Reunion (9 page)

She gasped when he twisted her body close to his and bit her too, giving her a taste of her own medicine. Her eyes swam out of focus and she released him, tilting her head back and struggling to resist holding him as he drank from her. She felt giddy, light, and painfully aroused.

“Get a room,” Tynan mumbled in the distance.

She smiled at the stars. “You want to join in?”

Jascha released her and growled in his brother’s direction. She silenced him by lightly touching his cheek and bringing his attention back to her.

“Be careful. We’ll be watching.” She wiped the blood off his lower lip with her thumb and then licked it clean as she walked to where Tynan stood.

Gesturing towards a tomb surrounded by bushes, she waited for him to nod in agreement before moving behind them. She squatted down, making sure they were both hidden from all angles and then peered through the bush at Jascha.

He was stroking his neck and idly cleaning the blood off his fingers. Her gaze tracked him as he paced. He really did look good in his uniform, the long black military-style jacket resembling that of a Law Keeper.

His dark hair was tied at the nape of his neck, his eyes like black pin pricks from this distance. She could sense that he was still in his vampire guise. Her eyes dropped to his neck as he turned again and she saw the fading marks from last night and the fresh dark ones from tonight. A smile curved the corners of her lips. The sight of him like this, marked by her, all hers, made her feel light and airy inside, and she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. Grinning like a silly youngling was hardly how a Law Keeper should be acting, but it was impossible to maintain a calm façade.

A jolt ran through her, her senses immediately latching onto the motion they had detected. She stared blankly at Jascha while she tried to locate the source of the movement. He turned his head and she knew he had sensed it too. A glance at Tynan revealed that he had also felt it. She closed her eyes and called her full strength to the surface. Her bones shifted, locking tighter together, and her teeth extended, the tips of them neatly sliding into place beside her lower canines as they sharpened too. Her senses heightened, bringing everything into focus and making it easy to detect the barest movement within a few hundred yards.

Jascha moved suddenly and she was on her feet. Tynan’s hand on her arm stopped her. She frowned down at him, her heart screaming at her to get to Jascha and protect him. Tynan shook his head and she looked at Jascha to see that it wasn’t the vampire hunter approaching him.

It was a woman.

Marise allowed Tynan to pull her back down behind the bush. She cursed the fact her hands were shaking and firmly gripped her knees with them to hide their trembling from Tynan as he looked at her. She couldn’t let him see how badly this was all affecting her. She was a Law Keeper. She was supposed to be strong, fearless and in command at all times. Since returning to her bloodline’s home, she had been unable to control herself. Her emotions had been ruling her, her fear at the reins. She felt weak, but it wasn’t because of her lack of control. It was Jascha. It was her love for him. It made her feel weak, crowding her mind with dark terrible thoughts, voices there taunting her by saying she wouldn’t be able to protect him.

She went to move again, her heart overruling her mind and telling her to protect him now. The vampire hunter didn’t matter. This woman could be in league with him.

Tynan growled and she froze, hearing the command in it. She looked at him, brow furrowed, eyes searching his for the reassurance she needed. He placed his hand over hers and smiled. The warmth and understanding in his dark eyes soothed her. He was confident that Jascha would be fine. She trusted his judgement, had to when she couldn’t trust her own. Her feelings were clouding hers, making her want to abort this mission at the risk of a tribunal.

He pointed towards Jascha and she looked there. A strange sense of relief filled her when she saw that he was talking to the woman. She listened to their conversation in Russian but could only pick a few words out that she recognised. All this time of living in St. Petersburg and she had never once thought about learning the language. She made a mental note to start once this was all over. Hopefully Jascha could teach her a little.

Her eyes widened when Jascha shifted and with lightning speed was on the woman, his face buried into her neck and his hand covering her mouth. Marise stared at him, desire and heat flooding her as she watched him draining the woman. The metallic tang of blood drifted on the air, stirring her senses and making her stomach tight with need. It had been so long since she had watched another kill, since she had seen Jascha kill. The sight of it had always driven her wild with passion and hunger, drawing out her innermost desires. Their coupling afterwards had always been swift and brutal, more often than not taking place only a few feet from the human he had killed. She never could wait. Neither of them could.

He dropped the body and looked in her direction. The Devil she wanted to go to him when he looked like that, face bloodied, eyes dark and his own hunger calling to her.

“You both reek of sex,” Tynan muttered beside her, bringing her crashing back to Earth.

She realised she was panting, breathing hard in time with Jascha as she stared at him.

“Shut up.” She took a deep breath and held it, trying to rein in her feelings and calm back down.

Jascha licked his lips and she felt the tug inside her, the pull that said to break cover and go to him. She didn’t care if Tynan watched. She just wanted Jascha.

Tynan laughed quietly.

“You told him then,” he whispered, his hand still over hers where it gripped her knee.

Jascha started pacing again, occasionally looking in her direction. She dropped her gaze to Tynan’s hand, thankful for the anchor it represented, the only thing stopping her from going to Jascha.

She nodded.

“It is a good thing,” he said and released her hand.

She sighed and felt the calm wash over her again, carrying away her desire to go to Jascha and bringing back her focus.

“He needed to know and you both needed to move past it.” Tynan shifted closer. “I know what you’re thinking... to be a Law Keeper is to forsake all chance at love, all feeling. It isn’t true. You can still be a Law Keeper and love Jascha.”

Marise stared at Jascha and let Tynan’s words sink in. Was he right? Could she love Jascha, be with him and still be a Law Keeper? Could she? Her heart said that she could but her mind still held doubts. Would the others accept this from her? To be a Law Keeper was to be impartial, emotionless, but only towards her missions and those involved. Jascha wasn’t her mission. He was her love. She couldn’t go through the rest of her life without love. The past fifty years had been so hard. A life without any feeling was an empty, pointless life. Not even her sense of pride and duty was strong enough to carry her for eternity. One day she would look back and regret what she had become and the path she had chosen. She didn’t want that. She wanted to be happy with her position and her choices in life, but she could see now that she hadn’t been for the past fifty years. She had been waiting for the day that brought love back into her life, and that was why she had feared returning home. She hadn’t feared seeing Jascha again, she had feared coming home only to discover he was dead or had found solitude and love in the arms of another.

“You could still be together,” Tynan said, his voice hushed and soothing. She looked at him, cursing the tears blurring her vision. “It has happened with other Law Keepers and there is no law against loving one of your own bloodline.”

She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t find the words to tell him that he was right. She could love Jascha and still do her duty. If anything, she would do it better so each night she could return to him.

Her head snapped around when she heard a growl and immediately sprung into action. She ran full speed at Jascha’s attacker and stepped in between them, taking the blow meant for her love. She shook her head to clear it and then punched the hunter solidly across the jaw. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Tynan had joined the fight and was coming around behind the hunter.

She roared, exposing sharp teeth and drawing an almost startled look from the vampire hunter. His face still bore the marks of their last meeting and she grinned when she saw they hadn’t healed. He wasn’t as strong as he thought he was. His healing ability wasn’t like her own, or even that of the weaklings.

Tynan attacked him from behind and when he spun to fight him, she took her opportunity to check on Jascha. He glared at her, clearly unimpressed.

“You took your time,” he said, voice hoarse as he rubbed his throat.

“Your brother was distracting me,” she said and brushed her fingers over the still healing wound on his neck. He hadn’t reopened it, but there was a chance he would if he continued to fight.

“How?”

“I’ll tell you later.” She smiled and then frowned. “Are you up to this?”

Jascha looked over her shoulder and nodded.

She sprung into action and Jascha watched her and his brother for a few moments. He drew a deep breath and focused his senses, sharpening them so he wouldn’t be bested in the fight. He was up to this. He wasn’t at full strength yet but his thirst for vengeance would help him through, giving him the power he needed to ensure this vampire hunter met the end he deserved.

He growled when the hunter managed to hit Marise, sending her stumbling backwards. She didn’t lose her footing though and was back in the midst of the fight in the blink of an eye.

Tynan looked at him.

He read his expression clearly and made his move.

Sweeping into the middle of the three fighters, Jascha grinned as Marise and Tynan halted their attack, leaving him face to face with the hunter.

Jascha roared.

The flicker of recognition in the hunter’s eyes was replaced with fear.

Jascha sharpened his claws and levelled a punch at the man’s face. The hunter dodged it but didn’t evade the next one he threw. It caught the man hard across the jaw, toppling him. Before Jascha could grab him, the hunter had rolled away, flipped backwards and was attacking again.

He saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye and Marise and Tynan were past him, both throwing punches at the hunter and not giving him a chance to respond.

The hunter ducked and dodged, weaving free of them and coming face to face with him again. They stared into each other’s eyes for a moment and then the hunter ran.

Tynan went to go after him.

“Wait,” Jascha said and his brother froze to the spot, turning to look at him. “We can’t get split up... that’s how he succeeded last time.”

Marise nodded in agreement and Tynan fell back into line.

“We can’t stand here though,” she said, concern in her eyes as she looked at him.

His eyes widened when his senses screamed at him and he shot his hand out towards Marise, his fingers closing around the crossbow dart. It burned into his palm, a sure sign that the hunter was clever enough to use bolts made from holy wood. He stared at his hand and the tip of the bolt. It was barely inches from Marise’s heart. Anger washed over him, filling his veins with pure venom.

He snapped the bolt in two and roared.

Marise growled.

Tynan followed suit.

“We move,” Marise said.

Jascha obeyed her command. She was superior to him and this was her mission, not his. He was just lucky enough that she had finally allowed him to help her. All he wanted was to protect her. He kept pace with her and his brother, his senses sharp and searching for any sign of another attack. Wherever the hunter had gone, he had been concealing a weapon there.

How many other weapons did the hunter have in the cemetery grounds?

They broke through some bushes and came out in a wide open space scattered with graves. They were exposed but it might be their only way of drawing the hunter out of hiding. He reached with his senses, trying to find the hunter. Another bolt flew at them and Marise growled as she caught it.

“He’s toying with us if he thinks these stupid bolts will kill us,” she muttered, snapping it and dropping it to the floor.

Jascha felt like reminding her that one of those stupid bolts had come very close to killing her, but he didn’t. Her words were a revolt against the fear the sight of the slim shaft of holy wood so close to her chest had caused. He had felt that fear too, as though it had been his heart the bolt had almost pierced.

Another bolt shot out of the darkness and narrowly missed them. Marise was already running in the direction it had come from by the time he had figured out the hunter’s location. He chased after her, dodging each bolt and catching any that posed more than a passing threat.

Tynan caught up with him, falling into line beside him and Marise. He glanced at his brother, trying to silently convey something that was on his mind. If something happened to him, Tynan had to protect Marise in his stead. He looked at Marise and then back at Tynan. His brother nodded in understanding.

Marise leaped over a low tomb and then rolled to dodge a bolt as it flew past her head. Jascha followed her and then grabbed her and dragged her down with him, causing another bolt to narrowly miss them. He pulled her to safety behind a tomb and nodded to Tynan who was hiding behind another one close by.

“This man is playing by tactics.” He looked at Marise.

She frowned and then nodded. He had spent years as a special operative for the Russian government. Both he and his brother were trained in this kind of combat. Was Marise? He didn’t know what kind of training she had undergone when becoming a Law Keeper. He stared at her, trying to read in her eyes whether she was thinking along the same lines as him or whether her thoughts were running along a different path.

She swallowed hard and looked out from behind the tomb. He pulled her back when a bolt zipped by.

“Trying to get yourself killed?” he said with a frown.

She met it with a dark look.