Kelly Lucille - Keeping Her

“This is the new home of the lovely and sexy Clytie Jones and a few others that are unimportant. How can I help you?” Through the phone, Demon heard a laugh in the background that gave him an immediate hard on. He clenched his teeth.

“Eli.” Demon growled in warning. “Don’t get too comfortable with my woman.”

“Perish the thought.” He said into the phone and then to Clytie. “Darlin’ that is one sexy dress. You are a goddess in red.”

Demon was surprised he didn’t break teeth clenching his jaw so hard. Eli laughed at his warning growl.

“Clytie, sweets, love of my life, Demon wants to talk to you.”

There was a small fumble with the phone and then Clyties laugh was right there. A little of the tension he’d felt since leaving her side dispersed.

“Demon?” She asked her voice going soft. “Are you O.K?”

He opened his mouth but nothing wanted to come out. God he needed to touch her. She sighed out a long breath when he didn’t answer. “If it was anything but this show tonight I’d blow it off and we could wallow in each other all night.” She continued her voice a little sad. “If you don’t feel like coming tonight I understand. You can wait for me at home.”

“I’ll be there.” He said liking the way she said that. “We’ll go home together.” He would have said more but all the shifters on both sides were listening. “Just stick close to Eli until we get there...” His voice took on an edge. “But not too close, at least three feet away at all times.” She laughed, the sadness left behind as easy as that.

“You do know you’re ridiculous right? Eli has been nothing but a gentleman.”

A gentleman? Eli? Fuck. Tricky damn cat was up to something. He tried any moves on Clytie and he’d be searching for his spleen. “Baby, put Eli back on the phone.”

There was a short silence. “Why do I worry when you get that sweet tone in your voice?” Eli started laughing like an Ass in the background.

“I just need to talk business for a minute.” He said in his most persuasive voice. “Put Eli on and I’ll see you at the opening.”

“Business?” She said clearly suspicious. “Fine. But if you feel the need to once again threaten him with mutilation if he touches me, I’m going to be very upset.” Before he could say anything to that insight, she handed the phone to Eli.

Eli didn’t say anything for a few seconds then his voice lost the playful edge. “O.K. she’s out of the room. What’s up?”

He huffed out in annoyance reminded Eli was a damn loyal friend. He wouldn’t poach. He released the clamp on his jaw. “Clancy and some of the high wolves were missing at the ceremony.”

“You think they were expecting you and set a trap?”

“Which they haven’t sprung yet.”

Eli thought that through. “You think they know about Clytie? This fast? They’d have to be watching awful close and I have a hard time believing they could do that without any of you spotting them.”

“Probably not but if they are planning an ambush I don’t want Clytie caught in it, even by accident.”

“Not on my watch. I’ll let Logan know to be especially vigilant. He did want me to ask you a question when you called.” Eli’s voice changed to a smirking playfulness that Demon didn’t trust.

“What?”

“How the Hell did you, of all people, manage to land an angel like Clytie? My theory is psycedelic drugs but Logan thinks a blind fold was involved.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Demon hung up while Eli was still laughing.

No matter how many times Clytie told herself worrying would serve no purpose, she still felt like a symphony of moths performed in her belly. She had picked out her outfit a week ago, and she still managed to agonize over the choice. She went with an evening dress in siren red that fluttered directly above her knees. The rounded neck showed a small amount of cleavage Eli and Logan both approved of in heated glances and exaggerated compliments. Her heels were also red and high with straps crisscrossing over her feet. They made her wonder what Demon would do when he saw them. With her wrap around her shoulders to keep her warm she wished fervently for Demons distracting presence, then felt selfish. His mother had recently died. That trumped the girlfriends’ art show any day of the week.

“Och Darlin’” Eli said in an exaggerated Scotch accent as he helped her into the limo. “You make the moon jealous.”

It made Clytie smile despite her nerves. Logan took the drivers seat and winked at her through the rearview mirror.

“A limo? I don’t think I’ve ever been in one before.” She said as they left the compound behind and headed for the front gates.

“Only the best for you, darlin’.” Eli said his accent heading south. “You being a big ar-teest and all.”

One minute Clytie was laughing and the next a loud explosion rocked the car. The sound of crunching metal and splintered glass was overwhelming as the car veered off the road. The metal roof ripped as if the car was a giant can someone was peeling open around them. By the time the limo came to a screeching halt folded against a tree Clytie knew she was going to suffer bruises where her seatbelt dug in.

Eli was suddenly there snapping off the seatbelt as if it consisted of paper and kicking the door into origami until he made enough space to drag her out with him.

“Are you hurt?”

“I... don’t think so.” Clytie searched for Logan, happy to see that despite a gash across his forehead, he was unharmed.

Looking at the twisted carcass of what had been a stretch limo, she was amazed they all walked away from it. Especially Logan, since the front took the most damage.

“What do you think?” Eli asked it in a hard voice Clytie had never heard before. He pulled out a gun to match the one that appeared in Logan’s hand.

“Half a dozen Wolves, probably armed if the rocket that took out the car is any hint.”

“Wolves?” She asked, “How can wolves be armed?”

Eli and Logan moved so fast they were pushing her down against the rear wheel before she could glimpse what came charging out of the dark. The guns were loud in the night, dropping two shapes mid leap. Then it all jumbled into a nightmare as a half dozen wolves attacked. Clytie screamed, sure she would witness the men shredded by wild animals. Instead, one minute Eli was ripping off his clothes and the next he was a great jungle cat. Logan changed into a black wolf. Clytie blinked, doubting her eyesight, but the animals still fought two feet away. If she had anywhere to go she’d run screaming, instead she tried to make herself as small possible against the rear tire.

Eli and Logan were werewolves or shape shifters or whatever they called themselves and they were fighting other shifters to protect her. Once she made that jump, it wasn’t so far to the realization that she had just moved in with three more of them. That she had fallen in love with one. It was hard to wrap her brain around, but many things about Demon now made sense. The growling, the sniffing, she placed her hand over the mark on her shoulder, the biting. So intent on her brain numbing thoughts Clytie missed the shifter coming over the car until he landed on her.

When Logan in wolf form finally looked around, he was bloody and bruised but still standing. He saw Eli’s jaguar form in the same abused shape, and all the attacking wolves that could still walk had long since run off. He shifted back to two legs and watched Eli do the same. They turned to get Clytie, wondering what the hell they were going to say. But Clytie was gone and from the marks on the ground, she had not walked away on her own two feet. He shifted back to his wolf needing the superior senses. He caught Clyties scent and with a bark at Eli headed into the forest surrounding the compound.