Claw Mark

by Lily Harlem

  “I’m here. I wouldn’t let one of those bastards get the better of me.” Isaac tipped his head forward and kissed Caleb. It was an intense, deep kiss and both men wound their arms around each other and pressed in close.

  I stared, fascinated. Feeling like I shouldn’t be watching but unable to help myself. Just like that time with Denny and Gaspere I was compelled to spy on two men together. There was something so erotic and forbidden about it.

  Isaac ran his hands down Caleb’s back and palmed his butt through the denim.

  Caleb groaned, or perhaps it was Isaac. I couldn’t be sure.

  Sadness seared through me. I turned away, slunk back to bed and crawled beneath the covers. Caleb hadn’t taken any notice of my nakedness because he was gay. He was in love with a man. I envied him, and Isaac, for having the person they wanted in their arms, in their home. How uncomplicated their lives appeared to be, living here, together, in the wilderness. In love and in lust with no intrusions.

  Until me that was.

  I must have slept even though my emotions were battered and bruised and my thoughts and dreams a tangle of violent images and heartbreak.

  “Hey, girl,” a deep voice said by my ear. “You need to drink something. It’s been hours since you had any sustenance. Here, open up.”

  I opened my eyes and squinted over the covers. Caleb was perched on the bed holding out a steaming mug of liquid. The sun at the window had faded and I guessed it was twilight. I’d slept all day.

  “You didn’t even tell me your name last night,” he said with a gentle smile.

  I cleared my throat and shifted onto my elbows. My mouth was dry and my tongue sticking to my palate. I did indeed need a drink. “Beatrice, Bea.”

  “Well, Bea, I think tea might just be what you need before you go into another slumber.”

  I needed so much more but tea would pass for now. I reached for the cup and took a sip. The warm, mild liquid soothed my throat and wet my mouth. It wasn’t the same as the special blend of tea that my husbands gave me but it would do.

  “Thanks,” I managed. “I heard voices earlier.” I couldn’t quite bring myself to admit that I’d spied on him and his boyfriend. It seemed so discourteous when they’d brought me into their home, into a place of safety, without even knowing my name. “You don’t live here alone?”

  “No, I don’t live alone. I live here with Isaac.”

  “He is your…boyfriend?”

  Caleb glanced at the door and nodded. “I guess you could call him that, though we usually prefer the term mate.”

  “Mate, okay.” I took another mouthful of tea and thought what an unusual word to use for your lover. I’d heard it before though; Aimery used it on occasions. “And did Isaac see the vampire and the wolves too?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Caleb nodded seriously. “He did. We both did.”

  “But what were you doing out there? In the dead of the night?”

  “We heard about the train crash.” He shrugged. “Thought we should check for any casualties who’d been flung from the wreckage or wandered off hurt and dazed. This is our territory.”

  “You mean your land?”

  “Yes, our land.”

  I nodded and remembered my race through the forest, the wind in my ears and the blur of the trees. Elfrida had been gripping me tight, though at the time I hadn’t been aware that it was her holding me. We must have traveled a considerable distance. “But I was miles away from the crash, like past mountains and valleys and…”

  “Just as well we live a long way from the crash site then. It meant we found you.”

  He fell silent and so did I. The tea was making my mouth feel better if nothing else. I stayed slumped in the pillows and tried to make sense of my situation.

  “She’s awake.”

  Isaac’s sudden appearance at the door startled me.

  He strode in, his movements swift, his large stature dominating the room in a way that Caleb’s gentler actions didn’t.

  “Yes,” Caleb said. “So now you two can meet. Isaac, this is Bea.”

  Isaac nodded seriously. “Nice to meet you, Bea.”

  “You too.”

  “Happier circumstances would have been more agreeable.” Isaac spoke with an English accent and I found it comforting, reassuring. “Do you feel up to answering some questions?” He folded his arms over his bare chest and I couldn’t help but be impressed by the thick bulge of his muscles. The guy obviously spent a serious amount of time chopping logs and lugging trunks around. Wilderness living was clearly a workout on its own.

  “What do you want to know?” I asked with a shrug. My situation felt so hopeless.

  “To start with what the hell you were doing tied to a tree in the middle of the night with a vampire about to make a meal of you?” Isaac leaned against the wall, his shoulder banging onto the wood and his right foot propping over the left. “It was a damn dangerous situation to get yourself into.”

  “I couldn’t agree more but if I answer your questions will you answer mine?”

  “To the best of our ability.” Isaac nodded.

  “Okay, she’s been hunting me, trailing me, Elfrida, that is.”

  “Elfrida…”Caleb nodded and glanced at Isaac.

  Isaac frowned. “You’re sure that’s her name? The vampire woman?”

  “Yes, she’s been after me since I was in London. I fled to the Caribbean and when she followed me there I had no choice but to travel north. I thought I’d hidden my trail but it seems that wasn’t the case.”

  “Why you?” Isaac asked. “She’s a vampire, she could have anyone. Why journey around the world for a slip of a girl?”

  “Okay, before I answer that it’s my turn.” I paused wondering how best to ask the questions that were stacking up in my mind.

  These guys were no ordinary men. There was something about them that reminded me of when I’d first met Aimery. Things just didn’t add up. There was more to it and I needed to know, but not at the expense of putting myself in danger or angering them. “How do you know about vampires? You’re not…one of them, are you?”

  “Fuck, no, I’d rather die.” Isaac straightened and bashed his right fist into his left palm. “Vampires are our sworn enemy. I wish death to them all.”

  A tingle ran up my chest and onto my neck. It seemed he’d been granted some of his wish. My vampires were gone. And sworn enemies? The only sworn enemies of the vampires that I knew of were wolves. Nothing else seemed to bother them.

  “Bea,” Caleb said, resting his hand over mine. “Tell us why Elfrida wants you so badly. It will help us to protect you from her.”

  I drew in a breath, my mind was spinning with so many thoughts. “I have Bombay blood. Apparently it’s a delicacy and is very rare.”

  Caleb rubbed my hand soothingly. “Yes, it’s just about extinct.”

  “But, how—”

  “Do we know?” Caleb smiled. “Vampires have been in these parts before. We’ve had run-ins with them. They like to think they’re a big secret but it’s not quite the case, is it?”

  “No, I guess not.” I thought of Aimery and Ryle and how handsome they’d been and how they’d turned heads wherever we went yet always handled themselves with polite grace, Aimery in particular. They certainly weren’t inconspicuous, if nothing else, because of their beauty.

  “So Elfrida is after your Bombay blood,” Isaac said with a slow nod. “Okay, and what about these husbands of yours. Did they know she was after you?”

  “Yes, of course, they were protecting me. Taking me to safety.”

  “And they really thought they could outwit a vampire?” Isaac laughed. “You may have had two men to protect you but one hundred men couldn’t save you from a vampire with murder on her mind. Have you any idea how fast and strong they are, not to mention devious?”

  I stared at him then sat upright and set my drink on the bedside table. “Isaac, Caleb, there is something you should know.” I looked between them. “And if you de
cide to throw me out the door to the winter and fate that’s fine, but…” My words caught in my throat. If my initial suspicions were correct they might consider me their sworn enemy too. If that were the case, getting thrown out of their home might be the least of my problems.

  “But what?” Caleb frowned. “You know we won’t throw you out. That’s not the type of men we are.”

  Isaac tipped his head and studied me. I wondered if he might throw me out, even if Caleb wouldn’t. “Tell,” he said curtly.

  “My husbands, they knew all about Elfrida and my blood because…because they were also vampires.”

  There, I’d said it. They could do with me what they wanted. I’d be helpless against their brawn.

  The room fell utterly silent.

  I swallowed and resisted the urge to fidget.

  The two men shared a fleeting glance.

  Eventually Caleb spoke, “You were married to vampires?” He narrowed his eyes and stared at me as if seeing me for the first time.

  “Yes, and they loved me and I loved them. Not all vampires are bad you know.”

  “What the fuck!” Isaac shoved his hands into his hair and left them there with his elbows sticking outward. The dusky brown strands stuck up messily through his fingers making him look wild and untamed.

  “They live by strict rules set out by the Order,” I said, “They don’t all go around killing people, draining them dry and thinking of nothing but murder. They try and live peacefully and do good when they can.”

  Caleb lifted his hand from mine and rubbed his palms together as if wiping me from them.

  “My husbands adored me,” I went on, clenching my fists. “They kept me safe and happy and would do anything for me. Anything at all, they—”

  “Bullshit,” Isaac said.

  “It’s not.” I frowned.

  “So where are they now?” Isaac demanded.

  “Dead.” I stifled a sob. “Elfrida killed them to get to me. They’re dead, gone. They were on the train.”

  “This is a right fucking mess,” Caleb muttered.

  “A train crash wouldn’t have killed them,” Isaac said scornfully.

  “Well you’re wrong. It did. If it hadn’t they would have saved me from Elfrida and you wouldn’t have had to get involved in this, this…mess.”

  “Thank God we did.” Isaac walked over to me, tipped my head a little roughly and looked at my neck. “She bit you, started drinking from you. If we hadn’t arrived when we did you’d be dead too now.”

  “This wasn’t her,” I said and rubbed my hand over the dry scabs of the bite mark Aimery had created the last time we’d made love. “She didn’t feed from me. Her fangs barely touched me.”

  Caleb stretched to peer at my neck.

  Isaac snorted. “Really, and you believed all of this? Fell for it?”

  “All of what?” I said, scowling at him and shifting away from his touch.

  “One of your beloved vampires made these marks, isn’t that right?” he said.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “And I let him, in fact I asked him to.”

  “Like I said, devious,” Isaac scoffed.

  “No, not at all.” Anger was welling within me. Aimery and I had made each other so happy, and these marks, which would soon be gone, were all that I had left of him.

  “Wake up and smell the roses, Beatrice,” Isaac went on. “Those vampires professed their love for you and kept you with them so they could feed off you whenever they wanted. Dining like kings on the most sacred blood in their world.” He paused and stooped until his face was close to mine.

  I could smell the outdoors on him.

  “Did it ever occur to you,” he said, “that you were being used, Bea? Used for your blood and handled, if we’re kind about it, like a pet, or if we’re honest, as a slave, a human ready meal.”

  Rage rushed through me. I reached out and slapped his cheek. Hard.

  The sound of flesh on flesh rang around the room as his head snapped to the right.

  I glared at him.

  He slowly turned back to face me and then glowered angrily as a low rumbling sound, like a growl, simmered in his throat.

  “Isaac, go.” Caleb pushed roughly at his shoulder. “Go now.”

  Isaac stumbled to the right, flung a scowl at Caleb and then rushed from the room.

  The sound of the front door slamming followed close behind him.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, pressing my hands together and trapping the lingering sting on the right one. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  “He was out of line,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “He gets like that when vampires are involved. He can’t tolerate them.”

  I let the brewing tears overspill onto my cheeks. “I’ve never been used by my vampires. I love them, loved them, as they did me.” The very thought of being seen as a pet or a slave or a…ready meal, made the tears come harder and a great, heaving shake racked my chest.

  “Shh, shh…” Caleb reached out and pulled me close. “It’s okay, really, it’s okay now.”

  I let the grief take hold as he held me. It flowed and poured from my body. It was out of control and all consuming.

  But Caleb’s hot, strong chest was absorbing it all and it seemed he could cope with my despair. He wasn’t fazed by my distress. He stroked my hair, whispered soothing words and somewhere in my suffering I was grateful for him doing that.

  He hardly knew me, didn’t agree with my choices, yet still he offered sympathy.

  He was a good soul. Of that one thing about him I was sure.

  Chapter Six

  I stayed in bed for over two months. Not leaving except to use the bathroom. My body hurt but my heart ached more. I tried not to think, or remember, or have any dreams but it was impossible not to and grief became an unwanted companion that wouldn’t leave my side whether I was awake or asleep.

  Caleb was sweet and brought me food that I barely touched and tea that I drank gratefully.

  I didn’t see Isaac. Not once, though I did hear his voice, several times. Usually in the dead of the night, murmuring quietly to Caleb, or so I presumed for they slept in the room next to mine.

  Finally, one morning when the winter sun seemed brighter than the other days, I moved farther than the small bathroom and into the living area.

  The fire was blazing yet no one was home. All was quiet and still.

  On a wonky sideboard, set next to a stack of books, I spotted a length of thin rope. I wrapped it around my waist and used it like a belt to hold up the massive trousers I’d just pulled on. I’d lost weight; the trousers were now even bigger than they had been on my slim frame.

  A swirl of wind whistled down the chimney and I moved to the window to look out of the front of the cabin for the first time.

  Sunlight bouncing off an endless expanse of snow had me squinting. It glittered like diamonds and was one of the prettiest things I’d ever seen.

  Rising in the distance, above the tips of the pine trees, were giant mountains, their peaks piercing a stunning blue sky. I could just make out the wind sweeping snow from their points into the thin air in long, white brushstrokes.

  I moved to the front door. Cabin fever suddenly gripping me. I needed fresh air. A moment outside in the beautiful if dangerous world I’d been dropped into would do me good.

  The door was heavy and its iron hinges squeaked. But as it widened I took a deep breath of gloriously pure mountain atmosphere. It was cleansing and healing, and I wanted more.

  I spotted a pair of battered leather boots on the doormat and slipped my feet into them. They were huge and slopped around my ankles as I walked but I didn’t care; to be standing out on the snowy porch after so long in bed was luxurious.

  But my enjoyment of the moment was short lived and my heart sagged. Aimery and Ryle should have been with me, enjoying this kind of view and spoiling me in the lodge that Ryle had organized for us to spend the winter in. I felt naked without their love, without their arms around me.
>
  I sighed, moved to the edge of the porch and looked down at the soft snow that surrounded the cabin.

  Fear ran through me.

  Footprints.

  But not human.

  Wolf.

  A sudden howl to my right, in the tree line, made me gasp.

  I might not have heard one for real before, but I’d seen enough movies to know that only a wolf made that chilling noise.

  And it was near too.

  Dumbly I stared at the footprints again. They were great big pads that sank deep in the snow giving an impression of the colossal weight of the beast.

  Another howl. It seemed closer this time.

  I stared in the direction it had come from and backed toward the door.

  The cold air turned hot on my skin. Terror was playing tricks on my senses. I could almost see those snarling teeth and glinting eyes again, looming from the darkness.

  I saw a movement in the trees. A dark shadow, stooped but huge. I was sure it was the wolf.

  “What the bloody hell are you doing out here?”

  Big hands gripped my shoulders and I was yanked into the cabin.

  “Isaac,” I gasped as he pulled my back into his chest and slammed the door, the edge of it narrowly missing my nose.

  “Have you any idea what kind of position you put yourself in by stepping over the threshold?” he asked angrily.

  “No, I just…”

  “Never mind you just. We’re trying our bloody hardest to keep you safe and you go and step out there.”

  “There’s wolves,” I said, spinning and looking into his flashing eyes. “There’s wolves out there.”

  “Of course there is, you’re in Canada, this is wolf territory.”

  “But Caleb, where is he?” I glanced at the door as another howl rang its way to the cabin. “He said he doesn’t have a gun or anything when he goes out. They’ll attack him.”

  “No they won’t.”

  “They might.” I wriggled from Isaac’s grip and rushed to the window, stumbling in the huge boots and then gripping the frame to steady myself.