“You still used me.”
“Yes, I did.” She lifted her head proudly. “I won’t make excuses for it.”
Her words galled him. Hurt him. Infuriated him.
“You’ve humiliated me, mortal.”
* * *
His fury hit Grace like a strong, hot wind. She rose angrily to her feet. “Oh, no, laddie! I am not having any of your feeling sorry for yourself. You had no interest in anything more than tumbling a willing maid servant when we met. You probably even planned to make me forget about you when the house party was over. Don’t you dare try to deny it.”
“That was all you wanted from me—a quick tumble.”
“Yes.”
“And my child.”
“Vampire males don’t care about children. Offspring belong to the mother. I am that mother and I love this baby with all my heart and soul but—”
“Don’t tell me how I feel about my child!”
She put her hands on her hips. “How do you feel about the child?”
She watched as surprise came over his angry features. Light was starting to come in through the small window. It would be dawn soon.
“I—don’t know,” Julien said. “How could I know when I only now discovered the truth of why you used me?”
“Is that male vanity I hear? Why is it all right for a man to love and leave a woman, but it is a sin for a woman to do the same to a man?”
“Those are mortal sentiments,” he said.
“Your petulance certainly sounds like a mortal’s to me.”
“Petulance!”
Grace held up a hand. “Hold that thought.” She put on her slippers and reached for the plaid shawl on the end of the bed. She was very uncomfortable, which no doubt added to her irritation. She’d found being with child had a lot to do with moodiness, and increases in bodily functions. “I really must visit the necessary. We can continue this argument when I get back.”
“You can’t go out now.”
She patted her abdomen. “I’m not the one in charge here.” She started toward the stairs.
Julien stepped in front of her. “I will escort you.”
“The sun will be up any moment. Stay here, and I shall be right back.”
She resisted the urge to touch him and stepped around him instead. She went down the narrow stairs, hoping that leaving Julien for a few minutes would give them both time to calm down and have an adult conversation. She was so very happy to see him. But it was all so complicated and confusing.
When she reached the kitchen she found the deerhound sleeping in his usual spot by the banked fire in the hearth. To her surprise, another dog was sharing the rug with the hound, its huge wolflike head resting comfortably on the deerhound’s back.
It looked at her with glowing blue eyes. This isn’t what it looks like, a woman’s thought sounded in Grace’s mind.
Werewolf? Julien had said he’d used….
“I’ll—uh—be right back.”
Grace hurried past the creature, feeling its gaze on her as she quickly went out the kitchen door.
* * *
Chapter Thirteen
“Why didn’t you go with her?” Julien paced the cottage kitchen, staring at the door, avoiding the patch of morning sunlight coming in the window. This was Scotland! Shouldn’t it be cloudy at the very least?
He turned a glare on Brianna, the werewolf.
Still in her wolf form, Brianna thought back, I’ve been busy keeping this dog from warning the mortals. It is a loyal, stubborn creature. I think I have finally convinced it to stay quiet. Possibly, at the wrong time, she added.
“What do you mean?”
Brianna moved away from the dog. It immediately moved to the door. Brianna morphed from her wolf form into a short naked woman with long, gray-streaked black hair.
“She was very curious about me,” Brianna said. “And said she would be right back.”
“Can’t you smell a lie? Every word from her lips is a lie.” Julien stopped pacing and winced at his own melodrama. To be fair, Grace had never actually lied to him, except for pretending to be someone she was not, and omitting to tell him many things. “She said goodbye the day she left me. I should have listened more closely.”
“What did she say this morning?”
“That she would be right back.”
“Then I think your mortal is in trouble.”
Julien looked down at the patch of sunlight illuminating the stone floor. To a mortal it was warming and cheerful. Even looking at it hurt his eyes. I do not fear you, he thought. A complete lie, but one must face the enemy with a brave face. “My bondmate needs me.”
He reached for his heavy, hooded traveling coat just as the deerhound jumped back and the door banged open.
“Grace! Are you awake yet?” an elderly woman shouted as she stepped inside. She stopped after taking a few steps into the kitchen and looked around. “You would be Julien Weaver,” she said to him. “And you are naked,” she said to Brianna. Her heart rate and blood pressure both rose, but she appeared perfectly calm. “Where is my granddaughter?”
* * *
Grace did feel some gratitude that at least the woman with the gun hadn’t abducted her until after she used the necessary. Otherwise she was thoroughly annoyed. And curious, as she knew she’d seen the woman somewhere before, but couldn’t remember where.
The woman had directed her to be silent and was taking her along the wooded path which eventually led down to the only road in the remote, rugged area.
Grace swore when she stubbed her toe on a tree root. Her captor prodded her in the back with the gun barrel.
“I’m not exactly dressed for traveling,” Grace complained.
The gun pressed harder into the base of her spine. “Quiet.”
Grace walked on. She was more annoyed than frightened, though she was not so foolish as to feel any sense of bravado in a dangerous situation. She didn’t think the woman was likely to kill her. She could have done that already. Grace was anxious for the sake of her baby.
Grace continued on in meek silence until they reached the road. Sure enough, a carriage was waiting. It was a large, heavy vehicle with dark curtains shielding the windows. A driver stood by the carriage’s four horses, whose heads were pointed south. When they reached the carriage, the driver came forward and tied Grace’s hands behind her back before lifting her inside the vehicle. The woman followed Grace inside and the door was shut. They were on their way a few seconds later.
The other woman didn’t put the pistol away, but she did relax against her seat. She smiled. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
* * *
“Your granddaughter? What have you done with my bondmate?” Julien demanded of the mortal woman.
“Bondmate? Vampires bond with each other.”
“Not always. I’m talking about Grace McCoy.”
“So am I.”
“You’ve established you are talking about the same woman,” Brianna said. “She left the house and has not returned. She did not join you, either. I believe this proves she is either in trouble or has run away. I do not believe she has run away.” She took several deep breaths. “You are the one I followed from London,” she said to the McCoy woman. “You have a lovely hint of tea in your scent.”
“Thank you, I think,” the mortal answered. She’d closed the door and was standing in front of it. “You aren’t planning on going outside, are you?” she asked Julien.
“I need to find Grace.”
“Not in broad daylight, you don’t. I’ll not have you injuring yourself when there’s a horde of McCoys that can look for Grace.”
“A horde of McCoys might come in handy,” Julien said. “But I will not hide—”
“It would upset Grace if anything happens to you. I will not risk her in any way.”
“Because of the child you stole from me?”
“Because she’d be devastated if anything happens to you. The fool girl can’t seem to get over you
. Vampire Primes do not care about offspring,” she added.
She was absolutely certain.
“Grace is my bondmate,” he repeated. It was nearly impossible to keep his fury under control. There was a tinge of red around the edge of his vision. His fangs pressed against his lower lip. “How could I not love my and Grace’s child? Even if—”
“Why can’t she get over him?” Brianna cut in. “Because she loves him, even if she has no idea what a psychic bond is. Ergo, the mortal belongs with the Prime. This is no time to argue over it. And it is her argument to have with him, besides.”
Julien moved to loom closely over the mortal. “I suspect there are many things witches do not know about vampires. Know this: bondmates can feel each other’s presence. I cannot feel her. Take the spell off me that keeps us apart.” Every word he spoke was a threat.
The woman did not show fear, but her puzzlement was plain. “There are no spells on you, Prime. How could I bespell a vampire? Every bit of magic expended has been used on Grace to keep her away from you. And it’s barely worked, I might add. You’ve a deep hold on her, my lad. And all spells eventually wear off.”
A weight lifted from Julien’s heart. Grace had been kept from him! She was a prisoner of her family!
And now it was likely she was a prisoner of someone else. Why? How? Who?
Not that it mattered. That information could wait until she was found. She had better be all right.
“Until the spell wears off, you still have me. Allow me to continue what you hired me for, finding Grace McCoy,” Brianna said. She touched the tip of her nose. “Madam, kindly open the door for me.” She shifted back to her wolf form.
“I had no idea shape shifters actually existed,” the mortal said when Brianna had gone.
“You can discuss it with her later.” Julian reached for his coat again. “Now go gather up that horde of McCoys you promised me.”
* * *
Chapter Fourteen
“You’ve been waiting for what for a long time?” Grace asked.
“A dhamphir. Central European legend says a dhamphir is the offspring of a vampire and a gypsy. It is the rarest of all psychic creatures, born to hunt vampires.”
Grace didn’t know anything about Central European legends, but she did know she was not a gypsy. She was a Celtic Craft Traveler, not Romany gypsy. They were allies and friends with similar wandering ways, but not one and the same. Outsiders often mistook them for each other. She did not attempt to correct the other woman. She certainly wasn’t going to admit to being with child.
What she tried to do was remember where she’d seen her captor before. It had something to do with champagne, she thought. The blonde reached out and took the glass from the tray as—
“You were with the vampire hunter.”
“My sister.” She lifted the pistol, her eyes flashing with anger. “I would kill you if I could. I will kill you when I can.”
Grace held up her hands. “Calm down. It was your sister who attacked Julien.”
“You helped the monster mind rape her.”
What an awful description of what Julien had done to avoid killing his attacker. “He made her forget about—”
“But she remembered. It took time, but she came to her senses. She told me all about what happened. It took us a while to realize that you were there to use the monster for your own purposes.” She sneered. “How could you bear its touch?”
It was more than pleasant, actually. Grace missed Julien’s touch with every breath she took, with every moment away from him.
Well, she didn’t suppose she would have to wait long.
“You think he’ll come for you.” The woman smiled. “We think so, too. But he can’t come before nightfall. We will be ready for him. You will be useful as bait in our trap.”
“I see.” Grace sneered. “How nice to know I can be useful to you in so many ways.”
The sound of a body landing on top of the carriage silenced any reply from the woman. She immediately shot a bullet through the roof.
Grace launched herself across the coach, throwing the woman off balance before she could fire again. The pistol fell to the coach floor.
With her hands tied behind her back, Grace couldn’t grapple with the woman, but she butted her with her head and bit her arm when the woman tried to push her away. The carriage skewed sideways on the road, then came to a jolting halt. Grace and her captor were sent tumbling. The woman snatched up her gun again, just as the carriage door wrenched open.
A figure all in black appeared in the doorway.
“No!” Grace shouted.
The pistol roared at the same instant.
The figure staggered back for a moment. Then he reached into the coach, grabbed the blond woman, and dragged her outside.
It took Grace a few moments. “Please, goddess, please don’t let him be hurt!” she prayed the whole time she struggled to get upright. “Julien!” she shouted when she finally reached the open door. She looked around frantically, seeing several cousins and her youngest brother before she spotted the tall man swathed in black. She burst into grateful tears when she saw him.
“Julien, are you all right?”
He looked at her over the top of a pair of dark glasses. “Perfectly all right, my love.”
The strain in his voice let her know he was not all right. For a moment she thought it was the tears that made his form seem to be wavering before her, then Grace realized it was heat haze rising all around him.
Sunlight.
Oh, dear goddess, it was a beautiful, bright, sunlit day.
And Julien was a vampire.
“Get in here,” she shouted. “I will not have the father of my child smoking.”
He laughed as he bounded into the carriage. He quickly shut the door and drew down the heavy shades, letting out a sigh of relief when darkness surrounded them.
Heat radiated from him.
“Were you really about to catch fire?” she asked.
“Possibly.”
“You are never going out in the daylight again.” Grace’s voice shook with terror for him. Of course he’d had to risk daylight. He had to suspect she’d be bait in a trap.
“I couldn’t bear to be away from you any longer,” he said.
“No more adventures, do you hear me?”
“What if you need rescuing again?”
“All right, you have my permission for that.”
Julien laughed. He took off his dark glasses, hat and gloves and scarf before he turned her and broke the ropes binding her wrists. She turned back and threw her arms around him. His came around her. They held each other close in the private darkness of the coach.
“Thank you so much! I’m so sorry I caused you any kind of pain. I love you so much!”
He held her close, making her feel ever so safe, protected, and cared for.
“And here I thought we would continue our argument when I caught up with you,” he said.
“We have nothing to argue about.”
“Your family might disagree.”
“Hang my family. Which has certainly been known to happen upon occasion,” she added. Grace unfastened his coat buttons so she could see the white shirt beneath. It was stained with blood. “You were shot!”
“It is a small matter,” he assured her. “Already healing. I was fortunate the bullet was not made of silver.”
“She didn’t think you would arrive until after dark.”
“Lucky for us she was wrong.” He sighed. “Vampire hunters are wrong about many things.”
“What about—what was that word she used? Dhamphir. The child of a mortal and a vampire that becomes a vampire killer. That’s not real, is it?”
“That old story?” Julien shook his head. “It’s nonsense. There is a legend among vampires about the son of a Prime and a mortal woman who changed into a Prime when he reached adulthood. He was said to be a daywalker, among his many impossible psychic powers. I doubt this person ever e
xisted, but that is the origin of the hunters’ belief in dhamphirs. We have nothing to fear for our child.”
She sighed, and smiled. “Our child.”
“Ours,” he said. “The first of many.”
“I look forward to that.”
He drew her onto his lap, and into a deep, lasting kiss.
* * * * *
For Further Reading
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Table of Contents
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Stealing Magic (Vampire Primes) Page 7
