The Miracle and The Monster
Abel
ABEL HEARD HIM long before he got to the door and knew by the familiarity of the sound who was coming.
So he didn’t stop drilling the screw into the hinge that would eventually be attached to a door to the toilet as the footsteps approached and the steel door opened.
“Yo!” Wei called over the drill. “Soup’s on and Ma wants your ass upstairs.”
Abel stopped drilling and looked to his brother. “Gonna get this done.”
Wei looked to the hinge, then back to Abel. “You can finish it after. Food’s on the table and Ma’s getting shitty.”
“I’ll be up when this is done,” Abel reiterated.
Wei’s brows went up. “You gonna court the wrath of Jian-Li?”
Normally, he would not do this. He was older than her, helped raise her, was stronger than her by far, but the woman had a temper. She was also the matriarch, a matriarch with four sons, all of whom were unruly in one way or another (including him). So no matter that Abel had one hundred and forty years on her; when needed, Jian-Li had an iron fist, even with Abel.
Still, he was not dragging his ass up there.
Not until he had a handle on it.
And knowing Delilah was up there, he was not close to having a handle on it. Not after he woke up hearing her make noises in her sleep that told him exactly what she was dreaming. Not after hearing her say “Abel, baby” like she was just about ready to come.
It had nearly torn him out of his skin, staying seated in that chair and not going to the bed, positioning her and mounting her, even in her sleep.
But it was definitely more. Something in him he didn’t understand was driving him to connect with Delilah in such a way, he was losing the struggle to fight it. In a way so powerful, he feared he’d harm her while doing it. But if he did, he knew at the very least he’d scare the shit out of her.
She told him she was hanging on by a thread and he got that. The shit she was learning, seeing, and experiencing—he was shocked as hell (and pleased as fuck) she was handling it as well as she was. And he was even more pleased that the destiny he knew was his, which included her in it, she clearly felt as well.
But he needed to make her feel safer, to guide her to trust him, trust his family, allow her time to get to know all of them, primarily him; not attack her, force himself on her, possibly hurt her, and, in doing any of that, destroy any chance of ever gaining her trust.
So he had to get his shit together before he saw her again.
He just didn’t know how.
“She’s cool with it,” Wei stated, taking Abel out of his thoughts.
“What?”
“You goin’ gonzo about me touching her. Chen explained you were intense. She told us she’d already noticed that, then made a joke. She’s cool with it.”
At least that was something.
“She’s just cool,” Wei said, getting closer. “She’s up in the private room with Ma, Chen, and Xun, crackin’ jokes about all that went down last night and tellin’ us about her dad comin’ tomorrow. A dad who sounds like a fuckin’ lunatic.” He stopped close to Abel, smiling his approval of Delilah’s “fucking lunatic” father, but his smile died as he finished quietly. “She’s settling in, man, a lot easier than any of us would have expected. You don’t have to worry.”
Even if all that was excellent news, Abel stared into his brother’s eyes and laid it out.
“I need to fuck her.”
Wei grinned. “I see that. Don’t rip my head off, literally, when I say it’s good to see your fated woman is seriously hot.”
“No, Wei,” Abel said slowly, “I need to fuck her.”
Wei stared at him, the humor shifting out of his face.
“Consumed with it, brother,” Abel whispered.
“Shit,” Wei muttered.
“You touched her, honest to Christ, nearly did you harm. You. Almost couldn’t control the urge,” Abel admitted.
“Wolf,” Wei stated, and Abel nodded.
“I’m thinkin’ . . . yeah. Pack traits, alpha male on female. That connects.”
“We’ll all be careful,” Wei promised.
“Know you will. But I gotta calm my shit before I’m with her again.”
Wei tipped his head to the side. “That bad?”
Abel turned fully to him, keeping the drill in his hand even as he crossed his arms on his chest. “That bad. I do not want to make love with her. I don’t wanna kiss her. I don’t want my hands on her. I wanna fuck her, brother. Hard. Take her. Claim her. She’s known me less than a day and shit has not been good, not by a long shot, so I cannot do that. I gotta give her time. I gotta give her me, and not in that way. And I don’t know what this is . . . wolf, vampire, both . . . but I made breakfast with her, ate breakfast with her, talkin’ about important shit, shit that matters, shit she had to know, shit she told me about her I wanted to know, and I did it the whole time struggling with the urge to bend her over my table.”
“Fuck,” Wei whispered.
“Yeah,” Abel agreed.
“So you need to put up the door,” Wei stated.
“Yeah, and find a way to be with her and give her what she needs without takin’ from her what I need, takin’ her away. Because I go in the way I need to go in, she’ll be lost to me.”
“You gotta get your mind off it,” Wei advised.
He’d tried that, doing it by jacking off in the shower before taking off to get the shit he needed to make things more comfortable in his space for Delilah.
His self-induced orgasm was a piss-poor idea. He’d obviously done it visualizing her and it only made it worse.
Hanging the rod and curtain and installing the door wasn’t helping either, mostly because all he could think about was her naked in the shower, him with her, and what he’d do if he was.
“Didn’t find that wolf,” Wei said, and Abel focused on him again.
“What?”
“Xun and me went around, did some asking, on the down low got folks on the lookout, and Chen made calls. So far nothing. He’s vapor.”
When they moved from one location to the next, there was a reason why they did it the way they did. Understandably, Jian-Li had to come first to find and set up the space she needed for her restaurant and where she wanted to live. She did this always of a mind that Abel would need his space close to her, and she found all of that with Chen helping.
Chen was friendly, social, and—even built and able to take care of himself in a serious way that anyone could see from just looking at him—he could come off nonthreatening. They never went anywhere without setting up their network, and it was Chen who started that job so they knew everything about their location. Looked into the local politicians and business owners, researched crime rates and who was committing them, and made connections on both sides of the law.
Xun and Wei came later, laying more groundwork. This was mostly making themselves available, offering services, providing favors, establishing trust, proving themselves capable at a variety of shit, and amassing a fuckload of markers.
Abel followed last, never the face of anything they did, connecting with humans very minimally. He received his briefings prior to coming but got fully briefed after he arrived.
But he did the quiet work. The work that needed to get done that no one could see.
And he did it well.
All of this was done because he knew that something would happen eventually and they needed to be prepared in any way they could when it did.
Something had happened, and luckily, they were prepared when it did.
“After lunch, we’ll all go back out,” Abel declared.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” Wei asked. “You goin’ with us, I mean. You said you sensed more vamps. If they got your skills, Abel, they can get a lock on you too.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“Gets you away from Delilah,” he guessed.
“And hopefully turns my mind.”
Wei nodded just as his phone rang.
But his phone rang at the same time Abel’s phone rang.
They both tensed, looking into each other’s eyes while grabbing their phones.
Abel looked away first, to the screen, and saw it was Xun.
He took the call and put the phone to his ear.
“What?”
“Problem, brother. We’re on it, but we need you upstairs in Ma’s apartment. Like, now.”
Wei was talking on his phone, but Abel was out the door and in Jian-Li’s apartment within five seconds.
He got there and saw Delilah sitting on the couch, wide eyes to him, reacting to his speed and him coming into focus from a blur (something he was able to ignore, seeing as he’d had plenty of experience with that in his life). But one sight of her, his cock twitched, his jaw set, and he forced his gaze to Chen.
“What?” he barked.
“One of the waiters noticed them, told me. I looked. Two men outside. SUV like last night, according to Xun. And they are makin’ no bones about the fact that they’re casin’ the place.”
Chen was at the window, off to the side, peering around the sheers but doing it out of the way so no one could see him looking.
It was then he noticed that Jian-Li was busy lighting incense. A lot of it.
Masking his scent.
He moved with his natural speed to the window and stood behind Chen, who moved out of the way.
And he saw them.
Vampires. He knew it because he’d seen one of them last night. The one who was talking with the police officer, not the one talking on his phone who’d seen Abel. But today he had another one with him, big, built, but blond.
He couldn’t believe he hadn’t sensed them when he was downstairs. Up at Jian-Li’s place with that incense interfering, he could see. But he had a finely honed ability to detect danger.
Fuck. His need for Delilah was totally fucking him up in a variety of ways.
He stared through the window.
They were both in nice suits and they both had eyes trained to the restaurant, the blond one leaning casually against the back of the SUV, the dark one standing on the sidewalk, his frame stiff like he was the kind of guy who had a stick up his ass.
“You think they caught your scent?” Chen asked quietly, and Abel looked to him.
“Yeah.”
“Fuck,” Chen whispered.
“Language,” Jian-Li warned.
The door opened and Wei came in. “Covered the grate,” he announced, shutting the door. “Far’s I can tell, no eyes on the alley. But figure they’re here because they caught your scent, so they sniff it out, they’ll find your lair.”
“Fuck,” Chen repeated.
“Language,” Jian-Li hissed.
“Where’s Xun?” Abel asked.
“In the restaurant,” Jian-Li answered.
“That’s good, Ma, ’cause they’re on the move,” Chen said. “Headed toward the front door.”
“Oh man,” Delilah whispered.
“It’ll be okay,” Jian-Li murmured reassuringly.
“Chen, cover the hall. Wei, outside. Keep an eye on the alley. One of you tell Xun he just became a server and his only table is the one they’re seated at.”
“On it,” Wei said and moved out.
Chen said nothing, he just moved out.
“Jian-Li?” Abel called, and she looked to him.
“I’ll supervise in the restaurant,” she stated.
He nodded.
She moved after her sons and disappeared behind the door.
“Abel?”
Fuck. Even her voice, low and sweet with a strange husky lilt in it, he felt in his cock.
He moved his eyes to her.
He could smell her, even smell the fragrant tang of her cunt, though he knew by her scent she’d taken another shower. She was in more biker bitch gear—sweet jeans, sweeter Harley tee that stretched tight across her tits—her long, dark hair down and wild. She had on maximum biker chick jewelry, lots of silver, leather, and studs, even if she was simply hanging at a Chinese restaurant and doing it so no one could see. Her face was made up, heavy around the eyes, making the light green of her irises stand out so it seemed like it was glowing.
First time he fucked her, he wouldn’t be able to look in her eyes.
First time he fucked her, he’d take her on her hands and knees.
The next time he fucked her, he’d do it looking in her eyes.
“Uh,” she started, ripping him from his thoughts. “Is there something I can do?”
“Sit and be quiet,” he replied curtly, looking back to the window to see the SUV there but both vampires not, at the same time attempting to open his senses so he could detect further danger, or any at all.
“Well, I mean something else.”
“No,” he said shortly, not looking at her.
“You—” she began, and he knew through sound and smell she’d moved from the couch with the intent to come nearer.
He could not have her nearer.
“Don’t get near me,” he gritted through his teeth, sensing her stopping, also sensing her mood turning, and not to a good one. “Gotta focus,” he finished on a lie for there was really fuck all he could do. He had to stay hidden. She had to stay hidden. And they had to hope like fuck those vampires couldn’t smell him through the incense and make their play, because Jian-Li didn’t need carnage in her restaurant and he didn’t want to lose any of his family.
“Okay,” she whispered, sounding confused, a sound that did not make his dick twitch. It made his heart hurt.
He moved from the window and started pacing like the caged dog he literally fucking was, thinking of his family, thinking he was hungry, thinking her blood probably tasted fucking brilliant.
He closed his eyes tight, opened them, kept pacing, and started thinking of puppies. To be precise, cute, wrinkly baby shar-peis.
The door opened, he stopped pacing, and watched Jian-Li walk through.
“They’re leaving,” she said in a voice he did not like after she shut the door.
He moved in a blur to the window and saw she spoke true.
“The boys are staying in position,” she went on.
He looked back to her. “Why do you look frightened?” he asked.
“They asked to speak to the proprietor of the restaurant, and when I came to them, they asked for you directly,” she answered.
He felt his throat get tight.
“By name?” he pushed.
“No.” Jian-Li shook her head. “The blond one asked for the vampire.”
“Fuck,” Abel snarled. “To you?”
She nodded. “To me.”
“And you said . . . ?”
“I acted like he needed to see a doctor and told them I had no idea what he was talking about.” She took another step into the room, her eyes going to Delilah, who she gave a soft smile, before they came back to him. “I don’t know, but when the blond one asked this, the dark one appeared annoyed.”
“This means . . . ?” Abel prompted.
“I really don’t know, tian xin,” she said softly. “But I got the impression the dark one wished for this contact to be a little less aggressive.”
“That’s good, right?” Delilah asked.
Jian-Li looked to her. “I have no idea, but I hope so.”
“And that was it?” Abel called her attention back to him. “They asked, you said you had no idea, and they left?”
“Yes, they left, but not before the dark one gave me this,” Jian-Li told him, moving toward Abel, holding up what appeared to be a business card.
He took it and saw it was. Cream. Thick, expensive stock. Printed in bold, script letters was:
Gregor
Councilman
Dominion
This meant nothing to Abel. Then he looked to the back and sucked in breath.
On the back, written in pen, it said:
We mean you and your mate no harm.
The Biltmore. Suite 1013.
His mate.
His mate.
He looked to Delilah.
She was his mate. That was what his kind called them.
Something settled in his gut that Abel didn’t trust because it felt good.
But even so, his throat tightened further because they knew he had a mate.
“What’s it say?” Delilah asked.
He shoved the card in his back pocket. “Nothing that makes sense.”
Having followed his movements, she looked from his hip to his eyes and he knew she didn’t believe him. There was only a hint of hurt in her face, but it was a definite indication she didn’t like shit kept from her.
He ignored this and looked to Jian-Li. “I gotta finish downstairs and then I gotta run.”
“Of course,” she said with soft understanding.
“Take care of Delilah,” he continued.
“You don’t have to ask,” Jian-Li replied.
He knew he didn’t.
“Sorry about lunch,” he muttered, moved to her and leaned in, sliding his temple across hers before he headed to the door.
“Abel?” Delilah called.
“Later,” Abel replied without looking back.
Then he shut the door.
Abel sat as wolf on the highest cliff at the south end of town, staring down at the lights spread narrow along the bay, his focus on one of the tallest, most attractive buildings in the city.
The Biltmore Hotel.
When he’d moved to the Bay a month ago, as a celebration of them all being together again, the entire family had gone to dinner at the restaurant there. Excellent steaks but filled with snobs.
Vampires stayed at swish hotels.
He snarled.
He snarled again, turned, and ran swiftly back toward where he’d leaped out of his clothes, thinking he in no way trusted those vampires did not mean harm to him or his mate. He’d met nine supernatural beings and every one of them had meant him or Delilah harm.
And he’d left her to put up a fucking door and go run.
He needed to, that couldn’t be denied. He always needed to run, but when something was troubling him, he needed it more.
But even though he’d trained his brothers, their skill levels exceptionally high, their sparring partner him so they would in no way be intimidated by the kind of speed, strength, and agility his kind had—in fact, they’d all built defensive tactics that were highly successful, as demonstrated last night—it was his responsibility to look after Delilah.
And he’d left her hours ago to put up a door and then run as wolf.
It was late. Running had calmed the urge to claim his mate, so at least that was a positive.
But now it was time to get home to her.
He got to his clothes, leaped to man, put them on, forged through the woods to his bike, and jumped on.
He rode into the city and he did it with his senses open, taking in mostly human and animal, food, trash, and excrement, but no vampires or wolves.
He saw nor sensed eyes on him as he closed in on the restaurant. Not from cars. Not from buildings. Not from roofs.
They had to know he had the ability to do this, so he wondered if them retreating so completely was their way of making him trust them.
Trust them straight into an ambush.
He knew Chen was in the alley as he parked his bike. His brother moved out of the shadows as he swung off.
“All clear,” Chen said softly.
“Yeah,” Abel replied.
“You okay?” Chen asked.
“Yeah,” Abel lied.
Chen stared at him through the dim lights of the alley before he nodded and asked, “You want vigilance?”
He was asking if Abel wanted Chen to keep his eye on the alley.
Abel shook his head. “We don’t fight alone, brother. Go inside. Get some sleep.”
Chen looked to the ground and headed to the back door of the restaurant.
Abel followed him.
Chen called, “’Night, Ma,” as he headed up the stairs to her apartment.
“Goodnight, son,” she called back from her office.
Abel headed directly there to see her exactly as she was the night before.
“It’s late,” she stated, not softly, her tone was sharp and annoyed.
“I have things on my mind,” he explained.
“And Delilah is downstairs, watching a movie with Xun, having spent a confused and somewhat frightened afternoon and evening with your family.”
Abel’s jaw got hard.
“Is there a reason you’ve spent thirty years yearning for her and then you get her and leave her?” she pushed.
“There is, and these are reasons I’m not gonna share,” Abel answered. “You’re just gonna have to go with it and take my back.”
She gave him a flinty look.
He accepted it and said nothing.
She then emitted a soft huff before she asked, “Are you going to The Biltmore?”
“No, I’m not.”
Her head tipped to the side. “This is not wise, my Abel.”
“You think I should walk into an ambush?”
“No. I think that I would like to feel the overwhelming gratification of understanding that my family’s nurture is what created a good, kind, strong, wonderful werewolf vampire, suffocating his nature. However, rationally, I feel that cannot be so and there is a good possibility there are beings out there just like you, and by that, I mean the good, kind, strong parts.”
“How about we know that before I waltz my ass into The Biltmore?” he suggested.
“How about you consider the possibility that centuries of questions will have answers if you waltz into The Biltmore?” she fired back.
This was not lost on him.
He knew one thing for certain about his kind: vampires called their partners mates.
That was all he knew.
And he had questions—questions about his behaviors, feelings, instincts, everything. All his life, he’d had questions.
In fact, it was a miracle he’d stumbled on how to numb his meal before he drew from them. It had taken him ages. He’d done it at what Mei had figured was when he was eight years old in human development, but he’d been alive for forty years. (Because, apparently, wolves, vampires, or both aged very slowly and then quit aging in their thirties in terms of human development—something else he knew, but only because he’d experienced it.)
Other than that, he knew nothing of the nature of his kind—either one.
So the impulse was strong, going to The Biltmore, finding answers. Especially now with what he was experiencing with Delilah.
It was also foolish.
“Do I have to remind you what happened last night, sweetheart?” he asked.
“No,” she replied instantly. “But has it occurred to you that eight people were killed last night and no police officer has shown at our door?”
His mind consumed with Delilah (amongst other things), it actually hadn’t.
He said nothing.
“This occurred on city streets,” she reminded him. “It was in the dark of night, but that means nothing, especially here in Serpentine Bay. Now, Abel, tell me, what could halt a police investigation?” she asked but didn’t give him time to answer. She did it herself. “A powerful entity.”
“That might not be a good thing,” he noted quietly.
“It also might mean whatever is befalling you and Delilah, you’ll have mighty allies,” she retorted.
Shit. But he had to find a way to fuck Delilah so his mind wasn’t consumed with it and shit this simple was not lost on him.
“I have to focus on Delilah,” he told her, and she nodded.
“On that I would agree, my Abel. However, you haven’t been doing that either.”
“There are things you don’t understand.”
“I know you’ve waited lifetimes for her, and now that you have her, you’re acting surly and impatient. So I assume I can guess quite accurately at what is causing your impatience.”
Jian-Li, nor any of her line, were stupid. Usually this was good. Now it was aggravating.
“Do you have any advice on that?” he asked sarcastically.
“She’s here,” Jian-Li replied.
“I know that,” he bit out impatiently.
“She’s here,” Jian-Li repeated. “If she did not feel as you do, after the events of last night, would any sane female be anywhere near you?”
He shook his head. “She doesn’t feel as I do.”
“Are you certain?”
If she did, they’d be fucking right then.
So she didn’t.
“I am.”
“Guide her there, tian xin,” she advised quietly.
“She’s human. She needs time.”
“Yes,” she stated, still talking quietly. “But I’ll tell you this, she seemed very sure of herself when I saw her come out of my bathroom this morning. She was comfortable with me, Xun, Wei, Chen. Charming. Talkative. Amusing. She has hesitancy, which is understandable, but she was clearly embracing where she was in a way that’s remarkable and gave me great relief. Until you left.”
Abel’s heart tightened.
“The longer you were gone, the more confused and unsure of herself and this situation she became,” she continued. “And in the end, my Abel, she actually appeared in pain.”
Abel felt his spine straighten. “Pain?”
She nodded. “As if your continued absence caused in her what you’ve been feeling for centuries.”
“Fuck, I gotta get to her,” he muttered, making a move to leave.
“Think on The Biltmore,” she urged, and he looked back at her.
“I will.”
She gave him one of her satisfied smiles, mostly because he was doing what she wished.
He shook his head, lifted his hand and called, “Sleep well,” as he moved to the door.
“You too,” she called back as the door closed.
He was in his room in a flash.
“Jesus, brother,” Xun whispered when Abel came to a rocking stop next to the armchair where Xun was sitting. “Freak a guy out, why don’t you.”
Abel looked to the bed.
Delilah was asleep in it, not in his tee. She had on something pink and tee-like, but he hadn’t owned a stitch of clothing in two hundred and five years that was pink.
His eyes scanned the space.
His boxes from Jian-Li’s place were in the corner by the hutches where he and his brothers kept most of their weapons. His stereo had been set up on the floor, his CDs stacked by it. His books were piled along the back wall at the head of the bed. They’d also brought down his guitar.
A table from Jian-Li’s place had been brought down, his flat screen and Blu-ray on it. The TV was on, volume down low. Some movie Abel didn’t know was playing on the Blu-ray, since he had no cable and would never get clear reception down there.
His family had been busy.
“Am I off the clock?” Xun asked, still whispering in deference to Delilah sleeping, and Abel looked to him to see he’d taken his feet.
“Yeah, brother. Thanks,” he muttered.
“Not a problem,” Xun replied, then came to him, slapped him on the shoulder, and moved out of the room.
Abel went to the door and slid the steel shaft through the hinges that barred it.
He drew in a deep breath and moved to the bed, seeing Delilah in the same position as last night, except she didn’t have a cheek to her palm—that arm was thrown out.
He drew in another breath, taking in her scent, using everything he had to ignore it, and moved a hand to shift the heavy fall of silken hair off her neck.
He shouldn’t have done that either. Her hair was softer than he’d imagined, and the waft of fragrance that came from it went straight to his dick.
He pulled it together and ignored it as her eyes fluttered but stayed closed.
“I’m home, Lilah,” he whispered.
“Good, baby,” she muttered, her lips curving slightly before she moved, turning to her other side so her back was to him.
He’d been called “baby” by so many women, it would be impossible to count.
None of them felt like it felt when Delilah said it.
Having used up his reserves of control to keep his hands off Delilah, he went to the fridge and got out a bag of blood, seeing only two left in there. If he’d known a warm, delicious meal and its accompanying fuck was not in the cards for him for the foreseeable future, he would have stocked up.
He hadn’t.
He’d have to see to that tomorrow.
He nuked the bag and sucked it back. He needed at least three a day, even if he was feeding and fucking. He’d taken one before he went running. But that one, as did the one he was currently consuming, left him hungry.
Definitely needed more.
He moved to the blue trash can, toed it open, and threw the bag in, his jaw clenching at seeing what was inside as he did.
He didn’t like what he saw even though he needed it for sustenance. It was all he knew, all he’d ever known, but that didn’t mean he didn’t understand it was utterly repugnant on every level. He rarely fed in front of his family because they tried to bury it, but his senses were vastly superior to theirs and he felt it. He knew it disgusted them. And Delilah, not surprisingly, hadn’t let her eyes wander to him even once while he was having his breakfast.
She’d get off on him drawing from her. He knew it, just as he knew he had to be careful with it. Due to his first and second mothers, Hui’s and Mei’s, efforts, he’d never once killed or even harmed a human being while feeding. And that shit was not going to happen with him drawing down Delilah’s needed supply of blood. So he figured, when he got her there, he could give her that while fucking her maybe once a week.
That said, the bags sucked. They worked, but they sucked. There was nothing as good as a woman writhing under you, her pussy drenched, that smell in your nostrils, her blood in your mouth. It was revolting at the same time it was fucking true.
He’d had decades of bags. He’d have decades more.
Centuries.
Hui was his first mother; Mei was his second, raising him through human teen years after they’d lost Hui. Mei had told him during his second half century that he’d have many lots in life.
“But never forget, bao bei,” she’d said, her hand curved around his jaw, her eyes tipped back to his height of towering over her. “You are a miracle. A miracle. A miracle brought to this family. A miracle upon this world. Never forget, and if you don’t, you will endure.”
They were a miracle, a family over six generations, accepting him as he was.
He was no miracle.
He was a monster.
He looked to the bed.
Another miracle, a dark-haired, green-eyed temptress coming to him in his dreams, then appearing in his life, accepting him and the insanity around her, ending her second night as a part of his life sleeping in his bed.
The miracle and the monster.
Abel winced at the thought.
But that thought was much easier to bury and he did so without effort.
And he did it without effort because he’d had a shitload of practice.