To Love a Shifter: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set (131 page)

“Evren, Deli, now!” 
Lucian ordered just as he spun around and breathed out a circle of fire.

“Right.  Sorry.  Got carried away.” 
I was still clasped to Lucian’s side, a single steel claw around my body.  He did his best to shield me from the shower of bullets, but all the twisting and spinning made it difficult to summon the blood-red shade I needed to turn Evren.

“Get close to them,” the Zekan commander bellowed furiously.  “Bite them if you can.  Our bite is fatal to their treacherous kind.”

I think he had more to say, but they were impossible to hear as the gate to the warehouse crashed.  It was Dyvian, in Evren form as well, and he pounded toward us, his thunderous footsteps creating a stampede as Zekans tried to escape being crushed to death.

“Not so fast, old friend,” a voice hissed in ear-splitting volume, and I gasped to find a snake with black and purple scales preparing to lunge toward us from the floor.  It was only the slightest bit smaller than the Evren form of the Chevalier brothers, but its glaring red eyes and huge, glistening fangs more than made up for its inferior size.

Lucian, hindered by the need to shield me, still hadn’t been able to burst through the ceiling.  Two seconds, three seconds max, were more than enough time for the snake to catch hold of us.  Just one bite, maybe two or three at the most, could paralyze or kill him even.  Lucian might be one of the most powerful Evren, but he was also battling one of the most powerful Zekans.  Dyvian already had his hands—claws—full fighting on the ground, doing his best to minimize the damage to Lucian and me from the Zekans’ heavy artillery.

It’s time to face reality again, Deli.

If I didn’t do something now, both of them would die trying to keep me alive.

Here we go…

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut.

It took a second before the blood-red liquid filled my mind.

I focused on it and said the magic word—
Burn.

My wings spread out and I tore free of Lucian’s hold almost the same moment the Zekan lunged for him and bit his tail.

Lucian roared, swinging his tail in a mighty arc and shaking himself free.  The Zekan crashed but it took no time to rest, slithering toward Lucian even as it hissed in pain.

A huge net had been cast in the midst of the fight, catching Lucian unaware.  Trapped as he was, the Zekan would have greater chances of biting him.  It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.

The Zekan shot through the air, its cavernous mouth opening wide.

Have a taste of this, worm. 
I breathed out fire, hoping to burn its head off, but with my bad aim, the flames only reached its body.  Darn it.  Close battle it was then. 
I’m a tough Evren chick
.  My opponent had eons of experience and a thousand times more power, but it didn’t matter.  I was empowered by my love for Lucian.  I was soooo going to win this.

I swooped down, claws outstretched.

My first swipe slashed its face, but it quickly retaliated by wrapping itself around my girth with a bone-crushing grip.  Not more than a second had passed when the snake released me with a screech as a perfectly aimed stream of fire hit it square in the eyes.

“Lucian.” 
I looked up as he flew toward me with a few burnt pieces of the net still clinging to his scales.

Tears of relief filled my eyes.  He was safe.  Alive.  I turned to look for my other rescuer, and that was when I saw the canon, freshly loaded, and pointing directly at Lucian.

“
Noooo.
”
 
I flew toward it, preparing myself to die.

When my nightmares receded, I started dreaming about happily-ever-after endings for Lucian and me.  We’d be walking the streets of Paris at night, holding hands while watching the sunset in the Caribbean, and enjoying a candlelit dinner while cruising the warm Mediterranean waters.  Certainly, none of my dreams involved lying on the burning hot ground, suffering from aching muscles and a pounding headache.

“Are you awake?”

I must be dreaming
.

“Are you awake?”

This was certainly a new setting.  I hoped it ended the same though, with Lucian, my Prince Charming, giving me a true love’s kiss.

Someone choked, making me frown.  Weird.  Why did we have someone else with us?  It was supposed to be only Lucian and me.  And why was it taking him so long to kiss me?

“What?”

Dyvian was with us?  And why did he sound so worried?  In my dreams, he had always been a silent presence, quick to leave when Lucian and I had our passionate happily ever after.

“She’s waiting for me to kiss her,” Lucian drawled, “because I’m her one true love.”

My eyes shot open because the Lucian in my dreams never spoke like the real Lucian.  You know, like he was too cool to feel anything, too smart to humor me, and basically, just too good to be true.

“My princess,” he said gravely.  “How fare thee?”

I was lying on the ground, my head cradled on his lap.  The sun, the sky, and the smell of hot, dry air were familiar, happily so.

Home sweet home.

Lucian’s face, still heartbreakingly gorgeous, was above me, a tender light in his forest green eyes as he stared at me.  But a wicked smile played on his lips and he murmured, “At last.  My sleeping beauty has finally awakened.”

“I think I liked you better when you didn’t talk so much,” I mumbled.  “And stop reading my mind.”

He was unruffled.  “It’s hard not to when you were shouting your every thought.”

Dyvian glanced back and forth between Lucian and me and burst out laughing.  “Lemme get this straight.  We’ve just escaped a life-threatening ordeal and you’re here dreaming you and my brother are in your own fairytale?”

“You.  Go away.”

“Déjà vu.”  He laughed even more.

I gave up pretending annoyance and smiled, happy to be alive, happy to be away from Zekans, and happy to be back with the Chevalier brothers.

Right now, Dyvian wasn’t his usual fashion plate self.  He was wearing a jumpsuit of some revolting shade of orange.  “Why are you dressed like that?”

“I couldn’t exactly wear a Gucci when I’m disguised as a garbage truck driver, could I?”

I clasped my hands in a show of gratitude.  “Oh, the things you do for me,” I gushed.  “I am forever in your debt.”

His eyes danced with sly, wicked humor.  “Not to me, surely, but perhaps Lucian?  After all, he’s the one who had to kiss you for a long, long time so you could get warm.  So tell me, Deli, sister of my heart, where and how exactly did he kiss—”

“Enough.”  A familiar shade of red darkened Lucian’s sharp cheeks.

It made me giggle and forget my embarrassment.

“It was the only way,” he said defensively.

“I could have kissed her,” Dyvian pointed out.

“Over my dead body.”

Dyvian and I succumbed to laughter, further increasing the sense of déjà vu.

When Dyvian had sufficient control of his mirth, he sprang to his feet and smiled down at me.  “I hope to see you back home with us, Deli.”  He waved jauntily before disappearing from view.

“That…was his most polite way of giving us time alone.”  Lucian cleared his throat.  “Deli—”

“Where are we?” I blurted out.  I wasn’t ready yet to talk about what had happened at DVC.

“The park,” he answered, and I had a feeling he was disappointed at my question.  “Just below Hallir’s cave, if you want to know.  We stopped here to rest and wait for you to regain consciousness.”

“The cannon,” I breathed out, remembering what made me unconscious in the first place.  “What happened?”

“It didn’t fire.  Dyvian swiped it away in time.  Then you fainted in my arms.”  He inhaled.  “You tried to save my life.”

“I would’ve done it for anyone.”

“I see.”

His mind, which remained unbarred, showed me how my words had hurt him, and I almost confessed it was a lie.  But I didn’t.  Not just yet…

“The Zekan…Aure-something…”

“Aurelius.”  A ghost of a smile flickered on his face.  “You can memorize the names of a million celebrities yet you can’t even manage one name of your enemy?”

I sniffed.  “They matter.  He doesn’t.”

Silence resumed between us, and though I could normally talk a mile a minute, I couldn’t think of a way to postpone the inevitable.  I just didn’t want to risk finding out that all he had done was out of guilt, that he had realized he had overreacted and that he didn’t really love me.  Inconvenient truths were hell.

Lucian gently hauled me up so I could rest against his chest.  He tilted my face toward him.  “You’re thinking silly thoughts again.”

“Are you reading—”

“No.  But I know you.”  He paused.  “And I love you.”

I burst into tears.

To his credit, he didn’t even wince.  “I’m sorry, Deli.  I’m sorry for deceiving you, but I promise you with all my heart I meant you no harm.  I just couldn’t help listening.  I’ve never trusted anyone and then there you were, and I could hear your every thought.”

“Why was it so important for you to know my thoughts?” I whispered.

“Because I liked you right from the start and I was scared.  You made me feel weak…weaker even than I had ever been when I was young.  You made me feel almost…helpless.”

He stroked my face, tenderly tucking away the wisps of hair that had plastered themselves on the sweat-drenched skin of my forehead.  “I have to be honest.  I don’t think I even wanted to tell you,” he confessed awkwardly.  “If I had stopped hearing your thoughts, I never would have had the courage to love you.”

“Coward,” I said between sobs.

“Indubitably,” he agreed in a grimly self-mocking tone.  “It was cowardice that stopped me from telling you we were immortal, fearing that you would change because of it.  It was cowardice that made me call you my ward when I wanted the whole world to know you were mine and that I was so damn lucky to have you love me.  I was scared that
you
would think one day I was too old and boring and leave me.  It was cowardice that made me stop from telling Dyvian he was right…that I love you.”

“Jerk.”  I was crying harder than before, after hearing him say things I had never ever dreamt he’d be able to utter.

He winced.  “I know.  But I’ve learned from my mistakes, Deli.  And I never make the same mistake twice.”  He cupped my face and bared his soul.  “I love you.”

Remembering how hurt I had been by his deception, I couldn’t make myself let things go just like that.  “What if I don’t love you anymore?”

The hand stroking my hair lovingly stilled for a moment.  Then he sighed and—his hand trembling just the slightest bit—resumed its rhythm.  “I see.”  There was no emotion behind his words.

“That’s it?  You’ll let me go then?”

“Of course not,” he denied, shock visible in his face.

I was confused.  “But—”

“I’m sorry, but I
can’t
let you go.”  His arms tightened around me, as if the mere thought of it was already a threat and I wanted to cry even more.

“I’ll just make you love me again.  I have an eternity to do it.”

That was my cue for my happily ever after, but I wasn’t done torturing him.  Maybe I was being vengeful and bitter, but Lucian had known everything about me through my thoughts.  He
had
to give me the same privilege.  It was the only way I could feel we were on equal footing.

“And what if I love Michael?”  I held my breath.

He had gone still again.  “Do you?”

“Just answer my question.”

“I’ll step back…”

I tried to hide my disappointment, knowing I should be flattered but I wasn’t.  I liked it better if he fought for me instead.

“…And then I’ll wait for him to die before I work on making you fall in love with me again,” he ended.

I gaped, unable to believe someone as honorable and well,
proper
, as Lucian could think something like that.  “That’s so…
yucky
?”

“I love you that much,” he said so simply and, of course, I had to burst into another bout of tears.

Giving up fighting the inevitable, I babbled almost incoherently, “I love you, Lucian.  I love you, and I really missed you, and I thought about you all the time, and I—”

He pressed one finger to my lips, his eyes wary.  “Does this mean,” he asked slowly, “you forgive me?”

“Like I could ever
not
forgive you.”

“But—”

I pulled his face down and kissed him, not in the mood to hear all his stupid reasons for thinking he wasn’t worth forgiving.  A long, luxurious sigh escaped me as our lips touched.  This was what I had been aching to do since he tried “warming” me up to turn invisible.

When he finally lifted his lips from mine, I said quickly, “I want something.”

“Anything,” he replied with such speed and certainty I couldn’t help kissing him again.

“Well?” he prodded with a smile when we broke apart.

I gave him my best angelic smile and said, quite baldly, “I want to…uhh…I want to make love to you.”  I was stumbling all over the words, but I was determined to say my peace.

He smiled back, dazzlingly so, and his answer was just as quick and certain as earlier.  “No.”

“
Lucian.
”