by Amira Rain
Nick gave me another one of his small smiles, curving the edges of his full lips just a few degrees. “It’s okay. You’re a human woman, and there is nothing babyish about being afraid of a vampire that you don’t know. Nothing. In fact, I admire you for trying to be so tough about concealing your fear.
“You don't have to be tough any more, though. I want to help you, not hurt you, and in return, I hope you’ll help me in return. So, from now on, just tell me if you’re feeling scared. The two of us are in this thing together, or we could be. Deal?”
My relief had turned to revulsion while I'd been listening to his words. The two of us were certainly not in “this thing,” whatever it was, together. One of us was a murderer, if not directly, then indirectly.
However, knowing that I needed to play along, I nodded, then forced myself to give Nick one of his small smiles in return. “Deal. I’ll try to be more honest with you if I start to feel afraid of you again. I’ll try not to be so tough.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear that. I want you to also feel free to ask me any questions you want to…because it seems like there’s one pretty obvious one that you should be asking, although maybe you’ve been too afraid to ask me.”
“Well…what question would that be?”
I was kind of curious.
With his full lips twitching, Nick cocked one dark brow just a degree or two. “Well…aren’t you the least bit curious about why we Everglen Coven vampires need to have children? Or why we can't just ‘create’ children by turning human children into vampires? You haven’t asked either of these questions, and you haven’t even asked how it’s possible that we could impregnate a human woman.”
As far as this last question, I hadn’t been aware that they could. I’d assumed they were impregnating their female vampire counterparts. But as far as the other questions, Nick clearly didn’t know the full extent of my involvement with the Dormio Coven. If he had, he would have assumed that I’d simply been told all these things.
Nonetheless, this was good news for me because maybe Nick would never suspect me of being a would-be assassin, I figured. Also, I now had the chance to ask him a few things and earn his trust.
To this end, I forced myself to give Nick another little smile, at the same time fighting disgust at myself because the sun was streaming through the windows again, making his dark gray eyes appear positively dazzling, and I couldn't seem to help myself from appreciating them. “Oh, of course. I feel so stupid now that I didn’t ask those questions earlier. To be honest, though, I have been kind of wondering how it’s possible that a vampire could get a human woman pregnant, but….” I turned my gaze away from Nick’s face, really getting into my completely innocent woman act now. “Maybe I’m just a little shy when it comes to questions about reproduction and….”
“And sex?”
Nick reached for one of my hands and gave it a squeeze, stunning me for the second time in as many moments. The first time had been when he’d just come right out and said sex, no euphemistic phrases like “sleeping together” or “making love.” For some reason, his unabashed manner of speaking made a little heat rise to my cheeks, and I kept my gaze turned away from his face, now truly feeling a bit shy, or hesitant. Or something else that I couldn't even identify.
Nick gave my hand another squeeze before speaking again. “Tiffany, like I said earlier, I’m here to help you, and I want to be your friend…hopefully a very good friend at some point. Please don't ever feel shy about discussing sex with me. You can discuss literally anything with me.”
With my mind reeling, all I could think about was what on earth Nick might mean by saying that he wanted to become “a very good friend” to me. Almost against my will, I wondered if that very good friendship might include bedroom activities.
CHAPTER FIVE
Nick’s cryptic comments hung in the air for just a split-second. Then, face flaming, I suddenly choked a little, seemingly on thin air. Now that he’d said what he had about wanting to become my “very good friend,” I just couldn’t turn my gaze to his face for some reason. I couldn’t have done so even if my life had depended on it. I felt somehow naked and exposed, even though I was fully clothed.
Without missing a beat, he gave my hand another gentle squeeze but didn’t say anything further. With my stomach doing a wild flip because of his touch, as if I were on a roller coaster, I turned my gaze from Nick to a plush, cream-colored rug on the floor. And when I spoke, my voice came out in a cross between a whisper and a squeak.
“I think I might like it if we became very good friends.”
Even though I still had no idea what that meant.
With my face feeling as if it were engulfed in flames, I moved my face just a degree or two toward Nick, sensing him looking at me intently but still determined not to look directly at him. “Yes…I think I might like it if we became very good friends…maybe.”
Nick was still holding one of my hands, and his touch almost made me want to yell yes, that I’d love to be his “very good friend.” I hadn’t forgotten that I intended to kill him, though. And I also wondered just what in the hell he meant by “very good friend,” so finally, I just came right out and asked him.
He took a deep breath before responding. “In the interest of time, and government guards probably soon waking up, I’ll try to make this ‘friendship’ offer as brief as possible. In short, I know you have the were-gene, and I know that’s why the government abducted you and has been holding you here. I also know that you’d probably like to be free. Is this correct?”
I still couldn’t look directly at him. I could, however, see the outline of his long, lean, muscular body crouched down beside me in my peripheral vision, and the sight of it was serving to increase my dizziness. Also, he was still holding my hand and was now caressing the back of it very lightly with his thumb.
This action, combined with the sound of his deep voice, had me under such a sensuous spell that I couldn't remember exactly how I was supposed to be acting, or even why I was supposed to be acting. All I knew was that I wanted to say yes to whatever Nick wanted me to eventually say yes to. All I knew was that I wanted to sleep with Nick and have him bring me to the powerful orgasm that something just told me he could.
In my whole life, I’d actually never had an orgasm that I would have described as “powerful.” Maybe “satisfactory.” James had been a decent enough lover, I supposed, but I’d certainly never seen stars with him before. Sometimes I’d even had to make myself issue a faux moan here and there, just so that his ego wouldn’t be bruised by complete silence on my end during some of our lovemaking sessions.
During the entire course of our relationship, he’d never once asked me if I was happy and satisfied in bed. However, to be fair, I’d never asked him, either. I’d always just figured that since he always climaxed, even when I didn’t, he must have been at least fairly happy with things.
While I tried to ignore the effect that Nick’s caressing of my hand was having on me, he continued.
“Now, as far as what I want, to be perfectly blunt, I want to have a child with a woman who possesses the were-gene. You’re the only woman I’ve ever met who has it. I want to have a vamp-wolf hybrid child who will be the most powerful supernatural creature the world has ever seen. I want this child to help defend my people from the government and the Dormio Coven in the coming years.”
I knew what was coming next, and I wasn’t wrong.
“If I take you away from this secret government prison, Tiffany, will you agree to come to Everglen with me and try to conceive a child with me? You could live in my home indefinitely, safe from the government, and we could raise the child together. In exchange, I’ll keep you and our child safe, always.”
Mind reeling, I didn’t speak right away, and Nick spoke again.
“The government will never stop hunting you, you know…but my people and I can keep you safe. Just say yes, that you’ll go to Everglen with me and try to conceive a child w
ith me.”
I realized that with his seeming compassion, his low, tender voice, and his caressing my hand, Nick was probably trying to manipulate me, and that maybe the stern man who’d first entered my apartment was more like who he usually was. However, I also realized that going to Everglen with Nick would give me the perfect opportunity to execute my plan of revenge.
Additionally, I realized that I really didn’t have much of a choice. If I refused Nick’s offer, he could take me to Everglen anyway, by force, I was sure. And even if he didn’t, I’d still be a captive of the government, kept as a prisoner indefinitely. I knew there was a chance they might even try to kill me at some point.
As if reading my thoughts, Nick soon made comment on this. “I’ve heard things, Tiffany…things about how they might just simply kill you one day. They can’t figure out what else to do with you, but they don’t want to ever release you. At the same time, they’re concerned about what might happen if they continue to hold you as a captive and you get your powers back. They know that you’re some sort of a witch who only lost her powers because of a car accident. They know it’s possible that your powers might return someday, and they’re afraid that this could lead to you escaping them.”
Finally, having made up my mind, I shifted my gaze to Nick’s face. “I’ll go with you to Everglen…and I’ll agree to sleep with you and try to conceive a child.”
I could only hope that wouldn’t happen before I got a chance to execute my revenge plan against Nick.
In response to what I’d said, Nick took my hand firmly and got to his feet, looking visibly relieved. “Good. Thank you. I promise that you won’t regret agreeing to this arrangement. I’ll get you out of here and keep you safe, and I’ll make sure that our efforts to conceive a child are very…” Pulling me up from the overstuffed chair, he paused in what he was saying, seeming to be having difficulty maintaining eye contact with me, “satisfying for you.”
A little shocked by what he’d just said, although undeniably excited, I couldn’t prevent my rate of breathing from accelerating, and it hit me all at once that I was no longer even remotely playing a part in order to get revenge. I wanted Nick badly, so badly that my desire for him had suddenly pushed all thoughts of my murdered coven to the back of my mind. This was shameful, I knew. It was beyond shameful.
But I could tell that fighting my body’s urges around Nick was going to be an uphill battle. Not like I actually had a choice whether to fight them or not. I knew that going to Evergreen with him was going to require me to literally sleep with the enemy. Maybe many, many times, I thought, as I stifled a sigh of pleasure upon catching a whiff of Nick’s masculine, woodsy scent.
After looking into my eyes for a long moment, as if to make certain that I was really going to go to Everglen with him, Nick gave my hand another squeeze. “Come on. Let’s make our escape while we still can. We’ve got to get past all the still-hopefully-knocked-out guards and onto the street before they wake up. From there, we’ll walk to see a friend of mine who lives just a few blocks away. He’ll lend us a car so that we can drive north to Everglen with all speed.”
I said okay, and Nick began leading me out of the apartment but soon paused.
“Do you have another sock and some shoes to put on?”
I’d completely forgotten that I was currently wearing only one sock.
Deeply embarrassed, I shook my head. “My other socks are being washed, and they took my shoes away because I tried to use them as weapons. I only have a pair of fuzzy slippers now.”
Wearing an expression of faint amusement, Nick said that was fine. “Go grab them. I’m sure people living in Detroit have seen stranger things than a woman walking down the street wearing slippers.”
I was sure he was right, and I dashed away to go grab mine, feeling a distinct pang of regret when I had to pull my hand free from Nick’s to do so.
*
Everglen was a lovely city, something like a smaller, much cleaner Detroit, with shorter, newer buildings and much less congested traffic downtown. As Nick had said, the city was literally hidden among miles of forest land in the north of the state. When he’d told me that we’d arrived, all I could see was a long row of trees. He’d had to perform some kind of enchantment to pull me through them and into the city, saying that that was the only way that non-vampires could get in.
After a short walk, during which many people greeted him as Commander Alexander, he led me inside a twelve-story building made of gleaming glass and steel. “This will be your new home now. It’s a residential building for me, my advisors, and my ‘inner circle’ coven members. For now, you can have an apartment on the eleventh floor. Mine is on the twelfth. Maybe in time, though, once you feel comfortable, we can both live in my apartment together, for convenience’s sake.”
Because we’ll be sleeping together frequently in order to make a baby, I thought, experiencing a little thrill at the thought. However, I hoped that I wouldn’t get pregnant before I did what I needed to do to avenge my coven. If I did, though, I wasn’t too concerned. In that case, I’d just make an escape out of Everglen with my baby, telling him or her later that their father had been a bad man who’d hurt mom’s coven, and that was why he wasn’t in our lives.
Once he’d led me up to what would be my gorgeous new apartment, which offered breathtaking views of the city, Nick went out to the spacious kitchen, alone, and made a call to someone -- I didn’t know who -- to ask them to bring up some things for me. Just a short while later, several older women, whom I could only guess were in Nick’s employ in some capacity, began bringing up groceries, clothes, and other things I needed in my new home, since of course, I’d arrived with just the clothes on my back, literally.
My clothes and my fuzzy, sky blue slippers, anyway. To my chagrin, I’d noticed some funny looks at them while Nick and I had been walking to the building.
While my fully-furnished new apartment was being filled with all manner of stuff, Nick and I had a seat together on a long, sand-colored couch in the living room, and I thanked him for providing me with all the possessions I’d need.
“And thank you for breaking me out of ‘government jail,’ too.”
With a small smile, he told me not to mention it. “It’s the least I can do…for what you’ve agreed to do for me. Maybe we can even start on that later if you feel ready to…maybe after some dinner in your new dining room. We don’t have much in the way of restaurants here in Everglen, on account of most of us residents being vampires and not having a need to eat regular food.
“We do have some human residents, though, so we have a few little grocery stores and restaurants. I can have one of them send up something for you to eat. I’ll even have something with you, too. Even though vampires can’t eat regular food, many of us can drink alcohol, and I’m one of them. Maybe we can share a drink or two.”
I really hadn’t heard much Nick had said after he’d suggested that maybe we start our baby-making activities “later on.” Somewhat to my surprise, I felt that I was more than ready to. Even just looking at him sitting next to me on the couch, I was experiencing something that felt a lot like mild arousal. This feeling intensified when, in response to me agreeing to have dinner and drinks with him, Nick took my hand and began tracing slow circles on the back of it with his thumb.
I was actually starting to have thoughts that maybe we’d just skip dinner and drinks altogether. Maybe once his three employees left, I’d just ask him to kiss me, and we’d just get right into things. I was starting to think that I wanted nothing more.
However, to my disappointment, right after the women had left the apartment, a large cellular telephone that Nick had brought up with him began ringing. The thing really was a marvel, not having any cords or cables at all, and even though Nick had shown it to me when he’d picked it up on the ground floor of the building, it still surprised me just to hear it ring.
One of the women who had filled my new apartment with stuff had brought me u
p a cellular telephone of my own, too, although I wasn’t sure if I’d ever really use it much. Because it was at least the size of a paperback book, with a pull-out antenna at least half a foot long, I’d at least have to find a purse that would fit it.
Without even leaving the couch, Nick answered his cellular telephone, and said “all right” and “I’ll be there” before hanging up by pushing a quarter-sized button that said End Call.
“I’m so sorry, Tiffany, but I’ve got to go, and I probably won’t be back in time to share dinner and drinks with you tonight. A few members of the Dormio Coven, probably spies, have just been spotted not too far outside of Everglen, and I and some of my elite coven members need to go investigate and possibly fight them. Not to mention that even before this, I needed to meet with my advisors and elite coven members and tell them what happened to me weeks ago.
“None of them even know that I was abducted by the government, aided by the Dormios. Last time my people heard from me, I was heading to Detroit to do a bit of spying on one of the Dormios in particular.”
Nick soon left, and I silently cursed the Dormios for interrupting what I had a feeling could have been a very steamy night, and one that I very much needed. But then I remembered that the Dormios weren't my enemies. The man I was so eager to hop in the sack with was my enemy. He was the one responsible for killing my coven family.
John had even suggested once that it had likely been him personally. James hadn’t said that he thought it had, but he had said that he was sure that the slaughter hadn’t happened without the direction or at least approval of the leader of the Everglen Coven.
Once I heard my apartment door close behind Nick, I all but flew up from the couch and began pacing, irate with myself. It was one thing if I basically had to sleep with him to get him to trust me in order for me to accomplish my revenge mission, but wanting to sleep with him was a different thing entirely.
