“What if mine was?”
“They can’t fake your abilities and resistance.” He cups my cheek, and I lean into his touch. “There’s no way to fake your taste. Nothing exists like that. If so, some enterprising vampire would’ve mass-produced it decades ago. Lucius damn sure would have. Whether you’re a hybrid by natural mutation or because your father is something we don’t yet understand, you are you.”
I desperately want that to be true. “Could you be with me if I never want to be turned?”
He smiles. “You haven’t yet agreed to be with me. I think that conversation is premature. But I would never turn a human against their will. So, yes, I would gladly spend the rest of your life with you.”
“Have you turned many humans?”
He sits back and resumes eating as a weighty sigh breathes free—ironic, I know, because he doesn’t actually…you know…breathe. “Rarely, and not for centuries.”
“Why not?”
Dex picks up his bourbon and swirls the amber liquid before sipping. “Because the first human I tried to turn, I killed. I was deeply in love and was talked into it despite my misgivings and knowing the risks. Completely shattered my heart.”
Yikes. Now I feel like a total shit. “I’m so sorry. What was her name?”
The left corner of his mouth turns up in a smirk. “Robert.”
“That’s…not a woman’s name.”
“No, it’s not.” He arches an eyebrow at me. “I guess in modern parlance I’m called ‘pansexual.’ I am attracted to a person, not a gender. Even before I was wed, I was attracted to men and women. I’ve had lovers across the gender spectrum throughout my life. As old as I am, sticking to one gender would get rather dull. Is that an issue for you?”
Fuck. No, he just got about a thousand times hotter, in my head.
Shallow, I know. Fricking sue me. “No. I’m really sorry. You tried to turn him because you loved him?”
His low, velvety voice bears hints of unbearable personal pain. “That, and he was dying. Tuberculosis is my best guess, based on what I know now. I don’t know if he died because he was already weakened from the disease or due to what I did. Perhaps a combination. He was still early in the disease. He likely would have lived several more years had I not attempted to turn him. Every time I let him feed from me, it strengthened him, but never completely eradicated the disease from his system.
“Back then, I was younger, not as strong, and my blood couldn’t cure him. He endured it for several years. Letting him feed from me kept him alive and strong, albeit every time the disease reasserted itself within him, it came back stronger, like it was growing immune to my blood.”
He takes another drink. “Turning a human is very risky under the best of circumstances. You have to take them to the point of death so that the virus that makes us what we are can infect their system and kill them. Then, if they survive that process, you have to work with them. Feed them. Wean them off your blood so they can survive on their own. Most who survived the initial turning die somewhere within that process. Frequently, because they go mad and do something that gets them killed. Only the most powerful vampires can successfully accomplish turnings. Like Lucius. And only the most powerful turned vampires can survive it.”
Yikes. “I’m so sorry.” This man’s still waters truly run deep. “And you? Are you powerful now?”
He shrugs. “I suppose. Then again, I thought I was back then. But I was less than five hundred years old, at the time. At that time, I did not even know what I did not know. My ignorance and arrogance were completely inverted to their proportions now.”
“Did you ever turn anyone else?”
“I did, but I wasn’t in love with them. It was one of my great-great-great grandsons. Toss a few more greats in there. Last of the family line.”
“You kept track of your family?”
“Yes, in a fashion. Once my children and their children passed, I traveled a lot, but I paid people to watch over them. I always returned to that area. It was part of my heart and my soul, you see. Part of me. Where I owned property, even still to this day. And where I laid Robert to rest when I lost him.”
“You weren’t afraid of your grandson dying during the turning?”
“I was, but he was a bit of a wanker.” He smirks. “It would not have shattered my heart had he not survived, as cold as that might sound. It was two hundred years or so after I lost Robert when I attempted to turn him. I’d learned far more by then. I guess I wanted to see if it was possible. I thought if my sire could be such a bastard and do it in such a haphazard way, why couldn’t I do it if I were careful and deliberate?”
Surprisingly enough, it doesn’t sound cold to me, it sounds…practical.
“What happened to him? Is he still…around?” Because I guess, technically, he’s not “alive.”
“He was eventually killed during the night attack at Nairn in 1746. I wasn’t there, but a friend of his, another vampire, later brought word to me. Felled by a spear and a lucky strike.”
“So, your family knew you were a vampire?”
“Only him. I was very, very careful who I brought into my inner circle. Unlike some, I didn’t go on murderous rampages. I settled in one place for years and treated those around me quite well, so that they had every reason to protect me, feel loyal to me, and not fear me. I was careful to treat them kindly and generously. Also, I might have…persuaded them with my powers to assure their silence. How do you think I’ve stayed alive so long?”
“Alive?” Yes, I’m snarky.
He shrugs. “Ish. I haven’t made many enemies. The few I have, I’ve taken care of. I don’t leave loose ends.”
“Am I a loose end, now that I know about you and you can’t compel me?”
He smiles. “Only a very beautiful one. You’re an enigma. You make me…curious. I’m not bored anymore.”
“Does that mean you’re going to kill me off once I bore you?” I’m just yanking his chain, but I am curious about his answer. If I seriously thought I was in danger, I’d talk to Lucius and Garrett and let them deal with Dexter.
“Absolutely not.” He sighs, but it sounds weighted with lead and concrete. “You’ve kept me wanting to remain in this world. If I grow bored again, the only danger is to myself, not to you.”
I shiver. I don’t want to think about a world without him in it.
“Besides,” he adds, “you are under Lucius’ protection. I’ve managed to exist this many centuries without making an enemy of my ‘uncle.’ I prefer the world order as it currently stands, thank you very much.”
“I have to say, for an old vamp, you sure are…chill.”
“Is that a pun?”
“I mean literally. Most of the older ones like Lucius are…”
“Greedy? Power-hungry? Megalomaniacal?” He smirks.
“I was going to say borderline or outright douchebags, but yeah, those work, too.”
I love the sound of his laughter. “I’m guessing you don’t feel like that about Lucius?”
“No. I mean, he can be a dick when someone pisses him off, but I get it. If you treat him courteously, respectfully, he gives it in return. I’ve never had a problem with him. I consider Selene one of my best friends. He’s crazy over her. She’s got that dom wrapped around her paws, and they both know it.”
“You interest him, too.”
“I guess. I make him money. A lot of money. That doesn’t hurt.”
He studies me for a moment. “Do you think he’d let you leave?”
“I have the freedom to come and go as I please. The deal was always that I’d move on if I needed to and no hard feelings about it. I told him about my little night visitor when he hired me. I didn’t want that coming out of nowhere and him thinking I lied to him when I suddenly left.”
I study my water glass, unable to look Dex in the eyes right now. “I know he researched the hell out of my story when I first arrived. I’m still alive, so obviously I passed the sniff test.”
“So to speak.”
“Yeah.” I shrug and finally look up again. “Like you said, I don’t bore him. And I’m useful, to him and to the shifters. I can move among them.” Of course, now I’m once again thinking about Amber’s certainty regarding her vision. “I need to update Lucius and tell him what Amber said. And…everything else. He doesn’t know the full story.”
“The hair?”
I shake my head. “I could be bald under those wigs for all he knows. I know Lucius gets a bad rap sometimes, but he’s kept order. Is he ruthless? Well, duh. Fricking vampires. Kinda goes with the territory.”
He smiles. “Are you jealous of Selene? That she’s his queen?”
“Nooo.” I take another sip of water. “Look, I’d be lying if I said Lucius and his men are fugly grunts. They’re gorgeous. So are you. When I first let Lucius sample me…I gotta be honest, I nearly bolted then, after he told me what I tasted like. I was afraid he might try to keep me prisoner.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Why, indeed? Dexter doesn’t interrupt me as I think about it. “I guess because I sensed I could trust him. That, and I’m thirty-five, and I’m sick of being alone. No family—”
Shock widens his eyes. He’d been in the process of taking a drink of bourbon, and he literally spit-takes back into his glass, choking on his liquor. “You’re thirty-five?” he asks once he stops coughing.
“Yeah, I know, I know. I look younger.” He continues staring at me in obvious disbelief. “Wait, you can accept that you can’t mojo me, my blood’s a funky and addictive flavor, my hair has a life of its own—and did you notice I have fricking violet eyes?—I have superpowers with my senses of hearing and smell, I can stake a vamp with a number-two pencil and my snark, I’m being stalked by a supernatural Cujo, and oh, add in that my dad’s apparently not dead after all if my psychic friend’s correct…but you can’t believe I’m thirty-five? That’s the line? Seriously?”
“It’s just…I mean…” He grabs his napkin and pats the liquor off his lips. “I wasn’t expecting that revelation, is all.”
“Noooobody expects it,” I tease, hoping he gets the reference.
He smiles. “If only the Spanish Inquisition had been as enchanting as you, I might have actually enjoyed it.”
16
Dexter
Yes, I know. Eilidh is absolutely right that it’s ludicrous her age is what’s tripping me.
“If it’s any consolation, Lucius didn’t believe my age at first, either,” she adds.
“How’d you prove it to him?”
“I showed him my birth certificate and let him research. Plus, I gave him plenty of references.”
“You…did?”
“Yeah. I was never fired or left on bad terms. There were plenty of vampires who could vouch for me. Shifters, too.”
“Then why did you move on?”
“Uh, my little intermittent stalker?”
“Oh, right.”
A comfortable silence descends over us for several minutes while we eat before she next speaks. “Not freaked out?”
The last thing I want to do is lie to her or scare her off. She could turn out to be a secret kind of shifter sent to kill me, and, fates help me, I’d still want her.
“I want to help you unravel this mystery,” I finally say. “And no, I’m not freaked out.”
I sense she’s trying to build up to an ask—a pretty big one—so I let the silence between us play out again. Her cheeks flush a little, a delightful shade of pink that enchants me.
“You’re not scared of me?” This is the voice of a vulnerable woman, not the feisty fighter I watched with my own two eyes as she took down a vampire.
Slowly shaking my head, I sit back. “Not in the slightest.”
“I don’t know if that should scare me,” she mutters before nervously taking a drink of water. After a deep, shaky breath, she bites her lower lip and my cock throbs in response. “After the meeting…maybe we could do more than just cuddle? But no feeding,” she quickly adds. “If you can’t promise that, I understand. No harm, no foul.”
Forcing myself to remain still, I take a breath. “If you mean having sex without feeding, yes. I’m perfectly capable of that. Besides, I’ve already fed today.”
“Yeah, this lasagna’s gr—oh.” She blinks. “You mean…you fed.”
“I have a mini fridge in the bedroom full of blood.” I point. “You may go look, if you wish.”
Her relieved breath tells me yes, the sudden spike in her pulse meant jealousy.
That pleases me more than I care to admit.
“No, I believe you.”
“Is there anything else you’d wish to do tonight?” I’m already struggling to shove back a wave of dirty, sexy things I long to do to and with her. I need my focus tonight, and fantasizing about tying her up and ravishing her pussy with my mouth isn’t helping me.
Yes, I can smell her arousal, and it’s making it difficult to think. What I want to do is drop to my knees before her, shove her thighs apart, and bury my face between them, so I can spend the whole evening tasting and pleasuring her.
I want her addicted to me the way I already am to her.
That she doesn’t realize the depths of my obsession with her makes me very vulnerable, and she doesn’t even know it.
The pink tip of her tongue flicks out and she licks her lips. “Spanking and orgasms sounds…fun.”
“Yes, it does.” In a way, I’m glad I can’t compel her. It means she’s asking this because she wants it. Really wants it.
Wants it in a way that forces her to push past her fear.
“So…not that I don’t want to do that here. Just not…yet?” I let her finish. “There’s the suite at Club Toxic, where we talked. We could lock ourselves in. And it’s safe, if we play too late for you to come back. It’s okay for you to stay over there.”
“To be clear, I don’t think I’d want to play in the main dungeon our first time playing,” I admit. “I might never be okay playing with you in front of other vampires like that. I’m…territorial.”
Her lips part, her pulse now thrumming as a soft gasp escapes her. “You are?”
“Yes. I don’t share well.” I reach out and lightly trail one finger along the back of her hand. “I damn sure don’t want any of them catching scent of your blood.”
“No?”
“No. Because I’d kill anyone who thought they were entitled enough to so much as ask to taste you. Even Lucius.”
She nervously swallows, her gaze now following the path of my finger as I slowly draw lazy swirls across her flesh. From the way her pulse suddenly thrums, I know she’s turned on. “Um, okay.” She nods. “Maybe alone would be best, then.”
She took a huge risk, so maybe it is time I take one of my own. “Eilidh.” I wait until she looks up and meets my gaze again. There’s full comprehension and awareness in her eyes, and it totally hardens my cock, knowing I don’t have to hold back with her in that way, at least.
It hits me she’s lived most of her life relying on herself and not having a protector.
A partner.
Someone to watch her back.
At least I’ve been able to afford to buy protection and help.
“I’m never letting you go. Even if I have to spend the rest of my life watching and protecting you from afar because you don’t want me directly in your life, I will. But while you are in my presence? I will defend you to the death, and you cannot stop me from doing that. That is my choice.”
Her lips part again. “Oh!” I smell a renewed wave of her arousal scenting the air and it nearly makes me drool.
“How about this proposal—whatever you feel like doing after the meeting, that’s what we’ll do. No pressure. Anything from crazy, wild sex and play, all the way to sharing a table in a cafe and sipping frappes and talking.”
“Really?”
“Really. I refuse to rush this and make a mistake with you. Days, months—years.
I’ll be here patiently waiting on you.”
I wait as she takes a deep, relieved breath and nods. “Deal.”
“Thank you for trusting me.” I want to amend something to that comment—pet, girl, sweetheart.
Love.
She smiles. “Yeah, well, it’s kind of funny how in my life it’s been the apex predators I could always trust the most. At least they’re…predictable.”
* * *
I text my men before I head out with Eilidh. Mark calls down to the front desk, and I find my rental waiting for us at the front entrance when we emerge from the lobby. I hold the passenger door open for her and wait until she’s tucked in to close it and round the SUV to slide behind the wheel.
“I have to say, I’m a little surprised,” she admits as we pull away. “An Audi Q3? That’s practically slumming it.”
“Why?”
“It’s not something sporty and Italian.”
“It’s practical and comfortable.”
“How many Bugattis do you own?” From her teasing tone, I can tell she’s loosening up again.
“Not a one. No Ferraris, no Lambos, no McLarens, no Paganis.”
“Wow. I kind of thought that was a vampire requirement. Better not let Lucius hear that. He might try to revoke your cool vamp club membership card.”
She makes me laugh. How long has it been since I really felt like laughing?
Forever, it seems. “I have a Ford Mustang and a Honda Pilot back in Atlantic City. In Scotland and London, I have Land Rovers. At my other houses, I have cars I can easily get serviced locally. Exotic cars are a pain in the ass and draw too much attention from bystanders and the IRS. Not to mention, they attract crime. Good luck trying to find someone who will change the oil for you if you want to take a road trip.”
“You take road trips?”
“On occasion. Well-planned, obviously, for stops and logistics. Hence why an SUV is a smarter choice. I can carry supplies with me to make a room safe. Vampire equivalent of roughing it.”
“I am pleasantly surprised. I don’t think I’ve ever met a vampire who doesn’t think roughing it is drinking bagged blood, much less driving somewhere.”
Her Vampire Obsession Page 15