“What started your conversation with Sebastian, Winter? It was not all talk of lust, I am sure.”
She peered into Nial’s eyes, trying to guess his thoughts, which her talent would not reveal to her. Then she thought back to the conversation with Sebastian. “No,” she admitted. “He started it. He asked me to…” She dropped her gaze. “He asked me to stop breaking his heart.”
Nial picked up her hand and kissed the back of it, then, to her surprised, turned it over and kissed her palm. “Tell Sebastian about your fantasies,” Nial said softly. “I’ve learned, these last days, that honesty can give you such unexpected bounty, Winter. Tell him.”
Chapter Fourteen
IT WAS NINE that night before the limousine dropped them in front of Nial’s building in mid-town Manhattan. The doorman jumped to grab bags, then stepped back with his gloved hands to his cheeks, his eyes wide. He was a tall man, almost as tall as Sebastian, but with a pot belly that seemed to extend for a good three feet in front of him. It disguised the fact that his shoulders were just as wide under the formal doorman coat.
“Mr. Sebastian, sir!”
“Hello, Frederick,” Sebastian acknowledged. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Nearly four years!” Frederick declared. He stepped in front of Nial, who was digging in his jacket pocket. “Now don’t you worry about the driver, Mr. Nathanial. I’ll take care of that. You just go up and I’ll take care of everything. You should know better.” He actually clicked his tongue as he dug into his jacket for money to pay the driver.
Nial smiled. “It’s good to be home, Frederick. He clapped him on the shoulder. “This is Winter. Get used to seeing her around, Frederick. She’s my very special guest, too.”
“Ms. Winter,” Frederick acknowledged, managing to doff an invisible cap at her, plus pay the driver at the same time and not look like he was juggling anything.
Nial led her into the building. “Don’t let Frederick fool you. He has a black belt in about three different sorts of martial arts and he’s a former Colonel in the Army Rangers. He seems to know everything that goes on in this building and anything that might affect the operation of the building, and he never forgets a face. He’s also superb at minding his own business. Very non-judgmental. We’ve doubled his pay three times in the last ten years. We have no intention of losing him.”
“I wouldn’t want to lose him, either,” Winter admitted. “Although now I know about him, I might try to steal him.”
“You can’t afford him,” Sebastian said as they stepped into the elevator. “I know what they pay him.”
Nial slid a card into a security slot and hit the “P”.
The penthouse. Of course.
There were fourteen floors to the building and Nial’s apartment was on the top floor. It would have a nice view, from that height. They were only a block from the park, here.
The elevator doors opened and a light came on, and Winter did a quick mental readjustment, for the entire floor was Nial’s apartment. A studio apartment, with big picture windows across the entire wall on the east side giving a night time view of Central Park and Fifth Avenue on the far side, crawling with late evening traffic.
“Nice view,” she said dryly.
“View’s better on the top floor,” Sebastian told her, pointing upwards.
She glanced to her right and saw the wrought iron spiral staircase she should have noticed right away.
The elevator chimed softly.
“Frederick with the luggage,” Sebastian warned.
She moved away from the doors, further into the room.
Nial had already crossed over to the big kitchen area, where mail had been placed on the breakfast bar and was flipping through it quickly.
Sebastian turned on a lamp next to a leather armchair and fell into the chair.
The elevator doors opened and Frederick quickly and neatly piled their luggage on the floor in front of the elevator. “Have a good evening sirs, Ms.” He nodded and disappeared.
Winter cleared her throat. “Okay, we’re alone. You’ve got us to New York at all possible speed. This is presumably a bug-free environment. I think you’ve run out of every prevarication and excuse possible, Nial. Now you get to tell us the details of the job you want us to do.”
Nial looked up from sorting his mail. “It would be easier to show you.”
Sebastian let his head fall back on the chair. “Jesus wept.”
Winter put her hands on her hips. “Now,” she said flatly.
“If you’d like,” Nial agreed. “But you might like to get changed into something dark and anonymous. We’ll be climbing rooftops to do it.”
* * * * *
“You’re fucking joking, right?” Sebastian said, rolling onto one side and looking at Nial.
Nial just shook his head. “I told you I needed the best.”
“The penultimate floor of the Flatiron building,” Winter said tiredly. “If you discount the Empire State Building, it’s probably the most exposed and most looked-at building in New York City.”
They all sat or lay on the roof of the building across the road from the Flatiron building. It had a three foot high parapet wall that screened them and allowed them to observe the building anonymously. They had scaled the building from the rear, unseen by anyone on Fifth Avenue.
“It’s also one of the most secure buildings since 9-11,” Nial added, “Because it’s considered a tourist attraction and a landmark. And of course, security on the second highest floor is even tighter, because the vault is there. The vault I need you to crack.”
“First time I heard there was a vault there at all,” Sebastian muttered, his head on his arm.
“It’s not so much a vault, as a room with a safe,” Nial replied.
“What sort of safe?” Winter asked.
“Don’t discuss specifics,” Sebastian told her. “Start talking specifics and you’re sucked in.”
“We’re already sucked in,” she reminded him. “We’ve agreed to this, Sebastian.”
“Yeah, to a feasible job. Not Mission-Fucking-Impossible.”
“I’ll be with you,” Nial said, “so you’ll have a third man to use. That’ll help with the odds.”
“No way!” Sebastian exploded to his feet.
“Get down!” Winter hissed.
Nial grabbed Sebastian’s jacket and yanked him down. Hard. Sebastian grunted as Nial sat on him.
“Stay down, or I’ll make sure you stay down. Got it?”
Sebastian nodded.
“Do you have any objections to my being part of the operation that are professional in nature, or not?”
Sebastian considered for a second, then scowled. “No,” he growled.
Nial patted his cheek. “I’m glad we got that settled nicely then.” He rolled off him and sat back against the roof parapet next to Winter again. “They have an Ilco 673 safe.”
Winter sighed. “Do you know if it’s welded into place?”
“You’re not going to move it anyway,” Sebastian pointed out, sitting up. “One of those things weighs over five hundred pounds and there’s three of us. Even with Nial’s strength, we’re not moving it.”
“We can’t defeat the lock unless we have twelve hours. Thermic lance?” Winter suggested.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Sebastian said, with a patient tone. “You don’t have to pretend you don’t have any talent now, Winter. Can’t you just get a guard to unlock the safe?”
“Guards generally don’t know how to open safes,” Winter replied. “If I wanted to do that, we’d have to go in during the day and have an employee with security privileges do it.”
Nial straightened up. “Why not?”
Winter was horrified. “It would be a security nightmare is why not! All those civilians around…if a single guard drew a gun, they’d all be potential targets, Nial!”
He shook his head. “I mean, why not use an employee with privileges? Have you ever known an ambi
tious lawyer who clocked off at five? There’s got to be at least one of them in this bunch who is looking at this congressional hearing as his meal ticket for life. He’ll be burning the midnight oil to make a huge impression on whoever will do it for him. He’s probably there now.”
They stared at him for a minute, then almost in unison, they all turned to lean against the parapet and stare at the windows of the second last floor of the Flatiron building.
“There’s at least a dozen lights still on,” Winter said.
“Some of them will be for security,” Sebastian pointed out.
“Some of them are office lights, too.” Nial looked at his watch. “It’s a quarter past ten. It’s a good bet that whoever is still here is dedicated or ambitious. We plot which offices are still occupied tonight, find out who they belong to tomorrow, and which one of them has privileges.”
“We can watch each night to see who is a regular late nighter, until the night we hit. It doesn’t matter which one we use, so long as it’s one with privileges.”
Nial sat back on the roof, his back to the parapet. “If we’re going to rely on you, Winter, and there’s no delicate timing and co-ordination of teams, we can always call off the job at the last minute if our guy isn’t there. Wait for the next night. We’ve got two weeks. No, sorry, ten nights, now.”
“The difficult part is getting into the building, then,” Sebastian pointed out.
Winter shrugged. “If we’re opening the safe and not breaking it, it shouldn’t be too hard. No thermic lance gear and mounds of equipment. Soft shoe in and out. Barely need weapons.”
Sebastian nodded.
“Nial?” Winter prompted.
He stirred from deep within his own thoughts. “We should go down to the street and walk Broadway and Twenty-Second, see what lights are on along those sides.”
“Did you hear anything I just said?” Winter asked.
“About the thermic lance? Yes.” He got to his feet, staying crouched over and moved toward the back of the building where the fire escape was, a black shadow moving almost silently.
But Winter knew that for the first time since they had agreed to be honest, Nial had just told her a direct, cold lie. He hadn’t heard anything. Not really. He had been chasing his own thoughts and they hadn’t been happy ones.
* * * * *
“This is my room,” Nial said, turning on the light. The room was on the east side of the second floor and took in the promised spectacular view of Central Park, with floor to ceiling windows, hardwood floors and a bed big enough for five covered in some luxurious fabric that glowed in the soft light and picked up the colors in the rug at the foot of the bed.
“You would honor me, if you used it while you stayed here. Of course, I don’t sleep here.” He smiled. “So your sleep would be as undisturbed as I chose it to be.”
Winter narrowed her eyes. “I get cranky with anything less than seven hours of solid sleep,” she warned.
“I’ve seen her go for three days on four hours sleep. She’s conning you,” Sebastian said, behind them. “Can I use this room, Nial?” He pointed to the door opposite Nial’s.
“Of course,” Nial replied.
“That was an emergency, during a job,” Winter said, in defense. “And I slept for nearly a week afterward.”
“True,” Sebastian agreed. “It was like trying to move a log. Dead to the world.” He tossed his bags into the room and she heard them land on the hardwood floor and winced.
Nial moved into the bedroom and placed her luggage on the bed. “Help yourself to anything,” he told her, stepping past her where she stood in the doorway. “Get your seven hours.” He kissed her, taking his time with it, his hand sliding over the thick braid of her hair. Her body stirred and she sighed into his mouth.
“Enough. I just wanted to say goodnight,” he murmured against her lips.
“It is,” she whispered, her hands clenched in his sweater.
His smile reached his eyes. Warmth glowed in them. “I’ll wake you just after six,” he said and touched her lips one more time. He stepped into the corridor. “Goodnight, Sebastian.”
Winter turned around to check, as Nial moved down the corridor and disappeared down the spiral stairs.
Sebastian stood in the doorway of his room, a hand on the frame as he leaned. He had watched everything. There was a deep scowl on his face.
Winter drew in a breath, recovering. “You’re still here,” she told Sebastian.
“Yes. I am still here,” he agreed and straightened up.
“Sebastian…!” She held out her hand to stop him from shutting the door.
He lifted a brow.
She took another deep breath for courage and glanced once more at the empty stairs. “Has Nial…has he suggested to you that you tell me anything strange?”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. He moved into the corridor. “Strange how exactly?”
“Personal or intimate.”
His jaw hardened and he shoved his hands in his pockets. “Like telling me, perhaps, that you really do fantasize about me?”
Her mouth dropped open, so deep was her shock. Then she realized how he knew and her humiliation was complete. “You heard,” she said. “You heard it all.” She covered her face. “Wonderful,” she drawled, using Sebastian’s clipped accent.
Sebastian pressed her up against the wall, suddenly, with more strength than humanly possible. His hips pinned her and his hands spread hers along the wall, making it impossible for her to cover her face.
“He’s controlling you, Winter. Both of us. You can see it and still you let him do it! Why?”
“He means well,” she whispered, her heart thundering. Sebastian pressed up against her was too much for her to take. It was too many fantasies, too many erotic dreams come to life. “Sebastian…” Her voice shook.
“Do you know why he kisses and caresses you in front of me, Winter? Do you know why he did what he did on the plane when he knew very well that I would hear it?” Sebastian’s voice was low, hoarse with some emotion she couldn’t name. But it may as well have been erotic need for all the difference it made. Her body was melting in response. He was hot against her. Hard. Male, strong and utterly dominant.
God, she wanted him in her so badly!
“Why?” she whispered. “Why does he do it?”
Sebastian’s mouth dipped down close to the flesh over her throat. “Because he knows I like it, Winter. He knows I like watching you two together, your hands on each other. I made the mistake of admitting that much to him and now he drives me mad with it.” He lifted his head to gaze into her eyes. “That’s the sort of perversion you’ve let into your life,” he growled. “It’s not all roses and pretty romance, Winter. I have a dark side. So does Nial.”
Winter thought she was about to go up in flames. “I have an edge, too, Bastian.” Her voice was hoarse.
He drew in a breath at her use of Nial’s pet name. “Surprise me, if you can,” he said.
“My most powerful fantasy, the one that makes me come quickest and strongest, Sebastian…” She had to pause to draw a breath. “It’s not you.”
His mouth hovered over her collarbone. So close she could feel his hot breath. Then he forced himself away. “Nial,” he said flatly.
“No.” She drew another quick breath. “It’s you and Nial together. Fucking each other.”
Sebastian sucked in a short hard breath. He looked toward the ceiling as if he was reaching for inspiration. His hands tightened on hers.
Then he groaned and dropped his mouth onto hers and kissed her, his body pressing hers hard against the wall. He kept her hands pinned and spread, but his kiss was an erotic assault that melted every defense she had. Winter passively accepted it, opening herself up to Sebastian’s passion willingly, unable to do anything else.
She lost herself in the kiss. It was the culmination of two years of wanting, a year of longing and loss, and now these few days of mixed-up and tortured feelings. She pour
ed her heart into it and wasn’t at all confused by whose lips were upon hers now. It was quite clear and wonderful and every bit as good as Nial’s kisses were.
The kiss ended with Sebastian’s lips resting against hers. They were both breathing far too fast. Slowly, Winter dared to open her eyes.
Sebastian drew back enough to look into her eyes. One hand curled into a fist and pummeled the wall silently and softly next to her head. “Damn it, Winter. You won’t like it where I might take you. Where Nial will take you.”
“How can I know until I get there?”
“Because you’re human with a talent for healing. For good. Vampires aren’t good, Winter. They’re dark, angry creatures with no souls, who wander time and watch mortals come and go and history pass them by, while they linger on and become wretched shadows of themselves. They’re the damned, Winter, and Nial is one of the oldest of them. And you’re in his bed.”
She shivered.
Sebastian closed his eyes. “Leave him, Winter.”
“What?” she breathed, stunned.
He opened his eyes again and she gasped when she saw the tears in them. “Leave us both,” he said. “Run to some corner of the planet neither of us will ever find. Give me a mail drop and I’ll make sure you get your blood supply every month. I promise. And every three months or so we’ll meet and I’ll spend the night in the same room with you so I don’t keel over for lack of your pheromones. But leave us, Winter. Stay away from us. Keep your good life while you still can. I know what Nial is like. He’s addictive. It took me nearly fifty years to cut the cord and now I think he’s reeling me back in. He’s a thousand years old. It’s too much to fight.”
“Nearly fifteen hundred years old,” she said. “He was born in five hundred and fifty-nine, in northern Italy.”
Sebastian frowned. “He told you that?” He seemed stunned.
She nodded.
“Leave, Winter. You’re already getting in way too deep.”
“I can’t leave. It’s already too late,” she said. “I’m falling in love with him.”
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