The Kiss of a Vampire, the Heart of a Wolf (The Silver Series)

by Samantha Bates

  She saw a nasty smile on his face "you need to be able to go into all situations and perform. If Vlad needs an escort at functions you can do it while providing security. If I need someone to infiltrate a high press function you need to be able to function and not get yourself killed."

  "Don’t be so dramatic Ice. Any way we have the results of your blood test."

  "Oh, what do they say?" she could feel her heart beat accelerate.

  "They were bizarre to say the least, you have as we expected now got a mixture of multiple DNA types, you do have some wolf typing and some vampire typing, but we took some blood when you first arrived here and with the new sample it does show that your DNA is still mutating."

  "What does that mean?" God why hadn’t she listened to Mays ramblings?

  "Truthfully I have no idea; I am looking for a specialist that is trustworthy enough to conduct more tests."

  "Have it taken to May, she has a lab at Silver’s, in fact as it is my blood I will take it to her" why hadn’t she thought of that before?

  "May, you mean Lucky’s, May" Imogen nodded to Ice, although she had noted his sneer "but she is what 16 years old?"

  "No she isn’t, she is 14 years old but she has spent the last 4 years studying the wolf DNA, she is a brainiac and Leyland set her up a lab in his spare room."

  Vlad had an excited look in his eyes, "yes, yes, she has a sample of these ones already but tomorrow you can take these results and compare them" it was Ice’s cough that focussed Vlad on him.

  "I mean no offence Vlad but you really trust a 14 year old, you should speak to the specialist that dealt with my problem last year" he was definitely mocking May and Imogen was not impressed, in fact she was close to be damn offended.

  To Ice’s consternation Vlad saved her offence by explaining "last year Ice started feeling unwell, which as I am sure you know is unusual, anyway then he started to get nose bleeds, we made contact with a number of specialists with no luck. I was then told about a marvellous unknown specialist, who I am sure in time will rock the medical world."

  "What happened?" Imogen was genuinely interested, if she knew what it was, maybe she could make Ice just a little bit sick for a couple of days and give her some time to heal, it was certainly worth considering.

  "This specialist identified a parasite in Ice’s bloodstream, one we believe that he picked up when he was jollying in the rain forest. Were it not for this specialist Ice may not be with us now, she was able to analyse and isolate it."

  Ice grunted "stop with the theatrics, I know what she did, if you would give me the details I would send a present or donation to where ever she works, but no you have to be all secretive."

  Imogen was amused watching them "um sorry to interrupt, if you want to send it to that specialist go right ahead but I would also like May to have a look."

  Ice laughed "jeez if you trust a14 years old who am I to argue."

  "Well said Ice, you can go with Imogen tomorrow to drop the sample off and while we are there you can take the 14 year old a present thanking her."

  Now it was Imogen’s turn to laugh at the shock on Ice’s face, "you are joking right; you gave my blood to a 14 year old, why didn’t you tell me?"

  "She was 13 years old at the time and Ben protects her identity, they want her to have a child hood before she becomes some hotshot in the medical world." Imogen had no intention of standing by while he ridiculed her pack.

  Imogen spoke to Vlad, "May is amazing and why don’t you come Vlad? It’s a Saturday, everyone will be there and you can catch up with Ben."

  "Mmm everyone will be there, I am not sure what I have planned but maybe I will join you" she watched as his eyes looked somewhat wistful.

  Ice stood and paced the room "fine I will do it?" Imogen was confused although she seemed to spend most of her time confused at the minute,

  "Good, I knew you would see it my way" Vlad clapped his hands together "Imogen meet your new mentor" shit, no way, Imogen panicked, he would kill her and then Theo would kill him and then the vampires and the wolves would kill each other, bang goes the alliance.

  "No disrespect but I am not sure that will work."

  "Why not?" There was a hint of sarcasm in Ice’s tone "well it’s just that, I won't be staying that long and the pack is my home and I don’t want to cause any problems.’ No way was she saying my boyfriend won’t like it and will come kick your ass, until he spoke to her in a patronising tone then she changed her mind with his next comment.

  "I don’t mind where we train, here or at Silvers, there are some pretty good fighters there who I can pit you against for practice of course."

  It was Vlad who asked the burning question "who would you be thinking of Ice" he winked at Imogen, maybe Vlad was actually all right.

  "Well Connor’s pretty good, Ben was but now he’s pussy whipped, there’s Lucky but I would imagine you two are friends, if I really wanted to see you hurt I would put you against Theo, now that’s one mean SOB but I would imagine you have seen that already" Ice was looking smug "he makes most vampires quiver."

  Now it was Imogen’s turn to look smug "so if you pissed him off, would it worry you."

  "Nah not really" although Ice wasn’t looking so smug now, and it was Imogen’s turn to smile.

  "That’s good then."

  "And why would that be?"

  "Well I don’t think Theo would be happy to know that you beat the crap out of his mate and don’t worry I will be sure to tell him" now that smile broadened.

  She watched Ice’s expression go from shock to pissed off in a split second as he turned to Vlad "you ass, you knew that and was going to tell me, when?"

  "I didn’t consider it relevant but I would definitely have told you before you did something really stupid."

  "Of course you would, you wouldn’t want me to piss off the big bad wolf, and do you know what? Fuck it." He turned back to Imogen "you are now my student, I will train you until the first thought in your head is strategy. The first order is to go to the gym and work out, do the cardio and weights."

  "What it’s nearly midnight, I have been training since 8am" he had to be joking.

  "Well get used to it kitten, from tomorrow night we start hunting."

  She gulped "hunting what?"

  "Wolves have rogue wolves, we have rogue vampires, including the ones who attacked you" Ice was laughing at her face, making her resolve strengthen, she would do this, she would show him what she was made of, well she would try, going out hunting seemed a bit soon, maybe she should play on her feminine wiles.

  "Already, don’t I need more training, I mean what if these powers fade, I could let you down and you could get hurt. I think we should wait a little longer."

  "Sweetheart, you are already stronger than most vampires will ever be, you have adequate fighting skills, you can train around the hunts."

  Imogen nodded as Ice strode out of the room, Vlad stood next to her, "don’t worry about Ice, he is actually a good man, just a little tense, all of the time. However I would listen to him, he is a good leader."

  Imogen nodded again and left the room, she went back and changed her clothes and wearily headed down to the gym. Surprisingly most of the Elite where there, then again she kept forgetting they were vampires and kept unusual hours. Everyone was very friendly with her and very much commiserated with her on getting Ice as a trainer, although they were also complimentary on his skills, but still Imogen was just plain dreading it.

  Chapter 17

  Theo’s first thought on waking was of Imogen, his last thought when he went to bed was of Imogen. He phoned Celia every night, but he didn’t ask about her, although he had laughed when Celia described the tantrum she had had on Imogen. He didn’t go into much detail on what they were doing here, nor did he tell her about Liza and Lewis, he wanted to tell Imogen first. But he enjoyed listening to her voice and having her tell him about her day.

  Last night Mitch had arrived and they had actually sat around a camp fire
, drinking beers, telling stories, planning strategy. As a warrior for the gods, Mitch was not only strong and smart but a really nice guy. An odd looking nice guy, with his long hair that bizarrely had no defined colour just a mixture of them. He was tall and broad but females just radiated towards him. When he first met him Theo had been taken aback by the man's energy signature, it was so bright and light, he had never seen anything like it. Now Mitch seemed to get sent into battle with Silvers on a regular basis.

  "Good morning Theo" he jerked his eyes open to find War sat on his bed, as usual she looked radiant and intimidating, rubbing his eyes he yawned

  "Morning, is there a reason why you are in my room?"

  "You look tired, you need to go to sleep earlier, you won’t have full concentration if you are sleepy, could you imagine yawning in the middle of a battle" he smiled at her priorities.

  "I think you are worried about me" he laughed, he liked this, having someone else who cared, he had gone from having the pack and Celia, to Imogen, then War, then Liza and Lewis, this family thing was actually pretty nice.

  "Of course I am silly boy" she sounded indignant, "they will be here in the next 5 days maybe sooner if she pushes her troops."

  That got his attention "so soon?" He sat up.

  "Theo you have been here nearly 10 days as it is. She is planning to enjoy tormenting the people of the village before she mounts her attack, if she can pick off the vulnerable she thinks she may be able to get some of the Romany’s to join her."

  As he sat up she handed him a glass of orange juice, he was going to ask where she got it from but thought better of it, he was just touched that she knew what he liked,

  "They will never follow her, the clan is too close." Although he knew full well that some members probably would if things were bad enough. "How is Lewis going with his lessons?"

  "Like his brother he is a quick study, he has a good aim, I am impressed by him. When you are not with him Liza panics, she worries one of you won’t return. She spends most of her days following Sylvia around; I have decided you need to train her."

  Theo chocked on his juice "no way she is so tiny, I want her well away from this."

  "While I agree she shouldn’t be here, she still needs the skills to fight and defend herself whether she uses them now or in the future."

  He leaned back against the head board "okay, I don’t agree but I trust you, although if anything happens to me."

  "It won’t" her tone was uncompromising making him smile.

  "I said if… promise me you will see them safely to Imogen."

  "Already planned but nothing will happen to you, if it does I will bring destruction to this planet"

  She always seemed to make him laugh "of course you are War."

  "A common misconception, I may be the Goddess of War but I do not necessarily start the war, I have to make sure that there is justice in the world, give people a champion whether that’s a single person or an army, I have to make sure the bad don’t win over all. I am there primarily to make war fairer; sometimes that takes time, sometimes fate over rides the good for the bigger picture. Sometimes I get pissed and start a War although don’t tell too many people that" now she was laughing.

  "Mmm so you do also cause wars?"

  As he watched her laugh he wanted to hug her, "on occasions, if I am pushed, yes I do start wars."

  Taking a breath he asked the question he had been putting off, "Is Imogen okay?"

  "She is, she is working hard but she is good. How do you think she will feel when you take the children home with you?"

  Theo had thought about this a lot, Celia had always been there with them. He knew that Imogen had wanted children but now he wasn’t really sure.

  "I honestly don’t know. Do you know we have spent the past 5 years together but as friends, we don’t really know the little things you should know about the person you are in love with" that hadn’t occurred to him before, maybe it should have.

  "What if she wants you but not them?" He could hear the genuine question, for someone so kind she didn’t really understand human nature.

  "She won't"

  War was looking at him quizzically "how do you know?"

  He lay against his pillow "because I wouldn’t have fallen in love with someone that inconsiderate of others."

  As he watched her watching him, she smiled "I think that is definitely a good reason. Anyway it is time for you to get up and do some work, young man. I would like you to give everyone a really good physical workout today."

  "Why?"

  "Mitch of course, he arrived last night, the ladies upstairs are on standby to see him get hot and sweaty, clearly we have to satisfy their lusts, although you can tell Darius he is becoming somewhat popular upstairs" she leaned closer to him and whispered "it bodes well to keep Destiny sweet, she really can make life difficult."

  Theo almost chocked on his drink, "I can’t do that."

  "Why not, you have to admit he is a little bit delicious, especially naked. Watching him is one of our favourite past times"

  "Okay first things first, I will not admit to anything of the sort, he really isn’t my type. Secondly that would make me feel like a pimp and thirdly the goddesses can get their own men."

  By the time the words were out of his mouth, a bolt of lightning shot through the roof to land next to his hand, he jumped backwards and slammed his head on the wooden frame of the bed. He watched War laughing.

  "Have you learned nothing while with Mitch, we hear everything"

  "That could have hit me" Theo was somewhat shocked, he had seen that happen to Mitch numerous times when he said something the gods or goddesses disliked and each time he had seen Mitch jump out of his skin, and each time he had laughed at him, he didn’t think he would do that again.

  "Can I ask you a question" he liked being around War, he felt comfortable with her, she helped him think and somehow she seemed to give him good advice "ask away Theo, if I don’t like the question I won’t answer"

  "Well it seems to me that you have pretty much been a mother to me, albeit one I didn’t know I had, it would be odd to start calling you mom when I am 345 years old already and you are, well somewhat older than me, anyway is there something other than War that I can call you, War seems too cold and impersonal."

  He watched her face light up, her red eyes twinkling "in the heavens I am called Athena but that is what the gods call me, when I was but a couple thousand years old, Demeter gave birth to the beautiful Peresphone, she was lovely even as a child."

  He watched her smile as she reminisced "anyway Demeter was training me, apparently she was concerned when I allowed a War in areas where she had granted a harvest. Peresphone was only little and when I arrived she would come running up to me shouting 'Nina, Nina' I really liked that, yes I would like that, you can call me Nina."

  She had sat back on his bed, he sat up and leaned forward, he kissed her cheek "I like Nina, thank you. Umm if you and your goddesses want a work out I need to get out of bed and I can’t if you are here, I don’t fancy anymore near misses from lightning."

  She laughed again "of course, I forget that men on Earth are prudes. Please remind your brother that I will meet with him at one O’clock today and if he wishes to bring some of Sylvia’s chocolate cake I may allow him to practice with my spear" and with that she was gone.

  As he showered his thoughts drifted as always to Imogen, he knew she was okay but he missed her. He missed her smile, her brutal honesty, the way she would argue with him about almost anything, the way her body moved, the scent of her. He leaned against the shower wall and closed her eyes, he saw her in his mind, as he took his now raging hard cock into his hand, he imagined his hands on her body, stroking her breasts, pinching her soft rosy nipples, hearing her moan as he bent his head to nip at the other breast, her breath on his neck as he moved up to kiss her ear lobe, her neck. Theo groaned as he pumped on his cock wishing it was Imogen holding him hard, while he plunged his tongue into her
warm wet mouth savouring her taste. He fisted himself harder imagining it was her hand around him, as he reached his release he banged his head against the wall.