Dalton, Tymber - Love and Brimstone [Brimstone Vampires 1] (Siren Publishing Classic) (23 page)

Tough. Let him look.

She still didn’t know what they were doing there. He needed to meet with scientists at the USGS, something about a computer system. Fine, great. Why bring her? Why not leave her at the house with an army of guards?

She tried to ignore his smirk.
Oh hell, he can still hear my thoughts.

Taz was betrayed on the walk back to the cabins. Matthias came up from behind, and Robertson deftly stepped out of his way. Matthias cupped her elbow in his hand and gently propelled her a few steps ahead of the others.

“Hey, let go of me.”

“Not until you promise to quit acting like a brat.”

She mentally shot him a few choice curse words. “Did you get that?”

“Yes, I did.” He kept his voice low. The hired guns hovered a discreet distance behind the group. “I’m sorry, Taz. Really, truly sorry for all this. Would you please stop being mad at me long enough to talk?”

“No.” She shook his grip and tried to walk faster. He matched her stride, catching her elbow again.

“Taz, please.”

“Is this some sort of game to you? Do you really think you’re going to woo me into bed, and everything’s going to be hunky-dory between us?”

“No. Frankly, I wouldn’t blame you if you never wanted anything to do with me again.”

She stopped in her tracks, and Robertson nearly ran into her. “What?”

“I said—”

“I heard you.”

Everyone stepped back, and Matthias guided her to the edge of the boardwalk, out of the main line of traffic. He kept his voice low. “Taz, I’m sorry. Truly, deeply sorry. Contrary to what you might think I don’t have a lot of experience with this. I’ve never done this before.”

“You’ve had a lot of women,” she shot back. “You said so yourself.”

His eyes narrowed, and his face hardened. “That’s
not
what I meant. There is a vast gulf between having and loving. And, if you remember, I’m a lot older than you. For your information I haven’t ‘had’ a woman in over ten years.”

Matthias walked away before she could conjure a response. Something in the set of his shoulders told her she’d crossed a line, maybe hurt his feelings. She knew she was being a bitch, and she couldn’t help herself. This wasn’t like her at all.

Albert walked up behind her. “He’s only loved one other, dear. He is as lost as you are.” He followed Matthias.

“Give him a chance, Taz,” Robertson said. “He’s trying.”

She walked back to the cabin, trailed by the three guards and feeling guilty.

Chapter Eighteen

“Why are we here?”
Taz thought to Matthias.

Matthias lay on his bed, reading. He was still dressed, but shoeless, and making a concerted effort to ignore her.

Finally, she spoke out loud. “Are you ignoring me?”

He didn’t look at her. “I was under the impression you didn’t want me to speak to you. I was trying to give you some privacy.”

“Why are we here?”

He still didn’t look up from his book.

Frankly, she couldn’t blame him.

“I have some meetings,” he said, “and I need to keep you close. I’d rather have you here, where I can protect you. I have a lot of contacts in this area, and if someone tries to get into the park who doesn’t belong, I’ll know about it.”

She tried to wrap her mind around that. “Uh, so they wouldn’t possibly sneak in through thousands of miles of unwatched park borders? They’d come through one of the main gates?”

Snarky much?

He looked at her over the top of his book. “When I give you information, you get mad at me. When I withhold information, you get mad at me. So what would you have me do? Nothing I say to you is right.”

“What happened to bringing me into the loop?”

He put the book down and sat up. “I mean it. I don’t know what to say to you. I’m screwing this up, and for once in my life, I can’t fix it.”

She sat on her bed and didn’t reply. He watched her, saying nothing.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I feel like I’m crawling out of my skin. And then to hear you talk about your harem—”

Matthias threw his book across the room, and she flinched as it bounced off the wall by the door.

“Goddamn it, Taz! Would you quit thinking like that? Stop it. I can’t help that I had partners before I met you. I had sex, yes, I did. I’m not a virgin. So did you. If anyone has a right to be pissed, it’s me. It’s been ten years since I’ve had a relationship. You were still in college the last time I got laid.”

It took her a moment to digest what he said. “Wha—how
dare
you! How was I supposed to know I’d meet you?”

“
Exactly
my point.”

She stared at him, her eyes narrowing, comprehending what he meant. “You mean you
were
planning on meeting me all this time?
All
this time? Ten
fucking
years?” There was something both romantically sweet and totally creepy about that.

“No, Jesus, that’s not what I meant.” He stood and paced, which in the small room meant two strides one direction, turn, and two strides back across to his bed. “That’s not what I meant at all.” He stopped and closed his eyes, as if trying to put his thoughts together.

“Taz, I didn’t deliberately set this up as some sort of diabolical plan to sleep with you. I keep telling you that, and I wish you’d believe me. I knew you would need to be near us for protection and training. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t attracted to you. You are a beautiful woman. And yes, I could probably work on you and take advantage of you and talk you into bed. If I was going to do that, don’t you think I would have done so back at the house, when you were physically and emotionally vulnerable and throwing yourself at me? Not to mention do you think I would get a cabin with two beds?”

She had to admit, it wasn’t the most romantic of arrangements.

“Right. And yes, I did listen to your thoughts that time.” He sat on his bed. “I’m not going to beg you. I won’t grovel. I’ve apologized for the way this has unraveled. When I find out who’s behind it, they will pay, I promise. I know you’re upset and confused. Part of that is stress, part of it is you’re tuning into your powers for the first time and you’re probably having difficulty maintaining some semblance of control over your emotions. But believe me, if you tell me you never want to sleep with me or have a relationship with me, okay, fine, I can deal with it. Like it, no. Accept it, yes. I would never force you to have a relationship with me if you didn’t want to.”

She stared at him. “I’m sorry,” she softly said. “I think I need sleep. Maybe tomorrow we can start over. You’re right, I don’t feel like myself.”

He took a deep breath and let it out before replying. “I think that’s a
great
idea.”

He found his book, straightened a few bent pages, and didn’t look her direction for the rest of the evening. She took a shower, finding it hard to move in the tiny space. When she turned off the light and tried to go to sleep, she watched his face, illuminated by moonlight streaming through the window over his bed.

His handsome profile looked old and weathered in the shadows.

How does he put up with me? I wouldn’t tolerate this shit from me if I was him.

The corner of his mouth curled at that last thought.

Taz rolled over and closed her eyes, wishing she could read his mind and really see what was going on behind those gorgeous blue eyes.

* * * *

Matthias had already showered when she got up the next morning. He must have arisen before dawn. The light outside was chilly and grey when she emerged from the bathroom. He wasn’t in the room, and she heard him outside talking in a low voice with the other men.

She grabbed her jacket and joined them and thought she caught the briefest of smiles from Matthias.

“Good, you’re here,” he said. “Let’s get breakfast.”

He led the way with long strides, Albert at his side, not waiting for her. She followed, Robertson beside her.

“Well,” he said in her ear, “at least you’re not screaming at each other.”

“Shut up. I’m still mad at you.”

“No you’re not. You’re mad at the situation.”

She hated when he was right. The more she thought about what she did to the guard, the sicker it made her. She hated to admit it, but Albert did the right thing. If their circumstances were reversed, she would have done the same.

In a heartbeat.

Albert stopped her before anyone got hurt. She never thought about it, that she could hurt or kill someone with her thoughts. It explained why during the demonstration with Mayfield that Matthias stood at her shoulder, carefully controlling the situation.

Breakfast was good. Matthias never looked at her, didn’t speak to her, giving her space. She received the itinerary from Albert and Robertson and was able to watch Old Faithful erupt. The guards flanked her as she sat on the bench next to Albert while Robertson went with Matthias. Apparently their meeting was in one of the nearby buildings because they didn’t take the Rover.

“What did Matthias mean when he said he’d know if someone got in here who didn’t belong?”

Albert looked out over the geyser field. “Just that.”

“How come the Others can’t just hike through the woods to get here?”

“What do you smell, Anastazia?”

She sniffed. “I don’t know. Pine. Place smells like Christmas trees. And whatever the geysers are putting out, rotten egg smell. This whole place is a huge supervolcano. I saw it on the Discovery Channel.”

He nodded. “If you’re a fan of irony, which I am, you’ll be happy to learn a lot of what you’re smelling is sulfur. Another term for which is ‘brimstone.’”

She looked at him, sure he was pulling her leg. Then she realized he was serious. “You’re not kidding?”

He shook his head. “About something like this, I never kid, my dear. We are surrounded, if you will, by fire and brimstone.”

“Fire?”

He smiled. “Well, technically. The Others can’t stand sulfur. The smell. It burns them or something. Which, in this case, is lucky for us. Yellowstone has been a safe haven and meeting spot for our kind, as well as other paranormal breeds, for many, many years.”

“‘Other paranormal breeds?’ Do I even want to ask?”

He arched an eyebrow at her.

“Um, right. We’ll cover that later. Sorry, go ahead.”

“As I was going to say, the Others are most likely watching for us to leave the park, and we can probably expect some sort of trouble on the way out. They could send their hybrids, but they’re not much fonder of brimstone than the Others. And if they try to send humans through the gates, they’ll be spotted.”

“Because they have pointy horns growing out of their heads?”

He looked at her. “It doesn’t matter how they’d be spotted. They would.”

“Need-to-know basis?”

“And you don’t need to know right now. You’ve got enough on your plate. I’ll be happy to explain it all later. For now, you need to work on a few things. Lessons to learn, and all that.”