Nine Shillings

Troublemaker

London - 1842

'Luckily, you don't really need anything in your chest cavity anymore,' Josef said, ear against my chest. 'Many a person has died horribly from a musket ball bouncing around their rib cage.'

'There's a cheerful thought. I might start thinking you have ulterior motives to put your head against my chest,' I muttered, shifting uncomfortably. Bran had put me down on the kitchen table and it wasn't made for relaxing on.

'I'm trying to determine if you've definitely coughed up all the pieces.' He moved his head to the other side of my chest. 'They won't necessarily harm you, but they won't be comfortable either.'

Bran finished washing blood and ash off his hands in the bowl of water Nora had brought him and dried his hands on a cloth. 'Glass shards are the worst.'

Josef straightened, nose wrinkled. 'The last time I went through a window I was picking shards of glass out of my arse for a week.'

I propped myself up on my elbows and my chest protested. 'What do you mean you "went through a window"?'

He shrugged. 'I was thrown through it.'

'Annoy someone, did you?'

He grinned. 'A bit.'

I raised my eyebrows. 'While naked?'

His grin turned wicked.

Bran rolled his eyes and shook his head then tossed the cloth down beside the bowl and unfastened his shirt cuff. 'You're going to need some blood after regenerating that.'

'I am a bit peckish.' I sat up properly and rubbed my face.

Josef looked towards the door seeming... uncertain.

'You can stay, Josef.' Bran rolled up his sleeve. 'Unless Charlotte objects?'

'I don't mind, we're all vampires.' I shrugged and my ribs regretted it. 'And some of us have no shame.'

Josef chuckled and sat down in the rocking chair by the fire where Nora often sat and peeled potatoes.

'As for you...' I hooked a finger in Bran's waistcoat. 'Bran who takes charge in a crisis is very arousing.'

He flushed. 'I wouldn't call it a crisis.'

I pouted.

He relaxed a little. 'Maybe an after-crisis?'

I kissed him. 'I'll accept that.'

He wrapped his arm around me, pressed a kiss to my temple, and offered me his bare forearm. 'Anytime you're in trouble, it's a crisis.'

I took his arm in both hands. 'Ah, you romantic.' And I bit just below his elbow.

He hissed.

My mouth filled with citrus-sharp and cinnamon blood and I drank deep. He pressed his face into my hair and his groan was definitely sexual. My gaze flicked to Josef watching us. Without thinking about it, I held his gaze. I could smell his arousal, sweet amongst the scents of cooking and blood.

He swallowed. His hands were tense on the arms of the rocking chair despite the way he was sprawled in it.

I withdrew my fangs and gently licked the blood from Bran's wound as it throbbed closed.

He collapsed into the chair beside me, grinning and as relaxed as Josef was trying to appear.

I licked blood from my lips, skin buzzing with energy, heat spreading through my chest and the pain fading.

'It's extraordinary how you do that,' Josef murmured.

'What?' I wiped a missed dribble of blood from my chin and sucked it off my thumb.

He glanced at the fire and didn't look back till I was done. 'You've only been a vampire six months and you're in complete control of your hunger without a maker's help.' He shrugged as if it was nothing really and he wasn't at all interested in me. It wasn't convincing. 'Most couldn't do that.'

'No different from controlling any other appetite,' I said. 'And besides, I don't want to kill you or Bran.'

He smiled. 'Oh, really.'

I slid him a look with a poorly concealed smile. 'You test me... sometimes.'

He laughed.

'You two are strange,' Bran muttered and tugged his sleeve down.

I looked over my shoulder at him. 'And what does liking it say about you, chuckaboo?'

Josef was perched beside me on the table in an instant. 'That Bran is the only sensible adult.'

I tilted my head back to Josef. 'Very true.'

'And how would such a young vampire kill me, anyway?' he asked.

'Well, obviously, I'd get in close...' I cupped his softly bearded jaw with my thumb light against his cheek and leaned close enough I could feel his breath against my lips. 'Then I'd...' I slowly extended my thumb claw and rested the point just below his eye. 'Get you somewhere vulnerable.'

His breath hitched. His gaze was lowered to my lips and clouded with arousal. He swallowed, 'Your claw control is impressive too.'

I tapped my thumb against his cheek and laughed. 'Put it away, old man.' I lowered my hand and lay back against the table.

Bran was watching us with an expression that was unreadable, except for falling into the 'unhappy' category of expressions.

I stretched. 'I'm going to need a bath.' I reached out a hand to him, all claws retracted. 'Want to help me, Brandon?'

'Hm?' He blinked as if roused from deep thought.

I caught his sleeve between my fingers. 'I want to have a bath and I want you to help me.'

He smiled and squeezed my hand then stood and scooped me up so fast I bounced in his arms, yelped, and laughed. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.

He nuzzled my nose and kissed the tip of it then glanced at Josef, so fleeting it could've easily been missed.

Josef didn't. He looked away.

The atmosphere was tense; the air pressed against my skin. I didn't know how to fix it. I didn't want to break them. To break us.

I managed a smile and caressed the back of Bran's neck. 'Let's get ready for bed.'

We left Josef sitting on the edge of the kitchen table staring pensively into the flames.