Sin of Fury (39 page)

A car honked, jarring him out of his
entranced state. The broken silence was almost painful for him. He
jerked back from the road, grabbing onto the nearest tree to keep
from falling over. His fangs lengthened at the smell of prey, but
he forced himself to ignore it. He wasn’t a vampire and he wouldn’t
act like one.

He expected to feel sorrow, or maybe
even anger. He didn’t. The site of the road was enough to make his
body pulse, like a new strength had risen inside of him.

Gravel crunched. His head snapped in
the direction of the car that pulled onto the shoulder on the road,
stopping just before him. Since it was dark, headlights were on and
they were shining right in his eyes. Averting his gaze, he brought
an arm up to his face and backed away.

A door opened, causing his eyes to
train on the car. Like a wounded tiger, he was dangerous when
injured. And god, was he weak. Was he even strong enough to fight
off a human?

Most likely not.

It didn’t stop the bloodlust that
curled in his gut, though. A baby-like wail came from the car and
then shushing. He considered running back into the forest, but they
had already seen him. Whatever they were going to do, it couldn’t
be so bad. There was a young in the car, after all.

A small, delicate figure shown back as
they stepped in front of the car lights.

“You won’t kill me, will you?” A
high-pitched voice called to him, farther away than he had
thought.

She wouldn’t be enough to feed him or
give him any strength. And he wouldn’t kill a woman.

Zyn took a breath, and spoke for maybe
the second time in almost ten years. “I wouldn’t hurt a
female.”

The dark figure got closer, and he had
to take his eyes away from the blaring light behind her. He
clenched his hands at his sides, wondering why a woman would even
be out this late, and stopping for a man that had popped out of the
shadows.

Her scent wafted over to him. Baby
powder and innocence. Zyn’s stomach growled and the action had her
stopping once again. “Is that you?” she asked dubiously.

Zyn nodded, silently.

He heard a weary breath escape her
before branches snapped and leaves crumped. It less than a second,
a small, redheaded woman was standing on front of her, hands tucked
under her armpits and eyes staring up at him.

Was she going to piss herself? He
thought mildly, backing away.

“Do you want a ride somewhere? I was
on my way to my sister’s, and you stepped out and yeah. I can take
you somewhere,” she said thinly, strained.

Zyn stared at her. Why would she offer
to help him when she was so scared? He knew what he looked like.
Long, dark hair falling down his face, touching his shoulders.
Harsh lines and a square jaw. Dead amethyst eyes. Fists the size of
a boulder. Chest as big as a car. He wasn’t exactly welcoming, he
thought, breathing in deeply.

Without saying anything, Zyn nodded
his head and watched as her shoulders slumped. With relief? Or
regret?

“Okay, good! I thought you would say
no. Did you know, you’re the second man to have fallen out of the
forest in front of me? I figured it was fate that it happened
again, but the last guy said he was going to kill me when I asked
him.”

And then she was grabbing onto his
arm, dragging him to the car. She was maybe two times smaller than
him, barely reaching his chest, and her eyes were a horrible, happy
green color. There wasn’t a spot on her face, and she was as pale
as the moon.

Zyn stared at her, letting her drag
her to the car in an almost shocked silent.

“My name is Missy, but you
can call me….whatever you want. Except ‘dog’, okay? I hate that
name,” she snarled. In less than a second, she had him in front of
the door with her body against the car. “Now. I know you might be a
barbarian or something, but that’s my baby niece in there. If you
hurt her, not only will my sister come after you, but she’ll come
after
me
. I don’t
think I’m old enough to die yet, okay? So leave her
alone.”

And then she was opening the door and
shoving him inside. He had to grab onto the seat to stop from
faceplanting the car and when he looked up, the woman – Missy – was
already in the driver’s seat and putting on her
seatbelt.

“If she starts crying, will you find
her binky and give it to her? Sometimes it falls and I have to pull
over to search for it. That baby has the cry of a banshee,” she
laughed, grabbing his hand and forcing him to fall even farther
into the car.

Zyn yanked back, face contorting. “Are
you insane?”

She blinked. “Possibly. My mother says
I have the Jostens genes and I never figured out if that was good
or bad.”

He let out a breath, closing his eyes.
The fuck was he about to do, he thought as he fit his large body
inside of the small, clean car. It was wrong to accept help from
humans. A sign of weakness. But he was out of options and tired of
hiding. Taking only a second to snap the seat belt around his
chest, Zyn crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to warn
her off, staring at her with emotionless eyes.

She put the car in drive, giving him a
blinding smile and staring off. He stared out of the window, aware
of the heavy breathing coming from the back and the insane woman
beside him. All he wanted to do was drain her and throw her out of
the window, but that wouldn’t do. She knew where they were, and he
didn’t.

All of his instincts had turned off,
his six sense a numb loss in the back of his mind. Missy chattered
the whole entire drive, making his head hurt. When she started to
tell him how much he stunk, he growled and turned his eyes on
her.

“I’ll bring out the bad word if I have
to,” he hissed, pushing himself into the doorway, trying to get as
far away from her as possible.

“Do it, and I’ll give you to my
brother’s. I’ll cry and then you’ll be dead. Boom,” she said, eyes
flaring. Her hands tightened around the wheel as glared at each
other.

Finally, a small whimper came from the
back. It broke the silence and almost had him unlocking the door of
the car. “Let me out. Let. Me. Out.”

“Scared, weakling?” she
laughed.

“I’ll take her binky away. It will be
out of the window in less than two seconds. Don’t call me a
weakling,” he snarled.

She gasped. “You
wouldn’t
!”

“I
would
.”

“You are a cruel and horrible man. How
could you make a poor baby cry like that?”

“Maybe,” he said bleakly,
“I was hoping it would make
you
cry.”

Missy turned in her seat sharply,
completely forgetting that she was driving. Her eyes snapped fire
at him as she raised a finger, stabbing him on his bare chest. “If
you are going to treat your savior like this, you can just shove
–“

“Do you always ramble so much?” he
asked carelessly. Why was he even bothering? he thought.

“Oh my god. Get out. Get
out get out
getoutgetoutgetout!
” she screamed,
lunging for the car door handle. Just before he could shove her off
of him, the car jerked and then she was
screeching
.

Feeling his ears pop, he took control
of the steering wheel and righted it, staring at her. “Just. Drive.
And try not to kill your niece.”

“Oh!” she gasped. Then she smiled at
him. “See, you care.”

His eyes crossed.

“Her name is Maggy, and she’s barely
one. My sister went out of town with a friend of hers, and they got
back last night. She said I could bring her over tonight. Poor
Maggy; she missed her momma so much. Didn’t you, honey?” she asked,
reaching a hand back to touch the baby’s hand.

Zyn felt his gut clench when he turned
around. Nestled in a pink buddle, strapped securely to the baby
seat, was a little ball with bright blue eyes and a dark patch of
hair. Her hands were as chubby as her cheeks and with the binky in
her mouth, it scrunched up her face and made her look almost like…a
pug. She let out a gurgle and reached up with a hand, latching onto
strands of his hair.

Extracting himself from her, he turned
around in his seat and was silent the rest of the way. He didn’t
stop Missy from talking, and the more she did so, the more her soft
accent became pronounced. She had the weirdest look on things, and
told him the weirdest stories about her family.

When she started telling him about how
her brother Joe had once got her to duck-and-roll out of a moving
car, he zoned out. In his head, he couldn’t stop from thinking that
the baby, Maggy, looked just as his Jamie had when she’d been a
baby.

He slipped his hand inside of his
jeans and searched for the thing piece of paper, only breathing
when his fingers curled around it.

What he wouldn’t do to see her
happy…smiling…

…Alive.

Chapter 18

Devlin had gone missing, Lucian was
becoming more and more grouchy, and Jamie was in complete heaven.
Talon spent much more time with her, making sure to tend to her
every whim and need. Lucian would see her in the hall, walking hand
in hand with Talon, and give them the worst look ever.

It was amazing.

He came to bed early and made love to
her all through the night, kissing every part of her and making her
feel like the woman she was becoming. They would stay up after
that, cuddling and enjoying each other’s presence. A week after the
incident with Chris, it became apparent that what she felt for him
was much more than desire.

It was hard for her to keep back the
three words that wanted to slip free, to watch him smile down at
her with the same look that she knew was mirrored in her own face.
Every smile and kiss had her heart fluttering and her body humming,
and he seemed to know it.

When she slept, she had the weirdest,
most surreal dreams. It was of her and Talon, in many different
places. In stables, in a castle, in a pasture, living out their
days and making love each time. But in each dream, something
happened. Either he would die before her eyes, or she would wake up
screaming with the image of his agonized face haunting
her.

She assumed it was because she
died.

And even though she was so sure that
he was dead, or he had left her, she always woke to him kissing the
tears from her face, wrapping her in his arms, and telling her that
everything will be alright.

Jamie had managed to convince him to
take them out, and while he was talking to Vladimir outside in the
hall, she was getting dressed in her best outfit. She’d blow-dried
her hair and curled it with a curling iron that Jessica had let
her. All too happy to help with what she thought was a date,
Jessica had even brought in new clothes for her, along with
make-up. Everything had been left at the hotel, and she wasn’t
missing any of it.

Smiling, she looked at herself in the
mirror. It wasn’t hard to gauge whether Talon would like how she
looked. Lately, he’s seen her in everything...and nothing. Her
cheeks heated.

Because of her dark hair and pale
eyes, Jamie had given her a smoke eyeliner color and dark mascara.
Besides some eye shadow, she didn’t need much besides that. Her
legs were covered in black skinny jeans, gray heels, and a white
flowing shirt that reached midway to her butt. It was a decidedly
elegant and classy look for her, and with her hair around her
shoulders and down her back, Jamie even though she looked
good.

As weird as it was, she was nervous.
Talon and Lucian had been talking in the hall for a long time, and
she had no clue about what. With her heart in her throat, she
looked at Jessica who gave a little grin. Despite how much the
woman talked, she had become a.... friend of sorts. Much like she
had with Jessica, she was warming up to Vladimir.

He gave off a snotty,
absorbed attitude and
loved
to flaunt how gay he was, but she knew that he
wasn’t as bad as he seemed. And now that Devlin was gone, he was
much more happier.

Vladimir had been explaining important
people in the building and who to watch out for, and despite the
immense hate he held for her, he had explained who Devlin was. By
the time he was done, they had rounded the corner and there she
was.

Crying.

And cursing.

Vladimir, instead of feeling pity for
her, had straight-up laughed in her face. Jamie had been horrified,
but had looked the other way when the redhead stormed past them,
jostling her shoulder and calling her a “bitch” under her
breath.

Any sympathy that Jamie might have
felt for the woman fled in an instant. Talon, coming back to her
later that night, had looked tense and it had only taken a couple
of soft touches to soothe him. She smiled as she remembered the way
he had practically worshipped her body afterwards.

Now, though, as she fixed a wayward
strand of hair and stood before the large mirror in the bathroom,
her nerves were about to burst.