The Werevamp Diaries: Moon Beam Dream (The Lynlee Lincoln Series Book 5) Page 2

  “Deal!”

  Chapter 2

  “Why don’t you take all day?” Lynlee barely had the entire complaint out of her mouth before Rhiannon walked into the bedroom. She found her friend in bed with the blankets all askew. Her shirt was pulled up to reveal the thick gauze wrapped tight around her midsection, and she was trying to scratch at a spot on her back.

  “I could just leave, you know.”

  Lynlee pulled her black brows into a fierce frown, then her expression eased, and there was just a bit of pleading in her eyes. “I’m going to go completely crazy if you don’t get me out of this thing. Seriously, I can’t do this anymore. I need this crap off me, and I need to get out of this damned bed.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” Rhia nodded, then plopped her bag into the bed and rummaged around inside until she found her shears, a stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff. She tested her friend’s vitals first, then moved into the bathroom and thoroughly washed her hands. With a roll of her wrist, she indicated for Lynlee to lie back as she leaned down to get to work.

  Carefully she snipped through the bandages and then slowly pulled the gauze away from the wound. Rhia studied the injury carefully, noting the color of the skin around it and feeling it to be sure the edges had knitted together.

  “Well?” Lynlee asked, and she almost laughed at her friend’s gasping tone of worry. She figured she’d been holding her breath in anticipation as Rhiannon checked her out.

  “Well, I think we can go for it.” She searched out a pair of staple removers. Beginning at the area closest to Lynlee’s chest, she carefully cut the first staple in half and then worked both ends out of the skin. It took a long while to make her way through all of them. She cleaned up the healing wound a bit, then took a deep breath and motioned her friend to roll over.

  Before slashing her stomach wide open, the demon blade had first impaled Lynlee straight through the gut and out her back, barely missing her spine. The wound on the backside was shorter, but just as ragged as the other. While her witchy friend drummed her fingers on the bed, Rhiannon proceeded to remove each staple.

  “All done,” she said, then dropped her tools into a small baggie to keep them separate from her clean ones. While Lynlee rolled to sit on the edge of the bed with her legs dangling over the side, Rhiannon walked back a few paces until her rear was leaning against the chest of drawers.

  “So give me a report. How are you feeling?” Lynlee raised her eyes with a frown and opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Rhia added, “And fine is not the answer I’m looking for.”

  “You have a shitty bedside manner.”

  Rhiannon didn’t say anything else, just stared her down and waited. Lynlee closed her eyes and took a few long, slow breaths, then she grabbed a house coat from beside the bed and slipped her arms into it. The exertion of just moving her body around seemed to have sapped any energy she might have stored up.

  But when she opened her eyes again and looked at Rhiannon, it wasn’t with worry or even defeat. It was determination and a good bit of angry frustration. And Rhia thought that was probably what would make the difference in her continuing recovery.

  “I’m not fine, as you can see. I’m weak as a damned kitten, and it pisses me off. And Beck is all rainbows and unicorns and crap because I’m alive, and I’m thinking that if I have to live like this it’s not really all that cool with me. So your turn. How am I doing and when can I get the hell out of this bed?”

  Rhiannon bit her lip and tried to stifle a laugh, but the effort was no use. She tossed her head back and chuckled. “You’re better each time I come, Lynlee. I know it feels like this recovery is moving at the speed of molasses, but you were dead. It’s gonna take some time for your body to get over that.”

  Lynlee nodded, tying the housecoat at the waist then shuffling her feet as she moved to the bathroom. When she came out a few minutes later, she looked a little calmer.

  “Smells like your man’s cooked up a feast in there. Let’s get out of this stuffy sick room and go eat.”

  Her friend’s eyes really brightened with that suggestion, but first Rhiannon grabbed her arm and held her to stop her from leaving the room. “But seriously, girlfriend, you have got to start being nice to that guy. He’s hot as hell, and he can cook. I have a weakness for both, so unless you want me to move in on him, stop being a bitch.”

  Lynlee narrowed her eyes then raised one eyebrow. “Be careful. I have spells that will make you sorry you ever said that.”

  They looked hard at each other a moment, then both of their mouths opened and their laughter mingled and bounced off the walls. After forcing her BFF into a hug, Rhiannon called out down the hall, “Did you hear that, Beck? I get pancakes and bacon, so I hope you made plenty!”

  Chapter 3

  “I’m late,” Rhiannon grumbled under her breath as she stuffed her medical tools into her bag and waited to be transported back to her apartment. Basil, a wizard with a terrible case of halitosis, was giving his charge a lecture about the ills of overeating.

  And overeating for a vampire could be dangerous not only for the human who was being fed upon, but also the bloodsucker. In this particular case, it was worse for the latter. Tiffany was a young vampire, and that might account for her mistake in choosing a guy who worked in a silver refining plant as her host of choice. Even though the amount of silver in his blood wasn’t anywhere near the danger point for him, it certainly wasn’t healthy for Tiffany, particularly since she had a penchant for overindulging.

  “Feeling better?” Rhia asked, approaching the two of them. Tiffany had her hand over her face, probably to shield herself from Basil’s awful breath.

  “Yes, I’m okay. Just don’t make me drink any more of that stuff, okay?”

  She laughed and patted the girl on the back. “Don’t worry. I think you got most of it out of your system. No need to make you puke your guts up anymore.”

  Basil sniffed. “Yes, no need for more of that.”

  It was true that the sign of coagulated blood vomit was pretty distasteful, so she couldn’t blame him for looking a little green at the suggestion. “So, I need to get going. Can you spell me, Basil?”

  The man reached into his pocket and withdrew a wadded up black cloth, throwing it onto the floor where it landed in the form of a perfect circle. Rhiannon grabbed her bag to her chest, took a few steps and leaped onto the cloth. She immediately fell through the circle and landed smoothly in her own apartment.

  With a big smile she tossed her bag onto the couch. “Home sweet home.”

  The grin fell away from her when she heard the sound of crying coming from her bedroom. The hair on the back of her neck rolled to standing, and Rhiannon quietly removed her jacket as she stalked in the direction of the sound.

  “Shhh...” A woman’s voice cooed, and she thought that she recognized her but couldn’t quite recall.

  Palm flat to the cracked door of her bedroom, she pushed it open to peek inside.

  “Rhetta?”

  Her sister turned with a start, brown eyes wide in alarm. She had a baby boy of about six months old in her arms, and he was wailing as if he were starving. “Finally. I didn’t think you were ever going to get home.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  Rhetta’s lower lip trembled as she bounced the screeching baby up and down to try to quiet him. “I’m here because I’m in trouble. We’re in trouble. You’re the only place I could think to turn.”

  Instinct took over, and Rhiannon reached out her arms to take the baby from her sister, who seemed to be on the edge of some emotional precipice. As she rocked and spoke to him in a soft tone, the youngster hiccupped a few times and then settled down, laying his head on her shoulder.

  “Go in the other room and sit down, Rhetta. You’re making this kid a nervous wreck,” she said, moving towards the bathroom where she kept her oils. She mixed up some lavender and water for diffusing. The soothing scent began to pervade the room, and within a
few minutes, the exhausted baby was dead weight in her arms. Placing him carefully in her bed, she propped some pillows to keep him from rolling off, then she tiptoed into the living area where her sister was pacing.

  “Is he yours?”

  Rhetta appeared alarmed, as much by the question as by her sister sneaking up behind her. She raked a hand through her long brown mane and nodded her head.

  Rhiannon took a deep breath and looked up to check the time on the wall clock. Sandy would probably arrive in about fifteen minutes. She dug her cell phone from her pocket and tapped out a quick message warning him about her unexpected visitor, then plopped down onto the couch. Rhetta followed suit and sat down opposite her on the loveseat.

  “So why aren’t you with the pack? That’s probably part of the little guy’s problem. He needs the comfort of his fellow wolves. And I didn’t even know you’d taken a mate.”

  Not that she would have been invited to the ceremony or anything. Since she’d chosen to abandon the pack to become a doctor and a veterinarian, her fellow wolves didn’t have much use for her. Of course, even when she’d been among them, they weren’t really keen on her. She was a freak from the moment she’d become a werewolf/vampire hybrid.

  “I don’t,” Rhetta said, curling her legs up under her and looking pitiful. “Have a mate, that is. I joined another pack last year.”

  That wasn’t all that unusual. Werewolves sometimes switched packs, especially when searching for the best mate. Her father’s pack had always been a small one, so it wasn’t surprising that her sister would look elsewhere.

  But females without mates didn’t have children. So that was definitely not the norm.

  “You might as well spit out the entire story. I have a boyfriend who will be here in about ten minutes.”

  Rhetta’s eyes widened, and twinge of annoyance rattled up Rhiannon’s spine. Why was the fact that she had a boyfriend so surprising? With a slow inhale, she gritted her teeth and waited for her sister to speak.

  “His father... he already has a mate. My baby’s illegitimate,” the other woman murmured in a soft voice.

  “Oh, Rhetta. What were you thinking?”

  Shaking her head in panicked jerks, Rhetta dropped to her knees and crawled over to her. “Please, we just need a place to stay for a few days. I promise we won’t be a bother.”

  “Let’s just get one thing straight, sis. I don’t hold with the pack rules, and we’re not going to refer to my nephew as illegitimate. I assume he has a name, right?”

  “Remington. I call him Remy.”

  Rhiannon smiled, then glanced over her shoulder when the doorbell rang. “Remy, I like that.”

  She was surprised to see Sandy on the other side of the door since he usually just dropped directly into the room. “I didn’t want to pop in since you had company,” he explained.

  “You’re a sweetheart.” She leaned in and gave him a little kiss, then grabbed the five boxes of pizza from his hand and jaunted off towards the kitchen.

  “Sandy, this is my sister, Rhetta. Rhetta, this is my man Sandy. Now let’s eat! I’m starving.”

  “Me too,” Rhetta announced, standing up quickly and following her older sister.

  “Hmmm,” Sandy frowned. “Five pizzas might not be enough for one sandman and two werewolves.”

  Chapter 4

  The pizza was all but obliterated by the time Remy woke up. Rhiannon still thought his cries sounded like a child who was hungry, but she bit her tongue when her sister brushed off that remark and instead sequestered herself in the bedroom with the baby.

  Sandy leaned back in his chair and gave her a cock-eyed look. “What’s going on here?”

  Rhia blew him a kiss then picked up their three plates and carried them to the sink. “She says the babydaddy has a mate. Which is a huge no-no in packs. They won’t want a boy were raised away from his father, so I imagine the pack wants the child to live with him and his mate. In other words, Rhetta’s at risk of losing custody of her baby.”

  Scoffing, he stacked up the empty pizza boxes. “That seems harsh. A baby needs its mother.”

  Rhiannon inclined her head in agreement, but her brows were pulled together in a severe frown as she stared down the hallway where her sister had disappeared. “There’s something else going on here.”

  “There is?”

  “Yeah, I have a gut feeling. She’s not telling me the whole story. She was always like that. You know, I remember one time for Christmas she wanted the dolly I got, and so she switched the presents under the tree. I could tell she’d done something, but it was weeks before she finally ‘fessed up.” Rhia offered him a big grin. “but she always ‘fesses up.”

  Sandy stood and stepped in behind her, wrapping his arms about her waist and squeezing. “Well in the meantime, I hope she isn’t putting you in any kind of danger.”

  “Pfft.” Rhia shook her head. “Danger? Don’t you know by now I can take care of myself?”

  “So sue me for worrying. I happen to care about you.” As if to prove those words, he rubbed his hips against her backside and nibbled her earlobe.

  “Damn her,” she hissed. “I was really looking forward to enjoying every inch of your body for dessert, too.”

  He chuckled against her neck. “I was looking forward to doing the same with your body. But tomorrow’s another day. Best get her and the baby settled. If things are calm, I’ll plan to stay tomorrow night. Deal?”

  With an abject sigh, she agreed. Sandy twisted her around in his arms and pressed his mouth to hers. She opened her lips and delved her tongue inside, teasing his in quick jabs and sweeps until he groaned and grabbed her backside with both hands. “Good night, Sandy.”

  He lifted one foot and took a step back. “Good night, sweetheart.” His body transformed into sand from top to bottom until it disappeared entirely.

  “He’s a sandman?” Rhetta asked, standing in the doorway with a much calmer Remy in her arms.

  Rhiannon put a smile on her face and reached her arms out to the baby. His crystal blue eyes stared into her in a way that made her feel funny, but after just a moment’s hesitation, he slapped his hands at the air and reached for her. His grin was all gooey with drool, but she didn’t mind as she cuddled him close and enjoyed his baby-scent.

  She could feel Rhetta’s eyes on her as she crossed to the living area and sat down on the couch, setting Remy in her lap facing her. She had his hands in hers, his tiny fingers clutching her thumbs while she softly gabbed to him in baby talk.

  “You’d make a good mom, Rhia.”

  She just shrugged, smacking a kiss to the baby’s forehead and making him shriek in glee. “Probably. But it just wasn’t in the cards.”

  After her vampire transformation, she’d known she likely wouldn’t be able to have kids. Later, when she’d started studying medicine, she’d run tests just to be sure. The change had ruined her chances to conceive. Sure, she’d lamented that for a while, but the truth was it was just as well. In the rare instances when paranormal species mixed, the offspring many times didn’t survive. That would be more than she could handle. And suppose the child did live? She couldn’t in good conscience create a hybrid even if it were possible for her to have a baby. They were the outcasts of the paranormal world. Who would stick a kid with that sort of stigma?

  “You know the pack will look for you here, right? I mean, just because I’m not a part of them doesn’t mean they can’t find me.”

  “I know.” Rhetta dropped her head. “Like I said, we’ll only stay a few days.”

  “Then what?”

  “Don’t worry, I have a plan.”

  Rhia stared hard at her sister, conveying loud and clearly how worried she was. Remy gurgled bubbles of spit from his adorable lips and leaned forward, bumping his head into her chin.

  “You are a handsome fellow,” she told him, applying little sucking kisses to his cheeks. “Does he nurse well? Have you started him on solids?”

  Her sister sniffed
and sat up a little taller. She was definitely hitting a nerve every time she brought up the issue of the baby’s eating habits. “Yes, a little. He’s picky.”

  “Well, Auntie Rhia will have to help you learn to appreciate one of the best parts of being a werewolf, won’t she?”

  Rhetta stood up and took the baby, kissing his chubby cheek. “We won’t kick you out of your bed. The couch will be fine.”

  “Oh no, my nephew gets the bed, which means so does his mom. Did you bring any of your stuff with you?”

  Her sister was staring hard at the baby, her expression intense with tender affection and a little sadness. She smiled a little at him as they communicated with one another in the special way that only a mother and her child could. Not taking her eyes off of the baby, she replied, “No, I didn’t have time to grab much except Remy’s things.”

  “Well c’mon, and I’ll find you something to sleep in, then I’ll be out of your hair. You and Remy can try to settle in.”

  About an hour later, Rhiannon closed the door to the bedroom, leaving Rhetta and the baby alone inside. After a quick shower, she plopped onto the couch and crossed her legs, rubbing the damp ends of her hair between her hands to dry them. When flipping through the channels and finding nothing worth watching bored her, she picked up her phone to pull up Sandy’s number.

  Miss me?

  She barely had time to lean back against the arm of the sofa and bury herself with blankets when her phone dinged a response.

  Absolutely. Was thinking of you the moment you texted me. Everything okay?

  Her insides did a belly flop while a smile split her face. Everything is good. Rhetta and Remy have the bedroom. I have the couch.

  Guess that means I probably shouldn’t sneak over with a plan for ravishing your body.

  Rhia snorted and giggled. I love it when you go all romance novel on me.

  She tossed the phone down to wait for a response, mentally taking stock of what sort of snacks she had in the pantry when her belly rumbled. Gasping in surprise, she grabbed the phone when its ring filled the house. She swiped it quickly then brought to her ear to answer. “Silly! Why are you calling? You probably woke the baby.”