Darkness Bred (Chimney Rock)

by Stella Cameron

  “I don’t know why they would send such a horde,” Sean finished.

  “Don’t you?” Saul said. “Look at your mate and ask that question again. Her organs renew, just like her blood. The One—or Quitus as you probably know he is called by now—wants her at any price. I noticed Elin never mentioned being Deseran but you must know this too.”

  It galled Sean to ask but he said, “Any ideas about how to get out of this?” He refused to comment on Elin denying her roots.

  “Make sure the rest of the Team stays where it is. If they come up the bank, they’ll die.”

  “I know,” Sean said.

  “Does Elin have her wand?”

  “Wand?” Sean said to Elin, raising his brows.

  She nodded and touched a scarf wound about her waist.

  “She has it.”

  “Very well. Tell Niles to stay where he is and not to make a move until he hears from you. I’ll wait.”

  Sean contacted Niles and told him to keep everyone where they were. Niles was still cursing when Sean broke off the connection.

  The door crashed inward and a werewolf Sean didn’t know reared up on the threshold.

  Elin screamed and the wolf lunged toward her, in time to fall over Sean’s leg and smash his head against the rock fireplace. He fell unconscious but Sean didn’t expect that to last for long.

  These wolves had never discovered that the werehounds were even stronger in human form but that was a secret the hounds preferred to keep. Colin ought to believe it, but didn’t seem to want to.

  Sean wasn’t ready to cut off his verbal communication so he would resort to diversionary tricks for as long as he could. He was determined to be accepted as a human and for him that meant that he would avoid taking on his werehound form whenever possible.

  He shoved the phone to Elin, who picked it up and slammed it to her ear. “Saul, they’re breaking in,” she said, watching Sean take a long, curved knife from a sheath beneath one jeans’ leg. “The werewolves are breaking in. The vampires can’t come over the threshold. I hope not anyway.”

  She hesitated, listening, and covered the mouthpiece. “I think he’s laughing at me. I guess he’d already know about vampires and thresholds but he doesn’t have to be so arrogant.”

  “Okay,” she said and listened again. “He says he’s on his way, Sean. He wants me to make fire with the wand and throw it at the wolves and vampires.”

  Sean stopped himself from groaning. Elin didn’t know how to do these things.

  “Perhaps it won’t work,” she said breathlessly into the phone, but she worked the wand free. “Why do you think it will just because I tell it to?” She gave Sean a helpless look and raised a hand.

  Frustrated at being on the outside in this exchange, Sean longed to snatch the phone back.

  “He says it’ll throw fire if I want it to,” Elin said.

  Sean crouched, ready to spring from behind the open front door.

  Elin peered into the darkness. “There are too many of them,” she said, her voice failing her. “We can’t fight them all.”

  But he crouched back, preparing for the next onslaught.

  “Right!” Saul appeared behind Sean and slammed the door shut. He bowed slightly and said, “I have a permanent welcome in the homes of my friends unless they say otherwise.”

  “Welcome,” Elin said in a quavering tone. “They’re going to kill all of us.”

  He went to examine Gabriel and said, “He’ll pull through. Follow me, Elin, and stand by the front door.”

  “Just a damn minute,” Sean said, leaping into Saul’s path. He remembered the knife and sheathed it. “She’s not going anywhere near the door.”

  “She won’t be alone,” Saul said. “Break the logs into thinner pieces and get them ready to throw. Elin, point the wand to the fireplace and light those logs.”

  This was not a man to be argued with. With the wand held in a shaking hand, she pointed it at the fireplace, closed her eyes, and told it to burn. The immediate blowback of heat shocked her. When she looked, logs in the fireplace shot flames up the chimney.

  “Fire won’t stop them forever,” Sean said. “But we all know that.” He began to shift and the change was fast. The thick, blue-black coat covered him and he felt his jaw cracking into its canine formation at the same time.

  Another werewolf, one Sean knew by the hostile but familiar greeting he gave, appeared in the doorway. It only took one bound before Sean was upon it, great teeth flashing, his body twisting the other’s this way and that, rolling over and snarling.

  Twice the wolf went for Sean’s throat, and twice Sean evaded the fangs. At the second attack he ducked his head and ripped open the belly of the other animal. Blood and entrails spurted and a glance showed Elin with her face buried in Gabriel’s back.

  Sean hauled the other wolf into the air and thumped him down in a senseless, bloody heap. He yelled a triumphant, “Done.”

  “We mustn’t forget for an instant that even as they go down, they’re already repairing themselves,” Saul said. “So will the vampires if you burn them.”

  Sean gave a derisive grunt.

  The rumbling in the earth continued and Sean saw the ring of creatures outside move a little closer to the porch. They seemed like one silent entity.

  “Out of my way,” Elin cried.

  She dashed to the door and hurled out three flaming torches, one after the other.

  That brought noises from the ones outside.

  Back and forth, she ran, tossing out more sticks of fire, pausing momentarily to light another bunch with her wand when the supply got low.

  “You cannot help her with that,” Saul said, and a strange expression came over his face. “But she’s giving us the diversion we need.”

  “Either we hold them off and get rid of them, or they’ll finish us,” Elin cried.

  “You are about to learn more than any nonvampire has learned. You have to do what I tell you, Sean.” Saul took a polished jug with a long neck and a stopper from a deep pocket inside his coat and held it by an ornate handle. “Enough fire and the werewolves will scatter. But this is the blood weakness—or so I believe. The only known disease a vampire can contract and very rare. If I can, I’ll tell you how I got it one day, but not now. Its real name in Italian is Sangue Debolezza, but it means, simply, blood weakness.”

  Sean looked at Elin’s slender arms and wrists, and her hands covered with black soot, and feared she couldn’t keep up what she was doing.

  “You call out those words very loudly and we’ll hope all the vampires make a run for it. If they don’t believe what they hear, hitting one vampire with some of this should prove we aren’t lying. The rest of them will be gone before we can turn on them. And the ailing one will follow to infect the rest.” Saul’s eyes were like black holes. “I must ask you to shift again and throw some of the contents, Sean. I believe it may sicken the werewolves but they will recover in time. Any vampire who comes in…”

  “How can you hold a silver jug?” Elin asked, pausing to breathe.

  “It’s pewter polished to look like silver. Keep the fire going. Will you do it, Sean?” Saul’s jaw worked. “I can’t be absolutely certain what will happen to you if the powder touches your skin. Perhaps…If I’m careful about the direction of the wind, I should be able to—”

  “No,” Elin shouted, intensifying her barrage of fire. “Neither of you can take that risk.”

  Already changing, Sean struggled to free himself completely of his hound form. He yelled and grabbed Saul as he would have gone out the door. “No! Give me that and stay back. Elin may need you.”

  He seized the jug and ran outside. “Blood weakness,” he shouted, holding the shining silver thing high so it reflected fire. “Blood weakness. Who will be first to test the Sangue Debolezza?”

  A mumble of voices among the vampires rose to a roar, then gradually sank away to sibilant whispers that passed between them in waves.

  Sean pulled the
stopper from the jug and moved forward. “Come on. Who’s first?”

  The wolves’ howls rose, unearthly, terrified, but the vampires acted first. They levitated into the air, one after the other, jostling together in their haste. But Sean moved quickly; he shook a stream of liquid from the jug over the closest vampire.

  The creature gave a terrible howl. He screamed and tore at his clothes, swung onto his back above the ground, and writhed in uncontrolled spasms.

  Coughing, choking, he wrapped his cloak about him and flew slowly into the darkness, rolling over and over, making sounds only a dying thing would make.

  The rest scrambled to get height in the sky and then they were gone like streaks of smoke through the sky and the wolves raced, yipping and howling, for the forest.

  chapter THIRTY

  Before he had left, taking unconscious Gabriel with him to care for, Saul insisted the vessel disguised as silver, and its contents, be placed in the wide ring of light that shone from above the front door onto the porch. Its very presence would guard the little house, he told them. Neither he nor Sean thought their enemies would return soon, particularly since the night’s hours were numbered.

  The men seemed almost disinterested in Sally and the brother and sister who had disappeared.

  When they were alone, Elin said, “You don’t think we should look for Sally?”

  “My guess is that she’s with Tarhazian,” Sean said. “This may be her opportunity to find favor with that woman. We have bigger problems to deal with.”

  “But they won’t give up, will they?” Elin said, and immediately regretted her words. “Quitus? And the ones who came here? At least, they might not give up.”

  Sean had retrieved his jeans but he remained bare-chested and barefoot. He moved restlessly around the perimeter of the room, glancing at her frequently, his jaw set and his eyes stark with rage.

  “Let me get you something hot to drink,” she said, wanting to comfort him.

  “It’s not cocoa I need,” he said, barely moving his lips.

  “Go up and sleep,” she told him. “I’ll keep watch.”

  Sean laughed and the sound raised goose bumps on Elin’s arms.

  “No need to watch now,” he said. “Damn them. They won’t come after you the same way twice. Right now they’re with Quitus. When he stops punishing them for their failure, he’ll plan the next move.”

  She swallowed and said in a small voice, “Then we should make a move first.”

  “What do you think I’m doing?” he asked, shoving a palm toward her. “I’m trying to decide the best course and I know we can’t move too quickly. First we must be sure they’re all together. Then we have to have a plan of attack. It will be a long day. The coming night will probably seem too short.”

  Elin could smell soot and smoke on herself. She combed her fingers through her hair and they came away even blacker.

  “I’m going to shower,” she told Sean. “Please call out if I need to come.”

  His laughter was humorless.

  Elin ran up the ladder to the loft and gathered clean clothes. There would be no comfortable sleep in comfortable nighties until this was all over—which meant she might never sleep in comfort again.

  When she climbed back down the ladder and went swiftly to the bathroom, Sean didn’t as much as look at her. Inside, with the door shut, she couldn’t deny that she hoped he would come to her.

  Through a small, pebbled glass skylight, she saw how the night weakened and cold, winter stars began to fade. Then steam from the hot water coated everything and she luxuriated in the heat.

  She didn’t know Sean had come in until she felt his presence. The bathroom door was already closed and he stood outside the shower doors, watching her.

  Elin knew he saw her shadow, her face raised to allow water to splash, the way she shampooed her hair, winding it into heavy, lathered swirls on her head.

  If he wanted to be excited, she would do her best. Sliding her hands up her slick thighs, she let her head drop back and turned to face away from the shower head. Over her belly and her ribs and up to cup her breasts, her hands moved naturally. This was how she always showered. But she didn’t always pinch and tug on her own nipples while her hair fell in a long, heavy, wet sheath. And she didn’t always slip a hand between her thighs and slide it into the folds of her sex to send a dart of pleasure through her, and buckle her own knees.

  Elin smiled and eased open one of the shower doors. He would have to be unconscious not to see the invitation.

  The man who joined her in the small shower stall, who planted his fists on his hips and allowed his arousal to sway before her, was an intoxicating stranger.

  Water plastered his hair back and spiked his eyelashes, but his eyes were the deepest gold and they skewered her.

  Sean shot an arm around her waist and hauled her onto a raised thigh. He kissed her, open-mouthed, tonguing his way across the insides of her mouth to her throat, and Elin’s body pulsed while she strained to get closer.

  He slid fingers between her labia and rubbed with such force, she almost cried out. Just as quickly, he released and stood her on the tile again.

  His next kiss was softer but just as deep. The fingers that pinched and rolled her nipples were gentle, but Elin just wanted more and more of him. She caught up the soap and lathered his back while their bodies slid together. His buttocks were hard beneath her hands and he jutted his hips toward her each time she swept arcs over the firm flesh.

  “Sean,” she said tentatively, “I want you all the time.”

  “You have changed me,” he said. “I am a man who used to feel complete on his own. Not anymore. I need you.”

  “Is that a bad thing?” She took his penis in her hands and squeezed, stroked its length, and felt a burst of joy inside when his hips came toward her—helplessly.

  “You like to control,” he said, but he didn’t sound angry. “You love the power you have over me.”

  “Only because I want you, Sean. And when I feel how much you want me, it’s incredible.”

  She dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth, slid her teeth gently back and forth until he shoved against her.

  The sound he made was like a stifled scream in his throat and he lifted her as if she were nothing, and wrapped her legs around his waist. “This is for the lust,” he said. “Then we explore the love.”

  Lust meant she fell onto him and he penetrated her in a single stroke, with a single pulse of finding each other before the wild driving, the taking of both of them, carried their bodies over the edge. Elin’s jaws ground together. She dug her fingernails into his back, meeting each of his thrusts with matching force. Sean squeezed the cheeks of her bottom and ran a finger up the cleft to spread his hand across her back and press her even closer.

  They thundered together, lost, and never wanting to be found.

  She smiled at the warm fluid spreading over her thighs, and mourned not being able to capture and keep it all.

  She heard, “I love you,” and whispered, “And I love you so much more.”

  “Not possible,” Sean said.

  They stood, breast to breast, belly to belly, thigh to thigh, and the evidence of their completion still pulsed, one against the other.

  Elin held him beneath his penis and weighted him, and smiled when he drew in a sharp breath. Beneath her hand he started to reawaken—and his fingers slipping between her legs made the pulsing, thrumming begin all over again.

  Pretending to growl, Sean pushed her under the cooling shower and sluiced off any soap. She did the same for him, slicking the soap from his hair and body, and laughing when he almost slipped and clutched at whatever he could find—her waist—which he quickly abandoned to sweep her up into his arms.

  “Turn off the water,” he ordered, his voice even lower than usual.

  Elin complied.

  “Are you ready for the loving, ma’am? Although I can hardly believe our recovery rate.” He kissed her ear.
/>   “I am ready, sir.” Her very spirit bubbled. “Not too gentle, though, hmm?”

  Sean smiled against her neck, and nipped a little skin between his teeth. “Be careful what you wish for.”

  By the time he climbed the ladder to the loft, he had Elin draped around his shoulders and she still felt too slippery for safety.

  Soon she didn’t care if she ever felt safe again.

  chapter THIRTY-ONE

  The fire roared into the chimney again. Sean doubted either Elin or he had slept more than an hour at a time in the loft bed. But she wouldn’t let him leave her alone even to bank the fire.

  Naked, swathed in a down blanket from the bed, they leaned against the base of an easy chair in the living room and watched the flames. Elin’s head fitted into the hollow of his shoulder, and although her arms couldn’t close around him, he engulfed her in his.

  With a light hand, he stroked the side of her face and ran his thumb across her bottom lip. A small enough shift and he smoothed his fingers from her collarbone to her breast and covered it gently.

  She breathed so regularly, he thought for a moment she had fallen asleep, but only until she looked up at him. “If we could remember to treasure even our shortest times together, we’d know what happiness really is,” she said.

  “I already know, and I’d stopped thinking it would ever happen for me.” Longing for a life partner had turned into the hunt for a mate and somehow he had given up on finding what he had now. “You’re not the other half of me. I…you’re all of me. Where do I begin and you finish? It doesn’t happen. We make one whole.”

  Elin rubbed his belly and he felt her smile when the muscles contracted. “I never expected you to be poetic,” she said.

  “Just honest, and struggling my clumsy way through the words to find some that work.”

  “Was there someone—a woman—before you were changed?”

  He worked not to let her feel the wash of tension. “Not anyone serious. I was working my way across the country—following whatever they all said would be the next sure thing. There wasn’t time to have relationships. I wanted to be where I could help people the way my father had, and still get by. Being paid in a chicken here and a jar of jam there made for a tough go.”