“I don’t know.”
Rachella’s smooth brow wrinkled in a frown. “She’s unconscious. Is it the same thing that happened to her last night?”
“Yes.”
“Blood,” she said, noting the stains on the bedspread, her nostrils dilating delicately. “Mmm. Twenty-seven, male, very cute.”
“How can you tell he’s cute from the smell?”
“I can’t, actually, but I like to fantasize. Your Detective Hamilton smells good enough to drink.”
“Wouldn’t he be too easy?”
“I adore easy men.” She glanced down at Aliena. “She came to you. After your conversation this morning at 49, I never would have guessed that.”
What would she guess? The ultrasound tablet lay beside Aliena’s pillow, the scanning wand next to it. The unit’s display had gone black, in power-saving mode. Rachella did not seem to have noticed it.
“She was frightened by another episode of memory loss,” I said. “She knew I cared.”
“Does she remember you as her only love?”
“We didn’t have time to discuss it, but it didn’t appear that way.”
She bent slightly, looked closer. “Is that an engagement ring on her finger?”
“Yes.”
“She wasn’t wearing it at 49.”
“No. She…she put it on when she was pleading for my help.”
“She remembers the engagement, then.”
“No,” I told her. “She doesn’t remember that, but she believes it happened.”
Her gaze traveled Aliena’s body. “She does have an extremely curvy shape, doesn’t she?”
A blockage in my throat prevented me from answering.
“This isn’t possible,” she said. “How could she be unconscious?”
“I don’t know.”
She turned to me slowly. “Yes, you do.”
I didn’t reply.
“Why would you keep it to yourself?” she mused.
“I’m not keeping anything to myself.”
She ran a finger along Aliena’s stomach, inspected the gel up close. After glancing at me, she picked up the ultrasound unit. “You looked inside her? Why? What did you find?” She tapped the display. The picture of the thing inside Aliena appeared. “That’s inside her?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
She put her startling green eyes on me. “You know something about it, though. What?”
Rachella was as old as Marcus, so she must have heard of the Apollo Ring before this.
“Did you know Darius?”
She glanced back at the screen. “You think this has something to do with him?”
“I don’t know. Had you seen the Apollo Ring before last night?”
“Why do you want to know that?”
Since she continued answering my questions with questions, I lobbed them right back at her. “How old are you Rachella? Are you older than Marcus?”
“That hurts. Do I look old?”
“You look like a goddess. Did you know Darius?”
“Yes.”
“What about the Apollo Ring?”
Rachella bent, hefted one of Aliena’s breasts. “Marvelous.”
“Do you like women?”
“Very much.”
I covered Aliena, led Rachella into the living room where I could think better.
She sat on the couch, legs primly pressed together. “If I share, will you share, too?”
I tried to play dumb. “I didn’t know Darius and I never saw the Apollo—”
“Don’t do that. You know what I mean.”
Why was I being so stubborn about allowing her a drink? Did I really believe giving Rachella dinner betrayed Aliena? No, I did not. I knew how I felt. But I also knew how Aliena felt. And although Aliena drank many others, that did not mean she wanted other vampires to sample my immortal blood.
I have always believed she had the right to demand such a double standard.
But now a hot and impatient Rachella had found a situation she could twist to her purposes. Life seemed determined to throw at me every curve and sinker in its repertoire, while alternately pelting me with rising fastballs.
“You know Aliena does not want anyone else to drink me.”
“What do you want, Sebastian? Do you want my silence?”
“Your silence?” This was worse than I thought.
“Yes. I know Darius, and I’ve seen the Apollo Ring before. Darius brought it from…the other dimension a long time ago.”
“You can say Atlantis, Rachella.”
She stood. “My, but you are headed for trouble. And soon. I want you tonight.”
“You can have a drink if you—”
“Oh no, not just a drink.” She gestured toward Aliena’s room. “She told you something about Kristina’s death.”
I shook my head.
“What then?”
“Nothing. There’s nothing,” I insisted.
“I’m going to tell Marcus.”
“Tell him what?”
“That Aliena killed Kristina, and that you know how it happened.”
“You don’t believe that.”
Her smile shone triumphant. “Even if I don’t, I’ll still call Marcus. You’re definitely hiding something, Sebastian.”
She had me trapped. If I didn’t give her a drink tonight, coupled with heavy sex, she would carry out her threat. The evidence I had concerning Aliena was circumstantial, but potentially damning. And though it was unlikely Marcus would order Aliena executed by the Apollo Ring based on the GPS readings and the thing inside her, I was unwilling to take chances with two vampires already reduced to ashes.
“What do you think you know?” I asked.
She walked toward me, smoothing her dress along her hips. “Enough to have you thinking about giving me what I want in order to keep your secret.”
“I will watch over you while you sleep for all of your lifetime,” I said huskily, desperate to strike a bargain.
The vampire took me in her arms. “No one has intruded on my sleeping chamber for two thousand years. That’s rule number one for us.”
“As I said, you can have a drink tonight if you tell me about Darius.”
She drew a finger along my cheek. “You know better than that. I want all of you tonight. And you’re going to give me all of you.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You want me to play detective?” she said.
I raised an eyebrow.
“You were at the crime scene earlier,” she said. “Do the police know when Kristina was killed?”
I kept my face impassive. “The call came in about 6:30.”
“Was Aliena with you then?”
“No.”
She smiled. “And you think Aliena’s responsible for Kristina’s death.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. And that creature inside her is why.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She laughed, blurring. I caught glimpses of her as she circled me, did my best not to respond to her invisible caresses. That proved impossible. Within moments, she had brought me fully erect, my body responding instantly and without my will, the way I would jerk my hand from a hot surface before I realized what I was doing.
In the wake of Rachella’s flickering, shadowy progress, shivering sensations marbled my skin. A paroxysm wracked me and I convulsively stepped forward, my arms clutching, needing suddenly, breath shallow…
…and Rachella filled my embrace, a lush companion. The shock of her wonderfully full-bodied press and saucy smile overloaded my senses. Before I knew what I was doing, I had crushed her to me, hand in her hair, tugging, my lips insistent against hers…
Atlas may have supported the Cosmos, but pulling back from Rachella’s kiss required strength of which the Titan could only dream.
She continued clutching me, her hands casually probing.<
br />
“Do you know what that thing is inside her?” I asked, blinking with concentration. Flashes of cartoon wolves whistling deliriously at buxom women tripped across my vision. Blood surged as she closed a hand with glorious firmness.
“Yes. It’s a force that can kill our kind. Any immortal being.”
I couldn’t ask her if she referred to a Ghost of Atlantis. She would want to know where I got the information.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, pressed against me. “I promise it won’t hurt…often.”
“Please don’t do this.”
“Oh, Sebastian! You make too much of it. It’s just sex.”
“I thought you didn’t want to force me,” I said.
“I changed my mind,” she said with a wicked smile.
“And if I refuse?”
“What about this?” She caressed my steel erection.
“It’s my body betraying me.”
She didn’t want to inform Marcus, she wanted me. We would be in 49 in two hours, so her window of opportunity had a short life span since I must tell Marcus what I knew when we arrived.
I felt sure Rachella would rather have my blood than nothing, so I bargained with her, playing the threat card first.
“If you continue to keep sex in your deal, I’d prefer you told Marcus what you think you know. I have to tell him in two hours anyway. I will, however, give my permission to have a drink in return for your silence.”
“Why?”
“I want those two hours.”
She appeared to consider her options. “I may drink to my fill?”
“Of course.”
“Okay,” she said. Her hand remained busy between my legs, sending sensations that could not be ignored. “Are you sure you don’t want to…?”
“I’m sure I do want to, but that’s for Aliena alone.”
“Then one other condition,” she said, mercifully releasing my throbbing pole. “I want you to kiss me the way you kiss Aliena.”
“Why would you want that?” I asked. Could it be that Rachella yearned for love despite her protestations to the opposite?
“Can you do that?” she asked, ignoring my question. “Imagine you’re kissing Aliena?”
“Yes.”
“Then kiss me like that.” Her lips parted in anticipation.
I gave her the works. Brushing my lips along her mouth, I waited until she panted before locking my mouth onto hers and teasing my tongue inside. One hand squeezed her ass then slid up her back to grip her hair. Picturing Aliena behind closed eyelids, I pulled her close in a crushing embrace Aliena told me vampire women loved. She made small sounds as my mouth became frantic with desire. I finally slowed down, finishing with a tender press of my lips.
Opening my eyes, I saw Rachella’s were closed. “One more?” she whispered. “Please?”
We kissed again, longer this time, and rougher. She squeezed me hard enough to drive the breath out of me. She kissed with mad passion, blooming frantic desire. I returned her intensity, Aliena clear in my mind.
Her grip loosened enough for me to draw a breath. We stopped slowly, almost reluctantly.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Now I want you more than ever.”
She watched me intently as I loosened my tie, unbuttoned my shirt. Pulling her by her hair, I offered my jugular. “I assume you’d like a drink?”
“Yes, please,” she replied with such ardent desire my skin marbled with gooseflesh, unbearably sensitive as her hand stroked the hair at the nape of my neck. “Oh yes, Sebastian, sweet Sebastian,” she sang seductively, arm circling my chest, “finally to taste you…”
The firm flesh of her body pressed cool against mine. I tensed when she lowered her head to my throat. She kissed my pulsing jugular before her canines pierced my skin. My whistle of pain at her puncture stopped immediately. Rachella’s bite was amazingly soft, the entry of her canines less painful than a pinch.
She siphoned my blood slowly, and though she drank for two minutes, I never lost consciousness, though I became woozy several times.
Even while her lips remained attached, my blood replenished and by the time she had finished, my full faculties had returned. She removed her mouth and gave me a kiss.
“That was very different from Aliena’s drink,” I said, surprised.
Rachella opened her eyes. “I have told you before, she is a child. Her bite hurts you, doesn’t it?”
“Very much. She also drains me to unconsciousness nearly every time.”
“She has no control, no sophistication.” She squeezed me. “You deserve the very best, Sebastian. Me.” When she smiled, her usual air of elegance had turned to the delight of a teenager on vacation. She gave me a playful kiss. “Merde, you are more delicious than anyone I’ve ever tasted.” She put the back of her hand against her mouth and giggled. “I do believe you’ve made me tight in more ways than one!”
She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, as if in a swoon, her body swaying slowly. Her flushed cheeks radiated health and vitality. As with Aliena, blood turned Rachella’s beauty angelic. When she opened her eyes, she said, “I want you to make love to me, Sebastian.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want to force you. I want…” She lowered her gaze.
Watching her, I suddenly realized something I had seen but hadn’t understood. Squeezing her, I asked, “Do you ever date vampires?”
“No. The women are rarely attracted to our kind. Only the men have a desire for other vampires.”
“I see.”
“Now do you understand why so many of us hate Aliena?”
“Yes.” If the person orchestrating the attack on Aliena was a vampire, this represented motive.
“She’s so selfish. She—I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—I know how worried you are for her.”
I could only nod miserably.
“I don’t hate her anymore,” Rachella said. “I would never share you, either. Never.” She looked down, buttoned my shirt, straightened my tie. “If Aliena doesn’t remember you,” she said in a low voice, “will you consider being with me?”
I lifted her chin, kissed her. “For many wonderful years.”
She hugged me tightly.
We were friends. Amazingly, friends.
“What will you do now?” she asked.
“I promised Hamilton I’d give him a call. Then I want to talk to Marcus about Darius.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Did you know him?”
“Yes.”
“Ever been to his house in Studio City before yesterday?”
“I didn’t know him that well.”
I laughed. “I meant, did you know he had an interdimensional portal there before yesterday?”
“Yes.” She looked past me. “Aliena?”
I spun. Aliena walked into the living room, hair mussed, clothes askew.
“Hey,” I said, “how are you—”
Eyes wide and unfocused, she passed between Rachella and me, and opened the sliding glass doors.
“Aliena!” I lunged toward her, grabbed her arm as she stepped outside. Without looking at me, she shoved me into one of the glass-topped tables on the patio. Before I could recover my balance, she shot into the air.
Rachella appeared next to me. “I’ll try to follow her.”
By the time I looked up, they were out of sight.
Chapter 41
Saturday, February 14, 10:53 p.m.
I grabbed the GPS, tapped the display. Aliena’s blip skipped across the scrolling map, her speed in excess of two hundred kilometers per hour. Could Rachella follow her?
Though I had not witnessed her departure from me earlier when she dropped me on the floor, Aliena must have been in this same detached state. The thing inside her apparently took over her body and turned her into a robot under the creature’s control.
My phone chimed. “Yes, Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know of this?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I have been very busy. I intended to fill you in at 49,” I said.
“Have you seen Aliena?”
“Yes.”
“Is she better tonight?”
“It—no, she didn’t seem better.” His silence willed me to continue, but I resisted the urge.
“You could proceed, I’m sure,” he said, “but I understand. It would appear we need to trust each other more if we are to work together. I apologize for setting the precedent.”
Grimly aware Aliena might be killing another vampire at this moment, I nonetheless kept her disappearance to myself. Marcus’s offer of cooperation impressed me, but he needed to provide more than an overture before I spilled about Aliena and her recent activities.
“I think Hamilton believes vampires exist,” I told him.
“Your detective friend.”
“Yes.”
“Did you confirm it?”
“No.”
“Does he know you are immortal?”
“I think he believes that, yes.”
“Belief is not knowledge.”
“True. But he’s also an instinctive investigator assigned to the homicides of Darius and Kristina. You might consider putting refrigerators in your homes and stocking them with some groceries, and other accoutrements that make the place appear occupied.”
“Actually, that is a rule already. We don’t enforce it aggressively. We hardly expected the houses to become crime scenes. What does Detective Hamilton intend to do with this information?”
“Nothing at all. He likes being a detective. He knows he can’t keep his job with LAPD if he reports that vampires are roaming Los Angeles County, or that his civilian partner appears to be indestructible.”
“That’s how he feels now. Mortal or immortal, time changes a person’s priorities.”
“I am a wealthy citizen who knows of the existence of vampires and I can say and do what I like with no fear of reprisal, but I still keep quiet—”
“I understand.”
A smile was a natural response to his acquiescence. I stifled it deliberately, knowing his sensitive ears could detect the movement of my cheek muscles, even over the phone. Now came the difficult part. “Hamilton wants to accompany me to 49 tonight so he can participate in our discussion.”
Ghosts of Atlantis (Immortal Montero Book 3) Page 22