Blood of the Maple (16 page)

He was failing. And he looked utterly stunned by that fact.

Parker refrained from telling him he wasn’t the first person to underestimate the witch.

“Uh-uh, naughty, naughty.” Terri giggled. “I’ll tell you what—give me Parker and I’ll let you all live.” Plaster rained down on their heads; women screamed as a huge crack appeared in the ceiling.

“Out of my way, everyone.”

Parker turned to find Amara had assumed her hamadryad form. She lumbered toward the door, the townsfolk scattering away from her like sheep before a wolf. She placed her hands on the door and shoved, straining against the weight. Dragos resumed using his mind to help, but nothing happened. Whatever Terri was using to barricade the door was tough.

Plaster landed on Parker’s head. He looked up to find the ceiling riddled with cracks. A sharp snap had him cursing, but it was breaking glass that got him moving. He peered out one of the windows, using his enhanced night vision to see how bad things were.

All he saw was a sea of writhing green. He snapped his head back as a thorn poked through the window, damn near taking his eye out.

“Oh no, you don’t.” A tendril wiggled through the broken panes, wrapped around the lintel and snaked up the wall. Wherever it went, it left tiny cracks behind, which branched into more cracks. “You can save them from this. Just come outside. Join me, Parker.”

Soon the wall would be nothing but cracks and would fall, killing anyone in the way. Sprays of pollen formed and burst, drifting in the air. “We’re in deep trouble.” He bit his lip, thinking hard. The vampires could get out by misting, but that would leave everyone inside to face the fate Terri had in store for them. Knowing Terri, any vamp who demisted on the other side would be facing something horrific, and they’d be without protections of any kind. Enough puncture wounds would kill a vamp without ever touching his heart. She had to know that. She was crazy, but she’d never been stupid.

He couldn’t use fire. Burning the foliage would only enclose the victims in an oven, baking everything and everyone along with the vegetation. He had no way to freeze the plants, unless…

He grabbed the naiad who had stood up for her wolf mate. “Can you freeze water?”

She shook her head. “No. I can move water, but I can’t boil it or freeze it, not without help.”

“From what?”

“For boiling? A stove. For ice, I like my refrigerator.”

Smart-ass.
“But you can influence water?”

“Yes,” she drawled, obviously thinking him a madman.

He tugged her over toward the window. “Can you work with the water inside the plants?”

She gasped. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” She rolled up her sleeves. “Stand back.”

Parker obeyed and hoped she got it right. If not, they were all dead.

Amara pushed and pushed, but nothing happened. The door remained stubbornly shut. “I need help!”

A pair of hands joined hers, their stony grip sure and steady. “I’m here.”

Rock. She’d recognize those hands anywhere. “Thanks.”

“Me too.” Another pair joined Rock’s, pale and small, the nails bright red. She hissed as she pushed. Amara recognized her as one of the vamps who’d cried out that she was guilty.

“Anyone else who wants to help, see if you can find another way out.” She couldn’t run the risk of doing more harm than good. Too much force could take the entire wall out.

She pushed, her muscles straining, and considered taking out the wall anyway. Soon it would be too late. The creaks and groans of the building told her the structure might soon fall on their heads, killing everyone inside.

Then something happened. The plants on the other side of the door quivered. She could feel their pain, but they were tainted, weeds of the worst kind, and she felt very little sympathy for them.

The door moved.

“Bad Parker. No cookie for you.” The voice had grown more distant, weaker. Terri was losing strength.

“Keep pushing!” Whatever was happening, the plants were losing their strength. Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed a withered, limp leaf falling to the floor. “What the hell?”

“Push now, talk later.” Rock never let up. He kept the pressure going, digging his fingers into the metal door. He didn’t even sound winded, but that was an earth elemental for you. Their strength was rooted in the ground they stood on.

Water lapped at Amara’s feet. “Have the pipes burst?” The town’s witches chanted, the spell they wove keeping the ruined ceiling from collapsing.

“Dunno,” the vamp with the painted nails grunted. “Keep pushing.”

Amara pushed. The door gave some more, the groan of metal and wood shuddering through the room. “It’s gonna give.”

With a shriek, the door burst open. Dry twigs snapped. Dust and pollen swirled around them in a rank, dry cloud.

Rock sneezed.

“Bless you.” The female vamp took a step back, waving her hand in front of her face.

Rock glanced down at the vamp, his nose wrinkling. “Thank you.”

Amara stepped through the door and into the wreckage of the gardens around the town hall. Every single plant was withered and dead. The tree that had once shaded the hall was leafless, its branches creaking in the wind. It looked ready to topple over at any moment. The roses Glinda had planted were gone, broken and twisted by the rampaging weeds.

She stared around at the carnage jealousy had wrought and felt the fire burning in her belly burst into a goddamn volcano. “I’m going to kill that bitch.”

Dominic Davis stepped carefully over the rubble and pushed up his glasses. “Amen.”

The town hall was no longer structurally sound. The plants had, in a short amount of time, nearly destroyed the building. Hundreds of lives would have been lost had the building come down.

All to get to Parker.

Parker sighed and put his hands on his head. He tugged his hair. “How do I fix this?”

“By not being a pussy. Find the bitch, kill her, live happily ever after. The end.”

Right. Like that was ever the end. Happily ever after took hard work, but Parker was willing to put that work in. Finding his
sotiei
didn’t mean his life would suddenly become a bed of roses.

At least she’d never have to yell at him for leaving the toilet seat up.

Brian sat next to him on the curb. They were across from the town hall, staring at the ruins. Amara was over there with the other dryads, draped in nothing but his shirt, trying to figure out if any of the plants had survived the carnage. He could have answered that.

Thanks to the thorns waving around the windows, the naiad hadn’t been able to pick out the plants individually, saving plant from weed. She’d been forced to call water from all the plants, draining them dry, letting them wither and die a rapid, arid death. That life-giving water now seeped through the cracks of the town hall’s floor, mere inches from the roots of the plants it had once nourished.

“Shit. Dragos and Kate are going at it.”

Parker looked where Brian pointed, uncaring that Dragos was having domestic problems. Kate screamed at Dragos, her long, occasionally pointing at Mina, Greer and Ash with her clawlike nails. Dragos stood with his arms crossed, his expression as cold as ice, his lips compressed into a thin line. “And?”

“Kate is the town treasurer.”

“Fuck. Double fuck.” Not good at all. “You think she’ll try to talk him out of rebuilding?”

“Possibly.” Brian sighed, his shoulders slumping. “Doubt she’ll lift her hand for us now, even to give us the finger.” Not that Parker wanted anyone who smelled as bad as Kate near Amara. He was surprised Dragos couldn’t sense how foul the woman was. Did she have him wrapped up in some sort of spell? If she was as bad as Parker sensed, he wouldn’t be surprised.

Damn. Once they were done dealing with Terri, he’d be trying to free another vampire from another evil witch. He groaned and covered his hands.
So much for the white picket fence and two-point-four vamplings.

Amara walked toward them, fierce fury on her beautiful face. He was surprised she’d reverted to human, considering how angry she was. He stood to meet her. “All done, my sweet?”

Her lips curved, but she didn’t respond the way he’d hoped. “I need to go home.” Parker held out his arms, and she stepped into them, shaking with grief and rage. “Explain to me again why the bitch isn’t dead.”

Parker sighed. “Confused vampire hormones. But I’m working on that.”

She shifted against him. He knew it was a result of the rage and the fear, but her nipples were like pinpricks against his naked chest. Suddenly all he could think about was getting her home, getting her naked and checking every single inch of her for wounds before licking her clean. His cock twitched in his jeans as he thought of taking her against the wall, the door. Possibly in the car on the way home. Hell, maybe there was a dark place around the corner, an alley or something where he could feel her around him, know she was safe and sound. He didn’t care that she was dirty and exhausted. All he cared about was reclaiming what was his. He felt his fangs descend as he thought of having her in the jeep, leaving his scent all over it. “We’ll take your car.” She pulled away. “Brian, you take mine.”

Brian glanced over at him. Whatever he saw, he turned away quickly, but not before choking off a laugh. “Whatever you say, boss.”

“Oh, some alone time. Hey, Brian, I don’t suppose you’d like to test-drive Amara’s couch?”

Amara’s eyes were huge. She opened her mouth, but whatever she was going to say, Parker was in no mood to hear. He needed her, needed to finish what had begun a few days before.

He needed to complete the ritual and mark her as his
sotiei.

Parker whirled Amara toward the jeep. “Let’s go.”

Amara didn’t argue when Parker chose to drive. She stared out the window, her arms across her chest. She trembled, but he knew it wasn’t from fear. It was rage that made her shiver, anger that had her fingers dancing up and down her arms.

He could work with that. He’d give her an outlet for her rage and grief. He could take whatever she could dish out.

The only thing he wouldn’t be able to take was her leaving him, and he knew of a way to keep that from ever happening.

Parker drove down a side street. He couldn’t risk going toward the woods, couldn’t allow them to be that vulnerable to Terri’s machinations. He turned into a deserted parking lot. The grocery store was closed for the night, the lights dimmed. Theirs was the sole car in the lot. He was banking on the cops being at the town hall dealing with Terri’s attack. He had no desire to show law enforcement a full moon.

And it had the advantage of being much closer to the town hall than Amara’s house.

“Parker?” Amara glared over at him. “Why are we here?”

He threw the jeep into park and turned off the ignition. “I need you.”

Her eyes widened. “Here?”

He grabbed the ends of his shirt and pulled, ripping the buttons. “Here.” He took her hard nipple between his teeth and bit down gently. “Unless you have other plans.”

She twisted in the seat and thrust her breasts toward him. “Suck on them.”

Oh, it was going to be that way, was it?
Parker kept his smile to himself and sucked, giving her what she wanted.
She needs this as much as I do.

When she started to writhe under his mouth, he followed her until he was twisted over the gearshift, her back pressed against the jeep door, her hands buried in his hair.

This isn’t going to work.
She was panting, her hips undulating, and he needed her so badly he felt like screaming. He glanced toward the hood.
I wonder…

Parker grabbed Amara around the waist with one arm and held tight. With the other, he opened the door, ignoring her startled squawk when she almost fell out. Laughing, he flew them out.

“Parker?”

Amara’s voice was shaking. To soothe her, he took her nipple back into his mouth, sucking her into him. She gasped, her head falling back, her eyes closed. She wrapped her legs around his waist, driving her wet pussy up against his jean-clad erection.

Much better.
Parker moved until Amara’s back was against the warm hood, his shirt protecting her from the heated metal. Now he could turn his whole attention to making Amara scream. He landed on his feet and dragged her down so that her pussy was on the edge. “Beautiful girl.” He bent over and took a taste of his Amara from her wet hole to her clit. This time he wanted her hands to touch, to play. Wanted her to caress his skin, torture her nipples until they were red and puffy. So he didn’t order her to leave them put. “Play with yourself, my sweet. Show me what you like.”

Her eyes were passion-glazed. She began to stroke her breasts, fondling the mounds, cupping them, barely touching anywhere near her nipples.

He responded by keeping his touches to her pussy languid, sweet, playing with her with fingers and lips and tongue until her movements became more rapid. He did love the taste of his sweet girl, could eat her all day and never tire of the flavor. He stroked her thighs, played with the sensitive spots behind her knees, lifted one leg up so he could lick a long line from ankle to knee.

Her fingers were on her nipples, plucking at the hard nubs. Parker watched, fascinated, as his
sotiei
brought herself to the close to the brink with those touches alone. He stood and put her feet against his chest to hold her steady, freeing his hands to touch where he would without fear she’d fall. He took out his aching erection and stroked himself. Her gaze was on him, on what he was doing to his cock, and the sight merely heightened his pleasure. He inserted a finger into her and fucked her slowly with it. He loved the way she tightened around him. She gasped, squeezing her eyes shut as the first orgasm rolled through her, making her tremble under his touch.

Her smile was full of feral heat as she used her legs to push him away. She stood, and the shirt puddled at her feet, the moonlight bathing her curves in shadows and light. Parker was entranced. The hand on his cock stilled.

She crooked her finger, and Parker went willingly. She took him by the cock and led him behind the jeep, her ass swaying enticingly.

Parker was going to fuck that ass if it was the last thing he did. The thought of her squeezing him like a vise between those cheeks almost had him coming in her hand.

She opened the trunk and bent over, placing her hands inside and wiggled her butt. “Well?”

Parker growled. He couldn’t help it. His mate was uninjured, she’d come and her scent teased him. Her ass was pale against the dark interior, and she’d invited the vampire inside.

And Parker was hungry.

There was nothing left of the gentle, languid lover when he shoved inside her pussy. He was aching and hard and desperate to come, to feed on her warmth. He wrapped his hand around her hair and yanked, the beast close to the surface. He wanted her head back, her neck bared to his bite, his hunger. Amara groaned, tilting her head with his demands, arching her back. Her pussy clamped around him. Parker draped himself across his
sotiei,
his hand next to hers, his cock buried to the root. Her moisture dripped onto his balls. “I hunger, sweet.”

Her lips curled. “Then feed.”

He struck, digging his fangs into her throat. Liquid heaven poured down his throat. He sucked at the bite, drinking her in, taking her essence into him, making her a part of him.

Amara moaned. Her legs trembled. He began to fuck her hard and fast, giving her the other side of the man she’d taken as a mate, the beast within. Amara nodded her approval as best she could.

“More, Parker. Give me more.”

Parker lost it. She wanted more?

Then his mate would have it.

He reached down until his hand brushed the top of her ass. He wouldn’t go there yet. Not without lube. The beast would never allow him to hurt her, but he could give her a taste of things to come. He pressed his thumb to her anus, let her feel the pressure. Someday he’d put a plug there and fuck her with it in. Or he’d slip a dildo into her pussy and fuck her ass. He’d fill her up until she couldn’t think, could do nothing but feel.

Amara shoved back onto his thumb, taking the tip inside. Parker froze. He licked the wounds on her neck closed. “No lube.”

She growled. His fist was clenched in her hair, his dick was pounding so hard into her pussy she’d be sore for days and she freaking
growled
at him. “Get some.”

Parker’s eyes widened. He seriously considered breaking into the supermarket. His mate demanded, and he wanted to provide.

“Parker.” She thrust back until his thumb was buried to the first knuckle, wincing as it breached her.

Parker flew. Who cared if he got arrested for breaking and entering? It was but a moment to fly to the roof and find a way in. There had to be a way onto the roof from the inside for inspections, and Parker found it—a simple trapdoor. He opened the lock with a thought and raced inside.

Once in the main part of the store, he found the lube, grabbed it, dropped a twenty on the floor and rushed back out. He’d never flown so fast in his life.

Amara was sitting on the edge of the open hatch, her legs crossed, her eyes dancing. He held up the tube. “Lube.”

Amara turned and bent over once more. Her head tilted to the side, giving him access to her neck. Her tousled red curls looked like blood against her pale skin. “Good.”

He shuddered. He was going to come before he ever got inside her. He just knew it.

“Have you ever done this before?”

She grinned, and whoever had put that satisfied look on her face needed to die. “Once or twice.” She shook her ass at him. “C’mon, Parker. I need.” Her expression turned fierce. “You do too. I
know
what’s coming next. You’ll mark me for the third time, and I’ll be yours forever.”

Parker ripped the tube open, splattering lube all over the place. He managed to get enough in his hand to get his cock good and slick. He scooped more out of the shattered packaging and rubbed it across her rosette. With great care, he pressed inside her, stretching her with his finger.

Amara moaned and pushed back, taking the entire finger. The knowledge that she was no stranger to ass play ripped through him. Part of him was glad. He was less likely to hurt her, but the part of him that knew Amara was
his
was both enraged and devastated.

He inserted a second finger, scissoring them, stretching her for his cock, fucking her with them until her knees trembled once more. He wouldn’t bite her again until he was fully seated between those tempting, lush globes.

“Now, Parker.”

“I won’t hurt you.” He started to slide a third finger into her.

She looked at him through the fall of her hair. “You won’t. Now fuck me.”

He was stunned his eyes didn’t cross. He took his fingers from her and grabbed her hips. “Ready for me?”

“Mm-hmm.”

He put the wet tip of his cock against her ass and pressed inside. He might not be her first, but he would damn well be her last. He was determined to be her best.

He entered her slowly, let her adjust to his presence. When she growled again, he moved, careful to keep his movements easy and slow. Before long, she was bucking back against him, forcing him to increase his speed. “Parker. Fuck me. Fuck me
hard.
” She looked at him with hot, desperate eyes. “Make me forget.”

He was lost. He would give her almost anything she wished. His eyes flamed as he wrapped his hand in her hair, tugged her head to the side. He sank his fangs into her neck and fucked her ass the way she’d begged him to, the way he’d fucked her pussy, in long, hard strokes that filled the jeep with the sound of flesh meeting flesh. She screamed her approval, turned wild in his embrace. He drank from his
sotiei
and loved on her.