Heart and Soul

by Shiloh Walker

  Snap out of it, Kelsey. You can’t help anybody like this. That sane, still-functioning part of her mind kept nagging at her, but for some reason, Kelsey just couldn’t think.

  “DAMN LITTLE FOOL,” MALACHI SWORE AS HE REACHED inside the cabinet and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. About the only damned thing to drink in the whole house, too. She needed something hot, and he didn’t have anything.

  She needed blankets, as well.

  Fortunately, the rented house did have blankets. He just hadn’t ever dragged them out.

  She was in shock, but she hadn’t been hurt. He couldn’t see any injury; neither could he sense one. But something had happened. Her eyes were dark, unfocused, the pupils so large they had nearly swallowed the warm golden hazel of her irises. Damn pale, as well, and he suspected that had little to do with the cold.

  Scared—that was the only logical answer, since there wasn’t an obvious injury. But scared of what? Fury ripped through him. Whoever had put that haunted look in her eyes was going to be lucky to see another sunrise. But first he had to figure out what in the hell had happened, who was responsible.

  On the way out of the rarely used kitchen, he paused by the closet in the hall. It was well-stocked with extra bed linens, sturdy wool blankets, fluffy down comforters. He grabbed one of the comforters and went back into the living room.

  Looking at her was always like getting hit in the gut. Women rarely affected him for any longer than it took to satisfy the blood hunger. And that was quick and passing, rarely serving to arouse him physically.

  His hunger for Kelsey hadn’t ever been quick or passing. But it was so much worse now. He knew the scent of her skin, how soft it felt, how strong that long, limber body was, how she tasted.

  A harsh groan escaped him as he tried to refocus his mind, but as always, thinking when she was near was damned near impossible. She made him itch, made his head spin, made it so he lost track of damn near everything but her.

  And when she did nothing but ignore him, all he wanted to do was grab her, haul her against him, and leave his mark on her flesh, someway, somehow.

  Kelsey was still sitting by the fire in the same position that he had left her, long legs sprawled in front of her, her arms hanging limp by her side. Her eyes met his, but Malachi didn’t see any sense there. It was almost like she wasn’t really awake.

  Crouching by her side, he set the whiskey aside long enough to tuck the quilt around her legs. Twisting the cap of the whiskey, he shoved it at her and said, “Drink this.”

  One pale hand closed around the neck of the bottle, but she didn’t drink. She just sat there with it in her lap, staring at the bottle. It was hard to control the worry and the fear inside him, but he managed it, throttling it into submission and covering her hand with his, bringing the bottle to her lips.

  Halfway through the first swallow, she started choking. Malachi took the bottle and rubbed a hand up and down her back. Through the thick cotton sweater, he could feel her body heat. She hadn’t been outside too long, although in temperatures like this, it wouldn’t take that long to freeze to death. She was warming up, though.

  Thank God.

  Once the coughing fit passed, Malachi tried to lift the bottle back to her lips. Kelsey shook her head and wheezed out, “No. Man, that stuff will kill you.”

  When she looked at him, her pretty brown eyes were still far too dark, but at least he felt like she was actually looking at him. Malachi started to reach for her, but stopped.

  If he touched her right now, he just may not stop, not until she was naked and panting, still recovering from orgasm.

  Closing his hand into a fist, he stood and moved a few feet away.

  “What are you doing here, Kelsey?”

  She glanced at him for a minute and then lowered her gaze. “I really don’t know. This was the only place I could think of.” Kelsey fell silent, and he watched as she shifted around under the blanket, drawing her knees to her chest, rearranging the comforter. She smoothed a wrinkle out of it and then looped her arms around her knees, staring into the fire.

  She stayed silent. For a long moment, Malachi watched how the fire danced over her flesh, and then finally, he forced himself to stare into her eyes. “You need to tell me what’s going on, Kelsey.”

  Her head bent, pressing her forehead to her knees. Strands of her red-gold hair spilled around her shoulders and face. Her voice was muffled when she finally spoke.

  “I need your help.”

  Bracing his shoulders against the wall, Mal waited for her to continue, but she said nothing. Warning bells went off in his head as the silence stretched out. What in the hell was going on that she felt she couldn’t handle? There were any number of people she could have gone to if she did need help. Why come here?

  “Kelsey, you’re going to have to tell me what it is you need.” She had a thick skull, and her natural shields kept him from being able to get even a casual glimpse of her thoughts. Witches were not the easiest creatures for a vampire to read, and Kelsey was no exception.

  “The Council—” her voice broke off, and she took a deep breath. Malachi waited as she ran her hands through her hair, her fingers twisting in the thick silk. She began to separate a thick skein into sections, braiding it. There was something about her manner that made him think it was an old habit.

  Succinctly, Malachi said, “Haven’t we already gone over this? I am done with the Council.”

  With a sigh, she shoved to her feet, the quilt falling in a heap around her ankles. Kelsey slid an unreadable look his way, and then she spun away from him and folded her arms over her chest. Over her shoulder, she asked, “Is it so much to ask that you give me a few minutes to explain what has happened?”

  She laughed. The sound was harsh and brittle. “I realize you probably don’t have any need to see me, but you are still a Hunter. You can’t change who you are inside. You can’t just quit that, even if you are quitting the Council.”

  Mal decided to ignore everything but what she’d first said. The rest of it was nothing he hadn’t told himself a million times already. Keeping his voice level, and his own emotions under tight control, he said, “You don’t think I have a need to see you.”

  The indelicate snort she gave was answer enough. Malachi moved up behind and laid his hands on her denim-coverd hips, hauling her back until her ass was pressed tight to him. He thrust the aching length of his cock against her softness as he lowered his head and growled, “No need?”

  Kelsey tried to pull away, and he simply banded one arm around her waist, locking her against him. With his other hand, he caught her hair and used it to jerk her neck to the side, exposing the long pale curve to his teeth. Slowly, he raked his fangs gently down her flesh; then he murmured, “You have no idea about what kind of needs I have, Kelsey. And if you want anything from me, you had best get to it; otherwise, I’m going to strip you naked and neither of us will be going anywhere for quite some time.”

  With that, he let her go and stepped aside. She sagged forward, and he watched as she slammed a hand against the wall and leaned against it, letting it help support her weight. She looked quite a bit warmer now, her face flushed and her eyes glittering.

  It took everything he had in him not to grab her. Instead, he turned away, stalking to the window. Under the heavy denim of his jeans, his cock throbbed, forced into a damned uncomfortable angle. With a grimace, he adjusted himself, but it didn’t help. His body wanted one thing, and that wasn’t to be shoved and moved around inside a pair of blue jeans into some sort of semicomfortable position.

  The unyielding stalk of flesh wanted to be wrapped in the soft wet satin of Kelsey’s pussy, and his hands wanted to explore that pale body in a lot more detail.

  Instead of reaching for her, he turned and met her eyes. “Talk.”

  Kelsey licked her lips and took a deep, shaky breath that made her chest rise and fall, drawing his eyes to the subtle curves of her breasts. Finally, though, she spoke. “There is a prob
lem, and if somebody doesn’t help me fix it, the Council and the Select are going to make a mistake. A big one. And once they make it, it can’t be undone.”

  “Then tell the rest of them. You are a part of the Council as well, Kelsey. Have been for nearly ten years now.”

  She snorted, flipping her hair over one shoulder. “Niko doesn’t listen to a damn thing I say, and you know it. Andreas will follow his lead. Three Council members must be in agreement. I know that Tobias will listen, although I can’t guarantee he’ll believe me. But that is still just two of us. But without you . . .”

  How did she make him feel so damned guilty? He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, wishing he could block out her presence as easy as that. But he could hear her, the soft slow rhythm of her breathing, the steady beat of her heart . . . and he could smell her, the warm, sweet scent of her body. “I just want to be left alone, Kelsey.”

  Kelsey turned in time to see him scrubbing his hands over his face. He looked tired. Worn out. “Malachi, if there was anybody else I could ask, I would have gone there. It’s just . . . I can’t think of anybody else. And you’re the only one who has a snowball’s chance in hell of convincing Niko.”

  Malachi straightened, his pale, handsome face was so cold, so implacable, it might as well been carved from ivory. The very air around them changed in just seconds, and Kelsey shivered, chilled once more.

  The room had been warm, almost humid: a combination of the fire and the hot, sexual power that pulsed from him. But now it was downright cold. Goose bumps roughened her flesh, and she began to rub at her arms with her palms.

  “I will not return just to end a bloody disagreement.”

  Disagreement. Kelsey made a choking sound, something halfway between a laugh and a sob. “There is no disagreement. I haven’t even discussed it with them. There is no time.”

  “But you have the time to come and try to drag me back to England. Again.”

  Kelsey didn’t have any comment. Had he always been this damned bitter? She didn’t know. It didn’t seem that way, but in the past few months, a lot of them had changed. Wrapping her arms around herself, she moved closer to the fire, trying to let the heat seep into her frozen bones.

  Malachi spoke again, his voice impatient as though her silence had lasted too long. “What in the bloody hell is so important that it brings you halfway round the world? Dressed like it’s a balmy spring day, no less.”

  Kelsey rubbed at her temple with two fingers. A headache had taken up residence there, and now her head was throbbing viciously. “It’s complicated.”

  Feeling his eyes on her, she met his stare, hissing out a breath as the chill in the air turned to downright icy as his aggravation mounted. And it wasn’t just the cold. It was so damned thick with tension and anger, Kelsey could barely breathe through it.

  “If you use short words, I just might be able to understand,” Malachi said slowly. She wasn’t fooled by his soft voice, and she had to force herself not to step away from him.

  Rubbing her hands up and down her arms, she said, “Will you cut it out already? I’m freezing.”

  For the longest time, all Malachi did was stare at her, his midnight eyes glowing eerily, his face still and impassive. Then he lowered his lashes, hiding his eyes from her, and the tension melted away, the temperature slowly returning to normal.

  “I am still waiting.”

  Kelsey blew out a shallow breath. Okay, this was going to be the really hard part.

  “Two days ago, the Council brought Morgan Wakefield to Brendain. She’s been judged, and the sentence is to be carried out tomorrow night.”

  He smiled, his lips peeling back from his teeth and revealing the long, deadly fangs that had yet to retract into their sheaths. Midnight-blue eyes gleamed with an unholy light as he murmured, “Good. I pray she suffers.”

  Wincing, Kelsey tore her eyes away from him. Nerves had her reaching for her hair again, and she began to plait a few strands together. “This is part of the problem. I . . . ah . . . look, I talked with her. Something strange has happened. The sentence has been passed, but I can’t let it happen.”

  Shoving away from the wall, Malachi stalked toward her. As he glared at her, his eyes began to glow. The midnight blue gleamed like the sun shining through stained glass. Once more, the temperature in the room dropped until it was nearly as cold as it was outside. “Get out,” he whispered.

  Fear wrapped a fist around her throat, but she wouldn’t let herself back away. It was a dangerous man she was facing, and as much as she wanted to run, that was the worst thing she could do. “Malachi, can you just calm down and listen to me?” she said, keeping her voice as level as she could.

  Slashing a hand through the air, Malachi snapped, “Get out.”

  Kelsey bit her lip, small, pearly white teeth sinking into her plump lower lip. For half a second, Malachi was tempted to take out his fury on her—on that long, lithe body. Take her to the floor and tear her clothes off, fuck her until the fire in his blood cooled.

  But he didn’t. He wasn’t ever going to be responsible for another mark on her flesh. Tension knotted his muscles as he paced the room. Every single movement seemed to pull his body even tighter, and he was certain the rage was going to spill out of him in a red-hot explosion.

  She was talking again, but he’d stopped hearing her words a few minutes earlier. He knew she was still talking, but none of it made sense.

  All he knew was that she wanted him to help her with that bitch. Morgan—just the sound of her name was enough to unleash the beast of hunger inside him. His fangs dropped, and he could feel his rage spiraling out of control.

  “No.” He forced the word out of a tight throat. He lisped a little around his fangs as he turned and stared at her. “I can’t listen to this. Just go, Kelsey.”

  Tears glowed in her eyes, and she held out a hand. “Damn it, Malachi. You’re not listening to me. Didn’t you hear a word I said?”

  Malachi stared at her hand, shaking his head as he slowly backed away.

  “If you won’t leave, then by God, I will,” he muttered. He didn’t even look at her.

  He just disappeared into thin air and didn’t take back his mortal form until he was standing on the edge of the beach, miles away. As he stared at the icebergs that dotted the smooth surface of the water, one tear rolled down his cheek.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Kelsey paced the room, rubbing her hands up and down her arms, chilled to the bone. Not from the cold, though. The fire had the room plenty warm.

  She was chilled from the inside out.

  What she’d expected to happen, Kelsey really didn’t know, but it sure as hell hadn’t been this. She’d felt a lot of emotions when faced with Malachi, nervousness, apprehension—lust that burned hot enough to melt steel.

  But she hadn’t ever really been afraid of him before. Not until just now.

  “He didn’t even listen to me,” she muttered. Once she’d told him she needed him to help her convince the Council to revoke the order, it was like she’d been talking to a wall.

  Stopping in the middle of the floor, she blew out a breath and jerked her hands through her hair, linking her fingers at the nape of her neck. Despondent, she stared at the stark, practically bare room.

  No time for this. There was a clock ticking. She could all but hear the seconds ticking by as she stood there, worrying. Since Malachi wouldn’t—or couldn’t—help, she had to figure out somebody else. She could get the girl out of the dungeon, even away from Brendain. But Morgan—Agnes . . . “Damn it, I don’t even know what to call her,” Kelsey growled.

  Nessa. It was Nessa. Calling her by Morgan’s name was horrific, an insult to the woman that Kelsey knew.

  “She’s Nessa,” Kelsey said, taking a deep breath and blowing it out softly. She closed her eyes and murmured it one more time. “Nessa.” Tears stung her eyes as she let herself fully acknowledge what had happened. Her dearest friend in the world was alive. How it had happened,
she didn’t know. But when she’d touched the woman’s hand, it hadn’t been a stranger she had touched. It hadn’t been an evil, cold-hearted murderess, either.

  It had been Nessa. There was a whole new mess of problems they would have to deal with. Kelsey could handle that, once she got past this first one. This first mountainous one.

  For one, she didn’t seem to realize just how much time had passed. Nessa seemed to be frozen in a time that was several hundreds years gone. And there were that odd look that kept coming into her eyes, a look that made Kelsey wonder about her sanity.

  Then there were the few moments Nessa seemed lucid, sane. And clearly aware of what was happening around her, what was going to happen. Although she didn’t seem to care. It was as though the death looming before her didn’t bother her.

  But none of that mattered. Kelsey could handle all of that.

  She didn’t exactly know how, but she would deal with it.

  Some of the turmoil inside her calmed, and she forced her thoughts back on track. Kelsey could get Nessa out of the dungeons before the Select came for her. She could get her away from Brendain, but she couldn’t elude the Select forever, and she couldn’t keep them from coming after Nessa.

  Couldn’t protect her. Not without fighting back. And the only way to stop the Select was to kill them. Kelsey couldn’t kill anybody. She was a healer, not a fighter. Taking a life would scar her, possibly beyond repair. And killing one wouldn’t do anything—they’d just keep coming.

  That was assuming she could kill one of them.

  Kelsey needed a fighter. And somebody who could also see who Nessa was. Somebody who hopefully the Council would listen to.

  Malachi was out. Hell, he could have fought the Select with - out breaking a sweat. And fighting might not have even been necessary, not with Malachi. But if he wouldn’t listen to her so she could explain, there was no way she could take him near Nessa. He’d kill her, seeing only Morgan.

  Elijah Crawford’s lands were out. Although he had a couple of powerful warrior witches serving him, they couldn’t hope to equal the Select. Not yet. And that would be the first place they would look for Kelsey.