Rebirth (Rogues Shifter Series) (19 page)

I think her mouth dropped three inches before she
snapped it back into place. “I don't want to crush your fantasy but Garrett doesn’t really date. Many female shifters have tried to catch his eye, including me.” She must have seen the shock on my face, so she shrugged, saying. "He's uber hot. A girl would have to be dead not to try. But lately he's all business. I can't remember the last time I heard him laugh."

“Well, he's dating now
.” I smiled and thought about our night hunting together and sharing energy. Not the traditional dating activities I admit, but still amazing. And I'd seen him smile and heard him laugh plenty of times, mostly when we were alone.

We crouched in our hiding spot and watched tensely
as our team and our allies crept down the hillside and entered the building. No one was standing guard on the first floor. Apparently these wolves were egotistical enough to think they could fight off whoever showed up, no problem. A few seconds passed before Sinc and I heard shouts and loud crashing noises, a couple of screams and a gun firing repeatedly. At this point I was ready to knock Sinc out and limp down the hill by myself to see if Garrett was okay.

I caught a sweet breeze half a second before I was lifted into Garrett’s arms and kissed repeatedly all over my face and my neck and my hair and…well you get the picture. Finally his lips gently brushed over mine
.

I pushed away to
look him over. He looked shaken, battered, bloody and vulnerable, but he was alive. Not wanting to waste another second, I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my lips hard against his. He responded willingly and eagerly, helping me quickly forget all about my painful ankle.

I heard Kyl
e. "Jeez. Get a room."

We
pulled apart, laughing. I'd almost forgotten that anyone else was there. He sat down gracefully with me still in his arms and held me close. That’s when my control crumbled and I started to cry. Sinc handed me some tissues as I sobbed from the release of hours of pent up tension. Garrett stroked my hair and whispered comforting words, some of them in French. I caught Sinc smiling and giving me a wink, then sauntering away like the cat she was to talk to Ethan, hugging him, playfully mussing his hair and then kissing him on the cheek.

Aaron, Catherine & Franklin hiked back up to us, splattered with blood
but bearing no sign of injury. Garrett stood, leaving me leaning against the tree, and thanked them each personally.

“Man, that’s three you owe us," said Aaron chuckling and throwing his arm around Garrett’s shoulder.

“I think you’re forgetting about the two sorcerers who had you by the short hairs last fall. They trump the three scraggly weres by a mile.” Garrett laughed and pushed his cousin hard against the nearest pine, needles falling like rain and landing in his hair. Aaron shook his head and grinned back, laughing loudly.

Suddenly Rob quieted us all as the witch drove up in her car. Garrett disappeared in a blur before I could ask him to stay with me. Rob grabbed my hand to keep me still and tried to turn me away so I wouldn’t see what
was coming, but I had to look.

She got out of her car totally unaware of the danger that had appeared like a ghost behind her. Garrett stood as still as stone, that same cold
'otherness' making him feel alien, fangs extended and mouth curled up in a snarl. She stiffened as she sensed him and turned, tracing a shape in the air and mumbling a spell, but it was too late. Garrett grabbed her chin, breaking her jaw so she couldn’t speak the spell and then reaching out to crush the hand tracing the symbols. She screamed in agony. He held her tightly and whispered something in her ear, then savagely tore into her neck, drinking her blood until she hung limp and dead in his arms. He threw her down on the blood-splattered dirt, spat on her and disappeared into the lodge. All of this had taken about thirty seconds.

No one said a word, but they all turned to look at m
e. I felt the blood drain from my face and my stomach twist into a knot. I was terrified that I was going to barf right there in front of everyone. Instead, I forced myself to stand up and start limping back toward where we’d parked our cars, miles away from where we were. Rob caught up to me and picked me up. Kyle, Ethan and Sinc gathered up their things and passed us to take the lead, staying at least 20 yards ahead. Aaron, Catherine and Franklin had agreed to stay to clean up the site and dispose of the bodies. Aaron was on the Western Pack Council and would be reporting both incidents. In both cases we were attacked, and so would  not be held responsible for the deaths.

After a few minutes, Garrett joined Rob and me. He’d washed the blood off of his face and hands but seemed hesitant to touch me as if he still felt dirty. We walked silently for a few minutes, lost in our own thoughts.

He seemed anxious as he sent, “
I’m sorry you saw that. The blood of a black witch is powerful and I couldn’t waste it.”
I felt him watching me
. “I did warn you about me.”

When I didn’t respond he said
out loud, “Miranda knew who you were and what you could do. She would have tortured and killed you when she was through with me. She's killed many humans and shifters over the years in order to work her blood spells." He waited for a response, then sighed sadly. “I’m a vampire. If you can’t accept my darker nature, it's better you realize it now rather than later. Believe me, I understand. I’ll release you from my claim.”

Garrett’s expression was strained, his hands clenching and unclenching. Even after ingestin
g the black witch’s blood he might still be feeling the effects of the silver poisoning. The ugly black burns from the silver restraints were healing, but it was a slower process. He reached out and touched my hand. “You shouldn’t have come at all. It’s my fault that you got hurt.”

“Are you able to hold me?” He nodded and Rob passed me to him, looking relieved, then walked quickly ahead with the rest of the team, giving us some privacy.

Holding me in his arms, Garrett’s expression was calmer, though he wouldn’t look at my face. He just kept walking steadily along the path that I’d taken to find him; the path that I’d marked with scratches leading everyone to the lodge to rescue him. He could have rushed up ahead of the others with his vamp speed, but he probably thought I'd feel more secure with my team within reach. I breathed in his sweet fragrance to give myself a jolt of courage.

I reached out to him with my mind.
“I was scared, but I was positive that you were alive. You knew I'd come, didn’t you?"

“Yes
, although I was hoping that Rob had left you behind to keep you safe. You got hurt because of me."

He was drowning in guilt and wasn’t hearing me. “
Garrett, listen to me. Because of you and your training, I’ll be able to help people, maybe even save lives. For the first time, I feel like I belong somewhere.”

"You were amazing
, little cheetah. You'll do great things with your powers
." He hesitantly kissed the top of my head.

“Will you talk to me?
” I touched his face and he looked at me in surprise as I sent him a wash of my energy.
“You're hurting. You can trust me."

We walked for a few moments in silence. Finally he spoke, opening his heart to me in a way he probably never d
id, his voice in my head full of sadness.
“I hate what I’ve become since I was changed. Ripping into Miranda was all about revenge and bloodlust and it went against everything I used to stand for as a shifter. I’m not against using torture to save innocent lives but  that wasn’t the case today. I could have taken some blood and then just broken her neck, or turned her over to the council. The vampire in me enjoys the violence of the kill as much as the meal. It nourishes my darker self.”

“You were making sure that we were all safe. What she was going to do to you would have been much worse.
She would have gone on killing people.”

He shrugg
ed.
“I’ve accomplished some things as an undead that I could never have accomplished as a shifter. But I’ve never been able to accept what I am. I usually hide that fact from the world fairly well. Most people think I’m an arrogant asshole and I admit that I’ve done things to earn that reputation.”
He looked into my eyes, his emotions raw.
“You seem to see through my feeble attempts to hide the truth. Until recently, I would have said that the day before my abduction by Eleanor was the last happy day of my very long life. Lately I feel there is some hope for me…”

I could see the yearning in his sapphire eyes, a yearning that I recognized from years of feeling like a freak. Yeah, he was powerful and drop-dead gorgeous, but he was mostly alone. He had friends
, but he needed more. I smiled and reached out with my hand to stoke his cheek then spoke softly. "
I almost hurled when I saw what you did to the witch, Remember, I’m new to all this supernatural craziness, but what you did doesn’t change how I feel about you. A vampire isn’t all that you are. Your spirit is still cheetah like mine. In fact I love all the different pieces put together. I’m not going anywhere, Garrett, whether you drink from black witches or green aliens.”

He st
opped suddenly. His body shuddered as the terrible tension he’d been holding inside was released back into the universe. Before I’d taken another breath I found myself pressed against a tree trunk, his body pinning me there and his lips on mine. I opened my mouth and our kiss deepened deliciously. Feeling playful, I pulled in line energy and pushed it into him. He actually gasped and then grinned as he pushed it back at me. I tingled everywhere as the heat poured through me and looped back to him again.

He pulled away, laughing
. “Your cat is lively tonight. Maybe a little too lively for a man who wants to take this slowly.”

“You’re the one who pushed me up against the tree and kissed me
until my toes curled.” I pretended to pout, but ended up laughing too. “Not that I’m complaining.”

He picked me up again and started walking more quickly. “A rescue party, led by Ethan, is pr
obably heading back this way.”

I snorted, then covered my nose and giggled. “Ethan is going to have his hands full with Sinc, I think.”

A slow, evil grin spread across Garrett’s handsome face. “Excellent,” he smirked.

Chapter Twenty-four

As we drove back in his hastily cleaned car, I leaned against the leather seat and watched him. His eyes were concentrating on the road, but his mouth was turned up at the corners and his long fingers were drumming a lively rhythm on the steering wheel. He'd changed into clothes he'd had stashed in the trunk, so I didn't smell the witch's blood so strongly anymore.

“Are you driving me back to the house I’m sharing with Ethan?” I asked.

“Of course, where else?”

“We could go to your house, it looked really nice.”

“It’ll be dawn soon and I don’t know exactly when I’ll pass out and
wake up again now that I’ve ingested the witch’s blood.”

“I can just hang out there until you wake up.”  I reached over to him and put my hand on the seat next to his leg, barely brushing up against it.

“We’ve talked about this
kitten
," he smiled at his joke. “You’re seventeen.”

“I'm an adult in the supernatural world and you’re only nineteen.”

“Plus two hundred and fifteen.”  Huh, figured he’d be good at math.

I thought for a moment and then decided to be honest. “I’m not a virgin, if that’s what you’re worried about.” I looked down at my lap and waited for the inevitable words of disapproval. "It’s no big deal.”
I whispered. I didn't sound very convincing.

He looked a
t me curiously. “A boyfriend?” I shook my head no and frowned. His expression changed as he realized what I was saying. “Was it your last foster brother, the one you spoke of? The family before the Crawfords?”

“If you tell anyone I’ll kill you.” His hand was on my throat. “I’m gonna make you cry. No one will ever want you.”

I nodded as I shivered from the memory. When I saw Garrett’s dark expression I quickly blurted out, “I told you, he’s in jail. He pleaded guilty. It’s over and he's not hurting anyone else.”

Garrett’s eyes sparkled with
silver, but his voice was laced with concern. “He's still hurting you, I see it. I’m so sorry. The state system took away your childhood, forcing you to constantly adjust to living with strangers." He squeezed my hand. "You've coped with it courageously.”

My voice lowered in volume as I turned away.
I didn’t want to see his face when I spoke about it. I still felt ashamed, even though I knew that I hadn’t done anything to encourage the rape. “I spoke to a shrink, and that helped me. I went to live with the Crawfords next and they were wonderful and supportive. I ran more often and that helped me burn off most of the anger, just like always. It's my own brand of therapy.” I looked back at him. worried how he would react.

Anger smoldered in his ey
es. “Let me take care of him.” I thought of the witch and the weres and the other men who’d attacked me.