Stephen by Kathi S. Barton

she shifted on the seat, and Samuel started to rise to no doubt help her. But Kennedy stopped him with a hand to his chest. It took Summer two tries, but she was standing on her own and looking at her son.
    “ Christ.” Samuel did stand this time, and walked around his mom. She knew how he felt. It was just too much. “Clar did this?”
    “ Yes. Can you believe it? She just touched me.” Summer sat back down, but not in the chair. She sat in one of the wingbacks near the fire as she continued. “She knew that my spine had been severed, and then she talked about how everyone uses her. And how she can block out assholes when necessary. Would that be you, Stephen?”
    “ She shouldn’t be able to do that.” Kennedy knew she shouldn’t, but with the miracle that had happened just today, she wouldn’t be surprised if the girl could do whatever the fuck she wanted. Summer looked at her before looking back at Stephen.
    “ I’m not going to help you find her. I have a connection to her because she healed me. I don’t know where she is, but I can feel her.” She lifted her arm and looked at it, and Kennedy did as well. The small mark there was where Clar had touched her. “It’s fading. When I first saw it, the markings were dark; now they’re just…they’re fading. I would guess my connection to her will as well.”
    “ She’s turning you against me.” Kennedy started to tell him to grow up, but Samuel hit him in the back of the head instead. “What the fuck was that for?”
    “ You’re doing that all on your own, if you ask me. When I went to get her this morning, it was all I could do not to go up and stake you. What the fuck did you do to her anyway? And the blood. Christ, it looked like you tore at her throat.”
    Stephen got up to pace. Kennedy had never seen him this way, so upset and yet so broken looking. Samuel watched him as well, and she reached for her mate.
    Did he rape her? He told her no. But he did hurt her. Why, do you know? Why would a man, a mate, hurt his other half?
    Because I think it’s more to do with the fact that he doesn’t want her to get hurt more than he doesn’t want her. He may not even realize how much he wants her in his life right now.
    Kennedy was sure Samuel was right. When Stephen sat down again, he looked as if he’d come to a great decision. And whatever it was, he wasn’t all that happy about it.
    “ She entered my mind when I was sleeping. I’m not sure why, but I doubt it was what I first thought. I think I might have accused her of spying on me.” He stood up to pace. “She found something I’ve hidden so deep that I rarely think of it anymore…no, that’s not true. I think of it all the time, but her knowing tore me up. I hurt her. I…I didn’t mean to, but I did all the same.”
    “ You bit her badly, Stephen. Her throat looked as if she’d been torn at. Did you do that to her?” He nodded at Summer. “And you took any trust, the very little that might have been there, away. She mentioned that she’d been used before. Do you think you did that to her?”
    “ I did.” Summer nodded again as Stephen continued. “But now…Christ, now I have to have her. Not just because I want to keep her safe from everything else in my life, but because we’ve bonded and mated. She’s mine. I’ll never…what the hell am I supposed to do with her?”
    “ I would imagine that she can care for herself if you were to simply leave her alone as she’s told you to do. As she has the rest of us as well.” Stephen shook his head at Samuel. “I didn’t say you should, I’m just telling you she looks to me like she can pretty much save her own ass if she needs to.”
    “ A vampire is out for my ass. Her name is Velvet December. Or that’s what she goes by now. We were lovers once, and she decided to throw me under the bus when she got caught at something. I turned her in, and she was sentenced to die. But they were more humane then and she wasn’t killed.