“I’ll escort you.I think that we’ve said all that can be said on the matter of keeping Tabatha safe.”Sirous looked at her, and she could feel him in her mind.At his laughter, she took two more steps back.It wasn’t full of humor at all, but a scary sound that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
“If you cross me even one time, there will not be a second time.Do I make myself clear to you?”
“I know what you are now.What do you think this town will say when they have a nest of vampires around killing off their children?”She didn’t feel him move, but suddenly she was choking and several inches from the sidewalk.Grabbing at nothing around her throat, she stared at the man in front of her with fear.He was going to kill her, and there was nothing that she could do about it.
“This is only a taste of what I’ll do to you.”He moved then, snapping his fingers so that she was released and dropped to the ground.“I have your scent and your taste now.I will know your every thought so long as you live.Which won’t be all that much longer, the way things are going with you.”
Then he was gone.Just like a poof of air, he was not only gone, but she couldn’t see Tabby either.Staying on the sidewalk, she tried to tell herself that it hadn’t been as bad as she had thought it was.He’d made her feel like he was going to kill her, and she wasn’t near death.However, every time she touched her fingers to her throat, she could feel the pain there.That was when she noticed the blood.Christ, he really had bitten her, and now she was going to be his slave forever.
~*~
Sirous had never been so angry in his life.And it felt good.He’d not only made his point to the other woman, but he knew things about her that he doubted that she knew about herself.She was dying of cancer, and it would be less than a year before she would succumb to the disease.He should just let her suffer that way; it was hard on a human, he knew this.As he caught up with Tabby, she took his handinto hers.The feeling of anger not only dissipated, but it seemed to just evaporate like it had never been an issue.He kissed the back of her hand before they rang the bell to Brew’s home.
“I was wrong about your mother being a peach.I believe that she’s every sour fruit I’ve ever seen.”That brought a burst of laughter from her as well as tears.“Don’t cry, my love.I didn’t kill her.Though I will admit if anyone deserves it, she would be the one.I’ve never met a more vile woman in all my lifetimes.”
“Will you protect me from her and all the people she has on her payroll?Though I don’t know how she has any money to pay them, she’s never been one to do anything correctly.”He said that he’d go to the ends of the earth to protect her from everyone who dared harm her.“Carl Wayne?He’s going to be a problem.I’ve seen him around town.”
“I’ve gotten in contact with his leader.He’s none too happy with the things I was able to enlighten him about.I doubt very much by this time tomorrow Carl will be around to bother anyone.I made it perfectly clear that to harm you is certain death to all who are involved.And by me telling him, that made him as involved as Carl is.Nay, he’ll never harm you again, or a burin will cease to exist.”He thought about some of the things that Tabitha had said to her mother.“Am I really growing on you?I should think that I’m not such a bad man now that you’ve made it clear that I’m not to touch you unless you wish it.”
“I honestly don’t know what it is that I want.”She rang the doorbell.“I only hope that the rest of the people behind this door are as nice as you can be when it suits you.”
The door was opened before he could come up with a good reply.She’d been catching him off guard since he’d met her, and he was sure that for the rest of their lives together, she would still do the same.Instead of being upset by her candor, he was enjoying it.He wasn’t sure what was wrong with him, other than he really was falling in love with his beautiful mate.
The others were welcoming to her when the two of them entered the living room.He knew that Yosef had told them all the story of how they had met, so he saw no reason to go over it again.However, Brew thought it was just funny enough to bear repeating, and he wanted to strangle the man when he brought up his first words to Tabitha.How he’d been tricked into having a mate at the point where he wanted to end his life.Calla sat down next to his dear heart and was talking to her when he was hugged by Brew.
“I knew she was out there for you.I just knew it.And now that you’ll not be ending your life—you aren’t, are you?”He said that he wasn’t, as he had found someone to keep him safe.“I should hope so.And I welcome her to my house.I know she’s been hiding from her mother, Yosef told us all about it.She’ll not have any troubles around here anymore.I swear to you on my mother’s heart there will be no one to harm her again.”
“I’ve taken care that the bear has been taken care of as well.”Brew told him that was the next thing he was going to ask him about.“I don’t believe he’ll be around much longer if he’s not already dead.I made it perfectly clear that I will bring harm down on the entirety of the bruin should he be left to continue what he’s been up to.”
He told him about the incident involving Tabitha’s mother.He also shared with him that the woman didn’t have much longer to live, even if he were to leave her alone.Sirous knew that he’d not be leaving the woman alone.She was going to continue to cause trouble from now on, and she’d be in his sights just when she started to cause trouble again.He wasn’t above having her arrested, either, just so that she’d be out of their lives for a bit.
“She has it in her head that Tabitha will cave if she were to do something to me.Her plan is to tell the town that you have a nest going on here and that we spell certain death to all the children.Why is it that you suppose that that’s the one thing that people believe about us?That we feed on children?I’ve never once had a meal on a child, and I doubt very much any of the rest of us have either.”Brew said that not even when he’d been desperate had he ever done such a thing.“There you go.Someone said it once, and instead of finding out if it was true or not, they believed it.Humans are so gullible.”
“I like this new you.You’ve barely said ten things strung together, and now here you are havinga full conversation with me.I really have missed the old you.”He said that he’d not had a reason to be talkative before.“A mate can really change your mind about things, can’t they?This morning, you thought that this was the last day of your life, and it turns out it was the first day of your life with a mate.How does she like being mated to a vampire?Has she busted your chops about it?”
“She’s very good at busting my chops, as you put it, about everything.She has rules about me taking her and feeding from her.Until we arrived here, I’ve not even touched her, but for my wishful thinking.She’s a beauty, is she not?”He said that she was very beautiful.“I find that I could stare at her all the time and see something different each time I look at her.”He looked at Brew.“You tell anyone I said that and I’ll wring your neck.I don’t know what’s wrong with me all of a sudden.”
“You have a mate that’s all.”He asked him about living arrangements.“Not that you’re not welcome here for as long as the two of you wish, but I’m sure that now that you have her in your life, you’ll wish for your own home.”
“I don’t know.We’ve only just met today.I will be looking for something for us.With her, no doubt, but as for any other arrangements, I think we’ll have to wait on her.She has a willful mind, and I’d hate to upset her by assuming that she’s going to want a home of her own.However, she did like the house that Conri gave her.You should see it.It’s as clean as a whistle and flowers all over the room that I could see into.”He asked if he was able to go into the house to stay with her.“She wouldn’t allow me to go into her home.She’s smart in that.I don’t know what I would have done had she allowed me to enter.I know that I wasn’t in the best frame of mind when she was in there without me.”
“You two will get to know one another in no time.”Sirous hoped so.He really was falling in love with the pretty little human.“I take it that you’ve not figured out how she knows what she does about the winners.I could tell her if she didn’t trust you.”
“I don’t know that I could take that either, my dear friend.”There was only a bit of jealousy when Brew suggested he bite his mate before he did.He was sure that he understood, too.Brew was a good man and a better vampire than he had been.
For the rest of the evening, they spoke of nothing to do with Tabitha’s mother or the bear Carl.It was a time of good friends, and he thought that perhaps he had the best of the lot.When Mother Smith joined them, she brought up stories of their childhood and how they’d all grown up together under her roof.
As children, they had spent a great deal of time in the Smith household.She’d only been known as mother and her mate as father, even though they all had parents of their own.Sirous’ parents had been distant when he’d been a child.So much so that when he felt their deaths, it was nothing more than a feeling of relief.The same had been with Kenneth’s parents, too.They’d been old when they’d had them, and they, like him, had been set in their ways too much to want to bother with them.Mother Smith had made up for their lack of love and encouragement by making sure that they had a bed at their home and all the knowledge they’d need to become good men.He knew, too, how to woo a woman; however, he’d not had much of a reason to use it until now.He was going to make sure that he dusted off that knowledge and used it to woo his mate.She deserved the very best.
By the time the younger women were yawning their way through conversations, he knew it was time that he made a decision on where they were going to be staying.He wouldn’t presume to sleep with her, but he would find her a good bed that she could rest in with him nearby.Calla had made the arrangements for him, and he would be forever grateful to her for taking it upon herself to make sure that Tabitha felt welcome in the big home.
After the women went up to bed, he longed for a night out with his friends.He’d been pushing them away because he knew that to get too close to them again would be harder on him, but now that that part of his life was at a close, he wanted to spend as much time with them as he could.They all decided that they would walk into town and see what they could get into.Brew and he wouldn’t participate in the feeding, but they’d have fun all the same.He’d forgotten what it was like to spend the evening with a bunch of vampires on the hunt for a meal.
By the time the sun was coming up, he was beginning to feel the pull of his rest.He didn’t haveto rest as much as a newborn vampire did, but he’d been neglecting his rest for trying to get in as much time with his friends as he could.Now all he wanted to do was to sleep the sleep of his kind and not wake until he was better.He would have to feed soon, and he wasn’t going to mess up with Tabitha by smelling of someone else when he had her to be his mate.
Checking on Tabitha before he had his slumber, he knew that she was sleeping well and left her to it.As much as he wanted to just rest next to her, he knew that all the trust that he’d built up until now would be gone if he were to do that.Instead, he made his way to the room he’d been using and laid down.Sleep took him in its grip even as he thought about making sure that the house was well protected for the only true one of his life.His mate deserved the very best, and he was going to make sure that she had it.
When he woke the next evening, he felt like he’d gotten a good day’s sleep.Nothing had bothered him, and he found that Tabitha had gotten up long before he did.Going to the kitchen, a place that seemed to call to the others too to spend time, he found her having a hearty breakfast and talking with the faeries of the house.He’d forgotten they were around and was glad that someone had introduced her to them.Calla was warmer towards not just him but Tabitha, too.
