Master for Tonight (25 page)

A blur moved through the kitchen and back
out.

She looked at the ground. “I guess he’s
checking on me. He’s always making sure I’m okay.”

“Hmm.” Reese drummed his fingers on the
table a few times and then grimaced hard.

“What is it? What happened?”

“Everything will be fine now.” He reached
for her hand, but she jumped up and ran to the knife holder on
countertop, seeing one gone.

“No!” she screamed, darting to the bathroom
and banging on the door. She heard the sound of running water on
the other side and the clank of metal against porcelain. A few
minutes later, the door opened, and Julian and Mazzie walked out
much calmer. He was buttoning the last few buttons on the ends of
his shirt.

Julian looked at her with a smile and took
Kate by the shoulders, turned her around, and made her walk the
opposite direction.

“Mazzie, you didn’t!” She stopped in her
tracks.

“Hush,” Julian whispered in her ear. He
lifted her up on his feet and walked towards the front door with
his feet under hers, as he cradled her against his chest. His chin
rested on her shoulder, and his arms held her around her waist.

Mazzie shrugged on her jacket and inspected
her nails. “We’re even now. Reese, let’s go home. I’m done here.”
Mazzie headed to the door.

“I’ll call you, Jules.” He nodded to Kate
and walked out behind her.

As the door shut, Kate demanded, “Let me
go.”

He released her and she pulled up his shirt,
running her hands over his skin, inspecting him closely.

“What did she…? What did she do?” she asked
in a circuit as she pressed his ribs, touching each one, moving
from the outside, in to his sternum. She looked up at him, her face
in a frown, and walked to his other side. She ran her hands over
each vertebra.

“I’m fine.” He turned around, took her by
the arms, and assured her, looking down into her upturned, worried
eyes. “I’ve suffered far worse than a few coarse words thrown in my
direction, and lived. Although, I do love your hands on me.”

Not hearing, she gaped at him, horrified,
before taking his cock in both of her hands through his pants.

He smirked, jerking her against him. “Yeah,
it’s still there.” He kissed her quickly and hard. “Sit down. We
need to talk.”

When she headed for the bathroom, he
stretched out, taking her hand and guiding her back to where he
stood.

“You have to hunt and leave me here. Reese
told me.”

“I don’t like it, but we need to find
her.”

“She can’t hurt me, baby, as long as I stay
inside. I worry about you.”

“I’m going to talk to Reese about an idea I
have. If he hunts in the city, then I could be within striking
distance, should she come here. I can take my old perch outside
your window.”

“Where you watched me?”

“Hmmm… Yes.” His eyes burned with virile
heat. “The things I watched you do.”

She slapped his arm. “I didn’t know you were
there, you fiend.”

“And thank goodness for that, beauty.” He
kissed her, pulling her off her feet, up to him. “You were quite
the show. Still are.” His tone went serious as he set her gently
back down. “Kate, I want you to think about what I said. About
Reese changing you.”

“This is going so fast. I’ve been hurt so
bad before.” She touched his cheek lovingly, rubbing her hand down
it and her fingers up and over his scrunched eyebrows. “I believe
you love me. What scares me is believing words like those again.”
Her voice lowered to a whisper. “Especially from you.”

He gathered her to him, speaking close to
her ear, “Just think about it, is all I’m asking you to do.” He
pulled away from her and bent his legs to be eye level with her.
“Think about it, and remember I am not the man in your past.” His
eyes went back and forth to hers. “He was a fool and a liar. I am
not. I’m your present and your future.”

“You keep saying that,” she said as her
heart started to pound harder.

“I say what I mean. I told you those weeks
ago, I mean everything I say as it pertains to you. That hasn’t
changed. Not because of Evangeline and what she did. Not because of
Mazzie and what she thinks. Nothing.”

“What did Mazzie do, baby?” she asked,
scared to know the answer.

“What she needed to,” Julian said with no
resentment in his voice. “Don’t think about it anymore. I’m not.
It’s done, and she said we’re even.”

Reese looked over the people milling about
the streets of the uptown district. It was the first night of a
week-long music festival that would draw multitudes to the area.
Julian and Reese had discussed the possibility of Evangeline’s
presence there, deciding it would be a mistake for him not to stake
out the location. The size and diversity of the crowd would be too
much for Evangeline to pass up. Curvy brunettes were sure to be
around.

Couples strolled the sidewalk, holding
hands, as they made their way towards the stage at the end of the
brick-lined street. Some of them were pushing strollers or carrying
picnic baskets.

Mazzie would have enjoyed this. She loves
being out and around people. I hope she doesn’t let the mess Julian
created creep its way into our relationship,
Reese thought.

The restaurant patio across from him was
full of a group of drunk frat boys, bragging about their recent
college football win. They caught his attention as they cat-called
a young woman who was walking alone. She quickened her pace,
ignoring them as she passed.

One of them jumped the waist-high iron fence
and ran up to her, blocking her path.

“Hey, wait! Where you going?”

“None of your business.” She tried to walk
around him, and he stepped right and left with her. “Leave me
alone.”

“Hey, I don’t bite. What’s your name?” He
grabbed her arm as she turned to walk the other way. “You’re going
to the concert, right? You should go with us.”

“Let me go!” She jerked her arm away from
him and ran.

“Go get her, Brad!” His friends called out
to him. “She’s a hot piece of ass!”

As Brad ran after her, a hand reached out,
grabbing him by the neck, as Reese hauled him into the alleyway
where he was stationed.

“Brad.” Reese held him against the brick
building by the neck. “You’re not a gentleman. Are you?”

“Hey, man, I wasn’t going to hurt her.” He
tried to pull the hands at his neck away. “Just having fun.”

“Fun, huh? I know your type. Get girls drunk
at your parties, fuck them with your pathetic excuse of a dick, and
then ruin their reputations afterward.” Reese continued with what
happened to Mazzie at the forefront of his mind. “Or if that
doesn’t work, drug them and do the same. Have you done that,
Brad?”

“No, man. No!” Brad struggled as his face
went blue. “I can’t breathe!”

“Are you going to change your ways? Respect
the women you come into contact with?”

Brad’s hands went slack against his sides,
and his eyes rolled back in his head.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’”

Reese dropped him to the ground as he spied
a woman with brown, curly hair walking with her toddler into a
specialty toy store. Her resemblance to Kate was not exact, but
close enough.

He approached the establishment, keeping a
safe distance, watching for a familiar blonde head. The staccato
beat of drums echoed in the distance as a band took the stage. The
crowds hurried down the street, shoving into each other as they
made their way to the show.

The glass and wooden door to the toy store
opened, and the woman backed against it, pulling her child back to
her to protect her from the surging crowd.

“Here, Annie. Let Momma pick you up and
carry you. We need to get home to Daddy. We’ll show him your new
teddy bear. Okay?”

“Teddy!” the little girl squealed, and held
it against her chest.

Reese tried to follow them closely, but soon
lost them in the myriad bodies moving around him in waves. He
walked to a bench on the sidewalk and stood atop it to scan the
crowd, spotting her as she rounded a corner, into a dimly lit
parking lot. The volume of the music was loud enough to drown out
any screams, to mortal ears.

He jumped down and ran at human speed,
pushing through the bodies until he strode between the buildings,
leaving the sounds of celebration behind him. He sprinted behind an
SUV at the middle of the lot. A red hatch-back at the rear was lit
from the interior, and it dinged at its driver’s side door being
ajar.

Reese dashed to it, hearing the sound of the
child crying for her mother. She was in the child safety seat in
the back, but not strapped in.

“Sleep,” Reese ordered, and her cries
quieted to shallow snores as he secured her.

He tracked a trail of blood on the ground,
finding a lady’s brown dress shoe. He picked it up, his eyes on the
thicket of trees at the park across the way.

“Evangeline!” he shouted, running at full
vampire speed, into the depths of the woods. “Where are you?”

Stopping at the sound of a woman’s pained
groan, he turned in circles, sweeping the area. Drips fell into his
hair and rolled down his forehead, and over his nose. His fingers
swiped over his face, coming back red.

His head jerked up, and he saw Evangeline
high in the tree at his right, holding the woman upside-down by her
ankles.

“Peek-a-boo,” she sang down to him, bouncing
on her feet, making the branch creak as it moved up and down. “I
see you.”

“What are you doing with the woman,
Evangeline?”

“What business is it of yours?”

“It’s my business because you are drawing
attention to yourself by these killings. You are endangering our
kind by your actions.”

She scoffed at him, “Endangering our kind,
you say? Not likely. No one is going to miss this one, except
Julian.”

“That woman hasn’t done anything to you. She
is a mother and wife. Allow her to return home to them.”

“Wife? Like I was to be wife to Julian?”
Thick blood tears ran down her cheeks. “They married so soon?”

“Evangeline, the woman is not Kate. Let her
go. Allow me to heal her and influence her. If you do, I will let
you leave with your head.”

“Why doesn’t he love me?” She sat on the
limb and draped the woman over her lap. “I gave him immortality. I
gave him my body. I gave him my heart. I have always loved him. My
mistake was foolishly allowing him freedom. He found
her,
and she took him from me.” She looked down at the woman in
disgust.

“The heart chooses who it chooses. If we’re
lucky, the person we fall in love with loves us back. There are
never any guarantees in life, even an immortal one.”

Evangeline continued to weep, her head
tilted back, eyes open. Her plaintive wails of sorrow filled the
forest.

“Give me the woman.” Reese held his hands in
the air. “Please.”

She took a bunch of the woman’s hair in her
hand and held her head up. The woman’s mouth fell open as her jaw
dropped.

“What makes her so special?” Evangeline
studied her face. “She’s not as beautiful as I. Not as statuesque.
Far inferior. Why would he choose to be with something like
this?”

Reese held his tongue at her ever-changing
mental direction.

“Dull, brown hair, whereas mine is lush,
long, and golden as the sun.” She ran her other hand through her
tresses and glared down at Reese. “Julian brushed it as he fed me
lies. To protect her.” She dropped the woman’s head and it hit the
branch with a crack of bone.

“Again, the woman is not Kate!” Reese
stepped closer to the tree, crouching down, readying to jump. “Are
you listening to me?”

“Why should I listen to you? If she isn’t
Kate, why are you interested in saving her?” She cocked her head to
the left. “Are you in love with her, as well?”

“No.”

“I’ve killed her so many times, yet I still
see her everywhere. How does she survive? What kind of immortal is
she?” She eyed the woman curiously.

“She is not Kate, Evangeline. Listen to me.”
He put his hands against the trunk. “You are murdering women who
don’t know Julian.”

“Stay where you are.” Evangeline stood,
picking up the woman who groaned in pain. “She is going to die.
Julian will be mine again. I will make it happen.”

Reese soared up to the tree limb where
Evangeline held her captive. She took a few steps back, holding the
woman out in the air by her left arm. It dislocated with a loud
pop.

He crouched, readying for attack. “If she
dies tonight, you do, as well. Make your choice.”

“Annie,” the woman mumbled before passing
out again.

Evangeline smiled at Reese, her lips
stretched taut and her eyes wild. “Catch.”

The woman’s body sailed out into the forest,
and Reese raced to catch her. He put her on the ground and ripped
his wrist open with his fangs. Holding her head to him, he ordered
directly into her psyche, “Drink.” After a few moments, she was
restored, and he carried her to her car, putting her inside. He
found her shoes and placed them on her feet.

He erased the violence of the night from her
memory and hid behind the SUV before she awakened.

“Hush, little baby, don’t you cry,” she sang
to her child as she exited the parking lot.

Reese sent a message to Julian:

Reese: It’s worse than we thought. She
thinks she’s ridding herself of Kate each time she kills. She’s
truly mad.

Julian: Are you coming over? We need to
discuss this.

Reese: Yes. Be there within the hour.

*

Julian placed his phone onto the coffee
table and ran his fingers through Kate’s hair as she slept with her
head on his lap. She had fallen asleep while they watched an old
black and white movie in the living room.