by C. D. Gorri
Chapter Seven
The instant Ty awoke, his flesh crawled with warning that the sun hadn’t set. He didn’t need to see it to know. Seeing was impossible with the shutters over the windows, hidden beneath the curtains. The greater the sun’s glow, the higher the risk for a bad burn.
Yet, he was wide awake. Ivy lay next to him with one arm thrown over him. No longer was she in the pajamas, but in jeans and a T-shirt. She’d never been an elegant sleeper—limbs thrown every which way and emitting small snores from time to time—but he still thought her beautiful. Slowly, he removed her arm. Her breathing hitched, but she didn’t wake. Typical. Once out, little woke her.
A glance around the ornate bedroom and one sniff… Luca and Jasmine. Figured she’d bring him to her brother’s castle—cliché to be an old as hell vampire who lived in a castle, but it worked for Luca.
Alfie stood and put his head on Ty’s lap. He gave the dog a pat. “They let you stay inside, huh? Nice of them.”
The poisoned stab wound was healed. Still ached, but the fact it’d sealed meant they’d gotten the antidote, which couldn’t have been easy. He’d been hit by one of Garian’s blades before. It sucked. The cure involved paying a powerful witch to concoct a specific potion. The downside of the potion was it zapped his energy for days.
Luca stood in the doorway, legs planted, and glared. His alert pose and big-ass body could do serious harm if he wanted, especially considering Ty was only operating at about sixty percent. Alfie would be little deterrent. Guess if Ivy was his sister, and she was almost engaged to someone not Ty, he, too, would have a serious case of the cranks.
“Shower.” Luca pointed to an attached bathroom suite. “Then you and I will speak down the hall.” With a pivot, he left.
He and Luca had never been on the same page when it came to Ivy. You’d think with Luca as an artist, a world-famous violinist, he’d understand his sister’s creative drive that often inspired her to do impulsive things. But he’d been the brunt of Luca’s lectures more than once after Ivy had dragged Ty on another wild adventure that almost killed both of them. He’d gotten a one-hour sermon after the time they’d trekked across Zambia. He chuckled remembering the elephant bull that had charged them, but it wasn’t the animal that had posed the life-threat. The beast had destroyed their SUV, and they’d had to walk for hours in daylight with no shade. Bad sunburns.
As if he had any control over stopping Ivy.
He scrubbed in the shower for long minutes, desperate to erase the evidence of the stab wound and the poison. He caught himself by grabbing the handles of the shower when his mind wobbled. The world righted itself after what seemed like a long time. Once done with the shower, he couldn’t put on his blood-soaked clothes. The clean clothes on the counter… Oh, hell. He threw his head back and stared at the ceiling.
His preferred outfit was tactical pants and a dark T-shirt, usually long-sleeved. Not this.
What choice did he have? It was them or a towel.
Ivy would never let him live this down. His thighs were exposed in three places from the holes and tears in one of Luca’s signature designer jeans. The dark T-shirt had a picture of Luca in the dead center of his chest, his hair flying as he played his violin.
Kill me now.
Nothing like being dressed in a fan shirt while being interrogated by an angry brother. Maybe the image of himself on the shirt would distract Luca.
Up the hall in a large sitting room, Ty landed on the stuffed sofa harder than intended and slouched to stare at Luca.
“You’re a problem,” Luca said. His pulse was up, and he ground his teeth.
“Am I your problem?” Ty asked with dead calm. For a split second, he wanted Luca to attack him. A good fistfight might dissipate some of his frustration. But Luca would never do something that stupid. If Luca had wanted him dead, he would’ve done it while Ty was sleeping.
“What are your intentions with my sister?”
“The fatherly approach doesn’t work on me.”
“I’m about to stick my neck out for her to fight this mating. If I’m about to get singed, I want to know what you plan to do if I’m successful.”
“She’s my best friend.”
Luca snorted and rolled his eyes. “I need to know you’re invested in this for far more than friendship. The way Ivy fell apart when you almost took a walk with the Grim Reaper a few hours ago says there’s a hell of a lot more than friendship on the line from her perspective. What’s in this for you?”
“Whatever’s going on between us, let’s just say I’m not going to fuck up the only good thing in my life by admitting I want anything more. If she wants to keep it friends only, then I’ll follow her lead.”
Luca’s eyelids drifted closed. “That’s your problem. You always let her take the lead. Nothing gets resolved if I get her current union disbanded and she resumes dragging you on her insane, adrenaline-fueled trips.” He massaged his forehead. “I’m glad you go. I know you’ll at least try to keep her safe. That shit you two did last year mountain climbing in Russia…”
“It was Nepal, not Russia. That was a good trip. Cold as hell, but the actual climb was one of the safer ones we’ve done. What are you asking of me?” His ribs tightened and heart pounded.
“This is a mess from every angle. If she hadn’t run, maybe this could be dealt with. But she did and now we have a hunter trying to reclaim her who almost killed you. She’s got her heels dug in as a big fat no on the idea of mating. And Hugo has had weeks of stewing and social humiliation. If he gets her in his grasp as his mate, she will feel every moment of his shame and exasperation, if he doesn’t kill her outright.”
“What do you want me to say? That I’ll kill him if he hurts her? Because I will. No hesitation. I fully expect you to help me burn the body. You want to hear that I’d die for her? I almost did. I would again.”
“Have you two hashed out how you two feel?”
His leg popped up and down. “She feels the same hesitancy to mess up what we have. I don’t want to lose her, and she doesn’t want to lose me. We’re each other’s support system. Problem is I can’t ignore how I feel about her for much longer. We had a…” He leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. “We kissed once. A week before the pronouncement ceremony with Hugo. It totally mind-fucked us.”
Luca slapped his hands simultaneously on the leather sofa.
Ty jumped.
“Damn it, Ty, can you man up enough to mate her or not?”
“This is Ivy we’re talking about. You don’t tell Ivy to do anything. If she’d have me, then yes. I won’t force her into anything. I don’t think she’s big on the together forever thing.”
“Then you better figure out in your head how to convince her why it’s to her benefit to mate you. This is so frustrating. You love her. She loves you. What the hell is the problem?”
They both heard the bedroom door open and sat straighter.
Ivy put her hands on her hips and glanced between the two of them. Her lips quivered and a snort laugh escaped. “That’s quite a shirt, Ty. Didn’t know you secretly fan-boyed over Luca.” Her gaze fell to his legs. “You going commando? Because I think I’m seeing some upper thigh verging on butt cheek action from my angle?”
He waved at his crotch. “Kinda scared the boys might get a flash in, but so long as you’re looking…”
“TMI, darling.” She fanned her face dramatically. “I expect Hugo to show up within the next hour or so.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me if Garian got a tracker on us,” Luca muttered.
“Or he’s got people monitoring Luca’s place. We should expect Garian to be with him when he shows up. Ty, it’d be nice if you could weapon up before he gets here so at least one of us is ready.”
“Why did you disappear?” Luca asked.
“I need some time to figure things out,” Ivy said.
Ty muttered, “Your figuring required knitting for penguins and decoupage?”
She s
talked to Ty and lightly whacked him in the arm. “You said you didn’t hear what I said last night.”
He shrugged. “Might’ve lied because…decoupage. Seriously? You do big art—paintings and sculpture. You’re internationally renowned for abstract masterpieces. Yet, you found yourself by gluing pictures and stickers to boxes?”
“You’re being an ass. So I lost my inspiration to paint or sculpt? It slipped out of my life. I binged streaming TV and glued. It was exactly what I needed.” She and Ty stared at each other for a few long minutes.
She was saying he was her inspiration. He liked that.
She said, “I’ve already booked us for a Yukon dog sledding week next month.”
“I never agreed to that.” Ty sat straighter. “Plus, there’s all this mess about Hugo.”
Her eyebrows rose. “The trip is already paid for. It’s perfect because we can be dressed in warm clothes that cover everything for the daylight hours.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you going to knit the dogs little sweaters?”
Her lips thinned, and hell if her aggravated didn’t make him want to poke her harder. How dare she sign them up for another frozen venture?
“If the dogs want sweaters, I’ll get to work on them.” She pointed at him. “You’re scared you’ll get constipated again like you did in Nepal. I’ll bring tea this time to keep things moving.”
“I wasn’t the only one who got blocked up eating that salty meat shit they fed us. I’m more worried about almost losing another toe or freezing my dick off climbing some ridiculous mountain so you can mark it off your bucket list.”
She stalked closer to him. “Hello? Vampire super healing? Stop being a drama king. So your wee little toe got a little frostbite? It healed. Or do you have other problems…” She eyed his crotch. “Trouble being fully functional?”
He scowled “I guarantee everything is operational.”
“I also put down the deposit on the Cape of Good Hope sail I mentioned last year. It’s scheduled for July. Definite bucket list item for me.”
“Hell, no. I’m not doing that.” Ty shot to a stand and stepped toward her. “You know I have a thing about the ocean after that shark dive. There are a lot of storms down there in South Africa. They don’t call it the most dangerous passage in the world for no reason. I refuse to die by sunburn or getting eaten by sharks.” She hadn’t backed up an inch as he approached. The pulse in her neck called to him.
“You watched one too many left-at-sea diving movies. No one’s going to dump you in the middle of the stormy ocean and leave. We’re going.”
“Are not.”
“Tyler Barret Ferro.” She stabbed a finger into his chest. “You only live once, and you either live big or you don’t exist.”
He glanced heavenward. “Fine. I’ll plastic wrap my sat phone and duct tape it to my goddamned body.”
She held up her hands. “Problem solved. If the ship goes down, we’ll swim for a buoy and you can call for help.”
“You’re impossible,” Ty swore.
Luca snort-laughed.
Hiram appeared, wringing his hands.
“Guess he arrived,” Ivy muttered.
“Show them to the parlor in the west wing,” Luca said before Hiram had a chance to speak. “We’ll be there in a moment.” He rose and stalked out of the room.
She held out her hand to help Ty up. As he stood, she whispered, “You feeling okay?”
He wobbled his head back and forth. “I kinda feel like that time we rented motorcycles and you wanted to see if we could do stairs in like they do in the movies, and I had the epic fall.”
“We almost lost you yesterday. Do you remember everything I talked about last night?”
His forehead furrowed as he shook his head. “Did you say something important beyond decoupage?”
“Nah, mostly a long discussion of my current craft project. You’re still holding my hand.”
“I am.” He lifted her hand to his lips and laid a kiss on top of her knuckles. “I won’t let them take you.”
“You’re adorable, but we got this.” She beamed her scary smile, the one that meant she had big plans.
His stomach tightened. That was the look she got right before they jumped into one of their ventures. About this time, he second-guessed his choices as the possible failure outcomes swamped his mind, but he’d already committed.
She marched down the hall, her high-heeled boots clicking on the stone floors, leading the way into a huge parlor. Inside, she froze and pointed at the gigantic painting over the fireplace. Splashes of brilliant colors and hints of body parts in passionate positions filled the oversized canvas. “You bought that?”
Luca glanced up. “It’s on the wall, isn’t it?”
“It wasn’t for sale.”
“It went up at auction from the Mumok in Vienna. I wanted one of your pieces so I bought it. Figured when the artist dies it’ll become valuable.”
She smiled softly at Luca. “I always liked that one. Someday, perhaps, I’ll tell you what inspired it.”
Her eyes met Ty’s for an instant, flashing something that suggested the thought of the two of them inspired this.
Ty viewed the painting through new eyes. The reds and blues. The entangled bodies. Nah, the piece was too abstract. He’d read too much into her look.
Her smile disappeared as she faced Hugo and Garian.
“Get her and let’s go,” Hugo ordered Garian. Hugo stared, transfixed at her, his sunglasses long since forgotten where he’d pushed them up into his short-cut, dark hair. Ty never understood vampires who wore sunglasses at night. The sleeves of Hugo’s white shirt were rolled up over his muscled forearms. His eyes were narrowed with such intense focus on Ivy that Ty wondered if the sunglasses might be corrective lenses and not just for show. But that would be the only chink in his mafia-king attitude.
Garian glanced between Luca and Ty.
Ty crossed his arms and glared.
Garian’s eyes went wide. He gave a subtle nod of understanding of the fact he owed Ty for not killing him before. “Let’s see what they have to say first.”
“That’s not what I pay you to do.” Hugo’s face flushed. “Get her.”
Ivy paced forward until she stood a few feet in front of Hugo but out of his grasp. “I’m sorry for disappearing and for any embarrassment I may have caused you. I needed to figure out exactly what I was capable of committing to with you, if anything. And who exactly you are. I do hope you spent this time doing the same.”
“I don’t give a fuck who you are other than you’re a Martens.” Hugo’s jaw ticked. His lips pursed forward as pure hatred seethed from him. “You belong to me.”
Her eyes turned frosty.
Bad move, man. A chill skittered through Ty’s shoulders. The hairs on the back of his neck rose. He tensed, ready to move if Hugo lifted a finger to hurt her. A side-glance caught Luca equally prepared.
She said, “I appreciate that you think I might be the right life partner for you. It’s remarkable how utterly mistaken you are.”
Based on Hugo’s wince, life partner wasn’t he word for what he planned to have with Ivy.
She said, “I’m not the person you want. I’m not the person you think I am. If you lock me up in some sort of prison to serve as broodmare for your next generation, I’ll escape. I excel at getting out of cells, prisons, and restraints.”
“I don’t care. You made vows.” Hugo caressed the gun in his side holster.
Warning bells rang in Ty’s head. He’d read that kind of resolve in people many times over the years. Hugo was going to kill her.
Chapter Eight
Ty knew a fresh kind of terror, which was saying a lot as he watched Hugo, who behaved as if waiting for the right moment to strike. Ty forced rage and fear into the back of his mind. This was like any other job. Protect the asset.
Only, the asset was freaking Ivy. His emotions were all over the place and anything but focused. She was unpredictable.
Couldn’t she read her own peril?
Ivy said, “I recall saying no vows. I remember saying a pretty loud no, though.” A smile crossed her lips. “I’m never going to play hostess for your socially correct politician friends who keep score. My style sense is too rebellious for your people.” She held up her pink-tipped hair. “I can’t plan a party or do small talk or anything that you value as necessary for a mate in your world. If you’d spent ten minutes trying to get to know me before you paid for the right to have me based on my bloodline, then you’d know that. I like to get naked and roll in paints to make crazy art with bold colors. I’m not going to stop my adventure trips.”
Hugo placed the muzzle of his gun into her forehead. “You’re right. You’re useless in society, but you’ll be fine for breeding. You and I are leaving because you’re mine. Bought and paid for.” With his free hand he snapped his fingers. Six of his men appeared from the hallway to stand next to Garian.
In a blink, Ty had his knife against Hugo’s throat. “Pull the trigger and you’re dead. Then both she and you die. Lower the gun, then she lives, and you might get less hurt.”
“Kill me, and you’ll be gunned down by my people,” Hugo said without an ounce of fear.
Ty’s eyes met Luca’s. In a blur of speed, Luca used his knife to decapitate two of the six vampires who worked for Hugo. Three of the remaining four stared in shock at their lifeless colleagues. The fourth moved fast to strike. Luca caught him with a direct chest stab before the vamp fired his gun, and knocked the pistol to the ground.
“You really want to die today?” Luca asked.
The vampire backed away clutching his chest, shaking his head. “Run now and don’t return or I’ll kill you. All of you,” Luca shouted.
The remaining four backed toward the exit and disappeared.
That left Garian.
Luca raised his eyebrows while fisting his knife.
Ty had his knife out as well.
Garian’s cheek twitched, odds seemingly being calculated. He held up his hands. “I’m out, Hugo. This is not what I was paid to do. I brought you to her. My contract is complete.” He left.