Better Off Dead : A Lucy Hart, Deathdealer Novel (Book One)

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  Lucy padded down the stairs, her flip-flops making their most spectacularly irritating sounds. She was certain if Gabriel was in the house, he’d probably be in the living room. That’s where guys like him lounged. And that’s where her sainted grandmother would insist on him relaxing while she finished preparing dinner. So, Lucy headed straight for the kitchen. Maybe she could still talk her grandmother into fixing sloppy-joes.

  But when she walked into her grandmother’s warm, well-worn kitchen she found Gabriel at the kitchen sink, his sport coat hanging on the back of a kitchen chair, the sleeves of his hundred dollar silk dress-shirt rolled-up, doing dishes. He was chatting with her grandmother about some bizarre historical fact about the town of Four Corners, while Lilly was mixing up her homemade gravy.

  Lucy noticed how really happy they seemed, just standing there talking. She then noticed the stunning arrangement of daisies, columbine, and tiger lilies sitting in the center of her grandmother’s table, in her best crystal vase. Lucy hadn’t noticed he was holding flowers. They couldn’t have been for her—he would’ve given them to her as soon as he saw her standing there.

  Now, looking at the arrangement, she had a good feeling that he’d bought them precisely for her grandmother. Wild flowers were her favorite, especially those three kinds. So he’d come with gifts to placate her grandmother. And, to Lucy’s horror, it seemed to be working.

  Lucy gave herself a mental head slap and tried to shake off her animosity. She really shouldn’t be trying to make her grandmother dislike Gabriel. No matter how she felt about him—and truthfully, those feelings were changing every time she turned around. She’d practically fallen over into his arms when he walked up to the porch, and then not twenty seconds later she’d wanted to slug him… or maybe key his car. But now, looking at how great he was being with her grandmother, she was starting to feel all warm and tingly about him again.

  She even thought about turning around and going back upstairs to change back into her previous ensemble. Yet just then her grandmother turned around and saw her standing there and said, “Well, there you are! I had to…” She took a good look at Lucy’s clothes, and her words came out in slow erratic bursts as she looked Lucy over. “Well, I… had to let… Mr. Enoch here in… but I could have sworn you were waiting for him on the porch.”

  “I was,” Lucy said in a flat tone. Gabriel turned his head enough to flash Lucy a quizzical smile, and there was some heat in his gaze.

  “Oh,” Gram said as she shook her head. Obviously trying to figure out why Lucy had changed her clothes was more than she was up for. She turned and beamed a wide, brilliant smile at Gabriel.

  “Now stop washing those dishes. Dinner’s ready to be served.” She strained the gravy she’d been mixing into a gravy boat and held it out to Gabriel. “If you want to help, take this out for me and place it on the dining room table. There are hot pads already down. Just put it on top of one.”

  Gabriel dried his hands on a dishtowel then took the gravy boat out of Lillian’s hands, walking off to the dining room.

  “What a nice young man.” Lucy stood there in stunned silence as she watched her grandmother fan herself with a small cutting board. She was flushed and looked about ten years younger.

  “Oh my god… Gram!”

  “What?” Lillian said, giving Lucy a surprised glance at her outburst, then turning her attentions back in the direction Gabriel had taken.

  “You’re not seriously drooling over my… my…”—well, what exactly was he?—“my fake fiancé?”

  Gram scoffed, but she was still fanning herself. “I’m old, not dead.”

  “This evening could not be more disturbing.” Lucy took a glass from the cupboard then poured herself some pink lemonade from the fridge.

  “So you’re disturbed by him.” It wasn’t a question. “Is it him, or what he is?”

  “You’re not helping.” Lucy put the cold glass to her forehead and breathed. She just needed a minute to think.

  “I could send him to the store two blocks over for some milk. That would take him at least five, ten minutes.” She was just a little too pleased with herself.

  Lucy shot her a scathing look. “I’m fine. He can stay. And you can quit with the interrogation.”

  Gram just grinned. That grin said way too many things, in Lucy’s opinion.

  Dinner was great. Gram had outdone herself: braised beef roast, glazed carrots, string beans, garlic mashed potatoes made from scratch, and fresh baked rolls. Lucy noticed that Gabriel had two helpings of everything. She could tell from her grandmother’s expression that that pleased her plenty.

  Conversation was surprisingly light. Just about the weather, some more about Four Corner’s suddenly fascinating history, and a couple questions about where his family came from originally: Both his parents’ families came from Romania, having immigrated to the west two generations before Gabriel was born.

  Lucy thought about the little story Jonas Enoch had told her about how he and Gabriel’s mother had fallen in love. She couldn’t imagine what their parents were like. She just couldn’t picture it. Vivian Enoch had seemed like she was born the way she was—fully formed and cold as ice.

  Gram had Lucy help her clear the dinner plates, insisting Gabriel remain seated while they brought out coffee and dessert—a magnificent chocolate-chocolate cake. It wasn’t until they’d finished eating the last bites of their desserts that Gram dropped all pretenses and dropped the other shoe, so to speak.

  “So wolf.” Gabriel looked up from his coffee and met Gram’s gaze. They both looked very serious. Lucy was just about to interrupt when her grandmother continued. “How far, exactly, are you prepared to go with this?”

  Gabriel almost smiled, tilting his head as he studied Lucy’s grandmother.

  “I see you’re committed to this ruse—pulling the wool over your family’s eyes—just so you can be with your vampire lover.” She sat forward in her chair just enough that Lucy thought she was going to throw something. “What I’m wondering is, are you just as committed to keeping my granddaughter safe?”

  Gabriel’s brown eyes softened. “I will let nothing and no one hurt Lucy.”

  No small thrill swam up into Lucy, like a bird taking flight in her chest, hearing him pledge himself to her safety.

  “Does that mean protecting her from your creature-of-the-night girlfriend too?” Gram said pointedly.

  Gabriel didn’t move a muscle. He didn’t even seem to be breathing. But his entire body seemed to sag almost imperceptibly. But Lucy noticed, and her heart sank with the sting his silence evoked in her.

  She closed her eyes and these thoughts rushed through her mind. What was I thinking? Why did I think he’d choose me over her? Why the hell is Gram dragging all this up in the first place? And finally: Why am I falling in love with a man like this?

  Lucy opened her eyes when she heard Gabriel’s halting answer.

  “I don’t want to hurt Delia… I never planned on… on having these feelings for Lucy…” He closed his eyes this time, just for a moment, but Lucy could tell he was being torn up inside. Conflict made his youthful features appear much older than he was. “I’m just not ready to… to choose. I never thought I would be having these feelings for two people, not at the same time… and I never expected to feel like this for a human.”

  What a prince…

  But another part of Lucy was hanging onto every word like they were the lyrics to her favorite freaking song.

  “But will you protect my daughter from harm—even if that danger comes from your beloved? I think she deserves to know that you will keep her safe, since she is technically your employee, and obviously more than that from the look on you handsome face... and the kiss she told me you two shared last night.” Gabriel suddenly blushed. “You know, at the engagement party I wasn’t invited to.”

  Lucy rolled her eyes.
Gram is never going to let me live that down, is she?

  Gabriel’s gaze stayed on Lucy’s grandmother for what seemed like forever, and then it moved to Lucy. “I pledge my life to her safety.” Lucy felt a knot of nervous tension build in her stomach. “I will not let anyone or anything harm her. This I swear.”

  Lucy gulped as she felt her face flush this time. Her hands were shaking as she nervously fumbled with her empty coffee cup.

  “Well, now,” Gram chirped as she stood and picked up her cup and the empty plates. “Now that that’s all settled, I think I’ll go to bed… let you two have some private time to… talk.” She moved from the room with a graceful speed that didn’t seem natural.

  But Lucy didn’t take time to ponder her grandmother’s other-natured-ness. She already had someone with a definite otherness sitting right across from her, and the way Gabriel was looking at her, she felt like a doe being hunted by the big bad wolf. Or was that Little Red Riding Hood?

  She could swear the expression on his face was saying, “I wonder what she would taste like?”

  Lucy stood up, bumping the dining room table hard enough with her knee to cause a sharp pain shoot through her entire leg. Good work, Grace. Nothing looks better than limping away to safety. Lucy suddenly flashed back to a Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom moment where a silver wolf pounced on a fleeing fluffy white bunny, jaws clamping down on the rabbit’s soft fur, the life evaporating immediately from the poor thing’s entire body.

  How tempting would she look if she tried limping away? Lucy hoped he’d filled up on her grandmother’s cooking. She turned and tried not to hobble as she beat a steady path toward the front door. She needed some air. And what better way to get him to leave than to lure him outside?

  It worked… a little too well. He moved to follow her so quickly that he ended up holding the door open for her as she exited to the porch. Lucy gasped, feeling a quick, startled jolt crackle through her body. She forced herself to breathe, and she forced herself to keep walking. She gulped the cool evening air as she moved toward the porch railing. She had to keep it together. He’d said he had feelings for her, which made her feel like she was going to burst into lustful flames any moment. But there was the other part, the part where he couldn’t choose between her and the vampire.

  That really shook her to the core. Of course he’d known Delia far longer, and he did love her—Lucy had a front-row-center seat for that fact—but he’d said he would protect her from Delia, no matter what. And that made her feel even more confused. On the one hand he would risk his life for her. But he was risking her life so he could be with his vampire girlfriend. Not to mention Lucy still had a huge honking problem with him being in love, or whatever he was feeling for her, with two women.

  That alone makes him… Lucy couldn’t decide on the right word: a letch, a jerk, a monster?—he already was one of those. Or did it simply mean he was a man?

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Gabriel said, standing mere inches away from her. She turned and saw the concern darkening his features again.

  “I don’t think you really want to know.”

  He let out a breath, and that breath tickled the side of Lucy’s neck, making her shiver enjoyably.

  This is just a job, she tried to tell herself. No matter what, what she wanted more than anything was to get her old life back. Right?

  Gabe took hold of her shoulders and turned her to face him.

  Riiight…

  “Why are you always touching me?” She sounded suddenly very tired. “It’s nice, but it confuses me.”

  Gabriel’s expression changed from concerned to a rather wicked smile. “So you like when I touch you?”

  Crap! Did I just say that? Lucy shook her head.

  “So, you don’t like it when I touch you.”

  “No. I mean yes! Oh, I don’t know what—”

  Just then Gabriel leaned in, pushing her bottom up against the porch railing, then very slowly he lowered his face until their lips were practically touching. He whispered softly, his lips grazing hers. “Did you like it when I kissed you last night?”

  Lucy’s head was swimming, and her heart was pounding hard in her chest—the chest heaving with excited breath, pressed against Gabriel’s very broad, very warm chest.

  “Yes,” she said breathlessly.

  “Would you like me to do it again?” he asked, yet he didn’t get an answer; at least not a verbal one. Lucy threw her arms around his neck and crushed her lips against his, pulling him against her, their combined weight making the railing of the old porch creak. All of a sudden Lucy wasn’t thinking about Gabriel belonging to someone else, she forgot that only moments ago she’d been pissed at him, and that among other things, his words in the dining room had also hurt. She didn’t care about anything except how good Gabriel tasted, how wonderful his lips felt against her own, not to mention how having his body pressed against hers felt. There wasn’t a word to describe that, at least not one Lucy could think of.

  Inside, Lucy had been ready for him to kiss her, even though moments before she had been literally running from the prospect. She hadn’t expected to attack him with her lips. It didn’t make sense. She never did things like that. She never had to—guys usually couldn’t help themselves, so they always made the first move. But just being so close to Gabriel, having his lips so close, his scent enveloping her senses so completely—and he shouldn’t have been teasing her like that!

  There was a lot of movement: hands roaming, lips sliding, tongues searching and tasting and rubbing together… and then there was the way his body moved against hers. It made her shudder.

  Gabriel pulled himself away first, pushing Lucy back by the shoulders, disconnecting their lips and putting a sudden, very unwelcome distance between them.

  “We have to stop,” he groaned between gasps of air.

  That was… nice… Lucy was about to ask why they had to stop, yet when she opened her eyes and looked into his eyes she saw not only red hot longing there, but also something lurking, sliding behind his eyes and peering out hungrily at her: the wolf.

  “Maybe you’re right,” she croaked. Part of her wanted to go further, to have his beast come out to play, to devour her. But most of her was terrified and wanted to run back in the house and lock the door. Does Gram have a shotgun in the house? Maybe some silver bullets?

  Gabriel’s eyes cooled off and he took another step back, letting go of Lucy’s shoulders. She felt a shiver as a cool wind whipped around her, taking away all the heat Gabriel had generated. He suddenly looked really hurt. “You’re scared of me.”

  Lucy shook her head, wanting suddenly to deny it, but she was shaking and her voice cracked when she tried to speak.

  “I’m sorry Luce,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m not doing any of this right.”

  Lucy liked him calling her Luce. It made a welcome warmth spread from her heart out into the rest of her body. “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing here either.” She moved toward him and wrapped her arms up under his arms, hugging herself against his still heaving chest, just inhaling him and listening to the beating of his heart. “So, don’t feel too bad.”

  “Actually,” Gabriel whispered, “I feel pretty good.”

  Lucy smiled at the compliment and snuggled her cheek against the warm silk covering his chest. “You do feel pretty good.”

  He laughed, and Lucy liked the way it sounded, and how he felt in her arms as his torso lurched—the muscles there quivering as they contracted and relaxed. Finally, after a long still moment of enjoying their embrace, Gabriel said he really should leave, that he had an early meeting in the morning. Reluctantly, Lucy let him go and watched as he moved away, looking more awkward than she’d ever seen him as he rubbed the back of his neck in consternation. He stumbled as he took to the porch steps, and caught himself on the railing and jumped back up on the porch.

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; “I forgot my jacket.” He was grinning and blushing beautifully. “Oh, and I have something for you.” He dashed through the screen door, and amazingly enough he was back at the door with his sport coat in hand before the door had slammed shut.

  Okay, Lucy shivered. Super human strength and speed—this is just getting more disturbing.

  Gabe reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and removed a long thin box. “I brought you a present.”

  “I love presents,” she said, practically vibrating with excitement. It was an eight by two inch black velvet box. A necklace? Lucy guessed, but then he opened it and she had to look really hard to identify what was inside: a knife. Correction, a six inch, shiny and sharp as hell looking blade with a liquidy looking mother of pearl handle.

  “I can already tell you I have nothing that will go with that,” Lucy said. Gabriel looked confused. “Sorry, bad joke. So you’re giving me a weapon for a present?”

  “Actually,” Gabriel plucked the blade from the box and then pulled something that looked suspiciously like a silk and lace g-string from underneath—a very tiny, nearly non-existent one at that. “This is a two part gift.”

  “Call it a present!” Lucy snapped unexpectedly. She flashed back to the last gift she’d received—raising a dead dog on the side of the interstate. Gabriel was looking at her uncertainly. “I just don’t like that word. You know, ‘gift’.” She took a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face. “It’s a thing.” And now he thinks I’m crazy...

  Gabriel continued with a confused little smile on his lips. “It’s almost pure silver—with just enough iron to keep it from breaking. More than pure enough to incapacitate and even kill most supernatural beings. Werewolves, vamps,”—It kills vampires? Lucy looked at the blade again with renewed interest—“Shifters, demons… well, most of the things that you might run into while you’re in my company… except fairies.”

  “Fairies!” Lucy laughed. “You mean I have to be afraid of Tinkerbell?”

  “The kind that forge weapons like this one?” Gabriel moved the blade in his hand so the moonlight glinted from its blade. “Yeah, those kinds of fairies are human sized, as strong as, if not stronger than, most monsters, and they’re very hard to kill. Only a pure iron sword wielded with enormous strength and skill would do the trick.”

  Lucy didn’t like the way his eyes gleamed as he said that. Had he fought a fairy? If so, he’d obviously enjoyed it. She tried not to feel scared all over again, but she couldn’t help it.

  She clamped her attention on what else was in Gabriel’s hands. She took his hand, not wanting to touch the lacey little garment, but found touching Gabriel’s hot flesh more than distracting. She played it off though, even though he was looking down into her eyes with undisguised hunger.

  “I don’t know if this is some sacred ceremonial g-string thingy, but you can just count me out on wearing it.”

  Gabriel laughed one harsh bark. “No... no…” he said, “the blade is for protection. This is for concealment. It’s a sheath.” He slid the knife into the thin, lacey sheath and then gently took Lucy’s arm and tied the thing to her forearm. His fingers tickled her as he tied the little straps.

  “So much for concealment,” Lucy said holding her arm up to show Gabriel. But then the sheath and the blade shimmered, there was a slight tingling sensation, and then it just disappeared. Lucy gasped and ran her hand over where it had been. She felt nothing.

  “That thing didn’t just melt into me, did it?”

  Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “Interesting guess… but no. Both were made by fairies, and both have their own magical qualities. The blade itself has an enchantment that brings it back to the sheath if it is lost—either in battle or by accident… or if it was stolen. But that’s only if you still possess the sheath.”

  He took her hand, and ran his other hand over the flesh of her forearm. “The sheath obviously has a concealment charm. Not just invisibility. It truly disappears completely when worn, and no one will know it’s there—you won’t even be able to tell it’s there—until you call to it.”

  “I’m going to call it to me?”

  “Either verbally or mentally.”

  The sensations Gabriel’s fingers were causing as they stroked the flesh of Lucy’s forearm were starting to make her squirm with pleasure. She pulled her arm from his grasp, gulping, taking a deep breath and then stepping back a step.

  “So, does it have a name?”

  “As long as you wear the sheath, whatever you call it, it will appear. It will know what you mean.”

  Lucy held up her arm, turning it so she could see where it had been. She smiled. “Mr. Winkie, come to me.” Immediately she felt it, but she still couldn’t see it. She shot Gabriel with a questioning look, her hand finding the still invisible sheath.

  “Until you withdraw the weapon, it will only be detectable to you.”

  She grasped the handle of the blade and pulled it out. Instantly it flashed back to its shiny, menacingly sharp prior form. And the sheath was now visible too. She held the blade in her hand, and even though she didn’t know how to use it, it really did feel like it was made for her.

  “Wicked,” she said, catching her reflection in the polished silver. “I usually never wear silver—white gold and platinum are more my style—but this is… gorgeous.”

  “I’ll teach you how to use it later. But you could still do some damage with it.” Gabriel’s face fell a little, and Lucy could tell he was torn for some reason. And then she realized he’d just given her something that could kill his girlfriend.

  It made everything more complicated, and way too serious. Lucy slid the blade back into the sheath, and the moment her fingers lost contact the sheath and knife evaporated again in a shimmer, and with a tiny tingle.

  Gabriel was looking at her arm, and she could tell he wanted to reach out and touch her again. She wanted him to, god, did she want him to touch her again, but she was afraid they wouldn’t be able to stop touching each other if he did. And she was still feeling a little too much like the entrée… or maybe the dessert.

  Gabriel looked like he was trying to mentally shake a thought out of his head, and when he looked up into Lucy’s eyes again he looked more in control—cool, calm, not remotely ready to devour her. “I should go.”

  Lucy nodded agreement and watched as Gabriel slowly moved away from her, his gaze staying with her until he descended the porch steps and began walking toward the street. Suddenly he stopped and looked back up at Lucy.

  “Nice T-shirt, by the way.”

  Lucy looked down at the Team Edward shirt she’d worn out of spite and cringed.

  Crap!

  Gabriel turned and headed out to the street. A moment later his pretty midnight blue Jaguar roared to life and sped down the road and out of sight.

  Lucy let out the breath she hadn’t know she was holding, and felt her body relax. She was relieved he had left, but she was disappointed too. She brought her hand to her face, feeling the heat where she’d been blushing non-stop for the last hour or so, and let her finger play across her lips—where his lips had been. She walked slowly into the house. No, my life isn’t complicated at all.