“Alessandra,” his soft pleading voice went straight to her heart. “Please my love. Come back to me.”
A shiver ran through her. The words seemed to hold a sense of dread for her in that moment, but she didn’t know why. She turned and the love in his eyes propelled her forward without thought. His outstretched hand took hers, then he pulled her into his arms and kissed her with an abandonment that stole her breath away. He held nothing back from her this time and she felt it. This was harder to resist. Almost impossible. The rawness of his emotions flowing into her and the images exploding across her mind of the two of them together, and his memories of them both from the moment she woke up, filled her heart with more love than she thought she could stand.
His mouth left hers and trailed down her neck raining kisses. She stiffed when she felt his incisors graze her soft skin. After what happened the only time he’d done it, she wasn’t eager to try again. She didn’t want anything to break the beautiful moment.
“I’m not going to bite you.” His words brushed across her mind in a reassuring caress.
“I trust you, but I don’t want a repeat of last time.”
The rage he felt spilled into her mind.
“Vincent…”
She watched in amazement as the rage pulled out of her mind and receded into nothing. He had let it go. What he had said was true. Vincent was no longer the same man, or vampire. Darkness would always be the place he was most comfortable, but she could feel the humanity that had been long buried coming to the surface. Her eyes closed and she gave herself up to the moment.
“You own me. I’m yours to command,” Vincent whispered into her ear seductively.
She whispered back. “You own me too. My heart, my soul and my body.”
He stilled at the omission. She was going to be his. In that moment, Vincent felt lighter than he’d ever felt in his long dark life. “There’s no going back now, Alessandra.”
“I know.” She pulled his mouth down to his and kissed him.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Are you sure this is place?” Tristan looking at the well kept house from their hiding spot behind the trees.
“Yes, I can feel her,” James answered. “She is either here or has been.”
Kat moved a little closer, but still well hidden. “He’s right. I can smell her scent. And Vincent as well.”
Tristan turned to James. “So how do you suppose we go about getting in there?”
“I suppose walking in the front door isn’t an option?”
“Not unless you want to get her and possibly us killed.” Tristan pointed out. “Who knows what he has got going on in there.”
Kat laid a hand on James’ shoulder. “We have to do this right.”
“We are almost there James. The last part is always the hardest.” He sent a pointed look to Kat. “I remember feeling the same when I had to get Kat out of there. I had to do it right or I would have botched it and missed out on my chance.”
“I know, but you really can’t blame me for being a little bit impatient here.”
“Of course not,” Kat answered. “But Tristan is right. Now I’m going to have a look around while you two stay here and stand guard.”
“Kat! No!” They both said simultaneously.
She held up her hand. “No arguments. If Vincent is in there then I’m less likely to be on his radar. He’s known both of you for hundreds of years and any hint of either of you will screw everything up.”
“I don’t like this,” Tristan argued.
“You don’t have to like it,” she said with a sweet smile. “I’m doing this and neither of you will stop me.”
They reluctantly agreed. She darted out of their hiding place and into the shadows near the house before they could change their mind.
Tristan watched her leave, his fists clenched at his sides. “Women,” he muttered.
James agreed. “This is eerily familiar.”
“Why?” Tristan asked, the hesitation evident in his voice.
“The first time Kat needed rescuing, there were three of us that went to save her from the house she was being held captive in. She was a new immortal at that time without any knowledge of how to fight or defend herself using her powers,” he said remembering the first time they’d had to rescue Ally’s best friend. “But even if she did, Natalia was there and they were severely outnumbered by the vampires.” He made a sound of disbelief. “And here we are again, except this time, it’s Kat rescuing Ally.”
“Well sounds like Kat owes her a rescue after the two Ally performed.”
James nodded his head. “She was amazing both times never losing faith that we could get Kat back. But I’ll never forget when we thought that Kat was dead. I’ve never felt such a cold harsh grief. It was Ally who felt it, but through our connection I felt it too. The relief when we discovered that she was alive was bittersweet at first. Not dead but a vampire…Even then she never lost hope. If there was a way to bring her best friend back, then Ally was going to discover it. And in a way she did.”
“She found me,” Tristan said with a rueful laugh. “That wasn’t such a great discovery thought at first if I remember correctly.
James smirked. “No it wasn’t but in the last few months I’ve come to think of you as a true friend.”
“Me too James.” He said with a pat on the shoulder. “And let’s face it, with soulmates like ours, we really need to stick together.”
“Ain’t that the truth.”
******
Kat crept up the house and flattened herself against the side. She stood silent and still as a statue listening for sounds and scents coming from inside. She could hear her own heart pounding out of her chest which wasn’t helping anything. Taking a deep breath and forcing her muscles to relax for a split second calmed her racing heart. She tried again to discover who and what might be in the house. She blocked everything out around her and focused on finding warmth within the walls.
One, two, three.
There were three people in the house. Now for the cold people or rather the vampires. The humans and immortal had been easy for her to pick up. They were her natural prey after all. Tracing another vampire from outside and at a distance was going to be harder. The house with its two stories was too big. She could only scan the ground level and there was nothing there.
She withheld a groan and looked around for the best way to get access to the top level without making a sound or being detected herself. Nothing on this side of the house.
Silently, she made her way around to the other side of the house. A light was coming from one of the windows and a large tree was in the perfect position.
She crept up agile as a cat, swung her leg over the sturdiest looking branch and peered inside the window.
Ally!
They’d finally found her and just in time if the scene she was looking at was anything to go by. Vincent had her pinned down on the bed, his mouth was inching toward her throat.
Why wasn’t she stopping him? Was she in a trance? But that didn’t make sense because Vincent’s powers of compulsion could no longer affect Ally. What was going on?
Just as she was about to alert the others and get her best friend out of there, something changed. Something that was so startling her mind couldn’t quite catch up to the truth her eyes were telling her.
Ally opened her eyes and smiled at Vincent. She actually smiled! And Vincent, the fiend, he was looking back at her with an answering smile. Not a smirk, or a grin or satisfaction as she’d become used to seeing when she had been his prisoner of sorts. No it was genuine. Full of love.
What in the hell was happening here? Kat stared at the scene unfolding before her with a morbid captivation. She couldn’t have dragged her eyes away if her life had literally depended on it.
“I love you, Alessandra.” Kat’s eyes were now wide as saucers and a strangled cry caught in her throat. A declaration of love? How was that even possible? A nervous second ticked by as she
waited for Ally’s response.
“I love you too.”
“Oh my god,” Kat whispered. “She’s in love with him?”
Vincent kissed her again and Kat turned her head. It didn’t feel right to continue watching. She’d learnt what she needed to and anything more than that was going to turn into voyeurism.
But she’d be damned if she was just going to walk away from this. They needed to create a diversion that would stop what was happening in the room. And she needed to make it happen without James finding out what she had seen. What did this mean? This changed everything.
Kat climbed down from the tree and leaned against the branch with a groan.
“What the hell am I supposed to do now? James can’t find out now! Not when he is metres away from her.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Right. First problem. Create a distraction. And I know just the vampire to do that.”
“Tristan! We’ve got a problem. Don’t say anything to James but we need a distraction and we need it right now! Do whatever you have to but we have to make sure he doesn’t know that it was us or he’ll move her and we will never find her.”
“Kat, what’s going on?”
“No time. I’ll explain later. I need that diversion now!”
“On it. But what about James.”
“Nothing Tristan. Not a single word.”
Tristan schooled his features into a mask of calm, but he was anything but. Kat’s cryptic message had unnerved him. What was going on and why did he need to hide it from James? He’d do whatever she asked, but he couldn’t help the tremor that ran through his body. Something wasn’t right.
“Apparently, we need to create a distraction.”
James looked at him sharply and furrowed his eyebrows. “A distraction? What for? Is Ally in there?”
“Didn’t say,” Tristan tried to grin but was worried it came out more of a grimace. “Just do as I’m told.”
James didn’t look like he was buying it entirely, but went along with it…for now. “A fire?”
“Just the job. Shoot some fireballs into that corpse of trees over there. Far enough away from the house, but still distracting, then we hide in the bushes.”
James called forth the fire and sent the fireballs to the place Tristan had said. Each fireball landed with precision and a resounding crack echoed. The trees went up in flames and lit up the night sky. The smell of acrid smoke filled the air.
“That’ll do it,” Tristan said with a smack on the shoulder. “Now our hiding place.”
“Seems rather unmasculine to hide in the bushes while Kat is out there.”
“True, but I do as my lady tells me.” Tristan grinned as he crouched down. “Besides she is hiding too. Just on the opposite side of the house.”
Tristan watched the house with a sinking feeling. He didn’t know what was going on inside those four walls but whatever it was, it was going to bad.
Chapter Thirty-Four
A loud boom sounded through the night, startling them both. “What was that?” Ally gasped.
Vincent looked around cautiously. His face a stone mask. “Stay here. I’m going to go look.”
“Wait-” She reached a hand to stay him but he was already gone. She groaned and got up off the bed, then walked to the window and looked out. It was a fire. A raging one. “Vincent!” She cried and ran outside to help him. Fire may not bother her much, but it would certainly cause him some problems. She ran out of the room, down the stairs and flung the front door open. Running blindly, she didn’t see anything in front of her until she collided with a warm, brick wall. It knocked her backwards and sent her sprawling to the ground. Her head cracked against the ground. Her vision was fuzzy. A voice frantically calling her name before the darkness swallowed her.
Something was shaking her. “Ally wake up!”
“Vincent?” She reached up touch her head lightly, wincing at the contact.
“No,” a voice she remembered answered. “It’s James.”
She gasped and pulled herself out of his strong, warm arms. “James!” She cried in horror. She stood up and backed away from him, she raised her hand to her mouth. “Oh god,” she mumbled. “I remember.”
James watched her warily. “Sweetheart, everything is alright now. We’ve found you.”
“Vincent?” she asked breathlessly. “Where is Vincent?”
“Does it matter?” James wasn’t certain what he’d been expecting. But this wasn’t it. “Come on, we have to get you out of here before he comes back.”
Ally shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself, as if that was the only thing holding her together. “Madison. We can’t leave Maddy.”
“Of course not. Kat and Tristan have gone to get her.”
She took a deep breath and nodded again.
“Ally? Is everything alright?”
“Of course,” she replied, making certain not to make eye contact. “You saved me from h-him.”
“Do you remember everything? Has the spell been broken completely?”
“In a manner of speaking,” she mumbled to herself. “Yes I remember everything.”
“Take my hand, Ally. We have to move now.”
She hesitated, watching his outstretched hand.
“Ally?”
“No,” she said quietly and took a step back.
He moved closer. “Ally? What’s going on?”
“I have to do something first. Get the others and meet me in the clearing.”
“No, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“Yes, you are James.” She countered. “I’m not asking. I’m telling.” She turned and ran into the house without looking back. Her mind was a jumbled mess. But there was one thing that she needed to do. No matter what she knew now, she couldn’t just leave like this.
“Paper, I need paper!” She ran into the library and fumbled around in the desk drawers till she found what she was looking for. She lay the paper on the desk and hastily wrote a note. It wasn’t much but it something.
Vincent,
They found me. The spell has been lifted.
Know that what I felt for you is and was real.
Even now that I know who you are and what you’ve done.
But we were never meant to be.
Alessandra.
Tears blurred her eyes. It wasn’t all that she wanted to say, but it would have to be enough for now. She knew that James would be walking through that door in about thirty seconds. And she didn’t want him to know what she was doing. She would have to tell him eventually but that time was not now.
“I’ll see you again soon, Vincent,” she whispered. “I know you won’t give me up this easily.”
“Who are you talking to?” James asked as he walked through the door as she’d predicted.
Ally spun around, blocking the letter from his view. “Just myself. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
James furrowed his eye brows and fixed his too perceptive eyes on her. “Spit it out.”
“What?”
“Whatever it is that you’re hiding.”
Ally grabbed his hand and pulled him from the room. “Come on, we have to leave now before he gets back.”
James let her lead him out of the room and house, but what she didn’t know was that James had turned his head and seen the letter she’d left for Vincent…
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Ally!” His voice cracked on the word. “Why won’t you talk to me? What the hell happened while you were there with him?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
She was shutting him out. Had been since the day he’d rescued her. “Well I do! You’ve been home for three days and barely said a word to me or anyone else here.”
“Just let it go James.” Her bleak eyes landed on his and he felt his heart jump into his throat.
“Ally,” he pleaded. “You’ve been so distant. Something has changed between us. I can feel it in our connection. It’s not as strong
as what it should be. And with every day that you lock me out, it gets more tenuous.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, James.”
“You already are by blocking me out and keeping me in the dark about what is going on.”
He watched her take a deep breath and then he sensed her resolve cracking. He tried again. “Please.” He sat next to her on the bed and tentatively reached out to take her hand. She didn’t resist him. Her face turned down and she stared at their joined hands. He felt sorrow, regret and a spark of love flowing out of her into him. “Ally.” With his free hand he pushed her chin up, forcing her to look into his eyes again. The tears shimmered in his eyes and his heart broke. “What are you hiding from me?”
“Oh, James,” she breathed. “I truly don’t deserve you after everything that I have done.”
“The kidnapping wasn’t your fault, little one.”
He watched her small smile form at the name he’d given her. “I’ve waited what feels like forever to hear that again.”
“You will always be my little one no matter what.”
She shook her head. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“Ally what is it that you think you’ve done wrong?”
“I don’t think. I know.”
“Just tell me.”
Her shoulders sagged and she pulled herself out of his arms. He held his breath as she stood and went to stand by the window. With her back turned, she began to tell him the truth.
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