A Wicked Night

by Kiersten Fay

  “You are the one who got us out of there.”

  “Yes, but I wouldn’t have been able to without you.”

  She huffed in disagreement.

  “Your blood made me stronger than they’d anticipated. Without you, I’d still be shackled to that wall for god knows how long. Instead, a beautiful angel brought me salvation.”

  She blushed, ready to refute his extoling words, but he continued before she could.

  “Do you think all this happened by chance? I don’t. I believe you are my fate, and I yours.”

  She shook her head, speechless for a moment. “I’m a curse.”

  “Then I am thrilled to be cursed with you.”

  She sat up and settled him with a serious stare. “You don’t understand. Misery follows me.”

  He grinned. “Didn’t you know? Misery loves company.”

  “I’m not joking.”

  He mimicked her position and took her hand in his. “Over the last five years, I’ve seen true misery. Believe me, nothing you dish out can be worse than that.”

  Her bottom lip quivered.

  He pulled her into his arms. “Don’t be sad, angel. Everything will work out. I’ll be sure to explain things to Mace so that he is not angry with you. Only me.”

  She gulped, unsure what he was expecting from her. “I, uh, don’t want to leave Mace.”

  He pulled back, wary. “Do you want me out of your life?”

  “You know that’s not possible,” she replied automatically. “You require my blood now.”

  “But if it was possible, would you?”

  She remained silent for a long while, unsure how she should answer. When she thought of never seeing Bray again, her insides ground in a way she couldn’t explain. But that also happened when she thought about Mace in the same manner.

  At length, she shook her head, and Bray appeared to slump in relief. Had he been holding his breath? Surely she wasn’t already that important to him. It had to be the bond driving his feelings…and hers. It wasn’t natural to fall for someone so quickly.

  “You don’t love me,” she blurted. “It’s the bond.”

  He surprised her with a sexy half-grin. “I never said I loved you.”

  She flushed at her brazen assumption. He was right. He’d never made that declaration. It was just that the emotions she was gleaning from him were so similar to Mace’s.

  “We should rest,” he said. “We’ll leave at dusk.”

  She was grateful for the opportunity to end the conversation. None of it was making her feel any better, and they had a long day, or rather, night ahead of them.

  Chapter 29

  The first thing that woke Cora was a distant sizzling sound that grew more boisterous as consciousness took hold. Then the smell of cooking meat entered her nose.

  She pushed up from the mattress to get a better look. Bray was leaning over the stove. Because of the constant heat wafting from the stove throughout the day, the temperature in the room had risen to such a degree that she had actually kicked off the covers. And she was still naked!

  His gaze was drawn by her movement, and he offered her a lazy smile.

  Scooping up the blanket, she covered herself as her entire body practically flushed.

  In impish curve marked his grin. He tried to hide it by turning back to the meal he was preparing.

  “You could have at least covered me up,” she said.

  In a husky tone, he replied, “I’d rather have cut off my own arm.”

  She pursed her lips and strove to tamp down her embarrassment. So she’d been sprawled out naked for his perusal. Why should that bother her after what they’d done together?

  Maybe because most of the wood she’d brought in was gone and she wondered if he’d intentionally heated the room to a stifling degree while she’d slept.

  She glanced at the meat. “Is that for me?” Vampires didn’t need to eat, though Mace said they sometimes enjoyed it.

  “Well, it’s not for me,” he replied on a chuckle. “I’m pretty sure witches have to eat just like humans.”

  “What is it?” She jerked her chin at the carcass.

  “Rabbit.”

  As modestly as she could, she gathered her clothes. He did nothing to make her feel insecure. In fact, being here with him, even unclothed, felt more natural than she liked to admit. All the same, she dressed quickly.

  “How did you catch it?”

  “I was an adept hunter even before my change. Everyone in my family was. Setting traps was literally child’s play.”

  “But the sun?” She glanced at the window where evening light struggled ineffectually to breach the edges of the thick blanket-turned-drapes.

  “Cloud cover is thick, which helps, and I’d stored up enough strength to quickly set a snare nearby while you slept. I wasn’t gone long.”

  She studied him for a moment. He did appear less wearied. Nonetheless. “You should drink.” She eased up to him and presented her wrist.

  He took her hand in a gentle grip and planted a soft kiss over her pulse point. “Later. You must eat first. I can’t imagine the last time you had a good solid meal.”

  She couldn’t either. Although the meat should have appeared a feast, she still had that pesky problem with her hunger, or lack thereof. A normal person would have already ravaged the offering, not minding the burn from chewing before properly blowing on the hot food. Still, she knew her body was wasting away. She was thinner than she’d ever been, even while on the streets of St. Stamsworth. The odd thing was she had never felt so good. Invigorated even. She figured she had only slept for a few hours, but it seemed more like days with how energized she was.

  It had to be Bray’s blood giving her strength, as hers would do for him.

  Bray scrounged for a plate, coming up with a flat piece of bark with a smooth surface. He placed a steaming hunk of meat on it and passed it to her.

  “Thank you.” Though her hunger was stunted, her taste buds were not, and the flavor was as vibrant as though she hadn’t fed on a decent meal for weeks, which, technically, was true. In a matter of minutes, all that remained was a small pile of bones.

  She wiped her mouth, content with a full belly.

  “It does me good to see that,” Bray said, watching her with satisfaction.

  “Now you,” she said, once more holding out her arm.

  “First a kiss,” he bargained.

  She rolled her eyes. “First a kiss, then a feelsky. Next thing I know you’re going for another homer.”

  He gave a wicked laugh as his eyes slid to half-mast. He surveyed her body barely concealed under her thin fabric. “Can you blame me? I find I’ve not had enough of you.”

  She was flattered, her body going liquid under his gaze, but she was still guilt-ridden over their sexual interlude. “It’s not a good idea.”

  He frowned, and she fought off his disappointment, which may not have all belonged to him. This time when she presented her wrist, he clinically brought it to his mouth and his fangs punctured her skin.

  Though she had wanted to tamp down the sexual tension between them, it was impossible not to cry out at the swift and intense release that came from his bite. He groaned as well, taking her essence into him. With each soft tug, he might as well have been stroking her between her thighs.

  Her legs turned to jelly. Before she could collapse under the weight of her pleasure, he pulled her against him, giving her a solid wall of muscle to cling to. Together they moaned at his last deep pull.

  “That’ll have to do me then,” he rasped, letting go.

  She gulped, fearing it wouldn’t do at all.

  ——

  It wasn’t quite dark when they set out, but the sun was firmly situated behind the tall mountain ridges, and Bray insisted it was fine. Cora didn’t believe him, but knew they couldn’t stay here much longer. They had to assume the disaster they’d left behind had been discovered. If anyone was on their trail, she just hoped it wasn’t that dark-hair
ed vampire who seemed to think he had some claim on her.

  In the twilight air, snow began to descend in fat, puffy balls, coating her hair within minutes. The ground was iced over in some spots as if the previous day’s snow had melted slightly, only to freeze in slick puddles.

  While it was still fairly light out, Cora insisted on walking in lieu of Bray carrying her. He didn’t argue, but gripped her hand firmly as they trudged along so that she might keep up with his wide steps. But even before darkness crept over the hills, and without pretense, he lifted her in his arms and bounded across a particularly open plane. The action was alarming in its swiftness, but she didn’t argue. Night was soon to take over, and she was craving his closeness anyway. It settled her nerves. She rested her head on his shoulder, feeling safe…which naturally sent a shiver of foreboding along her spine.

  Eventually the light from the sun faded and slowly darkness took the place of everything but the white snow which could not be muted under the brilliance of a nearly full moon resting just above the mountain peaks. The clouds above did not stretch out far enough to blot it out.

  Bray’s footsteps were oddly faint, as if he were running across a field of downy pillows. Cora glanced behind them. The moon carved shadows into the footprints Bray left behind. With luck, the snowfall would quickly smother the trail.

  Once across the meadow, they were back under the cover of trees, she huffed a mental sigh of relieve. Being in the open like that was nerve-wracking. They could be too easily noticed if someone was spying from a high precipice. Especially if that someone was a black eyed vampire.

  A noise to their right drew her attention, but nothing stood out from the various shades of slate gray and onyx.

  Was it the darkness giving her jitters? In night, ordinary objects often took on a malevolence. She knew this, had hardened her mind against the childish fear of the dark. Still, when another ruffle displaced the snow on a nearby bush, Cora clutched Bray tighter. By his expression, he seemed to relish her actions. A quick scan of his emotions told her he was single minded in his task to protect her, yet he was not unnerved by the noises. A bit of her apprehension drifted away.

  Again, the absence of light was no obstacle for Bray. He sidled past trees and bushes that she couldn’t hope to detect at this speed, even while squinting.

  Though they were making good time, soon the cold became too much, and she began to shiver.

  Bray attempted to distract her with conversation. “Tell me something about yourself.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “I know you were destitute most of your life. What was it like to be wealthy after that?”

  His comment about being destitute didn’t embarrass her as she would have expected, not like with Winston, who sometimes made her feel lesser due to her past, but she was still compelled to say. “I wasn’t wealthy. Winston was.”

  Bray rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

  “It was…strange at first, I guess.”

  He urged her on with a silent nod.

  “I couldn’t sleep sometimes. The bed I shared with Winston was too soft, the linens to clean, with a sickly sweet fragrance from a detergent named for some flower it in no way resembled. Once I got used to that, it took me a long while to stop waking up frantic that I had let my guard down for so long. Before moving in with Winston, I’d find some hidden alcove or corner of an abandoned house to sleep in, where I was sure to go unnoticed, and I was too used to having to wake up fast in case I was discovered by thieves or some skeevy guy….” She trailed off with an involuntary shudder.

  Bray frowned, and his grip on her tightened, but she could tell he wanted her to keep going. Maybe he just wanted to hear something other than silence. For a change.

  “And that doesn’t include the occasions when Winston would put his arms around me in the middle of the night, which was both comforting and alarming at the same time—only because I wasn’t use to it. But in fact I grew to crave that most of all.”

  Bray grunted something she couldn’t decipher.

  “I might resent Winston now for his true purpose in marrying me, but there’s one thing I will always be grateful for. He made me feel safe for the first time in a long time, if only for a little while.”

  “I will keep you safe, angel, have no doubts of that.”

  She tried to smile, but feared it was too thin for it to appear authentic. She had thought she was safe with Winston. What a joke. Then again with Mace…just before Knox appeared, terrifying her anew. She’d thought the cottage was safe, then Sadira had made herself known, nearly stealing her soul. Soon after, Devon had snatched her, even made her assist in her own kidnapping! With the strength of Bray’s conviction on this matter, she wouldn’t admit this aloud, but she didn’t know if there was such a thing as safe. Not for her.

  She shut herself off from the bond, hoping he hadn’t sensed her despondency.

  “Do not close me out, Cora. I want to know what you’re feeling.”

  “I’m not very optimistic at the moment. You don’t need to feel that.”

  His lips pursed, but he did not press. “Then tell me more. What was your favorite thing about the change in your circumstances?”

  “Aside from not going hungry?” she turned thoughtful, then finally admitted, “The shoes.”

  Bray coughed out a laugh, and the sound lifted her spirits, making her smile for real.

  “Typical female,” he muttered.

  “I also enjoyed the cars.”

  His brow lifted with interest.

  “Aston Martins, cherry red Ferraris, souped up Lamborghinis.”

  “Now we’re talking.”

  “Winston loved collecting them. And to race them.”

  “You raced Lamborghinis?”

  Her grin widened at the pure masculine envy in his tone. “One of Winston’s racing buddies taught me how to corner at ninety. Said he wanted to see the look on Winston’s face when his young new wife beat him to the finish line.”

  “And did you?”

  “Sadly, no. He stopped taking me to the track soon after that.”

  Bray chuckled. “To protect his ego?”

  “I don’t think so. He stopped taking me everywhere. Within a few weeks’ time, he had practically shut me out of his life.”

  Bray looked as confused as she’d felt at the time.

  “I figured I’d done something to displease him. Or he’d met someone more attractive.”

  “Unlikely,” Bray almost scoffed. “Chances are the man was falling for you.”

  She canted her head at him, trying not to be affected by the fact that Bray had basically just measured her appearance above most other females. Or was she reaching?

  “You indicated he’d married you to turn you into some sort of living vamp-blood tester. That comes with hefty risks if there was indeed tainted blood flooding the market. Eventually, you might have died.” He swallowed. “If it were me, I’d have put some distance between us, lest I deigned to keep you.” His ardent gaze caught hers. “And I would.”

  Something fuzzy billowed in her heart. She had to glance away. And while she was trying to filter through the confusion Bray’s statement inspired, another sense of foreboding muscled to the forefront.

  “What is it?” he asked, suddenly on high alert.

  “I don’t know,” she replied honestly. “Since we left our shack, I’ve felt like someone was following us.”

  He paused and cocked his head as if to listen. A heartbeat of time passed. Two.

  “Dogs,” he announced, and then doubled their pace. “Do you have some kind of spidey-sense?”

  spidey-sense? “What’s that?”

  “Never mind. I think you use magic more than you’re aware.”

  She wasn’t sure if he was right. She supposed intuition was a kind of magic, but it was one even humans used to a certain extent. She had often relied on it back when her powers had been bound, even before she’d known she was a witch. She s
trained to listen for barking or the sound of paws rushing through snow, but there was nothing but the wind in her ears. “Do you suppose it’s just wild dogs, hunting?”

  “Let’s hope so.” Yet something in his tone said he didn’t think that was the case, and somewhere deep inside she knew that it wasn’t.

  Adrenaline developed in Cora’s veins, and it felt strange to be stagnant in Bray’s arms when her mind was screaming run, run, run! But he was already moving ten times faster than she ever could.

  He came to a halt. A lake cut off their path, so large the mountains on the opposite side appeared tiny.

  “Left or right?” Bray asked her.

  He was giving her the choice because he thought she had some sort of witchy insight. He didn’t quite understand that her magic was hit or miss, and she had nothing in her arsenal that might afford some kind of divine wisdom.

  She quickly surveyed the area. To the right, snow covered a ridge of raised and uneven land that curved around the lake with a sheer drop several feet straight down to the water. The tree line was pushed away from the lakefront by patches of compacted rock, offering a path, but no cover.

  To the left, the ground was a little more even. However, the shore was crowded by trees and thick brush. She couldn’t tell if a trail was even accessible, but the cover offered by the foliage was a little more favorable, in her opinion.

  But any direction she chose could be wrong. Or neither could be right. She was about to defer to Bray when the sound of barking carried on the wind.

  “Left!” she cried.

  Bray took off like a shot, hurdling a set of bushes. The trees were indeed condensed and his shoulders collided with a few. Somehow he managed to keep her out of harm’s way, taking the blows like a linebacker. Nonetheless, he barely slowed. But soon enough, harsh panting and yips were upon them, matching their speed, surrounding them, and alerting the night that their quarry had been discovered.

  One dark figure leapt for her ankle.

  Bray jerked her up. The clipped sound of teeth biting air made her adrenaline spike to a dizzying degree. He skidded to a halt, set her down, and then used himself as a shield against the approaching animals. She counted five very large, very aggressive looking shadows with wild glinting eyes. A couple of the dogs were howling an alarm.