SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits (39 page)

But that wasn’t going to stop him from protecting his newlywed wife and newborn daughter.

My family
, he thought, and smiled through the twinge in his jaw.

Charlie’s mewl drifted in from the bedroom and his gut tightened with both joy and fear. Driving away the fear, he whirled from his almost spectral image and hurried out to where his wife sat in a rocker, nursing their month-old daughter.

The sight of his lover never failed to stir him.

Diana's head was down turned and her nearly seal-black hair fanned forward to hide most of her face, except the faint smile that graced her lips as she watched their daughter nurse.

At his entry, Diana met his gaze and her smile broadened, but then her exotic gold-green eyes narrowed. Her cop’s eyes were way too perceptive. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Never better,” he lied. He walked to her side and kneeled, still amazed by the miracle with which they’d both been blessed.

The baby’s soft full cheeks moved with each suck and at a strong pull, Diana jumped a bit.

“Hungry little thing, isn’t she?” he said and gently skimmed his index finger along the baby’s face.

“Like her dad,” Diana teased, cupped his jaw, and tenderly forced his head upward. “You’re not a very good liar, you know.”

Chagrined, he said, “Maybe you’re just more observant than the average person.”

She frowned. “You’re still hurting. I don’t get how that’s possible.”

He didn’t either. He was a vampire for Christ's sake. In the past, he’d healed from a number of injuries virtually overnight. But then again, he’d never been beaten to within an inch of his life.

And he’d never fed from a slayer elder who was now also a vampire.

“I can see myself,” he said and held his hand out in front of him, searching for other differences. Skimming his gaze down his naked body to examine himself before facing her again.

Diana’s forehead furrowed and she looked at him as if he was losing it. “Of course, you can see yourself.”

He shook his head and even that simple movement caused a throb of pain at the back of his head where Connall had smashed it into a solid brick wall during his fight with the sadistic vampire. “No, darlin'. In the mirror. I can see myself in the mirror. Just faintly, but my image is there.”

He waited for her disbelief, but instead there was only calm acceptance as she trailed her hand across his cheek and then skimmed it along the bare skin at his shoulder. “You’re warmer, too. When you’re not in your vampire state that is. I noticed that you were warmer the other night in bed.”

He’d thought so also, but had been afraid that it was just his imagination or maybe even the changes in Diana.

Much like he’d had a taste of slayer blood, so had she in order to save her life during the birth of their daughter. Combined with his turning her, she was now a dhampir like their newborn child, and gifted with some vampire strength and healing, but also saddled with mortal limitations like aging. Albeit very slow and prolonged aging.

“Do you think it’s possible that . . . I’m different? That the slayer blood did something?” he asked.

The baby squirmed and mewled again.

Diana raised Charlie to her shoulder, softly rubbed her back, and after a healthy burp, his wife shifted the baby to her other breast, where Charlie greedily latched on again and resumed her suckling. His groin tightened at the thought of how much he wanted a taste as well, but it would have to wait until his daughter had satisfied her needs.

“Do
you
feel different?” he wondered aloud, surprised that in the weeks since Charlie’s birth and both their near deaths, they had never discussed it.

* * *

Do I feel different
? Diana asked herself and while she considered that, she searched her husband’s face for signs of any of the changes he was experiencing.

It wasn’t just the longer hair and beard that changed how he looked
, she thought. There was decidedly more color in his skin. Just the faintest tinge of peach instead of the formerly bloodless hue of his vampire flesh.

She traced his cheekbone with her thumb and cradled his bearded jaw carefully, mindful of his injuries and that he still had discomfort. Her olive skin contrasted with his, but her hand still looked normal. She still felt human with the same physical needs she’d had before.

Food and water.

Sex and love.

Even now desire awoke in her at the sight of his magnificent body and the intense emotions apparent in his gaze.

Nothing had changed in that short month since she'd been turned although deep inside there seemed to be a well of strength she’d never possessed before. But it wasn’t just physical strength. It was emotional as well and she knew it was because of the man kneeling before her.

Her husband.

Charlie’s father.

She had never imagined either of those things was possible and yet here they were. Both totally real.

“I’m stronger,” she admitted and hated that his features tightened and his dark gaze clouded over with concern.

“I’m glad one of us is,” he said and shot to his feet. “I need to go. I need to get some answers,” he said and hurriedly dressed, yanking clothes from his drawers and the closet. Shutting himself off from her as he jerked them on and rushed from the room.

The door slammed shut, the sound as loud as a gunshot. Charlie jumped in alarm and her squalls soon filled the air.

Diana tucked her daughter tight against her shoulder and smoothed her hand up and down along the baby’s body until Charlie’s cries were little more than hiccoughs. With a final little stretch, Charlie quieted.

“That’s it, little one. There’s nothing to worry about,” she crooned, but as she did so, she wondered if she wasn’t trying to convince herself of that as well.

Ryder hadn't been the same the last few weeks and it wasn't just the physical changes in him.

Something besides his body had been broken that night and hadn't healed either.

In rare moments, she caught a hint of his vulnerability, of his fear, but then he would close off that part of himself. But she knew he was hurting in more ways than one.

And she didn't know what to do to help him.

A soft tiny sigh of contentment slipped from Charlie and Diana rose, walked with the baby to her office where she tucked Charlie into the bassinet beside her desk.

Although she was on maternity leave from the FBI, her boss and friend, Assistant Director in Charge Jesus Hernandez, had dropped off a file that morning for her to review. She had only just begun to read through it when she'd heard Ryder rise and head into the gym and Charlie had likewise awoken and needed attention.

The day had passed by in a blur of nursing, diaper changing, and worrying about Ryder.

Now it was time to return to what she was and to the one thing that brought stability in her life . . . her work.

Maybe once she could solve the puzzle of this crime she could somehow piece together what was happening with her husband and why the happily-ever-after seemed farther away than ever before.

Vampire Reborn
: Chapter Two

If there was one person on this Earth who might know what was happening, it would be slayer elder Benjamin
, Ryder thought.

With the winter sun low in the horizon, he rushed out of his condo building and walked the few blocks west to Central Park. The air had a chill to it, but his thick leather jacket kept him warm as did the vampire he released so he could race along the footpaths and over to Central Park West. He passed by humans unnoticed, his image not even a blur because of his speed. Only a slight breeze brushed against the unsuspecting mortals until he finally slowed at the other side of the park where some of the city's priciest residences could be found.

He paused by the low wall surrounding the park grounds and leaned against it as he considered maybe heading to his friend Diego's home instead of Benjamin's lair.

Besides being his friend and business partner, Diego was a vampire elder and possibly as knowledgeable as Benjamin about what was happening in his body. But since Benjamin was the one who was paying the price with the Slayer Council for saving him after the beating, he figured he owed it to Benjamin to approach him first.

With another surge of vampire speed, he raced past the entrance to the celebrity-filled condo and the alley adjacent to it. The space was dark and little more than shoulder-wide, solely intended for the maintenance and service people to use for access to the building. He slipped through the entrance and past the security guard stationed in the hall just beyond the door. Rounding the corner, he eased into the stairwell and rushed to the topmost floor.

Whoever had designed the building had made it look like a castle, complete with turrets. It was in the vaulted spaces beneath those turrets, originally intended for just storage, that Benjamin had made his home after he'd been turned nearly six months earlier. His real home had been sold by the Slayer Council since they'd believed him dead. Given that Benjamin was currently on their shit list, the Council was in no rush to compensate him for all that he'd lost by their actions.

Ryder rapped his knuckles against the metal door to the storage space.

Even before Benjamin answered, the sympathetic vibrations of the blood link they shared warned him that the other man was home.

Benjamin opened the door and Ryder barreled past him.

“Why, come on in,” Ben said facetiously and closed the door. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

“I need some answers,” Ryder said and walked around the area. He had never been in the space before. He only knew about it from Michaela, a dhampir friend and Slayer Council member. Although Ben had tried his best to make it homey, the space was so small and awkward that it made Ryder feel downright claustrophobic.

“How do you stand it in here?” he asked and finally just plopped himself into a beat-up bean bag chair so he wouldn't bang his head against the vaulted beams that sliced the space into even tinier sections.

Ben shrugged, walked over, and sat cross-legged before him on a rug that had seen better days, much like Ben had. His formerly handsome, almost beautiful features, had been marred during the attack that had killed him. A network of puckered ridges and lines of scars ran along Ben’s temple, brow, and cheek where his brother had tried to bash his skull in. He’d let his sandy blond hair grow longer and wore it to try and cover the damage.

“It's not much, but it's home. For now. The Council and I are still at odds on where my monies have gone.”

“If you need a place to stay, I've got an empty studio in my building. It's even furnished.”

Ben arched a brow. “Really? That's a surprising offer.”

Maybe it was
, Ryder thought, but then again, this man had saved his life. Still, he wasn't about to get all best buds so quickly. “You know what they say: Keep your friends close – ”

“But your enemies closer,” Ben finished for him and peered at him intently with his sapphire blue gaze. “Is that how you think of me? As an enemy?”

Ryder shrugged. “Let's just say I'm undecided. But that's not why I'm here.”

“Good. Let's get to the chase,” Ben said and relaxed against the stone wall behind him.

“I don't really know how to start this . . . I feel different. My body still hurts from what Connall did to me.”

“It was a brutal beat down,” Ben said, but with enough humor in his tones that Ryder couldn't take offense. Of course, the humor didn't make it any easier to accept his failure that night.

“Yeah, it was savage and I'd be dead if not for you, so thanks. But it's not just the pain. My body is warmer and I can see myself in the mirror. Just a little, but my image is definitely there.”

Ben reasoned through what he had said for a moment. “And you think it's 'cause you fed from me? That whatever slayer power is left in me somehow changed you? Made you more human?”

“Is that why vamps have such a craving for slayer blood? Why they'd love to drain one of you if given the chance?”

It was Ben's turn to shrug. “I was far gone when I pleaded with your friend Diego to turn me. So far gone that I don't think he had enough of a taste to find out. But once a slayer always a slayer, so it's possible that there was enough slayer blood left in me to multiply so that when you fed from me it made a difference somehow.”

“But what about you? If you have that blood in you, do you feel more human than a vampire should?”

Benjamin hesitated as he thought about Ryder's question. Since being turned nearly six months earlier, he had had asked himself that more than once.

At first he had been as weak as a baby and if not for Ryder's friend Diego, he might have died. He’d begged Diego for his life and the vampire had obliged, although grudgingly. Like Ryder, he was a human wanna-be and not into turning humans.

Afterward, Diego had been the one to find this space for him and settle him here so he could heal. He had fed him and kept him in control when the vampire's blood lust had threatened to take over. He had helped him learn where to get the blood he needed without draining a human for it.

Or another slayer
, he thought.

Raising his hand, he stared at it intently. The skin looked way paler than that of a normal human. Bringing it to the side of his face, he closed his eyes and let it rest there, waiting for the warmth that hinted at something other than undead life, but there was barely any rise in temperature. The only time he felt real heat was when he released the vampire that lurked beneath the human veneer.

Reaching deep inside, he focused on the power there, trying to decide if it was slayer or vampire energies keeping him alive, but he couldn't discern the difference. That wasn't much of a surprise, however.

Opening his eyes, he faced Ryder and took in the man's dark troubled gaze. “The slayers may not want to admit this, but there's more than one slayer journal – ”