by Dee Carney
Yes, the gemstones fascinated him. Something about their brilliance and resilience made his heart thunder. He loved to play in their colors, their shininess singing to him as he gloried in the riches spread before him. They had more wealth than either would ever be able to spend, thanks to an absent father who bequeathed the fortune to them. A father he had never known and might not ever know if she insisted on keeping her silence.
With a swell of anger and frustration, Sebastian swept the stones off the table, their delicate clinks surrounding them like raindrops from a new rain.
Ezra Smythe, his mother’s butler, lover, friend and guardian, stepped forward and soundlessly began to retrieve each one. Sebastian’s sharp gaze went to the man crouched at his feet, and a snarl lifted his lips. The silver-haired man wasn’t vampire, nor could Sebastian determine his origin in all the years the trio had lived together. Another damned mystery that neither would resolve.
Aurora didn’t seem to harbor any feelings for Ezra, yet neither hid the fact that they coupled often. On occasion, her cries at being pleasured could be heard echoing through the halls. During those times, Sebastian would quietly leave the house and wander the estate grounds, regardless of the hour of night or the season.
He would never deny her a chance at companionship, especially considering the length of their vampiric lives, but this flaunting behavior only fueled the whispering. Couldn’t she at least strive for some discretion? Not allow servants and visitors alike to witness the unladylike inclinations.
Their enigmatic relationship haunted Sebastian. Often.
For what must have been the hundredth time in his life, he shouted at Aurora, “Is it him? Is Ezra my sire?”
She jumped to her feet, and the flash of fire burning in her eyes singed his heart. “Why must you know? Why must you question me time and time again?” Aurora’s incisors were bared, her pale face ever more fierce because of it. “I will never speak of him to you. Never. Not to you, not under threat of torture, not under the weight of love. Your father is my secret and burden to carry until I leave this earth.”
“So you embrace what is said about me? You?” Sebastian’s throat was tight with emotion. He hated this. His life. This not knowing. With forced reserve, he said, “I called you a whore, and you didn’t flinch. I’m not so strong.”
“You are that strong.” Her own voice softened. Aurora lifted her hand to his chin and held it beneath a firm grip. “He expected nothing less from you and he knew your potential. I’ve never met a more powerful man than your father. It is not a taunt to be called his son, Sebastian, but praise. You are his glory. I know this for a fact. He left you all of this because you are his legacy and one day, you will grow into it and realize it to be true.”
“When?” He shuddered because he needed to hear the words again. He both resented and clung to the words that brought him closer to a man he’d never known. Any little snippet.
“I don’t know when. You...you will have to be patient. Learn your lessons. Grow your father’s legacy and be his pride.”
Sebastian slowly sat. “The smaller topaz would fetch more than the larger one.”
A small smile curved Aurora’s lips, the sudden change in topic handled with elegant smoothness. “Why?” she asked softly.
“Because the larger one is flawed with inclusions. The smaller one is more pure.”
“Very good, my son.”
She frustrated him to hell and back, but Sebastian loved her. With reluctant admiration, he watched her dip in a small curtsey before turning to leave.
“There is a reason beyond stubbornness that forces her to keep your father’s secret.”
Sebastian turned to Ezra, who on every other occasion would be trailing behind his mother. That he stayed behind for even a moment spoke volumes. “What do you know of it?”
He shrugged. “Less than her. More than you.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “Keep talking.”
“Your father appointed me to be your mother’s...companion. And it is all I will say of him and the matter, other than to advise that if you really want to know more about him, you’ll have to seek him out on your own. Without her assistance.”
Gripping the chair’s arms kept Sebastian from jumping out of it to throttle Ezra. He wouldn’t think of touching a single hair on his mother’s head, but this man? He owed him nothing.
His incisors lengthened in agitation.
“I am also your advisor,” Ezra continued. “At your father’s people’s request. You would do well to consider what I’m saying.”
“Why not just tell me what I want to know?”
“Because I would be dead within days. There is a reason for ignorance. Trust this... You will know one day who you are.”
Ezra’s
chin dipped ever so slightly. A blink on Sebastian’s part might have hidden it. Yet he somehow caught the motion, and something about it made him aware. Sebastian waited, studying Ezra’s face, trying to discern why the movement meant anything, if it did. But then Ezra’s eyebrow lifted a fraction, almost infinitesimally, and he swore the man’s dark eyes hid amusement.
Confused, Sebastian raised a hand in assent as the man, once a warrior, gave him a full nod before turning to depart.
His gaze slid to the gemstones and with a sigh, Sebastian began to gather them closer. They were only a small portion of their collection, but he wouldn’t leave them out for others to pocket. His father had at least seen to their comfort...
Sebastian sat up straight, the gems forgotten.
Dear God.
Ezra had said he would be dead within days. Within days. Did that mean...? The way Ezra had looked at him had to have been a hint. Something for Sebastian to grasp if he was clever enough to understand.
His hands began to shake as understanding continued to bloom.
His father. It had to mean... The man, or at the very least the people of his clan, were still alive.
Sebastian only had to find them.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Alice opened her eyes, prepared to scream. Her last memory pinged around her mind, rising up and out in horrific vividness. But she was aware, so she couldn’t be dead, right? No. She knew who she was. Where she was started to come back to her, too. The most important thing right now was a new realization. She was alive, and God, she needed.
Needed.
She hurt and needed, and everything swelled large and uncontrolled beneath her skin. Something within demanded and craved, and she didn’t know how to handle it. What to do. She just knew this need, this rage inside her pushing to get out. To claim. To be claimed.
Alice twisted on the bed, moaning.
She almost melted into the mattress at the first touch of someone’s hand—a masculine hand—that had slipped between her legs. “I’ve got you, princess. I’ll take care of you always,” the male said.
Not just a male. Her male. Sebastian.
She moaned again, eyes rolling in the back of her head as he began to slowly rub her clit, his palm grinding against her with just the oh-so-right pressure. She allowed need to drift into something more pleasurable. The pain, the ache, soothed away with each circular motion.
“For the next three days, this will be my pleasure. My duty to you. To stop what’s hurting,” he said softly.
“Please...”
“You’re on your way to becoming one of us. This is the process. Let it happen.”
Even the soft sheets beneath her scratched at sensitive skin, as if made of sandpaper. She couldn’t get comfortable. Throat parched, gums hurting, the effort to talk or whimper a sound seemed too much of an effort. Yet she couldn’t stop the moaning each time Sebastian touched her there. In the place that sent ringlets of rapturous relief echoing through her every vein.
He continued to speak softly, his voice another source of comfort. “To become one of us, the heart has to stop. But so long as you’ve tasted our blood recently, it will grow in your system, growing and taking over. Part of the discomfort you’re feeling now is the body’s way of absorbing the changes. Endorphins help to ease some of the shock.”
“Three days?” God, she couldn’t stand it. She wouldn’t be able to live through it. Not like this. Not in this misery.
“It will ease over the three days, I promise you. Today will be the worst, and I’ll get you through it. Hold on to me, Alice, and I’ll be what you need.”
She could do that. She would.
A cry came tumbling from her lips, the sound overridden by the crank of the air conditioner generator kicking in. The low rumble coughed a few times before settling into a hum. By then, Alice had her hand over Sebastian’s, guiding him blindly, seeking more of his talented touch. Each time he pressed against the swollen bundle of nerves, she gasped, the sensual ecstasy of it enough to take her over a ledge. She climbed higher and higher, and blindly, Alice went to that place. Here, she didn’t ache, and the hurt translated into something else. Something she desired.
Sebastian pushed a long finger inside her cunt. Alice’s eyes snapped open. A second finger joined the first, the stretch making her stomach flutter. His thumb brushed over her clit, and the combination shattered her. Alice came, trembling. Sensation blanketed her beneath sparks of feeling, which tumbled through her, taking every thought and every breath.
Any reprieve she might have gained by a lover who eased away from ecstasy’s grasp dissolved as Bast instead impaled her with a single thrust. His cock filled her in a way his fingers never could have, touching some sweet spot that made her cry out his name. It was too much and exactly what she needed, all at once.
She reveled in the feel of his muscles bunching and contracting beneath her fingers, and she held him. With hypersensitive flesh yearning for touch, she pressed her body to his. They came together. Kissing. Tongues stroking.
Her breath pushed out her lungs, hoarse cries finding life in between her quest to connect with him at the most basic level. Loving him with everything she had within her. It was rushed and hot and passionate, some unnamed urgency driving her—driving him—and they responded. They clung to each other, and the desperation with which she tried to become part of him made her afraid. But the fear was squelched, soul-robbing pleasure demanding to be first and always. When Alice came again, shuddering, eyes squeezed shut, she reveled in his long groan as he soon followed behind.
Sebastian collapsed on top of her a moment later, his weight a tolerable burden. But it was several minutes before she could get her panting breath to ease. For a heartbeat gone rampant to resume its normal, lazy pace. Sweat trickled down her sides and created a layer between their bodies. A large part of her didn’t think the heat they’d generated came solely from their act. She almost felt like it was something generated from the inside.
“Are we dead?” she asked, half-jokingly. The other half not quite certain.
He lifted his head a fraction. “A few more rounds like that, and we might be.”
“So that’s what it means to become a vampire, huh?”
“Oh, you don’t know the half of it. Things haven’t even gotten good yet.”
“That wasn’t good? I don’t think I’m going to survive this.”
Bast pressed a kiss to her cheek, groaned, but withdrew enough to roll to his side. “You’ll survive it. And we’ll both enjoy every second of it. You’ll love so much about this life. I’m going to give you so many, many things. Anything you want. Anything you need.”
“You and me. That’s all I need.” She touched his forearm, loving that she could even make the statement to him and mean i
t with everything in her heart.
“Good. And as much as I’d love to lay here with you, wiling the day away, if you think you’re up to it, we also need to get out of here. We’re going to have to stay on the move and out of the Council’s radar if we hope to have a chance. I’ve been thinking about it, and maybe in a week or so, you can contact Jasmine Gerulaitis and ask about how they outran the Council. Maybe her husband’ll even share something that’ll keep us alive a little while longer.”
It wouldn’t be a hardship to contact her friend again. With any luck, it was a friendship that would continue to flourish. She’d never had a girlfriend she could confide in before and now, with all the changes she was undergoing, having a sort of mentor would go a long way.
Sebastian pulled her hand to his mouth. Kissed it. “Another thirty minutes is all we can spare. You want the shower first?”
Since leaving the hospital, she’d been feeling a little run down. Now, even after that marathon sex, she felt a bit...rejuvenated. “Sure. If you’re good, maybe you’ll wrangle an invitation out of me to join in while I’m there. Too bad we only have thirty minutes.”
He grinned. “I could work with that.”
“You are—”
The door crashed open, a piece of the security chain popping off and flying across the room at lethal speed. The noise was a shotgun blast in what had been almost near-perfect silence. Shards of wood from the broken door scattered across the cheap carpeting of the motel room and for some reason, the little bits grabbed her attention. When she lifted her sight to the person responsible, a weight plummeted in Alice’s stomach.