Blood of the Maple

A car pulled up outside Parker’s house. A woman stepped out and briskly strode across the lawn, neatly dodging various bits of dying plant life wriggling on the ground. The dark-haired, bountiful beauty striding briskly across his lawn would once have represented the best sort of temptation, but Parker was immune to her charms. Curly brown hair was held high in a ponytail, and her jeans were tight enough to tempt without being what Greg called ho pants. Her T-shirt strained over natural attributes that would have made a porn star green with envy.

But it was the phrase on the T-shirt that made him like her. It said Save Your Breath. You’ll Need It to Blow Up Your Date.

How could he not like a woman brave enough to wear that?

She halted in front of the mayor, but her eyes roamed the garden, taking everything in. “Hello, Dragos. What’s the problem?”

“Broken arm, among other things.” Dragos pointed toward Parker. “We have a situation to deal with.”

The woman pushed her glasses up her nose and smiled. “When don’t we? Selena Giannone.”

Parker held out his not-broken arm. “Parker Hollis.”

They shook hands, and Selena jumped. “You’re under a curse that’s…not. Strange. Very strange.” She clucked her tongue and shook her head, dismissing his not-a-curse curse. “Let me see that arm.”

Parker held out his arm, and Selena gently examined it. “Bad break. You’ve got some internal bleeding, torn ligaments, and—Yeowch. Do I want to know what did this?”

“I’ll explain later. Can you please? It hurts quite a bit.” And wasn’t that the understatement of the year? He almost wished Amara had ripped his arm off. It could hardly hurt more.

“Hmm.” She held her hand over the wound and hummed an unfamiliar tune that nevertheless eased him. Warmth radiated from her palm, soothing the pain, healing the damage. From the look on Amara’s face, it was taking longer than it should have. Had there been even more damage than he’d originally thought? That was frightening. Terri was becoming even more powerful as time went on. Amara’s lips were compressed, her eyes glowing with green light. She was close to shifting again into her other form.

The soothing heat of the healing dissipated. “There. That should do it.” Selena swayed.

Dragos whipped his arm around her, kept her from falling. “Are you all right?”

“Fine, big guy. That’s some powerful mojo you’ve got there, Parker.” She pried free of Dragos’s hold with a smile. “Mind filling me in on what’s going on?” She turned on Dragos and pushed her finger in his face. “And don’t give me that whole ‘you’re too precious to the community to risk’ bull-crap either.”

Dragos smiled tightly. “Of course not. Why would I do something as silly as that?”

Selena glared up at him, all five feet nothing of her. Her rounded arms crossed over her chest. “I mean it, Dragos.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She blew her bangs out of her eyes. “Good.”

Parker swept Amara up in his arms, since it didn’t seem the dryad was going to get off his lap anytime soon. “My place or yours, sweet?”

“Mine. The protections are stronger.”

“Very well. Follow me, people.” Parker led the way back to the Victorian. “Anyone want to order pizza? I’ll take mine with extra hemoglobin.” He ignored the strange looks shot him by his merry band of followers and carried his sotiei over the threshold.

“All right. Spill it.” The witchdoctor stared at Parker with unholy amusement. “Why are you attached to Amara’s hip, and why are you cursed yet not?”

As Parker recounted his tale for Dragos and Selena, the fire burned in Amara’s belly again. The urge to hunt Terri down and rip her out of Parker’s life by the roots was strong.

Terri had hurt him. She’d made Parker bleed.

Amara wouldn’t stop until the bitch was a broken pile of nothing.

“Down, girl.”

Amara turned to find Brian standing over her. “What?”

“You’re…barking.”

Amara looked at her hands. They were covered in bark. “Oh.” Calming herself was proving to be difficult. Terri had eluded her, and she didn’t know how. Amara had battled back the weeds, but she hadn’t found the root of the problem.

Until she did, Parker was in danger.

“Amara. Sweet. Look at me.”

“What?”

“As lovely as you are, it’s much harder to cuddle with you when your bark is poking me. Would you mind terribly?”

She blinked. “Oh. Sorry.” She concentrated on her human form, drawing on the peace of her tree out in the backyard. She needed the extra boost her maple gave her. Just the thought of Parker in danger was enough to send her back into rage.

She took a deep breath and tried not to remember the spike sticking out of his arm, the look of pain on his face. She closed her eyes, hoping to block the image of Parker’s blood or the worried look on Dragos’s face when Parker couldn’t pull it free.

“Sweet.” He stroked her hair. “Come back to me, Amara.”

“I’m not sure I can.”

“Do you need to commune with your tree?” Dragos’s deep voice was full of compassion.

She opened her eyes to see Parker glaring at Dragos. “No! She stays with me.”

“It helps calm her when nothing else will.”

Parker narrowed his eyes, then smiled at Amara. That was when she realized she’d reverted to her other form. “How can you protect me if you leave me for weeks?”

Amara shivered, her leaves rustling. He was right. He’d be vulnerable if she communed with her tree. She always lost track of time when she did. “When this is over, when we know for certain you’re safe, I will have to. You understand?”

“Of course.” He took hold of her hand. “But I need you human for me, at least for a while. Can you do that, sweet?”

Her lips curved as she blinked away sudden tears. He wasn’t looking at her any differently, wasn’t treating her like a freak. The simple fact that he was playing with her fingers, unmindful of the bark covering them, touched her heart. “Sure thing, sour.”

Someone behind her choked off a laugh, but the only one who mattered was Parker. He was laughing; his acceptance of the private joke thrilled her. Not everyone got her quirky sense of humor. The knowledge Parker did made her fall just a little bit more under his spell. “I’m beginning to like when you call me that,” he whispered for her ears alone.

Amara shivered again, but this time it was to help shed her bark. She dwindled in size until she was smaller than Parker once again. “Better?”

“Mmm. Let me see.” He kissed her, barely tasting her before pulling back. “Much.” He cupped her bare rear. “But I’d prefer you clothed until we can be alone. Can you accommodate me on that as well?”

She rolled her eyes. “Everyone in this room has—” the red glow spreading deep in his eyes warned her not to finish, “—seen me in jeans. I’ll be right back.” And Amara dashed upstairs, praying the possessive nature of her vampire didn’t make him do something extremely stupid. Dragos would feed him his ass, and Amara was becoming partial to it.

She threw on a sundress, not bothering with underwear, and bounced back down the stairs. Parker was finishing the story of what happened that night in the California desert. “And here we are.”

Selena had her head back, the witchdoctor staring at the ceiling, her hands palm-up in her lap. Her right foot was tapping.

“What do you think?”

Amara shushed Parker. “She is.”

“Is what?”

“Thinking.”