by Jessica Lee
With a sigh, Emily broke their kiss and brushed his coarse shadow of a beard with her chin before delving for more answers. “She made you a vampire against your will?”
Kenric nodded in silence before explaining to her how Marguerite had sensed his untapped psychic abilities while he was human. He’d always possessed a very strong second sense, an ability to see things before they happened, which he’d never told anyone.
The stronger the mind, the more powerful the vampire. In fact, he could become a Master, and Marguerite had always wanted to mate a Master. She’d become obsessed with creating a perfect male for herself. One who could control the elements, who had the potential for superior psychic influence and an ability to shift into multiple forms.
Emily rolled off him and pulled up the sheet from the foot of the bed to cover herself before sitting up. He repositioned and turned onto his side to face her. She reached out and brushed a wave of dark curls away from his brow. His jaw was rigid, but his gaze warmed her when he turned his cheek into her hand.
He lifted his head from her palm. “A vampire has the ability to mate for life at a soul level. What she wanted out of the deal was a share of my power. Marguerite is an anomaly among female vampires. She’s very strong. Most females are pretty weak. Even with age, they are unable to become Masters themselves. If they mate, a female can tap into her partner’s power through a psychic link.”
“Ah. I see where you’re going with this. If Marguerite got her claws into you, she would become even more powerful. More powerful than any master vampire alone.”
“Exactly.” He narrowed his eyes. “And I can’t allow that.”
“This woman—and I use the term loosely—has threatened everyone you care about all these years because you spurned her?”
“Yes.” He lightly traced the side of her face.
“How bad has it gotten, Kenric?” She didn’t want to know, but she had to. The depth of sorrow in his gaze choked her.
“I was engaged once,” he mumbled.
“Oh.” The bottom of her heart gave way. She took a deep breath, trying to push past the weight in her chest. “You’ve been in love before? I guess that’s a stupid question. With as long as you’ve lived, I’m sure you’ve loved many women in your time.” She was rambling, but if she kept talking, it didn’t hurt as much.
Nothing to it.
She could do this.
“No. I haven’t.” He lowered his gaze. “Not since Annice have I allowed myself to get close to any woman. That was three centuries ago.”
“What?” She placed a palm on his chest, and he lifted his lashes. “You haven’t had a relationship in three centuries? You’ve been alone all this time?” she whispered. How in the world did anyone survive that kind of loneliness? “That must have been an incredible love you two shared.”
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Her hand fell away.
Oh God, how could she compete with the memory of a woman that had endured hundreds of years?
“Annice was…” His face wore a distant, lost expression. “…a sweet, docile woman, who would’ve done anything for me.”
A hard lump formed in Emily’s throat. She didn’t want to hear any more and opened her mouth to change the subject.
“But she didn’t have half the fire you possess.” He rolled his head to the side and burned her with the passion in his eyes.
The moisture in her mouth disappeared under the heat. She licked her lips with her too-dry tongue and asked, “What happened to her? Did Marguerite have something to do with it?”
“You could say that.” He stared again at the popcorn ceiling of her bedroom and started to laugh but stopped, looking more pissed than amused. The tips of his fangs captured the light that shone through the open bedroom door and glinted under his lip. “It finally occurred to me one night that the best way to handle Marguerite was to play her game. Stop resisting. I convinced her that I was starting to fall for her, my distaste for her waning.” Emily ran her fingertips over the back of his hand, tracing the raised scars that marred the skin.
“Marguerite started giving me small amounts of freedom and more frequent feedings as her trust in me began to build. I used those few weeks to gain strength, to learn how to use my new powers. And then one night, after she was finished with me, and I’d had my fill of her blood, I manipulated that surge of power and phased back home.” His gaze darted to Emily. “She never saw it coming. Marguerite was so caught up in the fantasy that I would be hers, she never thought I would leave.”
He looked away once more. Obviously, there was more to the story. “I had to see Annice one more time. I wanted to ask forgiveness for having disappeared from her life for three years. We had been engaged before I had left for the battle.” His Adam’s apple dipped before he continued. “Marguerite had warned me that if I did not give myself to her, I would have no one. She would not share.” His hand fisted in the sheet. “Foolishly, I thought if I could only glimpse Annice one last time, talk to her for a few seconds just to make sure she was okay, I would be able to move on. Let her be in peace.”
“Marguerite followed you.” She sensed what must have happened next. Marguerite had murdered Annice. He was remembering another woman, yet his pain tore her up inside. She should be jealous, but all she wanted to do was hold him.
“I saw Annice in the gardens of her home that night. She was alone. I thought it the perfect moment, so I stepped from behind the trees, and she ran. Right into my arms. She’d thought I’d died.”
“Before I could explain, Marguerite phased in, ripped her from my hold, and slashed her throat.”
Emily flinched and grabbed her rebelling midsection.
“It happened so fast. I was still a young vampire and hadn’t sensed her presence. Annice died because of my ignorance.”
The frustration and pain in his voice was almost unbearable. She wanted to say…something. Anything to ease the hurt. Yet she sat there, barely keeping down the contents of her stomach.
“My vision went red, and I attacked Marguerite, ripping and clawing at her with everything I had. I remember standing over her bloodied body, feeling not a shred of remorse, but before I could make my final blow, she disappeared from beneath me.” He shook his head. “I would have thought it impossible, considering the damage I’d done.
“Marguerite went deep into hiding. She knew if I found her, I would do everything in my power to see her dead.” For a moment, an eerie red glow appeared in his eyes, then faded.
“My God, what you’ve been through. How you must hate her.” For what that bitch did to him, she deserved to die.
“I searched relentlessly in Europe, for a century, until I got a lead that she may have gone to America. I caught the next ship heading west. Not easy for a vampire, but I survived.” He rolled back onto his side and faced her. Lifting his arm, he allowed his fingertips to follow the curves of her arms as he spoke. His hardened expression softened, as if the feel of her skin soothed him. “That’s how I came to be in South Carolina. I didn’t find any evidence of her here, but I decided to stay and try to start a new life for myself. That’s when I formed the Enclave.” He threaded his fingers into her hair, his gaze one of confident determination—and affection. “I knew there was a possibility that one day she would come for me again. But this time, I would be ready.”
They stared at each other in silence, both digesting the weight of the reality between them.
“So, now she’s here and she still wants you.”
“And now, thanks to her new source of power and skill, she knows there’s a woman I care about, because you’re in my head.”
Heat rose to Emily’s cheeks. “Any idea how she’s gained this new power?”
He told her of the info they’d learned about a vessel containing the essence of an ancient Croatian vampire, Madunic, and its implications before adding, “When you came in before, she was in my head. She confirmed it. She’s dosing herself with it to achieve whateve
r little feat she desires at the moment. Like what you witnessed—she wanted to prove that she had the strength to hold me and recreate the hunger I’d endured centuries ago when she had turned me.”
Kenric’s eyelids drifted closed, then he moved his arm down and encircled her waist, pulling her to him. He rolled her onto her back and in one move braced himself above her and opened his eyes.
“Emily, you know the truth. I can’t let another woman I care about die because of me. Two women have already given their lives: my mother and Annice.”
“Your mother?” Emily choked out the words through the emotion riding high in her chest.
“She died trying to protect me from my father’s abuse, and Annice died because I didn’t have the strength to stay away.” He dipped his head and placed a kiss to her forehead, then each cheek. “Come home with me tonight. Let me protect you. I can’t lose you, too.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks. He brushed them away one by one. She laced her fingers through his raven hair and pulled him to her lips.
She wanted to kiss the hurt away. Kiss away the years of loneliness he’d carried in his heart.
“Marguerite may have taken away the sun from my life,” he said. “But I won’t allow her to have my light, too.” Kenric cupped her cheeks. “I won’t let her hurt you, Wildflower. You have my word.”
A knot swelled at the back of her throat, blocking her ability to speak.
“I-I want you to know, you’re the only person on this planet I’ve ever told the details of what happened back then.” He closed his eyes and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Not even Guerin knows the extent of her crimes. Some I can’t even bring myself to remember during my waking hours. The images plague me enough in my dreams that I don’t really need to.”
Emily brushed her fingertips along his jawline, the coarse feel of his whiskers tickling the sensitive pads. “You can tell me anything. I could never judge you for what you feel after the things she put you through. Nor would I ever betray your confidence.”
“I want to make her pay,” he growled. “With everything in me, I want to bring her down—destroy her for all that she’s taken from me and all the others she’s hurt in her path of destruction.”
Air sawed in and out of Kenric’s lungs, as if the admission had nearly exhausted him.
“I’m not proud of the fact I’ve allowed my need for vengeance against her to consume so much of my life. In fact, it pisses me off that even during her physical absence she’s still been inside me, a never-ending source of fuel for my anger.”
“Dear God, Kenric, if anyone ever had a reason to carry a grudge, it’s you.” Emily tugged his chin back up, bringing his shadowed gaze back to hers. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. That’s all on Marguerite.”
He cupped her breasts and rolled her nipples between his fingers, pulling a moan from her throat, then his mouth was on hers. The kiss hard and deep, as if she tasted of his salvation. And in her heart, Emily would give anything to be that for him—be whatever he needed.
A knock sounded at her front door.
“Ignore it,” he grumbled against her lips.
Another rap against the wood reverberated through the condo, this one harder.
“Damn,” he muttered and tumbled away from her onto his back.
Chapter Seventeen
Grabbing a robe from her closet, Emily hurried down the hall. “Who is it?” she called a few feet from the door.
“It’s Jeff.” A deep, grumpy voice sounded from the other side.
She skidded to a halt. Her heart flipped in her chest and landed in her stomach. Dear God, what was he doing here?
“What do you want?” God, she needed him here like she needed a toothache.
“Open the damn door, unless you want a scene on your front porch. I told you I would be here, woman.”
A snarl behind her had her wincing. Kenric framed the entrance to the living room, his jeans hanging loose at his hips. The blacks of his pupils filled his eyes, and one hand hung curled into a fist at his side.
“It’s my ex-fiancé.” She tried to give a half smile.
“Your ex?” Two small words, but when he said them, they held such power.
“I haven’t had a chance to tell you about him yet,” she whispered. “I’ll handle this.” She motioned to the door with her index finger.
“Emily. You’ve got two seconds to let me in, or the whole neighborhood will know I’m here.
No mistaking the rumble that emitted from the other side of the room.
“Stop that.” She shot Kenric an irritated look. “And get rid of the scary vampire look.” She waved a finger in the direction of his dilated eyes. “I’ve got this under control. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with in the past.”
With a flip of the dead bolt, she opened the door. Jeff barged in, almost knocking her over, and then pulled up short. Kenric had made it across the room before the jerk had taken three steps.
“Well, I see you’ve been busy.” Jeff scowled. “It didn’t take you long to find someone to warm your bed.” His gaze flicked from her to Kenric.
“I think I’ve heard enough of your bullshit and your insults.” Kenric moved in, his face inches from Jeff’s. “Apologize. Now. If you want to leave here on your own two legs.” Each word eased from his lips, his voice dead calm.
Jeff stumbled back and bumped the wall. She thought for a second maybe he’d gained some common sense, but hell no. He curled his lips and straightened his shoulders. “Just who the hell do you…?”
Good Lord. Emily broke in on the testosterone display. “God, you’re such an ass, Jeff.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side. “Let’s settle this once and for all, and then you can get the hell out of my house.” She glanced back and mouthed, I’m sorry. One minute, please.
Kenric wrestled with his raging need to kill the asshole following Emily into her bedroom. Thank God, she’d left the door open. He might have torn the damn thing off with his bare hands if she’d closed it.
She hadn’t mentioned the asshole before, but he knew someone in her past had hurt her. Not hard to guess who the responsible party was after meeting good old Jeff. What an absolute prick.
Their voices rose and carried to the front of the house. Even without his superb hearing, their words were clear.
He braced himself against the wall.
Ten minutes.
That was it.
He would give Ms. Independence a few moments to handle this, and then he would take care of him.
“I don’t have anything to give you,” Emily yelled. “I’ve already maxed out the equity line on my home to cover the previous debts I created because of you.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
His fingers dug into the plaster behind his legs.
Stay. Stay. She wants you to stay the fuck out of this.
“Bitch, you owe me. I know you’ve got something left you’re holding on to. Your mama left you everything when she died.”
“She barely had anything, and you know that. Dad’s drinking took everything except this place. And I’ll be damned if I lose it because of you.”
Emily’s voice broke, and Kenric’s heart turned inside out. He had no idea she’d held on to her life by an unraveling thread. She’d stolen his ability to think straight. This wasn’t him, standing on the outside and allowing his woman to be treated like shit by some asshole jerk-off.
“Get out of my things!” Her voice rang out, followed by a crash of something onto the floor.
The bastard was dead.
Kenric bolted. Her jewelry case lay shattered on the floor, her few trinkets scattered around her feet. Jeff groped on his knees after some of the items.
“I said get your hands off my stuff!” Emily beat at his back with her fists.
Jeff glanced up, his brown hair covering one side of his face, but it didn’t hide the sneer he aimed in Emily’s direction.
That cinched his fate.
Kenric took two
steps and swung. Jeff howled as his nose exploded under the impact of Kenric’s fist, spraying blood across his face and down his shirt.
“Oh, my God!” The distressed sound of Emily’s voice only heightened his need to get the bastard away from her. Permanently.
He wouldn’t kill him. No matter how much joy it would bring to watch the asshole take his last breath. But…there were other ways.
Satisfied with at least some display of blood and pain on Jeff’s behalf, Kenric gripped him by his nape and dragged him down the hall. “I guess you didn’t have enough brains to heed my warning.”
Jeff yelped and clawed at the hand holding him.
“Kenric!” Emily cried out, following close behind. “Stop! What are you doing?’
Her frantic swats at his arms didn’t matter. Old Jeff needed to learn a lesson. He hauled the vermin up and slammed him into the wall. The air left Jeff’s lungs on a wheeze. Kenric dug his fingers into the asshole’s chin and forced their gazes to meet. He reached in, wrapped his mind around Jeff’s slimy excuse for a brain, and forced the other man’s neurons into submission and readiness for his verbal command.
“You will never again set foot on Emily’s property. Never will you call her or let her name fall from your lips again. For the rest of your life, Emily Ross does not exist to you. Do you understand me?”
Jeff blinked with a glassy brown stare and nodded.
“Good.” Kenric released him and stepped back. “Now get the hell out of here.”
Jeff immediately headed toward the front door and left without looking back.
The door closed with a soft click, and Kenric wheeled around, satisfied he’d taken care of that piece of shit. The look on Emily’s face stopped him cold. She stood with her hands on her hips, sporting an expression that said she wanted a piece of his ass, but not in a pleasant way.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” She covered her face with her palms and groaned. “I can’t believe what I just witnessed.”
“I took care of the bastard.” Another wave of satisfaction rushed through him. “He won’t be coming back to bother you.”