He loosely tied one wrist to one of the headboard’s wooden posts with a stocking. He hesitated with the second, a question in his eyes.
“Do it,” she said.
Max tied her other wrist to the headboard. She flexed her hands; they were loose enough for her to slip out of without help if she wanted to.
Not that she did.
She strained upward, her lips crashing into his. He settled between her legs, one hand gently stroking her wet sex. He slipped a finger inside her. She moaned, desperate for more. “Max, please,” she whimpered.
“Please, what?” he asked. He added another finger, sliding back and forth inside her in a maddening rhythm that did nothing but make her burn hotter.
“Max, I want you. I need more than this.”
He withdrew his hand and kissed her, teasing her lips apart. She felt his cock nudge against her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, urging him on.
Finally, he slid into her with an agonizing slowness, drawing a sigh of relief from her lungs.
She shifted, adjusting to the heavy feel of him inside her.
“Better?” he asked. He stroked her arm with a fingertip, but otherwise kept himself perfectly still.
Ada moved her hips, trying to encourage him. “Max, I need more,” she said.
“What do you say?”
Her voice was pleading, desperate. “Please.”
Without another word, he began to move, filling her and withdrawing in a tempo that sent pleasure radiating from her core. The rest of the world blotted out; all she could focus on was the incredible sensation of Max fucking her and the sight of him over her, the intensity written across his face. Her stockings rubbed against her wrists, not an unpleasant feeling, and she gripped the bedposts they were tied to.
Her hips jerked involuntarily against him as she ached for a release. Max’s hand moved between their bodies, finding that aching spot and flicking it with his fingers. “Do that again,” Ada said.
He did, and seconds later she came apart, the orgasm tearing a cry from her throat. Max didn’t stop, but sped up, and she saw he was close as well. His mouth covered hers, and with a muffled cry he pulled out of her, spilling on the blanket.
He sagged against her, face buried in her neck. His breath came fast and harsh against her skin, his heartbeat moving in time with hers. He reached up and untied her wrists, massaging her skin.
“Max,” she whispered.
“Mmm?” He rolled over to his side, taking her with him. His eyes met hers, and he brushed a curl out of her face.
“I don’t know what that was, but…” She gave a shaky laugh. “Wow.”
“That was the best I’ve ever had,” he said bluntly.
There really wasn’t any other way to describe what just happened except that. “For me, too.” She snuggled into his chest. “Stay the night with me?”
He dropped a kiss to her lips. “Whatever you want.”
Chapter Six
A thin stream of sunlight broke through a gap in the drapes, and Max was glad to see it. He turned over on his side to the woman sleeping beside him, russet hair in disarray over her pillow. She managed to snag most of the bedclothes in her sleep, but he didn’t mind.
Hopefully Ada would receive a response to her cable from the day before. With a sinking feeling, he realized such a message might mean she would leave him while she went off with real vampire hunters to investigate Uncle James’s murder, and he wasn’t ready to let her go just yet. Perhaps she would let him go with her.
He meant what he said the night before. He would take her to Dresden, show her the city and help her learn more about her ancestry there.
Max let his imagination roam in a way he rarely did outside of his writing. He’d never been to America. It was high time he did so. He could rent a dirigible and they could travel together. She could finally receive her flying license and sail the skies the way she always wanted to, traveling and ridding the world of monsters.
He wanted to do that with her. The idea scared him a little, but so had traveling the first time he boarded a dirigible for the Continent. He liked doing things that scared him.
She shifted in bed, and her dark eyes opened, blearily taking him in in undressed glory. “Good morning.” She yawned. Her eyes widened, and she was suddenly awake. “I’ve stolen the covers, haven’t I?”
“I don’t think you intended to do it, but I’m warm enough.”
She unwrapped herself from the cocoon of blankets and pushed some over to him. “I’m sorry,” she said.
He shoved the blankets away and reached for her instead. “No apologies necessary.”
She responded eagerly when he kissed her, all thought of cables and vampires again evaporating from his mind.
****
It was past ten when they finally made their way to the dining room for breakfast. Max noted Ada’s nose gave a barely-perceptible wrinkle of distaste at the sight of the teapot. “I regret that I do not have any coffee on hand,” he said apologetically.
“Tea is fine. But please pass the sugar.”
He did so, and tried to suppress his own shudder of revulsion as she dropped three spoonfuls in her tea. He really should get her some coffee, if only so he didn’t have to see a perfectly good cup of tea maligned in such a way.
Weston strode into the dining room. “Sir, Miss Burgess, a messenger has arrived with a telegram.” He held out an envelope addressed to Ada.
She stood up so quickly her hip hit the edge of the table. “Damn,” she muttered. She accepted the envelope. “Thank you, Mr. Weston.” She tore it open.
“What does it say?” Max asked.
“It’s instructions to meet one of the London Searchers,” she said, laying the cable on the table. Weston and Max leaned over, reading it. “No address for the headquarters yet, but that’s what I expected.” It was too dangerous to send the exact address.
Meet Seecombe stop 7 Sisters 3 pm today stop
“What’s the Seven Sisters?” Ada asked.
“It’s a railway station,” Max said. “We can take a steam cab there to meet this Seecombe for three o’clock. Do you think we should look for Cerys Hughes’s former employer first, though?”
Ada thought for a few seconds. If she was alone, she would look for the vampire’s employer, but Max was a liability at the moment. She had no doubt that with some training and experience, he could probably be a good Searcher. Regular people without the sense were very much part of the organization and deeply valued. But he didn’t have either of those, and she was reluctant to put him in a situation he wasn’t qualified to handle. Plus, she didn’t have a clue how to navigate the railways or London, for that matter.
She was tired of doing all of this alone. It was nice to have a companion for once. It was abysmally selfish of her, but his company, in and out of bed, was addictive.
She realized Max was still waiting for an answer. “I think we should meet Seecombe first,” she said, noting that he brightened when she said we. “He’ll know London, and you have the manners and polish to maybe get us a meeting with Cerys’s old employer.”
“I’ll have you know that my table manners were a never-ending source of embarrassment for my uncle and Weston until I was an adult.”
Ada chanced a glance at Weston, who offered only the barest of nods.
“Well, I’m an ignorant American. In my family, if you don’t pick your teeth at the table, you’re high class.” She shot a grin his way, but he didn’t return it.
“Ada,” he said quietly. He touched her mouth with his thumb, and she nearly melted into his hand. “I don’t ever want you to think I look down on you, or anyone, because of circumstances beyond their control. I don’t care about class. I just like you.”
Her breath caught, and she felt tears well up behind her eyes. She blinked, willing them away and hoping Max hadn’t noticed. She hadn’t known she needed to hear those words until now. They made her feel a little less out of her element.
She swallowed the lump in her throat, and when she spoke, her voice was steady. “Thank you.”
“I meant what I said about Dresden, too.”
She nodded. “I’d love to go to Dresden with you.”
“And I want to help you in any way I can with the vampires,” he said. “Teach me whatever you think I should know.”
She laughed. “Holy water, wooden stakes, crucifixes, garlic. All those old legends have some truth to them. Although the garlic isn’t always as helpful as they say, because it’s really only effective against younger vampires. It still doesn’t hurt to keep a few cloves in your pockets, though. Or even eat it if you can.” She paused. “I don’t mind the smell that comes off after you eat it, but I’ve also been surrounded by vampire hunters all my life.”
“I shall obtain some garlic, then. And I believe my mother had at least one or two crosses in her jewelry collection.”
Ada nodded again. “It wouldn’t hurt to keep one on you. But you have to remember that what makes them effective against vampires is the faith behind them, rather than the cross itself. You have to believe in their power.”
“I’m not terribly religious,” he admitted. “I was baptized, but…”
“It still works,” she said. “Of course, someone who has faith in the religion behind sacred objects will have better luck warding themselves against vampires, but knowing and having faith in a cross’s power itself is still effective.”
“I’ll look for those crosses now. I assume you have one?”
“A couple.” She removed a small copper cross from her pocket, one that had belonged to her mother. It was tarnished and bore a few nicks and scratches, the result of being passed down through the generations. “I have another silver one in my bag that I usually wear around my neck.”
He held out his arm. It was a gesture she didn’t think she would ever stop finding sweet. “Come with me, and we’ll find those crosses.”
****
The air in the train station tasted a little dirty, and the day was uncharacteristically humid for April in England. Beads of sweat popped out of Max’s forehead, and Ada looked a little flushed, as well. They waited on the train platform, scanning the crowd. There had been no other contact from the London Searchers, so they had no idea what Seecombe looked like, or where exactly he might meet them. So they waited on the northwest platform, hoping he—or she—might pick them out.
At ten minutes past three, a tall young man, perhaps a year or two older than Max’s thirty, stopped by them. Impeccably dressed in a dark grey suit and matching hat, he tilted his head in greeting at Ada, ignoring Max. “Miss Burgess?”
“Yes?” She replied expectantly.
“Samuel Seecombe, from the London headquarters.”
“Adaline Burgess, from the New York branch, but I guess you already know that. This is my friend, Maximilian Sterling. We’ve been working together for the last few days.”
Seecombe turned to Max, the tiniest twitch of his lips the only sign of the other man’s distaste. “Are you a Searcher, Mr. Sterling?” He already knew Max wasn’t a Searcher. His expression said as much.
“No,” Max said. “I only recently met Miss Burgess after she saved my life from a vampire.”
“It was mutual,” Ada said. “I was bitten by a different vampire the same night, and he ran out to a church to get some holy water. He’s the reason I’m not disfigured right now.”
“My understanding is that the American Searchers hold secrecy just as highly as your British counterparts.”
“We do,” Ada said. “But the circumstances that Max and I met under were, um…” She was clearly rattled by Seecombe’s irritation at Max’s presence.
“Extenuating,” Max said.
“Yes, that.” She shot him a grateful look.
Max tried to reassure Seecombe. “You don’t have any reason to worry that I’ll be telling vampire stories to everyone I meet. Ada asked me to accompany her to the house of a newly-turned vampire my late uncle was trying to help, and of course we want your assistance.”
Seecombe nodded, but still narrowed his eyes at Max. “We’ll go to headquarters first,” he said. “We will have to sit down in a more secure area and compare notes. There has been an increase in vampire activity in London recently. In particular more new vampires are turning up.” He offered his arm to Ada. “It’s a short train ride away, if you’ll come with me.”
Ada’s dark eyes flitted back and forth between Seecombe and Max. Max exhaled a small sigh of relief when she placed her hand on his arm. “Of course,” she said smoothly. “Lead on, Mr. Seecombe.”
The other man didn’t miss the slight and lowered his arm. “Follow me.”
Once onboard the train, Max ignored Seecombe’s glower and enjoyed Ada’s reaction to sights outside. It was the first time he saw her enjoy herself in London outside of the bedroom. “My brothers would love this,” she said. “I wish I could take a photograph or something to remember it.”
“I can arrange for that,” Seecombe offered. “I can take you to buy postcards to send home, if you like. How long do you plan to stay in London, Miss Burgess?”
“I’ll be helping out with your vampire infestation and then making my way back to Germany.” Max noted that she didn’t ask Seecombe to call her Ada, and he couldn’t suppress a tiny, obnoxious sense of satisfaction at that. Which shouldn’t be necessary, he told himself. She had chosen to spend the night with him and made it clear to Seecombe that she was returning to Germany, a trip Max was going to bankroll.
Judging from the narrowing of Seecombe’s eyes, Max could tell the other man already disliked him. But he would not get sucked into a pissing match with Samuel Seecombe.
The train ride to Palace Gates station was quiet, although he could tell Ada picked up the tension between him and Seecombe and was dying to comment on it. She remained quiet though, until Seecombe hailed a steam cab outside the train station and all of them climbed in. The driver barely acknowledged their presence and, as soon as Seecombe gave him the destination, flipped up the rusted metal grate behind his seat, separating the driver’s cab from the seats in back.
“I’ve never worked with a foreign branch,” Ada said. “It didn’t really occur to me how secretive the Searchers are until I arrived in Europe. Everyone I know back home is involved with the group in some way. I’ve been working on my own since I arrived until now.”
“Mr. Sterling, are you interested in becoming a Searcher?” Seecombe’s voice was exceedingly polite, but Max could still detect the condescension dripping from it.
“I lack the sensory ability of Searchers to be of much use.” Max hated to admit that, but it was pointless to lie. He couldn’t be a very effective Searcher.
“Regular people are still helpful to the organization,” Seecombe said. “Searchers with the sense are far fewer in number, and we’re shrinking still. The London branch is working on methods to ferret out vampires without the use of sensory abilities. Miss Burgess, I assume you have the ability?”
Ada nodded. “Descended from German dhampirs.”
“My family is officially German as well, but there is quite a bit of Balkan ancestry that we don’t discuss.” Seecombe shot a quick grin Ada’s way.
Ada offered a weak smile in return.
An uncomfortable silence settled over the cab. Their driver, either oblivious to their discussion or simply uncaring of it, swore at something in the road and lit his pipe with one hand. Smoke drifted into the back of the cab.
Ada coughed slightly.
Seecombe looked out the window. “We’re almost there. Miss Burgess, are the rest of your family Searchers?”
Ada nodded. “My brothers are, and the one who managed to convince someone to marry him is, as well. Edgar and Francis are rough sorts, but I guess all of us are.”
“There aren’t so many female Searchers in England,” Seecombe said. “It’s unusual.”
So that’s what this was about, Max realized. S
eecombe didn’t know any women in their organization. Ada was a novelty to him. He relaxed a little.
The cab left them at an unfamiliar intersection, and from there Seecombe led them to a small, nondescript brick house on an ordinary street. A cross was nailed to the front door, which was festooned with four locks of differing metals and sizes. Max also noticed tarnished silver strips lining the doorjamb and threshold, but other than those features, it looked like any other house in a working class neighborhood.
Seecombe unlocked the door and opened it. It was dark inside, the drapes pulled closed. They walked past gas-powered sconces lining the walls until they reached a study. They passed by a couple of other men on the way, as well-dressed as Seecombe, but the other man didn’t introduce them. They looked at Ada and Max with a little curiosity, but turned back to their newspapers and books. It must be a quiet day for the London Searchers.
Seecombe sat down behind the desk dominating the study, gesturing for Ada and Max to take seats in front of it. Max noted that a head of garlic was strung up in front of the covered window. Seecombe saw him staring at it.
“We keep the windows covered in the event a vampire looks through them and tries to enthrall a Searcher through the glass,” he said by way of explanation. “Searchers are usually less susceptible to being enthralled, but of course we’re not totally immune.” He opened a desk drawer and removed some foolscap and a pencil, then looked at them expectantly. “Now, tell me everything you know.”
****
“I hate them.”
It was nearing dusk, and Ada and Max were finally able to leave the Searcher headquarters. Ada gripped her satchel more closely as she and Max walked away from the brick house, even though there was little danger of vampires this early in the evening.
“I felt the same,” Max said. “I assume the New York branch is structured differently?”
“Of course! There are over fifty in New York, and that still isn't enough! There are so few of them here! There are ten Searchers in London. Ten! No wonder there’s an infestation here, Max. Everyone’s so snobby about letting in and training other people without the sense or, God forbid, allow women who have it into their little club.” She looked at the street before them without really seeing anything. “They can research steam-powered and electric methods all they want to track down vampires, it still isn’t the same as having people go out there and looking for them. They’re doing everything they can to keep their hands from getting dirty. Bastards.” She nearly spat out the last word. “What a waste of time. Max, I’m sorry for dragging you out here.” She sighed in frustration.
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