Aleksei opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. The good eye closed, and I saw his thick, dark lashes become glossy as moisture trickled down the side of the just-repaired nose. He sucked in a shuddering breath and opened his mouth again, but I put my fingers against his lips.
“Don’t,” I told him, my voice as raw as my throat felt. “It’s okay . . . just don’t.”
Deciding he no longer needed to function as an EKG monitor, Aleksei wrapped my fingers inside his hand and rocked his hips slightly as he settled his head on my shoulder. He tucked his hand, still holding mine, beneath his chin, and I could feel him relax as sleep overcame him. Perhaps I was stronger than I realized, or maybe I was used to having a vampire on top of me, but even though it felt like a baby grand was on my chest, I didn’t mind. Carefully I rolled and resettled my hips. The leg wedged between my thighs flexed in response to the movement. I took that as another good sign.
Either the worst part of his healing was done, or the big guy was too exhausted to deal with whatever else his body had to go through. With my free hand, I carefully explored his head, checking for any lumps, bumps, or things that shouldn’t be there. Surprisingly, his head appeared to be okay, although there were patches where dried blood had turned his buzz cut into a wire brush. But he didn’t wince or complain about my roving fingers, and the steady, rhythmic inhale-exhale told me he was headed for dreamland. I wished him well. God knows he deserved it.
Sleep was the last thing on my mind, though I was exhausted both mentally and physically. Acutely aware of Aleksei’s body healing itself, I could feel every remaining break, fracture, and dislocation sliding into place and becoming whole again. I knew the moment his lacerated liver had repaired itself. I could sense when both kidneys were functioning normally again so he wouldn’t piss blood, and I knew when every bruised muscle and torn ligament was restored to wellness. And all of it was happening because of my blood.
My blood.
A shadow moved in the hallway beyond the still-open front door. I didn’t need to see to know who it was or what it wanted.
“Fuck off—you can’t have him,” I rasped. “Not now, not tonight. He’s mine, and I won’t let you take him from me.”
I’m willing to bet I’m not the first person to have been hissed at by the Grim Reaper and lived to tell the tale. Only I wonder how many realized the same thing I did. The bitch is a sore loser.
Chapter 3
At some point I either fell asleep or passed out. I’m not sure which, and I don’t think it made much of a difference. Surfacing back to the land of semi-consciousness, I became aware of three things. I was no longer on the floor, I was completely naked, and the vampire holding me was very much the right one. I took in a breath, and the scent of snow and pine trees and that other elusive something that was uniquely Gabriel flooded through me.
“Shhh,” he murmured, pressing his lips against my forehead. “Go back to sleep.”
“What . . . time . . . ?” I mumbled.
“Almost midnight.”
I smoothed my hand across the wide expanse of his chest, my palm brushing over a nipple that immediately hardened at the contact. Gabriel sucked in a breath, and I felt the ridge of muscles in his abdomen tighten before he slowly exhaled as my hand moved. I let my fingers drift down his rib cage to his waist and then over his hip, curling my hand in the pocket of warmth above his thigh. His erection kicked against my belly. I felt warm, safe, aroused—and guilty.
“Where’s Aleksei?”
I went to push myself upright, using the hand I had on Gabriel’s hip for leverage, but it slipped, and I almost squashed his balls. The sound my lover made was one I hope to never hear again. At least not from his lips. It was a cross between a wheeze, a grunt, and an almost girly shriek of pain. To prevent any further chance of accidental emasculation, long fingers closed firmly around my wrist.
“He’s resting,” Gabriel told me. “I put him in your father’s room. It was the only other one with a bed. I hope you don’t mind.”
It was my father’s room only because a few of his old work shirts were hanging in the closet, and some personal items were on the dresser—all things I couldn’t yet bear to get rid of. The shirts were for comfort. If I was feeling particularly melancholy, as I usually did on the anniversary of his death, I would slip one on and go lie on the bed in his room and cry myself to sleep. At least that’s what I did in the house where we had both lived. The house that now belonged to my best friend and her family. And because I had moved in with Gabriel, all my dad’s belongings had been packed in a cardboard box and put in a storage unit. This year I’d had no shirt to slip on. Instead Gabriel let me hold onto him until I cried myself to sleep. And that was part of the reason he had bought me the apartment. He hated the idea of my dad’s belongings being kept in a concrete-floored, ten-by-twenty steel-walled box almost as much as I did.
And now a vampire was resting in my father’s room. Thankfully, it wasn’t the bed my dad had slept in. I’m sentimental, not stupid, so no, I wasn’t upset Gabriel had put Aleksei in there. It was the only logical choice because otherwise it would have meant having the Russian vampire in the king-size bed along with me and . . .
“What are you doing here?” I winced at the sharpness of my tone.
“What do you mean?”
I couldn’t say if Gabriel was surprised by my tartness, or if the question itself was what caught him off guard. Either way, the look he gave me was decidedly wary.
“I mean, you were on your way to California, and now you’re here.” I pulled my hand free of his hold and gestured to the room. “How did you get here, inside the apartment?”
Gabriel hadn’t physically been inside the apartment since I’d signed the necessary papers to put the deed in my name. And Aleksei hadn’t been able to cross the threshold without my invitation. So how was it my lover was now naked and horny and lying in the bed he and I hadn’t even christened yet?
“There are places a vampire doesn’t need an invitation to enter,” he said, looking strangely guilty.
This I knew. Places with public access, such as libraries, banks, supermarkets, and movie theaters. And apartment buildings. I understood he could walk into the lobby downstairs, but that didn’t mean he could automatically cross the threshold of any apartment in the same building unless . . . unless . . . he already had permission to do so. I stared at him and saw his expression change the moment he realized I knew exactly what he’d done.
“Son of a bitch! You didn’t just buy this apartment, did you? You bought the whole friggin’ building as well.”
“It’s a good investment,” he murmured, catching hold of my hand.
“And did you buy it before or after I agreed to the apartment?”
“After.”
Of course it was after. I knew I ought to be making some sort of a protest about this place of my own only being an illusion. The fact that Gabriel could come and go as he pleased meant it was never truly “mine” to begin with. But I think a part of me accepted all along that he would always find a way to circumvent any restriction seeking to keep him from me. So who was I really pissed off with? Gabriel for being true to his nature, or me for not anticipating he would be?
I’ll take stupid human females for $400, Alex.
“Rowan, I will always respect your privacy, and I promise never to come here unless you invite me.” He pressed his lips to my fingers.
“Hate to point out the obvious, but that’s a promise you’ve already broken.”
“You weren’t exactly in a position to issue an invite, love, and did you truly expect me to wait until you became conscious again?”
I shook my head. It wasn’t hard to imagine the state he’d been in when he saw me passed out on the floor with an equally semi-comatose Aleksei on top of me. I just hope I hadn’t been smiling. Of course I was glad he had come to me. It was a relief knowing I was able to share the responsibility for Aleksei. Speaking of which . . .
> “Is Aleksei going to be all right?”
“Well, I think he may have to cut down on his workouts for a day or two, but he’ll get through this.”
My sigh was heartfelt. Knowing the big guy was going to pull through gave me the strength to deal with the next difficulty in my path. And it was one I fully intended to take sole responsibility for.
“Gabriel . . . I gave Aleksei my blood.” I paused, waiting for some sort of nuclear fallout. There was nothing. “He fed from me. A lot,” I added in case he didn’t quite grasp my meaning.
“Uh-huh.”
I looked at him. He seemed perfectly calm, serene almost. His body was relaxed, each breath well regulated. Even his erection, though twitching a little impatiently, seemed perfectly at ease with my confession.
It hadn’t sunk in. It couldn’t have, because Gabriel was taking this far better than he ought to. I know how possessive vampires are, especially of those they feed from. And I was bound not to just any vampire, but an Original Vampire. I was his Promise. It was a bonding that went beyond sacrosanct. And yet I had given myself to another vampire. I hadn’t been tricked or coerced or threatened with something horrible if I didn’t comply. I had willingly given my blood to another. A sin worse than adultery—and Gabriel was all right with this?
“Are you sure you understood me?” I asked hesitantly. “You realize what I’m telling you I did?”
“Yes, I know. You gave Aleksei your blood.” He reached up and stroked the side of my neck, skimming his fingers over the multiple puncture holes that were starting to scab over. Obviously, my own loss of blood was slowing the healing process. “You look worried.” No shit, Sherlock! “Did something else happen?”
I swallowed and licked my lips. Apparently volunteering as an all-you-can-eat vampire entrée was no cause for concern. “Uh, I’m pretty sure I told someone to fuck off,” I confessed. “It might have been the Grim Reaper,” I added as an afterthought.
“Ah well, no doubt I’ll hear about it.”
“You speak with . . . ?”
“We’ve crossed paths, but I have to admit the conversation tends to be one-sided.”
Now it was my turn to say, “Uh-huh.”
“Rowan, I’m sure everything will be all right.”
“So you’re not angry with me?”
“For what? Mouthing off to the Specter of Death? Trust me, it’s not the first time she’s been told to fuck off”—he paused and smiled at me—“and I can guarantee it won’t be the last.”
“No!” I snapped irritably. “About giving Aleksei my blood!”
He moved quickly—
Damn! Would I ever get used to that?
—and took me in his arms. His mouth found mine and he kissed me. Slowly at first, as if reacquainting himself with the feel of my lips or checking to see if I tasted different now, and then he became more demanding. His tongue slid over my teeth before pushing its way into my mouth, where it stroked and teased. Pulling back and thrusting forward, it created a delicious friction my lover used to arouse me.
My arms slid around his neck, and my fingers curled in his hair as I pressed myself against him. I wasn’t sure how it happened, but we were both up on our knees, and as one of Gabriel’s hands cradled the back of my head, the other cupped my butt cheek. My breasts pillowed against the hard muscles of his chest, and I felt his cock, erect and massive, pressing against the softness of my belly.
I broke the connection between our mouths and took in a gasping rush of air. I watched his pupils contract and dilate as he stared into my face. “Tell me you’re not angry,” I panted. If I had to rely on body language alone, then Gabriel was answering me in a way that was hard to ignore, but I needed to hear the words. My fingers tightened in his hair. “Tell me!” I insisted.
“Sweetheart—who do you think sent Aleksei to you in the first place?”
Aw shit! Why hadn’t I realized that? Then again, why would it? I loosened my fingers from his hair and pulled my arms from around his neck. A frown tugged at my brows, forming a furrow in my forehead. Gabriel had sent Aleksei to me? How was that possible? The last time I’d seen my lover, he was headed for Death Valley to prevent Aleksei from turning Nikolayev Petrov into a crispy piece of bacon. On the face of it, staking out that piece of shit wasn’t such a bad idea, but only an Original Vampire can take the life of another vampire. Aleksei’s need to play judge, jury, and executioner was not going to go over well, even if his reasons for wanting to commit vampiricide were understandable.
Whether or not Petrov was the big guy’s half brother was still up for speculation in my book, but there was no doubt the bastard had murdered Aleksei’s family. Who cared if it had happened over three hundred years ago? He’d killed them all in front of Aleksei, and it was hardly the sort of thing you forgot. Or forgave. Wanting revenge was not only reasonable, it was highly therapeutic. Of course, I might be a tiny bit biased considering the nasty little fuck had also tried to kill me.
Petrov is a slimy little shit, and by the time Gabriel and I realized Aleksei was walking into a trap, the wheels had already been put in motion. Gabriel had no other choice but to go after Aleksei, although ultimately his concern wasn’t so much with preventing vampire murder as with something quite different.
None of us had reckoned with a certain blue-haired Original Vampire. In addition to Kartel being Petrov’s maker, there was a history between him and Gabriel. Hah! I imagine some sort of history existed between all the Originals simply because of how long they’ve been around, but this was history of the not-so-good kind. Whatever had happened in the past, it was enough to make Gabriel distrust the other Original Vampire—something Kartel’s unexpected visit only intensified.
“So what happened?” My voice was pitched a little higher than normal. “I thought you were going after Kartel?”
“I was, until I realized Aleksei had never left town.”
“How did you know he hadn’t left?” My stomach lurched and I felt nauseous. I knew the moment I saw Aleksei barely holding himself up outside my door, he’d been set up.
Gabriel’s thumb brushed across my lower lip. “He’s the only vampire I’ve ever made.” It was all he needed to say.
A shudder ran through me, and Gabriel pulled me close. The heat from his body felt good as it sent a soothing glow radiating through me. Aleksei might have broken his bond with Anasztaizia, the woman he loved, but he could not do the same with Gabriel. Even if he wanted to.
“It was other vampires that got him, wasn’t it?” It had to be. No one else would be able to get the drop on Aleksei. Gabriel nodded, confirming my suspicions. “But you found him.”
“Yeah.”
“Where was he?”
“In a fighting pit.”
I had only a vague idea what he was talking about, and visions of Conan, Spartacus, and gladiators collided in my head in one massive testosterone-laden free-for-all. “Was it bad?”
His hand began to move in languid strokes down my back. “It could have been a lot worse. I don’t think they expected Aleksei to last as long as he did.”
“They underestimated him,” I murmured, feeling fiercely protective and proud all at the same time.
Gabriel pressed his lips against my temple. “They certainly did.”
I was almost too afraid to ask, but I did anyway. “How many vampires were there?”
He caught one of my curls and wrapped it around his forefinger. “I stopped counting at a hundred.”
“Did you . . . did you kill them all?”
“Of course. I will always protect what is mine.”
I knew Gabriel had killed people. He’s a vampire, for God’s sake, and I was confident, being the efficient predator he was, that he’d taken more than a hundred lives before. Even all at one time. However, the topic of murder and mayhem doesn’t make the best pillow talk, so it’s not something we’ve ever discussed. I don’t think there’s ever a “good” time to talk about such things, but I wanted him to kn
ow he could talk to me about them. And I could tell something had happened that still bothered him. Could it be that killing vampires was more troubling than killing humans?
“Was it difficult for you,” I asked, “because they were vampires?”
He took my face in his hands and looked at me. His eyes, framed by dark sooty lashes, were an electrifying shade of neon-blue. “I have no problem killing vampires if I need to,” he said in a calm, steady voice. “I just hated having to kill the bear.”
“You killed . . . a bear?”
He nodded. “There was no other choice. It had been given something to make it hyper-aggressive. It could not be returned to its natural habitat.”
The fingers of my hand curled around his wrist. “What was the bear supposed to do?”
“Kill Aleksei, I imagine. It’s why he was in the pit.”
“They were making him fight a bear?” Gabriel simply looked down at me, his fingers sweeping gently over my cheek. “Why would they do such a thing?”
He shrugged. “Because then none of them could be blamed for Aleksei’s death.”
“What a bunch of fucking cowards!”
No wonder Aleksei could barely stand. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how he had managed to defend himself against a bear. And I was also furious because an innocent creature had been drugged and turned into a killing machine to achieve something those vampires weren’t brave enough to do themselves. At least Aleksei was vampire enough to go after Petrov, prepared to stake the bastard out in the sun himself, and take the consequences.
The enormity of what the big guy had been through suddenly hit me all at once, and I began to tremble. Gabriel put his arms around me, holding me until it passed. I pressed my lips against his chest as a heat ignited inside me and began to lick its way up my belly. “Gabriel. . .” I murmured, barely recognized the huskiness of my own voice.
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