SID DIDN’T KNOW what was happening. One minute they were hurrying to the SUV, and the next the world exploded. She knew Aden had saved her, that he’d protected her with his body. She didn’t even think he was aware of the blood soaking the back of his shirt, of the rips and tears in his flesh. She didn’t think he was aware of much, because he’d gone into some sort of Zen state that had even Bastien backing away and taking her with him.
“Bastien,” she said, confused. “What—”
“Shh,” he silenced her quickly. “Wait. Don’t distract him.”
She frowned. Distract him? Aden? He didn’t look very distractible right now. In fact—Her thoughts cut off as a human suddenly came into view, looking like he was being reeled in like a fish, and just as reluctantly. She squinted. He looked familiar. The clothes were different, but . . .
“That’s the guy,” she whispered. Bastien’s hand tightened on her arm in renewed warning, but he nodded.
“What will—”
“Sid,” Bastien whispered urgently, turning her to face him. “Please. You need to be quiet.”
Sid’s lips flattened in frustration, but she figured Bastien knew what was going on far better than she did, and she didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize Aden’s safety. She spun around, staring in shock when the guy suddenly shrieked as if someone was ripping his skin off, then felt slightly sick when Aden dropped the man’s limp body to the street like a piece of forgotten trash.
Not that she blamed Aden for being angry. The guy had just tried to kill them all. But she’d seen enough violence and death in the last forty-eight hours to last the rest of her life.
She drew a deep breath, thinking it was finally over, but then Aden snarled a few words, and the world went even crazier. Her lungs strained to breathe as all the oxygen in the air seemed to disappear at once, as the few winter-bare trees around them began rattling like dried bones, bending and creaking beneath a powerful storm with Aden at its center. Thunder rumbled, but it wasn’t the weather. It was coming from beneath their feet, an earthquake of sound, shaking the ground until she clung to Bastien, her feet braced as the street rippled like a sheet in the wind.
And still Aden stood, unmoving, immovable. His arms were stretched out as if he was calling down the power of the gods upon his enemies and bathing in its glow. Except the glow was the blue of his eyes, burning brighter than the flames of the wreckage, twin lasers of brilliant blue sapphire.
Suddenly Aden threw his head back and howled, his hands clenching into fists as if holding on to something. He stood that way for a long time, and then his arms fell to his sides, his eyes opened, and his head swiveled to pin her in the blue laser gleam of his gaze.
“Let go of her,” he growled.
Bastien released her at once, his fingers flying open as if she’d suddenly become red-hot.
“Come here, Sidonie,” Aden crooned.
She froze for the space of a heartbeat, knowing something more was going on than what her simple human senses could detect. But this was Aden, and she knew he’d never hurt her.
She closed the distance between them, going into his arms without hesitation.
He seemed larger somehow, and that was saying something, because he was a big guy to begin with. But at the same time, there was something weary in his expression, as if he had taken on a heavy burden in the last few minutes, something she couldn’t see, except in his eyes.
“Are you okay?” she asked, touching her hand to his cheek and noticing that his eyes had begun to lose their laser-like glow and return to their usual midnight blue.
He blinked, seeming surprised that she’d ask. And then he smiled. “I will be. Let’s go home, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
Chapter Twenty
ADEN USHERED Sidonie out of the elevator and into his private quarters. Elias had been summoned, and they’d used his vehicle to drive away from the bombing scene. The explosion had been too dramatic for even that neighborhood, and the scene was now crawling with human police. There was nothing to tie Aden to the destroyed vehicles, so there was no concern there. And Elias, intent on proving himself to his new lord, had remained behind at Pinto’s place, calling in a team to see the women to safety and to do a thorough cleanup on the house. Aden didn’t fully trust Elias, but he judged the vampire to be smart enough to see that his future depended on making Aden happy. With vampires, self-interest was always the best motivator.
“You’ll probably want a shower,” Aden told Sidonie as he hustled her through the sitting room and straight into the bedroom.
“Are you saying I stink?” Her response was playful enough, but she didn’t quite pull it off. She had to be exhausted. She did need a shower, but not because she smelled. She was covered in blood, her clothes stiff, her skin sticky, with bits of grime from the explosion still clinging everywhere.
But Aden didn’t tell her any of that. Slipping his arms around her, he pulled her close and said, “I’m saying you’ve had a rough couple of days, and a hot shower will help you sleep.”
She sighed and leaned her forehead against his chest, her hands resting to either side of his waist. The gesture was so unaffected and spoke of such trust. He gazed down at her bent head and felt his heart clench with rare emotion.
“You’re right,” she said, then raised her head to meet his eyes with a wicked look that belied her exhaustion. “Will you join me?”
He gave a low laugh and let one hand slide down to rest on the curve of her sweet ass. “I have a phone call to make first. And I need to check with Bastien and the others. But it won’t take long.”
“Okay,” she said, standing on tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. “But don’t blame me if you miss all the fun.”
Aden waited until she’d disappeared into the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind her, then he strode quickly back through his quarters and down the hall to his office.
Bastien and the others were waiting for him, but he raised a hand to put off any questions. “I need to call Lucas.”
He didn’t bother closing the door. Vampire hearing made such barriers useless. Besides, these four vampires were his closest advisers, his inner circle as he undertook to rule the Midwest. He’d have very few secrets from them.
Picking up the phone, he hit a speed dial number and listened to it ring. He didn’t have to wait long. The call was answered on the second ring.
“I heard rumors of an earthquake in Chicago,” a familiar voice said. “The vampire grapevine is humming tonight.”
Aden grimaced. “I’m sorry about that, Lucas. It’s not the way I wanted it to go, but the damn minions wouldn’t stop coming. They blew up three fucking vehicles tonight, and Sidonie was with me. She could have been killed.”
“Sidonie?” Lucas’s voice sharpened with interest, and Aden realized he’d said more than he intended.
“A friend. Look, I’ll be there tomorrow night to do it properly. I just wanted to touch bases.”
“Consider the bases touched, and congratulations, my friend,” Lucas said cheerfully. “I’ll see you tomorrow. And bring Sidonie with you!” he added. He was still laughing when he hung up.
“Fuck,” Aden swore softly. Lucas was never going to let him live this one down. Not that the other vampire had any ground to stand on. He was fully tethered to his new FBI girlfriend and looked to stay that way for a while.
Aden threw the phone onto the desk and joined Bastien and the others in the outer office.
“All right,” he said. “As you heard, we’re going to South Dakota tomorrow night. In and out. We’ll be back here by dawn. Once that’s taken care of, our first order of business is building a solid core of fighters. Bastien, I want you to put out a call for recruits. Priority goes to the vampires we worked with in Kansas, and then pretty much anyone from Lucas’s or Raphael’s territory. You know the drill. The four of you can do the initial screening, but I’ll want a list for final review. No one, and I mean not one, of Klemens’s brood gets in on
this round. Maybe in the future, when things have settled down—don’t close the door on the possibility, it’ll only cause resentment. But right now, I don’t trust any of them.
“I have to figure out how far Klemens’s rot has spread and take out any of his former allies who have a lingering loyalty to the old guard. I don’t want to have to worry about where the next fucking bomb is coming from. They’ll say it’s not fair, but fuck fair. We’re vampires, not children.
“Next, we need a new place to live and use as a headquarters. Yesterday’s attack showed how vulnerable this place is. Right now, I’m more interested in the acreage than the house. We can always build more house, but I want some space between me and the city. Put Hamilton on it. He can screen properties from a security standpoint, and he can also work with a realtor during the day. Once he has a few possibilities, I’ll take a look, but I want it within the next week.”
“What about Klemens’s estate on the Gold Coast?” Bastien asked.
“My inclination is to burn it to the ground and sell the lot, but that might draw too much attention. Freddy, you know who handles this sort of thing. We need to make sure there are no secrets inside, no hidden passages or cubbies, nothing that can come back on us. I want it emptied to bare walls and naked floors. I want every closet emptied, every window opened. I want sunlight in every crevice and corner.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Okay,” Aden said, more than ready to call it a night. “Anything else?”
His vampires shared glances, shaking their heads in unison. “Nothing, Sire,” Bastien said for all of them.
Aden grinned. “Then get some sleep. And congratulations, gentlemen. We did it.”
SIDONIE LEFT ALL of her clothes in a pile on the floor of the bathroom, not sure if any of it was salvageable and not really caring. The only thing she took proper care with was her gun and bellyband. Folding the holster carefully, she stepped outside the bathroom and laid it on the dresser top, placing the gun on top of that and patting it fondly. It was probably silly, and not at all consistent with a tough girl image, but this was the first time she’d used the gun in a life-or-death situation. She felt proud and a little proprietary about the whole thing.
Smiling at herself, she gave the gun a final pat and went back to her shower, leaning into the stall to turn on the hot water and let it run. Guilt stabbed her about the wasted water. She was generally very conservation-minded. But sometimes a girl needed steam, and this was one of those times. Her pores needed opening. She wanted every trace of Carl Pinto and his hell house gone. Not to mention the fucking explosion afterward. She figured she’d pretty much used up her life’s supply of adrenaline in the last two days.
While waiting for the bathroom to become foggy, she leaned toward the mirror and used her hand to rub away a clear space so she could study the damage.
“Oh my God,” she muttered, horrified. This was so much worse than she’d thought. It was a wonder Aden hadn’t walked away and left her on the street. Her hair was a rat’s nest, and she was wearing a couple of days’ worth of running mascara, but okay, that was expected. What she hadn’t anticipated, although she probably should have, given her throbbing headache, was the red and purple bruising that covered half her face. She didn’t know how much of it was from Pinto and how much from the explosion and didn’t care. It all came together to create the nightmare image that was staring back at her. She literally looked like a refugee from a horror movie.
She closed her eyes and turned away, not wanting to see any more. The bathroom was steamy and warm, and she drew a deep, calming breath. The steam felt good on her sinuses, which were swollen nearly shut, but she’d forgotten about the injury to her side where Pinto had kicked her and had to swallow a cry of pain. She frowned and pressed the damaged ribs tenderly, checking for breaks. Not that she was sure she’d know the difference, but they didn’t feel broken. Nothing squished when she pushed on it, no knife-sharp pain. Just really sore.
She sighed, wishing she could go back to that house, back to the moment when Aden had asked if she wanted to have the honor of finishing off Pinto herself. She wouldn’t pass it up a second time. She’d blow that fucker’s head off, but not before kicking him a few times so he’d know what it felt like to be tied up and helpless.
It was funny, in a not-funny-at-all way, that the worst of her injuries had come from her short time with Pinto and not the gigantic explosion later. That was because Aden had protected her, cushioning her fall and taking most of the damage himself.
She stepped into the shower, standing with her eyes closed and her head bent, letting the hot water pummel her back and neck, washing away the dirt and grime… and blood. Most of the blood was Pinto’s, but not all of it. Needing to be clean, she turned around and reached for the shampoo. Her hair was a tangled mess, but the dirt had to come out first. She washed it quickly and thoroughly, then again, and finally massaged in about twice as much conditioner as she’d normally use. She was rinsing the last of that away, her eyes closed, her head tilted forward under the hot spray, when the shower door clicked open behind her.
She smiled without opening her eyes.
“I was wondering when you’d get here.”
Aden’s strong arms surrounded her, one hand going low on her belly as he nudged her back against his chest, his erection a hard length against her butt.
“I told you it wouldn’t take long,” he murmured. Reaching over her shoulder for the soap, he lathered it between his big hands and began to rub it over her skin with exquisite care, his touch far gentler than she would have thought him capable of.
Aden was a man of such contrasts. Not a man at all, according to him. He’d have her believe he’d left behind his humanity long ago when he’d been enslaved, treated like a thing. But that didn’t explain his concern for the captured women, his kindness in making certain they were not just cared for, but safe and on their way home. The careful way he’d protected her. He was so powerful, and yet his touch when he examined her bruises was so tender, so full of . . .
She wanted to say love, but she didn’t know if that was true. It felt like love, but maybe she was projecting her own feelings onto him. Because she was definitely falling and falling hard. She’d been teetering on the edge ever since the first night she’d met him. As rude and irritating as he’d been, there’d been an undeniable spark between them. She’d initially dismissed it as nothing more than sexual attraction. After all, the guy was sex on a stick. Any woman still breathing would want him. But the truth had crept in, growing with every hour they spent together, every tiny bit of himself that he revealed to her, until she could no longer deny it. She even knew the precise moment when she’d reached the point of no return. It was the look in his eyes when he’d seen her standing in that kitchen doorway tonight. His relief at seeing her alive, and his rage when he’d seen what Pinto had done to her.
She knew he cared, but she didn’t know if he loved her.
“Turn around,” he murmured against her ear, and she shivered at the rumble of his deep voice.
She obeyed, turning around to face him, lifting her gaze from his thickly-muscled chest to his wonderful, broad shoulders, past the strong column of his throat to his sensuous lips which curved slightly with amusement, before she finally met his dark eyes.
“I look awful,” she lamented.
“You look beautiful. You’re alive, and that’s all that matters to me.”
Sid sighed and rested her forehead against his chest. “I knew you’d come,” she told him.
“But you didn’t wait anyway.”
She rolled her head from side to side. “I decided I was no fairy tale princess.”
“Whatever that means,” he growled. “He could have killed you. You should have waited for me.”
“I couldn’t. I didn’t know what he would do to those women.”
“I would have taken care of them. You know that.”
“I did know, and I knew you’d come after us,
but I was worried you’d be too late. Pinto was getting ready to move, and I was afraid he’d have us all packed up and gone before you got there.”
“Then, I’d have tracked you down,” he said implacably. “I am a vampire lord, Sidonie. I have resources.”
“But you’re not infallible. And I couldn’t take that chance. Besides, I am woman, hear me roar.”
“Again, whatever the fuck that means. Do I need to check your head for bumps?”
Sid laughed. “Poor old vampire. I’ll explain it all to you later.”
“Old?” His soap-slick hands slid down her back to cup her ass and lift her against his fully aroused shaft.
“Well, you are old,” she said breathlessly, then hissed when her sore ribs were crushed against his chest.
Aden cursed and released her. “You’re hurt. Let me heal—”
But Sid didn’t let him finish. Standing on her tiptoes, she hooked her arms around his neck and pulled his face down to hers. She kissed him hungrily, twisting her tongue around his until he groaned. Wrapping both arms around her carefully, he took the kiss deeper, one hand tangling in her long hair, tugging her head back as his lips trailed past her mouth to her neck, kissing her softly there, letting her feel the sweep of his tongue before lifting his head with another curse.
Sidonie voiced a wordless protest. She didn’t want to be pampered, she wanted to be fucked. Lifting her mouth to his, she teased his lips open with her tongue, and then she bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. He growled, but only squeezed her ass in warning.
She grinned against his lips and bit down harder, swallowing the tiny bit of his blood, feeling the rush, feeling every inch of her skin, every nerve ending tingle with awareness of him.
“You want to play?” he snarled finally. “We’ll play.” He lifted her higher, spinning them both around until her back was against the opposite wall of the shower, her legs around his waist.
His mouth went to her neck, and she shivered in anticipation. He sucked hard enough that she knew she’d have an old-fashioned hickey, but he didn’t let her feel even the edge of his sharp teeth.
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