Max trailed over to the king-sized bed and gently laid Jacie’s small form among the overstuffed pillows. Lydia noticed his hand trembled as he pulled the sheet over her and softly touched her bald head. “I’ll just go get your bags.” He left without a backward glance.
“His parents and three-year-old sister were killed a few years ago…”
Pain sliced through Lydia’s heart. That young man had already experienced in his short life what she had yet to face. “How old was he when it happened?”
“Twelve, I think. Roman found him wandering the streets of Atlanta at the tender age of thirteen. He brought him here, cleaned him up, and gave him a job. He’s been here ever since.”
“How old is he now?”
“Seventeen.” Madison eased up next to her and touched her shoulder. “Try to relax. Roman will take good care of you here. Nothing and no one can breach our defenses.”
“What about Roman? Is he okay? He said we were being followed and jumped from the vehicle about five miles back.”
“Roman can take care of himself. It would damn near take a complete coven to bring him down. He’ll be fine.”
Lydia wished she had Madison’s confidence. She remembered Simon’s strength in that alley. How he’d held her suspended without any effort as if she were weightless. “I hope you’re right.”
“I am. Why don’t you try to get some rest? I’m sure Roman will check in with you when he arrives.” She turned to go.
“Wait,” Lydia called as the other woman reached the door.
She stopped under the threshold, looking over her shoulder. “Yes?”
“Thank you for everything.” Lydia almost felt bad about her initial reaction to the leggy redhead. Almost.
Madison sent her a soft smile that made her even more beautiful if that was possible. “You’re very welcome.” The door closed quietly behind her.
Chapter Eleven
Roman held up his badge in front of the key-card access situated next to the entrance door of his compound. A loud click sounded as the light changed from red to green, signaling the lock’s release.
Pushing the heavy door open, he stepped inside, anxious to check on Lydia and Jacie.
The group of vampires he’d left buried in the snowstorm would disappear with the rising sun. If his instincts were correct, and they usually were, the fledglings he’d killed had no doubt been following Svetlana’s orders. Besides, he’d scented her sickeningly sweet stench on them the moment he’d jumped from his vehicle. The Queen of the Damned had always had a distinct smell about her…the smell of roses.
With revulsion churning in his stomach, Roman rounded a corner and nearly plowed into Max.
“Whoa.” The wolf stumbled back in surprise.
Roman gripped the kid’s shoulders to steady him. “Sorry about that.”
“No biggie,” Max responded, stepping out of Roman’s personal space. “You look pretty banged up. Any injuries that need tending to?”
“Nothing that won’t heal by morning.” He glanced down the hall. “What room is Lydia in?”
“Madison put her in number twelve, but the little girl is in there with her.”
Roman had figured as much. He knew Lydia wouldn’t be comfortable with Jacie in another room in a strange place.
Max’s eyes changed color and his voice deepened to a growl. “Svetlana.”
Roman knew the wolf could scent the vampire’s nauseating stench on him. “Her minions,” he corrected.
“How many?”
“Five. Fill Madison in on everything and stay vigilant. No one leaves tonight. Understood?”
“Understood, sir.”
Roman moved to step around him. “I’m going to shower and then check on Lydia. Have a good night.”
“Night, boss.”
He paused. “Hey, Max?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Thank you for taking care of them.”
Max turned to go with a short nod, but not before Roman saw a shadow of emotion in his eyes. Praise of any kind had always seemed to make the kid uncomfortable.
* * * *
Lydia paced back and forth at the foot of her temporary bed, contemplating how long she would be there before Simon was caught and she could return home. Jacie had doctor appointments, and Lydia would have to return to work in less than a week.
She glanced at Jacie’s sleeping form. The night-light reflected off her little bald head, and Lydia’s throat closed. She wondered how much longer she would have with her precious daughter… A week, a month, six months? She shook off her thoughts, unable to face the reality of their future.
A soft knock drew her attention. She padded across the carpet and gripped the doorknob. “Who is it?”
“Roman,” came the muffled reply.
Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of his voice. She’d been worried sick about him since his fearless jump from the SUV.
She pulled the door open and stepped back to allow him entrance. Bruising on his face was evident along with a horizontal gash across his cheek, and his right eye was swollen shut. “Oh, my God, you’re hurt.”
“I’m fine. I’ll be good as new by morning.” He moved farther into the room, and she closed the door.
“Come with me.” Taking hold of his hand, she escorted him to the beautiful gold-trimmed bathroom.
“Sit,” Lydia demanded, jerking a closet door open. She grabbed a towel, washcloth, and the first-aid kit. Her lips twitched when she noticed he’d sat on the toilet lid instead of the counter.
“You’re a bossy little number,” he remarked as she wet the washcloth and moved to stand between his open legs.
A blush crept up her neck. “Yeah well, I work in the lab. I know how easy infection can take hold if a wound is left unattended.”
“I don’t get infections, Lydia.” He smiled and a small drop of blood beaded at the corner of his mouth.
Lydia dabbed at it with the washcloth, her gaze tracing the outline of his full bottom lip. She wanted to kiss him in the worst kind of way. “It has to be painful.”
“I never said we didn’t feel pain. Only that it doesn’t last long.” He stared back at her with a hunger that matched her own.
She cleared her throat and went back to the task of cleaning his injuries. Picking up the first-aid kit, she noticed a fresh-looking bloodstain on his otherwise clean shirt. “Let me see.”
It was his turn to look uncomfortable. “It’s just a scratch. You should be resting instead of fussing over me.”
Lydia knew he didn’t want her to see his injuries, and she wasn’t having any of it. “Please take off the shirt so I can have a look. I’ll worry all night if I’m not assured that you are okay.”
He hesitated for so long she assumed her demand had been ignored. And then he gripped the hem of the shirt and lifted it over his head.
A gasp burst from her as the depths of his wounds were revealed. He had a deep gash under his ribs, approximately four inches in length with blood leaking from both ends of it. Another cut ran along his side toward his back. It wasn’t bleeding, and for that she was grateful.
Ripping open several packs of gauze, she snagged the antibiotic salve and dropped to her knees. She began smearing the ointment as gently as she could inside and around the wounds’ edges. “Who did this to you?”
“Vampires.” He placed his finger under her chin and tilted her face up. “Do you understand now the reason I had to get you out of the house tonight? Had it been Simon or Svetlana out there instead of her fledglings, I would have fought until the sun came up.”
Lydia nearly swallowed her tongue. “Is Svetlana as powerful as Simon?”
“More so.”
She dropped her gaze to his middle, picked up the gauze, and leaned in close. In order to secure his wounds with the thin material, she would need to wrap it around him…which meant encircling him in her arms. “I just need to, um… Could you…?”
He sat forward, his nipple barely an inch from her
mouth. Chest hair tickled her nose as she moved in tighter, wrapping the gauze around a couple of times, and fastened it together by tucking it behind the previous band.
His scent was her undoing. How could someone smell good enough to eat? And man did she ever want to eat him.
“You’re blushing.”
The deep timbre of his voice meshed with his scent to create a state of euphoria she could drown in. Her stomach flipped, and wetness slicked her panties.
Roman rose to his feet, taking her with him. “I can smell that you want me.”
He swung her up into his arms and strode from the bathroom toward the bed. He could smell her arousal, she thought as her blush deepened. She had never been more embarrassed or turned on in all her life.
“The child,” he growled, coming to an abrupt stop.
Guilt was instant and razor-sharp. She’d been so caught up in Roman that she’d forgotten where they were. What if Jacie awoke to find her mother in the arms of a strange man? A shirtless, strange man at that. “Put me down, please.”
He didn’t move, just stood there for long moments holding her gaze. “Madison will be by at eight in the morning to collect you both for breakfast.” He slowly lowered her feet to the carpet and then strode to the door. “I will see you tomorrow evening.”
* * * *
Roman quickly shut the door before he gave in to his urges and took Lydia on the floor. He couldn’t remember ever wanting a woman so much. Not even Ione.
His cock ached where it pressed against the zipper of his jeans. She had no idea the affect she had on him or how the scent of her arousal would linger in his mind even as he slept.
He bypassed the elevator and took the stairs to his underground sleeping quarters. Running the stairwell would help take his mind off his painful erection.
Both entrance and exit doors to his room were created from silver and could only be accessed with a key card. His key card. He alone held the only one in existence.
The main door into the compound could only be opened from the inside or with his personal access key. The building itself was made up of bulk modulus of the metal osmium, and aside from diamond was known as the hardest rock in the world. Cement was then crafted around it to give it a stucco look. Silver bars were placed on all windows and openings. Even the gate had been erected in silver.
Guards, some human, some not, walked the grounds twenty-four hours a day with automatic weapons and enough ammo to take down an army of supernatural creatures.
Cameras were mounted on every angle of the structure while dozens more were scattered throughout the property in less than obvious places. No one came or went without being seen from the main hub. Yeah, Roman Castillo’s compound was as unyielding and impenetrable as the dead King Barbatus’s heart.
Cursed hearts, he brooded, entering his apartment. He was curious who Lydia had given hers to. She hadn’t mentioned Jacie’s father, and Roman wondered if the guy was active in the child’s life or a deadbeat like so many others he’d seen. Hell, half the kids he’d taken in over the years had been the product of a piece of shit father.
Roman could feel his eyelids grow heavy with the approaching dawn as he sat on the end of his bed and removed his boots. He lay back and unzipped his jeans, freeing his still semi-erect cock from its confines. Damn Lydia for having such an effect on him, he thought as sleep claimed him.
* * * *
Lydia awoke to the smell of bacon. It took her a moment to remember that she was in a room at Roman Castillo’s compound. She opened her eyes and zeroed in on the source of the delicious aroma penetrating her still-sleepy brain. A tray of covered dishes sat on the small table in the kitchen with a pitcher of juice and two glasses placed next to it along with a carafe of milk. Her stomach growled on cue.
She shifted her gaze to Jacie’s sleeping form and rolled up close behind her. “Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty.”
The little girl yawned and pulled the covers over her head. “It’s too early.”
Lydia’s heart cracked. Every day, it was getting harder and harder for Jacie to wake up. Between the nightmares and new meds, she sometimes got less than four hours of sleep each night.
“You can take a nap early today. Besides, your medicines are almost an hour late, and you need to get up and brush your teeth because your breath stinks.”
The giggle that came from beneath the covers was music to Lydia’s ears. She’d missed hearing her sweet, tinkering laugh, and the sound of it now was food for her soul. “I think we have pancakes.”
The covers were thrown back to admit a disheveled-looking Jacie. Her eyes were sleep swollen, and a long red mark marred her cheek where she’d slept on her hand. “And bacon?”
“Definitely bacon.”
Jacie jumped from the bed with an exuberance that belied her sleepy state. She climbed onto a chair at the small table and lifted one of the round lids covering a plate. “Oh, Mama…they have biscuits too.”
Lydia followed suit and took a seat at the table across from her shockingly hungry daughter. “Good. I’m starved.”
“Me too,” Jacie exclaimed, grabbing a piece of bacon and taking a bite.
It surprised Lydia that her daughter had an appetite. Perhaps it was her own fault, she wondered with a pang of guilt. She’d been so worried about feeding her healthy foods that she never stopped to consider what was most important. And that was to make Jacie’s last days as happy as possible.
The old, familiar panic crept inside, but she fought against it, pushing it back into the far recesses of her mind to deal with later. Jacie was smiling, and Lydia would be damned if she’d ruin it by bursting into tears in front of her.
Lydia lifted the lids from the rest of the dishes. “They have scrambled eggs with cheese.” She grinned at Jacie’s jubilant expression and spooned some onto the child’s plate.
“Drink some juice while I get your medicine ready.” She poured Jacie a glass of orange juice and dug out her pills from the bag she and Roman had packed. “Swallow these.”
Jacie took the pills one at a time in silence. She never fussed or made a face, just did what she had to do without argument. “There. All done.”
“Good job. I love you.”
“I love you too, Mama.”
A knock sounded at the door, and Lydia got to her feet. “Eat your breakfast, baby. I’ll be right back.”
She trailed across the room and brought her eye to the peephole situated in the center of the door. Madison stood in the hallway with her flaming red hair and matching red lips, looking like she’d just rolled off the cover of a Playboy magazine. Yeah, the woman was a damn Hugh Hefner dream, Lydia mused with a small amount of envy.
Masking her expression, Lydia opened the door. “Good morning.”
Madison grinned and strode into the room with a light coconut scent surrounding her. “I see the little one is up and about.” She glanced back at Lydia. “May I?”
“Yes, of course,” Lydia consented with a slight nod.
“Thank you.” Madison strolled over to the table and took a seat next to Jacie. “Hi there.”
The child’s eyes were huge as she stared back at Madison in fascination. “Are you Miss America?”
Madison looked surprised. “That’s funny; I was just about to ask you the same thing.”
“You thought I was Miss America?” Jacie responded with a giggle.
“I sure did.”
The little girl slid from her chair and moved to stand next to Madison. She reached up and touched a few strands of the redhead’s hair. “I wish I had long red hair like yours.”
Tears sprang to Lydia’s eyes against her will. She had never heard her daughter say anything remotely close to what she’d just confessed to Madison. Her legs felt weak, and she had to sit on the foot of the bed to keep from collapsing.
Lydia watched a display of emotions move across Madison’s face. “Hmmm. We’ll see what we can do about that after breakfast. If your mom says it’s okay, of
course.”
Jacie’s gasp of joy made Lydia’s heart sing. Jacie ran toward the bed as fast as her little legs could carry her. “Please. Can I, Mom?”
Lydia stared down at the excited look on Jacie’s upturned face. For a moment, everything was right in the world. Her child didn’t have a dreaded cancer. Her beautiful hair was once again long and shiny, blowing in the breeze as she ran through the park, chasing butterflies…happy and whole.
Snapping back to reality, Lydia shifted her attention to Madison to find tears swimming in the woman’s eyes. She decided she liked the redhead after all. Even if she had the man of Lydia’s dreams.
“You can go after you finish your breakfast,” Lydia agreed, kissing the top of her daughter’s head.
Jacie sprinted back to the table and climbed up onto her chair. “I’ll be ready as soon as I finish eating,” she stated while snatching up her fork.
Madison stood and made her way toward Lydia. She glanced at Jacie over her shoulder. “Take your time. I won’t leave without you.”
Chapter Twelve
Lydia stood as Madison came to a stop in front of her. The leggy redhead’s height was intimidating enough without Lydia looking up at her from a sitting position. “Thank you for that.”
“You’re welcome. Max told me she has leukemia.” A suspicious wetness crept into her eyes. “I lost my youngest brother to cancer when he was only twelve years old.”
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Lydia whispered around the lump in her throat.
“Almost done,” Jacie announced, breaking through the fog of emotions building inside Lydia’s chest.
“Will you excuse me for a second?” Lydia fled to the bathroom and turned on the cold water. She splashed her face again and again, hoping to ease the pain inside her heart. Children, no matter what age, didn’t deserve to die. They were supposed to grow up, fall in love, and live long, happy lives.
After standing in the bathroom enough time to get her emotions under control, Lydia opened the door in time to find Jacie dressed in jeans, brown fur-lined boots, and a pink sweater.
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