Stephen (3 page)

Closing her eyes, she tried to let the pain pills she’d taken do their magic. Thoughts of the vampire kept her awake more than she thought necessary, and when someone touched her mind, she nearly kept them out. But the lion was trying to reach her, and she let him in just enough to see what he wanted.

You should know that the council needs to speak to you.
Ignoring him for the moment, she waited for him to continue.
I don’t suppose you’d tell me how badly you’re hurt, would you? I’m concerned only because a vampire hurt you, and Stephen is upset.

Who’s that?
She hadn’t meant to say anything, but she found she wanted to know if this Stephen person knew the man she’d killed.

He is the vampire you saved.
Clar liked the name but said nothing to the lion.
My name is Samuel, Samuel Payne. If you need anything, you can—

No thanks. I’ve got everything I need where I am. What else do you want? And don’t give me any bullshit about how you were concerned about my welfare. I’m not stupid.

I am concerned about you. Stephen is as well. He’s resting now but wanted me to see if I could see if you’d meet with him.
A lie. She had no idea why she knew it but did and called him on it.
Okay, he’d just as soon never meet you, but I don’t think that’s going to work either. He’s tasted your blood.

Clar sat up quickly, tearing at the wound. He’d tasted her blood? That wasn’t possible. They’d never touched, much less been close enough for him to bite her. Then she looked down at her bloodstained pants and knew that had to be it. Some of her blood had been left behind.

“
Why would he taste my blood?” She’d spoken out loud, her voice echoing around her. But the man answered her as well. Clar felt her body turn to ice.

He wanted to know who saved his life. You should also know that you’re his mate. Do you know what that is?
She did, but didn’t answer the lion. She had to get things going and find a safe place, if there was one, to hide out until she was strong enough to fight him if need be.

Clar knew that in her current condition, leaving was out of the question, so she had to make do with what she had. Looking around the cave, she wondered if she could go deeper, but decided that if she locked herself up tight, he’d never find her.

You tell him to mind his own business and you do the same. I’m fine. If you contact me again, you’re going to hurt like a motherfucker, so I would advise against it.
He told her he couldn’t do that. She was in his pride now.
Fuck your pride. I’m not going to tell you this again. Stay the fuck away from me and you’ll be just fine.

Locking down her head, she felt him try to get to her again. The pain she sent to him was a bit too much, she knew, but if he got the message right away, maybe he’d stop. But for some reason she doubted he’d be that smart. The vampire either. Pulling her blanket over her chilled body, she lay there trying to think what to do now. This was all she needed, a pain in the ass lion and a vampire that thought she’d be his next meal.

Chapter 2

Vinnie watched Stephen as he paced the large office. The faeries that had been there when he’d entered were now on the ceiling, and probably would stay there until Stephen left. It wasn’t as if they were afraid of him biting them, but he just might step on one of them. Vinnie looked at his computer when it chimed.

The email had been one he’d been waiting on. And since Stephen had not said a single word other than he needed to talk since he’d entered, Vinnie decided to work. He leaned forward in his chair to answer the mail. He was nearly finished with it when Stephen finally sat back down.

“
Are you going to ignore me when I come to talk to you?” Vinnie finished the letter before he hit send. When he was finished, he looked at his friend.

“
First of all, you should know that you are in a pissy mood, and while I think it’s funny, I won’t put up with you taking it out on me. Secondly, you’ve been here for over an hour pacing this office like it was your job and have not said a fucking thing. I have, believe it or not, a job that requires me to keep abreast of things going on around me. Unlike you, I enjoy working.” When Stephen started to speak, Vinnie cut him off. “If this has anything to do with the woman who saved your life, I agree with you. Stay the fuck away from her and you’ll be just fine.”

“
I don’t think I can do that anymore. And I’m assuming you heard this information from Big Mouthed Samuel.” Vinnie shook his head. “Then who? You didn’t get it from Joann down at the diner, did you?”

“
Nope. Kennedy told me.” Vinnie laughed when Stephen cursed. Kennedy had only said it in passing and he’d gotten most of the information from Samuel. But it was fun to see Stephen get all worked up about it. “She said you should find the girl, fuck her until she can’t walk, and have a passel of kids.”

She’d not said that, but again he was having entirely too much fun not to rib his friend as much as he could. He’d wait to tell him he had someone go to the diner who had “talked” to the seat and cup where the girl had been, but wasn’t sure that was a good idea either. Vinnie knew a great deal about the faceless woman now, thanks to his new partner, Hawk. The man was a miracle worker when it came to knowing about such things.

It took Stephen another ten minutes before he sat back down. Vinnie had answered two more emails and had contracted a job that he’d been wanting to do for years now. When it looked like his friend was calmer, he turned off the monitor and leaned back again.

“
She’s hurt. Not just from the vampire, but she’s got a couple of broken ribs. Hawk isn’t sure what happened there, but she is hurting.” Grateful that Stephen didn’t ask him how Hawk knew, Vinnie continued. “She’s running from a man, but his name is vague or she’s doing a fucking fantastic job of keeping it locked in that mind of hers. And she’s living nearby. A cave, he thinks.”

“
Samuel said she hurt him when he tried to contact her, blasted back at his head like a cannon going off. He seems to think that she’s a clairvoyant or something. The fact that she knew the man trying to kill me was a vampire as well as Samuel being a lion leads me to believe that she’s had some contact with our kind.” Vinnie nodded. He’d thought the same thing when Samuel had told him that she’d called him lion, not by his name.

“
Her name is Clar, but I don’t think that’s really it. And so you know, the faeries are out looking for her. I figured they’d have a better chance than wolves or anything else in finding where she had hidden.” Stephen nodded, and Vinnie continued. “I’ve gone out too, but all I could find was a few humans hanging around where they shouldn’t be and I ran them off. I think…she’s being chased, but I don’t know by who.”

Stephen sat there for a long time, and Vinnie knew he was thinking how to ask him. He wouldn’t tell him anything unless Hawk okayed it. The man was terrified that someone would find out that he could talk to things that didn’t have a pulse. But when Stephen got up to pace again, Vinnie continued telling him what they knew.

“
Her abilities aside, did you get anything else from her blood other than that she’s your mate? Like what she might be?” Stephen shook his head and stared out the darkened window of Vinnie’s office. Several of the faeries came down from the ceiling to sit on his desk. One of them, Yve, sat on his keyboard and looked up at him.

“
She’s been found. She is not…she will need him, but if he does not want her, I will have them leave her where she is.” Meaning, Vinnie knew, that she’d let her die. “It is better that she die than to be unwanted by him, my lord. We can only do so much with someone like her. And her mother was someone we all know of.”

“
It’s not our decision to make. And you’ll tell me later what you know of her mother. Deal?” Yve nodded, and Stephen turned to look at him when he spoke. “They’ve found her. And she might not be in the best of shape. Yve will leave her there if you’d really like to be rid of her.”

“
She’s dying.” Vinnie nodded, and Stephen sat down. “I…can they take me to her? Will they? I don’t know what I’ll do when I find her, but can they take me to her?”

“
I will not, my lord.” Yve stood up and flew to Stephen. “We will not have her suffer at the hands of another. She is kind, it is said, and when she leaves an area, she makes it better than when she was there. Her footprint is very small when she is in residence to one of our places.”

“
You know that she’s my mate, don’t you?” Yve nodded but said nothing as Stephen continued. “I don’t want a mate this late in my life. I’m thousands of years old, and she will… I don’t know what to do with her.”

“
Love her comes to mind.” Yve didn’t say anything when Stephen shook his head. But she did come back to Vinnie and looked up at him. She would tell him if he ordered her to, but he really didn’t want to do that. As a dragon, the faerie cared for him in ways that no one else could.

He asked Yve how bad it was. “She will be gone by morning if nothing is done. Her fever is taking its toll on her, as is the loss of blood. I fear that she will be a great loss if no one cares for her. What will you do if he chooses to leave her there?”

He would do nothing, and she knew it. It was not his place to care for another man’s mate. But he also knew that if Stephen did let her die, he would no longer be his friend. There were some things that could not be forgiven. And leaving a female to die, of any species, was something that should never be done

“
Tell me where she is. I’ll care for her.” They both looked at Stephen, who looked as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “I don’t have to mate with her now that I’ve taken her blood, but I don’t want her to die alone either.”

Yve moved back to Stephen and touched his head before she spoke. “You will do as you promise to me, Master Vampire, or I will rain a hell on you that will be a match to nothing you’ve ever seen before.”

“
I promise you I will care for her. I won’t love her or keep her as my mate, but I will make sure that she has what she needs to live.”

For some reason, Vinnie didn’t think it would be that simple. And he had a feeling Yve didn’t think so either.

They all left together, and Vinnie contacted Samuel to let him know what they were doing. Samuel said he’d meet them in the glen below the mountain where she was, and Kennedy said she’d bring one of the doctors from the clinic. Yve rode on his shoulder as he shifted and took her there. Vinnie looked into the cave, as he was the first to arrive.

The place smelled of death. But the room where she lay was in direct contrast to what he’d been led to believe a homeless person might have lived like. Everything was in neat order, from her firewood stacked nearby, the flames now gone cold, to the walls where she’d put books and candles on the small outcrops. He even liked the way she’d used old crates with vines woven in them to keep them straight. Vinnie walked toward the bundle on the floor as far from the opening as possible without going too deep into the cave.

She was still breathing, and the heat coming from her made him think of the fire that burned in his belly most of the time. Her hair was soaking wet and tangled about her head. There were scratches on her face and a bruise just below her left eye. Vinnie wondered if she’d done that when she’d saved Stephen. He pulled the blankets from her body just as someone appeared in the doorway.

Stephen looked…well, he was going to say pale, but he always looked that way. But the man did look afraid. Of what, he wasn’t sure, but he knew that some of it had to do with being in the dark place. Stephen had hated closed, dark places for as long as he’d known him. Vinnie looked at Samuel when his big cat came into the room just behind Stephen.

“
She is still with us.” Yve turned to look at him before she continued speaking. “She will not last the night if help is not given to her soon.”

“
I told you I’d help her, and I will.” Stephen came forward and stopped just short of her body. “She’s burning up. Why is she so hot and shaking?”

“
She is human. The fever is taking her and will soon finish what the wound has not. The wound is infected and will need to be cleaned. I can do that if you wish.” Stephen shook his head at Yve and knelt down beside the woman. He touched his finger to her cheek and his face seemed to harden.