I pulled onto the shoulder and put the car in park. I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t breathe.
Jay Dee huffed, and crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. “You don’t have to be a dick about it. You’ve been super mentally preoccupied lately and I thought it might cheer you up to play dress up with your life-sized Barbie doll, that’s all.”
I shook my head in aspiration; she was spot on, and playing dress up, and undressing, with her was exactly what I needed to help organize my thoughts, but most importantly, put into perspective of just how much I needed her in my life.
“It is not that,” I assured her, wiping the tears from my eyes. “You scared the hell out of me! I thought you were going to break up with me or something far worse. Bloody hell, Duckie! You cannot do that to me…remember, I am as old as dirt, thus I could have had a heart attack.”
“Shut up,” she groaned. “I told you not to read into it.”
“Me Duckie, I am going to make a whole damn novel out of it, and there is not a bloody thing you can do to about it. I see a new wardrobe in your future!”
“No!” she argued as I pulled back onto the main road.
“Already done,” I smugly informed her; that was exactly what I needed without knowing it. “Duckie, I do not know why you think that shopping is a death sentence. Good God, Woman, you have an arse backwards way of thinking. Did you actually think that I would say no? I have given you me platinum card many, many times, and you have yet to use it for something other than cleaning the axel grease from under your nails.”
“Shut up,” she groaned.
Of course I wasn’t about to shut up, I needed to feel the familiarity of our bantering, of our difference which made me feel complete since she was everything I wasn’t and I was exactly what she refused to be, and it made me realize that our two polar opposite sides made one perfect person, a complete soul, and that our love was worth fighting to protect.
“Duckie, I would slip money into your billfold or purse yet you do not have either…that shall be resolved soon.”
“Oh god,” she groaned and bashed her head against the headrest. “Forget I said anything, please. Just take me home.”
I shook my head. “Duckie, as ridiculous as it sounds, I am even more excited to go shopping simply because you asked. That means something to me, Duckie. I want you to need me, just as I need you, even if it is just in a monetary sense.”
Jay Dee gave me a look. “You want me to be like that soul sucking bitch you married?”
“God no!” I snapped at her and she cocked an eyebrow. “My apologies. You and Sam are nothing alike, and for that I am eternally grateful. You do not realize, Duckie, how much I need you, and sadly, you do not apparently need me. You are a strong, self-sufficient werewolf and woman who could rule the world if it tickled her fancy, instead, you merely want what is best for everyone else. I love that about you, I truly do, yet I hate that about you as well. So, in a very roundabout way, even if you merely need me in a monetary means, that is more than I deserve thus I will embrace it.”
Jay Dee groaned and, once again, bashed the back of her head into the headrest. “You are ridiculous. I need you for more than just money…obviously since I won’t take your goddamn money. Tanis, is it so hard for you to believe that I love you for you, and not for what you can buy me?”
I smirked, looking over at her. “Duckie, it floods me heart with warmth and love that you love me despite me few flaws and many indiscretions. Believe it or not, I have not questioned how you could not love someone as brilliant as the man, the myth, the legend you find yourself in the presence of,” I said.
She gave me a look. “You know what, correction, I merely love you for your overabundance of humility. You truly are the embodiment of it.”
I smiled wide. “I hear that often.”
Dramatically she sighed. “Some people’s vampires.”
“No, not some people’s vampires, I am your vampire and only yours,” I smugly reminded her.
Abigail told me where to go when I text messaged her for an update, and she called ahead to have some items pulled for Jay Dee, that way she wouldn’t get a chance to change her mind.
I sat in one of the leather chairs reading the email Rayland sent on my phone while the clerk helped Jay Dee find something to wear. Of course Jay Dee complained endlessly under her breath, hysterically laughed a few times, and either punched the wall of the dressing room or fell into it a couple of times; with her it was impossible to tell which.
‘I was able to confirm that Toran left Washington by means of a schooner. Sadly, you know as well as I what that means. I am sorry, Tanis. It looks as if a war is on the horizon since he is keeping to the rules of engagement. When I know more, you will know more. Please, I beg of you, keep the crown safe until Toran returns.- Rayland’
“Bollocks,” I hissed, fighting the urge to throw the phone across the boutique. This was getting even more complicated than I had ever imagined.
“If you laugh you are never getting laid again,” Jay Dee warned, effectively pulling my attention.
“I would never,” I assured her, deleting the email before pocking my mobile.
“Remember, I’ve never walked in heels before so if I break my ankle or neck, I’m kicking your ass,” she sternly warned. “Dude, I’m dishing out threats of violence and you haven’t even seen me yet. I think you’re right,” she said with a chuckle, “I have issues.”
“Duckie, I never said you had issues-” I started to assure her, but every coherent thought I had was lost when she stepped out from the dressing room.
Calling Jay Dee beautiful would have been a crime, sexy an insult, stunning was close but not nearly enough. She was breathtaking. The short, black silk cocktail dress sinuously hugged each of her curves, and the black lace top had a nude underlay which made it appear sheer, and the neckline cut down far enough that her breasts were presented like beautifully wrapped Christmas presents.
“Hmmm,” I mumbled as my eyes worked up and down her beautiful figure; her long, toned legs look even longer in the black satin stilettos she was nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot in. “Huh,” I was finally able to articulate and her face dropped.
I dismissively waved the clerk away.
“Duckie, I regrettably must inform you that we shall not make it to dinner this evening. A night in would be an absolutely brilliant way to spend the evening with a demonic angel who has bewitched me.”
Jay Dee blushed and looked away from me. “You are ridiculous.”
I stepped up to her and coaxed her by the chin so I could look at her. “I merely speak the truth. Duckie, you honestly render me breathless and speechless more often than I care to admit. Each time I look at you is like the first time all over again, and it puts me in awe that you have chosen me, have marked me as yours for all eternity, and I only pray that one day you will permit me to do the same,” I said before I could stop the words from leaving my lips.
She smiled, her cheeks flushing a delicious shade of rose. “You can help me out of it tonight,” she whispered, looking up at me, and then yawned. “Sorry,” she instantly apologized. “I haven’t been sleeping well.”
My face dropped.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she assured me as I blindly signed the sales slip, “sleeping in your arms is beyond words, but I’ve been having more of those weird dreams.”
And Jay Dee effectively ripped me from Heaven and the perfection of the world where there was just the two of us, to Hell where demons were trying to take her from me.
“Would you like to talk about them?” I whispered, motioning towards the exit.
“Sure, why not? Are we going to eat or what?” she asked, walking cautiously; for someone who was unbelievably graceful, she was ridiculously cautious.
“Of course,” I assured her. “Whatever you would like.”
“I could totally eat the ass end of a horse,” she informed me, slipping her arm through mine.
/> I sighed, shaking my head. “I am in love with the epitome of class,” I informed her and she smiled wide before grabbing my ass.
“Do you dream?” I asked while we waited for the hors d'œuvre.
The restaurant was overly fancy, just how Tanis liked them, and if I wouldn’t have changed into an ungodly expensive dress, thrall and a huge tip would have been involved to get a table.
Tanis smiled warmly at me. “Yes, I dream of you often. I dreamt of you the night we first met and every night since.”
For some reason, that made me feel giddy but upset at the same time.
“Do you dream of stuff other than me?” I clarified for his amusement.
“Yes,” he admitted. “The few human memories I have retained are merely those remembered from dreams. Me first horse,” he said and I chuckled so he tossed a dinner roll at me, and of course, I threw it back at him. “This is a nice restaurant, Duckie,” he scolded.
Hypocrite.
I pouted my bottom lip out and absently caressed the backs of my fingers along the plunging neckline of the dress and it effectively stole his attention.
“You truly are a demon,” he commented then licked his lips.
“But I’m your demon,” I teasingly reminded him.
He sighed. “Yes, I suppose you are.”
That wasn’t the response I was hoping for and my face dropped and I folded my hands together in my lap.
“I remember that me biological mum had silver eyes that were comparable to liquid silver, and me father’s eyes were the exact same color as d’Artagnan’s,” Tanis continued, his eyes moving over my face as he spoke. “Our youngest sibling was four when she died, her name was Daniela; she had freckles and used to snort when she laughed and had a missing front tooth from the time she fell climbing a tree with Georgiana when she was two. At least, that is what I remember from me dreams. Is it accurate? I do not know. I have never bothered to confirm any of it with me siblings. However, as of late, me dreams have been of you and only you…why the face?” he asked, turning serious.
Damn it! I hate not having a poker face.
“Well,” I said, then chewed on my lip.
“Talk to me, Duckie,” he pleaded, offering me his hand.
“Damn it,” I huffed, weaving my fingers through his. “Lately you’ve been having nightmares or something…you’ve been restless and talking in your sleep. And now that you said you only dream of me, I can’t even begin to imagine the nightmares I’ve been plaguing you with. That’s all.”
Tanis forced a smile. “You are a waking dream, one I never imaged I would hold in me arms when awake, however, losing you is me biggest fear, thus it is a nightmare.”
Nervous, I fiddled with my necklace. “I’m sorry,” I apologized.
“Do not ever apologize to me for anything,” he scolded. “What have you been dreaming of now?” he asked as the waitress covered the top of the table with plates of food.
If I wouldn’t have been so damn hungry, I would have asked him to take me home so I could talk to my mom; I missed my parents. Staying with Tanis and his family had been amusing, interesting, slightly awkward, and they were apparently stalking us, but I chalked it up to merely being a bored vampire thing.
“I miss my parents,” I admitted before shoving something that looked like bear shit my mouth. “What in the hell is this?” I asked with my mouth full.
Tanis cocked an eyebrow. “Goat cheese stuffed mushrooms with bread crumbs…do not dare spit that out in a napkin,” he warned.
I swallowed it and made a face at him before shoving another in my mouth; they were actually pretty damn good.
“I’m still trying to figure out the dreams,” I started to explain between bites of food; obviously my lack of table manners failed to impress the vampire watching me with a strange look on his face. “The first time it happened was when your brother pulled me off of the bottom of the Pacific. Then again after we had sex…you and I, not Douche bag and I,” I clarified when his mouth fell open with a popping sound. “And again when I phased and passed out before you broke in and found me. The waking one was at the fair…that was the only one that I was actually on my feet for.”
He nodded. “They started when I met you,” he surmised.
I shrugged and chugged my glass of wine—how he got me to drink wine again I would never know—and wiped my mouth off with a napkin. “They started when I first met you. I don’t know if that’s coincidental or not. I’m leaning towards not. I think, that possibly, it has to do with turning eighteen and something possibly, dying for twenty-minutes could have done it, triggered them. Honestly, Tanis,” I said, sounding ridiculously aspirated, “it feels as if I’m completely insane and that my mind is finally snapping now that I don’t want it to. I just got you and… Damn it. You’ve had to deal with enough crazy people, including your siblings and wife, for centuries. You don’t need another, this one a young werewolf, complicating your life even more with her apparent newly found insanity.”
He continued to give me that strange look which I had been getting a lot from him since I sentenced three werewolves to death.
“Okay then, thanks,” I mumbled and started to get up.
“Sit,” Tanis said, motioning back towards my seat so I slumped down in it and pouted. “Nutter or not, Duckie, I will still love you. I have waited centuries to hold you, love you, to be loved by you, and I simply will not allow anything, not even severe lunacy, to take that away from me.”
I hated it when he was morbidly romantic.
“Then why the weird look?” I mumbled, pushing my plate away.
“It is nothing,” he assured me. “What does it feel like when you have these dreams?”
I was sure he was trying to pacify me, or size me up for a straightjacket, but I really needed to talk to someone about it, and since I couldn’t talk to my parents at the moment because they were trying to smooth over my handed down death sentence with the southwestern Washington pack that was demanding my head on a spit, and Jarvis had class and I was stressing him out more and more with each late night call, Yahto was being a dick to me for some reason, Cain was always dancing...Tanis was all I had left.
“It’s like I’m there but I’m not,” I admitted while I examining one of the unappealing stuffed mushrooms. “I’m watching everything as it happens, and I can seemingly feel what everyone else is feeling, I know what they are thinking, and I know the background story, to a point, if that makes sense. It’s almost like watching a movie that I’m emotionally tied to…” I looked up at him. “I sound completely insane, don’t I?”
“Not at all, Duckie.”
For some reason, I wasn’t believing him.
“Tanis, why do you keep dreaming of me dying?” I asked pointblank, changing the subject, and his eyes widened. “Please don’t insult my intelligence by denying it,” I whispered when he opened his mouth so he quickly closed it; I was right. “Why is your family always watching me? Why is my pack keeping a perimeter when I hunt? Why did you steal that hidden photo from my house...I found it between the couch cushions when you were showering.”
Tanis sighed. “This is not the place to discuss it.”
I motioned for the waitress. “Check,” I said, never taking my eyes off of the vampire across from me.
Once we were on the road, nearly to his house, Tanis broke the silence.
“Duckie, you are not having dreams, you are remembering your past.”
I snorted. “Whatever,” I scoffed. “If you aren’t going to take this seriously, you can just take me home.”
“I am not joshing,” he assured me.
“Dude, I’m dreaming of a goddamn war,” I argued. “I mean, it feels like it happened recently, but the way that the events go down it feels as if it happened hundreds of years ago. There were swords and silver armor and kings and queens and…Toran,” I mumbled the latter with a shrug. “The queen knew him and he knew her. There was a silent emotional bond between them, she trusted hi
m unequivocally, and turned her child over to him to keep safe before an army could kill her and her guards…I think the queen died after giving birth, before a sword could be driven through her. It’s really weird, I tried looking up on the internet about the area from the placement of the stars that I could remember, but the smoke was so thick that I couldn’t see more than two or three. I even tried looking up their names, trying to figure out where they would be from, but all I got was...”
“Norwegian,” Tanis whispered and struggled to swallow the lump in his throat.
“How did you know that?” I mouthed.
“They are memories, not dreams,” he repeated, then licked his dry lips and put the SUV in park outside of his house. “Duckie, I took the picture because those unfamiliar people were, indeed, familiar. I did not remember their names or faces, however, when looking at their faces, I saw yours. Me mum, she knew who they were right away, and tears stained her cheeks when she gazed upon them… Me mum never cries, and yet she has been doing much of that as of late.”
I swallowed hard. “Because of me,” I surmised.
“Because of many things, Duckie,” he assured me. “Mainly because she never knew you existed.”
Wait, what?
“Why would she…I mean, is she my mother?” I choked; Sabirella and I looked nothing alike.
Tanis gave me a look. “No, though you are her niece through love. Aesa was like a sister to me mum. It was Aesa whom taught Mum to control her shadow walking when she was first turned...the Varulv were called Shadow Wolves because they had the ability to shadow walk like Mum can.”
“Shut up!” I gasped; I had never heard of such a thing.
He nodded. “You shadow walked the night of me biggest clanger,” he whispered. “One moment you were shaking your head, disappointed in all of us for our childish actions, and the next you were gone and had a blade in your stomach.”
Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) Page 33
