“Good point,” Domini spoke up.
Silence loomed with a tense crackle, like the still air before the explosion of a thunderstorm.
Finally, Anjelica asked, “Will you help us, Caramia?”
Mia sighed, and her shoulders slumped, but she put her hand out to stop him when Colin move to come toward her. The weariness and worry that emanated from her disturbed him, no matter how infuriating she was. She faced the women of the Clans.
“Let me think about it,” she answered them. “Just give me some space to think.”
“No!” Justinian protested.
Serisa studied Mia for a few moments, her expression was both worried and calculating. Finally she said, “Very well.”
“Wait, wait, wait, just like the Matri wants.”
Colin glanced at the newcomer and reluctantly answered. “If you don’t like it, leave.”
“My master has chosen to remain. I live to serve, and all that. How about you? Do you always do what you’re told?”
Colin had been sitting alone on a bench at the back of the garden when the blond Manticore Prime came strolling down the path. He’d been out here for a couple of hours, long enough to watch the sky go through a fine pastel sunset and to watch stars and moon come out. He hadn’t exactly been enjoying the solitude, but this was one of the last people he wanted interrupting his thoughts.
“Do you always hang out where you’re not wanted?” Colin answered. He’d been told the pest was named Laurent. “It’s after sunset. Why don’t you people leave?”
“Justinian won’t go until he has what he wants.” Laurent took an uninvited seat on the bench. “Think of me as his interpreter of the modern world. You wouldn’t like Justinian without me around.”
“I don’t like Justinian anyway.”
“Ah, but he’s on his best behavior at the moment. He’s much worse than you imagine—which makes us quite proud of him. But since you boys don’t seem to have a handle on decadence, perversion, and guile, you need my help pointing it out to you. He needs me to keep reminding him how upright, upstanding, and honest you folks really are. Frankly, I don’t know how you good guys manage to have any fun.”
“Nobility has its boring side,” Colin conceded. “But the dragon slaying”—he bared his teeth in a smile—“a manticore’s a type of dragon, isn’t it? and rescuing the fair maiden has its rewards.”
Laurent stretched his long legs out in front of him. “If I read the signs aright, there’s no more maiden-rescuing in your future. Not that your woman isn’t lively enough in bed, I suppose, but to be stuck with only one…”
“I could happily kill you, you know.”
“It’d give you something to do. This place is nice, but dull.”
“You’ve got that right.”
Maybe he was tired and wired, or maybe he missed the mocking camaraderie of his SWAT unit, but Colin almost found the Tribe vampire’s attitude amusing. He didn’t forget the guy was everything mortal legends thought vampires were, though, or that he was at the Citadel because of an agenda that could threaten Mia.
“But while our attempting to kill each other would be diverting, that would be breaking the truce, as I am speaking in friendship,” Laurent went on.
“And how is that?”
“I was only offering my condolences on your bonded state, one Prime to another—as we of the Tribes don’t believe that monogamy is the natural condition for a Prime. Do you know how we avoid the bonding state?”
“No.”
“Do you care?”
“Does it involve violence toward women?” Colin asked, quietly and dangerously serious. His fists were clenched to fight the urge to strike.
Laurent studied him carefully for a moment. “Maybe I shouldn’t have brought up the subject.”
“I guess not.” He forced himself to relax a little.
“She’s a dangerous woman, you know.”
Colin smiled. “I know.”
Laurent shook his head. “Can you control her?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Do you think you can trust her?” These words were spoken with far more seriousness than anything else the Manticore had said. “She’s Garrison’s,” Laurent went on. “Your blood is in her, but so is the Patron’s DNA.” He stood and moved away. “Can a bond overcome birth? Where does her loyalty really lie?”
With those words, Laurent faded into the night. Tribe members were the masters of vanishing into shadows. For all their bad habits, they had a certain dark style.
And he left Colin with dark thoughts. He tried to let Laurent’s words roll off him, to remember that the Manticore was working his own agenda. Of course, that didn’t make everything Laurent said a lie. And there was the matter of trust.
One thing that bothered Colin was how worried Mia had been about having her deeper thoughts read. Fear of violation? Or was she hiding some plan of the Patron’s? He didn’t know, and he hated thinking about it.
It had been a rough couple of days, and it just got rougher and rougher.
Colin tiredly stretched out on the bench and stared up at the night sky for a while. He drifted off for a while, but restless need wouldn’t let him sleep.
After a while he stood up, stretched, and headed back toward the house. “That’s it. Time’s up. She’s had enough time to think.”
A sense of panic drove Mia to sit up and look around frantically. She heard someone move. “Colin?”
“No,” Domini answered from what seemed a long way away.
Mia blinked and rubbed her eyes. It had been dark, and she’d been dreaming and—“Was I asleep?”
“Yes.”
Domini sounded very calm, reassuring. Mia looked toward her. Domini was on the couch on the other side of the bedroom where Mia had been kept before the bonding ceremony. It took Mia a few more moments to piece together the memory of being shown in here and left alone.
She rubbed her eyes again. “I was supposed to be thinking, but I think I just crawled into bed and passed out.”
“You needed the rest,” Domini answered. “They don’t need to sleep as much as we do, so they’ll run us ragged without realizing it.”
“How long was I out?”
“Maybe three hours. Not long, but maybe long enough to help you think straight.” Domini gestured toward a covered tray on a low table near her. “There’s tea and food. Would you prefer coffee?”
Mia got out of bed and crossed the room. Taking a seat in one of the chairs, she eyed Domini. “Did they send you to talk to me because you’re a mortal who’s bonded to a vampire? Are you going to convince me that I can trust you because we have so much in common?”
Domini reached over and flipped the tray covering. The scent of Earl Grey tea perfumed the air, and Mia’s stomach began to rumble at the sight of a plate of sandwiches, and another one piled with fancy cookies.
“We do have a lot in common,” Domini said, not seeming concerned at Mia’s suspicious attitude. “Though I’m not exactly mortal.” She looked Mia in the eye and added with quiet intensity, “And it is all about trust.”
Mia poured herself a cup of tea, spooned in sugar, then snatched up half a sandwich. It was ham and cheese, and she ate it in three bites. Then she gulped down the wonderfully warm, sweet tea. She tried the cookies next.
She sighed when she was done, and the plates were mostly empty. “What do you mean, not exactly?” she asked, looking the other woman over curiously. “Are you turning into a vampire?” A jolt of alarm ripped through her. “Will I?”
Domini gave her a stern look. “Even the most amateur hunters know better than that.”
Mia let out a relieved sigh. “Okay, I forgot that one for a moment. But if you’re not—”
“I will eventually become a vampire,” Domini said. “It’s rare, but it sometimes happens. But the only reason I can change is because my grandmother is a vampire. My grandfather is mortal. And—here’s where what you and I have in common comes in�
��he’s from a family of hunters. Actually, he’s from a family of Purists.” When Mia looked at her blankly, she said, “You don’t know about the Purists?”
“I know very little about hunters,” Mia said.
“You were trying to find them, Tony said. But you didn’t know where to find them?”
Mia nodded.
“That tells me that your great-grandfather has no interest in legally hunting rogue vampires. Tony is our local liaison with the hunters. Since we found out the Patron’s name, Tony has been trying to find out if the hunters know anything about Garrison. Though they have the family name in their database, no one has heard of him. If he’s so rich and wants to hunt vampires, why send an untrained female out alone, when there are official resources he could contribute to?” She clasped her hands over a raised knee, and tilted her head to one side. “My guess is that the old man set you up as bait. But you need to make up your own mind about him.”
Mia poured herself more tea and gave Domini a skeptical look. “Then what are you here to influence me about?”
Domini smiled. “About your place in vampire society.”
“You mean about where my loyalties should lie?”
“About trust. You have to make up your mind who deserves your trust.”
Mia put the fine china cup down so hard it rattled the other dishes. “Hey! I don’t know you.”
“You know me better than you do your great-grandfather. At least you’ve spent more time with me.”
Mia had to nod her agreement to this.
“I know that Earl Grey is your favorite tea—and that when Colin offers you the choice, you’re going to take the ruby instead of the diamond.”
“What?”
“Sorry.” Domini tapped her forehead. “Having a psychic episode. I get flashes of future events. Junk stuff, usually. But that brings me back to how hunters and vampires are really a lot alike, and how this knowledge will help you make a more informed decision about helping find the Patron.”
“How are hunters and vampires alike?”
“There’s a lot of psychic talent in both groups, and they intermarry a lot more than either will admit.” She held up a hand and leaned forward earnestly while Mia digested this information. “But the decision about the Patron is still yours.”
Mia remembered how adamant Colin had been about her helping him on his Patron-smashing quest. “You think so?”
“Oh, the boys will huff and puff and try to guilt you into living up to their noble ideals, and Colin will be the worst. But they won’t make you do what they want. They are the good guys.”
“The Manticores aren’t good guys.”
“No,” Domini agreed. “The Manticores, and the other Tribes like them, are one of the reasons that some mortal vampire hunters still exist. The Tribes are the reason that the Purists still hunt all vampires, and that even the more reasonable hunters will never completely trust the Clans or the Families. As long as the Purists exist, vampires can never completely trust mortals. People like Garrison, people who use anybody for their own selfish reasons, just make it harder for everybody to trust anybody.” Domini uncurled herself from the couch and stood. “But the point is still, who do you trust? Who’s your family? And what are you going to do about it? That’ll be Colin,” she added, just before a knock sounded on the door.
Mia watched Domini open the door and glide out as Colin entered and announced, “We have to talk.”
Chapter Twenty-one
“Oh, for crying out loud! Hasn’t there been enough talking? There’s a couple of ham sandwiches left,” Mia added as her bondmate crossed the room.
He was wearing jeans and a tight black T-shirt that emphasized his leanly muscled body, and she couldn’t help but appreciate how good he looked. They’d only been separated for a few hours, but seeing him sent a surge of longing through her. More than a strong physical reaction, a sense of security blossomed up from some deep part of her now that he was with her.
The front part of her brain could argue that this was a false sense of well-being, but it didn’t argue hard at the moment. Besides, it had never been the front part of her brain that was attracted to Colin. She’d gone on instinct with him from the first.
Which was probably not good in the long run. Or was instinct what mattered? Where did trust come from? The gut, or the logic center of the brain?
It’s lust, she reminded herself. It rhymes with trust, but it’s not the same thing.
And just where does the heart come into it?
“How’s the thinking coming along?” he asked.
“I think I’m thinking too much about anatomy,” she answered. “Or maybe it’s philosophy. Either way, it doesn’t make any sense.”
“Anatomy, huh?” He picked up a sandwich and settled on the wide arm of her chair. “What did Domini want?” he asked around a bite of food, and put a hand on her shoulder. The contact between them was as electric as ever, even if he had been touching her like this an awful lot lately. There was something proprietary about this touch, this one spot of contact that linked him to her.
She leaned sideways, letting her shoulder and head touch his side. His hand moved from her shoulder to the back of her neck, and his thumb began to work at muscles she hadn’t realized were tense.
“Domini was being a cheerleader for your side,” she answered.
“My side?”
She sighed, partly in exasperation, partly because what he was doing felt good. “Oh, don’t get all huffy.”
“Have you picked a side yet?”
“I’ve been adopted into Clan Reynard, haven’t I?”
“Bonded.”
“It’s the same thing.”
It amazed her that neither of them were speaking these words in anger. There was tension between them, all right, but her body was growing tight with desire.
“Have you thought about the Patron?”
“Some. Mostly I took a nap.”
“That wasn’t very productive.”
“I dreamed about you.”
“As you should. Was I naked?”
She gave a snort of laughter, and as she did, Colin somehow managed to slide down from his perch to squeeze himself beside her in the plush armchair. It was a tight fit, one that made her pleasantly aware of every bit of Colin’s hard, toned body.
“We need to talk,” he said, and kissed the back of her neck. Then his lips brushed the side of her throat, and up to her ear.
The breath caught in her throat, but Mia managed to say, “Keep doing that, and we won’t be able to talk.”
Wanna bet?
She laughed. Not out loud, but inside her head, sharing her amusement with him on the psychic level. Desire bubbled up from the laughter, and burst like sparks that heated from the soul out to the skin.
It’s been hours, he thought. I missed you.
She felt the truth in the thought.
Who would have thought the truth could be so sexy? It sent desire rippling through her in a way that was strong, deep, and devastating. There was a new level calling to her here. A challenge to go beyond everything she’d experienced before.
Mia liked challenges.
I like you thoughtful, Colin.
Colin. The name had taste and texture, color and depth, in her mind. Sweet, spicy taste, scarlet silk and sharp iron entwined in texture, shifting changing color of fire.
Caramia.
He thought her name, and she became aware of his response to her—the velvet touch of yellow roses, the taste of cinnamon candy, warm coffee with cream and lots of sugar, the rush of wind during free fall.
All the great guitar solos ever played burned through them: Eric and Carlos and Jimi and Lenny and—
After a while, Mia managed to pull back into herself enough to think, This is so, so—
Psychedelic?
Yeah. Don’t you have any Coldplay in there?
Me, I like Metallica.
She found her voice. “Does this sort of thing happen
often?”
“I don’t know—I’m new here.” His voice sounded raw with desire, with emotions he’d never known before.
Mia knew how he felt. Not only because she felt new herself, but because they were bound together. They were in this together.
She opened her eyes, to find herself gazing into Colin’s. And she realized that her eyes hadn’t been closed; they’d just been lost in each other.
“Nice,” she said.
He pulled her into his lap, and his hand came up under her shirt to stroke her breasts. “Nicer,” he said.
His fingertips barely touched her, barely moved, spreading a slow fire from the outside in.
He held her still, not letting her move. And he kept on caressing and kissing her with the slowest and gentlest of touches. He stripped her of her clothes, but without any hurry, thoroughly stimulating every new bare spot, taking delight in learning her responses. He took such delight in her body, it was as if he was discovering her sensuality for the first time.
It made her feel like this was their first time, as well.
But Colin’s subtlety kept her a millisecond away from the desperately desired cataclysm, driving her crazy.
Before long, she was begging him for more.
“More?”
He loved being in control of her pleasure—and it was fine with her.
“More.” She let out a long, desperate moan. Everything. Anything. “Colin!”
His triumphant laugh bubbled through her like champagne. He picked her up and swung her around with a speed more than human, so fast that the room swirled into blurred colors. She threw her head back against his shoulder and let the roller-coaster ride take her even further away from herself, further into her need for him.
She was dizzy in every possible way when he finally dropped her on the bed.
“This is like skydiving without a chute!” She held her arms up toward him.
He undressed so quickly, she was only aware of a blur and of clothes being tossed all over the room.
Colin was laughing when he dropped on top of her. His mouth covered hers even as she gasped. His tongue swirled and teased, drawing her even further toward rapture. But the kiss didn’t last nearly long enough.
I Hunger for You Page 15