by J. S. Scott
Daric felt a tiny crack form in the heavy ice that encased his heart. Hannah looked so vulnerable, her hair a curtain now hiding her face as she continued to stare at her wine, swirling it around aimlessly. Goddamnit! He wanted to be the one to protect her, to make sure she was never hurt again. Her grief and loneliness beat at him, demanding he comfort her and make sure she was never alone again.
Don’t fool yourself. She also soothes your soul, fills the empty places inside of you. You covet her. You want her.
“I speak the ancient words and it will be so.” Rejection was pretty straightforward.
She looked up at him, her forest-green eyes piercing him. “Will I remember this after it’s over?”
Daric clenched his jaw, the thought of Hannah going about her normal life, not remembering who she belonged to, wasn’t sitting well with him. “No. Our ties will be broken and you won’t be attracted to me, won’t remember even meeting me.” Fuck. That thought nearly killed him.
“If I meet you in the future, I’ll still find you attractive,” she mused, her brow wrinkling in thought.
“You’ll feel differently,” he answered her gruffly, irritated by that fact and not wanting to think about meeting her in the future. Right now, he could sense her longing, her desire. Although it drove him insane, made him want nothing more than to pleasure her until she was crying out his name in ecstasy, he knew she would feel differently after their ties were broken. And, dammit, it rankled.
“I was attracted to your voice when you called in your order. Something about you made me hot and bothered, even on the phone. Is that why? Because of the mate thing?” She tilted her head to one side, giving him a questioning look.
“No. Not then. I hadn’t acknowledged you as my mate.”
She shrugged. “Guess it was just your sexy voice that set my panties on fire.”
Daric took a healthy sip of his wine, nearly choking on it, as her comment registered. Over the last few hours of discussion between the two of them, Daric had quickly learned that Hannah wasn’t coy, saying whatever she was thinking. He didn’t respond, knowing if he thought about the sexy lingerie he’d paid the penalty to see, he’d have her pinned to the floor and out of those barely-there panties in seconds.
Thankfully she continued on another subject. “If we’re mates, why can’t I read your mind, see your thoughts?”
“I’m royal. It doesn’t happen naturally. I have to allow you access.” Thank God she wasn’t going to be his mate or he would have to allow her access, and his mind wasn’t exactly filled with rainbows and sunshine. More like violent storms and eternal darkness.
“You said you were the last surviving royalty. Wouldn’t that make you King? And who’s the King of the other vampires?” she asked, her voice inquisitive, curious.
“The general population of vampires is regulated by a council of elders. Only the healers have a royal family.” He sighed before continuing, “Vampire healers are powerful, requiring someone more powerful than they are to keep them in check at times. There are those who would suffer the pain of backlash or penalty to do things that shouldn’t be done by a healer.”
“What if the royals are tempted to evil?”
It was an intelligent question, but it still irritated him, “There has been a Carvillius ruling for thousands of years. We are not tempted to evil.” He paused before he admitted, “We are ruled by ancient magic. There are some things that even royalty is not allowed to do. That’s why my father died. He was King. Should still be King. He died trying to save my brother, Nolan, who was dying of mating conflict. He drained all of his power into Nolan’s dying body in his grief and madness, an act that is not allowed without penalty of death.”
“Why?” she asked in a hushed voice.
“To keep the rulers in check. Transfer of power or magic is not allowed. I suppose because a ruler could steal power if he were capable, or give away power to another being in exchange for something he desired, making him less capable of ruling. It upsets the balance.”
“I don’t understand why your brother didn’t just reject his mate like you’re going to do,” Hannah said pensively, her finger tracing the patterns on her wine glass.
“He wanted her. He wasn’t capable. But she didn’t want him. It left him in mating conflict, one of the few things that can kill a royal vampire healer.” Even now, Daric didn’t understand why Nolan had wanted Maya, a whiny and more than a little insane human female. She had been beautiful, but there had been no character beneath the beauty.
“I’m sorry. You lost your brother and your father at the same time. That must have been awful for you.” Her eyes shining with tears, Hannah scooted around the food and crawled next to him, taking his hand in hers. “I lost my father, and the pain of that loss still eats me alive. I don’t know how you could bear it.”
Daric’s heart ached, feeling her loss more acutely than before. “I shouldn’t have spoken of it. It reminded you of your loss. You shouldn’t feel guilty, Hannah. It wasn’t your fault.”
She nodded her head. “Logically, I know that. But it’s difficult not having regrets.”
Ah, yes. Daric knew all about regrets. “I understand. I still wish I could have stopped my father from killing himself, from making his subjects suffer by changing the law of our people before he drained himself of power. My people have suffered for the last thousand years for something that he did in a moment of madness.”
Hannah squeezed his hand as she replied, “He was King. Was it even possible for you to stop him?”
“I don’t know. But I could have tried. I wasn’t there. I should have been there. I was studying the books of the ancients, trying to figure out if there was any way to save Nolan.” He hadn’t found anything, and his father and brother had died without him being present. “I went as soon as I heard Nolan’s cry of distress in my mind, but it was too late.” Daric had been greeted by a pile of ashes that had once been his father and brother, able to read the preceding events from their remains. They were images that he had never been able to forget, his father’s outrage as his son slipped away, his father’s mad act of changing the Book of the Vampire Healer so it was virtually impossible for any healer to find his mate, hoping it might reverse Nolan’s death. Then, realizing that his desperate attempt had failed, draining his life energy and magic into Nolan. Nolan had already been gone, so it was an act of suicide, although his father’s mind had been so twisted, he probably didn’t think of it that way.
“If your father was capable of changing the mating rules, I’m sure you couldn’t have stopped him, Daric.” Hannah crawled into Daric’s lap and rested her head against his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I know he was grieving, but I don’t think I like him. He left you alone. I understand it was a horrible loss for him, and I don’t blame him for mourning, but he had another son to think about.”
If anything or anyone had ever felt as good as the warm, comforting woman in his arms, Daric didn’t remember it. He tightened his arms around her, sighing against her hair, losing himself in her softness. “Nolan was his whole world.”
Hannah tightened her arms around his neck. “What about you?”
Her tone was defensive, protective and indignant. Daric would have laughed at the thought that she was rising to his defense if it hadn’t touched him so deeply, made his heart ache with tenderness for the small, human female who reacted like a tigress. “I was a second-born prince. Nolan was the heir, the future King.”
“You were his son, dammit. It shouldn’t matter when you were born.” She pulled back to look at him. “Were you and Nolan close?”
He looked at his woman, so fierce, so angry on his behalf, and he felt the ice crack a little more. “Yes. I still miss him to this day. He was patient and kind. We were so different, but we were very close. He would have made a fine King.”
She laid her head back on his shoulder as she murmured, “You still haven’t explained the King thing.”
Unable to st
op himself, Daric stroked her silky hair. “It isn’t complicated. I didn’t want the title. I can watch over my people without the title of King.”
“Yes. Obviously you can. You’ve watched over your people for a thousand years without it.” She shook her head against his chest. “Yikes. That sounds odd. Exactly how old are you?”
“I was only two hundred years old when my father died,” he muttered in amusement.
“Only? So you’re twelve hundred years old? Can a vampire that old even get it up anymore?” She laughed against his chest. “Do you still have your own teeth or do you need…like…denture fangs?”
Daric smiled against her hair, knowing he should be insulted by Hannah’s questioning of his manhood, but unable to do anything other than let her laughter surround him, filling him with a peace he hadn’t felt in…well…ever. He growled playfully and pulled her ass into his groin. “I’d have no problem satisfying my mate.” And then some! His cock was straining against his jeans, swelling impossibly large as Hannah’s delicious ass wiggled against it.
Mine!
“Hmmm…I guess I’ll have to take your word on that one since you’re refusing me,” she murmured in a sleepy voice.
At that moment, Daric wanted nothing more than to teleport them to his bedroom and show her all of the ways he could pleasure her, sate her until her body was limp and begging for mercy. His need for her was already becoming almost impossible to deny, growing stronger with every touch, every word, every bit of her sweetness that he lapped up like a starving man.
I need to speak the words. Release both of us. This is fucking torture.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to form the words to refuse Hannah, set her free, but they stuck in his throat, clogging him into silence, choking him like dry grains of sand in a sandstorm.
She’s my mate. Mine. I’m not giving her up. Never. I want her. I need her.
Cursing himself for being a selfish bastard, he kept trying, but the words wouldn’t come.
Fuck!
Hannah stirred in his arms and then settled back in with a feminine sigh, after finding a comfortable spot on his chest.
Daric’s arms tightened around her possessively, his heart racing. Who in the hell did he think he was trying to fool? Somewhere deep inside…he had known the truth, had probably known since the first moment he’d realized that this woman was his, that he wouldn’t be able to refuse her. He’d been inside her head, seen glimpses of her heart. Maybe his goddamn noble ancestry demanded that he try to do the right thing and let her go, but everything inside him, every vampire instinct he had, told him that this woman belonged to him.
She deserves better.
Oh, fuck no! He might be royalty, but he wasn’t feeling particularly noble. The thought of his woman with anyone else nearly sent him over the deep end, making him want to claim her in the most primal way possible. Over and over again, until she could do nothing but moan his name in ecstasy.
Daric rose gracefully to his feet, Hannah cradled in his arms.
She lifted her head slightly, whispering in a drowsy voice, “I’m sorry. I think I dozed off. Is it possible for you to take me home?”
“You will stay here. Sleep.” Daric glanced at the clock. It was nearly dawn. No wonder his woman was exhausted. She’d had an exhausting day and the wine had probably added to her desire to sleep.
“The restaurant--”
“Will function just fine without you. You stay here.” He had seen the memories of Hannah going home to the empty house her father had lived in, surrounded by sorrow and regrets. She wasn’t going back there again. Not until she had healed enough to go without pain.
“For tonight,” she agreed in a slumberous voice.
Forever.
Daric’s covetous gaze caressed her face, watching her eyes flutter closed as she fell back to sleep. Having already been roasted over the coals by his woman for teleporting her earlier, he made sure she was asleep before he transferred them from the living room to his bedroom.
He dissolved their clothing as they reappeared in his bed, covering them with a quilt and fresh sheets.
Hannah snuggled against him with a trusting sigh, still sleeping the sleep of the innocent.
His cock still throbbed and his body was tense with the need to be inside her, but at the moment he could still contain the beast and enjoy the happiness of having his mate beside him, trusting him to keep her safe.
She’ll never be alone again. She’ll never suffer again. I’ll do everything in my power to keep her happy.
Daric grinned, a cocky smirk that came from knowing that he was the most powerful being that walked the earth. How difficult could it be to make one human woman happy?
The automatic shutters on his windows whispered closed, signaling the coming sunrise. He yawned and closed his eyes, letting himself slip easily into day sleep, a hint of that insolent smile still on his lips as he slept the sleep of a vampire.
Chapter 5
“Are you kidding me? I can’t do this!” Hannah stood at the top of a deserted mountain, gaping down at the seemingly endless blanket of perfect, untouched snow that seemed to stretch for miles down a never-ending incline. “Where the hell are we?” Her head was still spinning from whatever that thing was that Daric did to get them from one place to another at warp speed.
“We aren’t that far from Temple,” Daric answered, his voice agitated. “I thought this would make you happy. It’s what you wanted. You wanted to be able to ski again. I’m trying to make you happy, woman.”
“Well…I’m not.” Hannah shot Daric a belligerent look. He’d pulled her out of a perfectly warm bed, plied her with coffee and transported them God-knew- where, to the top of a deserted mountain, and he expected her ski down unknown territory after being nearly sedentary for a year. “I’m not in shape for this. I’m not ready. I haven’t done more than walk at a slow limp for months.”
Yesterday, she had been fairly certain that she’d never walk without a limp, and now anything was possible. Overwhelmed, she looked down at her favorite pair of skis with a sigh.
Daric frowned, as though offended. “You think I’d let you get injured?” He crossed his arms in front of him, biceps and triceps rippling beneath a short sleeved t-shirt. Dressed in only jeans, the lightweight shirt and black boots, Daric didn’t look in the least bit cold, although the temperature had to be nearing the zero mark.
Hannah was appropriately dressed in red ski attire, all of her wardrobe and personal belongings having mysteriously appeared in Daric’s home before she had even woken up in his bed earlier in the evening.
“It isn’t about getting hurt. Not really. I’m just not sure I’m ready for this right now.” Oh, but she wanted to be. As Hannah looked at the moonlit, perfect terrain, she wanted to drive into it, feel the excitement of the cold wind in her face as she flew down the mountain, the first to break the new and perfect snow.
New snow. Deep snow. Avalanche territory!
“Not happening,” Daric drawled, raising an eyebrow.
No. Of course it wasn’t. Hannah rolled her eyes at his arrogant stance and seemingly endless confidence that there was nothing he couldn’t do or accomplish. What she wouldn’t give right now for that kind of self-possession. After living most of her adult life taking care of Mark’s needs and never acknowledging her own, she no longer knew who she was or what she wanted. She had failed to accomplish much of anything in her life so far. She couldn’t even run Temple’s the way her father did.
“What does Hannah want?” The low, rumbling voice sounded next to her ear as Daric wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.
What do I want? It was the first time in her life any man had ever asked her that question. Even her father had never really asked, only gently encouraged her to reach for her own goals.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly.
“I’ll take you home right now if this isn’t what you want to do.” His arms tightened around her, his breath
forming a visible cloud of white vapor in front her face.
No! No turning back. Hannah wanted to find her way, and maybe it started by taking this mountain. “It could get dark once the moon is blocked by the trees,” she answered, her eyes scanning her purposed path.
“It won’t.” Even as he uttered the words, the path lit up with artificial light, even though Hannah couldn’t see the source.
Do it, Hannah. You know you’re dying to go.
Daric loosened his hold around her waist. “I’ll be right behind you. Don’t second guess what you want. Your instincts are almost always correct. Trust them.”
Trust me. Isn’t that what Daric was actually saying? Isn’t that what he was asking her to do?
“Yes,” he answered, his arms lowering away from her body.
Before she lost her nerve, Hannah struck the snow with her poles, lowered her goggles, and pushed herself off the mountain, plunging into some of the best fresh powder she had ever experienced. She started slowly, her confidence building as she navigated around obstacles, some of them disappearing before she even got to them. Courtesy of Daric’s magic!
Hannah flew down the mountain, laughing as she tore up the snow, her leg working perfectly. Having Daric behind her, letting her lead the way was novel. She turned her head to the right, catching a glimpse of Daric tearing down the mountain slightly behind her, skiing like an Olympic Gold Medalist.
Exhilarated by her growing speed and confidence, she let herself enjoy the ride. She knew this moment in time, this magical experience, would stay with her forever. For the first time in a very long time, she was flying down a mountain just for the sake of enjoyment, tearing up snow just because she loved to do it. She wasn’t on patrol, she wasn’t helping Mark train, and for the first time since she had been a teenager, she actually felt free.
As Hannah neared the bottom of the mountain, she felt tears form in her eyes. Coming to a halt, snowing spraying around her from her quick maneuver, she pulled her goggles up to swipe at her eyes with a gloved hand. She was panting from exertion, her body no longer in condition to tackle a run that required that much physical strength. She gripped her thighs, laughing, trying to catch her breath. Her head was down, but she saw Daric’s feet planted next to hers, his skis gone, replaced with the black boots he had previously been wearing.