Winter's Kiss (10 page)

It wasn’t jealousy making him force her to rid herself of Willem’s scent. It was common sense and a desire to protect them both. Jealousy had nothing to do with it.

The voice at the back of his mind asked why he felt like punching something whenever he smelt Willem on her then, why he wanted to fly into a blind rage and track Willem down so he could kill him with his bare hands?

Winter shut the bathroom door and closed his eyes when he heard the shower switch on and water began to bounce off something. The desire to reach out with his senses was too great to resist. He leaned against the door and focussed on Nika. He could pinpoint her where she stood in the bath under the jet of the shower, could follow each movement she made. Contentment filled her as the hot
water
warmed her body but other emotions surfaced. Fear and pain, confusion and doubt. He pressed his hand against the door when he heard her sob and smelt the salt in her tears.

Dragging himself away, he turned the bedroom light on and set to the task of finding her something to wear. He only had his clothes to offer. He couldn’t risk leaving his room to find some feminine clothing. When he had a pair of black trousers and a black shirt laid out on the bed for her, he went back to his cupboards and opened the set of doors beside his wardrobe. Gleaming blades greeted him like old friends, reassuring and comforting in this hour of need.

Winter took down a holster for blades and strapped it on over his chest and back armour. The straps sat snug over his shoulders, keeping the circle of leather against his back. He slid five knives into the slots on the right side and then another five into the slots on the left. It felt good to have more weaponry at his disposal. The throwing knives had a good weight and were perfect for slowing down werewolves and other creatures at a distance. With six werewolves accompanying Willem, he would need distance weapons to give himself a chance. He could use the knives to dispatch the weaker and slower werewolves, leaving the strong for hand-to-hand combat. He didn’t want to waste time fighting weaklings.

He picked up a dagger and attached the sheath for it to his belt. His gaze flicked to the twin of the dagger he had chosen. As he focussed back on Nika in the shower, he found himself reaching out for it before he had even thought about giving it to her. She would need a weapon if she were to defend herself. The sheath for it would easily attach to the belt he would have to lend her for the trousers.

The shower stopped. Winter turned on the lamp on his bedside table, turned off the main light, and stared at his room. Uncertainty filled him. He didn’t know when he would be here again or what future awaited him once he had killed Willem and freed Nika. He wasn’t even sure if his
lord
would allow him to
return
to the mansion. If the Law Keepers discovered that he had fled with a werewolf whom he harboured feelings for, they would sentence him to death for breaking the covenant. Even if he didn’t intend to act on his feelings, he was still breaking the law. If asked, he wouldn’t be able to deny that he wanted her. Her change into a werewolf hadn’t altered his feelings.

He still hungered for her.

The bathroom door clicked open.

“Winter?” Nika whispered, evidently still too afraid to speak at normal volume.

“What is the matter?” he said, turning away from his room to look at her.

She took his breath away. Her honey blonde hair hung in wet ringlets that stroked her cheeks and caressed her bare shoulders. A black towel hid her soft pale body, a dazzling contrast. His gaze skimmed over her, taking in the shape of her and stopping when he reached her legs. The one she had broken still bore a red mark where the bone was healing. It marred her otherwise perfect skin, a reminder of her ordeal.

Taking the shirt with him, he walked across the room to her. She smiled when he placed the oversized black shirt around her shoulders and covered her. His gaze fell to her throat and he noticed that she had removed her cross. He glanced down to see it in her hand, spinning as it dangled from the chain.

“I’m scared,” she said, her eyes reflecting all that fear, enormous and soulful, tempting him into holding her and whispering sweet words of reassurance.

He smiled, hoping it would be enough to calm her, and drew the shirt closed across her chest. “There is nothing to fear. We shall leave this place soon.”

“And go where?”

Winter wished he knew. The thought of taking her to the compound made a strange uneasiness settle in his chest. He pressed his hand against it and rubbed the spot over his heart, hoping to soothe the dull ache. There had to be a way of discovering where the werewolves hid their bastion.

“We cannot remain here.” He moved back across the room to the bed, sensing her following him, her footsteps almost silent on the extensive black and red Chinese rug that covered most of the floor, leaving only a thin border of dark wooden floorboards around the edges.

“Why not?” she said and sat down on the end of his double bed.

The black towel she wore melted into the black sheets. She removed the shirt from her shoulders and placed it down beside her. When she leaned
back,
her slender pale hands were a stark contrast to the bedclothes. His gaze traversed the length of her arms, following the line of them up to her shoulders. His stomach turned and growled when his gaze reached the smooth, sublime column of her throat. Her hair had fallen away, revealing the slope of it, covered with dewdrops of moisture that clung in the most enticing way to her skin. An urge to chase them with his tongue filled him, commanding him to go to her and slowly lick her throat until he had caught every drop. It led onto a desire to lean into her then, to ease his teeth into her neck and draw on her warm blood, to take her completely and in ways that he had only seen in fantasies of her.

“Why can’t we stay here?”

He stared at her, shocked out of his thoughts by hearing her say such a thing and seeing a desire to stay in his

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room in her eyes. It was fear talking. Bringing her here had scared her. Now that she was safely here, she didn’t want to leave. She feared someone catching her. It was a
foolish way to feel. She was safer back out there in the woods. Safer from his family and from him.

Here in his room, he couldn’t help but feel safe, and it was leading to thoughts he shouldn’t be entertaining. There was no future for them. The Law Keepers were inescapable. The quicker he resigned himself to the fact that soon they would part ways and would never see each other again, the better. He couldn’t do this to her. He couldn’t do this to himself.

Grabbing the trousers that he had laid out on the bed, he tossed them at her. She frowned when they landed across her lap.

“Get dressed.” He paced around the bed to the two tall windows on the other side of the room.

The open curtains revealed the cloudy world outside. In the distance, he could see the glow of the village where it continued to burn. He drew the curtain slightly, not wanting Nika to see it and become upset again. It had been hard enough to see her so upset at the village with her father. It had been almost impossible to resist her request to turn the old man and save his life. He laughed internally at himself. Save his life? Instinct had told him that her father had been welcoming death in that moment. Turning him would have condemned him to live on, facing an eternity of regret. That wasn’t the life to give to someone, no matter how sweet and desperate the one requesting it was.

He glanced at Nika to see her carefully pulling on the trousers and slipping the cross into her pocket and then looked back out the window again to give her some

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privacy. The snowy grounds of the mansion stretched far in front of him. Footprints criss-crossed the open ground, always two sets side by side. The only ones that weren’t regular and following the boundary of the grounds were
his. They cut across the other sets at an angle. He should have considered what an obvious mark he would leave. In a family bound by rules, and who prided themselves on regularity and loyalty, his footsteps across the snow would look highly suspicious. If luck were with him, any Watchman who saw them would merely think one of the younger vampires had caused them, excited at the prospect of hunting and eager to reach the woods.

“I’m tired,” Nika whispered on a sigh and he looked at her.

She buttoned the black shirt over her chest and stared down at the rug. He could sense the fatigue she spoke of, a tiredness that ebbed and flowed across the room from her, reminding him that he had snatched little sleep the day before and that her body was still healing. They would need to find her food and perhaps somewhere they could rest, but right now she could have neither. They had to leave. It wasn’t safe here.

He walked across the room and took hold of her arm. Her attempt to resist him by leaning backwards failed, as though she was strong enough to fight him, and he pulled her onto her feet. There was a definite pout about her expression.

“There is no time for rest,” he said and undid her belt. He could feel her eyes boring into his face and her heartbeat accelerated. The warm subtle scent of arousal clouded the air around him. He quirked an eyebrow at her reaction to his touch and steeled himself. No matter how much she wanted it, he couldn’t change his mind

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and surrender to her. He slid the dagger onto the belt and pushed it back through the loops before fastening it again. He wouldn’t give in. “We must leave now.”

Nika’s heartbeat slowed when he walked away. Silence filled the room and then he sensed an abrupt change in her emotions. A strange sense of intent replaced the fear and desire. Curiosity? It was impossible for him to pinpoint exact emotions when they were subtle ones like jealousy, curiosity and confusion. The ones that provoked a strong reaction like arousal, anger, happiness, were easiest to discern from her scent, her blood
and
her body.

“Where
are
we going?”

Winter felt her step up close behind her and sensed her intent to touch his back. He turned to face her and took a step backwards, out of her reach. Her gaze lingered on his waist, curiosity sparkling in her eyes. The knives had caught her attention.

“You’re dressed for war and you won’t tell me where we’re going. Why should I leave here?”

“Because it is not safe. Your fear is making you believe it is when in reality we are in the lion’s den. We must leave. I do not know where we shall go, but everything will be fine.”

Her expression softened, green eyes lighting up. His senses spoke of happiness and calm. Was it because he had told her that everything would be fine? He didn’t know if it would be, but it had felt like the right thing to say. He could protect her from any who came after her, within limits. He could not fight his kin. He could not fight his lord. If either of those came after him, they were doomed. He would have to give Nika up to them.

“Why are you doing this?”

Those sparkling green eyes met his and he stared into them, searching for the courage to voice the words that he wanted to say.

Closing his eyes so he didn’t have to see her reaction and torture himself with what might have been, he lowered his head and whispered, “You were not the only one who looked each time you passed by.”

He didn’t wait for her to speak. Turning on his heel, he went to the door and unlocked it. He took down a cloak from the hooks on the wall near the door and handed it to Nika when she came to stand beside him. It was freezing out and they had little time to find shelter before dawn. They needed to leave the mansion though. As much as his instinct was telling him to remain here for the day and his body ached for sleep in a comfortable bed, he couldn’t risk it. When the dawn came, the other commanders would return to their rooms and would smell Nika.

“Speak not a word, understand?” Winter said and she nodded.

A sweep with his senses revealed they were still alone on this floor. He opened the door, waited for Nika to pass through and then stepped out into the hall. Closing the door, he checked his surroundings again. Nothing. Nika made a small squeaking noise when he grabbed her around the waist and ran down the hall with her slung over his shoulder. He moved her into his arms when they reached the stairwell and she wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms looping around his neck. Emotions and sense warred in his head. His body ached to feel hers pressing into it, enjoyed the way her soft body felt against his side. Her breasts were touching his

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chest, only his armour stopping him from feeling them. His sense said to move her to his back again where he couldn’t feel her, but he couldn’t risk her cutting herself on the knives he carried. He had no choice but to hold her this way. If she cut herself, every Validus in the mansion would smell her within seconds.

Reaching the servants’ floor, he turned right down a dark corridor and headed for the stables. Voices echoed down the hall ahead of him and he ducked into a room, holding Nika close. He quietly closed the door and listened. Footsteps were heading towards them. Slipping into his vampire guise, he assessed the pitch-black room. It was storage. They were unlikely to come in here.

Nika’s breath against his face was warm and sweet. Her hands trembled against his neck and her heartbeat spoke of fear again. He cursed himself and held her closer, one hand against her backside while the other pressed into her upper back. Her eyes were wide and searching the darkness. How much could she see? Her vision was better than a human’s, but without changing into her wolf guise, she wouldn’t be able to see in the way he could.