Broken Dawn

by Duvall, Dianne

  Oliver touched her arm. “Why don’t you try to get some rest? We’ll take care of the cleanup.”

  She hesitated. But something in his eyes drove her to nod.

  Sending Nick one last look, she turned and reluctantly headed up to bed.

  Nick returned the mop and bucket to the laundry room. When the dryer beeped, he removed the clothing and towels he had washed. A quick inspection confirmed he had succeeded in removing the bloodstains. Centuries of experience and instruction from Seconds had left him a pro at such.

  Even the bathmats appeared to be free of stains.

  He headed into the living room and folded the laundry to give himself something to do. Kayla was upstairs sleeping. He wasn’t sure if he should join her because he’d been too chickenshit to ask when she retired.

  His cell phone vibrated. When he checked the screen, he frowned. It was Becca. “Hello?”

  “What happened?” she asked without preamble.

  “What do you mean?” Kayla hadn’t called her daughter. He would’ve heard it.

  “I had a dream,” she said. “I know most people think dreams are just random nonsense generated by the mind’s subconscious. But if you know how to interpret them, they mean something. And my dream told me you were in danger. It also reeked of conflict and took place in my mom’s bedroom. Bedrooms represent intimacy or personal life. And since it was my mom’s bedroom, I assume it has something to do with her. So what happened? She isn’t answering her phone.”

  “She’s sleeping.”

  “But she’s okay?”

  “Yes.” Physically.

  “I hear a but in your voice.”

  Nick swore silently. Since Kayla was a gifted one, her daughter was, too. And he now suspected Becca’s gift was prophetic dreams. He sighed. Well, he couldn’t exactly loose all his secrets upon Becca, especially when he stood on such shaky ground with Kayla. But he had to tell her something. “I revealed something about myself that she didn’t know.”

  “So?”

  “So… it caught her off guard.” Blindsided her would be a more accurate description.

  Tense silence carried over the line. “Are you married?”

  He frowned. “Of course not.”

  “Seeing someone else?”

  “No. I would never betray a woman in such a way.”

  “Good. I would’ve had to cut your balls off if you were. Fair warning: I’m not letting another man cheat on my mom and hurt her like that.”

  “I love your mother, Becca.”

  “My dad claimed he loved her, too.”

  “Your dad was a dick.” Shit. He probably shouldn’t have said that. But the bastard had hurt Kayla, and Nick was tired, damn it.

  She laughed. “Yeah. He was. Still is, unfortunately. That’s why I cut him out of my life.” She sighed. “So… what—do you have a dozen children stashed away somewhere?”

  “No.”

  “A dozen ex-wives?”

  “No.”

  “Half a dozen ex-wives?”

  “I’ve never been married.”

  “Are you wanted by the police?”

  “No.”

  “Are you into guys? I mean, are you bi and want to date men, too?”

  “Hell no.” He had never been attracted to members of his own sex and wanted a wholly monogamous relationship with Kayla.

  “Then what?” she asked with some exasperation. “Do you like to wear women’s underwear or something? Did she catch you stretching out her favorite panties?”

  He laughed. “No! Stop guessing!”

  “Well, you made it sound like you dropped a heck of a bombshell on her.”

  “I did.”

  “You won’t tell me what it is?”

  “I can’t.” As protective as she was of her mother, he didn’t think Becca would respond well to the knowledge that her mom was dating a shape-shifting immortal who looked like a vampire and had literally brought violence to her mother’s doorstep.

  “If you won’t tell me what you told her, will you tell me how she reacted?”

  He slowly paced into the kitchen. “She cried,” he admitted softly.

  “Shit.” Heavy silence fell. “What did you do, Nick? Did you betray her?”

  “In a way. I withheld information about my profession. It’s… more dangerous than I led her to believe.”

  “Are you a criminal?”

  “I already told you I wasn’t.”

  “No. You said you aren’t wanted by the police.”

  “I’m not a criminal.”

  Thoughtful silence carried across the line. “Are you CIA or something? Not that you could tell me if you were, so I guess there’s no point in asking that one.”

  He knew some of his fellow immortals had implied such in the past to stave off unwanted questions, but he didn’t want to lie to her. “I was injured tonight. It frightened her.”

  “Oh no.” The low words carried concern. “Are you okay?”

  Physically? “Yes.”

  “I hear another but.”

  He paced back toward the living room. “But I’m terrified of losing her.”

  A long sigh carried over the line. “What happened after she cried?”

  “She got quiet.”

  “Wow. Whatever she found out must have been really big.”

  “It was.”

  “Well… I know it may seem like she’s freezing you out, but she isn’t. That’s just how she processes things. The day she found out my dad was cheating on her, she got so quiet I worried I had done something wrong and pissed her off. I didn’t know it at the time, but she’d found some receipts from his pregnant mistress’s OB-GYN, among other things. And she just needed time to let it sink in and to sort through it. She was back to being Mom the next day.”

  He glanced toward the stairs. “Should I leave?”

  “You’re at our place?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did she ask you to leave?”

  “No.”

  “Then stay. Mom’s tough. If she wants you gone, she isn’t going to keep that information to herself. She’ll kick your ass out the door.”

  He smiled. “Is that what she did to your father?”

  Becca laughed. “Yeah. She drove me to school, then went home, stuffed all his crap into garbage bags, left it on the back porch, and had the locks changed.”

  “Did she tell you what she’d discovered?”

  “No. She just said she and Dad had grown apart and had reached a point where they couldn’t live together anymore. I think she was trying to keep me from finding out what a cheating asshole he is. My best friend’s parents went through a bitter divorce when she was eight and Judi got caught in the middle. Her parents were constantly badmouthing each other to her and trying to pit her against each other. Her grandparents did the same. It was messed up, and I think Mom was hoping to avoid that by not telling me what Dad had done. But then he spoiled it by begging her forgiveness when he got home and found all his shit on the patio, promising he would never cheat on her again. So… yeah. If she wants you gone, she won’t be shy about it. She’ll shove you out the door.” Something it seemed she could perceivably do once she woke up. She hadn’t, after all, booted her husband out immediately. She had taken a night to process it.

  “Thank you,” he said. Becca could’ve cursed him out, assuming the worst, but hadn’t.

  “Don’t thank me yet,” she said, a smile entering her voice. “If you hurt her, I still plan to cut your balls off.”

  He laughed, unoffended.

  “Don’t tell Mom I told you that, by the way,” she added sheepishly. “She’d be horrified.”

  “I won’t.”

  “On that note, I’ve gotta go. I’ve got class in an hour and need to grab some breakfast.”

  After they hung up, Nick thought about Becca’s words. He probably shouldn’t have sought her advice on dating her mother, but he hadn’t courted a woman in… well… not since they still called it courting. He h
ad briefly taken a lover during the sixties. Most immortals had. The popularity of psychedelic drugs had dramatically reduced concerns about their eyes glowing during sex. But there hadn’t been anyone special. No one he cared about nearly as much as he did Kayla.

  Drawn to her like a bee to a flower, Nick climbed the stairs and silently entered her bedroom.

  She lay curled up on her side, so small she didn’t even take up half the full-sized bed.

  He stared down at her, fighting the desire to stroke her hair or kneel beside her and wake her with a kiss. He had never expected to fall in love. Had never thought he would experience the euphoria manifested by finding that one person who completed him. Had never believed he needed completing. He had existed for hundreds of years, after all.

  But he knew now that something had always been missing. Not simple companionship. Something more. Something intrinsic that felt like the mortar that held a brick wall together.

  Kayla did that for him. She filled the empty spaces. She made him stronger. She made everything better. Bigger. He wasn’t content. He was truly happy for the first time since his transformation. He didn’t worry for her safety. He was terrified for her. He didn’t want to make her smile. He wanted to see her throw her head back and laugh uproariously. Sex wasn’t good. It was fucking fantastic. It didn’t simply sate a hunger. It touched him deeply and brought him an ecstasy he had never before experienced.

  He couldn’t lose her. He didn’t want his life to go back to what it had been before he met her. He didn’t want to face an endless stretch of days in which he had nothing to look forward to.

  He wanted forever with her.

  As if she sensed him standing beside the bed, watching her sleep like a damn stalker, Kayla opened her eyes. She blinked once, then looked up at him.

  Heart pounding in his ears, Nick stared down at her.

  A long moment passed that stretched his nerves taut. Then she reached out and snagged his hand. He curled his fingers around hers, grateful for the simple touch.

  Closing her eyes, she pulled his hand around behind her back.

  Nick didn’t have to be asked twice. Unwilling to relinquish her hand, he knelt on the mattress, straddled her legs, then rolled onto the empty side of the bed. As he slipped beneath the covers and curled his body around hers, that feeling of completeness returned.

  Without saying a word, Kayla drew his arm around her and pressed his hand to her chest.

  Snuggling closer, he exhaled a long sigh.

  This was what he needed.

  This.

  Chapter Eleven

  Kayla smiled as sleep slipped away and consciousness beckoned. Nick’s arms were around her, his big body spooned up behind hers, his soft breath brushing her neck.

  It had rapidly become her favorite way to start the day—all of those hard muscles pressed up against her back, his erection trapped between his thighs and her bottom.

  Of course, today clothes separated them. They’d both gone to bed fully dressed after the tumultuous occurrences of the previous night.

  In tiny increments designed not to wake him, she inched toward the edge of the bed. His arms tightened and drew her back against him once more.

  She smiled. The first time he’d done that, she thought she’d woken him. But after spending several nights—or rather mornings—with him, she now knew he most likely still slept.

  She loved that he wanted her close so much that he even cuddled her in his sleep. But she really needed to relieve her bladder. She inched away again. Usually it only took a couple of tries before he would relinquish her. This time he did not want to let her go. She glanced over her shoulder after he dragged her back a fourth time.

  Nope. He was still asleep. Perhaps it was a subconscious reaction to the events of last night? She didn’t know. Nor did she mind. She just kept pulling away until he finally let her go.

  His brow furrowed with subconscious discontent. What a sweetheart.

  She headed into the bathroom and closed the door, noting that the bathmats were pristinely white once more.

  After seeing to her needs, she stared at her reflection as she washed her hands.

  Nick had fangs.

  He hunted vampires for a living.

  She had fallen in love with an immortal vampire hunter.

  Kayla shook her head and reached for her toothbrush. She knew life had a way of unexpectedly yanking a person off one path and hurtling them down another, but this? Really? Falling in love with a powerful, preternaturally fast immortal who hunted and killed vampires on a nightly basis like freaking Blade?

  It bore a semblance of unreality that she didn’t think would soon fade. And that wasn’t even all of it. Nick could shape-shift.

  She brushed her teeth, still pondering.

  The superspeed and superstrength were pretty damn cool. The quick healing was, too. She envied him all three of those. But the shape-shifting?

  That was mind-blowing. Even more so than the rest, because… Hello! Nick could change his freaking shape! He could become a cat!

  She rinsed her mouth, then reached for her hairbrush.

  Could he become other animals or was it just a cat?

  Her lips twitched, then stretched into a wide grin as she dragged the brush through her tangled hair.

  She’d read romance novels that featured shape-shifter heroes. She had, in fact, just finished editing one. But those men always shifted into big, dangerous animals like wolves or bears or lions. That Nick—the strongest man she had ever known—shifted into an ordinary house cat was pretty damn funny.

  Turning off the light, she opened the door and returned to the bedroom.

  Nick lay where she had left him, his eyes closed, brow furrowed.

  Kayla eased down onto the mattress, facing him this time.

  As soon as he sensed her weight, he looped an arm around her waist and drew her close. Chest to chest. Hips to hips. Mostly. He was a lot taller than she was, so they didn’t align perfectly.

  Their heads rested on the same pillow.

  Twining their legs together, he pressed his forehead to hers and sighed. The furrow on his brow smoothed out, leaving his handsome features tranquil once more.

  Damn, she loved him.

  That sense of unreality threatened to swamp her again, but she beat it back.

  She loved an exceptionally strong, preternaturally fast, swift-healing, shape-shifting, vampire-hunting immortal. And she was pretty sure he was a lot older than her.

  That would also take some getting used to. But she could do it. She was okay with it now that time had allowed it to sink in a little bit.

  Because she really did love him.

  And someone had tried to kill him last night. That she was not okay with.

  Nick’s lashes fluttered, then opened. His brown eyes met hers, blinked, then blazed with amber light.

  So beautiful. “Morning, Mr. Furball,” she murmured.

  Amusement lit his features for a moment before he sobered. “How long have you been awake?”

  “A while.”

  He swallowed. “If I look out on your back patio, will I see garbage bags full of my stuff waiting for me?”

  She laughed. “No.” Then she narrowed her eyes. “Wait. Have you been talking to Becca?”

  His look turned sheepish. “She called after you went to bed. She had a dream that upset her and wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  Kayla frowned. “She does that sometimes.”

  “Have prophetic dreams? It’s because she’s a gifted one.”

  She stared at him. “Becca has advanced DNA?”

  “Yes. And she inherited it from you.”

  “Are you sure?” Wouldn’t she feel different if she had advanced DNA?

  “Yes. Seth knows these things. I trust him implicitly.”

  Some of Becca’s dream interpretations did seem to be spot-on. “What’s my gift?”

  “Seth said you’re an empath. You can read people’s emotions with a t
ouch.”

  “He knew what my gift is?”

  “Yes.”

  “How? I didn’t even know it.”

  He shook his head. “There’s very little that Seth doesn’t know or can’t do. It’s why he’s our leader. He’s the oldest and most powerful among us.”

  “How old is he?”

  “Old enough to have witnessed biblical events.”

  “Wow.”

  “Exactly.”

  She studied him. “How old are you?” Perhaps she was a bit of an empath, because she had no difficulty recognizing the dread he felt then.

  “Four hundred years, give or take a decade.”

  Kayla tried very hard not to gape. She also didn’t want to say anything that might distress him, because he looked as if he expected her to boot him out of bed. So she settled for “Holy crap, you look good for your age! Like fan-freaking-tastic!”

  He laughed and seemed relieved. “Thank you.”

  “Where are you from originally? France? I noticed you have a little bit of an accent.”

  He shook his head. “Canada. My parents were among the earliest European colonists.”

  That was right up there with shape-shifting on the blow your freaking mind scale. “So… you’ve seen a lot in your lifetime.”

  “Yes, I have.”

  A lot. Like four centuries’ worth. Nick had been born before electricity, before the Industrial Revolution, before cars and airplanes had been invented. He was hundreds of years older than her.

  That should probably freak her out, right?

  Right. Granted, it helped that he didn’t look old. At all. Or act like it. But still.

  His brow furrowed. “You aren’t going to go quiet on me again, are you?”

  “I’m sorry. If I do, I don’t mean to. It’s just sort of a knee-jerk-reaction thing I do when I’m trying to process something.” Especially if it was something big. “Let me stash that away to think about later and focus on something else.”

  “Okay.”

  She sat up. “You can shape-shift?”

  He sat up beside her. “Yes. That’s the gift I was born with, the one I was reluctant to disclose because I knew it would be a bit of a shock.”

  “A bit if a shock,” she parroted. “You know that’s a colossal understatement, right?”