Disclaimer: Just the usual gang. If you recognize them they’re not mine, and if you don’t then guess what they belong to me so :oP
Author’s Note: Well let me just thank you if you have taken the time to read this story. If you have even left me a review then I give you much love. I live to write and write because I love it. But it makes it much more worth while when I get feed back from those of you that review my work. Also if you don’t like this story the back button is ^^^^^^^^^^^^ there feel free to use it.
Side Note: Also at the time I would like to say a very special to Songbird for your continued patients and understanding. You are helping to keep me motivated to keep writing. I sincerely hope that my meager efforts at writing continue to amuse and delight you. Angelfangs :o)
One Other Thing: Also at this time I think that I should address some questions that have recently come up. As for the whys and how fors of being in Anita’s world will be addressed in a future chapter. (Promise ^__^) Now if you have read the previous chapters like I know that you have you would have seen that the sister was attacked on her honeymoon by a puma. But how she and her husband became a lycanthrope will be explained. (Honest ^__~) All I ask is that you continue to be patient with me and all will be revealed.
I think I stopped breathing. I looked into that face and tried to remember something other than the pain and couldn’t. And there was another new face in the crowd. The blonde hair and the cold empty blue eyes kind of gave Edward away. He was staring directly at me. I arched my eyebrow at him and saw him blush, I swear to god he blushed, and he broke eye contact. Well, well, well Mr. Personality isn’t as impenetrable as he seems.
By this time Eili was asleep in my arms and I kind of wanted to keep it that way. Much of the crowd was gone as well. And most of the people left in the Circus were either dead or injured. I tried not to think about it too much. It was three days until the full moon and I didn’t want to lose control now. I switched Eili from one shoulder to the other. You never notice how heavy a child is until they are completely asleep and your holding them.
I was still listening intently for the wail of sirens that would signal the approach of the police. But it never came and Eili really was getting heavy. I needed to put her down or I was going to drop her and I didn’t want to do that. I looked questioningly at Jean-Claude and Anita. They were either ignoring me or hadn’t see the look so I asked, “Are the police coming, or not?”
Anita looked at me and then got this stupid grin on her face and said, “The police are already here.” At that statement I watched both Richard and Edward look towards the doors. I was confused for a moment and then realized that she was talking about me. At my puzzled expression she just fell out laughing.
I pursed my lips and scowled at her and said, “Hardy har, har.” I was not impressed with her joke
When both men finally realized that I was the one Anita was talking about I watched identical expressions appear on their faces. Their eyes grew wide and their jaws dropped. It looked like someone had hit them between the eyes with a sledgehammer. I couldn’t help it I laughed.
After what felt like hours but I’m sure was only a matter of seconds I had myself under control. I asked, “So what are we going to do with HIM,” I motioned towards Diego. He seemed to shrink from the two people that were holding him. It took me a moment to recognize Jamil and Shang-Da. Jamil was wearing a pair of jeans so tight I could tell that he wasn’t wearing anything under them; a white wife beater tank top, and work boots completed the outfit. His hair was still waist length and in cornrows with wooden beads at the ends. Shang-Da was dressed as was his custom like a GQ cover boy. He had a pair of black slacks complete with creases down the front, a black spandex turtle neck shirt and black sports coat that matched his slacks. His hair was gelled into soft spike on his head.
I guess I looked a little longer than was polite because he growled his question at me, “What!”
I could feel my face heat up and knew I was blushing and hated that. It made me feel like I was still a schoolgirl and had just spotted my crush looking at me. I self-consciously shifted Eili and turned away from them. I heard Diego’s condescending voice as he whispered loudly to Shang-Da, “Don’t worry dude she’s always had a thing for the men with an all over tan.”
This time I knew that everyone could tell I was embarrassed and my eyes were starting to water. I would not cry in front of him. I walked briskly away from them and headed back down the stairs. When Jason caught up to me. He put a hand on my shoulder to stop me. As soon as Jason touched me I heard Diego’s enraged voice, “Don’t you touch her! Don’t you dare touch her!” Startled Jason let go of my shoulder and I ran as fast as I could down the steps, hoping that I wouldn’t fall on the uneven stairs.
I stopped when I reached the main room. I mean where could I go, I didn’t know how to get back to the room I had been using. I was frustrated and I needed to cry. I kept turning in circles trying to figure out what to do. Finally my tired brain choose that moment to scream at me to put the child down. I laid her down on one of the two couches and watched as she fussed slightly and brought her thumb up to her mouth and started sucking on it. I frowned at that I knew that it could cause some children to have buckteeth.
I quickly dismissed that thought from my head because I could hear the rest of the group coming this way. I braced myself for an ordeal. If Diego’s previous statement was any indication then I knew that I was going to have a problem. I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath I just had to get through this.
I calmly walked over to the overstuffed chairs that were facing the faux fireplace and turned them both towards the doorway and sat in one of them. I schooled my features and knew that nothing showed except a kind of bored interest. The fact that I was still only clothed in a button down shirt and my undies wasn’t going to stop me from asking the questions that were swirling around my head like the angry buzzing of bees.
When they came into the main room I spared a glance toward Eili to make sure that she was going to sleep through the ruckus. She stirred slightly but otherwise kept to her slumber. I finally turned my gaze back to that face that I had believed myself to be in love with. And for a moment I wondered what I had ever seen in him. Diego for his part seemed to shrink away from my unwavering stare.
Finally I turned to face the rest the group and was mildly surprised. They were looking at me as if to figure out who was really sitting in the chair I currently occupied. It was a rare trait to be able to section ones self off so that one part doesn’t touch the other. I assumed that this was how Edward was able to function because to do otherwise was to invite insanity. I had pushed any thoughts and feelings of a personal nature into a small tight ball and shoved them deep down where the light of day would never touched them.
I could be cold blooded and ruthless and nobody knew that fact better than Diego. He had been with me the night I had shot someone. He was horrified to realize that after that I still able to eat and sleep. He wasn’t a killer maybe he never would be. But he was somehow connected to the recent rash of assaults/homicides. I knew that like I knew that I would continue to draw air. It wasn’t a feeling I could describe but it was nonetheless real.
The others drifted into the room and began taking seats. I was surprised when both Gregory and Jason sat at my feet and draped themselves over me like I was part of the furniture. Or as if this was something we did all the time. That thought made me smile cruelly and look over at Diego. He was seething mad and was straining between Shang-Da and Jamil. When I just quirked an eyebrow at him he quieted.
This was a change from the Diego that I had known. The Diego that I had known wouldn’t have given a shit if someone looked twice at me. This one however seemed enraged that not only was someone looking they were actually touching me. I think that more than anything else was amusing to me.
Jean-Claude took the other chair beside me. Anita stood in between the two chairs. And Richard stood on the other side of Jean-Claude. Edward took up residence on the unoccupied couch, lounging like he was completely comfortable. I watched as he spared a glance at Eili and instantly I was on alert. No there hadn’t been anything in his gaze to suggest hostility but nonetheless I was still cautious around him. Until I found out whether or not Eili had any family she was mine to protect and that I take VERY seriously.
After realizing that Edward wasn’t going to harm the child I turned my attention to Anita and Jean-Claude. We were speaking quietly amongst ourselves, and Anita and I both had that same gut feeling that he knew what was going on. And we wanted some answers. What happened to him afterwards was what we were currently having a heated discussion about. I wanted to kill him outright and Anita said we should hand him over to the authorities. Jean-Claude said that he might prove useful if we kept him here. Anita gaped at him and I told them as long as he’s kept out of my sight I didn’t care where he was kept. That seemed to settle the discussion.
We turned back to Diego as a united front. I turned to Jean-Claude indicating that he should start the questioning since it was his place that Diego and his gang decided to attack. Yes I said gang. Diego was never without a bunch of followers. That was something I never did understand and to this day I still don’t.
Jean-Claude turned that drowning deep sapphire gaze on Diego. Whatever he saw in that gaze made him shake like a leaf. Although when Jean-Claude spoke there wasn’t even a hint of anger in his words, “Would you like to explain your actions here tonight?”
Diego’s seemed to gather himself up and spoke with all the condescension his voice could muster, “I don’t have to explain any thing to the likes of you.”
“But you see mon ami there is where you are wrong,” Jean-Claude said in gently chiding voice. “When you come into my home and start attacking me and mine you have made it my business.”
Something in Jean-Claude’s voice or face must have shown just how upset he was because I watched with a kind of twisted satisfaction as Diego swallowed hard. I watched as his eyes danced nervously around the room and finally landed on me. He gave me a look that had once been able to melt me where I stood but now all it did was piss me off. “I believe that Jean-Claude has asked you a question,” I said somewhat stiffly. He looked shocked that would be able to stand in the face of that look.
He swallowed again this time it was audible and sounded as if it should hurt. His voice came out weak, “We were supposed to come in here and find Luna. We were told to use any means necessary to get her. And we tried. We didn’t know just how many people would be here to protect her.”
I laughed and even to me it sounded caustic. But I couldn’t help myself. He actually thought that all this security was for me. When in fact it was to protect Jean-Claude. Either he had no idea whom he was dealing with or he just over valued me. Don’t get me wrong I liked the fact that he thought Jean-Claude would go to all this trouble for me but Diego had never been really big in the brains department.
“Why was it so important to get Luna,” this from Anita.
Diego for a second looked like he wasn’t going to answer her but something must have passed over my face because he sighed and said, “Keliana said that if we brought you back to her alive we would be able to finish the ritual.”
I sat there suddenly immobilized at the mention of Keliana. She had been one of my good friends. Or at least I had thought that she was one of my good friends. Apparently something had changed and I had no idea what or when. Damn, don’t you just love amnesia? Never mind don’t answer that.
And softly from my right came Anita’s voice, “And what ritual would that be?” The voice was calm and seductive it made you think of thing that you only do in the dark without your clothes and with another warm body. It was a voice to tell all your deepest darkest fears and fantasies too. And I knew Diego was sucked in by that voice, and he would never question why he had done it. It was so deliciously wicked that I wished I had used it myself.
Diego looked at Anita from between Jamil and Shang-Da his eyes heavy lidded and a look in his eyes that told you he was already thinking about sex. His voice dropped to that sinfully delicious timbre that had on more than one occasion gotten me into his bed. Even hearing the voice now didn’t diminish the impact it was having on me. Jason rolled his face towards me but the fact that his head was on my thigh meant that when he moved his head he also moved the shirt.
Dimly I wondered where all this sexual tension was coming from. And as soon as I thought it I looked at Anita and Jean-Claude. Anita had her hand on Jean-Claude’s shoulder and although I couldn’t see it with my eyes I could almost make out a ghost like outline of the two of them. It was creepy. But we needed to break the connection before things got too out of hand. I coughed and looked pointedly at Anita’s hand. Either she guessed herself what was happening or was embarrassed and took her hand back.
It wasn’t any easier to breathe or think but a majority of the tension in the room died. I turned my attention back to Diego and he was staring at the spot where Jason’s head still rested on my thigh. Finally his gaze traveled up my body until he met my eyes. And whatever he saw in them made him angry again. I sighed I so didn’t have time for this.
“Diego I’m
tired, I’m hungry and just plain don’t give a shit about how you feel right
now. So just answer the damn question
so that I can go back to what I was doing before you got here,” my voice
sharper than I had intended but I didn’t care. I had purposely worded it that way to make him even
angrier. I knew he was much more likely
to let something spill out of anger than if we let him keep his composure.
The look on his face went from anger to rage in the blink of an eye. At any other time I might have been worried but for some reason tonight I wasn’t afraid. Jamil and Shang-Da were actually struggling to keep a hold of him. It let me know that he hadn’t come into this world without some power of his own, and still I didn’t care.
“You bitch,” Diego screamed. “Didn’t I mean anything to you didn’t you care about me at all?”
I had seen the show before so this was nothing new to me. I yawned and looked at him crossly. Then spoke my words pure venom, “I did care, Diego. I cared a great deal, that is until you told me I couldn’t be what you wanted me to be and that ended our would be relationship. I told you from the get go that I was not going to change and either you could live with my faults or you couldn’t. But I wasn’t going to try and change you and I was under the delusion that you understood that the same applied to me. Now if you’re quite done rehashing our personal history just answer the god damned question. What ritual!” By the end of my tirade I was sitting on the edge of my seat I could feel my face set in angry lines.
I had never been so close to pure unadulterated violence. I wanted to rip his still beating heart out of his chest and crush it before his very eyes and if something didn’t happen soon I wasn’t totally sure that it wouldn’t happen. I broke eye contact and took a deep breath and felt fingers digging into my thighs I looked down and noticed that both Jason’s and Gregory’s fingers were white they were giving me something else to concentrate on. It was a welcome distraction.
Finally realizing that I was in no condition to continue the interview with Diego if I couldn’t extract my pound of flesh I turned Jean-Claude and Anita I motioned them closer and told them how I was feeling. Anita didn’t look too pleased but said that she understood.
Jean-Claude merely nodded his and turned to Jason and Gregory and told them, “Escort, Luna back to her room and see that she is made comfortable and all of her needs are taken care of.” The last was said with a hint of insinuation.
I walked over to where Eili was still sleeping I picked her very carefully. Again she fussed slightly when I placed her against my shoulder I kissed her forehead and she settled back down her small hand stroking my hair for a moment or two. I turned to the waiting Jason and Gregory and motioned for them to lead the way.
They put any extra sway in the way that they walked and I laughed it was a delightfully wicked laugh. And I could feel Diego’s eyes staring a hole in my back but I ignored it. Just to be bitchy I said over my shoulder, “Oh by the way Edward could you make sure that our new guest’s stay is very,” I paused for a moment then said, “Unpleasant.” I heard Edward laugh darkly as the drape was dropped behind me.