Master of Ecstasy

by Nina Bangs

  Maybe she should try to soothe Sparkle before she left. If she didn't, heaven only knew what the cat would cook up next. "Look, I'm sorry I lost my temper. It's just that this is sort of a working vacation, and Textron is my supervisor. If he finds out that Darach is sharing my room, he'll go ballistic, and my job is important to me."

  Sparkle cast a dismissive glance over her shoulder. "Forget Textron. I hooked him up with Sandy, the underwear woman. Even as we speak, good old Textron is modeling Sandy's transparent briefs in the privacy of her room."

  Talk about double standards. That no-good, sneaking… "Transparent briefs? On Textron?" She didn't know whether to laugh or gag.

  The glitter in Sparkle's eyes officially signaled that her snit was over. "No kidding. I peeked. What a waste of transparent briefs. Do you remember those little Vienna sausages in cans they used to . .. ? No, I guess you wouldn't." She padded out of the room. "Have to track down my ghosts. They're no-shows again tonight. "

  Relieved, Blythe shut the door. Her relief was shortlived. She still had to get rid of Darach. Sighing, she returned to where he stood studying the beds.

  "Ye may ease your conscience. We willna be sleeping at the same time. While ye're in your bed, I will be… doing things." He offered her his incredible smile that said, Humor me because I'm gorgeous.

  "Right. Doing things." To be honest, he probably didn't know his smile said that. "No."

  His smile faded, to be replaced with his I'm-trying-to-be-reasonable expression. "I can easily protect both of us if ye're in the same room with me."

  "I won't need protecting at all if you're not with me." She smiled at him. "Still no. And if you refuse to move, I'll just get Ganymede to find me another room."

  "Aye, ye might do that." He looked thoughtful. "But there are no other rooms with beds, so yours will have to be moved. 'Tis not an easy thing to move a bed when the stairs are narrow and winding." He glanced at her from beneath lowered lids. "And ye'll have to share your new room with the beasties already living there."

  "Beasties?" This did not sound good.

  "Aye. Mice, insects, and other creatures that make their homes in rooms long unused." He stared up at the hole in the ceiling.

  "Other creatures?" Her imagination supplied vivid pictures of many-legged hairy monsters crawling across her in the night. She shuddered.

  "Aye." The corners of his expressive mouth tipped up.

  "Oh." She swallowed hard.

  "Mayhap ye would be best served by remaining in this room with me. Ye willna have to go far to make me happy." He didn't try to hide the laughter in his voice.

  "Right." Only as far as your bed. She understood Mr. Sexy Vampire perfectly.

  "Ye may not understand me as well as ye think." The laughter was gone from his voice.

  Too late she recognized his touch in her mind. "Okay, we need to get a few things straight if this is going to work." When exactly had she caved? "From this moment on, I want you out of my mind unless I invite you in." And that would be never.

  He nodded. "And in return ye'll not mention making me happy again."

  She thought about that. If he was in the same room with her, she could do a lot of things to make him happy that didn't require words. And he hadn't demanded that she stop trying to touch his emotions. "I can live with that." But could she live with the ever-present temptation of Darach's overpowering sensuality? She'd have to try.

  Darach watched her expressions change. She would be upset if she knew how easily he could read her thoughts without entering her mind. "Ye need have no worry that I'll spend every waking moment trying to seduce ye. I must keep watch for others like Ian who might return."

  Now that she'd accepted his presence, Blythe busied herself lighting several candles she had placed near the fire. He frowned. They had a strange but not unpleasant scent.

  "Why don't you sit down and relax before you go out again." She paused to stare intently at him as she touched the small talisman at her throat. "You are going out again, aren't you? I mean, the night is your thing. You're not going to sit around watching me sleep, are you?"

  "Ye may rest easy. I willna stay the night." He sat down on a stool near the fire. It would not do to become too comfortable while his thoughts drifted to imagining Blythe waiting in his bed. "I need to check the castle grounds to make certain all is safe." The scent from the candles relaxed him, and the temptation to stay grew.

  "Will there be others like Ian?" She paused in the process of taking the top from a small jar she held.

  Darach shrugged. "There should be no more." He drew in a deep breath. Her candles were wondrous. Their scent made him feel… content. "But I've sensed a strangeness since I arrived that has nothing to do with Ganymede. I thought the feeling would leave after I destroyed Ian, but it remains. I dinna know what it means." He had not intended to tell her so much, but the words had simply spilled out.

  He watched her scoop something from the jar, then rub her hands together. She moved behind him. "Don't think of it now. While you're in this room, let the worries go." He felt her push his plaid from his shoulders and move his hair aside. Darach felt too relaxed, too satisfied to ask her what she was doing.

  Then she put her hands on the back of his neck and gently massaged his flesh. Any remaining tension flowed away beneath the soothing heat of her fingers. How many hundreds of years had it been since he'd felt this relaxed, this uncaring of what might happen?

  "Tell me about your wife, Darach." Her voice was low, calming, and she used a tone that almost mesmerized him. "And once you've told me, let it go."

  Strangely, he did want to tell her. Darach had told no one about his marriage. He'd pushed it from his thoughts five hundred years ago and convinced himself it didn't matter. But his sudden surge of emotion at the thought of telling Blythe about Aesa indicated that the memory had waited patiently, ignored but not forgotten.

  Even as he realized what Blythe was doing, Darach could find no reason to stop the telling. It was what he wanted. Was this her power? She did not drag memories from a man, but simply made the remembering something he desired. He would think about this later, because the need to speak of Aesa seemed almost a compulsion.

  "Most of the men in my clan marry others like ourselves. But I fell in love with Aesa. She was human, but she knew what I was and didna seem to mind." It had been so many years ago; he could no longer remember her face. Darach had lied when he'd told Aesa that her face would remain in his heart forever.

  "So you married her. How old was she?" Blythe pushed her fingers through his hair, gently touching his scalp.

  Warmth spread from his head to every part of his body, radiating a feeling of well-being. "Ye must understand that I needed to marry young. Once I changed, I would be unable to father a child, and both of us wanted many bairns." He lost himself in the memory. "I was sixteen and Aesa was eighteen."

  "You were only a child." Blythe seemed uneasy with his age.

  "Ye think of how things are in your time. I was a man at sixteen with a man's responsibilities." He closed his eyes, and Blythe slid the tips of her fingers across his closed lids. The memories flooded back. "We were happy until Aesa grew large with our first child. She became quieter, but still seemed content. I went away for but a short time to secure provisions that would last us through the winter. I didna worry overmuch because her time was still months away, and both of our families would watch over her."

  He shrugged, but still kept his eyes closed. "When I returned, she had fled. She had tricked my best friend, Thrain, into helping her get away. Aesa told him that she wished to visit a friend, and that I knew of her intention and would bring her home when I returned. Thrain blamed himself. 'Twas not his fault, but I was overwrought and said words I should not have said. " We parted with anger between us. He left with a raiding party that night, and I never saw him again. I searched for Aesa for years, but never found her."

  "Why did she leave you?" Blythe slid her palms down his arms and wrapped h
er fingers around his clenched fists.

  Within the silence of the room, the memories swirled like a whirlwind, carrying with them emotional debris that still had the power to wound. How? He had thought no feelings remained from that time.

  "Many years later, long after I had changed and made my home here, Aesa's brother sent word that she had died. Before her death, she contacted her family and admitted that being with child had changed her feelings. She believed that fleeing me would protect her child from what I was." Darach drew in a deep breath before telling the hardest part. "She told them that her flight caused her to lose the child." He exhaled. The rest of the story was easy. "Aesa married another man, who never knew of her marriage to me. She had three children and lived happily until death neared. Guilt drove her to reveal the truth to her brother." He opened his eyes. "I never married again."

  Blythe withdrew her hands as he unclenched his fists, then she moved to stand in front of him. Looking into her eyes, he didn't see the pity he would have hated, only a deep understanding.

  "Did you hate her for what she did?"

  A moment's dark emotion lived in Blythe's eyes, something that made Darach wonder if she was speaking to him or someone in her own past. He shook away the foolish thought. Of course she spoke to him. "I didna hate her, because for many years I knew not what had happened to her. I imagined all kinds of fearful things. When I learned the truth, so many years had passed that the hurt was dulled." He paused. "I felt only regret. For her. For me. For Thrain. And more than all else, I felt regret for the child." He gazed past Blythe into the fire. "I fathered no others."

  He felt it then, the soothing touch that was not an invasion of his mind, but more like the warmth of liquid fire flowing over the frigid memories of those long-ago sorrows. Darach knew he could now remember Aesa, his unborn child, and Thrain, but without fear of pain. It was like a battle scar. A warrior could look at the scar and remember the battle, but no longer feel the wound.

  "Ye're a powerful woman." For the first time, Darach considered the idea that she might also be a dangerous woman. Foes such as Ganymede and Ian attacked him in a straightforward way. He understood that kind of fighting. But Blythe attacked his vulnerable center, his memories. She could find his weaknesses and exploit them if she chose. "But ye promised that ye wouldna speak of making me happy."

  His comment broke whatever spell she wove, because she smiled at him. "Did I say the word 'happy'? I don't remember that word passing my lips. Hey, I keep my promises."

  "Hmmph." What else did a man say to such a woman? He straightened his plaid and rose to leave. He felt no hunger tonight, but he would do well to search the area to make sure no danger lurked. "I will protect this room. None will be able to enter it." He reached the door in three strides. "Ye willna be able to leave until I return at dawn." Darach opened the door.

  "Whoa, big man. What if I have to—"

  "Ye may use the dreaded chamber pot." He smiled at her horrified expression, then turned to leave.

  "Wait. I need to ask you one more thing."

  "So that ye may plunder another of my memories?" He didn't turn to face her.

  She sighed. "Look, I'm only trying to help you."

  "And save your job with Ecstasy." Something about that thought angered him.

  "Yeah, I guess that too." Her voice indicated that she had moved closer. "But this question is just something I want to know. After you found out why Aesa left you, did that change your feelings about who you were?"

  "No." He watched the dying flame in the sconce guarding the top of the stone steps. Ganymede would do well to keep flames burning in all the sconces. The darkness drew evil to itself, and many kinds of evil prowled the night. He knew. "I have known over five hundred years of pleasure with only a few times of sadness. I prefer that to moldering in my grave."

  He could almost feel her shudder. "Right. The moldering part doesn't sound like much fun to me either. But why overdose on the sexual part? I mean, you could collect antiques, write history books, lecture on warfare…" He turned to see her throw her arms wide to indicate the many things he could do besides dwelling on the sensual.

  Darach smiled at her. "Ye still dinna understand. Sex is the greatest pleasure. 'Tis pure. At the moment of orgasm I know no past, no future, only the incredible sensations the body gives. It takes away all sadness, all pain, and replaces them with true ecstasy. I will get no closer to Valhalla on this earth. What else could bring me such pleasure, Blythe?"

  For once, she had no answer. As he left, closing the door behind him, he smiled at the thought that he had had the last word in tonight's battle. He doubted this would happen often.

  * * *

  Chapter Six

  « ^ »

  "Progress report?" Ganymede stood with hands clasped behind his back, viewing the sunset from the castle's battlements.

  "Oh, stop playing the conquering laird with me." Sparkle sat on the jagged wall and glanced at the ground far below. She wondered what incredible sex act her ghosts had been performing when they lost it and took a header straight down. She'd have to ask them.

  "I drove the vampire from his room." She smiled. Was she creative, or what?

  "Great! How—"

  "But there's no progress on the ghost front. When I finally tracked them down last night, they were in the dungeon doing the bondage thing. They got caught up in the moment and forgot about the job. They promised to do better tonight." She cast him a hungry glance. "If you'd change into your blond and gorgeous form, I could chain you naked to the dungeon wall and—"

  "Forget the sex, we may have a serious problem." His gaze was fixed on the narrow stone footbridge that connected the castle's island to the mainland. "I guess we could defend the footbridge without much trouble."

  "Defend?" She twitched her ears forward. "Explain defend."

  Ganymede shifted his gaze to the hills, which were already bathed in early evening shadows beyond the footbridge. "One of the women I hired today said when she passed through the village everyone was in an uproar. Last night four locals were murdered. Throats torn out, blood drained. Ugly stuff. Anyway, since the villagers need someone to blame, and we're the new kids on the block, they've decided it must be someone staying here."

  "The vampire?" Sparkle had her doubts. Slaughtering four humans like that would take a kind of insane feeding frenzy. Darach seemed too much in control for that.

  Ganymede shook his head. "He's too smart to feed this close to his home."

  Sparkle leaped from the wall to stand beside Ganymede. "No big deal. So we have maybe twenty primitives storming the castle with axes and sticks. What harm can they do?" She had more important things to think about. Like all these women Mede had been hiring.

  "It's not that simple. The woman said they're sending for volunteers to join them." He glanced down at Sparkle.

  Sparkle cast him an impatient glance. "So take care of it."

  "That's the point. I can't 'take care of it.' No destroying of human life. Line five, paragraph three, page ten of my goodness-and-light contract. How about you take care of it?" He looked hopeful.

  "Uh-uh. No can do. I handle sexual chaos. I don't do the mass destruction thing." She rubbed her head against his leg. "Why not just send all your guests home? Then you could change form and we could have hot sex."

  "I'd have to return their money." He seemed distracted. "If I block the footbridge, the villagers will probably give up and go home. What do you think?"

  Sparkle sighed her disgust. "Whatever. Now about all these women you've been hiring…"

  "I needed help, but I didn't want to hire anyone from the village. I don't want a bunch of locals asking questions. And these women just happened by, looking for work. What was I supposed to do?" He tried to look righteous.

  "They all have big boobs and hot eyes. Where'd you get them from, Sluts-R-Us? Like no one old and ugly applied?" Okay, hold on to the temper.

  He offered her a sly glance. "Jealous?"

&n
bsp; "Nope." Yes. Time to get back to something really important. "You still haven't explained why I have to be a white cat." Just thinking about white made her mad. She'd looked at her stomach this morning. It looked… round. Butts and boobs should be round. Stomachs should never be round.

  He smiled at her. "You're cute when you're steamed. I like cats. Cats have attitude. I admire that."

  "Good. Problem solved. You can be the cat."

  "Been there, done that. Besides, I have to take a human form so that I can interact with my guests. And white is safe. This is 1785. The worst of the witch hunts are over, but black can still be an iffy color."

  She widened her eyes. "Oh." She cast a glance over her shoulder. "I guess white is okay. I can always accessorize."

  He rubbed his hands together as he turned from the battlements. "See? I thought of everything. Let's go get something to eat."

  "With my belly? I think not." She stalked ahead of him. "This whole thing sucks. I get to be a white fur ball, and you get to be a human. And not even a sexy human. You should've had me pick up a blue ox along with the ghosts."

  "Why?" He narrowed his gaze at her.

  Her temper improved in direct proportion to his growing anger. "You look like Paul Bunyan, so I figured you'd need the ox."

  "Really funny. See me laugh." The air around her vibrated with his bad temper.

  "Oh, and you forgot to ask where I put the vampire. He's staying with Blythe, so you don't have to worry about hooking her up with anyone." She padded more quickly toward the stairs to avoid fallout from exploding reformed cosmic troublemakers.

  "What the… ! Get back here and explain yourself, Starbust. You low-down, conniving—"

  Sparkle didn't hear the rest of his outburst as she leaped down the stairs. She allowed herself a contented purr. She'd really pissed him off if he was stooping to making fun of her name. Making him mad made her happy.

  Blythe hesitated outside her door as she waited for one of Ganymede's new servants to pass on her way up the stairs. The woman would be coming down again quickly when she found she couldn't get in to clean Darach's room. And she wouldn't be stopping at Blythe's door either. Blythe had told Ganymede that she'd take care of her own room. As she watched the woman disappear, Blythe allowed herself a moment to consider Ganymede's hiring process. Every one of the servants looked like she could qualify for the Ms. Galactic Hot-Body title. And there wasn't a servile attitude among them.