CHAPTER THIRTEEN

 

 

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“Vampire,” Mason growled as he stalked into Bree’s kitchen and the witch lifted her hand and absently waved it in the air.

“No,” she hiccupped. “Come on in; my house is your house.” She leaned her elbow on the table and squished her cheek up with the palm of her hand as she eyed the alpha. “Not like I got banished from your house or anything,” she added on a mutter of discontent.

Mason ignored her. He had bigger fish to fry – namely of the vampire variety. “I got a bone to pick with you.”

“Did you dig it up yourself or did you get your wolf to do it?” Martha chuckled and caught sight of Thorn as he walked into the room and blocked the outside from view with his large frame. “Speaking of mutts,” she snorted.

“Kind of busy,” Jai tossed out.”Give me the next thirty years or so of mated bliss, and I’ll be right with you.”

“Thirty years!” Emily swallowed hard as her eyes widened and her cheeks puffed out as she kept a big breath inside.

“Just a mere blink of the eye,” Jai grinned and there were his fangs.

“Put those away!” Emily hissed out as she let go of that breath in annoyance.

“You’ve gotta hate it when they do that,” he offered with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “Just appear for no good reason...”

“Oh, I think we both know the reason,” she scowled back at him. “Blood!”

“Love some,” Jai grinned again, and there were those fangs once more.

Emily didn’t hold back, she zapped him hard and took a certain amount of satisfaction in it. “Once more and I swear they’re going down the back of your throat,” she warned him.

“Allow me,” Mason growled.

“You’re just miffed that I blindsided you, well you should have been paying attention,” Jai informed the alpha before he turned his attention back to his mate. “And you’re drunk, and anything you say should be taken with a grain of salt.”

“Pinch,” Martha corrected him, and she jumped when Thorn did just that, pinched her. She turned a dark gaze onto her mate. “What are you, five?”

“Just getting some in where I can,” Thorn assured her.

Martha hit him with a zinger of her magic that felt as if his backside had been hit be a Jurassic sized bee. “Me too,” she offered him something of a cross between a death glare and a bright, beaming smile, and he scowled back at her.

“I’m not drunk,” Emily tossed back. “If I were drunk you might look appealing.”

“Ouch,” Jai scowled. “Sweetheart, don’t hold back, just tell me how you really feel…”

“Never say that to a woman on the edge,” Bree shook her head to back up her words.

“Bad move, and after five hundred years you’d think he’d be smarter,” Martha grumbled.

“How I really feel…?” Emily snorted her contempt for him.

Jai rushed to head her off. “Maybe we shouldn’t sully the waters of this blossoming relationship just yet with…”

“Ha! You’re a vampire, how do you think I feel?” He opened his mouth to speak. “Pig sick and tempted to give fate a piece of my mind is how. And do you know why?” The vampire held up his finger on a eureka moment, but she kept going. “Because I have a vampire for a mate. A v-a-m-p-i-r-e, not a human – not a wizard – not a warlock – not a werebear – not a wolf shifter – not even an elf or a fairy…”

“Don’t forget trolls – nasty things,” Bree offered.

“Thank you – not a troll from under the bridge…”

“Ogre,” Martha snapped out. “I hate ogre’s.”

“Not even an ogre,” Emily announced. “But a bloodsucking leeching, lecherous, stab you in the back – neck fetishing – vampire.”

“Well,” Jai said and took a moment to ponder her words. “You listed all my good points, should I take a load off while we go through my really bad side?”

Emily opened her mouth, hiccupped, and closed it again.

“Well, that’s becoming – what do you do for an encore – fart the national anthem?” Jai asked, and Bree couldn’t help but snigger.

“I suppose you think you’re funny,” Emily grumbled.

“She does!” Jai said as he pointed at Bree.

“Do not,” she sneered back, but when he raised just the one eyebrow back at her, she gave a small, half-hearted shrug. “Okay, a little.”

“Thank you,” Jai looked pleased with himself, but not so pleased when he noted his mate glaring at him. “If the witch thing doesn’t work out, you could find employment as a gargoyle.”

She zapped him again.

Martha flicked a look up at her mate to find his eyes wandering where they shouldn’t be. “Quit looking down my top you dirty of man,” she snapped.

“It’s not like there’s anything to see – you can’t exactly make mountains out of those molehills,” he chuckled and bit it off the moment that she zapped him. “So help me, woman…” he grumbled and muttered the rest.

“Yes?” Martha demanded with a death glare that made him think twice about offering her an answer. He muttered some more.

The vampire reached for his mate’s hand, took it in his, and lifted it towards his lips — she snatched right back. “Let me take you away to my Manor…”

“You have Manor?” Bree looked impressed.

“Twenty-two bedrooms in sumptuous acres of land.” He was trying to tempt his mate, and he couldn’t help the slight melodic tone that filled his voice.

“Lord Sucky of all he prevails,” Mason growled.

“Sounds…” Emily frowned as she tried to get her fuddled brain to spit out a word.

“Luxurious – special, like you — intriguing…?”

“Remote,” Emily offered back. “Hermit-like…”

“Privacy has always been a biggie with me,” Jai offered back.

“I’m surprised you didn’t buy a castle, fill the moat with vampire sharks, and line cannons up on the ramparts,” Martha said.

“That’s my summerhouse,” Jai offered back with a dry tone, and even though his eyes were jet black, there was still amusement dancing in them. “Shall we go?” The tone of his voice said that she didn’t have a choice — oh, but she had a choice.

“Couldn’t possibly — don’t have a thing to wear,” Emily shot back.

“That’s good — I like naked,” Jai grinned, but he kept his lips together so that he wouldn’t be zapped once more when she saw his fangs. He was still having a problem getting them to retreat.

Bree snorted a chuckle. “Lady of the Manor — does that make you her Mister Darcy?”

“Mister Darcy meets Dracula,” Martha sniggered. “I need to get my head around that one.”

“With age comes senility,” Thorn grumbled.

“With age comes death,” Martha bit out as she narrowed her eyes on him and hardened her tone.

“At this point — can’t come soon enough,” Thorn grumbled back.

“You want me to help you along with that?” Martha demanded. The nerve of the man. He’d found his mate, and at a golden age, she would have thought that he would have been a little grateful at the very least.

But no, the grumbly old buzzard was determined to make her zap him at every turn. Why? Was the prospect of having a witch mate that unpalatable for his prejudices? Or, was he just that set in his ways that he didn’t want to share his life?

It wasn’t as if she was looking forward to the prospect of having him as a mate. Goddess only knew she was set in her ways too.

Did she really need a farty old goat sitting at the breakfast table scowling into his bowl of porridge? Not likely, but at least she respected the fact that fate had gone to all the trouble of matching them.