“That’s because you have so much respect for the law and justice. You’re almost as moral as Jakob,” he said with a lopsided grin. “I’m going to get some rest. Write what you think you should. The rest of us will support you.”
In the end, I filled out the forms Danny faxed me with all of the facts that I felt the public would want to know, which meant leaving out my use of Blue. I decided that if I could reconcile a little drug use in an emergency, I could deal with Jakob and Anna being written out of my rescue. A few hours later, I faxed the last form back to the office and went happily back to bed.
Chapter Thirty-Six
On Friday I finally felt awake. Instead of dragging myself from sleep to lie around doing nothing until it was time to sleep some more, I was alert and ready to face the day. Unfortunately, the day held nothing for me to face. I called Danny at the office but my leave extended for another few days. I couldn’t stand the idea of watching more TV, and I’d run out of books. There was only one thing I could think to do. I called Phoebe.
“Hey chica, how are you?” She answered the phone in her usual perky voice.
“Lonely. The vampires are asleep, and there’s no one to talk to around here.”
“I’m here, at least for another few minutes, then I get to talk to the seniors about college applications,” she said with a groan.
“Well, that sounds like miles of fun,” I agreed. “Have you heard from Anna? I haven’t seen her. I’m worried something is going on.
“Oh,” she drew the word out into a few extra syllables. “Tough subject, Mal. You know being a fire witch is pretty important to her, right?”
“I’ve seen the vanity plates on her car, and heard all about the four generations of fire witches before her. I would think they’re all delighted that she managed to incinerate a room.”
“Oh, they are. They’re not the ones who are having issues.”
“Anna’s not okay with it?” I asked, worried that helping me had hurt my friend.
“I don’t think she has a problem with what happened, it’s more that she doesn’t know who she is anymore. All her life everyone has told her she was the best witch there could be, and she believed it. She thought she knew everything about magic, she’d felt everything there was to feel. But now she knows that’s not true. There’s a lot more magic out there than she even knew existed.”
“So she’s embarrassed?”
“Ashamed, hurting, and angry at being denied for so long, that’s what I got when I saw her last. I don’t usually read people, but she looked so bad…” Phoebe let her voice trail off.
“You don’t have to make excuses to me. When did you see her last?”
“The night you went into the hospital. Jakob had brought the healers in to work on you and sent Anna home. She hung out at Sunshine’s for a while, but even the couch wasn’t helping.”
“Wow.”
Sunshine’s was a local coffee shop that catered to the supernatural community. The couch in the back was covered in charms that induced calm and positive feelings. Sitting on it was the magical equivalent of taking ten or fifteen Valiums. If the couch hadn’t helped, Anna must have been really messed up.
“But you don’t have to worry, I’m sure you’ll see her at the chocolate party on Saturday night,” Phoebe added with her trademark perkiness.
“Chocolate party?”
“Didn’t Jakob tell you? Indigo and the owner of Seductions—”
“Cali,” I put in.
“You know him?” Her voice filled with awe.
“A little, go on.”
“Indigo and your friend Cali are having a party. Publicly this is to celebrate Indigo’s new line of chocolates that Seductions is going to sell but everyone knows it’s a party to celebrate the werewolf killings being over. I can’t imagine why Jakob didn’t tell you.”
I could. I frowned a bit. Jakob’s delicate handling of me was sweet, but it needed to stop. “What time does it start on Saturday?”
“Isaura, Rhythm, and I are supposed to get there at eight, which means that we won’t get there until 8:30.” Phoebe hesitated for a second. “Do you think you could get Mark to come with you? I didn’t want to pressure him into going into a sex shop yet.”
“Yeah, ’cause his heart might not be able to take it,” I laughed. I promised Phoebe I would try my best and asked her to drop some party clothes off for me after work. She agreed, and we said goodbye. I went off to distract myself until I could pounce on Jakob for protecting me too much.
Unfortunately, my body gave out on me. When Jakob woke up, I was asleep. He woke me for dinner, but it was hard to pounce on someone who while they handed you plate full of amazing food.
“Where’s Mark?”
“Hunting and then looking for a place to live,” he said.
“So he’s really going to stay?”
“It seems you convinced him. Well, it was either you or Phoebe. She came by with some things for you. Mark left after she did.” He smiled, and I expected a lecherous comment. He disappointed me and said instead, “I wasn’t supposed to look in the bag so I don’t know what she gave you.”
“Did you?” I asked, wondering if he had spoiled my grand scheme before it even began.
“No, I thought it might be one of the many things you women discuss that I don’t want to know.” He alluded to the conversation we’d had days earlier. I didn’t think Phoebe would hand Jakob a bag of anything questionable, but sometimes her quirkiness went too far.
“Good point. Best not to risk it.” I paused not sure how to take the conversation to where I wanted it go. “So it’s a Friday night, and we’re young hot-blooded people. Well, I am anyway. What are we going to do?”
I stood up to take my dirty dishes to the sink, but he beat me to it. I followed him, suddenly aware of how much he was babying me.
“I have an entire collection of Mel Brooks films for you to pick from.” His smile melted my heart. There were worse things in life than a man who wanted to do everything for you. We snuggled together on the couch, and I drifted off to sleep somewhere in the middle of the movie. I woke up when Jakob was carrying me to bed.
“Are you taking me away to seduce me?” I asked.
“I prefer my women awake.” It was a gentle way of saying no, but as I fell back to sleep again I realized it was still a no. If I wanted anything more from him than chaste cuddling, I was going to have to take matters into my own hands.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Saturday morning gave me my first chance to go through the bag Phoebe dropped off for me. She had excellent taste in party wear, and the bag looked like it had everything I needed. Plans made, I spent some time reading Mark’s ever-growing collection of historic fiction. He’d gone back in time. The stack of books each featured a different doomed wife of Henry VIII. It was hard to read without thinking about Jakob, who would’ve been two hundred then and wonder what he’d been doing. Knowing what I did about his making, I doubted those were happy years for him.
I read until noon and then headed toward the shower. I shaved my legs and washed my hair, enjoying the simple pleasures. Of course, I was trying to make myself as attractive as possible. I examined myself in the full-length bathroom mirror. There weren’t any bruises, no marks left on my skin. I’d spent two days mostly asleep. My body was completely healed.
My mind though… I thought about it, about what had happened, and what had almost happened. Maybe Jakob was right to take things super slowly. I considered it for a moment or two but changed my mind. I didn’t want to let this change me that much. I couldn’t change what had happened, but I could decide how I would handle it.
In the kitchen, I bypassed the bowl of fruit for something more tantalizing. I dug into the refrigerator, delighted to see that Jakob stocked it with all my favorite foods. For once in our relationship, junk food was allowed. I contently held a chocolate chip cookie in my mouth while I rummaged for milk. I spotted one of Indigo’s trademark light blue boxes and grabbed it a
s well. I sat on the counter with my milk and cookie and slowly opened the box. It was brownies, a whole slew of different brownies. I devoured a caramel and moved on to a walnut. I sat back on the kitchen stool delighted to know that in a house full of vampires, I could savor my brownies and never worry about returning to find the box empty.
The velvety chocolate goodness was almost enough to make me forget this sugar wasn’t just for fun. It had a purpose. I was ready to reclaim the last piece of my body from injury, and I expected that would take a bit of magic. After my sojourn in ICU, I was going to be eating a lot of sweets before I came anywhere close to witchcraft.
I washed down the last of the milk and put away my bounty, giving the sugar a chance to work its way into my system. I walked down the hall quietly toward the guest room. It was early afternoon, and Mark could have been up. I wanted to make sure before I did anything.
“Mark?” I called out softly. “You awake?”
Nothing stirred behind the door, but to be sure I reached out with my power. It came to me with a fluidity that made me think I’d never really known it before. I reached out with my mind and brushed up against Mark. He was well and truly dead to the world.
“Sleep tight,” I whispered. I spun on the ball of my foot and walked the rest of the long hallway toward the master bedroom. Jakob might think thirty feet of cave was enough to keep what happened in his bedroom private, but when your guests could hear a whisper from twenty feet away, a moan from thirty wasn’t a reach. I did not want to be disturbed.
Jakob was asleep, but his eyes were moving fast enough that I knew he’d wake soon. I took off my clothes across the room from him, watching his body. Naked, I walked over to him. The room was barely illuminated by the floor panels. In their soft glow, his skin was delicate pale marble. I didn’t stop myself from running my hands over his back and shoulders. I reached around to his stomach and untied the drawstring of his pajamas. Black silk fell away with a soft noise.
I delighted in the feel of him, the way the soft curls of blond hair on his legs tickled my cheek, the way those tender parts of him felt in my hands. He stirred but didn’t wake. I kissed him, running my tongue along his back, tracing the contours of his flesh. While my hands stroked I called to him with my mind, gently tugging at the edge of his sleep, my power whispering to him “Wake up, I want you.”
“Mallory?” his voice was filled with concern. I was lucky he hadn’t bolted upright. I pressed my naked body into his back.
“Yes, my love?”
“Is everything all right?” he asked before he noticed my hand stroking at his hips.
“It would be if you rolled over for me.” I spoke the words, but somewhere between the power and my lust, it became a command. I sat back on my heels to watch him turn. His pale flesh lay before me like a banquet, and I couldn’t wait to eat. I wanted to enjoy this, to seduce him slowly, to nibble on his thighs, to lick his stomach, to take all of him in my mouth and taste him. For once, I was going to indulge in that pleasure that women who bed vampires dream about: I was going to have him again and again, his body would stay hard for me the way a normal man couldn’t.
“Please don’t command me,” he said, his rage barely concealed. I turned my face from his nakedness to look into his eyes. My attempt at seduction had turned into confrontation.
“I’m sorry, I was seducing you.”
“You don’t need magic for that.”
“Don’t I, though?” Reluctantly I let the magic go; it left as quickly as it had come. I tried to control my disappointment at its parting. “I miss you. I don’t want to be someone you take care of. I want to be your lover.”
He eyes looked conflicted for a moment. “I was giving you time.”
“I appreciate that.” I gently pressed him back down to the bed. “I’ve had enough time, thank you, now I want you.”
“You don’t have to push yourself.” He drew away from me, and I bellowed in frustration.
“I wasn’t raped, damn it! Stop treating me like I was. My body was healed the day I left the hospital. My mind can’t get through this without you.”
“I’m here for you.”
“No, you’re there for me.” I pointed to the distance between us in the bed.
“That’s not the point,” he said.
“Yes, it is. That is exactly the point. Things can’t get back to normal if you keep treating me like I’m going to break. I was married to someone who took care of me but didn’t love me. I won’t go back to that. I want you. I promise if I have even the smallest bit of trouble I’ll tell you, and we’ll stop, but I want you. I can’t let them take you from me this way.”
“If you’re sure?”
“I made sure Mark couldn’t hear me moan, locked the door, stripped you naked, and called you awake. What do you think?”
He blushed.
“Please, Jakob. Help me remember that my body can give me pleasure as well as pain. Please.”
He kissed me deeply and wrapped me in his arms. His hand stole to the side of my breast and stroked my nipple to hardness. I moaned, pressing my body against him. I felt him hard and ready, I only hoped his mind would let his body continue. His hand moved down between my legs and stroked softly. My body opened, ready for him, hungry for his touch. The pleasure built inside me as his long fingers found that spot.
Someone was screaming, and I realized it was me. I cried out his name and begged him not to stop. My body pulsed wildly against him as ecstasy began to crash over me. Finally the pleasure ripped from me and left me breathless.
He took his hand from between my legs and held me closely. Jakob whispered in my ear in that language we didn’t share with anyone else. I moved my body underneath him, desperate for him to fill me. He stopped my hips.
“Your pleasure is enough for now.” When he spoke I could see the tears in his eyes. He was truly afraid for me.
“It’s not, please Jakob, don’t stop now, please.” I begged him a thousand times, and finally he gave into my pleas. He sank his body into me with agonizing slowness, his eyes never leaving mine. I pressed against him gently at first, and then drove myself onto him. Still his eyes stayed on mine. My body clenched around him, ready to take its pleasure from him again, when finally I saw his eyes give way to passion. I felt his body surrender to release.
He collapsed on top of me, and we lay panting together in the artificial twilight of the room. After a few minutes he let loose a rain of soft kisses along my face and neck, finally resting his head on my chest.
“I was scared I’d lost you.” His voice was almost inaudible. “I didn’t want to lose you again because of something I did.”
“You won’t lose me like that. Killer werewolves, drug crazed felons, a car accident maybe, but wanting me will never drive me away.” I kissed his hair, delighting in the fine texture of it.
“I love you,” he said, and I knew he meant he could never stand to lose me and he was afraid of what might have been.
I brought his face close to mine and whispered in his ear. “Then take me again.” I was only sorry I couldn’t see the shock on his face.
“You’re not sore?” I gave him a look to show that his excuse wasn’t working. “You were barely walking a few days ago, the doctor told you to rest.”
“I’m sore, but I still want you again.” I planned to take him enough times that he got over this fear. He took me again and again. Our love lasted the whole afternoon. There was only one flaw, a moment when he held me against the wall, and my mind remembered the sound of a zipper in the darkness. He stopped immediately and, when I apologized, he carried me back to the bed where I devoured him slowly. I heard the old-fashioned cuckoo clock in the hall strike six before I agreed to stop for a shower. Even there I pressed my body against him, hungry for the touch of his skin on mine.
In the kitchen, he offered to make my favorite meal, if only I could remember what that was. I finally decided on anything with his made-from-scratch mashed potatoes. I’d been
raised on the stuff that came out of a box or a bag, it was amazing how much better a real potato tasted. There was a chance the hand-churned butter and cream made a difference, but I tried not to think about them and what they did to my arteries. When I gave him my order, Jakob laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Mark asked, breaking up our pas de deux.
“Mallory is going to have a side dish for dinner,” Jakob said with a grin.
“How’d you sleep?” I asked, watching curiously for a blush.
“I can’t remember a better day’s sleep. I wonder if knowing there weren’t any werewolves alive for miles actually helped me rest.”
“Could be,” I agreed, ignoring the very real possibility that in my eagerness I had commanded him to sleep without realizing it. The power had come so smoothly this afternoon I could have. Taking the Blue had been opening Pandora’s box. Now that I knew I could do things, it seemed so much easier to do them.
“I guess I should go get something to eat myself,” he said. I had noticed the complete lack of food for Mark in the refrigerator earlier in the week. I hadn’t realized how it would impact my plans.
“Can you be back by eight?” Both men looked at me in surprise.
“Mallory, it’s seven now. That’s hardly enough time to do anything more than stop by a bar.”
“Then that’s what you’ll need to do, because we’re leaving at eight.” I smiled and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, crunching it loudly.
“What for?” Jakob asked.
“The Fantasía Del Chocolate party at Seductions.” Mark blushed at the name, while Jakob had the decency to turn away. “Phoebe told me about it on the phone. She’d like you to be there, Mark, but she doesn’t want to pressure you.”
His blush deepened, but a giant grin spread across his face.
“I’ll be back in time to shower and dress.”
He was out of the kitchen before I had a chance to say anything.
“Were you going to tell me about it?” Finishing the apple, I walked over where Jakob concentrated on peeling potatoes.
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