Chapter 13 Darla
Darla
Icould feel Kathryn’s sorrow through the tenuous mate bond that connected us. Along with sorrow though, there was determination. She wanted to avenge her friend’s death. And while I didn’t blame her, I also couldn’t put her in danger.
“No,” I told her. “You are not coming with us. It’s not safe.”
We’d sketched out a plan to access Xi’s lab Sunday evening, when hopefully no one would be around. Wanda and I were going in, with Yuri on lookout. Martha and Lois would be holed up in another part of the hospital, listening on comms. But my mate still wanted to come with us.
“What if someone is injured in there?” she asked. “What if they need medical help?”
I pointed to my chest. “Trained medic, remember?”
“But --.”
“There will be no civilians on a recon mission,” Lois interrupted sharply, her voice brooking no argument. “We’re being paid to protect you. You need to stay in the safehouse with Bella and the newbie.”
I appreciated Lois assigning my sister to protect my mate. I trusted her more than anyone else. I locked eyes with Bella, and she nodded, silently promising me to protect Kathryn with her life.
“But…”
“No arguments,” I told Kathryn. “Let’s get home. It’s been a long day, and you didn’t sleep well last night.”
That caught her attention.
“How do you know I didn’t sleep well last night?” she asked.
“I could hear you tossing and turning. Vampire hearing, remember?”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. But I want pizza for dinner then.”
My mate was cute when she was cranky.
“You got it.”
We drove down to the safe house alone. Cassie was joining us tonight, but she’d been tasked with picking up our pizza. As soon as we hit the freeway, Kathryn turned to me.
“I want to apologize again. I shouldn’t have kissed you last night.”
“I’m glad you did,” I replied. “It was an incredible kiss. One of the best of my life.”
She frowned. “One of the best?”
I suppressed a smile. “I mean, I think we can do better. Next time.”
“So there’s going to be a next time?”
“I think we both know there will be.”
Kathryn was silent for a few minutes before she spoke again. “I don’t understand this draw I’m feeling to you. We don’t even really know each other.”
“It’s the mate bond, it’s hard to ignore for both parties,” I explained. “But there’s no reason we can’t get to know each other better. Ask me whatever you want to know.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-eight,” I answered. “You?”
I already knew that from her file, but I figured I’d throw her a softball.
“Thirty-five. What made you decide to join the military?”
“Bella and I grew up in a small town,” I began.
“There wasn’t a lot of opportunity there.
You know the kind of place… a lot of unemployed people sitting around drinking and moaning about how life did them wrong.
Bella talked about joining one of the supernatural units in the military the entire time we were growing up, and then she enlisted the day she graduated high school.
It seemed to work out for her, so I did the same when I graduated. ”
“So it wasn’t your dream to enlist?”
I’d never thought about that before.
“I guess not. But my sister’s idea seemed as good as any, and I had a good career in the military.”
“Then you followed her to Sapphic Security, right?” she asked. “She worked here first?”
I nodded. “Yeah, she convinced Lois to give me an interview, but of course I had to get the job on my own.”
“What would your dream be though? If you didn’t follow your sister’s path, what would you have done instead?”
I shot her a quick look, taken aback by the question. It had never crossed my mind to consider anything besides the military.
“I… I guess I don’t know.”
“Your sister seems nice,” she said carefully. “But there’s nothing wrong with following your own passion. You’re a grown woman.”
“Is that what you did? Follow your own passion?”
“Yeah. My dad really wanted me to join the military. We’re an Army family. Both my parents were in the service, and all of my aunts and uncles, all my cousins, they enlisted as soon as they were old enough. But I wanted something different. I wanted to be a doctor.”
“You could have been a doctor in the military,” I felt compelled to point out. That’s where I’d trained to be a medic.
She laughed. “That’s exactly what my father said. But I told him I needed to follow my own path. I’d do terrible in the military. I hate being bossed around.”
“No, really?” I teased.
“Well, I guess I don’t mind it in certain cases,” she said primly.
My breath stuttered. Did she mean…?
Kathryn burst out laughing. “You should see your face right now!”
We spent the rest of the ride asking each other questions. Favorite movies. The kinds of books we read. Hobbies. Favorite foods. It was fun, kind of like a dating quiz show.
It was something I didn’t have a lot of in my life. Lighthearted conversation. Even though I had friends in the military and was becoming friends with my new coworkers at Sapphic Security, we never really just chatted like this. Most of our conversations centered around our work.
But that night as I lay in bed after feasting on pizza with Kathryn and Cassie, one of Kathryn’s questions repeated over and over again in my mind. What would your dream be?
As I succumbed to sleep I realized that I’d felt more energy and passion working in the Emergency Department with Kathryn than I had with any other mission.
And it wasn’t because I was with my mate, although that was a nice bonus.
It was the work itself. I loved it. I loved healing people.
I loved diagnosing a problem, fixing them up, and moving onto the next patient.
Had I made a mistake following in my sister’s footsteps?
I’d liked my military career, and I liked working at Sapphic Security, but they both just felt like jobs.
Neither gave me the sense of accomplishment that working in at the hospital did.
That was something I was going to have to think more about.
After we solved this case and my mate was safe.
Saturday morning Kathryn slept in, her exhaustion overtaking her. She wandered into the kitchen just after nine, looking sleepy and rumpled. There was a crease on her face from the pillow, and her curly hair was wild, despite her pulling it back into a ponytail.
“Good morning,” she greeted me, her voice thick with sleep. “What are you doing?”
“Reviewing the schematics for the hospital,” I said.
“That sounds enthralling,” she joked, sitting across from me and taking a long sip of her coffee.
I couldn’t help the little growl that escaped me when she closed her eyes and made a happy sound. Is that what she’d sound like when I made her come?
“What?” she asked, her eyes coming to mine.
“I’ve never seen anyone so happy to have their morning coffee.”
“When you work the crazy hours I do, you learn to love your caffeine. It really gets me going.”
“I’d be happy to get you going in the morning,” I suggested, giving her an exaggerated wink.
I didn’t recognize this side of myself. The person who laughed and flirted.
“How would you do that?” she teased back.
I patted my lap. “Come over here and I’ll show you.”
To my surprise, she did. My mate was going to keep me on my toes.
“Where’s Cassie?” she asked, coming to stand in front of me.
“Patrolling the outside.”
“Okay then.” She threw one leg over me, straddling my hips, her face close to mine as she sat on my lap. “Show me how you’d get me going.”
With another growl, I tunneled my fingers in her hair and crashed my lips against hers.
She tasted like mint and coffee, her tongue tangling eagerly with mine.
As the kiss went on, I lowered one hand between us, squeezing her soft breast in my palm.
I made a sound of approval – or maybe pain – as I realized that she wasn’t wearing a bra.
Kathryn chuckled against my lips. I pulled her lower lip between my teeth, biting down hard enough to make her gasp. Her blunt nails dug into my shoulders, giving me a little bite of pain in return.
“You vamps run hot, don’t you,” Kathryn whispered as she slid her mouth towards the bare skin of my shoulder. “Wearing a tank top in January?”
Instead of answering, I slid my hand down lower, teasing the edge of the waistband of her baggy sleep pants before slipping inside.
When she didn’t protest I kept going, moving underneath the thin fabric of her underwear, not stopping until I found the sweet heat between her legs.
With her straddling me, it was easy to slide in between her lower lips, my fingers spreading her moisture up and down her slit.
Kathryn was peppering little kisses along my neck and shoulder, but when I slid one finger into her slick channel she stilled. Her eyes met mine, glazed with need, and I smirked as I began pumping in and out of her body.
The scent of her arousal filled the air, heightening my own excitement. I could hear her heart pounding, keeping pace with my own. I took a deep breath, trying to keep my inner vampire under control. She wanted nothing more than to sink her fangs into Kathryn’s neck and make her ours forever.
“That feels so good,” she whispered, her hips rocking against my hand.
I added a second finger and increased the pace, fucking her with my fingers.
When I pressed my thumb against her clit, she damn near levitated off my lap.
I used my free hand to hold her in place as she rode my hand, her eyes closed.
I added a third finger, and when I curved them inside her body and touched just the right spot, she fell forward, burying her face against my shoulder.
“Don’t stop,” she cried. “That feels so good. Please, don’t stop.”
“Don’t worry little mate, I won’t leave you unsatisfied.”
It only took a few minutes before a powerful orgasm rolled through her. She flailed against me, shuddering and shaking even as she continued to chase my fingers. I felt the wetness of her arousal dripping down my hand as she came with a long moan that I was fairly certain Cassie would hear outside.
“Darla. Oh!”
I teased her through the aftershocks until she stopped moving, collapsing against me with a deep, satisfied sigh.
“You’re really good at getting people going,” she whispered dreamily, her head on my shoulder.
“I’m really good at getting you going,” I corrected.
Removing my hand from her panties, I couldn’t help but bring my fingers to my mouth, closing my eyes in pleasure as I tasted her cream.
Then I heard a noise and gave Kathryn a sharp tap on the ass, making her jump.
“You’d better get yourself together unless you want to give Cassie a show. She’s heading back to the house.”
She jumped off me with a squeak, grabbing her coffee and making a beeline for the bedroom.