by M. L. Briers
“Coffee.” She purred, and it sounded much like the sound she had made last night, the one that made his erection twitch, and this one did much the same.
“Well you can’t drink it through the pillow.” He reached for her and gently turned her over, brushing her hair from over her face and running his warm fingers down her cheek. She instinctively curled into his touch and he smiled. Lifting her from the mattress and onto his lap, she curled up against his chest as he stroked her hair, soothing her properly and she sighed.
“My head hurts.” She moaned and he couldn’t help the smile that touched his lips.
“Lightweight.” He teased and she sighed again.
“That feels nice.” Silver forced her eyes to open as best they could and she scowled up at him. “Why are you being so nice?”
“Because I’m your mate, I’m supposed to take care of you.” His voice was gentle now, still deep, but he spoke softly and she shrugged.
“But I zapped you…”
“And tossed me on my backside in the mud…”
“Three times. Why didn’t the mate thing stop me?”
“Because you’re a Fae and we all know how evil they can be.” He chuckled, and she pushed against his chest and away from him. She scowled at him. Damn, it even hurt to scowl.
“Why am I even in your room?” She tried glaring, but she squinted against the light of the window behind him instead.
“Because of Ashley and Vaughn…” He reminded her, but she just looked at him as if he were insane.
“What about Ashley?”
“You don’t remember much about last night, do you?”
“Of course I do.” She tried a sneer and that hurt too. “And put me down when I’m mad at you.” She declared trying to move off his lap, but having neither the energy nor the willpower to do it.
“Hey sweetheart, if you want to move, I’m not stopping you.” He growled a little and she flinched.
“I need coffee… and a shower… and more coffee… and maybe hair of the dog…” She looked at him and he grinned at her, raising a brow suggestively, and she palmed his chest and pushed back further, but didn’t really get anywhere. “Down boy…” Then her eyes widened and her face became drawn, but she realised that she was still dressed and relaxed slightly.
“No, we didn’t.” He informed her in a tone that sounded a little deeper and gruffer than before, as he noted her eyes drop down to her clothes. “I’m a gentleman.” He added and she cocked a brow at him and snorted.
“Sure you are.” He stood up in one fluid motion and turned, letting her drop back to the bed, as her heart raced and she squealed in annoyance. Her head thumping all over again.
“One of these days woman!” He growled down at her and she snorted again.
“Woman. I have a damn name.” But he was already stalking for the bedroom door, and he didn’t spare her head when he slammed it shut.
Silver moaned as her head pounded, and she rolled back over onto her stomach and buried her face in the covers that had his scent.
Standing looking down on the gathering, Jessop watched under hooded eyes at the sight that made his blood boil with the well concealed anger at such an offence to their kind. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. There was a pecking order to their world and vampire took their rightful place at the top of it.
Immortal. The word said it all. They were kings in their own right. They couldn’t die, not that they couldn’t be killed, but even nature had no effect on their power. They had once been cast into darkness, but that had worn away over time. The longer they lived, the less the sunlight took effect on their bodies. They were gods and should be treated as such.
He heard the younger vampire coming half a mile away and waited for the rush of breeze that would signal his arrival.
“What did you find out?” Jessop was more than eager for word. He had heard the rumours, but after so long he didn’t quite believe they were true.
“He’s found his mate, and she is Fae.” Cain’s revelation couldn’t have been more damning if he had tried. Jessop burned with the fire of a thousand suns for the indignity of it all.
“Has he bonded with her yet?” Jessop hissed between his clenched teeth.
“Nobody has seen him today, but not before last night, no.” Cain instinctively took a step back from his sire. He’d never seen Jessop in such a foul mood before, and he thought he had seen him at his very worst. This was different and he worried for his own head.
“Is she pure Fae or a half breed?” Jessop didn’t have the patience for such a slow response. Turning on his heels, he had the younger vampire by his throat against the nearest tree in an instant. His eyes blazed red and he hissed past his fangs.
“Pure.” Cain pushed out through the tight constriction in his throat. He felt the crush of his windpipe and knew it would heal, that was if it got the chance.
Jessop let go and took a step backwards as the younger vampire dropped to his knees in the dirt. Taking a moment to regain his strength as his body healed, he stood back up and waited for his sire’s next question.
“Kill her.” Jessop turned and was gone, leaving Cain staring down at the gathering.
CHAPTER SIX
Silver pushed open the door to the cabin and stepped inside. Glad to be out of the daylight and knowing just how a vampire must feel. It was just a blessing it wasn’t sunny, because her glasses were in the car and she wasn’t making a detour around the field just to get them. She had a bone to pick with her two so called friends, and she was up to giving them a piece of her mind now that she felt just a little more human again.
The sight of Ashley coming out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel and dripping all over the floor made her want to growl herself. The smile died on her friend’s lips as she stared back at her.
“Wow Silver, you really look that bad.” Ashley spat out and Silver felt her nerves tingling within her. She wanted to hit someone, right now she wasn’t sure who, but she had a list. “What did he do to you?” Ashley sniggered and Silver’s back straightened.
“So you did know where I was, you just thought it a good idea to let the mutt have me? What kind of a friend…?” Silver’s jaw sagged downwards as the bathroom door opened again and Vaughn stepped out wearing a towel around his waist.
“Hey Silver.” He waved, sliding an arm around Ashley’s waist and pulling her backwards against him. Silver’s quirked her brow and snapped her jaw shut.
“We didn’t let him have you. He pulled the protective mate card…” Ashley informed her, but Silver didn’t care right now. Lifting her hand she motioned between the two of them.
“You guys mated?” Silver asked, and Ashley beamed back at her.
“Oh my god, how drunk were you last night?” It came out more berating than a question, and Silver sighed.
“Very. Apparently. Does Emily know that you guys…?”
“She was here too, she went off with the vampire…”
Silver needed to sit down. This was just a little too much information in one go. What the hell did she miss last night? Damn, that was the last time she was going to drink to excess.
“So did she?” Silver asked, and Ashley shrugged her shoulders. Silver walked to the sofa and dropped onto the end cushion, sinking in and feeling the comfort of it around her.
“Are you ok?” Ashley asked, pulling out of Vaughn’s arms and walking towards her friend. “Did you and Ben…?”
“Nope!” Silver shot back on the shake of her head.
“Damn, poor Ben.” Vaughn muttered and Silver’s eyes shot sideways on a scowl.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She snapped and Ashley sighed.
“Be nice.” She warned and Silver couldn’t help but sneer up at her.
“I just mean that the guy must be suffering badly, practically on fire with the need for you.” Vaughn informed her on route to the bedroom.
Silver put her boot against the edge of the coffee table and dropped her head ba
ck against the cushion, closing her eyes and wishing she were anywhere else, at any other time in her life than here.
“You have to mate, Silver…”
“I know.” She ground out between clenched teeth.
“Once we started we couldn’t stop and…” Ashley admitted and Silver sighed again.
“I know. Listen Ash, I’m happy for you…” She opened her eyes and gave her a crooked half smile.
“Thanks. He’s a really nice guy, and really amazing in bed.” She giggled and Silver grinned.
“Really, really, happy for you. Do me a favour, grab me some clothes from our room. I’m going to shower and change and get out of your hair.” Ashley nodded.
“You sure you’re ok?” Ashley asked again and Silver nodded.
“It’s just another hangover.”
“I’ve seen hangovers on you Silver, this looks different.” Ashley turned on her heels and headed into the back room as Silver sighed again, letting her head fall back to the cushion and closing her eyes.
Maybe it was the hangover, but there was just something nagging at her, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with her mate either.
“Personally I think we should turn tail and go back to bed.” Kirk wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back up against him, the unmistakable hardness that he managed to rest just between the cheeks of her backside, making her blush crimson, as she tried to squirm away.
“Behave…” She slapped at his hand and he let her go. Turning back towards her mate she gave him a small scowl, but she couldn’t keep it in place for long with the devilish smirk he was giving her. “I have to be here.”
“No you don’t. You were an ambassador and now you’re trying to negotiate with me, remember?” He informed her, pulling her against him and running his hands down over her back, sending all kinds of mayhem into her womb. “So let’s go negotiate some more.” He breathed against her ear and she giggled again. Pushing away from him.
“You’re a bad influence.” She hissed and he snorted.
“Better to find out now than later though right?” He leaned her over his arm and bent her backwards, her neck exposed for him. “Hmm, lunch.” He teased, as he sucked hard against her pulse and she smacked him around the back of his head.
“Stop before someone sees you.” She berated him, as he lifted his head but didn’t make a move to put her upright.
“What does that matter?”
“No feeding at the gathering remember?” She berated him and he shrugged.
“I wasn’t feeding, and if we go back to bed…”
“Let me up…” He righted her but kept her against his body. “Let me go check in with Iris and then…” She let her words drift away on a small shrug.
“Back to bed?” He double raised his brows suggestively and she grinned at him.
“If you’re a good boy.”
“Oh I’m very good.” He teased, as he licked his tongue up the vein in her neck and nipped her lobe. Emily knew if he kept doing that her legs weren’t going to hold her up much longer.
“So I can tell Iris you’ll hand over the artefacts?”
He couldn’t help but roll his eyes at her playfully, “I thought you wanted my body…” He teased her. Emily lifted her hand and rocked it from side to side.
“It’s a tossup.”
“Minx. You’re going to pay for that later.” He assured her, a dark gleam in his eye that sent her stomach into freefall.
“Just go do whatever it is you do when you’re here, and let me do my Fae thing and I’ll see you in a while.” She offered and he groaned in defeat.
“Fine. Go be a witch.” She turned to walk away, but he caught her wrist, spun her around like a dance partner, and brought her back against his body, his lips at her neck. “But later you’re all mine.” He breathed against her and then disappeared.
Silver stood on top of the hill and looked down at the gathering site. She wasn’t sure what the hell it was that had brought her here, but it itched beneath her very skin and that was never a good sign.
The temptation to draw on her magic was almost too much to bear, as the feeling of despondency for something or someone stirred so deeply within her psyche that she couldn’t push it away. A loss or potential loss. Devastation that would follow for the rest of their lives, someone close…
There was a hatred festering inside her that couldn’t be controlled, and she felt it like a blade entering her stomach. Silver jerked forwards with the force of the feeling, so real, so real that she cried out with the pain. Her knees buckled and she fell to the dirt, as the colour drained from her face.
Falling forward onto her hands, she clenched the dried earth in her fists and felt the tight constriction around her throat, unable to breathe properly her eyes flicked to the tree and she looked blindly at him.
Tall and dark, he had his back to her, as he held the other one against the tree by the neck. Silver gasped for air but there wasn’t any. Hatred so strong, a need, power, dark power…
Silver felt the strong hands on her arms dragging her up to her knees. A command to move, to breathe, but she fought it. She needed him to turn around, the tall one. The man in her vision. She knew she desperately needed to see his face, see him.
“Silver, let go!” Ben drew on everything he had within him to issue the command, but didn’t know if it would be enough. He should have mated with her. Bonded, he told himself, it would have been so much easier to reach her if they had bonded.
He palmed her cheeks and forced her to turn her head away from where she was blindly staring, to look at him. “Come back to me!” He growled reaching deep within her and breaking the connection she had forged with the vision.
Silver felt the pain of letting go tear through her body. Her hands grasped onto his clothes and she gasped in a breath, finally able to breathe, and then another, as her pain eased and her vision returned. Ben’s face, twisted in torment looking back at her.
“I have you…” He growled as her eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped against him. His strong arms collected her to his chest and lifted her into his arms, dark curses, one after another left his lips, as he stood with her and started off across the woods towards his cabin.
‘Vaughn, bring Ashley and Emily to my house now.’ He growled into the pack link.
‘Problem?’ Vaughn growled back. Automatically on alert for whatever trouble was coming.
‘There could well be.’
One way or the other there was a problem. His mate had used her magic on his land without his permission. That could not go unchecked, but it could have been magic that may have been out of her control, in which case he could overlook it. But right now his concern was with what she had seen. Whatever it was had very nearly killed her, choked the life from her, and that needed to be addressed.
One of the witches would tell him what the hell was going on, what her powers were and how they came to her, and if his mate was in any more danger from her vision, if it was in fact a vision and not another Fae attacking her in some way. This was his land and his mate, and he would defend both with his life.
He looked down at her in his arms, unconscious and still deathly pale and a tight fist gripped his heart. If he had only bonded with her he would be able to reach her now, see inside her mind and feel if she was in danger. He would be able to feel any emotions that she was feeling, instead of being so damn helpless.
Ben raced to the door and kicked it open. Carrying her through to the living room, he placed her down carefully upon the sofa…
‘I have Ashley and I’m with Kirk, but he doesn’t know where Emily is…’
‘Bring Ashley to me. Tell the vampire to find Emily, something’s happened to Silver.’ Ben growled to his beta as he knelt beside his mate, willing her to open her eyes. He took her hand in his, it looked so small and fragile to him, and he cursed whatever had done this to her, knowing that right now, it wasn’t him, but her friends that could help her.
> Ashley’s eyes were wide with panic as she grabbed Vaughn’s arm and her fingers closed around his flesh.
“What’s wrong with her?” She demanded and Vaughn shook his head, trying to ease her worries.
“I don’t know love, but I’ll get you there. Kirk I need you to…”
“Find Emily. Yeah, go.” Kirk scanned the area. There would be no way to clearly pick up her scent in the midst of this crowd. There were too many Fae to sort through, but when his eyes found Iris, he decided it might be an idea to start with her.
Crossing through the field took him a matter of a heartbeat, and when he appeared in front of Iris she jerked back in surprise and horror, and almost swallowed her tongue before she got a grip on herself.
“Kirk… Don’t…”
“Do that. Yeah, sorry, but I need to find Emily.”Kirk just wanted to grab the woman by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. He hadn’t eaten her yet in all of the years he had known her, and why she would believe he would choose now to do it he didn’t know. But he needed her focused.
“Emily told me that you’re going to give the Fae the…”
“Yes I am.” He cut her off. “Where’s Emily?” He added running out of patience with her. She opened her mouth before closing it again.
“Well she said she was going to find you. To finalise the…”
“Thank you.” He turned on his heels and walked away leaving her talking to herself. He didn’t have time for niceties right now. His mate’s friend needed her and he would deliver her, no matter who he had to go through to do it.
Ashley rushed across the room and dropped to her knees beside the sofa. Ben’s growl alerted her to the fact that he was in protection mode and she eyed him with a dark glare.
“Your mate, my friend, growl at someone who gives a damn.” She hissed back at him, and he caught the growl that he didn’t even realise he was giving and stowed it.