The Thorndykes 1: Dispossessed (22 page)

Z threw his captive to the floor. He’d gagged his prisoner, but Jay hadn’t bothered. They weren’t making a lot of noise, and he wanted to hear what they had to say.

“So,” he said, flashing his fangs. “Who’s first?”

“Not a bad idea,” Z said. He grabbed his prisoner with one hand, and the man’s eyes nearly rolled back in his head. It didn’t stop Z from sinking his fangs in, none too gently.

Jay hadn’t fed for a few days, and taking made sense. Blood didn’t have a sentient presence. He picked one of the captive men up and copied Z.

After that, the world grew hazy. He stared at Z, who was blinking. Someone stood in the doorway, a woman maybe, but he wasn’t sure. Should be one of theirs. He heard a roar from his left as Nathan went into action.

Drugged blood?

He only received one word from Z, already half-under.
Fuck.

WHEN JAY’S MIND went blank, Lucille went wild. She’d stayed with him, just touching him to assure herself he was fine, but when his presence suddenly silenced, she shifted her attention to Nathan.
“What’s happening?”

“He’s here. He’s not dead,”
came the terse reply.

“I’m on my way.”

“Don’t you fucking dare. Stay where you are, with Drew.”

She wouldn’t get there fast enough in any case. She couldn’t see or feel anything. She’d found it a strain reaching Jay at this distance. Her telepathy worked for around ten miles, but Jay had added his own strength to hers to give her the reassurance she needed.

Drew sensed her distress. He hadn’t kept in touch with them, but he didn’t need to. He was in contact with her. When he touched her hand, she gripped his tightly, staring out at the still, seemingly peaceful night. They were sitting on the bed in her suite, but they’d rotated it so it faced out. She could see Jay coming home that way. He’d taken his car; she’d see the lights. Or sense wings if Nathan shape-shifted and gave him a ride. Either way was good, the faster the better.

While she hated the thought that Ryan was involved with the PHR cell, the order to take them alive had granted her some relief. Jay was right. Sentiment would have slowed her down. She’d never been in love with Ryan, but she’d cared about him and counted him as her friend. That he’d betrayed her came as a shock, but she should have known.

Had he hurt Jay? And how?

Something blocked the stars, then they were visible again; the only sign that a shape-shifter had taken to the sky. Lucille leaped off the sofa and raced downstairs, only momentarily noticing the security men. The shape-shifter whose name was Dalton set off behind her, keeping close to her, although he could have outpaced her. Few people could when she was using vampire strength, but he matched her easily.

A naked Nathan was laying Jay gently on the big sofa in the great room. He glanced up as Lucille approached. “It’s okay,” he said. “He’s drugged, not hurt.”

“What kind of drug can lay out a vampire?” she demanded. She’d never heard of such a thing before. Even horse tranquillizers couldn’t do it.

“A mixture of the strongest crap known and a Talent aiming psi at him.” Nathan’s voice was grim. “Not one of ours.”

A long scratch marred Jay’s face, still bleeding sluggishly. She watched the wound closing up, and that persuaded her he was alive. “What went wrong?”

“They have a Sorcerer. He effectively shielded ten more people from other cells. Somehow they got warning that we were coming, and laid a trap. They nearly did it too. But they hadn’t reckoned on our Sorcerer. She’s a virgin, more powerful than any other of her kind, and she got to the bastard as soon as he uncloaked.” He paused. “He got one before she could act.”

“Got one?” Lucille paused, staring down at Jay.
Killed one
. “Who?”

The tall woman, the shape-shifter, spoke. “Alexandra.”

“They had syringes of Cephalox.” The drug that knocked out a shape-shifter’s powers. “They knew we were coming, all right. I smashed the one meant for me, but one of the others wasn’t so lucky. He’s as mortal as the Wheelers for at least twenty-four hours. His colleague got him away, together with Z. Our Sorcerer knocked the worst of the attack from theirs as she could, but she missed the initial blanket. Very fast. Uncloaking the hidden minds, and then the attack between one breath and the next.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” She had to touch him, had to hold her hand over his heart, feel it beat, let his chest rise and fall with every shallow breath he drew. “So what happens now?”

“Fuck knows.”

“Do we know the Sorcerer?”

“Not yet,” Nathan said. “But we will.”

Chapter Thirteen

Jay hardly had her in the bedroom before he was on her. He lifted her, tossed her on the bed, and landed over her. “I need you,” he muttered. “Now.”

A thrill coursed through her. This was Jay’s savage side, as much a part of him as his sweet, loving one. She wasn’t sure about it yet, but she was damn sure about this.

He didn’t waste time, stripping them out of their clothes only enough so he could free his cock and get inside her. “Christ, when I went down, all I could think was that I’d never have
this
again. Never have you.”

He dragged her robe aside and shoved his pants down just far enough. His first thrust stretched her and forced the delicate tissues aside, but she was ready for him, and her juices lubricated enough to let him in without pain.

Only just. Normally he’d have stopped, concerned, and asked her if she was okay, but not tonight. He stroked her hard and fast, rammed into her, his face buried against her throat. His fangs pricked her flesh, sending a delicious edge of pain into her arousal.

He wouldn’t do this alone. He’d done too many things alone. So she extended her fangs too, and when he sank in, she did the same, trying to time her thrust with his.

Suck and fuck, he’d said, but it felt like so much more. With them so profoundly into each other’s minds and bodies, she let herself drift. For the first time she achieved a sense of oneness, as if there was nothing except here and now. Ecstasy, no longer a fleeting experience, floated through her mind, inhabiting it, and she finally opened everything without stint.

He jerked back with such swiftness she was jolted to reality. Her eyes sprang open, and she stared up at him in shock. He bent and licked her neck to seal the wounds he’d made, and she took the opportunity to do the same, stunned by the suddenness of his action.

His face was strained, his eyes wide, his cock still embedded inside her. “Not like this. I want us to bond when we’re ready. Not before.” He’d thrown his mind into lockdown, and now she could only feel him physically.

“It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have gone at you like this. But I wanted you so badly,” she confessed.

He rotated his hips, so she could feel him inside her. “I still do.”

He was right. Not like this. She wanted the moment to be special so they’d remember it for the rest of their lives. Hastily she covered her mind, blocked her deepest thoughts, and left only the outer layer for him. “Will you come back? Just a little?”

Smiling down at her, he did. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his smile seemed strained. In his outer thoughts, she read turmoil, confusion. He’d never allow anyone else to see him this vulnerable. As she felt it, the sensation seeped away, and he appeared perfectly happy. The fact that he’d let her in that far meant so much to her. It was his way of showing her that he trusted her, that he wanted to bond with her. This just wasn’t the time; that was all.

He recommenced, fucking her back to another orgasm. Then he howled his way through his own release, his body jerking violently over hers. He pressed her down into the mattress before he rolled to one side and took her with him.

Lucille was still wired, after that moment of perfect tranquility returning in full force. “I’m sorry you had to do that tonight.”

“I’m not.”

The hardness in his tone didn’t surprise her, but she did feel some disappointment that he felt no compassion for the people he’d killed. He curved an arm around her waist. “Sleep now. We’ll make our plans later.”

* * * *

She woke up in the middle of the afternoon, not sure how she slept so long, but snuggled up to him. That was enough for him to start again, but slow and loving, caressing every part of her before he entered her with perfect care. Tenderly but surely he thrust over and over in a rhythm she could enter into forever.

They came at the same time, sighing into each other’s mouths, lost in kisses. For a while they lay wrapped up in each other in blissful silence, and her mind started to work. It always took a while for her to come to herself after sleeping. Even more so when she woke up with a hot man who made love to her as if she was the only person that mattered.

Lucille had a shift at the bar tonight. When she told him, he demurred, but she insisted on taking it. “I want a life after this.” She stroked Jay’s chest, and he smiled up at her. She leaned on one elbow above him. She loved him like this, easy and peaceful in a postcoital haze. He’d taken her like a madman, gone at her last night, but today he treated her like she was precious and delicate. “I can’t let the bar go yet. I’ve worked so hard at making it what it is that I want to carry on living there until the last possible minute. I don’t want Drew there for now, so I’m taking the shift.”

“There’s still a Sorcerer at large,” he reminded her.

“And Ryan. What about him?”

His eyes shuttered. “Ryan could be the Sorcerer. He’s certainly involved. He’s also missing. We didn’t find a trace of him there last night, but Sorcerers can do that—change their psi presence. If he’s innocent, the Wheelers might have killed him or just kept him away. Sorcerers can do incredible things, at the very least disguise who they are. They scare me shitless.”

She laughed. “What, you? My big bad vampire?” She ran her hand down his body and touched his cock bar, enjoying his responsive shudder.

“Never mind. Maybe I’m not so scared.” He smiled. “I don’t deserve you, but now that I have you, I’m not taking any chances. I’m coming with you tonight, and I’ll ask Nathan if he can come. The team is tracking down the Sorcerer.”

“So you’re satisfied?”

“I wouldn’t say that.” He lifted up to deliver a lick to her breast. “Not at all. But I’ve cleared the scum from the neighborhood.”

“What happens now?” She had to work to keep her concentration. “Not to the Sorcerer or the team, but the ranch?”

“I don’t know.” Resting his chin on his palm, he gazed at her. “They might say the Wheelers had to leave, or that they were killed by passing itinerants. Or maybe they just up and left. Then someone else can buy it.”

“But not us.”

“No. Not us.”

They were leaving. She didn’t hide her sorrow, because he’d know she was concealing something from him. Quitting her first home would be a wrench for anyone. “How did you feel when you left?”

“Relieved,” he said sharply. “I’d made such a mess of everything. Killing a man in a duel, so I had to go abroad. That gave me the opportunity to get lost in Europe. I disappeared, and I had so few non-Talented friends by then that nobody asked after me. The title passed to my heir, my brother’s son, and life went on.”

“You didn’t mind losing your title?”

“No. I could move more anonymously without it. I’d amassed a private fortune, enough to keep me until I grew it to a bigger one.” He grinned, his eyes bearing a faraway gaze. Looking back into the past. “I became Austrian for a while. I liked that. It’s a beautiful country. Then I returned in time for the Crimean War.” His mouth quirked up in a wry grin. “Lucky me.”

“You became a soldier?”

“Then an airman. I enjoyed flying. Always wanted to be a flying shape-shifter.”

They laughed, in total accord. She couldn’t have imagined feeling so happy. When her phone gave a
ping
as its alarm went off, they got up together, showered together, and dressed together. Then they took his car to work.

When Missy asked why Lucille was smiling, she hadn’t been aware that she was. It seemed a natural consequence of spending time with this scary, powerful, immensely tender man.

Today he joined her on her side of the bar. More people arrived tonight, but on a Thursday some would be anticipating the weekend. Tomorrow they’d have more customers at the bar. She checked the lunchtime records on the laptop they kept under the bar. She arranged for the records to upload to the cloud because she didn’t trust the ancient and battered laptop, but somehow the thing persevered. It would probably last longer than her sophisticated model upstairs.

Good takings at lunchtime. People had probably come to discuss the happenings at the ranch. They wouldn’t know yet, but she stayed quiet while she listened.

Texans loved gossip, even when it involved bad news, although they preferred the good. Someone had seen the police cars outside the main entrance to the ranch. The guests had gone home early, and no new guests had arrived. The local police captain was there, but he was unusually silent. Normally he was one of the biggest gossips in the town, whether he was allowed or not. He particularly enjoyed playing games where he didn’t actually break his confidences, but from his expressions anyone could guess what he’d learned.

Even the mayor had arrived. While she couldn’t regret the beer consumed, she’d wanted to forget the Wheeler ranch just for a short time. She should have known better.

“Your place is nearby,” someone said to Jay. “Didn’t you hear anything?”

Jay shrugged. “Nothing. I’m on the wrong side, in any case. The main entrance to the Wheeler place is on the other side to mine.” He glanced at Lucille. “We weren’t paying much attention to the outside world.”

Soft sounds of “Aw” and murmurs greeted his statement and his smile.

“You’ve tamed our outlaw rancher,” Missy said.

“I wouldn’t say tamed,” Lucille said, without thinking of the consequences of her remark. At least the consequent joshing got their minds off the Wheeler ranch. They didn’t get back to the subject for half an hour. Instead they took a circuitous route through the upcoming game. The evening passed without serious incident, although Jay had to eject a couple of men for coming on to Missy too strong. His technique was swift, unspectacular, and effective, and gained him grudging respect from some of the men present.