Bite, My Love (10 page)

I nod at
the candles.

‘
We keep them for nostalgic reasons. Think outside of Castle.
You see? Electricity.’
He sighs.
‘Things change.’

Rather
than gawp at Daniel as I am, Lee focuses on me. “When Ben changed
me I gained the memory of all my predecessors. The Child carries
the crux of the curse and therefore a majority of the power. I’m
told it’s important I know everything that’s happened in the past.
To protect us and help shape our future.”

She’s
looking at me as if questioning this logic, and asking my opinion
of it.

I abruptly remember Lee’s young like me, and new to this way
of life. At least I’ve always known about the supernatural world.
“Sure it’s useful.” No, it’s just
creepy
to know everything somebody
else remembers. I still have hazy impressions of Daniel’s memory
from his blood, and that’s bizarre enough. Let alone to have the
memories as if I’d experienced them first hand. She must walk
around in a constant state of déjà vu. That might explain the
spacey look she gets. “How do you separate
your
memories from the
others?”

“
It sounds odd. I have the information ordered so I don’t get
muddled. I think of my mind as interconnected rooms, named and
packed with memories. I’m reorganizing them by person and time. Ben
wasn’t so great at keeping the memories tidy.” Her face pinches.
“I’m still making some mistakes, especially when looking at the
same event through the eyes of multiple people. Um, the Sire and
the Child’s memory of the same event,” she clarifies at my puzzled
look.

“
This is not information to give lightly.” Daniel glowers at
her in disapproval. “Our ways are secret.”

“
She’s my guest, not a danger.” Lee lifts her chin. “I knew
Harmony before you did.”

Our gazes
meet, and female appreciation passes between us.

“
We should leave,” Daniel tells me, abandoning his attempt to
reason with his Queen. “We endanger her and the legacy she
carries.”

I
consider his concern deeply. Lee’s fragile, and the idea of being
the cause of any harm to her makes me uncomfortable. “Where would
we go?”

“
The city. To my home.”

I wrinkle
my nose, not liking the idea of the city much at all. I’ve wanted
adventure for ages, but I’ve never wanted to stay inside the city.
I went as a pup, and the sights, sounds, and smells are too much
for my hypersensitive senses.

My wolf
hates it there.

The air
is dirty and the pavements overcrowded.

“
Stay.” For the briefest of moments loneliness and grief mists
Lee’s eyes. “I need an explanation of what’s happening with the
Pack. Before Ben returns would be good, I’ve got lots of explaining
to do.”

Well, I
wasn’t one to kick aside hospitality. I face Daniel. “I’d prefer to
stay here.”

Silent,
he returns his unblinking stare to the fire.

Lee
settles on an armchair, and tucks her bare feet under her bottom. A
blanket from the sofa floats over to her, and she grabs it with a
soft cry of pleasure, and swaddles her body. The fabric cocoons her
until she’s a disembodied head. She studies us. “Talk.”

Daniel
scrubs his face. He flicks a wrist at me. “She is my
Bride.”

My gasp
is loud. Heart soaring, I lock my arms at my sides, resisting the
urge to roll over the top of the couch into his lap and squeeze him
silly.

Acknowledging me as his mate to his Queen.

My wolf
is overjoyed at how he honours us. My rational brain realises he
looks unhappy, but it’s a start, and even if he rejects a life with
me I’ve gained more leverage to buy my freedom from the South
Western Pack.

Lee rocks
forward. Her hands grip the arm rests. “Really?” A line appears
between her brows, and her expression screams distrust. “You’re
trying to trick me. Anya was your Bride. The memories I inherited
from you are incomplete, but I can see she was from the
others.”

Daniel
shakes his head. “I thought she was, but now my real Bride has
found me I know my behaviour was merely obsessive and desperate.”
He laughs bleakly. “Pathetic.”

A memory
flickers before my eyes. The images sent to me through Daniel’s
blood are weakening, but the picture is clear enough.

Anya is
stunning, beautiful in a way that steals my breath and kicks my
gut.

I’m a
shadow compared to her.

“
She had a son.” Jealousy is strangling me. “Was he
yours?”

Lee’s
eyes are round. “What?”

Daniel groans. Golden locks tumble in front of his face as
his head smacks into his hands. “I have no wish to remember this.”
He glares at me. His upper lip curls in a mean snarl, flashing his
sharp teeth. “I do not want you, or the memories I spent decades
burying.” Supernaturally fast, he rushes to loom over me and hisses
in my face. “I
will
be free of both.”

I jerk
and nearly fall off the sideboard onto the sofa.

“
Enough.”

Astonished, Daniel retreats a step as if shackled to a chain
Lee yanked.

I blink,
and Lee has abandoned her seat and stands between us. Daniel is
pushed further back by her stare alone. “I might not have all your
memories, but I have enough. You’ve been trapped in a hell of your
own making after losing Anya. Here you are making the same mistake.
Idiot.”

The front
door crashes open, letting in the cold wind and a spattering of
rain.

A
thundering voice booms, “Lee!”

The
Vampire Queen’s head whips around in a blurred streak. Emerald eyes
become impossibly wide. Her slender hands come together at her
waist, and she strokes the rose charm dangling from the bracelet
wrapped around her wrist.

Lee’s
heart rate accelerates. “Ben’s home.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

“
Get away from her.”

Lee opens
her arms to the dark warrior who storms into the room. He scoops
her off her feet and paces to the other end of the room. He slides
her behind him protectively and scowls at Daniel.

“
Ben.” Lee shoves him aside. “Welcome home. A kiss
please.”

His eyes
snap over his shoulder to her face, giving her the gentlest of
looks, but as he remembers the danger he stiffens. “Daniel.” He
spits the name as a curse. “Your presence will bring trouble to our
door.”

I
growl.

I’m not
liking the judgmental tone of Ben’s voice, or the hostile way he
stares at my mate.

“
Darling,” Lee says her gaze fixed on his face. She strokes
his shoulder. “Calm, please.”

I’m
thankful she’s keeping a hold on Ben. Having Lee on side might make
the difference between life and death.

“
He’s right.” Daniel’s voice is empty. “I bring death. I am
not … what I used to be. My fate is sealed, Bride or
not.”

The
underlying desperation in his tone tears at my heart with poisoned
claws. “I don’t believe that.” Hoping off the sideboard, I walk
over to him calmly, trying to dispel the memory of his enraged face
thrust into mine just moments ago. “I think your people will help
if you let them.”

Ben’s
mouth thins into a white line.

Daniel
has blanched bone white, and as I move closer, he backs away with
upheld palms.

What’s
causing him to look so violently ill?

‘
You won’t leave me be. So I’ll show you. I will make you
understand what your future will be if you stay close to
me.’
His voice is reedy in my head. He
shows me my prone body covered in blood and gore, a broken angel at
his feet. I get a vision of him holing me as the lights in my eyes
die. Then I’m reaching to him for safety as fangs rend flesh from
my bones, and I choke on my own blood.

These
visions feature merciless Vampires killing me. His people hurting
me to teach him the ultimate lesson in pain.

His mind is
a mess.

These
thoughts are poisoning his confidence. He’s fighting it, but the
need to keep me safe is driving him to distraction.

He’s
terrified of a future where I die before him, a future where he
loses all pretence of sanity.

I come
back to myself, and I’m shivering, and gulping air. There’s the
metallic taste of blood in my mouth where I’ve bitten my tongue to
stifle the pain I accidently siphoned from him.

How does
he stand it?

My heart is
aching.

No wonder
his face takes on the properties of stone when I needle him about
how our relationship should be. He’s trying to hold it together.
Scared everything he needs to live life again will be ripped from
him because of past transgressions.

How could
I go anywhere when he feels like this?

My
freedom is important, but my first choice will be to stand by my
mate’s side.

Daniel
has to let me be there.

He thinks
he’s not worthy of me. That any chance of me loving him was broken
when I learned he murdered my cousin.

All
things can be mended. Forgiveness. He only needs to ask.

We can
still fall in love, grow, and flourish into something breath-taking
if has a little faith. Give a little love and let it
happen.

’
Have you seen it? Have you seen what I’ve done?’

He’s in
agony.

His pain
hits me like a dagger to the heart. My chest is tight. Squeezing.
The pressure is too much.

‘
I will show you,’
he thinks in a
crazed rasp.
‘I will show you what it is
like in here with me. I will share some of that which you insist on
pursuing.’

He sucks
in a mental breath and darkness descends in his mind, and mine, as
he prepares to show me his greatest sin.

He
doesn’t think the lives he’s taken over the endless night of his
second life is bad. He sees those he’s fed from as courses for
courses, his due as an apex predator.

He
doesn’t think his reaction over Ben choosing Lee as the Child was
wrong. His intentions were to protect the Great
Bloodline.

Listening to thoughts he keeps under lock and key in the
depths of his mind is quite the experience. Oh my Christ. He’s
grabbed me from my aimless meander, and shoved me into a place that
is all about
me.

How can I
possibly take up so much of his mind?

Nevertheless, here I am a luminous nucleus so exquisite he
cannot help but feel love and hope.

I’m there
celebrating our mating in his consciousness.

Is
this
how
he sees me?

The smell is
divine
. It’s juicy apple pies
sprinkled with warm cinnamon, baking in rays of hot, yellow
sunshine. That spicy bouquet mixes with the smell of cold rain in
leafy woods. His earthy scents blend with my fiery ones to create a
fragrance that is unique to us.

And the
taste and textures of us are so wonderful. I’m satin and he’s stone
– rough and soft.

Apart
we’re plain, but together we’re rich, deep, and velvety.

He knows
he’s bitter chocolate, and remembers our kisses as his taste mixing
gloriously with my creamy hazelnuts.

That is
us.

Daniel
and Harmony.

He has a
mental picture of me. My arms are open wide, and my smile is
brilliant. In the blue dark, I stand calling out with a voice that
to him is magic. Honeyed and streaked bronze, my unruly hair
shines, light ringing the crown like a halo. My tan skin gleams,
and my sapphire wolf eyes glow, sparkle at him as I wink naughtily.
My wolf spirit is a phantom beside me. Tail wagging, she rolls
playfully as silken fur ripples, begging him to come and
play.

It makes
him laugh and smile. He wishes to make love to my Human form and
run wild with my beast self.

I’m
struck dumb by all I see. Around me are snatches of memory. Vivid
and rich, as if they’re happening right this very
moment.

Every second I’ve spent with him, every feeling he’s gleaned,
and every breath I’ve taken, he’s meticulously engraved into his
memory so that he never forgets how precious I am. He sees the
small things, like when I scratch my nose, or blink to clear my
eyes, as perfection, and the most beautiful thing
ever
.

Shocked,
does not explain how taken aback I am to read these things in his
mind. He doesn’t just care like I hoped. He’s not happy I’m with
him, or satisfied with how I look, like he makes me believe. He’s
unchangeably besotted, and lovesick to the core.

This is
what it means to be a Vampire Bride?

He’s
suicidal he’s going to be the one to hurt me.