“I have no doubt that she’s got one somewhere,” I said, fighting back a grin. “Just don’t go nosing into Tristan’s stuff unless he says you can. I’d rather not worry about a vampire taking a nip at you because you ventured into his territory.”
“Are they really territorial?” Lily asked.
“Can be.”
“Have you been hunting vampires a long time?”
“Yes, a very long time.”
“And now you’re friends with them?” she pressed. I had to crush the smile that was trying to push onto my lips, her curiosity was so amusing.
“Not really,” I hedged, pushing away from the doorjamb to stand with my legs spread. “We just have to work together on occasions to solve some bigger problems.”
“And when it’s solved, will you go back to hunting them?” she demanded.
“I don’t know. Probably.”
She shook her head at me, a frown crinkling in the corners of her eyes.
“It’s nothing that you need to worry about,” I said, wishing I could take away the concerned look on her face.
“But if you and Mira go back to being enemies, it means that I won’t get to see you both. It means that you won’t let me hang out with Tristan anymore. If Gabriel’s Mira’s bodyguard, then I probably won’t see him again,” she listed as her fears grew.
“It’s nothing you need to worry about,” I repeated, one corner of my mouth quirking in a smile. “We’ll work it all out in a few days. I think we all have bigger things to worry about. Go downstairs and get something to eat. I need to check on Gabriel and Mira.”
Lily still had a worried look on her face as she bounced off the bed and thundered down the stairs to the kitchen. I followed behind her at a slower pace, trying not to think about her questions. What were we going to do after this was all over? It was something that I had never had time to think about when I was involved with Mira before. Tomorrow was something we were never sure we were going to have, so such thoughts were never contemplated.
Now I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I knew my time with Themis was done. I had watched Ryan use and destroy people over the long years and had never done anything about it. I could no longer turn a blind eye to his actions. It was time to move on.
And in truth, I didn’t think I had learned as much about nightwalkers as I would have hoped while I was at Themis. My short time with Mira had taught me that I was wrong about a lot of things, important things that could have easily decided whether a creature lived or died. It was time for me to move on. I had been with Themis for more than a couple of centuries, the longest I had ever bothered to stay in any one place. I had been a part of that institution before Ryan’s arrival and now I felt that it was time for me to leave. I just didn’t know where I would go next.
I followed Lily down the stairs and wandered into the kitchen to find Gabriel sitting at the table next to Lily and Matsui. The teenager was already halfway through her first slice of pizza while hammering Matsui with questions about vampires in Japan. Gabriel sat back in his chair, looking a little paler, but none the worse for wear.
“She’s expecting you downstairs,” Gabriel said when I entered the room. “The door is in the hall, under the staircase.”
“Watch over Lily tomorrow. Get her some food,” I stated as I reached over her and grabbed a slice of pizza.
“She’ll be fine,” Gabriel said with a faint smile.
“Ask Tristan’s permission before you jump back on his computer and stay out of trouble tomorrow,” I said around bites of pizza. I tapped Lily on the top of the head, getting her to look up at me.
“Gotcha,” she said with a smile. “See you tomorrow night.”
I nodded, grabbing a second slice of pizza before heading back through the house. It wasn’t the greatest pizza I had ever had. The crust was a little soggy and there didn’t seem to be enough cheese, but at that moment it was perfect. Like sleep, meals were something that were snuck in between catastrophes. Earlier today, I had managed to grab both breakfast and lunch with Lily because I knew that she needed food and it seemed to be an easy way to get her to open up a little bit to me about Abigail’s attacker. Unfortunately, once the sun set, all my attention turned to Mira. But then she seemed to fill whatever room she entered, pushing out any other thought or action.
Downstairs looked like a place to have parties, with its full bar off to one side and pool table in the center of the room. A huge flat-panel TV dominated one wall, while the opposite wall had a pair of doors. They looked as if they could lead to a bathroom or storage. However, one of the doors was left open, revealing what appeared to a somewhat austere bedroom. There was a single chair off to the side and a queen-sized bed pushed up against the far wall.
Mira sat on the bed with her back pressed against the concrete wall. Her right leg was bent and the elbow of her left arm was resting on her knee as she held her head in her hand. The nightwalker looked worn, as if time were finally starting to catch up with her.
“Did you see Gabriel?” she asked in a low voice. “Is he okay?”
“He’s fine,” I confirmed, causing her shoulders to slump even more in relief. “It doesn’t look like you took much.”
“I didn’t think I had, but after what happened with Tristan, I’m just not sure anymore…” she said, her voice trailing off.
“How do you feel?”
“Exhausted.” She sighed before flashing a faint, wry grin that seemed to disappear before it could fully form on her lips.
“Then go to sleep,” I said, as I reached over and pulled the door closed, then paused with my hand still on the doorknob. “What about Tristan?”
“He’s got the next room,” she replied, pushing off the bed and getting to her feet. “This used to be one big room, but last month I had it divided so that he could have his own room. It has the same security system as this one.” Standing on the left side of the door, Mira opened the covering of a small gray box on the wall and typed in an eight-digit code in the keypad. A second later, a metal door slid out of the wall and covered the wood door. Mira smiled at me when I gave a little jump. “The entire room is concrete and steel. Nothing to burn.” She frowned. “You’re stuck in here now. No getting out until I’m awake again.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“There’s no bathroom in here. No food.”
“I’ll be fine,” I repeated. “It’s December. The days are shorter now. You’ll be awake again soon enough.”
Mira smirked over her shoulder as she returned to the bed. Placing her back against the wall, she stared at me as I leaned against the metal door that guarded the entrance into her secret lair. Her eyelids drifted shut after a few seconds, but she quickly jerked her head, her eyes popping open. I chuckled at her.
“Stop fighting it.”
“Did you bring any weapons?” she asked.
“I’m always armed,” I replied with a smile. Even when I didn’t have a blade or a gun on me, I still had the ability to boil blood. “I’m not going anywhere. You’re safe.”
A small sigh escaped Mira as she slid down the wall and laid her head against the pillow. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Thank you,” she whispered, and then I felt it. It was as if she were no longer in the room with me. I could no longer sense her. It was still a few hours until sunrise, but exhaustion and Gabriel’s blood had finally overcome the strength of Ryan’s blood. She was deep in the sleep of the nightwalkers.
Pushing away from the wall, I walked over to the bed. Mira was dressed in a plain, white T-shirt and a pair of black shorts. Her dark red hair was spilled over the white pillow-cases like a river of fresh blood. I bent over and picked up her legs, while at the same time, I pulled down the cover on the bed. I placed the blanket over the nightwalker, knowing that she would never feel it. Staring down at her, I realized that for the first time since I had met her, Mira finally looked like she was at peace. I just wished it would last.
TWENTY-EIGHT
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There are dreams that jump from one garish image to the next, blurring together memory and fantasy into one heart-wrenching nightmare. And then there are some that are just a mesh of sensations. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. This one started with a pair of lips. There was no image, no smiling face; just a pair of soft, moist lips kissing my neck. My muscles tensed. I couldn’t identify the temptress beyond these gentle lips moving up my neck with amazing care. These full lips paused at my earlobe, parting to draw that sensitive piece of flesh inside where it was caressed by the tip of her tongue.
I deeply exhaled, releasing a breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. My whole body relaxed, muscles unwinding from my shoulders to my calves. At the same time, a weight settled around me, almost hesitantly coming to rest in my lap. She was light like a butterfly and just as skittish. This creature with a gentle kiss and springtime scent would flee if I moved, so I hardly breathed as she dragged her lips up to my jaw.
She paused as she reached my lips, one small hand coming to rest against my chest. The first touch was light and faint, a soft brush of flesh as if testing me. Then again with more pressure, more demanding. She was slow, trying to memorize the contours of my lips before asking for more.
She shifted slightly, pressing closer, her knees coming to hug my hips a little tighter while the hand on my chest slid up to my left shoulder. Her other hand curled around my right biceps, a hint of nails biting flesh. Her lips brushed mine, parting so that the tip of her tongue ran along the seam of my lips. I opened my mouth, welcoming the invasion. This time there was nothing hesitant. Her tongue slipped into my mouth, tasting me.
I kissed her back, wanting to drown in the pleasure she was giving me. I pulled away, capturing her bottom lip in my teeth, tugging lightly. She came back, the kiss growing hotter, rougher. She tasted like nothing I could recall; warm and sweet. I was growing hard. I wanted more, but I was still afraid to move. Any wrong move and she might disappear.
She pressed her body more into mine. Her hands gripped my arm and shoulder a little tighter as she kissed me. A soft sound escaped her, a sweet mix of a sigh and a moan. Dragging her lips back across my jaw, she whispered, “Touch me, Danaus,” in a husky voice. I knew that voice. I knew it, but I couldn’t conjure up the matching face. It didn’t matter. I lifted my hands and came in contact with her bare skin. I felt a shudder run through her and she sighed so softly I wouldn’t have heard it if her lips hadn’t been by my ear.
I moved my hands higher, over her thighs to her hips. Her skin felt like warm silk, so soft that her satin panties actually felt rough to the touch. I slid my fingers beneath the fabric, cupping her backside and pressing her tighter against my erection. She moaned my name, her lips brushing against my cheek. This time I recognized the voice. It was Mira, but it was wrong. This was a warm, vibrant woman. Mira…wasn’t. I clung to that thought as I slid my hands up her waist. My thumbs rested on her ribs, just at the edge of her bra. I turned my head, recapturing her lips in a rough kiss that she eagerly returned. My tongue plunged into her mouth, tasting her, memorizing the contours of her mouth.
A sharp pain intruded on the moment, causing me to break off the kiss. I tasted blood. And in that horrible second I realized I wasn’t dreaming. My eyes snapped open and in the dim light I found Mira watching me with hooded eyes and soft smile. Knowing now that I had been kissing Mira didn’t cure my desire. A part of me had known from the first instant. It was that same part of me that wanted her and had wanted her since the first time I had seen her. She was too human, too beautiful and enticing: most of the time it was easy to forget that she was a vampire. She was just flamboyant, outlandish Mira with her biting sarcasm and fierce determination. But then her dark otherness would bleed through, obliterating all signs of humanity.
But for now, she was Mira—half naked and once again straddling my lap. I kept my eyes locked on her face, resisting the urge to take in the rest of her.
“Good evening, sleepyhead,” she purred. The hand on my shoulder slid up to my neck. Her thumb ran along the line of my jaw in a gentle caress. She didn’t move beyond that, seeming content to just sit and touch me, returning to the task of memorizing my features. I knew hers. I had burned her lines into my brain each time I watched her sleep. I knew the slope of her nose and the stubborn turn to her chin. I knew the soft, thick texture of her hair, and that she always smelled of lilacs.
“I’m not breakfast,” I growled, desperate to remind myself that she was a vampire. A killer. And I was just food to her.
Mira’s smile widened a little, but not enough to show her fangs. She had grown very careful about that around me. She leaned closer, rubbing her cheek against mine. I could have stopped her. My hands were still holding her thin waist, but I couldn’t move them. My choices were to release her or slide them higher. Since neither was a solution I was currently comfortable with, they remained where they were.
“I wouldn’t drink from you if you begged me,” she said, her lips grazing my ear.
Had any other vampire said that I would have laughed. Yet when Mira pulled back and I gazed into her eyes, I believed her. Mira wasn’t one to lie. To her, the truth tended to be more shocking, which she in turn found amusing. Somewhere along the way, I had filled some strange niche in her existence, become something I think she was still figuring out. But it had officially moved me out of the food chain.
“What do you want?” I demanded, surprised at how steady my voice sounded.
“The same thing you want,” she replied. She pressed her hips into me, moving close enough that her breasts now brushed against my chest. There was no denying my desire—I was rock hard and holding her. I could have pushed her off the moment I opened my eyes but I hadn’t, and it was taking all my self control not to lean forward that extra inch and kiss her. Everything within me screamed for another taste of her mouth.
Instead I did the only thing I thought would snap us both out of this. “Is this how you pay everyone who protects you?”
Mira leaned forward and brushed her lips against mine as she spoke. “My relationship with Gabriel has nothing to do with his job as my guardian.”
“But you don’t love him,” I said, desperate to keep her talking.
Mira pulled back suddenly and looked at me. Her smooth brow furrowed and she cocked her head to the side in stunned puzzlement. I was grasping at straws and we both knew it.
“Can you look me in the eye and tell me that you’ve loved every woman that you’ve been with?” There was no mocking in her voice, just gentle amusement.
There had been more than one occasion where I had lied to her, but even I couldn’t convincingly lie about this. While there had not been as many women as one would expect in my 1,800-year lifespan, there had been enough. And not one of them I would be as bold as to describe using the word “love.” To make matters worse, there had been more than one that I been less emotionally involved with than Mira.
But I didn’t have to say anything. My silence was damning enough. She leaned back into me, molding her lean body against mine. Her lips returned to mine, the tip of her tongue running along my bottom lip, entreating entrance. My hands tightened on her waist and I somehow managed to turn my head. Undaunted, she kissed my cheek, drawing a trail back down to my ear.
“Please, Danaus, touch me,” she said. Her voice was like velvet, rubbing against every part of my body that she touched. “I need you.”
I was drowning and with my last breath I finally managed to cut her. “Is this how you’ve acquired all your lovers? With begging?”
For an instant, I felt her whole body stiffen and then there was the shock of cold air where her warm body had been a second ago. I turned my head to look at her, but she was moving too fast. All I felt was Mira grab the front of my shirt and then I was flying through the air. Out of sheer luck, I hit the bed and bounced once. I’m sure she would have preferred it if I had gone through the concrete wall. I jerked into a sitting position, but the door had already
been thrown open and she was gone.
I fell back against the bed, covering my face with my hands. I had regretted the words the second they left my lips. I hadn’t meant it. I was drowning and desperate. If I had any real self-control, I would have pushed her away and left. I cursed Mira for pushing me and I cursed myself for wanting her more than air.
I could make excuses like she caught me off guard or that I was half asleep, or even that she got what she asked for, but it was a lie. I wanted her. I’d wanted her since our first encounter months ago in the abandoned house. Regardless of how lifeless she was during the day, at night she was more vibrant and alive than any other creature that I had ever met. She had no regrets about who or what she was. And when she was near, I wanted to wrap myself up in her energy. Her cool powers surrounded me, calming the anger and frustration that seemed to perpetually burn within me.
Reluctant, I pushed to my feet and trudged up the stairs to the first floor. I couldn’t take the words back and nothing I could say would erase the pain. I walked through the rooms, and had finally settled in a chair in the living room when I heard the shower running on the second floor. Tristan wandered in with Lily following close on his heels. Both had matching expressions of concern and confusion.
“Mira said we are to meet her at the town house,” Tristan announced when he was standing in front of me.
“I’m waiting for Mira. Will you take Lily to the town house?” I asked. I needed to talk to Mira. I needed to find some way to soothe her ego and feelings. Of course, I hadn’t a clue as to how I was going to accomplish that mean feat, but I had to try.
Lily stepped around Tristan to come stand next to me. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned down at me. “What did you do?” she demanded. I didn’t need to know how she knew that this was my fault, though I wasn’t willing to take all the blame for this matter. Maybe it was a female thing. They could sense when another of their kind had been slighted by a man.
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