Opal (Rare Gems Series Book 4) (5 page)

All right, then I won
’t tell you I have a charge card there, and that Blair buys me things there just so he can tear them off me.
Her grandmother sputtered, and Sapphire told her that Opal was hurting, and badly.
I don’t know how to help her. And I’m pretty sure she’s afraid of Sloan, or at least the life he’s given her. What am I going to do to help her?

The only thing you can do, love.
Love her. But as for Sloan? He won’t harm her. I think he’s mostly afraid of you in the event that would happen. But he won’t harm her.
She could see her grandmother coming toward her, and she had a little pink bag over her arm. Sapphire started laughing. “I had to purchase something after simply standing there for so long. But I swear to you, if you tell anyone that I even went into that place, I’ll ground you for a month.”

“
Grandmother?” Opal stared at her, and Sapphire shrugged when Opal looked at her. “You called her when I hurt you?”

“
As I have been trying to tell you, you didn’t hurt me. I’m a grown woman about to give birth to this child. I can take on a temper tantrum of a newborn vampire.” Sapphire smiled gently at her sister. That’s when she saw Sloan coming toward them. “But I’m reasonably sure that your mate thinks I hurt you. Here he comes now. Try not to scream at him when he gets here. I’m pretty sure we’d get thrown from this place, and I happen to love the shops.”

He stood over Opal and only stared at her.
Sapphire wondered if he realized yet what an imposing figure he made when he did that. But apparently her sister didn’t think so and stood up to him. He took a step back, but Opal advanced until he bumped into the table behind him. The man was in love with her, she suddenly realized. Sloan loved her sister and would…Christ, he was hurting as much as Opal was.

“
Did I not tell you to leave me alone?” He started to nod, Sapphire thought, but Opal poked him in the chest as she continued. “I’m quite capable of taking care of myself. What do you have, minions running around after me so that you can keep tabs on me? If you do, I want you to call them off. I’m a wolf and have been keeping myself safe for a very long—”

“
I don’t have minions…not looking after you, anyway. I know better after the last time I sent Rufus after you. But I could feel your terror.” That shut her sister up, but Sloan wasn’t finished. Sapphire wanted to ask about what happened with Rufus, but Sloan continued before she could. “I could also feel your anger, as well as the murderous feelings you had for a few minutes. Did you kill someone? Not that I don’t think we could handle that, but I’d hate for someone to find a body in this lovely mall. But as I see no blood, I can only assume that you—”

“
I didn’t kill anyone. Not that I’m not thinking about it right now. Would you like to be my first victim? I’m sure I’d feel a great deal better even if I could simply hurt you. A lot.” Opal started to turn from him but poked him in the chest again. “What do you mean, you could handle it? Are you saying you’d cover up a murder that I did?”

“
Of course I would.” Sapphire couldn’t see Sloan’s face, but she could her sisters, and the look on her face told her that he’d shocked her. “You’re my mate. I have no choice but to protect you. And that protection extends to helping you rid yourself of the bodies if need be. I am but your humble servant.”

“
So you don’t really want to protect me, but you would because you had to.” He started to speak again, but Opal cut him off. “You know what? This is just stupid. I don’t want you here. I’m having a nice time with my sister and grandmother, so you can just go do whatever it is you were doing. I’m just fine and dandy.”

Sapphire watched him.
Sloan was trying his best not to do something, but she was reasonably sure he was going to lose the battle. When Opal turned this time to walk away, he pulled her back and to his body. They had enough people staring at them right now; if he took her, as it looked like he was going to do, they’d never be able to come here again. But he only held her to him and nothing more for a good long time.

When he spoke this time, Sapphire didn
’t know what he was saying. It wasn’t that he was speaking low that had her not understanding. It was the language. Whatever it was, whatever he said, Opal didn’t understand either, she’d bet.

Sloan let Opal go
, then walked to Sapphire. He sat at the table for several seconds before Opal joined them. The tension around the table was as thick as anything she’d ever felt. And when Sloan spoke this time, she could hear the barely-controlled anger in his voice.

“
She will need clothing. A great deal of it.” Sapphire nodded. “I have put her name on my accounts, but she is…she is…. I have to ask you to keep an accounting of what she needs, please, so that I may purchase it for her.”

“
I don’t want—” He cut Opal off with a look, and, surprisingly, she shut up. Sapphire glanced at her grandmother, who was laughing quietly but hard. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she held her hand over her mouth. There was no help there, of course.

“
I can give you a list, but I doubt very much she’d wear it if you bought it for her.” He nodded and turned to her grandmother. The smile he gave her was forced, but at least he was trying. But his words were chilling to say the least.

“
I have some news for you both. I’m very sorry, but your home was broken into tonight.” They both stood up and he asked them to have a seat. “Quentin and the others are trying to salvage what they can, but I’m afraid that the house is in a shambles. Not a loss, but still it has been torn apart. It is fixable, just messy. And most of the things that were destroyed belonged to Opal. So even if she refuses to wear what I purchase, she has no other choice.”

“
Did anyone get hurt?” He shook his head at her question, but Sapphire knew there was more to it than he was saying at the moment. “Where is Blair? Why hasn’t he…did something happen to him?”

“
He is fine now.” That didn’t make her feel any better. “I have been sent to bring you home. I assure you, all is well with him other than I think him to be more related to Opal than you are. I’ve never ran into a more stubborn family in all my years. He said that you were to finish shopping and to purchase something pretty for yourself. Blair wants to have the house set to rights before you get there.”

“
I’m going home right now.” He nodded and put his hand on her arm. She was standing in their bedroom before she could utter another word. Blair was just coming out of the bathroom, and Sloan had disappeared again.

“
I’m just fine.” Sapphire ran to his arms anyway. She could smell the fear on him and feel his pain, but nothing much more than that. He held her while she touched him everywhere she could reach.

“
Who was it?” He told her he didn’t know. “Then why are we up here and not out trying to find the bastard?” His laughter made her realize just how stupid she sounded.

“
He left a message for Sloan and his mate.” Sapphire sat down. The baby kicked her hard in the belly, and she rubbed her hand over him to sooth him. She wondered if it would be any better had she had him in her arms when Blair continued. “He was the man that found her in Paris, but I didn’t catch his name. He’d followed her from New Orleans and had hoped to take her there, but she was being followed and he had to wait. She will be watched more closely now, he said, and I would take that as gospel. Sloan was terrified when I called him.”

“
The body guard that Sloan put on her, Rufus? Is he the one that is keeping her safe? And Sloan, too, I would guess?” Blair nodded. “Tell me what it said, this note; tell me what he said about my sister.”

Instead of answering her
, he handed her a thick envelope. She almost wanted to tell him she’d changed her mind, but took it. As soon as the first picture spilled out, she looked up at him. When he reached for the rest, she told him she had to see.

They were pictures of Opal. Sapphire was sure if she fanned them just right she
’d be able to see the way her sister had been hurt like a movie. And when she saw the blood pouring from her chest and spilling out onto the floor beneath her, she put her trembling hand over her mouth. Sloan really had saved her sister’s life. Then the pictures were of another woman, another place, and this time they were only snapshots of the way she was killed, the way her face looked in pain and eventually her death. She put them into the envelope and pulled out the handwritten letter.

She will die this way. I had her first, my dear Sloan
, and when I get her, I will fuck her over and over before I begin to cut her up and have her for my meals. I know you think you have gotten the better of me by hiding her away, but I will find her. And you. I have both your scents now, and you will both suffer at my hands. This you can count on.

Sapphire looked at Blair.
“Does he know this man?” Blair nodded. “Do you think he’ll be able to get her? Get her through Sloan? And do you think this…this thing has a snowball’s chance in hell of getting past us?”

Blair laughed.
“Right now, I’d be more afraid of you than of some faceless stranger. But he has it under control, he said. Sloan said that he’d explain tonight, after the sun was down just a little more. The guy looked like…he was as angry as I’ve ever seen him. He had to…I’m assuming he had to go and see to Opal. He also told me that it’s too late for them to get their union dissolved.” She nodded, slightly embarrassed. “So it’s true? He had mated and bonded with her. Did he hurt her, you think?”

“
No, I don’t think so. In fact, I would say that he didn’t do anything that she didn’t want. Or both of them wanted. She hates him, but I think she hates herself more. I didn’t get a lot from her, but I have a feeling she’s not taking this as well as I’d think she should.” She glanced at the pictures. “I think if she saw those, she’d have a better understanding of how far he went to save her. I wonder how he got them, this person. I wonder how he managed to take these pictures and not help them when she was hurt.”

“
I don’t know. Sloan said he had an idea, but he never shared it. And he said she was never to see them. In fact, I was supposed to burn them after I saw them.” Sapphire knew he’d kept them for her to see, and she’d do the same for Opal. She had to know what had really happened in Paris and how much trouble she’d been in.

“
And this destruction from today…this is the same man? Do you think that he came here to get her and was pissed that she wasn’t here? By the way, what happened to you?” He lifted his shirt up and she saw the long mark on his chest. It looked like something out of a nightmare and she went to him. “Who did this? That man?”

“
Yeah, I think he lashed out before thinking about it. Lucky for me, I wasn’t alone when we came upon him. Justine was here getting something for the client that Opal had helped me with. We sort of heard him trashing Opal’s room. Don’t ask me how he got in because I have no idea. But there he was coming out of her room when I went to find a drawing Opal had done for me with the logo you and she were working on. He looked…well, he looked like he thought it funny that I’d caught him. Almost like…I told Sloan this, but he looked like he was relieved that I caught him.” Blair shivered and stood up. “He said he was glad to see me again. I had no idea what he was talking about until he lashed out at me. I fell back and the next thing I knew, Sloan was there fighting him. I think he might be hurt, too, but he was suddenly gone and I was picking my ass up off the floor. Do you suppose this guy, this other vampire, is the one that Rufus was talking about a few weeks ago?”

She didn
’t know, but she was going to find out. The first thing she did was contact her other sisters. Then she called in the other troops. It was war time and she had a family to protect. The moment this bastard had touched what was hers, he was as good as vampire tar-tar.

Chapter
4

Fletcher woke with a start. He knew that he wasn’t in his lair, but where he was—at the moment anyway—eluded him. Then he remembered with full clarity and smiled. Sitting up, he looked around the blood-soaked room. He’d been very busy and he felt wonderful for it.

“
You should really clean up after each meal. This room reeks of death.” He grinned bigger when he saw his friend and sometimes lover come out of the shadows. “You’ve been playing at God again?”

“
No. I’ve been playing at being Him. Create, then murder. Isn’t that the way we’re supposed to do this shit?” He stretched his naked body and wrapped his hand around his semi-hard cock. “Come over here and let me fuck you.”

“
I’m not in the mood for you to get your jollies off while I get nothing. But I brought you a treat.” Fletcher pouted but didn’t stop what he was doing. He knew Marvin and also knew that mood or not, he’d suck his dick if he wanted him to. When the man finally dropped before him and took him deep into his mouth, a second person, one he didn’t know, stepped up to him.
Drink from her so that I can get my own relief. It’s been too long. And I suddenly need me some Fletcher cock.

The woman was naked
, and gloriously plump. Before she could do much more than run her tongue over his nipple, he pulled her to his mouth and bit deeply into her throat. Her blood was spiked with something sweet and he drank greedily. Then it hit him. Faerie.