by L. E. Wilson
Even though she had been the one to originally suggest it, she was nonetheless more than a little bit hurt to hear him agree. With all of his erratic behavior, she rarely knew what to expect from him, but it wasn’t this. “It’s a little bit late for that, isn’t it?”
Nik resumed his pacing.
“So, what are we doing here, Nik? Other than playing ‘feel up the witch’ of course…” she mumbled under her breath.
Swinging around in front of her so fast he startled her, Nik ground out, “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t demean what happened between us,” he fumed.
“Us?” she scoffed. “There is no ‘us’, Nik. You refuse to let there be an ‘us’.”
“I’m not arguing about this anymore, Emma.” He went back to pacing.
Emma chewed her bottom lip, her thoughts spinning as she watched him appear and disappear, like some kind of out of control strobe light. She should just let it be. Respect his wishes. He was just trying to protect her, after all.
But, the thing was, she didn’t believe there was anything to protect her from. She’d never once felt like she was in danger when she was with him. Ever. No matter what they were doing. Maybe she was being naive, but she trusted her instincts. And her instincts told her not to give up on him. There had to be something she could say, something she could do, to convince this stubborn idiot it didn’t have to be that way.
She had no idea what that was, however.
“So, just like that? When this is done, we just…forget about each other?”
“That’s how it has to be, Emma.” Resolve hardened his posture.
She lowered her eyes so he wouldn’t see the pain reflected there. “I liked you better when you were teasing me all the time.”
“Emma…” he admonished.
She didn’t want to ask this. She really didn’t. But she had to know. “It’s because of what you saw just now, isn’t it?” When his brows lowered, she clarified, “My scars?”
“No. No!” he emphasized. “Emma…this is…this really has nothing to do with you. It’s just the way it has to be.”
“I think it has everything to do with me.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just better this way. Please, trust me on this.”
“Does this have something to do with you thinking you would kill me?”
Nik dragged his hands through his hair. Why not just fucking tell her? Maybe it would scare her enough that she’d be smart and stay the hell away from him.
“Yeah, all right.” He’d give her the abbreviated version. “I loved a girl once, or thought I did, a long time ago. Her name was Eliana.” Leaning against the window wall, as far from her delicious scent as he could get, he crossed his arms over his broad chest. “She was human, like you.” He took a breath to steady himself. “We were together for about a year when I came home late one night to find her already asleep in our bed. The Council had just been in a battle with another Master Vampire. He and his followers had challenged Luukas’ authority. It happens occasionally. We won, but it was a hard, bloody fight. I was still amped up from it when I entered our room. The bloodlust blinded me, and I fell on her like a beast, tearing her nightclothes, not even giving her time to wake up.” Self-loathing filled him, and he began to pace again. “I fed on her while I…well, that’s what we do. Except I lost control. I took too much. I drained her dry while I fucked her.” Pausing directly in front of her, he willed her to look at him as he forced the words out. “I killed her Emma. I fed on her until her heart stopped beating, rutting on her the entire time. I didn’t even notice until her body began to get cold underneath me.”
Her horrified expression burrowed into his brain like maggots, never to be forgotten. Yes. This was for the best. He could live with this gaping hole that was ripping apart his chest as she finally looked at him like the monster he was.
He’d learned to live with Eliana’s death. But if he killed Emma, even accidentally, he would never be able to live with that. What he felt for her, well, there was no comparison to it. He would rather walk into the sun.
He walked slowly toward the door. Even now wanting to stay with her. But he couldn’t look at her. Couldn’t stand to see the look on her face again.
“Be ready to go at sundown. Tonight, we’re going after our siblings.”
Chapter 25
“What the fuck did you do?”
“Ow! What the hell?” Nik cursed violently as Aiden woke him, gently, with a backhand to the head. Raising his arms automatically to protect himself from more attacks, Nik shook his head and forced himself to wake up. He felt strange. Kind of loopy and unusually lethargic.
Grabbing him by the front of the shirt, a thoroughly angry Brit hauled him up to a sitting position. “What the fuck did you do to Emma?”
Nik shoved him out of the way, rolled off the couch, and ambled to the guest bath to wash up. “Fuck off, Aiden.”
Not to be put off that easily, Aiden was right on his heels. “What the fuck did you do, Nik? She looks positively wretched in there!”
Whipping around, Nik snarled, “What the fuck were you doing in her room?”
“What do you care? You seem to be doing your damnedest to push her away from you.”
Aiden held his ground as Nik got right up in his face. He flashed his fangs and hissed in warning. “Stay out of it, Aid. It’s none of your fucking business.” He turned and stomped to the bathroom, slamming the door in his friends’ face.
Aiden banged on the door. “It is my business, you twat! I happen to like Emma!”
Nik turned the shower on in response.
Aiden yelled about the sound of running water. “You think I don’t know what’s going on with you two? I’ve heard the stories too, you know! Never believed them until now…but you shouldn’t fight it, Nik! If the stories are true, you need her now, or you will perish, slowly and painfully! That means dead, Nikulas! Like, dead dead. No coming back to life this time.”
Naked and dripping with water, Nik wrenched open the door. “Better me, than her,” he gritted through his teeth. “Now, shut the fuck up, and let me get my shower.” He slammed the door in his face again.
“We’ll just see about that, you bloody arse,” Aiden called.
Emma dreaded leaving her refuge where she’d been holed up since Nik’s visit last night, or was it this morning? She frowned. Her newfound sleep schedule was causing her to get her days and nights all confused. She’d had a long, restless night…or day, rather…and the mirror in the bathroom confirmed she looked exactly how she felt.
Like hell.
She supposed she’d asked for this. If she hadn’t kept on pushing and pushing him, he wouldn’t have felt forced to tell her about his past and she could still be naively fantasizing about the hunk of gorgeous vampire in the other room. But no, she had to back him into a corner until he’d had no choice but to come out swinging.
She should be relieved. She hadn’t been acting like herself since tall, buff, and fangy came strutting into her life. It was like that filter in your brain…the one that censors what you say and how you act before you actually do it… had up and disappeared completely. But mostly, she just felt stupid, like one of those girls always chasing after a guy who obviously didn’t want her.
By the time Aiden had come in to wake her, she’d been sitting in the same spot on the couch for hours staring at the blank T.V. screen. Sleep had eluded her. No surprise there. But at least there were no new nightmares to deal with.
See? Silver lining.
“Em? We’ll need to be leaving in about an hour.” Aiden eyed the dark circles and puffy eyes no amount of cold water could fix, a look of concern on his face. “Can I get you anything, love?”
“No, thanks. I’m fine.” She tried for a smile and rose unsteadily to her feet, stiff from sitting in the same spot for so long.
Aiden eyed her up and down, and then reluctantly closed the door behind him
as he left, leaving Emma to her thoughts.
After all these years, it seemed surreal she may be seeing her sister again in only a number of hours. She should be worrying about how dangerous it was going to be to get her out. About what she was going to say to Keira once they did. If they were all going to make it out of there alive. Because she had no doubt in her mind, if her sister was helping that horrible woman, she was doing it against her will.
But all she’d thought about the entire day were Nik’s eyes burning into her soul as he’d told her he’d brutally killed the last girl he’d loved in an act of mindless bloodlust.
His story had been stuck on replay in her head all day. She knew he’d meant it as a warning to her, and she had no doubt what he’d told her was the truth as he believed it. But something about his story was nagging at her. Something just didn’t add up. She’d seen Nik all “vamped out” a few times now, and not once had she ever feared he would hurt her. He’d always, without fail, been mindful of his superior strength, gentle even.
And the first time he’d kissed her? When he’d nicked her lip and then straight out bit it? He could have easily lost control that night, gone for her throat and sucked her dry, but he hadn’t.
And last night, in the shower. Emma felt a rush of heat at the memory. The things he’d done to her. He’d been in complete control the entire time. And after, he’d walked away, which only confirmed her theory even more.
She’d felt completely overwhelmed by him, yes. But in danger? Never. Not once.
Granted, although she’d been in a life-threatening situation before, she’d never been a soldier. She didn’t know how it felt to be in a struggle for your life and come out on top, high from the fight with adrenalin pumping through your body.
But Aiden would.
Emma turned off the water she’d been using to wash her face and brush her teeth and heard raised voices in the other room.
Drying her face and tossing the towel on the sink, she hopped into a pair of jeans and changed her shirt. Barefoot, she flung open her door just in time to catch a glimpse of a very pissed off, very wet, and very naked, vampire slamming the guest bath door in Aiden’s face.
Whoa.
Speechless for the second time in as many days at how beautiful he was, she didn’t immediately remember why she was standing there, until she noticed Aiden stalk off in the direction of his room.
“Aiden! Wait!”
His fierce expression immediately softened. “Em? What’s wrong, love?”
“Would you come here for a minute? Please?” She gave him what, she hoped, was a winning smile.
“To your room? But, Emma, what will everyone think?” One hand placed theatrically over his heart, he looked over his shoulder.
“But, you’ve already been in my…in Nik’s room. And no one else is here.”
“Hmm. True enough. Well then, I guess there’s no harm in it.” With a shrug, he headed her way. Squeezing past her to get through the doorway, he muttered under his breath, “But please don’t tell Nikulas. He’s upset about us as it is.”
Was that what all the yelling had been about? “There is no us, Aiden.” Closing the door so their conversation wouldn’t be overheard, she leaned back against it as he sat down on the side of the bed.
Leaning back on his elbows, he gave her a lusty wink. “You just keep telling yourself that, poppet.”
Emma barely caught herself before she rolled her eyes at him. She would rather avoid another scene like the one on the runway. Changing the subject would be her safest route. “Aiden, you’ve been in battles since becoming a vampire, right? Fights?”
Sitting up, he gave her a knowing grin. “You want to see my battle wounds. Alas, vampires heal quickly, and never have scars. However, I have a great one where I was completely gutted when I was still human—”
“No, I don’t! Wait…you were gutted? Really?”
He lifted up his shirt, giving her an eyeful of mouth-watering, rock hard abs and yes, a horrific scar running diagonally from the bottom of his ribcage to where it disappeared under the waistband of his pants.
Coming closer to get a better look, she was suitably impressed. “Holy cow. How did you live through that?”
“That would all be due to Luukas and Nik, who found me on the battlefield with my insides hanging out, and who gave me this second chance at life. Otherwise, there’s no doubt in my mind I would have died that day.” Pulling his shirt back down, he started untying his running pants. “I have others, though they’re not as good as that one, but still impressive. Want to see?”
Emma jumped away and slapped a hand over her eyes. “No! Would you please just answer my question? And keep your pants on!”
“First time I’ve heard that particular statement come out of a female’s mouth,” he remarked.
“Aiden!!”
“All right, all right, don’t get your knickers in a twist. Obviously, yes, I have been in some really gnarly fights.”
She took a quick peek through her fingers to make sure his pants were, indeed, still on, before lowering her hand. “As a vampire, I would imagine all the blood and fighting really gets to you. Makes you really…um…excited?”
He cocked his head to the side, narrowing his eyes with suspicion. “What are you getting at, Emma?”
“Um. I was just curious, for no particular reason, how much all of that affects you? Would you say you completely lose control from the blood lust? Would everyone around you be in danger? Even after the fight is over?”
“Why ever would you be concerned about that?”
Thinking quickly, she tried to come up with a feasible reason. “I was just, um, thinking about what we’re going to be doing tonight. There will probably be a lot of fighting, and the other vampires who are meeting us there don’t know me. I was just wondering if I should be worried? For my own safety, I mean, from you guys.”
She cut off her nervous babbling, hiding her eyes behind lowered lids as he studied her with sharp eyes that saw way too much, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t help. She was a terrible liar, and vampires were entirely too attentive to detail.
Aiden stared at her for so long she started to fidget under his rapt attention. She could almost feel him silently probing around in her head for the truth…and maybe he was. Emma made a mental note to find out more about vampire abilities.
“Come on, love, don’t play coy with me,” he finally said. “That’s not what you’re fretting about.” Checking the clock, he continued, “We don’t have a lot of time before we need to leave. Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? What are you really wanting to know? Spit it out. I won’t judge, I promise.”
“All right, fine.” Dropping the act, she hesitated briefly as she wondered if she would be betraying Nik’s confidence by speaking about this. However, if the two of them have been friends as long as they say, Aiden probably already knew all about it.
She shoved her hands in her pockets to keep herself from fidgeting, and tried to sound blasé. “Last night, Nik came in here and told me a story about something he did. An accident—” That was as far as she got.
Jumping up off of the bed, Aiden smacked his forehead with his palm. “That’s what he did to you! He told you about Eliana! Sneaky bastard.” Clasping his hands behind his back, he paced a few steps away, then abruptly turned and came to stand directly in front of her. “Emma, I’ve decided there are some things we need to discuss. Nik will want to kill me when he finds out I’ve spoken with you about it, but I would hope you would prevent him from doing that.”
Emma shook her head in bewilderment. “I don’t see how you think I could keep Nik from doing anything! I have no control over him.”
“Ah, but you do. Much more than you know.” Gesturing toward the couch, he suggested they sit down.
“We need to make this short and sweet, so I’m just going to lay it on you, all right?” When she eagerly nodded her agreement, he continued, “I don’t know if Nik has mentioned this to you,
but the signs are all there that you are his mate, chosen by the gods to be his one and only for as long as you both shall live.”
“Actually, he did mention something about that,” she hedged.
“Did he mention that once he’s had your blood, he will slowly fade away until there is nothing left of him if he doesn’t continue to have it?”
Emma fought down a rush of alarm. “No. He, uh, didn’t mention that. We were interrupted in the midst of that discussion by the plane landing in Seattle.”
Muttering under his breath, “Stupid, stubborn Estonian,” Aiden kindly filled her in. “Neither of us have actually ever seen or heard of this happening, but according to the stories passed down through the ages, vampires will know when they’ve met their mate after they’ve had a taste of their blood. That this will happen is inevitable, as upon first seeing them, the vampire is drawn to said mate to the point of obsession, even before they’ve fed from them. I have to ask, has Nik fed from you yet?”
Heat flooded her face and neck. “Just one time, and just a little. He, uh, he kissed me and his fangs are so sharp—”
Aiden cut her off. “I don’t need the gory details. Mostly because I’m envious.” He gazed longingly at her lips for a moment before he suddenly slapped his hands together, startling her. “Okay! So, this is where we’re at. Now that Nik has fed from you, he needs to continue feeding from you, or he will die, Emma. Simple as that. Die the true death. It will take a while, but it will happen. I’m not certain why this is so, but it’s the one detail that is bashed into our brains from day one of becoming a vampire.”
She tried to imagine Nik “feeding” from her, his fangs latched onto her neck. But far from being repulsed at the thought, she felt a rush of desire so strong she was glad she was sitting down.
Embarrassed, because she knew Aiden would know what she was feeling, she cleared her throat and asked, “How long is ‘a while’?”
