Hearts Unleashed: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by C. D. Gorri

  “Why should it matter to you? You didn’t care when I was told I was going to spend the rest of my life with that guy. I suppose whatever you and I had, be it friendship or lust, died weeks ago. Actually, the second after you bit me. Guess I tasted bad or something.” She shook her head and stepped away from him. “I’m going back to Nana’s. Don’t know what I was thinking coming over here.”

  She’d run because she refused to go through the pronouncement betrothal ceremony. Refused to be forced. It wasn’t the best move, but it was Ivy. Unlike the male vampire in an arranged mating who could walk away from her, divorce her, or kill her, female vampires had no rights. Was it fair? Hell, no. Was it antiquated? Yes. But her parents were old school. They did things by the book. Not that it’d worked for their other two kids.

  Ty caught her as she brushed past and spun her, backing her into the counter. One hand gently traced her jaw. “You don’t taste bad. Far from it. You tasted so good I’ve thought about it every goddamned second since I had my mouth on you. Did Hugo do something to you?”

  “My life was auctioned to the highest bidder. If he murdered me, no one would hold him accountable. If I say the vows, I’ll officially be his property, so he can do whatever the hell he wants with me. No one cared that I said no. No one gave two shits what I think. But if he decides he doesn’t want me, he can get rid of me without a second thought.”

  “Did he threaten you?” Ty smoothed a hand over her shoulder, talking softly and trying to tone down the fury in his voice to avoid scaring her. “Tell me he didn’t use death as a way to try to control you.”

  “Don’t pretend it matters to you.”

  “It matters a whole lot, Ivy.

  “He didn’t hurt me or do anything physical. Calm down. He plans to control me…my life.”

  In a blink, she stiffened, snatched her jacket off the table, and marched past him. At the front door, she paused to turn around, the dog on her heels. She patted Alfie’s head, took a deep breath, and her eyes closed. “Ty…” The soft tone sent chills down his back. “The furniture…the hookups who you don’t touch…you’ve relapsed to what you were doing after your dad died. It never helped you then. It won’t help you now.”

  Her eyes fluttered open. Damn, he’d missed her and this look, the one filled with understanding and lacked judgment.

  He said, “You’ve been spying on me like I was you. It’s kind of hot.”

  Her cheeks flushed. “You’ve been down this path before.”

  She was right. Even if he never slept with them, he contemplated meaningless sex as a way to lose himself. It’d never helped when the stress in his work life spiraled in the past. Only she could help. Talking, silence, or doing mindless activities together like a movie…simply her being here helped. It was why he let her drag him on insane trips where they went spelunking or snowboarding or fishing in the Baltic Sea. He’d messed up the best thing in his rather unstable and rocky life with one kiss and a bite. Now he had nothing to keep him steady while he dealt with the darkest evils of their species. In the past few months, he’d skidded way off the rails.

  She said, “Remember, you’re enough. You do the best you can at everything. You can’t save everyone. Whatever happened at work…whoever died, it’s not your fault. Yet, still, you beat yourself up over the bad things you’re forced to do and the ones who’re lost. Well, you’re the best at almost everything except friendship, but that’s an issue for another time.”

  “Stay, Ivy. Please. We can be friends only again.” I need you. I need you safe from Garian. He was seconds away from getting on his knees to beg. He’d never force her to stay.

  “I can’t be friends with you anymore.” She drew in a shaky breath. “We crossed a line, and I can’t go back.” Pain filled her eyes. “Why do you think I dragged you to all those places over the years? Why didn’t I take someone else?”

  “I assumed no one else could keep up with you.”

  She glared.

  “I assumed you liked my company,” he said.

  “You’re the only one I wanted to do it with. I wanted to be sure we were seen together by everyone. I wanted to compromise my reputation with you on purpose so when it came down to it my parents would have no choice but to pronounce me with you. Deep inside, I thought you’d agree, but I was wrong.”

  Chapter Two

  Ivy had left him a message weeks ago?

  Ivy had phoned him when she’d needed him most, and he’d missed it. A message would’ve come in twenty-five days ago—the exact amount of time since Ivy’s parents almost managed to affiance her to Hugo. Over six hundred hours since he’d made the decision he wouldn’t try to speak with her. Because he was jealous as fuck and tried to play gentleman for her by staying the hell out of her life.

  He could barely hold his life together without her stabilizing influence, although that statement seemed ironic. Ivy should come with a warning label. Her spontaneous craziness drove him nuts, like the breaking and entering or that sudden weekend balloon trip she’d forced him on last year to see the aurora borealis in Greenland. He liked organization and control. She brought chaos, which he grudgingly accepted and sometimes enjoyed. Okay, he often got a kick out of her trips, like the time they’d heli-skied in Alaska or canyon jumped in France. He died a little on the inside each time he thought about never going anywhere with her again. Sure, he’d been terrified for his life more than once, especially on the great white shark adventure—the last time he’d agreed to do anything in the ocean.

  He searched for her number on his phone, coming up with not a single message since the night things went a little too far. Maybe she hadn’t use her phone to call him?

  He got dozens of messages every day and did his best to delete the done and useless. This was the problem with working alone. Everyone wanted his services, and he was too controlling to allow an assistant to handle the onslaught of messages from both active, past, and future clients. He slid against the wall in the hallway to a sit as he continued scrolling through his voicemail inbox.

  Nothing from her personal phone, but he listened through every voicemail message on the day he’d been told she disappeared, the day Marcel had phoned him. Forty-five messages.

  In a hushed, stressed voice, she said. “Ty, they took my phone. I’m sorry about the other night. I freaked. You freaked. It was a mess. We’re better than that, and this phone silence…hate it. But bigger problems. I don’t want to be with Hugo for the rest of my life. Not with how I feel…with you and me. If you think this is what I should do, maybe I’ll try. But I have to hear it from you. I need you to say this is what you want, too. I need to hear you say you don’t want me because it sure as hell felt like you did. Ty, I don’t know what to do without you to talk to, and I don’t think Hugo would let us be friends. He gives me chill creeps every time he touches me. Then he said… Wait. Someone’s coming. I borrowed a phone to call. Don’t call me back on this. I need to talk to you. I’ll be at the tree house in twenty-four hours.”

  He slammed his fists against the floor.

  He hadn’t been there.

  Damn it. He buried his face in his hands.

  That message had come through when he’d been in Russia dealing with a sticky situation with an illegitimate half-vampire, half-human baby that needed smuggling out of the country and then had to disappear. He would’ve dropped all of it had he heard this message.

  His chest felt numb and his limbs too heavy to lift.

  There wasn’t a way to win this situation. He wanted to take her into hiding with him right now, but she wasn’t his to have. Hiding solved nothing, especially with a bounty hunter tracking her.

  He picked up his discarded phone and dialed Marcel. The moment he answered, Ty demanded, “Tell me about her pronouncement. What exactly happened?”

  “I wasn’t there. I’m not welcome in my parents’ house.”

  “What did you hear happened?”

  “You should call Luca. He was there.” Marcel hung up
.

  Ty compressed his lips and stared at the phone. With a resigned inhale, he scrolled to Luca’s number. He glanced heavenward and cursed. The last time he spoke with Luca, last year, Ivy’s big brother had accused him of enabling Ivy’s addiction to life-threatening adventures. Her trips weren’t that bad. They simply allowed them to see the wildest parts of the world.

  When Luca answered he said, “It’s Ty. What happened at Ivy’s pronouncement ceremony?”

  “You must’ve colossally fucked up to get on her bad side.” Luca said loudly.

  Ty pulled the phone away from his ear. “Who said Ivy and I aren’t getting along?”

  Luca snorted. “How could you let her disappear for this long? It’s dangerous for her. And for you. I know she helps you work out your psychological bullshit. We all know she’s going to end up on your doorstep eventually.”

  “We’re talking about the same woman, right? The one who does whatever she wants, consequences be damned?”

  “But you are the voice of reason in her life.” Luca sighed and lowered his tone. “You’re the only voice she might listen to at this point.”

  “She might listen to me, but she’ll still do what she wants.”

  “Then convince her it’s in her best interest to deal with Hugo now. Did Marcel let you know Garian was hired to collect her? Assholish thing for Hugo to do, but he hasn’t handled being jilted well.”

  “What exactly happened that day?”

  “My parents tried to force Ivy to accept their choice. Ivy did Ivy, which means she freaked out. There was a lot of yelling and things breaking. She was shoved into a room with Hugo before the ceremony. Fifteen minutes later, she was gone. I don’t know what Hugo said to her.”

  “Hugo doesn’t deserve her. He’ll never understand her.”

  “No one understands her.”

  “I do. Some of the time.”

  “Tell her why she should come in on her own before Garian finds her. Hugo told Garian he doesn’t care if she’s breathing or not at this point. He just wants her back because she belongs to him.”

  “You agree with this?”

  “Whether I agree or not is moot. I can’t try to fix things until she reappears.”

  *.*.*.*

  Ivy’s eyes streamed with tears by the time she made it back to her aunt’s guesthouse. After circling the perimeter of the small house set a quarter mile off the road to be sure Marcel had gone, she stood in the entryway, resting against the closed door. The heat of the furnace blasted from the vents, but it wasn’t warm enough to ward off her chill.

  Bad mistake to have faced Ty. Seeing him so jagged and with the haunted look in his eyes made her sick to her stomach. She recognized the signs he was hurting—the long runs, the almost hookups, and the extra hours in his garage working on furniture projects—the past few weeks of watching him from afar.

  Sobs racked her chest the more she replayed the devastated look in his eyes when she refused to stay. To talk and be the friend he needed. He’d cried out for help in his own silent way and, for the first time in her life, she’d denied him. Over the years, whenever he’d called, she’d dropped everything to spend a few days with him to get him propped back up. Both her parents and her brothers chastised her for spending time alone with an unmated vampire, especially someone as borderline shady as Ty. The reputation came with his profession. Sure, he could kill, bribe, torture, or whatever it took to get a job done, but beneath it all lay a good soul. Not pure or saintly. Just solid. Sometimes, Ty would tell her stories of what made him lose his moral compass. Sometimes, he refused and told her the reason was too dark.

  She cried harder until she couldn’t breathe.

  This crying wasn’t just for his pain. It became more about hers. How much she loved him. And how much his horrified look after he’d bitten her all those weeks ago haunted her thoughts.

  But he said I didn’t taste bad. It must’ve been guilt, then, that had put the look on his face. Despite all their talks, all their rebellious trips, and them spending time alone, deep down Ty was as wrapped up in societal rules as any other vampire. They couldn’t act on their feelings unless some old-ass vampires gave them the thumbs-up.

  Stumbling, she made it to the bedroom in the small house and buried her head in her hands. Her reasons to deny him the help he needed were selfish. Because she couldn’t be around him as his best buddy anymore, not after he’d shown her that he could rock a woman’s world—hers.

  You’re stronger than this. When she’d needed him most, he hadn’t been there. Years of being his rock and then in the moment when she’d needed him… Crickets.

  A few deep breaths and the tears stopped, even if the choking sobs continued to come in spasms so strong her shoulders ached.

  He hadn’t followed her here.

  In the past, any time they’d fought or ended things on a down note, he would’ve pounded at the door by now in order to make it right.

  Crickets again.

  All that they’d had together was lost.

  It was her alone in this new reality. She’d discovered over the past weeks she didn’t handle solitude well. She’d begun talking to Aunt Nana’s cat. The orange tabby usually gave her the hairy eye, but he tolerated her ramblings.

  She stayed on the floor for a long time until she felt strong enough to reach for her phone on the nightstand.

  She texted Jasmine, Luca’s mate, who’d been her biggest sounding board through the past few weeks in isolation.

  Ivy: I faced him.

  Jasmine: What?! You’re talking about Ty, right?

  Ivy: Had to. Marcel was here looking for me at Nana’s. Had to go somewhere.

  Jasmine: Did you jump that mass of hotness and let him blow your mind before you’re stuck with that tool for the rest of your life?

  Ivy: He did some boob staring, but it ended there.

  Jasmine: He never promised to pine for you. Boob staring means he’s not immune. That’s a first step.

  Ivy: Whose side are you on?

  Jasmine: I’m on the side that has you not running anymore. And gets you hooked up with some Ty action. Lord, that one’s hot... Don’t you dare tell Luca I said that.

  Ivy: Luca knows you’d never seriously look at anyone else. I could go for some Ty action.

  Jasmine: If it’s not happening, come stay with us. Come home.

  Ivy: Luca would be forced to send me to Hugo.

  Jasmine: I won’t let him. Trust me, I can be persuasive. He’s worried about you. I am too. Hugo said some things to your parents… He implied this has gone on long enough. I’m not sure what he’s going to do, but it won’t be good.

  A bounty hunter was after her. She shuffled over the wall panel to arm the house alarm. There weren’t any effective weapons here to defend herself with. Maybe she should march back over the Ty’s and ask him for a gun. But the thought of facing him again wasn’t something she could handle. This time, she’d break down and provide him the emotional support he wanted from her to prop him back up.

  She unhooked the nineteenth century sword from its decorative space on the wall over the unused fireplace in the parlor and propped it next to her bed. Best to take it out of its scabbard. Damn, the thing weighed a ton. With an eye roll, she wiped ineffectively at a few rust spots. She’d make it work.

  Chapter Three

  Ty’s eyes popped open.

  He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. The lure of day sleep was difficult when he hadn’t let himself rest in days. He’d meant to go watch over Ivy, maybe even convince her to come back to his place where she’d be safer from Garian. Definitely needed to clear the air between them.

  Alfie yanked on his arm again, his teeth digging in, almost breaking skin. That’s why he’d woken up. Once a vampire fell into day sleep, little could wake him unless he had a persistent dog trained not to give up until Ty woke and dealt with whatever in his environment was off. In his line of work, assassins often came at him during his weakest moment—while sleeping.<
br />
  “Stehen still,” he ordered.

  Alfie froze.

  Ty’s watch read 8:05. Twenty-eight new voicemail messages. He listened to them. None from Ivy. Their fight left a sour taste in his mouth. They’d never not fixed things between them after an argument. Hell, he’d felt off for a month with everything wrong between them.

  He couldn’t see the daylight outside, not with the metal shutters on his windows to prevent one hundred percent of the light from entering, but he felt it.

  Everything was too quiet. No refrigerator whir. No furnace blowing air. The electricity was off. Damned ice storm and overhead power lines.

  “Thanks, bud.” He gave Alfie a solid pat on the side, which was the dog’s signal to be free. A few camera scrolls on his cell phone showed ice covered every surface outside. If his power was out, guaranteed it was out at Nana’s house too. That meant the alarm was off there. Nana’s state-of-the-art security system, which he’d helped choose and install, had battery backup but that wouldn’t last long.

  Getting to Ivy involved trekking in daylight. Not ideal.

  Sun wouldn’t turn him to dust like in movies, but it’d hurt a lot if it hit his skin. Most urban myths about vampires weren’t true. A bite couldn’t turn a human into a vampire. You were either born into the species or you weren’t. Religious artifacts did nothing to them. They could survive off regular food and without blood for long periods of time. Although blood kept them strong. Human blood sufficed, but vampire blood was superior. He hadn’t taken blood in far too long. Not since that night he’d taken from her. Irresponsible. Made him weaker with longer than normal healing times if he got injured.

  He grinned. Of course, he’d go and save her ass from freezing. She’d be deep asleep and might not know he was there. Once asleep, little woke her. If he brought her back, he could finish their conversation and make things right. He’d find out what had happened at the pronouncement ceremony and why she thought she’d needed to run.