by Tate Jackson
He couldn’t just go home. He could only hope that the hunter would not think to harm her while inside the city. If the hunter harmed one hair on Beck’s head, he would paint all of London with his blood. She’d wanted him to go home. The best he could do was wait.
He smiled. It appeared that he would not be waiting alone. A minute later, Leso, Bruce, and Harley were at his side.
“What are you doing here?” Bruce asked. “Beck wanted me to go home, but this is as far as I could go.”
“Is she going to get who I think she is?” Leso asked. Richard nodded. He had not told his family about Jenny’s hunter, but he should have known that Beck would’ve told Leso everything. “What’s going on?” Harley asked from the tree above them. Richard looked over to Leso and nodded.
“It appears that the only thing to make Jenny happy is to find her true mate,” Leso explained. “The irony of that is, Jenny’s true mate is a hunter. Beck has gone to find him.”
There was a stunned silence for five seconds before Harley fell out of the tree laughing.
“What do you find so amusing this time, Harley?” Bruce asked. “You’ve killed your share of hunters, more than the rest of us combined.”
“If you could pull yourself away from the brothels, perhaps you could bring up your score, brother,” Harley countered, still laughing. “Harley, do you not see the danger Beck has put herself in?” Richard growled.
“No, I don’t. After what she has gone through to get here, you have to believe she knows what she is doing. Besides, we are right here. We’ll not let him harm her, and I’ve never heard of a hunter killing a human.”Silently, they waited for Beck to come back down the road with Jenny’s future.
***
The Ten Bells Pub was packed with people when Beck walked in. She circled the inside twice before she finally spotted Potter. Now that she was here, she wasn’t sure how to approach him, and she had no way of making him believe what she had to tell him. She could only hope he’d had an open mind before he met Jenny. She walked over to where he was talking to two men at the bar.
“Potter, I need to talk to you.”
“What can I do for you?” he asked politely.
“You can talk to me, outside please.”
“Um, sure,” he said, sounding confused. He held her elbow, led her back through the crowd of people, and out the front door.
“What is this all about?” he demanded, all the politeness was gone from his voice.
“I would like you to come with me.”
“How do you know my name? No one knows my true name,” he demanded, shaking her arm.
“Let go of me right now, Potter. You know as well as I do that you’re not going to hurt me.”
He dropped his hand back to his side, and she finally got a good look at him. He looked a lot different without his tattoos and Mohawk. The only tattoo she could see now was the small four-leaf clover on the webbing of the back of his left hand between his thumb and forefinger.
“I know you don’t know me, but I know you very well. I need you to have a little faith and come with me now.”
“I lost my faith a long time ago, Miss,” he said, and turned back toward the pub door.
“You were born in 1722 in Ireland. You were born Lugh Potter. Your father’s name was Sanford. Your mother was Norma. Your wife’s name was Sabrina. You watched them all die while you continued to live. Oh, and you’re a vampyre hunter.”
He’d spun back toward her and was now frozen in shock.
“If you come with me now, I can give you back your faith,” she said, holding her hand out to him.
She could feel the war he was having within himself. Trust or not to trust. She could only hope he would make the right decision. Finally, he nodded and took her hand.
She had him. Gratitude swept through her for his decision to trust. They didn’t talk on their walk out of the city. It wasn’t until they had turned onto the road that would lead them down the lane to her house that he finally spoke.
“How do you know all of those things about me?”
“You told me,” she answered.“I’ve never told anyone those things. I don’t even know you.”
“You don’t know me yet, but you will. It’s a little hard to explain...,” she started, but Potter had stopped dead in his tracks.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
He didn’t answer, but pulled her close to his side. He was staring into the woods to the right of the road. Suddenly, he put his hands on her shoulders and slammed her to the ground, taking a defensive stance over her. At that moment, four bodies landed in the road and surrounded them. DAMN IT!!! She’d told him to go home! She could see how this looked to all of them. Potter had slammed her to the ground when he had sensed the vampyres, and was standing guard over her, ready to give his life to protect her. Her vampyres had seen him slam her to the ground and thought Potter was attacking her. She heard bones breaking before she could catch her breath to stop it.
She tried to get up twice, but Potter was quicker and pushed her back down both times. He was blindingly fast. Every time a hand reached out for her, he was there to knock it away. He never got more than two feet away from her, but still managed to keep all four vampyres at a distance. She was screaming now, but none of them were listening to her.
Potter wasn’t going to need her help with fighting skills. All of his kicks and punches were precise, never missing their mark. She tried not to be too impressed while he was breaking her family.
Soon it was over, as fast and skilled as he was, he was no match for four vampyres. Leso had him on one side, Bruce on the other, and Richard was scooping her off the ground.
“Are you alright, Little One?” Richard asked while setting her on her feet. She looked over in time to see Harley punch Potter in the ribs and heard them break.
“NO!” she screamed and launched herself across the road. She landed a hard kick to the back of Harley’s knee, dropping his leg from beneath him, reached around his throat, and slammed him backwards onto the ground. He popped right back up, but she had already put herself between him and Potter.
“Stop it, God damn it! He was protecting me from you; from all of you!” she yelled.
Harley tried to back-step out of her anger. “He threw you to the ground.”
“Only because he sensed you and your dumbass brothers lurking in the woods. He was only trying to get me out of harm’s way.”
“Well…hell then, my apologizes, Hunter,” Harley said. “You tricked me!” Potter accused Beck
“No, I didn’t. I’m sorry this happened. My husband seems to think he’s a three-year old who doesn’t have to listen and do what he’s told,” she said angrily.
Potter was shocked. “Your husband?!”
“Yes, my husband,” she said before turning toward Richard and yelling, “I told you to go the fuck home!!! Was I not clear enough?! Did I stutter?! What’s wrong with you?!”
Harley fell to the ground laughing as Richard tried to explain, “I was only trying to make sure you were safe.”
“Well, you did a bang up job! Now I’m covered in dirt, and I’m gonna have a bruise on my ass for a week!” she continued yelling at him.
This set Harley and Bruce into fresh peals of laughter.
“Shut up!” she yelled at Bruce and Harley. “Let him go, NOW!”
When they released him, Beck looked at him and said, “I’m so sorry, Potter. I’m Beck. That’s my husband, Richard, and my brother-in-laws-Leso, Harley, and Bruce. I didn’t trick you, I promise. Will you still come with me?” she asked, holding her hand out to him again. Quicker than she had hoped, he took her hand again. They walked to the house without saying another word.
Once in the yard, she turned to Richard, “Would you go get Jenny, please?”
Richard nodded and went into the house. He was back outside in less than half a minute, leading Jenny through the yard.
“Look at her, Potter,” she encouraged when Jenny was stand
ing in front of them. When he looked into Jenny’s eyes, Beck knew her promise to them had been kept, and she handed Jenny Potter’s hand.
***
After Jenny had led Potter into the house, Beck turned on Richard in the yard. He didn’t know many women that even knew that kind of language she was using.
Beck not only knew it, she was fluent in it, and she had thrown every word of that language at him right out in the yard. She hadn’t even waited for them to be alone. She cursed him in front of his whole family.
Daryl, Rita, Saphira, and Heidi had all come out of the house to see what was going on. No one had said a word to stop it, either. They’d just stood there smiling.
When she had finally wound down, she turned to Rita and asked, just as nice as you please, “Where will I be sleeping?”
“I’ll show you,” Heidi offered and led Beck into the house, leaving him standing open-mouthed in the yard.
He looked at Rita and she told him, “Well, she did tell you to go home, dear.”
That threw Daryl, Leso, Harley, Bruce, and Saphira into a fit of hysterics. It had taken him an hour to work up the nerve to go into the house. ]Some of the things she had said he had not understood, like when she had threatened to ‘tear him a new one’ and to ‘stomp a mud hole in his ass,’ but he had gotten the gist of it. He went to his room and found her curled up in what must have been one of his shirts, asleep on his bed.
He quietly went about opening the packages from her day of shopping and was confused to find men’s clothing. What was this all about? ]They weren’t for him. They were far too small. Bruce, maybe? But why would she have bought clothes for Bruce?
He’d intended to put her purchases away, but stacked them on the dresser for lack of knowing what else to do with them. ]He looked at how peaceful she appeared to be laying on the bed. You would never guess that she was capable of unleashing the kind of fury that she had turned on him. He lay on the bed next to her, trying not to wake her, but she rolled over on top of him and kissed him.
“Are you finished being angry with me, then?” he asked, holding her. “Yes, I’m done. Sorry I got so mad,” she said and started nibbling on his neck.
He moaned softly and ran his hand from her thigh to her hip. The little scrap of cloth she had been wearing was gone. He felt his blood start running through his veins. He’d seen her memory of his beating heart, but when they had made love at the hotel, he had not stopped to pay attention. Now he could feel it.
As she unbuttoned his shirt and kissed down him chest, he could feel the pace of his heartbeat pick up. By the time she undid the buttons on his pants, his heart was racing and his blood pounding in his ears. He lifted her off of him and kicked his pants to the floor. She started kissing down his stomach. When she took him in her mouth, his heart was racing at the pace of a hummingbird.
He buried his hands in her hair and tried to catch his breath, because right now he needed to breathe. He tried to take long, deep breaths to get oxygen into his long still lungs, but each breath was torn from him as she took him deeper and deeper into her mouth. When he could take it no more, he lifted her up and pulled her on top of him. He had to lock his jaw to keep from crying out when her tight, hot wetness slid down the length of him.
Then, she started to ride him, pushing him deeper inside of her. He thrust up into her every downward motion, lifting them off the bed. She didn’t seem to be breathing any better than he was, the sounds of her gasps were driving him insane. He grabbed her hips and pulled her harder and harder onto him. He felt her body squeeze tight around him and heard her cry out. He could take no more and exploded inside her. She collapsed on his chest, and he rubbed her back for several long minutes as he listened to his heartbeat slow to a stop and felt the blood become still in his veins. “Wow,” Beck said.
“Yes, wow, to say the least,” he agreed. “What brought that on, Little One?”
“You told me once that most of our fights ended in sex. I guess you were right.”
“Then I will have to make sure I anger you more often,” he said laughing. “And that was not a fight. It was a verbal slaughter.”
“I said I was sorry,” she said. Softly, he told her, “You were right. I should have listened to you. I’m sorry as well, Little One.”
He didn’t know she had fallen asleep until he heard her soft snores. He lay there for a while holding her before sleep took him as well. He was downstairs the next morning before Beck woke up. He went into the city and bought food, but she still wasn’t awake when he returned. He had seen Potter and Jenny, though. It was as if Jenny had been transformed, her happiness showed on her face. He was looking out the window when he heard footsteps on the stairs. Beck was coming down, and she was dressed in a man’s shirt, tucked into men’s pants, that were tucked into a soft pair of riding boots.
“There’s no bathroom in this house,” she stated.
He gasped. “Beck, you can’t wear that!”
“Why not?”
“Because, those are men’s clothes.”
“No, they’re my clothes. I bought them. Bathroom? Toilet? Bucket? Anything?” she asked desperately.
“We don’t have a lavatory. We’ve never needed one before.”
“Okay, I’ll be in the woods then,” she said and pee-pee danced out the back door.
What was he going to do with her? She was going to walk around in front of his brothers with pants that hugged her hips and a shirt that outlined her breasts? She was killing him. He wanted to say something about it, but wasn’t quite ready for another tirade. When she came back in, he tried to arrange his face into an unconcerned expression.
“I bought you some food. Would you like some tea to wash it down?”
“Sounds great.”
She sat in a kitchen chair and pulled a muffin to pieces while he got her tea.
“What do you want to do today?” he asked. “Teach you to fight.”
Surprised, he asked, “You want to do that today?”
“I want to do some of it every day while I’m here.” He would have said more, but Jenny and Potter had come into the room.
“Beck,” Potter said, pulling her to her feet and hugging her. “Thank you so much.”
Richard wanted to tear his head off for touching her, but managed restrained himself.
“I can’t believe you did this for me,” Jenny chimed.“Don’t be silly, we’re sisters. I know it doesn’t seem like it to you, but I’ve known you for years, and trust me, Jenny’s not the same without Potter,” Beck smiled.
Sitting down and grabbing a muffin, Potter asked, “So, you’re really from the future?”
“Yeah, I really am. I would have told you last night, but I didn’t think you would come with me if I did. I was shocked you still came with me after what happened.
Potter laughed, “I had to. I’d just watched a human woman back down four vampyres, even taking one to the ground. I had to know what was going on.”
“I didn’t back down four vampyres. They were never going to hurt me.”
“Still, it was impressive the way you took Harley down.”
“I didn’t really take him down. Like I said, he wasn’t going to hurt me. Besides, what I did wasn’t nearly as impressive as what you did. I’ve seen you fight a vampyre once before. After last night, I know you were just toying with the vampyre I saw you fight.”
Richard thought back on all the memories Beck had given him. She had not shown him the fight she was speaking of.
Potter smiled. +“Did I hear you say you wanted to fight today? Jenny told me you wanted to show them a new way to fight. Can I watch?”
“Actually, I want to start with you, if you can slow it down to a more human pace.”
“I can do that,” Potter said. “When do you want to start?”
“Now,” Beck said and slid back from the table.
“Alright,” Potter said, stuffing her torn up breakfast into his mouth before following her out of the house.
Once in the front yard, she sat Richard under a tree, “Stay here. It may look bad, but it’s not a real fight. I don’t need you to try to save me again.”
She turned and walked a little ways into the yard. “Okay, I want you to hit me, just don’t break me. I don’t heal like you do, and remember, human pace,” she told Potter.
Now she just wanted him to sit here and watch her being attacked by a hunter? She really was trying to kill him.
Jenny patted his arm and reassured him, “Don’t worry, he won’t hurt her. She’s his sister now. He loves her so much already, just as I do.” Richard watched Potter land a soft blow to Beck’s outer thigh and follow through by swinging a fist at her head, stopping just before making contact.
“Like that?” Potter inquired. “Perfect, let’s go,” she said and took her guard.
Richard watched her fight, landing as many blows as the hunter. She was very good. She spun Potter around with a kick, and then had him down with the same move she had gotten him with in her memory, ‘a Rear Naked Choke’ she had called it.
Potter was stunned. “How did that happen?”
“You’ve got to keep your guard up. If you get distracted for even a second, it’s over,” she instructed, and they walked back to where Richard was sitting.
“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“No,” he lied.
“Your turn,” she said, reaching down for him. “Let me show you something,” she said as she pulled him to his feet and led him out into the yard.
Potter followed them. “I’ll referee.”
“Okay.” She then looked at Richard. “This wouldn’t work in a human fight, but with your strength, it will be a good way to tear a head off.”
She dropped to a squat, bringing her leg around and sweeping his legs out from under him. She launched herself at him, landing with her knees on his shoulders and using her hands to give his head a sharp twist. It would work. She was smiling down at him, gloating.