Reclaiming Angelica

Chapter Four

Raul drove the twenty minutes or so it took to reach the old logging trail turned hunting grounds on the outskirts of town. There he pulled to the side of the road and into the brush. With the dark night and lack of streetlights, no one would see his vehicle unless they drove up on it.

Moving quickly, he kicked off his loafers and yanked free of his clothing. He’d barely gotten the door closed before his wolf burst free. The change was so violent Raul cried out in pain. His wolf was up and running before Raul’s senses fully returned.

He let his beast have its head, knowing it had been chained too long. After tonight’s emotional storm, it felt good to shed his human consciousness and allow his animal counterpart be in the driver’s seat. Hunting season hadn’t started so he didn’t have to worry about having his hide shot full of bullets. Besides, his wolf was a predator, more than capable of protecting itself from human and animal aggression.

He ran aimlessly for miles, enjoying the stretch and pull of muscles stiff from lack of use. He inhaled air free of the stench of human congestion and pollution. The night was quiet with only the sounds of his paws striking the earth, and the occasional cry of a night hunter to be heard. No horns, no loud music, no civilization. Just nature in all its glory.

Raul zoned out and let the peace sink soul-deep. When he finally roused himself to awareness again, he discovered he was in familiar territory. Seemed his beast’s run hadn’t been as aimless as he’d believed.

He broke through the trees and entered the clearing surrounding a home he knew as well as his own. He should. It was where he’d grown up after his father’s death. As he approached the door, it opened, and his Uncle Joey stepped out onto the porch.

Raul whined in happy greeting and sat on his haunches, his front paws dancing merrily while his tail wagged like a metronome.

“Well, don’t just sit there. Come in,” Uncle Joey invited. He held the door open in invitation.

Raul trotted past his uncle into the living room. Home. It had been too long since his last visit.

Uncle Joey closed the door behind him. “Go on into your room. You should find a pair of your old sweats that might still fit. Change and come out and talk. I’ll have a beer waiting for you.”

Raul padded down the hall to his room. Lots had changed in the pack over the years. Both Uncle Dillion and Uncle Max now had wives and families of their own. Only Uncle Joey still lived in the old pack house, though the others hadn’t settled too far away. Of his uncles, Uncle Joey was the one Raul was closest to and the one to which he instinctively turned whenever he needed guidance in life. It really wasn’t surprising that he found himself here tonight.

When he came out the room, Uncle Joey was seated in his favorite old recliner in front of the big-screen television, remote control in his hand. He gestured with it to the coffee table. “There’s your beer. Sit down and tell me what’s troubling you.”

Raul didn’t question how his uncle knew something was bothering him. He simply popped the top and took a long swig before saying, “I met a woman.”

“Ah, woman troubles.” Uncle Joey muted the television. “Tell me about her.”

He mentally flipped through all the things he could tell his uncle about Angelica. Finally he decided on the most important issue. “She’s my mate. She’s human and doesn’t know what I am, but I think she’s suspicious.”

When his uncle said nothing, Raul found himself continuing. “I met her through our business. She’s a bails bondsman and contacted us on a case. I took the call. Since then she’s referred a good bit of business our way. I was instantly attracted, just from hearing her voice, but tried to fight it. Then I met her in person and it got worse, but still I tried to deny what my senses were telling me. But my wolf…” Raul took another long drink of his beer, remembering. “It latched on to her scent and wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t stay away from her.”

“Do you love this woman?” Uncle Joey asked in his serious manner.

“Yes.”

‘Then tell her.”

Raul shakily set the bottle on the coffee table. Surely he’d misunderstood. “Tell her what?”

“Tell her what you are. Let her see the whole of who you are.”

“But…but…she’s human,” he repeated, thinking his uncle must not have heard him clearly the first time.

“I know.”

Raul could only stare at him. “But Poppa said—”

“Raul, I loved your father. He was more than my alpha. He was my brother, and I still miss him today, but your father was wrong. Do you know why your mother left?”

Because of me, he thought but couldn’t say. All these years later, and he still couldn’t admit to anyone other than himself that his mother’s leaving, his father’s death, all of it was his fault. Instead he gave his standard answer. “She found out what Poppa, what we both were, and she couldn’t handle…” Raul’s words trailed off as he noted his uncle repeatedly shaking his head from side to side.

“Your mother left your father because he didn’t trust her with who he was,” Uncle Joey said flatly.

“No! She left because Poppa wasn’t human.”

Joey pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered a few soft curses. His action made Raul feel four again, trying to understand as his father explained Momma wasn’t ever coming back. “What are you saying, Uncle Joey?”

“I’m saying that after your dad died, I tracked your mother down and had a long talk with her.”

Raul felt like he’d been poleaxed. His jaw gaped, but he couldn’t close it. Words tumbled around in his mind, disjointed, but he couldn’t pull enough of them together to speak with any type of coherency.

Uncle Joey took pity on him and kept talking. “You were almost six at the time. She wasn’t hard to trace. She hadn’t gone far, just the next town over to where her best friend lived. I told her Paul was dead and asked what she wanted to do about you.”

The dull ache in his heart lingering from his mother’s abandonment grew teeth and rent at his flesh. “Momma knew Poppa was dead, and she still didn’t want me?”

Raul vaulted to his feet to pace the room, no longer able to be still. His gaze bounced around the walls, taking in the various photos showing his stages of development. None of them showed a proud, glowing mother.

It shouldn’t matter that he now had confirmation his momma didn’t want him. Over the years he’d managed to convince himself that maybe his mother really hadn’t intended to leave him behind. That she’d given him to his father because she knew Poppa wouldn’t have let him go.

Joey sighed. “It’s not that cut-and-dried.”

Raul paced to the window and stood looking at the dark glass. “It’s okay. I knew that just like with Poppa, Momma couldn’t stand the thought of what I am. If she’d really loved me, loved us, she wouldn’t have left.” After all, she’d said so herself. “Mommas always love their sons, Raul, and their sons’ daddies. No matter what.” She’d left because she no longer loved them.

The admission hit his heart like a blow as he thought of Angel. If she really loved him, would she have left him? Depression settled on him like a cloud. His one hope had been that in spite of Angel’s incomprehensible actions, she really loved him. Now he no longer knew what to believe.

“Mate a human, and she’ll break your heart.” His father’s words echoed in his mind.

“Raul, sit down and listen to me, boy!”

Raul flinched at the rarely heard sharpness in his uncle’s tone and found himself scurrying over to the couch to sit as commanded. Inwardly he sighed. Some alpha he was proving to be.

“Now, as I stated, it wasn’t that cut-and-dried. Your momma wanted you. She did,” he added when he saw the skepticism Raul knew was visible on his face. “Your parents managed to do a number on each other. Laura confessed that she’d received a letter from Paul, apologizing for his lies and asking her to return to him. It wasn’t the first that she’d received from him. In this one he stated that he couldn’t live without her, the implication being that if she didn’t return to him, he’d end his life. She didn’t believe him. She said she thought it was another one of his lies. Being angry, hurt, and not a little prideful—both your parents had more than their fair share of that particular fault—she disregarded it and him, preferring instead to continue to nurse her wounds.

“When I told her Paul was dead from suicide…” Uncle Joey took a long, deep breath, his gaze faraway as though locked on to the past. “She lost it. The shock, the guilt…it did a number on her. She had to be hospitalized.”

Raul sat stunned, his thoughts chaotic, listening to his uncle’s recitation of past events.

“Paul said once that Laura was sweet and loving, but she had a fiery temper and once hurt, she was hard of heart. She had a tendency to hold grudges and not let a matter go until she’d extracted her pound of flesh in return. To my way of thinking those two temperaments don’t exactly mesh, but I wasn’t the one mated to her. I suppose Paul knew what he was talking about regarding her having a sweet nature.” Uncle Joey shook his head, his expression showing he didn’t quite believe what he was saying but was willing to let it go.

“Anyway, it took a long time for your momma to pull herself together, and once she did? Well, we felt it best you remain with us. She watched over you from a distance, but the sight of you looking so much like your poppa? She couldn’t handle it. She sent money when she could to help with your caretaking, came to all your important events, and in general, did as much as she could handle,” Uncle Joey finished.

Raul asked the only question prevalent on his mind. “Where is she? I want to see her.”

“I’m sorry, son. She died a few years back. Cancer. She didn’t do much to fight it, feeling it was God’s justice coming to visit for pushing your father to his death. I tried to get her to let you come see her, talk to her one last time, but she didn’t feel deserving of you or your love. Pushing the issue just made things worse, so I had to let it be.”

At the news, Raul’s wolf threw back its muzzle and howled, a long mournful note. The man lurched to his feet and stumbled toward the door. “I need some air.”

“Don’t leave,” his uncle commanded. “There’s more I haven’t told you.”

Raul gave an abrupt nod before heading out the door and into the night air.

Sophie stalked past the long line of waiting humans, ignoring their muttered curses and protests, Angelica trailing behind her like a little waif. When Sophie reached the door, she hugged one of the big bruisers stationed there and gave him a long, deep kiss that looked as though it had plenty of tongue. “Hey, baby. Missed me?”

“Always,” he answered, cupping her ass familiarly. He nodded in Angelica’s direction. “Bringing your food with you now?” he murmured so low a human wouldn’t have heard him.

Sophie glanced over her shoulder, and her eyes widened. “Her? No, she’s—”

Angelica cleared her throat loudly in warning, causing the bruiser to look suspiciously back and forth between the two of them. The last thing she wanted anyone here to know was who she was, or worse, who her father was.

“—a friend of the family,” Sophie corrected hurriedly. “Angelica, this is Stephen. Stephen, this is Angelica.”

Angelica nodded her head but ignored the hand offered. Some vampires could determine what type of being a person was through touch. She didn’t need Stephen knowing she was the only child of the head of the North American vampire council. She liked keeping a low profile, and it helped that she came across to most paranormal species’ senses as human.

As Stephen lowered his hand, he told Sophie, “Keep an eye on her in there if you don’t want her being munched on.”

Her cousin’s smile looked more like a smirk. “Don’t worry. She can handle herself, but I’ll stay close in case she needs me. How long you on duty tonight?” Sophie ran her hand down his shoulder and rested it briefly on Stephen’s chest.

The big vampire shuddered, and his eyelids lowered to half-mast. “To closing.”

“Aww, that’s too bad. Maybe you can get away for a few,” Sophie asked suggestively as that hand stroked lower until it cupped him between the legs.

Angelica was used to the lack of inhibitions and overt sexuality of vampires, but still found herself glancing around warily at the steady stream of customers entering the club. Fortunately they were focused on the goal of getting inside and seemed completely oblivious to the love play going on right in front of them.

“You got it, baby,” Stephen assured Sophie before snatching her up for another lingering kiss.

Angelica rolled her eyes. Her cousin’s family line fed on sex as well as blood. Sophie looked like sex on a stick, and her sensuous nature never left her lacking for lovers. For a moment, she almost pitied Stephen. Her cousin wasn’t equipped to settle down with a mate, not for a long time at least, and Stephen looked like he had it bad for her, if the glazed expression in his eyes when the kiss ended was anything to go by.

Sophie wiggled her fingers at him, grabbed Angelica by the arm, and said, “Later, lover,” as she towed Angelica through the black double door.

Sounds and scents crashed over them like a big Hawaiian wave. Heavy metal rock blasted her sensitive eardrums, and the scent of sex with a metallic undertone of blood assaulted her nostrils. It was the emotional backlash that rocked her and almost brought her to her knees. Angelica sent more power to her empathic shields until on the psychic plane they took on a diamond-like hardness. Sophie tugged on her arm and pointed up. Angelica allowed her gaze to travel in the direction of her cousin’s finger and noticed a set of stairs leading to an upper, glassed-in level. The bottom of the stairs was roped off, and the upper room seemed, from this angle, to have less people. She followed when Sophie turned and headed in that direction.

“Up here we can be ourselves,” her cousin shouted as she unlatched the cord, waved Angelica past, and secured the cord again once she was on the other side. As they walked up the stairs, Angelica could feel the anticipation radiating off Sophie in waves.

She’d never before been to the Warehouse, being instead inclined to shy away from places her kind haunted. Half-breeds like herself were rare. In fact, Angelica was the only one of her kind that she knew about in this generation, and on this continent. Therefore, it wouldn’t take long for others to put two and two together and realize she was the daughter of an extremely powerful vampire. Then any hint of anonymity and independence she’d gained over the years would be lost.

Her father would assign guards to protect his fragile half-human daughter from vampires willing to use her as a pawn against him. Not to mention power-hungry male vampires would be coming out of the woodwork, attempting to woo her with the idea of getting an in with her father. No thank you. She hadn’t traveled thousands of miles from home and set up housekeeping only to get dragged back into vampire politics and the power struggles that went hand in hand with them.

Angelica pushed all that out of her mind as they went through the double-wide opening at the top of the stairs. In here, the lighting and sound was much more vampire friendly. The glass walls must have had some type of soundproofing in them, because most of the noise from below was muted. A quick glance showed several vampires feeding, from arms, necks, and even a few inner thighs. The smell of sex was stronger up here than below. Sex did make a feeding so much better.

In her element, Angelica cautiously dropped her shields and let the emotions—lust, hunger, anticipation, greed, satiation—flow over her and fill her. None but other members of her family caste knew she could feed from emotions as well as from blood. She drew it in so deep her nipples puckered and her sex swelled and moistened. Oh yes, this was more like it.

Angelica followed Sophie onto the dance floor. Before she left tonight the Thirst would be well quenched. She thought back to earlier that evening when she’d been making love with Raul. Since the beginning she’d been aware of the physical signs of his wolf coming to the surface as his lust raged almost out of control, but Raul had been so busy hiding what he was, he’d never noticed her feeding off the sexual energy they’d created. Or the appearance of her fangs as she’d fought the battle to feed from more than his emotions.

She swayed her hips sensuously from side to side and let her body issue its invitation. Come to me. Feel me. Feed me.