“We’re bonded, or whatever you called it,
aren’t we?” He nodded and smiled at her.
Not for long, asshole
. “How do
we undo this?” Andi pulled his shirt over her head, put hers in its place, and
looked at him when he didn’t answer. He was staring at her with the strangest
look on his face. “I want to know how we get this thing annulled or whatever to
get this bonding thing reversed.”
“We can’t. Not that I would, but we
can’t. You’re mine and I’m yours. We’re together forever.”
She had a feeling he meant really
forever, but didn’t comment.
“I don’t have time to explain things to
you right now, but you have to listen to me. He might have seen enough about
you to know you.”
She walked to the door and tried to open
it again. He was nuts. No, it was more than that. He was insane. She turned
back to him and glared. “Open this door or else.”
He threw back his head and laughed. She
didn’t find anything the least bit humorous about this and started to say so
when he started for her. She tensed and put out her hands. She did the only
thing she could think of and threw out her hands to toss him away. And she did.
He flew backwards and hit the wall
behind him. She had never been able to do that before and stood there stunned
while he stood up. He didn’t come toward her, but watched her carefully.
“You ever do that before?”
She nodded then shook her head.
“How? Magic or something else.”
His voice was calm, scary calm, but he
didn’t look pissed. “Psychokinetic, or I guess with my mind. And since I was a
kid. I’ve never been able to throw anyone before, but…are you hurt?”
“No.” He sat down in the chair that
they’d been in earlier and continued to look at her. “Who else knows? My dad? Bradley?”
“Not Mr. Wolfe. Your dad guessed…well,
he asked me and I told him. But that guy, the king does, I think.” She glanced
back at the door. “Are you going to let me out?”
The door clicked open behind her and she
stared at him. “You can do it as well. Everything I can do, so can you. You
could throw me because of our bonding. Your…ability, I suppose, is enhanced,
stronger. There are a great many things you’re going to be able to do that you
couldn’t before.”
She didn’t move, didn’t try to leave. “Like
what?” She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know, but for whatever reason
didn’t want to leave just yet. “Can I fly?”
He smiled at her, but didn’t answer her
question. “The man. Did you see him, his face? Could you make him out if you
saw him again?”
She thought about it. She’d looked at
him nearly the whole time, him and the girl, but couldn’t remember what he
looked like. She frowned when Mac asked her again.
“No. The girl I could, but not the man.”
She sank to the floor. “It was real, wasn’t it? All of this is real, isn’t it? That
man killed that girl by sucking her blood and then stabbing her to death with a
knife and you’re really a vampire.” He didn’t answer again.
There was a tightening to the room and,
suddenly, the woman from earlier was standing there. She looked at the two of
them then at the bed. She smiled at Mac. “She’s your mate.” He didn’t answer,
but looked at her. Andi didn’t answer her either when the queen looked at her. “I
had hoped this would happen. You’ll both be very happy—”
“There’s been another murder. And Brandi
has been pulled into the dreams too. She could see the woman. I still can’t,
but she can.”
The queen seemed to wilt and, suddenly,
there was the king. He glared at Mac, who only shrugged. Andi didn’t know why,
but she felt suddenly protective of Mac.
“We told her about another murder. Mac
didn’t do anything to her.” Andi stood up and ready to toss his ass across the
room too. “You need to tone down the power or whatever it is before I hurt
you.”
She didn’t think she could and the man
apparently knew that too. But he did nod at her as if to say, “you win this
round.” He picked up the queen and held her. He looked first at Mac then at
her.
“We will talk in the living room of this
house. My guard is surrounding this property so we can talk here.” He started
toward her and she tensed. “I only wish to go out the door, little one. I mean
you no harm.”
“Shamus, there’s something else you
should know, know about her.”
She looked at him to see which “her” he
was talking about.
“My mate has a power of her own. One
that has gotten stronger with our bonding.”
He grinned. “As it should. I’ll see you
both upstairs. And Mac, don’t dally. I can see your lust; it will have to
wait.”
After he left the room Andi tried to
step through the door too. Mac stopped her by calling her name. She turned back
to look at him.
“He’s right.”
She looked at him harder.
“I want you again. I want you beneath me
right now. But we must talk to everyone. Especially because I’m afraid he might
have seen who you are.”
“I don’t want you to touch me again,
Mac. We need to get this reversed or whatever needs to be—”
“You leave me and I’ll die.” He stood up
and moved to the bathroom without another word. Surely she heard him wrong. When
he didn’t come out right away she thought about waiting, but in the end went
out the door. He wouldn’t die because she left him. He had to be joking.
~~~
Everyone was in the room when he came
up. He glanced at his father, but said nothing. He did note that Brandi seemed
to be pale and wondered if he’d taken too much from her. He sent a mental push
for her to drink more juice and smiled when she set the glass she had in her
hand down hard. She was proving to be a lot of fun as well as a pain in the
ass.
He looked over at his mom. She’d know
what to do, he supposed, but didn’t want to ask her. He wanted Brandi to want
to stay with him, not by magic or any other means. He sat next to her on the
couch and pulled her into his lap when she tried to move to another place. Her
elbow in his gut nearly had him laugh out loud, but he didn’t. She looked
positively murderous.
“I have come on behalf of my mate.” Shamus
looked at Aaron. “She would very much like for you to speak to her. She is ill
with worry and has—”
“Tell her to come here. Tell her…” His
dad glanced at him then away. “Tell him that I’ve been made aware that I’ve
done nothing to help my son either. Ask her to forgive me.”
Mac started to ask his dad what had
happened, but Brandi took that moment to shift on his lap. It was everything he
could do not to throw her to the floor and ravage her. She moved again and he
put his hands on her hips and held her still.
“You keep that up and we’ll end up back
in the bed. Now. I’m having a hard enough time trying to concentrate on what’s
being said without you making me harder.”
She tried to get up and he held
her to him.
Her touch to his mind was tentative, but
she did make the connection.
“I don’t want to be here anyway. You have to
ask whoever you need to that we get this thing between us taken care of.”
“Why?”
He thought about the shared
memory of the alley and wondered if that had anything to do with it.
“Why is
it important that we no longer be mates?”
She turned and looked at him.
“That
man is just like you. No matter how you try and pretty it up, you need to bite
someone to…to…”
“To feed. And I’m nothing like him. Other
than we’re both vampires, there is nothing more in common between us.”
She turned on his lap and tried to
stand. This time, he let her. When she walked to the couch he tried to calm his
beast. Her sitting next to Shamus nearly had him snarl at the king. Shamus
scooted away from her, but it wasn’t enough. Mel coming into the room had him
pause, but he kept glaring at the man.
“She has yet to realize what she’s
doing. Give her time. She seems to be afraid of you.”
He glanced as
his grandmother Elizabeth, then at Brandi again.
“What has happened, Mac?”
“We shared my dream.”
She inhaled sharply.
“I’ll tell them, but…she doesn’t want to
be my mate because of what she saw him do in this memory. I can’t get her to
realize that I’m nothing like him.”
“But you are, in a way. Other than being
a vampire, aren’t you the same? Don’t look at me like that. You know that I
don’t mean a killer. But you take and take without giving… Let me ask you
something, Mac MacManus. When you took her to your bed, did you ask her what
she wanted? Did you ask her to be your mate or did you act like your father and
demand it?”
He flushed at her questions. Not just
the content, but she was right too.
“Romance isn’t dead, you know. It
wouldn’t have hurt you a bit to take her out, give her roses, or—”
“She’s my mate and I shouldn’t have to
do those things.”
The moment he said it he knew it wasn’t true. His grandmother raised a brow at
him, but said nothing.
“I do sound like my dad. He still tries to make Mom
do what he wants and she simply pats him on the cheek and does it her way
anyway.”
“Yes, she does. And most of the time,
isn’t she right?”
He nodded then answered her through
their connection.
“Of course she is. And do you know why? Because
she’s
lived by her wits and her own mind a long time before your father came
along. Much like I’m assuming your own mate has. Aaron may be older than her,
but he’s also overbearing, overprotective, as well as a pain in the ass. But
she loves him. As do I. But don’t tell him I said that. He’s hard enough to
live with.”
Mac decided to romance his mate. He
started to make a mental list of things he was going to do for her when he
heard his name. He looked at Mel guiltily and flushed. He didn’t know how long
he’d not been paying attention, but it must have been long enough. Everyone was
looking at him.
“There’s been another murder. And my
lovely mate Brandi has shared it with me in a dream. She has details that I don’t.”
He looked over at her face and smiled. “I think with her help, we may be able
to find him yet.”
Chapter 9
Zachariah paced his office again. He was
angry. No, that was too tame a term for what he was. He was pissed. He paced
harder and glared at the woman in the chair in front of his desk. He wondered
if he could snap her neck and remove her head without anyone noticing it.
“I told you a month ago that we needed
this to be a premier wedding. How many pure bloods do you suppose there are
left of our kind that we can simply do the ceremony without telling the world?”
“I don’t really give two shits who you
tell;
I just don’t want them at my house when you do it.” He went behind his desk and
sat down. His mother glared back at him. “I want you to pare this down. Four
thousand guests is not even an option. Hell, four hundred would be pushing it. How
the hell do you even know that many people?”
He supposed if one was as old as she was,
one might, but he doubted that she knew them well enough to have them come
here. He’d bet his last dollar that she didn’t know one percent of them.
“I don’t really know any of them. Who
knows anyone nowadays?”
He started to speak…yell really, when
she raised her hand.
“I know it’s a great inconvenience, but
that’s what your sister wants. And as her oldest brother, you—”
“I’m her only brother. And that does not
negate the facts here. Four thousand guests will not fit in this house. What
happened to the four hundred that this list was only a few days ago? Speaking
of that, there will not be enough donors, as you’ve requested. There won’t be
enough room to walk much less…what the fuck, Mother? Are you doing this just to
piss me off?” When she looked away he knew that was it. She was trying to make
him mad.
“I have no idea what you’re talking
about. Make you mad? That would be insanity, would it not?” She grinned at him
and he wanted to strangle her. “I will work to pare it down. But I’m not making
any promises. You must make sure that we have enough donors here. I don’t care
how you manage it.”
He wanted to point out that her way
didn’t necessarily make them donors but cattle, but kept his mouth shut. He
glanced at the clock on the wall and wished she’d hurry up and leave. He wanted
to go back to the alley and see if they’d found the girl yet. When his mother
finally left he leaned back in his chair and thought of last night.
He’d felt…watched. And he had the
feeling that not just one, but several were watching him. And he couldn’t shake
the feeling that it wasn’t the first time someone had seen him kill. That
feeling had been around for several months now.
Zachariah closed his eyes and tried to
concentrate on the shadow he’d seen. It had appeared twice; both times he’d
felt the presence of a female, but couldn’t be sure. Then there was the scent.