by Amelia Elias
And now he might never feel it again.
Sian pulled back a little when he swore again. She rubbed a fingertip between his eyebrows. “You’re frowning,” she said softly. “What is it, Diego? Did I do something wrong?”
He shook his head at once. This was Eli’s fault first and his second. Sian was innocent of everything in this. “No, querida, you did nothing wrong.”
“Then why are you looking at me like that?”
He rested his forehead against hers for a moment before forcing himself to move. He lifted her from the tub, turning off the water with a thought, and carried her back into the bedroom without bothering with a towel. “Sian, not all vampires are born,” he said softly, not knowing quite how to begin.
Her eyes widened as she caught his meaning at once. “You mean all that stuff in movies about people being bitten by vampires and turning into them—it’s all true? Am I a vampire now since you bit me? Is that why I wanted to taste you?”
He shook his head and put her gently on the bed. He didn’t feel any hint of the Change starting in her yet, but sometimes it took a little time to begin. He didn’t dare relax his vigilance in monitoring her. “It’s not the bite, Sian.” He met her eyes even though he feared what he would see there. “It’s the blood. To become a vampire, you drink a vampire’s blood.”
Her mouth opened in a silent “oh” and she gazed up at him for a long moment before confusion clouded her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, but you’re all hung up on this eternal mate thing and you don’t want me to be a vampire? That doesn’t make much sense.”
Diego pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “No, I want that more than anything in this world,” he whispered. “But I can’t be your sire, Sian. A sire has power over his fledgling—he has to, to teach everything they must know to survive. But for this reason it is forbidden for a sire and his fledgling to be bondmates. It’s—it’s like rape, incest. Abomination. If I make you a vampire I must be like a parent to you, never your lover.”
She gasped in alarm and a part of him was actually relieved that the thought of never making love with him again was distressing to her. He shoved it away angrily. There was nothing to be relieved about in this.
Sian pulled away a little and he made himself let her even though every instinct he possessed protested. “I don’t want to be a vampire any more than you want to be my sire. There has to be a way out of this,” she said, pushing a hand through her hair. “I mean, surely some other vampire has been in this situation before. Someone has to know what to do about it!”
He shook his head. “No other vampire has ever had a mortal bondmate before, querida. We’re in uncharted territory here.”
She stared at him for a moment, clearly shocked. He knew the feeling. “What we just did—the sharing of mind, body, and blood—is how a bond is created, Sian. Three such exchanges bind two vampires forever. Until this happened to us, I would have bet my life it was impossible for a mortal and a vampire to bond.” He cupped her cheek in his hand and closed his eyes. “I don’t know if I could stand being your sire after this, wildcat,” he whispered, aching.
If he had to have a bondmate, he wanted it to be Sian and no other.
Suddenly she looked up at him. “Eli,” she said.
He frowned, not liking another male’s name on her lips so soon after they’d made love, but Sian took his hand and squeezed it excitedly. “Call Eli! He’s the one who did this thing you say is impossible. Surely he’s got another trick or two up his sleeve. Call him and make him fix it!”
A fiercely protective instinct rose up and protested violently at the thought of sharing something this private with another male vampire. Diego ground his teeth and forced himself to reach for the phone anyway. The surge of jealous emotion surprised him.
It shouldn’t have. He knew the legends. Along with the overwhelming bliss it brought, the blood exchange was supposed to heighten every single territorial, possessive instinct a male vampire had. Diego was finding out the tales of legend paled beside the real thing.
He shoved aside his reluctance and dialed, obligingly bending his head low so Sian could hear. Eli answered his cell phone on the first ring. “What?”
Diego’s eyebrows rose at his irritated tone. “What’s your problem?”
“Other than the complaint you filed with the Council that has the rest of them up in arms and trying to force me out, everything’s fine. Why do you ask?”
Diego winced. He’d almost forgotten sending the furious email. So much had happened in the last few nights it had completely slipped his mind. “Um, sorry about that, Eli, but I was a little angry with you at the time,” he said. It was the understatement of the year. “Listen,” he rushed on, hoping his rash complaint hadn’t wrecked his chances of getting Eli’s help now, “we have a problem.”
“You have several, Diego, in case you haven’t noticed. Which one are you calling me to solve?”
He ignored that barb with an effort. Arguing with Eli was always pointless and would be beyond stupid right now. “Sian drank my blood, Eli.”
Eli actually laughed. “You enjoyed the wine, I take it?”
Diego choked back a growl with difficulty. He hated the very thought of another male knowing anything about what he and Sian had done. His instincts stopped clamoring for privacy and started demanding blood and he was astonished at how strong they were. Why hadn’t he felt this fierce protectiveness from the moment Eli had put the marks on them?
He forced his mind back to the conversation. “Damn it, this is serious! You know I can’t be both her mate and her sire.”
“Diego, breathe,” Eli said, his tone still infuriatingly amused. “Is she going through the Change now?”
Diego paused for a moment, listening to what his senses were telling him. Sian watched him nervously, waiting for his answer. “No,” he said at last, and she sighed with relief.
“Well, why are you worrying then? If she Changes, call me. Until then I would strongly advise you to pay attention to other things. Trust me, Diego, Sian drinking a few drops of your blood is the very least of your worries.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” Diego demanded, but the line was dead. Eli had already hung up. “I hate it when he does that,” he growled, putting the phone back in its cradle with far more force than necessary.
Sian looked at him. “Does this mean I’m not going to turn into a vampire?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. He thought over Eli’s cryptic comments, trying to decipher some meaning from them. “He didn’t exactly say you weren’t, but if you were, it would certainly be something for me to worry about. It would be my chief concern, no matter what else was going on.” He paused, listening to his senses again before shaking his head. “I don’t know, Sian. I don’t feel any sign of the Change starting and believe me, you’d know if it was. It hurts like hell when it happens. Maybe you didn’t take enough or something, I just don’t know.”
She bit her lip, clearly less than reassured with this answer. “And Eli, he would know if that was the case even though he’s not here? He’s able to do that?”
Diego sighed in frustration. “No one really knows what Eli’s capable of, Sian. He might know or he might not, and even if he did, it might amuse him not to tell us. The only thing that makes me feel the slightest bit better is that he pushed so hard for us to bond that I can’t imagine he’d let something like this stand in the way. He wants this for some reason, and he’s damn sure not telling me what it is.”
Sian closed her eyes with a sigh. “Well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” she said. “No need to worry about what we can’t change, and I’m too tired to think about it any more.”
Diego let her slip out of his arms to lie down and started to stretch out beside her when he heard a car skid to a stop in the driveway. “Sounds like James is back,” he said, bending down to brush a gentle kiss over her lips. “Stay here, querida, and call if you start to feel strange. I�
��ll be right back.”
She nodded, lying back on the pillows and yawning. Diego glimpsed the bites he’d left on her as he drew the comforter over her—one on her thigh, one on the swell of her breast, and the pair on her throat. The sight of them made his chest tighten with fierce pride. Sian would certainly accuse him of being a caveman again if he let her know it, but he loved seeing his marks on her.
He pulled on a pair of jeans and slipped from the room just as the front door slammed.
“Diego!” James shouted, his footsteps thundering downstairs as he shoved open doors, banging them against the walls. “Diego, where the hell are you?”
“Quiet down!” Diego called back as he put on a burst of speed and raced downstairs. “Sian’s sleeping. What’s wrong?”
James stood at the foot of the stairs, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at Diego. “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” he repeated furiously. “I’ve been trying to call you for the past twenty hours and you want to know what’s wrong? I’m stuck in Spain with a pack of lawyers trying to get hold of you and you can’t even be bothered to answer your phone! I expected to come back and find you dead on the floor or something!”
Diego grinned a little sheepishly. The phone might have rang last night, he wasn’t sure, but even if he’d been aware of it he certainly wouldn’t have answered it. He’d been far too busy making up for a century of celibacy by enjoying Sian in every way a man could possibly enjoy a woman. It was no wonder she was exhausted. “Sorry,” he said, even though he wasn’t. Nothing could make him regret last night.
“Yeah, whatever,” James snapped, turning on his heel and stomping angrily into the kitchen. “I took a supersonic flight to get here, I haven’t eaten in hours, and all you can say is sorry—and you don’t even sound like you mean it. Why do I put up with you again?”
“Because I pay you a king’s ransom, you like living in a mansion, and the health plan is phenomenal,” Diego shot back. “Now tell me what the lawyers said. What’s the deal with this case? Did they get it dismissed yet?”
James pulled a package of hot dogs out of the fridge and started eating them cold. “If you’d answered your phone, you’d know this case isn’t going to get dismissed,” he said. His eye fell on the bottle of wine still open on the counter and he reached for it, clearly intending to add it to his snack.
Diego had crossed the kitchen and snatched it away before James’s hand had moved more than an inch. James jumped at his unnatural speed. “I hate it when you do that, Diego,” he complained. “And do you have to bogart the whole bottle?”
“If you want a drink I’m sure you can find something else,” Diego said, carrying the bottle to the sink. “Trust me, you don’t want this.”
But he hesitated as he started to pour the wine down the drain, remembering the incredible feeling it had evoked. The image of Sian all but attacking him in this very spot brought a smile to his face, and the memory of their wild, totally uninhibited lovemaking when they’d both been under its influence sent heat spiraling through him. It seemed a shame to waste something so very powerful. Instead of pouring it out, Diego found the cork and stuck it back in before turning to James. “Consider this extremely off-limits,” he said sternly as he put it in the refrigerator.
James raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh, yeah? What is it?”
Diego knew that tone. It was his I-wonder-what-would-happen-if-I-did-it-anyway tone and it had gotten him into trouble more times than Diego cared to recall.
“It’s bloodwine,” he lied, closing the door firmly. “A vampire delicacy. I don’t think you’d appreciate it properly.”
James made a face, his interest quelled instantly. “Eww, man, that’s nasty.” He shrugged and James suddenly frowned. “Hey, what are those scratches?” He blinked, staring harder. “And is that a bite-mark on your shoulder?”
An echo of the profound burst of ecstasy he’d shared with Sian shot through him and Diego unconsciously reached up and ran his hand over the spot, savoring the memory of Sian biting him there. Regardless of what happened now, that shower had been the most incredible experience of his life and he couldn’t make himself regret it. “There was a lot of biting going on,” he replied, unable to keep himself from grinning. He traced a scratch with a fingertip. “And my wildcat has claws.”
James gaped at him for a moment before closing his mouth with a snap. Diego was stunned to see his unflappable Steward actually blush. “Okay, now I know why you didn’t answer your phone, and for the record that is way more than I ever wanted to know about vampire sex,” he said, turning away and popping the rest of his hot dogs into the microwave. “Please, Diego, swear you’ll never go there again.”
He laughed at his Steward’s discomfort. All the times James had urged him to forget the Council and go get laid, and now he was blushing. “Well, you did ask,” he pointed out, unable to resist needling him.
“And I have been more than adequately punished for it. I’ve seen the error of my ways and will never do it again.”
Sian’s laughter suddenly filled the room. “Okay, I’m dying to know what happened here.”
Diego’s gaze shot to the doorway to see her leaning against the doorframe, her lovely body wrapped in his thick black terry-cloth robe. Another surge of primitive, territorial emotion swamped him at the sight of her in his robe, the marks on her throat just visible beneath the collar. Mine, he thought fiercely. And God help anyone else who touched her.
As his gaze slid over her, he frowned. The dark color of the robe emphasized her unnatural pallor and the bruised-looking circles under her eyes. He swore, quickly going to her side. She hadn’t looked that pale against the white porcelain tub. “I thought you were sleeping,” he said as he put an arm around her waist. “You should be in bed.”
“I’m too hungry to sleep,” she told him, releasing the doorframe to lean against him instead. She smiled over at James. “Hi, James.”
James glanced back at her and his eyebrows flew up. “Wow, Sian, you’re white as a sheet,” he said as the microwave beeped. “Damn, Diego, how many times did you bite her, anyway?”
The slight reproach in James’s voice was all it took to bring Diego’s fangs out. How dare James accuse him of harming his mate? He pushed the unexpected surge of anger aside, astonished at its ferocity. Something was definitely going on here. He’d felt responsible for her before, had been concerned for her safety, but nothing like this.
Sian answered before his silence became noticeable. “Four times, if I remember correctly,” she said. She smiled up at Diego but her eyes were concerned and he knew she’d sensed his anger before he’d banished it.
“Which is probably three times more than I should have,” he added. Much as he hated to admit it, James was right to be concerned. Her pallor proved he’d taken too much. He glanced back over his shoulder at James. “And I thought you’d decided to never ask about biting again.”
“Yeah, well, somehow it’s not disgusting to imagine nibbling on her neck,” James replied as he retrieved his hot dogs from the microwave. “She is rather delicious looking, as I’m sure you’ve noticed.” He jumped when he turned around and met Diego’s eyes. “Whoa, Diego, what are you pissed about?”
He didn’t need to be told his eyes had changed again. He felt his fangs pressing against his lower lip. “Watch your mouth, boy, or I’ll watch it for you,” he growled. How dare James look at her with lust on his mind?
James’s eyes widened and he seemed at a loss for words for the first time since Diego had known him. “Hey, take it easy,” he managed at last, his tone low and soothing as if he spoke to a wild animal. “Calm down, man. You think I would be stupid enough to ogle your woman while you’re standing right there? I don’t have a death wish. I was only joking around.”
Diego nodded sharply, aware his arm around Sian had tightened possessively. She broke the tense silence a moment later. “You think I could have one of those hot dogs, James?” she asked, resting her palm a
gainst Diego’s chest in an instinctive move to reassure him as she smiled at the Steward.
James shot one more glance at Diego before replying. “Naah, these aren’t fit for human consumption. In fact I’m not sure there aren’t humans in ‘em.” He checked the package. “Yep, they say it right in the ingredients—soylent green. I saw a couple of steaks in there, you want one?”
“Please,” she said, leaving Diego’s side to sit at the table.
Diego shook himself mentally, banishing the jealousy-fueled rage with difficulty. This was insane. He’d known James from the cradle and he knew to the depths of his soul James had meant no disrespect by his remarks. He walked to the refrigerator and poured a glass of orange juice for Sian, wondering what was wrong with him. Why was he losing his temper at every little thing now? Was this protectiveness how a sire felt for his fledgling? It was a worrying thought but one that made a strange kind of sense. He certainly hadn’t felt like this when Eli had first put the marks on them. It wasn’t like him. He’d always been calm, unshakable, even-tempered.
Now the thought of another man even looking at Sian made him want to break something. It was as though their bond was still tenuous and new instead of completed.
He had the uncomfortable feeling Eli had neglected to tell him something important and he didn’t like it a bit.
When Sian’s steak was done, which didn’t take long since she requested it very rare, James set it beside her and turned to Diego. “This court thing looks bad,” he said, clearly trying to steer conversation back onto safer ground. “It’s definitely going to be a problem, Diego.”
“What’s the problem? That land has been in your family since I gave it to your however-many-times-great grandfather over three hundred years ago. How can they have a case against three hundred years of unbroken ownership?”