Eternal Breath of Darkness (31 page)

There was too much power in
it. Dark, deadly power. It actually felt as if there were a life force in it.
“I can’t take something so valuable from you.”

“It was made for you a very
long time ago.” Refusing to take no for an answer, he turned her around slowly
and pulled her long, reddish brown hair over her shoulder.

It hit her hard. She knew
what was happening at that moment was real. “This isn’t a fairytale, is it?”

“No.” He placed the chain
around her neck, and then he bent his head to trail kisses across the back of
her bare shoulder and up her neck. “This is real,” he whispered in her ear.
“I’m real.” He turned her around to face him. Then he looked down at the dragon
nestled between her breasts for a few seconds. Leaving her was inevitable. It
was the only way he could ensure her safety. And hopefully, he would find Zack
before it was too late. He framed her face in his hands. “It’s a part of me.
The power you feel in it is me. It won’t harm you. It’s protection. Never take
it off.”

“Why are you giving it to
me?”

“I told you that it was made
for you.” Nikolas wrapped his arm around her and started to walk. “We need to
get going, or we’ll be late.”

~
Twenty-Two ~

“OH GOOD, YOU’RE here. Caylee is finishing up. She’ll be out in a
minute.” Mia turned her head to glare at Joseph, and then she looked at Haden.
“Please, tell me that he isn’t coming with us.”

Grinning, Haden nodded.
“Sorry, I tried, but I couldn’t get rid of him.”

Mia rolled her eyes.
“Wonderful.”

Haden turned to Joseph. “I
don’t think she likes you.”

“Duh.” Shaking her head, Mia
took a deep breath and released it with a sigh of frustration.

Completely capturing Haden’s
attention, Caylee walked out from the back of the boutique. He closed the
distance between them immediately. He’d dropped her off only an hour ago and
had waited right outside, but the physical separation from her had been
torturous. Naturally, he couldn’t stand to be away from her, but the fact that
she was being hunted made his need to be near her more insistent. He wrapped
his arms around her and kissed her as if they’d been apart for days.

Joseph reached for Mia’s
hand. “It’s wonderful to see you again.”

Mia glanced down at his hand
and then glared up at him. “Get the hell away from me, Joseph.”

Undeterred by her hostility,
he took her hand, brought it to his mouth, and kissed it. “Stop being so
difficult, angel.”

Glaring up at him, she
yanked her hand out of his. “One warning. That’s it. Touch me again, and I’ll
shoot your ass.” She turned to walk away from him.

“You’re all talk and no
action. I’ve already told you I would be thrilled to wrestle with you.”

She spun around. “Are you
mocking me?” Looking as if she could to do some real damage to him if she
wanted to, she took a step toward him.

“Me, mock you? Never.”
Rather than take a step back, he took a treacherous step toward her while
openly allowing his eyes to explore every inch of her body. “You look beautiful
tonight, angel.”

“It’s never happening.”
Turning her back to him, Mia snorted indignantly. “You’re such an imbecile,
Joseph.” Fumbling with her bracelet, she attempted to close the clasp, but it
fell. She bent over to pick it up. And so did Joseph. He won. When she reached
out to take it from him, he grabbed her arm and helped her stand up. Once she
was standing upright, she tried to yank her arm out of his hand.

“Why do you always feel the
need to act so mean? I’m only trying to help you again.” Touching Mia, taking
her pain, attempting to impart healing energy into her and to remove the
morphine from her blood, Joseph pretended to struggle with the clasp he
could’ve easily closed with a thought.

“Get away from me.” She
reached over the counter to grab her pepper spray, but, as luck would have it,
it wasn’t there. “Let go of my arm.” Wrapping her fingers around the handle of
her gun that was there, she smiled.

“Stop being so difficult,
angel.” Finally closing the clasp, he let go of her arm and looked up to meet
her gaze but instead he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

Apparently, there was a lot
of morphine in her blood. Too much. “Oh, damn.” Holding his breath, he locked
his gaze onto hers. She had a crazy, wild look in her eyes. She’d snapped. He
knew it was the morphine heightening the ferocious, unpredictable temper of her
lycan nature. And her belief that he was a murdering, blood thirsty vampire
didn’t help. 

“You don’t really want to
shoot me?” She nodded slightly. “Fuck.” She did. He couldn’t even put up a
protection shield. They were standing too close. The bullet would likely bounce
off it and hit her. The bullet wasn’t going to kill him, but it was about to
give him one hell of a headache. She was going to squeeze the trigger. It was
going to hurt bad, real bad.

“No, don’t do it, Mia!”
Caylee shouted.

Casually wrapping his arm
around Caylee and holding her close so he could shield her if Mia fired and a
bullet ricocheted, Haden smiled. “Joseph, what did you do? I thought you were
going to be on your best behavior tonight.”
I’m thinking you’re going to
regret playing with a lycan under the influence of morphine.
Haden focused
on the bullets in the gun and used his mind to remove them. It wasn’t an easy
thing to do. In fact, few of his kind could do it as quickly. But it was a
special talent Haden possessed. Also,
if you plan on playing with her again
in the future you should consider letting her know you’re not a vampire.

Joseph turned his head
slightly to glare at Haden. “I just helped her put the bracelet on.”

Lifting his brow, Haden
nodded. “Did she ask for your help?”

“Not really.”

“What? Not really?” Mia
cocked the gun. “I told you to get away from me. I told you to let go of me.”

“What do you expect? One
minute you’re trying to get me to wrestle with you and next you’re pretending
you don’t want me to touch you.” Growling, Joseph flashed his most sexy,
devilish grin. “You can’t blame me for being confused with all the mixed
signals you’re giving me.” He shrugged casually and then opened his arms wide.
“There’s no need for you to get all frustrated and worked up. This isn’t
preschool, angel. We’re not playing tag on the playground. We’re both adults.
If you want me, take me.”

“Mia,” Caylee said, “I’m
sure he didn’t mean any harm by trying to help you. You can’t shoot him because
he didn’t get away from you or because he’s acting like idiot.”

“Well,” Haden said, “she
can, and I wouldn’t blame her, but I don’t think she wants to deal with the
mess in here. It would be bad for business.”

Caylee stared up at Haden.
“Huh?”

“Don’t worry,” Haden
whispered as he opened his hand to show her the bullets.

Narrowing her gaze, Mia
squeezed the trigger. Click. “Damn.” She squeezed it again. Click. “Oh, damn
it.”

“You knew it wasn’t loaded,
right?” Jaw dropped, Joseph stared at Mia. He saw the disappointment and
frustration in her eyes and knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that when she’d
squeezed the trigger, she’d believed the gun was loaded. “Damn, woman, you’re
just … you’re so … you’re vicious. I love it.”

Mumbling obscenities, Mia
set the gun down behind the counter. She smiled up at Joseph. “It will be in
your best interest to stay the hell away from me. I never make the same mistake
twice. Next time it will be loaded.” She headed toward the door. “We’re going
to be late.”

Joseph was right on her
heels. “You will dance with me tonight, right?”

Mia whirled around and took
a step to close the tiny gap between them. Hands clenched at her sides, looking
quite ferocious, she glared up at him. “Screw you, Joseph.”

Pinning her gaze with his,
he smiled. “Anytime and anywhere, angel.”

Mia didn’t hesitate; she
certainly didn’t give him a chance to savor the fact that he was getting under
her skin. Without saying a word, she doubled up her fist and punched him right
square on the nose.

* * *

Brianna was thankful for the way Nikolas kept his arm around her
as they entered the crowded building. This particular party wasn’t just a
yearly event—it was
the
event. Hundreds of people attended it. She’d
always stayed away from it. In fact, until Julie and Mia had convinced her to
attend it, she’d never even considered it. She’d been blind from birth, so she
didn’t really understand what she was missing by not seeing her surroundings,
but she did understand that to avoid bumps and bruises from embarrassing
collisions with animate and inanimate objects, avoiding crowded gatherings was
a good idea.

Feeling as if his life had
purpose for the first time in thousands of years, Nikolas led Brianna toward a
table. He pulled a chair out and guided her into it. Hands on her shoulder, he
leaned down near her ear. “I need to go and talk to my brother.”

Oh, great. Her heart skipped
a beat and then fluttered. He’d finally come to his senses and was dumping her
off. Preparing herself to be left alone, she tried to remember the way they’d
walked. She frowned. It was going to be a challenge. Besides the fact that
they’d made several turns since they’d entered the building, she hadn’t focused
on anything other than the fabulous ways his large, heavily muscled body felt
against hers. She really hoped Julie would show up.

He chuckled softly in her
ear. “Silly woman,” he whispered. “You don’t have a chance in hell of getting
rid of me tonight.” He kissed her cheek.

“I’m fine.” She felt the
growing heat of a deep blush growing on her cheeks. She decided to get it over
with before he noticed. “I don’t need a keeper.”

“No,” he whispered, this time
his lips brushing her ear, “you don’t, but there’s no other place I would
rather be than as close to you as possible.”

Suddenly he realized his
mistake. She hadn’t seen Julie jumping up and down and waving her arms to get
their attention. She had no idea Julie was frantically shoving her way through
the crowd to get to them. “Forgive me. I should’ve explained. Your friend is
rushing over here to talk to you. I need to talk to my brother. I would take
you with me, but your friend appears to be quite desperate to speak to you. I
thought you might want to talk to her.”

“Julie?”

“Yes.” Standing upright, he
placed his hand on her shoulder. “I will be back in a few minutes. Miss me,
little one.”

“I’ve been searching all
over the place for you. I was so scared. I saw you leave on the back of a
motorcycle. You weren’t even wearing a helmet.” Julie shook her head at Nikolas
just before he turned and walked away. “Oh my God, Brianna, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. I’m
fine. Did you find Emily?”

“I did.” Julie took a deep
breath and released a heavy sigh. “She’s really messed up.”

“I’m so sorry, Julie. I’m
sure she will come to her senses and stop using drugs.”

“I hope so,” Julie replied.
“I promised to take you out on the dance floor. Do you want to go now?”

“No.” Brianna shook her
head. “I really don’t want to dance. Go ahead. Have fun.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Brianna lied. Of
course, more than anything else, she wanted to be normal; she wanted to dance.
But being blind, she’d never actually danced in public.

“He’s watching you.”

“Who?”

“Duh. Your Harley stud.”
Julie said. “He’s talking to Haden Drake. They look a lot alike.”

“They’re brothers.”

“That must’ve been one heck
of a ride on the back of his motorcycle. You’re such a lucky girl. I can’t
believe you got to have a prime piece of Drake beef between your legs.” Julie
leaned down and whispered. “Double thumbs up. He’s like totally hot.”

“What does he look like?”
Brianna whispered.

“Well, do you remember when
I told you about Haden?”

Grinning, Brianna nodded.
“It was a description I’ll never forget.”

“That’s what he looks like.
Well, his hair’s a bit lighter, and his eyes are a brownish color. He’s a tall,
dark, muscle-bound god. Basically, the man is the perfect picture of yummy, hot
sex. A lot of the women here are checking him out and glaring at you. When he
walked away from the table, a nasty-ass bitch swooped in and tried to wrap her
arm around his to drag him out onto the dance floor, but he shrugged her off
and kept walking without saying a word. He didn’t even look at her.”

“Stop teasing me.” Frowning,
Brianna lowered her brow. “You know that I can’t see anything. I hate it when
you exaggerate.”

“I swear it’s the truth.
He’s all yours for the night. I’m sure of it.” Julie leaned down to kiss the
top of Brianna’s head. “Have a blast with him, but I want details in the
morning.” Giggling, she walked away.

Brianna felt a sudden rush
of excitement so strong it caused her entire body to shiver, and then it felt
as if her entire body were submerged in warm water. It was as if the warmth
embraced her.

Julie was telling you the
truth.
Perhaps it was wrong to monitor their conversation, but Nikolas
couldn’t help himself. He was thankful for Julie’s description of him, but it
was the fact Brianna had asked that thrilled him.
I will never allow another
woman to touch me. Your touch is the only touch I want. Your love is the only
love I need. For so many years I never thought I would find you. I’m yours
forever more. I belong to you, little one, only you.

Brianna felt the heat of
Nikolas’ breath on her ear, but she knew that he wasn’t next to her. His voice
was in her mind. Seeking him out, she turned in her chair and quickly locked
her unseeing gaze onto his. She smiled.
I’m missing you.

I’m missing you too.
His
heart melted.
If you’re done with your friend, come over here and meet my
brother, little one.

No.
She
turned away from him.

Why not?
He
waited for a moment, knowing she was struggling with wanting to do it and
fearing what would happen if she dared to try it.
Merge your mind with mine,
and you’ll have all you need to do it.