“Come,” he said again and held his hand out to her. She took it and stepped into his arms. He focused on the floor above, able to teleport to the corridor there and give them a head start. When they had materialised, Elissa pushed out of his arms and raced along the hallway, heading towards the far end.
Whatever Arnaud had taken from her, it was important to her and she wanted it back.
Payne ran behind her, his senses sweeping the rooms, searching for trouble. Some of the bedrooms were occupied but most of the people in them seemed busy judging by the rapid heartbeats and moans he could hear.
Elissa stopped at the far end of the corridor and looked back at him. “Which one?”
Payne slowed to a walk and sniffed, focusing on his grandfather’s scent so he could follow it to the right room. He stopped outside a door one room from the end of the hall. “This one.”
Elissa went to open it and he grabbed her arm. “What?”
Payne focused on the other side of the door. “Someone is in there.”
Arnaud’s current lover? Elissa broke free of him and burst into the room, sobs escaping her. Not fear or sorrow. He couldn’t sense such emotions in her as she ran towards the bed, blocking his view of it. She felt happy.
She rounded the bed and Payne’s eyes widened as she peeled away the dark blue covers and gathered a small boy who looked no older than six in human years into her trembling arms.
This was the item she had lost?
It couldn’t be hers. Payne could sense the boy was an incubus. No markings covered what he could see of the boy’s arms beyond the short sleeves of his charcoal grey t-shirt but they would emerge in a few years, revealing his lineage. Payne didn’t need to see it to know it would be like his own.
His scruffy sandy hair was evidence enough.
“Who does the boy belong to?” he said and stepped into the room.
Elissa looked up at him, her eyes bright with affection even though tears lined her dark lashes. Her chestnut hair fell around her shoulders and the boy in her arms nuzzled it, reached up and sleepily buried his small hand into the wavy locks. His black loose bottoms blended into her halter-top as he curled up against her and murmured something in his sleep.
“He is mine now... he was my sister’s. She gave birth to him and had raised him in secret, moving from one town to the next, forever on the run until the coven finally found her and executed her. I kept my promise to raise him in her stead and I had managed to keep him hidden, but then his father tracked him down.” She held the boy closer to her and looked down at him, and Payne could see the love in her eyes as well as feel it in the remnants of her blood in his body.
He wished she would look at him like that, while feeling emotions so warm and beautiful.
Payne looked at the sleeping innocent in her arms. They were related. His grandfather’s son. His uncle. That didn’t feel right as he looked at the boy, so much younger than he was, new to this dark world and unaware of just what he would become when he matured. A witch had given birth to him, a human, making him a full-blooded incubus, not a half-breed like Payne. The boy would need protecting and teaching. He would need love and Elissa looked as though she would give it to him unconditionally.
He ached inside with the need for her to give that to him too.
“Thank you, Payne,” she whispered and looked up at him through her eyelashes.
He shrugged it off. “We have to go.”
“Where?” Her voice shook now and he knew what she was thinking.
“I will take you somewhere you will be safe and I can protect you.” He was risking a lot by taking her to Vampirerotique but it was the only place he knew and he would only stay there long enough to figure out somewhere else to take her. He would find a safe home for her and the boy.
She rounded the bed and the sight of her struck him hard. She looked beautiful as she carried the boy, gazing upon the sleeping child with love and happiness. Jealousy coiled in Payne’s heart, striking deep with poisoned fangs. He closed his eyes and took hold of her arm, unable to see her without feeling she was never going to give him what he needed from her and that as soon as they were away from here, she would leave with the boy and he would never see her again. She wouldn’t want to keep the child around him. He was barely mate material, let alone father material, and an erotic theatre was no place to raise a child.
Payne focused and teleported them.
Right onto the black stage of the theatre in the middle of a performance.
Fuck.
He must have been thinking about what it would be like for the boy to grow up around the erotic shows and got his coordinates skewed.
The whole theatre froze and the combined focus of over two hundred vampires shifting to him and then to Elissa and the boy sent him off the deep end.
Payne roared at them all.
Red bled over his vision.
The two male and two female performers on stage broke apart, crimson eyes on Elissa. Payne growled a warning at them and then things took a severe downward turn. One of the males moved. Payne tried to go for a flesh wound but the thought of Elissa coming to harm, the thought of someone hurting the boy, had him automatically aiming higher. He swiped his claws in a direct arc across the male’s throat and thankfully the male had fast reactions.
Victor.
Payne hazily recognised the shaven-headed immense elite male.
His claws caught him on the shoulder, digging deep and ploughing through his flesh. Blood spilled fast and thick from the wound. A female shrieked, not on the stage but in the audience. The other male on the stage growled and bore his fangs.
Payne lost it.
He barrelled into the male, taking him down, and punched him hard. The heady scent of blood saturated the air. Elissa’s rapid heartbeat filled his ears, driving him on, urging him to maim and kill, to protect her and her youngling.
A familiar female scent popped into the myriad of smells. Succubus.
“Payne?” Andreu’s thickly accented voice reached his ears.
Payne shot backwards, growling and snarling at the dark-haired Spaniard, baring his fangs at the same time as he stretched his bloodied arms out, shielding his female.
Andreu moved a step towards him and Chica held him back, her black hair wild and as ruffled as Andreu’s hair, and their clothing too. Half of the buttons on Andreu’s black tailored shirt were undone and the tail hung out of his equally dark trousers. Chica’s strapless purple corset was wonky and her legs were as bare as her feet beneath her short black layered skirt.
They smelled of sex.
Payne growled low again, hunger blasting through him, twin urges, needs he couldn’t deny. The smell of sex and blood filled him with a need to feed, mingling with his need to protect, driving him deeper into his instincts.
“Payne isn’t right,” Chica said and he bore his fangs at her, his focus locking on her now. Weak female. He snarled and the red spots across his vision were joined by blue and gold. “There’s something off about him.”
He moved his feet further apart and lowered himself, breathing hard, his focus diverted by the noises and rapid heartbeats surrounding him. Victor’s blood spoke to him, luring him into feeding his hunger for it. He wasn’t alone now. A female was with him. Clothed in a crimson dress that matched her flame red hair.
She would taste sweeter.
“Payne, talk to us... tell us what is wrong,” Andreu said but the words grated in Payne’s ears and he struggled to make sense of them.
Payne growled his reply but not in English. Panic shot through him, sending a hot prickly wave across his skin.
Chica released Andreu and walked forwards across the black stage. His focus shifted entirely to her. She wouldn’t taste sweet and he didn’t want her near him. He didn’t want her near his female and her youngling.
He snarled a warning at her.
She didn’t heed it. She kept edging towards him. Andreu spoke again, the noise indistinct. Light burst across hi
s eyes from his right. Doors slammed. More scents joined the maddening mixture of them swirling in his mind and his lungs. Stronger scents.
He knew those males.
Payne lifted his hands and pressed his palms to his temples, growling as he tried to remember them. The red haze of fury clouded his mind and he couldn’t remember anything, couldn’t feel anything other than an insatiable lust for violence.
Chica spoke to him. Her words were strange and confusing, a language he had never fully learned but understood perfectly in the midst of his rage.
“Your markings,” she said and he looked at them briefly, seeing the swirling hues of gold, blue and deepest pink. “You have a mate... is this your mate?”
She took another step closer. Payne roared at her. Andreu was instantly between them, shielding her. Payne edged back a step, closer to someone behind him. Someone who meant a lot to him.
Chica swam out of focus and then back again as she spoke from behind her male. “Is this your mate, Payne?”
Payne clawed his hair back with both hands, his head spinning as he fought to make sense of everything that was happening. He growled and squeezed his hands against the sides of his head. He couldn’t think over the rush of blood in his ears. His breathing accelerated. Flashes of a beautiful female with flowing chestnut hair and striking silver-grey eyes punctuated the red haze in his mind. He saw himself above her, inside her, biting her, feeling the euphoria of that dual connection and her flowing into him. The taste of her blood was still strong on his tongue and their connection still had hold of his heart and his mind.
Something soft settled on his back, pressing between his shoulder blades and against his backside, spreading warmth across his skin and carrying light into his heart.
He stilled, his fury fading with each second she touched him, with each bit stronger the connection between them grew. Her scent enveloped him and her steady heartbeat replaced the rush of blood in his ears.
“Payne?” Her gentle voice stirred his soul, bringing it up from the darkness to the light, soothing away his fear and his rage, and lifting the red haze from his mind.
He turned slowly to face her and she looked up at him, no trace of fear, anger or disgust in her beautiful eyes. They shone with warmth and understanding, with affection even though he knew what she saw stood before her, a wild and lost male, a broken and vicious man.
“Everything is fine, Payne. You don’t have to protect me from these people.” She smiled at him and then looked down, and his eyes fell there too, following her gaze to the boy cradled in her arms. “You don’t have to protect us.”
He raised his eyes to hers again.
“Come back to me, Payne.” Her eyes darted between his and he could sense her desire to touch him.
He wanted that too. He stepped up to her, leaned down and rested his heavy head on her slender shoulder, needing to feel her and smell her, and know that she was here with him, safe and sound.
He wasn’t sure how long he remained there, weak and tired, confused about everything and feeling so uncertain. Elissa didn’t move. She stayed with him, her cheek resting against his, sometimes whispering soothing things to him. He slowly pieced himself back together, tamping down his anger and regaining control. It helped that someone made the audience leave. He wasn’t sure who.
The performers left too, but some vampires remained, staring at him, patiently waiting for an explanation.
Elissa pressed a kiss to his cheek and the boy stirred in her arms. Payne drew back to check on him. He slept still. Payne was surprised he hadn’t woken yet but when he looked into Elissa’s eyes and saw them twinkling like diamonds, he knew why the child still slumbered. She was using her magic to keep him under, protecting him from this dark place that Payne had brought them to.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, voice hoarse and low.
“You were only trying to protect us.” She smiled at him, relieving the ache in his heart, and then tiptoed. Payne met her halfway, stealing a kiss from her. He had never needed anything as fiercely as he needed this kiss and the sliver of reassurance that it conveyed to his heart. Perhaps he could fix things after all. Perhaps Elissa would consent to be his mate.
“Are you going to introduce us?” Chica’s bright voice filled the theatre and Payne looked over his shoulder at her and Andreu.
And Sera. When had she arrived? She stood at the side of the stage, her blonde hair tied in a neat ponytail, wearing a short black dress.
Antoine and Snow were present too, standing below him at the front of the stalls. He didn’t dare look at them. He could feel Antoine’s anger and knew the powerful aristocrat would be having words with him later about interrupting a show and scaring away customers.
And bringing a witch and a child to the theatre.
It was the only place he could have taken her.
It was the only place he could call home.
“Elissa,” Elissa introduced herself, stepping around Payne, her hand still against the boy’s forehead, keeping him asleep. “And this is Luca.”
Luca.
Payne looked down at the boy in her arms. Not his real name. Payne knew that instinctively. Because they were related? He wasn’t sure how it worked but he had heard that relations couldn’t use names against each other.
Antoine leaped up onto the stage. He adjusted the cuffs of his crisp dark silver shirt. Payne couldn’t remember ever witnessing Antoine dressed any way other than impeccably in expensive tailored shirts and dark trousers, coupled with Italian leather shoes. He was the total opposite of his older brother Snow, who favoured pairing tight black t-shirts with equally as tight black jeans and army boots. That was, when he bothered to wear more than just his jeans. The immense male had no qualms about roaming around Vampirerotique dressed in only his black jeans, wearing them slung low around his hips.
Sera came forwards and joined Antoine, her sparkling green eyes on the boy rather than her male.
“Is there something you may want to tell us?” Antoine said to Payne.
“Yes... I have the ring... it will free Chica of the theatre, but only by binding her to Andreu.” Payne slipped the ring off his little finger and offered it to her. She bounced forwards and took it from him, her grin wide, and then threw her arms around him and gave him a tight hug.
“I knew you’d come good on your promise. Thank you, Payne. I owe you so much.” She squeezed him so tightly he choked and then released him and bounced back to Andreu, holding the ring out to him.
Andreu grinned too and Payne couldn’t stop himself from smiling along with them, his heart warmed by the sight of them so happy and proud that he had been able to help them after all.
“No, I meant the boy.” Antoine pointed to the sleeping child and looked between him and Payne, back and forth, enough times that his meaning dawned on Payne.
“He isn’t mine.” Payne looked down at Luca and could understand why Antoine had believed there was a possibility that he was the father. “He is related to me though... but it’s a long story.”
“The boy and the witch must leave... now.”
Payne shot a glare at Snow. The lethal white-haired male stared up at him from the front row of the red velvet stalls, his pale blue eyes ringed with crimson.
“I have to protect them... and that means I need to keep them here until I can find a secure home for them.”
“No.” Snow frowned and his pupils stretched, turning cat-like, and his fangs extended. “It means you need to get them away from here... now.”
Payne froze.
Snow growled.
“We are not alone.”
CHAPTER 15
Payne’s senses stretched out, screaming in alert. Antoine and Andreu tensed, both males pulling their females close to them. Both females broke out of their arms and readied themselves for a fight. Payne knew if he tried to coddle Elissa she would react in the same way.
Snow leaped up onto the stage, his red eyes scanning the stalls and then the private
boxes that lined the walls of the theatre.
Payne couldn’t detect what Snow had sensed coming but he tried to prepare himself for it.
Witches or incubi?
Were they coming for Elissa or coming for him?
Either way, he wouldn’t allow anything to happen to Elissa or the boy.
He backed towards her, keeping her close.
What was keeping them?
He turned and scanned the stalls, and then froze as the hairs on the back of his neck rose and he caught their scent.
Incubi.
They were here for him. He growled and extended his claws. Five males appeared on the stage and it erupted into pandemonium. Payne tried to remain near Elissa as he fought, dealing with a dark-haired young male wielding a sword. It seemed the incubi had come prepared for the fight, leaving his side at a disadvantage.
Antoine growled at Andreu. “Take care of the females.”
Andreu looked as though he was going to protest and then thought the better of it, sticking close to Sera and Chica as he battled a man with long blond hair.
Snow roared and swiped his claws across the throat of a middle-aged dark-haired male, ripping it open. The sight of one of their comrades dying didn’t slow the incubi. More of them appeared, among them the two males Payne had met at the mansion. The one who had welcomed them and the one who had pretended to be his grandfather. Antoine threw himself into the fray, taking on two incubi at a time, his movements swift and brutal. Snow fought alongside him, dealing deadly blows and bloodying his hands. His eyes burned crimson.
Payne kept a wary eye on the immense lethal male, unwilling to trust him when the scent of blood was thick in the air. One wrong step and Snow would lose himself to bloodlust.
“Antoine,” Payne shouted above the din of the fight and the dark-haired aristocrat’s blue eyes met his as he punched a hole through the chest of one of the incubi. Payne caught his opponent with a right hook followed by a swift left uppercut, sending him crashing onto the stage. “Take Snow away from here.”
Bewitch (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 5) Page 16