“How dare you!” I snarled, taking a step toward him. I reached my hand up to hit him again. He caught me at the wrist this time, easily deflecting the blow.
“Don’t mess with me, Portia,” he warned in a low voice. “This is not the time to play around.”
Anger surged through me at his threats. I wrenched my arm away from him and slammed my booted foot against his. He flinched away from me, and I felt a moment of triumph, advancing as I struck out again.
He grabbed both of my hands and yanked me hard up against him. “Stop it!” he growled. “I don’t want to fight you.”
“Then why are you doing this?” My weakness began to show in the form of tears.
“It's the only way I know to get through to you—to get you to listen to me,” he replied, releasing me from his grip.
“I’m listening,” I replied flatly.
“Are you?”
“Yes. Tell me how can I keep you from sending that signal?” I stepped backward, sinking to sit on the edge of the bed because my knees were shaking too badly to hold me up any longer.
“It’s simple,” he said, kneeling down in front of me and grasping my hands, his eyes searching mine. “I want you to stay here with me, in this house, and be my wife.”
I snorted. “How's that even possible Vance? You'd want to drink from me and would probably end up killing me instead.”
His eyes sought mine and I saw some sort of desperation pass through them.
“I want you to let me turn you so that we can be together,” he stated and my blood ran cold.
“Mayla told you to kill me,” I reminded, my stomach lurching at what he was asking me to do.
“I don’t care what Mayla says.” He stood up abruptly, moving away from me. “She'll understand eventually. She doesn’t know what it feels like when I’m away from you.”
“What happened to breaking your connection with me? You said she showed you how it would work.” I couldn’t keep up with him and all his contradictions.
He ran a hand through his hair in a frustrated gesture, and he leaned up against the dresser.
“It did make sense to me then. But after you left, I drank a whole lot of blood, trying to get past my thirst for you. The more I drank, the clearer my thoughts became and it didn’t make sense anymore. I want you in my life, Portia, but I can’t have it both ways. Either I kill you and I don’t have you at all, or I can turn you and keep you as my wife. I choose the later.”
“Mayla will never agree to it. She has other plans for you, plans which definitely do not include me.”
Vance slammed a fist down hard onto the dresser, and I heard the wood crack beneath it. “She’ll agree to it or I’ll kill her!” he said violently, and his eyes flashed red for a moment.
“Okay, okay,” I said hurriedly, not wanting him to get worked up into a dangerous rage when the lives of my family were hanging in the balance. “You know her better than I do.”
He stalked back over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me up to him.
“What's it going to be? Your family lives or dies by your word,” he stated, suddenly very irritated.
“Please don’t make me do this, Vance!” I pleaded with him and the tears continued flowing. “You could just let me go because you want to.”
“I don’t want to though,” he said roughly and he grabbed the back of my head and crushed his lips to mine.
The kiss was more of an assault than a kiss and I could see he was quickly losing some of his well mastered control. His hands twisted in my hair painfully and my lips felt bruised as he pressed at them, nipping as he tried to coax me to open my mouth.
I struggled against him, trying to push him away, but he held me roughly in place until I cried out a little, only then loosening his hold on me.
“Drink the blood in the glass, Vance,” I said to him, and I leaned back from him.
He stared hard at me, fire flaming in his eyes.
It took a few seconds for my words to sink in, but when they did he released me and turned to down the contents of the glass in one long drink. I realized now he brought it up here precisely for this reason.
He came back to me and stood still, not speaking. I knew he was waiting for my answer.
“Can I at least go to tell them goodbye?” I asked him.
I felt a slight relief rush through him, but he shook his head. “No. I don’t trust them to let you come back.”
“It would only take a second. I have jinn blood in me now. I could just pop over there and then right back.”
He sighed heavily. “I’m very aware of your jinn blood after the last few days, but no, I won’t risk losing you,” he stated firmly. “Have you made your choice? The time is here for me to send the signal.”
“I've made my choice. I’ll stay,” I said, feeling nauseous.
He grabbed me, just holding, hugging me hard. I’d known I missed him, but I hadn’t realized until this moment how crazy he’d been going without me. This wasn’t some demon crazed lustful contact. This was tender emotion I felt coming from him.
“You won’t be sorry,” he said. “I promise.”
The fact I wasn’t sorry was what made me feel sorry. I couldn’t feel bad about making a conscious choice to save my family, and I wanted to be with him more than anything in the world. I did not want to become a demon however, so I intended to use all the weapons I could pull to stop that from happening.
“I have one favor to ask of you, but it’ll be a difficult one.” I pushed away so I could see his face.
“Name it,” he said, looking triumphant.
“I need a little time to get used to the idea of making the change. I want you to wait one week before you do it. Will you allow me that?”
“I don’t understand. Why?”
“I want one week with you as my regular self, before anything about me changes. One week to love you the way I always have. I know it will be rough for you to be in such close contact. You can drink from me occasionally if you need to as long as you promise not to kill me, but I don’t want to complete the exchange for one week. It'll be hard for you. You'll have to control yourself enough to stop feeding before I die. And I also want your word that you won’t freeze me anymore. It’s too dangerous for me.”
I was hoping he would take the bait. It wasn’t the most ideal scenario, but if he got used to feeding from me without changing or killing me, maybe I could get him to keep postponing. He’d be able to have his cake and eat it too, so to speak. That would give me, and hopefully Hex and my family, time to come up with a plan B to stop all of this nonsense.
“If you promise you'll stay the entire week and not try to pop away from me, then I'll agree. But I want you to remember, I'll know instantly if you disappear from this place, so no tricks,” he warned.
“You have my word,” I promised, realizing with relief we'd just been able to compromise and it gave me hope.
He threaded his fingers through my hair once again, pulling my face back to his. His lips were softer this time, more controlled, but I could feel him trembling beneath. He hadn’t been lying when he said he needed me.
It was only a moment before he swept me off my feet, carrying me over to the bed. He climbed on next to me and resumed kissing. I allowed myself to respond completely, wrapping my arms around his neck and tugging him closer.
His hand reached in between us as he searched for the buckle on my weapons belt which was biting into my skin. He had it unlatched in one quick motion, tossing it away from our bodies onto the floor.
“There. That’s better,” he whispered and he pressed closer against me. He looked at me with soft, surprisingly blue, eyes and he ran a hand over the side of my face.
His lips connected with mine, and this time I could feel the unbridled passion blaze to life between us. I opened my mouth willingly at his request and he kissed me with a need which threatened to overwhelm me.
My heart felt like it would burst— thrilled at being ba
ck in his arms. Even with all of the horrible things surrounding both of us and the way our relationship was constantly teetering on the brink of destruction, I knew this was where I belonged. With him … always with him. Vance would forever be the only one for me.
I let out a sigh and he broke our kiss briefly to stare down at me.
“You're so beautiful,” he said while he glanced over my face. “Sometimes I have a hard time believing you're real. You're so perfect.”
I snorted at this comment and he laughed.
“Okay … almost perfect,” he amended and he bent to kiss me again.
Vance was still sleeping when I woke up. I, however, was feeling surprisingly bright and chipper this morning after our night together, despite the fact he’d fed from me. I reached up to my neck and I could feel the rough skin that had scabbed over. At least he had bitten through my old scar.
I was happy he'd been able to refrain from drinking too much; stopping after only a few swallows. Recuperating from blood loss was difficult even when I was immortal, now it could be deadly.
Quietly, I crawled out of the bed, trying not to disturb him and I tiptoed across the floor to the door. I intended to “poof” right down to the kitchen, but I was afraid he would think I was trying to leave and I didn’t want to upset him. I crept down the wooden staircase instead, hoping I wasn’t making too many creaking sounds.
I entered the kitchen, ready to go searching for some food. I knew that at the very least, I’d be able to have peanut butter and jelly.
“Good. You’re okay,” Hex’s voice said from behind me and I jumped a mile before I turned, finding him sitting at the table.
“What are you doing here?” I said feeling seriously underdressed since I was clad only in Vance’s t-shirt he'd been wearing yesterday. I cast a nervous glance over to the doorway. “He could come in here in at any second.”
“You never came home last night. We were worried,” he said, taking in my appearance with a questionable gaze. “I’m guessing things went well?”
“It depends on which side you're viewing it from,” I replied with a shrug, suddenly finding it difficult to keep eye contact with him.
“What have you done?”
I looked at him for a moment, letting out a sigh, knowing he wasn’t going to like this.
“I've agreed to stay here with him and be his wife in every sense of the word. He wants me to become a demon so we can stay together, but I'm trying to dissuade him by letting him drink a little from me now and again,” I replied in a gush before holding my breath in anticipation of his response.
“What?” he almost shouted, and I quickly raised a finger to my lips to quiet him. I eyed the doorway once again.
“It was a fair trade,” I answered. I dipped down to shuffle through the cupboard, smiling as I discover a toaster.
“And what did he give you in return?” Hex asked disapprovingly.
“He was having you and my family followed,” I said, not wanting to continue with the rest of what I knew.
“Yesterday?” he asked, and I nodded. He watched me while I placed a couple of slices of bread in the toaster. “He threatened to kill us, didn’t he?” I noticed his features darkened significantly.
I just looked at him, not answering before turning to go get the jelly out of the fridge.
“So you offered yourself up as the sacrificial lamb to protect us, didn’t you?” I could tell he wasn’t happy. “We could've protected ourselves if there had been an attack.”
“You don’t know Vance,” I said, pulling a butter knife out of the drawer. “He's very strong and when he gets an idea in his head he isn’t easily dissuaded from it. I made the right choice.”
“Portia, you need to come home with me. Your relatives are safely protected in the bunker. Nothing can be done to harm us.”
“I can’t. I gave him my word I wouldn’t leave.”
“You gave your word to a demon! A demon who would turn his back on you the minute the situation wasn’t going in his favor! Please come home with me now!” he argued.
“This is Portia’s home. She stays here,” Vance’s voice broke quietly but firmly into the conversation. My head jerked toward the doorway as he stepped in from the shadows of the hallway.
He was dressed only in his jeans from yesterday, which were still unbuttoned, his hair tousled from sleep, his feet bare, and I thought he looked magnificent. My body flushed instantly in reaction to him, and I wondered how long he’d been there listening.
His gazed traveled slowly between Hex and me before he continued to walk across the room to open the refrigerator, lifting out a pint of blood. He placed it near me on the counter and then leaned over to give me a soft peck on the cheek.
“Morning, baby,” he said, before he moved to the cupboard. “You didn’t tell me we were having company today.”
“She didn’t know I was coming,” Hex spoke up. The tension in the air between them could have been cut with a knife.
“This is my friend, Hex,” I said, feeling a bit out of sorts to be introducing the two of them like this. “Hex, this is my husband, Vance Mangum.”
Vance barely acknowledged him and he poured himself a glass of blood, drinking it quickly before setting it down with a slightly hard crack against the counter. I could feel his blood beginning to boil while he stood next to me, the heat radiating off of him. This was not good.
He stared at Hex, his eyes looking like they were lit with daggers of fire. “How dare you come into this house uninvited and try to get my wife to leave with you,” he said, and I could see the veins standing up on the back of his clenched hands.
“Don’t you even try to intimidate me!” Hex said, scooting his chair back and rising to his feet. “I’m not the hotheaded jerk who threatened to kill her family to get her to stay.”
Vance was around the counter in an instant and I used my jinn powers to pop in between them before Vance could reach him.
“Stop it!” I yelled at the two of them, placing my hands out on both of their chests to restrain them.
Vance reached out and grabbed my wrist, attempting to throw me out of the way, but before he could I threw my free arm around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth, slipping my tongue through his lips.
He stopped in surprise, standing stock still for a moment in bewilderment before he slipped his arms around my waist and truly kissed me back, desire flashing through him.
When I was sure I had his complete attention, I pulled my mouth away and looked into his eyes.
“I love Hex,” I said, watching his expression carefully. “He helped me in a time when there was no one else to help me.”
“He took you from me.” His gaze flickered angrily over the top of my head toward Hex before coming back to my face.
“Yes, he did. But you would've killed me if he hadn’t done it. Then where would you be now?”
He didn’t answer me, but I felt his body relax a little, though he was still clenching his jaw.
“Hex is just worried about me. He knows things haven’t been good between you and me lately. When I didn’t come back last night, he came looking for me because he cares about me too.” I brushed the palm of my hand over Vance’s cheek. “This is a good thing.”
“He wants you to leave me again,” Vance argued, his posture rigid. “I won’t stand for that.”
“I’m not leaving. I love you, and I've missed being with you—plus I gave you my word,” I reminded.
I could see Vance wasn’t going to back down from this very easily. He lifted his head and glared at Hex some more.
“She belongs to me,” he said in a no nonsense voice.
“If you really loved her, you’d let her go,” Hex argued back.
“It’s because I love her that I want her to stay.” Vance yelled and he pushed forward.
I placed both of my hands against his chest to restrain him.
“You don’t even know what love is!” Hex bellowed back. “You just want
to possess her.”
“Stop it!” I screamed from in between both of them.
“You have no idea what I feel for her!” Vance shouted over me, his body pressing hard up against mine.
“I know a demon can’t feel real love for anything.” Hex responded. “She's just an obsession to you! How many times have you tried to kill her now?”
This was the last straw for Vance and he flung me harshly to the side in his attempt to get at Hex. I tripped and slid rapidly across the smooth floor, my head slamming into the bottom of the island counter with a loud smack.
Vance’s hands closed in a tight grip around Hex’s neck. Hex looked worriedly over at me. My vision began to swim and I saw him evaporate from Vance’s grip, reappearing right next to me. He quickly scooped me up into his arms as Vance turned to face us.
I felt my consciousness slipping away, and my body suddenly became weightless. All I could hear was Vance’s roar ringing in my ears as we both evaporated into the thin air. Everything went black.
Chapter 24
I groaned at the throbbing pain in my head. My mind fought to climb back to the surface, but reality continued to swim at the edge of my vision, just out of reach.
I tried to concentrate on the moving objects floating above my face, but instead the motion was starting to make me sick
“Portia? Honey, are you okay?” the concerned voice floated to me, and I instantly recognized the familiar sound.
“Grandma?” I blinked my eyes in rapid succession trying to bring her image into focus. “Is that you?”
Slowly, my blurred vision cleared, and I could see the concerned faces of my loved ones standing around me.
“Hi!” She beamed at me.
“Hi!” I smiled, feeling a little self-conscious. My arms went around her as she reached down to hug me tightly.
“It's so good to see you, Lollipop,” she exclaimed while I grasped her.
“How're you doing, Pumpkin?” Dad’s voice interrupted.
“Dad!” I said shifting to sit up, and Grandma moved so he could hug me too. I looked over his shoulder and could see Hex standing behind him, smiling with satisfaction.