Startled green eyes stared at him. “You have an elementary school here?”
“Of course. Not all our children in this city are homeschooled, although more are than most. Many have parents well into their eight and nine hundreds, kitten. Tradition is strong here. We also have a twenty percent human demographic in this city. We have human children in the schools.” That surprised her; he had no difficulty seeing that. “We are normal people, Mallory. We just have slightly different DNA than humans. We have the same basic needs, and we love our children deeply. You will see. Family is the basis of all Dardaptoan culture. Unlike humans, who can be a bit self-centered. We put the good of the family above all things.”
“Great. The vampire mob.”
He led the way to the restaurant, keeping his hand on her back. For some reason, he felt as nervous as a schoolboy on his first date. He had to smile at that; it was his first date with his Rajni. Why wouldn’t he be nervous?
They didn’t have reservations, but Aodhan didn’t need them. Being Equan of the Adrastos family had its perks. He held out the chair for his female and waited for her to be seated. He’d never dated a female before, but he was determined to do this right. His female deserved it.
She might not be the queen of their people, but she was the one female in the world that mattered to him most of all.
She was the most beautiful creature in the room, and he told her so, ignoring the way she shook her head. She would need to get accustomed to hearing him say it; he meant it, too.
He tried to make small talk with her over the course of fish and fruit, but she was reticent. At first. Most likely because he refused to let go of her hand where he’d captured it on the table. He needed to touch her.
By the time they reached the elementary school, she was relaxed enough with him that when he laced his fingers through hers and led her to the section of the auditorium reserved for the heads of each House, she barely seemed to notice.
She didn’t notice the looks they were getting. Word that four new Rajnis had been found among humans was starting to get out. That they were Tanisses was also spreading. Aodhan’s hand tightened on hers. Not all the looks were friendly.
There were hate-filled glares coming toward his female.
His hand dropped to the sword he wore everywhere. All understood his threat.
None would ever hurt her again.
She enjoyed the children’s production of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, laughing at the kids’ antics and holding her breath when some of the more obviously nervous children said their lines. Compassionate. Caring.
Aodhan enjoyed watching her watch the children.
She would be a wonderful mother to their children someday. He wasn’t sure he wanted to rush those babes, though. Maybe they would take a decade or so and spend that time together loving each other and learning as much about one another as they could? That was something he would have to discuss with her after she warmed up to him.
Most female Dardaptoans longed for babes shortly after finding their Rajnis. He suspected she would be no different. He occupied himself during intermission with fantasies of how those redheaded babes would look.
After the children’s production, they returned to the hotel suite. She watched him warily, like a frightened cat, cornered in a back alley.
“If you’d like, I’ll give you some privacy while you change for bed.” He said the words in as coaxing manner as he could. “The servants put your clothing in that chest there. It was my great-aunt’s. She never found her mate and was one hell of a warrior. Fought in the Roman Civil War in the first century AD.”
She looked in the direction he pointed. “It can’t be that old.”
“It is. And been carefully preserved, used through generations of my family. I had a difficult time getting it here from South America centuries ago. It is yours now. Get changed, the night grows late, and there is much for me to do on the morning.”
“What is it that you do, exactly? Besides kidnapping unsuspecting accountants?”
“I am head of this tribe’s security. It is my job to ensure everyone in this city is kept safe. From Dhar Rydere down to the smallest babe.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “I won’t have sex with you.”
“I know. Not yet. But you will sleep beside me every night. That is where my Rajni always belongs.”
“I’m not your Rajni or anything else.”
“Do you always deny the obvious, kitten? Go on. Go change. If you don’t, I’m going to assume you prefer to sleep naked, and I’ll do the same.” He leered at her, teasing.
Green eyes widened, and she scurried to the bathroom. He laughed. One day…one day she would sleep against him naked. Their mating practically guaranteed it.
Less than ten minutes later, she returned bundled in a thick vestis and pardus sleep set. Her hair was braided and hung halfway down her back, and her face was scrubbed clean. She looked so innocent; he so wanted to debauch her.
He yanked the blankets back, exposing the mattress. “Get in.”
She hesitated. “No.”
“I promise you, Mallory, I will not touch you this night. Just get in and go to sleep. Even now, we have enemies. Both for my leadership position of one of the wealthiest branches of our people and because of who your grandfather is and what he has done. I will protect you from all things—including myself. In. Or I will put you right where I want you.”
He waited, knowing that he pushed her. He was just waiting for her to scurry away.
“Yeah, like that will be easy. If you try anything, I’ll emasculate you first chance I get.” She climbed onto the mattress and scooted to the far edge, staring at him. He didn’t miss the trembling. The fear she tried so hard to hide.
Maybe he was being an ass, but he wasn’t stupid. He wanted her where he could get to her quickly. To protect. His first instinct would always be to protect. Regardless of her fears, he had to protect.
Aodhan pulled his tunic over his head and tossed it to the laundry bin. His pants followed, and he stood before her wearing modern boxers in blue. Her eyes dropped to his shorts and then widened. Aodhan felt a smirk hit his face. He knew how he was built, especially compared to human men. There was no comparison. Best there be no secrets between them.
He lay on the bed beside her, pulling the blankets up over them both. He turned on his side to face her. “Goodnight, kitten. I am so very glad I have finally found you.” He wanted to kiss her but forced himself to behave. There would be time for that when she was ready.
He had to remember—slow. He had to be slow and steady with her, unthreatening, nonfrightening. He had to build her trust first.
15
Mallory had thought the myths said vampires were cold. So not true. His heat threatened to suffocate her. The smell of his skin threatened to overwhelm her.
He wasn’t touching her, was keeping to his half of the bed. She didn’t fully remember the hours from the night before, but he had tucked her in tonight like he’d done it a thousand times before. He wasn’t even looking at her—the room was too dark for that, and he was turned away—sleeping soundly on his stomach.
His sword was on the huge nightstand, where he could reach it in an instant.
Snoring. Apparently, males of any species were just the same when they slept.
He took up a massive amount of mattress. She had nowhere to go.
The bed was pushed up against the wall, and the cool plaster blocked her from escaping that way. She just had to climb over him without waking him and make a run for it.
Yep.
Like that was going to happen.
No, she was stuck right where she was. No doubt he’d wake right up the instant she touched him, thinking she wanted to make vampire spawn.
Stuck in the bed next to a vampire. And he just expected her to sleep.
No doubt her sister and cousins were having the same problem. She crazily wondered for a moment if their vampires were as hot as hers.
/> In the literal sense, anyway. He was roasting her alive.
She settled for throwing the covers off and at least attempting to get comfortable. Something had her skin crawling—worse than it had since he’d brought her there.
A part of her was screaming that she should curl up as close to him as she could get.
Mallory jumped when a large crack of thunder sounded overhead. She squealed.
He rolled toward her, his eyes opening immediately, his hand going to the knife he’d kept by the bed, next to the sword. That damned knife had tempted her. If she could just get to it…
“Kitten? What’s the matter?”
“Nothing. Just thunder. I wasn’t expecting it.” And it had sounded like a woman shrieking out her pain after she’d been…hurt. Mallory had yelled like that before. She heard the screams in her nightmares.
He shifted closer, his heat scorching her. Every instinct she possessed was screaming at her to just bury her face in his chest until whatever was happening was over.
“Are you afraid then? It’s just a storm, and this hotel has stood against many such storms.” He straightened the blankets and rested one hand over her stomach. “It will stand against whatever comes.”
“I’m not afraid of storms. It just startled me.” She wasn’t a wimp, afraid of the wind. And she wasn’t about to let the vampire actually comfort her because of the storm. She wasn’t that weak. She wasn’t.
“I see.”
He adjusted the blankets around her, tucking them over her thoroughly. Mallory fought back a sigh. She was already burning up from the heat he exuded. She didn’t need blankets on top of her, too. “I’m fine.”
“You must stay covered. As a Dardaptoan female, the cold is not your friend.”
There he went again. He might have turned her into a vampire, but she wasn’t just accepting that she was what he was now. No Hey baby! You’re a vampire now; I’m tired. Let’s hit the hay for her. “I’m not a Dardaptoan female. And I’m burning up. You’re like a living furnace. You know that?”
“Are you saying I’m too hot for you?” One scorching hand covered her stomach over the blanket. “It’s because I burn for you.”
Mallory resisted the urge to snort. She knew what he meant. And he was hot. If he hadn’t abducted her, she might have spent a moment or two looking at him if given the chance. He was as sculpted as the best Roman statue. That didn’t mean she had to like him. “Not quite.”
The shrill thunder came again. Aodhan tensed in an instant.
She stopped speaking when his hand covered her mouth. He tensed over her. “Shh. Did you hear that?”
Mallory shook her head. All she could hear was her own heartbeat and the sound of the rumbling thunder. His breathing where he loomed over her.
Then she caught it, a shrill screaming voice like none she had ever heard. Her soul froze as the sound echoed through the suite. Her nails dug into his arm. He pulled her against him, holding her tight as the shrill echo grew louder. Closer. “What is it?”
“A Beansidhe. You’d call it a banshee.” His arms were strong and tight around her as lightning flashed again, filling the room with a momentary hot-blue glow. He sat her aside and stood, grabbing for the trousers he’d thrown in the laundry basket just hours before. There was urgency in his movements now. Purpose.
Furious pounding sounded on the door, and Mallory barely resisted screaming.
“Stay here, kitten. I’ll get the door.”
“What is it doing here?”
“A Beansidhe foretells death and is best met head-on. If not, her wails will only grow until her message is delivered. You just stay in bed; you’re perfectly safe here.”
Mallory had no intention of hiding under the covers. Her family was in this hotel. And that didn’t sound human at all. “I’m coming with you.”
He cursed, but they both knew there wasn’t time to argue. “Then come. But stay behind me when she gets here and stay very quiet. I will protect you. I swear this to you. Can you do that?”
Mallory nodded. She wasn’t as afraid of him as she had been, but the creature responsible for that bone-chilling-cold scream terrified her. He led the way out of the bedroom and threw open the door to the suite. A woman stood there, a look of panic on her face.
“Auri.” He pulled the woman into the suite and then closed the door behind her. “It woke you, too?”
“Yes. I wonder who—”
“I don’t know yet. The Beansidhe will be here shortly. In under fifteen minutes. How is the rest of the House doing?”
“Some are awake. First cousins, mostly. To the goddess, Aodhan, who?”
“So our line, then.” Grief hit his face, and Mallory studied him. He hadn’t showed fear, though the woman who looked like him was obviously frightened.
“Yes.”
“Wait? What? You mean someone is going to die and you can’t do anything about it?” Mallory couldn’t even begin to understand it. “Can’t you stop it, somehow?”
“No, kitten. Once a Beansidhe attaches itself to a dying soul, nothing will prevent that death. Nothing. Not even the deities above. I just hope it is one unmated, without babes.” His words were resigned, and he grabbed Mallory’s hand and pulled her closer. She let him, too surprised at what was happening to protest. This…this wasn’t anything she could ever comprehend. Her world…her world wasn’t what she had thought it once was. And he was all she did know right then. “We can do nothing but wait until we gain news of the death. One of us must speak with the Beansidhe, listen to the message she delivers.”
“And then what?” Banshees were mythological. They weren’t real. None of this was real. It just couldn’t be. But it was. And she couldn’t escape it. “What will you do after?”
“Try to determine who the message refers to. It can be anyone we are related to.” The woman that Mallory assumed was Aodhan’s sister sank onto the couch, shivering. Her terror and pain struck something in Mallory. Felt too real. Too deep. Too much like her own had been. “Anyone anywhere in the world.”
“You mean the thing won’t tell you?” How horrific, to know someone you loved was going to die but not who that person was. Fear for her own family would have had her going insane.
“No. Not likely. And we won’t even know when it will happen, either. It can be instantaneous or weeks down the road.”
“Do these banshees tell of every death of your people, whatever you call them—Dardaptoans?”
He paced around the room, back and forth from where Mallory stood near the wall between the sitting room and the bedroom to the couch where his sister sat. “No.”
“Then why you?”
“Our line gained the attention of Beansidhe through exploits on various battlefields. Beansidhe admire fierce fighting and appreciation of death. This particular tribe have attached themselves to the Adrastos family, foretelling deaths for the last five millennia. They always come in the night, in the midst of horrible storms,” the sister said. She was shivering. Aodhan paused long enough to wrap an afghan around his sister and brush a huge hand over her cheek. He was so tender with her, so caring.
Odd, for a man who had thought nothing of coming to kill her for someone else’s sins.
“Can the rest of the hotel hear this?” Mallory asked as the shrieking increased.
“Not all. Just a few close relatives of ours in this wing or those who have married into other wings. We, as the head of the Adrastos family, hear it the loudest.”
“So why am I hearing it if only those you are related to can hear it?”
His eyes were serious, truthful, when he looked at her. “Because from the moment I first recognized you as my Rajni, you became the female head of my family, second by my sister, Aureliana. You can hear the Adrastos Beansidhe because you are an Adrastos, now, too.”
Mallory watched him pace around the room as the sound of the shrill screaming continued. A crack of thunder overhead shook the building, just as lightning flashed again. The flas
h revealed a silhouette at the window.
Mallory did scream then and crouched into a defensive pose.
The other woman wrapped her arms around Mallory from behind her. “Be quiet. She won’t hurt us, but we don’t want to draw her attention this way. Beansidhe can be quite vindictive when pulled from their tasks. It’s best to let Aodhan deal with her.”
Mallory nodded, though she remained tense. His sister’s grip was strong and firm, and she was at least three inches taller and thirty pounds heavier than Mallory. Yet fear had the larger woman trembling as well. If a vampire was frightened of this thing, Mallory had every reason to be.
Of course, if what they’d said was true, this Beansidhe was bringing news that someone was going to die. Anyone would be terrified of it.
If the vampire was terrified of it, nothing in his demeanor showed that terror. He stood facing the glass veranda doors, arms crossed over his massive naked chest. Strong, brave, sure. Beautiful.
Mallory had to admit he looked good standing there.
He nodded.
The creature shrilled again, and the glass separating her from the room’s occupants shattered into millions of pieces. Mallory bit her knuckles to prevent another scream from escaping.
Aodhan did nothing, did not even flinch. A tiny bit of admiration for him burned through her mind.
Mallory studied the glowing creature that now stood less than two yards from the vampire. After she got past the glow, she could easily see that the Beansidhe was beautiful. Ethereal. Cold and frightening. Her eyes were open in what could only be described as a cross between tortured grief and the sightless stare of someone who was long dead.
Mallory’s shivers were just as strong as Aodhan’s sister’s. The other woman continued to hold Mallory, whether to keep Mallory from running, or because Aureliana needed emotional support, Mallory couldn’t tell. The why wasn’t quite clear to Mallory, but she didn’t mind. She clung just as tightly.
How could he face the thing so calmly? Mallory was fighting the urge to wet her pants.
Stolen By The Warrior Page 6