The Faerie Master (Aaron's Kiss Series) (8 page)

~~~

“The wound has a bit of silver in it.
I think once we get it flushed out it should heal properly.
Nasty business, head wounds, even for a vamp.
Say
,
you can’t remember anything, right?
Well, this should help with that too.”

Thomas Reilly, a vampire and a doctor, had examined his head shortly after Cade left the bar.
Now he and Aaron were going to open the wound again and flush it out.
While they set about preparing to do that Shawn thought about the woman, Cade.

Aaron had been livid when he came in from talking to her.
Shawn grinned at that.
He guessed livid had been an understatement.
He had been furious that she wouldn’t bow down to his wishes and even more so that she had so easily thrown off his edict.
Then he had started on him.

“She didn’t even know your name.
She doesn’t have a clue what it means now that you’ve bonded with her and she was strong enough to not only throw off my command, but to toss my mate across the room as if she was nothing more than a speck of dust.”

“Aaron, I told you it was my fault.
I should have been prepared for her magic.
She does have telepathic powers anyway and with Shawn’s blood it’s only made them and her stronger.”

Shawn nearly laughed when Aaron turned on Sara, but he decided that he might live longer if he didn’t.
He had never met two more headstrong people than Sara and Aaron. “Things have gotten out of hand with Cade.
It’s entirely my fault.
When I came across her in that cave I had no idea that she was anything more than a—”

“Cave! Are you telling me she is living in a cave?
In the wild?
Christ, will there ever be a female that comes to this Kiss that isn’t out to drive me insane!
I thought when we heard that she was only living above the restaurant that she might have an apartment or an abandoned building she was staying in, but a cave.
I want you to go and get her right now.
Bring her back to this house and make her stay.”
Aaron was standing with his arms over his chest and looking for all the world like he would be obeyed when Shawn had another memory.

“You did that when we were in the French army together.
You were mad because you couldn’t get that twit of a commanding officer to listen to you when you told him that we were going to be attacked.
We left that night and the next morning all the men
,
including the commander
,
were killed by the ambush.
We let them think we
,
too
,
had been killed to change our existence.”

“Yes, that’s right.
That’s when we met Kyle.
He had been turned and didn’t know what the hell had happened.
We sort of took him under our wing and helped him out.
Do you remember Kyle, Shawn?”

“Kyle Dixon.
He is...he’s still alive.
I heard from him just after I talked to you about coming here.
He told me he is mated too.
His mate is Madeline or something like that.”

“It’s Madison.
That’s great.
I’m calling Thomas.
He needs to get over here and look at this.
This is great.
But it still doesn’t negate that you fucked up royally with this woman.
You will fix this, Shawn.”

And that was why he was laying here on the bed about to have his head sliced open again and then cleaned.
He wished it were that easy to erase things.
He didn’t think he’d ever forget the look on Cade’s face when he’d reached beyond her to unlock the door.
She’d looked terrified of him.

~CHAPTER 6~

Cade got up at five and thought she might just chance Sara’s wrath.
Her entire body was on fire one minute and freezing the next.
It hadn’t helped that when she got to the cave all of her things were wet.
Even the floor was damp.
She didn’t have the energy to start a fire and didn’t have anything dry to keep it going with.
Moving slowly, she made her way to the bike, not caring if it started on not.
Or even if it fell on top of her and crushed her.

When she pulled into the big drive at the house she sat on the bike for a little while.
There was no way she could work.
There wasn’t any way she would be able to deal with Mrs. MacManus either.
Leaving her things on the bike, she went to the door to knock.
When Mrs. MacManus opened it, before she had the chance, Cade nearly tumbled in the house on top of her.

“You’re sick.
Come in before you pass out.
Did you spend the night in that cave again?
Aaron!
Shawn!
Someone come help me.
Cade, can you hear me?”

“If you’d shut up and give me a chance to answer any of your questions, I’d tell you.
And how did you know about...the man?
Never mind.
I’ve come to tell you I’m too sick to work today. Dock me, I don’t care.
I’m going back to bed.”

Before she could turn and get back on her bike she was scooped up in someone’s arms.
She squealed when she was suddenly in the same bedroom from last night.
The man holding her looked no less pleased to be holding her than she felt.

“Put me down.
Are you nuts?
Well that was a stupid question, wasn’t it?
If you don’t put me down this instant I’m going to call the police.”
Then she was suddenly airborne and landing with a bounce on the bed again. Before she could move off of it he had her pinned there with her hands over her head and his body over her.

“Hush.
You do go on, don’t you? Now, I’m going to get up and you’re going to stay here.
If you don’t, I’m going to tie you here.
Do I make myself clear?

“You’d better hope you can tie me faster than I can move because when I get up I’m going to bash your head in.
Why does everyone in this house treat me as if I’m five?
I wasn’t staying.
I’m going back to bed as soon as I leave here.
Now, get off me, you big oaf.”

She tried to throw him off with her legs and he pressed her into the bed.
She stilled when she felt his erection pressing against her hip.
She turned her head away from him and started crying.
She didn’t have the energy to fight him and she didn’t feel good.
He started talking to her softly.

“I know that you’ve had a lot thrown at you.
I’m sorry for that.
I’m not sorry I found you or what you are to me.
My name is Shawn Alan MacFarland.
I was born in the early part of the third century.
I’ve been friends with Aaron since the late twelfth century when we were pressed into service to fight.
My memory was lost over two weeks ago when someone, and I don’t know who or why yet, led me out of a bar and ambushed me.
Thomas Reilly, a doctor for our kind, opened the wound to my head late last night and cleaned it out.
There was silver in it.
He doesn’t know if it was put there on purpose or if it was an accident. I’ve been remembering bits and pieces since then, but big chunks of my life are gone right now.
You, however, are very fresh in my mind.”

She didn’t say anything to that.
She wasn’t sure what she could say to a man who claimed he was sixteen hundred years old.
There was no way that any of this could be real.

“Are you going to let me go?
I don’t want to be here and you can’t make me stay. I know I keep saying that, but you really can’t.”
She hoped.

“Sara said that you know very little about our kind.
Do you know what it is to be bonded and mated to a vampire?
Or what happens when you are bonded to one?”

“No, and frankly I could give a good two shits.
I want you to let me go, Mr. MacFarland.
I’ve had about enough of this and you people.”

“My name is Shawn, Cade.
I’ve had my cock buried deep inside of you.
We are well past the point of you calling me Mr. anything.
To be bonded, a vampire must exchange blood with his mate.
And to be mated, we would exchange blood during sex, while we’re climaxing.
You would drink from me and me
from
you.
Sometimes, if the mate has fangs she can bite back, but if not, a cut is made over the heart of the vampire and you would drink from there.
I would drink from your wrist.
It makes us one, bringing our combined powers to each other and we would be able to speak through our minds.
You and I already have that ability, but with the exchange it would be stronger and over a greater distance.
As a vampire of my age I don’t need to feed as often or as long as a younger vampire, but I still need blood.
A mated couple drinks from each other only.
Unless one of them is a master.
He can turn a human by taking nearly all of his or her blood and giving that one his.
If he is mated, then his mate would help in the conversion and that human turned vampire would be their child.”

She looked up at him.
“We’ve never done that.
I’ve never had your blood and I’m never going to either.
Also, you’ve drank from me, but not while we were...when we had sex.
So what does this have to do with me?”

“We have exchanged blood, Cade.
When I drank from you in the cave I didn’t seal the wound and you had lost a great deal of blood. When you came here yesterday morning you passed out and Aaron was going to turn you rather than let you die.
I came just in time to stop him from giving you his blood.
I gave you mine instead.
My blood healed you and made you stronger.”

“No, no that’s not right.
I was sick, getting a cold.
I had lost some blood, but not that much.
I didn’t need your blood.
Take it back.”

“I had drunk deeply from you too, remember?
I was half starved and when I sank my teeth into you I drank too deep and then left the wound unattended.
You were near death when I gave you my blood.
I can’t take it back, love, and I don’t want to at any rate.
You’re my mate and we have gone far enough with the process that I can only feed from you.
If you refuse me, then I die.”

At some point he had released her arms and he now held her.
She was tired and dizzy.
Her body wanted to snuggle up to his and stay there.
Then something occurred to her.