And found a dark, powerful presence hovering foremost in the vampire’s thoughts. Behind that, Savitri.
They were looking for Savi?
The weakling struggled; in Colin’s moment of shock and anger, the vampire managed to rip away and throw his shields up. The Navigator accelerated out of sight a moment later.
He tossed a glance at Savi; she was chatting with Geetha, oblivious to the exchange that had just taken place. Good. He drew in a deep breath. Her psychic scent remained the same. Sweet, a hint of arousal.
Very good. He’d take care of this, and she wouldn’t have to fear anything. Nothing should mar their first night together. Just once, it would go right between them.
Denim pulled tight across his groin as he reached into his pocket for his phone. He was no longer achingly erect, but her fragrance left him half-hard, as if ready to leap to attention for her. Simple physical lust.
He rather liked the sensation.
Castleford answered with a succinct “Yes, Colin?” and waited.
Colin raised his face toward the heavens in exasperation. The barbaric medieval knight, Castleford never observed the niceties of polite conversation. “I need Sir Pup to escort Auntie home this evening and watch over her home until dawn.”
If the vampires had any notion of trying to get to Savi through her grandmother, the hellhound would quickly dissuade them.
Castleford’s voice sharpened. “What’s happened?”
There were benefits to his bluntness, Colin decided as he relayed the psychic exchange and the presence of the first pair that had followed them. It meant that he wasted no time. “It’s possible they are curious about her, as there have been rumors that she is my consort,” he concluded. “And I’m not certain if there were two vehicles, or if they traded observation duties. I have the plate number of the later one.”
“But not the first?”
Colin stifled his sigh. “They are stalking me,” he said. “I’d not intended to return the interest.” Though the interest he’d sensed from these had a different flavor—darker, resentful. And Colin had not been the powerful figure foremost in their minds.
“Did Savi see the first car?”
Castleford’s question prevented him from pursuing the disturbing direction his thoughts were taking. Remembering how she’d turned around to test her little gadget, Colin said, “Yes, but only for a moment.”
“Ask her.”
Colin’s mouth set in a thin line; he didn’t want to alert her to their concern on only the slim chance that she’d caught a number or two from the plate. If she thought Auntie was in danger, she wouldn’t leave with him that evening. But Castleford’s tone was implacable—if Colin refused to ask her, the other man would likely call the restaurant and speak to her directly.
He caught Savi’s attention, and felt her curiosity as she slid off her chair. Ungainly in the gym, here she moved with graceful ease. Her eyes were bright as she approached him, her smile playful.
He didn’t want to see it fade. He held his hand over the mouthpiece as he said, “Do you recall anything particular about the Navigator that followed us?”
A tiny crease appeared between her brows. She rocked back and forth on her heels as she studied him. “Particular, how?”
“Did your device record a picture of it?”
“No, but that would be an interesting feature to add. Particular, how?” she repeated. “What are you looking for?”
“Do you remember any identifying marks? The plate number?” The question was sharp; he hoped to dissuade her from digging deeper. If she asked him why, quirked one of those eyebrows, he could hardly resist her.
Her shields rose, and her expression drained of emotion. Her tone flattened. “Yes. Is that Hugh?” She nodded toward the phone. “I’ll talk to him.”
Not bloody likely. Already she’d withdrawn; he wouldn’t risk Castleford doing more damage. “I’ll ring you back,” Colin said and snapped the phone closed before the other man could respond. “Tell me.”
“Fine.” She touched her fingertips against her forehead, closing her eyes. She looked through him when she opened them again, and her hand fell to her side. “The license is four-A-V-X-seven-eight-five, California plates. Black Lincoln Navigator. Chrome grill. No dings or flaws that I can see. The passenger is blond white male, early forties. Too dark and far away to see eye color. Hair length, short. Gray blazer, blue tie, white shirt. Driver has brown hair, mullet, thirties, white male. Black or navy jacket, red tie, white shirt.” She blinked and focused on him again. “That’s a sixty-thousand-dollar SUV. It shouldn’t be difficult to track him down even if the name on the registration is bogus. That kind of money stands out in a community where a vampire’s lucky to hold a job at a twenty-four-hour convenience store.”
He couldn’t answer. Astonished, he stared up at her. Demons had complete recall, but they’d been angels once, their minds different from humans’ and halflings’. And in two centuries, though he’d heard of such, he’d never met a human with the ability. Nor any Guardians or vampires; transformation drastically improved memory, but couldn’t make it perfect.
If it did, Colin wouldn’t have possessed a gallery of self-portraits.
In sudden realization, he drew in a sharp breath; she would never forget his face. Never let him fade into a dream.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Her lips firmed, her hands clenched. “It makes me feel like a monkey. ‘Savi, what a neat trick. Do it again. Tell me what you had for lunch on November third, 1989.’”
Bitterness filled her voice; little wonder, if that was the type of response she usually got. What a fucking ridiculous question. “My sweet Savitri, I’m simply astounded by the revelation that I’m being chased by a vampire sporting the horror of a mullet.” The same manner of hairstyle worn by the partner of the female Colin had slain. Bloody hell.
The tightness around her mouth eased. “Do you remember it all?”
Colin belatedly recalled the phone in his hand. Castleford probably grew impatient. “Yes. Four-A-V-X-seven-eight-five?” Different vehicles.
“Yes. Tell him I’ll do a search on it tomorrow. Unless you need the info tonight?”
He shook his head, forced himself to speak evenly. “It’ll wait.” As long as Auntie was safe, the rest could be pursued after he’d had Savi, and bound her to him with pleasure.
Even more important that he did so now.
“You’ve rebuilt your shields. Have you reconsidered your decision to leave with me?”
“No.” Her dark gaze searched his for a moment, and the uncertainty there prevented his relief from overwhelming him. “I wasn’t trying to be nosy when I asked you why you wanted me to look. I have to focus on a few details or there’s too much to see. You wouldn’t want to be in my head when I’m narrowing down to that point—and the strongest emotion I use as my connection to the memory lingers for a few minutes. That’s why I’m blocking now; I’ll let them down again when it goes away.”
His brows rose, and amusement curled his lips. “You can let them down now. There’s nothing in you that can shock me, my sweet Savitri. There’s very little I haven’t experienced.”
“I know. I imagine you know what this feels like all too well.” She wrapped her arms around her middle; her fingers were trembling. How long had they been so? He’d only been attending to her facial expressions.
His throat closed with sudden dread. His teeth clenched together in denial, but he knew what she’d say next.
“My memory in the car centers around you. To get there, it’s like walking along the threads of a web, from one memory of you to another.” She released a shaky breath. “And my strongest link to you is what you gave to me in Caelum.”
Terror. Despair. His chest constricted; a painful, leaden weight settled in his gut.
She’d never forget that, either.
She’d apparently picked up a dramatic flair from Lilith, but what she really needed to learn was when to stop.
<
br /> At the front counter, Savi bit her lip and cast another glance at Colin. He stared unblinkingly out the window, his jaw set. He’d only looked up once, just after she’d lowered her shields.
He’d turned to her with a disbelieving arch of his brow, and then resumed his brooding.
“You’re acting just like Hugh,” she said softly.
His head jerked around, and his offended stare pinned her to her seat. For two men who had vows of protection and loyalty between them, there also ran a mutual antagonism. Entertaining at times, and useful.
Her eyes narrowed. “It’s true. He used to mope around, ‘Woe is me! I’ve done something terrible to the woman I want to screw!’ It’s stupid.”
“Are you talking to yourself, naatin?”
Savi’s mouth snapped closed, and she flushed. Colin turned to look out the window again, but his hand came up to cover his lips.
Nani’s exacting gaze traveled over the front counter, and she straightened and arranged items to her satisfaction.
“I was just thinking that Mr. Ames-Beaumont has waited long enough to take me home. It’s all closed here up front.” Savi waved toward the dining room, the chairs she’d turned upside down on the tabletops, the swept floors.
Her grandmother’s lips pursed, but she nodded. “You shouldn’t take advantage of him this way, Savitri. I would have driven you home.”
“It’s out of your way. He’s going to see Lilith and Hugh anyway, and I thought I’d find out if he knows of anyone suitable at Ramsdell Pharmaceuticals. There should be lots of doctors and researchers.” Her cheeks were hot; thankfully Nani was still checking to make certain everything was in its place.
It wasn’t the first time she’d lied to her grandmother about her activities—and it was better Nani didn’t know—but it was the first time someone had witnessed her doing it.
How humiliating that Colin would see that she had to explain her decisions and gain approval. He surely couldn’t know that according to Nani and her friends, no matter a woman’s age, she wouldn’t be considered responsible or her decisions given any credence until she was married and had produced a few children. Or grandchildren.
And Savi’s continuing fascination with things Nani considered childish—video games, manga and anime, electronics—certainly hadn’t helped any. Nor had her ever-changing interests.
A woman was steady, dependable. Savi was not.
Nani put her hands on her hips. “You didn’t feed him anything, naatin. If he’s to help find you a husband, you could at least have given him something to eat.”
Savi didn’t dare glance his way for fear she’d begin giggling uncontrollably. “I’ll make sure he eats after we leave.”
Nani waggled her head from side to side in assent and walked toward Colin’s table. Savi left him to defend himself, slipping into the office to collect her coat and bag before returning to the front.
She stopped, and the swinging door bumped into the back of her shoulder. Colin danced around the tables with Nani in his arms, and he sang along with the Bollywood tune playing lightly through the speakers. Her sash trailed behind her, a brilliant flash of magenta.
Nani’s face was suffused with delight, though she obviously tried to suppress it. Reluctant, breathless laughter punctuated her protest. “No, beta—you will make an old woman lose all sense.”
Colin winked at Savi over Nani’s head, and then twirled. He moved effortlessly, gracefully; it was pure pleasure just to watch him. “Only if you cease calling yourself old; it makes me feel an ancient. Compared to me, you are but a blushing maiden.” He began singing again.
Savi leaned against the doorjamb, her knees weak, her heart pounding.
They danced past the kitchen door as the song came to an end. Colin paused, bent, and gently dipped Nani back over his arm. He dropped a loud kiss to her flushed cheek.
“Beta! You must stop this silliness!”
Colin unrepentantly pressed his lips to her other cheek. Then with a flourish, he set her back on her feet. “Do you think me a wicked scoundrel, Auntie?”
Nani dipped her chin as if to hide her enjoyment, and kept her hands busy rearranging her clothes, her hair. “Yes,” she finally said.
“Savitri likes me, even if I am a scoundrel.” Colin’s eyes gleamed as he turned and met Savi’s gaze. “But only because I’ll give her a ride.”
“It is very kind of you to do so,” Nani said.
Savi choked and started toward the exit before she burst into laughter. “We should go. Bye, Nani!” The bell over the door rang as she slipped through. She leaned back against the plate-glass window as she waited for Colin to follow; he was probably more polite in his good-byes than she’d been.
He strolled out a moment later, his hands tucked into his pockets, his grin wide. His golden hair had been mussed by the dance, or he’d run his hands through it, but it still managed to look perfectly, artistically unkempt.
“You’re terrible,” she said. Her breath puffed in the cold air.
“And what of you, teasing me? ‘I’ll make sure he eats after we leave, Nani,’” he mimicked. Despite his amused tone, his gaze sizzled through her, lithium and water. He took her hand in his. “Come along, sweet. I’m hungry.”
Oh, god, she was too. Awareness burned from their linked hands to her body. Her nipples were sensitive and aching beneath her shirt, and desire pulsed low and heavy and wet. His stride lengthened as he turned down the alley beside the salon, pulling her through to the back lot. The slap of her flip-flops against her soles seemed incredibly loud in the darkness.
The streetlight glinted against his watch, and she looked down, catching her breath. His shirt cuff edged high on his wrist, exposing its lean, strong lines. He led her across an intersection, and the tendon in his inner wrist flexed; it should have looked soft, not powerful.
“How much farther?” She wasn’t going to last more than a second when he finally touched her.
He threw her a heavy-lidded glance over his shoulder and led her into another narrow alley, cutting between the back of an apartment complex and the side of a convenience store. “To my car? Or my bed?”
Just the word from his lips made her crave smooth sheets and naked skin. But that could be for later, as could leisure. “Do we need a bed the first time?”
His steps faltered. “No.”
His mouth muffled her cry of surprise; he’d pressed her up against the shop’s cold stucco wall before she’d registered his movement. His tongue dipped between her lips as he lifted her and wedged his hips into the tight cradle of her thighs.
Oh god. Too much denim, too many clothes keeping her from that rigid, thick length. She rocked against him desperately and dropped her shields, hoping to urge him faster.
A shudder wracked his body, reverberated through hers. His lips closed over her tongue, and he began sucking on it with slow, excruciating tenderness.
“In me,” she gasped when he stiffened against her, raised his lips from hers. He’d come just from her kiss before—and a bit of blood. She wanted to go over with him this time.
“Wait, Savi…wait.” He was breathing hard, his chest pushing against her breasts with the rough rhythm of it. “I’m—” He broke off and shook his head, as if to clear it.
She tugged on his shoulders, tried to pull his mouth to hers again. “The bloodlust? Don’t stop because of that…it’s kind of the point tonight, isn’t it?”
He inhaled deeply, turned his head to look down the alley. The tension in his body heightened.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“Wyrmwolf,” he said quietly, but he sounded uncertain. After a frozen moment, he relaxed and glanced down at her. “I don’t sense it now. Likely a false association with the taste of you—from the night at Polidori’s.”
“You can taste me?” She stared up at him; shadows hid most of his expression, but with his enhanced vision he would not mistake the arousal on hers. “When you said that before…I didn’t realize yo
u meant it literally.”
“I did.”
“Just my mouth? Or everything?”
His lids lowered. “That’s what I intend to discover, my sweet Savitri.” He bent his head, and she instinctively arched her neck toward him as his tongue ran up the length of her throat. Her core seemed to melt, hot as liquid copper. “Yes,” he breathed as he reached her jaw. “Your skin, a light flavor. Your lips, like sweet nectar.” His hands pulled her hips tightly against him, and her inner muscles fluttered and grasped for fulfillment—but she remained empty. So empty. “What shall we find here, I wonder? I may decide to drink from you in every possible way when I taste you here.”
She should have been frightened or disgusted, she realized dimly. But the thought of his fangs piercing her so intimately pushed her beyond reason—as did the knowledge that she was the only one he could taste. Two, three days from now, when he had another…she would not give him what Savi had.
And she should have been ashamed of the depth of her triumph. It was impossible to hide it from him; her emotions were wide open for him to read.
He laughed softly and nipped at her bottom lip. “It’s not so easy, is it? But I’ll not think you an ass for it.”
Chagrined, she raised her shields. Better to keep them up until she controlled her stupid—
His head snapped back, his eyes wide. His skin drew taut over his cheekbones.
“How quickly can you run now, Savi?”
CHAPTER 11
The holiday in Brighton should be an amusing diversion; I may decide to bring back to Beaumont Court an ocean landscape, and depict myself as the beautiful hapless victim of a siren, bashed upon the rocks. By the by, P——has requested I transform him. I think I shall do it; aside from the ridiculous story he published, I have little reason to refuse.
—Colin to Ramsdell, 1821
Colin’s softly voiced question frightened her more than the deep growl echoing down the alleyway. She unwrapped her legs from around his hips, set her feet on the ground. Remembering the speed with which he’d moved at Polidori’s, she said, “Not fast enough.”
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