From the Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) (27 page)

I sat that way for a long moment, my arms tight around his shoulders. Being filled by Race in this position was different than all the others we’d been in—it was as though I had t
aken him deeper. I felt fuller. Surprised and delighted, I began to move, rising up and lowing myself slowly. My heaving breasts rubbed his chest as I rode, as Race lifted his hips to meet mine each time I came down on him, turning my taut, tingling nipples into rock-hard pebbles that were painfully tight in a way I’d never found pleasurable before. But tonight it was, and the feeling spurred me on.

I began to move up and down faster, and Race matched his rhythm to mine. When I felt the beginning flutters of another orgasm start to trickle outward from where we were joined, I drew my long hair aside and exposed my neck to Race, leaning into him so that he could put his mouth to my skin. Race tipped his head in the opposite direction and I did the same, and as my climax hit me and I jerked against him, I closed my eyes, opened my mouth, and bit down hard.

Race bit into my right shoulder as I bit into his, and I felt the sharp pain of my skin breaking as his blood flowed into my mouth. My first instinct was to stop because it felt wrong to be drinking blood, but then I realized my already strong orgasm was suddenly more intense, and instead I drew another mouthful. I could also sense a presence in my mind, one that was both alien and familiar to me.

Race?

Juliette?

Yes, my love
, I replied.

Oh my God
, his mental voice said.
This…this is… I’ve never felt anything like it
.

It’s supposed to get better
, I told him.
Now we have to say the words, or we’ll lose the connection
.

What do I have to say?

Just repeat after me
, I instructed, and then began to recite the mantra that my mother had made me memorize so many years ago:

Blood of my lover, let as I take thee,
join our souls as one. You are mine as I am yours, as it always has been and always shall be. Your heart can be given to no other, your body can be touched by no other. Your battles I will fight by your side, your triumphs I will celebrate by your side. Your sorrows I will bear with thee. May we walk this world together for many days yet to come
.

Race re
peated each sentence after I said it, and I could feel the metaphysical bond that had begun when I looked into his eyes that first night grow stronger. With each word our connection became more powerful, more intense, and soon I was not sure where I ended and he began. But after the last word was spoken, the sensation of being complete changed, and though I felt him withdrawing I knew that a part of him had remained. It was a part of him that would be with me no matter how far apart we were.

Then suddenly I was back in my own body, blinking as though to chase away a
sense of déjà vu. I lifted my lips from Race’s shoulder and drew back to look at the wound, and found that it was already closing. I bent my head and darted my tongue out to clean up the spots of blood that had welled up along the edges, frowning slightly when I saw that while the mouth-shaped circle had sealed, it was still there. I turned to look at my own shoulder as best I could and saw the same was true.

“Looks like we’re marked,” Race said lightly.

Resigning myself to the fact that these marks appeared to be permanent, I then smiled contentedly and kissed Race on the nose. “Yeah. I own you now.”

He kissed me back, though his kiss was on my lips. “I know I said the other day that nobody owns me anymore,” he said slowly, lowering me to the bed and stretching out beside me once again. “But I think in your case I could make an exception.”

R
ace and I spent half the night making love, using the new mental link between us to explore each other in ways we had never imagined were possible. The old stories my mother used to embarrass me with, the ones in which she told me how indescribably pleasurable sharing myself with a man would be once I’d bonded…well, they were proving to be true, as I knew there was no way I could put into words how Race made me feel, even if I wanted to.

We exhausted each other sometime around 3 a.m., and I fell into a blissful, contented, sated sleep wrapped securely in his arms.

A few hours later I woke to the smell of coffee and bacon. When I looked at the clock I saw that it was just after 8:00, and was surprised that I wasn’t still tired. Rising from the bed, I reached into the closet for my robe and put it on, then padded out to find Race. He was standing at the stove frying eggs and bacon, clad only in a pair of low-slung pajama bottoms. I smiled, thinking of just how hot he looked, how much I just loved the way the elastic waistband sat around his hips, giving just enough of a hint of what lay underneath.

“Keep thinking that way and breakfast will burn,” Race said lightly, turning to me with a knowing smile.

I blinked, confused for a moment, and then smiled back. I’d forgotten that he could now hear my thoughts. Stepping into the kitchenette, I walked up behind him to wrap my arms around his waist, noting as I did so that indeed, the place where I had bitten him was still marked despite werekind having the ability to heal without scarring. I kissed the mark softly and then walked over to the coffee maker, “As much as I don’t mind letting you know just how sexy I think you are,” I said, “one of the first things we have to do is learn how to tune each other out. A person’s thoughts are supposed to be the last private place we have, and I’m sure there are things in that handsome head of yours you’d prefer choosing to share with me rather than my learning them by chance.”

Race nodded as I was pouring myself a cup of java. “You’re right on all counts, babe,” he said. “While I definitely enjoyed using this telepathy thing to please you last night, it’ll become damn inconvenient not having my head to myself when we’re not in bed.”

“And I’m certain to want to keep most of my thoughts to myself,” I said as I moved over to the refrigerator and reached into it for the milk. After pouring a generous amount into my cup, I put the milk back and put my cup on the dining bar, then went to retrieve a spoon and the sugar.

“So how do we learn to turn the volume down, as it were?” Race asked as he started plating bacon and eggs for both of us.

After placing the sugar and a spoon on the dining bar, I reached into the cabinet again for another mug. “How do you take your coffee, anyway? You didn’t drink it yesterday.”

“I prefer mine straight and black,” he replied, carrying our plates over to the bar. I poured a full cup and passed the mug over, then grabbed the silverware and sat down
across from him.

“To answer your question, we’re going to have to talk to one of the pack who’s mated,” I told him after saying grace. “One of them will be able to give us some advice.”

“So we’ll call your mom later,” Race said before putting a forkful of eggs in his mouth.

I’d taken a sip of my sugar and milk-laden coffee as he spoke, thankful for Saphrona’s suggestion that we also buy food for the apartment for the times Race and I wanted to eat alone, and so I said to him silently,
My mother did not imprint on my father
.

Race looked up at me.
She didn’t
?

“No,” I replied aloud. “I didn’t know this until after the Day of Hell, when I asked her about it based on a discussion I’d had with Mark and Saphrona about bonding. She told me that she truly loved my father and always had, that she always would, and that if she hadn’t imprinted by now then she wasn’t likely to.”

“But that’s not guaranteed?”

I shook my head sadly. “No, it’s not. Part of me is afraid for my dad—according to my mom, he was nearly destroyed by what had happened to Mark’s birth mother. He was a broken man for a very long time, from what she said, and it scares me to think that she could someday meet her
bondmate and be forced to leave him. Dad couldn’t even handle the truth of what we are—Lochlan had to make him forget.”

“And you’re afraid that if your mom does imprint, she’ll leave your dad and he’ll break down all over again,” Race suggested.

“Yeah, a breakdown from which he might not recover.” The conversation had weakened my appetite, but I forced myself to take a few bites of food before I spoke again. “Mom swore to me that even if she did suddenly imprint, she wasn’t ever going to leave Dad. And I know that I should trust her conviction, but it’s kind of hard to do. You probably remember that we never celebrate Mark’s birthday on his actual birthday, that we always had a party for him the week before. The reason for that is because—”

“Because the day he was born is the day his mother died,” Race finished for me softly. “I remember. Your dad always became
kinda surly and yet quiet a day or so before, and you couldn’t talk to him at all the day of.”

I nodded. “And he wasn’t himself again until a few days after. He’s still like that. Mom once told me he’d confessed to feeling guilty for not allowing Mark to celebrate on his actual birthday, and how he pretty much ignored everyone that day, but he can’t help himself. It’s not that he doesn’t love us, he just…he can’t stop the memory from taking him over. He found Mark’s mother with her throat all but torn out, and if he hadn’t had the fortitude to call for help, he’d have lost Mark as well. The vampire’s
draculin was changing him, but he still needed to be born to live.”

“
Sumbitch,” Race muttered. “It’s probably a miracle your dad recovered at all.”

“Now you see why the prospect of my mother imprinting scares the hell out of me,” I said.

Race took a breath and then a swig of his coffee. He then took a bite of food before saying, “So do you have anyone in mind we could talk to? Is there anyone in the pack you’re close with that you trust enough to keep private matters private?”

“Although every member of the pack considers the others family, I’ve never been particularly close to anyone but Jake, to be honest,” I confessed. “When I was little I was a girly girl, but after I started phasing I was all
tomboy. Despite there being other girls who were shifting, they tended to stick together and I just wanted to run with the boys. Jake was the only one who tolerated me always hanging around. But I do think we’d be alright talking to Martha. From what I’ve seen, she and her husband have a very strong relationship.”

“You told me last night that in human-shifter pairings, the shifter is considered the Alpha whether it’s a man or a woman. How do the human men handle that?” my lover wanted to know.

“Well, like I said, we’re considered Alphas physically,” I reminded him. “Personality-wise, if the guy is an Alpha male he stays an Alpha male, and tends to have the control in the relationship. In every relationship, or so I learned in Sociology back in college, one person is dominant and the other is submissive.”

“Who do you think is going to be the Alpha in our relationship?” Race asked with a grin.

I raised an eyebrow. “Personally, I’d prefer an equal partnership. But given that you’re taller and stronger and more than likely faster, it’s probably you.”

“Yeah, but that’s just physical dominance,” he pointed out. “If we judge our relationship by our personalities, our strength of will, then I’m not ashamed to admit you’ve got the upper hand. I mean, look at my past, how weak I was. I didn’t gain true strength until I met you.”

“Race, you had already made the decision to break away from Vienna Silk before we ran into each other,” I said. “You wanted to be free, to be your own person. I had nothing to do with that.”

“Yeah, but if you hadn’t come along, I probably would have fallen back on my old habits. Working for vampires is about all I know, but you’ve given me a reason to make an honest effort at being a better man.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, though I felt my heart swell with love. By the look on his face, I knew he’d felt my emotion through the bond.

“So in a way,” he went on, “we do have an equal partnership.”

I smiled. “And how is that?”

“I’ve got the body and you’ve got the personality. And since we’re both sexy as sin, I’d say that makes us even.”

I laughed, as I couldn’t think of anything to say to that either.

***

When Race and I had finished breakfast and dressed, we descended from the apartment to find Mark and Saphrona in the barn mucking the stalls. Not knowing what else to do, I offered to help. It was at that moment that Saphrona’s house phone rang, and she laughingly told me I could help her out by answering the phone for her.

Inside the house, I headed over to the cordless phone on the wall beside the refrigerator, glancing at the caller I.D. to see who it was out of habit. I lifted an eyebrow
as I read the words “Mackenna Corporation.”

“Caldwell residence, may I help you?” I said by way of greeting after lifting the handset and pressing the talk button.

“Miss Juliette Singleton, how do you do?” replied the softly accented voice of Saphrona’s father, Diarmid Mackenna. I thought it strange that he was calling at almost nine in the morning when, if memory served, he preferred the night life. And though I knew vampires had eidetic memories, I couldn’t help the sense of amazement that surged that he had immediately recognized my voice.