Of Love and Darkness (8 page)

Damn the Fates, he was in way over his head here. He should go back home right now, give Harmony a call and use her to bang out all this frustration and aggression slamming around in his head. At some point in the day, the hangover headache had disappeared and was replaced by a frustration headache, a Sydney-based frustration headache. It was all her damn fault. The woman was tying him into knots, and she was probably enjoying it while she did it.

He really did almost leave at that point, but when Sydney agreed to go out to dinner with Ignacio that evening, something inside him protested so loudly, so fiercely, that he hadn’t been able to do anything at all except sit there and sulk, until Ignacio returned bearing his armload of gifts and sweeping a rather prettily dressed Sydney out the door.

She
was
pretty. She wore a simple black sleeveless dress with a matching scarf artfully draped around her neck. Long, thin, silver and rhinestone earrings hung from her ears. Her hair was swept back into a loose knot at the nape of her neck, and she had curled the ends into ringlets. One draped over her shoulder, curling down to her breast, and Gavin’s insides burned with rage as he watched Ignacio reach up and brush the curl back over her shoulder. He wanted to reach across the room and rip the shifter’s arm from his shoulder and then gnaw on it while Ignacio watched.

Instead, he hovered in a far corner, while the rest of the gaggle of shifters who had taken up residence in the house wished them luck—sincerely, for the love of Fates—and Ignacio helped Sydney into a long, cream-colored wool coat. Then they were gone, and every instinct in Gavin’s person told him to chase after them, to claim what was rightfully his.

“He isn’t the one, you know.”

William quietly stepped up to his side while the circus at the front door carried on. Gavin turned to him and bared his teeth, a silent warning that he was not in the mood. William ignored the warning.

“She’s flattered by the attention, and she thinks she wants someone who will shower her with gifts and follow her around like a puppy dog, because that’s what girls are supposed to want.”

“So you’re a psychologist as well as a Fate?” Gavin’s tone was snide.

“Nope. Just smarter than you, apparently.” And then he wandered away, to Quentin’s side, Gavin noticed. He wondered what
that
date would be like. He had never met a gay shifter before, but if Quentin was more interested in Sydney than in William, Gavin would eat his left pinkie. Probably, he hoped William would stick around, if he was the lucky one and Sydney chose him.

“She’s flattered by the attention, and she thinks she wants someone who will shower her with gifts and follow her around like a puppy dog, because that’s what girls are supposed to want.”

Gavin considered William’s words. If Sydney didn’t want someone like that, what
did
she want? Did she even know? Would she be so blinded by the flattery and attention that she would allow Ignacio to sweep her off her feet, even though it wasn’t really what she truly wanted? The thought caused his heart to clench, and for a moment, he actually struggled to breathe.

And then he strode across the room and out the front door without a backward glance.

When he arrived at the restaurant, he could tell immediately that Sydney sensed his presence. The thought helped to ease the vise clutching at his heart. He was as sharply attuned to her as she was to him, and as far as he could tell, she did not have that same tie with any of the other shifters currently wooing her.

He ducked into the kitchen, moments before Sydney made her circuit through the restaurant. When the chef yelled at him, Gavin found a set of stairs leading up to the second level and what turned out to be a private dining area. Conveniently for Gavin, it wasn’t in use tonight, so he was able to lean against the wall in the shadows at the top of the stairs, with a clear view of Sydney and Ignacio’s table, for the duration of their date.

He couldn’t hear the conversation, but he could tell the moment Sydney lost interest in her suitor, because her shoulders stiffened and she shifted in her chair so she was slightly facing away from him, instead of leaning into him while she toyed with her wineglass and waited for the next course. Whatever happened, Ignacio had ruined it for himself. Gavin hadn’t needed to interfere.

He watched over them until Ignacio paid the bill and helped Sydney into her coat. Her stance was still stiff, possibly even more so than it had been during dinner, so Gavin was confident enough to slip away at that point. Ignacio was finished, and Gavin needed to go patrol the streets of Detroit, to make sure the Rakshasa weren’t wreaking any more havoc than usual.

It was well after midnight when Gavin returned to Sydney’s house. The television was on in the living room, and two shifters were awake, playing a video game that had appeared at some point this evening. He counted heads and noticed two more had been added to the mix. At this rate, they’d have to start camping out in the backyard.

Gavin liked that idea. As cold as the temperatures were, perhaps a few of them would freeze to death, and competition would be eliminated. He stepped over sleeping bodies, not trying very hard to be careful. He trod on a hand or a leg and even a head at one point, as he made his way back to Sydney’s bedroom.

The door was locked, which was a slight annoyance, but Gavin had been telling the truth when he told her those pitiful locks couldn’t keep him out. He slipped inside in a matter of seconds.

“Get out.”

He froze in the process of closing the door.

“You aren’t welcome in here. No one is. Especially you. Get out.”

He blew out a breath. For the space of three very painful heartbeats, he thought Sydney was not alone in the bed. He wasn’t sure exactly what he would have done, but there was no doubt someone would have gotten hurt. Or worse.

“There’s nowhere else to sleep,” he said easily, as he strutted across the room toward the bed. In his relief that Sydney would not choose Ignacio over him, he’d forgotten about this morning. He supposed he needed to do some sort of damage control now.

“Then go somewhere else.”

“Can’t do that. You’re my Chala, and I have to protect what’s mine.”

“I swear to God, if one more person calls me their
Chala
, I’m going to—to—”

“To what?” Gavin asked, amused by her frustrated outburst.

“Stop this entire charade right this second. I’ll kick you all out and move to Aruba.”

“I don’t know about the rest of them, but I’ll just follow you to Aruba. And considering how bloody cold it is here right now, that’s not a half bad idea.”

Sydney made a frustrated noise that sounded like a growl.

“Date not go so well?” Gavin asked, feigning ignorance.

“My entire day hasn’t gone well.”

She sat in the middle of the bed, her back propped against the headboard, the comforter pulled up to just below her chest, a book lying next to her. The lamp on the bedside table cast a warm glow that didn’t penetrate the darkness beyond the mattress. Instead of the usual tank top she normally paired with pajama bottoms, she wore an oversized T-shirt. He was disappointed that the understated yet sexy black dress had been relegated back to the closet.

Unfortunately for her, his libido was so far into overdrive that she could wear a brown paper bag and he would still want to have sex with her. At some point during the past forty-eight hours, he’d gone from determining he would have to sleep with a woman he didn’t find particularly attractive, to feeling as if he
needed
to sleep with her, almost as much as he needed to breathe.

“Yeah, about that.” He took a deep breath. “I suppose I was kind of an asshole this morning.”

“Kind of?” She arched an eyebrow in an almost perfect imitation of him. He almost laughed, but figured she wouldn’t exactly appreciate it at the moment.

“Really was. No kind of about it,” he said solemnly.

“Yes. You were.”

“In my defense, I had a killer headache at the time.”

“You brought it on yourself. No one forced you to drink a fifth of Jack Daniels.”

Gavin felt his irritation welling and tried to push back at it. What the hell was wrong with the woman? He was trying to apologize here, and she was making it as difficult as she possibly could. Didn’t she know this sort of thing didn’t come easy for him?

“You have a living room full of suitors who you refuse to send away. What the hell do you expect me to do?”

Sydney’s chin lifted a notch. “Be one of those suitors.”

“Huh?”

“If you think you’re my mate, then act like it.”

“I am.”

“You act like you own me. You don’t own me. No one does. But if you want me to be your girlfriend, then you need to act like it. Treat me the same way you would treat any woman you want to go out with.”

Gavin stood still for the count of five, and then he was across the room in the space of a heartbeat, looming over the bed, stabbing his finger at her chest.

“I don’t want you to be my girlfriend. And for your information, I’ve never had to work this bloody hard to get a woman into my bed. Hell, I don’t even know if you’re worth it.”

Sydney shoved his hand away and scrambled out from under the comforter. She perched on her knees and pointed at him. “What the hell do you want, if you don’t want me to be your girlfriend? And you’ve obviously slept with some pretty loose women. Either that or stupid women. And trust me, I’m worth it.”

“Oh yeah? Prove it.”

Sydney growled. Actually growled at him. And then she placed her hands on his shoulders and twisted. Gavin was flipped over onto his back on the bed. Sydney straddled his hips, cupped his face and leaned down and kissed him. He didn’t even hesitate. He wrapped his arms around her back, slipped them under the T-shirt and slid them back up, to discover she wasn’t wearing a bra. He groaned, his hips flexed, and he thrust upward, desperately wanting them to both to be naked. He moved his hands around to cup her breasts as Sydney ground against him.

“Yes.” He moaned. “Yes. Do it again.”

She swiveled her hips, sliding the juncture of her thighs along the ridge of his throbbing erection.

“Fates.” He gasped as he felt an orgasm swelling. Was he really going to come without even stripping out of his clothes? He couldn’t even think straight at the moment. This felt too damn good.

“Yes?”

“Ah!” Gavin jumped about a foot into the air and knocked Sydney off him. He whipped his head around and found William standing in the middle of the room, wearing a pink terrycloth housecoat with white piping along the edges.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” Gavin demanded, as he gasped for breath. He felt as if he’d just run a marathon, except he hadn’t quite crossed the finish line. The bed shifted, and Sydney walked over and stood next to William.

“Someone summoned me. What can I do for you? Do you need direction? I did experiment with women when I was going through Fate training, but that was almost a thousand years ago, so I might be a little rusty. But I’ll give it a try, if you’d like.”

Gavin wiped his hand over his face. “I don’t need any bloody direction. We were doing just fine before you appeared. Why the hell did you summon him?” he demanded of Sydney.

She shook her head and furrowed her brow. “I didn’t.”

William rolled his eyes. “The next time you decide to summon me, Rakshasa, make it for a damn good reason. You’ve interrupted my beauty sleep.” He stalked from the room, slamming the door behind him.

“
I
summoned him?”

Sydney shrugged.

“Shit.”

“I’m going to sleep.”

Gavin gave her a hopeful look.

“Sleep. I think I proved my point. Good night.” She crawled into the bed and rolled over, showing him her back.

“Are you serious?”

“Completely.”

“Fa—”

“I wouldn’t, if I were you. William gets really cranky if he doesn’t get his beauty sleep.”

“Fuck me.”

Chapter 7

On Wednesday, Sydney went out on another date, this time with Hugo, the elderly shifter with gray streaks in his hair. Hugo was so old and set in his ways that he reminded her more of a grandfather than a suitor. She couldn’t imagine mating with him. It would be like mating with her grandfather, and, well,
gross
.

When he climbed into her bed that evening, Gavin seemed terribly smug. Sydney suspected he was keeping track of the success—or lack thereof—of her dates, and she couldn’t decide if she should be irritated or flattered. Since the scene in the bedroom yesterday evening, he’d remained politely distant, bordering on considerate, but never pushy and never acting in any way that could be thought of as wooing her.

Gavin and Quentin had retrieved Sydney’s car, running as good as new, so she no longer had to rely on others for a ride to work. Still, on Thursday morning, Gavin got up, and without a word, stood at the door, waiting to drive her to work.

“Why?” she asked as he opened the door and invited her to step onto the front porch.

“You have a lousy sense of direction. I wouldn’t want you to get lost on the way to work.”

It took her a moment to realize he was teasing her. And another moment to realize she liked it.

On Friday evening, she had to work another event. Gavin took her to work, but explained that he’d arranged for William to pick her up. The subzero temperatures finally broke, and more humans than usual tended to hang out in downtown Detroit on weekend evenings. He had no doubt there would be action—bad action—tonight, and he felt an overpowering need to be there, to do what he could to protect the humans from his own kind.

Sydney tried not to find it endearing that he insisted upon protecting the humans in Detroit, from his own kind, no less. If she started thinking about him in such a positive light, well . . .

“Okay,” she responded.

They had formed a sort of uneasy truce. He continued to sleep in her bed each and every night, but aside from cuddling while they slept and occasionally unconsciously thrusting his groin, that was all he did. They spoke like polite acquaintances during the day, and he managed to be at least halfway civil to the increasing number of shifters who were taking up residence in the house.

The only issue occurred when one of the newest shifters questioned him as he stalked down the hall toward Sydney’s bedroom one evening. She had a strict rule with all of her suitors that they were not allowed into her bedroom without her express permission, and the new shifter called Gavin out on it. Gavin responded by punching him once and knocking him out cold. No one else questioned him after that.

Before he left the house Friday evening, Gavin went to the living room and made a general announcement about his intentions. He was used to working alone and didn’t particularly like most of these Light Ones, but it was supposedly in their blood to want to destroy the Rakshasa too, so he felt obligated to at least put the option out there.

No one offered to go with him.

Gavin stood there staring at the bunch of them. There were more than twenty now. Most were slouched in the living room, on furniture or the floor. Another television had been brought into the room, and some were either watching or playing a video game, while the rest were zoned in to the other television, where the Red Wings were trouncing the other team on the ice.

Beer bottles, pizza boxes, bags of chips, and pretzels littered the floor and the coffee table. Blankets and sleeping bags were piled haphazardly in a corner. The floor looked as if it hadn’t been vacuumed in a month. In another corner, various duffel bags were piled together, along with dirty clothes and assorted pairs of shoes. The place looked like the ultimate bachelor pad. The only thing missing was porn on the television. He had a feeling that happened later in the evening, when they were sure Sydney was sleeping.

“Hey.” When no one acknowledged him, he grabbed the remote and threw it at the larger television, the one the majority of the group was watching. The screen cracked and went black. Several shifters protested, but he finally had everyone’s attention.

“You all are lazy fucking slobs.” He paced as he ticked off instructions on his fingers.

“If you want to stay in this house for one minute longer, you have to follow a few ground rules. One: clean up after yourselves.”

Gavin watched as most of them darted their gazes around the room. He wondered if they even noticed their mess. Most guys didn’t.

“If you are having issues figuring out how or what to clean, the Fate will be happy to give you an assignment.” He allowed himself a small smile.
Make William do the work organizing their cleaning habits. I like that idea.

“Two: you need to bathe at least every third day. Some of you smell like goddamned wild animals.” He watched as several sniffed at their armpits.

“Nick.” Gavin pointed at the youngest shifter in the bunch, the one who created the dating schedule. “You make up a showering schedule. There are two bathrooms in this house. Make sure you space things out so the hot water tank can keep up. Check with Sydney’s schedule first. She gets first dibs. I guess the Fate should get second,” he said as an afterthought. He wasn’t worried about himself. He could always shower at his own apartment. Or, if he ever got lucky enough, he’d be happy to share Sydney’s shower.

“And third: this is not a free for all. You need to contribute if you are going to live here. And the way you are going to contribute is by helping kill off the Rakshasa.”

He watched as they all gave each other uneasy glances. What the hell was wrong with this group?

Ignacio finally piped up. “Most of us have some experience with battling Rakshasa. But it’s been a long, long time. We all thought the Chala were extinct, so there didn’t seem to be a reason to keep fighting. Some have never fought a day in their lives.” He waved his hand in Nick’s direction. As if to emphasize Ignacio’s point, Nick nodded.

Gavin stared at him. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Why would they all give up like that? Didn’t they realize that Rakshasa were far more fertile than Light Ones, and if they did not keep the population in check, they would eventually take over the world?

There was some uneasy shifting and darted glances around the room, but no one denied Ignacio’s words.

“Fuck me,” Gavin muttered as he stormed out of the living room and headed down the hall to William’s bedroom. When he walked in without knocking, he found William and Quentin in the room together. He tried really hard not to think about what they had been doing, or possibly were about to do.

“Do you realize none of your Chala’s suitors have the wherewithal to fight off the goddamned Rakshasa?”

William’s brow furrowed. “I noticed none seemed as eager as you to go off to track them down, but when you say ‘wherewithal’ . . .”

“I mean, not a one has any interest in fighting. Apparently the youngest ones haven’t even done it at all. As far as any of us were aware, there hasn’t been a Chala in two hundred years, so they just quit trying. Lying down and letting the Rakshasa take over.” He was breathing heavily and suspected his eyes were glowing. He felt very strongly about his point.

William glanced at Quentin and nodded slowly. “I had not realized things were so dire. I suppose it is a good thing she did not choose to mate with any of them. If I am going to allow her to go into someone else’s protection, it has to be someone who really will protect her. Besides the fact that no one knows if there are any other Chala left, I happen to care for her a great deal.”

“She’s under
my
protection.” Gavin growled and stabbed his thumb at his chest. “And I
will
protect her. And those assholes out there need to learn how to do it, too.” He pointed at the open door through which he had just entered.

William gave Quentin a little push. “You’d better go with him. Make sure he doesn’t do anything rash. I’m afraid Sydney has become somewhat used to his presence around here.”

Quentin nodded then he and Gavin left the room.

As if reiterating what William told Quentin, Sydney defended Gavin when William picked her up from work. “I want to learn how to fight.”

“You are surrounded by almost two dozen shifters and your own personal Fate, and you think you need to fight? Are you implying that one of them is treating you poorly? Is it the Rakshasa? Because I know a few curses of my own—”

“His name is Gavin, William. Stop calling him
the Rakshasa
. It’s so impersonal. And no, no one is treating me poorly. They all treat me like a queen, even after I inform them that I won’t be their mate.”

William slid her a sideways glance. “It sounds as if you may be warming to, uh, Gavin.”

Sydney shrugged and turned to stare out the side window. “I guess I’m starting to get used to him. He’s not really as mean as he likes to pretend. I think he’s more misunderstood than anything.”

“Misunderstood?” William said the word slowly, enunciating each syllable.

“Yes. The poor man, every single day he has to deal with this internal conflict. He’s forced by the curse to kill his own kind, even though he once used to be just like them, and still remembers what it’s like to taste the kill. And he’s been alone for the last two hundred years. That has to take a toll. It’s no wonder he’s so gruff all the time.”

“Oh Fates,” William muttered.

Several hours later, Sydney jerked from a sound sleep by a loud commotion. She realized Gavin was not in the bed with her, but she could still sense his presence. Wherever he was, it wasn’t far. She scrambled out of bed to see what was going on in the other room.

Gavin stood in the living room, with a bloody, limp man draped over his shoulder. His arm was around the man’s waist, and he held the man’s hand, or else the body would have slid to the floor in a boneless mass.

“Oh my God!” Sydney clapped her hands over her mouth and stared with wide eyes.

“Help me get him to a bed,” Gavin instructed a nearby shifter. “And get her the hell out of here.” He turned away without looking at Sydney. But she saw it anyway: the cuts and bruises on his face, the blood on his clothes, the worried glint in his eye.

The next several hours were a flurry of activity. The beaten man was placed on the bed in the guest room. Hugo, who had seen even more battles than Gavin in his day, presided over tending to the man’s injuries, while two other shifters hovered nearby and followed whatever instruction he belted out. A few left to go to the nearest Walmart to purchase additional blankets and pillows and toiletries, since the supplies were now depleted. Somebody else scrounged up a few sandwiches and bags of chips, and everyone hunkered down to wait.

Gavin paced the hall outside the guestroom, pausing every so often to receive an update from one of Hugo’s assistants. Sydney, despite Gavin’s demands, insisted on helping.

Quentin was also injured, although not nearly to the extent of the shifter Hugo was tending to, so Sydney took it upon herself to tend to his various cuts and claw marks and one vicious looking bite that had taken a small chunk out of the meat of his calf. When she tried to ask him what happened, he was close-lipped, saying Gavin needed to be the one to explain.

After Quentin was cleaned and bandaged to the best of her abilities, she ran back and forth between the bathroom and the bedroom, carrying bowls of fresh, soapy water, dumping old, dirty, bloody water out in the toilet, and returning yet again with fresh, clean water. Hugo muttered something about stitches, so Sydney dug out William’s sewing kit, and at Hugo’s instruction, she soaked the thread and needle in alcohol before taking it in to him.

Gavin grabbed her arm when she tried to pass after giving Hugo the needles and thread. “You’re exhausted.”

She pushed a clump of hair out of her face. “So are you. And everybody else. You haven’t even cleaned up yet. Go take a shower before those wounds get infected.”

Gavin touched his face and winced. He’d forgotten about his own injuries. They were far less substantial than the other guy’s.

“Come on,” Sydney said with a sigh. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

He found himself seated on the toilet seat in the master bathroom in William’s bedroom, with Sydney standing over him, cleaning the cuts on his face with hydrogen peroxide and soapy water. The more she tended to him, the less it hurt, which was kind of nice, frankly.

“You heal quickly.” She dabbed at a long gash on his temple.

“You heal me quickly,” he replied. “You’re my Ch—it’s because we shared your blood.”

She smiled and he knew she caught the correction. “Is that normal?”

Gavin shrugged one shoulder. “Not unheard of. I don’t think it happens every time a shifter and Chala are mated, but I’ve heard of it occasionally throughout history.”

“Take your shirt off.”

He liked the way she sucked in a breath when he complied. Sleeping next to her night after night and resisting giving in to the temptation of making love to her was driving him to madness faster than Prim’s damn curse. It was nice to know she shared the attraction.

“Did-Did you do that to him?” she asked haltingly, while she cleansed a set of claw marks on his back.

“I assume you don’t really believe I did, or else you wouldn’t be locked in here alone with me right now.”

He was right, of course, although he caught her look of relief in the mirror. Apparently, the woman needed to hear him speak such things out loud, instead of assuming he cared or was responsible or whatever.

“What happened to him?”

“I’d rather not discuss it. I need to talk to William first.”

He could tell she instantly suspected it had something to do with her. She wasn’t stupid. He liked that about her. He also liked that she wasn’t running away, going into hiding, simpering in a corner, waiting for everyone else to protect her. Even though he had every intention of protecting her and not allowing her to put herself in harm’s way, he still liked that she wasn’t afraid.