Death's Redemption (The Eternal Lovers Series) (18 page)

She inhaled deeply, calmer than she’d been in ages.

A hand clamped onto her shoulder and she screamed, tossing everything she held as she jumped onto the nearest tree branch.

Frenzy gazed at her with a perplexed question in his silver eyes. “It’s only me.” He held up his hands.

She frowned, heart still thundering a violent cadence in her chest. It was strange how she felt her heart’s movement since drinking from his vein. Before that it’d been a hollow, empty feeling inside of her. Drinking his blood had made her feel human again.

“Why’d you come back?” She grabbed her chest, flattening her palm against her breast, scanning the woods. “Did you see something?”

Greasy fear twisted her stomach in knots.

He frowned. “I’ve been gone nearly forty minutes. I worried that you might wonder where I’d been off to.”

“Forty minutes?” She shook her head, finally prying her fingers from the branch, jumping back to where he stood. “I’ve only been out here for like two minutes.”

His smile was tight. “You became entranced.” He touched her brow with the back of his hand.

She closed her eyes because it felt good.

“You’re hot.” He sounded worried.

Shrugging him off, she shook her head. “I don’t feel it.”

“You need to eat.”

“I did. I drank your blood.” Just saying it made her want to lick her lips. The taste of his blood had been…ah gods, amazing. Sweeter than grape juice, more addicting than a fine wine. It’d heated her veins, slid warm and hot down her throat, and she swallowed hard because just thinking about it made the hunger return.

She grabbed her stomach.

“No, O’Fallen. You’re part shifter too. You need food, I suspect.”

Wrinkling her nose, she took a step back. “I’m not going to swallow anything raw, livers, or…” Mila thinned her lips. “I can’t do it.”

“We need to talk. Go bathe quickly, and dress.” He shoved a pile of clothes into her arms.

There was a pink shirt with a picture of a fish on the front surrounded by hearts and the words
I HEART BASS LAKE
. There was also a pair of size-five blue-jean shorts.

“How’d you know what size I am?”

He smirked. “I may not like many people, but I watch.”

“Women.” She stuck out her tongue.

Frenzy shrugged.

“Whatever. Thanks.” She gestured.

Crossing his arms across his chest, it finally dawned on her that he’d changed too. Instead of the slacks and silk shirt she was accustomed to seeing on him, he was in denim jeans and a ribbed black shirt. It highlighted the thick strands of his crimson-colored hair and made her body suddenly ache.

“You look good in that,” she admitted without stuttering. There was one thing she liked about this new vampiric body of hers: it was owning up to her sexuality, being free and unashamed to admit what was on her mind.

His lips curved into a wicked but sensual smile that stole her breath. “Thought you might.”

“Gods.” She rolled her eyes. “Vain much?”

“How is it vain when I’m only telling the truth?” He winked.

Winked!

And why that should bring her such joy, make her feel suddenly so alive, so hot and bothered—it didn’t make sense. Then again, none of this did. She smiled. “Aye, whatever.”

He moved into her space, so close their bodies grazed, shared heat and air. She shivered, swallowing hard.

Then he was trailing his thumb along her jawline, pressing it into the tip of her chin. “The accent,” he said.

She sighed, letting go of the pent-up breath. Her voice was breathy and soft when she said, “I can’t seem to stop it from escaping anymore. All my life I kept myself closed off, alone, and I canna…” She licked her lips, not sure what to say.

“Do it anymore?” he supplied.

Looking at him, she nodded. “I suppose.”

“Bathe. There’s a conversation to be had that’s been long overdue.”

She nodded and bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry about that. I really should have finished by now. Did I really hypnotize myself?”

It seemed hard to believe that she’d stood standing in the middle of the woods stark-assed naked for close to forty minutes, but she also couldn’t deny that she now had clothes and he’d changed.

“Go.” He nudged her. “I’ll wait and watch and make sure it doesn’t happen to you again.”

Mortified about her slip, she turned on her heel, grabbed her toiletries, and headed to the bank. Setting her items aside, she jumped into the water, which was, again, nice and temperate.

It wasn’t even spring yet. The water had to be at least in the sixties, if not lower.

Making quick work of washing, not wanting to get lost in the lull and movement of the life pulsing all around her, she moved briskly from task to task. How stupid had she been just standing there that way? What if something had come upon her unawares? She’d dropped her guard; she never did that. Ever. Her life had always been about staying one step ahead. But too often she was losing focus on what mattered, too busy squabbling with Frenzy over asinine stuff. Wanting to change what obviously couldn’t be changed.

Scrubbing her nails across her scalp one last time, she dipped her head under the water. Grabbing some sand, she rubbed it over her flesh, particularly where his blood had been, trying to strip as much scent off of her as possible.

Once she felt seminormal again, she swam back to shore.

He was still where she’d seen him last.

“Have you even blinked?” she teased.

“Not often. Didn’t want to miss the show.” He grinned, revealing even and strong white teeth.

Handing her the towel, he bent and retrieved a bottle of water. Quickly drying, she took the bottle from him with a question in her eyes.

“To brush your teeth. I noticed you brought out the stuff.”

“Thanks.” Taking it, she dipped her head. Then proceeded to brush her teeth. It was weird because she didn’t feel at all like she smelled or even had morning breath. Her body was different, but this was just a way for her to hang on to some sort of humanity.

Brushing the tangles out of her hair with her fingers, she glanced up to note he was still looking at her. But this wasn’t just a look, it was a scorching brand. Primal and raw and full of need.

“How do I look?” she whispered.

“Like dinner.” The sound of his deep voice mixed with the way he was mentally undressing her made her weak in the knees. Made her stomach tickle and heat pool between her legs.

“Come.” He held out his hands. “We’ve been out here long enough and before we give in to this hunger”—he let that word dangle and she knew exactly what he was talking about. She should be offended, but she wasn’t, she so wasn’t—“we need to figure out our strategy.”

Mila licked her lips.

She followed him back to the cabin in a sort of daze, eyeing his ass as he walked. The way the jeans hugged his hips.

Back inside, she noticed that he’d done stuff while she’d been hypnotized outside. The smell of cooked steak teased her senses, and suddenly she wasn’t hungry for sex. Her stomach didn’t just growl, it roared.

“I figured you’d need to eat too. And since you seem inclined to deny yourself meat that’s raw, I bought rib eye, barely seared on both sides.”

It touched her that he’d notice something like that. And that he was also giving her a way around the whole bloody-meat thing. Eating raw steaks wasn’t abnormal or gross, it was the way her nan used to prefer her meat. It felt safe and right now; she needed that.

“Thank you.” She dipped her head as he led her to the table that bore two plates. Both had steaks on them, but one of the plates also had a potato dripping in butter and a mound of broccoli.

Neither of those two items did anything for her, but she couldn’t stop eyeing the steak like it was her newfound lover. Her fingers curled.

“George mentioned that so long as you keep up eating a steady supply of mostly raw meat, the type of meat doesn’t matter.”

She smiled. “Poor lone wolf. He’s gotten a bad rap, hasn’t he?”

“Considering that the zombie he slept with was his wife of forty years, who he had no clue had gotten infected earlier in the day, yes, I’d say he’s gotten a very bad rap.”

That actually was kind of sad and made her feel horrible for how she’d treated him before. She’d heard rumors of the lone wolf who’d been kicked out for sleeping with a dead body, but she’d had no idea the dead body was actually the reanimated corpse of his beloved wife.

He pulled out the chair for her. This all felt so domestic, so comfortable. It was still hard to believe that she didn’t want to gouge his eyes and rip his heart out of his chest every other second. It dawned on her as she sat that most of the battles they’d had, she’d instigated. Maybe if she hadn’t been so determined to be a bitch from the beginning, things might have been different between them from the get-go.

“Would seem so.”

Staring at the hunk of cow meat, mouth salivating with want, it was all she could do not to snatch it up and rip chunks out of it. It felt like forever since she’d eaten a thing. The burned squirrel in George’s lair had nearly made her vomit.

“Dig in.” He gestured, picking up his fork and knife. “I’m sure you’re starved.”

Licking her lips, she grabbed the utensils and sliced off a chunk both big enough to satisfy and small enough not to look like she had no manners. The first bite was succulent and sweet and she couldn’t help but moan in appreciation.

“I didn’t sleep with the shadow, I know I already told you this, but it’s important you really believe me,” he said quietly just before slipping a forkful of meat and potato into his mouth.

She glanced up, chewing. It’d been gnawing at her whether he was being honest then, she wouldn’t deny it. Not that it should matter, because they weren’t much of anything. Sleeping buddies, if that. There was nothing between them.

“You said you kissed her.” She finally admitted the one thing that’d been bothering her most. “Why?”

Spearing broccoli into his mouth, he swallowed before saying, “To learn the truth. How much about me do you know?”

She knew he wasn’t asking about him specifically so much as his kind. Deciding that it was time to be fully honest with him, she nodded. “Not much, truthfully.”

“Tell me what you do know so we can go from there. And don’t stop eating.” He pointed to her plate with his knife.

She snorted. “Aye, death.” Sawing off another large chunk, she chewed and then swallowed. The blood had made her feel powerful, invincible, but the meat helped clear the cobwebs, made the pounding and incessant need for sex not so manic. “Most of what I’ve learned about the
others
I was taught by gran and mum.”

“And HPA?”

Mila shook her head. “I only freelanced. Enough to get me by, to help me survive. That was it.”

“Who were the vampires following you? Did you know them?” he asked, taking a sip of red wine.

Holding out her glass for some, she waited until he’d poured to answer, curious to see if she could handle drinking wine, or if it would be blood only for the rest of her life.

“I didn’t know them. But I saw them.”

“In a vision?” He lifted his brow and she nodded.

Amazed again at how he seemed to anticipate her answers. “Yes.”

“Why did they want you?”

She laughed, but it lacked mirth. “Same reason I’d imagine everyone else does. My eyes.” Mila pointed to them. “The power to read the future rests in them.”

Studying her, he took another sip of his drink and she did the same, a relieved
ahh
coming out of her when it went down with no problems. It was sweet and spicy, cool, and filled her mouth with the essence of blackberries and smoked cherries. Best meal of her life.

“I thought the shadow sucked out your soul.”

“Because it’s a gluttonous bitch,” she bit out. “The power rests only in our eyes, but I think it enjoys our suffering as well.”

He nodded. “The thing was”—his look was thoughtful—“intense.”

She snorted. “That’s one way of putting it. It’s got a ravenous appetite and will not stop until it hunts me and my kind to extinction. We’re very nearly there. Last I’d heard, there were less than a handful.”

“How did the vampires find you?” When she didn’t answer immediately, he wiped his mouth off with a napkin and sighed. “A reaper has many talents. Not all of us share the same. One of mine is called death’s kiss. If I concentrate, I can shove a part of my essence into another, killing them instantly if it’s a mortal. She was not. So rather than stop her heart, death spoke to me. It crawled inside her and drew out a part of her consciousness.”

She blinked. The power he claimed to possess was almost frightening, but also exciting. “Did it affect it at all?”

“Yes. It stunned her. She’s probably still lying on my bedroom floor in full rigor.”

Excited, buzzing with a sudden rush of adrenaline, she leaned forward, ignoring her half-eaten steak for the moment. “What did you learn?”

“I learned that once a seer’s scent gets into her she’s like a bloodhound. She never forgets and becomes obsessed with finding that particular seer. She’s so obsessed that she will not move on to another subject until she’s trapped the first one.”

Bringing her fingers to her nose, she sniffed, smelling only the roses from the shampoo she’d used earlier.

“But you’ve been porting us around; how can she still find me? Shouldn’t that kill off the scent so that she can’t trace me?” Fear gripped her heart in a vice.

He bit his bottom lip. “I’m not sure. When a creature is born of the wild hunt, they aren’t stable. Or normal.”

“Normal’s relative.” She snorted. “I doubt I’m normal. Half-shifter, half-vampire.”

“Yeah.” He grinned, swallowing another sip of wine. “I guess you’re right.”

Making a joke about it was easier than giving into the pounding fear sinking its twisted tentacles into her.

His face was serious again, as were his eyes, and she knew it was worry.

“What is it?”

He looked at her. “She can slip through protection wards. I don’t know how, but she’s very powerful.”

That was the death knell to her. “So in essence you’re saying you can’t kill her, you can’t keep her out, and she’ll follow me until the day I die, which now isn’t likely to happen any time soon.”