Broken Dawn

by Duvall, Dianne

  The two of them joined the women.

  Kayla reclined on one of the beds the recovery section of the infirmary boasted.

  Dana piled another pillow behind her. “How’s that?”

  “That’s good. Thanks.”

  Nick rounded the foot of the bed. The mattress dipped as he sat beside Kayla, his hip brushing hers, and clasped her hand.

  Aidan took her other hand and raised her arm until his lips hovered above the bend of her elbow. “Ready?”

  She smiled and clutched Nick’s hand tighter. “As I’ll ever be.” She winced when Aidan sank his fangs into her pale skin, then sent Nick a wry smile. “For some reason, I thought that wasn’t going to hurt.”

  Dana grinned. “It’s because the movies always make it seem orgasmic.”

  “Orgasmic, my ass,” Kayla muttered.

  Though Nick laughed, he watched both Kayla and Aidan carefully, searching for any sign that it wasn’t going well.

  “Ooh,” Kayla breathed. “I feel…” Her eyelids lowered slightly. “I feel so relaxed all of a sudden.” She smiled. “Sooo relaxed.” Her head fell back against the pillows. Rolling it toward Nick, she smiled. “Hi, handsome.”

  He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. “Hi, beautiful.”

  “You’ve been running your fingers through your hair again.” Her words came a little slower, as though she were on the brink of sleep.

  “Have I?” Probably. It was a nervous habit he’d never been able to break.

  “Yeah. I love it when it’s messy like that. It’s how it always looks after we make love.” She started to reach for it with her other hand.

  “Don’t move your arm, sweetheart.”

  Her eyes closed. Her lashes fluttered as her head rolled on the pillow, turning her face away from him. Then she opened her eyes again, as though struggling to remain awake, and squinted up at Aidan. Frowning, she looked at Nick and said in a sluggish whisper, “That Scottish guy is kissing my arm. That’s so weird.”

  Aidan’s eyes danced with mirth as Dana stifled a laugh.

  “Don’t worry about Aidan,” Nick murmured, mustering a smile. “He’s an odd sort.”

  “Odder than you?” she teased, lids lowering to half-mast.

  “Definitely.”

  She shivered as her face slowly paled. “I’m cold.”

  Nick grabbed a blanket off the foot of the next bed and draped it over her, then grabbed another. When he turned back, she appeared to have lost consciousness. Not uncommon after an immortal’s or a vampire’s bite, but it nevertheless sent a jolt of fear through him.

  He piled the second blanket atop the other.

  Aidan suddenly shifted his hold on her arm. Freeing one hand, he rested it atop her chest.

  Kayla stiffened, then relaxed.

  Nick froze, absolute terror assaulting him. “What is it?”

  Her heart stopped, Aidan said in his head.

  Instinctively, Nick reached for her hand.

  Don’t touch her, the Celt ordered gently. I’ll keep it pumping for her until it can resume beating on its own. But that will be harder for me to do if you’re connected to her.

  Not touching her was torture. Nick needed the contact to convince himself he wouldn’t lose her.

  You won’t lose her. I’m already infusing her with my blood. The first thing the virus will do when it takes hold is repair her heart. Remember, this virus is like no other on the planet. It behaves like a symbiotic organism. It can’t live if she doesn’t live. So it will strengthen her damaged heart before it does anything else.

  Nick knew the words to be true but found little comfort in them.

  A small hand slipped into his.

  He glanced down.

  Eliana stood beside him. Curling her free hand around his arm, she leaned into his side.

  “What are you still doing here?” he asked softly. “I thought you’d left.”

  “Seth needed to meet with me and several others he’s relocating and wanted the privacy of Reordon’s boardroom.”

  As the head of the East Coast division of the network, Chris Reordon had a huge office here in North Carolina that included an adjoining boardroom so heavily soundproofed that even Seth couldn’t hear what was spoken inside it once the doors were closed.

  She smiled. “I suspect he chose the meeting time so I would be nearby if you needed me.”

  He squeezed her hand as he returned his gaze to Kayla. “Thank you for being here.”

  A moment passed.

  “She’ll pull through, Nick.” Eliana’s voice held no doubt, only reassurance. “I know she will. She’s strong… and too stubborn not to. She loves your handsome ass.”

  Despite the fear that still battered him, he found a smile. “No more than I love her.”

  It nevertheless took an inordinate amount of time for color to return to Kayla’s lovely features.

  Aidan removed his hand from her chest. A moment later, he lowered her arm.

  Nick clasped Kayla’s hand, so relieved to find it warm again that he blinked back tears.

  An hour later, Aidan again sank his fangs into Kayla’s arm and began to drain her. And once more, he had to rest a hand on her chest and keep her heart pumping when it began to falter.

  Eliana remained at Nick’s side, holding his hand whenever he couldn’t hold Kayla’s to keep him from totally losing it. “Did you know Kayla tried to free Oliver when they were at Brightwood Industries?” she asked, no doubt trying to distract him from the panic that kept beating the crap out of him.

  “She did?” Kayla hadn’t mentioned it. And he’d spoken little with Oliver in the brief time since.

  She nodded. “The woman was zip-tied to a chair, a tranquilizer and two poisons coursing through her body. Yet she still managed to hobble over to Oliver and tried to unfasten the rope that bound him.”

  “Damn,” Dana said, her voice full of admiration as she smiled down at Kayla. “She kicks ass.”

  Eliana grinned. “And she’ll kick even more once she’s immortal.”

  Aidan removed his hand from Kayla’s chest.

  Color returned to her face, a little faster this time.

  Withdrawing his fangs from her arm, Aidan lowered it to the bed. “And she will be immortal, Nick. Give her a few days and she’ll be strong enough to toss you through the roof. Or through a wall.”

  Dana winced. “Yeah. Just FYI… until she gets used to her new strength, she might literally do that.” Sending her husband a look of chagrin, she whispered, “Sorry.”

  Aidan’s brown eyes sparkled with amusement as he curled an arm around her.

  Dana sent Nick a wry smile. “Going from having the strength of an average human to having the strength of a three-thousand-year-old immortal warrior requires some serious adjusting. You might want to either stay at David’s home for a while or find a place in the country until she grows accustomed to the changes in her body.”

  Eliana nodded. “The houses in your neighborhood are pretty close together. If she accidentally tosses you through the roof—”

  Dana held up a finger. “Or miscalculates how quickly she can stop while running at preternatural speeds and ends up plowing through an exterior wall…”

  Eliana laughed. “Then someone is bound to notice.”

  Their warnings of what to expect in the future went a long way toward easing his fears in the present. Nick clasped Kayla’s hand, relieved by the contact. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

  He actually looked forward to Kayla tossing him through the roof.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Kayla raced through the forest. Cool wind blasted her. Trees whipped past in dark, towering blurs. Footsteps pounded behind her.

  When fingertips brushed the back of her shirt, she put on a burst of extra speed.

  Masculine laughter followed her as the footsteps faded.

  She grinned.

  Aidan had transformed her two weeks ago. Now she could run faster than
she could legally drive on a freeway. So fast, in fact, that Nick couldn’t catch her.

  Unless she wanted him to.

  She slowed her pace slightly.

  Boots pounded the ground behind her. Fingers again brushed her shoulder blade.

  When she glanced over her shoulder, arms banded around her and lifted her against a muscled chest.

  Their forward momentum slowed, then halted.

  Nick lowered her until her feet touched the ground.

  When she turned in his arms, she expected to see a smile.

  Instead, his brow furrowed and concern darkened his features. “Never look back when you’re racing through a forest at preternatural speeds. Running into a low-hanging branch at human speeds is bad enough. Doing it when you’re running faster than you can drive…”

  She winced. “Yikes. You’re right. Would I even survive that?”

  “Not if it decapitated you.”

  “And if it didn’t?”

  “Maybe. You heal even quicker than I do now. And I could summon Seth to speed the process or reattach any limbs you might lose. But I’d rather not test it.”

  “Me either. Maybe I should just avoid forests altogether.”

  He shook his head. “There are trees in the suburbs and the city, too. Run the gauntlet often enough and tracking the position of every obstacle in front of you will soon become second nature.”

  Nodding, she leaned into him. He had been training her vigorously since the day after she had awoken sporting glowing eyes and retractable fangs.

  He also hadn’t let her out of his sight. Her transformation had terrified him. Apparently her heart had stopped a few times. And her fever had risen so high that they’d had to submerge her in an ice bath to bring it down. Nick had sunk into the frigid water with her and held her close to keep her from hurting herself in a desperate and delirious attempt to escape the cold.

  He was such a sweetheart.

  Kayla remembered none of it. Nick had confessed it all when she had awoken. And his haggard appearance, the tears that had sparkled in his glowing amber eyes when he’d told her how afraid he’d been, had made her newly strengthened heart ache.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she marveled for the millionth time over the vast array of scents she could now detect. Soil. The decaying leaves beneath their feet. The birds nesting in the tree to her left. Water from the stream a mile away. Two raccoons foraging for food. A possum doing the same. An owl. A plethora of plants. The smoke from distant hearths.

  And Nick. His scent was the best. His was her favorite. She would never get enough of it.

  Drawing in another deep breath, she savored it. “You smell so good.”

  His arms tightened around her as he dipped his head and nuzzled her hair. “You do, too. Especially when you want me.”

  She smiled. “I always want you.”

  “I know.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “But do you want me enough to spend eternity with me?”

  Leaning back to look up at him, she quirked a brow. “I did transform for you.”

  Much to her surprise, he shook his head. “You transformed for Becca.”

  Kayla stared at him. “What?”

  “You were worried about Becca. You transformed for her.”

  He didn’t really believe that, did he? That she had only transformed so she could have more time with her daughter? “I love Becca.”

  “I know you do.”

  “I love you, too, Nick.”

  His lips tilted up at the corners. “I know.”

  “Do you?” she asked, studying him carefully. “Do you really?”

  His brow puckered.

  “You know I didn’t just transform for my daughter, right?”

  He said nothing.

  “Nick, I transformed so I could be with you.”

  He started to shake his head, then paused and stared at her as though he was unsure whether to believe it.

  “I was concerned about Becca,” she told him. “How could I not be? I’m all she has. And I always want to be there for her. But what you and I have… what we share…” She shook her head. “Do you know how rare that is?”

  “Rare enough that I’ve only experienced it once in four hundred years,” he responded. “I’ve only ever felt this way with you, Kayla.”

  And oh, how those hoarsely uttered words touched her. “I just found you, Nick. I didn’t want to lose you. And the idea of spending the rest of eternity with you…” She patted his chest above his heart. “That is why I transformed. That is what I want. Eternity with you.”

  He cupped her face in his big hands. “I want the same.” He pressed his soft lips to hers in a light kiss that nevertheless carried the full weight of his feelings for her. “I love you, Kayla.”

  “I love you, too.”

  He kissed her again, longer. Then he raised his head and met her gaze. “Will you marry me?”

  She smiled. “Yes.”

  Again he took her lips in a kiss, this one deep and devouring.

  Her pulse picked up, her rapid heartbeat matching his as he coaxed her lips apart. She moaned when he slid his tongue inside to stroke hers. His scent suffused her, heightening her arousal. He had once told her she was an aphrodisiac. That’s exactly what his scent was to her, rapidly escalating her hunger, her need.

  Their breath shortened as his big hands roved her form, cupping her breasts, teasing her nipples through her shirt and bra. She arched into him, rising onto her toes to align her hips with his, rubbing against the long, hard length behind his fly.

  Now that she was immortal, her every sense was heightened. Hearing. Sight. Smell. Touch. Taste. And all of it made her ache to have him inside her. “Immortal sex is the best sex ever,” she gasped between kisses.

  “Sex with you is the best sex ever,” he murmured. “Your eyes are glowing.”

  Her hazel eyes glowed green, something rare in the Immortal Guardians world since almost all of them had brown eyes that glowed amber.

  She trailed kisses along Nick’s jaw, practically climbing him in her need to get closer. “Are we far enough from David’s place to keep the others from hearing us?” They had spent the two weeks since her transformation in North Carolina at the home of David, Seth’s immensely powerful second-in-command.

  A favorite gathering place for Immortal Guardians on the East Coast, David’s home was always packed with immortals and their Seconds.

  “No.” Nick groaned as she rocked against him. “We’re still within a five-mile radius.”

  Shit. “Then they can hear us?”

  “Mm-hmm.” He pressed a hot kiss to her neck and nipped her earlobe.

  Damn, he turned her on. But as much as she wanted him to take her right now against the nearest tree, she had no interest in providing audible porn for the others.

  Breaking contact with him, she stepped back.

  Cold air rushed between them but did nothing to dispel the heat that raged inside her.

  She took another step back, touched her neck, then slid her hand down to cup one breast. “You want me?”

  A sexy growl rumbled up from his chest. “Yes.”

  “Then you’re going to have to catch me.” She drew her shirt over her head and let it fall to the ground. “I’ll leave a trail for you to follow.”

  His amber eyes brightened.

  Kayla took off through the trees, putting on a burst of preternatural speed that would give her a great enough lead to pause and discard a shoe here, a sock there, her pants, her bra…

  Once she put enough distance between herself and David’s home, she halted. The space wasn’t really big enough to be called a clearing. But the trees around it parted just enough to allow a soft bed of grass to grow.

  Branches snapped.

  Her heartbeat picked up.

  Then Nick burst into the small meadow. He stopped, eyes glowing, fists clenched around the clothing she’d discarded.

  Moonlight bathed him, dancing across the muscles his
T-shirt exposed.

  Damn, he was hot.

  “Look at you,” he murmured, his voice so thick with desire it was almost a growl.

  Kayla fought down a blush. Never in her life had she stood outside completely naked. But Nick made her want to do things like that. He made her want it all.

  Her clothing dropped to the grass as he stalked toward her with panther-like grace. “You’re so damn beautiful.” He tugged his shirt over his head. Discarded his boots. His pants. Everything.

  She swallowed hard, so ready for him, so eager for his touch that she could barely stand still.

  “You make me burn, Kayla.” He stopped a hair’s breadth away, his hard cock brushing her stomach. “You make me want it all.”

  His words so closely echoed her own that she couldn’t wait any longer. “Then take it all.” Curling her arms around his neck, she jumped up and wrapped her legs around his hips. “Take me.” She was so ready for him.

  He lowered his head and crushed her lips beneath his. Kayla buried her fingers in his hair as his tongue stroked hers. At the same time, he found her slick entrance with his cock and drove deep.

  Both moaned.

  “You feel so good,” she breathed. Nick was big all over. She loved to feel him inside her, stretching her.

  “You’re so tight and warm.”

  She flexed her inner muscles, squeezing him tighter.

  He groaned. “Immortal sex is the best sex ever.”

  She laughed, the sound dissolving into a moan as he began to move. Her senses were so heightened now that she never lasted long. She tried to hold out, tried to make it last. But when he didn’t hold back, when he took her—deep and hard—without having to worry about accidentally hurting her…

  Well. In only minutes she was crying out as an orgasm swept through her.

  Nick rode the pleasure with her, growling her name as he filled her with his heat.

  His knees buckled, then hit the grass. There he knelt, still buried deep inside her, her legs wrapped around his waist as she straddled his lap.

  Their breath came quickly.

  Their hearts pounded in tandem.

  His glowing amber eyes met hers. “You’re mine.”

  Smiling, she stroked his stubbled cheek. “And you’re mine. Now and always.”