Wild Fever (5 page)

Olivia walked back into the living room and looked through a window. Her grandmother’s truck wasn’t in the driveway. It wasn’t until she checked her phone that she saw the message waiting.

She let out a sigh of relief when she heard her grandmother’s message saying she was going to stay with Grace that night since Grace wasn’t feeling well.

That meant Olivia had the entire house to herself. She had longed for such things as a kid. Now, she didn’t relish the prospect of being alone.

Two hours passed as she flipped through channels catching bits of shows and the news. At seven she finally fixed a sandwich and popped in Horrible Bosses. She was shocked to find her grandmother even had that movie, but she was glad, since she needed a good laugh.

By ten, Olivia couldn’t stand to have the TV on anymore. She grabbed a beer and walked out onto the porch to inhale the sultry night air. The heat of the day still lingered long after the moon rose.

So many nights had been spent sitting at the end of the dock with friends imagining how their futures would be. In all her dreams, her life had never turned out like the one she led.

She hadn’t expected to live a glamorous life in front of the cameras, but she had thought to be a successful accountant, wife, and mother. The only part of that she had gotten was the accounting degree.

Even her job hadn’t been as prestigious as she had wanted. Working for one of the top companies in Dallas had paid well, however, and she thought she was about to get the next title in her dream life – wife.

Calvin dashed all of that in a heartbeat.

Now there was a chance she could go to jail. Over something she didn’t do. Olivia trusted Ava to help her, but she wished she were still in Dallas to be right there through it all.
 

All but ten thousand dollars of her savings had been used to remain in Dallas for as long as she had. At least she had a home to return to.

She looked longingly at the water. After the night before, she wasn’t going out there alone. Whether it was her imagination or not, it had been a creepy experience.

Goose bumps rose up all along her skin as she felt something behind her. She had been alone on the porch, she was sure of it. And yet, she knew without a doubt that someone – something – was with her.

She turned around to see a dark, hairy shape come out of the shadows and slam her into the side of the porch. Olivia fell heavily, unable to move her limbs where she wanted.
 

Her eyes couldn’t focus on the thing that had hit her. She tried to call out for help. The...thing...loomed in front of her as she blinked to try and see it clearly.

There was a low growl as it grabbed her arm. She winced when something cut her, but it paid her no heed as it began to drag her to the porch door.

She could feel herself falling into the blackness. Olivia fought it, instinctively knowing that her life was on the line. Dimly, she heard someone shout.

The grip on her arm tightened, and she felt something warm and wet slide down her arm. Suddenly, it released her so that her head once more banged on the wooden porch.

“Shit!” a male voice growled.

She heard the squeak of the porch door as it was thrown open. Large hands, tender and soothing, smoothed back the hair from her face. “Olivia? Olivia, can you hear me?”

She forced open her eyes long enough to see a familiar face. He had hair so dark a brown it was almost black. It brushed the tops of his shoulders with a soft wave that begged to be touched.

His face was hard and rugged. A dose of handsome that gave him a dangerous air with a scar that ran across his right cheek, and brilliant blue eyes ringed with navy that snagged her.

Vincent was protecting her just as she had always wanted.

Perhaps she had hit her head too hard. Vincent would never be there.

“Olivia,” he whispered.

Was it her imagination, or had there been a bit of longing in his voice?
 

A tearing sound pulled her from the darkness. She opened her eyes again as he gently lifted her arm. The pain pulled her out of unconsciousness enough to realize she was hurt, and that it really was Vincent with her.
 

Olivia looked at her arm, but all she could see was red. Was that blood? Her blood?

She was mesmerized by how Vincent diligently wrapped her arm and tied the black bandage that looked suspiciously like his tee shirt.

Olivia blinked as the fog of her head cleared even more. His hand was on her forehead pushing back her hair again. A frown marred his forehead.

She had the insane urge to smooth it away and run her hands over his sun-bronzed skin. This was the Chiasson she had silently coveted, the Chiasson that had never looked at her.

“Your eyes are clearing,” he said.
 

She tried to swallow, to wet her dry mouth so she could ask what had happened.
 

“Answers later. First, we need to get you to safety.”

Olivia wasn’t sure if she could stand, but she shouldn’t have worried, because Vincent gathered her against him. She rested her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. The rest of her fear melted away.

It had taken long enough, but she was finally in Vincent Chiasson’s arms.

CHAPTER FIVE

Vincent gently laid Olivia on the couch and checked the bandage on her arm. The cuts weren’t deep enough to require stitches, but the fact she had been injured, that he hadn’t gotten to her in time made him furious.

He touched her hair again as he had yearned to do years ago. He couldn’t seem to stop himself. It was like cool silk running through his fingers. The length boggled his mind, as did the thickness.
 

Unable to help himself, he ran the pads of his fingers over her high cheekbones down to her full lips. His body stirred, heat flaming his blood as desire engulfed him as if it hadn’t been nine years since the last time he had seen her.
 

Vincent recalled with crystal clarity the night he truly noticed her. He had been with his parents when they told Maria that her son and his wife had been killed by a demon. Olivia had walked out onto the porch still half asleep with that magnificent hair of hers mussed, her luscious curves on display in her tiny tank top and shorts, and he had fallen instantly under her spell.

“I’m going after it,” Christian said as he started for the door.

“No!” Vincent bellowed as he jumped to his feet, forgetting that Olivia had drifted off to sleep. He wiped his hand down his face when his three brothers turned to him. “No,” he repeated in a calmer tone.

A muscle flexed in Christian’s jaw. “You might be the eldest, but that doesn’t mean you can tell me what to do.”

“I refuse to find another member of my family dead,” Vincent said. It would likely shatter him if he did. It had taken everything he had to put that dreaded night eleven years ago behind him. And he almost hadn’t succeeded.

Lincoln leaned against the kitchen counter. “Listen to him, Christian. Please.”

“We had it,” Beau said. “It was right there. We could have gone after it.”

Lincoln’s face contorted in anger. “Gone after it? Was I the only one to see it
disappear
right before our eyes?”

“No,” Christian grudgingly admitted.

Beau paced the space between the kitchen and the dining area. “I can’t just wait around for someone else to be killed. Most of the things we hunt pose a danger, and few get a chance to actually hurt people.”

“Why did it target Olivia?” Lincoln asked.

Vincent glanced at her. “I don’t know. I tracked the beast here last night, but that’s all.”

“I was the one who spoke to her this morning,” Beau said.
 

Christian slapped his hands on his legs. “Does that mean we can’t talk to anyone for fear that they’ll end up dead?”

“We already keep to ourselves. What else does this thing want?” Lincoln asked.

Vincent scratched his jaw as he considered his brothers’ words. “We looked through that entire book of our family’s, and nothing in there could just disappear as this creature does. It knows things it couldn’t possibly know.”

“Which means someone is controlling it,” Beau said with a grin.

“Ah, Vin,” Christian said slowly.

Vincent looked to see his brother jerk his chin to the couch. Vincent turned his head to find Olivia’s black eyes open and trained on him.

“We’ll patrol the area,” Lincoln said as the three of them filed out of the house.

Olivia grabbed her head as she tried to sit up. Vincent helped ease her into a sitting position. It brought him close to her, touching her again. It was unimaginable torture.

For so long, he pushed aside the needs of his body, but with Olivia, he couldn’t. He wanted her, needed her.
Craved
her. It burned through him so hotly he could hardly pull breath into his lungs.
 

He thought he was safe from that driving, reckless desire for her when she left. But now she was back, and looking more beautiful and tempting than ever.

“What happened?” she asked in that husky voice of hers.

Vincent had to move away. He couldn’t think straight being so near her and wanting to have a taste of her lips. He walked to the fridge and opened it to grab a bottle of water.

“Vincent,” she urged. “Tell me.”

He looked around the kitchen. “Where is the aspirin?”

“Bathroom,” she said and pointed down the hall.

Most everyone living in the parish knew what the Chiasson’s did, but Maria had kept the true cause of Olivia’s parent’s deaths from her. Which meant Olivia might not know his family protected the parish by hunting supernatural creatures.

If she didn’t know, he wasn’t going to be the one to enlighten her.

He found the aspirin and dumped two in his hand before he walked back to Olivia. He handed the pills and water to her. “This will help with the headache.”

The look in her gaze was fierce as she popped the pills in her mouth and drank the water to swallow them. “Whatever you’re trying your damnedest not to tell me, spit it out.”

“Where is Maria?”

“Maman is at Grace’s house. Why?”

Vincent sat in the chair next to the couch and glanced out the window. “Did you see what attacked you?”

“Yes.” She visibly swallowed. “Well, sort of. It was hairy and dark. It came out of the shadows. I know I was alone on the porch, and then...it was just there. You were hunting it, weren’t you?”

Damn. So she did know what his family did. Vincent was disappointed. Not that he stood a chance with someone like Olivia, but for just a moment, he would have liked to pretend.

He nodded. “It could have killed you right then, but it didn’t. It looked to be dragging you off. Did it say anything?”

“Not at all. It slammed my head against the wood before I could run away. I need to call Maman. It could be after her, and she shouldn’t come home.”

Vincent covered her hand that grabbed her cell phone. “I don’t think the creature was after Maria.”

“You think it was after me?” Olivia’s black eyes went wide. “I just got back. How could it be after me?”

“I’m afraid it has to do with my family. Beau spoke with you this morning.”

“Wow. So who did your family piss off?”

She pulled her hand away, and Vincent tried not to be upset. He stood and walked to the door to look out the glass. His brothers were staying close to the house while still patrolling. “I don’t know who is after us. This goes back years. I’m sorry you got pulled into this. Perhaps you should return to Dallas.”

“I can’t.”

No explanation, nothing. Vincent looked at her over his shoulder and saw her studying the water bottle as if it held the answers to the universe.
 

“Well, you can’t remain here.”
 

She stood quickly and swayed. Vincent was next to her in a heartbeat, his arms wrapped around her waist to steady her. He urged her back down, and then lifted her feet to put them on the couch so that she was reclining again.

“You should remain lying down for a bit longer,” he said, stopping from touching her face as he was about to do.

She had her hand on her forehead as she leveled her gaze at him. “I know you want to hunt this thing, but please don’t leave me alone.”

No one had ever asked a Chiasson – much less him – to stay. It felt as if the sun had settled on him after eons of winter. Vincent had to remind himself that it was only because she was scared, and nothing more.

She had made her life away from Lyons Point, away from him. There was no kind of future for them, and he needed to keep remembering that.

“We’ll be staying until dawn. After that, you and Maria need to think about leaving town for awhile.”