Demonstorm: Heart of a Vampire #6 (9 page)

“I told you, Witch,” he growled. “If I can’t have you, no one shall.”

He spat on her, grinning with glee. “See you in hell.”

The light dimmed, as the sound of her heartbeat faded to nothingness.

Chapter Eight

S
ean glanced up as Mayah gasped. Her eyes rolled back, showing only the whites. She shook violently from side to side, then she started to fall.

Faster than he’d thought it possible to move, he rounded the table and caught her, holding her tight against his chest. Slapping some bills down, he nodded to the kind waitress and carried Mayah out to his truck.

She was obviously having a vision, but the times before she hadn’t jerked around or looked so pale.

Then she let out a high-pitched, blood-curdling wail.

He shook her, trying to bring her out of it. “Mayah?”

She didn’t respond, just continued to scream.

A few people from the restaurant raced out, staring. Some grabbed their cell phones, hastily dialing, most likely calling the cops.

“She’s having a seizure,” he yelled, trying to be heard over her shrieks. “It’s okay.”

No one looked like they believed him. He eased Mayah into the passenger seat, shaking her once more, but to no avail.

Turning to the waitress to ask for a cup of water, Sean caught a glint in her eyes.

Her black-ringed irises.

Demon black.

She mouthed the word, “Prophetess.”

Son of a bitch. What was a demon doing here? And she knew what Mayah was.

Without another thought, Sean slammed the door and raced to the driver’s side. Cranking the engine, he jerked the truck into gear. It roared as he sped down the two lane country road, racing for the highway.

He had to get her far from here as fast as he could.

Mayah fell silent. He reached over, clumsily checking for her pulse. Thready and weak, but there.

He didn’t know what in the hells had just happened, but he hoped it never occurred again.

Sean drove for an hour, then took a different highway, backtracking and heading south in case the waitress had called Brüs and informed him of their location. If that demon knew they were this close to his fortress, he’d be able to pick out their route—since there were few available—as well as determine approximately when they’d arrive.

Neither of which would make his job easier.

Finally Sean spotted a promising building tucked in an overgrown field a good mile from the road.

Run down, looking abandoned, the barn would hide his truck and give them a safe place to rest, which from the strain in his neck and back muscles, bunched by tension, he needed. He found an opening in the field and, trying not to leave tracks, drove through long grassy weeds to the barn. Once there, he verified it was deserted, then pulled the truck inside.

The ground was littered with old rusted tools, sharp rocks and broken glass.

From the seat behind them, he grabbed sleeping bags and a few other blankets his father had hastily packed, and set up two beds in the back of the truck.

There was barely enough room for two.

He tried to wake Mayah once more, but she remained deep in sleep. He carefully picked her up and settled her in the truck bed, on one of the sleeping bags, then fell onto his own. Beside him, Mayah moaned. He watched the rise and fall of her chest, strong and even. Studying her still too-pale face, it struck him how truly vulnerable she could be.

When hit by a vision, she was sucked into herself. Though she could fight well, at times like now, she was helpless.

The urge to protect her, to keep her safe from harm surged through him. He was the only one who could watch over her this night.

His duty, to his clan—but, also to the woman at his side—was to prevent the demons from reclaiming her. He shook his head, rolling onto his back. So then what the hells was he doing taking her into such a dangerous situation?

Once more, the thought of turning around and driving home crossed his mind. But doing such a thing no longer sounded like the reasonable path to take. Mayah would believe it a betrayal, especially when she was in her weakened state.

He didn’t know what she was doing to him, but his decision no longer had anything to do with his clan. With proving his worth to them. To his parents.

It was all about Mayah.

He knew how much it hurt to not be able to save your own family. He knew what it was like to be unable to give up that fight. He couldn’t blame her for refusing to go with him before saving her brother.

So, yeah. This trip was all about her.

He glanced over, relieved to find some pink coming back to her cheeks.

There was no choice for him other than to help. Then, he’d take her home and show his clan he could succeed.

* * *

Sean woke to brightness and something tickling his nose. He blinked against the sunlight filtering through cracks in the roof, his mind fuzzy from too little sleep.

He must’ve only been out a few hours.

At his side, a warm body pressed against him. The woman burrowed closer, her hair lightly drifting across his face. She moaned as if cold, but he was burning up. Pressed into his palm was the delectable curve of her ass.

Blood rushed to his groin, making him hard. It wasn’t often he woke with a woman in his bed.

At once, everything hit. He jerked away, sitting up.

Mayah rolled onto her back, moaning once more, still asleep. At least she no longer seemed unconscious.

He took a blanket and draped it over her, brushing one of her many braids from her delicate face. Relaxed in sleep, her features were much more expressive than when she wore her statue-like mask.

He clenched his fist at how fucking right cupping her ass had felt, how his body responded. He’d never been much interested in sex just for the sake of release. He’d figured out other, better options than a roll in the hay—or the back of his pickup truck.

Yet right now, he was hard as stone, ready to take this woman.

That would be the worst thing he could do. He wasn’t here for sex, or to make any type of emotional connection. And yet, the way his blood heated, he was damn glad she was asleep so he didn’t slip and ask her if she might be interested in a quick romp.

These urges had to be from the constant adrenaline rush lately. Getting to her, fighting to free her and now being on the run, were taking a toll on his emotions and his senses. And most definitely on his libido. Not just his sex drive, but something more tender. Something that ached inside his chest.

With a deep sigh, he leaned against the side of the bed, as far from Mayah as he could get, and tried with all his might to get back to sleep.

* * *

Mayah woke, alert like usual, only to find herself clinging to a jean-clad thigh doubling as her pillow. She slowly followed the muscled torso up until she met Sean’s disgruntled, exhausted gaze.

Scrambling back, she mumbled, “Sorry.”

What in the hells? How in the world had she let her guard down enough to get that close to this male?

It made no sense. She never reacted like that. Never. And she vowed to keep herself under tighter control. She couldn’t afford to give him false ideas that would never come to pass.

She scooted back, pulling a heavy blanket around her shoulders and looked around. They were in some dilapidated building. Through the roof, she could see the sky, streaked with oranges and purples.

“Sunrise or sunset?” she asked.

“Sunset.” His voice was strained, tense.

“Did you get any sleep?” She peeked a glance at him, only to find him scowling.

“Not really.” His eyes blazed with a black flecked crimson. He was a half-breed on the edge.

“What’s wrong?” She sniffed the air, alert for any sign of impending danger.

“Not. One. Damned. Thing.” His voice remained tight.

She looked him over, but didn’t see anything amiss.

“So what was all the screaming about earlier?” he demanded.

She stiffened, the memory of her vision coming back. No way had she been kissing Sean. Her heart raced as she once more felt Sean’s body pressing against hers. Scarier than the thought of being touched was how she had responded, body and mind.

Desire. Wanting more. Wanting this man.

All thought stopped as the second vision hit, startling clear, as if she’d been sucked into seeing it once more. Cyrus and Sean, dying.

Her own death.

She’d never seen such a thing before.

And something else was strange. It hadn’t felt like a normal vision, where she was a mere passenger watching pictures. But more like she’d actually been there.

Feeling the agony of each bone breaking, the dizziness as Brüs took her last breath, squeezing her heart until it burst.

She shuddered, biting her tongue against the hysteria rising up on a wave of nausea.

“Nothing. Just a vision of a possible future,” she replied shakily.

He raised a brow as his eyes flared a deeper red, and started rubbing the backs of his knuckles together. “We’re supposed to be working together. I can’t help you if you’re going to lie to me.”

Taking a couple of deep breaths to calm her stomach and her nerves, she plastered on a smile. “My visions of the future are never set in stone. Any variation in what happens now can change them. I don’t like sharing such things.”

“So the vision was about me.”

She glanced away from the too-perceptive man, refusing to respond.

“Since you’re up, we better be on our way.” He stood, grabbing the small pile of blankets he’d been using, and she realized he’d given her the majority of them.

Yet another gallant gesture. He didn’t even seem to be aware of it, more like it was a natural part of him. Something inside her fluttered at how considerate he kept being. And in the pit of her stomach, something warmed, as once more she could feel Sean wrapping his arms around her as if to welcome her into him.

“Don’t you need more sleep?” she asked softly, avoiding his gaze and trying to permanently forget everything about that vision, and how she’d been drawn to him, even in her sleep.

“Can’t right now. Might as well drive on.”

“At least eat first.” She finally met his gaze, worry gnawing at her from the bordering-crazed tiredness in his eyes.

“Let’s go,” he said abruptly, jumping out of the back of the truck.

Slowly, she gathered the blankets and handed them to him, then followed him to the front of the truck. “Where are we?”

“Deserted barn. About an hour south-west of the place where we ate lunch. The waitress recognized you as a prophetess. I didn’t want to take any chances that she knows Brüs and decided to call him.”

Smart of him. Unfortunately, thanks to her reaction to the vision, they’d had to backtrack out of their way. Every minute Cyrus remained in Brüs’s clutches, her brother’s death crept closer.

She’d never considered her ability a blessing, just a part of who she was. But sometimes, it was more of a curse than others.

Four hours later, it was pitch-black outside. Storm clouds had rolled in, hiding the moonlight. On the back roads and little travelled pathways, there were no lights of civilization.

It was comforting.

She’d been used to this for centuries, much longer than the invention of the light bulb had been around.

“We’re near the US-Canada border. Shouldn’t run into any checkpoints or patrols,” Sean stated. “We’ll have to take some of it off road. May need the four-wheel drive. It’ll be bumpy.”

“Okay,” she replied. It was only the second thing he’d said to her in the past hours. The first had been “Thanks”, when she’d handed him one of his bags of blood and a couple of sandwiches.

She still wasn’t entirely sure why he seemed so upset. Lack of sleep, catching her in the lie. While those were logical explanations, she didn’t think they were right.

He’d been silent, but every now and then she’d caught him glancing over at her, a strange light in his eyes.

Now certainly wasn’t the time to ask.

Especially not when he went over a ditch, the truck jumping and tossing her up out of her seat.

“Put your belt on,” he commanded.

She hurried to do so, then braced herself as he pushed the truck between two thick tree trunks, with maybe a hair of space between wood and metal. Branches scraped the sides, sounding like the screeching of nails on a chalk board. Her teeth ached as if she’d just bit down on aluminum foil.

He went over another ditch and she bounced again, the seatbelt keeping her ass in the seat, but not stopping her from being knocked sideways into him.

He growled, jerking the steering wheel to maneuver around a huge boulder. “You okay?”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said, her voice a bit breathless from the ride. “Just concentrate on not crashing.”

He suddenly laughed, the sound loud and full-bodied. The vibrations of it slid over her skin, then dug deeper until she couldn’t contain her own chuckles. The tension between them disappeared.