Luc grabbed a second thug and repeated the process while the harem got their kicks out on the remaining three. Anna moved out of the way to watch. Aside from her initial shot with the skillet, she let the girls get their rage out at the men who had tried to keep them helpless and dependent.
The second man was put under and sent on his merry way flying out the front door. Anna sincerely hoped they woke up quickly and got out of her yard. The last thing she needed was to give Bitsy and Mimi another reason to harass her. Five smelly guys on the lawn was just the kind of thing that would make the front page of the Golatha Falls Gazette .
Luc took out his aggression on the third guy, while the harem beat up on the other two. It would be overkill for him to kick the shit out of them, too. They were already looking pretty pathetic. One of them managed to crawl away from the enraged harem and closed his hand around the gun.
It happened before Anna could react. White hot burning. A crunch. The world blurred and flashed white, then snapped back into focus. She was on the ground, confused as she felt wetness pooling around her shoulder.
There was a flurry of activity around her, but the cold tile against her skull was all she could feel. And her ears ringing. And the dull, throbbing pain.
“Stay with me, Anna.”
He’d moved so fast. Luc held her while she struggled to maintain consciousness. “Flesh wound. Won’t kill . . . Mr. Psychotic,” she managed weakly. That wasn’t exactly the way that sentence was supposed to come out.
She felt Luc touch her mind and wanted to hate him for using thrall on her, but the pain had faded to nothing. It was an illusion but one she would take as gladly as a morphine drip.
“Relax,” he soothed. “It just missed the artery, so I’m going to take the bullet out first. Close your eyes.” It wasn’t a request, and she didn’t have the power to resist it.
Her eyes fluttered shut. Then the air charged around her, causing a moment’s panic when she realized he was shifting partially into the demon form. She was struck with a sudden clarity that he was using his claws to remove the bullet, though she could barely feel what he was doing.
Several minutes later he said, “Okay. Open your eyes.”
She looked up and tensed when she saw the knife in his hand.
His smile was kind. “This isn’t for you. Why would I make you bleed more when I’m trying to make it stop? That seems counter-intuitive at best.”
“Big word. You really can read,” Anna said, but it came out a faint whisper.
He chuckled. “Save your strength. You can be sarcastic and annoying later.” Luc sliced his hand, reopening his bonding scar, and let the blood flow into the gunshot wound.
Anna looked away. If she never had to witness or participate in another creepy blood ritual again, it would be too soon. A few moments passed before the wound was sealed, and only a scar remained.
Luc was clearly rattled as if just realizing how fragile humans could be. He helped her sit up. She wrapped her arms around him and sobbed against his neck.
“Shhh. Anna, really. You’re fine now. You were bleeding out on the kitchen floor trying to be quippy, and now you’re fine. There’s no need to cry about it.” But his voice cracked when he said it, and she could have sworn she felt something like moisture as he pressed his own face into her neck.
The pimp Luc had left on the floor to attend to Anna stirred.
Luc searched her eyes, then seeing whatever it was he was looking for, he kissed her quickly and pulled away as the man against the wall struggled to stand.
He put the third man under and threw him out the front door. When he returned, Anna was leaning against the counter taking slow breaths.
His hand was suddenly around her waist, supporting her weight. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Fine. Stop hovering. You’re worse than a mother hen. See? No bleeding. No wound. All magically healed up.”
Her hands itched to pull his mouth back to hers, but the two remaining pimps were tied to chairs and gawking. The harem must have tied them up during her near death experience. She didn’t like an audience on her best day, especially not this audience.
“Anna, you might wish to leave the room,” Luc said, his fingertips grazing her cheek.
“No.” She had a feeling she knew where this was headed.
“I could make you.”
“And lose the momentum you’re gaining in the strapping hero department?”
He growled.
“Luc, I’m serious. I don’t want you to torture him.”
“I’m just going to snap his neck.”
It unnerved her they were having a casual conversation about killing a man in her kitchen. It unnerved her more that she got a small thrill of satisfaction from the slimy pimp begging and struggling in his bonds.
She was going to Hell. Then again, if the priest was right, she was already technically in Hell. But she was coming back in her next life as something unpleasant.
When Luc continued to stare at her she said, “I’m staying. Look, you were all big with the I don’t want you to forget I’m a demon stuff. Now you think I can’t take a little neck snapping? I’ve had dreams of worse. This isn’t an innocent. Get to it.” She gave him a shooing motion.
“I have to kill him,” he said as if he were talking to someone lacking basic comprehension skills.
She was trying hard to be casual about it, but she was tired of the bullshit. If he was going to do something semi-evil, he wasn’t going to hide it from her. She was a big girl. She’d seen him kill lots of people. Hell, she’d been inside him while he’d done a lot of it. After seeing one of her dearest friends naked, this wasn’t even rating on the disturb-o-meter anymore.
“Anna, I can’t just let this go. He shot you.”
“Yes, and he’ll hurt other people. I’m totally on board with this. I’m just not slinking out of the room while you do it.” Whatever weird reason Luc had for not wanting to kill someone in front of her who very much deserved it, it was causing him some distress.
“Anna . . . ”
She could almost see the cogs turning in his brain. “You put me under another thrall, and I’ll never forgive you. I don’t want you protecting me from everything.”
The man awaiting his sentence chose stupidly to speak then. “This is touching.” He pinned Anna with a glare. “I guess you just aren’t worth killing for, bitch.”
That was all the impetus Luc needed. He spun, moving across the floor faster than the pimp could process, and snapped his neck. The other guy started screaming.
“Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!”
Luc put him under, cutting off his shit litany. He ordered the man to carry his friend and never return to the house.
“I’m sorry,” Anna finally said when they were alone in the kitchen.
“For what?”
“For making you do that. If you wanted me to leave the room I should have left. I just wanted you to know I wasn’t going to judge you for it.”
He collapsed in a kitchen chair, his head falling into his hands. “I’m such a pathetic excuse for a demon.”
Anna grinned. “Yes, I believe I’ve heard that before.”
He looked up. “Where?”
“In dreams. A guardian angel dream in particular,” she said, giggling. She felt high. The adrenaline rush from the events of the evening had finally become too much.
His mouth twisted in disgust. “Let’s never talk about that.”
“Face it, you’re not that evil anymore.” She sat in his lap straddling him and took his face in her hands to brush her lips across his. The kiss lingered longer than she’d intended as she greedily sucked on his lower lip.
She could feel his hard length pressing against her. Was she really doing this? She tried to remind herself of all the reasons she should get off him.
Making out with Luc like some horny teenager was probably a bad idea. That was when unwanted images flitted through her mind. She just had to think the words horny teenager .
All of a sudden she couldn’t stop the memories of the two high school seniors. He’d killed countless women, but she couldn’t stop thinking of the two who’d died in Luc’s arms not a hundred feet from where they were.
She didn’t blame him, exactly. He hadn’t wanted to kill them, hadn’t meant to. Still. She pulled away. “Luc?”
His green eyes burned with desire. “Hmmm?”
“We have to stop.”
“Anna, I have to feed.”
“I know, but . . . I can’t . . . yet. I just need some time. I have a lot to process.” Seeing the hurt look on his face had her wanting to backtrack over her words, but she really couldn’t shake the images.
“Is it because of what I just did?”
“No,” She answered truthfully. “It isn’t. Just give me time.”
“I don’t want to feed from someone else tonight.” It was a plea.
“I know.” She felt like an evil bitch, but she had to get away from him. She needed time to sort through the pro/con list in her head before she threw caution and her clothing to the wind with him.
The harem stood clustered in the foyer. How much had they witnessed? As she brushed past them, she looked back to see Luc leading Karen rather reluctantly to his room, his eyes not leaving Anna’s.
Anna attempted sleep, but she couldn’t wipe from her mind the fact that Luc and Karen were downstairs in his room. And it was her fault. He could have been with Anna. But then what? He couldn’t be with her the following night. Or the night after that.
She was supposed to sleep with him in shifts? Like the favored number-one wife? It was already practically killing her to know he was touching someone else, whispering sweet words in her ear, kissing her. Like he’d kissed Anna.
The alternative if she wanted to be with him was out of the question. Couples who got married after just a week or so weren’t notoriously known for their happily ever afters, and handing over your soul was a bit more than just marriage. As far as she knew there was no equivalent divorce.
Independence was important to her, possibly more important than anything else. When she was twenty-one, she’d taken her college degree, flipped her father off like a child, and ridden off to Atlanta on the back of Vince’s Harley.
Quinton’s response had been to cut her off, at least for awhile. She’d gotten a crappy job and a shitty apartment and joined the real world. A world without debutante balls and charity luncheons. It had been wonderful because she’d been free.
Luc was asking her to give him the one thing she’d fought too hard to acquire. But she couldn’t deny that her body cried out for his, and her heart and mind were well on their way to agreement.
The best and simplest solution would be to stay the hell away from him. Let him have the harem until she could get him out of the house and they could part ways.
If he would even let her go. The bond seemed to mean something almost sacred to him now, assuming demons held anything sacred at all.
If she hadn’t had the morbid reminder of the last two girls he’d killed, she’d likely be romping it up in his bed this very minute. Anna shuddered. She could still feel his hands on her body, his mouth on hers, coaxing her to dance with him. She was never getting to sleep.
She’d just slipped her hand between her legs for the drug-free version of an Ambien, when the door opened. Her ghostly voyeur was back. Of course he was. He wouldn’t miss a show like this. He probably had a mystical demon-cam on her that went off anytime she moved to do anything even the slightest bit sexual.
Her movements stilled.
“Don’t stop.”
Anna’s heart rate jumped. “You just fed.” Her cheeks were hot at being caught.
He moved to the bed with that beautiful grace only Luc seemed capable of. Her breath caught as he settled on the edge. The light from the hallway filtered into the room, highlighting the muscles of his chest. She licked her lips.
“Yes. I did.” He eased the covers back, revealing the pale pink satin gown. He growled low in his throat, approving the choice. “Did you wear this because I like it so much?” He traced his hand lightly over the material.
An involuntary shiver.
“N . . . no. It’s the middle of the summer. This is the only thing cool enough to sleep in.”
He let the lie slide.
“Touch yourself. I want to watch.”
From any other man, the request would have seemed crass, but Luc made it sound like ice cream on a hot day. Tempting, but innocent.
“I can’t.”
“I’m not asking to sleep with you, I just want a little . . . taste.”
“I’ve never . . . ”
“You’ve never done this for anyone before? No man has ever asked to watch you?” He seemed to weigh the honesty of her words.
She shook her head, wishing she was lying.
“Please?” he said.
She wasn’t an exhibitionist. Hell, she was a lights off kind of girl if she wanted to get baldly honest about it. No kinks, nothing fancy. But the please was her undoing.
Anna started to wriggle out of her panties. “Close the door.” She couldn’t believe she was doing this.
“But it would be dark,” he said reasonably, a hint of teasing in his tone.