“What?”
“Girl, you know what OVC look like? I ain’t no doctor but I seen OVC and this ain't it.”
Sighing, I closed the lid of the computer and moved back to my seat across the table. “Maybe. It’s hard to say.”
“See what Owen say. Stay away from Sarah...”
“Sarah and I are close, why would she…”
Her large dark hand covered my own, a sympathetic expression on her face, “Unintentionally. Look, I ain't sayin’ you can’t trust her, but anything she know, Karsten will find out too.”
Walking from the restaurant, I began to piece together Aurev’s family.
Aurev made Karsten, Elsbet, Nate, Jon and me.
Elsbet Smith made two—that I knew of—Forest and Dr. Khatri. Both worked for Chronos.
Nate had changed two people, Rhoda Black, and Gabriel Lathey.
Finally, Dr. Jonathan Peters, made shortly before myself, has no offspring.
Who made Aurev?
Huffing out a breath, I nearly cried out in frustration. There was no time for this! The movers came tomorrow, and I needed to figure this out.
However strained the relationship between Owen and Sarah had become, I still got along with Owen just fine.
Besides, maybe Emilie could help out with some clues. An entire folder was dedicated to her, after all.
Chapter Thirteen
Pacing the hallway, I blew out several breaths.
Forest thought Aurev was in love…with me?
I’d never thought of Aurev like that before. Okay, well I had…but I’d imagined him unattainable. Beyond my reach, beyond everyone’s reach.
Besides, our friendship was comfortable and easy.
Me wearing a path in the wood outside our apartments was silly. Finally, I just plucked up the courage and knocked on his door. What had I to lose?
The guard posted in the executive hall glanced my direction before looking away quickly.
I’d heard Aurev get off the elevator and enter his apartment awhile ago. This should be a relaxed chat, but what might have been easy a month ago, now felt difficult because he had forced me to leave. All these new accusations and questions didn’t help my nerves either.
Who was the ‘He’ that the Lego woman had mentioned? Who was the ‘He’ that the letter to Emilie mentioned? Was this all a wild goose chase?
No. It wasn’t. My gut told me there was something to this evidence.
When the door opened quickly, the ancient moroi stood there, devilishly striking as usual.
I felt hot and pulled off my wool jacket.
A slight smile curved his lips. His tie had been removed, and as he ushered me inside, he continued to undo his other cufflink.
“Hazel, it’s going to be difficult with you gone.”
Then why let me go? I wanted to ask, but instead, I said, “It’ll be weird not being here. I’m going to miss New York.”
He nodded and poured a glass of blood and wine for us both. “You seem off tonight. Tense.” Dark chocolate eyes examined my expression, sending a fission of panic and something else more primal through my body.
Could Aurev read minds as rumor had it?
No. That was crazy.
He was just a man, like any other man.
A silver tray held a handful of change, his billfold and mobile phone on it.
I couldn’t help but eye the deep v where he’d unbuttoned his black dress shirt. The hint of bare skin at his neck.
“Is it true?” I blurted out, almost against my own volition.
My question pulled him up short. “Is what true?”
If he could read minds, I was now done for.
Adrenalin surged in me. Fight or flight.
I’d always been a fighter.
My heart beat rapidly in my chest. What did he feel for me?
If he loved me, we could get through this. If he loved me, then everything would be all right.
Aurev’s lips slightly parted, and concern was etched on his face.
Forest’s words ran through my mind, “He in love with you.”
“Is it true that you have feelings for me?” My voice remained steady and contradicted my inner turmoil. “I mean more than friendship.” I sniffed, my expression neutral—as neutral as I could make it.
Did I hope? Dare I hope? We’d always had a special kind of chemistry.
But…my mind began racing.
What if Forest misjudged our friendship?
Aurev narrowed his eyes as if deciding what to say. How could I have been so ridiculous?
“Oh my god!” I covered my mouth with one hand and turned away. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have listened…I need to…”
Rushing toward the exterior door, my breath came in shuddering breaths.
What had I expected of this? For one of the most influential moroi to desire me? What was I thinking?
Just when my fingers brushed the door lever, a door lever I’d touched so many times in the past with ease, I almost laughed. This was such an absurd situation.
Stopping and turning, I found Aurev in front of me. With me, in heels, we were almost eye to eye.
Sucking in a gasp, I laughed, “This is crazy.”
His expression was light and dare I hope? He hadn’t answered.
Aurev’s fingers covered my shoulders and followed down my arms to my hands, gripping my own with his.
Here it was. I prepared myself for this inevitable rejection.
“That night I saw you on the bridge, such sadness on your face, I had to know you. But, when I turned you, I couldn’t allow myself to take advantage—as your maker. Over the years, our friendship grew and the more I know you, the more I feel for you.”
I pulled my hands away from him and cupped the sides of his face, an embarrassed smile tugging at my lips. In this terribly uncomfortable situation, he made me feel calm. “My angel. My dark angel.” I breathed out a laugh. “I don’t understand one word you’re saying.”
“I’m saying I have to give you a choice.” Shaking his head, he continued, “You have to explore the world out there. You’ve barely lived.”
“What are you saying? Answer me. If you don’t feel the same...”
“I’ve always loved and wanted you.”
I sniffed out a breathy laugh. “Why’d you send me with Alexei?”
Shaking his head, “It was silly actually. The whole give you up and if you come back bit.”
We stood there, our bodies touching, sadness but hope lingering in the air between us.
Finally, I leaned forward, my lips gently skimming over his. Once, twice, three times until his arms wrapped around me and his mouth claimed my own. Snaking my arms around his neck, I mussed his expensive haircut with my fingers.
All coherent thought seemed to leave my mind as his tongue stroked my own, his rigid body against mine.
Aurev’s knee pressed my skirt up, and it began to slide between my legs, teasing me as he gently brushed my sensitive areas. His hands carefully moved against my body as if remembering every detail, like a blind man.
His fangs raked against the soft skin at my collarbone, making me want to beg him to bite my flesh.
Leaning against the door, it shook on its hinges, making a loud bang.
“Sir?” We heard from outside the apartment. “Everything alright in there?”
My angel pulled away from me, our breath mingling in the tiny space between us as we beamed at each other in our secret bubble. He tasting like he smelled, of rain.
“Everything’s fine Dirk, thanks for checking!” Aurev bellowed out before holding me close and just staring into my eyes.
“Aurev! You jerk! We could’ve been together a long time ago!” I whispered into our sacred space. That place in the dark, when two faces are so close, you almost can’t see both eyes.
A cocky smile crossed his lips. “You weren’t ready.”
I’d mourned Leo, the first love of my life for too long.
Slipping out
of my heels and unbuttoning my skirt, I looked up at him from beneath my lashes and allowed the wool to fall to the ground.
“I’m ready now,” I told him, kicking the garment from my feet. I stood there in my black lace panties and began to unbutton my shirt.
Aurev looked contemplative, his eyes filled with desire but narrowed slightly. When he bent, I thought he was going to do something a bit naughtier then pull my skirt back up, skimming my legs with his fingers. As his touch, sure and warm, slid over my hips to the back of my waist, I frowned.
“What’s wrong? I thought this is what you wanted?”
With his breath unsteady, but gaze sure, Aurev wound a stray lock of my hair around one finger. My dark angel looked exactly like my secret name for him. Mysterious, deadly and devastatingly irresistible…and still unattainable.
“Hazel, you’ve tempted me almost beyond my limits of control, but,” Here we go, I thought. “I can’t take your freedom, and I won’t bind you to myself without you understanding what it means to be with me.”
“Aurev,” my voice exasperated as I ran my hands through my hair, “I had no idea that this was even a possibility until today. I just wish I knew how you felt sooner. We’ve waited over eighty years.” Shaking my head, the thought nearly brought tears to my eyes. “And for what? I don’t want to wait another moment.”
When he took me back into his arms and kissed my temple, I felt his heart thundering in his chest and arousal for me against my belly.
He breathed out a whisper, “Because you are worth waiting for—any amount of time.”
When he leaned back and gazed down into my eyes, it reminded me of the first time I saw him. That image still burned into my mind. His wet black eyelashes spiked out around dark eyes. At night they’d looked black, and I thought he was the most exquisite man I’d ever seen; that he couldn’t possibly be human because of his beauty and commanding presence.
I’d come here to question him. But as I stood there in his arms, all my concerns, all my questions, seemed a million miles away.
In Aurev’s embrace, I was home.
Resting my head against his chest, I listened to his heart as it slowed.
My courage faltered a bit, and I pulled away, saying, “One more thing.”
Striding over to the granite bar that separated the open kitchen from the living area, I sat down and picked up my wine glass.
The openness and honest curiosity on his face melted my heart. “I’ll beat you to the punch,” he said. “You don’t owe me anything, we have no obligation to each other—for now,” he amended.
Shaking my head, I hadn’t even thought about seeing anybody else. “No…”
But he misunderstood and said, “It’s fine. I want you to date other people. Figure things out. I’ll still be here.” Holding his hands up to mean New York or Chronos or his apartment.
I sighed, his words had been like ice-water to my soul. “I was wondering about your other moroi children.”
He widened his eyes, “My other moroi…”
“That you’ve changed…Also, it never occurred to me who made you or if they’re even still alive.” I smiled a small, closed-lip smile in conciliation of my prying question.
Leaning his chin on his hand, he pursed his lips. “Hmm…Why all this interest in my lineage?” His eyes crinkled at the edges in amusement.
Sucking in a breath, I chanced a quick look at him. “Someone told me you made Karsten. It surprised me and made me realize how little I know about you, even after all this time together.”
The owner of Chronos and New York Clan leader wasn’t a mind reader, but he could detect something was off.
“Ahhh….”
Our gaze met, and I felt like all the air left the room. “Is it true?” I asked again.
“Yes,” He said cautiously. Taking my hand in his, he ran his thumb across my knuckles. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
He stood, surprising me.
“But not now?” I asked raising my eyebrows.
“No, not now.”
Swallowing the dregs of my glass, I eyed the small pool of red left in the bottom. “Why does everything have to be on your terms?”
“Because,” tapping his temple, he said, “There’s a time and a place for this discussion and now isn’t either.”
“If you want me to understand any of this then talk to me. Everything surrounding you is so secret, even to me.”
His stubborn gaze pierced my own. “It’s an old habit of self-preservation. I’m an old dog, and even though I try, I can’t easily be taught new tricks. When the time is right, we’ll talk and hopefully more.”
“You’ll know when the time is right?”
“Yes. I’ll know. But not now.”
Shaking my head, exasperated, I huffed out a breath. “You are the most infuriating man!”
“And you, my dear, are an impatient woman.”
I picked up my wool suit jacket from the counter. “I have to pack.”
His gaze closed, and I wondered what thoughts whirled in his mind. Those chocolate eyes were filled with secrets.
At the apartment door, I spun back to see my angel’s gaze still on me.
“I’m off tomorrow.” Our eyes locked, and I studied him. A forced, closed lip smile on his mouth and a worry line between his eyes. “Goodbye Aurev.” I told him.
“Goodbye—for now—Hazel.” He gave me that damn, sad, puppy dog smile.
It was all I could do to open that door, step through and close it behind me.
Something was up.
What was going on?
Worry and fear ran through me. Was he really behind this Emilie and DNA thing? Could he be framing Amy? He knew who Emilie’s maker was, yet he allowed Karsten to be almost killed over it.
But was it fair to judge him on one thing? People weren’t good or bad. Aurev wasn’t just good or bad. After all, I wasn’t good or bad. I’d turned Amy in and used Sarah to get her. Did that make me wrong?
Did these things that happened with Emilie and the DNA thing make Aurev overall a bad person?
Of course, he’d done things.
Bad things.
Aurev was over two-thousand years old.
I knew that.
But horribly enough, I didn’t care what he’d done. I wanted him. I wanted him to touch me and kiss me again. The thought of his fingers brushing my bare legs filled me with tingles.
What a tease! The bastard. Leaving me high and not so dry!
In my gut, I knew that my Clan was involved in OVC in one way or another. I was close to understanding something, but the breakthrough lay just out of reach.
Closing my leather-bound datebook, I made my way to the bathroom. I turned the knob on my old tub and the water gushed into the porcelain basin.
Aurev had given me some bath oil for my birthday. I opened the top and poured a small amount into the tub. Undressing, I climbed into the water and gazed up at the framed photo of a desert canyon.
My mind went back to Aurev. We could’ve been making love at that very moment.
I thought of his kisses on my skin and his arousal pressing against me.
God, I’d wanted that. Every woman who met Aurev wanted that.
It’s not like I’d been a nun since Leo. I’d had a dalliance here and there, but nothing stuck. Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind I’d known this day would come. Perhaps some part of my brain knew Aurev desired me back. If tonight had been with any other man, this would’ve been a rejection. But with Aurev, this had been a begrudged declaration.
His scent, his touch, the way he’d always looked at me. Why hadn’t I known?
Reaching down into the rose scented bath water I touched myself and thought of his knee between my legs and the way his teeth raked across my skin, giving me goosebumps.
The way his slightly wavy hair felt when I ran my fingers through it.
Rain and licorice—the way he always smelled.
Comfort and stabil
ity—the way he made me feel.
Then beneath it all, something dangerous, something exotic.
All his touches, all his glances throughout the years had taken on a new meaning.
Was he alone, touching himself and thinking of me? My breath came quickly, and then my body released, relaxed.
Why wasn’t he here with me? My heart sank as I stared up at the mini crystal chandelier that hung above.
The water’s movement stilled, and I lay there thinking of my dark angel who remained just out of reach. After a while my bath began to cool. Raising my head up to look at my phone propped on the counter, I reluctantly stepped out of the tub.
This might be the last time I ever lived in this apartment, maybe even in New York.
No, I wouldn’t think like that.
Once I’d gotten to the bottom of whatever was happening here, I’d come back.
Chapter Fourteen
After my flight set down at Denver International Airport, I followed the signs to the next leg of my journey. Determined to see this through, my next flight would take me to the small town of Durango, where Dr. Owen Bennet and Emilie Edwards lived.
The Lego drive weighed heavily in my pocket, and I questioned myself if I should’ve gone to Sarah. After all, her specialty was viruses.
There was no going back now; I’d trusted Forest this far.
Spotting a bar and restaurant, I pulled out a stool and ordered myself a lager.
“ID?” The barkeep asked.
Damn Aurev.
My eyes locked on his, and I felt the electricity fill the air between us with my glamour. “I just showed it to you,” I told him.
Frowning, he shook himself and let out a self-deprecating laugh, “I’m sorry, you’re right. What’ll it be?”
As a daughter of Germans, I definitely liked my beer, and I liked it thick.
Beer in hand and too much on my mind, I was oblivious to the world around me until someone entered my personal space.
“Hazel, hey,” my eyes followed the long muscular body to the five o’clock shadow, lip ring and sexy silver eyes.
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