Vicente (2 page)

“No, she wasn’t raped. She’s still intact from what I can sense.” He looked at Vinnie as he continued. “I don’t know how your kind finds out if someone is their mate or not, but I have to ask. Is she?”

He shook his head. Vinnie had no idea if she was his mate or not. But he did know that he wasn’t going to find out. Dragon mates were more…complicated. He thought that was a good term for it. There was no scent to draw them together, not even a sexual desire like most of his friends had when they were near their mates. It was more of a human reaction at first, simple attraction. Then they’d fall for each other, he supposed. But once they did come together, something as small as a kiss could trigger his dragon to mark her quickly and painfully until she, too, wore the mark of the dragon. His dragon.

His mother had been a full-blooded dragon. His father too, he supposed, because of how much magic he’d had. Vinnie had never met his father, but he knew about him and the way he’d treated others. He was happy that the man hadn’t wanted to claim him any more than Vinnie would call him Father. Vinnie had been raised by a single mom and had never seen her date during his childhood. He doubted that she ever did after he’d left home either. And about ten years ago she’d taken it into her head that she didn’t want to live any longer, and that was it. She’d died a few days later of what the doctors had called a broken heart. Vinnie wasn’t sure his mom had had a heart, but never said anything when he’d been told of her death.

She’d never wanted to talk about what they were. Her idea of information was to tell him to go to his father; which, of course, never happened. But there were days when he wished he could find someone to answer questions for him other than the one man he hated more than he did himself on most days.

Like this mate thing. He didn’t have a clue what really was supposed to happen. He’d heard things, like most supernaturals did, but he wasn’t sure what would really happen if he did find a mate. As much as he loved Yve, his dragon faerie, she didn’t have the answers either.

The doctor stood up and started talking, startling him out of his thoughts, and Vinnie hoped he hadn’t missed anything.

“That’s too bad. The girl is going to need someone if she makes it.” The doctor left them a few minutes later and told him again to let him know when his vampire friend got there. Stephen was having a fit because he couldn’t be there now. Vinnie hoped he could make it in time.

Vinnie filled out what he could on the papers that a nurse brought him. He didn’t have any insurance, but he told them he’d pay cash for her stay. He had to fill out her name as Jane Doe, but that didn’t bother him as much as the other empty spaces he had no answer for. Was she married? Was there someone to notify in the event of an emergency? He had no idea, but put his name in that blank as well.

“What will you do now?” He looked at Samuel when he sat next to him. A nurse had just told them that the woman was in recovery and would be there until morning. Vinnie wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do now.

“Stay, I guess. It’s not like I can do much in the way of construction right now anyway.” It was two weeks before Christmas and he’d gotten all his projects finished early. Not for him but for his staff. And he’d paid them for the three weeks they’d be off. Samuel nodded and stood up.

“If you need me again, you know where I am. The men we were chasing weren’t the ones that hurt her, as you know, so we set them free. Scared the shit out of them, but we didn’t have any reason to hold them.” Vinnie had heard the same thing from Jimmy. The guys they’d found had been on a hunting party, yes, but they’d been using guns and not bows and arrows. Vinnie hoped the woman could tell them more.

“I have Yve looking now too. She said she can do more than we can anyway.” And she wanted to help, more than he’d thought she should for the nameless, faceless woman. He figured that he had pissed her off by saying that to her, but she had huffed at him and flew off. Vinnie had a moment of panic. He needed the faeries more than they needed him.

Reaching out to Yve, he was happy when she answered him so quickly.
I am not mad at you, sire. You are eleven kinds of stubborn, but I am not mad.

It’s ten kinds of stubborn, and I just wanted to make sure.
She huffed again
. I love you; you know that, correct?

And I you. And I was correct in what I said. You are eleven kinds of stubborn.
He laughed.
I have found nothing more than her clothing in the area she was found. There is the scent of fear on them, from her I would guess, but little of the men who were chasing her. I have taken it upon myself to have some of the others in the area to keep an eye out.

Thank you. She’s hurt very badly. I’m waiting on Stephen to come and help her out a little. The doctor here is a super, and he said to let him know when he arrives so he can make sure he isn’t disturbed.
Vinnie looked at his phone to see what time it was.
I would have thought he’d be here by now.

He may be in an argument again. Lady Summer and he have been at it. I do believe he provokes her to see if she will rise to the worm. She can be quite vocal when she believes him not to be doing what he should.
He told her it was bait, not worm.
Is that not the same thing? A worm is bait, is it not? Why someone would not just go into the water and simply catch the fishes is beyond me. But humans can be very strange, can they not?

They can.
He saw Clar, Stephen’s mate, coming toward him and he stood up.
Clar is here. If you find anything, let me know immediately.

I will, sire. But I would like for you to explain to me why you are doing this for her. She is only human, is she not?
He ignored Yve and kissed Clar on the cheek. He could see that she was ready to bust out laughing, but waited until they were walking down the hall from the nurse’s station to ask. The doctor was on his way.

“He’s arguing with Summer again. I swear to you, it’s like they’re married or something. And for an hour after they’re done going at each other like a couple of bullies on a playground, he sulks about her being his boss and how much he despises her.” She laughed again. “He loves her and hates it when I tell him that.”

“What are they going on about now?” Last week it was the fact that he was not going to let the council use his house when they had conventions. Then just yesterday it was about how much time he was spending on projects and not helping his subjects.

“She told him she was wrong about his time with our subjects, and he had to go on and on about how wrong she was about everything else he’d been doing. Of course, she told him to screw off and that put his nose out of joint. I swear to you, I’m having the time of my life. I had popcorn this morning to watch them. Needless to say he didn’t find that as humorous as Kennedy and I did.” The doctor was waiting for them outside the room. “I’m Clarice Silva. I’ve come to see what I can do about helping out our Jane Doe.”

Vinnie was always surprised to hear Clar attach her name with Stephen’s. He had never thought his friend would want a mate, and now it seemed they were inseparable.

They walked into the room. He’d been in there every hour for ten minutes since the woman had been brought out of surgery. He’d given her a little of his magic; not enough to heal her, but something to ease her pain. But he was still blown away by how horrible she looked lying there. Clar stood staring at her as well before she spoke to him through their connection.

You should know that they had her for several days before you found her.
He nodded, already figuring that out from the bruises on her skin.
Vinnie, they had other women there with her.

Other women?
She nodded and looked at the doctor, who left them. Vinnie knew that Clar had done that so they could talk.

“She saw nine other women there. Most of them have been there for a while, but a couple were brought in after she was. She has it in her head that they were going to kill her to make room for the others.” He looked at the woman, then sat down as Clar continued. “She knows the men. I’ve not been able to find out how or who they are. Some of the head injuries that she has are blocking that even from me. But in time she will remember or I will find it. Either way, we’ll bring them to justice.”

“Do you know her name?” She nodded and sat beside him. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know now. There was something so…terrifying about the way Clar was looking at him.

“Her name is Abigale Curry.” He knew the name. Vinnie stood up when who she was came crashing into his memories. Good Christ, it couldn’t be her. He stood up and asked Clar twice more what her name was. It didn’t change either time.

“No. Oh, hell no. It can’t be.” He started for the door, only to be brought up short by Clar holding him there. “It can’t be her.”

Chapter 2

Abbie felt the pull of the pain and tried to open her eyes. Surely she couldn’t still be alive. But trying to see where she was now was proving to be more difficult than she’d thought. Lifting her arm up, she was surprised by its weight, then the fact that it wouldn’t move very well. The sound of someone opening a door made her body tense.

“Miss Curry?” She didn’t answer the person because she had no idea where she was. The guys had simply called her number twelve even though she knew their names. “My name is Doctor Caldwell. You’re at County General.”

“Hospital?” He told her yes. “When?” She still couldn’t see, and when something touched her face, she jerked back and cried out. The pain took her breath away.

“You’ll have to lie very still. I’m going to remove the bandages from your eyes. We covered them up so that when someone came in to take your vitals, the light wouldn’t bother you. I’m going to touch you now.”

She tried to lay still, but every time his fingers brushed against her skin, she felt herself cringe. Then she saw a little light shining through her closed lids. When he said he was finished but cautioned for her to open her eyes slowly, she did it. At first things were blurry; colors seemed to scream at her, but the more she blinked past that, the easier it became to see. She tried to make out the man’s face but nothing was in focus.

“Things might be blurry for a few hours yet. You’ve had some drops in them to make them not dry out, and it tends to make things off.” She felt a little nauseous, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, she supposed. “I’m Beckard Caldwell, and I’m the doctor who has been caring for you.”

“When did I get here?” Her throat hurt too, she discovered, and would have gladly done about anything for a drink. “Thirsty.”

“You’ll have to wait a bit on the water, I’m afraid. You’ve had some pretty nasty injuries done to your body, and we want to make sure you’ll hold down what we’re feeding you through an IV before we hit the hard stuff.” She wondered if he thought he was funny but didn’t comment.

“How did I get here?” She felt as if there was something she should remember, but couldn’t put her finger on it. “Cold and hurting.”

“Yes. I can’t tell you what happened, as I’m not even sure myself. But someone found you in the snow and had you brought here.” Yes, that sounded right. But her head was hurting, and when she started to put her arm up to cover her eyes she met with the same resistance. “You’ve been tied to the bed. You were having nightmares or memories and we had to make sure you didn’t hurt yourself. If you don’t mind, we’ll leave those on for a few more hours. Just to make sure you’re going to stay awake this time.”

She felt her body warm up by degrees and knew that something was being put in her. Abbie wanted to fight it, but the pain was receding too, so she let herself drift away with it. By the time she was relaxed enough to rest again, she remembered something. But her mind closed up and she was out.

The next time she woke…or she supposed it might have been the tenth time, as she knew that she’d opened her eyes before—she could see almost perfectly. There was a man sitting in the chair across from her, but he was sleeping. His cell phone lay on his lap and his big body seemed to spill out everywhere. He wasn’t fat, but he was huge, like a football player huge. Moving on the bed had her crying out, and he was suddenly standing over her.

“Here, let me help you.” She tried to pull away from his hands, but he was shifting her on the bed so gently that she was sure had she not had his help, it would have been painful. “How are you today? The doc said you were doing much better.”

“I’m not sure why I’m here.” He nodded and smiled at her. A memory tugged at her mind, but it was gone before she could make it stick. “I was in the cold and hurting, but I don’t remember much after that.”

“Do you at least know your name?” She nodded and told him. “That’s a start. The doctors weren’t sure you’d have that much right away. You’ve been here for a few days. Six as a matter of fact.”

“What happened?” She knew that he knew, and Abbie had a feeling hearing it from him would be better than from someone else. “I remember bits and pieces of things, but I don’t know what’s real or not.”

“Tell me what you remember and I’ll see if I can fill in the blanks.” She thought that was a roundabout way to get to the bottom of her question, but she had a feeling he wouldn’t help her if she didn’t do things his way. For some reason that pissed her off.

“I don’t particularly care to play twenty questions with you. I’m in a hospital with a strange man sitting here with—” Abbie looked at him as another thought, another memory, touched her mind. “I know you.”

“You do. You don’t care for me very much, but you know me.” She closed her eyes because she felt that the man sitting there staring at her wasn’t the same as he’d been when they’d known each other. When it hit her, she opened her eyes and glared.

“I see you have jogged your memory.” She nodded. “I’ll only stay long enough to tell you what I know. If you could refrain from throwing anything at me or making threats again, I’ll tell you. I’ve missed you, Abbie.”

“Say it and get the fuck out.” He nodded and stood up. There was something so…
holy shit
about him that she had a moment of what-the-hell-was-I-thinking-kicking-him-out? But he grinned at her and everything about him fell into place. “You left me there. Standing at the altar. You left me there with five hundred guests, wondering what the fuck had happened. Then you never called until a month later and told me you’d changed your mind. Why the hell couldn’t you have done that months before?”

He didn’t say anything for several moments, but he did stretch out his neck twice. The popping sound had her thinking something carnal, and she had no idea why. Moving her legs together, she glared at him harder.

“You wouldn’t understand if I told you. But as for you being here, I was out when I came across your blood in the snow. It took me a while to find you and when I did, I had no idea who you were. I—”

“Would you have left me there if you knew?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could have taken them back. They were cruel and hurtful, and it wasn’t like her. “I’m sorry. Please go on.”

“For the record, no, I wouldn’t have left you there. I still….” He stretched his neck again. “I didn’t know who you were, but you told me that you wanted me to kill you. At the time you had several arrows in your back and you’d been beaten pretty badly. Does any of this ring a bell?”

His question startled her, and she lay back to think about it. “Some. I remember hurting and being cold. Arrows? No, I don’t know why…someone was chasing me. I don’t remember that either, but I think it had to do with a gift.” That made no sense to her, but he nodded. “Tell me what I said to you and that might help me.”

“They, the doctors, said it would be better if you remembered on your own.” She told him to fuck the doctors and just tell her. “You said that they had gotten the bows and arrows for Christmas and they wanted to practice before hunting season opened. I’m not a big fan of hunters in general, but there is no season for bows and arrows any time soon.”

“There were three of them.” She tried to remember more, but her head started pounding. “I think there were more, but I don’t know why I don’t think they were going to harm me like the three were. They were…this is making my head hurt.”

Vicente stood staring at her for several seconds before he leaned down to pick up his coat. He was nearly to the door when she blurted out the question that had been on her mind for the last five years.

“You left me standing there without a clue as to why or what I’d done to make you run. I deserve an answer, don’t you think?” She didn’t think he was going to answer her, but when he did, he didn’t even turn to look at her.

“Something happened. Not to you but to me. I couldn’t take the chance that you’d…I didn’t want you to have to live with it.” She watched him open the door and move out of it. She was still sitting there when a nurse came in a few minutes later.

“Mr. MacIntyre asked me to bring you this. He said you might want it.” She took the large envelope and laid it on her lap. “Do you need anything for pain, Miss Curry?”

She told her no. Abbie figured there was not a pain pill invented that would take this pain away. Vicente MacIntyre had been the love of her life, the man she had wanted to spend the rest of her life with and one day, on the day of their marriage, he’d disappeared. She’d never gotten over the pain of it.

She looked down at the envelope and wondered what the hell it could be. Lifting it up, she pulled out the sheets of paper and shivered. Christ, he’d notified her brother. This was all she needed; her overbearing brother and his spineless wife coming to rescue her.

~~~

“Miss Curry works for a firm that does buy-outs. What are those?” Vinnie tried to think what Yve was asking him, but his mind was centered on the woman he’d just left. “Sire? Are you not well?”

“I’m fine. They buy up companies that are struggling, most of the time anyway, and either split them up into smaller companies or simply close them down and sell off what they can of the inventory and equipment. It’s sometimes called a takeover. Usually the company they’re buying calls them hatchets.” Yve sat on his phone and glared at him. “I didn’t say I liked them. I’m just answering your question.”

“You have told me an untruth.” He started to tell her he hadn’t and offered to look it up for her when she raised her hand. “You are not fine, as you have told me five times now. You are upset. Is it the woman?”

“Mind your own business.” He knew that telling her that was like waving a flag in front of her to do just the opposite. “I mean it. Just leave it alone. It was before you found me.”

“The day I found you.” He looked away from her. Yve was entirely too perceptive sometimes. “You and her, you have a memory together that haunts you?”

He wanted to flick her away but knew that if he did, he’d be in a world of hurt. Yve was his friend and kept him alive, as did the other creatures like her. She was literally his heat and his heart when he was his dragon. Yve made it so he could see things that he could never have without her. Vinnie looked at her and knew that she’d hound him to death if he didn’t tell her.

“We were to be married. In fact, the day you found me.” She started to speak, but he cut her off. “Let me tell you all of it or I’ll never get through it.”

“It is painful for you. And when you hurt, I do as well. We are as one, you and I.” He nodded and told her he knew. “Tell me the story so that I may comment correctly.”

“I’ll tell you, but I’d very much appreciate it if you didn’t comment at all.” She didn’t say anything and he sighed. “Very well. But don’t expect me to answer your questions. We were to be married. I was so much in love with her that the thought of not spending another minute with her hurt me. The night before we were to be married I had a visitor. He….”

He didn’t want to tell her this. He’d told no one, not even Stephen, what had happened. Vinnie got up and went to the window to let the nightmare wash over him.

“I hadn’t told Abbie what I was. I was going to, but I thought it would go easier on her if we were married for a little while. I suppose I thought she’d be so much in love with me that she’d say it was okay. But then her brother found out.”

~~~

He’d found him at his apartment. Vinnie had invited him in and thought it wonderful that Graham Curry had come to make sure he was all right. He was, but it was nice all the same. But Graham had hit him with a ball bat first, then had knocked him against the wall. Vinnie had had a hard time holding onto his dragon, but when Graham knocked him away again with the bat, Vinnie stayed on the floor where he was and tried his best to calm his dragon.

“You want to hurt me, don’t you? Do you have a rage in you that burns in your belly?” Graham knelt down in front of him, holding the bat as if he’d use it if Vinnie made the smallest of moves. “You think I’m going to let you marry my sister and not let the world know what a monster you are? Did you really think you could get by with this? I saw you. You’re not even human, are you?”

“She loves me.” Graham had laughed at him, bitterly and coldly. “She’ll not care once I tell her. Abbie is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

“Yet you haven’t told her for some reason. Why is that, I wonder? Did you think that if you turned into that monster that no one would see you? I saw you, you motherfucker. I saw you change into that fucking monster and you just flew off. What the hell are you anyway? A freak? What the fuck do you think Abbie is going to think when I tell her?”

“I told you, I was going to tell her.” Graham laughed again. “I said I would and I will. I just need some time.”

“Your time has suddenly run out, you monster.” He stood up and walked to his door and opened it. Vinnie wanted him to kill him right then. “You’ll leave now, or so help me I’ll go to her right now and tell her. You’re not to contact her again or have another thing to do with her. If you do, I’ll tell the world what you are. And for as much as I’d like to expose you, I won’t hurt her that way. Not now.”

“Why are you doing this? You’re going to break her heart.” Vinnie felt his own breaking. “I’m in love with her. I want to spend the rest of my life with her, have children with—”

“Children? Children? You mean baby monsters like you? No fucking way. I’ll use this bat on her before I let her spawn one of your…your things.” He moved toward him and Vinnie took a step back. “I love my sister, you do not. If you really did, you’d have left her alone and kept to your own kind. I don’t want to hurt her or embarrass her, but I will if you don’t get the fuck out of here now.”