Primal Instincts
Page 23
Tobias looked up to see a Prime slumping against the side of a car. There was blood on the vampire’s chest.
“Greg!” Tobias rushed forward.
“Dad! He’s—!”
“Don’t shoot him again!” he shouted to his daughter. “He’s your uncle.”
Chapter Fifty-one
When Tobias shouted Francesca couldn’t take it anymore.
She’d fought every instinct screaming inside her but was able to hold off from rushing to help Tobias while he battled the other Prime. She’d been aware of his pain and his cunning, and reveled in his skill, but hadn’t let the knowledge overwhelm her. She was part of the fight too. What she did to help keep the mercenaries from getting to their Master helped Tobias, even if she didn’t get a chance to kill anybody. Primes with far more experience were always there ahead of her every time she tried to attack someone. She did manage to try out her knife when she stabbed upward under a Prime’s raised arm. The Prime dropped the gun he’d been holding, and one of the Crew rushed in to finish him off with fangs.
Then Tobias shouted, and she ran to him.
He was holding his daughter in a tight embrace when she reached him. They were kneeling on the ground beside a wounded Prime. Francesca had to put her hands behind her back to keep from touching her bondmate, to keep from interrupting this reunion.
The girl was fighting hideous pain. She’d been betrayed, shamed, maltreated, and had learned far more about her own life than any victim should have to know. She was vulnerable.
But at least she was angry. Francesca felt the boiling fury and hoped it was enough to get the kid through these horrible moments.
And Saffron had her father’s enfolding embrace to help her. He radiated comfort. He radiated love. He radiated protectiveness.
You’re mine. You’re loved. Forget that bastard. You’re fine. I love you, baby. I love you so much.
The girl listened. She held on fiercely and let Tobias soothe her soul.
Francesca was glad of Saffron’s reaction as the girl calmed, but she worried about the mortal’s fierce, fierce anger. That wasn’t likely to go away any time soon.
She’d do whatever she could to help Tobias’s daughter. But now was not the time.
She looked down at the bleeding Prime.
The Prime looked up at Francesca, eyes full of pain. “Medic?” he rasped.
Should I finish him off or do as he asked?
“What do you mean he’s your brother!” Saffie shouted, suddenly pulling away from Tobias. “He kidnapped me!”
“No, he didn’t. I sent Greg to get you.”
“I also kidnapped her,” Greg said. “And made the call from the plane. It’s complicated,” he told Francesca as she dropped to her knees beside him. She pulled his shirt aside and probed the wound. “Ow!”
“You’re damn right, ow!” Saffie snarled at him. “Who are you?” she added to Francesca as Tobias moved to Greg’s other side.
Francesca gave the girl a reassuring smile. “We’ll talk about me later.” The kid had been through enough shock and changes for now. “Call me Fran.”
Tobias raised an eyebrow at her but didn’t offer any comment. “How’s Greg?”
“I touched silver in there. If it comes out he’ll be fine. I’ve had some EMT training,” she added. What was the use of having a nephew who was the main physician to the vampire world if she didn’t learn anything from him?
“Fine.” Tobias wiped blood off his knife and set to work on Greg’s shoulder.
Greg swore. Loudly and creatively. When he wasn’t howling in pain.
“You deserve it!” Saffie shouted.
Francesca watched the crude operation, glad that vampires were generally immune to infections. Greg passed out when the lump of silver was finally dug out.
Tobias flipped the bullet away and turned to his daughter. Saffie glared down at Greg. “He’s my brother,” he told her again. “More importantly, he’s been working undercover among the Tribes for years.”
Francesca came to a realization. “This guy’s Gregor, isn’t he? He’s the one who tortured Rose Cameron!”
“I can explain that,” Greg whispered. Tobias helped him up. He sat propped against the door of the limo. “I couldn’t stop what happened to Rose. I couldn’t break my cover. But I gave her the tools she needed to escape.” Greg looked intently at Saffie. “I called Tobias when my Tribe Master told me to fetch you. I’d been trying to keep Dark Angel communication codes from being broken, but when the geeks broke the codes I did what I could to salvage the situation. I was bringing you home.” He looked past Saffie to Dragomir’s body, then back to his brother. “I really wish you’d let him live long enough for me to strip his brain. He knew a lot.”
“I’m not in the least bit sorry.” Tobias touched Greg’s healing shoulder. “Welcome home, Greg. You’ve been under too long. I was beginning to worry you’d gone native.”
The brothers looked intently at each other for a moment.
“You trusted me with your kid,” Greg answered.
“Of course I did. I said I was beginning to worry. You’ve been undercover long enough.”
“Almost long enough,” Greg said. “I have to stay under long enough to save the computer geeks the Master’s holding prisoner. I can’t abandon those kids. And I haven’t found out who our real enemy is. Getting close.”
Tobias nodded his understanding; no one got left behind. “Don’t get so close I don’t have a brother.”
“I have an uncle?” Saffie asked. The knowledge finally seemed to be sinking in. She looked briefly back at the body. Her features twisted with distaste and hate. “And a—sperm donor.”
Francesca spoke up. “You have a loving father!”
“You have Tobias,” Greg said. “And all the aunts and uncles you can handle with the Crew.”
Tobias put his hand on Francesca’s arm. It was covered in drying blood, but vampires didn’t mind that sort of thing. Saffie gasped when Tobias gave Francesca a gentle kiss on the cheek. “You have a mother too.”
“What!”
Francesca sprang up to face Saffie. She gently grasped the affronted girl’s shoulders. “You’ve had enough for now. Everybody here has.”
Saffie looked her over warily. “You’re a vampire.”
Francesca nodded. “Francesca Reynard, Clan Reynard.”
Saffie’s already wide eyes widened even more. “You’re Flare? The Flare?” She giggled. The sound was only slightly hysterical. “You and Flare, Dad?”
Tobias shrugged.
Saffie pulled away from Francesca. She shook her head as she backed up. “I cannot deal with this. I cannot deal with this right now.”
She turned away. As she did a group of Dark Angels came up to surround her, pouring out affection and relief at seeing the girl safe.
Tobias got up, but Tsuke and Joaquin came up to report and ask for orders before he could go to the girl.
Francesca put her arm around his waist. “Give her time,” she said. “Give her some space right now.”
“I’m going to rest now,” Greg said, and closed his eyes.
He waved his people away. There was a hell of a lot to be done, but not just yet. Tobias was more aware of Francesca’s nearness, of her support, than he was of anything else. “How did I ever do this without you?” he murmured. He was almost frightened by the strength of his emotions. Of his need for her.
“I have no idea,” she answered.
He laughed and pressed his forehead against hers. “I want to make love to you all the time,” he told her.
“Same here.”
“I love you so much.” He whispered the words close to her ear.
Her gaze flashed up to meet his; she was as surprised as he was at this very un-Prime-like admission to a vampire female. But bonding was supposed to be about love, wasn’t it? Or else why did vampires crave this perfect closeness?
“It’s not perfect,” she said. “We aren’t perfect. I don’
t want us to be perfect.”
“Princess Flare and the Über-Prime?” he asked.
“We aren’t those people.”
“At least not all the time,” he countered.
She laughed. “I love you,” she told him. “When I never thought I’d be able to love anyone again.”
He was equally surprised by her declaration. “You love me? You fell in love with me.”
“Don’t look so smug.”
“I am Prime.”
“Yes, well, we have years to work on that.”
“When did you fall in love with me? Where?”
“You first,” Francesca countered.
“I knew when you busted me over being mean to Kea. You were so righteous, so . . . the woman I loved then and there.”
“Well, damn, isn’t that romantic?”
“For me it was. You?” he demanded now.
“You had me the moment you first called your daughter.”
“What?” He was flabbergasted. “How could you have fallen in love with me then? We hadn’t even had sex yet.”
“Primes.” She stroked his cheek. Her smile was all the light in the world. “You better get to work now, boss,” she told him. “Then as soon as that’s taken care of, I want to get back to work on having your baby.”
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One