Davy Harwood in Transition (The Immortal Prophecy) Page 19

  "What are you going to do about the Alpha?" Bastion asked. His eyes were cold. "He'll figure out who she is."

  "We need to strike first."

  Roane knew they were both correct. It was why he had Wren take the roommate and the wolf with Davy and the rest. He wanted them away, far away. If the Alpha came for his mate, the more secluded the better. He wouldn't travel with his pack, he wouldn't dare. Roane wanted to choose when the Alpha would find out Davy was the Immortal and not a thread-holder.

  "We will," Roane spoke with an icy calm in his veins.

  "He's going to come for his mate. That's the plan."

  Gavin didn't blink, but he looked at his best mate in surprise. "That's what you want, isn't it?"

  Bastion grinned. "Seems like a good plan to me. He'll come for her—"

  "And he'll come alone," Gavin added.

  "Then we'll kill him. Even the Alpha can't be a match for the six of us. We're too strong together."

  Gavin glanced at Roane. The mask he wore to the world had classic handsome features. Gavin had watched many times as vampires and human alike had fallen prey to the mask Lucas showed to the world. Noble. Honor. Determination. Those were some of the traits that Roane's conquests had loved about him, but it wasn't often when they glimpsed the darker side of the hunter. He saw it now and knew their own speculations weren't at all close to what Roane had in store for the werewolf. Gavin also knew he'd be wasting his time if he tried to guess more. Roane always surprised him, but this time he worried what the price would be.

  "She cares about her roommate." Roane looked at him. His gaze was emotionless, but Gavin still felt fear tug in his gut. Even so, he kept talking, "She's still a human."

  Bastion's eyes skirted between the two.

  Roane narrowed his. "And your point is?"

  "She cares as a human. She won't understand about casualties."

  "Anyone who is mated to the Alpha is a casualty. She has to die." Bastion moved back a step.

  "Davy's not just a human."

  "She hasn't been for awhile, but there's a part of her that still feels like she is. She's going to hold onto those friends tightly because they preserve that side of her. She feels like a human when she's with them."

  Roane shook his head. He knew what Gavin warned wasn't to be taken lightly, but he didn't know Davy. He didn't see how she had faced the Alpha in the park. She wanted to fight him and she wanted him to know that she wasn't scared. That confrontation was inevitable, but he hadn't wanted it to happen then. If it had been his choice, the Alpha would've been kept in the dark for another month, maybe more, but Davy had ended those chances. No one stood up to the Alpha unless they had power inside of themselves. No human would consider staring down the werewolf and since Davy had, the Alpha would know there was power in her. She let him look inside of her. She wanted him to see that power, but she hadn't shut him off quick enough. The werewolf had sensed more than she realized, but Roane knew. A flare of shock in the Alpha's eyes had been enough for Roane to know. The Alpha already knew she was the thread-holder.

  "When he comes, he's not coming just for his mate. He's coming for Davy too."

  "The truce," Gavin reminded him.

  Roane faced him. His eyes were fierce. "The truce means nothing. We killed too many of her fighters. They'll rise up now. They were going to anyway. It was just a matter of time."

  "But the Roane Army—"

  "—is the perfect timing for their revolution. They want this land and they want the thread-holder. Now they know who she is. We'll be divided against the army and the wolves. It's perfect timing on her side."

  "They'll have to fight the Roane Army then," Bastion spoke.

  Roane shook his head. "No, they won't. The army doesn't want this territory. They'll search for the thread-holder. When they won't be able to find her, they'll leave. We'll be destroyed by then and the wolves will stake their claim."

  "Why won't they wait it out? Let the Army destroy us and come in afterwards?" Bastion itched for another smoke. He gritted his teeth against the craving. No vampire should be dependent upon something men invented.

  "They'll move soon. They know where she is now. And they won't want me to move her where they can't find her."

  Gavin knew how Roane cared for Davy, but he wondered if he cared more about keeping the Immortal from his enemies. When the Roane elders hadn't listened to Roane and instead had sent a hunter after him, he knew his best friend had been shattered by the betrayal. Roane had always been loyal to his Family. He had lived and breathed by what the Family wanted. His post as the hunter and then protector of the Family had been the creed that he lived by. When they didn't listen to him and decided to try and destroy the thread-holder, Roane had taken it as a personal attack. Gavin wondered how much his best friend's ego was mixed with protecting Davy.

  Then a different enemy popped into his mind and Gavin asked, "And your brother? I know you haven't forgotten about him."

  Roane turned cold eyes on him. "I haven't forgotten."

  Bastion remained quiet, but he was aware of their tension.

  Gavin kept quiet and Lucas instructed, "We'll go back to the estate. Keep on patrol when we're there. I expect Davy's roommate will call her mate soon. I want to be there when he arrives."

  Then the three turned as one and sped away. In the night sky, they blended with the ground and were only shadows among the darkness.

  I woke to darkness. When I sat up, I knew someone else was in the room with me and I could hear him undressing.

  "Roane?"

  "Yeah?" He pulled back the covers and slipped underneath. I felt him slide in next to me and then his arms wrapped around me. He tucked me close. I relished the feel of his body against mine. It calmed me.

  "Why were you angry with me before?" I yawned as I asked him.

  "Because you showed yourself to the Alpha. He knows too much now."

  My mouth was pressed against his shoulder as I mumbled, "I'm sorry. I was so angry."

  He tightened his arms around me. "I know."

  "Did I mess up?"

  "A little, but we'll be fine. We can handle it."

  "Did they go away? Those wolves?" I tried to keep my eyes open. I wanted to see him, but it was a struggle. They were becoming too heavy.

  He kissed my forehead and smoothed my hair back. In a gentle voice, he soothed me. "You can go to sleep. The wolves are long gone by now."

  I reached for his hand and entwined our fingers. "What about you? You don't need to sleep that much."

  "I'll stay with you for awhile. Go to sleep, Davy. You need it." He pressed another kiss to my forehead and then my shoulder. His arms turned me and he shifted so he spooned me from behind. I felt protected and sheltered in his arms.

  "G'night, Davy."

  I tried to return it, but I couldn't. My mind had already ventured into dreamland.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  When I woke again, Roane was on the edge of the bed. He sat with his elbows on his knees and his hands cradling his head. I scooted beside him and looked at his back. Not long ago, I would've itched to caress it. This day, I felt nothing.

  "I'm numb."

  He looked at me. "I know."

  I lifted haunted eyes to him. "I should feel something. I've tried to fight this. I try to feel something and sometimes I do. I feel guilty. I look at my friends and a part of me doesn't feel like I'm friends with them anymore. What's wrong with me?"

  As his hand reached for mine, I heard him sigh. "I feel it too."

  "I don't like feeling like this."

  "Your mind is preparing you for what's going to happen. Bad things are going to happen."

  I didn't want to hear him, but he was right. My body had started to shut down. Emotions weren't going to help me anymore. "I don't like being this way. I'm becoming a robot. I don't even care what's going on anymore. When Kates kidnapped Emily, I was so irate. I was hurt by her betrayal, but now she could betray me again and I wouldn't blink. What does
that say about me?"

  Roane pulled me to his side and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. He murmured against my skin, "I think it means that we're going to survive. Whatever happens, we're going to survive."

  "I should feel. I don't feel anymore."

  He kissed my forehead with a sense of desperation. "We'll get there. I promise."

  "What about Emily?" I felt him tense beside me, but I had to ask. "I know Pete is my enemy, but she's in love with him. I saw their connection. It's deep, really deep. And she's my roommate. She was a good friend to me."

  He pulled away and stood to cross the room. His voice was distant. "If she's with him, she's with him."

  "What about Kates? She still loves Lucan, you know."

  Roane's eyes pierced mine. I could feel the struggle in him, but he shoved me out. "I'm sorry. I can't lie to you. You're going to lose friends. What do you want me to say?"

  His words whipped me. They stung.

  He added, "I am sorry, Davy, but this is what war is. And we're in one. It started with Lucan and then it began again with the wolves. They'll be coming back. I moved us off my territory so that he would come."

  "What are you saying?"

  "I want the Alpha to come. Then the Roane army will be coming too, and then my brother. We can't survive all of them. Not all of us are even going to survive this first round."

  Something in his voice made me cold. I heard everything he said. He said it before, but it was how he did it now. He was trying to tell me something else. He wanted to prepare me for something. I could feel his regret. It went deep, down to his bones, but he wouldn't let me in. He used to let me in. We wouldn't even have to speak out loud, but now he was a stranger again. It seemed so long ago that we had shared a bed.

  My gut twisted inside. "What aren't you saying to me?"

  Pain flared in his coal eyes, but it was gone quickly. Regret replaced it and then a steel wall slammed over it. He stood upright. "I'm saying to you that you're going to lose some of your friends. I've tried to shelter you from this, but I can't anymore. You're not just a human anymore. You're the reason for all of this and you've been taking a backseat. This is when you stop crying about the war and start becoming a part of it."

  "You haven't wanted me to be a part of it." I couldn't believe him.

  Roane hissed back, "Because you haven't wanted to step up. You've had this 'poor me' attitude the whole time, even before I met you. I felt it in the library that day and I hated it. You act like a victim. That is what’s going to make you a victim."

  My mouth fell open; I couldn't form a single thought. How dare he—how dare—He was right. I couldn't fight it anymore because he was right about everything. I had been feeling sorry for myself this whole time.

  "You stopped transitioning awhile ago." Roane brought me back. His voice was soft now. "Since you came back from wherever you were, you've been ready. You came back ready. You just didn't want to admit it. That's why you've shut down. That's why you can't feel anything and I know that you've been forcing yourself to ignore it. I could feel that from you too. You don't trust your friends anymore. You want to, but you don't. Stop lying to yourself."

  My mouth snapped shut. Each word hurt more than the last. "It's a hard pill to swallow. I hate when things change, especially when I have no control over any of it."

  "That's life." His eyes were hard. "Deal with it."

  It was then that I really looked at him. He snapped me out of my reverie and brought me back to our reality, to the two of us in that room. I was highly aware of how close he stood to me. And that he only had on a pair of unbuttoned slacks. They had fallen low on his hips. His stomach and groin muscles were defined. Each ridge and line stuck out against his body.

  "You've lost weight." My eyes were hungry. I was hungry.

  He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "The last few months haven't been easy on me."

  "Do you need to feed?"

  Molten heat flared in his eyes. "And become human? I think not, Davy."

  I knew that. Of course, I knew that, but I didn't like it.

  "What?"

  I shook my head. "What if there's a way you could feed from me and not become human? I wanted your brother to become human. Maybe I can control it. You could get power from me."

  "I did get power from when you bit me. I got a lot of it. I still have it in me."

  "You do?"

  He nodded and watched me with a knowing look. I flushed under his perusal. "Sometimes I think you know me better than I know myself."

  "Because I do. I love you, Davy." He crossed the room and cupped the side of my face. "How are you feeling now?"

  "More normal."

  His lips were so close. "You feel better?"

  I nodded. My throat was thick. The need for him flared inside of me. I was becoming blind to everything else. "I need you. When we're not on the same page, I can't handle it. I feel disjointed. I'm strongest when I'm with you."

  He grinned and dipped down. His lips met mine, but stayed still. I closed my eyes. I waited as my heart pounded loudly in my eardrums. Then his lips brushed against me. "I can help you with that."

  Before I had time to respond, he picked me up and threw me on the bed. I shrieked in laughter, but his mouth quickly silenced me. Everything in me hummed in pleasure. His arms went around me. His mouth explored mine. His body demanded everything from me and I gave it to him. As he lifted me higher on the bed and slid inside me, I was blind to anything but him. The world ceased to exist. It was only the two of us.

  And then an hour later I rolled over as Roane lay beside me.

  "Now I feel really connected to you," I drawled and panted for a minute in silence.

  Roane grinned and then groaned as he pressed a quick kiss to my shoulder. He sat up in the next moment. "I'm sorry, but I should go. I have things to do. So do you."

  "I do?" I enjoyed watching him getting ready to protect me.

  He spoke as he began to dress, "I can't take on three enemies without help."

  "You said no powers. They'll know then."

  "They already know. They might not know you're the Immortal, but they know you're the thread holder. Maybe it's time they find out the rest." Roane flashed me a grin before he left.

  Whatever I'd been feeling before was gone. As I dressed and went in search of the kitchen, I couldn't keep myself from grinning. He did that to me and when I finally found it, Kates looked up and laughed. "You've got the Roane Glow again. Lucky."

  Brown smiled and gestured to the table. "They have doughnuts, Davy."

  Indeed they did. The kitchen table was filled with cartons of the frosted pastries along with bowls of fruit. Some bread sat beside boxes of cereal and a dish of pancakes was placed in the middle.

  Pippa gave me a tentative grin. "They have a chef. He made me an omelet."

  Emily was quiet as she sat on a stool by the counter. Kates caught my look and rolled her eyes.

  "Davy?" Gavin brandished a metal spatula in the air. "Give me an order. I'm here to please."

  "You're the chef?"

  He smirked. "I have many skills."

  "Okay," I replied as I scooted onto a stool beside Emily. She stiffened and bowed her head. "Surprise me. Whatever you want."

  "Anything?" His eyes lit up.

  "She just said anything." Kates scowled.

  A heated look passed between the two before he jerked away. I heard the control in his voice as he forced a light tone. "You said anything, Davy. Be warned."

  I watched Kates, but said to him, "It'll be fine. I'm sure."

  She rolled her eyes at me this time, popped a strawberry in her mouth and left the room. Brown watched her go and I saw the same nonjudgmental curiosity from when she'd studied me with Roane before fill her eyes.

  "This is a really nice place, Davy. This is your—" Pippa frowned.

  "Boyfriend's?" Emily supplied. She looked up again.

  My roommate was in love with a werewolf, but she was acting jealous
. I thought she was over her crush. "I guess. I've never been here before."

  "Lucas seems to own a lot of places."

  Though Gavin didn't act any differently, I could feel his interest in the conversation. His hands slowed as he opened an egg.

  "Davy."

  "Yeah?" I looked back over. Emily had been studying me. "What?"

  "So you and Lucas are serious?"

  Pippa moved away from the counter, but Brown inched closer. The witch stepped away from the table to round the counter so she was behind me. It was a slow movement, but I knew that Gavin had noticed it. His eyes jerked up once, but went right back to the skillet.

  "Why are you asking me about him?"

  Emily drew back. "I can't ask you some questions? You lied to me about him, remember?"

  "We've gone over this."

  Annoyance flashed over her face, but she cleared it quickly. "I thought you were in love with Adam before. I'm just wondering how serious this is. I don't want you hurt again."

  She was lying. I knew that much, but this sudden loathing shook me. "I thought you cared about me."

  "I do." Emily smiled. "Why do you say that?"

  What could I say without making it worse?

  "A bitch." Pippa jumped as she spoke.

  All eyes turned to her.

  "What did you say?"

  Pippa jerked to the side. She met Emily's gaze. "A bitch. You're being a bitch."

  “Excuse me?"

  The wolf crossed her arms and leaned back on her heels. "You heard me."

  Kates chuckled behind me and Gavin was all eyes. He didn't hide his attention now.

  "I can't believe you. You have some nerve, Pippa! You're the reason we're all here."

  "No, I'm not!" she shouted back. "We're here because of Pete. He didn't like Davy and he could tell there was something different about her. He's the one who went to the Mother Wolf. I've been trying to shield Davy from her. I've been trying to protect her. I wanted to protect all of us."

  "Why? And what's so special about her? I don't understand any of this." The hysteria in Emily's voice was evident.