Chasing Shadows(57)

I quirked a corner of my mouth up as I regarded her. “What’s wrong with liking him?” I asked.

Her eyebrows winged up as she unfolded and then jerked on the pants of the track suit. “Saphrona, do you really have to ask? He’s a vampire. I’m a shapeshifter. Only thing we could ever have is a nice little affair, and that’s not what I want out of life. I want and deserve more than casual sex. And, well, so does he—or so he’s said. Besides, he and I are both looking forward to pair-bonding like you and Mark have, and an affair would interfere with that.”

“How so?”

She shrugged as she was unzipping the jacket to the suit. “It would complicate things,” she said, slipping her arms into the sleeves. “I don’t want to have to face the mess of disentangling myself from even a casual relationship when my imprint comes along. I want to be able to transition into that relationship seamlessly.”

I sighed. “I understand that, more than you know. But I also know you can’t always resist the desire to live while you wait—after all, I went so far as to get married. Certainly I’m not saying you have to do that, and certainly not with my brother. I’m not even saying you have to get involved if you don’t want to. But the two of you are important to Mark and me and it would be great if you could at least be friends.”

Juliette nodded as she zipped the jacket closed over her bare chest. “I’ll give that a try,” she said at last, and we turned in unison to leave my room.

Lochlan was waiting for us by the back door. He looked Juliette up and down, his eyes staying for a moment on her bare feet before he looked up again, saying, “What, no shoes?”

“Ain’t gonna need ‘em,” she said, breezing by him.

Loch looked at me. “I sure hope she knows what she’s doing,” he muttered, and followed her out the door.

When we were all in his Escalade, Juliette sat forward, asking, “You going to be alright to drive? It’s getting lighter outside.”

My brother glanced up through the windshield as he turned the key in the ignition. “Your concern for my welfare is overwhelming, but unnecessary, considering I just chugged a quart of blood. I’ll be awake a while yet.”

“Loch, have you ever created a blood bond?” I asked, interrupting them.

He looked at me. “A few times. Why?”

“You ever tried to find anyone you bonded to? Because I haven’t,” I replied.

Loch maneuvered a three-point turn in the wide parking space of the driveway so that he could pull directly out. “You have to concentrate on the person you want to find. Believe it or not, it helps to close your eyes and imagine the taste of his blood.”

“Won’t she want to drink his blood if she starts thinking about what it tastes like?” Juliette asked.

He grinned at her over his shoulder. “Why do you think it helps? Besides, I don’t imagine Mark will protest her having a sip.”

I leaned my head back against the headrest and ignored them, closing my eyes and remembering the last time Mark and I had made love. No, wait… I hadn’t bitten him during that all-too-brief session on the kitchen table. When was the last time I had bitten him before that?

Oh, right: yesterday morning in the wee hours, after the dozens of firemen and police had finally left my farm, the barn in ruins and the animals dead, and I had needed the comforting reassurance of physical intimacy to remind me that I was still alive. I’d been rather savage that time, had taken more than I usually did, but Mark had not complained even once. It was as if through the metaphysical bond we shared he seemed to know what to give so that I could take. For such a gung-ho soldier type, he was turning out to be every woman’s fantasy.

That is, the kind of guy who gives his woman whatever she needs or wants.

But then, he was also proving himself to be a stereotypical macho man. He had, after all, taken off early in the morning to meet the men who had beaten and tortured his sister, without back-up, knowing it could get him killed. He either had not stopped to think about the risks, or thought that with his specialized training he might just be able to handle them on his own in spite of what we had told him.

I pushed those thoughts aside and concentrated on that last bite, of sinking my teeth into the flesh at the curve of his neck and shoulder, of feeling that warm, rich liquid flow into my mouth. I thought about how indescribably euphoric it felt to feed on him and orgasm at the same time, and then my back arched, straining against the seatbelt as I suddenly and sharply felt the connection form between my mind and Mark’s.

“He’s here…” I said breathily, my eyes still closed. “In my mind, I can… I can feel him.”

“Where is he?!” Juliette demanded.

Lochlan hushed her. “Alright now, Saphrona… Which direction did Mark go when he pulled out of the driveway?” he asked in a low voice.

“Left,” I said, feeling strangely detached from myself. “Turn left.”

“Left it is,” said my brother, and he pulled down the driveway, turning left onto the street. When we came to the end of it, he asked me again which direction to turn.

“Columbus is to the right—he met them at the mall, remember?” Juliette said.

“No.” I shook my head and looked at her, finally feeling strong enough to concentrate on the connection and keep my eyes open. “Go left again, toward town. Mark may have gone to Easton, or they may have met him on the road, I don’t know. But he’s here in town, I can feel him relatively close by.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “If they were just going to bring him back to town or ambush him on the side of the road, why the text luring him to Columbus?”

“Perhaps it is all part of the game, the bastards,” Lochlan said. “I can’t wait to get my hands on them.”

“Then have I got a surprise for you,” Juliette declared. “One of them is the tick you and Mark got into it with at the movie theater.”

“Turn right at the next light, Lochlan,” I broke in.

He acknowledged my direction and turned when he came to the corner, then cast a glance over his shoulder at his other passenger. “Oh really now? Well then, that makes it all the more fun…and gives me all the more reason to tear his sodding head off.”

Juliette actually grinned at that, but once again I made myself tune the two of them out. I had never created a blood bond before, let alone tried to trace somebody through one, and I feared losing the connection to Mark. I assuaged my fear for him with the fact that I wouldn’t be feeling anything at all were he not still alive. I had to take comfort in that or my fear might end up controlling me, and I couldn’t let that happen. If it did, I would be of no use to anyone, let alone Mark.

“Turn left up ahead,” I said to Lochlan.

My brother nodded, and then said, “What the bloody sodding hell…?”

Juliette, still sitting forward in the middle of the back seat, grabbed his shoulder. “What? What is it?” she demanded.

He ignored her. “Saphrona, no offense love, but are you sure you’ve got it right? I mean, do you realize where we are going?”

Blinking, I took a good look around at the buildings and scenery outside.

“That son of a bitch!” I all but screamed. “I will kill him, I swear to God!”

“What?!” Juliette demanded forcefully. “What are you talking about? Where are we?”

Lochlan glanced back over his shoulder once more, a grim look on his face. “It would appear, my lovely Siberian friend, that we are going to see our father.”





Back to Top





Nineteen





“Your father?! Do you think he’s been behind this from the beginning?”

Lochlan’s reply was something along the lines of, “As much as I hate to say so, it is certainly possible. He seemed quite adamant about discovering the whereabouts of Vivian Drake, especially after Alana O’Mara told him she was a vampire. It’s not out of his realm to intimidate someone he thinks isn’t working hard enough or fast enough to get him what he wants.”

To which Juliette replied, “So much for his profound love for Saphrona. Isn’t he the one who said he loved her and would make sure Mark was protected from other vampires?”

“Aye. But again, he’s not above using somebody’s loved one as a pawn to motivate them into doing his bidding.”

Somehow I was hearing them, hearing Juliette and Lochlan talking about Diarmid’s involvement, but I wasn’t really paying attention. All I could think of in that moment was how much I hated Diarmid Mackenna. How the hell could he do this to me—again?! Did he really think that luring Mark out of the house and kidnapping him was going to motivate me to look harder for a woman who for all intents and purposes didn’t even exist?!