Ireally couldn’t piece this guy together. Even as he practically dragged me into another room of Joe’s office, Erastus was gentle. He wasn’t as much of an asshole as he was at Anatole’s. And when I’d assumed he would make the residents at Seymour Commons pay their own moving fees, I couldn’t forget how sad Erastus had looked, as if I had offended him and made him feel remorse for how he treated me, how he had made me view him.
Once the door shut behind us, I waited for him to turn to face me. When he did, I crossed my arms and glared at him. “Now what?”
He shrugged and motioned to the couch for me to sit. “As I said. I wish to speak with you.”
I looked at the dirty couch and then down to my favorite pair of jeans and wrinkled my nose. We were in the break room for the construction site, and everything in this room was filthy. And looking at Erastus, he didn’t look too keen about sitting on any of the furniture, either.
If there was anywhere to sit, I wasn’t sure I’d do it anyway. Erastus and I were almost the same height, and I wasn’t about to give him the power of looming over me. I wouldn’t be intimidated by this piece of shit. And even if the three couches in the room or the desk and chair weren’t covered in dirt and concrete dust, I’d still stand, still look him in the eye like I did then. I’d still defy him, even though he made my insides quake.
Erastus was a wolf. Casersis said so, himself. And, if I’d learned anything from watching all those nature shows, wolves were dangerous, even though they were a protected species, relegated to a few nature parks around the world.
But was Erastus dangerous? Or was that just animosity because of his feud with Casersis for God-only-knew-how-long?
I bit back a sigh when Erastus just stood there and stared at me. “Why are we here, Erastus? The last time we met, you called me a whore. Why would you dirty yourself by associating with me if you believe that?”
He gave me a nonchalant shrug and stuffed his hands back into his pockets. “I can smell the sex on you, Dustin. Are you telling me you are not a whore? Judging by the cleanliness of your clothes, the weight you have gained from eating a regular, healthy diet, and how you have moved out of Seymour Commons, I would say you are rather well off.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face and muttered, “At least I’m not an asshole. And my clothes were always clean when I wasn’t working, thank you very much.”
Erastus snorted and chose to ignore my last statement. “I may be an asshole, but at least I earned what I have without resorting to sex.”
I glared at him. “No, you probably pay for sex.”
“Actually, I have not had sex in over four thousand years when Casersis murdered my mate.”
The deadpan expression didn’t hide the pain in Erastus’s eyes when he said that, and for the first time, I wondered if he wasn’t so much an asshole as much as he was just jaded and against anything Casersis might call his.
Wait. Was I Casersis’s? Could I be his?
I mentally groaned at myself and the direction my thoughts had taken. Seriously? This was the worst time to be thinking about that shit.
And then I realized what he said. Four thousand years? He hadn’t gotten laid in over four millennia. What the actual fuck? I was twenty. I couldn’t fathom not getting laid at least once every couple of months. Sure, I was trying to save for college, and I went without a lot of things, but I could splurge on a night of dancing at the local gay bar to pick up a random hole for the night.
Suddenly I felt sorry for the poor bastard, and my expression must have said everything because he gave me a baleful look through narrowed eyes. “I have not had sex because I chose not to. Wolvan mate for life, Dustin.”
My eyes widened, and Erastus smirked. “You have elf ears, and you are surprised I am a wolf?”
I shrugged. “Not really. Cass already told me. I just didn’t figure you would blurt it out here, where any human could hear you.” And then it hit me, and I glared at him. “Wait. How did you know I have elf ears?”
He gave me a grin that I could only describe as wolfish. “I have my ways.”
And by “ways,” he meant Bradley, but I couldn’t call him on his bullshit without outing the poor, terrified bastard. I wanted to, though. So bad I ached with it.
I had to reroute the conversation if I wanted to keep Bradley’s secret. We still had to deal with him but couldn’t do it anytime soon as far as I knew. Casersis seemed content to wait, and I wasn’t about to fuck up his plans without discussing it with him first.
The first part of my plan was to get Erastus talking about anything other than my ears. I tugged my hood closer about my face, just to be sure my ears weren’t on display, and glowered at him. “So, what do you want to talk about?”
He lifted a sculpted brow but nodded to accept my change of subject. “I wanted to speak to you about your current situation. I already told you Casersis is a murderer, and you didn’t even bat an eyelash. Can you seriously say it is better to be with a murderer than to have your freedom?”
Casersis was a murderer? I didn’t believe that for a second. Not only did Casersis reek of gentility, but he also treated everyone with kindness, even when trying to get his way. And after how Erastus treated me when we first met, I could only imagine how good he was at spinning lies to get what he wanted.
Erastus laughed and shook his head. “He has you completely fooled. You can’t even imagine him killing an insect, can you?”
He had me there. I shook my head and clenched my fists, keeping my arms tightly crossed over my chest. “No. I really can’t, and I’m a damned good judge of character.”
“Oh, indeed you are,” Erastus said with disdain. “Of course, you are.”
I wanted to punch him. But why was I protecting Casersis? After all this time, had I grown soft? Casersis had been little more than a kind jailer. He was holding me against my will. Had kidnapped me for no reason other than the fact I was changing species and wanted me to quit my job and stay with him even after my change finished.
The wolf sighed and smirked at me. “I tell you what… leave here with me, listen to my story, and make your own judgments. I will then take you right back to your captor if that is your wish, or wherever you desire.”
I frowned. Both because I was actually considering it and because as much as I wanted to hate him, Erastus hadn’t lied to me yet, or he was very good at lying. “And my security escort?”
Erastus lifted a shoulder and looked at the door behind me. “He can follow us. We won’t try to lose him. But he must stay back far enough not to hear our conversation, but close enough to hear if you call for him.”
I let out a soft groan, hating that I even considered this. But Erastus was being reasonable. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Erastus nodded and reached beside me to open the door, letting me precede him. “After you.”
We walked out of the break room, and when we made it to Joe’s desk, Joe brightened and said, “The reports are ready, Mr. Armistead.”
“Splendid. Send them to my CommMail and enjoy the rest of your day.”
“Of course. Thank you.” He looked at me then and tilted his head. “Dustin?”
“I will be taking Dustin home,” Erastus said. “He is still very ill from his gene therapy.”
So, he’d been listening in before he came into the office. Great.
“Very well,” Joe said. “You both take care.”
And just like that, I was dismissed, and Erastus ushered me out of the building and toward his car. Don looked pale when we passed. “Dustin?”
“Follow us,” I said over my shoulder. “Everything is fine. Just don’t lose us.”
We strode across the construction yard, and I expected to see a limousine. Instead, Erastus held the door open for me himself to a stately sedan that still spoke of immaculate quality, but not the pretentiousness of Casersis’s limo. He and Casersis really were different animals. Erastus seemed more down to earth, where Casersis seemed more head-in-the-sky.
“So, where are we going?” I asked once we were in the car, and the driver pulled out of the yard.
Erastus smiled. “To the forest behind Dawn’s Lament.” He spoke quietly to the driver for a moment. The driver nodded silently to the instructions and address and headed in the direction of the estate. “We will be taking a walk while I tell you the story.”
I sighed. “You can’t just tell me the story while we ride to the estate?”
The chuckle Erastus replied with scraped across my nerves like sandpaper. Suppressing a shiver, I turned away from him and scowled at the headrest of the passenger seat in front of me, ignoring the passing views out the window because I didn’t want to get giddy that I was going back to my gilded prison.
I didn’t look away from the expensive cream-colored leather until the car stopped. And when I looked over, all I saw was green and brown. Dead, brown trees, browning green grass, and nothing around except plants and fallen leaves. I chanced a glance at Erastus, but the bastard was already exiting the car, holding the door open for me with a patient stare as if I were his student.
Shit. What had I gotten myself into? With a glance back, I relaxed. At least Don was with us. He parked a few feet behind Erastus’s sedan, and I had never been so glad to see him in my life. The moment I stepped out of the car, my feet immediately took me to Don’s side, and the poor guy looked grim.
“Are you all right, Dustin?” He patted me down as if looking for injuries.
I brushed him off with a soft laugh. “Pissed off, but unharmed. Relax.”
“I’m—”
I cut him off with a hand to his arm. “Yeah. You’re going to tail us. Erastus wants you to stay out of normal hearing range but close enough to see us and hear if I call you up. Is that okay?”
He didn’t look happy about it, but after a moment of thought, he let out his held breath and nodded. “Better than nothing. At least he doesn’t want you to ditch me, but I’m not sure this makes me feel any better.”
“I’m sure everything will be fine. Erastus just wants to do a bit of show and tell in the forest.” I scratched the back of my neck, wrinkling my nose. “If Cass calls and asks, go ahead and tell him where we are, okay?”
That seemed to be the right thing to say because Don instantly relaxed and gave me a small smile. “Good call.”
I figured. But the time for chitchat was over as Erastus came up to us and took hold of my arm in a grip that surprised me with his restraint and gentility. “You told him the rules?”
“Yeah.”
“Then let us be on our way. We wouldn’t want you to be missing when Casersis returns from his day of meetings.”
Wait. Did that mean Erastus arranged the meetings so that Casersis would be gone all day? So that I would leave the estate? So that he could follow me to my boss and drag me out here?
That shit was all too fucking surreal for me. I couldn’t follow that logic. He’d have to be psychotic and possibly psychic to go to all that trouble, and he didn’t seem the type.
Erastus stayed quiet for the most part as we trekked through the woods. The only time he spoke was to warn me of hidden roots or holes in the ground or to call back to Don about the hidden dangers, which I’m sure both confused the shit out of my bodyguard and kept him from falling on his face.
I finally got tired of the silence and glanced over to Erastus’s back as he was a few feet in front of me. “Where are we going?”
“You will see.”
“That isn’t an answer,” I muttered. “Why the secrecy?”
He shrugged and tossed me a grin over his shoulder. “Because show and tell doesn’t work if you tell before you show, now does it?”
Did I mention I really wanted to punch that bastard? I really, really did. In the face. Preferably in his perfect teeth. Maybe a few times just to be sure he got the message.
When he finally stopped, I almost ran into his back because I wasn’t prepared. I barely caught myself by pressing against Erastus’s back to regain my balance. He gave me an odd look but stepped aside and motioned to the clearing.
I groaned. “Is that a skeleton? Erastus, gross.”
“That is the skeleton of a darksire, a magic-retardant horselike creature from our homeworld. Over there,” Erastus pointed to a spot not far away marked with a large rock and some flowers, “that is the grave of my wife and pups.”
My heart fell into my stomach, which clenched around it.
Erastus stuffed his hands into his pockets and leaned back against the trunk of a tree. “I won’t give you the whole story. That is between you and Casersis. But here is where he murdered my family, and the reason I haven’t sought a lover. He tries hard to keep me off his property, but his wards are useless against darksire talismans.”
I frowned as I stared at the crude grave. “Is that why you wanted to buy Dawn’s Lament from Casersis?”
He nodded. “Partly. I wanted to be closer to them. To be free to visit their grave without destroying his wards every time I come. I also wanted to defile his safe place because he killed mine.”
The fact he didn’t even flinch when he said any of that made my skin crawl. He wouldn’t look me in the eye, wouldn’t even face me when he said any of that, so I couldn’t tell if he was lying or not. Was he making all this shit up just to get me away from Casersis? Sure, the grave and horse skeleton were real. Maybe the horse had killed his wife and kids. Maybe he just wanted to blame Casersis because an accident happened on his property, and Erastus had problems letting go.
I took a step back, and when Erastus looked at me, his normally brown eyes had turned an alarming golden color that made every tiny hair on my body stand on end.
I backed up another step. “Erastus?”
“You don’t believe me,” he growled. “I can smell it on you. Your doubt. Your fear.”
And were his teeth sharper than normal? Human teeth weren’t that sharp. Shit. Part of me wanted to call for Don. The other part wanted me to tell him to start running.
Erastus turned and advanced on me with slow, precise steps, a predator stalking his prey. “After everything that elf has done to me, the world should see your new ears to prove that Casersis is a manipulative, evil creature. To prove he isn’t the golden boy the world believes him to be. To prove that he destroys lives.”
As he advanced, I kept backing up. “But—but he—”
“You were happy being human.” And fuck, his voice sounded more like a feral snarl instead of anything human. His canines were almost too big for his mouth. “He murdered that future for you, just as he murdered my family.”
Fur started to sprout from Erastus’s skin. I quickened my backward pace, not wanting to turn my back on him, paranoid that the moment I did, he’d rip my head off.
My foot caught on something, and I went down hard. I struggled to breathe, my vision blurry. But in that blur, I saw Erastus coming for me. Heard the shredding of cloth as he tore at his worth-more-than-me suit to get it off him. My vision cleared just as I heard a desolate howl too close for comfort. My blood froze. I could barely breathe, barely move. The predator was so close, too close that I felt paralyzed.
But I wasn’t a coward. When Erastus came closer, I kicked him in the muzzle to buy myself time, rolled over, pushed up, and ran. “Don! Move! Run for the estate!”
Everything seemed to slow down as if the earth’s clock ran low on power. Behind me, I heard the steady rhythm of Erastus’s paws. It almost felt like he was toying with me. He could catch me easily, but wanted me afraid, wanted me to run.
I saw Don ahead, gun drawn. Shit. This wasn’t happening. Casersis was right to keep me hidden away. It wasn’t just for my protection, but for the protection of others, too. If they attacked me, if anyone attacked me, or came for me, they’d have to either be killed or somehow have their memories magically erased.
I had been a fucking fool.
“Dustin, dive!”
“For fuck’s sake, don’t shoot him!”
“What?” Don screeched. “You’re kidding me!”
“Don, I swear to God—SHIT!”
I went face-first onto the forest floor, skidding across moldering leaves and dying grass. My ankle hurt like hell, and suddenly I had wolf paws in the middle of my back. Erastus weighed a fucking ton.
“Can I shoot him now?”
Fuck. This wasn’t happening. No, no, no, no, no.
I closed my eyes as I heard a low, menacing growl, Erastus’s hot breath gusting over the nape of my neck and my right ear. I tensed, waiting for him to bite.
The sound of a gunshot nearly burst my eardrums.
