“
Actually, I’m not really here. I’m in Nevada, Reno actually. Have you ever been there? It’s very hot, but the room I have is quite lovely. I’ll only be there for a short time more before I move back to Molavonta.” She smiled at him. “I’m hiding, you see. I wanted to see you, to see your worth before I came to talk to you personally. I hope you don’t mind.”
She got up and floated toward the dresser closest to where she sat. He watched as she leaned down and looked at the photos on it.
Most of the pictures had been taken by Duncan. They were of him and his friends over the centuries. His favorite one, the one of him and Duncan together in the early nineteen hundreds, she now held in her hand.
“
You aren’t here, yet you can see me and I you,” Aaron said, more to himself than to her. “You can pick up things too. How is that even possible?”
After setting the gold frame back down on the dresser, she moved over to the suit of armor that graced the far corner of the room. He had worn that particular suit during the Crusades in the thirteenth century when he fought for the Holy Land versus Muslims. He had been a Templar Knight. He had just avoided being arrested with Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and sixty of his senior knights in Paris that night on October thirteenth.
The men and Jacques had been charged with heresy and accused of homosexual acts, crimes punishable by death. The admissions of guilt were extracted with the use of torture. The Pope initiated inquiries into the order and thousands of Knights Templar were arrested across Europe. Aaron had been away in America and not a part of the group that fateful night. When word had reached him of what happened, it was too late for him to help. He kept the armor as part of respect for the last Master of the Knights.
“
I’m magic,” she told him without turning. “It’s as simple as that. You are Sara’s vampire, are you not? She didn’t tell me how big you were, but then she isn’t very little herself, is she? I’ve come to talk to you about her.”
“
Sara told you about me?” Aaron didn’t like the sound of that. “Not everything she said can be held against me. She and I haven’t seen eye to eye on much since our acquaintance. Really, I don’t think we’ve agreed on one thing since we’ve met. Did you know that she is living in her car? Stupid girl, what does she want? To get killed? Well, that could be her intention, as she has asked me to end her life before. But she did say that it was a lapse in judgment, so perhaps she’s changed her mind about that.” He stopped talking when he realized the woman was staring at him quite alarmingly. Oh, maybe she did not know about his and Sara’s little conversation when they met.
“
I do now, thank you. Did she tell you who beat her up? No, I can see that she didn’t. I won’t either. Tell you, I mean, at least not until I get to know you a little better. As a matter of fact, I only just found out myself, by accident.” She sat over the chair again. “Now, I want to tell you a few things, ask you some others, and see what we can come up with, vamp.”
He leaned back on the headboard to his bed. He figured they were going to be a while if they were going to try and understand Sara. The woman across from him laughed.
“
You might be right on that. But she is a good person.” Mel grinned. “And quite stubborn, too. She will make you a good mate if you want her.”
“
You read minds too.” He marveled how he had not felt the slightest intrusion from her touch. Then he realized something else. “You’re the one she’s protecting out West.”
“
Very good, vamp. Yes. Sara’s been hiding me away for some time now. She’s been waiting for me to heal, to get stronger,” she told him. “Sara has sacrificed so much to keep me safe. Now I’d like to make sure she is safe as well.”
He stiffened at that. Sara was his to protect. Sara was his. “Tell me who is beating her. I’m assuming it’s the same one she’s protecting you from, right?” Mel nodded at his question. “She’s mine to...Sara’s my mate, as you’ve said. I need to protect her.” He felt her this time. Her touch moved through his mind, through his memories. He let her.
“
Well Aaron Xavier MacManus, let’s you and I talk about the stubbornly beautiful Sara Temple, shall we?” Then she looked away from him for a moment. “You will know that the man she is protecting me from isn’t her only tormentor. I will not give you the other because it is not safe for too many others just yet.”
It was nearly sunset when she faded away. Aaron fell into a deep sleep once again, wondering as he drifted off, if it had all been a dream.
~~~
“
Is she here?” Aaron asked Duncan as soon as he had walked in the kitchen. Aaron felt...rejuvenated and alive, like he had gotten a shiny new toy for Christmas. Too bad this toy was extremely powerful and pissed off at him as well. Well, he thought, she had really left him with nothing more to do than he’d done.
“
You gave her little to no choice in the matter, my lord,” Duncan told him with a sad look. “You had a werewolf pick her up and bring her here as if she was something you picked from a catalog. Of course she is here.”
“
I couldn’t let her live in her car, Duncan. I isn’t safe. Not even for her. Surely you can see that? I had to do something. Did William have any trouble with her?”
Aaron had met William Daniels a few months ago while out walking in the moonlight. He had been stalking a deer on the property just beyond his. William had shifted to human from wolf as soon as he had seen Aaron coming toward him. It was a courtesy to let one supernatural know that you were not hiding to cause the other harm. Aaron had been using him as muscle ever since.
“
No, sir. No trouble whatsoever. He said that he had never enjoyed doing an errand so much and that he thought about paying you to let him fetch you a human more often. I did explain to him the circumstances surrounding the ‘fetching’ of the young miss. It upset him a bit that she had been out when he could have been keeping an eye on her. He said that she is too…let me see...‛too prime to be out alone.’ He was quite taken with the little miss, it seems.”
“
Hummm, so long as he’s taken with her from a distance, I don’t care. Duncan, there is something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a few days now. It’s about Sara. I know you like her. I’m glad for that. I don’t know for sure, but, well…”
“
She’s your mate, sire?”
Aaron looked up sharply at the man. Duncan really had become quite wily indeed. “I… How did…yes.” Aaron threw his hands into the air. “I believe Sara is my mate. Why is that the first guess everyone makes concerning her and I?”
“
How do you feel about that, sir, if you do not mind my asking?” It was a good question, one he had been asking himself for two days.
“
I don’t know. Ask me after tonight. That is if I’m still alive. She may be the death of me yet.” He patted his good friend on the back and went in search of Sara.
~
CHAPTER FOURTEEN~
Sara was just getting into of the huge garden tub in the bathroom when she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. There was only one person she could think of who walked like that, and she really did not want to see him. Not now—likely, not ever.
As she lay in the warm water, she thought about Aaron. Did she really hate him? Yes...no...maybe. Okay, maybe she didn’t hate him, but she didn’t like him either. At least she didn’t want to like him. He was overbearing and arrogant. But he did have her safety in mind. And he was incredibly handsome and sweet—sometimes. There were times when he was yelling at her, she never knew whether she really wanted to smack him or pull him into her arms and...what? Strangle him? Possibly. It sounded like a good idea. She could see herself wrapping her arms around his neck, her fingers touching the back of his hair, squeezing him until he came close to her. Her mouth, maybe.
Frustrated, she got out of the tub and began drying herself vigorously. Damned man had her so upset she didn’t know which way was up or down. And now…and now he was coming into the room.
The bedroom to which she had been taken when she arrived this afternoon was different than the one that she had been in previously. This one was elegant and bright. Not that the other room wasn’t nice, but this room, she loved.
The bed was an oversized king canopy with an ecru-colored lacey cover over the top. The four posts that held it in place were dark cherry and fashioned with pineapples carved into them just at eye level. The coverlet was done in an array of pinks and purple velvets, and then accented with embroidered flowers at each corner of the six by six squares. The furniture was also cherry, a large dresser she thought was called a highboy, and a vanity with a smallish chair with a cushion that was covered in the same pattern as the spread. There were no curtains adorning the three floor-to-ceiling windows. In their place were shutters of the same dark cherry as the furniture. The hardwood floor had a beautiful wool rug that had the same motif as the rest of the room. Sara was just tying the white chenille robe when Aaron stepped through the open door.
“
Are you still angry with me?” She ignored his question. “You have to realize, Sara, how lucky you were that you’d not been raped or murdered out there alone.”
She just glared at him and walked to the vanity and sat down. “I’m getting dressed, go away.”
She had made the decision while trying to relax in the tub to no longer be polite to him. It was dangerous, she thought. Not that she had been over effervescent to begin with, but now she was not holding back, damn it. She thought it might be necessary to keep her sanity.
“
I’ve come to talk to you,” he said as he sat on the bed. “There are a few things we have to work out, like what I expect from you.” Sara did not acknowledge him in anyway, but continued to brush her long hair. “Ah, so we are going to be childish, are we? Fine, I’ll do the talking.”
“
There’s a big surprise,” she said softly. She knew he heard her. There was nothing wrong with his hearing.
“
At precisely six o’clock I will be back in here to escort you downstairs. You will be ready to receive guests with me. What I want from you is anything you might feel from the people in the room. I don’t care how mundane you feel it is. I want to know about it. You feed me the information through telepathy and none will be the wiser. Any questions?” She didn’t answer him. “No? Fine. I’ll see you in two hours.” He turned and left.
~~~
Minutes after he left her to her bath, Mel contacted her.
“
Hello, Little Warrior. Tonight is your big date, is it not? I so wish I could see you in your gown in person.”
“
You know it’s not a date. Something’s wrong. What’s the matter, you never contact me this time of day?” She suddenly had visions of Sherman finding out where his mate was and killing everyone on site.
“
Everything is fine, I’m fine. I left the nursing home yesterday. I’m now in Molavonta. I’m safe. I’ve sealed myself in my high tower, and will stay here until I’m able to come to you. I’ll be where you are in two days.” Sara relaxed a little, but tensed at her next words. “Sara, you will need to make time to talk with me. It is imperative that we get things in order before Sherman finds out that I’m back in the Kingdom of Molavonta again. Things need to be finalized, you understand me?”
“
Yes, I understand.” Sara did not like her tone, or what she was saying. But she was her queen.
“
I will see you on Sunday at sunset then. I want you not to worry, little one. I’m very strong now. You’ve done well. Have fun this evening and be the belle of the ball.” The connection closed with a mental hug from Mel. Sara couldn’t help but smile at the feeling it evoked in her heart.
~~~
At ten to six, just as Aaron was heading up the stairs to get Sara, Duncan came from the kitchen with a message for him.
“
The little miss called. It seems she’s having some difficulty with her clothing. She asks that you would please give her a few minutes and she will be down shortly.”
“
What kind of clothing problems? She’s wearing her dress, isn’t she? Please tell me it’s not her flight clothes? That would be just like her, to piss me off, you know?” He thought that if she did come down in her uniform, it would be no less than he deserved. He had been a rude overbearing ass to her all day.
“
I’m sure I don’t know, my lord. She said that she will be down, for you not to get your, I believe she called them ‘panties’ in a twist and start pounding on the door. She said that it would not make it any easier for her to figure things out.” Aaron was sure there was more to what Duncan was telling him, but decided that he would let it go.
At twelve after the hour, Aaron started up the stairs to get her. Guests would be arriving soon, and he wanted her beside him. In what capacity, he just wasn’t sure yet.
The mistress from this afternoon told him he must decide if he wanted her for his mate, that she needed to get Sara together with someone who would be a partner to her for life. She could just as easily sever that potential bond before it was too late for either of them if he did not want her. Did he? He was not any closer to knowing the answer to that than he had been earlier.
Aaron heard her speaking before he saw her. Which was a good thing or he may have fallen on his face without the extra few seconds of warning. As it was, he gripped hard on the banister and watched as she made her way down the long, winding staircase, her heels clicking on the stone steps.