by Elisa Adams
“Good. Neither am I.”
“Are there any more guards around?” Faith asked. Merida had taken out the three they’d come across.
“I hope not. I broke all my nails with that last one.”
Faith shivered. They were all so unaffected by all of this. How did anyone get used to such violence? She pushed open the back door, slipped inside the house. The dark, eerie quiet of the outside extended to the interior. It was too quiet, too still. Like the house itself waited and watched. She shook off the thought, squinted through the darkness.
“Here, let me go ahead of you.” Merida stepped around her. “I can see fine in the dark.”
She paused, turned to Faith. “Do you hear that?”
Faith nodded. Muffled voices floated toward them across the thick, stale air. “Down that hall.”
“Let’s go.”
Merida grabbed her hand and rushed down the hall toward the voices. Faith caught sight of a sliver of light at the end of the hall. A door, cracked open a few inches. Was Sam in there? Had they gotten him out in time? She shuddered. What if they hadn’t? What if he was too hurt to be moved?
She pushed past Merida, her only thought to get to the door and make sure Sam was okay.
Merida caught up with her just as she stopped in front of the door. She peeked inside. Eric was there, the others she’d met earlier as well. And Tomaz. She seethed, her eyes narrowing. But where was Sam? She searched the room, found him a moment later. He stood a few feet from the demon, shirtless and shoeless, shoulders hunched, his beautiful golden skin torn, covered in angry red slashes. Her breath caught in her throat, her stomach tightened into a painful knot. What had they done to him?
She reached for the doorknob, but Merida put her hand on Faith’s arm. “Hold on a second. We don’t want to distract them,” she whispered.
Faith nodded, though her stomach clenched again when her gaze fell on Sam’s wounded body. He circled around Tomaz, saying nothing, his expression filled with hatred. And pain. So much pain. A tear fell from the corner of her eye.
Merida leaned in close, whispered in her ear. “I know it’s tough. But you’ve got to let him be. He knows what he’s doing. They all do.”
Faith tried to smile in return, but couldn’t quite manage it. “I can’t watch this.”
But she couldn’t pull her gaze away. Tomaz faced the four men, his face placid. Calm. Serene. It turned her stomach. He had no doubts that he would kill all of them. Sam, please. Don’t do anything stupid.
“You’re too weak to do anything but scratch my skin.” Tomaz laughed. “You can’t hurt me, Kincaid. Don’t you know that by now? Haven’t you tried enough in the past to have learned your lesson by now?”
“There’s no lesson to learn.” Sam’s voice was weak, thready. It took all her willpower not to run to him. But Merida was right. If she got in the way, she could get all of them killed.
“You’re not leaving here tonight. None of you are,” Tomaz continued. Fear flashed across his eyes, but his voice stayed strong. “I’m finally going to end this. You were a mistake. You never should have been brought into this world. I should have killed your mother when I found out I’d impregnated her.”
Sam showed no reaction to his words, but they stung Faith to the core. She flinched, clenched her hands into fists. Come on, Sam. Stop stalling and do it already.
“Then I guess you made a mistake.” Sam sneered. “You should have killed me when I was a child. Because now you’re not going to get the chance.”
As if in slow motion, all four men lunged at Tomaz. Faith ducked back around the corner, unable to watch the struggle that ensued. Grunts and growls filled the hall, along with the occasional crack of bone and thump of bodies smacking into the floor. Merida’s gasp brought her back to the door just as Wil pulled out a long, very thin blade and stuck it through Tomaz’s heart. A god-awful, high-pitched squeal erupted from the demon’s throat. She covered her ears with her palms. Wil dug the blade deeper, twisted the handle until the demon went limp against the blade. Wil pulled back and Tomaz dropped to the floor, dead. Like the other demon killings she’d witnessed, Tomaz’s body disappeared with a pop and a puff of smoke—thicker, blacker than the last. Relief rushed through her, flooded her senses. It was over. Finished. Now she and Sam could finally be together. She had to get to him.
She pushed open the door, rushed into the room and let out a strangled scream. Sam lay on the floor, his body in a lifeless heap.
Chapter Fourteen
Sam cracked one eye open, then the other, squeezed them shut against the bright light spilling into the room. His head spun, his throat had passed parched a long time ago. Every muscle ached, every nerve ending cried out in pain.
But he was alive.
He’d made it. He’d seen Tomaz destroyed, and lived through the entire ordeal.
Of course, he would have preferred to destroy the demon himself, but in the end it had come down to the fact that someone had needed to get rid of him. Wil had done as much as Sam would have done himself. A small smile tilted the corners of his lips.
“You are alive. I was beginning to wonder.”
Faith’s soft voice made him crack his eyes open again. She sat on the edge of the mattress, a hopeful smile on her face. He reached up to touch her, dropped his hand when it hurt too much. “Hey.”
“Hey? After what you’ve put me through, all the worry, all you say is ‘hey’?”
He fought against the urge to close his eyes. Had to tell her something. What was it? Something important. He sucked in as deep a breath as his bruised body could manage. “Love you.”
“That’s better.” Her laughter filled the room. “I love you too.”
His heart nearly burst, hearing the words spoken from those soft lips. She loved him. He’d waited so long to hear her say it, thought it would never happen.
She squeezed his hand as his eyes drifted closed.
“Where am I?”
“Your house in Maine. In your bedroom.”
A wave of nausea rolled over him. “How?”
“We’ll talk about it later, when you feel up to it.”
He let out a low moan. “Tired.”
Her fingers brushed the side of his face. “You should be. You’re hurt. Bad. Get some rest.”
He tried to nod, couldn’t tell if he accomplished the task before he slipped back into a fitful sleep.
* * * * *
Faith let herself out of Sam’s bedroom, closed the door softly behind her. Her heart broke just to look at him lying there, broken and helpless. He would need time to heal. Lots of time. But he would pull through. He had to.
He loved her.
If she never heard those words again, she wouldn’t be able to survive.
A tear burned a path down her cheek. She brushed it away. He would need her to be strong. If she fell apart now, she’d be no help to anyone.
A hand rested on her shoulder. “How is he?”
She glanced up at Royce, tried her best to smile through her tears. “Better. He spoke to me a little.”
“He’s not out of the woods yet.”
She nodded. “I know. I know. Do you think he’s going to be okay?”
“Most likely. I’ve never met anyone as stubborn as Sam, except maybe Merida. He’ll be fine, as long as he allows himself time to heal.” He smiled down at her. “It’ll help if you spend time talking to him, holding his hand. Having you there will give him the fight he needs to get through this.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Royce led her down the hall to a small den. He gestured for her to sit on the brown leather couch. He perched on the arm of a chair. “When he heals enough to shift, his body will probably force him into his cat form. I wanted you to be aware of that, not to be frightened by it when it happens. He’ll heal faster that way.”
“I understand.”
“I don’t want to scare you, but I want you to be wary. I don’t think he would hurt you, but pay attention. If he does
anything that makes you nervous, come and get me or Merida.”
“Okay.” She shifted on the cushion, glanced out the window. A bird chirped, flew past the glass. The leaves of the trees rustled in the breeze. “Don’t you need to get some sleep?”
“I will. In a little while. I just wanted to make sure he was okay before I lay down to rest. As his mate, you—”
She snapped her gaze to his, held up a hand to stop him. Had she heard him wrong? “Excuse me? As his what?”
Royce sank into the chair, steepled his hands in his lap. A worried look passed over his face. “He didn’t tell you?”
“Um, no.” What was he talking about? “Explain.”
He shook his head. “I think it’s something you need to discuss with Sam.”
“And I would, if he wasn’t lying unconscious in bed.” A sliver of unease raced through her, clenching her stomach. “So I guess you’ll have to do. Start talking.”
Royce closed his eyes, shook his head. His eyelids fluttered open and he sighed. “When a Panthicenos finds their mate, they form a lifelong bond.”
She gulped. “What does that have to do with me?”
“You’re Sam’s mate.”
“How can that be possible? I’m human.”
He shrugged. “Fate doesn’t take that into account. Look at Merida and I. And Ellie was human when she and Eric met.”
Hope wedged its way into her mind. “If Eric changed Ellie into a Panthicenos, can’t Sam do the same for me?”
“I’m afraid it isn’t that easy.” He let out a long, frustrated breath. “Sam changed Ellie, not Eric. It’s a difficult change, only works about half the time, and only balance keepers can even attempt it.”
Her heart sank to her knees. “And since Sam isn’t a balance keeper anymore, he can’t do it.”
Royce nodded. “Right.”
“When you say they mate for life, does that mean, after I die, he would never…?” Her voice trailed off at the thought of dying, of leaving Sam alone to spend centuries living after she was gone.
“He won’t bond with another mate again.”
“And what, exactly, does that mean?”
“The bond between mates for demons is like what love is to us humans. But in some ways, it’s even stronger. It can’t be broken by anything but death.”
And when she died, Sam would have nobody. “I don’t want this. He deserves someone who can share his life, and not just a small part of it.”
“It’s too late. The bond is already forged.”
“No, it didn’t. I would have known.”
“The simple act of sex cements the bond.”
Her face flamed. She glanced around the room, avoided Royce’s searching gaze. It had happened that first night. The night she’d come to him, begging for his help. All because of her stupid bargain, she’d ruined his life. “It was an accident, then. We didn’t know.”
“He knew.”
She snapped her gaze back to his. “What do you mean? That first time…he couldn’t have known. If he had, he wouldn’t have let it continue.”
Royce raised an eyebrow, but didn’t question her. “Trust me, Faith. He knew. It was obviously something he wanted, or he wouldn’t have done it. Sam doesn’t do anything without purpose.”
She stood, paced the length of the room. When he woke, she’d kill him. She’d strangle the life out of him, and enjoy every second. “Why would he do that? Why didn’t he say something?”
“Would you have accepted it, at the time? From what I’ve been told, it was a very stressful situation. He didn’t want you running away from him and getting yourself killed.”
And all that time he’d let her believe he wanted her because of the deal they’d made, when it had been something else. Something stronger. Something she wanted no part of.
Liar.
She froze. The truth screamed in her face, telling her to stop her denials. She’d have plenty of time to be mad at him later. Right now she had to concentrate on helping him get well so she could kick his ass.
“So what am I supposed to do now? What choice do I have but to grow old beside him while he stays practically the same?”
She raked a hand through her hair. Just when she thought she’d gotten her life back, something happened to turn it inside out again.
“There is an option, you know.”
She turned to Royce. “What do you mean?”
“A way you can live with him forever.”
Hope filled her. Her eyes widened. “Tell me.”
“You might not like it.”
“I don’t care. I’ll do anything.”
Royce smiled. “Then sit down and listen.”
* * * * *
It seemed like years since he’d been out of bed, yet it had only been a few weeks. Sam rolled to his side, stretched. Having spent most of his recovery time shifting from cat to human form, and everything in between, he needed to stretch his weak muscles. His strength had started to return now, the pain all but gone.
“Hello again.”
He opened his eyes to see Faith sitting over him, as she had many times over the past days.
“Good morning.”
“Actually, it’s night.” She pointed to the drawn curtains and laughed. “You look better. I guess Royce was right.”
He stiffened. “What did Royce say?”
“That once you were strong enough to shift, you’d heal a lot quicker.”
“He told you that?”
She nodded. “Among other things.”
A sliver of unease wedged itself into his gut. What had Royce told her? Was it enough to make her want to leave?
She ran her hand down his side. “No more welts. Barely any scars.” She smiled. “Oh, by the way. He explained the whole mating-for-life thing, too.”
He swallowed, his heart lodging in his throat. “Oh really?”
“Yep.” Her fingernails scraped over his nipple, stiffening the flesh. “He told me that the bond was created the first time we made love. And that you knew it would happen.”
He said nothing, wet his lips with his tongue. Waited for her scathing reaction.
She blinked down at him, a knowing smile on her face. “You knew, didn’t you? He told me the truth.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He cleared his throat. “I thought it would scare you away.”
“You owe me big time, buddy. I don’t like being lied to.”
“I’m sorry, Faith. Really I am. I’ll do whatever I can to make it up to you.”
He tried to sit, but she pushed him back down on the mattress. “Not so fast. You will be making it up to me, believe me. But we have more important things to discuss now.”
She scraped her nails down his side. His flesh quivered, his cock tented the sheet. She glanced down and laughed. “Very, very nice. I see you’ve healed quite nicely all over.” Her voice sounded deeper, throaty, slightly different than before. “There’s only one thing I dislike more than being lied to, Sam.”
“What’s that?” He had to choke the words past his desert-dry throat.
“Being kept waiting.” Her fingers slipped under the sheet that covered him to his middle. She rested her hand on his stomach, stroked with a gentleness that only increased his arousal. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to talk to you about this?”
“Two weeks?” It was how long Eric told him it had taken him to heal.
She nodded. “Two long, agonizing weeks. Two weeks waiting for you to be strong so we could discuss this forever thing.”
He let out a breath. “There isn’t going to be a forever, Faith. I don’t have the power to change you anymore. And even if I did, I would never risk it. It’s too dangerous.”
Her rich, amused laugh filled the room. “I wasn’t planning to ask you to change me.”
“You weren’t?” Suspicion welled inside him. What did she have planned?
“Nope. Royce kindly pointed out t
hat there is another option.” She leaned in, ran her tongue down the side of his neck.
His eyes went wide at the possibility. He’d kill Royce for even mentioning it to her, once he was able to get out of bed. He fisted his hands in the sheet to keep from grabbing her. “No way. That’s a terrible idea. Don’t even think about it.”
She pushed the sheet away, straddled his waist. Smiled down at him to reveal gleaming white fangs. “Too late.”
“Jesus.” He tried to sit up, tried to roll away, but she held him in place.
“What’s the matter, Kincaid? Can’t handle a little biting?”
“You’re not going to bite me.”
“Wanna bet?” She laughed again, ground her cloth-covered mound over his cock. “You’re acting like you’ve never been bitten before.”
Wetness seeped from her panties onto his skin and he gulped. God, he wanted her so badly. But a vampire? Biting? He shuddered. “I haven’t.”
Her expression turned incredulous. “You’re telling me that, with all the years you’ve been vampire, you’ve fed from countless people but never enjoyed the experience yourself?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Well, then. I think it’s well past time to change that.”
Without giving him time to stop her, she leaned in and pierced his chest with her fangs. It hurt, but not like he’d imagined it would. It was more of a heated pain, sending shards of arousal straight to his cock even as the small wounds on his chest throbbed. The burning sting lasted only seconds before it faded to pure pleasure. He fought back a groan, determined not to let her see how much it affected him, but she had to know. His cock had grown painfully hard and was pressing right against her pussy. His breath grew ragged at the thought, and Faith’s small smile let him know she understood all too well. She swirled her tongue over the wound, suckled and laved until he thought he’d come out of his skin. Every nerve he had jumped and snapped, his gut tightening, his balls drawing up against his body. If she kept it up much longer he’d come. He didn’t want her to ever stop.
“It’s not so bad, is it?” Her soft breath feathered his chest when she spoke, ratcheting his arousal up another few notches. He was quickly moving into dangerous territory, and loving every second.