A Dream Forbidden (Lillith Mercury ) Read online

  "You're wearing a wife beater?" Bade laughed at my shirt.

  "Just around the house," I said with a shrug.

  When we entered the kitchen Johnny was already cooking a breakfast big enough for a crowd. Well, when you considered there was the three of us plus Alek, I suppose he wasn't far off.

  "You need any help?" I asked.

  "No," he said and the tone of his voice let me know something was wrong even if the alcohol hadn't tipped me off.

  "Johnny, why are you drinking so early?" I asked.

  He just shook his head, but I had a feeling I knew the problem.

  "Did Dracula call you last night?"

  "Yes," he said, stirring the eggs with a large wooden spoon.

  "Shit, he made you set the ballerina out to meet the dawn didn't he?"

  "It's alright, sweetheart, at least I didn't have to film it," he said with a half-hearted smile.

  "I'm sorry, Johnny. If anyone should have had to do it, it should have been me."

  "He knew you'd say that, which is why neither of us mentioned it to you last night."

  Watching someone go up in flames is never pleasant. I'd seen the video Bade had filmed for Mason, but I'd never seen it in person and I had no desire to do so.

  We had just finished breakfast when Marco called and he didn't sound happy.

  "What's going on?" I asked.

  He told me that he'd gone by the university to visit Richard because Bade was concerned about his mental state. Once he got there he found out that several students were staging a protest in the middle of the campus.

  "What are they protesting?" Bade asked, because I'd put Marco on speaker.

  "The right to be a werewolf in college. Apparently, many of them have been discriminated against by their professors and even denied federal grant money for being a lycanthrope. They're blaming it on The Werewolf Registration Act."

  "Is it a peaceful protest?" Bade asked.

  "For now, but I think you two should be here. Luther's already on his way."

  "What about Richard?" I asked.

  "Oh, I can't believe I forgot. They're saying he's the only one who hasn't treated them differently. Now there's a news crew on the way here wanting to interview him. They want to know why he's so tolerant and how others can learn from his example."

  "Oh, shit. We'll be right there."

  I snatched on a pair of jeans and some flip flops while Bade put on jeans and another Red Light Special t-shirt. I grabbed a black sweatshirt on my way out, but it was already in the seventies and the day promised to be mild.

  The drive to the university normally takes an hour, but we were there in forty minutes. When we pulled up in Bade's convertible we could see the protesters from the parking lot. News crews were already filming so we snuck into the building's back entrance and up to Richard's office.

  We ended up finding him down the hall in his lab peeking from between the blinds. Marco let us in and we saw Dr. David Kane also cringing at the sight of the cameras.

  "What am I supposed to say to them?" Richard asked no one in particular. "Oh yes," he said mimicking a pleasant voice, "I'm so tolerant of werewolves because I'm a snake mutant."

  Then he started freaking out and turned to me. "Look at my eyes!"

  Richard's eyes had a tendency to turn snake yellow when he was upset.

  "I don't want my students to know I'm a snake man," he said miserably. "I don't want my mother to know. I don't want my werewolf students coming to me for advice, wanting to know how I deal with things. I can barely keep my own ass out of a sling. I don't need people coming to me looking for a mentor. You come to me if you need help with calculus, not if you need help growing paws on the full moon."

  "Try to calm down, Richard," Marco said reasonably. "We'll find a way out of this."

  The first time Marco had met Richard he was shit drunk down at The Dread Moon. I'm sure today's incident didn't help to endear him to the wolf king either. But no matter what I was thinking, Marco seemed to like Richard and feel genuine sympathy for his plight.

  "We'll tell them you're sick," Marco said finally. "Bade and Lilith can sneak you out the back door and you won't even be on campus for them to find."

  "What about me?" David asked.

  David Kane is around six foot two, with sandy brown hair, clear blue eyes, and an ass like muffin tins. Besides that, he was a really nice guy. I'd never seen him without his confident smile, even in a crisis.

  "You're the one who's going to tell them Richard is sick," Marco said. "I'm sorry, David, but if they see me here they'll start to speculate about why you were seen with an alpha werewolf."

  David sighed. "You have a point. None of them are in my class, that's why I haven't been dragged into this already. I'll just go down and tell them that Richard is not on campus today due to illness and he's tolerant because he's a good person. Or something like that," he said, waving his hands about while he spoke.

  "Good, that should work," Marco said.

  "Where's Luther?" I asked.

  "He's parked beside me out back," Marco said. "We're about to make our escape before the press finds us too."

  We all hurried down the stairs to the back door while David went out the front entrance to face the crowd.

  Marco kissed my forehead and said, "I'll see you later, Red," before running around the building to his car. Richard laid down in the backseat until we were about a mile away from campus.

  "I think it's safe to get up now," Bade said.

  Richard sat up, looking a little embarrassed for hiding so long. I almost laughed at the way his gray hair stood on end. We had the top down and it wasn't doing his hair any favors. I shivered and moved closer to Bade. He put his arm around me and his warmth seemed to burn me through the sweatshirt I'd pulled on before leaving the house. Even if the weather report said it was seventy two, it felt more like sixty five to me.

  Once we arrived back at my house Marco called again. He was planning to come over, but he was going to have to leave immediately for Texas.

  "Texas?"

  "Yes, Texas," he sighed. "Sam's having some difficulties that require my attention. I'll only be gone a few days."

  "What's wrong that Sam can't handle? He's an alpha too," I said angrily.

  "Well, you know how they were protesting here?"

  "Yeah."

  "Well, apparently they're rioting in Texas."

  "What the hell for?" I said, still grumpy at having Marco snatched away from me again.

  "Turns out the entire squad of Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are werewolves. One of them has been lynched and the rest have come to Sam for protection."

  ?

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Now I was really angry.

  "Are you telling me you're going out there to protect a bunch of cheerleaders?!"

  "Easy, Red. That's Sam's job. I'm going out there to handle the media. People are barely aware that Sam exists. I intend to remedy that and to help point out that the murder of this cheerleader was a hate crime."

  "You're taking Luther with you." It wasn't a question.

  "Well, I was planning to," he said, sounding stunned by my anger.

  "If I even get so much as a hint that you're near those cheerleaders, or if I catch an unfamiliar scent on you when you return," I paused before finishing, "I'll have their hides on display in my sitting room."

  "I love it when you get all protective on me," Marco teased. "Don't worry, Red. The smell of hydrogen peroxide is not an aphrodisiac to me."

  This made me laugh and I started to calm down.

  "I'm sorry, Marco. I'm not sure what came over me. I've never been the psychotic girlfriend type."

  "You're not psychotic," he laughed. "And I know exactly what came over you, because it's what comes over me every time I read the tabloids."

  After our conversation was over I shared with Bade the other half of the conversation he hadn't heard.

  "I'm impressed, love," he said with a wink. "Just a
s long as you don't go pissing on his doorstep to mark your territory."

  "That's not a bad idea," I teased.

  "What was he talking about with the tabloids?"

  "I have no idea."

  "I do," Richard said, taking a paper out of his coat. "I forgot to show you this before, picked it up on my way to work this morning."

  "Shit," I said, handing the paper to Bade.

  Right there on the front cover was a picture of me in Bade's car. It showed me wrapped up in a blanket with Bade's arm around me all snuggled up in the front seat. Of course they didn't know that I was shaking because I'd just tortured someone to death. Then it occurred to me, neither did Marco because I hadn't told him. He had been on Terra the night before. I guess I just assumed he would hear about it from Dracula because I felt sick at the thought of telling him what I'd done.

  I fought the nausea and picked up the phone while Bade and Richard complained about how some of the fang bait outside the theatre must have been reporters in disguise.

  First I apologized for the way I'd spoken to him earlier, and then I explained to Marco what had happened the night before.

  "Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked. "Why not tell me at the university, or call me last night?"

  "Because last night you were busy and didn't need to worry about me on top of everything else. And today Richard needed your help more than I did. Besides, I didn't feel like blurting out what I'd done in front of him and David."

  "I'm sorry, Red. I should have been there for you," he said softly and his deep sexy voice gave me chills.

  "You had no way of knowing what would happen at rehearsal last night, Marco. Don't beat yourself up. As for me, Alek's potion worked wonders and I intend to take another one tonight."

  "It was nice of him to remodel the bathroom," Marco commented about Dracula before saying, "And, Red, I'm not going to fuck the cheerleaders, no matter how many headlines you make with Bade."

  "Well, I guess that means I don't need to piss on your doorstep to mark my territory," I teased.

  Marco's warm laughter did me good and I felt better than I had in weeks.

  "I'll be back soon," he promised. "Maybe by the weekend, but Monday at the latest."

  * * * *

  The weekend came and Marco still wasn't back, however he had a flight booked for Monday and had called me every day. Sam had also called to inform me that Marco was nowhere near the cheerleaders because they were under protective police custody at an undisclosed location. As it turns out, most of the police force in Dallas belongs to Sam's pack.

  "But if you decide to piss on his doorstep, you let me know," Sam laughed. "That's the funniest thing I've heard in years."

  Rehearsals were still going on every night as planned since our first performance was scheduled for June the second, the night after the full moon. Within two days Dracula had had mine and Luther's shared bathroom completely redone. It looked great. Just like he'd said, it didn't even resemble the room where I'd tortured the vampire ballerina. As for her part in the play, he'd found a replacement, a scrawny little werewolf from Georgia named Tina. I knew Tina; she'd been working as a stage hand and had a much better attitude than her predecessor.

  Alek was really putting her to the test in order to learn the dances in time. When Luther, who had returned from Dallas early, made the comment that she was doing well I suggested that he should ask her out. His response was, "After I was attacked by my ex-wife, I'm really not interested in a relationship with another female werewolf." He laughed. "If that's just your way of distracting me I'm sorry Lilith, but I'm not interested."

  * * * *

  Saturday afternoon everyone was over at my house because another big storm was coming through. Hurricane season hadn't even started yet and this did not look good. It was still early afternoon, but it looked like dusk outside. The wind whipped mercilessly through the trees while Alek brought a collection of board games into the sitting room.

  Elijah was back and he, Kat, Johnny, and Luther were all sitting around playing truth or dare. Bade was back at club Red and he was staying put since the storm was moving his way. The power was already out and I was lighting candles when Kat asked Johnny, "So how come Alfred always hated you?"

  I had told Kat about Alfred calling to check on me which she said just proved that he was still a gentleman.

  "Poor guy," she said. "He just really fucked up when it comes to you."

  Of course, I'd also shared his dislike of Johnny which prompted her question.

  "You really want to know?" Johnny said, leaning in like he was about to share a conspiracy theory. Once everyone had leaned forward with anticipation he said, "I provoked it."

  "That's it?" Alek snorted with laughter.

  "Yeah," Elijah said, "we'd figured that much."

  "I used to come in and say things like, 'Hey, Al how's it going?' When he asked how I was I'd say things like, 'I'll be banging Lilith in about an hour so life is good.'"

  "You're awful," Kat scolded, but she was laughing.

  "That's sick," Luther snickered.

  I didn't think it was funny.

  "So, you taunted him because you knew he was too much of a gentleman to say anything to me other than he hated you."

  "That's right, sweetheart. I'm sorry," Johnny said, looking genuinely repentant, but I wasn't fooled.

  "You are such an asshole," I said, snatching his drink and helping myself to a sip.

  "What? I didn't like him either," Johnny protested.

  "Obviously."

  "I would have hated you too," Alek said, pouring himself some more wine.

  "You mean you don't hate me?" Johnny asked.

  "Perish the thought," Alek said, waving his hand dramatically.

  Despite how irritated I was over Johnny's past treatment of Alfred, this got a laugh out of me.

  * * * *

  In no time at all, opening night was upon us and I felt sick. Marco had returned without the scent of cheerleaders. He'd even insisted on me reading his mind. I refused at first, but he said it would make him feel better, so I did it. Not only was he telling the truth but his memory included overhearing Sam tell me how funny it would be if I peed on his doorstep. Marco's smile let me know that was the real reason he'd wanted me to see his memories.

  I'd gone to the full moon gathering with him the night before, but I'd left before the hunt. Since I didn't change forms, I just didn't find running through the woods after deer and rabbits a very fulfilling experience.

  I tried to think of these things in order to distract myself while Luther helped me into my costume. I was so nervous that I didn't even care if he saw me naked. It wasn't like he hadn't seen it all before anyway. Maybe I was just being stupid and paranoid about him watching me change. He was a werewolf after all, and that definitely changed people in more ways than one. But I knew what really had me so worked up and it wasn't Luther or the performance we were preparing for. It was Dracula.

  When the opening song began to play my heart gave an unpleasant leap.

  "Fuck it," Tina whispered in my ear. "It's now or never," she said as she rushed out onto the stage.

  I was really beginning to like Tina. The house was packed and the audience responded well when I was introduced. The great thing about theatre lighting is that you can't really see the audience, you just know they're there.

  But once Dracula appeared they were not. No one was there. He used his seductive voice on the crowd and I opened myself up to his power. I welcomed him inside my mind because it brought out the best in me and my performance.

  When we reached the scene where Christine removes The Phantom's mask for the first time he hid his face completely in his hands, just like he was supposed to. The audience isn't really allowed a glimpse at his deformity yet, but Christine is supposed to see. Lucky for me, I didn't. He knew what he was doing, and I didn't see a thing. But I knew he wouldn't put a glamour on the crowd tonight. Before the night was over I would see what had been done
to my beautiful vampire, I just hoped my heart could take it.

  At last it was time for our final and most dramatic song together. This was the scene we had rehearsed before when I let myself go completely. I'd been so caught up in his seduction that I'd removed the mask without thinking and tonight I would have to do it consciously.

  I looked up to Luther sitting in the balcony and smiled at him. But then Dracula began to sing, and Luther no longer existed. His voice caressed me long before his hands touched my skin. I wanted him to touch me. I needed to lose myself in the magic that his voice promised. I longed to find the deep unspoken secrets he sang about in his embrace.

  I turned to look at him as he stepped away and swished his cape dramatically while I sang my response. Since the night I'd spent with Dracula, I couldn't count the times my eyes had held him. It was about time my arms got another chance.

  We were nearing the climax of the scene and his arms were around me. Once again I was completely under his spell, and so was the audience. After a moment's pause he sang again, asking me to share my love and my life with him. My heart consented, but my hand rose to remove the mask.

  Alek was right, the eyes of love see things differently. As gasps and screams could be heard from both the cast and the audience I simply cried. Dracula's eyes filled with tears as I reached to touch his face. He didn't stop me. His skin was still red in places as if the burns were fresh. From just above his eyebrow to halfway down his cheek, the right side of his face resembled melted candle wax. The corner of his right eye drooped as the scars pulled it downward. His ruined skin felt rough beneath my hand and I wept for what had been done to my vampire.

  When he grabbed me and jumped through the trap door I was still crying. I'm sure the audience just thought it was good acting, but I was genuinely disturbed. However, I wasn't horrified for the reasons Dracula obviously thought. He hid his face from me as we hurried behind the stage for the last part of the story. From this point on he didn't wear a mask. He led me by the hand through the cast members who were all congratulating him on an amazing makeup job. He didn't respond and I nearly couldn't stop crying to go back on stage.