by Heaton, F E
The vampires looked at him as though he had gone insane. Vivek growled. They bolted into action, pushing open the door to the basement and bundling through it. They would thank him later. Tynan wouldn’t punish them, not when the werewolves had started it, but it was better it appeared that way to the male werewolf watching him so closely.
Vivek turned to face him, barely eye level with his jaw, and didn’t flinch. “I trust you will see to it that your men are similarly reprimanded?”
Dmitri regarded him, dark eyes impassive and cold, rough features locked in an expression that gave nothing away.
Vivek was all too aware of his position. Before him stood a man who could probably crush his head with one hand. Behind him were several werewolves slowly transforming back into men. He refused to allow either to fluster him.
What did fluster him was the female voice that broke the tense silence.
“Vivek, where in the Devil’s good name have you been?” Sophis strode out of the entrance to the ballroom beneath the first floor balcony.
Vivek dared to look over his shoulder at her.
She stopped dead the moment she noticed the several nude male werewolves in human form surrounding her.
Dmitri laughed.
The harsh sound boomed around the height of the vestibule, so loud it shook the crystals on the grand chandelier.
Vivek had to admit that the horror on Sophis’s face was funny but he wasn’t about to laugh at her plight. Even in human form, these men were a danger to her. One of them took a step towards her and Vivek was across the length of the pale gold room in a flash, blocking the werewolf’s path.
“Go back into the ballroom, Sophis,” Vivek said.
She didn’t move. “What the Devil have you got yourself into this time?”
It was just like her to think that he had started something. Why couldn’t she give him the benefit of the doubt?
“I trust you will see to things with your men, Dmitri?” He stared across the room at the large werewolf, unwilling to leave until he had his word that he would punish the men now surrounding him and Sophis.
“Da... da.” Dmitri gave a dismissive wave of his hand and then snarled.
Vivek sensed Sophis tense behind him. Whatever the man had said in wolf speak it called off the dogs. The men broke away, snarling at each other and gathering the remnants of what looked to have been their uniforms. Vivek grabbed Sophis’s arm and pulled her away from them. He didn’t think she would dare look at a nude werewolf but he wasn’t going to hang around to find out.
He pushed her into the ballroom ahead of him and closed the double doors behind them.
“You want to explain to me what I just walked in on?” Sophis paced a short distance from him, the sharp click of her boots on the parquet floor echoing around the high ceiling of the ballroom, and then turned to face him.
Vivek looked around them at the servants laying out glasses on the long tables that lined the far wall of the ballroom underneath the balcony that ran around three sides of the pale elegant room, and the people setting up the orchestra on the stage to his left near the entrance. With so many ears in the room, it wasn’t a good place for an argument, especially one with a delicate subject.
“I found some of our guards about to get into a fight with some werewolves and I helped stop it before things got bloody. Satisfied?”
She didn’t look satisfied, or at all like she believed him. He blew out a sigh and told himself to let it go. What did it matter if she believed him or not? He knew what had happened out there and what he had stopped from happening. She could have come out in the middle of a bloodbath and seen him trying to part the two sides and she still would have thought he had started it.
He really had to do something to fix that opinion she had of him.
She was sucking all the fun out of the night before it had even begun.
“How are preparations going?” he said and she gave him an odd look before answering.
“Well. Almost everything on my list is done.”
He waited, and waited, and then realised that she wasn’t going to ask him.
“I have spoken to all the guards who will be on duty inside the mansion, and have relayed orders to those assigned to the grounds,” he said, determined to show her that he had been doing his duty and not shirking his responsibilities. If he didn’t mention everything he had done, she would probably think he had been lounging around in the guards’ rooms or seducing her best friend. Thankfully Ella had avoided him since Sophis had sent her down during their fight. “Only the top guards have been selected for assignment inside the house. The attendees should be safe. I hear there will be Law Keepers in attendance too.”
Sophis frowned. “You’re very congenial tonight.”
Vivek lifted his shoulders in an easy shrug. So what if he was? He had been waiting for tonight since Tynan have given them their orders and had been training hard in between his duties so he was ready for anything.
Including dancing.
“Are you going to dance?” It slipped out before he could consider how she would react to such a question.
She looked more horrified now than she had when faced with naked werewolves. “We’re here on duty... you’re not seriously going to dance are you?”
“Of course I am.” There was no point in denying it now that it was out in the open and it wasn’t as though he would be forgetting his duties by dancing. He could easily dance and keep an eye on Lord Timur, and it would look strange if he didn’t dance at all and someone noticed. “I have never been to a Creator Day masquerade and I am not likely to attend one ever again as a guest.”
“Do I really have to remind you that you’re not here as a guest? You are here as a guard.”
Vivek waved her away. He didn’t care. Guest. Guard. Both. He was going to dance whether she liked it or not.
“You know we can dance with members of another bloodline... we can let ourselves go and not fear the laws that bind us,” he said.
Her look soured further and her tone turned snappish. “Do you often want to break the law?”
This wasn’t going well. All he had wanted to hear was her saying that she might dance and to admit that she was the tiniest bit excited about attending the ball. He searched her dark brown eyes, trying to pick out even a glimmer of excitement. They were as black and menacing as a stormy ocean.
He thought about telling her to loosen up, even lost his mind for a moment and considered asking her to dance with him if she was afraid of dancing with another partner, and then sighed and walked away from her, pretending to scout the ballroom and leaving her to be caustic at someone else.
He was tired of it tonight.
When he had done a lap of the ballroom and was close to Sophis again, he said, “I will finish my final preparations and then I am going to dress.”
She didn’t look at him, just muttered something under her breath that he didn’t listen to. Vivek opened the doors and walked out into the entrance hall, glad to see that the werewolves were gone and everything was back in order. He went down into the basement, heard Tynan shouting at the guards who had fought the werewolves, and then headed down a narrow set of steps to the lower basement and the cells.
The dark stone walls and floor lent a chill to the air and the intermittent ceiling lights did nothing to chase back the gloom.
He stopped outside the cell that contained the dead hunter. He hadn’t turned yet. He lay slumped in a heap on the flagstones, shrouded in darkness. Maybe the man wasn’t enhanced after all or maybe his first estimation had been right and it would take days for the man to turn. Marise had reported that it had been several days between when she had killed the hunter and when he had awoken as a vampire.
The moment this man turned, Vivek was going to question him, even if that meant leaving the ball. They needed to know what Aleksis was planning. He went back up the stone steps and waited as the group of guards exited Tynan’s office and passed him, heading towards t
he rest rooms. Vivek walked down the dimly lit corridor to Commander Tynan’s office door and knocked.
“Enter.”
Vivek pushed the door open. Tynan stopped midway through buttoning the cuff on his dress jacket. The black material hugged his figure, tailored perfectly to emphasise his broad shoulders and narrow waist. It covered him to just above his knees and the stand-up collar reached his jaw. Would such an elegant garment be awaiting Vivek in his quarters when he returned? Many of the males attending the ball wore clothing similar to it. Tynan’s had pale blue embroidery around the cuffs, hem, collar and the twin lines of buttons that formed a V down the front. It matched the colour of their bloodline’s eyes in their true form.
“Can we spare two guards to watch the hunter?” Vivek said and Tynan smiled.
“Already taken care of. I have an elite guard and one of your squad assigned to it.”
Vivek knew without asking that it would be the elite guard who came for him or Tynan if the hunter awoke during the ball. A guard below that rank wouldn’t be allowed to enter.
“Shouldn’t you be getting dressed?” Tynan raised an eyebrow at Vivek’s uniform. “You cannot go looking like that.”
He nodded. “As soon as I finish my preparations, I will return to my quarters to dress.”
“And Sophis?”
Vivek was struck by a desire to ask whether Tynan knew what both of them would be wearing, but discounted it as a foolish question. Both Tynan and Timur would know so they could pick them out from the guests. An urge to ask Tynan another question replaced it.
What would Sophis be wearing?
He wanted to recognise her too.
“She is finishing up in the ballroom,” he said instead and let the question fade away.
If Tynan wanted them to recognise each other, he would have already told them as much and shown them their outfits or gone as far as making them change into them so they wouldn’t fail to spot the other.
Tynan saluted him and Vivek responded, nodded and left the room, heading for his quarters.
He would have to find Sophis another way.
He paused mid-step and then continued, not wanting to ponder that thought and why he desired to find her. He wasn’t seriously considering tracking her down in order to make her dance.
He didn’t really want her to be the woman she used to be around him, to forget her duty for one night and seize a moment of freedom with him.
He didn’t need it with a ferocity that surprised him.
Vivek hurried up the steps to the entrance hall, crossed it and then ascended the stairs to the first floor. He checked each room to ensure that it was secure for their guests and then turned at the end of the gaily decorated corridor, heading up the next flight of steps to the second floor.
His quarters were small, as were all the rooms on this floor, but they were still a sign of prestige. Most of the guards and servants slept in the basement. He had been down there once, sharing rooms with his fellow younglings. It had taken him years of hard work to elevate himself from servant to guard, and then up the ranks to where he was today.
A growl escaped him as he passed Sophis’s door.
She had managed it far quicker than he had. She was fifty years his junior and he could still remember the day that she had come to them, newly turned by one of the high-ranking members of the bloodline, weak and pathetic.
Alluring.
Vivek cursed that thought. She wasn’t alluring at all.
He shoved the door to his quarters open and slammed it behind him.
She was a liability.
Vivek collapsed back against the door and closed his eyes. A beautiful liability.
She materialised in the darkness of his mind, fading into view, dressed not as she normally was in her stiff black uniform. An elegant corseted black dress hugged her figure and defined every curve that he had ever had the luck of seeing during training when she wore tight camisoles and sweat pants. It swept low across her chest, revealing the swell of her breasts and the sublime sloping arch of her bare throat that only bore a single faded bite mark. Layers of fine black fabric clung from the waist down, teasing him with the thought of lifting her skirt to find the long toned legs they concealed.
His body hardened in response to the fantasy and he didn’t have the strength left in him to deny that the epiphany he’d had earlier wasn’t the result of fighting, or bloodlust, or any of the excuses he had dreamed up.
He wanted her.
Not just physically.
He wanted to possess her, to protect her and shield her from the darkness in their world. He needed to have her in his arms, nestled close to his body, safe and sound. He desired to shut her away so she might never come to harm again.
He wanted it but knew that he could never go through with it.
She would never allow it.
Nor would she ever believe him capable of loving her.
Could he change that at least?
Could he rectify the mistakes he had made with her and make her see that she was the reason that he had changed, that he only wanted to protect her and keep her safe?
It seemed impossible.
She would still hate him for everything he had ever done to her.
She had chosen to be a guard, to place herself in danger in order to protect her bloodline, and he should have honoured and respected that, not sought to cage her just because he had developed feelings for her.
Rather than pushing her away, he should have held her closer.
He should have told her.
Vivek opened his eyes and stared at the thick black folder resting on the dark blue covers of his bed. It bore the crest of his bloodline in silver-blue. Beside it was his clothing, neatly folded. Black. Unsurprisingly.
Could this mission give him a chance to make things right between him and Sophis?
If he could find her in amongst the guests and could convince her to dance, he might be able to confess that he had been wrong, apologise to her and break the cycle of his behaviour. He might be able to explain and make her see that he had only acted the way he had because he needed her and didn’t know how to tell her or what to do about it. That he lashed out sometimes and did stupid things because he feared that she would never reciprocate the feelings for her that burned in his heart like an eternal flame.
Because he was in love with her.
If he could have her in his arms for just one dance, just one brief heartbeat of time, he was sure that he could change the path of things between them.
CHAPTER 7
Vivek pushed away from the door, gathered his robe and shower things, and left his room. He walked down to the end of the corridor and the communal bathrooms there. Ella was there with two other females as he entered, all of them dressing after their showers. She stopped towelling her wet blonde hair and her blue gaze came to rest on him. Vivek moved away before she could say anything, hurrying into the side of the large room assigned to the male guards. He didn’t want to see her.
He didn’t want word that he had been sighted speaking with Ella reaching Sophis. Not tonight. He needed everything to go as well as he could expect, which wasn’t well at all, but he was willing to take the risk and give it a shot.
Thoughts of Sophis occupied his mind as he showered in one of the cubicles, his senses sometimes reaching out through the haze of water to see if he could sense her on the same floor as him. Would she bathe before dressing for the ball? The thought of her naked and wet had his body responding before he could do something to stop it. His cock stiffened until it was excruciatingly hard and it was difficult to ignore the urge to touch himself. With a swift flick of his wrist, he shifted the tap over to cold and braced himself as icy water rained down on him. His desire instantly deflated, a shiver running over his skin as the water sapped his warmth. He couldn’t risk losing too much body heat. It would take a long time to recover it and he needed his reflexes sharp not dampened by cold muscles. He turned the water towards hot again, s
tood under the jet until his skin felt as though it would blister under the heat, and then shut it off.
Vivek exited the stall and went back to the hook where he had left his white robe. He slipped it on and slowed down again as he fastened the belt around his waist. What would Sophis look like in a dress? Would she look as she did in his mind?
Was it possible for her to look more beautiful than she did normally?
He didn’t notice Seth until the man was standing beside him.
Vivek glanced across at him and then busied himself with drying his hair, scrubbing a towel against the dark unruly lengths until they turned fluffy. Seth didn’t say anything as he undressed, shrugging out of his jacket, his shirt and then stepping out of his trousers.
He walked to the stalls and then stopped, remaining with his back to Vivek.
“I hear you were causing trouble with the werewolves.”
“And who might have told you that?” Vivek knew without asking whom Seth had been speaking to and it turned his blood to fire. Had Sophis gone running to Seth to tell tales on him so they could share a laugh and a snide comment or two at his expense?
Seth looked back over his shoulder, his smile wicked. “I think you and I both know who told me.”
“Leave her alone,” Vivek snarled the words and twisted his hands in his towel to stop himself from doing something he would only regret.
Seth shook his head. “I should be the one saying that, don’t you think? Whatever it is you have against her, I think it’s high time you let it go. She’s a good soldier… better than you… better than me. You’re an idiot if you can’t see that.”
“I can see it.”
Seth’s deep blue eyes widened as though he hadn’t been expecting that response to leave Vivek’s lips. “If you can see it, then why in the Devil’s good and gracious name do you insist on hurting her?”