by Lisa Marie
He needed a distraction; any distraction from the violet-eyed beauty hiding out in the bedroom. He lined some bacon along the pan, then poured himself a cup of coffee, savoring the first sip of the rich, dark brew. As the wonderful smell of cooking bacon filled the air, he went to the fridge to pull out eggs. He had to admit that while he was capable of surviving with nothing more than a few meager rations and the hard ground to sleep on, he was damn glad that Seth allowed them to stay here. All the comforts of home, tucked neatly away in a sea of seemingly impenetrable trees.
As the bacon sizzled, he drew out a cigarette and lighted it, taking a deep drag of the nicotine. He alternated between sips of coffee and puffs of his cigarette, until it was time to attend the pan again. He realized that most people would be surprised by his ease in a kitchen. That he loved to cook was a little known fact about him. Granted, almost everything was little known, but most people that saw him on the streets would assume he spent all his time prowling the darkened areas of North Port. And, for the most part, they would be right. But every once in a while, usually at the holidays that Flora insisted they celebrate, he could be found in the kitchen helping her put together dinner. He attributed it mainly to his always needing something to do and cooking required a steady hand, much like demon hunting.
He pulled the bacon out of the pan and put the strips on paper towels to drain, then cracked two eggs into the pan grease. He realized too late that he had no clue how Brie liked her eggs. With a shrug, he broke the yokes and figured that would have to do. He wasn’t quite ready to face her yet, and he certainly wasn’t ready to lose his head over some eggs.
A few minutes later, Mark found himself outside the bedroom door, plate in hand. He figured he could at least use it as a shield if she threw something at him. With that in mind, he raised his hand and knocked hard on the door, then waited. When he heard nothing, he knocked again.
“Brie?” he hazarded calling out and wrapped his hand around the knob. Again, nothing.
Dammit. She’s not going to make this easy.
With a sigh of resignation, he turned the knob and was pleased to see that she hadn’t locked him out. He put what he hoped was an apologetic look on his face as he pushed open the door, peeking around it in case she was waiting to chuck something at him. It only took a quick sweep for him to start cursing a blue streak and shoving the door in so it hit the wall with a loud thump.
“Brianne!” He stalked towards the bathroom, not really expecting to find her there. “God dammit!” He put the plate on the nightstand and yanked open the curtain of the window. It stood open, and he could see two, very distinctive footsteps in the flowerbed below. “Shit.”
He scanned as much of the yard as he could see before slamming a fist against the sash. He left the bathroom and went to get his duster, cursing anything and everything he could think of. She was going to get herself killed out there. Who knew what was in the woods, not to mention they were enchanted so that they were ever-changing, thereby discouraging any unwanted guests.
Guilt flared anew in Mark’s chest as he yanked on his leather coat and double-checked for his stash of weapons inside. If anything happened to her, it would be his fault, and that had his temper rising to the forefront to war with his guilt and worry.
Within seconds, he was ready to go, Seth’s dart gun loaded and swinging from his hand, extra darts in his pockets just in case. He went to the back of the house and tracked her movements from the window to the point she had entered the woods. He looked into the forest, with its trees whose limbs resembled reaching arms, and repressed a shiver. He searched for anything that might indicate that she hadn’t gotten too far, but saw nothing. With a disgusted sigh, he clenched his jaw and made the first step inside the trees, and almost instantly, felt like the forest was pulling on him, trying to drag him in.
“I’m going to kill her,” he growled, wrapping his hands tightly around the dart gun and picking his way through the branches.
* * * *
He’s going to kill me, Brie thought as her hair snagged on yet another branch. She had no clue how long she had been out here, but the sun had been rising when she’d shimmied out the window and now it was fully up, its heat reaching her even through the tight canopy overhead. She had multiple rips in her T-shirt and jeans and a few cuts on her face from the long, whip-like branches of the trees and razor sharp leaves of the ground foliage. Her scalp throbbed from the many times her hair had gotten caught. She was sure that Mark would be able to find her by the path of auburn hair she was leaving behind.
After she had finished crying last night, she’d spent the rest of the night whipping herself up into an emotional fury that had her throwing on clothes and sneaking out the window like some rebellious teen. She had stupidly forgotten the way the forest had felt when they’d first arrived until the second she stepped inside the trees. And even then, she was still too incredibly angry to go back. It hadn’t occurred to her that she should have stayed in the house and given Mark the cold shoulder until Eve showed up. No, her feelings had been bruised, so she’d reacted. Just like always. And, like always, it backfired in her face. She had no idea where she was, if she was anywhere near the road or the house, or even where to go if she managed to get to the road. If she had stayed, she at least would have had Mark and his guns to protect her. But, here she was, stomping around in woods that were too intensely quiet for daytime, with no food, no water and no protection.
Real fucking brilliant, Brianne. Lara would have a field day with this one.
She felt a stab of love-hate as the picture of her oldest sister flashed through her mind. Lara, the heir apparent back home, was beautiful, smart and clever. She certainly wouldn’t have found herself in this predicament. Then again, Lara would have made sure that she had Mark under control the second she’d woken up. And, as much as Brie detested using her powers, the way Mark had acted the night before had her thinking that it might not have been such a bad idea. At least she might not be walking around with this nauseating feeling of rejection in her stomach.
Then again, if she had been thinking clearly, she would have stopped him before it had gotten that far. But he had looked so sad, so lost, that she had wanted to offer him a little comfort. When he kissed her she was too caught up in the feelings he elicited from her to think straight. Even now, the memory of his mouth on hers sent a throb through her body that had her pulse racing. The way he fit between her thighs, the way his body pressed her into the mattress seemed perfect. She’d even had the ridiculous thought that it was as if he were made specifically for her. She knew that it would probably shock him, but she’d had little experience when it came to men. Still, she would have bet her voice that he’d felt whatever was going on between them, too.
God, what a mess you’ve gotten yourself into.
She had been sure that Sebastian was in love with her. And, oh, did he play it to the hilt. The tortured vampire who hated what he was. She fell for it, hook, line and sinker. She had believed his lies when he’d said that they couldn’t do more than share a chaste kiss goodnight. He was too afraid that he wouldn’t be able to control himself. He was so handsome, so sweet, so caring. And she was such an idiot. She went against everything—her beliefs, her people and, just plain old common sense, to fall in love with him. She had been sure that everything would be perfect. And it was. A perfect trap. For her.
She had not had an easy life on the island. It was something that she’d never shared with Eve. One, because she sensed her sister’s resentment of her. Two, because she wanted to forget. Here, she wasn’t Brianne, sixth daughter of Ophelia the Queen. She was plain old Brie. Maybe she couldn’t join the school choir, but she could just be a girl and do things that regular girls did. The world outside of the island was a wide, wondrous place. Perfect for a girl that had lived the most sheltered of lives. There was no such thing as electricity, no phones, no TV. Music and art drove the Sirens, as well as worshiping ancient gods most people in the world thought
were relics from the past. And the ever driving need to procreate. Here, she could wear jeans and makeup and crank rock and roll to ear splitting proportions. She could have ten children or none, and no one would care. God, she loved it.
Not to say that she didn’t miss her mother. And there wasn’t a night that went by that she didn’t wish her father was still alive. She’d also had a few friends that didn’t treat her like the poor relation. But here she’d only had one sister, a real family—no matter how brief—and a real life.
Brie supposed she was a perfect target for a greedy vampire. Since the second she had stepped on American soil, she’d done everything she could to prove the Priestesses on the island wrong. And, for the most part, she had proven that the outside world wasn’t evil the way they had claimed. Until the first time Sebastian had asked her to sing a little song—just to make this businessman that was trying to launch a hostile takeover back off—she hadn’t realized there were some things the Priestesses hadn’t been wrong about. In the end, she’d learned it was Sebastian that was planning the takeover, not the man she had put into a coma.
All his lies, everything he’d said had been to get her where he wanted her. So she’d told him she was leaving.
Brie bristled as she remembered how Sebastian had laughed at her, calling her naive and simple. She’d been determined to leave and told him so. He hadn’t screamed, hadn’t yelled. In fact, Sebastian had been scarily calm as he told her exactly what would happen to the people she loved if she tried to walk out the door. His tone had been matter of fact, his words clipped and concise. She’d believed him.
Sebastian had even claimed her, to make sure that no other vampire could touch her. The mark on her wrist was an endless reminder to what a fool she had been.
Guilt became her constant companion. She stopped eating, stopped sleeping. She could get herself put together for appearances, but at home she was a mess. At least—except for when she was needed to perform—Sebastian left her alone. But that also allowed her to be exclusively in the presence of Edward. And a situation that she didn’t think could get any worse had.
Edward coveted her like a moth did a flame. He knew he could get burned alive, since werewolves weren’t immune to the Siren’s song, but he didn’t care. The way he looked at her, the way he spoke to her made her skin crawl. She knew it said something that she preferred Sebastian’s company to his. Edward was always around her, always touching her in some way. She knew that if anyone found them now, it would be Edward. And he would do anything he had to do to accomplish it.
“Damn,” she hissed when a branch whipped out into her face again.
She stopped and brought a hand to up to assess the damage and scowled when her fingers came back red. “This sucks.”
The oppressiveness she’d felt when they had first driven through the woods to get to the house played in the back of her mind. She kept forcing it away, refusing to succumb to it for fear that she would freak out and get herself into real trouble. She thought briefly about giving up, just sitting down and waiting for Mark to find her—like she had no doubt he would. But the thought of making it easy for him spurred her to pick further through the thick undergrowth. To think, that when she had first seen him she had been caught between joy that someone was going to take her out of there and fear that he might have been from one of Sebastian’s enemies.
When it turned out that he was working with Eve to rescue her, well, he had gone up a few notches in Brie’s opinion. Even with his gruff attitude and ghastly manners, she had this feeling that there was a good man buried inside his hard exterior. Even now, after her ego and feelings had been bruised, she had a niggling thought that it wasn’t really her he had been lashing out at. She had just been the one in the way. Of course, that didn’t excuse what he’d said, but she really should have thought it through before taking off into an unfamiliar forest full of who-knew-what.
Hindsight’s a bitch, she decided, rubbing her wrist when it scraped across a thorny plant. She felt the ridges of Sebastian’s mark and shuddered. She had never accepted his claim, thankfully. She was theoretically safe from other vampire’s, but they didn’t share an emotional link. Something which she was extremely grateful for.
Brianne sighed and took a few more steps, cursing when she turned her ankle stepping on a rock. She went down hard on her knee, the twigs and rocks digging painfully into her flesh.
“God, could this get any worse.”
Almost immediately, she realized it could. Since she’d entered the forest, she had noticed that the usual forest sounds were missing. No bird chirps, no rustling of leaves as squirrels darted through them. No signs of deer or anything else that should have been living in the protection the trees afforded. She had happily been ignoring that until now. But there was no way she could ignore the sudden crunch of leaves like something had landed behind her.
Icy fear clutched her heart and she trembled even as she slowly turned. She felt vulnerable and her lack of weaponry was glaringly apparent.
“M-Mark?”
How she hoped it was him, black eyes blazing with anger that she had foolishly taken off, his mouth going a mile a minute as he cursed her out. When Brie saw nothing, she didn’t know whether to be relieved or not.
Okay, time to give up and go back to the house, she decided, pushing quickly to her feet and ignoring the stab of pain in her knee and the tenderness of her ankle. She turned to face the direction she had come and took a deep breath, starting forward. Brie couldn’t help looking over her shoulder every few seconds to make sure nothing was behind her. She sped up when she thought she saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She was now moving at a light jog, her attention split between watching where she was going and looking behind her.
A scream ripped from her throat and she skidded to a stop when a large, black mass landed in front of her. Her eyes widened in terror as she took in the beast that resembled a miniature, walking tree. Thick, skin that looked like bark covered its entire body. Thin, spindly arms, tipped with long, twig-like fingers almost brushed the ground. Bright, blue dots indicated where its eyes were and a thin mouth split in a sick representation of a smile showed rows of black, needle-like teeth.
Tree gnome! her mind supplied, as well as everything she knew about them. Carnivorous, they usually feasted on birds and small mammals. But, from the lack of sound in the forest, she might look like a good replacement for its usual fare. She also knew this was the scout, and others could be lurking around waiting for the signal to strike. She took a hesitant step back, pausing when it moved with her.
Shit, shit, shit!
It was half her size, but they were on the gnome’s turf. For the second time, she cursed herself for her impetuousness. Dealing with a surly, moody Mark was a much better alternative than facing down a hungry tree gnome.
Brianne jumped when it started to make noises that were a mix of grunts and chirps, its razor teeth flashing with each sound. It raised its arms in the air, twig-like fingers curling menacingly, and Brie’s mind started to scream at her to move. Unfortunately, communication from her head to her brain seemed to have broken down, and she stood frozen to the spot. She shrieked again and raised an arm to block when it lunged, squeezing her eyes shut so as not to see the horror rushing at her.
She flinched when she heard the heavy thud, but it took her a few seconds to realize that there was no pain. In fact, she hadn’t been touched at all. Cautiously, she lowered her arm to see the gnome slumped to the ground, looking no more threatening than a fallen, rotted log. It took her a second to shake off her surprise to see the three orange tipped darts sticking out of its leathery skin. A crunch of leaves had her head jerking up to see Mark stalking toward her, the dart gun swinging at his side, eyes trained on the gnome.
“Well, now I know why I always feel like this damn forest is watching me when I drive through it.” He kicked the gnome to make sure it was good and unconscious. Then, he looked up at her, his black eyes unreadable
and his face impassive.
She could see the same gashes in his skin that she knew she had on her face, but his arms and clothes had been protected by his duster. Leaves and twigs adorned his unbound hair. He shifted toward her and reached out a hand. “Come on; sun’s going down. It’s not safe after dark.”
“As opposed to now?” Brianne managed after her throat opened back up again. She slid a hesitant hand into his and moved with him easily when he gave her a gentle tug. She could have sworn that she saw a smile flash across his face and she stared in fascination.
Why isn’t he yelling at me? she asked herself, as they made their way quickly through the leaves and trees.
It was while she was pondering this thought that she realized a few things. First, he was right. The sun was going down. She could see the shadows seem to thicken and shift as the light that had barely penetrated the canopy began to recede completely. She was amazed that she could have been out here this long, and lost complete track of time. What had seemed like only a few hours had in fact been the whole day. And now that she wasn’t spurred on by hurt feelings and anger, her body was letting her know that she was thirsty, hungry and most of all, tired. Her muscles were finally speaking up that she had done too much walking and her ankle and knee throbbed from where she had fallen earlier.
Anger slid through Mark like a snake, coiling and uncoiling as he fought to control the explosion building in his chest. He wondered what it would take to get this girl to be aware of her surroundings. She wouldn’t get into half the trouble that seemed to follow her around if she just stopped and paid attention. Not that Mark really had much to base his opinion on, but he had a feeling she was ruled by emotion. And it wasn’t like he hadn’t given her enough fuel last night. But she should have stuck around and taken it out on him, instead of putting herself in danger.
His hand tightened around hers when he remembered the fear he felt when he’d finally caught up with her. She had looked so terrified, facing down the hungry tree gnome, and he had pulled the trigger three times before he’d even realized it. A fury like he had never felt before overtook him at how she had been completely frozen and helpless. How he’d managed to rein that fury in and not throttle her was a testament to his years of discipline. Her face was covered in scratches and bloody welts, her clothes torn and tattered. Mark didn’t know whether to kiss her or strangle her for being so careless. He was more than a little disturbed that the first part was even a consideration.