by Jackie Ivie
Dominick nodded.
“She see anything? Know anything?”
“Not yet.”
“Hmm. I see. I’ll keep in touch. Don’t ignore my messages again. Oh, and Dom?”
Dominick stopped with his finger on the power switch.
“I wouldn’t tell her you just killed her brother-in-law. Or that her sister paid for it. Never mind.”
“What?” Dom’s forehead wrinkled in a frown.
“She’s standing behind you. Catch her before she faints, will you?”
The screen went black.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Shock was an undervalued condition, especially the numb part that seemed to accompany it. Courtney was solidly in its grasp as she rounded the fourth circle of steps in her quest to get out. Her heart pumped madly and she panted from the exertion, but that was better than dealing with what she’d just heard and was expected to believe. No. Wasn’t true. Didn’t happen. Couldn’t be. Nothing like this happened in the world anymore. Well…maybe on some new cable show, but not to her. People from Seattle didn’t end up in some Mediterranean labyrinth; they didn’t have their world blown to smithereens about them; they didn’t wake up with millionaire princes; they wouldn’t fall heavily into passion-drenched lovemaking sessions with them; and they’d never be expected to believe that said wonder-guy was a real-life murderer.
It was bad enough he had vampire delusions and acted on them. No. That didn’t happen either. None of this did. Courtney blinked against a blurred view that smeared the steps into one long snake built of stone. She wasn’t just denying this entire episode. She refused to believe it. Period.
Numbness should’ve gotten her to the top of this damn spiral staircase. She should be racing steps, rather than watching the series of them distort, elongating before her eyes. There was a landing of sorts where the steps semi-vanished into what was probably another floor of his cave mansion. She’d passed three of them. Maybe four. The guy must have ten floors in here. That wasn’t fair.
Fair? What a joke.
She blinked, clearing her vision again, and then she was at the next set of steps. Hearing that self-confirmed asshole, Shawn Elliot, was dead didn’t bother her. Much. He had such an over-inflated vision of himself, the world all of a sudden felt bigger. Her sister using his own money to rid the world of him – now that bore consideration, if and when Courtney got past the bigger one: She’d actually bedded the murderer…and loved every moment of it.
Argh .
Numb was supposed to last longer. Courtney swiped at both cheeks. She wasn’t facing any of it yet. She had time. She had to get this physically grueling climb behind her first, though. It was obvious Apollo/Dominick didn’t need to work out much. All he had to do was climb his stinking stairs.
The man loomed out of the shadowed recess marking the next floor, making her stumble. Courtney grabbed for the rail, wrapped both hands around it, and looked over the precipice at darkness that went a long way down. The steps were safer. She turned back. But that meant she had to face him…and everything that went along with that.
The split dress she’d tied back together with one of his canopy ties was sweat-damp at her waist. She supposed that helped keep it closed. She didn’t have a stitch on beneath it, and silk skimmed and stuck to just about everywhere. She was sticky with sweat. Her heart was pounding so hard she could barely hear her raspy breaths over it. Those breaths were close to taking her to her knees with the strength of them. And that god/man didn’t even look winded. He just looked good. All-over good. She sneered up at him.
“You could…have told me…you had…an elevator.” The words were broken into sections controlled by her panting.
“I do not.”
“You don’t.” She corrected.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Oh stop already, Dominick Miklos…St. Guis. If that is even…your real name.”
“Why would it not be?”
He raised one eyebrow as he asked it, putting way too much emphasis on how gorgeous he was. Her tongue felt swollen. She needed to look at something else. She settled on the cavernous black behind him.
“Why wouldn’t…it be,” she repeated finally.
“That is what I said.”
It was getting easier to breathe. If she kept the conversation littered with trifles, and avoided looking at him, her heartbeat might ease up as well. It was worth a try.
“I heard you. I’m trying…to demonstrate…how it should be said.”
He pulled back and stood to his full height, which was considerable, thanks to that Norman heritage. Then he crossed his arms, putting massive arm size atop ripped abs on display. There was that Norman stuff again, added to by a warrior work-out he probably did. He had one side of his face scrunched in thought. That just highlighted the Greek ancestry. Damn everything, but the guy was stunning, even in that configuration. Courtney nearly sighed aloud with it.
She really needed to look at something else.
“You are correcting me?”
She nodded.
“I do not find it necessary.”
“You don’t.”
“Exactly.”
Subtlety wasn’t working. She should’ve known. Men must have little use for subtle. She was going to have to give him the “it’s been fun, but we’re finished” spiel in words. Courtney inhaled and exhaled four more times, deliberately holding each before sending the air back out. By the final one, her heart felt almost normal.
“Look Dominick. I’m leaving. It’s been…interesting. No…more like—.”
“You cannot leave.”
“Yes I can. And will.”
“It is daylight.”
“So?”
“I cannot go out in daylight.”
Figures. The guy was still working the vampire angle. She should use it to her advantage…and could start now. “Well I don’t have that problem. So, how about we just say goodbye here?”
“I do not say good-bye.”
“ Adieu? ”
He shook his head slowly. Cripes, but the man was stunning. Dense, but stunning. She’d have to give him that, again, and move on.
“ Adios , then.”
“No.”
“Well…I don’t know how you say good-bye in Greek.”
“You do not.”
Courtney gave the resultant frustrated sound through her teeth and slid around him. She moved exactly two steps before he was blocking her again. She hadn’t even seen him move.
“I need to get out, Dominick. I need air. Fresh air.”
“You cannot go outside. It is unsafe.”
“Oh, come on. Stop with the vampire stuff.”
“Stuff?”
“The sunlight burning the skin stuff. The immortal, blood-drinking stuff. You know…stuff.”
“You know of vampires?”
“Who doesn’t? Now, let me pass.”
“It is not safe.”
“Oh, for the love of—. Fine. We’ll play, then. You’re convinced you’re a vampire? Ok. Believe it. No skin off my nose. I’ve heard worse. Watched programs. There are lots of people specializing in delusions of all sorts of things. Including vampires. I, for one, don’t happen to believe in them, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t turned into one last night. I wasn’t…was I?”
She actually looked to him for confirmation. That was stupid. She held her breath awaiting his answer, and that was even more stupid. He finally shook his head. Courtney felt her shoulders relax. She’d been worried? She really needed fresh air!
“That being the case, I can still go outside. Sunlight doesn’t hold the vaguest fear for me. I won’t even get sunburned since I spent weeks going to the tanning salon to work up this tan. So…you may not be able to go outside, but I sure as hell can.”
She moved to go around him. He blocked her again and that was just going to get him all kinds of argument. Somebody should have warned him about that, too.
“I cannot allow you to leave. It is not
safe.”
“You want to try the ‘broken record’ thing again? Fine. Two can play this, too, Buddy.”
“Buddy?” he repeated.
“You keep saying it’s unsafe and I’ll keep repeating my answer, as well. It’s perfectly safe for me. I’m not a vampire.”
“But, it truly is not safe.”
“I can go anywhere. I am not a vampire.”
“You may not have heard. There are Hunters about.”
“Hunters.” It wasn’t a question. It was too absurd to even mouth it.
He nodded.
“What, pray tell, is a Hunter doing in the middle of the Aegean Sea?”
“They are everywhere.”
“Hunting what? Vampires?”
He nodded.
“And…just how do you recognize a Hunter? Do they wear camo?”
“Camo?”
“Or…maybe hunter orange is more their style. They wouldn’t want to shoot each other by mistake, now would they?”
“They give off a smell.”
“A smell.” No matter what she said, he was just as dense and she was just as stuck. “Get out of my way, Dominick. I’m warning you.”
He stepped to one side. Courtney took a second to believe it before stomping her way around another complete spiral in the steps. He met her at the next level, blocking it with about two hundred fifty pounds of man…claiming to be a vampire. That was ridiculous. Vampires didn’t grow to two-hundred and fifty pounds. Unless they were at that size when they became immortal and it never changed. Or…maybe it did change, and they had to consume tons of calories. Blood didn’t have that many calories. Or maybe it did. How the devil was she supposed to know? It had never been listed on her weight-control chart. But cannibals had always looked pretty skinny in pictures. Maybe that’s because they had to exist on jungle forage in the meantime.
Shock did weird things to conscious thought, too, she decided, looking over all that man. Despite any exertion, he still wasn’t breathing hard, and here she was, with a stitch hitting her side. She didn’t care how much he weighed or however he maintained the poundage, it was enough to block her exit. She crossed her arms over her heaving chest and looked up at him.
“How did you get up here?”
He sucked in on a cheek and avoided meeting her eyes; both signs of an upcoming lie. Great, Courtney. Just great.
“I…ran?”
She was in trouble if he resorted to lifting that brow again. He was well aware of it, too.
“You probably flew again. Tell the truth.”
“You would not mind?”
“I wouldn’t mind,” she corrected.
“Truly?”
“Of course I’d mind! I’m correcting your formal, nonsensical pattern of speech, here. It’s the least I can do before getting the hell away from you and then I’m going to fall apart. Is that all right with you?”
“I do not find my speech a problem.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
It was either the content or her tone, but he went from being slightly mussed, affable, and nonchalant, to immediate bristling, virile, and terrifying. If he had a weapon, she’d be facing it. The dropped chin and narrowed eyes were inflicting more than fear. Shit . She’d forgotten. The man was a possible murderer, she was hidden away in some cave with him while the entire world thought she’d vanished, and he was playing at being a blood-sucking vampire, and doing a darn fine job of it.
Courtney’s throat went dust dry and her heart decided to change rhythm, thumping with a two-part maneuver somewhere in her chest. Tap-wham! Tap-wham! Tap-wham!
“I do not appreciate your words.”
She licked her lips. He snarled, revealing very wicked-looking fangs that looked pretty real. Then he lunged forward backing her right into the railing that bit into her tailbone.
“Were you not my mate, you would be dead.”
Dead.
Mate?
Tap-WHAM!
That pulse thump really hurt. Courtney put both hands to her breast to prevent her heart from slamming its way right out of its enclosure. There was a spark in the depths of his eyes again, and it didn’t just flicker away. It was deep red in color…a glowing deep red. She could’ve sworn it contained heat, too. But that was ridiculous. Everything was. There was reality in here somewhere. She needed to find it.
CHAPTER NINE
“You rang?”
Dominick looked at the shadowed desk and wall showing in his screen. He’d sent the message hours ago. It wasn’t worth mentioning. “I need another assignment.”
“The girl?”
“I need to know about a society.”
“This is why you need an assignment?”
Dominick shook his head. “Kelp Evaluators International. KEVIN for short. I cannot locate it in an internet search.”
“That’s because there’s no such thing.”
“There has to be. She said she works for them.”
“Well, she obviously lies. You see, this is why I stay out of complications like mating. It’s a severe waste of time and manpower. Just look what it’s doing to you.”
“What?”
“Sit, St. Guis, and stop prowling. You should change your clothing, too.”
“My clothing?”
“You’re insufferably perfect in dress and manners. Always have been. Insufferably. But look. If my eyes don’t deceive me, you’ve got creases in your trousers, your shirt on backwards, and tell me that isn’t one sock with your shoes. In fact, you almost look human for a change. Mating must really agree with you, lucky dog. You should have requested it sooner.”
“This is not luck. It is the opposite. And I did not request this. I did not even see it coming.”
A heavy sigh came over the speaker. “Nobody ever does. Sit.”
Dom slammed his palms to the table instead and snarled into the laptop screen. “The assignment, Akron?”
“Anything in particular?”
“Massive.”
“As in…?”
“Lots of force required. Physical. Nothing hidden. I have a need to hit something. I need you to fulfill it.”
“I’d heard true love’s a road littered with potholes. You seem to be a perfect example.”
“You amuse yourself at my expense?”
“Apologies, Your Highness. It’s too great an opportunity to miss. I’ve known you for centuries and it’s a pleasure watching your unwavering aristocratic shell develop cracks. A supreme pleasure.”
Dominick shoved away from the table and backed to a far wall to glare at the monitor from there. “You have an assignment or not?”
“I always have assignments. I’m just debating how to respond. You’re rather hot property at the moment – beyond the normal.”
“Hot property?”
“Covert is your style, Dominick. Exposure is not. Anywhere I place you I have to consider the fallout should you get seen.”
“I am never seen.”
“Taking a cute little number like your mate to an assignment will make that a bit difficult, don’t you think?”
“She is not going.”
“On the contrary, she is definitely going. Staying anywhere near your villa at the moment is impossible.”
“The Hunters?”
“They make the authorities look like amateurs. They’ve deployed deep-ocean sonar subs and I have to respond. I’m sending a 4D team as we speak. I’m rather glad you made this call. Otherwise, I’d be interrupting your little love tryst with news of your impending evacuation. Both of you.”
“You will destroy the villa?”
“Only the caves. Destroying that prime chunk of real estate aboveground brings unnecessary complication, and I’ve already got enough of that at the moment. Speaking of…where is your little mate?”
“She is locked in one of my rooms.”
“How positively barbaric.”
“It is her own fault. She would not cease heaping recriminations at me. At ear-blis
tering level.”
“No wonder you want to kill someone. She’s probably hatching plots against you as we speak.”
“I have her on monitor. She is sleeping.”
“Better and better. I almost wish I could accompany you to Colorado.”
“Colorado?”
“In the United States. Four corners Colorado. Coyote area. You wanted a massive assignment, didn’t you?”
Dominick nodded and approached the screen again.
“There’s a cult over there. Normally off the radar. Just a little group of fifty or so. They don’t take well to their members leaving. Seems a young lady tried just that. They found some of her body two days ago. Coyotes are great scavengers but didn’t take care of all the evidence. That young lady’s father has a lot of money and a lot of anger. And now he wants revenge. Anyone with a weapon he wants eliminated. He’s offering two million a head. You interested?”
Dom smiled.
“Leonard will be your contact. He has all the details. Oh. And Dominick?”
“Yes?”
“You shouldn’t have tied her to the bed. That was overkill. She’s going to be very angry when she wakes. Just warning you.”
“How did you—?”
“Monitors are easy feeds to tap. And I’m an expert. You may want to remember that in future.”
The screen went black before Dominick shoved it off the table, making it a permanent condition.
o0o
The smell of scented candle wax woke her. It accompanied the slide of liquid silk nearly everywhere she touched. Courtney yawned and stretched and toyed with keeping her eyes closed. She could almost be back in Elliot’s yacht, except the man didn’t go for putting anything except premium-grade Egyptian cotton sheets on his beds. And then her toe touched what could only be a bare man’s leg.
In her bed.
Courtney yanked back her limb with the same swish of movement that had her sitting, holding bedding to her breasts, which just uncovered more of him. He had a penchant for large beds and enormous candelabra. Neither one was doing her equilibrium any good. She narrowed her eyes on her nemesis, Dominick Miklos St. Guis. It didn’t do a thing to mute how stunning he still was. Too bad it hid his true nature: Perfidious. Dangerous. Lying, scheming, cantankerous…male macho jackass.