She arched one eyebrow in a definite challenge. “I might be new to this crazy world, but they’re not regrouping tonight, Raine. You and Cade killed three of them, the tracker you put in my purse is on the side of the Interstate, and I have some time to relax. Maybe not much, but at least I have this night.”
It was probably true. “Okay, but you need to go first thing in the morning.”
She cocked her head, the movement full of dare.
The blood started rushing faster through his system, and adrenaline poured into his veins.
She took a delicate sip this time. “It’s my understanding that if I mate you, the Kurjans will no longer want me.”
His cock went rock hard. “We’re not mating.” His voice lowered to a harsh tone.
“Why not?” She looked at him, her brown eyes luminous in the soft night.
It was a good question. A fair one. “Mariana—”
“Did the mating mark appear on your hand because of me?” She took another drink.
It figured she’d be curious. Who wouldn’t be? “Yes.”
“When?”
“In Dallas when I was watching you.” He crossed around to sit in the chair opposite her.
Her grip visibly tightened on the wine glass. “So you were stalking me in Dallas.”
He winced. “Not really.” Damn, he would have to explain some of this to her. “There’s a coalition of immortal beings called the Realm, and it’s powerful and strong. The Maxwells do not belong to it.”
Her eyebrows drew down. “Why not?”
It was a risk to tell her their secret, but since he’d gotten her kidnapped by his brothers and then the Kurjans, he’d put her life in danger and owed her that at least. “It depends on who you speak with. The old timers say that we were cursed.”
She leaned toward him. “By witches? I heard there are witches.”
He grinned. “Witches alter matter by using quantum physics, string theory, and several theories and applications the humans haven’t discovered yet. They don’t do curses, and they don’t ride brooms. They’re just another species—a very smart one.”
“Oh.” She looked at the wine remaining in her glass. “That’s interesting. So how could you be cursed?”
He shrugged. “By fate or by science or by whatever. It never mattered. The truth is, now that we know more about genetics, we probably have a genetic mutation that’s passed from father to son. Every son gets it, and vampires only make boys, so there you go. We all get it.”
She settled back. “That’s why you’re dying?”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “We live to around four hundred years old and then we die.”
She sputtered and then sucked in a deep breath. “You’re nearly four hundred years old?”
“It’s not that old for an immortal,” he said, surprised at his defensiveness.
Her mouth gaped open and then shut again. She breathed out. “Most immortals can’t die? At all?”
“All immortals can die by beheading and enough fire, although that’s rare. The Maxwells usually die from the curse.” They should probably find a better name for it, but he did feel cursed, so whatever.
“Why were you following me in Dallas, Raine?” she asked.
He’d thought he’d distracted her from that fact. His grin even felt rueful. “Immortal beings mate for life, and when an immortal mates an enhanced human, usually a woman, she becomes immortal, too. It’s an increase in chromosomal pairs. The new immortal might gain some of her mate’s abilities, but she usually doesn’t get immortal strength or powers.”
Mariana looked away as if it was all too much for a moment. “I can’t believe this. How have we missed this for so many years?”
“We don’t want humans to know. If they knew how possible immortality was, they’d go for it, and there’d be wars. Humans would certainly lose, and in doing so, we’d lose enhanced mates.” He kept his voice low and calm.
She shook her head. “I’m not sure I agree.”
He needed to tell her the rest of it. “My family usually spends their whole lives trying to find their mates, and more than half the time, they’ve failed. They die first.”
“Why?”
There was the question. The why of it all. “The mutation in our genes. Only our mates can save us.” It was as basic as he could make it.
Realization dawned across her angled face. “Mating saves you? Something about the exchange or increase in chromosomes fixes your mutant gene?”
The woman was smart.
“Simply put,” he admitted.
She hit him with the next hard question then. “I’m your mate?”
“Yes.”
She licked her lips and he wanted to groan. “That’s why you were in Dallas?”
“I just wanted to see you.” It was hard to explain, and he didn’t much understand it himself, except he’d been compelled to see her at least once. Then he had wanted to know everything about her. “We used to search the globe for mates, but now it’s much easier. Remember the DNA test you took last year?”
Her mouth dropped open. “Yes. I just wanted to know my heritage.”
He nodded. “Our people have tapped into the various databases, and we’ve gained access to reports. Certain ones point us in certain directions, and we go from there. It was my Grams who actually found you. She’s a whiz with computers.” Not as good as Cade but close enough.
“So you want to mate me?” Her voice rose a bit with what sounded like panic.
He should be insulted, but he got it. More than she knew. “No. I do not.”
* * * *
“What’s wrong with me?” Mariana asked the question before she could stop herself and then wanted to smack her forehead the second the words were out.
He grinned and looked almost boyish. Still predatory but close. “Nothing is wrong with you. You’re perfect.”
Perfect? That was going a bit far. “I don’t understand,” she whispered.
He reached over and took her hands. “I watched you for four months and fell head over heels. You’re perfect, and I can die knowing I found love, even if it was short. Thank you for that.”
They were the sweetest words she’d ever heard, and she was well on her way to falling for him, too. Well, she had been before discovering she didn’t know much about him. “Wait a minute. Four months?”
A slight red wound beneath his sharp cheekbones. “Yeah.” Then he frowned. “During that time, I didn’t see another stalker. Oh, I saw the roses arrive at your office and home, but not once did I see somebody else watching you.”
That should relieve her, but her entire body felt jittery. This was a lot. More than she’d ever imagined. “Why don’t you want to mate me?” Not that she wanted to mate him. Except…he was hot, she liked him, was on the way to loving him, and who wouldn’t want to be immortal?
“It’s too much of a risk,” he said.
She tangled her fingers with his. “Mating is a risk? Do some mates not make it?”
“It is slightly dangerous and can be intense, but the risk isn’t in the mating.” He sighed. “It’s not that easy. Fixing us, making us healthy…it isn’t that simple. Those kind of things never are, Mariana.”
“Explain.” Enough with the half answers.
“Remember when I said that immortal humans don’t gain any extra powers?” he asked.
She released his hands and reached for her wineglass. “It was two minutes ago, Raine. Yes, I remember.”
“Sarcasm isn’t necessary,” he drawled. “Unlike most immortals, when a female human mates a Maxwell, both parties get stronger. Freakishly more powerful, especially the immortal. But the female gains strength and abilities that most don’t, and that has to be kept a secret from others in order to keep her safe.”
She thought about it. “So the danger is in being exposed? So what? You already have that.”
“I’m aware,” he said. “That’s not all.”
Of course not. Why would t
hat be all? “Just tell me,” she sighed.
“Unlike most matings, the chromosomal exchange in this situation, in my situation, creates a relationship based on need. While most immortals don’t require the exchange of blood, Maxwells depend on it. If you mated me, we’d have to exchange blood forever. If you wanted to leave me, you couldn’t. And part of that, Mariana, is a power you’d give me over you. You’d need me with a desperation you can’t even imagine.”
She swallowed. Had he meant that to sound sexual? It sounded very sexual. “Sounds like the Maxwell mates have had love and a whole lot of trust in the past.”
He shook his head. “Two of my brothers are mated, and it isn’t happy or good. Their mates can’t stand them, and yet they have to meet up and exchange blood. I think they can work it out, but it’s not my business. It can get ugly, Mariana. Very.”
She ground a palm into her eye to ward off the headache. “Let me get this straight. My options are to go on the run from the Kurjans because they know I exist. If they find me, they’ll probably force me to mate, which sounds horrible.” She took a big gulp of her wine, finishing it. “Or I mate you, get a whole slew of new abilities, have to meet up with you every once in a while so we can, what? Bite each other?”
He nodded.
Gross. She looked at the empty wine glass. “In doing so, you’ll have a hold on me I might not break free of, if I wanted to. There’s a chance I wouldn’t want to break free. What’s the danger to you, Raine?”
“You could kill me,” he said simply.
She sucked in a breath. “Excuse me?”
“If you refused your blood, I’d die. While I might control your body, you’d control my very life.”
“I’d never do that,” she protested. “Hypothetically to all of this, though.”
His smile was tender. “I know. However, if you were captured and kept from me, I’d die. Mating me puts an even bigger bounty on your head than would running from the Kurjans, because we have enemies you can’t imagine.”
Something in his tone alerted her. “You’ve seen it happen.”
“Yes. More than once. It ended up being torture for both mates, and both eventually died. A horrible death. Our enemies are worse than the Kurjans, and the second I mate you, they’re your enemies as well. Your life would be confined to being next to me no matter what, and while you think that’s easy, you’re far more independent than you realize.”
She already knew that. So she’d be giving up this life for one of danger…but it was her choice. “It isn’t fair for you to make that choice for me.”
He shook his head. “I can keep you safe from the Kurjans and get you a new identity. I can’t risk a prolonged and tortuous death for you.”
She needed more wine. “Would you risk it for you?”
One of his dark eyebrows rose. “In a heartbeat.”
“Then it’s my decision, right?” What in the hell was she saying? This was crazy. The entire world had turned upside down in one day. How was it even possible?
“No. It’s mine.”
There he went again. She leaned toward him. “Do you have fangs?”
“Yes.” He let them drop, and they were sharply deadly.
Wow. She watched as he retracted them. “That’s incredible. If we mated, would I get fangs?”
He shook his head. “No.”
She sat back, her mind reeling. “Wait a minute. Is Tabi an immortal?” The woman had never seemed quite human, actually.
Raine stood. “Tabi is a demoness, and Noah Siosal is a vampire-demon hybrid. Noah mated Abby, and Tabi mated Evan and saved his life. He’s an anomaly that we can’t expose as well. It was thought that enhanced human males had died out.”
Mariana stood, her brain nicely mellow from the wine. “I need to think about all of this and get some sleep.”
“In the morning, we’re getting you out of here,” Raine said, no give on his sharp face.
Mariana walked right at him and stopped an inch away. “Maybe. Unless I decide to mate you.” She’d felt right with him from the beginning, and that had to mean something. So she lifted up on her tiptoes and kissed him.
Hard.
Chapter 14
Raine tossed and turned in the guest bed as the rain gentled outside, barely tapping against the window. He made plans for the next day and tried to decide the safest place for Mariana to relocate. The brand on his palm burned hotter than ever with her just in the next room. He’d told her everything, and she’d needed to sleep.
That was fine, but in the morning, she’d do as he said. While his time was limited, he’d find her safety before he left.
The door to the bedroom opened and outlined her sweet body.
He sat up and let the blankets fall to his waist. So much for protecting her. He hadn’t even heard she was up, such was his preoccupation with her safety. “Mariana?” He listened to the world around them and could find no threats.
She audibly swallowed and walked on bare feet to the side of the bed. She wore a short nightie that appeared white in the soft light coming from the kitchen. Her nipples were hard beneath the silk. “Yes.”
His heart started thundering. “What are you doing here?” He clenched the bedcovers to keep from reaching for her.
“I’m done thinking.” She lifted the covers off him and then set a knee on the mattress before sliding her leg over to straddle his nude body. “You said you loved me.”
“I do.” His voice sounded desperate and his vocal cords ripped.
She placed her soft hands on his chest while her heated core was right on his aching cock. Only the very thin silky layer of her panties kept them apart. “I never believed in love at first sight until you. That first night you walked into the anger management group, I knew my life had changed. But I figured it was just me.”
The marking on his palm cut deep, and he bit his lip to keep from growling. Her scent surrounded him, filling his head. His heart thumped hard, already seeking hers to find the familiar rhythm. “It wasn’t just you.”
“I trust you.” She leaned over and kissed his neck.
He couldn’t breathe. “You shouldn’t.”
Her lips wandered up to his jawline. “Why not?” she breathed.
He reached for her hair, tangled his fingers, and pulled her head back. The noise she made was not one of protest, and she pressed harder down on him. “I explained the danger you’d be in. Every day. Forever.” He couldn’t think with her soft body so close.
“You explained very well.” She couldn’t move her head, but she curled her fingernails into his pecs. “I’m in danger now. Staying human keeps me in danger, too. The danger I choose is with you.”
Oh, God. It was more than he could’ve ever hoped. Once he’d told her the truth, he’d figured she’d do the smart and safe thing and stay away from him. “I can make you safe for your life.”
“I want more than my life.” Since he still held her head, she wiggled her soft butt against his thighs.
Fire lanced to his balls. He couldn’t keep the groan quiet this time. The female was going to kill him. “Stop playing. We need to talk.”
“Who’s playing?” She ground down on him, and he was lost.
He clenched her hip and rolled them over, settling between her thighs and keeping his grip on her hair. He lifted up on one elbow so he didn’t crush her. “Listen to me.”
She arched against him, moaning as her nipples scraped along his chest, even through the silk. “I am listening.”
“You’re not.” He tightened his hold until she had no choice but to meet his gaze. “If you think your movements will be curtailed because of the Kurjans, that’s nothing compared to being my mate.”
Her smile was sweet and unconcerned. “I trust you, Raine.”
The words shot right to his heart and then kept going…somewhere much deeper. Somewhere only his mate could hit. But he owed her the full truth, even if he couldn’t explain it very well. “I’m nearly four centuries old, swe
etheart.” The words rolled out of him while her heated core tempted him beyond what he thought he could refuse.
“I know.” She cupped his jaw with one small hand.
“You don’t know.” Everything inside him wanted to take what she’d offered. But he’d vowed to himself to keep her safe, and that could include from him. “I’m not modern and never intend to be. If I mated, it wouldn’t be a modern arrangement where we meet up every month. Even if that’s what you eventually wanted.”
“I love you, Raine.” She blushed a light peach. “We’ve only known each other a few months, but I feel it. I know it. I don’t want to have a business relationship with you. I want to build a life together.”
It was more than he’d ever hoped to have. “I’m bossy.”
“I know.” She laughed.
He kissed her nose, unable to stop himself. “I’m possessive and protective.”
“I’ve noticed that as well.” She lifted her knees and managed to trap his hips between her soft thighs. “I can hold my own.”
His grin felt primitive. “My word is law, baby. You agree to mate me, you agree that I mean that statement.” It felt freeing to finally be himself.
Her smile held dare. “I understand that’s what you think. Some laws were meant to be broken.” She scratched along his jaw to tug on his earlobe, setting his body ablaze.
He’d never been able to turn away from a challenge, and this one he wanted to keep forever. “Tell me you get me,” he whispered, this time grinding against her.
She gasped, and a flush covered her face. “I get you.”
Oh, they would see about that. “I hope you know what you’re getting into.” He reached down and pulled the nightie over her head, revealing those peach-colored nipples that kept teasing him.
“Ditto,” she moaned, grasping his shoulder. “I want this. Want you. All of you.”
“You’ve got me.” He leaned down and kissed her, way past the warning stage. They both wanted to go forward, and he loved her. He’d keep her safe, and she’d let him. For now, he moved down her body and ripped her tiny panties away.
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