"First you're going to get dressed. I've laid out something for you to wear on the bed. Then we're going to jump somewhere I can show you how to sense other people in the between."
I picked at the last piece of toast. "I thought you didn't want me jumping. What about Conry?"
"You're not doing the jumping, I am. You're just going along for the ride." He took my plate with one hand and helped me up with the other. "Conry will hold down the fort while we're gone. Get changed. I'm going to make a quick call. I want to touch base with Masarelli, then we can go."
"You need to get back. This is stupid, I can train at home. We don't need to be in another country for me to learn any of this."
"The only thing I need to do is keep you safe and your apartment is definitely not the safest place for you to be right now."
"Aren't you supposed to be running a department? You can't do that from here."
"I'm on leave."
"Leave? You just started."
"How about you let me worry about SPTF, okay?"
"You're going to get fired."
"I'm not going to get fired but if I did it'd be worth it. You're worth it."
"You barely know me. How can you say that?"
"I know enough. I'm part of the Hunt, I don't need that job, or any other job for that matter. But I need you. I needed you before I ever met you." He left me standing, mouth hanging open like an idiot. "You've got ten minutes to get ready." His called out from halfway down the hall.
I went to the bed to see what he picked for me. "I am not wearing this!" I knew he heard me. I heard him laughing. Where the hell were we going that I needed a bathing suit.
A deep purple, crocheted bikini specifically. I definitely owned underwear that covered more than this. No way in hell would those strings hold up my boobs. I don't care what you saw on TV, if they were real you needed a little more than two triangles and two pieces of string.
I dug in my bag until I found a pair of black boy shorts and a black cotton bra. It could almost pass for a bathing suit. It would have to pass because while I appreciated the fact that Mason thought I could fit in that bikini, it was so not happening. I held it up again, confused. Where the hell were we going?
Mason pulled me in tight, my back pressed against his front. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be. Are you going to tell me where we're going?" I had thrown on a pair of jeans and tee shirt, my docs and put my hair up in a top knot.
"No. You're not wearing the suit I picked out?"
I laughed. "Did you actually think I would?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "No, but you can't blame a guy for trying."
"Yes, I can."
He cleared his throat, trying not to laugh. "I don't want you to pull on the between when we cross over. Just feel. Concentrate on my movements, my energy."
Mason's arms tightened around my waist as the familiar sensation of calling up the between swirled around us. Instead of the rush of power I usually experienced it crept lazily over my body. The between slowly rolled over me and while I desperately wanted it to fill me from the tips of my toes to the top of my head it still felt amazing.
It felt like eternity, like we had all the time in the world. I wanted to stay here, linger with him in the place where time and distance was irrelevant, where we had the power to change reality.
Everything he did, all of his movements in the between were different than mine. My style felt like jumping, the force of the push, the propulsion, the impact on the landing. This was like being weightless, riding the current of the between. A familiar drop in my stomach, like when you go over a hill a little too fast in a car, was the only sign we reached our destination.
The veil pulled back, revealing the bustling streets of a quaint town filled with tourists. No one seemed to take notice of the two people who literally appeared out of thin air. They stepped around us as if we'd been there the whole time.
"Where are we? In England?"
"Nice to see you know your geography. Welcome to Bath. Come on." He grabbed my hand, leading me across the street and past a massive modern building that while beautiful clashed with the Abbey styled buildings around it.
We came to a small building, dwarfed by the large modern architecture to its left. The Roman structure may have been smaller but it took my breath away in a way modern architectural design never would.
"Aquae Sulis, Cross Bath, it's ours for a few hours." Mason swung the door open to reveal a stone room with glass walls opening to a stone patio surrounding a hot mineral spring bath.
"You reserved this? For us? Why?"
"It's a source of power. Sul, has blessed the waters in her temple. Even the Romans recognized her, Sulis Minerva, during their occupation of the Celts. She was a warrior like you, a goddess of retribution. The Hunt has found solace and a source of rejuvenation here. It's the best place outside of the between to show you how to feel other people moving through the grey. Besides the mineral bath will do your muscles good. Loosen you up before your training with Aidan tonight."
I stifled a groan. "Nothing short of elephant tranquilizers will loosen me up right now." I tried to shake off the tension and apprehension brought on by the mere thought of training with Aidan.
I should tell Mason everything that happened last night while he met with my father. Tell him what his precious Ryanne did with my quasi boyfriend, excuse me, ex boyfriend. He would no doubt cancel my training or bring in another vampire - which was unlikely given the unrest in the local vamp community.
Either way it would put me further behind, Caligula and Bathory's trail getting colder with each minute we wasted trying to replace Aidan. So as much as I hated the idea of working with him I didn't see an alternative because catching them, serving justice with the tip of my sword was now my only priority. I wasn't going to think about anything or anyone else. That was until Mason started to undress.
Steam rolled off the crystal clear water, leaving a hint of the minerals it contained in the air. Mason dropped a small backpack I hadn't noticed he was carrying on the floor. He kicked off his boots while he undid the button fly on his jeans. I couldn't take my eyes off the denim, watching it slide down muscular thighs and calves- until he pulled his black thermal shirt, exposing perfectly chiseled pecs and abs.
Tattoos like mine covered most of his body, some dipping below the waistband of his black board shorts. He looked at me expectantly as he yanked off his socks. There was something nerve racking about deliberately undressing in front him so I ripped my clothes off like a Band Aid and walked into the bath in my bra and underwear.
The one hundred and seven degree water stung like thousands of tiny needles against my chilled skin as I waded out until the water was chest deep.
"Close your eyes."
"Why?" If this was a lesson on trust I would seriously fail. Generally speaking, I had trust issues.
"Do you plan to question me the entire time? Close your eyes."
"It's possible. Why do I need to close my eyes?" I spun around, the movement sluggish in the water. I jumped when I saw he was right next to me- I couldn't help it.
"Do you really think I'm going to hurt you?"
Of course I didn't, but that didn't make closing my eyes any easier. He took my hands in his, kissing the tips of my fingers before placing one hand over each of my eyes.
"Relax. Take a deep breath. That's it, in out. Good. Now, see if you can sense my movements. Feel my location. And no peeking."
"You brought me all the way to England to play Marco Polo?" I totally peeked, by the way.
"Maurin, we only have the bath for a few hours."
"Fine," I huffed, squeezing my eyes shut.
I couldn't feel anything and I struggled with keeping my eyes closed. I always sucked at Marco Polo. I moved, turning in a half circle listening for any sounds in the water. Be still, Mason's voice was a whisper in my left ear. I threw my hand out, expecting to catch him beside me but was left grasping at air. Be still.
/> Instead of using his voice to zero in on where he was, I listened to his instruction. I stilled my body, my mind and spirit. The sounds from the city outside the bath house fell away as I slowed my breathing. My hands rested palms down on the surface and I became one with the water. I couldn't rely on my eyes, stopped relying on my ears and concentrated on my sense of touch. I felt every ripple, every lap against my skin and that's when I had him.
This time my hand connected, clamping down on his bicep. "Gotcha!"
"Don't be so pleased with yourself. If I was Bathory you'd already be dead."
"If you were the Blood Countess the only mineral in this bath would be iron." I made the ba da dum dum cha, drum sound and chuckled at my own lame joke.
"You have a sick sense of humor, has anyone ever told you that?"
"I may have heard it once or twice."
"Try again. The water is the between, you need to be able to feel my movements. Preferably before I am close enough to kill you."
It went on like that, over and over until my fingers were well past pruned and our time in the restorative pool was almost up. We worked through lunch and had run out of bottled water an hour ago. I was exhausted, dehydrated and ready to get the hell out of the steaming water. I'd drastically improved over the last forty-five minutes. Hopefully that meant we'd call it quits.
Mason couldn't get within arm's reach of me anymore. Of course this wasn't the Matrix and a bullet could still do a lot of damage an arm's length away but I wasn't worried about being shot. Not really. Bathory didn't want me on the ground bleeding out. She wanted me trussed up, bleeding into her bathtub.
"Last time, come on." Mason snapped his fingers. "Don't start daydreaming now."
I wiped at the sweat dripping down from my hairline. "Sshh, I'm having fantasies about drowning you right now."
"At least you're fantasizing about me. One more time and then I'll take you to dinner. Anywhere you want."
I already knew he wasn't in the bath with me anymore. He didn't try to hide it when he walked up the stairs and got out. The last two times he managed to get waist deep before I felt him in the water. The idea was to catch him the second he broke surface tension. Dinner sounded amazing. I was so hungry he could have offered me Slim Jims and a Coke and I would have rated it a five star meal.
"Anywhere I want?"
"One of the little perks of being able to do what we do."
Food and more specifically coffee was excellent motivation. I wanted Rhode Island clam chowder and clam cakes followed by dough boys with coffee. The possibility of giving in to my fried fantasy had my mouth watering and me feeling especially confident. I practically smelled the warm donuts covered in granulated sugar. Pushing the thoughts of fried dough out of my mind I found my center and focused on the water.
The water is the between had become my mantra the last half hour. This time when I sent my senses out the wisps of steam thickened to a familiar fog. The crystal clear water darkened until completely replaced with a soupy grey.
The momentary excitement of the challenge, of actually being done with training for a few hours wasn't enough to counteract the exhaustion. I had accidentally opened myself to the between. Wholly and completely in a way I hadn't felt before, power oozed into every pore
The second Mason pulled back the veil to follow me in I knew he was there. I pulled him to me, ready to claim my prize for winning when two things occurred to me. One, the reason I felt Mason was because he moved like a gale force wind to get to me, and two we weren't alone.
The imprint on the between was familiar. It felt like mine, like a tainted version of me. Bathory. So she hadn't used all the blood poultice. Not that I wanted anyone else to fall prey to the Blood Countess but I was kind of hoping she would have used up all her reserves of my blood by now.
It would have been a hell of a lot easier if we were the only ones using the between. The feel of her in the grey made my skin crawl and stomach turn. It was wrong, her very presence defiling the particles that made up possibility. She closed the distance, moving easily through the decay she caused by being here. Thanks to my blood. I left Mason's side and moved to meet her, to put an end to this. Right here, right now.
Mason slammed into me, tackling me and forcing a rip in the veil that separated one reality from the next. It was lacking the finesse of our first trip but he managed to elude Bathory by taking control of the energy and jumping us back to his house. We landed in a tangled heap, arms and legs entwined, on his bed.
Thank the gods he had good aim because hitting the floor with this momentum would have left a hell of a mark. We stayed that way, with me on top of him, bodies pressed together, until I caught my breath.
"She was right there, Mace. We had her. We could have ended it." Frustrated, I shoved an elbow in his ribs.
"And what were you going to stake her with in just your underwear?"
"We could have done it." I struggled against him and might have elbow him again.
He grunted. "She's stronger than those vampires at the bar, smarter too. Do you really think she would let you rip her heart out?" He shifted to avoid another elbow, his body rubbing against mine. This close I knew he suffered from a different kind of frustration. "I like it when you call me Mace, by the way."
Yeah, that much was obvious. I started to climb off him, to find clothes before all this flesh on flesh led to something that could end up hurting my heart as much as Bathory wanted to hurt my body. Mason wrapped one long muscular leg around mine and pulled me back down, trapping me in a cage of bare limbs that had me hotter than the one hundred and seven degree water.
I really needed to get up and get dressed. Cotton and denim were my only defense against giving in to the urges I felt every time I was this close to Mason. I knew what I felt, what were both feeling but I also knew it would be a mistake to do this now. Too much had happened and all of it involved vampires.
Caligula, Bathory and Aidan. The first two were easier to deal with than the last. I would kill the two murderous vampires but as much as I wanted to kill Aidan it would cause more problems in the long run. He made the decision to end it and deep down I knew he was right. I needed to deal with the way he ended it before I could start something else. Of course right now I still needed to deal with the incredibly sexy, mostly naked man under me.
"It's time for your training but I see the hunter is schooling you in a different subject." Aidan sounded upset. He wasn't entitled to feel angry, as far as I was concerned.
Well that was certainly one way to deal with Aidan, I thought, feeling a little satisfied that he got a taste of his own medicine. It was glaringly obvious by the dark look in his eyes and the menacing sound of his voice that last night's show was exactly that.
He still fed from Ryanne, pumping her full of endorphins until she begged for release but pleasure wasn't his goal. Of course part of him enjoyed it, the vampire and the man, but his plan had been to hurt me, to convince me that despite how much we cared about each other it wasn't meant to be. And it worked. Better than he thought if I had to guess by his mood.
I hadn't realized the sun was down and it was time to practice with Aidan until he darkened my door. Maybe I'd get off the hook since Bathory was so close. Maybe we would step things up and go after her. Maybe they'd both make me train harder. This should be fun. And by fun I mean tortuous.
Nothing happened between Mason and me. We hadn't acted on the attraction we - even Aidan - knew was there but I was happy to let Aidan think we had. I pressed my lips against Mason's, a gentle kiss that hinted at more. He didn't seem to mind playing along, kissing me back. He deepened the kiss for a moment, letting me know when I was ready there would definitely be more, before pulling back and helping me off with an easy push.
"I guess I should change into something…" I looked down at my underwear, "less revealing." Catching the duffle bag Mason tossed to me I headed into the bathroom.
20
Aidan and Mason waited for me in the t
raining room- as far away from each other as possible. Aidan moved to the center of the mat when I came in. Without looking I knew Mason had positioned himself against the back wall, assuming his position from last night.
I joined Aidan on the mat, practically tripping over Conry who had been glued to my side since I got back. "Did Mason tell you what happened?"
"I am over three hundred years old. I do not need a hunter to have the sex talk with me."
"I was talking about what happened today, with Bathory. She was in the between."
"Exactly why you are not supposed to be." He glared at Mason. "All the more reason for this training."
I spent the next ten minutes listening to Aidan give me instructions that sounded a lot like the ones Mason gave in the bath house. "Ready?"
"If you are."
Mason gave a short, low whistle and Conry obediently padded over to sit beside him. If I didn't know better I might have thought my guardian liked Mason better than me. I pondered the fact that my dog never listened to anyone other than me but had no problem taking orders from Mason.
Aidan disappeared from the mat. Damn, I forgot how good he was at this. I cracked my neck, first to the right then the left and rolled my shoulders. I bounced on my feet a few times, shaking out my arms and the urge to spar that had been building since I walked into the training room.
I needed to calm down, center myself, if I wanted to catch Aidan before he got close. Mason and Aidan seemed to be in agreement that when we faced Caligula and Bathory they wouldn't be alone. I had to be able to sense a cloaked vampire before we could go after them. I would master this tonight. I was sick of waiting. That bitch was after my blood. I was going to kill her.
Unlike my training with Mason, Aidan didn't take it easy on me. He swept my legs from under me, knocking me hard on my ass the first time he came at me. Standing up hurt but I didn't so much as wince from the pain radiating out of my tailbone.
Blood Bath, A Paranormal/Urban Fantasy (The Maurin Kincaide Series Book 4) Page 19
