Watching Out For Fangs (The Cloverleah Pack Book 7) (17 page)

Chapter Twenty Two

Chaos erupted in an instant. Josh was in his wolf form, snarling and showing enough teeth to convince Vadim that Everett was about to be lunch; Kane and Adair immediately grabbed Everett, pulling him off Vadim while Shawn tried to soothe Josh who was crouched ready to attack. Everett was crying and babbling like an idiot and Vadim stood there in the midst of it all, a freaking ice statue in the midst of a volcano. It was Josh’s growls growing louder and more menacing than Vadim had ever heard them that made him pull himself together. As much as he understood Josh’s sentiments, he couldn’t let Josh attack a defenseless human. Once he’d gotten over his rage, his kind hearted mate would never forgive himself.

Kneeling down, Vadim rested his hand on Josh’s head and peered into angry blue eyes. Although Josh was a fierce looking creature in his animal form, Vadim knew he didn’t have anything to worry about, although he couldn’t say the same for Everett.

“Vadim. My love. Get away from that rabid beast, he’ll kill you. It would destroy me if something happened to you!” Okay. Everett really wasn’t helping and Vadim flicked his head over his shoulder to where Everett was struggling in Adair’s arms, snarling and showing his fangs. Everett’s face went white, but he shut his mouth which was Vadim’s intention.

“Everett was a donor of mine, my mate. Nothing more,” he said quietly, although he knew all the wolves in the room could hear him. Saved him having to tell the story twice. “He was in my care when I met you and as soon as I knew of your existence I ended my association with him. I have had infrequent sex with him. I did feed from him. That’s all it was, and I promise you the first time I saw him again, after bonding with you, I compelled him to leave me alone, forget any feelings he might have and find someone else to be with.”

“I take it compulsion doesn’t last very long,” Shawn said, from the other side of Josh. Josh was still growling but Vadim knew he was listening. Fuck, their mind link would come in handy right now, and Vadim made a mental note to ring his mother as soon as he could and find out how to fix that little problem. For now though, he kept his focus on Josh.

“No. It can’t, that wouldn’t be fair to the person being compelled. The suggestions only apply for a couple of days after a vampire has given them, sometimes not even that.”

“So all those movies about vampires being able to compel someone to forget they’ve been fed from are a load of rubbish?” Adair sounded disgruntled as though that was something he’d hoped was true, which was weird all by itself.

“That’s something different- a mind wipe.  Compelling someone will make them say and do what you want them too. A mind wipe is permanent and only rarely used as it can cause brain damage.  It’s too dangerous, especially on humans.” As Vadim was speaking, he was stroking over Josh’s head, trying to soothe with touch, the way Josh seemed to be able to do for him. From the tenseness in Josh’s body he guessed he was only partially successful.

Figuring the sooner they got out of Everett’s presence the better, Vadim sat down on the floor, right next to Josh and threw his arm over Josh’s furry shoulder. From this position he could look at Everett, but for the moment he didn’t want to use his powers. He wanted to know what the hell Everett was doing in Cloverleah.

“Why are you here, Everett? I left you in my mother’s care. Does she know you’ve left Atlanta?”

“I’m a grown man, I can go where I like,” Everett snapped back, his chin lifted, his eyes defiant in a way Vadim had never seen before.

“You’ve interacted with paranormals, and you know the rules Everett. You signed an oath, a binding contract when you first became a house donor. That contract applies for life, something that was drummed into you from the start. What are you doing here?”

“Your mother sent me because she was worried about you consorting with wild creatures.” Everett threw Josh a hateful glance, and Josh snarled and snapped his teeth.

“He’s lying,” Adair grumbled.

“Who would you believe, Vadim? A man who has served you faithfully for ten years, who has shared your bed more often than not? Or these animals?”

Josh was snarling with menace now and Vadim increased his arm pressure, praying that Josh wouldn’t strike.

“Please, my love. We need answers,” he whispered urgently in Josh’s furry ear. In the meantime Adair had grabbed Everett by the collar of his fancy button down shirt and shook him as though he was a puppy.

“Wolves have heightened senses pup,” Adair growled with a mouthful of his own impressive teeth, a sight that had Everett shrinking in on himself. “We can smell every emotion you have and right now you…you stink of deceit, lies, magic residue and fucking lust. Now tell the truth. Why are you working with the Atlanta pack?”

“I wanted you back,” Everett cried, his eyes seeking Vadim’s again. “No one else in the coven would have me because I’m too old for them. Your mother told me where you’d gone and I listened around and hitched a ride with the wolves. But I only wanted you Vadim, that’s all.”

“I compelled you to leave me because I was already bonded. I never had feelings for you and you know it.”

“You did – you had to,” Everett was crying now and Vadim wasn’t sure if it was for show, or for real. Not that he cared and that was probably half the problem.

“I was the only one you took to your bed, the only one you showed any affection to. If it hadn’t been for Edward we would have been bonded ages ago. You can’t throw me away when you know I was the best fuck you ever had. It was only a month ago that you praised me, loved on me, all the while your cock pounding me with your teeth in my ne…”

Everett didn’t get a chance to say anything else because Josh leapt, too fast for Vadim to react. For a second Vadim was sure that Everett would be dead, but then all of a sudden Josh froze, suspended in mid-air, surrounded in a blue haze.  Shawn, who was leaning in the corner of the cell, raised his fingers to his lips and blew on them, throwing a smirk at Vadim.

“Still got it,” he said. Vadim nodded his thanks and then went and stood by Josh’s side. There was something surreal about Josh frozen in midair, his beautiful form stretched out, his mouth wide open, his lips pulled back ready to strike. Vadim wasn’t sure if he could touch his mate through the haze but he stood as close as he could get.

“Can Josh hear us?” He checked with Shawn, pleased when the Alpha Mate nodded. Then he turned back and looked at Everett.

“You are in a power of trouble, Everett, more than you could ever realize. The only reason you’re still alive is because you may have information we’re looking for.  But if all you came here for was a pity fuck then you are shit out of luck. I want to know where the fuck you got your magic, what the fuck you think you are doing here, and how, if you love me like you claim, you could condone a fucking attack on my new home?”

Vadim sneered at Everett, wondering all the while what the hell he saw in the man. And in a way, that was his answer- sight – until Josh came along Vadim didn’t really see anybody, he used his donors because that is what vampires did.  In his lifetime he’d had more than he could ever count, and Everett was simply the last in a long line of nameless, meaningless methods of getting his needs met. Apparently Everett was too thick to see that because now the man was putting on the water works complete with whimpering.

“Don’t you understand, Vadim? Ten years I gave you. Ten years I only fed you, slept with you. You were my entire life and then you just let me go and I don’t understand why? How could you do this to me?”

“You see this beautiful creature here, my lovely wolf,” Vadim said, wishing he could stroke down Josh’s form. “He’s mine, Everett, my true match, the one the Fates picked for me. More important than Edward, far more important than any human donor would be. He’s the man I love with all of my heart. My heart was dead before I met Josh, totally dead, and that dead heart couldn’t have conjured up any affection for you, or anybody else before Josh came along. I never even mentioned bonding with you, never showed you any affection – everything you believe has been created in your head. You were a source of blood and a quick fuck every now and then. Nothing more than that.”

Vadim looked at Josh, feeling the truth in his heart. “Josh is my life, my love. He is the one who resurrected my cold dead heart and gave it back to me. I will die without him and I would gladly go to my death if something were to happen to him. You, in the meantime, are a threat to this pack, which means you are a threat to me and my mate. Now tell me what the hell you are doing here, or I will scrub every thought you ever had from your brain.”

“You wouldn’t.” Everett was scared now, Vadim didn’t need a wolf nose to tell him that.

“I would Everett. I’m not going to compel you, which was my intention – there are seventeen other men down here I can get information from. But to compel you would mean I was connected with you in some obscure way, and I want nothing to do with you. So you will tell the others here what you know or you will be reduced to nothing more than a blithering wreck who will likely end up in an insane asylum or dead. You signed the contract, you knew the risks. Now speak, or say goodbye to every memory you ever had.”

Everett must have believed him, because he started talking in a low tone, still being held in Adair’s grip. Vadim turned and dismissed him entirely. He knew he was being deliberately cruel, and that wasn’t a comfortable feeling, but he was more concerned about his mate.

“We are going to have to talk about this contract business, compulsion and mind wipes,” Shawn said, coming up beside him. “It’s stuff we might have to know for future reference and I know Kane has a million questions.”

“Can you release my mate? I want to get him out of here,” Vadim said, longing to grab Josh but not sure if it was safe. “I owe him an explanation first, and then I’ll answer anything you want.”

Shawn considered him for a moment, his head tilted on one side, and then he nodded with a small smile. “Get ready to catch him, unless you want him splattering on the floor. He’s kinda lost his momentum.”

Standing as close as he dared, Vadim held out his arms under Josh’s body. He felt a slight tingle in the air, and then Josh was free and in his arms.

“Tell Kane to text us when he wants to see us,” Vadim said. “We’ll be in our room.”

Shawn nodded again and Vadim strode out of the cell, down the long corridor, up the stairs and out of the enforcer house. Josh was still in his wolf form, not shifting, fighting or wriggling, simply staying pliant. Not that it would have mattered because Vadim wasn’t giving him up – wasn’t letting him go. They were going to their room, and if Josh was angry then Vadim would hold him through it and then love on him until Josh fully understood that the only man who had ever truly held Vadim’s heart, was his gorgeous lovely self.

Chapter Twenty Three

Josh was a mess, but not for the reasons Vadim probably thought he was. Okay, the last thing he expected after a night of hot loving, tender touches and pure bliss was to bump into one of Vadim’s blood donors. But Josh really didn’t have a problem with Everett as such. His mate was well over seven hundred and fifty years old and had been drinking from donors for at least that long. It would be stupid to get jealous over such a connection even if Josh couldn’t see how taking blood from a person could be anything but intimate.

Yes, Everett made him angry, jealous and stoked his possessive fires to burning pitch. If Shawn hadn’t zapped him then Josh would have quite happily torn Everett’s throat out. Not for actually being with his mate, but because he couldn’t shut up about it. The idiot might have spent ten years knowing about the paranormal world, but he had no idea how possessive Josh’s wolf could be.

No. The problem was with Vadim himself – how callously he treated Everett, after
ten years
of being intimate with him. The only thing that stopped Josh from jumping out of his mate’s hold and heading off for the trees, was that he had listened to what Vadim had said. He couldn’t help it – his heart had positively melted at the way Vadim had spoken about him. Which is why…Yeah, guess he was going to have to talk to the man himself to work that one out.

So Josh stayed limp, even if he secretly did hope that Vadim was breaking a sweat over carrying his wolf form. He weighed more as a wolf than his human form did, over 250 pounds, because of course shifters were heavier and bigger than their natural counterparts. Unfortunately Vadim wasn’t known for sweating and Josh wasn’t even sure the vampire could. He certainly didn’t puff or appear out of breath.

As soon as they got to their room, Vadim carefully laid him down on the bed and after kicking off his shoes, climbed on the bed and stroked Josh’s ears. Okay, that was nice too. Josh liked being petted in his wolf form. Maybe he could stay wolfy until he worked out what he was going to say. He didn’t want to argue with his mate, but he did need to ask some heavy questions. Hmmm, no, stay being petted for a bit. Now if Vadim could just move his hand a little lower, yes…right between the shoulder blades. Perfect. Josh let his eyes half close in bliss – Vadim knew just the right amount of pressure to scratch with.

“I don’t blame you for being angry with me, love,” Vadim said. How nice that he’d been promoted from babe to love. Seems his vampire just had to say it once and then it kept just popping out, which didn’t bother Josh at all. He just wriggled a bit as Vadim moved his hand down his spine. That was nice…yes, just there, such a hard place to reach with his teeth or his paws.

“…communicate with each other.” Crap. Vadim had been talking and Josh, he was blissed out from such talented fingers. He wasn’t being fair and with a slight huff of annoyance Josh whined slightly and then shifted.

“Thank you,” Vadim said, laying over the top of Josh’s prone body and apparently kissing every inch of skin he could reach. It wasn’t as though it was unpleasant, far from it. But even as he felt his cock harden, trapped beneath him, Josh knew any sex would only put off the inevitable. He let Vadim kiss his way towards his legs and then carefully sat up, making sure not to kick his mate’s face in the process. Vadim’s gaze immediately went to Josh’s cock that was standing proud looking for attention and Josh grabbed a pillow to cover it.

“Communication,” he said, dragging Vadim’s eyes back to his face.

Sitting back with a sigh that was almost funny, Vadim crossed his legs in front of him and looked at him intently.

“I know you’re angry with me love, and I totally understand…”

“Actually, you probably don’t know what’s upsetting me,” Josh interrupted. “It’s not what you think. Yeah, did I want to bump into some guy who goes on about the times you spent in bed together? No, I didn’t. But that wasn’t your fault. At your age being a virgin would have been ridiculous and I know that feeding is an intimate thing to do. So you had sex with him sometimes? If we ever go to San Antonio we’ll probably bump into a few people I’ve had sex with there. That’s life and you’ll have to deal with it too,” he added when Vadim snarled. Oh, that was so sexy, and yeah, focus on the conversation.

“What I found hard to understand,” Josh continued, deliberately keeping his voice low and evenly toned, “Was the way you so callously discarded someone who had spent so long servicing your needs. I get that he didn’t mean as much to you, as you did to him, but you were downright mean.”

“Let me get this clear. You’re upset with me because I was nasty to Everett – the guy whose throat you were going to tear out.”

Josh felt his face redden. Put that way, it did seem a little silly.

“In my defense the fucking idiot had been around paranormals long enough to know that you don’t get between a man and his mate, and you definitely don’t go on about the intimacy you’ve shared – that does suck.”

“He wasn’t very good at that,” Vadim said, looking at a point beyond Josh’s shoulder. “And I definitely didn’t suck him, well except a vein of course.”

Josh threw the pillow and it slammed across Vadim’s head. At his mate’s uncharacteristic grin, definitely pointed to Josh’s groin area, he grabbed another pillow, covering himself again.

“I don’t need to hear about it,” Josh said, and this time he was just a wee bit angry, and turned on. “The fact of the matter is, that this human had been your blood bag and fuck buddy for ten years and you cast him off without a backward glance.”

“Well, what did you want me to do with him? You heard how deluded he was. Did you want him to join us and have some kind of kinky ménage or something?”

Josh was tempted to hit his mate again, but he only had a finite number of pillows. Taking a deep inhale, and yes, exhale, he said quietly, “your attitude was harsh lover, and it worried me, because if you could be like that with someone you had been with for ten years, then maybe one day you would treat me the same way.”

Vadim opened his mouth, probably to fling off some quick response, but Josh looked at him intently, letting him know he was serious. Vadim shut up, and was probably thinking about what Josh had said, although it was hard for Josh to know that for certain. Damn, he missed their link. His mate’s face was like a perpetual mask for all the emotion he showed. Sexy, totally drop dead gorgeous, but impossible to read. 

“You know how we all grow and change as we get older,” Vadim said at last. Josh nodded. “I have been so many different people through my life.  Before I ruled the coven I was a playboy, just out for a good time and to make some decent money and that was good. After the death of my father I became leader of the coven, which changed me again and made me long for stability and some permanence in my own life.”

“That’s when you met Edward.”

Vadim nodded. “I know now that I wasn’t in love with him, but I wanted to be. Yes he was, what you’d call, high maintenance, but I think he did want to be with me at the start. But for a human to comprehend a virtually endless life with just one person…”

Josh nodded, understanding what his mate was saying. How would anyone react if they knew they could effectively live forever, and that all they had to do was let a vampire use them as a milkshake once in a while. Paranormals understood about mates and longed to find their own, but humans were totally different.

“I’m not too proud to say I was gutted when Edward died. Looking back on it now, I know it wasn’t because I loved him as such – I was angrier at the nature of his death, the insolence of those that took him from me and the fact that I’d tried so damn hard to make him happy, which never seemed to work.”

Josh edged a little closer and put his hand on Vadim’s knee. “After that I made my stupid vow, never thinking I would meet my true match and how that would change things again. Was I harsh to Everett? Yes, I know what I said was cruel. But what you saw…that’s how I was for the entire four hundred years since Edward died. Cruel, uncaring, impatient. I didn’t see anybody because I didn’t want anyone to get close to me…and because of that I failed to see that what I took for convenience, Everett took to mean something more. I should have let him go years ago and used someone else.”

“You were only feeding from and bedding him? For all that time?”

“I didn’t even realize so much time has passed. I didn’t sleep with Everett, I fucked him when the itch got too bad, or I got sick of the feeling of my own hand. But that was all it was. I never slept with him or held him closer than needed to have sex. Everett was there, available whenever I wanted him and given that I couldn’t be bothered to go through the song and dance it would have taken to find someone else. I just…Fuck.”

Instinct stopped Josh from gathering up his mate and comforting him the way he wanted to. While he totally understood everything Vadim had to say, the key worry issue of his own hadn’t been addressed. Instead he rubbed Vadim’s knee and waited – something he seemed to do a lot of around his mate. But then it wasn’t as though the ancient vampire could be pushed into saying anything until he was good and ready.

It was a very long moment before Vadim spoke again. “I changed again when I met you,” he said simply. “I didn’t think I could fall in love, and I did and this is nothing like the way I felt about Edward. You bring sunshine into my life. You make me feel like I can be a better person – I want to be a better person around you. I feel alive in a way…I haven’t felt this way since before I ruled the coven. Its like, when I’m with you I feel I can do anything, go anywhere and know with absolute certainty that I’ll never be alone again. You have so little in the way of material things, yet you shared your home, your pack, your whole life with me without a second thought. Do you realize how many people have done that for me, throughout my whole life?”

Shaking his head, Josh wondered because Vadim asked him too, but he didn’t think the number would be very high.

“Just you,” Vadim said and Josh could have sworn there was a hint of tears in his vampire’s eyes. “You are the only one, the only person who saw me as a man first – not that I was a vampire, not who I was in the coven, not how much money I had, or what clothes I wore, or what I could do for them. You saw me. And if you think for one second that I am going to throw that away, discard or mistreat the one person in my entire life who has given me his heart for safekeeping while cherishing mine, then you’re wrong, my love. Edward wanted longevity, Everett and the countless other donors I had wanted position, money and long life too. You, you’ve asked for nothing, except that I love you in return and even that wasn’t a deal breaker for you – you loved me anyway.”

“And you see that in me, when you couldn’t see it with Everett?”

“I didn’t
see
Everett. He was just there. You were the one who opened my eyes. You brought my heart back to life, with your soft words, your acceptance and the way you cared. You even cared about Everett.”

Josh pursed his lips and shook his head. “No, I didn’t care about that idiot and I would have ripped his throat out to shut him up, although I am glad that Shawn stopped me. Jealousy and possessiveness - that’s part of being a mated shifter, but I would have felt bad if I had killed him. What I didn’t like seeing was you so hard and cold and ruthless.”

“You liked it a bit,” Vadim said, his lips twitching in that semi-smile of his as he nodded in the direction of the pillow Josh was still clasping onto with one hand.

Josh knew he was blushing but rather than bend his head and try and hide it, his chin came up, he flicked his hair back over his shoulders and met Vadim’s heated gaze with one of his own.

“I won’t deny it. Question is what are you going to do about it?”