Chapter Three
Mia felt Alexander’s hands on her, trying to comfort her, but she flinched and moved away.
“You didn’t tell her, did you?” the other man said.
“No,” Alex admitted.
“Fucking idiot,” the man said. “Here, take this.”
More hands on her shoulders, comforting ones. “Take a deep breath,” the man told her. “You’re hyperventilating. You’re going to pass out if you don’t slow down. Breathe slowly.” Then, “She’s human, nothing fancy?”
“Yes,” Alex said shortly.
“Jesus,” the man muttered. “I’m going to carry you over to the bench, okay?” he told her.
She nodded and felt arms under her legs and behind her back. She was carried to the bench a few paces from the smoking outline of the demon.
“I’m Wyatt,” the man said.
“Mia,” she gasped. She would never get all her name out in one breath.
Wyatt didn’t just put her on the bench. He sat on it and put her on his lap.
She went back to breathing deeply. Slowly, the sickness ebbed.
“Feeling better?” Wyatt asked.
She nodded. “What’s a hunter?” she croaked.
“You know nothing about this stuff?”
“What stuff?”
“Oh, wow,” he breathed. He had black eyes, like hers but he was not Latino. He had white skin and laugh lines around his eyes but it looked like it had been a long time since he had laughed. He held his mouth in a straight line and there was a furrow between his brows, like he was more used to anger than laughter now.
Alexander settled on the bench next to them, holding the shotgun. He looked comfortable holding it. “There’s no one else around,” he said. “I did a full circuit.”
“He’d know,” Wyatt said, with a jerk of his head in Alexander’s direction. “They have superior animal instincts.”
She winced.
“You have to forgive him for not telling you,” Wyatt added. “They’re not allowed to. Right?” he said, looking at Alexander.
“Right,” Alex said heavily.
“But now we have to figure out why the demon wanted you,” Wyatt finished.
“Me?” Mia said, jumping.
“Shhh,” Wyatt soothed. “The demon was trying to get past your friend to get to you. That’s why your friend kept pushing you behind him.”
“Alexander. My friend is Alexander.”
“Right,” Wyatt said. He glanced at Alexander. “Whatever.”
Mia recalled the moments again. Alex had handed her the one reliable weapon that would slow the creature down, then put her behind him again and pulled out a knife from his sleeve somehow.
“You always carry a knife up your sleeve?” she asked Alex.
“Always,” he said. He hesitated.
“What he wants to tell you and won’t, coz he’s so practiced at not telling you, is that there’s a war on,” Wyatt said.
Alexander expelled a sharp breath. Was it in relief, or unhappiness?
“There’s fucking demons after her,” Wyatt snapped at him. “You wanna protect her into her grave?”
“A war? Between whom?” Mia asked, bewildered.
“Oy vey,” Wyatt muttered.
“You can’t tell her everything,” Alexander protested.
“Why not?” Wyatt demanded. “She’s a member of the club now.”
“Because a demon wants her? Perhaps he just wanted her because she was with me. We don’t know!”
“You afraid she’ll hate you if she finds it all out, vampire?”
Alexander fell silent and Mia knew that Wyatt had touched a raw nerve in him, one she didn’t know he had. She caught at Wyatt’s sleeve. “Don’t,” she said quietly. “Leave him alone. You don’t understand.”
Wyatt turned to look at her, glaring, as if he were about to snarl an equally pithy comment at her but stopped. He brushed her hair aside. “Damn, you’re beautiful,” he said, his voice rough.
She found herself caught by his eyes, snagged by the beauty of them. It was quite uncanny the way he held her gaze there. Such strength. That was the overwhelming impression she had of Wyatt.
Mia realized her breath was speeding up along with her heart rate.
And her clit was throbbing.
She gasped as she recognized that she was responding to Wyatt. No, this was impossible! She had only ever responded to one man….
“Alex!” she whispered, focusing on Wyatt’s face. She noticed his lips which were full, even when compressed in angry lines.
“Oh god, the dream,” Alexander said to himself with a tone of stunned amazement. He shifted on the bench to face them both properly. “I can feel your need, Mia,” he told her in a murmur. “I can see it in your face. Kiss him.”
Wyatt blinked, straightening up his spine in a stiff, defensive posture. “What?”
“Kiss her, Wyatt. I know you want to,” Alexander said.
“What is this bullshit?” Wyatt said roughly, looking at both of them. But he made no move to shift Mia from his knee and his hands were still around her waist.
Mia slid her hands through Wyatt’s rough, unruly hair and slowly brought his head to hers and kissed him. His lips were quite different from Alexander’s and at first, they were frozen in shock. She explored the shape of them with her tongue.
Wyatt groaned and grabbed her head and kissed her back. His tongue probed her mouth and swept against her lips.
He was hot, hard and male and Mia could feel her clit swell and throb and her pussy cream in response. Tears pricked her eyes. How could she do this to Alexander, who sat right there? But there was an erotic wickedness knowing that Alex had told her to do it. Was he enjoying it?
She pulled away from Wyatt, her breath uneven and glanced at Alexander. He seemed unmoved but his eyes were very blue in the lamplight. Wide and dilated.
Wyatt wiped the corner of his mouth with a shaking hand. “Perhaps Mia isn’t the only one who doesn’t understand what is going on. What just happened then? That was no ordinary kiss. I felt…I can…feel…you.” He was looking at her. “I can feel your arousal.”
Alexander nodded. “So can I,” he said. “That’s what the demon wanted. He wanted to stop the bonding.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a cell phone. “We’re going to need help and I know just the people.”
* * * * *
Wyatt shot to his feet again. “Hold it. You’re telling me the bonding is permanent?”
Zachariah didn’t flinch. “That’s right.”
“It changes you?”
“Yes,” Seaveth responded.
Mia shivered.
“All in order to fight the Grimoré, who haven’t actually shown their faces yet?”
“They have, as it happens,” Lindál said, from across the room.
Mia found Lindál the most fascinating of all. He was an elf. An elf. He had been born elvish. Vampires, she could get her mind around with a bit of juggling and thinking. Even hunters and, well, demons. But she kept finding her gaze drawn back to Lindál, to the sheer perfection of his skin and the glow that came from it.
Seaveth also glowed. She had explained the glow had come from the changes that had occurred as a result of the bonding process.
The bonding that Mia now faced…if Wyatt cooperated.
Lindál straightened from his lean against the window. Snow was sliding down the glass just on the other side, melting and dribbling tiny rivulets of water down the pane before them. He had been watching the snow splat against the window as they talked. “Seaveth spoke to an agent of the Grimoré this morning,” he told them. “He wanted to make a deal. She told him to go to hell.”
“You mean we had a chance to stop the war altogether? Why didn’t you take it?” Wyatt demanded.
Seaveth held up her hand. “It wasn’t a deal any of us could stomach. Even you, Wyatt. Could you have stood aside and let the Grimoré harvest humans while you turned a blind eye?”
Wyatt grimaced.
Seaveth said softly, “These trinities, Wyatt, are our key to defeating the Grimoré. The prophecy tells us so and the first trinity—Zack, Lindál and I—has proved to be far more powerful against the vampeen than any other vampire or elven force put together. If I am right, then three trinities are the key. You, Alexander and Mia make up the second trinity. You need to allow the bonding to go ahead.”
Wyatt crossed his arms. When they had first arrived at Alexander’s apartment, he had removed his overcoat to reveal a sleeveless shirt and tight black jeans molded over thick thighs. The shirt displayed his well-developed, tanned shoulders and neck. The flesh covered fighter’s muscles and showed many faded scars. Wyatt kept his body conditioned.
Now he looked at Seaveth. “With all due respect, ma’am, I’m a hunter, not a warrior.”
“Really?” She smiled. “To look at you, with your scars, one could argue that you’ve been fighting a war already. The demons you hunt have been recruited by the Grimoré. They used the demon to attack Mia, knowing we would not expect an attack from such a quarter. Your quarry has become ours. You have been included in the war whether you like it or not.”
Wyatt frowned. “I don’t hunt in teams.”
“Once the bonding has been completed and the war is over, you can go your own way once more,” Seaveth responded calmly. “You may find you no longer wish to. I’ll be frank, Wyatt. The bonding will change you in ways you cannot predict.”
Wyatt rubbed the back of his neck. “I really don’t have any choice about this?”
“None of us do,” Lindál said. “The bonding process is a mystery to us all. Why it chooses who it does is unknown to us. There are ancient forces at work, is all that we can tell you. Call it fate, if it suits you better.”
“Fuck fate, if it decides I have to bond with a fucking vampire!” Wyatt railed.
Everyone seemed to recoil a step at the fury in Wyatt’s voice. Mia realized that most of the people in the room were vampires. Both Zachariah and Alexander were. Seaveth had bonded with one. Diego was not an elf so therefore must be a vampire too. Only she and Wyatt were fully human.
Mia realized that Seaveth was looking at her. In her mind she heard a quiet whisper in Seaveth’s well-modulated tones. Talk to him. Seaveth turned her head to look at Wyatt once more, where the man stood with his fists clenched, anger pouring off him.
Mia shivered. How was she to speak to a man so wrapped up in his own rage?
Zachariah cleared his throat. “Alexander, I need you to come over to our place to pick up that stuff.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out keys, heading for the door. Alexander followed him.
Seaveth turned to Mia and kissed her cheek. “I’m so pleased to meet you. Here’s my cell phone number.” She pressed a card into Mia’s palm. “I’m heading home with Zack and Alexander but Lindál can have me here inside a heartbeat. You know about elves, don’t you?”
Mia shook her head.
“Teleportation.” Seaveth smiled. “Better than Zack’s Maserati if you’re in a hurry.”
Diego, Lindál and Seaveth left, leaving her alone with Wyatt.
Mia went to him and took his fist in her hand. “Sit, Wyatt. Sit down.”
“You sent them away, somehow.”
“Seaveth did.”
He took a deep breath and folded onto the couch. He put his elbows on his knees and rested his forehead on the base of his hands. “Fuck,” he muttered.
She realized that he was trembling.
“What is it about vampires?” she asked. “Why do you hate them so much?”
“Ancient history,” he whispered.
She kicked off her boots, climbed onto the sofa and massaged his neck and shoulders. It was like digging into iron but she kept at it, knowing that it kept Wyatt’s focus away from what she was asking.
“Tell me,” she coaxed. “I have so much to learn. I didn’t know vampires really existed until a couple of hours ago.”
For several minutes he didn’t speak and Mia kept silent, knowing that the silence would prompt him. Finally, he spoke with obvious reluctance. “I had a partner once. About eight years ago he was turned by a vampire, who fucked off after that. My partner—what was my partner—woke and fed on the first thing it could find, all animal instincts and no guide to help it through the waking.” He signed heavily. “The first thing it found to feed upon was my…my wife.”
He hunched over and Mia wrapped her arms around his wide shoulders, hugging him.
“She was pregnant,” he whispered and Mia felt the agony rip through him as he spoke the word.
She breathed in her shock. “Oh, Wyatt.”
He shook his head, trying to deny her sympathy, but he didn’t shrug off her hold and after a moment, his hand caught at hers.
They stayed that way for long moments then Wyatt straightened up, flexing his shoulders, as if her sympathy had reminded him he was revealing too much of himself.
“Vampires were taken off the official prey list eighty years ago. But I hunted it down and made damn sure it took as long to die as Julie had and then some.” His jaw set hard and his mouth was a grim straight line. “So much for them taking care of their own, the fuckers. I can’t believe I’m sitting in the lair of one of their kind.”
He jerked onto his feet and it unbalanced her. Mia flailed, knowing she was going to fall flat on her ass on the floor.
Wyatt reached out and plucked at her arm. He caught her and lifted her back onto the sofa cushions next to him once more. Then he frowned. “How much do you weigh?”
She blushed. “Well….”
“No, no coy stuff. I’m strong but not that strong. I just moved you with one arm. That’s not possible even for someone as tiny as you. How much?”
She told him her true weight.
“You must have real muscle packed away.”
“I work out.”
“It shows. Seaveth said her reactions got faster before the final bonding. Sit up. Remember that kid’s game of hand slap?” He sat on the sofa once more, but this time he faced her squarely and held his hand out, palm down.
“I was always very good at it,” she warned and rested hers on top of his. Her hand looked small against his tanned one but Alexander’s hand was even bigger than Wyatt’s.
Wyatt tried to slap her hand five times and missed. Then they traded places. Five hard slaps later, Wyatt shook his hand. “Strong, too. Jesus. Hold out your hands.” He threaded his fingers through hers. “Now push back as I push. Let me feel how strong your upper body is.”
He steadily began to push against her hands and Mia pushed back, giving it all she had, staring into Wyatt’s eyes.
“Strong,” he whispered. “Damn strong.”
But she didn’t care. She suddenly wanted him to kiss her. All over. Her pussy crawled, hollow and achy. She used her grip on Wyatt’s hands to bring him toward her. “Fuck me, Wyatt.”
“What about your precious vampire?”
“He knows,” she said. “That’s why he left.”
“He’s…almost human, isn’t he?”
“He was, only ten years ago.”
He stared at her, his focus inward, then swore. “You knew him then, didn’t you? You thought he had died.”
She nodded. “I saw him earlier today and couldn’t believe my eyes. Ten years ago they told me Alexander had been murdered. My brother told me they had taken him into a basement, put him on his knees, put a gun against the base of his skull, told him what his crimes against the commission were, then pulled the trigger.”
Wyatt kissed her. “He probably was shot,” he said gently.
She caught her breath in dismay and retrograde fear. “No…”
“That’s how many of them are made. They die and are turned before the spirit is lost.” He cupped her face, his expression softening. “But he’s giving you to me first. Do you mind?”
“Alexander left his mark on me a long time ago. Here.” She touched he
r heart. “Now I know that I will be with Alexander again, I can wait. Now I need your mark.” She smiled a little. “Do you mind?”
He considered that. “Surprisingly, no. I feel like I should be pissed about being yanked around by mystical forces I have no control over, but it seems petty and distant when you’re sitting next to me.” He grinned. “Women like you used to have me running in the opposite direction, too.”
She held out her arms. “Come here, then.”
He put his hands around her waist and took another breath. “It’s been a very long time for me. After Julie, I turned it all inward and took it out on demons.”
She snuggled up to him. “It’s been a very long time for me too.”
“Impossible,” he growled.
“Try me and see.”
He snaked his hand up her back and buried it in her hair. “You really are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever had the privilege to kiss.” He nuzzled her lips with his.
“You’re not going to resist the bonding impulse?” she whispered. “When vampires have done so much to ruin your life?”
“For now, the way I see it,” he said, his lips trailing down her throat and lingering over her frantically beating pulse, “Seaveth is right. My life just joined up with the war effort. Anyway, it appears there are—” His other hand cupped her ass and squeezed. “Compensations.”
She smiled. “This compensation is getting impatient.”
He lifted his head, his dark eyes twinkling. “That so? Be careful. I’ll make you wait all night just for asking.”
“You wouldn’t.”
He lifted a brow. “Want to test me?” He unfastened the buttons on his shirt and Mia caught her breath, watching. She had never found the sight of a man undressing so erotic before but now each loosened button was an event, as more of Wyatt’s bare chest came into view.
Wyatt smiled. “You have a feral look on your face.” His voice was low and hoarse. “I hope you never look like that in a business setting. Your male colleagues would be toast for the day.”
He dropped the shirt to the ground and Mia swallowed. Yes, Wyatt was a warrior. His shoulders and chest were hard with muscles and tendons and scarred by old battles. The scars were faded now, but not gone. His tanned flesh flexed over the muscles beneath as he moved. She got to her knees in front of him and laid her hands against his chest. His skin was hot and soft and rippled as she stroked it. He gasped at her touch.
Mia's Return Page 6
