Accidentally Dead

by Dakota Cassidy

  Nina wished she could sigh to relieve the pressure in her chest for what she was going to tell them. “It doesn’t matter anyway. When he told me he wouldn’t mate with me was where we left it the other night. Haven’t seen or heard from him since.”

  “And you didn’t wrestle him to the ground and make him scream uncle until he bent to your will? Who are you, Nina Blackman?” Wanda teased the question. “I don’t know about you, Marty, but the Nina I know would have hacked off Greg’s limb for having the audacity to say no to her, then beaten him with it.”

  “Or at least gouged an eyeball out,” Marty chimed in.

  Wanda leaned into Nina and hugged her, then stood up and chucked her under the chin. “You know what? I think we’re going to let you have some time to think about this. We love you, and I hope you know we just want you to be happy. If you need us, we’re here, but now it’s time for you to think really hard about what we said and what your next move is going to be. You’re a smart woman, Nina. I know you’ll find a way to make whatever you want to happen happen.”

  Marty was apparently in agreement. She hugged her, too, and pinched Nina’s cheek. “Yeah, you’re smart. Go do what smart girls do, blood drinker.”

  Nina watched their backs as they exited her apartment, knowing what they’d said was as honest as it got, and maybe part of Greg’s reluctance to mate for life with her was because she never knew when to shut up and take a chance.

  Well, she’d fucked this up but good, and because of it, she wanted to scurry off to a dark, secluded cave and never come back out.

  Her cell phone rang, and when she leaned forward toward her coffee table to see who was calling, hoping against hope it was Greg, she frowned, then flipped the bird at her caller ID, deflated.

  It was the mystery vamp, more than likely. No one else showed up as private caller or caller unknown but that fuckwad.

  Well, she knew where Lisanne was now, so he could take his happy, clappy vampire attitude and his supposed information and shove them up his undead ass.

  Fuck him and fuck Lisanne.

  Nina reached for a bag of blood with one hand and the television remote with the other.

  At least she still had cable.

  CHAPTER

  16

  “Have you seen Nina?” Clayton asked.

  “Nope.”

  “My friend, this is a sad day indeed. A beautiful woman offers to mate with you, and you turn her down in a grand show of chivalry, I might add. Does the word dead mean anything at all to you?”

  Greg gripped the arms of the chair he sat in. “I know what I did, Clay.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yeah, I do. I won’t let her give up her freedom to save my hide. Period. And let’s not forget the difficult, opinionated mouthy part either.”

  They sat in Greg’s study, one day away from his birthday, while Clayton tried to convince him turning down Nina was a dumb-ass thing to do.

  He’d stayed away from her because seeing her again would be his undoing, and he couldn’t promise he’d be able to keep turning her down if he spent any more time with her. Yet he would have liked the chance to say good-bye. He’d hurt her when they’d parted, and he’d never have the chance to apologize for it.

  “You have way too much pride for your own good, bud,” Clayton said, sipping the last of his blood from a beer mug.

  Greg cracked his jaw. “It isn’t my pride that’s keeping me from accepting, Clay, it’s the sacrifice involved. How could I live with the idea that she’d have no choice but to always be chained to me?”

  Clay chuckled grimly. “I think I could live with it, if my intended looked like Nina. Though I will say, she’s nothing like the animals you usually hunt for sport.”

  No, Nina was nothing like the women he’d toyed with for four hundred and ninety-nine years, three hundred and sixty-four days and counting. He knew she was different, and while he’d tried to deny his attraction to her, after they’d made love, the intrigue had turned to something deeper—something he wanted to have time to explore, but time wasn’t a gift he’d have bestowed upon him after tomorrow. “She’s definitely different,” was all he’d offer.

  “But not different enough to mate for life with?”

  “Get off my back about it, Clay. It isn’t going to happen.”

  Clay rose from his place on the sofa. “I’ll say this once more. I think you’re making the biggest mistake of all your centuries.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind. You know all you need to know when you take my place in the clan?”

  “I promise to honor your efforts, but this isn’t something I want to do.” Regret laced his tone, worry lined his face.

  Greg nodded curtly, fending off the dread involved in their meeting. “Let’s not drag this out.” Greg rose, too, extending a hand to his friend of so many years.

  Clay took it, gripping it hard and pulling Greg against him with a sharp slap on the back before he searched Greg’s eyes one last time. “So this is the last I’ll see you?”

  “I think so. Godspeed.” He set his jaw in a tight clench.

  Clay turned away with the good-bye he didn’t have to speak, leaving Greg alone in his study and even more alone with his thoughts. He made a choice just then.

  He had one last thing to do.

  He could lie to himself all he wanted, but he had to see Nina.

  Just once more.

  He appeared in Nina’s bedroom with the stealth of a cat, creeping along the edges of her bed to find her deep in her vampiric sleep. Her long, dark hair splayed out on the pillow, a stark contrast to the white of the sheets. Her limbs were tangled in the covers, and a single foot dangled off the side of the bed.

  Greg traced a finger along her jaw, then up around the shell of her ear. He wanted to drag her into his arms, pin her there, keep her near him until he’d spent himself.

  But if he touched her for too long, lingered, he’d have to leave her and whatever had drawn him to her in the first place would only magnify his sense of loss tomorrow.

  He rested his head against her cool cheek for a moment, closing his eyes to take in her scent and remember it to tide him over until…well, just until.

  Greg placed one last kiss on her forehead, dropping a package on Nina’s dresser before leaving as quickly as he’d entered.

  NINA woke with a sense of impending doom.

  Today was the day, and it sucked big, fat man hooters.

  But that was okay, because Wanda’s words had stayed with her long after she’d left. All while she’d guzzled blood like it was booze and way into the wee hours of the morning when they played the stupidest, crappy, sappy shit on some channel called Oxygen. Long into the much-needed shower she took and well into her dreams, which were jagged and fractured.

  Nina knew what she had to do, and she picked up the phone to call her friends to tell them. Friends who’d hung around when they should have ditched her bitchy ass long ago.

  During her big old pity party, she’d finally come to terms with something. She was never going to be human again, and though she might always want that, it wasn’t going to happen.

  Now that she’d come to acceptance, she also knew she didn’t want to live out this thing called immortality without Greg’s guidance.

  And nobody was going to damn well stop her from making that happen.

  Wanda had asked why she hadn’t wrestled Greg to the ground for having the audacity to say no to mating with her, and it had stuck with her all night long.

  Yeah, why hadn’t she?

  Probably because his will was as strong, if not stronger than hers. And if he didn’t at least like her as much as she liked him, why should she beg so they could spend an eternity with him not liking her? Fear of rejection was her answer. Reject him before he rejected her. This way, she’d never be humiliated again the way she’d been with her mother. It had taken her a long time to come to grips with the fact that no matter how much she’d loved her mother, needed Janine in her li
fe, her mother loved drugs more than she even loved herself. She hadn’t rejected Nina as much as she’d rejected life.

  As a kid, she’d spent a lot of time steeling herself, preparing for her mother’s eventual departure. It hurt every time Janine left, and her hopes were dashed so many times, she’d learned to protect herself in her own, harsh, brash way with others who showed any interest in the way of any kind of relationship. If she didn’t let anyone get too close, they couldn’t leave, now could they?

  But this wasn’t about some guy not liking her or the humiliation because he’d rejected her mating wish—Greg would die if he didn’t mate with her, and no amount of pride could be allowed to get in the way of that happening.

  Even hers.

  Her stomach fluttered, hollow and filled with fear. Before she could let her thoughts go to a deep, dark place she shouldn’t allow them to, she picked up the phone and dialed Wanda.

  Wanda answered on the second ring. “Nina? You okay?”

  She nodded resolutely. She was more than okay. “I’m fine. Is Marty still with you, or did she go home to the dog?”

  Wanda’s laughter was light. “Now I know you’re okay. Yeah, she spent the night at my place. What’s up?”

  “Tell her to get her color wheels spinning—we have a mating to prepare for.”

  Wanda breathed into the phone for a moment, then said, “So I see some introspection was had since we left you?”

  “Just get over here. I need help getting ready for my big, fat vampire wedding. I’ll leave the door open for you.” Clicking the phone shut to the tune of Wanda’s gasp, she dropped it on the couch and looked at the clock. It was just six—if she hurried and Marty and Wanda got here soon, she’d have plenty of time to make her twelve o’clock mating.

  She scurried into the bathroom, dropping some more food into poor Larry’s cage as she went. “Sorry, dude, it’s just been really nuts lately, but I promise we’ll have more quality time soon.” Nina patted the top of the cage and ran for the bathroom, stripping her clothes off and turning on her shower.

  While she soaped up and as she washed her hair twice, she fought the insecurity that Greg would refuse her even at the eleventh hour. She couldn’t let that happen, not if she had to duct tape his ass to a chair and latch onto his neck by force. He’d get over the eternity thing, because she said so.

  Toweling off, she heard Marty and Wanda from her bedroom, whispering in frantic, hushed tones. As she threw a nightshirt on she also heard their worry.

  Nina poked a head out of her bedroom door. “Um, vampire here. I can hear you and quit bitching. I’ll be fine.”

  Marty wore a soft gray knit dress with a wide black belt. She toyed with the buckle of it with nervous fingers. “We just want to be sure you’re doing the right thing.”

  Wanda, looking very tired today, fretted out loud. “Are you sure, Nina? I mean, really sure?”

  Nina paused for a moment, uncertain how to express to her friends that this was as sure as she got. “Yeah, I’m sure. If I had to spend eternity feeling the way I did these past couple of days, then I’d rather do death by garlic or something equally as horrible. Yeah, I’m sure.” She turned her back on them to race to her closet to find something suitable to wear. What the hell did you wear to a mating? Probably something that didn’t stain if the bloodletting got out of control.

  She went to her dresser to find some undergarments, when something caught her eye, a flat, square package, wrapped in newspaper. Her fingers trembled when she tore at the paper, dropping it to the floor, revealing a DVD.

  Greg had been here.

  He’d been here.

  But why? When?

  Oh, God, he’d been here. Her throat did that clenching thing while her hands shook. She could barely muster a whisper. “He was here.”

  Marty came into the bedroom with her lavender Bobbie-Sue makeup case. “What are you mumbling?”

  Nina held up the DVD. “He was here.”

  Marty laid the makeup case on Nina’s bed, her blue eyes confused. “Huh?”

  Wanda gave a breathy sigh from the doorway, holding a plastic covered bag in her hand. Her eyes were watery, and her lower lip trembled. She said but one word. “Beaches.”

  Nina gulped hard. “Yeah. Beaches.”

  Greg had left her a DVD of the movie Beaches.

  “Not Full Metal Jacket,” Wanda said as if in a trance.

  Marty clapped her hands to get their attention. “Uh, does one of you want to tell me what you’re talking about?”

  Both Nina and Marty rushed to explain, stumbling over their words and interrupting each other.

  Marty sank to the bed, running her red-tipped nails through her hair. “I think we need to hurry.”

  Wanda hurled the plastic bag at Nina, wiping her eyes.

  Nina caught it. “What’s this?”

  “It’s something appropriate to wear, because God knows you don’t have a suitable ensemble to get married in. I just don’t think a sweatshirt and some holey jeans will work.”

  Nina unzipped the bag, her eyes falling on a simple cream linen dress, square at the neck and slim fitting. “Yours?” she asked, looking at Wanda.

  “Yes. I wore it to one of my customer’s bat mitzvah’s last year. I’m a bit bigger than you in the chest, but I figure you’ll make up for it in the booty.”

  Nina laughed, throwing her arms around Wanda’s neck. “Thanks.”

  Wanda disentangled herself from Nina and gave her a mocking look.“You’d better knock it off, or I won’t believe this is really you.”

  “Girls!” Marty shouted. “Look at the time. If we don’t hurry up, we’ll miss our midnight deadline.”

  “We have four hours,” Nina complained.

  Marty cocked a skeptical eyebrow at Nina. “Do you have any clue the amount of time it’s going to take to whip you into shape? It’ll take at least an hour to pluck those eyebrows, not to mention figure out what to do with that rat’s nest on your head. This is a task I’d compare to conquering world hunger—so we need to get on it—like now.”

  Nina rolled her tongue along the inside of her mouth, approaching Marty. “You know, Marty, don’t make me show you that vampire beats werewolf every time.”

  Marty cocked a skeptical eyebrow at Nina. “Well, Wanda, so much for our Nina intervention.”

  Wanda pushed her way between them, putting her arms around them both, smiling. “Some things never change. Now cut it out, and let’s do this and quit fighting. Marty, you find some eye shadow in your power pack of makeup. I’m calling Smoky Mountain Grey with Deep Foliage Green as an accent. Nina’s eyes are so damned black, it’ll make them dark and seductive. Who could resist her if she’s got sexy, smoldering eyes? Oh, and grab the Passive Pink lip gloss—it’s almost sheer, and it’ll perfectly play up her cheekbones.”

  Three hours later, Nina was a lot further in than she’d first thought she’d be.

  “God, Nina. You look incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so beautiful.” Wanda dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.

  “Knock it off, Wanda.” Nina’s embarrassment was showing.

  “No, I mean it. Doesn’t she look fab, Marty?”

  Marty nodded her head. “I gotta say, Wanda’s right. You’re gorgeous.” She swatted at Nina’s cheek with the makeup brush. “Stop licking your mouth, you’ll wipe off your lip gloss.”

  Nina scoffed. She had enough lip gloss on to stick her to a wall, for Christ’s sake. She’d been buffed, plucked, yanked, and tortured by this thing called a plunge bra—which really should be called chain mail—to within an inch of her life. Yet, there was a small part of her that wished she could see what she looked like.

  Wanda’s hand went to her mouth. “I forgot, you can’t see what you look like clearly, can you? Want me to describe it?”

  “Not a lot,” Nina said dryly, knowing full well that was a lie.

  Wanda rolled her eyes. “Oh, you do, too. Okay, here goes. Your hair is pulled back in
a ponytail, but waved all over your head, and you have soft curls that surround your face. It falls down along your back at least two inches past your bra. It gleams from that shine and texture stuff Marty put in it. She threaded some kind of ribbon around it, too. Your eyelids are a smoky gray, they look like bedroom eyes. That’s what my grandmother called it, and your lips are pouty and subtle, but the best thing about you is your cheekbones. God, you have perfect cheekbones.”

  “The dress fits you better than it ever did me. It’s simple, but sophisticated and shows off the waist I never knew you had.”

  Nina looked down. The nylons they’d stuffed her into were scratchy, and her feet hurt already from the low-heeled beige pumps. But she was grateful. They hadn’t just stopped everything they were doing to help her, they’d made it a special affair. She was getting married, uh, mated under the craziest of circumstances, and yet they’d made it seem like it was a mating between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

  “Um, thanks. I know I don’t say that often, but you guys sorta rock.”

  “Sorta?” Marty tilted her head.

  Nina laughed. “Just a little, not a lot.”

  Wanda rose from the bed and planted her hands on her hips. “So, girls, are we in?”

  Nina looked at Marty who smiled wickedly. “In,” they repeated.

  “Let’s just hope Greg’s in,” Nina muttered.

  Marty gave her a playful shove. “Like you’d let a little thing like him saying no stop you? Puuullllease. Now let’s go and hope there’s no traffic.”

  Nina gave one last glance downward at the fall of her dress, catching a glimpse of her shoes. Christ, her feet were killing her.

  If Greg wouldn’t mate with her, she’d take off these damned torture devices and fucking stab him in the eye with the heel of her shoes.