Wicked Surrender (12 page)

When the old vampire Brayden
spoke,
everyone turned to listen to him, not because he was the only one talking, but because there was power in his voice that commanded everyone’s
presence
. The voice of a leader
that shouted
orders on the chaotic warfront.

“There have been some disturbing developments with regard to the deed presented by Ariss and her clan yesterday claiming a significant portion of Kategan land.”

Vera held her breath and wished he’d get on it with it, but he paused, his finger tapping on the yellow deed in front of him.

“I sent the deed to the Justicars yesterday who did an extensive background check into the legitimacy of the document. What they found was quite shocking.” Vera fought to control her breathing.

“As you can see they have returned the deed and their analysis of it.” He turned his head and looked straight at Vera. She felt her stomach hit the floor. “I have called in the guards today because I don’t want any problems.”

Vera was lightheaded, her stomach
woozy
, and she would have fallen out of her chair, but then Jacks
’
hand touched her shoulder and the lightheaded feeling vanished like fog clearing. She didn’t look up at him or acknowledge his touch, but inside she said a prayer of thanks. His touch steadied her like nothing else could.

Brayden’s piercing gray eyes left her
s
and swung to Ariss. “Ariss of Master Claude’s clan of the Midwest, the Justicars have reviewed your deed and found it to be invalid.”

“What? That’s impossible!” Her smile quickly vanished into shock.
She glanced around the room, at the guards, then back at Vera.

“The Justicars have found the document to be fraudulent, a forgery.”

“That’s wrong. They must test it again. Someone did something wrong.”

Brayden showed no
response
to her demand. “Ariss, as the
liaison
for Master Claude’s clan, I must detain you and your guardian for further questioning until your Master comes for you. Both you and Master Claude are under arrest for forgery and attempting to claim land that isn’t yours. The penalty and justice will be found and delivered by the Justicars and not here in this room. Men please arrest Ms. Ariss and her guardian.”

The guards around the room moved at once towards Ariss. Ve
ra saw only a flash of movement
then Ariss pulled a dagger out from her dress and slashed at the nearest guard, gutting him across the stomach,
and then
slashing
across his
juggler
in another fast slice.

Her guardian attacked the next guard with his own knife and stabbed the blade deep into the guard’s neck until he screamed garbled noises. He extracted his knife by kicking the guard away, then both Ariss and her guardian leaped out the window in an explosion of glass.

The guards j
umped out of the window
after them. Vera tried to go to the window to see what was happening, but Jacks grabbed her and held her behind him.

Dmetri turned to Brayden. “I’ll tell the Justicars and put out an alert for Ariss and her guardian. They just added murder to their list of charges.” He
stalked to the door, stopping
at the doorway
to look
at Vera. “You might want to call Vane now and tell him what’s happening. If Ariss’ Master devised this whole plan then it was for a reason--land. I doubt he’ll want be willing to drop the plan either.”

Brayden gathered the documents in front of him with an easiness that bordered on bored. He looked down at the dead guards with a hard scowl.

“They were good men,” he said. A dark look lingered in his eyes when he turned back to her. “Kategan land is your land. Considering what happened today, we’ll finish the rest of the negotiations tomorrow. We’ll meet earlier since we still have a lot to cover. Then you’ll be free to go.” He stood and walked out the door.

“Why couldn’t they catch her?” The drop alone from the window had to be a good forty feet, though that wouldn’t faze a vampire.

Brayden
paused to
look back at the dead guards on the floor, sorrow in his eyes. “Ariss is strong and old, and her guardian is very strong. The best warrior in Claude’s clan, that’s why he sent him with her.”
The old vampire turned and left.

Vera let Jacks guide her back to their room. She saw the change instantly in the mansion. Already more guards were lining the halls, roaming. With a loose fugitive
out,
she wasn’t surprised
.
Y
et it was unnerving as hell. She was no coward though. Right about now she’d like to go one on one with that vampire bitch. From the threat of stealing her land to the killing of innocent men
—
Ariss needed to be put down.

The bedroom door shut behind her and she jumped, startled at the sound. A violent shiver stole over her. God she was so cold, when had the room grown so cold?
She was happy that this had happened, that Kategan land was no longer in danger, but t
hen why was she shaking so cold?

Jack
s’ arms came around her, and
then she realized she was shivering
like she was s
itting naked in the middle of a snowstorm.

“Shh, shh. It’s okay baby. I’ve got you.” There were too many thoughts running through her head. Part of her didn’t know what was happening, the other was telling her that she’d never seen someone murdered before. The last time she’d been around a dead body was at her parent’s funeral.

She lost herself in Jack’s embrace.
She didn’t know how much time passed, but when her mind finally slowed to a normal speed, she blinked and saw that
they
were sitting in the chair by the
warm
fireplace. She hadn’t even
known
he’d moved. She lifted her face from where it was buried in his neck and saw the evidence of her tears in the wet cotton of his shirt.

“I’m so sorry.”

He chuckled at her and pulled her back into his arms, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek. “Feeling better?” With his hands running delicious warm strokes up and down her back, it was hard not to. She nodded against him. But when the grisly images of the guard’s throat and stomach popped into her mind, she said the first thing that popped into her mind to get rid of it.

“Do you still talk to your mom?” The hands stroking her paused, then continued on their comforting journey. Vera let go of the breath she’d been holding with a soft whoosh.

“Yeah, I talk to her on the phone about once a week. I see her twice a year and send her cards on all the right days.” Vera giggled, picturing him in a Hallmark store picking out a sweet Mother’s Day card. Somehow it was hard to picture the human marine, who so deftly was sharpening his knife with a
whetstone
earlier sending his mom a pink, frilly card. Another giggled escaped her, and he squeezed her in warning. “Hey now, none of that. I do what I gotta do.”

“Of course you do,” she said when she had control over herself again. A sudden thought hit her and she pulled back and lifted the sleeve of his right arm. “I almost forgot. I’d seen a glimpse of it when we were...you know, but haven’t taken the time to really study it. Rome has the same tattoo, tell me the story,” she said wistfully.

“Ah, no, come on. You don’t want to hear this. It’s lame.” Vera gave him a quick kiss and pouted, blinking doe eyes at him. He grumbled something about damned women under his breath.

“I met Rome my second year in. We bumped into each other and got into a little bit of a fight.”

“I remember him telling me about that. You know, I gotta say I’ve never befriended a girl I just had a cat fight with.” He smirked at her and grabbed her hand, inspected each fingernail with a sharp eye.

“Baby, I don’t think these pretty hands have ever hurt someone in anger.” She winked saucily at him, but her heart tightened that he could see something so easily about her.

“Okay, so when did you guys decide to get a matching tattoo?”

“Well I guess we’d been friends for about a year and as per our usual Saturday we went into town, got shitfaced, and next thing you know we’re getting matching tattoos.” Vera slapped him playfully on the arm.

“Come on now, I know you’re hiding something. Tell me it all.” The corner of his mouth kicked up making him look younger, more relaxed.

“Well, mind you we were young and stupid, but we got the matching tattoo because...ah shit,” he looked away, his cheeks burning. “We were trying to impress some girls,” he said lamely.

Vera’s head shot back as laughter erupted from her. She couldn’t control it, it just kept coming. When she finally calmed, she was down to
hiccupping
chuckles. When her eyes met his deadpanned, serious gaze, she couldn’t stop herself and broke into another fit of furious giggles.

“That’s it.” She
squealed
and held on tight as he lifted her and carried her over to the bed. Her breath caught, the giggles dying, as a hot and
delicious
thrill swept through her. God she couldn’t remember the last time she felt so light, so happy
with someone
.

As he threw her on to the bed and glared at her with laughter in his eyes, she knew she loved him. Stupid, stupid, fool. This was the very last thing she’d expected to happen to her while on this trip. Yet she wasn’t surprised that it was Jackson Marsh who pushed her heart open so easily. From the first moment she met him, she’d
noticed
him. The only other man she’d noticed like that was Dmetri, but even then it was different. Meeting Jacks had made her hackles rise, she’d thought stupidly at the time it was because he was a human--and she just plain didn’t like humans much. Now she knew it was something so much scarier, so much better. She
liked
him. She really liked him.

He crawled over her, his strong hand cupping her cheek and playing with the fringe of her bangs. “What’s wrong, you look sad?”

“Nothing, I was just thinking.” She reached up and trailed her hands over his short hair. The short cut looked good on him, fit the fact that he was a marine perfectly. She had a sudden thought of him wearing his dress uniform and she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning. Damn the man was sexy.

“Now you’re thinking wicked things. Do you know how I can tell?”

“How?”

He trailed a finger over her bottom lip, his gaze hot and possessive. “Because you gnaw on your bottom lip right here when you get turned on. You do it when I pinch your sweet nipples, too. And your cheeks
flush
a pretty red. When you come your chest flushes too, right here,” he said stroking from tops of her breasts to her neck. “It’s beautiful. I could watch you come every damn day.”

Suddenly he stopped, a tic pulsing at his right eye and Vera realized he’d said something he hadn’t wanted to. His words had her shaking, panting below him, desperate for more. She didn’t want the sweet moment to end so she kissed his mouth until it softened against her.

“Tell me more,” she whispered. His eyes darkened.

“How about I show you?” She was still shaking her head yes, when
he
started pulling her clothes off her.

She wanted to forget all about what she saw and just let the relief
of the matter with Ariss pass.
Jacks’ touch was the perfect way to escape that reality.

His touch was gentle but possessive. He took off her shirt but stopped to reverently stroke her stomach,
the creamy skin of
her
breast. Her jeans came off and he slid his big hands up her inner thi
ghs, lighting a fire inside her as his fingers teased
the edge of her panties before pulling away. Strong, loving, demanding touches
all
over her until he finally worked her thong down her thighs and off her
ankles
.

He stood back and simply gazed at her naked body,
with
that smoldering, dark look in his eyes. Vera felt like a goddess.

This time was different between them, already she could tell. There wasn’t that rushed urgency that had driven them before. Though she still felt the same intense passion searing between
them that
had been there since day one.

Her legs scissored as he continued to watch her. Even
now,
he took in all the details. Her hardened nipples, the blush in her face, her hands fisted in the cover, the scent of her wet sex filling the air. He closed his eyes for a minute as if in pain, then reached at the back of his neck and pulled his shirt over his head. The expanse of his chest was breathtaking and sexy as hell. His chest was hard with a dusking of hair that disappeared into his jeans.

Nibbling her lip, Vera watched him reach for his fly and open it. His movements seemed slower as he unbuttoned his jeans them achingly slow pushed them down inch by inch. Vera held her breath until finally, his cock popped free. A flood of creamy, hot heat spilled out of her at the sight.