“The same,” he said, but there was something in his voice that roused concern.
She leaned back against her desk. “You sound kinda down. Is everything okay?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure? You don’t sound okay.”
A long pause ensued. “It’s been an… eventful night. A rather difficult one, frankly. But I’m fine.”
No, he wasn’t. She could hear it in his voice. “Why don’t you take a break and come over for a bit?”
More silence carried over the line.
“Seth?”
“Such would be unwise.”
He worried about endangering her and still sometimes avoided coming over after hours. The store was closed for the night. Brittney had already gone home. Anyone watching would know he wasn’t there to shop, but…
“Playing hard to get, huh? What if I told you I have my dancing shoes on?”
“Do you?” he asked, a smile entering his voice.
She glanced down at her feet. “Only if scuffed sneakers qualify as dancing shoes.”
He laughed.
“I’m wearing my dancing clothes, too.”
“And by dancing clothes you mean…”
“Bike shorts and a tank top.” She had snuck in a run on the treadmill after Brittney left.
“Damn, that’s tempting. You don’t play fair, do you?”
“Nope. Never said I would.” Picking up a small remote, she aimed it at the iPod connected to the store’s speaker system and cycled through the playlists on it until she found the one she wanted. “Bamboleo” began to play. “You hear that?”
“I do.”
“My feet are beginning to move.”
“Do tell.” He was definitely smiling now.
“My hips are moving, too.”
“That I’d like to see.”
“I could sure use a dance partner right about now.”
“Look at your front door.”
Surprised, Leah took a few steps back and peered into her shop. The lights inside it fell upon Seth, who stood just inside the front door, his phone pressed to his ear.
She grinned as she approached him. “Hi, handsome.”
Smiling, he pocketed the phone. “Hi yourself, beautiful.”
Excitement skittered through her as it always did in his presence. “I admit I’m surprised you came.” Surprised and pleased. She loved spending time with him. “I thought it would take a little more arm twisting.”
“Well… the idea of seeing you dance in bike shorts and a tank top prompted me to haul ass and teleport over here.”
She laughed. Holding her arms up, she assumed a playful pose and turned in a slow circle. “Was it worth the rush?”
A golden glow entered his eyes as they skimmed her form. “Hell yes, it was.”
“Then take off your coat and dance with me.” She couldn’t wait to feel his arms around her.
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded with a charming grin.
This was what she liked to see: Seth smiling and lighthearted, no more weariness weighing down his words, the burdens he usually bore no longer leaving his face somber.
As soon as he finished hanging up his coat, he started pushing clothing racks aside to clear the floor. Leah followed him as he worked. And when he turned to face her, she held out her hands.
Seth took them, carried them to his lips for a kiss, and began to dance with her.
Yet again, she marveled at how fluidly he moved and how good it felt when he touched her. His big hand on the small of her back urged her closer as they moved to the music. Her pulse quickened as her breasts brushed against his chest. He had not wavered from his intention to remain friends. He never kissed her. He never touched her when they were outside her shop, or hell, even when they were inside her shop during business hours unless it was to kiss her hand in greeting or farewell or when Adira coaxed them into holding hands.
But when they danced…
His arm tightened around her, pressing her fully against his hard body as he slipped a thigh between hers. Her body heated when she felt the erection constrained by his cargo pants. His hand slipped lower, those long fingers of his brushing the upper curve of her ass.
When they danced, some of that control he clung to slipped.
He dipped his head, nuzzled her neck for a few heartbeats, then spun her away from him.
This wasn’t the first time he had become aroused by her touch, by the sensual roll of her hips against his. But he always spun her away before she tempted him into doing more than just nuzzle her neck.
“Tease!” she accused with a grin, her own body burning.
He laughed, his brown eyes bearing that fascinating golden glow she had come to associate with desire, and twirled her around behind him. Well, two could play that game. Leah pressed her front to his back and wrapped an arm around him. Splaying her fingers on his chest, she slid her hand down his rock-hard abs until it rested just above the waistband of his cargo pants.
He sucked in a sharp breath. “Now who’s teasing?” he called over the music.
Smiling, she let him take her hand and step away, then turn to face her. He was so much fun to be around. She really regretted agreeing to keep things platonic. He made her want him, crave him, need him. With a look. With the most innocent of touches. And the less innocent touches their dancing prompted.
But no matter how strongly his body responded to her, he remained determined to keep things casual. And he had so much on his plate right now that she didn’t want to add to his troubles by pushing him to change the rules of the game. Rules they had both agreed upon.
The song ended. Drums replaced the brief silence that followed, tapping out a beat that made her feet want to move again. Trumpets began to blare.
Seth smiled. “‘Sing, Sing, Sing.’ Benny Goodman.”
She nodded. She had programmed a new dance playlist for them. Knowing he would make her body burn with the Latin dances and even some of the pop-rock ones, she had thought it a good idea to add some big band music to put space between them or at least make their dancing less intimate. “Do you know how to swing dance?”
Nodding, he held out a hand. Leah took it and was surprised anew by how well he moved. He danced as though he had spent every spare moment he could find in the forties swing dancing in the jazz clubs.
And perhaps he had, she realized with surprise, still struggling to reconcile his true age with his youthful appearance.
Her heart began to thump even faster, not from his nearness or his touch this time, but from the physical exertion of the dance. She laughed when Seth picked her up and effortlessly slung her around his back, catching her on the other side, never missing a beat. Thanks to the building’s old construction and the high ceilings of her shop, he was even able to flip her over his shoulder. He grinned, looking even younger than he usually did.
Leah soon forgot everything except how much fun it was to dance with him. He was so strong. Lifting her and supporting her while she did a backflip over his arm was easy for him. And she loved the way his deep laughter rang out as he swung her around and made her gasp.
She was out of breath by the time the song ended. “Whew! You are good!”
He grinned. “So are you. I love dancing with you.”
A slow song came on. She was a little worried about how he might react to this one. “Unforgettable,” sung by Nat King Cole. It always made her think of Seth now.
Smiling, he took her hand and drew her close, sliding his other arm around her waist. “I love this song.”
“I do, too.”
“And it will give us a chance to catch our breath.”
She nodded. Though her own breath came quickly and perspiration added a shimmer to her skin, Seth seemed fine. He must be in really great cardiovascular shape. “You never told me how you came to be such a good dancer.”
“A friend of mine—one of my brethren—loves to dance,” he said as they moved in slow circles. “She became involve
d with a man who enjoys it, too. They used to dance together every minute they could on weekends. But when she realized he cared for her more than she cared for him—that he was falling in love with her—she broke things off.”
Unease blossomed within her. “I take it she didn’t love him back?”
“Only as a friend. She didn’t think it fair to keep seeing him when she couldn’t return his deeper feelings. But he had been her best friend for a long time, and she missed him afterward.”
“Even though she was the one who ended it.”
He nodded. “I knew her spirits were low. She already had a lot weighing her down as it was. So I started taking her dancing whenever time would allow to cheer her up.”
Leah thought it a bad sign when jealousy slithered through her.
Seth’s lips turned up in a wry smile. “I never danced with her the way I dance with you though.”
That helped. “You didn’t?”
“She’s more like a baby sister to me. Or another daughter. I never held her as closely as I do you and certainly never danced so…”
“Provocatively?” she suggested.
“Yes.”
Leah wasn’t one for mincing words, particularly with Seth, so she went ahead and asked what she probably shouldn’t. “Is that story true, or was it a cautionary tale told for my benefit?”
His eyebrows rose. “What?”
She shrugged. “We agreed we would keep things on a friendship level. So I thought maybe you were using the story to warn me not to develop deeper feelings for you.”
The surprise that lit his handsome features appeared genuine. “No. It’s true, Leah. I vow it. You asked me how I came to dance. And I learned to dance in an attempt to lift Lisette’s spirits. I didn’t like seeing her so unhappy.”
“Oh.” She wrinkled her nose. “Sorry about that.”
He shook his head. “Lisette wanted to keep things casual with Ethan because she knew she couldn’t love him the way he loved her. I’m keeping things casual with you because pursuing anything more would endanger you.”
Her heart leapt. Did that mean he felt something deeper than desire for her and was just afraid to explore it because of his enemy?
That really sucked.
“And because I know you aren’t looking for a relationship,” he added.
She wished now she hadn’t told him that.
Another slow song replaced “Unforgettable.”
“How did you learn to dance?” he asked.
She grimaced. “I didn’t do so well after the accident. Once I completed my physical therapy, I just sort of stopped taking care of myself.”
“Grief can do that to a person.”
“It sure as hell did to me,” she muttered. “I didn’t eat well, at first because I had no appetite and then because cooking for one just depressed me and made the losses harder to bear. I ate a lot of takeout, didn’t exercise, and didn’t sleep hardly at all. I went into debt opening this business to try to keep myself occupied. It was stressful as hell. But I needed to block out the silence. I just couldn’t take it anymore.”
He nodded. “That’s why I spend so much time with David and the others. The silence was suffocating after my wife and children were slain. I complain about being busy all the time, but…”
“It’s what’s kept you sane?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah. I worked crazy long hours getting my shop going and building my clientele. It all inevitably began to take a toll.” She shrugged. “You saw how protective Ben is.”
His lips twitched. “I did.”
“Well, my whole family grew concerned about my health and made me go for a checkup.”
“Judging by your expression, the news wasn’t good.”
“My blood pressure was frighteningly high. My cholesterol was high, too. I had packed on quite a few pounds.” She shook her head. “My doctor pretty much bitch-slapped me with what I could expect if I didn’t dig my way out of my grief and start taking better care of myself. It was scary. But my parents’ and my brother’s reactions were what really shook me up.”
“They feared losing you.”
“Yes. So I started eating healthier and cut back a little on my work hours so I could get more sleep. I also started exercising daily. When that bored the pants off me, I looked into alternative ways to get some aerobic exercise that might be more fun.”
“And settled upon dancing.”
She nodded. “Turns out it’s a great stress reliever for me.”
He gave her hand a squeeze and drew her closer. “For me as well.”
They danced in silence for a time.
“So…,” she said after a time. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“About what?”
“Your day. When you called, it sounded as though you’d had a tough one.”
He nodded. “I did.” His lips stretched in a smile. “But it wasn’t all bad. Do you remember the man I told you about, the one who died in the explosion but whose body we never recovered?”
“Yes.”
He flashed her a grin. “Turns out we couldn’t recover his body because he wasn’t dead. Stanislav is alive, Leah. I found him tonight.”
“Oh my gosh!” Joy for him rushed through her. “Is he okay?”
He nodded. “He was badly injured when I found him. It’s a long story. But I healed him, and he’s at David’s house now, resting.”
“That’s fantastic!” She hugged him tight. “I’m so glad, Seth.”
Hugging her back, he rested his cheek on top of her head. “I am, too. I wanted to tell you as soon as I found out. But I still had work to do and…”
That work had been unpleasant, judging by the way he’d sounded when he had called. Surprised that he wasn’t pulling away, Leah squeezed him tighter.
“Thank you for dancing with me tonight,” he murmured.
She nodded against his chest. “As I said, anytime you want to de-stress, you’re welcome to come by, Seth.” Perhaps in time she could convince him to seek other, more intimate ways to de-stress with her.
Chapter Fourteen
Bastien watched the vampires do their damnedest to burn out the engines of the specially designed treadmills in the lab on sublevel five of network headquarters. Five of the vamps, those who had surrendered to the Immortal Guardians most recently, razzed each other and cracked frequent jokes. But he knew it was a facade assumed for the benefit of the other two vampires in their midst.
Cliff and Stewart ran side by side, their faces grim, their eyes glowing with the madness that threatened to consume them. Though Stewart had only been infected with the vampiric virus for three and a half years, the progressive brain damage it caused was rapidly eroding his impulse control and filling his head with a need to commit violence. He fought it. Hard. But he had suffered three psychotic breaks in recent months.
Born with empathic abilities, Bastien could feel the young vampire’s emotions every time he touched him. Stewart was scared shitless that he wasn’t going to make it until Melanie and the other doctors could find either a cure or a way to reverse the brain damage.
Bastien shifted his gaze to Cliff and felt his throat thicken. He loved Cliff like a brother. They had been close friends ever since Bastien had found Cliff shortly after his transformation. Cliff had been amongst the first to join the army of vampires Bastien had amassed to help him destroy the Immortal Guardians. Six years, give or take, had passed since then. And Cliff was the only member of that vampire army who still lived.
That Cliff had managed to suppress and hold off the insanity growing within him for so many years was unheard of. He had waged a truly heroic battle, clinging desperately to his humanity long after others would’ve succumbed to it or even embraced it wholly. Seth had done what he could for Cliff. David had, too. But brain damage was tricky to heal. And this virus behaved like no other on the planet. Seth could only slow the progression of the brain damage it spawned. He couldn’t halt it altogether.
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Bastien glanced at his wife. Melanie was furious with herself because she had not yet found a cure. She, too, did what she could for Cliff. As did Aidan. The ancient Celtic immortal had become a good friend since Seth had transferred him to North Carolina two or three years ago. Aidan was a powerful healer and could teleport. Almost every day, he took Cliff into the sunlight, something he had discovered silenced the voices in Cliff’s head, and healed the damage the sun inflicted on the young vampire in real time.
Bastien played his part as well, wanting desperately to save his friend. Bastien’s dark past had not made his entry into the Immortal Guardians’ world an easy one… or a pleasant one. Seth had basically forced him to join the ranks. But Bastien had ultimately sucked it up and played nice, both for Melanie’s sake—so Reordon wouldn’t fire her for associating with him—and for Cliff’s sake. Playing nice had enabled Bastien to convince Seth to let him take Cliff vampire hunting with him, which had given his friend a much-needed outlet for his ever-strengthening violent impulses.
He returned his attention to the vampires when Melanie ducked into a supply closet.
No one, however, had helped Cliff more than Emma had. Bastien would love that woman for the rest of her mortal life and would always be grateful to her for bringing happiness into his friend’s life. Cliff adored her. Bastien knew Cliff frequently felt guilt and regret over bringing such turmoil into her life. If Emma told Cliff tomorrow that it had become too much, that she couldn’t be with him anymore, he knew Cliff would walk away without a backward glance, no matter how much it tore him up inside to do it. But Bastien hoped like hell she wouldn’t.
She was the only reason Cliff still lived.
The desperate hope that Melanie and her colleagues would miraculously find a way to cure Cliff and restore his mental faculties so he could spend the rest of his life as an ordinary man with Emma was all that kept Cliff going. That one desperate hope prevented Cliff from either ending it himself or asking Bastien to do it for him.
Pain struck. Cliff wouldn’t be the first vampire friend to ask Bastien to kill him. Vince’s death would forever haunt Bastien.
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