“Michael, the being in charge of the Guardians, checked into your history for me.” Bain ran his powerful hands up and down her arms in a rhythmic motion designed to soothe. But she was beyond comfort, well into a panic zone that was so deep and so all-consuming she couldn’t see a way out.
“My history?” she repeated.
“Your family’s, that is,” Bain corrected. “He sifted through the threads of time and found those tying you to the cup. Your mother’s people once made a pact with a powerful demon. They were given the cup to use in…ceremonies.”
“What kind of ceremony?”
His eyes met hers and held. “Blood rites.”
“Sacrifices, you mean,” she said, her voice as hollow as she felt. The chill sweeping over her was so deep that not even the heat of Bain’s hands could dispel it. Blood rites was such a clean phrase, she thought, for something so ugly.
“The ancient Campbells made sacrifices to a demon. For power?”
“Aye,” he said, “and for land. Money.”
She staggered back, tearing herself from his grip, covering her mouth with one hand as if she could bottle up the scream fighting to get past her throat. This was all too terrifying. Too real. “So what? The demon’s been waiting for me to come here? If I’d never come to Scotland…”
“It would have found you eventually,” Bain said, walking toward her with careful, easy steps as if he expected her to bolt. “And I wouldn’t have been there to protect you. So it’s better that it happened now. Here.”
Maybe, but if she’d had anywhere to run to, Emma might have. But she didn’t. She was alone in Scotland, but for Bain. The man standing between her and a demon who wanted her for—
“Why me?”
“You are the youngest of your bloodline,” he explained. “It’s how the curse was worded. The youngest of the clan retained the power.”
“But I don’t have any power,” she argued frantically. This had to be a mistake. How could decisions acted upon centuries ago, made by people she’d never heard of, have anything to do with her?
“Your blood does.”
“Of course it does,” Emma muttered. She shoved her hands through her hair and shook her head, as if by denying all of this she could make it go away. “What does he want my blood for?”
Again, Bain looked as though he’d rather do anything but answer her question. But he did, his voice low, reluctant. “He fills the cup with your blood, spills it onto the portal and it becomes an open gateway for eternity.”
She swayed in place. “So he’d use me to destroy the world.”
“Yes.” He reached for her again, holding her tightly enough to help her stand beneath the burden of all this information. As if he knew her knees were wobbly and her head was spinning. But then, he probably did, Emma told herself. He could read her thoughts. Hear her terror. Feel her desperation.
“The demon would open a permanent gateway from his dimension into this one,” he said, his voice a low rush of sound that seemed to reverberate deep inside her. “There would be no way to stop it. No way to halt their invasion. They would run riot over this world, its people, until they destroyed everything.”
Vivid images of rampant destruction rose up in her mind in response to that statement and Emma wanted to run, but knew she couldn’t. Because of the mindless stupidity of her ancestors, she was now the key to a demon’s plot. How was she supposed to deal with this? “My blood does all that?”
“Aye.” He pulled her closer, wrapping his strong arms around her and holding her with an iron grip that shut off her air and oddly comforted her at the same time. “But I will not let it happen. We will get the cup and destroy it before the demon has a chance to use it. Or you.”
Emma nestled into his embrace, needing the comfort, the strength, he could give her. She felt adrift on some wildly rolling sea, with wave after wave crashing down over her as she struggled to breathe. Three days ago, her biggest problem had been picking out the right outfit to wear to her first pub. Now, she was the key to the destruction of the world.
“How?” She needed to know everything. “How do we destroy it?”
“Living flame,” he murmured gently, his tone more soothing than his words. “A Guardian may stir the fires of eternity, but it’s a dangerous task. One mistake and those flames will burn forever, endangering everyone. It’s not a thing we do lightly.”
Living flame. It even sounded dangerous.
“What happens then, Bain?” Her words were whispered against his chest, as if she were half-afraid to have him hear her. “If we stop the demon, what happens to us?”
“I have told you. We will find a way.”
And what if there isn’t a way?
Then we will take what we can while we can.
Speaking to him with her thoughts built an incredible intimacy she never would have believed possible. It was almost as if they were one person. Two halves coming together to become complete.
She looked up at him, into his now-so-familiar eyes and felt a rush of something hot and thick pouring through her. He was right.
For three days, she’d been here, living with him, avoiding him, ignoring the heat that lay between them. Why? Because she didn’t completely trust him? Because she was afraid that they had no future? Because she was so far out of her element here that taking one more step might push her over the edge?
Yes to all three. Yet there was more, too. She was afraid that if she gave in to what she felt for him, she’d never be able to let him go and where would that leave her? But the bottom line was, whatever they shared was real. It was now. And wasn’t denying it only punishing both of them?
Yes, his voice whispered in her mind, a punishment neither of us deserves.
She narrowed her gaze on him. Though it was sexy at times, knowing he could read her thoughts was still a bit unsettling. “Seriously? You’ve got to stop dipping into my mind whenever you feel like it. It’s creepy.”
“’Tis natural between mates. We can have no secrets from each other.”
“Oh, there’s the path to happiness,” Emma said wryly.
“What do you fear?” he asked, stroking her cheek with one fingertip.
“The demon. Me. You. This. Everything.” She stepped out of his embrace and instantly missed the feel of him pressed against her as she would have an arm or a leg. He was already so much a part of her, Emma didn’t know how she would go on without him in her world. Yet, how could she stay in his?
“You fear me?”
Shaking her head, she looked up at him, stared into those ice blue eyes and said, “No,” she corrected. “It’s not really fear. It’s… I don’t even know.”
“Three days I’ve given you to grow used to the fact that I am your Mate.” His voice was a low growl. Naked desire was etched on his features. “You say you care for me, but you do not admit that we belong together. Three days I’ve wanted you. Ached for you. No more.”
“Bain…”
No more.
That single thought roared through her mind as he grabbed her again, pulled her in close and kissed her as though his life depended on the touch of her mouth to his. And maybe, she thought wildly, it did.
Her body felt electrified. Visions swam in and out of her mind, images of him wielding a sword in a soft, gray mist. Leading a charge of screaming Highlanders into battle. She saw him die and her heart ached for him, her soul crying out to save him. Then she saw him through centuries of solitude, fighting demon after demon.
She saw him at his home, a rugged stone castle high on a hill. And she saw him the night they met in the library with fear and horror standing between them. The night his gaze collided with hers and sent Emma’s world spinning off its axis. She actually felt what he had when he realized she was his Mate. She felt the elation, the pride, the roaring hunger racing through his system, and she felt her own match it.
Closing her mind to everything but the feel of him, she gave herself up to the wonder of his touch. He
did things to her no man had ever done. Made her want as she never had. Made her need more than anyone ever had.
“Ah, Emma,” he whispered, tearing his mouth from hers to bury his face in the curve of her neck. “I’ve been in such pain the past few days, tell me you’ll welcome me now.”
“I will,” she said, barely able to form the words. Eyes wide open, she stared up at the leaden sky and only then realized they were on the patio, in complete view of anyone in the house who might glance out a window. “Not here, though.”
“Aye. Here. Now.” He straightened briefly, waved one hand and the air surrounding them rippled like the surface of a wind-blown lake. She reached out one hand, felt a barrier there and turned to look up at him. “This is what you did at the library that night.”
“Aye,” he said, reaching for her again, hunger flashing in his eyes. “Now we’re invisible to the world outside this bubble.”
She glanced at the house, then shifted her gaze back to his. It felt as if she’d known him always. He was the missing piece of her heart. Her soul. And for however long she would have him, Emma would savor it. Revel in what she found when they touched. What he made her feel when he looked at her as he was now.
He must have been reading her mind again, because in seconds, he’d stripped her out of her clothes and pulled his own off, as well. He was immense, her Highlander. Broad chest, heavy arms, with a Celtic cross tattooed on his right bicep. He tossed his black hair back over his shoulder and stood proudly naked, giving her time to look her fill. So she did. Flat stomach, bronzed skin, long, muscular legs and… Her eyes went wide and she felt the first flutter of nerves. “Um…”
I can see your thoughts, Emma. His laughter rippled through her mind along with his words. Have no worries. We’ll fit. We were meant.
“Meant. Yes.” She was meant for him. She knew it. Accepted it as a bone-deep knowledge that needed no proof. No explanation. Whatever else happened in her life, her world, this moment with Bain Sinclair was one she’d waited all through time for. Banishing that trickle of nerves, Emma threw her arms around his neck and held on tightly, sliding her palms up and down his back as he kissed her thoroughly. His lips and tongue drew gasps and moans from her.
He slid his hands over her body in a frantic dance of exploration as if he couldn’t wait another moment to have her beneath him. Emma felt the same. Electric. Dazzled. Shaken. She needed him. Now.
Her body was hot, ready, and when he laid her on the cool, damp lawn, she shivered as the tender blades of grass caressed sensitized flesh. Then he was kneeling between her legs, his gaze locked on hers as he lifted her hips, positioning her body perfectly.
“You’re a wonder, lass,” he said, sliding his big hands up and down her thighs until she writhed with the need clamping down on her.
Emma held her breath and looked up into those amazing blue eyes of his. Fire flashed in their depths and she knew that his desire for her was quickening into an inferno. She felt his want rippling off of him in thick waves and felt her own body responding. She’d never known such immense hunger. It was as if she’d been starving all her life and then suddenly was offered a banquet.
“Come to me, Bain,” she whispered, lifting her arms to welcome him, parting her thighs farther in invitation.
She kept her gaze fixed on him as he entered her with a swift rush of tenderness and strength. He had been right, of course. They fit. Beautifully. She felt her body stretching to accommodate him, even as she locked around him. Every last glorious inch of him claimed her in a way no man ever had before—and as no man ever would again.
Instantly, he set a rhythm she raced to follow. He bent his head to take first one of her nipples, then the other, into his mouth. His lips, teeth and tongue worked her sensitive flesh until she could hardly draw breath. There were too many sensations coursing through her at once, each of them demanding her attention.
And then there was nothing but him. The friction his body created with hers. No lingering foreplay and no need for it. The ache was all. The astonishing rush of sensation overpowering. He loomed over her, an ancient warrior, long black hair a curtain on either side of his face. His hard mouth was lush and glorious as he claimed a kiss while his body claimed everything else.
Again and again, he pushed her higher, faster, wilder than anything she could have expected. Emma’s mind touched his. She felt his need as well as her own. Read his astonishment at what was happening between them. Saw herself through his eyes and felt his raging desire like a storm. She felt his pleasure as if it were her own and sensed that he was experiencing her own discordant thoughts and emotions.
When the first thundering crash of her climax dropped on her, Emma screamed his name and locked her legs around his hips, holding him to her. Her body rocked beneath his as she rode the hard, fast currents of an orgasm that threatened to splinter her heart and mind. Then moments later, his body clenched as hers had and Emma experienced his soul-shattering release as completely as he did.
Bain felt the very foundations of his life shake beneath him. He’d had no idea that the connection between he and his Mate would be so all-encompassing. Bracing himself over her, his body still locked deeply within hers, he felt the connection they shared become as indestructible as bands of iron. Once-fragile bonds tightened like invisible coils, drawing them together, making them one.
He felt her heartbeat as his own. He looked into her mind and read the same stunning sense of wonder that had left him shaken. He felt her touch, her fingers on his face, as a blessing, a kind of miracle that he’d never known in all his long centuries of life.
His soul trembled. His heart opened and his eyes were seeing his world as if for the first time. All the long years of emptiness he’d survived were now no more substantial than autumn leaves, lost in a cold wind. Here was all. Here, he thought, looking down into green eyes shining with the wonder of what they had just experienced, was everything.
Cupping her face in the palm of one big hand, Bain looked deeply into her beautiful eyes and solemnly swore, “I will never let you go.”
Chapter 6
Edinburgh by night was a magical place.
Lamplight glittered on rain-wet cobblestone streets. Laughter and music spilled out of pubs, drifted on the cool wind and floated along the streets, a pied piper’s siren song to the young, or the lonely. Ancient buildings, some tipped weirdly as if leaning against each other for support, lined the roads and cars were parked half on and half off the sidewalks.
The narrow alleyways, or “closes” as they were called here, looked shadow filled, forbidding and every bit as haunted as the city tour guides insisted they were. Edinburgh Castle, once home to a doomed queen, sat atop a hill looking down on the city it had stood watch over for centuries. Moonlight shifted in and out of existence as the ever-present clouds chased one another across the sky.
Bain’s footsteps were soundless and Emma tried to match him. But even in her tennis shoes, she managed to make noise. Alongside a man who moved with such stealthy confidence, Emma felt clumsy in comparison.
Her hand firmly in his, she felt his strength pouring into her and read the steely determination in his mind. She knew he’d wrapped them in an invisibility bubble again so that they could move through the darkened city undetected by humans. But still she felt as though there were unseen eyes watching them.
“Tell me again why we’re doing this at night,” she whispered, whipping her head around to stare down the long, empty street behind them.
He briefly squeezed her hand. “Because there’ll be no one in the archives to gainsay us as we search for the cup.”
“Right. Right.” She knew that. And it made sense, of course. Even invisible, they couldn’t really snatch an artifact, build a living flame and destroy it while there were people in the building. Then she thought of something. “Can we do the flame thing while we’re invisible?”
“No.” One word. Harsh. Sharp. And Emma saw in Bain’s thoughts he wasn’t happy a
bout that. “Maintaining both spells at once is difficult. I can’t risk the flames spreading.”
So they’d be out in the open where anyone could see them. Fabulous. But the archives would be empty and the demon wouldn’t be there. Or maybe good old Derek would be hanging out in the library waiting for her return. That was never going to happen. Emma doubted she’d ever be able to go into any library ever again without ropes of garlic, a cross or two and maybe Bain’s sword, just for good measure.
They are not vampires, Emma, Bain chided with a deep-throated chuckle. Merely demons.
Merely? There’s nothing “merely” about demons, O great and powerful Highlander. Thank you. He shot her a long look and a half smile. It is good to know you see me as I am.
Emma laughed, as he’d meant her to, and it felt good no matter how briefly it lasted. Honestly, she’d never been more aware. More alert.
Beside her, Emma’s warrior moved with a deadly sort of grace that made her heart flutter and her hormones sit up and shout hallelujah despite how scared she was. Ever since they’d made love in the yard the day before, they’d scarcely been apart. Sex had never been like this before.
Every time they were together, their hearts, their souls, their minds became more intertwined. Now, it was as if she couldn’t tell where she left off and Bain began. She was closer to him than she’d ever thought it possible to be to anyone and still…there was something he wasn’t telling her. Something he kept locked behind a wall in his mind that she simply couldn’t see past.
And that worried her.
He had full access to her thoughts. She felt him, a shadow in her mind, all the time. And now she wondered how she’d ever lived without that intimate touch. She knew he was aware of just how scared she was. How sad she was that she could see no future for them. How absolutely she loved him.
Yet despite her feelings, she’d yet to say the words. Even knowing that he could read them in her thoughts wasn’t the same. If she said I love you and then had to walk away, Emma wasn’t sure she’d be able to survive their separation. So she couldn’t say it. Couldn’t make that last commitment.
Vacation With a Vampire & Other Immortals Page 14
