Amethyst Flame (The Flame Series Book 2) (6 page)

“Your witchness and your blood has done something to me. So, yeah. Hell, yeah, we’re going again.”

He held her gaze, moving faster than before, thrusting and loving every second of it. “Come for me, baby.”

Her lips parted. “Yes. Now. Oh, God.”

The orgasm barreled down on him, and he roared once more, a sound that caught her passionate cries and carried them in waves around the dressing room.

When at last the moment of ecstasy dimmed, he began to come back to himself.

He looked down at Emma and saw that tears spilled from her eyes. He froze in place. “Did I hurt you?”

“No. Oh, God, no, it was just so unbelievable. Truly, Vaughn, it was more than perfect.”

Relief flooded him. “For a minute there—”

“You didn’t hurt me. I’m just overcome. I swear you took me to the center of the universe and back. Though now I’m convinced you just spoiled me the rest of my life for any other man.”

He looked down at her, seeing her as if for the first time. She was his kind of woman. He would have been drawn to her outside of Five Bridges before his
alter
.

But he couldn’t pretend their world didn’t exist. He’d become a creature he despised, not-human-anymore, and she was a witch.

He pulled out of her, a sense of loss piercing him so hard, he couldn’t look at Emma any longer. Visions of his sister’s abduction filled his head, only this time, he saw Emma being taken from him.

He couldn’t do this, not with her, not with anyone.

“Vaughn, wait.” She grabbed at his arm as he moved away, but he didn’t want her to see him like this.

He wasn’t even sure what he was feeling, but it felt like death all over again.

~ ~ ~

Emma cupped herself between her thighs. Sex was always messy without a condom.

She saw the discarded towels. Half rolling off the bench, she grabbed one and jammed it against her sex.

She lowered herself to sit on the carpet of the dressing room for a couple of minutes, trying to collect herself. She knew why Vaughn had left her so abruptly. She was feeling it as well, how close the sex had brought them. It almost felt as though they’d bonded in some mysterious way.

But she knew his suffering, that he hated being an
alter
vampire almost as much as she despised being a witch. She also suspected that thoughts of Beth had overtaken him. Vaughn considered her abduction the greatest failure of his life. He was a proud man. Not being able to protect his sister had crushed him.

And there wasn’t anything she could do. Beth had been taken to Elegance Territory and had probably been used up in one of the sex clubs, her body buried afterward in the desert somewhere.

When Vaughn had said he had nothing to give, he’d meant it.

The truth was, as much as she felt for Vaughn, how tender her heart had become toward him, she didn’t want a commitment either. Max’s death had ruined something inside her as well, and she doubted she’d ever feel differently.

When she heard the shower running, she rose to her feet, left the dressing room and headed across her bedroom to the bathroom. Reaching the threshold, she was going to tell him not to worry, that she had no expectations. But that’s when she saw him, palms flat on the tile wall of the shower stall, his head bent beneath the stream of water, shoulders slumped.

Tears started to her eyes.

She didn’t ask permission to join him. She simply padded her way across the bathroom floor, tossed her towel on the floor near the laundry hamper, then entered the shower.

She moved in behind him and slid her arms around his waist. She held him as tight as she could.

“Don’t.” But his voice broke.

“Fuck that, Vaughn. We’re here right now and it’s enough.”

“It’s not enough. Emma, how could I have found you now, in this hellhole we’ve come to, when we’ve got a goddam madman after us?”

He turned, breaking her hold on his waist. But she threw herself against his chest and his arms surrounded her in a strong embrace. She wept. She hadn’t expected Vaughn to care, not really. Or to feel anything that matched her own heart.
I feel the same way. I just found you. And now—

And now—

After a moment, she lifted her face to his. “Vaughn, you don’t need to say anything else, and I’m pretty wrecked still about what happened to the girls. So how about we shift gears a little. I mean, I don’t expect to live out this night or if I do, to make it through the next few days. Loghry has an army and we’re just two people.”

He nodded, smoothing her hair with his hand. “He’ll hunt for us and probably take us both out.”

“Then before he does, I’d be happy to locate a couple of automatic rifles and knock on his mansion door. What do you say?”

He thumbed her cheek and leaned down to kiss her. “I was thinking the same thing.”

CHAPTER THREE

The shifter’s clothes were a near fit for Vaughn. Max had been a big man as many of the werewolves were, especially the alphas.

In any other circumstance, Vaughn wouldn’t have put on another man’s clothes. But he was stuck in Emma’s house, and for her sake the last thing he wanted was to wear his blood-stained leathers and tank top.

She had a beautiful home with a dozen rooms and extensive, well-kept landscaping. He stood outside in the backyard, impressed by the grouping of shrubs and beds full of flowers. A large number of full-grown trees rounded out a solid look and would provide a lot of cooling shade during the summer months.

Halfway down the yard, he could see an owl, with a unique white face, perched in the most central tree. Vaughn was pretty sure it was called a barn owl, a creature Emma no doubt used as a familiar.

A gray-striped cat paced near the same tree. The pair of critters represented an essential element for an
alter
witch. Vaughn didn’t get it, but cats and owls served witches, adding to their power.

They both stared at him as though having human thoughts. Each appeared to be taking his measure.

“Hey.”

He turned at the sound of Emma’s voice and watched her cross the threshold to the backyard. She wore a light green t-shirt and her usual jeans, a great look for her. She’d arranged the front part of her long hair in a top knot again. She was a beautiful woman with creamy white skin, rich auburn hair and emerald green eyes.

She moved toward him. “Have you met Toby and Stormy?”

He couldn’t help but be a little amused. “Those names are too precious, Em.”

She chuckled. “I know, I know. But that’s what came to me when I invoked one of my first spells. You can make fun of me if you want. Sometimes, I’m plain-old embarrassed.”

“So which one is Toby?”

She inclined her head toward the tree. “My cat. I’ve had him with me almost as long as I’ve been here. He showed up on my doorstep as a lost kitten. Now he helps guard my property.” The cat, hearing his name, headed in Emma’s direction.

He could tell she was teasing about the last bit because of the quirk to her lips. Though he’d only been with her twice now, he realized she often smiled with a charming twist of her lips.

He held out his arm to her and she joined him, sliding her own arm around his waist. When he pulled her close, she leaned her head into the well of his shoulder.

So much affection flowed through his chest that he had the worst impulse to tell her he loved her.

After he’d been with her in the dressing room, he’d become overwhelmed with a profound sense of loss. He had nothing to give Emma, and they had a death sentence.

For reasons he couldn’t explain, thoughts of how he’d lost his sister had gained a foothold. He’d basically run from those feelings only to find Emma pressed up against him in the shower. He’d shed some tears, which still pissed him off. He didn’t want to get caught up in something like this, and it sucked that for the first time in his entire eleven years in Five Bridges, he was close to falling in love.

There. He’d admitted the whole damn thing to himself. Hell, he’d probably tumbled hard the moment he found her pulling boxes of flowers out of Loghry’s van that night.

Easton had sent him to Sentinel Bridge, which separated Elegance Territory from the human part of Phoenix. His boss had wanted Vaughn to bring a delivery van safely through as a personal favor to him.

When he asked Emma what she was doing, she’d told him straight out that she was saving some girls. He’d cursed Easton under his breath, then pitched in and helped.

He could still remember her flushed cheeks and the glitter in her green eyes. Together, they’d unloaded the rest of the flowers then lifted the lid of the hidden container. The sight of the triplets, drugged, unconscious, and jammed into such a small space, still burned in his mind.

After he and Emma had driven them home personally, crossing the U.S. government controlled border to get them back to their families in Phoenix, he’d been pumped. She had as well. That’s when they’d celebrated first with a few beers, then sex on his sofa.

Now they were here, knowing full well Loghry wouldn’t rest until they were both dead.

He squeezed her shoulders gently. “So, I’ve been thinking. I can’t risk going home, not now. But I have several fellow officers I trust, and I can get some weapons sent to a Crescent Territory drop point, maybe a couple of AR-15s and some ammo.”

“Sounds good.” Emma released him, then started to pace a few feet away. Toby had drawn close, though he sat and eyed her movements, his tail twitching. “But I think I should spend some time with my brew pot. I just have this feeling ... ”

“About what?”

She stopped and met his gaze. “Earlier, when I was in the ditch and opened myself up to my power, I had a moment of seeing the future in a series of images, like snapshots. At the time, I set it aside, because I felt the need to focus on the girls, to help their spirits move out of their bodies. But right now, I want to see if I can tap into the future. It might help us.”

“You believe that?” He was unfamiliar with witch things in the same way she no doubt couldn’t relate to his blood-cravings. Hell, it had taken him a couple of years to accept his physical need to pierce the vein.

For a moment, his mind got caught on exactly how he’d tapped into her blood while in her dressing room. His nostrils flared. He wanted to do it again, maybe tap into a different place next time. His gaze fell to her breasts, though he glanced away quickly.

She shrugged. “I at least want to see if I can engage with some form of prescience. I can’t promise anything, but I’ve always known I had a lot of latent ability.”

He made a point to keep his gaze on her face. “I’ve always valued that about you, Emma. Before I got to know you, I thought most witches were power hungry—” He almost added ‘monsters’, which wouldn’t have helped their situation.

Her lips quirked. “Most who work hard at expanding their witch abilities are after more power, so I understand your disdain. For me, it was different, but not necessarily better, as time has proved. I’ve been pretending I’m still human. And I’m not.

“But what ticks me off is that right now, if I was a stronger witch, we’d have a much better chance of taking Loghry down. Instead, it’s sort of like fighting a forest fire with a bucket of water. But I’m done with that and maybe you should prepare yourself, because I might become what you despise the most.”

He could sense her distress. He took hold of her arms in a gentle grip. “Hey, I could never think badly of you. I know your character, and I trust you. I do.”

“But what if I’m all spelled up and become the kind of witch who no longer cares, who could actually hurt you?”

“Then we’ll deal with it. Right now, I don’t give a damn if you grow hooves and horns so long as it will help us battle Loghry.”

She grinned. “Oh, now there’s a lovely picture.”

She turned and headed back into the house. “I’ll be in my spellroom. And, by the way, Stormy and Toby approve of you, in case you hadn’t noticed. Stormy, the owl, would have turned his back on you if he hadn’t thought you were amazing.”

Vaughn glanced at the owl first, who still stared at him, then looked down at the cat. Toby was doing a figure-eight around his ankles, weaving in and out and purring. He’d never been much of a cat person, but he’d felt the same way about witches until Emma.

There was always a first time.

From inside the house, Emma gestured to the west wing. “My spellroom is this way, if you need me.”

When she disappeared down the hall, he called Robert Brannick, one of his good friends and a fellow officer at Crescent Border Patrol. He reached the station and got routed to Lily in dispatch.

She kept her voice low. “Easton’s been asking about you, wanting to know the second you call in. We all heard what happened at the Graveyard. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not shot up and bleeding to death?”

“Nope.”

“How about that TPS officer you were with? The witch. Did she survive?”

“GSW to the right calf, but she’s all healed up. She’d made some kind of healing potion. It worked fast.”

Lily whistled softly. “That’s some kind of power.”

He’d known Emma had potential, but even he’d been surprised when he’d felt her power at the Graveyard and of course later, when he’d made love to her.

Again, his mind got caught on his drive to get her on her back again. He’d thought making love to her would settle him down. The opposite appeared to be true.

Lily’s voice broke his train of thought. “Vaughn, what the hell is going on? At least a dozen of your brothers-in-arms were ready to take on the entire Elegance Border Patrol for what they did. Easton had five of our own jailed to keep them from going apeshit because of the attack.”

“Was Brannick one of them? Is he locked up?”

“No, thank God. But you know what a cool head he has. Though, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him look as grim as he did when he heard what happened.”

Vaughn wasn’t surprised that some of his fellow officers had taken the attack hard. It was one thing for vampires to be killed by dark coven witches and warlocks as part of executions or even sacrifices. But an assassination attempt by a police force was a different animal altogether.