by Lynsay Sands
Much to her amazement, Vasco actually stopped. Eyes wide, and head tilted to the side like a dog that didn’t quite understand a command, he frowned and then asked, “No?” as if he’d never heard the word before.
Pausing, Jess breathed out a sigh of relief, and then said firmly, “No. I know you think I’m some kind of life mate or something to you,” she began, and then squawked and started backpedaling again when he continued forward once more.
“Aye, lass. You’re me life mate,” he said, following her around the bed. “The yin to me yang. The light o’ me life. We’re going to have a grand time, you and me. Sailing the seas, shagging our way around the world.”
“No, we’re not,” she assured him, coming up against the bed and then leaping onto it and quickly running across to the other side and hopping off when he lunged after her. Jess started toward the end of the bed, but then saw that rather than follow her over the bed, he was walking toward the end of it as well. Frustration rising up within her, she stopped and begged, “Please just stop and listen to me.”
Much to her surprise, he did. Pausing at the other corner, Vasco peered at her quizzically. “What is it, lass? What has ye all a’twitter?”
“A’twitter?” she asked with disgust, and then shook that away to get to the point and said, “I don’t want to be a vampire, and if I did,” she added quickly when he started to open his mouth, “I’d choose Raffaele as my mate.”
That made his mouth snap shut, she noted, and watched him stare at her with a growing frown.
“Raffaele is one of those immortals ye’ve been traveling with,” he said with displeasure.
“It turns out she’s a possible life mate to him too,” Ildaria said quietly, reminding them of her presence.
“What?” Vasco bellowed, turning on the woman with dismay.
Ildaria nodded apologetically. “And she’s fallen in love with him.”
“I don’t love him,” Jess said on a sigh. “I can’t. He’s a vampire. And I don’t want to be a vampire, or a vampire’s girlfriend, or a vampire’s life mate, or any of those things. I just want—” Jess cut herself off because what she wanted was impossible. But then she found herself just saying it anyway. “I want Raffaele not to be a vampire. I want to be able to continue our relationship. I want to visit him in Italy like we planned, and go with him to visit his relatives in Canada, and I want him to come to Montana and see where I live. I want him to eat tiramisu off my body, and to have mind-blowing sex on tabletops. I want to watch Supernatural with him, and action movies. I want to see the buildings he’s designed. I want to spend the next forty or fifty years enjoying his company, talking about history, doing crosswords with him, and maybe even someday having children, who could give us grandchildren to spoil and . . .”
She fell silent and shook her head, because she couldn’t have any of that. The chance for any of it happening had died when she’d seen Zanipolo’s fangs as he and Santo had fed on the bags of blood in the hotel and she’d realized from their conversation that not only were they vampires, but Raffaele was one too.
For a moment, the silence in the cabin was so complete you could have heard a pin drop. Then Vasco stood abruptly and strode to the door, barking, “Stay with her, Ildaria. And make sure she stays put.”
“Aye-aye, Capitan,” Ildaria said solemnly as the door closed on the man.
Sighing, Jess dropped to sit on the side of the bed. She was completely exhausted, and utterly depressed. So much so that she didn’t even care where Vasco had gone, or what would happen next. She really just wanted to curl up into a ball and sleep. She hadn’t got much rest the night before. She’d caught short naps each time she’d fainted, but she didn’t think those had lasted long before she’d woken again. Jess was sure that if she could just nap for a bit, she’d be better able to deal with the mess her life was in.
“Close your eyes and try to rest, then,” Ildaria said quietly.
Jess felt a stirring of resentment that the woman kept reading her thoughts, but was too exhausted to sustain the feeling, and simply crawled up the bed to lay her head on the pillow and close her eyes.
“The rowboat’s heading for shore!”
Raffaele barely heard Zanipolo’s shout over the roar of the boat engine, but it didn’t matter. He’d spotted the small vessel himself the moment they’d ridden around the large cruise ship and approached the sloop. It hadn’t moved far from the pirate ship yet. Just a rowboat’s length, but it was headed toward shore, he noted, and quickly scanned the occupants, surprised to see Vasco among them. He’d been convinced that the moment the pirate captain returned to his ship he would head to his cabin to try to seduce Jess. The fact that he wasn’t, but was already leaving, was curious. Raffaele would have been doing his damnedest to seduce Jess had their positions been reversed.
“He’s seen us,” Zanipolo said when Vasco suddenly stood in the rowboat and stared straight at them.
Raffaele merely nodded and watched as Vasco waved at them, then sat back down again. The men immediately began to row in the opposite direction, moving back toward the sloop now.
“What do you think that means?” Santo asked behind him.
“I have no idea,” Raffaele admitted, and slipped back into the thoughts of their pilot to direct him to take their craft up next to the pirate ship. Moments later, they were coming to a stop next to the sloop, just behind the smaller boat. It was empty. Vasco and his men hadn’t waited for them. They’d already tied off the rowboat and started climbing up the rope netting that hung down the side of the sloop.
“Ahoy!”
Raffaele glanced up at that call to see that Vasco and his men had paused halfway up and were looking down at them. Even as he noted that, the pirate captain called out, “You can release yer boat captain, there. We’ll take ye to shore when ye’re ready.”
Vasco didn’t wait for a response, but then turned and continued climbing.
“What do you think?” Zanipolo asked quietly.
“I think we start climbing and send our driver on his way,” Raffaele said grimly, and then glanced to his cousins and added, “You don’t have to come with me. You can have the pilot take you back to shore and wait there for me if you want.”
“And leave you to handle a boatload of pirates on your own?” Zanipolo asked with disbelief, and then snorted. “I do not think so, cugino. You don’t get to have all the fun on this trip.”
“What he said,” Santo said firmly, and leaned out of the boat to grasp the netting.
Nodding, Raffaele turned to the man they’d hijacked. He quickly rearranged his memories to make him think he’d agreed to bring them out for a fee. He then handed him some money and murmured a thank-you before grabbing the netting and starting to climb up. It wasn’t a hard climb, but it was awkward. Climbing netting wasn’t quite like climbing a ladder, but he managed it and was soon grasping the railing and peering around at the situation he was leading his cousins into as he hefted himself up and over it.
Raffaele wouldn’t have been surprised to find the crew all present with swords drawn, ready to make him walk the plank. But the only people nearby were Vasco and the man Jess had called Cristo. Neither man had their swords out. In fact, the moment Raffaele’s feet landed on the deck, Vasco stepped forward and held his hand out in greeting instead.
“Welcome aboard,” he said stiffly, and then added, “We were just coming to fetch ye back to the boat when ye came around the cruise ship.”
Raffaele took the hand and shook it, but eyed the man suspiciously as he asked, “Why?”
“So ye could come talk some sense into the lass,” he announced as Zanipolo and Santo came over the rail and joined them. Expression turning solemn, Vasco added, “One of us should end up with a life mate here. And ye’re the one she says she wants.”
Raffaele released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and nodded. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. She’s the one who picked ye,” he said wryly.
“But you didn’t sail off with her and try to change her mind,” Raffaele pointed out.
“I considered it,” Vasco admitted with a grin, slapping him on the shoulder and urging him to move away from the rail as he added, “In truth, I considered killing ye and claiming her too.”
When Raffaele glanced at him sharply, he offered a shark’s smile and shrugged. “Wouldn’t you?”
“Sí, I would,” Raffaele admitted, aware that Santo and Zanipolo had stiffened at his back, and that Cristo was behind his cousins. It didn’t worry him over much, though. Raffaele was sure Zani and Santo could handle the man. He was equally sure he could handle Vasco. Of course, the rest of the crew might be a problem, but hopefully they wouldn’t attack once their captain was dead. Or would be kind enough to attack in small groups, he thought, and offered the pirate a toothy smile of his own now. “So, is that your plan? To try to kill us?”
“No. It would hurt her too much,” Vasco said seriously. “So, fool that I am, I’m giving her what will make her happy instead. You.”
“Big of you,” Raffaele said quietly, his muscles relaxing. He meant what he said. It was big of the pirate. He didn’t think he could have given her up. He might very well have killed Vasco to have Jess.
The pirate shrugged. “They say an immortal will die for their life mate. This isn’t dying,” he pointed out, and turned away to continue walking, but muttered what Raffaele thought sounded like, “It just feels like it,” under his breath.
Raffaele didn’t respond to the comment. He was quite sure the man hadn’t meant him to hear it, and wouldn’t appreciate anything he might say at that point. Instead, he eyed the pirate with curiosity as they continued across the deck. While feeding on mortals was rogue behavior, Vasco didn’t seem like a rogue to him in that moment. Rogues were usually madmen, immortals pushed past the point of sanity by their loneliness as well as all they’d seen in their long lives. A life mate could save an immortal from that, if they found them in time. Had having Jess nearby, even briefly, cleared his thoughts enough to push the insanity away? Raffaele wondered about that, but quickly cleared his thoughts when Vasco stopped at a door leading below deck and turned to face him.
The pirate’s eyes narrowed on him, but if he caught a wisp of what Raffaele had been thinking, he didn’t address it, but simply said, “Ye’re going to have some talking to do. She wants ye, but she thinks we’re vampires and is horrified by it. In truth, I’m not sure she can be talked around, but . . .” He shrugged and turned to open the door.
It seemed to Jess that she’d just drifted off to sleep when a hand on her cheek startled her awake. Gasping in surprise, she sat up abruptly, ready to fight off Vasco if he’d returned to try to seduce her. But it was Ildaria she saw straightening from waking her.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I didn’t think you’d drifted off already, and we’ve got company.”
The woman stepped aside, and Jess’s eyes widened incredulously when she saw that the room was now full of men. Vasco, Cristo, Raffaele, Zanipolo, and Santo were all in the room. Every one of them was peering at her with a similar expression on their faces, one that was somewhere between a grimace and a smile. As if they weren’t sure if they were welcome.
Jess suspected she probably had a similar expression as she peered over them. She wasn’t sure how welcome they were either. She was too confused at that point to understand much of anything.
It was Vasco who finally broke the silence. Shifting impatiently, he glanced from Jess to Raffaele and said, “Well, here ye are, then. Start talking, Notte. I’m not going to do it for ye.”
Irritation flashed across Raffaele’s face, and he turned to glare at the pirate. “Perhaps if you gave us some privacy?” he began, but paused when Vasco snorted and shook his head.
“Not bloody likely. This is my cabin, and my ship,” he pointed out, and then added on a grin, “Besides, I might yet have a chance if ye muck this up.”
Raffaele scowled at the man, but then turned to Jess and sighed, his expression morphing into a pained smile before he opened his mouth to speak. But nothing came out and he closed it again, and then frowned uncertainly.
When he opened his mouth again, only to close it once more without speaking, Vasco rolled his eyes and said, “Oh, rot it!”
Jess shifted wide eyes to the man and shrank back slightly as he moved up beside the bed, but he didn’t touch or even really get close to her. He stopped next to the bed, but a good foot away, and said, “After what ye said, I went to fetch the man back to ye. But as it turned out, I didn’t have far to go. He was already making his way out to the ship.”
Jess frowned, her gaze shifting from Vasco to Raffaele to see him nod almost stiffly. She presumed he was verifying what Vasco had said, but turned her gaze back to the pirate and asked, “Why were you bringing him back?”
“So the two o’ ye could talk, o’ course,” he said with exasperation, and then his expression sobered and he added, “We need to sort ye out, lass, before ye make the biggest mistake o’ yer life.”
Jess’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “What mistake?”
“For some unknown reason, ye’ve gone and fallen in love with the Notte here,” he said between clenched teeth, as if just saying it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Jess noted that absently as her gaze automatically followed his gesture toward Raffaele. It slid over his impassive expression to the encouraging smile on Zanipolo’s face before she glanced back to Vasco and opened her mouth on an automatic protest that she didn’t, couldn’t, love him. But she let it close again without uttering the lie when Vasco held up a hand to silence her.
“I know,” he said dryly. “Ye’re telling yourself it’s too soon, and it can’t possibly be love and all that mortal rot. But that doesn’t change the fact that ye do love him. Unfortunately, being mortal, ye’re also horrified at the idea of loving what ye think is a vampire. Or, at least, something that to you seems so close to one as to be indistinguishable.” Frowning, he shook his head. “But, lass, ye’re laboring under the influence o’ years o’ horror stories in books, movies, and such, and they all don’t mean a fig here. This is yer life, yer future. Ye need to know what ye’d be giving up, and ye need to know the facts to make a proper choice.”
“What choice?” Jess asked warily.
“Yer heart’s chosen the Notte, that means ye’ve now got two more choices,” he said solemnly. “Either ye accept that ye love the man and agree to be his life mate, or ye reject both him and what he is.”
Jess swallowed, but didn’t comment. Her mind was busy running around in circles arguing over what she felt, wanted, and knew. She was still having trouble accepting that there were even vampires out there. The knowledge had rocked her world when she’d first seen Ildaria with her fangs and her face covered in blood, and was still rocking it now. Her feelings for Raffaele on top of that . . . well, that was just more turmoil in the tornado of her mind.
“Now, if ye accept and agree to be the Notte’s life mate,” Vasco continued, and then paused and blew out a long breath, before saying, “If ye do that, the two o’ ye will be among the lucky ones. Ye’ll have a mate who would never stray. Who values ye above everything and everyone in his life. Ye’ll be his light in the dark, his heart, and his reason for being and he’ll treat ye accordingly,” he assured her. “He’ll give his life for ye if need be, lass. Because that’s what a life mate is worth to an immortal, his very life.”
Jess stared at Vasco through a sudden glaze of tears that blurred his image, and then lowered her head to hide those tears. She’d heard more than his words as he spoke. She’d heard his heart. The pirate wasn’t just speaking of Raffaele here. She was quite sure he was speaking of himself too. He’d give his life for her, but he’d also give her up.
“Now doesn’t that sound grand?” Vasco asked abruptly when she remained silent.
Jess smiled wryly, and blinked her unshed tears away as she thought that
it did sound wonderful. But there was always a catch, she thought next, and raised her head to say, “But he’d also turn me into a vampire too.”
“An immortal,” Vasco corrected firmly. “But yes, he’d—”
“Not necessarily,” Raffaele interrupted, moving up on the other side of the bed across from Vasco as he finally joined the conversation. “Not if you do not wish it. That would be up to you,” he assured her.
Vasco scowled at him, and then turned to Jess to add, “But ye should know that if ye do agree to be his life mate, but refuse the turn, yer damning him to watching ye age and die, and then having to continue without ye. And that’s crueler than ye can imagine to an immortal.”
“But worth it,” Raffaele inserted.
Vasco shook his head. “Ye think that now, Notte, but I can tell ye it’s soul destroying. Ye spend the entire time fretting over their well-being, fearing every minute they’re away from ye. Worrying even when they’re with ye that some accident might befall them that will steal them away before their time. And then by the time they are old and dying, ye almost wish that accident had happened and spared ye what feels like dying a bit every day as ye watch them struggle for life in a failing body.” His mouth tightened. “By the time they take their last breath, ye want nothing more than to lie down next to them and set the bed on fire so ye can go with them.”
Raffaele had turned to scowl at Vasco with irritation at the interruption when he’d first started speaking, but slowly that expression had turned solemn, and full of respect. When the pirate fell silent, Raffaele said, “You have already had a life mate. One who chose not to turn.”
It wasn’t a question, but Vasco nodded and told him, “It’s a rough road to travel.”
Raffaele nodded with respect, and then said, “But so is surviving over two thousand years without one. I won’t turn her if she does not wish it, and will be grateful for what little time I—”
“Hang on,” Jess snapped sharply, glaring now as her brain processed what he’d said. “Two thousand years? Are you fricking kidding me? You aren’t saying you’re that old?”