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Lauren looked at the werewolf alpha again before walking to a wall with baby wipes and using one to clean her hands. She tossed it in the trash receptacle, stepped back in front of the naked man, and ordered, “Look at me.”
The bound man kept his eyes closed, and she calmly told him, “Look at me or I will personally remove your eyelids so you have no choice.”
He opened his eyes, and she considered him several long moments. “Your destiny isn’t up to me. I was scared, but I knew I’d be okay a split second after realizing what had happened. Those who love me didn’t have that luxury, so I’ll allow them their revenge. For my part, I want to make sure you’re made an example of, so the supernatural world knows what happens to people who try to harm me, which means if it were up to me, I’d probably keep you around a few months before I killed you.”
She looked at Gavin and back to the wolf. “But you’ll have value as a pleasure slave, once you’re properly trained, so my guess is you’ll have around seventy years to suffer. Gavin promised a hundred and forty-four years of torture before anyone who harmed me was allowed the relief of a true death, but you aren’t long lived, so your sentence isn’t going to be quite so long.”
He closed his eyes a few seconds, but opened them as she was about to order him to look at her again, so she continued. “If I thought you were blackmailed or coerced into turning on me, I might make a case for going easy on you, but you were part of a plan to do bad things. I don’t know what bad things at this moment, but I sense the plot. It was big, and is somehow attached to the people who kidnapped me a few months ago, which is concerning, since the Lord of Lust is supposed to have worked things out so his co-conspirators knew I was off limits.”
The second the words were out of her mouth, she put both her hands on his hips and kept staring into eyes — and saw her own death.
She let go of him and stumbled backwards, struggling to breathe through the pain of a silver sword taking her head off and then impaling her heart like a kebob.
Mordecai lifted her into his arms and told her, “The future is plastic. Not set in stone. You will not give this possibility any energy. Your lovers will understand that speaking of it will give it energy. Everyone only needs to know that if you are engaged in a swordfight, it’s imperative they get you out of there.”
Mordecai’s energy soothed her, and she looked back to the werewolf. The look he gave her told her he was trying to figure out what she was, or perhaps what she’d seen. She wrapped her arms around Mordecai’s neck and told him, “Thank you. Sincerely.” She leaned back and met his gaze. “I can stand on my own two feet now, and I’d like to use them to get back aboveground.”
Chapter 48
Nick walked alongside Lauren to the stairs, up the three flights to a back corner of the public atrium, and then out a side door. She still wore the dress that revealed more than it covered, and Nick still wore his tux, but Lauren was oblivious to the stares they received once they made their way out to the strip and walked along the sidewalk beside the traffic-congested main road. Nick sensed security behind them, and he kept as aware of their surroundings as he could, but he was most concerned with Lauren’s state of mind. Gavin had stayed behind, giving Nick a nod to let him know the vampire thought Lauren needed some time away from him.
Nick wasn’t certain that was the case, but he didn’t argue the point.
Lauren stood in front of a flashy bar that promised margaritas, and said, “I don’t have my ID or credit card. What was I thinking?”
“I have my wallet, and there’s a coffee shop across the street.”
She sighed. “There’s a seafood place. What are the odds we can get seated right away?”
“Pretty much zero without our vampire around tosuggestwe can be seated immediately.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “What is it you really want?”
“A few hours to be normal, but that isn’t going to happen with us dressed like this, and with security hovering around us, and IknowMordecai is close even though I can’t see him.”
Mordecai stepped to them, handed Lauren her wallet, and walked away without saying anything.
Lauren blew out a breath, turned, and walked in the door of the margarita place. The hostess saw her with recognition in her eyes and said, “Ah, Lauren. We have your booth reserved.” She turned to a male and looked back to Lauren. “Mike will take you to it.”
No doubt, Mordecai’s doing, but Lauren didn’t argue. There was nothing normal about this, but it got her off the street and into a back corner of a dark bar, where she was easier to protect, so she understood why the old god had fixed it this way.
“I want to get rip-roaringly drunk,” she told Nick. “Nachos and queso so spicy it’ll make my eyes tear up.”
When the waitress arrived, Nick ordered medium queso for him, and super-ultra-spicy queso for Lauren. He also told her to keep the margaritas coming for them both. Nick wouldn’t get drunk, but he knew from experience that Lauren would be nice and tipsy after two drinks, and likely unable to walk without assistance after four.
He telepathed Gavin.I could use some extra security since I’m going to be babysitting a very drunk Lauren soon.
I’m letting Nathan handle it. The wormhole thing lets me off the hook legally, but I still feel responsible. Either way, the best diplomatic approach is to give Nathan control over her safety while the two of you are out and about. Panda and Mira should be stationed at a table you can see but Lauren can’t, and operators Lauren won’t recognize are at the table closest to you.
“You’re telepathing our bloodsucker aren’t you?” Lauren took a few minutes to scrutinize the two men at the table closest to them, with two bottles of beer and multiple bowls of various fried food appetizers between them, and she looked back to Nick with an eyeroll. “All the ex-special forces guys have this look. Not body type or anything like that. Most don’t look that impressive, but they have this bearing. The way they look around the room, keep track of everyone around them? Also, they kinda ooze badass.”
Nick dipped a nacho in Lauren’s queso and held it up for her to bite. She did, and he lifted her margarita and handed it to her. “You aren’t drunk enough yet.”
“I love you. You’re both my best friend and my lover. Gavin is just my lover, but it doesn’t make one of you more than the other, you know? I don’t love you both the same, it’s different, but you’re both the same number of loves. The same volume of loves. It’s like, I love Cats and Les Miserable about the same, but not in the same way, or for the same reasons.”
Nick couldn’t help his smile. “I’m Cats, and our melancholy vampire is Les Miz?”
“Melancholy? I’d go for stoic, or granite, or…” She shrugged. “Mom and I are going to the Grand Canyon tomorrow to hike. Nathan’s driving us, but he says we’re hiking without him.”
“But you figure he’ll be close.”
