“Miss, we’re beginning our descent. You have to return your seat to the upright position.”
The steward passed systematically up the aisle, his demeanor earnest and perfunctory. His words yanked her out of that yet-to-be-completed moment and thrust her back into limbo. Cat shook herself out of the dream, wishing she was back in the ecstasy of Matt’s human arms.
* * * *
Cat huddled under the overhang outside the terminal, watching the rain fall in sheets. Cab after cab flew past her, favoring parties with luggage, splashing her travel-wrinkled pants with gutter water. She thrust her arm up higher, aiming for a more aggressive stance at the same moment her shoulder strap snapped, casting the contents of her tote bag into an oil-slick puddle. She screeched in frustration, finally opting for a communal limo rather than battling for a cab. Limo, huh! It was a van, whatever fancy name they tried to pin on it.
“The Frank Gehry building,” she said, directing the driver to Rick’s apartment.
The other passengers eyed her irritably. One groaned aloud.
“You know how much a detour like that will cost us?” a fellow passenger snapped. She ignored them, giving the lower east side address which would take many of them miles out of their way. She was determined to have her say with Rick at any cost.
The closer the limo came to her destination, the more apprehensive she became. What Cat feared most was exile. If Matt and Rick went to such lengths to keep her in the dark, what would they do when they realized her memory had returned?
Her watch read noon, and Cat reset it to New York time. That meant it would be a little past three in the afternoon when she walked into Rick’s penthouse. He’d be getting an early wake-up call.
* * * *
Cat swiped the private access pass given to her by Master Adam through the penthouse keycard reader. The elevator doors slid open, and she stepped inside, making sure the security team saw her face clearly on the closed-circuit monitor. She wasn’t surprised at the end of its rise when the doors opened to reveal Giles Paquet flanked by two of his responders.
“Gentlemen,” Cat acknowledged briskly. “I need to speak with Mr. Hiatt.”
“Mr. Hiatt had a late night,” Giles stalled. “He’s resting.”
“Wake him up.” Her voice was clipped and firm. “If you have trouble getting his attention, give him this.” She produced a pack of folded papers and handed them to Giles. “Tell him Master Adam sent me.”
“Ms. Temple.” Giles bowed stiffly, and then walked toward Rick’s private rooms.
“I’ll wait in Mr. Hiatt’s office,” she called after him, before heading for the massive double doors.
“I’m sorry, miss, you can’t go in there without Mr. Hiatt.” One of the remaining guards deterred her as she approached. He stood in front of the office, side by side with his co-worker, hands clasped formally behind their backs at parade rest.
Cat fixed both men with a determined stare, placed two fingers on each of their adjoining shoulders, moving them apart, and strode into the room. The automatic door swung shut behind her. She settled herself in Rick’s desk chair. It was fine calf leather, ergonomically designed. She would expect nothing less from his decorators. Low-hanging clouds drifted their rain and haze past the seventy-sixth floor windows as she folded her hands and waited. She didn’t wait long.
“What the fuck is this?” Rick growled, storming into the room, fully dressed in his three piece suit, the donor initiate contract in his hand. He appeared astonished to see her behind his desk, and slowed his pace. “You’ve been busy.”
“You mean busy for a mortal, or just busy?”
Rick wedged his index finger into his shirt collar and twisted his neck to loosen his tie, “What have you done, Cathy?”
“The name is Cat,” she snapped. “And…really? That’s how you’re going to play this? What have I done? I remember everything, Rick. You, Matt, the Humanité, everything.”
Rick stared at her for a beat. “Well, bollocks,” he grumbled at last and sank into a chair, facing her. “So, what now?”
“You know, I asked myself that all the way back on the plane, and I think I finally know the answer. I want to see Matt. I mean, yeah, I’d like answers. I’d like to stake both of you for what you did, but more than anything, I want the truth. I want to talk to Matt. I want to talk to him now, and I want him to explain everything. No more smoke and mirrors. Then, I’ll decide what to do about it.”
Rick quirked a brow. “Do about it? What do you think you can do about it?”
“I don’t know.” She stood with great dignity. “I won’t know until I get the answers. I know this much. I won’t be a victim again.” She held up a warning hand when he opened his mouth to protest. “No. Don’t speak. Just find Matt. Let me know when you have.”
* * * *
Cat found concentration impossible after her confrontation with Rick. She got to the brownstone, donned workout gear, and set out for the gym to burn off frenetic energy. Sweat and pain replaced her furious heartache, and left her slightly more collected after her workout.
A soothing shower helped her focus, and immediately afterward, Cat began packing to move back to L.A. If Matt and Rick thought she was going to rely on a life and career built on their largesse, they were the fools.
She was a California girl, and an uncomfortable transplant to New York. She had a degree with honors from UCLA and Columbia, and thanks to Rick, a few months of experience at Consort Publishing. She expected decent references from him, and that was it. She’d find her own job, and make her own way in Los Angeles, or wherever the hell else opportunity presented itself. Whatever the outcome, tonight she’d be done with this lingering nightmare.
* * * *
Matt rested, oblivious to Rick’s agitation as the older vampire swept past the guarded elevators at the Ritz-Carlton, keeping the doorman at bay with one juicy growl. He barged into Matt’s suite without as much as a knock on the door.
“Get up!” he barked, throwing open the door to Matt’s make-shift mausoleum so violently it banged against the adjoining wall.
Matt squinted at him, trying to orient himself after the rude intrusion. “What’s going on?”
“Cat’s back. She knows everything, and she’s pissed.” He threw Matt a robe. “Get the fuck up. She demanded a meeting.”
“She can’t know everything.” Matt rose slowly, drawing the robe around him. “You and I are the only ones who know everything.”
“Let me clarify. She knows enough to be thoroughly pissed.” Rick watched his friend with agitation, hands sliding deep into the pockets of his hand-tailored Armani slacks. “What do you plan to do with her?”
Matt drew in a deep sigh. “I plan to answer her questions.” Frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair. “We’ve eliminated the danger from Moreau, and that’s huge for her safety.
“Thanks to me.” Rick rocked angrily on the balls of his feet.
Matt acknowledged with a nod and continued. “With him gone, and Veronique restarting production of Humanité… If I can get my hands on enough, there’s a chance we’ll have that human lifetime, after all.”
Rick studied his friend. “Whatever you want to do, dear boy, that’s fine with me, but Veronique hates your guts and mine. It won’t be easy acquiring the amount you need. Besides, you don’t know what this drug will do long term. There’s evidence it’s addictive. Why not just turn Cat, or have a vamp/mortal relationship with her, though granted, those never endure.”
“Life’s a gamble, old man.” Matt grimaced. “None of us can be certain of anything. I’m just grateful Cat’s back in one piece.” He headed toward the bathroom. “Give me a few minutes to shower and change. She’s right. We need to talk, and I’m sure that’ll involve a good deal of groveling.”
“If she stays in the mood she was in when she got home, you bet your ass it will.”
Matt’s lips quirked up in a half-hearted smile. “Maybe, she’ll take it a little easier on me
when she hears the whole story.”
* * * *
Matt watched the sun make its weighty plunge into the Hudson. Rick’s car pulled up by the iron gates guarding the acre of private park that adjoined Cat’s building. He hopped the eight-foot brick fence surrounding the area without waiting for Rick to unlock the gate. Irritated, Rick followed, “You’re going to get us arrested doing that.”
Matt smiled easily. “Maybe someday. Obviously, not today. I thought the park might give you a private place to wait while Cat and I have our discussion. You start lurking around the halls, someone will call the police.”
“Tedious fool,” Rick grumbled as they walked toward a bench heavily laden with fallen brown leaves. “I own the fucking building, and I didn’t want to come in the first place.”
Matt’s gaze snapped up when the heavy back door of Cat’s building opened. He caught her scent when she stepped out, shaking a bag of cat treats.
“Here kitty, kitty, kitty.”
A flock of alarmed birds suddenly taking wing startled her. Her head swiveled around, her blonde curls spilling over one shoulder. She hesitated mid-step, looking right at him.
“Cat!”
“Matt!” The kitty treats fell unnoticed from her fingers, and she froze, drinking in the sight of him.
Then, she ran down the stairs, and he ran too, his arms open in invitation. The flat of her foot landed, and then slipped on wet leaves littering the steps. Cat’s momentum propelled her headlong down the steep flight of wide stone stairs. With nothing to temper her fall, her arms and hands splayed wide in an effort to save herself.
Matt “oh’d” a silent scream, Rick gasped, both suspended in momentary shock at the sight of Cat flailing in the air several yards away from them. Within seconds, they leapt toward her, pushing past lawn furniture. The crash of breaking glass was trumped by the dull smack of her head hitting flagstone, punctuated by the snap of her neck. Stunned, Matt and Rick froze over her, hands reaching, each fearing their slightest touch could be a death blow.
“Oh, God, no!” Rick gasped, his anguished cry echoing Matt’s thoughts.
Entirely focused on Cat, Matt heard blood asphyxiating lungs which could no longer inflate, heard her heart faltering in its effort to beat in rhythm. She lay dying before them. He caught her up in an embrace, her limp arms and legs splayed over his own as he cradled her against his chest.
Her eyes said it all—astonishment, alarm, panic. Cat was completely paralyzed with only moments to live. No Emergency Medical Service could arrive in time.
“Our only option is turning,” Matt murmured. When nearest to death, the sire must drain the dying. Someone’s words chanted on a loop in his brain.
“Matt, you have to,” Rick insisted, now down on his knees, hovering over Cat’s still chest. She lay flaccid in Matt’s lap, memorizing his features. Her blue eyes dulled as her life force withdrew.
Matt’s conflict immobilized him, and precious seconds ticked away as he debated dooming her to an undead life versus losing her forever. Ironic that a week ago, he’d been willing to face oblivion himself to protect her. Now, would he surrender her to the unknown to do the same? There was no more time for self-indulgent angst. He must act or the light rapidly dimming in her eyes would go dark forever.
“Damn her to death, and you might as well torch yourself,” Rick admonished.
“Brother, I…I can’t screw this up.” Matt relinquished her to Rick’s arms, trading anxiety for hope as the experienced vampire received her.
Rick smoothed back the tangle of blonde curls from Cat’s neck and his fangs dropped, ready for his unconventional emergency medical treatment. At that moment, her heart ceased to beat. Rick sank his fangs into her jugular in fierce desperation, almost tearing it in two in his haste to absorb and replace her dying blood with his own. He tore into his wrist, and then pressed it against her lifeless lips, sharing his precious red elixir. Endless seconds elongated further as they awaited a response. Matt fisted his hands, held his breath, lost in a dark pit of anguish.
* * * *
Cat’s mind raced furiously, willing her limbs to move and getting nothing in response. She felt the pressure of being shifted from Matt’s arms to Rick’s, felt a crushing puncture at her throat, and then a pointed ache as her savior tore into her. The ripping pain morphed into a rolling sensation of chills, replacing every warm drop of blood. Still, this slide toward death wasn’t unpleasant, as she had somehow expected it to be. It was… Her soul shuddered with the power of a cosmic orgasm. Hot arousal tumbled through her, she soared past stars that introduced new ecstasies as she brushed through them.
Curiously, in her new cosmic state, Cat found herself flying through stars, but still conscious of the sights and emotions gripping Matt and Rick back on Earth. She easily read their minds, and watched with understanding and tenderness as they labored to save her.
I can’t look at her. She heard Matt’s terrified thoughts in her mind. Please, God, damn me, but don’t leave me a final memory of her face frozen in fear. If you give her back to me, I swear to guard her soul forever. She watched him stare at the ground, and knew he strained to hear some sign of her continued existence, human or vampire. He looked up sharply. Am I imagining it? He listened for a long moment. Thank -you, God! Thank -you. His head bowed in prayer. Please, bring her back to me.
Cocooned in her nurturing celestial bubble, Cat felt transformed, as alien as a mermaid cast onto a welcoming shore in a most delightful sense of rebirth. Electric energy surged through her, animating her bit by bit, pumping potency and vitality into every atom of her being. Slowly, her spirit drifted back toward her body.
She saw Matt scrutinize her throat for movement. “Thank you, God,” he murmured hoarsely, as he watched her unmistakably suckling from Rick’s wrist.
Cat began to lose the unlimited senses, as more earthly ones took over. Now, scent told her who was beside her. She felt the love and desperation pouring from Matt, and the commitment and affection alive in Rick. Their emotions warmed her, filling her heart like a resurrecting sun.
Blood ran freely down Matt’s arm, he had gnawed the flesh on his own wrist almost to the bone. Now firmly back in her body, deprived of cosmic awareness, Cat lifted her head, scented his blood and looked directly into his eyes.
“Let me have her.” Matt reached, ready to receive her. The men nodded agreement before Rick gently turned her face to Matt.
“Feed her, Matt. I’ll hold her.”
Matt’s wrist hung within an inch of her lips. He pressed the flow of his blood into her mouth.
Her body was still weak, but inside, Cat felt invincible, euphoric and full of life. Matt watched her intently. Drip, drip, drip, the first drops of his blood slid onto her tongue. Drip, drip, drip, she quivered as she accepted his sustenance. Drip, drip, drip, her lips pressed to him with more vigor.
“Cat, come back to me, baby.” Matt moved his lips close to her ear as he pressed a gentle kiss there.
Drip, drip, drip, her throat stirred as she swallowed. Drip, drip, drip her hand caught his bleeding wrist and held it feebly. Time stretched on as her mouth widened, and she drew strongly against him.
“That’s right, Cat, you’re getting stronger.” Rick encouraged holding her tighter.
Matt continued the feeding, a look of joy on his face as he glanced at Rick, who nodded reassurance. The strength of her lips amplified.
“I love you, Cat,” Matt whispered while she nursed from his wrist.
She wrapped her hand around Matt’s neck, and with blood-slicked lips sought his. Cat’s eyelids flickered wide, and she wondered if they were opalescent. Something in his look told her they were. She smiled delightedly as she gazed up at him.
“Matt, they said you were a dream.”
“My beautiful Cat.” Matt smoothed the hair away from her cheek. “This wasn’t what I wanted for you, wasn’t what I had planned, but…I swear, I’ll never leave you again. We’ll live this dream together, forever.�
�
Chapter 22
A Private Jet at Los Angeles International Airport
One Week Later
Rick ground teeth threatening to inch into fangs as he watched Cat’s latest tantrum. It was just one of many they were forced to endure over the past week.
“I hate you! I can’t believe you’re doing this again!” Cat stomped her foot in rebellion, the force of her vampire strength causing the plane to rattle precipitously, widening her eyes with a jolt of alarm.
“Cat, I told you this is for your own good,” Matt reasoned in a calming voice.
“You can’t just make decisions for me and expect me to obey!”
“We had to remove you from mortal stimulation,” Rick clipped in a tone brooking no further discussion.
Cat opened her mouth to retort before Matt added, “Until you’re adjusted.”
“So you say.” Cat clenched her hands at her sides. “How long before you have another excuse to order me around?” She screamed in frustration.
Glasses in the neatly arranged galley beside them shattered. Rick glared from the fractured crystal back to Cat. This was a rough transition.
Matt drew a frustrated hand through his curls. “Honey, please, be reasonable.”
Rick speared him with a sardonic look. “I can see you’ve never been a parent.”
“I am not a child!” Cat gritted, and rounded on her half sire, fangs bared.
“Maybe not, but one more word, and you’ll be spanked like one over my knee,” Rick thundered.
She stared at him in shaky defiance. “You would not dare.”
Rick didn’t answer, just fixed her with a penetrating stare leaving her no doubt he could and would. “Sit. Now,” he growled.
Cat’s eyes blazed before she wisely lowered herself onto a seat. “I’m not a dog either,” she muttered under her breath.
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