02 Blood Roses - Blackthorn

by Lindsay J. Pryor

  And if Caleb did know, he was playing a very cruel game indeed.

  No. She had to tell herself it was just her paranoia. She needed to believe it was just her paranoia.

  ‘I told you; it’s a symbol for someone of the Higher Order bloodline, and it offers them protection,’ she said. ‘As for prophecies, the book is full of them. That’s all I can tell you.’

  He watched her for a moment, studying her eyes pensively. She stared hesitantly back, anxious that her eyes would betray so much to one who seemed to be able to read her every thought.

  ‘Why’s it so important to you?’ she asked.

  ‘Why are you so reticent to disclose anything if it doesn’t mean anything?’

  ‘I took an oath never to tell the secrets of that book to anyone, let alone a vampire.’

  ‘And that’s just it, isn’t it, Leila – your dedication to your cause?’

  Unease wrenched at her stomach. ‘My only cause is, and has only ever been, to get me and Alisha out of here alive.’

  ‘So you keep saying.’

  His gaze locked on hers, but only for a moment longer before he closed the book and pushed it aside. She expected him to stand, but he just reclined more in his chair, his foot still on the rung of hers, his silence escalating her panic.

  ‘You’ve seen that symbol somewhere, haven’t you?’ she said.

  He ran his thumb lightly along his lower lip as his gaze didn’t leave hers.

  ‘Or why else would you be so interested in it? Or is it more the case of the wearer you’re interested in?’ she added.

  He almost smiled.

  The tightness in her chest was excruciating. She couldn’t help but ask him. ‘Where were you while I was asleep?’

  ‘You’re not going to get all possessive of me now, are you, Leila?’

  ‘I asked you a question.’

  ‘And I asked you one, but I guess we both have something we want to hold back on.’

  ‘I’m not stupid, Caleb. That symbol is reserved for the Higher Order and there’s only one Higher Order vampire you get up close and personal with, from what I understand.’

  ‘Is that why you’re so reticent?’ He reached for her wine glass and took a mouthful. ‘I know her wanting you has something to do with that symbol. What I want you to tell me is the link.’ He looked back at her. ‘Why it’s making you panic.’

  ‘Anything to do with her makes me uneasy.’

  ‘Clearly.’ He paused. ‘But she doesn’t have the hold over me you think she does.’

  ‘No?’

  ‘No.’

  His steady gaze did little to abate her tension, despite the seeming sincerity in his eyes. Silence lingered as that gaze didn’t falter, as he waited for her to speak.

  But she had nothing to say. Nothing she could say. Not until he revealed more of what he knew.

  ‘But I understand why you’re worried,’ he said. ‘Why you’re so reluctant. Hell, if I was the key to a pending vampire uprising, I wouldn’t want to be talking about it either.’

  Horror gripped her and rendered her speechless as his eyes didn’t flinch from hers. Suspect though she did, hearing it slip from his lips made it all too real. The walls pulsated, the darkness seeming to encroach even further physically and mentally as words continued to fail her.

  ‘You’re not going to deny it then? That the symbol is the Armun. How the one who carries it has to drain every drop of a serryn’s blood and steal her soul? How the chosen one leaves her at the Brink in agony for all eternity, while they rise to power, finally dragging humankind into slavery. That’s how it goes, right? The Tryan gets their hands on you and the prophecies begin.’

  He took another steady mouthful of wine before pushing the base of the glass away with his fingers.

  ‘No wonder you couldn’t wait to get out of here,’ he said, looking back at her. ‘For every second that passed, you knew you were one more second closer to discovery. That’s why you’ve kept yourself so safely locked away all these years. If no one else knew about you, neither would the Tryan. I thought you were valuable before, but now…’ He raked his gaze slowly over her. ‘You must be absolutely priceless.’

  She didn’t dare flinch – couldn’t, even if she wanted to. ‘How long have you known?’

  ‘A few hours.’

  ‘So how much has she offered you to betray me, Caleb? How much is your word worth?’

  He almost smiled. ‘Betray you? That’s an emotive term, Leila.’

  She coiled her fingers into her damp palms. ‘It doesn’t take a genius to work out who would have had to disclose their safely guarded truth in order to prize me away from you.’ She kept her gaze as squarely on his as her nerves would allow. ‘So what’s this about now, Caleb? Are you hoping to up your bargaining power with her? Like you said, I must be absolutely priceless.’

  ‘It’s more a case of what you’re willing to offer, Leila, in exchange for your life; for thwarting the vampiric road to supremacy.’

  An icy chill ran through her. ‘Because anything I could offer you would be worth more than that, right?’

  ‘Don’t be so defeatist, Leila. It’s not like you.’

  She couldn’t help the resentment leaking into her tone. ‘What do you want?’

  ‘I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that’s not why you’re here. Why you targeted me.’

  ‘Because of Feinith? How was I supposed to know about that? If that’s what you think, if you think I used you to get to her, you’re insane.’

  ‘Really? I had word about Sophie whilst you were sleeping.’

  Her stomach flipped.

  ‘Don’t worry – she’s alive. Last thing I heard she was, anyway. She’s definitely here in Blackthorn somewhere. And I have the pictures to prove it. CCTV images from the bars and clubs she was doing. Who with.’

  He met her gaze again, his lingering painfully.

  ‘I know she belongs to some kind of vigilante group,’ he continued. ‘They call themselves The Alliance apparently. They’re targeting certain core vampires – vampires with power or influence in Blackthorn. They’ve been working underground a long time with no one having a clue, so they’re good. They also have very subtle tactics it seems, including suicide missions, in the name of their cause.’

  Unease flooded her.

  ‘What kind of twisted organisation agrees to its members being fed to death just so they can kill a vampire with their dying blood?’ he added. ‘Not Sophie of course. But she’s a part of it.’

  She stared at him in horror. Shook her head. ‘No.’

  ‘So tell me again just how innocent your arrival here was.’

  ‘You’ve got this wrong. It’s a coincidence. My sister wouldn’t be involved in that. She has nothing to do with what happened to Jake.’

  ‘So there is absolutely no chance at all that she came here with the vengeance tirade you should have had to redeem your mother’s murder? How well do you know either of your sisters, Leila?’

  She couldn’t pull her gaze from his.

  ‘Only it seems to me you don’t know them as well as you think you do,’ he said.

  ‘None of this has anything to do with my sisters. This is between you and me.’

  ‘You have to understand my concern though, Leila. The plot just keeps thickening with you, doesn’t it?’

  ‘I have proved myself to you twice.’

  ‘And I want you to prove yourself once more.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Like you said, this is between you and me.’

  ‘Me and you and the fate of both our species.’

  ‘If you want to put it so dramatically. And what self-respecting serryn wouldn’t take every opportunity to tempt me to bite now and get themselves the hell out of here now they’d been found out? You’d have to be suicidal not to.’

  ‘I don’t understand?’

  ‘I want you back in my bed, Leila.’

  Her pulse raced as she stared at h
im in the silence. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘I’m talking about the predicament I’m in – caught between loyalty to you for saving Jake and, now knowing what I do about you, all these doubts creeping in as to why you did it.’

  ‘And sleeping with you again proves what exactly?’

  ‘Under the circumstances, any serryn would be fighting to get out of here. I want you to prove, once and for all, that you can stand by your convictions and control what you are, despite every survival instinct telling you to unearth that serryn. More to the point, I want you to lead. I want to give that serryn every temptation to surface.’

  She frowned. ‘And if I succeed, I gain what?’

  ‘I don’t give you to Feinith.’

  ‘You expect me to believe that? I know where your loyalty lies, Caleb. Even if not to her then at least to your own.’

  ‘And you think I believe having the Higher Order in charge is best for the future of Blackthorn?’

  ‘If that’s true, why the games when you could just kill me?’

  ‘Like I said, I have a dilemma.’

  She shook her head. ‘You are insane.’

  ‘I tell you what,’ he said, resting his arm on the table as he leaned forward. ‘Let’s up the stakes. The code to the penthouse door is 7541. You reverse it for the room Alisha’s in. As Jake’s in his room, she’s totally alone down there. You could walk right in and right back out – no obstacles, no confrontations. He wouldn’t even know. Though, of course, with me out of the way, you could get to him too. That’s how much temptation I’m willing to lay out for you. That’s how confident I am that I won’t bite.’

  Her pulse raced to a painful rate. ‘And if I don’t want to play your game?’

  ‘You prove me right all along. And you really don’t want to do that. It’s all down to how confident you are that you know yourself. How confident you are that you can keep yourself contained. It’s still daylight out there, but the clock’s ticking.’

  He pushed back his chair and stood, sauntered across to the bedroom. He left the door open behind him, candlelight pooling onto the floorboards at the threshold.

  Leila gripped the edge of the table, barely able to breathe.

  It wasn’t just that it was a test; it was the fact she had to lead. Last time it had been easier, caught up in the moment, not anticipating it going that far. And all it had done was reinforce the doubt – the simmering self-doubt at just how much she could contain it. She wasn’t herself when she was with him. Or she was too much herself.

  Twice now she’d faltered. If she messed up, it would be over. If it went wrong, she’d have no choice but to become what she needed to be to get out of there.

  But if she shied away, she unravelled everything she had worked towards. Because there had been something between them that convinced her just enough that he could be giving her a chance – something in his kiss, something in the way he had looked at her as he’d wiped away her tears the previous night. Something that told her if she managed to get him on side, he’d be a hell of a powerful ally.

  And something in the way he’d looked at Feinith after she’d cruelly disclosed about Seth told her he wanted this to work as much to his advantage as hers.

  She pushed back her chair and rose to her feet. Her heels clicked non-rhythmically on the floor as she headed across the library to push the door to the bedroom all the way open.

  He was already sat on the bed, leaning back against the headboard, his relaxed arms draped over it. His casually bent legs were slightly spread, his trousers tightened enough to reveal those hard, strong thighs. Abs taut beneath his shirt, the buttons just pleaded to be unfastened.

  She couldn’t walk away – not from the opportunity, not from his arrogance, not from whatever it was stirring inside her that pleaded with her to straddle the vampire that lay gazing at her with those darkly lethal eyes.

  Warily holding his gaze, she closed the door behind her, adding to the claustrophobia of the room already created by the closed curtains blocking out the outside world.

  He coiled his hands around the metal bar of the headboard, revealing the strength in his arms, his shirt straining further against the hard curves of his chest as if to taunt her more.

  ‘You stopped last night. Why?’

  ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘It does if you were you tempted to bite again.’

  His eyes glinted coaxingly. ‘Worried for my welfare?’

  ‘I think the risk of this is greater than you’re willing to admit. For you. Not me.’

  ‘And why does that worry you, Leila? It’ll give you a way out of here. Isn’t that what you’ve wanted all along? A chance like this?’

  ‘You’re really not worried? Not at all?’

  ‘How many situations like this have you survived, fledgling?’

  ‘It only takes one, Caleb.’

  ‘That’s for me to worry about, not you.’

  ‘It is for me to worry about if I look at you the wrong way and you decide I haven’t proved myself after all.’

  ‘But you’re not going to, are you? That’s the whole point.’

  She stepped around to the side of the bed, perched side-saddle on the edge. ‘Then tell me something – did you ever intend to stand by your word? Did you ever intend to let me go?’

  ‘From the first moment I saw you, I intended to kill you.’

  ‘So you lied to my sister. To me.’

  ‘No. I intended to kill you. But I was willing to give you a chance to redeem yourself.’

  ‘Which I’ve done. Which tells me this is more about proving something to yourself.’

  His eyes flared slightly, then narrowed. ‘Like what?’

  ‘That you can hold back. That when every temptation is in front of you, you can still contain yourself.’

  He almost smiled. ‘You’re wasting time, Leila.’

  ‘Then give me your word, Caleb. Look me in the eye and you swear to me that if I do this, and prove myself for the last time, Feinith doesn’t get near me or my family.’

  ‘I swear on Jake’s life that she won’t touch you.’

  She warily held his gaze for a few moments longer before coiling her legs under her as she reached to unfasten her sandals.

  Once she started it would be easier. It always was.

  ‘Leave the heels on,’ he said.

  Her gaze snapped to his, his eyes glinting darkly.

  She felt herself falter, but she wouldn’t back down.

  She crawled up the bed towards him, parted her thighs either side of his as Caleb slid his together so she could straddle him.

  His hands didn’t move from holding the bedstead but if she could have strapped him to it, she would have. The thought of it stirred deep in her abdomen. The thought of containing him, controlling him. She glanced into his green eyes before focusing down on his chest, at the straining buttons on his shirt.

  She unfastened the first, her fingers more fumbling than she would have thought. And it only got harder as she unfastened one after the other, as she revealed inch after inch of that perfect chest, the fabric falling away by itself.

  All too easily, she lowered her mouth to kiss him, trailing her kisses slowly down the crevice between his pecs, his chest hard and cool beneath her warm lips. Until, sliding down over his taut, flat stomach, she reached the top button on his trousers. With hesitant fingers she unfastened it.

  Caleb shifted slightly and she knew it wasn’t with discomfort.

  She’d been there before, less than a few hours ago. She’d done it then and she could do it again.

  She wanted to do it again.

  She slid down his zipper, and gently prized down his black shorts to free him. Taking him in her mouth was instinctive. Dangerously so. Wrapping her lips around his head, running her tongue full circle on the underside of the ridge, before taking him deeper had him gasping for breath this time.

  It was barely audible, but she felt it as much as she heard it.
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  She pulled his shorts down a little further to lick him slowly and lingeringly from base to tip before taking him fully in her mouth again.

  She heard him curse under his breath. She felt his body tense. She released his shorts, letting them slide almost back into place.

  ‘Certain you’re in control, Caleb?’ she asked, glancing back up at him.

  She was sure she saw a glimmer of admiration in his eyes. ‘As much as I need to be. What about you?’

  She eased back up his body, parted her thighs around his again, looked back into his eyes, hoping it was answer enough. ‘Perfectly.’

  ‘Then what are you waiting for?’

  ‘Feeling impatient?’ She rested her hands either side of his as she leaned closer. ‘Or are those nerves spurning you to take control back already?’

  ‘Or is it your nerves making you stall?’

  She shifted herself to his groin, his hardness pressing against the silk of her knickers, making her sex throb. She took a moment to steady herself, her body immediately responding to being that close to him again.

  She looked back into his eyes as his fingers flexed then tightened around the bar.

  He was enjoying it. He was genuinely enjoying it.

  She tugged his shorts down, lowered back onto him. She reached up under her dress, her fingers anxiously meeting the ribbon ties.

  Looking into his eyes, she gently tugged the binds, which unravelled with ease, leaving only a thin fragile barrier of loose silk between them. Looked into the hazy eyes she could mistake as losing themselves in the moment.

  Breaking from the intimacy, she lifted herself slightly to ease the silk away.

  She felt him tense again, but this time she didn’t look back at him as she guided his ready erection against her.

  But she couldn’t bring herself to push.

  She felt her nerve go, clutched the bar, her hand next to his, her head still lowered, her eyes tightly shut.

  His hand wrapped around the one that held him, guiding himself into her just an inch, his hand then grabbing her thigh, keeping her there.

  She just had to lower herself, to ease him inside her little by little.

  She held her breath and gently pushed.

  Renewed arousal shivered through her as she lowered herself further and further, as she felt him start to fill her again – cool, hard and toxically fulfilling. She grasped the metal bar, gripped the pillow beside him and lowered herself even further.