Reluctant Storm (11 page)

I tug on my panties while looking around for my pants and see Riley there holding them for me. Taking them from him, I slide them on and pull up my bra. I search frantically for my shirt and see it on a bush and quickly grab it and hop into the van.

Noting I’m dressed, Riley looks at me chagrined from the driver’s seat. “I couldn’t help it, Claire. Something about you being angry at me really messed with my head. I couldn’t seem to clear my thoughts of you being naked and fucking.”

“Does this mean I’m forgiven for the incident?” I ask him, fixing my hair in the mirror.

“No, but it means I’m not mad any longer. If you need blood you tell me and I will find you some, okay?”

“Couldn’t we just feed off each other?”

“That would be nice, wouldn’t it? We do feed from each other, but you still need human blood to get your strength. “

“Oh, okay.”

Pulling out his phone, he calls the number he’s been trying to get a hold of all day while we’ve been driving. He puts the van in motion and we head down the road. The clearing opens up to a huge log cabin where an expensive black car sits.

Mikail’s phone rings for about the tenth time while he’s out hunting for dinner. He’s always attached to it, so I’m not sure how he forgot it. We’ve already used our donor blood, so now we have to eat off the land. Not that I mind, fresh blood is better than donated blood. Staring off into space, thinking about blood, my daydreaming is cut short by an insignificant gnat that won’t leave me alone.

“How can you not have Wi-Fi up here? Seriously? This place is so ghetto,” Anya groans, flipping back onto the couch.

I arch my eyebrow at her antics. God, if I could somehow get rid of this girl I would in a hot second. There is no possible way she is related to Claire, no way. Anya is the word annoying wrapped up in a small five foot package. She reacted better to her father’s death than I thought she would. Apparently, she was just biding her time, playing the dutiful daughter, until she could get away from him. Glancing outside, I watch as a white van pulls up next to our car. I run over to Anya, putting myself in front of her, instantly on high alert.

“Be quiet and stay here while I go see who it is,” I order, not paying attention to her and keeping my eyes on the approaching van. Unsure of who’s in it, I grab a gun that Mikail left on the table and walk out the front door, careful not to draw any unnecessary attention to myself.

I move toward the porch stairs and see two figures getting out of the van. I stop short, when I notice the guy getting out of the van is my brother Riley. Closing my eyes, I re-open them and confirm that yes, he is in fact here. I study him as he walks around to the other side of the van. I feel no familial loyalty towards him or our father. I haven’t seen him in years and really don’t know how he will react to seeing me. The last time we saw each other we were at each other’s throats, literally. Riley was becoming my father’s clone, and I tried to get him to see that, but he was blind to it. I continue observing silently from the porch with the cold weight of the gun hanging from my hand as he leads someone from behind the van. My eyes almost pop out of my head when I register who is with him. He has Claire, and he has his arm around her shoulders. They are both looking disheveled. Riley never lets himself get disheveled. Ever.

They stop at the stairs, and Claire stares at me with her mouth wide open.

“Jason!” she says hugging me. Pulling back, she looks at me and hugs me again. I’m not sure why she is so excited to see me as I awkwardly hug her back, setting her back on her feet, but it doesn’t matter to me, she’s here and alive. Something is different about her. I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s changed. Staring at Riley, I look to see any type of reaction and all I see is an emotionless face.

“What are you doing here?” Riley asks, looking at me.

“Good to see you to, Riley. It’s been a while.” Holding out my hand not expecting him to take it, and he proves me right and doesn’t.

Glancing around at the surroundings, he tilts his head toward the house. “Is Mikail in there?”

“What do you want Mikail for?”

“I have business with him, not that it’s any of your business.” He looks over at Claire and smiles the barest of smiles.

I stare at Claire and can’t get over the changes that have taken place. Still pondering about what’s different, it finally clicks, she has no heartbeat. She’s full vampire and has completed the change. Which means she’s bonded with someone, but who? I zero in on Riley, who’s making a phone call. I suddenly put two and two together. That can only mean one thing; she’s been bonded to someone, and I have a feeling Riley had something to do with it.

“What the fuck happened to her when she was captured?” I yell in Riley’s face. “Did you hurt her? Because if you did I will freaking hurt you,” I yell getting up in his face. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” I growl at him. It’s taking everything in me not to punch him in the face. “You let her bond to someone so she would become a vampire, didn’t you?”

“Back off little brother.”

Claire steps between us, putting her hand on my heaving chest. “Jason, the bond happened completely by accident. If there is anyone to blame, then blame your father. If it wasn’t for Riley I’d still be in there dealing with who knows what,” she says quietly, shaking her head and unable to look at me. “It wasn’t a good place to be, and you should know that first hand, Jason.”

Once again I’ve jumped to conclusions and made an ass out of myself.

Behind Claire, I hear my brother murmur “asshole” under his breath, and suddenly I’m transported back to the night before I left and our fight that we never got to finish. Not even thinking, I push Claire out of the way and punch Riley in the face. His head knocks back. He glares up at me and wipes his mouth as blood is trickling out. “What the hell was that for?”

“We never finished our last fight, and that was me finishing it.”

Before I can even contemplate what’s happened, he picks me up and throws me across the yard. I land on my back and lay there and lift my middle finger in the air towards him.

“Are we done brother?” he asks, walking towards me. “Or do I need to actually kick your ass? That lick you got in was your one free hit. Don’t ever touch Claire again, or so help me God I will kill you and make what father does look like child’s play,” he hisses emotion playing all over his face.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him get like that before, and then it dawns on me. He’s bonded to Claire.

Staring at my brother is a surreal experience. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again, and yet here he is with Mikail, who is nowhere to be found. Blinking, I hold my eye where he hit me and stand there staring at him. I can tell he isn’t the same person as when he lived at home. He has a fighter’s physique that he never used to have. I shake my head at my brother. What the hell are him and Mikail doing together, and how did this come about? I don’t like being left out, bad things happen when I’m out of the loop.

Why didn’t he mention this to me on the phone? The last person I want to see is Jason. That asshole abandoned me without a second thought, and I find out it’s to go work for frigging Antony. Walking back to where he is lying and with his middle finger in the air, I stand over him, looking down at him.

“What the fuck are you doing here working with Mikail?” I ask him point blank as I look down at him. He refuses to look at me, so I put my foot on his chest. “What. Are. You. Doing. Here?” I repeat through clenched teeth.

“Get the hell off me,” he says, knocking me off him and to the ground.

We lie next to each other, not talking and staring up at the sky. This is how Mikail finds us. He drops two cooler containers and lays down next to us and whispers, “What exactly are we doing on the ground?”

“Bonding the Dumont way,” I murmur looking at Mikail.

“Oh, this is strange.” He chuckles as he crosses his arms behind his head.

“What, I would like to know, Mikail, is why you never told me, in all the times we talked, that you were working with my brother.”

“You know I work with lots of people, it’s why I contract out.”

“Working for Antony though? Seriously?”

“Worked for him, and your dad.”

“What do you mean worked with him?”

Mikail raises his eyebrows haughtily at me. “That’s right, you don’t know…I killed Antony, the King.

“Bull! He never mentioned that.”

“There’s a lot Griffin doesn’t tell you that you have absolutely no clue about,” Mikail says standing up and walking towards the containers I assume hold blood. Opening the red container, he pulls out several bags of blood and throws them at us.

Sitting up, Jason pipes in, “Yep, he’s working for everyone nowadays at the same time apparently.”

I’d forgotten Jason was even there with my mind so focused on Mikail. Grabbing one of the coolers, I flip the lid open and without a second thought grab a bag of blood. Tearing the top of the bag off, I end up draining the bag dry within seconds and grab a second bag. No one says a word as we drink our fill of blood. Jason breaks the silence as he watches me drinking the bagged blood.

“Mikail, my man, you were supposed to get live food, not bagged food.”

“Shut up, Jason. You’re lucky I’m letting you have any right now.”

Jason responds with by flipping Mikail off.

Staring between the two of them, I can feel the anger wafting off Mikail. “You two don’t like each other much, do you?” Still stuck on the fact that Antony is dead, I have to ask the question that’s been burning in my mind since I found out. “So who takes his place?”

“Our favorite girl, Claire. She’s next in line to rule the vampire kingdom.” Mikail gets up and starts pacing the area for some unknown reason. He seems agitated as if he wants to get away from us for a bit.

Taken aback by this brand new information, I stare out at the forest line, biting my lip. Claire has to be kept safe, no matter what. Even more so than before.

“So, I’m assuming daddy dearest didn’t tell you what the goal of kidnapping Claire was?” I stand up and put my hands in my pocket while walking toward the pacing Mikail.

He raises his eyebrow. “Why would he tell me? He wanted me to do a job which he ended up doing himself.”

Walking up behind me, I watch as Jason nonchalantly grabs a bag of blood. Feeling footsteps walk toward us, I glance up and see Claire staring at me. “Are you guys okay?”

I watch as
Mikail’s head snaps up, and he watches her with a hungry look in his eyes. He quickly covers it by plastering on a smile and nods to Claire. I lean over and grab her a bag of blood, opening it before handing it to her. She smiles gratefully, taking it from me. Studying her with shuttered eyes as she lifts it towards her lips is one of the most erotic things I’ve seen in a very long time. Mikail interrupts my musings when he walks up, nodding to Claire. “Nice to see you again, Claire. You’re very popular with the Dumont boys apparently.”

I watch her narrow her eyes at him. “I only have eyes for one Dumont and that Dumont is currently sporting a new black eye.” Tilting my head, I watch as
Mikail’s smile falters and his face turns dark as he looks between the two of us. Not going to lie, my once black heart thumps back to life.

I grab Claire and pull her with me toward what will be our hideout for a short while. Waving back at the guys, I grab her in a hot searing kiss once we reach the porch. She pulls away and peers up at me. “Don’t start stuff you can’t finish.” Her eyes twinkle with laughter.

“Oh, I can finish this just fine,” I mutter, grabbing her for another kiss. Just as I’m leaning down to taste her again, I hear the front door open. Freaking A, now who? Lifting my eyes from Claire, I find myself staring at almost a spitting image of Claire. I blink several times and she is still there.

“Um, Claire, do you have a sister?” Looking at me, flabbergasted and shaking her head no. “Well you either have a sister you don’t know about, or a clone.”

It feels as though I’m living a nightmare, yet I’m wide awake. Seeing the way Claire looks at Riley, like an infatuated puppy, was just the topping on the cake for me. A freaking lovesick fool, has she no idea how evil Riley is? I am her true bond mate, and yet here I am in the background having to play the not caring fool because of the deal I made with her grandmother, the Queen.

Turning around, I watch as she cuddles up to Riley as he hands her some blood and tells me she only has eyes for him. I stare at them as they leave hand in hand and it hits me right in the gut. With a quick turn, I walk straight into Jason and listen as he makes some asshole comment about how Riley’s tapping that ass. I do the first thing that comes to mind and punch the fucker in his stomach.

Not in the mood to deal with his shit, I head towards the center of the woods and let my magic loose. I let wave after wave pour through my fingers, magic I haven’t used in a while, and stop when I feel the heat of satisfaction through my stomach. This new level of emotion I’m dealing with is very new to me. The possessiveness I feel towards Claire astounds me as we aren’t even bonded yet. I wanted to break his fucking face when I saw Riley looking at Claire like he’s claimed her. She’s not his; she’s mine and has always been mine. If Riley and Claire truly bonded then the only way to deal with that bond is to kill Riley. Circling where I stand, I take in the damage I caused, enjoying the feeling it created, but knowing my high will come down shortly, and soon I will be back in the reality of this
craptastic situation. Pulling out my phone, I check the signal, pleasantly surprised that there is one, and punch in the numbers dialing the Queen. I wait impatiently for her to answer.

“Hello?”

“What did you do?”

“What do you mean, what did I do? And how dare you talk to me like that, I’m still your Queen.”

I blow out a puff of air and answer, “Why have Riley and Claire bonded?”

“They bonded?” she asks in a quiet voice.

“Yes, Claire is mine and has been since the day I first saw her, only I can’t tell her because of you, how do you think that makes me feel?”

“Look,” she says softly, “This is the way it’s supposed to go. The end result is not what you think. Keep playing your role, and I will do my job and make this right.” She hangs up, not
giving me a chance to respond. Looking towards the house, I head in the opposite direction toward the small dive bar I found about five miles away. I need something or someone to take my mind off this fucked up situation.