by Laura Kaye
Kenric’s eyelids drifted closed, then he moved his arm down and encircled her waist, pulling her to him. He rolled her onto her back and in one move braced himself above her and opened his eyes.
“Emily, you know the truth. I can’t let another woman I care about die because of me. Two women have already given their lives: my mother and Annice.”
“Your mother?” Emily choked out the words through the emotion riding high in her chest.
“She died trying to protect me from my father’s abuse, and Annice died because I didn’t have the strength to stay away.” He dipped his head and placed a kiss to her forehead, then each cheek. “Come home with me tonight. Let me protect you. I can’t lose you, too.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks. He brushed them away one by one. She laced her fingers through his raven hair and pulled him to her lips.
She wanted to kiss the hurt away. Kiss away the years of loneliness he’d carried in his heart.
“Marguerite may have taken away the sun from my life,” he said. “But I won’t allow her to have my light, too.” Kenric cupped her cheeks. “I won’t let her hurt you, Wildflower. You have my word.”
A knot swelled at the back of her throat, blocking her ability to speak.
“I-I want you to know, you’re the only person on this planet I’ve ever told the details of what happened back then.” He closed his eyes and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “Not even Guerin knows the extent of her crimes. Some I can’t even bring myself to remember during my waking hours. The images plague me enough in my dreams that I don’t really need to.”
Emily brushed her fingertips along his jawline, the coarse feel of his whiskers tickling the sensitive pads. “You can tell me anything. I could never judge you for what you feel after the things she put you through. Nor would I ever betray your confidence.”
“I want to make her pay,” he growled. “With everything in me, I want to bring her down—destroy her for all that she’s taken from me and all the others she’s hurt in her path of destruction.”
Air sawed in and out of Kenric’s lungs, as if the admission had nearly exhausted him.
“I’m not proud of the fact I’ve allowed my need for vengeance against her to consume so much of my life. In fact, it pisses me off that even during her physical absence she’s still been inside me, a never-ending source of fuel for my anger.”
“Dear God, Kenric, if anyone ever had a reason to carry a grudge, it’s you.” Emily tugged his chin back up, bringing his shadowed gaze back to hers. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. That’s all on Marguerite.”
He cupped her breasts and rolled her nipples between his fingers, pulling a moan from her throat, then his mouth was on hers. The kiss hard and deep, as if she tasted of his salvation. And in her heart, Emily would give anything to be that for him—be whatever he needed.
A knock sounded at her front door.
“Ignore it,” he grumbled against her lips.
Another rap against the wood reverberated through the condo, this one harder.
“Damn,” he muttered and tumbled away from her onto his back.
Chapter Seventeen
Grabbing a robe from her closet, Emily hurried down the hall. “Who is it?” she called a few feet from the door.
“It’s Jeff.” A deep, grumpy voice sounded from the other side.
She skidded to a halt. Her heart flipped in her chest and landed in her stomach. Dear God, what was he doing here?
“What do you want?” God, she needed him here like she needed a toothache.
“Open the damn door, unless you want a scene on your front porch. I told you I would be here, woman.”
A snarl behind her had her wincing. Kenric framed the entrance to the living room, his jeans hanging loose at his hips. The blacks of his pupils filled his eyes, and one hand hung curled into a fist at his side.
“It’s my ex-fiancé.” She tried to give a half smile.
“Your ex?” Two small words, but when he said them, they held such power.
“I haven’t had a chance to tell you about him yet,” she whispered. “I’ll handle this.” She motioned to the door with her index finger.
“Emily. You’ve got two seconds to let me in, or the whole neighborhood will know I’m here.
No mistaking the rumble that emitted from the other side of the room.
“Stop that.” She shot Kenric an irritated look. “And get rid of the scary vampire look.” She waved a finger in the direction of his dilated eyes. “I’ve got this under control. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with in the past.”
With a flip of the dead bolt, she opened the door. Jeff barged in, almost knocking her over, and then pulled up short. Kenric had made it across the room before the jerk had taken three steps.
“Well, I see you’ve been busy.” Jeff scowled. “It didn’t take you long to find someone to warm your bed.” His gaze flicked from her to Kenric.
“I think I’ve heard enough of your bullshit and your insults.” Kenric moved in, his face inches from Jeff’s. “Apologize. Now. If you want to leave here on your own two legs.” Each word eased from his lips, his voice dead calm.
Jeff stumbled back and bumped the wall. She thought for a second maybe he’d gained some common sense, but hell no. He curled his lips and straightened his shoulders. “Just who the hell do you…?”
Good Lord. Emily broke in on the testosterone display. “God, you’re such an ass, Jeff.” She grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side. “Let’s settle this once and for all, and then you can get the hell out of my house.” She glanced back and mouthed, I’m sorry. One minute, please.
Kenric wrestled with his raging need to kill the asshole following Emily into her bedroom. Thank God, she’d left the door open. He might have torn the damn thing off with his bare hands if she’d closed it.
She hadn’t mentioned the asshole before, but he knew someone in her past had hurt her. Not hard to guess who the responsible party was after meeting good old Jeff. What an absolute prick.
Their voices rose and carried to the front of the house. Even without his superb hearing, their words were clear.
He braced himself against the wall.
Ten minutes.
That was it.
He would give Ms. Independence a few moments to handle this, and then he would take care of him.
“I don’t have anything to give you,” Emily yelled. “I’ve already maxed out the equity line on my home to cover the previous debts I created because of you.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
His fingers dug into the plaster behind his legs.
Stay. Stay. She wants you to stay the fuck out of this.
“Bitch, you owe me. I know you’ve got something left you’re holding on to. Your mama left you everything when she died.”
“She barely had anything, and you know that. Dad’s drinking took everything except this place. And I’ll be damned if I lose it because of you.”
Emily’s voice broke, and Kenric’s heart turned inside out. He had no idea she’d held on to her life by an unraveling thread. She’d stolen his ability to think straight. This wasn’t him, standing on the outside and allowing his woman to be treated like shit by some asshole jerk-off.
“Get out of my things!” Her voice rang out, followed by a crash of something onto the floor.
The bastard was dead.
Kenric bolted. Her jewelry case lay shattered on the floor, her few trinkets scattered around her feet. Jeff groped on his knees after some of the items.
“I said get your hands off my stuff!” Emily beat at his back with her fists.
Jeff glanced up, his brown hair covering one side of his face, but it didn’t hide the sneer he aimed in Emily’s direction.
That cinched his fate.
Kenric took two steps and swung. Jeff howled as his nose exploded under the impact of Kenric’s fist, spraying blood across his face and down his shirt.
“Oh, my God!” The distressed sound of Emi
ly’s voice only heightened his need to get the bastard away from her. Permanently.
He wouldn’t kill him. No matter how much joy it would bring to watch the asshole take his last breath. But…there were other ways.
Satisfied with at least some display of blood and pain on Jeff’s behalf, Kenric gripped him by his nape and dragged him down the hall. “I guess you didn’t have enough brains to heed my warning.”
Jeff yelped and clawed at the hand holding him.
“Kenric!” Emily cried out, following close behind. “Stop! What are you doing?’
Her frantic swats at his arms didn’t matter. Old Jeff needed to learn a lesson. He hauled the vermin up and slammed him into the wall. The air left Jeff’s lungs on a wheeze. Kenric dug his fingers into the asshole’s chin and forced their gazes to meet. He reached in, wrapped his mind around Jeff’s slimy excuse for a brain, and forced the other man’s neurons into submission and readiness for his verbal command.
“You will never again set foot on Emily’s property. Never will you call her or let her name fall from your lips again. For the rest of your life, Emily Ross does not exist to you. Do you understand me?”
Jeff blinked with a glassy brown stare and nodded.
“Good.” Kenric released him and stepped back. “Now get the hell out of here.”
Jeff immediately headed toward the front door and left without looking back.
The door closed with a soft click, and Kenric wheeled around, satisfied he’d taken care of that piece of shit. The look on Emily’s face stopped him cold. She stood with her hands on her hips, sporting an expression that said she wanted a piece of his ass, but not in a pleasant way.
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” She covered her face with her palms and groaned. “I can’t believe what I just witnessed.”
“I took care of the bastard.” Another wave of satisfaction rushed through him. “He won’t be coming back to bother you.”
“I told you I could handle it,” she spat. “I don’t need some overgrown vampire fighting my battles for me and zapping people with all kinds of mind mojo.”
“Emily…” He couldn’t believe what she was saying. All he did was protect her. What the hell was wrong with that? “I think I did a pretty damn good job of controlling myself. He’s lucky I didn’t kill him for how he spoke to you.”
She shrieked. “That’s it,” she said, sweeping her palm out before her. “That’s what I’m talking about. This is exactly why this will never work between us. I can’t live like that.”
“Like what?” He crossed the distance between them and brushed his palms down her arms, then withdrew. “I care about you. You can’t live with someone who wants to take care of you and protect you?”
She narrowed her eyes on him. “I know you thought you were saving me from him, but I didn’t ask you to. I can’t live with someone who wants to control and dominate everyone around him.” She slowly shook her head. “I would never survive.” Her eyes shimmered with tears.
A knife to his gut couldn’t hurt as much as the words that fell from her lips.
“Emily…” He reached for her face. “I would never…”
She flinched from his touch and pulled free, heading in the direction of her room. “Go, Kenric. Please, just go. I need some time to think. Without you here.”
“I’m not leaving like this. Not with you believing…”
“Go home!” She glanced over her shoulder. “Go home,” she whispered this time. “You have a job to do, and so do I. I need to get ready for work.” She turned, walked into her bedroom, and closed the door.
On them.
…
With the press of a button, her umbrella sprang open with a snap. Emily pulled her jacket tighter around her neck. The cold wind clawed to get in. Lifting her umbrella against the rain before her, she made a slippery dash to her car. No garages here.
The rain pelted the car’s roof as she tossed her purse inside and dropped into the driver’s seat. She slid the key into the ignition and groaned. Remind me why I have to go to work again? Oh yeah, because if I don’t, I’ll lose what little I do have. And I need the work to take my mind off the vampire who wants to take me home and keep me as a pet.
Pulling away from the corner, she spotted a dark figure in leather standing near a streetlight. She couldn’t see his face, but it had to be Kenric. The man was huge. She’d thought he’d long since gone home. Guess he decided to play guard dog and didn’t mind getting soaked.
Five minutes later, her cell phone buzzed. She reached inside her purse, slipped it free, and glanced at the display. Private number. Kenric.
Hell, no. She didn’t have the energy right now. Dragging her purse over, Emily dropped the cell back in and noticed the slender dark vial lying on top of her wallet. Green flipped to red at the next traffic light, and she came to a stop. She lifted the blood sample and rolled it in her palm, studying the garnet fluid sitting within the glass. Strange how the vial felt heavier in her hand than its actual weight.
Where had her head been when she had taken this?
A car horn blew, and she jumped. The light had turned green while she sat in a daze. She pressed the accelerator and made a right turn in the direction of Bean City. God, she desperately needed some caffeine.
She glanced at the tube of blood once more before returning it to her purse. Memories of their night together tugged at her mind. She didn’t want to let them in. They made her heart ache. She shook her head, warding them off, but they breached her defenses.
He’d treated her with such tenderness, as if she’d meant the world to him. Every touch and caress had both eased and exhilarated her, as though he knew exactly what she needed. And then he had given it to her.
Afterward, he had revealed some of the most private parts of his life. He’d trusted her with his very existence.
She knew what she had to do.
Destroy the vial.
No matter how pissed off he’d made her, she would not betray him. She would not be responsible for inflicting more pain than he’d already suffered.
She hit the turn signal and pulled off the road into the vacant parking lot that sat between the closed Hallmark store and her favorite all-night coffee shop. A large vanilla latte and a glazed doughnut sounded like heaven to her growling stomach.
Ten minutes later, she finally had some caffeine to go, despite the fact that the barista behind the counter had refused to remove the ear buds from his ears the entire time he took her order. Thank God, since it was already eleven thirty. Maybe she’d be lucky and only be about twenty minutes late for her shift tonight.
With a steaming coffee in one hand and a warm doughnut in a bag in the other, Emily shoved at the exit door. She could barely wait to get behind the wheel, break off a piece of that sticky decadence, and chase it with a gulp of sweetened caffeine depravity. Oh, yeah, this is gonna be good.
The door swung wide and a cold blast of wind hit her, sending a curl of steam up through the vented lid of her cup. Holding it steady, she made a sprint toward the end of the sidewalk, heading for her car. She’d left her umbrella on the floorboard, knowing she would have both hands full on the short jaunt back.
With one eye on her cup and the other on the car, she didn’t notice the large man coming around the corner. Her shoulder bumped into his chest, knocking her bag onto the wet sidewalk.
“Oh, no! I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you there.” Luckily, she’d only lost a few drops of her coffee, and none of it on her or the guy she’d run into.
“Here you go, ma’am.” The dark-haired man picked up her wet sack and handed it to her. He smiled, but none of it reached his gray eyes, which bore into hers with a cold stare.
“Thank you.” She clutched the dripping paper bag and took a simultaneous step back. She shivered, but not from the cold rain.
Edging around him, she took off in the direction of her car. Lord, that man gave her the creeps.
Finall
y, she reached her car. With her foot only halfway inside the sedan, a large hand came out of nowhere and grabbed her shoulder, spinning her back around. She stumbled back, wedged between the car and the door. Her arm banged against the window, knocking her cup out of her hand and throwing scalding espresso onto her leg.
She cried out at the same time a hand came down hard against her temple and jaw. Stars twinkled behind her lids. The lights danced before her eyes. How pretty. She would have liked to stay there, but the throbbing pain in her face brought her back to frightening reality.
A massive palm against her mouth threatened to smother her, stifling any attempt at a scream. She thrashed against him as her vision cleared. Oh, God. He’s going to kill me. She expected to see the creepy guy from the corner, but the thing pressed up against her was a hell of a lot scarier.
Solid black eyes, fangs that dripped with drool, and the smell… This had to be what Kenric and his Enclave hunted: a DEAD.
Her gaze darted over his shoulder. The dark, rain-slicked streets were empty, too late for most people to be out on a night like this.
Except for—oh, hell, he wasn’t alone.
Another one of his blood-lusting friends stood behind him. He grinned and ran his tongue over his thick and shiny lips.
The DEAD holding her leaned in, squeezing her farther into the crevice formed by the door and car. His breath heated her cheek and singed her nostrils.
Her stomach roiled. She jammed her eyelids closed.
This could not be happening.
He sniffed her neck and along her jaw. Her legs trembled and threatened to fail.
“Enclave whore,” he grumbled in her ear. Cold fingers crawled under her jacket and groped her breast. “Do you know what we do with whores like you?” With the weight of his hand across her mouth, all she could do was stare into those freakish black eyes. “Do you?” he shouted.
Emily shook her head.
“We eat them for dinner.” He twisted her breast.
She screamed into his palm. The pain jolted her stunned brain, and she slammed her knee into his groin. The vampire cursed and doubled over, clutching his wounded genitals. She dived into her car. Dumping the contents of her purse out onto the passenger seat, Emily scrambled, looking for her keys. She couldn’t think. “Where the hell are my keys?”
