by Rachel Lee
“I should vacuum up all the salt,” she prattled on. “Change the sheets, air out the incense...”
She jumped as she realized he was standing right in front of her. “Will you stop doing that?”
“What?”
“Moving so fast I can’t see you. I jump every time.”
“Not every time, Schatz,” he said, reaching out to capture a lock of her hair between his fingers. “Are you giving me my walking papers?”
Was she? The thought made her chest tighten and her throat ache. “Well, I don’t need to be guarded anymore, and you have a life and were talking about going back to Cologne. I just assumed...”
“Are you assuming what I want?” he asked silkily. “Or assuming what you think must be?”
Her mouth turned dry as she saw his eyes grow as dark as night. “What are you asking?”
He hesitated. “I’m asking you if you’re telling me to leave.”
“No!” The word popped out of her instantly, without thought. Truth often did that.
“Then perhaps we should talk,” he said quietly. “Can you just talk with me and not buzz around cleaning?”
She bridled. “Of course I can.”
He motioned to the couch and they sat side by side but not touching.
“You’ve seen how I live,” he said after a moment. “Haunting the night, never seeing the sunlight. My friends are limited to a very few I trust. There is nothing normal about my life, as you would think of normal.”
“Normal is a relative term.”
A smile lifted the corners of his mouth, just barely. “Relative indeed. I live a normal life for a vampire. I have a great many things to amuse me and keep me occupied. By contrast, you have an important job, one I am quite convinced you want to keep. You have friends, and I’m sure you couldn’t introduce me to most of them. I’d make them uneasy, even if they never guessed what I am.”
“So?”
“So?” he repeated.
“Look, if you’re trying to find a graceful way to let me down, don’t bother. I know you plan to leave. I know you plan to go back to Cologne. I get it.”
“I don’t think you get it at all.” He lifted her swiftly until she straddled his lap and had to balance herself with her hands on his shoulders. All of a sudden her growing sorrow gave way to the inevitable passion that was never far away when he was close. She wanted him beyond all reason, even now as she believed he was trying to say goodbye.
She saw him smile as he caught scent of her rising desire. It didn’t bother her anymore that he could read her that way. In fact, it heightened her desire for him. There was something to be said for being emotionally exposed. In its own way it was as frighteningly erotic as being bound to her bed.
“Schatz,” he said.
“Yes?”
“I told you about claiming.”
“Yes, and how much you want to avoid it.”
“I’m not sure you fully understand. Claiming is a matter of life and death for me, not just love. I cannot lose what I claim without losing my sanity or my life. It’s an obsession beyond all obsessions. Were I to claim you, I would need you as much as I need food and air to breathe. You see?”
She nodded. “I can see why you don’t want to do that.”
“Ah, Caro, I think I have already done so. The question is whether you want it.”
“You’ve claimed me?” The words rocketed through her like an explosion, bringing a mixture of joy and fear at once. “How did that happen?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. I’m not in control of it. I thought it might be happening, but last night I was certain. I would have died for you.”
“You said so,” she agreed, still trying to absorb this. Her heart thudded so fast now.
“I meant it. That’s when I knew. But it is not yet final. Much as it would be like walking out into the sun, I could still leave you. The pain would be execrable but most likely survivable. So I ask you, do you want my claiming? Think hard, think carefully. Think of what being with me will do to your life, what it may cost you.”
She tried, but it was getting really hard to think. Every bit of her wanted to lean into him and cry, “Take me forever.”
“I can’t go to Cologne,” she said finally, the only shred of reality she seemed able to cling to.
“I’m not asking you to. I can stay here.”
“It’s my job,” she said almost apologetically. “It means a lot to me.”
“I know, my darling Caro. I know. Of the two of us, it is far easier for me to move here. But think carefully, because once I take the final step, I will not willingly let you go ever again.”
It should have sounded like a threat. Instead, it sounded like the promise of paradise. “Really?”
“Really. Think, Caro, please, for both our sakes. This is one time you won’t be able to change your mind later. Well, you will, but if you do, I’ll have no choice but to end my existence. I don’t want that on your conscience.”
Nor did she. So she closed her eyes and tried to think about all of it. She could still be a detective. She could live with his odd hours as she had discovered. And while she was certain she would have to change her life in some ways, none of them seemed all that important.
She opened her eyes and found him waiting, as still as if he were carved from rock.
“It’s not final yet?”
“No. There’s one more step to take. At this moment, painful though it would be, I could still leave.”
She thought about that. “Is this what you want, Damien?”
“It has happened.”
She didn’t like that answer. “What about love? Do you love me or are you just obsessed?”
“Of course I love you!” He seemed startled. “I have claimed you. No claiming occurs without love.”
“It would have been nice if you’d explained that. How was I supposed to know?” But the fears seemed to be fading, and deep inside she felt almost as if she were purring. “I thought I was going to lose you. I’ve been dreading it for days.”
“Schatz, you will never lose me unless you wish it.”
“I love you,” she admitted.
A smile began to widen on his face. “Truly?”
“Truly. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to stand it if you left. Every time I thought about it, I hurt so much.”
He leaned forward and kissed her. “I will never leave unless you tell me to,” he whispered. “I vow it.”
She knew he was one to keep his vows. Sighing, she let go of everything and leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Just one last fear halted her answer. “What happens when I grow old and die? What will you do? I can’t bear to think of you ending your life because of me.”
“Without you I would have no life. But if it worries you so, perhaps one day I can make you like me. It will be up to you.”
She couldn’t deny herself any longer. Selfish or not, the need drove the words out of her. “Claim me, Damien. Claim me, please.”
“No doubts?”
“Not a one.” She was tired of talking. Now she wanted action. He seemed to sense it because the world whirled wildly, then she felt herself lying on her bed. He towered over her, looking like a powerful Teutonic knight, and stripped his clothes so fast she didn’t see it happen except for a quick blur.
He was so beautiful. Head to foot, he was perfect. And he was so ready for her. She started to reach out to touch his staff, to encircle it and claim it for herself, but he stopped her.
Then her own clothes vanished, leaving her utterly naked before him.
“Can I move this time?” she asked, her voice thick with passion.
“Absolutely. Meine Liebe, move all you wish.”
The words set her free. She reached for him, and he lowered himself beside her, for the first time, other than the shower, giving her free rein to discover every inch of him, to stroke him until he groaned and moved restlessly.
It filled her with both joy and power, that the predator lay so tamely beside her, reveling in her touches. That with the gentlest of touches she could make him move so she could explore more, or with equally small touches make him writhe.
But when she at last stopped teasing him and reached for his staff, he suddenly flipped and was on top of her. She gasped, loving the feel of his weight, his hardness along her length, his penis pressing the sensitive tissue between her legs.
“Last chance,” he said, his own voice thick.
“For what?”
“To avoid a final claim.” His eyes were as black as a starless night. “If I drink with you at the same time I am inside you, it will be done. Are you sure?”
She had never been surer of anything in her life. She reached up, drawing his head to her throat. At the same instant she felt him enter her, making her feel so full and so possessed.
She never felt his teeth plunge into her throat, but she knew when it happened anyway.
They became one in that unimaginable way. She felt his heart pounding as if it were her own, felt her blood running in her veins and his. Felt every thrust he made as if she were making it as well as receiving it.
Pleasure doubled, grew, lifting her higher than she’d ever gone, even on the night of the ritual. No longer did she feel as if she were separate in any way. Never had she imagined such a union was possible.
Yet it was. Entirely one body, one heart, one mind, they rose to dizzying heights, and when culmination came, they exploded at the same time.
Together they hovered at the pinnacle of completion, awash in a tide of feelings and sensations that didn’t end.
Love for eternity.
* * *
A week later they had a condo in a building across town. A vampire named Creed Preston and his wife, Yvonne, helped them find it, and Creed helped them make a room that was safe for Damien during the daylight.
Caro was surprised, but apparently money was no object for Damien, so they bought the penthouse, and the work to fix it for him was completed rapidly. They held a small housewarming party, though they hadn’t finished decorating yet, and even Detective Pat Matthews came.
It was night—the city lights glowed beyond walls of windows. Pat drew her aside.
“You look damn happy,” she said.
“I am,” Caro admitted. “Happier than I ever imagined I’d be.”
“Good. Got yourself a bit of a weirdo there, but I like him.”
Caro smothered a smile. “He’s good to me.”
“Only thing that counts,” Pat agreed. “Malloy sent a message, by the way.”
“And?”
“Get your butt back tomorrow or the next day. All is forgiven. Apparently those additional murders made him reconsider your sanity.”
Caro laughed. “Really.”
“Really. A lot that’s weird is going on. He just asked you to please not mention it.”
“I won’t. I promise.” There was no need now.
“And that request you made to help those folks find homes?”
“Yes?”
“We’ve started working on it but it would be nice if I didn’t have to run your program. So come back soon, will you? And make sure I get a wedding invite.”
“I promise.” She watched Pat drift away to talk with Jude and Terri, then felt familiar arms close around her from behind.
“Are you pleased, Schatz?”
She turned within the circle of his arms and looked up at the vampire she loved more than life. “I’m very pleased. And one of these days...”
He laid his finger over her lips. “Don’t ask yet, meine Liebe. Not yet. The day will come when we’ll have to consider changing you, but not yet. Please. Let me enjoy you just as you are.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
But deep inside she knew the question wouldn’t be shelved for long. There’d come a day when she would want to share his nights completely, to see them the way he did.
And when that day came, she had no doubt she would get her way.
“I love you,” she murmured and watched his eyes grow golden with pleasure.
She was forever claimed, and forever his.
* * * * *
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Chapter 1
San Francisco Enclave, West Coast Region
“It may be fatal,” the Director said.
Alexia laughed. “Since when hasn’t that been true of every mission?”
Aegis Director of Field Operations Wilson McAllister regarded her without a trace of amusement. “This isn’t funny, Alex,” he said. “We’re talking about violating our side of the Treaty and striking deep into the Zone. Even the Mayor doesn’t know about it.”
“At least not officially,” Alexia said.
“Not officially enough to send someone to pull your ass out of the fire if you get caught.” The steel rims of McAllister’s glasses flashed as they caught the cold and sterile light from the overhead fixtures. “Your mission will be to learn everything you can about the Nightsiders’ illegal colony without doing anything to attract the Citadel’s attention. If you fail or are captured—”
“—Aegis will disavow any knowledge of our actions. I know the drill.” Alexia wandered to the window overlooking the glimmering waters of San Francisco Bay. From Aegis headquarters in the old Financial District, she could see a heavily guarded convoy of trucks carrying agricultural products from the Central Valley into the city. The Treaty meant that the Nightsiders were supposed to leave such convoys alone.
Usually they did. But there were always the terrorists, the ones who wanted to ignite a new War. On both sides. And that was what her team would be sent in to try to prevent.
Alexia drifted back into memory, of the year the Nightsiders had first appeared. Not that they’d been her memories, not exactly. But she’d seen the archived news vids, the looks of bewilderment and fear on the newscasters’ faces when the first reports came in: horror stories of vampires arising seemingly out of nowhere, some emerging from decades or centuries or even millennia of sleep in sanctuaries built far beneath the earth. No one knew—or at least the leeches weren’t telling—what had roused them, or why they had chosen that time to rise and claim the earth.
Ten years later—ten years of chaos and plague and terrible war, the time when Alexia’s mother gave birth to a half-vampire child—had led to the Treaty, and now most parts of the world were carefully divided into territories: vampire Citadels and human Enclaves, separated by the unclaimed regions known as the Zones.
Just outside the Enclave that embraced San Francisco and the area formerly known as the East Bay, the Zone comprised an immense semicircular region that had once held thriving suburbs, now abandoned and slowly crumbling back to the earth as new forests and fields absorbed stone and concrete, and animals—once driven away by human incursions—reclaimed their original habitats. Beyond the Zone, to the south and east in the regions of the Central Valley, lay the farmlands that produced sustenance for the Enclaves, each surrounded by its own Zone and patrolled by special military forces whose job it was to keep Nightsiders out and human workers safe from them. In theory, as per the Treaty, the workers were protected, and so were the routes to the Enclaves.
To the north, in the area once distinguished by its scenic fields of grapev
ines and boutique wineries, its rolling hills and towering redwoods, stood Erebus. The Citadel of Night.
Alexia remembered the images on the TV when the construction began. Very little had been known then, because the Zone had just been established, and rumor was more plentiful than fact. Human laborers...prisoners of war...had built the city by day, vampires by night. In a year the Citadel—all black, gleaming, windowless towers and paradoxically Gothic ornamentation—was large enough to hold a population of ten thousand, and that was only on the surface. It was speculated that the underground portion of the city could house five thousand more. Today, the Citadel was twice as big, with its own farms and fields to support its human inhabitants.
Slaves, Alexia thought with that burning anger that never diminished. Blood-serfs. The prisoners, the castoffs from the human Enclaves. The damned.
Like Garret.
“Ms. Fox?”
She turned back to McAllister, who was leaning over his desk with an ominous frown on his lean brown face. His sudden formality wasn’t a good sign.
“You aren’t listening to me,” he said. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”
Alexia returned to stand before the desk, taking a formal stance that betrayed none of her emotions. “Yes, sir. More than up to it.”
“It’s only been a year since your brother was—”
“I haven’t forgotten, sir.”
He cleared his throat. “The Examiners say you may still harbor resentment against the Court for sentencing him to Deportation.”
Deportation. Such a nice way of putting it. “I know the Court weighed the evidence thoroughly, sir. It was a fair trial.”
The Director sighed and sank back into his chair. “Was it?”
Alexia knew it was another test, and one she had to pass. “The evidence was conclusive, sir.”
“Then you no longer believe it was self-defense?”
The same questions the shrinks had asked her, over and over again, ever since Garret had been sent to Erebus.
“Without the laws there would be chaos, and the Enclaves would die,” she said with perfect sincerity. “I blame the leeches, sir. Only them.”
