Blood of the Maple (11 page)

“Nice try, bitch.” She snatched another vine and scoured the garden, searching for the bitch who’d hurt Parker. Where the fuck
was
she?

The mocking laughter only spurred her on.

When Parker came to, he was lying on the ground, his head cradled in Dragomir’s lap. “Amara?”

“She’s…gardening.”

Groggy, he sat up, his arm a throbbing mass of agony. His altered
sotiei
was pulling anything that resembled a weed, while the oak continued to guard his Renfield. Her mutters were too quiet for him to hear exactly what she said. “Greg?”

“Here. Parker, what did I tell you about the crazy?”

“Not now, Greg. Besides, Amara isn’t crazy.”

“Then what do you call that?”

Amara pulled something from the ground that was covered in vicious thorns. She waved it over her head triumphantly. “When I find you, I’m going to shove this so far up your ass it will wriggle out your nostrils,” she shrieked, using it like a scourge.

She was stunningly beautiful, a Boadicea, his personal warrior goddess, and he was more than willing to worship at her feet. “Magnificent.” Dragomir chuckled. “There are others you’ll have to convince of that, but in the meantime we should see about your arm.”

The reminder sent sharp shards of pain through him. His arm throbbed like a son of a bitch, and he could tell it was a bad break. The burrowing weed had made it worse, tearing through flesh and digging into bone. He didn’t know where Terri had learned
that
new trick, but it was one he planned on avoiding in the future.

He would heal, given time, but it would be a painful process. He would be lame with that arm for at least a week, possibly more. “Ow.”

“Dryads can’t heal others, can they?”

“No, I’m afraid not.” Dragomir was looking at something off to the side of the fight. Parker wondered if he too could see Greg. “But I have a witchdoctor on call who can. Let me send for her.”

“Greg? Where’s Terri?”

“Gone. Hell, I didn’t even realize she was here in the first place.”
Greg’s voice was thick with remorse.
“I’m sorry. I should have known she’d show up, should have been watching for her.”

“It’s all right. At least Amara stopped her from hurting Brian. That’s the important thing.”

“Yes, it is.” Dragomir cast Parker an odd look and helped him to his feet, careful of his injured arm. “Selena is on her way.”

“Thank you.”

Dragomir bowed to him, the gesture formal. “I owe you
sange datorie.
” Parker started. He didn’t think he’d done anything deserving such a deep acknowledgment of debt as
sange datorie
implied.

Parker bowed as much as his throbbing arm and light head would allow. “It was my pleasure, Dragomir Ibanescu.”

Dragomir’s lips twisted into a smile. “Call me Dragos.” He pointed with his chin over Parker’s shoulder. “Amara is done.”

Parker turned so fast he wound up on his ass again. The landing jarred his shattered arm, and Parker saw stars. “Ow. Fuck, ow. Amara?”

She came to him, her bark fading, the glow leaving her eyes, her body returning to human. “Parker!” She fell into his lap, curling around him like a vine. His lap was full of jiggling, naked dryad. If it hadn’t been for the agony radiating from his arm, he would have been one hell of a happy vampire. “Are you all right?”

Parker moved his arm from underneath her and tried to breathe through the pain. Too bad he didn’t really need to breathe, because it didn’t work. “Nope.”

She barely lifted her head from his shoulder, but he could feel the ridges forming on her skin. She was about to go dryad on someone’s ass. “Call Selena, Dragos.”

“Already done.” Dragos nodded hello to Brian. “Brian, it’s good to see you are safe.”

“Thanks to Amara and Greg, yes.”

What had Greg done, other than call Parker? Damn it, why did he have to pass out during the good parts?

A car pulled up outside Parker’s house. A woman stepped out and briskly strode across the lawn, neatly dodging various bits of dying plant life wriggling on the ground. The dark-haired, bountiful beauty striding briskly across his lawn would once have represented the best sort of temptation, but Parker was immune to her charms. Curly brown hair was held high in a ponytail, and her jeans were tight enough to tempt without being what Greg called
ho pants.
Her T-shirt strained over natural attributes that would have made a porn star green with envy.

But it was the phrase on the T-shirt that made him like her. It said Save Your Breath. You’ll Need It to Blow Up Your Date.

How could he not like a woman brave enough to wear
that?

She halted in front of the mayor, but her eyes roamed the garden, taking everything in. “Hello, Dragos. What’s the problem?”

“Broken arm, among other things.” Dragos pointed toward Parker. “We have a situation to deal with.”

The woman pushed her glasses up her nose and smiled. “When don’t we? Selena Giannone.”

Parker held out his not-broken arm. “Parker Hollis.”

They shook hands, and Selena jumped. “You’re under a curse that’s…not. Strange. Very strange.” She clucked her tongue and shook her head, dismissing his not-a-curse curse. “Let me see that arm.”

Parker held out his arm, and Selena gently examined it. “Bad break. You’ve got some internal bleeding, torn ligaments, and—Yeowch. Do I want to know what did this?”

“I’ll explain later. Can you please? It hurts quite a bit.” And wasn’t that the understatement of the year? He almost wished Amara
had
ripped his arm off. It could hardly hurt more.

“Hmm.” She held her hand over the wound and hummed an unfamiliar tune that nevertheless eased him. Warmth radiated from her palm, soothing the pain, healing the damage. From the look on Amara’s face, it was taking longer than it should have. Had there been even more damage than he’d originally thought? That was frightening. Terri was becoming even more powerful as time went on. Amara’s lips were compressed, her eyes glowing with green light. She was close to shifting again into her other form.

The soothing heat of the healing dissipated. “There. That should do it.” Selena swayed.

Dragos whipped his arm around her, kept her from falling. “Are you all right?”

“Fine, big guy. That’s some powerful mojo you’ve got there, Parker.” She pried free of Dragos’s hold with a smile. “Mind filling me in on what’s going on?” She turned on Dragos and pushed her finger in his face. “And don’t give me that whole ‘you’re too precious to the community to risk’ bull-crap either.”

Dragos smiled tightly. “Of course not. Why would I do something as silly as that?”

Selena glared up at him, all five feet nothing of her. Her rounded arms crossed over her chest. “I mean it, Dragos.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She blew her bangs out of her eyes. “Good.”

Parker swept Amara up in his arms, since it didn’t seem the dryad was going to get off his lap anytime soon. “My place or yours, sweet?”

“Mine. The protections are stronger.”

“Very well. Follow me, people.” Parker led the way back to the Victorian. “Anyone want to order pizza? I’ll take mine with extra hemoglobin.” He ignored the strange looks shot him by his merry band of followers and carried his
sotiei
over the threshold.

“All right. Spill it.” The witchdoctor stared at Parker with unholy amusement. “Why are you attached to Amara’s hip, and why are you cursed yet not?”

As Parker recounted his tale for Dragos and Selena, the fire burned in Amara’s belly again. The urge to hunt Terri down and rip her out of Parker’s life by the roots was strong.

Terri had hurt him. She’d made Parker bleed.

Amara wouldn’t stop until the bitch was a broken pile of nothing.

“Down, girl.”

Amara turned to find Brian standing over her. “What?”

“You’re…barking.”

Amara looked at her hands. They were covered in bark. “Oh.” Calming herself was proving to be difficult. Terri had eluded her, and she didn’t know how. Amara had battled back the weeds, but she hadn’t found the root of the problem.

Until she did, Parker was in danger.

“Amara. Sweet. Look at me.”

“What?”

“As lovely as you are, it’s much harder to cuddle with you when your bark is poking me. Would you mind terribly?”

She blinked. “Oh. Sorry.” She concentrated on her human form, drawing on the peace of her tree out in the backyard. She needed the extra boost her maple gave her. Just the thought of Parker in danger was enough to send her back into rage.

She took a deep breath and tried not to remember the spike sticking out of his arm, the look of pain on his face. She closed her eyes, hoping to block the image of Parker’s blood or the worried look on Dragos’s face when Parker couldn’t pull it free.

“Sweet.” He stroked her hair. “Come back to me, Amara.”

“I’m not sure I can.”

“Do you need to commune with your tree?” Dragos’s deep voice was full of compassion.

She opened her eyes to see Parker glaring at Dragos. “No! She stays with me.”

“It helps calm her when nothing else will.”

Parker narrowed his eyes, then smiled at Amara. That was when she realized she’d reverted to her other form. “How can you protect me if you leave me for weeks?”

Amara shivered, her leaves rustling. He was right. He’d be vulnerable if she communed with her tree. She always lost track of time when she did. “When this is over, when we know for certain you’re safe, I will have to. You understand?”

“Of course.” He took hold of her hand. “But I need you human for me, at least for a while. Can you do that, sweet?”

Her lips curved as she blinked away sudden tears. He wasn’t looking at her any differently, wasn’t treating her like a freak. The simple fact that he was playing with her fingers, unmindful of the bark covering them, touched her heart. “Sure thing, sour.”

Someone behind her choked off a laugh, but the only one who mattered was Parker. He was laughing; his acceptance of the private joke thrilled her. Not everyone got her quirky sense of humor. The knowledge Parker did made her fall just a little bit more under his spell. “I’m beginning to like when you call me that,” he whispered for her ears alone.

Amara shivered again, but this time it was to help shed her bark. She dwindled in size until she was smaller than Parker once again. “Better?”

“Mmm. Let me see.” He kissed her, barely tasting her before pulling back. “Much.” He cupped her bare rear. “But I’d prefer you clothed until we can be alone. Can you accommodate me on that as well?”

She rolled her eyes. “Everyone in this room has—” the red glow spreading deep in his eyes warned her not to finish, “—seen me in jeans. I’ll be right back.” And Amara dashed upstairs, praying the possessive nature of her vampire didn’t make him do something extremely stupid. Dragos would feed him his ass, and Amara was becoming partial to it.

She threw on a sundress, not bothering with underwear, and bounced back down the stairs. Parker was finishing the story of what happened that night in the California desert. “And here we are.”

Selena had her head back, the witchdoctor staring at the ceiling, her hands palm-up in her lap. Her right foot was tapping.

“What do you think?”

Amara shushed Parker. “She is.”

“Is what?”

“Thinking.”

“Oh.” Parker pulled Amara back onto his lap. She crossed her ankles and hands daintily, allowing her weight to settle.

“She knows what Amara is now, in more ways than one.” When the witchdoctor lifted her head, Parker gasped. Selena’s unseeing gaze was filmed over. Under each eye, three dots glowed with blue light. A rainbow-colored tree of life, crowned with the mark of the triple Goddess, arched across her forehead and down the bridge of her nose. The Goddess’s mark, a full moon bracketed by two mirrored half-moons, was so bright it almost hurt to look at. “She’ll begin to target her, to try to rip her away from Parker. She views Parker as
hers.
If Parker tastes Terri’s blood, then Parker will
be
hers forever, thus fulfilling the curse.”

“Is there any way to avoid that outcome?” Parker tightened his arms around her. He obviously didn’t want to be bound to Terri.

“Your bond with Amara must be completed before you will be immune to Terri’s curse. But doing so will permanently change your nature. You can never go back to living on pure human blood.”

Parker shrugged. “I can live with that.”

Amara gasped. “But that means that you’ll forever be cursed!”

Parker kissed the side of her neck, right over where he’d bitten her earlier. “No. I won’t. I’ll have you, so I’ll be blessed.”

Warmth flooded through her as Selena smiled her approval. Blessed? Really? He considered spending eternity with her a blessing? “What’s the bond we need to complete?” Amara tried to ignore the nibbling kisses Parker tried to distract her with. She had a mission to accomplish, damn it.

“You’re Parker’s
singele sotiei,
his blood wife. If he completes the vampiric ritual that binds you together for eternity, then he’ll be both free of the curse and forever cursed at the same time.” Selena’s words echoed eerily.

“Damn. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?”
The voice was deep, definitely male and had come from somewhere near Brian. She bet it was the infamous Greg, but how could she suddenly hear him?

Selena’s blind eyes turned toward that voice. “A very good thing. He’ll be the vampiric mate of a hamadryad and thus able to feed off of her.”

A what?

Before she could ask what Selena was talking about, Parker distracted her with a sharp nip that nearly drew blood. “She’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted.” Parker licked her neck, and suddenly Amara wondered how much blood he’d lost. The one thing Selena couldn’t heal with her powers, his blood supply would have to be replenished naturally. Which meant…

“Parker? Are you hungry?” She met Brian’s eyes, and he nodded, willing to donate whatever was needed for his vampire.