Page 10 of Vampire's Choice

Last night, Ruth had attached a fastener to one of the feathers and strung a chain on it. Before that, she’d returned to the savanna environment to give the others back to the wind. And to give the male one more chance to return.

He didn’t, but Tau had pounced on one of the released feathers, sniffing it suspiciously.

“Yeah. He was pure trouble.” The remembrance of just how much trouble shivered over her skin.

Now she was headed for the creek portal, located in the mountain lions’ habitat. Mal drove, Elisa in the back seat of the Jeep, her hand on the seat next to Ruth’s shoulder.

Fragile humans climbed mountains and jumped out of airplanes. Ate bad food. They could be erased in an instant, and they did those things because their lives were so short and fragile. She wasn’t going to be outdone by a mere mortal.

As they pulled up, Adan was already there, waiting.

Her twin had Mal’s sculpted cheekbones and jaw, his build and a light bronze skin tone, but Elisa’s captivating blue eyes and thick waves of molasses colored hair, though Adan kept his short. Ruth had her father’s straight black hair and dark brown eyes with hints of gold, but her mother’s barely five-foot height. However, while her mother was an ample-bosomed, tiny waisted hourglass, Ruth’s leanness, taut as a steel cable, also came from her father. She’d enhanced it through refinement of her fighting skills and building as much strength as her body would let her have.

She possessed a vampire’s usual arsenal of tools. Her compulsion ability allowed her to draw in a random human for blood needs. She could make their mind hazy enough to forget the event afterward. Most of her life, she’d had access to the blood of willing second marks on the island, making those abilities unnecessary, but she knew how to use them.

While she had a woman’s curves and her sexual appeal was as distracting as her brother’s and father’s, she didn’t give that much thought. Well, up until the other night, when the male’s attentions said how much he desired her. His touch made her aware of every curve, the softness of her skin, the thick weight of her hair. She’d thought of how it would feel, caught in his hard fist as he shoved into her.

Stop thinking about that, right the hell now. Vampire families were open about sex. They had to be. Until she’d learned control, her father had to be within range to supervise, so she didn’t kill the blood donor she was enjoying that way. It had been the same for Adan.

But they could detect arousal as readily as the smell of fresh blood, and her feeling worked up right now would draw curiosity and questions. Fortunately, the timing worked as a good distraction. Elisa was out of the Jeep almost before Mal parked it. Adan caught their mother in a warm and laughing embrace, lifting her off her feet.

Becoming a Light Guardian had made Adan look harder and stronger. Even as a young vampire, he hadn’t been a pushover, but he was connected to powers that could create or destroy, and his serious eyes said he’d more than once faced the difficult decision of which to choose.

He clasped his father’s hand, their elbows bending to pull one another in. Mal cupped his son’s head briefly before drawing back. “You’re looking well.”

Adan smiled, a wry expression. “Don’t tell Derek. He’ll think he’s not working me hard enough. I swear he goes out and starts cosmic trouble, just to make sure I don’t have a day off.”

In addition to being the Light Guardian who’d mentored Adan during his early magic-user training, Derek Stormwind had helped Mal set up the island’s portal and fault line magic years ago. He’d also done what he could to ensure Adan survived Guardian school, when the Unseelie Fae Queen had drafted him into it far earlier than any other enrollee in history.

Yeah, Catriona was cool, but the Fae Queen fit Ruth’s low opinion of most of the race.

Derek and his wife, Ruby, an accomplished witch, brought their son, Jem, to the island often. Elisa and Jem had a special bond; Elisa reacted to his presence the way Ruth expected a human would to a beloved grandchild. Which was good, because with the low vampire procreation stats, it was unlikely Adan or she would ever offer their mother that.

Their parents had stepped back so Ruth could have her turn to hug Adan. “Whine, whine, whine,” she said, addressing Adan’s complaint about Derek. “Don’t pretend you don’t love not having to shovel out the rehab enclosures.”

“How long is it going to take Da to realize he’d be better off feeding you to the cats? Or is he worried you’re so rotten, you’d give them fatal indigestion?”

She was going to punch him in the side, pull his hair or at least make a face, but instead she held onto him an extra moment. God, she missed him so much, so often.

Her other half.

Would there ever be a time when she didn’t fear that emptiness she’d felt all those years, his soul beyond her reach? A vampire mind link only reached so far, but his life force was so intimately connected to hers that, as long as he was on the physical surface of the earth somewhere, she could feel that connection.

The Guardian school training was in the Underworld, so the bond awareness had vanished as soon as he was enrolled. The only thing that helped her hold the terror at bay, until Derek told her it didn’t mean he was dead, was remembering it wasn’t the first time it had happened. Adan had been kidnapped by the Fae as a child, and it had disappeared then, too.

When he returned from Guardian school, she’d had half a second to hold onto the hope she’d never have to feel that awful emptiness again. Then Adan had let her know whenever he and Derek went between worlds, dimensions, wherever the hell they were, it would likely happen again.

She’d mostly adjusted to it, knowing it was part of his job, but she would never like it. If he died, that was what it would feel like. Permanently.

Adan’s arms were secure around her. Don’t be morbid, sis. I’ve proven how hard I am to kill. Twice now.

Eavesdropper. And you’re a cream puff. I could kill you with a sun lamp. On its lowest setting.

He drew back. When she goaded him like that, he rarely answered in kind. Instead, he insulted her prickly personality, barbed tongue, or music taste. Now, his eyes upon her, he didn’t hide where his thoughts had gone. She’d asked him never to do so, and he'd promised.

“This is a good decision,” he said quietly.

“Yeah. I hope so.”

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