by Amie Gibbons
“How?” I gasped.
“I can project when I want to,” Carvi breathed into my ear. “Now that you’ve eaten, I want a taste.”
I couldn’t say no. It wouldn’t come out.
Teeth sunk into my neck with a sharp pain that didn’t last long enough for my brain to care before pleasure swamped me.
My legs went jelly and I fell against the cushions, holding on to the back of the couch as I rode into the cloth and Carvi moved with me against my back.
I couldn’t think as my eyes fluttered closed and the pressure built.
He pulled out, leaving me shakin’ and right near the edge of orgasm.
“No,” I gasped.
“No what, lea?” he asked, licking the wound on my neck. “No, stop? No, don’t stop?”
“Don’t stop,” I gasped.
He had me down on my back on the couch so fast I was dizzy and he got on top of me, big body heavy on me as he stroked the hard bulge against my front.
Desire spilled through me and I didn’t know if it was mine or his, leavin’ me wet and ready for him.
He got up and pulled the boxers off, grabbing my thighs so hard they’d bruise and pulling them apart, bending down and sinking teeth into my thigh.
I screamed and my body seized from my stomach to my toes as the bite sent me crashing over the edge.
Flash.
A teenage boy, maybe fourteen, maybe a bit younger.
I knew those curved lips and golden eyes.
Carvi. He was still beautiful, but a younger, softer beautiful.
He was innocent.
The vision expanded, showing what looked like a barn if the straw floor and slabs stuck together for walls was any indication.
He babbled as fast as I could, only in Latin. It sounded… pleading?
A man walked into my line of sight. He was big. The broad shoulders went with the tons of muscles he had perfectly. He was an ugly guy, and the fact that he was naked and advancing on what was a clearly begging for mercy teenager made him plain hideous.
I didn’t want to see what happened next, but the vision held me. A thick sword flew out of nowhere just as the man grabbed Carvi’s dark hair in one meaty hand and the boy’s thigh in another. The sword bit into his neck, but the small arms holding it couldn’t make it go all the way through.
Blood squirted everywhere and the attacker screamed as he scrambled back.
It was a small boy of maybe seven or eight.
Milo?
The man fell over between the brothers, gurgling as he bled out.
Carvi stood and went to his little brother, who said something. Carvi nodded. They each grabbed one of the man’s arms and dragged him out into the dark night to hide his body.
Visions came in snippets:
Flash.
An older Carvi leaning back on his arms as a woman rode him.
Flash.
Carvi wondering if he could refuse the general’s invitation to join him after dinner, and deciding he didn’t want to risk it for the man could take it out on his brother. Carvi could kill him in his quarters tonight if he needed to.
Flash.
Carvi’s gold eyes rolled back in pleasure from the middle of a three-way.
Flash.
A woman in chains screaming his name as he did her standing up.
Flash.
An entire room of naked people going at it.
Flash.
Carvi offering a night with himself in exchange for something.
The many times people had seen Carvi as something beautiful to be enjoyed but nothing more. Each snippet was half a second in real time, less, and ran on the coattails of the one before until my world was a smooth road of lust, desire, and manipulation.
I jerked as my mind found my body again.
I knew things in a rush, no pictures required, I had the knowledge so suddenly in my head it was like I knew it before and only just unlocked the box in my brain holding it.
“Carvi. Stop!” I yelled.
He paused, drawing his fangs out.
“What? Now that you’ve had your fun?” he asked, meeting my eyes. “It doesn’t work like that, lea.”
The lust swept through me again, but now, it didn’t hold the same power.
“Get off me, Carvi,” I said. “I’m sayin’ no, cuz I know it’s not real. It’s magic. What are you?”
He sat back on his knees. “I’m a Virgo.”
I burst out laughing. His sign was the virgin. That was rich. I took a deep breath as I pulled the boxers back up.
“Fine, payback. I deserved that. You weren’t fully human before you were made a vampire. You’re something else. Something that makes you this attractive, that makes people want you. You are a walkin’ sign for lust. You have been since puberty when you got your powers. So what are you?”
“Would you believe me if I said I don’t know?”
“Nope.”
He shrugged. “Okay, so you know why you want me this badly.” His eyes darkened as he flashed those fangs at me. “Now that your curiosity is satisfied, lets satisfy other things.”
“No!” I held up my hands, sittin’ up, like that’d help me. “You... I don’t. God, how do I explain this?”
Why did he have to kneel there, all ready to go?
My eyes drifted to his bulge and my body twitched with the memory of what he could do if I just let him.
It was one good orgasm.
But I couldn’t want him. That’d make me no better than everyone else who’d wanted him. And there were thousands, maybe more considerin’ how old he was.
“You... everyone wants you just cuz you’re you. Okay? You’re the hottest guy I’ve ever seen, and you give off something that makes you practically irresistible. Okay, I want you like you’re water and I’m dying of thirst. Yeah.
“But everyone feels this way around you. Everyone wants you. So it means less that I do too. I’m just one more face in the crowd. My feelings aren’t special, cuz everyone else has them. I like being special.”
I held up my hand as he opened his mouth. “And that’s only my side of things. What about yours? You’re seen as a lust object. By everyone. I sensed it. You aren’t anything else to people cuz you’re magically lust inducin’.
“They don’t see if you’re funny, or smart, or devious, or kind. It doesn’t matter once they see you cuz of your power. So no one can ever really love you. No one can do more than take advantage of you. And.... I can’t do that.
“Even if I wasn’t seein’ anyone, I couldn’t be just another person wanting you for that. And I know you don’t see it as people takin’ advantage of you, cuz you enjoy it. You get what you want cuz of it. But you... this seems so stupid to say, I just met you. But I know, without real vision pictures or anything, I know you should have someone that wants you for more than your power. You... deserve someone who wants you for more. And you can’t get it cuz everyone feels the power first, wants it first. I don’t know if any of this makes sense. But I can’t. I just can’t. So stop tryin’.”
He just stared at me.
He didn’t get shocked often. He let it show even less.
I knew he didn’t let emotions on his face that he wasn’t planning often.
He looked at me and I saw pure wonder in those eyes.
And then it was gone. Like someone flipped the freaking emotion switch. He was beautifully arrogant again.
“People would kill for what I offer,” he said. “People have killed for it.”
He sounded offended, but it was faked, the tone as carefully chosen as the words. He was acting as surely as if he were on a stage.
I looked into his eyes, hoping for another burst of honesty, of something that was truly him. Wantin’ to see the real person inside for some reason.
Maybe cuz of Milo. Cuz he really did know his brother. Cuz he’d loved him and asked me to look out for him.
Carvi was in front of me before I could blink.
“What are yo
u looking for, lea?” His voice wasn’t that wonderful seductive thickness, it was down to a demanding growl. “Why do I see pity in your eyes?”
He took my face in his hands and held it, looking for answers in me just as surely as I was looking for them in him.
Flash.
The two brothers, in their twenties now, ran through the woods. Chasing something.
The woman came out of nowhere.
Carvi barely saw her before he was flying.
He hit the tree with enough force to knock him out, and barely caught a glimpse of the woman going for his brother before he was gone.
I gasped and Carvi’s hand fastened on my face. “Vision?”
I nodded.
“You’re burning up.” The other hand went to my forehead, holding the boiling brains in.
“She was lookin’ for a psychic?” I asked. “She found Milo cuz she was lookin’ for a psychic, and turned you cuz of your gifts too?” He didn’t answer so I just kept going. “She wanted to use him. I think I understand you killing her.”
He would’ve done anything to protect his brother and it made my heart ache.
“Carvi, I’m so sorry about your brother.”
He jerked back and to his feet, face showing some emotion.
“You shouldn’t have seen that,” he said, grabbing his coffee mug and taking a long gulp.
“You want me to find his killer?”
“I think I know who his killer was, but I need to be sure.”
“That should be easy enough. I’d be happy to help. I know you loved him.”
He glared at me over the mug. “What did you see, exactly?”
“I, um.” I licked my lips. “I’m getting feelings off you and knowledge without the seein’ it part. It’s really weird.”
“You should only be sensing what I’m projecting.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know how any of this works, but maybe you are projectin’ without meaning to? I mean, you’re grieving, it’s gotta throw you off.”
“What the fuck do you know?”
Oops, struck a nerve, but maybe that’s what I needed to get past his cultivated persona?
“What people don't get is when you lose someone like that, there's nothing they can say. Nothing they can do. Everyone wants to help, and they can't. When you lose that one person you were born to love, it's like your life has lost its meaning. And you're just waitin’ to die to join them. But you have other people in your life. Others who love you. And your brother would want you to carry on.”
“You just have this all tied up in a nice little psychoanalyst bow, don't ya?” Carvi asked, pulling a pack of cigarettes outta his jeans pocket and smackin’ them against his hand.
“You have no idea what it's like!” he yelled, making me jump. “You don't know what it is to hold a crying baby in your arms and to know your purpose in life is to love and protect him, and then to fail. The only thing I can do now is avenge him, so that's what I'm going to do. You don't know me, stop pretending to.”
He pulled a cig out and patted his pockets, probably lookin’ for a lighter.
“I don't,” I said. “But I knew your brother. And you want to know what his last words were? He asked me to look out for you.”
Carvi dropped the cig and stared at me, shock obvious from his wide eyes to sagging jaw. “You knew him? His last words were to you? You were there?”
My nervous smile slapped on. “Oops.”
I shook my head and it didn’t matter.
The seductive vamp was gone, leaving one of flaming anger.
He grabbed my arm and hair, starin’ into my eyes. “Tell me what happened that night. Or I will make you.”
I believed him.
Chapter eighteen
“Wow! Okay, that’s real,” I squeaked.
Carvi’s hands tightened, but he wasn’t thinkin’ about sex now.
“Real?” he growled.
I gulped as his anger surrounded me, a living thing tightening the air around me.
Magic. He could project emotions, make them solid things.
Make them weapons.
“Yeah,” I said. “You’ve got this mask thing going, and now you’re completely real. It’s nice to know you can be...um.”
He lowered his face until it was an inch from mine, and pulled my hair, just enough to make me holler, just enough to pull my head to the side, exposing a long line of stretched neck.
In the middle of arousal, it was hot.
Now it just hurt.
“What happened the night my brother died?” Carvi’s hiss was low, dangerous, and terrifyin’ as it skipped and scolded across my skin. “Why were you there?”
He met my eyes and I felt him... push my brain.
“Owww! Stop it!” I cried.
“Answer me, Ariana.”
“I’ll answer if you stop your stupid tricks.”
The push grew, like he was shoving something blunt and very solid through my forehead.
“Vamps can’t hypnotize me.”
“Met one who tried?” he asked with a chuckle. “Trust me, they were newborn babes compared to me.”
His will crashed down on me like a load of scorpions with poison fire stingers. They bit at my skin, dug out tiny pieces with their stingers, burned under my outer layer of flesh, taking one cell of the dermis at a time.
“I can bewitch other vampires. You may be immune to the powers of the young, but not to me. Yield!”
He wasn’t actually sayin’ it. He was thinkin’ it, straight at me.
Each syllable fried a synapse.
I could feel him moving inside my head, that full power his voice only hinted at.
This was the real power, this was what he could really do. He could pluck apart my mind and feed it to me if he had enough time. He could do that to lesser vamps too. And I knew he had.
I couldn’t fight him.
I don’t, a voice inside whispered. I bend.
I dropped my resistance, welcoming him, openin’ up like a flower.
Or somethin’ dirtier.
He poured through me, hot but not painful, not anymore.
I went with the dirty, giving an image to what was goin’ on. I let the probe slam into me, welcomed it, wrapped it in me, in my very essence, squeezed it, touched it.
Told it to take me.
The presence relaxed.
And I slipped away from it, slammin’ the doors closed behind it.
I slumped back on the couch and Carvi kneeled in front of me. The table was tipped over behind him, the coffees spilled over the hardwood floor, the bag of sugar laying among the ruin of mugs and coffee streams, the granules splattered across the floor.
“I have done that too many times to count in a lifetime,” Carvi said, staring at me with those wide, golden eyes. “And people either crumble like tissue paper, letting me in so easily it’s almost sad, or they fight. Very few ever think to take me in, make me think they’ve given up, then slip away.” He rubbed his head. “That’s impressive.”
I know the look I gave him as I sat up was anything but friendly.
He chuckled, meeting my eyes again. I hurry jerked mine away.
“You’re angry with me?” He sounded surprised.
I kept my eyes on his chin. “Duh, I’m angry with you! You just tore into my mind. I hurt. And you’re askin’ if I’m angry with you?”
He laughed, a sound that made a low whimper come from the back of my throat and drew my eyes up to his.
Apparently, I don’t learn from my mistakes very well.
“You were perfectly nice to me,” I said. “Then you pounced on me, then you got angry and hurt me. You don’t get to change like that! Alright? It’s confusing. Pick one.”
He rested his hands on my knees and pushed up to his so he was right in front of me.
“No,” he said. “Tell me what happened that night.”
He seemed calmer, but I didn’t trust it. Couldn’t trust it. He switched so quickly it was impos
sible to believe his outer shell.
“Do I have a choice?” I crossed my arms and tried to shake his hands off my knees. They stayed firm.
“No,” Carvi said.
“I’m assuming you know all about the demons who were summoned and who killed people, making it look like a vamp, right?” I started, he nodded, not taking his eyes off mine. “And you know the Nashville nest made an alliance with the FBI as a result of that case?”
His eyes went a bit wider, projecting shock I couldn’t believe was real.
“You did,” I said. “Okay. We did and we went undercover during the big summit all the leaders were invited to.”
Not all, actually. Quil told Carvi he wasn’t needed.
I’m surprised Carvi listened.
“We met up at the club that night,” I said, “posing as servers and some of the vamps’ humans. Quil told the other vamps it was to draw out the demon since she was sure to be there. The party was a cover, but not so they could suss out the demon, so I could. I spent the evening touching people, getting what I call the First Impression. It’s basically one of the most important moments of a person’s life, sometimes two. When I touched you, I didn’t get one. Why?”
I almost, almost saw a flicker of annoyance in his eyes. “If you always get them then you got one off me, you just don’t remember because you passed out too quickly. Continue.”
“I touched Marie, and she was the one who hired the summoner, as you know. Her people jumped up at some signal, there was a fight, and I was hurt. Milo and Quil worked together to get me better, gave me blood.” I smiled. “Your brother was such a big flirt, even in the middle of all that. Was seriously pushin’ for a three-way in the hall. Quil sounded like he was considerin’ it. Silly guys… what?”
Carvi was staring at me hard again.
“Quil was considering it, but you… And you have a boyfriend?” he asked slowly.
I could see the wheels turnin’.
Oops.
So much for keeping our relationship from being used against Quil.
Think before you speak. Why can I never remember that?
“You and Quil? He’s your boyfriend.”
The kitty was out of the bag now.
“Yes,” I said. “Anyway, when we went back into the club, Quil had everyone lined up. He’d explained the real plan and said the demon and the summoner were still there. Our forensic tech was the summoner. His name was Irish, well, everyone called him that. He...”