by Kate Wendley
Luckily he stopped and gestured towards the door at the very bottom of the stairs. “Ma’am.”
She straightened her spine and said, “Thank you.” She quietly knocked, then slowly turned the handle as the guard stood by and waited. She looked back at him and he gave her a curious look. A couple men came down the dimly lit sub-basement hall towards them, then, and she didn’t know if they were vampire or shifter and decided she didn’t want to be out here anymore. She scooted inside the equally dimly lit apartment and shut the door firmly behind her.
She stood in the middle of a living room only slightly bigger than her own, with a kitchen at the back that was definitely no bigger than hers. A dim nightlight was plugged into the far wall, and there was an open door to the right of it. To her left was a closed door on the opposite side of the living room, and a hallway that led further back from there.
The size of this place confused her. The Master Vampire of the entire Atlanta territory lived here with Sebastian and Zach, but this place just looked like any old apartment. It wasn’t even full of expensive looking stuff. Oh, except for the TV and stereo system. That all looked kind of nice.
She tried to calm down and focused on using her cat’s extra sensitive senses to figure out where Sebastian was, and also if anyone else was here.
Without too much effort, she realized she only felt one other person here with her, and they were in the room to her left. She slowly walked towards the closed door and definitely smelled Sebastian. He was here. She smiled to herself that her senses were so much stronger than they used to be. She was still getting used to these new feelings from Liam’s blood, and if his blood was only slightly stronger than hers had been, she wondered what kinds of things Sebastian must be able to feel.
She quietly turned the handle to his room and slowly opened the door. It was dark inside, but with the light from the kitchen she could see someone lying on the bed. Sebastian’s musky, masculine scent was stronger in here, and it made her feel warm and safe as it cocooned around her.
She shut the door behind her and quietly slipped out of her shoes and put her things on the ground while Sebastian shifted in his sleep. As carefully as she could, she got on the bed and tried not to wake him, but he immediately pulled the covers back.
“Hi.”
She relaxed and smiled in the dark. “Hi. Did I wake you?”
“Everything wakes me. Come here.”
She lay down and cuddled with him under the warm covers, surprised to find he was completely naked. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close, nuzzling into her before quickly falling back asleep.
She lay there for a time wondering what to do. She’d just gotten off work so she wasn’t really tired, but he was zonked out. And this was a foreign place for her, which made her cat a little nervous, but it was so quiet and dark that after not very long at all, she drifted off.
**
Sebastian woke to soft breathing and the intoxicating scent of Jade. He opened his eyes and quietly moaned, surprised and happy that she was here. She didn’t stir with his movements. She might be jumpy, but apparently not with him. They’d never slept together before, either, and he liked the feeling of waking up next to her.
He tried to be still so he didn’t disturb her, but his muscles were tight and he needed to stretch. He unwrapped himself from her and she finally woke.
She yawned and said, “Good morning sleepyhead.” After stretching out, he rolled on top of her and she let out a squeal as she laughed.
“Good morning.” He gave her a peck on the lips, her bare hands feeling nice on his back.
She quietly said, “Do you always sleep naked?”
“Yep.”
She chuckled.
“How about you?”
“No.”
“That’s a shame.”
Before she could say anything else, he passionately kissed her, then made his way with kisses to her neck. His wolf liked to nuzzle and nip at her, and her body always responded nicely to it.
After too short a time, she innocently said, “You smell like smoke.”
He froze, rolled off of her luscious body, then turned on his bedside lamp before jumping out of bed.
“I’m going to go shower quick. Are you ok here? Make yourself at home here, or out there, or wherever.”
Her eyes on his body was nice, but he didn’t want to think about Jade and what happened at the ranch earlier today in the same thought. They were two completely different parts of his life and he wanted to keep it that way, so he needed to get this smell off him.
She looked confused and unsure, but said, “Ok.”
**
Sebastian showered as he thought about what he was doing with Jade. He wanted her so bad, but at the same time he knew there’d always be a wall between them. His life was what it was, and the only people that really understood were Anthony, Zach, and maybe Torin. Zach and Torin were almost as squeamish as each other, actually, but maybe Torin would come around. Maybe Torin would end up being more of an ally than he ever imagined he would.
He turned the shower off and was no less confused than before he got in. He dried off, brushed his teeth and combed his hair, then wrapped a towel around himself before going back to his room to get dressed.
**
Jade sat on the sofa and drank some water while she waited for Sebastian. He came out with wet hair and a towel around his chiseled waist, and all she wanted to do was jump him. He smiled curiously at her.
“Feel better?”
His dimples appeared as his smile grew. “Yeah.”
She got up and wrapped her arms around him and he welcomed her against him. He shuffled her willingly back to his room and shut the door before dropping his towel and showing her just how happy he was to see her.
**
They fooled around for a while, then held each other as they calmed down again. Sebastian drew circles on the back of Jade’s naked shoulder while he stared at the ceiling. Her head rested on his chest while she very lightly purred, and he liked the sound of her contentment.
“You had a long day, huh?”
He mentally sighed, unsure what to tell her. “Yeah. Torin and I had to take care of something for Anthony. It took longer than I thought it would.”
Her purring stopped and Sebastian’s mood dropped. She stretched and rolled off his body to lie beside him. “Did everything go ok?”
He looked into her eyes, wanting to share so much more of himself with her, but also not wanting to taint her ears with the crap that was his life. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course, honey.”
He very carefully said, “Where’s this going? Between you and me?”
She tensed, then sat up, so he did, too. “What do you mean? What’s wrong?”
He didn’t say anything for a time and she finally sighed and looked away. “I’m not strong enough for you, am I?”
He nudged her to look at him. “It’s not your power level, Jade, it’s that I don’t know what you want. I want you as mine, I’ve marked you and I’ll mark you as many times as you’ll let me, and I want to claim you as mine, but is it just me forcing myself on you or do you really want this? You’re…” He clacked his teeth as he thought about how to say this nicely.
“You’re one of the oblivious ones in the community, like lots of people here are, and if I share with you what I really deal with, well, you can’t un-know those things. My question is, do you really want to know, because it’s not all very pretty. So… what is it you want in life, Jade, and what do you want from us? What do you want from me? I don’t want to feel like I’m hiding things from you, but if you really don’t want to know, then that’s ok, too. I just… need to know.”
She frowned and he wanted to hold her and beg her not to be mad at him for asking those things, but he didn’t say or do anything because he did want to know. He did want her to tell him what she wanted.
She sighed and didn’t say anything for a while. She
covered her body up with his blankets, fussed around with straightening them for some reason, then said, “You’re the alpha and I’m just a low level cat.”
He took her hand in his. “Stop it. You’re Jade, my girlfriend, the woman I… the woman I want in my life.”
She blinked wide eyes at him. “I want to be in your life, Sebastian. I’m just scared.”
“Of what?”
She swallowed. “Of what it means.”
“What are you worried it might mean?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure.” She pressed herself back against the headboard and he let go of her hand.
He took a stab in the dark and said, “You’re worried people will think differently of you if you’re mine.”
She shook her head. “That’s not…” She didn’t finish her thought, but she didn’t have to.
“And you don’t want to mark me as yours because even though you’ve tasted blood now, you don’t want to taste my blood. You think it’s tainted because of my mind reading power.” His temper rose as she stared wide eyed at him and still didn’t say anything, though her heart picked up its pace.
After too long a silence, she weakly said, “Sebastian, no, it’s not like that.”
He could clearly smell the lie, so he just watched her, unable to speak because what would come out of his mouth right now wasn’t going to be very nice.
He looked away and tried to calm himself. He was good enough for her to play around with, but not good enough for her to make him hers. He should’ve known better. He was an embarrassment to her just like he was to his parents and everyone else.
He got up and angrily pulled some clothes on.
“Sebastian, let’s talk about this.”
He grit his teeth and faced her, and she was instantly scared, which only pissed him off more. “What should we talk about, Jade? That even though we’ve been together for weeks, even though I’ve respected all your boundaries, even though I haven’t done anything to hurt you, you’re still afraid I’m going to force myself on you, or worse, beat the hell out of you? Or taint you with my dirty blood?
“Or do you want to talk about the fact that you don’t want anyone to see that I’ve marked you? I’ve kept the scary stuff that happens here from you because I know it’s not all daisies and puppies and sweet shit. I take care of crap so you and people like you can feel like you’re normal people that just happen to have to be really secret about yourselves once a month. I help Anthony and Zach do that and that is my life.
“Oh yeah, and I can also read minds if I want to and I don’t despise my animal and in fact I like him. You can either accept that or you can’t.” He clenched his fists and looked away from her stricken face. He eventually sat on the edge of the bed with his back to her and growled under his breath, “Dammit.”
The sound of her sniffling made him feel like shit because it was his fault she was crying. He halfway turned around and tried to sound calm when he said, “I’m sorry for how that came out. It isn’t what I wanted, but I want to know what you want, Jade. I need to know… before I fall any harder for you.”
She cried even harder and he had to blink back the sting of tears as well.
After a time, when both their stomachs growled, he dared to edge closer to her. When she didn’t wince and pull away, he reached out and gently wiped at the tears on her cheeks. “Let’s get dressed and get something to eat. We can talk more later.”
She looked sad as she nodded and let him help her out of bed.
**
Jade didn’t feel like eating, and couldn’t sit in the restaurant while Sebastian did because she was too upset, so she went home by herself and cried her eyes out. He wanted answers to questions she’d been trying not to think about, and it made her feel like a big, fat hypocrite. She wanted him, she really did. He was the nicest, sexiest, most honorable guy she’d ever dated, but she was still scared of all the things he’d said she was scared of and she knew it wasn’t fair to him that she was.
Why was she so scared though? What was her problem?
She picked up her phone and called Zach, then immediately hung up and wondered what she thought she was doing.
He instantly called back and her heart raced. What had she done?
She weakly answered, “Hello?”
Zach snapped, “What’s wrong? Where are you? I’ll be there soon.”
Her hand shook. “Nothing, sir. I’m sorry to bother−”
“Who’s with you? Are they hurting you? Let me talk to them.”
She started all out crying then. “No one’s hurting me. I just wanted to ask you a question. About Sebastian.”
There was silence on the line. The sound of voices died out, and then it was quiet.
“Where are you? Are you at home? Did he hurt you?”
She whimpered, “No, sir, he didn’t hurt me.”
He sighed. “What’s going on then?”
She mentally steeled herself as she wiped away her tears and said, “We talked tonight and things, well, I want to know for real, please tell me the truth, can people gain other people’s powers by drinking their blood?”
Silent seconds ticked by. Zach’s voice was quiet, but intense, when he finally said, “You want the truth? You want the God honest truth?”
Her hands shook even worse when she whispered, “Yes.”
He firmly said, “The truth is this. I know who everyone is on the shifter blood exchange list and I know every power everyone has that’s not just part of being a regular shifter. No one who’s fed from anyone with an extra power has ever gained their power. That is the truth Jade.”
“Has anyone drank from Sebastian?”
The silence that formed on the line didn’t give her a good feeling. He finally said, “I’ve had Sebastian’s blood and so has Anthony, obviously.”
“And you two have powers.”
“I can’t read minds.”
“Can Anthony?”
“No one knows what all of Anthony’s powers are. Maybe not even him.”
She closed her eyes and tried to calm down.
“Jade?”
“Yes sir?”
“All of this is your choice, but if you’re thinking of marking Sebastian, if you’re thinking of drinking his blood, just know that if you do it, you’re in all the way. Once you become one of the powerful ones in the family, you’ll have different responsibilities than everyone else. Your family duties will always come first.”
Her hand continued to shake as she quietly said, “Yes sir.”
“Do you have any other questions for me?”
“No sir. Thank you.”
“All right. And by the way, if you’re going to keep being Sebastian’s girlfriend, stop calling me sir. I’m Zach.”
Her head buzzed as she stared at the kitty cat knickknacks in the shadow box on her wall. “Ok.”
There was a long silence before he said, “Goodnight.”
**
Sebastian sat at the bar with Torin, of all people, and frowned when he saw an unfamiliar vampire come into the club. Fuck. He hated reading people. He got up and made his way over while Zach talked to the man.
The vampire seemed timid as he looked over the club, even for how big he was. Sebastian extended his hand as Zach introduced them.
“Lee, meet Sebastian. You’re new here and we have some rules. First one is, Sebastian reads you. No questions asked, just take his hand and it’ll be over pretty quickly.”
The request must not have been what he’d been expecting because he looked more than a little confused as he took Sebastian’s offered hand.
Sebastian barely had to think about his power for it to open up inside him. He was in the vampire’s head in an instant. Anthony’s face popped up crystal clear in Lee’s memories, and he was terrified of him. In his memory, Anthony demanded that he and the others he was with join the family, or die that very night.
That’s all Sebastian wanted to know. He pulled out of Lee’s head and
turned to Zach. “He’s fine. Anthony told him to come here.”
Zach nodded and Sebastian didn’t waste any time getting away from him. God he hated getting into people’s heads.
Chapter 30
It was full moon tomorrow and everyone was jumpy tonight because of it. And Jade felt like a coward when she met Sebastian for dinner and told him that she and Tina had plans to hang out in the club. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but she hadn’t talked to him about his questions yet and she was the one who needed to give answers.
She should’ve been glad when he just said ‘ok’ as if nothing was wrong, and actually looked like maybe nothing was. But her heart sank just a little bit when it became obvious he wasn’t going to ask her anything about their conversation last night. Maybe he didn’t care anymore what her answers were.
She wished things could go back to the way they were. He was everything she’d ever wanted in a man, except for the extra stuff. But what would be expected of her if she fully accepted Sebastian as hers? Zach said she’d have different responsibilities. What would they be and what if she couldn’t handle them? And what if she went out of her mind with all that extra power in her system?
Sebastian left her with Tina at a table in the club, giving Jade a chaste kiss on the forehead before he went back to work. He didn’t give her the loving touches he usually did, and even the little peck on her forehead didn’t feel like his normal adoring kiss.
Tina smirked coyly as she watched him leave. “Girl, that boy is hot!”
She tried to smile, but deep down she was sad and she had no idea how to make things right again.
“I need help, Tina. I don’t know what to do.”
“About what?”
“About Sebastian.”
“What about him?”
Suzanne, the coyote’s alpha, came up to their table just then. “Hi Tina. Hey, you’re Jade, right?”
Jade cautiously nodded as Suzanne sat down with them as if she owned the place.
