Second of the Winterset Coven (5 page)

Sadey jerked her head to the left and stopped the porch swing from rocking underneath them. Immediately, Dawn was on alert. Sadey’s senses were insanely heightened, and it took several seconds before the mass of bats appeared out of the evening shadows. There was such power in their motion, thousands of bats screeching and flapping in a swirling dance, and then Garret was there when the bats and purple smoke dissipated. He hadn’t ever allowed her to see him in that form before.

Sadey squeezed Dawn’s knee and told her, “I’ll see you later.” The snow leopard shifter rose from her seat and walked across the lawn with inhuman grace. She waved just before she got behind the wheel of her black Jetta.

Garret strode straight for her, his long legs making quick progress across her yard. She stood slowly as she watched him approach. He wore a black sweater that clung to his broad shoulders and cut his deep V-figure perfectly. The dark color made his skin look even paler. His jeans were dark and sat on his hips just right. His eyes were still the color of his sweater, but his lips were curved up in a stunning, if slight, smile that nearly knocked her backward. His stride lengthened as he reached the porch where he took the stairs two at a time, and then he was there, pulling her against his chest, resting his cheek against her hair as she clung to his shirt. God, she’d missed him, and it had only been a day.

Was that his lips in her hair? He was rocking them gently, and for some unknown reason, Dawn felt like crying. Her heart had been pulled this way and that so much over the last few days, but this right here felt right. Just a hug, and Garret made everything okay. He wouldn’t let Asmund hurt her, she just knew it.

“You look beautiful,” he whispered against her ear, running his fingertips along the black fabric over her waist.

“Good enough to eat?” she teased.

Garret eased back and dipped his gaze to her thighs, then flicked those black, hungry eyes back up to hers. “Yeah,” he murmured through a devilish smile.

And right about now she was cursing the fact she lived with her mom. All her thirsty body wanted to do was pull him inside and make him follow through with that threat. Especially now as Garret went serious and gave his attention to her lips. He lifted her hands and intertwined his fingers with hers before stepping closer. “I like that I don’t have to stop myself anymore.”

Dawn gulped and nodded dumbly. She was glad, too, only she couldn’t find the words to say that as eloquently as he had.

He leaned in and then stopped a couple of inches from her lips. “Are you scared of me?”

“Never,” she whispered. The answer didn’t really make sense to his question, but he smiled as if he understood.

Garret pulled her hands to his waist, then cupped the side of her neck as he eased his mouth onto hers. And as his lips moved gently against hers, he pressed his thumb down onto her pulse. Oh, she knew what he could feel. Her heart was pounding a hundred miles a minute just being this close to the man who consumed her.

The heartbreak was done, and he wasn’t pushing her away anymore. He was letting her in, letting her touch him, letting her affect him.
His.
He’d told his king she was his.

Dawn pressed her body along his until she could feel the chill of his skin seeping from beneath his sweater. She wanted to touch, so she snuck her fingertips under his shirt and ran the flats of her palms up his washboard stomach. Curiously, Garret shivered and disconnected their kiss in a rush. He closed his eyes again and smiled as she dragged her fingers back down his abs.

“You’re so warm,” he said, barely audibly.

Garret felt like a stone statue, but not. He was cold and strong, but his torso moved with his shallow breaths, and his skin was soft above the curves of his muscles. Dawn would never get tired of this. She ran her nail lightly over the top of the waist of his jeans and bit her bottom lip to hide her smile at his reaction. His steady breath quickened to a pant, and his grip on her neck tightened just slightly. Oh he could snap her neck with no effort, but he wouldn’t. She trusted him with everything in her. He’d built that trust slowly with being gentle when he fed, and caring when he spoke to her.

“You’re hungry,” she whispered.

He dipped his chin, his onyx eyes troubled. “Don’t want to eat until I know you are okay.”

Dawn slid one hand around his back and along the length of his longest scar. “I feel fine, and I don’t want you hungry while we’re on our date.” She ran the pad of her thumb across his cheek. “I miss the green in your eyes.”

Garret caught her wrist. “You mean you miss the human in my eyes.”

There was pain in his voice, so she hugged him tight, up on her tiptoes so she could rest her chin on his strong shoulder. “No, I mean I miss the color that tells me you are okay and happy. The black says you’re uncomfortable, and I can’t go the entire night looking at you, thinking I could make this better for you.”

“I hear a heartbeat in your house,” he said low, so close to her ear his lips brushed her sensitive lobe and just about buckled her knees.

“My mom’s home.”

“I want to meet her, but not like this.”

Mom’s approval meant a lot to her. Dawn had no doubt she would adore Garret, but maybe not with demon-black eyes and a mega-boner the first time they met.

She could drag his sexy ass to the rickety old treehouse out back, but it probably wouldn’t hold their weight, especially if they were humping…and she definitely planned on humping. They could do it in the back seat of his car, but then she remembered he flew here like the badass vampire he was. Her car was definitely too small to do anything fun in the back seat unless they somehow shrunk themselves to the size of fairies.

“You’re pouting,” Garret said in an amused tone as he brushed his thumb over her lip.

Indeed, she was. Because diddle-time was not imminent, and her hormones were buzzing like a pissed-off beehive.

“I’m hungry,” she muttered. For a naked party.

“Well, come on then. I’ll be fine tonight. I have plans, and we’re going to be late.”

“Plans?” she asked hopefully as he led her by the hand down the porch stairs.

Movement in the shadows caught her attention. Shane and Evan stepped out from the woods with somber looks on their faces. Shane was third in the coven and had always been nice to her, while Evan, the sandy-haired muscle man was the strong silent type. She hadn’t even realized they were there until now.

Garret lifted his chin in a mannish greeting, and Dawn wiggled her fingers in a wave. She withdrew her keys from her purse but then hesitated. Three giant vampires plus her in the car was going to be a tight squeeze, and she wasn’t exactly excited about doing a double date with two straight dudes, but okay. If Garret thought that was safest, she trusted his judgement.

She hit the unlock button, and her car beeped once, but Garret turned suddenly and lifted her off the ground, spun her around so fast her heart went into her clenched butt-cheeks. The screech of bats filled the air. Dawn screamed as purple smoke engulfed her, but after a breathtaking second that felt like going straight down on a roller coaster, the smoke cleared and the bats thinned as they flew this way and that. Garret was gone, but she could still feel his grasp. When she could see through the chaos, Mom’s house was far below, nestled in trees that looked like little Legos.

She was flying.

Dawn fought the urge to scream again. Garret had her. His strong grip was steady, and the flight was smooth despite the furious flapping of bats all around her. Her breath was stolen the second she saw the lights of Winterset below them. It was a small town, but was so beautiful from way up here. And then they were plummeting toward Jefferson Street. Her stomach rocketed into her throat with their speed, and she yelped as they neared the ground, but she didn’t hit like she’d expected. Instead, she simply stopped moving and Garret’s form appeared around her, ghostlike at first, but solidifying as the bats and smoke disappeared into him.

He held her cradled against his chest with a sharp-fanged grin. Carefully, he set her on her feet and steadied her by the arms when she swayed on her high heels. Her dress had worked its way up her thighs, so she pushed the hem south again. And then she patted her hair back into place. It probably looked like she’d stuck her finger in a light socket, but okay. Clearing her throat delicately, she shouldered her purse, which by some miracle she hadn’t dropped on the sixteen-second trip here. Trying to keep her cool, she stepped forward on the concrete, righted her ankle after it went ninety degrees, and ignored Garret’s deep chuckle beside her. “Perhaps next time warn me when you are going to turn into a flock of bats and fly me through town.”

Shane and Even were leaning against the giant window of the Northside Café with matching smirks.

“Ha, ha, yuck it up for the new girl,” she teased.

“You ain’t new, Dawn,” Shane said in his deep southern accent. His muscles flexed against his blue sweater as he crossed his arms. “You’re the original Winterset feeder. You keep all them girls in line when we get hungry.”

She frowned at the term. She didn’t like to be referred to as Garret’s feeder anymore. She felt like more.

Evan shoved Shane hard. “Girls don’t like when you call ’em feeders.” Evan ducked his dark-eyed gaze to the asphalt and lowered his voice. “Don’t listen to him, Dawn. He was raised by barbarians.” Which was possibly true because all the vampires of the Winterset coven were centuries old except Aric, who was relatively new.

“Idiots,” Garret murmured as he led Dawn past them. He held open the door for the café and waited for her to pass. As the hostess led them to a table in the back, he pulled her in close and said, “You were never just a feeder, D. You know that, right?”

She forced a smile and nodded, but she couldn’t help the feeling that the entire coven saw her the way Dipshit Craig from high school did—as a blood bag. For the first time since she’d visited the coven house four months ago, her cheeks heated with shame.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Garret asked after a couple minutes of her staring at the menu.

“I know some of the girls sleep with the guys when they feed. I’ve heard it. I’ve seen the kissing and petting out in the hallway. I’ve heard the dirty stories from Amanda and Erin. That wasn’t the reason I was there, though.”

“I know it wasn’t.”

“How?”

“Because you aren’t like Amanda, and you sure as hell aren’t like Erin. You were shy and never pushed me to do more than feed. You were proper about it all, and we built our friendship slow and steady, the way we both needed. Don’t compare us to the others, okay? We’re different. Our story is different.”

“Is it?”

Garret’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you told me Torunn had moved on, but that was a lie, wasn’t it? Sadey told me Asmund killed her. I shouldn’t be finding this stuff out from someone else, Garret. Maybe we aren’t as close as I thought. Maybe the coven sees us as what we actually are. Vampire and feeder.”

Garret leaned back against the bench seat and stretched one leg out, rested his calf against hers. “Torunn had moved on, and I tried to as well.”

“But you couldn’t?”

Garret shook his head slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. “Asmund decided he would
help
me move on. He told me love would make me weak. That it was already making me weak, and he couldn’t have a weak son.” His lips twisted into a feral expression, and he ripped his blazing black gaze away from her. “Look, this was all a long time ago. I want to live here and now with you.”

“With me, who looks like Torunn and is being hunted by Asmund, just like she was.”

Garret scrubbed his hand down his two-day scruff and huffed out a defeated sigh. He leaned forward on his elbows and gripped her hands, leveled her with an honest look. “I’m not the same man I was with Torunn. I won’t let him hurt you. I swear I won’t. I just need time.”

And she could see it beneath the hunger in his eyes. He was worried. Perhaps the weight of concern he carried was much heavier than she’d realized. She couldn’t keep bringing up Torunn if she was going to separate herself from his past, and anyway, it was hurting him.

She needed to put this date train back on the right tracks so that this right here—this fear—wasn’t the only thing she and Garret remembered from their first dinner together. Sure, she’d eaten over at the coven house many times, but none of those had really counted as dates.

Sadey had made feeder dinners a requirement after she’d bonded with Aric. She made dinner for the girls on the nights they came in, and it was more of a family atmosphere. Dawn had spent many a coven house dinner watching Garret watch her, and now they were here, in an actual restaurant, not having to fight their affection for each other anymore.

Screw Asmund and his treachery. Tonight was all about her and Garret.

“I got you something,” she whispered.

Garret’s wicked smile was back. “Is it no panties?”

Heat flooded her cheeks, and she ducked her gaze. A hundred times she’d wished he would have talked openly like this with her, and now he was. “No,” she said digging around in her oversize purse.

A sudden wave of nervousness washed over her because this could be a bad idea. It was part of why Garret had pushed her away in the first place.