Twice Cursed (27 page)

“
You’re not so bad,
yourself,” Sean’s deep voice answered, still rough with
sleep.

His voice and the memory of how he’d
filled her, sent jolts through her lower abdomen and a fresh
dampness slicked between her legs. Her eyes closed, and a secret
smile spread into a full on grin against the warmth of his back.
With a sigh, she slipped her arm under his elbow, curving it around
his waist. “Good morning,” she said, kissing his
shoulder.

She breathed in the clean, masculine
scent of his skin and sighed, resting her cheek against his
shoulder blade. At the contented sound, he twisted to face her, his
gaze taking her in as if memorizing the contours of her face. “That
it is,” he murmured back, brushing her lips with a soft
kiss

Scrunching up her nose, she rubbed her
chin and lips with the side of her hand. “You’re tickly and
scratchy this morning. What’s with all the scruff?”

With his chin up, Sean stroked his
heavy stubble. “Beats me. Maybe it’s you.”

“
Me?”

A low, seductive growl rumbled deep in
his chest. “What can I say, you bring out the animal in me,” he
said, running his hand over the curve of her hip and
waist.

“
Cut it out, Sean! Anymore
and I won’t be able to walk,” but her own body betrayed her with a
dull, wet ache between her thighs.

He nuzzled her neck, rubbing his chin
against the hollow at the base of her throat. “You won’t need your
legs once I get you on all fours.” His voice was low, with an edge
of sex and sin that made her gasp in spite of her
protests.

“
Sean…”

She didn’t stand a chance. He rolled
her over onto her stomach, entering her with one quick thrust. With
a swift, sharp breath, Lily brought her knees up, grinding her hips
back. She met him thrust for thrust, and when he drew back to enter
hard and deep, she winced as his thick member slid between tender
folds.

Tension gathered as the
electricity of pleasure and pain sent her to the edge faster than
ever before. Reaching down between her legs, she wrapped her
fingers around the base of his corded shaft and squeezed. His cock,
already rock hard, spasmed in her hand, and his balls rose high.
Sean growled, plunging himself deep as Lily’s walls convulsed
around him.
Good morning,
wolf-style!

He sighed heavily, the sound both
satisfied and exhausted, before kissing the hollow between her
shoulder and throat. Rolling over onto his back, he smirked. “Now
that’s how you say good morning. Care to try for good afternoon?”
He turned his head on the pillow to face her, waggling his
eyebrows.

Lily snorted. “Uh, no. A quickie good
morning is one thing, but unless you want to see me wearing icepack
underwear all day, we need to give it a rest. And by it, I mean me!
I’m not a full Were, yet. More to the point, we have a lot to do
today, or did you forget about the little problem we have with an
unwelcome member of the undead? Besides, you haven’t even checked
in with Jack, yet.”

“
Oh, I think he knows I’m
here.”

Lily’s cheeks grew warm, and from the
look on Sean’s face, she knew she had pinked to the tips of her
ears. “Don’t remind me.”

He chuckled, deep and resonant “Lily,
Jack’s a wolf. If anyone understands mating and the moon, it’s
him,” he said, sitting up and swinging his legs off the edge of the
bed. “Trust me. He’s not going to say a word.”

Lily frowned, despite watching Sean
pull up his jeans commando style. “Maybe not while you’re around,
but I know he’ll find a way to break my chops about the noise last
night—not to mention this morning’s little interlude.”

Sean pulled her to her
knees and wrapped his arms around her naked waist. “To use your
word earlier, it was
amazing
—noise, and all— both last
night and this morning,” he said, smacking her bare bottom. Kissing
her quick, he released her. “I smell coffee. Jack must be up, so
get that shapely butt of yours out of bed, and let’s put together a
plan of undead attack.”

Grumbling, she pulled on sweats and a
long-sleeved tee shirt, and followed him out into the
hallway.

“
Something smells great,”
Sean said, taking the lead and heading into the kitchen first.
“Your first rate coffee-making skills were one of the reasons we
let you into the hunters so young, Jack.”

He clapped the younger wolf on the
back, pulling him into a hug, but Lily didn’t miss the faint scowl
that passed across Jack’s face.

“
Leave him alone, Sean.
Jack probably hasn’t had his coffee yet, either.” Lily said, giving
the younger wolf an apologetic shrug.

Sean let go, lifting his
arms in surrender, but shot Lily a questioning glance.
What’s going on?
The
words filtered through their shared mind link, but Lily gave her
head a quick, almost imperceptible shake.
Not sure, but he’s been a little touchy since
yesterday.

As if Jack knew they were talking
about him, the tension in the kitchen seemed to ratchet up a notch.
He rattled the frying pan on the stove, plopping a couple of pats
of butter in the center before turning the burner to
low.

“
Anyone else up for eggs?”
he asked, taking the pink and white carton from the clear Plexiglas
shelf in the fridge, and closing the door with his hip.

Lily leaned against the dark green
counter next to the sink, watching Jack’s short, terse motions as
he went about making his breakfast. A slow drip from the faucet
behind her sounded metronomic, adding to the tension floating
through the room.

“
Don’t everybody answer at
once,” he added, swirling the butter around in the pan. He looked
over his shoulder at Lily and flashed a quick smile, but the ghost
of a frown still lingered puckering the area between his
eyebrows.

“
None for me, Jack, thanks.
You know how I need my coffee first,” she answered, lifting her
hand mutely when Sean looked at her for an answer.

Something was bothering Jack. It was
there, just beneath the surface, even at dinner, though he waved it
off with some lame excuse about bedpan duty. Lily was certain Jack
knew Sean didn’t mean anything by his remark. He trusted Jack, or
he wouldn’t have sent him to New York. The hunters were a
brotherhood. They laughed hard and fought hard, but each was
willing to spill blood for the other. Little digs were just part of
the sibling rivalry. Perhaps Jack just needed to be reminded of
that.

Jack grabbed a mug and poured himself
a cup of coffee, while three eggs sizzled and popped in the frying
pan. “Don’t mind me; I’m just grouchy because I didn’t get much
sleep. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear a pair of feral cats was
getting it on right outside my door.” He glanced down at his mug,
but a wicked half-smile teased the corner of his mouth.

Lily just stood there for a
moment.
And men complain about women and
their monthly mood swings. Can we say moon-mad wolf?
She shot both men a dirty look and picked up the
pot to pour herself some coffee. “See? What’d I tell you?” She
gestured toward Sean with her mug. “You’re both nuts...mad as
hatters with hard-ons!”

Both Weres just looked at each other
before they both burst out laughing.

“
Oh, come on!” Lily
hmmphed
, banging her mug
down on the counter. She turned her back, but only so neither would
see her satisfied smirk. At least the tension had ebbed, even if it
was at her expense. Now they could get down to business.

***

The morning was bright, with a clear,
crisp blue sky. Snow had fallen overnight, and light Sunday traffic
allowed the delicate white drifts a little more time before
eventually turning them to puddles of grey slush.

The cobblestone street held a turn of
the century appeal, despite the cars parked alongside lengths of
concrete curb. In Manhattan, no one voluntarily gives up a parking
space, especially on the weekend, so both Lily and Sean decided to
leave their cars where they were, and walked to the corner to flag
down a cab.

Shopkeepers had cleared the sidewalks,
though Lily’s biker boots gathered slush along their bottom edges
as she walked beside Sean. Jack was directly to her left, and the
three made quite a picture—two hulking Weres flanking a petite,
leather-clad porcelain doll. At least that’s what Sean always said
she resembled.

Sean glanced sideways, watching Lily
from the corner of his eye. “What’s the matter? You haven’t said
more than twelve words since that detective called
earlier.”

Lily looked across her shoulder at
him, and shrugged. “Nothing’s the matter. He just sounded different
on the phone, almost urgent. There’s been another attack, but there
is no way it’s the same one Jack and I witnessed in Washington
Square.”

“
Not unless the NYPD has
bloodhounds that are part Were,” Jack snorted.

With a cheerless sigh, she nodded.
“He’s right. There was nothing left in the park for anyone to find.
No body, no witnesses, no crime. That’s how it works in the human
world, usually,” she added.

Martinez wanted her down at the
morgue, insisted, in fact, but this time, she was bringing
reinforcements. The detective’s voice had held an edge that went
beyond the clipped tone of a professional phone call. Maybe he was
good to his word, and had actually thought about everything she
said the other night.

Sean stuck two fingers in his mouth
and whistled for one of the gypsy cabs waiting for the light at the
corner. One pulled over, and the three of them slide in across the
scuffed and taped blue leather seat.

“
Bellevue Hospital Center,
462 1st Avenue,” Lily announced into the dirty speaker at the
center of the scratched Plexiglas divider. The driver mumbled
something unintelligible back, starting the taxi’s meter before
pulling away from the curb.

The inside of the cab smelled like the
subway in summer, and both Sean and Jack looked sick. Neither said
a word, but both rested a hand above their upper lip. The main
roads were wet, with most of the snow now a sooty, black sludge, as
opposed to the white fluff still decorating her tiny side street.
Lily bit the side of her cheek watching the two big Weres take each
pothole and traffic swerve in stride.

The taxi’s windshield wipers went back
and forth, keeping pace with the dirty spray kicked up from the
street and the cars ahead of them. She looked out the window at the
rainbows spreading across the road, where water mixed with residual
gas and oil, giving the blacktop a hazy, broken dream-like
appearance.

Traffic was still light and moved at a
steady pace, despite Sean and Jack’s discomfort, and before long
the cab pulled across from the hospital’s main entrance.

“
Well, that’s a first,”
Jack
hmmphed
as
he climbed out from the back of the taxi.

“
What’s a first?” Lily
asked.

“
That I’d pay to ride in a
moving sewer,” he said, after dragging in a lungful of
air.

Lily rolled her eyes. Jack was
uncharacteristically moody, and if she hadn’t uttered more than
twelve words this morning, then he had said even less. “Oh, please.
Are you sure you don’t have the wolf equivalent of PMS? You’re
bitching about everything, and your mood swings are giving me
whiplash, Jack. The cab was just old, that’s all. So it had a funky
smell, so do half the cabs and cabdrivers in the city. Get over
it.”

Jack grimaced. “What did I tell you
about trusting that bulb in the middle of your face? It smelled
like something died in there.”

“
Okay, you two, enough.
First off, Lily’s nose is not a bulb. And Lily, Jack is right. The
cab stank.
Done
.
Can we do what we came here to do, please?” Sean said, in an
attempt to stop whatever was starting to brew. “You two are acting
like siblings stuck in the back of a station wagon road trip. It’s
National Lampoon’s,
Vacation
, without the benefit of it
being funny.”

“
Exactly. So quit it, why
don’tcha?” Jack added, glancing at Lily over the top of his
sunglasses, a cheeky smirk plastered on his face.

Lily opened her mouth, but
closed it again. Jack was egging her on simply because he could.
For some reason, he thought if he pissed her off, she’d keep better
focus. That was bullshit, of course. She was a professional, but it
struck her as ironic how Terry used to do the same thing when the
stakes were high.
Am I that easily
sidetracked, that I’m better pissed off?

“
So, Miss Leather and Lace,
where are we supposed to meet this dude?” Jack asked, pulling her
away from her thoughts.

“
Detective Martinez,’ she
replied, stressing Ryan’s formal title before continuing, “…said
he’d be waiting downstairs, outside the morgue’s main doors. I
didn’t exactly tell him you were accompanying me, so maybe I should
just go it alone.”

“
Not a chance,” Sean
replied, with Jack shaking his head in silent accord.