Fire and Ash (Immortal Touch) (36 page)

Her eyes narrowed, but all she said was, “
All right then. Let’s have it.”

“Like I said before, I just wanna know where I stand. You coulda let me die by the side of the road but you didn’t. So I have to wonder one thing. Did you save me just so you could keep stringing me along? Is that it? Because you have this sick, sadistic need to keep me under your control?”
He was close enough to her now that he could practically feel the warmth from her body, and for some reason that fueled his anger. Grinding his teeth together, he felt himself tremble with some unfamiliar mixture of pent-up rage and lust and his voice began to stutter. “You won’t c-control me. You won’t, and neither will he. I’m younger and s-stronger…and if he thinks he can s-stop me from t-taking what I want he’s dead wrong.
Dead
wrong.”

Eva held up her hands
in a futile attempt to soothe him. “Dane…calm down. This isn’t you. I think you’re just confused right now…”

“Don’t you
try to patronize me, you bitch! I am n-not…
insignificant
…”

“Nobody thinks that, honey.”

“
You do!
” The words spewing from his mouth didn’t even seem to be coming from him. He was rapidly losing control and he had no idea how to stop himself or even why he felt this way. All the restrained emotions he’d ever possessed seemed to be taking on an ominous form of their own, breaking free with a savage vengeance.

“Of course I don’t…I never did…”

“You won’t s-see me as insignificant when I’m done with you!” He gripped her shoulders with shaking hands, relishing the confusion in her wide eyes.

“Dane, listen to me…just listen to me for a minute, please…”

“
I’m done listening to you!
” Throwing himself against her, his weight knocked her to the ground and the feel of her softness beneath him was exhilarating. “If you don’t want to give me what I want then
I’ll just have to take it!
”

“You don’t want to do this…don’t do this…please, I don’t want to hurt you!” She touched his cheek gently with her fingers as if trying to comfort him, but the gesture only served to fan the flames of his primal need. “Please don’t make me hurt you…”

“No, it’s time for me to hurt
you
now...” Roughly he grabbed the waistband of her jeans, intending to rip them.

What
happened next occurred in a mere heartbeat. He heard, “
Dammit, you little shit!
” and the next thing he knew he was flying through the air and his back slammed against the solid barrier of a pine tree with a force that knocked the breath out of him. He literally saw stars swimming before his eyes.

“I didn’t want to have to do that, but you left me no choice.”
Stalking over to where he stood paralyzed with surprise, she reached for his throat and held him pinned against the tree with a strength he never would have believed could have existed in those fragile little hands. “I am not going to have a goddamn pissing contest with you, Dane. I tried to be nice about this but obviously you can’t be reasoned with that way. So we’ll do it this way instead.”

He tried to speak, but found he still hadn’t gotten his wind back. Her fingers were like a vise around his neck as they forced him to look at her.

“Now you listen up, you little bastard. I did not put my ass on the line for you so you could get drunk with power and try to play the supervillain. That is
not
the way this works. I am going to tell you how it’s going to be and by God, you are going to do exactly what I say or so help me I’ll put you in the ground myself. And believe me, I can do it. Do we have an understanding?”

“Yes,” he managed to croak.

“Yes,
what?
”

“Yes…ma’am.”

“Good boy. Now you get a grip on yourself. Just because you have the ability to hurt others doesn’t give you the right to. You are
not
going to use your strength to injure people simply because you have some testosterone-driven desire to assert your dominance. If you have insecurities, then you better just learn to deal with them. I’m going to be watching you, and if I find out you’ve so much as
looked
at anyone the wrong way, I’ll make you rue the day you ever laid eyes on me. Got it?”

“Got it.”
Man, he had never seen her so mad. His own anger seemed to have been knocked clean out of him. Who knew she was so strong?

“I’m glad we got that cleared up.” Releasing him, she pointed to the road. “Now
I want your ass in that seat within five seconds. We’re done for the night.”

He obeyed compliantly
, rubbing his sore neck in awe. Checking himself in the visor’s vanity mirror, he saw that there were red marks left behind by her hands. What was he supposed to tell his parents when they saw this?

Eva glanced over at him. “Don’t worry. The bruises will be gone by the time you get home.”

“You sure?” Even as he asked though, he saw in the mirror that they were gradually fading away. Damn…that was impressive.

“You’ll heal at an accelerated rate now.
Nothing can hurt you for long.” Her voice was tired, disinterested. She sounded like a tour guide rattling off the same spiel that had been recited a thousand times before.

“Oh.” He was almost afraid to say anything else. Her outburst had caught him completely off guard and now he felt embarrassed by his uncontrolled behavior. Did she hate him now?
Was she regretting pulling him from the Reaper’s grasp? He sure as hell hoped not. Disappointing her was the last thing he ever wanted to do. He just couldn’t explain what had come over him.

They reached her house, and he pulled the keys to his own truck out of his pocket while wondering if she intended to even speak to him again tonight. She
definitely didn’t seem to be in the mood for any more conversation. But he couldn’t let it go like this. He couldn’t leave knowing that she was pissed at him.

“Hey…Eva?”

“Yeah?” She turned her green eyes on him, and they were dull and emotionless. He’d never seen them look that way before, and it bothered him.

“You still mad?”

She hesitated for what seemed an eternity and he felt himself crumbling inside. Finally, she said, “No. I’m not mad.”

“I’m sorry
,” he blurted desperately. “I didn’t…I don’t know why…”

“It’s okay,” she interrupted. “Just go home,
all right? Go home and think about what I said. Will you do that?”

“Sure.” He twisted the keys in his hands anxiously. “Should I come
by tomorrow?”

Eva shook her head. “No. I think it would be better if you stayed away for a few days.
”

This wasn’t going at all the way he wanted it to. He didn’t want to stay away
- he wanted to be wherever she was. Even if her fiancé was around. Any part of her was better than nothing at all. “I promise not to act like a jerk. I swear, it’ll never happen again. Okay?”

“Go home now, Dane. Your parents need you there.” When he didn’t move, she relented a bit. “I’ll come by and see you in a few days.”

“Promise?” He hated the pathetic desperation in his meek voice, but he couldn’t help himself. Tonight, self-control was beyond his reach. His own faculties didn’t seem to belong to him anymore.

“Yes.”
She tried to muster a smile, but it was a half-hearted attempt. “Go on now. I’ll see you soon.”

He left reluctantly with the unhappy knowledge that things between them were never going to be the way he wanted. She couldn’t love him. She couldn’t see past her blind devotion to Julian.
As long as the perfect blond was around, he would never stand a chance.

But maybe that was the key. Maybe her heart could be freed if the rival vampire was taken out of the picture.

It might be a long shot…but it was definitely worth considering.

~*~*~*~

“How was he?”

Paula Chandler sighed wearily and dropped down on the couch beside her husband. “Sleeping it off, finally. I
would have slipped him a Valium if his system wasn’t so full of liquor. Poor man. To lose his only child like that…”

Aaron patted his wife’s knee. “Makes you
put things in perspective, doesn’t it?”

“I’ll say. I
can’t stop thinking - what if Dane had been with her?” She shuddered at the idea that hadn’t left the back of her mind since they’d received the morbid news. “I was beginning to think that maybe I was coming down too hard on him, you know? That I was being a little too overprotective.”

“Obviously you were right about
Imogen,” Aaron pointed out. “I hate to speak ill of the dead, but like you said - what if he
had
been with her? We did the right thing, keeping him away from her. He might have been in that car too, otherwise.”

“Stealing her father’s car and taking off in the middle of the night
- what could she have been thinking?” Paula shook her head, baffled. “The police said she must have been doing at least seventy-five or eighty. And she doesn’t even…didn’t even have a learner’s permit. I can’t imagine what possessed her.”

“Well, you’ve seen her father. She didn’t exactly have the best role model in the world.”

“That’s for sure. Did you know her mother is in a psychiatric ward in Fresno?”

“
No! Man…that little girl really did have it rough, didn’t she? No wonder the poor kid rebelled the way she did. Has her mother been told yet?”

“I don’t know. I would assume so.”
She stifled a yawn. It had been one long, long day.

“
Collier’s not by himself over there, is he?”

“No. Walter
Ellison volunteered to stay the night with him. Is Dane back yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Hm. I hope Julian and Eva don’t mind him being there.”

“I’m sure they don’t.
He needs someone to talk to besides his parents right now. He should be home before long - I told him to be in by eleven.”

“He seemed awfully…
composed
about the whole thing. Don’t you think?”

“Shock. It’ll
sink in soon enough.” Aaron squinted against the glare of headlights coming in through the front window and travelling across the wall. “There he is now.”

“Good. I just want him here, so I know he’s safe.”

“I know. I feel the same way.”

“Poor baby.
This has got to be painful for him. I just don’t know what he ever saw in that girl.”

“
We’ll never know. But it doesn’t matter much anymore.”

~*~*~*~

“Everything go okay?”

Sitting
on the staircase with Rio on his knees, Julian stroked the cat’s back. Eva had been gone a bit too long for his comfort. And while he knew it was absurd to be jealous of a seventeen-year-old boy, her being off alone with the fledgling vampire had vexed him to no end. Especially since the little fool seemed fixated on having his fiancée for himself.

As if he’d ever let
that
happen.

She joined him on the stairs and gave
Rio a scratch under his fuzzy chin. “It went fine. He should be good for a while.”

Maybe it was his imagination, but she seemed to be avoiding his eyes. “No problems?”

“No. It was fine,” she repeated automatically.

He was trying to interpret her evasive behavior when his cell phone’s ringtone startled
Rio, sending him dashing wildly into the kitchen and causing Eva to laugh.

“Dumb cat,” she muttered affectionately. “Who is it?”

“It’s Tristan Kendall.” Julian pressed the phone against his ear. “Hello?”

“Mr. Winter? I apologize for calling so late - I hope I didn’t
disturb you.”

“No, not at all.”

“I just thought you’d like to know that I spoke with Mr. Reid and explained the situation to him. Taking into consideration the extenuating circumstances, he was willing to exonerate Miss Spencer.”

The relief that
washed over Julian was almost overwhelming. For a moment he actually felt as if he couldn’t breathe. Eva looked over at him worriedly.

“Mr. Winter? Are you there?”

“Yes. Yes…I’m still here. I just…I was rather concerned there for a while. You can imagine.”

“
Yes, I can. That’s why I went ahead and called you tonight instead of waiting until tomorrow.” Tristan sounded sympathetic.

“Then we have nothing to worry about?”

“Nothing at all.”

“
That
is
wonderful news! Then Reid will want to arrange a meeting?”

“
A meeting?”

“With the boy. With Dane.”

There was a brief moment of silence. “Ah…well, he didn’t mention it. I’m going to assume that he will at some point. But he would probably have me contact Mr. Chandler directly rather than going through you.”