Val had no idea how long they worked to heal Cade’s injuries. Alone, he’d have been comatose for hours, but together they were able to force his body to regenerate much faster. At last, they’d done all they could, and she left him to tumble into the healing sleep.
She reentered her body to the sound of weeping. “Val, please wake up,” Beth sobbed. “I’m sorry about what I said. I didn’t mean it. Please don’t die. They won’t let me call an ambulance.”
“Good thing, too,” Val said hoarsely, opening her eyes to see her sister kneeling beside her on the arena floor. “What a pain in the butt that would be.”
Beth’s reddened eyes widened with joy. “Oh, thank God! Can you walk? Let’s get the hell out of here!”
Grabbing Val by one arm, Beth tried to haul her to her feet. Weak and dizzy, Val batted her sister’s hands away. “Stop it! Ridgemont’s dead. There’s no reason to go anywhere.”
“But the other one’s alive,” Beth said, her gaze hard and desperate. “I just checked him, and his breathing’s better. I’m afraid he’s going to make it. We need to get out of here.”
Val sat up and took a deep breath as the arena spun around her. “Damn right, he’s going to make it. And I’m not leaving him.”
“But…”
“He just saved my life, Beth.” Studying her sister’s flushed, tear-stained face, Val frowned. “Didn’t you leave?”
“I came back.” She shuddered. “Just in time to see you cut off Ridgemont’s head.”
“Actually, Cade did that.”
Beth’s dark brows drew down. “What are you talking about? He was out cold on the ground.”
Val opened her mouth, then made a dismissing gesture. “Never mind. It’d take too long to explain.”
“You know I didn’t mean it, right?” Beth clasped her hands anxiously. “What have I said before? I didn’t mean it -- I love you. This vampire thing doesn’t matter.”
Val sighed. Her sister’s scent told another story. “Beth, you’re still afraid of me.”
“I’ll get over it. We can go back to the way it was before. But you have to promise me…” She stopped and swallowed.
Wearily, stiffly, Val climbed to her feet. She rolled her spine to loosen it. “Promise what?”
Beth licked her lips and looked away. Her heart was pounding hard. “Promise me you won’t kill anyone.”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” She didn’t have the energy for this. All she wanted to do was crawl into a bed with Cade and sleep for the next two days.
“You could drink cow’s blood or something. You don’t have to feed on people.”
“Baby, vampires don’t have to kill anybody. We don’t need that much blood. Ridgemont killed because he was a sick son of a bitch.”
“Oh.” But Beth didn’t sound convinced.
Sighing, Val turned to stagger over to Cade, who lay sprawled on his back in a blood-soaked patch of sawdust. She dropped to one knee beside him and started trying to figure out how to get him out of his armor.
“So we can go home now, right?” Beth edged closer, shooting a wary glance at him. “I’ll be starting to school in a few days. We’ve still got that money Ridgemont gave us, and I could get a part-time job. I could support you.” She smiled a little bit too brightly. “I’m sure you could find a job too. Night shift or something.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ve got it taken care of.” Locating the straps that secured Cade’s breastplate, she went to work unbuckling them until she could pull it off. Val winced at the blood covering the padded jacket he wore beneath it. She was pretty sure they’d healed that wound, anyway.
Beth’s determined smile faded as she watched the tender way Val touched Cade. “You’re in love with him.”
“Yes.”
“But he turned you into a vampire!”
“Yeah, well. It had to be done.” She started work on the rest of Cade’s bloodstained, dented armor.
When she looked up again, Beth was watching her with wide eyes and lips that trembled. “I’ve lost you, haven’t I?”
Val’s heart twisted at the pain in her sister’s eyes. “No. You could never do that. I love you.” She looked down at Cade’s peacefully sleeping face. “The fact that I love him too doesn’t change that.”
When she glanced up again, she saw the fear and resentment had drained away from Beth’s gaze. “I’m beginning to see that. I love you too, Val.” Awkwardly, she bent down and kissed her on the cheek. Then she stood. “I guess I’ll need to book a flight home. I’ve got a lot to do if I’m going to get ready for school.”
Val bit her lip, longing to tell Beth she could stay with them until school started. Unfortunately, she knew her sister still feared them both too much. It was better to let her go until she could adjust to the idea. “We have a house in South Carolina. During weekends or when you go on break, I want you to stay with us. Or at a hotel, if that would make you feel safer. But I’d like you to get to know us -- now. See what we really are.”
Beth’s smile was slow and a little sad. “I already know what you are, Val. And I won’t be staying at any hotel.”
Rising, Val held out her arms. Her sister fell into them, holding her almost painfully tight with a muffled sob. They clung together for a long moment before reluctantly drawing apart. “I love you, Val.”
“I love you too, baby. Nothing will ever change that.” Frowning, she realized her sister needed transportation. “If you’ll give me a minute, I’ll find the keys to Cade’s Lexus…”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll just call an Uber.” She reached into a pocket and pulled out her cell as she turned and walked away.
Val watched her go, feeling her heart tighten with relief mixed with sadness. She suspected they’d have to work on building a new relationship, but at least they were both alive to do it.
With a sigh, Val turned to look down at Cade. After a pause, she bent to pick him up. Despite his muscular height, he seemed to ridiculously light to her vampire body as she carried him toward the stairs. As she walked, movement caught her attention.
A group of Ridgemont’s men were wrapping the ancient’s body in a tarp. A cautious mental scan told her he’d had implanted a compulsion to burn his corpse if he was killed. After that, they’d all be free for the first time in years. Val was relieved none of them planned to call the cops.
Cradling her lover, she went in search of a bedroom that didn’t smell like Ridgemont or Hirsch. With the last of her adrenaline rush fading, she didn’t have the energy to search for a hotel. Besides, both of them were covered in blood.
Val found a likely room and laid Cade down on a silky expanse of gold bedspread. Leaving him sprawled in all his bloody glory, she headed for the room’s adjoining bathroom. Fifteen minutes later she emerged, naked but reasonably clean, to tend to him again.
Blood had glued the padded suit he wore under the armor to his skin, and she had to loosen it with gentle applications of a warm washcloth. He was so deeply comatose he never even stirred. Finally, she had him stripped and cleaned up, his injuries healing nicely.
Then, with a huge yawn, Val crawled in next to his big, warm body, rested her head on his muscled shoulder, and fell instantly asleep.
* * *
She woke to Cade’s dark eyes watching her, slumberous and hungry. A slight smile curved one corner of his handsome mouth. He looked so sexy Val grinned. “You do that on purpose, don’t you?”
He blinked his long, dark lashes. “What?”
“That ‘Wolf to Red Riding Hood Come Here and Let Me Eat You look’.” She rose on one elbow and scanned his body. To her satisfaction, his wounds looked completely healed. He was certainly feeling better, judging from the proud jut of his erection. She eyed it hungrily. “And my, what a big cock you have.”
“The better to fuck you with,” he said, and drew her down to take her mouth. His lips felt like heated silk as they met hers, tongues circling, stroking. With a sigh, she leaned into him, burying the tips of her nipples in the tickling ruff of his chest hair. His erection nudged the arm she’d slid around his waist, as if begging for attention. She obliged, wrapping her fingers around its hot, thick width.
Cade purred in approval, one hand drifting down the line of her spine to dip between her thighs. When they parted the lush folds of her sex, she moaned.
“Hmmmm,” he purred. “‘The children of the night -- what music they make.’”
Val laughed softly, recognizing a Dracula quote. “And how long have you been waiting to use that joke?”
“Too damn long.” He caught her ass in both hands and rolled her atop him. “In fact, let’s see what kind of notes I can make you sing.”
“I definitely feel an aria coming on.” She tightened her grip on his cock, trapped now between their bodies. Stroked slowly.
He grinned and pulled her higher up his body until he was eye-level with her nipples. “Keep that up and we’ll be doing a duet.”
As his mouth closed over one tight peak, Val threw back her head and moaned. Pleasure rolled through her like heated honey as he suckled lazily, then raked the tip with his teeth. The sensation of his fangs dimpling her breast sent a wicked little jolt through her. “Cade!”
“Val,” he purred back, reaching down between their bodies for her pussy. His fingers slipped between her vaginal lips and found the eager jut of her clit. He stroked and circled it as he suckled her nipple in long pulls.
The velvet pleasure made her eyes roll back in her head as she fisted both hands in his hair. His cock jerked against her belly, making her imagine its demanding thrust.
“Cade,” she gasped, her voice ragged. “Cade, I need… Please…”
He released her nipple and looked up at her, a wicked grin curving his mouth. “Please, what?”
“Fuck me!” she panted. “Please!”
“Wellll,” Cade drawled, “since you’re so polite…” His hands closed around her hips, lifting her off him. She rose on her knees, positioning herself over his cock as he angled it upward for her. They both groaned as she impaled herself, the long velvet shaft stretching her with a sweet, hot sting. “Oh God, you feel so good,” he growled through his fangs.
“Yeah, you… you… Oh, Cade!” Digging her nails into his broad shoulders, she clung to him as his big body rolled upward, surged between her thighs to meet her downward thrusts.
Throwing her head back, she jogged on him, riding hard, circling her hips. He slid a hand into position to tease her clit so that every move they made sent another hot spark of pleasure up her spine. He reached his free hand up to her breast, cupping her, squeezing the stone-hard nipple, pinching and milking it. Pleasure piled on pleasure -- from her nipple, her clit, the erotic burn of his cock buried in her cunt, and she keened at the storm of sensation.
With a feral growl, he released his hold on her breast and clit to fist both hands in her hair, dragging her down to stretch out along his body. As he rolled hard under her, he dragged her head down until he could sink his fangs into the underside of her jaw. Sharing the erotic taste of her own blood in his mouth, she convulsed and came in a long, rolling orgasm.
Still drinking in deep swallows, Cade continued his ruthless, driving possession as she writhed helplessly against him.
* * *
They lay tangled together on the bed, Cade’s big body curled around hers, his head resting on her breast, both muscled arms wrapped around her body. It was, Val thought, a distinctly possessive pose. Not that she objected as she stroked one hand through the thick silk of his dark hair.
But despite the atmosphere of sated peace, when she touched his mind, she found Cade was brooding. Val debated whether to let him hash it out on his own, then decided a little discussion couldn’t hurt. “This thing with Ridgemont bothers you,” she said.
Cade rubbed his chin back and forth over her breast. “He beat me, Val. I would rather have defeated him on my own -- using my own body, I mean.”
“You have to admit though, that wouldn’t have pissed him off nearly as much,” she pointed out, grinning. “Ridgemont was outraged at being killed by a woman.”
He shrugged. “For a twelfth-century man, that was the ultimate humiliation.”
“More like the ultimate irony, considering all the women he’s tortured.”
“Yeah, I guess there was a certain justice in your killing him.”
Frowning, Val eyed him. “Cade, we killed him. Yeah, the hands were mine, but he’d have chopped me in two if you hadn’t entered me to amplify my strength. Something that never occurred to the sexist creep you’d do.”
His arms tightened around her as he met her eyes with a hard look. “Which brings up a very good point -- what the hell did you think you were doing?”
“You didn’t honestly expect me to sit there and watch you die?”
Cade smiled dryly at that. “Not after spending as much time in your head as I have, no.”
He was leaning down to kiss her when the smell of peppermint filled the air. They both jerked and looked around. Abigail floated beside the bed, watching them with solemn eyes. “Jeez, Ghost Brat, don’t you ever knock?” Val demanded.
“On what?”
“She’s got a point,” Cade said. Then he sobered, studying the little ghost’s transparent face. “I’m glad you’re here. This is as much your victory as ours. Without you staying with me all these years, I don’t know what I would have done. You could have found your reward, but you gave that up for me. I wouldn’t have survived without you.”
“But you did survive, Cade. You’re free.” The glow of the little ghost’s face began to intensify. “And so am I. I just had to see you one last time.”
Cade’s eyes widened. “Wait, you’re leaving? Permanently? But --”
“You have Valerie now. She’ll take care of you, just as I knew she would.” The ghost’s smile was luminous. “Your future is so beautiful.”
“So share it with us. Please…”
“I can’t, Cade. I can hear the Light calling,” Abigail said, a soft wonder filling her eyes. “It’s like music. I’ve waited so long…”
Val felt Cade’s broad shoulders slump. “Then go to it, darlin’. And remember I love you.”
“As I love you, Cade. I always will.” Her little face lifted, took on such an expression of transcendent joy that Val felt her heart catch. “Yes. Yes, I hear you. I’m coming!”
The ghost’s brightness flared, intensified until it flooded the room. Val’s eyes filled with tears, and she heard Cade’s breath roughen.
Slowly, slowly, the light faded away, along with the scent of peppermint. But as they looked at the spot where she’d been, they heard music, a long, rolling peal of it, high and so joyous, not even Cade’s grief could withstand it.
When the last note faded, his strong arms tightened around Val, and they lay together in a sweet cocoon of peace.
“She’s right, you know,” Val told him softly. “The future is going to be beautiful.”
He gave her a slow smile. “Of course. I’ll be spending it with you.”