The Vampyre Legal Chronicles - Marcus (24 page)

Anais had a
light bulb moment.

"You mean when
I was thrown off the balcony?"

 Big hands
held her by the shoulders and shook her, hard.

Eyes filled
with a tormented fury lasered into hers.

"I mean it,
Anais. Don’t you
ever
do that to me again."

Then he pulled
her to him and hugged her so hard she was afraid her ribs might
break.

Like a mother
stroking, soothing a child, Anais rubbed the flat of her hands over
the warm skin of his back and felt his muscles, hard and sculpted,
clench before he gave a heartfelt sigh and relaxed into her.

"I love you so
much, my wee darlin’. I don't know what I’d do without you."

The fact that
he’d been so terribly scared and fearful, for her, made Anais
realise that she held Marcus's heart in her hands.

And she hadn’t
been careful or respectful enough of the depth of his love for
her.

Shame slapped
her hard.

She’d been
teasing him, using his love, his physical attraction for her,
against him.

It wasn’t right
and it wasn’t fair.

No wonder he
was upset.

"I’m sorry I
hurt you," she whispered and pressed a soft kiss on the smooth skin
of his hard shoulder.

Under that
tough exterior lived a heart that was as vulnerable as any mortal
man’s.

Anais vowed
from now on to take better care of it.

Marcus lifted
his head.

His eyes a
vivid blue in the calm after the storm were filled with such pure
love that her breath hitched.

"I love you, my
vampyre. If I must obey to make you happy then I’ll promise to do
my best," she declared.

His wonderful
mouth twitched.

"Compromising,
Anais?"

She sent him a
cheeky grin.

Gave into
temptation and pressed her lips in a feather light kiss against
his.

"It’s the key
to all things, especially to a successful partnership."

Those eyes went
a darker blue as anxiety entered them and his smooth brow
creased.

His hand rose
to stroke her cheek in a move that made her tremble. "I fear
trouble lies ahead."

Anais knew it
and for a moment a rock of solid ice weighed heavy in her
belly.

Her eyes held
his as a determination to endure, to survive, to live and love this
wonderful man melted the ice and warmed her heart.

"We have each
other. We make a pretty good team. We have the other partners of
Gillespie, Pattullo and Hindmarch. Ezekiel might be hard work, but
we have a common goal to save this world. We have hope and we have
faith."

"Anais
Gillespie," Marcus drawled. "It has a nice ring to it."

"Talking of
rings."

At her raised
brows, Marcus tipped back his head and roared with laughter as he
pulled her into his arms and kissed her until her head spun.

Violent blue
eyes twinkled into hers.

"A Ruby. You’ll
suit rubies."

With a toddler
unconscious in her arms, Eleanor stepped through the portal and
entered the great hall in the dwelling of The Maker. Through
towering arches, two suns set in a sky the color of deep pink. A
soft breeze made a strange moaning noise. In her more fanciful
moments, she imagined the noise to be the lamentations of the
damned.

The creature
turned to her and stood away from his desk, his walls of flat
screens. He was tall, well over six foot, with gleaming black skin
that radiated a supernatural energy. He wore his version of a
kimono in black silk with a blood red band around his waist. His
feet were bare. The thick mane of hair that fell to his shoulders
was a mix striae of icy silver and warm gold. And he was so
unutterably beautiful he hurt the eye. An aura of pure power
surrounded him. But it was the eyes that held her perfectly still.
They were a shimmering gold-red and filled to the brim with a
preternatural life force that always gave her pause.

Arctic fingers
of fear crept up her spine as he focused all that terrible beauty
upon her. Eleanor had lived long enough to understand that fear
when dealing with an immortal was healthy, very healthy. It kept a
vampyre alive.

He smiled. It
was not the smile of a human being or even an immortal. This
creature was far removed, way beyond, immortality. She sensed it.
What was he? A black elf? She'd heard elves were tricky creatures.
A dark angel? One of the fallen?

"Welcome back,
my dear," he began, his voice soft... and as slashing as a bare
razor blade. "I see you have brought me a gift."

"Since I failed
in my task. It was out of the question to do otherwise." She
offered the child, as one would a plate of sliced meat to an
honored guest.

The Maker gave
her a tiny curve of his mouth, perhaps a smile, but there was no
emotionality, no humanity, no mortality in it. He accepted her gift
and turned to lay the child, a little boy, on a narrow couch made
of black locust. A soft hum escaped from his throat as he stroked
the boy's flushed cheek, then patted his diaper.

Then he rose
and turned his head, those eyes seemed to burn right through to her
soul.

"A fine choice,
vampyre. I appreciate the thought, as I value all that you do."

The hairs at
the back of her neck, her arms, rose as one. A shrieking alarm, a
forewarning to take great care.

"I will not
fail you, my Lord."

The Maker
laughed, and the monumental power of it echoed in the cavernous
ceiling and rained down upon her flesh. Even though he did not move
towards her, his hand fisted and she felt her throat close. It
immobilized her, threatened to take away her ability to
breathe.

Gold-red eyes
held hers and she saw no mercy, no humanness, only death.

As the world
spun she heard the little boy scream.

The End

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The Vampyre
Legal Chronicles ...CONTINUES... in Book 2 – James

which is James
and Charlotte Gillespie’s Story. You will also meet Marcus and
Anais there, too, as they settle into a new life together.

CC
MacKenzie is a USA Today Bestselling Author of contemporary and
paranormal romance. She loves to hear from her readers; you can
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Reckless Nights
in Rome - Book 1 Free

A Stormy Spring
- Book 2

Run Rosie Run -
Book 3

The Trouble
with Coco Monroe - Book 4

The Fall of
Jacob Del Garda – Book 5

A Film Star, A
Baby. and a Proposal Book 6

Delicious and
Deadly: Invitation to Eden – Book 8

An Affair to
Remember - Book 9

Desert Orchid –
Book 1

A Daddy for Daisy - Book 7 in The Ludlow Hall Series is due
out in 2015

The Vampyre
Legal Chronicles ...CONTINUES... in Book 2 – James

which is James
and Charlotte Gillespie’s Story. You will also meet Marcus and
Anais there, too, as they settle into a new life together.

Copyright © CC
MacKenzie 2015

Born in poverty, Charlotte Gillespie was not
afraid of hard work or fighting for what she believed in.

Now she had it all - A successful medical
career. A gorgeous man who loved and adored her. A beautiful home,
jewels and a life most women would envy.

And yet, something was missing…

In a desperate attempt to spice up their
pedestrian sex life, Charlotte joins a women’s networking group,
Dirty Little Secrets, run by the mysteriously exotic Eleanor
Pattullo and discovers a world of deep, dark, delights…

Clever, compelling and unconventional –
Corporate lawyer James Gillespie was no one’s idea of a
Vampyre.

Life was good.

He had a woman he adored. A stellar career
that fed his ferocious ambition.

But James had a problem.

He couldn’t find it within himself to take
his wife’s vein and bring her fully into his world…

When he discovers Charlotte’s secret life
James unleashes the beast within. But can Charlotte ever forgive
him?

When the master of magic
, the vampyre Ezekiel, arrives badly
wounded needing Charlotte’s help, James must battle not only to
save his marriage, but to save their souls…

Excerpt
:

They’d met when James
had been brought into the ER with a suspected concussion after an
over competitive game of football with his brothers. As a senior
nurse practitioner, Charlotte had seen plenty of memorable sights.
But to see all four of the raven haired Gillespie brothers, James,
Marcus, Daniel and Adam, each one a six foot six inch walking ad
for GQ, meant every female nurse with a pulse had descended on her
department just to rubber neck.

At five foot
six Charlotte was hardly vertically challenged but she’d had to tip
back her head to stare in awe and wonder at the men with the
slashing cheekbones of fierce Celtic warriors. However,
professionalism overcame the fact her brain cells had packed up
their bags and gone on an extended trip to Turkey.

With hands
fisted on her hips and a jerk of her small chin, she’d ordered them
out of her ER in a tone that meant they’d complied without a murmur
– they didn’t call her The Boss for nothing.

She’d turned to
eye the giant of a man lying on the gurney with a peculiar dazed
expression in his vivid eyes. An expression she’d initially put
down to the knot the size of a baseball on his temple.

He’d said,
"Christ, are you real?" in a deep rumbling voice with a toe curling
Scottish accent.

Frowning now,
she’d lifted his eyelids to shine a pen light into those baby blues
to check his pupil dilation. A large hand grabbed her wrist. His
thumb circling the now hectic pulse as those eyes lasered into
hers.

Then he’d
smiled, transforming his implacable features into something that
caught her breath and her heart had done the shaky boom boom boom
for the very first time.

Her eyes
flicked to the hand gripping her slim wrist and she’d sent him big
eyes.

"No touching
the medical staff, it’s against hospital policy. I have a security
team much bigger and badder than you or your brothers."

He’d let her go
and heaved out a big happy sigh.

"Darlin’, I’m
going to be doing a lot more than just touching you."

Used to being
hit on by patients and doctors, Charlotte had taken his words at
face value and shrugged them off. All the time fighting the way the
rumbling voice stirred her blood and her libido.

Over the
following days, Charlotte had learned that the Gillespie family
were true blue bloods.

Their line went
all the way back to the twelfth century in Scotland. During their
formative years the men in the family had been educated at one of
the top private schools in the Highlands, which accounted for the
Scottish burr in their deep voices. Of course she’d been flattered
when he’d shown an interest in her, but Charlotte was a pragmatist
and had understood that the Gillespie family lifestyle and how they
lived were a world apart from her own humble beginnings.

She’d refused
invitations to dinner, lunch and breakfast.

But James
Gillespie, senior partner along with his brothers, of the corporate
monolith Gillespie, Pattullo and Hindmarch, had laid siege to her
body and captured her heart. In spite of her deep reservations that
they were not well suited for the long term, four short months
later James had marched her down the aisle.

And since her
marriage, life had been one big roller coaster ride. He’d wanted
Charlotte to give up work. She’d refused, even though her
grandmother and work colleagues thought she was crazy. But both
sides making concessions was the key in any relationship so she
worked part time, which meant she enjoyed her career without the
constant companion of exhaustion.

The hard part
was the amount of socialising they had to do with the other
partners. Charlotte was the only wife. She had the unnerving sense
that each time she entered a room the big men looked at her, and
her empty womb, before sending silent messages of disappointment
amongst themselves.