“It’s for business parties.”
“I gathered. What’s that you got under the counter?” I asked, coming around the island. He looked chagrined.
“What?” I prodded, not seeing anything but cabinets.
“Well, I do have to eat, and I didn’t have time while you were in the shower.”
This made no sense to me because he moved so fast that it seemed he could disappear.
“And?”
“It’s just…I keep some…”
I was getting a huge kick out of this. My Gareth, self-confident, slightly arrogant, was stumbling. I was making him nervous.
“Do you have blood in those cabinets?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. I was completely intrigued. He thought I would be disgusted. I remembered the internet diary, and how he had been found out by an employee.
“I do, yes. I keep some on hand when I can’t hunt. There, are you happy?”
All I heard was the word hunt.
“What do you hunt?” I could figure it out myself, but I was getting perverse pleasure out of watching him squirm.
“Anna, really? Do we have to go into this?” he pleaded, but his eyes were turning frigid. He was really bothered by this conversation.
“Just tell me. I don’t think it’s going to make me run away.”
“Deer, fox, occasionally I run up against a bear. Conversation over.”
I could feign horror just to get further under his skin, but it really did seem to bother him to talk about it, so I let it drop.
“Speaking of eating, do you have food in the house? I haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon.” And that had been cold eggs and stale toast.
“It’s fully stocked.” He waved a hand toward the two refrigerators and as I turned towards them, I was able to catch a glimpse of him reaching under the cabinet again to the small refrigerated drawer I could just make out.
I let it go and sensed him leave the room, knowing he was going to consume the blood away from me. He would come around. If that was the only thing he was shy about, I could deal with it.
I fixed myself more eggs and toast, and gazed at the beautiful scenery again, deep in thought. I was wondering how he was going to keep me with him throughout the day when he walked back in, his skin flushed. There was true color in his face, and he had on his contacts. I left my food where it sat and reached out to touch his face, amazed at the warmth there.
“You really do warm up when you eat.”
He reached up and held my hand to his cheek, the brown of his contacts powerless to conceal the emotion in his eyes.
“If you prefer this, I won’t touch you unless I’ve eaten.”
“Oh, no you don’t. I don’t care if your ice cold or on fire. You touch me whenever the need strikes you.” I assured him. He grinned, showing even, white teeth, and I couldn’t help it, my eyes drifted to the canines. They were slightly longer and sharper than normal, but that didn’t mean anything.
“Your teeth, do you have to be, err, hungry or angry for them to, to…” I had no clue what the hell to say. He considered for a moment, finger tip tapping on his lips, eyes cast up as if deep in thought. Then he turned back to me and smiled again, and I had a reaction most humans would consider me crazy for. I smiled right back at him, the sight of the longer, much more dangerous canines sending a thrill through me. I was insane, I had to be.
“You are insane.” He said gently, and he spoke normally around the lethal teeth. I was a vampire once for Halloween and I couldn’t speak a coherent sentence with my fangs in, but then again they weren’t something that was a part of me.
I watched them retract with a fascination only Steve Irwin could appreciate.
“Enough theatrics. Can we get to work? We’re already late, and the office is probably already set up.”
I followed him out to the attached garage, where I got to see the black Rover up close. The whole vehicle was black; black tint, black paint, black upholstery.
“Look, Ma, no red paint.” Gareth murmured, casting me a glance from the side.
I had the decency to blush, and didn’t ask him how he knew about my conversation with Gerry. Gerry had probably filled him in, or he had just dipped into my thoughts. Then his words caught up with me. This is where the trouble started.
“What? What office?”
“Yours of course.”
His tone was too blasé for my taste.
“I have a station, I don’t need an office.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t. Only team leaders and execs get offices.” I explained to him, as if he didn’t already know.
“I know that.”
I didn’t say anything else until I was buckled in and he was driving. I had no idea where he lived, and I really wasn’t paying attention. Some part of me knew that right now, I was not a good person to know exactly where he lived; if a certain vampire got a hold of me, he would just pluck the location out of my head. Instead of staring at the road, I watched him speculatively. What was he getting at? I linked myself with him, it was so easy to do, and saw what he had planned.
“I don’t want to head my own team! Gareth, I am barely out of grad school!”
I was terrified. I had no experience running a lab, managing people and schmoozing executives and sponsors.
“You are perfectly capable of running a lab, and with both of us working together, we are bound to break all kinds of thresholds. Plus, I need to know that you are near me. Anything can, and did, happen five floors down where you work, and I can’t be there as quickly as I would like. It would look a bit strange if I materialized out of nowhere. Despite the lovely distractions, we do still have the very large problem of Padraigan to deal with.”
“Don’t preach to me about him. I’m perfectly safe in that building, especially now with all the added security, and you know it. This is about control.” I was so terrified that it was making me angry, and when this happens to me, I make no sense.
“Control? What does that have to do with anything? I don’t want to control you.”
“You do! You don’t want to let me out of your sight, in case you lose me like you did Evangeline.” I was yelling and I was shaking. He probably thought I was going to have a conniption fit. I had no real reason to react like this other than the thought of running my own lab. I was never an ambitious person, I knew that this was not something that I wanted. I was content to let glory hounds run the labs. The thought horrified me so much that I was completely irrational.
“You’re bloody mental! And I almost did lose you, or have your forgotten already?” His voice raised in frustration and he glared at me. “I know that I can’t keep tabs on you at all times, much as I’d like, but I wouldn’t do that to you anyway. Anna, be reasonable. We are linked, our mental capabilities are doubled. Working together could produce amazing discoveries and I can’t work closely with you in the lab. Now, quit fighting it.”
I started to protest again, but he continued to glare at me, and I didn’t need to see teeth or red eyes to know he was done, discussion finished.
This is why I was pouting, glaring at him as he drove. I still couldn’t watch the road, and he seemed to live as far from work as I did. I tried to work my brain around to his rationalization, and the logical part of me knew he was right, but the cowardly side of me, the scared side of me, fought against it.
He made a chuffing noise and I brought the full force of my glare to his face. He looked back at me, eyes steady, no emotion showing, not watching the road at all.
“You are the farthest thing from cowardly that I have ever run into.”
“Get out of my head.” I snarled.
“Case in point.”
“Oh, shut up.”
He smiled and turned his attention back to the road. My vampire.
When we got to the office, I jumped out at the side of the building, both of us agreeing that it would look funny if we came in together and I was seen getting out of his vehicle. I waved to G
erry as I came in, and moved to the bank of elevators. I reached out like I was pushing the button to go up, but I stopped just short, waiting for Gareth. Even mad as I was, when I heard his deep voice greeting Gerry, I smiled. There is no accounting for passion and commitment.
He came to stand beside me and reached out to push the up button.
“Good morning, Dr. Greer.” He greeted me as he would any employee, and I inclined my head toward him.
“Good morning Dr. Macgregor.” I murmured.
We entered the elevator together when the doors opened and we stood apart, mostly because of the security cameras, but I was still mad.
“I want to go over to Written tonight. Is that ok, Dad?” I whispered waspishly.
He gave a bark of laughter and shook his head.
“Would you please drop this? I don’t want to control you. But yes, you can go to Written, but I’ll be with you. And I don’t think in all the years that I’ve owned businesses that I have ever come across someone so pissed off about a promotion.”
“Careful, your twenty-first century slang is coming out.” What the hell was wrong with me?
He didn’t even deign to respond. Not that I blamed him. He was too dignified.
We had come to a tenuous agreement, mostly because I was sulking, that I would just move straight to my new office, which was conveniently cattycorner to his office, instead of going to my old station. I didn’t want a whole fuss in the lab when it was announced that I would be heading up Special Projects.
“You can pick your crew, if you’d like, or I can just assign some others. Your choice.” He said as he followed me into my new digs. I stopped short at the door, and he leaned against the door jamb to watch my reaction.
It was like I had come home. He had it decorated in a style he knew to be soothing to me; warm beige walls, crimson, saffron, and orange accents. When he had made this happen or how long he had been planning it was beyond me.
The leather couches were dark khaki with colorful accent pillows, my desk was warm Spanish oak with wrought iron accents. I loved it. All the animosity that had been brewing flew out the window when I realized that he had done this to help my transition. He knew it would make me comfortable, more relaxed in my daunting tasks ahead of me.
“Gareth, thank you. I…I’m so sorry for being such an ass.” I finished lamely. He came all the way into the room and shut the door. He made sure the blinds were drawn on either side of the door, then picked me up, my feet dangling inches from the floor. I stared down into his exquisite face while he smiled up at me.
“I don’t know anyone else whom I could reward for being obstinate like I can you.”
He set me down and pressed a light kiss on my lips. His flesh was still warm, and it was odd how he could almost pass for a human. He straightened away from me and was all business.
“Did you want to pick your crew?”
He moved over to the door to open it again, and his voice was different, more authoritative. It was sexy. I was sleeping with the boss.
That thought amused me to no end. I was not the same person that I was a week ago. This Anna was stronger, more confident, for the most part, and a much bigger smart-ass.
“Yes, actually, I would. There are some stars down in the lab that if given a chance, could really shine.”
“Right, then. Draw up a roster and give it to my secretary.” With that, he was out the door and across the hall to his office.
I stood looking after him for a moment, appreciating the feline grace that he moved with, and then turned back to my office. I had to behave myself. This was the first we had been to work together since, well since I had found everything out, and I had to not look at him like a lover while we were here.
Four hours later, he stuck his head in my office, and I came up out of a sea of paperwork like a drowning woman.
“Did you want lunch?” he asked nonchalantly, studying his fingernails.
“Oh that’s a good joke. I’m buried in paperwork.” I said, gesturing to the obvious mountain of paper on my desk.
“Well, whenever we promote, I take them out to lunch, so you’re entitled.”
I gave him the sunniest smile I could dredge up. Escaping with him for an hour sounded like heaven.
“I’m still going over the resumes from the lab.” I wanted to seem like I was working too hard to take off for lunch. He saw right through me.
“Grab your coat.” He ordered, but softened it with a wink. “I’ll meet you at the Rover. I have to attend to something first.” His head disappeared and I was left alone again with my mountain. With a shrug I stood and grabbed my coat from the small closet.
I went down the elevator and crossed the lobby, nodded to Gerry, and went out the front doors into weather that had drastically changed since this morning. I hadn’t noticed the change from my office windows, but I pulled my collar up tight around my neck as I went around the side of the building to wait on Gareth.
I studied the storm clouds rolling in, the black and purple clouds that looked like a bad bruise across the sky. We were in for a good snow. I was looking up at the sky still, trying to gauge the speed of the wind when I sensed it again. I hadn’t had the feeling in a week, but you never forget the feeling of being watched. I knew it wasn’t Gareth.
I attempted to be casual, not taking my attention off the sky, and tried tentatively to use my other sense, the one I was rusty with. I was able to pick up the general area of where he was, but between concentrating on veiling my thoughts and trying to locate him, I had no clue what he had planned. Ah fuck it.
I stared boldly where I thought he was, and I was right. He was concealed behind a tree, but he came out from behind it when I looked at him.
I stifled the scream that rose in my throat. The creature standing not fifty feet from me was the same one from Gareth’s past, the one that turned him. His darkly handsome features were bold, with a pair of deep set black eyes and an aristocratic nose. His long hair fell in a glossy black waterfall over his shoulders. He was dressed simply, in black pants, black t-shirt and a black pea coat that blew back in the wind, showing me that apparently all vampires had fabulous bodies.
“So you truly are with him now. This is a fascinating development.”
His voice was in my head, the tone taunting. I concentrated harder to block my thoughts, but couldn’t resist sending something of my own back.
“Are you jealous?”
It was a wild guess, but apparently it wasn’t just destroying Gareth that he wanted. His brows drew down in a scowl, and I gasped as excruciating pain seared through my head.
“No! Padraigan, your quarrel is with me not her.”
I cried out in relief when the pressure let off my head, but quailed at the sound of Gareth’s primal yell. I opened my eyes to see Gareth standing in front of me, the Rover parked but running, driver’s side door open. He pushed me towards it, and I scrambled over the seat and collapsed on the passenger side, echoes of pain thundering through my head. I sat in a daze, waiting for the vehicle to move, but it didn’t.
I turned to look out the window and saw Gareth standing where he had been, motionless, his furious gaze trained on Padraigan, his hands clenched into fists at his side.
Padraigan still stood next to the tree, but his head was thrown back, arms outstretched. Even to me he seemed as though he was gathering power from the storm clouds above him, and I was only mildly surprised when he looked at Gareth, a cold smile on his mouth and shot lightning from the tips of his fingers toward Gareth.
I screamed, scrabbling at the door. I had no idea what I could do against a vampire that could fling lightning at will, but I had to try to help.
Before I could get the door to work, Gareth had flung himself into the Rover and hit the accelerator, the powerful engine roaring in protest.
I turned in my seat to see Padraigan laughing, his cruelly beautiful mouth quirked in mirth. I lost sight of him as Gareth turned a corner and we shot out onto Route 13.
“Is this your idea of lunch?” I stuttered through chattering teeth, my head throbbing. He shot me a look full of concern, maybe thinking my brain was addled, but then he saw I was trying hard to make a bad joke. He gave me a gruff smile, then turned his attention back to the road.
“Sorry, when my life is threatened I find that I tell nervous jokes.” I mumbled, cramming myself against the door as he took another sharp turn.
“Tell all the nervous jokes you want, if it makes you feel better.”
He didn’t need to breathe, but he took a deep breath and blew it out gustily, and I noticed his hands shook where they rested on the steering wheel.
“What stops him from following us?” My voice was tremulous, my insides still shivering. No matter what I did, I couldn’t stop the tremors running through me.
“Thrill of the hunt. I told you, he’s very powerful and old. If it was just about destroying me, he could have done that a long time ago.”
“Like the night he created you?” I asked, my tone slightly acidic.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t recognize him.” He grumbled, staring intently at the road.
“How could I not recognize him? It’s not like your kind blend in with the wallpaper. Why else does he want to hurt you? It’s more than just the cure isn’t it?” I remembered Padraigan’s response when I accused him of being jealous. He reacted like anyone would when a nerve was touched, but to the nth degree.
“We’ll discuss this later, when we’re safe.” His voice was resolute, but he wasn’t winning this one.
“Oh, no. You aren’t going to win this one, Gareth. Some ancient asshole was just inside my head like a vise, and I want some explanations.”
“This ancient asshole can do the same thing.” His words were stern, but there was no power behind them, just resignation.
“And don’t you dare think about bailing on me. Remember what I said.” I pointed a finger at him, doing my best to still the shaking that was still coursing through me. I was happy my teeth no longer chattered.
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