Up in Smoke

by Alice Brown

  *****

  Nathaniel drove like a madman. He had to find her. The increased urgency he was feeling told him that whatever trouble she was in, she needed his help fast. He quickly dialed his sister-in-law’s number while driving.

  “Have you heard from Susan this evening?” he asked, not even bothering with hello when she picked up the phone.

  “Hello to you too, Nathaniel,” Sissy replied sarcastically. “No, I haven’t heard from your mate. Have you misplaced her?”

  “This is no joke, Sissy. She’s in trouble and I’ve got to find her.”

  Sissy’s tone changed immediately. “Try her old house. I’ll meet you there.”

  Nathaniel could’ve kicked himself for wasting precious time trying to figure out where she might be. Of course she probably went to her old house. She had very little in the way of clothing at his home and she probably stopped by to pick up some things. He sped down the road as fast as he could safely go. He wouldn’t put another human’s life in danger, but he had to get to Susan.

  He could see the black smoke bellowing into the sky even before he pulled into her neighborhood. Her house. Her house was on fire! But why hadn’t he heard any fire engines? Surely someone would’ve seen the house in flames and called, wouldn’t they?

  But as he turned onto her road, squealing his tires as he went, it quickly became apparent that something was indeed very wrong. No lights were on in any of the houses, no fire engines were sitting in front of the burning home, no dogs were barking, nothing. The neighborhood looked like a ghost town. He slammed on his brakes and rushed up to the house, well aware of the fact that one of the ways a vampire could die is by fire.

  Her car was sitting in front in the driveway, so Nathaniel knew she was inside the burning house. He reached for the doorknob, knowing it was going to burn him, but he was past caring. The door was locked and it looked as if someone had tried sealing it shut. He took a quick step back and raised his foot, ready to bust down the door, just as Sissy came running up beside him.

  “Here, these may help.” She handed him a pair of gloves before putting a pair on herself, ready to go into the blazing furnace to save her friend. He placed his hand on her arm. “No, Sissy. You stay here. If something happens to you, Walter won’t…just stay here.” He didn’t give her time to argue as he turned. One good kick later, the door slammed open and he ran inside the burning building.

  He didn’t have to look very far, because she was curled up against the wall, right next to the door. She had almost made it to the door. Unfortunately, whoever had set the house on fire was determined for her to never make it out alive. She would’ve never have been able to get the door unsealed to make it out in time.

  Flames licked at his skin as he quickly picked her up and started to head back out the door. Two more beams fell behind him and he knew the house would be totally lost in a matter of minutes.

  He lay her down on the ground, a safe distance away from the fire. He couldn’t worry about the house now, because it was too far-gone. But he could worry plenty about her. He started checking her over, assessing her injuries. The palms of both of her hands were already blistering, red, and swollen. Sissy came up beside him with a large first aid kit that she’d retrieved from the Ranger SUV he’d driven. Carefully, she started putting salve on one of Susan’s hands and then wrapping it in a dressing. Meanwhile, Nathaniel continued to survey her body. Other than smoke inhalation, she didn’t appear to have any other injuries that he could see. There were a few minor burns on her body, but those were already being healed up from the strength she received by her ingesting his blood earlier.

  His blood! He quickly looked around, making certain no humans were around them. Everything was still as can be, even with the house behind them roaring in a blaze. Where the hell were all of her neighbors? He quickly opened her mouth and checked her airways. Blowing a couple of good puffs of air into her lungs, he then released a claw long enough to slice his wrist open. He brought his bleeding wrist to her mouth. “Come on, baby, drink for me. It will help heal your wounds.”

  He waited for what seemed like forever, even though in reality it was less than a minute, as the blood trickled down his arm and into her mouth. Finally, she coughed and sputtered, coughing up some of the blood he was trying to get into her. They helped her roll onto her side as deep, racking coughs had her entire body convulsing.

  What no one realized was that high up in a tree across the street, a pair of eyes were watching their every move. “Son-of-a-bitch!” the figure murmured in frustration as he watched Susan being rolled over onto her side while she coughed. “Why can’t you just die you stupid, dumb human?”

  “Because she is protected by the best, dumbass,” a voice growled behind him. The figure in the tree felt a sharp pain in his back, piercing through his heart. It immediately immobilized him.

  Walter jumped down out of the tree, holding the immobilized vampire by the back of his neck. This fucker had terrorized Susan for the last time. Landing safely on the ground below, he noticed a light coming on in one of her neighbor’s houses, and then another. “Asshole! You managed to mind control everyone in this community all at once?”

  The vampire, unable to move, just barely pushed the words out. “Sleeping, easy.”

  “Are you Susan’s brother-in-law, Parker?” Walter asked while standing over him.

  “Bitch, die…” the prone vampire whispered.

  Walter raised an eyebrow as he glared down at the vampire lying on the ground. “I’ll take that as a yes. And no, she is not going to die today, but you are.” He hauled the vampire up over his shoulder, fireman style, and headed for the burning building.

  As he approached the group on the lawn, Nathaniel looked up. “Is that Parker?”

  “Yep, want to help with the door? I think it’s time to burn the trash, don’t you?”

  The two Rangers made their way around back, where they were less likely to be seen. There were no streetlights back there to illuminate their activity.

  As he kicked in the back door, Nathaniel looked over to his brother. “I want him to suffer.”

  “He will, Nate. He will. You’ve heard the stories as many times as I have about the excruciating pain death by fire can be to our kind. He’s getting exactly what he deserves. Besides, I smell the humans that we just arrested on him. That tells me he was involved in the human trafficking case, as well.”

  Both Rangers watched Parker attempt to grin at them, but unable to move any of his muscles, there was just a slight twitch around his mouth.

  “Yeah, we stopped both vehicles, asshole. And my guess would be that once you’re out of the picture, your entire little empire is going to crumble. Because those humans we arrested? We’re going to interrogate the hell out of them until they sing. Then it all will be over,” Walter stated. He then threw the body into the raging fire that blazed before them.

  Nathaniel looked over to his brother as they headed back to where the women sat. “You followed me? How did you get here so fast?”

  Walter shrugged his shoulders. “I always go with my instincts. And I was damn glad I did when Sissy called to tell me she was heading to Susan’s old house and that Susan was in trouble. I was already halfway here.” He clapped his brother on the back of the shoulder. “I’m glad tonight turned out to be a good night, brother.”

  As Nathaniel fell to his knees in front of his mate, he replied, “Me, too, brother. Me, too.”

  Chapter Eight

  Nathaniel looked down at his sleeping mate. He had come so close to losing her tonight. Dr. Weathers walked up beside him. “She’s going to make a full recovery, Nathaniel. Her body just needs to rest right now.”

  Nathaniel had brought her back to Ranger Headquarters, to their own Dr. Weathers, since some of Susan’s injuries were healing way too rapidly for humans to understand. Her old house was gone, burned to the ground. Even after the fire engines finally arrived, they’d said that it was too far-gone to be saved. If he h
adn’t shown up when he did, if he had been a couple of minutes late, it would have been too late. He would have lost his mate. But thankfully, other than having two burned hands and lungs full of smoke, she had walked away from the disaster.

  “I know. Thanks for being here and helping her, Doc. I easily lost at least fifty years off my life tonight.”

  The good doctor gave him a smile of understanding. “That’s what I am here for.”

  Nathaniel sat down next to his sleeping mate. Both of her hands were bandaged and Dr. Weathers had an oxygen mask on her face, pumping clean oxygen into her lungs to dispel the smoke. She looked so small and fragile in the big bed.

  Her eyelids fluttered open as if her body recognized that its mate was near. He sat up straighter and leaned into the side of the bed. “Hey, baby. Don’t try to talk right now. Dr. Weathers has this oxygen mask on you to clear out all of the smoke you inhaled into your lungs.”

  She started to raise one of her hands and then quickly looked down, fear and horror instantly coming across her face. “Hey now, none of that. You’re fine. You burnt both of your hands in the fire, but my blood has already helped them heal well past where they should be. You’ll probably have to keep them wrapped for another week or so, but then they should be as good as new.”

  Knowing that she would have plenty of questions and that she was unable to speak, he continued, “Parker was the one that set your house on fire, trying to kill you. We caught him. He won’t be bothering you or anyone else ever again.” He watched a shiver travel through her body. He reached up and brushed a stray lock of hair off her face. “Do your hands hurt?” he asked tenderly, wishing there was something more he could do for her.

  She shook her head in denial as her eyelids fluttered closed once again. Dr. Weathers had given her a shot when they’d first arrived for her pain, so her reply and the fact she was falling back to sleep hadn’t surprised him.

  He settled back into his chair next to the bed, and for the first time in several hours, sighed in relief. Oh, he and his little mate were going to have a nice long chat about her not listening to him and not telling anyone where she was, because he swore, there would not be a repeat of tonight. His poor heart wouldn’t survive it.

  *****

  She had been at home for a week now. It was an entire week of no work. She couldn’t even feed herself with the bandages on her hands, but thankfully, they were due to come off this afternoon.

  And she had spent the week tiptoeing around her mate. Oh, he hadn’t come out and yelled at her, hit her, or anything else, but she sometimes wished he would. Because while on the outside he displayed nothing but tender loving care, she knew, she just knew, he had to be pissed as hell at her on the inside.

  He had taken the entire week off from work just to stay home and take care of her. He carried her everywhere she wanted to go. He hand fed her three times a day and gave her loving sponge baths each evening. He’d have her sit with her back toward him while they watched a movie and he’d gently brush her hair. And her guilt ate at her a little more each day. If she had only listened to him, had only at least let someone know where she was, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But she would never call him in the middle of an operation. She knew if she had called Sissy, her friend would have insisted on either coming over to the house with her or she would’ve talked her out of going over there period. She had just needed a bit of time to put her old life to rest in order to move on with her new one. But had she? Because of her bad decisions, she had practically gotten herself killed. Now, there seemed to be this distance between her and Nathaniel that she had never felt before. She was ready to scream.

  “Can I bring you something to drink, babe?” Nathaniel asked sweetly as he passed through the living room where she was curled up on the couch.

  Enough was enough. She couldn’t take anymore. “Will you just stop being so damn nice to me!” she screamed at him.

  The look of shock on his face would’ve been comical in any other situation. “Excuse me? You don’t want me being nice to you? Mind telling me why?” he countered.

  She looked up at him in frustration. “Look, I know you’re mad at me. I just wish you’d go ahead and yell, scream, throw things, whatever you are going to do, and get it over with.”

  He slowly walked over to her and sat down beside her on the couch. “Do you mind telling me why I’m supposed to be mad at you?” He was speaking as if he were talking to a three year old. His words were drawn out slowly as if she was addled in the brain.

  “Don’t play stupid with me and don’t belittle me. I know you’re pissed because I didn’t listen to you the night you left on the mission. I’m sorry. I just… I just…” Tears formed quickly, clogging her throat.

  Nate wrapped his arms around her, bringing her over to sit in his lap. “While you are correct about the fact I wasn’t happy that you didn’t listen, I’m more so glad that you’re alive.” He brought her face up to his with a finger under her chin. “I rarely yell. And I stopped throwing temper tantrums and throwing things back when I was a child.”

  “I’m so sorry, so very sorry I disappointed you,” she wailed as she buried her head into his shoulder, her tears quickly soaking into his shirt. “I just hate this distance I feel between us.”

  He tenderly kissed the top of her head. “Shh, baby, it’s all okay. I had planned to talk to you about that night, I just wanted to give your body time to heal first.” He held her tight, letting her cry her tears out. When it looked like she had calmed down some, he asked, “Why did you go over to your old place that night? Why not wait until we could go together?”

  She turned her head slightly so she could answer him, but kept her head firmly planted on his shoulder. “I don’t know whether you’re going to understand this or not, but at the time, it felt important. Although, looking back at that night, it doesn’t seem so important now.” She paused and he stayed silent, willing to hear her out.

  “I felt like I needed to face some demons from my past in order to move ahead with you. I just wanted a couple of hours in that house by myself, so I could truly lay everything to rest and start afresh.” She looked up at him with her tear filled eyes. “Does that make sense?”

  He sighed as he hugged her to him. “Yes, it does. I guess I never really gave you the time that you asked for at the beginning before barreling right over you.”

  She picked her head up to kiss him right under his chin. “This wasn’t your fault, Nathaniel. I was and am ready to be your mate. I just needed to say goodbye to my old life, I guess.”

  “Thank you for explaining things to me, baby. But next time you feel the urge to have some quiet time, you should just come on and say it out loud. I’ll make damn certain you’re not disturbed, but remain safe, okay?”

  “Okay,” she agreed while wrapping her arms around his neck the best she could while still being bandaged up. He leaned down and licked her neck, then sniffed deeply. “Oh shit,” he muttered.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Susan asked as she attempted to pull away from him, but his grip around her was tight as he continued to nuzzle her neck, licking and nipping here and there.

  “Umm, remember the afternoon we mated and I marked you?” he asked quietly against her skin.

  A shiver ran down her spine as she recalled that afternoon very well. She wouldn’t mind having a repeat performance of that part of the day at all. She’d just do things much differently afterwards.

  “Well, I kind of knew you were ovulating, but I didn’t want to say anything and get your hopes up for nothing.”

  She froze. She didn’t even breathe as she stared up at him. Unable to gauge anything from his face, her heart started thundering in her chest as she thought about what he was getting ready to tell her. He didn’t look particularly happy, so she couldn’t imagine it to be good news. Besides, they had never really sat down and talked about having a family. Maybe this was something he didn’t want. She had to remember that he was a lot older than her,
even though he didn’t look it.

  Finally, she couldn’t take the silence anymore. In a tortured whisper, she inquired, “What are you trying to tell me, Nathaniel?”

  “Baby, I’m sorry.” Her heart plummeted to the ground. She should have known that after all of this time, there was no chance in her getting pregnant.

  “I knew you were ovulating and took no precautions. Call me a caveman, but I so wanted to see you round with my child.”

  “Okay, so it didn’t take,” she spoke low and carefully. “We can always try again. Just the fact you are willing to have a child with me means the world to me.” It wasn’t his fault she wasn’t pregnant. After all this time, she seriously was starting to think there was something wrong with her.

  “Next time my ass. You’re pregnant right now, and damn…you smell so fucking delicious.” He brought his nose down to take another long whiff. He just couldn’t get enough. Her scent had changed to that of fruit drizzled in honey now that she was pregnant. He wanted to wallow in it.

  “What?! What did you just say?” she screeched as she attempted to get him to look her in the eyes, which wasn’t the easiest thing to do since she couldn’t use either of her hands.

  “I said you’re pregnant. I can smell the change in you. You smell like fruit drizzled in honey. I want to eat you up.”

  “Oh my God, after all this time,” she paused and looked at him in wonder. “I’m going to be a mom? I’m going to have a little baby of my own to hold and love and cherish?”

  “We are going to have a little baby to hold, love, and cherish,” he corrected. “And I plan on taking very good care of the two of you. As a matter of fact,” he stopped and stood, causing her to yelp as he took her with him, cradling her in his arms, “I think we need to take this to the bedroom. I need to thoroughly check you over.”

  “Nathaniel, we have an appointment this afternoon with Dr. Weathers to check me out.”

  He chuckled darkly as he hit the stairs. “He better not check you out the way I’m going to. I plan on doing a thorough examination with my tongue.”