Part 9 (1/2)
I felt pain across my palm and looked down to see long black nails extending from both hands. My field of vision was s.h.i.+fting to black-and-white. Hex it all, I was phasing. The blood and s.e.x had called the were, and it was nosing outside its cave whether I liked it or not.
The first male tried to get to his feet and I snarled, the dominate holding this time. He moved, cautiously and with his head ducked so as not to challenge me, but still moving. Sneaky b.a.s.t.a.r.d. I decided to put him down before he got the chance to be a smart b.a.s.t.a.r.d.
The obvious flaw in that plan showed up the second I moved into his range. Something stinging hot cracked me across the face, exploding white lights of pain onto my vision. One of the floggers from the display, sharp-edged and tipped with steel points.
I hissed as blood went into my eyes and I was half-blind. The second male hit me in the lower back and I went down, every part of me shrieking. No. No, this couldn't be it. One-I didn't know which one-hit me in the face and I felt blood start from a cut lip. I swiped back with my claws and heard a yell as I met flesh. I wouldn't stop, wouldn't...
They held me down, hands on my clothes, and I still fought, if you could call the feeble twitching a fight. I just wanted to pa.s.s out, to not know what they were doing to me, but I fought to keep my eyes open through the blood.
Then one set of hands was lifted off, and I heard a crash as a flying body hit the side of the cage. The second male let go of me and scrambled away, shouting, ”Hey, man, what the Hex are you doing?” before an ugly fist-induced thud cut off his cries.
I got to my knees, using my forearm to wipe the blood off my face. I really, really wanted to curl in a ball and be sick, but the mystery of who had saved me took precedence. I struggled up to stand, hands on knees, and saw a tall male form slamming the second were's head rhythmically into the mesh, his face becoming pulpier and less recognizable with each hit.
”Hey,” I rasped, inaudible above the crowd, just as happy to root for the stranger as they were the males. ”Hey!” I shouted again. The man stopped his beating and turned to face me.
”What? Don't tell me you're gonna complain about me saving your lady-cop a.s.s, darlin'.”
I swayed, catching myself on the cage. He was gone. I was dead, and this was a cruel hallucination on my journey to h.e.l.l. ”Dmitri?”
”One and only,” he said, holding up the other were and hitting him in the gut. The male fell to the cage floor and got sick. ”f.u.c.kin' flea-bitten piece of s.h.i.+t,” Dmitri said, stepping back in disgust.
The other male looked at the two of us, eyes flicking between Dmitri and me as he calculated his odds of remaining alive. I snarled at him. ”Take a hike, and pray I don't decide to come find you.”
He ran. Smart guy, considering the night I'd had so far. Dmitri shook his head, something that may have been a grin flirting with his mouth. ”Still the same tough b.i.t.c.h. Can't say I didn't miss that.”
My first reaction on seeing Dmitri Sandovsky had been utter shock. My second was righteous fury. I hit him, closed fist. A girly-girl slap would not do justice in the present situation. He stumbled, putting a hand to his jaw.
”Hex it, Luna! What the h.e.l.l's the matter with you?”
”You!” I hissed furiously. ”You're what's the matter! How long have you been back in the city and not told me?”
The club music cut off with a screech and normal fluorescent lights came up. The door to the outside filled with Nocturne City police officers in riot gear. Someone with a bullhorn announced that this was a raid.
Relieved as I was that Shelby had chosen now as the time to actually do something right, it wasn't enough to stop me from noticing Dmitri trying to sneak out of the cage. I grabbed his arm. ”You think we're finished here, buster?”
His mouth quirked as he turned back to me. ”Do you really want to have this conversation in the middle of a s.e.x club, Luna?”
Had a point there-I'd seen enough of Bete Noire to last me several consecutive lifetimes. I got my shoes back on and led him by the arm down the steps and into the hall by the bathrooms as police herded patrons up against the club's four walls. Samael smiled blandly as a uniformed officer put real handcuffs on him.
Dmitri jerked his arm away once I stopped walking. ”Manhandling is decidedly not the way I wanted to be welcomed back.”
”Really!” I snapped, eyes and mouth wide with pretend shock. ”Because I was wondering if you wanted my welcome at all. How long have you been back in Nocturne? And don't lie!” I added as an afterthought.
”Don't worry, I'm not looking to get punched again,” Dmitri grumbled. ”I just got back last night.”
”And of course, the first logical spot you'd go to is a fetish bar,” I agreed. ”Why didn't I think of that?”
”Hex me, Luna, will you shut your mouth and let me explain?” Dmitri snarled. His deep emerald eyes flared to gold and I was unpleasantly reminded that Dmitri didn't need a moon to phase-his pack magick let him do it whenever he d.a.m.n well pleased.
”You'd better explain, and don't tell me to shut up.”
”It's a fifteen-hour flight from St. Petersburg. I was jet-lagged, and the apartments above the club are a Redback safe house. So So sorry I didn't immediately inform you of my social calendar.” sorry I didn't immediately inform you of my social calendar.”
His Eastern European accent was stronger, I noticed, more rolling r's and soft sounds than I'd remembered. He'd lost the gravelly edge during his stay in the Ukraine, but the accent wasn't all all bad ... bad ...
”Were you ever going to call me?” I asked, kicking the dirty linoleum with the toe of my very clean boot.
Dmitri touched my face briefly with his fingertips. ”Of course I was. Once I had a minute to myself, and it was safe.” He shook his head. ”What were you doing doing here, woman? This place is rough even for you.” here, woman? This place is rough even for you.”
”Working,” I said. ”And getting the c.r.a.p beaten out of me, although that wasn't in the plan.”
He chuckled. ”I only saw the tail end, but I think those stains are gonna feel you come morning. And then they'll have to explain to their pack leader how they managed to get so beat up, and he'll probably just kill them.”
My face was already healed over, but it still stung, and the bruises I'd incurred weren't going away anytime soon. Whenever I breathed, stabbing pain in my side was the reward. Dmitri's forehead crinkled. ”You okay?”
”Fine,” I said quickly. ”Listen, is there someplace we can talk?” Someplace where I could ask him the five million questions that had acc.u.mulated since he left me. And maybe hit him again, if his answers weren't satisfactory.
”Come outside,” Dmitri said, opening the fire door and leading me into the alley behind the club.
Dmitri let the door click shut behind us and fished in his denim jacket for a clove. He'd given up his leathers with the Redback pack insignia, and wore a plaid s.h.i.+rt over a black tee as a nod to the cold. And it was more than cold, it was freezing and p.r.i.c.kling my skin painfully.
”Hex it!” I exclaimed. Dmitri paused mid-puff.
”What?”
”Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds stole my jacket while I was unconscious!” I s.h.i.+vered and crossed my bare arms over my torso. That jacket had been my favorite too-something I'd taken from an ex-boyfriend, Ted or Jed or something. We'd had a fight and I had stormed out into the rain and never gone back. The jacket had fit me better anyway.
Dmitri draped his denim over my shoulders as my teeth started to chatter. ”Much as I enjoy the view ...” He nodded at my now-pert bustier.
”You're such a male.”
He grinned around the cigarette. ”There's no help for it.”
”Why didn't you ever call me?” I asked softly. ”Or even write to me? I've been going insane dreaming up stuff that could have happened to you.” Didn't mean for the last part to slip out, but Dmitri had the effect of making me babble to counteract his overwhelmingly silent presence.
”I told you in that e-mail I couldn't,” Dmitri said, flicking the clove into a puddle. ”Luna, things have gotten complicated.”
”Then explain them to me,” I snapped. ”Try to make up a good excuse for why you ran off and never spoke to me again.”
”I'm talking to you now, aren't I?” he said, infuriatingly calm.
”You know that's not what I mean,” I muttered. ”I thought I could trust you.”
Dmitri closed the s.p.a.ce between us and raised my chin with one finger to meet his eyes. ”You can trust me,” he whispered. ”You will always be able to trust me. But I... I can't do this. Please try to understand.”
His proximity was too much. Everything around me washed away and I stood on tiptoes to press our lips together. A sense of rightness filled me, something that I'd been missing since Dmitri left sliding back into place.
”Luna, I said I can't.” As quickly as the kiss started, Dmitri took me by the shoulders and firmly pushed me away.
Embarra.s.sment and anger fought a quick battle over which would be first and anger won out. Hot humiliation washed over me and I swung at him again. He caught my fist, pinning it to my side.