Naura (11 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Tony looked up as Zaureth stood in the hall, staring at him from the doorway. According to Abbie, Bracadytes never entered another’s apartment without a proper invitation. It had been a law passed years ago by the king, due to the lack of doors on private quarters.

“Come in,” Tony murmured softly, getting to his feet.

“Hauke’s mate tells me that Naura remains unresponsive. I do not know if it will be of help, but I would try something, if I may?”

Tony motioned him over. “Yes, please. Try everything you can think of.”

Zaureth nodded and rested his knee on the foot of the bed at Naura’s feet before straddling her body and climbing higher.

“What the hell are you doing?” Tony demanded, locking a hand onto the healer’s arm to prevent him from moving farther.

“Do you want my help or not?”

“Please.”

Zaureth looked down at the hand that Tony still had wrapped around his arm. “Then I suggest that you let go of me.”

Tony released him, biting down on the inside of his cheek to keep from knocking Zaureth off Naura’s nude body. The only reason Tony allowed the healer to remain in his current position was out of hope that the Bracadyte could help her.

Zaureth brought his hands up to either side of Naura’s head and cupped her face.

Energy began to swirl through the air, raising the hairs on Tony’s neck.

He watched in utter amazement as Naura’s color slowly returned and a soft moan slipped from her lips.

Tony wasn’t sure how long Zaureth remained there, nothing moving on his body aside from his eyes dancing behind his closed lids.

Long moments passed before the healer removed his hands and slid down Naura’s body to stand at the foot of the bed. “I am not certain that I reached her, Anthony Vaughn. If she does not wake by the next full moon, her chances of returning to us whole are not promising.”

“What did this to her? I mean, did
I
cause this?”

“Naura differs from the rest of us. The gift she carries inside her is cemented in love and light. It cannot dwell in darkness.”

More nausea rolled through Tony’s gut, threatening to spill at any moment. “So, my sins, my nightmares are now living in her?”

Zaureth nodded. “I am afraid so. Her injury has weakened her. She should not have attempted a healing when her body was not strong enough to handle the outcome.”

The healer turned to go. “Reach out to her. Talk her back from the darkness. I fear that you are the only one who can.”

Long after Zaureth had departed, Tony stood rooted to the floor, blaming himself for Naura’s current state. If she hadn’t taken it upon herself to try to save him, she would be well on her way to recovery by now.

With a growl of determination, he tugged off his shirt and climbed into bed next to her.

Pulling her close, he tucked her head beneath his chin. “You can’t do this to me. I won’t let you.”

She sighed in her sleep, but gave no other indication that she heard him.

“Do you remember last year, when Hauke brought you to that underground bunker? You were banged up and unconscious.”

He ran his hand along her hair. “I thought you were the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. Of course I couldn’t tell you that. You see, I was ignorant and selfish, only thinking of myself and getting my niece out of there alive. I didn’t want to like you. You represented everything that I had been running from for more than fifteen years.”

Another small sigh escaped her.

“You’re not like me, Naura. You’re good and pure, and I’m all that is opposite of that. If I had met you before…before I became a monster, I would have given you everything that you deserve and more.”

Tony continued to talk until there were no words left to say, until exhaustion claimed him and he drifted off to sleep with Naura wrapped safely in his arms.

* * * *

A gentle breeze touched Tony’s face, and the smell of sunshine hung in the air.

“Tony?” Naura’s sweet voice was a balm to his soul. He squinted his eyes against the brightness of the sun, searching for her everywhere, but saw only the sun’s rays reflecting off the water.

Waves crashed in the distance, and birds chirped from nearby trees.

“Tony?” The whisper of her voice in his ear, brought his head around, but it wasn’t Naura’s face he saw. There, surrounded by light, stood Joanne, his deceased wife.

“Jo?” he breathed, reaching for her, only to come up empty. “You’re here.”

She smiled, tears sparkling in her beautiful blue eyes. “It is time, Tony. Time to let us go. You have grieved long enough.”

Tony dropped his head in shame. He’d let her down. He hadn’t saved them all those years ago.

“Do not blame yourself, Anthony. There was nothing you could have done to stop it. You must move on. Find happiness. For me. Don’t let our deaths be in vain. Do not let the evil win.”

Tony jumped to his feet as she began to fade. “Wait. Jo, wait. Please don’t go.”

“I must. And so must you. Love again, Tony. It is right before your eyes. You only have to reach out and take it.”

“What if I fail? What if I’m not capable?”

“You were always capable, Tony. Always.”

His eyes slid shut with the finality of her words. She wanted him to let her go, to forgive himself and move on.

Could he put his past behind him and live once again?

“Tony?”

He couldn’t bear to look up, to watch her leave, somehow knowing that this would be the last time he’d ever see her again.

“Can you hear me?”

Tony jerked his eyes open and came face to face with Naura.

“You’re awake,” he whispered, searching her eyes for proof that she wasn’t part of his dream.

“I felt your heart beating beneath my ear. The words you spoke to me last night are a distant memory, but the meaning behind them remains.”

Tony found himself slowly descending toward her. “I almost killed you, Naura.”

“But you didn’t,” she whispered back, dropping her gaze to his mouth.

His lips gently brushed across hers, only to move back and slide over them again. She tasted of warmth and desire.

His hand wrapped in her hair, holding her tightly as the kiss deepened. His lips slanted across hers in a demand of surrender he wanted—no he needed above anything else.

Naura moaned into his mouth, sitting up and allowing the sheet to slip away from her body.

Tony broke off the kiss and dropped his gaze to her beautiful breasts, heavy with desire. The pink, rosy tips hardened beneath his stare.

His hand slid from her hair to her shoulder, nearly shaking with the need to cup her in his palm.

“Naura…” A smear of dried blood covered her ribcage, jerking him out of his lustful haze.

He quickly rolled to his side and staggered to his feet.

“Tony?”

“I had no right to do that.”

“Please, do not say that. You did nothing that I did not want.”

“You shouldn’t have risked yourself for me. What if you had not come back from it? How would you expect me to live with something like that?”

“I am sorry. I only wanted to help you. I—”

“You had no right,” he snapped, snatching up his shirt and pulling it over his head.

“Where are you going?”

“To find Zaureth and Abbie. You need to be checked over.” Tony rushed from the room, unable to take a deep breath until he reached the hall.

Naura had nearly lost her life not twenty-four hours before and then almost lost her mind in her attempt to heal him. And what had he done to repay her? Taken advantage of her weakened state to put his filthy hands on her body.

He glanced back at her from the doorway. “Do not move until I return.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tears filled Naura’s eyes as she watched Tony practically run from the room.

She’d attempted to get inside his head in hopes of discovering what had him so angry, but she’d never been able to penetrate his mind against his will. And his will was the strength of a Bracadyte’s.

Adjusting herself to a more comfortable position, she swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and focused on moving her feet.

The pain in her back, burned and throbbed, but it was bearable. Tony’s blood had already set her healing in motion.

Her fingers trembled as she gingerly touched her lips, the lips that Tony had kissed only minutes before.

Naura had never felt anything as amazing as Tony’s mouth covering hers.

She ran her tongue along her bottom lip, glorying in the taste of him, the scent of him still lingering on her skin. Butterflies erupted inside her stomach at the memory of his tenderness.

She shifted on the bed, marveling at the wetness present on her thighs.

Naura knew enough about mating to understand the workings of a female’s body, and hers had begun preparing itself with that one precious kiss. She could only imagine what it would feel like to take him into her body, to have him love her the way that she loved him.

Unsure of how long she sat there lost in thoughts of Tony, Naura noticed a shadow pass by her door.

“May I come in?” Abbie called from the hall.

Naura quickly covered herself and relaxed back against the fluffy softness of her pillows. “Of course.”

Abbie took a hesitant step inside the foyer, craning her neck to meet Naura’s gaze. “Zaureth is with me. Do you mind?”

“He is always welcome,” Naura replied with a small smile. The fact that Tony hadn’t returned with them wasn’t lost on her.

Zaureth accompanied Abbie into the bedroom and took a seat on a nearby stool. “How do you fare, daughter of our king?”

“I am feeling much better, Zaureth. But I have asked you to refer to me by my given name.”

The healer dipped his head. “It is difficult for me to change. I will strive to do better.”

Abbie sat on the side of the bed. “Roll over, sister of Hauke,” she teased with a chuckle. “I’d like to have a look at your wound.”

Naura returned her smile, but couldn’t quite manage a laugh. She slowly rolled to her side, giving Abbie her back. “It does not pain me as it did earlier.”

A gasp escaped Abbie. “Zaureth? Come have a look at this. It’s amazing.”

“Human blood is nothing short of a miracle to the Bracadytes,” the healer confessed. “We do not need it to survive and consider it a crime punishable by death if taken without consent.”

“By death?” The tone of Abbie’s voice left little doubt in Naura’s mind that she didn’t approve.

Zaureth stood and moved around to the foot of the bed in Naura’s line of vision. He clasped his hands in front of him and pinned Abbie with a serious stare. “If we were permitted to take the land walker’s blood at will, the humans would soon become the minority in a world of Bracadytes bent on bloodlust.”

“And if it’s given freely by a human?”

“It is definitely frowned upon, but does not break any our laws.”

Abbie went back to studying Naura’s wound while continuing to question Zaureth. “So, the Bracadytes would disapprove of me giving blood to Hauke if he needed it?”

Zaureth shook his head. “You are his mate, and therefore one with him in the eyes of our kind.”

“People,” Abbie corrected. “In the eyes of your people.” She patted Naura’s shoulder, letting her know that she could abandon her side position.

Abbie rose from the bed to face Zaureth. “No matter where you come from or how different our DNA, you are still walking, talking, breathing people.”

Zaureth chuckled, startling Naura. In all the years she’d known him, she had never heard him laugh.

“You missed your calling,” Zaureth teased. “You should have been a politician.”

Abbie’s mouth dropped open. “And what do you know of politicians?”

“Only what I have read. Now, I must take my leave. I am being summoned to a birthing.”

He paused inside the foyer. “Anthony Vaughn waits in the hall. Shall I send him in?”

“Yes, please,” Naura blurted, blushing as Abbie sent her a wink.

Hauke’s mate moved to follow Zaureth from the room. “I need to go also. Arcanum should be waking soon, and he’ll be hungrier than a horse.”

Naura’s lips twitched. “I love your human sayings.”

“Well, I love you. Don’t let Uncle Tony keep you up too long. You don’t want to overdo it.”

Naura nodded, watching her brother’s beautiful mate leave the room. She suddenly felt awkward. How was she to win Tony’s heart with her hair in tangles and two small fangs peeking out from beneath her top lip?

“Naura?” Tony began as he entered her bedroom. “About what happened earlier—”

“Do not apologize for giving me the best gift that anyone has ever offered me. I will cherish it with my whole being.”

He stopped next to the bed and sat. “It was wrong. Don’t you see? You should have never risked yourself for me, Naura. And I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

Pain sliced through her heart, leaving the wound in her back to pale in comparison. “You…you do not want me.”

Tony’s expression turned to something dark and dangerous. He laughed without humor. “Want you? I want nothing more than to throw you against a wall and take you in ways you could never imagine. Hard and fast. That’s what I want.”

“I do not care, Anthony Vaughn. If that is how it is done in your world—”

“You should care.” He was suddenly hovering above her, his eyes glittering in the light of the moonstone next to her bed. “Because your injury is the only thing stopping me from doing just that.”

Naura shrank back from him, stung by the harshness of his voice. “It does not matter in what fashion that you take me, Tony. Only that you do.”

His expression hardened even more if that were possible. “How many men have you been with?”

“Men?”

“Bracadyte males,” he growled, his gaze boring into hers.

Tears of embarrassment filled her eyes. How could she tell him that it was forbidden for the king’s daughter to give herself to anyone but her mate?

“No one.” Those two words slipped from her mouth in a whisper of shame. It was unheard of for a Bracadyte female to reach thirty years in age without finding a mate.

Tony went completely still. “What did you say?”

“Please go,” she murmured, covering her face with her hands.

He pried her hands away, forcing her to look into his beautiful blue eyes. “You’re a virgin?”

Naura would give anything at that moment for a hole to open beneath her and swallow her up. “Yes.”

“Jesus. I’m such an ass.” He kissed her fingertips and stood, not meeting her gaze. “Are you hungry?”

She’d just admitted to being an untouched thirty-year-old virgin, and he wanted to feed her?

Naura rolled onto her side to block out the view of his handsome face. “No thank you. I wish to sleep now.”

“Hey…”

“Please do as I ask.”

A sigh escaped him as he left the room. Naura managed to hold her tears at bay until the echo of his footsteps could no longer be heard.