The Young Vampire Mate: The Airendell Chronicler Diaries - Book 1.5 (14 page)

“I want to kiss you, Breena,” Damian says softly.  All I can do is smile, in what I hope is an inviting manner.  I have never really tried my hand at seduction.  Not even at being seduced.  I am definitely in foreign territory right now. 

But Aideen picks that moment to barge into the room.  “The other weavers are here.  Elias and Micah are ready to go.”  She takes in our postures towards each other and knows she has interrupted something.  She snorts and says, “Gee, Auntie going from Shifter to Vamp?  You do like to walk on the wild side.”

I slowly move back from Damian and look at my niece.  “Little girl, I wasn’t playing with you earlier.  What I do or don’t do isn’t any of your concern.  So keep your dirty mind out of my business.”

She shrugs and flounces out of the room.  “She’s a bit of a bitch, isn’t she?” Damian asks quietly.

“Little bit,” I admit ruefully.  “Something is off with her.  That’s not the real Aideen.”  I sigh and say, “Go help Morna.  We have the rest of our lives to sort our shit out.”

Damian takes me into his arms and kisses me.  There’s no tongue and no open mouth… because he won’t expose me to his venom and those razor sharp teeth.  But it’s still a kiss full of passion, full of promise.  It’s a kiss to make me forget all other kisses.  When he finishes trailing kisses down my throat, he just holds me tight and inhales my scent.  I can feel his need.  It’s white hot and urgent mirroring my own.  His connection to me, a perfection reflection of mine.  His desire and hunger… are so powerful they almost scare me.  This man almost scares me… but not quite.  Mostly he excites me and make my blood boil in a very, very good way.

He kisses the pulse at the base of my throat and then lifts his head to look into my eyes, “Breena, until the day you tell me you don’t want me anymore and really mean it… well until that day, you are mine.  That means not Fionn, or anyone else gets to touch what’s mine in an intimate way, ever again.”

I swallow and nod.  “You heard me and Fionn?”

Damian nods.  “I didn’t completely understand it, but I got the impression things might have got heated between you recently…”

“It wasn’t his fault…” I start. 

Damian puts a finger over my lips.  “And it wasn’t your fault either, but it won’t happen again.”  I shake my head no.  “Mon amour.  I don’t want to be a killer, but I would kill anyone who touches you that way.  You are my heart, my life, my everything and I will never share you.”

“Good, because I won’t ever share you either,” I say softly.  “Now you better go.  Morna needs you.”

CHAPTER TEN

I am not sure how long I stand there after Damian leaves.  I am alternating between feeling like I am on cloud nine and being terrified.  Not of Damian, I know he would never hurt me.  But terrified of the intensity of my feelings and how his kiss affected me.  I have been kissed before by other men.  Lots of other men.  I mean you get a kissed a lot in over eight hundred years.  I have been kissed by powerful, handsome, sexy, good men… but no kiss has ever affected me like that.  I finally gather my wits and go to find my friends hoping to spend our time catching up.

Later, Luca calls to tell us that he thinks Morna is under attack again.  I quickly fill the others in on what has been happening.  We make sure that the girls at Morna’s halfway house and her friend, Mad Mike are all protected before we all make our way to the Gateway.  I am too impatient to drive and weave a finding spell to take me directly to Damian.  He is guarding the entrance to the Gateway.  When he sees me he takes me into his arms.  “She’s in bad shape, baby.” 

The fear and anguish I hear in his voice touches me profoundly.  He’s very, very fond of my sister.  “Who’s with her?”

“Luca and Elias.”

“She’s in good hands then.  She’s tough as hell too.  Don’t worry, Damian.  I am convinced she’s Immortal again and stronger than ever,” I am trying to assure Damian, and myself.  Damian is still holding me when the others arrive a little while later.  They too decided that driving would take too long.

Aideen surprises me when she comes up to me and wraps her arms around me, seeking comfort like she did as little girl.  I can feel that she’s scared and worried for her mother. 

Why isn’t she like this all of the time? I wonder.  I know something is off with our ‘little girl’ and I just can’t figure it out, but I am worried, really worried.  Truth be told, I am more concerned about Aideen at the moment than I am Morna.  Morna is tougher than her daughter, and she’s in good hands with Luca and Elias taking care of her.

Soon Luca comes out to tell us that Morna is okay and we can come in.  Luca has erected some sort of modified buffer spell around her brain to keep the attacks out.  But there is no doubt, someone powerful and filled with evil intent is attacking Morna’s mind.  And we have to figure out who and take him or her out before Morna’s receives some serious injury.

We quickly settle into the barracks at the Gateway and make it our stronghold, for now at least.  Elias contacts Valliant and he returns with two of his sons.  Once Valliant is assured that Morna is okay he sets off in search of the Gateway’s guardian, Mulder.  Mulder is one of the original offspring of the ancient Ari and Almeda.  Morna has easily slipped back into her role as First Warrior of Airendell and First Protector of the Gateways and begins marshalling the forces to protect the Gateway and discover who’s behind the attacks.

At one point Morna realizes that Damian needs to feed again, but she won’t allow him to go out alone.  Luca won’t leave Morna’s side so that leaves one of the Spell Weavers to go and watch his back.  In the end, three of us weave iron-lion spells and hiding spells to trail after him and watch out for magical attacks that Damian might not be equipped to deal with.  He’s a powerful supernatural being, but he’s not magic... exactly. 

During his hunt I am absolutely mesmerized by him.  His raw power and absolute wildness as he gives himself over to instinct to hunt his sustenance affect me on a deep, very primal level.  A very carnal highly sexual level.  WOW! Is he always going to affect this way?

Even though I am enthralled by Damian, I let my mind drift to my concerns for Fionn’s wellbeing.  It’s like something it tugging relentlessly at my consciousness and I am suddenly very worried about him.  I foolishly let my hiding spell slip just a bit and Damian catches a whiff of my scent.  “Run, mon amour,” he growls.  “Run far and fast!”

I quickly get my spells back under control, once again cloaking my sounds, and scents from him.  But I am shocked when he says, “I still feel your presence, Breena.  Leave before instinct over rules my sanity and I hunt you! Run, baby!”

I can feel his fear for me and that scares the shit out of me.  I react on instinct.  I weave a finding spell and go to Fionn, just as he instructed me to do if I ever felt threatened.  But I am more worried about Fionn than myself at that moment.  Despite Damian’s warning, I am convinced that he would never hunt me.  Instinct or no, Damian Summers would never hurt me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I arrive at Fionn’s side just as he is taking a serious beat down from three very nasty looking demons.  “OH HELL NO!” I yell as I jump into the fray.

The two of us quickly dispatch the demons.  I took a bit of a beating in the process and got thrown into a couple of walls and am feeling a little bit irritable by the time I dispatch the last one with my spirit knife that I manifested to fight them with.  I look around for more enemies before I move to Fionn’s side to heal him.  “What are you doing here, baby?  How did you know I was in trouble?” he asks me weakly.

“I didn’t know.  Not really.  I just had a bad feeling.  But mostly, it was just pure dumb luck that I showed up when I did.”

“Then why did you come?”  I tell him about going out with Damian to hunt and him still being able to sense me behind my spells.  Fionn nods, “He can sense because you truly are his mate.  He will always be able to sense you.  But at least he told you to leave and you were smart enough to do it.” 

Fionn chuckles and strokes my cheek tenderly.  “I am glad you came to me and not just because you saved my ass.”  I smile at my friend before I wrap my arms around his waist to hold him close.

I look up when I feel another presence in the old warehouse with us.  Fionn’s friend The Greek is watching us intently as he leans up against a wall like he doesn‘t have a care in the world.  I rush to him and commence jabbing his chest with my index finger.  It probably looks comical as hell because I am so much shorter than him, but I do it anyway because I am so angry with him my rational mind has taken a break.

“You, are on my shit list, buddy boy,” I tell the massively tall, purple haired warrior.  “Why was Fionn fighting three demons by himself when I arrived?  I thought he came here to help you out not be used for demon fodder.”

The Greek chuckles lazily.  “Only three?  Beautiful girl, you missed most of the party then.  When I left him he was facing two dozen by himself.  I went after another hundred.  He had it under control, baby.  Don‘t worry about your Fionn.”

“What the hell is going on?” I demand.

The Greek pushes away from the wall he was leaning against and walks over to Fionn.  He looks down at Fionn.  I march back over to him and do my best to get into his face, even though it’s technically impossible with our height differences. 

He smirks as he towers over me.  It always pisses me off when he does this because he’s almost two feet taller than me.  So I levitate myself until I am eye to eye with him.  “Spell Weaver, I have always liked your style and your spunk.” 

He grins and I grin back.  For some reason I have never understood I can’t stay mad at him.  He’s too good looking, too sweet and too decent for me to ever hold onto any anger I feel.  “To answer your question, some asshole opened a bolt-hole between dimensions.  This one leads to a dimension full of demons.  We have been killing them non-stop for about thirty hours.  I only called your bestie to come help when two of my fighters went down.”

“Down as in dead?”  I am shocked because his fighters are next to impossible to kill.

“No they aren’t dead.  But they are out of commission for a while.”  He gives me a wan smile and I know he’s really worried about his fighters.  He takes care of his people and really cares about them.  I have heard many rumors over the years that he really goes to bat for them when needed.

“What kind of demons were those?  I have never seen any like that before.”  I look over at the shriveling corpses and shudder.  I suspect that soon there will be nothing left of them.  They are truly nasty looking and foul smelling.  I wrinkle my nose again before I look back at my friend the ancient warrior.

“Those were some very primordial nasties that we trapped in that dimension a few thousand years ago.  Your buddy, Cocidius, helped me lock them away.  Let’s just say you folks are dealing with some heavy shit right now and we are too.  Some of it’s connected, some of it’s not.”  He shrugs like dealing with problems of this nature are nothing new to him and sadly I know that’s the case.  “There are a lot of things happening behind the scenes that you just aren’t aware of.  I really appreciate the assist, from both of you.”

I nod.  “Any time, Greek.  I am always just a thought away for you.  I got a pretty good idea of all the nasties you face on a regular basis.  I’ll help any time I can.”  I want to demand that he tells me what is going on behind the scenes, but I know he won’t.  I have long suspected that he’s a ‘god of fate’ but keeps that little secret to himself. But I know that he’s a big believer in destiny and not influencing people’s free will.  I reluctantly just let it drop.  I suspect The Greek knows exactly what I am thinking when he smirks at me.

He chuckles, “Hell’s Bells, baby, you mean it don’t you?”  I nod. “Well, beautiful girl, I may take you up on that some time.”  He smirks at me and says; “Baby, I keep telling you, I am not a Greek… I am from an older pantheon.  But you are smart enough that you know that, don’t you?”

I ignore that.  It‘s really irrelevant to me. I know exactly who he is and just how powerful he is.  But I also know his heart, and none of that stuff really matters to him.  So I just keep calling him The Greek.  “Why do all of the men in my life call me baby?  Do I look like a goddamned infant?”

The Greek chuckles and looks me up and down appreciatively, “No, can’t say that you do.  But your vamp calls you mon amour, does he not?”

“Stop looking at me like that, Greek.  We both know you aren‘t a lecherous pig.  Only reason you really like me is because I don‘t look at you like that.”

“True enough, Mistress Breena, but I can appreciate a beautiful woman when I see one.  And we all know you are a very beautiful woman, inside and out.”

I dismiss that as unimportant and The Greek smiles fondly at me.  Neither one of us place much importance in our looks but his saying I am beautiful on the inside does make feel kinda warm and fuzzy. 

I mentally roll my eyes at myself for being a dweeb.  Breena, you are an idiot.  And then I move my attention to his remark about my vampire. “How do you know about ‘my vampire’ and what he calls me?” I demand suspiciously.

The Greek just laughs.  “Baby, I am one of those game playing, life controlling, powerful Immortals that you are always bitching about.”

“Liar,” I say gently.  “You always let people act on their free will.”

“Fine, but hear this, baby, don’t judge him too harshly.  He’s young and try to remember that you were young once too.  He’s been handed a shit deal as a Mortal and an Immortal.  It’s shaped him in ways that may scare you at first, but you never have anything to fear from him.  He loves you already.  He will always love you.  And you two have a very important future ahead of you.” 

I smile because I know everything he just said about Damian and me is the truth.  I am not real sure how I know it, but I know we are meant to be together and our being together will be very important to a lot of people.  Not just the two of us and those close to us.

He smiles that sexy, know it all grin of his and I know that compared to him, I am still very, very young and sadly very ignorant as well.  “He smiles and looks over at Fionn.  “She’s smart.  You are lucky you have her.”

“I don’t have her.  She’s not mine,” Fionn says blandly.  But I feel the hurt under the flat tone.

“She’s not your mate…but she’s yours, and you are hers.  Your bond to each other is much like a protection bond.  You will always be bonded.  Fionn, you were getting ready to go down, that’s why she came to you.  Even if the vampire hadn’t told her to run, she would have come to you because you needed her.  You were in very real danger of dying.”

I look at The Greek and cock an eyebrow.  “I was worried about Fionn, that’s actually what caused the glitch in my spells.  That’s why Damian scented me.”

“That’s why he scented you, but he already knew you were there, beautiful.  But when you let your spell slip your scent was triggering his hunting instincts.  I am really impressed that he didn’t hunt you.  His self-control is truly impressive.”

I smile, “Yes, it is.”  My mind drifts to wondering how impressive his self-control might be in other… much sexier aspects of our relationship.

The Greek throws his head back and laughs.  He leans in whispers something into my ear that makes my jaw drop before he tells Fionn thanks for the assist and then flashes out of the warehouse.

I look over at Fionn feeling totally overwhelmed.  “What did that asshole say to you, baby?  You look like you have seen a ghost.”

“He asked me to name one of my ten kids after him,” I say weakly.

“Holy hell!  Ten kids?  That vamp is going to give you ten kids? How?  Can his kind actually father kids?”

I shrug.  “But if do have ten kids they will be his, he’s my mate.  My destiny.  I am sure of it.”

“Yeah, baby, I have gathered that,” Fionn chuckles.  “So tell me what’s been going on since I left.”  I quickly fill Fionn in about the attack on Morna, the missing Guardian and that we have set up headquarters in the Gateway.