Liam’s Mate (The Vampire Coalition #4)
Author: J.S. Scott

Chapter 1

Excerpts From The Book Of Vampire Healer:

An intimate act with your chosen mate will release the mating instincts of the vampire healer…

And so, the vampire healer is a subspecies, classified as vampire, but with definite differences in power and mating habits…

You are vampire and this book was not written to make you feel different from your brethren, brothers and sisters. It is merely a reference to help you better understand your purpose, obligations and the rules that come with the great privilege that was bestowed upon you at your birth…

******

Regan Taylor slammed the monstrous leather-bound tome closed with a loud bang and a disgusted snort. “Surely you don’t believe all of this garbage, Liam?”

Liam Hale tried desperately not to smile as he eyed the fierce look on Regan’s face and reached for the soy sauce in the middle of the low, round table that was practically groaning from the weight of the massive spread of Chinese food. It was his night to pick what they had for dinner. He had called for Chinese to be delivered to his house because he had been working late. Maybe he had gotten a little carried away while he was ordering. “It’s our only reference book,” he answered casually as he shifted off of his knees and into a sitting position on his living room floor.

Regan pushed the book from her lap and let it slide to the carpeted floor as she scooted up to the table and lifted her spoon. “It isn’t a very good reference. It doesn’t even tell you how to mate,” she replied indignantly as she spooned a small amount of rice into her mouth.

Liam paused with his fork half way to his mouth and answered with a smirk, “I actually already know how to do that extremely well. I had plenty of practice in my first hundred years.” Too much practice, Liam thought. He had essentially been a man-whore because he knew he was almost certainly never going to be able to have sex again after he crossed the age of one hundred. And he hadn’t. Not in three hundred years.

Regan’s cheeks were flushed as she answered, “Don’t try to embarrass me, Liam. You know what I mean.” She waved her empty spoon toward the book and frowned, “I think they deliberately make it difficult for vampire healers to mate. Not only do you have to find your mate, but then you have to perform an intimate act of some sort before you are really able to be intimate? It makes no sense. Why the mystery? Why can’t they just tell you what to do?” Regan swallowed a bite of kung pao chicken before continuing, “And going on and on about the great honor you are given as a healer…blah, blah, blah.” She rolled her eyes before adding, “Being a healer is more like being a prisoner for you. You work almost every moment you’re awake.”

Liam shrugged as he watched the residual blush fade from Regan’s animated face. God, she was pretty and maybe he shouldn’t pretend to misunderstand her meaning just to see her rosy cheeks, but he couldn’t help it. Problem was…she was pretty much onto him. They had been in each other’s company almost every day for eight months and she rarely got flustered anymore. “I doubt that it matters,” he replied as he picked up another egg roll and devoured it. “No vampire healer has ever found their mate in the last thousand years. And I’ve only heard tales of it happening in the long distant past. I’m not certain if it’s truth or myth.”

“Whoever created those stupid rules makes it impossible. A regular vampire will at least get a chance when his mate calls him to her. Vampire healers don’t even get that opportunity. You can’t even recognize your mate; much less know what to do to initiate the mating instinct.”

She was right. He was basically screwed, but Liam had pretty much accepted that hundreds of years ago.

Regan was still vehemently contesting his lack of rights as a vampire healer, but Liam couldn’t be anything but happy as he watched her, delighted by her changing expressions and unusual show of emotions. He had been in a state of happiness for the last eight months, since the day that he and Regan had met and become friends. Granted, she had been pointing a gun at him and his brother Nathan at the time, but that could be easily forgiven since she had thought they were trying to kill her sister, Sasha.

Okay, maybe she hadn’t taken to him right away, but Liam had adored Regan since the day she had so bravely stormed Nathan’s house, without a single thought to her own safety, to protect her sister.

Maybe his c**k wasn’t hard, but what he felt for Regan went way beyond infatuation and physical desire. He had come to depend on seeing her every day. It made life as a vampire healer a hell of a lot more bearable and whole lot less lonely.

“Vampire healers don’t have a life of their own, Regan. You know that,” he answered her calmly as he continued to watch her and consume enormous amounts of food at the same time. It was a skill he had perfected since he and Regan had started having dinner together every night.

Regan sighed as she put down her spoon and stopped eating to look at him. “You work too hard, Liam. You need to have some of the other healers work more. You deserve some sort of life.”

It was strange that he had never really cared about how much he worked, which was why he answered most of the healing calls. He was re-thinking that, now that he wanted to spend more time with Regan. She made him want to do more than work. It wasn’t easy to change habits that had formed over hundreds of years and the other healers still grumbled about taking their share of calls sometimes, but he was starting to kick their asses into gear. He had spoiled them over the last few hundred years.

“I’m working on it.” At least he had some time every day to do something other than work and fall into an exhausted day sleep. His friendship with Regan had made him reconsider a lot of things that he had never even thought about before.

Regan pushed her plate away as she added, “And you need to tell your brothers about the backlash.”

Oh, hell no. “I can’t do that. If they get into trouble they would never call me.” Time to change the subject. “Are you going to eat any more of the pot stickers?”

Regan laughed lightly and shoved the container of pan fried dumplings toward Liam. “I’m full. They’re all yours. I don’t know how you manage to put away so much food.”

He grinned as he grabbed up the container. “Vampire metabolism.”

“Did you feed today?”

“Nope. Worked too late.”

There it was the little crinkle that formed between her eyebrows when she was concerned. Liam wanted to lean over the low table and kiss the frown from her forehead.