Yvette's Haven

A soft smile curled around Yvette’s luscious lips. “They’re blood-bonded. She won’t age as long as he’s alive. That’s the beauty of a blood-bond. He’ll never have to turn her. She can remain human and still be with him.”

Haven’s mouth dropped open as he looked back at Amaury, who now held Nina in his lap as he sat in one of the armchairs, softly caressing her blonde locks. He was surprised by the tender gesture from this hulk of a vampire. The emotions between them were clearly visible in every smile and every action. He loved her, and there seemed to be no fear in her despite the fact that Amaury would be able to crush her with one hand.

As he watched Amaury and Nina, Haven’s entire belief system came crashing down. None of the things he thought he knew about vampires made sense anymore. What he’d experienced with Yvette, how she’d healed him and later made love to him, had already shown him glimpses of a truth he hadn’t wanted to see. And Amaury only cemented those beliefs: vampires were living, breathing, feeling creatures as much capable of love and compassion as humans.

Haven’s gut twisted at the thought of the vampires he’d killed. Had he robbed a wife of her husband, a woman of her lover, a child of his father? And despite the fact that the vampires assembled around him knew what he’d done, they’d let him live. If anything, they were better than he.

“What’s wrong?” Yvette whispered next to him.

Could she sense his turmoil, the guilt that was flooding him? Haven squeezed her hand. “We need to find Kat—Kimberly.”

The voices around them settled as Gabriel motioned everybody to calm down. “We’ve made mistakes. I’m the first one to admit that.”

Nobody contradicted him.

“Our traditional methods of dealing with a threat haven’t worked in this case. We can’t fight a witch with our usual powers; she’s too strong. And we need to act fast. The full moon is tomorrow night, and we can be sure that the witch will make an attempt at snatching both Haven and Wesley from under our noses to perform the ritual. We can’t let that happen.”

Haven released Yvette’s hand and stepped forward. “I disagree.”

Several pairs of eyes snapped in his direction.

“She wants me and Wes. So we’re gonna deliver what she wants.”

“Out of the question!” Yvette snapped. “You’re not—”

Haven snatched her wrist and stopped her. “I know you’re afraid for my safety, but it’s the only way to get Kimberly back. You have to just trust me. I have an idea.”

He hated lying to her and to the rest of them, but he knew that if he suggested what he planned on doing, Yvette would be the first to call him crazy—right after his brother hit him over the head with a heavy object.

***

“What idea?” Yvette asked, worried that whatever he suggested would put him in the path of danger. Not that he’d ever stepped off that road.

Now that she’d admitted to herself that Haven was more important to her than anybody else in her life, she couldn’t allow anything to happen to him. She had to protect him, even if that meant protecting him from himself and his heroic ideas.

A feeling of unease settled at the nape of her neck when Haven finally spoke. “I’m not sure whether any of you know what I do for a living, but I’m very good at it. I’m a bounty hunter. I know how to ferret out people who don’t want to come crawling out of their holes. It’s all about the bait.”

Yvette didn’t like a word of what he was saying. “Bait” was synonymous with “suicide.”

“We have no idea where that witch is hiding out, right?”

Gabriel tried to protest. “We’re still looking for her. Our guards are out there, combing the city for her. Unfortunately, without anything with her DNA on it, Francine won’t be able to scry for her, otherwise we would have already tried that route.”

“That’s what I figured. We know she’s going to try to get me and Wes before tomorrow’s full moon. Otherwise, she’ll have to wait an entire month for another opportunity to perform the ritual. Since we can’t go and find her, let’s try to control what we can. Next time she snatches us, it’ll be on our terms.”

“Go on,” Gabriel encouraged.

“Wes and I will go back to my apartment and wait—”

“No! You can’t leave our protection!” Yvette interrupted. If she and her colleagues weren’t around him, how could they prevent him from being taken?