Sarah McCarty (36 page)
“He throws them up,” Allie explained, “but he does love them.”
“It keeps me human,” Caleb quipped and with the cares of his world temporarily lifted, Jane saw the charm that would draw a woman like Allie.
“I think he looks better already,” Allie said, kissing Joseph’s forehead. The stair creaked as the hall cleared, giving the family their privacy.
Jane didn’t see a difference yet. “We’ll have to keep an eye on him. If he gets sick and has any other abnormal symptoms we’ll need to come at the problem from a different angle.”
Allie shook her head. “No, this is working.” She paused and then asked, “It’s because of how we got pregnant that he’s having problems, isn’t it? I was still human when he was conceived. That’s why he didn’t get what he needed.”
“I don’t know.” Jane shrugged. “Maybe it’s just one of those things. A birth defect.”
“Can you keep making this protein?” Caleb asked.
“Yup. As long as Caleb’s willing to give blood. Eventually I might be able to make it out of any vampire’s blood, but—” She shrugged again.
“It’s too soon and you don’t know,” Caleb finished, but this time without the sharpness.
“No, I don’t know. We just have to wait it out.”
Caleb stepped around the rocker and held out his hand. Slade lifted her up. When she took Caleb’s hand, instead of shaking it, he pulled her in for a hug. It was a little stiff and a lot awkward. She got the impression the man didn’t do this much. “Thank you.”
Tears she didn’t know she was suppressing gathered in her eyes. Caleb stepped back and looked at her. “Hell, Slade,” he said, “I think your woman’s sprung a leak.”
Jane wiped at her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired.”
“Exhausted would be a better description, I’m guessing.”
Turning Jane with a gentle grip on her shoulders, Caleb gave her a little shove toward Slade. “Take your woman to bed.”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
Before Jane could offer a comment one way or another on the brothers’ high-handedness, Slade scooped her up in his arms. Once there, it seemed just easier to link her hands behind his neck and rest her cheek against his chest. She really was tired. Around her, the family continued to banter. She absorbed the happy energy, letting it flow through her. The celebration might be premature, but she didn’t think so. After the days of fear and negativity, this moment of normal felt good. Very good.
Allie put Joseph to her chest and burped him. He belched loudly, but it was a dry burp. No vomit in sight. Everybody smiled.
“A true Johnson,” Slade bragged.
Jane rolled her eyes. “That’s the Johnson claim to fame? The ability to belch?”
“It’s one of them,” Caleb assured her.
“Good grief.”
Allie shook her head and rubbed Joseph’s back, a smile tugging her lips. “One we’ll be discontinuing.”
“Don’t worry, Joseph,” Slade said. “Your uncles will sneak you out from under the women’s thumbs and teach you all the important skills of being a man.”
“Oh my God. Go before you corrupt my sweet innocent boy.”
Caleb laughed outright. “Allie girl, there’s not a Johnson born whose been sweet and innocent.”
“Now you tell me.”
“I bet you’re glad to be back in the lab?”
Jane looked up from the slide she was preparing to see Allie standing in the doorway of the lab. One night had made quite a difference in the woman. She looked young and carefree.
“Yes. It’s a pretty scary world out there when you know what’s lurking in the shadows.”
Allie stepped into the room. “Especially with Sanctuary hunting you.”
“You have no idea.”
“Actually, I do. They held me prisoner for a while.”
“I didn’t know.”
Allie’s grimace nowhere near matched the stress flare of her energy. “It was an experience.”
“It doesn’t show.”
“Should it?”
“I don’t know, those monsters I saw ...” She shrugged. “I can’t imagine it not leaving scars.”
“Fortunately vampires heal.”
“Yes.” Shoving her chair back, Jane hazarded a guess. “You want to talk to me about something, don’t you?”
“I want to talk to you about Slade.”
“I haven’t seen him since he put me to bed last night.”
“I know. What I want to know is why.”
“Maybe he just doesn’t need me anymore?”
“What makes you think that?’
“His absence?”
Allie rolled her eyes. She had an expressive face. It was easy to see why Caleb loved her. She radiated life. “The Johnson men are stubborn.”
Jane smoothed a crease in her jeans. “How is Slade doing anyway, physically, I mean?”
“It’s taking him longer to fully heal than he wants to admit, but Tobias said he’ll be at full strength in no time.”
“Tobias. He’s in the middle of everything.”
“Yeah, he is. I think of him as a catalyst. Wherever Tobias lands, things change. Whether you want them to or not.”
“And you still keep him around?”
“Change is part of life. You can fight it, but it’s still going to happen.”
Which was not a soothing comment to a control freak like Jane. Picking up a pen on the desk, she asked, “While you’re here, can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“What’s it like to be vampire?”
“Honestly?”
“I don’t think I can take a lie right now.”
Allie laughed. “Then I’ll save my creativity for later.”
“Thank you.”
“Being vampire is like being human on steroids. You can do everything bigger and better, even screwing up.”
“Great.” She gave the pen a swirl.
Allie put her hand on the pen, stopping its spin. “It really is no different than being human. There are things you can do and things you can’t do. You fall in love. You make sacrifices. You adjust to your environment. You don’t get to enjoy the sun, but there’s beauty in the night. Pain is more intense but so is pleasure.”
“And you have wars.”
Allie shrugged and sat back. “So do humans.”
She had a point. Jane tapped the pen on the smooth metal. “What about the blood? And keep in mind you’re talking to someone who doesn’t even like her meat to be pink in the center.”
“I was a vegetarian.”
Jane gripped the pen hard, watching her knuckles turn white. “Didn’t you vomit? The first time at least?”
“I wanted to.”
“Why do I hear a ‘but’?”
“Because there usually is one?”
“Nobody likes a know-it-all.”
“So I’m always telling Slade. Maybe if you stick around, you can convince him of it.”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
Allie cocked her head to the side. “I can hold my breath for a very long time.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“Because I’m clearly a woman of many talents who was able to get past all the ick factors of vampirism?”
Jane tossed the pen on the table. “How did you do that?”
“I can take only Caleb’s blood, and I find it very erotic.” She smiled a gamine grin. “Bottom line, for me sex was the great equalizer.”
Jane couldn’t imagine it.
Allie’s grin faded. “So, joking aside, have you thought about what you’re going to do?”
“You mean right after I stomp Slade’s toes for being such an ass?”
“Yes. Right after that.”
Jane sighed. “I have no idea.”
“I could play devil’s advocate,” Allie offered.
“I kind of thought you already were.”
“But now we can make it official and I won’t have to waste a lot of time delicately broaching the subject.”
It was hard to imagine the always-serious Caleb with the irreverent Allie. “You must give Caleb fits.”
“I have to. It’s in my job description.”
“Really?”
“You know, he didn’t believe it, either. I had to point it out. It was right there under the clause specifying all the mind-blowing lovemaking he could stand.”
Jane couldn’t help but laugh. She didn’t imagine many people stayed tense around Allie. “No wonder he didn’t see it.”
She swung her feet. “I was counting on his attention stopping right about there.”
“I like you, Allie Johnson.”
“I like you, too, Jane Frederickson. And not only because you saved my son’s life.”
“Thank you.”
“And I for one think you’re perfect for Slade.”
Jane grimaced. “That makes you a fan club of one.”
Allie rolled her eyes. “The brothers didn’t like me either when I first arrived.”
That was hard to believe. “You have got to be kidding.”
“Nope, as a matter of fact, they almost killed me on our first meeting.”
“Why?”
“They needed to give Caleb a reason to live. See, he was going to be all self sacrificing and let me live my life unmated.”
“What happened?”
“He was almost killed by rogue wolves. I saved him. They slit my wrists.”
“Oh my God! How did you ever forgive them?”
“They gave me Caleb, and as I said, things change. But, for the Johnsons, change comes hard, and there isn’t a woman that’s come into the family that the others haven’t put through some sort of test.”
“Wonderful.”
“On the upside, once you’re in, you’re in for life. And these are men who know how to love in a way that many have forgotten.”
“You’re happy, aren’t you?”
“I miss my family, but I am.”
“You can’t see them?”
“I’m working on it. Do you have family?”
“No, there’s just me.”
“Then that part will be easier.”
“You talk like the decision is already made.”
Allie gave another one of those shrugs. “Slade’s not going to age.”
“I will.”
“Are you counting on that to diminish his interest?”
“The man’s not going to get hot and bothered over a wrinkled prune with breasts down to her knees.”
Allie shook her head again. “You so don’t understand mates, but for the sake of argument what were you going to do if that happened? Fade off into the distance, a martyr to negative thinking?”
“Honestly?”
“Of course.”
“I can’t bear to think about it.”
“That’s because he’s your mate. Your other half. The ying to your yang.”
“Mate, husband, what’s the difference?”
“A husband is a convenience. A mate is forever.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.” It wasn’t helping.
“And everyone would be right. There’s a chemical bonding that occurs between a mated couple.”
“So you’re, like, drugged?”
“No. Of the two bonds I’d say the emotional bond is stronger, but the physical is pretty fabulous.”
That was good to hear. “How do you know when you’ve met your mate?”
“One of the first things you notice is the attraction, of course. But that’s the same for most humans. And that overwhelming feeling of everything being right. But then there are more subtle things, like being able to sense where your mate is, catching stray thoughts here and there, feeling their emotions as yours.” She shrugged. “I know there would never be another for me if Caleb died.”
“Why? Wouldn’t you miss the closeness?”
“Yes, but why would I settle for half a loaf when I know what it’s like to have the whole thing?” Allie plucked a stick of gum off the desk. “I’m an all-or-nothing woman. Always have been. Caleb fits me to a ‘t.’ ”
Jane envied her that confidence.
Allie sighed and turned the gum over in her hand. “I used to love gum. There’s something so focusing in that rhythmic chewing.”
“You can’t chew it?”
Allie held it up to her nose and breathed deep. “It makes me sicker than a dog.”
“Bummer.”
She dropped it back on the desk. “Yup.”
Jane slid her finger alone the base of the rack holding the vials before her. Mate. Was it truly possible?
“I made Slade promise not to convert me.”
“Sounds perfectly sensible to me. Taken in abstract, going vampire is a pretty freaky concept.”
Going vampire. What a way to phrase it. “I could feel how much he wanted to. I was afraid he’d just do it and I’d have no choice.”
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