Chapter 13 #2
Despite the intense effort it took him to be this close to her and still control himself, especially with the open wound in her throat, he gently pushed a stray curl from her face with a trembling hand. “We need to talk about things before this happens. There’s a lot we need to talk about, Devon.”
Her jaw clenched. “I don’t care about any of that. Not if it’s with you.”
“Let’s say I do this. Let’s just say I do. You’ll only be free of Jaz, the vampire who attacked you.” He left the rest of it unspoken. She was a smart woman. She would know what that meant.
Her lips pressed into a thin line. “But it would be you.”
God, she was stubborn. He gave up trying to get through to her. He just didn’t have it in him right now. “Devon, please.”
“Kohl, what will happen if you don’t?”
He didn’t even want to think about that. But it was simple. “He’ll hunt you, because it will be fun for him and because he can. If you try to run, it will only make the game more interesting. He’ll be able to find you anywhere.”
“And what will happen if he does? What then?”
“Devon…”
“What then, Kohl?”
He rubbed the back of his neck, not missing the way her eyes followed his movements in the dark. “Then he’ll either kill you, on purpose or accidentally, or take you back to the coven and do whatever the fuck he wants to you. And no one will stop him.”
“Because he claimed me.” There was a weighted pause. “Except I’m not his. I’m yours.”
Kohl dropped his hand to his thigh. “Fucking hell,” he growled.
She reached for him, but seemed to rethink her decision and dropped her arm.
He caught it before it hit the ground. Turning her hand over in his, he brought it to his mouth and softly kissed the center of her palm.
He couldn’t think straight lying here like this with her.
They needed to get the hell out of there.
He played with her fingers as he said, “I’m not doing this in the middle of a field. ”
“Kohl, we don’t have time.”
But he kissed her hand again. “We have time enough to get you out of the cold. Come with me.” Getting to his feet, he pulled her up with him and took her hand. As they started to walk through the damp grass, he glanced back over his shoulder. “And don’t be staring at my ass.”
Devon burst out laughing, and Kohl couldn’t help but smile as he tightened his grip on her fingers and helped her along behind him.
He’d known where he was as soon as he’d woken up.
The beast always brought him back to this place, and it was both good and bad.
Good because it was a place to land away from seeing eyes, and it was near friends who knew who and what he was.
Bad because the damned thing loved to settle down for the night in the middle of an open field.
Or worse, sunbathe in that same field if it was still daylight.
Kohl had had more than one close call when he’d shifted back while the sun was up, because the dragon loved to bask in the heat of the day.
The vampire, however, would burn alive within seconds.
It was a cruel twist of nature that had allowed a creation such as him to survive—a male who longed for the warmth of the sun but could only enjoy it in a form he had no memory of.
Just over a slight incline, a little house came into view, and a dim but welcoming light was lit over the back door.
“We’re back at the restaurant?”
As they walked into the circle of warmth it cast, Devon tried to catch up to him, and he noticed for the first time she was limping.
Concerned, he looked over his shoulder and caught Devon…looking straight at his ass.
When she noticed he was watching, she averted her eyes and shrugged. “What? You’re running around showing it off and you expect me not to look?”
Kohl laughed, and answered her question. “Margaret and her family know what I am. It’s safe here.”
They got to the door, and he rapped five times.
There was some shuffling around inside, and then it was opened by their hostess from earlier.
She wore a long nightgown with little pink flowers all over it, her dark hair was braided over one shoulder, and she held a blanket in her hands.
She smiled that same welcoming smile and handed him the blanket.
“Is everything well?” she asked with her Irish lilt.
He took the blanket from her and wrapped it around his waist. “Devon was bit.”
“Not by you, I take it?”
He shook his head.
The smile immediately fell from Margaret’s face and she pushed him aside and pulled Devon into the house and under the light. “Oh, no.”
Devon complied, allowing the older woman to fuss over her while she looked around the kitchen with interest.
“Who was it?” Margaret asked him.
“It was Jaz.”
Her smiling blue eyes narrowed and her mouth hardened. “That fecker. He’s not right in the head. He’ll be looking for you, you know,” she said to Devon.
“She knows,” Kohl told her.
“Well, it doesn’t look so bad.” She patted Devon on the arm with a sympathetic smile.
“Can we stay downstairs?”
“Of course. You don’t even have to ask. You know that, Kohl. But I appreciate that you always do.” She shooed them in the direction of the restaurant. “Go on, then. You know where to go. There’s fresh towels and I can bring some food if you’d like.”
“I think we’re good, Margaret. Thank you,” Kohl told her.
“Speak for yourself,” Devon said, turning to Margaret with a hopeful expression. “I’m starving and I lost my leftovers.”
Margaret opened the restaurant size refrigerator and pulled out a dish covered in foil. “Just warm it up in the microwave for a minute or two. And let me know if you need anything else, dear,” she told Devon. “I’ll see you both tonight.”
“Thank you,” Devon told her.
“Yes, thank you, Margaret. You and your family have saved my ass more times than I would like to admit.”
“Well, and a fine arse it is.” She gave him a wink, locked the back door, and left through the other side of the kitchen to the rooms she shared with her brother.
“See?” Devon told him. “It’s a fine ass.”
Kohl’s shook his head with a laugh. “I think the loss of blood is starting to affect you. Come on.” Leading her in the opposite direction, he took her through the restaurant.
There was a door between the two restrooms. He felt along the top of the top of the doorframe and found the key, unlocked it, and turned on the light.
Stairs led down to a basement. It hadn’t been an easy task, but with the family’s permission, his coven had dug it out years ago for emergencies. Kohl just happened to have more emergencies than the others, so he’d taken to keeping some things of his own there.
Devon preceded him down as he closed and locked the door behind them with the key. When he joined her at the bottom of the stairs, he found her standing in the middle of the floor, looking around in surprise.
“Wow. This place is like something straight out of a James Bond movie.”
Kohl tried to see it from her eyes. “Not quite that high tech, but it’ll do.”
The finished basement had none of the old world charm of the restaurant above.
But what it did have was concrete and steel enforced walls, bulletproof doors, a simple but functional kitchen and bath area, and a bedroom with a closet that hid an escape tunnel out the back.
No one could get in without the key, and in the case of something happening, any ruckus heard upstairs would give them time to get out through the closet, the escape tunnel would self-destruct, and they wouldn’t be able to be followed.
“It’s safe down here. Jaz won’t be able to sense you through these walls.
And even if he did, we have a way to get out through the bedroom.
But, the sun will be coming up soon. We’ll be safe enough for the day. ”
She turned to him, her face carefully blank. “What about Margaret and her family upstairs?”
Kohl only paused for a brief moment. “They know the risk they take by allowing us to use this place.”
Devon stared at him for a minute. There was no accusation in her eyes, but he could feel her judgment.
It radiated from her like a blast of cold air.
“They know the risk,” he insisted. “They chose to do this. As a matter of fact, they offered. We didn’t ask.
And if anything bad goes down, of course I will do everything within my power to help them.
” That last part was completely true, but not at the risk of Devon’s life.
She nodded and wandered into the kitchen to heat up her food.
He motioned toward the bedroom with his head. “When you finish eating, we’ll go take care of your neck.”
She obediently nodded.
Kohl poured some red wine, knowing they both could use it, and kept her company while she ate, neither of them saying much. Many times, he felt the heat of her stare on his chest, neck and arms, and he waited for her to ask about his ink. But she never did.
When she was finished, he took her glass and his and left them on the counter. “In the bathroom,” he told her.
She found the room, went in, and flicked on the light switch. Faced with her image in the large mirror over the sink, she frowned. Leaning in, she touched the wound. “Good God. That looks deep. I’m glad this doesn’t feel as bad as it looks.”
“It’s a vampire thing. It numbs the pain. Makes our victims want it so it’s easier for us to feed.” Pulling her away from the mirror, he turned her around and indicated the side of the tub. “Sit. Please.”
She sat.
He’d purposely left the bathroom door open, hoping it would help ventilate the room, but in this small space, the scent of her blood was like a thick fog he couldn’t breathe through.
Kohl took shallow breaths through his mouth, and saw Devon’s eyes flick over his fangs and then down to his bare chest and arms. That so didn’t help.
“I’m going to try to clean it out as much as I can, okay? ”
“Okay.”
She sounded nervous. “It might hurt a little bit, Dev. And I’m sorry. But I don’t want it getting infected.” He was lying. It wouldn’t get infected. He just couldn’t stand the thought of any of anyone else’s DNA lingering inside her. “I’ll try to be as careful as I can.”
She nodded, watching him with big, brown eyes. But her mouth was set in a determined line, as though she knew what he was about and was in agreement. “Go ahead. Do what you need to do.”
He got the supplies he needed from the small closet and wet a cloth with warm water. Kneeling in front of her, he paused just before it touched her skin. He searched her face, hoping she would see he truly meant what he was about to say. “I’m so sorry I let this happen.”
A sad smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “I know.”
Her sorrow washed over him, heightening his own. Carefully, he washed around the outside of the wound, but she didn’t so much as flinch, even when he knew it had to hurt.
“Does it hurt?” she asked.
Lost in thought about what to do about Jaz, he glanced up at her face, but she was studying the wall above the toilet. “Does what hurt?”
“When you shift into the dragon.”
Ah. That. “Yeah. It hurts.”
Real concern creased her brow as she turned her head to look at him. “I’m sorry.”
Taking her chin in his hand, he turned her face away again and continued washing the vampire bite. “I’m used to it.”
She was quiet for a few seconds. “What does your tattoo mean? Unscarred.”
He rinsed out the cloth. “It means I don’t let anything stick to me.”
“You don’t let things hurt you, you mean.”
“It hurts. I just don’t let it fuck with me. I don’t let it change me.” Holding the wound open with the fingers of his other hand, he forced some of the cloth inside.
Her breath hissed between her teeth, but she was tough and didn’t pull away. “Everything changes you,” she said. “Everything you experience makes you who you are.”
It started bleeding again, which was good. The flow of blood would help clean it out. Though his hands shook, Kohl cleaned it out as best he could, then pressed a clean gauze pad against it. By this time he was barely breathing at all.
“The angel on the side of your neck?” Her words seemed to come from far away.
“My mom. And purple roses were her favorite kind.”
Still staring at the wall, she asked, “What’s the thing in the middle? Between the roses?”
Through a red haze of blood lust, Kohl answered her. “A Harley engine.”
“So, you really like bikes, huh?”
He could barely concentrate on her words. “Yeah.” He took her hand and pressed it against the gauze until she held it there on her own, then he sat back on his heels.
Her eyes met his, traveled over his face and torso, and returned. He could only imagine what she was seeing. “Sorry about this,” she told him.
“It’s not your fault.” He took a shallow breath through his mouth.
“Is it all cleaned out?”
Kohl nodded. “Think so.”
“Good.” Tilting her head away, she pulled the gauze away and presented him her throat.
Overwhelmed with what she was offering him, Kohl found he couldn’t move.
When she noticed, Devon placed her hands on his shoulders and forced him to look at her. “I trust you, Kohl. Completely.”
Ah, honey. You really shouldn’t do that.