As his fingers wrapped around the human’s throat, the basement exploded in a cacophony of gunfire and screams.
At the first shot, Miranda was up off the floor and running to join the battle. Damned if she’d play helpless victim while Ambrose faced down an armed killer. To give Kurt credit, he immediately jumped up, too. He wisely took on his wife, leaving Miranda to handle her cousin. She felt a brief pang of grief over his betrayal, but now wasn’t the time for a family reunion.
He sensed her attack and spun to face her, his face contorted beyond recognition with rage and fear. She didn’t hold back, knowing that any show of weakness right now would only further endanger her two companions.
The momentum of her charge carried them both to the floor, with him twisting to land on top. She bucked him off and tried to pin him down. She didn’t want to bring her fangs into play, because if she got close enough to use them, she’d be vulnerable to a similar attack from him. He managed to get a fist free and sent it flying straight at her face. She managed to deflect the blow at the last second.
“Alroy! We’re family. Stop fighting and I’ll spare your life!”
Not that she’d want to, and Ambrose would likely overrule her promise, anyway. Alroy didn’t know that, though.
“No way, bitch. We’re not family. You stole everything I’ve ever wanted the day you were born. It’s too late for me, and we both know it.”
That hurt, but he was right. She didn’t want to be the one to take his life, but he’d brought clan vengeance down on his own head when he sided with the human woman against his own bloodline. Bracing herself for the kill, she lunged for his throat.
“Randi, stop!” Ambrose’s big hand pulled her up and off of Alroy at the same time he shoved a gun in her cousin’s face.
At first she thought Alroy was going to continue fighting, but at the last second, he froze and then slowly lowered his hands to the ground beside him. He was smart enough to know he was staring sure death in the face. It might be postponing the inevitable, but he surrendered.
“Randi, go upstairs and call for backup. Wait up there until they get here.” Ambrose’s voice was stone-cold.
She started to argue, but stopped. This was the side of Ambrose that enabled him to rise to the top of the Chancellors. No wonder his name was spoken with both fear and admiration across their society.
She met his gaze head-on and nodded, telling him without words that she understood what his duty required of him and accepted it. Accepted him.
Ambrose kept the gun on Alroy. Josiah was no longer a threat to anyone. “Kurt, release your wife and go upstairs with Miranda.”
“But…” the human sputtered.
Miranda grabbed him by the arm to drag him away from his wife. “Now, Kurt. You don’t want to be here while he interrogates them. Presumably you have feelings for the woman.”
Otka was smarter than her husband. “Kurt, you know you love me.” She pointed at Alroy. “This was all his idea.”
The Chancellor sneered at her. “You were the one who always said the husband your father picked for you was too weak to lead your clan, Otka. As I recall, you told me that the first night you came to my bed.”
Kurt bellowed in outrage and charged right for Miranda’s cousin. Ambrose stepped between them. “Go upstairs, Kurt. Now. I’ll handle your wife.”
For a brief second, the human’s face showed real grief, but then it was gone. He looked from Otka and back to Ambrose. “I have no wife.”
Then he walked up the stairs without looking back.
Otka shrieked after him, “You can’t desert me like this, Kurt. Not with him! My father will kill you.”
Ambrose looked purely disgusted. “No, Otka, he won’t, not when he learns that it was you who brought the wrath of Miranda’s clan and the entire Coalition knocking at his door over a piece of worthless land.”
He kept the gun trained on Alroy, but walked over to glare down in the human woman’s face. “There’s also the little matter of him already being on the hook to repair the damage of at least three homes. I’ll also make it clear that if anything happens to Kurt, your father will be the one I’ll come after. I’d guess, when the dust settles, your name will no longer exist in his world.”
Miranda couldn’t bring herself to pity the woman whose selfishness had caused so much death and destruction. She followed Kurt up the stairs and made the call to Ambrose’s team.
The silence from the basement was deafening.
By shortly after midnight, Ambrose’s team had removed the bodies of the three executed prisoners, and Kurt was in protective custody until Ambrose had a chance to come to terms with the human’s father-in-law. There were forms to fill out and reports to be written, but all of that could wait. Right now, he had other, more important, issues to resolve.
He found Miranda on the front porch of Kurt’s house staring up into the night sky. The soft glow of the full moon illuminated her face. The past few days had definitely taken their toll, but she was still the most vibrant, beautiful woman he’d even known.
Ambrose resisted the need to touch her, not sure of his welcome now that she’d seen him in action. The fear that she’d no longer want him twisted in his gut like a knife.
“We’re done here, Randi.”
“I have to go home.” She crossed her arms over her chest, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. “It’s my duty.”
He understood that. After all, he’d dedicated his whole life to doing his duty. For the first time, he felt a twinge of regret that his very nature demanded that he continue to do so.
“I’ll take you to a hotel and make sure you have everything you need until you can make arrangements for transportation.”
She finally looked at him; her small smile held a hint of promise. “And if everything I need is you, Ambrose? Will you come with me?”
The weight on his heart intensified. Duty to his people was important, but his duty to this woman was, as well. He had to give her his truth.
“I love you, Miranda, more than I have the words for, but I can’t leave New Eire. The Coalition needs me here. Our people need me here.”
She stepped into his waiting arms and put her finger across his lips. “Ambrose, I know that, but I do have to return home, at least for a time. The elders of the clan will need my help dealing with the fallout from Alroy’s betrayal, as well as the death of my aunt and my guards.”
She raised herself just enough to whisper near his ear. “And I’ll need to pack if I’m moving here to be with you. I don’t believe in long-distance marriages.”
Some of the sadness in her eyes faded into humor as she asked, “You were going to ask me to marry you, weren’t you? I rather think my mother will insist on it, and she can be quite the terror when she doesn’t get her way.”
He swallowed hard. Damn straight he wanted to tie Randi to him any way he could, but he had to know where he stood. “Will she object to me being a Chancellor and not a pureblood vampire?”
“She wants me to be happy. That’s all that will matter to her.” Miranda toyed with his hair and studied his face. “And you will definitely make me happy.”
For the first time in hours, he could breathe without feeling as if a heavy stone was sitting on his chest. “We can assure her that I’ll take good care of you. Although come to think of it, I no longer have a place to live. Got any suggestions?” He nuzzled her neck, totally not caring that some of his team were standing a short distance away and staring at the two of them in stunned silence.
“Several, but now’s probably not the time to discuss them.”
Only his second-in-command had the courage to actually approach them. He cleared his throat and waited for Ambrose to acknowledge him.
“Yes, Liam, what is it?”
“First, let me offer my congratulations, sir.” Liam grinned and then held out a set of transport keys. “Thought you might need these. And don’t worry, I’ll personally handle the paperwork on this case, sir. It
seems you have more important things on your mind.”
“That I do, Liam, that I do.” Ambrose tightened his hold on Randi and breathed deeply of her womanly scent. She sighed contentedly and laid her head against his shoulder.
He waited until the team was out of hearing and asked, “Shall we go find someplace more private than this porch, Randi?” Then he whispered what he had planned for them for the rest of the night—and the rest of their lives.
“You know, Ambrose, the way your mind works is just one of the things I love about you.” She broke away from him. “I’d like to point out a few of my other favorite parts, but this definitely isn’t the right place for that. What do you say we find somewhere a lot more private to continue this discussion?”
He led the charge to the transport, because he loved the way her mind worked, too.
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ISBN: 978-1-4268-4357-0
The Vampire’s Desire
Copyright © 2009 by Patricia L. Pritchard
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