NICK KEPT HIS EYES on Gabriel as he carried Hana out of the office, not turning back to Raphael until his warrior was gone. His warrior. He didn’t know what to think. He understood what Gabriel had been trying to say, but . . . damn, Gabriel was his. This was supposed to be the happy ending he’d waited thousands of years for. There was only Dragan left to find, and then all his warriors would be freed. But they were supposed to be back together, the four of them with him, fighting the good fight. He hadn’t given much thought to Gabriel being a vampire. If he’d thought about it at all, it had been only to consider improvements to the spell he’d used before.
He glanced at Raphael, who was deep in conversation with Jared. The truth was that the fucking vampire wasn’t alone in hating what Nick had done to weaken Gabriel’s vampiric nature. But that was an old battle between sorcerers and vampires. A very old battle. Nick had been there, but Raphael hadn’t even been born yet. The vamps had won that one, though. He wasn’t aware of any other sorcerer who was still trying to convert vampires. On the other hand, there weren’t that many sorcerers alive anymore who could manage the spell. Partly because the vamps had killed them all to make sure of it.
He glanced up when Raphael shifted in his chair, with Jared straightening as he murmured into his Bluetooth earbud. Raphael gave Nick a flat stare.
Nick sighed noisily. “Look, I’m just here to see Gabriel and to find out what the hell’s going on with Hana. Gabriel mentioned something to Kato about her needing protection but didn’t say why.”
Raphael eyed him a moment longer then said, “Your old enemy is after her.”
He frowned. “Sotiris? What the hell kind of power does she have anyway?”
“You can’t tell?”
Nick ground his teeth at the smug question but shook his head. “I know it’s there, but I haven’t been around her enough to say what it is. I’d hoped to find out tonight.” He shrugged, as if to say, before everything went to hell.
Raphael was silent long enough that Nick thought he wasn’t going to tell him, but then he said, “Hana is an amplifier.”
Nick stared. “Jesus, that’s . . . I’ve heard of it, but never met anyone who could do it. What’s her strength, does she know?”
“She’s never been formally tested, for obvious reasons. But her grandfather believed she could double a magic-user’s power, simply by standing nearby.”
“And Sotiris wants her,” he breathed. “Of course he does. Anyone with half a brain would want her. Damn it.” He shook his head, then met the vampire lord’s black stare. “Gabriel’s right. No one benefits if Sotiris grabs Hana. We need to work together on this.”
“We tried working together once before, sorcerer, and my Cyn almost died.”
“Raphael,” Cyn murmured, stroking the back of his neck.
“I’ll consider it,” Raphael agreed with obvious reluctance. “We’ll need to discuss details. But not tonight.”
Nick wanted to argue . . . just because it was Raphael. But putting it off made sense. Tempers were running high, and everyone in the damn room, humans and vampires alike, was primed for a fight. “We shouldn’t delay too long.”
“Tomorrow night, then. We’ll meet here.”
“Here?” Nick questioned instantly. “Why not my place?”
“We should all fly to Florida?”
“I have a suite at Shutters,” Nick said sharply, naming a very up- scale hotel on the beach in Santa Monica.
Raphael gave him a dismissive smile. “By all means, let us meet at your hotel. We could invite random humans while we’re at it. Let them witness our discussions. I’m sure there’ll be no unfortunate mishaps, no more lost tempers, no bloodletting or human casualties that we’ll have to explain to their authorities.”
Nick gritted his teeth. Fuck, but he hated this bastard. “You made your point, vampire. Don’t push your luck. I’ll be here at ten o’clock tomorrow night. Will you be awake by then, princess?” He was looking at Raphael when he said it, but it was Cyn who answered.
“You’re making this harder than it has to be, Nick. I know Sotiris hurt you and your men, but I also know how viciously he pursued Hana. He wanted to capture her, but his men would have killed her if necessary. He’d rather have her dead than risk her helping us in the fight against him.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll be nice,” he growled, then turned to his men. “Let’s go. I’m all out of polite conversation for tonight.”
As they walked out into the hall, he glanced at the guards. “Don’t bother. We know the way out.”
But of course, they ignored him, bracketing him and his warriors front and back as they proceeded down the stairs, where they were greeted by the tough-looking little blond vampire who was almost as scary as the giant twins.
“Lovely visit,” he said breezily, as he passed her on his way to the door. “Try not to miss me too much. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
The blond vampire didn’t say a word, just watched him with her pale eyes until he was gone. She was a creepy fucking little sprite.
RAPHAEL RELAXED back into his chair as his three vampires departed, leaving him and Cyn alone in the office. Waves pounded outside, celebrating the blessed silence. Cyn leaned against him, seeming drained by the fitful ups and downs of his confrontation with Katsaros. He could feel her exhaustion as if it were his own.
“You think this will succeed?” she asked around a yawn. “That we’ll actually work together and get something done?”
“I think you had the right of it. Sotiris’s evil will infect the world, if we let it. If we fight each other, we only help him succeed. So, we’ll work together, even if it kills the fucking sorcerer.” He smiled.
She sighed. “And what if it kills you instead?”
He pulled her onto his lap. “You wound me with your doubt, lubimaya. I have no intention of dying.”
“Good. Let’s keep it that way. I need you around.”
He stood, lifting her easily in his arms. “How much do you need me?”
“A lot.”
“I believe I require a demonstration.” He input the code, and the elevator doors opened.
“I don’t know, fang boy. I’m pretty tuckered out. I didn’t get to sleep much earlier.”
“Another challenge. I accept.”
Cyn’s laughter floated into the empty office as the elevator doors closed.
Chapter Nine
HANA WOKE IN A dark room, confused for a moment about where she was, and more importantly, when it was. The where was answered with a quick glance around. Pitch dark, the light of a red digital clock that she couldn’t see, and Gabriel’s reassuring bulk next to her. Okay, they were in Gabriel’s room in the basement vault. So far, so good. Now for the when. The last thing she remembered was when she and Gabriel went up to Raphael’s office to meet Nico. It had been obvious at first glance that the two men hated each other. Right, that was the key. That Raphael and Nico really, really hated each other, and they’d stuck Gabriel in the middle. Nico had been ignoring what Gabriel was trying to tell him—trying to explain his decision to stay with Raphael— which had infuriated her. He didn’t need to explain anything. If he wanted to remain with Raphael and live as the vampire he was, then Nico could take a flying leap off the Malibu cliffs.
Too agitated to remain lying down, she sat up and shoved some pillows behind her back, noticing absently that she was wearing nothing but panties and a T-shirt. No bra. She was briefly distracted by that fact. Gabriel must have undressed her last night, but how many guys would have thought to remove her bra? That brought her back to why he’d needed to undress her and the events that had knocked her out.
Nico hadn’t been the only one getting riled up. Raphael had been pissed, too, and suddenly, all the air had been sucked out of the room as everyone lit up whatever magic they had. And between N
ico and Raphael, there’d been one hell of a lot of magic. But that wasn’t what had knocked her out. She frowned, trying to relax, to let the memory come.
When it did, her chest tightened, and she began to struggle for breath, hyperventilating in minutes, until what little sight she had in the dark room went almost completely black, sparking with warning lights. She rubbed at her aching chest, wondering if she was having a heart attack, wondering if the vampires had a plan in place in the event of a medical emergency for a human down here in the basement. She felt her consciousness graying out and considered that might be a good thing, to turn off her brain for a while and let the rest of her body take over. She’d begun the countdown to unconsciousness—ten, nine, eight—when Gabriel was suddenly there, rolling over to wrap her in his big, strong arms and tuck her into the safety of his body.
“It’s okay, älskling. I’ve got you. Just breathe. He ran his hand over her back with long, smooth strokes, loosening her muscles and warming her from the inside out. Pressing light, feathering kisses over her forehead, her cheeks, and finally her mouth, he repeated, “I’ve got you, Hana. You’re safe.”
She drew a full breath, held it for a moment, then blew it out, and drew another, marveling that air could taste so sweet. She couldn’t remember ever having an episode like this one. Hana Himura did not panic. She was the cool one in a crisis, always thinking, calculating odds, and taking action. This . . . this anxiety attack, or whatever the hell it was, shouldn’t have happened. Not to her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, but didn’t move away, didn’t let go of him.
“For what?” he asked, sounding amused.
“For panicking like a hysterical teenager.”
“You’ve nothing to be sorry for. If anyone was acting like fool teenagers, it was Raphael and Nico. Elke had the right of it, they might as well have pulled their dicks out and gotten the measuring over with. Though I’ll thank you not to tell Raphael I said so.”
She laid her hand on his chest and smiled against his rough cheek. “Maybe you should drag yours out and end the competition once and for all.”
He laughed. “It’s never a good idea to show up the boss. Especially not when it comes to dicks.” He was silent for a moment as he continued to rub her back. “Feeling better?”
“Yes. And I am s—”
“Don’t say it,” he warned. “Talk to me instead.”
“Answer a question first. What time is it?”
“Ah. I can’t see the clock. I hate that red display. I turned it away. But I just woke, so it must be barely past sunset, which means 7:30 or close to it.”
“You just woke up?” she repeated slowly. “You mean I lost a whole day?”
“Pretty much. How long have you been awake?”
“A few minutes,” she murmured, shaking her head. “I can’t believe . . . I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
“Like what? Talk to me, Hana. What happened? One minute you were yelling at Raphael and Nico to stop, and the next, you screamed and passed out.”
“I remember . . . I remember being angry that they were hurting you like that, tugging you between them with no regard for what you wanted.”
“To be fair, Nico was doing most of the tugging, though Raphael wasn’t having any of it.”
“They were both at fault, but that only made me angrier. When they started throwing power around like beach balls, I tried to shield you, to shield us both. But I was working on instinct, since I was never properly taught. I could feel my power draining away, and I was afraid the shield wouldn’t be enough, and you’d end up getting hurt, because they weren’t paying attention to what their power games were doing to anyone else. I wanted to shout at them, to demand they stop, but then . . .”
Her eyes widened in sudden recollection. “Something attacked me,” she whispered, pulling back to look up at him, even though she could barely see in the dark room. She squeezed his arm. “No, not something, someone. Someone other. A power unlike any I’ve ever felt before. Different from Nico’s sorcery, from Raphael’s vampire magic, different from yours, too.”
“Mine?”
“You’re a vampire,” she said absently. “Of course you have magic. When I’m close to you, it’s like a warm embrace that gathers me in and makes me feel safe.”
She caught a flash of his teeth in the dim light. He liked that. Then he frowned. “Do all vampires feel like that?”
“Oh, no. Raphael’s power is overwhelming, cold and airless, like the darkness of space. The other vamps are neutral to my senses, though the really strong ones give off a kind of vibration, I guess. Not really a sensation, just an awareness.”
“Huh.” He seemed to think about that for a moment, then shook his head impatiently. “Forget that. We’re supposed to be talking about you and what you sensed last night.”
“Pure evil, that’s what. It was as if a veil of malevolence had been thrown over my mind and was slowly closing, trying to trap me inside. That’s what it felt like at first, anyway, but then . . .” She drew a bracing breath, remembering. “He was trying to steal my power, I think. The image I get is some disgusting bug, with a million legs, and a long needle nose that’s jammed like a spike into my brain. And he’s sucking, vacuuming up my magic and taking my brain with it.”
She shuddered, and Gabriel’s arms tightened around her. “That’s not going to happen, Hana. Ever. I might not have enough magic to win that kind of battle, but Raphael does, and so does Nico. We just have to convince the two of them to work together, instead of trying to tear each other apart.”
They both jumped when his cell phone rang, then shared a nervous chuckle at their reaction. Gabriel grabbed the phone from the table and accepted the call after checking the display. “Juro?” he said, answering.
Hana couldn’t hear the conversation, nor could she see Gabriel’s face well enough to distinguish his reaction, but he nodded his head as if agreeing with something, then said, “She’s feeling much better. I’ll tell her you asked.” He listened some more and said, “We’ll be there.”
She waited until he’d put the phone down. “Where are we going to be?”
“That was Juro. He asked after your health.”
She nodded impatiently. “I got that much. What’s happening?”
He shrugged his massive shoulders. “Apparently, Raphael and Nico had an epiphany after we left. Your reaction made them realize how close Sotiris is and what he wants. Which is you. He’d rather grab you for himself, but . . .” He paused, unwilling to say it.
“But he’ll kill me if he has to. He’d rather have me dead than helping the good guys.”
“I’d never let that happen, Hana. If you die, it will be because I’m already dead.”
She slapped his shoulder. “Don’t say that. I’m not worth—”
He twisted his hand in her hair and kissed her hard, his teeth crushing her lips as he forced her mouth open and slipped his tongue inside, not stopping until she had her arms around his neck, her body pressed against his with a soft moan. They were both out of breath when he stopped to glare down at her. “You’re worth everything to me. My life would be well spent if I gave it to save yours.”
“No.” Hana felt tears building against her eyes. “I want you to live. I want us to live together for a long, long time.”
He smiled. “Then that’s what we’ll do, älskling. And we’ll start by joining Raphael and Nico in another meeting, tonight at ten.”
“Oh, shit. Another meeting? Let’s hope we make it through this one without anything flying through the fucking air.”
“We’ll take seats near the door. If they start up again, we’ll make a fast exit. I won’t put you through a repeat of what happened last night.” He ran a hand down her long, silky hair, and Hana cuddled close, realizing he was naked under the s
heet, and he was, hmmm, happy to see her. What a stupid phrase, she thought. He wasn’t happy to see her, he was fully aroused and hard as a rock. And he hadn’t been kidding about who’d win that dick measuring contest.
She wiggled closer, smiling when he swallowed a groan. “We have lots of time before ten.”
His eyes shifted to look down at her, and they had that faint bronze glow that she’d swear had grown brighter with every night since he’d sworn loyalty to Raphael and drunk his blood . . . the blood of a vampire lord.
“Are you trying to corrupt me again?” he growled.
“Yes.”
A moment later, she was on her back, and he was stripping away her panties. Her breath caught as he slid down her body, running his warrior’s hands, rough with callouses, down the tender skin of her inner thighs, spreading her legs wide as he put his mouth to her pussy. Her fingers gripped his hair when he began to lick and suck, teasing her into arousal as he swirled his tongue around her clit, barely brushing the sensitive bundle of nerves before stroking his way down to her entrance and using his tongue like a small cock, probing into her sex and out again, then licking up the cream of her arousal with a hum of pleasure, before sweeping back to her clit and nibbling just enough to torment her. It was wicked and perverse, and everything she’d been taught that proper ladies never did, and she fucking loved it. She’d never experienced this kind of sensuous pleasure before, the kind that made her feel as if she’d explode if he didn’t let her climax. Only with Gabriel.
She gasped at the sudden sharp pain of his bite on her thigh, as if he’d suspected she wasn’t paying attention. He wanted her with him for every lick, every suck. She scraped her nails through his hair with a soft moan and was rewarded with the hard glide of his fingers into her pussy, first one, then two, of his thick fingers thrusting in and out, stretching her tight entrance as if making her ready. His lips closed over her clit with a hard suck as he curled his fingers deep inside her and stroked firmly. Hana cried out as she went from pleasure to ecstasy in a heartbeat, a sudden, desperate need that had her straining toward his mouth, his fingers, begging for more, for that last stroke of his tongue, for that tiny bit of pressure that would take her over the edge and relieve this terrible yearning.
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