Saved Mate

by L. J. Red

  Whatever, it would be fine. She entered the elevator and slipped round to the corner as the space filled up. To be honest, Sparrow was glad to get out of the Sanctuary. The atmosphere was a little tenser since the Clarity vampires had arrived. Not worse, exactly. It was just different. The lines between the different bloodlines were starting to become obvious. A kind of territorial instinct she had no idea lived within her until the other vampires had turned up and suddenly she was mentally marking the area around her room as her territory. The hallway was hers to patrol. It was kind of like the way she had ‘owned’ haunts on the Chicago streets and how she would feel uneasy when somebody else moved into a room in the house she was squatting in. Only it was times a thousand and she felt the urge to enforce it with fangs. Still, the Clarity vampires mostly kept to themselves, which was good because she didn’t want to tangle with Heron again.

  Still, the atmosphere had changed and the homey feeling she had started to get from Dana and the others at dinner and in the self-defense classes wasn’t quite there anymore. She only realized how much she had been sinking into it and finding it familiar and comforting when it was taken away from her.

  Which was a good thing, she reminded herself. She wasn’t going to be staying at the Sanctuary after the case. She needed to remember their friendliness didn’t mean they wanted her to stay. They weren’t family. She didn’t have any family. She was on her own as usual and she better not forget it.

  Castillo met them outside the elevator and led them into her office. It was small and cramped, crowded with all of them inside. After a moment, Jacob traded a look with Dana and left silently. She wished she knew how the Shadows could communicate so easily with each other. She supposed it was something to do with being part of a bloodline. But she certainly didn’t have that bond with the other rescued vampires. Maybe what HUNT had done to them had destroyed their ability to use their normal vampire skills. She wouldn’t be surprised if they’d done something to fuck that up. They wouldn’t have wanted their captive vampires communicating and plotting their escape, after all.

  “Please, take a seat,” Castillo said, and they got down to business. Dana and Castillo did most of the talking, Brigit interjecting occasionally. Sparrow let the talk go over her head and tried not to focus on the skin crawling sensation of being closed up in an unfamiliar building. Brigit and Dana were the only cops she’d ever trusted enough to speak to, and while Castillo seemed like a good lawyer, Sparrow didn’t know her. And she definitely didn’t know anyone else working here: cops, judges, lawyers. She remembered the parade of officials after her mother had died: social services, the foster homes… “I-I need some air,” she said abruptly, and pushed to her feet. Dana broke off from where she had been talking intently to Castillo.

  “Oh sure,” she said, stretching. “I can get—”

  “No, no, it’s fine,” Sparrow interrupted. “You stay, I’m good. I’m just going into the hall for a second.” She stepped away from the table and edged to the door. “I won’t be long; I just need some air,” she repeated, and slipped out into the hallway.

  She took a deep breath and glanced around. Despite the late hour, the hallway was still busy and she could hear the bustle and noise of other people working in the building. She picked a direction at random, hoping that, eventually, she would find the stairs or the elevator. The night pressed, inky black, against the windows. As she passed one it lit up with a lightning flash, and through the glass she heard the slow roll of thunder. A summer storm. Her shoulders tensed. She was going to get soaked. Oh, wait. No, she wasn’t. She wasn’t going back to the streets. She was going to go back to Sanctuary where she had a roof over her head.

  She finally found the stairs and walked down to the doors. Sparrow stood on the top step, looking down at the street below, she didn’t have to go back there, back out into the rain. She could go back to the Sanctuary. She wanted to go back to the Sanctuary. A pulse of longing went right through her. She wanted it because, despite everything, she really was starting to think of it as home. She didn’t know how to halt that feeling. How to convince herself that the streets were her real home. She remembered how sad and dark the bridge had looked. She didn’t want to go back there. She didn’t want to go back to being alone.

  “Well,” a terrifyingly familiar voice said from behind her. “If it isn’t one of the little crazy vampires who’s been accusing me.”

  The air seemed to turn solid, and Sparrow turned in slow motion to see Mr. Cleaver standing behind her, his red face screwed up in an expression of disgust, his beady eyes fixed on hers. Sparrow shuddered. Her vision tunneled, darkness pressing in around her. How could he be here? Was she crazy? Was he really here? He took a step closer and Sparrow jerked backward with a shout, tripping and almost stumbling down the steps behind her. “No, no,” she said. Was he going to take her away? Did he have his men in a black van waiting? “Don’t touch me,” she cried as he made a jerky motion toward her. Cleaver leaned back, then looked at her like she was insane and gestured obviously to the space between them. “I’m not touching you,” he said loudly. “I’m nowhere near you.”

  People were looking, frowning. Faces blurred. Sparrow’s breath came fast.

  She needed to calm down. He wasn’t going to take her right here. He couldn’t be here for her. But she couldn’t get a grip on her rising fear. Memories choked her. Her vision flickered. His face obscured. He was wearing a mask. Shining eyes staring out from the holes.

  No, no, that was a memory. It wasn’t real. But she couldn’t unsee it. Her hands went to her head. She remembered him wearing the mask, watching as Roman sank his teeth deep into her neck. Her vision flickered. She saw white for a second, a figure standing beyond Cleaver at the end of the hall, a flicker and it was closer, a flicker and it was closer still. She saw the mad shine of Roman’s eyes. Sparrow screamed out loud. “Don’t, please don’t.”

  “My dear, calm down,” Cleaver said with a smile that turned vicious. “You’re having a panic attack.”

  The closer he got, the more frantic she felt. Her control was shredding, muscles locking. She needed help. She needed the one person she knew would answer her. And deep in her mind she felt the sharp focus of his attention. Jacob appeared between them like an angel of darkness, shadows cloaked around him. His body curled protectively around her and his eyes seemed to burn with an icy light as he stared Cleaver down. For a second Sparrow felt the edge of the vast hatred he felt for Cleaver. Completely merciless, lethal. If unleashed, he would surely kill him. She couldn’t let him do that. It would ruin their case. He shifted as if to walk toward Cleaver and Sparrow grabbed him tighter, forcing him to look down at her. “Please. I just want to get away. Take me away,” she whispered. Her words hung in the balance. His hatred for hunters was so strong she didn’t know if her need would outweigh it. Time stopped.

  Then he turned. Turned away from Cleaver, away from revenge, and gathered Sparrow into his embrace. He chose her, she thought, as the shadows and wind whipped about them, carrying them into the storm.

  Chapter 19

  Distracted by the feel of Sparrow against him, Jacob was unable to focus enough to take them back across the city to the Sanctuary. So instead he searched for somewhere where they would be alone.

  Above them, thunder roared across the sky, wrapping them in the sound. Lightning flashed and rain began to fall. Jacob spied a small square below them. As the rain slammed down against the ground, the few people lingering in it dispersed and Jacob aimed directly for it, skidding across rooftops and landing lightly in the center, under an old oak tree, its branches stretching up to the sky.

  Sparrow was still trembling lightly in his embrace. He could feel the tremors running through her body. He wanted to reassure her, to tell her that nothing would get her here, not while he was standing between her and the rest of the world, but he wasn’t sure she could even hear him. His grip tightened on her petite form. A mistake, because now all he could think about was the del
icious heat of her pressed against him. It went straight to his cock. He tried to control the shudder of desire that rolled from his head to his toes, but he didn’t think he succeeded. They were pressed too tight. The scent of her curled through the wet air. Rain came down through the leaves, plastering his hair to his head. Cold raindrops only emphasized the heat rising between them both.

  “Thank you,” Sparrow said, looking up at him. Her brown hair was darkened by the rain but her eyes were full of light. “How did you know?” she said, her soft voice like music. “How did you know I needed you?” How did you know where I was? What is this connection between us? I need to know.”

  He shifted his grip on her, bracketing her shoulders more securely.

  “Was it just because you’ve been assigned to protect all of us? The rescued vampires, I mean, not just me.

  “I am assigned to protect all of you, but—”

  “Oh,” Sparrow said on a sigh of disappointment. “I’m okay now. You don’t have to hold me.” Jacob could hear the hitch in her voice.

  He didn’t let her go. Instead, he raised one hand and pressed his fingers under her chin, raising her head so her eyes met his. “I am assigned to protect all of you,” he repeated, “but that’s not why I came for you. That’s not why I knew where you were and when you need me. That’s not the reason I heard you call, not just with my ears, but deep in here,” he said, dropping his hand to tap on her chest. The back of his hand brushed against the soft curve of her breast and he had to swallow to keep the groan of desire locked away. His cock pulsed. He was dangerously close to coming just from the feel of her, wet and warm and wanting, looking up at him with those big eyes.

  “That’s not the reason I feel your emotions.” He pulled himself back on track.

  Sparrow’s eyes were wide open and he could read every hint of her feelings within them. “I thought I was crazy,” she whispered.

  “No,” Jacob swore. “You’re not crazy, Sparrow. You’re my soulmate.”

  Sparrow’s expression remained confused. “Soulmate?” she questioned. “I don’t understand. Soulmates aren’t real.”

  “They are,” Jacob whispered. “You know it, you feel it. We are fated for each other. Made for each other. Perfect for each other.”

  “But I’m nothing special.” She ducked her head.

  How could she not see it?

  “Sparrow, you’re unlike anyone else I’ve met. I’ve seen how you are with the rescued vampires. How you look out for them even though they give nothing back. I’ve seen you step between the threat and the victim. I know it scares you, but you do it anyway, over and over, despite what you’ve been through. You shine, Sparrow. You shine with a light that I—” his words tangled.

  “I’m not brave.”

  “Yes, yes you are.”

  “No,” Sparrow said, pushing suddenly at the bracket of his arms, hard enough and so unexpectedly that Jacob’s grip broke and Sparrow slipped free. Jacob was suddenly aware of the rain falling between their bodies, drumming loudly on the ground.

  “I’m not like you Shadows,” she said, brushing her hair, thick with water, off her face and looking up at him. Raindrops glistened on her eyelashes. “I’m not like you. I’m Radiance.” Her breath hitched on the word.

  “That’s what I wanted to tell you. As my soulmate, I can bring you into the Shadows. Turn you just like the recruits are going to be turned.”

  “Turn me?” Sparrow said nervously, and Jacob knew she was thinking about her original turning under Roman’s fangs.

  “It will be nothing like that,” Jacob said, reaching for her. “No pain, only pleasure. You feel it, don’t you?” He pressed his hand once more on her chest. “In here, the connection that binds us together.”

  Awareness awoke across her eyes.

  “It won’t hurt you,” he said. “I won’t hurt you; I could never—”

  “I thought, I thought you only cared because of what the hunters did because you hate them.”

  His lips flattened. “I do hate them.”

  “Why?” she started, then caught herself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pry; it’s not any of my business.”

  “Yes, it is,” Jacob said quickly. “It is your business; everything mine is yours. Everything about me is yours to know.” He fell silent and the rain pattered against the ground, filling in the silence. “I rarely speak of it. It is painful. I faced hunters before, many centuries ago, when I was a fledgling and I still had links to the human world. When my family still lived.”

  Sparrow’s hand gently rested on his arm, and he placed his hand on top of it, taking strength from the wordless connection. “My mother and my sister lived in a small town far away from any vampire court. Far from any danger, or so I thought.” He remembered coming home, pushing open the door. How time had seemed to slow. Opening the door to the darkness inside, impenetrable and thick with the scent of blood. His entire body shuddered and Sparrow was suddenly there, her calming scent surrounding him, her arms around his chest, her head tucked under his chin.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said.

  “They took them from me,” Jacob said, voice choked, like speaking through crushed glass. “They killed them to try and get to me.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” Sparrow said, looking up at him. “You can’t blame yourself for what they did. Or for what HUNT did to me.”

  Jacob shook his head. The guilt that had for so long eaten away at him and kept him apart from the others was impossible to throw off. And yet, under Sparrow’s calm brown gaze, he felt the edges of it beginning to fray. The way she looked at him. It was everything. He was never letting her go. Not now that he had her right here in the circle of his arms, pressed up close to him, her body so flush with his there was no hiding his reaction to her.

  His desire for her was overwhelming. He couldn’t hold back, and he finally gave in to everything that his body and the soulmate bond had been urging him to do from the start. He kissed her.

  All around them rain fell, cold and sharp, but they were wrapped in a bubble of their desire. Wrapped up in each other’s bodies. Jacob lost himself in the taste of her mouth. The hot, slick slide of their tongues. It felt so good. All he could think about was the feel of her under his lips, the yearning, desperate need within him finally filled.

  He felt her touch, hesitant, shy. The slight pressure of her hands around his shoulders. He urged her to hold him tighter. He wanted her to let go, to relish the feelings that were rising between them. Slowly, he coaxed more out of her, her grip on him tighter, her body arched into his. Yes, perfect. His control was fraying, cords snapping under the pressure of his desire. Fuck, he had to slow down or raging need would overwhelm them both. He suddenly realized she was trembling not just with desire, but shivering with cold.

  He tore his mouth away from hers and only then became aware of the coldness of her skin. The rain around them was soaking her through to the bone and she was shivering without even realizing it.

  “You’re soaked through,” he said. She blinked up at him, dazed still with the fog of lust and Jacob felt a ripple of satisfaction that he did that to her. He caught himself. He wasn’t going to kiss her into catching a cold, not when he had a warm bed in the Sanctuary. A warm bed. And suddenly all he could think about was laying her down and worshiping her. He gathered her up into his arms and pressed a kiss on the top of her head. “Hold tight,” he said, and swept them up into the air.

  Chapter 20

  Thunder and lightning whirled around them, and the next thing Sparrow knew they were inside. She could tell it was the Sanctuary. She recognized the protection of the walls around her. But the room was one she’d never been in before. The furnishings were unfamiliar, but the entire room was drenched in Jacob’s presence and the heavy, male scent suffused the air. She was in Jacob’s private space, and instead of feeling like an outsider it felt right, like this was exactly where she needed to be.

  She just wished she wasn’t shivering violent
ly and could focus better, but the cold that his kisses had kept at bay was suddenly present and sharp. Oh, yeah, those kisses. It was as if she’d never known what it was like to touch another person until Jacob pressed his lips against hers. She longed to kiss him again. She wanted more. She wanted his lips all over her. She needed it with an intensity that scared her.

  “You need to warm up,” he said, leading her to a marble bathroom with a shiny glass shower cubicle with what looked like ten different spouts sticking out from the ceiling and the wall.

  He moved to leave the room and Sparrow reached out, catching at the crook of his elbow. “What about you?” she asked, rubbing the wet cloth of his suit between her fingers. “You’re soaked as well.” She glanced at the shower, then back at Jacob, catching his eye and feeling extremely bold. “We could… shower together?”

  Jacob’s eyes darkened with lust and Sparrow tugged him back a step, feeling shivery and not like herself. She ran her hand up his arm to his collar and began unbuttoning his jacket. The pressure of his eyes on her was almost unbearable. It made her feel warm despite the coldness of her skin. She fumbled the buttons, unable to focus on what she was doing. “You can’t look at me like that,” Sparrow said with a sharp look at him.

  “How should I look at you, then?”

  “Don’t look at me at all. You’re too distracting.”

  “Oh?” His voice a low rumble. “I’m distracting, am I?” His hands landed lightly on her side, his fingers trailing up to her shoulders. “I think you’ll find you are the distracting one.”