Catch

by Annie Nicholas

“No, continue with the healing, but stay out of my head.”

  “Your shields are down. I took it as invitation.” He licked again.

  “Rurik is shielding me from the pain.”

  And he’s able to eat with all that discomfort?

  Bastard. “What do you mean?”

  By shielding you, he accepts pain onto himself. He glanced at me while he took another deep swipe. He didn’t tell you?

  “No and get out of my mind.” I growled out those last words. Rurik took my pain.

  This explained the waxy appearance of his skin and his grumpy behavior. “Can any vampire do that or are we bound as well?”

  He sat and released my arm. “You’re not bound?”

  “I don’t feel his pain like I felt yours.”

  He rubbed his chin. “I don’t know. He loves you, I’ve no doubt, and that binds people in other inexplicable ways. We both entered your blood stream at the same time.

  Mine came first, but you refused to take much and then drank deep from Rurik. The power in my blood must have overcome his, yet you didn’t feel the call to be close to me.

  Our bonded humans generally want to be near.” With a shrug he turned to me. “We’ll have to explore it more. Lie flat on your stomach.”

  “Are you going to lick my back?” A lead ball dropped into my gut.

  “Do you want scars?” he snapped. “You’re not the only one who’s had to suffer. I’ve had a few harrowing days as well, and now having to deal with your insolence just tops it.”

  I swallowed and lay prone. He had a point, but it went against my nature to be kind to him. Luckard spent one night hurting me, yet he had tortured Tane for longer.

  “This will hurt, even with Rurik’s help, so I’m going to take over the shielding.” I didn’t sense anything different except what aches I had disappeared.

  He straddled my body without touching me. I could see his hand by my shoulder and sense his cool breath on my back. Goose flesh formed on my arms. The first initial contact of his tongue made me shiver.

  He trailed the tip of it in slow, circular motions and moved up from my lower back.

  Rurik is right. You do taste fruity.

  “He told you that? When?” I lifted my head to glance over my shoulder.

  Relax. He pressed my head to the pillow. We’ve always written letters to each other.

  Did you think after Budapest things would change? We’ve always been friends.

  “He never mentioned any letters to me.”

  Do you tell him everything you do?

  I thought of my meeting with Colby. Lies begot lies. Maybe we only fooled ourselves for the last eighteen months. Yet we were happy. “Why did you force a bind on me? You could have rescued Rurik and let him do it.” No, I couldn’t, and I don’t need to explain myself to you.

  I snorted. “Do you think I’m going to transform into a human slave?” Not overnight. He moved to a deeper wound under my shoulder blade and pressed his knee to the side of my hip.

  “Not ever.”

  You’ve stopped complaining about my telepathy. The laps of his tongue grew bolder.

  I got the impression of what a lollipop felt like. He moaned as he got closer to my neck. It wasn’t a sexual thing, Tane liked men.

  His arrogance rubbed me the wrong way. It always did. I knew he helped me, but couldn’t stop the flash memory of Tane as a human from jumping out. Dragos shared it with me while he tried to tear my soul apart with grief. Tane kneeled before Dragos as if he were a god.

  My demon jerked behind me. “How do you have that memory?”

  “Dragos shared it as he tried to convert me to worship him. Are you done yet?”

  “Yes.” He rolled off to lie next to me.

  I turned my head on the pillow to see him better. His mouth was painted ruby with my blood. He licked at it as if savoring the flavor. “You never answered my question.” He glanced at me.

  “Why bind us? You hate me.”

  “Hate is too strong a word. I find you annoying. But for me to rescue Rurik I had to kill Dragos. I couldn’t do it. I loved him too much. It’s why I asked for Rurik’s help.” He gazed up at the ceiling. “He had already given up Budapest to follow you before we captured him at the house. Once he found out how I used you to weaken Dragos, I doubted he’d ever speak with me again.”

  “So you wanted to make sure you had a link to him after things settled. Me.” He smiled. “Have you been having any odd cravings?” My breath caught in my throat. “Yes.”

  “Blood?”

  “Not any blood. Just Rurik’s…” I fiddled with the sheet. “And maybe yours.” I remembered how it smelled.

  “You’ve been needing more and more of Rurik’s blood?”

  “It’s like a hunger I can’t stop.” My words were barely audible.

  “He must have had suspicions that something was wrong. Why else bring you here?

  Most bonded humans don’t need to consume more than once a year, but if left unattended they can go strange.”

  “You mean crazy. If I feed from you will I get better?”

  “We’ll find out.” He reached up to his neck. The nail on his index finger was purposely pointed and he used it to cut his skin. A thin trail of blood trickled down. The hunger I spoke of soared.

  My mouth watered and I crawled over to him.

  He tucked his hands behind his head and allowed me to drink.

  I couldn’t angle my mouth to make a good seal to his skin from where I lay so I climbed on top of his chest. My body finally got what it had been craving, the blood of my vampire master. How did I let things get so wrong?

  My back tingled and itched. I clasped his shoulder with the injured hand that wouldn’t function earlier and pulled myself against his broad body.

  The door creaked open and I twisted to see Rurik step through.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  Tane shoved me off and slipped off the bed to stand next to it. “I’m healing her.” Chapter Seven

  The momentum of Tane shoving me off his chest as Rurik came into the room sent me bouncing on the covers. I flinched, expecting pain to tear through me, yet nothing happened.

  “I was healing her.” Tane sounded as if he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I had to admit it looked bad. He only wore track pants and I wore nothing except my birthday suit, but come on, it was Tane. We could barely stand each other and on top of it, he was gay.

  Rurik slammed the tray of food he carried onto a nearby coffee table. The plate rattled and the drink slopped over the edge of the glass. “You had to wait until I left and sneak in here like a rat?” He crossed the room and shoved the Nosferatu against the wall.

  Tane didn’t fight back. He allowed Rurik to push him. The Master of all vampires could turn my lover inside out if he wanted to, however he did not deflect Rurik’s fury.

  He diverted his gaze to the floor as if he couldn’t meet his friend’s glare. His head bounced off the wall as Rurik shoved him again with more homicidal force.

  “How could you betray me like this?” Rurik shouted in Tane’s face. “It’s not enough you steal her bond, you need to seduce her as well?” I sat up and pulled the covers to my chest. A flush of color rose in Tane’s cheeks. He glanced at me over Rurik’s shoulder. No desire lived in his stare. He didn’t want me. My lover saw things that didn’t exist.

  Watching these two predators face off, I recalled their friendship, their letters.

  They’d known each other longer than I’d been alive. An uncomfortable feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.

  “Don’t touch her. Understand me?” Rurik tried to shove Tane out of the room, but the Nosferatu grabbed his wrist.

  “She’s my blood slave. Don’t make me quote our laws.” The mask of guilt he wore crumbled and the anger that seethed when Tane first entered the room resurfaced. A vein pulsed in his temple as he held my lover back.

  “You can choke on those laws. You’re supposed to be m
y friend.”

  “Which is why I’ll let you keep her!” Tane released Rurik then stomped across the room and threw himself onto the sofa. Crossing his arms over his chest, he glowered at us. “She’s healed, you’re welcome.”

  Rurik turned toward me and quirked an eyebrow in my direction.

  I twisted at the hips and showed him my back.

  He ran his hand over my skin. “Beautiful. Not a scar.” It gave me a pleasant shiver.

  Most relationships lose that magic touch, the one which makes us quiver inside from just a brush of fingertips. He still did it to me. “It’s the least you could do after placing her in harm’s way.”

  “What?” The disbelief in Tane’s voice rung true.

  Wheeling back around, I saw him lean forward and brace the edge of the sofa seat with his hands.

  “I didn’t swing the whip.” His knuckles turned white.

  Rurik stood between us, his back to me. “You didn’t answer their demands. I saw what you let them do to Eric. You would have let them do it to Connie.” If the tension got any thicker in the room, I’d drown in it. I reached out and touched Rurik’s hand. “He did his best to make them stop hurting me.” He glanced at me over his shoulder.

  “Tane really did try. They were going to kill us no matter what he told them.” I glanced past my lover to my demon. A glimpse of gratitude flickered in his eyes, but it passed too quickly for me to be sure. “There’s nothing for you to worry about, Tane doesn’t like women, remember?”

  My statement didn’t have the reaction I’d hope for. Rurik’s brow furrowed and he frowned at me while shaking his head. “Don’t be so naïve. He likes both.” A slap to the face would have surprised me less.

  Rurik sat on the edge of the bed next to me and faced his so-called friend.

  He had touched me, hell, he had licked me. God, I could be so stupid. I glared at my blood master across the room who sat with an innocent angel’s expression on his face. I mouthed the word asshole in his direction.

  For a brief moment, he struggled to hide a smile.

  Had he been trying to seduce me? Like that would have happened, give me some credit. I wanted to laugh out loud, except my night had already been filled with violence and I didn’t think insulting Tane would be such a smart move. I defended the fiend instead just to make peace between them. “He wasn’t trying to seduce me, only heal me.”

  “But you drank from him.” Rurik glared at me.

  I nodded. No need to bring up the licking part.

  “Your bond to him is real then.” It sounded like he didn’t want it to be true. The defeat in his words hurt me.

  “Your love binds you both together. It’s something just as strong.” Tane’s soft words barely reached my ears. “You must have suspected she was changing, otherwise you never would have brought her to my city.”

  Sorrow aged Rurik’s immortal face as he lifted my chin so our gazes could meet.

  “Change?” I felt my eyes go wide. Even with the blankets wrapped tight around me, I seemed very exposed. I looked from him to my lover as if they’d grown horns from their heads.

  “The bloodlust,” Rurik answered.

  Oh that, I didn’t understand the concern. “Aren’t I supposed to want your blood?

  You told me I would need to feed from you—or I guess Tane—to stay alive.” Not once had Rurik hinted that my hunger concerned him. Why did we keep secrets from each other?

  “Yes, but not crave it like…like one of us.” Rurik gestured to himself and Tane. His brow furrowed.

  “You never mentioned it was out of the ordinary.” I growled out the statement. The heat of a blush seeped over my cheeks. “You should have said something. What does it mean?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s why I contacted him.” He glanced at Tane. “Did you ever find any information?”

  “When did Tane get involved with our affairs?” I cried out, finally reaching the end of my rope. Rurik wanted to help me, yet it felt like betrayal. That he’d speak about my hunger issues with Tane, a person who didn’t have a problem using it against me, injured my vulnerable heart. Hurt too many times in the last day, the tormented fragile center of our love shut down, leaving me numb.

  “I had no other resources to turn to. Like it or not, he’s older with more experience.” This was the first time Rurik had ever snapped at me.

  I flinched.

  “Archios, my second-in-command, bonded with Belatia as a human before being forced to bring her over.” We both turned as one to look at Tane. “He’d been captured by the church and held captive. Unable to rescue him, Belatia almost went mad with blood lust after a year. Dragos kept her as a curiosity until Archios escaped. The only solution we could figure out was to make her vampire.” He shrugged. “We assume that not being able to get her source blood drove her to madness.”

  “But I’m not crazy.”

  “Not yet. If Rurik had not brought you to Rio…”

  Where I got tortured, found out I was bound to Tane and drank from him. Yada, yada, yada. I sighed. “It would have driven me crazy. Is it gone now that I’ve fed from you?”

  It was Rurik’s turn to flinch.

  Tane glanced from me to him and back. “It should be, though I don’t understand why you craved Rurik’s blood. I’m wondering if we created something new in Budapest. I’d never heard of two vampires trying to bond the same human before. Best you stay close until we figure this out.”

  I stared at the rich tones of brown swirls intermingling on my blanket. The tangle of color looked like my life.

  “What happened to Belatia?” My head popped up at Rurik’s question.

  “She lives here on my estate with Archios. Her hunger became natural when she turned vampire.” He glanced at me. “See? There’s a solution if the hunger drives you mad.”

  “No thanks.” By being bound to a vampire, I stopped aging. Bonus. Why would I want to give up daylight and food?

  Tane leaned back against the sofa. For a moment he looked tired. “As odd as it sounds, both of you are the only two I can trust at the moment. I have a traitor in my home.” He closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose with his fingers before continuing. “Eric drugged me with the same thing we used against Dragos. I don’t think he ever forgave me for what transpired between us and Colby on the Danube River.” Tane had kidnapped my ex-boss when we hunted Rurik in Budapest and I assumed did some nasty things to him on his yacht. I doubted Colby forgave him, either.

  “They imprisoned me in that hole but I hadn’t ingested enough of the drug for them to break my mind.” He sighed. “Eric had been my companion for so long. I wish it hadn’t ended this way. They killed him for amusement. I had no power to stop it.” I could almost believe the regret I heard in Tane’s voice. It was hard to imagine him caring for someone. He peeked at Rurik. “If I could have stopped either of their torture, I would have.”

  Rurik nodded. “I know. I spoke in anger before, unaware Eric had betrayed you.” Tane closed his eyes again. “Luckard wants to know how the drug is made. He’s never had enough support to oppose me before. Someone else has to be behind all this.”

  “One of Dragos’ supporters.” It seemed obvious to me. A no brainer.

  His eyes sprang open. “Really? Do you think so?”

  Rurik moved to sit closer to me. “Easy, Tane. Connie’s not familiar with our ways.”

  “Then start teaching her. She has a new role. It won’t be long before word spreads that she’s bound to me.” Tane stood and met my angry scowl. “All of Dragos’ people are dead. I don’t keep loose ends.” He stalked across the room and back. “There are so many ways to abuse that drug. I wish I knew to what purpose they want it so I could figure out the traitor.”

  “Did you capture any of your captors alive?” Rurik touched my hand without looking at me.

  “Yes, I’m on my way to—interrogate them.” Tane’s hands fisted. I would hate to be the target of his wrath. His prisoners better hope for a quick
death, even though I doubted they’d get one. Not after skewering him with thick metal bars like a brochette. “I know things are tense between us, but you’re the only two I can trust. I need your help.”

  “I get to keep Connie?” Rurik confirmed, before I could even open my mouth and tell Tane where he could shove my assistance.

  A small smile crept across his face. “Of course.”

  Rurik squeezed my hand almost to the point of pain, telling me to keep quiet. “I’ll do my best to find the traitor, Master.” He stood and bowed to Tane, whose eyes narrowed at Rurik’s action.

  Tane left the room as silently as he entered. I could see his guards posted at the door before it closed and left us alone. I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest. “Keep me how?”

  Rurik glanced at me over his shoulder, a salacious smile on his face. “Naked, preferably.”

  Chapter Eight

  “I’m already naked. Heck, I feel as if everyone in this freaking house has seen my bare ass.” The blanket I clutched to my chest gave me a false sense of security.

  Rurik spun around. “How?”

  “After you left, Tane and his guards stormed in while I stood…Oh never mind.

  What’s on the tray?” The last thing I needed to do was fan Rurik’s temper by reminding him about Tane. I fluttered my eyelashes at him and flashed him my sweetest smile.

  It worked. He grinned and retrieved the tray from the coffee table where he’d slammed it down upon entering the room. “I brought you some food.” We all had our idiosyncrasies; Rurik liked to watch me eat. If I allowed him inside my mental shield, would he be able to taste what I ate? We never tried it since I was so neurotic about letting anyone in my head. I wasn’t ready to make the offer. Too many people already poked around in there for one day, but maybe once I had my shit together I should ask him if he wanted to try.

  After I settled the pillows against the headboard and leaned back, he set the tray on my lap. With a flourish of his wrist, he removed the lid.

  I stared at the huge bowl. “What is it?”

  “I don’t know.” He lifted my fork and poked around the mound of fresh herbs covering the meal. “It’s fish.” Tomatoes and onions adorned the stew. He skewered a piece and offered it.