The Queen of All Magick: Elizabeth (10 page)

Aaron could feel Duncan’s hurt
, but it wasn’t directed at Mathew so much as himself. Aaron got up to move behind the young man. He could feel his pain as well, and this was directed solely at himself.

“
Had you ever used it before? Your magic, had you ever used it before?” Mathew nodded but continued to stare out the window. “I see. And were you not told that your magic could only be used at the castle until you were able to control it?” Again a nod and nothing more. Aaron looked at Sara.

To be honest, Aaron was quite proud of the young man. Not
because he’d used the magic, but that he’d told on himself. He was sure as he was standing there that Duncan never would have said a word about it. Aaron put his hands on Mathew’s shoulders as he fought with his pride.

“You’ll need to go to the kitchen and help Duncan clean up.
Then when you’re done, you’ll go to your room and think about what harm you could have done had your magic gone astray instead of just messing up the kitchen.” Mathew nodded but didn’t move. “What you did was wrong, you know that, don’t you?”

“I do.
I could have made Duncan explode instead of just the pie he’d made.” Aaron thought of Duncan making a pie and shuddered. Maybe it was a good thing that Mathew had stepped in. “And I’ll pay for the pies that Miss Sam is bringing to replace them too.”

He looked up at Aaron
, and the light dawned. The child knew just what he’d done. Before he could make a comment, Mathew was running out of the room. Aaron sat down hard and looked at Sara.

“He saved us all a bit of
embarrassment.” She nodded, smiling at him. “Good Christ, Duncan made a pie, and now we don’t have to try to figure out how to eat it without being sick ourselves.”

“He did.
I think that we should reward him instead of…Aaron, do you think he knew what he was doing?” Aaron nodded slowly. He really did. “Oh. Oh my.”

“Yeah, my thought exactly. He’s a good deal more like his mother than I thought.”
They both laughed, knowing that even though Mathew wasn’t Lizzy’s blood child, he was more like her than anyone could believe. The boy was unbelievable.

When someone rang the doorbell
, they went down the long staircase. Whoever this was, it wasn’t family. They would have simply popped into the room.

Duncan hesitated at the door
, and that was the only warning they got. As soon as he took a step back, Aaron flew to his aid just as the door opened. Sara was moving toward the kitchen where Mathew was when the man came into the house. His body was pulsing with anger, and Aaron felt his own beast rise too.

“You fucking bastard.”
The man moved toward him, but it took Aaron only a second to press the human back. It took him several seconds to realize that the man was related somehow to the Josh person he’d had so much fun with last evening.

“Mr. Gibson, how may I help you?” He
tried his best to get away from him, but Aaron was a good deal stronger, not to mention the man was out of shape and too drunk to do more than smell up his home.

“My son. He said you and that other man you had with you beat him up. I want to show you what
happens when someone messes with my boy.” Aaron lifted a brow at the man, but before he could say anything, Elizabeth appeared beside him. He stepped back when she asked him to.

“You taught your boy how to knock a woman around, did you?
Are you proud of the fact that he nearly killed a young woman, my child?” Aaron looked at Sara, who stood near Mathew. “He nearly killed her, and you come here to abuse my family?”

“She had it coming. Like all women do. You bitches need to learn your place.”
Elizabeth looked at Mathew and asked him to cover his eyes.

“If you don’t mind, Grandma
, I’d like to see you kick this man’s butt. He really is asking for it.” With a quick nod, Elizabeth turned back to Mr. Gibson.

“As you heard, my grandson
said you need your butt kicked. I’m very willing to do that.” He was lifted up the length of the wall and then dropped. He landed on his ass and then was lifted again. This time she stopped before dropping him. “I wish I had more time to play, but my other grandsons are on their way. You’ll have to wait until later.”

Mr. Gibson disappeared
, and she straightened the room up before turning to them. Aaron had no idea what look he had on his face, but Elizabeth huffed at him. She glared when she spoke.

“
He’s in the dungeon at the castle. And before you ask, yes, I’ve made sure that he is cared for. Three of my most trusted maids are caring for him in ways that you might not want to know about.” She moved to Mathew as Aaron tried to think what she meant. Then he decided he didn’t want to know. When the doorbell rang again this time, he knew it was his daughter. She had the social worker with her or she would have come right in. Things were looking up.

Chapter
10

Rythen watched Kim sleep. She’d woken twice since he’d been back, but both times she’d gone right back to sleep. Aaron had told him that it was good for her to rest. But Rythen wanted her to wake so she could talk to him. He wanted to hear her voice, hear her say she was good with what they’d had to do.

They’d had to change her. It had started out as her needing to be healed
, but the damage was extensive, and she was now a being much like himself. She was no longer a human in any sense of the word. Elizabeth had had to make the decision, as neither he nor Aaron was fit to do so. His pain was so great that Aaron had held him back. He’d hurt the young vampire in his rage.

“What are you doing here?” He smiled at Kim when she spoke. Finally.
He looked at her when she started to sit up. “I’m way too weak for this crap. Where am I?”

“How much do you remember?”
He didn’t move from his chair even though he wanted to pull her into his arms and simply hold her. Rythen didn’t love her, of course, but he didn’t want to let her go either.

“I’d gone home and…
.” He knew the moment she remembered what Josh had done to her. “How long have I been here?”

“A day.” She shook her head
, and he moved to the edge of the bed then. “You were dying. Twice while we were trying to save you, your heart stopped beating. It was either let you die or convert you to something that would live.”

“Convert me to what?”
When he reached for her hand, she jerked from him. “I asked you a question. What did you convert me to?”

“To a superior being.” She moved off the bed
, and he watched her move about his room. Aaron thought it best that the human world didn’t see what they’d done to her. He was right. She would have been too much of an oddity to them, and there was no telling what they might have done to her had they realized what she could do now.

“Elizabeth helped me change you
, as did Aaron.” She nodded but still moved about the room. He waited. If he spooked her, she might well hurt someone without meaning to. Her magic was untouched, and as such she wasn’t used to it.

“What did you do to Josh?” He didn’t want to answer that
, but he really didn’t have a choice in the matter. She was his mate, and he couldn’t lie to her.

“He’s dead.”
She turned then and looked at him. “I did it and would do it again if given the chance. He was…unapologetic for what he’d done.”

She stared at him for so long that he began to shift on his seat. He thought she looked upset
, then modified that word. She was what Aaron would call pissed. And he’d been warned that she would be.

“And because he didn’t tell you he was sorry for whatever he did
to you, it justified you killing him.” He stood up then and moved to her. When she put her hand out, he put his over hers and held it to his chest.

“He did nothing to me personally
. It was what he did to you that angered me to the point of murdering him.” Kim looked at him then, and he could see her confusion and fear. “I can never harm you, Kim. Ever. What I did was because of the harm, the devastation that he did to you.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that.” He nodded and let her go when she moved from him.
He could feel her pain, not of her body because that was forever gone, but her pain of his death.

“Did you
truly love him?” She shook her head and sat down on the chair near the window. “Then why do you grieve for him? Is it because he was right in saying that you enjoyed to be hurt? I cannot think that anyone would want that, but if it is your desire, then—”

“Are you insane? Who the hell in their right mind would want something
like that? To be knocked around as if you were nothing more than a ball with a bat? Not me, nor anyone else I know.” She looked out the window before she continued. “I’m sad because you had to kill him.”

Rythen wasn’t sure how to take what she said.
She hurt for him killing the man…not because he was dead, but because he’d had to do it. Humans made no sense to him. He started to tell her this, but he felt Shamus laugh before he spoke.

“You’d be better off, my good man
, in agreeing with her and, short of that, simply shutting up. Let her grieve for your supposed pain. I know you were probably happy to have slain the dragon for her, so to speak, but she will come around sooner if you just shut up.”
While he didn’t understand the advice, he did shut up. She looked over at him, and he smiled.

“Can I get something to eat?” He nodded and started for the man at the door. She could have anything she wanted
, even if he had to kill it himself. “I want to go home. Not to my house, but…do you know what a pizza is?”

“Pizza?
No, I don’t…is it a dessert?” She laughed, and he started to snap at her but was stopped again by Shamus. “Perhaps if you explained it to me, we could have one made.”

Kim stood up
, shaking her head. When she moved past him, he followed. The five guards in the hall had her stopping so fast that he ran into her. Rythen put his hands out to keep her from falling. He moaned when she was flush against him.

“I need for you to…
please back up.” He thought that he would, but he just wanted a taste of her first, and moved her hair from her neck. “Are you going to bite me again?”

“Oh yes. Many times if you would allow it.” He kissed her exposed throat and then put his arms around her waist to pull her tighter against his body.
“I would so enjoy doing a great many things to you. Most of which would have you screaming.”

Her breathing became quick pants
, and he could smell her arousal. He would have taken her right then had her belly not growled at him. Rythen kept her to his body, but he lifted his head. He would have her, but not at the expense of her health.

“
This pissa thing, do you think young Aaron would know where to get one? I have heard he is very resourceful.” Rythen smiled when she shivered in his arms. When she didn’t pull away from him, he felt encouraged by it. Kissing her neck again, he moved back, but not before turning her around so that she fit against him.

“You’re
driving me nuts.” He nodded, thinking she was doing the same to him. “I don’t understand you at all. You run hot and cold like a faucet.”

“I assure you I am very hot right now. Shall I take you back to our room and show you how hot I can make you?” She moaned
, and he pulled her to him. “I would like nothing more than to strip you naked and taste all of you. Starting with your pretty pussy. I never got to run my tongue through you there. I would bet that you taste like the finest of juice.”

“You have to stop this.”
He might have had she not wrapped her hands into his hair and rocked her hips into him. “I’m hungry.”

“As am I.” He lifted her up and turned to the bedroom. Food would have to wait.
His need for her was too much for him to be with other people and not have her. Taking her to the bed, he took her mouth. Kissing her was quickly becoming a drug he couldn’t live without.

“Please.” Her clothing disappeared as he ran his mouth down to her full breast. He had no idea what she was begging him to do
, but he would do it all. Taking her hard nipple into his mouth, he willed his own clothing off and felt his cock ache to be one with her. Her body arched up off the bed, and he felt her heat as she touched herself to his cock. He moved into her slowly until he was buried to his root.

“You’re so
hot and tight around my cock.” She rolled her hips again, and he knew that his release was coming soon. “You must slow down, love. I cannot bring you pleasure if you keep this up. And I’ve a desire to drink from you.”

Her head tilted
, and he saw her pounding pulse. It wasn’t what he’d had in mind, but the thought of drinking from her again was more than he could stand. Leaning into her throat, he licked along her vein and found her pulse. Biting deep, he felt her tighten around him as he drank from her. Her climax milked him, and Rythen lifted her up, tilting her so that he could go deeper within her. When she cried out again, he sealed the wound at her throat and offered her his.

“Take what is freely given. Make me yours
, as I have done to you. Bite me, love, bite me when you come again, and we’ll be one.” Her tongue had him shivering, and before he could tell her how to do it, her teeth tore into his throat, and he cried out with it. His balls, so full seconds before, emptied deep inside of her even as she screamed out his name over and over around his throat. Rythen had had a connection with her before, but now he was as he’d told her, they were one.

~~~

Elizabeth watched the children. They were so afraid, but she knew that Lizzy and Logan would bring them around. Mathew had taken them up to his room at the mansion and shown them around, but now they sat in the chairs as if awaiting a firing squad. She looked at the oldest boy.

“You’re about the same age as young Mathew here.
Did you know that?” A nod. “I believe you will all have your own rooms at the house. Have you been there as yet?”

“No
, ma’am.” He looked at the youngest and then back at her. “Which one of us are they taking, do you know?”

Elizabeth looked at the children
, then over at Lizzy. She wondered what had been said to them to make them believe that they were not staying together. When she opened her mouth to tell him what she knew, Mathew spoke first.

“My mom and dad aren’t going to split you guys up.
We’re all going to be a family together. You guys will have a jumpstart on me what with having each other. But soon we’ll have a brother or sister, and that will make us closer.” He nodded, and Elizabeth wished she could remember all their names, but when Mathew spoke again, she could have kissed the boy. “Lizzy and my dad are the best in the world. And Grams here, along with Gramps, are awesome. Even Grandpa Aaron is pretty cool. He has a library that will curl your hair.”

“We’re never to touch stuff that don’t belong to us. We’ve been warned.”
The second boy looked at the youngest and then back at them. “He won’t break nothing, but if he does, then me and Peter will pay for it. He’s just little yet.”

“What do you think will happen to him if he does break something?” Lizzy sat on the
chair next to them. Picking up the youngest, she put him onto her lap and smiled at the others while she waited for an answer.

“You don’t have to beat us none.” She nodded
, and the oldest looked at Mathew. “The other place, they used to beat us all the time because we were different. I know we’re vampires and all, but that was no reason to beat on little Kane. It’s not his fault that he’s a little clumsy.”

“No
, it’s not. And for the record, I don’t beat anyone.” He didn’t look as if he believed her, but Elizabeth watched his face. He wanted to more than anything in the world. When a vase hit the floor, she looked at Mathew, who had obviously broken it. Aaron came over, and all three of the boys cowered. Aaron looked at her and winked.

“Are you cut?” Mathew shook his head.
“Well, go in the kitchen and get a broom. You broke it, you clean it up.”

With that
, he walked away and turned his back on them. Mathew stood up, careful of the glass, and asked the older boy if he wanted to help. And just like that the kids were best friends. When they returned from the kitchen, talking about a game that Mathew was helping Tristan with, Elizabeth looked at the younger two.

“He did that on purpose.” Lizzy nodded and sat Kane on the floor so he could follow his brothers.
“You told him to do that?”

“No. He asked
Dad, and he told him whatever it took. There was nothing in this house that couldn’t be replaced, and even if there were, family was more important.” Lizzy picked up a piece of glass that had been missed, and put it in the trashcan that Mathew had brought. “They need to learn that we’re not going to stake them every time they do something wrong. I have learned a lot from them concerning that other place. It wasn’t as warm and fuzzy as we’d been led to believe.”

Elizabeth could see that they would have a harder time with it than they’d thought
, but if anyone could do it, her granddaughter could. She watched her as she helped her mom organize dinner for them all.

“I’d like to get to know them.”
Lizzy smiled at her and nodded. “I mean, do you think your grandda and I could have them for a day? We’d like to take them to the castle with Mathew. I’m sure it will be a nice treat for them.”

“Grandmother, you know that you’re welcome to take them anytime you want. And I’m sure they’d love to go with you.
I can finish up their rooms while they’re with you. I just found out that the clothing that they had before had been burned.” Elizabeth was shocked and asked her why. “They said that they’d not been paid by the adoption agency for them, and they didn’t deserve them. What they have on is all they have. And I do mean all of it. I’m going to have to go shopping on my way home from here to make sure they have pajamas to sleep in.”