Chapter Thirty-One

Hunter wrapped his arms around Alice and pulled her so close she was practically sitting in his lap again, and he managed to persuade her to watch the movie with him just like that. As the minutes passed, he felt her relaxing, until she was finally laughing and throwing popcorn at the screen with Meara and Ryan. Just after the demon Zuul showed up—and, damn, but Sigourney Weaver was hot in this movie—Bane took a phone call.

Hunter leaned over to whisper in Alice’s ear. “Now I know why I like this movie so much. She has the same wild curly hair as you.”

A burbling laugh escaped before Alice clamped her hand over her mouth. When everyone stopped looking at them, she turned to whisper back to him. “Now I know why you want me. I’m fulfilling your twisted Ripley fixation. I watched all the Alien movies.”

He pretended to think about it, and she elbowed him.

Just then, Bane’s terse communication came through on the telepathic channel:

We have contact. Some of the club members found another place. This one has Chamber members hiding out. A little hole-in-the-wall apartment building. I’m heading out there now to interrogate the two warlocks our people found inside.

Edge’s voice sounded inside Hunter’s skull next:

PLEASE TELL ME IT’S NOT THE SAME TWO WE LET GO.

Bane again:

No. Those are probably halfway to Miami by now. These WE’VE never seen before. Let’s get ready to ride.

Meara spoke up from where she sprawled in a comfortable chair. “I’m staying here.”

When Ryan and Alice looked confused, Meara shot a narrow-eyed glance at Bane and then spoke to the two women. “What Bane and Hunter haven’t told you yet is that they found more Chamber thugs and are off to question them.”

Bane glared at his sister. “You didn’t give me a chance. I was planning to tell Ryan.”

Ryan gave her new fiancé a long, steady look. “Of course you were. Because you weren’t trying to protect me in spite of myself, were you? We’re never going to have a repeat episode of the locking-me-in-your-room trick, either, are we?”

Bane hesitated, but from the look on his face Hunter could tell that he would absolutely love to protect Ryan from all dangers, in spite of herself or otherwise. In fact, Hunter felt the same way about Alice.

It shouldn’t have surprised him that Alice herself was as practical as ever.

“Go,” she told him. “I don’t have any superpowers and can’t jump out of even a first-floor window, so I wouldn’t be any good in the situation. I’m sure someone here can give me a ride home.”

Meara started to say something, but Hunter pointed at her. “Not you. I’d like for Alice to have a chance of surviving the drive.”

“Party pooper.”

Downstairs, the doorbell rang, and Ryan jumped up. “Tommy and Mary Jo were getting ready to go to bed, so I’ll run down to answer that.”

“No, you won’t, or at least not alone,” Bane said. He caught her around the waist, lifted her into the air, and flew down the stairs.

“That is so cool,” Alice said, nudging Hunter, who just shook his head and moved into the hall so he could see who was coming to visit. With all the activity in town and no security camera yet, he wasn’t happy about any of them answering the door. He wasn’t entirely sure what kind of backup he could be to a master vampire and an angel, but he knew that no matter what happened, nobody was getting through him to Alice.

When they opened the door, Hunter was surprised to recognize the deep, rumbling voice.

Edge walked over to stand next to him. “Did you know that Bane invited the alpha wolf to the party?”

Hunter shook his head. “No. But if I’m not mistaken, the beta wolf has come as well.”

Alice spoke from behind him. “I’ll be happy to see Max. She’s lucky that she can heal so quickly from such a dangerous injury.”

When he turned and saw the expression on her face, Hunter instantly wanted to murder whoever had harmed her in the past. But he didn’t say that. Instead, he answered the question she’d meant to ask, not the one hidden behind the surface of her words.

“Vampires have pretty wild healing properties as well. It’s the main reason I survived being burned nearly to death. The Turn healed me.”

Alice reached up and touched his face. “Be careful. Do you hear me? I don’t want to lose you after I just found you.”

He found himself humbled by her openness and sincerity. He owed it to her to give her back the same. “I don’t want to lose you, either. I’ll be back. No worries on that score. And I won’t be gone long, either.”

“Well, if that’s the case, we’re going to have a double feature,” Ryan said, linking her arm through Alice’s and heading back toward the movie screen, where Meara was now declaring that the Ghostbusters should have fed the mayor to the ghosts.

She wasn’t wrong.

Hunter caught up to Alice, swung her around, and pressed a hard, fast kiss to her mouth. “To remember me,” he said.

Alice touched her fingers to her lips, smiling. “What was your name again?”

He laughed, dropped a kiss on the top of her head, and followed Edge down the stairs toward Carter Reynolds and Max, who were talking to Bane and Ryan.

“I’ve asked Max to stay and watch over the women,” Reynolds said.

Hunter looked at Max to see how she felt about that, but before she could indicate her feelings one way or the other, Ryan smiled that special smile of hers—the one that seemed to be full of teeth. The smile she used with what he thought of as her “Death by Angel” voice, the one that had so much sweetness piled on it she could probably kill the listener with sugar poisoning.

“To watch over the women?”

Reynolds backtracked immediately, mumbling something, but Hunter could see he was out of his depth. An alpha wolf told the people beneath him—and everyone in the pack was beneath him—what to do, when to do it, and even how to do it. It had probably never occurred to him that human women and angel kin would not react the same way.

“Um—”

“I’m perfectly capable of watching over myself, and Meara is, too. If there’s anybody who needs watching, we can handle it,” Ryan said, her eyes narrowing.

Bane said nothing, letting the werewolf dig himself out of the hole he’d put himself in.

Max, though, reluctantly weighed in. “With all due respect, alpha, I deserve to come with you. I’m the one who got shot yesterday, after all.”

“That was about some petty side mission the warlock had taken on. Not about the Chamber. Tonight is about the Chamber, and I want you to stay here and”—he glanced at Ryan—“um—”

Ryan raised an eyebrow.

“Assist the women while they look after themselves,” Reynolds finished triumphantly.

Pathetic.

“Fine,” Max said, not even attempting to hide her fury. “I’ll stay here and watch rom-coms with the little ladies.”

“We’re actually watching Ghostbusters. Alice keeps telling us what the movie is getting wrong,” Ryan confided.

At that, Max looked a fraction less disgruntled but certainly not completely satisfied. Luckily for Hunter, the werewolf hierarchy was none of his business.

“Let’s go get them.” Bane’s gaze snapped to him. “Hunter, are you sure you want to be involved in this? We know who you are, and it’s someone who saves lives, not someone who threatens them. If you want to bow out of this particular job, no one will hold that against you.”

Hunter stood his ground. “Not a chance. When they came after Alice, they came after me.”

“So soon?” It was Edge’s turn to look disgusted. “You just met her! Is every man in this house turning into a lovesick fool?”

“Watch it, Edgington,” Bane snapped, but then he gave the scientist a considering look and started to laugh. “From the way you’ve been acting around my sister, I have a feeling you’re going to be singing a different tune very soon.”

Edge opened his mouth and then clamped it shut, a dizzying mix of emotions crossing his face.

Max, now reluctantly following Ryan up the stairs, snorted.

“I thought we were coming over to meet with the head of the Vampire Motorcycle Club,” she said. “Apparently we’ve ended up at a taping of The Real Housewives of Savannah instead.”

Hunter started laughing.

She had a point.

With that, he, Bane, Edge, and Reynolds headed out the door to the Harleys. They all knew a good exit line when they heard one.

…

When Ryan walked back into the movie room, or ballroom, or whatever else they’d decided to call a room the size of a basketball court, Alice was surprised to see Max stomping into the room behind her. The werewolf beta seemed to be in perfect health, and she looked badass in her jeans, boots, and leather jacket with a red shirt beneath. You would for sure never have guessed that she’d been shot in the neck so short a time before. Her face, though, was set in angry lines.

“Hey, Max. How are you doing tonight?”

Max glanced up and nodded at Meara before returning Alice’s hello.

“I’m perfectly fine, except for the fact that my overprotective alpha keeps trying to keep me away from situations where I should absolutely be involved.”

Meara faked a giant yawn. “Surely not,” she said mockingly. “A man who thinks he knows better than the women around him, no matter that they’re ten times smarter than him and probably more deadly? Say it isn’t so.”

Max laughed, in spite of herself, perhaps, but then she growled with frustration. Or maybe she just growled. Alice still didn’t know that much about werewolves.

“Popcorn?” Ryan handed Max the bowl and then got her a beer.

Max thanked her but looked at the beer without much enthusiasm. “I don’t mean to be a diva or anything, but do you have anything stronger than this? Not really in a beer mood.”

Meara jumped up out of her chair. “Let’s make lemon drop martinis.”

“What’s that?” Alice was always keen to try new experiences, but a martini sounded a little bit old-fashioned and overly sophisticated for her.

“It’s delicious. It’s kind of like a vodka martini—”

“But with lemon juice and triple sec or Cointreau,” Ryan said. “They’re really delicious, but you have to be careful. When something tastes like a punchier version of lemonade, and it’s a hot night in Savannah… Well. Let’s just say that mistakes can be made.” She grinned but refused to say any more about it, even when Meara pressed her.

“That sounds like so much fun. Going out at night with your girlfriends. I’ve never done that,” Alice said wistfully.

All three of them looked at her as if she were an alien, and she started to shrink back into herself, but then she remembered that the new, stronger Alice didn’t do that anymore. “Hey, it’s not like I’ve had much opportunity. But I’m willing to try it now. Should we go out somewhere?”

Meara, busily mixing a pitcher of drinks over at an antique bar cart, shook her head.

“Normally I’m the first to suggest a night out on the town. Love to meet tourists and all that. But right now, with all the different forces in play, I think it’s better that we keep Alice and Ryan home tonight, don’t you, Max?”

“Hey, what do you mean ‘and Ryan’? Angel powers here, remember?”

Meara prowled across the room in her ridiculously graceful panther-meets-supermodel manner and handed Alice a martini glass, its rim dipped in sugar.

Alice took a cautious sip and then, delighted, a huge gulp. “It’s delicious! I think I’m going to need lots of these.”

Ryan patted the air as if to say slow down. “Hold on there, wild child. Have you had much vodka in the past?”

Alice shook her head, happily taking another drink of the delicious cocktail. “No. This is my first time. But now I know I love martinis!”

“Oh, boy.” Max accepted a cocktail from Meara and nodded her thanks while still looking at Alice. “You might want to slow down a little. One of my worst hangovers in college had to do with vodka, a football game, and a boy named Bubba, of all ridiculous things.”

Ryan’s laughter rang through the room. “Oh no. That’s impossible. I had a disastrous date with a boy named Bubba, too. It can’t possibly be the same Bubba?”

Max slanted a glance at her over the rim of her glass. “Did your Bubba go to Ohio State and play football for the Buckeyes?”

“Definitely not.”

Meara returned to the couch, carrying her own glass, and raised it in a toast. “To all the Bubbas in the world. May they find love with women whom they could never possibly deserve.”

Alice drained her glass and then giggled when a tiny burp escaped. “But what about those poor women? Then they’ll be stuck with husbands named Bubba and a bunch of little Bubbas.”

She cracked herself up. And then she decided to pour herself another drink, determined to ignore all advice about moderation. It really hadn’t been a moderation kind of week.

“Alice,” Ryan said in a friendly tone.

“I know, doc. I know. But I really don’t want to hear it—not tonight. It’s been a hell of a week, and it sounds like next week isn’t going to be any better in terms of bad guys chasing me and shooting my new friends.” She raised her glass in Max’s direction. “So if I want to have a few lemon drops tonight, when I’m not even driving, I think that’s okay.”

“Speaking of driving—”

“No! Don’t start with this SUV thing again. You people can’t just go around giving everybody luxury cars.”

Max raised her hand. “You can give me a car, Ryan. My piece-of-shit pickup truck is about to die any minute. I don’t make a lot of money as a full-time werewolf and part-time librarian.”

Ryan shrugged. “Sure. Any day now, Bane is going to give in to his worst impulses and buy me something new. That one’s all yours.”

Max punched the air. “Woot! And people said you angels were all bad news.”

Alice giggled and finished her second cocktail while still standing right there by the cart and poured herself another. Then she turned to Max in delight. “You’re a librarian? I love librarians! I’m not sure I would’ve survived, either in the Institute or in the years afterward, without libraries. No matter how bad things got, I could always escape into a book. I love the ones with castles and princesses, but I’m also a huge fan of a good, scary thriller.”

Meara smiled at her. “I’m not surprised you like books about princesses. With that hair and those eyes, you certainly look like one.”

Alice burbled out a laugh. “I don’t think you have room to talk about looking like a princess, Miss Supermodel. Just being in the same room with you is enough to give a normal woman an inferiority complex.”

“Speak for yourself, ghost girl,” Max said. “I am inferior to no one, and you’re not exactly normal. None of us are.”

Ryan jumped up and opened a large cabinet. The shelves inside held what looked like hundreds of DVDs. “Okay. What movie should we watch? Since we’re drinking lemon drops, should we watch Sex and the City?”

Meara’s smile faded, and she aimed a very direct look at Max. “I think, before we watch another movie, we should discuss the current situation with the Chamber. Max, you seem like the sensible one in the wolf pack.”

Max started to protest, but Meara waved that away. “I know, I know. Loyalty to the alpha and all that. But let’s be real here. You must realize as much as I do that continuing to go after these minions is doing us no good. The Chamber keeps sending more. We need to take the battle to them. I’m planning to go to England, track Lord Neville down, and rip his evil, blood-magic-practicing heart out.”

“Are you inviting me along?” Max narrowed her eyes in thought. “It might be difficult to arrange time off work from both of my jobs, but I think it’s doable.”

“Do you need an invitation?” Meara raised an eyebrow. “To me, you don’t seem like the type of woman who would.”

Alice, whose grasp of the situation seemed to be getting hazy—but that might have just been the lemon drops—raised her hand. “I want to go to London. I want to meet Sherlock Holmes.”

Ryan and Alice traded a glance, and Alice realized they might think she was simple. Or at least naive. “Yes, I realize that Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character. Remember what I just said about books? What I’d like to do is go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. And maybe I can talk to some English ghosts and find out the scoop on this Lord Neville for you.”

Ryan, still sorting through movies, grabbed one and held it up with a triumphant look on her face. “Well then, the movie choice is obvious.”

Alice looked woefully at her empty glass and then up at Ryan. “It is?”

“An American Werewolf in London.”

“Winner!”

They spent the next hour or so making fun of the movie and mixing more and more pitchers of cocktails. Alice had finally slowed down after she didn’t know how many drinks, but she was still ensconced in a warm haze of sparkling fog and bubbly joy.

That afternoon, she’d made love for the first time ever, and now she was having a movie night with three women who might very well become close friends. Even though people were still trying to kill her, she might actually be having the best time of her life.

Max threw popcorn at the screen and laughed. “Believe me, that is not how being a werewolf works.”

“That’s what I thought about Ghostbusters,” Alice said. “Ridiculous!”

“They should have asked you to be a consultant,” Ryan said, and all four of them thought that was pretty funny and laughed for a long time. Or maybe that was about the lemon drops, too.

“Vodka might be the devil,” Alice said or tried to say. It took a couple of tries to pronounce vodka. She blinked. “Russian words are hard.”

“Shush. We’re going to wake up Mary Jo and Tommy, and then I’ll get another lecture on behaving like a lady, not drinking too much, or that old favorite: Don’t snack on the tourists.” Meara tossed her hair back out of her face and sighed. “Honestly, it’s more than I can bear. I am more than two hundred years older than she is. As it is, we’re going to have to vacuum up all this popcorn or get Bram Stoker to eat it, or we’ll be in big trouble.” She paused the movie and tossed the remote down on the table, then looked at Max. “Okay. On to the important things. Which of the wolves are the most fuckable?”

Alice snorted lemon drop out her nose and then fell over on the couch, laughing hysterically. “I can’t believe you just said that!”

“I can’t believe you said it, either, but for a different reason,” Max said. “You’ve been around most of us, what with the battle with the necromancer and now the volleyball game. We totally won that, by the way. But I think it’s pretty obvious who the hottest wolf in the pack is. Other than me, of course.”

Ryan and Meara looked at each other and then at Max.

“Obvious to you,” Ryan said, grinning. “Don’t think we haven’t all noticed the way Carter looks at you. He’s got that hot alpha thing going on. Yummy!”

“Yeah. No. You think the oh-so-proper alpha would dare to cross the line and get involved with his beta?” Max rolled her eyes. “Absolutely not. And don’t think I haven’t tried, either, because I certainly have given it my best shot. And my best shot is pretty damn phenomenal. But nothing doing.”

Alice sat there listening to every word, her eyes wide with surprise. She’d never thought that real people might talk like this. She knew they did on TV shows, but that was made up. She’d never had actual girlfriends that she could sit around and have girl talk with.

She could feel her face heat up so much that it must be bright red, but she was fascinated.

“Clearly you’re not trying hard enough,” Meara told Max. “Because that man looks at you like he wants to lick you like an ice cream cone.”

“Meara!” Alice said in shocked delight.

“Hey, if you can’t talk about men with your girlfriends, who can you talk about them with? Annie and I dissected the relative merits of every straight man who’s ever worked at the hospital while we were there. And even some of the patients—not that we would’ve made a move on patients. It’s just what you do.” Ryan shrugged. “It’s like checking out all the desserts even though you know you’re only going to have one.”

“Or none,” Max said, slumped in a chair. “Yeah, no desserts for me. I can’t make a move on any of the wolves who are lower than me in the hierarchy, for pretty much the same reason Carter won’t get involved with me. And I haven’t met any human guys who interest me enough to take a chance that they might learn our secrets.”

“Same here, except worse,” Meara said glumly. “Imagine the same problems you have with hiding your true self, then multiply it by never being able to go on a date in the daylight. There sure as hell are not a lot of male vampires around I’d even be interested in. That’s why I asked about fuckable werewolves.”

All three of them looked at Meara when she said the thing about not being interested in male vampires. Even Alice, who’d only just met them all, knew better than that.

But only Max was brave enough to speak out. “Yeah, that’s a big lie. The sexual tension between you and that deliciously hot, young, white-haired vampire is enough to set the house on fire. Why don’t you tap that?”

“There will definitely be no tapping with Sebastian Edgington,” Meara said firmly. “His heart is probably made of chemicals and nanobots.”

“You know about nanobots, but you don’t know what Jurassic Park is?” Ryan shook her head. “Meara, you are a woman of untold depths.”

“Yeah. Like I was saying, I’d like to find someone to breach my depths,” Meara said primly. “So to speak.”

Then she fell off the chair and lay there on the floor laughing helplessly. “This vodka is strong enough to affect vampires. Did I mention that?”

“I might be floating,” Alice said, staring dreamily at the ceiling. “Can ghost whisperers levitate? Maybe I should try jumping off the roof.”

“No!” all three of them shouted.

Alice just laughed. “I was kidding about the roof. I think. And I think you should give Edgingburg Sebastianana a chance,” Alice told Meara, stumbling just a teeny bit over the name. “He might surprise you.”

“You’re cut off, little one,” Meara said. “Also, this isn’t exactly your area of expertise, is it? Most of the time, you act like an innocent little virgin.”

Alice looked up at her, surprised. “Well, of course I do. Until earlier today, I was.”