The Return of Jonas (Pearl Vampire Chronicles #4) (24 page)

I finally managed to squeak out one word, because I knew we couldn’t stay here at the fortress right now.  “Where?” I whispered.

His love-filled smile lit up his face as he glanced up. “The cave,” he said as his mouth finally found mine.  I was vaguely aware that we were flying as every ounce of pent-up passion flooded out of my body.  My legs locked around his waist.  I pressed my pelvis hard into him and my first climax hit before we had even touched the ground.

We made love for four days straight.  Occasionally taking sleep breaks, but waking up and starting right where we had left off.  We made up for more than the weeks of no intimacy.  We made up for the months of stress.  We made up for the weeks of grief.  We made up for the weeks of taking care of everyone but ourselves.  More than anything, what we did in those four days was do the only thing we knew how to do, the only thing we needed to do, the only thing we could do…
  What we did was find each other again.  And we both knew, without a doubt, that together was exactly where we were supposed to be.

The End

Sneak Peak of:

Forbidden Trinity:

Pearl Vampire Chronicles
#5

(Available Dec.2011)

Prologue

“It can’t be that many,” I said

“It really is, Sarah,” he said

“But, Matt.  How can eighty-seven vampires go missing in the last six months? How is that possible?”

He shook his head
. “I don’t know Sarah.”

“No one’s seen or heard from any of them?
At all?” I said, still unable to believe what he was saying.

“No.
Nothing,” he said then he looked away and squeezed his eyes shut.  That’s when I knew.  I knew he was keeping something from me.  I knew he wasn’t telling me everything.  I took his hand in mine.  I felt him tense up.  He could sense that I knew.

“Matt,” I whispered
, “tell me.  You have to tell me.”

“I know I do, Sarah.  It’s just so hard.  I feel so guilty.  I’m head of security, I was responsible for them.  I feel like this is my fault.”

“It isn’t.  I know that.  You should know that.  But Matt, who is it?”

He looked at me
. “I’m so sorry, Sarah,” he said.

Okay, this is bad.  He’s stalling now…
and it was beginning to piss me off.

“Matthew Pearl.  Tell me who is missing, right now,” I hissed.

“Stacy,” he whispered.

Stacy was a great friend, a stripper before I had turned her and as a vampire she ran a top-quality vampire call-girl service.

I gasped. “No!”

“It’s worse, Sarah,” he said even more quietly.

“Worse? How could it be worse?” I groaned.

“Missy’s gone too.”

Missy was my assistant in the office, she kept me organized, she kept me grounded, she kept me sane.

He caught me just as me knees started to give out and wrapped his arms around me as I sobbed into his chest.  “No, no, no, no, no,” I said between sobs.  “Oh my God,” I said as I tried to get control of myself.  I pulled my head back and looked at him.  “When
?  When did they disappear?”  I was terrified that I already knew the answer, but I had to ask anyway.  I was right.

“Last week, when we were on the island.”

“Shit!” I said.  “Why does this crap always happen when we’re trying to have a normal life?  Why?”

He gave me that look. 

“What?” I said.

“Sarah, considering everything that’s gone on in our life, especially lately, do you really think we could ever have what’s considered a
normal
life?”

I grimaced.  That stung.  “Point taken
,” I said.  I rested my head on his shoulder.  “What do we do now?” I said.

“I’m not sure.  I don’t have a single clue.  There haven’t been any rumors.
Nothing.  There’s nothing.  It’s as if they vanished into thin air.”

I looked at him and took a deep breath.  “Okay.  One thing’s for certain.  This place is going into lockdown.  Get anyone back here who’s gone.  Nobody leaves.
Nobody.  And put the word out to everyone, warning them.  Tell them they can come here if they want.  They can stay here until we figure this out.  And you and I are going on lockdown too.”

“Us?  We’re going on lockdown?  What exactly
does that mean?”

“It means you’re not leaving my side, ever.  Not even for a second.  We’re going to work in the same office.  Eat together.
You’ll have to come with me when I make my rounds in the clinic.  Everything.  All the time.  Together.  You were ripped from my life once before when Malina kidnapped you and then I almost lost you, now, because, well, because I was stupid.  I’m trying to fix that now.  It would devastate me if you were taken now.”

Matt stared at me for a second then he nodded.  “Okay, Sarah,” he said then his mouth gently came down on mine.  Suddenly the alarm sounded.  “Oh God, no,” he groaned as he grabbed my hand and we ran down the hall towards his office.

“What, Matt? What does it mean? Not another one,” I said then I gasped when he nodded.  We burst through the security room door.

“What’s happened, Derek?” Matt said.

“I… I… I just saw them take Tracy,” he stammered.

“What?  What do you mean you saw
them
?  Saw who?” he said.

Derek pointed a shaky finger at the monitors.  “She was walking through the courtyard, when these…
things… swooped out of the sky, grabbed her and flew away with her.”

“Things?
You mean they weren’t vampires?” Matt said.

“Not like any vampires that I’ve ever seen” he said.
“They had
wings.
”

We both stared at him with our mouths hanging open.
“Wings?” Matt was finally able to say. “As in, actual, attached to their bodies, wings?”

Derek nodded.  He punched a few commands into his keyboard.  “Here, look,” he said.

The center monitor flickered then began playing the tape from a minute ago.  We saw several vampires in the courtyard.  Tracy must have been shopping in the village.  She walked in through the main gate, smiling and waving at the guard, Troy then she continued on into the courtyard.  As she reached the halfway point, several shadows appeared around her.  Strange, huge, bird-like shadows.  Tracy noticed them too.  She stopped walking and looked at the ground with a confused look on her face.  Then she slowly looked up.  Confusion quickly turned to horror.  She dropped the bags she was carrying and was just about to scream, when they swooped down. 

“What the
—”  Matt and I both said.  Derek quickly hit the pause button.  The three of us could only stare… we were completely speechless.  My head tilted to the side as I studied the odd creatures.  Three were male, one was female.  I could tell because all were completely naked.  All were completely hairless.  Their hands and feet resembled claws and talons.  Their eyes were shaped more like an eagle’s eyes than a human’s.  The muscles on their bodies were chiseled and looked much, much stronger than ours.  Their teeth were down. And they were all wearing some sort of tracking collar around their necks.  I pointed at it.

“Do you see that?” I said.

Matt nodded next to me. “Uh-huh.  It’s like these things are somebody’s
pets
.”

“Have either of you ever seen anything like this before?” I said.

“No way,” Derek said.

“No, Sarah,” Matt said.

“I have,” whispered a quiet, shaking voice behind us.  We all whipped our heads around and stared at Bahiti’s terrified face… then we waited for her to continue…