Safe Hex With a Vampire (22 page)

Before Tempest, he’d foolishly believed that
all he needed was to find a woman he could have children with. He
had believed that the rest would come naturally. After spending
time with Tempest, he realized how wrong he’d been. He knew that he
could have a relationship with Tempest just like his parents had
with each other, but only if she was willing to try. Justin had it
right, a partner was better than a mate.

Justin had tried to convince him to stay at
the house. In order to leave, he’d had to promise Justin that
they’d hang out soon. It was oddly comforting and almost made him
want to stay just to complain about women, but he knew what he had
to do now.

He couldn’t leave his uncle in the dark any
longer. So here he stood at the door to his uncle’s Carmel home
once again. He had to tell Roman what he’d learned. At first, he’d
thought it best to keep Tempest and her family a secret until they
were ready to come forward, but then he remembered his loneliness
after losing his parents. His uncle had just lost his only son. How
could Aiden keep Roman’s granddaughters from him? Tempest had never
asked him to keep it a secret. She’d just told him that she wasn’t
ready for an introduction.

His uncle answered his own door. “What have
you found?” Roman seemed strangely distracted again. He was holding
a hairbrush which he quickly set on a table just inside the
door.

“It wasn’t Claudia,” Aiden said simply.

His uncle merely nodded and looked down.

“Her name is Tempest,” Aiden heard his own
voice crack just little.

His uncle’s head jerked up, and Aiden saw
something he hadn’t expected to see in Roman’s eyes, sympathy.

“Come inside and tell me about your
Tempest,” he said as he ushered Aiden into the house.

Aiden followed his uncle into the family
room. Strange that his uncle had a room called a family room when
he scarcely had family in his home. Aiden looked around for the
painting but it was gone. He sat down and put his head in his hands
as he tried to think of a way to explain things. Finally, he looked
up and spoke. “She’s your Tempest too.”

Roman looked confused.

“Claudia had a daughter,” Aiden explained.
“Her name was Romana, named after her father.”

The idea of a female child didn’t seem to
shock Roman as much as it had Aiden. “Then Claudia is alive?” he
asked hesitantly.

Aiden shook his head. “They’re not like us.
They are truly amazing but not like us.”

Roman’s eyes held something close to sorrow,
but he was very good at hiding his emotions. “I have a
granddaughter.” Then he looked angry. “What have you been doing to
my granddaughter, Aiden?”

Aiden actually found himself laughing at
Roman’s sudden transformation into the overprotective grandfather.
Then Aiden sobered. “I love her, Uncle. She loves me too but she
left me, and now I don’t know how to live without her.”

Roman nodded. “I suppose it’s a good thing
that you already learned your lesson about kidnapping.”

Aiden looked sheepish.

Roman raised a single eyebrow. “You tried to
kidnap my granddaughter?”

“I succeeded, and I may do it again,” Aiden
grumbled.

Roman laughed. It was a strange sound, like
he didn’t do it often.

Roman’s expression turned thoughtful. “Your
father was my favorite brother,” he said.

Aiden knew that his father and uncle had
once been close but it was long before his birth. He had hardly
seen his uncle or any of the family growing up because of some
falling out that they’d never resolved. Aiden’s father had never
told him the details of their fight. All he’d said was that they’d
both been idiots, but too much time had passed to mend the rift
between them.

Roman continued with a far off look in his
eyes. “He was always there for me, and I failed him when he needed
me the most. I said unforgivable things to your father.”

“He forgave you,” Aiden said softly.

Roman looked shocked. “He told you about our
argument?”

“No,” Aiden said with a distant smile, “he
just told me that you had been a complete ass, but he was a fool
for holding a grudge. He told me that by the time he realized that,
it was too late. He said that every time he tried to fix things, he
just managed to say the wrong thing.”

“He was honest and I didn’t like hearing
it,” Roman explained. “He told me that I needed to stop feeling
sorry for myself and live again. He told me that I was an idiot for
marrying Lenore, and that I was just using her to replace Claudia.
He warned me that I would end up resenting her because she wasn’t
Claudia. He told me many things I didn’t want to hear and he was
right. Sadly, I wasn’t ready to hear them.”

Aiden looked confused. “Why are you telling
me this?”

Roman looked at him. “I failed you because
of my fight with your father. Mostly, I failed you because of my
own foolish pride.”

Aiden started to argue, but Roman put up a
hand to stop him. “Do you ever wonder why I never spoke to you
about your attempted kidnapping of Hannah?”

“I always assumed I’d hear about it
eventually,” Aiden said a little uncomfortably. “I was just glad to
put it off.”

Roman smiled. “I blamed myself more than
you. As head of this family I am responsible for the
well being of all of you. I allowed you to remain isolated
from us. When you were born, I should have swallowed my pride and
made amends with your father. You should have never felt alone
after your parents died. You should have never felt such
desperation.”

Aiden wasn’t sure how to react to his
uncle’s words.

Roman stood up and clapped him on the
shoulder. “I have several matters to attend to today. Get your
belongings and settle into the downstairs guestroom. Tomorrow we
will figure out a way to get your Tempest back but if you hurt her,
I
will
kill you.” The last was said with a pleasant
smile.

“
I am going to ask you this one last
time,” I said with a deadly calm. “Where is my wife?”

“
Your whore is dead,” my father said with
a dismissive wave of his hand.

“
She was pregnant,” I said in a ragged
voice. “You’ve killed your own grandson.”

He looked startled for a moment, but then he
merely shrugged. “Then I did you a favor. Children are the
unfortunate side effect of pleasure.”

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Tempest was seriously questioning her
decision to leave Aiden. It was easy to tell herself that she’d
done the right thing. There were many logical reasons to support
her decision. Sadly, those were not the things that stood out in
her mind. She missed laughing with him, fighting with him, and dear
God how she missed sex with him. He had gotten to her. It hadn’t
even been twenty four hours since she’d left him and she was a
complete mess.

Willow had been right, there was nothing she
could do for the latest victim. The woman who had survived the
attack was in a coma and the police weren’t sharing what they knew
yet. Willow might be able to communicate with her in that state.
Each coma was different, but some coma patients released their soul
temporarily from their body. Problem was that they tended to stay
close to the body. If they were ready to drift away from the body
it meant they were done fighting for life and only machines were
keeping the body alive. In this case, the soul was still hanging
around the body, which meant she was likely to recover. Sadly, they
had no good excuse to get into the hospital room.

The attack had occurred in San Francisco.
Their contact in that department, Detective Ramirez, knew they were
somehow gifted, but he wasn’t sold enough to bring them into the
ICU to visit a patient in a coma. Even if they went in and learned
something, this might be too much information for even him to
process. He’d likely arrange for Ivy to visit the woman when she
regained consciousness, but until then they were twiddling their
thumbs waiting.

Tempest couldn’t go out hunting because they
had no idea where to start yet. She got the impression that
Detective Ramirez was intentionally avoiding sharing too many
details because the woman had resembled Tempest too much for his
comfort. He had apparently been extremely peeved with their
involvement in the capture of the serial rapist. According to Ivy,
he had threatened dire consequences if they endangered themselves
while interfering with police business again. Apparently they were
still allowed to interfere as long as they didn’t endanger
themselves.

All of this wasn’t really a surprise and it
forced her to face the possibility that the real reason she’d
hurried back was her own cowardice. Was she simply too afraid to
deal with her feelings for Aiden? Was she looking for an excuse to
leave? The answers to those questions made her feel even more
miserable.

Aiden had every reason to hate her after
what she’d done. She kept forcing him to chase after her and then
pushing him away. There was no doubt in her mind that she’d been
leading him on, even if that hadn’t been her intention. She’d said
they could try to make it work but she’d never really allowed
herself to believe it was possible. Now she was faced with the sad
possibility that he might decide she wasn’t worth the effort
anymore.

She’d gone hiking in the hopes of clearing
her head. Unfortunately, all it was accomplishing was to remind her
of the day she’d spent hiking with Aiden. What was wrong with her?
She would be a fool to let him go. There had to be a way to make
things work. It’s not like they were going to get married or even
move in together right away. She didn’t have to live at the center.
She could always hire people to work most nights and get her own
place. Of course, she hated the idea of being too far away to help
if there was an emergency.

When she’d been at Aiden’s cousin’s house
she’d noticed a cottage close to the main house. They could build
one of those so that she would be close enough to deal with
emergencies.

She was sure that Aiden wasn’t lying about
wanting her to continue with her work. Of course, she knew it would
be hard for him to watch her hunt. He would worry and complain, but
she knew he wouldn’t really try to stop her. His ability to track
might actually be useful.

Hopefully, he would forgive her when she
called to apologize. No, she would go back to him and apologize in
person. Her first smile since leaving came at the thought of his
face when she showed up. Then she frowned at the realization that
he might not take her back. Had she pushed him away too many
times?

Normally, Tempest was hyper aware of
her surroundings, looking for potential danger. It was the hunter
in her. It was also just plain smart. She knew that a distracted
woman was more likely to become a victim. Today her mind was
completely focused on Aiden.

She felt the sting at the back of her neck
and when her hand jerked up expecting to find a bee sting she felt
a dart. Then the world grew dim around her. A familiar voice
murmured strange words that she couldn’t make out. Familiar arms
lifted her from the ground. She smelled the all too familiar
cologne. Then the world went completely black.

“
How did you find us?” I wanted to know
who I needed to kill. I was pretty sure I knew the answer already
but I wanted confirmation.

“
Alessandro Sorrenti came to me,” he
responded and then laughed. “The fool said that he would lead me to
Claudia if I let him have Sofia.”

“
So he and Sofia made a deal with you?” I
asked, not at all surprised.

“
Sofia isn’t foolish enough to make such
a deal, and she won’t be happy that Alessandro tried.” His eyes
took on a look of twisted anticipation. “Sofia will wish she’d
never been born when I get my hands on her.”

Excerpt from Roman Draksel’s blog

Tempest’s head was pounding and her eyelids
felt heavy. She had no idea how long she’d been unconscious, but
her mouth was dry and her tongue felt thick and heavy. For a
moment, she almost smiled thinking that Aiden had kidnapped her
again. That happy thought didn’t last long. Her foggy brain took in
the room slowly. It was a warehouse of some sort. Her arms were
secured using the same restraints they would use in hospitals. In
fact, she was in a hospital bed. Her weakness was not caused by
Aiden this time, there was an IV hooked up to her arm. She was
drugged. When she tried to reach out her mind to release the
restraints the energy around her wouldn’t obey. Her confusion made
it impossible to focus long enough to gather the energy in the
air.

“You’re finally awake!”

“Brian?” Her voice came out slurred. She
looked up and there he was. The man she had once believed she was
in love with. A shiver ran through her body as fear took hold of
her. There wasn’t much that Tempest feared but in that moment she
was very afraid.

Brian laughed when he saw her tremor. Then
he reached down and stroked her cheek tenderly, like a lover. The
fact that he wore surgical gloves made this action seem creepy.
“I’ve missed you more than you can imagine, Tempest,” he said
softly.

Tempest moved her head as far from his hand
as she could, but it was useless. It was hard to avoid someone
while tied to a hospital bed.

He laughed at her attempts to avoid his
touch. “Don’t try to fight me, sweetheart. Those drugs are enough
to incapacitate even you.”

“Why are you doing this?” Her tongue felt so
heavy that it was hard to get the words out.

He laughed again. There was something
twisted and unnatural about him now, but she was guessing that he
had always been this way. At one time she’d found him extremely
handsome. Now it seemed that his mask of humanity had completely
faded. What stood before her was some twisted creature that enjoyed
his feeling of power over her too much.