Marcus took my hand again as we left the airport. I felt the cold tingle as feeling left my fingers. He had my duffel in his other hand and walked slowly beside me. The wedding guests were already long gone, but we were in no hurry. I shifted my messenger bag on my shoulder.
"I'm not sure I can go with you," he said quietly as I steered us toward a cab.
"That's all right," I assured him, taking my duffel. "We'll drop you at a park on the edge of town. I'll find you later. "If it's too much... just focus on me."
He nodded, uncertain. "Cougar Mountain," I told the driver. He looked a question to me in the rear-view mirror. "The zoo," I clarified in a clipped tone. Get it moving or I'll let him eat you, I thought angrily. He nodded and took off. I looked to Marcus and his lips were moving silently again. I squeezed his hands entwined in mine, and his lips twitched in a smile. I shifted my shoulders trying to take the edge off the irritation the driver had started in me. Two minutes as a wolf and already I was having to fight the bitch again. I closed my eyes and breathed carefully on counts of five. It helped. When I opened my eyes, I saw red ones looking at me. "I have a very short fuse," I told him sheepishly.
He wasn't breathing, but he put a hand to my cheek, stroking an ice trail to my jaw. I put a finger to his now unmoving lips and traced their line in return. His smile broadened.
Thankfully, when the cab found the highways, the drive was short. "I'm coming back, just dropping my friend off for a while," I told him getting out with Marcus in the zoo parking lot. He took a deep breath as soon as he was out of the cab. I came to his side.
"Once we're gone, head into those trees behind me. Then go south, you'll be in the park. I'll find you there."
"You're sure?" he asked.
"I'm sure. I can follow your scent. I'll find you." He took another deep breath, and I had the feeling he was filling his nose with me. Maybe I didn't smell so bad.
"Hurry," he whispered. "I can't bear to be without you any longer." He squeezed me into a hug, and I felt his cold breath on my ear. My pulse picked up as his coldness surrounded me.
"I will," I promised and then turned back to the cab. "University, please."
It didn't take me long to pack up my belongings. I'd never bothered amassing much. I filled my duffel with as much warm and durable clothing as I could. Then I crammed all my toiletries and other necessities into the messenger bag along with all the books I could manage. I had a few books that needed to go back to the library, but I'd have to hope the floor rep took care of that for me. The little that didn't make it into one of my two bags I loaded into my luggage.
Then I trundled to a bus stop. That cab had made a good dent in my finances. I didn't think Marcus had taken any money with him, so I was going to have to be stingy. I'd send my luggage COD to Forks; Mom could cover it. I did stop at an ATM to empty my account. If I was going to Canada I wasn't going to be using it any longer. I stashed that wad carefully in an interior pocket of the messenger bag. After dropping my luggage off at the Greyhound, I did grab another cab.
I stood once again in the Cougar Zoo parking lot. I made to head for the door so the cab would leave. Once he was out of sight, I burst for the trees Marcus would have entered. Sure enough, I could smell him, that too sweet, not quite right smell.
I hiked a couple hundred yards into the trees, until I was good and obscured from the road. Then I stripped down and crammed the last of my clothing into the top of my duffel. I tied my shoes to the straps. I shivered a little at the breeze on my skin. It had been a long time since I'd done this outside. With the exception of the other day, it had been a long time since I'd done this at all.
Okay, Leah, control. You can do this without being this. You are going to be a bitch for the next little while. That's all right. Because you are going to remember that you're a woman. You're going to remember that you came back from this before and you can do it again.
The pep talk worked. I phased and put the straps of my bags in my mouth. Then I followed Marcus' scent south. We crossed a couple roads, but I, at least, wasn't spotted. I also wasn't alone.
Leah! How've you been?
They saw everything quickly after that question. Leave me alone, Okay? I ran a little faster.
Dude! That is messed up. A vampire?
Insane! First Ness has us all fooled and now Leah. I mean you had the most hate for those leeches of all of us! And now I knew why Nessie had gone to Italy. Crap, she'd tried to make herself turned on? Idiot, I thought.
Look, there aren't any vamps you need to worry about. But then I saw them guarding Suplicia in the Cullen house. None of them had imprinted on her, as I'd expected. Well, maybe one. You can guard her human though, right? Give me a few hours?
The pack conferred on that. Without Jacob I really was ranking wolf and they should just do it. It didn't take them long to agree to my request at any rate. They decided the smell wasn't as bad through human noses.
I was alone in my head. Thank god. I continued to run. I didn't think I'd taken that long, but he was deep. I finally found him standing over his kill, a deer.
"Leah," he greeted me with a smile and I dropped the bags. "Can I carry those for you?" he asked.
I tried to smile, but he didn't recognize it. Not surprising. I nodded instead. Then I walked past him to his kill, wondering how his hunt went. The deer was already cold, all blood gone from the corpse.
"I will have to find another, maybe one of the cougars this park is named for. A carnivore would be better. Deer taste... off." I couldn't imagine.
I was in love with a monster that thirsted for human blood. How many types of wrong was I?
"Are we in a hurry?" he asked now. He opened my duffel and pulled out my rag-dress. "We could walk together a while," he suggested.
He tossed the dress in my direction and I phased to catch it in my hand. It was the fastest I'd ever dropped the wolf. I had gotten better. "Thanks. That would be nice."
His eyes tracked up one of my legs, over my ribs and settled on my face. I heard a low growl come from his throat and felt my heart skip a beat. He stepped toward me, a single stride. He could stretch a hand and touch me, but he didn't. Now his eyes found my neck, my breasts, and my belly.
I flushed under his scrutiny and his mouth opened in a gasp. I looked up to his eyes from under my lashes. They were a strange burnt orange. It wasn't their color that startled me though. It was the fire barely concealed in them. He wanted me. My body wanted his. The imprint had shifted everything in me toward him, and that included my libido.
I hesitated only a moment longer before launching myself at him with a snarl. My arms gripped around his neck and I pulled myself up by them. My lips met his, and I ran my tongue along the inside of his cold lip, careful of the edge of his teeth. I wrapped one leg around his waist and felt the cold drain the flashing burn from my flesh.
His hands curled around me now. One was in the middle of my back and I broke my kiss at the sudden iciness. The other was in my hair. My scalp felt like cold water was running over my head. I was sure that if he weren't a vampire I would start to combust from my own heat. "I haven't... so long," he moaned, closing his eyes.
"I'm sure you remember how," I teased. I moved my hands to his shirt now that he held my weight. I released the buttons and opened it to look on his blindingly white chest. He was muscular but lean. He panted slightly, but that had to be a reaction; I was sure he didn't need the air. Then he pulled me to him.
My leg and hands tightened in their hold on his waist and shoulders. I gasped as my nipples touched his ice. He released his hold a little, wary.
I snarled again and pressed myself into him, crushing my breasts on him. Heat throbbed throughout me; my heart raced wildly.
Marcus turned and I felt bark on my back. His hand was inside my thigh and I practically dripped in anticipation. He wasn't touching me though, he was unfastening his pants.
"Yes, yes, Marcus," I whispered running my hands through his hair and lifting my other leg. I was on fire; I needed his ice. I needed it in me. I leaned my head back, arching, aching.
"You are impossibly beautiful," he murmured into my neck. "I want that look on you forever. I want to see and smell your blush. I want to be the cause," he told me as he thrust.
"Marcus," I moaned. It had been so long since anything had been inside me and now I was full to bursting. I was melting; I was freezing. For the first time in my life, I was whole.
I was right. I was perfect. I was exactly where I was meant to be.