Up in Flames (3 page)

“Meredith? What’s wrong, baby? I kind of lost you there for a moment,” Lucas asked in concern.

“Lucas, there is a lot about me that you don’t know. I am just going to spit it all out, and if you change your mind about the mating after you hear everything, I’ll completely understand.”

“What? What are you talking about? First of all, Fate deems who our mates are. She is never wrong. Now, how about you just tell me what you think is going to change my mind, because I can guaran-damn-tee you it will not.”

Meredith stared at him for a moment, biting her lower lip in distress. Then she looked up toward the ceiling and Lucas noticed the tears in her eyes. Wait a minute? Tears? Vampires couldn’t cry, unless his mate was…

“Lucas, I am only half-vampire. My mother was human. I don’t have any vampire strength. I have some of the speed, but not all. I have enhanced senses, enjoy eating normal human food most of the time, but still need the occasional serving of blood.” She stopped there and glanced over to him.

He raised his eyebrow up at her. “What? Was I supposed to jump up and run screaming out of the room? You’d better come at me with a little more than that, darling.”

“That’s not even the half of it,” she stated as she shook her head and gave him a tired smile. This next part she was dreading. In her mind, it was the part that would make or break the deal.

“The reason why I am here, the reason I work here, and by the way, I live here also, is because your boss, Walter, is hiding and protecting me. That case y’all have been working on, the one with the twelve dead women? Well, I inadvertently witnessed number eight being murdered. I watched Eddie McDaniels kill that poor girl. And he knows I saw him do it. He and his group of rogues have been after me ever since. Eddie was sending his goons about once every two weeks to try to get to me. After they burned my house down, ruined my car, and killed my dog, I finally had had enough. I came in and spoke with Walter alone in his office and asked for not only protection, but his silence in the fact that I am here. So, besides the other nurse and Dr. Weathers, no one knows I am here.”

Lucas felt like he had been punched in the gut. First, to know his mate had literally been right under his nose for some time now and he never knew. Second, to know she had been in trouble, had needed his protection, and could have been taken from him before he ever got to know her.

“Babe, those murders were almost two years ago. Are you telling me you’ve been in hiding ever since?”

“Yes, I have been. I have known nothing but the inside of this building for the past ten months. Prior to that I had just been running scared every few weeks when they caught up to me.”

Lucas noticed the fine tremor that went through her. “Do you have any other patients to take care of, baby?”

She shook her head in denial. “No, you are the only one here.”

“Good.” He scooted over and wrapped his free arm around her waist all at the same time, having her lying next to him in an instant. She squawked in alarm, until he brought her back up to his chest, his mouth to her ear. “Shh, everything is okay, baby. I’ve got you, and you can stop fretting about everything. Because I can damn guarantee you that I will protect you with my life. I am not about to let anything happen to the gift that has been handed to me.”

Tears fell on the arm that pillowed her head. “You have no idea the terror I have gone through. They even know that I am only a half-vamp; they have left me enough notes stating that I would quickly become their next kill after they all had a turn…” An anguished sob escaped her as she finally felt free enough to let go, to let someone else worry about the problems for once. She finally felt free to pour out all the pent-up fear, frustration, hurt, and anger.

And wasn’t
that
weird. Here she was, crying her eyes out on a man she had known for all of fifteen minutes. Geez, someone needed to commit her. But her parents had been mates, and her mother had always told her that when she met her mate, everything would work out. Even though it was hard to believe, she would fall in love with her mate almost instantly. Her mother had described it like coming home from being away for a really, really long time. That everything would just “click” into place. She believed her mother.

Placing a hand on her hip, he gently turned her so she was facing him. Lying back, he draped her over him, letting her cry for all of the injustice she had been forced to deal with over the past eighteen months. Of all that was lost. He whispered how he would take care of her from now on, how he would find these bastards once and for all and deliver the justice they deserved. Because even he knew it would be the only way the two of them could have any kind of life together. He kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her tightly. From the looks of things, he would bet she had never once broken down over the past two years. She probably never felt safe enough to do so.

Finally, she cried herself to sleep. He lay there feeling like he needed to get up and stretch, every muscle in his body protesting from being inactive too long. But there was no way he was going to disturb her. If she ended up sleeping draped over him for the entire night, he would savor it.

The ironic thing of it all? He remembered girl number eight. The local police had called and asked for help since they hadn’t been able to get any leads on who was doing this to their city. To think his mate had been in the same city all along and they had just missed meeting one another eighteen months ago. Eighteen months he could have been enjoying his mate. Eighteen months he could have been protecting her. Well, as of this very moment, he vowed to protect her with his own life. She was his mate. She was to be cherished, protected, loved, and spoiled. He planned on doing all of those things and more.

About an hour after she had fallen asleep, Walter poked his head in. Lucas was quick to place a finger to his lips to warn his friend to be quiet. Walter whispered, “I’m heading out now. Everyone else has gone home and you two have this entire wing to yourselves. If you need anything, call downstairs to the officer on night watch. You and I need to talk in the morning.”

Meredith awoke twice during the night, each time from a nightmare. Lucas wondered when the last time his mate had gotten a good, uninterrupted night’s sleep. Both times she started off mumbling in her sleep, quickly followed up with her thrashing and flailing her arms, as if she were trying to fight someone off her. Then she would scream out, as if in horrible agony. When Lucas was finally able to break through the nightmare and awaken her, she was embarrassed to have been seen like that. And when she crawled off him, he merely hooked his arm around her as he turned to his side, spooning her. After talking softly to her and reassuring her that everything was okay, he finally got her to relax enough to start to go back to sleep. His hand crept up under the front of her scrub shirt, and he allowed his fingertips to skate over the smoothest, softest skin he had ever felt along her rib cage. He didn’t go any further, especially when things were so new between them and she was so upset, but that didn’t stop his dick from rising to attention. Nor did it escape his notice how well it fit along the crack of her ass.

Chapter Two

Meredith started stirring about seven the next morning. “Good morning, baby,” he greeted her.

She popped her head up, blinked twice, then sat up abruptly. “Oh my God, I can’t believe I did this. I am supposed to be taking care of you, and here I go to pieces and….” she started wringing her hands in distress.

Lucas was smart enough not to crack a smile. “Hey, it’s okay. I think I am almost completely healed. As a matter of fact, can you remove this gel pad they’ve have placed across my back? It is starting to really itch, and I would like to get up and take a shower.”

She immediately hopped off the bed. “Oh, of course.” He could tell by watching her body language she had just flipped the switch to becoming a professional around him. Too damn bad, because he was getting ready to un-flip the switch.

She carefully un-taped the edges and slowly peeled it off. “Well, I don’t know what this looked like yesterday, but it hasn't completely healed all the way. Looks like everything has scabbed over well, and I see a lot of new pink skin, so I am going to guess this looked tons worse yesterday. There are no gaping sores though, so you should be able to take a shower, just be careful,” she instructed.

“Well, I was thinking. I might have trouble cleaning it without taking a chance of opening things back up. You wouldn’t want to show me where your place is and help me in the shower, would you?”

“Umm, Lucas, I...”

“Good morning, everyone!” Dr. Weathers came into the room, saving her from having to come up with an answer.

“Good morning, Doctor,” nurse and patient greeted him simultaneously.

Dr. Weathers turned to Meredith. “So, how is our patient doing today?”

“Most of his burns seemed to have healed overnight. We just removed the bandage from his back and it seems to be healing nicely.” Meredith was trying her best to be professional with Dr. Weathers, although she had the feeling he saw right through her act.

“Hmm, let’s take a look at that back, shall we, Lucas?”

Five minutes later, Dr. Weathers stated he was released but would need to take it easy for the next few days until all injuries were completely healed and he had regained his strength. “I am advising no work for the next three to four days. Plenty of blood, and you might want to find some help for at least the next day or so with cleaning your back.” Lucas shot his head up just in time to see Dr. Weathers shoot a quick meaningful glance over in Meredith’s direction.

Lucas gave a low chuckle. “Thanks, Doc.”

On his way out the door, he stopped and turned his head back to Meredith. “Meredith, we have no other patients. Why not take the next several days off? You more than deserve it, Nurse Amy and I can handle anything that might come up.”

Meredith stood staring at Dr. Weathers.
He knows. He knows I have found my mate
. “Are you sure?”

“Most definitely. I’ll see you in a few days.” And with that and a smirk on his face, he walked out the door. He had been happy when Walter gave him the heads up yesterday afternoon that Lucas and Meredith were mates. He could only hope this would mean a positive turn-around in his young nurse’s life. She deserved to be happy. And she certainly didn’t deserve the hell she had been put through the past two years.

“So, do you have a shower I could borrow, sweets?” Lucas asked of his mate.

“Umm, I have a little studio at the end of the hall.” She started wringing her hands again, and he wondered why she was so nervous this morning.

Reaching over and lightly clasping her hands, he inquired, “Hey, what has you so uptight this morning?”

She sat down abruptly on the side of the bed. “It’s just, I’m accustomed to taking care of everyone else, and I can’t believe I was so selfish last night and totally lost control and cried myself to sleep lying on top of you. And, well, I should have been the one taking care of you, not the other way around.”

Knowing how much the admission had cost her, he pitched his voice low and soft, “Baby, I am fine. And as your mate, it is my honor and privilege to care and protect you. Now, how about we blow this room and you show me down to your place. I’ll even be a good patient and let you help wash my back. Okay?”

Her laugh sounded like tiny bells tinkling. “Sure, come on.”

He had just stood from the bed when Walter stuck his head in. “Oh, good, I wanted to catch you before you left. Brought you a few changes of clothes and a toiletry bag so you can shave, shadow boy. And don’t forget I want to speak to you just as soon as you are available.”

The door had just clicked closed when Meredith laughed again. “Shadow boy?”

“Yes, he gave me that nickname a few years ago. We were on this three-day stakeout, and he swore I could grow a five o’clock shadow faster than he had ever seen in his life.”

“Okay, well, let’s get you ready for a shower before someone else comes in and calls you something worse.” She chuckled as she led the way out the door.

The halls were completely empty, leaving only the two of them. Lucas found his clothes and other items stacked on a counter outside the patient rooms. They arrived at Meredith’s little studio a quick moment later. Looking around, he had to admit that it was tiny, but very well-kept and clean.

There was a low dresser in the living room that doubled as an entertainment center, with an old television perched on top. Meredith walked over and opened the top left drawer. “You can put your clothing in here if you’d like. The bedroom is so small I couldn’t get it in there, so I decided to leave it out here.”

Lucas walked over and put everything in the drawer before reaching down and pulling out what he needed. He turned to his mate who was standing in the middle of the floor wringing her hands again.

Sitting his clothing back down, he walked over to her. Spotting a couch off to his left, he grasped her hand and led her over to the couch. When he reached it, he sat and pulled her down.

“You are acting like a scared kitten, baby. It’s not like I am going to bite you. Well, not unless you ask me really, really nicely.” He grinned at her as he wiggled his eyebrows and waited to get a response. She chuckled a bit, but still looked nervous.

“Sweetheart, would it help if we got to know one another better?”

Her answer of “maybe” was just barely heard even with his keen vampire hearing.

“Okay, I’ll go first since you told me about the last eighteen months of your life last night. I have been a Texas Ranger for about eight years and a vampire for fifteen. I was with the Dallas PD before my turning. It just took me a while to figure out I could be a vampire and in law enforcement also.”

“Do you have any siblings? Are your parents still around?” she inquired. He smiled, relieved that in the conversation department, it seemed they would do just fine. He was betting on their bedroom activities being just as enjoyable, or even more so. It was just going to take him a bit longer to woo her into bed. “No, I was an only, very spoiled child. My parents died several years before I was turned, so I am quite literally, all alone.”