Pain that wrenched at Antoine and caused tears to sting his eyes.
“No,” Snow growled through gritted teeth. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t...”
He collapsed to his knees again, hitting the wooden floorboards with a spine-jolting crack. The canister spilled from his hand and he scrambled forwards, clumsily chasing it across the floor, his attempts to grab it sending it spinning and rolling towards the main door of the apartment.
“Javier!” Antoine yelled and smacked the restraints against the outside wall of his apartment, trying to get his neighbour’s attention. A little help wouldn’t go amiss after all.
The elite vampire was in his apartment a heartbeat later, his deep brown eyes seeking the cause of Antoine’s distress.
“Ay, Dios mio,” Javier cursed softly in Spanish and then held his hand out to Antoine. Antoine tossed him one set of restraints and clutched the other. “How long has he been like this?”
“A few minutes. It is my fault. I cut myself and he came to check on me and smelt the blood. He’s had half a canister and when he gets this one open, we will have a chance to capture him.”
Javier nodded. It was a plan they both knew well and had successfully carried out countless times in the past.
“Antoine?” Sera’s muffled voice coming from the bathroom seemed to throw Javier.
The Spaniard turned inquisitive eyes on him. This was not the time for it.
Snow snarled and growled, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of them, clawing at the metal canister. When he was like this, his brother was little more than a beast, unable to comprehend even something as simple as unscrewing a cap. His tension and frustration increased with each fumbled attempt. When biting the metal container proved unsuccessful, Snow snarled at it, bearing huge fangs in a threat, and turned his head this way and that, studying it for a weakness. A true hunter.
It was going to end in a bloody mess as usual.
With a roar, Snow struck, puncturing the steel with his claws and shredding his fingers as he withdrew them. He didn’t seem to notice his injuries. The victory he had gained over the canister and the sweet reward of blood overshadowed them.
Snow held the ravaged metal cylinder to his mouth, spilling more than he was drinking. It dripped down his bare torso as he rocked with the container, a deep rumbling purr emanating from him.
Javier nodded and they sprung into action. Snow didn’t even notice them. He was so focused on feeding that Antoine had his left hand cuffed and Javier had his right one secured without incident. Moving Snow would be a whole different matter. When he realised he was restrained, he would fight them, and even with the help of the elite vampire, Antoine wouldn’t be able to subdue his brother without taking a few knocks.
The bathroom door creaked open and Sera peeked out.
Antoine growled at Javier when he looked over his shoulder at her. If the Spaniard was looking at her bare legs, he was going to accidently-on-purpose hit him when Snow started misbehaving.
Snow perked up.
Lilah stood in the main doorway. She folded her arms across her chest, squashing her full breasts together in the small black tank she wore with her jeans. The tangled wet mess of her chestnut hair and the unimpressed look she tossed at both Antoine and Snow said that she had been showering with her mate, Javier, at the time of the disturbance.
Her golden eyes dropped back to Snow.
He purred.
She shook her head, calmly crossed the room to him, and ignored her mate’s warning to stay away. She came to a crouch in front of Snow.
“I think that is quite enough, don’t you?” She took the fractured bloody canister from him and set it down on the floor out of his reach.
Antoine tensed, waiting for his brother to explode and knock her aside, or worse, for taking away his favourite toy.
Snow lowered his head. Ashamed? That was a new one. Whatever dark power Lilah had over his brother, it was a gift given by the Devil himself. The woman was a witch when it came to Snow. No one could calm him as easily as she could.
Sera stepped out of the bathroom, a towel now wrapped around her waist to cover her partial nudity.
Snow looked towards her and tried to reach out to her but Javier’s grip on his cuffed wrist was too firm. He whined and kept reaching for her. When Javier moved behind Snow and pulled on the chain so his elbow bent and his hand hit his shoulder, Snow tried with the one Antoine held, another low whine escaping him. Perhaps it wasn’t just Lilah who had power over Snow. Perhaps all females possessed an ability to soothe the beast of his bloodlust.
“He won’t hurt you.” Lilah smiled at Sera. “He’s calm now. These two won’t let you believe it, but it’s true. See.”
“Lilah!” Javier snapped but his mate was already laying her hand on Snow’s bloodied cheek.
The large male vampire closed his eyes and leaned into the delicate hand on his face. He purred again, the deep rumbling sound filling the tense silence. Lilah stroked his cheek and exhaled a long sigh, her golden eyes glittering with concern and tenderness. It had been foolish of her to touch Snow when he was in such a strange mood. She seemed oblivious to how dangerous his brother was, her faith that he was still Snow inside when the bloodlust seized him blinding her. Antoine could only hope that Snow never proved her unwavering belief in him wrong. He would never forgive himself if Snow ever hurt her or any of the vampires he worked with at the theatre. He would feel responsible for his brother’s actions because it had been his decision to conceal how dangerous Snow could become when the bloodlust took hold of him.
“Come along.” Lilah rose to her feet and motioned for Snow to follow. He lumbered onto his feet and obeyed her with only a few snarls and growls in Antoine and Javier’s directions.
Antoine didn’t want to leave Sera alone, not even for the few minutes it would take to cross the corridor to Snow’s room and make sure that he was comfortable and secure, and had everything that he needed.
Lilah opened Snow’s apartment door and held her hand out to Antoine, as though she had sensed his desire to return to his own room as quickly as possible.
“I think there’s a young woman in your apartment. I’m not going to ask what she’s doing there, or mention how surprised I am, or how surprised Javier is too. I’m just going to say that I think we can handle things from here if you want to go back to her and make sure that she’s okay. I promise that I will take good care of Snow.” Lilah smiled broadly and as he set the chain into her hand, she added, “I will say that I think it’s nice you have some company.”
Antoine gritted his teeth and walked away, letting her have the last word. He would never hear the end of it if he tried to argue that Sera wasn’t going to be company in the way Lilah thought she was. There were enough women distracting the owners of the theatre already, without him adding to the list.
CHAPTER 8
Antoine stepped back into his apartment and the relief he felt on seeing that Sera was unharmed overwhelmed him. Without thinking, he shut the door, crossed the room to her where she was cleaning the blood off the floorboards and pulled her up into his arms.
“You should have done as I said.” The reprimand was supposed to come out strong and forceful, a scolding for her foolish actions. It didn’t. It came out hoarse and in a whisper full of feelings that shocked him. He hadn’t felt his fear in the moment but it crashed over him now, only strengthened by the delay in his feeling it. His worst nightmare had almost come true.
If anything was going to give him the impetus to let Sera go before things became more intense between them, it was that.
He had tried to deny that any harm would befall her if he kept her, but he had been with her for barely an hour and already she had almost suffered the wrath of Snow’s bloodlust.
“Antoine, you’re shaking,” she whispered and he realised that he was. “Come and sit down.”
He was too tired to refuse and allowed her to lead him to the bed. Her hands grasped his shoulders and
she forced him to sit on the edge of the king-sized mattress.
“Is your hand still bleeding?”
He didn’t know. He looked down at it. Yes, it was. The scratches on the back of his other hand were healing thanks to his saliva but he had left the wounds on his palm from the broken glass unattended. She muttered something and knelt before him. He could only sit and stare as she took his hand in both of hers, palm upwards, and began to lick the cuts. Heat chased away the cold numbness coursing through his veins. Awareness of each careful sweep of her tongue was only made more intense by the feelings that flowed from her into him as his blood in her body opened a deeper connection between them.
She was worried.
She wanted to take care of him.
She cared about him.
Antoine wasn’t sure of the right reaction for that revelation. Should he be happy that she had some sort of feelings for him? It would have pleased him once, centuries ago. He would have easily fallen into her arms and passed blissful years with her, uncaring of where the future led them, living for the moment.
He wasn’t that man anymore.
“Sera.” He took his hand away from her and she looked up at him, her green eyes round and edged with the barest thread of crimson. The thoughts swimming in his mind hurt him. If they hurt him, they would surely wound her. “This cannot happen.”
“Why?” she said, neither demanding nor yielding. Exactly the cool courage he had expected from her.
“Because.”
She scoffed. “That is a lousy answer.”
It was. He shrugged. What else was he supposed to say?
“You saw my brother.” The way her face blanched confirmed that she had witnessed and understood the full horror of his brother’s reaction and subsequent breakdown. “That same darkness flows in these veins.”
He turned his palm back towards her, revealing the blood seeping from the cuts.
“My brother needs constant care. As constant as the bloodlust that seeks to rule him. My brother needs me.”
“So, because your brother needs you, you don’t get to be with anyone? You can’t need anyone else, or have anyone else need you?”
He didn’t really have a response to that one that she wouldn’t be able to just bat aside and refuse to believe.
“Your brother relies on others. Your brother is not alone, detaching himself from the world. He has his demons, and he fights them, and he overcomes them... on his own. Restraining him didn’t free him from whatever dark need had seized him. He freed himself when that woman came in. He was freeing himself when he was looking at me.” Sera stood and sighed. “I could see it even if you couldn’t. That woman was right. Snow wouldn’t have hurt me.”
“You cannot know that!” Antoine shot to his feet, his voice harsh in the quiet room. Sera didn’t back away. She stood toe-to-toe with him. Challenging him as always.
“What is it that you fear, Antoine?” she said coolly, holding his gaze and searching it, looking deep into his soul. There was no use trying to close it off to her. She had the key now and could unlock it at will. She had found her way past his defences. “Are you afraid that you’ll lose control like that?”
“I am afraid I will kill you.” He paced away from her and picked up the twisted remains of the two canisters. He dumped them into the bin in the bathroom. The scent of blood followed him, strong and intoxicating. Antoine pressed his hands against the edge of the black counter surrounding the sink, ignoring the pain in his left hand, and drew in a deep breath.
Sera appeared in the doorway reflected in the mirror. She sighed, stepped up behind him, and ran her hands over his shoulders. Devil, just that simple motion of her hands felt too good for him to resist. It told him to give up the fight and give in to her, seduced him into admitting that he liked the feel of her hands on him and the way it relaxed and comforted him. It had been too long since he had felt like this—cared about by someone other than Snow, close to someone and no longer alone in his quest to keep moving forward through his life.
The past centuries had felt like that, a constant march onwards, his focus solely on his brother so he didn’t have to look too closely at himself. Only Snow had kept him moving forward and it was all he could do to escape his past. He refused to look back but now Sera had him balanced on the edge of doing just that, and surrendering to her demand to share his pain with her and embrace her and the fact that he didn’t have to be alone if he didn’t want to be. He wasn’t sure if he was strong enough to look back now without breaking down under the weight of it all. It felt as though each year that had passed without him acknowledging what had happened had done nothing to lessen the pain he would feel if he allowed those memories to surface in his mind and his heart. It felt as though each year had only increased it, and he was afraid that it would crush him now, would strip him of his strength and leave him broken. He didn’t want to feel weak and vulnerable. Not again.
But the temptation to confess everything and share it with someone at last was strong, beating in his blood and his soul, coaxing him into putting voice to his past and letting it flow out of him in the hope that his pain would lessen by opening his heart to Sera.
Sera was strong, unyielding in her pursuit of him, but was she strong enough to handle his horrific past and the terrible future that awaited him?
“I’m not afraid, Antoine,” she whispered as though she had read his thoughts and rested her cheek against his back, just as she had done on the stage before they had made love.
Antoine closed his eyes and absorbed the feel of her pressing against him, the intensity of the comfort it gave him, as though they were old lovers rather than practically strangers.
“You won’t hurt me.”
He wished he could believe that as fervently as she obviously did.
Antoine turned to pull her into his arms.
There was a knock at his door.
He sidestepped and passed her instead of surrendering to his need to hold her. Javier was at the door. The sandy-haired elite male smiled grimly at him, a smudge of blood on his cheek from where he had been struggling with Snow.
“Lilah has him settled now. She is singing a lullaby to him and says he will be sleeping by the end of it.”
Antoine raised a single dark eyebrow.
Javier gave an easy shrug of his shoulders. “Don’t ask me. Apparently, it works like a charm. He likes it when she reads to him too.”
“I do not think it’s wise for her to spend so much time around him, especially alone.”
“You tell her that. I am her mate and her sire, and I cannot convince her to keep away from him. I can guarantee that if you visit him tomorrow night, you will see the difference it makes. He is often much calmer and more in control the night after Lilah has sung him to sleep.”
Incredible. His brother was not only a beast but a baby too. The Devil, Antoine prayed he never succumbed to bloodlust. He didn’t want Sera singing him to sleep like a babe each morning just to have him sane the next night when he awoke.
Antoine paused.
How had she got under his skin so quickly? Hadn’t he decided to end this? Now he was thinking in terms of years down the line and he remembered all too well what had happened the last time he had started doing that.
Nothing but endless pain and misery.
A century of happiness gone in a heartbeat.
“Thank her for me,” Antoine said and Javier looked as though he had just kneed him in the groin. His brown eyes were wide and his eyebrows were pinned high up his forehead.
Antoine huffed and closed the door in his face. Even he said thank you when someone had done something worthy of it.
“Antoine?” Sera’s voice coming from his left rather than his right caused him to frown.
He turned and found her sitting on the edge of his bed, one bare leg bent at the knee and resting on the red silk covers, the ankle of it tucked under her other leg where it draped over the edge.
Temptation.
Which Sera was sitting before him now? She must have snuck across the room whilst he had been talking to Javier and seated herself on his bed, so when he finished and turned away from the door he would find her there, beautifully arranged and waiting for him.
Challenging him.
The vixen.
The flash of wickedness in her green eyes gave her away.
It seemed his vixen wasn’t going to heed any of his warnings. Stubborn minx. Had Elizabeth warned her about him too? He knew her sire well, and her sire knew him. There was no doubt in his mind that Elizabeth had recounted various reasons for her to snuff out her desire for him before it really got burning, but he found himself wanting to hear her admit it.
“You do not take warnings to heart, do you?” he said and she just shrugged and then leaned back on his bed, propping herself up on her hands. She drew her foot out from under her thigh, dangling both of her legs over the edge of the bed and swinging them back at forth at opposite times.
Antoine stalked around her, keeping his distance, observing her and battling the temptation to surrender to her once again.
“No doubt Elizabeth told you not to involve yourself with me?”
She nodded. “Not so much involve. She told me not to even try. Said you were... as frigid as a nun and as cold as ice.”
That one actually stung. Elizabeth had said that about him after everything he had done for her?
“Don’t be angry with her. She doesn’t seem to know you... the real you.” Sera swung her legs forwards and propelled herself onto her feet. She stalked across the room towards him, hips swaying and her eyes on his, like a true predator. When she reached him, she trailed her fingers down his chest, her touch heating him to boiling point even with his silver-grey shirt dampening the feel of it. Sera tiptoed and brought her mouth to his ear. She whispered into it, “I know you now... I won’t break, Antoine, and I won’t hurt you... not unless you ask nicely.”
Antoine growled. It rumbled up his throat, a possessive hungry snarl. He wanted to deny what she had said, wanted to tell her that she was wrong and she didn’t know him, and that he could so easily break her. He had seen the danger of the strength that flowed in his veins. Had witnessed it unleashed on those he loved.
Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series #3) Page 8