Wake,
piccola.
Wake and look at your lifemate
. He whispered the words softly, dreading her coming pain, a lump forming in his throat.
When she took her first breath, a soft sigh, it went straight to his heart. Her blue eyes opened, her gaze locked on his. At once her warmth surrounded him, seeping into the cold pores of his body. She smiled, a loving, sweet smile that was an arrow piercing his soul.
“What is it?” she asked. Very gently, tenderly, she lifted a hand and traced his mouth with a fingertip. “What have you been doing to yourself? You’re gray, Aidan. You need to feed.” Her voice was a soft invitation.
“Alexandria.” He said her name, nothing else.
She surprised him as she always did, her eyes darkening to a deep blue, her voice a mere thread of sound, her body very still. “Is he alive?” There was no hint of condemnation, no anger that he had not kept the child safe.
He closed his eyes, unable to meet her gaze. He simply nodded.
Alexandria took a deep breath and caressed his jaw with her palm. “Look at me, Aidan.”
“I cannot, Alexandria. I will face you when I have returned Joshua safely to our home, to your arms.”
“I said look at me.” Her fingertips were on his chin, raising it.
He could do no other than her bidding. She was tearing him up inside with her acceptance, her understanding, her gentleness. His golden eyes blazed at her. Then he felt her, merging, instantly with him, so swiftly and completely that he had no chance to hide any of it—the beasts attacking those guarding her brother, Stefan and Marie’s anguish, Joshua’s terror, his own efforts and pain in the sun, the charring of the human puppet. It was all laid out in front of her in stark, ugly detail. When she heard the soft whisper of her name on Joshua’s lips, she made a single sound.
Her pain went so deep, Aidan felt the demon rise and rush through his body, taking control. A slow, murderous hiss escaped from deep within his throat. His golden eyes glowed with deadly intent. “How dare he try this?” His voice was as lethal as his expression. “How dare he use the boy as a challenge to bring me out into the open?”
“Shh, Aidan.” She put a finger over his mouth. “You have no need to blame yourself. Come to me. Take what you need to do this thing, to get Joshua back.” She was slowly pushing aside the silk shirt she wore, her slender arm circling his neck, bringing his head down to her breast.
“I will hunt. You have need yourself.” He clenched his teeth against the hunger beating at him.
She moved her breasts against his skin, her scent enveloping him, a creamy invitation, a temptation impossible to resist. “You’re gray, Aidan, weak. It is my right and responsibility to aid you, isn’t it? I am your lifemate.” Her fingertips were massaging his neck, her mouth moving over his hair, his temple. “Give me this gift, Aidan. Let me help you.”
He swore eloquently, but the demon in him demanded blood, demanded strength, and his body was aroused and painfully full. Cursing his own weakness, he bent his golden head to her skin. So soft, so perfect. Her blood beckoned him with its heat, with the promise of addicting spice. His body clenched as his tongue swept over her pulse.
She was heat and light and the promise of paradise. His hands moved over her hips, her tiny waist, her narrow rib cage. Her breasts filled his palms with their softness. “
Cara mia,”
he whispered against her creamy skin, “I love you.”
His tongue touched, caressed, sending a tremor through her. Her arms tightened around him.
Please, Aidan, do it now
, she whispered in his mind, her lips in his hair.
I need to make you strong again. I need to take away your pain
. And she did. Alexandria knew his every moment in the terrible sun, what he had suffered for her, for Joshua. She had never needed to do anything more in her life than supply him with nourishment, to show her overwhelming love and support for him.
She cried out, her head thrown back, her body arching into his as his teeth pierced her breast. Tears came to her eyes as she cradled him to her. He was unbearably gentle, holding her with love and tenderness, as if she were the most precious treasure in the world. She could feel her strength waning even as his grew. She could feel it in his mind first, then in the beating of his heart, in the ripple of power in his muscles and sinews. It was an incredible feeling to provide Aidan with such strength and purpose. Her entire body clenched and protested when his tongue lapped across the wound in a rough caress, closing the link between them.
He dragged her into the circle of his arms. “That is enough,
cara
.” His hands stroked her hair. “I must go now. I am counting on you to soothe Stefan and Marie. Stefan always blames himself when he cannot stop whatever a vampire sends against us.”
“I have to go with you.” She clutched his arm. “It’s me the vampire wants. How do I find him? Tell me what to do, Aidan. I’ll do anything to get Joshua back, anything at all.” There were tears shining in her eyes, but her chin was up courageously. The nightmare had caught up with her all over again. Little Joshua in the hands of a cold-blooded vampire.
“I will get him back,” Aidan quietly assured her.
“No, I won’t take chances with either of you. He wants me. I’ll go myself. See if he’ll exchange Joshua for me,” she said desperately. “This isn’t your fault any more than it is Stefan’s. This isn’t your responsibility. I will go to him.”
Aidan looked down at her then, his face cold. “I will not allow you to take such a risk. This is my fight,” he vowed.
“How can you say that? Joshua is all I have. He’s my brother, my only family. I have every right to defend him.”
He brushed back her hair, his hand gentle. “Joshua is also my brother, my family. You are my lifemate. There is no question,
cara mia
, who will take care of this problem. You will stay here in this house and do as I say. I will not argue with you about this.”
His voice, black velvet and tender, could turn her heart over, but she would not be seduced this time. Alexandria tilted her chin. “No, Aidan, I’m going with you. If you can save only one of us, it will be Joshua.”
His eyes caressed her even as he shook his head. “You will give me your word that you will do as I say, or I will send you to sleep until I return. And if you are sleeping the sleep of the immortal, you will be unable to aid me should I have need of it. I must go now. I am wasting valuable time, time Gregori earned for me at great cost to his own strength, I am certain.” His mouth brushed hers. “What shall it be? Do you sleep while I go? Or will you remain here awake to aid me should it become necessary?”
Alexandria shifted away from him but nodded her compliance. “It isn’t as if you’re leaving me a lot of choice, Aidan,” she said softly. “Go then. But nothing had better happen to you, or you’ll see what a human woman can do when she’s good and mad.”
“Former human woman,” he corrected.
And he was gone. Just like that. One moment he was solid and real, the next he was a rainbow of light streaking through the narrow tunnel of rock upward toward the fog-shrouded sky.
Alexandria sat for a long time, her hands folded in her lap. Aidan would be all right. He would have to be. And he would bring Joshua home to her. She believed it because she had to believe it. When she tried to get to her feet, she found herself shaky, her legs weak. It took determination to find and pull on her jeans. It was difficult to believe that just last night Aidan was making love to her, and now he was out fighting a monster.
She made her way slowly along the tunnel, holding on to the wall, her hand trembling as she opened the entrance leading to the kitchen. She could hear Marie’s quiet weeping, the low murmur of Stefan’s voice as he attempted to comfort her.
The couple was on the sofa in the sitting room, Marie’s head on Stefan’s shoulder, his arm around her. They both looked older somehow. Alexa
ndria knelt in front of them and put a hand over their linked ones. “Aidan will bring Joshua back. He knows where he is and managed to weave some kind of protective spell for him. We both think another hunter is in the area and will come to Aidan’s aid if need be.” Her voice was pitched low and was compelling. “I believe in Aidan, and you must, too. We won’t lose either of them tonight.”
She could feel the power of what she had become rushing through her. Despite the fact that she was weak and pale and needed to feed, she still felt the power. Her mind was strong, and she had assets she had never dreamed of before. They could be used for good, as now, to ease the suffering of the loyal older couple. Stefan and Marie had grown to love Joshua, and both believed themselves to be in some way responsible for his abduction.
Stefan’s large frame shuddered. “I’m sorry, Alexandria, we let you down. The attack was so unexpected, but I should have been with Joshua, kept him by my side.”
“I thought he was safe while he was in the house,” Marie moaned softly, lifting her apron to cover her face.
Alexandria pushed the apron down and circled both of them with her slender arms. She could hear the blood pumping through their veins, the ebb and flow of life. The scent of nourishment beckoned, but she knew now that she could control herself, trust herself. “No one is to blame for this, Marie. Not you and not Stefan. We’ll get through this thing together, as a family. You two and Aidan and Joshua and me. There can be no blame.”
Stefan’s hand came up to touch her hair. “Do you mean that, Alexandria? It’s what you really feel inside?”
She nodded. “Joshua belongs to all of us. It was wrong of me to try to hold him to myself. Now, when he is in danger, we all blame ourselves. Aidan does, because he thinks he failed me. I do, because somehow I let all this happen. You do, because Joshua is a little boy and didn’t do as you instructed. The truth is, what happened just happened. And Aidan will bring our boy home to us.” She said it with absolute conviction.
Stefan’s faded eyes held hers steadily. “And if... if something goes wrong?”
She felt the blow in the pit of her stomach but didn’t visibly react. She kept her sapphire gaze locked with his. “Then we will all deal with it together, won’t we?”
I will not fail you,
cara.
Aidan’s voice in her mind, the reassurance, brought her a measure of comfort.
Don’t think about me right now, Aidan. Be careful. I will be here, merged with you, if you need to draw on my strength
. And she meant to monitor the skies for him. To ferret out any trap the vampire had laid. Aidan would not be alone in this. If something went wrong, he would not carry the load on his own shoulders as he had done for so many centuries. She was determined to share it with him.
“You’re very weak, Alexandria,” Stefan said softly. “If you’re to help Aidan, you must have something to...” He trailed off.
For the first time, Alexandria smiled. “It’s all right, Stefan. I’m not going to be so silly as to fling myself out the door again.”
“I would willingly volunteer,” he offered.
She was already shaking her head when a black fury swirled in her mind. Aidan’s resistance to the idea had more to do with jealousy than with his vow never to use those who served him, she realized. Alexandria tucked that knowledge away for examination at a better time. “I could never, Stefan, but thank you.”
“Aidan keeps emergency supplies. He gave you some once. It is not as good, but it would help.”
She shook her head. “Not that yet, either. If there is great need, I will take it. For now, tell me of the others, the guards. Aidan is quite worried about their well-being.” She had picked it out of his head, his anxiety for Vinnie and Rusty.
“Vinnie was hurt badly and lost a lot of blood. He had well over a hundred stitches in his neck alone. Rusty fared a little better, but both will be out of commission for a long while,” Stefan answered. “I saw to it that they obtained the best doctors available, including a plastic surgeon for Vinnie. I assured both men we would pay the medical bills and compensate them handsomely for their lost time.”
Alexandria squeezed Marie’s hand gently. “Thank you both. You make things so much easier for us.” She slowly got to her feet and made her way to the recliner, where she curled up, drawing her knees up to rest her chin on them. She closed her eyes and allowed the room to fall away so that she could merge herself completely with Aidan. It was where she wanted to be. Where she belonged.
Aidan was well cloaked in the fog Gregori had produced. The dark healer had such an impressive command over nature. The heavy mantle of fog blocked the sun’s rays, enabling Aidan to travel without discomfort and to gain an advantage over the vampire still underground until sunset. Most of all, a terrible weight had been lifted from his heart. Alexandria was with him, accepting of him, of all of him. She could clearly see the beast roaring for freedom, struggling for control, and she didn’t back away from him in horror. She didn’t blame him for the vampire’s desperate challenge or the way Joshua had been abducted. She was afraid for Joshua and for him, but she was not falling apart. She had done as he had asked and tried to reassure and comfort Stefan and Marie. Alexandria was becoming his partner, truly his partner.
As he sped through the fog, he realized he loved her unconditionally, too. He had never known such a deep, passionate emotion. She had crawled so deeply into him, he was totally lost. He was hopelessly, completely, shamelessly in love. In his wildest fantasies, he had never imagined it would feel this good. He sent up a quick prayer that everything would go as he planned, that the safeguards he had woven around the boy would hold until he could destroy the vampire.
Aidan was moving swiftly, attempting to race the setting sun. The fog had given him a fighting chance, a head start, and he was determined to make full use of it. He streaked through the sky, streaming through the clouds, disturbing a flock of birds and sending them wheeling sharply away from the iridescent light. Gray shaded the trees below, indicating he had only minutes before the sunset. The old hunting lodge was in sight now, deep in the shadows of the tall pines.
Chapter Eighteen
Aidan knew the instant the vampire rose. Earth and rock and moldy wood spewed upward in a geyser through the thick, soupy fog. Rats squealed, racing to abandon the rotted timbers. Cockroaches boiled from the decaying wood, a moving carpet swarming over broken planks. The dilapidated building shuddered. Evil incarnate burst into the air, screaming hatred and defiance, laughing horribly as it sped to the car and its waiting prize.
The shimmering rainbow glittering in the white fog slowly took the shape of Aidan’s tall, powerful frame striding through the mist.
The vampire leaned over the trunk of the car, prepared to grab the sleeping child. He stopped abruptly, suddenly wary, his thin lips drawn back in a snarl, exposing long, yellowed fangs. His head undulated back and forth on a skinny, wrinkled neck like that of a reptile. His cold eyes suspiciously examined the trunk, then the blackened ground. He followed the trail of charred bits of flesh. A long, slow hiss of foul breath escaped his mouth, and his red-rimmed eyes swung to take in Aidan’s approach.
The vampire stepped back from the open trunk and the sleeping child. “You think to trap me with so cheap a trick, hunter?” he growled accusingly, a clicking sound accompanying his once beautiful voice, now putrefied by his decaying soul.
Aidan halted a short distance away. “We both know I have no need of tricks, dead one,” he said softly, his tone so pure it physically hurt the vampire’s ears. “That is more your style, using small children as pawns. You have fallen far, Diego. You were once a great man.” The voice had dropped an octave lower, and, despite his hatred of its purity, the vampire strained to hear the rippling notes.
“
Man,”
the vampire sneered. “Do not insult me by naming me such a weakling. You have been brainwashed by Mikhail. For centuries he has lied to us, made us sheep. He has drive
n our people into the ground, attempted to take our rightful power from us. Open your eyes, hunter. See what you do. You kill your own kind.”
“You are not my kind, Diego. You have chosen to debase and murder those less strong than you. Women. Children. Innocent humans. I am not like you.”
The vampire sucked in his breath, an audible sound of hatred. “It is easy for you to say so, when the scent of your woman clings to your every pore.”
“I am two centuries older than you. Even before my lifemate came and brought me light, I did not turn as you did to make my life easier,” Aidan said quietly. “Do not abdicate responsibility for your actions. It is not Mikhail or your lack of a lifemate that brought you so low. It was your choice to become what you are.”
The thin lips drew back, exposing receding gums stained with red. The white skin of Diego’s face was drawn tightly over his bones, giving him a skeletal appearance. He lifted a bony hand tipped with razor-sharp nails and pointed toward the open trunk. “You think you are too powerful for me to defeat, but I am not without my own powers.”
Aidan kept his fear for Joshua locked away in some deep, secret part of his soul. His face remained impassive, even serene. In his mind he felt Alexandria gasp as snakes began to swarm up over the car. Aidan didn’t move or speak, not even to reassure his lifemate. He was proud of her silence, of the fact that she remained as still and as trusting as ever.
If the vampire was creating an illusion, it was a perfect one. Aidan could actually detect life in the wriggling reptiles. They seemed real enough, although how the vampire could have called so many of them to him so quickly, Aidan didn’t know. He attempted to call to the snakes, to draw them away, but they were creatures of the vampire, completely enslaved. The first viper made its way into the trunk. Almost immediately several others fell in after it. Their hollow trunks were followed instantly by a hot sizzling, and the smell of cooking meat filled the air as snake after snake went to its death. Finally the vampire raised his hand, and the remaining snakes slithered back to the ground, curling around his ankles.
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