“Female vampires cannot carry children.” There was no emotion in Ian’s voice. It made me wonder if he was hiding something.
Ian took a step closer until there was very little space between us. “It is possible that there is some vampire in your bloodline, my love.”
“No.” I shook my head continuously.
“Is that so difficult to believe?” Ian smiled at me.
My mother had never been particular about the men she brought home, when she bothered to be home. I’d always assumed they were all human, but then I would have.
“No, I guess not. I never really thought of vampires as parents, I mean, your body is dead, right?” I mused.
He leaned in and whispered into my ear. “Perhaps I will have to prove to you once again that my body is very much alive.”
Falcon cleared his throat.
Raven stared at the floor as if something interesting was on it.
Cougar snorted.
I felt the heat of a blush color my face. “What if I don’t have these powers?”
“We can all feel them, as Elizabeth can. You have but to give yourself up to them.” Ian pulled me closer.
“You’re telling me that Elizabeth, no last name, feeds on blood.”
“Yes,” Ian agreed while the others nodded.
“Most vampires do not use last names,” Cougar added. “Nightwalker added ‘Ian’ to his name when he opened the casino. It makes him appear more human.”
I looked up at Ian and he simply shrugged.
I rubbed my hand over my face. “Don’t all vampires feed on blood?”
“True, my love. All vampires require blood as nourishment. However, Elizabeth’s only nourishment comes from blood. Each one of us is unique.”
“I know vampires can feed off other things than just blood.” I crossed my arms around my shoulders. “What do you feed off of, Ian?”
Cougar laughed. “Among other things, sex.”
I blinked at Ian.
“I am capable of feeding off of all intense emotions, my love. Not just sex.” He glared at Cougar.
Cougar shrugged nonchalantly. “Emotions, blood, pretty much a full menu for Ian.”
“My powers are not as limited, my love.”
“He should be a friggin’ Marquis.” Cougar closed his eyes tight and cringed.
“Nice going Coug,” Falcon retorted.
My jaw dropped. “So, you’re what, vampire royalty? Why the hell would you give that up?” I was astonished.
Ian groaned as his eyes flashed at Cougar. “I did not approve of the life that is led by the Marquis.”
“I don’t understand.”
Raven stepped forward. “Our world is a different place. Violence rules and power reigns supreme.”
“My love,” Ian placed his hands on my arms, “I did not wish to live out my existence on the blood of victims. I didn’t choose this life. I wanted to retain as much…” he looked to the others for the right word, “…humanity as I could.”
“Elizabeth is evil incarnate,” Raven added. “She carries the bloodlust like no other in our history.”
“Yet they won’t kill her because she’s royalty.”
Ian nodded.
“She can only be guarded,” Falcon added. “And it took an extreme amount of power to release her.”
“Power that she’s getting by killing others?” I asked.
“We believe she is creating new vamps and conjuring demons to do her dirty work before siphoning the power from them,” Raven supplied.
Ian wrapped his arms around me. “She is also a Dream Psi and until we stop her you must stay in my protection.”
I could feel the sincerity of his words; his emotions ran angry, protective and slightly frightened. I nodded my head. “How long?”
“I do not know, my love. We have others near the Marquis who may supply assistance to us.”
“I’d rather just go kill the bitch!” I looked up at Ian.
Cougar laughed. “Careful mortal, we vampires bite.”
“Believe me, I know.” I stared into Ian’s eyes to gauge his reaction to my admission.
Ian’s look turned seductive. “That was just a graze of your tongue, my love.”
“I don’t mean by you,” I clarified reluctantly.
“You’ve been bitten by another?” Cougar asked suddenly.
I shrugged. “It hurts like hell, too, but I’ve only been bitten once before.”
Ian turned me to face him; his eyes shone wide with shock.
“When?” His tone was too serious and caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. “When were you bitten, my love?” The urgency in his voice increased.
“A few months ago while hunting a rogue vamp, he bit me.”
“Show me,” Raven growled.
It was an order and that seriously pissed me off. I must have tensed my arm because he grabbed it and shoved my shirtsleeve up.
“What the hell?” I tried to shake him off my arm but his grip got tighter as he ripped my shirt down the middle. I clenched my fist and landed it soundly on his jaw. Blood trickled from his lip but he never took his eyes off the fading scar on my shoulder.
Ian’s arm swept out and sent Raven across the room.
“Did you complete the Blood Rite?” Raven shouted.
I shook my head. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Did you drink his fucking blood, Leah?” Raven crossed the room back to me so quickly I gasped.
He grabbed my left arm so hard I knew it would bruise so I used my right arm to pull my gun from the holster at the small of my back and shoved it under his chin. “It’s loaded with silver-laced hollowpoints, Raven, and I will blow your fucking head apart if you don’t let go of me.” The words came out slowly and calmly. Good for me.
Ian pulled Raven away from me and shoved him toward Cougar and Falcon. “Leave now,” he ordered them. The men stood there as if they didn’t know if they should obey the order or not. Ian closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I could see the tension working at his jaw. When he opened his eyes he was still, vampire still, no breathing, no movement at all.
“My apologies, Leah. I haven’t let my emotions get the upper hand on me in many years.” Raven stood between Cougar and Falcon.
I started stepping back toward the door and lowered my arm. I didn’t holster the gun. I knew how fast they were and if I didn’t keep a weapon handy and they went all vampire on my ass, I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of defending myself.
“My love, there is no need to fear us.” Ian spoke softly, like you would to a frightened child.
Cougar and Falcon started retreating to the back door, apparently comfortable that everything was under control again. “We’ll leave you two alone,” Cougar commented as they stepped out the door and disappeared.
“Again, I am sorry, Leah,” Raven apologized before he slowly went out the same door as the other two.
I kept moving toward the door, taking slow short steps. Backing away from a vampire was definitely not the time to get clumsy. I was nearly to the door when I heard the creak of a footstep behind me then bumped into the front of Bear. I swung and double-tapped the trigger sending two shots into the wall next to Bear. He cursed long and loud as he grabbed my arm with both of his massive hands, keeping the gun pointed toward the empty expanse of kitchen while struggling to disarm me. I brought my knee up and slammed it into his groin, hard. He managed to bring one of those massive hands across my gun hand as he buckled over. My gun slid across the floor as we both went down in a heap, the breath rushing out of my lungs as I hit the ground with Bear pinning me to the floor. His weight was crushing me for only a moment. Then it was gone, just gone and I could breathe again.
Ian grabbed Bear one handed and tossed him across the room as a feral growl roared from deep within his throat. I heard a thud and the sound of breaking glass. I followed the sound to see Bear lying on the opposite side of one of the floor-to-ceiling win
dows, shards of glass glistening around him as blood dripped from various parts of his skin. He was out cold.
Ian turned and in a blur of movement wrapped his arms around me and pulled me up to him, and just like that calmness settled deep into my bones. It felt like a switch had been flipped and shut down my adrenaline.
“What have you done to me?” I whispered.
“I told you before, my love, you do not have to fear me. I will never harm you.” He loosened his hold on me and stepped back slowly. “If you sit, I will explain everything.”
“Yeah right, when hell freezes over,” I commented sarcastically. “Get the fuck out of my head, Ian,” I shot back sarcastically. I pushed at his arms and he released me.
He motioned to the chair across the room from where Mouse was now helping Bear to stand. Without a word or a glance in our direction they left the room.
Ian grabbed a chair from the kitchen table and brought it over in front of me. He turned it backward and straddled it, keeping his eyes on me, as you would watch a dog you knew would bite you if you turned your back on it. I couldn’t help the smile from creeping across my lips. He thought of me as a threat and for that I was glad. He started to reach his hand toward my face, thought better of it and rested it on the back of the chair he straddled.
“What the hell is going on, Ian? Don’t tell me this is some kind of vampire territorial shit.”
“I apologize that he could not control his temper. He meant you no harm.” He nodded toward the remnants of my torn shirt and I realized just then that I was exposed from the waist up. I grabbed each end of the shirt and tied them together to hold it closed as best I could. There really was no point in being shy now. He’d already seen all of me and I doubted Bear took the time to ogle my breasts through the thin lace of my bra while I was shooting at him.
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“There are certain ceremonies that can bind a human to a vampire. I need to know if this vampire that bit you completed the ceremony.” His tone was controlled and matter-of-fact.
“The vampire that bit me is dead.”
“Did you burn his body?”
Hell, I didn’t know what they did with the body. I killed the bad guys and spent the rest of the night in the hospital. I’d left it up to the feds to dispose of the bodies and never really gave a thought to what was done after the vamp was terminated. “Why is that relevant?”
“My kind does not perish easily. There are only a few ways to truly end the existence of a vampire. The most final of those is to burn the body, so I ask again,” he leaned forward a little, “did you burn the body?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
“Allow me to get you some ice.” He placed a whisper of a caress against my cheek.
Him reminding me of my face brought the pain from last night’s altercation to the surface. Why did that happen? You don’t feel the pain until you see the damage or it’s brought to your attention. I guess that Ian didn’t eliminate all the adrenaline flowing through me. I nodded. “Ice would be great.”
He crossed the room to the kitchen area, giving my gun, still lying on the floor, a wide berth. He pulled an ice pack out of the freezer and a towel off the rack before handing both to me.
“Thanks.” I muttered. “I didn’t willingly drink his blood.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Willingly?”
“He forced his bleeding arm into my mouth and I had no choice but to swallow the blood or suffocate.”
His face grew alarmed but his voice remained calm. “And it was the same vampire who drew blood from your shoulder?”
“Yes.” I felt fear snake up my spine. I didn’t know exactly where this was going but instinct told me it was nowhere good. I’d survived many times on instinct alone and learned not to question it.
“Were there any words of permanence spoken?”
I thought about that day for a moment. “Everything happened quickly, but no, nothing was said that evening.”
“Was anything said prior to that night?”
I blew out a breath. “Look, Ian, if you’re trying to scare me, you’re doing a hell of a good job. Just get to the fucking point!”
“If he spoke of possessing you, claimed you in any way even prior to the actual feeding, he would be able to track you.”
“Like some kind of vampire GPS?”
He nodded and a hint of amusement shone in his eyes. “That is a very good analogy, my love.” He knelt beside me and took the forgotten ice pack from my hand. “May I?”
“No more vampire shit?” I asked, still annoyed but no longer afraid of him.
He chuckled and held up his right hand. “My word of honor.” He oh-so-gently brushed my hair away from my swollen cheek.
I quivered at his touch. My body should not have reacted this way. Nevertheless, in the battle between my heart and my hormones, my hormones always seemed to win. At least when it came to Ian.
“Why did you throw Bear through the window?”
He tilted his head to the side. “He hurt you,” he said simply.
“He was protecting you. He was only doing the job that you paid him to do.”
“He is never to harm you,” he contended matter-of-factly.
“So if I had blown your head off he was to simply stand aside and watch me do it?”
“He may restrain you as long as it does not cause you harm.”
“You flung him across the damn room and through a plate glass window for protecting you. What the hell are you?”
“I am a vampire, my love, as you well know.”
Oh, yeah right. Duh.
“I cannot bear the thought of you being bonded to another.” He placed the ice pack gently on my cheek and I winced and the pain began anew.
“I am not bonded to Fang and as I’ve said, I killed him.”
“You cannot be certain of that until we discover what was done with his body. If he was beheaded, had his heart removed and destroyed, or was burned to ash, then yes, you truly did eliminate him. Otherwise…” he shrugged, a slight shift of his shoulders that looked casual yet meant so much more, “we are capable of healing from any other injury.”
“You’re shitting me.”
He laughed softly. “No, my love. No shit.”
He stood before me and held his hand out. I took it and let him help me to my feet. I was still a little shaky and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the physical or emotional impact. Probably both. He drew me into his arms and again I felt the compulsion for more. I wiped the smudge of blood off his lips and kissed him.
His kissed me back lightly, a whisper of touch against my skin. “I shall need to know all I can about this Fang. I will have Carolyn research him and find out how his body was disposed of. Perhaps destiny will lend us a hand and he will have been left to burn in the sun.”
I laughed, not a sentiment of joy but a bitter sound. “I have someone I can call who will know. I’m sure your ex-lover is not interested in helping me and destiny and I aren’t exactly on speaking terms.”
It was his turn for the bitter laugh. “Carolyn and I have been many things, but ‘lover’ was never one of them.”
“Why do you keep her near if you do not trust her?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Have you the heard the phrase, ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’?” he replied. He cocked his head to the side, studying me. “Is that a hint of jealousy I hear?”
“No.”
Maybe.
Shit.
Chapter Thirty-One
I placed a call to Samuel Anderson, my government liaison and the Director of Supernatural Investigations of Non-Human Species, SINS for short, not that the department publicly existed. The government had various agreements with the unknown supernatural community. The government kept their identities secret and the vamps didn’t cause trouble. The last vampire I’d tracked and killed with Sam was the top vamp on the East Coast. He was also a major p
layer in the gun and drug trafficking business.
I hadn’t worked with Sam in months. When I relinquished my retainer with the state I also left SINS, against Sam’s protests that I should stay with SINS on a full-time basis. He was expanding the department in anticipation of the Vampire Rights Amendment going through and wanted me to be a permanent part of it. I, stupidly, had still hoped to live a normal life.
Being the target of a powerful Marquis and having a vampire boyfriend while I was in the middle of a murder case hadn’t been exactly what I had in mind.
“Sam. It’s Leah.”
“Leah? Damn girl, do you know what time it is? How the hell are you? I haven’t heard from you since we worked that case in Manhattan.”
“Yeah, well, that’s actually what I’m calling about.”
“I’m all yours.” His voice was suddenly thick with a New Yorker accent that I knew he could turn on and off at a whim.
“I need to know what happened to Fang.” I got right to the point.
“We killed the blood-sucking bastard, you know that! Hell, the woman you saved from him is still calling to thank you on a regular basis.”
I listened to him silently.
His tone of voice quickly changed to all business serious and intense. “What’s happened, Leah?”
I blew out a breath. “How was his body disposed of, Sam?”
I heard the quick tapping of his fingers on the keyboard of his computer. “Hmm. The county cremation incinerator was getting repaired so he was buried at the county cemetery.”
My breath caught in my throat but I managed to say, “That’s what I was afraid of. Sam, I need you to go check the gravesite. See if it’s been messed with. I think our rogue vamp got another lease on life.”
“How the fuck…”
“I’ll explain later, Sam, but right now I need you to check that gravesite.”
“I’ll get back with you as soon as I can, Leah. You in a safe place?”
I looked up at Ian and smiled with all the energy that I could. “Yeah, I’m safe.” I hung up and started pacing until Ian put his hands on my shoulders.
“You need to rest, my love. There is nothing more to do right now.”
“I’m not tired, Ian, I just slept for eighteen hours.”
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