Captured Sun

by Shari Richardson

  "Why are you apologizing. He's your family, isn't he? Why shouldn't he visit?"

  Mathias opened the shades in the front of the house, allowing the sun to fill his home. "Alfred does not have the same respect for human life as I do, Mairin. He sees you as food and nothing more. While I have elicited his word that he will not hunt while he is here, I can do nothing about his views."

  "You don't think..."

  "That Alfred is the one killing in East Hampton and here? No. Though I did ask him. He has denied it."

  "And you believe him?" I wasn't so sure I would trust Alfred to tell the truth.

  "Yes. Alfred is many things, but a liar is not one of them. He is too proud of himself and his prowess as a killer to consider lying to cover up his hunting."

  I shuddered. Sometimes the matter-of-fact manner in which Mathias discussed death made me want to run screaming. I knew he'd never hurt me and that he'd stopped killing his food, but his attitude about death was still chilling.

  Mathias wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his embrace. "He gave his word, Mairin. He won't hunt near here. I told him where to find the clubs that cater to our kind. He'll use them while he visits."

  "He doesn't like me," I said.

  "He doesn't approve of my attachment to you, Mairin. He is disappointed in me for choosing to love a human. He has no opinion of you personally, only your affect on me."

  "I'm sorry," I whispered.

  Mathias lay his lips against mine for a fleeting moment. "Never apologize for being who you are, Mairin. Alfred will either learn to accept my choices or he will not. In either case, my feelings for you will be unchanged."

  "But he's your family. I...I shouldn't come between you and your family."

  "You are my life, my heart. No one else is more important to me than you are." He smiled down at me. "Enough about Alfred and his antiquated ideas about inter-species love. Shall we enjoy our day in the sun?"

  "Speaking of antiquated ideas," I said as I wrapped my arms around Mathias' waist. "I can think of a few I would like to dispose of."

  I stood on my toes and kissed his neck where it rose pale and beautiful out of the collar of the dark shirt he wore. I buried my nose against his flesh, reveling in the deep, earthy scent of his skin.

  Mathias chuckled and kissed the top of my head. "I love you," he said, stepping back and gently putting space between us.

  "I love you, too," I snapped. If I didn't figure out how to get a handle on my hormones or how to convince Mathias to loosen up, I was going to go mad. His calm demeanor further infuriated me every time he used it to put a wall between us.

  "We have had this discussion, my heart. You will not change my mind," he said. "There is too much to be lost."

  "I know, my immortal soul and all that." I moved to push past him to go out to the beach, but he stopped me.

  "I know my rules frustrate you, my heart, but please understand that they save us both. Would you want me to suffer an eternal, soulless existence without you should I rescind my rules and do the unthinkable?" His eyes searched mine. "Is a kiss really worth that?"

  "No," I said. "Nothing is worth giving you that kind of pain."

  He swept his lips lightly over my temple and lips before letting them rest against the pulse at the base of my throat.

  "This is the most precious sound and sensation in my existence, Mairin," he said, straightening so he could lock his gaze with mine again. "Your heart beat is my reason to live. I beg you to allow me to enjoy it without fear."

  I ducked my head and lay my ear against his silent chest. He always knew how to turn my objections to his rules into arguments for why they should be even more stringent.

  "I don't deserve you," I whispered.

  "You deserve more than I will ever be, but I am pleased to accept that you want me."

  I sight and held him.

  "Come, my heart," he said. "Kerry and Cecelia will be looking for us."

  When we joined Kerry and Cecelia on the beach, they weren't alone. It seemed to be the day for surprise visitors.

  "How's your grandmother, Xavier?" Kerry asked.

  "She's great. I know she's missing spending time at your mom's shop. I think she said something about starting up Mairin's lessons again in the fall."

  "That would be great," I said, spreading my towel next to Cecelia's. "I miss Elise."

  Xavier spun around. "You're getting to be as quiet as Mathias, Maire."

  Mathias and Xavier sized each other up silently. The uneasy truce between them had resulted from the battle last spring. Neither truly trusted the other, but they'd agreed to keep their interactions civil. Xavier rarely came to Highland Home without his grandmother, so I wondered what had brought him right to what he'd once called Mathias' lair. Without giving me any clues, Xavier excused himself and motioned for Mathias to follow him.

  Kerry and I watched Mathias and Xavier walk back to the house. I was pretty sure she was thinking something similar to what I was.

  "I'd better keep them from throwing each other down the beach," I said, following the boys back to the deck behind Mathias' house.

  "Bring me a drink, Maire?" Kerry called.

  "Sure. Cece?"

  "Yeah, sure. But hurry. I didn't come out here to spend the day watching you follow Mathias around you know."

  "Bitch."

  "Takes one to know one," Cecelia said, laughing.

  I walked up the steps to the deck and paused at the top to listen. I could see Xavier and Mathias facing each other a few feet apart. Their body language was tense but not combative. I wanted to believe they wouldn't hurt each other, but I couldn't be certain. They'd begun to tolerate each other more and more since Kerry had started dating Xavier, but I knew that ultimately, the werepanthers saw Mathias as their enemy.

  "Look, I know we've been OK with each other, but I gotta know. Are you, well, cheating on your promise to Mairin?"

  Mathias' voice was deadly calm. "If you are asking if I am the one killing young men in back alleys, you may rest assured that I am not."

  Xavier flushed. "I'm sorry, man. I had to ask. The pride has been tracking the blood...vamp, but we haven't gotten close enough to identify it."

  "Apology accepted," Mathias said, gesturing to the deck chairs and taking one himself. "Perhaps we should consider working together to find this particular vampire. It is causing problems in our world as well."

  Mathias saw me standing near the edge of the deck and waved me over. I sat on his lap, curling into his chest. I saw Xavier shudder, but I ignored him. Xavier didn't understand how I could stand to touch Mathias. Of course I wondered the same thing about Kerry and him. Cool and electric seemed like an easier sensation than furry once a month and overheated everyday. Xavier was almost always so warm that standing near him in summer was uncomfortable.

  "What kind of trouble is the blood suck...vamp causing your community?"

  I smiled at Xavier and mouthed, "Thank you," to him. I knew it was a hard habit to break to keep the vampire insults to a minimum. Xavier had been raised to believe all vampires were evil and had to be destroyed. It wasn't until he'd seen Mathias choose to spare a life that Xavier had begun to believe that even vampires had free will and could choose to be good.

  Mathias smiled and pulled me closer for a moment before putting a bit of space between us again. "Well," he said, "visits from the local cats are not usually high on my list of social engagements, especially unannounced visits during which I am accused of being a killer." Mathias grinned at Xavier. "And this particular rogue is attracting the attention of law enforcement, something we would prefer to avoid."

  "Any suggestions on catching it?" Xavier asked. I could tell he was trying very hard to stay polite, an effort for him on good days, and made even worse by the stress he was obviously under.

  "Mairin, why don't you get those drinks?" Mathias said, gently pushing me off his lap.

  "But..."

  "Please, my heart. This is not something I wish y
ou to be involved in."

  "I'm already involved," I said.

  "Yes, but there is no need for you to know details regarding the tracking and killing of this particular vampire."

  "There is if I can help."

  "You will not be helping with this, Mairin." Mathias' tone held a finality I knew would not change regardless of how long we argued.

  "We'll talk about this later, Mathias," I said.

  "I am certain we shall, Mairin."

  I left the vampire and the werepanther on the deck and stomped into the kitchen for the drinks. I hated when Mathias decided something was too dangerous or frightening for me. It was apparently time for the "you cannot protect me from all the evil in the world" talk again. We kept having that talk and Mathias kept finding excuses to protect me rather than letting me fight my own battles. His nineteenth century view of the role women should take in the day to day relationship between men and women was frustrating in the extreme.

  Mathias pulled me down, brushing his lips over mine as I passed him on my way back to the beach. Any anger or annoyance I had been feeling immediately dissipated. I hated that, but couldn't seem to hold onto anything but love and lust when Mathias touched me. I smiled at both Xavier and Mathias and said, "Can I trust you boys to play nice if I go back out on the beach?"

  "Of course, Mairin," Mathias said. "Xavier and I are working out an agreement to protect East Hampton and Highland Home from the current threat. We can be civilized."

  "Xavier?"

  "Sure, Mairin. We're fine. Besides, I wanna stick around and surf. The waves are better here than on the public beach."

  I shook my head. Boys. I seriously didn't understand them. One moment they were squared off and ready to kill each other in order to protect their territories and families and in the next they were planning to save the world together. I could only hope the two men on the deck preferred the second state of being to the first.

  ***

  The couple slipped into the alley, holding hands and whispering to each other. The young man sought a dimly lit stretch of wall and pressed the girl against it. She wrapped her arms around him, hitching her leg up to wrap around his hip.

  From the darkness, a pale hand emerged and clutched the man's hair. The arm flew back into the darkness, taking the young man with it and leaving the girl behind. The girl screamed. It was a perfect horror movie scream. Long, loud and filled with anguish. As the limp body of the man rolled out of the shadows, the girl stopped screaming. She knelt in the filth that filled they alley, whimpering as she touched his shoulder.

  "Hector?" she whispered.

  Movement from the shadows caught her eye and her sense of self preservation must have kicked in. She bolted toward the light at the end of the alley, screaming for the police.

  The man in the alley groaned.

  ***

  Mathias' arm was tense under my hand. "Mairin, let go," he whispered.

  I shook my head, unable to speak yet.

  "Your mother is coming, you have to release my arm."

  Knowing he could easily wrench his arm away from me but refrained in order to not hurt me, I unclenched my grip just as the hall light flooded into my room.

  "Mairin?"

  I wrapped my hands around my legs, unable to stop the trembling. I knew I was already too late for the man in the alley--Hector--and I knew this dream would grace tomorrow's papers. I rocked back and forth, trying to stop the girl's scream from echoing in my head.

  Mom hugged me. "Baby, what was it?"

  "Another one," I said. "Another dead man in East Hampton." I had finally told Mom about the dreams after the last triple homicide.

  "Can you see the killer yet?"

  I shook my head. "Still in the shadows."

  "I'm sorry, baby. Do you want me to stay with you?"

  "No." I kept rocking. The girl's scream was beginning to fade. "I'll be OK, Mom. I'm sorry I woke you."

  She kissed my cheek and closed the door behind her. She was getting better at leaving when I said I was OK, or needed to work out a dream on my own.

  Mathias stepped out of the shadows to pull me against his chest, cradling my head and rocking us back and forth.

  "There was a girl with him this time."

  "Did she escape?"

  "Yes. He wasn't dead when I woke up."

  "I'm sure the killer finished him, my heart. This one is interested in eating, not turning."

  "I know," I whispered. "His name was Hector. The girl said it." Was it worse because I knew his name? Or was it worse because the girl had witnessed such brutality? I didn't have an answer and I shuddered again.

  "Do you know where this one happened?" Mathias rubbed his hand up and down my back and my trembling began to slow.

  "I think it was near Xavier's house in East Hampton. I think I saw that bar down the street."

  Mathias held me until the sunrise lit my bedroom. When the sun reached his face, Mathias kissed my forehead.

  "I have to go, Mairin. Your mother will be up soon."

  "Please stay," I whispered. I couldn't get the girl out of my mind. Even if she had just met that man, she didn't deserve the horror of watching him die that way.

  "I will come back to get you in an hour, Mairin, but I have to go now. I think I may need to feed early today in order to stay focused." He gently unwrapped my arms from around his waist and lay me down on the bed.

  "How long has it been?" I asked. I looked more closely at his beloved face and saw the deep bruises under his eyes. "Mathias, you can't let yourself get this hungry. You should have gone sooner."

  "I am fine, my love. You needed me to stay with you, and so I did. I will go now and feed. I'll hurry." He smiled and my heart thundered.

  "Don't do this again," I said. "Promise me. You have to take care of yourself better. I can lose a little sleep without dying. You need to feed."

  "One hour," he said. He kissed me gently and then he was gone. It wasn't until later I realized he hadn't promised. Mathias always knew how to distract me so he could get out of saying things he might believe were lies. That he wouldn't promise to care for himself rather than care for me worried me.

  I was pulling on my jeans when my cell phone rang. "Mathias, I'm almost ready," I said.

  "Glad to know you're up, but I'm not Mathias," Xavier said. "I was hoping the leech was with you."

  "I really hate when you do that, Xavier," I said.

  "Sorry, old habits and all. I need to talk to Mathias about the attack last night."

  "Attack? Don't you mean murder?"

  "No. Hector's still alive."

  I gasped as Xavier said the name. "You know him?" I shoved my foot into my sneaker and headed for the kitchen.

  "Yeah, he's one of the pride." The anger in Xavier's voice was palpable. I could imagine what the rest of the pride thought of a vampire attacking a panther. "Can you and Mathias come out to East Hampton today? We gotta talk."

  "We'll be there," I said. Mathias would hate that I was going, but he'd have to get over it. Xavier was more than willing to have my help when it came to this killer, and Mathias was going to have to stop being so overprotective. If the werecats thought I could handle myself, why didn't the vampire?

  "You know where my place is, right?"

  "Yeah. Give us an hour." I flipped my phone closed.

  "Where are you going today, Maire?" Kerry asked. She was rinsing a dish at the kitchen sink.

  "Looks like East Hampton. You okay to stay at the shop today?"

  "Can't I go with you? I'd like to see Xavier and Elise too."

  The thought of Kerry anywhere near the killer in East Hampton made me shudder. "Not today, okay Kerr. There's some bad stuff going on in East Hampton. I want you to be safe."

  "If it's not safe for me, it's not safe for you either, Mairin." Kerry always was the logical one of the two of us, dammit.

  "Mathias will keep me safe," I said.

  "And Xavier will keep me safe."

  Something
in her tone told me she meant more than Xavier had muscles. I swung around to face my sister. "What do you mean Xavier will keep you safe?"

  "You know exactly what I mean, Maire. I know who and what Xavier is. He told me."

  "He told you everything?" I wondered what else I had missed about Kerry and Xavier while I'd been engrossed with Mathias.

  "About the attack and his condition, yeah, he told me."

  "Condition." I laughed. That was one way to put it, I supposed. "Um, okay. Should I bother to tell you to be careful?"

  Kerry laughed. "I think that ship has sailed, sis. You're dating a vampire."

  "Right. Well at least, you know, take precautions."

  "Ewww, are we having a sex talk, Mairin?"

  I laughed. "I guess we could be, but no, I meant watch for," I dropped my voice to a whisper, "claws and teeth. It's a virus, Kerry and it's contagious."

  "Yeah, I know, Maire. Xavier is as careful with me as Mathias is with you."

  That actually made me feel better. Mathias touched me as though I were made of spun glass and refused to chance any activity which might result in me coming in contact with his venom. It was frustrating to not be able to truly kiss the man I loved, but unless I was willing to trade a kiss for an eternity of seeking blood to live, I would have to live with the frustration. Knowing that Xavier was just as careful with Kerry and his own infectious nature made me feel a lot better about my sister dating a werepanther.

  Mathias knocked on the front door and I hurried to answer it. I hugged him, sneaking a kiss as my mom padded down the stairs.

  "Good morning, Mathias. You're up early."

  "Good morning Ms. Cote. I hope you had a pleasant night."

  Mom nodded absently. Talking to her before her coffee was usually a worthless exercise, but Mathias insisted on being polite and trying to talk to her.

  "Mom, Mathias, Kerry and I are going to East Hampton today to see Xavier and Elise." I ignored the look Mathias shot me.

  "Sure, baby. Say hi for me."

  Chapter 3

  "Tell me again why I am not leaving you and your sister at my house, Mairin." Mathias ground his teeth as he navigated the winding road between Highland Home and East Hampton.