21 Shades of Night, page 242
“I can’t tell you how much I love you and abhor the thought of losing you yet again, dear lass.”
* * *
ALENA LISTENED TO his heartbeat pounding, his breath let out in deep sighs of worry, the endearing sound when he kissed her forehead, her hand, her hair.
He smelled all male, musky and spicy, sensual and sexy. Her cheek rested against his chest, lightly cloaked in dark hair, his nipples extended, aroused with his touching her.
She licked her lips, wanting to suckle one, then the other, wanting to kiss him back, to touch every bit of his body, especially the part that beckoned to her now with renewed enthusiasm, poking against her waist.
She rested her hand on his chest. He wanted her for all eternity, not that he was innately bad, but he loved her with all his heart and would do anything to have her—that’s what she had to come to terms with.
All she had to do was blood bond with him. Right. And forever be damned by the League, warranting her own death sentence. The cycle wouldn’t be broken, but perpetuated again and again. Would she remember the next time they met? Or would she only vaguely recall their love, or even worse, would Ephraim die before it could happen again?
She snuggled closer and slid her leg over his. She didn’t want him to die. What if the situation were reversed? He was the one to die every time, and she was the one left behind to suffer? She’d be as desperate as him to make sure it didn’t happen again.
“Ephraim,” she whispered.
“Alena?”
“Make love to me.”
“Are you sure? You seemed so upset with me earlier—”
“Do I have to demand it of you?” Though she attempted to speak forcefully, her words had a drugged, sleepy quality. She tugged one of his nipples between her fingertips.
His hands worked over her back in a loving, stroking caress. “Do you want to talk about why you were so angry with me earlier first?”
She shook her head back and forth on his chest. He moved her onto her back and worked to unbutton his black shirt she was wearing. “Are you certain—”
“Shhh.” She put her finger to his lips, wanting to silence his need to discuss what had angered her. She didn’t want to talk about it now, desiring only his fevered touch.
“I didn’t know the... water would have such an affect on you.”
“It’s not the water, damn it. You didn’t have to have me drugged. And I’m still upset.” No matter that she wanted him to make love, the anger still simmered beneath the surface.
“Then we should talk first,” he said, his words spoken softly.
“I don’t want to talk.”
“Truth be known, I don’t either. Your open invitation...” He took a deep breath. “I don’t want you to be angry with me though.”
She touched his nipple, teasing, tickling, then sighed deeply. “I thought you didn’t like it when I wore so many clothes to bed.”
He swept his hand down her bare leg. “I didn’t want you thinking I’d take advantage of you.”
“I love you, Ephraim.” Sincerely spoken, she recognized she’d lost the battle to keep her distance from the vampire.
He wasn’t a rogue like the one her cousin, Tanya, had gotten mixed up with, but the end result would be the same. She’d be terminated for loving a vampire. Like Romeo and Juliet, she’d follow Ephraim into the next life if need be. He was hers and she his... for now, that’s all that mattered.
“Aye, and you know I have always loved you.”
“If I blood bond with you, this curse we seem to be under will not be broken.”
He stilled his hands, then captured her face in them. “What are you thinking?”
“If we blood bond, my people will kill me. Most likely David would be given the contract to do it. So you see, if we blood bond, the end result will be the same.”
He kissed her lips, pressuring her to open herself to him. She parted them for him, touching her tongue to his in a loving tangle. He hurried to pull the shirt off her, then unfastened her bra.
“I can’t think of anything else that we can do,” he admitted.
“Go back in time? Kill the MacLeods before any of them can murder me the first time around?” She couldn’t quash the concern she harbored. Did he still want to go back in time if she didn’t blood bond with him? Did he want to destroy the clan that kept them apart? Would he terminate her by eliminating the ones who were her direct ancestors in the family tree?
He stilled his hands on her shoulders, his mouth gaping, his eyes widened. Then he took a deep breath. “Cybil told you.”
“Yes, she told me. Why didn’t you?” Alena choked out the words, not realizing how much the idea he wanted to kill her ancestral family truly bothered her. “I came clean with you about what my mission was. Why didn’t you tell me the truth about what you intended to do?”
“I didn’t plan to kill your entire family. For a century and a half, I plotted to. But that would be a hell of a lot of MacLeods, and one would surely escape my wrath, and we’d be where we are today. I only thought if I could...” He took a ragged breath. “If we could have blood bonded when you were willing, we might have stopped history from repeating itself.”
She leaned over and licked his nipple, eliciting a deep growl. “I can’t blood bond with you. It goes against everything I’ve been taught. I’d be… I’d be one of you.”
“Aye, you must keep your blood lines pure, untainted by a vampire’s blood,” Ephraim said, his voice harsh. “We were changed by the same hellish plague! Before that happened, we were the same, you and I! Somehow as we fought the disease, our genetics were altered, as were yours, and we became different. And for that, you spurn me?”
“I’m sorry, Ephraim.”
“Nay, ‘tis I who am sorry, Alena. You are not the woman I loved so long ago.” He climbed out of bed and jerked on his pants. “Possibly, you’re right, that nothing will break the cycle.” He threw on his shirt, stalked across the room, and shut the door behind him with a click.
Alena’s stomach churned with upset. She swallowed to moisten her throat that had suddenly turned dry. She craved his touch, his loving, but he wanted what she couldn’t give him. Fine. He’d go back and save Elizabeth. But Alena had a job to do. Destroy the Brotherhood in the meantime before they killed any more of her hunter friends and family.
Ephraim could live in the past all he wanted. Maybe he’d make her vanish, poof!, and she’d never have existed, if he were successful. The sorrow that accompanied that notion threatened to overwhelm her. She tried to clear her thoughts of the disabling emotion.
She had to live in the present, as if every day counted for something. For now, the League didn’t want her head on the platter, but the renegade vampires of the Brotherhood did. For now, she’d target them.
Despite her bravado, she stifled a sob as she hurried to dress. Leaving Ephraim was the best thing she could do for the moment. So why the hell did it feel so wrong?
She tugged her boots on. Damn him for insisting she blood bond with him.
And doubly damn herself for not agreeing with him.
* * *
EPHRAIM FOUND MONA in the kitchen fixing a bowl of chicken noodle soup, the spicy aroma filling the air. “She refuses to blood bond!” He slammed his fist on the kitchen counter.
A glass of water jiggled with the vibration. Mona shook her head at him. “I don’t have the kind of strength you have. But I know that you love Alena more than anyone else and—”
“She’ll die! Damn it. All over again. And again.”
“She loves you, too, but you have to make her see how important this is.”
“She’s too damned stubborn.” He ran his hands through his hair, unbound from his near romp with his Alena. Yet she’d never be his truly if he couldn’t make her see his viewpoint and accept it.
“Yes, and you’re just as stubborn.” Mona stirred the soup, then turned the burner off. “So make her understand. If anyone is able, you can. Through loving and kindness.”
“If I go back in time—”
“What if your plan doesn’t succeed? What if she dies again? What if in doing what you intend, you destroy your chance to have Alena? Now you still have an opportunity—slim—but a chance to make things right with her. What’s that old saying? A bird in the hand beats two in the bush? Returning to the past didn’t work before. Why would it work now? The potion is unstable. Your aunt said so, and you’ve found it to be true.”
“It’ll work this time,” he grumbled under his breath, wishing to bloody hell it would. How many times could he see the woman he loved and not have enough precious moments to show her that they were meant to be together for all eternity? A woman who’d only vaguely recollect the love they’d shared? A woman who’d die again at the hands of her family?
The amount of potion he had wouldn’t last forever, and when his aunt had died, he’d lost the opportunity for her to make more for him. Though she’d refused to concoct another drop even while she lived. Live in the present, plan for the future, her words continually taunted him. If it’s meant to be, it will be.
Mona sat at the counter with her bowl of steaming soup. “What if you’re able to turn her, and you die instead? What if she has to live without your love forever?”
He glowered at her, knowing what Mona said made sense, not liking it in the least. He recognized, too, Alena must be scared to go against her own family, like Elizabeth had been. But eventually, Elizabeth had made the decision to be with him. Only he hadn’t given Alena enough time to do so. Patience, but his patience was wearing a fine line between sanity and insanity.
The time was running out with the Brotherhood trying to terminate Alena, too. At least if he could turn her, she’d have more abilities, more ways to fight the bloodsuckers. The League would force Alena to discover his “secret mission” as well, and then? They would insist she terminate him.
“You’re right, Mona,” he finally conceded, hating to admit she was right. “I knew you were good for something other than just housekeeping.”
She smiled. “You know I am. I kept you warm on all those nights that you needed—”
The front door slammed shut.
“Bloody hell!” Ephraim said hotly.
He vanished and reappeared in the passenger’s seat of Alena’s car where the stubborn woman was seated at the wheel. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“Who invited you?” Alena asked caustically, glowering at him.
“You did.”
She pulled her keys out of her purse, but he seized them. She folded her arms. “I can walk.”
“And get yourself killed.”
She ground her teeth.
He took a deep breath and let it out. “Come back inside with me.”
“I’m not going to blood bond with you.”
“I’m not going to ask you to. It’s your decision. I believe it will be best, but I won’t force you.”
“Then what? What do you want?”
His mouth curved up. “What you have offered me.”
She looked out the windshield. “I’m not in the mood.”
“Aye. I will get you in the mood again.”
Scowling at him, she didn’t budge.
“Come on, lass. Come with me back to bed.”
Her words still icy, she shook her head and said, “Mona can keep your bed warm.”
Devil take him, she’d heard what Mona had said to him. He took Alena’s hand and gave it a slight squeeze. “We’ve snuggled after she’s given me blood, slept with me even, but never have I made love to her.” He wasn’t certain why it bothered Alena that he might have made love to Mona. Maybe because Mona still lived under his roof. “She doesn’t mean anything to me like you do, lass.”
“I don’t want to blood bond.”
The more she said those words, the more he thought she had to because she was beginning to think differently and had to remind herself that she could not go against the League’s ruling. Or maybe it was just his fervent desire to think so.
“Aye, I understand. Come back to bed with me.”
Alena pulled her hand free and rested both hands on the steering wheel. “I don’t care what you do about us, Ephraim. You can rescue me in the past, make me disappear before I ever existed. Whatever you want to do, you have your own demons to slay. But I have a job to do.”
“I know. You’ll tell the League about my secret plan and terminate me.”
Her eyes widened, then she swallowed hard, and shook her head. “I have no idea what your plan is.”
She’d lie to save his skin, and he couldn’t help the surge of love that soared through him.
With tearful eyes, she said softly, “As for terminating you, I would die first. And if anyone attempted to kill you, I would stand in his way.”
Like she’d done in the past, getting in between him and her brother and taking the killing blow meant for Ephraim. Damn the curse and her kin.
What Ephraim had said about her not being his lost love Elizabeth weighed on him like a ship’s anchor, threatening to pull him into the depths of a watery hell. How could he have denied she was his Elizabeth?
Chapter 16
WANTING TO ERASE the words he’d spoken in hurt and anger, Ephraim leaned over and kissed Alena’s cheek. “I’m sorry for saying you were not my Elizabeth. You’re one and the same as she, my bonnie lass. Nothing will ever change that. But what were you talking about when you said you had a job to do?”
“Eliminating the Brotherhood. That’s what I’m going to do.”
The Brotherhood. Hell. She would take the whole lot of them on, one huntress against God only knew how many renegade vampires.
“We go after them together.”
She sighed, but she didn’t appear resigned to the notion. “What happened to you when I went looking for Mona in the gardens?”
“One of Kisaro’s blood bonds lured me to an empty house. Before I could return, you must have had your encounter with Cybil.”
“Hmm, well, she wasn’t too happy when I told her we’d blood bonded.” Alena gave him a smirk, grabbed her sword, then climbed out of the car.
Hell, Alena had known just how to rile the vampiress.
Alena slammed her car door, but before she could take a step in the direction of his house, Ephraim appeared before her.
“I’m still not in the mood to... well, be on intimate terms with you.” She waved her sword at him, angling toward his crotch.
He gave her a smug smile. “Aye. But I am in the mood.” He took her sword hand, angling the weapon away from him, and kissed the tender skin at her wrist, his gaze gauging her reaction. “I’ll have to work a little harder to ensure that you are, too.”
She tilted her chin up to him, yet she did not pull her sword hand away from him, and her shoulders, that had been rigid moments before, relaxed. “A lot harder.”
Chuckling, he swept her up in his arms and carried her back to the house. “A lot harder, is the name of the game, lass.”
Once they were inside, he took her to his room. She was his, no longer a guest, but his to keep and hold and cherish forever more.
“Your bedroom?” she asked, sounding genuinely surprised.
“This is where you belong. Beneath me, beside me, on top, whichever suits your whim. But here with me.”
She gave a little “hmpf” at that.
But when he lay her on the bed, she seemed more subdued than usual. “Are you feeling all right?” he asked, concerned.
“A little tired still.”
The sedative must not have entirely worn off. And to think she had planned to drive the car to seek out the Brotherhood and fight who knew how many of them. He gave her a disgruntled look. “You know, lass, you could try a man’s patience.”
She smiled back at him, and she reminded him of the Cheshire cat. She was just like Elizabeth, her stormy temper evaporating quickly. No matter how hot she got about something, she never held a grudge, and he loved her for it.
When he reached for her jeans zipper, she folded her arms across her waist and closed her eyes. He tugged her jeans off, bound and determined to make love to her before she slipped off into slumber land. He kissed her creamy naked thigh. She opened her eyes, her lips parting invitingly.
“Don’t go to sleep on me now, lass.”
“Then you’d better hurry.”
He yanked off his own clothes, then stood before her. “And you had intended to do what else tonight?”
She looked down at him and raised her brows as she considered his swollen cock curved upward toward his belly. Her lips turned up immeasurably, then she tugged at the shirt of his that she was wearing. “Hurry up, Ephraim. I thought you wanted me.”
Chuckling, he nearly ripped the buttons off his favorite shirt trying to undo it. But when he saw her injured shoulder, he took it more slowly, trailing kisses over her abdomen.
She ran her fingers through his unbound hair. “Oh, Ephraim, how could I have ever forgotten you?” she said with soft regret.
“You didn’t. You couldn’t. We were meant to be together forever, love.” He removed her bra, then kissed each breast, the tips peaked with arousal, rosy and begging for his touch.
“Yes,” she murmured, pushing down at her panties, not waiting for him to do the job, which sent another rash of urgency into his efforts.
He finished pulling off the scrap of peach silk panties and stared at her beauty—from her luscious lips glistening from her licking them, her creamy skin flushed, and full breasts heavy with arousal, her nipples darkened and delectable. Every inch of her was Elizabeth. Even the tiny triangular birthmark near her navel and the small mole on the inside of her right thigh. How truly blessed he was to have her at his side. Well, for the moment, she would be underneath him. He couldn’t stop the wicked smile that touched his lips.
