Blood Bath, A Paranormal/Urban Fantasy (The Maurin Kincaide Series Book 4) (21 page)

I rubbed my palms along my leather clad thighs. They weren't quite as absorbent as the yoga pants I typically practiced in. Despite the cool breeze on my exposed shou
lders, thanks to the tank top, my palms were a little clammy. When Mason said he was going to get me comfortable clothes to train in I had something else in mind. Primarily cotton. At least the black biker boots didn't have heels. I did a couple deep lunges, surprised by the mobility in the pants.

"They'll give you more protection than the clothes you normally wear."

I spun around to find Mason leaning against the door frame wearing similar clothes. The short sleeves of his black shirt strained against his biceps. He really should be on a calendar. I picked up a sword from the rack on the wall, trying to ignore the pull I felt every time he was around. I let the sword fall under its own weight before swinging it back around. The whoosh of the blade as it sliced the air breaking the awkward silence.

He stepped in behind me. "Who's been teaching you? Your stance is off." He slid a knee between my legs, nudging until they were a distance apart that he was happy with. "So is your grip." His hands wrapped around mine, sliding them along the hilt into proper position.

"I hope I'm not interrupting." Aidan wasn't interrupting anything but his accusation and the way Mason had molded his body to mine, his arms around me holding the sword, it felt like he walked in on us fucking.

He stepped into the room, his long duster brushing the tops of his black combat boots when he moved, his jeans pe
eking out. The hood of his long sleeve shirt was up, very Assassins Creed and for the first time I saw who he really was- every bit the hunter Mason was. He stalked into the room, his jealousy and anger coming off him in waves.

I broke away from Mason and walked over to him, le
tting him engulf me in a hug feeling the tension leave his body as soon as he touched me. My stomach churned with guilt over what I had almost done with Mason. I needed to tell him. Not now. Later tonight, when we were alone. Or after training, when we got back to Salem. Or after I killed Caligula and Bathory but I would definitely come clean. I would.

I wrapped my arms around him, breathing in the scent that was uniquely Aidan. He pulled back enough to kiss me, his fangs nicking my bottom lip. I gasped as he licked the tiny beads of blood and tightened his grip on me. This was more passion than I was used to getting from Aidan in front of other people.

Oh he had no problem telling people I was with him, he touched me, kissed me but it was with the comfort of a familiar lover not the uncontrollable passion, the need to touch and be touched like new lovers had. That was always kept behind closed doors. His desire for me washed away the metallic taste of my blood on his tongue. And that had me pulling back. I looked up from our kiss to see his eyes focused on the hunter. I didn't appreciate the fact that this PDA was for Mason's sake.

I pulled him closer and he leaned down into my e
mbrace. I was on tip toes, my mouth on his neck. I should have let him have his moment. It would have been the least I could do after my make out session with Mason but my mouth moved before my conscience could stop it.

"When you kiss me like that you better fucking mean it." I was careful to keep my voice soft enough that my words were
only for Aidan.

"And the next time you kiss another man you should brush your teeth or gargle with whiskey at the very least. I can practically taste him in your mouth." His voice was louder than mine and I knew Mason could hear him.

I reeled back, shocked and ashamed. I didn't look back at Mason. I knew he wouldn't be wearing the same guilty expression as me. Triumphant would be a better description for how he probably looked. Aidan pulled me back to him and I whispered my apologies into his chest. His hand was under my chin, forcing me to look him in the eyes. "If it was under any other circumstances I might not be so forgiving. When someone comes so close to death it's natural for them to want to feel alive. I should have expected Hunter to take advantage of that."

"I guess that explains why vampires drink blood every time the sun sets. They've been mostly dead all day."

That garnered Mason a look from me, one that should have shriveled his tongue in his mouth preventing further outbursts that would start a fight Aidan itched to finish.

He had the last word, except this time it was a whisper in my mind. One word, wrapped in a velvet caress of the between, it was enough to send heat pooling between my legs.
Mine
. I held back the moan as he used our ability to mentally connect with the between against me. My body suddenly felt full to the point of bursting with energy and I needed a release. If Mason or Aidan had their way I would be spending that energy on one of them. I intended to, just not the way they'd like.

"Let's get to work." If I wa
nted to survive the next few days stuck in this house with the two of them I'd have to spend every second of it training.

I moved to the center of the mat and motioned for Aidan to come and get me. Dropping his carry on and shrugging out of his black duster he joined me on the mat. He dropped the hood and I couldn't help but smile. He was
gorgeous and his eyes held a look I hadn't earned and most certainly didn't deserve. And then he pounced.

He rushed me in a flurry of punches and kicks. I barely got my guard up in time, blocking blows with forearms and shins. He continued to press forward, backing me up to the edge of the mat. He moved to sweep my legs out from under me and I jumped in time to avoid being knocked on my ass. Aidan didn't wait for me to land. His palm shot out, co
nnecting with my chest. I stumbled back once my feet were on the mat again, barely keeping my balance. He wasn't taking it easy on me and I got the impression he wasn't quite as forgiving as he said he was.

I couldn't let my emotions or my injuries get the best of me. That shot to the chest really hurt, his palm landing just shy of where I had been impaled. I fought the urge to rub it, knowing full well if this was Bathory she would use my weaknesses against me.

I was always a better counter puncher, finding my openings as my opponents worked offense but Aidan wasn't providing any. He continued to press forward. His arms moving at full vampire speed. There was no way I could strike. It took everything I had to block his blows.

He continued to work us back to the wall. His short i
nside jabs to the body got through my guard now that I had less room to maneuver. I came down hard on his right foot with two foot stomps. He couldn't really feel them through the steel toe boots but his foot lifted instinctively the next time I moved mine.

I swept to my right, knocking his left leg out from under him. He was quick to recover but not quick enough to stop my knee from connecting with his face on the way down. He backed up an inch and I sent my knee up again, hoping to get inside his guard and catch him in the ribs. He blocked with a downward thrusting palm. Finally giving me an opening.

I came straight up the middle with a short but coiled upper cut. It connected with his chin, snapping his head back. I smirked at the blood dripping on his lip where a fang pierced through. He wiped the blood with the back of his hand and then licked it off. His smirk matched mine, well except for the fangs. I swung with a wide left, hoping to box his ear and throw off his equilibrium. His hand shot out, painfully gripping my forearm as he pulled it to his mouth and fully extended fangs.

So the fangs were out.
Two could play that game. No quarter would be given in our first physical fight. He wanted to prove I wasn't strong enough and I wanted to prove I could kick his ass. This was Rocky and the Russian. He may have had me against the ropes but I was about to make a comeback that would make Balboa proud. I spindled enough of the between to jump behind him. Eye of the Tiger blared in my mind as I phased. Before I could land at Aidan's back I was hit with something from the side knocking me flat on the mat.

Mason, who had been content to watch from the sid
elines with Conry curled up at his feet until then, hit me with a small ball of his own bundled energy.

"What the hell
, Mace? I had him."

His eyebrows quirked in amusement at the nickname I
gave him. I rolled my eyes at his wink, knowing he saw it as a term of endearment. I don't know what the hell it was, it just sort of came out. Aidan, however, wasn't smiling. He jerked me up off the mat, my body sliding up against his and then back down as he set me on my feet. He looked at Mason and then back to me, the anger at Hunter softening when our eyes met.

"Stay out of the between. I don't want you in it, not even for the five seconds it would have taken you to come up behind him. Again."
Mason was a drill sergeant. There were no breaks while he was in charge of my training.

"Let her catch her breath."

"There won't be any neutral corners with Bathory. She needs to work on her endurance if she's going against a vampire."

"I'm sure you've been testing her endurance as well as her resolve since the moment you brought her here. Give her a minute, she may be immortal but she's not invincible. She almost died, she hasn't fully recovered." Aidan stepped menacingly closer to Mason.

"So you keep reminding everyone. Pissed we wouldn't let you finish the job? Turn her into a bloodsucker, something dark, akin to the Unseelie beasts living in the shadow realms?"

"What?" I moved between them, forcing Aidan to look at me instead of Mason. I shoved him hard in the chest when
he didn't answer. He didn't budge but I wasn't trying to get his feet to move, just his mouth.

"
You were dying. Even after I pulled the iron bar out of your chest, you weren't healing fast enough. There was too much henbane, too much iron in your blood. I could have pulled all the toxins from your blood."

"I had already lost so much blood
, Aidan. That would have killed me."

"You were dying already. I was going to bring you back, give you my blood."

"I don't want to be turned, Aidan. Never, do you understand me? Never."

"You can die
, Maurin. You can be killed. You expect me to let that happen if it's within my power to stop it?"

"Yes, I do if it means turning me into something I wa
sn't meant to be. Vampires can be killed as easily as you seem to believe I can. In the end it wouldn't change anything but my feelings for you."

"A world where you live to hate me is better than a wor
ld where you don't live at all."

"Giving up what I am to become something else isn't li
ving."

"I didn't realize this was how you really felt about va
mpires. I don't know how you tolerated my hands, my mouth, especially my fangs, on your body for so long." He moved around me, ready to go after Mason. "Satisfied," he bellowed. "I suppose I should be thanking you for exposing her true feelings to the both of us but I won't."

Aidan swung a hand out, gesturing to me as part of the
“us” he referred to, not realizing I had moved beside him. When he accidentally backhanded me, Mason pushed off the wall and stepped forward.

Content to watch us beat each other senseless in a sparring session, physical contact outside of that would not be tolerated. He'd have to get through me first. My hand came away bloodied from my nose and lip for the first time since we stepped on the mat and my switch was officially flipped.

Didn't matter that it was an accident. He was being an asshole and that was reason enough. I lunged, my fist connecting with his nose from a bone crunching superman punch. I knew he hadn't hit me in anger or even intentionally but I couldn't stop myself. I punched and kicked until I had him flat on his back and still I didn't stop. I dropped a knee on his chest, about where he had pulled the iron from mine. Breath he didn't need came out as my weight came down. I rained elbows on his face as I screamed incoherently.

The blows slow
ed down as the past week finally caught up to me again. "How dare you? I've never done anything but care about you. How can you stand there and say those things to me?"

"He's not standing or talking any more
, Maurin. You may have just beaten a vampire to death. I'm impressed."

"Shut up
, Mason. You've caused enough trouble for one night. Besides, he's not dead. Are you, Aidan? Just an asshole!" I kicked him in the ribs. He was down for the count and it was a dirty shot but I didn't really give a shit, I was too pissed off to care. "You constantly go around making decisions for me. You never discuss anything with me. You impose your will and I make excuses because we care about each other. Or at least I thought we did.

“
But if you honestly think I don't want you to turn me because I hate vampires, that I think so little of myself I would give my body and heart to someone I loathe then go fuck yourself because I certainly won't be doing it anymore. I decide how I live and if I die. Not you or anyone else!" I shot Mason a look to let him know he was included in that declaration as well. I stormed out, shouting over my shoulder "I'm going out to get drunk. Alone. That means stay the fuck away from me."