Page 36 of Werewolves Don't Howl
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his injuries too tight, because it had to hurt, while he rested his cheek against my hair.
“What are you doing?” I gasped, trying to wriggle away from him without making his wounds worse.
“Thanks for the cookie, Delphi. It’s delicious.” He rubbed his cheek against my hair like I was some kind of pet, then picked me off my feet as he straightened and squeezed me tighter.
I kicked and dropped the rolling pin while I tried to get a good position to push against him. I couldn’t touch him without hurting him more. “Put me down! Did you have a mental break? I’m going to bite you if you don’t…”
He squeezed me tighter, and for a second I couldn’t breathe, then he put me down and gave me the sweetest smile a monster ever gave a girl. “You can bite me if you’d like. I won’t mind at all.” He raised one arm and pointed at a long line of bite marks. “It won’t be the first time.” Then he winked at me.
I stared at him, then at his arm. Yes, those were my teeth marks from so long ago when he’d held me with that arm and injected me with the other. “Oh. I didn’t…” I stumbled back, into the chair he held for me so I sat at the counter where I’d been trying to feel so in-control. I stared at him, panicked and horrified.
“It didn’t hurt,” he assured me with a slight smile.
“Of course it hurt. Why would you say that?” Was he truly mental?
He shook his head. “I should say that pain doesn’t bother me. You’re feeling guilty about it. Don’t. Your teeth are charming. You could bite me all day and it would be a delight.”
I shook my head. “Who are you? What are you? Elves aren’t that massive and brawny, and they are incredibly sensitive to pain and other things. Are you part ogre?”
His smile became slightly flirty. “Ogre? No. I’m a full-blooded elf, but I take after my father. You know how the night elves are.”
I stared at him. “Night elves?”
“You haven’t heard of them?”
“I’ve heard of them. The night court, right? You’re from the night court? That’s what someone said, that you were a night elf, but it didn’t register.” I licked my lips. The night court was supposed to be full of those bred to war, less sensitive to violence and other trauma, so they could defend their people without the usual psychological scarring.
He smiled in delight. “Yes. My father is from the night court. That’s why I left, because he executed my best friend. It’s true, she was a murderous spy, but I was young and innocent and didn’t understand that sometimes you do things you don’t want to do for the sake of the greater good.”
“Greater good? Is that how you justify the atrocities you commit?”
“Usually, but in your case, I just didn’t want to let you die.”
It was like a dagger to the chest. “Why not?”
His smile tightened. “Well, that’s what the monster wanted, for me to kill you, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Also, the world needs people like you. Pity your type dies so easily. It’s the ones like me that last the longest.”
“So that’s why you were irritated that I wasn’t some investigative reporter, because I wasn’t living up to my potential after you bothered to keep me alive?”
“It was no bother, and no, I just wanted to make sure that you were happy. If you weren’t happy as a werewolf…that would bother me.”
“So I can bite you, but I can’t be unhappy.”
“You can do what you like.” He smiled slightly. “Except for die.”
I rolled my eyes and then paused as his words registered. “Why would the monster want you to kill me?”
He studied me for a long time. “Do you remember that pretty elf at the party the night you were infected?”
I stared at him, frowning at that horribly beautiful face. I raised a hand and pointed at him. “But it was a different face.”
“Yes, it was a different face, but it was still me. I was at your school, trying to track down the origins of a potion that did some very interesting and illegal things.”
“Lynx? They have this monster on a leash that they can use for something like that?”
“Or one of the members is the monster. You were adorable. I thought from the first time I met you that you should stay far away from me and anyone else from the House of Mercy or the monsters we hunted.”
A wave of ice cold dread washed through me from my head down to my toes. “The House of Mercy? You aren’t from the House of Mercy.” They were the most terrifying secret order in the world. If you heard anything about them, they’d erase you.
