by Rachel Lee
“Try again,” he said shortly.
So she tried her mother again. No answer. “I’ll call her in the morning. In town they’ll prefer human shape when it’s light.” She didn’t want to think about all the other reasons her mother might not be answering. Couldn’t bear to think about them. She had to believe the pack had spread out and was taking an inventory of the scents around the city.
“Leave her a message with Creed’s address,” Luc said. “At least let her know in case she plans to head back to the cabin.”
So Dani dialed again, hoping against hope that this time her mother would answer. Instead, she was thrown into voice mail and she repeated the message and the address Luc gave her.
Then the car went utterly silent again.
Finally, deep in the downtown area, Jude swung the car into an underground lot.
“Do you want me to come to the morgue with you?” Luc asked.
“I don’t think it’s necessary, but I’ll call you if something happens. Take care of Dani. And someone who knows what’s going on has to be ready to deal with the pack when they arrive.”
Dani could have done that. She just didn’t want to be that far from Luc. And she was disturbed that he apparently felt he could leave her in the care of another. Then she told herself to stop being so juvenile. Neither of them had committed to anything except seeing this mess through. He owed her nothing at all. Lust, she told herself, did not make a relationship.
It was also harder for her because she wasn’t worldly about these things, and was so inexperienced. She couldn’t just discount what they had shared. Didn’t want to believe it had been meaningless to him. Evidently it had been. And somehow she had to learn to accept that before she did something else stupid.
They climbed out of the car and Luc led her to a stairway. “I’m going to carry you,” he said.
“Can’t we take the elevator?”
“I don’t have a key. Creed lives in the penthouse and it’s a long climb.”
She said nothing as, in a flash, he swung her onto his back. This time she kept her eyes open and saw little beyond a faintly colored blur. Her stomach felt as if she was zipping upward in a elevator that moved too fast.
In less time than she could believe, he set her on her feet again.
“Wow,” she said. “That was a rush.”
At that he favored her with a smile. “Like an amusement park ride?”
“Better.” Far better, because for just a brief few moments in time she had been wrapped around him again. Damn, she wished she knew how to reach out to him, how to draw him closer. But he was already leading her down a short hallway to double doors, where he rapped.
The doors opened, revealing an auburn-haired man with eyes as gold as Incan treasure. Scent alone would have told Dani this must be Creed.
“Come in,” he said and favored Dani with a warm smile. “Yvonne will join us in just a minute.”
Creed’s apartment astonished her. After what she had seen so far, the last thing she would have expected from a vampire was two walls made almost entirely of glass, punctuated only by a small kitchen area.
Bright colors were splashed everywhere, and the entire south and west of the city was visible from here. It took her breath away.
“This is some place you have,” she said.
“I have an actual job that keeps me inside most of the night. I’d go stir-crazy looking at nothing but walls.”
“Hi,” said a light, cheerful voice from behind.
Dani turned to see a beautiful blonde dressed in jeans and a sweater emerge from what appeared to be a bedroom.
“I’m Yvonne,” she said. “You must be Dani.”
She passed right by Luc to give Dani a hug. “Where are Jude and Terri?” she asked, turning to look at Luc.
“They went to the morgue. Terri has a plan to interrupt the birth of newborns.”
“That’s going to be dangerous.”
“At least until dawn.”
Yvonne brought out a plate of finger foods for herself and Dani, along with some hot chocolate. Creed brought out two bags of blood and for the first time Dani saw vampires eat.
She watched, swallowing hard, as bags of blood were emptied into tall glasses. Luc’s gaze challenged her as he drank.
She made a point of staring while he took another drink, then reached for a cracker and cheese. He thought he was going to put her off because he drank blood? Not likely. The thought of it was evidently worse than the reality of it.
“Is that stuff any good?” she asked.
“You want some?”
Again that challenge. “Not my taste,” she answered. “I just wondered about you guys.”
“It suffices.”
Yvonne gave her a friendly smile. “I think it was Terri who told me it’s like the difference between champagne and rotgut wine.”
“Eww.” Dani wrinkled her nose.
“It serves its purpose,” Luc answered.
“Apparently so. Still, it can’t be easy.”
“It’s like being on a diet. That’s all.”
Creed looked about ready to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Dani asked him.
“You two remind me of agitated porcupines. Pull in your quills, both of you. We’ve got serious matters afoot.”
Serious matters, indeed. Luc filled Creed and Yvonne in on the few things they didn’t know, including the wolves who were supposed to meet them here.
“Lycanthropes? Here?” Creed looked astonished.
“You’ll probably only meet my mother,” Dani hastened to assure him. “I doubt she’d bring the whole pack up here.”
“I’m sure she won’t. This isn’t the sort of place your pack would like, being so high.”
She was surprised he knew that. “How much do you know about us? I mean them.”
“Little enough. We try not to cross paths. Well, this is certainly a curious development.”
Dani flushed. “It was all I could think of. There are only three of you.”
“Oh, I’m not objecting. We need all the help we can get. I just never thought I’d see the day.”
“The day is today,” Luc said with a shrug. “They’re out gathering intelligence right now. It would be nice not to be guessing what we’ll face when we go after the rogues.”
“Certainly. That always helps.”
Then Luc looked at Dani and for the first time in hours she saw genuine concern on his face. “We have a problem, however. If the pack comes here after dawn, someone needs to meet them. And there is only one who can.”
Dani lifted her chin. “Of course I’ll meet them. Why is that a problem?”
“Because there will be no one to watch over you in the meantime, little wolf. No one at all.”
“She should be safe,” Creed objected. “My scent is all over this place, and the rogues have no reason to be interested in me yet.”
“Ah,” said Luc, “but now my scent is here, as well. And I have given them ample reason to loathe me.”
Dani’s fears clawed their way to the surface again, but she hoped they didn’t show. Something in Luc’s withdrawal, after he had been so kind to her, had stiffened her in some way. She was not going to lean on that damn vampire any more than she absolutely had to.
“If the rogues show up I can wake you, right?”
“Only if you have time.”
“Well, what the hell do you want me to do about it, Luc? You can’t stay awake, and someone has to be here to greet my mother and find out what the pack has learned, and that leaves me, the only person they’ll trust. And you’re forgetting something: the rogues can’t run around after dawn, either. So what do you fear?”
He didn’t answer and she knew she had him dead to rights. He still didn’t look any less tense, though. Something was worrying him, most definitely.
Creed rose and reached for Yvonne’s hand. “Dawn approaches. Don’t be too long, Luc.”
The two of them disappeared
into the bedroom, closing the door quietly.
That left Luc and Dani utterly alone. Uncomfortable, she rose and went to stand before the huge windows, wrapping her arms around herself, seeking some kind of comfort. Not even if she strained could she tell that dawn was arriving.
“How do you know?” she asked finally.
“Know what?”
“That dawn is approaching? Or when to wake?”
“I don’t know. I can tell the sun is about to rise because the back of my neck prickles with warning. It grows more pronounced the closer daybreak comes.”
“And waking in those dark rooms?”
“Again, I don’t know. Evidently we sense a rhythm to the days, conscious or not, visible or not.”
“I see.” Finally she turned to face him, because she had to know what was going on, no matter the price. “Luc, what’s wrong? I get the feeling you hate me. Are you mad at me?”
He hesitated. “I certainly don’t hate you, Dani. And I’m not even angry now. But your pack has come. They’ll take you home with them, as they should.”
Her jaw dropped a little. “That’s my decision, not theirs. And I can’t go back. I don’t belong there.”
“But do you belong here?”
Her impulse was to respond that she did, but she smothered the words because she didn’t know what was going on with him. Finally she settled on something reasonably safe. “I belong here now more than I belong there. I know that much.”
He tilted his head, then faster than she could see he approached until he stood inches away. Reaching out, he lifted her crystal wolf’s head necklace, moving it so that it caught and splintered the light into rainbows. As if he was pondering a mystery, or reminding himself of something. She wished she knew which. Then he lifted her chin with his finger so their gazes met.
“A long, long time ago, I was a fool and made a choice I regretted often. To save my own skin, which is sometimes not a very good reason, little wolf.”
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“I have seen the darkest parts of my nature. For a while I even reveled in them because I had neither the desire nor strength to fight them. I was a monster, Dani.”
She felt her heart accelerating with dread. Did she want to know this? But she felt she had to. That he needed her to know.
“I was everything your pack taught you my kind are. Everything.”
“I guessed,” she whispered. “When you talked of newborns.”
“Obviously I was one of them.”
“What happened?”
“Well, it was not all some wonderful revelation of conscience, although conscience began to play a role. It was also a need for self-preservation. Jude is quite right. If we don’t control ourselves, we can’t be safe. Humans will find a way to exterminate us. So again, the desire to save myself led me down a different path.”
“I understand.”
“You can’t possibly understand. You’ve never faced such choices. You’ve never done such things. But at heart I am a monster. You need to know that.”
She swallowed hard, but she wasn’t feeling any fear. Instead, she was feeling an unexpected, strong sympathy.
“Then I met Natasha, my claimed mate. We lived together for just over fifty years and it was a joyous time, a joy I certainly didn’t deserve.”
“What happened?”
His face darkened and creased with pain. “There is nothing for a vampire that is quite like the wonder, the joy, the exquisite desire and satisfaction that comes from sharing intimacy with a human. It is not even the same with another vampire.”
“Oh.” Her heart tripped and then sped up, but for an entirely different reason.
His finger left her chin and ran down her throat to the pulse that raced there. “I can feel your desire for me. I can smell it. I feel the same, ma belle. The same and more.”
She cleared her throat, struggling to keep her mind clear. “Natasha?” she reminded him.
“She thought to give me a gift. A great gift since I was true to her at all times. A demon enticed her and changed her back to human form.”
Dani gasped.
“If you come into my world any further, little wolf, you’ll find things you never dreamed existed.” He sighed and took his finger from the pulse in her throat. She felt abandoned.
“Dani, I was horrified that she had done such a thing. I got angry, telling her that she was perfect for me as she had been, that I wanted no human, I just wanted her. And I was so angry she had made a deal with a demon. I couldn’t imagine what she had bargained away to achieve this.”
“Then?”
“She jumped from the window of our home, killing herself. She realized she had been seduced by a demon’s promises and… I am not sure how much my reaction played into what she did. I blame myself.”
“Oh, Luc, I’m so sorry!”
He shook his head. “It’s done. There’s more you need to understand. I had claimed her. For us that means something much more than love. When a vampire claims, it is beyond love and well into obsession. Had Natasha left me, I would have followed her to the ends of the earth. Instead, she left me by dying. Unfortunately that didn’t end my obsession. I hunted the demon who had seduced her because my thirst for vengeance knew no bounds. I was, as Chloe told you the first night, insane.”
“Did you get vengeance?”
“I thought so. But for nearly a year now I’ve been wandering from place to place, living only to choose the time and manner of my death. For if vengeance doesn’t end a claiming, only death will.”
Dani’s heart seemed to be shattering. That he had loved Natasha that much overwhelmed her. He couldn’t possibly have space in his life or heart for anything else. Hadn’t he as much as said so? “Do you still want to die?”
“Oddly, little wolf, that desire has left me. Since I met you.”
At that, everything inside her seemed to leap, even as some wise part of her brain reminded her that she didn’t know enough yet to understand what she was getting into.
“I am not happy about this,” he told her bluntly. “I do not want to care again, but care again I do. I told you we were playing with a fire you cannot imagine. What if I claim you, Dani? Will that content you or frighten you? Will I once again wind up wandering in search of my own death as I try to stay away from you? I don’t know.”
His eyes darkened. “I am quite sure, however, that you are not sure. So I will back away while we can still both escape.”
Then he lifted his head. “It is time.”
With that, he turned and disappeared into Creed’s bedroom. This time the door closed firmly and she heard locks thud into place.
She stood frozen, her mind jumping in a dozen different directions at once as she tried to absorb everything he had told her. One thing she was sure about: he was warning her.
But warning her of what? That he might become obsessed with her? From what he had said, that was a pretty big deal, and it might be cruel of her to even flirt with the possibility. Did she really want Luc to be left insane or so desolate that only death offered him any hope of release?
No. Of course not. That would be cruel beyond bearing. So he was right, they had to keep a distance that left them both free. Except the thought of that distance, which she had barely tasted tonight, caused her a pain so deep she felt it to her very soul.
How could she have become attached so fast to a vampire? Maybe her mother was right. Maybe he had cast some spell over her.
But even as she considered it, she knew that wasn’t true. Here he was, backing away to protect them both from an obsession he evidently wouldn’t be able to control.
Trying to save her from himself and what he might become. To give her freedom to leave before he couldn’t let her go.
It simply wasn’t adding up. None of it. If he was worried about claiming her, then perhaps he was feeling the initial stirrings of the obsession.
If so, was there anything she could do to prevent it? Leaving
him might not stop whatever was going on.
God, she wished she had someone to talk to who could explain.
Just then the door of the condo opened and Jude slipped in. “Made it just in time,” he said with a smile. “Everything okay?”
“Yes. Terri?”
“She’s safe. Any vampire who doesn’t want to face the sun is going to ground now. Your pack?”
“I haven’t heard.”
He nodded and started for the door of the bedroom.
“Jude? A second?”
He paused. “I don’t have many of them. Quickly.”
“Why is Luc afraid of a claiming? How bad is it, really?”
“He’s afraid because he did it once. Only he knows how much pain he experienced when Natasha died.”
“But is it so much worse than love?”
“Yes.” He faced her, eyes darkening. “We all try to avoid it, Dani. All of us. But sometimes it just happens.”
“Why avoid it?”
“Consider. I have claimed Terri. If she were to leave me for any reason I would have two choices. I would either hound her to the ends of the earth no matter where she went, or I would have to die to set her free. Luc is right to be concerned. And if you care for him, heed that concern.”
“So I should go back with my pack?”
“I didn’t say that.” He gave her a crooked smile. “I tried to avoid claiming Terri. It didn’t work. And I’m the happiest vampire on the planet now. Just be very, very sure of what you want before you encourage him further. Good night.”
He slipped a key card into the door of the bedroom and vanished inside. Once again she heard it lock.
She turned again and saw the very first faint lightening of the sky. Her heart ached, full of unhappy knowledge, but her body ached, as well. Staring out over the awakening city, she felt the ceaseless throb of desire for Luc, as if he had infected her somehow. He didn’t even have to be there to make her want him with every fiber and cell.
Alone and disturbed, she watched the city brighten.
The day yawned before her endlessly.
