But he wasn’t completely helpless. “What Caris does and doesn’t do isn’t your business, Dustin. She isn’t interested in you—she made that clear a long time ago. Get over it, man.”
“Get over it?” Dustin snarled, his face pale except for two flags of color high on his cheeks. “Get fucking over it? I had to listen while the woman I love let two men fuck her at once. You don’t even love her! And the other one ain’t even fucking human!” That wide barrel chest was letting out a booming, gravelly roar now and Sage knew it was only a matter of time before Morgan got out there. “I’m supposed to get over knowing she’s turning into a fucking slut—”
“Watch it,” Sage growled, his hazel eyes going cold and mean, his mouth firming down. His face went harsh and his hands flexed as rage spilled through him. The rage fueled him and hot little licks of power raced up and down his spine, firing his other gifts. “Be careful, Dustin. Be very, very careful of what you say from here on out. Nobody insults Caris like that, nobody.”
Dustin sneered. “What you gonna do ‘bout it, little man? You can’t go flitting away like the coward you are, so what are you gonna do?” he mocked as he barreled at him.
One hand snapped up, palm out only microseconds before Dustin would have plowed into him. Dustin was grabbed, snapped into the air and held. A burning, searing jolt of pain ripped through Sage’s head, sweat beaded on his lip. Distantly he heard the door to the house swing open, but he focused only on Dustin, on wrapping the invisible hands around him.
“You forgot, old pal, who helped teach Miguel, didn’t you?” he whispered gruffly, as his body started to tremble from the strain. The more Dustin fought, the harder he had to struggle to hold him. If he hadn’t been so fucking weak, it would have been nothing to hold the giant in the air indefinitely. Slowly, he closed his hand into a fist, and watched as Dustin’s face paled while his air supply was cut off. “You forget, the teleporting is the gift I use the most. But it’s not the only one. And it’s not even the most powerful.”
“What in the fuck is going on?” Morgan demanded as he strode from the house, his blue eyes snapping with anger, gleaming red so very faintly. His long, graceful body was tensed with rage as he stopped beside them, staring at Dustin with narrowed eyes. “Dustin, have you forgotten yourself again?”
“Fuck you both,” Dustin gasped.
But his outrage was obliterated by the arrival of Jax. He came striding up, his eyes glowing, his fangs dropped, fury written in every line of his body.
“Put the mountain down, Sage, before you collapse,” the vampire said quietly. “You weakened yourself far too much, saving us all on the yestereve.”
“Might not be the wisest thing,” Sage said, even though his voice was starting to wobble and the pain was starting to blind him. “Dusty here wants blood.”
“Then he shall have it,” Jax promised seductively, his voice low and silky.
Sage glanced at Jax warily.
The vampire smiled, a flash of teeth in his golden face. “Oh, do not worry. I shall not hurt him, much. But he called my lady a, ah, what was it? Yes, a slut. I do not believe I care for that word. We use a different one where I am from, but they all mean the same thing.
“He insulted her, questioned her honor, her heart, that is not something I can abide,” he murmured as he stalked a tight circle around the man who still hung in midair, his face turning a pale blue now from lack of air, while Jax stared up at him.
“He is unable to breathe—a strange gift you have, Sage. And while I understand your fury, Caris is mine. He called my lady a slut. This is my insult to avenge.”
Morgan’s eyes narrowed. “Dustin, you stupid fool,” he hissed. Then he looked at Sage and nodded. “He’s asked for it. Let him go before you fucking kill yourself.”
Sage didn’t have a choice—five seconds after Morgan had finished speaking, he felt the last of his strength give. He collapsed. Again. The past few days were doing a number on his pride.
* * * * *
Anni sidestepped Dustin and knelt beside Sage, her fingers gently brushing his soaked hair from his gray face, tangling her fingers in the silky strands for a brief moment. Then she moved aside so Miguel could lift him. Her heart twisted at the lingering scents of sex on his body, even as the demon inside her turned the blood in her body to fire.
She paused by Dustin who was slowly sitting up, still glaring angrily at Sage, totally ignoring the man behind him. She knelt slowly, in front of her brother. “Why, Dusty?” she whispered. “Caris doesn’t love you. She’s never going to. But that doesn’t make her a whore.”
“Fucking two men does,” he snarled.
Anni closed her eyes and hissed, flexing her small hands. She wanted to hit him. Why was he so fucking obsessed? She lifted her eyes to the vampire behind her brother. “He’s a jackass, I know. And he’s being mean right now because he’s hurt. He’s wrong, completely and totally. But he’s the only family I’ve got left. He’s not a bad guy, Jax,” she said quietly.
He smiled, and Anni felt a shiver run down her spine, heat pooling in her belly and between her thighs. If Caris was a whore, then maybe so was she, lusting after a man who lay unconscious, and sexually attracted to the man she was permitting to hurt her brother. Even if the jerk deserved it. But that face, that mouth, damn it…and his voice, like whiskey.
“I meant what I said, little sister. I will not hurt him—much. But no man shall speak of my lady that way.”
And Dustin was still glaring at Sage.
Like Sage was the threat.
Anni retreated into the house. She didn’t want to see it. She was in her heart a predator, just like Jax. Dustin was going to have to learn who the dominant was, who Caris’ heart and body belonged to, and he was going to have to respect it. But she didn’t particularly want to see it.
So she’d help clean Sage’s weary, wounded body and curl up next to him.
And wish it had been her with him last night.
But what else was new?
“Get up, mountain. I prefer my battles to be as fair as I can make them. Perhaps I should wear a blindfold. Or tie an arm behind my back,” Jax mused as Dustin continued to rub his throat.
Jax leaned back against the fence, narrowing his eyes slightly against the brightness of the sun. The human was paying him no attention. None. As he pushed to his feet, Jax struck. He lashed out with one booted heel, took both of Dustin’s feet from under him and watched as the mountain went down with a crash. He was back against the fence before Dustin had even struck the ground.
“I am not finished with you,” Jax said quietly. “I care little that you are angry with Sage. And I have no sympathy for your hurt feelings. A man with honor does not speak so callously of a lady, one he says he cares for. You insulted Caris—for that I will bring you pain.”
Dustin was still lying on his ass trying to figure out what happened. “Get up,” Jax growled as his fangs dropped. Hunger was starting to gnaw at his belly and it would have been a pleasure to rip open a vein and feed until this pathetic mortal was weak and listless.
Dustin shot to his feet as Jax’s words penetrated, fast for a man of his size, and he whirled to glare at Jax. “I’m gonna rip you apart.”
Jax flashed his fangs and he whispered tauntingly, “Come and try.”
Dustin rushed him and got the receiving end of a fist that felt like it was made of titanium. His nose was a well of pain, his eyes watered, blood flowed. Broken. Roaring, he lashed out with a fist the size of a ham, but Jax was no longer there. The hair on Dustin’s neck prickled right before he felt his arm get wrenched behind his back as he was whirled and slammed into the corral fence. He was ripped from that, then slammed into the ground while he struggled like a child, helpless and weak.
Jax smelled the blood, male, flat, but blood all the same. Saliva pooled in his mouth and he swallowed, shoving Dustin harder into the dirt as he growled, “She’s not for you. Even if I had never arrived here, she is not for you. But you will never speak so
of her again.
“How can you claim to care for her? Love her, even? Yet speak of her so? What foolishness is this? Have you no honor? No pride?” Jax rasped against his ear.
Dustin bucked and Jax slid off, retreated a short distance and waited while Dustin got to his feet. He wobbled, pressing one hand to his nose. Jax sneered as Dustin lunged for him again. The humans seemed to move in slow motion compared to him. He was able to move a complete circle around Dustin by the time Dustin reached the spot where Jax had stood.
He drove a fist into the unprotected kidney area and kicked at Dustin’s knee, before wrapping an arm around his neck, beating his blood lust into submission as he rode the bellowing man to the ground. “Shut your mouth, you fucking fool,” he growled. He barreled into Dustin’s mind, smashed down the feeble walls so many humans seemed to have, and just took over, forcing his very being into the other man’s mind.
Dustin had no psychic skills, other than a mild sort of sensing that allowed him to know whether or not a person was a Firewalker, or in Jax’s case, human. Smashing into his brain was like smashing an eggshell.
“She is mine. I am hers. You are nothing to her beyond friendship, but with your words you seek to kill even that,” Jax snarled. “But if you cause her pain, I cause you pain. One more word from your thoughtless mouth and I will…kill…you.” His voice dropped to a rough purr as he forced the picture into Dustin’s mind of just how he intended to do it.
“A vampire is not a creature you want angry at you, Dustin Michaels. I could take your mind and own it, make it mine. Your anger makes you weak, and I could own you this moment. I could force you to walk into the building there and hang yourself, or make you drive into the town and fling your body from one of your tall buildings and smash it into pieces. Or I could drain you dry and you could watch and not struggle at all.” His voice dropped to a seductively silken purr as he added, “I could even make you beg for it. I could make you want it.”
Jax rose off of Dustin, unable to stay so close to the blood that still flowed, the call of it humming under his skin. He hunkered on his heels beside Dustin as the man rolled over and scrambled back, fear finally saturating him and overwhelming his jealous rage. “But what I would do, Dustin, should you say one more thing against her, is just beat you into a bloody pulp.” He stared at him, waited for Dustin’s eyes to meet his and acknowledge him, then he rose and walked away.
He felt their eyes on him when he crossed the threshold.
Anni looked from Dustin, pushing himself up slowly and painfully in the corral yards away, to Jax. “You didn’t feed,” she said quietly, studying him with narrow eyes. She knew the signs of hunger, better than the others, since she suffered them herself.
He quirked an eyebrow at her. “If I feed now, I am likely to kill what I feed from, Anni. I am angry with your brother, but I do not wish to kill him.” He slid his eyes to meet Morgan’s and he said, “The mountain is not hurt too terribly. But you had best teach him to watch his tongue. He will not speak so of Caris. Ever.” His voice dropped to a rough growl and his fangs dropped even further, protruding past his lower lip, his dark blue eyes glowing and hot in his rage.
Morgan inclined his head. “I can’t control Dustin. But if he can’t control his tongue, he isn’t welcome. He will understand that, I’ll make sure of it,” Morgan said quietly. His pale ice-like eyes lingered on the fangs and he suggested, “Shouldn’t you go ah…feed?”
Jax inhaled and forced the fangs to retract slightly. They wouldn’t draw back into their sheaths completely until he had fed, but he could control it somewhat. “Do not worry, Morgan. I control my hunger, not the other way around. I also control my anger. Is Sage well—will he be well?”
Miguel lifted his head from where he was studying Sage. His thick, dense black curls fell into his eyes and he absently brushed them aside as he glanced at Jax. Sage lay unconscious on the couch. Nobody had wanted to wake Caris, because then they’d have to explain what had happened. “I think he will be. The best person to ask is Caris, and I can tell by looking at her she’s exhausted—”
Jax crossed the room to kneel by Sage. “What exactly do you ask Caris? Is it a psychic thing for which you look?” He shuddered in the presence of such life, smelling the ebb and flow of it. His own heart rate kicked up, and he had to close his eyes and breathe. It had been too long since he had fed fully and well.
“Yeah,” Miguel muttered, unaware of Jax’s torment.
Anni wasn’t though. She moved closer, unable to trust the big predator so easily. He was a noble man, from what she could tell. But nobility seemed to die easily. And he was so damned hungry. Sage was an easy target, and Miguel was so unaware. Morgan wasn’t completely blind either, and he narrowed his eyes and moved closer as well.
Jax reached out, laid one finger on Sage’s brow, right between the thick, shaggy eyebrows. Burning, slicing pain overwhelmed him for the briefest of seconds as he hissed and fought the instinctive knee-jerk reaction to pull away. “He is hurting,” he whispered quietly. “I’m no empath—but Father of us all, the pain is enough to break him. Have you healers among you?”
Anni flicked Morgan a glance.
“Kelly Maguire is coming, and several of my agents have hooked up with her, despite her attempts to lose them. She’s too valuable to travel alone and she’s too upset right now to use caution. I believe Chantel is with her—she is a traditional healer, and Kelly is an empathic healer. They will be here tomorrow or the day after. But they are moving slowly, and using more conventional methods, since we don’t know how exactly they are tracking the teleporters,” Morgan said, still watching Jax the way you would watch a snake, eyes narrowed and watchful, wary.
“He needs a healer, just to ease the pain. It tears at him…he cannot heal without rest, but he cannot truly rest while this pain rides him.”
“Medications?” Morgan suggested blandly, lifting a white brow.
Jax frowned, running the unfamiliar word through his mind. Medications…herbs. Then he nodded. “That would help, I believe.” Miguel started to rise but a look from Morgan stopped him. Jax barely noticed, so focused was he on Sage. Anni left and returned a few minutes later. She knelt by the men, moving slowly, not meeting Jax’s eyes, or even looking at him. She was going to have to trust Miguel and Morgan to protect Sage if Jax lost control—as a predator, she was a tabby cat next to Jax.
Jax watched as she applied a tiny clear patch to Sage’s temple. He smiled. “Your planet is more evolved than I had previously thought,” he murmured. A few moments later, he touched Sage’s brow again and nodded. “A little better. But he needs true healing. It’s like somebody tore a ragged hole inside his mind and he needs it closed. And if you have such things as psychic healers, I would dare say you summon them.”
Rising, he turned. That was when he realized just how intently he was being studied. With a slow smile, he bared his fangs, focusing on Anni. “I can control my hunger, little sister,” he murmured softly. “But I starve, and I ache. I shall return.”
With that, he was gone, quicker than any of them could even track his movements.
Chapter Seven
Caris was coming out of her room, her hair braided back away from her face, light makeup applied, her lips slicked wine-red, gold dangles hanging from her ears, a smug little smile curving her face. It faded as she glimpsed Dustin slowly and painfully making his way inside. She saw his bloody, battered face and stopped, staring at him, her mouth open. “What in the hell happened to you?” she asked, her eyes wide and round.
He stared at her, flushing a dull red, with humiliation from what he had said, and from being pounded so easily into the dirt. “Your boyfriend took offense to something I said,” he finally spat out through his swollen mouth.
Caris narrowed her eyes. Then she caught sight of Sage. “Sage…”
She was at his side before she even realized she had moved. “What happened, Morgan?” she demanded, running her hands over his torso, cupping hi
s pale, graying face. “He was doing better this morning. He was fine. Did something—” Her eyes unfocused and she probed. “Damn it, why does he feel likes he’s been drained…” her voice trailed off as she felt eyes on her.
Those eyes moved to Dustin.
“You.” She rose slowly. “Exactly what did you say that Jax took offense to? And what does Sage have to do with it? Or do I need to ask?” she asked, her face flushing with anger.
“No,” he said gruffly. “I don’t guess you do.” He slid his eyes to Sage, who lay still as death. Drained, Caris had said. Dustin was not a teleporter, and other than his unbelievable strength and size, he had no true power. But he knew what drained was. He could have done Sage serious harm. And Sage had saved them all yesterday.
The bad thing was, it wasn’t the first time. Sage was a fucking hero, and that really burned his ass. Sage had saved him, had saved all of them, more than once and now because Dustin couldn’t swallow hearing what had gone on behind closed doors, knowing he wasn’t ever going to touch that smooth golden skin, or feel her soft, warm body—FUCK!
Slowly, stiffly, he turned and faced Morgan. “Do I need to go?”
Morgan shifted in his chair, hooking one ankle over his knee, steepling his long, graceful hands together in front of his face. His white hair was loose today, falling over his lean shoulders and chest in silky straight tresses. Those disconcerting ice blue eyes met Dustin’s and Morgan lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug that did little to convince him that his leader wasn’t seething with rage.
“That is up to you, Dustin,” he said softly. “I would think you owe three people a very public apology, first of all, Caris.
“But beyond that…you will let this go. Completely and totally. She is out of your life. You will work together, when and if I say so. But beyond that, she does not exist for you. If you can’t deal with that—hit the fucking road,” Morgan said silkily. “If this happens again, you had better pray the vampire deals with you before I get my hands on you.”
Firewalkers: Dreamer Page 8
