Page 3 of Pleasantly Undead in Dark River

"At what?" I squeaked out, panting, about ready to throw the ancient vampire on the ground and climb on top of him, public decency be damned.

His fangs pressed into my carotid and you could almost hear the la-sploosh noise of my panties getting soaked. "I'm an expert-" A tiny nip made my knees shake. "Pastry chef."

Hang on, what?

I pulled back. "Seriously?" His grin was wide and even though I tried not to, my eyes shot down to the front of his shredded jeans and the very hard outline of his cock. He looked smug as hell.

"Yep," he said, popping the P. "An eternity is a long time, Raine. You have time to master a lot of skills. Some you remember. Some you forget." He stepped close again, his mouth near my ear. "Some skills come as naturally as breathing." Then he nipped my ear and I melted into a puddle. I hope I didn’t create a slip hazard for the sanitation workers who’d have to come and scrape my overheated body off the floor.

I let out a wildly inappropriate moan, and his low chuckle didn't help a bit. Dear fucking god. I wanted him to lay me out across the counter and feast on me. But Nico and I, we were complicated. We hadn't reached that stage yet and the last thing I wanted was to rush things with one of the Town Council members and then fuck it up. Slow. Easy.

Still, I couldn't help but lean forward, giving him a soft, tender kiss full of promise. "Will you teach me to bake, oh Ancient One?"

He screwed up his nose, pulling back to give me a pained look. "As long as you never call me that again. In fact, it would be my pleasure." The way he said the word pleasure should probably be illegal. "Let's see what we are working with?"

He led me back into the kitchen, and I tried not to think of Angeline at the ovens, tasting her random cupcake recipes while sitting on the stool in the corner. I would make new memories here and The Immortal Cupcake would live on, just like the name suggested. Nico bustled around, opening cupboards and ovens, looking through the fridge and freezer. The power had remained on, so nothing should be spoiled unless it had expired.

"Angeline was well equipped. You should have everything you need to start except the perishables. I can take a run to Calgary and go to one of the larger hospitality supply stores this week and pick up everything you need. Most things should freeze, so we won't need to get things delivered too often."

I raised my eyebrows. "We?"

He turned, tilting his head to the side as he appraised me. "You do not want me as your partner?"

The question had a hint of his power in it, and I knew he couldn't help it, but when I said, "More than you know," I was kind of disgruntled as it passed my lips. That was the thing about Nico. You could never tell what you were telling him of your own free will, and what was just a side effect of his power. I didn't hold it against him though. I shook off the remnants of his power. "What about your job as town counsellor?"

Nico shrugged. "Unless someone petitions to join, my job is pretty non-demanding. After your arrival, however, the Council has decided that a bit of a, err, hiatus may be necessary in regards to accepting new members."

I winced. My turning had brought a shitstorm, I couldn't deny it. First by outing the town's doctor as running a human farming racket. Which in turn brought the Enforcers, and then Lucius. No one liked it when the Enforcers had arrived, and they liked it even less when Lucius turned up.

Ughh, that reminded me. "Uh, I got another present from your twin this morning." Nico raised an eyebrow. "Yep, a dick and a head this time. Must have been a two for one special at Psychos-R-Us." I shifted so I was looking at him from the corner of my eye. "When I told him I didn't want any more heads, he stopped by to ask why."

Nico went completely still. "He was there?"

I nodded.

"With you alone? Are you okay?" Again, I nodded. Nico's body was frozen, like he didn't know if he should find Lucius and fight him or check to see if I was in one piece. Of course I was okay. Lucius was a crazy person, there was no doubt about that. But crazy or not, he didn't give me the feeling that he wanted to hurt me anymore. I didn't understand why not, what had changed his mind, but I wasn't fighting it.

Nico stepped closer to me, his hand resting on my spine again. "He's dangerous, Raine. I don't have to tell you that. Would you like me to go talk to him? To tell him to leave you alone?"

I shook my head. "Could you do that without one of you being maimed in some horrific way?"

He lifted a shoulder and that was enough of an answer for me. They would fight, and there would be blood and injuries, and I valued Nico too much to let that happen. And despite what Nico said about his brother being nuts, about not wanting anything to do with him, I think that seriously hurting Lucius would kill something inside Nico. That last glowing part of his humanity that he'd hung onto all these years would be extinguished, because fratricide wasn’t something you just got over.

Did I really want to be the cause of that, just because I didn't want to get the heads of murderers and pedophiles on my doorstep every other day? No.

Honestly, and I'd never tell the other guys this, but I thought it was kind of sweet. That probably made me all sorts of fucked up, but I like the symbolism.

X was right though. There was only room for one psycho in my life and the crazy Brit was it. I had a heated flashback to X tying me in literal knots. We hadn’t gone any further, X and I, but sometimes I caught him watching me with so much heat in his eyes I thought I was going to cook from the inside out.

I pushed the thought away and stepped closer to Nico. "It's fine. Lucius doesn't seem to want to hurt me or abduct me and keep me chained as a sex slave in some Siberian ice cave. I don't know what he wants, but I guess eventually he’ll tell us all and then we'll figure it out. Until then, I guess we let him clean up the streets of predators and scumbags until he gets bored and moves on."

Nico wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer until I could lay my head on his chest. "That's the problem, Raine. Lucius doesn't get bored. He gets obsessed and then he gets dangerous." He squeezed me tightly, his voice dropping to that scary tone that sent shivers down my spine. "I will not let him harm you. I love my twin despite the hate that has festered between us for centuries. They are intertwined in a way. But, you’re precious to me. The most precious thing I've held in my hands in a long time. I will kill him if he harms you."

Unease skittered down my spine, but I shrugged it away. I don't know what I'd done to deserve this kind of devotion from Nico. Hell, from any of them. Judge, Walker, Brody, they all loved me unconditionally. Even X wanted me, and he seemed like the kind of guy who'd murder a room full of people before he considered sharing a girlfriend. But they saw something in me that I couldn't see in myself, no matter how hard I stared in the mirror. The only one I was sure of was Tex. Tex had loved me when I was Mika. He'd loved me when I had two scraped knees and a permanently dripping nose in the third grade as they worked out I was allergic to the tree in the backyard. He’d stuck by me even though the sniffing must have driven him insane.

Tex was my mate. That I knew in my soul would never change. But even after all this time, all the declarations, all the crazy hot sex, I still wonderedwhy? Why me?

As if sensing my inner turmoil, Nico nodded. "Let us test your pastry chef skills? Maybe you will be a natural."

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