Lure of Forever (8 page)

Oh God, I so hate being right all
the time.
Wolf Ion paced around the living room, his claws slicing through
the oak flooring. His mournful howl rang in
Coralie's
ears.
Marnie
ignored her husband and knelt next to
Lucas. Wrapped in the same heavy wool blanket that covered
Coralie
,
he lay completely still. His scorched face was the only thing visible.
Marnie's
tears fell on Lucas's face as she bent her head to
whisper into the place where his ear ought to have been.

Coralie's
stomach rolled and she heaved. Oh God, this was awful and it was all her fault.
She hadn't believed him when he'd said he only healed her, and now he was dying
in front of her.

"What do I have to do?"
She could hardly hear her own words, her throat too sore to form the words with
any conviction, but Ion was next to her in an instant. He'd shifted back to his
human form and
Coralie
didn't know where to look. The
muscly
shifter was naked.

"Give me your hand. He's too
weak to feed, so we need to do this the hard way. I'm sorry, but this will
hurt."

He growled impatiently at her
hesitancy, earning himself a sharp retort from
Marnie
.
He smiled at
Coralie
and her eyes grew huge, seeing
his fangs.
 
The sharp pain in her wrist
shot up her arm and she bit her lip to stop from crying out. Her stomach
churned seeing the bright red blood oozing out. Ion retracted his claws and
pulled her down until she knelt on the other side of Lucas.

Marnie
smiled at her reassuringly, and
Coralie
gritted her
teeth against the pain as Ion squeezed her wrist,
hovering
it over Lucas' mouth.

"Damn it, Lucas, don't you give
up on me.
Drink, damn you."

Coralie's
stomach flipped. Her breathing grew shallow and stars swam before her eyes,
when Ion's claws sliced through her wrist again. The room started spinning and
she would have pitched backwards had Ion's broad chest not held her up. The
heat of his naked skin penetrated through the thick blanket.

"Drink, Lucas."
Marnie's
voice
this time.
"Don't leave us, please."

The soft
click in response made
Marnie
smile.
Coralie
heaved with the pain of the bite that followed and
screwed her eyes shut.
Oh shit, that hurt.
She tried to breathe through
the pain, but her shallow breaths proved completely ineffective and she
couldn't help the tears falling down on her hand.
 
The feral growl coming from Lucas barely
registered through the pain-filled haze she struggled against.

The pressure on her arm ceased and
Ion's furious curse in her ear made her eyes fly open. The pain dulled and Ion
released her with a growl.
Marnie
said something to
her husband that
Coralie
didn't quite catch. She was
too focused on the changes in Lucas, her heart beating a strange rhythm in her
chest. Lucas looked straight at her. His usually brilliant green eyes dimmed to
a hazy grey, and
Coralie's
heart stopped beating for
a second. He must be in so much pain, yet he refused her wrist. He shook his
head, his voice a mere croak.
"
Non
,
assez
, pas plus. Non de
Coralie
."

"Damn it, Lucas, now is not the
time to be noble. You need more blood than that."

Again a gurgled and barely audible,
but most definite, "
Non
,"
came from Lucas, whose eyes
never once wavered from
Coralie
. Her chest felt
suspiciously tight reading the emotion in his gaze. She was not going to cry
again, she was not. He couldn't possibly care about her. They'd only met
yesterday, after all. Sure, the sex had been great – scrap that, more than
great, and meant the world to her – but he no doubt did this all the time.

"You heard him, Ion."
Marnie's
weary voice broke the spell and Lucas fell
unconscious again. "Here, let me see to your wrist."

Marnie
smiled at
Coralie
and pulled her to her feet.

"But
what about Lucas?"
Coralie
asked. They couldn't just leave him here. "You have to do something.
Surely, he needs more blood and if he's not going to take mine, then you have
to find somebody else. You can't let him die."

Shit, girl, what are you saying?
Find
him somebody else? She'd lost her mind.

"Lucas will be fine. He hasn't
been around for three thousand years without knowing how to survive."

"
Three thousand
years?"
Coralie
interrupted
Marnie
.
She couldn't have heard her right. There was no way he could be that old. He
looked to be in his mid-thirties, if that.

"I know it's hard to believe. I
had pretty much the same reaction when I found out. He will take longer to
heal, but he will heal. And if he needs more blood Ion will sort it, won't
you?"

"You're expecting me to work
miracles, little one. He needs a willing or compelled
vict
…
errr
, I mean donor. I will have to get Carmen involved for
that."

"You can't go to Carmen."
Marnie
voice rose to a shrill screech and Ion flinched
under his wife's incredulous regard.

"I have little choice.
 
He needs to recover. We haven't got much time
left to catch
Jacomo
."

"Who the hell is
Jacomo
?"
Coralie's
head
hurt. This was all too confusing. She winced when
Marnie
poured the antiseptic on her open wound. They had moved to the kitchen during
their conversation and
Marnie
was now rummaging
through the first aid box for a bandage. Why would a vampire have a first aid
box?

She didn't realize she had asked
that out loud until
Marnie
giggled.

"It's not for him, obviously,
but little
Lando
. He's forever falling over and
hurting himself and even though he heals quickly, Lucas indulges him.
Lando
loves plasters, see." She pulled out an amazing
array of children's plasters as though to illustrate her point and reading the
question in
Coralie's
face correctly, she added,
"
Lando
is our son."

"I see,"
Coralie
murmured, not really seeing anything at all. She
glanced at Ion, who was talking into his mobile in hushed, urgent tones,
crouched next to Lucas.

"So
vampires can have children?"

Chapter
Nine

Anxiety had
Coralie
firmly in its soul-destroying grasp. What had happened to her slightly boring,
yet wonderfully familiar life? Her eyes narrowed and her stomach churned at
seeing yet another young woman leaving Lucas's room with a faraway smile on her
face, bite marks visible on her neck. And here she was worrying over him.

That's what she got for snooping in
the corridor. But what else could she do with her time? She had been stuck in
this luxurious prison for three days now. Three days with no access to the
outside world, apart from the garden, sequestered away from normal life behind
ten-foot high walls. Burly guards patrolled the grounds.
Coralie
wasn't sure what kind of shifter they were and she was pretty sure she didn't
want to find out.
 
She'd made the mistake
of trying to talk to one of them on her first day here and the truly menacing
growl she'd received in answer had sent her scurrying back to her room.

Would her
heart ever beat normally again?
The surreal conversation
she'd been having with
Marnie
in the kitchen of
Lucas' narrow boat had been interrupted by the arrival of more members of Ion's
pack. Even in her befuddled brainless state the female side of
Coralie
, awakened by a certain vampire, who she didn't care
at all about
–
No
sir, not me. He can go and bite
as many women as he wants and I am not jealous, damn it –
had melted a
little inside at the display of male perfection. Seriously, was there some sort
of law that every non-human thing/person, whatever you called them, had to be
bloody perfection on legs?
 
Terrifying eye candy, admittedly, but still.

Jerry would have a field day, if she
were here.
 
The ever-present fear for her
friend resurfaced with a vengeance. She leant back against the marble wall and
closed her eyes desperate to get her breathing under control.
In, out, you
can do this, girl. You'll be no use to her if you pass out again.
She'd
done too much of that lately as it was. She hadn't fainted once before being
thrown into this strange world and since meeting Lucas she'd turned into a
wilting wallflower––a shell of her former self. Well, enough was enough.

If that blasted Carmen didn't grant
her 'audience' soon, she was going to explode. Who did the woman think she was,
the bloody queen? There that was better, getting angry she could do. It kept
the terror and fear at bay, terror that had just increased in spades ever since
Ion's pack had taken Lucas away in a body bag. That particular image would
haunt her forever. It was such a stark reminder that the man she'd had the most
amazing night with, was for all intents and purposes dead – only he wasn't. It
was too much to get her head around.

Ion had called Carmen, against
Marnie's
passionate arguments, and
Coralie's
confused questions. His voice had been the most wolf-like
Coralie
had ever heard it.

"Damn it, you two, I have no
choice. Lucas needs healing and only Carmen can provide that for him, you know
that,
Marnie
. It's not as though I can raid a blood
bank for him. He needs fresh blood and I should think a good dose of vamp blood
too, the state he's in. We need him in top form if we are to stand any chance
of defeating the demon."

"Demon?"
Coralie
had almost fainted again, grateful for
Marnie's
reassuring arm around her shoulder. "There
are real demons, too? Anything else you want to throw at me today?"

Ion sighed, the sudden slump of his
big shoulders speaking volumes.
Marnie
had given her
shoulders another squeeze, as the truth dawned on
Coralie
.

"There really is a killer out
there, isn't there? And let me guess, it's a demon?" She'd tried to wrench
herself away from
Marnie
, but the woman had a
surprisingly strong grip on her. "Let me go. I have to warn Jerry. She
needs to know."

"I'm afraid we can't do
that." Ion's tone and demeanor were almost apologetic as he looked down on
Coralie
. "You will have to go with Lucas. Carmen
will want to see you. At least you'll be safe at her compound."

"But, I can't…you can't make
me. I need to warn Jerry."
 

Coralie's
words had fallen on deaf ears, however.
 
Ion straightened to his full height, which wasn't quite as tall as
Lucas, but still meant he towered over her, and his words held an edge of steel.

"I'm afraid you don't get a say
in the matter. Your friend cannot know about any of this …and yes, I can make
you."

Marnie's
whispered, "Don't worry, it'll be fine. Lucas won't let anything happen to
you and I'll make sure Ion looks out for your friend," had done little to
reassure her.

Coralie
rubbed the goose bumps from her arms, pushed away from the wall, and forced her
feet to move past Lucas's door. Damn the whole sorry lot of them. Nothing had
happened to her, admittedly. In fact, she'd never been in such luxurious
surroundings before, but it was a prison nonetheless. Her bedroom was huge: the
wardrobe full of designer creations that
Coralie
was
never going to wear. She'd stuck to the one pair of jeans she'd found and
topped them with some of the plainer blouses. No way was she going to wear the
array of dresses, even though people looked down at her. Let them. She didn't
want to be here after all and if they didn't like what she wore, they could
just bugger off.

She was just about to grab the handle
of her bedroom door, when a commanding voice stopped her.

"Carmen will see you now."

Finally.
Maybe now she would get some answers. Some of her courage left her, however,
when she glimpsed the speaker.
 
Jeez,
what the hell was he?

The giant man had to be at least
seven feet tall. Purple eyes dominated an ethereally beautiful face, framed by
long, straight, white hair that trailed down his back. An intricate tattoo
spread itself along his bulging biceps, up his left shoulder and halfway across
his naked chest.