"Or rendered me brain damaged."

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" She shoved the pistol against his chest and stomped away. "Don't ever do that to me again. You know I love the werewolf!"

"Yes, but you were frightened of it just now."

"Because I've never seen it during the day. I didn't know you could change like that. I thought it was only during the full moon."

"Surprised?"

She rounded on him, but the boldness of him standing there, bleeding and naked and strangely apologetic, messed with her need to remain angry.

"Come look, Bella. Please, it's fine."

She'd done it. She'd fired a weapon at another being. And if she could fire it at someone she loved, then she could sure as h.e.l.l fire it at some b.i.t.c.h of a vampire who wanted her dead.

The creep had done this for her own good, and d.a.m.n it, she was thankful for it.

"Let me see." She stalked up to her lover, but by the time she touched his shoulder, the wound had already closed. She wiped away a streak of blood. "That's cool."

"I promise that'll be the only time I ask you to hurt me."

"Did it hurt?"

"Course it did." He kissed her. "About as much as this might hurt you."

He pinched her nipple and she jumped, slapping at him playfully. "Stop it, or I'll try the throwing stars on you next." He caught her and swung her over one arm, dipping her into a dramatic kiss that would have made a silver-screen rogue jealous.

"You make it so difficult to be serious sometimes, sweet. I like that about you. You allow me to remember what it's like to just be."

"Have you ever laughed for the heck of it?"

"Yes, many times."

"With Aby." He nodded, and she decided that someday she was going to have to meet that enigma of a woman. "Okay, what's next, naked werewolf dude?"

"Another kiss right-" he tugged up her s.h.i.+rt and bent to her stomach "-here."

And with more and more kisses, and the quick removal of her clothes, the weaponry lesson was postponed for a few hours.

Chapter 16.

T hey strode at Severo's quick pace through the marble hallway, checking windows and verifying security codes. Bella knew the routine, but she sensed it gave him greater peace of mind to do this than it did her. She trusted she would be safe, no matter what occurred, so long as Severo was here to protect her.

Not for a moment did she honestly believe she could wield that monster of a pistol, especially with a snarling vampire approaching.

If it came to that.

It was hard to imagine the war Severo sensed was brewing. One person had died. And while Seth was a sad loss, Bella couldn't see the matter escalating to gangs of vampires versus werewolves.

Not that she'd seen other werewolves. Severo was a loner who had left his pack years earlier. He'd said the packs were slimming down and seeking shelter in the northern areas of Canada and Europe. The werewolves were not particularly social creatures, which didn't surprise Bella, considering what she knew of Severo.

"And the security code is four-nine-zero-eight-five-two," she repeated by rote when he looked to her.

The code increased by twelve with each door, starting with the front door, then the garage doors, the side doors, the patio door and various other exits. The windows were all on one central control, activated with a push of a b.u.t.ton in the bedroom or kitchen.

"But you said the protection wards would be the first line of defense, anyway, right? What are protection wards, anyway?"

"They're magical s.h.i.+elds, so to speak, against demons, vampires and other sorts. Designed by a witch for me when I moved in. I can't be too cautious. One never knows what those longtooth b.a.s.t.a.r.ds have up their sleeves."

"I'm hungry," she grumbled. "I think I've got it. Let's see what Heloise has cooking."

He grabbed her about the wrist with his usual forceful squeeze, but a second later he let up. "Bella, you're not taking this seriously."

"I shot you and you don't think I'm taking this seriously? Severo, this is a lot to take in."

"You accepted vampires and weres easily enough. Why is it so difficult to want to survive?"

"I want to survive," she said on a surprised gasp. "I love you. I want to spend more time with you. As long as I can. Forever, or for the rest of your three-hundred-some years. I don't want to die, but...Just let me handle this my way, okay?" "Yes. Sorry." Occupied with security, he wouldn't come down from the command mode for a bit.

He strode off toward the kitchen.

She followed, loving his no-nonsense gait, fierce and solid despite the slight hitch in the left leg-due to being caught in a trap. A tear pooled in her eye when she imagined her lover suffering.

It was a good reason to hold a grudge against the longtooths.

"So tell me," Bella said as Heloise motioned for them to sit and wait for the dinner she was plating, "if you're not immortal, then do you just drop dead at the big three hundred?"

Now more relaxed, he dragged her onto his lap in what had become their favorite chair to sit in and snuggle and make out. Bella pushed a thick hank of his hair over his shoulder and laid her head at his collar, where the heat of his blood brewed a delicious man scent.

"I'm guessing at the three hundred number." He skated a palm along her bare leg, inching up her skirt, but not so high that it was inappropriate in front of Heloise. "Weres can live hundreds of years. I think the oldest was around three hundred twenty-five."

"I can't imagine a life so long. It would be amazing."

"I was born in 1935. I'm still but a pup, I guess. Though there are days I feel I've lived these nine decades and died a thousand times over."

She palmed his abdomen under the brown sweater, which matched his eyes, and snuggled closer. "What's going to happen with us? I'm not getting any younger. And you certainly don't want to be dating an old woman in another five decades."

"You can't imagine how good that makes me feel when you speak of us in terms of decades, sweet. Doesn't matter how old or wrinkled you become. I'll always love you."

"Oh, please. When I'm eighty, and you're still looking like a s.e.xy thing, you can't tell me I'll appeal to you. And when I die...?"

"I will wish to go with you."

"Don't say that, Severo. Maybe we should just concentrate on the now."

"You will always have my heart, Bella. Never forget that. It is yours. You stole it from me months ago, and I shouldn't wish it back."

The clink of a plate clued them in that Heloise had served the meal. She was respectful of the two of them and left the room to tend to household ch.o.r.es.

"Smells delicious," Bella said.

"Salmon, I think."

"I mean you." She licked under his chin, where his trimmed beard was sensitive to the slick touch of her tongue. "She won't come back in now. How about a quickie before we eat?"

"And you call me insatiable." His hand drove up her thigh and cupped her derriere. "Unzip me, sweet, and hop on for a ride."

Three weeks later...as the full moon mastered the sky, the werewolf sought its mate three nights in a row. Bella had learned to wear nothing but a robe, because otherwise the visits always entailed shredded silk and sometimes tangled limbs.If she thought about what she was doing-with a werewolf-all sorts of moral and rational arguments could be conjured.

But she didn't think. She acted with her heart. She made love to Severo, and no matter what his form, at his core, he was a man who loved her and put her above all others.

She'd driven into town earlier that day and found a Realtor to sell her loft. While there, she drove by Seth's place. The small house had already been resold. She knew his parents lived in Florida, and that they had been distant the last three years. They knew her from when she and Seth had danced together in compet.i.tions in middle school. She didn't feel the need to contact them.

Let them grieve, and hopefully their son's death had been explained to them in terms they could accept, like a car accident.

Not that she expected the coroner's report would list vampire bite as the cause of death.

She wondered now if the death had been reported. The cleaners Severo had called had made efficient work of mopping up the vampires he'd slain in her loft. It was likely that Seth had been erased from this world without a trace.

That thought had reduced her to tears as she'd driven the gravel road out to Severo's mansion.

Sniffing tears and whispering a blessing for her friend, Bella strolled through the marble foyer, calling out for Severo. He usually called to her or appeared at her side to sweep her into a kiss.

"Hmm, must be outside. Heloise?"

The sun was already a glow of red on the horizon. It glinted over the white plastic covering the yard crew had placed over the pool a few weeks ago. A scatter of leaves dotted the taut tarp. They'd had a light dusting of snow a few days ago, but it had melted.

Bella opened the patio door but didn't step outside. The breeze snuck into her pores on a s.h.i.+ver. Wind rushed through the trees, tugging the branches to a rocking-chair creak.

"Maybe he's in the a.r.s.enal."

He'd been spending an inordinate amount of time in that storage room to ready the weapons then place them all over the house.

He was a one-man gang preparing for a war that Bella still didn't believe would happen.

It disturbed her, but not enough to frighten her.

Had she become complacent with him always close by to protect her? Had she forfeited the control she'd once so staunchly wielded?

"A bit," she said as her heels clicked down the hallway. "But it's worth the sacrifice."

She punched in the security code but found the a.r.s.enal dark. Walking inside, she traced her fingers over the monstrous pistol's cold metal barrel.

With a glance she took in the a.s.sorted weaponry. Wooden bullets and holy water and gold crosses. A mace, a few swords and dozens of pistols and rifles.

She wondered what weapons the vampires would use against a werewolf. Silver, surely. Probably a silver dagger to pierce the organs and poison the blood.

Another tear dropped onto her thumb and slid cleanly over the pistol's barrel. "Please let us be safe," she whispered.

Something clanked against the steel door.Bella gripped the handle of the pistol.

He strode across the hilltop that paralleled his land and plunged into the valley. Land was at a premium here in northern Minnesota, but he wouldn't give his estate up for a sweet little apartment in Paris or a penthouse in New York. He belonged to the land and didn't believe he could survive in a big city for long.

He had been born into this world the minority and was of a species forced to hide and protect itself from discovery. He accepted that. He'd learned to walk amid the shadows and keep to himself. The wilderness, freedom-and Bella-meant happiness.

And now his happiness had been threatened. If Elvira targeted Bella, that would be akin to ripping out his heart and slamming it against a wall.

He would protect his own.

Thinking about s.h.i.+fting to wolf form, he decided against it. He'd been out long enough. Bella was due from the city, and he missed her when he could not scent her nearby.

The air had changed as he'd tracked the boundaries of his property. The world was not right.

Standing upon the pinnacle that looked over his land, Severo stretched out his arms and tilted back his head. Sniffing, he took it all in.

The air touched his fingertips, cheeks and nose, imbuing his senses with a catalog of the now. Nearby a jackrabbit darted for an underground burrow thick with her younglings. Tree roots that stretched dozens of feet underground stirred minutely beneath his boots.

The acrid odor of gasoline, which he rarely sensed so far from the city, now made him turn toward the house. All was quiet. The sun had just set, so he could make out a few lights, one in the kitchen, the other illuminating the recessed window high on the bas.e.m.e.nt-laundry-room wall.

Perhaps Bella hadn't yet returned.

He clasped a hand over his heart and smiled. That he had been given this gift of love did not cease to humble him. When he'd thought he could make a go of it with Aby, he had always known that that was not the direction their relations.h.i.+p was meant to take. Still hurt like h.e.l.l.

And yet, someone new had laid a bandage over that hurt, and he'd peeled it away to find the wound almost gone. He was ready to forget what might have been and to accept what he already had.

"Love," he murmured and smirked. It was grand.

Starting down the hill, he used the incline to hasten his steps into a run. Halfway across the valley, a force hit Severo on the back of his left shoulder.

He spun. There in the shadows emerged half a dozen vampires.

She pulled the trigger and the heavy pistol kicked, forcing Bella backward against the steel counter. She grunted at the impact.

The steel edge dug into her hip.

The hulk of a vampire who filled the a.r.s.enal doorway took the wooden bullet in the heart. He clawed at it, but the bullet had penetrated deeply, as intended, and could not be drawn out. One hand ripped the front of his dark s.h.i.+rt. Clawing at his exposed, bleeding flesh, he staggered.