The Vampire's Protector [The Protectors 4] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Doris O'Connor

  In truth the whole spectacle turned his stomach, too, but with Aegleaca holding court, he couldn’t refuse his participation in the sexual feasting orgy that was his maker’s favorite way to pass the time. He’d caused enough raised eyebrows by not fucking his present. The blonde was pretty enough and terribly young. If he had to guess he’d say she was barely legal, and thankfully not a local.

  Dimitrius wouldn’t have liked to have to explain that to Eva, and in truth he felt rather protective of the locals, too. This was his home territory, and one simply didn’t shit on one’s own front garden.

  “Are you done with her, brother?” Lydia, the youngest of his sisters bounded up, eyes shining with blood lust. Despite being almost a hundred years old, Lydia hadn’t yet lost her hunger, and she was unpredictable at best, dangerous at worst. Aegleaca and he had many discussions over Lydia in the past, but their maker found her behavior amusing, and thus encouraged it, rather than trained the girl to control herself.

  At his curt nod the red haired vamp screeched in delight, and Dimitrius winced when she attacked the human girl with no finesse whatsoever. The girl’s eyes widened in pain, and she screamed her distress, before Lydia remembered to release her pheromones to ensure the human would enjoy the experience, and the girl’s tense frame relaxed.

  Dimitrius nodded at Yasmine to keep an eye on them, and his other sister floated over to them with a benevolent smile at Lydia’s bent head.

  “You worry too much, Dimitrius,” the Persian beauty said, and he snarled at her. She flashed her fangs at him, and ran her red tipped nails along his cheek bones. “You always did. No one will miss this girl, if Lydia takes too much. Mistress picked her from the gutter, and without her intervention the girl would already be dead. Have some faith in our maker, brother.”

  She smiled at him and then turned to put her hand on Lydia’s head. It took some persuasion on her part, but Lydia eventually released the human. The girl was too still, and too pale, but at least she was still breathing. Dimitrius shook his head in disgust as Yasmine led Lydia away, and turned his back on the scene.

  Aegleaca had arrived with quite an entourage, and he pushed open the French doors to get rid of the stench of sweat, blood, and sex. The cool night air brought with it the scent of his girl, and calmed his agitation a bit. He surreptitiously scanned the trees surrounding his property, and his jaw tightened when he spotted Eva. Wings flapping she made a beautiful sight, as she took off and circled overhead before she disappeared from view, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Her departure hadn’t come a moment too soon, because Aegleaca entered the garden, and he felt the familiar pull to his maker, as she probed into his consciousness.

  “What has you so troubled?” she asked. When he remained silent and firmly closed off his mind to her probing, she stepped in front of him. The moonlight glistened on her flawless, pale skin, and her almond shaped black eyes regarded him thoughtfully. He held his ground as she ran one long red tipped fingernail along his jaw and into the open neck line of his shirt, where Eva’s mark was clearly visible. He could have chosen to cover it up, but his maker would have smelled his mate all over him anyway, so there was little point in hiding the mark.

  Aegleaca’s full lips turned into an ugly sneer, as she circled the bite and then withdrew her hand as though it had been burned.

  “Nothing good will come of this, you know that. It never does.”

  Dimitrius shrugged his shoulders, and stared up at the moon. Almost full it hung low in the cloudless sky, and illuminated the garden perfectly. His maker’s sigh made him look at her, and Aegleaca seemed unusually pensive, as she studied him. Her naturally long eyelashes made half-moons against her ivory cheeks, when she dropped her gaze to his groin, and it took every ounce of self-control he possessed to not slap her hand away when she grasped hold of his cock and squeezed.

  “Your shifter whore the reason you wouldn’t fuck the toy I brought for you?”

  Dimitrius clenched his jaw so hard his teeth crunched and his fangs pierced through his lips. Aegleaca clucked her tongue, and swiped the drop of blood trickling down his chin away with her lips. She frowned when he still didn’t react, and mercifully released her stranglehold on his junk.

  “She is, isn’t she? You stink of her after all, and you even taste different. Just as well, I’m here to put an end to this.”

  Dimitrius balled his hands into fists, and growled at her. Not that it had any effect on Aegleaca. She simply smiled and wagged her finger at him.

  “You will do no such thing.” He snarled the words and her eyebrows rose in response. “I told you on the phone, I don’t need your help, and you’re not welcome here.” He half turned and sneered at the half dozen humans in his living room. In various forms of undress they were either fucking each other, or being fucked by his sisters. “I don’t want this.” He gestured at the spectacle behind him, and Aegleaca’s laugh rang round the quiet garden.

  “You’re going soft out here, Dimitrius. Even six months ago, you wouldn’t have hesitated fuckin that girl’s brains out. She’s your favorite blood type, too.” At his startled glance at her, his maker gave a short humorless laugh. “Yes, you didn’t even notice, did you? In fact, you looked as though I was trying to poison you, so, you tell me how that,” she pointed to his mark again with a frown, “is not my concern.”

  When he didn’t reply, she sighed again, and tossed her long white blonde hair over her shoulder. It hung down to her ass, a perfectly straight shimmering mass that made her look angelic. Many men had made the mistake of assuming she was as sweet as an angel.

  Aegleaca was anything but sweet. She was loyal to a fault, and ruled herself and those in her court by an old fashioned code of honor, but she was also deadly, and quick to judge, and completely unrepentant of her actions, whatever the consequences of those might be. Bearing that in mind, he forced a smile on his lips.

  “I’ve got a handle on this. Worry over Lydia, not me.”

  A shadow crossed Aegleaca’s face and Dimitrius’s gut churned with unease. It wasn’t like his maker to show her concern this openly. She pursed her lips and looked over his shoulder, where he knew Lydia was currently the meat in a two human males sandwich.

  “Don’t change the subject. I’m here to talk about you, not Lydia. She’s young and foolish. You’re old and experienced, however, so I have to ask myself why put yourself through this again.”

  Dimitrius pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. That was the million dollar question, and one he couldn’t answer. Not to his maker’s satisfaction anyway. How did you explain your reasons for falling in love? Why this one person out of all the ones on this planet made you feel more alive than you ever had. That the thought of anything happening to that person tore you in half?

  “I see. It’s like that, is it?” she asked and grasped his chin to force him to look at her, when he refused to do so. “You think you’re in love with her?”

  She cocked her head to one side, and smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes, and that niggling unease increased tenfold.

  “You, do, don’t you. Oh, Dimitrius, you sure have a knack of picking them. After the last one—”

  “I wasn’t in love with that one, as you well know.” He interrupted Aegleaca, and she pursed her lips and let him go after another long searching look at him.

  “You gave a good impression of it, and, besides, you were too soft then.” He growled low in his throat, and she flashed her fangs at him and hissed. Her black eyes glowed in the dark, and the veins on her face stood out, turning her beauty into a mask of a terror. This was his maker thoroughly pissed, much more so than she ought to be in the circumstances and he inclined his head, and backed away.

  “Better, Dimitrius,” she spat the words out at him, and then glanced back into the living room. Yes, she was definitely worried about Lydia, but Dimitrius knew there was no point in asking her about it. Aegleaca would share her concerns in her own time.

  “Let’s not forget who y
ou’re talking to, or I might just order you to kill that shifter, just because I can.”

  The fine hair on his neck rose at the inherent threat, especially when she laughed. It was a downright, chilling, evil sound that told him more than anything that all was not well in the world of his maker.

  “It would be amusing, for sure.”

  To mask the effect her words were having on him, he crossed his arms over his chest and stared her down. Only after he made sure his internal shields were up in full force. If she slipped past his mental defenses he would have to do as she bid.

  “You’re welcome to try,” he said and she stepped right into his personal space and placed her hands either side of his face. The coolness burned and sweat rolled down the space between his shoulder blades as her will battered his skull. The urge to submit, to do as he was told was almost too much to withstand, but he focused on a mental image of Eva instead. Tied and at his mercy, writhing under his hands, and he grinned, when Aegleaca made gagging noises and snatched her hands off his face.

  “Bleugh, spare me the images, Dimitrius. She’s a pretty little thing, mind you, I give you that. However, I warn you, she puts one step out of line, and endangers you or what’s mine, and I’ll snap her slender neck in half without a moment’s hesitation.”

  Dimitrius gave a tight nod, and some of the tension in his maker’s shoulders dissipated.

  “Understood,” he said. An uneasy silence fell between them, only broken by the grunts, and moans and wet sounds of ongoing copulation coming from his living room.

  “If that was your only concern, I’ll trust you’ll move this lot on, and leave me in peace again. The Protectors will get twitchy if they catch wind of that.” He hitched his thumb over his shoulder and Aegleaca smiled.

  “Let them, they can’t touch us, unless your little friend plays dirty, and…” She put her hand out to placate him, when he snarled in response, and shook her head. “No, let me finish what I was going to say. She had plenty of time to do that already, so I’m giving her the benefit of doubt for now, as you seem so fond of her. Sooner or later you’ll get bored and move on.” She paused, when he shook his head, and laughed.

  “No? Maybe not, if you truly care for this girl, but shifter genes or not, she’ll age, and die eventually. So, unless you’re asking my permission to turn her…”

  She let her words trail off, and studying him closely whistled through her teeth.

  “You do have it bad, Dimitrius. I’m going to have to meet this girl, and see what has you so enthralled.”

  “I have no intention of turning her, so there is no need for you to meet her.” He ground the words out through gritted teeth, and Aegleaca smiled and patted his arm. He shook her off, and glared at her, which only amused her further.

  “Fine, have it your way, though, I suspect meeting her will become a necessity, after you hear the other reason why I’m here.”

  Something about the careful way she pronounced each word, sent his instincts into hyper mode, and his worst suspicions were confirmed, when she filled him in on Lydia’s latest faux pas.

  “…and as you insist on living here, this problem will not go away. Still think, making out with your little Protector is not going to cause any problems, Dimitrius?”

  Chapter Ten

  Eva jerked awake from the most unsettling dream yet, and with her legs all tangled in the sheets crashed to her bedroom floor in a most ungraceful manner. Ouch, that fucking hurt. The hammering on her front door kicked up a nudge, until she could feel every heavy handed punch travel up through the floor boards.

  Raising her nose in the air to ascertain who was trying to break her door down, when the sun hadn’t even fully risen over the horizon yet, brought with it a whiff of enraged black panther.

  “Get your pert little ass out of that bed, eagle, or, so help me I’ll break this fucking door down. I don’t appreciate having to fetch you. I’m not your fucking babysitter, girl.”

  Sasha’s deep growl galvanized Eva into action, and shaking off the last remnants of that disturbing dream—one where Dimitrius had been fucking that blonde vamp and laughing in her face while all around them her minions killed everyone—wrapped the sheet around herself, and trotted down the stairs. She yanked her front door open mid Sasha’s pounding and the panther shifter almost fell on top of her. With the inherent grace of his species, he recovered at the last minute, and settled for staring down at her. His nostrils flared briefly and he smirked.

  “Too busy fucking to hear the phone, were you? Is he still here?” He ducked the punch she threw at his chin easily enough and chuckled.

  Eva stepped aside to let him in and glared at his broad back when he entered the room. Sasha filled the tiny hallway almost completely. Stood at six and half feet of brawny muscle, the panther shifter was a to-die-for specimen of male in his prime, and Eva gave herself a moment to admire the play of muscle clearly visible under his tight tee, as he ran a hand through his disheveled black hair, and turned round to look her over.

  Heat flared briefly in his blue eyes, when her sheet slipped, and his full, arrogant mouth tipped into a sneer.

  “No need to cover up on my account, darling. I’ve seen it all before, after all. If Mrs. H didn’t have her granny knickers in such a twist, I wouldn’t be amiss to go for another quick tumble, but our esteemed elder will give herself a heart attack, if I don’t bring you over to the council meeting asap, so be a good girl and throw some clothes on.” He winked at her, and Eva’s fingers twitched to wipe that arrogant smirk of the shifter’s face.

  “Hell will freeze over before I tumble with you anywhere ever again, pussy cat, you know that.”

  Sasha growled at the insult, and with some of her equilibrium restored, Eva took the stairs two at a time. She made sure to put an extra swing to her hips as she did so, fully aware of Sasha’s glance on her ass, as she ascended the stairs. When she had first come to Cumbria Sasha and she had a memorable weekend together. Eva had been up for more, but fantastic sex notwithstanding it had been pretty evident that Sasha did not do commitment, and while the idea of having him for a fuck buddy had been appealing to a degree, finding out he was in fact one of the Protectors, had put an immediate and jarring hold to that.

  Eva grinned to herself, as she hastily went through her morning ablutions. She didn’t know who had been more astonished to see the other at the first council meeting she had ever attended. Sasha’s immediate chauvinistic attitude to her appointment had laid further creed to anything every happening between them again, though lately she suspected his attitude had more to do with Sasha pretending he didn’t give a damn, then him being a complete asshole.

  “Hurry up, woman, time is money here.”

  His lazy drawl meant she pulled her clothes on in record time, and he grinned at her when she appeared back in front of him seconds later.

  “Fine, I’m here. Stop grumbling at me and let’s go. Why the rush anyway? What happened?” she asked, and Sasha shrugged his big shoulders.

  “No fucking clue. All I know is that we need to get there, and as she couldn’t get hold of you I was charged in bringing you in. I know she’s pissed at you, and not just because you didn’t answer your phone. Why didn’t you by the way?”

  Sasha mounted his Harley as she slammed her front door shut and pushed her helmet on her head, and then sat watching her head cocked to one side, his panther prowling under his skin.

  “I forgot to put it on charge last night.” Eva mumbled the words, and made a big show of starting her racer to hide her reaction. In truth she had no idea where her phone was. She suspected she might have left it at Dimitrius’s and the thought that he might even now be reading those messages made bile rise in her throat. Then again he was probably too busy fucking that blonde bitch and her minions to take any notice of her ringing phone.

  Jealousy poked her insides with such acid vehemence that it took her breath away. What’s more Eva was uncomfortably aware that the green eyed monster was the d
riving emotion here. Not worry about what having these vampires in their midst would mean for Middle Brook, as should have been her first concern, but that seething anger at those females getting their claws into her man.

  She stuck her tongue out at a brooding Sasha, and threw down a challenge he would not be able to refuse.

  “Come on pussy cat, I’ll race you. Last one to the meeting is nothing more than an alley cat.” With that she opened up her throttle and let her bike go. Sasha’s roar of disgust was almost as loud as the engine of his Harley, as he opened her to the max and chased after her.

  By the time she screeched to a stop in front of the village hall they used for their council meetings seconds before Sasha, the fast and exhilarating ride had displaced some of her misgivings.

  The panther jumped off his bike and punched her in the shoulder with a big grin.

  “Fucking hell, girl, that bike of yours. You get fed up with her, I’ll be tempted to take her off you.”

  Eva grinned and shook her head.

  “No fucking way. Besides, thought you’re in love with your Harley.”

  Sasha shrugged and grinned, and they both stopped to admire the much older and pristinely preserved Harley that stood next to the other Protectors’ bike. There were a number of bikes Eva didn’t recognize and Sasha whistled through his teeth, as he opened the door to a crowded hall. Eva’s heart sank at the expression on Mrs. H’s face, as she spun round to study her.

  “There you are girl, finally. What took you so long?” she asked and Eva wanted the ground to swallow her up as everyone turned as one to look at her. Sasha stepped away from her, and jumped on the stage which left her stood in front of a stony-faced committee of her fellow Protectors, and Mrs. H. The village elder rung her hands in agitation and she jumped when the tall, long-haired man next to her put his large hand over hers.