Immediately, he realized there was no way he could do that. She was his. His mate. The other half of his soul.
His.
“I think I should stay.”
“No,” she protested. “It was probably just some teens who’d been drinking and knew the house was unoccupied.” Everyone knew everyone’s business in a small town.
Marcus hesitated. Something wasn’t right here. He looked around the room noticing the methodical way it had been searched. No, this was not the result of some drunken teens. This room had been thoroughly searched, then staged to make it look like a random act of vandalism. Plus, he couldn’t smell any alcohol.
She must have sensed his reluctance. “I would appreciate it if you would come back after work and check on me, though.”
“I’m going to do more than that. You’re spending the night with me again.”
She shook her head. “There’s no need for that.”
“Yes, there is. Now let’s get you inside before I leave.” He didn’t like the idea of her being so exposed.
“Sweet heavens,” Sage muttered the words as soon as she opened the front door again. Instantly, she felt the sharp stabbing pain in her head. This time, it threatened to bring her to her knees. “What the fuck,” Marcus growled as he reached for her, catching her before she fell to the floor. He carried her into the living room and laid her on the paisley couch.
“Sage, Sage, baby. What’s wrong?”
Sage’s breath came in great gulps. “My head. It hurts so much.”
Marcus frowned. “How long have you been having these headaches? You had one yesterday, too, didn’t you?”
“Yes, and to answer your question, for about a week now. I’m sure it’s just stress.”
“But they started around the same time your grandmother passed away.”
Sage frowned. “Yeah, I guess. Is that important?”
“Maybe. I think we better go see that attorney.”
Marcus wasn’t surprised when the attorney agreed to see them immediately. Nor, was he surprised that he already knew about the break-in.
“So, do you know why anyone would want to ransack my grandmother’s house?” She and Marcus sat in front of the man’s large, oak desk, waiting for an answer. Marcus seemed more on edge than usual. Not that Sage knew him that well, but heck, she felt as if she’d known him all her life. Especially after last night. Last night had been more than two strangers simply enjoying themselves in the dark. She was sure of it.
“Maybe.” There was a worried frown on the other man’s face that mirrored the one Marcus was wearing.
“So tell me.” Sage was becoming impatient with the whole situation. The trip to Rosman was supposed to have been solemn and simple.
“I think maybe this will explain it better than I can.” He opened the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a long, white envelope. “This is a letter from your grandmother.”
Sage took the letter with a trembling hand. “Marcus?” Her eyes flew to his.
“Open it, baby.”
She did and started reading, at first not believing what she was reading. The letter was short and to the point and answered the question of why someone would ransack her grandmother’s house. A witch’s house.
Her grandmother had been a witch. It also answered other questions, such as why Sage was having such intense headaches and the strange occurrences that could sometimes happen around her, especially during this time of year. Sage was a witch. A witch whose powers had been bound when she was just a child. She passed the letter to Marcus for him to read.
“Why would she do that?”
The attorney cleared his throat. “I’m not sure. Perhaps your parents…”
“My mother is dead, and my father doesn’t talk about his mother.”
“Perhaps he thought it would be safer for you. When you were a child, there was still danger. Even today, the world still clings to its prejudices, especially against supernaturals. While your grandmother did leave her entire estate to your father, she did leave you one specific bequest in her will.”
The man smiled in reassurance as he rose from his chair and stood before the large picture on the back wall of his office. Sage wasn’t really shocked when he opened it like a door and revealed a large safe tucked inside the wall. She was, however, amazed when he took out a large, leather bound book and handed it to her.
“This was your grandmother’s spell book.”
Pain flared behind her eyes as memories of her childhood came flooding back. She remembered this book. It had been kept in her grandmother’s kitchen cabinet, way up on the top shelf where she couldn’t reach it without her grandmother’s help. She shook away the pain, rubbing her fingers along the hand stitched spine, feeling an odd tingle as she did. “I remember this.” She looked at Marcus, a sense of wonderment filling her. “I remember her.”
“That’s good, sweetheart. Really good.” Marcus leaned forward to get a better look at the book but didn’t touch it. “So you think this was what they were after?” He addressed his question to the attorney.
The older man nodded his head. “That would be my guess. A witch’s spell book is one of her most powerful possession. It holds latent magic—magic another witch, or even another supernatural, could claim as their own.”
“What?” Sage’s focus returned to the conversation at hand. “How can that happen? I thought magic was passed down through a familial link.”
“Not all witches have children, Miss Montgomery, and magic can never be lost or destroyed. It must go somewhere if there is no one to claim it at a witch’s passing.”
Sage hugged the book to her chest. “How do I claim it?”
The man smiled. “You just did.”
Chapter 5
Marcus threw another look Sage’s way as he drove along the mountain road back to his house. She hadn’t protested when he’d suggested again that she spend the night with him. If he had his way, they would never spend another night apart.
He’d known when he’d first seen her, stranded on the side of the road, her curvy body outlined by the glare of his truck’s lights, that she was the one. He realized her grandmother must have been a very powerful witch since he’d been unable to even sense she was a witch. There had been something special about her though, something that had called out to that last bit of humanity he’d clung to all these years. Had clung to for that very reason, he realized now. To find his mate. That she had supernatural blood running through her veins would make their mating so much easier.
“Why would they bind my powers?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart. That’s something you’ll have to ask your father.” He thought maybe the attorney had hit the nail on the head, and they had been trying to protect her. Sage had told him that she had spent most of her summers as a child with her grandmother and could remember performing spells and learning the craft.
As they drove, Sage turned the pages of the book one by one. It wasn’t a thick book, not as thick as some he’d seen in his lifetime. Her grandmother may have been the first of their line, or, perhaps their magical heritage had been stolen in the past, like what had almost happened here.
He pulled up in front of his house and cut the engine. “Are you okay with this? Finding out you’re a witch?”
Sage tore her gaze away from the book and looked up as Marcus spoke. “I think so.”
“It’s not as frightening as you think it is.”
“What? Being a supernatural?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his hand over his face. “In fact, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Seeing the worry in his eyes, she reached out to him, gasping as an electrical current snapped at her fingertips where she touched him. She drew back her hand quickly. “Oh. What was that?”
Marcus smiled. “Nothing to worry about. Just a manifestation of our attraction for each other.”
“Really?” She cocked one eyebrow. “I might have just discovered I was a witch, but
I do know a line of bullshit when I hear one.”
Marcus frowned down at her. “You think our attraction is bullshit, Sage?”
“No, I—”
Marcus reached across the space that separated them, barely touching her arm with the tip of his index finger. He did it slowly so that it felt like a slow hum beneath her skin. The effects went straight to her pussy.
He slid across the seat, taking the book and lying it on the dashboard of the truck. “This was not the place I would have chosen, but it will have to do.” He took her shoulders in his large hands and turned her to face him. “I’m a vampire, Sage.”
“I know.” She smiled at the shocked look in his eyes, the dark color now swirling with silver. How could she not have known? There was just something otherworldly about him. She’d known the moment he’d driven up in his truck.
“So, you’re okay with that?”
“Are you all right with me being a fledgling witch?”
“As long as you don’t accidently conjure up some wooden stakes in your sleep.”
“Is that supposed to be some kind of vampire humor?”
“Maybe. We’re quite the entertaining species when we want to be.” He bent his head to place a kiss beside her ear. “We’re also very, very attentive lovers.”
“Mmm, I can’t wait to find that out,” she murmured as his mouth trailed a line of kisses down her throat. “But does this mean you want to suck my blood?”
“Eventually. Right now I just want to eat that delicious smelling pussy.” His teeth—his human teeth—nipped at the sensitive flesh where her neck and shoulder met.
She pulled back, looking into his eyes. “Are we mates?”
“Yes. Does that frighten you?”
She laughed softly. “Probably more than finding out you’re a vampire.”
“Why?”
“Because love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, Marcus. I discovered that the hard way more than once.”
“I’m not those men, Sage. I have waited for you my entire life. Finding you on the side of the road last night was the answer to my prayers.”
He reached out and took her hand, placing it on his chest. “My skin may be slighter cooler, but my blood still runs red and my body,” he moved her hand, trailing it down his body until it rested on the bulge beneath his jeans. “My body is flesh. Flesh that desires you more than my next day on this earth.”
Sage groaned as he curled her fingers around the hard ridge of his cock.
“How can you know?” she whispered, her hand, seemingly with a will of its own, caressing him.
“How can I know you’re my mate?” he continued as though she had never spoken. “Because you make my heart beat faster, my blood warm in my veins. You are,” he bent his head and placed a hard kiss on her mouth. “My. Mate. My. Heart.” Each word was punctuated by a kiss. Kisses that quickly broke through her defenses.
He pulled her close, her hand still trapped between them. He cupped the back of her neck and tilted her head back, exposing her throat. He bent his head, his warm breath whispering across her skin. She had no fear. She waited for the sharp sting of pain, but it never came. Instead, the rough texture of his tongue licked over her skin. She trembled, moisture spilling from her pussy.
“Will you mate with me, Sage?” He pulled back, looking into her eyes as he asked the question.
“Yes.”
“Good.” Dark silver burning brightly in his eyes. Before she could take her next breath, he was out of the truck and lifting her into his arms. He wasted no time, striding up the front steps and kicking open the front door. He literally flew up the stairs to his bedroom. He laughed as Sage buried her head against his chest to prevent herself from getting dizzy.
“Sorry, sweetheart.” He pressed a kiss against her forehead and lowered her to bed. She clung to him as he tried to move away.
“Ssh, I’ll be right back.”
Sage let her hands fall away, keeping her eyes closed as she let her weight sink into the softness of his bed.
His bed. She shivered, her senses on overload at everything that had taken place in the last twenty-four hours. She’d made the trip to this small town in North Carolina, sorrow for the loss of her grandmother her only emotion. Now, she’d been bombarded with news that would make most people run away and hide. Not only had she discovered she was a witch, but she was a vampire’s mate.
Hearing him coming back up the steps, she pushed herself into a sitting position. “What’s all that?”
He came into the room carrying a tray loaded down with food and drinks. There was even a bottle of champagne on ice. “We’ll need this later.”
“Oh, really? You planning to keep me chained to the bed?” She squirmed at the thought of being tied to his bed, at his absolute mercy.
Why wasn’t she more afraid of what was about to happen, she wondered. Oh, right, she remembered as she watched Marcus come to stand beside her bed. Because he was her mate.
“Okay, baby?” She could see the heat in his eyes was banked by the concern he was feeling for her.
“No, I’m not,” she answered in a husky voice, biting her lip.
He immediately dropped to his knees beside the bed. “Tell me what’s wrong, Sage. I promise I will do everything in my power to make it right.”
She reached out and closed her hand around the collar of the dark t-shirt he’d put on this morning. “I’m not sure you can, Marcus.”
Marcus’s stomach fell at Sage’s words. Something he couldn’t give here? Never. He was her mate. Meant to take care of all her needs. Just as she was meant to meet his. His mind swirled with thoughts, favors he could call in, threats he could make—her lashes swept up and he saw the glimmer of mischief in her eyes.
“Why you little, minx. You will pay for that.”
She used the leverage she’d gained by gripping his shirt to pull him forward. “I certainly hope so,” she murmured. He was barely able to catch his weight before her lips were on his, kissing him as if there was no tomorrow.
His heart sang with the knowledge that there would be a tomorrow, a lifetime of tomorrows with Sage, his mate. His reason for existing.
Marcus allowed her to control the kiss for a long time, reveling in the tentative touch of her tongue on his. The tasting, the teasing. He relaxed into her touch even as his body heated to the boiling point. Twisting, he turned them onto their sides so that he could touch her as she was touching him.
One arm snaked beneath her head to grip the back of her neck. While her kisses were a balm to his lonely soul, he needed more. He pulled away from her lips to whisper, “Like this, baby.” He angled his mouth over hers, taking the kiss from hot to hell-hot. His tongue stabbed into her mouth, pushing hers back so he could taste her. She murmured a protest that soon turned into a moan as he stroked and licked the inside of her mouth. He tasted her everywhere, gathering her sweetness and fire.
He pushed his other hand into the waistband of her jeans, cupping her dick-hardening, rounded ass. He stroked and squeezed the plump flesh until she was humping against him. Needing to breathe, he pulled his mouth from hers. “Put your leg around my waist,” he ordered. She complied instantly, and his body shivered. So damn perfect, he thought. His hand was still down the back of her pants. The new position opened her to him, and his fingers skimmed along the crack of her ass, making a full body shiver run through her. He smiled against her lips, knowing what he was about to do would send her over the moon. He grabbed a cheek and pulled, forcing her leg higher onto his waist, positioning her as he wanted. His fingertips dipped down, finding the soft, puckered hole of her ass. Lightly, he pressed his thumb against the dark entrance. She moaned into his mouth, her nails biting into the flesh of his shoulders where she held on to him.
With natural, non-threatening caresses, he played with her ass, knowing he would have her there soon, maybe even before the night was out. He felt the moisture slipping from her pussy, coating the space between her openings. He dipp
ed one finger down, gathering some. He used the lubrication to press into her hole. Her entire body jerked as his thumb entered her to the first knuckle.
He pulled his mouth away from hers. “Breath, baby, breath.” He watched her face as he gently thrust in and out of her body. Her lips parted, and it took all his control not to take them again. But he wanted her body to feel only the one sensation. For now.
When he sensed he was about to send her flying, he stopped, pulling out of her body. Before she could protest, he nudged her chin up, his lips finding the soft flesh of her throat. He sucked the skin into his mouth, knowing that was the place from which he would taste her blood later.
Right now, he needed her naked.
Sage murmured her dissatisfaction when Marcus stopped the torturous touch on her body. She’d never imagined she would enjoy a man’s touch there. But she had. So much so she’d been on the verge of coming when he’d stopped. She tried to open her eyes, but they were heavy-lidded, almost as if she were drugged. She felt his lips on her throat and then the warmth of his body was gone. That did make her cry out. She needed him so much.
She managed to open her eyes when she felt his fingertips on the buttons of her blouse. Slowly, he undid them, stopping every so often to place a kiss on the plump flesh he was revealing. She knew she should be feeling something other than the incredible sensations as he undressed her. Wasn’t she always weary when a man took her clothes off? Afraid he’d actually realize what the fabric had been hiding and turn away in disgust.
“Ssh, Sage. I don’t ever want you to be embarrassed with me. You are so beautiful, baby.” Marcus dark voice broke the silence in the room and tears tried to fill her eyes. How had he known what she was feeling at that exact moment? Was that what being mates was all about? Being so in tuned with each other that the other’s wants and needs were instantly revealed to you? She thought how lucky supernaturals were compared to their human counterparts.
She felt his hands lowering the zipper on of her jeans and then they were gone, quickly followed by her panties. She lay before him now, dressed only in her bra and unbuttoned shirt.
Taming the Vampire: Over 25 All New Paranormal Alpha Male Tales of Contemporary, Military, Shifters, Billionaires, Werewolves, Magic, Fae, Witches, Dragons, Demons & More Page 85