Days of Redemption (The Firsts Book 6) (4 page)

She froze, backed against the ancient refrigerator, and couldn’t take her eyes off of him
, well aware it wasn’t the cold appliance that made her shiver.

Bryn stood still and let her stare. He took a moment to do the same, his eyes snagged on the place where the inadequate robe was cinched so tightly, he thought it m
ust hurt.  He could feel his fingers twitch, wanted to pull that knot free and let the damn garment fall.  She was breathing hard, her full breasts pressed against the thin satin, the nipples reaching for his lips.

He couldn’t help it, his hand dropped to slide against his cock, which was fully erect, now that the tight jeans were gone and the woman he wanted was
standing in front of him.  And wanted him as well. 

Bryn took a moment, too, to look closely at her face. 
She wouldn’t know, but he wasn’t as drunk as he seemed.  He could see her now, the tall quiet woman who exposed David’s traitors to them in Iceland last year.  Of course.  He’d thought she was interesting then, if not pretty.  Now, though, she was stunning.  And it wasn’t because of the changes in her looks.  It was because she believed herself to be pretty, believed she was sexy, and it manifested in the confident, sexually excited woman he now knew he would absolutely have beneath him.  Tonight.  Or if not tonight, then soon, but it
would
happen.

“I think
ya see somethin’ ya like, am I right?” Bryn said to Lauren as he walked forward.  The closer he got, the harder she pushed back into the heavy metal appliance, so much so, she thought her molecules would merge with the refrigerator’s.

He stopped when his massive chest was just millimeters from hers.  When he looked at her, and she looked up into those blue eyes, she was trapped.

Movement against her belly told her he had reached for her, and she didn’t attempt to stop him.   Warm fingers spread slowly and weaved beneath the tie of the robe, sliding around from her belly to her sides to her back. 

Even more slowly, he pulled her to him and Lauren let her head drop back as his lips found her neck and began to nip at her throat.  Was he going to drink from her?

A breath caught in Lauren’s throat and she held it.  She
wanted
him to.   She’d always been curious, but more than that, she wanted
this
man’s mouth buried against her. 

“
Ya taste sweet, like fresh honey.   Ah, lass, tell me that ya want this.”

I do
.  But she whispered, “I can’t.  I’m not a part of your world, vampire.”  It was true.  He’d blow out of there and she’d be left empty. 

But wouldn’
t it be okay to let him fill her, just for one night?

“Once ye’re with me,
ya will be.”

Bryn lifted her and carried her to the bed, but winced when he got a full look at it.
  He gently lowered her to the floor.

“That won’t do.  Not for what I plan to do with
ya.  Wait.”

He pulled the blankets off
the bed and spread them in the center of the floor, shoving her sparse furniture against the back wall.  While he worked, Lauren watched his muscles as he moved. 
So beautiful, these bodies made from blood of vampires who had been here for over a thousand years.

Laur
en was shaking her head when he finished and looked up at her.

“What worries
ya?”

“I don’t belong with you.  You are from a magnificent species.  You are all so perfect and powerful.  I know what
I am, and I’m smaller than you.  Not just physically, I don’t mean that, but…”

Bryn yanked the tie from the robe and pushed it off
her shoulders as he came to her on his knees and wrapped his arms around her.  Even on his knees, he still reached to the top of her head.  And he just held her.  For minutes, they just held on, hugged, touching, bare skin to bare skin.

Moments later, Bryn pulled back and touched his tongue to one of her nipples.

“Ye’re grand, lass.  Don’t mistake me for anything other than a man who wants ya.  I don’t know why, but I do, and stronger than any woman I’ve met in a very many years.  I remember ya, little scientist.  I remember the cautious, quiet woman who showed up at a vampire’s lair with no thought of her own survival just to protect one of my own.”

As he spoke, his fingers trave
led downward, caressing her skin.

“I remember y
e’re eyes, most of all, and how brave ya were.  It is that woman I want to get inside.  Aw, now, lass, will ya have me?”

Lauren released a long slow breath as Bryn’s hand slid lower, and between her legs.
  She didn’t stop him, and she didn’t plan to.

THREE

“I had her, damn it!”

Claude paced while he spoke with the phantom on the other side of the line.

“I was moments from taking her and a fucking man showed up.  A fucking vampire!  One of those outrageously huge ones.”

Listening, Claude shook his head.  “No.  No, I won’t wait.  I have to take her tonight.  I’ve been after this bounty for nearly a year. I refuse to lose it in the last seconds of the hunt just because a vampire suddenly shows up to fuck her.  What is wrong with these crazy women?  She knows what they are!  Listen, I need you to send me one of your locals.  I’ll pay double if he can be here within half an hour.”

He waited until the asshole on the other end of the connection finally agreed.

Good.  It would be easy.  They’d bust in, he’d kill the oversized ape, and take his
bounty.  Of course, the ape wouldn’t stay dead, but that didn’t matter to Claude, he would be long gone with her by then.  Even the big vampire wouldn’t be able to track him. 

He just wanted his target.  This was one of his longest cases, and he was ready to finish it, collect the cool two million dollar payday, and go home.
  Once Cheeto’s guy got here, it would be finished.   The SRS would be satisfied with his dedication and maybe he would finally be given the position he deserved.

A
bout twenty minutes later, a beefy-looking, heavily tattooed guy came around the corner of the street and entered the all-night café where Claude was finishing a cup of coffee.

“Claude,” the beefy guy said, walking straight to him.  There was no
question, he knew who he was looking for.

Glancing up, his coffee cup suspended as he took the final sip,
Claude nodded.  Big and dumb looking.  Yeah, that was exactly what he needed.  Someone to hold the vampire back just long enough for Claude to punch eight or ten rounds into him.

The beefy guy started to sit down and Claude shook his head as he rose up from the table.

“No.  We go right now.  Follow me.”

Throwing a ten dollar bill onto the table, Claude led his
hired muscle out of the café.

“When we get there, we crash through the door.
  You will look for a large man.  He’s all yours.  Take him down, however you can.  Don’t pull your punches, hit him as hard and fast as you can.  You’ll want to be brutal because if he gets past you, you’re done.  I’ll take care of the rest.”

Beefy guy nodded.  “Sure.  You
gonna kill him?”

“Not this time,” Claude answered and closed the conversation by picking up his speed.

Beefy got the message and just followed quickly, flexing his muscles to prepare for the fight.

It took about three minutes to get to the woman’s apartment and to the basement level.  Claude knew these old doors had poor latches and would likely give on the first thrust from two heavy men.

Standing silently, he gave his associate a sign and, simultaneously, they slammed their shoulders into the door.  It gave with little hesitation, and they entered immediately, the 9 mil automatic already in Claude’s hands.

Lauren had her head back, her arms stretched to her sides, her fingers wrapped around
heavily muscled shoulders for support, her back arched, as Bryn’s fingers moved between her legs and slipped deep enough to cause a long moan.  She wasn’t sure if it was hers or his, because he spoke a moment later, softly, and said, “delicious.”

There wasn’t any chance now that she could say no to him, she wanted him too much.  And with the fucked up year behind her, and likely a much more screwed up one in the future, she felt she deserved this one incredible sexual
experience.  Just one.  She knew from the studies that vampires were spectacular lovers, and now she would find out personally.  She was ready.

Lauren leaned down to let him know she wanted him to stay.  Just as she did, the door to her apartment splintered and
exploded in.  Everything happened fast at that point.

Bryn, down on his knees in front of her
, shot up just as a large strange man bulldozed into him and pushed him across the room into the kitchenette, crashing both of them up against the cabinets.  Lauren grabbed her robe and moved back so she wouldn’t get smashed, to let Bryn have room to move.  Unless the invading man was a vampire, Bryn would have him down in moments.

Only, as she
tied the belt around the robe, her eye caught movement to her right and she spun as a second man in a nice suit came through the door.  He yelled one word, “Clear!” and the other man fell to the floor as he fired a handgun repeatedly at Bryn.

Lauren watched in horror as a spray of bullets blew into Bryn, one after another.   Surging forward, she tried to intercept the shooter even though she knew she would likely be shot before she ever got to him.  He paused just long enough to shove her so violently she fell against the floor hard enough to hit her head on the concrete under the thin linoleum.  Flashes of light interrupted her vision, but she tried to get back up
as the room went silent when the concussive expulsions stopped. 

Her eyes went immediately to the big vampire crumpled on the floor,
his blood splattered all over walls and cabinets in her small kitchen.  Bryn wasn’t moving, and with all the bullet holes in his chest, she knew he was dead.

So did the shooter.  The wel
l-dressed man turned to her and, with a brutally tight grip on her arm, pulled her to him. 

Lauren immediately went ballistic, yanking
and kicking at the man, but he grabbed her by the throat, hauled her close to him, and grinned.

“You’re a clever bitch, I’ll give you that.  I’ve chase
d you for nearly this entire fucking year.  Now, all I have to do is get you back to France. This asshole vampire nearly screwed that up, but I’m resourceful and motivated.”

He looked at the other big man that had come through the door first
to attack Bryn.

“Thanks.  Good work.  Tell Cheeto I appreciate it.  Get out of here.”

The big man left without a word.  Well-dressed guy turned back to his captured prey.

“Now, I know you won’t
come willingly, so I’m going to have to subdue you.”

“No,” Lauren told him quickly.  “I’ll come with you. 
With no resistance.”

Claude
tightened his grip on her throat for just a moment as he tilted his head.  “Yeah.  I’ve been watching you for the past three weeks.  The first chance you get, you’ll blow my brains out.  I’m good at what I do, little lady, and I am just not that gullible.  And don’t try seduction.  You may be hot, but you aren’t my type.”

Twisting her around suddenly, he shoved her onto the blankets that stretched across her floor, smashing her face into them enough to bury her nose
so tight into the fabric, she could barely breathe.  Lauren thought about the fact that Bryn had just moments earlier laid them there so they could make love.  Earlier when she had lamented that her life sucked, she realized it could have sucked so much more.  And now it did.

She wasn’t worried about Bryn, bullets wouldn’t kill him forever, but she knew her days of freedom were over.  She had no
doubt, this bounty hunter was from the SRS.  All she could look forward to now was torture and eventually, a violent death.

He kept his knee in her back, his full weight on her so that she couldn’t move at all.  Moments later she felt a sting in her shoulder.

“What the hell?”  She said before she realized that she had been drugged. 

Yeah, she had
.  It was apparent in the next few moments when the world started getting fuzzier.  Her final thought before Lauren lost consciousness was that she wished her abductor could have waited one more night.  One more night so that she could have felt Bryn on top of her.  And inside her.  The room darkened and then nothing.

FOUR

Bryn startled awake. 
Fuck, he hurt like hell! 
He stood shakily and looked around, taking his bearings. It took a moment for the events to become clear as he searched the tiny apartment, furniture shoved against the walls, blood splattered all over the food preparation area.

When he looked down at his naked body filled with holes that were already beginning to heal, he realized the blood was his. 
What the hell had happened?

Lauren!
The space was small, no other rooms except what he assumed was a bathroom, and as he walked over to it to look inside, he already knew she wasn’t there.  He clearly remembered the events now.  He’d been attacked by a large human man, too weak to have subdued Bryn for long, but then he’d been fatally shot moments later by a second man.  And Lauren was gone.

Why would someone have attacked him so viciously and taken the little scientist
?  As he grabbed his jeans and slipped them on, it struck him.   The council that had taken the supernaturals, had they taken her?

Fuck, that
had to be it.  She’d betrayed them to their greatest enemy, and they would want revenge.  He wondered for a moment if they could have found her because of him, but he dismissed that immediately.  Nay, he would have known if they were following him.

His arrival back in her life tonight
, and this abduction, had to be happenstance.  Didn’t matter, he
was
back in her life, and he would protect her.   Serendipity, chance, destiny…whatever the hell guided events and moments, for whatever reason, he was here as this happened so he would be here to rescue her.  Bryn believed in fate, always had, because he’d seen it affect people’s lives for centuries.  And although he would never have classified himself as a hero, he knew he was here to be Lauren’s. 

Bryn fished his cell
phone out of the pocket of his pants as he slid them on, and called home.

“David, I’m in Chicago.  Yeah, I can’t really explain why, just following a pretty girl I met in New York.  Turns out, she was the main squeeze of a guy who leads a motorcycle gang.  Anyway, things went sideways when the gang got involved, fists flew, a bike might have gotten stolen, and then I met someone I didn’t expect to meet.  
Ya remember that mousy little scientist that helped Cherise find ya last year and helped us take down the assholes who kidnapped ya?”

Bryn dropped to pull on his boots.  “She was here.  But look, someone took her.  They filled me full of lead, left me for dead, and she’s gone.  It’s the vampire studies council, isn’t it?   They’ve been
lookin’ for her.”

David’s voice came through strong.  “Oh,
shit!  Yeah, probably.  She’s been off the grid since we torched the place.  They got her?”

“Yeah.
  Some asshole in a three-piecer with a handgun.  I’m okay, but ya can bet our little traitor isn’t.  Any idea where they would take her, David?”

“No, but I’ll see what I can find out.  He won’t be able to move her through conventional transport.  He’ll have sedated her, Bryn.  But that council has deep pockets, so I bet it’s a private plane.”

“On it.  If he’s gone, do ya think he’ll fly into Paris?”

“No.  They wouldn’t risk it.  It’ll be a private landing strip. Give me half an
hour, I’ll see what my team can dig up.”

“Aye.
  Call when ya know somethin’.”

“Bryn, you don’t have to get involved.  I appreciate you letting me know, but I can assign a team to track her from here if you’d like.”

“Nay.  She’s gotten under my skin, and I kind of want her there.  She’s trouble, is what she is, but she’s my kind of trouble.”

David was silent for a moment.  Bryn never took anything seriously.  He was the consummate party boy, always looking for the next fuck or the next bottle of booze.  And the scientist who helped them had been a kind, brave woman to risk her life for him and his people.  But she was a plain, shy woman, and that
wasn’t Bryn’s type. 

What, he wondered, had changed?

“All right, buddy.  Be careful.  They know how to hurt us and they know how to kill us.”

“Aye.
  Keep in touch.”

Grabbing his shirt, Bryn headed out and left the apartment unlocked.  There was nothing in there for Lauren to return for.  Her life here in Chicago was over.

God, that vampire knew what to do with his mouth.  He was moving now, past her stomach and traveling toward that ridiculous
ly needy slit that was already weeping for his attention. Lauren moaned and turned over onto her back to give him better access, and parted her legs.  Only they wouldn’t move.  She moaned again and opened her eyes.

She lay on a hard, cold surface that was vibrating.  The motion woke her slowly and she looked around a darkened space.  The walls were close and curved, and there was a distinctive whine. 
An engine.  It was an airplane engine.

Oh, right.  She had been found and drugged, and she figured she was on her way now to France.

More than anything, she’d wanted never to see that country again, the memories so awful.  And here she went, back for the last time. 

It was over.  She wouldn’t leave there alive.  They were not a forgiving lot
, and she had cost them the results of over three decades of their “research,” as well as their largest facility outside of Paris. 

Rolling upright, she looked around.  It was pretty e
mpty, except for a few boxes.  And it was freezing in there.  They had her in the cargo hold?   Couldn’t even throw her in a seat?  She was bound tightly, hands and feet, it wasn’t like she was going to be a threat.

Assholes
.  She was hungry, thirsty, frozen, and she had to pee.   A sharp snort of a laugh forced itself out of her as she admitted that this was probably as comfortable as she would be for the remainder of her very short life.

“Bend over and kiss your ass good-bye,” Lauren whispered. 

The dream she’d been having just before she woke came back to her.  Bryn, naked, his tongue just getting to the good part.  

“Bounty hunter?
  Can you drug me again?”   She called out.  At least she might be able to feel that big vampire’s glorious cock inside of her, if only in her dreams, before reality shattered any chance of her dreaming again.

Ah, well.  At least she’d had a good year on the run before facing her tribunal.  She was just human with no power or particular skills…it wasn’t likely she was going to actually pull off that disappearance.

Sighing, she knew she wouldn’t forget those few incredible moments with Bryn.  She hoped he was okay.  He’d probably figure he was lucky to have gotten away with his life, and headed back to the safety of David’s elaborate Icelandic compound.  The alcoholic coffers were never low there, so he would be in vampire heaven. 

Lauren wondered what made him like he was.  She remembered just before they were going to attack the research facility and rescue the remaining detainees, that David had been pissed at Bryn because he wouldn’t put down a bottle of whisky.

“You’re not going if you’re drunk,” David had told him.

Bryn had grinned, that charming, boyish,
drunken
grin she imagined was typical for him.

“Lad,” Bryn had told David, his oldest friend.  “
Ya might remember I fight better when I’m drunk.”

To which David had scoffed.  “No, you
think
you fight better when you’re drunk.  I mean it, you’re not going if you’re sauced, Bryn.”

And Lauren remembered it had been hard for the big vampire to stay sober.  She remembered, too, that he had fought like a true warrior and saved a lot of
supernaturals.

Oh
, how nice to be rescued by him now.
  But he didn’t have a dog in this fight.  When he’d come to her apartment tonight, it had been to get a good fuck. 

That’s what he was known for. 
Drinking and women.   That, too, she remembered.

So, the best she could hope for was that he might let David know she was taken, and David might tell Cherise.

Lauren was pretty sure Cherise would send someone for her.  She didn’t believe, though, that they could find her.

Oh, God, she was tired of thinking about it all.  Laying her head back against the floor of the fuselage, she closed her eyes and tried to zone back out.  Lauren remembered that was how David had survived thirty years of torture and death.  He’d receded to a dark corner of his mind and hid from the truth of his life.  Nodding to herself, Lauren knew she would need to do the same.

A whoosh and loud screech to her left made her open her eyes again and turn her head toward the sound.  The door opened and the well-dressed man stood there.

“Just checking on you, making sure you haven’t gotten too clever and gotten out of those knots.  Be assured
, I was very careful, so it’s unlikely.  Do you need anything?”

Yes!

“Thank you, I do. 
A blanket.  This floor is frigid.  And some water and maybe some dinner?”

In the darkness, she could barely see him, backlit from the light that slipped in around the open doorway and his silhouette. 

“Why sure, how about
Coq au Vin
?  And a fine white wine with that?  A cashmere wrap?”

“Asshole!”
Lauren called out.  “I’m sorry, did I say that out loud?   What I meant was, you pusillanimous pea-brained troglodyte, I hope your pay is worth murdering an innocent woman.”

He laughed with a grating wheeze. 
“Hardly.  I know what you did.  I think you have everything you need.  I know you have everything you’re going to get.”

“Can’t I even have a fucking cracker?”

The whoosh and screech let her know she was talking to air now. 
No, no cracker
. 
Fuck me
, she thought,
maybe I
was a little rash in telling him what I think of him
.

Was this a little karmic justice? 
Maybe
.

Lauren threw her head back onto the hard floor again, closed her eyes once more, and thought about Bryn and that incredible body that had nearly been hers tonight.

David hurried through the upper level of his house, the only section that stood fully above ground.  He knew his wife was up here in the menagerie, because that was almost always where she was.  Cherise had such a
gift, such a connection with all living creatures, but especially the animals she babied so ridiculously.  It made him love her even more. 

Cherise
would want to know about Lauren.  He knew she had developed a strange relationship with the odd woman who had been part of the team that “studied” him after his abduction, and the one who had ultimately helped rescue him.  Lauren had brought Cherise to him and he would always be grateful to her for that. 

As he rounded the corner of the main entrance room to a wide hallway off the back of the house, he heard the cacophony long before he arrived to the huge double doors that led into an enclosed breezeway.  Once he entered and the doors closed automatically, a second set of doors opened to let him
out of the enclosure, and the noise exploded.

David’s connection to her had only grown over the past year since they married and she became vampire.  He knew exactly where she was because he felt her
lifeforce, her presence, since his was tethered to it. 

She was bent over, filling an enormous water dish for two dogs
that were so large, he swore that they had horse DNA.  He smiled and watched the small rounded buttocks that were barely concealed by a thin skirt.  He couldn’t help himself, he walked up behind her and formed one of his hands over each of the perfect shapes.

Cherise turned to him with a smile and put her arms around his neck.

“
Chérie,
” she said, her French accented voice soft and melodic.  She pulled back his shirt and licked his collarbone.  “I have missed you.  You have been below stairs all night.”

“Working, baby.
  Listen, there’s a problem.  Bryn somehow ended up in Chicago and he hooked up with Lauren, don’t ask me how.  Anyway, he said someone took her.  The vampire council, you think?”

“
Merde!
  It had to be.  Oh, David, this is bad, so bad.  We have to get your men on it right away or she is dead.  Where is Bryn now?  Does he have any idea where they took her?”

“He’s tracking her.  I’ve already contacted Gunnar and he’s got IT on it.  We’re thinking they’ll take her back to France.”

“It makes sense.  Baby, it’s my fault.  I considered making her a blood-bond, but she didn’t want to.  She felt that she would be safer with no connection to our world, but that obviously wasn’t so.  I should have insisted, so I could use a blood trace to find her.  Now…”