Talons (32 page)

Eli lifted his head, smelling her scent
in the chilled night air and bristled it took her this long to come
to him. Her approach was silent.

I don’t want to fight with
you, Vivvie. If you need to cut your teeth on something, you might
have noticed the elk that graze nearby.

Vivvie heard his anger in her mind as
she came to sit at the ledge with him. He never turned his large,
proud head, staring over the canyon in wounded silence.

She hurt him with her reaction to the
news she carried his children and hated her rash words now. Her
quick and clever tongue never failed her. It always screwed things
up.

I didn’t come to fight, but
to say I’m sorry.

Eli turned his head at that, growling
low, pawing the rock ledge slightly.

You have no need to be
sorry. I forced this on you. You’re right to be angry.

The fact he was letting her off the
hook for being so selfish surprised her.

I’m not angry, just scared.
It’s all happening very fast. I spoke before I sat with it. I said
things I didn’t mean. I scared my children, you, and
myself.

His answer was to shift quickly back to
his human form, his blue eyes glowing in sadness.

“
You don’t have to pretend
to be happy for me, Vivvie,” he said in a toneless
voice.

She shifted and sat naked at his side,
looking pained at his words, and irritated. “Since when do I
pretend anything for your benefit?”

Eli smiled at that. “No, you don’t
pretend. You say what is on your mind.”

“
I was never going to be
allowed to leave, was I? All of that was just to get me agree to go
after Ryken, wasn’t it?”

Eli looked at her sadly. “I’m sorry
Vivvie, there was no other way. Ty wasn’t comfortable lying to
you.”

Vivvie hated being lied to but
understood why they did it. Ryken’s plans insured her children had
no futures. When he gained strength, he would come after all of
them. None of them were safe.

“
I found Ryken tonight, and
I took one of his souls.”

Eli turned and looked at her, his blue
eyes blowing out anger and fear as they met hers. “It’s too
dangerous for you to go after him now, Vivvie. You can’t do it.
Should he wake in the dream, think of what could happen? If he
takes your soul, he takes the children. They’re not free of you
until they’re born.”

She flinched at that, deciding to not
tell Eli how close it was. “I shot him. I imagined the weapon and
it appeared in my hand like you said it would. I didn’t
hesitate.”

Eli stood and glared down at her. “No,
it’s too dangerous for you now.

“
What do we do? Sit here and
wait for him to gain strength? He will come back here, Eli. We must
finish it.”

Eli regarded her grimly. “No, I won’t
sacrifice you or our children, even to get to Ryken. You will find
his location the next time you go in. It should be easy to find him
now that you have channeled him. Look around when you’re there and
stay far from him, find an address, some idea where he hides. I’ll
send Gideon and the others in to finish it.”

“
You’re sure?” she asked,
standing up to gaze up at him worriedly.

Eli smiled as he drew her to him,
kissing the top of her head which only came to the center of his
chest. “Yes, you’re too important to risk it, Vivvie. I won’t lose
you, or the children just to get this resolved quicker.”

Vivvie felt her heart quicken at Eli’s
words, not trying to over analyze them too closely, but she had to
hear more.

“
I don’t know what is
happening with us, Eli. I know the future is not something you ever
want to talk about, but it would help to know if we have one at
all. Tell me I’m just another breeder in this compound, and I’ll
accept it. Just don’t lie to me and allow me to assume we’re more
than that. Ty did that. It hurt more than his leaving me,” she said
and pressed closely to him.

“
About that,” Eli said
quietly. “I gave Ty the choice of making you his mate to avoid
Florida. After what happened with Jericho, I wanted to keep the
peace. I knew what he would choose.”

“
He told me he would never
take a mate before we got here, before anything,” Vivvie said and
sighed as she looked up at him. “I assumed quite a lot more after
we got here, more than he ever intended.”

“
Ty would have stayed but he
would never have made you his mate, Vivvie,” Eli told her and
stepped away, looking out over the ledge with a frown. “I couldn’t
let you wait for him, knowing he would never offer you
more.”

“
Then you did me a favor,
because I have a bad habit of waiting on men who don’t want me, and
refusing to see it.”

“
Ty cared for you Vivvie,”
Eli said and looked back at her with a smile. “He considered making
you his mate, but something made him change his mind.”

“
Ty never saw my future
again after he rescued me from Ryken in Florida,” she told him
sadly, coming to stand beside him. “He said you’re the only one he
could never see past. He realized my future was tied with yours. He
told me of it tonight.”

Eli reached down and picked up her
hand, bringing it to his lips, his blue eyes blazing. “What did you
feel when he told you that?”

“
I felt like the fairy tales
Ty said didn’t exist, really do, and maybe there is someone for
everyone. I wanted to believe something good would come out of all
of this.”

“
Vivvie, I have no intention
of letting my children be born without mating you properly,” Eli
informed her arrogantly, looking over the canyon with a proud tilt
to his head. “I have never taken a mate. I knew what I didn’t want,
but not what I did. This last month made me realize that I want to
feel the way I do with you for every one of my remaining
souls.”

“
A wife, you have to be
kidding? You want to marry me?” Vivvie asked, looking stunned.
“Nobody gets married because they get pregnant anymore, Eli. It’s
outdated, even for you!”

“
It’s what I want,” he
snapped and looked down at her angrily. “I thought that is what all
the little human women ever dream of, getting married, tying a man
down, and then throwing away all his porn.”

“
You forget, I’m not a
little human woman anymore,” she said proudly. “My dreams have
changed.”

“
What do you want, Vivvie?”
Eli asked silkily, linking his hand with hers.

“
I want a real proposal from
you, for one! What do you call that? I want a real engagement and a
real wedding too,” she said smugly as she turned away.

“
Vivvie, you deliver in less
than six weeks! There isn’t time for all that crap!”

Vivvie looked back at him and an
eyebrow cocked. “You better hurry than, Eli.”

Eli growled in annoyance as she shifted
and ran up the rock face, leaving him to wonder what he got himself
into. His people would balk at their traditions being replaced by
Vivvie’s human ones. She was really pushing it. Eli wondered if
there was any after-hours jewelry shop open in town.

A real proposal like those he’d seen in
movies required a ring. Some expensive piece of metal and mineral a
human woman coveted, he knew, but couldn’t for the life of him
understand why. The symbolism was lost upon him.

One of his people merely made the
choice to live with one of their kind, and it was done, binding
them for life. Eli smiled to think they were already married as far
as his people were concerned, but Vivvie didn’t need to know that.
She had enough with his high-handedness.

Ryken woke with a splitting headache,
covered with blood and swore softly, his yellow green eyes filled
with fury to know Vivvie was sent to kill him. Knowing she had his
grandmother’s gift made his fury intensify to lose her to Ty. She
could have killed Eli and all the others for him.

He felt the hole in his chest, felt the
congealed blood around it. It healed up before he woke, but would
take days to granulate and fill in. Teeth gnashed in fury at what
this meant. Eli came after him now. The wily bastard forgot his
sacred creed to not kill one of their own.

Ryken got up unsteadily and called for
his men, shouting, and heard them running. They had to move quickly
before nightfall. He couldn’t sleep until they were gone from here.
They were holed up in Fellsmere, outside of Sebastian, while Ty and
Derek destroyed his life’s work.

The compound was now under Ty and
Derek’s control. They put down his breeders and he watched in fury
from the tree line, powerless to stop it.

“
What is it?” Dean asked as
he ran into the living room, four other young men on his heels. He
saw the blood covering Ryken and froze. “They’ve found
us?”

“
They have another with my
grandmother’s gift,” Ryken snapped and was grateful for the towel
one of his men handed him to wipe the blood from his shoulders. “It
was Vivvie. She killed off one of my souls in my sleep, as she will
do to all of us if we don’t leave here! Not one of you dare shut
your eyes until we’re away from here!”

“
I thought you said she was
a useless human?” Dean said in shock, eyes wide.

“
Apparently she has
inherited this gift from my grandmother through me. Eli has found
the means to use it against us!”

“
What do we do with the
humans we took last night?” Dean asked.

“
Kill them and be neat about
it! We don’t need any more publicity. This place is crawling with
FBI,” Ryken snapped.

Dean left with the other four to get
rid of the human women bound and gagged in the next room. Ryken
glared out the window, feeling every bit of his failure in breaking
free of Eli’s hold. He growled under his breath.

Eli would learn he wouldn’t go to
ground. Ryken was tired of running and tired of having them
interfere in his plans. It was time he returned to his home and
dealt with the problem. His dream of living freely among the humans
wouldn’t end here.

~~~~

Vivvie drove Eli’s car into town to
look at wedding dresses, her excitement diminishing when she
thought of her father not being there to give her away. She never
considered it when she demanded a proper wedding from
Eli.

Tears misted her eyes, but she forced
them back. Accepting her new life wasn’t easy knowing in four short
weeks she would be a wife and mother to two creatures such as
herself. She was grateful Eli went through this so many times
before now.

Eli never came out and said the words
she longed to hear. They used different words for what he obviously
felt for her. She might be one of them, but her thought processes
were still very human. She needed to hear those three little
words.

She waited for his proposal with baited
breath ever since their truce at the rock ledge. He said he was
working up to it, looking pained and annoyed. Eli was obviously
struggling with the humbling getting down on the one knee thing. He
said it was humiliating to show such subservience to a
female.

Vivvie was enjoying every humbling
minute of it when he proposed at last. His knee hardly touched the
floor before he got up quickly. She heard him grumbling about the
cost of diamonds under his breath. Her eyes shone with delight to
see his disgust when she showed him the dress she liked and its
cost.

She knew Eli had money out the wazoo
even if he acted like the tribe was poor. His corporation alone
insured his people would never starve, even if they all decided to
not work. His habit of pinching every penny was admirable, but she
wanted this last rite of passage before she surrendered to his
world.

The bridal shop was quiet when she
entered. The place smelled like a lavender sachet. The older woman
who worked there was named Ginny Price. She was helpful and
obviously worked on commission. Within the hour Vivvie was trying
on dresses, feeling like a princess as she twirled in front of the
three way mirrors.

“
Oh my, but this one is
perfect on you, dear,” Ginny said and nodded as she adjusted the
bustle of the gown in the back. “That’s the one.”

“
You don’t think it makes me
look huge?” Vivvie asked, growing misty.

“
No, you look beautiful, my
dear.”

Vivvie knew as soon as she saw it too.
It was old-fashioned compared to the sleeveless, strapless, and
backless numbers she was shown. It had a traditionally wide skirt,
a beaded bodice and sleeves. It was the dress she imagined to wear
all her life, even if the faces of the groom changed as she grew
up.

Her burgeoning stomach fluttered and
she smiled. Obviously her children approved. Ginny made no comment
over her pregnancy. Older people probably felt relieved couples
married at all when they got into trouble anymore. She smiled at
what thoughts the woman must have to see her waddle into the
shop.

“
I’ll take it,” Vivvie said
without batting an eyelash.

Ginny’s smile grew even wider. “When’s
the big day?”