Vampire for Christmas (9 page)

She had
to let go of her fears and take the risk, just as her heart wanted
her to.

No one
said that love was easy.

Love was
frightening. It made you weak and vulnerable, and she was used to
being strong now. Love was a thief. It stole your whole world from
underneath your feet and placed it into the hands of
another—someone you would depend upon, someone you would need so
badly that you couldn’t live without them, someone who would be
there in the night to comfort you. They would take care of the
heart you placed so tentatively into their protection if you only
let them. Most of all, love hurt. It made you bleed from the inside
out, made you burn with desire, made you ache with need, and made
you crave to be held tight in your love’s embrace.

Love
consumed.

And it
was tearing Shannon apart from the inside out, clawing away at her
defences until it found a way to escape the confines of her heart
and show itself to the object of her affection.

Rafe.

They say
that the eyes are the windows of the soul and she knew that Rafe
could see straight through hers to her heart. No matter what she
tried to hide from him, he could seek it out in her green eyes if
he set his mind to it. In them, she could hide nothing. They
betrayed her and gave up her feelings to him the second his met
them, and she couldn’t stop them, no matter how hard she
tried.

So she
let him read in her eyes what she couldn’t put a voice to,
trembling with fear that he would take her heart and crush it, and
afraid that it wouldn’t change a thing and that it was too late for
them. This was their last mission. She had told the agency she
wanted to work alone. What if she couldn’t make them change their
mind about sending Rafe away? What if they ended up thousands of
miles from each other? Was it too late for them?

Had she
ruined everything?

She
looked at the dull night sky and sought the one thing she had so
often looked for at this time of year. The town streetlights
drowned out the narrow strip of stars above her in the alley, but
she eventually found what she was looking for. Her heart hitched.
The Christmas star. She had given up wishing on it a long time ago,
but she wished with all of her heart now. She didn’t want to leave
Rafe. She didn’t want to leave the vampire she loved.

Shannon
started when Rafe’s cool fingers brushed her cheek. Her gaze slowly
lowered to his. She knew what he wanted and what he was going to
do, and she wasn’t afraid. She wanted it too. She was finally brave
enough to face her feelings for him, a vampire, and had faith in
him. He wouldn’t hurt her. His earlier words hadn’t been an empty
promise. If she gave her heart to him, he would cherish and protect
it. He would keep her safe and love her, would give her everything
she needed to heal and become whole again, and would always take
care of her.

She
closed her eyes when he dipped his head and kissed her, his lips
soft and tender against hers. She leaned into the kiss, smiling
against his mouth when warmth suffused her body, emanating from her
heart. His lips barely brushed hers, teasing her more than
anything, stirring desire to have him kiss her harder and with
force. She pressed one hand against his chest and found his free
hand with her other. Their fingers tangled, cool against warm, and
he sighed into her mouth. Did it feel as wonderful to him as it did
to her? She had wanted this for so long, had denied him all that
time, and now it was finally hers. She didn’t want it to
end.

She
flinched when a wet slapping noise broke the hazy silence. Rafe
tensed, slowly drew away from her, and glared down at the slime on
the sleeve of his long black coat. The muscle in his jaw
ticked.

“
For the love of the Devil... would you give it a rest?” Rafe
snarled at the demon and released her.

“
How about we do this together?” Shannon stood tall when Rafe
looked at her. His pale eyes studied hers. She didn’t waver under
his scrutiny. She meant it. She had never truly worked with him on
any of their missions. It was time she changed that.

It was
time they fought together.

As
partners.

Or more
than that.

Lovers.

Rafe
nodded, twirled his stake, gave her a cocky grin, and shot towards
the demon at the other end of the alley.

Shannon
frowned.

He had a
funny idea of together.

The large
green demon hurled a glob of clear slime at her. Shannon
sidestepped and it flew past her, hitting a black dumpster instead.
She ran towards the demon, tightening her grip on her stake when
she reached it and Rafe, and tried to keep up with their movements.
Every punch that Rafe landed on the demon slid straight off again,
and the demon blocked every attempt he made to stake it in the eye.
She kept time with them, shifting left and right, waiting for her
opening. The moment it appeared, Shannon leapt into the
fray.

She
ducked under the demon’s arm, avoided colliding with Rafe as he
came back around, and leapt. Her stake was within a few inches of
the demon’s left eye when it caught her in the stomach with its arm
and sent her flying across the alley. She hit the wall hard, her
breath leaving her on impact, and dropped to her knees on the
tarmac. Her shoulder ached. She rubbed it and dragged herself back
onto her feet. A few more hits like that and she would probably be
out cold.

Rafe
appeared next to her.

“
Are you alright?” The concern in his dulcet tones warmed her
and she nodded. He lingered a second longer and then shot off
again. This time he ran straight past the demon, up the wall of the
alley, and flipped high into the air.

Impressive.

He landed
on the demon’s broad back and hooked his arm around its throat,
choking it. The demon waved its arms around, trying to dislodge
Rafe, and managed to knock the stake out of his hand. Rafe growled,
flashing fangs, and grabbed the wrist of the arm he had around the
demon’s neck. He leaned back, pulling on his arm and throttling the
demon. It wheezed and bubbled, thick trails of slime rolling down
its jagged jaw. Rafe’s grip on his wrist slipped and the demon
grabbed him, dragged him over its head and threw him against the
wall beside Shannon.

He slid
down it to land in a pile of slime.

“
It was worth a try.” He smiled at her.

Shannon
swept the slick black curls from his forehead and then dived to one
side when the demon shot slime at them. It only caught her trainer.
Rafe wasn’t as lucky. She looked back and suppressed her laugh when
she saw he was covered in a thick clear layer of jelly. The demon
snorted and stepped towards Rafe. Shannon ran at the wall, kicked
off it, and landed on the demon’s back. Her arms weren’t long
enough to get a good grip on its neck. She started to slide down
its back and shoved her stake into its shoulder to stop herself.
The demon growled and bubbled furiously. It backed up towards the
wall and Shannon desperately scrambled for freedom. In the end, she
dropped, landing at the demon’s feet, and threw herself forwards
before it could squash her, rolling between its legs.

She ended
up at Rafe’s feet. He roared and launched himself at the
demon.

Shannon
turned in time to see him shove two fingers firmly into the demon’s
right eye. Green ooze shot out of gaps around his fingers, covering
his shoulder and narrowly missing her. Disgusting.

Rafe
kicked the demon in the stomach, using its eye socket to hold on to
it.

She
covered her mouth and tried to keep her dinner down. Rafe certainly
knew how to show a girl a good time. Take her into town for a nice
quiet night demon hunting and charm her by gouging its eye out with
your bare hands. A guaranteed winner.

The demon
grabbed Rafe by the ankle, yanked him away, and slammed him into
the wall. Rafe grunted and the demon snarled and turned the other
way, smashing him into a dumpster, and then the floor.

Shannon
grabbed Rafe’s discarded stake, took a running jump at the nearest
dumpster, and then launched herself off the lid. She held the stake
with both hands and yelled as she flew through the air at the
demon. It made the mistake of looking at her. She smiled and
brought the stake down hard. Green slime shot up her arms, coated
her chest, and splattered her face. She hadn’t actually expected to
hit the demon’s eye. She had been aiming for its shoulder, so she
could use the stake as an anchor to hold on to while she retrieved
her stake from its body, and then stabbed it in the eye whilst
leaning away from it.

The demon
fell backwards with her on top of it. Shannon landed on its chest,
slid down onto and over its head, and skidded along the alley in a
trail of slime.

“
That was disgusting.” Rafe sounded revolted too.

Shannon
couldn’t have said it better herself. She got to her knees and
looked down at her saturated black jacket and then at her hands. A
thick layer of green goo covered them. She touched her face and
grimaced when she felt the slime there too.

“
You can talk,” she said and crawled away from the slime so she
could stand up.

The demon
began to bubble and melt into a big pile of ooze.

Rafe
looked confused, but he was staring at her, not the
demon.

“
I saw you stick your fingers in its eye,” she
said and ran her hands down her chest and legs, squeezing some of
the slime out of her clothes. “
That
was disgusting.”

He smiled
and shrugged.

“
It was the only weapon at my disposal, and it weakened it
enough for you to kill it.”

Shannon
frowned. “What do you mean by that? That I couldn’t kill it without
your help?”

He
shrugged easily again.

“
I could have killed it... although, your distracting it by
letting it play with you like a ragdoll was appreciated.” She
smiled and then it fell away when she caught a flashback of how
violently the demon had tossed Rafe around. “You okay?”

He
touched his left temple again. “Superficial damage. Better it threw
me around than you.”

He walked
over to her, into the light, and her shoulders sagged when she saw
the bloody mess on the side of his head and neck, and the new cuts
and scratches on his face.

“
You need to take more care of yourself.” She tentatively
touched a gash just below his right eye and ended up with red slime
on her fingers.

Rafe
stared down at her, his silence making the air around her feel
heavy. She smiled, hoping to alleviate the sense that she should
say something dramatic or do something incredibly
romantic.

She
wasn’t going to kiss him when he was covered in slime.

So she
settled for dramatic.

“
Why don’t you come back t
o my place and get cleaned up?”

****

Chapter 6

Rafe’s
head was killing him but he didn’t care. He stared at Shannon’s
house as they approached it, still not quite able to believe that
she was going to invite him in. Part of him expected her to stop on
the other side of her door, beyond his reach, and tell him that she
never wanted to see him again and everything she had said tonight
had been a cruel joke.

She had
been quiet all the way back to her house. It had frayed the edges
of his already tattered nerves. He had always prided himself on his
strength, both physical and emotional, but he felt weak now, unsure
of what was going to happen, and afraid that it wasn’t going to
turn out as he hoped, with a happily forever after.

He took a
deep breath as they mounted the porch steps together.

Shannon
stopped and turned to face him, and he waited for her to push him
away and tell him that she wasn’t going to let him in.

“
I think I owe you something,” she said and stepped towards
him. His eyes widened when she tiptoed and pressed her lips softly
against his. He stared ahead as everything sank in and then closed
his eyes and kissed her.

She
didn’t protest when he placed his hands on her waist and then slid
them around her back, drawing her close to him.

The kiss
was soft, slow, a gentle meeting and parting of lips that stirred
hunger and desire inside him, chasing away his fear.

He sighed
when she moved back and smiled at her. “You removed the
mistletoe.”

A blush
stained her cheeks. He cupped her left one, his fingertips resting
against her jaw line, and brushed his thumb over her cheek,
clearing away the green slime.

Shannon
touched his hand.

“
I said that I owed you.” She took his hand away from her face
and turned towards the door.

She slid
her key into the lock, twisted it and pushed the door open. The
lights were on inside, warm and inviting, and his breathing
quickened with the rising sense of anticipation inside
him.

Shannon
stepped inside.