Jace

by Sarah McCarty; Sarah McCarty

  As his fingers shaped to the curve, a sense of familiarity flowed with her indrawn breath. After so much wrong, this was so right. The sheer pleasure of it pulled her lids down.

  “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

  His drawl was a deep husk, the human equivalent to a satisfied growl. She didn’t hesitate. “How right your touch feels.”

  His thumb stroked over her nipple, the calluses dragging against her sensitive flesh. “Compared to what?”

  She frowned, not wanting to analyze the feeling, preferring to just enjoy it. “Compared to nothing. It’s just…right.”

  She opened her eyes. He was watching her, his eyes lit with vampire heat, his expression fiercely tender and passionate.

  “Yes, it is.”

  This time his thumb lingered and pressed. A curl of heat spread from her nipple inward, stretching straight to her core. She lifted herself that fraction of an inch required to connect their bodies.

  The sheets rustled. The mattress sank as Jace countered her move with one of his own. Not completing the connection, just holding it, reminding her he’d always been one for prolonging the moment, building the anticipation.

  “This time it’s just going to be you and me,” she breathed.

  “And a hundred memories that you can’t hope to forget.”

  Miri didn’t want to think about that. She didn’t want to believe that the past she was working so hard to bury and forget could intrude upon this time between them. “I just want it new between us, Jace.”

  “There can’t be new without old, princess. I know that and you know that. That’s why you’re fighting so hard against thinking.”

  She raked her nails down his chest the way he liked, leaving a trail of red streaks, transient marks, not the permanent one she would give him if she believed this could last. But her mark all the same. His groan encouraged her soft whisper, “You know you want to make love to me.”

  He thwarted her efforts to finish the joining with a hand on her hip. “Not like this, Miri. Not now, with the biggest pretense in your life wedged between us.”

  Yes, now. She needed this now, before she disappeared, before she lost the courage. “It’s not your place to deny me.”

  “Is that a were rule?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, it’s one we won’t be following. When we make love, it will be because both of us feel it’s right.”

  The rage ballooned within, searing her fingers, her mouth, her soul with the endless pain she’d always smothered but found she now wanted to release at him—a scream that had no point anymore. She gritted her teeth and held it in through sheer force of will. “We’re mated.”

  His hand brushed her cheek before drifting down to her throat as if they had all the time in the world, resting on the pulse beneath. She didn’t have a prayer of hiding how fast it was beating.

  “And you’re hurting.” There was no budge in the steel underlying the carefully drawled statement. No break in the caress of his touch, the softness of his energy that held her even as he delivered the killing blow to her plans. “That gets fixed before the other gets indulged.”

  Damn you! The thought roared through her mind, hovered on her tongue. It took everything in her not to set the curse free. And through the violent but brief struggle, Jace watched her, probably learning more than she wanted in the few seconds it took her to regain control.

  A knock at the front door erupted into the tense silence. Jace was out of the bed in a flash. Miri clutched the blankets to her chest. Knowing he could read the energy she could only sense, she asked. “Who is it?”

  “Jared and some others.”

  The pounding came harder, more urgent. “Jace!”

  “Wait here.” Jace didn’t bother with clothes, just strode out of the room, unself-conscious in his nakedness, the flex of his taut buttocks as he moved a potent definition of male grace and beauty. Miri swung her legs out of the bed, clutching her stomach against the surge of nausea. Grabbing the sheet, she wrapped it around her, tugging it free of the bed as she scooted to the edge of the mattress. The front door opened with a disjointed creak. Straining her ears, she caught one word out of the murmur of voices. “Baby.”

  She didn’t need to hear any more. She ran to the front of the house, yanking on the sheet as it caught on a chair leg, almost falling, ending up tripping her way to everyone’s attention. Jace caught her with a deceptively casual reach, his fingers wrapping around her arm.

  Tobias and Micah stared at her, disapproval in their dark gazes, whether in regard to her state of undress or her barging into a male conversation, she didn’t know or care. Jace’s reaction was just as easy to read, seeing as his gaze was focused on her chest. She glanced down. Her breasts were all but bare.

  “I thought I told you to wait in the bedroom.”

  She hitched up her sheet to a more modest level. “Someone mentioned a baby.”

  He sighed, pulling her to him. “Yes.”

  As if he knew how devastating the wrong word could be to the fragile thread of her sanity, Jace spoke very carefully. “Word is there were some Sanctuary vamps spotted with a baby thirty miles south of here.”

  Miri’s breath stuttered to a stop, swelling against the constriction of her throat, burning with hope. Faith. Oh, my God. They might have found Faith.

  She reached up and grabbed Jace’s hand where it rested on her shoulder. “Faith.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up, Miri,” Jared cautioned. “We’re just checking every lead. It might not be her.”

  “How many were babies could there be running around without their mother?” she managed to rasp out.

  Jace turned her in to his side, hugging her tightly. Beneath his skin, she could feel the same electric charge of disbelief colliding with hope.

  “It doesn’t seem likely that there would be a lot of them. But we can’t know for sure until we get there.”

  “It could also be a trap,” Tobias interjected in that cool, measured tone of his.

  Miri looked from him to Micah, hating them for the sympathy and pity in their eyes. Sympathy that tried to stifle the hope she wouldn’t give up.

  “But that’s not going to stop you from looking, is it?”

  Her heart trip-hammered in her chest. Adrenaline flowed through her system, driving the pain and nausea in her stomach higher. It couldn’t stop them.

  She felt the brush of Jace’s energy, then her heartbeat slowed and her anxiety lowered. He tipped her chin up. “Nothing is going to stop us from looking.”

  It was a promise. She breathed it in along with his scent. No. Jace wouldn’t let them stop looking.

  Almost silent footsteps sounded behind her. “The plan is to search while taking as many precautions as we can.”

  She snapped her head around. Jared emerged from the shadows. She pinned him with her glare. “Take risks.”

  “We are.”

  “We’re just not risking you,” Jace clarified.

  Which explained the disapproval from Tobias and Micah. They’d thought to keep this from her, their naturally protective instincts demanding she be spared the stress of “maybes.” They needed to understand that wasn’t an option. “Even me.”

  Jace tipped her face up. “You’re never on the table.”

  Tobias checked his watch. “We need to move.”

  Miri ducked out from under Jace’s arm. “I’ll be ready in ten.”

  Tobias looked at her with those cold amber eyes of his. “You’re not coming.”

  “You can’t stop me.”

  “I’m forbidding it.”

  “I’m not pack anymore.”

  “Once pack, always pack.”

  She blinked. That was a very radical thing for an Enforcer to say. They were more known for upholding tradition than breaking them. And her mating to Jace put her outside the pack because a vampire would not be allowed to lead, no matter what tradition said about her husband. “I’m going.”

  “No.”
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  She met his gaze and held it, not feeling one bit of discomfort at so blatantly challenging an Alpha male. After the last year, he was going to have to do a lot better than a glare to scare her into submission. She held his gaze for another second and then the enormity of what Jace had said rolled over her. A baby. The thought wouldn’t leave her head. They’d found a baby without a mother. A were baby caught up with vampires. The breath caught in her lungs. Her eyes closed, blocking Tobias’s expression from view. Blocking out everything except the hope. It had to be Faith. Had to be.

  Jace’s energy touch the edges of hers. “Breathe, Miri.”

  She didn’t think she’d ever breathe again. She spun on her heel, heading for the bedroom and her clothes. Jace caught her shoulder. She glanced back at him, only catching a glimpse of his face. It was enough to let her know he agreed with Tobias. She turned the rest of the way, her hand coming up, her lip curling in a snarl. “Don’t say it.”

  “It’s too dangerous.”

  “You’re going.”

  “I’m a vampire at full strength with lots of experience kicking ass.”

  Frustration boiled over. “What you really mean is you’re a man.”

  “Being male does give me a lot more muscle.”

  She yanked on her arm. “I don’t care.”

  “I do.”

  His energy surrounded her, tested her determination. She didn’t block him. She wanted him to see the truth. If he left her here, she’d just follow.

  His hands moved over her shoulders to the sides of her neck, searching, probing. His gorgeous eyes glowed with a beauty from which she couldn’t look away. His energy tugged at hers. Regret touched his expression.

  “I’m sorry.”

  A push of his energy, a sudden pressure from his fingers, and then everything went black.

  JACE caught Miri as she fell, supporting her head with his hand.

  “She’s going to be pissed as hell when she wakes up,” Slade said, coming into the house.

  Jace glanced over at him as he scooped Miri into his arms. “Facing her temper is better than having her get caught up in trouble.”

  “She’s definitely had more than her fair share of that,” Tobias agreed, following Slade inside.

  “And she’s had all she’s going to have.” Miri wasn’t rational when it came to finding Faith. She was too desperate, too willing to sacrifice herself. He couldn’t allow that. “She needs to be protected.”

  “I get that, but I’m not so sure Miri’s going to.”

  “Well, I’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

  In the meantime, she’d be safe. That was all that mattered. He hitched her up as he turned sideways through the bedroom door. Keeping Miri safe and getting his daughter back—he blew out a breath—God willing, tonight he’d accomplish both.

  He stopped just inside the door. The rumpled bed, the lingering scent of their passion dominated his senses.

  Make love to me.

  Her hair brushed his calf, sliding over his skin in the memory of a caress. One of these days she’d be back in his bed. All of her, not just the parts she thought he could understand. After she got over the anger of what he was about to do, that is.

  He laid her on the bed, placed his hand over her forehead, and sent a command deep into her mind.

  He felt a presence. He didn’t look up, giving the order first.

  Sleep.

  “That’ll hold her for about two seconds.”

  He glanced at Jared, lounging in the doorway.

  He smoothed his fingers over the pleat between her brows. “I need her to sleep for a hell of a lot longer than that.”

  Jared crossed the distance to the bed, his power surging before him like a living entity. People called Jace wild because he didn’t hide who he was, but in his book, his brothers were the ones to watch out for. Caleb with his exceptional abilities cloaked by that ruthless control. Jared with his power that no one ever saw coming unless he allowed it. Slade with his intelligence that overlay an outlaw’s disregard for rules. Hell, they were all much more dangerous than he.

  Jared brushed his fingers over Miri’s brow, the tips grazing Jace’s knuckles. “You have to do it like this if you want it to override her maternal instincts.”

  Jace followed Jared’s energy into Miri’s mind, studied how he attached the command like a lock on the door of her subconscious, trapping her in her own mind.

  The analogy made him uncomfortable.

  “Do you want her following us as soon as we leave?” Jared asked.

  “No.” He couldn’t allow Miri to put herself in danger. He left the mind block there and glanced at Jared. “Thank you.”

  A smile kicked up the corner of Jared’s mouth. “I’m not so sure you should be thanking me. She’s not going to like this.”

  “So you already said.”

  “So I did.”

  Jared studied Miri. “She has a lot of weird ideas about vampires, doesn’t she?”

  “I guess myth can override reason in immortals as well as mortals.”

  “Maybe.”

  “You don’t sound convinced.”

  “Miri strikes me as a very rational woman.”

  Jace waited, knowing there was more coming.

  “Whose sanity is hanging by a very thin thread,” Jared finished.

  Jace blinked. “It’s that obvious?”

  Jared shrugged. “Her mind is an open book with very few natural defenses.”

  Pain in his hands and the scent of blood alerted him to the fact that his talons were cutting into his palms. “The Sanctuary would have taken advantage of that.”

  Jared nodded. “Slade was right. Their touch is all over her mind.”

  Jace asked the one question he was afraid to find out the answer to. “Are they controlling her?”

  “No, but they didn’t leave her a hell of a lot to rebuild on.” He studied Miri, his power centering. “She needs something to anchor her.”

  “I’m trying.”

  Jared frowned, his energy intensified. Miri moaned. Jace controlled the primitive urge to lash out at his brother, to drive him from his mate’s mind. He needed answers more than he needed a testosterone moment, as Allie would call it.

  “She relies on your strength, but she needs more.”

  “What?”

  Jared shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Great. Just what he needed. A directive with no guidelines.

  With a jerk of his chin, Jace motioned to the door. “As soon as I get her settled here, I’ll catch up with you.”

  Jared nodded, turned, and then hesitated in the doorway. “I’m glad you found her, Jace.”

  “Thanks. I am, too.”

  Another hesitation and then he turned back, his gaze following Jace’s. “You probably already know this, but she’s a hell of a fighter.”

  “I know.” He traced the line of her jaw, the tip of her chin. Jared still didn’t leave. Jace looked up. “What?”

  “I think with the right incentive, the old Miri will come out swinging.”

  It would help if someone could tell him what she needed, what incentive would work. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  He felt more than heard Jared’s departure.

  Jace slid Miri down on the bed, unwrapping her from the sheet, shaking it out over her. He touched her pale cheek. She was still beautiful, in spite of the scars and the loss of that vibrant life that used to surround her. As he pulled the comforter over her, he whispered, “We’ve just got to find the key, princess, and it’ll all fall into place.”

  Jace joined the others on the porch. Slade tossed him a gun. He caught it with his free hand, leaning his rifle against the wall. He checked it over. “Anything new on this one?”

  “The sunlight replicator is a hell of a lot stronger.”

  Jace sighted down the barrel. “That’ll come in handy.” He brought the gun down and told Slade, “You look like hell.”

  “Thanks.” Slade ran
his hand through his hair, the too-long bangs falling over his forehead, giving him an untamed look more suited to the outlaw side of his past than his current life as a scientist. The dark circles under his eyes and the bearded shadow on his face added a disreputable look to the overall package. “Joseph isn’t doing so well.”

  Damn. “Any idea why?”

  “I’m running tests, but from the information I have…” He slung his rifle over his shoulder. “I don’t have a clue.”

  Slade looked to the main house and the lights burning there. The door opened. A man came out. Only one man carried himself like that, walked like that. Caleb.

  “Shit, I told him to stay here.”

  Even from this distance, Jace could feel the worry coming off Caleb. When Caleb reached them, Jace said, “As much as I appreciate this, you need to stay here with your wife and son.”

  Caleb’s gaze met his, the green of his eyes intense, the set of his mouth resolute. He held out his hand. Slade passed him a rifle. “If it is Faith, you’ll need me.”

  “But if it’s not—”

  “We don’t know that it’s not.” He glanced at Slade. “You look like hell.”

  Slade settled his hat on his head. “So I’m told. When I get around to cloning myself, I’ll make a note to give him rosy cheeks.”

  Tobias pushed off the railing and came into the circle.

  Caleb slung his rifle over his shoulder and accepted a pack of ammunition from Tobias. “We need to find you some help.”

  Slade shrugged. “Good luck finding someone bright enough, who we know for sure isn’t Sanctuary.”

  And that was the hell of it, Jace knew. Slade was the only one with a scientific bent to his mind who was a hundred percent Johnson. They had too much to lose to risk trusting outsiders. “Thanks for coming.” He looked over at Caleb. “But I think you should stay here. Your wife and son need you.”

  “My wife is the one who pushed me out the door.”

  “Uh-huh.” He didn’t believe that for a minute. No new mother with a sick child wanted her husband going into battle.

  “For your information, Allie said she’d have my head on a platter if I didn’t go with you.”