“We’ll go with you to check out back of the gift shop, Maddy.” Jorge was frowning. “It’s not like him to ignore his phone.”
“I didn’t have my jacket on, but I didn’t care. “Sounds good. Let’s go.”
While vampires were immune to most attacks and they could hold their own against most creatures, there were potential dangers that could dust a vamp quicker than a vacuum could suck up the ashes. Sunlight, being caught in a fire, accidentally falling on a pitchfork or fireplace poker—given it stabbed through the heart—all could take a vampire from the most powerful force in the room to a pile of dust. Freak accidents happened all the time.
The gift shop was on the opposite side of the lobby. It was closed, but it also had an outside entrance and so we headed out of the hotel and around to the side. I closed my eyes as the chill night wind gusted past, sweeping away my breath. Keth noticed I was shivering and he pulled off his own jacket and wrapped it around me. I gave him a grateful smile as we moved around to the back of the gift shop.
Once there, we swept the area with our phone flashlights. Nothing. It would have been impossible to tell if he had been killed—any dust or ash would have been swept away by the wind. There were no signs that we could see of anybody else. The snow to the back of the shop was scuffed up, but that could have been caused by just about anybody walking past, or even an animal.
“Well, crap. He’s not here.” I shivered, even with Keth’s jacket.
“Tell you what. Why don’t you go check the gym? Aegis likes to work out. Meanwhile, we’ll have a look around the rest of the hotel.
“I guess. All right.” I shook my head. “I’m really beginning to worry.” I tried dialing his number but the phone sent me to his voice mail. “Hell. Let’s get a move on.”
We went back inside, and I gave Keth back his jacket. As the boys veered off to check the pool and other areas, I headed to the gym.
The room had two weight machines, three treadmills, two stationary bikes, a rowing machine, and several mats. It was small, but workable. I glanced around. No sign of Aegis. In fact, by the layer of dust on several of the machines, it looked like the guests at the Astra Alpine Chalet didn’t come here to get fit.
I was about to head back to the lobby when my phone pinged. I grabbed it out. It was Aegis—texting me back. Maddy, hurry, I’m at the room. Help.
Chapter 2
THE ELEVATOR WAS slow, so I took the stairs, leaping up them two at a time. I wasn’t in great shape, but adrenaline can fuel even the most lethargic of people. I burst through the door to the third floor. There, on the floor in front of our room, lay Aegis. He looked roughed up, with bruises on his face. They would heal quickly, but then I saw the silver spike sticking out of his side. Silver was like poison to vampires.
“Oh, hell!” I rushed toward him, fumbling for my keycard to unlock the door. At the same time, I hit the voice-to-text and screamed out, Keth, get up here. Bring the boys. Our room. Obviously, I was garbling my words because the actual text that I sent read, Kith, get up in me. Bring the boys. Are you a room?
Groaning, I ignored the mistake and opened the door. Keth could decipher it. I wrapped my arm beneath Aegis’s arm, trying to lift him on his good side, and pulled him inside. He half stumbled, half let me drag him. As soon as we were in the room, I slammed the door and turned to Bubba.
“He’s hurt, Bubba. I need help.”
Bubba bounced off the sofa and loped over to us. He sniffed Aegis and his eyes narrowed. “Mrpp...mrpp”
That was Bubba’s “Danger, danger Will Robinson” meow.
Turning back to Aegis, I saw that his eyes were turning crimson. The spike through his side was slick with blood. I had to get it out of him. As long as the silver remained through him, he would continue to lose blood and that would make his thirst rise. And when a vampire reached a certain point of blood loss, he’d lose control and anybody nearby would be in danger of becoming a refilling station. Once the spike was out, the wound would close on its own.
“Oh, hell. You need to drink.”
“I won’t drink from you, Maddy...You know I won’t.” Barely able to speak, he tried to push me away.
Aegis had never drunk from me. He didn’t want that part of his life to interfere with us.
“I’ll never take anything from you that you aren’t prepared to give,” he had said.
Given my background as a vampire hunter, I still wasn’t comfortable with the thought of letting him drink from me. I trusted him, but a witch’s blood was like an aphrodisiac to a vampire. For those of us who worked magic, blood held a great power. Blood could be used for control. But now...to save his life...
I began to pull off my shirt. If he didn’t drink soon, he’d lose control. He was too far gone for bottled blood to work. I had learned more than I ever expected to know about vampire physiology and mindset in the past couple of months that we’d been living together.
At that moment, the door opened and the boys burst in, taking in the scene.
“We need to get the spike out of him, and he needs to drink,” I looked up to find Jorge standing over me. Sid was yanking off his shirt.
“He can drink from me. I’m Fae, I can handle it better and it won’t affect him like your blood would, Maddy.” Sid dropped to his knees and motioned for me to move away. “Let us take care of this. You should probably leave the room.” He caught my gaze.
“I know you’ve got my best interests at heart, but I have to stay. I need to be here.”
I didn’t realize how afraid I was until I moved aside and let them in to work. I crept onto the sofa, my attention glued on Aegis. He was writhing, foaming at the mouth. The thirst must be horrendous by this point.
Keth took hold of the spike and, with Sid and Jorge holding Aegis down, Keth gave one swift yank. The spike smoothly slid out with a sucking sound and Keth stumbled back.
Aegis let out a low growl, breaking free of the hold they had on him. He sprang up, the wound on his side immediately beginning to knit shut. His eyes were fully crimson and his fangs gleamed as he crouched, hissing. My pulse raced as I prayed to Arianrhod that he could pull back from the edge.
Sid knelt near him. “Aegis, can you hear me? Aegis...you have to listen to me.”
Aegis blinked once, then growled again. He was sniffing the air and that meant he could smell my blood.
“Aegis, drink from me. I can handle it.” Sid exposed his neck, trembling. Aegis could break him in half, could tear him to pieces. Keth shifted and it was then that I noticed he was holding the stake ready. He was poised, just in case Aegis couldn’t pull back.
“No...” I leaned forward at the same moment that Aegis sank his teeth into Sid’s neck.
Not wanting to watch, I forced myself. This was who Aegis was and I had to accept it.
I looked over at Keth, praying that he wouldn’t have to use the stake, but at that moment, Aegis—who was feeding on Sid—froze, then slowly disengaged.
He sat back, the crimson in his eyes fading. Shaking, he wiped his mouth with his hand and rubbed it on the leg of his jeans. “Fuck...oh Sid. I’m...” He rubbed his head. “What happened to me?” Looking confused, he glanced over to me. “Maddy, love...what happened?”
“The note—do you remember the note?” What if his memory had been addled somehow?
“Kind of. Give me a minute.” He turned to Sid. “Are you all right?”
Sid winced and accepted a cold compress that Jorge brought for him. “Yeah, I’m fine. Do you need more?”
Aegis was shaking. “Yeah, but a bottle of blood will do for now. All I needed was enough to take the edge off.” He staggered to his feet and looked down at his side. The wound was closing rapidly, and within the hour would be gone. “That was an unpleasant piece of business, wasn’t it? You’re sure you’re all right?”
Sid gave him a shrug. “I’ve had worse. At least it didn’t hurt too much, and thank you for not putting me into th
rall.”
“You’re lucky,” Aegis said. “I was too thirsty to think about it. He groaned as he slumped down beside me and put his arm around me. “I’m so sorry to scare you like that.”
“What happened?” I leaned against him, my fear slowly dissolving.
“I went out to the back of the gift shop. There was nobody there—or so I thought. The next moment, somebody stabbed me. He didn’t stab to kill—whoever he was, he was close enough to have hit me in the heart, but he didn’t. Instead, as the silver knocked me off my feet, my attacker bound me with a silver wire and attempted to chain me to the back of the building.”
“Did he say anything? Do you have any idea who it was?” I snuggled into his embrace, placing my hand on his chest. The lack of breath never failed to amaze me, but by now I was getting used to it.
He shrugged. “The only thing he said was, “Come sunup, you’re going to make a lovely pile of dust.” But then we both heard a loud thump and the sound of voices, and he raced off. He hadn’t fully secured the wire to the post by the back of the shop, and I managed to get free. I knew I had to get back to the room...back to you, Maddy.” He leaned down and gave me a soft kiss on the forehead.
“Whoever it was meant business. If he had managed to chain you with silver, you would have crisped to death come sunrise. And he wanted to torment you, otherwise he would have stabbed you through the heart, rather than through the side. Who do you know that has a grudge against you?” Sid asked, removing the compress.
His neck was red where Aegis had bit him. The fang marks looked tender and inflamed. They were oozing, but they shouldn’t get infected. Vampire bites seldom produced an infection, unless the victim was forced to drink the vampire’s blood and then died within the next month or so. Much longer and the virus would circulate out of the system.
“Let me look at those wounds. Come here.” I wasn’t a healer, but I could perform minor healing spells.
Sid scooted over and I placed my hands on his neck. As I closed my eyes, summoning up a wave of fire—my specialty—I aimed the energy through my fingers to envelop the fang marks.
Bind the bite, heal the wound,
By Arianrhod’s blessed moon,
Star and web, healing fire,
Sooth the pain, calm the ire.
Weave the magic, weave the spell,
Let nothing enter that is fell.
As the magic swept out of my hands, coiling like a mist around Sid’s neck, I channeled soothing, healing warmth into the bite and the marks first flared, then began to calm. Sid let out a soft sigh, relaxing into the energy.
“If the bit was from a dog, you’d need a stronger healer or a doctor. Feel better?”
He nodded. “Thanks, and that eased the cramp in my neck, as well.”
I turned back to Aegis. “Who can you think of that might have a grudge against you? Rachel’s dust. It can’t be her.”
Aegis gave me a long look. “Really? You think I can easily answer that? A lot of people would probably like to see me toasted. I’m a vampire and while I wasn’t anywhere near the problem Rachel was, I have my own set of enemies. When you think about it, anybody who’s lived over a hundred years—vampire or not—is bound to have made some sort of adversary along the way.”
He had me there. I shrugged. “True that. All right, then did you recognize anything about him? You said it was a him, right?”
Aegis nodded. “Yeah, it was a man. He was strong, that I’ll give him. And he obviously knew that silver incapacitates vampires. This had to be personal, given he didn’t just kill me outright.” He paused, then after a moment, shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m going to have to be cautious. And you all should, too. You’re connected with me and that makes you potential targets.”
“Don’t worry about us. I’m just grateful you’re alive.” I took another look at Sid’s wounds. They looked much better. “Those should mend up within a few days. All right, we should get some rest. Aegis, we should bring your coffin up here and black out the windows. I don’t trust the hotel now. What if whoever attacked you knows where to find the vampire quarters?”
“Good point,” Jorge said. “We’ll go down and talk to the owner. You two stay here.”
Before we could protest, the boys headed out. I locked the door behind them.
“They’re good eggs.” I crossed to Aegis and he wrapped me in his arms. “I was so worried. I thought...”
“I know what you thought, but you’re not getting rid of me that easily.” He shifted position so that we could curl on the sofa together and we sat there, entwined, until the boys came back carrying a coffin. They set it up near the bed and then, motioning for us to stay where we were.
As they settled on the sofa again, grabbing beer from the mini-fridge for all of us, I realized that they meant to stay until Aegis was asleep. While I appreciated their support, I wanted some time alone with him.
“I want you to promise me that you will be careful while I’m asleep. You never know what my attacker is planning next.” Aegis looked at me, with his do-what-I-say-not-what-I-do look. I thought about protesting, but realized it wouldn’t do any good. His mind was made up and there wasn't anything I do to reassure him that I would be all right.
Sid cleared his throat. “Don’t worry about Maddy. We’ll keep an eye on her, don’t you fret about that.”
I was about to argue that I could take care of myself when Sid gave me a quick wink. I let out a soft breath and backed off. He was just trying to help. Vampires could be extremely possessive and overprotective and while it was flattering, I wasn’t a spring chicken and I had powerful magic at my command. I had spent decades terrorizing Aegis’s kind before moving on to life outside the Buffy-zone.
“Will that make you feel better?” I fluttered my lashes, willing him to fall for my ingénue act.
Aegis laughed. “Right, I just want to see the guys try watching you. I guarantee you it’s not going to be easy. But I’ll relent. I know you can take care of yourself, Maddy, but I’ll never stop worrying about you.” He glanced over at the guys. “Beat it. I’m going to make love to my woman.”
Jorge laughed. “Enjoy yourselves. I’d say get a room, but you already have one.”
As the guys left, I locked the door behind them. When I turned back to Aegis, his hands were on his belt buckle, and he was giving me that smoky come-hither look that turned me into jelly.
“I meant what I said. Come here, woman. Let’s pick up where we left off.”
“Are you sure you’re up to it? That wound—”
“That wound is almost healed. As to whether I’m up to it, why don’t you decide?” He slowly unzipped and I saw that, yes, he was up to sex. Very much so.
I cozied up to him, running my fingers along his shaft. Everything about him—his body, his gaze, his voice, his touch, his laughter—made me melt. Our chemistry went deeper than lust. There was something familiar about him that felt like it was born from a time long, long ago. Since before this lifetime. We hadn’t discussed the connection much, but I knew that at one point in time, we had been mated, and the core of that union had never quite vanished through life and through death.
“You’re so up for it, aren’t you?”
Laughing, I leaned over and licked him. He shuddered, holding my head. I placed my mouth on the tip of his penis, teasing him as I flicked my tongue over his rod.
Aegis groaned, slowly thrusting forward, sliding between my lips as I tightened them around his girth, his cool length gliding in and out of my mouth.
“Come here.” His voice was throaty as he let go of my head. “I want you—all of you.”
I stepped back, my fingers on the buttons of my jeans. “All of me?”
“All of you. From the tip of your head down to your toes. And everything in between. Let me see those boobs of yours, Maddy Gallowglass.” He winked at me.
“Only if you promise to do more than look at them.” I slippe
d out of my jeans and stripped off my top, then added my bra to the pile. Drawing my hand between my legs, I gently fingered myself, then held out my hand. “You want a taste?”
“I want more than that.” He swept me into his arms, carrying me over to the bed where he dropped me on the mattress as I let out a peal of laughter.
Bubba snorted, then with an indignant “Mrrf?” he bounced off the end of the bed and raced over to the fireplace, where he lolled on the rug.
“Bubba thinks we should get a room, too.” I started to sit up, but Aegis pushed me back. He knelt between my thighs, looping his arms under my knees to draw my legs up on his shoulders.
“Bubba’s right,” he said. “If we were out in public, every man around would be jealous of what I’m about to do.”
I snickered. “I wish.”
“Don’t rub Bubba’s belly for that one,” Aegis murmured, then lowered his head, his tongue running lightly over my clit. I promptly forgot about Bubba, about the attack, about everything except the sensations flowing through me. I inhaled a sharp breath as Aegis bathed me with his tongue, drawing it over my nub, circling as he quickened his pace. My entire body began to vibrate. I was trembling so hard I could barely whisper his name as I arched my back.
He pressed deeper between my thighs. My feet were over his shoulders, my butt in the air as he sucked harder, drawing his teeth along the surface, his fangs gently scraping against the flesh. It hurt just enough to deepen the pleasure.
“I can’t stand it anymore—I need you in me. Fuck me, please.” I could barely catch my breath.
Aegis lifted his head, a sly smile on his face. “I want you to come first. Come for me, baby. Come on Maddy.” He plunged back between my legs and with a sharp nip, bit into me, not enough to break the flesh but enough to startle me so that I teetered on the edge. Then, with a sudden cry, I fell over the precipice, coming so hard that I saw stars.