“Punishment goes by a case-by-case basis, the result of a trial and—”
“Death,” Juliun interrupted, as though the idea bothered him as much as finding he was eating chicken instead of beef. “And it is not creepy.” He sounded offended.
“So, what happens to you now that you have transferred your blood to me?” Simone asked.
“Nothing,” Klaus said, from the low seats on the opposite side of the room. “He’s royalty, girlie.”
Lissanne sighed. “Once we explained the circumstances, most of the Council were willing to overlook the case as long as certain conditions were met.”
“Conditions?” The idea that these conditions could lead to even more danger snapped to the forefront of Simone’s mind. “It’s necessary to drain the blood first, right? And you and your grandfather have never tasted anyone. I mean, you can’t?” she asked Juliun.
“Under mutual collaboration, we’ve formed a pact never to do so to anyone without the ability. Grandfather and I have never fed from each other as the feeding itself is considered a somewhat sexual experience,” Juliun said with wry humour.
Somewhat? Not by what she’d seen on the dance floor. Vaughn was right—Juliun was the prince of understatement. Vampires got off on feeding in every possible way. It was impossible to believe that the two highest ranking vampires in the world couldn’t participate in that particular pleasure. It also spelled out the misery of the rest of her life. She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “What a gift!”
“Maybe you wished you’d never met me, however Simone, you are the first person I have ever tasted directly,” Juliun continued in his tormented, smooth voice. “I have broken a centuries’ old pact with you, love. Small consolation, but it was unavoidable, and I am sorry.”
Her head lifted at his unexpected apology, and she stared at him with uncertainty. In her experience, men never apologised. It must have taken a lot for him to admit that. “What about your mother and father? They must have fed from each other?”
He slowly shook his head, no smile on his hard, exotic face now. “Partners must understand the restrictions. If they do not, the Council is forced to kill them. My mother and grandmother knew the rules and never tried.”
“Kill them?” Simone stared at him in utter disbelief. “I had no idea.” Her voice rose in sympathy. Did that mean Lissanne fed from other vampires or drank from a glass now that Juliun’s father had died? How on earth had she managed with that loss of intimacy?
“I have lost count of the number of rogues who have tried to take our blood. We ensure that they can never use our loved ones.” His grey gaze softened. “You now see why you need to move into Ravenkeep.”
“Not that old chestnut again,” Simone groaned. “Forget it, please. I wouldn’t advise trying to persuade me with chains either. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not responsive to that kind of treatment.”
“How will you protect yourself from the rogues who will hunt you down?” Juliun stared at her with an implacable face.
Her eyes narrowed. “I could have picked you off the moment you stepped through those doors.”
All six bodyguards stiffened and stepped toward her. She laughed and disappeared to sit on another chair, yet none of her body remained solid. She blurred her body so arrows would pass straight through. Then she only solidified her vocal chords. “Too many years of being able to fade to mist has made you complacent,” she said.
Juliun held up a hand to stay the guards.
Vaughn laughed. “She’s got us there. Perched like a freaking bird with that damn gun.”
“I don’t mind bullet wounds,” Klaus said, a smile of pure evil twisting his lips.
“I don’t think you’ll like the morning sun in the desert,” Simone replied, calmly and ever so softly. “I have a crossbow in my possession.”
“Enough,” Juliun said tersely, his eyes glowing. He stood up and paced the room all the while staring at Simone as though trying to crack through her mind. “She gets to keep her gun. Her safety is paramount.”
“It would be a pity to waste the bullets.” The waiter handed her another glass of warm blood, and she smiled her thanks. Juliun was decent host when he didn’t use chains. At least he fed his guests. “I want to know about Tammy. You said you were watching her. Has that changed?”
“No.” He stroked his chin, seemingly lost in thought by the change of subject. “Although, she’s a trap waiting to happen.”
Oh. Her stomach lurched. She didn’t want to think about how vulnerable Tammy would be even with Juliun’s men watching her. But what could Simone do? Who could she trust? If she went to get Tammy in the daytime, they could both burn to dust, and if Simone tried at night, Tammy might not survive without life support. How bad were her injuries?
“Willem says she’s having trouble with the turn? I want to see her. I’ve tried finding her in the hospital. Where is she?”
“Lars was starving. Our doctor has informed me that he’d been poisoned, and the enzymes in his body were shutting down.” Juliun frowned. “He was dying, and he never got the chance to seal the mark which could heal the wound rapidly. He was capable of doing so, but without that seal, the destructive cells transferred into your friend’s body. She has been moved to a place that is not revealed to many.”
“And in plain English?”
“She might die, and if she lives, there’s a chance she won’t be easy to control,” he warned. “You really have no idea. You have the royal blood, whereas she has been bitten by a very sick vampire.”
Simone nodded and shrugged. “So I can learn. I want to bring her back to my apartment.”
“That is not advisable.” His fangs flashed with a smile as he tipped his dark head. He stopped pacing and confronted her like a mountain of a man. “We have hospital facilities at Ravenkeep. There she will receive first class care and attention.”
“I’d rather have her somewhere where I can keep an eye on her,” Simone snapped.
He leaned forward, his large body tensed, looking ready to pounce. “What about food?”
The silken texture of his words made her shiver, but she refused to show how the smooth hypnotic tone affected her and smiled in the face of danger. “I’m alive, aren’t I?”
A muscle flicked angrily at his jaw. He waved a hand at the others in the room. “Leave us.” Which they did immediately.
Simone couldn’t believe the haste at which everyone filed out of the room.
Finally, he turned to her, a determined look in his glowing eyes. “You do not know who you are up against. I want you to seriously think about marrying me.”
Chapter Nineteen
Simone closed her eyes, squeezed them tight, and held them like that for seconds, then opened them again to the sight of his arresting, expectant face. Oh no. He didn’t drop it on her like that. She laughed. The longer she sat there, the more she doubted her hearing. And the harder she laughed. Her stomach hurt, and she started wheezing.
“What? Get married? Did I hear you correctly?”
His lush mouth set in a grim line. “Yes. Stop laughing.”
Shock bound her chest so tight she couldn’t breathe. “Marry you?” she choked out. “That’s a good one.” Her heart became a speeding rollercoaster, reaching crazy peaks, plummeting to the bottom of her stomach, then climbing all the way back up to her throat.
He disintegrated, taking form far too close to her, nearly touching her thighs. “Why are you laughing at me, Simone?”
She withdrew the .44 in a heartbeat, aimed for the concave between his eyes. “You’re a smart guy. You’ll figure it out.”
“And this is your answer?” His words were clipped; his hot glare scorching across her face. He didn’t even glance at the gun, didn’t pull back or look worried. Pissed off, definitely. “A laugh and a gun pointed at my face. After everything.” He seemed to run out of breath. “I suppose I deserve that, but I have never…proposed to another. I have been waiting for you.
”
Her mouth dropped open. Confusion made her lower the gun slightly. “What? Why?”
He closed his eyes and seemed to shut down all expression on his face. “I cannot tell you that now.”
“Why not?”
“Because you wouldn’t like that answer, either.” His smile was wicked and dark. “Will you consider my proposal? No need for an answer now.”
“No. There’s your answer. You know the aggressive tactics aren’t helping your cause so much.”
His jaw clenched, eyes ever so slightly narrowed. “Meaning what?”
She lifted her chin, struggling to hide her bewilderment. “Meaning you’d think that after living so long, you’d learn to recognise when someone doesn’t like you. Your actions so far have not been of someone in love. You have taken what you wanted, changed me and stolen my life. You are the last person on earth I would ever marry.”
He stepped back and flinched as though she hit him, stopped, then took one step forward again and leaned down to her; far too close for comfort, reminiscent of their time when they first met.
His large, capable hands came down and rested solid and sure on her shoulders. His dark hair fell in a curtain around him, gleaming blue-black in the light, contrasting to his glowing eyes. “But now you know of my intentions.” His fangs flashed in the light. The scent of his spicy aftershave surrounded her.
Her mouth parted. Disbelief raged. He wanted her for his wife? He was crazy. After turning her into a vampire and kidnapping her? “You’re crazy. Flat-out, stark raving mad. It’s out of the question.”
His skin stretched tight across his cheekbones, nostrils flaring, every inch of him proud and autocratic. “We will see.”
She inhaled a breath that did nothing to settle her; it was like the heaving breaths when she’d trained too hard and every inch of her body felt like rubber. Her stomach burned. “Let’s not. Listen, I didn’t come here to play silly little games like, ‘I’m going to marry the prince of darkness,’ all right? I want my friend safe.”
He still leaned over her. Why hadn’t she fired the gun? He wasn’t using the mist to blur the edges of his body. In fact, her hand lay on her lap as his fingers drifted, warm and firm to her exposed skin of her collarbone, scooping the pad of his thumb in a butterfly’s kiss between her neck and shoulder. He touched her scar in the lightest caress, and his gaze arrested hers in a sudden yearning so clear and deep she felt shocked to witness it.
His eye colour softened to a light daybreak, a new dawn, beguiling her to proceed and let go of her old life, and she shivered beneath its mesmerising message. He stretched both hands around her waist, pulling her to her feet like a doll, moving so fast, his firm cheek brushed against her face, and she stiffened.
Stunned, she pressed the gun against his ribs. Damn, she told her brain to function.
That spicy smooth aftershave of his wafted over her, plus the hint of blood he’d consumed somehow combined with his personal, masculine musk. A frisson of sensation rushed through every cell of her body, tingling wherever he touched.
He rested his chin into her hair, pushing the red strands with his breath as he uttered, “This is no game, my love. We ride the night together.” His voice accentuated the words, sending quivers down her spine. “You and I.”
Millions of goose bumps spread out across her throat, arms, and she clutched the gun, praying for reality to return and sting her back to life. “I like Lissanne too much to shoot her son, but I wouldn’t push your luck.” Her voice sounded breathy. She was not enjoying this.
Lie.
Looking up at him her heart beat double time.
His eyes were openly amused, and a smile curved his firm lips. “You have so much fire,” he said with reverence. “Plenty to burn away the coldness.”
She struggled against his hold, but he held her with arms that seemed to be made of iron. Then he faded in a wash of black and reappeared in his chair. “Something to look forward to.”
She folded down to the lounge as if someone kicked the back of her knees and couldn’t even think up a decent comeback. His presence overshadowed every male she’d ever met. Why was she even here, dealing with him? Was it for Tammy or because they were both vampires? That instinct to always find a way to survive had dictated so many choices in her life. Her nails dug into her palms, the biting pain a sharp, deliberate reminder of who and what she faced. What she’d come here tonight to discover. She mustn’t lose sight of that, and she willed her traitorous heart to stop pounding.
A fierce expression carved his face. “You now have my protection.” He lifted a blood-filled glass in salute. “Forever.”
A dense vibration in the air pushed out at her. She swallowed and imagined as a prince he never went back on his word. Even if she didn’t want him watching out for her, she would have no choice.
Her heart grew tired of the struggle sometimes, of having no control, no respite. She needed space, not trusting that she wouldn’t give in to him when all she wanted was help with Tammy and figuring out how to survive. Simone choked down the remainder of her blood and rose on trembling legs.
“I need some air,” she said, and followed the path to the writhing, gyrating bodies beneath the strobe lights to the dance floor.
A strange weight settled over her chest. The blood warmed her body from the inside out, and she couldn’t decide whether to wait and set up a time to see Tammy before leaving the club or escape Juliun right now. Safety had an allure all of its own.
She edged the outer perimeter of the dance floor, skirting the predatory vampires who cast glamour over mortals so they wouldn’t run as fangs sank deeply into their skin. The techno-rap mix pumped faster and harder than the humans’ delirious heartbeats.
Danger, the air whispered. Come closer and taste. Tremors of energy washed over her skin. The musky scent of heat and sex blossomed amongst the twisting couples, the throb gathering momentum, thumping out the tremble in her fingers.
Juliun could never participate in the raw energy of feeding from another and neither could she.
It was something she’d always taken for granted, believed without thought. The myth of vampires: that they could drink from a vein. She had to drain the blood. To have such effort linked to feeding herself would be annoying at least. She wanted to put the pieces of Juliun’s family history together in the hopes it could shed some light on her future. Were these rules based on some dark and terrible past? Of course, transference was probably enough of a deterrent that made vampires with the mist follow the rules.
Could he drink from her?
The thought froze her to the spot. Terrified and thrilled her. Would she let him, and was that why he’d offered her marriage, to escape the bonds of the mist?
What kind of life had he led for centuries never drinking from another? She couldn’t imagine such a dire duty and his easy willingness to undertake it. He had no person devoted to him whom he could drink from, no wife or lover that could offer her blood other than by dripping it into a glass.
How sterile.
His will to resist must be paramount, and to pacify his hunger, he never once slipped up, until now.
There was something missing, and she couldn’t figure out what it was because those actions appeared to be in total contrast to the vampire she thought she knew and witnessed—someone who attacked women in the street and kidnapped Simone from the hospital.
But he’d done that for a reason, hadn’t he? He lived with the constant responsibility of hard choices, saving immortals and living with all the blame.
In many ways, he was more trapped than she would ever be.
“Oh Juliun,” she said sadly, then clapped a fist against her lips, but too late, his name filled the air. She hadn’t meant to speak it out loud and hoped he hadn’t heard.
The nape of her neck tingled, and she closed her eyes and straightened in response to her awareness of him. She waited without turning. Once his nearness caused an unbearable tightness to claw down h
er spine, she asked, “Do you miss feeding from a vein like every other vampire?”
“How can I miss what I have never had?”
She forced herself to appear unaffected by the intensity of his aura and inhaled slowly. His spicy, musky scent filled her lungs inadvertently, and she longed to move closer to him, maybe offer a bit of comfort. How did he have the strength to deny his true self? She’d only lived with the mist for days and longed for the lifeblood of another. No doubt he’d been deprived of a vein for centuries.
“Tell the truth. Like you say, we’re in this together now.”
She turned to him and steadied her gaze, seeking honesty. He blinked. Then stilled. His breath wafted across the sensitive skin of her neck, or maybe she was imagining that. She stepped away from him, wanting to stay and ask for his help, but the fear in her heart told her to maintain a clear distance. He was the vampire who’d turned her; he’d utterly changed her life, and she mustn’t forget that.
They were at opposite ends, bound by a gift or curse.
Her thoughts tumbled and twisted against themselves.
“You could drink from me if you wanted to, right? I already have the mist,” she said in a low voice. “You could feed directly from my veins.”
Dead silence.
The atmosphere thickened. Silence lingered and lingered, and wanting an answer to her question, she looked up, but the hard planes of his face quickly smoothed out and formed his customary poker façade.
But she’d seen a flash of his dark profile cast in the nightclub lights—a sight she’d never forget. His square jaw clenched, lips parted, dark brows knotted over clear, deep set eyes that stared straight into hers, his flawless skin whiter than old marble. His cheeks somehow were still slightly hollowed out as though the thought made him exhale all the air in his lungs. His fangs descended, and his throat worked as he swallowed hard.
“I could not do that, Simone.” His words were a little twisted and slurred. He trembled. The wall beneath his right hand crumbled into dust. He didn’t seem to notice. “It would not be enough. I could never let you go if I drank from you.”
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