Could I Be A Werewolf? [BOOK 2]

Hey everyone,

As I said in my profile. I'll be posting all of my novels online because of these uncertain times. Afterall, a good book can take away a few hours of stress. So, I guess this is my contribution to helping you make it through the day.

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Now, on to the second book in the Peaches' series!

-Rosi

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Prologue: The Bane Of My Existence

"You are not a werewolf," my husband growled as we sped through D.C. in a Lamborghini that went perfectly with my flaming red hair. I rolled my eyes at him as I scarfed down my fifth burger, barely stopping to breathe.

See, my vampire husband, Bane, thinks he's always right. He thinks that because he's older than dirt, he has a monopoly on correct answers. So far I haven't been able to disprove that theory, so instead of trying to compare the black fuzzy stuff growing on my arms to werewolf fur, I used a different tactic.

I turned to him and braced my hands against the dashboard, because he was going well over the speed limit. While we both might be dead, I wasn't a vampire. In fact, we still didn't know what I was.

"What am I, Bane? Huh?" I demanded around a bite.

I watched his knuckles tighten and his fangs lengthen. I'd never seen his fangs lengthen outside of the bedroom. I wondered if he would pull over, find an alley, and fuck me seven ways to Heaven in the tiny car. I wouldn't complain if he did, but I sort of worried about losing Casper, Bane's vamp friend, because he was following us in his car.

Ya know what, he should. Screw the fact that I was still puffy and sore from our morning adventures, or that I had blood on me, or that I had a sore cheek from a lunatic vampire bitch slapping me a bunch of times; maybe a good, quick screw was just what I needed.

"You know it wouldn't be quick, Peaches. You know I'd—"

A different vampire, yelling in my mind, cut off what my sexy and naughty husband was about to say. "I can hear your thoughts all the way over here in my Prius. We have a task at hand, Peaches. You need to calm your libido."

"You calm your libido!" I hissed back through the mind-call, because I was the queen of witty comebacks. Uh-huh.

Casper, the German vampire currently in my head, laughed and cut the call. I turned back to Bane. "I couldn't read your mind," he said carefully.

I shrugged. His jacket slid off my shoulder, but I tugged it back on. "I was talking to Casper."

"You were talking to Casper." Bane's Egyptian accent was back, thick and filled with restrained fury. "You can talk to Casper, and when that happens I can't read your mind."

I sighed and blew out enough wind to shake a tree. I was getting lost in the chaos that was my mind and, well, not my mind. Five days ago this wouldn't have been a problem, but then again, five days ago a lot of things wouldn't have been problems. For instance, until I'd woken up in my university hospital's morgue after a very embarrassing death involving my ex-boyfriend reenacting a scene from Deep Throat with our Chinese take out man, followed by me tripping on his front steps, falling, and cracking my head, I'd never thought I was a vampire. Naturally, waking up after dying, it seemed like the best answer.

A fat—excuse me, muscular—cat named Bane not only demolished that idea, but also vowed to help me figure out what I was. Some stuff happened. We went to a vampire party, my big mouth opened and stupid came out, so we had to be married. Then I got kidnapped by a psycho vampire bitch who I vomited acid on, and apparently killed with my poisonous blood.

That was my life—I mean my death—in a nutshell. Except I still had no freaking clue what I was, because, as my vampire husband—who sometimes turns into a black cat—said I wasn't a vampire and he didn't know what I was.

Bane pulled up to our hotel with Casper hot on our heels. He threw the car keys at the valet, then waited for Casper to get out of his car and do the same. I just stood there, munching on some fries, until we went in.

The guys surveyed the five-star hotel's lobby like ninjas and cops were going to pop out of the woodwork. I, however, walked on by without a care in the world, because if someone did attack me, I'd spit acid on them and force my blood down their throats. Did I mention I have a violent streak?

My mom used to hate it and tell me that ladies didn't punch people in the face. She'd also been the epitome of a sophisticated woman, with silky auburn hair cut in a bob, shapely legs, and the kind of soft voice angels envied. My mom and I couldn't have been more different. In fact, the only thing we shared was our ADD. My dad called us squirrels, because we could never focus on anything for long.

Case in point: I was still thinking about a family I could never return to because I was dead, married to a vamp, and had black furry stuff growing on my body, when we walked into our hotel suite and came face-to-face with Luther and his girlfriend.

Bane was in front of me in a second, protecting me like I was some damsel in distress. As a size sixteen—on the best day of the year—I'd never be considered a damsel. Damsels fainted and waved tissues in the wind to the knights who went off to die for their chastity or whatever. That wasn't me, and, if my kick ass new powers had anything to say about it, would never be me.

"Move it, Bane." I nudged him with my elbow.

My husband looked over his shoulder and down at me. I hated when he did that. The dude was tall, like really tall, and had this whole caveman thing going on. He had Joe Manganiello's height and protectiveness—I mean, Alcide's from True Blood—coupled with Jason Momoa's Conan the Barbarian ruthless attitude. Yeah, I watched way too much TV and knew way too many sexy-as-sin actors' names. Maybe I had, on occasion, cyber-stalked them and imagined being with either man, or both men, as their prisoner on a deserted island with no clothes, and a beach house with a king size bed and full kitchen.

"I could demolish that fantasy by killing them, habibiti," Bane whispered in my mind the way I thought the Devil might whisper to a priest about to go into a whorehouse.

As I looked into his dark brown eyes, I decided not to test him. The dark brown was a great sign, because they'd been full-on blood red just a few hours ago when he'd rescued me from a basement at the National Harbor. The red meant he was hungry, and when he went full red, he'd snap. I didn't know what that meant, and I really wasn't about to lock him in a cage to find out.

I shook my head and got back on topic. "Come on. If they were going to hurt us, they could have done it already."

"That isn't a vampire's way," Casper responded in my head.

I growled, set my bag of food on the table next to the door, and side-stepped Bane. "Luther and Luther's friend, what can I do for you?"

Luther smiled like a bird might smile at a worm before he plucked it from the ground. Could birds smile?

"No, they can't," Luther supplied, and waved his hands to the couch and chairs arranged in a perfect circle. I wondered how long he and his little girlfriend had been in our place.

Bane placed his hand on my arm, but I tugged and he let me go. It sort of chafed that my husband let me do anything. That was how he ended up becoming my husband in the first place. I liked to think that I was a strong, independent woman. I choose my man; I made the first move; I controlled the terrain. I realized very early on this wasn't actually the case. Sadly with Bane this wasn't the case at all, because the guy was a vampire, and yes, vamps had super speed, super hearing, super healing, super strength, and so on and so forth. Which meant that when I walked out of a room, he let me walk out of a room. And when I climbed on top of him, held his hands down, and rode him like he was a prize-winning bull at a rodeo, he let me.

I plopped down on the white leather sofa and watched Bane come over to me. Flawless chocolate skin molded over sleek muscle rippled under his black t-shirt and pants. He didn't just sit next to me; he draped his body over the couch, stretched out an arm behind me, and eyed me like I was naked and covered in, uh, blood.

I mentally snorted. Yeah, it had been so hard to choose to marry Bane; I really struggled over that one.

"Peaches." Luther drew me away from my naughty thoughts and back to the present.

I looked at the vamp who, when he was turned, couldn't have been out of his teens. Less than twenty-four hours since I last saw him and the kid had gone from punk rocker to laid back college guy. His brown hair wasn't spiked up anymore, and instead fell in soft waves around his face. He'd swapped the black Slipknot t-shirt for a salmon-colored button down, and the black chained pants for light blue jeans.

"I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or not." Luther smiled at me again as he read my mind. I was so sick of vampires reading my mind that I could just choke.

I noticed his eyes weren't blood red anymore but a bright, clear green. "You should eat more often. You have nice eyes." I felt Bane bristle beside me, and I placed a comforting hand on his arm. "You have nice things too, Bane."

"Just nice, habibiti?"

"Is Bane talking to you right now, Georgia?" Luther's girlfriend asked suddenly.

Everyone seemed taken aback that the girl had spoken. She wasn't dressed like a punk rocker either, but more like a forty-year-old mother of three, in white pants, white Keds, and a sky blue sweater that looked worn but comfortable. Her brown hair was pulled back into a bun, and she wore a silver diamond ring and wedding band on her finger. The woman didn't have the air of someone who stepped out on their spouse, so I assumed Luther was her husband.

Luther linked their fingers and looked into the woman's eyes lovingly. "I am, yes."

Well, score one for me. "Yeah, Bane was talking to me. I can talk to vampires in—"

"What is it you want, Luther?" Bane interrupted.

The teen leaned back and crossed his legs. "The girl is quite interesting. She could be valuable."

Bane said something in Arabic, and I watched Casper stiffen across from us. I tried to catch his eye, but Casper suddenly found something very interesting on the other side of the room.

Luther tsked and I shifted my attention back to him. "In English." He gave Bane a canary smile. "Not everyone here speaks Arabic, Miliki."

Miliki. I'd heard that word a lot. "What does that mean anyway?" I didn't elaborate because they could read my mind, and meh, I was lazy.

"King," Luther's wife said, surprising everyone yet again.

I turned to her, wondering about the wide eyes and tight lips of the men around the room. What was she? What powers did she have? It was obvious she didn't speak often.

"So, um, what's your name?"

"Samantha."

I closed my eyes, raised my hand, and placed my fingers against my temple like I could divine the future. "Wait, wait, don't tell me. You're a witch."

Samantha smiled at me and inclined her head like a queen.

"For a second there, I thought you had a normal name." I smirked, and looked around at Bane, Casper, Luther, and finally back to Samantha. "Where'd ya steal that from? Bewitched?"

Luther narrowed his eyes warningly, Bane leaned forward while pulling me closer to his side, and Casper looked torn as his eyes flickered from one vamp to the next. But Samantha laughed, the sound light and airy. "Actually, I did. Vampires and witches live much longer than other creatures, and we change our names fairly frequently."

I felt the tension in the room recede, but not completely disappear.

"A witch can cast spells through her voice." Samantha looked me dead in my eyes, and I felt like she could see my soul. "We can kill with a single syllable; resurrect a body from ash with a word; even shift time and space—"

"With a sentence." I shrugged my shoulders. "I get it." Everyone's powers were better than mine.

So I could spit acid and read vampire minds. Bane could move faster than I could blink, and Samantha could make people from ashes. On the cool and awesome power scale, I was maybe a four.

I scratched at the black stuff on my arms. I just hoped that werewolves crapped gold or something. That would be well worth the fur.

"Well, uh, what are you doing here?" I decided it was probably time to get this show on the road. The faster they said their piece and left, the faster I could start hounding Bane about this werewolf theory I had going. Maybe he could take me to meet a pack? Oh! That would be legen—wait for it, and yes I'm totally stealing this from How I Met Your Mother because that show is too funny—dary!

"We're here about what happened tonight," Luther answered.

"Okay," I said slowly, looking around the room at everyone. I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice and say something stupid that could get me killed. "About what?"

Luther turned his green eyes on Bane. "Where were you when Peaches was being kidnapped?"

Huh? That's not how I expected this conversation to go, but now that I thought about it . . . . I whirled on Bane and slapped my hand on my hip. "Yeah, Bane. Where were you?"

I mean, he had to have known something was going to happen, right? Like, he'd warned me about saying I wasn't his servant at the party, but then, as if by magic, I'd said exactly that. The guy hadn't even batted an eye. Well, okay, he had glared at me, bitched, complained, said some ominous stuff, but I mean that was it.

It seemed he had planned for a lot of things, almost like he could—I gasped. "Can vampires see the future?"

The room was silent for a second before Casper burst out laughing. Luther smiled at me like I was a little bird who'd hurt its wing, and Samantha chuckled and shook her head. I bit my lip.

"That's the one you're going to laugh at, really?" I threw my arm out at Samantha. "She can kill people with her voice." I turned and waved a hand to the vampires at large. "And you all can control people with your eyes. Forgive me for thinking that one of the supernatural creatures in this room could see the future."

I sighed dramatically and flopped back against the couch. Silence again, before Luther turned and looked at Bane pointedly.

My vamp husband climbed to his feet, went to the mini bar, and poured himself a drink. His back was to the room as he spoke. "I was otherwise engaged."

I shot to my feet. "You said you were going to get me breakfast!"

Bane turned his head and shot me a look that would've shut me up had I been anyone but myself. "I did go and get breakfast, but then I was...detained."

I fisted my hands and practically growled at him. "You better say you were saving some kid from getting run over, or passing out food to the homeless. You better have been being a freaking saint when I was being kidnapped."

He was in front of me in a flash, hand fisted in my hair, tilting my head back. He growled at me. "Be very careful, habibiti. I might have an affinity for you, but that only lasts so long."

I stood there, my head tilted, looking up into my vampire husband's eyes. Red was starting to bleed into his irises. God, had I made the wrong choice? The look Bane flashed me when I'd said, "Better the devil you know," came back to me. He was flashing me that look right now, the one that said: You don't know me. We aren't friends. And I'll kill you in cold blood if it suits me.

It wasn't like I hadn't gotten that look before, but this was the first time I seriously believed it. Bane might kill me. If I was already dead could I even be killed? Would he just torture me for eternity? I couldn't be tortured for eternity; I hadn't even lasted the hour Ariel tortured me. It wasn't like she'd done all that much, either. A bitch slap here or there, some nasty words. Bane's eyes said he'd do much worse.

Damn and double damn. I needed to get out of here.

I reached up, ready to claw at Bane, but he was suddenly across the room behind Luther's chair. My hair wasn't fisted, I wasn't on my tip toes anymore, and he wasn't crowding my space. I stumbled back until my calves hit the couch, and sat.

None of the others acknowledged that Bane almost killed me. Was I just an amusement to them? Something they liked up to a point? Would Bane turn out to be like Bill Compton on True Blood: two-faced and a cold, lying bastard?

I crossed my arms and hid my shaking hands in the folds of Bane's jacket. Only five days had passed. That was it. I didn't know any of the creatures around me, but I called one my husband and even tried to befriend another. They were old, centuries and eras and other time markers old.

"Calm down, Peaches." Luther waved his hand at the air like he was shooing away my thoughts. "He wouldn't have killed you, and we wouldn't have allowed him to do it anyway. Tensions are just a bit high at the moment."

Well, that was the understatement of the century. I kept my mouth shut, but didn't try to corral my thoughts. Screw 'em all. I didn't care about them. The minute this was over, I was spitting acid in everyone's face, poisoning their drinks with my blood, and getting the hell out of Dodge.

Luther tsked like I was a naughty child. "I wouldn't suggest that."

"How did you know I was kidnapped?" I asked, suspicious of the vamp. He might look young, but I'd learned through trial and error that looks were deceiving.

Luther nodded to Casper. "He called me after he cleaned up the mess and informed me on what happened."

I looked at Casper, trying to ferret out his secrets. The German vampire who had blonde hair, clear blue eyes, and snow-white skin shrugged as if to say, "It's true." I nodded and turned away.

"What detained you, Miliki?" Samantha asked, bringing the conversation back on topic yet again.

I watched his jaw clench, but I didn't meet his eyes. I didn't need to, his tight voice said it all. "My sister. Zeno."

"Xena?" The word flew out of my mouth. "Like the warrior princess?"

Bane's lips twitched and he seemed to visibly relax. "Close. Zenobia. She is the former queen of the Palmyrene Empire, known today as Syria."

"Zeno's back?" Casper asked with all the excitement of a puppy dog wagging its tail.

"Is she coming here?" Luther demanded, eyes narrowed.

Bane sighed. "She's back and she'll be here in a few days."

Chapter One: Stalk Much?

I sighed as I pushed myself up in bed and leaned back against the soft, downy pillows. I couldn't sleep. It was a first for me. I've been able to sleep through pretty much everything all my life: hurricanes, tornados, thunderstorms. You name it, I could sleep through it.

But I couldn't sleep.

I turned and looked at Bane lying on his side in bed. I was still spitting mad at him, but I didn't really have a choice of where I slept. After finding out that Bane's sister had led some kind of rebellion way back when, and she was acting in his stead for some stuff, I clocked out. I'd been exhausted and I still was. Luther and Samantha called it a night around one in the morning, and I'd been desperate to copy them.