Untamed (Vampire Awakenings, Book 3)

by Brenda K. Davies

  "I'm sure you could find work anywhere and I think it sounds like a great plan," he told her.

  She gave him a half-hearted smile but she missed the contact with him. "I'm not sure my parents would agree."

  "It's not their life, is it?"

  "No, it's not, but they expect a lot out of me."

  "I'm sure they do but I'm sure they're already proud of you."

  Beginning to feel a little self-conscious, she decided to steer the conversation away from her. "So what about you, you never really said what you do."

  He cast his pole out again and began to reel it back in. "School's not my thing, never really was and I'm not much of a traveler. I like to work with my hands and mainly do odds and ends."

  "A jack of all trades?"

  "I guess you could say that. I helped to build a house last year; I really enjoyed doing that. I discovered that I also liked to carve things out of wood around the same time."

  He didn't tell her that this newfound love of his was a great way to keep himself distracted from his more disturbing thoughts and urges. He could often lose himself for hours amongst the smell and feel of the wood within his hands as he carved intricate designs into it. It was never something he'd ever thought to do but once he'd started the hobby, he couldn't stop.

  "I've built a gazebo for our lake at home, a porch swing, dining room table and chairs. My favorite is a children's chest that I plan to give to Isabelle and Stefan when they have a baby."

  "That's amazing." It also suited him, she realized as she studied his profile. There was something almost wild about him, she couldn't picture him wearing a suit and sitting behind a desk. It was too restricting for him and though she barely knew him, she knew that he would be miserable if he were confined. No, he definitely belonged in a natural element of some kind, on a construction site, or on a fishing boat. "I'd love to see some of it."

  The sun played over his handsome features and lit his eyes as he turned to smile at her. The warmth of the rays had caused a thin sheen of sweat to break out on his body and made his skin gleam enticingly. "Isabelle doesn't know about the chest but I have some photos on my phone I'll show you. I turned it off and threw it in a drawer when I got here though so I don't have it on me."

  She laughed as she leaned against his side; she enjoyed how easy it was becoming to just be with him and how good he could make her feel. "I did the same, there's no way I'm paying that bill."

  "Me either," he agreed.

  She swung her legs back and forth over the edge of the boat. "How old are you?"

  "Twenty-six, you?"

  "Twenty-two."

  Emma cast her line back out as they fell into an amicable silence. Neither of them had even had a bite but she found she didn't mind as she listened to the water lapping against the boat and the splashing and laughter from the others as they swam. She was getting ready to reel her line back in when he leaned toward her and placed his finger under her chin. He turned her face toward hers and before she knew what he intended, he leaned forward and kissed her tenderly.

  A sigh escaped her, but just as she was about to lose herself to him he was pulling away from her. Her eyes searched his face; he stared at her for a minute before leaning away. "You had a bite."

  "I had a what?"

  That grin did funny things to her insides and made her feel like she was a kid on Christmas morning all over again. He gestured toward the pole in her hand. "A bite."

  "Oh, oh," she said again as she finally felt the tug on her pole. She had completely forgotten about it. She lifted it and began to reel it in again, but whatever had been there didn't pursue the lure.

  The boat shifted, she looked back to see Stefan and Isabelle climbing on board. Isabelle frowned as she studied the two of them but she turned away when Stefan put his hand on her elbow. She gave a brief nod before slipping into the lower cabin of the boat. Jill and Mandy climbed on next, Jill grabbed two towels off of one of the seats and then handed Mandy her prosthetic leg.

  Isabelle reappeared and tossed another towel to Stefan. She was toweling her hair off as she made her way toward them. "We're going to head back, Mandy and Jill are hungry."

  "Sounds good," Ethan said and began to reel in his line. Emma frowned as Isabelle continued to stand there, staring back and forth between them. She gave Emma a tremulous smile before turning and walking back to Stefan. Though she didn't get the feeling that Isabelle disliked her, there was something standoffish about her that Emma didn't understand and it made her a little uneasy.

  Gathering their poles, they walked to the back to join the others. Black clouds began to roll in over the island as they drove back to the dock in silence. The ozone aroma of impending rain hung heavily in the air as the wind started to kick up and blew the hair around her face. She brushed it back and kept hold of it as Stefan slid the boat into its spot at the dock.

  Emma accepted Ethan's hand and he helped her to climb off of the boat. Their footsteps resonated on the wooden boards beneath their feet as they walked up the dock with her hand in his. Emma studied the people hurriedly gathering their things on the beach. Some die-hard beachgoers looked as if they were going to stay and ride out the storm, but others were already running for cover.

  "Would you like to go to dinner tonight?" Ethan asked. "Just the two of us."

  She smiled as she tilted her head back to look at him. "I would."

  Taking comfort in his solid presence, she rested her head against his bicep. Emma lifted her head from Ethan's arm when a man separated himself from the crowd on the beach. A shiver ran down her spine as she watched the man walk down the sand with an easy grace. His broad shoulders were hunched forward against the rising wind and he had his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. He looked so out of place on a beach full of barely dressed people, but he moved as if he fit in amongst them. The heavy clouds that had turned day into an early night made his hair appear even darker but she knew it was a light reddish brown color.

  Emma's heart slammed against her ribs, tremors racked her body and despite the heat of the day she was suddenly extremely cold. Closing her eyes, she shook her head and took a deep breath before opening them again. Her gaze ran frantically over the beach but she didn't see the man amongst the crowd again.

  "Are you ok?" Ethan inquired.

  Emma reluctantly tore her attention away from the beach and back to him. She realized she must have looked absolutely ridiculous standing there gawking at the beach. He was staring at her with concern as she had abruptly stopped walking in the middle of the dock. "I'm fine. I thought I saw someone I knew, but I was wrong."

  She had to be mistaken because there was absolutely no way that Tristan could be here, there was no way that he could even know she was here. He'd been out of her life for a year now. Surely her mind was playing tricks on her and she was just imagining things. Even still, she couldn't shake the icy chill that had settled deep into her bones.

  CHAPTER 8

  Ethan pulled the chair out for Emma and settled in across from her as the waiter placed their menus on the table and filled their water glasses. It was their fifth date this week. They had spent most of the days with his family and her friends, but dinner had been just between them and that was the way he liked it. They would meet up again with the others for drinks afterward, but these couple of hours that they got to be alone had become his favorite hours of the day.

  Her hazel eyes danced in the candlelight as he settled in across from her. Over the past few days he'd come to enjoy spending time with her more and more. Her smile could light up a room and her laugh was so buoyant and carefree, that just hearing it always made him smile too.

  He'd always believed that humans were only good for blood and even then he had only ever used the blood bags to feed from. Though he knew his brothers and The Stooges had sex with humans, he'd never trusted himself enough to, just as he'd never trusted himself to feed directly from one. He wasn't sure if the others knew those two things about him, he'
d never told them and he tried to play it off that he was like them. They had never asked about his habits, but they knew he didn't go to the clubs as often as they did and he'd never walked out of the club with a human like they had.

  She may be human but he was eager to have Emma beneath him, even if he was concerned about what might happen. There was no driving urge to kill when she was around but he was afraid that he just might lose control of himself with her. She was a human, she was weak and vulnerable, there was a chance that he could injure her, maybe even kill her. Even as he thought it he knew it could never happen, he'd kill himself before he ever even put a bruise upon her.

  The idea of tasting her blood without her knowing was repulsive to him. It would be delicious, he knew that, powerful and filling, but he would never taste her unless she knew about it. For the first time, he wanted to feed on a human without the driving compulsion he'd always felt to lose himself in their blood as he watched the life slip from their eyes. Without feeling as if he would welcome the eventual death of the person more than the actual blood itself.

  She would never know about him though. She would run screaming from him if she discovered the truth, like any sane human would, and that was the last thing he wanted to have happen. He was determined to enjoy the three weeks they had left together and he wasn't about to let the knowledge of what he was push her away, frighten her, or put her in any kind of danger. There were already three other vampires roaming this island, he hadn't seen them again, but they could become a threat to her.

  From what Stefan had told him he knew that some of his kind liked to hunt and kill other vampires for more power. He hadn't sensed much of a threat from those three but he wasn't willing to risk Emma's life, or the lives of her friends. He would kill any one of them if they even thought about trying to get close enough to harm Emma.

  His gaze drifted back to her as she tapped her chin with her index finger and studied the menu. The waiter returned with their drinks, took their order and left. Emma's hair shimmered in the glow of the candle, appearing more blond than brown as the firelight danced over it.

  "So Emma how is it that you're still single?" he inquired.

  The question startled her enough that she sloshed the wine against the side of her glass. They'd had some really enjoyable dates over the past few nights. Dates that had involved talking about the music they liked, their favorite TV shows, movies and books. They'd talked about their families and friends but the conversation had stayed away from past relationships, a fact that she had been more than happy about.

  She forced a smile and took a sip of her wine before answering. "I guess I'm just lucky."

  He laughed as he leaned forward to grab his whiskey. The ice clinked against the side of the glass as he took a sip. "So no relationships for you, ever?"

  He was trying to sound teasing and carefree, but he could feel pressure steadily building within him. What if there was someone else in her life? She didn't seem like the type to cheat on someone, but what did he really know? She could have a boyfriend back at home. Emma shrugged but for the first time her eyes didn't twinkle and there was a new tension in her body, one that he'd never seen before, as she'd become unbelievably still.

  "There was someone," she murmured and glanced away from him.

  He thought he might break his glass but he couldn't get his hand to ease up on it. "Was it serious?"

  "I'm not sure I ever knew what it was," she murmured. "But it didn't end well."

  "Did he hurt you?" Emma's eyebrows rose and even he was shocked by the growling tone of his voice as he leaned toward her.

  "No, well I mean not physically. He kicked the crap out of my pride though. At the time, I thought he broke my heart, but I was never actually in love with him. I just tried to convince myself I was."

  "Why would you do that?"

  Emma watched him as he sat a little away from her again, and though he was trying to look casual his jaw was clenched tight. "To seem normal I guess."

  She felt like such an idiot as she tried to explain it to him. Why had she been trying so hard to fit in back then? Her parents had loved her no matter what. Jill and Mandy had thought she was perfectly fine. She was the only one that had thought something was wrong with her, but until Ethan she'd never felt any intense attraction to a man. It still seemed a little odd but she didn't question it anymore, not when he was sitting across from her.

  "He was my ah... my first..." her voice trailed off as heat crept into her cheeks. "My first serious boyfriend, my first everything, and he was extremely charming. I was trying to convince myself that he made me happy, he thought he'd like to sleep with other women."

  "He was a fool."

  She smiled again but sadness continued to enshroud her. "That he was."

  "I'm sorry you were hurt."

  A small laugh escaped her. "The funny thing is that I wasn't. I was so relieved that I finally had a reason to call it quits with him that I pretty much did a happy dance all the way down his hall afterward."

  "Then why were you trying to convince yourself that you were happy with him?"

  She took another sip of her wine as she pondered her answer, but the only thing she could think of to say was the truth. Leaning closer to him, she rested her hand on the table as she said the words she'd never said to anyone. "Have you ever just felt like you don't belong?" she inquired. "That no matter what you do, no matter how many friends and family you have, that there's just something missing inside of you?"

  Ethan felt as if she were looking inside of him and seeing exactly what it was that he felt every day of his life. She couldn't know the worst of it, but for the first time he'd encountered someone that he was certain could understand the emptiness that resided within him. "I know exactly what you mean."

  Emma searched his face but he didn't seem to be trying to manipulate her like Tristan used to do. His words were sincere, the bleakness in his eyes touched her in a way that nothing ever had before. Without thinking, she took hold of his hand. His fingers slid over hers as he rolled his hand beneath hers and grasped it in return. Unlike with Tristan, unlike with anyone else in her entire world, a sense of belonging stole through her whenever she was near him and she felt as if whatever had been missing inside of her had finally been found.

  "I thought Tristan could make me feel normal, that maybe a boyfriend was what I was missing, but I always felt as if I had to force it when I was with him. It never felt right. And he was a little unstable. I didn't know it while we were dating but he had some issues that became apparent when I broke up with him."

  Ethan took another sip of his drink as he studied her. "What kind of issues?"

  Emma frowned as she tried to decide how much to reveal to him. There weren't many people that were willing to date someone that had an emotional basket case for an ex, but he didn't seem like the type to run for the hills and she didn't see any reason to keep it from him.

  "He became extremely possessive after the breakup, started following me, calling me all the time and leaving me gifts. He even began to appear in my classes, classes that weren't his. He would just sit in the back and watch me. His gifts got steadily stranger, more disturbing and more terrifying. The last one was a dozen black roses with a card that I swear was written in blood and it scared the hell out of me. I finally went to the police about him but he disappeared before anything could be done."

  Ethan had to keep his mouth closed as he fought to retract the fangs that had extended while she was speaking. He finally regained control of himself enough to talk again. "You haven't heard from him since?"

  "Not in a year and hopefully never again."

  Ethan nodded but rage still simmered beneath his surface. That was a human he would gladly kill for frightening her like that, if he was ever given the opportunity. He found it odd that the strange behavior would abruptly cut off like that but that kind of behavior wasn't something he could understand. Her ex didn't sound like a very stable person, maybe he had killed himse
lf, or maybe someone else had done the deed.

  "What about you?" Emma inquired though she wasn't certain she wanted to hear the answer. "Any serious relationships?"

  "Nothing serious."

  "Not the settling down type?"

  He smiled at her over top of his glass. "I just haven't met the right one yet."

  "Do you believe there is a right one?"

  For him it was a distinct possibility. "I do."

  "So is there a string of broken hearts left behind you?" It wasn't the subtlest way of asking about how many people there were in his past but she wasn't exactly skilled at subtlety.

  "None of those."

  "I'm sure you've had lots of girlfriends."

  "Five and they were all aware that it wasn't going to go anywhere before it started."

  Emma frowned at him. He was gorgeous, she was sure that a whole lot more than five women had thrown themselves at him over the years, but he spoke of his relationships as if they were business deals. "You make it sound like they were some kind of an arrangement."

  That's exactly what they'd been to him, but that wasn't something she would ever understand. "Not really," he replied. "We both understood in the beginning that it wasn't going to be serious and that when it was time to part we would do so amicably."

  "How could you possibly know that at the beginning of a relationship though? What if your feelings changed over time?"

  "I just knew that they wouldn't." She frowned at him in confusion but he didn't know how to explain it to her, didn't know how to make her understand without turning her away from him. "You know how you said that it always felt forced with Tristan, well that's kind of how I felt with them." It wasn't exactly the truth. Due to the way he'd grown up he'd always known about the existence of mates, and he'd known going in that none of those women were that to him. "I was never going to spend the rest of my life with one of them."