*AN - So here it is, the full chapter extended from the teaser I gave to you earlier this month. The book now also has a fantabulous cover made by RimUranium, the artist behind the cover to Devil Inside - enjoy!*
Elsa felt the lightest of touches on the back of her neck. It continued into the hollow where her shoulder began, traced her smooth, ivory skin down the gentle curve of her waist to her hip and a hand came to rest softly on her stomach. The crackle of electricity this simple touch sent through her body was only heightened when she felt a new touch at her neck. Two lips pressed themselves to her flesh, their warmth in stark contrast to her cool skin. She felt the rough brush of twenty-four hour stubble and smiled as she rolled over to find those lips with her own. He hadn’t woken her, she didn’t sleep, but she loved this morning ritual, it made her feel so ... normal.
“What would you like for breakfast?” She murmured into his ear as he continued to kiss her neck, each kiss becoming slightly less gentle than the one preceding it.
“You,” Sebastian growled into her shoulder, maneuvering his weight over her and pinning her onto the bed as if to ensure she could not escape.
Elsa was hungry and they both had to get to work. She groaned as the pressure of Sebastian’s touch increased with the heat from his body; she could easily fend of his early morning advances - if she really wanted to.
“I need a drink,” she protested weakly, “You know what will happen if I don’t drink first.”
“I don’t care,” he clearly didn’t as he was showing no signs of stopping what he was doing and what he was doing was so nice that Elsa was caring less and less herself by the second.
“I’ll bite,” she whispered.
Sebastian paused and fixed his intense grey eyes on hers, grinning wickedly,
“I’ll bite back.”
********************
“Elsa, how on earth do you manage to be late when you can move as fast as you can?” Logan held out a mug of warm blood as she flew into the staffroom, dumped her bag in a locker and made to speed past him again.
She bought herself to a pause and took the mug gratefully, she still hadn’t had breakfast, “Thanks,” she said, taking a long gulp, before trying to sound as innocent as possible, “I didn’t realise I was late.”
“Liar,” Logan grinned, “And I suppose your boyfriend is going to be even later?” He had a knowing look that would have made Elsa blush to the roots of her hair if she could.
“No, he’s not,” Sebastian stalked into the room and deposited his motorcycle helmet on the table. It wasn’t intentional, the stalking, it was just the way he moved. He didn’t stroll or amble, he prowled like he was top of the food chain and he knew it.
“Well you both are – late,” Logan shrugged, “But it’s no skin off my nose, you might want to get to briefing though. If you’re lucky, your dad will be late too.”
“Why aren’t you there?” Elsa asked.
“I’m out in the field with Gray today, just packing a light snack,” Logan held up a very substantial bag full of food and Elsa raised an eyebrow.
“Where do you two put it?” Both Logan and Gray were well built, Gray in particular was huge. It was all muscle and sinew and, in Gray’s case, rather a lot of hair but still, the amount of food they could put away and not put on an ounce of fat never ceased to surprise Elsa.
“Full moon's coming up,” Logan reminded her, “That really takes it out of a werewolf you know, got to create some reserves. This is just my bag, Gray’s big enough and ugly enough to look after himself.”
“What’s your assignment?” Sebastian asked, spreading a piece of bread with tomato sauce and folding it in half before taking a bite. Elsa wrinkled her nose at his questionable culinary choices. Catching her look, Sebastian widened his eyes at her as if to ask her what the problem was and shoved the rest of the sandwich in whole.
“A pack of skinwalkers in the Scottish highlands we think,” Logan explained, “At first we were getting reports of a rogue werewolf pack but it seems they aren’t limited by the phases of the moon. Still, Gray and I are still the closest chance Haven has of talking them round, ending this quietly and calmly if at all possible.”
“I thought skinwalkers and werewolves didn’t get on at all?” Elsa said, “They see you as inferior don’t they?”
“We can be very persuasive,” Logan said mysteriously, giving a theatrical wink, “We will try very hard to convince them that it’s in their best interests to stop extending their pack by biting locals.”
“Silver?”
Logan nodded and shouldered his bag, “See you in a few days. And by the way, you are really late now.”
Logan left just as Marcus Shaw entered the room. He eyed Elsa and Sebastian, looking more than a little annoyed.
“I know this is just a holiday job,” he said flatly, “but you still need to be on time.”
Elsa felt guilty, she didn’t like letting her dad down.
“Sorry Mr Shaw,” Sebastian cut in, “It was my fault, it won’t happen again.”
Marcus made an irritated noise and put the kettle on to boil. Elsa prayed he wouldn’t ask for any further explanation for their late arrival.
“Briefing notes will be in your email inboxes,” he said eventually and Elsa relaxed. She could feel the annoyance and curiosity pouring off her father in waves but she could also tell that in reality, he had absolutely no desire to know what had made his only daughter, his only teenage daughter, and her boyfriend late for work. It was something he often struggled with, she knew. He couldn’t separate his feelings of wanting to protect her and be a normal father to his little girl from his knowledge that she was a vampire, strong, virtually indestructible and, when she wanted to be, deadly. She would never physically age any more than the seventeen years she had been when she’d turned but mentally, she was far older now than her years. She had seen and done things no seventeen year old should have to see and do. She was well into her eighteenth year of life now and he knew he couldn’t tell her what to do but it didn’t stop him trying every now and again.
As for Sebastian, in many ways he was every father’s worst nightmare for their daughter. He rode motorbikes, he had a violent past and he was older, considerably older in fact, by about eighty odd years. Physically, like Elsa, he was suspended in time at around the age of eighteen, the product of a union between a demon and an angel, immortal and cursed to fight his inner demon’s desire for human flesh and blood on a daily basis. In recent months a serum developed by one of Marcus’ colleagues had helped this fight. It kept the hunger at bay for longer and enabled him to control when and how he fed on fresh meat, without needing humans specifically to satisfy his demon’s needs.
Marcus couldn’t deny that, however much he wanted his daughter to have a normal life and a normal boyfriend her own age with a sensible car and respectable parents, a boyfriend who wanted to wait until marriage before engaging in any type of nocturnal activities with his little girl, Sebastian made Elsa happy. That was important to Marcus, as was the fact that Sebastian was more than capable of protecting Elsa and keeping her from harm. Much more so than he himself could ever be. In addition, Marcus would have to be stupid not to see how much they loved each other and, in a way that sometimes made him uncomfortable, needed each other. He was genuinely unsure how one could ever manage without the other anymore.
All these thoughts and more whirled around Marcus’s head in mere seconds and Elsa could pick up on most of them. She knew her father struggled with her lifestyle, despite the fact that most of his closest friends had some kind of supernatural ability and the organisation he lived and worked for was so deeply embedded in the supernatural world that it was a wonder any normality had ever existed for them as a family before her change. Elsa loved her father deeply for his inner turmoil and she made a promise to herself to take her holiday job at Haven more seriously. She knew she hadn’t been, she itched to be out in the field like Logan but, last years events in Morocco aside, she didn’t have the experience or the training. It was important to Marcus that, if she were to work in Haven, she would work her way up just like everyone else. There was to be no special treatment just because she was his daughter and she fully accepted that, she wanted to earn any position she had within Haven on her own merits so there would be no more early morning distractions from Sebastian Bennet. Either that or she would have to wake him up an hour earlier.
“Sebastian, you’re on training with tactical,” Marcus continued, appearing to accept the apology Sebastian had given. His next instruction however, showed that he was clearly intent on keeping the two of them apart for the day, “Elsa, you’re with Luca in research.” Opposite ends of the building on different floors, score one to Marcus Shaw.
Elsa happily allowed her father his small victory, she actually quite enjoyed research, learning about the supernatural creatures she would never have believed existed just over a year ago fascinated her and the research department was concerned with finding out about those that were most obscure, the ones that they didn’t already know pretty much all there was to know about. Besides, she’d always been a bit of a nerd.
Marcus was showing no signs of leaving the staff room first and, out of respect for him and the desire not to annoy him any further, Elsa and Sebastian exchanged a look accepting there would be no passionate ‘see you later’ kiss. Sebastian simply gave Marcus a nod and a, “Yes sir,” before leaving the room and heading to tactical.
Elsa gave her dad a spontaneous hug and felt him tense slightly with surprise, “Love you Dad,” she said, giving him a peck on the cheek. He smiled despite himself and shook his head.
“Just get here on time tomorrow?” he asked.
“Promise,” Elsa said, “Do you want to grab lunch together today?”
Marcus’ smile broadened, “That’d be great,” he said, “I’ll come and find you when I’m free.”
“Cool, see you later,” Elsa gave her father a wave as she left the staffroom, depositing her now empty mug on the work top on her way and smiling to herself as she walked down the corridor and heard the distinct sound of Marcus tutting and rinsing out her mug before placing it in the dishwasher.
The smile quickly faded, there was another reason she had so readily accepted a day in research. She had some things she was looking into, things her father wasn’t aware of yet. She’d been stewing on it for months, trying to decide if she was simply being toyed with but eventually she’d come to the conclusion that she needed to know one way or another.
At night, when Sebastian slept and she didn’t, she ran over those last moments with Vincent in Morocco, when she’d held his heart and his life in her hand and made the only choice she could. His final words, unfinished, haunted her now, ever since her conversation with the mysterious vampire, Florence. She still didn’t know if she wanted to know what he had been about to say and what the connection was to her mother. She’d never known Sarah Shaw and something was telling her it could well be a can of worms that shouldn’t be opened. But, it was her mother, the woman her father had loved and the woman that died trying to protect her unborn child. Elsa couldn’t help but feel she owed it to her mother’s memory and to her father to try and find out what, if anything, Vincent and possibly Florence, had been hiding.
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