From the Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) (22 page)

I smiled tentatively and raised a hand to cup his cheek, my thumb tracing his jaw as I said, “Believe it or not, knowing you feel that way helps me feel a little better. So you are doing something about it. Just being here for me, Race, and not running away because I’m such a fucking mess… That helps.”

Race smiled. “Juliette, I couldn’t run away from you even if I wanted to. You’re in my head and you’re in my heart—no matter where I am, you’ll always be with me.”

My smile widened. “That’s probably the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me,” I told him, and lifted my head to brush his lips with my own. I could sense his hesitation to kiss me back so I pushed my tongue into his mouth. In my head I crowed in victory as he groaned and gave in, slowly tightening his
arms around me and drawing me against his chest.

As our kiss deepened, Race’s hand skimmed down my side, brushing the side of my breast and feathering down my ribs toward the rise of my hip, before he lightly traced his fingers across my navel. He moved ever so achingly slowly toward the curls over my sex and I whimpered into his mouth, moving my own hand down to cup his behind and lifting my leg to encourage him. Needing no further direction, Race lowered his hand and tweaked my clitoris between his thumb and forefinger. I cried out and threw my leg over his, drawing us even closer together. I could feel his manhood growing harder against my belly and I took my hand from his ass and reached for it as he began to stroke my folds. Already I was wet for him again, and my hips thrust against his hand almost of their own volition, craving more of his touch.

I threw my head back and cried out again as he dipped first one, then two fingers inside me, pushing them in and out as his mouth traced my jaw, leaving a trail of hot, wet kisses. Rolling gently so that I was once again on my back, he nipped and licked and kissed his way from my ear down my neck, to the valley between my breasts, his hand all the while becoming more insistent. Of course, so was mine as I stroked him, the two of us both tilting into each other’s hand as we sought to pleasure one another. I could feel my release building and I wanted him to be inside me when I came.

“Race,” I said, calling his name breathlessly. “Race please…I need you…”

“I need you too, baby,” he replied, and I released him. Race moved in between my legs and entered me swiftly. The hand he had stoked my fire with raised to his mouth and he sucked my essence off his fingers, then kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as our tongues and bodies danced together, slowly at first but steadily increasing pace. I wanted us to come together but I was so well prepared by his expert hand that I was soon screaming, my nerves exploding as ecstasy washed over me in wave after wave. Race’s roar of pleasure followed not long after.

The next morning, when Race and I joined Mark and Saphrona for breakfast, I could tell immediately that something was bothering my brother by the tight set of his shoulders. Curious but not wanting to call him out in front of the others, I resolved to ask him about it later. Conversation was light during the meal, and the dinner with my parents was mentioned as well as my intention to see Jake. Race, thankfully, didn’t do anything more than raise an eyebrow at my announcement that I was planning to spend time alone with another man—though I could still tell he was bothered by it. I hoped that once he met Jake, he’d relax.

Saphrona, perhaps sensing my lover’s discomfort, suggested I invite Jake over to dinner. I was surprised enough to blurt out “But isn’t this supposed to be a family dinner?”

The hybrid laughed and replied, “Jake’s a part of your pack, isn’t he? That makes him family too.”

Speaking of the pack, she’d added, if I thought it a good idea, I was welcome to invite more of them. “After all,” Saphrona po
inted out, “isn’t it wise that they get to know me? Do you think Lochlan should come too, so they know he’s okay?”

“The weather
is
supposed to be unseasonably warm today,” Mark added. “Be as good a time as any to have a last cookout of the year. As long as nobody sprouts fur or drops fang, Dad shouldn’t have a problem.”

I nodded. “Dad
dy actually knows most of the pack anyway, just doesn’t know that aspect. And you’re right, Saphrona. It’s a good idea that the pack gets to know who you are and who your brother is, at least. I’d say you should invite your father too, and get that over with, but none of us like him so I don’t think we’ll mind one bit if his invitation is conveniently lost.”

We all laughed at that, and since we were likely to have more people—the pack wasn’t going to turn down free food if they weren’t busy, I’d noted—when breakfast was over Saphrona sat down to make a list of additional foods to buy while I started making phone calls and sending text messages. Race joined Mark in doing the farm work, which that Sunday morning consisted merely of turning the five animals out and clearing
poop out of the stalls.

After talking briefly with my mother she took on the job of contacting members of the pack off my shoulders, having agreed that the impromptu party was a good idea. I
called Jake next and got his voicemail, so I left a message about the cookout that afternoon and went in search of Saphrona. I found her in the office at the back of the house.

“Saphrona, can I ask you something?” I spoke up when she turned to me.

“Sure. What is it?”

I stepped further into the room and propped myself on the edge of her desk with one hip. “Mark seemed…well, agitated this morning. Do you know what that was about?”

Proof that blood flowed in her part-vampire veins showed itself in the color that came to her cheeks. “Last night, um… We heard you scream, and not in a good way. It was all I could do to stop Mark running into the apartment to beat the tar out of your boyfriend.”

I felt my own cheeks flush and dropped my head into my hands. Groaning, I lifted them and ran them through my hair, saying, “Race didn’t hurt me. I don’t believe he ever would.”

“So what happened, Juliette?”

I looked down at my hands. “Race and I were about to make love when I had a flashback,” I told her. There was no need to specify just what it was I had flashed back to.

Saphrona laid a comforting hand on my knee. “I’m sorry to hear that. Are you guys alright now?”

I shrugged. “As alright as can be when there he was about to take me and I was remembering being raped.
Which is so damn stupid! We made love twice yesterday and I didn’t have that problem. Why did it have to happen this time?”

“Well, not to get too personal—you certainly don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to—but what exactly was he doing to you when you had the flashback?” Saphrona asked.

My cheeks colored again and I almost said nothing, but then thought maybe if I talked it out with her, I could figure out what it was myself. “Well, we were on the bed, and he was holding my wrists over my head. I remember that while he wasn’t hurting me, I couldn’t get free…and then I was back in that awful nightmare, tied to that bed…”

Wanting to stop the memories that were flooding my mind once again, making it hard to breathe, I stopped talking. I had to concentrate hard on settling my nerves so I could breathe normally again, and thankfully Saphrona was silent while I did so.

“It would seem that your subconscious mind equated your inability to break free of Race with your inability to break free of the cords binding you to the bed,” she said at last.

“But Race would never hurt me!” I shouted.

“I know that, and you know that. I’m sure Race and Mark know that too,” she replied calmly, unfazed by my outburst. “Unfortunately, we can’t control the actions of our subconscious, which as you’re aware now, often chooses the most inopportune moments to remind us of things we’d rather forget.”

I was reminded of the fact that by drinking the blood of their sire, a vampire could gain the memories of the
one that had created him. Saphrona had drank her father’s blood as part of an elaborate ceremony and learned an awful truth about him that she’d had to live with, leading her to hate him, for nearly two hundred years.

I then remembered that Mark and Race were alone together out in the barn, and dropped my head into my hands again. “Ugh…” I groaned. “No doubt Mark is reading Race the riot act now.”

“I certainly hope not, though knowing him as I do, he’s at least going to have words with him about what happened,” Saphrona agreed.

“But he didn’t hurt me,” I said again. “Race didn’t do anything wrong, it was just a stupid memory.”

Saphrona nodded. “And I’m sure Mark will see that once Race tells him what happened. Don’t worry, Juliette. I’m sure everything will be fine between them. They were friends once, and I know Mark well enough to know that he’s really happy to have a friend he can share the truth with.”

“Race is too,” I said. “When he was telling me about having to leave when he first turned, how he’d wanted so much to tell Mark… I could see how hurt he was by not being able to share it with anyone. How much it hurt him to believe for so long that he was the only one of his kind.”

“Technically he is, isn’t he?”

“Yes and no,” I replied. “When we ran into Lochlan yesterday
and told him what Race really was, he told us that he’d actually met the last Beast Master when he was still a young vampire. She was researching the origin of the chimaera and he helped her, apparently. Said he’d always been more fascinated with shapeshifters than antagonistic toward them. Anyway, they concluded that the DNA sequences that turn a werekind into a chimaera are simply a genetic anomaly that crops up every so often at random. Race’s father is more than likely a single-form shapeshifter, same as Marian’s was.”

“And what
wereform was her shifter parent, just out of curiosity?” Saphrona asked.

I snorted.
“A wolf. Which I said probably explained the wolves’ superiority complex.”

Saphrona laughed and I laughed with her, glad to feel the tension lessen. She then went over the list she’d made with me and I pointed out that we’d need more meat and soda, as shifters tended to eat quite a bit.

“Do you think Lochlan will want to be here?” I asked suddenly.

She paused in the midst of writing something down. “I honestly don’t know. He didn’t answer when I called so I left him a message. I think it would be good for your
packmates to meet Loch, but fascination with shifters or not, I don’t know if he’ll want to meet them.”

I pondered that for a moment, and after mentally reviewing his odd behavior yesterday, found myself inclined to agree with her.

When Mark and Race entered the house a few minutes later, I was relieved to hear them laughing. I had no doubt as I went to greet them that Mark had asked Race about the scream he’d heard, and apparently whatever Race had said by way of explanation had been sufficient to cool his ire.

“So, what are you ladies planning to do today, now that all the work is done?” Race asked as he grabbed me by the waist and planted a kiss on my nose.

“Juliette and I will be going shopping for food. Monica seems to think—and Juliette agrees—that several of the pack will come,” Saphrona replied.

“I’m telling you, it’s a shifter thing,” I said. “We eat a
lot
of food, especially those of us who are shifting regularly. All the calories are required to keep up our energy levels.”

My cell phone rang from my pocket, and I recognized the ringtone as the one I’d assigned to Jake’s number.

“Hey, Jake,” I greeted him. “Glad you got my message.”

“What’s this about a cookout?” he replied.

I had to laugh. “And here we were just talking about the bottomless pit that is the shifter stomach. Your ears must have been burning.”

“Come on, Jules—you know I can’t turn down a free meal,” Jake replied, laughing as well.

“No shifter I have ever met could, my friend. And hey, if you come over, we can have that talk you wouldn’t have over the phone,” I added.

My words caused t
hree pairs of eyes to turn my way in curiosity, but I ignored them. “That’s actually another reason I called,” Jake was saying in my ear. “I, uh… I’d like to bring someone with me.”

My eyebrows winged up at this news. “Jake, did you imprint and conveniently forgot to tell me last night?” I asked him.

“No, it’s nothing like that. If I had I would have told you, seeing as you told me about your imprinting an all,” my friend told me. “It’s just… I guess you could say I’m seeing someone. She’s not my imprint, but God do I wish she was. And no one in the pack knows about this. You’re the first person I’ve told.”

I felt honored he would tell me first, and said as much. “And go ahead and bring your friend, Jake. There will likely be others of the pack here, so be prepared to reveal your little secret.”

I listened to him sigh. “Yeah, I suppose it’s about time I told them too. So I guess the party will get started around two o’clock?”

“Yeah, that’s what we decided. See you then.”

After Jake said goodbye, I hung up and looked at the three expectant expressions around me. “Jake, it would seem, has chosen the same path as Saphrona—he’s not just going to wait on the sidelines for his mate to come along.”