The Faerie Master (Aaron's Kiss Series) (6 page)

The woman looked down at him then at the woman on the bed.
He growled at her.
He wasn’t sure why it was important to make them stay away from the woman, but he knew that he would kill anyone who tried to touch her again.

The man he’d been trying to kill kneeled down in front of him.
Again, his mind tried to grab something, but like before, it was gone.
He stared at the man trying to remember, trying to pull something out.

“Shawn, do you know who I am?
It’s Aaron, Aaron MacManus.
We’ve been friends for centuries.
You were supposed to be here days ago, almost two weeks now.
I don’t know what happened, I couldn’t reach you.” He started to reach forward when Shawn growled again.
“I’m going to touch your head.
I want to see if you’re hurt, don’t fight me. Sara, my mate, has you in a hold that you won’t be able to break.”

The calm of his voice moved over him.
For as much as he wanted to fight against his touch he was comforted with his voice, or the memory of it.
He closed his eyes at the overwhelming need to pull him into an embrace.

“Aaron, Cade has been hurt, almost drained by someone.
And she smells like him.
Do you think he bit her and took too much?
Oh, Christ, look! He didn’t seal this off. She’s bleeding to death.”

The man disappeared from his view then he was standing over the girl.
Shawn growled again, this time deeper and with more meaning.
He was going to kill this man when he was let go.
She was his, his...his something.
Food, she was his food.
But he knew that wasn’t right either.

The man who called himself Aaron came back and Shawn tried to lunge at him.
Need to protect was beating at him and he didn’t understand.
Pain radiated from his head, not like it had when he had first woke up, but almost as intense.
He realized the man, Aaron he had called himself, was talking.

“...dies.
You understand me, Shawn.
You fed from her and she’s still bleeding. You have to seal the wound or she dies.
I’m going to have Sara release you, but if you try to hurt me or my mate then she’ll pull you under again.
The girl on the bed needs you.
If you don’t seal the wound you opened then I won’t have any choice but to claim her as my child and turn her.
I know you can understand me. If you want to help her, blink twice at me.
If you don’t care then come at me. Sara, release him.”

“Aaron, I don’t think this is a good—”

“Sara, honey, I think Cade is his mate.
I don’t know why he didn’t seal the wounds and frankly, I don’t care.
But we will have to convert her if he doesn’t help her.
There is a huge bump at the back of his head and I’m betting that he had lost a great deal of blood if the stain on his shirt is any indication.
I don’t think he knows who I am either.
Please, let him go.
But be ready.”

He tried to think, but the pain was nearly too much.
The girl’s need too, it was making him ache to be with her.
He wanted to touch her.
Blinking twice, he stared up at the man.

He could feel the hold lessen.
He didn’t move until he felt the bond completely gone.
He sat up on the floor and looked at Aaron.
His head hurt, but he could also feel the pull of the girl.

“I don’t know who I am.
I don’t know who you are either.
Something happened, I...someone stabbed me and I found her.
She fed me and I took her.
Tell me...tell me how to help her.”

“You didn’t seal the wounds on her wrist.
I can feel the mark on her neck, but it’s sealed. It’s your mark on her.
Shawn, you have to seal the one on her wrist then feed her.
If you don’t she will die.
Do you know what she is to you?”

“You said mate.
That sounds right.
The word sounds right to me.
You know me?
We are...we’re friends?”

“Yes, very good friends.
I have a place you can stay.
You can stay in one of the suites below ground until tonight when we can talk.
It’s getting late and I must retire soon, as will you.
Heal her and then I’ll show you to your rooms.”

“She comes with me.
The girl, she...I need her to be with me.
I won’t harm her.
I just need to know that she’s close, that I can touch her.”
He didn’t know why, but he felt that if he didn’t have her close enough to touch he would go insane.

“Yes, of course.
As soon as you’ve fed her and sealed the wound you can bring her.
Her name is Cade.
Cade Smith.
She works for my family.
We’ll talk more later.
Sara and I will be downstairs. Come down when you’re ready.
But please don’t linger, it’s nearly noon now.”

Aaron and Sara walked out.
Shawn could tell Sara did not want to leave him with Cade. Hell, he wasn’t sure if she should or not, but he also knew he couldn’t hurt her.
Getting up, he walked over to the bed and arranged her more comfortably on the blanket then looked at her.

She was beautiful.
Her hair tumbled over the pillow and blanket beneath her, a red so deep it defied nature.
He knew it was natural. He couldn’t smell any dyes or bleaches on her.
Her brows were arched perfectly over closed eyes that he remembered to be a dark blue. There were dark circles under them and her skin so pale he knew that the freckles that danced over her nose and forehead would be there to see when she was healthy and awake.
Her nose was cute, though he did not know where that word had come from.
It was slopped and small, a button on her face.
Cheek bones stood out prominently, making him think of the queens and princesses he had met in his lifetime.
Her lips were pale too, but looked plump.
It was then that he realized he had not kissed her.
He had taken her, came deep inside of her, but had not tasted her.
Leaning close to her he could smell her blood and
,
with a quick brush of his mouth over hers, he picked up her bloodied wrist.

He had bitten her badly.
And if he did not have the power to seal the wound he had made she would have a deep and ugly scar.
Bringing her wrist to his mouth he couldn’t help but taste her once more.
Her spice, her flavor, surged through him.
Licking his tongue over the open wound and taking a little more into his mouth, he sealed the tear in her skin.

Need rippled through him and his cock hardened more.
He wanted her, all of her.
But he knew that she needed his blood to live. Her heart rate was slowing, her breaths low and slow.
He opened a vein on his own wrist and pressed it to her mouth.
His fangs lengthened again at the thought of her drinking from him, of her sucking his blood from his vein.
When she did not respond at first Shawn leaned down to her ear and spoke gently to her.

“Cade, I need you to sip from me.
Drink what I offer you so that I can take to you properly this time.
You’ve no idea how the feel of you wrapped around me felt, the way you tightened that hot pussy around my cock when you came.
When we make love next time I will suckle at these hard nipples, pull them deep into my mouth and drink from them.
Cade, my cock aches for you.
Drink, Cade.
Please, sweetheart, drink from me.”

The first time her tongue touched his skin he thought he would come up off the bed.
When he felt her pull on his vein he shifted around on her and
,
using his free hand, cupped her sex.
With e
very pull of her mouth he pressed hard against her clit.
Her moans had him leaning down and taking her cloth-cover
ed
breast into his mouth as he continued to fuck her with his fingers and hand.

“That’s it, baby, drink.
I need to mark you again, love.
I want you to come and
,
when you do, I’m going to bite you and bring you to peak again.
Ride my hand, Cade.
That’s it, baby.
Fuck, I want you.
I want to tear off your clothes and slam into you.
Come, Cade. Now!”

Her climax was quick.
When she tightened her thighs around his hand he pulled his wrist from her mouth and
,
with a quick swipe of his tongue, sealed it.
Then he slanted his mouth over hers as she began to scream her release.
His mouth devoured her, claimed her.
His tongue swept through her mouth and touched every dark, sweet place it could reach. Her hands wrapped into his hair and she pulled him close, closer still as she continued to jerk under his hand.
Pulling away, working his mouth down her slender neck, he found her pulse and licked the area then plunged his fangs in quickly.
A second climax as powerful as the first gripped her.

He couldn’t take much, but he did feel her essence as it filled him.
Only drawing enough to taste and not feed he sealed those tiny pricks as well, careful to make sure he had sealed the wound fully.
As she lay there jerking and beginning to calm he nuzzled at her neck and inhaled.
Warmth, apples and bread
,
and home. She smelled like home to him.

When he was sure she would be all right he picked her up in his arms and carried her downstairs.
She was tall, he realized, and slender.
Hugging her tighter to him he followed Aaron to the sublevels and laid Cade on the big bed.
After Aaron left him Shawn went to strip her clothing from her.
He stopped when he got to her bra and panties.
He somehow knew that if she woke up naked with him in the bed next to her she would be angry.
That made him smile.
He was sure that she would be spectacular when she was pissed off.

~CHAPTER 5~

Cade woke to a dark room.
The bed beneath her made her aware she was not in her cave but in a household.
The last thing she remembered was the kitchen and kids.
Shifting to move off the bed something tightened around her waist.
Fear washed over her.
A man was beside her.

Lifting the heavy arm up off her seemed simple enough, but he—and it could only be a man because of the massive size of the arm—kept pulling her back to him.
She finally managed to get out from beneath him only to discover she was nearly naked.
Sitting on the floor, she crawled around until she found a chair leg.
Patting the seat she found a pair of pants and a shirt, but from the size she guessed they were his.
Pulling on the shirt she crawled to what she hoped was the door, feeling around for her clothes as she went.
And of course, when she got to the door, it was locked. She was just trying to get it opened when a click and a light flared behind her.