Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (28 page)

~CHAPTER SEVEN~

“I would like you all to meet Dominic Marshall. I’ve asked him to come here from another master’s realm to help us track Colin’s mate. He’s agreed to help us out. His record for recovery is excellent.” Aaron looked around the room. He had already spoken to Sara about this even before he had asked for the help from another master.

A vampire in Aaron’s position did not ask for help; it just wasn’t done. It not only made one look as if he could not make things work in his own realm, but it also made one beholden to the other master. In this case, however, the other master owed Aaron a favor and was more than glad to have the debt repaid without any effort or cost to him or the realm. Aaron hated the arrogant bastard, too.

Dominic didn’t look like the others, in dress or in manner. He was tall and fit like them, but that’s where the resemblance ended. Dominic had been a boxer in his previous life and continued with it still, though he didn’t make a living as one. His long hair was dark; almost a blue-black, and he had a widow’s peak deep in the front of his forehead. Dominic’s skin was a light tan in color; his cheek bones where prominent, probably inherited from some Cherokee Indian in his blood line. Dominic had not worn a suit once since he had been old enough to need one. And he didn’t now. His shirt was a very loud print of cockatoos and palm trees. His pants were light-colored khakis and he wore white tennis shoes most of the time. He was so different than the others in the room that Aaron thought he would feel uncomfortable. But he didn’t seem to be.

Looking for the girl had become a lesson in futility. When she used her magic, which was not often, it was sparingly. Also, by the time they got a fix on her location, she was gone, leaving only her scent to tease at Colin. Phillip was giddy with excitement in tracking her. Colin was ready to brain him. Aaron could see a mighty fight coming between the two beings if Colin didn’t find his mate soon.

Aaron had begun to worry about Colin over the past few days. He hadn’t been resting well, nor feeding well either. If he didn’t take better care of himself, Aaron, as his master, would have to step in and put him into the deep sleep of his kind to help him regenerate. Aaron didn’t want to do that. But his friend’s health was much more important than Colin being pissed off at him.

“Aaron, what have you done? What have you promised to have him brought here? It couldn’t have been cheap. I’ll pay. Whatever the price, I’ll pay.” Aaron looked at his best friend. He had hoped that Colin would be too worried to think about trades of help and prices, but apparently not.

“I was owed a debt and it is now paid. As for the payment that Dominic wants, it’s to become a subject of mine. I can grant this, provided he does as he is asked and causes me no grief.” Aaron looked at Dominic again and thought he would cause grief; the question was how much.

At the interview, Aaron hadn’t liked the younger vamp, but after talking with the man’s master, Aaron could understand Dominic’s arrogance. Aaron had made a deal with Dominic. Aaron would ask for his freedom, but only after the job was complete.

The previous master to Aaron’s realm had been the same sort of monster that Dominic was subject to. Aaron decided to do everything within his power to free Dominic of such horrific conditions if he could.

There were realms, masters that impoverished their subjects so that they would be required to go to them for anything, including sustenance. Also, they wouldn’t let their subjects feed fully, only enough to sustain themselves for a while, and even then they were never to engage in sex with their donors—vampire or human.

Blood and sex went hand in hand with the vampires. They needed the essences of both, the nutrients that blood offered and the release that sex, a good or great orgasm, gave them. This type of release kept them from going mad. The master that Dominic was under was one of these sovereigns. Sadly, in the world of vampires, he was norm rather than the exception, more was the pity. The only difference between this master and the one that Aaron had beheaded to become the master of his realm was that Carlos was dead and this one was not. Yet.

Dominic, being an old vampire, didn’t need to feed as much as one who had recently turned, but he did need the release that an orgasm gave him—the power it gave. He was not looking for true love; in fact, didn’t even believe it existed. He just wanted to be able to be fully what he was meant to be—vampire.

Dominic had told Aaron this in the second interview they had conducted about a job. Aaron had hired him because of what he thought Dominic could be, not so much what he could offer them right now.

Aaron had already given Dominic the particulars about why he had been asked to come to help in the search. Dominic told Aaron he couldn’t understand how vampires as strong as Colin would let something like a mate bring him to extreme measures, especially a human mate. Dominic had nothing against humans, he had said; he just didn’t think tying yourself to one person for all of the life times that his kind had to offer was smart.

Ah
, Aaron thought at the time,
spoken like a man who has not yet met his mate.

“Tell me what you know of her. Anything at all. I’ll decide if it’s worthless or not.”

Aaron glanced at Colin when Dominic made this bold and arrogant statement. If these two didn’t come to blows before this was over, he thought, it would be a miracle. Aaron grinned then. It would be something to watch. It would be fun, but dangerous as well.

“Arrogant bastard, aren’t you?” Mel shimmered into the room as she commented on Dominic’s last statement.

It bothered Aaron for a few moments that her appearance didn’t faze him. But then, he let it pass. If that was all it took to mess up his day, then Aaron would be better off facing the sun, he thought with a wary grin. Mel would come and go as she pleased anyway so he saw no reason to get his boxers in a bunch.

“I don’t work with fairies,” Dominic snapped. “They tend to get all emotional and mess up my concentration. She’ll need to go.”

Wide-eyed, Aaron looked at Dominic. Oh shit! He was too late to reprimand the man. But his mate was not.

As suddenly as that, Dominic was pinned to the wall a foot off the floor with a blade at his dick and one at his heart. Sara had moved quickly; Aaron had to give her that. Sara had gone from sitting primly on the couch to a warrior with teeth in seconds. He dearly loved that about her and it was the main reason he still called her his “little warrior.”

“Can you smell the silver, Donny boy? Do you know what it will do to you if I even nick you with it?”

Even from across the room, Aaron could hear Sara’s low conversation with the vamp.

He could tell when Sara pushed the blade a little deeper by the panicky look on Dominic’s face.

“I don’t care what you think, but you will behave in my house, or I will incinerate you, do you understand? You don’t want to fuck with what is mine,” Sara continued to hiss at him.

Dominic looked to Aaron for help. Aaron simply shrugged and just sat back to watch. He knew better than to even offer to help Sara, knowing that if he did, he could very well find himself just where Dominic was right now, mate or not.

Colin stood right behind Sara with arms crossed over his chest watching, maybe waiting to see if Dominic would challenge her. Aaron thought perhaps Colin was hoping Dominic would, simply for the chance to knock him down a peg or two.

Aaron and Colin had both found themselves at the end of Sara’s blades once too often in the past. If provoked, Aaron knew that Sara would cut off Dominic’s dick, but if he hurt her, Aaron would...well, he didn’t know what he would do to a dead vamp because at this distance, Colin would beat him to the man. All Aaron could think was, Dominic had just better not hurt their Sara.

“I meant no disrespect, my lady,” Dominic stammered; barely a whisper of voice sounded from his mouth.

“Oh, but you did, Donny boy, didn’t you? You will apologize to our queen, or you might just as well stay with your other master because we do not tolerate disrespect in our master’s home.”

For emphasis, she jabbed the blade into his groin a little harder, careful not to break the skin, Aaron saw, but with enough to show that she did mean business. He heard Dominic groan in pain. Sara knew just how much pressure to apply before she cut into a person, and she was taking full advantage of her skill.

“Queen?” Wide-eyed, he looked at the woman across the room. Aaron laughed as Mel gave Dominic a little wave with just the tips of her fingers and a sardonic smile. When Sara glared at him, Aaron quickly turned it into a cough. He was not a stupid man. Aaron loved his mate dearly, and he had a healthy respect for her knowledge and skill as a lethal weapon, even if it did scare him a little. Not that he would ever tell her that.

“Sara, honey, put the nice vampire down, please.” Aaron’s voice sounded bored, as if his mate pinned large, vampire men to the walls on a daily basis. “If you kill this one, I’ll never get anyone to come and help us again. Besides, you know what happens to your belly if you get too upset—you throw up. And Penny has made you your favorite, the ‘World’s Best Chocolate Sheet Cake,’ that confection with all the decadent chocolate and pecans.”

“I want him to be respectful of the people in our home, love. He didn’t sound that way to me, did he to you, Colin?”

Aaron looked from Colin to Sara. She was putting the ball in Colin’s court, so to speak. Sara was giving Colin the opportunity to be the man’s savior, a debt to be owed. Smart woman, his mate.

“Colin, I really meant no disrespect to the queen, honestly. I have been with a tyrant for many centuries. I believe I may have…” Aaron watched as Dominic winced as her blade dug a little deeper. “No, no I was...I definitely was disrespectful to Her Majesty. I will rectify that as soon as I’m able. I will be able to, won’t I, Lady MacManus?” he pleaded.

Sara dropped Dominic to the floor to stand on his own two feet, and before he could take one step, she had him flipped to his back, both feet suddenly flying out from under him. It was the same move Sara had used on Colin just a few months ago. This time, however, it was Colin who straddled the chest and not with a blade, but with a bejeweled dagger held to Dominic’s throat.

“You would do well to watch and respect the women of this house, boy-yo. They are not your average beings. The queen there is the Mistress of Light, Keeper of Magic. I’m sure you’ve heard of her. The little one there, Little Warrior, is exactly that, a warrior. Sara is also the master’s mate, and one of my dearest friends. If you piss either of them off, our master won’t have a chance to execute you. One or both of them will...how did you put that once, my lady? Oh yeah, fry your ass.” Colin slowly rose from Dominic’s chest, not taking advantage of the situation by jabbing Dominic with his knee as Colin had been known to do before. Aaron knew this, but watched as Colin simply stood and offered a hand to the inert man.

Dominic took it, and was hefted to his feet quickly. He didn’t stay standing long, but dropped to his knees before Mel.

“My lady, I do wish to extend my deepest apologies to you. I cannot promise that I won’t slip up again, but I will try very hard not to piss you off, or you, Lady Sara.”

Aaron turned and gave both women a courtly bow. Yes, this was promising to be quite an adventure. He just hoped no one would end up dead before this was all over.

~CHAPTER EIGHT~

“What happened to the boy, the one at the hospital?” Dominic hadn’t left the house once in two days, just sat around reading and rereading notes, or asking endless questions. Colin wanted some action; he wanted Dominic to go and find Shade now, but Colin also knew when to stand down and let someone of more experience take charge.

“Brent? He’s out of the coma. The doctors are giving him a good prognosis. They are awaiting some blood work to come back, but it looks good so far. Why?”

Colin had only told Aaron what he had done for the boy in the hospital. Sara would make too much of it and Dominic would...he didn’t know what the big vamp would do now. Since his close encounter with Sara, Dominic had been a different man. Colin wanted to dislike him, but found that he couldn’t.

“This woman, you said she was close to this kid? Has she gone to visit him, you think? If she knows what we are, she’s probably going during the sun’s highest part of the day so she won’t chance running into you or any of the rest of us.”

Dominic had been told the story about Colin and the woman he was to search for; they also knew that she was using her magic.

The queen’s grandfather, Phillip, had been popping in and out every time she had used the littlest bit of it. They had hung a large map of the area in Aaron’s study to mark where she had been and the time she had used it. The amount was so small at times that Phillip had said she was probably unaware she was even using it.

“No, she’s not been to see him. I’d know, and she hasn’t been there.” Colin himself had been to see Brent several times and had never scented that the woman had been there. He never talked to the human male either, just stayed in the shadow that Colin had pulled around himself while he watched him. The kid was starting to get to Colin, under his skin and into his heart. Brent was getting healthier every day.

“Well, I’m going to the hospital to see what I can find out. It’s not that I don’t believe you, Colin, but I believe she’s close. By all accounts, she cared for the little boy and provided substance when the mother wouldn’t. She would want to make sure he was taken care of, I’m sure of it. Where is the bitch, by the way, the mother? Could she have had something to do with this woman’s disappearance?”

These were questions that Colin had asked himself as well, and it was nice to know that he wasn’t the only one thinking it.

“Brenda Shell? Not bloody likely. You’ve tangled with Sara; this woman, my mate, is of the same breed, magically born. She’d be able to defend herself as well as Sara can.” At least Colin hoped that she was defending herself.

Colin kept going back over the time in the warehouse when he had gotten his first good look at her; she had had a black eye and a couple of fresh bruises on her face. He wondered about them and who had dared hit is mate. She had a great deal of explaining to do, but he would be careful how he worded his questions. Colin, like Aaron, was not a stupid man.

Colin and Dominic left the mansion as soon as they could decide on a car. Being as old as Aaron was, he had amassed quite a fortune in fourteen hundred years—a very substantial fortune. Like most men, Aaron loved fast cars. Add in that he was a vampire, and immortal to boot, meant he like them very fast and dangerous as well. Come to think of it, just like Aaron liked his mate, Colin thought with a grin.

The little black Bugatti Veyron 16.4 was not practical nor was it really big enough for the two large vampires, but it was beautiful. It is powered by a quadruple-turbo 8.0 liter W16 engine, and pumped an incredible nine hundred-eighty six horsepower out and nine hundred twenty-two pounds per feet of torque to the car’s Haldex all-wheel drive system through a seven speed dual clutch automatic manual transmission. This particular model had a targa-style top so that if it was daylight and the driver was human, with the top down, he or she could race down the highway at two hundred miles per hour and get a nice tan too. The gas mileage was an atrocity, but with a price tag of over two million dollars, neither man cared.

They arrived at their destination in one piece, barely. Colin drove, as he had won the coin toss back at the mansion. His experience with fast cars was limited, very limited. Dominic demanded the keys as soon as they “landed” in the parking lot, or he was going to call Aaron and tell on him.
Christ
, Colin thought with a shaky grin. They were arguing like children again.

“Tell him what? I got us here, didn’t I?” Actually, Colin was glad to give over the keys; that trip had scared him a little. He liked speed as well as the next man, but when he came around that last turn, he could have sworn they where only on two wheels.

“I’ll tell him you...I’ll tell him you totaled it. See how pissed he’ll be about that!” Dominic shouted at him.

“Are you serious? He’ll be able to see that I didn’t once we get back to the estate.” Colin was advancing on Dominic; he would bloody knock Dominic down if he tried that. Then he grinned to himself. Oh yeah, that could be fun too.

“Yeah, but until he sees it, you’ll be in trouble.” This argument was getting more stupid and ridiculous with every second they stood out on the sidewalk yelling at one another.

The two men went in the hospital through the emergency room still bickering at one another like good friends, or small children. It was a toss-up to which described them better.

As soon as the doors opened to the outer emergency room doors, the odors hit them—blood, death, gunshot residue, fear, hate, all these and more. The odors were strong and made stronger because a vampire’s sense of smell was powerful. And underlying it all, Colin could smell the woman. Her scent, rich and strong, still lingered in the air. He staggered and grabbed for the wall before he fell.

“Colin, my man, are you all right? Shit, you either need to get control or you need to turn around and leave right now. You’re turning; your eyes, they’re turning.” Colin let Dominic shield him until Colin regained control of his emotions.

“It’s her. Christ, I can smell her. She’s been here, recently too. Let me see if I can find who she’s been with. Can you follow me if I shadow?” Dominic assured him that he would.

Colin pulled the shadows from around the room and moved in and out of the curtained areas, following her scent. He found the woman who his mate had talked to recently. As strong as the scent was, he thought it had been within the last couple of hours. Diana Ridge had been the nurse his mate had been with, spent a great deal of time with it, seemed.

Colin wanted to rush the woman and demand answers, but he knew that wouldn’t work, so Dominic did the questioning for him. But Dominic didn’t seem to be getting anything helpful, so he told Colin that he was going to search Diana’s mind and find what they were looking for. When he was finished, they would be about to trace her better and hopefully it would lead a path right to her.

Colin hoped Dominic was right. He was becoming desperate and hungry. Not a good combination for any vampire, but add in a missing mate and the situation got exponentially worse.

About twenty minutes later, the two men were outside in the parking lot again. Dominic had asked if they could take it outside to speak. Colin was afraid of the news. He knew it wasn’t going to be good from the look on Dominic’s face.

“Your mate, her name is Shade Doe. She has been to the hospital nearly every day since the young male woke up, but not up to his floor. She, the nurse, thinks because it will upset the boy more and she agrees with this assessment. The nurse has been giving him whatever Shade brings in for Brent, usually snacks, books, and small toys. Small things that delight the male and the nurse is…Ms. Ridge is worried about Shade, concerned for her health as well. It seems that Shade has been trying to work whatever job she can find to try and pay for a grave marker on her own for the little female. Neither woman, it seems, believe the mother, Brenda, will do anything for her own child. The nurse also believes your mate is homeless and only able to work jobs that require no identification. Diana thinks the girl is on the run from something or someone. I assume that would be you?”

“Yes, more than likely. Shade Doe.” Colin tasted her name on his lips several times before he looked back at Dominic. “What else? There’s something else, what is it?”

“The male’s mother is coming to take the boy home in a couple of days. She isn’t going to be charged with anything in the death of her daughter, which Diana has a few choice words about that. Because of some
‘lily livered idiot who doesn’t have the brain God gave a bug,’
and I quote, Brenda has been set free. I like this nurse,” Dominic said, grinning. “Apparently, the judge thought that the mother had suffered enough losing her only daughter to a monster. They’re going to give her back her son, Colin.”

“And? You’re keeping something back. Please, Dominic, what is it? I cannot live without her. If you know something, please tell me what it is.” For her, Colin would get on his knees and beg if that was what it took.

“Diana believes that Shade is planning to take Brent out before the mother can get to him. Make him safe so that Brenda can’t hurt the boy again. Not out out, but out of the hospital out. Again, both women agree that this will be the only way the young male will survive. From the images I’ve gotten from Diana’s memories of the recent times the boy’s been in here, I’d think they’re on the right track with that notion.”

“I understood what you meant, Dominic; I’m not totally stupid yet. Did Diana know when? I’m betting that the entire hospital will be looking the other way when it happens too.” Colin smiled. Shade was a smart little thing; he would give her that.

“No, Diana isn’t even sure of the removal one hundred percent. But knowing what I know about Shade’s breed and the little I am beginning to understand about her, I’d say there’s a good likelihood that’s exactly what she’ll do. It’s what I would do. We have at least two days, maybe less, before Shade has to make her move to get Brent out and to a safe location. That’s when the little boy is being discharged.” Dominic huffed. “It’s not right. Humans have such a precious gift in their children and they toss them away. This is why I will never settle down.”

“Right, if she was going to rescue the boy, it would have to be while he was still in the hospital. Shade would most assuredly have help from, if not all, than a goodly portion of the staff to pull this off, correct? This nurse might not know right now when or even if it happens, but the closer Shade gets to the actual execution of the plan, the nurse would be a part of it. I’d stake my life on it, no pun intended. Wouldn’t you agree?” As Colin spoke, they moved back toward the car. “And for the record, I’m not even going to comment on your mate thing. When it happens, I plan to be front and center when you tell her no.”

“Fuck off. But, yeah, I do agree, Ms. Ridge will be helping her. But seriously, this mate of yours? Shade? She has an advantage over us that could keep us from being able to intercept her. She can come and get the kid during the day and we can’t. And you know as well as I do how dangerous this will be under the best of circumstances. He is still weak, and a kid to boot. Shade will need his cooperation as well. The logistics of this are amazing. If she can manage this, and I’ve no doubt she will...well, I’d have to shake her hand. She will need someone who can carry him and whatever else he’ll need to get out of here safely and remain unharmed too. We need a couple of daylight walkers, and they need to be capable enough to help her if things get dicey. Agreed?”

Colin smiled for the first time in a month. “Yeah, I know just the two we can get too.”