Eternal Embrace

by Billi Jean

  His shout got her moving. She dodged a dead body, leapt over a fifty-gallon drum as if it was a crack in the cement and landed on the other side in a wicked cool crouch, only to get tackled to the ground by someone much, much bigger. She used her smaller size to wiggle right out of his arms and kicked him as hard as she could in the face, then when he shot backwards, she nailed him between the legs. He fell with a muffled groan.

  Never leave a man down. Not alive.

  Hunter’s words had made her sick before, but now she knew exactly what the witch meant. She closed her eyes and bashed him in the head with her pipe.

  When she looked again, blood flowed from a nasty cut running from his forehead down crossways over his face. She swallowed, disgusted when the blood sent her heart to racing harder. She could smell the rich, salty liquid, and eww, she backed away, closing her mouth tight, and refused to breathe through her nose. No way did that smell good.

  Still, what she had scented made her head spin. Dizzy, she shook her head. No time, no time to freak. Go. Go!

  She spun and ran smack into another of the tattooed guys.

  “What the fuck!” Was there some kinda rule here that if you knocked one out, two sprouted up?

  “Vampire,” he purred, licking his lips and truly grossing her out. “I like vampire, a female too, such a prize.”

  Oh, she did not think so. She scanned behind him, took a chance and willed herself to just a foot from the truck. The next thing she knew she was there. She hit the hood, sucked in a painful breath and turned with her pipe.

  “Get in! Get in! Start it and get to Hunter!” Viktor roared, already engaging another man with a truly horrifying bombardment of fists and sword strokes.

  She was trying! Geesh! Instead of screaming at the big wolf man, she raced to the door of the truck, chancing a glance back to see Mr Disgusting Likes Vampires closing in on her.

  “Shit!”

  He tackled her against the door and her head whacked loudly against the metal. She went limp, guessing he’d think she’d passed out. His hold on her loosened marginally. She twisted, punched the pipe upward into his trachea then scurried out from under him as he fell, clutching his neck.

  Reaching the truck door, she jerked it open, jumped in, slammed the door closed, locked it and frantically tried to turn the engine. It roared to life, unlike every horror movie she’d ever watched, and she floored it hard enough to peel rubber, running over several things on her way to where Hunter still faced off with the awful-smelling guy.

  Viktor gave her the flat hand signal to slow and right when she eased off the gas things went to hell. A roar sounded, different from the other wild cries she’d heard since entering the deserted warehouse. Viktor spun and froze facing her left. Through the windshield, she watched Hunter fling her hands and toss the guy across from her with some kind of witch magic. From her left, Joey spotted movement a second before someone crashed boots first through the passenger window.

  She screamed and used her pipe to hit him in the head—only her hit didn’t find its mark. Abruptly she found herself in the arms of a pissed-off, nearly foaming at the mouth, Jaxon.

  “Jaxon!” She stared at him, amazed at how his eyes looked black in the dim light of the warehouse. He was unshaven, his brown hair tousled all over the place, and his fangs showed when he sucked in a breath. “You’re alive!”

  With a snarl, he patted her down, doing some odd things to her already racing heartbeat until she realised he was checking her for damage.

  She gripped his jacket sleeves and shook the material to get his attention. “I’m fine! Would you stop! I’m fine. Where have you been—?”

  She screamed when Viktor suddenly towered behind Jax and tried to pull him from the truck. Jax turned on him like an animal, hissing and trying to disengage from her grip—clearly ready to kill the Lykae.

  “Stop! Stop! You can’t hurt him. This is Jaxon! He’s mine. Stop, stop!”

  Jaxon stilled with his fist full of Viktor’s shirt, and the Lykae stared at her as if she’d just spouted nonsense. Viktor dropped Jaxon’s jacket though, and as she watched, Jaxon slowly released his own hold on the wolf. Turning only his head to face her, he breathed deeply for several strained moments of silence until his eyes slowly lost the black and his fangs eased.

  “Fuck!” Hunter called out suddenly. She sounded in pain. They all jerked to look for her and without another word, Viktor raced to where they’d heard Hunter’s voice. Joey spotted her, but next to her, Jaxon tensed when he saw the guy Hunter fought. Without so much as a hello, he pulled her so close his heart beat loud and fast against her ear.

  “Sonofabitch! Gerald.” He snarled the man’s name, then pulled her away enough to look at her face. “What the fuck mess have you landed in, wildcat?”

  “Uh, I was looking for my friend’s killers…”

  He gave her an incredulous look, then hugged her tight, with his head down on her shoulder. He turned his head and kissed her throat. “Shit, you’re not ready for this. That guy is—” He broke off and pulled away at the sound of Hunter’s curse. “Don’t fucking leave this truck, Joey.”

  “That’s my hello?” she demanded, gripping his shirt.

  He froze, and the look he gave her made her breath catch. “I’ve not even started my hello yet, darlin’, but this”—he pointed his finger outside the truck with a glare—“this shit is not good. Stay here, and don’t fucking move an inch.”

  She nodded crazily, so happy he was here, alive, she could barely make sense of his words and didn’t mind in the least him swearing at her. At least not now, she thought with a little note to talk to him later about growling curses at her.

  His fangs dropped and before she could grab him, he crashed boots first through the front windshield to get at the man and launched himself out the window sideways. Was that his signature move? If so, it was sexy.

  Within a heartbeat, he had engaged the guy in a fierce fight. His jacket winged around him as he delivered blow after blow, but each time he landed one, his opponent dodged it and responded in kind.

  Hunter fell back, circling around the fight but staying out of it. What was she waiting for? Why not hit him when Jaxon was beating him up?

  The guy—Gerald, Joey supposed—punched Jaxon so viciously in the face, blood spewed from Jaxon’s mouth as his head jerked sideways under the blow. He spat blood and jumped right back at the guy.

  “Oh God, oh God, no, this is not happening.” Joey fumbled with the truck door, trying to get out, and froze when Jaxon hit the man like a battering ram, dragging him all the way to the other side of the warehouse to smash him against the wall.

  Her feet hit the concrete, and she stopped again, unable to do more than watch as Jaxon hammered the man with punches to the face. At one point, she thought he sliced through Gerald’s silky white shirt with claws. Blood appeared along Gerald’s chest, but Jaxon didn’t stop, he attacked like a lethal weapon. He was a lethal weapon. She gripped her neck watching him pound the guy to a pulp. Suddenly something silver shone in the moonlight coming in through the broken windows and she gasped at the sight of Gerald swinging a sword down towards Jaxon’s head.

  Jaxon ducked, lunged left and pivoted with his own long, shining sword in his hand. He used it like an extension of his body, hitting Gerald in the back once and drawing more blood, before the man turned and caught his blade with his own.

  “Shit, shit, shit, that’s Jaxon. They found him!” Hunter yelled to Viktor right when Joey reached them.

  “What? Found him? What are you talking about? You know Jaxon?”

  “Yes, of course,” Hunter stalled out and gave her an amazed look. “You’re his—”

  “He’s going to die before I can even kiss him properly, or yell at him for being gone so long!” She screamed when Gerald flung Jaxon off. Jaxon spun backwards hitting one of the steel posts holding the warehouse roof and the whole place shuddered. With one firm shake of his dark head, Jaxon tore right back into fighting the g
uy, clearly not harmed. They exchanged blows, making sparks when their swords crashed together. She winced each time, fearing he’d be hurt, or worse, killed. Would he die like the Highlander if he lost his head?

  From the side of her vision she saw Hunter staring at her, then over at Jaxon before she turned back, her eyes wide in shock.

  “Wait, wait, you’re the woman everyone has been looking for? You’re Jaxon’s mate?” Hunter asked, sounding dumbfounded.

  Mate? Joey liked the sound of that—it sounded permanent—and right now, all she wanted was to hold him close and never let him out of her sight again. Life without him had been misery and—“Wait. Looking for me? Found him? Where has he been?” she demanded.

  Hunter tossed her pink hair off her eyes and grimaced. “We lost him on a raid like this, but I knew he’d not kicked it.”

  “Kicked it! Don’t say things like that,” Joey cried, and covered her mouth with both hands when Jaxon’s sword flew from his grip. “Do something!”

  Viktor grumbled something about mating, and popped his knuckles. “I guess I need to save the vampire’s hide.”

  “Yes! Viktor, go help him!” Joey dug her nails into his tough arm and tugged him trying to get him moving.

  Across the warehouse, Jaxon took two sharp blows to the head, and suddenly dropped down and hit Gerald with a vicious kick to the back of the knee. The guy hit the ground with a yell and caught Jaxon around his legs. Both men rolled until Jaxon landed on top and immediately began punching Gerald repeatedly in the head, beating him so badly she covered her eyes.

  “Fuck!” Jaxon’s angry curse made her eyes pop open. When she looked, Gerald was gone. Jax was bloody, breathless—but thank God—he was alive. She raced to him, jumped into his arms and kissed every inch of his face.

  He stiffened at first, but with a low groan, he caught her mouth and kissed her as if he might not get a chance again. She knew the feeling.

  She clenched her legs around his lean hips, fisted his silky hair and drove her tongue against his. He tightened his hands on her butt just as she remembered, and he tasted so good, she wanted to cry, but couldn’t break the kiss long enough.

  “Damn, you two need a room,” Hunter said behind them.

  Jax jerked away from her lips and turned so that the others couldn’t see her. She giggled and turned his face back to her. He still had blood on his jaw and she brushed it off, sick to her stomach at all the damage he’d suffered. There was another cut on his forehead and his lip looked swollen, but maybe that was from her kisses. His blue eyes shone though, with emotions she hoped meant he’d missed her. “Where have you been? Do you know how—?”

  “Not now,” he said with more heat than she liked.

  Hurt, she frowned at him, and dropped her legs, or would have, but he grimaced and shook his head. “Shit, I’m sorry, baby. It’s just, fuck, you should never, never go on a hunt like this—”

  “Hey! I held my own. I didn’t freak out, too badly, but still, I did get us here, and I did pretty good for my first fight.”

  He blinked at that and she thought he paled a little. Then he shot a fierce look over his shoulder. “I blame you for this, witch.”

  “Jaxon!”

  He turned and eyed her carefully, then slowly set her on her feet, but kept hold of her hand. She laced their fingers tightly, the fear that he might disappear at any moment still pounding at her. His eyes blazed bright blue and as she watched, his jaw muscle tensed. Something flashed over his expression, then he tugged her closer.

  “Look, we need to talk, but first let me fill the witch in on the rules of combat—”

  “She has a name, which you know, I bet. Hunter and Viktor were looking into the death of one of my friends. If one of your friends were dead, wouldn’t you want to help people bring those responsible to justice?”

  “Just trust me here,” he said. “I thought you’d be happy to see me,” he added quietly.

  “I am, you big jerk.” She sniffed and suddenly it was too much. Jaxon here, her friend gone, the blood and gore of the fight, and now they had nothing to lead them to Evan’s killer. “I missed you so much, Jaxon.” Her voice cracked on his name as emotions too big to hold back surfaced.

  Jaxon gave her a panicked look and pulled her into his arms. She pressed her cheek to his chest, right where a rip in his T-shirt let her touch his warm skin. She knew her tears were freaking him out, but the pain of his loss, the lonely nights, the fear of discovery and starting over—without him—just boiled over and she couldn’t stem them. She tried hard to hold herself together, but she wrapped her arms around his lean waist, needing him for more than the simple support of his arms around her. He was back. Back.

  “Shh, it’s okay, don’t do that now,” he soothed, rubbing her back and sounding oddly hoarse. He held her for a long while, letting her cry until he buried his face against her neck and whispered in her ear, “Hunter will think you’re a baby if you don’t stop, wildcat. Come on, now. You’re scaring the hell out of me.”

  She lightly smacked his chest, laughing through her tears at him.

  He winked and kissed her lips. “That’s it, now, come on, trust me here, I can’t handle tears. Seriously.”

  She wiped at her eyes, but the tears seemed determined to keep on, even when she sniffed and told herself to stop. Hunter and Viktor had moved off a distance, giving them space. Jaxon pushed her hand away and gently rubbed at her cheeks with his thumbs. “Seriously, no crying.”

  “Where have you been? I thought…” she said, her voice breaking so she had to stop. She shook his hands off her face, but kept hold of them in hers. “I thought you were dead, Jaxon.”

  He swallowed audibly and nodded. “I know, I know, I was held up, but I’m here now. As soon as we get home, I’ll explain everything.”

  Viktor walked over, cleared his throat then said quietly, almost respectfully, “I know how important this time is for you, Jaxon, but right now, we have men and women counting on us.”

  Jaxon’s body grew taut, as if he wanted to jump back into a fight with Viktor. She caressed his rigid chest, trying to soothe him. Slowly, he eased enough to glance at Viktor.

  “If you know how important this time is to me, you also know I won’t endanger Joey a second more. Do you have any idea who that was you fought? What kind of evil he’s wrought in this world?”

  “Yes, Jaxon, as a matter of fact, we do,” Hunter murmured into the silence.

  Joey turned partway to stare at the fun-loving witch, and firmed her grip on Jaxon at the look of pain on the woman’s face.

  “We won today, but he is still here, claiming this area. Will you let Joey live here, when that evil has soaked into the very fabric of this place?”

  “Fuck, no. We’re going back to London. I’ve done what I can, hell, I’ve fought for six hundred years, witch. What have you done? Been battling—”

  “Jaxon, please, please don’t argue. Not now. She’s right. We found people, we have to go and get them out.”

  He shook his head before she’d even finished. “Not you. No.”

  Joey understood. She was so much weaker than they all were, so new to all this. She’d just get in the way.

  “She has skill. She shifted and she held her own when other, older immortals would have fallen. With you, she will be even stronger. So too will you, old man,” Viktor said quietly. “I will vow that nothing will harm her, vampire. You have my word that I will die before I let your mate see harm.”

  “I will do the same. She will come to no harm.” Hunter grinned. “Heck, you can tear through an army of these guys now, and we just need to release the victims from this hellhole.”

  Jaxon stiffened, but Joey saw his calculating look and knew above all Jaxon was an intelligent, strong man. If he allowed this, she would do her best not to freak.

  “I won’t freak, not too badly, okay?” she offered.

  Hunter groaned and massaged her temples.

  Viktor laughed. “Ah, the honesty o
f the bonded.”

  Jaxon suddenly turned her to face him, tipping her head gently with his possessive grip on her throat. The move was so sexy and dominant, Joey wanted to melt. His closeness did odd things to her body, made her flushed and excited, but his frown of concern worried her. Had she done something wrong?

  “You shifted?” he asked. He sounded so amazed and relieved, she smiled and nodded, then qualified the statement when he hugged her close as if she’d just somehow made his day. “I kinda fell after, but I shifted from the fight to the truck.”

  He pulled her back far enough to examine her face with a look she could barely understand. He looked, of all things, proud of her. His blue eyes practically glowed.

  “You’ll be strong, Joey. If you let me train you, no one will ever be able to harm you. Even if you choose not to learn to fight, I’ll teach you to never let anyone touch you.”

  His heartfelt words struck a dart right to her heart. The way he’d said that, the look on his face, all did devastating things to her newly gained composure. Tears built behind her eyes and she swallowed tightly and dug her fingers into his strong forearms. “I want to learn to fight, Jaxon,” she managed, and choked on a laugh at the thought. “I bet I could be a dirty fighter, too.”

  Viktor laughed, and slapped Jaxon on the back. “Ah, she will take after you, I see. Mating is this way, I have learned. Two halves of a whole.”

  Jaxon frowned at her thoughtfully, his blue eyes full of some emotion she couldn’t dare believe. Not yet. But she hoped and prayed that look meant he loved her as much as she loved him. She let out a ragged breath when he finally nodded and turned his head to look at the other two. “What needs to be done here? It’s almost dawn.”

  “Not much, just the pickup and cleanup. We’ll be done by dawn. After, we need to make a plan. I suggest we all stay at Joey’s place, to offer you our protection—”

  “No. Not necessary. We’re going to London. She’ll be safer there and with this mess, I want her nowhere near it,” he said, pulling her completely against his front. She hid her face in his chest when his body hardened against her stomach. Did he know how much she wanted him when he did that? But not now. Especially, she thought, right now. She pushed against him so she could speak.