One Bite Stand

by Nina Bangs

  For just a moment she thought about what she was doing. She was shucking the commitment of a lifetime in favor of trying to keep a vampire safe. It was either love or lunacy. She’d prefer to believe it was lunacy.

  She spotted Declan slipping through one of the mansion’s broken windows. Midgard took the more direct route through a wall.

  Daria was pretty much able to follow the action because the roof had big gaping holes in it. Declan didn’t seem to be having any trouble eluding Midgard, but Hel would have to show up eventually, wouldn’t she?

  “Don’t you think we’ve given Ganymede enough time? Shouldn’t we head back now?” Hey, Daria was all in favor of tactical retreats. Living to fight another day had real meaning to her.

  Without warning, Hel appeared behind Declan. She’d timed her show of support perfectly. Midgard had gotten close enough to demand Declan’s complete attention. She had her bow ready, and the arrow pulsed with a red glow. It might not kill Declan, but it’d be a major owie and might allow her to carry him off to the loving arms of Wolf Daddy.

  Oh, shit. Daria couldn’t alert Declan without making him take his attention from Midgard. With her huge wingspan, she couldn’t fit through the hole in the roof, so she resorted to what she’d done when fighting Fenrir. Ripping off a chunk of roofing, she flung it down at Hel.

  Daria didn’t know who was more surprised when the missile struck, Hel or her. It was a direct hit that knocked Hel down. Yes! The almighty Queen of Death hadn’t shielded herself. There was something to be said for low-tech attacks.

  Declan glanced behind him and then, before either Hel or Midgard could recover, rose into the air.

  “Let’s get out of here”

  This time she obeyed him. Flapping her wings, she made for the inn. He caught up with her quickly.

  “You fly.”

  “Airport security’s a bitch.”

  She grinned before glancing back. No pursuit yet. Even if Ganymede made the inn into a fortress, outside activities would be dangerous from now on. Cindy and Thrain were about to take a major income hit.

  He gave her a thumbs-up, and for a moment something that looked a lot like boyish excitement shone in his eyes. She felt a connection to him that should throw her harpy heart into a panic. It didn’t.

  Daria searched the area below her. “We’re almost at the inn. I’m landing behind that tree. Give me your shirt. Then we’ll go inside.”

  He followed her down. Even as he hit the ground, he was ripping off his shirt and handing it to her. After changing back to human form, she pulled it over her head and then yanked on the bottom, trying to make it cover more of her.

  He took her hand and sprinted toward the porch. “I just sent a mental SOS. Ganymede knows we’re coming. He’s lowering his shield.”

  Daria had a quick impression of only a few cars still parked in front of the inn before Declan flung open the door and pulled her into the foyer. Ganymede, Sparkle, and Katie waited. She slammed the door shut behind her.

  Ganymede wore a strained expression. “I can only shield the whole building for a little longer. Katie is working on something more permanent.”

  “Katie?” When Declan thought of a superhero stepping in to save their butts, the cook didn’t come to mind.

  “You bet. Just call me Broom Woman.” Katie held up her weapon of choice.

  “It looks funny, sort of glowing and shimmery. Scary.” Daria didn’t look as if she trusted brooms that glowed and shimmered.

  “Tell you the truth, it sort of scares me too.” Katie cast a suspicious glance at her faithful kitchen helper. “It wasn’t always mine, you know. Belonged to a wizard with more power than I’ll ever have. Hate to admit it, but I’ve been afraid to tap into its full power.” She glanced at Ganymede, who was laboring a little as he tried to shield the inn from whatever lurked outside. “Now might be a good time to try. I’ve called up a protection spell. Let’s give it a road test.” Without waiting for comments, Katie pulled open the door and slipped outside. She left the door ajar, and Declan could hear her chanting.

  Daria looked worried. “Will she be able to do it?”

  “Yeah, I think so. That’s the good news.” Ganymede was crouched on the floor, looking like the weight of the world rested squarely on his cat shoulders. “The bad news is I struck out with the two people I wanted here with us. Holgarth’s at some wizard convention in England. They have the damn convention center shielded, so I couldn’t get my message through.”

  Ganymede looked depressed, but not about Holgarth. “I can’t stop cursing. It’s part of who I am. There’re no candy bars, cakes, cookies, or pies left in the inn. I bet Chill started on my ice cream.”

  Impatient, Declan got him back on track. “What about your other friend?”

  “Not a friend. Edge is the cosmic troublemaker in charge of death. He’s working down in Texas with some paranormal police force. But he’s deep undercover. Blocked all incoming messages.” The strain of the shield Ganymede supported was starting to show.

  The cat’s fur was damp and Declan could see his muscles quivering. Whatever Katie was planning had better kick in soon.

  Daria walked over to the window. “No giant snakes or death queens in sight. Is anyone watching out back?”

  “Got the werewolves on it. They stayed. A lot of the others didn’t.” Ganymede looked depressed at the thought of all that lost revenue. “I compelled everyone to get their asses back inside the inn as soon as I got your message. Didn’t have time to let them all wander back on their own. The humans didn’t have a clue what had happened, and the nonhumans resented the hell out of me for using a compulsion on them.” He shrugged.

  Declan got the feeling he was more worried about his diminishing supply of ice cream than he was the nonhumans’ bruised feelings.

  “I explained the situation. Most of them threw their things into their suitcases and burned rubber outta here. The ones who stayed are willing to take their chances.”

  “Any humans stay?” Declan felt Daria join him.

  “That Walt guy. He said he had important research to finish. Don’t know why he didn’t go home to do it.” Ganymede looked at Daria. “He said he’s close to solving a problem for you.”

  Just as Declan got ready to ask about the problem, rumbling roars shook the whole house along with a sharp crack of thunder.

  Before anyone could react, Katie pushed the door wide. She looked pale and shaken. “Your new security system is up and running. They want you to call them the Guardians.” Exhaustion lined her face. “I’m getting too old for this kind of magic.”

  Ganymede padded onto the porch and down the steps. The others followed him. Everyone looked up.

  “Gargoyles?” Declan let a hiss of amazement escape. Along with the gargoyles crouched on each corner of the inn’s roof, there was one protecting the porch. Huge, monstrous, and really scary, they glared down with bulging eyes that glowed yellow.

  Katie seemed too weary even for her usual snarky comments. “They’ll protect everything as far as the parking area. If I did everything right, nothing, no matter how powerful, can get inside the guarded space.” She tottered up the steps. “I need rest.” She gathered enough energy to glare at Ganymede. “Stay out of my kitchen.” Then she disappeared inside.

  They all trailed in behind her. Even though it wasn’t dawn yet, rest sounded tempting to Declan. Looking around, he spotted Daria. She still wore his shirt and nothing else. Mine. His body was a possessive bastard.

  He curbed his first instinct to go to her. She was talking to her brother, and the conversation didn’t look friendly.

  Declan knew he needed a plan, but right now his brain was drifting in a confused fog. Hel and Midgard wouldn’t give up after one setback. And Fenrir would soon be powerful enough to jog up to the inn’s front door. Would the gargoyles be strong enough to protect the inn against an assault from a giant snake, a badass werewolf, and the Queen of Death? He’d bet the Guardians had never seen that ki
nd of action before.

  He decided to go to his room and change. It would give him time to think about Daria. Partner. That’s what she’d called him. In his long life, he’d never had a real partner. Sure, Ganymede said he’d have his back, but Declan didn’t fool himself about the cat’s motivation. Ganymede made self-serving into an art form.

  But he got a different feeling from Daria. Declan thought about that feeling as he climbed the stairs to his room—rolled it over in his mind, and decided it was a great feeling.

  He was almost at the top of the stairs when the compulsion hit. All he had time to think was that Hel and Midgard must’ve run back to Fenrir with news of their failure. Then lust brought him to his knees. Literally. He crawled up the last few steps and lay in the hallway trying to control spasms of raging need. Clenching his teeth, he worked to beat back the compulsion.

  Then Daria was beside him, her hands touching him in ways he was sure she meant to be comforting but that had a totally different effect on him. “Stop. Touching. Me.” His words were forced out through gritted teeth.

  “The compulsion?”

  He could only nod.

  She didn’t waste time on long speeches. “My room is closer.” Helping him to his feet, she supported him the short distance to her door. Where her body touched his, a blade of searing desire sliced into him. It was all he could do not to groan. When she pushed the door open, he fell into her room.

  Daria crouched beside him. “Do you want me to go away so you can fight this?” She bit her lower lip with even white teeth.

  He wanted those teeth nibbling him. “Hell, no.”

  Her smile ignited a fire in him that threatened to burn through the floor and dump him in the room below.

  “Good.” She stood, slipped out of his shirt, and turned away from him.

  Then she walked. The sway of her round little bottom in all its bare glory would have had the same effect on him even if he wasn’t under Ganymede’s compulsion. Want roared through him and emerged as a strangled cry.

  She stopped beside one of the posters on her wall.

  It was of him. Naked, sitting on a Ferris wheel. He glanced around. A lot more pictures. All of him. All naked. Damn.

  “Sparkle decorated this room. You’ll notice the similarity to her room.”

  What he noticed was her beautiful full breasts with perfect nipples that cried for his mouth.

  “Sparkle doesn’t have eclectic taste when it comes to artwork. But I have to admit each of the posters in this room is inspiring in its own way.” She pointed at the one beside her. “Do you think we can capture the same sense of… adventure?”

  She was teasing him. Her eyes gleamed with laughter as she slid her tongue over her bottom lip. The soft wet sheen of it would’ve taken him to the floor if he weren’t already there.

  It was all too much. His twin hungers flared to life. He felt the slide of his fangs and had just enough rational thought to remind himself to feed only one hunger tonight.

  “Come here.” It was going to have to be the floor, because he would need lots of roll-around room when all his massed sexual energy reached flash point.

  She strolled over to him, the swing of her hips advertising that help was on the way. Standing over him, she pursed her lips in thought. “Hmm. Seems we have a problem. I can’t do what I want to do with your pants still on.”

  He growled. Had to get the damn things off. Mumbling expletives, he dragged the pants off and flung them away from him. He’d already kicked off his shoes.

  Then he reached up and pulled her down beside him. Declan smiled at her and hoped he didn’t look like the big bad wolf. He shook his head. No wolf thoughts allowed. “I can take you to that place in the poster.” He rolled onto his side.

  “Really? You can create a fantasy?” She looked interested as she slid her hand over his jaw and traced his lips with the tip of her finger.

  He laughed. “No. A few of the Mackenzies can do that kind of stuff with a whole story line attached, but it’s not one of my talents. I meant I could recreate the setting, allow you to enjoy the same emotional response you got when you looked at the poster.” That had to be a first. He’d never promised emotions to any woman he’d been with.

  “Mmm. Sounds exciting.” She walked her fingers down his chest and stomach before pausing.

  His cock was so hard he wanted to beg her to touch it. But that might not be smart right now. Instead, he propped himself up on his elbow before touching her shoulder. She took the hint and rolled onto her back.

  As much as he wanted this to be a long and loving seduction, his body was thrumming with the promise of an explosion of epic proportions. Soon. Unless he wanted to humiliate himself and completely destroy his reputation as the master of sexual pleasure, he’d better move fast.

  “I don’t want to wait either.” She smiled at him.

  Daria saw too much, understood him too well for his own comfort. It was getting harder and harder to maintain any kind of distance between them. He’d only wanted her body at first, but now he was opting in for the whole package. He closed his eyes. Had he really thought that?

  Laughing, she drew his head down and kissed each of his closed lids. “Stop thinking, vampire. Free your senses. They say danger makes lovemaking more powerful. How about testing that theory now?”

  Opening his eyes, he said something totally unplanned, so out of character it clogged his throat. Was he stupid? If this didn’t kill the mood, nothing would.

  “Would you ever consider pursuing another line of work?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Change her work? Give up being a harpy? Where had that question come from? And why now when she was so hot for him her blood was turning to steam?

  No was the first word that popped into her mind, followed closely by maybe. Maybe with lots of qualifiers. And every qualifier had his name attached.

  She glared at him. Was he really under a compulsion? She doubted it or he wouldn’t be able to stop right in the middle to discuss her job. That was fine, though, because she had her own compulsion going on.

  “No talk, vampire. Time for action.” She poked his broad chest with her finger. “Cook me up a dangerous setting.”

  Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes for a moment before hunger swept it away. Satisfaction? Why? Because she refused to answer his question about her job? If that’s all it took to make him happy, then he should feel totally ecstatic in a few minutes.

  She watched as his gaze grew unfocused just as it had back in the woods right before he created his wall of Red Hots.

  “Sit up and close your eyes.” He leaned down to feather a kiss across her lips.

  “Why?” All harpies had suspicious natures. But she did sit up. No eye-closing yet.

  “I’m changing our setting a little more than I did in the woods. The shift could make you feel queasy.”

  He’d said the right words. Heaving all over his sensual moment was so not on her to-do list right now. Shutting her eyes, she waited.

  Her eyes popped open as she sensed motion. Daria had seen the poster, so she knew what to expect. Still, the shock left her breathless.

  They sat facing each other across an open-sided gondola at the top of a very big Ferris wheel. Reaching out, she gripped the sides of the only barrier between them and a long fall to earth. In her mind, the whole thing was made of cardboard that would collapse like cooked spaghetti if it rained. Fearfully, she looked skyward. She released the breath she’d been holding. The moon and stars were out. Then she looked down. Gulp. People on the ground looked like tiny moving dots. Or maybe they were just the spots in front of her eyes that would probably show up right before she passed out.

  “You’re afraid of heights?” He sounded amused.

  “I didn’t think so.” Good grief, she was a harpy. Flying was second nature to her. “Maybe it’s a control issue. I’m not in control of this whole Ferris wheel thing.”

  “Take a deep breath and think logically. Even if
the worst happened and we fell, both of us can fly. We’d never hit the ground.”

  She followed his advice and drew in a deep gulp of courage. Better still, she took a good look at him. He was still naked, his toned body exposed to anything she might want to do to it. And she wanted to do a lot.

  “We’re stuck up here, huh?” This was good, right? No problems with privacy, and the gentle sway of the gondola could even be construed as a sensual enhancement. “What was Sparkle drinking when she came up with the idea of a poster showing you naked at the top of a Ferris wheel?”

  He shrugged. “Who knows? But let’s make it work for us.” Without warning, he moved across to her side.

  She squeaked as the gondola swayed harder. “How can we make love without tipping this blasted thing over?” The breeze played with her hair, blowing some of it across her face.

  Declan grinned. “Very carefully.”

  Pulling her to him, he smoothed some strands from her face. Fascinated, she watched the wind lift his hair, exposing the strong line of his neck. The moon shone behind him, creating a halo affect. But Declan would never be anyone’s angel, and that’s exactly how she wanted him.

  Dipping his head, he took her mouth in a kiss that spoke of dangerous hunger and barely controlled need. His tongue tangled with hers as she wrapped her arms around him. Sliding her hands up and down his smooth back, she deepened the kiss, hoping he could feel the reality of all the things she wanted but couldn’t explain. Couldn’t explain because they were too new, too frightening.

  Declan broke the kiss to nibble a path over her jaw and down the side of her neck. He didn’t pause where her pulse beat madly but continued on to her breasts.

  Flinging her head back, she stopped thinking and just let her senses take over. The wind touched her face, breasts, and every other exposed inch of skin with cool night fingers. Except for the one nipple that Declan covered with his mouth, teasing the hard nub with quick flicks of his magic tongue. So sensitive. A pleasure-pain thing. Like every thought of being with, you and then leaving you.