Blood of the Maple (13 page)

Amara gave a shuddering sigh when his mouth descended once more. She grabbed her wrist, determined to play along, to let her vampire be the dominant partner this time. He wanted to play, and she would let him. He wouldn’t hurt her, and if he continued doing that swirly thing with his tongue, she might grant his wish and put hooks in her bed. Her entire body was a giant instrument of pleasure, expertly played by Parker’s mouth. He took her clit into his mouth and sucked it, strumming it with the tip of his tongue in mind-bending strokes. She bucked, desperate for more, and the tips of his fangs grazed her wet folds. The thought of him biting her there both scared her to death and aroused the hell out of her.

Her body moved without conscious control. Her breasts were hard and aching, desperate for a touch, a lick,
anything
he cared to give them. She tightened her thighs around his head, then parted as her body raced toward orgasm. She lifted her legs and dropped them again, alternately thrusting her hips into Parker’s face and twisting beneath him, trying to find the angle that would send her screaming into the abyss.

But her hands stayed right where he’d left them, and that tiny bit of control she’d given him made the pleasure that much deeper. She trusted him, and he rewarded her in the best possible way.

“Goddess, Parker. If you stop, I will fucking kill you.”

Parker hummed around her clit, and Amara screamed as she came, unable to breathe, every muscle locked tight in ecstasy.

The tremors finally eased, and her sight returned. And oh what a sight it was. Parker was still lapping at her, keeping her vaguely aroused and unable to come all the way down from the incredible high he’d given her. He kept it up, over and over, licking her, tasting her until she moved under him again, frantic to keep his tongue right
there.

Parker looked up at her desperate face and smiled. Something sparked deep within his gaze as it landed on her needy breasts. He focused his attention on one, and Amara shrieked. Phantom fingers plucked at her nipple, this side of the pleasure line of pain. That touch sent her once more over the edge, her body rippling under his touch in an explosion that rocked her to her core.

She opened her eyes to find Parker sliding into her. He’d lifted her legs, planted her calves on his shoulders. He cupped her ass, lifting her to meet his thrusts. His cock pounded into her, sending her bouncing. Only his grip on her ass kept her from sliding away from him.

He licked his wet lips and stared down at where they were joined as he took her over and over. “You were made for me. Made to take my cock.” He clenched her ass, and she knew she’d have some bruises from the strength of his grip. Their flesh slapped together, and Parker’s eyes narrowed to slits, leaving a ruby gleam beneath dark lashes.

Amara’s breasts ached. She needed to be touched, needed her nipples toyed with. She was so damn close to coming, but she couldn’t quite get to where she needed to be. Why wasn’t he touching her?

Parker opened his eyes. He must have seen how much she needed, because he moved her legs and wrapped them around his waist. “Hold on, sweet.” She did as she was told, holding him tight between her thighs. He shoved the dress farther up until it was above her breasts, exposing them to his greedy gaze. He moved his hand to hold her steady while he fucked her, his palm on her stomach. He stroked her breasts with his free hand, finally giving them the attention she craved. He plucked and twisted her aching nipples. She cried out, the mix of pleasure and pain driving her closer to the edge.

He slid his hand down her sweating stomach until his thumb brushed the edge of her clit, circling the soaking flesh until she was on the verge of coming. Parker’s jaw clenched. “So fucking close. Come for me, sweet. Come on my cock.”

Parker moved his thumb a hair, and that was all she needed. Her body bowed off the bed, the orgasm so intense she came close to blacking out. Her vision darkened, her lungs seized and she didn’t care that she could be dying. She’d be one hell of a happy dead woman.

Parker bellowed, his body throbbing as he emptied his seed into her. He gasped, barely able to catch his breath, sweating like a pig and more beautiful than anything she’d ever seen. He collapsed on top of her, his knees barely on the bed, his cock inside her, still hard despite the fact that he’d already come. His hot breath danced across her breasts; his forehead pressed against her breastbone. “Gods above.”

Amara couldn’t answer. She wasn’t sure her lungs worked right anymore. She couldn’t seem to gulp in enough air to do much more than pant.

He lifted his head and grinned, so full of male satisfaction that she tightened in response. “You’re a very good girl.”

Amara tilted her head. “Hmm?”

“You didn’t move your hands.”

Amara blinked. Hell. She’d forgotten all about them.

Parker laughed huskily and dragged her up the bed. “That’s my girl.”

Amara smiled.
His girl.
She liked the sound of that.

“Good evening, Ms. Gallagher.” Parker’s good humor was being seriously strained. This was one of the worst evenings he’d had since moving to Maggie’s Grove. He’d hoped things at the local farmers’ market, another twenty-four-hour, one-stop shopping place for the vegetarian vampire, would be better, but from the scowls he was receiving, he’d been wrong.

Ms. Gallagher, a woman who’d shyly rung him up on several occasions in the past few weeks, took one look at him and almost growled, “You’re with Amara Schwedler, aren’t you?”

What the hell is wrong with these people?
He hadn’t met such hostility since he’d walked into a speakeasy nearly a century ago and flashed a fake badge. “Yes,” he drawled. Her stare was beginning to piss him off. It bordered between afraid and hostile, a look he’d seen several times since he began shopping.

“You know she’s not normal, right?”

Parker smiled sweetly, while inside, his rage boiled over. She was the third person to tell him Amara wasn’t
normal,
whatever the fuck that meant. “You’re right. She’s not normal.” He leaned in close, until her pupils expanded with fear. His eyes had gone deep red. “She’s better.”

Slowly he leaned back, out of the woman’s personal space. He left his selections on the counter, too angry to continue shopping. If one more person called his mate a freak, he was going to kill someone. True, Amara was unique, but she wasn’t a monster. This was
Maggie’s Grove,
for fuck’s sake. Women rode broomsticks without generating comments; werewolves bayed at the full moon, and people couldn’t care less. The mayor was a fucking vampire. And they had the audacity to call his sweet Amara
abnormal?

He snorted, amused, but it didn’t help his fury. People got out of his way; they understood what an angry vampire was capable of in this town and weren’t about to let him take his rage out on their flesh.

“Parker.”

Ah. Now, there was someone he
could
fight. “Dragos.”

“I understand you’ve been butting up against the bit of prejudice we seem to have in this town.” Dragos stepped close, but not close enough to feel Parker’s claws. The street had emptied, people ducking into doorways or businesses to get out of their way. “I want it stated for the record that I do not agree with the way some people treat your
singele sotiei.
”

There was a masculine gasp behind him. “Someone mated that freak?”

His beast broke its leash, eager for the taste of blood. Before the speaker had finished, Parker had him by the throat and up against the wall, leaving him no time to react. Dragos sighed, resigned to the coming fight. Parker had no problems handing out object lessons. He smiled, allowing his fangs to show. “What did you say about my wife?” He clenched his hand around the man’s throat until he could barely breathe.

Dragos tried to pry Parker’s fingers from the man’s throat but backed off at Parker’s snarl. “Jason was Amara’s prom date in high school, or so she thought. He thought it would be amusing to win her over, ask her out, then show his friends how she changed when she became angry. He left her half-naked on Glinda’s doorstep and took another were to the prom instead.”

Parker literally saw red. His claws pricked the were’s skin, and blood welled from the puncture wounds. “Really?” Parker tilted his head. “And who is Jason’s mate?”

Jason gulped, his Adam’s apple moving under Parker’s palm.

“Jason has no mate yet.”

“Pity.” Parker pulled Jason close but kept his feet off the ground. “However, I’m sure that will someday be remedied. He is quite the attractive young man, isn’t he? I wonder how he would feel if someone treated her the way Amara has been?”

He tightened his grip, one sharp claw dangerously close to Jason’s jugular. One move and Jason would never have the opportunity to mate, probably the only thing that kept him from shifting.

It was time to end this town’s strange animosity toward Amara. He pitched his voice so that it could be heard clear across the town, using his vampiric powers to whisper into every home, every dark alley, every corner of Maggie’s Grove. “Know this. Amara is
mine.
Mine to protect. My
sotiei.
Anyone who even looks at her wrong will deal with
me,
and I will not be compassionate. I will make you pay in ways you’ve never dreamed.” Jason trembled as he stared into Parker’s eyes. “You won’t be able to hide from me. I will find you in your deepest nightmares. I am your worst fear. And when I finally collect the debt owed, before you die, you’ll know exactly how Amara has felt all these years. You will know what it is to be a
true
freak. Do we understand each other?”

A nearby tree exploded into a billion shards, piercing the night with stinging, lethal projectiles. Parker hit the dirt, shielding Jason with his body. Screams erupted around him, cries of pain mingling with the
thwapthwapthwap
sounds as the rapidly moving shrapnel hit the buildings, cars…and people.

When it was over, the silence was deafening. Parker lifted himself off Jason and took in the situation.

People were on the ground, most bleeding, several crying. Two weren’t moving, including Ken, the ice-cream parlor boy who’d been so sweet to Amara.

“Fuck.” He glanced over at the terrified were. “You all right?”

Jason nodded. That was all he needed to hear. He dashed over to the fallen boy and rolled him over. “Ken!”

Blood trickled from a wound in the boy’s chest. He’d been pierced through the heart, killed instantly. Not even the Kiss could save him. He was already gone. Parker bowed his head. Terri was responsible for this, and it was only the beginning. He gritted his teeth and prayed he found her before she hurt anyone else.

“Parker.”

He lifted his head to find Dragos standing over him, grief-stricken as he stared down at the dead young man. “Terri did this. I know it.”

“We need to convince them of that.” Dragos gestured toward the townspeople who were slowly rising to their feet. “Because of your argument with Jason, they’re going to blame Amara, even though she wasn’t here.”

Oh
hell
to the no. Amara had suffered enough grief from these people; they needed to learn the truth before they hurt her any further. “We need to hold a town meeting, let everyone know who Terri is. If she’s capable of this, she’s capable of anything.” They needed to know Ken had died because of Parker’s inability to kill Terri. Once she’d only targeted the women he cared for; her attack on an entire community made no sense.

Sense or no, this time she’d gone too far. It was time to remember that he might be cursed to drink green, leafy blood, but when it came down to it? He was a
vampire.

It was time to go hunting the hunter.

Amara lifted the receiver on the third ring. “Hello?”

“You killed my boy.”

“What?” Why would Scott Madison say something so vile?

“My boy is dead, Amara.
Dead.
And you killed him.” His grief pounded at her.

It couldn’t be true. Ken
couldn’t
be dead. “I’ve been home all day. You can ask Brian. He’s been here with me.”

Brian entered the room at that moment and sent her a questioning look. Amara gestured for him to pick up the extension.

“Then how did you do it?”

“Do what? Scott, I swear to you I haven’t been out today.” She heard a click; Brian had picked up the phone. “What’s going on?”

“Ken is dead. Your…
lover
attacked Jason near the farmers’ market, and a tree exploded right behind him. One of the splinters killed my boy.”

Amara sank to the ground. Parker had attacked Jason? Ken was dead? “Dear Goddess.”

“Why, Amara? Why?”

“I didn’t do this, but I know who did.”

“Who?” Scott sounded almost feral.

“Terri. The woman who cursed Parker.”

“Why would
she
kill my boy?”

She whimpered. Dear Goddess, was this what he truly thought of her? “Why would I? I loved Ken, Scott. You
know
that.” Hell, Amara loved all the Madisons, and she’d thought they cared for her too. That feeling would never be the same now that Scott had accused her of killing Ken. Her heart ripped in two with loss and betrayal.

“You’re the only person capable of doing what happened in the market earlier. And I will never forgive you for it.”

But how could he not know that she was, above all else, a dryad? “I would never kill a tree. And I would
never
have hurt Ken.” She was sobbing now, barely coherent. She hung up the phone, but it was useless. There was no point in trying to convince the town she wasn’t a danger to them. She’d never harm a hair on their stupid fucking heads.

But it was time to find that fucking weed and pull her. Permanently.

Parker was damn near incoherent with rage. He’d come home to find Amara inconsolable and Brian weeping. Scott Madison had called Amara and blamed her for the deaths before he’d even left the market. It had taken him half the night to get Amara to sleep. The only reason he wasn’t out hunting the man who’d hurt her so badly was because he understood the man’s grief had been talking, not his sense. And Parker knew that when Scott came to understand the damage he’d done to an innocent woman, he’d be doubly grieved. But he found it hard to forgive and knew Amara would never forget. If it weren’t for her tree, he’d take her from this place and move her to where she could live in peace.

But even if he could somehow move her tree, she’d never leave. She loved this place, the house she’d grown up in, the town, even the brainless residents who should have known better. Amara would wither and die if he uprooted her.

No. He’d have to find some other way to convince the town that Amara, his sweet, gentle dryad, would never kill an innocent.

He paced back downstairs to find Brian sound asleep on the ugly camelback couch, his head resting on his arms. The tracks of his tears were visible, the scent of saltwater strong. The Renfield grieved not only for the two lost lives, but for Amara as well.

“Shhh. It took me a while, but he’s finally out. How’s Amara?”

Parker tiptoed past Brian and into the kitchen. “Pretty much the same as Bri. How could someone believe her capable of something like this? Why didn’t they look for another explanation?”

“It’s easy to blame the first target you come to, especially when you think you know what they’re capable of. People who are grieving do the strangest things. She’s different. And unless you can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, people will believe Amara did it. Hell, even if you manage to find sufficient proof, there will
still
be people who think Amara got away with murder.”

Parker fought the growl rising in his throat. “I’ve been too damn passive about all of this. Why have I been so convinced that killing Terri would be wrong?”

“She’s killed before. I told you we should have done something about her, but you kept running away.”

Parker nodded. “I should have.” And because he hadn’t, more people had died and his
sotiei
might never recover. “I couldn’t bring myself to kill her. I’m not sure why.”

“Maybe the curse had something to do with it.”

“Like what?”

“The curse was designed to change your feeding habits, to make you crave only Terri, right? What if she didn’t know dryads existed and thought she was the only one you’d be able to feed from?”

“We’ve been over this before, Greg.”

“Bear with me.”

Parker moved over to the kitchen table and settled down wearily. He waved for Greg to continue.

“She knew what you were. What if she knew about
singele sotiei?
What if she was trying to mimic that? It’s possible your inability to kill her before was because the curse was messing with your senses, telling you she was your
sotiei.
”

“Then I met Amara and was no longer blinded?” It was possible. His strange aversion to hurting Terri had faded since meeting the dryad. “You may be on to something.”

“I think so. Brian’s been explaining the whole
sotiei
thing to me, and I’m beginning to understand exactly what that means to a vampire. She’s your everything, and with Terri messing with your senses—”

“My beast wouldn’t allow me to hurt her.” Parker tried to smile, but it wasn’t his best effort. “We need to straighten this out. Terri could decide at any moment to attack again, and the town will blame Amara.”

“They’ll come after her with torches and pitchforks. Or in her case, axes and chainsaws.”

Parker shuddered at the thought of anyone attacking Amara’s tree. Brian had told
him
a few things too, like kill the tree, kill the dryad.

“And they’d be defenseless against Terri.”

“Because they’d be preparing for a dryad, not a psycho witch with green-living issues.” Parker rubbed his eyes. “I have to go hunting.”

“Not alone, you don’t.”

Parker shook his head. “I won’t risk anyone else. Especially Brian or Amara.”

“Then ask that freaky-ass mayor to help.”

“Not sure if he can. He’s dealing with the fallout from the explosion today. Besides, he doesn’t know Terri’s scent.”

“Tell him to think rancid vegetables and putrefied roadkill.”

Parker snorted. “I’ll be back before sunrise.”

“You’d better. I don’t want to have to explain to those two that the wicked bitch got hold of you.”

Parker headed for the back door. “I’d tell you to lock up after me, but I know you can’t.”

“For this I’ll put forth the effort.”
Moving physical objects was tiring for Greg, but he would do it to keep their lovers safe.
“Be careful, Parker.”

Parker paused. He didn’t know if Terri could harm Greg. “You too.” He shut the door and stared up into the night sky. He smiled faintly when the lock snicked behind him.