Lure of Forever (20 page)

"A guard dog, you mean?"
Coralie
pulled her knees up to her chest and bit her bottom
lip,
hurt welling up inside her at Ion's instinctive
recoil. "What do you think I'm going to do?
 
Turn into a monster and feed on you all? Give
me some credit."

"Damn it,
Coralie
.
If I thought that, would I have brought you back here, straight into the heart
of my pack? Would I let my son near you? Regardless of what I promised Lucas,
before he took off…I don't risk my pack for anyone."

The eyes of Ion’s wolf looked at her
and it was
Coralie's
turn to shrink back. He was
growling low in his throat and the air around him shimmered.
Great going,
girl, you woke up a fangless vampire and you've pissed off an alpha wolf.
Wonderful start to your new life, whatever that may be.

"Ion,
calm down.
I don't blame
Coralie
for feeling hurt."
Marnie
stepped in through the
door and put a hand on Ion's shoulder, and he calmed down. "See it from
her point of view."

Marnie
smiled at
Coralie
and the open kindness was
Coralie's
undoing. Tears fell in earnest and Ion threw his
hands in the air, looking uncomfortable.
Marnie
enveloped
Coralie
in a bear hug, ignoring her
husband's mumbled warning to be careful.

By the time
Coralie
finally pulled herself together
Lando
had joined his
father and the little boy watched her with concerned eyes. Ion had a firm grip
on his son's shoulder and still looked wary.
Coralie
shot a tremulous smile toward
Lando
and he beamed
back at her.

"Feeling a bit better now? A
good cry always helps me, something these males will never understand."
Marnie
grinned at
Coralie
and
some of her despair lifted.
Marnie
and
Lando
at least were on her side, it seemed.

"That's as may be," Ion
said, irritation edged in his features. "Answer the question,
Coralie
. How do you feel? Any aches in your jaw, a sudden
urge to feed? Heightened senses, awareness, tell me. I need some more reassurance
than simple tears here."

"Oh for pity's sake, Ion, do I
look as though I'm sprouting fangs?" She shut her eyes for a second and
focused. Goodness, she could tell exactly how many hearts were beating in the
building. "As for senses, if you mean can I tell who is where in this
building, then yes, I can pinpoint them exactly. And really," she rolled
her eyes, "it's broad daylight––do you wolves never do anything else but
have sex?"

Ion raised his eyebrow and
Marnie
giggled again, whilst
Lando
just looked confused. "Well, we do have a number of newlyweds. It's only
to be expected…and it's the full moon soon."

"Naturally, and you wonder
about me. At least I'm not ruled by the phases of the moon, like you lot."

"Just
by the need for blood."
Ion glared at her and
Coralie
stared him down.

"I'm not ruled by blood. I
can't stand the stuff. Are you sure he's turned me? Shouldn't I be, I don't
know, thirsty?"

"Aren't you?"
Marnie
asked.

"Well, I could murder a bacon
sandwich and a decent cup of coffee right now, but I don't think that's what
you mean, do you?"

"Coffee?"

"A
sandwich?"

 
Ion and
Marnie
asked
in unison and
Lando
giggled.

"Yes, I'm starving."
Coralie's
stomach rumbled right on cue and she noticed as
some of the tension left Ion's body.
Lando
wasted no
time wriggling out of his father's grasp and bounded up to the window.

"I know what you need. Mummy
always says I need fresh air." And before any of the grown-ups could stop
him, he flung the curtains wide open. Sunlight blinded
Coralie
and she screamed.

Chapter
Twenty

"Ouch!"

Coralie
knew what a pincushion must feel like. She glared at the troll doctor brought
in by Carmen to establish what or who exactly
Coralie
was. She wasn't given to bouts of violence, but if the old crone didn't stop
poking her with things soon,
Coralie
thought she
might just shove those needles where the sun doesn't shine. Another vicious
poke followed, and
Coralie
growled at the miniature
doctor, who just raised her eyebrows,
tutted
and
carried on.

"Did that hurt?"

"Of
course it blinking hurt.
How many times do you have to stab
me to establish that I heal?
Wooo
, I get it, it's a
great trick. But it's not
gonna
change, so bugger off
already, unless you can actually tell me something I don't know."

Her little outburst earned her another
raised eyebrow and a quizzical look over the doctor's glasses.

"There is no need to get into a
snit. I'm merely following Carmen's orders, and ultimately this is for your
protection as much as anyone else's, young lady. We don't want another sun incident
now, do we?"

The supernatural doc stared at
Coralie
, and she had to resist the childish urge to stick
her tongue out at the troll. If only Lucas were here to answer some of the
endless questions she had. Ion did his best, pooling the acquired knowledge of
the council, but he wasn't Lucas.
 
And
there was no way she was taking Carmen up on her offer to 'teach' her. As it
was, Ion had to invoke all of his power at the council to stop Carmen from
carting
Coralie
away.
 
Coralie
shivered remembering that particular
conversation.

"Lucas left her under my
protection, Carmen. She is staying here. If you need to run tests to establish
who or what exactly Coral is, you can have them done on my land."

Carmen had drawn herself up to her
full height, her voice cold as ice.

"I am Lucas's Sire. In his
absence, it falls to me to protect his
siree
. Do not
preach vampire laws to me, shifter."

Ion's smile hadn't quite reached his
eyes and Carmen had shifted restlessly when his pack surrounded them. The
tension in the air had escalated whilst Ion just stared unblinkingly at Carmen,
who only shrugged her shoulders.

"Whilst we're quoting ancient
laws, Carmen, you should know that a Sire's request to have his
siree
protected by someone else in their absence is
absolute. Lucas has made that request to me, and in essence, to my pack.
 
Coralie
is one of
us, until Lucas decrees otherwise."

Carmen had removed an imaginary
speck of dust off her clingy dress and fixed her attention on
Coralie
. Those cold eyes of hers ran slowly over
Coralie's
body, until she had to fight the urge to hide
behind one of the massive shifters standing like a wall of protection around
her. Instead she had locked her spine and given the same kind of assessment
back to Carmen. The ice queen had softened slightly, only to draw her brows
together in a frown when
Coralie
said, "Not in a
million years. I don't fancy frostbite."

Ion's amused chuckle had broken some
of the tension in the air, and Carmen had left. Since then a small army of
'experts' had descended upon the pack house, the troll being the latest one and
supposedly the best of the best.
  

However, even she was drawing a
blank. No one could explain why
Coralie
had no fangs,
no desire to feed or even drink blood, even though her body needed it. If she
went too long without forcing some donated blood down her, she started to feel
ill, so
Coralie
managed a small glass every other
day. She had to hold her nose to do it, and ate chocolate to chase the taste
away. Somehow Lucas's blood had never seemed that revolting. But as he was
still missing in action, she had little choice but to take the stuff on offer.

But what stumped the supernatural
community the most was
Coralie's
ability to walk in
the sun. It stung like crazy, but she didn't burn, burst into flames, or
deplete her energy levels. In fact, as long as she wore
sunblock
,
she wasn't affected at all. Ion had pored over the ancient ledgers and done his
best to contact Lucas. Ancient
vampirology
was
apparently Lucas's thing. But the blasted man had dropped off the face of the
planet, or so it seemed.
Coralie
vacillated between
missing him and being ready to stake the bastard the minute he showed up.

Marnie
had done her best to reassure her, but
Coralie
wasn't
stupid. He'd saved her ass, but that's as far it went. With the demon gone
there was no reason for him to stick around, and he clearly didn't want to be
tied to a now-immortal
Coralie
. If she really
concentrated hard she could sense him. His surprised reaction had lasted one
nanosecond before he'd slammed his mental shutters down, cutting
Coralie
off. It had been the equivalent of a slap in the
face and
Coralie
had more self-respect than to try
again. She'd done just fine without a man in her life. She would do so again,
and no one need know that she cried silent tears every night.

At least she had never told him how
she felt. So much for all that ‘
Believe what's in your heart, he will come’
crap.
She had an argument with the voices in her head every night, when she did
finally manage to stay asleep. Lucas and she were hardly love's young dream and
as for that destiny they kept going on about—she'd done her bit and she didn't
want any part in anything else. There would be no embracing her heritage,
whatever that meant. She had delved further once and scared herself witless
with the power surge that followed. It had all been very well to call on that
power to get rid of
Jacomo
, but no way did she want
to feel like that every day of the week. It was bad enough having
supersensitive hearing. Hearing all those horny wolves, at it all the
time,
did little to calm her raging libido.

"There, that's me done."
The troll's shrill voice shook
Coralie
out of her
introspective thoughts. She blinked twice to focus on the doctor.

"Welcome back, you zoned out on
me there. I've seen you do that a lot. Care to share where you go?"

"No, I don't. I don't go
anywhere. I'm right here."

"Hmm, if you say so, but if my
hunch is correct that would explain a few things. I would need to get
clarification from your maker, but yes, interesting to say the least."

Coralie
dug her fingernails into her palm to stop the rising tears. Damn it, the mere
mention of the man always turned her into a watering pot.

"He will come back, you know.
He won't be able to help himself. So whatever went wrong between you two,
you'll sort it."

Coralie
looked up in surprise at the kind tone of voice, in time to see the old troll
nod and smile.

"I have known Lucas for several
hundred years. He has never turned a human before, no matter what the
circumstances. He must care deeply to have turned you. If he didn't he would
have simply let Carmen turn you. Think on that, young vamp, and don't be too
hard on him when he does return."

Before
Coralie
could say anything, the doc left with a reassuring pat on her arm.

****

A week later,
Coralie
was so engrossed in her painting she missed
Marnie's
quiet approach. She jumped. The result was a big splash of paint right in the
middle of her scene. It now looked as though the wolf pups were playing around
a rainbow.

Damn it. Ah well, I may be able to
rescue this.

Coralie
forced a smile on her face and turned around.

"Sorry,
Coral, but there is someone here to see you.”
She
gestured toward the picture. “This is lovely, you know, you really should think
about exhibiting."

Marnie
smiled at her and
Coralie
pulled a face. Lucas had
always said she should.
Damn it, don't think about him. Isn't this supposed
to get easier?

"A
visitor?
Who would visit me?"

Marnie's
face grew pensive and
Coralie's
heart gave a little
lurch.