Divine Savior (7 page)

“
I dinna know there were two of them. But I’m glad. The other one, the one with the magic, Sara, can you tell me what she is?”

“
I’m sorry, Colin. All I can tell you is that she is magic. Her signature isn’t strong enough to indicate that she’s here much. I would say that she doesn’t stay here. I had a stronger scent of her just down the hall and below the stairs when we came in. There are men, law enforcement and others. Medical personal too. I can smell their drugs, but it isn’t the street kind. It’s nothing like the stronger stuff.”

Sara stopped talking, but not crying. She could feel the pain and suffering of the children, and Colin was sorry for that. He would never hurt Sara, not for anything in the world. Colin looked at Aaron, who held his mate.

“
That’s all I can get, Colin. There are just too many people, and I don’t know your mate’s pull. I can’t tell much about the children, if they survived, but none of the other adults in the room were hurt all that badly. The man was, but as he is were; he’ll live, more the pity. The woman, the stronger one, she’s hurt too, but like the were, she’ll survive. Something else you should know, she is powerful and she is magic. While she is untrained, she is very
commanding
and strong. Do you know who she is?”

“
No. The drugged-up one, though, that’s my mate. The children are hers, although I didn’t know there were two of them, just the little girl. I’d only seen the little female. She’s a pretty little thing. I think she has a cold, poor child. Thank you, Sara. I know it was hard for you. I have to go. I need to go.”

And before either of the other two could say anything to him, Colin flashed away from them.

He didn't know where he was going, not yet at any rate. Nor what he was going to do once he got there. He wanted to know what had happened to her children. He knew now that his mate hadn’t died, but she had been there when they were hurt, so no matter what happened, he would make sure she paid.

How could a mother do this? Was she so fucking out of it she did nothing to help them, just let it happen? He had a sudden urge to go to the hospital. He knew that was where the children would be if they were as hurt as Sara thought they were.

Colin found the same scents in the emergency room as were at the house, strong and heavy in the air. He could only assume it was the children’s scent now. He couldn’t smell hydrangeas in here, so he assumed that she had not been brought here. Colin followed the scents into the separate examining rooms. He was able to follow one to the third floor, pediatrics.

There was a police officer standing at the desk right outside the room where the scent was strongest. Colin slipped inside the room without anyone seeing him, pulling a shadow around him to conceal his presence. He made not a sound as he approached the tiny person in the bed.

The little boy’s head was bandaged and he was hooked up to an IV and other machines. His heart was beating slowly and without any regularity, the sound coming from one of the machines in the room. But Colin was able to reach deeper, much deeper, to see the extent of his injuries.

Colin had been around long enough and had been in enough hospital rooms to know that they were monitoring Brent’s heart and brain activities. Colin could feel, Brent Shell, it said on the chart, was nearing death. His small body was too weak and broken to fight the injuries that would soon claim his life. Colin knew he couldn’t stand by and do nothing for him as his mother had done. He would like to think that most anyone would do the same for the child, any child.

Colin closed the door to Brent’s room, locked it, and strode over to the tiny figure on the bed. Colin opened a vein in his wrist, a small wound. He knew he couldn’t heal him completely—that would raise questions and suspicions—but he could save his life. Brent deserved a chance, and Colin was going to see that he got it.

Brent fought the urge to swallow at first, but Colin tilted his head back enough, careful not to disturb the wound and let only a few drops go down his throat. Colin stayed a few minutes more, making sure that Brent had gotten enough of Colin’s rich blood running through his system to give him at least a fighting chance. He could feel the blood doing its work and could see more color return to the little boy’s cheeks.

Colin left Brent’s room a few minutes later and went back down to the ER to follow what he now assumed was the girl. He was not encouraged when he was drawn to go downstairs, her scent pulling him toward the basement levels. He knew even before the elevator stopped that she had not made it. That he was being led was the morgue. That beautiful little girl with the yellow hair and raggedy dolly had died at the hands of her mother. Oh, Colin knew who had actually caused the little human’s death, but her mother was no less guilty in Colin’s eyes than the man who had done the actual killing. And she was going to pay. He would see to it with his dying breath.

~~~

Shade found that she didn’t have the will to do anything anymore. She just couldn’t make herself care about getting up much less simply lying down. She hadn’t had the appetite to eat much either, so she was a little dizzy on top of being depressed. Shade hadn’t left her room for the past few days, not since she had broken down the door to the nightmare of eight days ago and then just the one time. That had only been to go to the funeral for little Becca.

Becca had been buried the day before yesterday, during one of the prettiest days they’d had for a while. The sun had been shining, and there hadn’t been a single cloud in the sky. The perfect day for a little girl to be outside playing, swinging on the play set, or just hanging out with her big brother. But instead, she had been put into the ground, never to play outside again, never to grow old, never to kiss a boy. Shade began crying again, her heart breaking once again.

Shade had failed those children and she knew it. She should have made David take them somewhere, or she should have gone over to the apartment as soon as she found out Brenda had taken them from the hospital. Now, one of them was dead and the other was not going to make it. It should have been her; she wished it had been her. And the fact that it wasn’t hurt her to the core.

Shade wasn’t stupid. She knew that Brenda had been ultimately responsible for their lives, and eventually, Becca’s death. But Shade knew she could have made reports, let more people know—like David—what had been happening at the apartment. But she had not. Shade had been too scared to get involved. Poor Becca was dead because Shade wanted to stay hidden and left alone. How would she ever live with herself knowing she hadn’t done enough to save them both? She laid her head down on her blankets just wishing that she had been a better person, been brave enough to save little Becca and Brent from what they’d had to endure.

Shade felt the stirring again, the sensual feelings she had had once before. It took her a few minutes to remember where she had felt it before. It was the man, the one she had dubbed “the wall.” He was nearing to where she was living, inside the building, she thought. She could feel his anger, at what or who, she didn’t know yet. But soon, when he got closer, she would know. The closer he got, the stronger his hatred for her got; it poured off of him in rivers and onto her, drowning out the sensual feelings until they were completely hidden. Shade was too shocked to be afraid. She just let him come closer and closer without trying to hide from him.

Shade was panting now, his anger so intense that she could barely breathe through it. Sweat began to gather on her forehead and stream down her face and between her breasts despite the coldness of the room. When he finally came to the doorway, she was soaking wet, her hair damp at the edges and around her face, her body bathed in his heat.

Before he had appeared to her, she had the feelings of a monster, a great monster there to tear her apart, to rip her in two; nothing could stop him. He was coming for her. When she saw him standing there and felt him reach to her, she realized that she was not far off. He was probably there to do just that—and she didn’t care as long as he touched her.

“What do you want? Why are you here?” she asked him, her voice raw with emotion. She knew now what he was, a vampire. Her first vampire, and he was a pissed off—at her.

“Let me in; invite me in,” he demanded of her. His voice was heavy and tight with built passion and anger. An anger so strong it was like a living, breathing thing to her.

He couldn’t cross her threshold, she realized. She had made the abandoned rooms hers so he was unable to breach the room to get to her—thankfully. And he needed to get to her to unleash whatever he had churning tightly though his body.

“No, I don’t think so. Not until you tell me what you want, how you found me, and why.”

Shade wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but it suddenly seemed extremely important that he not touch her, that he never touched her. Along with the heat of his anger and hate, she could almost taste his desire, his need for sexual dominance over her. Something she was sure she would enjoy, but he would hurt her too. No, she thought, he couldn’t touch her; she couldn’t let him near her.

“You. I want you. I want to fuck you. And I will. Now. Tonight. Invite me in.”

Her body reacted to his words immediately. Reacted in a way she had never experienced before. Heat raced along her veins; her breasts tightened and her nipples hardened and peeked against her bra. Heat pooled between her legs, making her pussy swell with wetness and need.

She was frightened and eager at the same time. Frightened at what he would do to her once she gave him permission to enter, and once he was touching her physically. She could feel her juices weeping from her pussy, hot and sticky along her thighs. Panting hard, she tried to block him, but feared it was too late.

Suddenly, she felt his desire. A need washed over her in much the same way as his hatred had just minutes ago. She could feel his touch as though he was physically caressing her. He was running his fingers over her skin, her breasts, pulling at her nipples, stroking her thighs—she was on fire. Her whole body throbbed to life; need like she had never felt surged through her entire body. It called to his, needed him.

“No, go away. You are not welcome here,” she told him breathlessly.

She touched herself; her breasts needed relief as they swelled and her nipples puckered and tightened impossibly harder. The material was rubbing against her sensitive skin, the friction almost more than she could stand. She moaned deep and loud, not caring if he heard her or not.

“Let me in. I’ll show you what I want. I’ll show you so much more.”

The change in his voice was erotic, more sensual, and sexual. It purred over her skin like a cat rubbing against her. She took a step forward, then a second, stopping short of the doorway by a mere foot. She watched mesmerized while he stroked his erection, his cock pressed hard against his pants as he rubbed up and down.

Something was building inside of her body, but it was just out of reach. Hunger, hunger for the man, what he offered, what he could do. He was the key, a key for whatever he was making her feel, a need for whatever he had overwhelmed her with, and she moaned again. Her body felt as if was expanding; her pussy was wet, soaking her panties through. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. She had to be near him, touch him, and taste him. She moaned again, this time giving him what he wanted.

“Yes, please yes. Come to me.”

He stormed through the door and into her, slamming her hard against the wall behind her. He grabbed her around the neck and lifted her from the floor. The feelings he had evoked in her just seconds before disappeared in a rush. The hate she had felt for her pulsed from him into her once again. Burning her, heating her with hatred so strong she cried out from it. But just below it was still a desire to fuck, to take, to use.

Shade struggled against his hands until she realized the futility of it. He was stronger, bigger and meaner. She didn’t try to stop him either. She had already allowed him in. Besides, if only for a little while, maybe he could ease her suffering with the need he had built inside of her. That desire that she could feel pouring off of him as it covered her, tightened around her.

“I should kill you for what you’ve done to them. Break this pretty little neck and drop you at my feet. But I won’t, I can’t. Not yet at any rate. I’m going to finish what we started, take what I need. You’ll get nothing.”

Shade didn’t care. She hoped, no prayed, he would end this burning in her body once and for all.

The man brought her down his body just far enough to press his body against hers, his cock hard and painful pressed into her soft groin. Her heat was beginning to build again, not desire this time, but something else, something within her. He was so focused on her body that he missed the magic. Otherwise, she thought, he might have let her go sooner. As soon as there was enough magic formed, she threw him across the room. He landed over fifty feet away from her in the large warehouse. For even as big as he was, he didn’t stand a chance against her.

~CHAPTER SIX~

Colin started to stand, and then realized that he couldn’t. He had been impaled through his side on a piece of broken door when he slammed against it. Blood poured from him. He watched as the woman came toward him, her abilities blending into power that would not be denied. Colin could feel the slap of her anger and her magic as a taste, hot and hard on his tongue. It wasn’t controlled like Sara’s, or if it was, it was barely so. It rolled out toward him, all over him. And he could do nothing to stop it.

Colin felt binds tie around him, anchoring him against the floor; they were tight and strong. His vocal cords and throat were cut off by an unseen hand. He knew subconsciously that he didn’t need to breathe, but he had such a feeling of suffocation that he felt himself struggling against whatever was holding him tight.

The woman stood over him, but did not touch him. Her hair was loose and flying around her head as if a strong breeze was blowing through the room. Or strong tornadoes, whipping her hair about her face and arms. She looked surreal, and full of energy. And by far, the most beautiful woman Colin had ever seen. For the first time in his lifetime as a vampire, he felt fear. Not of her so much as to what she would do to him now that she had him bound to the floor.