Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (42 page)

“
Bloody hell that was close
” he said,
and carefully rolled
me to my side until I stopped expelling the part of the Pacific Ocean I tried to drink.

“Ow,” I groaned
and he rolled me to
my back
. “Why do you sometimes sound like you fell out of a goddamn PBS period piece?” I mumbled as
my eyes
fought the salt stinging them and they eventually dilated and focused on the face of the smug vampire straddling me.

This isn’t embarrassing at all.

“Ow is a goo
d thing, it means you’re alive
,” d’Artagnan amusingly informed me. “And the British thing is a habit. Need I remind you that I am a British vampire who is more than three hundred years old? You, however, bring out that damn accent with your annoying presence,” he informed me.

“Good to know, get off of me.”

“No,” he teasingly sang.

“I’m not in the mood, Über Douche,” I warned and struggled under him but he was unmoving stone.

“Now, now,
K
itty, play nice.”

“Go to hell,” I snarled
then
snapped my teeth at him.

“Such gratitude,” he
chuckled and
rolled his eyes.
“
Truth be told,
I expect that from my little brother but not from you, not from the girl I just pulled off of the ocean floor and have spent the past thirty minutes trying to revive.”

Damn it.

“Thanks,” I
mumbled and pouted.

“Whoa, someone woke up on the wrong side of the coffin this morning,” he
teased and lowered his face down to mine.

“Don’t even,” I warned when I felt his lips just a fraction of an inch from mine.

His eyes moved over my
face
before I felt the corner of his mouth turn up on one side. “For some reason, I have the feeling that you would sic your dogs on me if I did.”

“I would,” I agreed.

“That’s what I thought,”
d’Artagnan
huffed and quickly kissed my forehead instead, in a completely strange a-sexual
, almost brotherly
way.

That I wasn’t expecting.

In a blur
of movement that made me slightly nauseous
, he was on
his feet and I was in his arms
, cradled protectively to his chest.
“So tell me, Jay Dee, what was so terrible that you had to
go and try
to kill yourself?
Was sleeping with my brot
her that horrible?” he laughed
as
he quickly
maneuver
ed
through the woods.

“Your sister,” I informed him.

“Really?” he mused. “I didn’t take you for a lesbian.”

“That crazy r
edheaded bitch tried to eat me
…that didn’t help the I’m not a lesbian thing,” I mumbled the latter with a pout.

My admittance made
him shake with laughter.

I tried to kick out of his arms but my
body was numb and had no feeling,
my teeth were chattering wildly
, and I was shivering uncontrollably
.

“
Yes,” he said, sounding thoughtful, “
Georgiana tends to have that effect on people
. But
,
unlike most people,
you
’
re bite free.
Unless of course you
’
re offering me a taste,” he
said
before
pul
ling
his to
ngue across the ridge of my jaw
,
and I shivered in disgust.

Summoning the last bit of energy I had,
and not entirely sure if my hand was balled into a fist or not,
I punched him in the jaw
as hard as I could
.

“Or not,” he
surmised
.

“
It will never happen, Über Douche.
Where are we going?”

“Home,”
d’Artagnan
said as if it were obvious and I
looked at him with wide eyes.
“Relax, Abby would never let Georgiana bite you,
and
neither would Romeo.
Steffen would kick all of their asses if she did; he doesn’t believe in feeding on humans.
He is strictly animals, not even donated
blood
, and has been that way since he was turned.
However, my little brother is going to be very pissed off when he finds out what our lovely little sister did, or tried to do.
Either way, it should prove to be a good show.”

What a prick.

“This is just a show for you, some kind of cheap live soap opera
which
you can manipulate the
characters
in
?
What is wrong with you?
And don’t say lots, because that’s more than obvious!”

“Smart girl,” he
agreed and
nodded his appreciation.
“I will give you that one, but if I told you why I’m here, you’d run to that pain in the ass little brother of mine and tell him, and where would the fun be in that?
You’d cause this soap opera to
get
canceled early
,
and that I cannot permit.
There
’
s a Daytime Emmy in it for me somewhere.”

I hate this tool.

I pouted in silence the rest of the way to Tanis’ house, trying to ignore
d’Artagnan
and his incoherent rambling
about something I didn’t give a damn about.
He was trying to distract me, that I was certain, but another part of me knew that he had an ulterior motive and reason to keep talking, most likely so I couldn’t talk.

“M
ommy, I’m home,” he called out
when he
ente
red
the house.

Ins
tantly Steffen and Sabirella
were in the foyer.

“What in the hell did you do?” Steffen demanded.
“He’s your brother!”

“
And that’s
why I pulled her from
Death’s
waiting arms,” d’Artagnan
said with a
smirk
.
“For my brother.”

Even I didn’t miss his condescending tone.

Sabirella snarled
.
“You bit her?”
she hissed and stalked towards us, minding the sunlight pouring in through
the open from door and
d’Artagnan
retreated away from her.

“No,
” he said quickly, his eyes wide. “
Georgiana attacked her.
Jay Dee got away but took a header off of the cliffs in the process.
Undercur
rent caught her and I saved her
,” he explained in a rush.

Instantly her face softened some, her anger was no longer directed towards him
so
he hissed out the breath he was holding.

“
So where’s my hug?” he
asked and batted his lashes at her.

“Shut up,” I groaned.
“I am so kicking your ass
when I can feel my legs again
,” I mumbled.

Steffen chuckled and nodded his agreement, but Sabirella wasn’t amused in the slightest.

“Since my brother is missing in action, I thought that
I’d he
lp her shower
. Get
her
warmed a bit,
”
d’Artagnan said with a smirk
, and suddenly I was out of his arms a
nd was looking up at Sabirella
.
“Oh come on,
Mom
.
That
’s not
fair,
”
he pouted.

“Shut it,” she growled
.
“Steffen,
please
call Tanis and let him know what happened.
Advise him to compose himself before he gets home and
I shall
notify her family that she will be escorting
us to the celebration tonight
, thus
she will be late due to the sun.”
Her tone left no room for discussion.

While the bathtub in Tanis’ bathroom filled with hot water, I
was
curled up
on his bed in the fetal position.

“Child, are you
well
?”

“Cold,” I stammered through chattering teeth.

“
That much is obvious, you are
slightly blue in pallor
,”
Sabirella
agreed and I fought to keep from rolling my eyes. “
I am sorry for my daugh
ter trying to bite you; she is
temperamental
to say the least
.
”

“You don’t say,” I stammered.

“Sarcasm was around when I was a child,” she reminded me and the corner
s
of her mouth pulled up on one side. “Georgiana does not
like the fact that her brother is happy when she
is not. Georgiana
will never be because she
will not
allow herself to be happy.”
She sat on the edge of the bed and tenderly brushed a piece of wet hair
out of my eyes as she looked me o
ver my face many times
.
“You are exactly what my son needs, and what he has been looking for his entire life, even if he
does not
know it yet.
You two were destined…” her words trailed off as a tear stained her cheek.

“We’ve only know each other five days,” I hollowly objected.

In
five days I
had
become completely consumed with the vampire, with Tanis as a person.
He
was
ama
zing in every sense of the word
,
I nev
er knew people like him existed
, but I had always wished
they
had
.

“What
does the number of days you have known each other have to do with anything
?” she countered.
“Abigail and Steffen fell madly in love the moment they laid eyes on each other.
My husband
,
Toran
,
and I were completely smitte
n the first time I stabbed him
...
well, one of us was.
Times were much different back then, however, the point remains, time has very little to do with matters of the heart.
Is it possible to fall endlessly in love with someone the first time you see them?
Yes.
Do opposites attract?
Yes.
Would my son give you the world if you only asked for it?
Without a doubt.
My son
may not
know it yet, but he is in love with you.
Those who have been around him longest see it, even when he
does not
see it
himself…yet.
”

I shook my head
.

“
Miss
Jay Dee, allow me to tell you a story,”
Sabirella
said softly, her eyes studying
my face.
“There were
once
two sisters who were born from
two
very different times, and were of
two
different species
,
yet loved each other
to no end,” her words were merely a whisper and yet were flooded with so much emotion that I wanted to scream
so I couldn’t hear them
. “
One day, the older sister asked the unthinkable of her little sister,
she
asked her to open her heart to a stranger and to protect him as her own, at all costs, and that
he whom she took in as her own
would one day save the only thing lef
t of her,” she said, looking up at me and wiped away the tear that had rolled down her dark cheek.

Huh?

“I don’t understand,” I admitted
, fighting the sting in my eyes from the tears flooding them from
obviously upsetting
the strong, motherly vampire next to me
.