by M. L. Briers
“What do you want, Bruce?” I’d managed to find my brain in the midst of my bloodlust for him.
“Just thought I’d say hello. I heard you were back in residence,” he swept a hand and motioned around the room. “There’s nowhere like home.”
“The last time we met you tried to run me out of Scotland,” I eyed him for his next move.
“The last time we met- you were being careless,” Bruce offered back- then his eyes flicked towards Maggie and I had to steel myself from ripping his throat out. “I hope that’s changed.”
“Ah, the young can be foolish,” Shamus put in from behind me and Bruce turned his eyes back on me.
“Who is she?” Bruce asked and I clenched harder, every muscle, every sinew.
“Mac was good enough to pick us up a takeaway in town,” Shamus’s voice was like a slap to the back of my head. If I didn’t get it together soon then Bruce would suspect something was up- if he didn’t already.
“Gourmet,” Bruce offered. His fangs coming down slightly when he smiled…
God help me but I lost it. Right there and then I wanted to rip his heart out and feed on it. It took just that one moment in time for me to go for him, my hand circled around his throat and I had his back to the wall in a heartbeat. He wanted fangs down, and I gave them to him…
“I have my answer,” Bruce bit out. There was so much damn enjoyment and amusement in his eyes that I wanted him dead, but the man wasn’t going to die without fighting back, and he did just that.
I knew Shamus would protect Maggie as I traded blows with the man who knew our secret. Older than me, he had more strength, but I fought with more to gain. Not always a great place to be when your heart overruled your head and your emotions were involved, but I held my own…
Right up until the point where he used that old cliché of a chair leg to stake me through my right side and lock my body up against the wall…
“You have forty eight hours to make her your mate or she dies,” Bruce bit out, wiping the blood from his nose and mouth against the back of his hand, and I wanted to pummel him until he bled some more.
“That’s…” I reached down for the wood protruding from my side and tried to get a grip on it, but his fist slammed into it, sending it further into my body and leaving nothing left to grasp…
“Forty eight hours, and then I’ll be back,” Bruce delivered his time frame as his eyes turned towards Maggie, standing dazed behind Shamus as the Irishman used his body to protect her. Of that I was grateful.
Bruce turned and was gone a moment later. He’d done what he’d set out to do, and now I was damned. I didn’t have a choice- I’d have to turn Maggie whether she agreed or not.
“A little damn help here,” I bit out. Unable to dislodge myself from the stake or the stake from the wall.
Shamus stalked towards me and gripped my shoulders. His eyes told me what I already knew- this was going to hurt. Then he wrenched my body from the stake, the damn thing still embedded in the wall behind me as the pain ripped through every muscle, every sinew, and I roared with the need to kill someone…
“Forty eight hours, brother,” Shamus shook his head and I bit down on the need to put my fist into his face.
“Not deaf, just pissed off,” I bit out- looking at the carnage of the room.
“And you’ll be needing to clear this up before I wake her from her slumber,” Shamus chuckled and I groaned.
“I’m not feeling the love here, Irish,” I dropped to one knee and let my blood do the rest. I would heal, the room would be tidied in the hopes that she didn’t notice a difference, but now I had a timeline if I wanted to keep Maggie safe.
“You could run with her,” Shamus offered and I shook my head.
“Her coming away with me willingly is about as likely as her agreeing to become a vampire within forty eight hours,” I bit out, pushing back up to my feet as my body healed enough to allow it, and turning my eyes to the most beautiful woman I had ever known.
“So, compel her to go with you to some island paradise somewhere, and then wake her when she’s there-”
“You know how trust works,” I bit out. He’d been mated to a human.
“Too well,” he grunted at the memory.
“How long did it take to convince Naima to be your mate?” I hated to bring that up again, not when I could see the wounds of her loss were still bleeding within him, but I needed to know.
“Six months,” he admitted.
“I don’t have six days,” I started for Maggie, needing to be right there with her at her side.
“Make it work,” Shamus offered and I flicked a look back at him.
“You think, big man?” I lifted my hand and brushed my fingertips down her cheek- nothing- no emotion- not a damn word.
“You want to tidy this place up before I release her?” Shamus looked at the carnage around him.
“No,” I made a decision, “she needs to know where she stands.”
“You fought with your emotions,” Shamus offered me that little titbit and I had to take it on board even if I didn’t want to hear it.
“Yeah, kind of hard not to.”
“If you can’t get her to agree to turn, then you’ll have to learn real fast, my friend.” Shamus warned me, “or run.”
Running was the last thing that I wanted to do. Bruce might have thought himself important, but that wouldn’t stop him from putting the word out that a human knew of us. That would have every damn bounty hunter on our trail in no time. Even if I killed him now- it wouldn’t guarantee her safety- he could already have reached out.
No, running was on the back burner, but not an option I favoured, more a last ditch attempt to keep her safe if all else failed. There was also the option to turn her against her will- again, not one I favoured, but if she hated me for a few hundred years at least she’d be alive to do it.
“Release her.”
CHAPTER NINE
~
“Do you ever get the feeling that no good deed goes unpunished?” Shamus chuckled as Maggie launched into another tirade against us both.
There’d been a moment or two of uncertainty when she’d woken up from her slumber and realised that she’d been controlled again, and then she’d certainly found her feet. I guess on the upside, she was getting more comfortable with us.
“I’m a person, not a toy that you can switch off and on as you feel like it,” she bit out, red faced, and fiery eyed- it looked good on her. “And where’s my stake?”
Shamus held up his finger to silence her with one hand and reached behind his back to retrieve the stake with the other. He didn’t take a step towards her, but tossed the wood through the air, and she snatched it up, tightening her fist around it, and taking a moment to enjoy that newfound sense of security once more.
“I hope you’re not expecting a woman to clear this mess up?” she eyed the broken furniture with disdain. “Fighting like wild things.”
“It wasn’t us, it was Bruce,” I offered and was sorry that I did when her death glare landed in my direction.
“As I was trying to explain, lass, we were trying to keep you safe,” Shamus folded those big arms of his across his chest and berated her with his eyes.
“By turning off my brain,” she snorted her contempt.
“If you’d let your emotions get the better of you then loverboy over there would have reacted to your fear,” Shamus nodded in my direction and I had to take exception at the phrase loverboy.
“And it worked out so much better this way,” she snorted again- that fiery Scots temper more than evident.
“Well, I’d like to see how you would have reacted when he showed an interest in taking a bite of you,” Shamus berated her.
The moment that he said those words I just knew he was eating his own damn foot for lunch. Her eyes snapped wide and her hand flew up to her neck as her fingertips search for a bite mark.
“Relax, nobody fed from you,” I soothed her fears but not her
ruffled feathers.
“I’m guessing you didn’t convince him that I wasn’t lunch,” she snorted her contempt for the third time and I had to roll my eyes. It was way easier to have her quiet and under my control, but I did like the fire in her belly, and when I turned her- that passion for a fight would serve her well.
“What gave it away?” I returned her attitude in spades.
“So, I’m no better off from your brain dead plan than I was before,” she placed her hands on her hips and demanded.
“Geez, you Scots women really are a handful,” Shamus groaned.
“Been back to Ireland lately?” she demanded. “You’re women are still thunder in a box.”
“Point taken,” Shamus bit out.
“Don’t tempt me.” I saw her fist tighten around that stake and almost laughed out loud. Shamus noted it too, but only grunted in response.
“As for you,” she turned those angry eyes on me and I felt berated there and then. It had been a long time since anyone had ignited a feeling like that within me.
“Don’t finish that sentence,” I offered back to her and could see her chaffing at the bit to finish what she wanted to say.
“I’m leaving,” she announced, but she didn’t take a step.
“That’s not a good idea,” I offered back to her, “Bruce knows you now…”
“So, I’m just supposed to accept that I can’t go home?” She demanded.
“Pretty much,” Shamus beamed her a grin, as if he’d won something- some imaginary point that she didn’t seem to like very much. She snorted another round of contempt for him.
“Bite me,” she snapped back, and I was in front of her in a heartbeat. I made myself as big a shield as I could and faced up to the big Irishman.
“I’ve got it,” Shamus assured me, but did he? An invite was a powerful thing.
“Never, never, and I can’t stress this enough,” I bit out over my shoulder at her, “invite a damn vampire to bite.”
“I didn’t…” she hissed, practically in my damn ear and making me part deaf while my cock danced within my jeans.
“You kind of did, lass,” Shamus offered with a grin and showing just a little fang. I could have killed him there and then when she gasped in a breath.
“Didn’t mean too!” she rushed out, but the feel of her hand against my back kept my attention off of Shamus, and fully, and firmly on her.
Damn, but her touch was sweet. I needed to get a grip on my need to turn around and take her up against the nearest wall. My length ached, throbbed, and demanded to be buried deep inside of her, and I had to fight the decent of my fangs.
Shamus noted them and tapped a finger over his mouth in amusement. Now I really wanted to kill him, kill Bruce, kill anyone that wasn’t her just so I could have her all to myself, no drama, no pressure of keeping her safe, just loving her, long, hard, and thoroughly…
“I’ll give you two a minute to sort yourselves out,” Shamus chuckled before he turned and strolled out of the room. I waited to hear his footsteps receding through the hall, and then the sound of the front door closing behind him, and it gave me a little more peace.
“What did he mean by that?” her hand was snatched away. Good to know that she thought of me as her protector- that meant she trusted me more than him. It was a start.
“I have no idea what an Irishman is thinking, especially that one,” I turned towards her and she immediately took a step back- not so good.
“Tell me why I should trust a word you say,” her eyes were back to fiery again.
“Tell me why you shouldn’t,” I got her with that one. For one long moment she looked thoroughly confused. I would have laughed had I not been trying to get her on side.
“You’re- a- vampire,” she offered back, as if she was trying to decide if that was a good reason or maybe if I was just insane.
“Good point.” I conceded that. “We’re all blood thirsty monsters that will drain you of your blood at the first opportunity.” I teased her and watched those green eyes narrow on me.
“Exactly,” she didn’t offer that as any kind of absolute, more a question to herself.
“Which is why, having been under both mine and Shamus’s mind control, you’re still untouched.” Her lips parted a little as she thought that one through.
“That’s…” she stopped and considered it some more.
“I guess I win that point,” I offered back and saw that spark to fire in her eyes once more.
“Not the point,” she shook her head slightly.
“Oh, but it is,” I leaned in towards her slightly, and was heartened to see her sway towards me without even knowing that she was doing it. Then she seemed to snap out of it and yanked her body rigid, fighting that pull on her very psyche… but it was there.
“I want to leave,” she announced.
“Which equates to; I want Bruce to hunt me down and kill me.” I offered back and saw her flinch.
“I have a stake,” she held it up- I guess that was in case I was stupid.
“And I’m sure the little pointy end will do it’s best to hit the target,” I offered her sarcasm to rattle her nerves and make her listen to reason. It seemed to work- at least her eyes flicked towards the wood in her hand and she frowned at it.
“Then why did you give it to me?” she snapped those eyes back to mine and all hell broke loose within me. I wanted her alright…
“To make you feel better,” I offered and her nose wrinkled in disdain.
“Well, it’s not working now,” she bit out.
“Then put it down and accept that I could have killed you any time that I wanted, but you’re still alive, still untouched. Perhaps a little faith is warranted?”
She snorted again and I couldn’t contain the groan that escaped my lips. Sure, human’s feared what they didn’t know- or worse in my case- what they thought they knew, picked up by writers with a full and fluid imagination. Movies and books were no friend to an older vampire like me.
“Perhaps hell will freeze over tomorrow and we’ll all be walking around in a layer of fur.”
I opened my mouth for a witty comeback, but there were no words for her logic. I lifted my hand and shrugged my shoulders. It was time to retreat and give her a little space.
“My house is your house.”
“I just can’t leave it,” she muttered.
“That’s the spirit, accept what you cannot change,” I offered over my shoulder as I headed out of the room.
“Which makes your house my prison.”
She had me there.
~
~
~
I’d had to listen to her pacing for at least an hour. The woman must have worn a hole in the antique rug, but then she’d already killed another priceless heirloom- so I wrote that off too.
I wanted to ease her mind and yet I wasn’t entirely sure how. If I’d had the luxury of time on my side then it could have been a gradual thing, as it was I now had less than forty eight hours and counting to make her mine.
“Charm offensive,” Shamus caught me off guard again and I groaned inwardly. Either the man had become super stealthy after all of these years or I wasn’t paying enough attention. I guessed the later was true- but in my defence, I’d never had a mate before.
“Says you,” I grunted back to the sound of his deep chuckle. Someone was enjoying my agony, and it certainly wasn’t me.
“She’s just a woman, and you’re just a man, so go be manly and charm the panties off of her.” Shamus’s words made sense. I’d never had a problem with women before, but then they’d never known what I was before.
“She’s just a scared rabbit and I’m just a big bad bloodthirsty monster hunting her down for nefarious reasons,” I offered a summary of the world as my mate saw it. “I’m thinking that puts me on the back foot.”
“Slightly,” Shamus offered.
“Undoubtedly,” I shot back.
“Or maybe you could use that to your a
dvantage,” he wasn’t making any sense.
“Have you been in my cellar at the good Scotch?”
“Not a drop of it, but now I know where you keep it,” he gave me the kind of grin that I knew would send women wild for him. The cheek of the man was there in his eyes and women loved that sort of thing.
“Take a bottle and leave before Bruce comes back. This isn’t your fight.”
“Now, there you go again,” he shook his head at me. “What are friends for?”
“To borrow money from,” I offered back.
“I never say no to money,” he conceded that point.
“You’re Irish, enough said.”
“Says the Scotsman.” He had another good point.
“She’s not your problem.”
“Naima would have said otherwise.” I could see that pain etched back onto his face.
“Getting yourself killed won’t bring her back, Shamus.” I had to wonder if that’s what it was. “Do you have a longing to join her?”
“Wouldn’t you if it was your mate?” Shamus asked. “But, I’m not looking for it, Mac. I just don’t fear it anymore, because I know I won’t be leaving her behind, I’ll be joining her.”
That sounded logical.
“So, you’re determined to be the caped crusader, just without the snazzy pants over tights?” His eyes flashed with humour.
“I quite like the idea of spandex,” he chuckled. It was deep, and warm, and welcome- for a second there I could almost have forgotten that my life had turned to crap.
“I welcome your help, and I thank you for it.” God, now I did sound Scottish again.
~
~
~
“What’s that?”
Maggie eyed the plate that I placed down on the side for her as if I’d offered her a bowl full of live worms.
“I might be old- but I believe it’s still called food,” I shot back with a grin that was meant to charm her. The look I got back said I’d not swayed her one little bit.