Deal With the Devil Read online

  “Luz?” he asked. “Are you okay?” He was trying to look me over for injuries without actually looking at me and I realized I was still nude.

  I looked at Gavin appealingly. “Uh, I know I barely know you but do you think you could loan me your shirt? You’re the only one wearing one.”

  “Never let it be said that I would not give the shirt off my back to a lady in need.” He took off his shirt—which was a white poet-type deal with lace at the neck and flowing sleeves—and handed it to me. There was a pattern of blood drops sprayed across the front of it but I slipped it on gratefully anyway.

  “Thanks. You’re already an improvement over my last brother-in-law.”

  “Which one was that?” Jude asked, looking up at me.

  “That would be Frank—the first one you killed.” I blinked back sudden tears. Frank had been an asshole and Essie was a bitch but now their kids were fatherless. What a horrible night, and all because of me!

  I didn’t want to think about it. “Come on. Let’s get you home,” I told Jude. I tried to help him sit up but both of us were in pretty bad shape. In the end Gavin did most of the heavy lifting and then the four of us, Gavin, Diego, Jude and I, staggered out to Diego’s car.

  Gavin drove since he was in the best shape. He and Diego sat in the front and had a whispered argument while Jude and I slumped in the back.

  “You shouldn’t have come after me,” Diego was telling his lover in a low voice. “I had it handled.”

  “I had to come. I couldn’t let you go to certain death alone.”

  “Well, I for one am glad you showed up,” Jude said to Gavin. “I am assuming you are the one who finished off that bastard, Engle?”

  “He did—just in time. He, uh, crushed his heart.” I shivered at the memory of Gavin’s bloody arm with Engle’s still-beating heart crushed in his fist.

  “Good,” Jude and Diego said at once.

  Diego turned his head to grin at Jude. “Looks like you and I finally agree on something, hermano.”

  Jude smiled back. “I think you might be right. I am glad you were there to defend Luz—I would have been too late.”

  “And I’m glad you showed up when you did. You, uh, kinda saved my ass,” Diego admitted. “I know I didn’t care for you much in the past but you’re all right with me, ‘mano.”

  “What? Why will you thank the incubus and not your own lover?” Gavin turned his head to glare at my brother who blushed dark red in the dim light of the dash.

  “Damn it, Gavin, I told you don’t call me that in front of my sister.”

  “It’s okay, really.” I reached over the seat and put a hand on Diego’s arm. “And I want to thank all of you for saving me. I just wish…I just wish it hadn’t been necessary in the first place.” My voice was suddenly choked with tears and then Jude was pulling me into his arms.

  “Luz,” he murmured softly. “Luz, it’s all right. It’s over now.”

  “All that blood. All that violence. And it was my fault,” I whispered. “All my fault.”

  “Don’t talk like that, Luz,” Diego said fiercely. “It was that cabrón Engle’s fault. He’s the one who started the whole mess.”

  “I know.” I wiped at my eyes with the long sleeves of Gavin’s shirt but the tears kept coming. “But if I had just shifted and let…let him have what he wanted all those years ago—”

  “You were a child being abused.” Jude stroked my hair. “It wasn’t your fault. It was a burden too heavy for anyone to bear.”

  “Jude is right. Mom and Dad and Essie and Frank—the whole damn pack, really—have some fucked-up ideas.” Diego shook his head. “I’m not going to talk to them or see them anymore, Luz, and I don’t think you should either.”

  I took a deep breath and sat up. “Well, there go our plans for a big family Christmas.” But my efforts at sarcasm only made me cry again because I started thinking of Essie’s kids having their first Christmas without their dad.

  “Come here.” Jude pulled me to him and I nestled my face in his shoulder and let myself go, let the tears flow like a river down his bloodstained chest.

  But even as he held me and whispered soothing things into my ear, I wondered if he was secretly enjoying the taste of my misery and that thought in itself made me even more miserable. I wept until I thought my heart would break and not only for the pain and bloodshed I had caused that night. I wept because despite everything that had happened, I still wasn’t sure about Jude.

  And I was very, very careful not to get any of his blood in my mouth.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Gavin and Diego dropped us off at Jude’s house, even though I wanted to go back to my own apartment to think.

  “You’ll be safest here, Luz,” Diego said reasonably when I tried to protest. “Just in case someone comes looking to retaliate—not that there are many males left in the Arm Gard pack at this point but you never can tell.”

  Gavin simply gave me a long look. “Remember what I told you,” he said before they pulled away.

  Jude looked at me. “What did he tell you?”

  “Nothing. Well…it was something he said after he asked if I wanted to save you, that’s all.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “I said of course I wanted to save you. How could I not?” I looked up at Jude, who looked much paler than usual if that was possible, and then back down to the sidewalk under my feet. “He…he said that if I gave you my blood to heal you I would have to be very careful. Because if I even took one drop of yours, the bond between us would be completed and I would never be free of you.”

  “Do you want to be free of me?” Jude tilted my chin up gently, forcing me to meet his eyes.

  “I don’t know. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you saved me tonight but…but I still have some problems with the way you lied to me and honestly, with what you are. God, that sounds terrible.” I pulled away from his hand and sat down on his front porch steps, wrapping my arms around my knees. “I’m so tired,” I whispered and it was true—now that the adrenaline rush of my horrible encounter had faded I was exhausted. The night was only half over but I felt like it had already lasted a million years.

  “Now is not the time to talk about this.” Jude offered me his hand. After a moment’s hesitation I took it and let him help me up. “Stay here until you’re rested,” he said. “I will leave a note instructing Rosie to wake you before nightfall if you wish to avoid seeing me again.”

  “Oh, Jude—it’s not that I don’t want to see you again,” I protested. “This last week and a half while we’ve been apart has been horrible. I just…I don’t know.”

  “You need time. Time to heal and time to think.” He waved a hand over the front doorknob and the door swung silently open. I would have exclaimed over the neat vampire trick but I was too tired to care if he turned the whole damn house upside down at that point.

  “I guess so,” I said. “That and a place to sleep. A hot shower would be nice too.”

  “You shall have everything you need and everything you desire,” Jude promised. He looked so tired and beaten, standing there in front of me that I longed to put my arms around him and tell him everything was forgiven and that we were going to start fresh. But too much had happened to me that night and I was still unsure of what he’d gotten out of my pain and misery. He was right, I needed time to think. So I kept my hands to myself and followed him as he led me silently back to the guest bedroom I had used before.

  “There are some of my shirts in the drawer,” he said, nodding at the large oak dresser beside the bed. “Also some clothes in your size hanging in the closet. I had Rosie help me pick them out before…when I still hoped you were coming back.”

  “Oh, Jude…” I felt tears stinging my eyes and blinked them back with an effort. “Thank you,” I said. “For everything.”

  “I will always love you,” he said simply. “Rest well.” Then he closed the door behind him and left me alone.

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