Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (78 page)

“Do you normally come into a room like that, or is it just for our benefit? Because I have to tell you, I’m not impressed. Childish behavior never has done so. I’m Pete Marshall, by the way.”

Bailey looked over at the pretty woman. She was aware of Pete’s magic. Bailey would have had to be stupid not to have. The sigil on the woman’s face and arms also gave a good indication that she wasn’t human.

“Just for you. I love to startle those that piss me off.” Bailey moved further into the room. “There’s a little matter of my weapons not being where I last saw them, like on my person. Would you mind returning them? I have another appointment to keep in a few hours and I’d like to have a bath, and a clean pair of underwear.”

“Your guns are over there in the safe next to the couch. You can have them when you answer a few questions. Have a seat. I was just going to order some dinner and would be glad to order you some as well.” Bailey stood.

The wolf on the couch shifted into a sitting position and the one near the other chair stood up as well. Bailey could have given Pete any detail she wanted about the room and the occupants without a single problem.

“No, not hungry, but I want you to open the safe. I saved your life, so to my way of thinking, you owe me, and I really have to go.” Bailey braced herself as Pete stood. “So if you could hustle your ass over here and get it open, I’ll be on my way.”

“I was thinking of having a cheeseburger and fries. The guys are having steak, rare with all the trimmings. Of course the cherry pie won’t be as good…”

Pete stopped talking when Bailey slid the chamber slide on the gun, her entire body tensed and poised for action. Bailey felt the anger and terror that quickly. One of the wolves started toward Bailey, but she stopped him with a look. Guns had that effect on people and she was sure he could smell the silver.

“Now,” Bailey started again. “I’ve tried asking you nicely twice, so now we do this my way. Open the safe right now and I won’t have to shoot any of you. Wolf boy?” The wolf on the couch looked up at her, a started expression on his face. “Yeah, I know what you are. Stand over there next to the wall with your back against it with your hands over your head and fingers linked behind your neck. Now you, hands up and fingers laced. Walk over to your brother and stand facing him with your right leg between his. That’s it, all nice and cozy. Now if either of you move, one shot will kill you both. And I carry nothing but silver shot with silver casings and a liquid silver chaser, so no funny stuff. Now, Ms. Marshall, lets you and I lighten the load of this safe, shall we? And there will be no touching this time.”

~CHAPTER THREE~

“I want this safe open. I want to get my weapons and leave.” Bailey’s gun was still pointed at Pete’s head, and she was getting really tired of being threatened. Pete had contacted Aaron as soon as they had arrived at the hotel and had been told to bring the girl home with them. Fat chance of that happening now.

“I want to talk to you.” Pete tried for bravado when in actuality, she was terrified. “I want to know why you killed Salvatore and why no one in that restaurant can remember you being there. It’s been all over the news about his murder. I want answers, and I want them now. Then once I’m satisfied, you may have your guns and leave, but I can’t let you leave before that. Salvatore was a were, and as a part of a pack, it is my responsibility to ensure his was a justified death.”

Pete could feel the woman’s anger. And her frustration. Well, Pete had enough of that as well. She wanted to be at home, not fighting some Amazon who was armed like Armageddon was coming and she was the sole protector.

“I’ve told you ten times now. I don’t know what you are talking about. I was walking down the street and you offered me a ride. Had I known you were such a lunatic, I would have declined.” Pete felt the gun press harder into her scalp. “Now you’ve robbed me of my things and won’t return them. I have no problem shooting one of the men over there if that’s what it will take to make you open this fucking safe.”

“I know that you have great abilities with your mind. You held all of those people in that restaurant away from what you were doing until you left. I couldn’t even penetrate your mind to find you and I’m pretty good at it.”
Well,
Pete thought,
I thought I was good at it. “
I know you used one of the guns in your bag. I could smell the fire residue all over it when I picked it up. You’re carrying no ID, so you are either hiding from something, or someone. There are changes of clothes in there and a locker key. Oh, by the way, we picked up the other bag you had there. Tricky how you put your things in different lockers all over the city. But once Shawn had your scent, it was easy to track down the rest of your things. I have all of those as well.”

Pete watched her. She gave nothing away by sight or sound. Nor did the gun at her head waver. When Pete felt the touch in her mind, she knew it was the woman, and she let her.

“You’re fucking nuts, you know that? Fine. Keep the shit. I’m making enough off this hit that I can replace what you’ve taken anyway.”

Pete felt the gun leave her head and was relieved beyond imagining. But she couldn’t let the woman go. Her master had told her to bring her home. Leaping off the couch, Pete flew at the woman and knocked her to the floor. The gun skittered across the carpet, Pete was astride the fallen woman’s back in seconds. She held her there with a mental body hold.

“Now, here is how this is going to work. You are coming with us. We are leaving this hotel and you are not going to give me a hard time about it. Are you even capable of not giving someone a hard time? Doubtful, I think.” Pete felt a moment of fear when the woman beneath her moved. “You and I are going to go to the airport with Eon and Shawn, climb aboard the nice jet, and fly back to the States tonight. If you have somewhere to go, one last thing you have to do before we leave, then I suggest that you tell me right now. Otherwise, you are going to have to leave it for another time. I have your passport, well, all of them actually, and all your other information, Caitlynne Bailey, or whatever your name du jour is, and I will turn you over to the police if you make any sudden moves. Understand?”

“I want you to understand that as soon as I can, I’m going to fuck you up.” And Pete believed her too, but hoped she wouldn’t have the opportunity to do so.

Pete lifted Bailey’s head by her hair and slammed it down on the floor hard enough for her to feel her teeth rattle. She didn’t so much as whimper.

“I didn’t ask you what you think you’re going to do to me. I asked you if you understood me. Now, do you? Do you understand how this is going to work?”

“Fuck you!” And with that, the woman flipped Pete off her back and slammed her against the wall with what felt like a freight train. Before Pete could gather herself together, she was at her throat and had her held a good six or seven inches from the floor. It was then that Dominic touched her.

“Pete, what is it, what’s going on?” S
he could hear the panic in his voice and knew that he was reacting to her pain and the anger running through her.

“Little busy right now, honey. Let me contact you later. Little problem with room service.” S
he clamped her mind shut.

“I know I can’t kill you,” the woman breathed in her ear. “I can feel that, but I can put you in a world of hurt.” She mentally push at her and tossed Pete across the room again and slammed her against the other wall. Pete looked to the two guards and saw that they’d be no help to her as the woman had somehow rendered them both unconscious and they lay in a heap on the floor. Pete knew she was so fucked.

Okay, enough was enough and Pete had had it. She summoned the power from the earth and threw it at Bailey. She had thought she’d move, and Pete had anticipated that too, just not where the woman had gone. The power hit her with enough force to knock her from the third story balcony door and to the street below.

Pete rushed to the broken door in time to see her hit, and hit hard, below her, blood pooling onto the pavement around her. Shit. Just her luck the stupid girl was standing in front of the door at that moment. Otherwise she would have simply hit the wall.

Pete did the only thing she could do; she reached for her master, and hoped that she hadn’t killed the stupid woman.

“Aaron, is Tucker there? I need him in France, like ten minutes ago,”
she pleaded. Pain was starting to show itself to her in great big hurts.
“I’ve had…the woman is stronger than I thought and she just kicked my ass. But I think I hurt her. Badly. She needs blood now.”

“No, he isn’t. What’s going on, Pete? What’s happened? Are you hurt, in danger?”
Aaron asked.

“No. She’s below on the courtyard. I can’t…my vine didn’t protect me from her. I don’t understand.”
Pete looked down again. “
She needs a vamp, sire, or she’s dead.”

“You mean the woman from the restaurant? I’m finding someone now, Pete.” P
ete could feel Sara close to Aaron, their combined magic almost palatable even through a mental link.

“Tell me what you know about her, Pete. Is she marked? Do you think that’s why the vine didn’t harm her?”

Pete didn’t know how to answer Aaron.
“Honestly, I don’t know. God, she’s powerful, Aaron. She just threw me across the room like I weighed nothing, and she did something to the two wolves with me. I threw a power ball at her and she ended up on the pavement below my room. She’s still alive, but I can’t feed her. I…she hurt me. Not badly, but enough that I’m a little weak but all right. There’s something about her, Aaron. I need someone here to heal her before she dies.”

She felt Aaron’s comfort and strength as he sent it to her.
“Let me see what I can do. Just wait for a few minutes, all right?”
Pete could feel when another person of strength and magic entered the conversation, and wondered about it.

Pete didn’t answer about the sigil, hers or the woman’s. Pete didn’t know why hers didn’t hurt the woman, and she had no idea if the girl had one or not. This was a very strange night, she decided.

Pete was a wood nymph and she was marked as such. Her mother, part Fae, had mated with a nymph and Pete had been born of that union. Pete’s mark had protected her and Dominic, her mate, when they had needed it, but it hadn’t with the girl.

The vine, a beautiful work of art of thick ivy, covered most of her body and down her arms and legs. Pete’s face was covered in green leaves and looked like a very well done tattoo to humans and some beings alike. Whenever Pete or Dominic had become threatened, the vines would cover them protectively and hurt, even kill those that caused them harm.

“Tristan can materialize anywhere over long distances. I can only manage short hops and it will take too long for me to get there,”
Aaron told her. “
He is leaving now.”

“Thank you, master. I will explain when I get back home. Please tell Dominic that I’ll be there soon and that I’m all right.”

Pete felt him laugh.
“I’ll try, young lady, but you had better be bringing him back something naughty to appease him with. You know how he can be.”

Pete snorted. All the vamps she knew, and some wolves, were very worrisome. She wouldn’t be surprised if they all met her at the airport.

~~~

To say Pete was surprised would have been an understatement, if the look on her face was any indication, Tristan thought. One minute she was begging Aaron for help, the next there stood a strange vampire in her room. Tristan was slightly surprised to find the woman looking so pale.

“Oh thank goodness, she’s down here,” Pete said in way of greeting. “I hit her with a power ball and knocked her out the door. The ball goes to what I want it to, and will track. And since she didn’t have the good sense to just cooperate with me in the first place, when she ran in front of the door, bang! The sucker got her.”

Pete was moving at vampire speed down the stairs toward the back of the hotel. Tristan was close behind. Pete was babbling, but it was a nervous babble, one that said she was scared that he might not be able to save her. Tristan didn’t know why this injured woman was so important to them, but he would do what he could.

Tristan stopped ten feet from the girl who lay broken on the grass. He could smell her blood and feel her immense pain. She was breathing, but just barely. Her pulse had slowed and she was losing blood much too fast. He could also smell another scent, one that was unique to him, daisies and sunshine. And it was everything Tristan could do not to turn around and go back to the States and forget he’d ever decided to help Aaron.

What were the chances of finding his mate while helping out someone, a master someone at that? He lived in France most of the time, having been born there, so finding his mate there while visiting the States was too much to bear. He didn’t want to settle down, not now, maybe not even ever. But he had given his word he’d help out. Aaron MacManus was a good man and good men were few and far between. Especially vampires.

Tristan slowly walked to her and knelt down. He searched her body mentally and found that if Pete hadn’t have acted when she had, the woman would indeed be dead. Her back was broken, as were both her legs. She had eight ribs broken and one had punctured her lung. Her left hip was also broken in two places. Her jaw was cracked and she had a deep concussion. Plus, there were a multitude of cuts and abrasions, glass still imbedded into several of them. Tristan opened the vein at his wrist and forced her mouth open with his other hand. He squeezed her nose closed so she would either have to swallow or choke. He knew what he was doing, and the consequences of his actions. As soon as she swallowed the first mouthful, it was sealed. He was halfway to fully bonding with her, and he wasn’t happy about it.

When a pureblood bonded with a mate, it was slightly different than a turned mating. There had to be a blood exchange, a give and take at the same time. There also needed to be a sexual completion for them both, preferable with another blood exchange to ensure the bond. Once that was complete, they would be truly bonded and mated. But Tristan was of royal blood too. With this, there was a ceremony where they used a family heirloom, a jeweled dagger, and cut a vein over their hearts and drank from there. This exchange was more of a ritual than a need, but it was still practiced today. But he didn’t want to think about that right now. Besides, maybe, just maybe, he was wrong about the girl. And she was just a woman who smelled good
. Yeah,
he thought,
and I’ll go do a jig in the sunny streets tomorrow afternoon.

He felt Pete standing over him moments later. He didn’t take his eyes from the woman on the ground who was still sipping from his wrist. He didn’t have to hold her nose any longer, as she was now drinking greedily from him. The taste of him to her was just as addictive as her scent was to him.

“Who is…do you know her name?” he asked Pete, who stood just behind him. He could feel that she had just fed. His own hunger leapt in response to her fresh smell.

“She didn’t have any ID on her that we could use, but we managed to track down seven lockers at different points across the city. Each one had a different passport and identification to go with it. There were several variations on the same names, but nothing solid. She…she saved my life tonight. It’s my fault she’s in the condition she’s in. I…her power base is incredible.”

Tristan didn’t say anything for a long time. He pulled away from her mouth and licked the wound to seal it. She was badly hurt still. His blood, being pure, would heal her, but it would take a while because of the extensive damage that had been done to her. But she wouldn’t die, not now at any rate.

“She can’t be moved yet, at least not by conventional means. I have a place here in the city we can all go to. I’ll take her with me and you and your men can meet us there. I’m Tristan St. James, by the way, and you are…”

“Sorry, I’m Piccadilly Marshall, everyone calls me Pete. I’m mated to Dominic, Aaron and Colin’s bodyguard. I have to get back to the States soon. My mate is nearly bonkers without me, and he knows, you see, about tonight. He wants me home.”