Assassins Bite (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Aiden was not in a good mood when he got off the phone with the estimable Kai Elias. Physical danger Aiden could overcome, but while the ancient was supposedly one of the good guys, he was wilier than Nosferatu and all his lieutenants combined. If Ric's life hadn't been on the line…but it was, and the promise to go to Elias if he had a beef didn't
seem
onerous. Although, with the ancient's habit of thinking not one, not two, but a whole lifetime's moves ahead, that could go pear-shaped fast.

But an hour later, when Strongwell helped him unearth Ric and his friend was awake enough to drink and looking better, Aiden's mood softened. He hated giving up his freedom, but this time, it was worth it. He gave Ric a donation, sucked down a couple of bagged pints himself, then left the room while his friend rested, briefly grateful he only had the one friend to worry about.

An image of Sunny appeared in his mind, studded with Ric's arrows.

A full-body shudder stopped Aiden mid-stride. He'd given up one precious freedom for Ric, but if she'd been hurt, damn the consequences. He'd have promised Elias anything.

He closed his eyes and
felt
for her, reaching out along the blood scent, the smell/taste of every person he'd ever sampled. Her essence resonated in his very cells.

He misted up two flights, straining to get to her but snapping back shy of the room. His stamina had been sapped by the last few days.

His first breath drew the scent of Sunny's spilled blood.

Never rash, be damned. He kicked in the door. “What the fuck? I leave you by yourself a few minutes and you're bleeding again.”

“Aiden?” Her whole face brightened seeing him. “It's nothing. An accident.”

“That's not the point. You're hurt.” He sped to her, spat on his hand and wiped the wound shut. He meant to be brusque but was unaccountably gentle.

“Really, it's nothing. Elena was training me to fight vamps—”

“To
what
?”

“Sorry, v-guys.”

“That's not what I meant. She has no business teaching you that.” He glared over his shoulder at the woman, who simply shrugged. He switched his glare to Sunny. “You are
not
fighting vampires.”

She fisted hands on hips. “You're not the boss of me,
Aiden
.”

He growled mentally. She was strong-minded and independent, and his inability to shield her from all harm pissed him off. “You will not expose yourself to danger you have no idea how to handle.” He glared at Elena. “What's wrong with you, making her think she has to fight my kind?”

“Not me.” Elena raised both hands, palms out. “I can't make her think anything.” She paused. “Like you.”

He let his growl out.

“That's exactly why I was training.” Sunny reclaimed his attention. “So I
can
handle v-guys. Right, Elena?”

“Nope.” Elena backed away. “I'm not getting in the middle of a marital spat.”

They both yelled at her, “It's not a marital spat!”

She rolled her eyes. “Su-ure. Well, whatever it
isn't
, I'm not in the middle.” She stepped over the broken door and skedaddled.

Aiden knew he was yelling at Sunny because he was scared for her. With her he felt more scared…and more excited and hopeful and more
everything
…than he had in decades.

Which scared him even more, because he wanted to hang on to this
feeling
. Wanted this, wanted her, permanently.

A very bad idea. He stood alone; he'd done so for decades and it had served him well. He had no room in his life for another, especially not a permanent other.

Time for a strategic exit. “No human fights vampires alone, not even Elena. Strongwell is with his wife at all times. He protects her—and until you have a vampire at your side protecting you, you will not fight them!” He spun to stomp out.

“Don't you walk away from me.” Sunny seized his arm and tugged, spoiling his exit. “We had a deal, remember? You promised to let me fight my own battles.”

“Vampires are not
your
battle.” His words were harsh but he was careful and gentle peeling her fingers from him.

“At least one vampire is.” She spun arms around his neck, pulled him to her and kissed him.

He was awash in her, the tangy-sweet scent of her exertion, the thud of her accelerating heartbeat, the glide of her damp hot body under his roving hands…he was putty when it came to this, when it came to her, all his discipline shattered and in ruins at his feet.

If this was a battle, she was trouncing him.

As her small tongue darted into his mouth, he banded arms around her and crushed her to him, wanting to meld with her right here and now. As if she'd heard him she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his hips. She undulated against him, scrubbing herself with abandon against his rising cock.

Satisfaction filled him. She was as lost to this as he was.

With the last of his awareness he realized he could use that. When it came to loving her, he couldn't say no—but neither could she. He could seduce her then restrain her again. Or make love to her until she was languid and sleepy and couldn't get in trouble fighting vampires.

Then she groaned, “Aiden.”

His name on her lips, in return for her right to fight. A bargain, yes, but more. It gave them equal footing, acknowledged each as a
person
. Him, a reality beyond Blackthorne the assassin. Her, a right to her own battles, her own life.

He couldn't seduce that away from her. He respected her too much.

He set her feet on the ground and pulled away.

She whimpered, a tiny sound of protest.

And he was back kissing her. He barely pulled her behind the changing screen before reaching under her clothes to touch and caress and meld with everything all at once.

A flick opened the snap of her jeans, a tug undid her zipper. He slid a hand inside her panties and met her rising clitoris. His quickened breaths brought the smell of her arousal, tangy sweet.

He rubbed her, liking her soft gasps and groans. He dropped his mouth to her neck and licked her skin, tasting her pulse under his tongue.

A tug at his waist barely distracted him, belt and snap and zip coming undone in her strong fingers. He sprang greedily into her hands. She circled his shaft and stroked gently. He tilted his hips and thrust more aggressively into her fists.

When he was swollen and purring like mad, her hands left him. He groaned with longing.

But she'd only released him to take off her pants. She turned her naked buttocks against him and rubbed flesh, soft to hard.

He responded hot and fast, his cock jacking past ready to
now
. He grabbed her hips, turned them up, reared back and—

It all slammed together in his head. Smelled, tasted, felt like his.

Like a mate,
his mate
. Like Ric and his
pregnant
mate.

Intercourse with Sunny wouldn't be screwing. It was mating. Which meant children.

Making him a father.

“No!” He pushed away.

She turned to him, blinking innocence and confusion. “What's wrong?”

He tried to explain. “You could get pregnant.”

The passing wistfulness in her eyes was nearly his undoing. She said, “Condoms—”

“Won't do any good with my kind. Not if you're…if we're…” He dug a savage hand in his hair, pulling out strands. At this rate he'd go bald in a night. “Take my word for it.”

“Well, then I'd get pregnant. Would that be so bad?”

“What about your career?”

“Elena has a career and a family.”

“She has Bo and a dozen people helping her raise the child. Mrs. Cook, Mr. Butler…who do you have, your mother? Your brother? Imagine them raising your baby. Do you want that?”

She paled. “Ouch.”

His blood drained in response. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean—”

“I know. But still.”

He shook his head. He didn't know what to say that wouldn't make everything worse. So he said what was in his heart. “I won't risk making a child because of my past.”

“Elena told me a little. But that's your past. It's over now.”

“It's not over.” He shook his head. “It lives every day for me. In me. I'm sorry, Sunny. I can't.” He turned to leave.

“Don't go. Please?” The panic in her voice shot guilt into his very bones. Yearning filled her eyes, a desire to
connect
, or rather, as they were already connected, to tug the emotional string between them and vibrate it deeper and wider into joy—a desire all the more dangerous because some lost part of his soul shared it.

“I have to.” He wouldn't be a father. Wouldn't do that to some poor random child, much less Sunny's.

He dissolved into a river of mist and flowed out.

I won't say I was dejected after that spectacularly failed seduction, but when Elena met me dragging down the stairs, she took one look at me, hooked my arm and said, “Mrs. Cook will feed you.”

“I'm not hungry.”

“You'll eat anyway. I'm a mom now, I know what's best. After which, Ric and Synnove need watching. I'm deputizing you to sit with them for a while.”

“Synnove's awake? That's good.”

Mrs. Cook rustled up a plate of beans and rice spiced to make my eyelids roll up like shades. I loved every bite. Food was just what the doctor—or the mom—ordered and I was almost human and no longer dragging when I hit the stairs to the basement.

Ric was awake too, sitting on top of the soil, bare-chested and probably bare-bottomed but his hips were covered by a blanket. He appeared more human, or at least less like a corpse.

His wife snuggled next to him. I thought she was napping but the moment I came through the doorway she yawned and sat up. “Sun-Hee. I heard you were in on the rescue. Thanks.”

“I do what I can. How are you?”

“Still sleepy, but I'll be fine. Have you met my husband, Ric?”

I waved hi. “You look better.”

He smiled. “I feel better. Where's Aiden?”

“He left.”

My face must have said more than my words, because Ric shook his head. “Don't mind him. He had a rough childhood.”

“I heard he was an orphan, like me.”

Synnove patted the spot next to them. “Why don't you sit with us for a bit?”

I eyed the soil. It wasn't moist but it wasn't bone dry either.

Ric said, “Mats are in that cupboard.”

“You read minds?”

A smile flashed across his model's face. “Your expression wasn't that hard to decipher. What else did you hear?”

“That Nosferatu raised him.” I found a padded roll, spread it and settled beside them. Synnove curled up against her husband.

“Did you also know that Nosferatu made him? Lured him with the promise of a better life, then attacked and killed him.”

All my blood drained from me. “That's
horrible
.”

“Yeah. And why Aiden doesn't trust authority. Nosferatu made me too. In the early 1800s he was creating his own personal army by murdering orphans. Not many rose again, but those who did were trained to kill. Aiden was the first, and for many months, the only.”

“My God.”

“Yes. Isolated, alone, yet he still managed to hang on to his humanity, because when I rose he took pity on me and took me under his wing. He saved me.”

Synnove's fingers crept into her husband's hand and held on tight.

I said, “You'd have died?”

“I might have survived physically, but I don't think I'd have stayed sane. He shielded me from the worst of Nosferatu's abuse.” He shook his head. “Training was harsh. Maybe both of us would have gone down if not for Eloise.”

I snarled. “That psycho?”

“Then, she was a beautiful little human girl. Sweet.” He said it wistfully. “Just six. We clung to each other, Aiden and me and Eloise. We were more than friends, we were partners against Nosferatu.”

“Yeah, well, if she's Aiden's friend, why did she try to kill him?”

Ric looked away. “Nosferatu scarred her. A lot. Some of that is our fault.”

“It's not,” Synnove said. “You were children.”

“She got left behind when we tried to escape. It's clear she blames us.”

I said, “She blames Aiden.”

Ric's eyes came back to mine, a fierce wintry blue. “That's wrong of her. She doesn't understand what happened. Hell,
I
still don't understand everything that went on that day.” He paused. “Aiden said she subconsciously wanted to stay. Maybe he's right. He's pretty savvy. Maybe Stockholm Syndrome.”

“Histrionic personality disorder, from her ranting.”

He stared at me.

Thinking he was looking for clarification, I said, “Needs constant attention? All Eloise, all the time?”

“That's what Aiden said.” Ric kept staring, so long and so intensely I got uncomfortable.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said in that way that meant
something
but he wasn't going to spill. “Do me a favor? You know Otto's B&BS? Synnove's sister drove in from Chicago to help. She's staying there. Could you let her know we're both here and okay? We should have checked in by now and I don't want her to worry.”

“Elena said I'm supposed to sit with you. Can't you phone?”

Synnove said, “I talked to her when I first woke, but I didn't have time for details. It'd be better if she get the full story in person. Sun-Hee, please?” She dimpled.

“Well…” There was something they weren't telling me. But Aiden trusted Ric and I'd played street soccer with Synnove. What harm could it do? I got to my feet. “Okay.”

As I hit the front walk to Otto's B&BS, a woman dressed in something short and spangly stormed out. Her sassy date makeup clashed with the red anger in her face.