Eternal Embrace (12 page)

“Gee, thanks, that’s one hell of a vote of confidence.”

“Look, Red Hot, you’re a vampire, I’m a witch and that big guy?” She pointed at Viktor with a thumb. “He’s a Lykae. But we could be wicked outnumbered so keep yourself hidden, and if you can shift, you get your shit out of there, okay?”

“Sure, I will.”
Like uh, no? Shift?
Jax hadn’t got to that little lesson.

Joey blinked and grabbed her coat when Hunter stalked over to Viktor—an honest-to-goodness werewolf—bumping him with a shoulder against his massive arm to get him moving. If he was a werewolf, why did he sound Russian? Joey frowned thoughtfully. Well, why not? Jaxon sounded American, but lived in London and didn’t sound like he was from Transylvania. And Hunter? She sounded like she could have been from the south, maybe New Orleans.

“She’ll do,” she heard Hunter murmur.

She would?

Heck, then why were her legs suddenly weak and shaky?

Chapter Ten

Jax rolled into Joey’s home, amazed to see a farmhouse and barn with tons of forest surrounding the place. The barn stood right up against a large yellow, well-maintained but old house. He scented horses, a cat and Joey all over the place, but not her presence.

Now what?
He cut the engine and opened the door to the SUV, got out and spotted a white kitten peeking at him from one of the windows.

This wasn’t Joey’s place. He sensed her recent occupancy, but there were parts of the property that smelt nothing like her. A horse neighed from the barn, maybe hungry he thought, as he walked to the porch and looked in the window. The house was empty, except for the kitten. He spotted a hospital bag, though, and read the emblem on the side. Was she working? Here?

He turned from the window, disappointment and frustration making him edgy. There was a town about an hour from here. He’d spotted it on the map, but there was also another one farther down the interstate. He turned back and examined the bag again. He could just make out the town on the crest of the hospital. Tossing his head, he struggled not to hit something. He could stay here, wait for her, she had to be home soon, but his instincts warned him to go to her—now.

His instincts had never left him in the lurch before—even with Elizabeth, they had warned him that something was off with her. With Joey, there were no warnings, no misgivings at all. She fit him. Being with her was so right that being without her was worse than the salt burying him alive all over again—or almost.

The horse or horses stomped impatiently and Jaxon knew that dawn neared. They were probably hungry, he thought and sympathised. He wanted to be fed as well.

Damned woman wasn’t even home to give him one of those hot, scorching hellos. She didn’t make it easy, but he’d find her.

He studied the rough landscape, trying to fit Joey with her sexy outfits and this desolate place together. They didn’t fit. Joey deserved silk, satin, champagne and nights of slow, erotic sex, with time to pay homage to every inch of her body. He wanted to take her to the theatres in Paris or the hot springs in Greece after swimming in the Adriatic Sea. He wanted to drape her in diamonds, pour Teuscher’s best chocolate over her rounded breasts and lick it off her tiny ribs, leaving enough to drip down to her slim stomach and pool at her perfect pussy. He wanted her to climax just from him licking her clean.

She didn’t fit in here with this simple farm life. But here was where she’d ended. Because of him? Or was it because she was now a vampire, and couldn’t risk being in the city any longer?

The thought pissed him off. He would train her, make her so strong on his blood, she’d never be in this kind of jeopardy again. Together they’d kick Death Stalker butt like nobody’s business.

She was smart. Too sexy for her own good—but hell, he could deal with that—fuck could he deal with that. He grinned, remembering how hot she’d been in his arms, how wet she’d been for him. He’d make love to her first thing, then he’d explain things. Rationalise with her if he needed to, anything to get her to seal their bond so he never had to fear for her, or her for him, again.

Decided, he headed to the SUV, started the engine and took off, for once sure that things would finally work out for them. Hell, she’d probably bite his head off, but he knew she’d also kiss him until he tore her clothes off, too.

A kind of relief settled over him at his decision. He’d make this right, show her all she needed to be strong and make sure she stayed out of trouble. With him.

His days of battling for the immortal world to the exclusion of all else were at an end. He’d keep them both so busy neither of them would get into any trouble.

* * * *

Joey had never been in such trouble before. First, Hunter was insane. And second? The guy Viktor was just as nuts.

She screamed when a huge tattooed man launched himself at her, but cut it short to swing a lead pipe at his head. She hit him in the stomach because he jumped away to avoid her. The blow vibrated all the way to her shoulders, but she didn’t lose her pipe. He flew through the air and landed with a muffled thud against a massive steel beam.

Viktor tackled him to the ground and truly, she nearly threw up when he sliced his head off with one downward slash of his sharp sword. Two more of the men engaged Viktor in a quick, deadly-looking battle. So far, all the creeps had been dressed in black from head to toe. All of them wore an inked five-pointed star on their faces. But the red glowing eyes really freaked her out. That, and the fact they were trying to kill her.

Across from her, to the right of Viktor and under a huge jagged hole in the roof of the enormous warehouse, Hunter fought with some blue sparks against a man not dressed in black. At least not completely. He wore black pants tucked into what looked like riding boots and a frilly white shirt—right off the cover of a romance novel. He also didn’t have the tat. But he had power. She’d sensed him arrive. Unlike Hunter and Viktor—and those hunky romance cover models—this guy made her want to vomit. He oozed something so horrid she refused to breathe through her nose.

A crackle of blue light shot from Hunter’s hand and at the same time the small witch spun in a circle, as if giving an additional push to her momentum. When she released another shot, it hit the man full on the chest, but instead of harming him, the sicko seemed to relish the blast.

“Ah, such a sweet touch, witch. Shall I show you mine?” He rolled his hands and from his palms, blackness flew at Hunter. The witch crossed her arms at the wrists in an x in front of her face and shouted something. Whatever the man had done, it didn’t harm Hunter. But a fresh wave of stench rising from the guy nearly had Joey vomiting. Whatever spell he’d used increased the level of nasty coming from him.

Hunter fired another blast at him. It landed a foot above his head. Joey covered her mouth to hold in the scream when one of the big wooden beams—the size of a railroad tie—fell with an enormous crash. At the last possible moment, the man walked to his left, as if he had all the time in the world.

Shit, this was not good.

A low growl sounded above her and she jumped backwards ten feet. Another man in black landed in a crouch where she’d stood and slowly rose to his full height. Oh, yeah, like six foot six of full height. She checked her grip on her pipe and swung it menacingly—she hoped—in front of her.

“Come on, you want to join your buddy?”

She heard Viktor shout something and Hunter respond, but couldn’t make out the words. The man facing her took all her concentration. With an evil smirk, he hissed, revealing fangs.
Holy shit, he’s a vampire
. The world narrowed to him and her and suddenly, she knew she might not survive.

“I want you, youngling. Resisting me is useless. Drop the pipe and come.” He motioned with his hand as if she would obey.

She didn’t bother with the ‘yeah, right’, but lowered her centre of gravity and broadened her stance. If he came at her, she had to be—

He burst into movement so fast she couldn’t track him. Instincts had her lifting the pipe and with a vicious swing, she hit him smack in the side of the head. His body toppled backwards to land awkwardly on his side. Blood, dark, evil-looking blood, oozed from his temple. Her stomach dived to her toes then back up. She fought not to be sick

From across the warehouse she heard Viktor call her name. “Way to go,
pasha
, now get your ass in the truck and start it. Run over anything that even looks like it’s still moving!” Viktor shouted, swinging his sword out and slicing through another group of the dark men. He drove one man back with a powerful attack that cut the guy from shoulder to chest. Viktor grimaced, kicked the guy off his sword and bellowed at her again. “Go!”

His shout got her moving. She dodged a dead body, leapt over a fifty-gallon drum as if it was a crack in the cement and landed on the other side in a wicked cool crouch, only to get tackled to the ground by someone much, much bigger. She used her smaller size to wiggle right out of his arms and kicked him as hard as she could in the face, then when he shot backwards, she nailed him between the legs. He fell with a muffled groan.

Never leave a man down. Not alive.

Hunter’s words had made her sick before, but now she knew exactly what the witch meant. She closed her eyes and bashed him in the head with her pipe.

When she looked again, blood flowed from a nasty cut running from his forehead down crossways over his face. She swallowed, disgusted when the blood sent her heart to racing harder. She could smell the rich, salty liquid, and
eww,
she backed away, closing her mouth tight, and refused to breathe through her nose. No way did that smell good.

Still, what she had scented made her head spin. Dizzy, she shook her head.
No time, no time to freak. Go. Go!

She spun and ran smack into another of the tattooed guys.

“What the fuck!” Was there some kinda rule here that if you knocked one out, two sprouted up?

“Vampire,” he purred, licking his lips and truly grossing her out. “I like vampire, a female too, such a prize.”

Oh, she did
not
think so. She scanned behind him, took a chance and willed herself to just a foot from the truck. The next thing she knew she was there. She hit the hood, sucked in a painful breath and turned with her pipe.

“Get in! Get in! Start it and get to Hunter!” Viktor roared, already engaging another man with a truly horrifying bombardment of fists and sword strokes.

She was trying! Geesh! Instead of screaming at the big wolf man, she raced to the door of the truck, chancing a glance back to see Mr Disgusting Likes Vampires closing in on her.

“Shit!”

He tackled her against the door and her head whacked loudly against the metal. She went limp, guessing he’d think she’d passed out. His hold on her loosened marginally. She twisted, punched the pipe upward into his trachea then scurried out from under him as he fell, clutching his neck.

Reaching the truck door, she jerked it open, jumped in, slammed the door closed, locked it and frantically tried to turn the engine. It roared to life, unlike every horror movie she’d ever watched, and she floored it hard enough to peel rubber, running over several things on her way to where Hunter still faced off with the awful-smelling guy.

Viktor gave her the flat hand signal to slow and right when she eased off the gas things went to hell. A roar sounded, different from the other wild cries she’d heard since entering the deserted warehouse. Viktor spun and froze facing her left. Through the windshield, she watched Hunter fling her hands and toss the guy across from her with some kind of witch magic. From her left, Joey spotted movement a second before someone crashed boots first through the passenger window.

She screamed and used her pipe to hit him in the head—only her hit didn’t find its mark. Abruptly she found herself in the arms of a pissed-off, nearly foaming at the mouth, Jaxon.

“Jaxon!” She stared at him, amazed at how his eyes looked black in the dim light of the warehouse. He was unshaven, his brown hair tousled all over the place, and his fangs showed when he sucked in a breath. “You’re alive!”

With a snarl, he patted her down, doing some odd things to her already racing heartbeat until she realised he was checking her for damage.

She gripped his jacket sleeves and shook the material to get his attention. “I’m fine! Would you stop! I’m fine. Where have you
been
—?”

She screamed when Viktor suddenly towered behind Jax and tried to pull him from the truck. Jax turned on him like an animal, hissing and trying to disengage from her grip—clearly ready to kill the Lykae.

“Stop! Stop! You can’t hurt him. This is Jaxon! He’s mine. Stop, stop!”

Jaxon stilled with his fist full of Viktor’s shirt, and the Lykae stared at her as if she’d just spouted nonsense. Viktor dropped Jaxon’s jacket though, and as she watched, Jaxon slowly released his own hold on the wolf. Turning only his head to face her, he breathed deeply for several strained moments of silence until his eyes slowly lost the black and his fangs eased.

“Fuck!” Hunter called out suddenly. She sounded in pain. They all jerked to look for her and without another word, Viktor raced to where they’d heard Hunter’s voice. Joey spotted her, but next to her, Jaxon tensed when he saw the guy Hunter fought. Without so much as a hello, he pulled her so close his heart beat loud and fast against her ear.

“Sonofabitch! Gerald.” He snarled the man’s name, then pulled her away enough to look at her face. “What the fuck mess have you landed in, wildcat?”

“Uh, I was looking for my friend’s killers…”

He gave her an incredulous look, then hugged her tight, with his head down on her shoulder. He turned his head and kissed her throat. “Shit, you’re not ready for this. That guy is—” He broke off and pulled away at the sound of Hunter’s curse. “Don’t fucking leave this truck, Joey.”

“
That’s
my hello?” she demanded, gripping his shirt.

He froze, and the look he gave her made her breath catch. “I’ve not even started my hello yet, darlin’, but
this
”—he pointed his finger outside the truck with a glare—“this shit is not good. Stay here, and don’t fucking move an inch.”