The Young Vampire Mate: The Airendell Chronicler Diaries - Book 1.5 (23 page)

“I am,” I concede softly as I tilt my head giving him full access to my throat.  “I really am, Damian.”

His free hand works down my belly between our bodies and strokes my core.  “You are wet here, bébé.  Your sweet pussy is so hot and wet.  For me and only for me.”  He slips two fingers inside of me and pushes deep, almost painfully so.  “You won’t ever share this with anyone but me because you are mine.  Mine!”

His words, while sexy and seductive sounding, piss me off royally.  I snarl angrily at him, “Get the fuck off of me!”  And when he doesn’t move fast enough to suit me, I shove him away from me so hard he crashes into the wall.

“What the fuck, Breena?” he asks, looking genuinely confused and little pissed off himself.

“You won’t ever share this with anyone but me because you are mine!  Did you really say that shit to me, Damian-I’m-the-goddamned-man-in-charge-Summers?” I snap angrily.

“Uh yeah.  What’s wrong with that? You are mine,” he says still looking confounded by actions and my obvious anger.

“I am over eight hundred fucking years old, Damian!  I have lived all these years without succumbing to the thousands of sexual advances I have gotten.  Do you think that you are the first man who ever wanted me?”  He starts to speak but I cut him off.  “Well let me tell you, you are not!  And yet you still seem to think it’s necessary to tell me not to let anyone else touch me.  What the fuck is wrong with you, Damian?  I am not some loose woman with an uncontrollable libido who can’t control herself!”

I get up out of the bed and find my tank top on the floor and tug it back on in a flurry of anger.  I find my panties and put them on too.  I look over at Damian and he still looks like he’s not getting it.  I snort rudely and roll my eyes at him. 

“Don’t you ever fucking treat me like I am a possession, Damian!  We are true mates.  Equals.  Lovers.  You don’t fucking own me!”  I am yelling again by the time I finish that little statement and my anger is dangerously close to making me say something that I will regret so I decide to remove myself from his presence until I can calm down.

“I’m leaving, be back later,” I snap before I slip on my jeans and my old motorcycle boots.

“Where are you going?” Damian asks softly.  I am even angrier than ever because he still looks completely dumbfounded by my reaction to what he said to me.

“To see my friend, Jenny.  I will back later.”  And with that I weave a finding spell and go to Jenny’s place in New Orleans. 

It occurs to me as I translocate to my friend that Luca and I both have chosen to walk away from our mates in the middle of a bit of a crisis for our kind.  But I know for a fact that I fully intend to return to Damian as soon as I calm down and I suspect that my brother in law will be back very soon as well.  I am leaving because I refuse to tolerate Damian talking down to me and trying to control me.  I am not sure if that was his intent because I never felt any malice from him… but…

CHAPTER SIXTEEN             

Jenny doesn’t look even remotely surprised when I show up in the middle of her living room, still panting from my anger at Damian and my arousal from Damian’s skillful seduction.  I stand there in her living room breathless, my chest heaving, my hair mussed, my lips swollen and my hard nipples jutting against my tight tank top feeling angry enough to chew iron nails and spit them out.

“Ut-oh, mon ami,” she says.  “Looks like you had a lover’s spat.”

I shake my head no.  “I may not have a lover after that.  It wasn’t a spat.  It was me getting extremely pissed off and leaving so that I can cool down.”

“That sounds serious indeed,” my friend Jenny says with a knowing look on her face.  “It all also sounds like you fully intend to return.”  I smile sheepishly because my friend knows me pretty well considering I have kept so many secrets from her over the years.

“It sounds serious enough for a strong cup of my fine chicory coffee, a piece of my buttered pecan rum cake and a sympathetic ear.”  She turns to walk towards her kitchen and looks back over her shoulder at me.  “Come on, Bree, I’ll even dump a couple of fingers of that spiced rum you like into your coffee, just the way you like it.”  I grin at my friend’s retreating back and follow her wordlessly.

Once we are settled at Jenny’s kitchen table with generous slices of her rum cake and massive mugs of her fine coffee she looks at me and says; “Okay, lady, spill.  Tell me about this man of yours and what he did to make you so angry that you revealed yourself to me this way.”

I take a big drink of the spiked coffee and open my mouth to spill my guts about my new mate.  I give her a brief rundown of Morna’s situation and her basically adopting Damian.  I describe our first meeting and everything we have been through together since then.  When I finish up describing what transpired between us in my quarters before I left the Gateway she leans back in her chair chuckling.  “Bree, first of all, mon cheri, he wasn’t treating you like you are a whore.  He doesn’t believe you will have sex with anyone else.  He was telling you he loves you.  That he is the only man for you.”

“Sure didn’t sound that way to me,” I pout as I finish the last bite of my second piece of her fine cake.  I get up from her table and pour myself some more coffee and top off Jenny’s cup while I am at it.  I sit back down at the table and dump some more rum into the mug and exhale long and slow through pursed lips.  “You really think that was all he was saying?”

Jenny nods and tries to hide her smile.  “Your Damian sounds like the kind of man who needs to lay claim to his woman.  Someone who needs to exert some dominance in the relationship.  It wasn’t an insult, mon ami.  He treasures you.  Men tend to say stupid shit like that without thinking.  I know you are a woman who expects all people, especially yourself, to be as good as their word.  This Damian knows this as well… but he was claiming his woman.  Exerting his position, marking his territory if you will.  It’s primitive almost feral… but it is what it is.  For a man like him, it would be natural.” 

She thoughtfully toys with her coffee cup for a moment and says; “You said he had a rough life before he was Changed and has turned his back on the life most Stone Colds choose to lead.”  I nod.  “Maybe he doesn’t feel like he deserves you, Breena.  Maybe he was just reassuring himself that you are truly his.”

I take another drink of coffee and play with the lovely embroidered linen napkin Jenny gave me when served my cake to me.  I am trying to process Jenny’s words and weigh their validity.  I am still feeling offended and pissed off so I say; “It sure sounded like he has little regard for my honor.  I don’t like that and I am not sure I am cut out to be anyone’s possession.”

“I suspect he only truly seeks to possess your heart and I think he already owns that lock, stock and barrel.”

I snort and roll my eyes.  “Duh.”  I take another drink of the coffee.  “I just got so pissed off him talking to me like that.  Like I would ever let anyone else touch me like he was.  I mean I haven’t been with anyone else… ever.  Jeez, I am over eight hundred years old and I think I know to keep my panties on without being told that I need to do so.”

Jenny laughs happily and picks up our plates and goes to load them in her dishwasher.  “He’s a vamp, Bree.  They are possessive and territorial.  I am sure he doesn’t doubt your honor in the least.”

I shrug.  “He better not.  I will sic some slug demons on him if he does and then kick his ass for him.”

Jenny laughs and sits back down across from me at her kitchen table.  “I still can’t believe you are mated to a Vampire.”  She chuckles and shakes her head like the whole situation amuses her.

“He’s more than that!”  My need to defend Damian to my friend surprises me and I have to smile at bit at myself when Jenny grins at me.  “He’s really very special.  I have never met anyone like him.  He is beautiful, sweet, loving, smart and honorable.”

“Well, duh! You wouldn’t be involved with him if he wasn’t all of those things and more.  And he sure as hell wouldn’t be your true mate,” Jenny says with a knowing chortle.

“Earlier you said ‘first of all’, what’s second?” I ask with comically raised eyebrow.

Jenny chuckles.  “Second of all…” She smirks at me.  “It sounds like you two have been taking a pretty intense crash course in getting to know each other.  All of the demons and skeletons in our closets usually reveal themselves to our lovers in a more natural and much slower pace.  You were probably both feeling a little overwhelmed by that had transpired and been shared between you.”

I nod.  I know she’s right.  I suspect I actually overreacted, but I would probably do the same thing again if it happened tomorrow.  I felt compelled to assert my independence, my honor, my own sense of right and wrong.

A few silent minutes pass` companionably as I digest Jenny’s wise counsel.  I take another swig of my coffee and say; “You sure took my sudden appearance and the news about me being a Spell Weaver and all of that other stuff really well.”

Jenny laughs and says; “Well, honestly I thought you were probably a Dream Walker because of the work you do with the PTSD patients.  But I knew you were a powerful magical Immortal.  I just didn’t know exactly what kind.  And I knew you were old because I heard Richelle Bovary talking about you wiping out a nest of vamps that had partnered up with a slew of demons back right after ‘the War’, so I knew you weren’t as young as you look.”  I smile because in the Deep South ‘the war’ means the Civil War.

“How do you know about Immortals?  I mean Spell Weavers, Dream Walkers and the like.”

“When one lives around New Orleans long enough, one picks up a thing or two about the preternatural world.  I am a lot older than I look too.  I am surprised you never figured it out.  What with all of the dark whispers about the old Voodoo queens, I thought you would put the pieces together by now,” Jenny says with a grin.

“What?” I say feeling like I am probably going to find out just what a dumbass I really am.

“I was born in 1821 here in New Orleans.  My given name was Jeannine Marie Xavier.  My Maman was a femme traiteur who had been trained by Madame Laveau.  I was sixteen years old when I fell in love with a Creole rogue and gambler.  I was too young and foolish to realize that he was also a demon who tried to make me into a Demon Shade so that I would never die and leave him behind. He was quite obsessed with keeping me by his side.  Madame Leveau rescued me from Alexandre before he could complete the rites to change me completely.”

Jenny scrubs her hands over her face.  “I loved Alexandre but he was trying to take away my humanity against my will.  I was born a Catholic and I am still devout in my faith.  I could never have willingly surrendered my soul for Alexandre or any man.  Madame Laveau had no choice but to destroy him.  But I mourn him still even he was a fils de putain.” 

I smile at her calling her lover a son of a bitch. She laughs harshly.  “But I am something that has never existed before me and will probably never exist again.  I am not fully human. I am not a Shade nor am I fully demon.  I really have no idea what the hell I am.  I really don’t even know if I still possess a human soul.”  She fidgets with fingers lying on her kitchen table.

I lean across the table and clasp Jenny’s hands in my own.  “You are my friend, a very wise and loving lady who also happens to be a pretty kick ass demon hunter.”  Jenny smiles wanly at me.  “I can see your aura, Jenny, it is bright and clear.  Your soul is definitely intact.”

Jenny chuckles and turns her hands so that she can hold mine and give them a gentle squeeze.  “I have no idea if I am truly an Immortal.  I have some magical ability, purely defensive in nature, and some psychic ability, but nothing of any real consequence.  But I am sneaking up on two hundred years old and do not look or feel a day over twenty-five.  The age at which Alex tried to change me.”

You are unique and very special, my friend.”  I smile at Jenny and exhale slowly.  I look wryly at my friend and ask; “I acted like a young girl throwing a tantrum, didn’t I?”

Jenny grins.  “Perhaps.  But it is always good to keep our men on their toes.  If we do not shake them up every now and then they might become too confident of their power over us and become complacent and annoying as they strut around like a cock in a henhouse.  Your Damian knows full well that you won’t tolerate that now.  C'est une bonne chose!”

I smile at my friend calling my tantrum a good thing.  “Well, since I am here I will go home and shower before I pack a few more clothes.  I have a feeling I will away much longer than I originally thought.  You don’t mind keeping an eye on my place do you?”

Jenny chuckles.  “Of course not.  Fionn had already told me you guys were in the middle of something pretty big.”  I raise an eyebrow at that.  “He didn’t elaborate.  He simply said it was a ‘family thing’ for you.  And I know he sees himself as your family, your protector.”

I can see Jenny has something else on her mind but might be reluctant to speak up.  “Spill, Jenny.”

She chuckles.  “How is your Shifter taking the news that you have found your true mate?”

I raise an eyebrow at that.  “You know Fionn is a Shifter?”

Jenny nods.  “I can sense any of the dual natured.  There are many, many different varieties of the dual natured.  But the animal presence is always a dead giveaway.  I knew he wasn’t a Greek were and didn’t know about Celtic Shifters until a few years ago.  But let’s just say the pieces finally fell into place for me.  But more importantly, I know that Fionn MacLeod loves you, Bree.  He doesn’t love you like he thinks he does… but he loves you.” 

I can only smile at that because I know she’s right.  Fionn does love me.  Right now he thinks he loves me like a mate, but I am more like a sister to him in all of the ways that truly count.  Yes, there is some sexual tension and attraction between us but it’s not nearly as important as the bond of friendship that exists for us.

“So what does the unflappable Fionn think of Damian? I bet he was not too happy at first.”  Jenny says with a wicked glint in her eyes.

“NO, he certainly wasn’t happy at the idea of my true mate being a vampire.  But he has spent some time with Damian and likes him… mostly.”

Jenny chuckles.  “Les hommes peuvent aussi stupide! But Fionn is no fool despite his occasional bouts of male stupidity.  If he likes this Damian that makes me feel much better.”

Now it is my turn to chuckle.  “Yes, men can be so stupid.  But you are right, I too feel better about Damian because my best friend likes him as well.”  I grin.  “I better get moving.  I want Damian to know he was in the wrong talking to me like that, but I don’t want him to doubt my love for him.” 

I stand and Jenny follows my lead.  I hug her tightly before I translocate to my home to shower and pack.  Now I realize I am anxious to get back to my mate and hope to pick up where we left off.  But I am not a fool, I know I will probably have to do some explaining for walking out on him. 

AUTHOR’S NOTE:  Becoming an author has been a dream of mine since I was in middle school. I love to read and write about supernatural beings, their adventures and their oh-so-steamy love lives. I have been actively writing my stories since the summer of 2012. I have developed three separate but interrelated series that revolve around an alternate reality of hidden magical realms, Spell Weavers, Shape Shifters, four different kinds of vampires, Ghouls, Dream Walkers, Dragon Queens and a host of other supernatural beings like ancient gods and goddesses of Norse, Greek and Roman mythology.

Each series is written as three different personas and are inhabited by interesting and likeable characters who find themselves embroiled in exciting plots as they overcome their own special trials and find true love. My female lead characters are usually strong, loveable women who have faced many challenges in their lifetimes. My heroines find themselves entangled in a world of preternatural beings, deception, violence, emerging powers as well as discovering their awakening sexuality with the help of some really hot, alpha male types that just happen to be so, so much more than a sexy body and a bad attitude.

Breena Glynn is the Chronicler of Airendell and she writes about the adventures of Spell Weavers and other preternatural beings. Her sister, Morna, was cursed into a cycle of death and repeated reincarnation by an evil witch almost seven hundred years ago. Breena, in her role as Clan Chronicler, documented those adventures in three books of the Airendell Chronicles, the first of which is Lost Wanderer Awakened. Breena also documented her own exploits during this same time period in the book The Airendell Chronicler. Breena begins the series as an 800 hundred year old virgin who is not only a powerful Spell Weaver, supernatural enforcer and the keeper of her people’s history… she’s also looking for love. But not any love will do. She’s been waiting for her one true mate. The man that fate has made just for her. The adventures truly begin for Breena when she meets her mate, Damian. He’s a very young Stone Cold vampire with a dark past and even darker appetites. The vicissitudes of Breena, her lover, friends and family make for daring adventures and hot steamy romances, often with a dark twist. The Airendell Chronicles are definitely for adult readers.