by L. E. Wilson
He had other things he should be doing, but he was eager to get back to his lair, and to the female waiting for him there.
At the thought of her, a feeling of possessiveness hit him so hard he nearly growled out loud. The moment he'd set eyes on the lovely, green-eyed vampire, something had clicked inside of him. No. Not clicked.
Exploded.
Luckily, he was a phenomenal actor. He'd had to be to get where he was now. Nothing he was feeling ever showed on the outside, not unless he wanted it to. He could even control his internal reactions, thanks to years of mind over matter techniques. It was the only way he could infiltrate this world of nocturnal beings where the slightest quickening of your pulse would give you away, and could mean the difference between living and dying.
He was also lucky that Leeha didn't trust his loyalty to her, so when he'd insisted that the female in his room was not going to be used for their last possession, she hadn't argued.
Much.
In the end, she'd broken down and used her beloved Aiden. Personally, he hadn't given a rat's ass which vampires they'd used, until now.
He'd had little time to talk to the female since he'd rushed her to his room and unchained her, giving her leave to help herself to his clothes and books. For her own safety, he'd barred her inside with a spell. She couldn't leave, but nor could anyone get in.
He heard her before he saw her.
"Stay on your own side of the room, bird."
Her words were followed by a great, suffering sigh, and his lips curved up into a smile as he imagined the look on her face as his raven edged closer and closer to her, as she was wont to do. The bird was as fascinated by her as he was.
His raven tittered companionably.
"She'd like to remind you that her name is Cruthú."
The vampire, Shea, hissed as he appeared in the doorway to his room, jumping up lightening fast from where she'd been sitting on the edge of his bed.
Her sea green eyes were enormous in her delicately boned face as she stared up at him, and only then did he remember that he hadn't pulled his hood back up. It was the first time she'd seen him without it.
"You're b-back," she stuttered.
She'd braided her long, dark hair, and the thick plait hung over her shoulder, the ends brushing the bottom of her breast. Loose strands curled around her face, accentuating her cheekbones. One of his T-shirts hung loosely on her small frame, hiding the swells and curves he knew were there.
He was happy to see she'd taken him up on his offer for clean clothes, at least partially. She still had her own jeans on, dusty from her ride in the back of the pickup truck that had brought her here.
Strolling over to her, he stopped just outside of her reach. He'd learned quickly that she didn't like anyone in her personal space. Every time he'd gotten too close to her, she would jump away. "I didn't mean to startle you."
Her eyes roved over his face, growing wider with each passing second.
He noticed her fangs were still out. He could see the tips of them when she talked. "Shea, right?" he asked.
She nodded warily.
"I'm sorry it's taken me so long to check in on you. Are you all right?" he asked.
She blinked, and then blinked again. "Uh, yeah, I'm good."
Cruthú gave up stalking the pretty girl and squawked out a happy hello to see him. Flying up to land on his shoulder, she rubbed her beak on his cheek. The fact that she stayed down here with him, rather than soaring the open skies where she belonged, was a testament to their bond. He took a moment to greet his only friend before shifting his gaze back to his guest.
She was still gawking at him.
He lifted a brow. "What?" The word came out a bit harsher than he'd intended, and he frowned at himself.
Recoiling from his harsh tone, she seemed to snap herself out of it. In a protective gesture, she wrapped her arms around herself, briefly closing her eyes as she gave him a small shake of her head. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to stare. I've just never seen you without..." She raised a hand and made a miming motion of something being pulled low over her eyes. "Your hood always covered most of your face before." She dropped her hand back to her waist. "I was just a little taken aback."
"Because I am so completely repulsive to look at?" he asked sardonically.
A horrified expression crossed her face. "No! No. Not at all. Just the opposite, in fact."
His brows lifted as he waited for her to elaborate.
She didn't. More's the pity.
She cleared her throat, and she suddenly looked so lost that he decided to take pity on her. With a last scratch under his friend's soft feathers, he stepped away to set Cruthú on her perch at the head of his bed.
"Is there anything you need to make your stay here more comfortable?" he asked Shea.
She shook her head. "What are you going to do with me?"
"I don't know," he answered honestly.
"You could just let me go," she suggested.
He heard the hopeful tone in her voice and sighed heavily, wishing that was so, but it just wasn't possible. He faced her square on so there would be no question as to the sincerity of his response.
"No, Shea. I can't."
Setting her jaw in a stubborn line, she watched the raven preening her feathers, but he knew she wasn't really seeing her. He could feel her frustration, and wished he could tell her something that would ease it. But he had told her the truth. He honestly didn't know.
And he couldn't allow her to leave him.
Undoing the fastening of his cloak, he shrugged it off of his broad shoulders and hung it on the hook by the doorway, leaving him in dark jeans and a long-sleeved cotton shirt. It was warmer here than it was in the altar room, or anywhere else within the mountain actually. A natural hot spring ran underneath the floor, and kept the room at a comfortable temperature, as well as providing a bathing room just down the tunnel to the left where it bubbled to the surface, creating a natural pool.
He was glad this room had survived the encounter between himself and the Master vampire. It was far away from the center of the mountain, the part that had taken the most damage, and accessed only by a maze of underground tunnels as far as everyone knew. It was why he had chosen this area.
As he rolled up the sleeves, exposing the tan skin on his strong forearms, he inquired over his shoulder, "Are you thirsty?"
A preternatural silence answered his question, and he turned to find that she'd gone eerily still, her heated eyes flickering from his exposed throat to his wrists.
It made him instantly hard.
She ran her tongue over her bottom lip, and shook her head again. "No. I'm fine."
The trembling of her husky voice belied the firmness of her words.
He clenched and unclenched his fists, fighting the urge to tilt his head to the side and offer himself to her. He held no love for vampires, but for some reason, this slight female affected him as no other woman ever had, and that included humans.
"I can get you some bagged blood if you need it, Shea. Please don't be afraid to ask."
Her eyes flew to his in surprise. "Oh. Um. Ok. I will. But really, I'm fine."
Grabbing a wooden chair from the small table in the corner, he pulled it over to the bed and turned it around to face him. Straddling the seat, he indicated for her to sit on the bed near him, then crossed his arms casually on top of the back rest. "Please. I'm sure you have questions. I'll answer what I can. I don't want you to be upset."
Swallowing visibly, she sidled over to him and sat down on the edge of the mattress, just out of his reach.
He studied her a moment: Her palms were on the bed to either side of her, her feet together, her spine rigid. She was ready to jump and run at the slightest provocation. "Are you frightened of me, Shea?"
Shaking her head, she said, "Not in the way you think."
He waited, but again, she didn't seem willing or able to elaborate.
"What's your name?" she asked suddenly.
"Jesse what?"
"Just Jesse, for now."
As the silence lingered, he opened his mind to hers just a bit.
She wanted to ask him something, but was uncertain as to whether or not she should.
"Go ahead," he told her.
Startled green eyes flashed up to his.
"Go ahead," he repeated. "Ask me what it is you want to know."
The wariness returned, but she did as he requested. "You're the one who kept Luukas here. The one who helped Leeha. She wouldn't be able to hold him without a witch...or warlock." It wasn't a question.
He responded as though it were anyway. "No. It wasn't me. I've only recently come here."
"Then who...?"
"Keira Moss is the witch that made your Master's life hell." He neglected to mention the part he had played when Luukas came back after his witch was taken from him. "He appears to have forgiven her, however." He shrugged.
That got her attention. "Forgiven her? What do you mean?"
"Yeah, I guess you wouldn't have heard, having been waylaid yourself. Keira is Luukas' mate."
And Jesse had made Luukas believe he had killed her. He still wasn't sure how the witch had pulled the vampire out of that fun little nightmare before his mind had shattered into insanity.
It took Shea a moment to digest that little piece of information.
"His mate? Like as in a fated mate? Like the old stories the elders passed down that no one believes anymore?
"That would be correct."
"But, I thought they were just stories. I've never heard of that actually happening. None of us have. We all believed it was just folklore."
He smiled. "It's not just folklore. Actually, it used to happen quite often between witches and vampires, until about six hundred and forty years ago, when a certain High Priest lost his ladylove to a vamp. In his grief, he immediately created a dark spell to keep any matings from ever happening again."
"So, why is it happening again now?"
He'd been thinking about that himself since seeing the Moss sisters both mated. "I believe Keira did it. I think that, while doing a curse of her own that Leeha demanded of her, she found a loophole within the original curse. She's reversed it somehow."
"Moss," she repeated thoughtfully. "They were part of the coven that's in Seattle. We had an alliance with them, until the recent High Priest took over, and some of the families broke their connection with the coven and went into hiding."
"Yes. Keira is a member of one of those families."
Shea's forehead creased in confusion. "I don't understand. If they left the coven to get away from the new, less than admirable leaders, why would she get into cahoots with an insane wannabe like Leeha?"
His golden eyes crinkled in amusement at her choice of words. "If I remember correctly, she only did it to protect her younger sister. Leeha threatened to kill her if Keira didn't do as she asked."
Her mouth tightened into a thin line. "That sounds like Leeha."
Spearing him with those seductive eyes, she turned the conversation back to him. "So. If you're not here because of the whole Luukas fiasco, why exactly are you here? And why am I here?"
He took a deep breath and straightened his spine, rubbing his suddenly damp palms on his jean-clad thighs. How much to tell her?
Her eyes flicked down and caught the nervous gesture before he even realized he was doing it.
He nearly smiled. Didn't miss a thing, did she?
"Where is Aiden?" she continued before he could answer her first question.
Forcing himself to relax, he re-crossed his arms on the chair back again. He couldn't tell her anything. Not yet. And for some reason, that bothered him. He found he didn't like keeping things from her.
But she was safer not knowing. "I can't tell you that. I'm sorry," he told her sincerely. "But suffice it to say, that I saved your life."
His words didn't have the effect he was hoping for.
She glared at him. "If you cared enough to save my life, then why keep me here? Why won't you let me go?"
He had to steel himself against her displeasure. Returning her look glare for glare, he grudgingly admitted, "I just can't."
With a sound of frustration, she shoved herself up off the bed and was at the doorway before he could stop her. She hit the barrier spell hard and was thrown back into the room. With a curse, she tried again, running at it faster this time. But the spell held, as he knew it would, and again, she was propelled back into the room.
Kicking his chair away, he reached out a hand to stop her from trying again, but she jerked away from him in panic.
"No! Don't touch me! Please don't touch me!"
He reached for her anyway, determined to stop this foolishness, but she whirled away and went back to the doorway.
Raising her fist, she pounded at the invisible barrier. "Let me out!" she screamed. "Dammit! If you're not going to kill me, then let me out!"
He came up behind her and went to grab her fist, but once again, she spun away from him. Pressing her back to the corner, she threw one hand up, palm out, warning him away.
"Stay. Away. Don't touch me," she hissed.
Jesse tilted his head, observing her reaction. Her lips were pulled back, exposing her fangs. Her eyes shifted around nervously, looking for a way to escape.
This was more than anger. This reaction was from fear. Yet, she'd sworn earlier that she wasn't afraid of him.
Not in the way you think.
Something else was definitely going on here. But he could be patient. He didn't need many things in his life. As a matter of fact, he could count the things that were important to him on one hand.
But he needed this vampire to trust him, because he had the strongest feeling that she was someday going to become the most important thing to him.
***
Shea was cornered.
Please don't touch me. Please don't touch me.
She repeated the words over and over in her head like a mantra, hoping against hope that somehow they would keep him away from her.
If he touched her, he would see the chink in her armor.
If he touched her, she'd be on the floor, writhing in pain.
Yet, there was a part of her that wanted him to touch her...everywhere.
Lowering his arm, he stepped back.
She nearly sobbed with relief. Or was it disappointment?
Holding up his hands in surrender, he backed away a little more. "All right. I won't touch you. It's ok."
She watched him warily until he'd retreated a safe distance and sat back down in his chair. She felt like a fool.
Dropping her eyes, she slid down the wall until she was sitting on the warm stone floor. She couldn't look at him. He would know she was hiding something if she did. He would know she was a freak.
But what really bothered her was: Why the hell did she even care?
She didn't know why, but she did.
Pulling her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them and rested her forehead on her hands.
"Shea, why don't like to be touched?"
Well, hell. He certainly wasn't stupid, was he? But how was she supposed to explain it, when she didn't even understand herself? All she knew was, after Luukas had been taken, she suddenly convulsed in pain whenever a male touched her. It didn't matter if that male was vampire, human, wolf, or anything in between.
Males = Pain.
"You can talk to me, you know."
He was soft spoken, but his voice had a masculine timbre to it that raised goose bumps all over her flesh. She longed to respond to it.
But she wasn't stupid either.
Raising her head to look into those amazing amber eyes, she barked out a laugh. "Talk to you? Seriously? Why the fuck would I trust you?"
He looked away, but not before she saw his eyes darken with hurt. A derogatory half smile lifted one side of his sensual mouth.
"Yo
u're right, of course. I wouldn't trust me either."
A stab of guilt hit her at the tone of his voice.
Wait. What the hell am I feeling bad about?
"Don't try to guilt trip me," she told him. "You're the reason I was brought here. However, you decided I wasn't good enough for whatever sick thing you were planning on doing with me. And now...now you won't even let me go!"
"I never said you weren't good enough..." he rebuffed her accusation angrily.
She threw her head back into the wall, gritting her teeth against the temporary pain. "That's not my point!" she yelled. "Why am I still here? What are you planning to do with me? Just let me go! Let me leave!"
He thrust his hands into his dark hair at her outburst. He was angry, and distraught, but no more upset and confused than she was.
This place gave her the creeps.
"I can't!" he bellowed. "You know too much. You were in the room when Leeha, the idiot, couldn't resist telling Aiden all about the altar room and what we do there."
"Where is Aiden?"
He just stared at her.
She searched his ruggedly handsome face, not wanting to believe what she was thinking his stony silence meant.
"You didn't," she whispered. "Please, please, tell me you didn't do that to him."
His voice was like ice when he admitted, "Someone had to be the host. If it hadn't been him, it would've been you."
The air left her lungs in a whoosh, and she found it hard to breath.
"I couldn't let her do that to you," he admitted.
Shea took an unsteady breath. "That's what you meant by 'saving my life'. Leeha was going to possess me with one of those things." It wasn't a question.
"With a demon, yes. And not just any demon, but with Waano, the biggest badass demon in hell. I don't know that you would have survived it, in any form."
Her eyes flew over his features, searching for the truth she was afraid to know. "Did Aiden survive it?"
He gave her a stony stare.
"Did he?" Her voice was rising hysterically. "Answer me!"
"He did. Physically."