“Those aren’t mine.”
“I know. But they should fit.”
“Are you joining me?” Bleu pushed the covers aside and dangled her legs over the side of the bed.
“No. I’m going down for my debriefing. You’ve got an hour to get ready.”
He kissed her on the forehead, then left the room.
She showered and dressed in the clothes he’d set out for her. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to stay put in the room, or if she was allowed to leave it. Her indecision became moot when someone knocked at the door. Cautious, she walked over and listened for a few seconds. “Who is it?” she called when she didn’t hear anything.
“My name is Sydney. I thought you could use some company.”
Bleu opened the door and was a little surprised. A girl stood there, brown skinned like she was, and smiling. “It’s a bit overwhelming here. At least, I was overwhelmed my first time. But you studied under Gaia Knight, so maybe you’re not so surprised by this place.”
Bleu smiled back at the girl. She couldn’t help it. “No. This is my first time at a motherhouse. And that man who came to get us.” Bleu shook her head. “He looked like a viking or something.”
“Alaric.”
Bleu noticed the smile grew on Sydney’s face at the mention of the man’s name.
“He’s a Barbarian,” Sydney said. “Well, he was when he was made.”
“A Barbarian. Like from the past? That must mean he’s—”
“Very old,” Sydney finished. “Are you hungry?”
“There’s food here? But if you’re all vampires…”
“We can eat. And we often have guest who eat.”
Bleu studied the girl, from her bright eyes to her long, dark hair.She was slender and dressed in jeans and sneakers. She seemed ordinary enough, but if she were here, she was anything but ordinary.
“Are you…a vampire?” Bleu asked
“A baby.” Sydney grinned.
“A baby? Does that mean you’re newly made?”
“Yep. Come on.” Sydney motioned her forward. “It’s a long story.”
They walked from the bedroom, down a hallway. The walls were stark white and the carpet was thick and plush. They walked to an elevator at the end of the hall. Sydney pressed the down button, then they waited.
Sydney told Bleu about the vampire Saul as they’d descended in the elevator. She told Bleu about his war against the Talhari, and that Saul had made her a vampire, hoping to break Alaric. “In the end, we managed to run him off, but I’m not sure how long it’ll be before he tries again. A lot of people died that night. And I know he hasn’t given up.”
“The first vampire,” Bleu said. “Somehow, I never thought about if there was a first. But he’s real?”
“He’s real and deadly. I kinda like having Gaia around right now. I’m hoping the elders can convince her to stick around a while.”
From the elevator, they walked through a library that had to stretch at least four stories high. People walked in and out of the large space, some were settled at tables, reading. It seemed so ordinary. But all of these people must be vampires.
“Are you sure you’re not hungry?” Sydney asked as they left the library.
“I’m sure. I have no appetite.”
“They’ll hold off questioning you if you need to eat.”
Bleu shook her head. “I just want to get it over with.”
“Don’t blame you.” The girl squeezed Sydney’s shoulder. “Just tell the truth. From what I’ve heard, you haven’t done anything wrong.”
They turned a corner. At the end of the hall was a wooden door. It was closed, but it seemed ominous.
“I’ve gotta do it now, don’t I?” Bleu asked.
“Umberto is in there. All of Forsaken are in there, so you’ll see familiar faces.”
Bleu sucked in a breath. “I was stalking them. I was supposed to kill them.”
“I know. But you didn’t. That means something.”
Bleu didn’t think it meant much. They didn’t know that when it came down to it, she didn’t think she would have been able to kill Umberto or anyone else. “I’m ready,” she said.
Sydney walked her down the hall. The floor was wooden, and Bleu’s shoes clip clopped as she went. The sound seemed to echo off the walls and ceiling.
When they got to the door, Sydney knocked three times.
“Come in,” a voice from inside called out.
And Bleu went in.
Alone.
Scared.
CHAPTER EIGHT
She stepped into the room, felt the door shut behind her. She didn’t move. She scanned the faces of everyone. They were all seated at a long, wooden table, facing her. Alaric was on one end of the table. Beside him was a man with long dark hair, a brown skinned man pale blue eyes and long, braided hair, a blonde female, and a small black female with long, straight hair. Umberto was near the center of the table, beside him were Erik, Dario, Mathias. They were a tough looking bunch. Bleu felt her legs wobble. She was strong, but if push came to shove, she was no match for so many vampires.
The was a raised platform behind the table, and another, smaller table. Two men sat at the table and a woman. Her breath caught when she saw the woman.
“Gaia,” she said, in a whisper.
Gaia didn’t look at her. She was busy talking to the man on her left. Bleu wondered if these men were the elders. But that couldn’t be right. Why would Gaia be sitting with the elders?
“Come in. Please sit,” Gaia said.
She motioned toward a single chair set on the opposite side of the table. It put Bleu across from Alaric, a spot she didn’t want to be in.
She looked at Umberto, wishing she could sit closer to him.
He nodded at her, gave her a half smile. So she forced her legs to move. One step. Two. Three. Four. Eventually she was at the chair. She had to force herself to sit.
“We want to know what happened,” Gaia said. “Get your side of the story.”
The man beside Gaia cleared his throat. “We’ve already heard from the members of Forsaken. Yours is the last testimony we need to hear.”
“Uh…where should I start?”
“I don’t want to do it this way.” Alaric turned to face Gaia. “She’s terrified. Can’t you see that?”
“Alaric—”
Alaric turned back to face Bleu. “Nick and Kyle spotted you when you were with Gaia, after they had taken on the job of killing the members of Forsaken. It was just an odd coincidence that led them to you. You were at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Bleu shook her head. “They were watching me? But why me?”
“You have to ask?” Umberto said.
Bleu touched her face. “Because of her,” she said. “Because I look like her.”
“Because you are her,” Umberto corrected.
“Nick and Kyle had studied all of Forsaken,” Alaric said, “and they knew Umberto had lost his wife. They’d seen paintings of her. So when they saw you, Bleu, they knew they could use you to get to Umberto. And they thought maybe if they got Umberto, they could get the others, too.”
“But how?” Bleu said.
“That night in Paris,” Gaia said. “I only left the room for a few hours—”
“Nick and Kyle came,” Bleu said. “They said they were Talhari and I’d been given my first assignment.They said Gaia had moved on to her next trainee; that I wouldn’t see her again for a while. And I went with them. It never occurred to me they were lying. They knew everything about the Talhari that Gaia had told me. Why wouldn’t I believe them?”
“Nobody is doubting that,” Alaric said. “They took you from us after Gaia had spent so long training and readying you.”
“What happened after this?” one of the men beside Gaia asked.
“We went to New York. They told me what my assignment was, but said I needed to be stronger for it. So they enhanced me. I got Intel-S. The surgery was fast, but it took
me a full week to learn how to walk and talk again. After that, we spent two weeks in New York, me learning Maven’s music. Then we were on the road. The…” I looked at Umberto. “The kill wasn’t supposed to go down immediately. They wanted a few weeks to go by so Forsaken would get into a groove. Get comfortable. Nick said he wanted them to be surprised when we attacked. And I was supposed to…” again, she paused. “I was supposed to seduce Umberto.” She looked down at her palms. “Make him want me.” She stopped to catch her breath. Still looking down at her hands she said, “I’m sorry, Umberto. I didn’t know you when I took the assignment.”
“I know,” he said.
“And they knew,” said Alaric, “that it wouldn’t be seduction. They were counting on the fact that Umberto would take one look at you and fall in love.”
She nodded. “Probably. But I didn’t know it at the time. I had no idea I looked like her.”
“Stop saying that,” Umberto said. “You are here. You don’t just look like her.”
“So what happened?” Alaric asked “What went wrong?”
She told them about the day the kill was supposed to happen, then about meeting Umberto on the side of the stage. She didn’t go into details about what they’d done there, but explained that the culmination of that meeting had been her unconscious and being carried away. “I slept past the attack. I didn’t wake up until after it had happened.” And then she told them about the fight, about seeing Nick’s true form, about Nick and Kyle’s deaths. “I had no idea.” She paused to take a sip of water. “They were going to make me into that. Into one of those things. And I nearly let them.”
“You were never in any danger,” Umberto said. “When I met you—”
“He became your instant savior,” Erik said. “He was determined to rescue you.”
“Still. I shouldn’t have been so gullible.”
“When I got back to the room, you were gone. I tried to find you.” Gaia shook her head. “When I didn’t, I went to the Paris motherhouse and told them what happened.”
“Every Talhari motherhouse was alerted,” Alaric said.
“Yeah,” said Erik, “So even if Umberto hadn’t recognized you as his lost wife, we would have recognized you from the alert.”
“Once we found you,” said Umberto, “you were never in any danger.”
Bleu looked around the room, unsure if she should believe them.
“You’re not in trouble,” Gaia said. “And the threat is gone. At least from that group.”
“Now the question is, how many more groups like that are out there,” said Alaric. “And are they connected with Saul?”
“The first vampire?” Bleu asked.
“Yes.”
“We have a proposition for you,” Gaia said. “Stay here with us. Help us to find the others.”
“Stay here?” Bleu asked. “But I’m…I didn’t think I was…”
“You’re one of us. I trained you myself. And now, that Intel-S has given you abilities the rest of us don’t have.”
“But it’s forbidden.”
“It is,” Alaric said. “And you had no choice.”
“They want you to join the band,” Erik said.
“Yes. Continue the tour after we’ve eliminated the threat of Saul. As you travel and find rogues,” Alaric said. “Destroy them.”
She looked at Umberto, then the rest of Forsaken. “I can’t just join the band?”
“It’s all right,” Dario said simply. “You’re one of us now.”
CHAPTER NINE
Bleu stood in a lavish bedroom beside a wall to ceiling window. Night had fallen in Virginia, but the property they were on was lit up and active. With the window open, she could hear people outside talking. When she’d come up, the library had been nearly empty, just one person at a table reading, but the rest of the house had been active. This reminded her a bit of being back at college when she’d moved off campus to the sorority house. Only this house was filled with vampires instead of sorority girls.
“Are you all right?”
She turned, smiled when she saw Umberto standing in the doorway. “I thought they were going to imprison me, or at least punish me.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.” Umberto stepped fully into the room and closed the door. He was dressed more formally than usual. But in black slacks and a black button up shirt, he look every bit as sexy as he did in his rock star garb. “And now all of that is finished and you’re Talhari now. Well…almost.”
“Almost?”
“You have that Intel-S, which is good enough for the order, but it’s not good enough for me.” He shrugged. “You’re still mortal. Damn hard to kill, but mortal. You need to be like the rest of us.”
The breath caught in the back of Bleu’s throat. “A vampire?”
Umberto came closer, slowly closing the distance between them. “Yep.”
“My life will change.”
“Yes. But not in the way you think. We’re not cursed the way blood drinkers are. No Talhari has taken a human life. So we can walk in daylight, we can eat if we’re trying to blend in, but we don’t require food. We can walk in churches and touch holy objects, because we aren’t cursed. And most importantly, you and I will never be separated again. Until we step in the fire together and end our lives.
So it was the curse that made the difference, taking a human life. In truth, though, none of that mattered. If Umberto wanted her to become a vampire, she would become a vampire. Her years of training, her need to be a CHI, all of it was drowned in her desire for him. Maybe this was what her life had been building to all along. She couldn’t know.
He reached for her, cupped her face in his hands. Face somber, he studied her features. “You know what I want.”
It wasn’t a question, but a statement. Nevertheless, she nodded. “You want me to stay with you.”
“For all eternity.”
She nodded. “I want to be with you.”
He ran his fingers over her shoulders, his touch so gentle that it could have been the brush of wind.
She shivered, let her head drop back to expose her throat. “Take me, Umberto.”
He made no move to obey, but continued to stroke her. Her arms, the tip of one nipple, her stomach, his fingers glided over her as though they were hungry for the feel of her skin.
“After tonight, there’s no going back,” he said, nuzzling her throat.
She exhaled heavily when his lips brushed the underside of her chin, shivered when the edge of a fang scraped gently over her artery. “Yes. Please. I don’t need another day.”
He lifted her and carried her to the bed. Her body sank into the mattress beneath him. With a moan, she hugged him closer, arching her head further to expose more of her throat.
“You want me, Bleu?”
“Yes.”
“Forever?”
She gazed into his eyes, hoping he’d be able to see into her soul and know this was what she wanted.
“Please.”
He released her, pushed off the bed, and was standing before she had a chance to tighten her hold on him.
“Hush,” he said when she opened her mouth to complain. With a smile that sent a delicious thrill through her, he kicked off his shoes, then he unfastened his pants, let them slide down his legs, and stepped out of them. She’d never seen him naked in full light, had never known how truly perfectly his body was.
“I can see my body pleases you.” He knelt on the bed and gazed down at her.
His skin was flushed, his lips full and red. Though his fangs were clearly visible and his eyes more red than brown, she felt no fear. “You’re the one who’s beautiful.”
Moving slowly, he bent over her and crushed her into the mattress beneath him.
“I’ll always love you,” he promised.
She hiccuped when he sucked her earlobe into his mouth and licked. “For all eternity.” He licked her from her ear to her neck. “I knew you’d love me too, eventually. Even if I had
to capture you and seduce you to make it happen.” He smiled.
She touched him, ran her fingers over his back, down his spine and cupped his buttocks in her palms, urging him closer. “Take me, Umberto.”
He edged her thighs wide with his knee. The moment she felt him between her legs she shivered.
“From this moment on, you belong to me,” he said.
She cried out when his fangs sank into her throat, closed her eyes when he fastened his lips to her skin and began to suckle.
The pleasure nearly leveled her. She clung to the mattress, panted into his hair. Hunger flowed over her like warm cream. She didn’t know whether it was his pheromones, her desire, or both, but she wanted him with a desperation that stunned her.
He reared back so fast she’d barely seen him move. In the next instant, his wrist was at her mouth and his blood was dripping between her lips. He cradled her head, urging her gently to swallow. And she did.
She felt him ease back, held her breath when he paused for torturous seconds, then cried out in pleasure when he thrust inside of her.
He growled, clasped her hands and entwined his fingers with hers, then set a rhythm that pushed her nearer to the edge.
She clung to him, dug her nails into his hands even as he forced her hands against the mattress.
He arched back to stare at her. She should have been terrified by his blood red gaze, disturbed by the trace of blood—her blood—on his fangs, but she wasn’t. Desire, need, and surrender were what she felt. She was Umberto’s, now and forever.
“Umberto,” she moaned. His lips were like fine wine, his passion nearly too much. Every touch, every new sensation brought her to a higher level of ecstasy. She was mindless with passion, drunk with desire.
When he sank into her core and pulsed, she lost the last bit of control and soared over the edge.
She bucked under the force of her release, clung to him and breathed his name into the air. Only when she felt her body dissolving, felt her climax dissipating did she realize that Umberto had reached his peak, too.
Panting, he collapsed on top of her.
The soft pink glow of the sun was visible on the horizon when he began to move again. He rose from the bed, damp with her sweat but more handsome than she had words to describe. With a smile, he held his hand out to her. “For the rest of my life I want to share every day with you.”
Outlaw (A Tale of the Talhari Book 2) Page 7
