Scorned (30 page)

I took a step forward, but the Princess was
there, one arm around my waist, stronger than she should have been.
“No,” she said. “This is his fight.”

I looked up at her and I knew my eyes
weren’t friendly. “What the hell are you talking about?” Bomani
looked at me with kindness, something I never expected from her or
any of Eddy’s women. She smiled a smile that spoke worlds about her
and showed me a compassion that I didn’t know I needed, or even if
I wanted it.

“Eddy senses your power,” she said, “and he
sees your boyfriend’s dominance as a threat.”

I frowned and looked at Roman. “What the
hell is she talking about?”

Roman offered nothing but a half-hearted
shrug as he watched the two men maul each other. Actually, it only
looked like Pierce was being mauled, and I was sure that was
Roman’s favorite part. Pierce pulled away from the fray, and I
watched Roman’s face for the disappointment I was sure I’d see
there, but he kept it neutral.

“
What’s wrong? Too good to show that side
of you?”

Roman turned to look at me, slowly. He just
moved his head, like they do in the scary movies where the bad guy
is finally showing that he’s the bad guy. I swallowed the lump of
fear that rose in my throat, and I tipped my chin up a fraction of
an inch and straightened my back. We had our own little standoff
while Eddy tried to tear Pierce to pieces.

“
I’m not afraid of you.”
It was
partially true. I was afraid of him, but I didn’t want to be, so I
wouldn’t show it, even if he knew it anyway.

The room became quiet and still. Pierce and
Eddy stood about three feet apart, staring at each other. I didn’t
have to look around to know that the others were waiting to see
what was going to happen. Eddy suddenly dropped to his belly,
literally at Pierce’s feet. His tail swished lazily back and forth
to let everyone know he'd conceded, but he didn’t like it.

“Pierce?” I said the word softly, barely
audible over the dead silence.

Pierce seemed to remember that I was still
in the room, held against the wall by Bomani’s strong arm.

“She would have interfered,” she explained
to Pierce. Pierce waved her hand away and approached me.

“You alright?” he asked, touching a hand to
my face. I nodded.

“You’re bleeding.” Pierce’s lip was split
along the edge on the top right side of his mouth and it was
bleeding freely. A set of claw marks slashed through his t-shirt
from his right shoulder down across his chest to his breastplate.
Pierce’s hand went to his lip.

“Yeah,” he said. “Stings like hell.”

“You’re going to need stitches,” I said.

“Nah.”

I frowned. “Pierce, I want you to get that
sewn up.”

“I don’t-”

“Please. For me.”

There must have been something in my face,
because Pierce frowned. “Alright. For you.”

I looked down at his chest and fingered the
torn cloth. “Are you going to be one now too?” I asked in a soft
voice.

“Damn!” he exclaimed. “You owe me a new damn
shirt!” he shouted. To me he said, “No. I’m just going to be plain
old Pierce. Always have been, always will be.”

That made me happy. “I bought one today you
can have,” I offered. "To tide you over until Eddy gets you a new
one.”

Eddy growled.

“I can sew up that lip,” the Princess
offered.

“Thanks.”

“I’ll go get my kit from my room,” she said,
then glanced at Eddy. “He’s going to be like that for a while. He’s
pretty angry. The animal side has taken over.”

“All but the Furian side,” I said. Pierce
chuckled at the quote from
Riddick
, but that was fine. He
was the only one I really cared to get it anyway.

Roman stared, hatred and anger both plain on
his face, but he wiped them away when he realized I was looking at
him. Gone without a trace.

“
What is wrong with you? Why do you have
to cause so many problems.”

“
I don’t know what you are talking
about.”

“
Oh, stop playing coy! You’re no good at
it.”

“
Coy? No, my sweet. Coy is not a game
that I play.”

“
Stop calling me that. I am not your
sweet anything.”

Roman shrugged like he didn’t believe it,
but what was there not to believe? I wasn’t his. I didn’t belong to
him. I didn’t want him.

“Have I neglected to tell you?” Roman asked
and I looked at him suspiciously.

“Probably,” I answered. “What haven’t you
told me now?” I poured all of my exasperation and distrust for him
into that one sentence and it came out as sarcastic and disdainful
as I could have possibly imagined. Everyone felt it. Roman just
grinned.

“I sense that Perdita is close.” He
disappeared through a hidden door in a wall of books, and just like
that, he had the upper hand once again.

I snatched a book off the shelf in the
living room before I went back to the room once Bomani started
sewing Pierce’s lip back together. I can admit I’m squeamish and I
had trouble watching. The book was chosen at random, a very
interesting French biography.

I was spread out on the bearskin rug in
front of the fire when Pierce came in. I put my book down and went
to him, wrapped my arms around his neck, and kissed him gently on
his nose. “I guess we won’t be making out tonight, huh? Are you mad
at me?” I asked.

“For what?” he wanted to know.

“I didn’t stay to hold your hand while you
got sewn up. You would have done it for me, and I should have done
it for you.”

Pierce shook his head, then leaned in and
nuzzled his cheek against mine. It was such a feline thing to do,
and something so out of character for my unaffectionate Pierce,
that it caught me off guard.

“What are you reading?” he asked softly
against my cheek. “I saw you grab something. You find the only
modern romance there?” He teased and leaned over to see the cover
of the book. “Didn’t peg the vampire for being much into romances.
What is this?”

“A biography of some French person I’ve
never heard of.”

“You don’t know French.” Pierce eyed me.

“I do now,” I said, astounded that I’d
forgotten to tell the love of my life about the biggest information
download of the century. “Roman, somehow downloaded every language
he knows into my head. It happened before,” I told him quickly.
“Before I told you everything.”

Pierce frowned and I knew he was angry. “Why
didn’t you tell me?”

“I just found out the other night in
Charleston,” I said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think to tell you. So
much has happened this week. What day is it anyway?”

“Wednesday,” Pierce said with a heavy sigh.
He peeled off his tattered, blood-soaked shirt and threw it across
the arm of a chair. “Wednesday, Wednesday.”

I plopped back down on the floor. “Damn.
Time sure flies when vampires are trying to kill you.”

“Yeah.” Pierce sank to the floor next to me
and I leaned my head against his shoulder. The firelight flickered
across his chest and highlighted the angry claw marks.

“That’s going to be a hell of a scar,” I
said.

“Yeah,” Pierce agreed. “It is.”

“How are you going to explain it?”

“Attacked by a lynx.”

I smiled. “Seriously? You think anyone will
buy that?”

Pierce shrugged and grunted like the effort
hurt. “Hope so.”

I gazed into the firelight and snuggled
against him as close as I dared. His warmth and scent, the smell of
flesh and blood and life, wrapped around me and I melted into him,
into a place where nothing existed but the two of us together and
happy.

“Are you mad about the language thing?” I
finally asked. “I wasn’t trying to keep it from you.”

“I know, StaciDoll. I can’t really be mad at
you anyway.”

“Why not?” I asked.

Pierce sighed and pulled me close. “Give me
till the morning, okay? I’m tired.”

I pulled away and looked at his face. It
didn’t say tired, it said he wanted to wait until people weren’t
listening. I grinned.

“Wanna take a shower?” I asked. “Or we can
use the hot tub. We could have a whole freaking party in the hot
tub.”

“I think Dayla is fixing something for
dinner. Roman said it would be ready in about an hour or so.”

“That gives us plenty of time to shower." I
stood and offered to help him to his feet. Pierce gave me his hands
and allowed me to pull him to his feet, a sure sign that he was
exhausted.

“I’m almost too tired to shower, babe,” he
said, but I tugged him toward the bathroom anyway. My feet hit the
cool tile and I dropped Pierce’s hand so I could pull my shirt
off.

“What were the girls talking about on the
plane that you didn’t want to explain?” Pierce asked. I heard his
belt unbuckle and his pants slide down his legs to the floor. The
buckle hit the tile with a soft
clank
and I turned to find
him in a pair of dark green and black checked boxers. I'd bought
them for him because I thought he looked good in green.

I set the thermostats. “Adelina and Calliope
aren’t his only women. He has a bit of a harem at his disposal,
though I doubt I was supposed to know about it.”

“How did you find out then?”

“I saw in his mind once. It’s more than the
girls Calliope showed me.”

“So, Roman is a vampire pimp daddy man
whore?”

“Exactly.”

I checked the water temp and set all four
shower heads to pulse. I stripped out of my jeans and underwear and
stepped under the hot spray. Pierce followed a moment later. He
winced when the hot water hit his cuts. I touched Pierce’s hip with
a finger and traced the lines of muscle and bone. I rested my head
on his shoulder, afraid if I pressed too close I would hurt him,
but he pulled me to him and wrapped his arms tight around me so I
couldn’t pull away. We stood like that for a very long time. When
we finally pulled away, I ran my pruney fingers over Pierce’s back
because he hates it.

“Girl, you’d better stop before you get
hurt.”

I laughed. “Please. Nobody is afraid of you,
little man.”

“Oh, I see how it is.”

Pierce turned the shower off and stepped
out, grabbing the only towel as he left. The moment the water
stopped running and the steam dissipated, I was cold.

“Pierce, come back here and get me a towel!
Pierce!” In the end, I had to get my own damn towel and track water
across the bathroom floor to get to the closet on the other side of
the room. I dried off quickly, dried my hair, and wrapped the
soaked towel around myself. Pierce lay in front of the fire in
nothing but his towel, flipping through the book he couldn’t read.
I smacked his butt.

I squealed as Pierce rolled and grabbed my
legs, pulling me down to straddle his hips.

“Careful,” I warned playfully.

Pierce blinked at me. “I’m always careful,
babe.”

There was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” I called.

“Addy. Dinner is ready. Roman says you took
forever in the shower.”

I looked at Pierce and rolled my eyes. “Tell
him he shouldn’t have been listening. We’re on our way down.”

Pierce pushed me back until he was sitting
up, and kissed me carefully on the mouth. “Let’s see what Roman has
for us in the closet, shall we?”

I flipped on the closet light and we stepped
into an exact replica of my own wardrobe.

“Wow. This is all for you, huh?”

I shrugged. “I guess so.” All I wanted was
pajamas and all I saw was jeans and nice blouses. “I guess you’ll
have to go to dinner in a towel until you can get your clothes
cleaned. Eddy would love that. You are yummy.”

Pierce
psshed
. He’d go down naked if
he had to. But at the very, very back was a small section of nice
men’s clothes.

I’ll have to thank Roman for that. I just
hope there’s not itching powder or bugs in his clothes.

“
Hadn’t even though of that, my sweet.
Thank you for the suggestion, though. Enjoying that book?”

I shut Roman out the best I knew how.

“
I’m sure Eddy would love for Pierce to
come down in his towel.”

“
Stop, Roman,”
I said.
“Go
away.”
He went away, best I could tell.

Pierce and I dressed quickly. I found a pair
of flannel pants, a sports bra, and a tank top to throw on. I
didn’t want to go down to dinner. I wanted to go to sleep. I
flopped onto the bed.

“Come on.” Pierce put on a pair of sweat
pants and a clean t-shirt. “I’m not going down without you.
Besides, that girl cooked. You can’t just not eat it.”

“Oh yeah? Watch me.”

The atmosphere in the kitchen was frigid.
Eddy was back in human form. His yellow-green eyes flashed with
disgust while Roman’s were devoid of anything that would give away
what he was thinking. Amanda and her protégée ignored me as always.
Dayla stood at the stove with her back to the room and she
stiffened the moment Pierce and I walked in. The only person who
seemed to be in good spirits and not disgusted by my presence was
Bomani.

Pierce took my hand and gave it a tight
squeeze before he led me across the kitchen, through all those
angry people, and down into the dining area. It was just off the
kitchen, down a few stairs, in a room all its own. The solid oak
table looked like it could hold all of us with room to spare. We
chose seats at the end closest to the stairs so we could make a
quick getaway later if need be. Bomani came down and sat across
from us.

“What’s everyone’s deal?” I asked.

“I can’t say for anyone else,” she answered,
“but I know that Edgar believes you are a coward.”

I frowned. “What the hell did I do to be a
coward?”

“You left the room when I sutured your
boyfriend’s lip.”

“If you cared anything for him at all,” Eddy
leaned against the railing that separated the two rooms, “you would
have stayed and watched.” His words held a slight hiss to them as
he struggled to maintain his human form. “Coward,” he added.
“Bitch.”