I Am Lightning (Laurel Defense Series) (3 page)

“I couldn’t help myself,” he said and actually gave me a
n embarrassed smile.  He pulled out his Oakleys from a bag at his side and put them on.  I was a little bummed by that.  His eyes were mesmerizing.  “You smell really nice, like a thunderstorm.  The air is ionized around you.”

I smiled.  “Well, yeah…” I said.  “I am the lightning.”

Robert seemed to take that in and finally smiled.  “So you’re not the blowing wind?” he asked, quoting from my favorite song.  What a charmer!  He must have known what he was doing.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.  I was gathering the courage to ask him a question, but he beat me to it.

“Are you and Mark related?” he asked, his voice was quiet and low.  It made the table vibrate.

“We’re second cousins.  He helped me get the job here,” I said and took a bite out of my donut.  I really wanted that muffin.

“Isn’t that a case of nepotism?” he asked, watching as I got up and claimed the poor lonely muffin.  It was pumpkin, I realized.  Yum!

“Um, maybe a little,” I said, peeling the wrapper on the muffin.  Robert was staring, twisted in his chair, giving me his undivided attention.  I elaborated on my previous statement for his benefit.  “The truth is I had no other skills except for what I can naturally do.  I had two years’ worth of training before I would even be considered to join the force.  I’m still learning a lot.”

“I’ve never met a female sprite,” he said, still watching me as I took my seat.

I knew why he’d never seen a female sprite: we were usually breeding machines.  Once we were mated we were expected to churn out children and keep house.  I was defying all the rules and conventions of my kind by remaining independent.  As far as Mark and I knew, my family still thought I was living under Mark’s roof.  The lack of communication didn’t seem to bother them much, and whenever Mark’s family asked him about me, he would lie and tell them that I was unhappy at my inability to conceive, something not unheard of within our race.  I told Robert all this, not seeing the point of keeping it from him.  He hung onto my every word.

“So you were supposed to be Mark’s mate?  What about your parents?” he asked.

“They died in a war when I was little.  My grandmother took care of me, but she’s…” I hesitated
trying to explain.  “My grandmother is from the old school.  She was the one who arranged my marriage to her sister’s grandson.  Mark and I are five years apart, but we used to play together when we were kids.  He looked after me because I was the youngest of all the cousins, and I think he felt bad because I didn’t have a mom and dad,” I shrugged.

I saw Robert’s eyebrows rearrange themselves so that they fell below his glasses.  “He didn’t want you for a mate?”

“You’re still stuck on that, huh?”

“It seems strange.  You are quite the beauty.”

I took the compliment in stride, as if I got them every day, and answered his question instead.  “Mark sees me as his little sister more than his cousin, and I see him as my big brother.  I would have been his mate if he had wanted me, and vice versa, but neither saw each other as potential bed partners.  It would have freaked us out, that’s for sure.”

Robert nodded and looked down at the cup of coffee in his hands.  Now was my chance to ask him questions.  “Why did you want to become a wizard?  I’ve never heard of a vampire wanting to be anything but a vampire.  Can you wield the magic?”

He looked up and gave me a half smile.  “Ifan says I can.  I’ve done a couple of things, but it’s difficult for me.  It doesn’t come as naturally as it does for a true witch or wizard.”  Robert was still not looking up, as if ashamed.

“How did you meet Ifan?” I pressed.

“He… um… he nursed me back to health,” he said very fast, like he wanted me to miss it.

“Are you
back to health?” I asked.  It was obvious he didn’t want to talk about what had ailed him, and I was usually not one to press for information not freely given.  I was nosy, not pushy.

Robert made a motion with his hand that said “
kinda, sorta.”  I felt a little bad for him.  Vampires were known as proud beings, never wanting to admit defeat in battle and almost never asking for help.

“I don’t need your pity, Abby,” he said in a low harsh voice.  His volume didn’t increase in the least.

“I don’t feel pity for you,” I said, taken aback.  Silly man, to presume to know what I was thinking.  Robert looked up and I could see only one of his eyebrows above the rim of his glasses.  I would have to assume he didn’t believe me, so I explained.  “I think it takes a strong person to admit when they need help and seek it, accept it.  Only the weak push away help when it is offered.  I’ve learned that the hard way.  Mark has helped me a lot, with nothing to gain from it other than to see me happy, and it makes him happy in return.  That’s enough for us.”

Robert’s face relaxed by degrees.  “For a young one you are certainly full of wisdom.”

“I was home schooled,” I deadpanned.

I can honestly say that Robert is the most amazingly handsome man when he laughs.

CHAPTER 3

I was flying like the wind, literally.  The only way for Mark and I to keep up with Robert’s amazing speed on his legs was to fly beside him. 
Our prey?  An incubus.  Oh, yeah… he was butt ugly.  He had taken the form of a human male and gone after a human female.  She had been left for dead and probably with a cambion – a half human, half demon baby – growing in her belly.  Ifan, as wizard extraordinaire, was the only one knowledgeable enough to save her and get rid of the aberration.  In the meantime, Mark and I had been partnered with Robert to apprehend the demon beast.  We had already worked well together in the apprehension of a water demon that had been making waterspouts in the Potomac River.

The woods bordering Interstate 95 were the only thing sheltering us from human eyes.  The dark night helped too.  The incubus was making tracks towards Route 216 and the Johns Hopkins Physics Lab, nearby which was located the portal to Hell. 
Funny.  You’d think that portal would be closer to Washington, DC.  But no, at some point the too-smart-for-their-own-good scientists at the physics lab had done something to rip a tear in the fabric between dimensions, and voila:  Instant trip to Hell and back, if you knew what to look for and had the guts to venture through the portal.

I could see the small hairless body of the demon up ahead in the woods.  It must have taken the form of the woman’s lover for her to have accepted him, because the four-foot-tall freak was not only ugly, it was scary.  The very faint light of the half-moon made his skin look gray and streaked with purple veins.  When I first saw it, I’m embarrassed to say, I gagged.  I still didn’t have the strong stomach necessary to do my job properly, but come on!  They didn’t show me all manner of creatures I was ever going to see during training… There simply was no way to do that.

Robert stopped abruptly and so did Mark in mid-air.  I stopped a little bit farther ahead of the guys and closer to the demon who was now doubling back.  He finally realized that we were going to catch him either way, so he could continue running, or he could fight us.  The incubus was going to take his chances and fight us.  We had to watch our strength, though, because Ifan wanted it brought back to HQ alive.  Wasn’t that just peachy?

I gathered enough energy to send a bolt into the demon to shock it good, aiming my hands at it with practiced precision.  There were vines snaking their way through the ground around the demon’s feet, courtesy of Mark.  I was all ready to go, waiting for the right moment.

“Abby, don’t do it,” Robert whispered nearby.

I was confused.  Without taking my eyes off the demon I asked, “Why not?  It’s just a little shock…”

“Because it can use the energy,” Robert interrupted.  “You won’t shock it.  You will feed it.”

“Fine,” I said pissed off.  Robbed of my favorite method of attack, I had no choice but to get my gun from the holster at my chest and aim it at the little twerp.  The incubus was looking at me intensely, his mouth drooling and his little pecker standing at attention.  Of course, it would do that for any female, so I didn’t exactly feel flattered.

Mark’s vines where doing their thing, slowly crawling over the ground and about to reach the demon’s feet, when he decided to tempt me by changing his shape.  He went from small and hairless to large and ripped.  More to the point, he looked exactly like Robert, but naked.  Make that buck naked.  I lost the grip on my gun and knew it wasn’t my doing.  I was almost aware that the real Robert had lunged for my gun as it fell on the ground.  The rest of the world had lost its focus.  All I could see was Robert’s naked body walking towards me, smiling with an evil grin that made him look that much sexier.

Without looking at my hands, I started unzipping my leather suit.  I wanted to bare it all, to let him take me.  I didn’t listen to the words of whoever was yelling at me.  I was sure that whatever they were saying wasn’t as important as my being naked so Robert could take me.  The zipper was the easy part.  The hooks that held my top were giving me trouble.

A shot rang out in the night, and blood started spilling from Robert’s shoulder.  I was devastated until who I thought was Robert reverted back to his original form.  The incubus dropped to the ground with a bullet wound seeping purple blood and vines circling his body tightly.

I sank to the ground free from the spell cast by the demon and ashamed to the nth degree.  I didn’t know that incubi could spell sprites into accepting them.  What a horrible way to learn it, though.  Why couldn’t I have found out during a boring lecture or something?  Holy crap!

“Are you okay?” the real Robert asked me, crouching next to me and putting his hand on my shoulder.

I looked up, my mouth going dry.  His dark blue eyes were full of worry, thank goodness.  I thought they should have been full of ridicule.  For one, I’d fallen into the incubus’ spell.  For two, now Robert knew that he was first and foremost in my thoughts.  That was why the incubus had chosen to turn into him.

He didn’t wait for me to form an answer and helped me stand up, discreetly reaching for my zipper and pulling it closed in one swift move.  He made sure I was standing against a tree before leaving to help Mark with the demon.  I watched them feeling curiously numb.  It was like waking up from the most amazing wishful-thinking dream, and all my wishes had been granted.  Then I felt guilty for not helping, but I couldn’t move.  As a matter of fact, when I did try to move I just fell again.  I’d been under the incubus’ spell for about a minute, tops, and I was feeling like I’d gone on a serious bender.  It was no wonder that the human woman he’d attacked was knocking on death’s door.

Mark picked me up easily, tucked me into his chest and activated our home medallions.  I didn’t want to leave Robert alone with the demon, but I was unable to form words.  In the blink of an eye we arrived in front of the Laurel headquarters, and Mark
took me quickly to the infirmary.  I was in no position to argue, and I started feeling sick to my stomach as he carried me through the halls.

As soon as I was settled into a bed, the nurse saw me turn green at the gills and got me a pan to throw up in.  I could hear her saying something soothing, and I could see Mark pacing in front of the bed, but I couldn’t understand what anybody was saying and I was starting to get scared.  What happened to me?  I wondered as I tossed my cookies until there was nothing left.  I kept dry heaving until I passed out, probably from being unable to breathe.

Everything was a big black void full of naked Robert until I finally woke up and discovered that Robert was right beside me.  His cool hand was pressed on my forehead, his eyes were closed in deep concentration, and he was mumbling an incantation.  I’d seen Ifan mumble spells before, but not very often.  It seemed to me that the complicated spells required mumbling.  I peeled my eyes away and found Mark staring in my direction, though I couldn’t read his expression.  It was a cross between worry and anger, if I’d had to guess.  It was time to try out the talking thing.

“What…?”  Yep!  That was as far as I got.

The nurse came into view.  Now SHE was a fairy.  Her tall slender body was capped by a really pretty face with huge almond-shaped eyes.  Her nose was just a tiny thing, and she had tiny pouty lips.  Guys usually went gaga for fairy females, not that I blamed them.  The sudden wave of jealousy that hit me had a lot to do with how pretty the nurse was and her proximity to Robert.  That same jealousy had me rethinking some things I thought I knew about myself.  Forget the incubus turning into the vampire of my dreams.  Jealousy was a better barometer of where my attraction lay.

Robert’s cool hand started stroking my hair back.  His face was still full of worry, and now it was mixed with apprehension.  Just my luck, I thought.  “How are you feeling?” he asked and swallowed.  He seemed… nervous?

“I’m…” I had to take a deep breath and start over.  “I can talk now.”

“Blessed be,” Mark said sarcastically and rolled his eyes in my direction.  His temper was flaring but I couldn’t guess why.

Robert smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes.  “I need to know if you’re still sick to your stomach.”

“No,” I answered.  My mouth felt like it needed to be scrubbed with five gallons of Colgate and a mega-watt toothbrush.  Other than that, I was okay.

“Can you sit up?” Robert asked and offered his hand, the one that had been stroking my hair.  I took it and pulled myself up.  The room spun for a brief moment then settled.  “Can you drink something?”

I nodded and Robert handed me a small cup with some purple iridescent liquid.  I hoped it was grape soda, but I knew better.  It was a potion.  “What’s it taste like?” I asked, eyeing it uneasily.

“It’s sweet,” he said.  I looked up and he gave me another smile, one that said “trust me” without words.  I smelled the concoction and it smelled… sweet.  Like vanilla ice cream, actually.  I drank it quickly, just in case the smell didn’t match the taste, and immediately felt better.  “Now how do you feel?” Robert asked.

“I feel like I should leave and give the bed to someone else,” I said.  The result of taking the potion was immediate.  I didn’t just feel good.  I felt great!  I
felt like I could run as fast as Robert, or that I could win against him while parrying.  I felt stronger than myself.  “What the heck was in this?  I feel like a squirrel that’s had too many lattes.”

Mark harrumphed from his spot by the door, still upset about something, and Robert chuckled.  So did the nurse, who was still in the room and totally ignored by me.  I waited patiently for an explanation, but only got a wave of the hand from Mark, one of those “come on already” waves.  I didn’t wait and was on my feet in a second.  Mark left first, and I was about to but…

“Robert?  Are you okay?” I asked, turning around to see him still sitting on the bed, staring at the spot I’d just vacated.

“Yes, yes,” he said, enunciating the words just so and getting up slowly.  He looked unbelievably tired and pale.  “Let’s go see if Ifan is back.”  He stumbled against the foot of the bed as he walked.  I immediately went to him and steadied him.

“What’s wrong?  Do you need your glasses?” I asked, remembering the glasses he wore during the day.  I hadn’t seen him wearing them at night, though.

“No, it’s not that.  I’ll be fine in a minute,” he said, but stumbled again, even with my help.

“Ackermann, a moment please?” the nurse asked.  I’d never met her before today, and finally saw the nametag letting me know that her name was Isabelle.  When I looked at her hands I froze.  She was holding a bag of… a pint of blood.  “When was the last time you fed?”

“I ate this morning,” he answered.  Even if he had eaten, that’s not what she was asking.  And, besides, it was close to midnight.  Even if he’d eaten in
the morning, he was still missing a few meals in between.  Both Isabelle and I frowned in concern.

“You need blood too,” she said and held out the bag.  Robert seemed to recoil from it but then accepted it reluctantly.  That. 
Was.  Weird.

“Do you want me to go?” I asked, because obviously something was wrong and I didn’t want to make him feel awkward.

“Actually, you should stay,” Isabelle said and guided Robert to sit on a reclining chair next to the bed.  He let himself be settled into the chair, still holding the bag of blood as if it would suddenly explode like a grenade.  Isabelle got me and maneuvered me to sit on Robert’s lap.  I could feel the surprise in both of us, but Robert recovered from his astonishment faster.  “You know what to do,” Isabelle said to Robert and left the room, closing the door behind her.

“Am I missing something?” I asked, about to get up again.  One of Robert’s hands on my waist stopped me, gently easing me back onto his lap.

“It’s a favor I will ask of you.  You don’t have to do it, but at least let me ask,” he explained, already starting the pleading with his eyes.

“Okay,” I said, moved by his expression.

“I can barely stomach blood, but what Isabelle has suggested is for me to smell something appetizing and then drink.”

“You’re a vampire who can’t stomach blood?”  I couldn’t keep the disbelief from my voice or from my own expression.

“Yes I am,” he answered looking at the bag of blood.  It had a long tube protruding from the top, probably for transfusions, and a hole at the bottom, to hang it from a pole.  I was sure Robert would have to use the tube as a straw.  His face looked so despondent, like he couldn’t believe his freaky luck, that I felt I had to help him.  I had no choice, really.  I didn’t give myself any other.

“Okay, so how do we do this?” I asked, threading my arm behind his neck.  This wasn’t so bad, not bad at all.  Being this close to Robert made me warm all over, not to mention that his scent was mouth-watering.

Robert suspended the bag from a pole beside the chair and put the tube in his mouth.  He helped me get comfortable on his lap so I could rest my head on his shoulder at an angle that would allow him to get close to my neck.  His nose on my skin gave me goose bumps, but I remained still.  I could see his Adam’s apple bobbing as he drank his blood.  I could smell that perfectly masculine scent of his, and something else, something that got stronger the more he drank.  He shifted in his seat and I realized what the new scent was: it was arousal, and it was delicious.  I figured now we were even.  He’d seen my fantasy come alive through the incubus, and I’d felt his arousal on my thigh.  Except now I couldn’t help but imagine the real Robert and me making love in the narrow bed of the infirmary.