A Monster and a Gentleman (24 page)

The man she loved.
 

Cali nearly fainted as the words rattled around in her head. She loved Seling.
She loved him.
 

Maybe it was the stress of the battle. Maybe it had taken him almost dying to make her realize it. Hell, maybe tomorrow she’d realize she hated him and wanted to live alone with a million cats.

But right now she loved him.

“They should pay,” Seling growled.

“And they will,” Luke assured him.

“Wait, wait!” Cali held up her hands, cutting into their conversation.

“Cali, we need to decide what to do,” Michael whispered to her.

She waved her hands in the air. “Kill them or don’t. As long as I don’t end up in a women’s prison, I don’t care. I have something more important to discuss.”

Seling looked down at her, his face so foreign, so different than her own, and yet in his eyes she saw him, the man she loved.
 

A smile quirked his lips. “More important?”

“Yes.”

“And what’s that?”

“Not here.”

Cali took his arm and dragged him away from the others. Behind her, she heard Runako say, “She just saved your life.”

“So what is more important?” Now that they were away, Cali could see the lines of strain and pain on his face.

“You’re too tall.”

“That’s what you want to talk about?”

“No, but I don’t want to crane my neck when I say this.”

Seling grabbed her ass and lifted her. Cali wrapped her legs around his chest and clung to his shoulders. “Am I hurting you?”

“No.”

“Okay, here goes.” She placed one hand on his cheek, her fingers small and slight against his green skin. “I love you.”

He smiled—which was terrifying, with his fangs. “You love me.”

“I never thought I’d say that to someone and mean it, not the way I mean it with you.”

“Does that mean you are giving love a chance?”

“You remember that?”

“I remember everything you said before. I remember that you’re scared of love, and now I know why.” He turned his head and kissed her palm. “I never thought I’d find someone to love. My whole life has felt like I was barely hanging on. I survived when I shouldn’t have, I became a part of something important that I wouldn’t have dared do before. My best hope was to protect my Clan, make sure no one suffered.”

“Like you did.”

“But then I met you. You were so sure of yourself and the world that I knew you were the one for me. I found someone I could love, protect.”

“I don’t need your protection.”

“That won’t stop me from protecting you.”

“And nothing will stop me from loving you.”

He grinned. “You want to leave with me?”

“Yes.” Cali’s body was tingling with the need to touch and be touched. She wanted his hands and mouth on her, erasing the lingering fear, eradicating the images of violence she’d seen tonight. “The only problem is that someone destroyed the stairs and the elevator, so you’ll have to wait until they bring a ladder or something for me.”

“We don’t have to wait. Do you trust me?”

“Trust you? Why?”

Seling spun and lifted her so her back was to his chest. His arms around her waist supported her as her feet dangled.

“You’re not…” Cali looked at the velvety blue night sky, then over her shoulder at Seling.
 

“You said you trust me. And you love me.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Well, then what if I told you that I loved you too?”

“You do?”

“Yes.” Seling’s eyes narrowed. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

“I suspected. It’s good to hear it.”

“Then I’ll say it again—I love you.”

Cali frowned. “I’m not really feeling it. Say it again, but this time maybe pause a bit between the words, see how that works.”

“I’m not going to do a second take. I love you, and that’s it.”

Cali smiled. “And that’s all I want.”

Seling laughed then took a few running steps. He leapt off the side of the building, and for a moment they were falling, the ground rushing up to meet them. Then, with a snap, his wings opened and they rose into the air. With Seling at her back, Cali felt as if she were the one flying.

“Higher,” she demanded. She didn’t know if he could hear her with the wind whipping by or if he just knew what she wanted, but Seling’s wings beat, lifting them into the air, until Cali thought she could touch that endless night.

Up here, there was no one and nothing but them. There was no past, no future, only two souls who, against all odds, had found each other. When they touched down, they’d struggle to overcome themselves and the baggage of their lives. They’d have to find out if love was enough to keep them together, if love would make them better people, or become the weapon they used to wound each other.

But now it was just them. Two souls spinning away into the night. And for tonight, it was enough.

Chapter Fifteen

Maeve and Oren

Maeve kept her eyes closed as she waited. The lights and sounds of the other dimension swam around her, and if she didn’t concentrate she could be pulled away and lost. If she focused, she could feel the concrete beneath her feet, hear the sounds of the battle. She couldn’t help them unless she moved back into the real world, but Michael had been right, she couldn’t risk herself in the fight.

She waited to feel their death, for the need to keen to overcome her.

It never came.

Something brushed by her, and Maeve stiffened. She knew there were things lurking in the swirling mists of colors, but she didn’t know who—or what—they were. Because she’d had no one to teach her about her powers, she’d learned by trial and error. It had taken twenty years—and some help from Tokaki’s uncle—for her to discover that she could use this dimension to travel. There were tales, even in human mythologies, about the land of fairies and the fairy roads, and Maeve could only assume this was one of them.

The sounds of battle were fading. Fear clutched at her and Maeve concentrated harder, holding herself in place, worried that she was slipping deeper into the other dimension, losing herself in it. But it wasn’t her slipping away into the other dimension that was responsible for the lessening sounds—the battle was over. She stayed where she was, not wanting to upset the delicate balance of a truce, and breathed a sigh of relief as she heard the voice of each of her Clans-men.
 

She’d been sure that Seling was dead. When she first touched him when he was a child, she’d seen many bleak futures. In almost all of them, he died young. There’d been only one thread which led to a long and happy life. She’d never had another chance to look because as he grew she began to care for him and his future was soon hidden from her.

Through the veil that separated her from them, she heard Seling and Cali talking. It seemed he’d found that single thread. She smiled, glad for his happiness. Then their voices were gone.

There was silence, and even through the veil she felt the lull, the calm after the storm.

The battle was done, but now there was another kind of battle to be fought.

Maeve reached out a hand and opened a portal to the real world.
 

“Glad you’re back,” Michael said as she stepped through.

Maeve surveyed the scene. A group of live humans were kneeling off to one side, but most were scattered on the ground. Some were still alive, others clearly dead.

Luke, Michael, Runako and Tokaki crowded around her.

She looked them over, assessing their injuries.
 

“Seling has left with Cali?” She looked toward the night sky but couldn’t see them.

“By now they’re probably fucking,” Runako said, arms crossed over his chest. The muscle on top of his right shoulder was a bloody mess and one of his wings had holes in it.

Maeve looked around again. “Where’s Henry?”

Tokakai—whose fur was speckled with blood—and Michael, who was holding a wad of bloody cloth against his thigh, looked concerned, while Luke and Runako frowned.
 

“He didn’t come,” Luke said.

“I can see that,” Maeve cut in, dread curling in her belly. “We need to—”

“No, I mean we told him what was happening and he said he couldn’t come. He said there was something he had to do before he died.”

“Those were his exact words?”

“Yes.” Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Why? What do you know?”

“I know many things.” Maeve bit the inside of her lip to hold back a smile. Apparently Henry had finally decided to face his fear.

That didn’t excuse his behavior—they could have used him in the fight—but Maeve understood.

She wouldn’t tell the others what she knew and where she suspected he’d gone. He would have to do that.

“You will speak with Henry later. At this moment, we need to focus on what we’ll do with them.” Maeve motioned to the men. The live ones sucked in their breaths when she pointed at them.

“I want to check with Margo first.” Runako grabbed a small pouch he had hooked to his belt. Like the others, he wore tight shorts the wardrobe department had designed and made for them, but unlike them he had a belt around his waist.

He fumbled, pulling out a phone, which was comically tiny. “Fuck.”

He passed the phone to Maeve, who was able to work it, but just barely, with her long nails.

“Call Akta’s house.” Runako bared his teeth at a man who dropped his hands from his head.

“Akta’s?”

“We sent all the girls there. Her address is private and she has a good security system. It was the safest place.”

Maeve’s lips twitched. Henry was in for a surprise.

She spoke briefly to Akta, assuring her that everyone had survived. Each male took a moment to talk to his mate before they ended the call.

“Wait, Henry’s with you?” Luke’s dark bushy brows rose in surprise at what Lena was saying. “Er, yes.” He looked at Runako. “Of course we sent him there to watch over you.”

When that was done, they looked at each other and then at the disaster around them.

“We could call the cops.” Luke was nodding as he spoke. “We’ll change to human, then tell them they attacked us while we were filming.”

Michael nodded also, seeming to agree with Luke’s plan.

Maeve caught Tokaki and Runako’s gazes. There was no happy ending to this night, but Michael and Luke, who both so desperately wanted and needed to believe in the good of humans, would never be willing to do what they must.

“Michael, Luke, go to Akta’s house. We do not know if there are others and we cannot risk their safety with only Henry there to protect them.”

That was all the convincing Michael needed. “We should go.”

Luke looked around at the men. His gaze met Maeve’s. Maeve raised her chin, meeting his gaze calmly. He knew her, knew that what she’d do was not what he would do, and maybe not what he’d want. But he didn’t challenge her. He nodded once, then turned and followed Michael to the edge of the building. Together they leapt off, wings pumping until they rose into the air, disappearing into the night sky.

Tokaki tapped her shoulder with his tail, bringing her back to the problem at hand.

“What do we do?” Runako asked.

“We can’t go to the police, and we can’t let them go.” Tokaki’s words were said without malice, but one of the kneeling men tried to run. Tokaki batted him down, holding him in place with one large paw.
 

“The dead ones aren’t a problem. Let’s put them over there.” Maeve motioned to a clear section of floor. Runako picked up a few bodies and carried them over.
 

“Wh-what are you?”

She turned to the man who’d asked the question.

His gaze moved over her naked body, but there was no desire in him, only a sort of wondering horror. “Are you an angel too?”

“No. I’m no angel.” She pulled her hair away from her ears, showing off their pointed tips.

“She’s a fairy,” one man muttered. Maeve didn’t correct him or clarify what she was.

“We thought, we thought they were monsters. We thought we were protecting everyone.”
 

Now that she looked, she saw that the man was really no more than a boy. He had a close-cut black hair and brown skin. His eyes were pools of brown terror. Maeve reached out a hand to touch him, to know him, but she pulled her fingers back.

“You only know me and my people from storybooks. I could not expect you understand.”

He closed his eyes in apparent relief.

“But,” Maeve continued, not wanting to give the man false hope, “you and those like you have hurt and tortured my brothers. You have seen us and would tell the other humans.”

“You’re going to…to kill us.”

Maeve touch his cheek with the edge of one long nail, making sure their skin didn’t connect. “No. I will not kill you.”