Claimed by a Vampire

by Lee, Rachel

  “I seem to remember sort of asking you to.”

  “I didn’t take much.” He went into the kitchen and took out a glass to empty his meal into. “Far less than I could have taken without harming you.”

  “Why?”

  He paused in the process of pouring blood into his glass. “Why?”

  “Yes, why. If you can stop yourself, why didn’t you take more?”

  His brows knit. He finished pouring out the blood, then tossed the bag in the sink before coming to join her in the living area. The careful space was between them again, she noted, and felt a pang.

  He spoke finally. “What did you think of the experience?”

  “It was incredible.” Her voice expressed her amazement. “I was… It was…”

  He shook his head and smiled faintly. “You don’t have to tell me. I was experiencing it with you. All of it.”

  “I felt… I felt like we were one.”

  “For a little while. My heart beats as yours beats. My body responds as yours does.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I don’t know. It’s the way it is. Everything in me seems to synchronize with you. Not just your heartbeat, but your feelings, as well. The danger is that you also synchronize with me.”

  “Wow.” Astonished, even shocked, by the idea, she made her way to a chair and sat hunched with both her hands around her coffee cup. “Wow,” she said again.

  “That’s part of what makes it so addicting. For both of us. The thing is, I stopped soon enough.”

  “Soon enough for what?”

  “Soon enough that you didn’t get addicted. Oh, you’ll want to repeat the experience, I’m sure. Which is why I shouldn’t have done it. But ask yourself if you want to experience it again enough to ask another vampire. Luc for example.”

  “Lord no!”

  “Then you’re still safe.”

  “You mean I might get to the point where I’d want just any vampire?” The thought appalled her.

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. It can happen. Well, I won’t do that to you. I won’t take you to the point where you’ll spend the rest of your life hunting for another vampire. Any vampire.” He sighed, then sipped his blood. “Damn, I don’t know what got into me. I know you nearly craze me, I know I want you, but to give in and even give you a taste for me like that…” He shook his head in disgust.

  “Don’t beat yourself up.”

  He set his glass aside and came to kneel before her. He caught her face between his cool hands and made her look at him.

  “Yvonne, we’re playing with some serious fire here. I just found out that when it comes to you I can’t always hold myself in check. That’s dangerous for both of us.”

  She read his worry in his face and reached out to lay her palm against his cheek. At once his eyes closed, and a sigh escaped him, as if that simple touch were the most wonderful thing in the world.

  And maybe it was. He could only feel warmth if it was human. He wanted her, he’d said as much many times. He’d warned her it was dangerous, he tried to keep a distance.

  She remembered what Terri had told her and finally faced up to the fact that she was playing with fire all right.

  “Should I leave?”

  His eyes snapped open. “You wouldn’t get very far. I’d follow. Don’t even think of it. You’re in worse danger than just me.”

  “Odd, I don’t feel in danger from you at all. But I feel as if you’re in danger from me.”

  A groan escaped him, and then before she could blink he was standing across the room. “I’m not in any danger I can’t deal with,” he said flatly. “Let’s get that clear right now. You might drive me to the brink of madness, but I’ll survive. What you absolutely, positively must not do is leave. It could cost you far more than I ever could.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Everything.” He shook his head. “There are other realms than this one, other worlds and realities. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to exist in whatever pit Asmodai is trying to climb out of. You wouldn’t want to exist in his world. And you wouldn’t enjoy your life here if he emerges and makes you his plaything.”

  “Is that what he’s after? A sex slave?”

  “I don’t know, Yvonne. I just know he likes human women. He always has. What I’d like to know is if you’ve been offered to him in exchange for something else, because as beautiful as you are, there are other equally beautiful women.”

  Yvonne felt horror tingling along her nerves. “You do think Tommy is involved somehow. You think he offered me to that…that thing?”

  He came closer and perched on the arm of a nearby chair, crossing his arms loosely. “What I know is that people who want things from demons must satisfy a demon’s demands. Asmodai wants things, and he sets the price. His price is probably emergence into this world, and you. And perhaps some other things.”

  “But what could he give whoever summons him?”

  “He might promise to perform some tasks. Might even promise great wealth and power. Sometimes demons even promise immortality, but they really can’t keep that promise. Not for long.”

  “But you are immortal.”

  He shook his head. “No. I have a very long life. As you could see with Avi, it will be measured in thousands of years. But immortal life? No. Eventually we all die. There seems to be a natural order that cannot be defeated. To a gnat, you must look immortal.”

  She nodded slowly. “I suppose so.”

  “Now tell me about Tommy. What does he want?”

  “That’s easy. He wants to be a famous singer and musician. And he doesn’t want to be a flash-in-the-pan, either.”

  “So, he would ask for fame and fortune as a rock star?”

  “Probably. It’s the only thing I ever saw him passionate about.”

  He smiled faintly. “But you don’t think he’ll make it on his own?”

  “I don’t like his music. He plays in small clubs, he’s thirty and he’s never had a nibble from a recording company even though he keeps sending demos.”

  “Well, that sounds like something Asmodai could promise. A lifetime of success, adoration and groupies.”

  Yvonne nodded glumly. “He’d go for that, all right.”

  “We’ll ask Garner to look into it tonight.”

  “Garner?” She felt surprised.

  “Oh, trust me, Garner is better at what he does than Jude lets on. The comments are merely a way to keep the rambunctious pup in line. But if he weren’t good, Jude wouldn’t put up with him.”

  “Is Jude very impatient?”

  “He can be. But I actually think he enjoys being sardonic and sarcastic. Must be something left over from the world he grew up in.”

  “And that was?”

  “A scion of nobility in an era where good form was everything, and good form apparently involved heavy doses of boredom, cynicism and world-weariness. Jude’s rather a passionate sort, but he hides it behind a cultivated sarcasm.”

  “Well, I like him, but I like you better.”

  “What? This old professor? I’m boring.”

  “Not to me.”

  “Well, then, I’ll become boring for a while. I need to look at that book Avi gave me.”

  She watched him pick it up from the table where he’d left it, blowing more dust off of it. Then he settled in an armchair and opened it. Curious, she rose and walked over to see pages yellowed and crinkled with age, and covered with characters she didn’t recognize.

  “Is that Hebrew?” she asked.

  “Actually, no. Avi assures me it’s angelic script.”

  “Really? And you can read it?”

  “I’ve had a lot of time to learn to read things like this. Give anyone a century pretty much alone, and either he learns new things or he becomes the ‘idle hands’ of the aphorism. My kind in particular.”

  For the first time she wondered just how many esoteric things filled his head, and wished she could ask. But he was busy
now, so she went to get herself another cup of coffee and a couple of cookies. Back on the sofa, she waited patiently, letting her thoughts roam freely, distracted only when she noticed how fast he seemed to be turning those pages. Evidently his speed wasn’t limited to traveling.

  She was just beginning to drift away into a dreamy sort of state as she recalled what it had been like to be drunk from by Creed. As a writer, she wanted to put it into words, to capture it in a way she could record, but it kept slipping out of her grasp, something so incredible her brain couldn’t quite latch onto it.

  Tommy had been her only lover, and in the early days she had been sure nothing could have been better. Well, there now was something in her experience so far beyond it that she couldn’t capture it. Shattering, in a way, leaving her certain that she would never be the same.

  That was what Creed feared for her. Exactly what he was trying to protect her from. Except she didn’t want to be protected. Not from that, not from him.

  Not that it made any difference what she wanted; Creed had made it obvious what he did not want.

  She sighed silently, then stiffened. Sitting up straighter she waited, then was sure.

  That thing was watching her again. The back of her neck prickled with awareness, but when she looked at Creed he was still reading, near the end of the book.

  She hesitated, wondering if she imagined the sensation. What could possibly be watching her?

  But the feeling grew, beginning to creep down her spine like a chill.

  “Creed?” Her voice was thin.

  “Yes?” He didn’t look up.

  “It’s here. I feel it.”

  At once he snapped the book shut and an instant later he stood over her. He sniffed the air around her several times.

  “Where’s your coat?”

  She waved vaguely toward the spare bedroom where she had dumped it last night. He vanished in a flash, then reappeared like magic with her coat. “Put it on. We’re getting out of here now.”

  “I’m not imagining it?”

  “I’d recognize that stench anywhere. I never forget a smell.”

  With trembling hands, she pulled her coat on while rising to her feet. “How did it find me?” she whispered.

  “It probably always knew where you were. It was just biding its time.”

  Horror slammed her. Always? God, how was she ever going to escape this?

  Creed brushed her fumbling hands away and fastened her coat for her. Then he scooped her up, settling her on his back.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “To Jude. He’s got enough wards on his office to hold off the entire army of hell. At the very least, he has keys to a number of churches. We may need one.”

  That sent another shiver racing through her, but all of a sudden she was racing through the chilly night, too fast to see much, aware of little more than the stinging cold, the bunching of Creed’s muscles, the sensation of flying.

  She tightened her legs around his waist and hung on for dear life.

  Chapter 9

  The next thing she knew, they were at the bottom of the steps that led from the street to Jude’s office. Creed didn’t even set her down, but ran a key card through a scanner then punched in a code. And instant later she heard bolts slam open. Only when they were inside, with the door closed, did Creed lower her back to her feet.

  “That was some trip,” she murmured, pressing her hands to her chilled cheeks.

  “If we’re going to make a habit of this,” Creed remarked almost humorously, “I need to get you something to keep your face warm.” He held out his hand and she took it gratefully.

  Together they walked down the darkened hallway to the open door of Jude’s office. Warm light spilled forth.

  Inside they found Chloe at her desk. She arched both darkened eyebrows at them. “You’re early.”

  “Asmodai came to my condo a short while ago,” Creed replied. He guided Yvonne to the sofa, where he encouraged her to sit. “She needs a warm drink, Chloe. I think I nearly froze her.”

  “Travel by vampire does have a few disadvantages.” Chloe pressed an intercom button. “Jude? You need to emerge from the depths. We’ve got trouble.”

  Then she rose and walked over to the kitchenette where she poured a steaming mug of coffee and brought it to Yvonne. “You going to be okay, sweetie?”

  “I’m fine, just cold.”

  “Yeah, it occurs to me that clothes suitable for skiing might be good for traveling with a vampire. I figured that out last night, thanks to Luc.”

  Yvonne managed a weak giggle. “I like it with Creed, actually. But it is cold.”

  “Wind chill of minus ninety, I’m sure. It’s a wonder they don’t make sonic booms.”

  “We don’t move that fast,” Creed said drily. “Just nearly.”

  The door to Jude’s inner office opened and he joined them, dressed in his familiar black silk shirt and black slacks. “What’s up?”

  “Asmodai,” Creed answered. “He was sniffing around Yvonne in my apartment.”

  Jude frowned. “Not good.”

  “That was my feeling. So, will she be safe here or do I need to take her to a church?”

  “I guess we’ll find out. Chloe, where’s that bottle of holy oil?”

  “Do I need to remember everything for everyone?” But she crossed the room to a cabinet and brought it out. “Since I’m Wiccan, I think it would be best if you applied it.”

  “You mean since you’re short and I can reach over the doors.”

  Chloe sniffed.

  “I would suggest,” Jude said to her, “that you add a few wards of your own.”

  At that Chloe’s entire demeanor changed. “You think we need that much?”

  “I don’t know and I’d rather not find out.”

  “Good point.” Seeming much more subdued, Chloe began hunting through the drawers of her desk.

  Creed settled beside Yvonne and once again took her hand. She appreciated the gesture, the touch, the sense of safety it gave her. A short time later, Chloe was setting white candles around the room and lighting them, while Jude marked each doorway, wall and the one window with the holy oil.

  “There,” he said. “That should do it.” Then he turned to Creed and Yvonne, bottle of oil still in his hand. “You realize that now he knows you’re not alone, that we’re involved.”

  Chloe muttered, “I knew there had to be a downside to this job. Other than being abducted by a vampire.”

  “I know,” Creed said. “But I have nothing in my apartment to create a ward.”

  “Wouldn’t matter since obviously he’d already penetrated the place. He’s not here yet, though.”

  Jude handed the bottle of oil back to Chloe who returned it to the cabinet. Then he perched on the chair beside Chloe’s desk. “Okay, it’s out of the bag now. You came here, as good as advertising I’m involved. That means Asmodai knows Yvonne isn’t alone in this, and that you aren’t the only one he has to worry about.”

  “How much do you think that will complicate matters?”

  Jude shrugged. “Maybe some, but I’m not sure a whole lot. He still needs to get into this world to do his damage. Did you find out anything from your friend?”

  “He gave me a book to read. Once I process what I read this evening, I may have some clues. It was a book about angels, written in angelic script, so I’m assuming it might have been written by an angel. Apparently they have trouble with each other from time to time. How much we can use of their methods for dealing with troublemakers I still haven’t figured out. And Avi said he was going to do some additional research, too.”

  “That’s good. No Tetragrammaton?”

  “He asked me if I wanted to build a temple.”

  Jude looked astonished, then laughed. “I guess he takes the indirect route.”

  “Often enough. Basically he asked if we wanted to enslave Asmodai or banish him. Apparently the necklace with the Tetragrammaton would enslave h
im.”

  “No, we don’t want that. I have no use for him.”

  “Nor I,” said Yvonne. “I just want him to leave me alone. Leave all of us alone.”

  “It occurs to me,” said Creed thoughtfully, “that if we were to enslave him we could just order him back to wherever he comes from.”

  For an instant no one moved or made a sound. Then Jude laughed and slapped his own thigh. “I like that. It has a certain elegance to it.”