Wild Night Road(12)

“You boys look thirsty. Misty here’ll be happy to get you something to drink,” she said as pleasantly as she could. Misty stood off to the left with her brown fiberglass tray clutched against her chest like a shield.
Gideon Black’s eyes cut to Lilith. “I’m not thirsty.” His words came out like a growl, guttural sounds that faintly resembled English.
“Well,” she said, “then we’ve got a problem because this is a bar. People like to come here to drink and relax. Have a good time. I can’t allow you…guys…to get in the way of innocent people enjoying themselves.”
Gideon jerked his chin up and back swiftly as if he suddenly scented something foul. “Ask him. This is his territory. I am merely a guest.”
She looked at Owen. “That true?”
Owen White practically quivered with rage, but he nodded.
Lilith balanced the weight of the bat on her palms. “That’s different.” She gestured toward the rear of the establishment. “You should have mentioned it because it so happens we have a banquet room for private parties. I think you might be more comfortable there.”
Music still boomed from the dance floor, but most of the attention of the agape vacationers was on the werewolf confrontation. A few of the braver souls held their cell phones high, red lights blinking.
Great. That was all she needed. Tourists recording a shifter duel.
Remy leaned forward and spoke softly into Owen’s ear. Owen’s gaze never left Gideon. Tasha seemed to have turned into a blond statue posed behind Gideon Black, staring straight ahead at his massive back as if watching an invisible screen mounted between his shoulder blades. Or maybe she’d gone into a fugue state. She’d done the same thing ten days ago when Lilith had hexed the were mark on her wrist.
Owen turned to Lilith. “The private room is a good idea.”
Gideon Black nodded. “Lead the way.”
Lilith did so.
Owen, Remy, Gideon and his two bodyguards fell in.
Tasha McNeil trailed behind them like a ghost.
After the five men filed past her into the banquet room, Lilith took Tasha by the arm. The younger woman didn’t protest, but when Lilith ushered her through the doorway and down the short hall leading back to the bar, she resisted. “I need to go back there.”
“Bad idea,” Lilith said.
“But—”
“No buts,” Lilith said.
“This is about me,” Tasha said, pointing at the banquet room door.
“Maybe, maybe not. It’s hard to tell with them.” She jerked her head toward the bar. “It’s safer for you out there. Let them settle their deal, and then we’ll see what’s up.”
Tasha’s eyes flared with a sudden infusion of awareness and anger. “I’m not going to stand around while those…those…” She fell silent, and Lilith waited. Finally, Tasha said, “Crazy stuff happens to me, and there you are. Just like before. I don’t understand. What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know,” Lilith said, finding it interesting that she was telling the truth, “but if you go out to the bar and stay with your friends, I’ll find out.”
“How will I know if you’re telling the truth?”
“Then leave. Walk away.” She didn’t want Tasha to do that, but it was pointless to attempt to convince someone about something you would not do.
It wasn’t Lilith’s fault the were had marked Tasha McNeil or that the woman didn’t remember much of the experience. The slight adjustment Lilith’s hex had made to Owen’s mark should have had no effect on Tasha. Although it would take a concerted search to find anyone with a lower opinion of weres than Lilith, she’d never known a were to mark a female who hadn’t given her consent. As far as she knew, all weres were sticklers about that sort of thing.  #p#分页标题#e#
But consent wasn’t the same thing as a true understanding. From the dazed and confused expression on Tasha’s face, the woman didn’t have a clue about the nature of her current situation.
 It made Lilith wonder if Tasha had the brains and guts she’d need to deal with a were like Owen. Forget about an alpha like Gideon—he’d have her for breakfast.
Still, things were in motion, and there was no going back. At least Tasha McNeil had a chance, and that was more than most humans got with a were.
“Second thought, it might be better for you if you went back home and forgot about all this,” Lilith said.
“I can’t walk away,” Tasha said in a low voice. “I need to understand.”
“Then let me help,” Lilith said.
“Like you helped me with Owen? I don’t think so.”