by Nell Stark
I leaned over and briefly rested one palm on her knee. “I’ll just have to convince Val to take me back to her apartment somehow.” A sudden thought made my gut twist. “Unless she shares it with Sebastian?”
“Don’t worry,” Karma said. “Sebastian lives on the Upper East Side. Val’s apartment will suit our purposes well. Her penthouse has its own entrance. Once she is…incapacitated…you can let us up and we’ll be able to avoid suspicion entirely.”
“The only flaw in that plan is that I might not be able to stop myself from shifting,” I pointed out.
Karma pondered for a moment. “If that happens, you could try to lock yourself out on the roof where the pool is.”
I couldn’t help but feel incredulous. “So that rumor is true? She actually has her own pool?”
“We need to establish a timeline,” Solana broke in. “There needs to be a cut-off point after which we find a way inside, in case Alexa is not able to communicate with us.”
Karma gave me a questioning look and I cleared my throat, unable to escape feeling self-conscious. Essentially, Solana was asking me how long I thought it would take me to seduce Valentine into biting me.
“Ah, let’s say two hours. Just to be safe.”
“Two hours without any backup?” Olivia said.
I held her bright, angry gaze. “Val will want to feed from me, not hurt me. I’ll be fine.”
Olivia spun away and left the room, but I didn’t go after her. There was nothing I could say that she wanted to hear, and the clock was ticking. It was time to put on my gloves.
*
Olivia maneuvered the Bentley into a spot across the street from the club’s nondescript entrance. When she cut the engine, I brushed my palm across her shoulder.
“Thanks for driving. Hopefully, you won’t have to wait long.”
She kept a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel and didn’t meet my eyes. “Be careful.”
I got out of the car, smoothed the folds of my strapless black dress, and turned to Karma. “Any final touches?”
She looked me up and down, then smiled and shook her head. “You’re perfect.”
“Sweet-talker.” Squaring my shoulders, I took her arm. “Shall we?”
Karma led the way, circumventing the line to approach the bouncer—a clean-shaven male vampire who would have looked more at home behind a desk than in front of a door. He recognized her on sight and waved us inside.
“Enjoy your evening, Ms. Rao.”
Once inside the door, we found ourselves in a Romanesque atrium. Tall, white pillars connected the black mosaic floor to an identically tiled ceiling. The effect was disorienting. I felt as though I had fallen through the rabbit hole and no longer had a clear sense of what was right-side up. Across the chamber, a bank of elevators waited to take us down into the club, but we had to pass through a metal detector first. I wondered how old the detector was—whether it had been put into place recently, or whether Valentine’s would-be assassins had found ways of circumventing it. Fortunately, my weapons weren’t made of steel.
I walked through it to join Karma and Solana on the other side and together, we stepped into an elevator. No other patrons had been admitted despite the length of the line. As the doors closed, I inspected my appearance in the mirrored walls. My black hair cascaded in glossy waves over my shoulders to brush against my collarbone, and the dress hugged my body like a sheath, accentuating the fullness of my breasts. I had elected not to wear any jewelry, in hopes that the pale expanse of my neck would prove irresistible.
The elevator whirred into motion, its descent rapid enough to make my ears pop. My panther paced behind my eyes, discomfited by the walls that had closed around us.
“How is your arm?” Solana asked.
I glanced down at the long black satin formal gloves Karma had given me to hide the gruesome scar. The swollen skin throbbed against the fabric, and I couldn’t wait to be rid of them.
“Painful but not unbearable.”
The elevator slid to a stop, and we disembarked into a marble-tiled corridor. The DJ’s beat was strong enough to cause the walls to pulse, as though we had walked into the heart of a massive stone beast. No guards were stationed here, but I had no doubt that we were under video surveillance.
The hallway curved left and then right before ending at a set of marble doors. The flickering lamps highlighted veins of silver and gold within the milky rock. As we drew closer, the doors slid open to reveal a crowded dance floor in full frenzy.
I took a deep, steadying breath. “Do you think she knows I’m here?”
Karma led us just inside and pointed up at the glass cube that projected diagonally out into the airspace above the dance floor. Its surfaces reflected the lights and movements of the dancers, and I had to look away or risk becoming dizzy.
“That’s Valentine’s office. If she didn’t know already, she does now.”
“Let’s give ourselves a tour,” I suggested, wanting to canvass the perimeter of the dance floor in case we had to make some kind of hasty exit. Together, we moved around the periphery, taking note of security personnel stationed at regular intervals. But there was no visible back door—not even an emergency exit. My panther growled in protest and Karma and I shared a strained look. We were well and truly trapped.
As we returned full circle to the doors, Solana grasped my right shoulder. “Look,” she said, gesturing back the way we had come.
An elevator was sliding down the elaborate network of cables along the side of the room that extended all the way up into a narrow passage cut into the vaulted ceiling. Made of the same material as the cube, it glittered like a gigantic strobe as it descended to the dance floor.
Karma shot me a wry smile. “You’ve called the goddess down from Olympus.”
My heart was galloping, but the rest of me was frozen. Even my panther held perfectly still, waiting. Waiting for our mate.
The doors opened to reveal Valentine looking for all the world like a fallen angel. She was dressed in black from head to toe: a collared shirt perfectly tailored to the contours of her torso, and button-fly leather pants that clung to her muscular legs like a second skin. Heavy motorcycle boots completed the outfit, and I felt my mouth go dry at the aura of power and confidence that filled the air around her.
She headed directly for us, her gaze homing in on mine as though I was the only person in the room. Her golden hair was not set in spikes tonight, but fell in feathered waves across her forehead, and I longed to let the soft strands run through my fingers while I kissed her. Just a few short weeks ago, I would have tried to talk myself out of such thoughts—to impress upon my heart the need to be hard and unyielding. But not now, when her eyes were glittering with lust and thirst only for me. Not now, when I was poised to restore compassion and empathy to her handsome features.
“Alexa.” She spoke my name like a magic word, but then a shutter fell over her expression, as though she realized her voice had betrayed too much. “Welcome to Tartarus.”
I had to swallow before I could reply, and I wondered if she had noticed. The absurdity of making small talk in this situation made me feel as though I were having an out-of-body experience. “Thank you.”
The world narrowed, telescoping down until it contained only us. I had forgotten how blue her eyes were—the deep, clear blue of a sunlit summer sky she could no longer see. But after tonight, she would no longer be bound to the darkness.
“Why have you come?” Her tone was curious, but suspicion showed in the rigidity of her stance.
I had prepared an answer and gestured toward Solana. “Karma and I are entertaining a visitor from abroad. Solana Carrizo showed me great hospitality on a recent trip to South America, and I wanted to return the favor.”
Val glanced between Solana and me, her expression wary. Did she think we were involved? Was she jealous? The idea pleased me, and I took a step closer. When she focused back in on me, a rush of heat surged down my spine at the possessiveness that sharpened th
e planes of her face.
“I hope you enjoy your night,” she said, the words intended for Solana but her gaze never leaving mine. “Your drinks are on the house.” She took a step backward and extended one hand. “Dance with me.”
Once again, the rest of the world receded. “Right now?”
“Right now.”
I let my gloved fingertips skim her palm as I took her hand and was gratified to feel a subtle shiver course beneath her skin. I was affecting her strongly. Good.
Despite the strength of that brief contact, we didn’t touch at first. She danced better than I remembered, her body an extension of the beat. Her focus never wavered, and I felt as though we had somehow traveled back in time—back to the early days of our courtship when we had wanted each other with a shared ferocity so unexpected, so unique, that we had forced ourselves to move slowly.
But tonight, slow wasn’t going to work. After a while, I turned my back to her. She took the invitation to cup my waist and pull me close, and I sighed as she wrapped her arms around me. I had to remind myself then that this wasn’t my Valentine. She felt the same—the same taut muscles, the same coiled strength, the same cool scent that inflamed my desire while promising to soothe it. And yet, for all the passion I’d seen in her eyes, there was none of the warmth I had loved.
Her mouth brushed first my temple, then my ear lobe. “Where’s Olivia?”
“Olivia?” Confused, I tried to face her, but her grip was firm.
“You’ve been practically inseparable for weeks, and then you took that trip together. Why isn’t she here with you?”
Surprise trumped my indignation. Valentine thought Olivia and I might be a couple. She had been spying on me. Perhaps I should have felt violated, but her obsession only increased my confidence.
“She said she wasn’t feeling well.” The white lie was easy. “But maybe she didn’t want to see me with you.”
“With me.” Val grew silent then, and I was just about to break free of her hold when her breath once again cascaded over the sensitive shell of my ear. “Why did you really come here tonight?”
My heart careened wildly in my chest until I reminded myself that there was no way she could know our plan. She did, however, know me better than anyone else in the world, and she could tell when I was holding back. So I didn’t.
“I missed you. I couldn’t stay away any longer.”
She pulled me closer, her hands tracing spirals on my stomach. “That’s not what you said the last time we saw each other.” She sucked my ear lobe between her lips, then grazed it lightly with her teeth. My knees quaked, and she felt it. “What’s changed?”
“I have.” Somehow, I managed not to stammer. As my pulse accelerated, so did the throbbing in my arm, but my panther seemed as enthralled by Val’s seduction as I was. Our mate’s proximity had soothed her panic into a state of high alertness.
Val’s hands edged higher until her thumbs were ever so lightly brushing the undersides of my breasts. I couldn’t contain a tiny gasp, and as the sound left my throat, I knew it was time to surrender. I turned, melding my thighs to hers and threading my good arm around her neck. And then I confessed.
“I need you, Valentine.”
Triumph flared in her face before thirst trumped it. “I have a room up—”
I pressed two fingers to her mouth, silencing her. “Not here. I want to be in your bed.”
She searched my gaze and found whatever she was looking for, because she leaned down and kissed me slow and deep. Her lips stole my reason and her tongue stole my breath, and by the time she pulled away to whisper that a car would be waiting for us upstairs, I would have followed her anywhere.
*
By the time we reached the black Rolls Royce, my head had cleared a little. I needed to take some power back, and as soon as Val had settled herself on the leather seat bench, I climbed on top of her and proceeded to lavish her neck with long kisses and tiny bites. Every time I set my teeth in her skin, she released a guttural groan. Her sounds of abandon inflamed me, and I bit down hard enough to mark her.
“Did you ever touch Olivia like this?” she gasped harshly. When I didn’t answer right away, she caught my breasts in her palms and ran her thumbs across my nipples, wringing a cry from my throat. “Did you?”
“Never. Not once.” My words were breathless. “Not even a kiss. There hasn’t been anyone since you.”
She growled her satisfaction, and before I could protest, I found our positions reversed. For one breathtaking moment, she loomed over me, sensually menacing, before dipping her head to trace the pulsing veins in my neck and throat with her tongue. Teasing me, even as she teased herself.
Her driver had us in Soho inside of ten minutes. He pulled over at the side entrance of a tall brick structure boasting elaborate wrought iron balconies and large windows on every floor. The penthouse level was set off by a gleaming white cornice illuminated by the waning moon. For a moment, I felt a wave of nostalgia for the days early in our relationship when Valentine and I had spent Saturdays roaming lower Manhattan visiting luxury real estate open houses. The apartments we’d seen then had inspired dreams for the future. Perhaps some of those dreams would now come true. If this worked.
She held me close while guiding us to the door. As she fished out her key chain, I worked my hand beneath the hem of her pants, sweeping my fingers back and forth across her lower abdomen. She groaned and dropped her keys.
“What are you doing to me,” she breathed, hands shaking as she crouched to retrieve them.
“Showing you how much I want you,” I said, molding myself to the length of her back as I followed her inside.
Once the doors of her elevator had closed, she pushed me up against the back wall and devoured my mouth. If not for the spike of agony that seared down my left arm as she held me pinned, I would have lost control of myself completely. But the pain reminded me that I had a job to do, and that I needed to do it before she decided to undress me. If my wound was revealed, the gruesome sight would freeze the ardor between us, especially since it would rouse her suspicions about why I hadn’t simply shifted and healed.
She kept a firm grip on the key this time, turning the lock with superhuman speed. I was aware only of an oak-paneled foyer and the faint scent of salt water before she had me pressed up against the inside of the door, one leg between mine. Hands braced on either side of my head, she thrust with short, sharp movements that rocketed me toward ecstasy. She was wild for me, a creature possessed by a hunger beyond the physical. I could see it in the ferocity of her eyes, in the tautness of her lips, and I threaded my hands in her hair to pull her mouth to mine.
In that moment, I realized that despite the emotional distance that had grown between us, our bodies were reacting on a wholly instinctual level. The chemistry between us was a law of nature that could not be denied. We would always be attracted to one another, always attuned, but I was about to use that power to make a choice for Val. She had been turned involuntarily, transfused involuntarily, and she had certainly never wanted to become a full vampire. Now I was poised to take another decision from her, and I couldn’t. I refused to join the ranks of people like Helen and Clavier and the Missionary—people who had made life-altering choices for Valentine to serve their own ends. If I was going to go through with this, I needed to know that somewhere, deep down in her essential self, Val still needed me just as much as I did her.
I wrenched her head back and stared up into her dark, fathomless eyes. “What do you want, Valentine?”
Confusion momentarily eclipsed her frenzied desire. “You. I want you. All of you.”
She moved to bridged the gap between us, but I held her back. “How badly do you want to taste me?”
Her eyes grew darker and the muscles in her jaw tightened spasmodically. “More than you can possibly imagine.”
Again, she tried to lunge forward, and again, I stopped her. The tendons in her neck strained as she pushed against me.
&n
bsp; “Let me have you!”
Drunk on the power I held over her, I only tightened my grip. “I’m the one you crave, Val. I’m the one you need. I’m the one you can’t be without. What would you give to drink from me forever?”
She growled possessively and bared her sharpened teeth. “Anything. Anything you want.”
“Just you,” I whispered, finally releasing my grasp.
The force of her kiss slammed me against the wall, but I felt no pain. Exhilaration swept me at her confession, and my lingering doubts fell away. When she reached down to stroke my inner thigh, I gasped my assent. But when her teeth scraped along my jaw line, I begged. “Please, Val!”
Despite my ulterior motives, my plea was the truth. Beyond her touch, I needed her teeth in my throat and my blood running down hers. The ultimate connection. I tugged urgently at the nape of her neck.
“Do it. Touch me. Bite me. I need to feel you everywhere.”
Triumph sang through me at the welcome flash of pain, at the hollowing sensation of my blood being drawn between her lips. At her broken moan that belied the potency of my taste. And as she drank, she filled me with her fingers, my body stretching to welcome her home.
Ecstasy crashed over me then, tearing a scream from my vocal cords, and the climax battered me like ocean waves against the shore. I clutched at her shoulders, desperate to keep her inside of me.
Please, I thought dimly. Please let this bring her back.
A moment later, her body went suddenly stiff. I looked down to see panic in her eyes, but her throat continued to spasm. Something was happening, but she couldn’t make herself stop drinking.
Finally, she wrenched herself away, my blood trickling over her chin and onto the wooden floor as she stumbled backward. I sagged against the wall, wanting to move but not trusting my strength.
“Val,” I managed to whisper, every other word beyond me.
Confusion and fear warred on her face, and she held up a hand as though to fend me off.
“What—” she choked out. “What did you—”
