A Wicked Good Witches Paranormal Romance Books 1-7 (Wicked Good Witches Seasons) (55 page)

CHAPTER 18

William Wakefield spied into the Deane Manor, looking for his target, biding his time.

He was in no hurry.

His moment came an hour later, around midnight, when he heard the voice of Riley Deane shouting to his brother that he was going to grab the mail before heading to bed.

Lucas was busy getting Lizzy settled in. She had eaten an entire pizza, drank a six-pack of beer, danced to heavy metal and then proceeded to get sick. Her first night back into humanity was starting out a little rough.

But William had found it entertaining to behold. He wondered what it would be like, to be given another chance as living out his human life.

It was a useless thought.

William dashed to the mailbox at the end of the winding driveway, lying in wait for Riley to arrive. When he finally made it, Riley heard a low voice call out his name.

William stepped menacingly out of the shadows.

Riley’s gut reaction was to cover his throat with his hand.

“It would not do you any good,” stated William. “Don’t worry. I’m not here to hurt you.”
Not tonight,
his tone warned.

Riley gulped, dropping his hand.

“You see, it appears that the Howards have, what would you call it, accepted the fact that Melinda wants to be with you.”

“I know,” he said, trying to find his voice. “Sh-she told me.”

“I’m sure I don’t actually need to say this, but I’m going to anyway...”

“I got it,” Riley stopped him. “Don’t hurt her. Not one single hair on her head. I assure you I have the most honorable of intentions.”

“I hope that is true.
Be clear,
I have no qualm with tearing you limb… from… limb... should that should
ever
change.” William spoke each word crisply, sure to show his teeth each time.

Having said his piece, he turned to leave, when Riley stopped him in his tracks. 

“You’re in love with Melinda, aren’t you?”

William turned back, his face blank. “My feelings are of no consequence. Suffice it to say, I will see no harm come to her on my watch.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” countered Riley.

William’s eyes pinched together, unsure what he meant by this statement.  

“You didn’t deny it,” Riley clarified. His face ashen, he decided he’d pushed his luck enough. He grabbed the mail and started back towards the manor. He took a chance glance back, but the vampire appeared to have gone.

William returned home minutes later. It was late and the house was quiet. Everyone had gone to bed. He motionlessly dashed up the stairs and quietly opened the door to Melinda’s bedroom, standing at the foot of her bed.

Riley was right.

He was in love with her. He could not deny that truth any longer.

But it did not matter. Admitting it made no difference to the outcome.

He peered down at her. She was restless. Her sleep intrusive.

And only now he realized, practically naked. His eye traced the curvy outline of her hips, roving upward to her breasts. His tongue ached to taste the skin there.

He closed his eyes.

He needed to leave.

Watching her like this was perverse. A dangerous violation. 

Melinda’s pulse quickened. Blood rushing to her heart.

He licked his lips unconsciously, imagining her red slick slathered across his tongue.

His eyes pried open. His personal calling card, that heart flutter that was all his…

Had she awakened and caught him standing there?

No. She slept. Fitfully.

Did that heart flutter mean she was dreaming of him?

The thought pleased him in treacherous ways.

He needed to know. To see it. He had slipped into her mind before…

He entered into her dream with ease. What he saw almost knocked him to his knees.

William gripped the bedpost, barely able to keep himself upright as he witnessed her dream. The white bed. The sea surrounding them. He, sitting in the middle of that bed, Melinda entangled around him.

Warmth.

Hers and his.

He let out a gasp. His hand slapped against his chest, grabbing at it.

A beating heart.

He gripped the bedpost, forcing himself to release it before it crushed underneath his grasp. In this dream, she’d made him human. Just a man. A living man, with a living, beating heart. Warm blood pulsed through his veins.

She couldn’t possibly think of him as just a man.

He was proving right now he’d never be a man, but forever a predator.

He yanked himself out of her mind and stepped closer.

Make it real,
a voice sung out in his mind.
Take her. Claim her. She wants you to.

Melinda let out a moan that shook him to his core. Blackness scourged his eyes. He licked the bottom of his fangs.

Her body lifted suddenly, sitting up, her eyes catching his.

William fled.

Out of the mansion. To anywhere and nowhere.

His mind raced. His fangs ached. His icy veins burning with outrage.

He’d come so close. Too close. Melinda would have been helpless against him. 

But she would have discovered the truth. He was a monster. Never a man.

He’d been a mere second away from Melinda never looking at him the same again. From never hearing that heart flutter again. Perhaps he should have done it, to make her see what he really was. To frighten her out of loving him.

It was better than what he was thinking. 

Watching… no
spying
on her dreams… was despicable, abhorred behavior.

And the penalty was a flood of desire and need unlike he’d had in over a hundred years. Not even when he’d been with his beloved Angelina.

He crept into the night, scouring the streets of The Demon Isle in search of what he needed.

A victim.

His teeth needed to ravage skin, and free blood.

He stopped.

Would he really succumb to this? Had he no measure of control?

“Well, well well. What are
you
doing roaming around at this hour?” someone asked him as if he’d been caught doing something wicked. 

He spun around, a wild look in his eyes.

“Lisbeth Deane,” William replied sharply.

She pursed her lips. “Looks like you’re having an even worse night than I am.”

His face softened. A moniker of control seeping into his blood-lust addled brain.

“Sorry. You’ve caught me at a…”

“Perfect time,” she finished. A wry smile curving at her lips.

He shook his head in a tight fashion, but did not elaborate. 

“My first night back in my body didn’t go exactly as I hoped,” she pouted. “Over indulged. Got sick. Got better. Discovered this really intense stuff called mouthwash. Took another bath. Tried to sleep. Could not. Kind of feel like I’ve been asleep for the last two hundred years… so I decided to take a walk. You have no idea how freaking awesome it is to feel your own two feet touch the ground.”

He looked down, seeing her feet were bare. His gaze wandered up her thin frame; thin but defined. The hem of her dress stopped mid-thigh. His eyes froze on her chest. Her inhales and exhales drew him to the pert rounded curves peeking out at him. Her long brown locks lay lazily across her skin, covering her shoulders.

“What’s got you all worked up?” she prodded with a breathy exhale. “I’d like to think it was me, but wow! You are one pent up vampire...”

“Lisbeth, please do not tempt me.”

“Am I tempting?” She let a seductive smile spread across her lips. She left him, continuing on her walk.

William followed. A few paces behind.

Lizzy slowed her pace, turning toward the beach. She let out an excited squeal as her bare feet stepped into the cool sand. She let it squish between her toes, feeling every grain rub against her skin.

Waves crashed gently onto the shore and she looked eagerly out across the water. Clouds were building overhead, the moon just a shadow.

“I’m going for a swim,” she said, with a slight turn of her head. 

William followed, silently. Stalking his victim… his
willing
victim…

Lizzy reached the shoreline and stepped into the chilling waters of the Atlantic.

William watched, barely able to contain himself as she shimmied out of her dress, leaving it on the beach. Her long locks fell to the middle of her back, just meeting her tiny waist.

She walked deeper into the water, stepping gently, releasing a moan of pure pleasure as the water licked at her warmed skin. She turned her head, glancing sideways.

“Are you coming, William? Or does the monster want me to beg?”

William’s eyes blazed black.

He should not be here. He should be leaving.

But his body would only move forward, toward her.

“I might hurt you,” his voice taunted in her ear.

She gasped, his cold skin pressing against her back. “That was… fast.”

“I am a vampire.” He spoke it as a final warning.

Water splashed against her stomach, but the frigid Atlantic did nothing to cool the heated pulses burning her up inside. So long. So very long since feeling the touch of another human.

William sucked in the lust. The smell sticking on his throat. It wasn’t as inviting as Melinda. Just thinking her name shot frustration surging through him. He snaked his arms around Lizzy, ensnaring her breasts underneath his icy skin. He ground into her hardened peaks, reliving another of Melinda’s dreams of him. The body ensnared wasn’t the body he desired.

No. But she was a willing victim.

He pulled Lizzy into his iced hardness. 

His teeth seethed against the skin on Lizzy’s shoulder over to the base of her neck.

A shuddering moan came out of Lizzy striking a hot poker into his chest. 

William went still.

Waves splashed against them.

His eyes froze on two puncture wounds on Lizzy’s neck.

He hadn’t done that. Yet they looked recent, a few days old he guessed.

“You’ve been bitten…” he stated it. 

“Yes.” She swallowed hard.

“I don’t understand.”

“My… my fiancé. Before I was turned into a ghast.”

“Your fiancé was a… vampire?”

“Yes. It’s why I was turned into a ghast. The other woman, she wanted him for herself. She wanted him to turn her.”

William’s hands fell to his sides. His world spinning. There had been another vampire on the Isle, long before him… and was engaged to this woman. Had he planned on turning Lizzy into a vampire? Was she just wanting
him
to finish what her fiancé could not? He stepped back a little.

Lizzy turned and looked up at him.

His gaze a torrent of confusion. Repulsion. Desire. Need. Fear.
Confusion…

“You said…” William stopped. “You said your fiancé killed himself. Jumped off the cliff. We cannot die that way.”

“You can if the sun is rising. And you’re not protected from the sun like you seem to be.” Tears swam in her eyes. “He jumped just as the sun rose… burned…”

She reached out and stroked William’s chest but dropped her hand when she started to shake. “There was nothing but ash to swim in the ocean below that cliff.”

“Was he going to turn you?”

“
No.
No. We were going to be married. But he wasn’t going to turn me.”

“I don’t see how that could work.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t have. We never had the chance to find out. I only know I loved him and was willing to try.”

“Did he drink from humans?”

“Yes. Until I helped him stop.”

“You?”

“Yes.” She dropped her head. “He was good. At least he was trying to be. I think he would have succeeded if he’d lived…”

“I’m sorry you lost him.”

She looked into William’s eyes. “He told me. Warned me. But I didn’t believe him.”

“Told you what?”

“That if he ever lost me, he’d be forced to take his own life. He told me he thought he’d been in love before, but not until he’d met me did he realize he hadn’t truly. I didn’t believe him. But it was true. After I was gone he just… shattered. Became a shadow of himself.”

The meaning behind this warning plagued him. Was this true? He’d thought he’d been in love before. Had he not been? Was it possible after hundreds of years as a vampire, there were still things he hadn’t discovered about his kind?

Lizzy spoke, barely audible above the crashing of the waves, which grew more violent as a storm built over the Isle. But William could hear her perfectly.