“Let me guess, you don’t get to scare humans very often anymore.”
“Oh, touché!” She laughed again as her eyes and nails changed back to normal. “You saw Miles today. Did he breathe fire?”
“F-fire? He can do that?”
“Of course. He and Eli are both fire dragons.”
“No, he just leaned in and did something with his eyes. It was creepy, like what you just did.”
“Well, you should ask him to breathe fire for you sometime. It’s an amazing thing to see.”
“I’m sure it is. I think I’d rather keep all my hair unsinged for now. Thanks for the heads up, though.”
Calliope grabbed a small yellow purse from behind the counter and waved toward the door. “Come on, let’s get some lunch. I’m starved.”
“Sure.” I could eat again. Though if they kept feeding me three meals a day, my clothes would have to readjust for my growing waistline. “Don’t y’all ever get bored of eating at just one restaurant?”
I stepped to the side and waited while Calliope locked the door to her shop. “Nope. The brownies and pixies are always changing things up. The menu rarely stays the same for more than two weeks at a time. Now, if there’s something specific you want. You can always ask for a special order.” She turned toward me and we strolled down the concrete sidewalk toward Rose’s Café. “The café is like home. You never get tired of home cooking.”
“How long have you been in the town?”
She sighed and swiped her dark chocolate bangs to the side. “I’ve been here since the 1920s. I was between husbands at the time and Rose convinced me there could be more purpose to my life than finding my next sugar daddy.”
“How many husbands have you had?”
“Dozens by now. I lost count years ago, though I haven’t married anyone since moving to Sanctuary. Most humans who visit the Castle are already attached to a partner. I’m not really interested in developing an attachment to anyone who lives in town, and my reputation keeps me pretty single. I stick to out-of-towners.”
“What reputation would that be?”
“Everyone I develop a lasting sexual relationship with dies.”
“W-why?”
“I’m a siren. I fall madly in love, but it’s never allowed to last long. One day I’m happy, then the next I wake up and they’re dead beside me in bed. The longest relationship I’ve had lasted five years. I knew every day I stayed with him put him in danger, but I just couldn’t leave.”
“So it’s not really intentional?”
“Well … it’s complicated. But, like I said. There’s no one in town who would risk a relationship with me and certainly no man who would spend an entire night in my bed knowing I was a siren.”
“You must be lonely.” I couldn’t imagine living with that kind of curse hanging over my head. The thought of killing the person you loved while you slept ...
“Being single this last century has been good for me. The cravings for a relationship have gotten easier to ignore. Rose and this town and the people in it have filled an emptiness in my soul I could never do on my own.” She paused in front of the café door and turned, catching my gaze. “Plus, if I need a good fucking from time to time, the Castle is right across the circle.”
I swallowed. “You sleep with—?”
“Ah, ah, ah, I do not sleep with anyone. I do, however, fuck several sexy older gentlemen when they visit from out of town. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement. They enjoy it and it helps me stay satisfied … sexually.”
I reached for the café door and shook my head as I pulled it open. “I never would have believed all of this only a few days ago. Now, it’s one weird story after another. Are there others like you?”
“Of course. We aren’t a prolific species, but there are others. I’ve only met a handful of other sirens in my lifetime.”
She entered the café first and I followed her to sit at the bar. Raven walked up on the other side, her flowing locks every color of the rainbow.
“Love the new colors, girly,” Calliope said, opening the menu lying on the counter in front of her.
“Thanks. It was time to freshen it up. You should see Maven’s. Prettiest solid purple.”
“Cool.”
“How are you settling in, Bailey? Did you hear about the Djinn setting fires over in the Lycan neighborhood?”
“That’s why she’s with me, pixie. Her ever-protective vampire actually had to work today.”
“Garrett came in earlier, said it’s not going well,” Raven added. “The Djinn keeps jumping, never staying in one place long enough for anyone to get a good look at him. But, he did say the scent was familiar.”
“Meaning it’s the same one who followed me from Fort Worth,” I muttered. Every muscle in my body tensed and the fear I’d managed to push away came roaring back like a tidal wave, threatening to drown me. What use was running? The Djinn would always be coming for me. He’d never stop … just like Kevin.
“Doesn’t matter, sweetie. We’ve got you covered. He’s just trying to get on people’s nerves. Rose will have him bottled soon enough.”
Bottled?
Raven turned to Calliope. “Oh, Charles popped in this morning and said to let you know to come see him when you got a chance.”
“He wasn’t supposed to be here for another week. Why didn’t he come to the shop?”
“Said you had company and he didn’t want to interrupt. Something about the shop being closed.”
“Oh.” Calliope grinned. “Guess Bailey and I were a little distracted earlier.” She turned in her stool and winked. “Charles is one of my friends from out of town.”
I nodded. “I can stay here in the café if you want to go see him.”
“Nope. I’m on duty. Charles will understand. Plus, he’s the one who showed up unscheduled. The Sisters will keep him entertained until I get there.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Calliope might be on duty, but I can’t help glancing at the door every time the bell rings. Always watchful. Always worried. Always waiting to be caught. That feeling never leaves me.
This time it was just Garrett, the mind-reading, sexy-as-hell werewolf who preferred to be called a Lycan. I really wished I didn’t know about the mind reading. Ignorance really is bliss sometimes.
The door swung closed behind him and I waited patiently for Erick to come through after, but the door didn’t budge again.
“Afternoon, Rose. I’m here for the guys’ lunch order,” he called out. Then he walked straight to the table where Calliope and I were eating, pulled up a chair, and sat.
A strange hissing sound came from Calliope and I covered my mouth to avoid snorting water all over my plate. What kind of noise was that?
“Beat it, wolf boy.” Calliope spat out. “I prefer to eat without smelling sweaty dog,” Her voice was low, but playfully menacing. Almost like a tease.
“You like it, siren. Stop whining.” He didn’t even blink when he turned his gaze onto me. “Sexy as hell? Good to know.” His mouth curled into an arrogant, self-satisfactory smile as his eyes swept from my face down to my chest and then back. “If you get tired of your Protector, just let me know. My brother and I would take really good care of you.”
My jaw dropped and heat rushed to my cheeks. Presumptuous much!? Not only was he invading my private thoughts again, he had the nerve to proposition me in the middle of a diner. And he’d proposed that I sleep with him and his brother—a man I’d never met! What the hell was he smoking?
A chuckle rolled from his chest and he leaned back in his chair. “You may not have met Travis, but he got a peek at you already. If you think I’m attractive, I don’t think you’ll complain about him.”
“Stop! Stay out of my head!” I glanced at Calliope. Her eyes were black and her fingernails had lengthened into claws around the white porcelain coffee cup. Holy shit! “Calliope?” My voice faltered. She didn’t look like she was playing any more.
“Djinn,”
she whispered.
My heart fell into my stomach and nausea clawed its way up my throat in return. This was it! Darius would kidnap, torture, and kill me.
Garrett’s eyes flashed gold and a growl rumbled in his chest. “I won’t let that happen, even if you don’t want to sleep with me and my brother.” He grinned before dashing to the door and slipping outside.
A moment later, Rose ran into the dining room from the kitchen. “Bailey!” She and Calliope exchanged some sort of look. Then I heard a thud on the sidewalk out front.
Outside the front windows, I saw him. The Djinn from the bus station. Darius. He smiled and waved, disappearing just as Garrett’s body came flying through the air. Garrett landed with a familiar sounding thump on the sidewalk.
He appeared again but this time had a gas can in his hands and was sloshing it all over the windows and walls outside the diner. Garrett leapt again, this time fast enough to catch hold of him before he teleported.
I stood and stared at the fight, just like everyone else in the diner. We just waited.
A second later they came crashing through the front window. Glass shattered and people ran. Calliope moved to stand in front of me and Rose started shouting for everyone to go out the back door.
Garrett growled, but Darius stood and stared at me over Calliope’s shoulder, ignoring the menacing rumble. His purple eyes sliced straight to my soul. Terror laced its way through my body, clamping down on my lungs making it difficult to breathe.
“I’ll get you, bitch. Just you wait. They can’t watch you every second of the day.” His voice was cold. Angry.
I gasped a breath and took a step backward, bumping into the table behind me. Trapped.
Another barreling charge from Garrett sent Darius flying. Unable to teleport, he hit the ground with a thud and scrambled to his feet.
“Damn spells!” He snarled, leaping for the opening.
Garrett caught his leg before he got through and tugged him back to the floor. He threw a few punches before Darius heaved him off, sending Garrett crashing into several tables, splintering them into a thousand pieces on impact and sending their contents straight at me and Calliope, hitting us both.
A glass hit her in the face and she hissed, jumping at Darius with a roar unlike anything I’d heard before. Her cry reverberated around the room and made my head ache.
Rose stepped forward before Calliope reached the Djinn and laid a hand on his shoulder. She started chanting something I couldn’t make out and he screamed like she’d stuck him with a hot poker.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Garrett get up and run straight for Darius again.
Time stretched out, moving slower. Voices became indistinct and delayed. I sucked in a deep breath and moaned in pain. Then I heard the strangest sound and turned my attention back to Rose and the Djinn. My vision was blurry, but I could tell he was laughing now, not screaming.
I squinted, trying to focus. An evil smile spread across his face. He shoved Rose to the ground and looked at me again.
“I like the color red on you.”
Nausea crept over me, and bile rose into my mouth. Then something else did. Coppery, metallic liquid gurgled up into my mouth and ran between my lips. I coughed and pain radiated from my stomach. Looking down, I could see the handle of a steak knife protruding from my upper abdomen. The front of my dress was wet and stained.
Wet with my blood.
When I looked up again, Darius leapt out the window and everyone else turned to stare at me. Black spots invaded my vision as the world began spinning. Forms rushed at me and their voices became nothing more than a loud roar in my head.
The Djinn was gone.
It was over.
Was I dying?
People were still shouting all around me. My head throbbed and then a fiery burst of pain made me attempt a scream, but all I managed was a gurgled moan. The pain was quickly followed by pressure on my stomach. It took a few moments, but my mind finally registered that they’d probably removed the knife.
All I wanted was Erick. I wanted his quiet. His comfort. His way of making me feel like I was the most important person in his world. If I was dying, I wanted to be with him when I breathed my last.
Seconds later, a rush of air stirred around me just before familiar male arms scooped me up off the floor.
He cradled my head and pressed his face to mine.
I breathed in his sweet scent. He was speaking, but I still couldn’t make anything out. The world around me was cold and fuzzy. A moment later, his wrist was pressed against my lips. I knew what he wanted and I did my best to swallow, but there was so much blood in my mouth, I couldn’t tell what was mine and what was his.
Then everything went black.
***
I opened my eyes and stared up at a white, coffered ceiling. Sitting up straight, I gasped for breath and rubbed my stomach, feeling for a bandage.
Nothing was there.
Nothing hurt.
Had I imagined the whole thing? Was it all a dream?
I wasn’t wearing the blue dress anymore, just a t-shirt and panties.
I scanned the semi-lighted room. Only one lamp on the dresser across the room was on. A new digital clock next to it read eight thirty. The last thing I remembered was dropping to the floor of the diner with a knife in my stomach at lunchtime.
I rolled to the edge of the bed and slid my feet to the carpet. Then hurried into the bathroom, flipping on the light as I went through the door.
Stopping in front of the mirror, I pulled up the t-shirt.
My mouth went dry. No wound. Not even a scar from the knife. On top of that, several other older scars were nearly gone. The dark pink, raised, whip lines that had crisscrossed my body for four years were smooth and white. Some were gone completely.
It had all happened.
The fight. The diner. The knife. Erick had fed me his blood. I vaguely remembered that. I looked at my bare stomach in the mirror again. How much blood had he fed me to heal this much? It didn’t matter now. I was alive and apparently in much better shape than I had been before the incident. Talk about a well-kept secret. The medical community would lose their shit if they knew how powerful vampire blood was.
I caught sight of a wad of blue fabric in his tub. It was the dress I’d been wearing earlier. It was completely clean, thanks to Calliope’s spell. I draped it over my arm, scanning the dress. A small inch-long slice in the front near the bust-line still remained from where the knife had entered.
Voices rumbled from below, pulling me out of my state of shock. At first it sounded like Erick might be on the phone, but the deep rumble of other male voices soon mixed with his. It sounded like the two dragon brothers again. They seemed to be a tight little trio, merely adding to my discomfort since they ran the Castle. Sooner or later, I’d have to face that can of worms. I certainly hoped it would be later.
Dropping the dress back into the tub, I scanned the bathroom for something to wear. I wasn’t putting that dress back on again … ever, but I wasn’t about to walk downstairs in a t-shirt and panties in front of company, either. Walking to the closet, I pulled open both doors and took a breath. There had to be something. He’d mentioned robes. Sure enough, a white robe hung on a hook just inside.
I stepped forward, reaching up to pull it down and stubbed my toe on a heavy canvas bag. “Shit.” I jumped back, grabbing for the throbbing toe. The robe slipped from the hook and fell in front of me, covering the offending bag. I landed on the floor next to it and snatched up the robe. Heaving a sigh, I stood and threw it around my shoulders and tied the band around my waist.
The bag was open and a pink strap lay across the top. Curiosity got the better of me and I knelt back down. I pulled out the pink strap, which was connected to a tangle of other straps and a … dildo. I dropped it back in the bag and pulled the zipper open further. My hands trembled. A large bullwhip lay coiled on top of several other items Kevin used to use on me regularly—paddle, crop, and
a gag.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
How could I have been so stupid? Erick had been lying to me this whole time. He wanted to tie me up and beat me, too. Why else would he have this bag of stuff?
My heart was racing and my palms were sweaty. I took a deep gulp of air, but nothing would stop the trembling of my body. Had it been his plan all along? Were his dragon pals in on it, too? He’d said he wouldn’t share me though … but how could I trust anything he’d ever said now?
I shut the closet doors and glanced up at the mirror.
The whole town knew him. Calliope, Rose, Raven, Maven—surely they would have said something. I’d believed them all when they said they wanted to protect me. They had to have known what he was like. What he liked … He knew how much those things frightened me.
My heart still screamed that I could trust him, but my head knew I was being foolish. No one kept a bag like that without planning to use it.
Was I condemning him for something he used to do? Maybe he hadn’t lied to me. Maybe I was just lying to myself.
Walking from the bathroom, I padded quietly across the room to the partially open doorway, pausing to listen.
“You can’t possibly think you’ll be happy. You are a Dom, Erick. There’s no getting around that fact.” It was Eli’s gravelly voice telling Erick I wasn’t the right girl for him. “It’s not fair to either of you. She’d be better off with Jav—.”
“She’ll be better off with me because I care about her,” Erick snapped back at him. “Javier can go to hell. He’d use her and then put her aside a week later. He’s a jackass.”
Eli grunted, but didn’t speak any intelligible words.
“You won’t be satisfied.” Miles’ voice added, echoing his brother’s sentiments. My heart sank. Apparently Erick really was more interested in kink than he had led me to believe, though he was putting up a pretty good fight on my behalf.
“I don’t give a shit if I never pick up a whip again. Or if I never use another set of cuffs. Being a dom isn’t about the things you use, and you both know it.”
My Viking Vampire Page 16