Night Angels (Beast & Beauty) (9 page)

“
I forgot to tell you something. You're a real hot wolf,” she said in the semi-darkness.

“
I am?” he answered in surprise.

“
Yeah, really, really hot. I'm such a lucky girl. Sleep tight, babe...” And she turned and got herself comfortable.

For once he didn't have a quick comeback. But he did have a big smile on his face. What a night it had been...

He awoke with a start, the sounds of an electric guitar flooding his ears with an atmospheric melody. The bed next to him was empty. He quickly got up, looking at the clock. It was one in the afternoon. He'd obviously slept through the alarm and Roxy had left him to it.

Once dressed, he made his way out to the main living area, curious to see who was playing.

Of course it had to be Roxy, didn't it?

If he'd thought she couldn't get any sexier... She'd just found a way.

The vest, shorts, and boots were back on. Her regulation dress code, it would seem, and she sat with her leg crossed over her knee and a black guitar on her lap.

She gave him a little smile 'hello' as he took a seat next to Angel and Saffy who were sitting on the sofa. Max was making himself a coffee.

“
Kyle honey... How are ya'?” Angel asked.

“
Fine, and so looking forward to tonight's repeat performance...”

“
Ha ha, yeah, it's a three night horror show. But seriously, it's not such a big ordeal after a while.”

“
Don't you get worried about running into people out there, at full moon?”

“
Not a lot we can do, is there?”

He supposed she was right. Their plan wasn't foolproof. Nothing ever was.

As he sat and listened to Roxy play, the hair stood up on the back of his neck in reaction to the haunting sound.

“
What's that you're playing?” he asked her in admiration.

“
Katatonia... Unfurl. It's pretty, huh? Their early work's heavy, heavy rock... You know... Pure biker.... Motorhead, Black Sab, and all that, but the later stuff is so cool... I love it,” she sighed. “What about this... have a guess...” she grinned as she launched into another song which he instantly recognised.

“
Guns 'n Roses, Knockin' on Heavens Door...” He was a big G 'n R fan. He knew their stuff pretty damn well...

“
Right... and what about this...” She started another. He let her play until she got past the chorus. He liked this one a lot, Nickleback was another one of his favourites.

“
Nickleback's How You Remind Me...”

“
One more... Dead famous oldie.” The familiar notes began... After two chords he had it...

“
Eagles, Hotel California.”

“
Hey... You're good honey...” Angel said with a sharp elbow in his side.

“
I know my rock.”

She carried on with the well known Eagles' piece...

A minute later Mutt appeared in the room dressed in a tiger print onesie, complete with a hood and ears. Kyle had to stifle a laugh. He was the biggest 'Tigger' ever...“Cut the racket Roxy, my head fuckin' hurts so bad... Ooowwww!”

“
Racket? Do you mind! Felder and Walsh are two of the best power riffers ever, that's sacrilege... Anyway, it's your own fault. You shouldn't have had those extra shots last night, should ya'? Don't think we don't all know. You do it every full moon,” Roxy replied hotly.

“
It's just one or two,” Mutt said defensively.

“
Yeah, one or two bottles maybe...” she muttered under her breath.

“
I like my little booze ups darlin',” he admitted as he flopped on the other sofa, his furry white tiger feet propped up on a plump cushion. “So, how's the new boy today?” He flashed Kyle a grin, complete with his gappy front teeth.

“
Coping.”

“
Good on 'ya. We all have our way of dealin' wiv stuff.  Don't we Roxy?”

“
We sure do, Mutt, we sure do... this is mine.” She began playing a beautifully sensual piece which made him shiver and melt from head to toe.

“
That's a musical orgasm... What the hell is it?” he asked her with a groan of pleasure. How he loved stirring music like this. It set him on fire.

“
Steve Vai, Tender Surrender, and my version is tame compared with his... because he's a guitar genius, but you like it, do you?” She gave him a hot look from under her eyelashes.

“
Do I like it...? Mmm mmm... You're doing it deliberately, aren't you? Getting me going.”

“
Maybe I can sense what makes you tick...” she said softly... her eyes sweeping up and down to his, sexily.

“
You're definitely tickin' my tock right now...”

“
Kyle... My God... You're quite a hot piece of work, aren't ya'?” Saffy said wide eyed, peering around Angel who was sitting between them, eyes closed, wallowing in the same type of ecstasy he was, by the looks of it.... Max snorted and gave him a dirty look as he sipped his coffee on the arm of the sofa at her side. Probably for exciting his pregnant mate a little too much, in the wrong way...

But he didn't care if he was a little bit of hot stuff with the women here, or if the men objected, that was their problem. There was only one thing he cared about or was interested in.

“Sometimes... With the right stimulation,” he answered Saffy's rhetorical question, his face breaking into a wide smile.

He couldn't stop it.

The right stimulation was there. And she was sitting right in front of him. With her long wavy light brown hair, the far too wonderful Roxy thing she had going on, and her musical lovemaking saturating his brain. He was way out there, so far beyond anywhere he'd been before. She ramped up the riffs to the climax of the track, her fingers flying up and down the strings so expertly he was stunned and shivering all over with desire from his head to his toes.

He was gone... somewhere with her. Completely and utterly hooked by this mysterious, talented, and beautiful creature.

For a grand finale, just in case she hadn't won him over, and almost worshipping in tears at her tuneful feet, she began to play a really deep little song. It pulled so hard at his heartstrings that he thought she would pull his heart clean out of his chest. This wasn't really his kind of music normally. But the way she did it, kinda edgy, Lauryn Hill style, with the electric guitar in a simple rhythm in the background, made it magical to him.

'Killing Me Softly' swept him off the face of the planet and she was singing to him, in a very decent voice, with a sexy catch to it.

He shut his eyes and soaked it in while floating above in the heavens.

“
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
I heard he sang a good song
I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him
To listen for a while
And there he was this young boy
A stranger to my eyes
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
I felt all flushed with fever
Embarrassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters
And read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish
But he just kept right on

Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song...”
 

Her voice trailed off and she stopped playing. Their blazing eyes met and locked, his heart was pounding like crazy. At that moment, if they'd been alone, he'd have those begging words comin' thick and fast and they'd be so pretty they'd make him blush. But they weren't alone. Perhaps that was a good thing, perhaps not? All he knew was that he was under her spell, and he still didn't know that much about her. 

But he so wanted to find out. Everything there was to know.

He stood up and poured two glasses of water and walked towards their room, looking over his shoulder pointedly, to where she sat. He went in their room and after straightening the duvet, he sat down to wait. And she made him wait quite a while. They were playing a game. He knew that. Eventually, about ten minutes later she arrived.

“Sorry about that. Kat caught me... Wanted to know all about you... How you got on?”

“Did she now?”

How interesting...

“Mmmm...” She sat down next to him on the bed.

“Roxy, what can I say...” he began, slowly. “I'm still recovering from all that, you gave me goose bumps and hot flashovers at the same time, got any more surprises up your sleeve?”

“Like what?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

“I don't know... Olympic gymnast, Formula One racing star... Prima ballerina?”

“Ha ha, that's funny. No Kyle, nothing like that. I'm just plain old me. I sing and play average guitar.”

“Hey, there's nothing plain or average about you.” He leant towards her and kissed her cheek. “That song really got to me you know...”

“Yeah, it got me too.” She kissed his cheek back. “And I meant it. You really do kill me. Ever since I first saw you and you ripped my heart out and ran off with it.” He laughed at her ironic turn of phase. Being as she was the werewolf, and ripping was really her thing.

“I didn't mean to kill you. There I was, having a nice quiet run with my dog, and suddenly there you were, trespassing, in front of me.”

“No, that wasn't me. I was watching you, when you came in the wood. I followed you secretly. The two you saw were Tank and Ryder.”

“Oh right, well that explains all the snarling unpleasant looks I got ... and what about in my house? What happened there?”

“We'd trailed your scent and got over-excited. It's difficult to describe. You'll understand when you run like a wolf. You're a wild animal. I just wanted to bite you, quickly, and then leave. You locking yourself in like that just wound us all up.”

“I thought you were going to eat me alive. I was literally shitting myself in that study.”

“Sorry we scared you. That wasn't on. We forget ourselves at times.” She smiled a sweet smile that made her look so young and innocent.

He was dying to ask her so many questions.

“How old are you Roxy?”

“Twenty two. Why?”

“I just want to know. How long have you been like this?”

“Five years.”

“Awww, really?”

“Hey, don't start feeling sorry for me.”

“I'm not. It's just that you were so young. Missing out on things. And having to cope with all this at seventeen. I admire you, really I do. Who turned you?”

“I don't know. I was attacked by someone in Chester. That's where I grew up.”

“And he left you to it?”

“He or she killed my mum and dad, and left me for dead, outside our house on a full moon. Obviously I wasn't dead. But for a while I wished I was. Then I got picked up by a bad crowd, bikers, much older than me. Our kind. They used me as bait.”

His head was reeling by all this news.

Her parents were murdered right in front of her?

“
Jeez, I'm so sorry, about your folks. That's a harsh thing to cope with.... And what d'you mean by ‘bait’?”

“I'd give guys the come on, coax them over, and they'd pounce and kill. Just for fun.”

“No?”

“Yeah, 'fraid so...”

“Did you kill anyone?”

“Not intentionally. But we ran the streets on full moons. I don't know what I did then. Tank found me, when I ran away the last time. I tried to escape several times before that but they brought me back, beat me up. They cut all my hair off once.”

“How long ago did you escape?”

“Four years, roughly.”

“Did they abuse you in any other way?”

“Funnily enough, no. They never did. I kept expecting it. But they left me be in the sexual sense, if that's what you mean.”

“Well that's something, I suppose.”

“I guess.” She got up and leaned against the chest of drawers, drinking her water. Her eyes strayed to the clock,  “Another five hours 'till we rampage again. Fancy a game of Scrabble?”

“There's nothing I'd like more...” This wasn't the kind of game he'd really like to play with her, but it could be fun, if it was done in the right way. “You're not a champion Scrabbler are you?”