Page 55 of Deck the Skulls
“Rissa,” he whispered, lifting his head.
She jumped. “I thought you were asleep,” she whispered, rubbing a shaking hand over her eyes. She was swaying a little.
“Come to bed,” he urged, scooting back to make room between him and Anatoly. “We can talk about what you’ve decided later. Lay between us now.”
She nodded her head jerkily and toed off her shoes. After stripping out of her clothes, she climbed in. She laid sandwiched between them, surrounded by their warmth.
Pulling one of his arms under her head, she used his biceps as a pillow. As she let out a long, relieved sigh, he felt a single tear hit his skin. It made him want to cry.
He didn’t know what to say, so he gave her a soft kiss on the top of her head and remained silent.
Soon he felt her body relax and her breathing evened out. Only then did he close his eyes and let sleep take him.
***
Anatoly
The moment he could move, Anatoly untangled himself from Zan and Rissa so he could sit up. Pressing his back against the headboard, he pulled Rissa into his lap, holding her close and breathing in her unique scent.
“Wha…?” Rissa mumbled, waking up. “Anatoly?”
“Please don’t leave us,” he begged. It was the first time in his life as a vampire that he begged for anything. Zan recognized him as a mate the moment they met. Before Anatoly could even ask the mountain lion to be flock, Zan was wrapping himself around Anatoly and demanding kisses.
There was never any worry that Zan would leave him. Zan was a shifter, so he could recognize when the void meant for souls to be together. But Rissa was human; she couldn’t feel or use the void magic. Humans didn’t feel the driving need to be with their soulmate like supernaturals did.
There was a real danger she would walk away.
No! He wouldn’t let that happen!
“I have money,” he said. “I can give you anything you want. Designer clothing, jewels, homes in exotic places. Do you want acar like mine, or maybe something even fancier? I can give you anything.”
Zan sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. “Easy, Anatoly. Acting crazy isn’t going to help us convince her to stay with us.”
Rissa pushed on his chest. He loosened his hold so she could pull back enough to meet his gaze. Her eyes went wide and reached a hand to his face. When she brought it back, he saw a dark watery smudge on her thumb.
“Your tears are black and glittery,” she said with wonder. “Is your piss sparkly silver?”
Her question made Zan bark out a laugh, but Anatoly was too tense to respond to her humorous question.
“Rissa, please!” he begged, putting his hands around hers. “I need to know. Is it fear that makes you hesitate? I know I’m not able to protect you during daylight hours, but I’ll have more wards put on the building. I’ll hire all the protection you could ever need. I can adopt a wolf pack and surround you with powerful shifters.”
“Hey, I’m a powerful shifter,” Zan objected.
Anatoly nodded at the mountain lion. “Yes, my heart. You’re very powerful, but what if you need to be separated from Rissa because you have other obligations? If I supported a pack, there would always be wolves to guard her.”
Zan scowled. “I’ll close the bar before I let Rissa go anywhere without me.”
“That might be why she doesn't want to be with us,” Anatoly argued. “She might feel stifled by us. If there were others to watch over her, then we wouldn’t be crowding her.”
“Mates don’t crowd each other,” Zan responded, his scowl getting even darker. “Mates always want to be together.”
“We can’t expect a human to be comfortable with everything—”
“Guys!” Rissa said, cutting Anatoly off. He immediately gave Rissa all his attention. Next to him, Zan kept quiet. “I have a few demands. Maybe you should hear them before arguing about stuff.”
Anatoly nodded. “Yes, of course, anything!”
“Don’t say that until you hear them,” Rissa said with a little shake of her head. “First thing is that I’m not changing for you guys. I won’t stop my volunteer work, and I might want to do more of it.”