Willing Sacrifice (20 page)

Darkness fell and we settled into a quiet meal. Everyone was deep in thought and I jumped at Robert clearing his throat.

“Sugar, are you sure all the Reaper wants is Jack?”

He would never forgive me if he knew the truth. I nodded and played nervously with my food. It might have been a dead giveaway had I not been doing just that for the entire meal up ’til then.

“When do you think he’ll come?”

“In my dreams; he can’t enter here.” I stuffed a piece of meat into my dry mouth and chewed slowly. Robert took the hint and didn’t ask any more questions.

After the meal Nina placed a cup of tea in front of me. “Drink this; it will help you sleep.”

I looked at the yellow liquid with bits of leaves swirling along the bottom and obediently brought it to my lips taking a small sip. The bitter liquid burned its way down my throat. It was tea all right, made with hot vodka. I shrank back, my lip curling up at the thought of another sip and of the alcohol, and my baby.

Nina leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Drink it Sugar.” Her eyes flashed to her son making sure his attention was elsewhere before she continued, “It won’t hurt her.”

I slammed back the contents with a quick gulp and almost immediately I felt its effects start. My head felt heavy, my blood felt thin and hot and every muscle in my body relaxed at once. “Robert,” I stood slowly leaning on the table for support. “Take me to bed?”

He carried me up to our bedroom and helped me dress in a white nightgown. I couldn’t help but think of all the old movies with the virgin sacrifices. The young girls strapped to an alter wearing a white gown but I wasn’t who the Reaper wanted.

No sooner had my head hit the pillow than I fell into a deep sleep.

***

“Sugar,” My eyes opened and Jack stood at the foot of the bed with one hand out at his side. “Run with me Sugar Baby?”

I sat up and came fully awake. I knew I had to meet him outside but I was still so sleepy I didn’t remember why. Realization came to me as his dream image faded from my sight. I stood slowly as not to wake Robert who slept soundly in all of his clothes in a chair across the room.

The house didn’t make a sound as I glided down the stairs to the front door. Jack stood in his human form on the edge of the house’s boundary.

I stepped into the cold night but still out of his reach. “I’m sorry Jack.” I said softly.

“Run with me, Sugar.” His handsome face smiled at me reassuringly.

“I don’t want to die.” Tears streamed down my face but I took his outstretched hand despite my fear.

His hand was warm; it felt alive. More alive than he had since the first time we met. He squeezed my fingers gently and pulled me slowly towards the trees surrounding the property. He pulled off his shirt and I noticed that it faded before touching the ground. This was all an illusion, a magic trick of his making but still my eyes were drawn to his muscular torso and arms. I felt hypnotized by him, and thought of a snake charming it’s prey before it strikes.

I stood stone still as he closed in on me. He lifted my arms above my head and traced his fingers down them then the length of my torso until he curled his fingers around the bottom hem of the nightgown and in one fluid motion he slipped it off. He stood back appraising me in the cold silver light of the moon. A breeze swirled between us, and my flesh rose with fear and cold. Where the hell was the Reaper?

Jack pulled me closer to him, his ever-watchful gaze piercing me with its intensity. “Do you love him?”

My breath shook and I tried to back away but Jack’s large palm pressed into my lower back unyielding.

He lowered his lips to mine and kissed me softly, as if to reassure me further that he wouldn’t hurt me. “Don’t be afraid.” He traced one finger down my stomach and stopped just over my womb. His gaze flick back to my face again. “Part of you still loves me?”

I nodded honestly. I did love him, but not in the same way I loved Robert.

“It wasn’t fair was it?” He asked but his gaze wasn’t on my eyes anymore. He cocked his head and lowered his lips to my throat. I looked around the forest for any sign of the white haired Reaper.

“He isn’t coming just yet, Sugar.” Jack was watching me again but he must have seen the look of shock cross my features. “You weren’t the only one with something to offer the Reaper tonight. I won’t hurt you, I’ve given my word.”

“What do you want from me Jack? I’ve got nothing left to give.”

“I wouldn’t say that exactly.” His eyes wondered again and his teasing smile warmed my blood. “This is the only chance I’ll ever have to be with you.”

The thought should have repulsed me. He had lied, killed, and threatened. He even brought me into his world with little concern for the consequences. If everything had gone as the Council had planned I would be just as dead as he was. I loved another man, but he was right. Part of me still loved Jack. Maybe if he had demanded it from me, or gave me no choice, but he had traded only God knows what for me.

My gaze flicked to his watchful eyes and it was all he needed. He lowered us onto the soft moss of the forest floor, his eyes darkening when I lay back fully beneath him. He traced the line of my thighs pressed tightly together. It seemed that I still had reservations about this little tryst.

“Jack, I love him.” I announced with sudden suicidal impulse.

Suddenly he was pinning me to the ground under his very real weight. “Sugar, don’t make me break my promise to the Reaper.” He softened the statement with his familiar half smirk but I could tell there was something missing behind his dark eyes. “I’m a patient man, but you’re asking too much of me when you say that.” He lowered his rough jaw down against my cheek and nudged my head to the side, then bit my throat just hard enough to draw a gasp from my lips and a rush through my body. I felt him smile against my bruised flesh and plant a soft kiss as apology.

My hands found their way around his back and my legs relaxed enough for his jeans clad bottom half to settle between them. One of my hands twisted into his hair and I buried my fingers in the thick black locks and shifted to press myself against him until he moaned.

He’d had enough play and he didn’t have to be asked twice before he kissed me deeply. His strong hands made their way over my skin kneading the flesh as his tongue explored mine. It left me breathless and with little reservation as to what was going to happen next. His jeans faded from sight just as the shirt had and I thought briefly about how convenient that was.

We nipped and kissed roughly for a few minutes longer but before long it had softened into something resembling our old love. He may have cared little to nothing for most of the people he swore to protect but as indifferent as he was to them all, I knew his love for me was everlasting. He had died for me and beaten death for this. What more could I ask of him?

It was slow at first, he barely moved over me but his intense gaze never let mine go. He was savoring this, our last memory together. We were stealing back the one moment that was taken from us. Sex isn’t everything but when it’s done like this it’s definitely more than just sex. Before long his achingly slow pace gave way to passion and we rocked slow and steady under the light of a silver moon. I lay on my stomach beneath him as he traced soft lips up the feminine curve of my lower back and all the way to my shoulder. I felt the tears threatening to fall again as he slowly made his way up to my ear and whispered, “I release you my love.” He brushed his lips against my ear before pushing himself into a standing position.

The Reaper came out of the shadows of the nearby trees. Jack sighed resolutely, looking down on me as if memorizing everything about me in that final moment before he faded from sight.

I looked to the Reaper now holding the end of a glowing chain harnessing a large gray wolf that I knew as Jack. I had already given the Reaper more than I had to give; I had nothing left to barter. This was what I wanted… wasn’t it? So why did I feel as if something in me was dying?

A cloud blocked the moon in sudden darkness and as the light returned after its passing, I lay alone in the eerily quiet forest. Aching burning pain seared through me in that all too familiar feeling of loss. I had nothing left to give them, and if this plan didn’t work the wolves would die slowly and for the first time I thought maybe they deserved just that for having failed to protect me as I had protected them.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The effects of Nina's potion were still in my system and suddenly my body felt too heavy to lift; I must have fallen asleep curled there on the forest floor because when my eyes opened again it was to the sun shining down on me, not the moon. I pulled the nightgown over my throbbing skull and headed back towards the house.

Robert, sitting on the steps of the front porch, met me. His face was solemn when he looked up to me standing before him. “What exactly did you have to trade for your freedom Sugar?” His voice shook as he spoke softly.

“What I had to,” I answered dispassionately.

Still sitting on the step he pulled me to him burying his face in the soft cotton of the nightgown. I brought my hands up to brush my fingers through his soft hair and I realized his whole body shook with pain.

“I’m here now baby.” I whispered into his hair and I kissed the top of his head. His obvious pain made me realize what it had cost him to let me leave the night before. He had no idea whether I would ever return.

He stood wrapping my legs around his waist and carried me into the house, unwilling to let me go until he had me stripped naked in the huge walk in shower. He bathed me with tender care, massaging every inch of my body clean of dirt, real and invisible. When he was certain that I no longer carried any trace of another man on my skin he worked hard at reclaiming my body as his. It broke my heart to know that I had caused him this much pain and I wished he knew how much it had cost me to do it. I loved Jack, but I would never love him as completely as I loved Robert. I loved Jack because he was so much like me, but I loved Robert because he was so much like the person I wanted to be.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind he looked into my eyes for the first time since I returned that morning. It wasn’t like he had read my thoughts like the Reaper had done. It was as if he could read my emotions. I cocked my head and narrowed my eyes. “You know everything don’t you?”

He looked down at me with the hot water running in tiny rivers over his tanned face but he didn’t say anything; he didn’t really have to. I couldn’t understand. If he was able to see me so clearly, why the Hell would he chose me?

His voice graveled out, “You’re just as much like me as you are like him.”

Fresh tears formed in my eyes. “I’m so sorry,” I breathed out through a sob. I knew he knew some things but not everything. I had caused him more pain than anyone deserved, and he still loved me? He had spent all this time just waiting for me to realize it. “Oh, God I am so sorry.”

He tilted my chin up to face him. His eyes clear of all the pain they had held since my return. “Don’t,” He kissed me softly. “You did what you did to save your family. No respectable man would have stopped you from doing the one thing he couldn’t.”

***

We headed home on the first flight out that day. The pack had been without its leaders long enough. At this point Robert would be lucky to not have to deal with questions from neighboring packs. News travels fast when a new Alpha leaves his pack unattended for more than a day and it had been well over a day.

Upon entering the house Robert was bombarded with angry questioning from the pack itself. Most of the questions were simply covers for figuring out why he had chosen me as his Mate. The last time we had all been together, all the girls had been on equal ground as far as they were concerned.

One voice stood out among the rest, Britney. “Donna and Gage left last night.”

Robert held up his hand and leaned forward to hear her. “What did you say?”

She shied away when the entire pack quieted at once and turned to her.

I gave her a reassured smile and she straightened. “I said Donna and Gage left last night.”

Some of the girls started talking again but Robert shushed them. “What time did they leave?”

“They left around three am. They'd been on the phone with Elder Coon for about an hour before that. I thought they were looking for you, but once I heard what they were saying...”

Robert and I looked at one another knowingly. “Do you know where they went?” I asked.

She shook her head sending her blonde curls flying.

“I think I do.” Jersey stood up from the table.

Everyone waited on baited breath for her to continue.

“But they won't get very far.” She held up a piece of a rubber tube that looked suspiciously like it belonged on a very expensive foreign sports car. “I heard them talking too.” She flashed me a proud smile.

“That's not anything that's going to kill them is it?” Robert asked over my shoulder.

“Unfortunately no, it belongs to the engine's cooling system.”

“Good,” he growled. “Because I have plans for them and I'd hate for that beautiful car to be horribly mangled in an accident when I could do the job half as fast but twice as well.”

Is it a bad thing that that turned me on?

“Robert, let’s worry about that later. Remember we've got an engagement party to plan?”

On the way home we worked out our plan. Outright murder wasn't allowed even in our society even for reasons we'd both deemed as justified but who'd put the judges themselves on trial? We decided we needed an alibi to protect us. We would have a huge party and at some point in the evening he would leave and I would only leave upon his return. We knew all along that Gage was in with the bad guys, but we hadn't planned on Donna as well. They would both be taken care of by Robert while the Council would be my responsibility with the help of the Reaper. As suspicious as all nine of them dying was, especially on the same night they would all die of natural causes. The Reaper assured me that each of them would die as they would have naturally, by the weakest point in their bodies. A bad heart, a stroke, or an undetected embolism; the point was that they all died tonight. They needed to be wiped out in one fell swoop before they had a chance to name their replacements. Not one of them could live because of the chance that they would poison the next members of Council to replace them.

The Elders themselves didn't live far from the lake. In fact the lake in many respects was their hub, which was why our pack and territory was so important to them.

I called Sarah and Kyle in for pack support. Sarah was more than happy to delegate who did what in the party planning. Some girls were set up texting faster than the speed of sound in one corner, sending last minute invites, and despite the distances most of the neighboring packs would be attending. It was easy when you dangled the fact that our pack of mostly unmated females would now be available because the Alpha had finally chosen his Mate.

Some of the other girls were outside decorating the back yard and deck with tiki torches and inflatable palm trees. I knew that this was just a cover but I couldn’t help thinking that I would have never chosen “Hawaiian Luau,” for my engagement party.

Robert had gone downtown for supplies and he returned with Kyle carrying the biggest boxes of hard liquor I had ever seen. He kissed me as he set his box down on the table, and I swear it creaked under the weight of it.

“That's a lot of alcohol.” I said looking into the box.

“I don't want people to remember anything about tonight, much less our leaving.” He whispered into my ear before kissing me again. He looked out onto the back porch and winced. “A luau huh?”

I shrugged, “We already had the palm trees and tiki torches.”

He wiggled his eyebrows, “What about the grass skirts and coconut bikinis?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Not on your life pal.” It was twilight when I helped Britney string white Christmas lights around the large perimeter of the yard and back deck. Jersey led the band to a far corner of the deck to get set up.

“Sugar,” Sarah called from the patio doors.

I handed the end of the lights to Brian and went inside.

Some of the guests had arrived and I watched as they resolutely dropped their car keys into a bowl of water next to the door. Sarah smiled, “My idea. When everyone's here I'll put it in the freezer so no one can leave. It's much more effective than a designated driver.” She leaned in, “And this way everyone will get snookered.” She patted my arm. “Now you go upstairs and get ready.”

I figured it was a pretty casual party, which was good since I didn't plan on tramping around the lake wearing a dress like some sort of angel of death. I rummaged through my clothes and my bedroom door closed behind me. My muscles stiffened as the heavy footfalls came towards me.

“Do you think we've got time for a shower?”

I smiled and relaxed but didn't turn around. “Maybe if we share it.”

His hands came around my waist and he lowered his mouth to my ear and chuckled softly sending a chill over my skin.

“We’re going to be alright aren’t we?” I asked after another long moment. I could hear the tears enter my voice as I thought more about it.

He turned me around slowly and hugged me to him. “We’re the good guys, remember?”