Pursued

  “What the hell?” he muttered.

  Elise used the momentary distraction to try and get away. Wriggling with all her might, she managed to squirm halfway out from under her stepfather’s crushing weight.

  But her movements brought Charles’s attention back to her in an instant. “Oh no you don’t, you little bitch!” he snarled, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back. “You’re gonna give it up for me, just like you did before. Just like—”

  There was a heavy, ringing tramp on the metal of the fire escape and Elise’s bedroom window exploded inward, spraying shards of glass everywhere.

  “Get the fuck off her, now!” bellowed a deep, familiar voice.

  Merrick? Elise could hardly believe her own eyes, but there he was—standing just inside her window and looking angrier than she had ever seen him. His eyes finally matched—instead of blue and gold, they were glowing red like two hot coals—and the look of rage on his face was terrible to see.

  “Who the hell are y—?” Charles began and then Merrick had him by the back of his shirt and was yanking him off Elise. “Hey!” Charles protested and then Merrick slung him against the wall, as though he weighed no more than a rat. With a loud thump, her stepfather hit and fell to one side, silent and stunned.

  At last Elise found her voice. “Merrick?” she whispered. “Is it…it’s really you? But how…?”

  “Never mind how. Come here, baby.” He held out his arms and she ran to him, sobbing, and threw her arms around his neck.

  “Merrick…Merrick, I thought you were gone. I thought you were dead. I never thought…”

  “I nearly was dead, but it wasn’t my time—I was sent back for you.” He hugged her tight, almost cutting off her air, but Elise didn’t care. She pressed herself against his hard, muscular body, breathing in his familiar, comforting scent of smoke and fur, letting herself believe at last that he was real. That he had really come for her.

  At last Merrick pulled back from the embrace and looked at her anxiously. “Was I in time? Did he…?”

  Elise shook her head rapidly, her hair swishing around her face. “No, not this time. He…he tried. He would have if you hadn’t come and…oh, Merrick…” The sobs rose in her throat again, choking her with their intensity.

  “I know, baby. I know.” He pulled her close again, stroking her hair gently.

  From the corner of her eye, Elise saw her stepfather getting to his hands and knees. He cast a quick glance at Merrick, and began to slink away, crawling along the perimeter of the room like the rat he was, heading for the door.

  Apparently, the motion caught Merrick’s eye too. Gently, he disentangled himself from Elise and set her down on the floor. “Hang on a minute, baby. I need to settle some unfinished business.”

  “Merrick?” She looked at him anxiously, noticing that his eyes were still glowing red. “What…what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to take care of him.” Merrick caught her stepfather by the scruff of the neck, twisting the back of Charles’s crisp white dress shirt until it strangled him, effectively cutting off his air.

  “You…stop,” he managed to sputtered, grasping at his neck as his face turned red. “Stop now…talk about…this.”

  “Oh, you want to talk?” Merrick appeared to consider this. He loosened his grip slightly on Charles’s shirt, allowing him to breath. “Go ahead—talk.”

  “This…” Charles coughed and cleared his throat. “This is all just a big misunderstanding. I don’t…don’t know who you are, but you seem like…like a reasonable man.” He eyed Merrick uncertainly. “Just name your price and we can all forget about this and…and go.”

  Elise could have told him it was the wrong thing to say. Merrick’s eyes narrowed and blazed crimson, as though someone had stirred the embers behind his pupils into a roaring flame. “Name my price? Name my price?” he snarled. “You think you can put a price on what you did to Elise? On the way you hurt the female I love?” Reaching into his boot, he pulled out a long, sharp, silver knife and showed it to Charles who turned as white as a sheet. “I’ll show you the price—it’s right here.”

  “N-now wait a minute,” Charles blustered, trying to get away. But Merrick still had a tight grip on his shirt—he was caught. “What…” He eyed the knife, his eyes rolling nervously. “What do you think you’re going to do with that?”

  Merrick gave him a smile so cold it sent shivers down Elise’s spine. “I think I’m going to cut off your raping cock and feed it to you, you sonofabitch. And if you happen to bleed to death in the process, that’s just too damn bad.”

  “No! No, please…” Charles began blubbering but it was clear Merrick was paying no attention. He was wholly intent on revenge—revenge for her sake, Elise realized.

  “Merrick?” she whispered in a small voice. She didn’t know how to feel. Part of her was horrified at the impending violence. But another part, a part which had been buried for years along with all the other memories and thoughts in the now-defunct vault, felt a fierce sense of triumph.

  Good, screamed that other part of her. Good, that’s exactly what he deserves! But still, how often had she been lectured in law school about due process? About never taking the law into her own hands? I shouldn’t let this happen, whispered the sane, rational part of her—the part not obsessed with vengeance. It’s wrong, I should take him to court instead. “Merrick?” she said again, a little louder this time.

  Merrick turned his head and looked at her. His eyes were still blazing red, yet there was a coldness to him too—a chilly blast of violence and death that seemed to breathe from his skin like an arctic wind.

  The killing frost, Elise thought, and then she knew. Knew there was no stopping this slaughter. No stopping what Merrick was about to do to her hated stepfather.

  The killing frost was on him, and only blood could quench its cold and thirsty rage.

  “Go on, baby. This is nothing you need to see,” he growled softly, nodding at the broken window. “Get up to the roof and wait in the ship. It won’t take long.”

  Elise started to protest, but then she looked in his eyes again. This was going to happen, whether she left or whether she stayed. And as much as she hated her stepfather, she really didn’t want to see it.

  Slowly, she nodded. “All right.”

  She turned her back and climbed carefully out the window, concentrating on avoiding the few ragged shards of glass that were left. As she gripped the hot metal of the fire escape’s black iron railing, she heard the hoarse, wordless screaming begin.

  The temptation to look back was so strong she nearly turned her head, but then Merrick’s words echoed in her ears. This is nothing you need to see, he’d said and she believed him. She had enough nightmares to contend with, without adding another one. As the screams sounded again, Elise began to climb.

  She did not look back.

  * * * * *

  After it was over, Merrick washed the blood from his hands in the bathroom sink and tried to straighten his stained clothes. His pants were already stiff with his own dried blood, but at least they were dark. His shirt, however, was a total loss—it was spattered with his blood, troll blood, and fresh blood from his recent kill. Merrick ripped it off and left it lying on the floor. He splashed water on his bare chest and toweled himself off. There. That would have to fucking do.

  He took a deep breath and looked at himself in the mirror. His eyes had gone back to normal, which was a relief. The combination of rage and the killing frost which had come over him when he saw Elise threatened by that bastard had been a system overload in the extreme. When Merrick had broken in the window and saw him on top of her, he’d felt like the top of his head was about to explode. Well, he felt nicely contained now—now that the killing was done.

  Walking out of the bathroom, he stepped over the bloody lump that was all that remained of Elise’s stepfather. Merrick was sorry about the mess in her domicile—he hadn’t meant to get blood everywhere that way. But in order t
o do some things right, you had to get a little messy. Revenge was definitely one of those things.

  Looking down at the remains, he waited for the sense of regret to hit him, the feeling of guilt he always had to repress after the killing frost left him. But this time there was nothing. Nothing but relief that Elise would never have to worry about this male bothering her again.

  This is what it’s for, he realized suddenly. This part of me I can’t turn off, can’t get away from. The part of me that’s neither Blood Kindred nor Beast Kindred and yet a little of both. The hybrid part. He felt strangely content at the thought—it was like the killing frost was a weapon he’d had all his life and had finally found the right use for.

  “You deserved it,” he told the lump on the floor. “And I’d fucking do it again if I had to.” Then he climbed through the bedroom window and started up the narrow, black metal stairs.

  It occurred to him, while he climbed the short distance to the roof, that Elise might not feel the same way he did about the killing of her stepfather. She might still be upset or in shock. Probably she’d be completely traumatized by the whole thing—both the stepfather’s attack and his subsequent death.

  She might never want to be with me again, he thought, his apprehension growing as he stepped out onto the roof and headed for the ship. She might never get over this last attack. It goes without saying we won’t be making love anytime soon, or probably ever, for that matter.

  Not that he cared, he thought, stepping onto the ship’s on-ramp. He’d stay with her forever, even if the two of them were as celibate as a couple of Morian anti-pleasure nuns. Even if she never even wanted to hold his hand—

  “Merrick!” Elise threw herself at him, breaking his morbid train of thought.

  He caught her reflexively and held her tight, loving the feeling of having her in his arms again.

  But a simple hug wasn’t enough for Elise. “I love you,” she whispered, wrapping her arms and legs around him and pressing her face to his neck. “Love you so much.”

  “Love you too, baby.” Merrick squeezed her gently, breathing in the warm scent of her hair and skin. “Are you okay?”

  He felt her nodding against his neck. “Yes,” she whispered. “Now that you’re here, I’m better than okay.” She pulled back and looked at him. “But how did you get away? I thought…thought that horrible man with the silver eyes was going to…to kill you.”

  Merrick shook his head. “It’s a long, long story. And you oughta know by now how hard I am to kill. Speaking of that…” He looked her in the eye, deciding to get it over and dispel any doubt she might have. “Your stepfather’s dead.”

  Her response was immediate. “Good. I mean…” she looked down, biting her lip. “I know I shouldn’t feel like that. I shouldn’t…shouldn’t…”

  “Yes, you should,” Merrick said fiercely. “After what he did to you? He fucking deserved everything I did to him and more.” He looked at her seriously. “I hope you understand why I had to do it. Why I had to kill him.”

  She nodded. “I know. You’re not…you didn’t do anything I haven’t fantasized about myself. But I think if I’d done it myself it would have…have haunted me forever. So thank you, Merrick. Thank you for making sure he’ll never bother me again.”

  “Never,” he promised. “I swear it.”

  Elise shivered. “If you hadn’t come just in time…”

  “But I did.” Merrick kissed her cheek. “Don’t think about it, baby. Don’t let your mind go there.”

  “All right. I’ll try not to.” She took a deep breath. “I think he was planning this attack for awhile. James had been sending him pictures, feeding his obsession…”

  “Wait a minute, what? That fucking fiancé of yours was in on this?” Merrick felt his eyes starting to grow hot again. “That’s fucked up. When I think that I had him right in front of me…”

  “I know it’s awful,” Elise said hastily. “But please, Merrick, no more killing. Okay?”

  He took a deep breath and, with a vast effort, sent the protective rage away. “All right. But he’d better not bother you again.”

  “I’m sure he won’t,” Elise said and laughed a little jaggedly. “Not after…after he sees what you did to Charles. What…” she cleared her throat. “What did you do to him?”

  “You don’t want to know,” Merrick said evenly. “Leave the blood work to me, baby. That way you can sleep with a clean conscience—all right?”

  “All right, I guess.” Elise snuggled against him. “I’m just so glad and thankful you’re back. I don’t care about anything or anybody else.” She took a deep breath. “In fact, I don’t care if I never see this place again.”

  “That’s probably a good thing, considering the mess I left in your domicile,” Merrick murmured. “And I’m pretty sure once your planet’s authorities find out I’m the one who did it, I won’t be welcome here anymore.”

  “That’s okay,” she said softly. “I was thinking of moving up to the Mother Ship anyway. You know—for support.”

  Merrick felt a weight he hadn’t known was there lift off his chest. “Good. Then we can be together for always.” He looked at her seriously. “And listen, Elise, I want you to know something—we can be together without doing anything to bring this back. Without…stirring up bad memories.”

  She shook her head. “What exactly are you saying?”

  He frowned, trying to think of a way to put it. “Just that I love you and I want to be with you, even if we have a, uh, unconventional relationship.”

  “Unconventional how?”

  Ah, hell…” He sighed. “Even if we never have sex. I don’t need that as long as I have you—okay?”

  “That’s so sweet of you.” Elise gave him a tremulous smile. “I don’t really want to think of anything to do with that—with sex right now. But maybe later…”

  “A long, long time later,” Merrick amended. “I’m not going to do anything to hurt you, baby—ever. I swear it. I just want you to know that I understand it could take you years to get over all this, and I’m good with waiting.”

  “Oh, Merrick.” Elise pressed her face to his neck again and then he felt her shoulders shaking.

  “Elise?” he asked, immediately worried. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. No. I…I don’t know. I’m sorry,” she whispered between sobs. “I don’t…don’t know why I’m crying.”

  “That’s all right, baby,” Merrick murmured soothingly as he carried her up into the ship. “You don’t have to know. Just let it out.”

  Cradled safe in his arms, Elise did.

  Chapter Forty-four

  “So you never got to tell me—what ever happened with you and Xairn?” Liv asked Lauren, leaning forward to take another slice of watermelon-broccoli-cheese quiche. Kat had dubbed the unusual looking concoction “disgusting in the extreme” even though she had been the one to make it for Olivia in the first place.

  The girls were all gathered at Sophie’s suite, talking and laughing, and of course, eating. It was as warm and inviting as Liv had promised it would be and Elise already felt perfectly at home, even though she’d only been on the Mother Ship a little over a month.

  “Oh, well…” Lauren blushed, her pale brown skin turning a warm rosy color. “Um…”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” Olivia put a hand on her knee. “Me and my big mouth. Would you rather keep it private?”

  “Too late.” Kat sat forward, grinning eagerly. “Spill it, doll. Did the big gray guy finally admit what was wrong? Or did he put you over his knee and spank you for daring to ask him in the first place?”

  Lauren blushed even harder. “Kat!”

  “Kat, leave her alone,” Sophie protested. “You know Lauren’s shy.”

  “No, it’s okay.” Lauren laughed, even though she was still blushing. “If you must know, everything turned out all right.”

  “What turned out all right?” Sophie asked plaintively. “Kat and Elise and I still don’t even kn
ow what the problem was in the first place.”

  “Was he scared of hurting the baby?” Kat asked, looking pointedly at Lauren’s belly which was just beginning to develop a gentle curve.

  “Or afraid he wasn’t going to be a good father?” Sophie said. “Considering how his own dad was, that would be completely understandable.”

  Lauren frowned. “Surprisingly, no. He said it was these, uh, dreams he’d been having.”

  “Dreams? Seriously? He’s using nightmares as an excuse for no nookie?” Kat looked skeptical.

  “I know how it sounds, but Xairn says they seem so real.” Lauren looked down at her hands, a troubled look on her face. “He keeps dreaming of a girl who looks just like me but she’s not me. It’s really been bothering him.”

  “Oh my God.” Sophie put a hand to her mouth. “Your clone!”

  “Excuse me, what?” Elise had to ask. “Did you say Lauren has a clone running around?”

  “Not running around,” Liv corrected. “At least, we hope not,” she added darkly.

  “We left her far away from here, in another galaxy,” Lauren explained. “She was safe, though—with someone who was going to take care of her.”

  “And I’m sure that’s where she still is,” Olivia said, patting her hand comfortingly. “Don’t worry about it, Lauren—you know the security on the Mother Ship is top notch.”

  “Yes, I know.” Lauren made a visible effort to brighten up. “Honestly, I think it’s just another way Xairn’s subconscious is expressing his doubts about fatherhood. You know, ‘I couldn’t even take care of that clone, so how can I take care of this baby?’ That kind of thing.”

  “Oh my God!” Kat suddenly burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, Lauren, but this conversation so belongs on a daytime talk show. It’s too weird.”

  “Well, that’s life with a Kindred—or a Scourge,” Sophie said, grinning. “Weird, but wonderful.” She turned to Lauren. “I’m sure Liv is right and everything is going to be just fine.”

  “I’m sure too.” Lauren smiled. “In fact, things are looking up already.” She glanced at Kat. “And yes, by ‘looking up’ I mean we had some pretty spectacular make-up sex, when I finally got to the bottom of the problem.”