And then winked at Charlotte.
Like a buffer between the two feuding families, Alessandra sat in the middle, Kenton and Drake on one side, Lawrence, Torr, and Laria on the other. Because it was a circle, albeit a big one, they could mostly see each other, and Charlotte only wished she could video the whole thing.
It would have made a damn good reality TV show.
“Talk to us,” Kenton demanded.
Drake eyed Alessandra suspiciously.
“What did she say to you? What changed your mind about me?”
“I can sense danger,” Alessandra blurted. “And you are not a danger to me, or, I assume, my friends.”
“I’m glad for the stamp of approval.” Drake completely ignored everyone to his right. “But Rowan is a threat. And he’s on his way here.”
“Why didn’t you call?” Kenton asked.
“I’m old-school,” Drake interrupted. “Besides, this has gone on too long.”
Kenton visibly perked up.
“Are you saying—”
“I was wrong not to answer you the last time I was here when you asked what my intentions were.”
Charlotte caught Alessandra’s eye and moved away, not wanting to intrude on a conversation that didn’t concern her. Moving toward Torr, she reached out to touch his cheeks, which were, for the most part, healed.
“Remarkable.” That was a part of the change she very much looked forward to.
He captured her hand from the other side of the bar.
“And dangerous,” he said, rubbing his thumb along her palm. “If anyone had seen that fight—”
“The fight isn’t the problem. No human could heal this fast . . .”
Torr reached up to touch his left cheek.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack. For a moment there, I thought he would kill you.”
“I’ve been trying to warn you, Charlotte. Life with me—”
“Will be an exciting adventure,” she finished.
“One way of putting it. And this is why I want you to be sure—”
“So that’s why you haven’t done it yet?”
“I just want you to be positive.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
“Great.”
They still held hands from across the bar, but the mood had shifted. Despite the fact that he’d agreed to change her, Torr was still . . . hesitant.
What was holding him back?
Chapter 27
“You’ve had the herbs for a week. Charlotte is begging for this. So what in the name of St. Ninian are you waiting for?”
Torr stepped out into the cold, which didn’t affect him in the least. He and Laria had just left Ye Old Curiosities after talking to Toni’s aunt Birdie. Toni had asked them to check on her. They’d spoken earlier in the day, and Birdie had sounded “off” to her. She’d wanted to go herself but couldn’t leave the bar.
“I can see why Toni’s concerned,” he said, trying to change the subject. “Birdie doesn’t seem herself.”
“Hmmm.”
“I know she said she’s fine, but this whole thing is weighing on her, I think.”
“It’s weighing on all of us. Which is why I agree with you. We’ll need to follow that lead in Lindisfarne.”
He agreed that needed to happen.
“You still haven’t answered my question,” Laria prodded.
They were about to part ways—his sister to The Vault, and he to the Addy Hutton Mansion. He had arranged a date with the very woman they were discussing, and for this one, he needed his brother’s car.
“You’re a nosy one, sister. I’ll get to it. I gave Charlotte my word and I don’t mean to go back on it.”
Because she’d helped him acquire the necessary ingredients for the Nine Herbs Charm, Laria knew all about his agreement with Charlotte. She’d even suggested she should be there, just in case. Torr wasn’t sure what, exactly, his sister thought she’d do if something went wrong.
There would be no second chance.
It was a tricky thing, turning a vampire, but while he’d only done it once in seven hundred years, Torr had fed on plenty of humans. He knew how to do it safely. And knew when to stop. He’d learned that the hard way.
And yet it didn’t matter. He was more nervous than he’d ever been in his life. So much so, he finally understood Kenton’s hesitance to turn Alessandra.
Charlotte was not just any human.
She was the love of his life, and if anything happened to her, he would never forgive himself.
“Anyway, like I said, I think Birdie’s just worried about Toni and what would happen if Lawrence were forced to leave. I mean, Toni would go with him, of course, but . . . Laria? Are you listening?”
“Mm-hmm.”
But she wasn’t listening. And Torr was pretty sure he knew why. Still, he didn’t press her. He’d rather discuss Annabel Walsh. Or the fact that Rowan Morley, who was currently halfway across the world dealing with a member of the Sect, had vowed to make a trip to Stone Haven upon his return so he could “eliminate the Cheld.”
Otherwise known as Alessandra and Garrett.
He’d pretty much rather discuss anything other than his sister and Drake Morley.
“Wait.” Laria froze and Torr stopped with her.
“I just thought of something.”
A couple brushed by them as Laria turned back toward the shop they’d just left. “You go ahead. I need to talk to Birdie about something.”
“What in the devil—”
“Just trust me. Go. You don’t want to be late.”
Before he could argue with her, his sister was gone. Torr thought about going after her, but a quick glance at his phone proved she was right. He was on the verge of being late. And so he hurried to the car, putting on just the slightest edge of unnatural speed, and managed to pick up Charlotte just on time.
She looked extraordinary in her simple black dress, elegant and sexy at the same time.
“So what’s with all the secrecy?” she asked, climbing into the passenger seat. “Are we going where I think we are?”
Torr drove out of town, evading her questions and simply smiling every time she inquired about their destination.
“I had a feeling—”
“When I asked you to wear all black?”
He parked the car strategically in an empty, abandoned lot next to the bar and went around to the passenger side of the vehicle and held out his hand.
“It’s an improvement over khakis and a blazer,” he said with a grin.
“I took the blazer off, if you’ll remember. And why are we parked so far away?”
The trance-like beat of music reached them as they approached and the bouncer checked their IDs.
“What’s so funny?” he asked as they stepped inside.
“Just that you still get your ID checked,” she said, strolling up to the bar like a pro. “I really could have worn my Halloween costume . . .”
Noir Nights. Once a month. Had it really only been that long since they’d been here last?
“Not a chance in hell,” he said, ordering their drinks. “I’d rather be the only one to see you this way.”
They started off by sipping drinks—Death in the Afternoon, of course—but they ended up on the dance floor before too long. All night the two of them circled each other. Touched. Teased. Danced.
If their first foray to Noir Nights had been foreplay, this time was more like full-blown intercourse. By the time they left, the cool October air did nothing to cool either of them down. And when Charlotte opened the front door of the car, he abruptly closed it.
“The back,” he said, and the gleam of understanding—and lust—in her eyes told him she understood.
Climbing into the front seat long enough to start the car and ensure they were very much alone in the far corner of the parking lot, Torr then joined her in the back and shut the door behind him.
He didn’t waste a minute before pulling Charlo
tte onto his lap. Kissing her hard, he let himself go completely. He wanted her to know all of him. Fisting her hair with one hand and clasping her breast with the other, Torr did not play gently this time.
And Charlotte responded as he’d thought she might.
Reaching down between them, she freed his erection easily. Thankful she wore a dress, Torr lifted it and tore off the offending panties that were currently in the way of their consummation.
With no further barriers between them, he sank into her, pulling her knees up on each side so she fully straddled him. And though he intended to set the pace, she had other plans. Tossing her head back as he thrust his hips forward, Charlotte grabbed his hand and made it very clear what she wanted.
So he gave it to her.
Using his thumb, he circled and pressed.
“Yes, just like that. More.”
Exactly the sort of command he liked. He did speed up the pace just a bit and laughed at the sound she made.
Torr couldn’t help it.
She was just so fucking sexy.
And then she reached up, grabbed his hair with both hands and shattered against him. Torr let himself go, almost forgetting his purpose.
It felt so damn good . . . just another minute.
But he didn’t have another minute. He wanted to be sure this was a night to remember. That she thought only of the pleasure they’d shared, and not any pain that may come later. For some, the transition was a smooth one. Others reported that the desire to feed, initially, could feel like they’d gone days without food.
So even as he came inside her, Torr reached into his back pocket, pulled out the sachet his sister had given him. And then dropped his fangs.
Her awareness was instantaneous, but thankfully, there was no fear to accompany it. He asked one simple question even as she continued to throb against his cock buried deep inside her.
“Are you absolutely sure you want this?”
Chapter 28
They were about to change everything. Irrevocably.
Looking into his eyes, struggling to catch her breath, Charlotte felt a single moment of panic. Opening her heart to this man had been one of the easiest things she’d ever done in her life, and yes, she wanted to be with him.
Forever.
But she also wanted what he’d agreed to give her—she wanted the ability to be in control. Two things that were not, she believed, mutually exclusive.
“Yes.”
That sounded too unsure.
“Yes,” she said again. “Yes.”
“I love you, Charlotte,” he said. She tried to answer, but she couldn’t—his teeth were in her neck. Charlotte didn’t remember the other time he’d fed from her, but this felt deliciously sensual. He was still inside her, and it felt as if he’d merely deepened their connection, something she wouldn’t have thought possible. Wanting to enjoy the sensation, this feeling of togetherness with the man she loved, she pushed away thoughts of what could go wrong. Of the future.
She just let herself be.
He pulled out of her, she could feel that. But he continued to feed, and so Charlotte closed her eyes for just a moment.
The scene was a familiar one, achingly so, and she immediately recognized it as the setting for a recurrent childhood nightmare. While many little girls dreamed of fairy-tale castles, the castle that had always haunted Charlotte’s dreams was not pretty. Dark and crumbling and covered in dead vines, it looked like something out of an Edgar Allan Poe poem.
The dream was simple and disturbing—she crossed into the castle from under an arched walkway and entered a room that was empty save for one threadbare tapestry on the wall. At that point a mysterious presence—unseen but no less horrible for it—pushed her back out into the night.
Her eyes fluttered open, her chest heavy from the recurrence of the nightmare.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to orient herself, which was when she felt the large, warm hand cradling her head.
Torr’s hand.
She was on his lap in the backseat of a car. What an odd place for a nap—
“Oh my God!”
She sat bolt upright. Torr’s face was etched with worry, immediately confirming what she’d just realized.
“Did you—”
He embraced her then, so tightly she almost couldn’t breathe. It was when she felt the wetness on her cheek that she realized he was crying.
Torr. Was. Crying.
Hard to reconcile, but true nonetheless.
“Oh God, Charlotte . . .”
“What? How long? Torr—” She pulled back. “Am I?”
But she already knew the answer.
Her mouth felt as if she’d drunk a gallon of wine.
“Drink this.”
She took the bag from him and drank deeply. The blood tasted much different than if she’d pricked her finger and licked it. It wasn’t good, or bad. Kind of like water. Just . . . there. But thicker. As she drank, she felt similar to how she did when she gorged after missing a meal.
“Better?”
Nodding, she licked her lips and sat up. As much as she could, anyway. Torr wouldn’t let her pull away from him.
Wiping away the wetness from his cheeks, she smiled at his tender expression.
“You were scared.”
He didn’t need to answer.
“How long was I—”
“Who fucking knows? But it was the longest few minutes of my life.”
Exhaling, he reached down to the seat and picked up a small container.
“Nine Herbs Charm,” she murmured, her fingers going straight to her neck. The balm was still there.
“Holy shit, Torr. Am I really—”
“A vampire.”
He smiled for the first time since it had happened.
“My vampire princess.”
She laughed and then realized something. “I don’t really feel any different.”
“You will. Like a Cheld first arousing, the changes will happen slowly at first.”
“I know you said that, but I really thought—”
“You thought I was lying?” He smiled.
“Well, no. I just . . . it was hard to imagine I’d wake up and feel . . . normal.”
Maybe not normal precisely.
“Come here.”
He held her against his chest for Lord knew how long as the party raged on inside Stage West.
Torr had said he planned to make her turning a memorable one. And he’d certainly made good on that promise.
Chapter 29
“You kids have fun,” Laria called from the living room of the Addy Hutton Mansion.
Torr tried one last time. “I can’t believe you’re not coming.”
“Please,” Charlotte begged. “Toni and Lawrence will be so disappointed—”
“It’s the first chance we’ve had to actually celebrate.”
Laria looked up from her book. “The Vault or our new family member?”
“Not quite.” Charlotte waved her hand in the air. “No ring yet.”
Torr snagged her hand. “Haven’t we had enough excitement this week?” He wound his fingers through hers. “But if you want to add a wedding to the mix—”
“I’m teasing. And hungry.”
“You are an insatiable little vampire.”
“Oh God, you two are worse than Lawrence and Toni. At least they’ve been too preoccupied by The Vault to put on such constant displays—”
“Someone”—he squeezed Charlotte’s hand, knowing she’d disapprove of his teasing—“is jealous.”
Laria pretended to go back to her book. “Someone,” she muttered, “is an idiot. And it’s not Charlotte.”
Torr winked at his girlfriend—his very high-energy, bloodthirsty, and sexy girlfriend—unable to pass up the opportunity to instigate a little trouble.
“I wonder, who could the illustrious Laria Derrickson be referring to?” He put a finger to his chin, considering. “Possibly her younger brother. But why,
pray tell, would she be so cruel to her favorite person in the world who’s saved her ass more than—”
“Bite me.”
“No, thanks.” He lifted a finger into the air as if a brilliant idea had come to him. “I have an idea.”
“Charlotte, help!”
“You should come to The Vault, ignore Drake and—”
“Drake?” Charlotte fairly shrieked. He hadn’t yet let her in on that little piece of their history. “What’s this about Laria and Drake?”
Laria tossed her book at him, hitting him square in the forehead.
“Ouch.” He laughed, picking it up. “Or not.”
Charlotte, hands on her hips, stared at his sister as if waiting for an explanation.
“Don’t ask,” Laria muttered, shooting him an angry look.
“You and . . . Drake?”
Laria growled at her brother and jumped off the couch. “There is not a ‘me and Drake.’ Never has been. Never will be. This has nothing to do with him.”
“Then come with us.” Charlotte was having none of it. She dragged Laria from the room, which couldn’t have been too difficult. If Laria didn’t want to be persuaded, she wouldn’t be. Charlotte was stronger than she’d ever been as a human, but that didn’t mean she was anywhere near as strong as his sister.
Her reaction had nothing to do with Drake. Right.
His sister’s reluctance had everything to do with the Englishman, and Torr didn’t blame her. The knowledge that the youngest Morley brother would be there was almost enough to keep him away too, but this was to be an unofficial celebration of The Vault’s success, and with the bar closed on Tuesdays, it would just be their small group.
Difficult to ignore the Morley brothers under such circumstances.
But he was glad Charlotte had convinced Laria to come. She got ready shockingly fast, too, as if she’d only been waiting for their push. They grabbed their coats, mostly for appearances’ sake, the temperature not affecting them as it would a human, and walked down the street toward The Vault. The streets were quiet on a Tuesday. Early November was apparently a rare downtime in Stone Haven. According to Charlotte, the holiday celebrations and festivals would ramp up near the end of the month and the town would be busier than ever.
The Hunter's Affection (Bloodwite Book 3) Page 20