by Siren Allen
Eyes glued to the front door he heard her moving around behind him, searching. He sighed, telling himself not to stare at her. He gritted his teeth and refocused his attention on the front door.
He was alone with his mate. His darkness had jumped ship on the plan to push her away, and was instead yearning to be near her. How the hell was he supposed to move past her betrayal if his inner curse was so easy to forgive?
They weren’t the forgiving kind. They didn’t do second chances. A second chance was only another opportunity to repeat the same mistake. He would be a fool to believe she would ever love him, want him.
Behind him he heard her gasp. The smell of blood filled his sense. He whirled around. Her finger was in her mouth. Next thing he knew he was at her side, holding her hand, staring down at the tiny gash.
“It’s nothing,” she told him, trying to pull away.
He didn’t let her, instead he brought her finger to his mouth and licked the wound. He felt her tremble.
“Is blood all you think about?” She tried to pull away.
Raynor released her and she stumbled back. “You’re welcome.” He walked back to the entrance and resumed his watch.
Silence followed. When she spoke again her voice was low. “Uh, thank you. The cut is gone.”
He didn’t say anything. Her question was still fresh in his mind. Of course blood wasn’t all he thought about. She, was all he thought about: protecting her, providing for her, pleasing her. The three P’s of being a good mate.
“Thank you, Raynor. And I’m sorry for what I said. I didn’t know what you were doing. I thought you were, well, you know what I thought you were doing. I’m sorry.”
Her apology was pointless.
“Raynor.” She sighed. “Please just look at me. We need to talk.”
He kept facing forward.
“Raynor, I shouldn’t have shot you okay. I just didn’t want you to hurt my friend.”
“She was more than your friend.”
“Yes, well… our sexual relationship had nothing to do with it. I thought she was an innocent. I thought it was just your jealousy making you lash out at her. I couldn’t let you hurt her.”
“Look how that turned out.”
“I know. If I had to do it all over again, I still wouldn’t let you hurt her.”
He couldn’t stop the low growl from escaping him. No second chances.
“I’m not saying I would shoot you,” she quickly added. “I would’ve tried talking to you. I would’ve tried explaining that it was out of loyalty that I defended her, not love.”
“What about me? I saved your life. I deserved your loyalty.” He sounded like a whiny little one. Shame filled him.
“I know and it all happened so fast, I couldn’t process it properly. But I swear I immediately regretted it. Hell, I fear I will regret it for the rest of my life.”
So would he. And he would live far longer than she would. Raynor rubbed his chest, trying to rub away the pain that thought inflicted.
“Raynor, I don’t expect you to forgive me anytime soon. But please, don’t hate me. I don’t want you to hate me. It’s just… having you hate me, it doesn’t feel right.”
Shit, it didn’t feel right to him either. He wanted to hold her, yet he also wanted to hurt her the way she hurt him. Conflicting emotions assaulted him. He had one goal and he would stick to it. “Have you found the device?” he yelled.
“Uh, yes.”
“Then finish your task so we can leave here.” Before I forget that I’m supposed to hate you.
He kept his eyes on the door, wishing someone would come through. He’d rather have a physical battle than endure this emotional battle that he feared he was losing. For a long while she was quiet.
Raynor glanced over his shoulder to see what she was up to. He found her biting her lip as she concentrated on what she was doing. He looked down at the desk she was working on to find her fiddling with wires on a small device. The wires were different colors: red, blue, white and green.
“How do you know which color to disconnect?”
“I don’t,” she told him. “Which is why I haven’t unplugged one yet. We need to be able to communicate with the soldiers when they arrive. There was a little jingle Lola sang when she tried teaching me how to work this crap. Yet, I can’t remember one verse from the jingle. It was supposed to help me remember how to work this.”
Raynor found himself smiling at how frustrated she was becoming. “Take your time. It’ll come back to you.”
She raised her eyes to him. “Weren’t you the one just rushing me?”
Without answering he resumed his watch.
“You’re right,” she said. “I need to hurry up here and get back to the others. Okay,” he heard her inhale. “Blue surrounds you,” she whispered. “Red is for those in your head. I think that meant our communication lines here. The lines I use to chat with my troops.”
Raynor kept his eyes on the door, but he listened to everything his mate said.
“I think white is for the light. We call Earth the light. So white is how we communicate with our representatives there. Green… green was for… um.”
When she grew silent, Raynor turned to watch her once more. Again, she was biting her lip. Stars, he loved watching her think. He also loved watching her walk, talk, drink… hell he loved everything about this female. If only she could love him back.
“Green is for those in between,” she exclaimed excitedly. When her eyes met his they were glowing red. Magnificent. “Green is for those who get too close to our atmosphere.” Lark reached for the wire, he called out to her, stopping her from pulling the plug.
“Wait.” Raynor strode to her side.
“It’s the right one,” she told him. “I promise.”
“I trust you. But first, let’s listen in on them, see what they are planning.”
“Good idea, but I sort of already pulled the plug.” she whispered. “But, I remember Lola’s second jingle, the one telling me how to reconnect the device.”
“Perfect.”
She lifted her head and glance up at him, gifting him with a smile that damn near stopped his heart. As she fiddled with the device he listened to the darkness raging inside of him. Keep her. Claim her. Protect her. Pleasure her. Raynor shook his head, shaking off those thoughts. He couldn’t keep a female that didn’t want to be kept.
Lark stared up at him. “You okay?”
“Do you care?” He was pissed. He couldn’t help it. How dare she stand there, tempting him with her beauty, yet not being willing to belong to him? It wasn’t fair.
She stopped what she was doing. “Of course I care.”
“If you cared, you wouldn’t have shot me.”
She rolled her eyes. “I explained why I did what I did. I won’t keep apologizing for it.”
“I don’t want your apology.”
She threw her arms wide. “Well what do you want Raynor, geez?”
“I want you,” he couldn’t stop those words from spilling from his lips. Moving closer to her, he let all of his anger out, voiced all of his desires. “I want my mate. I want Lark. I want a family. Damn it, I want to feel warm again. You made me feel warm. After I saved you, you made me think you cared. You made me think we had a chance.”
She opened her mouth to speak, he didn’t let her.
“You made me think I could have you. And then you shot me, three times and left with your ex lover. I’ve never felt so cold in my life, Lark.”
Tears filled her eyes. Why the hell was she crying? He’d done her no wrong. He hadn’t hurt her.
“Raynor, I’m so sor…”
“Sorry, I know. But sorry doesn’t give me what I want. Sorry doesn’t provide me with little ones. Sorry can’t wake up next to me every solar flare or go to sleep next to me each waning.”
She wiped her eyes. “You forgot one.”
“What?”
“Sorry can’t pleasure you, it can’t give you sex. Well,
neither can I. I’m too scar…”
“Sex is not important to me.”
“It’s important to all males.”
He couldn’t stop himself from closing the gap between them. He lifted her chin just as a tear slipped down her cheek. “Sex will not make me happy. It will feel good, I am sure. But I want happiness Lark. I want a mate and little ones to protect. I want a home filled with laughter.” More tears spilled down her cheeks and it hurt him that his wants made her cry.
“Raynor, I don’t…”
“You don’t want what I want, I know. You don’t have to remind me.” He wiped tears from her face. “Yet, even knowing that I disgust you, I can’t stop myself from loving you.”
More tears fell at his declaration, breaking his heart further, still there was more he needed to say, because once this planet was safe, he was leaving. He would never see this female again.
“I love you, sweet Lark, despite all you’ve done. I love you because you’re brave, because you’re beautiful, because you’re loyal.” He touched his hand to her chest. “I love the caring heart you try to pretend you don’t have. I love everything about you. And I can’t change that, no matter how hard I try.”
“Raynor, I didn’t know. I didn’t understand. I regret it all and if I could take it back I would. There’s so much you don’t know about me. I was scared, Raynor.”
“I was scared too. Shit, I was frightened as hell to finally meet my mate.”
“You didn’t seem afraid.”
“Trust me, I was.”
“I don’t deal well with fear. I run from it. I try to avoid it at all cost.”
“Fear is part of life, Lark. You can’t escape it.”
“I know. I guess I’ve always known. I’m tired of being scared.”
Raynor nodded, not sure what to say.
“I,” Lark sighed. “I know I haven’t acted like it, but I… I’ve want you since the day I saw you in that cell.”
The darkness inside of him roared to life, banging against the invisible cage Raynor kept him in. It wanted out. It wanted closer to Lark. So did Raynor. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her near him, absorbing her warmth.
“Then stop running from me, Lark. I know you have fears and I respect them. I know once you’re ready you will share them with me. Until then, can we simply get to know each other, spend time with each other? I just want to be near you.”
Lark stared up at him with a small smile. “I won’t run anymore,” she promised. “I’m not easy to deal with, and I have major issues, but I promise to try not to let fear control me. I want this Raynor. I want everything you want: little ones, a house full of laughter, a mate to wake up to for the rest of my life. I want it all. And I can’t picture having that with anyone other than you. You make me hope for the happy ever after I was too afraid to consider.”
Stars, this female was going to make him bawl like a babe. “Sweet Lark, you’ve made me the happiest vampire in the galax…”
A boom rang out. Lark’s eyes widened with fear. Raynor felt pain in his neck. Another loud clap filled the air. He shoved Lark away seconds before he dropped to his knees. From off in the distance he could hear Lark’s screams.
His eyes fell shut as his body turned cold. He was used to the cold, but this was different. This felt wrong. Darkness surrounded him. He tried to move, tried to roar for Lark to run.
He couldn’t. He was being pulled under, dragged into the darkness. The sound of boots thundering in his direction filled his ears. Lark was in danger. He tried calling on his beast to come to her rescue.
Inside him the curse was silent. What the hell. It was never silent. The curse was a part of him. It kept him alive. It was the reason he was immortal. It was the reason he couldn’t die easily. With it gone, his wounds wouldn’t heal.
He took a deep breath and felt his lungs rattle. Another shot rang out. Ice cold filled his chest, a hole forming where his heart was. A ringing sound took up residence in his ears then slowly faded away, leaving no sound in its wake.
And then Raynor Batiste ceased to exist.
Chapter Nineteen
Trapped on board, Prince Orius Stonar’s spacecraft, Lark couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face. Tied to a chair, again, she stared at Raynor’s lifeless body. His already pale skin had turned white, translucent. His lips were gray and she could see the blue veins under his skin. They’d killed him.
He’d died without hearing her say the words her heart had already declared true: I love you. More tears fell from her eyes. He’d come all this way, for her. And now he was dead, because of her. She wasn’t worth it. He hadn’t deserved this.
Prince Stonar reentered the room, followed by Ana who wore a disgusting smile on her face. Lark pulled against her restraints. She was going to kill that bitch. She didn’t care if she died in the process.
“Oh calm down, princess,” Ana told her. “There’s no need to get your panties in a bunch.”
What the hell did that mean?
“Be nicer to her,” Prince Stonar ordered. “My father plans to make her one of his wives. Soon her title will outrank yours.”
His statement brought a frown to Ana’s face and caused Lark’s heart to skip a beat. She would die before she became one of King Stonar’s wives. Why would the idiot want her anyway? Hadn’t she proved she was nothing but trouble?
Ana sashayed over to stand in front of her. When she leaned forward, her cleavage showed in her skimpy top. Why the hell had Lark thought her pretty and sweet? This bitch was treacherous.
Ana placed her hands on Lark’s knees. “So, Lark, you’re mated to a vampire. Well, you were mated to a vampire. He’s dead now.”
Anger pounded through her body. Trying to pull forward only made the wire in her restraints bite into her wrists. She ignored the pain.
“You’re like a little hellcat,” Ana observed. “Look, my Prince did you a favor by icing your beast. It wasn’t like you could’ve been a True Mate to him anyway.”
“You have no idea what I could’ve been to him,” Lark hissed. She could’ve been a True Mate, in time.
“Oh but I do, sweetie. See, you told me all of your little fears and nightmares remember?”
Yes, she did. She’d thought she’d found a friend in Ana, a confidant. She couldn’t have been more wrong. She’d let the enemy into her world. All of this was her fault.
“Ana, leave her alone,” the Prince shouted from the chair he occupied on the other side of the room.
Ana sighed, before standing up and turning her back to Lark. Was those Lola’s jeans Ana was wearing? Hell yeah, it was. The bitch had been through their things. Even more reason for Lark to kill her. Only Luna was allowed to steal their things.
“Sweetie, you never let me have any fun,” Ana purred into the Prince’s ear.
He swatted her away like she was an irritating fly. “Have a seat, while I try to reestablish my connection to the home base. My father was trying to tell me something before the lines of communication went down.”
Inside Lark was smiling. So it had been the green plug. Good, at least she’d thwarted whatever plan the King was cooking up, giving her guards from Aphrodite Terra more time to get here and rescue them. Stars, she hoped they arrived in time.
Ana continued chatting with the Prince, even though he seemed irritated by her presence. “What more could your father have wanted to tell you? He already told you how to put down the vampire. And look, he’s dead. It worked.”
“He was saying something else. Something I needed to make sure I did after I Iced him.”
Iced him, as in they used the Icer on him? What the hell.
“Saturn has an Icer?” Lark found herself asking.
The Prince ignored her, Ana didn’t. The bitch. She whirled around. “Of course they do.”
“But they’re illegal, the council ruled against the military using them.”
“Yeah, well we managed to keep a few,” Ana shrugged.
/> Lark cast a glance over at Raynor, so still on the floor. She couldn’t imagine the pain he’d suffered before dying. More tears filled her eyes.
“Poor vampire,” Ana said, making her way over to Raynor’s form. “He died trying to protect his mate. Where he’s from, his kind would call that an honorable death. I call it stupid.”
Lark bit her tongue, fighting to hold it together. Ana’s time would come, soon.
“You see, the Icer shuts down organs starting with the lungs. The poor bastard probably tried to catch his breath only to find it impossible to inhale. Then it shuts down the heart, ceasing the blood flow. Then the brain freezes. I hear the pain is excruciating. But,” she shrugged. “It was all we could do to bring the vamp down. You see, wooden bullets to the heart don’t kill them as we’d previously believed. The Icer was the only way to make sure he died and stayed dead. They have this nasty habit of reanimating. I didn’t know they could do that, did you?” Ana asked.
No Lark hadn’t known that, but she refused to entertain the psycho bitch.
“I’m sure you didn’t know either,” Ana said, kneeling next to Raynor’s body. “We didn’t know until the King told us. See, these beasts are cursed with an evil that lives deep within them. But that’s not all, they also have a shadow that keeps the peace between beast and male. When the vamp is mortally wounded, the shadow inside pulls away and ventures out to seek sustenance for the vampire. The idiots who cursed them should’ve found a way to keep that from happening. They made it where these beasts are damn near unstoppable.”
So the curse put on Raynor had probably saved his life dozens of times. Thank the stars for whoever cursed him and his kind.
“Oh well,” Ana stood up. “The bastard won’t be coming back this time.” She kicked Raynor in the side.
“Don’t touch him bitch,” Lark struggled, forcing the wires deeper into her wrists.
Ana’s eyes widened. “You really care for this creature, don’t you?” Ana kicked Raynor again, this time in the head.
“Ana,” the Prince roared. ‘Have a seat or leave the room.”
“Why do I have to leave? This bitch is a prisoner, make her leave.”