Amelia, whose shirt was half off, turned a bright red in both anger and embarrassment, and wrestled it back into place. “What are you doing here?”
Kolya shrugged, “I came to apologize.”
“Well that’s a first, after everything you caused in the last months…”
“Not for that.” Kolya smirked.
Amelia’s eyes flashed. “Then what?”
“For telling Kristoff to leave you, I underestimated your ability to learn from your mother’s mistakes,” he answered with a small smile. “As much as I told you, I do not approve of my brother getting attached to anyone. I feel it could be worse.”
“It could be worse.”
“Yes,” he said as if she had actually meant the words as a question. “I could always have not liked you.”
“I’m so relieved,” Amelia ground out. “That you like me. Does this mean I have your permission to be with Kristoff then?”
“Yes.” Kolya replied with a grin. “And as a peace offering, I’d like to return Mona’s dagger to you.”
Amelia paused when he held out the much worn knife, sheathed in its battered holder. She reached out to take it, then dropped her hand just as quickly. “No,” she said quietly. “You should keep it. Mona would have wanted you to have something of hers. Especially after you went to so much effort to get her justice…No matter how conniving you were at getting it,” she added censoriously.
Kolya looked at the dagger in his hand, and Amelia could almost have sworn he looked grateful, and a little sad. If Kolya was actually capable of such feelings. “Thank you.” he said more softly than Amelia would have expected. “I will keep it with me forever…Now,” His face returned to its self-possessed smirk. “I think I’ll leave you two to the most uncomfortable conversation you will ever have.” He grinned even wider. “You know to what I am referring Kristoff,” he jabbed. Kristoff flushed. “Have a nice night,” Kolya said carelessly over his shoulder, and he sauntered out.
Once he was gone Amelia looked at Kristoff curiously. “What was that all about?”
“He means mating.” Kristoff looked unsure. “It’s important in the vampire world. And I’m not sure you’ll agree…But,” he said quickly. “I’ll take you any way I can have you.”
Amelia raised her eyebrows. “You had better just out with it since you already said it in front of me to your brother back at my place.”
Kristoff pulled Amelia over to the white sofas that had become a running joke between them and they sat down. “It depends on how you feel about converting…”
“To a vampire you mean.”
“Yes.” Kristoff nodded. “I was born a vampire, naturally to two parents, my father was a hunter mage before he was turned. So when Kolya and I were born, it just naturally passed to me. Kolya was the full blooded vampire, with some rather strong witch powers, and I was a hunter - able to live in daylight. But if we…ever wanted to … contribute… to the clan….You’d need to be a vampire too.”
“You mean kids.” Amelia said slowly. Kristoff blushed and nodded. “Is this conversation embarrassing you?” Asked Amelia teasingly. “So sex is one thing, procreation is another.”
Kristoff buried his face in his hands. “I just don’t know if I’m going to scare you being so…serious.”
Amelia nudged him with her shoulder. “I don’t usually sleep with people I wouldn’t consider for a long term relationship. And yeah, I’d eventually want a family with you.”
“They’d be vampires you know, even if there was a hunter born. The others would be like Kolya.”
“Well considering, if you were human, that the amount of lead in your body the other night would assure we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all right now…I’m seeing some very big positives to that fact.”
“Well then, we come to the second and more selfish reason I’d want you to convert…you’re so fragile like this. And I know you’re not going to stop hunting, and I wouldn’t want to lose you.”
Amelia smiled. “I don’t want to lose you either.”
“So you’ll think about it?”
Amelia shoved him with her shoulder again, then laid her head down on it. “I’ll do more than consider. I already did. I mean, over the last days without you, I struggled with missing you, and kept reminding myself - that for this to really work - I’d have to agree to be changed. And over time, even that didn’t really bother me if I got to be with you.
Kristoff grabbed her and pulled her across his lap, then leaned his forehead against hers. “You’re sure.” Amelia smiled and nodded. Kristoff laughed, “You’re sure, you’re sure?” He teased.
“Dammit, are you done with the twenty questions? ‘Cause I was thinking we might get to the good part of this evening.”
“What would that be?”
Amelia growled and grabbed at Kristoff’s shirt to pull him in close, “The make up sex of course.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.” He picked Amelia up, and they picked up where they had left off before Kolya’s rude interruption.
Amelia wrapped her legs around Kristoff’s waist and he carried her up the stairs to his … now their…bedroom, then dropped her on top. In a blur, Amelia was stripping her clothes off and tugging at his as quickly as possible.
Soon they were both naked and tumbled on the messy bed and locked at the mouth as if trying to make up for the minutes they hadn’t been attached in the last half hour. As far as they were concerned it had been half an hour too long. Wrapping her arms around Kristoff’s shoulders, Amelia buried her fingers in his long hair and tugged his mouth to her neck.
Kristoff stiffened. “We don’t need to rush this Amelia, we have time.”
“But I don’t want to wait, I liked it when you bit me before, so I’m wondering how much better it might be if you actually bit me.”
Kristoff hardened at her hips where he sat and mindlessly rocked into the cradle between hers. “This can’t be taken back,” he growled.
“I’m waaaaitiii-ng.”
Kristoff groaned and pushed his hips further between Amelia’s thighs roughly and rolled his body against her center. “Last chance.”
“Just bite me Goddammit!” Amelia yelled hitting him on the back. And as Kristoff shoved into her, he bit down and Amelia cried out.
It was better when he let go and didn’t hold his teeth back. Amelia’s body thrummed with almost painful pleasure, and she hummed as he pulled at her neck. After a moment, he stopped and licked the spot he’d bitten. Pulling back and slowing his body, Kristoff looked down into Amelia’s blissed expression.
“This doesn’t work, if you don’t bite me too.”
“I think I can do that,” Amelia grinned.
Meanwhile….
Manicured fingers flicked a sterling silver lighter and the flame revealed a Nat Sherman in the flare. Mobile, wide lips clasped the end in disappointment and took a deep drag. The owner of the cigarette pulled the long cylinder from his lips and walked toward the warehouse in front of him. The man’s slick leather bottomed shoes made a faint scuff on the wet pavement as he crossed the streets of Hell’s Kitchen.
The man flicked his cigarette butt away to fizzle out in a dirty puddle. Briskly, he opened the door to the silent warehouse and straightened his Countess Mara tie.
“Gentlemen?” The man cleared his throat looking at the assembled thugs inside. “What happened here?”
A guido with slicked back black hair ran his hand through his locks and looked at the man in fear. “We were overwhelmed.”
“I see, so there was a tide of highly-trained attackers?”
The black haired speaker looked away.
“It was a planned surgical strike…”. Another voice piped up appeasingly.
In a languid move the man slid a silver cigarette case from the inner pocket of his Tom Ford suit. He picked a cigarette from the line of slim bodies and tapped the butt on his case. “Ah.” He replied, carefully placing the new cigarette to his lips and li
ghting it. With a long breath the man pulled the fragrant smoke deep in his lungs and breathed the smoke out heavily. “The way I heard it, there was one trained hunter and a novice.”
“She wasn’t…”
“He was…”
The man flicked his cigarette and lifted a brow. “Yes?”
“They defeated Gianni!” A brave individual from the back called.
“Ah, yes. So, if they could defeat Gianni there is no reason you could have succeeded?”
A nervous murmur of agreement rippled through the collected men. “Yes!” The brave one replied.
“Did it ever occur to you that you were hired to take care of such things at least long enough to give your master’s the upper hand?”
“They were vampires if they could be defeated how were we going to survive?”
“You shouldn’t have. Servants are not to outlive their masters. The fact you are here is simply a testament to your cowardice…And I have no need for cowards.”
“Excuse me?”
“Then why are you wasting our time?”
The man dropped his cigarette to the gritty floor and ground the expensive tobacco under his heel. “I’m here to accept your resignation from my organization.” From the edges of the darkness in the warehouse dark figures in black fatigues sifted forward. In a burst of gunfire, the paramilitary group cut down the former guards of the Italian clan, leaving only a pile of bodies. The man in the expensive leather shoes glanced dispassionately at the bleeding mess in front of him. He pulled a bottle of lighter fluid from a sleek grey pocket and sprayed it haphazardly over the bodies then stood back and pulled out another cigarette. Once more he lit the tip and drew a puff, the end flaring red, then he turned smoothly on his heel and tossed the smoldering cylinder over his shoulder.
In a swift woosh the guards body’s caught flame and exploded into a towering fire. The man, however kept walking out through the doors into the night. Turning at the corner of the street he looked back at the bonfire behind him and pulled out a sleek phone.
“Yes, I’d like to be connected to Scotland…”
Want to see what happens when Kolya meets his match?
Read on for a wee snippet
of:
“The Proper Care and (Mis)Handling of Dangerous Magical Artifacts”
(…did I break that?)
“Mr. Kolya,” Victoria sighed with displeasure. For, suddenly, in the once empty seat across from her, the annoying and attractive man from the night before sat relaxing sideways with an arm over the back of the chair, his fingers trailing along the side. Despite his sprawl in such a nice restaurant, Kolya’s casual perch somehow looked debonair and sensual.
Unfortunately, despite Victoria’s verbal cue that she was displeased to see him, the man just smiled back widely.
“I told you,” Kolya said, lazily gesturing with his hand with a graceful roll of his wrist. “It’s simply Kolya.” Victoria frowned deeply and slit her eyes. “Are you waiting for that British stiff Laurenstone?…”
“Not that it’s any business of yours, but yes.”
“I cannot say you look terribly happy about it, kotyonok.”
“How would you know? I might just be displeased to see you.”
Kolya clasped his free hand dramatically to his chest over his heart. “Lady, you wound me, we barely know each other.” He smiled sensuously, “Why don’t we see to that issue now? I am very interested in you - you must be curious about me.”
“Not really, and I’d like to keep it that way.” Victoria replied sourly making it a point to look dismissively back at the wine menu.
“And yet you’re meeting with Laurenstone?”
“Dr. Laurenstone.” Victoria hated when people forgot to use the proper term for someone who’d worked hard for their PhD. Kolya shrugged dismissively and smirked sexily, his lips coming only half up on the side.
“The honor is wasted on one such as he. But we have gone off track. What makes him more worthy of your attentions than I?”
“He’s a colleague.”
“No, he’s a grave robber, a ruthless treasure hunter…And worse.” Kolya hissed cryptically.
“Pot meet kettle.”
“Oh no, don’t you dare liken us. You’ve no idea what a monster that man really is,” Just as quickly as he had shown his displeasure he returned to toying with her. Wagging his finger in playfully chastisement with twinkling eyes.
Victoria sighed deeply and rolled her eyes, “Alright, if it will shorten this interview, you may as well tell me.”
Kolya widened his eyes dramatically, “Why, the man’s a vampire, and a dark mage - of course.”
Victoria burst into laughter, breaking the discerning silence of the room and diners turned to her in annoyance. With a cough, Victoria stifled her hilarity. “A vampire you say? - and a dark mage as well? I must say that’s the first time I’ve heard that one.”
Kolya frowned deeply and his amethyst gaze seemed to darken, becoming intense and urgent. “I’m warning you, you are in over your head. Your find is more important than you realize.”
“A Celtic arrow head is nothing new.”
Kolya’s face twisted into a look of disgust, “Stop playing around Victoria, we both know about the cauldron.” Victoria started and looked about for Thomas, she wasn’t ready to tell him about the artifact. “Please,” Kolya said in a voice dripping derision. “He already knows.”
“I don’t know what you’re playing at Mr. Kolya but I’m becoming sick of it. What do you need?”
“No, I think this is about what you need.” His voice dangerous and silky. “You’re going to need protection for both yourself and the artifact.”
Victoria looked back at the wine list and shook her head. “You’re crazy. Mages and vampires and cauldrons.” Then surreptitiously she glanced up, her voice to a hiss so none would overhear. “And what makes you qualified for the job anyway? You just want the cauldron too.”
“Not as much as I want to keep it out of the wrong hands.”
“I too want it out of the wrong hands. It belongs in a museum not a private collection.”
“So you do have it.” Victoria reddened in anger and opened her mouth to snap at him. “No, don’t bother, I suspected strongly enough that your little slip isn’t too much of a surprise. Only you’re wrong, this piece needs to be locked away and hidden so it cannot be misused.”
“Misused? It’s a half bucket of bronze, what do you think it can be used for?”
“Well, given it is without its partner, not much. But complete? It can be used to reanimate the dead.”
“And you claim this is why Dr. Laurenstone wants it. For spells?”
Kolya quirked an eyebrow and cocked his head. “What else?”
“Do you know how this sounds?”
“I thought, as a logical person, you would prefer the truth.”
“You’re mocking me.” Victoria grated. Kolya just stared back at her earnestly. “Alright, I’ll bite. If he’s a vampire and a mage, what are you?”
Once more the elegant sensuous shrug, “Why, I’m a vampire and a mage as well, of course.”
Soundtrack
“End Transmission” AFI
“R U Mine?” Arctic Monkeys
“I Wanna Be Yours” Arctic Monkeys
“When The Sun Goes Down” Arctic Monkeys
“Too Close” Alex Clare
“I Will Not Bow” Breaking Benjamin
“Breakdown” Breaking Benjamin
“Wicked Game” Chris Isaac
“Should I Stay or Should I Go?” The Clash
“I Fought the Law” The Clash
“This Is Radio Clash” The Clash
“London Calling” The Clash
“A Favor House Atlantic” Cohered and Cambria
“transfer” Collide
“halo” Collide
“monochrome” Collide
“like You Want To Believe” Collide
“Burn” The Cure
/>
“My Heartstrings Come Undone” Demon Hunter
“Nymphetamine Overdose” Cradle of Filth
“Zombie” The Cranberries
“Dreams” The Cranberries
“The Last High” The Dandy Warhols
“Damaged People” Depeche Mode
“Precious” Depeche Mode
“White Flag” Dido
“Going Under” Evanescence
“Bring Me to Life” Evanescence
“I’m So Sick” Flyleaf
“The Pretender” Foo Fighters
“Push It” Garbage
“Celebrity Skin” Hole
“Demons” Imagine Dragons
“I Am In Love With You” Imogen Heap
“Arsenal” Kidneytheives
“You’re No Good” KMFDM
“The Ghost Woman and The Hunter” Lacuna Coil
“Angel’s Punishment” Lacuna Coil
“Senzafine” Lacuna Coil
“Trance Awake” Lacuna Coil
“Halflife” Lacuna Coil
“I’m Only Joking” KONGOS
“Breaking The Habit” Linkin Park
“Born to Die” Lana Del Ray
“America” Malbec
“Take A Bow” MUSE
“Undisclosed Desires” MUSE
“The Perfect Drug” NIN
“Dead Souls” NIN
“I Write Sins Not Tragedies” Panic! At The Disco
“New Orleans” Phono
“Footsteps” Pop Evil
“Control” Poe
“The Undertaker” Puscifer
“Every Little Thing She Does” Ra
“Dragula” Rob Zombie
“Living Dead Girl” Rob Zombie
“Spookshow Baby” Rob Zombie
“Put Your Lights On” Santana
“Starts With One” Shiny Toy Guns
“Chemistry of a Car Crash” Shiny Toy Guns
“Weather Girl” Shiny Toy Guns
“Lazy Eye” Silver Sun Pickups
“Panic Switch” Silver Sun Pickups
“My Vampire” SoHo Dolls
A Guide to Vampire Hunting: ...and other failures (Alchemy Inc. Book 1) Page 26