Tracey H. Kitts - Lilith Mercury 1 - Red (7 page)

“Lilith,” he whispered. Lilith? Wait a minute! He’d never call me by my name.

“LILITH?” Kat was standing by my bed shaking me.

“Get up. We need to get on the road. And
you
need to tell me about last night.”

I looked at the clock. I’d had a whopping three hours sleep. So had Kat. “How is it you’re so damn chipper this morning?” I asked, rolling out of bed and groping absently for my bag.

“Chipper? I’ve got a pounding headache, I’m starving, and my mouth feels like cotton.”

“I’ve never had a hang over in my life.” I laughed. I was tired, but at least I didn’t look as miserable as Kat did upon further inspection. Her dark hair stood out at odd angles, some of it curling, some straight, with remnants of last nights mascara smeared under her eyes. She had somehow managed to get herself in a sun dress which might have been cute, had she not looked so strung out. I pulled on a pair of old jeans with the knees worn out and a tight little t-shirt that read, ‘Pour some sugar on me’.

“How do I look?” I asked.

“Like you have a vendetta against the fashion police.”

“Bite

me.”

“Which brings me back to what I really wanted to know—what happened last night?”

I carried the bags downstairs. Kat got dizzy trying to bend over enough to pick hers up. Once we had checked out and were back on the road, I told her everything that had happened, right down to my dream.

RED

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“Holy shit. So, maybe he’s not so bad after all?”

“Maybe. But, I still don’t trust him.”

“Yeah, but wanting equal rights isn’t a crime.”

“No, it’s not,” I said, “but killing people is, and in the past, I know he’s killed people just for disagreeing with him.”

She gave me one of those looks that said I had no room to talk.

“I’m not judging him. I’m just trying to figure this mess out. If what he says is true, then he and Bade Garren are no longer on the same side.”

“And it was Bade who tried to kill you?”

“Yeah. It looks as if Marco’s pack has split right down the middle.”

“What would that mean exactly? Giving them equal rights, I mean,” Kat asked.

“It’s complicated. To be honest, I’m not completely sure myself. It’s a crime to be infected, but it is also criminal to knowingly spread the virus. Most Hunters kill werewolves on sight, period, regardless of the situation.”

“That’s gotta suck.”

“You’ve no idea.”

I told her what had happened in the parking lot a few weeks ago, and watched as the magnitude of the situation began to dawn on her.

“They knew who you were,” she said softly.

“Yeah, ordinary people, and they know who I am.”

* * * *

When we arrived at my house, I invited Kat in for some coffee, but she declined, saying she had a bottle of aspirin at home that should do the trick. I walked into the kitchen and found Alfred waiting on me. It was still mid morning and the smell of coffee was a welcome treat. The kitchen smelled of cinnamon and chocolate. Alfred does most of the cooking. It isn’t that I’m not capable. I’m actually a really good cook, when I have the time. It’s just something Alfred enjoys, and I’m not about to stop an Italian from cooking.

“It smells good in here,” I commented, pouring myself some coffee. I sat across from Alfred and took a deep breath. “Cinnamon and chocolate.”

“I forget sometimes what a sense of smell you’ve got.” He slid half of a chocolate bar across the table to me. “Use it to stir your coffee.” Well, that explained the chocolate smell. I took a piece of the chocolate and began stirring my coffee. I’m not sure if it was the coffee, or just being back in my own house, but I suddenly remembered I had a lot of things to tell Alfred, and I wasn’t sure where to start.

“You don’t look like you had a good time,” he commented.

“Something’s happened that I need to tell you about,” I began. I told him about seeing Marco in the club, and everything he had told me about Bade, and werewolves wanting equal rights. Alfred sat quietly and listened as I went over the details of the evening, carefully leaving out the fact that I had actually picked Marco up. I also left out the part where I freaked out and ripped off my shirt in his hotel room.

By the time I’d finally finished talking, I realized my coffee was cold and I’d only drank half of it. I was nervous. I couldn’t figure out why I would be so afraid to tell Alfred what had really happened. The information was the important part, at least that’s RED

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what I kept telling myself. He didn’t need to know I’d left the club with a man known to be a werewolf, a man that my father and Alfred both regretted not killing when they had the chance. He didn’t need to know how close I had come to accepting Marco’s offer. I was honest enough with myself to admit I had wanted to leave with Marco for reasons that had nothing to do with interrogation. It wasn’t until I was alone with him that I’d made up my mind what had to be done.

I wanted to chain Marco to the chair and do things to him that would scandalize even Kat. But, I couldn’t. For reasons beyond my explanation, I couldn’t do it. I knew if I did, I wouldn’t be able to come back and look Alfred in the face. It was my own damn fault. If I didn’t always like the villain, I would probably never have gotten into a conversation with him in the first place. I have always been attracted to the wrong kind of man. That was one thing which helped convince me Marco couldn’t be trusted. I could watch any movie for only a few minutes and tell you who the villain was, because he’d be the one I was most attracted to. That had always been the case with me, and judging from what I felt when I looked at Marco, he had to be evil.

I knew there were werewolves present when I’d walked into the club that night.

Lycanthropes were easy to hunt. I can walk into a room and point them out. They have an underlying current of sex and violence, barely contained sometimes beneath their human shells. What really seals the deal, is how they taste. Bitter sweet, warm, and full bodied, like a chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream mixed with expensive coffee. Yeah, that’s right, wolfmen taste good if you lick them.

I’ve always had a thing for the ‘bad guy’. Normally, the worst case scenario is men who are great in bed end up treating you like shit. In my case, they some times ended up being monsters underneath their skin. Talk about being attracted to the wrong type of man. It’s difficult to keep killing people you’d much rather have sex with. Just once, I’d like to meet someone who turned me on and wasn’t evil. To be honest, I’d finally had enough of bad men, even if they did taste good. For the first time ever, I just wanted a nice guy.

This brought me back to Alfred, still sitting quietly at the table across from me.

Alfred was a nice guy. Was that why I’d never considered coming on to him before?

Was he too nice for me? What sort of woman had I become when a man like Alfred didn’t pique my interest? After living with him platonically for so long, I really wasn’t sure how to bring up the subject. Not that I was going to bring it up … but the thought had crossed my mind.

“So, he just volunteered this information?” Alfred looked skeptical.

I decided to tell half of the truth to ease my conscience. “I sort of tied him up with silver hand cuffs and asked him some questions.”

Alfred raised one eyebrow as he looked at me over his coffee mug. “Really? And he just let you do this?”

I wasn’t sure what to say and it must have shown on my face. After a minute of awkward silence Alfred said, “Is this a regular occurrence, you carrying silver handcuffs around to
question
werewolves?” He paused, then stood up suddenly. “You know what?

If it is, I probably don’t want to know.” His tone had changed to something I’d never RED

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heard in Alfred’s voice before. I heard him add in an undertone that I’m sure he thought I couldn’t hear, “It would only make me jealous.”

Jealous?
Of me?

RED

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That night I had the strangest dream. I was inside of Alfred’s head and for some reason, he was making light bulbs. The room was totally dark, that might have been why.

As soon as I realized I was in his mind, I tried to escape. He turned to the far corner of the room, and I saw what looked like an opening in the floor. Beneath this opening, I could see a large body of water. It looked like we were in a room built over the docks of a lake or an ocean somewhere. He moved closer and as his toes touched the water, I

‘escaped’. I just suddenly appeared naked in the water. I remember thinking that I was tired, and didn’t have time to play tonight. I started swimming away from him.

Then all of a sudden, I was back inside his mind, and I saw myself through his eyes. I cannot describe how beautiful I was, but I will never look at myself the same way. I felt him enter the water to swim toward me, knowing he would sink. He thought sinking wouldn’t be so bad if he were only closer to me when he went under.

I woke up feeling overwhelmingly sad. Would Alfred really sink, just to be near me? I wasn’t sure what to think, but I was too tired to analyze. It had been too long since I’d had a good night’s sleep. Snuggling further down under the covers, my hand clutching the sheets beneath my chin, I sighed, remembering the dream. It had been an incredible experience to see myself as someone else did. Part of me wanted to thank him.

But if he knew what I’d seen, he might also realize I knew he’d been aroused.

* * * *

Over the next few days, Alfred and I didn’t speak much. He made a point of staying busy, and I threw myself back into training. But, my mind kept wandering back to the dream. It had been such an eye opening experience for me. Knowing the way he saw me was probably the best compliment I’d ever received, and I couldn’t express my thanks. Through him, I saw all of me and I accepted it. I saw my imperfections, but didn’t resent them. They were visible, but dulled by my glow. I had sort of an ethereal glow.

He wasn’t blinded by my beauty. Rather he chose to let it overshadow my flaws, even though he saw them. He did not even appear to notice or care about my scars.

Alfred looked at me as if I were a work of art, and not an object. I’d never felt so much like a woman, nor so proud to be one. How do you say ‘thank you’ for reading someone’s mind? Especially when you weren’t supposed to be there.

* * * *

I slumped to the training room floor, my body exhausted, mind still racing with the thoughts of my conflicting emotions. I had tried everything possible over the past two weeks to get Alfred and Marco out of my head. “If you can keep them out of your head, you can keep them out of your bed,” I kept telling myself. I wasn’t entirely sure that line of thinking was correct, but it helped me sleep at night.

RED

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I looked up at the solid steel knight I’d been fencing with. “Well there you go,” I said to myself. Putting my hand on his cold metal foot for balance, I rose to my feet. I placed the rapier I’d practiced with to my forehead, and made a dramatic bow. Then with a flourish and a swish, replaced the blade to its holster at my hip. I took a step toward the dummy, propping my head against his arm. The cold steel felt good against my overheated face. “My knight in shining armor,” I breathed.

“Well, aren’t we morose?”

I turned to see Kat making her way across the training room, her white pants reflected in the highly polished wood of the floor. I’d always thought Kathryn looked good in white. I leaned more heavily on the knight, suddenly feeling my days of nearly endless training.

“Not that it isn’t good to see you, Kat, but to what do I owe the pleasure?”

She held a sparkling piece of jewelry to the light. “I came to return your necklace.”

I leaned forward, releasing the knight in order to inspect the necklace more closely. “Kat, you borrowed this last year.”

“Bout time I brought it back then, don’t you think?”

“Why don’t you just admit you came by to check on me?”

“Ok. Fine, I came by to check on you. And just in time, it would seem. You’re talking to dummies for crying out loud.”

With a melodramatic flourish of my wrist, I motioned toward the statue as I said,

“Kathryn, meet Don.” I turned to the knight with a smile. “You’re not a dummy, are you Don?” I said playfully.

“Don? As in Don Quixote?” She laughed. “Gees, you really are losing it, Lil.”

She motioned toward the knight. “Your knight in shining armor, huh?”

With a sigh, I placed my hands on both her shoulders. “Darling, this is as close as I’m likely to get.”

She laughed before saying, “If you ask me, it’d be too hard to pry him out of that tin can, even if he were real.”

“Is that all you ever think about?”

Kat pretended to actually consider the question. “Mostly.”

I began unbuckling my sword belt as I walked to the hook where it normally hung.

“What’s wrong, Lil? What’s really wrong?” she asked.

With my back still turned to her, I answered as honestly as I could. “When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.” She seemed to understand my answer. As we walked past the large full length mirror near the door, I realized we looked like different sides of the same coin. Kat looked so vibrant and alive. Her snug white pants and sleeveless matching blouse looked fresh, like the summer day outside.

Preferring form fitting clothes for training, so as not to hinder my movements, I wore black yoga style pants and a sleeveless matching shirt. Both were tight enough to reveal I’d lost more weight lately. I had always been slender, but as of late, I’d begun to look positively thin. Staring at my reflection that morning, I looked every bit like the Death the dark woman had called me that night.

RED

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“Speaking of morose,” Kat said, “What’s wrong with Alfred?” She gave a sort of half laugh. “Who pissed in his cornflakes?”