Charlotte & Sebastian

by Crabtree, Leanne

  “Just gives me more incentive to stay alive, I guess.”

  A warm chuckle left his lips, “Yeah.” He sobered quickly, “I'm sorry I dumped all this on you at once.” Sebastian ran his thumbs across her skin in a soothing gesture and she let out a long breath as the realities of what he'd just told her sunk in.

  “I did ask,” she said wryly.

  His lips quirked and then he pulled her into his chest and rested his chin on the top of her head, his hands stroking up and down her back.

  Charlotte's eyes closed.

  She had a lot to think about now.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Charlotte pulled on her mission clothing of black long-sleeved t-shirt, black combat trousers and black boots and stared across her room at the bag of weapons. Should she arm herself? Or was she enough of a dangerous weapon already?

  She sensed Sebastian heading towards her room and walked over to open the door before he knocked. This was their first mission since she'd been turned—a week since she'd woken in Sebastian's bed—and they'd been practising every night with her abilities and she'd improved a lot.

  His brows rose as she opened it. “You're getting better.”

  A slightly smug smile curved her lips, “I know.”

  Blue eyes twinkling happily he stepped into her room, his arm circling her waist and pulling her against his chest as he walked her backwards and nudged her door shut. Tangling his free hand in her hair, he pulled her mouth to his and kissed her longingly. When they finally came up for air they were both breathing unsteadily.

  “Hello to you, too,” she said huskily.

  His chest vibrated beneath her as he growled warningly and she bit her lip to hide her smile.

  It was amazing how well she'd grown into the idea of them being mates. It had been a shock at the time but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense.

  When she'd been human she'd often wondered why she was drawn to him and now she knew why. Why she hadn’t been able to hate him for what he was. Why she'd given him her blood on more than one occasion.

  “You weren't in bed when I woke up,” he said gruffly, “I was hoping for round three before we had to head out.”

  Charlotte grinned against his lips. “Poor baby.”

  Since she'd accepted their bond, their relationship had gone from strength to strength, too, and she'd spent most nights in his bed, being driven wild by his passion and hunger.

  Her back hit something hard and Seb's body pressed into her front, his knee parting her thighs so he could settle between them and his head lowered to her throat, his lips teasing the pulse at its base. Her breathing grew unsteady.

  “Later,” he rasped. “We'll finish this later, when we prove to the Director and the rest of these arseholes that you can do this.”

  A stab of disappointment shot through her but she nodded.

  Their mission was to locate an unknown creature that was luring men to their deaths along the Thames. Male bodies kept appearing in the river: all victims of drowning. No sightings to tell them what sort of creature it was but she had a feeling it was most likely a water nymph.

  Nymphs could look truly human if they wanted to—with the help of a little magic—and were known to have jealous streaks a mile wide and would quickly turn lethal when shunned for another.

  That was what she bet had happened with this one.

  It was rare for nymphs to come out in public so openly so she had to be majorly pissed about something.

  Or it might be a siren, luring men to their deaths with their beguiling songs.

  “Let's go, then,” she said, wiggling out from between his body and the wall. She caught the glimpse of her weapons cache and hesitated. “Do I need...” she gestured to the bag and Sebastian turned to see what she was referring to.

  “It might be best to take some since we haven’t really had time to work on your fighting skills.”

  She turned to him with a glare, her hands grasping her pair of daggers. “My fighting skills are amazing.”

  “As a human, yes. As a vampire, no. You're quicker, stronger, now. Your moves need to match that. We'll work on it another time.” He gestured for her to follow with a flick of his head and she slotted the daggers into their places at her waist before moving across the room and out of the door.

  As they entered the garage, Charlotte was surprised to see Sarah and Mikey leaning against the black Hummer. As far as she knew they were the only ones going on mission tonight.

  “About time!” Sarah called sarcastically and pushed away from the car to climb in the passenger side.

  Charlotte glanced across at Sebastian and he gave a slight shrug before walking towards the car. She followed at a slower pace and watched as Mikey and Seb greeted each other with a manly fist bump and grin.

  Rolling her eyes at their antics she joined them and Mikey met her gaze. “You okay?”

  Surprised by his question, she nodded, “Yeah. I'm getting there.”

  “I'm sorry about Sarah; she's taken it all really badly. With what happened with her little sister...” he grimaced.

  Charlotte closed her eyes as she remembered hearing the tale. It hadn’t been pretty. A slight shudder ran down her spine as some of the details came back to her: dismembered limbs, missing organs.

  “Yeah. I'd forgotten about that.”

  The car's horn suddenly blared making them all jump. Mikey swore under his breath before turning to glare at Sarah through the window. She indicated they should get in before looking at her watch pointedly.

  A low growl left Mikey's lips before he climbed in the driver's seat and they engaged in some sort of argument.

  “Should we...?” Charlotte asked, indicating the car.

  Seb nodded, “We should,” and then moved around to the other side of the car at super human speed and climbed inside. Charlotte pulled open the door of her own side and climbed in.

  The argument was still ongoing but as she settled into her seat, Sarah's hand lashed out and struck Mikey across the face. A second later, Sarah was pulling him closer and kissing him like crazy, her hands fisted in his short hair. Charlotte stared at them in surprise until they broke apart.

  “We should get going,” Mikey said, his voice rough. He cleared his throat and glanced at them in the back seat before turning back to the windscreen and starting the car. Putting it in gear, he pulled out of the garage and drove at a sedate pace through the grounds until they reached the main gate, which lifted for them, and then they headed out into the city.

  It was a fairly long drive out to the area of the Thames where the bodies had been discovered and most of it was passed in silence, though Sarah switched on the radio after a lengthy stretch before Mikey turned it off again when a techno song came on with a hectic beat that even Charlotte had to admit was very annoying.

  Fifteen minutes later Mikey pulled up on a side street near the O2 Arena and they climbed out of the car. In the growing gloom they headed for the path that led down by the river, scanning the surroundings for anything suspicious.

  Bodies had been appearing on the northern side of the river but with how the currents worked around the bends it was believed that whatever was killing these men was on the southern side of the river.

  “Maybe we should head onto the beach since it's believed the creature's water based?” Charlotte suggested.

  “Good idea.”

  They broke into pairs and headed onto the sandy surface in opposite directions, scouring the water and beach for any signs of life. There was no-one about but they could hear the sounds of traffic and the docks further down the beach.

  Suddenly a shout echoed from the other direction. “Mikey!”

  Charlotte tensed and shot a quick glance at Sebastian to see he was staring intently. “Magic,” he breathed, and then ran off down the beach. A second later she did the same.

  Chapter Fifteen

  As they approached they saw Sarah pulling on Mikey's arm as he waded into the water. She wa
s having no effect and Mikey was already waist deep.

  “Mikey! Snap out of it!”

  Sebastian raced to her side and helped her pull him back to the sand. Still under what she assumed was the creatures influence, he began to struggle against his colleagues and yanked his arm free, his elbow connecting sharply with Sarah's face and she cried out as she fell backwards onto her bum in the shallows.

  Charlotte knelt at her side, “Are you okay?”

  Sarah's eyes had teared up at the pain but she nodded and climbed to her feet. “We need to stop him somehow. He'll just keep fighting until he gets to it.”

  Maybe Sebastian heard her because his hand moved to Mikey's neck, near his collarbone, and pressed. Instantly Mikey sagged, his eyes rolling back in his head and Seb caught him before he hit the water. Charlotte hurried over to help him pull the dead-weight that was Mikey onto the beach.

  “Did you hear anything?” Sebastian asked as they set him down.

  Sarah shook her head. “No. It was strange; one minute we were searching near the water, the next he was walking into it. I tried to stop him but it was like I wasn’t even there.” Her eyes lowered to her lover, “Is he going to be okay?”

  “He should be. I just knocked him out for a little while so we could carry on searching without having to worry about him taking another swim.”

  Charlotte strode over to the water's edge and stared out at the boats bobbing on the surface a little ways out. If she remembered correctly, Mikey had been heading in their direction before they'd subdued him. Was the creature somewhere within those crafts?

  Glancing over her shoulder, she said, “I think she's somewhere in those boats. That's the way Mikey was headed before we stopped him.”

  Sebastian came to stand beside her and stared intently. “What do you sense?” He asked.

  She blinked, surprised by his question but closed her eyes and let her senses expand. The noise of the traffic grew louder, as did that of the docks so she filtered them out until they were nothing but a quiet buzz at the back of her mind.

  She sensed the river's current and knew their guess had been correct about the death's happening on this side. Pulling back a little, she could make out small life-forms moving through the water—fish, she was sure—and then she found a larger form. Her head tilted a little as she listened to what her senses were telling her. A female.

  “A female creature, within those boats,” she said, opening her eyes once more. Turning her head to look at Seb, she was surprised by the look of admiration on his face.

  “You really are getting good at this,” he said, pulling her into his side and pressing a kiss to her forehead. She had to fight the urges to grin like an idiot and throw herself into his arms.

  “We should do something before he wakes up and we have to worry about him drowning again.”

  “I could stay with him, it might be safer for me than swimming out there,” she said, nodding at the water before looking back down at an unconscious Mikey and stroking his face.

  Watching how her ex best friend stared down at the other man she had to wonder just how deeply her feelings ran for him. It was unusual for Sarah to be so concerned about her bed partners or even for it to be the same guy for more than one night.

  “That's probably a good idea,” Charlotte agreed, and caught Sarah's surprised glance in her direction.

  “All right then, we should go now.” Sebastian said and headed back into the water.

  It took them a good ten minutes to swim out to the boats and in the darkness they looked ominous, especially when a vengeful siren or nymph could be waiting in their depths.

  Something touched her arm and she whirled away, frightened.

  She'd never been a fan of open water, mainly thanks to watching Jaws when she was younger but it hadn’t helped when she'd had an accident in a kayak as a teen and been submerged under water for several long minutes before she'd managed to free herself.

  “It's just me,” Sebastian said quietly and touched her cheek lightly. “I think we should split up. We'll be more likely to find her.”

  Charlotte opened her mouth to argue but then closed it again, realising he was right. She glanced into the shadows of the boats and shivered. She could do this, she told herself. “All right. I'll shout if I find her.”

  “Me too,” and then she heard the sound of him swimming away, obviously going to the other end of the boats to start from that side.

  Taking a deep, calming breath she swam between the two boats and glanced around. Nothing stood out. She went deeper into the depths at a slow pace and closed her eyes to concentrate her senses.

  Her eyes popped open and she stopped. She was close. Very close.

  Clouds moved in the sky and soft moonlight lit up her surroundings. Charlotte took the opportunity to glance around and froze. Several feet away she made out the top half of a woman's head, just the eyes above water level and they were staring directly at her.

  The creature had pale hair from what she could make out in the darkness and the eyes were almond shaped. From what she could see, the creature was very pretty and would catch the eye of any male who happened by.

  “Sebastian!” She called, never taking her eyes off it.

  Lifting its head a little it gave her a smile, showcasing its small but incredibly sharp pointy teeth before slipping beneath the surface with barely a ripple.

  That was just creepy.

  Swallowing hard, Charlotte used her feet to propel her backwards until her back hit the boat behind her, her eyes scanning the water nervously.

  “Charlie? Where are you?” Sebastian called.

  “I'm near where I started my search.” She told him, then added, “She's gone underwater, Seb, I don’t know where she is!”

  She could hear splashes coming from her left and knew he was coming to help her but her panic was growing.

  A ripple to her right grabbed her attention and she spun to face it but there was nothing there. Turning back she came face to face with the nymph.

  Charlotte screamed as the creature lunged at her, tackling her under the water and into its cold depths.

  Instinct took over and Charlotte swung at the creature but the water slowed her movements and the blow barely connected. Irritated, she pushed away and swam for the surface but the nymph grabbed her leg and tugged her back underwater. Her lungs were starting to burn and she kicked out with her leg hoping to dislodge her but if anything the nymph grasped harder and began to tug her back towards the bottom.

  Twisting her body in an attempt to escape, she began to panic when her instinct to breath became unbearable and black spots began to dance in her vision. If she didn’t breathe soon she would pass out and drown but if she took a breath while down here, she'd drown anyway.

  A shadowy form swam past her and ploughed into the nymph, who let her go to defend herself.

  Charlotte kicked with her legs in an attempt to get to the surface before she passed out but it seemed the further she swam the further away the surface became. Her limbs grew heavy and seized with lack of oxygen and the instinct to breath just took over.

  Her lungs filled with water and the pain was unbearable but it didn’t last long before she slipped into a world of black.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Charlotte was in a world of pain. Everything hurt, absolutely everything.

  Her head turned the slightest bit and she almost sobbed from the agony it caused. A weak noise left her lips and she sensed someone come to stand beside her.

  “Charlie? You need to wake up.”

  A noise of protest left her and she tried to swallow but her mouth was too dry. She licked her lips.

  “Would you like some water?”

  Forcing her eyelids open she squinted against the bright light and saw Seb leaning over her, his brow drawn together in worry. When he saw her eyes were open, he smiled. “Hey.” He held up the glass of ice chips in question.

  She managed a nod and he plucked a chip from the glass
and popped it in her mouth. It felt glorious on her parched tongue and she moaned in relief. Her lips parted silently asking for another and Sebastian obliged, sliding another ice chip into her mouth.

  After her fifth ice chip she felt better, “You kicked her arse, right?”

  Sebastian's face grew sombre. “Of course. She nearly killed you.”

  “And Mikey's all right?”

  He nodded once, “He was awake by the time I pulled you back to shore. He drove while I kept you alive in the back.”

  Kept her alive? “So... I died?”

  “Your heart almost stopped twice,” he answered, his face going pale and strained. “Once in the water. As soon as I felt the connection between us breaking I pulled you from the water onto one of the boats and gave you CPR. The nymph was gloating the whole time and when I made sure you were stable, I made her pay for that. The second time was on the drive back to the compound. I gave you CPR again with Sarah's help and you were stable when we arrived here.” He ran his hands through his hair and let out a shuddering breath. “It's been three days, I was beginning to think you weren’t going to wake up.”

  Her heart had almost stopped twice. To think she'd come so close to dying and taking Seb with her. She grasped his hand in hers and squeezed. “Sarah helped?” She asked, surprised.

  “She was pretty hysterical in the car when I told her your heart was failing.”

  Charlotte could picture the scene easily in her mind and it made her shiver. “I'm glad we didn’t die.”

  “Me too.”

  They sat in silence for a while just grateful that they were both still alive.

  The door to the room opened and Sarah and the Director walked in, both looking uneasy, though, Sarah guessed, for different reasons.

  The Director stepped forward, his eyes taking in Charlotte before moving to Sebastian, “We have a problem that I could use your help with.”

  The vampire nodded once and bent to press a light kiss to her lips before following the boss from the room.

  Sarah shifted awkwardly from foot to foot and scratched at her arm. “I want to thank you again for saving Mikey.”