Dawn Awakening

some sleep?" he asked, gently easing her head up from his chest.

"Not tired," she replied through a half yawn. "When do you think this will be over? When can I get back to my life?" She stood and stretched, shuffling to the door. She looked through the peephole into the night. She thought she saw a shadow whisk through her line of vision on its way down the street. She gasped and backed away from the door. Would there ever be a normal life to get back to? "Is he out there now?"

"Somewhere close. Don't worry. We'll get him. C'mon, I'll tuck you in. My boss won't think I did a very good job of protecting you if you drop from exhaustion." Gently, he patted her on the butt, unable to resist that cute, little derriere another second. He herded her toward the bedroom.

Robbie swatted at him playfully, sashaying for his benefit on her walk to the bedroom. She slammed the door in his face. After putting on her favorite pink, very broken in cotton sleep short and cami combo, she opened the door and let him in. "You coming?"

God, didn't he wish. Pulling off his shoes and socks, John Mark slid in beside her. Robbie needed her rest. Otherwise, sleeping would be the last thing they'd be doing in this bed. But, hey, he was making headway. She'd invited him to this slumber party without a bit of coercion from him. Progress. Real progress, at last. She'd told him that she loved him. Sure she was in a daze, half-asleep at the time. But, it still counted. He usually slept in the buff. Wouldn't that lead to all kinds of fun. Uncomfortable in his snug jeans, the daggers he kept strapped out of sight digging into his flesh, he settled in as best he could on the narrow bed.

"Hey!" Robbie bellowed, begrudgingly scooting away from her side of the bed as he crowded her over to the edge. Knowing she wasn't going to win this fight for valued space, she gave in. "You'd better not snore," she grumbled. Even though they had exchanged blood and had a killer make out session, having him in her bed, even if nothing happened was suddenly more intimate. She tried to ignore him as he scooted a little closer and spooned her closely to his side.

Actually, this was the second night he had shared her bed. The first time didn't count though, because she hadn't wanted him there. This time...she did. The rhythmic pattern of his breathing and the rise and fall of his chest, soon had her following suit, lulling her to a deep and restful sleep.

John Mark wasn't asleep. But, he could fake it like a pro. He snuggled in, content to watch her sleep, peaceful as a baby, safe in the knowledge that he'd protect her. He could get used to this. Sleeping by her side. Watching her facial expressions change as she dreamed. Waking up with her, day after day, everyday. "Love you too," he whispered into the darkness, where it was safer said than in the garish light of day.

















Chapter 26

Robbie awakened to the cheerful sound of birdsong heralding in another day. The light outside her bedroom window was pale, soft, and gray. The neighborhood was still and quiet. Nestled in bed, clinging to the last remnants of slumber in stubborn determination. She closed her eyes and shifted the covers, her feet searching out a cool spot in the sheets. Barely a hair after five in the morning or so, it was too early to get up. She closed her eyes, forced her body to relax, and waited for sleep to sneak up on her. It didn't. Her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, coming so rapidly one notion bumped into the other and ricocheted off her skull.

It probably didn't help that John Mark was stretched out beside her. She was very, very aware of him. The deep sigh of his every inhale and breathy exhale. The way a muscle would twitch responding to a dream and then ease into relaxation. Some point during the night, he'd abandoned his t-shirt and popped the top button on his jeans. He lay on his back. One hand rested on his sculpted abdomen. The other draped loosely over his pillow. Palm and fingertips pointed to the ceiling.

Careful not to wake him, she shifted in the bed, chin resting on her pillow, watching him as he slept. For a guy, he was beautiful in that way that men were. Long, fluttery dark lashes fanned out over high cheekbones. Full lips, soft and pale blush in color, pursed and parted in time to his dream. His hair was an array of lush velvet draped over one shoulder in a fall of silk. His strong angular jaw tensed and relaxed in sleep. He had no chest hair, just smooth, hard planes of rigid muscle. A shy sprinkling of hair started just below his belly button, an outie, to travel down in a line below his unbuttoned jeans. Robbie couldn't see the waistband of his underwear peeking out from beneath the open button and for a minute, the thought as intriguing as it was unwelcome, she wondered if he wore any.

John Mark was tall, almost six-five, if she had to guess, broad with muscle and hard, lean lines, hinting at agility as well as strength. During the night, he'd shucked off all the covers and his massive feet poked out from the hem of his jeans. She wondered if the stories were true. On campus, there were rumors about the size of a man's feet being equal to the size of other parts. If that were the case, she might have a whole lot more than what she bargained for. Bigger was better...right? Maybe? Hell, she had no base for comparison.

Her gaze traveled back up, up the long line of his legs, stopping just below his beltline. She felt him against her last night, maybe her mind was playing tricks on her and a certain part of his anatomy wasn't as big as she thought. Almost on command, the front of his pants ballooned out. She blushed; there was truth in some rumors after all. He was all that and then some. And her previous question about underwear, answered. He didn't wear any. The head of his huge erection peeked up from beneath the opened button to wink at her. Whew...boy...the room was suddenly sweltering and her face flushed.

Embarrassed and suddenly shyer, she turned her eyes to find him watching her through veiled eyes. A lazy, crooked, and very pleased grin splayed across his face. Started by his watchful eyes and humiliated at getting caught checking him out, she leapt off the bed. "Too early to be awake. Come back to bed," John Mark whispered in the sexiest voice she'd ever heard. Languidly stretching, he patted the wrinkled, empty spot beside him.

No way in hell was she getting back into that bed. Sex, so primal and male, practically oozed from every decadent inch of his skin. Robbie crossed her arms over her chest self-consciously. The thin knit of her cami top left little to the imagination. And the girls were perked up and damned happy about being the center of attention beneath the weight of his tawny stare. In an attempt to save face, embarrassed, flustered, and regrettably a little turned on, she retreated to the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

After using the bathroom and brushing her teeth, she took her time running the water for a quick dunk under the spray. A shower would make everything better. Yeah, maybe a cold one, might...might help to cool her off. Beneath the lukewarm water, she scrubbed furiously, with haste. Determined to wash away her desire for the man invading every inch of her personal space, she flicked off the hot water and stood in the cold deluge shivering in her skin. The freezing shower did nothing to cool her burning libido or her heated interest in John Mark.

A gentle tap on the bathroom door roused her from her musings about John Mark. "How 'bout sausage for breakfast? Maybe smoky links? Something more substantial, maybe?" he asked, his voice tinged with amusement.

"Pervert," Robbie grumbled under her breath, snapping the tap off and climbing out of the most miserable shower of her life. How long would she have to endure his teasing for nothing more than sneaking a peek? She was never going to live this down. With a deep sigh, she tromped into the dining room. A heaping plate of sausage and toast waited for her on the table along with a steaming mug of coffee fresh from the pot. The coffee was hot, made just the way she liked it, strong with a heavy dousing of cream and sugar.

John Mark flopped into the chair next to her. "How is it?" Robbie nodded in approval. He watched in rapt fascination as she cleaned her plate. He had no desire for food. The smell of it made him vaguely nauseated. But, he enjoyed serving her, cooking for her and seeing her gobble down every last bite of the food. She was quiet, chewing and chasing down the mouthful with a sip of coffee. Her cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment. Hell, if he'd known she was going to inspect him so thoroughly, he would have slept in the buff and given her a real eyeful. She had questions. More questions for him. He could practically hear them bumping against one another in her mind, scrabbling to be the first in line out of her mouth. "You know you can ask me anything. I'm an open book."

Robbie's face flushed a deep crimson. The toast, sausage, and coffee, as tantalizing as it was, sat heavy in her stomach. She had no idea how to phrase the one question burning in her mind. "You can't eat, right? How is it that you can do, ah, other things? Can vampires ah....you know...? She finished the question with a shy wave of her fingers, too embarrassed to say the rest aloud.

John Mark took a minute, not quite sure what Robbie wanted to know. And then it dawned on him. She wanted to know if vampires could do the nasty. Odd conversation for the breakfast table...but, ok. Weighing his words carefully, he pursed his lips to answer her. "We give up a lot for this life, Robbie. Food. Sunlight. Privacy. It is easier than you might think to forget what its like to be human. Watching people enjoy the things you've sacrificed, for them, to be what you are, can be...frustrating.

"I haven't eaten a single bite in almost four years. Yet, I can recall the taste, smell, and texture of my favorite foods. I haven't seen sunlight in your hair with my own eyes in so long. But, I can remember how it looked, how beautiful, infused with red and gold, like a halo of fire around your angelic face." He leaned forward in his chair, stretching out his fingers to tuck a stray curl behind her ear. "I could never forget that...not in a million years.

"Vampires are made, not born. I can't make a baby. And perhaps, that is the most human part of us all, inborn and ingrained through every fiber of who we are. Sex is a gift, Robbie. It is perhaps the only truly human thing left when I...my kind...are so inhuman." He cupped her cheek in his palm and ran his thumb across the softness of her bottom lip, relishing her sharp intake of breath and the healthy pink blush heating her skin beneath the pads of his fingers.

Robbie held her breath, trying to quell the wave of desire he created with the gentle brush of his thumb over her bottom lip. His honesty and candor had totally disarmed her. In so many ways, he disliked what he was. As if after four years it was still completely foreign to him. Sometimes, she wondered if he wanted to take back his decision and be human again. His stare was too much, cutting through every defense and stripping her bare to the root of her soul. "John Mark, I..."

"Are you afraid of me?"

"Sometimes, yes," Robbie answered. She was afraid. Not that he'd hurt her physically. He'd never do that. But, emotionally, he could break her. He was asking her for things she hadn't stopped to consider. She was still young and had been too busy with college to even think about sex or a relationship. Mothering a family had been the furthest thing from her mind. She had always assumed that someday the pieces would fall into place and the right guy would come along. And maybe, he had, in the form of a warrior vampire.

John Mark lowered his face to kiss Robbie gently on the mouth. "Lets just take things one step at a time." He was in no rush to push her into anything she wasn't ready for. Love had made a patient man out of him. Perhaps, even a fool, flip dizzy over the one woman he thought he could never have. And as odd as it was, probably would never have gotten this close to in a different place and time.

"Good plan," Robbie whispered back. She got up from her chair and gathered up the dishes. "Am I going to work today?" The four walls were closing in on her. She needed sunshine and space. Room to breathe. Some time away from the overwhelming force, like a freight train barreling down on her at full speed, that was John Mark.

"Nope," John Mark answered. "Its still not safe out there. Damn vamp keeps giving the trackers the slip."

Robbie's shoulder slumped in disappointment. "But its broad daylight," she said, her voice crossed between a pout and a whine. The world framed in the cheerful red and white checked print of the curtains on the kitchen window was doused in the warm, golden light of a perfectly beautiful day filled with promises. And here she was. Stuck. Trapped. A prisoner with vinyl mini-blinds for cell walls.

Roughly, John Mark grasped Robbie by the upper arm, dragging her out the back door. He stood in the full blaze of the morning sun, blinking and squinting against it. "Look, I am out in the daylight. You have to forget all the things you think you know about vampires. He is a killer, Robbie, a killer. If he gets his hands on you ..." He stopped mid sentence at the horrified expression on her face.

She ran back into the house, hiding her face in her hands as her shoulders heaved with heavy sobs. Gently, John Mark placed an arm around her waist, lowering her hands to her sides with a soft, easy grip on her wrists. He ducked his chin so that his eyes were level with hers. "Robbie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. There's a lot at stake here. You are so important to me. I am not about to loose you to him."

"Isn't there anything I can do to defend myself against him? I can't stay trapped in here forever." She was not immune to eye contact or his words. Stunned with the knowledge that she was important to him. His eyes hid nothing. Hardened with the glint of determination to do what ever it took to keep her safe. She wasn't fooled by his soft words or heart felt admission. She was so precious to him that he'd hold her here by force if he felt it was necessary.

John Mark's chest broadened and his mood lifted. She met his stare with hard determination. As hell bent as he was on keeping her here, safe, she was equally hell bent on getting out. He'd have to watch her, carefully. He'd put nothing past her. She had a stubborn streak as deep, long, and wide as the Mississippi river. He knew her well. She'd dig a tunnel clear down to China with a teaspoon to get away from him, if she thought it'd work.

Diversion was the best tactic against the train of her thoughts. She didn't have an ice cube's chance in hell of walking away from an out and out assault with a vampire. But, self-defense techniques weren't species specific. He could teach her to knock an ordinary human assailant flat on his ass. Might come in handy someday, assuming he ever let her out of his sight. "I could show you a few tricks."

Eagerly, Robbie grabbed John Mark's hands. "Would you?" She was bored, confused by so many conflicting emotions, grappling with feelings that she would have never, in another place and time, thought about. Itching for something to keep her busy besides lusting after John Mark, pacing the floors, and cleaning the already immaculate kitchen, weary with the whole damsel in distress thing, she grabbed onto his offering with both hands.

John Mark cleared out the center of the living room, pushing pieces of furniture to the corners of the room well out of the way. He was going to get rough, not too rough, but enough to give her a good taste of what she was up against and why she needed to stay put. "Don't ever try to take on a vampire in a physical fight, especially unarmed. I can out run you; I am stronger than you and I can move faster than your eyes can track. Don't try it. You will lose and probably end up dead for you efforts."

Robbie blinked, and suddenly, John Mark was gone. Before her eyes could fix on him, he soundlessly, he came up behind and knocked her feet out from underneath her. As if she were light as a feather drifting downward, instead of falling at thirty-two feet per second, he reached out an arm to catch her before she landed flat on her ass on the floor.

Trapped in his arms, Robbie rolled her eyes at him. "I got it, no physical altercations." She buried her fear deep within sarcasm. Damn, he was fast. She became increasingly aware that he hadn't bothered to release her and her arms were locked provocatively around his neck. "You can put me down now."

John Mark grinned and positioned her on her feet. Standing directly in front of her, he grabbed her waist lifting her again. He could barely control his urge to hold her close, keeping her safe. Instinctively, she wrapped her legs around his middle. "You could use your powers of seduction on him. They make me weak as a kitten," he teased waggling his eyebrows at her. He kissed her intensely, his tongue probing the recesses of her mouth, savoring the flavor of her lips with the tip of his tongue. "Kryptonite," he jested as he lowered her to the floor.

Robbie swatted at him playfully. "Get back to business," she ordered. "What's next? If I can't fight and I can't out run him. What do I do?"

"Ok, ok," he chuckled, feigning injury at the light swat of her fingers against his wrist. Love taps. His face turned serious a deep scowl etched its way across his brow. "You don't. You just don't. You avoid him. You don't put yourself at risk. Stay in crowds. Brightly lit places. People...witnesses are your best defense. He won't take a chance of revealing what he is around a bunch of people. Crowds are too hard to control."

"That's not very reassuring," Robbie muttered, rubbing her arms against the sudden chill spreading over her skin. Around here a crowd equated more than two people in line at the speedy checkout lane at the Super Center.

"It's the way it is," John Mark answered with a shrug. He wasn't planning to sugar coat anything. He wanted to scare the shit out of her. Make her understand why she couldn't run willy-nilly all over town by herself.

John Mark focused on Robbie's mental signature. All those tangled synapses firing in sequential order in her brain. It was easy. She was hardly a stranger. And the more familiar a person, the simpler it was to manipulate the chemical and electrical signals in her brain. "Sleep." One word. One outcome. Simple. Undeniable. Robbie dropped like a stone; he caught her before she fell to the floor. Gently, he eased her to the floor. "Wake up," he ordered. Her eyelashes fluttered open. Brow wrinkling in confusion as her mind tried to piece together the last thirty seconds of her life. "My mojo got you that time."

Robbie pushed John Mark's hand off her arm and she scrambled to her feet. One minute she was awake and talking, the next...she wasn't. Her head throbbed on the verge of a headache. John Mark stared at her, grinning like a monkey with a ripe banana. "You did that to me?" she asked, rubbing her achy temples.

John Mark nodded proudly. Sometimes, it was nice to show Robbie who was boss. Sometimes, shrinking under the harshness of her scowl, not. "Never underestimate the power of freewill. Its your best defense against a vampire."

"Even you?" Robbie asked, fighting off the headache with stony determination. Just exactly how many times had he put her out without her knowing about it? Rankled to the very core, she glared at him. There was at least one other time that she could recall waking up this dazed and confused with an open gap in her memory. Their fight, on that first day, when she'd thought she'd fallen asleep in the middle of an argument. He'd done it to her then.