by C. L. Quinn
First bloods could control or compel anyone, including “made” vampires. And although first blood vampires had talents, they were not all the same.
Eillia, his oldest and dearest friend, had the gift of empathic connections. Her lifeforce could interact with another person, vampire or human, and journey with them into their lives. She was one of the most beautiful souls he had ever known.
This past year, amidst heartbreak and chaos, she had found her mate, and was due to give birth soon to one of the rarest of creatures on this world…a first blood vampire child. He knew how remarkable it was personally. His daughter had been the first vampire born in centuries, and her child, his granddaughter, the second. Eillia’s son would be only the third.
Tonight, they would go to Paris. Eillia and her mate Daniel, along with Koen, would follow a lead for the two missing vampires to the home of another vampire just outside the city. Unfortunately, it was an arrogant first blood vampire named Xavier.
Xavier and Koen had been raised as brothers over a thousand years ago, and although they had been estranged for several centuries, they struggled to repair the relationship during this one. The uneasy truce would hopefully hold out as they questioned him about the missing people.
Reaching for a cup of stale coffee that had been sitting on a night stand all day, Koen yawned and chugged it. He just wanted to get this over with and get back home. Maybe tomorrow he could get a good ten, twelve hours sleep.
Paris. How she loved this beautiful city. In the center of downtown, a small hotel Alisa always chose when she came to France offered a bed and breakfast type service by an older couple she considered close friends after her visits here over so many years. The food was exquisite.
No longer concerned about health or calories, Alisa ate every damn thing she wanted. The sweet couple smiled and brought her anything she asked for, amazed that their little guest could put it all away in that small body.
She went to two pâtisseries she normally never would have visited, bought two bags of pastries, and took it straight back to her hotel room that first night. Sitting on her soft bed, watching an old French film, with a pot of coffee, she indulged herself as she never had in her life with every damn sugared thing in both bags. The next morning, as she nursed the worse stomach ache of her life, she admitted it was worth it.
Alisa didn’t want to visit museums, but rather the things that made this city so special, the smell and soul of the city, the streets, the art, the people.
And of course, the greatest symbol of all for this city of lights and love…The Eiffel Tower.
When she took the elevator for her final view from the top of the tower, she traveled with a group of tourists on their first trip to Paris. What a pleasure to get to see this special city through their eyes, always best dressed when it was lit up at night. Afterward, she joined two of the young boys from the tourist group as they got into a fountain in a public park to dance in the water, and crawled out soaked and laughing twenty minutes later before the gendarmes came.
She slept all day the next day, and woke refreshed, but hungry on her last night in Paris. After living strictly on sugar for the past twenty-four hours, she was starving for some real food.
So many favorite choices in this city! How could she choose when it was her last dinner in Paris? While she considered her choices, she wandered around the streets. It was a warm Friday night, and the partiers were out, locals and tourists jamming the streets.
It struck her that there was only one place she wanted to be tonight.
Alisa ended up on la rue Moufftard, a pedestrian street filled with cafes, clubs, local artisans, and restaurants. She wanted to be around young and vibrant people, drinking, laughing, searching for love or loving the one the one they were with. Long years yet to live, such exciting moments ahead. Now that she had accepted her situation, she found joy in watching others making their lives.
After ordering a bottle of her favorite Pinot Noir, she sat at a little café table for an hour, watching the people, and still hadn’t eaten much. She needed to decide where to eat, the wine on an empty stomach going to her head. She glanced up at the waiter who watched her closely. Ah, he needed her table. She nodded to him as she gathered her huge bag and positioned it on her shoulder. Everything she carried with her on this journey was in that bag. She’d realized she needed so little, that anything else she might need on the journey she could just buy it, and leave it behind for someone else who might be able to use it later. But the bag was oversized and a little awkward.
After leaving a nice tip, she stood too quickly and stumbled, her legs hesitating to do what she asked of them. The bag slipped, she glanced down to reposition the strap as she stepped out past the café into the street, and was broadsided by someone passing by.
She didn’t see who hit her, but whoever did was much bigger and heavier, and she went down hard. Luckily, she landed on her bag and it absorbed most of the impact.
Alisa hit the ground with enough force she lost her breath and saw stars for a moment, but all she wanted to do was laugh. Clumsy and inelegant was her new normal. She looked up to see someone reaching for her, and gratefully put her hands into a man’s larger ones.
It wasn’t his fault, she’d stumbled and hadn’t been looking where she was going, so she looked up at him to tell him so. And couldn’t speak.
The face above her was extraordinarily handsome with startling green eyes that took her breath away again. He had been reaching down to her, she assumed to help her up, but he stopped moving and just stared at her as well. She understood how he felt. He stunned her, too.
Never in her life had she felt anything like this. He was just so beautiful! This man, this stranger, within seconds, it felt as if he captured her soul. She wondered how she had lived all her life without seeing that face.
She smiled, and curled her fingers around his.
SIX
Thank God it had gone well. Xavier had detained Jacob and Starla for issues that arrived from the young cadre of vampires who had taken Starla against her will and changed her to vampire. Xavier’s lieutenant had dealt with the group of young vampires and released them with dire warnings if they did not comply with Xavier’s commands. Starla had been with that group and when they all scattered, as they had been warned to do, Starla had done so also, and no one knew where she had gone.
But Jacob had been taken prisoner by Xavier’s first lieutenant, Crystal, who handled all his security and had been a trusted member of his team for three hundred years. Apparently the woman Crystal had developed an instant crush on Jacob and decided to keep him as her boy toy.
Once they realized that Crystal had betrayed her master, Xavier told Koen, Eillia, and Daniel he would hunt her down and find Jacob. If he found Jacob and he was safe, Xavier promised to bring him into Paris that night.
Waiting for Xavier’s call, Koen took his friends out to dinner in the popular district on la rue Moufftard, a street he’d been to many times in past years to visit a vampire friend who worked out of this district.
Daniel had never been to Paris before, so Koen decided to treat them to a nice quick dinner and then let them go off together to enjoy this city that was made for lovers.
Walking down the brick street, Koen was just happy to be there with good friends on a beautiful night. Eillia came up to him and slipped her hand into his. He looked at his old friend by his side. Her eyes shined.
“It is wonderful to see you so happy. Koen, you’re like a kid watching everything and everyone with such interest. You’re a different man than you have been for the past fifty years,” she told him.
“I am. I have a renewed interest in the world. I love watching people again, where they’re going, what they’re doing in their brief little lives. I’m grateful to have this moment and for all the years that have led me here. I love having you back in my life. I missed you.”
Eillia had been gone for a year, presumed dead, because the man she’d loved for hundreds of
years had died tragically last year in a siege on his son-in-law’s home in Canada. Heartbroken, unable to accept her life without him, she’d disappeared to grieve and heal. When she finally came back to her life, to France, she was pregnant with a first blood child and in love again, this time with the man who was destined to be her mate for life.
The events reminded Koen of something any vampire who lived for centuries already knew…life could change in a moment.
Eillia laughed now, round-bellied and content, and curled her arm around Koen’s.
“It takes so little to make us happy if we just let ourselves be. It’s incredible to see one of the most powerful men I have ever known humbled by the beauty of a child. Koen, I’m glad you’ll be there for our son. It’s spectacular that we have two first blood babies after centuries with none. No, three, with Park. It almost seems prophetic.”
“I agree. You know that just before I found Park, I was ready to finish my life. It had just been so long, and I couldn’t see any joy trudging through day after day. My daughter was the greatest moment of my life and I’d lost her. I was ready to go.”
“I’m so glad you didn’t. The world needs you, my friend.”
It was at that moment Xavier phoned to tell them he had Jacob, that he was fine, and would be back with them in Paris by morning.
Eillia threw her hands up in relief.
“Thank God. Now we can have dinner and celebrate.”
Koen glanced over at Daniel, waiting patiently at an artist’s booth for his wife, and knew he should just leave them alone in this romantic city.
“Speaking of celebrating. There’s a lovely little redhead over in that corner that needs my attention. Just my type. I think I’ll go celebrate myself on her right now.”
Nodding, Eillia understood. “Celebrate away. I think I’ll take my husband on our first proper date. We’ll meet you back at the loft when you’re finished.”
“Ha! That might take a while. I’ve got a lot of ‘finishing’ to do. It’s been a while.”
Koen lifted his hand to Daniel and turned to the pretty redhead who had been looking at him the entire time he’d spoken with Eillia. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he told her it had been a while. Too much going on around the villa for too long, and he’d just gotten too busy. His cock had been ignored and this shapely girl was just the thing it needed.
Flashing his sexiest smile, he walked over to the girl, but as he reached her, he hesitated. She was a gorgeous girl, no doubt about it, but for some reason he really couldn’t put his finger on, he knew she wasn’t the one he wanted. He was really horny, but he knew, suddenly, that he didn’t want to be with this girl. Her hair was similar in color to his daughters, maybe that was it, but he knew it wouldn’t happen. He smiled and turned away, back to the street, and saw her lose her smile. Well, the tightness in his pants showed she wasn’t the only one disappointed.
He turned so quickly, he crashed into someone else passing at that moment, smaller than him by a lot. It was a woman, now crumpled on the brick street at his feet. God, he could have really hurt her.
Koen squatted down to help her up as a thick curtain of shiny silk hair that covered her face flipped back, and he saw her face fully.
He froze, his hands out to help her, poised to ask if she was okay. But words didn’t come. Blue eyes that lit the world smiled up at him and touched his soul instantly. In the same way he knew the other girl had nothing for him, he knew that this was the one who would bring fire to his life.
She smiled and took his outstretched hands to pull herself up. Now standing, her head only came up to his shoulders.
“Talk about sweeping a girl off her feet. You could have avoided the literal.” Her voice was soft, but deep and sensuous.
Koen snapped out of it, shook his head and focused on her.
“I’m sorry. My fault entirely. Are you all right?”
Nodding, she looked down at her hands still trapped in his. Yet she didn’t pull away.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” she finally answered. “I wasn’t really paying attention either. Trying to decide where I wanted to eat. So many choices. So, let’s just say we have equal culpability for the collision.”
He couldn’t stop staring. Koen had lived long enough to understand that sometimes things have no explanation. He soaked her in. Curved cheeks, brilliant blue eyes that had already captured him, slim figure with full breasts wrapped in a sleek tee that didn’t meet the top of her tight jeans. A huge hobo bag that threatened to topple her on its own. Lips that…well, he already knew what he wanted to do with those. Her smile went straight to his heart. He was trapped. This was why he couldn’t be with the redhead. Somehow, his spirit knew he was waiting for her.
First thing she noticed was how huge he was. All over. The second was that he stared at her openly. Her respiration quickened as she put her hands in his. Was he having the same reaction to her that she seemed to be having to him? It made her uneasy because she didn’t understand it. Never in her life had she met a man that made her want to know what he would feel like inside her…just on sight. Until now. This man…Olympian Gods would be jealous.
What was that scent? He smelled like sex. Not like he’d just had it, not that, but like pheromones or something. Whatever it was, it made her want to act on instinct alone and pull him into one of the long dark alleys.
He was still watching her with those deep green eyes that she swore saw into her soul. As if time stood still for both of them. And he still held her hands. Unexpectedly, she did something crazy. Something the old Alisa would never have done. Something the new Alisa was searching for in her now abbreviated life, memories to build a lifetime in the all too few months left ahead.
She wanted this man. Now. Wanted to know what he would feel like buried deep and moving against her. Why not? This journey she traveled was all about living her life to the very edge, every moment to its fullest. All in.
So she curled her fingers into his and pulled him closer.
“What kind of cologne are you wearing? It’s incredible.”
Without thinking at all, Koen responded to her fingers by interweaving his with hers.
“No cologne. It’s just my scent. Yours is incredible too. It makes me want to…”
Their eyes connected and in that instant they both knew where this chance collision would end up.
His right hand moved to her hair, sliding down its satin strands to her cheek. He saw her shoulders lift as she drew a deep breath.
When his fingers touched her cheek, Alisa’s breath caught and she wanted to lean in to him, to kiss him. This stranger. This man she did not know. She wanted to feel his mouth against hers.
“You’re hungry. Let me feed you,” he said.
“I would like that.”
Without taking his eyes off her, he moved slightly closer and whispered, “I really need to apologize to you for running you over.”
Blue eyes searched green.
“I really think I need that apology.”
There wasn’t any doubt in either of their minds what form the apology would take.
Alisa let this man she did not know lead her away, and for the first time in her life, she understood that there were times when something happens that is simply meant to be. That love at first sight, or at least lust, was real and intense and should never be ignored.
Eillia watched the two after the collision. Daniel had stopped to look at something a painter was showing him and she glanced back at Koen just as the incident occurred. She felt something in him. Something intense. Her eyes moved to the woman he touched. The same intensity waved off her, too. Interesting. Koen was a generous loving man, but she had never seen him in love. Not deeply, truly, in love. He had never found a mate.
Daniel slipped a hand into hers and pulled her toward the restaurant they had chosen. Well, Koen was a big boy. He could handle whatever this was.
As she followed Daniel, she found herself looking back. There was something
else. Something odd about the woman. Something… She couldn’t touch it.
Shaking her head, she gave her husband all of her attention. Eillia believed in destiny and that things usually turned out exactly the way they should.
Koen took the woman to a small diner just around the corner from where they’d met. Dark and sultry, the smell of smoked meat and fresh flowers infused the air. He had the host show them to the back of the restaurant where they were nearly alone. He’d kept her fingers wrapped in his the entire way there.
“Does this suit you?” he asked.
The woman nodded, her eyes hooded. She seemed uncomfortable with him now.
“Are you all right?” He didn’t want her worried.
With a slight shake of her head, those deep blue eyes found his again.
“Yes.”
She said this too quietly to be convincing. And then, louder and more forcefully, “I am. I just don’t usually do things like this. But I didn’t want to walk away from you back on the street.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. I didn’t want you to either. Why don’t we have a nice meal and see how we feel afterward?”
She paused and nodded in agreement.
Then he smiled, a gorgeous warm sexy smile, and she was lost. Damn, she’d wanted his lips on her from nearly that first moment. She didn’t have time to wait. Didn’t want to wait.
A moment later, surprising herself, she leaned across the table. Her eyes sparkled as she wet her lips. Koen watched her, mesmerized, as she took a deep breath, stood, then put one knee up on the tabletop to reach him. Her kiss began tentatively, then she deepened it. Koen took over, a sudden need driving him. He swept her off the table and into his arms. They kissed so passionately, the waiter turned and left as soon as he saw them. Alisa worked her hand beneath Koen’s shirt to feel the smooth tight muscles of his chest. He moaned and slowly lowered her back to the floor to set her away from him. His voice was coarse.