Eternal Hearts (10 page)

He bent over, unable to remain
standing straight.

Nathaniel was up and dressed in the
few moments it took Michael to pull himself erect again.

He choked out the words he was
loathe
to say. “It’s Margaret.”

Nathaniel nodded, and they made
their way above ground to the London
street
. It was
snowing heavily, which would affect their ability to smell her.

“What do we do, Michael?”
Nathaniel’s worried voice cut through his thinking.

“We try her house first, and if she
isn’t there, we find out where she has been and track her down.”

Michael took a heavy inhaling breath,
but could smell nothing.

“It’s going to be hard with this
weather.”

Nathaniel nodded but said nothing,
his fear and pain permeating the air.

Michael groaned and grabbed his
mate’s hand. They had survived so much. Together they had to be able to track
her.

“We will find her. Let’s go.”

They ran as fast as they could to
her home and knocked on the door.

The butler opened the door, his
worried face obvious even to Michael.

“Yes, gentlemen?”

Michael and Nathaniel bowed,
inhaling subtly and sensing no recent sign of her.

“We wish to visit with Lady
Tonnington
. Is she home for visitors?”

The butler frowned.

“No, my lady is not.”

Michael took a step closer. He knew
he was not subtle, and indeed people found him arrogant, but when it came to
Margaret, he would use every skill he had.

“We are worried about her and would
like to see her. Do you know where she may be?”

Recognition registered on the old
man’s face, and he flushed pink.

“You are the two gentlemen my lady
visited with last evening.”

He and Nathaniel nodded, hoping that
would get them more information, not less.

The butler stepped out of the house
and shut the door behind him. That alone caused fissions of fear racing down
Michael’s spine.
Oh God
. What had
happened to their precious human whilst they were sleeping?

“We are very worried. My lady went
to a luncheon in this weather and has not returned. We expected her back hours
ago, and I believe she was expecting two gentlemen callers for supper.”

He studied them with a knowing look,
and Michael struggled not to blush. They had indeed had plans to visit with
her. The meal involved would have been her of course, not the food the butler
was thinking of.

“What is your name?” Michael gasped
against the pain in his soul. Margaret was hurt, very hurt.

“Jennings.”

Michael indicated to Nathaniel.

“This is Nathaniel. I am Michael. We
will find her and bring her back. What was the address she was visiting for
luncheon?”

The man gave them the address, and
they raced to the house, smelling and stretching out with their senses as they
ran.

Nothing.

When the butler confirmed Margaret
had left two hours before, panic began to set in. Michael’s pain was lessening,
but so was the happy, content part of his soul that had arrived when they had
met her.

“Oh my God, we are doomed. She is
going to die, and we ... we...” Michael fell to his knees in the snow, unable
to finish the sentence. They would die also. They couldn’t go back to how they
had been before, now that they knew the difference.

“I thought we could be happy without
her, Nathaniel. I thought...” He began to sob, the pain of his loss
overwhelming.

Nathaniel grabbed him about the arms
and hauled him to his feet. His mate shook Michael hard, his head moving back
and forth.

His knees went weak again, but
Nathaniel grabbed him hard. Nathaniel pressed his lips against Michael’s,
forcing a response.

Michael took strength from his mate
and forced his legs straighter, pouring all of his energy into kissing
Nathaniel back. Their tongues tangled, their cocks hardened, and there was the
pulse.
Margaret’s pulse.

They broke off, gasping.

“Did you feel that?” Michael panted.
Had their connection strengthened their ability to feel her?

Nathaniel
nodded,
his eyes wide with awe. “Yes, let’s go.”

They ran without thought, following
their senses until they smelt her blood, lots of her blood.

Michael reached the carriage first,
his stomach dropping in fear. The scent of her blood was very thick. Could she
already be dead?

The horses had pulled the carriage
off the road and into an alley way. The driver had been thrown, but he was
alive.

Michael jumped on top of the
carriage and threw the door open. His heart pounded hard as he realized his
whole existence hung in the balance with her one fragile human life.

Margaret lay at the bottom of the
carriage, a pool of her own blood surrounding her.

 
“Nathaniel!” He yelled as he manoeuvred into
the carriage.

To his horror his fangs extended,
Margaret’s blood so sweet and intoxicating he wanted to lick up every drop. He
hated himself at that moment, but forced that feeling aside. She needed him.

Michael held his breath, picked her
flaccid body up, and held her above his head. Nathaniel reached down and pulled
her up, out of the carriage, and Michael jumped out after him.

Desperate to save her, he tore at
his own wrist with his fangs. His own thick blood oozed from the wound.

“No!” Nathaniel moved Margaret away
from him, his eyes wide and fearful. Nathaniel’s own fangs were extended in
hunger, but he looked more in control than Michael felt.

“She didn’t want that.”

Michael gasped in fear and anger.
His mate could not stop him now.

“We can save her.”

Nathaniel shook his head. “She won’t
forgive us. I’ll carry her home. You find a doctor and summon him. I’ll meet
you there.”

Nathaniel disappeared with Margaret
in his arms before Michael could stop him, leaving Michael feeling impotent. He
had only wanted to save her, save
them
.

As his wrist wound healed and his
blood stopped oozing he realized that he hadn’t been totally selfless in
wanting to turn her. He wanted her as a vampire, their vampire.

It would have saved her life
quickly, but at what cost to him and Nathaniel?
Perhaps
Margaret herself?

Michael ran to the closest doctor
and demanded his presence at Margaret’s house. The man came quickly, and Michael
followed him into the house.

Margaret’s blood scent trailed up
the stairs, and he directed the doctor that way in the absence of the butler.

They caught the butler coming out of
her bedroom.

“Oh doctor, thank goodness! I just
sent a footman to summon you.”

Michael opened Margaret’s bedroom
door and beckoned the doctor inside.

Nathaniel walked out, covered in
blood. He didn’t speak, and as Michael’s own fangs began to extend he realized
that Nathaniel probably couldn’t speak.

“I will take Nathaniel home to get
changed. We will be back shortly.”

The butler
nodded,
his relief a palpable thing.

“Thank you both for finding her and
bringing her home.”

“Your coachman is still there.
At the corner of Trafalgar Square and Somerset Road.
Send
someone to fetch him.”

Michael nodded to the butler and
walked down the stairs, Nathaniel on his heels.

They managed to walk outside at a
human pace before they called on their vampire speed and ran home. They
collapsed as soon as the door to their suite closed behind them.

Michael burst into tears, his pain
overwhelming. He fell across Nathaniel’s lap, and his mate’s arms came around
him hard.

“Stop, my love.
We found her. She will be fine.”

The pain continued to well inside of
him. He hadn’t been honest with Nathaniel when he had arrived home. The guilt
of his secrecy and the guilt of trying to turn Margaret against her will,
hammering him like a physical force.

Michael sobbed until he could cry no
more, hundreds of years of pain flowing out of him and onto the mate who loved
him.

When he finally stopped he sat up
and used his white shirt to wipe his face. He was exhausted, a mere husk of the
vampire he had been. Nathaniel was staring at him like he was insane. He felt
it.

“What was that all about, Michael?
I’ve seen about five tears in five hundred years.”

Michael sighed and picked up his
mate’s hand, holding it in his own.

“I wasn’t completely honest about
why I came home to you.”

Nathaniel tried to jerk his hand
away, which Michael had anticipated and held on tighter. He smiled sadly at his
suspicious mate.

“Not in the way you think, lover. I
came home because I watched a vampire pairing end their existence because of
their loneliness. They had been together and missing their final mate for more
than a thousand years, and they couldn’t stand it any longer. I didn’t want to
be like that, and I couldn’t stand the idea of you feeling the same way. I made
a decision to be happy with you, and only two days later we found Margaret. I
feel like I’ve been put through a wringer.”

Nathaniel’s eyes were narrowed as he
tried to work out what Michael was saying.

“You mean you came home to me
because you were worried about me killing myself?”

Michael nodded, exhausted beyond
bearing.

“And the minute you finally admitted
I was enough Fate sent us Margaret?”

Two more tears slid down Michael’s
face, and he wiped them away impatiently.
Enough!

“Yes.”

He hauled himself to his feet and
put a hand out to his mate. They had been blessed many times.
Once with each other and again with Margaret.
The fact that
she was still alive after her accident was a testament to her strength, and he
wasn’t going to waste another moment living in the past.

“Let’s get some fresh clothes, and
then go back to Margaret. I want to be the first thing she sees when she wakes
up.”

Something powerful and angry flashed
in Nathaniel’s eyes, and Michael couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him when
he hauled Nathaniel to his feet.

“I hope she says my name first.”

Nathaniel stalked past him, and
Michael laughed again.

He would have put an eternity bet
down that no woman would ever come between him and Nathaniel, but they had met
the one.
Thank God
.

****

They sat by Margaret’s bed all
night, pacing, wiping her hot brow with water and talking, catching up and
sharing their dreams like they used to.

It was a horrible thing to see
Margaret bandaged up and so pale, but it felt good to be together.

Margaret didn’t wake up, and they
were sent home by the butler just before dawn.
Which was
lucky, as neither of them wanted to be burned alive by the light of day.
Both of them hoped to be the first person Margaret saw on waking, but neither
achieved it that night.

Chapter Eight

When they arrived at Margaret’s
house the next day Nathaniel bounded up the external stairs. His heart was
light, and his soul felt whole.

Michael and he were the strongest
they had ever been, and Margaret would get better, he knew she would. The pain
and fear that had originally crippled him had gone. He would be surprised if
Margaret was not conscious. Their connection was so strong, and she was still
human. Perhaps bonding as a vampire wasn’t as necessary as they thought it was
and her staying human
did
have its
advantages.

The butler opened the front door
before they even knocked.

“Good evening, Jennings.”

The butler bowed and indicated they
should enter. His face was alight, his cheeks rosy.

“How is she?” Nathaniel couldn’t
help asking Jennings as Michael, ever impatient, went ahead, walking up the
stairs two at a time.

Jennings walked next to him,
personally escorting them to Margaret’s room.

“My lady is awake, and the doctor
has hailed you gentlemen for saving her life. She would not have survived much
longer if left out in the elements.”

Nathaniel nodded, swallowing the
fear that had crept up from his belly. If Margaret had been injured earlier on
in the day they would have awoken to her dead. That knowledge would weigh on
him for a long time.