by Lynsay Sands
“But where is he?” she growled with frustration.
“He’s outside playing with—”
“Outside?” The word was a bare breath of horror.
“Yes,” Magnus said, confused by her upset.
“But he can’t be outside. It’s daytime,” she protested, and whirled to leave the room, only to stagger as the swift movement set her off balance.
Magnus caught her at once, sweeping her off her feet to keep her from falling. He then carried her quickly to the window and set her down in front of it.
“Look. He is fine,” he said, pointing out the window.
Allie stared out the window, her eyes widening as she took in the scene playing out before her. Liam—in his secondhand, gray, and slightly grubby coat—and another boy who looked to be about the same age, but in a bright red obviously new coat, were trudging through the snow side by side, pushing a large boulder of snow ahead of them as a blonde woman in a white winter coat and a white knitted hat cheered them on. The woman was smiling as she watched the boys laugh and chatter as they moved across the yard one way and then another so that their boulder of snow stayed round as it grew in size, but finally they rolled it to a second, even larger boulder of snow and worked together to lift the new ball on top of the first. The boulder was easily the size of the boys themselves. She was sure it would have taken two normal adults to lift it, but the two little boys raised it like it weighed nothing and it was simply the awkward size that forced them to work together.
Once they had it settled on the larger boulder, they began to pack snow around where the boulders met to ensure it didn’t fall off.
“A snowman,” Allie breathed. Liam and the other boy were making a snowman. The first one he’d ever made, she realized, and felt her heart squeeze with regret. They didn’t lead a life where Liam could enjoy the things a normal child did. There had been no friends for him or even any real playing. Their life the last four years had been endless running, moving from town to town, city to city, one new address after another, usually having to leave everything behind and start anew each time. Liam had never complained at losing his toys or favorite blanket with each move.
Of course, he’d been a baby at first, and then a toddler, but he was growing fast. Really, he’d been a wonderful son, but much too solemn and quiet, she realized now. She had never seen Liam like this. He was positively beaming with pleasure, and he was laughing, his face glowing with joy. His life should have been like this every day, Allie thought, and suddenly felt like she’d failed Stella horribly.
But she’d done the best she could, Allie argued with her guilt. She’d fed him, clothed him, protected him. And how could she allow him to play? She’d lived with the constant fear of his being taken. Besides, vampires couldn’t go out in the sun. The thought made her frown and she asked, “How can he be outside?”
Magnus peered down at her blankly when she turned on him with the question. After a moment, he shrugged helplessly. “It is what children do. They play outside.”
“Yes, but it’s daytime. The sun is up,” she pointed out, and peered worriedly back to Liam, searching his face for any hint that he might be about to burst into flames. That was what happened to vampires in all the movies when they were touched by sunlight. But other than a nose gone a bit red from the cold, Liam seemed fine.
“He will not burst into flames under the sun. The boy is an immortal, not one of your mythical vampires.”
Those words came from behind them and Allie turned to peer at the man who had spoken. Standing in the doorway of the room was a tall stranger with hair so fair it was almost white, and ice-blue eyes as cold as she imagined the snow outside must be.
While Magnus still appeared relaxed at her side, the other two men in the room were now sitting up as if at attention. She supposed that meant the newcomer was someone important. Not that he seemed to notice their reactions. His attention was focused wholly on her. In fact, he was peering at her with a concentration that irritated her, and a displeasure that seemed to suggest she’d said something to offend him. She didn’t particularly care. There were more important issues here than this stranger’s feelings.
“But he’s a vampire,” she said now. “I thought the sun hurt vampires.” Much to her surprise, that made irritation flicker across the man’s face.
“The sun can harm an immortal,” he said grudgingly, and then added, “But only as much as it harms a mortal. The difference is that while your skin will carry that damage and simply tan and age, our bodies will work to repair our bodies . . . and use extra blood to do so.”
That last comment made Allie go cold. To her what he said suggested Liam would need to be fed when he came inside and she just didn’t think she had it in her to feed him at the moment.
“You have been feeding that boy with your own blood?”
Allie stiffened at his sharp words. He made it sound as if she’d been doing something perverted, or at least wrong. Lifting her chin, she snapped, “That boy is my son, Liam, and since my conscience wouldn’t allow me to run around kidnapping people for him to feed off of, yes, I have been feeding him myself.”
“He’s not your son,” the man said in a distracted tone, his expression concentrated again as he peered at her.
“The hell he’s not,” Allie snapped, anger roaring through her at the very suggestion that Liam wasn’t hers.
“A mortal cannot give birth to an immortal. He is not your biological child and you obviously have no idea how to raise him if you’ve been allowing him to feed off of you.” The man’s voice was still distracted, as if the subject was of no importance whatsoever, and that just infuriated her. It also terrified her. Liam was the most important thing in her life. He was her life. Keeping him safe, healthy, and happy was her whole purpose now, yet this man seemed to be suggesting she had no business doing it. As if Liam would be better off with one of his own kind.
Would they try to take him from her? She worried suddenly, and then lifted her chin and thought grimly, Over my dead body.
Voice cold, Allie said, “I may not have given birth to Liam, but he is my son. I’ve raised him, fed him, loved him, and kept him safe since he was a month old. I’m the only mother he knows, and if you try to take him away from me, you’ll have a fight on your hands.”
She had slid her right hand into her pocket to retrieve the lighter she’d tucked there as she spoke. Now she let the can of aerosol hairspray slip out from her left sleeve and raised both. With the lighter in front of the can and her finger on the spray nozzle, she glared at the arrogant ass in the doorway and said, “Now, I may have been wrong about sunlight, but I know fire kills you people, so unless you want me to roast your ass, I suggest one of you bring me my son. We’re leaving.”
Four
“We really need to work on your social skills, Lucian,” Magnus said with irritation, but he was watching Allie with something like fascination. Her lips were still blue, but anger had put color in her cheeks, and her eyes were flashing with fury and determination as she held out her makeshift flamethrower.
The woman was a mama bear protecting her cub. She was also his life mate. Magnus had no doubt about that. He’d tried to read her several times since rescuing her from the men in her apartment—first in the pizza joint as they’d waited for Tybo to arrange a ride, then in the delivery car on their way here, and again before leaving her in the guest room upstairs—and all to no avail. He could not read or control her, a sure sign Marguerite was right. Allie was his life mate . . . and she was magnificent.
A little foolish, perhaps, he acknowledged. After all, she was attempting to take on four immortal men on her own, but she was courageous and beautiful and he just wanted to fold her in his arms and assure her everything would be all right now.
“I am not the one who needs to work on communication,” Lucian said abruptly, drawing his attention reluctantly away from Allie. “She has been here most of the night. Why have you three not explained things to this ch
ild? She has no clue who or even what we are, or why she and the boy are here.”
“I’m a woman, not a child,” Allie growled, and Magnus found himself smiling at the way she mirrored Lucian’s scowl. Magnificent, he thought.
“Miss Chambers was unconscious when she arrived, Lucian,” Mortimer said now, drawing Magnus’s gaze reluctantly from Allie. “She only woke up moments ago. We have not had the chance to explain things to her.”
Lucian grunted at this and then glanced to Magnus. “She’s your woman, Bjarnesen. Explain things to her so we can get down to the business of finding out what she knows about these rogues chasing her.”
“I’m not his woman,” Allie protested at once, apparently not at all appreciative that she’d at least moved up from child to woman. She also turned to cast that angry scowl at him now, and Magnus couldn’t resist smiling in return. She was just so wonderfully brave and fiery.
Even as he thought that, Allie blinked in surprise and her scowl faded as her eyes grew wide. It made him wonder what she was thinking, or seeing.
Allie was thinking he was quite the handsomest man she’d ever encountered. It was an odd thing to notice when she had no idea who these people were or why she and Liam had been brought here. On top of that, the mean blond man’s comments about her not being Liam’s mother had made her afraid they might try to take her son from her. Which just made her want to grab Liam and flee, hence the reason she’d pulled her makeshift flamethrower.
Not that she knew how exactly she could get herself and Liam away once out of the house. She’d have to steal a vehicle, she supposed. But where could they go? How was she to continue to hide them both from these men as well as the other group of vampires? Last night’s attack had ensured they couldn’t safely return to the apartment, not even to collect her car. So they were now homeless, and carless. On top of that, after four years of running and hiding, she was pretty much broke. She was also mentally exhausted and physically spent. In truth, Allie just wanted to go back upstairs and sleep for a week. But she couldn’t afford to. She had Liam to worry about.
Those had been the thoughts chasing around inside her head before she’d been distracted by the man beside her. Magnus, she recalled. He could have modeled for a living with that face, she decided as her gaze slid over his features. He had a straight nose, high forehead, and an angular jaw presently sporting a trim beard somewhere just beyond a six o’clock shadow that he either kept trimmed close or was just starting to grow. He also had a mouth made up of a thin upper lip, but a full, almost pouty, and very sexy lower lip.
All of that together put him in what she was sure was the top five percent of gorgeous men on the planet, but his eyes pushed him all the way to the top of that list. Large and pale blue with a rim of dark blue or almost black around the outside, and surrounded by naturally long lashes . . . They were beautiful. Exquisite even. Allie could have stared into them for hours, but curiosity made her turn her attention to the rest of him.
Magnus wasn’t just beautiful, he was big and built. He’d been wearing a full suit and a winter coat when she’d first encountered him and Tybo, but today he was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt that stretched lovingly over his wide chest and looked ridiculously sexy on the man. He was tall, towering over her by a head, and his shoulders were huge. They had to be at least twice as wide as her own, but probably more, she guessed.
He had big hands too, Allie noted as her eyes slid down his chest to where his hands rested on his hips. Somehow the pose just emphasized his slender hips, and she allowed her gaze to drop lower.
“Please do not point your hairspray there.”
Allie blinked and raised her eyes quickly to Magnus’s face at those husky words. He was smiling crookedly. She unthinkingly smiled back before he reached down and gently nudged her hand holding the hairspray up and away from his groin.
“Just in case you accidentally press the button,” he explained gently. “I would rather not have a wet spot there.”
Allie wasn’t sure whether to be upset that he didn’t seem worried about her weapon doing more than give him a wet spot, or embarrassed that her hand had moved with her eyes, making it obvious what she’d been looking at. In the end, she settled for exasperated with the bunch of them, and raised her hairspray and lighter again but turned it out toward the others as she scowled around the room. “So who are you people and why are Liam and I here?”
Rather than answer her, the room fell silent and then a cluck of irritation sounded from the doorway, drawing her gaze to the small blonde pushing irritably past the man named Lucian. It was the woman who had been outside with the boys, Allie realized. The white hat was missing now, but she was still wearing the white coat, though it was undone and hanging open as she crossed the room toward her with a look that was half exasperated and half welcoming.
“For heaven’s sake. I know men aren’t the best at communication, but I thought that between the four of them they could manage to explain things and reassure you so that you knew you were safe and among friends.” Pausing before her, the woman smiled widely and held out her hand. “Hi. I’m Katricia Argeneau Brunswick, but you can call me Tricia. I’m the wife of Teddy Brunswick, the police chief of Port Henry. I’m also a law officer myself, and mother of Teddy Jr., who your son helped make his first snowman just now. And you, of course, are Liam’s lovely mother, Allison.” Expression becoming more serious, she added, “You have done a brilliant job with him, by the way. He’s a wonderful boy, so sweet and polite.”
“I . . . Thank you,” Allie said finally and, after the briefest hesitation, slid the lighter into her pocket so that she could shake the hand Tricia was still holding out. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Tricia beamed at her as if she’d done something particularly clever in putting the lighter away. “The boys are waiting for me in the kitchen. I promised them cookies and hot chocolate to warm up. Care to join us so I can answer all those questions these primates haven’t?”
Allie noted the irritated expressions creeping over the men’s faces, and had the situation been different, she might have laughed. Instead, she merely murmured politely, “That sounds nice.”
“Good.” Tricia slid an arm through hers and urged her toward the door saying, “Come along, then. You’ll love Sam’s kitchen. It’s big and gorgeous. Makes me jealous every time I see it. I’m working on talking Teddy into enlarging and renovating ours. Teddy senior, not junior,” she added, and then confided, “I think it’s working.”
Allie found herself relaxing under the woman’s cheerful chatter. She knew it was purely to put her at ease, but it was working, she acknowledged as Lucian moved aside to let them out of the room.
Walking her up the hall at a meandering pace, Tricia grinned at the hairspray still in Allie’s hand and said, “I use that brand too. It’s good. Holds the curl well and makes the best flames too.”
“You use it as a makeshift flamethrower too?” Allie asked dubiously.
“Not so much anymore now that I walk the beat in Port Henry. It’s pretty quiet there. But I used to be an enforcer in New York and hairspray and a lighter are lightweight and came in handy when we were cleaning out nests of rogues,” she said cheerfully.
The woman was smiling so widely Allie couldn’t help smiling as well, but said, “Everyone keeps mentioning rogues. What are they?”
“Good Lord, they didn’t tell you anything at all, did they?” Tricia said with a disgusted shake of the head. “Rogues are basically immortal criminals, ones who have broken our laws and need tending.”
“With death by makeshift flamethrower?” Allie asked. She knew vampires, or immortals as these people seemed to want to be called, were incredibly flammable. Stella had passed on that tidbit in the months before she died. Of course, Allie had seen the proof of it herself when Stella died. She’d gone up like gasoline-doused tinder when the house exploded and Allie was sure one blast of a flamethrower would be a death sentence to an immortal.
“Only when cleaning out nests of rogues,” Tricia assured her solemnly. “In those cases the head rogue is usually a very old immortal who has gone mad and turned a bunch of innocent unsuspecting mortals. Unfortunately, they usually aren’t kind about it, and then they make the new turns do things that drive them mad as well.” She shrugged. “Often it ends up that the whole nest has to be cleaned out.”
“‘Cleaned out’ meaning put down like rabid dogs,” Allie suggested quietly.
“It’s pretty much what they are in such cases,” Tricia said with an unapologetic shrug, and then drew her to a halt as they reached the kitchen doorway. Eyeing her expectantly then, she asked, “Is it not glorious?”
Allie started to look around, but stilled as a shriek drew her gaze to the boys by the sink. In the next moment, Liam was streaking toward her down the length of the long white kitchen. The boy was still several feet away when he leapt at her, flying through the air so that she had to drop the hairspray to catch him. She was aware of, and grateful for, the bracing hand Katricia put on her back as Liam crashed against her chest, otherwise she might have toppled over. This leaping jump was something he only did when he was very happy, and not something a mortal child could have done. It always took her a little aback, but now she was relieved to see it. It reassured her that he was okay.
“Mom, you’re up! I have so much to tell you. I drank blood from a bag, and Teddy’s mom made us pancakes and— Are you feeling better?” he stopped his rapid fire chatter to ask with wide concerned eyes. “Teddy’s mom said you were over the weather and we should let you sleep in this morning. Are you off the weather now?”
Allie stared at the child in her arms, her heart just melting with love. He was such a beautiful, precious little boy she just wanted to squeeze him silly. Which she did now, pressing him to her chest and turning from side to side a little.
“Yes, my sweet, I’m feeling much better now,” she assured him, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead, before leaning back to look over the color on his rosy cheeks. “Did you have fun outside?”