Sundown & Serena (29 page)

“Serena, is it true Dev’s going home for
Sarelle?” Kev growled. “That he’s going to try to take her for his
own?”

I hesitated, then nodded.

He cursed. Vince cursed too. I left them
telling each other loudly that they weren’t going to guard her,
this woman who’d killed their friends. Nick was trying to shush
them, without looking like he was being too enthusiastic about
their new duties.

I brought the pills back to Devlin, and he
handed them to Lash with some water. Lash swallowed them, and
groaned a little.

“I’ll buy you a new cross, when we get
settled in,” Devlin said, giving me a smile. He patted me on the
shoulder. “You don’t have to worry Serena. The worst is over.”

“Okay,” I said, giving him a smile back, even
as I knew he was lying.
He has some master plan,
and it’s going to endanger us all. All for love. It would be so
romantic, if it wasn’t my future on the line along with his
love.

* * * *

When the plane landed, Devlin got off first,
with Nick following to guard him. Afterwards, I didn’t see either
of them for several days.

Lash might have been badly injured, but it
didn’t impede him getting everyone organized and off the plane. We
left in a convoy for Devlin’s home, a place Vince said was called
Hayden. A few hours later, we arrived.

Hayden was a beautiful house, yet it looked
as though a war had been fought there. According to Vince, one had
been. “Titus, Devlin’s sorcerer, was fighting with his witch woman
Leri,” he explained in a whisper. “He’s a good guy, Titus,
especially in a fight. But Leri’s good too, she’s healed me up more
than once.”

I looked around, appalled at the destruction.
There were huge holes in the walls and ceilings, many furnishings
were broken or blackened as if by fire, and almost all the
decorations were missing. “What did they fight about?”

“Leri got pregnant years ago. Titus kind of
made it happen, from what I heard, and she didn’t want it, or know
what he’d done. So she hid the pregnancy, and left the baby out
west, after it was born.” He paused. “But it found its way home.
Titus finally found out this past fall that he has a son named
Terian. When he found out, he hit the roof.” He paused again.
“Letting them stay here to watch things was a mistake, if you ask
me. A full assault by the vampire hunters would have caused less
damage.”

I nodded.
This sounds like
a soap opera.

“I don’t want you to worry, because he’s a
demon, and she’s a witch,” Vince continued, hugging me close. “I
know how religious you are. But Titus won’t hurt you, though he
sometimes ‘feels bad,’ which is the best I can put it. Leri keeps
to herself mostly. She’s not staying here right now anyway, though
I think she’s still Devlin’s employee.”

This was too confusing for me. “Okay.”

“Let’s get you settled in,” Vince said,
grabbing a few boxes of mine and heading upstairs. “Devlin said
you’re in the room next to Lash’s.”

Oh no.
“Are you
sure?” I said plaintively, as I followed him upstairs.

“Dev’s room is in there,” he pointed to a
heavy oak door. “Lash’s room is next to his. So yours is here.” He
set down the boxes, and opened the door.

The room wasn’t the opulent palace my old one
had been. But it was still lavishly decorated, with a king-size
bed, two large maple dressers, and a large walk-in closet.
Strangely, it was also cozy, the way my room in South America
hadn’t been. The bathroom was lush, too, with a built-in Jacuzzi
tub attached to a large shower built for at least two.
Have other women like me been stabled here in the many years
Devlin’s lived here? Was this built specifically for the
house’s...female...?
I stumbled mentally, not wanting to use
the word “whore.”
But what other word is there?
“Salaried lover”?

“Can you unpack yourself, if I get the boxes
up here?” Vince said, concerned. “I know you must be rattled after
all that’s happened. I’d love to stay and be in your arms.” He
kissed me chastely. “But I need to report for guard duty in an
hour.”

“Sure,” I said, managing a smile. “When will
Nick be back?”

Vince scowled. “Not for days.” Then he left,
before I could ask what he meant.

* * * *

I was reading in bed that night when I felt a
very bad feeling, as if something oppressive was drawing near, like
a physical warning of some evil event to come. There was a knock at
my door.

I got up to answer it, sure it must be Vince.
But it wasn’t. A huge man stood there with red skin and very short
dull black horns just noticeable above his close cropped black
hair.
This has to be Titus, the demon.
The
heat coming off him was intense. His hair was even waving just a
little in the heat waves coming off him. “Good evening,” he said
pleasantly. “I’m Titus. I’ll be rooming next door to you.”

Argh! Lash on one side, and
a demon on the other?
“Good to meet you,” I forced out.

He reached for my hand, and I recoiled. Titus
stopped, taking his hand back. “You have nothing to fear from me,”
he assured in a rumbling bass voice that sounded amused. “I am here
just to introduce myself. Devlin’s told me of your beliefs.” He
winced a little. “And I am not the kind of male that would come
calling for your services after knowing how you feel, even were I
not already spoken for.”

“Thanks,” I said quickly, then blushed. “Most
everyone I’ve met has been respectful.”

“Most?” Titus rumbled, then his red eyes
flashed briefly. “You must be referring to Lash.”

“Yes.”

“Settling in?” a sarcastic hissing voice
said. “Ah, I see you’ve lost no time in introducing yourself,
Titus. But then I heard you’re single now.” Lash came sauntering up
the hall, his face still looking raw under the stitch marks. “Makes
sense you want to get in line.”

“Why couldn’t you have been blown up in Rio?”
Titus rumbled, sarcasm and obvious real dislike in each harsh word.
“I heard you lost Brock and Justin, not to mention Lars.”

“Cannon fodder,” Lash hissed coldly. “You
know how it is.” He grabbed hold of me suddenly, making me give a
startled cry. “But we found Serena here.” Lash rubbed his cheek on
mine. I winced, feeling the rough edges of his fresh stitches
raking my skin. “And that might be worth all the bullshit. She
fucks for pay. The bears love her, though I’ve yet to sample her
myself.”

Titus gave Lash a sudden shove. He wasn’t
expecting it, and fell to one knee, as I grabbed hold of my door,
breaking my own fall. “Leave her alone, Snake,” he growled. “You
aren’t going to force her to accept you, not while I’m around. And
it’s obvious you already tried to, from the scent of fear on
her.”

“Then maybe it’s time you went back to Hell,”
Lash said with a grin, taking out his gun.

Titus laughed. “As if your gun would work to
do the job! Did you lose your brains in Rio, along with your
face?”

“These bullets were blessed,” Lash hissed. “I
brushed them with holy water.”

“That will burn off, when you fire them at
me,” Titus said resolutely, unmoving.

“Want to take the chance?” Lash offered,
baring his fangs, his scarred face twisting. “
I
do.”

“You shoot me, and no matter what happens, I
won’t heal you,” Titus said, not moving. “And your face isn’t
healing, like it should. Want to know why?”

“Poison,” Lash hissed, his finger tightening
on the trigger. “Another of your kind had it on his blade. But he’s
in hell now, you can say ‘hi’ when you get there.”

“It’s not poison,” Titus said mysteriously.
“I would smell it, and I don’t.”

Lash looked at him for a long moment, then
lowered his weapon. “Then why?”

“Come with me,” Titus said, pushing past him,
and heading downstairs. “And I’ll do my best to find out.” He
turned back, focusing on Lash. “We need you, if Devlin does what
I’m guessing he’s going to. He’s supposed to call in an hour or so.
We need to be ready when he does.”

Lash holstered his gun, and followed Titus,
without a backward look.

* * * *

I was still unpacking that night when Vince
came to say he was leaving. “We have to go tonight on a
mission.”

I was surprised to see he had on some type of
armor, dull black in color, and a ton of ammunition and guns
strapped to him. “Are those grenades?” I asked. “What’s going
on?”

He hugged me tight. “I may not come back,
Serena,” he whispered gruffly. “Everyone’s saying this is a suicide
mission.” He pulled back from me to gaze into my eyes. “But Lash
and Titus are going,” he said, confident. “With them along, we’ll
make it, at least some of us.” He gathered himself. “They would
send us by ourselves and go in separately, if there wasn’t any hope
of getting out alive, if we were just supposed to be a
distraction.”

He cupped my face in his hands. “I’ll come
back to you, if I can. If I don’t, I want you to know I left you my
money.”

I’d always thought of Vince with affection,
and nothing more intense than that. Yet his sudden admission of
feelings made my chest tight. “Vince, I don’t want your money.”

“I don’t have anyone, no family, except for
Nick and you, and the other bears,” he said gruffly. “I always
liked it that way. But I stand here, knowing I have to go, and that
this might be it for me, and I can’t say that I didn’t want there
to be more to my life than what it is now.” He gave a derisive
snort. “Listen to me, being a candy ass, like this is my first
mission! Jesus!” He cast me a quick look. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I assured, feeling overwhelmed.
“I’ll pray for you. Be safe.”

“Tell me that you want me to come back,” he
asked hesitantly. “Please?”

I hugged him tight. “Of course I want you to
come back,” I said, swallowing hard. “Please be careful.”

“Vince!” Kev shouted from downstairs. “Let’s
go!”

Vince gave me a rough last kiss, and then he
was out the door, his footsteps moving fast down the stairs.

Chapter
Eleven

I didn’t sleep much that night, waking often
to look at the clock and then toss and turn until the next ten
minutes had passed and I did it all over again. In the morning,
there was still no word. Jazz was the only werebear left guarding
the main house, his jealous wife Valerie with him, dogging his
steps as he waited. Nick was still with Devlin, guarding him
wherever he was. Some other werebears I’d never met before manned
the gatehouse, with orders to stay there until either Devlin or
Lash returned. Everyone else was gone, doing their part for
Devlin’s still-secret master plan. A snowstorm was raging outside,
burying the land in drifts of white.

I’d always longed to see snow, wondering what
it felt like, hoping someday to find out, and go skiing, or build a
snowman, or other winter activities. But the actuality of a real
Northeastern American winter was bitter cold that chilled my
tropical blood, and drove me back to my room as soon as I’d eaten
my breakfast.

The day passed slowly, then the night. I fell
asleep with my book on my face, not having comprehended the last
page for hours. I was awoken at five a.m. by a bloodcurdling
scream.
Valerie.
I dashed to my feet, and
ran downstairs, pushing through the kitchen door.

Kev was prone on the kitchen floor, covered
in blood and many cuts, his torso riddled with bullet wounds. His
right arm had been severed, and was just a stump, though I saw
Titus was trying to reattach the twitching limb. Kev breathed
raggedly as the demon worked, a piece of worked polished steel in
his mouth, growling in pain.

Vince was worse. He lay unmoving, also
covered in blood and bullet wounds. His middle was slashed open in
four huge deep gashes, his innards exposed. A woman knelt beside
him, working frantically.

I went quickly to her, and knelt beside her.
“What can I do?”

“Clean off his intestines, and his other
organs. Push them inside, and sew up the wound. I’ll heal it, as
you sew it closed, but I need all my concentration to keep him
breathing! He’s losing too much blood!”

“How do I—?”

She tossed some heavy thread to me, a needle
stuck in it. “Bring the edges together with the thread. I can’t
heal a wound that big!”

I hurried to obey, threading the needle with
shaking hands. My skin crawled with the first poke of the metal
into Vince’s body, but once I was sewing, my tension eased. As I
brought the edges of his skin together, the woman healed him,
leaving unbroken flesh in our wake. After his torso was closed, she
turned to me, fixing me with her calm brown eyes. “Clean him up as
best you can,” she ordered. “I’ve got to take over for Titus,
before he makes a mess of Kev’s arm and cripples him for good.”

She turned from me, rushing to Kev. Titus
bounded to his feet and raced out of the room to the basement. A
faint bellowing sounded, a furious voice that seemed to go through
the walls. I didn’t understand the language.
Was
that German?

“Serena!” the woman shouted to me. “Get
working, or he’ll die!”

I grabbed a dishcloth and ran some hot water
into the dishpan, grabbed the first aid kit from beneath the
kitchen sink, then turned my attention back to Vince. I slowly
cleaned him off, sewing up all the larger wounds and bandaging the
others. They were not healing as they should.
None of them. Werepoison? Or some other dark
magic?

Soon, I had all Vince’s visible wounds taken
care of. Surmising he might have others, I removed the rest of his
clothes, and found a few more wounds. When I had those cleaned and
bandaged, I turned to the woman. She was still working on Kev. His
arm was now reattached, and his larger wounds were healed. Within a
few moments, she was finished. She turned to me, and gave me a
smile. “I’m Leri. Thanks for helping.”