I Am Lightning (Laurel Defense Series) (10 page)

I followed his progress around the room.  He seemed to be getting ready for bed.  He went inside his walk-in closet to take off his bloody clothes, and emerged wearing only his underwear and a new clean shirt.  He disappeared from the room and returned with a blanket.  He laid it on the floor and was about to lay on it himself when I stopped him.

“Your bed is huge, Robert.  What are you doing?” I said in disbelief.

“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he said and shrugged.

“Seeing you sleeping on the floor will make me uncomfortable, so please come to bed.  I can’t move, and I’m sure you don’t take up the whole bed, do you?”

Robert smiled and shook his head. 
“All right, dear Abby.  As you wish,” he said and planted a soft kiss on my cheek before going around to the other side of the bed.  I moved my face again so I could continue looking at him.  He lay down on his stomach facing me and asked for my hand.  I gave it to him and I felt that sweet current, although it was different this time.  It soothed my pain and I felt my body relax into the feeling.  I let out a breath that I didn’t know I’d been holding and closed my eyes.

“Sleep, my darling.
  I will be here,” Robert murmured.  I fell asleep thinking that I really liked the way he called me his darling.

My dreams were very dark and consisted of seeing Mark suffer a fate similar to mine, but alone.  I’d had Robert right next to me, and the entire Laurel Defense surrounding the area, but Mark had not had any help at all…  I woke up breathing hard and sweating, staring into Robert’s dark blue eyes by the light of the bathroom which he’d left on.  Robert didn’t say anything, only continued giving me some of his healing power.  His worried expression told me he could probably guess what I’d been dreaming about.

“I’m scared for Mark,” I finally blurted out, taking deep breaths.

“Would you like some water?” he asked, sitting up when he saw my nod. 

Slowly he helped me sit up too.  My body wasn’t in as much pain, but I felt stiff.  Robert looked away as soon as he could and left to get me water.  I tried to cover myself as best I could with the blanket, but it was difficult because it was behind me.  I dared not move anymore because my wings would move with me, and they still hurt pretty bad.  While I waited, I took a moment to look around the bedroom.  He had a simple bed without a headboard and two matching nightstands at either side.  The bed was very large, a king size, and the sheets on it were a light green.  I would have imagined he’d have black sheets… I don’t know why.  The walls were bare and white and there were no windows.  His hamper wasn’t overflowing, and he only had the minimal items on top of a chest of drawers: a small jewelry box made of wood and a bottle of cologne.  I smiled.  He didn’t smell like cologne, as in ever.  The spicy scent that I liked so much was his own.

Robert returned and sat in front of me, handing me the glass of cold water.  He watched me drink it and reached up to caress my hair away from my face.

“Can you tell me what happened exactly?” I asked him.  “I don’t remember much.”

His look of pain told me so much more than words could ever convey.  “I tried to stop them, Abby.  They were coming at you so fast,” his voice drifted as he shook his head.  “Nothing I did immediately
worked so I took you and ran out of the alley at the same time that Brenton and Tandy ran in.  They held the elementals back so they wouldn’t follow.  Jaime had to open a portal so I could bring you here because our medallions weren’t working yet.”

Hearing it I could barely believe it.  “I passed out.”

“You lost a lot of blood.  If it weren’t for Ifan…”

I shook my head. 
“Ifan?”

“He told me what to do.  He watched over you.”  Now Robert was being deliberately cryptic.

“Can you please explain in a little more detail?” I asked, holding my fingers up in the universal sign for “little.”

Robert looked away at a spot on the bed that was apparently super interesting all of a sudden.  “The potion
I gave you the other day after the incubus attack was going to be too weak this time.  You drank my blood, undiluted.  It’s how I healed you.  It was the only way.  You were about to die…  So much blood…” he whispered, his eyes closing against the memory.

I took a deep breath trying to steady my heart.

He continued, “I couldn’t stop myself from…”

The silence lingered, and something told me he wasn’t going to tell me anything else. 
“From what?” I asked.  Had he touched me?  That didn’t seem likely.  He hadn’t even wanted to look at me.

“I tasted your blood,” he growled, mad at
himself.  “You were lying comatose and all I wanted was your blood.”

I blinked.  “I’m poisonous…”

“No, not to me.”

I blinked again, not knowing what to think or what to ask.  “Did you drink from me?”

“No, I only licked some of your wounds,” he said and buried his face in his hands.  The loud groan that came after was a strange thing.

“So we’re even,” I said, reaching for his hands.

He looked at me; the pain in his eyes was evident.  I wasn’t sure what he was hating himself about now.  “What?” he asked confused.

“You had some of my blood, and I had some of yours.  We’re even, don’t you think?” I asked.  It made sense to me.  Maybe I was being naïve.

“Yes,” he allowed, “except now I want more.”

“So, um…” I was trying to add things up.  “You don’t like human blood, but mine is okay?”

“More than okay,” he said and his eyes flashed that strange light.  He moved his body closer to mine and took my glass of water, gently setting it on the nightstand.  When he turned back he had a hungry look in his eye, and I thought he was going to bite me.  Stupid me, I didn’t move and just waited for his bite as his face moved under my jaw, his nose grazing the skin on my neck.  He took a deep breath, then another.  The kisses that followed were my undoing.

I closed my eyes and leaned forward, feeling his soft lips tracing patterns on my suddenly hot skin.  His tongue tasted me before his lips followed with a kiss, over and over.  He tasted and kissed my neck, moving slowly to my throat, then following the line of my clavicle to my shoulder.

“Do you like that?” he asked, letting out his cool breath before planting an open mouthed kiss.  I thought I felt his fangs but I didn’t care.  My heart hammered inside my chest and I felt faint and woozy.

“Yes,” I answered in a breath
.  He was caressing my upper arms, feeling the goose bumps he had given me.  I fisted his shirt, unwilling to let him go.  I knew, in the very back of my head, that having sex after my ordeal and while Mark was still missing was probably wrong.  But I wanted Robert so badly.  I was naked already.  Couldn’t he get naked too?  I looked down surreptitiously at his underwear, pleased to see I was having the same kind of effect on him as he had on me.  I started running my hands down his chest slowly, with every intention of reaching the promised land of his tented boxer briefs, but he stopped my hands before I could get there.

Slowly he pulled away, holding my hands away from where they’d tried to be and kissing my palms, caressing my fingers with his thumbs.

“No, my darling.  We can’t, not yet.  You’re still recovering from blood loss and are probably in some pain,” he said, taking in my disappointed expression and knowing exactly why I felt that way.

I sighed but nodded.  He was right even if I wanted to think otherwise.  He kissed my pout away and then helped me lie back down on my stomach, covering me again and settling beside me.

“Thank you, Robert, for taking care of me,” I said, meaning it from the bottom of my heart.  I could not have imagined anybody else doing this much for me.

Robert smiled and I drifted off to sleep holding his hand.  This time my dreams were far more pleasant.

CHAPTER 9

I woke up in Robert’s bed to a beautiful sound.  It sounded like Robert enjoyed Andrea
Bocelli and had turned on the stereo.  Listening to the tenor singing a cappella filled me with peace and comfort, so I didn’t even bother opening my eyes.  I enjoyed it for several minutes, letting the notes resonate through me.  I didn’t know the language, but I figured it was opera in Italian.  Sometimes the sound of the voice was too low to tell if there were actual words.  Nevertheless I basked in the sound, getting lost in the experience until I felt a soft tug and pull on one of my wings.  I opened my eyes to discover I was alone in bed, but I was expecting that.  I turned my head the other way and was met with Robert’s beautiful smile and something else: he was the one singing.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he said looking a little abashed, but still smiling.  He was working on my wing.  The smile was doing something to me, melting me from the inside out.  Not to mention that he was still in his underwear and his muscular legs were calling to my fingers to touch.

“It’s okay.  You sing beautifully,” I said, still in awe.  I should have known vampires would have beautiful voices and weren’t tone deaf like yours truly.

“Thank you.  It was more of an experiment.  It seemed to help…”

“What did?” I interrupted.

“My singing,” he said and cleared his throat in a nervous gesture before continuing.  “I thought my singing might help heal your wings quicker.  Does this hurt?”

He must have touched my wing, and I did feel it, but it didn’t hurt.  I told him as much and continued watching him.  He was extending my wings straight up behind me, examining them minutely, and putting something on them once in a while.  I supposed it was the unguent he’d given me to repair Mark’s wing that one time after the snake dragon episode.

“They’re mending very well, but you shouldn’t retract them yet.  Give them
some more time to heal.”  Robert took a deep breath and sat on the bed, running his hand over my shoulders.  “Are you hungry?”

“Yes!” I said immediately, hearing my stomach concur.  Robert’s face broke into another wide smile. 
“Very hungry, actually.”

“Rhiannon brought some of your clothes,” he pointed at his dresser behind him, “but we’d have to cut holes on your shirts, and she brought nice shirts.  Would you mind wearing one of mine?”

I blinked.  “Then we’d have to cut holes on your shirts instead.”

He stood up and walked to his dresser.  It was hard to see from the angle I was in.  “I should have thought of it last night and given you one of mine,” he
said, ignoring my worry.  “But you were in so much pain that I didn’t want to move you too much.”

By the time he finished his statement he had pulled one of his white T-shirts from a drawer and sort of draped it over me, to figure out where to cut the holes, I supposed.  He even went to grab the scissors!

“Wait, just use one of my shirts,” I said quickly.

“Indulge me,” he said and smiled before he began to cut into the fabric.

I wasn’t going to argue anymore.  For one, it was a silly argument.  For another, I’d be wearing a shirt imbued with his scent.  Not a bad deal at all.  I only hoped Rhiannon had gotten me some undies, though… and hopefully not the sexy kind.  Although, I doubted she would have picked a thong for me to wear while I was recovering from an attack by a pair of elementals.

I was suddenly brought back to my very real worry about Mark.  His disappearance had something to do with the elementals, I was sure of it.  But if they had attacked him, we would have found him.  Jaime had called all the area hospitals just in case one of them had Mark, but had found nothing.  So that left me wondering, after going through what I’d gone through… what happened to Mark?  Where was he?  Had he been attacked or just corralled?  Was he in trouble or still investigating?  He wasn’t the kind to disappear on his own without telling anybody, short temper aside.  He would have been pissed to no end that we kept calling his cell phone and would have answered by now.

“Have they heard anything about Mark?” I asked Robert while he was still cutting holes in his shirt.

“After they were able to banish the elementals…”

“How?  Who?  Tell me everything,” I interrupted (again) and demanded.

Robert helped me sit up and slowly put the T-shirt over me, being very careful not to touch any part of me.  I was feeling a little numb, which was odd, but otherwise the pain was gone from my body.

“I know you’re impatient to hear everything, Abby, but I was trying to answer your first question.  How about if I just tell you everything from the time you passed out until now?”

I looked up and could see Robert wasn’t mad at my interruption.  He was smiling at my outburst.  I deserved that.  I was behaving like a twelve-year-old.  A hungry twelve-year-old!  My stomach rumbled loudly, letting me know that it could not wait another minute.

“Abby,” Robert pulled me out of my thoughts, “How about if I make you breakfast, you get dressed, and then I tell you everything while you eat?”

I nodded and made a pained face.  “Yeah… you’re right.”

“Okay.  Rhiannon brought your toothbrush too.  It’s in the bathroom along with some of your other things.  Do you need help or will you be okay without me?”

“I’ll be okay,” I said, testing my limbs to see if they would hold me up and move as directed.  They did.  The numb feeling was only on my skin.  I ran my fingers over my arm and it was like feeling the touch through layers of thick clothes.  “Why am I so numb?” I mumbled.

Robert was still in the room and had been watching me carefully.  The only light inside it had been the one at his bedside table, so when he turned on a larger floor lamp I had to blink a few times to get my eyes adjusted.  He had to grab his sunglasses from a drawer.  That told me it was still daylight outside, and he wasn’t supposed to be up.  Nevertheless he didn’t look sleepy.  He took my arm and examined it himself.

“You see these?” he asked, tracing lines over my arm that gave me goose bumps.  I looked closely and saw tiny lines, like old scars, lighter in color than the rest of my skin.  They were all over my arm.  I brought up my other arm, and it was the same: full of long straight lines.  “You’re numb because the nerves on your skin were damaged.  The feeling will go away in another day or so.  Your body is still assimilating my blood.”

“They did a number on me,” I muttered, almost thankful that I had passed out.  Did I say “almost”?  No.  I meant to say I was absolutely thankful that I had passed out and couldn’t remember anything.  The knowledge of how much damage the elementals had done on my body was a hard pill to swallow.  I could not even imagine what I looked like right after the attack, but judging by the amount of fading scars I would have to say I’d looked a bloody mess.  The thought of it made me shiver uncomfortably.

Robert bent his tall body and planted soft kisses on both my arms.  That’s all he had to do and I was already feeling better.  He caressed my face with both hands, pushing my hair behind my ears.  His expression was somber, like he was remembering how I’d gotten those scars, probably remembering the bloody mess I’d been.  Or else, knowing him, he was remembering how he’d been unable to resist the lure of my blood.  Seeing him looking so well – aside from
his grave expression – I knew that the little bit of my blood that he’d gotten the night before had the right effect.  He wasn’t poisoned; he was thriving.

“No one will ever hurt you again, Abby.  I swear it.  I’m so sorry.”  He kissed my lips softly, sealing his vow.  I felt the kiss all the way down to my toes.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I said, reaching up to caress his face too.  “Thank you for saving me.  You’re like my knight in shiny black leather.”

Robert chuckled before he kissed me again.

Rhiannon had been a saint.  She had packed my toiletry bag with all the essentials.  I was able to brush my teeth and hair, and even pull it into a braid with the hair bands she’d stuck in the bag.  I searched through the gym bag she’d brought with my clothes and found a modest pair of regular panties (thank the gods!) and a comfortable pair of yoga pants.  Perfect!  I couldn’t wear a bra, simply because the ones that allowed my wings to be free were of the sports bra kind, and the mechanics simply did not allow for me to fit one over my extended wings.

Walking around with my wings fully out wasn’t something I did often.  If I wasn’t actively using them, they messed with my balance as I walked.  They also resisted, so they slowed me down.  Still, the smell of breakfast beckoned.  It was about two in the afternoon, but I didn’t care.  I smelled sausage and my mouth watered.

“I am sure that everything I’m making will come out good,” Robert said, sensing me come into his kitchen.  His place must have been a basement apartment, because I hadn’t seen any windows until I joined him in the kitchen.  The windows were small, at
the very top near the ceiling, and were completely covered up so that no light filtered through.

“Are we in a basement?” I asked stupidly.  I knew we were.

“Yes.  Ifan’s house is above us.  This apartment has a separate entrance,” Robert pointed at a door behind us.

I stood for a moment watching him roll some sausage links to brown them evenly when I had the sudden need to touch him.  His hair was all mussed, and he was wearing his sunglasses, still clad in only his underwear and a T-shirt.  Nonetheless, he was so beautiful. 
Sexy.  And he was cooking for me.  Not only that, he’d taken care of me all night long, even sang to me – something I hadn’t forgotten and I had to ask him about.  How come he thought his singing had healing powers?

Screwing up my courage, I walked over to him and hugged his waist, burying my face into his back.  He smelled so good.  His spicy scent did things to my libido that had me rethinking my priorities.  Was I really that hungry?  My stomach answered YES, but I wasn’t convinced.  At the same time I felt him take in a deep breath.  He let out the air in a soft rumble, like a purr.  No man had ever purred for me before… or cooked me breakfast… or took care of me.  Mark was the exception to the last two, of course, but he didn’t count because I wasn’t in love with him.

I was in love with Robert.

I’d fallen.

Hard.

“Would you like coffee or juice?” he asked.  I listened to his voice reverberating inside his body.  It was deep and it resonated inside me too, as close as we were.

“Yes, please,” I said and turned my face to plant a soft kiss in the middle of his back.  He was so tall – and I was so short – that my mouth only reached a little below his shoulder blades.

Reluctantly I let go and went in search of a mug for my coffee.  Everything he owned was simple white, and his kitchen must have been immaculate, until he’d started cooking for me that is.  The small table was from IKEA (I knew it looked familiar), a sturdy small thing that could be expanded if needed.  Robert set two plates of food on the table, and I was happy that he was eating too, and a healthy portion to boot.  Although, looking at my plate, it seemed I’d gotten the lion’s share.

“I don’t think I can eat this much,” I said when he returned with a tall glass of juice for me.  I’d had to turn the chair so I could sit comfortably, wings and all, and the back of the chair was going to be a pain to maneuver around.

“Try, go slow.  You need it after all the blood you lost,” was his answer.

I tried to go slow, but my stomach was crying out for more the moment I put a bite of food in my mouth.  It didn’t help that everything tasted so good.  Robert could, indeed, cook.

He watched me as I ate, his mouth twitching into a tiny smile whenever I took another bite.  I found that I wanted to please him for the simple fact that his happy face made my heart skip a beat.  I wondered if I was having the same kind of effect on him as he had on me.

Leaning back in his chair, he laced his fingers over his flat belly and adopted a serious expression, his eyebrows vanishing behind his sunglasses.  That’s when I heard a soft knock on a door which I’d thought was another bedroom.  I turned and watched Robert’s progress as he went to open the door.  It led to a set of stairs, and Ifan was standing there, looking very unlike his usual self.  I’d never seen him wearing anything other than his suits for work and now he was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt.  He looked like he’d just woken up and was carrying a cup of steaming tea.

“Good morning, Robert,” he said, walking in when Robert let him through.  There was something there that was strange.  It was as if Robert hadn’t wanted to allow him in.

“Have a seat, Ifan.  Abby is just finishing her meal,” Robert said, clearly upset now.  His eyebrows hadn’t made an appearance from behind his sunglasses yet, and after offering his seat to Ifan he chose to stand behind me, like he was protecting me.

“How are you, Abby?  How are you feeling?” Ifan asked me.  His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.  He was studying me, gauging how well I was faring.

“I’m much better.  I’m not in pain anymore,” I said and tried to give him a smile of my own, but the vibe in the room was off.

“That’s very good.  Robert did an excellent job.”  Ifan took a deep breath and moved his gaze to his tea.  His eyebrows took a dive too.  “You lost so much blood that there was the danger that he might have turned you…”