Ten, page 12
“Ix-nay on the code moon discussions,” Kyle whispered as he looked around the room. Everyone did a quick check for rogue claws, while Paige made a point to re-tuck her tail into her sweatpants.
“Well, come on—” she trailed off as she saw another young man in a fedora. His puppyish brown eyes perfectly mirrored her own.
“It’s nice to meet you formally, Paige,” he said as he took off his hat and held it to his chest. All the boys took notice of the same chestnut brown curls and Italian noses.
“Great-grandpa, Steve?” Paige whispered. She immediately triple-checked that her tail wasn’t showing.
“We’re among friends, Mr. DeMarco,” Lorcan reassured. “This is my own descendent, Kyle O’Hara. Over there we have William and Samuel Black who are part of my local distribution network and lastly one of my accountants, Morgan Blaylock.”
Steve sized up Morgan’s beefy arms and Gold’s Gym T-shirt.
“You’re the… accountant?” he asked. He raised a brow at the hand Morgan had left protectively on Paige’s shoulder.
“Can’t an accountant like to work out?” Morgan asked as he took another step to place himself firmly between Paige and the stranger with a similar face.
“If you’re quite finished trying to make me quake in my boots, I’d like to talk to my great-granddaughter, Mr. Bean Counter,” he said
with a sly little grin. “Just a little quality family time.”
Paige slipped out from under Morgan’s grip and took a tentative step towards the other DeMarco in the room. After a long uncomfortable stare, he stuck out his right hand.
“Do I at least get a handshake?” he asked sheepishly.
Paige embraced him in an awkward one-armed hug. Sure enough, as her head rested against his chest, she heard a faint whooshing rather than a heartbeat. She pulled away as she felt his cold hand against her arm.
“Yes, I am a vampire, Boo,” he sighed. “Or am I not allowed to call you that now that you’re over ten?”
“Even my mom doesn’t call me that anymore,” Paige said.
“Well, this is exactly as weird as I imagined,” Steve said as he surveyed the room. This time Lorcan stepped in and cleared his throat.
“We have some family business to attend to, if you all don’t mind,” he said, looking right at Morgan. “Paige, Kyle, would you please come with us? Don’t worry, I promise we’ll all be back soon.”
The guys took a collective protective step towards their pack mates, but neither vampire seemed unnerved in the slightest. Lorcan smiled just enough to show off his fangs.
“What kind of business?” Paige asked.
“The kind of business where we get three bullets out of your chest, Miss Paige. Now, I think you will all agree that tomorrow’s festivities will be a trifle more pleasant without you in pain.”
Morgan grabbed her arm once more and leaned in to whisper. “I don’t like this—”
“I don’t like you getting in my way, Bean Counter,” Steve said as he brushed Morgan’s hand away with a mere flick of his wrist.
Morgan’s eyes widened at the force summoned by the scrawnier man’s hands. “I’m stronger than I look, Abercrombie.”
“I can take care of myself. You guys just get ready for tomorrow,”
Paige quietly said. Her sentence sent all the boys back to work in the kitchen, while she and Kyle followed the vampires back to a tinted car.
Once inside, Lorcan stripped off his gloves and took the wheel.
Steve slid in the back with Paige, while Kyle took shotgun. The silence grew so pointed that Lorcan finally turned on the radio so that something repetitive and on the top-forty chart filled the vehicle until they finally made it out on the highway.
“I’m really glad that you’ve done so well for yourself,” Steve said softly. “Lord Pendragon says that you work for him now.”
“Well, I’m glad you weren’t shot and killed in World War II.”
The two of them both stared at each other until finally the vampire broke out laughing first. “Yeah, I’m glad I wasn’t too,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
“You know, I remember you visiting me before,” Paige said. “You told me that you always looked out for me.”
Steve scratched his head again. “You remember, huh?”
“Yup.”
“So, are you going to tell me why I need to help you get three bullets out of you?” Steve finally asked.
“Wait, how is he—?” Kyle started to ask.
“Mr. DeMarco, I believe you are currently paying off a rather steep penance with our local sheriff for insulting the Pendragon family and attempting to damage my son’s property, am I right?”
Everyone stared at the Italian vampire. He merely shrugged.
“I also understand that you have been reduced to risking your life by partial staking just to get back to your precious Boston—” Lorcan added.
“Is this the point where you get me to threaten you back for clearly taking my family out as insurance? Come on, Lord Pendragon, I’m dumb, but I’m not that dumb,” Steve sighed. “I think this would all go a hell of a lot smoother if we just cut through all the horse hockey, and you tell me what you want. I mean, half of this car ain’t got forever for us to posture like peacocks.”
“You’ve been spending too much time with my son’s assistant, I see,” Lorcan said as he opened the door. “Come on, then.”
They followed Lorcan to the side entrance of an ambulatory surgery clinic in Germantown, Tennessee. A lone BMW was parked badly in one of the handicapped spaces, and its driver seemed more
concerned with his phone rather than the quartet of individuals milling by an obviously closed office.
Lorcan leaned over to Steve. “If you make certain that this doctor remembers nothing, your debt to the sheriff is paid. I’m buying your silence by promising you that my only interest in this matter is the health of your great-granddaughter.”
“Grandpa—” Kyle started.
“Kyle, since you are not up to the necessary task at hand, I’ve had to make other arrangements,” Lorcan said. He paused as a young, balding man finally slipped out of the Beemer. “Ahh, Dr.
Wilson, I see that you got my message.”
“I got your payment,” he replied. “Shall we?”
They followed him into the darkened office. Both Paige and Kyle wrinkled their noses at the potent mix of disinfectants assaulting their noses. Lorcan handed Kyle a messenger bag. “In case you start feeling better,” the elder vampire muttered.
“So, you need me to remove a bullet on the night before Thanksgiving?” the doctor asked. “I mean, what kind of trouble have you gotten into, Mr. Darcy?”
“The kind that pays twice as much if you stop asking any more questions,” Lorcan replied. “Now, you told me that you could take care of this, was I mistaken?”
The doctor paused in the hall. “Look, I can do this. I just have to remind you that this is not the way I wanted to spend my night before Thanksgiving. You’re going to have to be a little patient because Roy isn’t here yet, and I’m betting we’re going to need X-rays.”
Lorcan grabbed the doctor by the arm. “You told someone else to come here?” he hissed. In the shadowy halls, his green eyes seemed preternaturally bright.
Dr. Wilson took a step back and bumped right into the chest of a nonplussed Steve. The shadows in the hall began pooling at Lorcan’s feet.
“You said remove a bullet. That’s going to take X-rays and unless you can do them, then we need Roy. He’s cool—”
“And I’m certain his fees are reasonable,” Lorcan growled. “Kyle, you need to keep working with Nadia daily, or I won’t be able to
afford the next incident.”
“Well, are we doing this?” the doctor asked.
They followed the doctor to one of the exam rooms. Kyle opened his bag to find heavy-duty handcuffs as well as a small fortune in sedatives. Paige raised a brow.
“We are going to take every precaution, Miss Paige,” Lorcan whispered.
“What about him?” she hissed, pointing to Steve.
“There was always an eventuality that I’d have to involve others in our little situation, Paige. Your blood relation has skills that are far more valuable than most, and I’m fairly certain that he’d find out eventually anyway. This way he feels like a part of the solution rather than a betrayed, spiteful, little Jaeger that will come for my head.”
“You know I can hear you two,” Steve whispered as he sauntered by the pair.
“Of course,” Lorcan said with a strange smile. “That’s why I’m being honest.”
“Sure,” Steve drawled. “Tonight is certainly going to be interesting.”
“I’m ready for you, Mr. Darcy,” Dr. Wilson said as the room lit up.
They all tensed as they heard a door swing open down the hall. “Roy just let me know he’s here as well.”
“Well then, here is your patient. Paige, let’s get this done.”
Paige eyed the open backed gown. “Are you sure about this?”
“Let’s give the young lady some privacy, shall we,” Lorcan said as he shooed everyone out of the room. “Everything will be fine.”
Paige yanked off her clothes and tugged on the ever so fashionable hospital-green gown. Her tail, twitching back and forth, hung free and breezy between her legs. She let out a deep breath before wrapping a paper sheet around her waist. “All clear!” she called to the door.
A rather friendly looking older man with glasses and a shaved head appeared. “I’m here to get some pictures, miss,” he said in a thick Southern drawl. “They tell me that we’re looking for a foreign object in your chest.”
“Yeah, um, hunting accident,” she offered weakly.
“Sure thing, miss,” he said. “Look, I’m just being paid to take some pictures, and then I need to get home and help the wife because her entire family is coming and taking over our place tomorrow.”
She made sure to keep the sheet wrapped around her as he led her into the X-ray room. True to his word, this Roy fellow just took a couple snaps of her chest and went about his business. Mercifully, none of the images caught any of her extra vertebrae extending from her not so vestigial tailbone.
She wandered back to the exam room where a pale Kyle set out the handcuffs and tapped his foot as he looked over a row of vials. “I need to remember how to knock you out, preferably so that you don’t disembowel a local surgeon the night before Turkey Day,” he said.
“This is all my fault. Grandpa is burning favors because I can’t seem to get my shit together.”
“Well, I guess it’s time for our ancestors to work together, right?”
“Yeah, well your great-grandpa is a Jaeger last time I checked, and my great-times-nine is a Pendragon—”
“And we’re both werewolves, so let’s take what we can get,”
Paige growled. “Lorcan wouldn’t do this if he didn’t think he could control the situation. Just take a deep breath and focus, Kyle. I really don’t want to wake up in the middle of surgery.”
“I’m just afraid that you’ll shake yourself awake the second he cuts into you, Paige. I don’t think that these restraints will be enough
—”
She took Kyle’s hand. “Then you and those two vampires in there will stop me from killing the guy. Come on, Red, you’re stronger than you’ve ever been. You’ll make sure everything goes according to plan.”
“Well, there is one part of the sedative that I remember that you really aren’t gonna like, Little Bit,” Kyle said.
“Is it the same mix you used before to keep my legs from healing too quickly in the wrong position?” she asked.
Kyle nodded.
“Well this plan keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?”
Kyle left the room, and Lorcan took his place at Paige’s bedside.
Careful to not look Paige directly in the eyes, he began rifling through Kyle’s bag.
“You know I rather like that Roy. He does his job, asks no questions, and his rates were indeed reasonable,” the vampire said as he pulled out some tubing and a sealed pack of needles. “I will certainly remember him, even if he won’t remember us.”
“You’re going to use an IV?” Paige asked.
“Were you expecting something else?” he asked as he leaned in closer. Paige shuddered before snatching up the needle pack and shoving him back with surprising force. She grabbed her shoulder and snarled.
“Sorry, I was rude,” Lorcan said softly. He rolled up one sleeve and began hunting for a vein.
“Why are you doing this, Lorcan? I know I’m in pain, but you don’t have—”
“Do I really need to explain my benevolence to you, Miss Paige?”
Lorcan snapped.
She grabbed his arm. “Yes, you do, because I have a pretty big suspicion that you aren’t doing this just to help me. Are you making some sort of play for my—”
He grabbed her arm right back and jabbed her unceremoniously with a needle. “I am making a play for that obnoxious little prick who happens to be related to you because my hand has been forced,”
Lorcan snapped. “Let’s face it, if we start having a battle of the evil grandparents, mine will win hands down; and he’s already started moving all us little chessmen around his board.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Merlin, my grandfather, is suddenly back in society again. I’ve just found out that he’s not only taken notice of you, but he has also rigged it to have my son and your Morgan’s precious little sister at the ball as well. At first, I thought he manipulated Steve and his sister into inviting Geoffrey and Georgia, but as it turns out, they were as surprised to see their invitations as—”
Both grabbed their heads as blood flowed from Lorcan’s arm into hers. Paige recovered first and gave the vampire a slap back to
consciousness.
“So, Merlin is manipulating everyone?” she hissed. “And now—”
“I am helping you because I need your help, Miss Paige. Your great-grandfather may be young and rather hated by most civilized vampires, but he has abilities that even Merlin can’t counteract. If I don’t win him over now, I’m fairly certain that he’s going to be used against me the moment we are in play.”
“So once again you’re using me,” she growled.
“Consider it payback for you killing two vampires and leaving evidence,” he snapped back.
She popped out her claws. Before she could rake them across the vampire’s smug face, the blood took over, and she ended up swooning on the table.
“I hate you sometimes,” she hissed.
“No, you don’t,” Lorcan said with a sad smile. “Now come on, this is just enough to let you heal normally and not at werewolf speed.
Try not to kill anyone.”
She snarled as he handcuffed her to the bed. Her eyes fluttered, and she felt herself falling even after her head landed on the pillow.
The next time she opened her eyes, she could see a pair of lifeless green eyes staring into her own. As she saw familiar red hair and freckles in the moonlight, she choked out a scream.
“Kyle!” she spat out in a voice far deeper and more masculine than she would have expected.
“Wake up,” a strange voice said. Paige rolled over to see a man impaled by a strangely familiar sword. The pale stranger clutched the blade with two hairy, clawed hands and his face remained mid-transformation with a terrifying mix of human and lupine features.
“Wake up,” the stranger commanded again.
Paige looked down at her chest and screamed at the thick, sticky blood smeared from her collarbone to her waist. An older man with graying hair shook her shoulders.
“Your name is Lorcan now.”
“No!” Paige yowled as her eyes snapped open.
“Oh my god, what is that thing?” Doctor Wilson gasped as Paige thrashed against the bed. Her eyes locked on the blood oozing from her chest and half-finished sutures.
“What the hell? What is that noise?” Paige heard outside.
“Get that thing away from me!” the doctor yelled as he flattened against the wall.
Paige stared at her hairy hands and popped talons. Even as she pulled her claws inwards, her tail flicked menacingly. The doctor whimpered and slumped against the wall.
“It’s a monster, a monster,” he stammered.
“Poor choice of words,” Paige heard as the lights flickered in the room. The shadows in shifted, and the doctor found himself lifted off his feet.
“Lorcan, stop!” she shouted as she saw three nasty looking lumps of metal and flesh on the tray next to her. The vampire chose to keep his death grip on the man in scrubs and exacerbate the situation by baring his fangs.
“Grandpa, stand down,” Kyle cried as he burst into the room. He staggered at the sight of the blood and began to hyperventilate as his irises started to expand across his corneas.
“What. . . the. . . hell?” Steve said as he too peeked in the door.
“She has a tail. Why does she have a tail?”
“Kyle, calm the fuck down,” Paige barked. He started breathing normally again as her words echoed in his ears.
“What the hell is happening?” the doctor moaned as he looked around the room.
“Grandpa Steve, I’m a werewolf,” Paige said flatly. “My friend Kyle over there is a werewolf, and believe it or not, Lorcan was a werewolf, too, before he died.”
“We still have a human in the room, A rún,” Lorcan chided.
“Stop calling me that, Lorcan,” Paige growled. She punctuated her point by cracking her thumb and yanking her right hand out of
the handcuffs.
“I knew those wouldn’t hold,” Kyle muttered.
Paige took a moment to yank a bloody paper sheet over her healing chest. “I still have holes in me, so can we fix this?”
“You’re a—” Steve stammered.
“You’re outnumbered, old man,” Paige growled.
Steve stared at the black and red talons currently wrapped around the doctor’s neck. Everyone in the room stopped to sniff as they heard a distinctive trickling sound coming from the direction of one Dr. Wilson.
