Chapter Twenty-three
William returned moments later and the men decided that they were going to retire for the evening. Begrudgingly I went up to my room, I wanted more answers and the elders seemed so willing to speak to me even though William made it seem like they wouldn't. Maybe they were so forthcoming because he wasn't in the room, maybe vampires like to gossip.
I was right about the thoughts of William blaming me. He hadn't spoken a word to me since his return. Instead I was in my room, Marty had been instructed to tend to my needs within the house and Nick would find my dinner when it was nightfall. But in the meantime, I had permanent company in the form of Marty and Nick. It was frustrating that William was blaming me for his problems. He was acting like I was the one that had insisted that he do it, he couldn't get past the fact that it wasn't me, it was the four elders that ordered him.
“He could have refused.” I muttered from under the sheet.
I had wrapped it around my head because it was so damned cold in the room, Nick was complaining that the fire made it too hot. He was on the lounge, sprawled out and complaining at how uncomfortable it was. Marty was on the other side of the bed from me, which was probably just as bad. Nick warned that if it was true that I was part fae, I would be attractive to all sexes. Including the woman that was looking at me like I was the only person on the planet that could truly give her pleasure. All that stopped them from propositioning me was the cuffs around my wrists, it was like a visual cold shower.
“Now you know he would never do that.” Nick grumbled in the dark. “He might love her but he ain’t ever gonna give you up.”
“That's only because he knows I'm not completely human.” I muttered.
“No.” The soft feminine voice cooed far too close to me. “This is way more than that. I would be seriously surprised if he doesn't make the claim for you to be his forever. You saw how jealous he got over Nick making stupid faces at you, who would do that if they aren't at least interested?”
I huffed, wanting to roll my eyes but there was no point in the darkness of the room. The bed was shifting, someone was making her way too close, again.
“Marty.” I chastised. “Do you want him to carry out the threat?”
“No.”
It was like I could hear the pout. William had threatened to cut her hands off if she touched me. Or anything that touched me, just in case she thought she could find a loop hole in his threat. He wanted them in here as a protection that was visible. The overnight guests had him bothered apparently. I wouldn't know, all I got was second hand information from Marty and Nick.
“He isn't interested in me, he has only made the claim to keep me here, knowing what I am. If he wanted me he would have been happy when I told him of the visions. If he truly loved me he wouldn't have hesitated when deciding about his wife.”
I could feel the bed move again, this time it was Nick crawling over the sheets to us.
“He is lost in his sadness and anger at this world and needs direction. He thinks he loves her and needs to be shown the truth about his true feelings for her. As for that child that she was pregnant with, do not doubt it. He had thoughts that it wasn't his. What he needs now is a light in the darkness of his life.”
I fell asleep with Spud's words ringing through my head, thinking about what light William could find in this world. He thought his world was his dead wife and the light was waiting for her return but he was wrong. Would there ever be anything more for him when he refused to open his eyes?
My sleep had been a good one, for some unknown reason I had found a relaxed and deep sleep. If I had a vision I would not know, I had no memory of any dreams. Marty and Nick were off feeding and collecting my dinner and whilst the house was empty, I decided that a soak in the tub was in order. I grinned at the dragon as it arced it's back inwards as I dragged my finger down it's spine. It was loving the attention I was giving as I laid in the tranquillity of the warm bath water. Even though I was scratching one beast, they both had the look of ecstasy on their face. They both puffed smoke out of their nostrils and they both tapped one hind leg with happiness. It even sounded like they made a sound. Even more crazy, I could feel their scales. They were adorable and I was addicted to them already. It had now been a full twenty-four hours since I had seen William, not even a message had been passed to me. The elders had left at the fall of the sun, stating that they would return when the lycan had been disposed of, ensuring my return to normal life went smoothly. In the meantime, they would do some research on who my parents may be, trying to figure out my lineage. Much to my annoyance, they had taken a blood sample, just in case it was needed. I didn't want to be found out, they made it sound like my life could be in danger. Again. If it's not the lycan, it's the fae. Lucky me.
For the time being, I was to continue my hiding from the lycan and to remain in the care of the vampire that hated me. I was ready to tell all of the vampires in this place to take a flying leap but held my tongue, remembering that my safety was more important than a stupid vampires emotions.
“Wow, that was just plain cruel Mary.” I muttered to myself.
“What was?”
The cold tone of a man filled the room, softly echoing as the candles burned brighter. I rolled my eyes at the dragon who settled down for a sleep, the wings covering the shield. Protecting him. I glanced at William who was sitting on the same chair that he had used the last time he invaded my privacy in the bathroom.
“Just thinking to tell you all to go to hell.”
“All of us or just me?”
I shrugged as I sat up and pulled my legs to my chest, resting my head on my knees. “I could start with you if you like.”
There was no humour in his eyes, cold and distant he was the man that I had met not so long ago. He wasn't the man that I had grown to... no, I didn't love him. How could I? He hated me.
“She would have never harmed you.”
“Clearly, that's not what the elders think.”
He laughed with a mocking tone. When he was done with laughing at me or maybe my statement, he leaned back into his chair, crossing one leg over the other and casually dragged his eyes over me. It was the same old pensive gaze, the one where he rubbed the stubble below his bottom lip as he said nothing.
“Heard anything from Porter?”
William shook his head with a cold grin.
“Is he still alive?”
The sinister grin got larger as he shrugged.
“I didn't want them to ask that of you, I don't know why you are trying to lay blame with me.”
“She can't come back because of you, why can't I blame you?”
Anger riled up inside of me, he was such an arrogant arsehole.
“She's been gone for forty years!” I snapped. “How quickly could she have come back to this world if she wanted to?”
His eyes narrowed at me as the smug grin dropped away.
“What's that you say? The next day, why that would mean that she could be here now if she wanted to but she's not, is she?”
Before I knew it I was pinned to the tiles behind the tub, the water splashing everywhere. He gripped me around the throat, much like he had with Augustus earlier. I could feel the burn of the flames of the candles against my back, the wax dripping down my skin. His grip was tight around my neck, it was hard to drag the air through.
“You know nothing of this world.” He growled angrily.
“You're burning me.” I gasped as the tears trickled out.
Anger flared in his eyes as the sneer exposed his fangs.
“I. Don't. Care. Don't ever speak about my wife again.”
With another blur of movement he was gone, slowly I slid down the tiles and back into the bathwater, sobbing at the searing pain on my back.
There was a soft rap on the door as I leaned on the edge of the bath, sobbing from the scorching pain.
“Mary?” Marty cooed. “Is it okay if I come in?”
She poked her head through t
he small space between the door and it's frame and looked at me with a sympathetic smile.
“Come on, I'll help you out and we will get you fixed up, okay?”
I nodded reluctantly as she wandered over with a large fluffy white towel. She led me out to the main part of the bedroom, helping me onto the bed.
“I found some ointment, I don't know if it's going to be any good for you but we can only try, right?” She winced her smile. “The detective must have left this for you in case you needed it. It's got all sorts of medical things.”
I nodded again and laid onto my stomach, wishing that the lycan had killed me. At least then I wouldn't have to suffer this emotional and physical pain. Marty was trying to be as gentle as she could but every time her finger touched a sore, I flinched.
“Bastard.” She hissed.
“Martine!” Nick growled.
I looked up at him from the layers of bed linen that marred my view of him pacing the floor. He had walked in with my dinner and seen the marks on my back, obviously not needing an explanation.
“I don't care spud, look at this mess.”
He stopped and looked, pain crossed his face and he kept pacing the floor. I winced at whatever it was that she was putting on my back, it relieved the feeling that I was still burning but it didn't stop the pain. One of the dragons was acting odd, he was walking around my wrists, flaming bursts of fire and stretching their wings into a flap. The other was laying on the shield looking morose and lethargic. It was the first time I had seen them not doing the same thing as each other, it was almost like they were independent of each other.
“What's their deal?”
“William isn't here.” Marty sighed. “When you are together, they are uniform in their movements, when you are apart they are independent. One represents you, the other represents William. Want to know which one is which?”
“Gee.” I said dryly. “William wouldn't be the left, would he?”
Marty chuckled as I looked at the dragon walking around my wrist on the vines, he looked angry.
“You have every right to tell the elders about this Mary but we ask that you don't. I'm sure he didn't mean it.”
I looked at Nick as if he said the most silliest thing possible.
“And it's only a little burn, it's not as bad as Marty's making out, right Marty?”
“Oh yeah sure. Lucky she's not human otherwise she'd need to go to hospital, right Nick?”
He flapped his arms against his legs in a huff and continued to pace.
“Stop wearing a mark into the floor and come here.” I muffled out against the bed linen.
Nick stooped beside the bed, looking at me with a mixture of hope and worry.
“I want you to find Porter and I want you to tell him to hurry up and get his arse into gear because I want out of here.”
“You want to leave us?” He whispered sadly. I could hear the tremor in his voice, like I was blaming them for William's outburst.
“You two can still visit if I haven't taken off on my tour of the country.”
Nick's eyes darted up to Marty and then back to me. “He would never allow that Mary, if you walk away from him then you walk away from us too. We are bound to him and his family. In fact...” He frowned as he rubbed the dragon that passed the top of my wrist. “Technically you are too. I don't know how far you could actually get before he would call for your return.”
“What do you mean?” I frowned.
“He's claimed you Mary, until it's broken, he can call to you. If you ignore him then he can send a vampire that is bound to him to search for you and return you to him. Whether you like it or not.”
When I had finished sobbing after my so-called education on the truth about claims, I dressed into loose clothes trying to avoid rubbing against the bandage on my back. Marty said the wounds weren't as bad as she was making it out to be but I figured they were worried that I would go and tell one of the elders. But the problem was if I did that, they would remove me. Instantly. I would be packed into one of their vehicles and removed from William's care and his territory, the claim and any future bonds would be no longer in place. The even larger issue was that if I was to be removed from his care, I would be placed into the closest level one protector which was Augustus. And I definitely did not want to be in his care, so I shut my mouth.
Chapter ten shall be called, choose your battles wisely. I chose not to say anything because I knew the consequences were greater than having to put up with William. Shut my mouth, stop being a bitch to him and don't talk about the wife. Spud said that William would know he had done wrong, harming a light being was tantamount to harming an elder and in the world of dark and light beings, that was a definite no-no. I said nothing but I knew I had him over a barrel, he had harmed me for no valid reason. An argument as an excuse for harming me wasn't going to stand up in any immortal court according to spud and this was definitely something for me to keep in the archive of my mind for later use.
The reason the dragon was going nuts was because William was out there somewhere, in the darkness of the night, beating himself up about what he had done. One day he would see reason about his wife, one day he would find the light of a better life. Until then everyone had to keep their mouths shut and let him wallow in his stupid sadness. Forty damned years of pining for her return. Why wasn't he angry at her? If I knew that someone could come back the next day and didn't, I'd be seriously pissed. I would have gone to the master of the after life and told him to keep her, she wasn't worth it. But I guess that William couldn't see something like that. Maybe it was because I had never truly loved someone so I couldn't understand what it was like to lose them.
“Is that thing ever going to shut up?” Nick snarled in the dark.
I sighed and lifted my wrist to the blue light, watching the dragon round my wrist, growling and snapping. There was no placating it, it had tried to bite me earlier when I tried to settle it. The other one just glumly laid on the shield, barely raising it's head to look at me.
“Well I guess you'd have to ask the vampire that the dragon is tied to, mine is looking like his world is crumbling around him.”
The weight of a boring night had dragged me into a heavy sleep, Nick's complaints about the noisy dragon was nothing but a muffled sound. I woke into a light sleep somewhere in the early afternoon, feeling a warmth that I had never felt before. It was the blissful warmth of having someone's arms wrapped around me. I guess I had snuggled into Marty during the sleep, I wondered if William would reprimand her for it. It wasn't her fault though I found it odd that her arm had pulled me tight to her body. Her strong arm. Did Marty have such strength? She was such a petite thing, could such power come from someone so tiny?
The thoughts dragged me out of the blissful light sleep that I had found myself in, my hand was on the warm body. On skin. No clothes, just skin. I frowned as I began to surface, wondering why Marty had removed her nightdress. My eyes fluttered open as I looked over the flat chest that I was snuggled against. No, it wasn't Marty. Blissfully warm, smooth and soft. Was it possible that Nick had forgotten, or maybe ignored William's claim? He didn't seem the type to go against someone higher on the chain of command yet this was certainly not Marty. Slowly I looked up, realising that the noisy dragon was being incredibly quiet. There was a real good reason for that, William was home and he was in the bed with me.
Chapter Twenty-four
I will be honest, I do not understand men. There, I said it. It wasn't a complicated statement, it was just a truth about a naïve young woman who had led a sheltered, abusive and unnatural childhood. A year on her own in the big scary world hadn't enlightened her any more than the previous eighteen years around the dozen or so male children and him. He had been the only male director, all of the predecessors had been female. I guess I could consider Father Arnold as another male in my life, but what was a celibate man going to tell me about the truths of the male mind? Even the past year working around male co-workers, a male b
oss and the customers that streamed in and out of the shop were of no help.
I was useless when it came to understanding men. More so when it came to the male vampire that was asleep in my bed with his arm around me so tight, it was constricting. He was complicated and that was an understatement. I guess this was his way of making it up to me, trying to find forgiveness for trying to strangle me and burning me on the candles. And lets not forget the part where he completely freaked me out. But it could have waited until I was awake, could it not? Why did he need to remove the majority of his clothes and get into the bed with me? Why did he need to draw me to his body and not let go? But I think the most important question that I needed to ask myself was, why wasn't I impaling him with something?
I tried to push him away, I tried to free myself from the strong grip but the more I pushed the more he dragged me back in. His face was serene and I don't think I had ever seen him this relaxed and it made me feel happy for him. Happy that he was able to find a sleep that was so peaceful that he might have actually cracked the smallest of smiles. It wasn't sardonic nor did it hold any malice, just the feint trace of a genuine smile. I wanted to know what was going on in his mind, was he dreaming? Was he thinking of his wife, or do I dare say, me? Maybe he was remembering his most recent victim, it was a gross thought. Maybe the pervert managed to see too much earlier on when he scared the crap out of me and now he was enjoying the memories. My skin flushed with the thought of it, I hadn't realised until now that I was actually naked in the bath. A shocking concept, I know. But how much did he see? Did his eyes linger lower even when he snarled the hate filled words at me? It wasn't wise to over think it, leave it in the past and hope that he was too wrapped up in his stupid dead wife being insulted by his bitchy visitor.
I tilted my head back a fraction, his grip around my body was determined, his hand on my skin was warm. It was odd to feel the warmth from William, his usual coldness was gone replaced by an unnerving heat. I knew what it meant, it was the blood of his victim that had warmed his body. Quietly I sighed, lifting my head to him, hoping that he would wake. My body was sore from laying in the one position for too long and I was desperate to roll over. But William was in a deep sleep, he was still smiling softly. I couldn't help but look at him, he was crazy hot. The sweet smile looked good on him, he wasn't frowning at me for once.
Deadly Beasts (The Curse of the Rose Book 1) Page 15
