The Vampire's Protector [The Protectors 4] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Doris O'Connor

  “Master Sabre.” Eva gasped the words, and the man nodded at her.

  “Eva, long time no see, girl, but still causing trouble it seems.”

  He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes, and like all the other shifters in the room, his inner animal paced behind his eyes. It made Eva’s stomach churn in apprehension, and she had to clear her throat several times to croak her reply.

  “Trouble?” she asked, and his tiger snarled at her.

  She took an involuntary step back, when Ronan, too, growled low in his throat, and Mrs. H sighed.

  “I’m sorry,” Eva continued. The urge to wipe her sweaty palms on her jeans was overwhelming, but she didn’t want more of her agitation to show. They would be able to sense it all too clearly anyway, and without having been told, Eva knew this was about Dimitrius. They’d found out about her relationship with him, and she would be held accountable. She just prayed they didn’t know about his maker, and all the shenanigans at his house last night. Surely, if they did, they would be making an advance on Tulip House already. They had the manpower, after all. She swallowed past the lump in her throat, as she counted the other unfamiliar faces staring down at her. Master Sabre had brought some of the London Protectors with him. That explained the myriad of unfamiliar bikes out front.

  Good god, this could turn into a blood bath, and it would be on her conscience.

  Leon riffled through some papers on top of the big table in front of her, and held up a series of black and white grainy images. It was obvious by the poor quality of the stills that they were taken from CCTV camera, and she bunched her hands into such tight fists, that her nails pierced her skin. Poor quality they might be, but they showed Dimitrius all too clearly. He was in the process of butchering a human male—there really was no other explanation for it—and Eva swallowed convulsively to stop herself from being sick.

  That man wasn’t the man she had fallen in love. Those were the actions of a madman, a ruthless killer, and she could tell from the grim expression of the shifters in the room that they had already condemned him. Only Mrs. H showed a mediocre of compassion in her gaze when she spoke to Eva.

  “I can tell from your reaction that it’s beginning to dawn on you why you are here. I must say I find it hard to believe that you not only knew of this creature’s existence in our midst, but Sabre tells me you’re involved in some form of relationship with him.”

  Sasha’s growl shook the floor boards and he pushed off his chair with such force that the thing slid across the stage and clattered to the floor.

  “This is bullshit. We all know I’m not Eva’s biggest fan, but she wouldn’t shag up with some vamp. Tell them, girl.” Sasha stared at her, willing her to agree with him, and when she didn’t, his mouth fell open, and he swore under his breath.

  “Well, fuck me, that’s just...fuck!”

  Eva closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her jangled nerves, all too aware that the atmosphere in the room had turned decidedly hostile.

  “It’s not what it seems.” She whispered the words, and Sasha swore again, and started to pace the floor. Leon shook his head at her when she opened her eyes, Sabre looked thoughtful, and Ronan...the disappointment in the bear shifter’s eyes was hard to take. It had been his cousin who’d brought Eva into the Protectors after all, and he ran a hand over his stubbly jaw, and looked toward Mrs. H.

  The old witch crooked her finger for Eva to approach and she slowly walked toward the stage, her stomach churning. Before she could step up on top of the stage, the double doors to the hall few open and the gust of air brought it with the scent of Dimitrius.

  Her eagle squawked, and the assembled shifters looked ready to shift, as the air filled with their combined growls of outrage. Over the roaring in her ears, Dimitrius’s voice pulled her in.

  “Myshka, don’t.”

  Eva turned slowly, and her eyes filled with tears, when she saw her mate. Stood in a direct patch of sunlight, a fine trail of smoke came from his broad shoulders. He held his hand out to her, and he shuffled slightly, until most of him was out the direct glare of the sun. The smoke still continued to rise from him, however, and the skin on his hand turned red. Dimitrius gave no outward indication of being troubled by the sunlight, but she knew him well enough by now to know he was in pain. His shields were up, so that she couldn’t read his emotions, but the tight set of his shoulders, and the deepened lines around his mouth told of the agony he was in.

  It made up her mind for her, and she flew into his arms, and tried to tug him out of that light, all too aware of Mrs. H’s chanting a spell, and the other Protectors forming a circle around them. They were surrounded, and he wouldn’t bloody move.

  “Dimitrius, you need to get out of the sun.” When he still didn’t move, just watched her with those black eyes of his, Eva interlinked her hands behind his neck and going on tiptoes, stared straight at him. “Sir, please, for the love of god, move.”

  His beloved mouth kicked up into the sardonic smile she knew so well, but he shook his head, and reaching up, took her hands away from his neck and gave her a gentle shove away from him.

  “Listen to your vamp, and step away from him, Eva.” Ronan’s deep growl behind her made her jump. There was an undeniable edge of command in his voice, and she wasn’t at all surprised to look into the eyes of his bear when she spun around and put herself between Ronan and Dimitrius.

  “No, I won’t. You’ve got this all wrong. That man in the picture, he was that serial killer the papers were full off. Dimitrius stopped him from killing his latest victim. That’s why she survived.”

  “Bullshit.” Leon’s curse bounced around the room and Eva swung her head in the lion shifter’s direction.

  “It’s not, it’s true. There haven’t been any more attacks since then, have there? I know that looks bad, but he’s not. Dammit, no. Tell him, Dimitrius.” She glanced back at him, willing him to say or do something, but he shook his head at her. He seemed determined not to defend himself, so she would have to do it for him. Facing the outraged shifters she continued.

  “Can’t you tell he’s not a threat to us? Look at him. He can walk in the freaking sun, and none of you sensed his approach or had any clue he was here. If he wanted to, we’d all be dead already. Stop this nonsense now.”

  Mrs. H’s chanting stopped as suddenly as it had started, and Dimitrius gave a grunt of pain, as all the skylights in the roof flung open and yet more sunlight streamed in.

  Eva screamed in horror, and Ronan smiled, when Dimitrius started to smoke in earnest.

  “He’s still a vamp, Eva, and he doesn’t look too hot now. Oh, wait, he does.” The bear shifter smirked at him, and her eagle’s fierce desire to shift and claw the other shifter’s eyes out with her talons winded her. These were her kind, and she ought to be loyal to them, but right now, she was consumed with the need to protect her mate. Eva yanked her top off and held it over Dimitrius in a vain attempt to protect him from some of the lethal exposure.

  “Mrs. H, stop!” She shouted at the village elder, who now leaned heavily on her walking stick and regarded her with the most curious expression on her lined face. “Please, shut the blinds. You’re killing him. He doesn’t deserve this. Please, Mrs. H he’s my mate.”

  Ronan stepped back as though she had slapped him, Leon looked stunned, and Sasha didn’t seem to be able to take his eyes off her chest. Too late she realized that her hasty actions had exposed Dimitrius’s bite marks on her chest.

  Mrs. H shook her head and Master Sabre’s long fingers curled themselves around Eva’s shoulder and tugged her backward and out of the way. A furious growl erupted from Dimitrius’s chest, and his fangs dropped, yet he still didn’t move.

  “Take your fucking hands off my girl, shifter.”

  Eva gasped and acting on instinct kicked out to free herself, but it was useless. She was never going to defeat the man who had trained her in the first place, and after a few seconds of pointless parrying, where each one of her move
s was blocked by the tiger shifter, she blinked back tears.

  “Let me go, please. I need to go to him. He’s going to die, and this is all my fault.”

  Master Sabre’s hold on her loosened and turned into a caress.

  “Hardly, sweet girl. No doubt he had you under his influence, just like Mrs. H has him spell bound now.”

  “No, that’s not…” Eva gave up trying to explain herself, and threw another imploring glance at Mrs. H instead. At least that explained why he couldn’t move. Why on earth had he walked right into this trap, and she was fast beginning to realize this was exactly what this was meant to be.

  “Mrs. H let him go. This isn’t right. He’s done nothing wrong. If you want to punish someone then punish me. I should have told you about his existence the minute I knew, but I didn’t want him hurt. I don’t want anyone hurt. Please, stop this, and let him explain who he is.”

  Chilling laughter from the back of the room made everyone swing around, and bile rose in Eva’s throat when she saw the blonde-haired vamp Dimitrius had been talking to yesterday push away from the wall.

  “I would suggest you listen to your little bird here, or I’ll be forced to kill all of you.”

  Before anyone could react, two of the London Protectors disappeared from the circle and when the dust settled this woman stood next to Mrs. H on the stage. She held the two leopard shifters unconscious bodies up by the scruff of their necks, and threw them at Mrs. H’s feet. It broke the elder’s concentration and Dimitrius slumped to the floor, reduced to nothing more than a smoking, broken version of him.

  Taking advantage of Sabre’s temporary shift of focus to the two shifters laying on stage, she twisted out of his grasp and threw herself over Dimitrius.

  “Here, drink, you need to heal.”

  Sasha made a strangled sound at the back of his throat, when Dimitrius closed one blackened and badly burnt hand over her forearm. Instead of raising her wrist to his lips as Eva was urging him to do, he pushed her away with a growled, “Nyet.”

  The rejection stung, and in another whirlwind of movement, his maker whisked him onto the stage. Eva breathed a sigh of relief when he stopped smoking. It was shady on the stage, and while he was still hurt and in urgent need of blood, at least his deterioration had stopped.

  His maker had one hand on his shoulder, and the other curled around Mrs. H’s forearm. The impossibly beautiful vampire smiled, showing several sets of razor sharp fangs that made Eva feel sick.

  “Now, where was I. Oh, yes, I told you I would kill you all, if you didn’t let my son go. As you didn’t, I guess I’ll start with your witch here.”

  She regarded Mrs. H with a small smile, and you could have heard a pin drop in the room. Ronan made a step toward them but this vamp shook her head at him.

  “I wouldn’t, if I was you, little teddy.” Ronan growled at the insult and grew taller and more menacing, but her next words stopped him dead. “I understand, you’re to become a daddy. It would be such a shame if something happened to your mate and those itty bitty babies, wouldn’t it? Such a delicacy they are. Especially plucked from their mother’s womb. I always find the human’s screams make them taste sweeter.”

  Mrs. H paled and swayed on her feet, and the assembled shifters growls filled the air.

  “You lay one hand on my mate, and you’re—”

  “I’m what?” Dimitrius’s maker interrupted Ronan with an amused smile. “Sorry, where are my manners, however. Let me introduce myself. My name is Aegleaca, original vampyr, and as amusing as this interlude has been, I’m growing bored with this…” She let go of a furious looking Dimitrius, and waved her hand over the room in a sweeping arch. “If it wasn’t for my son’s completely unreasonable attachment to your little bird here.” She smiled at Eva, and gestured for her to come up. “I wouldn’t even bother to talk to you.”

  She frowned, when Eva didn’t move, and with another wave of her hand, all the air seemed to have been squeezed from her lungs, as Aegleaca turned her full attention on her. Eva gasped for breath, Dimitrius shouted something, and then all hell seemed to break loose, as the world went black.

  Chapter Eleven

  Seeing Aegleaca attack Eva spurred Dimitrius into action. Everything hurt, and his vison was still hazy, but there was no fucking way that he could stand by and let his maker choke his girl. With the last of his remaining strength he leapt on top of Aegleaca and sunk his fangs into her neck. Instantly her life-giving blood filled his mouth, and he drank eagerly. Every suck renewed his strength, and brought with it her pain. He hadn’t meant to make this hurt, but he got a small amount of sadistic pleasure from her responses. True to form, Aegleaca turned the tables on him, and grasping his arm bit him back. Their cycle complete, power rushed through him, and with it the ability to think clearly. He yanked his internal shutters back up, and jerked his head and his wrist away from his maker. The action meant a chunk of her flesh, and some of his, too, flew through the air, and hit the ground with a sickening squelch, where both pieces burst into flames.

  Eva screeched and threw herself at him, and turning slightly, he gently pushed her toward an ashen-faced Mrs. H, before he let his claws run out, and he faced his maker.

  Aegleaca was bleeding heavily from her neck wound, her cream dress, turned crimson down one side, and pride flashed across her face briefly before it contorted into pain.

  “Good to see you back, Dimitrius. Now, let’s finish them. I’m bored with this.”

  Eva’s gasp seared his soul, and her anger scorched his back. Sure enough his girl shot past him, but he was fully restored now, and stopped her attack on a bemused-looking Aegleaca by grasping Eva round the waist and drawing her to his side.

  “Nyet, myshka, this isn’t your fight.” Eva glared at him briefly, but then relented and sank against him. Her little hand traced the fresh skin on his face, and her worry for him made his chest feel tight.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” she whispered, and Aegleaca rolled her eyes, and clucked her tongue at the rapidly spreading stain of red down the side of her dress.

  “This is all very touching, but I need to feed, before my dress is completely ruined. Per chance I’ll start with the old witch. Been a while since I had one of those, and such interesting things happen when you have a guardian witch.”

  Eva tensed and the assembled shifters surged forward as one, but Mrs. H put out her hand and they all stopped as though being held back by an invisible force field. The village elder shook her head at them all, and pulling herself up to her full height shuffled over to stand next to Dimitrius and Eva. He had to admire her spunk. The witch was powerful indeed. It had taken a lot of his energy to break through the heavy protection spell she had placed on the village and the hall in particular, which had been the main reason why the sunlight had weakened him so dramatically. When she had spelled him into stand still, he’d had no reserves left to withstand that magic.

  “This is my village, and no blasted vampire is going to kill anyone in front of me.”

  She raised her hand, and Aegleaca took a step back. Her composure slipped for one nanosecond, and then she seemed to recover, and it was Mrs. H who stumbled. The old lady would have fallen had Dimitrius not grasped her elbow to steady her. A surge of electricity charged up his arm, and he let her go, once he was sure the old lady could stand.

  He stood back and watched the silent battle of wills between the two women for a moment, before he stepped between them. He flinched when the full force of Mrs. H’s powers hit him in the chest, and Eva screamed and threw herself in front of him. Mrs. H blanched and lowered her hands, and the shifters surged forward.

  He caught a trembling Eva, and she sagged against him, while the shifters closed rank around their elder in a protective circle that left Eva out. The symbolic nature wasn’t lost on Dimitrius, and he disentangled himself from his girl, and shoved her toward her own kind.

  “No, I won’t. They’ll kill you, both of you. Sir, please.” Eva looked on the
verge of tears as she came straight back to him.

  His maker’s laugh filled the air.

  “Oh sweet little birdie, you assume they’ll catch me. That’s never going to happen, and besides without me, your whole village is fucked anyway, because I shan’t call back the others. You best listen to your Sir.”

  The intonation she put on that made Eva bare her teeth at her, and Dimitrius could see her eagle itching to get out. This was, of course, just what Aegleaca wanted. For Eva in particular, to lose her cool and shift. It would force the other shifters to change, and all-out war would ensue.

  “What others?” The bear shifter’s growl filled the air, and seemed to shake the very foundations of the building they stood in.

  “Spare your growls, teddy bear. I’ll—”

  “Enough.” Dimitrius’s shout cut off his maker, and she made a big show of studying her nails. She couldn’t fool him, however. Aegleaca was weakening, the strong magical defenses in place taking their toll on her, too, and she was still bleeding. He ought to seal the wound, really, but not before he’d made his point.

  Hugging his girl to him tightly, he kissed her nose, and smiled at her sharp intake of breath, all too aware of their disapproving audience, and then pushed her toward her kind. She shook her head, and when she opened her mouth to say something he frowned and put a finger over her mouth.

  “Hush, girl, I told you I would never make you choose. There is no need. Aegleaca is leaving.” At his maker’s snort, he turned to look at her.

  “Yes, you are. You’ve had your fun. This village is mine, and you will not harm anyone else in it, and neither will Lydia’s ill-advised attempt at procreation.”

  Aegleaca hissed at him, and Eva bristled and tried to get past him. The massive tiger shifter, who had his hands on her earlier, pulled her back into the protective circle of her fellow shifters, and gave Dimitrius a tight nod, when he smiled his thanks at the man. He wanted Eva safe, and from the proprietary, yet fatherly vibes he got off this shifter, this tiger would ensure that safety.