Wild Fever (6 page)

A small smile turned up her lips as she closed her eyes. “You know my grandmother. That’s not going to happen.”

The door opened and Lincoln walked inside. “We have a problem, Vin.”

Vincent pulled his gaze from Olivia and went to his brother. “What is it?”

“We found tracks.”

“Where?”

Lincoln paused. “Everywhere. It’s like the beast is circling the house waiting to get to her, and yet we can’t see it.”

If it could disappear and reappear at will, Vincent didn’t know how to fight it. He fingered the hilt of his machete at his thigh as his mind ran through different scenarios.

“What makes you think this thing will stop at sunrise?” Olivia asked into the silence.

Lincoln leaned around him and said, “It has every other night. Why should tonight be any different?”

“Because it didn’t get its prey,” Vincent said as realization hit him. He shifted his gaze to Olivia to see fear cloud her features.

Something slammed into the back of the house. Olivia jerked as Vincent rushed to her side to protect her while Lincoln ran to the back of the house. Outside, Vincent could hear both Beau and Christian shouting at each other.
 

The second hit came from the front of the house near the porch.
 

Vincent unsheathed his machete just as Lincoln came back into the living room. Olivia rose from the couch and stood behind him, her hands on his waist.

Everything grew quiet, including Beau and Christian and the profusion of insects outside. The stillness was eerie, sending warning bells clanging in Vincent’s head.

Olivia screamed as the lights flickered and something materialized in the kitchen, only to disappear almost immediately.

That’s all it took for Vincent to grab her and head to the door. Lincoln fell in step behind them, a Bowie knife in each hand.

Vincent let out a two-toned whistle to signal his brothers as they stepped onto the porch. Christian was the first to appear, his crossbow at his shoulder and aimed. Beau was right behind him with the sawed off double-barreled shotgun.

As soon as Olivia’s foot touched the wood of the porch there was a loud growl and the creature came out of the corner of the porch for her.

Vincent yanked Olivia against him, turning his back to the creature. He winced as he felt something slash his back. The grunts and shouts behind him told Vincent that his brothers had the beast cornered.

It was going to be over. Olivia was going to be safe.

Which meant he had no reason to be with her.

Regret surged within him. How he hated himself for it, too. Olivia’s safety was more important than the stark need roaring through him.

He reveled in the feel of his arms around her, of how her body molded to his. Of how she clung to him. He bit back a groan at the feel of her breasts pressed against his chest.

“Son of a bitch!” Christian bellowed.

Lincoln touched Vincent’s arm. “It’s gone, Vin. We didn’t get it.”

Vincent slowly pulled his head back, letting his cheek rub against Olivia’s. Her mouth was inches from his, and her full lips were parted.
 

He made himself look into her eyes thinking it would cool his ardor. Instead, it was like adding gas to the flame when he saw desire reflected in her black depths.

Her hand on his chest flexed, and he found his arms tensing, holding her closer. His balls tightened when her tongue peeked out to lick her lips.

His head dipped, ready to kiss her when Lincoln said his name.

Vincent was ready to punch him. He turned to give Lincoln a piece of his mind when he felt his back pull. That’s when he remembered the creature’s claws had gotten him.

“Vincent, you’re hurt,” Olivia said.

He shrugged it off. The slashes hurt, but it wasn’t the first time he had been cut hunting a creature – nor would it be the last.

Vincent was about to tell Olivia that when something caught his eye in the board at the corner of the house. He ran his thumb over the Hoodoo symbol.

“Well, Maria. I didn’t expect this,” he said aloud.

CHAPTER SIX

Olivia barely had time to register what Vincent said before she was surrounded by all four Chiasson brothers and marched to her car.

Vincent got behind the wheel with Lincoln taking the passenger seat. Olivia was squished between Christian and Beau in the back. No one said a word as Vincent spun out the wheels in his hurry to leave.

Olivia looked back as they drove off, and she could have sworn she saw something step from the shadows of the house. She shivered as she turned back to the front.

“My grandmother doesn’t practice Hoodoo,” she stated, because she felt someone had to say it.

Vincent met her gaze in the rearview mirror, but it was Lincoln who said, “You’ve been away a long time. Do you really know what’s going on in Maria’s life?”

“My grandmother is devout Catholic, just as your family is.”

Beau grabbed the headrest in front of him as they bounced along the road. “The fact is, Olivia, someone marked your house with that symbol. I think it was meant to keep evil out.”

“But evil got in. That creature showed up in the kitchen,” Lincoln said.

Vincent jerked the wheel to miss a raccoon. “It didn’t stay. It flashed in, and now that I think about it, it might have been trying to get Olivia out of the house.”

“So I was safer there?” she asked and rolled her eyes.
 

Christian grabbed her seatbelt and strapped her in. “You’ll be safer with us. That thing wanted you, and it isn’t going to stop until it has you.”

“I’m screwed then.” Just what she wanted to hear. Her professional life was falling apart, and now, apparently, so was her private life.

Beau rested his shotgun over his legs. “Not where we’re taking you.”

“And that is?”

“Home,” Vincent said.

Home. He couldn’t mean... Oh God, he did. They were taking her to their home. As far as she knew, few people had ever seen the Chiasson house. It was even deeper in the bayou than her grandmother’s.

Olivia remained silent as Vincent wound them through back roads she hadn’t even known were there. She worried her little car wouldn’t make it over some parts, but Vincent managed to get them through each time.

She leaned forward when she spotted the drive that was lined on either side with massive live oak trees. As impressive as the trees were, it was the house that took her breath away.

The two story white house was the picture of a perfect plantation home with its huge columns, porches – upper and lower - wrapping all the way around the house, and black shutters.

Olivia was still staring at the house when Christian unbuckled her seatbelt, and Beau pulled her out of the car. She was ushered into the house quickly.

But once the door was closed behind them, all four brothers let out a sigh of relief. Olivia could only gape at the splendor before her. The wood floors were dark and had rugs of various sizes and colors placed throughout. The staircase was front and center as it curved to the second floor.

The walls were painted a soft gray and the crown molding was thick and ornate. A round table sat in the foyer with an array of pictures of the family.
 

She wanted to explore every inch of the house. How did she not know about something so grand in her town?
 

Olivia walked around the table and started for the stairs, only vaguely aware that Beau, Christian, and Lincoln went off to different parts of the first floor.

“How’s your head?”

She stopped, her eyes closing at the deep timber of Vincent’s voice. The house forgotten, her body trembled as she recalled the hard press of his muscles, the heady scent of him when he had yanked her against him.

And then when he had looked down at her. Her stomach quivered just remembering how his bright blue eyes had filled with desire.

She had thought he would kiss her back at her house. For just a moment, the desire, the yearning had burned bright in his gaze and on his face.

And then just like that, it was gone.

“It’s better,” she answered.

“And your arm? I’ll need to check the bandages.”

She bit her lip as she thought about his hands on her skin again. All she could think about around Vincent, was him. On her.
 

In her.

Thrusting hard and fast, slow and deep.

She nearly moaned at the thought. How was it that he could inspire such erotic thoughts? No other man had ever affected her this way.

“Olivia?”

She jerked open her eyes to find him standing in front of her. He was frowning, searching her face as if he could determine what was wrong.
 

“Your face is flushed.”

So was so much more of her, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “It’s just all the excitement. How am I safe here?”

“The house is warded against...well, everything. No evil can penetrate these walls. Most can’t even get on our land.”

She was duly impressed. Olivia rubbed her hands along her arms and gave a shake of her head. “I need to call my grandmother. She’ll be worried.”

“One of us will see to that,” he said and motioned her to follow him.

With nothing else to do, Olivia did just that. She found herself in a large kitchen with a map spread out on the breakfast table.

“We’ve been hunting this thing for a week,” Vincent said as he stared down at the map. “It has killed three women already.”

“What?” Olivia hadn’t heard any of this. Then again, she hadn’t been in town long enough to learn the gossip, nor had she seen any of the papers.

Vincent’s look turned stony. “All three were connected to us somehow, whether being asked out by one of us, a friends with benefits arrangement, or even just a phone call.”
 

“Yep. You already said you think it was because Beau spoke with me today.”

His hesitation made fear snake down her spine, but it was the look of regret that made her take a step back.

“You felt something last night on the pier,” he said.

Olivia realized two things in that moment: Vincent had seen her, and so had the creature.

She weakly nodded. “I knew something was there. I felt it.”

“I was tracking it. It stopped near your house. That’s when I looked away long enough to spot you, and then it was gone.”

Olivia pulled out a chair and practically fell on it. “You knew it was coming for me.”

“Which was the only reason it didn’t get you.” He waved his hand at the map. “We’ve searched this entire bayou and the surrounding areas to no avail. We can’t find this thing.”

Her grandmother had never had anything negative to say about the Chiassons. Olivia had graduated with Lincoln, but he hadn’t paid her any attention. In fact, the Chiassons were usually never around for any school functions or even parties.

Now she understood why.

Vincent ran a hand through his dark hair. “My family has been hunting since our ancestor followed a creature to Nova Scotia from France, and then Nova Scotia to here.”

Now she understood why they kept themselves apart from others. Few would believe what they did, and the others who did would want to keep their distance just in case.
 

“Thank you for tonight. You saved me.”

He shrugged, almost as if he wasn’t used to the praise. Olivia rose and moved to stand beside him. She gazed at the map, seeing the three X’s where she surmised the victims had been found.

“We’ve never brought anyone into our home,” he said.

She looked at him, surprised by his words. “Then I should thank you again.”

His hand brushed hers, sending chills racing along her skin at the contact. She had been in his arms, molded to his body, and yet so simple a touch could turn her to mush.

She hungered for more.

Breathing became difficult when she was once more caught in the web of desire. It tightened around them, pulling them closer – urging them deeper.

She lifted her face as Vincent lowered his. Their gazes clashed, tangled. She feared where this was going, feared how desperately she needed his touch.

Some might say it was the trauma she had been through that night, but Olivia knew differently. She had always felt this way toward Vincent. She just hadn’t been this close to see how far it might go.

Beau stepped into the kitchen and said, “The three of us are going hunting. You’ve...ah...got things covered here I see.”

“Go,” Vincent growled.

Olivia shivered, not from his tone, but from the raw need in his gaze. No one had ever looked at her with such longing, such fire before.