“I always sit facing the door,” he said.
“So do I,” she told him.
“You didn’t last time.”
“Last time I was being polite. You’re mine now. I don’t have to be nice anymore,” she said, and he laughed. She leaned closer. “I felt a vampire somewhere around out there. I want to be able to see if one comes in here.”
He lowered his face to hers, kissed her, just a touch of his lips to hers. Then he pulled the chair out for her, and she sat, and he took the opposite seat. They ordered and ate. Shanti mostly focused on watching the door, though she did have to smile a little watching Zero eat. He hadn’t been kidding. She pushed her almost untouched food over to him and he accepted it with a murmured thanks.
“We’re going to have to work all of this food off later,” he said, and she laughed.
“I think we can come up with something” she said.
“There’s something I wanted to ask you earlier,” he said, wiping his mouth with his napkin and pushing his plate away.
“What?”
“Is there a difference between feeding from a human and a vampire?”
She watched him. “Human blood is more potent. More alive, I guess,” she said.
“So would it be better for you if I stayed human?” he asked.
“I want you to do what’s best for you,” she said. “And as far as the blood thing goes, I didn’t say vampire blood isn’t supposed to be good, just that from what I hear, human blood is better. I have no idea. I’ve never actually fed from a vampire.”
“Have you fed from any other supernaturals at all?” he asked.
She took a breath. “I’ve had demon blood.”
He was watching her. “What’s that like?”
“It definitely gives you a jolt,” she said. “But after you have it, it just kind of makes you want more. It’s not satisfying or filling, I guess. But it tastes really good.”
“So you’re saying demon blood is like junk food?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.
“Exactly. Guilty pleasure,” she said.
A look crossed his face, and he looked away. “Did you feed from the demon the way you fed from me?”
She knew what he was asking. Knew that, if he was going to be in her life, he’d likely meet Levitt eventually. “Yes. He was my former boyfriend.”
He nodded slowly. “What happened?”
“Demons are a pain in the ass,” she said, and he laughed. “Our personalities just didn’t work together.”
“Did you love him?”
She reached across the table and took his hand. “I thought I did. Until you came into my life and blew the idea of what I thought love felt like right out of the water. I didn’t know it could be like this.”
He ran his thumb over the sensitive skin at the inside of her wrist. “Like what?”
“So warm and good and light and just… everything. I didn’t know it was possible to connect with someone like this. I mean, I’ve heard of things like this. Thought I saw it in other people,” she said, thinking of Molly and Brennan, then shoving the thought aside. She and Zero were not Molly and Brennan, in any way. “But nothing could have prepared me for the way I feel about you, Zero.”
He brought her hand to his lips, kissed her fingers briefly. “I will never be the same, Shanti. Loving you has changed everything. Thank you for that.”
She blinked tears back from her eyes. Then she grinned at Zero. “So… are you ready to take me home and really, really thank me?”
He laughed. “I am going to thank you so hard, babe. Until you can’t take any more gratitude.” She laughed, even as her stomach flipped and her body tightened in need, and he pulled her up. They paid their bill and walked out, Shanti on alert again.
“I parked a couple of blocks down from your place. I want to grab something out of my trunk,” she said. She swore she could still feel a vampire somewhere nearby.
He nodded.
She focused on getting them where she needed to be. She had her knives with her, strapped to her body as usual. She would feel better with her katana in her hand. She cursed herself for not bringing it with her into Zero’s apartment, but she didn’t want to freak him out.
Though she had to admit that it was becoming clear that not much freaked her man out. He’d seen and experienced enough real-life nightmares that he was able to roll with just about anything. She glanced over at him, at the way his entire body was tense, at the focused look in his eyes, and she realized he was just as much on alert as she was.
This man.
This man, she could actually see spending her long life with and the idea of him being turned started to excite her. She wouldn’t tell him that; she didn’t want to skew his decision even more than she already did.
But damn. The idea of the years ahead of her with Zero by her side, loving her, fighting beside her… for the first time since she’d been changed, she was looking forward to what came next, rather than just rolling with it, trying to settle her debts and ease her guilt.
He was a warrior. He would want to fight. She knew that. And she had a feeling that either Molly or Rayna would be more than happy to have him.
“What are you smiling about?” he asked quietly.
“Just thinking of how damn sexy you are,” she said, and he shook his head, a smile playing at the corners of his lips.
“You’re thinking about sex now?”
“Always, with you,” she said, and he groaned. She laughed.
There it was again. Vampire. There was definitely one around.
She could see her car, and she sped up a little, urging Zero to walk faster. He did, and they reached her car. She unlocked the trunk. Zero stood, watching all around them as Shanti fastened the belt with its sheath around her waist. She slammed the trunk shut, feeling the presence of an additional vampire nearby.
Zero glanced over at her.
“You are gonna have to teach me how to use that,” he said, his eyes lighting on her katana.
“Ronan taught me. Maybe we can get him to each you.”
“Who’s Ronan?”
“Vampire. My boss, kind of.”
Zero knew very little about what she actually did, she realized. “We’re going to have to have a talk about my job, eventually.”
“I’m kind of guessing your job has a lot to do with causing pain,” he said, and she glanced at him.
“Does that bother you?”
“Since I can only assume you’re causing pain to those who deserve it, hell no.”
She pulled him down, kissed him hard, and he groaned against her lips. “I love you,” she murmured against his lips.
“I love you too.”
“There are at least three other vampires here. We’re going to walk back to your apartment. Maybe we can get inside without any trouble.”
He nodded, kissed her again. He took her left hand, and she kept her right on the hilt of her sword, ready to draw it at a moment’s notice. She noticed that one of the silver-bladed knives he’d had in his back pockets was now in his other hand, held close to his thigh. They walked, and she focused on watching, on sensing their energy signatures. Three behind them, keeping pace. Zero’s apartment was just around the corner.
And she could feel at least one more there.
The knowledge that they were there enraged her. They knew where he lived. Where he worked.
That knowledge had sealed their fates.
“We’re gonna have to fight, babe,” she said.
“Good.”
“Be careful.”
“Of course.”
They reached the alley, and there was a vampire sitting on the steps leading up to Zero’s apartment.
“Ah, there she is. Rayna’s little guard bitch,” he sneered, standing up. Shanti felt Zero tense beside her. She watched the vampire.
Ugly bastard, she thought. She knew this one. He’d escaped her once, that night Rayna’s house had been attacked.
“And with a
human. Perfect. My boys will feed well tonight. Maybe we’ll make you watch.”
She felt the three behind them approaching, quickly. They were practically on them, and she focused, timed her move. She kept her eyes on the vampire. Dermott, she remembered his name was. Pale. Watery hazel eyes. Long, straggly hair, and breath that suggested he’d never even heard of a toothbrush.
When she felt the three behind them nearly on top of them, she turned, drawing her katana in one smooth move, and swept out.
She caught her first target, severing his hand as he reached out to stab her, and he screamed and fell to the ground. She went after the next one, and noted with satisfaction that Zero had leapt onto the first one, stabbing him in the chest with the silver dagger. She couldn’t admire it for long. Her second target had seen her coming, and struck out with his own sword, its silver blade flashing in the night. They fought, parrying, and she noted with some panic that Zero was facing off against the other one, while Dermott watched in satisfaction. The vampire kept trying to angle Zero so he could bite him, and Zero was doing a more than admirable job of keeping the vampire away and off-balance.
Shanti kept fighting, ignoring the taunts of her opponent, listening to Zero for signs of trouble. He seemed to be holding his own, and even went as far as taunting his opponent.
Jesus. He was actually kind of enjoying this, she realized.
This man was freaking made for her. And she was going to make sure they both got out of this alive and well and then she was going to drag him to bed and never let him out.
She fought. Pivoted, parried. Learned about her opponent. He was a man who had probably been turned in his forties. Dark skin, hair graying at the temples. He was a good fighter.
But she’d been trained by Brennan and Ronan and she was just biding her time, anticipating his eventual mistake.
And he made it, sweeping too wide on one slash, and she angled her katana forward and up, catching his throat. He bent, bleeding, and she swept the katana again, removing his head from his body.
He hadn’t even fallen all the way when she turned to watch Zero and keep an eye out for Dermott, who was looking less pleased. She tried to keep an eye on him as Zero and his opponent struggled. This was a young vampire. Untrained, relying solely on its speed and strength. Which was usually enough, but not so much against a trained fighter like Zero.
Zero had a dagger in each hand now, and she watched as he got a decent stab in that made his opponent scream in pain and anger, and then the vampire leapt toward Zero, sweeping out with his own knife.
He caught Zero’s shoulder, and she watched in horror as red blood bloomed, staining his shirt.
He didn’t even seem to notice, thought the vampires did. Both of their fangs started lengthening.
And then Zero laughed and stabbed up, hard, into the soft part right under the vampire’s chin. The vampire screamed, and Zero plunged his other dagger into the vampire’s heart.
Dermott charged them, then, enraged, and Shanti swung out, caught him easily.
Stupid vampire.
He lost his head, literally, with Shanti’s next movement, and then it was just her and Zero, standing above a bunch of bodies. Zero was looking around.
“We can put the bodies up on the roof,” Zero said, out of breath. “No one will see them up there, and the sun will take care of the rest, right?”
“Right. I can get them, though,” Shanti said. He just rolled his eyes and slung the body of one of the vampires he’d killed over his shoulder. Shanti smiled and grabbed another, and they walked up the stairway behind Zero’s building, taking the extra stairs up to the roof. They dumped the bodies up there, then went back down, gathering the other bodies and heads.
She watched him, the determined set of his jaw, the way it didn’t even seem to phase him, what they’d just gone through.
Freaking perfect. God, he was perfect.
They finished up, and he unlocked the door to his apartment, held it open for her, then followed her in and closed and locked the door.
Shanti pushed Zero up against the wall, practically climbing him in her urgency to feel his lips on hers. He held her tight, kissed her back just as fervently, with just as much need as she was kissing him.
Her clothes were gone soon, and before she even knew what was happening, she was laying across the bed, Zero thrusting hard inside of her.
“You’re bleeding,” she said, and it ended on a cry as he moved harder inside her.
“I’m fine,” he grunted. They took each other, hard, and she licked, sucked at the wound on Zero’s shoulder, sealing it as he moved over her, as they both approached what she knew was going to be one hell of a release.
“Zero,” she wailed as her orgasm hit her, and his hips moved harder, faster, as if he was nearly out of his mind, and then he roared her name and she felt him explode inside of her.
By the time he was finished with her, Shanti barely felt like she could move. They were still laying across the bed, legs dangling off the side, clothing either off or ripped in their frenzy to touch each other.
“Oh my god,” she murmured, running her trembling hands over his back and down to his ass.
He pressed hard into her again, kissed her throat.
“I love you,” he said, his voice hoarse.
“I love you too. Holy crap that was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
He laughed. “What was?”
“You, taking out that last one. My god I’m gonna have dreams about that.”
“You are a very strange woman,” he said, leaning down and kissing her until she felt needy again, trembling with it.
“Fighting side by side turned you on, too,” she said when he finally pulled back.
He smiled down at her. “Well, I’m not exactly normal either.”
“You know what, Zero?”
“What, gamila?”
She ran her fingers through his hair, smiled up at him. “I think this is going to work out just fine.”
He leaned down and kissed her. “Told you so.”
Shanti glanced over at Zero, who was packing up the final box in his apartment.
“That’s it,” he said, folding the flaps shut. He grinned. “And don’t ask me again if I’m sure I’m okay with this.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
They walked down the metal stairs and put the last box in the trunk of Shanti’s car. They drove through the streets, Shanti even more on alert than usual.
Things had gone batshit insane among the supernaturals in the last couple of weeks, and they’d finally decided that it was time for Zero to move into the mansion with the vampires. When she’d approached Rayna and Ronan about it, she felt like she’d maybe been crossing the line of what she could expect of them. But she also knew that she wasn’t leaving Zero alone all the time, no matter how capable he was, and he wanted to see what his life would be like when he decided to be turned. Rayna been great about it, saying that if it would ease Shanti’s concerns, they were happy to have Zero staying with them.
She’d also asked Ronan, privately, if he would sire Zero when the time came, and he’d taken her hand and said that it would be an honor, but that he’d only do it once he got to know Zero better.
With all that they’d been through, Shanti was starting to love her new team and family almost as much as she loved her other one.
She pulled her car into the driveway at Rayna’s, driving down the long driveway toward the house. When they got out, she and Zero each grabbed a box out of the trunk, and they looked at each other.
“Are you—”
“Yes, gamila. I am sure about this.” He leaned down, claimed her lips, and she loved the contented little hum that came from him. “Wherever you are, that’s where I want to be. And I want to learn about your family, and your team, and I want to spend my life fighting by your side. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said, smiling. They walked through the front door, then up the stairs to her chambers. She
watched him set his box down, then turn and go out to get the next one.
She glanced at the sunflower poster near her bed and smiled, just a little.
She missed the sun, but she was learning to love the night just as much.
THE END
* * *
The Hidden Series
Book One: Lost Girl
Book Two: Broken
Book Three: Home
Book Four: Strife - Available June 3, 2014
Book Five: Nether - Available Winter 2014
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Sign Up for the Hidden Newsletter.
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For backstory material, news, and upcoming events be sure to check out http://www.colleenvanderlinden.com/hidden
About the Author
Colleen Vanderlinden is the author and publisher of the Hidden series, which currently includes Lost Girl, Broken, and Home. She lives in the Detroit area with her husband, children, and two lazy cats. She enjoys reading, obsessing over comic book characters, gardening, and playing World of Warcraft.
Learn more about Colleen at her website, http://www.colleenvanderlinden.com, contact her via email at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
* * *
The Hidden Series
Book One: Lost Girl
Book Two: Broken
Book Three: Home
Book Four: Strife - Available June 3, 2014
Book Five: Nether - Available Winter 2014
* * *
Never Miss an Update!
Sign Up for the Hidden Newsletter.
http://bit.ly/hiddennewsletter
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Forever Night: A Hidden Novella Page 13