Simon left after two in the morning with a promise to have a late lunch with Holly in two days at the Decatur mansion.
Isolde took her aside before she left. “Are you angry with me?”
She touched the woman she’d come to think of as Grand-mére’s face. “No, whyever would I be angry with you?”
“I sent his investigators away. I should have thought about it, but it was just so painful. Elise was my sister and my best friend and it was just the worst time and we could have found you three years ago and it’s my fault we didn’t!”
“Grand-mére, none of that. What’s done is done. I’m not angry with you for being inconsolable after my grandmother’s death. I know what I felt like when my mother died, I couldn’t think straight. I’m here now and that’s what counts. It’s how it was meant to happen.”
Isolde kissed both Holly’s cheeks and smiled and walked out to the car, escorted by Alex.
Holly closed the door and leaned against it for a moment, catching her breath and feeling totally drained now that everyone had gone home.
“Come on, sweetness.” Nate held out a hand for her to take and she followed him upstairs to the big master suite.
Chapter Nine
Arriving at the Decatur mansion that sat on the river, surrounded by tall oaks and weeping willows, they made quite a sight walking through the grand formal entry. The tall, regal father with just a hint of gray at the temples, his cool blue eyes guarded as they always were when dealing with his overbearing, arrogant father. And his two sons—one tall and blond like the father and the other with dark brown hair, stocky and bearing hazel eyes like his mother. The power they spilled in their wake was so impressive that the staff and other members of Simon Decatur Senior’s cadre of wizards came out to watch, curious as to what was going on.
The meeting was useless. Power spilled everywhere, threats were issued, but Senior didn’t budge from his story about Holly being a gold digger and her mother being a faithless slut.
Simon left the house he grew up in knowing his father was behind the fact that one of his children grew up without both parents.
* * * * *
Daniel Pilotte picked up the ringing phone with foreboding. “Hello?”
“You’d best be keeping your mouth shut. I might be thinking about a trip out of state if I were you,” the voice on the other end of the line said.
“It’s been twenty-five years, I haven’t said a thing. Didn’t I tell everyone exactly what you told me to tell them?” Piven made him almost as nervous as Simon Decatur Senior did. The last time he’d talked to either one of them had been three years ago and he wasn’t pleased to be hearing the voice once again.
“And anyway, who’s to say they’ll even find me? They haven’t yet.”
“The child is in New Orleans. She’s quite strong and has vampires, the boy and a few Fae on her side. Not to mention those Charvez bitches.”
“Why now though? Why does the girl care? It’s not like I was father of the year. She can’t possibly think I’d want to have some sort of relationship with her.”
“Mr. Decatur Senior has been a bit…zealous in his anger toward the girl. If she tells the boy what happened, he can use that to ruin him.”
“And why is this my problem?” Daniel raged. He’d had to stay out of New Orleans for the last twenty-four years because of that arrogant asshole Decatur. Had to leave behind his entire life, not that he wasn’t happy to be shot of that bitch of a wife and her precious Charvez family. But he’d grown up there and even with all the money that Decatur had given him, it was a bigger pain each year. And now this demand that he leave the state?
“It’s your problem, Daniel, because I say it is. Now keep your mouth shut and your head low.” Piven cut the connection.
Daniel Pilotte let out his breath and tried to calm down enough to stop the pounding of his heart.
* * * * *
Holly looked up from the leaves in the bottom of the cup and her heart leapt as she saw Josh come into the shop.
“Hey, Holly!” he called out and another man, a few years younger and darker, more muscled, entered after him and his eyes landed on her and he grinned, a carbon copy of her own right down to the dimple at the left corner of the mouth.
She stood and went to them and laughed as Josh hugged her tight. With an arm around her shoulders he turned to the other man. “This is…”
The other man pulled her out of Josh’s arms and into his own. “I’m Penn, your little brother,” he said into her hair.
“Is everything all right?” Isolde said as she came into the front of the shop and then she stopped with a smile and took in the boys hugging Holly. She hadn’t expected such a warm reception by the Decaturs and it made her glad to be so very wrong.
“Yes, Grand-mére, this is Penn, another one of my brothers. Penn, this is Isolde Charvez, my great-aunt.”
Penn bowed deeply to Isolde in a sign of respect. “It is an honor to meet you, Ms. Charvez.” He and Josh looked around the shop in amazement.
“It’s spectacular, isn’t it?” Holly asked, pride clear in her voice.
“Indeed. How are you today, darling?” Simon asked as he came into the shop and hugged her, kissing both cheeks. “I hope you don’t mind us dropping by. Penn got into town and wanted to meet you. Eli’s plane lands in an hour and we’re off to the airport to pick him up. I’d invite you along—he’s dying to meet you—but I promised Nate and Rhett that we’d help keep you safe.”
“Thank you for that,” Holly said with a blush. “I know he’s just started back to school.” She looked at Penn. “That you both did. You didn’t have to come back here. It could have waited until the weekend or a break.”
Penn snorted. “In the first place, it’s not a crime to take a week off. In the second place, you don’t get a sister every day and so of course we had to come back here. Right now it’s important that we all stand together. Once we find whoever is trying to hurt you and stop him, then we can make long-term plans.”
“You’re still coming to a late lunch tomorrow?” Simon asked.
“Yes, of course. Con said he’d bring me and Jax at three. Rhett and Nate will be over when they wake up and feed.”
“Good! Okay then, we have to be off to the airport. I’ll see you tomorrow, darling.” Simon kissed her cheeks again as did her brothers. Her brothers, who’d have ever thought she’d have brothers?
She waved and watched them go with a smile.
* * * * *
Promptly at five, Con showed up and shimmered her and then Jax back to the house and stayed for a cup of tea as they did a bit of planning for Em’s baby shower. Nate came into the kitchen and nodded a hello at Jax and kissed Holly’s neck just above where her hammering pulse beat.
“My father came into the shop today. I met Penn. Eli apparently was coming in today too.”
“It was all right? They treated you well?” Nate asked.
“Yes,” she said with a big smile, the kind of smile that made her glow, and Nate relaxed and smiled back at her, unable not to. He used to be a hard-ass. Now he was a thoroughly satisfied man with a smile on his lips. “They’ve been so nice to me. Penn told me that he wanted to stop whoever was trying to hurt me. It’s odd to go from having no one to having two husbands, a huge family on my mother’s side and now a father and three brothers. An embarrassment of riches.”
“You deserve it, love.” Con dropped a kiss on the top of her head and winked at Nate, who raised an eyebrow at him. “I need to get back home. Lee and Em were talking about the decorations for the nursery. When the babe comes, we’ll spend time in Tir na nOg, and it makes the family nervous and their mother gets clingy.”
He shimmered and Holly and Nate were alone in the kitchen.
Suddenly she was picked up and put on the butcher block island in the middle of the kitchen and Nate stepped between her thighs. “Hello, sweetness. I missed you,” he murmured as he undid her braid, loosing her hair about her shoulders.
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“I…I missed you too,” she said, a bit shaky as he put his lips to the hollow of her throat.
His hands were at the waistband of her jeans, unbuttoning and unzipping and yanking them down and off, the panties followed. He gently pushed her back so that her legs dangled off the edge.
“Such a pretty pussy,” he said softly, the heat of his breath moving over her desire-wet flesh. He took a long lick from her perineum up and around her clit. “Tasty too. God, I love the way you taste. Sweet, salty—like the sea.”
She had no words to reply. He always did this to her. His presence, his sexuality and his aura made her speechless with desire. With love and hope and longing and utter joy that he was hers.
“Keep your hands above your head. I’m not going to use the cuffs. My command is your restraint.”
She nodded and made an inarticulate moaning, whimpering sound. It was an approximation of assent and the best she could do. Especially once his mouth was back on her cunt, two fingers pressed into her and crooked so that he was stroking over her G-spot while his tongue slid through her folds.
She had to grip the handle of the drawer below her head to keep from grabbing him, touching him. “Please,” she managed to whisper as he drove her up and then backed off a few seconds until she lost her climax yet again.
“Oh definitely please, sweetness. So polite when your man’s face is buried in your pussy.” Leaning in, he flicked the tip of his tongue over her clit with relentless speed as he stroked into her with his fingers.
“Oh yes! Please, Nate, don’t stop!” Crying out, she arched her back, her heels hitting the cabinet doors beneath them. He started to pull back but she clamped her thighs tight over his head and held him to her, careful to keep her hands where they were supposed to be. Knowing that if she moved them he might just stop altogether.
He growled against her pussy and sucked her clit into his mouth, stroking the underside of it with the tip of his tongue, and orgasm slammed into her body.
As it always did, the sound of his belt buckle loosening brought shivers of desire through her. Before she could recover she was up and impaled on his cock. He walked her over, pushing her back against the wall of the kitchen as his lips met hers. Their taste mingled as he began to fuck her in great, hard thrusts that had him sinking into her to the root each time.
Each time he struck home, a whimper came from her. Helpless to do more than receive him, she held onto his shoulders tightly. But it was joyous to do it, joyous to have him slide into the haven of her body over and over. He made her feel revered and adored, cherished and desired. Nate aroused things in her, feelings that no one else ever had. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure she even imagined she had them before he came along. He was big, bad and dangerous and it gave her a thrill when he was dark and commanding with her. At the same time, she never felt threatened by him, not by his size or his strength. His power was never abused with her. He commanded her, yes, but it was a give and take and he took her gift of submission to him like it was the most precious thing in the world. That such a man could love her never failed to give her an amazed pause.
“I love you,” he breathed into her ear as he came. She tightened around his cock and felt each pulse of his semen, each time the muscles tightened and he exploded into her.
She held his face between her hands and kissed him softly. “I love you too, Nate.”
* * * * *
Forty-five minutes later she had her hands braced on the counter in the master bathroom, body bent forward as Rhett stroked into her with slow, intense passion. The fingertips of his left hand slid gently down her spine as the fingers of his right hand slowly drew big wet circles around her clit.
She watched his face in the mirror, watched as his eyes took in the line of her back, took in the way the copper fire of her hair slid over her shoulders. Her breasts swayed slowly with each press into her body.
Rhett was no less strong and commanding than Nate but he carried his power differently. Rhett was supple and suave, when he moved it was with grace and intensity. He made love to her like she was the only thing in the universe. Like each stroke into her pussy, each touch of her skin, each kiss and caress, was the most exquisite treasure, as if he simply could not get enough of her. It made her feel like a goddess.
The climax had begun to tingle in her scalp. She could taste it on her tongue. Her muscles began to ready themselves and her pussy fluttered around each invasion of his cock, rippling around him in a heated embrace.
“Holly, you feel so good. How am I ever going to get enough of you?” His voice was soft as he leaned down to kiss between her shoulder blades.
“You can’t. You’ll just have to keep me around forever.” Her eyes met his in the mirror, meaning every word.
She saw the flash of his incisors and her eyes went half-mast. When he struck she felt his tongue pulling her essence into his body as he laved the spot closed. Orgasm flooded her, she felt it around, through her, deep within her.
Suddenly her head was back, her hair wrapped around his fist. “Look at me, honey, know who’s giving you this pleasure,” he said silkily and pushed deep into her body and met his own pleasure there.
Nate came in afterward and they all showered in the large bathroom and she made dinner and they watched some movies and played cards. The normalcy of it comforted her and excited her all at once. Her life was a thousand years from where it had been three months before and there weren’t enough words to say how thankful she was for them.
Sometime after midnight she sat up from where she reclined between the two of them on the couch. “I am so hungry for rocky road ice cream.”
“I’ll have Jax run out and get some then, sweetness.” Nate started to rise.
“Oh please can’t we go? Come on, it’s late and we know no one is watching, Jax has the whole freaking Garden District under his careful eye. I haven’t been outside in a while and I’m going stir-crazy. We can call Lee, she’ll be up, and they can all come too. Three big bad vamps, a master level wizard, me and Lee—surely that’s enough protection to go to the market. Oh I know!” She bounced up and out of her seat. “Let’s get milkshakes at the Clover Grill!”
She was so excited about it that neither could say no. “Call Lee, if they come then we’ll go. That big of a magically protected posse and I think we can risk a shake and one of their burgers,” Rhett said and Nate laughed.
They both heard Lee’s squeal of delight over the phone and within minutes their car pulled up out front and they all loaded into it, Jax riding shotgun to keep a watch for trouble.
“This was a good idea,” Nate said to Rhett and Aidan as they watched Lee, Holly and Simone, who joined them shortly after they arrived in the diner. She and her husband lived near the shop, in the French Quarter, so it was mere blocks from their house.
The cousins shared french fries, drank milkshakes and laughed. Holly looked happier and more relaxed than she had in the month and a half they’d been in New Orleans.
They stayed and joked with each other and their servers until nearly three, and then they all trooped tiredly outside.
At the car they were saying good night to Simone and her husband Kael when Simone suddenly grabbed Holly’s arm in alarm. Holly stepped back, away from the car, turning as a flash of light hit her square in the chest.
The pain seared her and she realized that her vision had come to pass. She heard the screaming and the panic, and sank to the sidewalk as everything went dark.
* * * * *
“Get her into the fucking car right now!” Jax screamed at them, breaking their stunned reaction.
Sound roared back into their ears. Lee was hurling her own fireball and Alex was speaking under his voice. Aidan had rushed off in the direction of the first fireball.
Nate looked down and saw Holly there and scooped her up, the fear eating him alive. “Holly?” he asked, panic ringing in his voice.
Rhett took in the burn mark on her chest and the bloodless li
ps and face. He could feel her connection to them weakening. He shoved Nate, pushing them both into the car, and Lee and Alex followed with everyone else. Jax was behind the wheel and they tore down Bourbon to Orleans and skidded to a screeching halt in front of The Grove.
The doors burst open as they rushed her inside, up the back stairs to the large quarters where Isolde and Lou lived.
Nate had to be pried off Holly as they lay her on a bed and Rhett ripped open the sweater to see the horrible burns on her chest.
“We need to get her to a hospital! Call an ambulance!” Nate cried.
“This can’t be helped by human medicine,” Isolde said. “She’s dying. The ball hit her heart, she’s badly burned.”
“You have to change her, it’s the only thing that can save her,” Aidan said, holding Lee to him tightly.
Simone lit some healing herbs in a brazier and the sweet clean scent filled the room. Isolde brushed a hand over Holly’s forehead.
“He’s right. She’s not long for this world. If you don’t do something she’ll die.” Isolde looked up at Nate and Rhett, pleading.
“I think you both should do it. You’ve both got a tie to her, you’re both strong in different ways. It’ll call her back.” Lee’s voice was soft but sure.
“I’ll do anything I can to save her,” Rhett said, his voice breaking. Nate nodded in agreement.
“I’ll prepare the room while you start,” Aidan said as he pulled his sweater off. “We’ll need clean linens. The transformation isn’t easy, it won’t be pleasant. We’ll need washcloths and a few basins of clean water. Some empty buckets too.”
Nate looked to Rhett. “You go first, you’re older and stronger.”
Rhett sank to his knees next to her. “Come back to us, Holly,” he murmured just before he struck and began to drink deep.
Everyone sprang into action and soon the room was filled with piles of clean, sweet-smelling linens, fresh warm water and all of the other things Rhett requested. Candles had been lit and the brazier continued to burn the healing herbs.