Desire Awakened (Aaron's Kiss #13) (7 page)

“No, she is not. But she is going away. She
has spoken to her mother and has told her that she will live in
Molavonta for the rest of her life. Miss Lizzy believes that you
will not want her.” Logan sat down at his desk as Duncan continued.
“You have not asked after the men who tried to murder your son and
sister. She is working on the case. She will crack it, I believe,
as she is very good at solving things.”

“My sister and son were victims of a
hit-and-run. No one tried to murder anyone.” He looked at Duncan
when he handed him an envelope. He opened it, then read it and
looked up at Duncan again.

“Master Bradley has a man looking into it.
The bat had the scent of one of his kind, but not of his pack.
Master Bradley is a kind and generous leader and will do what needs
to be done to make this right.”

Logan tried to shy away from the word pack
and opened his mouth twice to ask Duncan what he thought the word
meant. When Duncan handed him another piece of paper, it was an
article dated nearly seventy years ago. It was about the young
woman, Airic, and how she’d been found.

“You met her at the hospital. She and her
mate, Master Bradley, live nearby the MacManus estate. They have
several thousand members of their pack, all of them friends of your
Miss Lizzy.”

Logan looked over the things as he was
handed them. He wasn’t stupid, but he was beginning to think that
there was more here than some doctored papers. There were birth
records for others too, some he’d met at the hospital, others he
had never seen before. But there were pictures of them; recent ones
according to Duncan, and all of them were of people who were over a
hundred years old.

Logan started to speak, but the room seemed
to vibrate with something. Before he could stand up and throw
Duncan to the floor to protect him from whatever it was, a
beautiful woman was standing in front of him.

“Hello, Dunc, my man. Aaron sent me to
retrieve Mr. Burris here.” She winked at him. “My name is Zane.
Would you like to do this the hard way or…well, my way is going to
be hard too, but you can choose your pain level.”

Logan tried to wrap his mind around the fact
that she’d just appeared in the room. Before he could ask her about
it, she stretched out her arm and pulled up her sleeve. There was
the most beautiful tattoo of a knife he’d ever seen. She ran her
finger down the length of it as he watched and when she got to the
handle, she began pulling it from her skin until she was standing
there with it in her hand.

“Mother fuck.”

She smiled at him when she handed it toward
him pommel first.

“I don’t think so. I don’t know what’s going
on here, but I’d like for you both to leave.”

“Can’t. Aaron, as much as I’d like to
disobey him the rest of the time, said I was to bring you to him.
And since he can’t leave the house right now, he sent me.” She
looked to her right, and he did too as yet another being shimmered
into the room. It was the king Shamus

“Get him out now. To the castle. They come
for him.”

Before anyone could move, Lizzy was there.
She wrapped her arms around him and told him to close his eyes.

“Zane, the woman. Duncan, my arm.”

They were instantly in the castle again.
Logan moved to the sofa that seemed to move further away the closer
he got to it. When he was sitting down, he looked up at Anna who
was simply standing still.

“She can’t see any of this.” Logan looked at
Zane as she continued. “As soon as it’s safe, I’ll have her taken
home and she won’t remember any of this or before. Her wounds have
been tended to.”

Someone came forward and handed Lizzy a bag,
and he watched her as she opened it.

“If you’ll lay back, I’ll see how badly you
were hurt.” Lizzy sounded so strange to him.

“Hurt?” He looked down at his leg as she
ripped his pants open. There was a long slice in his leg and he
closed his eyes against it.

“It’s wolf. I can’t seal it without Mel’s
permission.” Logan watched Lizzy as she cleaned the wound and tried
to think what had happened. “They came for you. The wolf pack that
wants you dead. They were attacking even as I came to you. I’m
sorry you both were hurt. But I couldn’t stick around long enough
to get a good read on their minds, but it has something to do with
a building.”

“The Lacer building. That’s what I’m trying
to purchase along with five more in the downtown area. The
gentlemen who came to the parking garage that night said that they
were going to…Christ, Mathew and Donna.”

She pushed him back in the chair. “They’re
safe. Bradley has been having pack watch your house for a couple of
weeks now. Nothing will get past them.”

Logan was overwhelmed again. So much so that
he started thinking that everything she and the others were telling
him was true. He lifted her chin up with his finger. “Show me.”

Lizzy hesitated for a few seconds, then
opened her mouth. Her fangs lengthened and sharpened. He could feel
the place on his throat burn. “How much…what else? I know there’s
more, but…” He watched as she taped the gauze over his wound
closed. “When you…give me your blood, you heal me?”

“Yes. Vampire blood is very powerful, but
mine more so. My mother is the cousin to the queen of magic, as
I’ve said before, and her blood runs through our veins like my
dad’s does.” He lifted her chin again when she wouldn’t look at
him. “I’m going to make sure you’re taken back now.”

When she stood, so did he. She started to
back away, and he pulled her back. He didn’t pull her against his
body as he wished, but he did hold her. When she looked away, he
said her name softly.

“Look, Logan, you’ve made it perfectly clear
what you think of me and what I am. I don’t have the energy or the
willpower to be nice to you right now, so if you’ll go with
Nathaniel, I can get back to what I was doing.”

Without warning, a man appeared near them.
He had to be similar to Tess—they were marked alike. But where she
was bejeweled, he wore a single earring. He nodded to the man when
he bowed. “I am Nathaniel.”

Logan looked at him and said, “Walk with me.
If I have to leave, I’d like to ask a few questions first.”

Lizzy looked at Nathaniel.

“Not from him, but you. I’d like you to
answer a few questions,” Logan said.

“My lady?” said Nathaniel.

They both turned and Logan stepped in front
of her. A troll, or what he thought was one, laughed.

“I would rather die than hurt her, but as
she is your mate, I can understand. I have come to tell you that
I’ve been instructed to bring the boy and woman here. They are in
your chambers. There has been…an attack was made on the home of
Lord Logan.”

Logan stiffened and turned to her. “Where
are they? Can you take me to them now like you brought me
here?”

“My lady, I don’t think that—”

Lizzy raised her hand and the troll said
nothing more, but bowed again and stepped back. She wrapped her
arms around him and told him to close his eyes again. A rush of air
and he heard his son laughing.

“Dad, come look at this.”

He pulled away from Lizzy, but before he
could take more than half a step, she crumpled in his arms.

“Dad?”

“There might be someone in the hall; run and
tell them to get a doctor. Quick, son.” Logan took her to the big
bed and laid her down. Then watched his sister as she walked across
the room and helped him cover her up. He could only stare at her.
She wasn’t limping, nor was she bruised.

“That man, I don’t remember his name, he
said it was the magic of the castle.” She looked down at Lizzy.
“What happened to her?”

“She’s dying,” Mel announced as she walked
into the room.

Aaron watched the young man as he paced the
room. Logan was completely out of his element, yet he wasn’t acting
like it. As the man paced by him again, it was all he could do not
to reach out and hug him. He was taking the news much better than
he would have.

“So if I do as you said and feed her, she’ll
be all right?”

Mel shook her head, and Logan stretched.

“You said she was dying and needed blood,”
Logan said. “If I can’t give her that, what the fuck use is it for
me to be her mate?”

“I’m going to pop you in the mouth if you
don’t calm the fuck down,” Mel said, just as tense as the young
man. “I said she is starving, but it’s not just blood. Don’t you
fucking listen?”

“Mellie, perhaps if you—”

“I swear to Christ, Shamus, if you tell me
to calm down again I’m going to stab you in the heart. I am as calm
as I can be.” Aaron snorted, and Mellie turned on him. “Your
daughter is lying in one of my guest chamber—
dying
and
you’re making noises out of your nose like a hog. Say whatever you
will or get out of my castle.”

Aaron looked at Logan. “She’s been here
instead of home. The castle has magic surrounding it so that as a
vampire, like Lizzy is at the moment, even my blood won’t heal her.
She needs you.”

“What do you mean a vampire like she is at
the moment? Isn’t she a vampire at your house too?” Aaron shook his
head. “Then you’ll have to explain that better than miss fancy
pants there because I don’t see the difference.”

“She’s not really a vampire at your house,
is she, Mr. MacManus?” They all turned to Mathew as he continued.
“She’s a princess, huh? And she needs a knight in shining armor to
wake her up.”

Aaron knelt down before the boy. “That’s
right. And what does one have to do to wake a princess?”

“It’s really a girl’s story. I read it
because it was extra credit at school. I wanted to read
Swiss
Family Robinson
by Johann David Wyss, but it was taken by a
seventh-grader. And he said he lost it.” Mathew looked at his dad.
“You have to love her. That’s all. The kiss won’t work unless you
do.”

“I have that book in my library at home,
young man. And a great many more. If you’d like to come with me,
I’ll get it for you to read while you’re here.” Aaron stood up and
looked at Logan. “That is if it’s okay with your dad.”

Logan was distracted. Because if he had been
more focused, Aaron was sure he wouldn’t have let Matthew go alone
with a near stranger. As soon as he picked the boy up he
transported them both to within the library of his home. Mathew
moved to the wall of books and looked at the titles, careful not to
touch them.

“Lizzy likes to read. She said she prefers
books over a reading device, though she has one. Do you? Have one
of those reader things?”

Mathew nodded.

“Take whatever ones you want and return them
when you’re finished.”

“They’re old, aren’t they?”

“Yes, they are.”

“I bet you have other copies for kids, huh?
Why don’t you take me to those?”

Aaron sat down and looked around the room.
“These are the only books I have, and I trust you with them. If I
didn’t think you’d take care of them, I would never have suggested
you read them. Books are for reading, Mathew, not just to put on
display in a nice room.”

“My mom has some books. She won’t let me
touch them. She said they’re worth more than me.”

Aaron tried to hide his shock that a mother
would say such a thing. “What the hell is wrong with her? Who would
say such a thing to anyone, much less their own child? Why, I would
never have said…that is outrageous, and I think she should be
horsewhipped.” Aaron looked at Matthew, realizing what he’d said
about his mom. But the boy only shook his head when he tried to
tell him he was sorry.

“She doesn’t like me much. She’s never said
it, but I can tell. She said she won’t marry that man she lives
with because my dad won’t have to pay her support any more. Lizzy
isn’t anything like her, is she?”

“No, she’s not. And she’d never say anything
like that of a child. Children are the most precious things we can
create.”

Mathew nodded as he touched the binding to
the book that they’d been talking about.

“I want you to have that. As a gift.”

“I can’t take that, Mr. MacManus. I know
it’s gotta be worth more than me.” He touched it again before
putting his hands in his pocket. “I really would like to read it if
you’re sure.”

Aaron walked over, took the book from the
shelf, and handed it to him. Mathew opened it to the first page
carefully and saw the signature on it. He looked up at him. “It’s
to you.”

Aaron nodded with a barely visible hint of a
smile.

“You knew him? You met Wyss? He wrote this
one book and you have it. That is so cool.”

Aaron looked at the other books he had and
handed Mathew three more,
The Iliad,
and
The Odyssey
by Homer,
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau, and for a bit of
fun,
Bluebeard
by Kurt Vonnegut. They were all signed first
editions. They moved back to the castle through the special opening
in his office to the delight of the young man.

As Mathew scampered off to read a good book,
Aaron looked at Logan as he sat near Lizzy’s bed. He wanted to tell
him it would be all right, but he stayed away. This was going to
have to be something that he worked out on his own. Sara came to
sit next to him.

“You bonding with your new grandson?”

He smiled and nodded.

“Lizzy’s going to be all right, isn’t she,
Aaron? I can’t lose my little girl.”

He pulled her into his arms. “She’s here. If
she wasn’t, things might go differently. Mel said that she’s called
in the Fates. If Logan doesn’t want her, she’s going to see if she
can get them to break the bond between them so she can live.”

“She’s given up. That’s what this is; she’s
given up and now she may die.”

Aaron thought she was right. He didn’t know
why Lizzy’d given up, but she had all the same. They both stood up
when Logan came into the room.