L'Anima Ladro, InkWeaver [summer beach reads TXT] 📗

/> Werewolves were notoriously frisky, like me. But I was neater about my mischievous ways, which came from my vampire side. I didn’t go blundering around, killing left and right like a pup. I’d always had some sort of conscience.
“Oh. Well, I have some raw meat in the freezer. I can thaw it.” He offered. This time it was my turn to snort. I hardly ever ate frozen meat if I could help it. I usually preferred prey killed by my own hand, and that still had a heartbeat when I bit into it. But maybe I could make an exception, just for the information.
“Alright,” I relented, only slightly brightened by the fact that I’d finally get answers, “When?” He laughed, and I wondered what could possibly be funny about my question.
“Now, of course,” He rumbled in his deep voice. “When else? I’ll call Alec.” Alec? Who was Alec? Before I had time to ask he had his Blackberry to his ear and was rolling out directions faster than the speed of light.
I was beginning to wonder what I’d gotten myself into. A rich, cute, thug, that I might be starting to fall for (sometimes); who might or might not be a murderer (I couldn’t really care if he was), and who may just be some sort of super dangerous supernatural.
How can you be falling for this guy? My rational mind questioned. He tried to kill you, or whatever he planned to do, maybe even drink your blood! He’s a major thug!
My irrational mind replied: Because he’s just like me.
Before I had any longer to dwell on my thoughts, a sleek, black Jaguar pulled around the corner. It was headed straight for us, and pulled around a few feet away, leaving skid marks on the gray pavement. The front driver-side window rolled down.
“Hey, boss.” An obedient sounding boy answered. He couldn’t have been any more than nineteen. And he smelled human.
“Hello, Alec. To my residence please.” Romeo said professionally. It was hard to imagine this guy as a thug. I also noticed that his real accent was back.
“Yes sir, Mr. Anima.” ‘Anima’? Didn’t that mean ‘soul’ in Italian? (Vampires also happened to be gifted with speech, and needed only a slight amount of exposure to a language to be able to speak it fluently, even read it.)
“Come on. He’s not going to bite…if he knows what’s good for him.” Romeo shot a threatening glance at Alec. Alec laughed and drew his head back in the window.
Romeo, seeing my uneasiness, grabbed me by the hand and tugged slightly. I didn’t budge; I was starting to wonder just who I was traveling with. He sighed, and chuckled under his breath.
“Nik, don’t clobber me for this.” He scooped me up, and started walking towards the car. Before he even made it a step, I was out of his arms and inside the Jaguar. I refused to be treated like an invalid.
Alec didn’t even blink an eye at the fact that I’d been outside only a second before. I wondered if he even noticed. I was slightly surprised, though I didn’t let it show on my face. The last thing I needed to do was to be shown up in a city that I ran.
Romeo slid in next to me, filling up a lot of space in the relatively small car. He grinned at me and slid even closer, testing my reaction. I ignored him.
“Are you Italian?” I asked bluntly. Romeo looked at me as if I’d just asked the oddest question in the world. He nodded, slowly, as if afraid that this might be leading to something bigger. It was.
“‘Anima’,” I cried, “Soul! What is it with you and souls?” Romeo ducked his head, but the look on his face told me everything. He was debating whether or not to tell me something. He seemed to be leaning towards yes.
“My name is Romeo Anima.” He began.


Chapter 7

“Your name is Romeo Soul?” I asked, seriously rethinking my judgment of weird names. I’d thought mine was odd, but ‘Romeo Soul’?
Romeo looked sheepish, almost shy. It was the most venerable I’d seen the thug/businessman look since I met him, this morning. “Yes.” He said simply.
“And…?” I continued, inviting him to go on. He gave me one of those ‘you don’t know what you’re asking for’ kinds of looks. But it looked as if he was going to tell me, but then he looked at Alec.
“I’ll have to tell you later, Nik.” It was all he could say with the human present. Nik? Why did he keep calling me Nik?
“Nik?” I inquired, one eyebrow raised questioningly. He shrugged. I sighed. Nobody could call me anything but Nikhil unless I told them they could.
He chuckled, like a boy about to play a joke. He gestured towards me. “Nik,” He said slowly. Then he pointed at himself. “Tarzan.” I hit him in the shoulder lightly, and he winced. I thought I’d hit him lightly anyway.
“You wish you were Tarzan. Tarzan doesn’t die at the end of his story.” I replied. Romeo looked affronted, before putting on a thoughtful face.
“Does that make you Juliet?” He asked sweetly, almost innocently. Alec chuckled in the front seat. Romeo’s head turned.
“He’ll be quiet too, if he knows what’s good for him.” There was no joke in Romeo’s threatening voice. That was the thuggish Romeo I knew. I don’t know why, but I liked him better that way than the businessman Romeo. I still wasn’t sure about his sweet side.
“It makes me Rosalind. I’m just the pretty face Romeo see’s before he meets Juliet.” I replied. I turned my head as he turned his gaze to stare at me. I could still feel his eyes boring into the back of my head. There was just one thing that I kept wondering: I found flirting with humans, or even Shifters, so easy; so why was even talking to Romeo so…emotional? Whenever we talked, I either started feeling angry or uneasy. I’d been very emotional; my wolf side held no sympathy for prey, and my vampire side no sympathy for humans. So who—what—was Romeo?
When I turned my head I saw that Romeo had switched his gaze to the window instead. “Step on it Alec; we’re going terribly slow.” When Alec hesitated, Romeo snapped, “Now.”
“But, boss,” Alec began, fidgeting in his seat, “I’m already going over the speed limit.” He said.
Romeo sighed, muttering something about how annoying human laws were. “Well, I’m sure that if we’re pulled over, it’s nothing that can’t be forgotten. I’ve never met a human who’d say no to money.” After a moment, he added, “Anyway, we could always ensure their cooperation.” I knew what Romeo had in mind, but, as horrible as humans might find the idea, I didn’t even spare a second thought about it. I happened to like driving fast too. That reminded me.
“You have a driver; yet no limo?” Romeo laughed at my question. I wondered if it had yet been asked.
“I prefer smaller cars. You can’t outrun anything in a limo; they’re too long. I prefer Jaguars; nice, small, inconspicuous.” He grinned devilishly, “Besides, it’s cozy.” He slid closer.
“You have to duck to fit in the car.” I retorted. I wondered how he was going to pass that off as cozy. But I kept wondering because at that moment the Jaguar screeched into a rough stop. Romeo cussed; a few strongly said Italian words that my vampire ears were barely tuned to hearing. He cussed worse than a sailor; his vulgar language about equal to that of an angry Frenchman’s.
“Alec!” He roared. He didn’t duck when he got out of the car, resulting in a huge dent the size of his head. Finger indents were left in the door. He was ticked.
“Sorry boss,” Alec mumbled, “I didn’t want to hit your guard.” Romeo stopped. He shook his head as if trying to clear cobwebs from his brain. Turning he looked at me; it was a lost puppy look, this time not an act.
“What just happened?” He asked. I gaped. I knew he was serious, and that was the shocking part. How could he have forgotten?
He ran a finger along the dents in his car. “Don’t tell me I did this!” He sighed, “I need…food. I’ll catch up with you later…and explain as much as I can, Nik.” Before I could react, he ran a barely controlled, shaking finger along my jaw.
Then he was gone; in less than the blink of an eye. What had I gotten myself into? I wondered for the millionth time today. He was faster than me…probably stronger too. I needed to be careful with him; but he seemed to like me, and I couldn’t bring myself to fear him.
“Come on, Miss,” Alec said politely, seemingly shaken. He acted as he thought Romeo might still be able to hear him, “Mr. Anima will never forgive me if I leave you out here alone.” He reached for my arm slowly.
I pulled out of his reach. “I’ll be fine. Nobody messes with me.” Alec sighed. He came over and grabbed my arm, shocking me enough to get away with it.
“I’m sure you can; but I’d rather not take any chances on my welfare.” He argued, “And leaving you alone could seriously be dangerous to my health, since he seems to like you.” Alec was dead serious, so I allowed him to lead me in.
He let go of my arm immediately after I began following. He said he didn’t want much of his scent on me, because Romeo (he said ‘Mr. Anima’) wouldn’t like it. He didn’t go into detail.


Chapter 8

Alec didn’t say much. He was trained and ordered not to. I was beginning to realize that he probably wasn’t much of a talker anyway. He wasn’t like the strong, silent type; more like the sulking, bored silent type. His silence was his best aspect.
For one, he smelt like dead fish; his blood was appalling. I figured that Romeo just put up with it because it kept Alec from being eaten by other supernatural people that he might hang out with. Alec wasn’t the most attractive either. He wasn’t ugly; but he wasn’t very handsome.
He had short, dull brown hair. His caramel skin wasn’t smooth, and seemed streaked, like a spray on tan. He had deep, reflective eyes that seemed hollow, and unfeeling. Nobody would bother messing with the kid. I guess that was what made him a good driver; it wasn’t likely he’d have to be replaced any time soon.
We remained on silence for a couple of minutes while we made our way to Romeo’s ‘sitting room’, somewhere buried inside of his gigantic, almost mansion-like, house. He merely said a few hellos to people we passed, and a few grunts to my comments…and a few of my questions.
He seemed sulky. A few times when I figured he thought I couldn’t hear, he muttered something about getting stuck with me; and Romeo getting ticked at him if even a hair was out of place on my head. I wondered what Alec’s issue was, and soon stopped trying to lure him into conversation. I probably wouldn’t like a conversation with him anyway.
By the time Alec finally managed to lead us through the long, twisting halls I had begun to realize that Romeo probably wasn’t as nice to everybody as he had been being to me. My vocabulary had