“Yes, Joya. Take what I offer my love,” he said, his voice husky. Suddenly it occurred to her lust fogged brain she could hear him and she pulled back.
* * *
Juliana licked her lips and his eyes followed the movement.
“I can hear you,” she whispered.
“And I you.” He ran a hand down the side of her neck where her pulse thrummed wildly.
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Thomas took the opportunity to slip back into his shirt. She wasn’t going to like what he had to tell her. He cupped her face in his hand again and she opened her eyes. “How much blood has Tony given you?”
“Does it matter?”
“It might. Just answer the question.” He stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I don’t know. A little here, a little there. Only when I was really miserable. He wouldn’t let me have too much, too close together. Why? He’s not in trouble is he?”
Thomas ran his hand down his face. Yes, his underling was in trouble, but not for the reasons she feared. “You don’t smell like Tony. You smell like me,” he said.
“Um...huh?”
Had he actually made her speechless? He’d long since given up hope it was possible. He straightened his shoulders, prepared himself for the reaction his next words would bring. “Tony hasn’t been giving you his blood. He’s been giving you mine.”
“Okay.” She drew out the word and pursed her lips. “How is that possible? You haven’t been around for years.”
The last thing he felt like doing was educating his bride on the intricacies of vampire hierarchy but she wasn’t yelling at him. As long as she didn’t start, he’d explain whatever she liked. “When I left, I had no intention of leading the local coven, but it’s still in my territory of course. Ordinarily the members of a coven take a blood oath with their leader and he in turn does so with me. The plan was that the coven members would take an oath to Raoul and he to me. But then Sara called and told me he wasn’t controlling the vampires as he should.” Juliana shivered. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just cold. Go on.” There was a lie in her words, but he left it alone. For now.
“There was no one else to take Raoul’s place. No one with enough power. Michael could have done it, but he has no interest in leading a coven. I kept control from a distance, but the only way for me to enforce it without coming back was for the vampires to maintain their blood tie to me. They came periodically to renew the bond. Tony was given a supply of blood to keep on hand so new vamps could be tied to me temporarily until they made the trip to see me.”
“Thomas, that’s really gross.”
He grinned. “How is that any different than what you just did?”
Her cheeks turned red. “It just is. I can’t believe you let all those vamps just...” She waved a hand in his direction. Was that a thread of jealousy he heard?
“They don’t. I put it in a glass.”
She blinked at him. “You’re a real bastard sometimes, you know that?”
He chuckled. “The fresher the blood, the more potent. It loses potency even in the short trip from my body to the cup. Besides, I thought I should get something out of the process as well.”
“You mean other than my improved wellbeing, of course.” More than a touch of sarcasm colored her voice.
“Of course, Joya.” He held out a hand. She took it and hopped off the counter. Bending down, he retrieved his knife, wiping the blood off on his jeans before folding it and putting it away. Taking her hand in his once again, he started for the door. She pulled him to a stop.
“Wait a minute. We don’t have a blood tie now do we?”
He tugged her against his side and looked down at her, shaking his head. “You swore no oath to me, mate. If anything, we will simply be more aware of each other, but it pales in comparison to our union. It is why Tony would not let you drink too often. He feared I would figure out what he was up to.”
“Do you care that he gave me your blood?”
“Not in the way that you mean. I would have preferred if you were going to partake of me it would have been directly from the source so to speak, but that no longer matters. I refuse to dwell in the past any longer,” he said. “Make no mistake, my love, the bond we share is far more powerful than a mere blood tie. Together we could be extraordinarily powerful if you would but embrace it.”
* * *
There it was. The truth she had been avoiding since he stepped back into her life. He chose her for the power she could bring him. She chose him because she loved him. It was the reason whatever this was between them would never work. And once more, her heart shattered at the reminder. She closed her eyes and stepped away from him. She kept her head down waiting for him to open the door.
Hot tears ran down her cheeks, but she didn’t wipe them away, fearing the movement would draw his attention to them. She prayed to every god she could think of that they weren’t red. Only when it came to her heart did she ever wish she were human. Their hearts could shatter with no outward sign, hers could barely crack and those damn red tears would give her away every time. She double checked that the mental shield between them was firmly in place. Why wasn’t he leaving? Couldn’t he see she just wanted to get back to the other room?
A hand touched the side of her face and she opened her eyes to see Thomas crouched down to look at her face. “What is this?”
She tried to turn her face away, but he ran a thumb across her skin, collecting one of the tears. He pulled his hand back to look at it. For once the gods had listened and the tears bore not even a tinge of red.
“What did I say, Joya? What did I do? Tell me so I can fix it.”
She sniffed and swiped the tears away, angry with herself for letting him get to her again. “Forget it. It’s not important. Let’s go.”
“No.”
Her eyebrows arched up to her hairline. Ordering her around wasn’t going to help his cause any, but it did dry up her lingering tears. She crossed her arms over her chest to wait for him to decide what he wanted to do. She wasn’t going to help him out.
He narrowed his eyes as he studied her face, doubtless looking for some clue to tell him where he went wrong. His eyes widened.
“You don’t think...” He looked at her a moment longer. “You do. You’ve thought it all along.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “I’m an idiot.”
“Yes, you are.” She stepped past him and reached for the door.
He grasped her wrist and turned her, pressing her back against the wall. He put his hands on either side of her, boxing her in. His head dropped forward so their foreheads touched again. She closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of him. Cinnamon and cloves, he always smelled of cinnamon and cloves.
“What I feel for you has nothing to do with power. It never has.”
She laughed so she wouldn’t cry. “How am I supposed to believe that? How can I possibly believe that?”
“How can you not?”
“The morning after we were United, you started talking about presenting me to the Council, about me ruling the coven. It was all about your power. Your prestige.”
“I talked about these things because I wanted you by my side and I wanted everyone to know you were mine,” Thomas insisted.
She shook her head in denial. “You wanted them to know so they would fear you more than they already did. Than they already do.”
He sighed. “Sometimes I forget how very young you are.”
She would have jerked away if she had anywhere to go. She hated when he acted as if she couldn’t possibly understand something just because she wasn’t centuries old. She must have tensed anyway because he said, “Don’t be offended. I didn’t mean it that way.”
He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and stepped back so he could look in her eyes. “I am an incredibly old vampire, Juliana. I have only gotten that way by being ruthless and self-centered. If I only wanted you for the power our union gives me, I simply wou
ld have taken you. I could keep you locked up in a cell in the house, pulling you out only when I had use for you.”
He said it so matter-of-factly, so emotionless, that she didn’t doubt his words were true. Rather, she didn’t doubt he’d try to keep her locked up somewhere. “Good luck with that.”
He tightened his grip on her neck to make sure he had her attention. “Do not doubt what I tell you. If you proved difficult, I could keep you drugged. Your cooperation is not needed to increase my power, only your touch. The very fact that I left should prove to you that I care for you.” His eyes remained locked on hers. “Step back from the situation. Imagine me as every other vampire you know. What would they do to get what they wanted?”
She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “I’ll think about it and I’ll try to quit thinking the worst of you, okay?”
He smiled. “I couldn’t care less about me. You need to quit thinking the worst of yourself.”
She gasped. “I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. Or you wouldn’t find it so difficult to believe I want you simply because you are you.” He dropped his hand from her neck. “We’ll leave this conversation for now as the others are waiting, but we will return to it.” He led her back into the infirmary.
* * *
As soon as they entered the room, her boss and the elemental straightened from where they leaned against the edge of a bed, scowls marring their features. Juliana’s face flamed red and she took a step away from him. He arched a brow wondering where her mind was taking her. No one would think they’d been having sex in the other room. For one thing, they weren’t gone long enough. For another, he hadn’t made her scream. A smile crossed his face at the thought.
“As we were discussing before you two disappeared, did you witness the extraction?” The man’s voice was short and he sounded tired. “Knowing Juliana, there wasn’t a lot of finesse involved. The doctor still can’t get Nathaniel to respond. The more he knows the better.”
She frowned. “I’d like to see how much finesse you manage to have when you’re dealing with a demon-ridden werewolf.”
He gaped at her having heard them, accusation written all over his face. He knew Thomas had given Juliana the blood she needed to heal.
Thomas took his bride’s hand and squeezed it in warning before he spoke. This vampire was beginning to be a nuisance. Thomas needed to see who his sire and coven leader were. If they couldn’t get him in line, Thomas would do the job himself. “Unless I am mistaken, and I am not, the Council has yet to ban the exchange of blood between bed partners.”
The fact that Juliana hadn’t shared his bed in years was irrelevant. She was his mate, and that overrode everything else. Unfortunately, she still didn’t seem to want to share that information with anyone, so he was forced to talk his way around it. He glanced at his bride to find her face an even darker shade of red. She wanted to be healed. This was the price she had to pay.
Her boss looked between them. Finally, he dropped his head forward. “My apologies, my lord.” It was about time the man started to show the proper respect.
He turned to Juliana. “Walker Norris, please explain the process by which you extracted the demon from Walker West.”
The unexpected formality made Thomas frown.
“Well, I shoved him into a pool filled with holy water. The demon poured out of his mouth in cloud form. Not a lot to it.” Irritation sizzled under the surface of his mate’s voice.
“And how did you dispose of the demon?” The words were clipped.
“I sprayed it with a mouthful of holy Irish whiskey then sliced it with my sword,” she said. “It was a screamer. That’s how my ears got busted.”
The lesser vampire was visibly stunned. “Holy Irish whiskey?”
“Don’t ask,” the elemental said with a shake of his head.
She shrugged. “Holy water tastes metallic to me. The whiskey? Not so much.”
Her boss licked his lips and arched his brows. “May I ask why you felt the need to put it in your mouth at all?”
“Because I get a better spray that way, cover more mass. It’s not exactly convenient to carry a squirt bottle around.”
He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. He started to pace. “I don’t understand why Nathaniel won’t wake up. We can’t find many injuries. Certainly nothing major.”
“Maybe he’s just tired,” she suggested. “He’s been running around in his half form for days.”
“The drugs they’re giving him should override any natural fatigue his body would be feeling. The brain scans indicate that only the deepest parts of his mind are active.”
Thomas cared nothing about the wolf, save he was Juliana’s friend, but he wondered at the wisdom of this modern medicine. What was the harm in letting a patient sleep, letting his body recover at its own speed? Currently a doctor was examining a range of machinery while another took the wolf’s vitals manually. A third sat near his head and held his hand. It seemed a lot of activity for someone that probably just wanted to be left alone.
“He’s hiding,” Juliana said, her voice quiet.
“What?” her boss asked.
“He’s hiding,” she said again. “He probably retreated into his brain when the demon took over and now he either doesn’t realize it’s safe to come out or he’s having trouble making the trip.” She made her way over to the group surrounding her friend. “Hey, Doc? What do the case histories say on host recoveries? I know you’ll have read them all by now.”
The doctor looked up with a frown. He cupped Juliana’s face in his hand and turned her head, shining a light in her ears. “Can you hear already?”
Her face burned again and Thomas chuckled. Knowing his bride, she was cursing her fair complexion right about then.
“Yep. All better,” she said, not giving any further explanation.
“Turn around so I can see your back.”
She turned so the doctor could complete his examination. The man lifted her shirt and ran fingers over the now unmarred flesh.
“This is incredibly quick healing, even for you. And there’s not even a scar.” When he continued to run his fingers over the skin, looking for any imperfection, Thomas made his way quietly to the other side of the room.
“Is there some way I may be of assistance?” he asked, stepping in front of them.
Juliana bit her lip and he could see the amusement in her eyes. “He’s the doctor, Thomas.”
He arched a brow. “Indeed. I assure you that you will find no trace of injury, doctor. My blood is rather potent.”
The man’s hand quit moving. “Your blood? But I thought... Oh, I see.” Finally, he lowered her shirt and stepped back. “I was merely checking on the welfare of my patient.”
“Of course you were, Doc, and I appreciate it. Now case studies. What do you know?” Juliana asked.
“Not a lot unfortunately.” He tugged on his goatee and leaned against the wall. “You know most of the hosts don’t recover. I’ve found three where the host came around completely.” He gestured to large, cluttered desk at the side of the room.
* * *
Juliana moved over to Doc’s desk and snatched up the papers on top of the pile. Three hosts all fully recovered. The first was a selkie from Alaska. He’d plunged into the Arctic Ocean after the demon left him and immediately came to. The second was a light fae that had been in the middle of a fire when the demon fled. The heat and flames had apparently woken the host up. And last was a human that fell off a building. By the time he landed on the jump cushion the fire department had set up on the street, he was himself again.
“We’ve tried cooling him down and heating him up to no effect,” Dr. Daniels said.
She nodded absently and looked past him to her friend. What did the three survivors have in common? Her eyes snagged on the defibrillator next to the bed and a slow grin spread over her face.
“A shock, Doc,” she said. “He needs a jolt.”
He fro
wned at her, his brow furrowed. His face smoothed when understanding dawned. “Of course. The cold, the burns from the fire, the jump. Brilliant. But don’t even think about it.”
“Think about what?” she asked.
“If we use the defibrillator it could stop his heart. Let’s try something a little less extreme, huh?”
She scowled. She hadn’t been thinking about actually shocking him. Well, not really. At least not without permission. The doctor came back with a large syringe and Juliana moved to stand by Nathaniel’s bedside.
“A nice jolt of adrenaline should do the trick,” he said. “A very nice jolt.” He said the last so low that Juliana barely heard him.
She cringed as he injected the liquid into her friend, but the doctor didn’t look her way again. His attention was all on his patient. “Come on. Come on.”
Placing her hand on Nathaniel’s arm she leaned slightly over him, her eyes searching his face, looking for any sign of him returning to them. Suddenly, his eyes flew open and he sucked in a breath. “Nathaniel?”
“Walker West?” Doc said from the other side of the bed.
Nathaniel’s eyes darted around the room in a panic, not focusing on anything.
“It’s okay, Nathaniel. You’re all right,” she said, squeezing his arm. “Everything’s okay now. Everything—” Her words were swallowed when her friend sat upright in the bed, grabbed her head in both hands and planted a huge closed mouthed kiss right on her lips. Juliana tried to pull away but Nathaniel had a firm grip and wasn’t letting her go anywhere. She started to laugh and so did he. He was back.
Then a hand was between them and Nathaniel was pushed back several inches though he still had hold of her head. “Wolf, you will remove your lips from my...Juliana. Actually, I would prefer it if you quit touching her at all.”
“Who’s the vamp?” Nathaniel asked her, amusement coloring his words.
“Nathaniel West, meet Thomas Kendrick. Thomas, Nathaniel.”
Her friend jerked his hands away from her like she was diseased. “Sorry, no offense meant. Strictly platonic.”
“Hmm,” was all Thomas said before moving back across the room.
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