Once Upon A Midnight... (The Firsts Book 9.5) Read online

  In agreement, the partiers doused the fire, and went back to Koen’s villa.

  Trailing behind them, Chione and Donovan looked at each other as they climbed.

  “It’s not over,” Chione said quietly.

  Donovan nodded. “I know. I can feel something coming, too. What the hell, Chione? Why aren’t we given the details of exactly what and when?”

  “It’s just not how the universe works. It guides, it doesn’t tell. But this event has blood on it. And I don’t mean from the conversion. This is not good.”

  Four

  “It does have to do with your friend Lauren.”

  “I got that. But how the hell? I mean, did she do something illegal?”

  Merry was surprised by how she’d already become accustomed to talking with this man that she did not know and could not see. Strangely, she had to admit he had an incredibly compelling voice. Strong, masculine, attractive. She found she loved listening to him. It had to be the intensity of the situation and the sensory deprivation that made her find his voice so beautiful.

  “There are elements of the situation I can’t disclose because they’re secrets that are not mine to tell. However, I can let you know why you are here. Um, why we are here.”

  “Please, go on. I’ll finish my cinnamon toast while you’re informing me about how dire our situation is.”

  Again, she could almost hear the smile when he answered. “Such a negative attitude, my dear. What did I tell you about that? A no-can-do attitude usually means you can-not-do. I’ll make you a promise. When we get out of here, I’ll take you to the Lion’s Bone for dinner.”

  “Sir, I will hold you to that. Go on.”

  “Okay. Lauren is a genetic scientist.”

  “Whoa. Really?”

  “Really. She worked for a covert research facility in France. That’s where all of this begins. The research group was doing something horrible, a crime against humanity, as it were, and Lauren helped to destroy the facility. Unfortunately, the place was run by very wealthy, very motivated, and now pissed, psychotics who would do everything that they could to find her and kill her. So that’s why you found her in Chicago trying to sell flowers instead of making a nice living as a research scientist. She’d gone off the grid so that they wouldn’t find her or hurt her.”

  Nodding in the darkness, Merry got it. “But they did.”

  “They did. She was chased around the world, and when she thought that she might be safe again, when she’d found another life, when she hoped it would finally be over, an assassin killed a man she’d begun to care for. He nearly killed her as well. In fact, that’s why she survived. The man made a mistake in assuming that she was fatally wounded, but she wasn’t. It was just before all of that happened that she made arrangements for this business to become yours.”

  Carefully feeling her plate, Merry made certain that she’d eaten all that had been provided. Like Taggert, she intended to take the first opportunity to break out of this black room. Staring in the direction of his voice, she sighed. “The assassin. He’s the one who took us, isn’t he?”

  “The little lady gets a gold star. You can hang that on your Christmas tree when we get out of here. You understand what that means, don’t you, that he took us?”

  “Yeah. Bait.”

  “Possibly. It also means that, ultimately, we’re of no use to him when he gets what he wants. If he does get it, he’ll have no reason to come back for us. We’re on our own if we want to live. Once the guy who feeds us gets the order to kill us, he’ll do it quickly. We have to be long gone when that happens.”

  “Okay, MacGyver. What’s your plan?”

  He was quiet for a moment, then she heard a few scrapes, and he stood. His voice floated above her.

  “Still working that out. I’ll take the tray. He’s probably waiting for it on the other side.”

  Taggert was right. As soon as he tucked the shallow tray under the door, someone pulled it through.

  Moments later, she felt Taggert’s hand on her arm again. “We’ll make it, though, don’t doubt it. Why don’t you try to get some sleep? It has to be getting late. I think.”

  “Yeah, it has to be. So, is there a bed anywhere in here?”

  After a low laugh, Taggert answered her question. “No. No bed, no bedding.”

  “Figures. He really is a murderous bastard. This floor is cold.”

  “Yes.”

  Merry heard a deep breath above her. “Lucky for you, I run hot. If you’re not too shy about it, we can snuggle close for warmth. Whatever you’re comfortable with. I promise, it’s been a long time since I’ve bitten someone.”

  “Not a prude, buddy. I’ll take the heat.”

  After a brief hesitation, arms slipped out of the darkness and pulled her close as he slid them down to the floor.

  “Here,” Taggert said. “Use my arm for a pillow.”

  Unaware of where anything was, Merry carefully laid her head back until her cheek felt a warm bicep beneath it. To get her bearings, she put a hand out, and it contacted a hard chest.

  “Sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t mean to crowd you.”

  Warm fingers wrapped around her hand and held it to him. “Don’t be. This is just to stay comfortable. You’re a tiny thing. You could lay right on top of me and you wouldn’t crowd me. Relax, Merry.”

  Relax. Turning into his shoulder, she snuggled closer. Relax? She’d been abducted, drugged, imprisoned, and was now falling asleep in a strange man’s arms. Relax, sure. Easy.

  But her eyelids began to drop and she felt herself beginning to fade into unconsciousness. Her body’s reaction to the stress, probably. Ummm. He felt so good. Warm, like he’d told her he was. Her hand on his chest moved slowly over hard muscle. Nice, she thought. And he smelled so good. It had been a long time since she’d been this close to a man.

  Too bad for the situation, a man trapped with her in dire circumstances who promised he’d save her. Brutally acquainted with the way the world worked, she knew that rarely happened. This was possibly her last night alive, but it was nice of him to try to reassure her. Merry’s last thought before she fell asleep was to wonder what her hero looked like.

  Bo Taggert lay still, the slim woman folded into his arms, her breathing even now that she’d let fear and exhaustion take her. Her hand had been on his chest and he’d covered it with his to warm up her cool fingers. This room was none too warm, and if this was Chicago in December, it was going to stay cold.

  He didn’t know anything about her. Lauren’s story had been relayed to him by Marc when they briefed him on their history with Lamont and the now-defunct Supernatural Research Society.

  With Lamont finished, finally killed for his crimes and future crimes against a lot of innocent people, Taggert’s biggest task had been to try to capture Lamont’s henchman and assassin. But that hadn’t quite worked out, since Claude had waylaid him in London with a crew of six motivated, probably very well paid men who had taken him down. It had been an ugly, brutal fight, but their superior numbers had overcome him.

  He couldn’t fall asleep here. A few cat-naps here and there kept him mostly alert, but this place was not conducive to restful sleep, no matter how nice a spin he’d tried to place on the situation for his new companion.

  Nothing about this looked good.

  Claude was a killer. Period. He had no reason to leave them alive when he either got what he was bargaining for, or the vampires killed him. A rescue might never happen.

  Taggert was well aware that the vampires had little chance of tracking humans.

  Merry moaned and rolled closer, the hand on his chest sliding lower, just north of his package. Great, he thought, his eyes open to the nothingness. Cold now, still hungry, his mind racing to try to figure out their next move, and he was probably going to get a hard-on in addition. Not his favorite night ever!

  IN SOUTHERN FRANCE

  There was likely some internal damage, likely internal bleeding, or something rupture
d. That vampire bitch’s kick had landed hard and Claude was so injured, just getting back into his rental car was extremely difficult. While he felt certain that no one would come after him, he still wanted to be away from the collection of extraordinarily powerful vampires that all desperately wanted him dead.

  So far, he’d pulled this off. It was a calculated risk…the word risk being the most important part of that statement. It could easily have gone the other way. He smiled. But the vampires had so much humanity. They still felt connected to the weak humans. Like what he was.

  Tomorrow, that would change. His hands shaking in relief and exhilaration, he started the car.

  Lauren raced down the beach away from everyone else, a scream of rage on her lips that she squashed. No one needed to hear the level of her frustration and pain.

  But when, when, damn it, was the universe going to stop punishing her for her mistakes? No, not her, but the people that she cared about…they were the ones who paid the horrible price of her awful choices in life! She wandered into the surf, the water very chilly against her feet, but no amount of discomfort or pain right now seemed enough for her.

  “Lass, this isn’t yer fault, ya know that. Please, come back with me. Let me make ya a hot toddy and hold ya in my arms. We’ll get the bastard this time.”

  Stopping, Lauren didn’t move back to where Bryn waited out of the water for her to come to him. She couldn’t turn around, the tears in her eyes would make him so sad for her. This was their first holiday together, and she’d thought that it would be perfect, and romantic, and touching. But it was a pile of shit now, because of that homicidal maniac.

  Vampire now, living with a man she loved more than she could ever have hoped possible, her life had been beyond perfect for the past several months. She’d thought that she’d finally been forgiven and made restitution for her role in tragic events. But no. It seemed that everyone she had ever touched was still getting hurt.

  “It’s never over,” she whispered.

  Bryn’s warmth infused her. He was behind her suddenly, his broad chest heating her back, those strong arms wrapped around her, his hands curved around her waist.

  She felt his breath on her ear. “Lass, one thing ya learn as vampire is that everythin’ changes. He won this time. He won’t always. He’s one tiny man in a universe of possibilities. Yeah, maybe we make him vampire. So he’ll die as one. Ye’re my mate. We’re in this together, and ya know, I’ve got yer back. Trust in that, my love.”

  Pressing into him, Lauren dropped her head and closed her eyes. Trust. Yes. She was different now, and she had a community of the strongest people in this world behind her. “Okay, vampire. You know I trust you. Let’s go home to our family.”

  Marc watched his mate pacing their chambers. The babies were in their beds, sleeping now that daylight was close. He would be too, with Tamesine in his arms, but she was furious and worried. No one had a bigger heart than this gentle woman who took the woes of the world on her slim shoulders and thought that it was her job to protect everything and everyone. It was his job to protect her.

  “Babe, come to bed. We will deal with tomorrow night tomorrow night. You taught me after you converted me to take life as it comes. It was a good lesson.”

  Tamesine shot him a look, her eyes moist. “I can’t do this. I can’t give a man like that the kind of power that he might have.”

  Abruptly, she turned and threw open the French doors with the wave of a hand before she surged out and gulped in the fresh sea air. The sky was just beginning to lighten.

  Hovering behind the doors, Marc felt panic rise. “Tam, the sun is coming.” He knew that first bloods from the children of the moon could withstand the sun briefly before they burned, but he was worried because she was so emotionally overwrought. “Please, you’re worrying me.”

  On the edge of the balcony, her hands clutching the railing, she put her face to the glow as the nascent sun climbed higher. Her eyes closed now, the warmth welcome because it was so rare for them and so forbidden, Tamesine sighed. “Marc, I’m fine. I’ll be in shortly. Just let me do this and I’ll be okay. I love you, baby, but stay away from this doorway.”

  He trusted her more than anyone in his life. “I’ll be in our bed,” he said quietly, and used hyper speed to get out of the path of the rising sun.

  It was magnificent, the light and heat, from the most dangerous part of their world, and Tamesine felt an intense regret that vampires could never just bath in its power. Life could not exist without this ball of energy, and yet her people were forever banned from its presence. Perhaps Chione could tell her why that was. With Chione and Donovan’s connection to the magics of the Mother Earth, they might know why this was so.

  After a resounding sigh of pleasure, Tamesine felt the first stinging that told her it was time to lock herself away from the morning. “Good day, beautiful,” she said, and was inside, the doors closed, the UV barrier in place, and in Marc’s arms where she belonged.

  “I’m sorry I scared you, my love. You know those moments when you just want to scream at the universe? I needed to find peace with that, and I have. You keep me balanced, Marc, so you don’t have to worry that someday I might lose it again. I never will. With you, our children, and our family, I am truly well.”

  “I never doubted it. I just know that your emotions run deep and that you take the weight of the world on your shoulders sometimes. Just, all I ask, is that you let me help you carry it when you do.”

  Tamesine pulled from his arms and pushed up onto her knees, pulling her nightgown over her head. Sliding the satin sheet back, she swung a leg over Marc and sat back against his rising cock. Wordlessly, she lifted up and slid him inside, and with slow motions, moved back and forth again and again until he groaned. Her arms raised to hold her hair up, Tamesine closed her eyes to watch the explosions in her mind’s eye as she came. Marc shot into her and she wondered, hoped, that they might make another child.

  Below her, Marc watched this powerful, stunning, beauty ride him, her arms over her head, her eyes closed, as she gently moved up and down. Buried inside her, he knew that she was the greatest gift he’d ever receive in his now very long lifetime.

  “Merry Christmas,” he whispered as he came moments before she did.

  It would be all right. They would do what they had to do, and then, one day, they would fix this mess. Marc knew how life took you to the edge and brought you back again. If you let yourself believe, and he did.

  Five

  Had she been snoring? Merry opened her eyes to total darkness. Why was it so dark? The window in her bedroom opened onto the street where a troublesome streetlight always peeked through it, even if she pulled the curtain, which she usually didn’t. Shaking her head, she started to push up off the bed and her hand pressed against something odd. A body? She moved her hand against the soft surface. A man’s groin? What the hell?

  Memory blasted back and she sat up quickly. Fuck! That’s right, she had been abducted, drugged, and locked in a cold room with a strange man who had been abducted too.

  Taggert. Her self-proclaimed hero.

  They’d slept together last night, or…however long it had been. She remembered also how kind he had been, how encouraging. And warm. God, he’d felt good.

  Rolling away from him, she stood, and with hands in front of her in case there was something in the room, she felt her way a few feet from him and slid back down against the wall.

  Still tired, she let her head drop to her chest, but her mind was racing. So, this guy had kidnapped her for some kind of leverage to make Lauren come to him, or do something for him, or both. She let her mind wander back to the day two years earlier when she and Lauren had spent a Christmas Eve together with two bottles of cheap wine and a basket filled with two-day old pastries that, at that time, had seemed like the finest meal in the world. They’d laughed and danced in the floral shop to music from Merry’s mother’s era two decades earlier. Grinning, she remembered that Lauren had some
mean disco moves. At this moment, she realized how much she had missed her friend. Glancing to her side to where she’d left the sleeping man, Merry sent a prayer to the heavens that this would turn out as well as he’d promised.

  “Are you okay?” his voice came out of the darkness.

  Merry heard him move.

  “As much as possible, yes. So, what do we do to get out of here? I kind of got the idea last night that it’s still a work in progress.”

  “Well, now that there are two of us, I do have a plan. This room allows no light into it. That’s actually pretty rare. I think it has vents around the perimeter near the ceiling and that they’ve been blocked off. At least a light source of some kind, if we can find them, and, most importantly, exit points. I couldn’t reach high enough to really investigate it before. Now, we can.”

  “You’re going to hoist me up.”

  “Right you are. You’ll feel around to see if I’m right, and if we find a covered vent, I’ll have you begin to work on loosening the screws that hold it in place.”

  “Fine. Do you have a screwdriver?”

  “No. Aw, that’s just a little flaw. I’ll figure it out.”

  “It’s a good plan.” Merry drew a deep breath and then let it out slowly. “I’m ready, Taggert. Pop me on your shoulders and let’s do this.”

  “After we eat. I don’t want whoever is bringing the tray to accidently see what we’re doing. If we get caught, we’ll probably be chained to the wall that you are comfortably leaning up against right now.”

  “How do you know I’m leaning against the wall?”

  “Because I’ve been doing it now for 3 days. So, we’ll try after the asshole brings our food and collects the tray.”

  “Sounds like a plan. I hate that you’re locked up like this, but I’m glad I’m not alone.”