Free Lure of Forever by Doris O'Connor

thoughts. Like the last time he tried, his hands heated but this time Coralie didn't repel him. Instead he got her thoughts loud
and clear . You bite me again and I swear I'll stake you, you bloody
obnoxious, good for nothing…thing, you.
    ****
    She was going to kill him, she
really was. Here she was about to be eaten alive and he smiled at her as though
it was the most amusing thing ever. She trembled and her stomach clenched as
the adrenaline that swamped her system dissipated.   Every bone in her body hurt, her skin felt
too small for her frame and she could swear even her hair ached. Against her
better judgment she leaned into Lucas, and some of the tension left his
shoulders as he pulled her closer into him, supporting her with an arm around
the waist.
    "She won't remember any of
this, Carmen."
    Coralie did her best to adopt a vacant expression. Not that Carmen paid any attention
to her. She'd dismissed her like Coralie would an
annoying fly, and had it not been for Lucas's arm tightening around her waist
in warning she'd have swung for the bitch.
    "Let me take the human back to
her quarters." Bughar's snarl made Coralie's skin crawl and she leaned further back into
Lucas's hard chest just as his answering growl vibrated through her and curled
her toes.
    "You keep your filthy hands off
her, Fairy, or I'll wear your guts as a necklace."
    "Hah, you got lucky last time,
De Tourneau. I was too busy enjoying your whore to notice you." Lucas
leapt onto the fairy in one dizzying blur of air and the floor shook, as the
two of them fell down. Coralie watched in horror as
they rolled around the floor. Lucas sank his fangs into Bughar's chest and the fairy roared a high-pitched squeal that hurt Coralie's ears and shattered the large glass windows at the far side of the long room.
    "Boys,
boys, really. All this fuss over a little
human." Carmen laughed, clearly enjoying the spectacle in front of
her.
    God, that woman really was a
monster. They all were. As Coralie watched, Bughar seemed to get the upper hand. He shook Lucas off and
the vampire slid across the floor and crashed into the wall with such force it
cracked.   He lay motionless on the floor
and Coralie almost ran towards him. To do what, she
wasn't entirely sure. Thankfully before her brain could send the message to her
feet, Lucas got up.   Head down, hands
raised into claws he readied himself to fight the advancing fairy again.
    "Stop this, for goodness sakes.
They're gonna kill each other."
    Carmen laughed at Coralie's plea, but she did clap her hands and order the
vampire and fairy to stop.
    "It seems your little human is
worried about you, Lucas. If I had a heart it would be bleeding right
now."
    Coralie breathed a sigh of relief when Lucas walked away from Bughar and her stomach fluttered at the expression she thought she glimpsed in his
eyes for a fleeting second. She must have imagined it though, because his
sinister laugh replaced the butterflies with shards of fury.
    "Just goes to show that humans
have no sense, Carmen."
    Tears of frustration at her own
stupidity rose in Coralie's eyes and she resolutely
blinked them away. What did she expect, really? It took all of her survival
instinct kicking in to not slap away Lucas's hands on her backside.   How dare he treat her as though she was some
sort of amusing pet? She crossed her arms and bit her lip to keep from blurting
those thoughts. The lecherous way Bughar's eyes
roamed across her skin, made her all too aware of her state of undress and she
pulled the ends of her torn blouse around herself as best she could.
    Lucas's suit jacket being placed
round her shoulders took her by surprise, so lost was she in her own misery.
She looked up at him, startled by the action and the way his hands skimmed
across her neck, before he pulled the jacket tight over her exposed skin. He
didn't break his rapid conversation with Carmen in a language that Coralie didn't understand.
    The only words she caught were her
name and