But now wasn’t the time to admire her warrior skills, or the way her full lips quirked in a satisfied smile, or the satin wisps of hair that curled around her flushed cheeks. Nope. Not the time.
“No, not bad,” he acknowledged through clenched teeth. “But there are at least thirty vamps in Cedric’s clan. They could show up at any moment.” He knelt beside Zach, one of the newer Guardians in the North Portland Aegis cell, and sliced through his ropes as Andrea did the same for brothers Trey and Matthew.
The moment the three were released, they closed ranks, all glaring murder at Kaden. “Vampire,” Trey spat. “You let yourself be turned.”
Their weapons lay in a pile in the corner, and Matthew snagged a handful of stakes. Kaden didn’t bother to stop him, but Andrea put herself between the Guardians and him.
“Stop it.” She jammed her fists on her hips, looking all fierce and cute. “He just saved your lives.”
Zach shot her an incredulous stare. “So? He’s a vampire. He probably saved us from the others so he could eat us himself.’
Kaden couldn’t blame them for their scepticism. He’d have been singing the same tune just a week ago. “I don’t want to eat you.” He stepped away from them and the exit, because what he’d said wasn’t entirely true. “You need to go before the rest of the clan gets here.” He grasped Andrea’s arm and turned her into him. “You too.”
“No. We stay and fight.”
“That’ll be suicide,” Matthew broke in. “It was a trap. Probably set by Kaden.”
Again, he couldn’t blame Matthew for his line of thinking, but at this point, Andrea’s safety was his prime concern. He wasn’t going to let these guys put her in jeopardy because they were too blinded by training to see the truth.
Kaden swung around, baring his teeth and giving them an up-close and personal reminder of why they shouldn’t fuck with him. “Get. Out,” he said, with a calm he didn’t feel. “I could kick your asses before, and you can’t even begin to imagine what I can do to you now.”
Matthew turned crimson with fury, Trey went wide-eyed with surprise, and Zach paled so fast Kaden thought he’d pass out.
Once again, Andrea put herself between Kaden and the three Guardians. It was a sweet gesture, but unnecessary. Kaden hadn’t been kidding about being able to kick their asses.
“Go,” she said firmly. “Wait outside the chamber. Give me two minutes.” She must have delivered her command with a side order of glare that dared them to argue, because they didn’t. They filed out of the doorway, but not without muttering obscenities under their breath at Kaden.
When they were gone, she turned to him, but he didn’t give her a chance to speak. “You need to go too, Andrea.”
Hurt filled her expression. “Not without you.”
“I can’t go back, and you know it.”
“You’re going to get killed if you stay and fight.”
“And I’m going to get killed if I go back to the Aegis. I’d rather go down swinging.” He couldn’t bear the sadness in her eyes or the sudden, cavernous emptiness in his chest. Without thinking, he palmed the back of her neck and brought her in close. He dipped his head, and the moment their lips touched, he poured everything he felt for her into his kiss.
He just hoped she didn’t feel his regrets, especially the big one, the one that had foolishly kept him from committing himself fully to her.
Then there was the other regret, the one in which he’d told her there would be a “later”.
The kiss was goodbye.
Andrea knew it to her very soul, and she felt it in a shiver over her entire body. Eyes stinging, she jerked away from Kaden, but she clung to his hand desperately, even when he tried to extricate himself from her death grip.
“I can’t lose you,” she said. Pleaded, really.
The resolve in his steel-cut eyes sliced through her like an arctic wind. “We can’t be together.”
“I don’t care what you are. I’m tired of losing people I love. I can’t do it again.”
He laughed bitterly. “Really, Andrea? You don’t care what I am? How can you ever trust me? How can you think I won’t turn into a ravenous beast and kill you?”
“Because you aren’t Gabrielle.” The words made his head snap back as if she’d slapped him, but she pressed the advantage, going right for his jugular, because they didn’t have time for a leisurely chat. She had to get through to him now. “Gabrielle became a creature that couldn’t recognize the person she loved, and she couldn’t control her nature. But you can control yourself, Kaden. You were starving in that cell, and you could have killed me. You didn’t. If anything, you wanted me. You’ve been turned, but you aren’t evil. I don’t care what the Aegis say. They aren’t always right.”
Strain put lines at the corners of his made-to-please mouth. “Even if what I’ve become isn’t an issue for us, it’ll be a damned big issue for the Aegis. They aren’t going to welcome me with open arms.”
“There has to be a way.” Her mind worked furiously, searching the darkest, dustiest corners of her brain for anything useful. She could leave the Aegis, but that would be a last resort. Hunting demons was the one thing she was good at, and after an entire life spent quitting jobs, clubs and college, she didn’t want to abandon this. Maybe she could transfer again. Someplace where having a vampire boyfriend wouldn’t be a big deal. She almost laughed at that, because . . . wait . . . she sucked in a harsh breath at her sudden idea.
“I’ve got it.” Andrea bounced on her toes, excited for the first time since all of this began. “We can move to New York. One of the cells there is rumoured to have a half-demon Regent. And remember how we heard that one of the Elders is married to a demon?” One of the twelve supreme Aegis leaders married to a demon? The story had spread like wildfire.
“Those are just rumours.” Kaden’s voice was tired, resigned.
Andrea’s hope that they still had a shot at something began to wither. “I know, but—”
“Even if those things are true, life in the Aegis can’t be easy for them. I won’t subject you to that.”
“I can handle it.”
“I know you can,” he rasped, “but I can’t. I can’t stand by and watch you be scorned.”
“Then what are our options? Stay here and let yourself be killed? I don’t freaking think so.” She got right up in his face and poked him in the chest. “I’ve given up on everything in my life at some point. And I mean everything. If I attempt something new and I suck at it, I won’t do it again. If I fail at something, I quit. The Aegis and you are the only things I’ve ever stuck with, and I will not go back to being a quitter. We will work this out.”
Kaden stepped back, and the hardest thing she’d ever done was give him that foot of space. “And what am I supposed to do while you’re out doing your job? Sit home and watch Buffy reruns?”
He had a point. Here she was thinking of her job, when he’d just lost his. He’d just lost everything, actually. Shaking his head, he looked up at the ceiling. “There’s no way the Aegis is even going to let me live. Unless . . . ”
Her breath hitched, just a tiny catch of hope reawakening. “Unless what?”
One of the guys just outside the chamber whispered for them to hurry up, but Kaden ignored him and scrubbed one hand over his face. “Remember how Tony brought up that radical idea once? When he was drunk and half out of his mind?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ll have to be more specific. We’re talking about Tony, the guy who thinks fairies enchant his weapons while he sleeps.”
He snorted. “Good point. You know, his nutty idea about getting a Guardian to turn vampire and infiltrate clans as a spy?”
“That was crazy,” she said. “I mean –” She cut off with a gasp, as what he was saying slapped her upside the head. “That’s what you want to do?”
“Why not?”
“Well . . . ” She trailed off, because actually . . . why not? He was right about how the Aegis wouldn’t acce
pt him as a regular member any more. But if they went for this, he could still work, still do the job, but from the other side. “So instead of fighting Cedric’s clan . . . ”
“I’d join them.”
The idea filled her with terror, but at least it offered a shot at keeping him off the Aegis’ most-wanted list – and alive.
So to speak.
“What if they refuse?”
He slid a covert glance at the Guardians, who were still watching him with murder in their eyes. He wouldn’t get any other kind of reception at headquarters. “They’ll try. But look what happened when you attacked this den. Vampire ops are dangerous. If I can help, they’ve got to give it a shot.”
Her chest constricted with doubt. “It won’t be easy to convince them.”
“Then we consider your idea about moving to New York. Or I work anyway, and feed you the intel. Either way, this is what I have to do, just as you need to keep working for the Aegis.”
That all sounded great, but the most important part of this discussion was still an elephant in the room. “OK, but what about us?”
In a blur of motion, Kaden caught her shoulders and tugged her against him. Her heart went crazy in her chest, skipping around like a lovesick idiot. “I was a fool before. But dying kicked me in the ass and made me see things a little more clearly.” Tenderly, he cupped her cheek in one palm. “Everything is intensified now. All my emotions. Including love.”
“W-what?”
He crushed her to him, holding on so tight she had trouble breathing. Not that she would change anything. “I love you,” he said. “I’ve loved you for a long time but was afraid to say it.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and then drew back, but his intense gaze drilled into hers. “I still don’t know how to handle my new status, and I’ve got a lot to learn, but my parents taught me that everyone stumbles, and it’s OK to feel your way around. Took me until now to remember that. Still, I can’t promise it’ll be easy for either of us.”
She pressed a finger to his lips. “One day at a time. All I ask is that we try. No quitting without a fight.”
His smile stole her breath. “No quitting.” His expression was serious once again. “You need to go.”
“I still don’t want to leave you here.”
“You have to. Before Cedric’s clan catches me with you. Right now they don’t know I was involved with his death.”
Outside the chamber, one of the guys cleared his throat impatiently, and she checked her watch. “It’s nearly dawn.”
“I’ll be fine. At sunset, I’ll meet you at your place. And remember what I said we’d do later?”
Her body heated up, because oh, boy, did she remember. “Uh-huh.”
The sharp little points of his fangs gleamed, matching a wicked light in his eyes. “Good, because later I’m going to see just how much more intense everything can be.”
She couldn’t wait. They definitely had a rough road ahead, but it seemed that, for the first time in her life, the road wasn’t a dead end. This was one journey she would not fail.
The Ghost of Leadville
Jeanne C. Stein
My name is Rose Sullivan. Although I’ve been on the earth for 200 years, I was turned on my twenty-fifty birthday. I am eternally frozen in the physical form of a twenty-five-year-old. Blonde hair, blue eyes, five feet two inches tall, one hundred pounds. I am small in stature which means men sometimes make the mistake of thinking a childish mind resides in this rather childish body. They only make the mistake once. I am preternaturally strong, as are all vampires, and have no tolerance towards those who try to intimidate me – or others. If I see an injustice, it is in my nature to correct it.
It isn’t always easy being vampire. There are rules to be followed. Most humans are unaware of our existence. Just as they are unaware of other supernatural beings living amongst them. They have to be. The great secret must be preserved. Humanity has shown how it reacts to that which it does not understand. Destroy first. Ask questions later.
And so I have survived as a vampire for 200 years. Living in big cities, mostly. Able to last as long as forty years in one guise – the latest a museum curator in New York. My specialty was early Americana. Convenient since I was born to missionary parents in the American West in 1809.
But one can only do so much to disguise a face and body that do not age. It becomes apparent when all those around you take note of your “youthful” appearance that it is time to move on. A hasty resignation because of “family problems”, a quick transfer of funds to whatever new identity I’ve adopted and a brief goodbye to the human hosts who have provided me sustenance during my stay. They, the few who are guardians of the secret, do not question. They are used to the plight of the vampire. They know to take the money and pleasure offered in return for blood and form no attachment. It has always been so.
And so I shed the skin of the old persona and adopt a new one in Leadville, Colorado in the year 2009.
I’ve decided this time around to eschew bright lights and settle into a quiet existence in a quiet little town. I’ve also decided to write a book. Why not? Look at a current best-seller list. The one hot topic on all the charts is vampire romance. Who is in a better position to write about vampire romance than a female vampire who has certainly experienced her share of romance? And besides, it’s a chance to set the record straight, albeit under the ruse of fiction, about many things having to do with living a modern vampire life. It’s not all bad. Not by a long shot.
There is another reason I chose to make this incarnation that of a writer. It’s a solitary existence. I’ve had my fill of city life and being forced to live among people. The smells, the noises, the desperation of a population trying to cram all of life into a few decades burdens the spirit of a vampire. I’m ready for a change.
I bought a nicely restored Victorian on the edge of Leadville. I stumbled on the place last year while on a research trip, visiting early mining sites in preparation for a museum exhibit. Leadville nestles in a fold of the Rocky Mountains, hidden, protected. At the height of the gold rush, 50,000 called this place home. Now there are barely 2,000 people living here. The climate is harsh. The most often heard comment is that Leadville has two seasons – this winter and last winter. But temperature is irrelevant to a vampire. And Leadville’s one lasting claim to fame is an opera house, built to entertain the miners during the long winter. It has been restored and opens its door to the public in the summer when a flock of faithful opera fans make the trek up from Denver to enjoy the old building’s perfect acoustics. It is a gentle reminder of a gentler time. I fell in love with it at first sight.
And so I find myself comfortably ensconced on my living room couch, laptop computer open, finger poised over the keys to begin this novelist’s journey. My eyes, however, keep drifting upwards, through the window at the other side of the room, drawn to the mountains rising like stark, grey monoliths against a cloudless November sky.
A familiar landscape.
Truth be told, this is not the first time I’ve lived in Leadville.
Memories flood back.
No, I lived here once before.
Leadville, 1884
Hyman’s Saloon
“Rose. Come on over here, gal. I have someone for you to meet.”
I look up. Sunny Tom’s face is wreathed in a grin, his dozen gold teeth flashing in the bar light like fireflies on a summer night.
Are you sure? I ask him. I’ve been keeping an eye on the poker table. Miners flush with gold dollars and full to the brim with whiskey are normally good for business. But when the cards turn against them, the whiskey takes over. Bullets are never good for business and at this moment, both the whiskey and the cards are turning against one youngster new to both. I raise an eyebrow at Tom. This could turn ugly.
He shrugs. He pay for his drinks?
A nod.
Then fuck him. This is more important.
My gaze sweeps over the slight figure of a man st
anding beside him. Sunny Tom is six feet tall, two hundred pounds. The stranger with him is maybe five foot ten, one hundred forty pounds. He’s dressed like a dandy – striped pants, white shirt, cravat with a diamond stickpin which winks at me as I approach. He has a hat in his hand and a big Colt revolver on his hip.
He watches me with a predator’s eye. He’s even-featured with a square chin, light brown hair, full moustache. Not bad looking. Must be a big spender if Tom is sending him to me.
I tilt my head, taste the air around him. He’s sick. Consumption. It hovers about him in a bilious cloud.
I hold out my hand. “Rose.”
He takes it, brings it to his lips. “John Holliday, ma’am. Pleased to meet you.”
Sunny Tom probes my head, waiting for the connection to be made. I lift a shoulder in a half-shrug which prompts an exasperated, John Holliday? You don’t know the name? How about Doc Holliday? That ring any bells?
Tom turns his smile back on Doc Holliday. “I will leave you in Rose’s most capable hands. Have a very good evening.”
He saunters away to take my place near the poker table, winking as he passes. Have fun.
With a consumptive? Tom is past before I can skewer him with a properly caustic reply.
He runs the saloon, I run the girls who work it. There are only two people who know the truth of our relationship. Sunny Tom and me. We are both vampires. Running a bar that specializes in whores and whiskey keeps us both in what we need. Human blood.
He’s set me up tonight with a consumptive. It’s not the illness I resent. Vampires are impervious to human disease. It’s the taste of the blood.
My shoulders bunch a little at the prospect but I put on a sweet smile and take my place beside Doc at the bar. He half turns towards me and the diamond at his neck catches and reflects the light in a rainbow burst. I reach up and touch it with the tip of a finger. “Nice bauble, Mr Holliday.”
His smile is tinged with bitterness and regret. “A gift from my mother before she died. Unfortunately not the only thing she left me.” He is looking down the bar and with a flick of a finger, summons the barkeep.
Love Bites UK (Mammoth Book Of Vampire Romance2) Page 56