Unraveling Mordecai - Marisa Maichel (top ten books of all time .TXT) 📗

asked the short man.
“Sire, my wife and I have no money. We are penniless and will soon be out of food. We have ten children, with two more on the way. All we have is maggoty meat and bread. Our children will starve and die if we are not helped.”
Fowley nodded to a reptilian man that I recognized as Azur, and the lizard mand handed a small bag of coins and bills to the small man.
“Thank you, Sire. Thank you.”
The man turned to the side, and I saw that his eyes were filled with tears. He left through a side door on the right, and then it was my turn. Fowley frowned.
“How did you get in, vampire? Did Cranka let you in? He will be fired for this. Leave now, before I have your head on a pike.”
“NO!” Sarah shouted. She ran to me, and the people around us began muttering. “He’s my fiancé, Fowley.”
“Your fiancé?” He looked heartbroken. “You never told me. You know how I feel about you. Why now, when it is too late?”
“I didn’t tell him about you, either,” she admitted.
He looked furious. The air crackled with energy, and flames appeared in his eyes. His hair turned white and stood on end, and his fingernails grew into long, ten-inch claws.
“Girl, I will kill you for this treachery!” He threw a firebolt at us, and I shielded her with my body, but the bolt never hit me. Her wings had popped out of her back and she had lifted us into the air. I also noticed a blue force field around us.
“Azur?” Sarah asked, looking at the reptilian. He had his hands held out, both palms facing forward, projecting the field.
“Leave. Now,” he commanded in his gravelly voice.
Sarah flew through the side door and out. Behind us, energy crackled and sparked, and Azur was trying to keep Fowley calm.
“Well, there goes that job,” Sarah muttered.
“We are going to have a long talk,” I told her.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Sarah Harper Cresley, what were you thinking?!” Mother was as furious as I was. “Working for that…that…fairy!”
“I’m a fairy,” Sarah pointed out.
“That’s besides the point,” I said. “You could have put yourself and our baby in danger!”
“I wasn’t in any danger until you showed up! Besides, I needed the money for Mom and Dad.”
“You’re still giving money to that woman?” I thought Mother would explode with fury. But she just looked sad. “She still has control over you?”
“She can’t get a job, because she’s a vampire now, her side of the family isn’t talking to us, and you won’t give her one. I wanted her to have a healthy life as a vampire, even if her human life was full of downs and unhealthy habits.”
Sarah burst into tears, and Mother instinctively embraced her.
“My baby,” she muttered. “My first human baby. Why have you been mistreated so? I swore I would get rid of that woman for you, but she keeps coming back like a dog that won’t go away. You could have asked us for money. You did not have to do that.”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said. “I’m so sorry.”
Great. I’d screwed up again. She was going to think this was her fault. My heart aching, I wrapped my arms around her from behind, and kissed her scalp.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered. “This is my fault, not yours.”
“No, it is my fault,” she hiccoughed. “I should have just been honest with you.”
“It’s all right, sweetheart. Come here.”
I tried to pry her away from Mother, but Mother growled and tightened her grip on the girl. I growled back, and hissed at her. She hissed back.
“Why are you hissing at each other?” Sarah asked.
“We had a brief fight over who gets to hold you,” Mother explained, recovering more quickly than I did. She let her go and I took her in. She wrapped her arms around my middle and started to sob. I kissed her cute button nose and nibbled her lips. A few more seconds and we were kissing furiously. I picked her up and carried her upstairs.
We made sweet love for an hour, then Sarah felt a cramp and said we had to stop. Around midnight, there was a knock at the door.
I answered the door, and there was a tall, thin man with a greenish tint to his skin and eyes like a crocodile. I knew immediately that it was Azur. He held out a large pink bag.
“Sarah forgot her purse,” he explained.
“Did you go through it?” I asked, and he grimaced.
“I may have, and I may have not. Fowley is calm now, but she is banned until invited back.”
“Duly noted. Why did you protect us?”
He winced. “Because…I love her too.”
I paused, then my fist headed straight for his nose, but he caught it and twisted my arm. I cursed wildly as the muscles tore.
“I do not simply want to fuck her,” he said. “Although I do want to do that as well. I know that she has a babe in her belly, although I did not know the identity of the father. Now I do. It’s you. You are her mate. Her soulmate. I would very much like to protect her and hold her, but that is not a possibility. I make do with whores and dancers. I have been alone for a century, and now that I find a woman worthy of me, she is already taken. I hope she has a long, fulfilling life and you treat her well. Goodbye, Reese.”

I put the purse on the foyer table and locked the door after making sure no cats escaped while I was talking to the lizard man.
I crawled in next to Sarah. She shivered when she felt my cold skin, so I wrapped her in another blanket and kissed her.
“French fries,” she muttered.
“That’s right,” I said. “French fries. Now sleep, my love.”
I slept for twelve hours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took me a while to wake up. I had a pounding headache, and my lover was still sleeping beside me, snoring lightly. I rolled her onto her side, felt her naked skin against mine. I put my hands against her and purred. Our little one slept peacefully, her heart beating soundly.
Sarah opened her eyes, then closed them again due to the bright light escaping from the blinds.
“Oh, my head,” she muttered. Then her eyes shot open. “Oh my goodness. I screwed up. Fowley is going to be pissed. He’s going to-“
“Hey, shhh,” I soothed her. “He won’t be a problem. You’re mine, remember? He can’t hurt you now.”
“You don’t know his power. I do. He’ll send goons to us, and then he’ll-“
“Shhh,” I encouraged. “It was my fault, baby. I upset him. I should have known better…but I wish you’d told me.”
“I knew you would be against it,” she said, her eyes shining. “But I needed the money bad. And I can’t sit around feeling useless. I found out that Fowley needed a female guard, and I’ve taken some self-defense classes, so I thought I could do it for him. I’m sorry, Reese. It was my fault, not yours.”
“Shhh, baby, hush. I know why you did it. You should know by now that you can ask me for anything, and I’ll do my damnedest to do it for you. I love you more than life itself, Sarah Harper Cresley.”
I kissed her roughly. Then someone knocked at the door, and I growled at the interruption.
“It’s Selena,” I told Sarah.
“Come in,” she said sweetly.
Selena opened the door a crack and said, “Sarah, your gift is here. We all pitched in, and Reese picked it out.”
“Oh.” She looked at me. “You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“Yes, I did,” I corrected her. “I can’t have you driving a clunky old Honda around.”
“Hey, don’t knock on my Honda. Hondas are more expensive upfront, but they last forever.” Her eyes widened. “Reese, you didn’t.”
“I did. I bought you a car, lover. I hope you like it. I got it in a color you like, one that doesn’t show dirt.”
I let her go and groaned when I saw that I’d bruised her arms. She didn’t seem to care, though, as she walked around her room pulling clothes out and getting dressed.
“A car.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it. I don’t deserve you, Reese.”
“I disagree strongly,” I told her. “It is I who is unworthy of you.”
“Did you just try to quote North and South?”
“I did. Did I get it right?”
“You were close. A car. Is it pink?”
I chuckled. “Sorry, babe, it’s not pink, but it is a nice shade of blue.”
“I like blue, too.” She pinched an unbruised part of her arm. “I hope I’m not dreaming.”
I hugged her from behind. She pulled on her boots, struggling a bit due to her stomach getting in the way, and grabbed a jacket.
I carefully helped her down the steps, conscious of her condition (she was definitely showing now), and opened the door for her, careful not to let any dogs or cats get out. (I had to physically restrain Lola and Jasmine, who sniffed at Sarah, perhaps sensing her pregnancy.)
The brand-new navy blue Lamborghini sat in the driveway with a big red bow on top. I looked over at Sarah. Tears shined in her eyes, and she started to cry.
“If you don’t like it, we can always return it,” I told her.
She suddenly hugged me in what would have been a bone-crushing hug if she’d been a vampire.
“It’s…I can’t…believe…you…it’s beautiful….”
I kissed the top of her head. I inhaled her scent, the floral scent that was her soul and her feminine musky scent that made her female. I could also smell her blood, which was always enticing to me, but not in a way that made me want to consume her. Blood to taste or sip like fine wine, not inhale like Louis does when he eats.
She cried for nearly an hour, at which point she was too hungry to care about the car.
Zie made eggs and buttered toast and poured Sarah and Sabine glasses of milk.
“All babies need milk,” she said. Sarah blushed while Sabine rolled her eyes.
Sabine had grown a bit since I’d met her. She was sixteen now, almost seventeen, the same age Sarah was when we first began dating almost three years before.
“I hate you, Sarah,” Sabine muttered, and Sarah obviously heard, because she ran out of the room crying.
“What is your problem?” I snapped at the brat. “None of this is her fault.”
She tore our family apart! I know why Daddy died, it was to prevent Sarah’s death! She makes us look bad! She’s dating you, which, let’s face it, you’re not a real prince. She caused Mom to drink alcohol again and she’s the reason why Mom started hitting us!”
“How dare you!” That didn’t come from me, but from Mother. Her eyes were blazing with fury. “Your sister has done a lot more for your family than you realize! Did you know your mother was in debt? NO, because you’re a selfish brat who only thinks of herself! Sarah is not the reason why James died! That was pure bad luck. Sarah is not the reason why your grandmother and grandfather aren’t speaking to you, that fault lies with your accursed mother! Stop blaming Sarah, and take some responsibility for once!”
Sabine ran from the room, also crying. Mother softened.
“I shouldn’t have yelled at her.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Someone needed to set her straight. You’re right, none of this was Sarah’s fault. She got caught in the crossfire, and it shows. She secretly