by L. J. Red
They returned to the precinct later that night. Despite his resolution to leave Brigit alone after her rejection of him, he still found his attention caught by her at every moment. It sapped his ability to concentrate. He had been given little to do during the fight. The weapon he had been issued was nothing like the vampiric way of attacking with claws and fangs. Even a blade was preferable to a gun. He was too worked up, and Brigit’s alluring scent wasn’t helping. He needed to get back to the Sanctuary gym and pound out his emotions against a punching bag.
“The chemical powder that we retrieved from the shop,” Dana said at the front of the room, “is believed to be some kind of compound that reacts negatively to a vampire’s respiratory and nervous system. We haven’t had much chance to investigate it yet, but I wanted you to know—”
“I can look into it,” the human male called Novak said, raising his head. Rune, with his enhanced vampire senses, was able to pick up the slight quickening of both Dana and Brigit’s heartbeat. Was it merely that they were offended at the thought of an outsider taking their work? They did not react in the same way around the female FBI agent, however. Perhaps it was the man himself they mistrusted.
“We could give it to Dr. Patil,” Rune said, stepping forward. “She is the foremost expert on vampire biology in the city and she has a dedicated lab at the Sanctuary.”
“I don’t think we should give it to some vampire groupie—”
Brigit talked over him. “Dr. Patil is a highly respected scientist. She works at Rush University Medical Centre, and she has two medical degrees from Harvard and consults regularly with the FBI,” Brigit finished pointedly. “So, if you have a problem with your own specialist taking a look at the chemicals, maybe that’s something you should take up with your superiors.” Brigit turned away from Novak and caught Rune staring at her. She didn’t need anyone to fight her battles for her. She was smart, and she cared about solving this case. His respect for her rose. If only he hadn’t ruined everything by insulting her, implying she couldn’t protect herself. He’d thought it was a rejection of his own abilities, that she’d thought him too weak to protect her. He’d got it all wrong.
He had been staring at her intently and her expression had morphed from one of satisfaction to uncertainty. She glanced away abruptly and Rune realized that his tense expression, made darker by his scar, had made it look like he was disapproving of her when actually it was the opposite. Rune looked down at his feet, hunching his shoulders and hating that he seemed to constantly put his foot in it where Brigit was concerned.
He would do better; he swore to himself. He would find a way to explain to her that he had judged too harshly, that he had held on to traditions better left in the past. Somehow, he would find a way to communicate his respect for her abilities and his belief that she was truly a warrior to be reckoned with.
Chapter 23
A couple of days later, Brigit slammed the door of her car closed and looked up at the main Sanctuary building looming over her. It wasn’t the first time she had been here, yet she still found the impressive brick facade intimidating. This time, however, the brickwork was pockmarked from the Ravagers’ attack. Brigit had noticed for sale signs in the houses along the street. No one wanted to live so close to dangerous vampires. Brigit couldn’t blame them, but it was strange to see such big, fancy houses lying empty.
Brigit hesitated by her car. Still, it wasn’t so much the size of the building that intimidated her, it was the fact that almost everyone inside it was a vampire. The door opened and Dana stood in the entranceway and raised her hand to wave at Brigit, a smile on her face. The tension in Brigit’s shoulders relaxed. They were vampires, it was true. But at least one of them was her friend as well.
“Hey,” Dana said when she got close enough, “you brought them?”
Brigit raised the case she was carrying. “All packed in here; forensics made me fill those forms out in triplicate. Dr. Patil’s happy to take a look at them?”
“Yeah,” Dana said as they fell into step. “I think she’s intrigued, to be honest.”
She led the way to the medical rooms where Dr. Patil worked. Brigit glanced around with wide eyes as she navigated the halls. She had only been inside the Sanctuary a couple of times on official business and once or twice to visit Dana. She hadn’t wanted to stay long. The halls were silent, empty now. Only the Shadows and their people lived here, and Brigit wasn’t going to find a quieter moment to make her apology to Dana for keeping her distance.
She stopped and turned to Dana.
“Look, Dana, I wanted to—”
“Brigit, I’m really sorry—”
They both talked over each other, then stopped at the same time. Brigit laughed, reaching out and placing a hand on Dana’s arm. “I’ve missed you,” she said simply.
“Me too,” said Dana, bringing her arm in and reaching her other arm around Brigit in a hug.
“We never hang out anymore,” Dana said. “I know it’s been difficult at the precinct with this new team, and I’ve been busy.”
“No, it’s my fault. I guess I thought, with all your vampire stuff here at the Sanctuary, that you wouldn’t want to spend time with me anymore.” She saw Dana beginning to speak and raised her hand. “No, let me finish. I realized, well actually it was Mom who chewed me out, and you’re invited to the next family dinner by the way. I realized I was being an idiot, that I was”—Brigit shuffled her feet—“jealous of the vampires for stealing you away from me. I guess I was trying to protect myself from getting hurt, but I only made it worse and I—” Her words muffled as Dana grabbed her into another hug.
“You’re my best friend, B,” she said into her hair. “That’s never going to change.” Brigit gripped her back tightly, unable to find the words to reply.
Finally, they released each other.
“So, it’s not because you hate me now that I’m a vampire?”
“What? No!” Brigit said. “D, I could never hate you.”
“But you are freaked out about the vampire thing.”
Brigit sighed. “That’s my shit and I need to get over it; you’re still my friend.”
Dana sent her a small smile. “How about you stay tonight. Have dinner here at the Sanctuary?”
Brigit felt a tiny shiver of unease, but she pushed it aside. “That’d be great,” she said. “Just as long as you don’t expect me to donate.”
“Hell no,” Dana said. “To be honest, I still find drinking blood kind of weird. We have real food too. And you won’t be the only human. There are the vassals, and Eden’s sister, Hope, might be here too.”
“Hope? Eden?”
“Eden is Talon’s soulmate,” Dana explained as they continued to walk toward the medical rooms. “You’ll probably meet her now actually; she works with Dr. Patil. She was a nurse before she was turned, and thanks to Dr. Patil’s teaching she’s now America’s second foremost expert on vampires,” Dana said with a grin.
They descended into the basement. “These were all extended after the attack,” Dana said, pointing to the doors on the right. “We used to just have one medical room and a small lab that Dr. Patil worked in but now we have a whole bunch of them and her lab is, well, as you can see,” she said, opening the door.
The room inside was large and filled with all sorts of medical equipment. Stainless steel worktables lined the walls, along with glass-fronted cupboards full of neatly labeled bottles and vials.
“Here she is. Dr. Patil, Brigit McReeve, my partner. Brigit, meet Doctor Aisha Patil,” Dana made the introductions.
Brigit had worked with Dr. Patil before but only ever over email or the phone; she hadn’t actually met Chicago’s vampire biology expert. Dr. Patil was an Indian woman of about medium height. She had shiny hair in a tight braid down her back and she was wearing a white lab coat.
Working across from her was a young woman with skin a shade lighter and curly dark hair in a ponytail. Her eyes, when she looked up, were large and dark. S
he was, in a word, stunning. Easily as tall as Dana, Brigit felt like a midget beside her. This was Eden she guessed, not needing to hear Dana’s introduction. No wonder this was Talon’s soulmate; she’d caught sight of Talon once or twice. Frankly, she thought he was fucking terrifying. All darkness and death and everything you expected from a vampire, wrapped up in the usual painfully sexy package. Brigit could easily see Eden standing beside him.
Rune had to be wrong. She couldn’t be his soulmate. She wasn’t one of these glorious, glamorous types, and she wasn’t a tall, powerful warrior like Dana. She was just Brigit. Tiny and foul-mouthed, nothing special at all.
“Lovely to meet you,” Dr. Patil said, breaking Brigit’s thoughts. “Are those the samples?”
“Yup,” Brigit said, trying to force herself into a cheerier mood. “Thanks for offering to look over them.”
“Not at all,” Dr. Patil said, reaching for the case. “I’m looking forward to it, to be honest. It’s a totally new development. I can’t think how they discovered the powder’s effects.”
Brigit frowned. That question reminded her of something. Hadn’t Franklin wondered the same thing? How had they created the weapons?
“You’re not to start on it tonight,” Dana said, snagging the case before Dr. Patil could take it and laying it on one of the counters. “I have it on good authority that you’ve been in here all night long, and before that you were up all day checking Aaron’s condition.”
“Aaron?” Brigit asked. She recognized that name.
Dana glanced at her. “The vampire the Monster of Chicago poisoned, the one who was in the car crash with Lucian.”
“Shit.” Brigit said. “The one in a coma.” That was who he was. She glanced at Dr. Patil and caught a slight tightening of the lines around the woman’s eyes. Brigit imagined, as the vampire doctor, she must be taking personally the fact that Aaron was still in a coma after so many months. Not to mention it must be a horrible reminder of the trauma the Monster had inflicted.
“I’m pretty sure everyone else was asleep during the daytime while I was watching over Aaron,” Dr. Patil said. “So I’d like to know how you know.” She glared at Dana. “My time is my own.”
Brigit saw Eden look uncomfortably guilty behind her. Looked like Dr. Patil’s assistant had taken on the job of caring for the good doctor herself as well as her patients. Brigit made sure her expression gave no hint of what she’d noticed, and instead of admitting it was Eden, Dana folded her arms across her chest. “I know everything,” she said completely seriously. “That’s the perk of being mated to the leader of the Shadows, total omniscience.” Then she broke out a grin. “Come on. At least take a break, get some food, maybe re-caffeinate, and then we can sort out a schedule of shifts with the vassals if you think Aaron needs it.”
“None of them are trained—”
“Yes, but I am,” Eden said from behind her.
Dr. Patil sighed, her frown clearing into something like remorse. She raised her hand to her brow and smoothed her palm over her hair. “I suppose I have been pulling long nights.”
“You have,” Eden said. “And you have your teaching at Rush. You need to take care of yourself,” she said gently.
Brigit was surprised by the genuine care in Eden’s tone. For some reason she’d expected the people at the Sanctuary to behave more like colleagues, none of them had lived here long after all, but instead they almost treated each other like family. It didn’t seem to matter that two of them were vampires and one wasn’t. They still looked out for each other.
The one time Brigit had come here before the Shadows moved in, when Radiance had control of the city, the feeling had been completely different. Maybe the Shadows weren’t so bad after all if they’d created a feeling like this. Or maybe it was Dana, Brigit thought, looking at her friend laughing at something Eden said. Dana and the other soulmates were turning the Sanctuary into a place of refuge for more than just the vampires.
Brigit wanted something like that. A bolt of longing passed through her. She wanted that support, that unflinching belief in each other’s skills and abilities. None of these women had given up on their dreams. The Sanctuary, the Shadows, let them have the family they needed and the chance to pursue their passion. Everyone had a place here. Dana turned and smiled at Brigit, and for a second she almost felt like she fit here too. Then she remembered what Rune had wanted. To turn her, to swaddle her up and stop her from doing her job, from living her human life. Brigit’s spirits sank. That was why it would never work between them.
The four of them proceeded to the dining room, the samples of the powder locked up securely in the lab. The room was full. The meal was laid out on the side, the people on the room mingling casually, finding seats at the long table and chatting over their food. Dana and Brigit piled up their plates and found a space. “This is Neal, Lucian’s second,” Dana made introductions, “and May, who’s pretty much in charge of keeping the Sanctuary running.” Brigit smiled and shook hands. She was pretty sure those two were soulmates, just from the way they sat together.
Rune was standing across the room from her. In the shadow next to him was Jacob, the silent and slightly terrifying vampire that had almost been selected to join the team. As much as Rune pissed her off, Brigit was glad it was him instead of Jacob. Jacob was a bit too intense for her tastes.
She caught that thread of thought. Her tastes? Her tastes didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to act on them. But once she opened her mind to that thought it was impossible to get it to stop. Her body reacted to the sight of Rune across from her. The feelings weren’t going anywhere. She couldn’t logic them away no matter how hard she tried.
Maybe she’d been going about it all wrong? Maybe trying to push her desire away was only making it worse. Maybe she needed to work it out of her system. Maybe she needed to give in.
Her thoughts caught and curled over themselves, arousal intertwining them. Maybe she needed to stop denying her urges and embrace them. She could get it out of her system, like any other one-night stand. Why should it be any different?
It’s totally different, a voice cried at the back of her mind, but Brigit ignored it. This could work. She could give in to the desire and let it run its course. Maybe then he’d realize they weren’t soulmates after all. It was just lust between them. Simple, straightforward lust. She knew what that was like.
Brigit scanned the room. She saw the way Eden and Talon stood inclined toward each other, a dark, seductive look in Talon’s eyes as he looked at his soulmate. She saw the quiet, solid strength between Neal and May and the fiery passion in Dana’s normally masked eyes whenever she looked at Lucian. All of them seemed so perfectly matched. She didn’t have that with Rune. He didn’t understand her. He never would. It wasn’t a soulmate bond. She looked at Rune and, with a shock of surprise, met his eyes. He was looking back at her and she felt the impact of his gaze all the way through her body. She needed to do something before her desire overrode her sense and she jumped him in the middle of the room. She gestured toward the door and stood, breaking her eyes away.
“You heading out?” Dana asked. “You’re welcome to stay longer.”
“No,” Brigit said, “I’ve got to get back, but thanks for inviting me. I won’t let it go so long between visits next time.”
“Good,” Dana said with a smile.
Brigit crossed to the door and slipped out, waiting in the hallway for Rune to join her.
✽✽✽
Brigit didn’t have to wait long for Rune.
“You wanted me?”
Brigit looked up at him. Wanted him? Fucking hell, she did. She wanted to climb him like a damn tree. She wanted to wrap her legs around his thick chest and—no, fuck it. Down libido, down. Too fast. “You said I was your soulmate,” she said, stalling for time. Rune’s eyes flared with heat and he took a step closer. Brigit forced herself not to outwardly react, but her insides began to turn molten. “What does that mean exactly?”
�
��It means,” he said, his voice low and rough, “that we are made for each other, that we are meant to be together. Everything I am, yours. Everything yours, mine.” He took another step toward her, looming over her. Brigit tried to think through the haze of lust rising between them. She wanted him. It was undeniable. She wanted more of the delicious, thick heat that coated her limbs with every step closer he took. It felt good, it felt great. This had to be right, it felt so right. Just give in to the desire. She didn’t think about what he was saying, soulmates, belonging to another person. She didn’t want to worry about what it might mean. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t owned by anyone, that she never wanted to sign her life away to some man. It didn’t matter what she thought. All that mattered was how it felt. And it felt good.
He reached out slowly, so achingly slowly, and trailed his fingertips up her arm. Her hair rose, her skin tightening under his touch, her entire body seeming to vibrate, all sensation focused on that tiny, delicate point of connection.
She couldn’t breathe; the very air was electric. She wanted to let her body make the decisions instead of her head.
The rational part of her made one last, desperate bid for control. “This thing between us,” she gasped, leaning back and pressing herself against the wall. “How do you know it’s not a vampire thing? A reaction to, you know, all the mind tricks, the, ah.” She gasped as his hand reached her shoulder, curved over it, his palm like a brand on her skin. His fingers brushed the side of her neck. She had to fight her body to keep her spine straight when all she wanted to do was arch her neck and give him access. “How do you know it’s a soulmate bond?” she gasped out, her eyes fluttering half shut.
“I just do,” Rune whispered. “You feel it too, I know you do,” he said, stepping closer. His firm body pressed against her curves, his massive frame covering her own. His heavy male scent was thick in the air. The heat from his body sank into hers, made her feel boneless, weightless. She was floating on a wave of desire and she couldn’t come down. She didn’t want to.