Any further explanation was interrupted by a knock at the door. I checked before answering, it was room service.
“Would you like me to set your dinner up out on the balcony? It’s a beautiful night,” the server asked wheeling the table inside.
“In here will be fine,” I told him as I rummaged through the pockets of the jeans I’d had on earlier in search of my wallet.
“Would you like to taste the wine, sir?”
“I’ll open the bottle myself,” I answered, handing him a ten-dollar bill.
The waiter shook his head in refusal. “Your bill has been taken care of,” he said, offering me his corkscrew. “Enjoy your meal. I’ll show myself out.”
Then he did. As soon as Alex and I were alone, I set to work opening the cabernet.
“I wouldn’t have pegged you for a wine drinker,” Alex said, pulling out one of the chairs and sitting down.
“My father has quite an extensive collection. I swear that at our house the meals are planned around the wine, not the other way around,” I explained as I pulled the cork from the bottle, then poured a small amount into the glass. “Do you want to taste?” I asked her, swirling the deep ruby liquid around then offering it to her.
She took a sip and swallowed.
I couldn’t help myself, I winced. “That’s not how you taste wine,” I told her as I poured.
“I don’t care about the wine, Dell,” she said handing the glass back to me.
I must have looked crestfallen because she apologized.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be rude or ungrateful. You’ve ordered a fabulous dinner. It’s just that my stomach is in knots. I’m not even sure I can eat. Whatever it is you have to say to me… Can you just say it?”
I took my seat across from her and looked down at my plate. “I’m not sure where to start, exactly,” I confessed as I picked up my fork and knife.
“Anywhere, Dell,” she prompted. “Start anywhere.”
I cut into the meat and took a bite. It had been cooked to perfection and normally I would have savored the taste. But I couldn’t, her anxiety was practically choking me. Somehow, despite that, I managed to swallow. Then I set down my fork and began the story.
“I’m not sure how much you know about us, vampires, about our world. Do you know what it means to be Chosen?” I asked her.
She plucked a roll out of the bread basket and began to butter it. “It means that your blood has an extra kick to it,” she said.
“It means more than that,” I replied. “Our cannon, our religious beliefs tell us of the Chosen children, children born of a human mother and a vampire father, that aren’t Immortal, children that are favored by God. One of them is to play a pivotal roll in our ultimate redemption. Most vampires consider the Chosen sacred. I believe you’re Chosen, Alex.” I paused then, to let what I’d told her sink in.
“Do you believe in the prophecy? Is that why you refused my blood?”
It wasn’t the question I expected.
“No,” I replied. “I don’t believe in the prophecy. What I said earlier was the truth, Alex. But it wasn’t the whole truth.”
“Meaning?”
“It’s not just that I don’t want to face the possibility of becoming a feeder and craving blood. I’m sure that I could find a steady donor or two. I’m afraid if I give in to that temptation that I’ll want you, your blood too much.”
“And that scares you,” she said, placing her elbows on the table and resting her chin in the palm of one hand.
“Yes. Wanting like that? Well, it sometimes leads to foolish decisions, decisions that will leave me dead. My parents are lucky. What they have is rare. What your parents had was rare, too.”
“You know who my parents are?”
That got her attention. It also placed our conversation safely back on track.
“Yes.”
Alex shook her head. “Impossible. No one knows who my parents are, Dell. I—”
“I know, you were the lone survivor of the famous Hotel Drake fire in New York, the historic hotel burned to ashes, no one was spared.”
Alex leaned back in her chair and sighed. “They found me in the rubble, unscathed. No one claimed me. My parents died in that fire, Dell.”
I shook my head. “No. Whoever brought you to that hotel, they weren’t your parents. Something happened twenty-five years ago, Alex, something involving my mother. She’s a physician, and she helped bring a Chosen child into this world; the child was named Sophie. A few days later Sophie’s mother was killed. Then both Sophie and my mother were kidnapped. My father and some others, they staged a rescue. They found my mother. They saved her. But not Sophie, she was never found…not until now.”
“You think that I’m Sophie? Why? There must be hundreds of Chosen women my age.”
“Sophie was placed under a protection spell,” I told her. “It fits, Alex. It all fits. Do you know what Lilan are?”
Alex shook her head.
“They’re succubi,” I told her, pausing long enough to take another bite.
“Succubi?”
I nodded. “Luna, a succubus, had the spell placed on Sophie, on you, a protection shield to keep you safe. She did it for your father, so that he’d know that even though you weren’t with him, you were out of harms way.”
“Okay, slow down. My head is spinning.”
I smiled. “Chris, your father, he’s been searching for you all this time, for all these years.”
“Where is he? He’s—” Her eyes were welling up with tears.
I nodded. “Still alive, Immortal. Your father and mother never mated. I’ve never really understood why. Luna gave him something for safe-keeping. It’s a transparent sphere, a globe, a physical representation of the shield that surrounds you. It contains a part of you, Alex. I think that if we reunite that part with you, then we can break the spell.”
“You’ve done this before?”
“Never. And, frankly, I’m not sure that I can single-handedly do it now. Someone…tried to teach me a spell once that was similar. I’d almost forgotten about it—”
“Can we call them? Can they fix me?” she asked anxiously.
“There are consequences to think through,” I reminded her.
“I’ve spent years thinking through the consequences, Dell. I just want to be normal. I just want to feel normal. Can you understand that?”
“Yeah, I can,” I admitted. “I think our best bet is to track down the caster. If that doesn’t work, I’ll see what I can do. As a last resort…I’ll summon Basta.”
“Basta?”
“He’s an old teacher of mine. We…had a falling out. I haven’t spoken to him in a while,” I explained.
“You’re confident he can reverse this?”
“There are many who believe that Basta can do anything.”
“What do you believe?”
“I believe he can reverse the spell. But I know he has limits…and I’m thankful for them.”
“He sounds powerful.”
“You have no idea.”
“Are you going to tell me why you aren’t speaking?”
“No.”
Alex frowned.
“How do you know he’ll help me?”
“Because he wants something from me and if I ask him for a favor he’ll see it as an opportunity to get it,” I explained, refilling my wine glass.
“I don’t want you doing something you’ll regret. I’ve been a freak my entire life. If breaking this spell—”
“Alex, I understand. I understand what this would mean to you. I’ll figure it out,” I assured her. “Trust me.”
“I do.” Alex reached for my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah.”
“But?”
“What do you mean?”
“You said there will be consequences.”
I looked down at my plate. Suddenly I’d lost my appetite. “There always are…”
“Cough it up. What do you think is going to happen?”
I stood up, tossing my napkin on the table before walking over to the French doors that led onto the balcony. It was after midnight but I couldn’t see a star in the sky. There were too many lights in most big cities to truly enjoy the night sky. That was especially true in Vegas. That wasn’t true in BaMidbar.
“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. I’m going to take you home, Alex. We’re going to break the protection spell. We’re going to do it because it’s what you want. We’re going to do it and it’s going to leave you vulnerable in a way that you aren’t used to, ” I told her, not turning around.
Alex sighed, then walked up behind me, sliding her arms around my waist and pressing her cheek against my bare back.
“Don’t worry about me, I can handle it,” she murmured.
I reached for her hand, lifting it upwards so that I could place a kiss on her open palm. The problem was, I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to handle it.
What was it that I couldn’t handle, exactly? Was it fear over Alex’s safety? Or was it more about not wanting to face the potential cost to myself?
Even if I managed to get through this without compromising my own values, without becoming indebted to Basta, the fact of the matter was, deep down I knew giving Alex the freedom she desired meant that I was going to lose her. Maybe not right away, but eventually.
Eventually, I would lose her to an Immortal that would be older, more powerful, and most importantly…willing, without hesitation, to give up life, to invite death, just to be with her. Eventually, but not tonight. Tonight I was going to pretend that she was mine, that I was the hero and that in the end I’d save the day, get the girl and live happily ever after…forever.
Chapter Nine
As I began to waken I became aware of the weight of her breast in the palm of my hand, the sensual smell of her hair, and my painfully hard erection. I was spooned up behind her, my body comfortably following the curve of hers. I could tell by the pattern of her breathing that she was still asleep, so I resisted the urge to grind myself into her ass. We’d stayed up all night, me telling her everything I knew about her parents, how they met my parents, and what her father was doing to support the revolution. It was after sunrise when we finally crawled into bed and went to sleep. I slowly lifted my head and looked at the clock, it was now two in the afternoon.
Alex began to stir, her body unfurling and stretching, her legs rubbing against mine, her shoulders rolling, her ass pushing back against me before she slid onto her back. I lifted my arm from around her and leaned up on my elbow, resting my head in my hand so that I could watch as her eyes opened and sought out mine.
“Good morning, beautiful,” I said softly before reaching down and touching the side of her face with my fingertips. “How did you sleep?”
“Wonderfully,” she replied. “You?”
“I don’t think I moved all night.”
Alex grinned.
“Let me assure you, Agent Renfield, you moved. You’re a snuggler,” she teased.
I rolled on top of her and she parted her legs to accommodate me. I had slept in my sweats. Alex had worn a silk nightshirt, which had managed to ride up around her hips. I reached down hooking my hand underneath her knee to open her up just a bit further.
“That’s classified information, Agent Sanchez,” I murmured as I ran my hand up the outside of her leg, over her thigh, and past her hip. Apparently she had decided to forgo wearing underwear last night. “You tell anyone, I might just have to tie you up and spank you.”
Her eyes widened. “Spank me?”
I nodded. “Like the naughty girl that you are.”
Alex smiled as though the idea appealed to her, then raised her legs, wrapping them around my hips. I leaned up supporting my weight with one arm so that I could use the other to unbutton her nightshirt. In the blink of an eye she’d used her legs and momentum to switch our positions. I saw it coming. I could have countered her move, but why? I’m a big fan of having the woman on top. In fact, I’ve yet to find a sexual position that I’m not a fan of.
“Maybe I should tie you up?” she whispered into the shell of my ear before sitting up. I could feel the heat and moisture from her pussy through the cotton of my sweats.
“If you want,” I said, reaching up and unbuttoning the second button on her nightshirt, then the third, then finally the last. I placed my hand around her neck then ran it down her collarbone, between the valley of her tits, over her taut stomach then back up again, this time slipping underneath and moving to her shoulder. As I slid the rich green silk off of one shoulder I told her, “This brings out the green in your eyes. You have spectacular eyes.”
“He says while he’s staring at my breasts,” she laughed.
I let my hands slide down to her waist, then I slowly lifted my eyes to meet hers and smiled. “You have spectacular eyes,” I repeated.
Alex blushed.
“Your tits are pretty nifty too,” I added.
“These are breasts,” she said, cupping them in her hands as if she were measuring the weight of them. “Can’t you call them breasts?” she asked, frowning.
“I don’t think so,” I said honestly. “I’ll never remember that. Guys don’t say breasts. Hey, can you lick your nipples?”
“What? No!”
I clasped my hands behind my head and let the image of her tongue circling the large dusky pink areola fill my mind. “Try,” I begged, my throat dry. I licked my lips. “Or, let me. I bet I can make you come just by sucking on them. I’ll make you come until you scream from pleasure.” My cock was as hard as nails. Creating a very obvious tent in my sweatpants.
Alex glanced down at it. “I bet I can make you come without touching you at all,” she challenged.
Could a guy ask for a better partner?
“What are the stakes?” I asked.
“Stakes?”
“What are we betting?”
Before she could answer my cell phone rang. It was the first few bars of Beethoven’s Fifth, the ring that I’d designated for my father.
Alex glanced at the clock, then back at me. “The test results?”
I reached for the phone. “Probably.” Then I answered, “Dad?”
“It’s her,” he replied. No preliminaries, he just said it. Just like that. I knew it was true. I expected it. But that didn’t stop the wave of nausea, the kind you get when you’re kicked hard in the stomach.
Alex was watching me, intent on every expression, every word. I suddenly wished that I were alone.
“I want you to escort her home, Dell. I’ve made arrangements for both of you to take a couple weeks off.”
“Dad, we can’t just drop everything and hop a plane to BaMidbar. We’re in the middle of a mission.”
“After the mission,” he said. “And not to BaMidbar, here. Your mother thought it might be best if Sophie came here for a while, so that she’d have someone to talk to. Chris will come here.”
I sighed. “The sphere that Luna gave to Chris? Have him bring it. Any chance you can find out who did the original spell?”
“Maybe. Why?” he asked, his voice cautious.
“I need to find out as much about it as I can. It’s outlived its usefulness,” I said vaguely. “There are issues.”
“It was just supposed to keep her safe,” he said. “What’s going on, Dell?”
“It’s…complicated. I’ll explain when I see you,” I told him.
“Believe it or not,” he said, “I can grasp complicated. Explain now.”
“There are experiences that Alex hasn’t been able to have, experiences she wants to have, things she wants, no needs.”
“Such as?”
I hesitated. Then I looked up at her. Tears were spilling from those beautiful green eyes and rolling down her cheeks. I reached up, brushing them away and offering her a reassuring smile.
“That’s between Alex and me. I’m going to d
o this for her, Dad. I’m not asking for your permission.”
“Jesus, you’re fucking her,” he accused. “I warned you, Dell. I thought I could trust you with this. I’m sending Chase out. He’ll escort Alex back. You need to get some distance.”
Chase was my father’s assistant. Prior to the revolution, Thomas, one of the eldest of the Dominie, had chosen him to be my father’s replacement. The plan had been for my father to spend the next twenty-five or thirty years training him so that he could step in and fill dear old Dad’s shoes. Thomas’ proposal was simple: Mom and Dad would retire and Chase would assume my father’s identity. The rest of the vampires in the clan would be none-the-wiser. No one would ever know that one of the mightiest among them had fallen.
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