by Dee Carney
“Corin, unless you want me to leave a yellow trail behind me, can we move, please? This kid of yours is line dancing on my bladder.”
Another one of those looks of pride mixed with admiration shined from his resulting smile. “Of course.”
“Alice, you look like you could use a break from all the testosterone flooding the room for a minute too,” Jasmine said with her own pretty smile following. “Care to come with? Perhaps I’ll be allowed to pee in peace with a female escort.”
Alice found herself drawn in by her calm demeanor and easygoing manner. “Sure.”
“After I check out the restroom,” Corin amended. He turned to Alice, his face hardening again. She could see why the other woman was attracted to him, but his intensity sent a shiver of fear through Alice. “Are you carrying?”
“My purse?”
His jaw tensed. “Weapons of any kind.”
Sebastian stepped forward. “We are her weapons.”
Corin glanced at Sebastian before visually locating each member of his team, all of whom stood unspeaking. None of them ate or drank. A dead giveaway to anyone who was observant that they didn’t quite belong. “Fine,” he said.
His reconnaissance only took a few minutes, by the end of which Jasmine was bouncing from foot to foot. “You have any children?” she asked Alice when they were finally left alone to use the posh room.
“No,” Alice called to the closed stall door. “I’m not sure I’m the mother type, you know? Maybe one day, but not yet.” She paused, but then decided to push forward. “Is it true that Sebastian made you a vampire?”
“It is. First one to be made without direct contact, or so I’m told. The whole thing of it was an ordeal, but it’s how Corin and I met. You said his name is Sebastian?”
“Yes.” Alice listened with rapt attention.
“The one and only time I ever met him, I was his nurse and he was a GSW dumped outside my clinic.”
“GSW?”
“Sorry, old habits. Gunshot wound victim.” The toilet flushed, and the sound gave Alice a brief moment to reflect on the fact that Bast had been in mortal danger at some point recently. She knew he had a dangerous job, but it never really occurred to her just how dangerous. “Anyway, I accidentally got stuck with a needle that had been contaminated with his blood. Sebastian supplied the enzyme necessary to make me into a vampire, and Corin did the rest.”
“So this wasn’t an authorized turning? I thought it had to be approved first.”
Jasmine laughed lightly. “Definitely not authorized. Corin and I almost didn’t make it out of the whole thing alive.”
Alice stood before a sink, looking into the mirror. Her heart pounded wildly, the implications of what Jasmine was telling her almost too difficult to comprehend. Despite his illness, despite everything he’d been told, Sebastian did have the ability to create a new vampire. He was less mystery creature and more vampire than he realized. He could return to the life he was living before, his mind intact.
It also made her realize that she no longer harbored fantasies of becoming a vampire herself, instead content with simply being with him. It was selfish to ask him to take her on for God only knew how long just because she didn’t want to die. If Sebastian wanted a lifetime with her, it would be because he loved her. Not because of pity. She’d come to care for him too much to have it any other way.
Her vision blurred for a split second. Then, blinking, she cleared the stinging in her eyes, not really sure how long she’d been lost in thought.
“You with me again?” Jasmine asked gently from beside her.
“Sorry?” She turned to face Jasmine, noting the concern in her eyes.
“I know you don’t know me from Adam, but I’m a registered nurse and you left me there for just over two minutes. Do you remember what happened?”
Alice’s hands began to shake, fear causing bile to churn in her stomach. Two minutes? That was longer than any of her other previous seizure events. The absence seizures made her stare off into space for usually less than thirty seconds or so. Someone not paying attention, unaware that she was seizing, would be none the wiser. She wasn’t always aware of them herself.
“Oh my God,” she gasped. Her brain was deteriorating. How quickly, she had no idea. She whirled, facing Jasmine head on. “Are you sure of the time?”
“When I realized what was happening, I started timing. Honestly, it was probably closer to three minutes. How long have you been having seizures?”
“You can’t tell him,” she said quickly. “Please. Sebastian has his own issues right now, and you cannot tell him.”
“Honey, it’s not my place. I don’t know either of you and even if I was your healthcare provider, I wouldn’t betray your confidence.”
“Thank you—”
“But I must strongly advise that you tell him. I’d stepped behind you in case you went tonic-clonic, but I knew what was happening. If you two are an item, he needs to know just so he can be prepared. This is your health you’re messing with. What does your doctor say?”
“I don’t have one,” she muttered. At once, embarrassment for her situation, her inability to take care of herself slapped Alice in the face.
“I can help you find a neurologist, if you’d like.”
“Can’t afford it.”
“But your vampire can, I bet. All the more reason to tell him what’s going on.”
“Please, Jasmine. I don’t have any friends. Be one for me and don’t tell him.”
Jasmine exhaled loudly, throwing her hands in the air. “I already said I wouldn’t, and I mean it. Will you at least take my number and call me from time to time so I know you’re doing okay?”
She nodded, albeit reluctantly. “I’d like that.”
“Alrighty then. Let me jot it down quickly before Corin comes busting down the doors. I love that man, but becoming a father-to-be has turned him into a bear.”
Alice had no sooner tucked the little slip of paper inside her purse when someone from inside the restaurant screamed. It was followed by several booms of noise and the simultaneous crash of glass.
“What the hell?” Jasmine muttered. She’d rushed to the exit before Alice had a chance to stop her.
“If something happens to you, your husband will be coming after me,” Alice said when she caught up to her at the door. “I’ll peek, but you stay behind me.”
The heat from Jasmine’s body pressed against Alice as they moved into the doorway together. Alice felt a surge of protectiveness toward the pregnant woman she didn’t have to explain. Her exuberance, her devotion to her husband and her eagerness to friend Alice after only knowing her a few minutes marked her as someone worth getting to know. Whatever was happening in the restaurant, she’d do her best to see her safely returned to Corin.
They crept out of the bathroom but immediately ran into Cicero. Alice’s heart clenched when he moved to shelter her. “Don’t come any further,” he said urgently. “Stay behind me.”
She didn’t trust him as far as she could see him, but Sebastian had assured her that even he would look out for her best interests that night. Besides, with his big ass blocking the way, she couldn’t see past him or the crowd forming a perimeter.
Her relief was short-lived when Corin squeezed through to join Jasmine’s side. “Jasmine, to me.” He sounded calm and in control, yet an undercurrent of quiet panic rippled through his tone. “This has nothing to do with us, and I want you away
from this.”
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Alice tried to peer past Cicero, but he kept her almost cocooned by his body.
He looked into her eyes. “Bast...he’s shifted.”
“Shifted?”
“There’s little hope for him from the Council’s interest,” Corin said. “If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I wouldn’t believe it. But my first priority is my family and I must get them away from the shit storm brewing. I can provide protection for you for a short while, if you’d like. Until things calm down. I would do no less for the friend of my wife’s sire. Let his men see this to its end.”
“Its end? Bast!” She didn’t like the finality of Corin’s words.
“If you value your life, come with us. Now.”
“No!” She pushed at Cicero’s shoulder, silently begging the solid wall to move just a fraction.
Jasmine tried where her husband failed. “Alice, come with us for now. Whatever’s happening, let it settle. Corin won’t wait for you.”
She turned to her new friend, hoping she understood. “I have to get to him. I won’t leave. Not without Sebastian.”
Jasmine returned a brief nod and held out her hand for Corin. Together they pushed through the crowd, away from what was obviously the center of attention, without another word. Alice wished them well, certain she would meet them again. For now though, she had to get to her man.
Alice met Cicero’s glare and made one more attempt. The world seemed to slow as she ran toward him and, in a move from the early days with Richard when things were still good, feinted right before ducking left. She pretended she carried a pigskin and was on her way to a touchdown.
For a split second, it seemed the warrior fell for it. Then a viselike grip went around her waist, just as she thought she’d ducked under his flailing arm.
“No!” she screamed.
Cicero hauled her back against his front, ignoring the way she pedaled against the air. Kicked at him, fingers scrabbling against his forearms, anything to make him let go.
Her feet hit the ground at the same instant she finally caught sight of what held the crowd enthralled. The reason why Corin felt it necessary to protect his wife and their child by fleeing. Her heart threatened to kick its way out of her chest, but surprise soon gave way to despair as she stared at Sebastian.
Alice gulped down another scream, this one fueled by terror.
Bast stood shirtless in the center of the room, what once had been an elegant coat and pristine starched shirt now in tatters at his feet. The change thrust upon him was both sensual and beautiful. Covered in black scales that formed a neat collar around his neck, his torso and arms now glittered with them as well. A ridge of spiny protrusions sprouted from his shoulders and traveled along his triceps, culminating in clawlike structures at his elbows. Even from this distance, she could tell his eyes glowed red as they scanned the room.
Possibly worst of all, his Goddamned wings were back, now larger and more menacing than they’d ever been.
Chapter Twenty-One
Her skin crawled with warning, but Alice refused to immediately give in to the stark terror of seeing him so different. So changed. Despite every instinct demanding she throw herself into the crowd and become lost in its depths, she battled with herself to remain calm and still until the stronger part of her won.
The gentle flap of spread wings echoed in the silent room, the mild breeze it created caressing her face. Anguish filled every part of his transformed features. The sight twisted her emotions until she didn’t know which one should reign.
“Sebastian?” Did he recognize her?
Dark red eyes shifted to meet hers. Lips that had been pulled back, baring wicked-looking teeth, slowly lowered. The rumbling growl vibrating his throat softened into nonexistence. Sebastian tilted that elongated head to the side, as if trying to discern who she was and why she spoke to him. After an eternity, beneath the questioning gaze, she detected the man she’d come to know. Her vampire was determined to be seen.
“I see you,” she whispered. Alice refocused her attention on the only thing blocking her from going to the beast. “Cicero, please. I can help him!”
“No one can help Bast.” He struggled to hold her against him, but Alice was not going to give up without a fight.
The men who lived and died for the same cause beneath his command, the men who called themselves allies, surrounded Sebastian on all sides. All had guns drawn. They didn’t appear ready to gun him down, not just yet, but their protectiveness over the Council could not be questioned.
She stopped struggling, swallowing down fear for her lover, and tried to speak calmly to one of his greatest rivals. “He’s not a threat to anyone like this. Sebastian’s hurting really badly right now, I promise. Let me go to him and help. I’ve done it before.”
“My duty is to protect the Council. Not him.”
“Then let me take him away. Let me go and I’ll get him to leave without a fuss. But I can’t help if you keep me here.” Alice thought she felt a little hesitation, the slightest give in the tension of his arms. Perhaps a little uncertainty on his part, so she pressed on. “Protecting the Council should mean getting them away from him. Which is easier? To move one man, or to move seven people with their staff and companions?”
God, please see the logic in her argument. Sebastian looked so lost and alone while he lifted one hand to his face. The claws that had replaced his long, graceful fingers flexed and unfurled, as if he tested whether the things truly were extensions of his own body. If her own fear both of and for him was ratcheted so high, she couldn’t imagine what he must have been feeling.
An interminable stretch of silence passed, during which Cicero seemed to be weighing the consequences of her words. If Bast was worth the aggravation. What was the best course of action for all of them.
“If he makes one wrong move toward any of the Council, I will kill him. Go.” Cicero’s arms dropped, the pain of his previous grip still sending ripples of sensation over her arms.
Stunned, Alice couldn’t find the commands to get her feet to move just yet. She was certain he would change his mind and pull her away before she could take one step forward. When one foot landed in front of the other, and then repeated without interference, she quickly flushed away all thoughts of Cicero to see to Sebastian.
The sudden parch in her throat made swallowing difficult, so she chose not to verbally excuse herself through bodies she pushed roughly past. Face it, most of them wanted to move in the opposite direction of where she headed anyway.
“Do you know me?” she called, her voice box silently screaming in agony. A swift headache tapped at her temples, probably Morse code for do not do this, stupid.
He lifted his head, and Alice bit back a gasp. The scarlet-hued eyes she could deal with. Even the new swirling decoration of scales could be ignored. Something about the way his face had elongated, twisting his masculine jaw into something more reptilian, brought tears to her eyes.
“Baby, it’s me,” she said softly, heart breaking all the while. Regardless of what he looked like, the creature—the man—was still Sebastian. She would not abandon him now.
The look in his eyes—so much confusion—stole her breath. Blood raced through her veins as she moved closer to him without saying another word. She didn’t need to speak to this tormented giant, not when her actions could express so very much.
When they stood face-to-face, almost close enough to touch,
she opened her trembling arms to embrace him. Apprehension flittered through Sebastian’s eyes, echoing the sensation swimming within her. What would those scales feel like beneath her fingers?
Once, Richard had taken her to a friend’s house where an albino python resided. On a dare, she’d petted the thing, expecting to meet slime and ick but instead finding cool sleekness. Something told her Sebastian’s scales would be like the snake’s and her tentative fear of touching him would be unfounded. It helped settle frayed nerves a fraction.
His mouth dropped open and agonized sound grated out of his throat. It made her heated blood run cold almost immediately and she reconsidered her stance. How much of him was still in there? How much of his intelligence and passion? Was the man she’d started to develop deep feelings for even aware that she accepted him in all iterations, including this one? Her heart no longer simply pounded. It quivered with indecision.
She took a cautious step forward, and panic bloomed on Sebastian’s face. He flicked his gaze beyond her to where the crowd watched, before it bounced back to her again. His body began to tremble, and Alice’s heart broke all over again at the sight.
“I won’t hurt you,” she whispered. “Not ever. Let me hold you, Sebastian.”
He made another one of those agonized screeching noises and despite every instinct flaring, each one demanding she cover her ears and flee, she held her ground. Sebastian twisted, trying to avoid her, but Alice twisted with him, ensuring that when he stepped forward, it would always be toward her.
It was quite possible that her trust in him was misguided or warped by her feelings, but it was a chance she was willing to take.