The Gathering (22 page)

She was breathtaking.

He knew with every fiber of his being he
should turn away, go back inside the house, and forget he saw her
but he was moving toward her even as he tried to talk himself out
of it.

She turned to look over her shoulder at him.
Her eyes seemed to glow and he slowed his steps. When she smiled
coyly, he wondered again if she wasn’t playing some vampire trick
on him. His body was hard just looking at her, his muscles taunt.
The wolf was restless, her scent teasing them both. He could taste
it on the back of his tongue, thick and sweet.

When she laughed and sprinted across the
field for the forest, Bryce’s wolf slammed against his bones. He
was chasing her moments later.

The forest was shadowed, the trees filtering
the moonlight into patches of glowing beams. Bryce let the wolf out
enough to enhance his vision and spotted Lydia moments later. The
chase was invigorating. He didn’t know vampires were as quick as
Lydia seemed to be. He had trouble catching her. When he was
finally close enough to touch her, she twisted to the side, darted
out of his reach, and laughed before leaning back against a nearby
tree.

Bryce stared at her, trying to catch his
breath. Her eyes were still glowing, her chest heaving for air he
knew she didn’t need. Turning to face her, he let his gaze linger
over her form.

The white gown she wore clung to her breasts.
They were full and round, her nipples hard and straining against
the material.

She was beautiful and he hated her even more
for it.

“You still dislike me,” she said.

“Dislike is putting it mildly.”

She smiled. “Why?”

“I have my reasons.”

“I see.”

“I doubt you do.”

“Oh, but you’re wrong.” She folded her hands
behind her, tilted her head to one side and Bryce fought the need
to go to her. To bury his hands in her hair. “It isn’t me you
dislike but vampires in general.”

She had that part right, at least. Bryce
stared at her but didn’t comment. “Why?”

Why? Bryce chuckled but there wasn’t anything
funny about what he was thinking. Why did he hate vampires? The
reasons were so numerous he wasn’t sure he could list them all. “It
doesn’t matter why.” He glanced back at the forest, in the
direction of the house. “What are you doing to me, Lydia?”

Her lips parted, the corners tilting up a
fraction before she answered. “You want me.”

Her voice still sounded raspy from the damage
the wire around her neck caused but it scored his flesh like knives
to hear it. He looked at her face, met her eyes, and saw his own
desire reflected there. “Yes. Despite everything I’ve tried to do
to prevent it, I still want you and I want to know why.”

She took a step away from the tree. Grabbing
the edges of the gown, she pulled it off her shoulders, the
material sliding down her body to pool at her feet. She stood naked
before him and Bryce looked his fill as every delicious inch of her
was bared for his hungry gaze.

He couldn’t remember seeing a more perfect
pair of breasts. Her waist was small, her hips flared, and the
small triangle of hair at the apex of her legs glistened in the
filtered light from the moon.

His wolf slinked along his limbs, urged him
forward when he once again caught her scent on the wind. He didn’t
fight his reluctance to go to her for long. When he stood within
inches from her, he glanced at all she offered him before looking
back at her face. “What are you doing to me?”

“Nothing.” She reached for his hand, lifted
it to her left breast, her eyes closing as his palm made contact
with her flesh.

Her skin was cool, not cold as he suspected
it would be. Her lips were parted, the small pink tip of her tongue
resting just inside her mouth. He rasped her nipple with his thumb,
watching the pink bud tighten as she sucked in a harsh breath.

Bryce lifted his other hand, his fingers
climbing into her hair before he lifted her head so she’d look at
him. “If you’re doing nothing, then why do I want you the way I
do?”

She leaned toward him, pushing her breast
closer to his palm. “We share a connection.”

“What sort of connection?”

The vibrant shade of green her eyes usually
were faded, and the cool ice blue he’d seen the day she attacked
him now shined like pinpricks in the darkness. “It doesn’t matter
at the moment what the connection is.” She reached for him, her
arms sliding around his waist as she leaned up on her toes and
kissed him before he could form another thought. The instant her
lips touched his, fire raced through his veins. His cock hardened
painfully when her tongue pushed past his lips, teasing the inside
of his mouth.

His grip on her tightened, his fingers
digging into her scalp. As much as he wanted to hate her, the wolf,
and his cock, had other ideas. He kissed her back, taking control,
and pushed her against the tree, thrusting his tongue into her
mouth.

The loathing he felt for her was replaced
with consuming need as her hands slid under the edge of his shirt,
her fingers tickling a path to his chest. His hand tightened
against her breast, his mouth moving across her lips and he took
everything he wanted from her.

Lydia hooked her leg around his hip, pulling
him against the soft flesh of her thighs. He ground himself against
her, the need to free himself and bury his cock inside of her was
so intense, his body ached with it. It consumed his thoughts and
clouded everything around him but her.

When she moaned, his name whispered against
his lips, he opened his eyes, forced himself to break the kiss and
look down at her.

Her earlier words came back to him then and
his confusion grew. “What is this connection?”

She opened her eyes, her fingers splayed
across his flesh. “Some—vampires, I mean—have certain…
abilities.”

“Like?”

“Like, our souls can connect with
another.”

Bryce snorted. “Vampires don’t have a
soul.”

Lydia frowned. “So the world thinks. I can
assure you, we do. It isn’t as substantial as your own but we do
keep a small part of ours even after death.”

Vampires had souls? He wanted to laugh at the
thought. They were evil creatures. All of them. They had no soul.
One look at Lydia’s face though, and he knew she believed what she
was saying. He could see it in her eyes. “All right. For arguments
sake, say I believe you about the soul. What does that have to do
with me?” When fear and uncertainty clouded her eyes, Bryce knew he
wasn’t going to like her answer. She released him, and looked
toward the gown lying at her feet. He lifted her head, made her
look at him. “Just tell me, Lydia.”

She stared at him for long moments before
taking a deep breath. “I can connect with you, Bryce, because part
of your soul once belonged to me.”

He shared part of Lydia’s soul? Bryce’s
confusion must have shown on his face. Lydia spoke again before he
could even form a coherent thought.

“When a vampire is born, when our human
bodies die, our souls shatter into hundreds of pieces. Those
fragments are reborn into others.” She paused, her gaze scanning
his face before she continued. “Vampires retain a small portion of
their souls and some of us can sense the lost pieces. We feel them,
here.” She laid her hand on her chest, directly over her heart.
“The connection we have, Bryce, is our soul.”

They shared a soul? Bryce shook his head and
let go of her, took a step backwards, then another.

He stared at her, saw her lips glistening
with moisture, swollen from his kiss. His body still ached with
need, still burned while his wolf clambered to get closer and as
much as he wanted her, as much he needed her, he refused to believe
a word of what she said.

Turning away, he started back through the
forest, leaving her standing alone, naked in the moonlight, while
her words whispered through his head. His soul was hers? The
connection she kept referring to wasn’t just desire. It went deeper
than that.

The clearing beyond the forest came into view
and Bryce stopped, staring at the play of light from the moon
shifting across the grass. He clenched his fist and moved his head
from side to side, trying to work out the kinks he felt knotted at
the back of his neck.

A litany of whispered admonishments echoed
through his head, the most prevalent was, how could he want her
after what happened? Guilt made his stomach ache, caused his head
to pound.

He and Lydia, a creature he loathed and
probably always would, together? How could he want her after…

The images came too fast to push them away.
The anger they brought with them left only one question on his
mind. Why didn’t he just kill her where she stood? The blood of
hundreds of vampires stained his hands and he’d never regretted one
of them. It would be so easy. She was small, her bones fragile. He
could kill her before she even knew what he was doing.

But what if vampires did have a soul? Or some
part of a soul. What if they weren’t the soulless creatures he’d
always thought them to be.

Did that make him a murderer?

Hearing a twig snap behind him, he turned.
Lydia was standing a few yards away, the over-sized gown once again
covering her body. She looked so small, so childlike, in the
shadowed light. Her feet were bare, her hair falling around her
shoulders and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t deny what he
felt when he looked at her. He wanted her—still. And he hated
himself for it. “Will it ever go away?” he asked, a bitter edge of
cynicism in his tone. “What I feel for you. Will it ever go
away?”

She shook her head. “No. It never goes
away.”

Bryce took a step toward her, fighting the
desire to either toss her gown up and fuck her on the spot or wrap
his hands around her head and twisting until her neck broke. “As
long as you live, you mean. If living is something vampires can
actually do.”

Her eyes widened a fraction before she lifted
her chin. “It will never go away, Bryce. My death won’t stop your
soul from weeping.” She walked toward him, her steps slow, her gaze
locked with his. “It won’t stop the ache you feel burning inside of
you.”

Laying his hands on either side of her face,
Bryce held her head, tightened his hold until he knew a normal
human would have whimpered. “Shall we test your theory?”

“What you feel… it will never fully go away.
A part of you will always want me, even when I no longer
exist.”

Bryce stared down at her, trying to deny what
she said was true. He knew it was, he already ached for her. His
body strung tight every day since he’d found her in the mine.
Seeing her caused his pulse to leap, her scent on the air caused
his body to stir, his groin to tighten painfully.

He loosened his grip on her face but didn’t
let go. He stared into her eyes, those wonderfully large green eyes
and knew he’d never rid her from his thoughts. He’d tried for days
to no avail and yet, to stand so close to her and not end her
miserable life was agony. “I can’t look at you and not feel sick to
my stomach for what you are, Lydia. I’ve spent my life searching
for the vampires who murdered my wife, my children. How can I touch
you, want you, when the very thought of you makes my blood run
cold?”

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t!” he said, his grip on her face
tightening. His throat felt tight and his eyes burnt. Bloody images
assaulted his mind; images of his family torn into so many pieces
that what was left of them resembled a macabre puzzle. “Don’t you
dare tell me how sorry you are.”

She lifted her hand, running the back of her
fingers over his cheek. “I didn’t take their life.”

“No, but your kind did.” He released her with
a small shove and took several steps away from her. The images
continued to flash in his minds eye until the last of the gory
pictures faded away. Lydia’s face blurred, tears he hadn’t shed in
fifteen years laying thick on his lashes. He blinked them away,
swiped at his cheek angrily with the back of one hand.

When he spoke again, the sound was rough,
broken. His throat raw with the effort to swallow his pain. “They
tortured my family, Lydia. The very thought of what you are sickens
me. And now you tell me I’ll spend the rest of my life wanting
you?” He laughed, a bitter edge of scorn laced through the sound.
“I’ve lived with my pain so far. I’m sure another fifty years won’t
kill me. It hasn’t so far.”

He turned and left her there, standing alone
in the filtered moonlight and walked back to the house. Every step
he took, the wolf clawed at his flesh to go back. To claim her. To
make her his for all eternity. To sink his teeth into her throat as
his cock slid into her flesh. And with every step, he had to remind
himself why he couldn’t. Why he’d sought out the werewolf who had
turned him and begged him for a new life to avenge the family that
had been taken from him.

To kill every vampire that walked the
earth.

* * * *

Victor came the next morning. At least Rayna
thought it was morning. His voice echoed against the stone walls of
the pit. When she stirred, still ensconced in Garrett’s arms, she
noticed her mate was still in wolf form. He hadn’t shifted, which
meant he hadn’t slept.

“Ms. Ford. If you’d so kindly follow me. We
have a world to enlighten today.”

Garrett growled as he stood, lifting Rayna to
her feet before stepping in front of her. She couldn’t see anything
but his back, the fur covering his body bristled. She laid her palm
to his shoulder, hoping to keep him calm. She knew Victor wouldn’t
hesitate to kill him if he needed to. “She’s not going anywhere.”
That otherworldly voice of the wolf was raspy and tinged with
bitterness.

Victor straightened before looking back over
his shoulder. Rayna noticed the men behind him, then. “It will do
you no good to fight this, Garrett. I’m in no mood for your heroics
today. Please send Ms. Ford to me and I can promise you, you’ll
live long enough to see her again.”