“Thank you,” Jolie offered as the woman disappeared. Together, they cuddled their mate.
When he gasped for that first breath, they didn’t let him go. Their bodies were twined, and they held on to the man they both loved.
Flynn’s eyes opened, and he was grateful to be back.
Then he felt them pressed to his body.
“Oh, God! I’m so sorry!”
Jolie left kisses across his chest. “It’s okay, my love. We’re safe. Are you better?” she asked.
He stared at her with his blue eyes filled with unshed tears. “I thought I hurt you both. I never want to do that.”
Jacques reassuringly ran his hand up and down Flynn’s chest. “We’re fine. You just took too much blood. We’re refillable.”
Thank God for that.
Or Death.
Or whoever was running this show.
He took a deep breath, knowing that he should tell them what the hell had happened. “It was the tattoo.”
They already knew.
“We’re each going to have a moment like this. Until all three are activated, we’ll need to be careful.”
“What set it off?” Jolie asked.
“Us. The blood. Maybe the sex. I don’t know. Death wasn’t exactly full of information. This was what I feared would happen when I got the tattoo.”
“Did Death touch you?” Jolie asked.
He showed her what happened in his mind. Jolie hissed. “She’s lucky I can’t kick her ass for trying to steal my man.”
Flynn laughed.
“She can’t steal me. I’m yours, and that bugs the shit out of her. Now that we’re marked, she really can’t take me.”
Well, that was Jolie’s silver lining.
“I don’t know if I’ve made the right choice,” he admitted. “What if I hurt one of you? I can feel it living in me, and it scares me.”
Jolie touched his rough cheek. “My love, you won’t hurt us. I trust you. I know you’re going to lose control once in a while, but we’ll catch you. I swear.”
Jacques yawned.
They both looked over.
“What? A vampyre can’t be tired?” he asked.
Jolie laughed. “Yes, he can be. Maybe we should get some rest.”
That seemed like the best idea.
Jacques leaned over Flynn to give Jolie a kiss. “Sweet dreams, my love.”
He then touched Flynn’s face. “Be safe, Flynn. We don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He squeezed Jacques’s hand. “Thank you.”
They waited for him to slip into Death’s hands. When he was gone, Jolie cuddled with her mate. “You smell tasty.”
“Are you and the children hungry?” he asked.
“A little.”
“I think I know where you can get a snack. I happen to be here all warm and available.”
She nuzzled his cheek, trying to get him to move his head. When he did, Jolie licked along his collarbone, Adam’s apple, and finally to his throat.
“Jesus, that feels so damn good,” he admitted.
Jolie ran her fangs over his neck. “If I bite you, will it make you go all demon-y?” she asked.
He tried to stay calm. “I don’t know. I hope not.”
“I hope so. I feel a little unsatisfied with our coupling before.”
He blinked his eyes.
The black was there.
“Coupling?”
“That’s the word that came to mind. I know I should have asked Jacques to join us, but I really need you, Flynn. I’m hungry, and I crave the taste of your blood.”
It made him hard.
This was how it would always be with true mates, but add in the extras he was carrying around, and he, too, needed her.
“What are you suggesting?”
“I don’t only want to feed. I want to feel. Make me feel, Flynn.”
He rolled until he was over her body and off their bed. Jacques was still with death. Scooping her up, Flynn noticed she was a little chilly. It was likely from being pressed to his cold body. “What about a fire and maybe some making out?”
Jolie was all for that.
In fact, she wasn’t really tired.
“It’s the death,” he said. “You and I are a little different than Jacques now. You are the Harbinger, and I’m the reaper.”
“And Jacques?” she asked.
“He’s the protector.”
Helping Jolie into his robe, he wanted to share something more with her. “Do you trust me?”
Jolie absolutely did.
“I want to do something different.”
He scooped her up and into his arms. Then Flynn carried her out of the room and down their hall. He wanted to be in the library. It felt right.
As they arrived, there were vampyres there.
They bowed and got out of their way.
The door locked behind them, and Flynn took a spot on the couch with Jolie on his lap.
The fireplace burst to life.
“Call Death,” he said.
Jolie stared at him. “Why?”
“Trust me. I need you to call Death. I want to show you what it can be.”
Jolie put her faith in him. As she sat on his lap, she called for the tendrils of death. As they ebbed from her body, they wrapped around them.
“Protect us,” he whispered.
They did just that.
Jolie gasped as the inkiness cocooned around them.
Slowly, Flynn dropped her robe. With a gentleness she’d been missing over the last couple days, he wanted to prove it was still there for her.
They had this.
He was still Flynn.
As her death kept his demon at bay, he could be the man he once was.
“Oh, Flynn,” she said, staring into his eyes.
He was there again.
He was her mate.
“Let me love you,” he whispered. “When you need me, here is where you’ll find me. Here we can be us.”
Jolie sought his mouth with hers.
The kiss was just like it had always been before. As the dark mists swirled around them, Flynn made love to her with only his lips.
Jolie never wanted to leave that moment. As his hands slid up her ribs, chills raced across her body.
Here was his prize.
Setting her mouth free, he focused on her breasts. One, and then the other—until she was moaning in ecstasy. Her reaction turned him on.
This was how it used to be.
Jolie tugged open his robe until they were flesh against flesh. As she straddled his hips, he knew what was coming.
Heaven.
It was what he craved between them.
“Flynn,” she moaned, as she sunk down his erection until he filled her.
“Oh, Jolie, baby,” Flynn whispered, his eyes remaining blue and his fangs gone.
As she rode, they stared into each other’s eyes.
“You’re still my love, Detective Brogan,” she promised.
Flynn needed this.
“You’re the woman I fell for, Doctor Harcourte.”
As the heat and need overwhelmed them, Jolie struggled to hold on. Here was her human mate again. Beneath the layers, she found him.
“I’m going to cum,” he muttered, unable to get past the sensation of her body swallowing him whole. “Oh, God!”
Jolie ground down, throwing herself off the edge with Flynn. As they tumbled, they were as they once were.
Human.
Vampyre.
Lovers.
As the wave after wave of pleasure cascaded over them, Jolie rested against his body.
“I love you,” she whispered. “Don’t you dare leave me, Flynn. I’ll follow and drag you back.”
He knew what she was talking about.
His soul was gone, and they were going to do battle for the rest of him.
“Keep me with you, baby. Help me stay afloat.”
She would.
Jolie absolut
ely would.
The darkness called, and Jolie was too drained to fight it. Before she slipped into death, she placed a kiss on his pulse. It jumped.
“Fight for us, Flynn. Fight.”
How could he say no?
For them, he’d do anything.
Anything at all.
* * * H a r c o u r t e * * *
They watched her leave the house.
She was driving a vehicle with the tinted out windows. It was Jolie Harcourte’s car, and they were going to make their move.
It was time.
The Tueur was getting impatient, and they didn’t have much time left.
At some point, the boss man would be angry.
They couldn’t let that happen.
As they followed down the long tree lined roadway, they knew when it was time.
One shot out the tire.
As the car swerved into a ditch, the woman opened the door.
Shit!
It wasn’t Jolie Harcourte.
It was someone else.
“What do we do?” the one Tueur asked.
“We take her. We now have leverage. That will make the boss really happy. This will work out just fine.”
They broke free from the trees and when she went to scream, they were on her.
She fell, herbs landing all over her.
The spell was cast.
They had their bait.
Now it was time to wait.
Jolie Harcourte would come.
They didn’t doubt it.
* * * H a r c o u r t e * * *
Saturday Afternoon
His rest had been cut short.
As Flynn placed Jolie in bed beside Jacques, he planned on keeping watch.
Only that bitch Fate had other plans.
She wanted him away from his loves.
It made Flynn nervous for so many reasons, but mostly because he didn’t want them in danger.
So, he place Vanth on guard duty, and he headed to the scene with his partner.
Apparently, they had another body.
Flynn couldn’t imagine who it would be now. The Tueur was screwing with them, and he couldn’t wait to show them what lived under the human suit.
They were in for one hell of a shock.
As Detectives Brogan and Gress stood over the man’s body, they simply took in the damage. Again, it was less than mutilation, but more than abuse.
Torture was the word that flowed through both of their minds as they examined the young man’s remains.
It was all off.
“It doesn’t fit.”
“I know,” said Flynn, pulling on his rubber gloves. He crouched by the body and picked up the thin bracelet that was beside the wasted remains. He turned it over in his hand and felt the anger start to rise.
“What’s wrong?” asked Gress seeing the tension in his partners body. Something was off, and it all started the minute he had seen the delicate bracelet.
Oh, shit!
He knew where it was from.
This was bad.
Reaching for Vanth, he needed her.
‘Meet me inside the Hummer. I’m at a crime scene, and I need you to do it without drawing attention.’
‘Very well, Master.’
Flynn glanced over at his partner. “I have to go.”
“Flynn, what’s wrong?”
Brogan handed the bracelet to the crime scene tech and stood looking at his partner. “I know who that belongs to, and it’s bad.”
He told his partner.
Tommy gasped. “Are you sure?”
He was.
“Vanth is meeting me at the Hummer. I have to go. I have to tell Jolie. I need you to cover for me.”
“Go! I’ll tell the captain you and Jolie are working a lead. Just take care of her, okay?”
He went to walk away.
Tommy grabbed his arm. “If you need to talk, I’m here. You don’t feel the same. Something is going on, isn’t it?”
What did he say to that?
“Later, okay?”
Tommy set him free. “Okay, later.”
Flynn raced off, walking briskly toward his vehicle. When he got there, he found Vanth behind the wheel.
Good.
He was going to need backup on this.
“Master,” she offered when he was inside, “what’s wrong? Are you unwell?”
He was.
“Where’s Mina?”
“At the house, I imagine. You pulled me from watching Jolie and Jacques to ask me this?”
“I called you because I scanned for her and I can’t reach her. I’m asking if you can. Maybe I’m using these new skills wrong.”
She tried.
“She’s gone.”
“Yeah, that’s a big issue.”
Vanth knew he was right. “They must have taken her.”
Flynn knew this was war. That bracelet was the one he’d given Mina, and now it was by a dead victim. They were trying to tell them something, and the Tueur was in big trouble.
The last time someone hurt family, Jolie flipped her shit. This was going to be bad.
Real bad.
“We need to get home,” he said.
Vanth snapped.
They were home.
“Uh, my ride? And can I do that?”
“It’s in the garage, and no, you can’t. You have other gifts that I don’t.”
Flynn didn’t ask.
It was better he didn’t. As they headed into the bedroom, he knew that they needed to wake his mates.
“You wake Jacques, and I’ll wake Jolie.”
When he went to push energy into her, Vanth stopped him. “Call for her. You’re connected to her death. If you call, she’ll wake. You don’t have to be near her.”
Well, that was handy.
His eyes bled black.
“Jolie, wake for me.”
She did.
Her eyes popped open, and she looked around as if she was confused.
“What happened?”
He sat and took her hand as they waited for Jacques to pull away. When they were both present, and in the here and now, he took her hand.
“We have an issue.”
“It has to be bad,” she said. “You’re tense.”
“I am. We found something at the crime scene that has me disturbed.”
“What is it?”
Flynn rolled his large shoulders in a sign of stress, and his entire being rippled from the energy.
“Flynn.”
“I found Mina’s bracelet that we gave her for Christmas. I called Vanth, and she’s no longer in the house. We can’t find her.”
“I need Chloe.”
Jolie tried to stay calm.
Vanth blinked and their donor was back.
“What was Mina doing today?”
“Shopping, I believe. She took your car.”
And there it was.
The Tueur must have thought it was her leaving for work. They didn’t know she was leaving her office.
An unholy silence washed over the room. All eyes went to Jolie as she processed the information.
The energy crackled around them.
Jacques placed his hand over her belly. “You need to stay calm. They need you not to flip out. We’ll find her. They won’t hurt her until they can notify you.”
Flynn agreed. “They are going to want to make a trade.”
It made them both sick.
“They are attempting to provoke me, and I’m almost there. No one touches our family and lives.”
That was their motto.
Jolie glanced over at Flynn. “You suspect something, don’t you?” she asked.
“Yeah, I do.”
“We killed Balzac. He’s not the one helping the Tueur, right?”
They agreed.
“We killed his mate and destroyed the place.”
“With you so far,” Jolie said, as Jacques gently stroked her belly. It was helping her stay calm.
They didn’t have to think long.
“Mulduk.”
Flynn nodded.
“He’s been the center of this from the start. I don’t think that’s a coincidence either.”
Neither did she.
Jolie stood and crossed to him. Kissing her mate on the lips, she smiled. “Detective, you’re a smart man. I find that really sexy in a mate. Want to take a little trip?”
He grinned. “If my mates are going to a bondage club, how can I say no?”
Jacques shook his head. “I can’t wait until this is over. I hate that freaking club.”
Yeah, he wasn’t the only one.
“Let’s get dressed and make Mulduk’s life miserable.”
Both men were more than okay with that.
They were going to enjoy it.
∞ Chapter Thirty-Five ∞
Saturday Evening
The Club was busy.
In fact, more so than any other night of the week or time they’d been there. Apparently, the holiday had brought out the crazies. Tomorrow evening was New Year’s Eve, and it appeared that every vampyre, and donor with a bondage fetish, was now out partying in full force. It was frightening, but everyone there seemed to be ready to bring in the new year tied up and bound like a late Christmas present.
This was going to be interesting.
As Jolie stood in the crowd, fully aware of her surroundings, she was well aware that the vampyres around her knew who she was also.
They were staring at her with awe and fear.
Word had traveled through their circles.
The harbinger was there.
If they only knew that she was the least of their worries. Her mate Flynn was going to be the powerhouse in this meeting. They were counting on Mulduk doing something stupid.
Odds were in their favor.
As they spread out, Flynn was sticking close to Jolie. He was the one who could survive any type of attack. Beside Jacques was Detective Gress.
At the last minute, they opted to let him join them.
Now, they hoped it wasn’t a huge mistake. This had the possibility of biting them in the ass.
The only humans in the place were being fed on, and they didn’t want Tommy to end up some wayward vamp’s snack.
Dangerous Influence (The Harcourte Vampyre Society Book 5) Page 42