Ten, p.9
Ten, page 9
“What is wrong with him?” she asked flatly.
“Excuse me?” Ren asked as he fumbled for his phone to open his own apartment tucked within the hotel.
“I saw something on Steve’s arm—”
“My master and mistress caused a scene. The sheriff is not fond of scenes,” Ren said flatly.
“Yeah, and she had both you and Steve running halfway across the country—”
“My master elected for corporal punishment to allow him to end his service early. The minimum sentence for attempting to violate one of the four laws is a year and a day. You can take a punishment of the sheriff’s choice to shorten the time served. He’s still recovering from having a toothpick jammed into his shoulder.”
“Are you kidding? You guys only had four months left on that sentence—”
“The master was getting bored of being an errand boy—”
“Bullshit.”
Ren finally got the door open. His sparse little apartment barely indicated that a human had been in there recently. Even the bed, with perfectly folded corners and pillows that looked like they’d never supported a sleeping head, had the neatly pressed look of one of those showroom displays.
Georgia pulled out her phone and flicked through pages upon pages of idle chitchat contained within her months of texting with
“Ren the Robot.” “You were talking to me every day,” she said. “But
you really said very little. Is that going to continue now that you are back in Boston?”
He stopped cold in the middle of the room. “How is it that you can be thousands of miles away and always see right through me?” he asked softly.
“It’s not that I didn’t love hearing about your nights on the road,”
she sighed as she sauntered up to him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and pressed her cheek against his shoulder as she squeezed. “I just wanted to know that you were OK. I’m guessing that Merlin knows something that you aren’t telling me—”
“Vampires,” Ren sighed. He slipped around and tipped her chin so she could stare right into his unusual eyes. “They simply can’t resist stealing anyone’s thunder, can they?”
“Why did Steve the Splinter-Fearer really risk his life?” she asked.
Ren took a deep breath. Georgia held hers.
“Can’t we just have one night?” Ren asked. “Just the two of us and—”
She continued to stare right at him.
“You’re not going to let me run anymore, are you?”
She shook her head. Ren led her slowly to the bed. She raised a brow as he began to unbutton his starched collar. She grimaced as his rows of scars began to show.
He took her hand and traced a long slash just under his collarbone. She continued the motion and helped peel away his shirt.
She let out a gasp as she saw an angry crimson and blue spider web of veining mixed between scars and tattoos. He turned slightly so that she could see the horrible pattern cut through the owl on his back and converge on a bruise-like splotch on his side.
“He did it for me,” Ren whispered. “My contract is going to be up sooner rather than later.”
Georgia finally took a long overdue breath. She shook her head a few times and mouthed, “No.”
“I’m sorry. I even saw. . . . Let’s just say I tried everything—” Ren said as he grabbed onto Georgia.
“Everything?” she asked.
“Dr. Pang’s treatment only slowed the inevitable—”
“There has to be something. There has to be someone—”
“Nothing that I want to consider,” Ren said once more looking right into her eyes.
“But—” she muttered. “Please, there has to be something—”
“Georgia, my fate was sealed a decade ago when I gave up on science and took my cousin’s place. Minerva’s blood is no longer saving me, it’s killing me—”
“I never should have. . . . We never should have tried—”
Ren shook his head sadly. “Of course, we should have tried,” he corrected. “There is a reason why vampires always need new bondsmen. Eventually the cure fails. You might get one hundred years; you might get one, but, no matter what, the blood starts to fail, and your body rejects it—”
“No, you can’t reject it. You’re a Matsuoka. Your whole family—”
“Well I found out the hard way that I wasn’t quite who I thought I was. Georgia, you know what my choices are—”
“No, I don’t!”
“Either Minerva’s blood will eventually kill me, or I have to risk her and another vampire. . . completing the job,” he finally spat out.
She slumped next to him. “I was afraid you were going to say that, but I knew you were going to say it. I knew it.”
He tipped her chin up and furrowed his brows as he saw the tears forming. His voice broke as he finally managed to say softly,
“Look, I could live forever as someone else, but I choose to spend whatever time I have left…with you.”
“You. . . bastard,” she sniffled before kissing him.
“Don’t you dare quit,” Paige snarled as she clawed at a clump of grass that served as a makeshift handhold.
Her legs burned and ached as she tried to find purchase in a weed-laden mini-mountain of construction fill. Still she persevered and scrambled up to the top. Once there, she indulged in a brief stretch from head to tail but resisted the urge to let out an ironic howl
at the gorgeous full moon overhead. The wind shifted, and she cringed.
“You know, someone might see you,” a voice called from the shadows.
Paige curled her tail back around her leg before sliding down the other side of the hill. She landed only a few feet from a fragrant fabricated lake created from the excavation of the Oakland subdivision. As she curled to her feet, bright blue eyes peered from behind a scraggly tree. She stopped to nurse a pain in her ribcage before looking his way.
She stretched again as the ache lessened. “You shouldn’t approach from upwind,” she chided.
Morgan stepped out from behind his raggedy cover. “Well, I never try to hide from you,” he countered. “How long were you going to avoid me? I mean, is a week too soon to approach my girlfriend?”
“It’s been a hell of a week,” Paige muttered.
Morgan sauntered over and wrapped one of her Shirley Temple ringlets around his finger. “Looks like it,” he muttered.
“Well, you know about us girls and our time of the month,” Paige said with a weak laugh. “We don’t like to really discuss it. Aren’t you supposed to be—?”
“Amazingly, I survived on my own in a major metropolitan area without having to lock myself up every thirty days,” he growled.
“Well, maybe that’s because you’re just better than me,” she snapped. She cringed the moment the words left her lips.
“I’ve had twenty-five years to learn how to control the wolf; you’ve had a few months. Look, if you want me to go away, just say so—”
Paige grabbed his hand. “It’s not fair,” she said softly.
“Nothing in life really is,” Morgan muttered. “Come on, you’ve maybe run two miles. Let’s finish it up.”
The two of them started jogging around the lake and through a path of trees still devastated by a tornado. As they hopped over fallen logs and ducked around snapped limbs, smiles began to return to both werewolves’ faces. Finally, they reached a quiet grove of scrub pines and a broken oak tree where they could perch and breathe in the medicinal smells rather than construction waste.
Although they were both hot and sweaty, they leaned on each other.
Morgan picked at lichen, while Paige curled her tail over her lap and checked her fur for any opportunistic fleas or ticks.
“I see that our old friend is back,” Morgan sighed as he stared at the white tufts of fur on the tip.
“Yeah, it just popped right on out. I wonder if I need to use those flea drops like they put on dogs and cats—”
“Is that why Kyle was looking after you?” Morgan asked.
Paige focused intently on grooming her tail. “It’s been really rough this month,” she muttered.
Morgan shook his head and sighed but said nothing. They leaned against each other in silence for a good long while. Finally, Paige pulled away and took both of Morgan’s hands in her own. She admired his long, spindly fingers and toyed with them until it finally tickled enough for the tips of his claws to poke from under his nails.
He laughed a little and clamped his hands around hers.
“Are you going to distract me, or are you going to say what you wanted to say?” Morgan asked.
“You are so annoying sometimes,” Paige muttered.
“Because I pay attention or because I wait for you to tell me what’s bothering you?”
Paige gulped. The longer she stared into Morgan’s eyes, the more her lower lip quivered. “I have been avoiding you,” she whispered.
“Are you going to talk to me tonight then?”
“You’re going to hate me,” she said.
“Be careful what you order me to do,” Morgan said flatly.
Paige started chewing on her lip. “Yeah, deserve that,” she muttered. “Totally deserve that, in fact.”
Morgan simply waited as he stripped another layer of lichen off the bark. Paige’s tail twitched as she continued to search for words.
It was only after a distant car backfired that she snapped back into reality enough to choke out words.
“Morgan, I’m pretty sure you know exactly what sort of trouble I get into with Nadia and the gals—”
“And Sammy and Kyle—” Morgan added. He narrowed his eyes as Paige tensed at the name of the redheaded werewolf.
“Yeah, them too,” she said with a little nod. Morgan’s face remained dreadfully calm, so she continued with, “Things escalated last week, um—”
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with why Lorcan informed me that he was heading back into town on urgent business and asked me to wire over two-hundred thousand dollars to a holding account, would it? You know, when a vampire asks you to book something to contingency fees, you tend to get worried,” Morgan growled.
“Lorcan is heading back already?”
“So, do you need to explain something to me or to him?” Morgan asked as he stared up through the trees.
“Both of you,” she whispered.
“What was that?” Morgan growled.
“Oh, don’t be stupid and pretend you can’t hear me—”
“Then don’t be stupid and pretend I don’t know what you are doing!”
“Fine!” Paige barked. Her own claws popped out and dug into Morgan. He didn’t so much as flinch. “We didn’t just disrupt the meth labs and shake down the bloodsucker’s dealers. Toy managed to track them to a club they frequented—”
Morgan yanked his hands free, even though it cost him a few strips of skin. Paige recoiled in horror as she saw his blood under her nails. She stammered as he continued to stare at her.
“Those bloodsucking bastards were killing people, Morgan,” she snapped. “And those they didn’t kill, they get strung out. That Silas was a. . . was a monster—”
“So, you took matters into your own hands?” Morgan asked very slowly.
Paige nodded. “It was originally supposed to be Nadia, but I. . . I ended up alone with two of the vampires. They took me to an abandoned building, and I think you can guess exactly what happened.”
“You killed them,” he said still maddeningly calm.
“You’re not upset?” she asked.
“Why would I be upset that you just risked your life doing the exact same thing that got my father killed?” Morgan growled. “Why would I be upset that you tried to hide this from me? Tell me, Paige, why exactly would I be upset?”
“Morgan, they were killers!”
“So are you!” he barked.
Paige curled up in a ball and recoiled from the look in Morgan’s eyes. He hopped down from their perch on the log and walked for the tree line. Paige let out a little choking sound and Morgan stopped cold.
“I’m not like them,” Paige said softly. “I was trying to stop them from hurting more innocent people—”
“And what happens when their undead buddies come looking for them or when some friend or family asks one of the vampire bosses to hunt down whomever killed their buddy?” Morgan asked. “There is one great way to get every vampire in the area to pay attention to you—that’s to kill one of their kind—”
“So, what should we do? Keep running from them? Track them down with spreadsheets maybe?” Paige snapped.
Morgan stiffened. “The only way to stop them for good is to hurt all of them at once. I’m trying to find a way to expose them—”
“So, what? More innocent people have to die in the meantime, while you wait to convince the world that vampires are real?”
“Do the math, Paige. There are hundreds of vampires and a handful of us, but there are billions of humans in this world, and no matter how much power those bloodsuckers think they have—” he started.
“Do you even listen to yourself anymore?” Paige snapped. “How are you going to expose them? You’ve already gotten my father disgraced—”
“Your father was the one who sold us out—”
“And your uncle sold us to a bunch of crazy Asian vampires!”
“Is there a point to this, Paige?” Morgan growled. “You’ve made it abundantly clear what you think about my plan, and I think I’ve been pretty open to you—”
“You mean calling me a killer,” she snapped. “Would you have been happier if I’d not fought back and just let them kill me instead?”
“Of course not! Damnit, Paige. I wanted you not to get in this mess in the first place. We could have destroyed those bloodsuckers financially. I could have tipped off the police, or we could have informed the DEA—”
“And have them put out an APB for Dracula? Morgan, those vamps had at least some cops in their pocket—”
Morgan took a deep breath. “What I’m saying, is that there is always a way, Paige, a better way—”
“You mean your way,” she snapped. “Can you honestly tell me that if you saw the vampires who killed your parents—?”
“That’s not fair—”
“You’re judging me, Morgan. Don’t I get the same right?” Paige snapped. “Do you really think that you could look into the eyes of the monster who killed your mother and not rip out her throat? I know you made a promise to Lorcan, but is it even a promise that you can keep?”
“The moment I do that, I’m just a monster too,” Morgan said softly. “You’re right, I don’t know if I can be. . . if I can be the better man, but I have to try. We all have to try, Paige, or we are nothing more than the beasts we are made out to be.”
“Well, I guess I’m an animal then,” she said flatly. “And not good enough for you.”
“That’s not true,” Morgan said softly. “Just tell me, do you feel any remorse at all for what you’ve done?”
“Of course, I do! For all I know that vampire might secretly give to charity, or have twelve kids to feed, or be a brilliant artist, but on that night, he was a creepy stalker who tried to kill me, Morgan. I don’t regret fighting back. Jesus, I’m already driving myself crazy, but I’m not going to lie to you. I knew you were going to hate me, but I didn’t want to lie to you.”
He took a tentative step forward. “I do love you, Paige,” he said softly.
“What?”
“I love you. I hate what you did, but I’d rather be yelling at you than have you running away from me again. I sure as hell would rather have you infuriating me rather than lying dead in an abandoned building.”
“I don’t want to kill anyone else!” she spat. “I don’t want to, but I’m not going to just stand by if people are getting hurt.”
“You sound just like my father,” Morgan growled. Still he took a few more steps towards her until he could wrap his arms around her shoulders and hold her close.
“Is it over between us?” she asked as she buried her head against his chest.
Morgan closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. “I think we still have a lot to talk about, but I’m a stubborn bastard and not ready to give up on you yet. Just give me some time, OK. Is there anything else I need to know?”
Paige nodded furiously against his chest. For the first time all night, tears welled in her eyes. Morgan wrapped his arms even tighter around her.
“What could possibly have you more upset than killing vampires?” he dared to ask.
“I. . . I. . . bit Kyle,” she choked out.
“Is he OK?” Morgan asked. He squeezed Paige again. “He’s OK, right?”
“He, um, turned into a werewolf—”
“Isn’t he already a werewolf?”
Paige shook her head again. “No, not a werewolf like he was before, a werewolf like us,” she said.
“You mean he turned into an enormous ginger death machine?
Muzzle? Talons?”
“Yeah, everything but a tail.”
“I didn’t even think that was possible—”
“Well, Kyle’s trying to figure it out, if he can ever get his brain to settle down. I think I’ve ruined his life, Morgan.”
“He’s just going through the same pain you did. It’ll take time, but I’m sure everything will be all right—”
“I don’t know about that—”
“Shh,” Morgan said softly. “Look, it’s late, and like I said, we have a lot to talk about, but for now—”
“I’m so sorry, Morgan,” Paige said as she cried against his chest.
“I’m terrible—”
“You’re not terrible, kid. We’ll work this out. We’ll try at least.”
“I don’t deserve you,” Paige sniffled.
“Well, let me be the judge of that,” he said before kissing the top of her head. He led her back through the woods and back to her house. This time he let her go at the door. Paige held onto his hands and started to pull him towards her again, but he gently pushed her away.
“Give me a little time, OK.”
