That sounded painful.
Nick and Linc banged on the door.
“Casey. What’s going on?” Nick yelled.
“Oh, Nick. You will never see this human again. Once I kill her, you are next on my list.”
“Bitch, you come for me. Leave her alone.” Nick kicked the door.
No. Casey wouldn’t let her hurt Nick. She had to do something.
Well, the chipmunk wasn’t the only one who could be bat-shit crazy.
Kicking out, she slammed the heel of her boot into the woman’s knee. Those self-defense classes Aunt Teddie insisted on actually worked.
Alvinia fell backward on the bed, still naked.
Forcing herself to stand, Casey threw herself toward the bed just as Alvinia’s hands wrapped around her throat. Spots clouded her eyes, as she hit her knees again.
Casey brought up her elbow and slammed it into the other woman’s pelvis. Alvinia’s hands let go as she hunkered over in pain. The witch might be tough, but Casey was a big-boned Amazon and she could take the bitch. Nick’s blood coursed through her veins as she brought the heel of her hand up and connected with the woman’s nose.
The chipmunk screeched as blood poured from her face.
But Casey wasn’t finished.
Just as the door crashed open, Casey threw a right hook that sent the witch flying across the bed and crashing into the side table.
“Don’t ever threaten my man again!”
“Casey, what’s going on?” Nick and Linc stepped across the steel door.
“Your ex-wife is trying to stir up a little drama,” Casey said as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “So I explained things to her. She says you invited her to taste her blood, but I told her that you had me now.”
Casey stared straight up him. He had the good sense to blanche.
Now she knew what he’d been holding back and she was angry. In fact, she was angrier than she’d ever been in her life. Her fist clenched, and her stomach roiled. She was about to lose it, but she wouldn’t do it in front of the bitch.
“Linc, could you take the trash out? Nick has way too much clutter in the bedroom.”
She walked calmly to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of wine. Hand shaking, she brought the glass to her lips and chugged. It was probably a two thousand dollar bottle of wine, but she didn’t care.
Her husband had been married to that maniacal creature, and he never mentioned it. Granted, their relationship had progressed rather rapidly, but ex-wives should have come up at some point.
What if he had more? She shuddered at the thought.
The blood. Nick needed it to survive, but was that also the only way he could truly find release sexually? Is that why she’d had to beg for sex on her own honeymoon? Since her only reference for vampires were Twilight and Sookie, she didn’t know. When they had sex on the plane and at the villa, there had been no bite.
Fortifying herself with a second glass and then another, she listened as Linc and Nick ushered the woman out of the condo.
“You are banished, and since you tried to hurt Casey twice, your powers are bound. You better run fast, bitch, because I’m going to send your own demons after you.” Nick’s voice was deadly.
Ohhh. Nick was one angry dude. She’d never heard him talk like that to anyone, and she enjoyed the fact that it was that evil chipmunk receiving his wrath.
“Casey?” He sounded worried when he found her in the kitchen
Damn well should be.
“Would you like a glass of wine?” She held up the bottle. “Or a little blood?”
“I have a lot to explain,” he said. Watching her carefully, he pulled himself up on the kitchen counter.
She moved opposite him and did the same thing. Pouring more wine in her glass, she handed it to him. Then she took a long chug from the bottle.
“Maybe you should start with the ex-wife. Or wives. How many are there exactly?”
Nick had the grace to look chagrined. “There’s only the one, but it was an arranged marriage nearly six hundred years ago. It was a power play between my father and hers to get control of the Council. I was their pawn. And she ended up as the victim. Once I had the Council seat, I refused to consummate the marriage. She’s been trying to kill me for the last six hundred years. As you may have noticed, she’s insane. That’s why I had the marriage annulled, and she stayed in an asylum for over a hundred years.”
“Well, if that’s your first marriage I’m surprised you wanted to do it again. Oh, wait, you had to—again.” Angry, she couldn’t keep the sarcasm from her voice.
“I deserve whatever you throw my way, Casey. I don’t blame you for being mad. I was an idiot. I just have this innate need to protect you and I want to keep you away from all this crap.” He waved a hand around.
The tortured sound in his voice tore at her, but she was far from forgiving him.
“When she escaped from the asylum, she killed my parents.” His voice was just a whisper.
“Oh, hell, Nick. I’m so sorry.” She jumped off the counter and wrapped her arms around him. “Why didn’t you kill her?”
“At the time, I felt guilty. She was unstable to begin with, but my refusal to stay with her and consummate the marriage drove her mad. Trust me, I wanted to rip her head off, but the laws we have are strict. In those early days, I was more concerned with making my way up the chain of command with the Council. I wanted to show them that I could turn the other cheek, so to speak, even when what she’d done was so brutal. They banished her, but every hundred years or so she’d show up and do something horrific.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about her from the beginning? All of this would have made so much more sense.”
He shrugged. “I told you. I was trying to protect you.”
She let go of him and moved back to her side of the kitchen. “She said you needed blood to survive and for the sex to be good.”
He blew out a breath. “That isn’t true.”
But his face said otherwise. “If you aren’t going to be honest with me, I’m out of here,” she warned.
He held out a hand. “Please, don’t go. I’m being honest. With you, making love is enough. I don’t need the blood.”
Liar. That’s what held him back, and they would never be complete if she didn’t let him drink during sex. She was part vamp already, what was the big deal?
“Do you think I haven’t noticed you pulling back when we make love?”
His eyebrows shot up.
“Crap, Nick, how stupid do you think I am?” Her hands went to her hips.
“You’re one of the most intelligent women I’ve ever met.” He was so sincere she believed him.
“Then why do you continue to lie to me? Say it Nick. You need blood.”
He shook his head. “I don’t.”
“Arrrgghh. You drive me nuts!” She needed to take a breath and to get away from all this craziness.
“I have to run an errand,” she said as she left the kitchen. Inspiration struck and she knew what she needed more than anything.
“Casey, don’t leave me, please. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Just please don’t go.”
She turned around to find him so heartbreakingly sad, she almost ran straight to him. Staying strong, she pointed a finger at him. “I’m going to be gone for a half-hour max. When I get back, you better tell me the truth. I mean it, or I really will be out of here.” Picking up her purse she dug around for her keys.
“You can’t drive.” His voice was a whisper.
“Yes, I can. I’ve been driving for years.”
He cleared his throat. “You’ve been drinking.”
She turned to see he held up the bottle of wine.
“Three-fourths of this is gone.”
Damn.
“Linc! Find the Incredible Hulk and one of the other security dudes. I have an errand to run, and my husband thinks I’m too drunk to drive.”
“Casey, we can send someone to
do whatever it is. We need to finish this. I know what I did was wrong, but you have to realize I was doing it for the right reasons. So much had changed in your life, and I didn’t want to add one more thing. I planned to tell you, I just wanted to wait for a bit.”
She closed her eyes, willing herself to stay tough. “Nick, I do understand why you did it. I’m mad because you didn’t trust me enough to tell me. We’ve been friends for nine months. You know better than anyone how much I hate being lied to, even lies of omission. I mean what I said. It’s balls to the walls, buddy. You have to spill it all. You make sure no one is in this house when I get back. No one but you.”
“And you,” she pointed to Linc who had been lingering quietly in the background. “Not a word. You can ride with me where I need to go, but no talking. Peace and quiet, that’s all I want.”
She shoved Linc to the door, and she saw him bite back a smile.
In the big SUV, Cody, Nick’s driver, was behind the wheel. Pulling the address up on the phone, she showed it to Cody. “Take me here.”
He nodded, but didn’t say a word. At least they’d taken her threat seriously.
Ten minutes later they turned into the parking lot of the Dunkin Donuts. Linc was around the car and opened the door before she could reach for the handle.
Damn these men and their supernatural speed.
“You can come in, but do not judge.” She stalked into the donut store.
The kind woman behind the counter gave her a smile, and then looked suspiciously at Linc, who stood by the door.
“I want two Bavarian Kreme, two Apple Pie, a Black Cocoa Invasion, and three of the pink ones with sprinkles. And then I’d like two dozen mixed.” The donuts reminded her of her mom and that made her blink back some tears. Her mother had always been the voice of reason. She’d sit down and ask Casey one question. Do you love him? And Casey would say, yes. And her mother would say nothing else matters. The rest is just stuff. She sniffed. “And the biggest cup of coffee you have.”
The woman behind the counter had to be in her fifties. She smiled at Casey and filled the boxes with donuts. At the register, she handed her the change.
When she’d married Nick, she believed that for once in her life she’d found the right guy. But she wasn’t enough for him. He would always need more, and if she wanted to keep him satisfied, she’d have to find a way to let him bite her.
Linc offered to take the boxes from her, but she gave him the evil eye. He held his hands up in surrender.
“Home, Cody.”
The security men glanced at each other discreetly. They thought she was a bag of nuts, but she didn’t care. What hurt the most was Nick was her friend. At least she thought so, but friends didn’t treat each other like this.
He’d been on the earth for eight hundred years, but the man didn’t have a lick of sense when it came to relationships. In that respect, they were on equal ground. Her choice was simple. If he told her the truth about the blood, she would stay. Somehow she would find the strength to be what he needed, no matter the cost. She’d signed on for the long haul and she would do whatever it took.
But if he lied to her again, she was gone.
When they arrived at the condo, she straightened her shoulders and held her chin up high. Taking the top box, she handed the others to Linc. “These are for you and the guys. But if I see any of you, I will find the sharpest object I can and shove it between your eyes.”
Linc cleared his throat. “Got it.”
“Now get out of my way. I’m about to teach a man a lesson.”
As the elevator doors were closing she heard Cody say, “Man, the boss is in for it now.”
Yes, he was.
Chapter Twenty-two
Holy hell!
Nick sat on his sofa with his head in his hands. Gut twisting, he pounded the cushion with his fist. Linc wasn’t answering his text. What if they were taking her to the airport and she’d begged them not to tell him?
Linc was his best friend, but Nick knew how he felt about Casey. He would do what was right for her. And in Nick’s opinion, and probably Linc’s, that meant getting as far away from him as possible.
Casey, you can’t leave me. I won’t live in this world without you.
How could she not know how much he loved her? Repeatedly he told her. He showed her. Things had moved so fast because they were so perfect for one another.
“Sir, they’re back,” Mason announced.
“Make sure no one interrupts us until I give the okay,” Nick ordered. “Do you understand me? I don’t care what you hear.” The deadly tone in his voice left no mistake about his intention.
“Noted, sir.”
Mason closed the door behind him.
Nick paced until the door opened. Casey, a box in hand, went straight to the kitchen.
He followed her.
“Go sit down on the couch. I’ll be there in a minute.” Her voice was curt.
A few minutes later, she returned with a tray full of donuts and two cups of coffee.
“Coffee and donuts are sacred to me. Any time I had a problem that seemed impossible, my mom would take me to get donuts. Saying everything out loud always made it better. So if you, Nick Christos, want to stay my husband, you are going to eat a damn donut. Drink some coffee and tell me the friggin’ truth about your need for blood.”
Nick stared down at the donuts and back at her.
Her eyebrow went up.
The last thing he wanted was to eat, but he picked up one of the pink ones with sprinkles.
She rolled her eyes.
“What?” Damn, he couldn’t do anything right. He’d picked up the wrong fucking donut. “Do you want it?” He tried to hand it to her.
She rolled her eyes again and sat down.
“Eat the donut,” she ordered.
For a moment he investigated the pastry. Had she poisoned it?
“Once you take a bite, everything we say is sacred. Nothing we say tonight will ever go beyond these walls. Understood?”
He bit down. It was disgustingly sweet, but he chewed it as if it were the best thing he’d ever eaten. Then he sipped the coffee. This was a bit on the side of crazy, as Casey liked to say, but he’d do anything as long as she stayed.
She picked up a Bavarian cream and motioned for him to speak.
“First of all, as I said before, I bit you the first time to make you stronger,” he said quickly looking straight at her. “But it is also how I show others that you are mine. It isn’t about possession. It’s about protection. You’re mine. If another supernatural being tries to hurt you, or even comes near you without my permission, he dies,” Nick explained. “That’s why we were finally able to bind the witch’s powers. I had no proof that she killed my parents, so the Council would not grant an execution. Even though everyone knew she did it. Spouses who carry the mark cannot be touched no matter what was going on with warring factions. It’s our one unbreakable law. Children are also protected this way. Centuries ago, this was designed to keep loved ones from becoming pawns in our wars. It was considered cowardly to use a woman or a child in a bargain for power or territory.”
“Sounds reasonable to me,” she mumbled around her donut.
“Right. So, I marked you, and you saw how powerful you were.” He grinned. Watching her punch the bitch had been one of his all-time favorite moments, and he’d lived a very, very long time.
She shrugged. “So what’s the big deal?”
“You have to give me permission for the second and third,” he said. “Once I bite you again, we are bonded for eternity.”
“Well, as you said before, I’m already on my way.”
Yes, but making the full transformation is a big deal. You will crave blood and while you are difficult to kill now, it will be impossible after the third bite.”
“You already told me about that. Quit stalling, Nick. What is about blood and sex? I want the truth.”
“The bite carries a venom that isn’t
harmful, but it—ahh…” How did he say this without sound like some kind of perv?
“Just spit it out, Nick.”
“It intensifies the pleasure for me and for you.”
“Okay. So why have you been holding back if it’s good for both of us? I think I’m more pissed than I was before.” She stuffed another bite in her mouth.
He sighed and sat the donut down. “It’s not as simple as it sounds. Once I bite, I lose control. The beast is set free and I become part wolf and part vampire. Incredibly strong and deadly, and until you are transformed, I can still hurt you.”
Casey bit down on her lip, which she did when she was nervous.
“But you’ve done this before with other women.” Her eyes narrowed.
Damn. He didn’t want to talk about this.
“The Barbies, as you like to call them, are trained and bred for that specific purpose. They’re much stronger than they look.”
Casey glanced out the window. “So you’re saying I’m not strong enough to give you what you need? That witch was right.”
Damn Alvinia. If he ever saw her again, he would rip her head off with his bare hands.
“After what happened in Greece, you were worried if your beasty guy showed up, you might kill me.” She sighed.
“Yes. You seemed so fragile,” he said honestly.
“But I’m not, Nick. I’m a big-boned, healthy girl. That demon thing spit venom at me, and I was only out for a few hours. I fought off that witch and her magic twice. And, maybe you have forgotten, but I just kicked her ass. So no more excuses.”
“Casey, it isn’t that I don’t want to do it,” Nick tried to reason with her. “If I hurt you, or worse kill you, I—I can’t live in a world without you in it. I’m not willing to risk losing you.”
“I love you so much,” she said.
She said she loved him. Nick’s body stilled.
“I gave you my soul the day I married you,” she continued. “And I don’t care about your past, but I do worry about the future. I can’t be with someone who has so many secrets. You can’t talk about the Council, and you’re going to war with people. And you’re a Valkie-thingy.” She threw up her hands. “I mean, that kind of says it all.”
Take It Like A Vamp Page 19