Jade (Rare Gems Series) (13 page)

He purred.
It came from deep within his chest and out his mouth. Something he’d never thought of a wolf doing, but again, he wasn’t a normal wolf. When he closed his eyes, Quentin saw him there. The panther was just pacing back and forth as if he was awaiting his turn for something. When he snarled at him, Quentin laughed. He’d never felt so good in his entire life.

“Can we talk like this?”
Jade told him that they could. “I wonder if the panther will be able to talk to you as well. I can see him. Just there beyond my mind. He’s huge. Am I that big as a wolf?”

“You are.
Bigger than me but not as big as Blair, but not much difference. Maybe thirty pounds or less. You’re darker than he is, shiny in your coat as I said, but you’re…I don’t know, you seem more powerful to me. Could be that I’m thinking that now because you’re in front of me.”

“I’m much bigger
, and we’ll leave it at that.” She laughed again, and he felt happy. “How do I shift back? And just so you know, I’m still going to see how I hurt you.”

“You clawed me when your panther came to surface.
He didn’t mean to, but I was in his way when you wanted to run. I won’t do it again. Blair had to…he held you down and had to order you to shift back. You terrified us all.” He moved back from her lap and thought of himself. But the panther leapt to his mind at the last moment, and he knew when he opened his eyes that he wasn’t wolf or human right now.

His cat snarled
, and he could feel his anger. When he moved to Jade, she backed deep into the chair, but she didn’t run. Much to his disappointment. But he wanted something from her and when he nudged at her shirt, she tried to pull away. That’s when Quentin realized he wanted to see the wound, too.

“Show us what he did. He wants to see it.” She shook her head
, and that pissed the cat off. “Do it, Jade, please? He really needs to see what he did.”

When she stood up, Quentin sat down and tried to calm his cat by telling him that she was doing what he wanted.
He was still very angry, but he did it calmly now and not aggressively. When Jade pulled her blouse off and held it in front of her like a shield, the cat reached up and pulled it away gently, using his claws to do so.

The marks were long and jagged.
Four wide red wounds marred her lovely flesh, and he started to whimper. The cat was so upset that he’d harmed his mate that Quentin almost felt sorry for him. Moving forward, Quentin had the sudden urge to lick the wounds and taste her blood. There was no talking him out of it. And when he pushed her back into the chair, Jade tried to cover herself again.

“Let him lick them.
He wants to…I think he wants to heal you.” Jade nodded and lowered her hands. “Jade, honey, I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything. You were hurt and scared. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Quentin wasn’t sure that was right, but when the cat put its paws on either side of her on the chair, she leaned back and let him look at the wounds.

They were infected.
He could smell that now, and he leaned closer and sniffed. Yes, that was what he smelled. Somehow she’d gotten an infection from his marks. He looked into her eyes as he lapped at her too-warm flesh. Her moan made his wolf stir.

“They want you.
So do I, but I’m not sure how this works.” He licked the path of the wounds again and again until he felt that she’d heal now. “When I shift, you should know that I’m going to take you. Right here and right now.”

“I hope so.”
She stood up and removed her bra. “Shift for me, Quentin. I need you very badly.”

But he didn’t. He watched her until she was naked before him
, and he moved to her, not sure what his cat was going to do, but he rubbed his head along her thigh, then backed up. He’d just marked her if he was thinking correctly. Closing his eyes, Quentin reached for himself and felt the power of his shift take him. When he opened his eyes, he was no longer looking up at her but down on her as Quentin.

“Come here.”
She went into his arms willingly, and he took her mouth. Knowing that he wasn’t going to be gentle, he picked her up and impaled her over his cock. Nothing had ever felt this good as to be deep inside of his mate. When he took her to the wall, he pounded into her hard enough to shake pictures from their hangers and make the curtain move. When he felt her lick along his throat, Quentin snarled at her and she growled low. He was going to take her throat this time and mark his mate.

The wolf surfaced then, just enough that Quentin felt his canines drop.
When he tore into her flesh, Jade screamed out his name and he came with her. Even as his body was filling hers he felt the need to take her again. Letting her go as soon as her feet were on the floor, he turned her and pulled her ass to him. Entering her from behind, he bit into her shoulder again and tasted her hot spicy blood fill his mouth.

“Come now,”
he commanded her and pinched her clit with his finger and thumb.
“Come, Jade. Come now.”

Her body tightened around his and he found himself strangled inside of her.
She pulled his arm to her mouth and bit hard into his forearm even as he came. Christ, he couldn’t get enough of her. Wasn’t sure he ever wanted to. When they both leaned heavily against the door, panting, he felt his cock stir to life again, and he chuckled.

“I have never gone three times before even as a teenager in the blossom of my youth.” He rocked into her again
, and she moaned. “We really should try this in a bed. I’m sure that would more than likely be more comfortable than the wall.”

“Or the woods.” Quentin was licking her shoulder clean of her blood when she suggested that. He
felt his wolf and the cat perk up, and Jade lifted her head to look at him over her shoulder. “You want to take me like a wolf, don’t you?”

“Yes. More than anything in this world.”
He backed away from her, but only far enough that he could turn her around before pressing her back. “Will you shift for me and let me fuck you like an animal?”

“Oh hell yeah.”
She pushed him back and moved to her clothes. “As soon as we get home, we’ll go to the woods behind your house and run through the woods.”

Quentin
pushed her over the bed while she was reaching for her blouse. An urge to dominate her made his wolf snarl at him to take her again. When she opened her legs for him, he slammed into her heat and stilled.

“Our home. Say it. It’s our home.”
She moaned and he pulled out to the tip then slammed deeper into her. The bed moved across the floor a good foot, and he had to take a step to lean over her. “Say it, Jade. Say it’s our home.”

“Our home.
Christ, Quentin, give it to me. I need to come again.” Happy to oblige, he reached around her to her slick pussy and found her clit. She was as hard as he was, and he slid his fingers over her gently as he moved in and out of her much slower now.

“When we get home
, I’m going to make you come so many times you’re going to need a nap just to make it back to our bed. Then when you’re there, I’m going to take you again and again.” He had no idea if he could actually do that to her, but he was willing to try. “Then when you’re sated, I’m going to hold you for the rest of the night until I need you again.”

“Please,” she begged him
, riding his fingers. “I need to come. Please give it to me.” He nipped at her shoulder again and tasted her need. Quentin moved into her mind and found that he could see what she wanted, and stood up. Pulling from her body was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but he wanted to give her as much pleasure as she’d given him. Helping her to stand, he told her to lie back on the bed.

He
slid the chair to the side of the bed and then pulled her to the very edge and put her foot into his hand. As he massaged it, he smiled at her. She was going to enjoy this. And so was he. Leaning into her, he licked her thigh and growled low when she tried to close her legs to him.

“Don’t deny us this.” He felt his wolf stir
, and he tried to hold him back. But when he snarled at him too, he let him come to the surface just a little. His wolf wanted to taste her too.

Suckling her clit into his mouth
, Quentin let the wolf have his way. He never fully shifted, but he knew the moment his tongue entered Jade that she could feel the difference, too. She screamed out her first climax almost immediately. Pulling her nether lips open wider, Quentin feasted on her as if she were the last meal he’d ever have. And she fed him all of her. Over and over she came until she started to beg him to stop please.

“I need you.” He stood up and fisted his cock.
“Christ, I need to come inside of you again.”

She reached for him just as he entered her slowly.
Every inch of his cock felt bathed in molten lava. When he was buried to the root he leaned over her and took her mouth in a gentle kiss.

“I love you. More than I ever dreamed possible to love someone.”
He rocked into her over and over, watching her face as he did so. “I want to see you large with my child. I want to wake next to you every day for the rest of my life. I want to be with you every minute of every day.”

“Please.”
He moved a little more now, deeper into her, and he held her tightly to him. “I want to have your child. Soon. I want to have a child with you, as many as we can.”

“Will you adopt Angie?
Make her yours?” She nodded and closed her eyes. “Let me see you when you come. I want to see it take you.”

Opening her eyes
, he could see her wolf there and his own stirred against his skin. When she screamed this time, it wasn’t his name she yelled out but her love for him. When her teeth sank into his shoulder, he did the same to her. And rolling through his climax, he marked her deeply this time, tearing into her tender flesh and leaving his mark for all to see.

Chapter 13

Sloan sat on the porch and watched the young couple get out of the large SUV.
He smiled when he saw Angie try to help her dad move to the house, knowing that the man was much stronger than he looked. And a good deal more than anyone knew. Sloan watched Jade as she pulled the last of the luggage from the back and put it on the ground before closing the door. He was next to her lifting the burden before she could take the handle.

“You’re well?” She nodded
, not looking him in the face. When he lifted her chin, he could see that she, too, had taken on a little more, but wondered if she knew it yet. This couple had a lot going on.

“You should really step away from her. I’m not sure
, but I think one or both of my animals wants to kill you right now.” Sloan dropped his hand from Jade and turned slowly to look at Quentin. “You’ve no idea how much I want to shift and tear you apart.”

“I don’t know
, but I can feel it. You’re well also then?” Quentin nodded at his question. “Good. I have news to tell you, and I’d like to—”

He was suddenly pulled into a hard hug.
He and Quentin had hugged before, but this one was different. This one was filled with love and understanding. Sloan held his friend as long as he could and they both parted before they got too weird.

“You saved my life.”
Sloan started to deny it, but Quentin cut him off. “No, you did. Jade told me what you did for us, and I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you. If you hadn’t done what…if you hadn’t come when she needed you, we both know that I’d be dead.”

“You’re welcome. And I would very much appreciate it if you never brought it up again. Even as old as I am and as worldly
, I have never been so terrified of anything in my entire life. I’ve never….” Sloan shivered. “I was glad to help you when I could. That’s enough said on that subject.”

Quentin nodded
and moved to the house with his daughter. Sloan’s memories of that night flooded his mind, and he had to hang onto the side of the car to wait for the fear to pass again. He looked at Jade when she put her hand out to him.

“I never thanked you either.”
He nodded and watched her. “When he started to shift into both animals at the same time, I felt my mind shut down. He was coming apart with them, and there was nothing I could…you saved us both, not just him.”

“He was dying.
He was as good as dead.” He took her hand and held it as they both moved to the house. “I’m happy that—”

Sloan dropped the luggage that was Angie’s and pulled Jade into his arms.
He knew that if Quentin were out there with them, he’d be hard pressed not to murder him, but he wanted to hold this woman. Not sexually, though she was very beautiful, but because she’d been the lifeline that pulled them all together when the need arose. She’d called to him even though they’d never as much as exchanged anything but scents.

Pulling away from her
, he followed her to the house and waited outside the door until she came back for him. The ward he’d had put on the house prevented him from entering, too. Without both their permission, he could neither enter nor leave. It was the way he’d had it set up.

After they were all in the house and Angie was settled in her new room
, the adults adjourned to the living room. Sloan loved the furniture that was in this room as well as the rest of the house. When a fire was lit in the big fireplace, the room took on a glow that was only outshined by the two people he had to break hard news to.

“Roger is dead.”
He had always had an understanding with Quentin that it was hard and fast news, not bits and pieces. Quentin looked shocked but didn’t say anything. “His body was found two days ago. I didn’t become aware of it until someone from the force called me and told me he had a death he couldn’t explain. He’d had his throat torn out.”

“By who?”
Sloan looked at Jade when she asked. “Was it Kent? Or are there more players that we aren’t aware of?”

“It was him.
He’s also either gone to ground or hurting like hell right now, too. Roger had quite a bit of silver in his system and when Ballard bit him, he would have had to have gotten a good deal of it in his own body. There was a lethal dose in him, much more than would have come from the bullet.” Sloan handed them a picture. “Do either of you know this woman?”

“I do.”
Jade handed the photo to Quentin as she continued. “She’s a faerie that I run with sometimes when we’re in the woods at the forestry. She’s…she can shift to other animals.”

Sloan nodded.
“Her scent was all over Roger too. I’m thinking she gave him the silver and he took it willingly. He might have even arranged for her to give it to him. It might have been his plan to have Ballard bite him and drink the tainted blood.”

“The letter.”
Quentin jumped up off the couch and went out of the room. When he returned, he had an envelope in his hands and he looked embarrassed. “My brother gave this to me through Jade a few days before I got…before the change. I never read it because I was sure he was going to be asking me for more money or something more than I wanted to give him.”

He tore it open and three things fell out to the floor as he took the letter in his hand.
Even from across the room he could see that two were pictures and the other looked to be a claim ticket or something. Quentin started to read the letter aloud.

My dearest brother,

You’ve no idea how sorry I am for all the things I did to you and your family.
I know that you’ve no reason to forgive me, and I’m not asking that of you. But I would, if you’d allow me to, tell you all that I have done. A sort of confession if you like.

I killed Isabel.
She had been hanging from the chair that Dad had put her on to teach you a lesson, but I kicked it from her when I went to see her. She’d been begging me to let her down, and I’d been just fired from my latest fuck up, and I was pissed at you for having it all. I never hurt Angie then, but I have since. The child never told on me because I threatened her.

I was cruel to her, Angie I mean. She was nothing but a child
. I realize that now, but I hated her because again she was something you had but I did not. I hope that someday she will forget me. It is the only thing I am clinging to right now, that she will have a better life with you and Jade.

Also I was responsible for Debra’s
deceit. I knew she was my mate long before she met you, but I wanted more, and she did as well. I will say that she was just as devious as I in all manner of things. And for the most part was willing in all the things we did to you, quite happily as a matter of fact. It was our plan, as you had guessed, to get her pregnant with your child then have her divorce you later and live off your checks monthly. You’re a good deal smarter than I ever thought. Or for that matter gave you credit for. I’m truly sorry for that.

Kent Ballard will try to kill you. I have hopes that Jade will convert you to wolf before he comes for you. You’re very intelligent but not as strong as a vampire.
Especially one as old as Kent is. He’s sick in the mind, I believe, and thinks himself very much king of the world. He will more than likely kill me in the next few days. My only hope is that I can get this letter to you somehow before then.

He will change Angie if he finds her.
You must protect her at all costs. I’m not sure if you realize what that would mean for her to be changed as a child, but she will remain one until her death. As I have done some research on the matter, children who are converted become bigger monsters than their sire. It’s because they are not ever an adult and cannot deal with things as we do. Not that I did a very good job at dealing either.

Kent has two lairs.
One is in a house that is on Richardson Avenue. The house number eludes me now, but it is a large mansion that sets back from the road a bit. There are two brick and stone columns on the front drive that lead back to the house. He sleeps in the lower levels and had the house wired for intruders. I have taken the liberty of cutting those wires in a way that he is not aware of. When entering the house go to the library, and under the desk is a button. By pushing it, you’ll open the doors to the lower levels and to the several lairs below. His is at the end of the long hall. There is no other way in or out of the rooms but by the hall. Take Sloan with you. He’ll be able to help you like no one else can.

Sloan cleared his throat, and Quentin looked up at him before continuing on with the letter. “I cannot go with you unless the house belongs to someone besides him. Or I get the approval of someone with authority. Like the alpha who has been hurt or one of his pack who has been hurt by Ballard.”

“I’ll contact Blair now. I’m sure that when Kent hurt me should be enough, don’t you?
” Sloan nodded and smiled. It was the first time he’d heard Jade say Ballard’s name without cringing. “I’m going with you, too. I want to make sure the bastard is dead before I can move on.”

Sloan nodded
, knowing that she’d already moved on, but knew that she needed this as well. He leaned back as Quentin picked up the letter where he’d left off.

The second lair he has is a cave deep within the mountains of the state park where Jade works. I don’t think he’s had it long, but I know that he’s been there several times over the past month. I found it funny that all the time he was staying there he’d never found Jade out working. It was a private joke of mine for several days now, and will keep me on the steady course for what I must do to help you. I must kill myself in order to help you.

I have contacted a good friend of Jade
’s. She wasn’t willing to help me at first, but when I explained to her what I wanted, she was more than willing. I have had her give me something that would hasten my death, and also if all goes well, harm if not kill Ballard for you. I will drink the silver into my body, and he will drink from me. I will be in with him when he rises.

I’m truly sorry for all that I’ve done to you both.
I’d like to say that if I could do it all over, I’d be different, but we both know that I wouldn’t. I’m just a horrible person and much too much like Dad to have been anything different. Also, I’ve taken steps to contact Mom. She has agreed to wait until you contact her before she does anything else. I have been remiss by telling her things about you that were never true, and that is why she left you as she did. I do love you, more than I ever thought I could. Your brother, Roger.

Quentin picked up the two pictures and handed them to Jade. She in turn handed them to him. The first one was of Quentin and Roger as children sitting on a porch step, and the next one was of Quentin with his first wife and their new daughter. It looked like they’d only just come home from the hospital. He handed them back to Jade. The last thing was handed to him directly, and he looked at Quentin when he asked him what it was.

“It’s a bank
safety deposit box receipt. It was opened….” Sloan looked up at the couple. “It was opened five days ago in Jade’s name. It’s at the National Bank on Tenth Street.”

Sloan went to the lower levels just as the sun was coming up.
He really didn’t need to sleep so early in the morning hours because he was so old, but Angie had gotten up for school and he thought that Jade and Quentin needed some time with her before she left for the day. The guard that he’d planted at the grade school knew that she was to be his number one priority if anything happened, but if need be, he was to try and save all the children should anyone try anything. Angie was as precious to him as she was her parents.

His phone was ringing just as he settled into the bed.
Picking it up, he smiled when he realized who it was. Rufus was one of his dearest friends. And also the most ruthless bastard he knew when it came to doing his job.

“Found out something you might want to know.
You remember a few years back when we took out that there prick that was a hurting them girl’s way down in Mexico?” Sloan winced at his friend’s language but knew better than to try and correct him. “You ‘member him. He was the guy that was eating them when there was a nice butcher down the road from him.”

“Yes, his name was Darren Fisher. You killed him
, if I remember correctly, even though we’d been told to bring him in for questioning.” Rufus had had no choice but to kill the man, but it was still fun to rib him about it. “If memory serves me, you had to pay a nice tidy fine for it.”

“Yeah, but you paid it for me
, so it wasn’t a total wash. But I’m thinking he had a partner. One that does about the same as he did but a little more…I guess I would call it a little more violent.” Sloan sat up in the bed as Rufus continued. “The reason I called you is on account of you and that human you hung out with. What the fuck was his name?”

“I haven’t a clue, Rufus. I’m nearly seven thousand years old
, and I’ve been known to hang out with one or two men between now and then.” He waited, knowing that it would come to Rufus sooner or later. “Did you ever hear of a panther and a wolf sharing the same man?”

“No. Hell no.
You think they fight it out when he’s just walking around snarling and snapping at each other?” The laughter was as crude as his language. “You got a punchline with this here joke?”