He looked around. The room had been
tossed. And her things as well as the things that he assumed came with the room
had been destroyed. He started to move toward the bed when she told him to
stop. Mac looked back at her.
“I didn’t do this. I had no idea where
you lived until just now. I want to have a look around and I promise I won’t
come near you.” He noticed that the gun in her hand looked a little steadier
and he was both proud and scared. Smiling gently, he tried to compel her to put
it down. “Put the gun on the dresser and step back into the bathroom. If you
want to shut the door until I’m finished, that’s fine too. But I’m not going
anywhere until I look around.”
“Does that normally work for you?” She
hadn’t moved and that surprised him. “I’m not a pushover, you overgrown ape. I’m
pretty good at taking care of myself. You just haul your ass out of my place
and go on over to the front desk and tell them how you’re going to be a good
guy and pay for the door being fixed. On your way out of my place, that is. I’ve
got this under control.”
He wanted to laugh, but he knew without
a doubt she’d shoot. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he needed to get her to
cooperate. He looked around again and wondered aloud where her children were.
“Kids?” She snorted. “Do I strike you as
the motherly type? Don’t answer that. Not that it’s any of your business, but I
don’t have children. Nor do I want any. I’m all happy as a clam without rug
rats running around. Besides, who could afford them?”
She wasn’t the one. He didn’t know why
that depressed him so profoundly, but it did. He started to lower his hands
when she lifted the gun higher. He’d suddenly had enough and moved to her
quickly. After tossing the gun to the bed, he pulled her body to his and held
her there. She nearly knocked his balls up around his throat when she tried to
get away from him.
“Stop. Damn it, woman, what are you
trying to do, unman me?” She snarled at him a word that he assumed meant yes,
and he smiled. Christ, she was a handful. “Okay, I’m going to turn you lose,
but you’re going to behave yourself. If you don’t then I’m going to have to get
rough with you.”
He found he did want to get rough with
her. Get naked and rough. He let her go by degrees and, when he started to step
back, she turned quickly and he was suddenly on his back. All the air rushed
from his lungs and he had to scramble to catch her before she made it to the
door. As it was, all he got was her pant leg and he had to drop her to the
floor to keep her from kicking him in the face.
“Behave,” he shouted at her. When that
didn’t work he put his weight over her struggling body and held her down that
way. She just didn’t seem to know when she was beat. Grabbing her hands, he
pulled them above her head and held them there. A slight memory of doing this
same thing in his dream last night had him still. He looked down at her.
“Do you know me?” Mac leaned in and buried
his nose at her throat. “You smell like the lilacs in my mother’s yard.”
Mac licked the pounding pulse and then
looked up at her when she moaned. Her eyes had darkened more. He had no idea
what color they were naturally, but now they were the most beautiful shade of
purple he’d ever seen. Lowering his head to her mouth, he licked along her
lips. Her sigh made him moan, but before he could seal his mouth over hers, he
heard the sirens coming closer.
He wanted her. Now. And he was pretty
sure she wanted him as badly. But he couldn’t take her right here. He ran his
tongue along her throat again and licked at the vein there. He wanted to be
able to find her again, and he nipped slightly at her throat. Without thinking
about how much he didn’t ever want to bite someone, he sank his fangs deep into
her flesh.
Heaven. Paradise. Utopia. Nothing could
have prepared him for his first bite and he was sure that he’d never be able to
have the same feelings again. While his mind told him she belonged to someone
else, his body demanded he take her now. Drinking deeply again, he swallowed
her into him. Even as he sealed the tiny pricks she was wrapping herself around
him. Christ, he was going to have to pull away or take them to his lair.
“We’re going to have company in a few
minutes, love. And as much as I’d like to oblige you, I’m afraid, for what I
want to do to you, there simply isn’t enough time.” He rocked into her soft
folds again and moaned. “But if you want to come with me now I’m sure that we
could both find satisfaction.”
She stiffened. He knew that he’d either
get up now or lose a body part. And her mouth, sexy as it looked, was entirely
too close to his body for him to think he’d get away without bloodshed. Mac
hopped up off her and pulled her into his arms before she could move.
“The police are coming. You will have to
deal with them on your own. I’m going to let you go and have a look around the
room before they come in, and then I’m going to leave you.”
“I never invited you in in the first
place.” She staggered slightly when he released her. “What did you do to me?”
“I tasted you.” He moved to the bed then
the other things on the floor. Her things, too, were all over the place, most
of them in tatters. “Do you have any enemies?”
“You. Or you soon will be. And that
man…I only met him today. He was out of town on some business when I signed on.
Aaron. His name is Aaron MacManus.” She frowned and rubbed her head. “I think
he was in my mind.”
Mac didn’t answer her. He had finished
the room and found that the scent outside the room was also inside it. But she
didn’t smell like she’d been in contact with that person. He moved slowly
toward her. She was backing away as he got closer.
“You have to come with me. I can’t let
you be taken to the police station and I have to rest. You’ll be safe with me.”
“Sure I will, and I’ll just bet you say
that to all the women you meet. Back off, asshole, or I’ll scream bloody murder
and they’ll shoot you where you stand.” She hit the wall behind her just as he
heard the first car door slamming shut outside. “You have to go away.”
He touched her head and she dropped into
his arms. He grinned down at her, lifted her higher onto his body, and took
them to his parents’ home. It was the closest one he knew of that was safe for
them both. As soon as he laid her on his bed, he reached for his dad.
“I have a woman here with me that I have
sworn to protect. I don’t want to be disturbed. If you want me to leave, I will
as—”
“No. Please don’t go. I won’t…please
don’t leave. I would like to speak to you as soon…will I be able to speak to
you when the sun lowers?”
He looked down at the woman in his bed.
“Yes.
I don’t know what Mel has told you, but I’m sure you’re disappointed in me. I
don’t—”
“You’re my son, Mac. I could never be
disappointed in you. You’re my reason for living.”
He could feel
the emotion in his father’s voice.
“I love you. Please, come up when you can
so we can talk. Mel is…Mel isn’t going to come here again.”
Mac wondered about that, but the woman
on the bed stirred. He took off his clothes and removed her shoes and pants.
The thought of having her naked in his bed made his cock ache, but he knew she
wasn’t his and he’d never do that to anyone. This woman would be claimed and he
wasn’t going to be anywhere near her when her mate came along.
Mac climbed into the bed, careful to
stay on his side. He wanted to pull her into his arms, but didn’t. Just knowing
she was there was hard enough. Rolling to his back, he closed his eyes. It was
going to be a very long day.
~~~
Zachariah watched the cops mill around. They
didn’t have anything on him, but he did enjoy watching them fumble around. He
wasn’t sure what had happened to the girl’s door, but he didn’t care really. The
smell of another vampire was present, but so were wolf and a great deal of other
scents. He didn’t concern himself with that. He was more in this now for the
entertainment value.
He’d smelled her at the work site. Zachariah
had only planned to go there to see what was going on. He’d been trying to
scent out another female like the one he’d had the night before and came across
the construction crew by accident. The woman there had been a great surprise.
He could almost taste her scent even
after all this time. When he’d gone into the room, her room, he’d found all
those other males smells and he’d gone a little mad. Then, when he’d been calm
enough to think, he realized he’d smelled the same smells on the others, the
men she worked with. The scents had simply been who she’d been around, not who
she’d been with.
But the damage had been done and he
needed to calm himself more. As he’d left he heard someone pound on the wall to
keep quiet, but he ignored it. Some people, humans, didn’t deserve what he
blessed them with daily, and that was that they lived one more day. He thought
about going in there now and taking care of the ass, but there were just too
many others around for him to give it his utmost attention to detail.
“The guy in four said that the room was
trashed earlier. And that the girl who lived here had been in. He’s not sure
when she left. Said he wasn’t nosey.” The cop who was talking said something
like “bullshit” that also sounded much like a cough, but Zachariah wasn’t sure.
“He said that some guy was here, big guy. He also said that she works for the
Wolfe Construction Company.”
Zachariah already knew that and was
disappointed when nothing more was forthcoming. Like a name. He’d gone to the
office to see what he could get from the guy who worked the desk and, other
than the scores on the games he was watching, the guy had very little in his
head. Probably because there was so much crap in his system that he simply
didn’t know anything anymore.
Pulling shadows around himself,
Zachariah went into the room again. Nothing much had changed but the scent of
the vampire. He’d been in her room and his scent…he opened his mouth to gather
more of it in. “Young,” he said before smiling.
Zachariah was an old vamp. Not as old as
some, but he was getting there. His power base was huge, though, thanks in part
to the witch. And his abilities were pretty strong as well. He knew without a
doubt that a young vampire, even a pure blooded one like this one seemed to be,
would be no match for him. He moved around the room to where he could smell
that the two of them had been together.
He smelled it then. She’d let the vamp
bite her. He’d drunk from what was his. Zachariah leaned down to the dirty
floor and inhaled deeply. He had both their scents now and wasn’t too thrilled
to find that, at one point, she’d been wet for the male. Standing again,
Zachariah moved out of the room and then shifted. He was soaring high when he
realized that she was going to die much differently than he’d planned. She was
going to suffer for giving away what he considered his.
He was standing in his lair when he felt
the first stirring of his mother. He wished now that he’d killed her all those
years ago when he’d had the chance. Now she was too important for him to murder
off as he’d done his father and brothers. To him, there was no honor among
family.
“What is it you want, Mother dear? I’m
very busy.” He didn’t turn to acknowledge her in any way other than to speak. “Say
whatever you think you need to tell me, then please leave me alone.”
“You should have more respect for me,
Herman. One of these days I might not be here for you.”
If only
, he
thought. “Do you not have a kiss or a hug for your own mother?”
“No, I do not. And I’ve asked you a
thousand times to not call me that horrid name. My name is Zachariah now.” He
glanced over his shoulder at her, then back out at the sun rising over the
horizon. “If you think to stay here because it is close to sunrise then you’ll
need to rethink that. I don’t want you here.”
“I’m well aware of your feelings for me.
But you have no choice in the matter. I’ve brought the family with me as well.”
He turned fully to look at her.
“Your sister is getting married, or have
you forgotten that this house is mine for events such as this?”
He had, but he’d not let her know that.
The house actually belonged to her by marriage. He’d taken it when his mother
had moved out after his father was dead. According to her, it held too many
memories. It had memories for him as well, all of them good, and began when he
had taken a silver spike to his father’s heart and then another to his older brother.
Life was suddenly too wonderful for words when he’d done that.
Marriage was another concept that he
despised. Why did his sister, or any vampire for that matter, have to have a
ceremony to bind them together? Simply bite and fuck, end of story. He thought
the whole dagger thing was stupid and a complete waste of time. He didn’t
bother repeating what he’d been saying since he’d been informed about this
thing, but walked out of the room. He moved to the basement to go to rest and
to hopefully forget what was being planned above floors in his house.
Chapter 5
Andi tried to pull the covers over her,
but they wouldn’t budge. She was ready to get up and find more clothes when she
rolled to her side. That’s when she found the body lying next to her. Reaching
out gently she felt his arm, because there could be no way that belonged to a
woman, and then up the arm to the shoulder. It was wide and strong and she had
a feeling that she knew just who it belonged to.