Jade (Rare Gems Series) (16 page)

Silver tainted his blood.
Kent had not a great deal in his system but enough to make her hurt. When she ripped at his throat, she felt him stab at her belly but didn’t let go. She was going to end this even if it killed her.

“Get away from him, Jade.
He’ll hurt you. Let me do this.”
She felt Quentin’s pain when he touched her mind. Knew that if he tried again, even if it was only to push Kent back, he’d die.

Working harder than she ever had before
, she tore deeper into Kent and thought about all the things he’d done to her, made her do and say. She remembered each time he hit her, bit into her throat in the name of love. When she got the first statement where he’d charged over eight thousand dollars in her name on a cruise that he didn’t even go on. Then she remembered the scratches on Angie’s face. The way her skin was open and bleeding. Jade lifted her head and looked him right in the eye and then, using her nails, dug his heart out.

He dropped her then and stared at her for several seconds before he went to his knees.
She crushed the heart under her paw while she kept her eyes on him. He continued to stare at her while blood pooled between them.

“Why?” He looked at his destroyed heart
, then at her as life faded from his eyes. “Why would you do that to me?”

She never got to answer him because he suddenly disappeared. He didn’t leave the room or even use magic
, but disintegrated right there. His ash mingled with his blood, and soon it, too, was gone.

As soon as Quentin touched her with his head
, she moved her body along his and marked him. He growled low but didn’t say anything. Her legs began to feel wobbly, and her head started to spin when she was suddenly looking into the face of Sloan.

“Let it come to you
, Jade. It won’t hurt as badly if you do.” She tried to pull away from him, but he held her firmly. “I’m sorry, love; I had hoped that Quentin would get this and not you, but this might be better anyway. Let it roll over you.”

Her mind started to feel woozy
, and she felt her knees buckle. Quentin was saying something to her, but she couldn’t make it out. There was screaming in her head, and she tried to make it stop, but she was fading now, faster. And she went down.

“I’m sorry
, Jade, I truly am, but I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. It was…it’s not something we share as vampires.” He still held her so that she could only see his face. “It’s almost here now. Then you’re going to hurt like hell. I’m so sorry. So very—”

She pitched forward and felt her body seem to leave itself.
When she opened her eyes again, Sloan was being attacked by Blair, but she simply couldn’t move. Before everything faded out, she saw Quentin drop, too, and blood pour from his nose. Christ, they were both dying.

Chapter
16

Blair was seated in the back of the court room and held onto Angie’s hand while the lawyer that was stating his case seemed to drone on and on. When the little girl squeezed his hand, he looked down at her. Then he leaned down to hear her speak.

“Does that man ever shut up? He’s been talking and talking forever.”
She made the word “forever” sound like it had a great deal more syllables than it actually had. “Why don’t he just say that they were wrong and we can go get ice cream?”

“Doesn’t
, not don’t, and that’s not the way it works. They have to present their evidence. Then there has to be a trial. Once that is over, there will more than likely be appeals, and that could last until your children’s children are born.” She rolled her eyes at him, and he felt stupid. Blair noted that she did that a lot…made a grown-up feel like he or she was the dumbest person on earth. And he doubted very much if she even knew she was doing it. “What do you say you and I go and get some lunch at the diner across the street when they take a break? They have pie.”

“I don’t like apple pie.” He nodded
, trying hard not to laugh. She’d made that sound like it was something that had crawled out from under a rock. “And I want pie before lunch. I’ve been very good today while you watched me, haven’t I?”

“You have.”
Blair looked up when the judge started speaking. He was actually reading out loud, so Blair tuned him out. He looked at Jade and Quentin as they sat there as if they had not a care in the world. Which, he supposed, they didn’t. Who would be able to guess that they were not just wolves sitting there, but two of the richest people in the world? And thanks in great part to the magic that Jade got when she killed Kent, they were now the strongest beings as well.

He’d nearly killed
Sloan when Jade had dropped to the floor. Then when Quentin had done the same, blood pouring from their noses and ears, he’d pulled out a long dagger and was ready to shove it into Sloan’s chest when a being appeared in the room and held his arm.

“I would not if I were you.”
He took the blade from his limp hand, and it disappeared in his robes. “You will allow this to happen, or they both will die.”

“They’re dying now.” The being shook his head. “Look at them.
They’re bleeding to death. He’s let them be killed.”

“I do not need to look. I can feel them.”
He knelt down to his face, and Blair had had a feeling he was being sized up for something. “You are a good man. They will need rest. Give them peace as well. When they are rested, I will return. Not before then.”

Then he’d disappeared.
That had been weeks ago. This trial had been set up almost immediately, and now Jade was being sued by the credit card companies as well as named in Kent Ballard’s death. Blair was still trying to figure out how anyone had found out Ballard was dead. The man had been living a fake life for hundreds of years, and now they cared?

“So you’re telling me that this man, this…what was his name again?”
The judge looked at the papers, then at the bailiff. He told him. “Kent Ballard had the permission of this young lady here to apply for credit cards, then run them up to hell and back, ruining her credit. Is that what you’re trying to convey to me?”

“She did allow him to do so, sir.
She had broken it off with him and more than likely felt badly for leaving.” The judge snorted. “How else would he have gotten the information to do this if not from her?”

“Same way that bastard did that stole my identity and charge
d a dildo to my Amazon account. They’re always looking for a scam. Could be he just took what he wanted.” The judge glared at the room when they snickered. “Nothing funny about identity theft. They’ll rob you blind in a heartbeat.”

“Your
Honor, this is a simple case of a woman trying to latch onto an estate that is worth billions to get herself out of trouble.” The lawyer looked at the table where Jade was sitting, and she blew him a kiss. “Your Honor, could you please have Miss Erickson conduct herself in a proper manner?”

“It’s Witt
, you moron. I’ve told you that eight times now. Get it right or else.” Jade stood up and was pulled back down by her lawyer. But the man was laughing while he did it. Quentin was laughing as well. Angie put herself in Blair’s lap, and he held her. This might turn out to be better than he thought.

“She has told you a great many times.
And as far as her wanting his money, do you have any idea who her husband is?” The judge asked the lawyer, then shook his head when he said he did not. “You read anything besides the comics when you read the paper? That man sitting there is the richest man in the world. Not almost the richest, but the main dog. He has no more use for this idiot’s money than…well, he’s got no use for it.”

“But
Your Honor? She owes over fifty thousand dollars to one of our cards alone. And twice that on two more.” The judge just shook his head. “You can’t mean to let this go?”

“Why the hell would someone give a girl that big a line of credit in the first place? When this card was taken out
, she had less than five thousand in the bank, two part-time jobs, and a car as old as I am.” The judge picked up several sheets of paper as he continued. “It says here that after not making the minimum payment for three months, you increased her limit to double the original amount. Why?”

“She had a good credit score.
And she asked.” The judge tossed the papers on his desk and leaned back in his chair. “There are standards that we have to maintain here, sir. If we are required to write off this much debt, then others will try the same thing.”

“Then perhaps it might be
beneficial to you to do a better background check. Call the person who is supposed to be applying for that much credit, and be a great deal smarter when it comes to doling out that much money.” He sat up and looked around the sparsely filled court room. “Case dismissed. All charges against Mrs. Witt are dropped.” The lawyer stood up again, and the judge only glared.

“And the murder of Mr. Ballard
, sir? What do you wish to do about that? The prosecution hasn’t produced a body, no one has seen my wife around him since she left over a year ago, and other than this man telling her he was dead, we’ve no other reason to believe he’s not out somewhere bilking another woman just like he did Jade.” Quentin looked at the other lawyer before continuing his plea to the judge. “We’ve been married for four days, sir. And in those four days we’ve been stuck here going over material that, frankly, is a lie.”

“I agree.” The judge looked at the lawyer that was seated just in front of
Blair and Angie and told him to stand. “You got a body? Witnesses to the fact that she killed this man? Even a drop of his blood on her clothing, prints? Anything at all?”

The man said no.
“But we do have reason to believe she was involved in his—”

“Reason to believe?
Do you know that there are fourteen other women out there that he’s done the same thing to? And untold many more that could tell you the same thing? And probably want the man dead, too? Are you going to charge all of them on your
reason
?”

The man didn’t say anything but sat down.
Things were going just as Quentin had said they would. There was nothing to hold her on, and less on the credit card charges. When the judges gavel came down hard and he stood up, so did the others in the room. Before he and Angie could make their way to the couple, they were already kissing.

“You guys do that all the time.
I’m so embarrassed.” Angie looked up at him with the most bored look he’d ever seen. “Do you and Aunt Sapphire kiss all the time? It’s so gross. I wish they’d just shake hands or something.”

Blair picked her up.
“But then you’d never get a brother or sister. You’d like some wouldn’t you? Someone to boss around and teach all sorts of tricks to keep you out of trouble?”

“Don’t help her, Blair. She’s in enough trouble already.”
Blair looked at Quentin, then back at Angie, who was a bright shade of red. “She decided that we needed a cat. The poor thing came into the house and nearly tore the cook up trying to get away from the scent in the house. I swear it will be a month before we get a decent meal out of her.”

“You didn’t.”
Angie nodded at him. “You know that your family is all canines, right? And that when a feline comes into the picture, they want to run. Someone could have gotten seriously hurt.”

“But I want a pet.
And mommy said that I had to find something without fur. The kitty didn’t have any fur.” Blair had a feeling that little Miss Angie was going to be a handful, and he hoped to Christ that she didn’t teach his children any of this. But then again, it would be fun. Blair handed her to her dad as he walked away. He had to go and find his own wife, as they were going to go find them a nursery.

~~~

“You won today.” Quentin moved up behind his new wife as she stood at the sink, and kissed her neck. “You said that you’d lose and if you didn’t, you’d do whatever I wanted.”

Her scent perfumed the air and he licked her neck before nipping at it. She moaned and gripped the counter harder.
Quentin felt his cock swell. Christ, he loved this woman.

“You meant that I’d let you remodel the office to suit yourself. I didn’t think you had to bargain me with sex.”
She turned in his arms and put hers around his shoulders. “Do you think that I’d not do anything you wanted?”

Quentin rocked into her and was rewarded with a deep moan.
“We’ve not played since the stupid trial started. I want to take you out back and run you down again. You’ve no idea how many times I’ve thought of slamming my cock into you from behind.”

There were times since the day she’d killed Ballard that he was worried for her.
She would stare off into space, and he’d have to touch her to bring her back to him. He, too, was having weird out of mind experiences, and had finally gone to Sloan about them. His news wasn’t very comforting.

“It’s the magic that you inherited from Ballard. Some of it
’s tainted and will…well, it’s tempting you to follow him. In his footsteps.” Quentin had started to shake his head, but Sloan continued. “It’ll fade after a while. You’ll get used to not seeing what he’s done, planned, or even attempted. I swear to you you’re going to be fine.”

Quentin had told Jade what it was
, but she, like him, didn’t want to believe it. There was something so…black about the man that had them both waking in the night with sweat all over their bodies.

“Angie goes to school in ten minutes. In eleven minutes I’ll meet you in the yard.
I need to run, too.” He let her go, knowing that once he got her outside and playing in the snow, as they’d done yesterday, she’d be all right. “Oh, and if you think you’re going to be the one taking me, big boy, think again. I’ve got plans for you.”

He
thought his cock was going to explode. Moving carefully out of the bathroom, he went to get dressed in the soft terry pants that he’d been told to get. They were tear-aways, pants that had Velcro down both legs so that in the event that he shifted, maybe he’d be able to put them back on. So far, that hadn’t been an issue. But today, he was looking forward to testing the theory.

As soon as she came out onto the deck with him
, he could smell her. Quentin could feel her coming down a hall toward him and smell her when she was aroused. All these new abilities were a little overwhelming, but not as bad as they’d been at first. Now he could tone down the noise, but the scents were something that still caught him by surprise.

“You can smell me.”
He nodded at her as she wrapped her arms around him from behind. “I can smell you, too. Did you know that we can find each other no matter where we are?”

“Yes. I’ve finally read that book Blair gave me.
Do you suppose that anything that Ballard gave us will change anything for us now?” He knew of a few things but hadn’t told her yet. The one that frightened him most was the fact that they now had the ability to live forever. “Other than the things we’ve figured out.”

“You mean like the fact that we can shift into other animals? That one scared the crap out of me.”
He laughed and turned in her arms and kissed her nose as she continued. “I don’t want to think about Ballard now. I want to run with you. I want to chase you in, then run you to ground.”

They stepped back from each other and shifted at the same time.
The feeling of being something entirely different wasn’t just amazing to him. It was still, even after doing it so much lately, unbelievable. The fact that he could be a human at one moment then any animal he wanted had blown him away.

Jade took off first.
Her leap over the railing took his breath away, and she was nearly to the tree line when he realized he should be going after her. Leaping over the railing himself, he was suddenly glad that she wasn’t there to see his fumble. His foot had caught in the top and he’d nearly fallen on his face.

Quentin caught her scent the moment he entered the wood
s. He found her sitting quietly staring off into space again. Thinking she was having another thought like Ballard’s, he nearly tackled her to bring her back, but he spied the group of deer just ahead of them. There was a single buck, four females, and seven fawn. It was late in the year for them to be so young, and he decided that he’d set out hay and straw for them for the coming months. When he settled beside her, she looked at him.