Untouchable (Wolf Kings of Twilight Book 1), page 10
“Some,” Alek says, wincing slightly as he places his feet on the floor and leans his head into his hands like he has a headache. “What happened to me? How am I still alive?” He lifts his head and squints at me, waiting for answers to his questions.
“You’re alive,” Damon slowly stands to his feet, “because my mother is brilliant. She’s the one who healed you.”
Margaret walks back into the room. “Only because you were stupid enough to touch her too.”
Alek looks at Damon, clearly confused by what Margaret said. “Why would you do a fool-headed thing like that?”
“To save your damn life and send you back to your father alive,” Damon says defensively. “That’s why.”
“I don’t understand.”
“King Damon,” I say, “in all his glorious wisdom decided to risk his own life to save yours. His mother was going to let you die, so get that look off your face. Damon isn’t crazy. If he hadn’t placed his life in jeopardy, you would still be in the process of dying right now.”
“So you do care a little bit,” Damon says to me with a roguish grin.
“I just don’t like ungrateful people, and he was getting on my nerves.” I look away from Damon but not before I see his gloating smile.
“You care,” he whispers.
“Do not.”
“Do too.”
“Do—”
“Enough!” Margaret shouts. “There’s a reason I didn’t have two children and listening to petty bickering is it. Now be quiet before I throw all of you out of my house!”
“See what you did,” Damon whispers to me.
I don’t take the bait, but I do give him a scathing look of reproach.
“Are the two of you a couple or something?” Alek asks, looking between us.
“No.” Damon and I say in unison.
“He kidnapped me,” I tell Alek.
“I saved you from a life with King Simon,” Damon counters, sounding like he did me a great favor by kidnapping me. “Trust me. That would have been worse than a death sentence.”
“You threatened Boris’s life to get me to go with you.”
“I wouldn’t have killed him,” he says in his own defense. “I simply would have kept him here in Midnight so you could never see him again. There’s a difference.”
“Not much of one.”
The sound of a loud clap reverberates in the room, drawing all of our attention back to Margaret.
“Shut . . . up,” she says slowly as if we’re slow-witted children. “My house. My rules. Now, get out! It’s obvious Damon is well since he’s expending so much air to argue with you. The sun will be setting in a couple of hours, and I would rather get ready for it in peace.”
Margaret does an about-face and goes back into her medicine room. When she slams the door behind her, she does so with a vengeance.
“Knowing my mother as well as I do,” Damon says, “I suggest we leave before she comes back out.”
“I don’t know her at all, but I think that’s a good idea.” Alek stands from the sofa, even if he is a bit wobbly on his feet. “She scares the hell out of me.”
Damon opens the front door and lets us leave first.
“Why don’t the two of you wait for me in the carriage?” he suggests. “If I don’t thank my mother for saving my life, she’ll never let me forget it.”
It sounds like a good idea to me. I can easily see Margaret holding a grudge.
Alek and I walk side by side down the paved stone walkway through Margaret’s flower garden.
“You know, I wouldn’t have really shot you on the boat,” he tells me. “The gun wasn’t even loaded.”
I look at him queerly. “What kind of pirate carries an unloaded weapon to a raid? What were you hoping to find on Damon’s ship anyway?”
“Whatever might be of value,” he says with a shrug. “We’re pirates. We take what we want. Normally people don’t put up much of a fight. They just give us what they have and move on grateful to still be alive.”
“I wouldn’t have given you anything even if Damon and the others hadn’t been with me. What do you do when you come up against someone like me?”
“Personally, I would leave you alone, but I can’t say that about the other members of my father’s crew. They’re not the most scrupulous bunch. That’s why they’re pirates. They don’t owe any allegiance to anyone except to their mates and their captain.”
“It doesn’t sound as though you like being a pirate.”
Alek shrugs. “I would rather raise horses. I’ve been saving my money up to buy some land here in Midnight and start a stable. I almost have enough to do that.”
“What does your father think about your plans?”
“Huh, not much. He doesn’t know yet.”
By this time, we’ve reached the carriage.
“When do you plan to tell him?”
“After I buy the land.” Alek reaches for the handle to the carriage door. “He’s been wanting me to take over the family business, but that’s not what I want to do with my life.”
“Your father doesn’t seem like the kind of man that will take your disobedience very well. Are you sure he’s going to let you leave?”
Alek sets his jaw firmly. “He won’t have a choice.”
Edmond walks over to us from the direction of the horses. “Everything all right here? Where’s Damon?”
“Everything is fine,” I tell him. “Damon needed to say some things to his mother before we leave. I think he wanted to thank her for saving Alek’s life.”
“Ugh, that woman. I swear she’s a witch.” Edmond casts an uneasy gaze in the direction of Margaret’s cottage. “I’ve seen her do things that just aren’t natural.”
I don’t say it, but I agree with Edmond. After seeing the glowing liquid Margaret used to revive both Damon and Alek, her being a witch seems like a logical assumption.
When Damon comes out of his mother’s house, he shouts for me to come to him.
“Why?” I shout back.
“Could you please just do as I ask for once?” he asks, clearly exasperated.
“I’ll be right back,” I say to the others, feeling aggravated with myself for giving into his demand.
Before I reach the front of the house, Damon walks off the stoop and motions for me to follow him to the back of the house.
“Where are we going?” I ask, following his lead. “Have you reconsidered my request?”
“About wasting your life out here in the woods? No. I haven’t changed my mind.”
Once we reach the back side of the cottage, Damon stops and turns to face me.
“I need to test something before we leave,” he says. “Close your eyes.”
“Why?” I take a cautious step back. “What are you going to do?”
“Please, trust me.” He holds his hands up in the air. “I’m not going to do anything to hurt you.”
With a deep sigh, I do as he says.
When I feel his lips touch mine, I instantly open my eyes and pull away.
“You are an idiot!” I accuse. “Wasn’t one near-death experience enough for you?”
Damon holds up an index finger as if telling me to wait.
After a few seconds pass by, he smiles. “I’m not dead. I don’t even feel ill.”
It’s only then that I understand what just happened.
“Are you immune to my curse now?” I ask breathlessly.
“Possibly,” he says, reaching out to take hold of my hand. The warmth of his skin against mine makes me sigh in pleasure. “My mother seems to believe that her treatment will give me full immunity to your poison. I wanted to test her theory out before we left.”
I swallow hard, realizing the miracle Margaret has given me.
I could have a normal life with someone as long as they allowed Damon’s mother to treat them with her antidote.
“We need to make sure,” I say, before pulling Damon to me and claiming his lips with mine.
As our mouths meld into one, I begin to feel light-headed with pleasure. The softness of his lips. The sweetness of his tongue. All of it drives me to the brink. I wrap my arms around his neck becoming lost in the moment.
“For goodness’ sake,” I hear Margaret say in disgust, “I thought the two of you were leaving!”
We end our kiss but not because either of us wanted to. As I stand in front of Damon, I feel lost for words and slightly out of breath. Instead of trying to think of something clever to say, I turn and walk back in the direction of the carriage wondering if the look of desire I saw in his eyes was real.
Chapter Ten
The ride back to town is made more bearable by Alek’s presence. For whatever reason, I feel slightly ashamed for the way I acted with Damon, and I can feel him watching me from the other side of the carriage. I’m not sure what he’s expecting to see. My cheeks red with embarrassment, perhaps? Or a coquettish glance his way? He’ll be sorely disappointed if he’s expecting to see either.
While Alek goes on and on about the horses he wants to breed, all I do is nod and look like I’m engaged in what he’s saying when my mind is focused on how addictive Damon’s kisses are becoming. Am I embarrassed that I enjoy them? No. Why should I be? People kiss all the time and now I know the reason behind their fascination with the act. I convince myself I’m curious more than anything. It’s definitely not because of the man I’m kissing. Nope. Definitely not.
When we pass through the gates in front of Damon’s castle, I chance a look in his direction. He’s still staring at me. He looks confused, but I don’t have a clue what’s going through his mind. Is he regretting the kiss? If he is, he hasn’t said anything about it. In fact, he hasn’t said anything at all since he got in the carriage at his mother’s home and sat across from me and Alek.
To take my mind off of things, I decide to look out the window at Damon’s castle. I instantly notice it isn’t anything like the castle in Dawn. Where Simon’s home is built of white sandstone, Damon’s is constructed of a black stone as dark as night. With numerous towers, parapets, and balconies, the structure is intimidating to say the least.
Edmond drives the carriage to the front entrance where two ten-foot iron doors with a crescent moon and star embossed on their surface stand. When we come to a stop, I lean forward to open the door, but Damon stops me by laying his hand on mine.
“Edmond will take you to where you need to be,” he tells me in a cold, detached voice. “Only Alek and I will be getting out here.”
I sit back in my seat. “And where exactly am I being carted off to?”
“You’ll need to enter through the servants’ entrance.”
I stare at Damon waiting for him to laugh. When he doesn’t, there’s only one thing I can say.
“You’re joking, right?”
“No. I’m not joking.” He turns his gaze to Alek as if dismissing me from his thoughts. The action makes my blood boil. “Come with me. You can spend the night here, and we’ll see about getting you back to your father in the morning.”
Alek holds his hand out to me. I know it’s a reflex, but if what Damon said is true, and at this point I have no reason to believe he’s lying, it should be safe for Alek to touch me since he received the same treatment.
Inexperienced with the formality, but eager to try something so normal for others, I shake Alek’s hand. He smiles.
“Yeah, I figured if Damon could touch you now I probably could too,” he says. “In case I don’t see you before I leave, I wish you the best. And don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. I won’t tell my father about Damon’s plans for you. If I did, you might end up being kidnapped a third time.”
“Thank you. I would appreciate you keeping everything you learned to yourself.”
Damon clears his throat. He looks on the verge of saying something but seems to decide to keep his words to himself for now.
“We need to go.” Damon opens the carriage door and steps out with Alek close to his heels. After he slams the door shut, Damon looks up at Edmond. “Take her out back.”
Wow. I feel so special. Sure, Edmond, take me out back like I’m a bag of trash. I give Damon the glare of a lifetime, but he misses it because he doesn’t even have the decency to look my way again. It’s as if he’s dismissed me from his mind entirely.
Fine. Two can play at that game. I sit back in my seat contemplating Damon’s cold behavior.
Why couldn’t I walk into the castle by his side? Is he ashamed of me? Did I do something wrong? I look down at the shirt and pants I’m wearing. Was I not fashionable enough to walk into his home with him?
I feel demeaned. Why am I being smuggled in through the back door while Alek, a pirate no less, is warmly welcomed into court?
Is it because I’m nothing but the help? A servant to serve the needs of the king as his broodmare to pop out children to repopulate his kingdom with more pure-blooded humans?
The more I think about it the madder I get.
When Edmond finally brings the carriage to a stop a second time, I’m fuming.
I kick the door of the carriage open and hop out, ready to jump on the first person I see. Unfortunately for Edmond, it turns out to be him.
“Why have I been brought out here like the trash?” I ask him. “Is your king ashamed to tell his precious lords and ladies that he brought me here to replenish their dwindling connection to humanity?”
“Listen here, girlie,” Edmond points a finger at me and wags it for good measure, “Damon does what he has to for his people no matter what the personal cost. Now do you want to see Boris again or not?”
With the mention of Boris’s name, I seal my lips and nod.
“Good.” Edmond lowers his hand and turns to the back door where a couple of servants are literally bringing out buckets of trash from the castle. “Follow me and don’t talk to anyone. Do you understand?”
I nod, willing to jump through whatever hoops he wants me to if it means I get to be with Boris again. I have so much I need to tell him. So, so much.
Edmond escorts me into the castle. We enter through the kitchen which is bustling with activity. People are dashing around with platters of food, and I hear the staff whisper words like “banquet”, “challenges”, and “guests.” As I walk through the area, I hear a glass drop and shatter on the tiled floor. Almost everyone stops what they’re doing to stare at me like I’m some sort of oddity. Annoyed by their collective gazes, I lift my arms and do two pirouettes earning a few gasps from my attentive audience. When I stop spinning, I look them dead in the eyes.
“There,” I say, defiantly taking my bow, “I gave you all something to really stare at.”
Edmond waits for me near the door that exits the room. He shakes his head at me in exasperation, but I note a small smile of amusement on his face at my antics. With measured strides, I take my time walking through the rest of the room to follow him out.
We enter an area with a stairwell that leads farther down into the bowels of the castle.
“Where are we going?” I ask. “The dungeon?”
“If you want to call it that,” he says cryptically.
“What do you call it then?”
“The cellar.”
As we keep going down, the temperature gets noticeably chillier. In fact, I start to shiver slightly. The thin shirt and pants I’m wearing aren’t enough to keep me warm down here. By the time we reach the bottom, my teeth are chattering.
The cellar seems to be where the kitchen staff keeps all of its produce, meats, and dairy products. Edmond leads me all the way to the back of the large room where I find Boris, still in his wolf form, sleeping. As we get closer, he senses our presence and lifts his head to look our way.
“There he is,” Edmond says unnecessarily since I’ve already started running toward Boris.
Boris quickly stands, and I hug him around the neck.
“You won’t believe what happened to me,” I whisper to him.
Boris rubs his head against mine, bringing comfort the only way he can in his present form.
“I’ll leave the two of you now,” Edmond says. “You’ll have to stay down here for the night. Damon doesn’t want to take a chance on anyone else in the castle knowing where you are. Help yourself to any of this food.”
Edmond turns to leave.
“Wait!” I rub my hands up and down my upper arms to keep them from losing circulation. “It’s cold down here. I need a coat or a blanket or something.”
Edmond sighs in annoyance. “Can’t you just cuddle up with the wolf?”
His uncaring attitude irks me.
“I’ll be cuddling up to a naked man in about an hour, so no. I can’t stay warm that way.”
With a growl of annoyance, Edmond starts to walk away again.
“I’ll send Oliver down with some things for you,” he grouses. He continues to grumble to himself but it’s too low for me to hear his exact words. It’s just as well. I’m sure his disgruntled diatribe would only fuel my anger at this point.
“Have you been down here this whole time?” I ask Boris.
He nods and lays back down on the floor. I snuggle up to him to leech some of his warmth. While we have time, I begin to tell Boris everything that happened to me at Margaret’s house. I don’t leave out much. I even tell him how Damon’s kisses affected me.
“I know what you’re going to say. I need to be careful.”
Boris huffs in agreement.
“I will be. It’s not like I’m falling in love with him or anything. I barely know the man.”
Boris huffs again but this time he adds a low growl.
“He doesn’t want any children anyway, and that’s the only reason he brought me here.” I close my eyes as I rest my head against Boris’s soft, fluffy orange and beige fur. “I never thought I would be able to have kids of my own, so I never gave it much thought. But . . .” I bite the corner of my bottom lip as I consider my next words. “But what if I can? If Margaret has the ability to make anyone immune to the poison in my skin, like she did Damon and Alek, I could pick anyone I want to have children with. I could start the first generation of humans who don’t have to turn into wolves. Who knows? In time, maybe being human will become the new normal and turning into a wolf will be considered strange. Wouldn’t that be something?”
