Kate squeezed his knee sympathetically.
Patrick’s cell phone chirped, the back of it squeaking across the marble as it vibrated. He scooped it up off the coffee table and felt his own grimace form. It was the front gate security post. He sighed. “Now what?” He answered the phone.
“Sorry to bother you, Mr. Sauvage.” Billy’s calm tone filtered through the cell phone, sounding in control and collected as he usually did. “There’s a guy here who is insisting on entry, only I don’t have him on any of my lists. His ID says he is Dominic Castellano and it’s the most fake driver’s license I’ve ever seen. My snot-nosed baby cousin could put together a better ID than this. He insisted I push his request up higher.”
“Dominic is legitimate,” Patrick told him, although he filed away the information about the fake ID to consider later. Dominic was human and had no need for fake IDs like the vampires did. Although he did come from somewhere in South America and it was entirely possible that his presence in the United States was not legally sanctioned. That put another small question mark against Dominic’s name, together with all the other small questions that Dominic had generated in the few times that Patrick had ever met him. However, Nial employed Dominic and Patrick trusted Nial completely. Therefore, he had to give Dominic a degree of trust by extension.
That didn’t mean he had to like it.
Patrick squeezed the cell phone with his fingers. “Put Dominic on the main list, please, Billy.”
“Sure thing Mr. Sauvage,” Billy said. One of the things that Patrick liked about him was that Billy, once given an order, always followed that order to the letter.
Patrick put the cell phone back on the coffee table. Everyone was watching him expectantly. He shrugged. “I believe Nial is sending more information.”
Roman rolled his eyes. “More changes?”
Kate, who had a tablet as well as the clipboard in her hands, hefted the tablet. “I don’t understand why he couldn’t just email the information to us. Then he’d know that we had it. Sending messages seems a little bit old-fashioned. Or is that just Nial?”
“I believe that’s just Sebastian,” Garrett said. “Emails can be hacked far too easily and none of this must get out before we want it to.”
Patrick had seen more than his fair share of secret launches, special promotions held in reserve until sprung up from the public and all the security arrangements that went with them, but the planning around this particular occasion had been excessive. “I think everyone is being paranoid,” he said. “Maybe it’s justified on this occasion.”
Kimball and Efraim, the two vampires that had come with Garrett, Roman and Kate, were standing near the door to the big lounge area. How these two were standing was not quite guard-like. However, when footsteps sounded on the tiles outside the door, they both straightened, their attention caught. While nothing had been said openly, Patrick knew that they were guarding the door all the same.
It was more of the same overly paranoid security arrangements. Because it was his room and because he was trying to control the people in it, he was grateful for the vampire guards, who were much more efficient than any human security he could possibly hire.
The man whose real name may or may not be Dominic stepped into the room. Patrick glanced at him and felt once again the small shock he always received whenever he saw Dominic. Since the man had regained his hearing—or rather, since Winter had given him the ability to hear despite his permanently damaged eardrums—Dominic seem to change daily. Patrick wasn’t entirely certain what the change was. Dominic seemed to have simply grown. He seemed taller. He looked people in the eye far more easily than he ever had before and, of course, he spoke.
Dominic moved over to the group of sofas and armchairs where the four of them sat. He dug inside his leather coat as he walked and withdrew a sheet of paper and held it out to Garrett.
Garrett unfolded the sheet and began to read.
Kate looked at Patrick and smiled. “New information I guess.”
Dominic stayed on his feet. He crossed his arms in an easy pose and gave a small shrug. “Nial didn’t want to risk the information being sent electronically. So he sent me instead.”
When Patrick had first met Dominic, the man’s speech had been thick with the odd inflections and uneven modulation that marked a deaf man’s speech. In just a few short weeks, Dominic’s speech had grown smooth and even. Tenor seemed richer and deeper. His pronunciation was perfect. There was barely any hint of accent.
The quality of his speech and voice tended to make Patrick blink. It was the most astounding change of all the changes that had happened to Dominic lately.
Sebastian had explained that because Dominic listened to the intention behind words, the meaning that was in people’s heads as they spoke the words, it was much easier for Dominic to understand intuitively what words meant. For that reason improvements in his English and his pronunciation had been rapid.
“There’s a change to the schedule,” Garrett said.
“A major change?” Kate asked, sounding concerned.
“Minor,” Dominic said. “The press conference has to be moved by fifteen minutes to reach all the major networks.”
Patrick reflected on the irony of having to court media networks just like any other public relations team would. They were about to make an announcement that would change every human’s worldview, but had to schedule it in between network advertising. He drew in a deep breath, controlling his irritation.
It was the breath that did it.
The inhalation pulled air toward him and allowed him to sample Dominic’s scent. Smelling a human and reacting to it was something that Patrick was still getting used to. A vampires senses—his senses—were so much more sensitive than a human’s. A human’s scent, even their pheromones, could rouse unexpected sensations.
He had grown used to feeling a disjointed sense of yearning when he sampled someone. Roman had explained that the sensation was an undeveloped touch of blood fever, that the human he had scented had roused his hunger for their blood, except that because he was not ready to feed, the sensation was muted.
Muted was good. Patrick wasn’t sure he was ready to cope with a full attack of blood fever. He had been hearing stories from all of them about what it was like, about how it overrode free will and made a vampire blind to anything but the need to feed. Because Nial and Garrett were controlling his feedings with a stopwatch and a whip, the worst he had felt up until now had been a mild craving that passed within seconds.
This was different. Strong, almost overwhelming sensations rippled through him. Patrick could barely distinguish the different emotions. It was a hot, silvered cocktail that caught at the back of his throat, squeezed his heart and made the pit of his belly clench.
He dug his fingers into the upholstery on the arm of the chair, clenching desperately, trying hard not to let anyone else in the room see what he was doing. He controlled his breathing, keeping it as even and as slow as he could. There were four vampires in this room and all of them had extraordinary hearing. All of them would recognize what was happening to him if they took notice.
Garrett passed the sheet of paper over to Kate, who began to read while Roman moved behind her and read over her shoulder. Garrett looked up and his glance fell upon Patrick. His eyes narrowed.
In the back of his mind, Patrick knew that Garrett had spotted his distress. That was a secondary consideration. Right now, it was all he could do to control his reaction and stay sitting in the chair.
His heart leapt as he recognized that what he was experiencing wasn’t just hunger, but a ravening sexual need. It exploded through his body, making muscles clench and the cool blood in his veins race. He could even feel the blood grow warmer as his heart worked despite his best efforts to bring it back under control.
He was helpless to do anything other than watch Dominic as the man stood there, completely unaware of the scrutiny.
Patrick had been aware, before, that
Dominic was a good-looking man. The knowledge had been subconscious, a measurement that he had made just as he did with everyone that he met. Appearance was generally considered superficial yet it drove business decisions in Hollywood. Measuring a man’s appearance was an automatic defense mechanism here.
So he was aware that Dominic had subdued Latino good looks, and that was as far as Patrick’s assessment had gone. Now that knowledge seemed to sit in the front of his mind like a glowing neon sign. This time he saw not just the man’s dark hair and pale olive skin, but the thick locks of hair that waved forward to brush his forehead.
His eyes, of course, were his best feature. The intense darkness of them drew anyone’s gaze. He also had a square, sharply drawn jawline, softened by a scrubby beard and moustache that made his eyes seem even more intense by comparison.
Patrick couldn’t control his heart. He had spent weeks learning to keep it contained, to only let it beat when he absolutely must have a functioning heart. The intense training that Nial and Sebastian had pushed him through, that Garrett and Roman underlined whenever they could, centered around the conservation of energy, to extend feedings as far apart as possible. If he controlled his heart and only let it beat when he must, then he could stretch out the feedings far longer.
Patrick had been learning the way of it quite well, yet now his heart was a wild beast, not responding to him.
Now Roman lifted his head to look at Patrick sharply, as if his attention had been caught by a shout. Perhaps it had. Patrick was quite sure that his heartbeat was loud enough for Roman to hear it even across the room.
Thankfully, however, Dominic was completely unaware of any of it.
Patrick would’ve put that down to him being merely human, except that Dominic’s gaze, which had been roaming around the room, had focused with as much sharpness as Roman’s attention had been caught, except that his focus was on the far corner.
That entire corner of the room was taken up by a baby grand piano that stood with the lid down and covered with a brocade throw that had been artfully and casually tossed across it.
Because he was focused so much upon Dominic, Patrick was able to hear his heart beat loudly. It leapt in Dominic’s chest at a frantic pace. His breathing increased. Curiously, none of that showed. Dominic simply stood and looked at the piano with an expressionless face.
Kate, the one other human in the room at that moment, lifted her head from the sheet of paper and looked around. Her attention had been caught, too. Perhaps it was the silence that had settled over the room. Nevertheless, she spotted Dominic’s fierce concentration on the piano.
“Do you play, Dominic?” Her voice was soft, as if she was afraid she would startle him if she spoke any louder.
Dominic didn’t jump the way Patrick expected him to. Instead, he drew in a breath that was sharp and hard. He swallowed.
Then with casual indifference, he swiveled away from the piano, putting it at his back. He shrugged. “No, I don’t play.” Then he deliberately changed the subject. “I’d better get back. Nial is expecting me to return and confirm that you’ve got the information.”
“An email would’ve been much quicker,” Kate groused.
Dominic didn’t reply. Instead he turned and hurried out of the room, nodding at Efraim as he passed. The two guards shut the door behind him, yet Patrick could still hear his footsteps moving down the tiled corridor. He listened until they faded beyond reach of his hearing, which was so much more powerful than it used to be.
He blinked and let out a slow breath, as the aching need in his body slowly subsided. His crotch was a heated juncture and his cock was throbbing in a way he remembered from when he was an adolescent. This was different, though. He would have to think about this, when he was alone.
He looked up and around the room and realized that while the two guards were looking steadily into the middle of nowhere, Kate, Roman and Garrett were all looking at him expectantly.
Patrick swallowed again. The silence stretched on. So he cleared his throat. “I gave myself away, didn’t I? Even to Kate.”
Kate shook her head. “I can’t sense things the way these two can, but I know how to read Roman and Garrett. You have their full attention at the moment. That tells me that something is going on with you.”
Roman had been bending over the sofa with his head close to Kate’s. Now he stood up and stretched, making it look very casual.
Garrett gave Patrick a warm smile. “You can’t hide anything from us. That’s just the way it is.”
Patrick licked his lips, feeling awkward. “I’m not trying to hide it,” he said. “Especially not from you. The truth is, I’m not even sure what it is that I should hide. What happened then?”
“You met a human who aroused you,” Garrett said.
Roman snorted. “He’s being polite. Something about Dominic’s human trail appeals to your vampire senses. It made you want to fuck him.”
The crudeness jolted Patrick. At the same time confusion swamped his thoughts.
“That’s Roman for you,” Kate said, with a small sigh. “Subtle as a sledgehammer.”
“I… I don’t…” Patrick trailed off helplessly, not entirely sure what it was that he was trying to say, or not say. He had started to deny something, yet there was a raw truth in Roman’s words that he couldn’t refute, especially to these three. Denial would be hypocritical. So he stopped, cleared his throat again and fell silent.
“Are you about to say that you don’t bed men?” Garrett asked.
“Remember what I said about reassessing all your old human standards and values?” Roman said. “I wasn’t just talking about justice, honesty and all that good stuff. I meant everything.”
Patrick nodded. He had absorbed this interesting facet of becoming a vampire quite early on. In fact, he had used his fame and the influence that it wielded, to bring him to this point where he could be made a vampire himself, just so he could grasp the altered values becoming a vampire would give him. Altered values, altered consciousness, altered needs. Becoming a vampire offered him hope, when every human intervention had failed.
And because these three had been instrumental in giving him that hope, he tamped down his irritation at their assumptions. Instead he kept a mild expression on his face and answered evenly. “I’ve had sex with men before,” he said. “This is Hollywood. There were directors… And getting the parts I wanted didn’t always come easily for me.”
Kate gave a heavy sigh. She out of everyone in the room would understand this better than most.
Patrick shrugged, just a little. “I was trying to say, I think, that especially now, I don’t do relationships.”
There was a small silence as they absorbed that.
Then Kate smiled reassuringly. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” she told him. “Dominic gives off that air that he’s not interested in a relationship with anyone, either. He’s one of those loners who wander the world all by themselves.”
Patrick thought Kate’s simple observation came far closer to explaining Dominic’s nature than anyone else had managed.
“You did well containing it,” Garrett pointed out. “I don’t think Dominic noticed anything.”
Roman gave another small laugh. “He was too busy staring at the piano.”
“It wasn’t just staring,” Patrick said. “It was much more intense than that. It was much more important to him than that.”
Everyone was back to staring at him again, so he shrugged again, trying to pass it off as nothing important.
Roman nodded. “Garrett’s right. If this really is the first time you felt this, then you did well keeping it contained.”
Patrick coupled up the compliment with the implication behind it and felt his jaw sag a little bit. “You mean it’s always this intense, every time I find anyone even a little bit attractive?” The idea filled him with horror.
Garrett and Roman exchanged glances. Now it was they who looked uncomfortable.
“What am I missing?” Patrick demanded.
“I think,” Kate said slowly, “that they’re both being guys and don’t want to tell you the yucky truth.”
Roman crossed his arms defensively, in much the same way that Dominic had. The muscles on his arms rounded as he clenched his fists. “It’s only ever been that intense for me with two particular people.”
Garrett studied Roman with an expression that seemed neutral, except that Patrick could see a strange warmth and softness about his eyes. Then he understood, with a flash of insight. “You’ve only felt it with Garrett and Kate,” he said softly.
Roman rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, then gave a self-conscious little grin.
Having being put in the spotlight once or twice this morning already, Patrick empathized with Roman’s awkwardness. So he shifted the subject. “I keep being astonished by how different Dominic looks, now.”
Kate nodded. “It’s not like he’s run out and got a body’s worth of tattoos, or put on a ton of weight, or something like that. Yet I feel surprised every time I see him. Would regaining hearing make that much difference to a person?”
Patrick found his gaze returning to the piano that stood innocently in the corner, the keys untouched and the instrument silent. “It just might make the difference,” he said. “I’ve seen it sometimes with actors, when they finally figure out the core of their character. Dominic has found his key.”
“Key?” Roman repeated.
“The key that unlocks a character, that lets an actor portray them completely and properly,” Kate said.
“I think that whatever took away Dominic’s hearing also stirred up his self-identity. Now he has his hearing back, he’s finding himself again.”
Garrett shook his head. “Except that no one ever gets to go back to what they were. There are always changes.”
Kate picked up the clipboard, hesitated, then put it back down firmly on the cushion next to her. “So, Patrick, are you ready for tomorrow?”
Blood Revealed Page 2