Reclaimed (26 page)

He remained quiet as well, probably plotting how he and Elijah would team together to overcome Louisa and keep Sabrina safe.

Sabrina, however, schemed to stop him. No matter what he said, her priority would always be
his
safety. And the plan he’d agreed to didn’t allow for him to be out of harm’s way.

In fact, it put him directly in its path.

Chapter Seventeen

Sabrina and Isaac were curled up on the couch, sipping White Zinfandel, when she remembered something Louisa had said to her earlier. How had she neglected to tell Isaac about Louisa having sent the dream to her?

“I forgot, Louisa told me she showed me the dream last night, so I would remember what had happened.”

Isaac gawked at her before shrugging. “It makes sense, I suppose. She’s sick,” he said in disgust.

“If she showed it to me, how did I get in Amelia’s head? I heard her thoughts; I felt every broken bone she received.” She shuddered at the memory.

Isaac looked troubled for a moment, before shrugging. “Maybe it’s how she chose to show you the memory? I really don’t know what else it could mean. Unless if you
are
Amelia reincarnated, and you were therefore remembering it as it happened to you?”

She scoffed. “Do I even act like her?”

He pondered her question before answering, “In some ways, yes. You have the same smile, same laugh. You get the same determined look on your face when you decide upon a course of action. But you are a lot braver and stronger than she was and a
hell
of a lot more stubborn, too.” He quirked an eyebrow at her. “And you didn’t screw my brother.”

She swatted his arm and debated whether she dare ask him the question that pulled at her heart daily. “Do you love me because you think I’m her?”

She lay on her side, her legs curled to her stomach. At her question, he sighed and leaned over her, rested his cheek upon the curve of her hip, and draped his arm around her legs.

“No. I’ll admit it’s what drew me to you originally. But it’s you I love, more than I have ever loved another. I can’t breathe fully if you aren’t near, I can’t sleep. And life? Meaningless. You are my life. Without you, I simply wouldn’t exist. There is
nothing
I wouldn’t do to keep you safe. By my side.”

She drew in a breath and stroked a hand over his shoulders. “I feel exactly the same.”

He looked troubled at her statement, instead of pleased. “Sabrina, are you planning something? There’s nothing you need to do, nothing you can do, to keep me safe. I’ll be fine. I don’t need your help. You’ll only weaken my defenses. Can’t you see that?”

She looked in his eyes and lied. “I’m not planning anything. I was thinking about how long it’s been since you kissed me.” She tugged his hair until he rose over her, smiling.

“I mean it, Sabrina,” he warned with a growl.

“I know, I know,” she whispered as she kissed him lightly. He succumbed to her demand, and when he tried to pull away from her, she clung to his neck. She didn’t want him questioning her, dreaded he’d see it in her eyes that she’d lied. “Let’s make a storm.” She trailed kisses down his neck and pushed his shoulders until he lay on his back. She flicked her tongue over his skin, and she worked her way down his firm stomach.

He took a deep intake of breath as she caressed his erection, and a boom of thunder shook the house when her lips closed around him. His penis felt so silky smooth and hard against her tongue, a contradiction at its finest, and she couldn’t help but moan throatily as she took all of him in her mouth. He threaded his hands through her hair and brokenly whispered her name. The sound made Sabrina squirm in anticipation.

Apparently, he could take no more of her sweet torture. He threw her on her back and rose over her. In one movement, he entered her and they both groaned in satisfaction.

He thrust inside her, and her hips rose in a dance as old as time itself, until they both climaxed and collapsed into each other’s arms.

They remained in their lovers’ embrace until the alarm on Isaac’s phone went off, and he sighed and left her arms. He kissed her goodbye, and murmured, “Stay here, I won’t be long.”

She nodded and closed her eyes against his scrutiny, feigning exhaustion. He didn’t seem fooled, however. Hell, acting had never been one of her skills.

“Please, stay here,” he pleaded. “I’d tie you to the bed if I thought it would make you stay.”

“I’d like to see you try.” She grinned at him in challenge. He drew in a breath, and his eyes darkened at the mental image she must have planted in his head.

When in doubt, distract with sex. Works every time
.

“Hmm, maybe another day?” he suggested. “Could be fun…given the right circumstances.”

She didn’t answer him, and he gave a frustrated sigh, leaving the room.

When the door shut, she counted to sixty and hopped off the couch. She dressed faster than ever before. She didn’t want to miss their meeting.

Chapter Eighteen

Isaac scanned the clearing for his brother and found him draped across a giant boulder.

“So, what are we going to do?” Elijah asked without preamble.

They both knew they couldn’t waste time on niceties. Nor did Isaac care for them. He had a job to do, pure and simple. He had no desire to forgive his brother, or to become friends. Hell no, he did this for Sabrina and Sabrina
only
.

Isaac cocked his head. “We need to set a trap for Louisa. When one of us is distracting Louisa, the other can try to sneak up on her. No, that won’t do at all. She will see us coming, and know what is happening. Louisa’s
impossible
to beat. We’ll never—” He paced in agitation as he ran a hand through his hair.

Elijah interrupted him. “No, I may have a plan. It came to me earlier. She’s always lusted after me. We can both attest to as much.” Isaac gave a curt nod of his head and met Elijah’s eyes. More than likely, Elijah also remembered just how much she had desired him, and how far she would go to get him. “I can entice her, make her think she has a chance. Distract her using kisses and caresses. That’s where you take advantage of her distraction. If you know what I’m saying.”

“Will she fall for such an old trick, after all this time you’ve spent hating her?” Isaac scoffed. Louisa would believe that all of a sudden, Elijah couldn’t keep his hands off of her? Not bloody likely.

Turning red, Elijah looked away from Isaac’s scrutiny. “There have been moments of weakness. We have—”

Isaac’s eyes widened as he realized what his brother alluded to. He glared and snapped, “You’ve had sex with the woman responsible for killing Amelia, the same woman responsible for making us what we are? Is this what you’re telling me?”

“Oh, spare me the righteousness of Isaac, if you will.” Elijah snarled as he made a dismissive gesture of his hand. “We vampires don’t exactly have a whole lot of choices out there, unlike you. If we try to take a human, they usually die in our arms. You, however, can have anyone you want, minus the repercussions. So don’t judge me.”

“Some people just do without,” Isaac argued. His cheeks flushed when Elijah studied him, and he avoided his gaze and shifted on his feet. He hadn’t meant to let that slip. “So you keep her otherwise occupied. Then, what, I run up behind you and snap her head off?”

“Precisely,” Elijah drawled.

“How would we arrange the time, and place? We’d also need a signal, one no Enforcers would catch on to.” Isaac tensed, and shouted, “God damn it, Sabrina!”

Elijah stared at him in confusion before he, too, sensed her presence. He whipped his head in her direction, and they both glared at her as she walked into the clearing. She held her head high, and her chin set stubbornly. Her eyes flashed in the moonlight as thunder boomed overhead. She had never looked so gorgeous, and he had never been so goddamned furious.

Once, just once, could she listen to him? Isaac rushed to her, pausing only to glower at Elijah when he headed toward her as well. Oh, hell no. Sabrina belonged to him, and Elijah needed to remember it. Now.

Elijah, heeding the unspoken warning, instantly halted, though his fists remained clenched.

“What the hell are you doing here, Sabrina? Are you crazy?” Isaac whispered.

She glared and answered, “No.
I’m
not.
I’m
not the one risking my head for treason.”

Isaac opened his mouth to retort, only to be interrupted by Elijah. “Perhaps she’s here for a reason, Isaac.”

That earned a hiss from Isaac, but he did manage to ask using great control, “
Is
there something wrong, Sabrina?”

She hesitated and her gaze darted from him to Elijah speculatively. She looked terrified of what she wanted to say, but her chin jutted out nonetheless. If she was scared by what she had to say, he had a feeling he wouldn’t like it either. At all.

“I’d like Elijah to change me,” she stated.

Not like it? Understatement of the century
.

Thunder crashed overhead, and Isaac found himself incapable of words, so he sputtered. The wind whipped around the trio at hurricane-like speeds, and Sabrina braced herself against a tree to fight the force of the winds pulling at her.

“Isaac, you need to calm down!” Elijah yelled as he approached Sabrina, presumably to help keep her from floating away in the wind. He got rewarded for his admonishment when Isaac pushed him, slamming him into the boulder he had previously rested upon.

The message, Isaac felt certain, came out loud and clear. Isaac stalked away from them both and punched a tree. The tree proceeded to shudder, and a cracking sound filled the air it crashed to the ground. Sabrina screamed, and Elijah hurried to her side to put a soothing hand on her shoulder.
This
did not help his anger very much.

Apparently the message hadn’t been as clear as he had thought
.

Anger oozed out of his pores like a sickness as Isaac stalked toward them, but he halted when he saw how petrified Sabrina looked. He growled and sat down to hold his head in his hands in an attempt to calm himself. She’d asked to be bitten. She’d actually
requested
to become a monster, to become his enemy.

He concentrated on calming his fury, and attempted to steer away the mental images of Elijah sinking his teeth into her neck. Although vampires liked the sensitive spot on the inside of the thigh, too. Elijah would probably much prefer that spot over a measly neck bite.

No, those types of thoughts wouldn’t calm him down.

Get a grip, man
.

When Isaac finally felt calm enough to confront Sabrina, he raised his head and glowered. Elijah still stood by Sabrina, but had wisely removed his hands from her. If he even so much as touched her right now, Isaac would lose the small bit of control he had. “And what, my love, would you accomplish if you got your way? Have you changed your mind, and would like to live with Elijah instead?” he bit out. He ground his teeth together in an attempt to stay calm.

Sabrina ran to his side, halting Elijah’s panicked attempt to stop her with a glare of her own, and crouched down beside him. “No, Isaac. I love you. I thought maybe if I weren’t so weak—”

He laughed somewhat hysterically at her line of thought. Shaking his head in bemusement, he sneered, “You thought you would become a big, strong vampire and defeat Louisa, and we could live happily ever after?”

Sabrina blushed, but scowled at his condescending tone. “Yes, but God knows why I would want to be with an asshole like you.” They glared at each other, neither backing down from their icy stance.

“Do you realize if he bites you, you would always be a part of him? That you’d have loyalty and attachments such as you’ve never known? Even Elijah feels drawn to Louisa, and he despises her.”

She looked to Elijah for confirmation, and he nodded his assent.

“Oh well, if it helps us all out of this mess, so be it. I’m strong enough to resist,” she insisted.

“Even if that were true, it would take at least a week until you were able to fight Louisa. Until then, you’d be lying in bed, wracked with pain. Useless. You don’t become an invincible immortal right away.”

“It’s true,” Elijah added softly from behind them. “It’s not something you should wish for, Sabrina. It is no way for anyone to live. You’d be better off dead, just as I should be.”

She gasped and glared at him. “Knock it off, Elijah. You may not be a mortal, but you’re no monster.”

Elijah scoffed at her words and looked away from her probing eyes.

“Sabrina, you’re forgetting one fact,” Isaac interrupted. She swung her gaze back to Isaac and arched an eyebrow. Isaac continued, “If you become a vampire, we couldn’t be together. I’d be your
enemy
. We’d be apart forever, or damned and hunted down if I went to you. It’s no way to live.”

“You’ll be damned and hunted down for pairing with Elijah as well, which doesn’t bother you. So why not be damned and be rid of Louisa’s threat in the process? I wouldn’t be a weak human, and we could be together forever.”

Isaac let his breath escape in a hiss. “No. Absolutely not.”

Sabrina crossed her arms and turned her attention back to Elijah. “If you won’t do it, Elijah, I’ll find some other way to make it happen. I won’t sit by and let Louisa hunt me down and kill me. I will
fight
.”

“You will not!” Isaac yelled.

Elijah interrupted once more, insisting. “Isaac, you need to get her inside. I know Louisa is nearby, and we don’t want to risk tempting her any longer. Go argue in the house, where I don’t have to listen.”

Isaac nodded his head and grabbed Sabrina’s arm.

She pulled back and drawled, “Yes, let’s hide the poor human girl. We wouldn’t want her to stub her toe.”

Elijah hid his smile, feigning a cough, while Isaac growled.

“Knock it off, Sabrina.”

She glared at him and spun to Elijah. “Elijah, please….” His eyes softened, and Isaac picked her up in his arms.

“Don’t even
think
about it, or I’ll kill you right here and now.”