Force of Nature Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 4) (47 page)

“You’re not a very nice person. I should spank you for teasing me.” She licked his nose at his threat. “Yes, that’s very nice, but I have something else you can lick. I’m pretty sure the steaks will wait for a—”

His cell phone ringing stopped him. She grinned when he said, “Hello, Mom,” and walked away from her. She hopped off the counter and started to put together potatoes for baking and a nice salad. She had the spuds in the oven and the salad nearly made when he closed his phone. He didn’t look all that happy.

“My parents are coming to visit. They want to get to know you a lot better. I tried to tell them to wait, but they insisted they could help us.” He sat down and put his forehead on the table. “I so don’t need this right now.”

She was still laughing when, an hour later, two very beautiful people were standing in the kitchen with them. The man looked like Phil—or she supposed Phil looked like him—and the woman was simply beautiful. She took the salad bowl from her as she started to clear the table and handed it to Phil.

“Welcome to the family, dear. Now, tell us what is going on that Phillip doesn’t want his parents hanging around for?”

Yep, Holly liked his mom just that quick.

Chapter 7

Theresa walked through the bar, ignoring the police tape. She sniffed the air every few minutes, hoping for the other scent again. There were others there…she’d found the older vamp and where he was staying, but she’d never been able to figure out the other scent. It was female, of course, but what kind she couldn’t seem to get. Theresa sat in the seat where the other woman had sat.

The smell of the other vampire was on the seat too, like he’d been there as well or had touched the other female. Theresa didn’t know why that bothered her, but it did. Pissed her off, if she was truthful with herself.

Theresa looked around the room from there. The bar was right in front of her, as well as the chair where the other man had sat. She’d wanted to kill him, the other one listening in, but had her men already counted for. Theresa could also see where the vamp had sat and thought maybe they’d known each other. Getting up, she went to the hotel front desk.

As computers hadn’t been around when she’d been made she didn’t understand them, but she did have the ability to make the clerk standing there do almost everything she needed. Theresa still had trouble making anyone do exactly what she needed, and it usually ended up entirely wrong. But this time, she was able to get the girl to see who had stayed in the room she’d followed the vamp up to. Phil Campbell, attorney at law, and it said he lived in Ohio.

Theresa was still looking over his information when the clerk, Debi, said something that had Theresa looking up more information.

“Oh, the pretty couple,” she had told the man standing next to her as she pointed to the screen. “Do you think Miss Force and Mr. Campbell got married like he said they were?”

Theresa walked away from the counter twenty-five frustrating minutes later a very happy person. Not only did she have Phil’s name, but that of the other woman…Holly P. Force, buyer. Theresa glanced back at the mess she’d left there. Too bad she’d had to kill them both. Laughing, she shook her head. No, it wasn’t. Smiling she realized she’d enjoyed every second of their dying.

Theresa had to steal three wallets and two purses before she found enough cash to buy a plane ticket. A horrible fear of flying had her hiding in the bathroom all the way from New York to Ohio. Twice she snarled at a couple of people when they’d tried to open the door with a key, and had giggled a little when they’d complained that someone was going to be in big trouble for bringing their mean dog on board. Theresa rushed out of the tiny room and was out of the plane before they had the chance to put out a means for everyone else to get off.

Not that she cared. To her way of thinking, flying should be left for the birds and if it hadn’t been for the fact that she wanted to get to the man and woman before her next killing quota, she would have taken a car. She really did love to drive. Pulling out a phone book, one smaller than she’d thought it should be for a city as big as Columbus, she looked up her attorney’s name. He wasn’t listed.

Pissed, hungry, and the sun nearly coming up, Theresa took her dinner to a cave with her. The woman hadn’t fought her much and when Theresa sank her fangs into her neck, she realized why. Drugs. And lots of them. Not only that, but the woman had a disease; something that Theresa didn’t know, but whatever it was made her blood bitter. She drank only what she needed and left the whore to die. She was nearly there anyway; Theresa just helped her along a little bit.

She was settling down in the deepest part of the cave when she remembered becoming a vampire. Theresa had only been sixteen when she’d met her true love. He’d been so nice to her at the church picnic one Sunday that she’d allowed him to kiss her on the cheek before she’d gone home with her daddy.

Her momma had died when she’d been born. Her father had always told her it wasn’t her fault that her momma had died birthing her, but she’d never been able to shake the feeling that he did sort of blame her. She’d see the way he’d look at her sometimes, as if he wanted her dead too.

Then the next afternoon the boy, Ernie Richardson, had come calling. She’d blushed horribly at that. Her daddy hadn’t been all that happy about it, but he’d allowed them to sit on the porch together for a spell. Her great-aunt Sadie had put up a fuss, but her daddy had let her sit with Mr. Richardson for a whole hour before he’d made him leave.

“I’d like to come tomorrow too if you’ll allow it, sir. I really like your daughter and want to get to know her better, if you don’t mind.” Mr. Richardson had stood there, all tall and beautiful, and when her daddy had looked over at her, she’d nodded.

“You can come, but you should know that she ain’t very smart. Couldn’t get her to go and finish up her schooling. Got to the third grade and all, but nothing would make her go anymore.”

Theresa stared at her daddy for saying such a thing. It was true, but he shouldn’t have said it to her new beau.

Mr. Richardson nodded. “Yes, sir. I don’t mind that she’s dumb. I’ll be needing to take me a wife soon and she is about the prettiest thing in this here county. Miss Theresa will suit me, I think.”

Long after Mr. Richardson left she still sat on the porch and wondered if he’d insulted her or not. She’d been called stupid before and not just by her daddy, but this time it hurt her in her heart. But he had said she was the prettiest girl in the whole of the county, and that sort of made up for it. She went into the house just as the sun was going down.

The next afternoon she’d waited for Mr. Richardson for nearly three hours before she had to go out and feed the chickens. By the time evening had come around and supper was being put on the table, she’d figured out he wasn’t coming for her. Her daddy hadn’t said anything to her about him, but he did look at her sort of sadlike several times while they ate. The next morning she knew why.

It was all over the town that he’d been killed. His horse had thrown him and he’d broken his neck. Another farmer had found him lying in a ditch not a mile from her house. That was the cause of all the rumors starting.

She’d killed first her momma, they’d said, and now a man who’d bragged he was going to marry her. She’d taken to her room for a week, not sad that he’d been killed, but happy because he’d told people he’d planned to marry her. Her great-aunt told her it wasn’t fitting for her to be so happy about the one thing the stupid boy would have regretted his entire life.

Two weeks had gone by and she’d finally left her house. She’d wanted to wear black, but again her great-aunt had put her foot down. Her daddy had said nothing, but had gone on to work in the mines. She’d been around the store three times, she remembered. No one would talk to her and she finally had to get back home. It was coming on dusk and she knew she’d be in big trouble if she didn’t make it there before her daddy did.

She’d seen the woman coming toward her for a few minutes before she realized that she was a stranger. The closer she got, the more Theresa hurried along. It wasn’t as if the woman was big or anything, just that Theresa didn’t like the way she kept looking at her. But she was able to pass her without any words being spoken between them, and Theresa let go of the breath she’d been holding. She never heard the woman move until she was right behind her.

Theresa had waked late into the night. She was laying on a hard table and she felt…well, heavy, as she thought about it now. Getting up, she wondered for a minute as to why she was wearing her momma’s good dress until she saw all the tables around her.

She’d been in the funeral parlor’s back room. Getting up made her dizzy and she couldn’t figure out why she felt so hungry, yet the thought of food made her ill. She stumbled to the doorway when she heard music. Following it up the long stairs from the basement, she saw the woman and a man standing next to her daddy. Before she could go to him, the woman was suddenly there.

“You’ll obey me now. I’m your new master. Your father thinks you’re dead and that’s the way it should be.” She started to lead her away from her daddy and Theresa tried to fight her off. “No, it will do you no good. I am your master.”

By this time, they’d made it back to the little room where she’d awakened. She thought for sure that the woman was going to do something to her and she wasn’t having any of that. Grabbing the first thing she could touch, Theresa had turned and stabbed with the long piece of a staff. The thing had gone right through the woman’s head and out the back end. Theresa had been so caught up in all the blood she’d nearly been caught down there with the body. She was out the door and into the night before the first person could grab her. Theresa had been running since.

~~~

“They didn’t know how the woman had managed to kill so many without being caught. If they did, neither of them said it while I was there. And the older man, Hooper, he left the area soon after. I’m checking into where he’d been from.” Phil looked around the room at the people assembled there. “I really wish you would have kept this as quiet as possible.”

“Peeshaw,” his mother said. “You need family when you do this sort of work and we’re going to stand beside you whether you like it or not.” She looked around at her husband and sighed. “Is that woman Sabalz still in charge of the Trustees? Or have they maybe staked her out in the sun for us…I mean, for humanity?”

Phil glared at his mom. She hated Anye and she’d never made any kind of bones about it. When his mom smiled at him he turned to his dad, who only shrugged. It was as if he were saying, “You know how she is.”

“She’s still in charge. She’s the one who called me in.” He sat down next to Holly on the couch. “You really should try and get along with her some. She is the person who decides the laws.” His mother snorted and Phil knew she’d do what she wanted, as she normally did anyway.

“So this council, the High Trustees of Vampires, you work for them?” Austin looked at Phil’s dad when he didn’t answer. “And what is it he does for them? I mean, besides go when they tell him to so they can scrape and bow at his feet.”

Holly giggled and he turned to her when she spoke up. “It’s not my fault they figured that out. All I said was the woman looked ready to have your baby when you took off your jacket.”

“You told them about my title. I thought we agreed to keep that just between the two of us.” They hadn’t, but he thought it was implied since he didn’t want to talk about it. “I was trying to keep this in perspective, not have everyone wanting to make fun of me because I’m a flipping Knight of the Vampire Guard.” He knew as soon as the words slipped out he’d said more than he should have. He looked over at his father, who had paled, and his mother looked ready to burst. “That happened a long time ago. I told you she had rewarded me for my services.”

“She knighted you as the Vampire Guard? Why that flipping bitch. I swear to you, the next time I see her I’m going to take her head from her shou—”

“Enough,” roared Austin. Phil had heard him do that once before and the entire pack had been quiet around him for a week. “This is not what we’re here to discuss. There is a murderer out on the loose and this bickering isn’t going to help. Now, if the knighthood or whatever doesn’t help right now, can we please table it for later?”

Phil looked at his parents, who looked both shocked and impressed at Austin. The man was a hell of an alpha to shut up his parents too. Phil shook his head before answering Austin.

“Yes and no. The why doesn’t play into this, but my being a knight does. When they asked me to do this I regained several of my abilities that I’d asked to be taken from me when I stepped down. I can now track as well if not better than you and I can….”

Phil looked over at Holly. “You can now what? Tell me. What can you do that you’re so terrified to tell me about?”

“Not terrified, but I am a little nervous about it. It’s this.” He shifted, or whatever it was that he did to become what set him apart from other vampires. “I could do this since I’d been a child. And it only got better as I grew older.”

His entire body was encased in armor. Not just armor but silver armor. Normally the silver was deadly to his kind, but something about him being able to pull it over him like a cloak made him able to wear it without any ill effects. Holly stood and came toward him.

“This is what she meant when Anye told me that we were well suited.” She ran her fingers down his arm and he could feel it. “She said with my abilities to track and yours to keep me safe, we were an unstoppable team.”

He pulled back on the armor that surrounded his face and looked at her. Holly wasn’t at all upset…she didn’t even seem to mind that he could change into something that she should have feared. When she touched him again he shivered in anticipation.

Holly grinned and then stepped back from him. “What else can you do, big boy? Do you have anything else that can make you worthy of being my mate?”

“I can do all sorts of things, love. Most of which I’m pretty sure I don’t want to show you in front of your family.” He grinned when he heard her brother’s growl. “Come here, Holly. I need to see what the armor does to you when you touch me.”

He thought she’d shy away. He should have known better. She was nothing if not the bravest woman he knew. When she touched him again, this time running her entire hand down his arms then his chest, he felt her every touch. She looked at him when he said her name.

“It doesn’t seem to bother me. Is it really silver or something…I don’t know, something someone made to replicate silver?” Holly stepped back when her brother Connor stepped forward.