Vampire Coalition - Complete Collection

by J. S. Scott

  "Vampire healers don't have a life of their own, Regan. You know that," he answered her calmly as he continued to watch her and consume enormous amounts of food at the same time. It was a skill he had perfected since he and Regan had started having dinner together every night.

  Regan sighed as she put down her spoon and stopped eating to look at him. "You work too hard, Liam. You need to have some of the other healers work more. You deserve some sort of life."

  It was strange that he had never really cared about how much he worked, which was why he answered most of the healing calls. He was re-thinking that now that he wanted to spend more time with Regan. She made him want to do more than work. It wasn't easy to change habits that had formed over hundreds of years and the other healers still grumbled about taking their share of calls sometimes, but he was starting to kick their asses into gear. He had spoiled them over the last few hundred years.

  "I'm working on it." At least he had some time every day to do something other than work and fall into an exhausted day sleep. His friendship with Regan had made him reconsider a lot of things that he had never even thought about before.

  Regan pushed her plate away as she added, "And you need to tell your brothers about the backlash."

  Oh, hell no. "I can't do that. If they get into trouble they would never call me." Time to change the subject. "Are you going to eat any more of the pot stickers?"

  Regan laughed lightly and shoved the container of pan fried dumplings toward Liam. "I'm full. They're all yours. I don't know how you manage to put away so much food."

  He grinned as he grabbed up the container. "Vampire metabolism."

  "Did you feed today?"

  "Nope. Worked too late."

  There it was, the little crinkle that formed between her eyebrows when she was concerned. Liam wanted to lean over the low table and kiss it from her forehead.

  "You're a healer. You expend a lot of energy and you need to feed every day. Human food won't cut it," she informed him, probably for the millionth time in the last eight months.

  "Tomorrow," he promised.

  "You always say that."

  "I always do it.," he reminded her, grumbling the reply. Was there anything he wouldn't do for Regan?

  Liam hated feeding, but he always did it once he promised Regan that he would. Otherwise, he avoided it as long as possible, disliking the fact that he had to find human donors and take their blood without consent. He knew he had to do it to continue to thrive and serve his people, but he received no pleasure from the act. It was simply a necessity.

  Regan always sounded like a concerned mate, worrying about him like he really meant something to her...and Liam ate it up. Had any woman ever cared about him in that way? Probably not. He had lost count of how many women he had screwed in his early days, but none of them had ever given a shit about him. They had wanted sexual satisfaction from an able male, and he had given it to them.

  He released a tired breath as he finished off the last fried dumpling and dropped the empty container on the table. How did he ever get lucky enough to find a friend like Regan? Hell yes, she fussed sometimes. But he actually enjoyed it. He found himself wanting to humor her, make her happy. She didn't exactly have it easy herself as a mage healer, and he was obsessed with keeping her happy, keeping her safe.

  "You're the most frustrating vampire I know," she mumbled as she crossed her arms.

  He quirked a brow at her and tried not to laugh. "And exactly how many vampires are you personally acquainted with?" Since mage and vampire didn't mix, Liam was willing to bet that the only ones she knew were his brothers.

  She shot him an irritated don't-go-there look and huffed, "You're frustrating, Liam Hale."

  "You're beautiful." It popped out of Liam's mouth without a thought and he said it with complete honesty. She was beautiful, and he wasn't referring to just her gorgeous baby blues and silky blonde hair that brushed her shoulders in cute, fat curls. He loved those twisted locks. They made him want to reach out and straighten them to see if they would bounce right back into place.

  Regan radiated a quiet strength and compassion that drew him to her with an intensity that he couldn't seem to fight...and didn't want to fight. While he had always had his brothers for companions, he had still been incredibly lonely before he had met Regan. He loved his brothers and would give his life for any one of them, but there were certain things that he couldn't talk to them about, forcing him to keep them at a distance.

  Maybe his brothers had never felt the distance - but Liam felt it, especially with his twin, Rory.

  All of his brothers were now mated and although Liam was happy for them, it had made the loneliness that much more acute. Until he had met Regan. She eased the ache, made the loneliness fade while she was near him. A mage healer, Regan understood him, sometimes better than he understood himself.

  "Don't think that compliments will get you out of feeding." Regan still had her arms crossed and now her eyebrows were raised as she glared at him, but Liam could see the underlying amusement in her expression.

  "Do they ever?" he quipped, his tone wry, as he shot her a questioning gaze.

  "Nope," she tossed back at him. "I'm completely immune to your charm."

  Damn. Something inside of Liam flinched as he wondered why that comment scored a hit. For some perverse reason he really didn't want her to be immune to him, but he certainly couldn't seduce her. His mind was more than willing...but his body wasn't capable. "I'll feed tomorrow, Regan. I've never broken a promise to you."

  Her face softened and she smiled, a smile that lit up Liam's whole world and nearly knocked him on his ass. "I know you haven't and I know you wouldn't," she murmured softly.

  Liam's felt a pang in his chest and barely stopped himself from rubbing it. There were moments when Regan could make him feel like the most powerful creature on earth just because of her trust and faith in him. God help him, but he never wanted to lose that.

  "My council has chosen a mate for me," Regan said quietly, almost as if she was talking to herself.

  "Oh, Christ! Again?" Shit! Liam noted to himself that he'd have to take care of that problem for longer than a few months this time. This was the third mate they had chosen for Regan in the last eight months. He was so fucking tired of the mage council trying to sell Regan off to the highest bidder with the best bloodline as if she was a damn prize cow. "I'll take care of it, Regan."

  "No, Liam. You've always refused to tell me how you got me out of the other matches, but I can make a good guess. You can't keep doing this. This man doesn't sound so bad," she said hesitantly.

  "Over my dead body," Liam growled.

  Regan started twirling a lock of her hair, something that Liam knew she only did when she was nervous. "I have to mate eventually.”

  "No...you don't. Not until you find the right one. You don't love him."

  "Love isn't part of our mating process," she answered quietly.

  "It will be for you. You deserve to be loved and cherished." Liam tried to get a grip on his irritation. Love wasn't a part of the mage mating process. It wasn't really part of a vampire mating either, but all of his brothers had gotten lucky and he didn't want to see anything less for Regan. He'd buy off a thousand potential mage mates for Regan before he saw her mated to some jerk who didn't appreciate her. The mage might value blue blood, but the snobby assholes were severely lacking in funds. Luckily, money was something Liam had in an almost unlimited supply. He wouldn't miss a million...or three, and wouldn't hesitate to part with the money again to save Regan the heartache of mating with a male who would make her life miserable.

  Personally, Liam thought the mages needed a serious infusion of new blood. Their gene pool was obviously screwed up from too much inbreeding. Well...with a few exceptions. Sasha was great...and Regan was damn near perfect. If he could have chosen the perfect mate for himself...

  Don't go there, buddy. It isn't happening!

  Liam jerked himself back to reality as
he listened to Regan speak. "Fine. I'll get to know him first this time. He's closer to my age and maybe I'll fall madly in love, but I don't want you to interfere. I'll handle it. You can't fight my battles for me, Liam." Regan was up on her knees now and glaring down at Liam, who still had his ass flat on the floor. Liam tried not to let his amusement show on his face. It wasn't like she had gained much height on him, even in her elevated position. She was a compact spitfire, but then, her strength and power had nothing to do with her physical size.

  "Of course I can." He rose to his knees and crossed his arms over his chest as they glowered at each other. Despite his delight at her little flash of temper, this wasn't a battle that Liam intended to lose. "I'm your friend…I'm male...and I'm a vampire," he told her seriously, like that explained everything that she needed to know.

  Regan tossed her head and broke his gaze as she flopped onto her back, rolling with laughter. "Oh my God, Liam! You can be so arrogant and chauvinistic sometimes." She rolled onto her side to look up at him as she continued to chortle and choked out, "Just when I think you're coming into the twenty-first century, you go all knight-in-shining-armor on me."

  His arms stayed crossed and he gave her a dark look as he replied, "I'm not that old. And I don't see women as inferior, but they are not as physically strong and sometimes require protection." And damn it, he'd be more than willing to slay dragons for her if she had any stalking her.

  "Tarzan?" she suggested, still giggling.

  "Completely fictional," he answered in denial.

  "Tyrant?"

  He seemed to consider that for a moment and replied, "Possibly."

  Regan propped herself on her elbows, tears of mirth flowing down her cheeks, and said lightly, "Come back to the twenty-first century, Grandpa. We need to discuss this rationally."

  Liam took a deep breath to tell her there was no way he was letting her mate with someone who wasn't good enough for her when his phone started vibrating on the table.

  Nathan. "Yeah, Nathan," he ground out irritably.

  "Liam? Can you meet us all downtown? We have a fallen situation."

  Since Nathan was all business, Liam took the location of the meeting, promising he would get there as soon as he could.

  "I have to go help my brothers...but this discussion isn't over,"

  Liam warned her ominously as he ended the phone call abruptly.

  Regan frowned and stood up as Liam rose to his feet. "Please tell me you aren't going out to destroy fallen vampires." Her voice was trembling, all traces of amusement gone.

  "I'll just assist. Don't worry." Liam couldn't resist and bent down to try to kiss away the worry lines between her eyes. They didn't disappear, but he had that brief, fleeting moment of feeling her soft skin beneath his lips and breathing in the light sent of lilacs before he started to fade.

  He knew his brothers were waiting for him so he started summoning the power to teleport himself to the designated meeting place.

  "Please be careful."

  That sweet, feminine voice and the sight of her lightly touching the spot where he had pressed a butterfly kiss were last things he heard and saw before he was abruptly transported to his brothers.

  And all hell broke loose.

  *****

  Chapter 2

  Was Liam a complete masochist, or just a vampire healer with a constant death wish?

  Regan had been contemplating the same question for the last two hours as she paced Liam's large, tastefully decorated living room. She had long since cleaned up any remnants of their Chinese meal even though Liam could have done it with a wave of his hand. The task had occupied her body, but it didn't stop her mind from racing with fear for his safety.

  Damn it! When would the stubborn vampire admit that, as a vampire healer, he was different? He couldn't fight battles with the fallen and come out unscathed. She had watched him suffer way too often not feel outraged over the entire situation. His brothers needed to know, but Liam certainly wasn't going to be the one to enlighten them.

  Liam was her friend, she reminded herself as she stopped pacing before she wore a hole in the plush carpeting and flopped onto a comfortable leather sofa. When he was hurting, it nearly killed her.

  Because Liam is your mate!

  Regan wanted to shake her head in denial, but it wouldn't help. Liam was her mate, but he could never know the truth. How many times had she wanted to tell him to see if they could solve the mystery of the intimacy clause in the Book Of The Vampire Healer?

  You love him.

  God help her, but she did love Liam Hale with every breath in her body, which is why he could never know that she was his chosen mate. She couldn't pinpoint the exact moment when she had known that she loved him, but his safety had become her number one priority.

  Regan had known the truth about being his mate since her sister had mated with his brother Nathan eight months ago. It hadn't been difficult to figure out who the mark that was imprinted on her hip belonged to after she had seen Sasha's marking and her sister had revealed its meaning. Liam had been the last unmated brother and his mark was very similar to Nathan's. The mark of the dragon.

  Regan curled her body into the corner of the sofa and shivered as she remembered the horror of the night the mage council had come to her home, shortly after Sasha had mated with Nathan, and stripped her naked to look for the mating mark of the vampire on her body. Her own mother had ratted Regan out, remembering that her youngest daughter had the strange birthmark. While Sasha's mark had appeared on her eighteenth birthday, Regan had been born with hers. After slowly and painfully altering the mark, the council had given her a choice - mate with the mage of their choice or see Liam killed by the mage league of assassins.

  Tears leaked from Regan's eyes as she rubbed the altered mark on her hip. While the pain of the alteration had been excruciating, the fact that Liam would never be hers hurt even more. She could never risk him, never tell him that they were destined mates. And oh...how she wanted to blurt out the truth and try every intimate act that she could think of to fire his mating instinct.

  But would Liam even want me?

  He was fond her. Regan knew that. What she didn't know is if he would really want her as a mate. He treated her like buddy or a sister and while she knew he wanted her company, would he ever want her as she wanted him? Yeah...he threw her an occasional compliment, but she suspected it was more out of sympathy than any other emotion.

  Maybe she should just mate with the mage council's choice and get it over with. She would be forcefully separated from Liam's company and possibly get over her raging desire for Liam. Getting over it would be good since he would never be hers. Why prolong the agony?

  Liam insisted that being a healer kept him too busy and that he would never mate because he couldn't be a good partner. Did he mean that, or was he only saying it to make himself feel better about the slim possibility of finding his mate?

  It doesn't matter. You'll never have the opportunity to find out.

  Only Sasha and the council knew that she was Liam's destined mate and she had begged Sasha not to share the truth with Nathan. Nathan would certainly tell Liam and then Liam...would be dead. Somehow, at some point, the league of mage assassins would take him out. Sasha had been hesitant to hold back the truth from Nathan, but Regan's sister also knew the power of the league of mage assassins. That knowledge had been enough to keep Sasha silent on the subject of Liam and Regan.

  Regan wiped the tears from her cheeks in swipes of angry resignation. Why did she torture herself by spending nearly every day in Liam's company?

  Because you can't stay away. You love him, you feel his loneliness, feel his need for companionship.

  It was true. She couldn't stay away from him and although their time together was both bliss and torture, she ached to be near him.

  She was drawn to him, compelled to try to take care of him. Liam had been conditioned almost from birth to sacrifice...and he needed a friend to save him from himself. H
e gave too much, kept too many secrets, and never gave a second thought to the price he had to pay for keeping those secrets or making those sacrifices.

  "Oh, Liam," she sighed softly as she remembered how he had pursued her friendship in the beginning even though she had tried to brush him off. She had never had a chance against his determination and persistence. Liam Hale could be a total pain in the ass when he wanted to be. A handsome, sexy, caring, and sometimes arrogant pain in the ass, but still, a continual pain in the ass when he wanted something. And for some unknown reason, Liam had wanted Regan's friendship and companionship. Who could ignore those chocolate brown eyes filled with an emptiness that tugged at her heart and that muscular, towering body that was made for sins that Regan hadn't even contemplated committing before she met Liam? Lately, she had been thinking about sex way too much.

  Regan felt an irrational ping of jealousy toward all of the women that Liam had ever had in his bed. Those women might be hundreds of years deceased, but she still disliked every one of them for having a part of Liam that she would never see. What would he look like with his dark hair mussed and his eyes filled with desire?

  Absolutely terrifying! And completely irresistible.

  Crap...the man was already an unholy temptation and he had zero sexual desire, she could only image what those women had felt during the time that they were the object of his desire. No doubt, Liam had satisfied every one of them.

  Regan's womb clenched and her nipples hardened at the thought. She had never had a man inside of her because the mage didn't have relations with anyone other than their mate, but she was a healer. It wasn't as if she didn't understand the act, but for the first time she craved it with a man...with Liam.

  She wrapped her arms around her body and tried not to feel the pain of longing for something that she could never have. She was mage and had been taught from the time that she was an infant not to display her emotions. Naturally quiet, shy and withdrawn, the way of the mage had come easily to her...until she had met Liam. He fired a whole barrage of emotions that she wasn't used to handling on a daily basis. It felt good to be alive, to laugh, to have someone that she could talk to other than her sister, Sasha. But being with Liam also brought a certain amount of pain and fear that she had to stuff deep inside of herself or end up suffocated by the emotions.