Boxed Set

by Brenda K. Davies

  A sinking feeling began to form in her stomach as she frantically stirred her rice. Liam glanced at her, but she hastily averted her eyes. She was scared to meet his gaze, afraid she would only see accusation there. "Yeah. I suppose you want to talk too," he said to Jack.

  "I think we should all talk," Mike replied. He looked over at Doug who remained by the door, looking extremely uncomfortable as he shifted from foot to foot.

  Sera listened to their footsteps as they headed upstairs. "What was that all about?" Kathleen asked as she slid the chicken into the oven.

  "Boy talk," Sera replied with a shrug that belied the anxiety filling her body.

  "So, you obviously had a good night," Kathleen taunted.

  Sera couldn't help the grin spreading over her face or the blush. "Kathleen—"

  "Oh, come on, it's written all over your neck and now your face," Kathleen replied laughingly. "I'm just glad you're happy. You love him, don't you?"

  "Yes, I really do."

  Kathleen put a pot of water on to boil. "I can see he loves you too."

  Sera grinned at her, unable to keep the stupid smile off her face. "What about you? Did you have a good night?" she asked, trying to keep her voice as casual as possible.

  "Slept like a baby."

  "Alone?" Sera asked teasingly, even though her heart hammered with apprehension.

  Kathleen grinned at her and pulled out a potato peeler. "Are you insinuating something?"

  "Maybe."

  Kathleen laughed happily and pulled out a potato. "I slept alone. All night. Well, unless you count Danielle in the next bed."

  Sera felt a huge sense of relief as she turned back to her rice. "Do you like Mike?"

  "Yeah, I do. However, I also like him as a friend, and I don't want to ruin that."

  "What are you going to do?"

  "Just see how things turn out. Go with the flow."

  "Sounds good." Even though it didn't.

  Liam stood by the window in the room Mike had slept in last night. Mike's clothes were laying across the small chair in the corner, and scattered on the floor. Doug stood by the other window, Jack sat on the bed, and Mike was pacing restlessly back and forth. "I don't even know what to say," he finally said.

  "Then don't say anything," Liam replied coldly. "I don't see how it's any of your business anyway."

  Jack snorted and leaned forward. "You know why it is. What is going on, Liam? Because the last time I checked, no one was supposed to know anything about us. Anyone who found out was supposed to be killed."

  "First of all," he growled as he turned to face them. "She didn't find out, I told her. Second of all, if you even think about laying a hand on her, I'll kill you myself. Understand?"

  Jack stared at Liam. "Are you serious?" he demanded in disbelief.

  Mike snorted and stopped pacing to look at him. "He's serious."

  Jack sat back. "We weren't supposed to tell anyone, unless we changed them," Jack finally said. "Which we agreed not to do without consulting each other first. Since none of us were asked, and Doug and I didn't even know she knew, I'm going to say that rule is shot. I don't know what you're doing, but you better let us in, and now."

  Liam sighed angrily and began to pace. "Look, she knows, but she isn't going to say anything. As for changing her, that isn't going to happen."

  "So she's going to grow old and die, and you're just going to pine away, forever young. You're right, you have thought this all out," Jack spat sarcastically.

  Liam wanted desperately to punch him in the face. "If that's the way it is," he hissed. "Then yes!"

  "I hope she wants that too. To be attached to a young guy, while she grows old. To never be married, to never have children. To constantly have to move, so people won't notice you're not aging. Great life you're giving her, Liam, truly."

  His fists clenched as he took a step forward. Mike stepped in front of him and put a restraining hand on Liam's arm. "That's enough!" Mike said firmly. "We're not going to sit here and fight with each other! It's done and over with. Besides, Jack has a point."

  Liam whirled on him.

  "Hey, calm down!" Doug yelled. "Just calm down, all of you."

  Liam forced himself to take a deep breath as he tried to steady his nerves. He wasn't angry at them; he was angry they were right. He turned away from them and walked back to the window. Leaning his head against the pane, he let the cool glass calm the fire in his body. The truth hurt, it always did, but he hated having it slapped in his face.

  "Look, Liam," Jack said. "I don't want to fight with you, but you kept us in the dark on this. You purposely left us out. You must have had some concern she would say something about us."

  "Maybe at first, but I would have stopped her."

  "You would have killed her?"

  Liam lifted his head from the glass and turned to face him. "No, I would have locked her away from the world, and from you, but I never would have killed her."

  Jack shook his head in disbelief. "Shit, Liam. Shit."

  "She's not going to say anything," Mike said as he ran a hand through his tousled hair. "There's more," he glanced at Liam, who shrugged. They might as well know it all now. Liam turned away as Mike filled them in on everything that happened with Jacob.

  Jack sat with his eyes closed as he rubbed at his temples. "Are we safe?" Doug asked.

  "For now."

  "What do you mean, for now?" Jack demanded.

  "So far nothing has been mentioned, and I got rid of the body."

  "Where?"

  Mike sighed and glanced back out the window. "An old stone quarry in Quincy. By the time someone finds him, if anyone ever does, we'll be long gone."

  "And if people start questioning his absence?"

  "They haven't yet."

  "It hasn't even been a week!"

  "We'll worry about it then!" Mike exploded. "For now, leave it be!"

  "Wait till David finds out about this mess. Or do you not plan on telling him too?"

  "I'll tell him," Liam stated. "When he moves out here."

  "Fine."

  Mike swore and resumed his pacing. "Why didn't you get rid of the marks, Liam?"

  He could have gotten rid of the marks, he should have gotten rid of them, but pride and possession kept him from doing so. He liked knowing that, beneath her turtleneck, she was marked as his and no one else would have her.

  He wasn't about to explain that to them though. "I just didn't."

  Mike closed his eyes and turned away from him. "She knowingly let you feed off her?" Doug asked in disbelief.

  "Yes."

  "Crap," Jack muttered.

  "From the cut on your neck, I'd say you returned the favor," Mike stated.

  Mike stopped pacing again as the three of them turned to him in disbelief. "Will you change her?" Jack demanded.

  Liam closed his eyes. Before, the answer would have been a simple no. But now, now, he couldn't bear to lose her, and he would if she remained human. But he couldn't force it on her; he couldn't make her do anything she didn't want to. He knew he would lose her if he did. "If she asks for it."

  "Crap," Jack mumbled again as Mike resumed his pacing.

  "Do you think she will?" Doug inquired.

  "I don't know."

  "I think she will," Mike said.

  Liam's eyes went to him as he stopped pacing. "Why do you say that?"

  Mike seemed to be gazing at something beyond this room. "She loves you, Liam. She allowed you to feed on her; she fed from you. You two are growing closer by the minute. It's only simple logic she won't want to lose you either."

  A spark of hope began to bloom inside him, but he shoved it aside. There was no way to know what Sera would decide to do, and he wasn't going to pressure her. Dwelling on it now wasn't going to help.

  "Jesus," Doug muttered.

  "Well now, this is getting interesting." Jack climbed to his feet and walked over to join Doug. "Will you at least tell us if it happens?"

  "Yes
."

  "No more secrets Liam, we're all in this together. You should have told us about Jacob sooner. We're at risk too."

  Liam turned away from them. They were right, but he had been so worried about Sera, and what they might do to her, he hadn't spared them more than a thought.

  "I think it's obvious we can trust her," Doug said.

  "Yes, we can," Liam insisted.

  "We can," Mike said. "Trust me, I was worried at first, but she won't do anything to hurt Liam. She'll die before that happens."

  "Don't say that!" Liam snapped.

  Mike stopped pacing. "It's true, Liam. She isn't immortal. If things start to go wrong with Jacob, if the hunters realize we're here, and they come for us, she is the one most closely linked to Jacob. It's her they'll go after."

  Liam had been too concerned about everything else to even think about that. Even if they did find Jacob's body, he didn't think the police would put two and two together, but the hunters would. They would read about how he’d been killed, and they would know. And Sera would be their logical choice.

  "Fuck!"

  They didn't speak as Liam began to pace the room and mutter curses under his breath. "You two said not to worry about it, for now," Doug reminded them. "So don't."

  "That was before I realized she is in more danger than we are!" Liam snarled.

  "For now, there's nothing we can do. We can't even leave here. Which brings us to a more pressing problem right now," Mike said. "Food."

  "Well some of us don't have that problem," Jack mumbled. Liam was about to start yelling at him until he realized Jack wasn't being his usual ass self. His face was drawn and pale as he looked at Liam with blank eyes. "Having them trapped in this house with us is not helping."

  "I'm not going to touch her again. It's too soon."

  "At least you've gotten something recently. The rest of us are hungry and tired, and their presence is killing us."

  "It is," Mike said. "We didn't feed yesterday, and it's starting to get to us now. There's no way we're going to last another day, maybe two, if we can't get out tomorrow. It will start to get to you too."

  "It's going to be difficult to control soon," Doug muttered. "We have to figure something out."

  Liam looked out the window at the brilliant, white world. "Shit," he muttered as he ran his fingers through his hair. He knew they were right. Even though he had fed sooner than they had, it would start to get to him too. He didn't know what he would do when it did. He did know he wouldn't be able to go near Sera.

  "Animals," he said, dropping his hand to his side. "We're going to have to get our hands on some animals."

  "How?" Doug asked. "Go tramping through the woods in search of a rabbit?"

  "What's up, Doc?" Jack quipped with a stupid grin on his face.

  Liam laughed as some of the tension drained out of his body. Doug smiled and turned to look out the window again.

  "Well," Doug said. "We do have supernatural powers; I guess it's time to put them to use."

  "A rabbit won't even be an appetizer right now," Jack said.

  Mike walked over to the window and looked out at the endless snow. "There aren't any other options."

  "Well, men," Jack said. "It's time to get in touch with our hunting instincts."

  Chapter Fourteen

  Liam stepped off the porch and into the blinding snow. He clapped his gloved hands together as he huddled deeper into his coat in an attempt to ward off the chill of the whipping wind. He watched in disbelief as Danielle, Sera, and Kathleen rolled a giant ball of snow. They were laughing as they shoved and pushed at the huge ball, seemingly oblivious to the blizzard around them.

  His gaze settled upon Sera. Her hair had fallen loose from its ponytail to hang in damp curls around her beautiful, reddened face. Her laughter filled the air, and he felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth in response.

  "What are you doing?" Mike called to them.

  "Building a snowman," Kathleen yelled back. She laughed loudly as she fell on her ass.

  Sera helped her to her feet as the four of them walked over to join them. "Awfully big snowball. How do you plan on getting that one on top of the other one?" Jack asked as he pointed to the larger ball five feet away.

  "That's what we have you big strong men for." Sera punched him playfully on the arm.

  "Good plan," Doug commented dryly. "Glad we were informed."

  "Well, now you know," Danielle said as she clapped her snow-covered mittens together. "So you can help us."

  Unable to keep his hands off her, Liam pulled Sera into his arms. Her eyes sparkled as she tilted her reddened face up. "Don't you think you should go inside?" he asked.

  "Nope," she said with a grin. "We're going to get Frosty together, and you're going to help."

  "Actually," Liam said. "We were going to go for a walk."

  Sera's brow furrowed. "In a blizzard?"

  "You won't get far, the snow is too deep, and it's tough to walk through," Kathleen told them.

  "That's okay, it'll be good exercise," Doug said. "Plus, I need to stretch my legs before we can't go anywhere."

  "Not a bad idea; we'll come with you, right girls?" Kathleen said enthusiastically. "I'll show you the lookout. You'll love it. It's an old tree house where you can see everything for miles around. The mountains will be beautiful with all of this snow."

  "You know, we weren't planning on going that far," Mike said.

  "The look out's about half a mile away. It won't take us long to get there."

  Liam's arms constricted around Sera as Mike shot him a look. Sera looked up at him, and then over at the others. Her brow puckered in confusion before her eyes widened in dawning realization. Her hands tightened on his jacket as she turned toward Kathleen. "I would rather stay here and finish the snowman."

  "We can't finish it without their help," Kathleen retorted.

  "We can roll the last ball and wait for them to come back," Sera insisted. "Besides, I'm getting pretty cold. If we walk through those woods, just think about how much colder we'll be."

  Kathleen stomped her booted feet. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she relented.

  Liam blew out a breath of relief as Doug and Jack swung shocked and impressed eyes toward Sera. Pride bloomed in his chest as he hugged her closer. "We'll let them get cold, and when they get back, they can put the snowman together for us."

  "Ouch," Jack said as he grinned happily. "That's just wrong."

  Sera grinned as she stood on her toes to kiss Liam. "Right?" she asked as she batted her eyelashes playfully.

  "Blackmail is illegal," he whispered in her ear.

  "Yes," she murmured. "But so is what I am going to do to you later."

  He laughed loudly and kissed her; he was secretly pleased her shyness seemed to be slipping further away. His dick hardened as he thought about exactly what he was going to do to her tonight. "I'm going to hold you to that." He let her go before he decided to forgo the walk and carry her back into the cabin for the rest of the day.

  "You'd better. Be careful."

  She tossed an enticing grin over her shoulder before bouncing back over to Danielle and Kathleen. She sat on Frosty's stomach, a smug look on her beautiful face as snow fell to coat her hair, and clothes.

  "Don't be too long!" Kathleen called after them. "It's going to get dark fast tonight!"

  "We won't!" Mike yelled back.

  They trudged through the knee-high snow into the woods. "I guess it's all right you told her," Jack said after a while. "She is kind of cool."

  "She's more than cool," Mike joked. "She's hot."

  "Oh yeah," Jack said eagerly. "She is definitely hot."

  "Don't make me have to threaten to kill you again," Liam replied as some of the tension left his body.

  "You might have too," Doug said as he slapped Jack on the arm. "I think he's in love."

  They all laughed as they trudged their way up the mountain.

  Sera clapped the excess snow off her glo
ves and stepped back to look at their three massive snowballs. The snow was coming down faster, and the wind had risen to a thunderous crescendo. Branches cracked loudly as the trees bent and swayed from the force of the gale.

  Her hands and feet had long ago gone numb, and her hair was a tangled, wet mass. Kathleen and Danielle had already gone inside to warm up. Sera knew she should go before her feet froze in the snow, but she couldn't stop staring into the woods.

  She turned and headed back to the cabin. She wasn't going to make them magically reappear by standing there and staring. She wiped the snow out of her eyes as she pushed back an annoying piece of hair whipping across her face. "Hello!"

  Sera almost fell over as she spun awkwardly around. A young girl waved to her from the edge of the forest. Sera waved back as the girl made her way forward, the snowshoes strapped to her feet made her journey easier. Sera stared in amazement and curiosity. She didn't know what could bring someone out in these conditions. The girl stopped before her; her black hair billowing in the wind contrasted sharply with the white surrounding them.

  "Hi," Sera greeted in disbelief.

  The tiny girl was amazingly beautiful. She had striking features that were delicate and sweet. Her nose was small and sloping, her full lips a deep blood red color. Her eyes were shimmering, blindingly brilliant, emerald orbs. Sera stared at her in amazement, and the girl stared back with a smile on her pouting lips. She was small and petite, at most she was five three, and only weighed a hundred pounds with all her snow gear.

  "What are you doing out here?" Sera asked worriedly. "Is everything all right?"

  The girl laughed easily, a sweet, tinkling sound that carried through the air. "Oh, yes," she said happily. "I live in the cabin about a mile down the road. I was going stir crazy, so I decided to go for a walk."

  "Well, why don't you come inside and have some hot chocolate with my friends and me?"

  "Oh, who are your friends? Maybe I know them."

  "Kathleen's parents own the cabin, and she's inside with Danielle now. A few of our other friends went for a walk."