan would catch me.

Should I just face him and hope to God I can fight him off till Lucian and Dyvian can come save me?

“No,”
The Voice commanded forcefully, but it was too late.  And even if it hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have listened anyway.

Lift leg, curl, and kick.  I made the move just like they did in the movies, and it was brilliant.  Caught by surprise, the Zekan was an even more vulnerable target for my second and more powerful kick.  He toppled to the ground, and it would have been a TKO if only for one thing.

My skin heated up, shedding off my invisibility with it.

“Shit,” I whispered as I almost dropped to my knees.  My Hollywood moves had completely drained me of energy.

It was too late for me to run away, but of course, I still tried.  A stranglehold on my ankle was all it took to defeat me.  I lost my balance, crashing face down on the ground, smashing my nose.  A drop of blood trickled past my lips.

“You’re not getting away this time,” he snarled, throwing himself at me.

I rolled away and hastened to my feet.  “That’s what you—”  He flung himself at me again, and I twisted away, knowing all the while I had twisted a second too late.

I never considered myself bloodthirsty.  When my ex-boyfriend, Michael, made me watch the last Rambo movie, I sobbed my eyes out while everyone else in the theater yelled as heads and limbs splattered the ground in the midst of war.  Sure, the good guys had reason to kill, but I still didn’t understand how they could have stomached killing anyone.  It was different now, of course.

The
attack never happened.

I slammed into something hard, and I almost wept, certain that, somehow, the Zekan had been able to maneuver himself ahead of me.  How could it end this way?  I did everything I could do to be like those fighter chicks in the movie.  Granted, I wasn’t resourceful like Lara Croft—that woman could turn a paper plane into an F-16 with a yard of copper wire—but I had done my best and it was unfair—

“Deli, it’s me.  You’re safe now.”

“Dyvian?”  I tried to look up, but he tightened his hold and kept my face hidden against his chest.

“Lucian’s fighting and when you’ve got a Zekan on the other side of the ring, it’s bound to be messy.”  His voice was gruff with worry.  “Are you okay?”

I burst into tears.

“
Deli
.
”
  Awkward helplessness lined Dyvian’s tone.  The grip of his hold tightened and loosened, as if he was itching to set me away but he was valiantly determined to keep me close while the weirdly silent battle behind me raged on.

Endless minutes passed before Dyvian spoke again.  “It’s over.”  That made me start on another round of crying, prompting him to panic.  “What’s wrong now?”

“Check the perimeter for any witness, Dyvian.”  Lucian issued the command as he strolled into view, calm as you please.  His slightly messed-up hair was the only evidence of what he must have gone through.  But besides that, he was the Lucian I’d always known—aloof, powerful, and gorgeous.

“Sure thing.”  Dyvian didn’t even bother hiding his eagerness to leave me and my tears, having ascertained I was physically fine.  He walked away, and a gust of air was the only indication of his invisible take-off.

Lucian slowly looked at me.

I didn’t hesitate.

He caught me in his arms without a word and being that close to him brought about another wave of tears.  The smell of charred flesh told me what had become of the Zekan and I shuddered.

He cupped my cheeks.  The tension etched on his handsome face didn’t surprise me, but the pallor of his skin did.  I couldn’t imagine Lucian being so worried about me.

“I was terrified something had happened to you,” he revealed.  I was stunned to see his hand shaking.

My heart flipped.  “I’m okay now.  Thanks to—”

He shook his head.  “No.”  He disagreed so strongly I was taken aback.  “I should’ve known this would happen.  I should’ve thought—”  He stopped talking and stared at me in frustration.  “Deli, there’s something I should have told you.  I—”

Another slight gust of wind blew past us and then Dyvian materialized into view.  “The coast is clear.”

Lucian stepped back from me so quickly I almost lost my balance.

Dyvian raised a brow.  “Am I interrupting something?”

“No.”

One glance at Lucian’s closed face told me I’d never know the rest of what he had to say.  I suppressed a groan of frustration.  Had he been about to confess to worrying because he liked me?

We’re lucky,” Dyvian continued.  “At this time of the day, people are rarely around.  In fact, you can even—”

“Oh no, no, don’t even think about it.  I’m definitely not going to school today.”

“No one’s making you,” Lucian assured me with a slight smile, for once, the usual clinical quality of his voice replaced with something tender.  “He’s probably just thinking about how close-knit Sanger is.”

He nodded to Dyvian.  “Just call the principal and make an excuse.”

Dyvian was already fishing his mobile phone out of his pocket.  He spoke less than a minute, but his tone oozed with practiced charm.  When the call ended, he grinned.  “All done.  I told the principal that you two are getting hitched in Vegas.”

Lucian gave his brother a stoic look while I didn’t know whether to start jumping for joy.  Then he scowled, which was bewildering.  What did I do?

“Be serious, will you?” he snapped.

“I didn’t say anything,” I protested, hoping all the while my face wasn’t giving anything away.  So, I sort of entertained the idea of getting hitched in Vegas.  Surely, he didn’t know that?

Dyvian was gesturing toward something behind my back.  “We do need to go to Vegas for that.”

Following his gaze, I turned around and was startled into a gasp.

My day-old SUV was barely recognizable with crushed metal for a bumper and an improvised, hand-torn sunroof.

A low moan of dismay escaped my lips.

“It’s okay.”  Lucian dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from my car.  “But—”

“I hit the jackpot in the stock market, remember?  I can afford to get it fixed.”  He shrugged.  “Or we can get a new one and—”

“I’d rather have it fixed,” I interrupted, feeling sentimentally attached.

“So we go to Vegas and get it fixed?” Dyvian prompted.  “Anywhere else could raise questions.”

“What about Pahrump?” Lucian inquired.

Dyvian groaned.  “I knew you’d say that.”  He gave me a beseeching look, his eyes adopting a lost puppy expression and the corners of his lips turning down.  “Come on, Deli.  Tell Lucian you need the bright lights of Vegas to help you get through your ordeal.”

Now that he said it, maybe that was just what I needed.  I didn’t really feel like going home yet.  I had the urge to cleanse myself first, to wait for the memories to fade before returning home.

“I do feel like going somewhere…”

Lucian’s scowl gradually melted into a resigned sigh.  “Just this once, I suppose.”

Dyvian whooped.  He winked at me, saying, “You were right, Deli.  You do have him wrapped around your little finger.”  His words made me laugh, and I relaxed even more as Lucian responded in his usual biting fashion.  As long as I got to be with Lucian and Dyvian, I could somehow convince myself that things would turn out right in the end.

~~~

Secrecy was of the essence.  My eyes perpetually scanned the area for possible witnesses.  We were the only ones living in this part of Sanger, but we didn’t want to take any chances.  Behind me, Lucian had turned Evren, gathering all the wreckage with a sweep of his invisible tail before setting everything on fire.

By the time the Chevaliers’ pickup rumbled into view, with Dyvian behind the wheel, everything had been reduced to cinders.  He hooked the SUV to the pickup while Lucian got in the passenger seat next to him and I climbed into the back seat.

We had been driving for a few minutes when I finally broke the silence.  “He told me we met before.  I’ve been thinking about it and I realize he could be one of the guys who attacked us that night.  Couldn’t he?””

Dyvian’s worried gaze checked my expression through the rearview mirror.  “You’ve only stopped crying yourself to sleep—”

“I
want
to know if he’s one of them.”

“Yes.”  Lucian spoke without looking at me.

“Then I’m glad you’ve killed him.”  Tears of helpless anger trailed down my cheeks.  “I wish I could’ve killed him myself.  Any Zekan would do.”

“You might still have a chance to do that.”

“What?”  Dyvian’s tone was sharp in his surprise.

“Deli’s attacker was no ordinary Zekan.  The kind of heat we have here in Sanger could’ve easily crippled most Zekans, but your attacker hadn’t seemed bothered by it.  By my estimate, he seemed to have been a middle official of their race.”

“A middle official?  They think I’m so hard to kill they sent a middle official—”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but they most likely sent a middle official because they considered you an important target and not because they think you’re, err, indestructible.  Also, I believe they wanted to capture you alive.”

“Oh, suuuure.  He so wanted me alive he gave me these bruises to keep me safe.”

“But did he try to bite you?”

I gaped.  “Why would he bite me?  You didn’t tell me Zekans were vampires—”

Lucian twisted in his seat to make sure I received the full impact of his exasperated frown.  “For the last time, Deli, enough with the vampires.  They do not have exclusive rights to biting.  Snakes bite, don’t they?  So do Zekans.  Their venom is also a hundred times more deadly.  It has been so since they discovered drinking human blood made their poison more potent.”

“So, you’re saying Zekans aren’t just half-snakes but vampire wannabes as well?  And the more they kill, the more poisonous they get?”

“Your obsession with vampires—” Lucian began darkly.

“That’s so unfair.”  I cut him off with a groan.  “It’s like rewarding bad guys for being…bad.”

“
Did
he try to bite you, Deli?” Dyvian burst out.

“Like I’d let him.”

“Humans die from one bite, but it would take a couple to kill an Evren.  The Zekan attacking you probably thought you were still human.  As your body’s still adjusting, you still wouldn’t smell like Evren to him.  And because he thought you were human—”

“He didn’t risk biting me,” I finished, numb once more with shock.  Did I have the words “kill me” stamped on my forehead that only Zekans could see?

Dyvian shook his head.  “Do you have any idea why they seem so keen on getting Deli?”

“Not at the moment, but I will find out.  Trust me on that, Deli.”

I sniffed back tears.  “I do.  And I just can’t thank both of you enough for helping me.”  I scooted forward to kiss Dyvian on the cheek.

“Chill, big bro,” he said when I moved away.  “Deli’s not my type.”

I caught sight of a fleeting scowl on Lucian’s face.  It made me smile.  “Yes, no need to worry.  Dyv’s totally not my type either.”