Embracing The Lion (Gray Bears 6) (3 page)

She smiled a little. “But
it's too late now, isn't it? How I wish...for a happily-ever-after,”
she whispered with her last breath.

She could feel her heart
slowing down as she closed her eyes.

Tara tried to smile. Death,
true death, was good.

She would die a human, and
she would die with a smile on her face.

CHAPTER
FIVE

Gareth Knight locked up the
pub and waved to his sister-in-law Kaylee, and Olivia, a vivacious,
flirtatious vampire who had been working part-time at his pub for
many years now.

“Want a lift? Winston
is coming to fetch me,” Kaylee called out. “We're giving
Olivia a ride home. Oh, here he is!”

Gareth turned and saw
Winston's sheriff cruiser pull up at the side of the curb. His big
brother hopped out of the car and jogged round to open the car door
for Kaylee and Olivia.

Gareth quirked a lopsided
smile. Winston was the Sheriff of Shadow Point and a perfect
gentleman. Before Winston met Kaylee, many bachelorettes in town had
been eyeing the eligible, charismatic Sheriff.

Winston beckoned to him.
“Come on, kiddo! Let's go home!”

Gareth lived just next door
to Winston and Kaylee. The two semi-detached houses were mirror
images of each other.

Gareth shook his head. “Nah.
I don't feel like going home yet. I want to take a walk around
town, or...perhaps a run in the woods.”

Winston frowned. “Okay.
Just be careful, little brother. Don't stay out too late, and don't
wander too far from the town.”

“I know, I know,”
Gareth huffed. Winston still spoke to him like he was five. He had
gotten lost in the woods surrounding the small town when he was a
cub. Winston had found him just in time. A huge snake was
slithering silently towards Gareth, preparing to swallow the lion cub
whole. With a mighty roar and one swipe of his razor-sharp claws,
Winston separated the snake's head from its body and snatched his
baby brother from the jaws of death.

It seemed the incident had
affected Winston more than Gareth. Gareth was now a full grown lion
shifter, much too large to be devoured alive by snakes, but his big
brother was such a worrywart.

“I just need to let my
lion out for a bit,” Gareth said.

Gareth's lion was always
closer to the surface when the moon was full. The full moon didn't
trigger an involuntary shift, but his lion just preferred to be let
out at this time. He could force his lion down by sheer force of
will, but it was like having a humongous itch and refusing to scratch
it. It was tormenting and pointless.

So he just went ahead and
scratched his itch long and hard. He simply let his lion out and ran
through the woods until the big beast was exhausted.

“Just...be careful,”
Winston said gruffly. Kaylee and Olivia waved to him as the car
pulled away from the curb.

Gareth glanced back at his
pub as he strolled away. The Round Table might look like just a hole
in the wall on the outside, but the inside was done up real nice. He
had spent a lot of time, money and effort to redo the interior of The
Round Table. Gareth wanted his customers to feel as though they had
just stepped into a medieval castle. There were ornate swords and
daggers, flags, and even a full-sized knight's armor on display in
the pub. Gareth was real proud of his small establishment. Business
was good, and The Round Table was packed most nights.

Gareth took a few shortcuts
and reached the edge of the town fairly soon. He knew his way well
around Shadow Point. He'd lived in this small town almost all his
life.

He crossed the quiet road and
headed towards the edge of the forest. His lion growled low,
rippling impatiently under his skin.

Gareth plunged into the woods
and shifted as he ran. He ran smoothly and soundlessly between the
trees in his lion form, his amber eyes glowing in the darkness.

There was a strange scent in
the air, a scent he had never smelled or tasted before. The scent
tasted both sweet and bitter on his tongue. There was an undertone
of death in the scent, death and hope, anger and relief.

Gareth ran faster, sniffing
the air furiously to follow the scent. It was the unmistakable scent
of a female, and the smell of blood and death wrapped around the
woman's sweet scent like a pall.

The woman wasn't dead, but
she was close to death.

Gareth growled as he raced
through the woods. He
needed
to find this female. He
couldn't let her die.

But from the strange,
sickening sweetness of the scent, he could tell that this female
longed for death. Those who fought death as they died released a
sharp, acrid scent. This sweet, cloying scent was released by those
who embraced and welcomed death.

His mother had fought off a
home intruder and died protecting her two young sons. Gareth had
scented that stinging, acrid scent just before she breathed her last.
His dad passed away only after both Winston and Gareth had reached
adulthood. A sweet, poignant scent had filled their father's room
hours before he passed on. Their father had been waiting for death,
welcoming it with open arms. He wanted to be reunited with his
beloved wife in death, and he had died peacefully, with a smile on
his face.

Gareth ran harder, faster.
He had to reach this woman before she released her hold on life. She
was fading, but he could hear her soft breathing and quiet murmurs
now. She was so near, so close…

Gareth caught a glimpse of a
small, pale hand in the grass. He charged towards the dark shape on
the ground, and heard a gentle sigh and a whisper.

Shifting back to human form
in a heartbeat, he scooped the woman up in his arms and stared into
her beautiful, ashen face.

CHAPTER
SIX

Gareth laid the woman on his
bed and bent over her. He was panting a little and he was
perspiring, but his sweat felt cold on his skin. He had carried the
unconscious woman in his arms and ran all the way, taking the most
deserted and direct shortcuts he knew home. Racing up to his
bedroom, he'd lowered her onto his bed and promptly drawn all the
curtains.

He didn't know if sunlight
would destroy her, but he wasn't taking any chances. It was still
quite a few hours to sunrise, and these few hours were critical.

She was barely breathing, and
she was starting to convulse. When he checked her eyes, he saw that
her irises were turning blood red, a sure sign that she had ingested
some vampire blood.

Gareth scowled at the ugly
fang marks on her neck. The woman had been bitten and drained by a
vampire. There was too little blood left in her body. She was in
limbo, oscillating between life and death. She wasn't fully human
any more.

Her body was struggling to
stay alive by turning. But to turn, her body needed blood, fresh,
living blood.

She should be dead, but the
small amount of vampire blood in her was keeping her alive.

He had to save her but the
only way to save her was to complete her turning.

But he knew the doctors in
the hospital wouldn't do that. They refused to turn anyone into a
vampire. They would only try to save her by giving her a blood
transfusion.

That was the only ethical
thing they could do. But in the end, she would still die.

To survive the turning, she
needed fresh blood.

She would have to drink
blood, preferably straight from the vein, to turn.

Gareth bit his finger and
knelt beside her. He pressed his bleeding finger to her lips and
urged angrily, “Drink! Just drink. Take my blood, goddammit!”

Her tongue touched the tip of
his finger and lapped up the large drop of blood. Her entire body
shuddered violently as the hot, rich blood slid down her throat.

With a moan, she began to
suck hard at his finger, hungry and desperate for his blood.

It was just a survival
reflex. The woman's eyes were still closed, and she probably had no
idea what she was doing or where she was. She simply latched on to
the source of life as her survival instincts kicked in. Her lips
automatically closed around his finger and she suckled like a newborn
babe.

Gareth touched the woman's
pale cheek. Her skin felt too cold to the touch. Her fiery red hair
had come undone from the loose bun at her nape and he saw a vicious
red mark at the back of her neck. He knew what it was. The woman
had been a vampire's slave until recently. The vampire's mark was
erased, literally scratched out, when the slave was freed. It was an
ancient, archaic custom but some old vampires still kept slaves in
their manors and mansions. The practice was frowned upon but to date
it had not yet been outlawed.

Had her vampire master freed
her, then attacked her?

It didn't sound logical, but
vampires were unpredictable creatures.

Gareth didn't waste any more
time on useless conjectures. He had to save her, by hook or more
likely, by crook.

Clamping his teeth over his
wrist, he tore open his vein and dripped his blood into her mouth.
She swallowed eagerly, her tongue darting out to lick the drops of
warm, fresh blood falling on her lips.

Gareth put his wrist to her
mouth and urged her to drink. She didn't resist. She simply drank
from him, sucking and swallowing greedily.

The color gradually returned
to her cheeks. He could hear her heartbeat growing stronger and her
breathing was no longer shallow and ragged.

The woman murmured softly and
stopped sucking at his wrist. She appeared to be sleeping soundly,
but her brows remained furrowed. Gareth carefully detached his wrist
from her mouth and went to bandage his wound. With his shifter
healing abilities, the wound would close up soon and by morning, only
a scar would remain.

Gareth went back to his
bedroom and sat at the edge of the bed. He smoothed the woman's hair
away from her face, and stared at her for a long while. There were
cuts on her palms and bare feet, and bruises down her arms. There
was an ugly reddish mark on her right cheek. Someone had backhanded
her roughly, and Gareth snarled as he stroked her face.

Despite her terrible bruises
and blood-smeared mouth, Gareth found the woman exceedingly
beautiful. She was lush and curvy, and she had dark red hair, a pert
upturned nose and the most kissable, full lips.

Gareth didn't know if it was
her vampire master who had abused and assaulted her, but Gareth swore
that he would find the one who had hurt her and make him pay.

He checked the blinds and
curtains around the whole house, making sure that not a sliver of
sunlight would enter his house. Then he pulled up a chair and sat by
the bed, keeping watch over her.

Taking her hand, he whispered
fiercely, “Whatever you do, don't die. Live, you hear me? As
a human, a vampire, a half-vamp, whatever. Just...live!”

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Tara opened her eyes and
blinked repeatedly. She'd had the strangest, most bizarre dream.
She dreamed that a very handsome man with light brown hair and
startling amber eyes carried her in his arms and laid her down on a
soft comfortable bed. He held her, cared for her and fed her...his
blood.

Tara's hand shot to her lips.

Was that a dream...or a
memory?

Did she really drink his
blood? Oh God!

Tara let out a tortured
groan. The image of her sucking greedily at the man's torn wrist
flashed through her mind. She should be sickened and revolted by the
image, but instead she was getting inexplicably turned on.

What the hell was wrong with
her?

Tara squeezed her eyes shut
and tried to quell her growing hunger and lust. But she was fighting
a losing battle. All she could think of was the taste of his blood
on her lips.

His blood was deep, rich and
strong, and she wanted more, more of him…

Tara bit her lip and her eyes
widened. It felt like a sharp point was stabbing into her bottom
lip. Gingerly, she raised a shaking hand to her mouth. Her finger
touched the tip of an unnaturally long, pointed canine tooth.

“No!”

Tara yelled and jerked
upright. She would have tumbled right off the bed if a pair of
strong, muscular arms had not caught her and righted her.

“No, no! Let me go!”
Tara lashed out blindly, madly. She screamed and hissed in raw
anger and agony. “No! No, not a vampire, I c-can't...I won't!
I'm not a vampire! Let. Me. Go!”

Tara kept screaming and
struggling. She fought the man like a wild animal but his arms were
like steel bars caging her in, trapping her against his hard, hot
body. Without thinking, she widened her jaws and bit him on the
shoulder.

Her fangs tore through his
t-shirt easily and sank into his flesh. Hot, thick blood filled her
mouth and despite herself, she sucked and swallowed hungrily.