Amber Kell Protecting His Soul

A Total-E-Bound Publication

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Protecting His Soul
ISBN # 978-0-85715-929-8
©Copyright Amber Kell 2012
Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright April 2012
Edited by Stacey Birkel
Total-E-Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination
and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or
places is purely coincidental.

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of the artwork.

Published in 2012 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL,
United Kingdom.

Warning:

This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This
story has a heat rating of Total-e-sizzling and a sexometer of 1.

This story contains 46 pages, additionally there is also a free excerpt at the end of the book
containing 6 pages.

Scared Stiff

PROTECTING HIS SOUL

Amber Kell

When two souls are entwined, true love doesn't end…even after death.

When Bartholomew sees his dead lover at a café, he thinks he's imagining things. Bart
follows Cullen only to learn there’s a lot more going on in the world than he ever knew.

Suddenly assigned the task of collecting his lover’s soul, Bart goes through many trials in
order to reclaim a man he’d thought he’d lost forever. However, nothing prepares him for
discovering the truth about Cullen’s past.

Now he must figure out what to do with a man who kept his real self hidden from Bart,
while handing over all of his love.

Dedication

This is for those people who discovered that sometimes

love is worth doing unexpected things.

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following
wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

Red Bull: Red Bull North America, Inc.
Frankenstein: Mary Shelley
Buffy: Joss Whedon
Mommy Dearest: Christina Crawford

PROTECTING HIS SOUL

Amber Kell

Chapter One

I thought I saw him yesterday—Cullen, my Irish lover with his big hands and wide

muscular chest. Construction work kept his body hard, but his eyes were the kindest I’d ever

seen…and after going through a lot of men, I’ve seen more than my share of eyes.

To say I knew my way around a man’s body was like saying Picasso dabbled in paints. I

adore men—their smell, their strength and the hard grip they use when they fuck me against

the wall.

Before Cullen, I flitted from man to man like a butterfly on meth—unable to settle but

hopelessly addicted to collecting as many experiences as possible.

After Cullen, I craved only one man.

He changed everything. Endlessly patient, he put up with my chatter, my fidgety ways

and my complete inability to be on time for anything, with a sweet smile and a hot kiss.

Nuclear. No one could get me from cold to smouldering faster than my dark-haired

Irishman, but it was his gentleness that pulled me back and always prevented me from

leaving his bed for another’s. I couldn’t do that to him. I couldn’t bear the thought of

disappointment or betrayal crossing his face when he looked at me.

Three blissful years we lived together—the happiest I’ve ever been. But I couldn’t have

seen him walking around yesterday…or any other day, for that matter. As much as I longed

for his touch, his smile, his presence, I couldn’t have seen him because six months ago, I

watched them bury my beloved Cullen in a grave right outside the city.

An accident on a construction site had sent him tumbling to his death. Internal

bleeding, the doctor had said.

One slip and my world ended.

As much as I wished the man I glimpsed was my dear, sweet Cullen, I knew I must’ve

been mistaken.

Completely certain I’d imagined the entire thing, I pushed the incident out of my

mind…until two days later I saw him again. In a crowded restaurant, while having lunch

with a friend, I glanced up and caught the gaze of a man who looked so much like my lover,

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my heart clenched with pain. As I sat there gasping for breath, the man turned and walked

away, quickly swallowed by the crowds of people filling the sidewalks.

Oh, hell no.

There was no way I would let him get away this time.

Tossing money on the table, I rushed out the door, leaving my luncheon companion

without another thought. Jim might be a good friend, but Cullen held my heart.

I followed the man who resembled my dead lover, pushing recklessly through the

crowd and nimbly dodging all obstacles in my path. Keeping him within my sights on the

busy street challenged my amateurish tracking skills, but I still kept him in view until he

walked into an affluent neighbourhood and disappeared into an enormous white mansion.

Glancing up and down the sidewalk, I saw no one else around. The streets were

suddenly eerily empty compared to the crowded sidewalks of before. With another quick

look around, I tentatively pushed on the intricately detailed iron gate. I half expected the gate

to screech on its hinges—as if I were the “too stupid to live” heroine in a horror flick—but

whoever had designed the ironwork must not have seen the same films as I had, because it

swung open without a sound.

My nerves jittered, causing my hands to shake. I hoped whoever lived here would take

pity on me and not call the police when I finally made it to the front door. No one peeked out

at me from behind the white lace curtains covering the windows on the bottom storey as I

approached, at least that I saw.

I don’t know what I expected. It wasn’t as if zombies were going to jump out from the

perfectly trimmed hedges or that ghouls would pop up like they were on springs from

between the daffodils. Still, my spine had a shivery chill running up and down it—a

sensation I knew from experience didn’t bode well.

Upon reaching the entrance, I stopped in surprise. The man I followed hadn’t

completely closed the door. A gap showed and, although I knew I shouldn’t, I did it anyway.

With a gentle press of my fingers, I pushed open the front door.

Voices reached me. I should’ve backed out and gone on my way. Really, what business

did I have walking into a stranger’s house? Unfortunately, curiosity is the one sin the nuns

were never able to beat out of me in Catholic school, and I hadn’t improved over time.

“You were supposed to keep an eye on him!” a female voice screeched.

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I was glad I hadn’t fully entered the room. The woman might have endangered my

eardrums.

A calm male voice answered the accusation as if her harping hadn’t threatened to make

him deaf. “You know he finds a way to get free. He can’t stand the separation.”

“He shouldn’t feel any separation!” the loud woman snapped.

I felt sympathy towards the hapless, unseen man, but I still needed to know what the

hell was going on. Why did this man resemble my dead lover? Who was he?

“But he does. That’s my point. When father grabbed him, he didn’t take into account

Cullen’s Soul Keeper.”

Cullen…

Surely I’d heard wrong. They couldn’t be talking about my Cullen. I had almost

convinced myself that I’d mistakenly come here by following a daydream, or maybe a

wishful shadow…but that wasn’t true if they were using his name. There couldn’t be that

many Cullens out there who could be a copy of my dead lover.

“He can’t have given his soul to a human!” the harsh woman proclaimed.

Human?

If you weren’t a human, what were you?

Before I could hear anything more, someone yanked the door out of my hands and I

came face to face with my supposedly dead lover. This close I could identify differences

between this man and my Cullen. Sure he had the same shaggy dark hair and the big beefy

body that I loved to slide across like I was naked-body-surfing a wave, but the eyes were

wrong.

My Cullen had pretty green eyes that glowed when they caught sight of me. This man’s

eyes were blue—a dull, flat blue behind which no one light appeared. Vacant… The word

ricocheted through my brain like a pinball marble. No one lived behind those eyes, certainly

not my lover.

This gorgeous stranger ended my inner debate by grabbing my arm and dragging me

inside. His hold didn’t hurt but it didn’t loosen either as he pulled me unwaveringly behind

him.

The people he brought me to were scarier than all the horror movies I remembered

combined.

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“What have we here?” A well-dressed woman with cheekbones sharper than a chef’s

knife stepped forward. She had the same green eyes as my old Cullen, except hers blazed

with an icy fervour as if she were deciding the best way to dissect me for examination. As she

reached for me with her claw-like, red-tipped nails, doppelganger Cullen yanked me out of

reach.

“Mine.” The word scratched out of his throat as rough as a rusty nail.

“What do you mean?” she asked or rather demanded. I had been right before—close

up, her voice would make nails scratching on a chalkboard a sweet lullaby.

Strange blue-eyed Cullen held me tight against his body. “Mine,” he stated again, like a

toddler insisting on his favourite toy, determined to keep it.

“Cullen, you need to let the nice man go.” The calm man I’d listened to at the door

approached. It took me a moment to realise why he looked so familiar. He was a thin,

almost-copy of Cullen. They had the same bone structure, the same hair, but where my

Cullen was built like a brick shithouse, this man was greyhound sleek.

My Irish lover stepped back, dragging me along with him.

“Cullen?” His name caught in my throat as I spoke. I couldn’t stare directly at him and

not only because he had me pinned in an unbreakable hold, my back to his front. My mind

still spun while I tried to process why he was alive when the doctor had proclaimed him

dead. I’d seen his cold lifeless body at the hospital. Hell, I’d even cashed the insurance

cheque the construction company had sent me so I wouldn’t sue their asses.

A soft kiss brushed the top of my head.

“I’m Aiden. Cullen’s brother,” the slender Cullen-copy said.

I nodded even as Cullen took me a little farther back. He now fully engulfed me with

his body by wrapping his arms around my chest and stomach and holding me tighter. I

could barely breathe. My anger built as I watched them stare at me.

“Why is he alive?” I blurted out.

Oh. That didn’t sound like I wanted it to.

“Would you prefer he was dead?” the shrill woman asked.

I had a bad feeling I knew who she might be, but I enquired anyway.

“Who are you?”

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“Cullen’s mother, Gloria MacLise.” She watched me as if I were an unpleasant bug she

yearned to squish with her shoe.

“And I’m his father. You can call me Citren,” a hard, deep voice announced. “You must

be Bartholomew Dallen.”

A low growl came from Cullen. I could feel it vibrating my back like an angry dog

warning an intruder to stay out of his territory.

I stroked Cullen’s arm in what I hoped was a soothing manner, even as my hand shook.

Citren didn’t have green eyes. His were black as death and promised to deliver me to my

maker as soon as possible.

“Yes I am. N-nice to meet you, sir…ma’am.” I nodded to each of them, wondering how

quickly I could get out of there with my man.

“I wish I could return the sentiment.” Citren wore a suit probably worth more than my

car and made the chill in Gloria’s eyes seem positively welcoming in comparison.

“Mine!” Cullen declared again.

“You were supposed to get over him!” Citren thundered.

Frankly I didn’t know if I wanted to get in the middle of this family spat. This Cullen

wasn’t mine. I didn’t know the man who said nothing but “mine”. The Cullen I knew talked

in a soft whisky Irish voice and sang me Gaelic lullabies to send me to sleep.

I took a tentative step forward only to be yanked back.

Aiden approached but stopped when Cullen growled again. Now I like a sexy growl as

much as the next guy, but this was getting old.

“Easy, brother. I’m not going to take him from you.” Aiden held out his hands to

show…what, I’m not sure. That he didn’t carry any man-taking tools?

I tried to convey with my eyes it would be all right for him to grab me but Aiden was

apparently an oblivious idiot and his parents were axe murders waiting for their axe.

“You are probably wondering what’s going on,” Aiden said.

I nodded as much as Cullen would allow me to move.

“We’re…”—he waved his finger around to indicate his family—“vampires.”

My choked laughter turned to a strangled scream when Aiden opened his mouth and

exposed a set of elongated incisors. The man had fangs!

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Cullen stopped my panicked retreat. His arms tightened, keeping me in place and

pinned to his chest. Any other time I would’ve found that position sexy, but at that moment I

found it confining. I instinctively fought against his hold but he held firm and wouldn’t

release me.

I watched as his fangs slid back into his gums so he could close his mouth, a kind of

telescoping terror.

I nodded wordlessly. I didn’t want to annoy the scary vampires. At this point I wasn’t

even sure I cared about Cullen. After all, he was safe with his people…vampire…things. My

current goal involved leaving the house alive and preferably with all my blood inside my

body.

“How long were you and my brother together?” Aiden asked. “All we’ve been able to

get from Cullen is your name.”

I didn’t want to answer. My lover had never mentioned his family and none of them

inspired any confidence with their enormous fangs and frigid eyes.

“Didn’t he tell you?” I stalled.

Aiden shook his head. “Let’s just say we’re newly reunited. Cullen was trying to stand

on his own when he met you. Unfortunately, it appears he bonded with you and this last

time when he reincarnated he only remembered one thing.”

I pushed away the thought of my lover being a reincarnated vampire to ask the obvious

question. “What did he remember?”

“You.” Aiden examined me as if I were a mysterious bug. “Strange. I don’t see the

appeal. You’re rather average for a human. Not particularly tall or muscular, or even

handsome for that matter, but my brother is so infatuated with you he won’t leave the city.”

“What do you mean he won’t leave the city?” I was ready for all of them to leave. I’d

even offer to pack their bags and carry them on my back to the airport, anything to get them

as far from me as possible.

Cullen’s father approached. He was a cross between skinny Aiden and muscular Cullen

with a lot of extra scary thrown into the mix. “I’m going to assume you don’t know anything

about vampires. Is that correct?”

Since I hadn’t even known they existed before, I nodded.

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“When vampires die they come back again. Cullen died in that accident. You saw the

body, did you not?”

I nodded again—too choked up from the memory of Cullen’s still, cold corpse to say a

word.

“Shhh.” The living man behind me cuddled me close. Hell, if he snuggled me any

further, I was going to pass out from a lack of oxygen. I took comfort from him even as the

vampire factor creeped me the hell out.

“We don’t truly die, not like a human. We go into hibernation and as long as there are

even a few pieces of our DNA available, we’ll come back. However, it generally takes days or

even months for all of our memories to return, along with the help of a Soul Catcher to make

us whole. That’s why we’ve adapted the ability to sense other members of our family when

they’re in trouble. We came and helped his body to restoration but since he’s bonded with

you, he keeps insisting on returning to the city. Until now I’ve never heard of a vampire

bonding with a human.” Cullen’s father gave me a disgusted look as if he were certain I had

done something to make his son so irrational.

“What do we do now?” I was definitely on board with being part of the solution. I had

a feeling problems tended to disappear with this family. And unlike the vampires, for me,

dead didn’t include a ‘take two’ version.

“I had planned to kill you,” Gloria said with a pout.

Why couldn’t I have a normal boyfriend whose parents only objected to their son being

gay? No, I had to go the extra mile and pick the wrong…species.

Cullen gave another low growl.

She glared at him before raising her hands in defeat. “I know, I know. I promised not to

hurt him, but he asked and that is what I had planned to do.”

Citren examined me closely as if he wanted to tear me apart to see what made me

tick…and not put me back together. “It is a relatively fascinating case study even if it stops

us from leaving this horrible place.”

“No it doesn’t,” Aiden spoke up. “Bart’s here now. He can go with us.”

“What? I don’t think so.” I didn’t know where they thought they were going to take me,

but since at least two out of the four vampires considered my death as a proper solution, I

didn’t really feel compelled to join them on their trek to anywhere.

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Aiden stepped forward. Once again Cullen scooted out of reach, dragging me with him.

Apparently there was an acceptable distance between me and the other family members that

must not be crossed or Cullen retreated with me. I had a mad image in my head of being

moved backwards across the entire state of Texas.

Standing still, Aiden stared at me for a long moment. “You will come with us.”

“Umm, no, I don’t think so,” I replied.

“You will do what we say,” Cullen’s father joined in with the same wide-eyed

expression. What was with all the staring?

“I may not be a vampire but I’m not going to just do what you want me to.”

“Crap, I forgot he’s Cullen’s Soul Keeper. That’s why we can’t compel him.” Aiden

scowled at me as if were responsible for this latest kink in their plans.

“Listen, if you can get Cullen to let me go, I can be on my way and you can all take your

vampy asses out of town.” Cullen’s chest shook behind me and it took me a moment to

recognise the movement was laughter.

Silence filled the room. Citren broke the quiet first. “Ahh, there we have a bit of a

problem, Mr Dallen. It appears that you are not only Cullen’s legal partner but also his Soul

Keeper, a rare occurrence.”

I couldn’t take it any more—the smug attitude, the veiled and not-so-veiled threats. My

temper snapped. “He’s your son. Why haven’t you taken care of him, you sanctimonious

bastard? Surely this Soul Catcher could put him back together without me.”

“You know, I could get to like him,” Aiden said with a cheery smile.

I have never longed to punch someone so much in my entire life.

Cullen didn’t hold me tighter but he did reposition me until my arms were cradled in a

firmer hold…probably a good idea on his part.

“As I was saying,” Citren said, giving Aiden an annoyed glare. “Usually we use a

specialist. There are a few rare cases when this isn’t possible. Sometimes the soul is so

fragmented, the vampire has to be put down.”

The air rushed out of my lungs so fast spots floated before my eyes. “Y-you can’t put

him down. He’s not a wild animal.”

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“I’m afraid that is exactly what he is,” Citren said, his expression more regretful than

evil. “He’s a wild creature without a soul who could go on a killing rampage and expose us

all.”

“Then why hasn’t he? He’s been dead for months! Months!” The pain of my lover’s

death still weighed me down like a stone crushing my heart. Even the reality of this Cullen

holding me couldn’t save me from the memory of viewing his dead body.

“He did! We took him to Oregon to our family enclave and he killed thirteen people on

his way back to you!” Aiden shouted.

Pushing hard, I found the strength to escape Cullen’s clutches. I turned around and

faced him. “You killed people!” Oddly I didn’t feel any fear. How could I be afraid of the

love of my life? I knew Cullen would never hurt me, soul or no soul. Or maybe I’m just

delusional.

“He only preyed on bad people, Mr Dallen—a bus full of prisoners, a freed paedophile

and a corrupt judge. I checked,” Citren soothed.

Why he suddenly cared if I was upset I didn’t know, but I still didn’t trust him. Hell, I

didn’t trust any of them—Cullen included. He might be my dead lover come back to life but I

didn’t know this version of Cullen 2.0. My Cullen had cried over a dead puppy killed in the

road. I had a feeling this one would run it over if the animal got in his way.

Some of my ire ran out, but in my mind I still couldn’t match my gentle man with the

wild killer they proclaimed him to be. Then again, I wouldn’t have thought he’d have

soulless blue eyes either.

“So you’re saying if I don’t go with you to take him to back to this Soul Catcher then he

will remain soulless?”

“I’m afraid it’s a bigger problem than that now,” Citren pronounced. “He didn’t only

fall in love with you, Mr Dallen. He bonded with you. Do you perhaps have a tattoo that

matches the one around my son’s wrist?”

I smiled as I remembered the day we got matching tattoos. Right after we were inked,

we all but ran home and had some of the wildest sex ever.

“Yeah, he’s the only man I’ve ever inked myself for.” I know I blushed when I said

those words and it only made me angrier at the entire situation.

“How wildly romantic,” Gloria said, her words dripping with sarcasm. “Let me see.”

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I let Cullen take me back in his arms because, to be truthful, his mother called to mind a

combination of Mommy Dearest and the scary creature that, as a child, I knew lived in my

closet, waiting to jump out and attack me. Pulling back my long-sleeved shirt, I exposed my

wrist. My tattoo was a little different than Cullen’s. I didn’t know its complete meaning.

Cullen had designed them both and he’d been so pleased with the results, I’d never pointed

out that they didn’t match exactly.

Cullen’s mother let out a hiss like a punctured balloon. “I can’t believe he did this

without telling us.”

I didn’t know any other vampire families, but I was willing to bet these people were

weird even by living dead standards.

“I’m sure at his age, however old that is, he doesn’t need his mother’s permission to

have a tattoo done with his boyfriend,” I interjected calmly. I felt rather proud of myself for

not cringing when she turned her maniacal gaze on me.

“He does if he planned on changing said boyfriend into a vampire before he died,” she

said in that screechy voice of hers.

It took me a moment to listen past the nails driving into my skull to focus on her words.

“What are you talking about?”

No response. She turned to look out the window, completely ignoring me.

I shifted my attention to the more receptive pair. Cullen’s grip tightened as I asked,

“What is she talking about?”

Aiden spoke up first. I decided maybe not to punch him after all. “Cullen married you

in the way of our people. It is an unbreakable bond and one of the reasons he was compelled

to come back here to you. Not only are you his husband, but as his Soul Keeper, you are

responsible for holding onto his soul at his death until you can return it to him.”

I rubbed my forehead, not an easy task when I could barely move my pinned arm.

“So you’re saying I’m the reason he’s in this condition? Somehow he’s put his soul into

my body?” If I’d known what this day would turn into, not only would I have kept my

curiosity to myself, I might even have stayed in bed.

“Not quite,” Citren said. “His soul is floating about in the misty point between here and

the afterlife. You are the focus and only you can pull it back to this realm and return it to

Cullen. If you weren’t bound to him, he would’ve progressed naturally and been pulled back

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by the Soul Keeper. However, since I was unaware of your connection, I didn’t take you into

consideration when I felt him fade. Now that we’ve returned him to life, you have to return

his soul. You are the touchstone that holds him together.”

“And how do I do that?”

Citren shrugged. “That will be up to the family Soul Catcher to tell you. I’ve never run

into a situation like this before. I’ve heard of it happening to other paranormal pairings…but

never resulting in a successful soul retrieval.” Cullen’s father leant forward, meeting my eyes

with his cold black ones. I felt a chill go up and down my back despite the heat of my lover

behind me. “There’s a reason we have a Soul Catcher to keep our souls safe when we are in

transition. That tattoo means Cullen trusted you with his very essence. No one in our family

has ever bonded with a human before. You must come with us to California if you want to

restore Cullen’s soul.”

I nodded, too numb to complain and too upset to argue. What could I say? I didn’t want

to hurt my beloved, but I didn’t feel a connection to this soulless stranger. He was as his

father said…an empty shell. My Cullen didn’t live inside his body anymore.

“I’ll come.” I couldn’t abandon the sweet man who’d loved me enough to bind us

together even if I hadn’t been aware of his actions at the time.

“You should get some rest, you’ll need it tomorrow,” Citren said.

The concern from Cullen’s father struck more fear into my heart than finding my lover

without a soul. I wasn’t really tired—it was still early evening—but I needed to escape the

fear-inducing vampire clan.

Cullen led me up the staircase, down the hall and into a beautiful antique-filled room. I

didn’t even want to think about the cost of the deep-piled rug I walked across. These people

had more money than I’d ever seen before. My sweet blue-collar worker didn’t belong here

with these cold, wealthy people. No wonder he’d left.

“I’ll have some clothes fetched from your apartment,” Aiden offered, shuffling his feet

in the doorway.

“I can go pack a suitcase and come back,” I said. I didn’t like the idea of a stranger

entering my apartment and rifling through my belongings.

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Aiden shook his head even as Cullen growled. In the short time I’d been with soulless

Cullen, I’d heard him growl more often than the neighbour’s rabid dog. My heart hurt to

hear it.

I refocused on my brother-in-law—for if I was truly married to Cullen, Aiden was now

part of my family. I know some people can’t stand their in-laws but I thought mine were in

an entirely different league.

Aiden shook his head again like a confused bobble-headed dog. “You don’t

understand. Now that Cullen has found you, you can’t be separated again. He’s too

vulnerable to attack.”

“Who’s going to attack him?” This would teach me to follow someone home. If I

escaped from this mad family of vampires, I would never give in to my curiosity again. I’d

become a completely boring, non-curious creature. It would be my mid-year’s resolution,

since January had long since passed.

“We can’t chance anything happening to you. Give me your keys and I’ll pack you a

bag.”

Sighing, I handed over my keys and gave him my address. I knew when I was beat.

After Aiden left, Cullen stripped me of my clothing, positioned me on the mattress then

quickly joined me in a warm, teddy-bear-like snuggle with me being the toy. I shouldn’t have

been able to sleep. After all, I’d found out my sweet man was really a blood-sucking, soulless

vampire zombie. But with the familiar scent and heat wrapped around me, I quickly tumbled

into sleep.

* * * *

I woke to the feel of lips pressed against my neck.

Cullen.

Turning slowly around, I hummed at the sensation of Cullen’s lips on mine. I kept my

mouth closed, not wanting to share my morning breath. After that tender embrace, I pulled

away and my heart damn near stopped beating in my chest.

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Cullen looked back at me with a blue-eyed, lust-filled gaze. The lack of the familiar

green sparkle trickled ice down my spine as I remembered the Cullen I had known had died.

This Cullen was different.

Soulless.

I scooted backwards so fast I tumbled off the side of the bed. My bones jarred with the

impact.

“Babe?” Cullen’s usual strong voice was whispery soft instead of the warm, lilting tones

I had become accustomed to during our time together. I blinked back tears. Cullen leaned

over the edge of the bed. “Come here.” He beckoned me closer, crooking his finger at me.

I wanted to go to him so badly my body shook, but could I deal with my beloved man

without a soul?

Love is a strange thing. It defies common sense. The logical thing would have been for

me to have multiple lovers. I wasn’t seeking to procreate or settle down, but my heart had a

different opinion. One look at Cullen and the fickle thing had latched onto him. Even with

Cullen’s death, my heart hadn’t lost its greedy grip.

Sighing, because I knew it was a lost cause, I climbed back onto the bed and let him

wrap me in his arms. I closed my eyes, snuggled into his warm body and carefully didn’t

look up. If I didn’t see his eyes, I could pretend everything was fine.

Cullen stroked my head with his large hand but it was the rod grinding against my ass

that had all of my attention.

He might not be my Cullen but my body didn’t care. Wrapped in the arms of my lover,

my cock hardened in a Pavlovian reaction to his nearness. I managed to hold back a moan,

but my hips had other ideas as they wiggled and pushed my ass into Cullen’s erection.

“Need you,” Cullen growled. His short-answer, Frankenstein’s-monster speech pattern

disturbed me the more I heard it. Unfortunately, my hormones jerked me by the groin and

made their demands quite clear.

Sex! I needed sex and, according to my wanton ass, the willing man behind me would

do just fine. As I pondered the wisdom of giving into my baser nature, Cullen yanked the

choice away and settled the decision in his usual forthright fashion.

Flipping me over, Cullen took my mouth with his. Molten heat poured through me,

setting me on fire with my lover’s passion. I knew Cullen operated on pure emotion right

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now but his instincts were brilliant. I couldn’t think of a single thing wrong with a man who

knew exactly what he wanted from me and took it.

The moan building in my chest poured out of my mouth and vibrated our lips. I broke

off to laugh. Cullen’s lust-filled gaze ate me up as if I were his favourite kind of chocolate.

Cullen knew his chocolates. He’d often used his extra money to go to the candy shop down

the street from our apartment. A metallic gift box filled with truffles of varying flavours

always took centre stage on our kitchen counter.

“Beautiful,” Cullen murmured as he cupped my face with his rough hands.

I moaned again. His hands were ode-worthy. Rough with calluses and cuts, they caused

all kinds of interesting sensations when they wrapped around my dick or slid across my

sensitive skin.

I closed my eyes again to block out his disturbing gaze. It was sort of like cheating with

another man—dreaming of my old Cullen when the new one made love to me—but I didn’t

have it in me to push him away. Nor did I have the strength to accept him as he was now—

undead and soulless. He might have been a vampire before but I’d not known. In this case,

ignorance embodied bliss.

“Cullen,” I whispered as he explored my body as a sculptor played with clay—

touching, kneading and scraping his fingers lightly over my skin. My body tingled from the

contact. Touch-starved, I stretched closer to his hands trying to increase the connection

without looking.

The petting stopped.

Groaning in frustration, I opened my eyes.

Blue-eyed Cullen watched me with an odd sadness. “Beloved?”

I sighed. He might be soulless and only partly aware, but I could see he knew I didn’t

accept him fully. “It’s all right.” I tried to reassure even though I didn’t really believe the

words myself. “I’ll make everything right.”

I would go meet the Soul Catcher and demand information. If I indeed had the power

to gather Cullen’s soul, I needed information on how to retrieve it. How did that work

anyway? Shouldn’t I have felt a connection or heard voices or something? I shook my head to

clear it of fanciful thoughts. Nothing could be done tonight and in case something went

horribly wrong tomorrow, I needed to have at least one last time with my beloved.

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“Fuck me.” There…basic and straightforward. Even a man without a soul and barely

any awareness should be able to decipher my words.

“Anything for you,” Cullen whispered.

I blinked at the surprising string of words. While I was still trying to ponder the

significance of them, if any, he kissed me. If the kiss before were a fire, this was an inferno…a

five-alarm event. After the kiss, I glanced to make sure the sheets weren’t ablaze.

They weren’t, but my body certainly heated to all new temperatures when Cullen slid

down and wrapped his warm, wet mouth around my cock.

“Oh, fuck,” I whispered.

I tried to keep my voice down since I didn’t know where his parents were in the house,

but Cullen swallowed me to the root and I let out a shout.

The door swung open and Aiden peeked inside. “Oh. Um…”

I thought he’d close it immediately but he stayed and watched us with eyes almost as

heated as Cullen’s. Shit. Until that moment, I would’ve sworn I didn’t have a voyeuristic

bone in my body.

With Aiden’s eyes on me and Cullen sucking and swallowing like a pro with the next

customer on the way, I came so hard, I’m pretty sure I shot every bit of moisture from my

body out of my cock.

“Damn.”

Cullen gently suckled then released my sensitive flesh.

Aiden barely had time to close the door, before Cullen leapt from the bed and struck.

His fist slammed onto the surface of the door, cracking the wood. He growled with the

frustration of a predator denied his prey.

Stomping back to the bed, he pinned me with a fierce glower. “Mine,” he insisted.

“Yes Cullen. I’ve always been yours.”

Truth. Since that first meeting of our gazes, I’d belonged to Cullen.

Apparently satisfied with my answer, Cullen reached into his side table and pulled out

some lube.

Cullen and I hadn’t used condoms for years. However, I didn’t know where he’d been

since his death.

“Do we need a condom, Cullen?”

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The puzzled expression on his face reassured me some, as if he didn’t understand the

need for the question. Not to mention I wasn’t completely certain vampires could pass on

disease. Of course I wasn’t certain they couldn’t, either.

“No.” He shook his head.

I decided I had to trust a man who had come back from the dead to be by my side. He

might have taken a side trip and killed some people, but I doubted he stopped for a quickie

on the way. You couldn’t fake that sort of devotion. It was endearing…in an undead, freaky

sort of obsessive way.

I rolled over, both to make it easier for Cullen and because then I could avoid his blue-

eyed gaze. It took a moment for any sort of reaction. I almost rolled back over to see what

was taking so long when finally I felt his touch.

No sex since Cullen’s death meant my ass was tighter than usual. I had half expected

Cullen to slick up and shove his way inside with as much awkward passion as he’d shown so

far. Instead he seduced my entrance, first by careful application of lube, then by slowly

inserting his thick fingers one at a time until I could feel my ass loosening up enough for

entrance. After years of Cullen’s lovemaking, I knew exactly how relaxed I had to be to take

him.

“Now, Cullen!” I demanded. All the preparation and pegging of my prostate with his

long digits reawakened my faded erection. Now it bounced eagerly, awaiting further

attention.

“Easy, love.” Cullen’s deep voice rumbled in my ear. His breath sent chills down my

spine as he tickled the tiny hairs on my skin with his breath.

“Fuck me!” I insisted. I’d waited like a good boy and now I expected my reward.

Cullen chuckled—the sound so familiar it twisted my heart. Luckily he took that

moment to slide inside me, distracting me from my inward pain by shoving his cock into my

hole.

“Oh…” Deep breaths and more relaxation convinced my body to accept the intrusion.

“Good?”

I nodded. Words would’ve taken more concentration than my scattered mind could

collect together.

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Accepting my agreement as permission, Cullen started to move and, with the

familiarity of a long-time lover, drove me out of my fucking mind.

“Oh yes… Right there…” Words bubbled out of my mouth like verbal pollution.

Unable to stop the stream, I just went with the flow and let my large lover have his way with

me. With expert precision he pegged my prostate again and again, pulling screams and

moans from me with equal frequency.

I could feel him getting close to orgasm as the speed and force of his movements inside

me increased. I widened my legs to brace myself more firmly while Cullen wrapped his hand

around my erection, tugging in time with the snap of his hips.

My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I came once again.

Cullen soon followed with a deep grunt and wetness splashing inside my body.

Moaning, he rolled us to the side, avoiding the wet spot and wrapping me tightly in his

arms. I think this zombie-Cullen forgot sometimes that humans had to breathe because it

took me a few minutes to loosen his grip and gasp in some well-needed oxygen.

“Sleep,” Cullen demanded.

Yeah, like I was going to fall asleep with his cock still lodged in my ass.

“I need to clean up.”

With a growl of discontent, Cullen reluctantly let me go. I climbed off the bed and

realised I didn’t even know if the room had a bathroom.

Luckily there were only a few doors and I knew which one Aiden had stood at a

moment ago. My first try revealed a luxurious spa-style bath with real marble floors and a

jetted tub.

Bingo.

I knew I should go back to Cullen and linger in his arms to keep him calm but the

bathtub called my name and I couldn’t resist such jetted perfection.

Twisting the taps, I smiled when I found my favourite brand of bubble bath sitting on

the rim. I wondered if Cullen had gone and bought some, thinking of me, or if the maid just

had really good taste.

I hadn’t seen any servants about but I couldn’t imagine any of the vampires scrubbing

toilets.

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Shrugging off my musings, I added a liberal amount of liquid to the bath and turned it

extra hot. If my skin didn’t look like a Maine lobster when I’d finished, then the water wasn’t

warm enough.

Sighing, I slid into the bath and turned on the jets.

“Oh, yeah…heaven.”

I filled the tub until the water covered my chest before shutting off the spout.

“Mmm.”

Closing my eyes I let the water soothe my aches from Cullen’s lovemaking.

“Bartholomew,” a soft voice whispered.

“Come to join me, love?” I asked, surprised Cullen had climbed out of bed. I’d thought

he’d fallen asleep

Opening my eyes, I froze. A face formed of steam rose from the water. I could see

through the empty openings it had as eyes.

Shaking, I scooted as far back as I could, which was only a few inches even in such a

large tub.

“Wh-what are you?”

“You guard something I want,” the whispery voice continued.

“Wh-what?” I was pretty sure anything the floaty head wanted I would hand over just

to make it go away. It turned out I was wrong.

“Hisss sssoul,” the thing hissed.

“Oh, hell no.” Even if I knew how to pass it over, I wouldn’t. I didn’t even know what

the fuck the mist creature was.

“You are a ssstupid boy playing with thingsss you don’t underssstand.”

Anger burned away some of my fear. Not enough to stop the shaking, but my stuttering

vanished. “First of all, I’m a man, not a boy. And I might be over my head but I’m damn sure

not going to give you Cullen’s soul.”

The misty thing laughed, an eerie hollow sound like the perfect movie villain. “You will

regret that, Bartholomew, when he consssumes you.” The mist creature smiled, revealing

sharp jagged teeth. “When he’ssss done with you, I’ll get two ssssouls to enjoy.”

With another scary laugh, the being vanished.

“Fuck!”

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Yanking the plug, I jumped out of the tub only to slip on the tile. With a jarring slam, I

hit the hard marble I had thought so pretty when I’d first entered. I lost my admiration of it

when the back of my head smacked against the surface.

My fall must’ve made a sound because the bathroom door swung open.

Cullen walked over and scooped me up in his arms.

I had to tell someone what had happened. Telling Cullen wouldn’t get me anywhere. I

needed to find his brother, or his father, or maybe even his mother. I would even overlook

her hatred if she could give me some answers.

As we approached the bed I pointed to the floor. “Put me down. I have to go talk to

your brother.” Aiden was the least frightening of the traumatising trio. I’d start with him.

Cullen scowled and didn’t even try to comply with my wishes.

“I mean it, Cullen, set me down,” I demanded. My head throbbed and I wobbled

slightly when he put me on my feet. “Thank you.”

Scrambling to get my clothes off the floor, I quickly dressed, foregoing underwear in

my haste to find out what the hell had just invaded my bath.

I marched over and jerked the door open. I headed back to where I thought the main

room was located and found the three of them sitting around with wineglasses filled with

red liquid. For my own sense of self-preservation, I didn’t ponder what was inside.

“I have a problem.”

Aiden smiled and his eyes skimmed my body as if remembering me stark naked.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, honey,” he said. “By the way, your stuff should be

delivered in a few minutes.”

I grabbed Cullen’s arm as he went to attack his brother.

“Could we not do this? I didn’t come out here to play embarrass Bartholomew. I came

to find out what the fuck was in my bathtub.”

Citren spoke first. “What are you talking about?”

No matter how I tried to calm down my voice still shook as I recounted my story. By

the time I’d finished, all three of the vampires were standing.

“Aiden, call and have the plane readied. We’ve got to go now. If the soul stealers are

onto Bartholomew, I don’t know how much time we have left,” Citren ordered.

Aiden pulled out his phone and started dialling. “I’ll get a bag packed.”

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Before I could ask him any questions, he’d vanished down the hall. I turned to Cullen’s

parents. “What’s going on?”

To my surprise Gloria spoke up. “You encountered one of the soul stealers, a species of

mist people who have stalked vampires since time began. Their goal is to grab souls before

transition. The more souls they eat, the stronger they are. The mist people are one of the few

things that can truly kill a vampire. They are the ones who hunt us.”

She looked pale, even for a vampire, and I felt a spurt of concern for her.

“How do you kill them?” I asked.

Mocking laughter met my question and my sudden bit of empathy disappeared. “You

don’t kill the mist people, Bartholomew. You run from them. If they can get Cullen’s soul

from you, we will lose him forever. We need to get you to the Soul Catcher and she can tell

us what to do next. After contacting you once, they won’t be happy until they get Cullen’s

soul and possibly your own.”

I swallowed hard. For the first time I realised my own vulnerability. It never occurred

to me that my soul might be in danger, too.

“You’d best go pack Cullen some clothes. There’s a suitcase in his closet. I’ll have your

stuff delivered directly to the plane.” Citren took pity on me and gave me something to do

while I absorbed the idea that I could, in fact, die for love.

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Chapter Two

Vampires travel in style.

I kicked back on the private plane and enjoyed my cold beer as I tried to drink away my

worries. Maybe after four or five bottles of liquid courage I wouldn’t tremble so much inside.

Cullen’s family watched me like I was an unpredictable wild animal that could snap at

any moment and might need to be put down. I kind of thought his mother would enjoy that.

Out of all of the family, she appeared the most likely to ‘accidentally’ kill me. I hated to say

anything bad about my lover’s parents, but his mother creeped me the hell out. She glanced

over at me as she sipped red liquid from a martini glass. I’d bet every penny in my coin jar

that her glass contained blood…and I had a lot of pennies. She licked her lips to clear away a

drop and I barely resisted a shudder.

“It’s synthetic.”

I turned my head to see Aiden watching me with amusement.

“What?”

He nodded towards his mother. “It’s not real. Think of it like an energy drink for

vampires. They dye it red to make us think it’s actual food, but really it only boosts us

between feedings so we don’t get too weak.”

“Huh.” Red Bull for vampires. Who knew? “Are there a lot of you?”

Aiden nodded. “Probably more than you think.”

I couldn’t stop my hysterical laughter. “As I didn’t think there were any vampires until

yesterday, I’m pretty sure there has to be more than I thought.”

“I guess that would make the number a bit higher than anticipated,” Aiden agreed.

We shared a laugh.

Cullen growled at his brother who gave him an amused look. “I’m only talking to him,”

he protested.

“Mine,” Cullen insisted.

I sighed. I wished he had a better vocabulary. Cullen and I used to have long

conversations debating all kinds of things like politics, current events and even

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history…though now that I knew Cullen had probably lived through those times, I felt a bit

foolish about the facts I’d argued so strenuously over.

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the back of the seat. Maybe if I took a nap

the rest of the flight would vanish. All I wanted was my Cullen back. I didn’t care what I had

to do, but after losing him once, I wasn’t going to do it again. Little did I know the price

would be so steep.

My avoidance tactics lasted through the rest of the flight. Eventually I fell asleep as the

events of the day caught up with me.

I awoke to find Cullen watching me, a sad look in his eyes.

I’m not usually so slow but for the first time I questioned how it must feel to have

nothing inside…to essentially be hollow. I’d never given my soul much thought before but

right then, meeting my lover’s gaze, I wondered.

“Are you all right?”

Cullen nodded.

I gave him a smile even though I knew it must’ve looked forced. “After we meet with

the Soul Catcher you’ll feel better.” I didn’t know what I would have to do, but if the other

person did this all the time, surely it couldn’t be that complicated of a process.

“Cullen, did you ever drink my blood?” The question had lingered in my mind ever

since I’d learned he was a vampire.

Cullen frowned, creating big furrows in his brow. “No.”

Unexpectedly, a surge of fury filled me. “Who did you drink from then? Who?”

I knew I sounded like a deranged housewife who had just found out her husband had a

whore on the side but I couldn’t help it.

Cullen shrugged.

I turned away from him, unable to face the man who had claimed to love me but didn’t

think I was worthy of biting. Maybe I’d read too many vampire romances but I felt a bit

cheated.

Cullen placed one of his ham-sized hands on my shoulder as if trying to reassure me

through touch. The heat of his fingers both calmed and puzzled me. I didn’t understand

vampires yet. How could they live off nothing but blood and supplements and still have heat

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circulating through their system? I didn’t realise I’d said the words out loud until Aiden

answered.

“Magic. We are creatures of biological magic.”

I wasn’t completely sure if he was serious or kidding.

The plane came down with a smooth landing as I contemplated the strange physiology

of vampires. A slight bump told me we’d made contact with Earth and I’d never been so glad

of anything in my life.

Like an obedient lackey, I followed Cullen and his family off the plane and into a long

limousine. Silence dropped over us, dark and stifling.

Cullen pulled me nearer, seemingly uncomfortable unless we were skin to skin.

“He needs you close,” Citren answered my unspoken question. His eerie eyes followed

his son’s movements. “He longs for connection with his soul. You are the closest he can get

right now.”

“He wants me close because he loves me,” I snapped. Some things I would take as

given since they knew more about their culture than I did, but Cullen’s behaviour habits I

knew. “He was this way before the accident.”

I didn’t know how close Cullen was to his family. I could count on one hand the

number of times he’d mentioned his parents during our life together, and he’d never

mentioned a brother. However they hadn’t hesitated to come to his rescue so they couldn’t

be estranged. Then it struck me.

“You didn’t know he was gay, did you?” I blurted out.

Now everything made more sense. There was more than one reason Cullen wanted to

strike out on his own.

“He’s bisexual,” Citren insisted.

I thought back to our time together. Not once had he checked out a woman.

Occasionally he’d admired a man, who he would promptly point out to me so we could

admire together, but never had he chosen a member of the female sex.

Tilting my head, I examined Cullen’s father.

“Are you sure?”

“He was married once,” Citren said.

My heart flipped in my chest. “What happened?”

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Citren’s smile wasn’t kind, telling me his show of consideration was purely to keep me

agreeable to his plan. “He killed her.”

“Huh.” My Cullen wouldn’t harm a fly. “What did she do?”

Cullen’s mother laughed. I was both amazed and frightened that I’d managed to amuse

her.

“It appears the human knows Cullen better than you, my darling.”

Citren scowled. “He’s confused.”

“Ah, I must’ve confused him.” He wasn’t the first parent to claim one man made

another man gay, but I would’ve thought someone as old as a vampire would know the truth

of the matter. I guessed close-minded bigots stayed the same at any age. Citren was possibly

the oldest delusional parent I’d ever met. I tried not to smile when Aiden threw back his

head and laughed until he started coughing.

“Shit, Father, Cullen’s queerer than a three-dollar bill. He’s always been after the lads.

The only reason he got married was to make you happy. After Kira’s death, he swore not to

get involved with women again. He killed her because she tried to murder him for not loving

her.”

“He did?”

The shock on Citren’s face was stunning.

Aiden nodded.

Cullen pulled me closer.

“You’re his security blanket,” Aiden said. “He calms when you’re in his arms, so he

tries to keep you there. For him the world doesn’t make sense right now. It’s confusing and

loud. You are his only point of reference…literally, his life.”

I didn’t know quite what to make of that but I had once told Cullen I would entwine

my life with his. Although we hadn’t done an official wedding, the sentiment was still there.

I knew if Cullen hadn’t accidentally died, I would’ve stayed with him until I did.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

Cullen caressed my cheek with a gentle touch at odds with his rough exterior. He didn’t

answer my question. Instead he continued to pet me like I was his cuddly kitten or

something.

“Maybe he doesn’t trust you?” Cullen’s mother interjected.

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“Maybe.” I wasn’t willing to rule that out. If he’d trusted me enough, he would’ve

shared the information about his species.

Aiden made a disgusted sound. “If he didn’t trust you, he wouldn’t have given you the

ability to retrieve his soul.”

“Maybe. Or maybe he didn’t have anyone else to give it to.”

“He could’ve let it go to the Soul Keeper. That’s her job after all.” Citren brushed an

imaginary piece of lint off his cuff.

“How often do you guys tend to reincarnate?” I didn’t want this to be a continuing

thing of watching my lover die, turn zombie-ish, and then have to revive him…especially

since as a human I wasn’t going to live forever or even a few hundred years.

They exchanged looks but no one answered. As I waited for someone to speak up, the

limo pulled to a stop.

The vampires leapt out like someone had set their asses on fire. I briefly wondered if

that would kill them. Then I happily imagined the ways…

Cullen reached back into the limo and yanked me out. My feet barely touched the

ground as I all but flew from my seat.

He kissed me on the nose and wrapped his arm around my back.

“Love you,” Cullen whispered.

For a brief moment his eyes flashed green and a spurt of hope went through me at the

recognition. “Cullen.”

The blue returned, dashing my hopes. “Mine,” zombie-Cullen said.

“Yeah, yours.” I let him drag me forward as we joined the others standing on the steps

of an enormous mansion even bigger than the one Cullen’s family owned. We followed the

trio up the stairs and into the house.

They didn’t bother to knock or ring the doorbell. Maybe vampires lacked manners.

Upon entering the home of a Soul Catcher, I was disappointed to find it surprisingly

mundane. It looked like any other mansion. Not that I’d seen a lot of them but I’d kind of

hoped for eerie music or shadowy figures trying to get out of the walls. I really needed to cut

back on the late night theatre.

“Nice picture,” I said as we passed a Van Gogh I’d seen once on television.

Aiden shrugged. “She’s had it forever.”

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Van Gogh had probably handed it to her personally.

I jumped a little when Cullen slid his fingers between mine. I know he meant it as a

reassuring gesture, but his fingers were cold and clamped mine in a painful clench.

“Ease up, honey,” I muttered.

The pressure lightened and I heard a soft sigh. I glanced at him from the corner of my

eye and his face wore a wide smile.

“What’s so funny?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

Since zombie-Cullen generally only spoke in short sentences, I thought nothing of it.

Our little troupe stopped in front of a receptionist’s desk. The jarring modern look of

the woman’s workstation sat at odds with the antique aspects of the house, but I guess when

you actually were an antique, you have less respect for the sanctity of older things.

The girl sitting at the desk wore a black skirt suit and a strand of big pearls like a fifties

beauty queen. Only her hair struck me as rebellious. She’d died it a brilliant colour of copper

red, a great contrast to her red lipstick and pale skin.

Citren gave her a brief nod but said nothing else.

I smiled at her. “I like your hair.”

She smiled back. “Thanks.”

Cullen dragged me away from my new friend, a low growl rumbling in his throat.

“Oh relax—you know I don’t swing that way.”

I would’ve said more but we entered a white room…literally. The walls, carpet and

furniture were all white. The only thing not brilliant white in the room was the woman

sitting on a white sofa in the middle. She wore red—a red so deep I knew that if I sliced open

my wrist my blood would be the same dark shade.

I wasn’t reassured.

Cullen’s finger grip no longer felt too tight. In fact, if he’d decided to use that moment

to wrap himself fully around me, for once I wouldn’t kick up a fuss.

When she turned her head towards us, I saw her eyes were as white as the room. A

foggy mist covered her eyes as if clouds lived inside.

Creepy.

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I didn’t find it reassuring that this scary woman kept track of souls. With difficulty, I

tamped down the urge to grab my lover and drag him out of the building.

“Relax, young man, I mean you no harm.”

Still not reassured.

“Come sit…tell me about yourself.” She tilted her head as if she were listening to things

no one else in the room could hear. “Really? His soul?”

I froze mid-step, not certain if walking closer was good idea or not.

She must have finished her conversation with the unseen because I could feel her

attention returning to me like ants crawling across my skin. “I told you to come closer. Sit

down.”

With one gnarled hand, she pointed to the uncomfortable-looking, wingback chair

positioned across from her.

“Okay.” I didn’t think this conversation would go on for long. I wasn’t that interesting.

Cullen let out a low growl, which I ignored. At this point I wanted to go home. I’d had

enough of blood-swilling vampires, their private jets and the scary Soul Catcher. I wanted

my warm, soft bed and my lover back to normal.

Knowing none of those events would happen without talking to spooky lady, I

reluctantly sat down.

“My friends tell me you are the keeper of our Cullen’s soul.”

I nodded before I realised she probably couldn’t see me. “That’s what they tell me.”

“But you don’t feel any different. You don’t feel him calling to you?”

“No,” I replied.

Cullen’s death had devastated me. If I’d known there was a chance he could return, I

could’ve saved months of tears and depression.

“Hmm…that is very rare,” she muttered as if talking to herself.

Her sightless gaze made me want to flee. Maybe Cullen really didn’t need a soul. After

all, the man could walk and talk and remember me. What other skills did he need?

I forced myself to stay still and not comment. It would be best if I didn’t speak. I knew

this, but my mouth was its own force of nature.

“What does that mean?” I was so sick of half answers and questions.

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“Vampires are extremely protective of their reincarnations. To give someone other than

a sanctioned Soul Catcher that power says he trusted you more than anyone he’s ever known

before.”

“He didn’t trust me enough to tell me he’s a vampire.” That one fact kept repeating

itself in my mind like a broken record.

The woman’s silence told me more than words.

“If you knew, would you have left him?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.” Would I have left my lover if I’d found out he was a blood-

sucking creature? I couldn’t answer that.

“I’d like a moment alone with Bartholomew,” the creepy woman announced.

It took all my inner strength not to run off right then.

Cullen gripped my shoulder. “Mine.”

“I’m not making off with him. He’ll be here when you return,” she spoke in slow,

measured tones as if she were speaking to a child.

I didn’t get involved. I knew no power in Heaven or on Earth would get Cullen to

abandon me. A man who had come back from the dead wouldn’t leave his lover lightly. I

was proved right when Cullen didn’t move. He didn’t respond to his parents or brother, he

didn’t argue—he just didn’t acknowledge their existence.

One point for the soulless obsessive.

“Fine. Cullen, you may stay,” she finally gave in.

Cullen didn’t smile, didn’t react, but I could feel the satisfaction almost oozing from

him. He scooted just a smidge closer.

The seer sighed while Cullen’s family slunk back out of the door at her direction.

“As Cullen’s Soul Keeper, you will have to pass through three trials. The first two you

must do alone and the last will require Cullen.”

“What kind of trials?” I wiped my sweaty hands on my pants. I never did well on tests.

“Your first trial will be the trial of devotion.”

“Okay.”

What the hell had I got myself into?

“Stand up.”

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Clearing my throat and trying to hold back my fear, I pushed to my feet and stood on

wobbly legs.

I watched as she reached under the table and pulled out a clear glass ball. She set it on

top of the wooden surface. “Come put your hands on the ball and look inside.”

Look inside?

How did one look inside a glass ball? I dared a glance at Cullen. His empty blue-eyed

gaze hardened my resolve. No way could I leave my lover in this half-life, wandering like a

zombie through the rest of his existence…not to mention that the rest of his life could be

endless. I loved him too much to abandon him like that.

I didn’t entirely trust the white-eyed woman. She made the hairs on the back of my

neck stand up and shivers take permanent residence in my spine. However, as I didn’t have

any other choice, I had to do whatever she asked of me. After all, I couldn’t fix Cullen alone,

and from what the other vampires had said, only a few people knew the secret to

reassembling a soul.

With unsteady steps, I approached the table. Leaning down I placed my hands on the

smooth glass surface and looked at the globe. It took me a moment to see anything at all but

when I finally did, I tried to jerk my hands away.

I panicked when my hands stayed put. “I’m stuck!” I shouted.

Cullen rushed over. He wrapped his large hands around my wrists but he couldn’t pull

them away either.

“Leave him, Cullen. He must pass the first step.”

“What’s the first step? To see if I pee my pants while fused to a glass orb?” I could hear

the hysterical edge to my voice, but I had no way of pulling it back. My heart pattered

against my chest as if it were a trapped bird trying to escape a hungry cat.

“Don’t be foolish, child. Focus on the globe,” she snapped.

As it didn’t look like I had any other chance to escape the orb of evil stickiness, I took a

long, calming breath and leant forward to examine the space between my hands. Mist

swirled inside.

Mist…like the creature who had invaded my tub last night.

“Is that…” I couldn’t finish forming the question, the idea too horrible to contemplate.

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“The Soul Stealers, Mist People… They have many names. As long as soul-filled

creatures have roamed the world, the Mist People have lived to snatch them.”

“Why are they in the globe?” I might be frightened to hell of the entities but it seemed

cruel to entrap anything into a tiny glass cage.

The Soul Catcher laughed. “They are your test.”

“Wha—?” Before the “t” cleared my lips, I tumbled forward and my world turned into

a grey place of shadow and mist.

I was mistaken about my level of fear before. Now I knew true terror.

I stepped forward, unsure of where I was going or what I was supposed to do. My

footsteps echoed and I had a flashback of a movie I’d seen once about Jack the Ripper. If they

threw in a nineteenth-century London background and some cobblestones, the scene would

be set.

“We meet again, Bartholomew,” a familiar whispery voice spoke behind me.

I whipped around. Expecting to see a shadowy face, I jumped back when confronted by

the fully formed mist man.

Floating above the mist-covered ground, he moved closer as I moved back—a dance I

was becoming oddly familiar with.

His toothy smile brought the same accompanying fear as before. “Bartholomew,

Bartholomew. Can I call you Bart?”

“Sure.” Why the hell not? What did familiarity matter when he’d more than likely rip

out my soul, steal Cullen’s and leave me abandoned, hollow and possibly dead in this odd

world. I suspected the Soul Catcher had caught me in her little glass ball and I didn’t know

how the fuck to get out.

“Bart, I like you.” He floated around me in a circle. I made sure to keep him in view the

entire time. “You have guts. I’ve had more than one human lose his bowels when I appear

out of nowhere but you kept your calm. I can’t tell you how impressive I find that.”

Great, I impressed the terrifying mist dude. My life’s path was leading directly to crazy

town.

“Thank you,” I finally managed to say. He paused long enough I figured I should say

something.

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“You’re welcome and so polite, too. The Soul Catcher has a pact with us. We volunteer

to help her with her tests and we get to keep the souls of the ones who fail. I offered as soon

as I learned the tested would be you.”

“B-but, I thought Soul Keepers other than the Soul Catcher were rare.”

Mist Man’s laughter echoed in the eerie world. “No. They happen all the time but no

one has ever passed the test. Most of them are other vampires or werewolves. Humans are

actually pretty rare.”

Rather chatty for a soul-sucking creature of the mist. “So, there aren’t three tests?”

I received another toothy smile. “There are. But like I said, no one has ever survived the

first one.”

“I’ve been sent here to die.” The words tasted like bitter medicine on my lips as I

acknowledged the truth. No one warned me this ticket to Mistville had ‘no return’ stamped

on it. “What will happen to Cullen?” I could accept my own death—after all, I planned on

dying eventually—but no way would I let Cullen be a soulless undead forever.

Mist Man tilted his head. “You just learned you were about to die and you worry about

your undead lover?”

I nodded. “I’m only doing this to get his soul back. Why would I suddenly not care

about what would happen to him once I’m gone?”

“You can call me Shrillen,” the Mist Man said.

“Okay, Shrillen, what will happen to Cullen?” What the hell did I care what his name

was when he planned to eat my soul?

“Generally, over time a soulless undead will become a ravenous creature who has to be

put down. I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never met a human Soul Keeper. You’re different than

the others.”

“No, I’m not.” Tears filled my eyes and started to drip down my cheeks. “I only want to

save my Cullen and go back to my normal life. I don’t want to deal with vampires or mist

people or whatever else there is I don’t know about yet. I just want to go home and live

happily ever fucking after! Now tell me how to do that or get the hell out of my way!” I’d

gone from scared to furious in short order.

“Whoa, tiger.” Although he’d laughed before, this was the first time I saw the mist man

truly amused. His shadowy mouth tilted at the corners. “Normally I’d never go against

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getting a two-for-one deal, but you intrigue me. For the first time I want to see what a Soul

Keeper will do.”

Hope fluttered like a baby bird inside my chest.

“What does that mean?”

“It means you get the first ever get-out-of-the-globe pass. Give the Soul Catcher my

regards.”

A gold paper appeared in his hand. He held it out to me.

Making sure our hands never touched, I reached forward and snatched the ticket.

“Cullen is a lucky man.”

“Thank you.”

Before I could say anything else or ask how the ticket worked, the world swirled

around me. My feet touched down again before I realised I’d left the ground. Blinking to

clear my vision, I barely saw where I stood before strong hands snatched me up and held me

close.

“Cullen, I can’t breathe,” I gasped.

“Breathing is overrated,” Cullen growled.

Shocked, I pushed myself free.

Blue-green. Not quite the shocking bright green I was accustomed to, but Cullen’s eyes

were no longer an eerie blue.

“This is unexpected.”

The Soul Catcher’s voice broke through my musings. My tentative grip on reality was

sliding through my fingers but I kept a determined hold.

“Shrillen says hello.” I was rather proud I kept my face neutral when I delivered the

message. I really wanted to find something to beat her with instead.

She tapped her chin with one long finger. “I don’t know how you passed the trial of

devotion, but we’ll see how you do with this next one. Good luck.”

Before I could ask any questions, a coin flew in my direction and foolishly I caught it.

Flames consumed me as I was swept away once more.

“I’m a complete idiot,” I muttered.

This time the location had no mist or eerie echoing. Instead I stood on a stone platform

surrounded by a lake of fire.

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“At least we finally agree on something,” Cullen’s mother said.

Crap!

I took a slow breath before I turned to face her.

“She said you wouldn’t make it this far but I knew if you were half as devoted as my

son, you’d show up.” Her words were complimentary but her expression said she smelt

something rotten.

I gave a short bow. “I appreciate your confidence in me.”

Her heels made a staccato noise that echoed against the stone as she moved while she

talked. For such a cold personality she became animated when she spoke.

“It isn’t confidence so much as I knew I couldn’t be so lucky as to be able to control my

son’s lover. At least now when I kill you, he won’t know it was me.”

“Why? Why do you want to kill me? All I ever wanted to do was love your son.”

“Love him? You’re an abomination. I had the perfect girl picked out for him. He’s the

strongest vampire in three centuries and he gave it all up once he saw you. Do you think he

really worked in construction because he couldn’t get a better job? No! He worked that

menial job so he could come home to you after an honest day’s work. He is brilliant and was

buying and selling businesses before you were ever born.”

“If you know your son loves me, why would you want me to die? If he doesn’t regain

his soul he’ll never be the son you want anyway.”

Gloria smiled, the sort of cold smile that made Mist Man’s shark-like grin look

positively friendly. “He’s easier to control when he’s soulless. I don’t need his mind. I only

need his body.”

I knew then that she saw him as disposable. Shrillen told me that eventually Cullen

would die if he remained soulless. “You are one sick bitch.”

She stepped closer and closer but I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t hit a woman. My

mother had raised me right. Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for Gloria. Her punch

snapped my head back and rattled my teeth.

Ouch.

She came closer, I moved backwards. Unfortunately I couldn’t go any further, the

flames leapt up behind me and heat crackled at my back as a fiery warning.

“Do you know the one thing I’m going to enjoy?” she said in a calm, musing tone.

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“What?” If she were talking, maybe she’d forget to attack. I doubted it, though. Women

were notoriously good at multi-tasking.

“Knowing that all it took to bring my powerful son down is to kill the weak link. He

always had too soft of a heart.”

She leapt at me. I jumped to the side to avoid her punch. Before my horrified gaze, she

toppled into the sea of fire. I knew her screams would live in my nightmares for years to

come.

A familiar rushing in my ears brought me out of the heat and back into the cool salon of

the Soul Catcher.

“Well this is a surprise. Gloria was certain you’d die for your love.”

Mother would be so proud of my restraint, but then it was probably my lack of a knife

that saved the woman before me from a brutal stabbing.

“One of us did, and it wasn’t for love. How is any of this getting Cullen back his soul?”

I started to get angry again. I didn’t like being played for a fool.

“My mother is dead?” Cullen asked.

I turned to see my lover’s eyes, only tiny streaks of blue remained in his gaze.

“Yes, she fell into a pit of lava.”

“Good.” The satisfaction in Cullen’s voice relieved me. He definitely didn’t look like

someone mourning his parent. “She was evil.”

After giving Cullen’s arm a reassuring squeeze, I gave my attention to the Soul Catcher.

“I’m asking again, what does any of this have to do with returning Cullen’s soul?”

The Soul Catcher sighed. “It all depends on you. You have to be strong enough to stand

by your man and love him enough to release him. Only by letting him go can you free his

soul.”

I still didn’t understand these tests. They seemed more a series of events to scare the

crap out of me than any legitimate testing criteria. “Is this like that bullshit about, ‘if you love

someone you’ll set them free’?”

She brushed aside my words. “Only one test remains.”

“What does this one prove? That I can withstand a creepy psychopath without soiling

my pants?” I was so done with this entire thing. I was almost willing to take Cullen as partly

soulful. Surely he didn’t need the entire thing.

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“The final step is the bonding.” The Soul Keeper’s voice sounded resigned as if I

weren’t the only one tired of the round of tests.

“Is it true that I’m the only one who made it this far? Do you kill the vamps who lose

their Soul Keeper?”

Her white sightless gaze turned towards me. “I have to. While a vampire can live

without their soul, they don’t remain sane if their Soul Keeper dies. You can’t live without

your soul or your heart.”

“Gloria appeared to think Cullen could.” I remembered Cullen’s mother was quite clear

on the matter of my death.

“Let’s just say Gloria wasn’t the brightest vampire in the clutch.”

I sighed. The exhaustion of the day weighed me down. “How do we bond?”

“Sex.” The word coming from the spooky woman’s lips almost turned me off from

intimate relations for life.

“If sex will bind us, we should’ve already been bound.”

She shook her head. “You have to do it in sequence and, Bartholomew, you have to

enter Cullen.”

My heart stuttered in my chest. I’d never topped Cullen before. I didn’t top. I enjoyed

feeling Cullen slide inside me and move me around to his pleasure. I’d never had the

inclination to fuck Cullen, and now I had to do something I didn’t even know he would

enjoy.

“Where’s a bedroom?” Cullen spoke behind me with no hesitation in his voice.

My heart beat faster at the sound of him stringing more words together. Slowly I was

knitting my lover’s soul into completion. A burst of pride filled my heart.

“Down the hall, the second door on the right.”

Before I could make a snarky comment about brothels, Cullen grabbed my arm and

dragged me after him.

My feet stumbled after him as I tried to keep up with his long stride.

The door slammed open beneath Cullen’s forceful hand.

“Hey,” I protested.

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With a strong toss, I bounced onto the bed. The door slammed closed again and Cullen

didn’t give me any time to miss him as he quickly stood at the foot of the bed. I didn’t get a

chance to look around. Cullen yanked off my shoes and tossed them over his shoulder.

Sitting up, I pulled my shirt off but didn’t have time to even unzip my pants before

Cullen set to the task. He’d stripped faster than I thought possible, making me wonder if

he’d used some sort of vampire super power. At a later date I’d have to ask him what extra

abilities he had. I had never noticed anything unusual when we were together…but

apparently I’m oblivious since I’d never even suspected he was a vampire.

“You think too much,” Cullen said. His voice, so like his usual self, brought tears to my

eyes.

Relief swept through me like an ocean wave—all-consuming and powerful.

“I can feel you inside me,” Cullen whispered. “Always, there’s you. It’s how I knew I

had to return to you. I could feel your soul calling to mine.”

It was the singularly most romantic thing another guy had ever said to me.

“I love you,” I whispered through the lump in my throat.

Cullen gave me a familiar smile. The one combining lust and love. The one he saved

just for me.

Shivers went up and down my spine except this time they were all about desire, not

gut-wrenching fear—a nice change of pace for my horrific day.

Cullen finished undressing us both with more haste than grace, but I wasn’t going to

complain. Not when I had Cullen almost complete and touching me. As I stared at his mostly

green eyes I enjoyed the sensations of his hands, his mouth and the heat of his body warming

my chilled skin.

Sighing with satisfaction, I let him explore my skin as if he’d never seen me naked

before.

“It’s been so long,” Cullen whispered against my shoulder as his mouth traced my

flesh. Slow licks combined with light nibbles stoked the flames of my desire and had me

ready for anything. “I yearned for you every day.”

Sliding my fingers into the thick strands of his hair, I pulled him up to look at me.

“Have you ever bottomed before?”

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He shook his head. “No, never. I’m over a hundred years old and you will be the first

one inside me.”

I couldn’t even imagine living that long and never knowing the feel of another man. But

maybe that was how it was with vamps. Maybe they had to be the predator on top.

“Come, position yourself on your hands and knees.”

After some awkward fumbling, we finally lined up—Cullen’s back to my front.

Running a hand down his spine, I could feel his tension.

“Are you all right?”

Cullen nodded but didn’t speak.

“I want to hear it verbally.” I had to know he was all right.

“I’ll be fine, babe, just do it. I want to be complete. I have to be a whole man for you.”

Normally if a man were this nervous, I’d put it off until he was ready but we didn’t

have that luxury. The pleading in his voice made my decision. A bottle of lube sat

prominently on top of a dainty side table. I wondered who usually spent time in this room.

Cullen’s shiver brought my attention back to the naked man at hand.

“It’ll be fine, honey, I’ll make it good for you.” First I needed him to relax. Covering his

body with my own, I kissed my way up and down his spine, tracing the bumps in his back

with my tongue. Working down his body, I sucked up spots on his spine that I knew would

leave large marks later.

Cullen’s body shook but this time with laughter. “After all this, there’s no doubt I

belong to you. You don’t have to mark me like a teenager.”

“Hush,” I scolded. “After we get done here I’m getting you a ring and you’re going to

wear it.”

“Yes, dear.”

His voice sounded mild but I could tell he was laughing at me again. I didn’t care. “Be

nice and I’ll let you wear the ring on your finger.”

“And if I’m not nice?”

“I’ll have put one through your dick.”

“Ouch. I’ll be good.”

At the very least, the banter had Cullen relaxing. He knew I’d never harm him and with

most of his soul returned, the real Cullen shone through.

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Joy filled me. I blinked back tears as I grabbed the lube. Slicking up my fingers, I circled

his hole until he became used to my touch. Adding more lube, I pressed the tip of my index

finger inside, wiggling and pushing to loosen him up.

“Breathe deeply and relax.” I waited for him to take a few slow breaths before I pushed

into his ass. Soft flesh and heat surrounded me as I moved in and out of his hole. After a few

minutes of this I asked, “Are you ready for another?”

A moment of silence passed before he spoke. “Yeah, go ahead.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement but I didn’t give him a chance to change his mind. I

slid in a second finger along with more lube and searched for the perfect spot.

“Oh fuck!”

Found it.

Grinning to myself, I made certain to tap his prostate with each pass. Cullen began to

match my motions with hip movements of his own.

“More.”

I don’t like to brag, but my cock outsizes my two fingers by quite a bit. My body didn’t

care, though—it wanted to be surrounded by that hot, silky home.

“Careful, love,” I warned. Not for the world would I hurt my Cullen. Not after

everything I’d gone through to keep him safe.

“Fuck me now!” he growled.

Making sure enough lubricant was added to ease the way, I lined up my cock and

pushed.

For a brief moment, Cullen clenched his ass cheeks. I slapped him on the butt.

“Hey!”

Surprise made Cullen relax and I pushed the rest of the way in. At his gasp, I held still

as he adjusted to my size.

“You really enjoy this?” he asked, panting.

“Give it a minute.” I started sliding carefully back and forth, bumping his prostate as I

went. Cullen might never get to like anal play—some men didn’t—but I would make sure he

found his first foray into penetration enjoyable.

“Oh. Right there.” Cullen shifted his legs a little to get a better angle. Leaning his head

on his hands, he lifted his ass higher to give me easier access.

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The next few minutes were a combination of adjusting my strokes and holding onto

Cullen so he didn’t buck me away. He might be the bottom at the moment, but I definitely

wasn’t the one in control.

In between moans and gasps he instructed me exactly on the speed and depth of

penetration he desired. I remembered longingly those one-word sentences just mere hours

ago.

“There!” Cullen demanded.

I pushed in and my lover moaned his release. I screamed a moment later but not from

pleasure. Hot shards of glass embedded themselves into my eyeballs, or at least that’s how it

felt. Grabbing my head, I slid out of Cullen, careful not to injure him before I tumbled onto

the mattress. The dim light in the room blinded me and caused more stabbing pains through

my skull. I didn’t realise I’d become so loud until another voice had to shout to be heard.

Aiden’s voice seeped into my mind. “He’s expelling your soul—that’s why he’s in

pain.”

“How do I take it back?”

“Kiss him.” The sound of the strong female voice told me the Soul Catcher had entered

the room. I had a weird urge to cover myself but I decided I didn’t care. After all, she was the

one who’d barged in without an invitation. I hadn’t gone parading around naked in her

fancy parlour.

I barely registered her words before Cullen’s lips covered mine.

Love poured out of me—the one emotion I felt over all others. I could almost feel the

transfer from my body to his, like a fine mist that demanded a new home.

Cullen’s tongue dipped into my mouth and slid across mine in a friendly wrestling

match. My body came back to full hardness over the attention.

When we finally broke apart, I looked into Cullen’s deep green eyes and knew…

“You’re back.”

Cullen’s sunshine-bright smile warmed my heart even more than the kiss. “And I’m not

going anywhere.”

Perfect. My lover—complete—was the only thing I’d wanted.

“You did it,” the Soul Catcher’s voice rang with excitement. “You really did it.”

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She stepped forward to my side of the bed as Cullen took over the entire other half.

“You are truly a Soul Catcher.”

“I’m a Soul Catcher of only one.” I didn’t know where she was going with this, but I

didn’t trust the smile lifting the corners of her mouth.

“Only one Soul Catcher is born in a millennium and sometimes it takes hundreds of

years to find them. Cullen’s unfortunate choice of a human as a Soul Keeper raised many

eyebrows, but now I know why you were chosen. You are also a Soul Catcher.”

I could feel her blind gaze pinning me as if she knew exactly where I was, despite her

vision issues.

“I don’t think so.” Fear shook me at the thought of becoming like the woman above me.

“Relax, Bartholomew. You won’t be like me. I was born this way. You will still be

yourself, except you will help vampires return to their new lives. It is a job of high esteem in

the vampire community.”

Cullen gave my arm a squeeze. “I will love you no matter what you choose.”

The Soul Catcher shrugged. “You are going to become one whether you want to or not.

You won’t be able to deny the souls who come to see you. That is how it was with me and

how it is with all Soul Catchers. On the positive side, you will also live as long as your mate.”

Damn!

The one thing guaranteed to make me change my mind. I didn’t want to leave Cullen.

My guilty conscience ate at me as I turned to face my lover. “I killed your mother,” I

confessed.

“She had it coming.”

I shouted as Citren walked into the room. Grabbing the blankets, I covered up. It was

one thing for Aiden—who’d already seen me naked—or the blind Soul Catcher to enter the

room, it was another for my father-in-law.

“She wanted to make Cullen something he wasn’t,” Citren said. “I never had any

control over her. You did all of us a favour by ridding the world of her presence. I’m proud

to have you in the family both as a Soul Catcher and as my son’s partner.”

I basked for a moment in Citren’s approval.

“Um…thanks. Now, could you all get the hell out of the bedroom?”

Cullen’s body shook beside me. I pinched him in the side.

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After giving us amused looks, the trio left.

“My father really likes you,” Cullen said.

I didn’t tell Cullen that Citren reminded me of a viper waiting to strike and was a bit of

a homophobic asshole.

“Are you really all there now? Because soulless zombie-Cullen freaked me out a little.”

Okay…a lot…but I didn’t want to hurt Cullen’s feelings.

A concerned look crossed Cullen’s face and his fingers clenched the blanket until his

knuckles turned white.

“What?” I asked.

“You still want me, right?”

“I confronted a mist person, killed your mother and took your virginity. If you even

think of leaving me, I will hunt you down like Buffy and shoot an arrow through your heart.

Do we understand each other?”

“Will you wear a tight leather outfit?” Cullen’s green eyes sparkled with mirth.

“No. I will wear saggy mom jeans and a plaid shirt.”

Cullen threw back his head and laughed. “You wouldn’t need the arrow. I’d die

laughing.”

Okay, so I was a bit of a clothes whore, but laughing was over the top.

With vampire speed Cullen slid on top of me, grabbed my wrists and pinned me to the

bed. “I’m glad you decided to stay, because if you think I’m persistent without a soul, you

haven’t seen me hunt someone as a full man. You are mine, Bartholomew Dallen, and

nothing in this world or the next will change that.”

Every damn thing I had melted at his words. “I love you too,” I whispered, too choked

up to speak loudly.

Cullen rubbed our noses together. “That doesn’t mean you can’t get some leather,

though.”

Laughing, I kissed my beloved Cullen. Things would be fine now. I might be turning

into a scary Soul Catcher, but as long as I had my man, life would be good.

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Matchmaker, Matchmaker

Amber Kell

Excerpt

Chapter One

I’m going to kill him. It’s the only way to get out of this matchmaking contract, and I’m

willing to do the jail time over it. Granted, I’m also betting I won’t be sent to jail. After all,

I’ve matched most of the judges in the city and they adore me.

“I don’t approve of your choices.” The tall werecougar loomed over me as if my picks

would change if he growled a little more.

“You haven’t even met them.” I held on to my temper…barely. I really longed to take

my solid steel owl statue and smash it over his head.

“I will know my mate,” he insisted.

“Great. Then go and meet these three women and let me know how it goes. Now, get

out of my office.”

A low growl rolled from his impressive chest. It was an unfair fact of life that all shifters

were gorgeous. It didn’t matter what kind of animal—wolves, cats, or even the occasional

rat…all gorgeous.

“No one talks to me like that.” He stood over my desk, trying to intimidate me with his

size and power.

I rolled my eyes and stood up. I barely came to his shoulder.

“Listen, sugar, I’m sure everyone in your clan thinks you’re the best thing since

warmed milk, but I don’t take intimidation well. I gave you the names and pictures of three

potential mates—go meet them. If none of them are your match then come back.”

My patience, never very long to start with, vanished completely beneath his

incredulous stare.

“I thought you were supposed to make me the perfect match.”

“Making the perfect match is all about lining up the right people. The three women I’m

setting up for you are potential mates, which means any one of them could be the right one,

but it will need a combination of how far each of you are along on your personal evolution to

determine a mate.”

“You can’t just look at them and know?” His examined me closely with his feral gaze.

Actually, I could point out which one would be his perfect match, but people often

fought against their instincts. If I pointed out girl number two, he’d go with number one or

three then come back and yell at me about how they didn’t work out. It was best to let the

man or woman pick. Once they met—and chose—the one I knew they would pick in the

beginning, they settled down to domestic bliss.

“Go on the dates and be a good alpha.” I patted him on the shoulder just to get another

snarl. It was fun playing with the kitty cats.

I saw the moment the anger faded from his eyes. “One of these women is definitely my

mate?” He tilted his head as though he could hear my thoughts if he were to listen closely

enough.

“Yes. I promise one of these women is your mate.”

A wide, toothy smile crossed his handsome face. Before I could brace myself, he leant

forwards and placed a big kiss on my cheek.

“Thank you, Matchmaker. I’ll keep you informed.”

“You do that.”

With the smooth grace innate to all shifters, he walked out of my office. He had a great

ass.

“I thought he’d never leave,” a deep voice spoke behind me. I spun around, my heart

racing.

A tall man in an expensive suit leaned against my filing cabinet. His dark hair gleamed

in the dim lighting and his pale, almost colourless, blue eyes shone with an unnatural light.

Vampire.

I didn’t even have to check his aura to know what he was.

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“Wh-what are you doing here?”

Few things scared me like vampires. There was something extremely creepy about a

person who could walk around after they’d died.

“I’d like to acquire your services.”

“No.”

A frown formed over his unnaturally smooth brow. “What do you mean, no?”

“I mean no—as in I don’t match vampires.” He might scare me but it wasn’t the first

time I’d been scared in my life and I doubted it would be the last.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re dead.”

“I am not dead,” he said in an offended tone. “If I were dead, I couldn’t be talking to

you.”

“Well, you’re the walking dead. It’s the same thing.”

He took my hand and placed it on his chest over where most people had a heart.

“Do you feel my heart beating?”

“Yes.” Strange, but I really could feel the thump of a heart inside his chest.

“Then I must be alive.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to participate in his twisted logic.

“Nevertheless, I don’t match vampires.” Nothing could get me to back down on that

particular vow. I only had to remember my aunt’s ravaged body.

“But you can.” I could hear the persuasive magic he threaded into his words.

I laughed. “That doesn’t work on me. I’m beyond vampire techniques. Matchmakers

can’t be influenced by magic. It helps protect us against unscrupulous people using us for

their own purposes.” My inherited ability, developed over centuries of ancestors, was one of

the things that marked me as a true matchmaker. Matchmaking wasn’t a hobby—it was

encoded into my DNA.

The vampire gave a rough laugh. “So you can’t match vampires?”

“I can match anyone.” Just because I chose not to match the walking dead didn’t mean I

couldn’t. As usual, my pride had hijacked my common sense and I’d blurted out the truth.

One day I would learn to think before I spoke. Unfortunately, today wasn’t that day.

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The vampire walked closer…too close. I could feel his breath on my neck, which

dispelled another rumour about vampires not needing to breathe. I vaguely wondered if any

myths about vamps were right.

“What do you have against vampires?”

“A vampire killed my family. My aunt, my uncle, my little cousins—all killed by a

vampire.” My voice started to break but I swallowed back the tears with long practice.

“So the entire race loses your services?” I almost smiled at the astonishment in the

vampire’s voice but memories of a house full of torn-apart bodies stayed my amusement.

“What if the killer had been a human? Would you refuse to help a human find his mate?”

“If the humans had covered it up and refused to investigate their own, then yes—the

humans would lose my services.”

“You went to the council?” Even as he asked the question I saw the realisation in his

eyes. I doubted it had been the first time the council had covered something up.

“Yes. My cousin Torrie could project images into another person’s mind. At the

moment of her death, she showed me what happened. Vampires slaughtered my family.

When I took my grievance to the counsel they brushed it aside saying I had no proof and

were completely unwilling to investigate. In fact, they said if I caused any problems, they

would finish off the rest of my family, so you can imagine why I’m unwilling to help any of

you. I found out later they were protecting the madman they’d put into power.”

A look that oddly resembled pity crossed the vampire’s face. I pushed the thought

aside. I doubted vampires had the capacity for compassion. “Who was it that killed your

family?”

“The City Master.”

“Ahh.” The vampire placed a hand on my shoulder and gave my tense shoulder a

gentle squeeze. “I will take care of your problem and then you will take care of mine.”

With those cryptic words, the vampire vanished…really vanished—no smoke, no

sparks, no anything. Just vanished. Freaky.

That didn’t stop my nerves from jangling like a Salvation Army bell at Christmas.

* * * *

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Three days later, every channel, paper and gossip blog was abuzz over the murder of

the city’s Vampire Master. No one claimed to know what had happened, but the pictures of

the new Vampire Master looked surprisingly like the man who had been in my office earlier

in the week.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Grant Hart, my office mate, looked over my shoulder at my computer

screen.

“I think I might be matching vampires in my future.”

Grant stepped away from my desk and threw himself into my guest chair. “You hate

vamps.”

“I know.” I nodded. “But I sort of made a deal with the new City Master and he held up

his end of the bargain.” I explained my interaction with the other vamp a few days

previously.

Grant threw back his head and laughed. “You’re like the matchmaking mafia. I’d better

watch my back.”

I threw my pen at him.

Grant easily knocked it out of the way with his werelion reflexes. “Come on, even you

have to appreciate the irony of it all. The one vampire who killed your family and you

couldn’t get brought to justice is killed because you have services another vampire needs. It’s

perfect karma.”

I sighed. “I guess. But the worst thing is, I don’t even feel bad about it.”

“Good.” Grant’s pleasant expression turned to a scowl. “That sick vamp doesn’t

deserve your pity.”

A knock at my office door drew my attention.

“Come in,” I called.

A beautiful girl with auburn hair walked into the room.

Vampire.

“Good afternoon. I’m looking for Dane Sanders. Master Zephen said you would help

me find my match.” She gave me a shy smile.

I stood up and walked around the desk. “I’m Dane and this is my partner, Grant.”

“I’m Violet.”

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After shaking her hand, I indicated the seat Grant had hastily vacated.

Sneaky Master Zephen. He knew I’d be able to turn down an arrogant warrior vampire,

but the shy, hopeful smile of this pretty vampire girl crumbled my defences.

I tilted my head at Grant. My partner took the hint. “I’ve got some stuff to do. Nice

meeting you.” With a short bow he left via the door connecting our offices.

I examined her for a moment, letting my inner sight sink into her essence. She sat down,

before shifting uncomfortably beneath my gaze. Her aura wasn’t the bright bold colours of a

regular human, but a layered affair—with the faint shadow of her human colours and a new

overlay of her vampire life.

As a professional, I found the whole thing fascinating.

“What type of partner are you looking for? Male, female, human, were?” I asked still

studying her aura.

“Male, vampire.”

“Hmmm.” My database didn’t have any vampires since I had avoided the species. I

pulled a memo pad from my desk, wrote a short note, slid it into an envelope, sealed it then

handed it over to her.

“Please give this to your master. I won’t be able to help you until I meet more vampires.

I’m requesting an invitation into your stronghold so I can widen my matching pool.” I’d

never thought to reach a point where I’d want to meet vampires

Violet gave me an odd look. “That’s all you need?”

“That’s it.”

“Huh. I thought there would be more questions.”

I laughed. “Most people think that, but it’s more a connection of auras and souls than a

ten-part relationship questionnaire.”

Violet blushed.

I watched, amazed. I didn’t know vampires could blush.

After excusing herself, she left with my note clutched to her chest like a precious jewel.

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About the Author

Amber is one of those quiet people they always tell you to watch out for. She lives in
Dallas with her husband, two sons, two cats and one extremely stupid dog.

Email:

mailto:amberkellwrites@gmail.com

Amber loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and
author biography at

http://www.total-e-bound.com

Also by Amber Kell

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Matchmaker, Matchmaker

Cowboy Lovin’: Tyler’s Cowboy

Dangerous Lovers: Catching Mr Right

Yearning Love: Taking Care of Charlie

Yearning Love: Protecting Francis

Supernatural Mates: From Pack to Pride