Follow Me When the Sun Goes Down (Forged Bloodlines)

by Olsen, Lisa

  “What are you talking about?” he asked, without turning around to face me.

  “Angel.”

  “What about her?”

  “Keep her on a shorter leash or I’m going to have her declawed.”

  That got his attention. His head swiveled, green eyes narrowing. “Is that a threat?”

  “Hell yeah, that’s a threat,” I growled, more angry that he hadn’t denied the relationship than I had any right to be. “I don’t care who she works for, she doesn’t get to talk to me like that.”

  “What did she say?”

  I couldn’t actually say the words out loud, it was all I could do to stop my overactive imagination from supplying far too many images of it in the first place. “I’m too much of a lady to repeat it.”

  “Don’t you think maybe you’re blowing this out of proportion? I’m sure whatever she said couldn’t be all that bad. Just try not to let her get to you.”

  Was something going on between Bishop and Angel? As I looked around the room, I started to notice a few feminine touches here and there. All I could picture was the two of them together on that bed, and it made me feel sick to my stomach.

  “You are sleeping with her, aren’t you?” It just slipped out, her cruel words forgotten in the pain of the truth.

  Bishop’s brows drew together into an angry line. “That’s none of your business.”

  “No, it’s not.” My words were softer once that realization sank in.

  “Anja…”

  “No, it’s fine. You’re free to do whatever you want. I thought you had better taste is all.” I’d been replaced, pure and simple.

  Bishop rubbed the back of his head absently, fidgeting until he rose from his chair and came toward me. “Look, I’m sorry if she deliberately tried to upset you, I’ll talk to her. But you have no right to make me feel guilty about who I spend my time with. You’re the one who rushed right into Jakob’s waiting arms.”

  What did any of this have to do with Jakob? “Is that what this is about? You’re hooking up with Angel to get back at me for sleeping with Jakob?”

  “So it’s true then?” His scowl deepened. “I guess that I’ll always love you didn’t last as long as you thought it would.”

  “Hey, I meant it when I said it. I’m not the one who decided our entire relationship was based on a lie. You left me, remember? You made it perfectly clear we were done.”

  “If we’re done, then I shouldn’t have to justify myself to you.”

  “That’s not why I came down here, I just wanted…” I forced a breath, counting to five in German to try and break the cycle of frustration. “You know what, never mind. Forget I said anything. Forget I came in here at all. What the two of you do is your business, and if she’s rude to me in public, I can take it.”

  “I’ll talk to her.”

  “Whatever.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I didn’t want to go back up to the suite, I didn’t want to see anyone. The great hall was teeming with other vampires and their entourages, so I slipped into a parlor, only afterwards realizing it was “our” parlor, Bishop’s and mine. Pushing away the memories of my last visit, I took a seat behind the piano. I wasn’t nearly as accomplished on the instrument as Bishop (few people were), but I could play a few simple pieces from memory. After a while some of the knots eased their way out of my muscles as I forgot to be tense and I started to pick out a few notes of Anja’s Song, trying to add to the simple melody.

  “There she is, my sister fair. She walks in beauty, like the night. Of cloudless climes and starry skies…”

  “Hi, Aubrey,” I replied, without looking up, recognizing the Byron quote straight away, but his flowery words were lost on me. The last thing I was in the mood for was keeping up the pretense of Anja Gudrun with the one man who was capable of blowing my cover sky high. “I’m really not in the mood for company right now.”

  “That’s the best time for it then,” he replied, undeterred by my brush off. He busied himself with the sideboard for a few minutes while I played, setting a glass of amber liquid on the piano. “Have a sip now and tell big brother all about it.”

  I picked up the glass, more to rescue the piano from any rings than from an urge to drink. “That’s nice of you, but I don’t really want to get into it right now.”

  “Let me guess… it has to do with a certain brooding sibling who is quite possibly the largest ass this side of the Atlantic?”

  I gave him a faint smile for his efforts. “That transparent, am I?”

  “Perhaps I’m a bit psychic.”

  “Are you?” That would prove an interesting development.

  “No, not really. I just recall seeing that look on Carys’ face from time to time.”

  “Why? What did she have to be upset about?” I scoffed. “Didn’t everything pretty much always go her way?”

  “Jealous are we?” His amusement only made me feel more disgruntled.

  “I just don’t think it’s fair. If I was her I’d… ooh, you know, never mind. That’s a stupid road to go down.” I didn’t want Bishop wound around my pinky thanks to compulsion. He didn’t want me, no matter what his swoony eyes said sometimes; his choices since I’d released him from any compulsion made that loud and clear.

  “Why is it stupid to follow your heart?” he asked, oblivious to my mental ramblings.

  “Because following any body part except for your brain can land you in a heap of trouble. Or isn’t that your experience as well?”

  “No, that sounds spot on, but where’s the fun in that?” His grin turned positively wicked, but I was immune to it.

  “Life isn’t always about fun.”

  Aubrey lost the grin, taking a deep drink from his own glass as he studied me. “You are so different than she was. I’m trying to think why she would have chosen you. Oh, I meant no slight by that, of course,” he hurried to add. “Your charms are manifold. But I don’t think she turned you in order to sample them, did she?”

  Was he asking if Carys and I shared a physical relationship? “No, she and I never um… you know.”

  “There’s no shame in admitting such a bond, you know. All vampires know the sharing of blood can be delightfully intimate, and one’s gender is of little consequence.”

  I remembered the pull I felt when feeding, and I knew it would be even more magnified with Carys if she was supposed to be my Sire. Lord knew I felt that pull with Jakob big time. “I know, but that’s not what she was looking for when she found me. After all, she had the two of you for that, right?”

  “What was she looking for?”

  “I think…” It was hard to ascribe motivation to a woman I’d never met who’d died so long ago, but I did my best to give her a shade of depth. “I think she wanted something more. She seemed tired when I first met her. Tired of everyone and everything. I think she wanted to see the world through younger eyes. To find a bridge to the century to keep her from feeling old and obsolete. I think she wanted to remember what it felt like to be alive again, and maybe try to regain some of the innocence that she lost.”

  Aubrey was silent for a long time before he spoke again. “You knew her better than we did even after such a short time. All Ulrik and I did was tug her back and forth, vying for her affection, but you understood her. I envy you that.”

  “To Carys,” I proposed, holding up my glass to him.

  “To Carys.” He touched his glass to mine and we both drank, the harsh alcohol warming my insides.

  “Let’s rejoin the party, shall we?” He took both our glasses, setting them aside to offer his hands to me.

  “I don’t feel much like partying.”

  “That’s because you’ve never partied with me before. Come on now, leave off all this moping about and let’s go see what fun there is to be had in this old pile of bricks before your babysitters track you down.”

  That only served to remind me that I’d sent Gunnar off by himself and there’d be hell to pay once Rob heard
about it. “I should really get back. I shouldn’t have given them the slip for this long.”

  “None of that, sweets,” Aubrey said with a determined lift of the chin. “You’re in perfectly good hands with me. I’ve got a century or three on your toughest bodyguard, I’ll wager.”

  He had a point there. “Fine,” I agreed, putting my hands in his. “We’ll go check out what’s shaking in the main hall, but that’s it. No skulking about in the mansion. The last thing I need is to give Corley any more motivation to restrict my movements around here.”

  “That sounds like a story waiting to be told,” he said, pulling me to my feet. “Why don’t you tell me all about it on the way to the hall? Take hold of your glass there, wouldn’t want to leave without provisions after all.”

  Dutifully picking up my glass, I filled him in on the highlights of my brushes with Corley, mostly centering on the fact that he wasn’t too impressed with the West in general, and ending with the fact that I’d just shot him down on a pretty major land deal. Aubrey listened, making polite noises in all the right places, but I couldn’t shake the feeling he was a trifle bored with the topic at hand. But hey, he was the one who’d asked about it in the first place.

  The hall was full of people; everybody must’ve been in there instead of taking meetings for the moment. I looked around for either Felix or maybe even Jean Pierre to check in on him, but they were both surrounded by a crowd of people. Not the best environment for a quiet chat.

  “This place is a zoo,” Aubrey said very near my ear, his breath cool on my neck. “Let’s step outside for a breath of fresh air, shall we?” I nodded. Not wanting to add to the din, I let him steer me to the same terrace we’d first spoken on. “Much better, now I can hear myself think,” he declared one we’d stepped out into the moonlight.

  “Hey, I’m not keeping you from any business with all my complaining, am I?” The thought suddenly occurred to me. He had to have a purpose in coming to the Gathering other than stalking me.

  “Nothing that can’t wait, sweets. For the moment, consider me all yours,” he replied, tipping back the rest of his drink and staring into the bottom for a second, as though if he frowned at it long enough it might refill before tossing it negligently into the bushes. “I’d like to hear more about you. Where you’ve been all these long years. If we’re to become friends, I must know everything about you.”

  Everything about me. Cool beans. Anybody else I didn’t mind spinning all sorts of tales of Anja Gudrun, but with Aubrey, I felt like one slip up and he’d be on my cover story in an instant.

  “A girl likes to have her secrets,” I hedged.

  “And ordinarily I’d like a girl with an air of mystery about her. But you… something compels me to get to the end of you. Corley said you’re from Austria originally? Tell me about your life there.”

  “Sure.” I launched into my usual spiel, the one I knew backwards and forwards from having told it so many times back in the States.

  Somewhere around the part where I got to my father’s interest in the arts I saw Bishop stroll out onto the balcony overhead, and it took me a second to find my place back in the story. Our eyes met before he looked away and I did the same, but he didn’t leave the terrace. Bishop pretended to have some reason to be out there, just as I pretended not to notice him noticing us while I tried to pick the story back up. I don’t know why he had me so rattled, all I know is I kept losing my thread of concentration.

  “I’d like to offer my services,” Aubrey said finally, after I’d gotten myself in a complete muddle of dates.

  “Huh?”

  “It hasn’t escaped my attention that you’ve been more interested in the balcony than with me.”

  I turned my back on Bishop determined not to look up there again. “I’m sorry. I’m a little distracted, I admit.”

  “Would you care to turn the tables?”

  “Shénme?” I blinked, completely at a loss to what he was talking about.

  “Let him be distracted for a moment,” he said, his grin turning wicked. Leaning in, he cupped the back of my head and kissed me full on the mouth. My lips parted in surprise and Aubrey took advantage of that, his tongue coaxing a response from me before I knew it. The instant I regained control enough to pull away, he broke the kiss, his full lips curving into a self satisfied smile. “How was that? Did it serve its purpose?”

  “I, um… that was very… distracting,” I mumbled, still trying to regain my composure.

  “Happy to be of service, sweets.” He glanced up to the balcony that was now empty. “It seemed to do the trick well enough.”

  My gaze flicked up there as well, a sinking feeling gathering in the pit of my stomach. I hadn’t wanted to make Bishop jealous, and now things would be even weirder between us. “You shouldn’t have done that,” I said, staring up at the empty balcony.

  “Oh, but I wanted to.” Aubrey took a step closer to me again. “Don’t you ever do things just because they feel good?”

  “There you are.” Rob appeared on the terrace, relief warring with the gruff tone of his voice. “Going to have to put a bell on you, you keep giving Gunnar the slip, yeah?”

  Sweet zombie Jesus, had he seen Aubrey kissing me too? Maybe not, he looked entirely too relaxed and not about to take off Aubrey’s head. Until the vampire opened his mouth to speak.

  “She’s perfectly fine, I’ve got things well in hand,” he replied, snaking an arm around my waist.

  “I’m sorry,” I flinched when he touched me, scooting out of his reach. “I have to go. I need to find Felix and talk some things over. Thanks for the um… distraction.”

  “Anytime, sweets,” he winked, and I shuffled off to Rob feeling horribly uncomfortable and guilty. Way more guilty than I had about Bishop seeing the kiss.

  “I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I needed some time alone.”

  “Apparently,” Rob deadpanned, his gaze swinging back to Aubrey. “We talked about you not going off. You’re meant to be protected at all times while you’re here.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry, but I’m fine. Really. Just… something happened and I needed to chill out and then Aubrey came along and tried to cheer me up and…”

  “What happened?” he asked, concern etching his brow.

  “It’s nothing I want to talk about here. Can we go back to the room? I’d like to hear if you found anything out about that stuff you were going to check into, you know?” I gave him a pointed look and he nodded, resting his hand on the small of my back as he guided me through the crowded hall. We didn’t speak again until we reached the suite.

  “So, what did you find out?” I asked, as more of a preventive strike to keep him from asking why I was so skittish since he’d found me on the terrace with Aubrey.

  “I checked into Khalid’s fall. The man was happy to talk to me about the incident. It seems his horse suddenly bolted, but since he’s such an experienced rider, he was able to rein him in without too much difficulty. But the second he eased up his hold, the horse reared and threw him. Khalid couldn’t understand the sudden change in behavior, so he checked his mount over and found a small cut on its left flank. At the time he assumed he’d hit a bramble and the horse reacted in pain.”

  “That makes sense,” I allowed, but Rob held up his hand.

  “So I checked Severine’s horse and found a similar mark behind the saddle.”

  “Are you telling me someone really is out to get him and Khalid too?”

  “I’m saying it’s possible is all, but you shouldn’t get yourself in a lather about it until we have more information.”

  “It’s too weird to be a coincidence though.” I’d have to talk to Felix about it, see what politics the two men shared or who had anything to gain with taking either of them out of the talks. “The thing is, being thrown off a horse wouldn’t do anything to a vamp. Even if they fell and broke their necks it’d heal with some blood, right?”

  “Unless someone was to hang around and catch th
em at a vulnerable moment.”

  “Did Khalid have security with him?” I already knew Jean Pierre did not.

  “Yeah, he had a pair of riders with him at the time. They didn’t see anything amiss.”

  “And we didn’t see anyone else around Jean Pierre, but who knows what might’ve happened if we hadn’t been nearby.”

  Rob picked up both of my hands, capturing my complete attention. “All the more reason for you not to pull any more stunts like giving Gunnar the slip. What were you thinking?”

  “I know, I’m sorry. I guess I wasn’t thinking about being in danger at all.”

  “Are you going to tell me about what happened to get you in such a tizzy?”

  “I had a brief run in with Angel before, and that sparked an argument with Bishop. But you know what, it’s not even important anymore. I’m done with all of that drama,” I promised resolutely.

  The furrow between his brows pinched tighter. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

  “Of me being done with drama?”

  “No, of Angel upsetting you. Maybe I’ll have a few words with her myself.”

  “Oh, please don’t.” That was all I needed, Rob getting into the middle of it and letting Angel know how much she got to me in the first place. She’d probably hear about my visit to Bishop already, and I didn’t want to give her any more ammunition against me. “I told you, it’s not a big deal. She can keep all her smarmy comments to herself, it doesn’t have anything to do with me anymore.” Maybe if I said it enough, it would be true.

  “Right then, as you wish. What else is on the agenda for tonight?”

  “I should probably let Felix know I told Corley to go suck a lemon instead of signing his deal tonight.”

  “Did you now?” A single brow came up in amusement.

  My mood started to improve as I shared the details of the ‘negotiations’ with the Warden of Vetis, especially when Rob found it all so entertaining. “Then you don’t think I went too far in blowing him off?”

  “Nah. Last thing you want is a villain like that up knocking at your border. You did the right thing, true enough. Do you want to go back down and find Felix then?”