Immortal Moon (14 page)

“Pinky,” Jarrett whispered, but he didn’t
know why.

“Yes. His blue eyes were glowing, but I
wasn’t scared. He held my mother in a trance, and asked her
questions, forcing her to answer truthfully. Then he asked me my
name, my age, and other questions. He asked me if I was happy
living there and if I got whipped often. I told him the truth. He
told my mother that the city guard knew of their illegal activities
and would be there soon. Then he told her that they should leave
Appalachia on the next barge out of port and never return or they
would be arrested, and that she had turned me over to an orphanage
and was well rid of me.”

“Wow, that’s some power,” Jarrett said, more
than a little impressed.

Anya nodded. “It was impressive to behold, a
little scary, too. Though I was never actually scared of him. My
mother started screaming to everyone else to start packing up and
Pinky told me to get my things. I didn’t have anything to get, so
he took my hand and led me out. On the way out of the market, he
stopped and had me tell a city guard what I knew of my clan’s
illegal activities, and then he took me home. There was never even
a suggestion of taking me to an orphanage. Just like that, I had a
home and a family. A father and sisters.”

Jarrett lifted his hand and brushed a tear
off her cheek with his thumb. “I’m so sorry you had to go through
that. I’m glad Pinky saved you. Remind me to thank him the next
time I see him.”

She turned her head to kiss the palm of his
hand. “You’ll have to thank River, too. She was only around four.
She’d had a vision, and though she was too young to be able to
articulate why it was important, she threw a temper tantrum until
Pinky agreed to go to the market that day, in the middle of the
morning when the sun was high.”

“No wonder you and Fiona dote on her.”

“Yeah, she’s a treasure,” Anya said, her
smile brightening before a thoughtful look slid into place. “To
answer your original question, I guess I fight because it makes me
feel in control. It helps me assure myself I’ll never be a victim
again.”

“You are an amazing fighter. I’ve always
admired Fiona’s fighting moves, but you surpass her. You move with
precision and grace.”

“So you aren’t going to lecture me about
taking on a guy four times my size and getting seriously
injured?”

After seeing her bruised and bloodied,
Jarrett wanted to forbid her from ever stepping into a ring again,
but he had no control over what she did. Nor did he have any right
to want to control her, as if she ever could be controlled by him
or anyone. “I’m pretty sure he was closer to five times your size.
And no, it wasn’t very smart to get in the ring with him after
you’d already fought two opponents.” He grinned at her. “But even
with your injury, you did put him down. That was pretty
awesome.”

A light shined in her eyes at his praise.
“Thanks. How about I make you a deal. You don’t tell my family
about me getting hurt tonight, and I’ll promise to be smarter in
taking fights.”

Jarrett rolled his eyes. “I think you’ll
keep doing whatever you want to do, no matter what I say. But I
won’t tell your family. Unless they ask straight out, because they
haven’t yet found the body of the last person who lied to
Fiona.”

She laughed. “Fair enough. I just don’t want
them to worry more than they already do.”

“They love you.”

“Yeah, they really do. I was lucky they
found me.”

He put a finger under her chin and lifted
her face to his so their eyes met. “And they are lucky to have
found you.”

She flashed him a quick, toothy smile. “Of
course they are. I’m fabulous.” She was quiet a moment before
continuing, “You know, I’ve never told anyone about my childhood
before. My family knows, of course, but after I got settled in, we
never talked about it again. You know, I thought it would be much
more painful to talk about than it was.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you by asking,” he
told her.

“You didn’t. I think I hadn’t talked about
it before because no one ever asked. I’m actually glad you did. Now
I know I can talk about it, think about it, without crumbling into
a hysterical wreck. I actually feel good after telling you.”

“I’m glad.”

“I know what will make me feel even better,”
she said.

“What?”

She leaned up and pressed her mouth to his
in a long, hot kiss. She was smiling seductively when she leaned
back. “Make love to me.”

His whole body went hot and hard. “Oh, I can
definitely do that.”

And he did, slowly and tenderly, until they
fell asleep in each other’s arms.

It was
mid-afternoon the next day before I could drag myself out of bed.
Not because I was still hurt, Luca and the other healer had done an
excellent job. There were no signs of any cuts or bruises, and my
ankle felt good as new. My weariness had nothing to do with my
injuries and everything to do with the fact that Jarrett and I had
made love all night, finally drifting off to sleep just after
dawn.

After the talk we’d had, I’d been
emotionally raw and needed his touch in a way I had never before
needed anyone’s touch. Luckily, after I assured him again that
Luca’s healing had taken away my physical pain, he’d been more than
happy to oblige.

It had been an impassioned night. I stood in
the head—it felt weird to call the bathroom that—brushing my hair,
and I looked through the doorway to where he sat on the edge of his
bed pulling on his boots. He was shirtless and the way his muscles
flexed as he moved made me want to crawl back in the bed with him.
But I couldn’t. I’d promised River I’d pick up meat and blood from
the butcher on my way home to help her with tonight’s family
dinner.

I groaned silently. Well, that thought took
all the lingering sensual feelings right out of me. I’d almost
forgotten about tonight’s family dinner and the fact that Pinky had
invited Jarrett the night before last.

“Are you sure you want to come tonight?”

Jarrett looked up at me, his expression
blank. “Anya, that is the third time you’ve asked me that since
Pinky invited me. Are you sure you want me to come?”

I sighed. “I do, I just don’t want you to
feel pressured or obligated.”

“I don’t. Pinky asked me to dinner, I said
yes. No pressure.”

I laughed at his naivety. “Of course there
was no pressure during the invitation. That will come later, during
dinner. Pinky has never invited someone I was dating to dinner
before. I want to think he invited you because you are now a friend
of the family. But I can’t promise things won’t get weird.”

It was Jarrett’s turn to laugh. “Do you
think he’s going to ask what my intentions are towards his precious
daughter?”

“He won’t if he knows what’s good for him,”
I quipped. “But I never know what the heck Pinky might do. I just
don’t want you to feel like you’re being inspected by the family or
that you have to go just to be nice or something.”

“Anya, who are you afraid will think there
is more to our relationship than there is? Your family, me, or
you?” he asked, coming up behind me, slipping his arms around me,
and dropping a kiss on my neck.

I turned in his arms and leaned back so that
I could look up into his face. I had no idea how to answer his
question, so I avoided it. “I just don’t want you to think I am
expecting more of you than what this thing between us actually
is.”

“And what is this thing between us?” He
cocked his head to the side in a curious manner, but his eyes were
unreadable.

“Hell if I know. It just is what it is,
until your leave is up and it isn’t anymore. I don’t want you to
think because I invited you to a family dinner I expect anything
more than that.”

He laughed. The damned man actually laughed
at me. “Well, you didn’t invite me to dinner. Pinky did. Besides,
I’ve had dinner with your family before.”

“Yeah, but they didn’t see you as my ‘date’
then. They may be a little nuttier than usual.”

“It’s not a problem. I actually like
spending time with your family. I’ve never really spent time in a
real family setting before.”

“You mean other than your own,” I said,
curious.

“I didn’t exactly have a traditional
family.” He chuckled.

I couldn’t help the peel of laughter I let
out.

“Couldn’t be more untraditional than mine.
My sisters and I all come from different backgrounds and were
adopted by a vampire who was changed so young that he now looks
like he could be our younger brother.”

“Yeah, well, my mother was from a tribe of
natives who’d never seen a white man before. My father was a sailor
on a ship that got damaged during a storm. They took refuge on my
mother’s island. She died in childbirth and I grew up on sailing
ships. The only family I ever had were sailors. Well, to be
completely truthful, pirates. My family was a bunch of
foul-mouthed, plundering, and pillaging pirates,” he said, grinning
down at me.

“Okay, you win,” I laughed. “Your family was
definitely more untraditional than mine. On the plus side, though,
since you grew up with pirates and cutthroats, a dinner with my
family will be a piece of cake.”

“So, you aren’t worried anymore?”

“No,” I said, looking away so he couldn’t
see my lie.

“Good, so I’ll see you this evening around
seven,” he said, pulling away and leaving me to finish putting my
hair up on my head in a loose bun.

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

I gathered my things, gave him another long
kiss that promised sexy and sensual things later, and left the
boat. The walk home gave me more time than I wanted to think about
our conversation and my feelings in general.

The truth was, I’d never been worried about
how he would deal with my family. They liked him already, and over
the past few nights he’d been around all of them quite a bit. Added
to that, Fiona was his best friend. No worries. What had my stomach
all in knots had nothing to do with my family.

I wasn’t even that worried about what he
thought about my intentions towards him. He would think what he
would think. I couldn’t control that. Any more than, it seemed, I
could control my own feelings.

Having Jarrett come to our weekly family
dinner was disconcerting me because of how much I wanted him there.
In the past, I’d never wanted anyone I dated to spend time with me
around my family. I wanted it now, and that had me more than a
little freaked out.

I was getting way too attached to Jarrett.
His leave would end next week and he’d sail off to parts unknown.
Who knew when he’d return to Nash City, if at all in my lifetime.
And that was fine, or it should be. I knew from the start that was
how it would be. But I found myself missing him at night while I
was working, and I got a little thrill every morning when he walked
into the bar to have a drink before walking me back to his boat for
a morning of lovemaking. I fell for him a little more each day. And
then last night happened. I’d never opened myself up to anyone like
that before.

Until now, I’d never experienced heartache
because of a lover. With every passing day with Jarrett, no, every
passing minute, I knew I was hurtling towards just that. But
somehow, I couldn’t give up the giddy happiness being around him
gave me, even though I had a feeling it was going to hurt like hell
when he left.

Of all the men in the world that could have
been the one I’d get feelings for, why did it have to be a vampire?
And not just any vampire. I had to form an attachment with a
globe-trotting, ladies’ man, assassin vampire who never stayed in
one place longer than two weeks and probably had a woman in every
port. Even if he did have feelings for me, it would never work out.
He was a vampire, I was a norm. He traveled for his job, and mine
kept me stuck in Nash.

There was no way around the facts. There was
no way there could be any future for us. But that didn’t mean I
couldn’t enjoy the present. Once he left, I’d deal with whatever
consequences there were, but there wasn’t any reason why I couldn’t
enjoy this new experience while it lasted. With my mind made up to
stop worrying about where things were going and just let them take
their own course, I felt better and looked forward to dinner with
my family and Jarrett.

When we were young, we had dinner together
as a family every night. As we grew up, went to school, and found
our own jobs, instead of having family dinner every night or on
weekends when Fiona and I were home from school, they came more and
more sporadically, but never completely died out. Since Fiona had
moved out, they were even rarer. Tonight was a special treat.

I stopped at the butcher shop as I’d
promised River. Then, on a whim, I went in the bakery and bought
some fresh baked bread and a cake for dessert. Back at home, I
changed clothes, and then helped River and Farrah pull two tables
together in the pub. We finished setting the table, and Fiona and
Ian arrived just in time to help us bring the food down from our
apartment where River had prepared it. With the addition of Farrah
and Ian to our family, along with the inclusion of Jarrett, we had
more people and food at our dinner table than ever before. River
served up roasted lamb with potatoes, carrots, spinach, and fresh
sliced tomatoes. Along with the bread I’d purchased from the
bakery, side dishes of blood for Pinky and Jarrett, and mugs of
mead for all, it was a veritable feast.