The Vampyre Legal Chronicles - Marcus (17 page)

Marcus had
refused point blank to leave her side.

All the while
Anais battled to ignore her growing attraction to the man, thing,
whatever the hell he was, who had done this to her. She kept her
mind busy imagining barbaric ways of inflicting torture on him as
he died a slow and agonising death.

How
dare
he do this to her?

She wanted her
life back.

She wanted her
job back.

And just how
was she supposed to explain her appearance to her parents?

One look at her
in this state and they’d either collapse of heart failure or run
screaming for the hills and who could fault them for that?

Bored out of
her mind by enforced inactivity, she'd drawn up a list of the
benefits of being vampyre. And another list with the downside.

On the up side,
her hair was longer and really shiny. Her skin was spookily
flawless in a way that reminded her of touched-up magazine photos.
She frowned now, thinking of the woman in the rest rooms at the
Pepper
club, whom she realised now had indeed been a
vampyre. And
her
behaviour brought home the fact to Anais
that not all vampyres were friendly towards human.

Her dark
thoughts were interrupted by Marcus and Saira snarling at each
other and Anais decided she didn't have the desire or the energy to
interrupt them. And being a vampyre had another plus. She didn’t
have an ounce of fat on her.

No
cellulite.

Woo hoo!

Then there was
the downside.

Testing, she
drummed her claws on a hardback book cover she was reading and they
made a spine chilling shctick shctick sound.

She studied
them now through narrowed eyes.

A manicure
wasn’t going to fix those babies.

"How are you
feeling," Marcus asked for the tenth time today.

Anais refused
to look at him.

"The same as I
was five minutes ago," she said and thanks to the fangs in her
mouth it sounded like, "The sshhame assshh I wasshh five
minutessshh ago." She’d cut her tongue twice. The injection, the
third in two days, of God knew what Saira had inserted into her
veins was supposed to
suppress
her vampyre.

Yeah,
right.

Her temper now
on a nice slow and steady burn, Anais decided she was dealing with
a crowd of imbeciles.

It had become
apparent during Marcus and Saira's slanging match that they knew
nothing about what happened when a vampyre prince ‘
took the
vein’
of a ‘
human hybrid.’

Even now a very
frustrated Saira Pattullo took another verbal swipe at Marcus.

"If you’d kept
it in your pants until you’d researched what to do, we wouldn’t be
in this mess."

"You're not
giving her more of that stuff until we’ve more test results from
Constantine's lab." Marcus’s Scottish accent always became strong
when he was about to lose his temper.

Now he went
nose to nose with the medic.

Saira jabbed a
finger at Anais.

"And how are we
going to get
that
through customs?"

"We’ll fly her
out, you turnip head."

"She won't be
able to cope with flying in a confined space. It took four of us to
restrain her, you festering baboon."

Anais had had
enough.

She rose.

"School’s out,
children."

Shocked that
the words came out of her mouth perfectly, her fingers tentatively
touched the fangs in her mouth. Fangs which appeared to have
shrunk. The relief she was able to speak normally was so
overwhelming it brought tears to her eyes.

Like a warrior
Anais battled back emotions that were too raw, too close to the
surface.

Marcus leapt to
his feet.

"You’re looking
much better."

He moved to
touch her but the look she threw him made him think again.

If she didn’t
know better she might actually believe he cared.

The time had
come, Anais decided, to take back control of her life, rather than
letting these monsters dictate what her future held.

Her eyes nailed
Marcus.

"With immediate
effect I resign from Gillespie, Pattullo and Hindmarch. I don’t
care what I do. I don’t care where I go, as long as it’s far away
from
you
."

The bastard
just looked at her with deep affection, as if she was a five year
old having a temper tantrum.

He spoke now in
that annoying crooning voice he always used around her these
days,

"You can't do
that, darlin’. You’ll be like a wee lamb to the slaughter."

The blue eyes
filled to the brim with remorse, the Scottish lilt in his voice,
caught her heart and that fact seriously annoyed her.

"And whose
fault is that?" she spat back.

Marcus’s brows
met as he studied her face and received the message loud and
clear.

She hated
him.

His dark eyes
narrowed and went icy cold, but Anais held her nerve.

She would find
a way to fix this.

If vampyres
existed, she’d put good money on it other unmentionable creatures
existed, too.

Perhaps she’d
find a clever witch person who could help her?

Investigating
an issue was one of her core skills.

How hard could
it be to find a real witch?

She'd no idea
where to even start looking for a witch.

But if one,
just one, was out there, she'd find her or him.

Nothing like a
challenge, Anais.

The muscles in
Marcus’s strong jaw worked and his eyes went dark.

He gave her a
long, hard look, and spoke very slowly.

"Anais. Don’t
even think about going near a witch. I haven’t met a good one yet.
You’ll only make things worse for yourself."

Shock had her
sit down hard on a fat leather chair the color of blueberries.

She stared at
him in utter horror.

"You can read
my mind?"

He had the
bare-faced bloody cheek to shrug as if it didn’t matter.

"Aye, when your
emotions are high. It’s easier since I took your vein."

In a flash she
was on her feet and her fangs shot down, her claws curled.

"Stop it! Stop
using that phrase, it’s driving me nuts."

His response
was a growled,

"I don't care
if it drives you nuts. It’s a fact of our lives."

Anais spun to
Saira who was watching the exchange with great interest.

"I don't want
this. Any of this. I don't want to be his
bonded mate
.
Surely he cannot force me? Even if he’s bitten... taken my vein?
Surely I have rights?"

Saira’s dark
brown eyes went sharp and sly.

She flicked a
wicked look at a Marcus who was desperately trying to send her a
silent message.

Saira ignored
him and turned to face Anais.

Was that pity
she saw in her eyes?

Anais braced
herself.

"There is a way
to extricate yourself from the bond," Saira drawled.

"Do
not
say another word, Saira. I mean it," Marcus ordered in a tone Anais
knew well.

There was a
time when that tone might have intimidated her.

She wondered
why it didn’t intimidate her now.

Saira narrowed
her eyes fractionally as she studied Anais.

"Hmm, I wonder
if you have it in you..."

"Saira..."
Marcus’s throaty growl warned again.

Their eyes
clashed in an unspoken battle of wills.

The silence
that followed seemed unending to Anais and she was almost at
screaming pitch when Saira turned back to face her.

"If you give
your heart freely and truly to another vampyre, Marcus will have no
choice but to break the bond."

Anais
blinked.

Excuse me?

That was
it?

What sort of a
choice was that?

These lunatics
didn’t get it.

"But I don’t
want to give my heart to a
vampyre
. I don’t want to give my
heart to
anyone
," she yelled at the top of her voice.

Saira sat in
the chair next to Anais and slid Marcus a dark look.

"What this
idiot fool has not explained properly to you is the consequences of
his actions. You have our DNA. When you ingested his blood after he
took your vein, it triggered the change and you became a
fully-fledged vampyre."

Anais simply
shook her head and looked at them.

"I don’t
understand."

With something
like pity in her dark eyes, Saira looked at Anais and
continued,

"I’ll give you
the edited version. Many years ago vampyre mates and offspring were
kept safe in one place, a retreat, to protect them. However, the
Legion raided the retreat, killed the women and stole the children.
Time passed and many of our offspring escaped, scattering
throughout the world. Somewhere in the past of your genetic
footprint is a vampyre. For generations we’ve been searching for
the children of the lost. Our males can mate with only one. Marcus
found you." Again Saira slid him another dark look. "And good luck
with that because you’ll need it."

Hands fisted on
her lap, Anais closed her eyes and tried to remain calm.

"What," she
wanted to know. "Is the Legion?"

Marcus spoke,
"We have enemies, beings, who wish us harm. The Legion are, or I
should say were, vampyre."

Dear God, what
next?

This could not
be happening to her.

It was like
being beamed into a parallel universe.

"What are they
now?"

Saira spoke in
a cold voice,

"They are an
abomination. Against our laws they practise magic. Dark magic. In
doing so, they ruined their chance of seeding healthy offspring.
The Legion are hunting our offspring, too, in the hope of finding
females who can bear their seed. Human females are killed by our
parasitic vampyre fetus. Too many women have died as the Legion
attempt to procreate."

Trying
desperately not to panic, Anais couldn’t help the shiver of
revulsion running down her spine.

She turned to
Marcus.

"Does that mean
the Legion will hunt me?"

In a move that
showcased his supreme physical fitness, he moved to crouch down in
front of her, took her icy hands in his and stared deep into her
eyes.

"They cannot
touch you because you are mine. You belong to me."

She’d worked
with Marcus for six months, Anais knew how he ticked, how his
thought processes worked.

A tiny flame of
hope flared in her heart.

"Did you do
this terrible thing to me, to protect me?"

He looked
uncomfortable as he shot a glance at the silent Saira who was
watching them like a hawk.

"I wanted
you."

Hope died
inside Anais.

Bitter
disappointment warred with a temper, since she’s been bitten, that
was too near the surface.

Now she had to
face the fact that Marcus didn’t have strong feelings for her.

Oh, he was
attracted, but he didn’t care for her or love her or want to
protect her.

She pulled her
hands away from his.

"
Want
?
Is that it? Without a single thought or concern about me, you just
took what you wanted."

He opened his
mouth to speak, but Saira interrupted, "Whether you like it or not,
now you must be guided by our laws or face the consequences."

Anais
blinked.

Her gaze
bounced from one to the other.

Consequences?

"What
consequences?"

"Few humans are
aware we exist. To keep it that way strict laws guide our society.
The penalty for disobedience or breaking the laws is... harsh."

Anais could see
where the conversation was going.

"Spit it out,
Saira."

The vampyre
medic stared pitilessly into her eyes.

There was no
compassion.

"The penalty is
death."

Anais wasn’t tired.

Sprawled again
on the seven-foot couch, dressed in jeans and ribbed vest for
comfort, she tried to relax.

Her feet were
bare. She studied her toes, which thankfully looked human today,
and realised with something like shock that she’d been awake,
without sleep, for five whole days. Yet another fact to absorb on
the steep learning curve that had become her life.

Marcus hadn’t
shaved for the last five days either.

He sat at the
vast desk in their suite barking instructions into his cell phone,
his fingers tapping over his laptop keyboard like automatic
gunshot.

"I can’t leave
her on her own," he told his brother James. A James who, Anais well
knew, was not a happy man at being left with negotiating the
contract with the Chinese.

Since the deal
was worth billions, Anais knew the stress due to the lack of
success was getting to Marcus.

Served the
bastard right.

And
after
turning her into a vampyre he’d had the damned cheek
to try and get her into his bed. Since he had as much chance of
that as a snowball had in hell, the battle had not been pretty.

However,
according to the combined opinion of Saira and Marcus, Anais was
still vulnerable and the decision had been made at the highest
levels of Gillespie, Pattullo and Hindmarch that she could not be
left alone. However, having someone hovering around her twenty-four
seven, was driving Anais frigging crazy.

When he’d
finished talking to James, Marcus tunnelled frustrated fingers
through his usually immaculate hair, which was looking all messy,
and what the hell was wrong with her that she found the move
incredibly sexy?

Annoyance with
herself made her tongue sharp.

"So, what’s the
grand plan?"