Heya, new chapter up!

Dedicated to Alirah cause her comments the past day have made me smile so much! Thank you ;)

Enjoy reading and vote ;)

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To my surprise there was a car outside waiting for us and he carefully sat me down in the passengers seat. He smoothed his hands gently over my hair and then leaned his forehead against mine.

'Next time Amelia. Next time you call me the moment you realize they are vampires,' it was not a question but a demand. I felt too faint to protest though so I nodded.

'Can we leave now? I really want to shower and curl up in bed... I want to forget,' my voice sounded tiny as I spoke and it was very hard to hide the hurt inside.

My father had just tried to sell me to a bunch of crazy vampires. All for some lousy deal which I was sure was off now... No matter that the man had been a stranger to me even though I'd lived with him for three years. I was still his flesh and blood and it hurt that he would do that.

Because he was my father and I wanted him to love me...

Nathaniel was right though; they didn't deserve it. Not one bit. Not my concern and not my love and not my attention. They certainly didn't deserve to have Hayden.

What would happen to my little brother now that I'd left? There was no way my father was going to allow me back in the house and I was pretty sure I didn't want that either. To be under the same roof with people that had betrayed me...

Nathaniel climbed into the driver seat and started driving, his eyes more on me then on the road but I wasn't scared we would crash. Not him. What I'd seen tonight, the sheer power... That presence...

I didn't know what he was anymore but I was sure he wasn't just an ordinary vampire. No way in hell was that possible. His name alone had struck so much fear inside Dmitri that he'd passed out, I was pretty sure that vampires didn't just pass out. Not easily at least.

We were almost home when I realized Dmitri was going to be executed. By who or what I didn't know but there was no doubt in my mind that it was going to happen if I didn't put a stop to it. I didn't want to be responsible for someones death.

'Nathaniel?' I asked and I hated how I sounded so weak. It wasn't going to help Dmitri's fate if I was... Nathaniel wouldn't believe me if I tried to convince him it wasn't as bad as it looked and he didn't deserve to die if I sounded like that.

'A ghrá mo chroí?' he asked softly but there was still the sense of a steel blade covered with silk. He was very angry, not at me but at the Johnsen family and my father.

'Is Dmitri really going to die?'

It was quiet a moment and then his features softened, 'I forget Ams. You are human and very innocent. Yes he is going to die, it is our law and if we do not uphold it... Vampires all over the territory will see it as a weakness and run rampant, indulging themselves in their sickest desires.

He broke the law, a sacred law. For that he dies.'

I swallowed, 'I don't want him to die... He's just a kid...' It scared me a little how utterly ruthless Nathaniel sounded, it didn't seem to bother him in the least that a living being, or well undead being was going to be sniffed out. Destroyed.

'Yes he is a kid, but he is also a hundred and twenty years old a ghrá mo chroí. He had a longer life then most will ever have and still he learned no respect. Do not pity a creature like him... He was weak.'

The gravel crunched as we stopped in the drive in front of the house. Nathaniel was out off the car and at my door in the blink of an eye, opening it and picking me up gently to carry me inside.

I protested: 'I can walk. I no longer feel faint,' which was true although I felt battered and dirty. My voice had gained in strength too.

'Humor me, a ghrá mo chroí.' He no longer seemed angry, but he was still intent and his bones were sharply defined against the flawless skin on his face. Those stormy gray eyes dark but even though I knew that indicated either hunger, anger or lust all of which would trigger the fangs, I saw no glimpse of them as he talked.

I wondered at the control that meant he had. None of the Johnsen's had been able to stop themselves when blood had been spilled.

The house was dark when we entered and I guessed everyone else was out... Nathaniel strode up the stairs and straight to his own room at the end without pause. Despite what had happened tonight that still gave me a nervous shiver. The way he just assumed I'd be sleeping in his room with him...

He sat me down on the edge of the bed and then stood back, folding his arms across his chest. He was looking down at me with this stern look on his face that told me he wasn't pleased at all.

At his look I took off my coat and at his gasp I frowned and looked down at myself. No the dress was still whole and only the bruise on my thigh showed, nothing to warrant a gasp.

'You went out dressed like that?' Nathaniel said and he sounded seriously pissed off again, his stormy eyes sparkling dangerously.

I met his stare, 'Obviously. You can't decide what I wear so stop that.' I stood up and kicked off the heels then made my way over to his closet, deciding that I might as well take some of his clothes to wear to bed after I showered.

'Amelia,' his voice was still tight and controlled but he stepped up behind me as I rummaged through his clothes trying to find something suitable to wear to bed. He reached over me and pulled a pair of boxers and a shirt from a shelve and handed them to me.

His chest pressed against my back, it made my breath hitch in my throat as I felt how warm he was. Solid and powerful.

'Thanks,' I said and tried to slip passed him to go to the en suite bathroom. His arms held me in place, 'Amelia, we weren't done talking.'

I glared at him, 'Nathaniel...' But then I caught the look on his face, anger, concern and from his eyes reflected this bone wrenching need to ensure that I was safe.

'If you must know... Jessica and Eliza picked out the dress, I would never by choice wear something like this.' I relented, reaching out to press the palm of my hand against his cheek, my thumb rubbing over the sharp line of his jaw.

I could see his shoulders visibly relax and then he shook his head, 'So you let your stepsister and mother dress you but not me?'

'That's different!'

'Different how a ghrá mo chroí?' he asked but I was relieved to note that he wasn't angry any longer, his head tilted a little to the side in amusement and curiosity.

'Well for one... if I hadn't put it on they'd have gotten my dad to punish me, or they might have done something to Hayden.'

Just like that the moment was shattered, my shoulders slumped as I remembered how I'd left my little brother behind. Right in the hands of the people I hated most, with a father that didn't love him and didn't care for him.

Nathaniel pulled me into his arms to hold me close, 'Ssh, it's okay Ams. Don't worry, we'll go get him tomorrow.' He sounded fierce, the words not just a promise to ease my mind but a thing he was certain off.

'How? My dad is his legal guardian... I can't just take him away, they could charge me of kidnapping or something!' I knew only too well that my father wouldn't let Hayden go with me without a fight. He might tell us all the time how we should be grateful he'd taken us in but he still wouldn't let us go until he'd made sure he'd gained something from it.

'I had a lawyer look into it a ghrá mo chroí,' Nathaniel sounded certain. 'All we need is for your father to sign the adoption papers.'

I felt warm inside that he'd taken the trouble to do that even though he'd never met Hayden. Still I shook my head, 'My father will never sign those papers Nathaniel, not unless he'll profit from it.'

I was picked right off the floor and carried towards the bathroom, a smirk on his lips now. 'You underestimate me a rún. Now shower, unless you want me to bite you too.'

With his words I realized that my shoulder was stained red where blood had dripped from the puncture wounds. Part of the dress stained a much darker red... 'Thank you,' I said, hurrying inside and closing the door behind me.

I could hear him laugh as I locked the door, obviously he thought it funny that I was rushing now... Did he think I was afraid he'd just bite me? He'd already told me he didn't feel the desire to drink my blood, that he found it repulsing to desecrate me in such a way.

As I stood under the hot water it first ran red and then a rust brown before becoming clear again. I hadn't realized how much blood I lost but as I felt at my neck I could find no puncture wounds whatsoever.

A check in the mirror not much later told me there was nothing to see either. But my side was mottled purple and blue, I counted myself very lucky to have escaped today with so little injuries...

The shirt Nathaniel had given me was a long sleeved button up one, immaculately white. The fabric incredibly soft against my skin as I shrugged into it, the thread count surely in the millions! The ends dangled down to mid thigh, pretty much hiding the dark boxers.

I stepped out of the bathroom slowly a little unsure about revealing the length of my legs. Although of course that dress hadn't done much to cover them either.

Nathaniel was sprawled on the bed, his body covered from the waist down by the duvet. His chest and face thrown in stark contrast by the lamp on the bedside table, it painted his flawless skin golden even though it was normally more pale.

His eyes shone in the light, reflecting it and throwing it back into the room. A smirk on his lips as he watched me approach the bed slowly. He didn't hide how he followed the neckline of the shirt to glance at the little cleavage showing, I had left the top few buttons undone.

He lifted his hand and beckoned me to come closer, his other one picking up the book from his lap he'd been reading and depositing it beside the bed. He didn't say a word but the darkening of his eyes said enough.

Shivers shot down my spine as anticipation uncurled in my stomach, heat spreading through my body under his gaze.

When I reached the bed he lifted the duvet and tugged me under it and straight into his arms. His arms then curling protectively around me as if he planned to shield me from the entire world.

We both breathed in and out deeply once and then I heard him say in amusement: 'Yes we missed each other.' He fisted one hand in my hair at the nape of my neck while his other arm pulled me into his lap, shifting my leg so I was straddling him.

That hand on the nape of my neck felt possessive and powerful and I knew that before he'd been holding back. Afraid to show me all of himself but tonight I'd seen the powerful side of him, a leader although that word was much to tame and incomplete.

My skin sizzled where it touched his and I stared up into the stormy gray of his eyes. They now held a tenderness that made my heart clench, that reached to the very core of me to show me how much he truly cared.

He ran a single finger across the bare skin of my abdomen, tracing a line of fire that shot sensations right down to the center of my body. My breathing hitched in my throat but I narrowed my eyes. It was unfair that he could affect me such.

'We're not done talking yet...' I said but my voice sounded husky, desire lacing through it and lessening my glare.

He smiled, just the barest tug of his lips curving upward but amusement reflected in those stormy pools. 'Then talk a ghrá mo chroí.'

'Why was that vampire so scared of you that he passed out when he heard your name? Who are you really?' the question burned in my mind. I could imagine only a few reasons why Dmitri had been so terrified.

Nathaniel had to be really powerful and probably very important... But I'd never hear him mention any other vampires and he seemed to avoid them as much as possible.

Nathaniel nodded slowly at my question as if he had expected it and then he started to glow.

Power pulsing underneath his skin, lighting him up from within. His face turning ascetic, the bones tight underneath the faintly golden yet pale skin. Still he was hauntingly beautiful and masculine in an otherworldly form.

Unlike in the restaurant the power this time didn't bring me to my knees from the sheer intensity. I was of course already seated, straddling his long legs. But it had my skin sizzling and my hair flying backwards in an unseen wind. My heart beat thumping erratically against my ribcage.

More than that, the power seemed to flow right out of his hands through my body, a sensual caress. The arousal coursing through me shocked me but I couldn't hold back the moan that fell from my lips as that power caressed me in the most intimate of ways.

'As I explained to you before, the power a vampire holds grows over time if the blueprint is there. Age does not automatically mean power, but heritage can...' His voice was still the same as I was used to, but more serious and there was an echo, a resonance of that power that lit him up like a bonfire.

I wanted to speak, ask him another question but although the power seemed to be receding again. Sucked into his skin till the eery light had all but disappeared. A last tendril of that power stroked across my body, making my nipples tight with need.

He wasn't playing fair.

'My mother, she was Cailleach. Witch. It was a strictly matriarchal society at the time, still is. But when we were born one did not teach men about witchcraft. We might know of it's existence but never could we participate.'

Having recovered from the blast of his sensual caress I narrowed my eyes at him to tell him I did not like the way he'd teased me. His stormy eyes had lost their solemn look as he'd talked, clearly enjoying the effect of his power on me.

'Your witch blood has proven to have given you the blueprint for this power? The light?' I asked him.

Instead of replying he gripped my hip with one hand and shifted me, moving my body closer so that our chests pressed together. His other hand let go off my hair to stretch out across the headboard of the bed he was leaning against.

'I do not scare you?'

Confused I shook my head, 'Why would you? I know you'd never harm me Nathaniel.'

He smiled, a slow lazy smile this time but I could see the happiness dancing in his eyes. A touch on my mind to show me he was pleased with my answer.

'Yes the witch blood gave Missy her great telepathic abilities and would probably have augmented Jake as well had he not been weakened when he created us. Me... I've been strong from the very first day of my creation, physically stronger than most newborn vampires. Mental shields in place that granted me immunity to many of the older vampires abilities.

It's why from the very first day of my existence as a vampire I had to fight to survive. Jealousy and fear of what I'd become as I grew older sparked a mad hunt to end my unnatural life before it could even start properly.'

He fell quiet and I saw his eyes turn inward as he remembered those very first days of his existence. It seemed some of his mental shields were down or maybe I was just more sensitive to him but I could feel the fear and the pain. The confusion he'd felt when he had to fight so hard for his survival and that of his siblings. The memories were none pleasant, all dark shadows.

A sudden smirk appeared on his face as he said: 'Now no one but the strongest would dare lay a finger against me or mine. And you Amelia, you are mine.'

I shivered at those words, feeling both a little angry that he would claim such complete possession over me and a hot feminine appreciation for that power. So very masculine and strong and as I thought about it I realized I could lay claim on him too.

'If I am yours, then you are mine,' I told him. Glad that although I sounded husky, my voice did not quiver and the words rang clear.

Nathaniel's eyes met mine in a piercing stare, but he nodded, his voice low and rough as he said: 'Acknowledged a ghrá mo chroí.'

Before I could say or ask anything else he pressed his lips against mine, nothing gentle or soft about his touch now. Just pure unadulterated lust.

I let him kiss me with slow toe curling preciseness. Let his hands caress my hair back from my face and run across my back all the way down to the bottom of the shirt. I even let him run his hands back up the skin of my back, inside the shirt.

My mind slowly turning to mush as pleasure from every touch made my body sing. A humming in my veins that could only lead to more pleasure. It was exactly what I needed to forget all about the pain and rejection I felt over the way my father had tried to sell me.

I felt a release of tension as well and I knew it had everything to do with the fact that we'd been apart for such a long time, against our will.

My own hands found their way into his lush silky hair, running my fingers through the strands. His mouth left mine to follow the curve of my jaw to the sensitive spot below my ear, there he bit down softly, without fangs. Kissing over the sensual hurt he whispered:

'I would mark you here a ghrá mo chroí, where everyone can see. Always.'

A blush rose on my cheeks and I pushed against his shoulders to create a little distance, my breath coming in gasps. 'And where would you want me to mark you?'

I understood why he wanted the mark to be visible, it served as protection against every other supernatural creature out there.

'You can mark me anywhere Ams...' a dark sensual promise held within those words. As if he dared me to explore his body before I decided. Feeling shy under his gaze I ran my fingers across his chest, feeling the taut muscle.

He caught my mouth in another hot kiss, teeth grazing over my lips begging entrance. When I refused they turned more demanding and suddenly I was on my back, Nathaniel hovering over me.

A moan escaped my lips as his lower half collided with mine, the act very deliberate. His arousal so obvious. At the moan he never hesitated to take the opportunity to possess my mouth. His kiss one of a man who knew the effect he had, taking full advantage.

My legs wrapped around him to pull him even closer, the friction against my center caused my spine to arch. Pressing my breasts up against his bare chest. My fingers were digging into the sleek muscle of his shoulders as he held himself above me without effort.

I wanted more, I wanted to feel all of him against me and fall right off the edge that I seemed balanced on. Skillful fingers teased across my skin and the shirt fell open at the front, revealing my bare chest to his hungry eyes.