Mitch (2 page)
“I’ll never tire of you, Vinnie. I will be
with you until the day I die.” She knew he wouldn’t die, not now, but said
nothing to him as yet. “If I lick your wound, will your blood affect me?”
“You’ll be able to talk to me. Heal faster.
Usually. I’m not sure what a necromancer can do with a vamp’s blood.” The belt
moved down her ass to between her legs. She felt the leather at her pussy, then
her clit. Riding the hard material, she nearly missed what he said to her next.
“I’ll never hurt you, not unless it’s like
this.” His tongue moved over her already healing wound, and she moaned when his
fingers entered her pussy. “You’re mine. I don’t know what I’m to do with you, how
to keep you safe, but you’re mine.”
She came when he told her to. Then when he
slammed his cock into her pussy, pounding her so hard she had to hold onto the
bed or fall off, she came three more times, hard, fast punches to her system as
he spanked his hand down over her tender ass while he fucked her. And when he
came, he slid his fingers into her pussy again and the tightness of it made her
come again, this time hard enough she felt swallowed up by it and let the
darkness take her.
She knew it was daylight when she woke
because her body felt alive. Vinnie looked to the dais, the only thing she
could figure out to lay the man on when they’d arrived, and saw it was as empty
of him as her bed was. Getting up, she tried to think where he could be and
felt the hurt of him leaving her in the area of her heart. Vinnie got up and,
stretching, decided it was for the best he was gone. She went to the bathroom
and realized he’d used it before leaving her. Vinnie thought about what had
happened to them yesterday as she took his towel to the laundry chute. She had touched
him.
She was powerful, she knew that. Being a
pureblood and as old as she was, she knew more of her magic would be coming to
her all the time. Her mother was a great vampire in her own way. Her powers were
amazing. Her father too, she supposed, but his were darker than her mother’s.
His were more...evil, she supposed. There were times when she thought them
both...well, not evil, but uncaring about those around them. Especially her.
Then when she’d killed her father, a
sanctioned killing by the council because of what he’d been doing to bring
attention to their kind, all he had been and would ever be had come to her. She
was still trying to figure out everything she had gotten from her sire.
As she washed her body three times, trying
her best not to think of the way she’d felt with Mitch touching her, Vinnie
wrapped a towel around her body and entered her bedroom. Getting dressed was
simple…she just pulled the first thing she touched out of her closet and put it
on. Going to the upper levels, she knew she had company the moment she entered
her living room and her mom was sitting in her favorite chair.
“I’m going to have to have the locks changed
if you keep that up.” Her mother laughed but didn’t leave her. “I’ve a lot to
do today, Mom, so I have little time to be social. Tell me what it is you want
from me and I’ll think about seeing that you get it. But like I told you
before, don’t keep expecting me to bail you out of every little thing.”
“You’ve met him.” Vinnie didn’t even bother
denying it. Her mother would have been able to smell him on her and even know
they’d bonded. “Where is he? In the lair still? Or have you had that man of
yours, whatever his name is, dispose of him? Mates aren’t all that special, you
know.”
“Hugo, and no I didn’t murder him. I don’t
know where he is.” She knew she could find him easily enough, but really, she
was too hurt to try and find out. “I really have things to do today. It’s
almost...what are you doing here anyway?”
“Don’t change the subject. I’m here because I
did want to talk to you, but this is more important for now. Who is the man?
Not a vampire but something else. I can smell panther too, but I don’t believe
it’s him. Maybe he knows one.” Vinnie told her she had no idea as she looked
over the notes Gilda had left for her on the table. She wondered briefly if her
mom had read them, then didn’t care. There was nothing of importance there
anyway. “Do I know him?”
“Mitch Riley.” Her mom asked why the name
sounded so familiar. “He was the one my client is suing that I told you about.
I went to see him to see if he wanted to settle out of court. The foster
parents are suing because he called the authorities on them when he left. I
told you about it weeks ago.”
“Ah yes, that’s the man. He was...well, did
you ever figure out how much money you were going to make off this deal? I know
you said you were asked to take it, but they’re still paying you, right?”
Vinnie didn’t answer her. What would be the point? If she told her she was
being paid, her mother would just ask for money. She was over that crap. “Yes.
I remember you telling me that now. Is that boss of yours still wanting you in
his bed? Men and sex. That’s all they can think about. I remember your father
and his habit of jumping me—”
“Mom, we’ve talked about this.” Amber Graham
smiled at her and Vinnie turned her back on her mom. “You don’t discuss your
sex life with me and I don’t have to avoid you whenever you come around.”
“Yes. But you do know that without sex, you
would not even be here. However, I still think I would have had you had there
been someone...anyone not your father. But that is neither here nor there, I
guess. I have you and he is gone.” Her mother sighed heavily. “I just guess I
never dreamed it would come to you killing him.”
Mom thought she’d killed her father for her,
but it had been more of a matter of either kill him or be killed by him. Her
father had never been a nice man, and hadn’t improved much as he aged and got
more powerful. In fact, she was reasonably sure he might have been more of an
asshole than all the other assholes she knew combined. But when he’d started
leaving bodies lying where he’d drank from them, tearing out their throats
rather than just feeding from them, the council had taken a stand. And after
several warnings, as well as numerous fines he’d never paid, they’d said he had
to die. She was just glad that when it came to them fighting again over money,
she’d not been in trouble for finally taking him out.
Her mother asked her again about money. Vinnie
told her she wasn’t going to give her anymore right now. She, of course, whined
about it.
“What will I do for income now that your
father is no longer around to get it for me? I have bills piling up and there
is no one to care for me now. I don’t know why you don’t just let me move in
here with you. It’s not like you don’t have plenty of room.” Vinnie asked her
what happened to the money she’d given her last month, ignoring the demand once
again to let her move in. With a wave of her hand, her mother said she’d spent
it on her shoes.
“Mother, there was ten grand in that
envelope. You can’t have spent that much on shoes.” She waved her off again
without answering. “Well, you’re out of luck then. I told you before, I’m not
going to keep supporting you. Get a job, make it on your own.”
Her mother sat there for several minutes
without speaking to her. Vinnie hoped she’d pissed her off enough that she’d
leave, but she just sat there. Then when she did speak again, it was not about
money, thankfully.
“Did you know there is a man here in this
town that can take an old piece of furniture and tell you what its life’s
history is? I mean, so he says. Margaret said she believes every word he tells
her because he knows so much.” Vinnie told her mom Margaret still believed in
Santa Claus. “She does not, but close. I do think the man is shafting people
out of their hard earned money. He charged Margaret seven thousand dollars just
to tell her the dent on the side of her husband’s desk was made by a musket
shot that nearly killed the previous owner, when I know for a fact Margaret
herself had hit the stupid thing with her sweeper about a year ago. Stupid
woman. But the reason I bring it up is I was thinking with your connections I
can get into something like that. You can tell people I have this new talent,
and I can make some quick cash before they figure me out.”
No and hell no. She wasn’t going to use her
considerable connections and friends to help her mom become a shyster. And then
when she was caught, of course her mom would say it had been her idea and she
was behind it all. No way was that happening again.
“He’s a necromancer.” Vinnie had meant to
build up to it, or even talk to her mom about the job that wasn’t going to
happen. But when she opened her mouth, the fact that Mitch was a necromancer
spilled out. Her mom just stared at her for several minutes. “Did you hear me?”
“I did. I was waiting for you to tell me it
was a joke.” Vinnie shook her head. “All right then, you’re going to tell me
that he only works for one and isn’t one. And that you’re going to avoid the
family at all costs.”
“He’s a friend of Steele Bennett’s. You know
him.” Her mom nodded but sat there very still. When she did stand up and started
pacing, Vinnie continued. “We met yesterday when I went there to ask him about
the lawsuit. He and I touched and the power...I lost control of mine.”
“You lost control?” She nodded. “Not
possible, my dear. He drew it from you. I would bet he does that to all
vampires. Are you even sure he’s your mate? Perhaps he’s a con, like your father
was.” Vinnie wanted to point out that she was as well, but didn’t.
“No. He’s the real thing. I brought him here to
make sure he was all right because he was hurt by my magic. And I thought it
safer than to leave him with Bennett.” Her mom didn’t speak but continued to
pace. “We’ve bonded and mated, in case you didn’t know that.”
“Well, we’ll have to figure something out
then.” She asked her what she meant. “You can’t be with a necro, darling.
You’re a vampire and he’s...well, he’s what he is. Maybe I can have someone
kill him for—”
Vinnie had her mom pinned against the wall so
quickly she was shocked to see herself there with her hands around her mother’s
throat. Her mom didn’t move, didn’t fight back either, and Vinnie let her down
slowly. When she was free, Vinnie watched her mom move to the door and step
into the hall. But she turned to look at her when she stopped.
“Does he know of Millicent and your father?”
She nodded, then shook her head. “Why does your answer not surprise me? You
never were a very smart child, and you’ve grown into a selfish woman too. He
can see them then? And does he know what they are to you? To us?”
“No. I don’t think so. Father wasn’t there,
he told me, and Millicent...I don’t know what she said to him. But I don’t know
if it matters. Mitch is gone too, as I said.” Her mom told her he would be
back. “I don’t think he will. I think...he’s not going to want to be with me
any more than I want to be with him.”
“Don’t lie to me, Vinnie. You know how much I
hate when you lie to me. It’s almost as bad as you cutting me out of funds.” Vinnie
decided that no matter what was going on in her mother’s life from now on,
Vinnie was not going to give her anything else. “Try your best to keep away from
him until I can figure this out. And I will. Then you’re going to owe me. There
has to be some way for this to work out so that I don’t have to worry about him
killing me as you did your father.”
When her mom left her, Vinnie sat down. She
wasn’t really sure what her mom was going to do, but she also knew if she hurt
Mitch, Vinnie would end her life as she had her father’s. And that had been
about as murderous as she’d ever gotten, killing the man that had essentially
brought her into this world and then just left her on her own.
The ghost kept staring at him. Mitch had
asked her twice what her problem was, but all she did was stare at him. Finally
in a fit of...whateverness, he moved to the other room to try and work off some
of the energy that he’d had since he’d left Vinnie’s big mansion. Christ, he
had fucked up royally there. He saw Kari coming toward him and tried to smile.
When she stopped suddenly and stared at him too, he felt his temper snap.
“What the fuck, Kari? You come here all friendly
and have one look at me and.... You’re staring at me like I have three heads
and, frankly, I’m sick to fucking death of it.” She cocked a brow at him, but
he ignored it. “We’re working. What is it you want? Or do you plan to just go around
acting like you—?”
He backed up as far as he could from the big
panther that was suddenly standing there. She was one pissed off cat, and it
didn’t take him being told that to see it. He put his hands up when she growled
at him. Steele came around the corner of the house just as she sat down.
“You’ve done this up right. Now she’s going
to have to be taken home like this. We forgot to pack for such emergencies.” Steele
laughed. “Of course, it would make her a good deal happier if she could simply
tear your throat out. What did you do to piss her off?”
“I didn’t do anything to her, she just did
this on her own.” The cat in front of him snapped her teeth at his groin.
“Okay, I might have been a little pissy with her.”
“A little?” Steele laughed again, but it was
cut off when something pressed him hard against the wall. Mitch looked over at
him to see Vinnie with her hands around his throat and his feet dangling about
three feet above the floor. Addie was pacing back and forth behind them both, growling
and snarling at them. Mitch knew a new kind of fear when Vinnie hissed at
Steele, her fangs down and her eyes as red as blood.
“Let him go.” When she looked at him, Mitch
was worried that she didn’t know him or what they’d shared just that morning. Swallowing
twice, he tried again. “Please let him go. He didn’t do anything wrong. I
pissed off his mate and she...well, Kari was going to teach me a very important
lesson in not pissing her off when she’s bigger and meaner than me when you
showed up.”
He could tell that she was struggling with
it. He’d been a real bastard since he’d gotten home this morning, and it hadn’t
gotten any better when they’d been called out so soon after he’d gotten there. He
wanted to think it was because he was tired, but to be honest it was because he
was stressed out about a great many things, and having a mate, a vampire mate,
was on the top of his list right now. Vinnie stared at Steele like she was
still thinking of killing him.
“Did he frighten you, or was it the cat?” He
said that he’d been more pissed than frightened. “Yes. I could feel that too. If
I let him down, will he kill me, you think?”
Before he could ask Steele what he’d do, Steele
answered Vinnie. “No, I won’t do anything to you. You were protecting him and
that’s fine. I can understand that more than you know.” She looked at him, then
at the cat as Steele continued. “You’re his mate, I’m assuming.”
“I am. I don’t like it any more than you do,
but there is little to nothing I can do about it now.” That sort of hurt, but
Mitch didn’t say anything. “My mom, she’s not too thrilled about it either. I
think she might be trying to hire someone to kill him. I won’t let it happen,
but I’m just giving you a heads up in the event she shows up sometime.”
She let him down and took a step back. Addie’s
cat moved toward Steele, but she kept her distance from the vampire. Mitch
wasn’t sure what the fuck he was supposed to do now. But when Vinnie moved to
the shadowed side of the house, he realized how early in the day it was and
went to her.
“Are you all right?” She nodded, but he could
tell that she was exhausted. Or hurt, maybe both. “Should you be here at all? I
mean, out in the sun like this?”
“I didn’t really have a choice in the matter,
now did I?” He wanted to point out that he’d not either, but didn’t. He’d been
snapping enough today, and he thought taking that attitude with her might get
him a great deal of pain. “What did you do to get yourself in that position
anyway?”
“You.” She asked him how it had been her
fault. “How you say that you don’t know what to do with me, and that your
mother is finding a hit man to take me out. Kinda hurts, if you want to know
the truth. Well, I got news for you. I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to
do with you either. Am I...? I don’t know. Food and sex for you now? Do we live
in that dark place during the day and not go out until night? You would not
believe the things that are rolling in my head right now. And when I left you
this morning, the thoughts and scenarios just kept getting stranger.”
“You could have asked me instead of running
away like a wounded child.” He felt his temper getting the better of him and
took a step back. Then another. “Are you planning to run again? I do hope this
is not going to be a trend with us. You getting your pants in a knot and me
having to rescue you.”
Mitch rushed her. There was no other word for
it. Pressing her against the wall with his body, he kissed her hard as he
rocked into her heat. As she wrapped herself around him, her arms and legs
seemingly becoming a part of him, he cupped her ass and held her to him as he
moved his mouth down her throat to her pounding pulse.
“Bite me.” He wanted to. Needed to really.
But he had no more idea of how to do that than he did how to sprout wings and
fly. Looking up at her, he could see her need and feel it as it washed over
him. Christ, he wanted to fuck her right now.
“I can’t bite you.” She nodded, but the facts
didn’t change that he really wanted to. “You’re not going to be easy with this,
are you? I mean we’ve known each other for less than two days and I’ve had
better sex with you than with anyone before. I’ve become someone that I don’t
like, and I don’t have any idea what I’m doing.”
“You’re my mate. Do you know what that means
to a vampire?” Mitch told her what he knew. “Yes, you’ll be my bed partner and
my food. I cannot drink from another person unless you give me permission or to
save my life. Sex with you will be like it was last night, but more. So yes, it
will get better as we grow together. We are together until we die, or someone
kills me. And you should also know that you’re going to be around for a good
deal longer than any of your friends. You’re like Hugo, a part of my life now.”
“We’ll never age, you mean, right? Am I going
to look like this forever? By the way, how old are you, Vinnie?” He’d never
asked a woman that in his life, and felt his face heat up when she laughed at
him. “If you don’t want to tell me, then don’t.”
Mitch pulled from her and watched her as she straightened
her clothing. He’d had no idea that she was half undressed and that he’d done
that to her. When she looked at him then, he could see that she was calmer, but
he wasn’t feeling very good.
“You won’t age either, like I said. Not even
if I’m killed or meet the sun. You’ll heal faster too now that you’ve drank my
blood.” He started to deny that, but remembered her lovely ass from last night.
“I would like for you to be what I am, but I know that will be next to
impossible being what you are. I don’t...you do realize that people believe
that we’re dead and that as a necromancer, you are a certain death to me?”
“I won’t hurt you.” She only looked at his
friends as they were talking to ghosts. “Can you see them now? After drinking
my blood, can you see what I see?”
“No.” He had no idea why, but he thought she
was lying. But he didn’t call her on it. There were some things that they
really had to work out. “I’m seven hundred and forty-seven years old. I know
that Steele thinks I’m younger, but it’s because I’m a pureblood and we’re
harder to read on purpose. I can also read your mind, as you can mine. So you
should know that I really can’t see them. Not at all.”
Christ, she was almost thirty times his own
age. He leaned back against the wall just as one of the people they were
working with walked away from Steele and the others. This work...he really
needed his break that was coming up soon.
“In six days I had plans to leave here. I
don’t...I had no plans of coming back. They don’t know that...well, I think a
few of them know, but I just don’t think I’m cut out for this kind of work.” She
asked him why. “I don’t like myself, much less a bunch of ghosts that never
finished whatever it was they were here to do in the first place. I know that’s
not right for all of them, but I’m tired…exhausted really.”
It hadn’t always been that way. He’d really
enjoyed his working with Steele and the others. But long before that, he’d had
a good time helping the few that would come around when he’d been a teenager. It
was a way for him to escape his life, the horrors of it, and those that still
tried to hurt him. Now...people were greedy and cruel, and he was sick of
having to pick up after them.
“You won’t be able to do anything else. I
don’t think that the people you help will be able to let you go.” He nodded but
said nothing. “I have to go to my clients, the Bruces, and let them know that I
can no longer help them. I can’t help you either, but I can give whoever you
hire my files. It’s not ethical, but at this point in my life, I don’t care. I
need to help you in any way that I can.”
Mitch told her that he appreciated any help
he could get. In a way, he knew that this thing hanging over his head was what
was stressing him out the most. They were suing him for a great deal of money,
and if they won, which he didn’t doubt that they would, his name would be shit
for the rest of his life. Changing the subject as he normally did when someone
brought it up, he looked at the woman he’d be spending the rest of his life
with.
“That day at the house. What happened to
us...to me?” She didn’t answer him, and he really looked at her. “Something
passed between us. It was...it was powerful and painful.”
“I told my mom that I’d lost control of my
magic. She no more believed me than I did when I said it. To be honest with
you, I’m not really sure what happened. I meant only to touch you, and my power
really did get away from me for a split second. Where it went, what it did, I
don’t have a clue. I only know that we were both affected by it. I barely got
you to my house before I had to rest.”
“Did you know who I was to you before that
happened?” She told him that she’d not, not until she touched him. “So now what
do we do, Vinnie? You’re a night person, I’m a day guy. We have different
lifestyles and eating habits.”
She laughed with him. “I don’t know. I really
don’t. I have to go and talk with my grandmother and see what she knows. I
trust her answers more than I ever would my mother’s. And she won’t try to hurt
you either.” Mitch started to ask her how old she was, but decided he wasn’t
sure he really wanted to know. Instead, he asked her when she could do that. “She’s
coming to town in a couple of days. Mom told her I’d found my mate and she’s
come to measure you up. That or tell you off. I don’t know what Mom told her.”
“She doesn’t like me overly much, I guess, or
what I am.” Vinnie didn’t answer him, but he could see the worry on her face.
“Just let me know. Like I said, this court thing is coming up and...well, if I
have to leave, then I’d like to know that I don’t have to keep looking over my
shoulder for the rest of my long life.”
When she left him to go back and rest, he
stood where he was to think. He’d been doing too much of that already, he knew
that. But things were spiraling out of control, and he had no idea how to slow them,
much less ask to be let off at the next stop. If there was one. When the ghost
came to stand next to him, Mitch waited for her to speak, knowing full well she
could if she wanted to. It was the same woman he’d been fighting with earlier.
When she pointed to the house, he looked that
way and watched the two men going in and out of it. They were dead as well, and
even from this distance he could tell they were confused. Mitch looked at
Steele when he stood beside him.
“Something’s going on here. This is a weird haunting,
or whatever it is. These people have been gone for a while, and they’re acting
as if they only just died. Why is that, do you think? There are four men and
three women here, including the one you were trying to work with. None of them
seem to know what is going on, and even less about what happened to kill them. This
is one of the strangest things we’ve done, and that’s saying a great deal.” Mitch
nodded, watching the woman as she stood there, waiting for something, he
supposed. “She wants you to go and find something, buddy. Perhaps we should—”
“Her mom hates me. Well, not me, but the fact
that I’m a necromancer. And she’s going to do something to get us apart.” Steele
said nothing, but Mitch just needed him to be there for a minute so wasn’t
upset. “I don’t know if I love this woman or not, and I have no idea what to
think of her being a vampire and me, what I am, but...well, I like the idea
that we’re together. Does that make any sense whatsoever? Because I have to
tell you something, it doesn’t to me.”
“Then tell them to back the fuck off. It
doesn’t matter what they want or think, so long as you’re happy.” Mitch looked
at Steele now. “You can do it, Mitch. I’ve seen you tell people to get out of
your life before. You even tried with me.”
