The Omegas (8 page)

One of the Weres held the back of her robe and dragged her through to the kitchen. Eric knocked his Were off, strode across the room, and kicked her attacker in the knee. It sent him howling to the floor. Unfortunately the Were pulled her robe with him.

She ran out of the apartment and down the hall to Daedalus, in her birthday suit. With the racket in her apartment, the Omegas should have come to check it out by now. Except their door looked busted in.

She peeked around the corner. The chaos in her apartment couldn’t compete with the havoc in this one. Tyler and a stranger were the only ones in the room still in human form. They fought one another on the far side of the kitchen. Beasts struggled against each other within the tight confines of the kitchen and hallway leading to the bedrooms. The clash of cutlery with dishes as they shattered on the kitchen floor made her cringe.

Daedalus’s closed, shiny, black coffin lay on the floor by the outside wall.

Sugar spotted a portable phone on the floor between her and the coffin. They needed help, she hoped the police could handle this. She crawled toward the phone, staying close to the floor to avoid attention.

One of the Weres approached Daedalus’s coffin. She gasped when she saw he held a stake and mallet.

Katrina’s high-pitched scream from the bedrooms made Sugar twist away. She saw Tyler snap his assailant’s neck and leap over the others blocking the hallway to reach the bedrooms where Katrina fought.

The sound of hammering drew Sugar’s attention back to the coffin. The beast banged on the stake, driving it through her sexy, sweet love. His screech froze her blood. It must have done the same to his attacker since he paused in his assault.

Daedalus needed her. Without thinking, she threw the portable phone with all her strength at the beast. It bounced off the back of his head and he stumbled forward, close enough for Daedalus to knock him out with a punch.

The Were’s leg wobbled like licorice before he toppled over.

She hurried to Daedalus’s side, her breaths coming in short gasps.
Please, let him
be all right.
She’d never told him how she felt about him, the paranormal, or their future. Now that creature had taken away her chance to tell him. She knelt by the coffin. A boulder dropped in her stomach.

Daedalus looked at her with wide, unfocused eyes. They were dilated to black bottomless pits. The stake still protruded out of his chest. As he attempted to sit, a small stain of blood appeared on his pale blue t-shirt around the wound. He lay back down, closed his eyes, and his body went limp.

She wanted to pull the stake out but didn’t know if she should. She didn’t know what vampires did when they died. Maybe his reaction was a reflex of some sort. She checked for a pulse at the base of his neck.
Stupid, he never had a pulse!

A crash behind her made her duck. When she turned she saw Katrina’s limp body tumble to the floor, leaving a small dent in the wall. Someone had thrown her across the room.

Hands clasped to her mouth, Sugar watched her world fall apart. All she could hear was her blood rushing past her ears like a freight train. She struggled for breath around a sob that racked her chest. Trembling, she crawled to Katrina’s listless body.
Weres heal fast.
She kept repeating this to herself like a mantra over and over in her head. This kept her urge to scream under control. If she started, she’d never stop.

A huge werewolf stomped through the Omegas’ apartment door from the hallway. It paused to contemplate them, then examined the coffin before it leaped onto the remaining beasts wrestling in the hallway.

Sugar rolled Katrina over and checked her breathing. Her chest rose in a strong, steady rhythm. Sugar sobbed again, this time in relief. Her friend’s right eye swelled and her lip bled. Those were the only visible injuries.

The noise of the fight faded behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see three battered beasts come out of the bedrooms. Tyler pushed his way past them to get to Katrina. His freckles stood out on his pale skin.

Sugar touched him gently as he knelt beside her. “I think she’ll be all right.”

He nodded, but examined Katrina anyway.

The remaining beasts changed back to human form. It was Eric who had passed them earlier in his wolf form. He slumped to the floor by the hallway while Robert and Sam rustled through the fridge getting what looked like food and drinks.

Her sense of incredulity must have shown on her face since Eric explained, “I’ve changed twice in one day, Sugar. I need the calories to recuperate and so do they.” He turned his gaze to the living room. “Tyler, how’s Katrina?”

“She’s hurt, but I can smell her injuries healing.” He glanced at Sugar. “Why are you naked?”

She looked down at herself, horrified. Flames of embarrassment burned her cheeks. “Give me your shirt.” She helped pull it off his back, then slipped it over her head. The t-shirt reached her mid-thigh and acted as a small dress. “They tore my robe off.”

She stepped over the unconscious Ayumu Were lying by the coffin. “He staked him, Eric.” Her chest tightened around another scream. A tear spilled from her eye, tracing its way down to her chin.

Eric attempted to stand, but his legs buckled, causing him to stumble to his knees. “Is he dust?”

She shook her head.

“They’re supposed to turn to dust when they’re staked. The Were must not have hammered it all the way through.”

She ran her fingers along Daedalus’s face and paused to trace his lush lips. Her tears dripped silently from her chin, splattering one by one on his shoulder. The passion, the violence, and the sorrow, she couldn’t handle anymore.

Something brushed her ankle. When she tried to swipe it off with her other foot she met resistance. Cold terror gripped her chest when the touch tightened. She glanced down to make eye contact with a pair of amber glowing eyes.

The Were who had staked Daedalus pulled her leg, and she fell to the floor. It crawled on top of her. The screams she’d held back came out as a herald of anguish and fear.

Tyler wrapped his arms around her aggressor’s chest, but the Were back-handed him away like a fly, while its long fingers wrapped around her throat. “At least I’ll get your mate, Eric.”

She gasped for air, nothing passed through her throat. Her vision tunneled while she grappled with his hand. All she could see were his hate-filled wolf eyes.

This was the last thing she’d experience? Getting killed over werewolf politics?

Suddenly, the Were’s weight jerked off of her.

Daedalus grasped the back of its shirt and lifted the Were in the air. Her neck remained clenched in the creature’s hand when it yanked her off the floor. The angle of the Were’s grasp, as she dangled, gave her enough room to wheeze in a breath. Relief swam over her. Daedalus would save her, he’d protect her, like he’d promised her.

She kicked and twisted mid-air until the Were’s grasp broke loose. Crashing to the floor, she gulped for air.

Daedalus pulled the stake from his chest, and in one swift move, jammed it through the Were’s head.

A spatter of blood landed on Sugar’s cheek. She watched in horror as he dropped the corpse, then staggered to his coffin. Sam and Robert appeared at his side to assist him.

She pushed between them and grasped his hand. “Please don’t die.” Her voice sounded hoarse.

He tried to touch her face, but his hand fell back to his chest. “Tell Eric to call my office.” His eyes closed, and his body became limp once more.

She stumbled back a step to look at Sam and Robert. They only offered her a shrug.

She found the portable phone by the coffin and handed it to Eric. “Call.”

Sugar watched them carry him away in his coffin.

Eric had called Daedalus’s office, informing them of the attack and of his injuries. They sent their local men. The same ones, according to Robert, who had caught them stealing their television and hogtied them. Even though they looked human, she knew they couldn’t be.

They reverently angled the coffin over the stair rails. Who was Daedalus Pal Robi? Someone who traveled with security yet housed them somewhere else. Someone who’s company removed seven dead werewolves without question and told them not to worry about it. Someone who taught underdogs to stand up for themselves and stole her heart.

She stared at nothing now, they were gone with him.

She felt empty inside, wrung out, and nauseous.

Katrina moaned behind her, and Sugar returned to the others.

The last of Daedalus’s men removed a blood pressure cuff from Katrina’s arm. She rested on a couch the boys had righted back up, an ice pack over her right eye. “She probably has a concussion, nothing her immunity can’t handle. She’ll be healed up by tomorrow. Tylenol for the headache, no anti-inflammatories.”

Sugar stood by the security guy, he glanced her way, and his eyes scanned her face. “Daedalus has survived worse.” He handed her a business card and closed the apartment door as he left.

The card showed a toll-free number with the Pal Robi logo. She snorted. Un-freaking-believable, her life belonged on
Tales from the Crypt
. Next thing she’d know, one of the merpeople would swim out of her toilet. Did she want this kind of life?

Most women her age had found a stable, charming husband, bought a house with a picket fence, and started having their 2.5 children. She’d dreamed that dream once but placed it on hold to help Eric out.

He’d found his place and didn’t need her anymore. The Omegas would be his life, he would make a great Alpha. Maybe he’d settle down with a mate, then they could have puppies. A giggle escaped her, and it held an edge of hysteria.

The subject of her amusement stared at her. “Are you okay?” The frown and hard glint in Eric’s eyes told Sugar there would be hell to pay among the disgruntled Ayumu turned Omega. Life would be difficult until they accepted him, which meant more fighting.

She lied and nodded. Thanks to Sam, the Ayumu thought her to be Eric’s mate, and it painted a bull’s eye on her back. More violence. She’d need to hire Daedalus for combat training to survive being their neighbor. Daedalus. Her thoughts circled back to him.

The situation could be turned into an opportunity to begin fresh, a clean break from the paranormal and its kind, a chance to explore her own future. Maybe find her American dream.

“I’m going home.” She planted a gentle kiss on Katrina’s forehead. “Take care.”

Eric followed her out of his apartment. “I’ll stay with you.”

She shook her head. “I need to be alone. Just give me some time to absorb what happened.” She glanced at her feet, unable to meet his piercing gaze.

“You heard the guy. Daedalus will pull through.”

She sighed. “I know. I don’t doubt it, not after watching him fight in daylight with a stake in his heart.” He was everything she’d ever wanted in a man, except actually being a man. “I don’t know if I’ll pull through.” A sob applied pressure to her chest but she held it. “You need to give me space. Everyone. For a little while.”

“Sugar,” he whispered. “Please don’t shut me out of your life. You’re my best friend.”

She walked down the hall with him and entered her apartment. “Give me time.” Then she closed the door. The bolt stuck as she struggled to twist the knob, but it finally locked. This was the first time since the Omegas moved in next door she’d needed it.

Daedalus sat in his study and contemplated the roaring fire in the hearth. No matter how much he fueled the flames, his heart remained cold. Centuries old but still stupid enough to fall for a pretty girl. He held the poem he’d written to her and threw it in the fire. She’d returned the others unopened as well.

He needed to reminisce on happier times, it sometimes eased the loneliness. His thoughts always betrayed him, eventually leading to her. The only good times he wished to remember involved Sugar, and they were a painful reminder she wanted nothing to do with him.

It drove him mad. He
knew
she cared. He
saw
her tears when they tried to stake him. Yet, she refused his calls and his letters. She refused him.

How many times over the last two months had he caught himself making plans to steal her away from her new home? He shook his head and rested it on the back of his favorite worn leather chair. Too many. It would be a mistake. Holding her prisoner would make her hate him more, not to mention kidnapping was illegal.

His chest ached, but not from the wound.

The CB mike on his cellphone beeped. He glanced down at it, annoyed. He’d told them not to disturb him. It beeped again. He sighed and unattached it. “What?”

“Did you order a pretty blonde for dinner, sir?”

What? He unfolded himself from the chair and went to the computer to access the camera outputs. A woman with blond curls got out of a cab, then came to stand by the guardhouse at the gate. His heart beat. One sharp, painful squeeze.

It was her.

“Bring her to my study.” Now she accepts his invitation? Two months later?

He tried to hook the phone back to his belt but missed, and it clattered to the floor. “Fuck.” It skittered under the desk as he tried to grab it. He straightened and brushed any wrinkles in his pants.
Get it together, man.
Whether she stayed or went, at least it would be resolved.

He strolled to the mantle where he would greet her. The dark granite under his hands offered a sense of solidness, a reflection of what he’d like to appear when she walked in, cool and strong.

An ember popped to land on his shoe. He scuffed it out and leaned against the stone, his eyes focused on the door. A faint mumble of greetings floated from the foyer.

This was nonsense.

He strode to the study’s exit so he could greet her in the foyer, then stopped. That would seem too eager.

He paced the room, running his hand over his smooth head, and wondered how to receive her. It would land him in jail or worse if he did what he wanted to do—tear her clothes off, confine her to his bedroom, and never let her go.

When had he become so insecure? Not even a minute in his home and she reduced him, Daedalus Pal Robi, a prime of the Nosferatu clan, to a teenager. A small growl rumbled deep inside a well of frustration that had gathered over the last weeks.