He tore into it, devouring the whole slab. Slowly, the gunshot wound closed. By the time he’d finished, it was a nice shiny scar. Pretty remarkable for a hole that had been the size of a cantaloupe. The gash on his cheek, though, was still an angry red color.
He touched his scar. “I usually heal this fast, even when the wound is bad. I always thought it was vampire blood—”
“Feel sorry for yourself when you’re safe. Danial’s people are coming. There may be foxes around even now. Get up.”
He picked up his knife and got to his feet, sheathing it.
“Where’s your car?” I asked. “I’ll help you get to it.”
“I don’t have one,” he said lamely.
I rolled my eye, and sighed. Why couldn’t helping him be quick or easy? “Then how did you get here?”
“I hitched a ride as far as the Pennsylvania border. I walked the rest of the way. It wasn’t that far.” He shrugged. “I don’t tire easily.”
It was a hundred and fifty mile hike and he described it as if it was a half-hour walk. Walking out of here the way he’d walked in wasn’t going to work this time. I didn’t want to do it, but I didn’t have a choice. “Take my husband’s car. It’s the red one in the garage. I assume you can drive?”
He gave me another surprised look.
“I’m a widow,” I snapped. “And I’m not giving you the car. I expect it back, with some reimbursement for the miles you’ll put on it. But taking the car is the best way. Now come on—”
“Why?” he said, his eyes searching mine.
“Why what?” I said tiredly.
“Why are you helping me, after all that's happened?”
“Because you told me some things I’m very glad to know, even if I hated to hear them. This was a misunderstanding, even if Danial doesn’t see it that way. And because Asher trusted you. She never trusts anyone.”
“You’re trusting your cat as a judge of my character? You can’t be serious—”
“Even just letting me see she was with you is completely at odds with what I know of her. She’s scared of everything, but she felt safe with you. I’m taking that as a sign that I should help you. Now move it, before I change my mind.”
He looked at me thoughtfully, and then said, “I’ll bring you back the car. And I owe you.” He clasped my hand and gave it a brief squeeze.
God, his hands were hot. I tried not to recoil, but it was almost more than I could bear, like boiling water. He saw me jerk and abruptly let go.
“Sorry.”
He got into the late model Forester, started the engine, and backed out of the garage. The passenger window rolled down. “I’ll contact you when I’m safe and arrange to get you your car back.”
“I’d rather you write than call,” I said. “Just tell me what parking lot you leave it in and I’ll arrange—”
“Don’t let him back in your life. You’ll end up dead or a slave.”
“You have to go. Now.”
“Staying with him will kill you.”
“It’s my decision, and only I can make it.”
“That’s true,” he said with a sad smile. “Good-bye.”
He drove off as I closed the garage and walked back to the site of the battle. Except for Danial’s blood, a hole in the ground still wafting up a bitter smell of sulfur, and the remaining weapons, there was nothing but flattened grass. I kicked some earth over the blood and into the hole. I reholstered the gun, berating myself for not doing that before helping Danial inside, then picked up the stake and Danial’s knife. I tried to wipe them off on the nearby long grass, but that just seemed to smear the blood. I held them away from me so as not to get any on me. My stomach rolled. I could still smell the sulfur odor, which made me nauseous.
Inside, I washed the blood off both weapons, wrapped them in paper towels, and put them in a plastic container. Then I tried to clean the remaining blood off my hands.
Danial’s came off easily as it had before, but Terian’s seemed impervious to the soap and water. I tried makeup remover that had worked for me in the past on oil paint but had no success. Panicking, I turned the water hot and scrubbed my hands hard with a nailbrush. I scoured my hands raw to get it off, and even then, it left a slight stain. I was concerned but not scared enough to ask Danial about it. He’d gotten Terian’s blood on himself and hadn’t seemed worried about it.
It was after ten. I let the dogs out, made a cat check, and grabbed a couple cookies from a jar on the counter before I turned off the lights. I was in bed and almost asleep when the phone rang.
“Sar, its Theo. Are you okay? I got a call from Danial saying everything was fine, but the...uh...other guards out there can’t find Terian’s body. We searched the field and your barn.”
Shit, that was close. “I’m fine. The gun worked great. Danial says he’s okay, though he nearly got a stake through the chest. I saw Terian was gone when I went back out to get the weapons. I put dirt over the blood—”
“I see that. Thank you, but it wasn’t necessary. Damage control is an everyday thing for me.”
Was that supposed to be comforting? Maybe it was. “Okay.”
“Relax and get some sleep. You’re in good hands. I have guards watching that won’t succumb to magic like the last ones did.”
“Thanks Theo. Are the…other guards okay?”
“Yes, we found everybody. One had been shot a few houses over, but she’s okay, it was just a few pellets. She’ll be as good as new.”
It had been close but no one had actually died during Terian’s siege. Part of that was because I’d helped make that happen. I felt a rush of pride and a large dose of relief.
“Sar, are you there?”
“Theo, I’m exhausted and I’m going to sleep in. Do not come in the house and wake me unless it’s an emergency.”
“Roger that. We’ll let you and Danial sleep. Goodnight.”
Chapter Eleven
My eyes snapped open and my body tensed as adrenaline spiked through my veins. Another metallic rumbling sounded, then a whoosh of air.
Stupid. I’d heard the furnace.
I’d forgotten to stock the fire before I went to sleep. That was twice in two nights. And just like usual, in late October, the temperature had dropped during the night. I was using up my precious fuel.
Grumbling, I climbed out of bed, stepped over the sleeping dogs, and went out to the wood stove. The heat from the two big dogs and me had kept my small bedroom comfortable, but it was colder outside my room. I checked the thermometer. Fifty-two degrees. I opened the wood stove door, emptied the cold ashes into a steel bucket, and started a new fire. As soon as the flame was steady, I put on my coat and slipped on my boots. A blast of cold air hit me as I opened the front door, shocking me fully awake. As I trudged outside, I saw the first flakes of snow whirling down and remembered that it was Halloween. The snow was only a small dusting blown into patterns by the brisk wind. I scattered the ashes on the gravel driveway in front of the house and dashed back inside. Taking off my boots and coat, I settled down to watch the fire for a few minutes. I couldn’t go back to bed until the flame was a nice roaring blaze guaranteed not to go out.
I held my hands in front of the glass door and felt the first faint heat. I put more logs in and the fire blazed. That should do it.
“Is everything okay?”
I let out a squeal and whipped my head around. Danial stood in the shadows near the cellar stairs.
“I heard the front door open, but I didn’t hear anyone but you moving around.”
“Everything’s okay. I just forgot to build up the fire. But its set now and I’m going back to bed.”
“Your furnace is on. Why did you get up to start a fire?”
“I have to pay for oil to run the furnace. I can cut wood to burn in the stove. It costs a lot less in terms of money.”
“I’ll give you money,” Danial said. “I want you to be comfortable—”
“I don’t want your money,”
I said, leveling my eyes at him. “It might come with rules that you don’t tell me until I’m already bound by them.”
He sat beside me. He looked much better, although there was a definite pallor to his skin and he moved stiffly. He was dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt. I smelled a familiar scent of nutmeg and cedar. He’d probably showered in my guest bathroom after I’d gone to bed.
“I’m glad you’re awake. I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow night to talk to you.” He paused. “I’d like to say a few things.”
“Then say them.”
“To start, if I’d have told you that I was the only one who could remove the choker , would you have let me put it on you?”
“That depends—”
“On what?”
“On…on whether or not I believed you would remove it if I asked you to.”
“Do you want me to remove it now?”
My first thought, insane as it sounded, was no. I had begun to think of the choker as some kind of mystical armor. Wearing it would be safer, no question. But I resented feeling owned
“Sar, yes or no?”
“Yes, please,” I whispered. “At least for now.”
He motioned for me to sit in front of him, and I scooted over. I felt his hands at the back of my neck, a small sliding sound of metal on metal, and then the choker fell off, into my lap. I reached down and picked it up. It was still as beautiful as when I first saw it, but it was a relief to have it off.
“Are you happy now?” Danial growled softly from behind me.
“No, as a matter of fact I’m not—”
“Did you ever consider the main reason it can’t be removed by anyone but me was for your safety? It can’t be left behind, lost, or forcibly removed. Any vampire or any supernatural creature who trifles with anyone wearing one of these forfeits their life, no matter what reason or who they are.”
“Says who?”
“It’s common knowledge,” Danial said flatly. “A law, you might say.”
“I understand that,” I said grudgingly. “But what if you refused to take it off? What if you die? I still think it’s beautiful, but that doesn’t mean I want to wear it every day for the rest of my life.”
“I had hoped you would,” Danial said softly. I felt his breath on my neck and wanted so much to relax against him, but I stayed where I was.
“If I died, you’d know. The choker would fall off a few seconds after my heart ceased to beat. If you had waited a few minutes longer yesterday, you’d have been rid of us both.” He said the last with bitter sadness.
Comforting him wasn’t on my agenda. He still had a couple more things to answer for. “Are you really five hundred years old?”
“No,” he said, chuckling. “But I’m about four hundred. I was born in 1604, or close to that. Things were different then. My village didn’t have a daily paper; in fact, I think the only book in the entire county was a bible. The local priest had that, and I’m not even sure if it was a real bible. None of us could read or write. I didn’t learn more than my own name until after I was made vampire. Years were counted by the turn of seasons and noted by scratched marks on a piece of wood. Sometimes mistakes were made.” He leaned closer to my neck and whispered coldly, “And don’t think you can play the martyr with me.”
I froze, thinking of Terian, but he was on a different tirade.
“You may think you’re poor, but you have no idea what true poverty is. I experienced it firsthand through my first two hundred years of life. Just because I have money now doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate how hard it is to be without it. I care about you. I want to make your life easier. Don’t throw the gift back in my face out of some warped sense of righteousness.”
Now it was my turn to feel ashamed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. But I want to be clear that I don’t expect you to give me money because we…because we’re—”
“Intimate?” he supplied with a leer. “Lovers?”
I blushed, glad my back was to him. “Yes,” I said curtly.
“It’s my feelings for you that make me offer. I understand you’re independent and used to taking care of yourself. But I want you to have an easier time of it than you had trying to go it alone. I want to take care of you. It’s your right, as befitting your station.”
“What station?”
“As my lover.” He nibbled the back of my neck, his hands sliding down my arms. “That is, if you still want to be.”
Did I ever. God, his lips felt good. I could feel little pricks where his fangs brushed against me...
Focus! “What about the shirt?”
Danial paused what he was doing. “What about it?”
“Did you take some of my life force? Did you deliberately try to seduce me with a spell to get me to feed you?”
He didn’t reply. I shifted back from the fire and made to get up, but he pulled me off balance and I went down, falling into his waiting arms. I struggled in vain as he rolled me over on the carpet and straddled me, holding both my arms over my head with one hand, while the other caressed my cheek. I fumed as I looked at him above me, his upper half silhouetted by the fire. His eyes sparkled, his face in shadow.
“Now, Sarelle,” he purred, “why would I need to seduce you to get you to feed me?”
He stretched down against me. I felt my body betray my anger as my breasts hardened and my breaths came faster.
“You gave me your blood when I was a stranger, willingly.” He leaned in closer as if to kiss me, but remained just out of reach. His dark eyes were locked on mine, filled with desire and familiar arrogance. He bent down to kiss my throat. “You gave yourself to me a night later, with no hesitation.”
His lips moved to the side of my throat. He ran a fang down my neck. I writhed, both in desire and a touch of fear.
“That was a dream. I knew it—”
“You knew nothing of the sort,” he said, his breath warm against my neck. He drew back and used his free hand to start unbuttoning my nightshirt.
“Stop,” I said, my breath tearing out of me.
“Stop what?” he said teasingly. “You want me, just like you have from the first moment you saw me. I can feel your body beneath mine, aching for me. Just as I’m aching for you.”
He continued unbuttoning my top.
“Stop screwing around! I need to know if you—”
“It was your fantasy. A predictable one,” he said, his hand on the next to last button. He paused to run that hand between my breasts, up to clasp my throat. “But I was never in control of you. I couldn’t feed from you—not that I didn’t try. You seemed so willing to let me. But I couldn’t draw any energy from you and I awoke hungry, almost ravenous.”
“Terian was right—”
His hand tightened on my throat. “Why are you so determined to be the victim? Nothing happened that you didn’t choose to happen.” He gave me a half smile, his eyes growing darker. He brought his hand back to my nightshirt and undid the last button. He pushed my shirt to each side, baring my breasts and my lower body as he gave me a slow savoring look. That nimble hand slid up to grip my neck loosely. I knew he could feel how fast my heart beat. “That you could resist and take control from me in the dream amazed me.” His voice was full of wonder and affection. “No one has ever been able to do that. Not with me. Not in three hundred and seventy-five years.”
He let go of my throat and slid his hand down to brush my breast with the back of it. He moved lower, touching my mound. I let out a gasp and then a moan as he caressed me.
“Please, Danial,” I said, moving beneath him.
“Please what?” His finger slipped inside me. We both could feel how ready I was for him. He slipped out of me and pulled his sweat pants off. He straddled me again in a flash. I could feel the tip of him pushing against me, wanting in.
“You want me inside you, to feel my touch, my kiss.” His words were ragged, his breath fast. He pressed himself against me, and just the tip of him entered. He st
ayed there, just inside, waiting, watching me.
“Tell me you want me.” Danial’s voice was so deep with need it was almost a command. “Tell me, Sar,” he whispered, brushing his lips with mine. His head dipped lower to my right breast. He took my nipple in his mouth, while his hand cupped my other breast. He sucked hard, his fangs grazing me, and I cried out. He drew his lips away and kissed the side of my neck.
“Tell me, Sar,” he whispered between kisses.
“Please, Danial, I want you so badly—”
He bore down as I shoved up against him to bury him inside me. He pushed himself in and out quickly, kissing me passionately. His fangs scratched my mouth and I tasted blood. His tongue slipped in, tasting me, and he moaned, thrusting faster. I felt his body spasm, his orgasm breaking over him as he groaned into my mouth. I was close, too, so close because of what he’d done, and I came with him, screaming his name, clutching him to me as he emptied himself into me.
He uttered a loud, gratified sigh, then gave me a tender kiss. He rolled onto his back, pulling me with him, still inside, growing smaller. We were both sweaty. The room that had seemed so cold an hour before was now like an oven. My heart hammered so fast I felt like it was going to break through my rib cage. I put my ear to Danial’s chest, listening for his heart. It was definitely beating faster than it had been in daylight.
“Are you checking to make sure it’s beating?” he asked, nuzzling me.
“It was so much slower that morning I woke up with you.”
“It’s always a little slower in the daytime, especially when I’m resting. But never as fast as yours. Depending on the activity, of course,” he added, laughing.
The sex had been great, but everything between us wasn’t back to normal. “Why did you lie about your age?” I asked.
“Because I’m so old,” he replied. “I saw in your eyes how upsetting it was to think I was several decades older. I was worried you might decide it was too much if you really knew how old I was.”
“It does make me feel a little strange,” I said gently. “But that alone won’t keep me from being with you.”
Promise Me Page 14
