Emerald Fire (A Blushing Death Novel Book 6)

by Suzanne M. Sabol

  I ran my hands up his chest, skimming my fingers along the edges of his silk tuxedo jacket. The fabric was smooth in my grip and the smile I gave him was happy, mischievous, and still wanting more.

  A frigid breath of power from a dark night at the end of the world wrapped around me. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and the smile on my face faded, replaced by a twist of fear in my gut.

  “What is it?” Patrick asked.

  Isidro was still lurking about but the power of this additional vampire seemed distant or just weaker than the rest. It was muddled in my head with the overpowering presence of death and the same edge of dark magic I’d felt in the cemeteries.

  “Another vampire has decided to come out and play,” I snarled, attempting to focus on the one approaching and the death surrounding him like a shroud.

  Patrick spun me again as the band eased into another song and clutched me to him.

  “Stay here,” he bit out. “Dean and I will—”

  “I can take care of myself,” I snarled back through clenched teeth.

  “I know you can.” He sighed as his hands trailed cool lines of fire down my bare back, distracting me from my anger. Bastard! Sneaky, delicious bastard. “As lovely as you look tonight”—he smiled lecherously at me and my womb tightened at the expression of hunger in his gaze—“you no longer have the ability to heal. You’re not dressed for a fight. And, you’re currently experiencing a dangerous lack of weaponry on your luscious body.” His obsidian gaze narrowed on me in hunger. “A body I would very much like to taste later. And in addition, if someone doesn’t escort Jade home soon, Kurt might kill someone, not including whomever approaches. I do not wish to bail both Kurt and Dean out of jail.”

  I threw my head back and laughed until I couldn’t breathe. Patrick’s lips crashed down on mine, taking me by surprise. His tongue plunged into my mouth and devoured me as if this was the last time he’d be able to taste me. He broke away, covered in the harsh red stain of my lipstick and a delicious, pleased grin lighting his obsidian eyes.

  “That laugh was all mine.” His gaze was possessive and ravenous, making my fingers tingle with the itch to touch him. “I adore the sound of your joy bubbling up,” he said with what I could only describe as contentedness. “Please promise me that you will stay here.”

  “I promise,” I answered, breathless, still reeling from Patrick’s kiss. He turned from me, clutching Dean by the shoulder before they disappeared down the hallway.

  I promised him I would stay here, not that I would stay put, and “here” was a big area. I sauntered around the dance floor, trying to get a sense of the danger I felt pooling in the pit of my stomach. This was the magic I’d felt in the cemeteries with the same darkness prickling my senses. This is what had animated the zombies. I couldn’t say how I knew, but somewhere in the pit of that magic lurked death and possession.

  A hand wrapped around my wrist, squeezing tight until my bones ached from the pressure. I snapped my head around. The man standing behind me, tugging on my arm was my height, slim with long blond hair tied at the nape of his neck. I peered up into his angular features that were too pretty to be considered handsome. His face was a perfect symmetry of high cheekbones, a sharp nose, and the slightest dimple in his chin. He glared at me with one green eye and one the stone-cold gray of granite.

  I yanked my wrist out of his grip and rubbed my skin, trying to alleviate the pressure and the chill that crept up my arm with the slightest touch of his magic. Standing my ground, I didn’t dare glance about to see where Patrick and Dean were, or even Jade. I didn’t want to give this guy any inclination to someone who might matter to me.

  “I’ve been watching you,” he said. His words held a controlled accent, making him sound like he was from everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.

  “I’m surprised you could fit me in,” I snapped. Cocking my hip, I forced my right leg just a bit through the slit in my gown. I rested my hand there, leaving my right hand dangling near the Bowie knife strapped to my thigh. “You’ve been busy; killing, raising the dead, and being a general pain in the ass. That all sounds like a full day to me.” Ah sarcasm, my old friend. Welcome home.

  “I’m so glad you understand. I knew you would,” he said with an appreciative smile that made me think he didn’t really understand how sarcasm worked.

  My Eithina growled inside my head. She really didn’t like him. Kill him. Kill him now, she roared.

  “He wants you dead, you know. He wants you all dead.” His voice was calm and even, as if we were talking about a grocery list.

  “Who?”

  “You want to kill me. I can see it in your eyes. Do you think you can get to me before I get to all of them?” he asked with a quick glance over my shoulder to all the people at the gala. “I am the only thing controlling them. If you kill me, my children will be set loose upon the city like a plague.” With a smirk on his thin lips and a threat in his eyes, he turned away from me.

  Patrick and Dean stood in the entryway to the atrium with the Mayor, whispering in hushed tones. The vampire before me stared the two men down, completely unafraid. Closing the distance with several quick steps, he was almost to them when I rushed him. Standing between him and the people I loved, I cut off his approach. He would deal with me.

  “The last thing you’ll ever see is my face before I hold your heart in my hand. I can promise you that,” I snarled.

  Dean’s power closed in on us as the heat of him wrapped around me.

  “That was a very good threat, my lovely,” the vampire said. “But can you protect them before my army takes its pound of flesh?”

  “I don’t make threats, only promises,” I said, shoving the skirt of my gown away and sliding my hand across my thigh for the knife.

  The vampire slammed his large hands into my shoulders, shoving me back. As I stumbled back on four-inch stiletto heels, strong masculine hands wrapped around my biceps and steadied me.

  “You all right?” Dean snarled in my ear.

  “Yeah,” I said as the vampire pushed through the crowd in the opposite direction, shoving people aside left and right.

  A woman screamed. The sound of her bloodcurdling wail filled the halls, echoing through the museum and silencing everyone. The band’s notes screeched to a halt as the sound of her anguish rang out.

  “Go!” Dean growled, spinning me by my shoulders until I was gazing up into the Caribbean blue eyes of Dean’s wolf. “Take Jade in the limo and go,” he ordered.

  I squared my shoulders and glared up at him. “I’ve never backed away from a fight. I’m not about to start now,” I shouted over the thunder of people screaming as they ran for the exits in chaos around us.

  The floor shook with the stampede of running humans and Dean’s usually calm voice was raised to be heard over the shrieks echoing in the center atrium. Patrick moved swiftly through the crowd, easily weaving in and out of clusters of screaming people behind Dean. Patrick set off the fire alarm, jerking the small handle on the wall without anyone noticing.

  The whomp, whomp, whomp of the high-pitched alarm hurt my ears but it drowned out the screams so I guess that was something.

  The dance floor cleared as people headed for the exits. Over the scent of panic and fear, I smelled death. The overwhelming stench of rotting flesh and mold flooded my nostrils, turning my stomach.

  “Baby,” Dean begged. “Please. The five of us can handle this.”

  “No!” I snapped, defiant. I wouldn’t leave this museum alone with God knows how many of those dead fuckers the vampire brought with him roaming the streets. I couldn’t leave them alone to die, not without me. “I won’t leave you both behind.”

  Dean grabbed my shoulders, digging his large strong fingers into the flesh of my arms and back. He shook me just a bit, surprising me with the
force of his anger.

  “Get them home. You’re the only one who can protect our people if we can’t. You’re the last stand,” he snapped at me.

  I knew what he was thinking about; Connie, Mike, and all the Pack that would depend on me if something happened to Dean. No matter how much I hated it or didn’t want to agree, I knew he was right.

  “Fine, Tre,” I snapped. “I’ll go but we’re talking about this later.” I wasn’t going to even verbalize the possibility that either one of them might not make it home.

  “Go!” he shouted. Dean peered down at me with an apology in his expression. “Here they come.”

  “God DAMN IT!” I swore. “GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!”

  Chapter 21

  I paced.

  Back and forth.

  Up and down.

  “Where are they?” I growled through clenched teeth. The rustling of my gown on the hardwood floors as I paced was incredibly annoying but I couldn’t sit down. If I stopped moving, somewhere in my head, I thought Patrick and Dean might stop too. I hadn’t bothered to change, but I had grabbed Gladi. Tapping the flat edge of her blade against my thigh as I paced, the soft thump of metal against fabric beat out my anxious heartbeat.

  “You’re going to make me sick if you don’t stop,” Jade said. She strolled into the living room from the kitchen with two glasses of wine in her hands. She handed one to me and took a sip of the other one. “They’re fine,” she said with complete understanding in her eyes.

  “Is this what it’s like?” I asked, knowing I wouldn’t have to explain.

  “Doesn’t feel so good, does it? Having to wait and see,” she asked with a goading smirk. Smoothing the gown beneath her, Jade sat down on the edge of the love seat.

  “Not particularly,” I mumbled, pacing.

  The front door opened and my heart stopped. “I’m home,” Ev called. “Where is everyone?” As he came around the corner, he saw us, me, and stopped.

  “There was a bit of a mishap at the gala,” Jade said as if the caterer had simply run out of cocktail shrimp.

  The click of the front door echoed through the silent house and I couldn’t stop my heart from racing. I turned and ran toward the front door at the sound of familiar heavy footfalls.

  I leapt into Patrick’s arms and kissed him. Slipping my tongue into his mouth, I nicked myself on the sharp edge of his fang. The taste of iron-rich blood filled my mouth and Patrick licked at the inside of my cheek as he clutched me to him.

  “Kurt?” Jade called, her rich alto voice sounding almost panicked.

  “I’m here,” he said, closing the front door behind them. “Are you ready to go home?”

  “Are you hurt?” she asked, sliding into his arms as easily as if she’d always been there.

  "I wouldn't dare come back hurt. You might kill me," he almost purred. He sank his nose into her hair, breathing deep.

  “Ev,” Kurt said, hugging Jade’s body to him. He looked up, met my gaze and then caught a glimpse of Patrick and Dean “You’ll be staying with Tag tonight. Head out.”

  “But I have to work in the morning. All my stuff is here.”

  “Go!” Patrick roared, staring down into my eyes with naked hunger reflected back at me.

  “I’ll drop him,” Dean growled, his shoulders tense and his jaw as hard as granite as he ground his teeth together and backed away toward the front door, leaving with Ev.

  “No.” I reached for him, clutching his hand in mine. A jolt of electricity ran through me, a pulse of energy that was both pain and pleasure. The bonds were primed and ready to fuse through that connection. Something inside me, deep in my subconscious, knew we needed to keep those links fusing into one. We had been dancing around the power for too long and whether it was instinct, need, desire or something deeper, a primal knowledge that I couldn’t explain, it all seared into my being with certainty. We couldn’t remain separate any longer.

  “Ev, unless you want to watch what comes next, I suggest you come with us,” Kurt warned. Jade breezed by me with a smirk turning up the corner of her sex-kitten mouth, Kurt only a step behind. Ev followed, sliding the door shut behind them.

  “I’m going,” Dean said again, turning to leave.

  “No,” I begged, releasing Patrick’s hand. His fingers trailed along the palm of my hand as if he was reluctant to let me go. “Dean, I don’t want you to go. I don’t want either of you to go. I need both of you and I’m tired of scheduling time, tired of being lonely with only one of you when I know the other one is out there without me. Tonight. Tonight . . . I—”

  “Baby, don’t worry about us. We’re okay,” Dean said, trying to convince me and probably himself that there wasn’t a problem. He brushed a loose strand of hair from my face. We weren’t okay. We were three pieces of the puzzle instead of a whole. Without our solidarity, one or all of us would get killed and I wouldn’t survive without them. It wasn’t anger tugging at my core, it was fear.

  “No. We’re vulnerable. I don’t want us to be vulnerable anymore, not if there’s something I, we, can do about it.”

  “She is correct.” Patrick stepped up behind me and rested his strong, cool hands on my shoulders. “We have completed our individual bonds but I still feel unfinished. Something is missing. Do you not feel the void?” he asked Dean.

  “I do,” he grumbled as his olive-green eyes flooded with his wolf. “There would be no going back.”

  “Do you want to go back?” I asked.

  Peering down at me, his shoulders relaxed and the grim line of his full lips loosened into a twitch of a smile. Cupping my face in his large, rough hands, he tilted my head up. “No, Baby, I don’t.” He stroked his thumb across my cheekbone and glanced over my shoulder to meet Patrick’s gaze.

  I don’t know what he saw there, but whatever passed between Patrick and Dean didn’t stop him. Warm full lips crashed down on my mouth, thrusting his tongue between my teeth until I thought he would devour me whole. I melted into his kiss, letting the heat of his body and his need fill me until mu core almost vibrated with need.

  Cool fingers trailed a line down my shoulder blades and slipped between the rough fabric of my gown and my overheated skin. As I lost myself in Dean’s kiss, Patrick slowly unzipped the back of my dress. Cold air and chilled fingers skimmed across my bare flesh as warm hands slipped the spaghetti straps over my shoulders and down my arms until the gown pooled around my ankles like a black taffeta cloud.

  Dean’s lips trailed down my neck, tasting my heated flesh and breathing deep of my scent. His enormous hands cupped my face, sinking long callused fingers into my hair. A moan escaped my lips and my breath caught in my throat as sensation rippled across my heated skin.

  Patrick’s hands skimmed over the round meat of my ass, digging his fingers into the firmness and grasping hold. His cool breath skimmed across my shoulder, sending gooseflesh skittering across my skin. Lightly, Patrick slipped his hands between my legs, parting my thighs ever so slightly to the point I could feel my hips ache at the angle. Warm lips slid over my nipple as Dean’s teeth nipped at the hard, puckered flesh and my entire body contracted with the sheer pleasure shooting strait to my womb with each lave of his tongue.

  Behind me, Patrick parted my ass cheeks and turned my hips up, exposing my warm, wet center. Patrick licked a delicious line across my pussy, caressing my most hidden places with his mouth. He thrust his tongue inside me and I gasped at the aggressive delight of his intrusion. His teeth skimmed the edges of my entrance and the sharp edge of pain made my heart beat faster and my knees weak until I was quivering in Dean’s grasp.

  “Fuck!” I cried as my knees trembled.

  “Soon,” Dean moaned around my nipple.

  A sharp pain radiated from my clit, vibrating through my womb as Patrick’s fangs sunk into me sensitive flesh and
my body gave out in a rush of pleasure as I came so hard that I cried out not caring if they heard me down the damned block. Dean’s strong hands on my ribcage as he suckled my nipple were the only things that kept me standing.

  Patrick plucked his fangs from my flesh and licked a path up my spine until his mouth hovered over those marks on my neck that belonged only to him. One cool breath across those marks and I shattered again in a fierce orgasm that made me see stars for a moment. His fingers trailed delicate lines up the curve of my body until I could feel the hard length of him pressed against my backside.

  “You taste like heaven,” Patrick grunted with a hunger that drove my heart to race and thunder in my ears.

  Before I could respond or even construct a cohesive thought, Dean had stopped suckling on my breast and grabbed me by my hips, tossing me over his shoulder.

  I yelped but didn’t argue. Dean clamped his arm across the back of my thighs to hold me in place, then took his index and middle fingers and slid them between my wet folds, teasing me with his thick, warm fingers. I dug my fingers into the firm flesh of his ass as I quivered around his finger dipping against my cervix. He plucked his finger from my sheath and I glanced over my shoulder at him as he thrust his glistening fingers into his mouth and groaned.

  “Would I lie about her taste?” Patrick chided as he followed us up the stairs. He met my gaze with a lecherous smirk turning up the corner of his delicious, full lips.

  Patrick closed the bedroom door, softly but with so much precision—tension, I had the feeling I was staring at a caged beast instead of the man I knew. Dean set me down on wobbly legs as he caressed around the full mounds of my breasts, making a slow circle around my body.