Andreu stared at the back of Antoine’s head. “Did you know he was capable of this?”
Payne’s gaze briefly scanned the carnage strewn across the black boards around them. Snow had torn more than one incubus apart, littering the theatre with their remains. Vampires were notoriously violent when driven into a protective rage, but Snow’s actions had been more than that. Payne could recognise signs of a terrible past haunting someone, and whatever had happened in Snow and Antoine’s history, had been darker than black and it had wounded the two brothers deeply, especially Snow. Payne had seen the scars on Antoine’s body. He could piece things together for himself and knew why Snow had lost it when he had seen Antoine bleeding.
Antoine growled. “He would have been fine... we wouldn’t be in this mess... Snow wouldn’t be like this if it wasn’t for that witch.”
“No.” Payne placed himself between Antoine and Elissa, struggling to keep his balance on the slippery bloody stage. The lacerations on his forearms stung, blood leaking from the deep gashes, but it wouldn’t stop him from fighting to protect her. “You dare blame her for this. I brought her here... I killed their leader... my grandfather. I ruined her... I ruined everything. This is my fault.”
Antoine snarled at him, baring his fangs, his eyes blazing red. Sera went to him and wrapped her arms around both him and Snow, whispering soothing words to her lover.
Payne watched him closely, not trusting him.
“Elissa doesn’t deserve your anger. She gave us the key to fixing the mess you created, Antoine. It was an incubus who hurt you... but it was you who refused Snow’s blood and sent him into some sort of self-harming trance... blame me, if you want, but don’t you dare blame her.”
This was all his fault. Yet again, he had brought pain to people he cared about when all he ever wanted to do was protect and care for them.
They would all reject him now.
He had to do something to stop that from happening.
“Let me help you with Snow,” he said and Antoine scowled at him.
“No.”
Sera helped Antoine to his feet and then Andreu tried to help him with Snow. It was ridiculous. Antoine needed blood and rest. He didn’t have the strength to lift Snow when he was a dead weight. Chica stepped in and her strain was visible on her face as she tried to teleport them.
“Let me help you.” Payne tried again. “Please, Antoine? Let me try to make this right.”
Elissa’s feelings flowed through the link between their blood and he cursed her for pitying him, for knowing his innermost fears and how terrible he felt, and his crushing need to try to make amends.
“Please?”
Sera whispered to Antoine, her face a picture of concern. Antoine nodded.
Before Payne could take a step towards Snow, Elissa was beside him. He glanced down at her and she lowered the boy, setting his feet on the floor and keeping one arm around his back. She gently laid her free hand on Payne’s bloodied left arm and her eyes twinkled. A hot ache ignited in his bones and he grimaced as the cuts on his forearms stung fiercer than before, burning as she used her magic to seal his wounds. The pain slowly eased and then faded completely, leaving only a peaceful sort of warmth behind. She smiled shakily and he helped her lift the boy back into her arms, and couldn’t resist pressing a kiss to her forehead, silently thanking her for easing his pain and for caring about him.
Payne lifted Snow with Andreu’s help and looked back at Elissa. He didn’t want to leave her here with the others, was afraid that something might happen to her if he did, but he needed to try to make amends, and this was the only way he could think of making things better between him and Antoine. Elissa held his gaze, no trace of fear in her now, her silvery eyes sparkling like starlight. She was powerful and he knew deep in his heart that she could take care of herself and her youngling if it came down to it, and he would sense if she was in any danger.
“Stay here. I will only be a moment,” he said and she nodded.
He teleported both Snow and Andreu to Snow’s room and settled the large unconscious male on his bed. Chica appeared with Antoine. Sera burst into the room as Payne was removing Snow’s ruined t-shirt. She rushed to Antoine and helped him to the chair beside Snow’s steel four-poster bed.
“Take five,” she whispered and kissed Antoine. “I’ll help get Snow settled.”
Payne looked away from them, guilt tearing him apart inside. She was so loving. It made him feel terrible. There was a witch waiting for him downstairs and he wasn’t sure what to say to her to make everything all right between them.
Sera was extremely gentle with Snow, carefully stripping him down to his underwear and then helping Payne chain him to the bed. Payne let her deal with the final shackle and rounded the foot of the bed to Antoine. He wasn’t sure what to say to him either.
Antoine held his hand out to him. Payne helped him to the bed and held him steady as he settled beside Snow.
“I’ll leave,” Payne said, his voice steady despite the turbulence churning inside him, pain colliding with fear, stripping away his strength. It was all he could do to make up for tonight. He would leave Vampirerotique and everyone’s lives forever. He would go before he brought any more pain to their lives, to people he had come to care about.
He turned to leave.
Antoine caught his wrist, his grip surprisingly strong, and held him firm. “I will expect you back at work tomorrow.”
Payne said nothing. He couldn’t bring himself to believe that Antoine meant that.
He shirked his grip and took a step towards the door. Andreu was there, blocking the exit. A futile move considering that Payne could teleport. The women stared at him.
Chica poured a glass of blood and handed it to Antoine.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Sera said, her voice soft and filled with warmth.
Payne closed his eyes and kept his back to her. “It doesn’t change what happened. I’m still leaving.”
“Why?” Antoine this time and he sounded as though he was losing patience now.
Payne sighed. “I don’t belong here.”
“Nonsense.” Antoine’s tone had taken a turn towards dark, a commanding snarl that Payne had heard many times in the months he had been at Vampirerotique, the one that warned to obey or face the consequences. “You are due at work tomorrow and I have something I need you to do tonight.”
Payne looked over his shoulder at the dark-haired male.
“Please apologise to the witch and thank her for helping fix what I did to Chica... for undoing some of the pain I have caused. No one here is perfect, Payne, but we can all move past our mistakes and make things better. We are family.”
Payne wasn’t sure what to say. He stared at Antoine, struggling between rejecting what he had said to protect himself and his heart from a blow that would likely kill him if Antoine was lying and accepting it as the truth. They were family. He did belong here.
He wasn’t sure he would ever truly believe that, but he could apologise to Elissa on Antoine’s behalf and thank her.
He could make things right with her, and then he would work to make things right with everyone else he had hurt.
He nodded and teleported back to the stage.
Elissa was gone.
CHAPTER 16
Payne focused on Elissa’s scent and the icy fingers squeezing his heart eased their grip when he sensed she was still in the theatre. He teleported to the foyer and found her there.
She turned to face him, her back to the glass doors and the night beyond. The warm lights from the chandeliers did strange things to her hair. Or perhaps not. He frowned. Silver streaks shot through the chestnut, and the more he stared, the more strands turned the colour of stars. Why?
Elissa looked away.
“Where are you going?” he said and took a step towards her, fear turning his blood to icy sludge.
“I’m sorry... I caused so much hurt and I didn’t mean to.”
“Antoine will be
fine and Snow will recover.”
She lifted her head and shook it, her silvery eyes filled with sorrow that flowed through the connection between their blood.
“I wasn’t talking about them... I was talking about you.”
Payne looked at her hair. More of it was silver and he had a horrible feeling he knew why. She was marked now. Tainted.
“I’ve done terrible things to you too... why didn’t you tell me this would happen?” He longed to close the gap between them, run his fingers through her hair and tell her that he would fix it somehow. He would make everything right and he would take care of her if she would only let him. He would be a good mate, and would protect her and Luca.
The boy stirred, opening sleep-filled grey eyes, his expression soft and docile. When he saw Elissa, tears sprang into his eyes and he sobbed. She set him down on his bare feet, crouched and held him, rubbing his back as he cried into her hair, his little fingers buried in it, clinging to her. Payne clenched his fists and then took a step towards them, unable to deny his need to comfort them both.
Elissa looked up at Payne.
Several women appeared on the pavement beyond her, outside the theatre. Payne growled. The little boy tensed in Elissa’s arms. She gathered him closer and turned to face the newcomers.
Witches.
A blonde middle-aged woman moved forwards and paused with her foot in the air, close to the boundary of Vampirerotique. She set it down, glared at the stone steps and then up at the facade of the theatre.
“Elissa,” she shouted, loud enough for Payne to hear it through the glass.
Elissa took Luca’s hand, walked with him to the door and opened it.
Payne’s heart broke at the thought she might still leave.
The witches would hurt her if she tried.
“Leave this place of death.” The woman stared up at Elissa, flanked by six other witches, all of them dressed in traditional dull black dresses. They were here on business then. “We have come to take you home.”
Elissa looked back over her shoulder at him. In the low light, he couldn’t see the silver in her hair, and that meant the witches couldn’t either. Didn’t they know what he had done to her or were they just trying to fool her and lure her out so they could hurt her? Was it as she had said and he had thought, and the spell that cloaked the incubi den had severed her coven’s connection to her, so they hadn’t felt what he had done to her there and were unaware of it?
Payne stared straight into her eyes, unable to put voice to everything he wanted to tell her. It hurt too much. He could see in her eyes that she longed to go with these witches. She wanted to believe that they would accept her even though he had tainted her, ruined her. She didn’t want to be with him, and he couldn’t blame her. He could only blame himself.
He had never thought he would find another woman to love, a second chance at having a destined mate. He had never thought he would find a woman that he could love without fear, safe in the knowledge that her feelings and desires were her own, and that she would never turn on him. The phantom’s words still haunted him. They had all come true. What had that female seen in his future?
Would Elissa stay with him?
Or would she leave forever?
Elissa looked at her coven.
She took a step back towards Payne. He couldn’t believe it, not even when she stopped beside him and slipped her free hand into his, clutching it tightly.
“You would align yourself with wretched bloodsuckers rather than your own kind?” The blonde witch looked as though she wanted to tear Elissa apart for it but she made no move to take the steps and enter the theatre.
They were scared. They knew who lived in this theatre and they feared entering it.
More of Elissa’s hair turned silver and Payne knew the witch had noticed it when her eyes narrowed and she spat on the stone steps, muttering something black and foul.
Payne moved in front of Elissa, protecting her as he always would. The witches glared at him and disappeared one by one, but it wasn’t over. Elissa’s hair had marked her for all to see as tainted and if she ever returned to the fae world, to her home, the witches there would see it and inform her coven. They would wait for her to leave the safety of vampire territory and then they would come after her.
And he would be there to protect her.
Wherever she went, he would be there for her.
He turned to face her. “I’m sorry. I’ll talk to Antoine and ask if you can stay here until I find you somewhere you will both be safe.”
Elissa frowned. “I have found somewhere like that already.”
She had?
Was that why she had been leaving?
She took hold of his hand and smiled into his eyes. “Here, with you. If you’ll have us.”
Us.
Payne looked down to find a little boy with his head tilted right back, staring up at him. He looked eerily like Payne had as a boy. Did the boy think Payne looked like him too?
“Luca...” Elissa crouched so she was eye level with him. “This is Payne.”
Luca stared at him again and then sleepily rubbed his eyes and held his hand out. Elissa gave Payne an expectant look. Payne took the boy’s tiny hand in his.
“Nice to meet you.” The boy shook his hand and then paused and frowned. He moved underneath Payne’s arm and stroked the symbols on his dirty skin, and then looked up at him again. “You’re like me. My daddy said I would get these too, when I’m a grown up. Are you my big brother?”
Payne smiled and ruffled his sandy hair. “Something like that, Kid.”
It was better he play big brother to the little Hell spawn than treat the small boy as his uncle. It still felt weird to have an uncle who was several hundred years younger than he was.
“Is daddy here too?” Luca looked around him and Elissa caught his shoulders, bringing the boy to face her.
“He had to go away... but Payne is going to take care of us.” Elissa smoothed her fingers across the boy’s cheek and he smiled at her, dark eyes overflowing with affection. “We’re going to live here together... with some other nice people... like a family.”
Payne choked.
Elissa frowned up at him and then her expression softened. He cursed the lingering connection between their blood or perhaps it was her natural talents that allowed her to see straight through him to the feelings he was trying to hide. Affection. Fear. Hope. And a lot of confusion and a bit more fear. With another helping of fear on top.
Family?
She stood and Luca settled into her side, resting his head on her leg. She wrapped one arm around him and Payne noticed that she was covering his ear and pressing the other one to her body.
“Just... let him think it for now. Please? He’s been through so much,” she whispered, her silvery eyes imploring him. “He needs a family.”
A family. Payne looked down at Luca. Someone to love him unconditionally. Someone to teach him about the world and being an incubus, and how to control his hungers and embrace his nature. Someone to protect him and keep him safe, and never let anyone hurt him or discover his name and use it against him. Someone who would always be on his side, always there for him, no matter what.
All the things Payne had never had.
Until now.
He looked at Elissa and saw all those things in her as she stared into his eyes, hers full of love and acceptance.
His true mate.
He held his hand out to her and tried to stop it from shaking. “What if it didn’t have to be for now... what if it could be forever?”
Elissa’s soft lips curved into a beautiful smile and she placed her hand into his. He drew her to him, stepping into her at the same time, caught her cheek with his other hand and tilted her head back so he could see into her eyes. His salvation. His whole world. She had given him everything he had never dared dream of having and he would do the same for her. He would love her forever and raise Luca with her, as a family.
“We’
ll drive you crazy,” she said.
“I know.” He smiled.
“You’ll never get a moment’s peace.”
“I know.” His smile widened. She would end up giving him peace because he had a suspicion that the females of Vampirerotique would keep her busy for a lot of her time. Kristina was due to birth twins soon and Sera and Chica doted on her. He had noticed the way Sera had looked at Luca tonight. They would be all over him like a rash. He was going to end up spoiled.
“And I’m going to make you submit to me every night.”
Payne purred inside at that but put on his best poker face. “You can try, Witch.”
She smiled sassily. “And I will succeed, Vampubus.”
“Vampubus? Seriously?” He frowned at her.
“Incupire?”
His frown became a black scowl.
“How about... mate?” she said and he was man enough to admit he melted inside a little at the sound of her calling him that, and the thought that she was going to give him the second chance with her that he desired.
He purred aloud now and growled as he gathered her closer. “Mate.”
He dipped his head to kiss her.
“Ew.” The small voice made him freeze and look down. Luca grinned at him and raised both hands towards him. “Up.”
Payne heaved a sigh, already wondering when he would get his witch alone again so he could make up for the last time they had made love and show her that if she stuck with him, he would make it worth her while. He would play her games and give her pleasure she had never known, and he would gladly submit to her, and only her.
He bent, caught Luca under his arms and scooped him up, holding him in the air, causing the young boy to laugh. “Swing me.”
Elissa stepped back to give them room and Payne wasn’t sure this was a good idea. He didn’t know how strong the boy was or whether he would hurt him, but Elissa’s soft look of approval said he could do as Luca had asked.
Payne did two full spins with him, sending the boy’s legs flying outwards and turning him into a giggling mess. He slowed to a halt, a little dizzy himself, and Elissa came back to them.
Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance Page 42