by Amelia Elias
Querida, you can have me begging any time you want, he replied as one of his hands found her knee and started to inch upward. All you have to do is ask.
If you don’t stop that I’m really going to make you regret it, Diego.
I doubt anything could make me regret touching you. His fingers slid a bit further.
“I’m honored to accept your offer, Eli,” Sian told the camera firmly. “Diego has been trying to persuade me to take the League oath for days now. I’ll be proud to help you out so you can lead the Council, Diego,” she added, gazing up at him with adoring eyes. “Don’t hesitate because of me, hon. I know how you’d love to take the job.”
Except that. “Of course,” he agreed between gritted teeth, as she’d known he would. He would never embarrass her by publicly disagreeing with her though Sian was positive he would definitely have something to say about this later. Did you have to do that?
Yes, I did. Now stop letting your fingers do the walking or I’ll do something else you’ll like even less.
Diego’s hand stilled on her thigh at once and Sian smiled. The video conference ended minutes later with Eli officially resigning from the position he’d held longer than anyone could remember. His last official Council duty was to oversee Diego being sworn in and Sian taking the League oath afterward. Sian tried to slip away when it was done, hideously aware of her mussed hair and Diego’s shirt enveloping her and knowing she couldn’t have advertised that she’d been bedded well and recently any more clearly had she tattooed it on her forehead, but he didn’t let her go. You got me into this, he told her sternly. You can sit there and enjoy every last second of it with me.
Finally the others signed off and Sian flicked off the camera with relief before turning to Diego. His dark face was set and his mouth tight. He wasn’t just mad, he was furious. Diego hated to be manipulated and she’d jumped ship to side with the Council, making him do yet another thing he hadn’t wanted to. Oh, she was in trouble now.
But Sian knew how good he was going to be at this, even if he didn’t, and luckily she knew how to get out of trouble.
“You look mad, honey. You’re not really mad, are you? Maybe just a little mad?” she asked, biting her lip and looking up at him anxiously through her lashes. She held her absolute conviction that he would excel as the Head of the Council foremost in her mind. He was going to turn them on their ears and make them like it. He just had that way about him.
Besides, he was a prince. Who better to hold such a powerful position?
Diego groaned and rested his forehead against hers. “Dirty pool, querida,” he complained. “You know I can’t be mad at you when you give me that look and think such things about me.”
She smiled and settled more comfortably in his lap before leaning up to nibble at his ear. “Why do you think I do it?”
* * *
Eli turned off his camera and sat back in the chair. The silence pressed in around him and he hoped he’d done the right thing. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Diego he couldn’t see the future, and right now he truly wished he could. Powerful as he was, that was an ability that had never been granted him.
Diego would be good for the Council, that much he was sure of. Eli knew he had a tendency to get carried away in trying to steer his vampires down the right path and Diego and Sian were living proof of it. Yes, their bonding had worked out fine, better than fine if Eli knew anything about how a well-loved woman looked, but it might very well have turned out horribly. Even Eli knew he’d gone too far when he’d tricked Diego into thinking the dhampyr was his bondmate.
It had been too perfect to resist, though, the way Sian had fallen into Diego’s life. Diego needed a dhampyr if he was going to continue his line and grow his Clan, they weren’t easy to find, and suddenly there’d been one in his bed. Eli hadn’t believed much in the omens the others had sworn by until that moment—such things were too easy to interpret to mean whatever one wanted—but his disbelief hadn’t stopped him from acting. He’d seen the chance to stop the extinction of two lines with one stroke and he’d done it. It hadn’t been right and they were damn lucky it had ended well.
It was too easy to fall into that habit, even the way he kept thinking of them as “his” vampires. They weren’t his. Well, they were, every last one of them, but it didn’t mean he had the right to try to control their lives, even if he did usually know best.
Eli sighed and stood, stretching and taking pleasure in the way his back arched and his shoulders twinged after hours of sitting. Simple pleasures were the key to living this long. After a time everything got old, music and books and all the varied diversions of the flesh, but simple pleasures were always the same—comforting, easy, always there for the taking.
Diego would do a good job as the Council’s Head. Eli knew he would, even if Diego didn’t know it himself. Sian knew he would, too, and Eli knew she was going to be a great help to Diego despite her youth. The faith of a woman in love was a powerful thing. Yes, it was good to let go of the Council at last. Diego didn’t share Eli’s desire to run things to the nth degree and Diego certainly didn’t have Eli’s power. Too much power was not a good thing.
And he should know.
Why, then, did he suddenly feel so aimless?
Eli paced through the rooms of his home, his footsteps muffled by the thick Persian rugs he’d taken a fancy to hundreds of years ago, his gaze drifting over all the priceless treasures he’d amassed over his long, long life without seeing them. It was quiet here, no sounds of traffic or chatter of televisions and radios, though it was all only steps away—none of the modern annoyances that people these days thought of as conveniences and believed they couldn’t live without. The quiet was familiar, comforting. A simple pleasure few appreciated anymore.
It wouldn’t be quiet at Diego’s, though. Eli would stake everything he owned on it. There wasn’t much room for simple pleasures around that house. Diego had televisions and stereos, state of the art computers and fast cars and video games. He had a Steward to talk to and even his own website, for Luna’s sake. He’d fully embraced this new age as he had all the others that had come before it.
Diego had Sian now too, and if there was anything simple about women Eli hadn’t found it yet. No, it wouldn’t be quiet at Diego’s.
“I can’t wait to see the day you fall, Eli. I hope the poor woman turns you upside down and inside out, and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”
He closed his eyes at the memory of Diego’s parting shot. He didn’t need to see the future to know he’d spoken the truth when he’d assured Diego it wouldn’t happen. Sian’s terrified reaction to him only reinforced his certainty. No, he had no need to worry about his home being disrupted like that, thank the gods.
Not that they’d ever done anything to deserve his gratitude.
Eli spun to grab his jacket and jerked it on, suddenly desperate to leave the house, no longer comforted by his solitude or his thoughts, and hoping to leave both behind. Maybe when he’d rid the night of a few more Outcasts, maybe when he’d made the world a little safer for the mortals he’d wronged so long ago, he’d start to feel like his normal self again.
He only wished the thought held more appeal.
* * *
Amelia Elias
To learn more about Amelia, please visit her website at www.AmeliaElias.com, send an email to [email protected] or join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AmeliaEliasgroup
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