Den of Sorrows (12 page)

Her eyes widened and he saw the minute she realized she’d hurt him, but anger quickly replaced the emotion. “No, you idiot!”

“Luna, we agreed not to call each other names when we fight,” he reminded her and instantly realized it had been the wrong thing to say.

“Then don’t act like a dense…a… well…a,” she sputtered over her words and finally blurted out, “sheep!”

Fane frowned at her. “A dense?” He paused. “Sheep?”

“Yes,” Jacquelyn said a little more confidently. “A dense sheep because sheep are the dumbest animals on the freaking planet and you are obviously a distant cousin.”

He wasn’t sure if he should laugh or be offended. A dense sheep, well that was a new one.

“I know you can take care of yourself. I don’t doubt for a second that you are capable. But if I have to stay behind because you can’t stand the idea of us” —she made a motion to her protruding belly— “in danger, then you can’t go either. Do you know what it will be like to sit here while the father of my child is fighting vampires? That makes me every bit as crazy as it makes you. I don’t understand why you dumb males think you’re the only ones with strong emotions when it comes to the idea of their mate being in danger.”

There she went with the name calling again. Fane hoped some of it was the hormones from her pregnancy making her a tad more volatile.

“I do know that you don’t like me being in danger. But I just figured you’d be more understanding that you being pregnant makes the situation different from when you are not pregnant. You won’t be able to fight, Jacquelyn.”

“You’ll protect me.”

Her matter-of-fact answer and the look of complete trust in her eyes caused all of the other things she’d said to vanish. It moved him in unbelievable ways to know that she had that much faith in his abilities.

“And it is my privilege to protect you. But what if we get overwhelmed? Vampires are fast and strong and vicious. If they got their hands on you…I know that we would die together, but not before I had to watch them tear into your throat. Please don’t put me in that position.” He was pleading with her and it didn’t make him feel any less like a man because he would do anything to protect his mate, even if that meant begging.

Fane waited for her answer as his heart beat painfully in his chest. She was standing across the room from him and he desperately wanted to wrap her in his arms, but he knew his touch would not be welcome in that moment. So he would attempt to be patient with her—though when it came to being able to touch Jacquelyn, patience was not one of his strong suits.

J
acque completely understood why Fane didn’t want her going and she might have agreed if it hadn’t been for what Cypher had told her. She didn’t know how to tell Fane what was going on. Apparently Lilly had some sort of vision last night and had insisted that Cypher ensure that Jacque make the trip to America. Whatever the vision was, it must have been terribly serious. Jacque knew that, under normal circumstances, her mother would want her as far away as possible from any fighting. Jacque was still trying to get used to the fact that her mother had begun to develop this seer type magic, but she trusted her regardless of whether she understood why it was happening to her.

Movement from across the room brought her attention back to the matter at hand. She turned to face her mate and met his gaze. The worry that filled his blue eyes was nearly painful to look at. It hurt her heart to know that she was going to cause him even more consternation, but she didn’t know what else to do.

“Listen, Fane,” she finally spoke. “Cypher’s just told me something important.”

“What did he tell you?” Fane asked as he took a step toward her.

“You aren’t going to like it.”

“We don’t keep secrets, Luna,” he reminded her of their vow.

Jacque took a deep breath and let it out before she spoke again. “Mom had a vision.” She paused as her mate let out a string of expletives that had her eye widening. Fane rarely cursed. It was in Romanian, but there was no missing the tone of the words.

“I hate it when you start a sentence that way,” he grumbled as he ran a hand through his dark hair.

For a moment she was sidetracked by the movement and how sensual it appeared as his arm flexed and his shirt rose up, giving her a tempting view of his well sculpted stomach. She frowned at that thought as she looked down at her own, not sculpted, stomach.

“You’re beautiful,” he said reading the disgust on her face. “Do I need to show you just how beautiful you are to me?”

She held up her hand. “Don’t take another step wolf-man. We aren’t done.”

“Very well, what did your mother see?”

“She told Cypher that it was absolutely imperative that I go to the US with the group. She couldn’t tell him exactly what she’d seen because it was too clouded from her conscious mind. But without a doubt she felt that if I didn’t go with you, something terrible was going to happen.”

“Something terrible to you, if you stay?” he asked.

Jacque shrugged. “She couldn’t say whether the terrible thing would happen here. Fane you have to know that I don’t want to hurt you. I understand why you want me to stay here and I want to protect our child just as much as you do, but I trust my mother’s judgement.” She waited to see what he would say. Jacque watched as her mate’s jaw clenched and his hands fisted at his side. Finally after several agonizing heartbeats he looked at her.

This time when he started walking toward her, she didn’t stop him. When he was standing in front of her, Jacque had to tilt her head back to look up at him. At six feet, two inches, he towered over her. But instead of feeling intimidated by his size, she felt sheltered and safe.

Fane reached out a hand and caressed her face gently. “I suppose we don’t have a choice then. I don’t like it. In fact, it terrifies me, but if your mom says that you need to go, then you will go.”

Jacque closed her eyes and let out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.

“Just promise me, Jacquelyn, that you will listen to me, and if I tell you to run, or hide, or whatever, that you will do it.”

Jacque couldn’t help but take the opening he’d given her. Jen would be proud. “Uh-huh and just how am I supposed to run with a belly and butt this size? Aaaand where exactly would you expect me to hide my big’ol self?”

Fane frowned at her. “I don’t understand what you and Jen go on about. You are not bigger anywhere but your stomach than you were before you were pregnant and even your stomach isn’t that big.”

Jacque looked down at her chest and then back up at him. “Dude, these” —she pointed to her breasts— “did not look like this before I got pregnant.”

Fane’s eyes darkened and the look that he gave her could have melted butter. “Not that I didn’t appreciate your beautiful body before you carried our child, but I will not complain in any way about the new, shall we say, developments?”

Jacque smacked his chest. “You’re such a perv.”

“Enjoying my mate’s body is not me being a perv. It’s me exercising my rights.”

Jacques brow rose. “Is that so?”

Fane nodded confidently.

“And what if I revoke your rights?” she challenged, and her wolf loved the way his wolf rose up in response, needing to be the more dominant. It was sexy, though she would never in a million, billion years admit it to him.

Fane leaned down and placed his mouth next to her ear. His warm breath against her skin caused a shiver to run through her body. “I have a feeling I would be able to earn them back.”

The tone in his voice, more than his words, had her knees trembling. Fane wrapped an arm around her waist to help support her. And when she looked up at him, she saw the satisfied smirk on his face and tried to push away. He refused to let her budge even a centimeter.

“Is it such a bad thing to have me love your body, in whatever state it is in?” he asked her, his voice still thick with desire.

Jacque huffed. “No. It’s just how entitled you sounded. It gets on my nerves.”

He smiled at her. “You are just as entitled to me. You have the very same rights in regards to me that I have to you. Does that make it better?”

Jacque pushed back to look him up and down. Her mate’s form was something to behold. “I suppose it helps,” she sniffed stubbornly.

He chuckled. “Stubborn, stubborn, female.” Fane leaned down and pressed a tender kiss to her lips. “I wouldn’t have you any other way, you know?”

She nodded.

“Now,” he said stepping back and looking her up and down the way she’d just done to him. “Let’s get back to the new developments. Are those going to stick around after our child is born?”

Jacque’s jaw dropped open. He would never cease to amaze her. He’d been bold before they’d bonded, but since they’d mated and married, he’d given bold a whole new meaning.

“We’re going to be searching for a vampire coven tomorrow. And you’re worried about whether my girls are going to stay this size?”

Fane looked completely baffled as to why this surprised her. “Beloved, the world could be burning to the ground and I would still have thoughts about your amazing, sexy, mine body.”

“Mine body? That doesn’t even make sense.”

He shrugged. “When I think about your body sometimes all I can think is…mine.”

She let out a groan. “I will never understand the way your mind works.”

“That’s okay,” he assured her. “All you have to do is understand that when I do this,” —Fane pulled her close and leaned down and nipped her skin where his mark was on her neck— “it means I need you—now.”

She gasped at the intimate contact. “I can try to remember that,” she answered breathlessly.

“Good. Now go get ready for bed. We need to get some rest. Five a.m. will come all too soon.”

Jacque ignored his bossy tone and pretended to herself that it was totally her idea to get ready for bed. “Freaking Neanderthal,” she muttered under her breath.

“I don’t consider that an insult, mate,” he called out to her.

Jacque shot him an un-ladylike gesture but couldn’t stop the smile when she heard him say, “Even doing that makes me desire you more.”

“Does everything I do turn you on?”
she asked silently.

He seemed to be thinking about it and she waited as she brushed her teeth and washed her face. Finally he answered her.
“Yes.”

C
ostin pulled Sally closer to him as they lay in their bed. Peri had been kind enough to take them back to the Serbia mansion, though they had a room in the Romania mansion as well. Decebel had wanted to talk to Drake and Costin about the mission and Costin, of course, wanted Sally close by.

“Whatchya thinking about?” Sally asked him as he ran his hand up and down her arm.

“That things are going to get messy very fast.”

“Is that pun intended?”

He smiled. “Actually no, though it is very fitting.”

He heard the hesitation in her breath as she started to speak but then paused.

“What is it, Sally Mine?” Costin asked her gently.

“Are you afraid? I mean, this isn’t just one enemy. It’s…well,…we don’t even know how many vampires are out there. You know? How can we fight something so big?”

“Well, as the saying goes—one vampire at a time.”

She sighed. “Guess that’s all we can do.”

“I can give you some small comfort.” Costin rolled until his body blanketed hers. “We won’t be fighting alone. Just like with all the other battles we’ve been in, we will have those we trust and love around us.”

The sweet smile she graced him with caused his heart to stutter, just as it always did when she smiled at him.

“You’re right. At least we aren’t facing this on our own, nor are any of the others alone. Thank you for reminding me of that.” Sally lifted her chin while her eyes made it clear that she wanted him to meet her halfway. Costin never was one to deny his mate. He leaned down the rest of the way and pressed his lips to hers. His wolf rumbled at the contact and took comfort from the touch and scent of their mate.

He understood Sally’s fear and, truth be told, he was afraid, but he couldn’t just stand by when such horrible things were happening to innocent children. When there were people as kind and pure as his mate in the world, Costin couldn’t fathom how evil like the vampires could be allowed to continue to exist. But since it was partly up to him, he’d do his best to ensure that they wouldn’t be existing much longer.