Amy Jo opened her eyes to find Bella staring down at her. “Sounds like you know Diego pretty well.”
Bella nodded. “My brother has been pushing me to marry him for a while now. He keeps finding ways to put us together.”
Amy Jo felt her mouth drop open. “You’re kidding.”
The princess’ smile was infectious. “Nope. Diego’s never expressed an opinion one way or the other, but it’ll never happen.”
“Because you love Steven.”
Bella’s smile disappeared. “For all the good it does me.”
Amy Jo scooted farther onto the bed and propped herself on an elbow. Now seemed the perfect time for questions and answers. And she had more than her fair share.
“And your brother wants you to marry Diego because he’s a werewolf, too.”
“Actually, Diego’s an Iberian lynx. And he’s from a royal family, too.”
“He’s a prince
and
a cat?”
Bella smiled. “King, actually. And don’t ever call him kitty to his face. There aren’t many of them left.”
Whoa. Werewolves and now werelynx. And kings and princesses, to boot. “I grew up dirt poor in North Carolina. My daddy left when I was born and my momma had four kids to feed and clothe. We didn’t have much time to dream about fairies and elves and stuff. We were too worried about where our next meal was going to come from. So, what else is out there that I don’t know about?”
“Like the Tooth Fairy and the Boogeyman?” Bella teased, her smile showing just a hint of her sharp little canines.
At least, Amy Jo hoped she was teasing. “I always hoped there were fairies, pretty little girls with wings who glowed.”
“Actually,” Bella sighed and her expression sobered, “there are. We call them
folletti
.”
“What do you mean, ‘we’?”
“I’m a member of the Etruscan race. Our civilization has been intact for more centuries than we can recall. Most of our written history has been lost to us. Some historians believe the Etruscans migrated from northern Europe centuries before the Italian tribes settled in the seven hills area that would become Rome.”
Amy Jo cocked her head to the side. “But you don’t think so?”
“No. Our oral history tells us we originated there, indigenous to the peninsula. We have always been magical, a race apart from humans. Actually, two races, the
Enu
and the
Fata
. The
Enu
are magical humans. The
Fata
are earth elementals, what you’d call fairies and elves. And then there are our deities who…”
Bella sighed, drawing her top lip between her teeth to chew on it.
“Who...what?” Amy Jo prompted.
“Well, they’re…”
Amy Jo caught the undercurrent of what Bella wasn’t saying. And started to shake her head. “No. No, that’s just— No.”
Bella just stared at her before she shrugged. “Okay. You’re right. You don’t need to know everything all at once.”
Yeah. Okay. She could handle this. She could. Deep breaths, in and out. After everything that had happened to her, she couldn’t figure out why this was messing with her head. Maybe it was just too much. Fairies and Puck and things called
folletti
. And now gods and goddesses…
She’d managed not to lose her sanity after that night in Central Park. And she’d been damn proud of herself, even on the days she couldn’t force herself to get out of bed. She was still here. And now she had people willing to help her.
But the one friend she’d made was about to abandon her to the man who’d managed to reawaken her damaged sex drive.
She didn’t know if she could trust herself with Diego. And that truly sucked.
“Amy Jo, are you okay?”
The princess had that look on her face again—part concern, part apologetic understanding.
She shook her head but she wasn’t answering the question. She was trying to shake some sense back into her life. Time to change the subject. “So, what can I expect from this voodoo woman?”
Bella’s mouth twisted in a quick grin. “Andrea is a
strega
, a witch. She’ll be able to see inside your mind and pick out the information you’re repressing. If this group is planning to attack during
congress
, your information could save lives.”
“So, this
congress
… What does it do?”
“
Congress
is basically a strategy session but Cole has never held one. My father never held one that I know about.”
“And what do they do?”
The princess’ expression shuttered and Amy Jo knew she’d stepped into forbidden territory. Which just made her all the more curious.
“I can’t actually tell you,” Bella said. “Partly because I don’t know all the details and partly because it’s
lucani
army business.”
Amy Jo’s mouth opened and closed before she got her voice to work. “Did you just say army?”
“Yes, I did. The
lucani
are the Etruscan enforcers. The American legion was pretty out of hand when my grandfather agreed to move here and whip the
lucani
into shape. The Roman legion actually had an entire auxiliary of
lucani
during the height of the empire. When the Etruscans moved to the new world in the 1800s, they went a little wild, nearly wiped themselves out. My grandfather reinstated the legion as a way to keep order.”
Damn. Amy Jo had considered herself a pretty open-minded person. Hell, she turned into a wolf three nights out of every month. And she was still having a hard time wrapping her brain around all of this. “I feel like my head should be spinning around in circles.”
Bella grinned. “And I can’t believe how well you’re handling all of this.”
“You do know this all sounds like the plot of some Joss Whedon show, right?”
Laughing, Bella fell back on the bed to stare at the ceiling. “Mm, I loved ‘Angel,’ but I thought the show lost its focus in the third season.”
“Oh, God, I
so
agree. They should have left that twit Fred on Pilea.”
“
Thank
you.” Bella laughed, throwing her hands in the air. “Ooh, please tell me you’re a Dr. Who fan?”
“Are you kidding? I would have followed Ten anywhere. And I have to say Eleven’s growing on me.”
They sighed in unison. Television was so much more fun than real life.
“It’s going to be okay.” Bella’s softly spoken words broke through the fog that had surrounded Amy Jo’s brain when reality crashed back in. “Diego would die before he let anything happen to you.”
“I do remember some of what they did to me.” She could barely get the words out but couldn’t hold them back. They soured in the back of her throat. “I lied about that. Are you telling me this woman could erase what happened that night from my mind?”
“If you want.”
Did she want that? “I know this sounds crazy, but I don’t know if I want to forget. I don’t want to forget their scent because one day I’m going to hunt them down and kill them.”
“And that’s what you want?” Bella’s voice was barely audible.
Amy Jo nodded, fierce resolve stiffening her backbone. “Yes. I want to rip out their throats and tear their beating hearts from their bodies. I want them to know I’ve taken their lives, just as they took mine.”
Almost a minute passed before she lifted her gaze to Bella’s, almost afraid of what she’d find there. But there was no condemnation. Only understanding.
The knock on the door startled them both.
Bella turned toward the door and drew in a deep breath. “Steven. Are you ready?”
She nodded, not really ready at all.
Bella sat up, grabbed her hand and squeezed. “You’ll be fine. Just don’t let Diego walk all over you.”
Amy Jo’s lips curled in a smile. “You don’t have to worry about that. I can handle him.”
* * *
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle her.”
Diego remembered saying those exact words to Steven before they’d gone their separate ways. He’d meant them, too.
But an hour later, he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to live up to it. And Diego was nothing if not a man of his word.
“I’m assuming you and Marco are brothers. Bella told me you’re an Iberian lynx. Does that mean Marco is, too? What do you look like when you’re changed? I mean, lynx aren’t that big, are they? Not like lions. Do you shrink to average size or what?”
Why the hell had he agreed to Marco’s suggestion that they keep the hotel rooms for a few more hours to get some sleep?
Well, that one was simple. Marco had needed the rest. His skin looked ashen beneath his tan and he probably ached all over from the crash. Not that he’d ever admit it.
No, Marco had taken the easy way out and suggested it for Amy Jo’s sake. From the bed, the tiny blonde now stared at him, sitting on the chair along the wall.
Cross-legged in khaki shorts that barely covered her ass and a blue t-shirt with no bra, she had huge blue eyes and a growing bruise on her chin. A bruise he’d put there.
“So do you?”
He blinked and tried to focus on her question, settling farther into the chair he’d pulled to the bedside. “Do I what?”
She rolled her eyes and waved her hands in the air for some reason he couldn’t decipher. “Do you shrink to normal lynx size? Aren’t you listening to a word I say?”
Yeah, he was, but her words and their meaning got lost in the sweet drawl of her voice, the one that wrapped itself around his cock like a fist and squeezed.
Damn, he really didn’t need to be thinking like that. “No, I don’t shrink. I’m larger than the average lynx.”
Her gaze dropped to his shoulders then continued on to his chest and down to his lap. He refused to shift in his seat like a nervous kid, though she’d probably already noticed his growing erection, becoming more painful by the minute.
As was the throbbing in his head. He couldn’t shake the headache from healing Bella. Maybe Marco had been right to suggest the rest. Of course, Marco was asleep in the next room and here he sat, captivated by a woman he should have no interest in whatsoever.
All the biters Diego had ever known were unstable. Of course, they had all been men. He’d never known a woman who’d survived the process. Hell, he’d never met a male biter who retained the mental capabilities Amy Jo had. She was one of a kind.
“You should probably get some sleep while you can.” He tried not sound as desperate as he was starting to feel. “We’ll be on the road for at least seven hours.”
Her lips twisted in a grimace. “I can’t seem to settle down. Aren’t you tired?”
He wondered what she’d say if he told her what he really wanted to do. With her.
He shook his head.
She shrugged. “Me either. I can’t seem to shut off and I know when I get over-stimulated I tend to talk too much. So, about your dad—”
He slashed a hand in front of him, stopping her words. “That subject is not open for discussion. I really think you need to get some sleep.”
She fell silent then, her head cocked to the side watching him.
“What about your mom?”
He wondered what she’d do if he pulled out the duct tape he never left home with out and put it over her mouth? Or if he just put his mouth over hers and kissed all the talk out of her?
“Dead. So is our father. Marco’s mother is still alive. She hates me.”
Her full pink mouth tilted in a sympathetic smile. “So you
are
brothers?”
He sighed, realizing she wasn’t going to give up on this. “Look, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll answer your questions—if you answer mine.”
She fell silent and he let himself relax. He knew she’d never—
Then her bruised chin popped up. “Okay, you’re on. But I get to ask the first questions.” Without taking a breath, she barreled on. “Are you and Marco brothers?”
That was easy. “Yes.”
“So—”
“Ah.” He held up his hand. “My turn.”
Amy Jo huffed and crossed her arms under her breasts, forcing them into plump mounds beneath the top, making his mouth go dry. “Oh, go on then.”
She tried to sound offhand but he heard fear in her voice. He knew she thought he was going to ask about that night in Central Park. Part of him did want to know what had happened. What those animals had done to her. He wanted to know so that when he found them, he would know exactly why he was ripping their still-beating hearts out of their chests.
But he didn’t want her to fear him. Gods, no. What he wanted he couldn’t even put into words in his own head.
“How did you manage to stay sane through the transformation process? I know how hard it can be on a woman.”
Her head tilted to the side. “How do you know that?”
“Answer my question first.”
“Then mine doesn’t count.”
She fell silent and he knew she was waiting for him to agree to her terms. He contained his smile. “Fine. Your question doesn’t count.”
“Okay then.” Another deep breath as she turned to stare at the wall. “Honestly, I can’t say that I did. Stay sane, I mean. There are moments during the day when I can’t be sure if I’m dreaming or if I’m just crazy. I have this incredible sense of smell now. That actually took the longest to get used to. I kind of expected my eyesight to get better as well, but that didn’t happen.”
She looked at him as if for an answer to her unspoken question, but he wasn’t going to make it so easy on her. Truth be told, he wanted her to keep talking.
When he didn’t speak, she shrugged. “Anyway, after that first night, when I realized something had happened to me and I couldn’t ignore it, I bought the biggest dog cage I could find, locked myself in it in my bedroom on the first night of the next full moon and made sure I could see myself in the mirror. I figured I had two possibilities. One, I was crazy but not because I was actually becoming a wolf on the nights of the full moon. Or two, that I had an even bigger problem.”
“You’re not married.”
He didn’t make it a question but she answered it as if he had. “Tying myself to a man isn’t high on my to-do list. Where I come from, you get married because you want to get out of your parents’ house or you get yourself knocked up. I was a freak because I wanted to go to college.” She shrugged, as if what she wanted hadn’t been much of a consideration and turned back to meet his gaze. “So I left. What about you, Pretty Boy? Why aren’t you married yet?”