Blood In The Stars (8 page)

She sighed again. When she didn’t move, he leaned back, straddling her. Her eyes called to him but he wouldn’t help her. She had to do it herself.

“If you want to touch me, you have to lift your arms. Try to lift your arms,” he commanded.

Her lips pursed and the desire coursing through her veins had turned her skin rosy. He was sure her body had warmed. Why wasn’t she moving?

Then, inch by inch, her arms lifted. When they were at an angle from the bed, she stopped, her face scrunched in pain.

“I know it hurts, darling, but you have to try. Focus on me. Look only at me.”

Tears brimmed her eyes and she swallowed hard, biting at her lower lip. Eyes locked on his, she continued to raise her arms until they hovered mere inches from his face.

“Good girl,” he praised, leaning down and embracing her. With jerky movements, her hands managed to close around his neck and she plowed her fingers through his hair as if to anchor herself.

He swept her into another hard kiss. Confident that her mobility was returning, his hand roamed up her delicious legs and cupped her round bottom. “Put your legs around me.”

“Too heavy,” she pouted. He looked at her in confusion. “My legs feel too heavy.”

Jason shifted away and raised her leg to kiss the sensitive skin alongside her knee, tracing little circles with his tongue before planting kisses up the tender skin to her inner thigh. She moaned. Then he pulled down her panties, found her womanly core, and flicked his tongue across it.

“Oh, God.”

He slid a finger inside her tender flesh and her sharp intake of breath was all the encouragement he needed. He slipped in another finger and began to move them. Her hips rose reflexively.

“Tell me what you want,” he coaxed.

“You,” she gasped. “I want you.”

He withdrew his hand. “Then you have to move.” He climbed out of bed and the sudden onslaught of cold air tamed his ardor. He stood a foot away. “Come to me, Daria.”

She glared at him and Jason tried not to laugh at her frustration. “I’m waiting for you.”

With what seemed like monumental effort, Daria managed to push herself to a sitting position. She wiggled her toes but made no attempt to stand. She had been so quiet, so docile through the entire ordeal that Jason wondered what scathing barrage of curses she had waiting for him when she recovered fully. Because he knew better than anyone that Daria was anything but the compliant female.

“What do I get if I come to you?” she asked.

A smile lifted the corners of his mouth. Though she still fought off the last remnants of the banshee’s touch, she’d already begun to bargain with him.

“What do you want?” he asked, amused by the provocative question.

“Two things. I want the truth. No lies. I want to know everything.”

He nodded. When the banshees came for her, he’d already decided to tell her everything. “Done.”

Then she gave him a shy, sweet smile. “And I want you.”

If he wasn’t worried about her losing the use of her legs forever, he would have pushed her down on the bed and taken her right there. It sapped every ounce of his willpower to not only stand his ground, but also to step back and wait for her.

“I want you so much it hurts,” he said thickly. He tried to swallow but his mouth had gone dry. “But we cannot mate. Not tonight.”

Confusion, then determination crossed her brow. She circled her ankles and tried to bend her knees. Long seconds trickled by as she tested her legs. When she had moved them to her satisfaction, she tentatively put her weight down on one foot and then the other.

She fell. Jason caught her before she hit the floor and Daria threw him an apologetic grin. “Thanks.”

He swept the hair away from her face. “I would never let you fall.”

Jason helped her stand and after a minute, she moved her feet without his help.

“Wonderful!” he cried, like a proud father at his child’s first step.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and swung her in a circle.
Finally
. They had fought off the banshee’s touch. When he eased her feet back to the floor, he squeezed her to him, pressing her cheek against his chest. His heart wrenched to think of how close she had come to death.

“I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.” He held her tighter. “Don’t ever leave me, Daria.”

Chapter 7

With her breasts flattened against his bare chest and his throbbing desire rubbing against her stomach, part of Daria drowned in mortification while the rest of her wanted Jason as she had never wanted any man. Just thinking about what she had said to him shocked her.

Maybe it was because she thought she was going to die.
So to hell with modesty.

She remembered the high-pitched shrieks from that evening when her parents drove through the mountains returning from their trip to a national park. As the car rounded a wide bend, she heard them. They came from far away at first, like the soft cry of an infant. Yet the sound grew louder, multiplying to dozens of piercing screeches that raised the hair on her neck and sent fear into her bones. The screams surrounded their car until it was all she heard.

The shrieks followed her everywhere after that night. She heard them in her dreams. She heard them when she woke. She just never thought she’d hear them eleven years later in Chicago.

Like the first time, everything tonight went by in a blur. A headache had pounded in her head while Jason swept her away from a decaying woman who appeared in front of her. Icy fingers brushed her throat. Then coldness had invaded her body, sucking away all the heat she held inside.

She’d wanted to sleep so very much. To keep the cold at bay. Then Jason’s voice filtered through the haze, cutting across her slumber. His urgency and desperation told her she couldn’t sleep, and it took all her effort to stay awake for him.

When he lifted her in his strong arms, she suddenly realized she had lost sensation in her body. She couldn’t feel his arm on her back or the hard curve of his chest. When they got to her room, though alarm bells rang like crazy in her mind, Daria knew she was helpless to resist.

Not that she wanted to resist the surprise striptease. Her face burned at the memory. His beautiful, rippling shoulder and chest muscles, his abs carved from marble, the powerful thighs, and his desire for her that grew as she stared at him. Her belly warmed and she unconsciously pressed herself closer to him.

“I do
n’t know what I’d do if I lost you. Don’t ever leave me, Daria.”

Her stomach somersaulted at the ache in his tender words. She knew he didn’t really mean
ever
. Jason said it because she had just escaped death’s door. Yet a piece of her heart wanted him to mean it.

Despite the weight still dragging on her limbs, she managed to wind her arms around his neck. He was so tall that she had to lean back to gaze at him fully. Passion and authority glittered in his golden eyes.

“Stay with me always.”

Ever. Always. Never. He spoke in absolutes and the possessiveness underlying his endearments sent her heart racing, careening toward a finish line that held the unknown.

She was a woman in control of her life. It had gotten her this far. She’d had boyfriends in the past calling her
their
girl. The skin-deep words never affected her and, quite the opposite, annoyed the independent woman inside. She was no one’s.

So his words should have angered her or even scared her and sent her running for the hills. But she stayed because oddly, she found them charming. Nothing about them seemed chauvinistic or domineering. A quiet need, a subtle yearning framed them as fact. He spoke in truths.

The intensity in his eyes contrasted with the easygoing guy she had met at the sports bar last night and was the antithesis of the man who had chatted with her over takeout. The man before her now emanated raw power and wasn’t someone who took ‘no’ for an answer. If he wanted something, he reached out his hands and took it.

This strong, vibrant man wanted her. It thrilled her. And scared her.

He cupped her face. “Let me take care of you and protect you.”

Daria tried to breathe but she managed only a shallow intake of air. She couldn’t think like this, not when the lower half of her body fantasized about very different things.

“You said you wanted me. I’m yours.”

She melted at his sweet confession that blew away her doubts and reservations. He was hers. She breathed in his unique scent, letting it surround her, amazed that this man humbled himself so.

Jason must have sensed he had won the single-sided argument and scooped her up in his arms, carrying her back to bed. Daria reached for him when he lay down beside her but was surprised when all he did was hold her close.

“I owe you an explanation,” he said.

Her heart skipped. She had heard everything he had said. Banshees had touched her, freezing her almost to the point of death. They were once figments of her imagination as a result of her survivor’s guilt. Now they had a name.

Elation should have flooded her and sent her cheering and shouting to the rooftops that the stupid therapists were wrong. But she felt nothing. Felt numb.

“I’ve seen them before.”

He nodded. “With your parents. When you were sixteen, banshees came for you. They killed your parents but you survived.” He paused. “I blasted in from the left side window, yanked you out of your seat, and flew out the right as the car crashed. That’s why the cops found you with a diagonal bruise across your chest.”

If she hadn’t been lying down, the truth of his words would have sent her to her knees. He knew all the details because he was there. Somehow, given everything that had happened, she wasn’t surprised he knew. Maybe nothing would surprise her anymore.

She brushed the back of her fingers along his jaw, trailing them underneath where the sun rarely kissed. As long as he was here, holding her in his arms, she could stand anything. She stared at his lovely olive skin and splayed her hand over his chest as she caressed him. She swallowed. Who did she lie with? Who was this man who could hold her with such adoration and warmth, yet demand her future?

“Who are you? You’re not human, are you?”

He stroked her hair and didn’t answer her immediately. Finally he said, “That’s less important than who
you
are.”

Which affirmed her suspicions; the banshees had come for
her
. They had come for her eleven years ago and they had returned tonight.

Did she really want to know the truth? She had asked him to tell her everything, but was she ready to hear?

Instead of answering her question, Jason began, “The other night, you went on a date with a man named John—”

“A nightmare,” she interrupted softly, snuggling closer to him, needing his warmth. His arms tightened as though he sensed the chill rising within her. Yet even as she said it, she knew it hadn’t been a dream. “I had a nightmare about a monster.”

“A succubus. That’s a low-level demon.”

She searched his face, recalling why she had thought he seemed so familiar. Resigned, she understood why the dream had seemed so real. “You saved me that night.” Suddenly, things clicked into place, matching with all the little tickles in her memory and the strange sense that she knew him. Daria brushed her lips along his neck, the only place she could reach without leaving the safety of his arms. “You’re my hero. But you look different,” she mused.

Jason tugged at his short hair and gave her a sheepish smile. “I look different when I change forms.”

“Change forms?” She blinked at him.

Of course.

His wristbands pressed against her lower back. He still had them on. She caught one of his hands and brought it to her cheek, then kissed his wrist. Jason said he couldn’t take them off and she had the distinct feeling it had something to do with this other form, the one in the alleyway who had stood in the darkness, an omnipotent shadow threatening to crush everything in its path.

Jason kept a leash on that form but it lingered beneath the surface of his easygoing smiles. If she dug too hard or deep and attempted to peel off the layer she knew, then she’d find that man who had the ability to destroy her with a crook of his finger.

“What?” he asked at her stare.

“Which one’s the real you?”

“They both are,” he replied quietly. “My father has always said I have the ability to far surpass him in power.” Jason swallowed hard. “But it scares me.”

The quiet admission couldn’t have come easily for him. This man, who had sent chills down her spine, also left himself vulnerable. Her female pride soared that he admitted it to her. Did she dare believe she held a special place in his heart?

The tone of their conversation had darkened with the talk of monsters and death, so she tried to insert some levity. “I can’t decide which one I like better. The black coat is pretty hot, I have to say.”

He snorted and rolled to his side, pinning her under him. “This is serious,” he chided.

She smiled lazily and sifted her fingers through his hair. With Jason beside her, she didn’t feel fear. He had saved her all those years ago, he had saved her tonight, and she knew he would continue to protect her from whatever came.

Daria leaned up and kissed his lips. “I’m listening.”

Jason frowned. “Maybe we should get dressed and then you’ll pay attention.”

Maybe if she hadn’t almost died in a fire or by a passing cab, she’d pay more attention.
Maybe
. But after the banshees, she didn’t care about the serious stuff. She wanted happiness and right now, this moment, Jason made her happy.

She pouted playfully. “Do you
really
want to get dressed?”

A loving smile lit his face. “I would like nothing more than to lie naked with you all day, every day.” As her grin widened, he cautioned, “But there’s so much we need to talk about.”

Daria sighed. “I can already guess. There are ‘things’ out to kill me. I’ve been rather . . . unlucky lately.”

“An imp pushed you into traffic, a poltergeist messed with your appliance and shower this morning, a puck poisoned the wine tonight, and a goblin tried to kill you with the scaffolding. That pretty much sums it up.” He paused. “But I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”

Pride echoed through the vehement vow and she knew he meant it.

When she didn’t reply, he queried, “Aren’t you going to ask me why there are monsters after you?”

Actually, she kind of wanted to be an ostrich. Life’s road stretched short before her. She could almost see the end. Jason’s presence lengthened the road a bit, but she didn’t expect him to be with her nonstop. Apparently she had a target on her head. It didn’t really matter why. She had already lost her parents because of it. She didn’t want anyone else to die because of her.

“I figure someone somewhere has a grudge against me.” She sighed. “You’re going to tell me even if I don’t want to know.”

“Let me tell you a story,” he began, inhaling deeply. “Every five hundred years, a human will be born under all the auspicious stars.”

A sick feeling began to tighten her stomach. It expanded its cavernous mouth, swallowing her from within, consuming the remaining faith she had in what she thought she knew of the world. The muscles and nerves surrounding her lungs clenched and twisted. She couldn’t breathe because she saw a train wreck approaching. And she was the train.

Stop. Don’t say any more.
She couldn’t speak her protest aloud.

“If the human is a man, the Houses send the oldest daughter to protect him. If the human is a woman, the Houses send the oldest son. But anyone, even those who don’t belong to the Houses will want to take this person. If they drink this human’s blood, they are given immense power. Those who eat this human’s flesh, will be granted immortality. But if one of the Houses can claim this human, not only will the clan prosper, but also that House will rule over all the land.”

A web of tangled uncertainties overwhelmed Daria. Was she walking death, living on borrowed time? Had fate determined this from the moment she was born? Only she wasn’t a bystander in this tragedy. She was living it. Her reality was one big, inevitable wreck that ended with her life snuffed out.

“It’s me, isn’t it?” she asked woodenly. “They are here to drink my blood and eat my flesh.” She met his eyes, no longer feeling as safe in his arms as she did a few minutes ago. “What are you here for?”

He pulled back and chucked her chin. “You’re special. You are the auspicious one, the first one to survive to adulthood in fifteen hundred years, Daria.” His golden irises transfixed on hers. “You are nearing maturation and have the potential to develop great powers. Powers no one can fathom. Everything in this world will be after you then. If you do not have one of the Houses to protect you, you will be eaten.”

The impact of his words crept inside her fuddled brain.
Eaten. Like an animal
. Goose bumps rose on her arms. The ghastly thought sent nausea through her, turning her stomach. A plain vanilla death surely seemed kinder than being eaten.

“What powers will I develop? And when is this ‘maturation?’”

“Soon. Probably on your birthday in three days.”

Her skin felt too tight across her face. He said everything in the world would come after her then. Sudden shock stole her breath. Her heart just might stop beating, too.

“And these powers?” she whispered. “Will I be able to fight those things after me?”

Jason didn’t respond at first. After a long pause, he said, “My mother was the last auspicious one to survive to adulthood. She never developed any powers. I don’t know what will happen once you reach maturation.”

A sitting duck with a target on its back. At least ducks had the option to fly away. She had nowhere to go.

“And what is a House?”

“One of three families. Each an individual clan. I represent the most powerful and the ruling House. I’m here to protect you.”

Daria braced herself for the final fine print she knew was coming.

Yet it never came.

A veil closed over his eyes and he maneuvered onto his back, taking her with him. Lying draped over him, she marveled at how natural it felt. She hadn’t been with many guys and she usually spent most of the time feeling self-conscious about her body. She’d definitely never rolled around in bed with a guy the way she did now.

“Is that it?” she prodded. He wasn’t telling her something. She could feel it in her bones. And he still hadn’t told her who he really was. “You said you’d tell me everything.”