Annie Nicholas: The Omegas

She hated talking relationships with Eric. He knew her too well and thought she guarded her heart too much . She could never just give it away, especially after last night. She started wondering if she truly knew anyone in her life.

She could fall in love with Daedalus easily, but she wanted him to be human. Tears swelled in her eyes.

“He’s a good guy, as vampires go. I don’t think he’d lead you astray.”

Like she predicted, Eric defended the guy. “Why?”

“’Cause he doesn’t have to. He’s got all the time in the world.” He sighed. “He could have moved out last night, Sugar. Our contract is complete. Instead he’s resting in my cramped, crappy apartment. He didn’t say much, except he scared you. That’s got to mean something.” He sipped his hot coffee.

“We don’t fit. It was supposed to be a fling. He turned it into more and expects me to…” She found herself at a loss for words.

“Accept him for what he is?”

She nodded and stared at her mug, fighting the tears.

“You have a chance at a relationship, even if it lasts a day, a month, or a year. Who cares? It’s better to have experienced happiness in life, even with a vampire, than through those stupid romance books.”

She wiped her eyes and smacked his arm lightly, it spilled some of his hot coffee from his mug onto his hand. “I didn’t buy those books, Casanova. Now I feel worse, thanks.”

He shook his fingers and splattered coffee in her direction. “Payback’s a bitch.” He grinned at her.

Sugar placed a fuzzy, pink throw blanket over Eric’s sleeping form. He’d curled up on one of the love seats after she filled him with scrambled eggs and bacon. Then he asked her to read him to sleep.

They’d done this before. Initially after he’d been turned into a Were, he hated to sleep. The nightmares stalked him until she found him secluded in his apartment half-crazed. She shuddered at the memory. This reading ritual began then. The sound of her voice soothed him, and the stories distracted his tortured soul. They did this for months until he met Robert and founded the Omegas.

Sugar closed the book sitting on her lap. Everyone assumed she was the romance junkie, but the books all belonged to him.

The Omegas probably still slept and Daedalus, well, he became unconscious or something with the daylight. She couldn’t help the shiver which ran down her spine at the thought.

Her arm throbbed in time with her heartbeat as the muscles in her back knotted like pretzels. A hot bubble bath sounded like nirvana. The world would hold itself together while she soaked and reflected on her own troubles.

She filled the tub with near scalding water until the bubbles threatened to overflow, then eased in, enjoying every heated moment. The suds engulfed her, allowing enough space to breathe. She struggled to clear her mind of the lust, unease, discomfort, and happiness thoughts of Daedalus created. The last wistful one being, I wish he was human.

The small pops of bubbles hummed in her ears, mesmerizing her, and brought her to a languid meditative state. A thump in the next room startled her. Eric had probably rolled off the love seat and fell on the floor. She concentrated on thinking of nothing once more. Even though under water, she distinctly heard a yell. She pulled herself out and threw on a robe.

When she reached her living room, chaos was underway. Two men grappled with Eric on her rugs. She stared at the unbelievable scene, shock freezing her to the spot until one of the men noticed her. His eyes glowed with an inner amber light. Not men, Weres.

He jumped for her, but Eric grabbed his ankle and pulled him away. “Get the Omegas!” Eric’s voice cracked at her like a whip. She raced through the kitchen, out the apartment door, only to get tugged back in.

One of the Weres held the back of her robe and dragged her through to the kitchen. Eric knocked his Were off, strode across the room, and kicked her attacker in the knee. It sent him howling to the floor. Unfortunately the Were pulled her robe with him.

She ran out of the apartment and down the hall to Daedalus, in her birthday suit. With the racket in her apartment, the Omegas should have come to check it out by now. Except their door looked busted in.

She peeked around the corner. The chaos in her apartment couldn’t compete with the havoc in this one. Tyler and a stranger were the only ones in the room still in human form. They fought one another on the far side of the kitchen. Beasts struggled against each other within the tight confines of the kitchen and hallway leading to the bedrooms. The clash of cutlery with dishes as they shattered on the kitchen floor made her cringe.

Daedalus’s closed, shiny, black coffin lay on the floor by the outside wall.

Sugar spotted a portable phone on the floor between her and the coffin. They needed help, she hoped the police could handle this. She crawled toward the phone, staying close to the floor to avoid attention.

One of the Weres approached Daedalus’s coffin. She gasped when she saw he held a stake and mallet.

Katrina’s high-pitched scream from the bedrooms made Sugar twist away. She saw Tyler snap his assailant’s neck and leap over the others blocking the hallway to reach the bedrooms where Katrina fought.

The sound of hammering drew Sugar’s attention back to the coffin. The beast banged on the stake, driving it through her sexy, sweet love. His screech froze her blood. It must have done the same to his attacker since he paused in his assault.

Daedalus needed her. Without thinking, she threw the portable phone with all her strength at the beast. It bounced off the back of his head and he stumbled forward, close enough for Daedalus to knock him out with a punch.

The Were’s leg wobbled like licorice before he toppled over.

She hurried to Daedalus’s side, her breaths coming in short gasps. Please, let him be all right. She’d never told him how she felt about him, the paranormal, or their future. Now that creature had taken away her chance to tell him. She knelt by the coffin. A boulder dropped in her stomach.

Daedalus looked at her with wide, unfocused eyes. They were dilated to black bottomless pits. The stake still protruded out of his chest. As he attempted to sit, a small stain of blood appeared on his pale blue t-shirt around the wound. He lay back down, closed his eyes, and his body went limp.

She wanted to pull the stake out but didn’t know if she should. She didn’t know what vampires did when they died. Maybe his reaction was a reflex of some sort. She checked for a pulse at the base of his neck. Stupid, he never had a pulse!

A crash behind her made her duck. When she turned she saw Katrina’s limp body tumble to the floor, leaving a small dent in the wall. Someone had thrown her across the room.

Hands clasped to her mouth, Sugar watched her world fall apart. All she could hear was her blood rushing past her ears like a freight train. She struggled for breath around a sob that racked her chest. Trembling, she crawled to Katrina’s listless body. Weres heal fast. She kept repeating this to herself like a mantra over and over in her head. This kept her urge to scream under control. If she started, she’d never stop.

A huge werewolf stomped through the Omegas’ apartment door from the hallway. It paused to contemplate them, then examined the coffin before it leaped onto the remaining beasts wrestling in the hallway.

Sugar rolled Katrina over and checked her breathing. Her chest rose in a strong, steady rhythm. Sugar sobbed again, this time in relief. Her friend’s right eye swelled and her lip bled. Those were the only visible injuries.