“You disappeared. You didn’t check in. You leave me to worry not just about you, but about our assignment and whether or not you’ve remembered about being polite to the Wolf Clan. You left me hanging. We’re supposed to be partners. Partners. What the hell were you thinking, you bastard?”
Piper’s attention slowly moved from the other Prime to her. He blinked. “I—”
“You what?”
* * *
Delilah’s bare shoulders were beautiful. She looked like Venus rising from the waves in the off-the-shoulder blue dress. The slinky material clung to her curves, the short skirt showed off her legs. His hands itched to rip the dress off and—
“Are you listening to me, Piper?”
“No.”
He bared his fangs at the Prime behind her, showing a full challenging snarl.
Delilah poked a finger against his chest. “You are not pulling this Primes’ challenge crap to try to distract me.”
“Instinct—” the other Prime said.
“If he followed his instincts he wouldn’t be such a pain in the ass,” Delilah cut him off.
Jake put his hands on McCoy’s lovely bare shoulders. His palms absorbed the sensual warmth of her skin. The points of his claws touched her.
“Draw blood and you’re meat,” one of the nearby Primes threatened Jake.
“If he doesn’t taste blood, they’ll both explode,” a female said.
Jake snapped his fangs at the intruders. Delilah paid no attention to this exchange. She kept glaring into his eyes. Her own eyes shown with tears. Her pain shot through him. He had to make her pain stop.
I don’t understand.
“You don’t understand…? What don’t you understand? You’re an asshole. I’d forgotten about that until just now. I came up with this stupid idea that maybe we belonged together. I don’t know where I got this idea, or why. You’re selfish and you’re clueless and you don’t care that I have as much thirst for you as—”
Kissing her shut her up, but it didn’t stop the accusations shouting in his head. He was as angry at himself as Dee was. It was almost as if there were three voices vying for attention in his mind. He didn’t want voices. He just wanted—
To give her everything.
Jake stepped back. Shaking. He would have fallen to his knees in pain, but Delilah grabbed his arms. She held him up.
“You two!” a woman’s stern voice broke into the moment. “Come with me.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Eden gave Laurent a worried look as Lady Juanita turned and led the bonding couple into the house. They were escorted by bodyguards. Several elders and other members of the Matri’s entourage followed.
“What’s up?” she asked Laurent.
“She doesn’t like Dark Angels.”
“It’s not like they’re done anything wrong,” Eden said. “For a vampire party.”
He handed Toni to one of her teenage babysitters. Laurent took Eden’s hand. He looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes. “Let’s find out what’s up.”
Eden smiled at him. “Sure.”
Eden loved that her own personal Prime was not the most conventional of vampires. They linked arms and followed the others inside. They ended up in the Citadel’s largest and most secure room. It was windowless and situated in the center of the main section of the hacienda-style mansion. Lady Juanita, Matri of Clan Wolf, was a night-dwelling vampire who took no daylight drugs. Very old school, was Lady Juanita. There weren’t a lot of lights on in the meeting room.
“Almost enough to make a girl whip on her night vision glasses.” Eden mouthed the words to Laurent, knowing he saw just fine, and could read her lips. He raised an eyebrow in reply, or she assumed he did, knowing him as she did.
They moved closer to Jake and Dee. Tapers burning on a candle stand shed some light on them. The couple stood in front of where Lady Juanita and another vampire female were seated.
The other woman watched Jake solemnly. “You are not yourself, Yakov. Are you?”
“No, Matri,” Jake Piper said.
“You are bonding.”
He didn’t answer. Dee gave him a furious look.
“Why are you here as a Dark Angel then?” Lady Juanita asked. Her dark eyes sparked with anger. “I was told you are in my territory to pursue an assignment. Your current condition does not bode well for this assignment. This does not bode well for the safety and security of my territory.”
Eden nudged Laurent with her elbow. He gave her a slight shake of his head, and his thought, This is Matri business, entered her head.
What’s the use of coming along to help if we don’t help? she thought back.
I bet we won’t have to. Let’s see where they take it.
It gave Eden headaches if she participated in too much mind talk, since she really wasn’t a telepath. So she subsided and watched the Matris confronting Jake and Dee.
“We do not wish to bring harm to your territory,” Jake said.
“We will leave immediately,” Dee added.
“You will do no such thing,” Lady Juanita said.
“Certainly not,” the other Matri said.
Dee and Jake looked at each other.
When Jake started to speak, Lady Juanita held up a hand to stop him.
“I appreciate your willingness to leave my territory, Prime of Family Piper, but I forbid it. I understand that you brought danger here unknowingly. I cannot blame a bonding Prime for any fool thing he does. Silence,” she added when Jake would have protested.
He looked toward the other Matri, who nodded for him to obey Juanita. His return nod was almost a respectful bow.
Eden guessed that she must be the Matri of Family Piper. Eden wondered if this Matri just happened to be visiting, or if Lady Juanita had sent for her the moment she found out about Jake and Dee. While real vampires couldn’t fly in the supernatural manner of legend, most Matri did have private jets.
Lady Juanita rose from her chair and approached Dee and Jake. She touched each on the forehead. The telepaths in the room seemed to be aware of something going on. Eden could only guess it was some sort of blessing, because the couple visibly relaxed, and the Matri was smiling at them.
“You are the guest of my Citadel for tonight, and as many nights as is necessary to bring you peace and completion.”
Her words were spoken kindly, but she had just made Jake and Dee into pampered prisoners for their own good.
Both Jake and Dee started to protest. The other Matri stepped up. She took each of them by the hand. “We welcome Craft blood into Family Piper.” She kissed Dee on the forehead.
Then she had a knife in her hand and she sliced open each of their thumbs with such speed that only the flash of firelight on steel showed what she’d done. Every vampire in the room focused their attention on the blood which seeped from the cuts.
The Piper Matri said, “Drink. Love. Be one.”
She lifted the couple’s hands so that blood ran down into their palms. Neither Jake or Dee could resist the imperative to share. Their mouths came down on each other’s hands. The telepaths gasped in the wash of eroticism. Even Eden felt it, and turned into her bondmate’s eager embrace.
It was a lovely wedding, Laurent thought as his mouth covered hers. Now let’s all go fuck.
Eden wished Jake and Dee well, but being with Laurent was everything to her. Yes, she answered him. Let’s.
* * *
“It was a bad dream,” the Cave wizard said.
Leviathan thought the old mortal might try to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder, and turned away. “It was a vision. It was true.”
“Dream. Vision. It doesn’t matter,” the prisoner said. “In a couple of days you’ll have destroyed the world. Go away and let us day dwellers go back to sleep while we still can.”
Leviathan walked away from the mortals, the damned day dwellers. He walked from the cave, into the welcome night. He heard one of the old men yawn as he walked out. To think that he wa
s depending on these frail creatures to bring him what he needed was grossly laughable.
And to think he was trying to rescue a lost brother who was caught in the complex spiderwebs the Matri wove around their males. They called them Primes, made them believe in their power, and used them as slaves.
The bitches had forced Yakov to let a female taste his blood. A female mortal at that. Leviathan might have been dozing when the knowledge forced itself on him, but he knew it was no dream.
When he left the cave, Leviathan walked down to the creek that ran through the property. The cave was situated on a hillside behind a mansion on the oak-lined creek. Their hiding place seemed isolated but was, in fact, in an exclusive neighborhood in the popular town. The owners were gone for the winter, but the Cave magician was right to assert that Leviathan’s psychic talent was needed to hide them. He couldn’t run to Yakov’ s aid. He admitted to himself that he couldn’t rescue his brother from a Clan Citadel. He had to wait, be patient, trust the Cave wizard.
Leviathan sat down on a boulder above the rushing water. He put his hands on the cold rock. He closed his eyes. He let the frustrated energy flow from him into the earth.
It was no surprise to Leviathan when the ground around him began to shake a little.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Jake wrapped his hands around the brass headboard, crushing it in his grip. He arched his back as Delilah rode his cock, and he howled in pleasure. The sweet taste of her blood was still on his tongue. His blood was in her. Hot blood called to hot blood, mingled, burned white hot through their veins.
Bliss. Utter, complete bliss.
Dee dropped forward on top of him. Her breasts pressed against his chest, her hips ground against his hips. Her heat surrounded him, sent him up and over the edge. His explosion triggered hers, reverberated between them, completed them. Exhaustion took him when the orgasm finally ebbed.
He grabbed Dee around the waist, moved her off him to tuck her against his side. Her head came to rest on his naked shoulder. She sighed into his ear, the soft sound and warm breath caressing him. She was asleep already. He reveled in being so at one with her that he was aware of her thoughts sinking into dreams. Of his dreams sinking into her, joining them.
The next thing Jake was aware of were lips brushing his throat, then moving to kiss his ear. He heard a soft, familiar sigh.
“I’m sorry,” Dee said.
What do you have to be sorry for? He didn’t have the strength to speak.
“For that woman not giving you the choice.”
Maybe she didn’t have the strength to think. Or was reluctant to share her thoughts with him—because she was sorry about drinking his blood.
“Shotgun wedding,” he said. “That’s what happens when Matris get involved. They’re all about the mating part of life. They can’t help it.”
“Well…it should have been your choice.”
“Vampires aren’t a democracy. You are the one who should have been given the choice.”
“Yes, I am. Still, I suppose the Matris were right, about this being inevitable. You can’t stop a bonding, right?”
Jake opened his eyes. He looked at the ceiling, not sure where they were or how long they’d been there, or even caring. The bed was soft. Every drop of blood they’d shared, all the times their bodies and souls joined, blended together into an exhausted, satiated haze were what mattered, not where it happened. There were some bright, sharp memories amid the mists, but mostly he was absorbed in the experience.
Dee was stretched out along his side, every warm, soft touch of her body against his absolutely perfect. The mingled scents of sex and her sweet aroma filled the air around him. Every part of him—body, soul, blood—simmered and hummed in satisfaction which was already growing into fresh need.
“Right now, I can’t imagine wanting to.”
* * *
But what about tomorrow? Dee wondered. She didn’t want to think about it, but Jake’s words had not been all that reassuring. Or maybe she was just paranoid.
“Maybe you are just paranoid,” he said.
“Am I?”
“There’s no going back for us, even if we want to.”
“Do we want to?”
“I know what we want right now.”
Not an answer. But as his hands began to roam over her and his mouth found her breast, conversation didn’t seem important any more. Especially after the sharp prick of fangs over her nipple sent Dee into the first ecstatic orgasm.
“You—you’re going to get fat,” she said after a few glorious moments of out-of-body pleasure. She ran her hands through Jake’s soft, dark hair. She was glad he didn’t wear it as short as many of the Dark Angels. “Can vampires get fat?”
Not that I know of.
Jake kissed and nipped his way down her body, drawing moans, and shudders of pleasure from her. “Sweet Goddess, help me!” Dee begged when he lifted her hips and settled his mouth on the damp, slick center between her legs.
Jake’s mouth was busy, but his thoughts replied, No mercy.
Oh, thank goodness, she thought back. Dee reveled in the work of his busy tongue.
Jake’s timing was as exquisite as his touch. He waited to sink his fangs into her thigh until she began to peak with a deep, explosive orgasm. He moved swiftly up, thrusting into her while her insides rippled and tightened with uncontrollable pleasure. Pleasure which built all over again with each hard, swift stroke of his cock.
* * *
It was the aroma of fresh coffee that took Dee’s attention from sex and memories of sex into a world that had more than mating in it. She lifted her head from where it rested on Jake’s chest, blew strands of hair from her face, and turned her head left, following her nose.
She didn’t know how it had gotten there, and hoped it wasn’t delivered during one of her and Jake’s frequent bouts of lovemaking, but she was so pleased to see the tray of food and drink she didn’t want to know.
Before she could slip out of bed she had to pry Jake’s arm from around her, which took a while. When she finally got up, she found a pair of black silk robes laid across the foot of the bed. Just how much sneaking around without their noticing had been done in here? Well, there was no reason to get all bent out of shape about it.
“I’m already bent out of shape enough.” Dee laughed, and stretched, and rubbed an aching spot on one hip. She walked slowly to the small table near a patio door and surveyed the treasures waiting there. There was a lot of food. There was a plate stacked with ham, bacon, sausages, and other forms of protein. Protein was very important to vampires. It was pretty important to Dee, too, as her rumbling stomach informed her. She was munching on a strip of crispy bacon before she noticed she’d picked it up.
Heavenly.
There were pastries, and toast, and a carafe of what she at first thought was blood but decided was tomato juice. A little vampire joke? And there was the tall silver pot of coffee. Dee poured herself a fine china cup full of rich brown liquid, slugged it down with far less respect than the exquisite flavor deserved, and headed for the bathroom.
Chapter Thirty-Three
When she emerged back in the bedroom after the longest, hottest shower she could stand, a still naked Jake Piper was sitting at the table. When she pulled up a chair opposite him, she instantly noticed that there wasn’t a lot of food left. So, if he was trying to distract her with the magnificent sight of himself, it didn’t work.
She glared.
He handed over a small plate containing a selection of pastries and a trio of chocolate-dipped strawberries. “I saved you some.”
“Girl food.” She snatched the last slice of ham from Jake’s plate and made a sandwich with a croissant. She poured herself a glass of tomato juice.
Jake made a disgusted face as she took a sip.
“What?” she asked.
“That stuff’s nasty.”
“But—it looks like—never mind.”
Dee drank the tomato juice
and studied the Prime across from her. His hair was tousled, he needed a shave, and all this scruffy looked wonderful on him. She smiled. Possessively.
He noticed.
She even found his smirk adorable. Love? Lust? Bonding? Was it all the same?
“Let’s not think about it right now,” Jake said. “We have more important things to work out. We need to get back to work.”
“Amen,” she answered instantly. Maybe too quickly from the moment of shock they shared. And the fierce agreement. “Well, the op is more important than our personal lives.”
Jake nodded, and they looked into each other’s eyes for a few moments. They didn’t share thoughts, but shared emotions which were completely in sync. They were Dark Angels, members of Tobias Strahan’s Crew. The Op came first.
“I think I know what we need to do,” Dee finally said. She poured them fresh cups of coffee. “We need to get back to basics,” she went on.
“Go back to Tobias’s feeling?” Jake asked.
“Remember when he made us do the join-hands-have-visions séance thing and he saw red rocks and we weren’t forthcoming about what we really saw?” She took a breath. “We should have been. I realize now that it was important.”
Suddenly there was nothing relaxed about Jake Piper. He looked away from her, his gaze taking in the room. It was decorated in the big brass bed, carved wooden furniture, and Spanish tiles, the walls warm terra cotta. There was a long oblong mirror set in a hammered silver frame. He frowned at the sight of the mirror.
“A very pretty prison,” he said.
“Focus, Yakov,” Dee said. She opened her robe, baring her breasts. That got him looking at her again.
“How am I supposed to focus when you do that?”
She grinned. “Come on, partner. Time to be honest with each other about our visions. What did you see?”
“You said you saw porn.”
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