Lucky Streak Read online

  “He’s outside your room. Keeping watch.”

  “He should be here,” I tell him, worried over Damon’s safety. I don’t know what a hell hound might do to a vampire who tried to stand in his way. There’s no rule book for their actions on earth beyond whatever their mission is designed to accomplish. I doubt the council of devils will care if there’s collateral damage.

  “He can look after himself,” Dean reminds me.

  Anna starts her spell and I hold on to Dean as she recites something in what sounds like Russian. The air in the room seems to expand and retract, causing blasts of cold winds to blow the curtains around. I shiver as her eyes glow red. She picks up the little purple bottle, opens it, says one word that I think means ‘prison’ and closes the bottle.

  She places it down on the desk. It rattles a little, as if something is making it move from inside.

  “You have a few minutes,” she tells us, stepping back.

  Dean moves forward and leans down. I follow, seeing nothing more than black mist with red glimmer inside the bottle. If we don’t have much time for questions, then...

  “What offer did you make to Nero?” Dean asks, echoing my thoughts almost exactly.

  The answer we get seems to come booming from all around us, “He must sacrifice himself, or he must allow us to slaughter his mate’s other lovers.”

  I feel the blood drain from my face as we both straighten.

  “What has he chosen?” Dean asks, his expression grim.

  I hold Dean’s arm as the hell hound’s answer comes, “He has not yet chosen, but he will.”

  “What can we do to stop this?” I cry out, knowing it’s hopeless, but desperate to find an answer beyond acceptance of what I’ve just been told.

  “There is nothing you can do. He must choose.”

  The bottle tips and rolls onto the floor, smashing into bits and setting the black mist free. It seems to fill the room completely before vanishing. The shock of what we’ve just been told sinks in.

  I look at Dean, my eyes wide. He nods, calling Damon on the radio. I let out a relieved sigh as I hear his voice. I need Finn at my side now, and I need Damon. I don’t feel safe with them out of my sight.

  “All there is now is waiting,” Anna says, as she packs up her things.

  She’s right, if we were going to lie down and let this happen, but I won’t be waiting for the hammer to fall. I’m going to destroy the hell hound. He doesn’t get to take everything good from my life. He doesn’t get to take any of my men from this earth. It’s not happening.

  I stand in the living room area of my suite, three of the men I’ve given my heart to standing before me, waiting for my answer to this mess. They’re not going to like it, but I don’t see any alternative.

  “This is going to sound crazy, but we’re running out of time,” I tell them.

  “Whatever you’re about to say, Maeve,” Dean starts.

  “Just listen,” I go on, cutting him off and clearing my throat. “I’m mated to Nero. He’s in a trance that I can break into. That means I can go in there and find another offer for the hell hound.”

  “You can’t,” Dean tells me. “The only other thing he wants is you and your child.”

  Finn’s eyes light up as he speaks, and I shake my head. I haven’t even had time to tell Finn that I mated to Nero and what that means. I feel horrible. “I created this mess, and I’ll clean it up.”

  “Yer pregnant?” Finn asks.

  I nod. “It’s Nero’s baby.”

  His smile doesn’t falter, not one little bit. “Well that’s just wonderful, Maeve. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks,” I say, smiling back and wondering why the world seemed so dark before this moment.

  “There has to be another way,” Damon says, his voice quiet, almost as if he just spoke his thoughts out loud. “What do hell hounds want?”

  “Besides causing pain and suffering?” I ask, shaking my head. “I don’t know.”

  “They’re starved of any positive influences,” Dean says, telling me he’s trying to think about what he knows from his boundless research on supernatural species. “All they know is hate and pain.”

  “Don’t make me feel sorry for them,” I tell him, wondering if that’s the key. I became more human from living a human life and taking lovers. Opening myself up to love. I wasn’t a monster before, but I didn’t feel things the way I do now.

  “I need to go now. We don’t know when Nero might make his decision.”

  Dean catches my hand and I take a long look at his face. I won’t let anything happen to him. I won’t let anything happen to any of these men. I kiss him softly. “Goodnight, Dean.”

  Damon pulls me toward him next, and I kiss him too.

  “Be careful,” he warns, squeezing my hand before letting it go.

  “I will,” I promise, turning to Finn.

  He smiles wryly at me. “All this is sounding serious, Maeve, but I know ye an’ I know ye’ve got this.”

  I kiss him last, and he pulls me into his arms as if he doesn’t want to let go. Eventually, he has to.

  I move toward the bedroom, stepping out of my heels on the way. It’s time to kiss this hell hound goodnight.

  It’s as easy as lying down next to Nero, touching him and passing out. I awaken in what looks like my old room in hell. Nero isn’t there and the door is open, just a crack.

  Fear swamps me as I get up and walk to the door. Is it already too late?

  “Nero?” I call out, opening the door fully and looking out into the hall.

  The place looks abandoned, all of the doors ajar and no lights on inside any of the rooms. The building was similar to a college dormitory topside. Individual rooms for all of the djinn students, segregated by sex and class. All of the lower ranking djinn with weaker or singular affinities were placed together, the limitless together in less confined quarters elsewhere.

  I walk down the hall at a fast pace, calling out his name. Where the hell is he? Why didn’t I wake up right next to him? I followed him into his trance. I don’t understand why I’m alone right now.

  Until I see him, the tall blond man with the haunted eyes from the casino. The hell hound’s chosen human form. He’s waiting for me outside the dorm, his gaze impassive.

  “Is this really what you want?” he asks, his voice cool as his pale blue eyes stare through me.

  The truth is I don’t know what I’m doing right now. All I know is I need to stop this man from tearing my life apart. “You can’t ask Nero to make a decision that affects us both.”

  He nods slowly, his blank expression filling with understanding. “So you wish to have some input on the decision.”

  I bite my tongue before I can tell him no. I don’t want to choose either option. I want to find a third option. A better one.

  “I’d like to get to know you better,” I tell him. “Before the decision is made.”

  He frowns at me. “For what purpose?”

  “Can’t you just indulge a woman’s curiosity?” I ask, not quite managing the whole femme fatale vibe. I’m not really a natural born flirter. Never was. Acting on attraction is one thing, fooling someone into thinking I like them to get something I want? The thought of it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

  He seems to consider the request before nodding. “Fine. Ask whatever you’d like.”

  Damn. This guy may as well be made of ice. “Do you find me attractive?”

  “I find you repulsive,” he tells me, no hint of emotion in his voice.

  “Why?”

  “You’re behaving like a human.”

  “And what’s so bad about that?” I ask, wondering if I’m going to get anywhere with this, or if I’d be better off just demanding he take me to Nero.

  “Humans are emotional. They believe in love. It’s why you’re in this predicament.”

  “Well, have you ever experienced love?”

  He shakes his head. “I’m not human. I have no wish to be.”
<
br />   Oh give me a break. He can’t really be this shut down. “Can I touch you?”

  “Why?”

  “No one has ever touched you without inflicting pain. You don’t understand love, because you’ve never felt it.” I don’t know if I’m wasting my breath here, but I have to try.

  “I don’t want to feel it.” He flinches from my touch, and the cool detached demeanor he’s been exuding melts. It was a front. He’s afraid.

  I reach out and stroke the side of his face gently, watching him steel his expression to hide whatever he truly feels under my touch. I resist the temptation to spill some luck into it, good or bad. He would feel it if I did that. He’d realize I have motives that go beyond simple curiosity.

  “There, was that really so bad?” I ask in a soothing tone, admiring the pale blue of his eyes as my fingers brush over a thin layer of stubble. “Change is always possible, regardless of the circumstances.”

  He frowns at me. “This is what love feels like?”

  Oh boy. How to explain something as complex and vibrant as love to someone so closed off? I could probably just say yes and he’d accept it. But I don’t want to lie to him, and I don’t think one touch is ever going to be enough to convince him besides.

  “It’s part of the feeling,” I start, “But it’s not all of it.”

  “It can feel better than this?” he asks, some hint of longing creeping into his tone now.

  “Can you tell me your name?” I ask, not wanting to continue without knowing.

  “Sirius,” he sighs out, closes his eyes briefly.

  “That’s a beautiful name.”

  “Is it? I’d have to hear it from your lips to believe that.”

  “Sirius,” I say, making him whimper.

  “No one has ever spoken my name without anger,” he whispers, leaning into my hand.

  I lose track of what I’m supposed to be doing, pain filling me at his response to something as simple as a gentle touch. He’s been abused his whole life and my heart bleeds out for him now. I pull my focus back, reminding myself what’s at stake. “You were never treated like a person, Sirius. Hell molded you to do its bidding. It mistreated you.”

  He opens his eyes and they seem more focused than they were before. He gazes at me. “You... you don’t repulse me. You make me afraid.”

  “Afraid?” I ask, worrying that my tactic to win him over was badly judged.

  “I’ve been watching you for days,” he tells me. “The way you interact with your lovers. How accepting you are of them and their faults. It makes me wonder if I...”

  My heart begins to race as I realize what he’s telling me. “I can’t lose any of them, Sirius. It would kill me. If there was anything you could do to help us, then maybe...”

  “I saw what the human did for you,” he says. “I can see that the vampires protect you. That the limitless one allowed you to be his master. You are worthy of my devotion. I do not believe I could ever be worthy of yours.”

  I can tell the emotional responses that I’ve wrung from him are slipping through my fingers. I step forward and press my lips to his, making him whimper once more. He can barely stand the warm feelings I’m bringing out in him. Those are what he’s afraid of. Making things physical is only amplifying them further. Making them harder to ignore.

  I feel for him, but right now there’s a barrier to going any further, and that barrier is not knowing what’s truly in his heart. Love at first sight is often lust in disguise. Action is needed. Evidence that what he tells me he feels for me is real, true.

  I break the kiss just as he runs his tongue along the seam of my lips and he steps back as if I struck him by removing my skin from his, his gaze shifting to the ground.

  “I can’t help you,” he murmurs.

  I don’t believe that, but I do believe he thinks there’s no other option than to go about his job to the precise rules that have been given to him. This situation can still be salvaged. We haven’t lost yet. “Why do they need to break us apart, Sirius?”

  He glances back up at me. “You know why.”

  “A lower class djinn isn’t supposed to mate with a limitless djinn.”

  He nods. “The offspring can be unpredictable. Balance must be maintained.”

  “And what are the options for maintaining the balance?”

  “Have the offspring raised in hell by surrogate parents to keep it under control, or take one of the parents away to stop the child from learning how to use two affinities.” He blinks at me. “Why does it matter? This is always what needs to be done.”

  I chew on my lower lip, thinking. There’s room here for another option. I know there is.

  “Why give Nero the choice you gave him if he has to go back to hell?”

  “If he chose to kill your lovers then he does not truly love you. No true mate would make that choice. If he is not a true mate then you are not pregnant.” He shrugs as if it’s that simple.

  “So you don’t even know for sure if I’m pregnant?” I ask, starting to get irritable about it all over again.

  “You are,” he tells me, glancing at my stomach. His eyes glow red for a few seconds before he continues, “Two babies, but hell’s council only care about one of them.”

  “Um, what?” I ask, stunned. Did he really just say two babies?

  He smiles. It’s a shy gesture but one that endears me to him more than it probably should.

  “Yes, you are having two children. Separate fathers, of course. One human and one djinn.”

  Holy hell in a hand-basket. There’s no way I can raise two kids without all of my men around to help.

  “You can’t have Nero.”

  “Then I must take you to hell to await your demon child’s birth.” He smiles once more, seeming to understand that I appreciate the gesture. “You can stay with me while you’re there. I’ll make sure you’re well cared for.”

  “I have a better idea,” I tell him, finally starting to realize the best way to deal with this problem.

  Then Nero comes along and blasts everything to hell.

  “Get away from her,” he barks at Sirius, pulling me back from the hell hound. “She’s my mate and you will not tear us apart.”

  So my demon lover went all caveman on the hell hound who is all that stands between us and the fiery pit below right now. Why am I not surprised?

  “Nero, stop it,” I tell him, moving out of his grasp and watching Sirius’ expression carefully.

  He’s closing down again, ready to nail that expressionless mask in place and force us to make an impossible choice. My heart hammers as I try to keep hold of my plan while Nero growls at my side.

  “Sirius, there’s a third option and I want you to take it back to your superiors because it benefits all of us.”

  Nero frowns at me but I ignore his narrowed red eyes as I plead my case to our hell hound.

  “We can promise to raise our child human. To have his or her powers bound by a witch, and to have regular checks to make sure we’re keeping this promise.”

  I hear Nero gasp at my side, but I don’t care. This is the safe way to allow us to stay together.

  Sirius cocks his head, as if considering my proposal.

  “I think you should be the one to make those checks, Sirius. You could even ask for permanent reassignment topside.” This is the swing-vote; I see it when his desperate gaze meets mine.

  He wants to spend time with me. He wants to find out if love is real.

  The thought of getting to know him better makes me smile. I may not know much right now, but I like what I’ve seen so far. He has a good heart even if it’s bruised and beaten.

  “I will return to hell to make your case,” he tells us. “If this is accepted I will return within a day. If it is rejected, the process may take longer and your choice will no longer be offered.”

  I freak a little at the mention of our choice being stripped from us, but even if I end up in hell I won’t let them take my baby from me. I’ll do wha
tever it takes to stop that from happening. One problem at a time.

  I nod. “Thank you, Sirius. You’re a good man.”

  He vanishes with that same shy smile and I turn to Nero who regards me with a suspicious look.

  “Were you flirting with the hell hound?”

  “I don’t know how to flirt, remember?” I smile, as he pulls me into his arms.

  “You don’t, but you do know how to make a man fall head over heels in love,” he tells me.

  “I think it’s a little soon for love,” I say, but I’m not going to rule it out.

  “How many lovers are you going to make me accept, Maeve?” he asks with a teasing lilt.

  I shrug. “I’m sure my heart is almost at capacity.”

  He shakes his head. “You always have more to give.”

  “I do?”

  “It’s what I love about you.”

  The wait drives all of us crazy. Nero especially, perhaps not surprisingly. I steal Finn away into the bedroom to give him the news about the baby while Nero goes through security camera footage with Damon, trying to pick a new human form from one of our thousands of customers.

  If we’re staying here and playing human he’ll need one, and I don’t want him using our old favorites. Everything is different now. I want to leave the past behind us.

  “So, ye did it,” Finn says, as he closes the door behind us.

  “Well, fingers crossed,” I tell him, turning. “There’s something else.”

  “Something else?” he asks, concern in his gaze.

  “Hell hounds know things,” I start, wondering how well he’s going to take this considering his baby’s sharing womb-space with a demon. “They have supernaturally enhanced senses.”

  “Uh-huh,” he murmurs, looking me over.

  “I’m having two babies, Finn,” I blurt out, not sure how else to put it. “One of them is yours.”

  His eyes widen. “Are ye serious?”

  I nod and he pulls me into a secure embrace that’s just a little carefully executed. I smile at the tiny thoughtful gesture. He gazes into my eyes, his smile lighting up his whole face.