Unforgiven (The Forbidden Bond 2)

by Cat Miller

  Brandi had gone from burning up her clothes when the slightest thing upset her, to containing the fire in her hands instead of letting it spread across her body. Then she progressed to a point where she held the heat without allowing actual flames to appear. She went from throwing fireballs with no skill or real aim to forcing waves of angry heat out from her hands. With a lot of practice and encouragement from Doc, she had learned to focus the heat into a controlled beam instead of walls of blistering energy. Her goal was to think about an object and burn it. She could do it to a point, but she had to be really close to the target. If she learned that skill with confidence, she wouldn’t have to worry about harming innocent by-standers if the need to defend herself arose.

  The night of Dani’s bonding was the first time Brandi had directed the flames outward instead of trying to contain them within. Since then, she and Doc realized that her power needed to be vented from time to time. She had to be especially careful in times of stress or the pressure would build up and eventually bubble over. After her fight with Grey, and Samantha’s unexpected visit, she needed to let off some steam.

  Brandi focused herself on the target she created across the clearing. It was much farther away and a larger target than she had attempted to ignite thus far in her training. She dug down deep into the bottomless pit of flames in her belly and willed to consume the pile of wood.

  ****

  Derek watched Brandi from the tree line. What in the hell was she thinking coming out here to this secluded spot on her own? He wanted to put her over his knee. What if he wasn’t the only one watching her? The situation at The Nest was getting tense. Things were coming to a boiling point and the Master was gearing up for a strike. This was not the time to be out in the wood playing fire starter.

  He had watched her for over an hour while she practiced tossing fireballs accurately and sending waves of heat rushing out ahead of her. She concentrated fiercely on a target she created out of a pile of fallen tree limbs at the opposite end of the clearing. Sweat trickled down her face and the deep blue of her eyes slowly bled to the deepest black. He was amazed when the pile began to smoke without Brandi lifting a finger to lob a fireball or send out a heat wave. First it smoldered and sparked until suddenly orange and red flames shot up into the darkening early evening sky.

  Brandi was so powerful and so beautiful it made his chest ache with the need to protect her. He knew from experience that he could eventually pay for his attachment to Brandi. The last time he dared to have even a friend outside of The Nest without a purpose set forth by the Master, he paid dearly and so did the girl. She was just a friend whose company he enjoyed and occasionally fed from, but someone had reported his interest in the girl to the Master. So the Master took her to teach Derek a lesson. Even now she was locked in a cell awaiting the Master’s pleasure. It made him sick and he couldn’t decide if it was a good thing she had become one of the Master’s favorite playthings or not. Would she be better off dead than living to please a monster?

  The thought of losing Brandi that way was more than he could bear. Brandi was more than just a girl whose company he enjoyed. She was the only thing he wished for in life, the only person other than his mom that ever been able to breech the walls of defense around his heart and mind. He had resolved time and again to stay away from her. He should let Malibu Ken look out for her safety. He really did try to forget her but before he knew it, he would find himself watching her again. The sight of her was an addiction. The taste of her haunted him constantly.

  Derek didn’t think Brandi knew he was hiding in the woods until the tree concealing him from view burst into flames. His jacket caught fire and he had to execute a classic “Stop, drop and roll.” He didn’t realize the danger he was in until he found himself surrounded by a blistering wall of air that shimmered and undulated like a desert mirage in the distance. Brandi rushed through the trees with her hands up, ready for a strike. With nowhere to go he put up his hands in surrender and prepared for the hit. Brandi walked right through her molten cage and glared at him.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She pushed him. The ring around them dissipated. “You scared the shit out of me!”

  “I scared you? Jesus, you nearly roasted me. This jacket is toast.” He smiled in spite of himself. Brandi was so damn cute when she was angry. Her hands were propped up on her hips and she glared up at him from eyes of darkest night. His grin just made her even angrier.

  “I was keeping an eye on you, Sparky. You shouldn’t be out here alone. What if I had been a bad guy?”

  “The last time I checked you were a bad guy.” She smirked.

  It stung. He really hoped she would learn to understand his dilemma.

  “I’ve never hurt you, Sparky.”

  “What do you want, Derek? I asked you to stay away from me. I don’t know why you keep popping up like this. I have Greyson and...”

  Derek tried to speak over her. The sound of the other man’s name on her lips pissed him off. “Don’t say his name…”

  “And Greyson is all…” she continued.

  He spoke over her again. Getting angrier by the second, “I said don’t say his name, Brandi.” He growled.

  “And I said Greyson is all I need. So you can just…” She was goading him

  That was it. He stalked toward her. If she wouldn’t shut that sweet mouth he would do it for her by giving her something far better to do with that sharp little tongue.

  “If you’re gonna burn me do it now, Sparky.” He didn’t stop advancing as she backed away, wide-eyed.

  “Do it now because I’m about to give you a reason to need more than that old man of yours.”

  She just gawked at him with a strange mixture of curiosity, fear and challenge. She retreated until a tree hit her back. Derek caught her around the waist and lifted her to eye level, wedging her between the tree and his body. He used his arm to prevent the rough bark of the tree from rubbing her back. He moved in slowly, giving her the chance to stop him if she wanted to. Brandi looked at his mouth, watching his lips get closer. She licked her lips just before he claimed them. She tasted like warm honey and smelled like a bonfire on a cold night. He leisurely caressed her tongue with his own, searched out every bit of flavor he could capture and doing his best to brand her with his own flavor. No matter what she claimed about her relationship with the ever absent warrior, Brandi responded to Derek and gave him as good as she got. The temptation of her soft warmth pressed against him was sublime.

  Derek lowered her slowly to her feet. He was holding on to the last bit of his control by a thread. She clutched at his arms and held him close to her body. He had to get away from her. If he made love to her it would all be over. His whole life, all of the suffering he had endured and inflicted on others would have been in vain. His mother would die and he would live with that guilt forever. If he stayed and Brandi allowed him to take her he would never return to The Nest.

  “You don’t need to burn me anymore, Sparky. You’ve already branded yourself on a part of me that no one else will ever see.” He kissed her forehead and backed away.

  “Where are you going? I thought you said it wasn’t safe out here?” She followed, challenging him, breathlessly. Derek looked over his shoulder. He let her see the fierce need for her that was riding him.

  “You’re in far more danger if I don’t walk away. I’ll stick around until you’re gone.” He faded into the trees and watched, waiting patiently until Brandi gathered her things and climbed into her car.

  On his way back to The Nest, Derek contemplated his life and cursed the course it had taken. Brandi was the best thing that would ever happen to him and he knew it. Something deep in his gut said she was the one that could change everything for him, but what could he offer her? Nothing. The Master would use her against Derek to control him. If the Master ever learned of her pyrokinetic ability it would become another tool in his arsenal of stolen power. In the end he would lose both his mother and Brandi. It
was hopeless. He was hopeless.

  ****

  The last couple of weeks had given Brandi the time she needed to evaluate the state of her life. The time she spent at home with JR had grounded her and helped her remember what it felt like to be in her own skin. She couldn’t bring herself to regret the transformation she put herself through in an effort to find her place in the world.

  When she was younger her entire focus had been on education and sports, with a passing guy thrown in here and there for entertainment. Brandi had totally missed the experience of being young and careless while she pushed herself to continue her education. The pressure of completing her Master’s degree at eighteen made her mature beyond her years and unable to relate to others her own age, but she couldn’t regret that either.

  Now that she had forced herself to slow down and live the life of a nearly twenty year old for a time, Brandi had a new outlook. The day New Brandi came into being, she had bagged up all her old clothes with the intention of donating them but she had never been able to actually let them go. She was very glad of that now. First, because she was sure some of her jerseys would fit JR and second, because the time had come for her to find a balance between being an educated wallflower that could run rings around anyone on the playing field, pretty much any playing field because she had tried every sport imaginable, and a trendy socialite. It was time to be comfortable in her skin again. Brandi dragged several large bags from the rear of her walk-in closet and started to dig around for the one that contained the sports gear.

  “Do you really think I could play? I’m not very big, or coordinated.” JR asked from the doorway.

  “Absolutely,” She smiled up at him from her seat on the carpet. “You’re plenty big enough and coordination is something that comes with practice and exercise. Maybe you should think about taking some kind of martial arts as well as football.”

  JR smiled and warmed a place in her heart that had been cold for quite a while.

  “I’d like that.” He came to his knees and helped her search.

  After Samantha’s cry for help, Brandi came home to find a kid much changed from the sunny boy she knew and loved. JR was skittish and stressed out. Sam was all too happy to step back and let Brandi deal with their brother. He refused to sleep in his own room and his grades were looking like crap. So Brandi devised a plan. First she set up a schedule of daily chores, homework, bedtimes, stuff like that. She had taken a psych course in college and she learned that kids needed a routine and boundaries. It helped to keep them centered and on task. She had never had any chores but she had also learned that kids that had such tasks learned responsibility. She’d always been responsible so she didn’t feel bad about skipping that part of childhood.

  The next item on her to-do list was to help him feel safe in his home again. She took JR around the property and introduced him to all the various warriors on duty. He didn’t seem to realize exactly how many guards were on the property at any given time. There were more than usual since his attack. The next task was figuring out how to get him back into his own bed.

  It started out like an adventure. They went camping in the woods on the property one night. The next night they moved closer to the house so JR could see the patrolling warriors moving about the grounds. The night after that they camped in the kitchen. They spent two nights in the dining room before she could get him to go upstairs and sleep in her room. Then they camped in the hall outside of his bedroom door, much to their mother’s annoyance. Finally after a week of talking about what had happened the night he woke up in his bed surrounded by strangers and reassuring him that he was safe now, they camped together in his room. The next night he slept in his bed and she camped alone in the hall. He had come to the door several times in the night to check on her. Seeing her safe and alone in the hall seemed to reassure JR. The night after that she slept in her own bed, going to check on him several times but he slept through the night.

  Now they were working on his confidence. He tried on various jerseys and kicked a soccer ball around her bedroom. Brandi thought he needed some self-confidence to feel like he could defend himself. He wanted to play football and take some Tae-Kwon-Do. It was a perfect mix of self-defense training and a full contact team sport. JR was going to be fine and she felt confident that his experiences would make him a stronger person now that he had conquered his fears. Now that she had her baby brother straightened out, it was time to do the same thing for her.

  ****

  Candice tossed her duffle into her truck and unobtrusively peered at Greyson and the other guys over the car parked next to her. They were all laughing and Greyson was looking kind of sheepish.

  “You are so whipped, man. You can’t even take a victory lap with the team before you run off to the little woman?” Garrett teased Greyson.

  “Don’t give him a hard time, Garrett. I’d hate to see little Greyson here get into trouble or anything,” Troy joined in.

  “You’re right, Troy. We have Candice now anyway. At least she doesn’t have a curfew,” Garrett replied. Ray, Mitch, and Linc all made a show of searching for Greyson’s “man card” so they could revoke it.

  They hadn’t yet invited her to go to The Tap, a local vamp owned bar frequented by off duty warriors and thirty humans, but now that her name had been mentioned, it was less awkward for her to join the conversation.

  “I heard my name. What did I do now?”

  She smiled at the team and did her best not to look directly at Greyson. It had been that way the whole three weeks they were deployed. She listened to Derek’s advice and included the whole team in most every conversation they had so that Greyson wouldn’t feel she was stalking him or continuing to pursue a personal relationship. It had been pure hell bedding down near him every night. She had used the sleep aid Derek gave her almost every night but she had to use more than he suggested. Just one drop made her feel high instead of sleepy. After the first time she used it, the guys had made fun of her because instead of going to sleep she had talked and talked about God only knew what because she couldn’t remember a thing.

  “We were just going to give you Greyson’s man card because your balls are bigger than his.” Linc was looking back and forth from her crotch to Greyson’s and nodding as if he could verify the size of her nonexistent testicles through her pants.

  “What did I miss?” she asked innocently. Greyson shook his head good-naturedly and tried to speak but couldn’t get a word in.

  “Greyson has to check in with his Momma, I mean girlfriend, so he can’t go the bar with us tonight. You’re coming along aren’t you, little red?” Garrett asked.

  “I’d love to go. A little bar food sounds great.”

  They all laughed because they knew she didn’t mean wings and French fries but slightly intoxicated humans. A good buzz might do her some good. She could sleep in a guest room on the Enclave so she wouldn’t have to “drink and drive.”

  “It’s too bad you can’t come, Greyson. I guess I’ll see you around.”

  Candice did her best not to pout but didn’t think she had succeeded. After spending so much time with him, it was hard to walk away not knowing when she would see him again. Her training was over so she had no real reason to be on the Enclave until they allowed her to tag along again.

  Greyson took a deep breath.

  “Fine, I’ll go, but only for a few drinks. I need to feed anyway. I’m exhausted. I must be getting old because I can’t keep up with you whippersnappers.”

  The guys laughed at the self-deprecating remark about his age. He was at least twenty years older than the rest of them but he didn’t look a day over thirty and he ran circles around them all most days.

  ****

  As soon as they walked into The Tap, one of the local bar flies Candice had seen the guys with before approached them. She immediately singled Greyson out and steer him toward the dance floor. The woman was intoxicated and looking for love in all the wrong places. Greyson danced with her for a bit. S
he pressed her value-sized breasts into his chest and groped his ass. Greyson made eye contact with the bartender, who nodded and smiled his approval.

  They had a few hidden spots in the bar meant solely for the use of vamp clientele to discreetly feed, but you had to have the approval of the bartender on duty to partake in the bar. The owner of the bar cared for his human patrons as well as the vamps. So, if the person was too intoxicated or had already been fed on recently the bartender would deny the request to use their secluded areas.

  Greyson left a healthy tip on the bar in thanks as if he’d actually just purchased a meal and led the busty blond away from the crowd. It was a while before he returned looking disheveled and noticeably more relaxed. The blond made her way to the door. It was typical of Grayson to compel the women he fed from to go home afterward for their own safety. Over imbibing after blood loss could be harmful and Greyson would feel responsible for the human’s welfare after their gift of blood.

  Garrett was ordering their second round by the time Greyson pulled up the only open stool at the bar, which just happened to be next to Candice’s. She had already found a meal of her own and made her way back to the guys in half the time it took Greyson and she wondered if he had screwed the woman while he fed at her neck. Candice hated the uncomfortable feeling of jealousy Greyson was so easily able to inspire in her.

  Conversation flew freely around Candice, but she was lost in her own thoughts. The longer she sat next to him, the more she remembered he didn’t want to be there. He wanted be at home in bed with his fledgling. He smiled at her and lifted his glass to hers.