by Amy Richie
“Oh,” he groaned loudly and covered his face with his hand.
I couldn’t hold back my laughs then. “I bet that train conductor still talks about that.”
“If he’s still alive.”
“One can only hope.”
“Do you remember right after Sylvia left?”
“And we took David to Paris to cheer him up?”
“And he got drunk?”
“And jumped off the Eiffel tower?”
“It didn’t go exactly like I had planned,” I admitted with a grin.
“We took him to the city of love right after his love left him.”
“Paris is a beautiful city,” I still defended my plan to cheer David up. “Who knew he was so suicidal?”
“Oh, I don’t think he was suicidal. He just wanted to make you mad.”
I shook my head, familiar angry fondness for David making me smile. “It worked.”
Marcus laughed loudly. “I’ll never forget the look on those people’s faces.”
“When he actually jumped or when he got up and walked away from it?”
The bed shook with his laughter. “Both.”
“Hmph,” I snorted.
“You were so mad,” he reminded me.
“I might still be.” I rolled my eyes. “You didn’t help anything, laughing and carrying on.”
“Oh, David,” he sighed. “Some good times we’ve had.”
“You still haven’t heard from him?”
He shook his head, his laughter dying on his lips. “Two years now–nothing.”
“He’s been unhappy for a long time,” I commented.
“Maybe even before Sylvia left.”
Sylvia and I had talked about it. She had known that David was unhappy. She didn’t know the whole story why David had left the Letrell’s; only that he and Damien had fought. I couldn’t imagine what had made him angry enough to go out on his own, but I did see his dark moods.
It was the reason Sylvia had decided to leave. The two weren’t bonded, just chosen mates. She thought that leaving him would set him free. She was wrong, of course, but now we couldn’t find David.
“Where did you find her, anyways?”
“She was traveling with the sisters.”
“Really?”
He twirled my hair around his fingers and let it fall back to the pillow, then picked up another strand and began again. How had Marcus found her? He rarely left me alone, ever. When he did, it was only to hunt, and then he returned quickly. There was something going on that he wasn’t telling me.
Silango.
Without meaning to, my thoughts turned to the man we swore not to talk about. Silango stayed in London. He kept his warriors close to him for protection, and he never left the city.
To keep Kiera happy, he rarely called on the Letrell’s. In fact, since we had left London– more than 100 years before–we had only heard from Silango twice, and one of those times had come in the form of a message from Ryan; at least as far as I knew. Was it possible that Marcus was keeping things from me?
“Are you thirsty?” his deep voice interrupted my thoughts and brought me back to reality.
I ran my tongue lightly over my top teeth. It wasn’t unbearable yet, but they were starting to throb at the way my thoughts were going. “Not really,” I shrugged.
“You can’t let yourself get too thirsty,” he gently scolded.
“I’m not,” I squirmed under him.
He kissed the tip of my nose. “There’s no reason to.”
“You hunted only yesterday.”
“I enjoy hunting.”
I caught my bottom lip between my teeth nervously. I hated to hear about his hunting trips. I didn’t want to know if he killed people. I knew I had to drink what he brought back to me, but I tried not to think of where it came from.
“You’d enjoy it more if you went with me and had it fresh. It has to be cold by the time you get it.”
“It’s not that bad.” I crinkled my nose at the thought of the plaid green thermos Marcus had started carrying the blood back to me in, in an effort to keep it warm.
“Only because you don’t know what you’re missing.”
I shrugged. “I’m still alive, aren’t I?”
His cheek dimpled sweetly. “That you are.” He buried his face in my neck, brushing his lips along the skin there.
I laughed and curled myself closer to him. “I never want to leave this place.”
“This is a nice hotel,” he conceded.
“Yes it is.” Our laughter mingled together and floated to the ceiling.
“Mrs. Letrell?”
“What do you want?”
He arched one eyebrow, making us both laugh again. “I’m going to hunt for you.”
I jutted my bottom lip out in a fake pout. “I think you just want to hunt.”
“Maybe you’re right.” He pushed himself off the bed in a graceful move.
“I’m never going to be able to move as fast as you,” I commented wistfully.
“You could,” he reminded me, “if you actually tried.”
I was careful not to roll my eyes this time. “Yeah, I know.”
He leapt to the bed in one move so he could lean down to gently kiss my forehead. “I love you.”
I looked up to meet his eyes, surprised by the intensity I saw there. I tried to smile, but it fell short of my eyes. What was wrong with him? “I love you, too.”
He smiled back, the same half smile I had just given him. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’ll be right here.” I hugged my arms around myself, too disturbed than I cared to admit by his misplaced intensity.
“Will you just give some thought to what we talked about earlier?”
“London?”
“It’s different now.”
“And Sylvia will be there.”
“There’s that, too.”
In a blur, he had the door opened then shut again, and I was left alone in a cold hotel room. Marcus and I had houses in all our favorite cities, but there were still times when hotels were necessary.
London?
I sighed and stretched my toes out to try and reach the bottom of the bed. Not even close. “Well,” I thought glumly, “it will be nice to see Sylvia again.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Airports made me nervous–there were too many people standing around in small clusters. They all stared at me as if they knew my secret. I pressed myself closer into Marcus’s side.
“You okay?” he questioned nervously.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I’m just excited to see Sylvia.”
“She’s waiting at the house for us.”
“What house?” But I already knew before he said anything.
“The Letrell House.”
I very carefully masked any reaction I might have had. It’s just a house, I told myself firmly. A building made of wood and nails. There was nothing to be afraid of.
I remembered the night we had left London. We had stood there in the night with our breaths swirling visibly around us, just staring up at the large white house. Marcus was sad to be saying goodbye. There had only been bad memories there for me, though, so I saw it differently. I had clutched tight to a small bag with all the things I held most dear inside: my mother’s locket, a book from Aunt Dora, and my unfinished needlepoint.
Marcus pulled me through the crowd and into a waiting cab. After he gave the driver the address, he settled back in the seat next to me. It wasn’t long before his breathing became more ragged.
The city was so changed from what I remembered. My memories weren’t as many as Marcus’s. I wondered what he could be thinking.
“We should go visit Hamel,” I suggested half-heartedly.
“I’m not sure Hamel is still standing.”
We both fell silent as the cab pulled to a stop outside of a familiar two story white house.
The site of the old white house opened a flood of memories that I would hav
e rather forgotten. I remembered the first time I had seen Marcus’s fangs–the night of the accident. That was the last night I had been human.
Marcus was tense in the seat next to me. His jaw was pulled tight and I saw the tiny veins in his forehead throbbing with tension. It was probably a very bad idea to come back here, but Marcus had insisted.
“We should have just stayed at a hotel,” I suggested again.
“You hate hotels.”
“I think I would have been fine. It’s a little…weird being back here.”
He didn’t even look my way before opening the cab door. I joined him on the sidewalk. Nearly everything about London had changed so much, but the white house remained exactly the same.
“You ready?” he asked without looking down at me.
Does it matter? “Yep.”
Walking through the door was almost like walking back through time. It was an eerie feeling. A door opened above us. Voices wafted down to us; more memories of times long gone.
“Claudia?” Sylvia’s voice called down. “Is that you?”
My face split into a huge grin. “Sylvia!”
She was down the steps and flung herself into me before I even had time to consider going up to meet her. Her long hair was cut high above her ears now with bangs cut straight across her forehead. “I’m so glad you’re finally here,” she beamed. “Tea?’
I nodded eagerly.
“Tell me everything!” Sylvia gushed.
“There’s not really much to say,” I sighed dramatically.
“I’m sure,” she swatted my hand playfully then caught it up in her own. Her pale eyes sparkled up at me with an intensity that I had almost forgotten.
“I missed you,” I impulsively rushed out.
“I missed you, too, Claudia. You’ve always been like a sister to me.”
That reminded me of something Marcus had told me a few months before. “I heard you travel with the sisters now.”
“I did for a little while,” she admitted.
I remembered a conversation Sylvia and I had so very long ago about the three beautiful red heads that had come to visit us.
“Who are they?”
“They are called the sisters.”
“Are they…sisters?”
“No. Well, kind of. They are sisters in the same way the Letrell brothers are brothers.”
“Vampires?”
“Brought together out of a common background.”
“Which is?”
“Damien Letrell.”
“What?”
“They are all his castaways.”
“You mean ex-girlfriends.”
“You could say that.”
“Huh?”
“Normally Rueben is the one who likes red heads. I think Damien went after them just to make him jealous.”
“So, now they just travel together?”
“Causing trouble,” she smiled.
“How was it; traveling with them?” I scooted to the edge of my seat, eager to hear her stories. I wished I could be brave like Sylvia.
“It was,” she shrugged, “different than what I was used to.”
“But the sisters? I mean…” I shrugged one shoulder.
“I’m no good at being by myself.”
“You could have stayed with us,” I half-scolded. “We missed you.”
“You already know why I had to leave.”
I nodded sadly. “To set David free.”
“He’s not coming today… is he?”
“Marcus didn’t hear back from him, so we don’t know.”
“It’s better if he didn’t,” she said quietly, but I saw the truth in her eyes.
“Will you return to them?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been alone these past few months.”
“Then, stay with us,” I pleaded.
“Maybe for a little while,” we both laughed at the twinkle in her eyes.
“Seriously, where else would you go?”
“I could travel alone. I’ve gotten pretty good at it.”
I couldn’t imagine being alone. You couldn’t talk to anyone or make friends with people–they might learn our secret. Marcus had told me never to tell anyone.
“Why not? What does it matter?”
“If they knew what we were, they would try to capture us so they could experiment. Immortal blood? It would be too hard for humans to resist.”
“Hey,” Marcus walked in then, looking jumpy.
“Hey yourself,” Sylvia greeted him, but he barely looked at her.
I felt the area around my heart get a little tighter. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he laughed shortly, “Umm…I have to go out for a minute. I’ll be back soon.” He leaned to kiss my cheek and then disappeared. My chest got tighter.
It was hard not to think about Marcus being gone, not to compare it to the last time we had been in London. Even though it had been so long ago and even though Marcus had assured me time and time again, I still thought about that time often.
Silango’s hold over Marcus had not lessoned over the years–I just hadn’t felt the effects of him after we left London. Marcus never spoke of him and he always stayed close to me, but it was always there. He was always there–lurking in the shadows of our lives together.
Marcus had tried to explain it to me once, how it was with Silango. How it would always be.
“When he orders me to do something, I have to do it. I have no choice.”
“Why?”
“Silango created me. The bond between us is strong.”
“Can you make me do things I don’t want to?”
“Maybe,” he shrugged. “But, I never would. It wouldn’t be as strong anyway.”
“What do you mean? We’re bonded. You created me.”
“I know,” he flashed a weak smile. “But, Silango is a guard. He’s so much more powerful than I am.”
“But not stronger.”
“He could break my will with a single word.”
My heart broke for the pain I saw in his face. “How can you make it stop?”
“I can’t.”
“There has to be some way.”
“The only way to break the bond between us is if one of us dies.”
I shuddered at the memory. Sylvia leaned forward to put her hand into mine. I grasped hers back tightly. I loved Marcus, of course, but I had really missed the friendship I shared with Sylvia.
“I didn’t want to come back here,” I admitted quietly.
“Because of Silango?” She understood.
I nodded. “We haven’t been back here since…since before.”
“And you had no intentions of ever coming back.”
“None.”
“I was surprised when I got Marcus’s message to meet back here at the Letrell House of London. I came anyways, though. I wanted to see you.”
“I’m glad you came. To see you is the only reason I agreed to return.”
“It seems like we could have met somewhere else,” she half-laughed.
“Marcus told me that Silango wanted us all three to be here.”
“What?”
“Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction, too.”
“What does he want with us?”
“I don’t know.”
“To have us all three here…”
“I guess that is what Marcus is going to find out right now.”
Her eyes widened and traveled to the closed door. “I don’t think this is going to end well,” she almost whispered.
“In my experience, nothing that has anything to do with Silango ends well.”
Sylvia’s teeth worried her bottom lip. She was probably considering all the possible reasons Silango would have called us all together. I had quit trying to figure it out. I probably didn’t even want to know and besides, Marcus would tell me if he thought I needed to know.
The front door opened and slammed shut again. I knew by the sounds of his breathing that it was
Marcus. Something was wrong with him, though. He was breathing too heavily.
A feeling of dread started low in my stomach, working its way up to form a tight knot in my throat. I knew coming here was a bad idea.
“Claudia?” Sylvia’s voice called to me from somewhere far away, even though she was still sitting right in front of me. “Claudia, what’s wrong?”
“Marcus is back.” When I looked up, he was already standing in the doorway.
“Sylvia,” he greeted her stiffly. His eyes darted briefly to me, but then away just as quickly.
The knot in my throat grew so that I could barely breathe. “Is something wrong?” I somehow managed to question him. I already knew there was, but I wanted him to lie and tell me everything was fine.
Very slowly, he nodded. When his eyes found mine again, they stayed locked. “Sylvia,” he said without looking away from me, “you have to leave London now.”
“What are you talking about?” she tried to laugh. “I just got here.”
“Leave–tonight. Within the hour.” I hadn’t heard his voice sound so flat in such a long time.
Chills shuddered up and down my spine. Silango!
Chapter Thirty-Four
I could hardly believe what he had said. He must have been kidding. Well, it wasn’t a very funny joke. “Marcus, what are you talking about?” I looked nervously at Sylvia.
“You both,” he jabbed his finger at Sylvia and then me, “have to leave London.”
My tongue darted out to moisten my suddenly dry lips. “Well, okay. We can go to… Paris. I love Paris. Sylvia?”
“Yeah, Paris sounds great.” Did my voice sound as scared as hers?
“Marcus, we have that h…house, right by the river…”
“Don’t tell me where you’re going,” he growled, “and don’t go to any of our houses.”
Don’t tell him? What was he talking about? He was going to be with us, wasn’t he? “Wh…?”
“I said you two, not me.”
“That’s just…ridiculous,” I choked out. “We’re not leaving you here.”
“Tonight!” He slammed his fist into the desk, splintering the old wood.
“That was hardly necessary.” I tried to sit calmly. Whatever Silango had asked him to do must have been bad.
“Do you not hear me, Claudia?”
