Heir to the Coven

by Melissa Leister

  Instead of backing away from me, Anton reached out and tipped up my chin so he could stare down into my eyes. I could have pulled away, but I stood my ground, daring him to push the game farther. He said, “Her eyes were rubies set in snow, her tongue sharper than her taloned hands. She prefers the heat of combat to the warmth of the bed, and men who risk the taste of her lips are bound to wind up dead.”

  I stared up into his dark gaze like one in a trance. It was no longer bravado that kept me glued in place, it was the desire to be this close to him. My mouth fell slightly open so that my breath came out from between my lips. “That was beautiful. You’re a poet Anton. I never would have guessed.”

  “Why does that surprise you?”

  “Poetry is about the depths of the soul and you are about the cold calculations of the mind.”

  “You inspire me.”

  I rolled my eyes. “If you start spouting To His Coy Mistress I am going to laugh in your face.”

  “I hardly see the parallels.”

  “Well the point of that poem was to get in someone’s pantalets and that is your goal here isn’t it? Unless you literally want us to try to make the sun run away from its blue berth in the heavens, but I don’t think that would end well for one us.”

  “Who read you that poem the first time you heard it Natasha?”

  Honestly I did not remember, but since Anton was asking I assumed the answer was him. “Being able to recite does not mean you can compose.”

  “There is much you do not know about me. As there is much I do not know about you.”

  “Such as?” I was still standing there with my chin held up by his hand. I knew I should move away, but this was a new side to him. Who knew accusing a man of threatening rape would lead here?

  “Such as where you vanished off to after we got the enemy off our door step? Where your little blond playmate went since you used to be joined at the hip and you are here and he is not? And most tantalizingly, why you have eaten enough sweet garbage that I can smell the sugar exuding from your pores?”

  Suddenly we were on dangerous ground and I had stupidly let him lead me here. Two of the questions I really could not answer for him unless I outright lied and one I could sort of answer with a simple, “my playmate and I parted ways,” but that still left a door open that needed to remain closed. Instead I said, “That’s easy. I vanished off to join the circus. I made a real attraction in the freak show. My playmate, as you called him, is hidden away in a nice little condo two towns over so that you think you’ve got a shot with me while we meet up to screw each others’ brains out every other night.”

  I knew I took it too far when his hand moved from my chin to my throat and his eyes turned crimson to match mine. “Lies! If you had a lover I would smell him on you.”

  “I scrub up real nice before I come to visit you. In fact that’s why I’m such a chocoholic these days, he knocked me up.” I regretted it the instant I said it because I could feel the hand at my throat begin to quiver.

  “You are not with child. Tell me you are not!”

  Anton had a reason to be freaked; well he would if he cared about more than getting in my pants. It was a very rare thing for a half-caste woman to get pregnant, especially if she were strong. Only one kind of immortality the saying went; eternal youth or children. If she got pregnant past the normal child bearing age of a human woman it usually led to a miscarriage or death for the mother before the child was born. At my age a pregnancy was a death sentence. It was a strange way to find out I registered as more than the chase. “I’m sorry, Anton. That was unkind.”

  He pulled away from me. I could see he was visibly shaking now and I felt horrible. He cared. He truly cared. I moved slowly so he did not think I was going to attack him from behind and placed my hand on his shoulder. I felt awkward and uncomfortable trying to comfort him over the hurt I had caused, I was used to killing vampires not wiping their noses. He turned to face me and all I could do was whisper over and over that I was sorry. I don’t know how it happened because I am not the hugging type, but I found my arms were wrapped around him and I was rubbing his back. His hold on me was tentative at first and then his arms clamped down around me like vices as if he would pull me inside his chest. After a few moments I pulled my head back to ask if he was ok now and our gazes locked. Anton leaned down towards me and -

  The door banged open.

  “GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Tristan roared. He pelted across the room towards us.

  As I prepared to defend myself, I realized I had the perfect view of Anton’s back as he stepped in front of me. Calmly, yet forcefully he said, “Control yourself Tristan.”

  The other vampire froze in his tracks. “Master?”

  “You will turn around and walk back out that door. You will shut it behind you and tell no one of what you saw.”

  “She attacked five of our men; three at the gate and those two imbeciles on the floor. This is all part of her game to cloud your judgment while she makes you, and by extension us, her playthings. Do not let her do it!”

  “I repeat, you will turn around and walk out that door. You will not speak of this to anyone or I will make sure you never speak of anything again. Am I understood Tristan?”

  “Please, Master.”

  “NOW!” Anton’s voice echoed off the walls. I was tempted to hold my hands over my ears to block the sound.

  “Yes, Master.” Tristan bowed and did as he was told.

  I resisted the urge to say what I would have done instead of the second warning and used the opportunity to put some distance between Anton and myself. He could cross the distance in the time it took me to inhale, but my head was clearer away from him. I could see the annoyance on his face when he turned back to me and saw I was halfway across the room.

  “A telling move,” he said. “What was your reason for coming here tonight Natasha?”

  “You mean beside being a pain in the ass and raiding your fridge?”

  Anton sighed. “If I asked you to stop the verbal sparring for the evening would it do me any good?”

  “Most of the time no, but considering where it got me tonight and how much trouble it got me in with Rainor after my last visit here, I’ll try to behave.”

  “Thank you.”

  I got down to business and told him what had happened to Kain earlier in the evening and then I told him about the two out of town vampires that came after me a few nights ago.

  He latched onto the set of claw marks I had earned. “You were injured by these encroaching maggots?”

  “It healed almost instantly. The only damage done was to a shirt I really liked, but no big deal. I was more worried about what the maggots’ presence outside that house meant, but thank you for your concern.”

  We discussed it for a short while in code so that no one listening would hear that we could be onto their nefarious plan. I did not tell him about Kain’s possible involvement. Vampires were all the kill first and never ask questions later type and I didn’t want Anton going after anyone in my coven for any reason. If Kain were guilty, I would take care of him. But I did have a plan that would have my people keeping an eye on his and vice versa.

  “I have one idea on how we can help each other here,” I said. “But I’m not sure how it will go over with either of our people. What if we make patrolling the city a team effort? That way there are no misunderstandings of who belongs to you and who is an intruder and it gives all of us extra fire power if something breaks out from an invading force.”

  Anton chuckled. “I’m sorry, Natasha, but the way you twisted your hair around your finger when you said that reminded me of-”

  “Of what?”

  “Of when you were a little girl. You were trying to convince me to let you attend a vampire ball, which no half-caste would ever have been invited to before the war let alone during it. When I said no you threw half my wardrobe in the fire. I never knew a six year old could be so vindictive.”

  “I don’t remember yo
u finding it that amusing at the time. As I recall you growled at me and sent me to bed without dinner. I hate when you do that.”

  “Do what?”

  “Bring up my childhood. It’s even more annoying that you’re doing it right after I said I’d try to stop the verbal sparring for the evening. I can’t retaliate.”

  “Perhaps I like to remember when you didn’t look at me with wary suspicion, instead of trying to irritate you as you seem to suspect I always am.”

  “I’ll stop looking at you that way when you stop giving me reason to.” There was an unexpected bite to my voice. I might be physically capable of going for hours after most humans would have dropped, but emotional stuff was draining on everyone and the tone in my voice reminded me of how drained I was. Too much emotional crap had happened this evening and I needed to go home and crawl in bed. “I’m going to go before we wind up fighting again. Talk to your people and let me know. I’ll brooch this with mine in the morning.”

  “How do you think they will respond?”

  “About the same way yours will only with vampire used in the insults instead of half-caste. I’ll take it to Rainor first, but only if he is dead set against it will I leave it drop.”

  “Good night Natasha,” Anton said. “Pleasant dreams.”

  “And to you.”

  Chapter 15

  Given all the changes in my life recently, I should not have been surprised that the past was haunting my thoughts much the way speculations about my return had haunted my dreams before my blood stilled again and I banished the voices to an ignorable whisper. But there was a difference. What spoke to me now were the shadowy ghosts of things gone by and they could not be ignored because they were facts. Everywhere I went in this city there was a memory of something or someone that I had had buried in my mind for decades while I lived a rootless, heedless life. Now that I was back, it was all coming out to enjoy its new found freedom. Since the last person I had spoken to tonight had been Anton, it should not have surprised me that I dreamed of our past. At least that is what I told myself. Even though I feared this particular memory had more to do with what almost happened between us tonight than simply being an unwinding of my tired mind after a long day.

  I don’t remember closing my eyes, my last memory was of trying to find the right words to tell the coven they were about to take a step closer to the vampires, but shortly after I laid down in my bed, I was twenty-six years back, with eggplant purple hair cut into a bob that stopped at my left cheekbone on one side and at my chin on the right side. I was I standing in the office of the club Anton used to run with two of his guards turning to ash behind me.

  “I told you I would be back for your answer, vampire. Here I am.”

  “You killed my guards?”

  I quirked a brow at him. “Nothing is getting by you is it? Yes, I killed your guards as you can clearly see.”

  “How am I supposed to explain that?”

  “Tell Vincent that they weren’t very good at their job and now he has the opportunity to find better underlings to take their places. No thanks are necessary by the way.”

  He gave me an impatient look. “Somehow I doubt he will see it as a favor. I could pitch their deaths as your idea of entertainment, which I suspect is the real answer for why you killed them instead of just incapacitating them, but what reason am I going to give him for why you are here after he refused your offer?”

  “How did you live this long not knowing how to lie?” I deposited myself in one of the chairs facing his desk and propped my feet up on the desk. My boots left little piles of dirt on the shiny wood. I could tell he wanted to wipe it away, but thought it would seem too prissy. He was right. “You tell dear Vincent that some nameless half-caste tried to kill you and your guards died in the line of duty.”

  “What about the body he will want to see since I am alive and that would mean I killed my would be assassin?”

  “Fine. Tell him it was me and I wanted to prove that you could be gotten to at any time and place to get you to make him agree to my deal before Gregory sent a real assassin.”

  “He might buy that.”

  “He should, it’s true. But if he doesn’t, kill him and as your new ally I will help you take the vampire throne for yourself.” I could tell he was intrigued by that idea from the way his dark eyes glowed at me. “Imagine us running the city together.”

  Anton stared down at me as if trying to read from my face if I was serious or merely setting him up for a fall. For an instant I thought he might agree, but he stepped away and went to sit behind the desk. “It is an interesting offer Natasha, but I would not betray my Master anymore than you would betray Rainor. Because unless you are willing to kill him to take control of the coven, you are making promises you do not have the power to keep.”

  I put my feet down and leaned across the desk. “What makes you think I am not speaking on his behalf or that he is the only Master I serve? Maybe I am making a promise in another’s name. Someone Rainor cannot refuse or rebuke.”

  He went very, very still and he was very, very attentive. “What exactly are you saying to me?”

  “I am saying, that if you have the backbone to do what needs to be done to save this city from Gregory’s caste, there is much in it for you. I have very powerful friends.”

  Anton smiled. “So the rumors say. I have never been ambitious-”

  “Ha! You’re only here because you wanted more power than being Lucius’ flunky would allow you. Now you are a second instead of one of the masses. Don’t tell me you aren’t salivating for more power.”

  “Very well, I have always been ambitious, as you know, but I am also cautious where my life is concerned. It has been my experience that you cannot advance in life if you are dead.”

  I blinked and said, “You may want to rephrase that since you are basically dead anyway.”

  “There are varying degrees of dead Natasha. If I were as dead as you imply, would I be able to do this?” His long fingers reached out to where my hand rested on his desktop and slowly began making circles on the top of my hand. It made me feel drowsy. I pulled my hand away. “If I am to do this there is one thing I require to risk Vincent’s ire and agree to this alliance behind his back. An act of good faith that you are not setting me up, or a final act of mercy if this goes awry shall we say.”

  “And that is?”

  “I want you in my bed Natasha. One night with your flesh against mine and nothing between us but the space you need to breathe.”

  In a flash I was on my feet and at the door faster than anyone who was not a vampire would have been able to see, but Anton was not only able to see it, he matched me and got there first, blocking my escape. “It is never a safe thing to put yourself between me and an exit bloodsucker. Move.”

  “Answer me.”

  “I am no one’s dessert!”

  “One night does not make you a dessert. Blood and years of service do that. And one night is all I am asking of you.” His eyes had run over me from head to foot and blazed red.

  “Well, I don’t ‘service’ anyone and I have enough vampire blood in me, thanks. Besides, we both know that the second I fall into your bed you’ll tell everyone that I am your creature to command.”

  “I hate this garish hue you have chosen for your hair. Purple,” he said as if we had not been discussing my prostituting myself for him a moment before. He reached out to stroke my hair, but I smacked his hand away. Anton smiled. “Such a rare thing you are Natasha. So close to being a vampire and yet still so human in your responses. I can be discreet, in fact my life often depends on that and in this case if things go badly and it’s learned I went against Vincent and lost our city for a piece of half-caste ass, my life will be over.”

  “Are you saying you want me, but I’m not worth dying over? You do know how to flatter a girl brother dear. I think I liked your first version of a come on better, you at least tried to pretty it up.”

  Anton snarled, as he always did
when I called him brother. “No one is worth dying for Natasha; even you.”

  “Is that why you left me? Better to give me over to the Elders than to possibly die trying to protect me from Lucius?”

  “That is what you hold against me?”

  “That is why I guard against you Anton. Your motto is ‘survival at all costs’, mine is ‘never count on anyone’.”

  He sneered then. “Is that what you say to your boy? Oh, I’ve surprised you. Yes, I know about you two. I saw him take you against the wall of that abandoned building after you wiped out all twelve of the vampires who were inside. I knew before that, but the visual was quite spectacular.”

  “You perverted son of a bitch!”

  “Why not admit he is the reason you refuse me?”

  “Leave him out of this!”

  “Only if you will. What do you care about more, Natasha? Your city or your lover?”

  I turned it around on him. “Why do you want to get me into bed Anton? To prove you can or because you know this is the only way you could ever have me?”

  His hands lashed out to grasp my upper arms. Ten claws dug into my flesh as he yanked me towards him. I could feel little trickles of blood sliding down my skin. The cuts would not heal up until his claws were removed so the blood kept flowing. It made me shiver. As did the knowledge that he was going to kiss me.

  And he did kiss me.

  Anton’s lips were cool, not icy, and they did not give my lips a choice about parting to receive them. I freed my arms from the barbs of his nails to wrap them around his neck. His hands slid down my back to my waist as his tongue slipped into my mouth. I had no idea how long we stood there wrapped in each other’s arms before I needed to pull back from him to catch my breath. My fingers were still tangled in his long hair and it was my strength that forced his lips back to mine. Not that he objected. My spine cracked as he pulled me against him tighter. If I were human I would have been paralyzed after that.