Vampires of Maze (Part Four) (Beautiful Immortals Series Two Book 4) Page 5

Slowly, I turned my head to the left, exposing the right side of my neck. With one hand, Trent gently pulled down the collar of my pyjama top and picked up the candle with the other. Leaning closer still so I could feel his warm breath against my flesh, Trent inspected my neck in the candlelight. The speed of my heart began to quicken and I felt those glowing embers in the pit of my stomach begin to grow hot.

  “I can’t see any hairs,” Trent said, his voice like a whisper in my ear. “Perhaps now that you’ve cut them away they won’t grow back.”

  “Why did they appear in the first place?”

  “Perhaps Calix’s bite-mark did become infected and as a result some hairs grew out of the wound, but they seem to have gone now,” Trent said, trying to reassure me.

  I wasn’t so sure his words did reassure me. It seemed impossible to get the sight of those prickly black hairs sprouting from my neck out of my mind. Wanting to believe that Trent was correct and that perhaps the wound had just become infected and I wasn’t going to change into a wolf, I said, “Are you sure they have all gone? Are you sure they won’t grow back?”

  “Would I do this if I thought they would?” Trent whispered in my ear.

  “Do what?” I whispered back.

  “This,” he said before gently kissing the wound on my neck.

  To feel his lips brush against the side of my neck made me instinctively want to flinch backwards. I didn’t. The sensation felt so blissful a burning sensation flared up deep inside of me, spreading up from the pit of my stomach and warming me throughout. It was a familiar feeling that I’d almost forgotten. It was the same maddening feeling of pleasure and desire that I’d felt when being kissed by Pariac and Theo. I let Trent kiss me again. Then again and again and again. And as he set down the candle he had been holding, he pulled me closer still. His burning kisses found my lips and I kissed him back.

  Chapter Eight

  His tongue found mine and they slid over and against each other as our kiss became deeper and more intense. I felt Trent’s hands slide down my back and settle on my hips. He gripped them, lifting me onto the table. Sitting upright on the edge of it, Trent positioned himself between my legs and I closed them around him. I made fists with my hands, and knotted my fingers in his unruly hair. The stubble covering his chin rubbed up against the side of my face and I enjoyed the coarse sensation. As we continued to kiss, I felt one of Trent’s hands slide up beneath my pyjama top. He cupped his fingers around one of my breasts, rolling the ball of his thumb over my nipple. It stiffened at once and my skin began to tingle as it broke out in something close to gooseflesh. Freeing my hands from his hair, I fumbled for the belt buckle that secured the guns about his waist. It wasn’t the guns that I was now eager to free. With his lips crushing mine, Trent ripped open the front of my pyjama top setting my breasts free. He grabbed at them with his hands, but they no longer felt human and had become claws.

  He broke our kiss. I opened my eyes to see that Trent now looked more wolf-like than man. For the briefest of moments, I had to stifle the urge to gasp at him in the dim candlelight. I could have easily mistaken Trent for Pariac. Trent pushed me back onto the table, then lowered his head and began to cover my breasts in rough and urgent kisses. I squirmed beneath him, raking my fingernails over his back, consumed by a desire I’d promised myself I would never feel again. Opening my eyes a fraction, I peered over Trent’s shoulder at the man who had now stepped from the shadows that darkened the furthest corner of the kitchen.

  Stifling the urge to scream out, I watched Pariac come slowly toward the table. Could it be possible? Pariac was dead. He died because of me. He died because I was a coward and weak, so how could the man I’d once loved with a blinding intensity be standing in my kitchen in a completely different layer – in a completely different world?

  “Stop!” I gasped, desperately trying to wriggle free from beneath Trent as he gripped my wrists and pinned me to the table.

  Trent raised his head to look at me, and in a voice that was both deep and guttural, he said, “What’s wrong, Julia?”

  “Please, Trent, we have to stop, this isn’t right,” I said, breaking free of him and clambering from the table. I closed the torn and shredded pyjama top about me and looked around the kitchen for any sign of Pariac, but I could no longer see him.

  “Julia, what’s wrong? What are you looking for?” Trent said from behind me.

  I turned to face him, and even though much of his face was hidden by thick side whiskers and his eyes were catlike in shape, I could see the confusion in them. “Did I hurt you? Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, it’s not you, Trent, it’s me,” I said, unable to stop myself from glancing back over my shoulder and peering into the shadows.

  Trent came forward, placing his hands on my shoulders. Gently, he turned me to face him. “I’m sorry.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for,” I said with a shake of my head in an attempt to rid my mind of images of Pariac. It was like he was haunting me. And if he was, how would I ever be able to move on with my life, to take another lover?

  Trent’s hands were still very much like claws, yet still he reached out and gently caressed the side of my face. I enjoyed his touch – I’d been enjoying what Trent had been doing to me too much – that was the problem. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t get involved with a werewolf or vampire again because I knew it could only ever lead to heartache and pain.

  “Please go,” I whispered.

  “I do care about you very much, Julia,” Trent said. “I do understand your fears.”

  “Do you?” I asked, not knowing how he could possibly understand such a thing and what had made me so fearful.

  “I know that mixing between a werewolf like me and a Wicce like you is forbidden,” Trent said, “but those rules were made in another time in another place. The world we are now living in is a different one. There are no rules here – there is only anger, hate, and war. The feelings that are growing between us are surely a good thing – a beacon of light in a world that has grown so dark.”

  I stared into Trent’s fiery eyes, and with my heart aching and tears threatening, I said, “I would love to love you, Trent, but I can’t. Not yet. Not now.”

  Slowly, Trent let his claws slide from my shoulders as they took on their human form once more. Looking more like a man now than wolf, Trent slowly turned his back on me and headed for the kitchen door. He stopped midstride to look back at me. “If only we had met in another world, in another where and when…” Then turning once more, Trent headed down the hallway.

  “If only,” I whispered to myself over the sound of the front door swinging shut.

  Turning slowly on the balls of my feet, I picked up the candle from the table. Holding it out before me, I tried to shed some light into the shadows.

  “Pariac? Pariac, are you there?” I whispered.

  My question was answered only by silence as I found myself alone once more.

  Chapter Nine

  I slept right through the night. My sleep wasn’t disturbed by an intruder, nightmares, or anything else. Before showering, I inspected my neck once more and could see that the wound hadn’t changed. To my great relief, I couldn’t see any of those hairs growing back. I gently brushed my fingers over the wound and whether it was my imagination or just wishful thinking, that stubbly feeling seemed to have softened too. Perhaps Morton and Trent had been right and the wound had just become a little infected and I really had nothing to worry about. So after taking a warm shower and throwing on some clean clothes, I made my way downstairs. In the hallway my attention was drawn to something lying on the doormat. Stooping down, I picked up a slip of paper which had been folded in half. I opened it and a message had been written:

  Meeting being held this morning at the Weeping Wolf, please be there.

  The note hadn’t been signed and I didn’t recognise the handwriting so I had no idea who had slipped it under the door. I could only presume that it had been left by Trent, Calix
, or one of the others. Folding the piece of paper over and stuffing it into the back pocket of my jeans, I took my coat off the hook on the wall, pulled on my boots, and left home for the Weeping Wolf.

  The morning was bright and there was a fresh breeze blowing across the park which ruffled my hair about my shoulders. All of the snow had melted away now and I could see the first shoots of spring as flowers had started to grow in nearby flowerbeds and in the hedgerows that circled the park. It wasn’t only the sunny morning that lifted my mood as I headed into town, it was the thought that perhaps I’d noticed something in me that I hadn’t since waking from my unconscious state. It was very faint but I thought I could feel the first tingling sensations of magic weaving to and fro in the pit of my stomach. Perhaps a good night’s sleep had done me some good, because it did feel as if my magic was returning. I didn’t feel feverish or achy any more. I was mindful of not getting too excited because the magic still felt very faint within me – something like a very gentle hum – but it was a start. I didn’t feel as hollow as I had done previously.

  As I cleared the park and walked along the narrow and winding roads of Shade, I began to wonder whether Trent hadn’t also played some part in reigniting the magic within me. As we’d kissed last night, he had stirred feelings in me which I hadn’t felt since leaving my own world. Although they were not feelings of magic that Trent had ignited, perhaps they had stirred something in me – something deeper which had rekindled my magic? So had being kissed by Trent been so bad after all? What was I talking about? The kiss I’d shared with Trent had been glorious and I’d enjoyed every single moment of it. And if it hadn’t have been for the haunting memories of Pariac, I knew that kiss would’ve led to something far more between me and Trent. However, there was a part of me that was glad I’d been reminded of Pariac last night. It had stopped the situation between me and Trent from getting out of hand, however much I had wanted it to. I had made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t let anything like that happen again.

  Not since discovering the note on the doormat had I wondered what the meeting was about. Had Calix snaked on me and told Rea that he’d discovered me searching her room? No, I doubted very much he had. If Rea had found out I’d been snooping around her private belongings, she wouldn’t have wasted any time in coming to my home and confronting me about it. Perhaps Trent had asked Rea whether she had stolen the spell book from me. I suspected Rea would’ve denied such a thing, even if she had been the culprit. So maybe Trent had called a meeting between all of us to resolve the matter – to find out who the thief was. I hoped that he hadn’t. I’d asked him not to say anything to Rea. Would he have broken the promise he had made me?

  Reaching the end of the alleyway, I stepped out into the street and froze. There was a part of me that wanted to turn back – to bury my head under a pillow and hope this all went away. Before I’d had a chance to do such a thing, I heard someone call my name. I looked to my right to see Rush standing in the open doorway of the Weeping Wolf.

  He looked bright and smiley as he always did. Rush raised one hand and waved at me. “Hey, Julia.”

  “Hey, Rush,” I said, forcing a smile.

  “So you got the note I slipped under your door?” he asked.

  “So it was you then?”

  “I tried knocking but got no answer. You must’ve been dead to the world,” he explained. “And knowing how tired and ill you felt yesterday, I thought it best if I left you to get some sleep – have a lie in.”

  Taking a deep breath, I said, “So, what is this meeting about?

  If I could find out why we had all been called together before I stepped inside the Weeping Wolf, and if the meeting was about the theft of my spell book, I could slink away back into the alley and head home. But even if the meeting had been called to catch the thief, what did I have to be afraid of? I had done nothing wrong. But I knew why I feared it; I didn’t want any more trouble – any further confrontation or mistrust amongst the group. I would find the spell book in my own way. I would catch the thief but without being confrontational and tearing the group apart.

  “There’s something we need to discuss,” Rush said in answer to my question. “There’s something we need to decide on as a group.”

  From what Rush said, it sounded like there wasn’t going to be any kind of argument or accusations flying around. That sense of unease and concern I felt began to dissipate inside of me and loosen its grip on my heart.

  Rush headed back into the pub and I followed. The fire had been lit and my companions were gathered around a nearby table. Straightaway my eyes went to Trent. Our eyes met briefly, then he looked away. There wasn’t a smile or any other kind of recognition between us. It was like he was trying to pretend that what had happened between us hadn’t taken place at all. I felt a sudden twinge of disappointment at this, but then wasn’t this the reaction I had wanted?

  “Take a seat, Julia,” Rush said, ushering me toward a chair at the table. I sat down between Calix and Morten. Even though the bar was heated by the roaring fire, Morten still wore the bowler hat.

  “I made you some coffee,” Calix said, sliding a cup toward me.

  “Thanks,” I said, glancing sideways at him wondering whether he had kept my secret. Rea sat opposite me, and as she hadn’t as yet leapt across the table and throttled me, I guessed Calix hadn’t said anything to her after all. I was grateful to him for that at least, despite him being a jerk most of the time.

  I drank some coffee and listened to the hiss and spit of the nearby fire. No one was talking. I glanced once more at Trent and tried to read his eyes – wanting and needing to know whether he had told Rea I suspected it was her who had broken into my home. But Trent wasn’t looking at me – he was looking at her.

  Unable to bear the continuing silence any more, I said, “So why are we all here? What is this meeting about?”

  Rea took a cigar from the breast pocket of the blue denim shirt she wore. She struck a match and waved the flame over the end of the cigar, sucking her cheeks in and jetting thick streams of grey smoke through her nose. Once the cigar was lit, she looked at me and said, “We’re leaving Shade.”

  I frowned back at her. “Leaving Shade? Why?”

  Trent spoke to me for the first time since arriving at the Weeping Wolf, and said, “The weather might be warming here in England but the winter is heading east toward our homelands and without protection, what remains of our people will freeze.”

  Rea blew smoke through her thick red lips and said, “So some of us are going to head home – back to Switzerland and return with our people.”

  “I understand what you are saying and your concerns,” I said, “but is it really wise – is it really safe for you to leave Shade and what we have here to go all the way back to your homelands? I think you should stay with me and try and find a truce with the vampires. Once we have done that then you will be free to go wherever you like, you and the rest of your people will be free once more.”

  “There are children amongst our people,” Rea said. “They’re trapped in a barren wasteland with little shelter and food, and once the winter hits them they will freeze and starve to death – is that what you want?”

  I shook my head. “Of course it’s not what I want.”

  “You seemed quick enough to want to save the human children in the human farm,” Rea shot back. “But you hesitate in wanting to save the children of our race.”

  “That’s not what I’m saying at all, and you know it,” I snapped.

  “Look,” Trent sighed, “let’s not turn this into another row, okay?”

  “All I’m saying is, I think we should stay here until we find a truce with the vampires,” I said.

  “As I remember it, it was you, Julia, who came here to find a truce,” Rea took delight in reminding me. “We came to find a new home for our people. Now that we have, we’re going to bring them here, to Shade. After seeing the magic you’ve created around this town we know our people will be saf
e here.”

  “It sounds like you just want to bring more werewolves to Shade to grow your number and that’s what concerns me,” I said.

  “Concerns you, how?” Rush asked, looking puzzled.

  Before I’d a chance to say anything, Rea spoke for me and said, “I think Julia fears that we’re bringing werewolves back to England to attack the vampires, to go to war with them.”

  “And aren’t you?” I shot back at her.

  “I understand your fears, Julia,” Trent said, his voice soft and un-accusing, “but we really just want to save our people. We’re not going to bring them back to create some kind of army and wage war against the vampires. I promise you that. You have my word.”

  “So that settles it then,” Rush said, pushing his chair back from the table and standing up as if the meeting had come to an end.

  “Settles what?” I scowled at him.

  Rea got to her feet and said, “Trent, Rush, and I are going to leave tomorrow for Switzerland and return with our people.”

  I looked at Trent. “You’re going?”

  “I have to,” he said.

  “Do you have a problem with that?” Rea was quick to ask.

  “It’s just that…” I started.

  “Don’t worry, sweetheart, you’ll be perfectly safe in Shade, as I’m staying with you,” Calix said with a knowing grin.

  “I don’t need you to protect me,” I said, jumping to my feet and nearly toppling my chair over.

  Morten, who sat next to me, shot out his arm and steadied the chair. “I’ll be staying, too,” he said.

  I looked across the table at Trent. “I thought you said we would find a truce – find peace with the vampires.”

  “There’s nothing stopping you from doing that,” Rea said as if Trent had somehow lost the power to speak for himself. Rea turned and headed for the door. Looking back over her shoulder at me, she added, “You stay and find a truce with the vampires so when we get back with our people, we and the vampires can all live as one big, happy family.”