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In the centuries we’ve lived in Nightfall, I’ve only seen Colin in love once, and who knows if that would have lasted. Poor Elyria was murdered before they could be married. Memories of Colin’s face the day he discovered her body make me regret my tone until he says, “At least I’m present in my life and community. Beats hiding from the world like a child who, even after two hundred years, still hasn’t realized the world doesn’t revolve around him.”
“You’re lucky you’re a vampire,” I shoot back. “Or you’d have bastards by half the women in town and venereal disease from the other half.”
Annie chokes on her sip of tea, spraying lemon-scented liquid across the bar that has Colin off his stool and backing away so fast he becomes a blur in my peripheral vision. Citrus wreaks havoc on vampires, but only if we actually ingest it. A bit of tea-diluted lemon water on his sweater wouldn’t have done him any harm.
But it’s typical Colin to be more concerned about keeping his clothes dry than ensuring Annie isn’t choking to death.
“Are you all right?” I ask, slapping her gently between the shoulders, even that brief, eros-free touch enough to make me ache to pull her into my arms.
I want her head tucked beneath my chin and every inch of her delicate self safely under my protection.
All humans are fragile, but Annie is barely as big around as my right thigh and so innocent, it’s dangerous. She has no idea how perilous this town can be for a witch not fully in her power or a half-Wyvern without the ability to shift. She has the insanely tempting, freshly-baked-cinnamon-roll, drive-a-predator-mad-with-longing witch scent combined with exactly zero means of self-defense.
She shouldn’t be allowed out of her house without a bodyguard—and wouldn’t be if I had anything to say about it.
But I don’t. The last time we spoke, I made it clear I wanted nothing to do with her. I shouldn’t be in the same room with this woman, let alone rubbing my palm in gentle circles on her back.
As soon as Annie says, “I’m fine. Sorry. You…surprised me is all,” I pull my hand away from her and take a step back.
I have to get out of here. Now. Before I do something else that I’ll regret.
Dipping my head to Colin in silent apology, I mutter, “I should go. Have a pleasant evening.”
I dissolve before either of them can answer, but there’s still enough of me left in the room when Annie says, “That was close. You don’t think he heard, do you?” that my curiosity is peaked all over again.
What are the two of them plotting?
Whatever it is, I intend to put a stop to it. The less time Colin spends with Annie, the better. Nothing good will come from her fraternizing with a supernatural sheriff with a permanent target on his back. Womanizing tendencies aside, Colin is a good man, but even good men can have dangerous enemies. He’s put enough criminals behind bars to have earned the ire of some of the most heinous supernaturals living today.
And even if Annie manages to avoid getting caught in Colin’s professional crossfire, she could still end up damaged by her association with my brother. If she falls in love with him, he will break her heart, there’s no doubt in my mind about that.
So, I don’t head back to the swamp right away. I linger in the shadows behind the bar, waiting for Annie and Colin to leave.
Logically, I know what they’re up to is none of my business—I pushed Annie out of my life with both hands—but my gut refuses to listen to such nonsense. No, I don’t want her becoming attached to a monster like me, but I don’t want her with a monster like Colin, either. The Blackmore clan hasn’t fed on unwilling humans in well over a century, but we are what we are. At the core, all vampires are monstrous and the last creatures who should be meddling with a vulnerable woman like Annie.
Besides, I don’t want to kill Colin, which will become a definite temptation should he and Annie end up becoming more than friends. I love my brother, but the thought of his hands on Annie’s bare skin, his lips at her throat, his hips settling between her thighs…
I dig my teeth into my bottom lip and close my eyes, willing away the visions pulsing through my head, tempting the darkest part of my nature to the surface.
I will not rip my brother’s throat out. I won’t have to, because he will never be with Annie in that way, even if I have to follow him around town like a demented, jealous shadow to make sure of it.
Not quite an hour later, Colin and Annie emerge from the bar. I follow them at a distance, glaring a hole in the arm Colin keeps wrapped affectionately around her shoulder as they make their way down Main Street toward the Wonderfully mansion.
All the way through the quiet streets, I wrack my brain for ways to keep Colin from going inside with Annie without revealing myself again, but when they reach the front gate, he stops. Pulling her in for a brief hug, he wishes her a good night and starts toward the tram that will take him up the cliffs to the Blackmore estate.
I should follow him and make sure he understands that Annie is off-limits. I need to fetch more blood and welcome Edmond and Ferris home from Europe at some point, after all, and I’d rather do that now than during some crowded party tomorrow night.
But as Colin takes a right at the next cross street, I don’t hurry to catch up. I stay where I am, watching Annie lean down to whisper something to the bush in the front yard before starting across the snow-covered lawn to the house.
I promise myself I’ll stay just long enough to ensure she gets inside safely. Then I’ll go, and she’ll never realize that simply seeing her sharing a drink with my brother was enough to make me feel like my heart was being ripped into pieces.
I’m already planning the route I’ll take through the swamp—the trickiest one with numerous predator traps along the way, the one that takes all of my focus to traverse safely and will hopefully banish Annie Wonderfully from my thoughts—when the front door bursts open and three massive tentacles writhe into the night.
Before I can call out a warning, Annie’s been snatched off her feet with a startled cry that burrows into my brain like a knife.
A beat later, I’m beside her, slamming a fist into the monster’s muscled flesh.
Chapter 5
