Chaos and Moonlight (Order of the Nines Book 1) (27 page)

“Ow,” he moaned. “That sucked.”

Kalin screamed with joy and ran to him. Just as she fell to his side, the door busted free of its hinges, the large contingent of anxiously awaiting vampires clumsily stumbling over one another to get in.

“You made it,” she said, placing frantic kisses all over his face. “Sweet mother of God, you did it.”

“Yeah, and it hurt,” he whispered. “Hey.”

“What?” she said, threading her fingers with his and still peppering his face with kisses.

“Marry me?”

She stopped and stared down into his beautiful eyes. “Yes,” she said, pulling his mouth up to hers for a deep kiss.

* * *

Taris sat outside of the room. Watching. Smiling.

He had no doubt from the moment Sarah showed them the slides that this would work. Okay, maybe some doubt, but in the deepest recesses of his old heart, he knew there might finally be a way to heal the broken parts of Kalin. He knew when he placed them together that there was something special between the two of them. They had an instant connection that couldn’t be ignored.

It was the same way he felt about Sarah. Only the love he had for her before was a moon-cast shadow to what he felt for her now. Now it was more than just the need to be with her every waking moment. It was more than just the subtle nuances of her very being that captivated him. Watching Kalin and Nick embrace only made him realize that his love for Sarah was something written in time itself. It was eternal, compassionate, and unshakable, like standing stones or the tide. It was because it was meant to be. And the great thing was that now, he didn’t have to simply love her for the rest of her life. There was a real and tangible possibility that he could love her for the rest of his, as well.

First things first. Find Sarah and give her the good news. Then bury himself in her as far as he could and never let her go.

Bane wasn’t one to take in the beauty of nature. His opinion was that even if it were razed and completely turned to ash, it would still be fun to kick the shit out of. But he did have to admit: Asheville was gorgeous. Well, as gorgeous as a town full of meat bags could be.

Standing by the parked car in the pitch black, he looked up at the stars. The night was completely dark, and the sky looked like it was littered with pinholes. Flanking the side of the narrow ribbon of road he was currently pissing on were majestic mountains, covered in all manner of colors. Even in the dark, he could make out the reds and yellows of the trees.

“So where to next?” the voice from the car boomed.

“Hell if I know,” Bane gave himself a shake and tucked back into his leather pants. “I’m tired of riding around this pisshole of a place. I could care less.” He turned toward the passenger door of the black classic Caddy and slid in.

“I saw the nasty all over your back, man,” Stellan smirked at him from the driver’s seat. “You may want to go back and tell that nice mean lady that we didn’t find anything, but you’ll do it alone, my friend. Alone.”

Bane tapped the dashboard, and Stellan hit the gas pedal, kicking up gravel behind them. He was right. It didn’t matter how long he’d driven around or how much time had passed since they’d left. If they didn’t go back with something, she would kill them all. He wasn’t worried about her taking him out. At that point—with the conflict of conscious he had going on—he didn’t care if she cut him open and left him out in the desert. He was a little bit concerned about the new guys she’d hired. It was pointless for them to die.

Wait, what the hell was he thinking? Since when had he developed moral fiber? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Morrigan finally dropped the straw that broke the camel’s back. Perhaps it was the very surreal fact that history was literally repeating itself, and this time they might not be so lucky. Glancing over at Stellan’s thick arms and the maniacal tattoos that played over his skin as he danced with the wheel of the heavy car, he thought to himself that maybe, just maybe, it could have something to do with the fact that he was actually attracted to someone other than Morrigan for the first time in forever.

Fuck if this wasn’t just a peach of a situation. All at once, his internal moral makeup was changing. He hated his wife, didn’t want people to die, and was hard for another dude. And he didn’t want to kill his brother. When did that happen? The whole mess was making his insides burn. Literally. Somewhere deep down in the recesses of his gut, he could feel the beginnings of a slow fire starting.

Only it wasn’t situational or in his head. It was real.

“Stop the car,” he said with barely a whisper.

“Don’t mumble,” Stellan replied.

“Stop the bastard car. Now!”

Stellan screeched the giant metal vehicle to a halt, barely putting it in park before Bane jumped out.

“What gives?” Stellan popped open his heavy door as if it weighed no more than paper and walked around the back to the side of the road.

“Shhh,” Bane lifted a finger to his red lips. “Just keep your eyes open.”

He began taking slow, methodical steps toward the tree line. He stopped, crouching down on all fours in front of a narrow strip of gravel. Relief and terror welled up inside of him, and he couldn’t stop himself from laughing. He’d found them.

“Listen, man, I understand that she jacked you hard, but are you sure you’re okay?” Stellan slowly made his way over to Bane and placed a large hand on his shoulder.

“Back to the car,” Bane said, standing up straight. He turned to face Stellan and smiled. “We’ll need about ten men,” he said as he slid into the passenger seat.

“Anyone in particular?” Stellan sat in the driver’s seat and put the car in drive.

“Armed,” Bane said. “Armed and reckless enough not to care if they live or die.” He paused. “And you can’t go.”

“Piss on you, I’m going,” Stellan said.

“I’m fairly open-minded, but even I draw the line somewhere.”

“Fine then, how’s this. Fuck you, I’m going.”

Bane smiled at him and licked a fang. “Funny, you didn’t strike me as a man-love type of fellow.

Stellan quickly cut his eyes at Bane. “Getting a little flirty there, aren’t you, Glitter?”

“Just drive,” Bane said, his voice dark and heavy.

* * *

The fire was slowly dying. Sarah inched closer to the open hearth and wrapped the worn plaid around her shoulders even tighter. No matter how hard she tried or what she did, she couldn’t seem to shake the shiver that consumed her. Thermoregulation was simply not possible at that point. She did her best to stoke the embers in the metal grate, but every time she prodded them with the poker, what remained of the logs seemed to collapse in on themselves. She tried putting more wood on the fire, but that just snuffed it out. As a last resort, she’d soaked some newspaper in a glass of old whisky and lit it below the logs. It managed to catch, and for a few minutes, she thought it would spread, but once the booze burned up and the paper was nothing but ashes, only embers remained.

With her feet and her butt planted onto the cold stone hearth, she could feel the last remnants of warmth beginning to fade.

It was a fitting personification of how she felt inside. The fire of a life she never knew existed seemed to have consumed her completely, and the last few days had been absolute insanity. Kidnapped, fired, thrown into an existential fairy tale. And if the hideous noise coming from upstairs was any indication, she was also losing her best friend.

She could hear the sickening
smacks
against the floor, the screaming and thrashing that undoubtedly were the last moments of Nick’s life. She tried to bite back a sob. He was a big boy. He knew what he was getting into, and he was going to die soon anyway. After running tests that morning, they had both discovered he wasn’t just HIV positive. He also had aplastic anemia, and if his bone marrow wasn’t producing enough blood to begin with, then his already-shot immune system was a sitting target for just about anything.

How could she have been so stupid? To believe all of this? To buy into everything that was in front of her? The last seventy-two hours had been one big infomercial, and she was ready and waiting by the phone with her maxed-out credit card.

Then there was the whole falling in love mess. When and how that happened, she wasn’t sure, but she knew that Nick being dead and the serum not working was going to put a gigantic damper on whatever weird-ass thing was blossoming between her and Taris. They’d both managed to let the bugs in their asses die, which was great, and the feelings she had for him were apparently mutual. It was pointless to fight against it or argue it to the contrary, because there were some things that just had to be accepted. The sun would rise and fall every day. The winds would change. Politicians would always argue…

And she’d fallen in love with an eight-hundred-year-old, six-foot-three, tattooed, broody, and sexy-to-the-soul vampire—in less than a week. That had to be some kind of record.

A somber hush seemed to emanate from the floor above her. She cast a glance toward the ceiling, listening for any sign that something other than the inevitable had happened. Her heart dropped into her stomach when she heard a door close and the thudding of boots on the stairs.

“Oh, Nick,” she whispered, burying her head into the plaid that was wrapped around her. She tried to fight the tears, but there was no point. A wave of terrified nausea hit her when she heard the large oak door to the room push open.

“Thought I’d find you here.” Taris’ deep voice was hushed.

She didn’t reply. The fact that he was there confirmed her fears, and the sobs she’d tried so hard to contain came flooding out.

He clicked the door shut, and in a few strides, he was next to her, wrapping his thick arms around her as he lifted her up and walked to the leather wingback chair. Setting down gently with her on his lap, he tucked the worn paid in tighter around her.

“I’m sorry,” she blubbered. “I don’t…normally…cry.”

Taris kissed the top of her head. “Let it out,” he whispered. He gently pulled her hair free of the black hair tie, letting it fall loose against her back. His hands weaved their way through the curls in long fluid motions. “I have some news for you that may make you feel better, though.”

“How…could…I…feel…better?” her words were broken between sobs.

Taris shifted, bringing his hands to the sides of her face. He tilted her head until they were eye to eye. He wiped her tears away with his thumbs and leaned in to place a delicate kiss on her lips.

“He made it,” he whispered.

Sarah cocked an eyebrow. “What?” Her nose was so stuffy she could barely breathe, let alone speak.

Taris smiled down at her, his eyes narrowed and full of more emotion than she could possibly take in. “He made it. The process wasn’t a pleasant one. But,” he paused and pulled a strand of hair away from her tear-soaked face, “he’s alive.”

Sarah felt like she was going to pass out. The edges of her eyes were blurry, and the heat she’d so desperately tried to find earlier was swirling around her.

“Sarah, you’re looking a little pale,” Taris said.

“It worked,” she whispered.

“Come on, let’s get you upstairs to lie down.”

The dizziness passed, and suddenly a switch flipped inside her.

“Holy shit, it worked!” She jumped up and stood in front of him, smiling. “I can’t believe it! I have to go see him. I have so many questions, and there are so many tests to run and…”

Taris caught her by the arm and stood up. He let out a little laugh, watching her all but jump around with excitement.

“You might want to slow it down a bit before you go bounding up the stairs and using him as a lab experiment. He’s going to be a little,” he stopped and tried not to cringe when he said it, “busy.”

“Well, yeah, we have a ton of work to do. We have to make more and then find a way to get FDA approval so this can go global. You realize this means our initial intention is entirely possible, and wait—what do you mean ‘busy’? And why did you say it like that?”

Taris gave her the watered-down version of the lovefest that took place between Nick and Kalin. From start to finish. The suicide attempt, Nick feeding her and staying with her, him asking Kalin to marry him, everything.

“Wow,” she said, sitting down on the stone hearth. “So Nick and Kalin, huh?”

“Yup.” Taris sat down beside her, lacing his fingers with hers. “I don’t really want to think about it, but they are probably consummating their hasty union as we speak.”

Sarah chuckled. “You think they know about us?”

Taris thought back to the conversation that took place outside of the lab when everyone was waiting and felt the heat rush to his face. He cleared his throat.

“We were apparently very loud last night…so yes, to answer your question, they all know.”

Sarah turned to him, tilting her head. “Barely let our pulses calm down from marathon sex last night, and you’re already calling me names? What gives?”

He smiled and pulled her in close to him. “It means ‘beautiful.’” With a quick jerk, she was in his lap, facing him. “Because you are.”

“Yeah, right,” Sarah laughed. “I bet you say that to all the girls.” She felt Taris’ body go rigid beneath her. He slowly lifted her up and set her on the stone beside him.

Taris was silent, his eyes shut. She could tell he was gearing up to say something. It was right there, on his lips—a word, a phrase, some sort of sharp quip about his sex life being none of her business.

“I haven’t slept with that many women, Sarah,” Taris abruptly blurted out. “I suppose in comparison to most people, I have, but the reality of the situation is that I’ll indulge two or three times a year, but that’s it. I didn’t really connect with any of them. They never meant anything.”

“I’m sorry if I offended you, Taris. I didn’t mean to—”

“No,” he said, his shoulders shifting beneath his shirt. “You didn’t offend me. I just wanted to explain to you so you know,” he paused for a moment, “how different this was for me.”

Sarah nodded and started to stand before Taris gently grabbed her arm and pulled her in closer to his chest.