She looked around and saw that the room was empty; even the Dark Angel Prime had made an escape from their confrontation.
“Getting inside peoples’ heads isn’t that easy for me. And the thoughts I encountered were pretty resentful. I took the stress out on you.”
He didn’t find telepathy all that easy? Then why was it almost automatic for him to slip inside her mental shields?
“I was going to say you were feeling guilty for picking on perfectly nice people.”
“No one is perfectly nice.”
“Don’t you have people to do interrogations for you?”
“I do,” he said. “I brought in Sid Wolfe because she’s such a fine telepath. But she’s not here and this needs to be done right now.”
“May I make a suggestion?”
She was used to giving orders and making pronouncements to Primes, but she already knew who gave the orders with this Prime.
He lifted an eyebrow inquiringly.
“Why don’t you ask Anthony Crowe to help with the telepathic interviews? He knows these people, and they know him. It will cut down on the resentment factor. Besides, it might be a good idea to keep him distracted while I’m talking to his lady.”
He gave her a smile that sent sparks zinging through her. He pulled her closer.
“What a good idea,” he said. “I’m going to kiss you for that.”
His mouth covered hers before she had a chance to protest. Then she didn’t want to protest and her lips clung to his with all the hunger and longing she couldn’t deny. Some logical part of her tried to point out that she’d made love to Strahan not two hours before. Need drowned that voice out. She could never get enough of this Prime, never be satiated.
Chapter Thirty
They started out kissing and ended up grappling on the floor, their hands all over each other. Again.
He needed this, needed the taste of her. The feel of her fitting against him was perfection. The heat of her flesh warming his made him whole. The stimulus that came from their fangs pressing against each others’ lips—needle points almost but not quite pricking extremely tender skin—drove him crazy.
The touch of her mind was the sexiest thing about her—open and waiting, willing, wanting to touch thought to thought. She was eager to share all the lust that—
No!
Necessity took control of him.
Not again. Not now!
His rejection flashed through both of them, hurt both of them. She flinched as he pushed himself away from her. The pain that flashed through her was more than he could bear. He reached for her, but Francesca sprang to her feet. He caught her before she could run away.
“I swear to the goddess it’s not you,” he told her. “I want you and I’ll have you.”
She struggled to break his hold. “But you have to be in control.”
“Yes. I have to be in control of myself.”
She cupped his face in her hands, no longer fighting him. “That wasn’t a complaint, Tobias.”
He was so surprised at what Francesca said, all he could do was stare, mouth open.
“You’re in the middle of running an op,” she said. “Your attention needs to be on the job or people could be killed. I get it. I agree. There are things more important than sex, even for vampires.”
She kissed him before he could close his mouth. A gentle kiss. The taste of her was sweet, comforting, promising. They stepped away from each other after a few seconds, letting the kiss be enough.
I hurt you before, he thought. I’m sorry.
I only felt rejected for a moment. Then I understood you weren’t abandoning me. I’m vain, but I can get past it.
Apology accepted, then? Please?
Her amusement sparkled through him. Accepted. For that.
You are so wonder—
“By the way, what did my mother offer you to get me pregnant?”
The matter-of-fact question hit him in the gut.
Tobias stepped back and studied Francesca carefully. She looked at him steadily. For once, he didn’t have a clue what her mood was, what she was thinking. This was a hell of a poker player he was facing, a female who would be a queen. How he answered her was going to be very important if he wanted to keep her.
Being bonded was far more complicated than merely being in love. He knew he was treading on eggshells even as he decided on telling her the truth.
“Matri Anjelica threatened to destroy the Dark Angels if I didn’t agree to sire your child.”
“That sounds like her.”
He couldn’t offer her an apology for the bargain he’d made with Anjelica. He did what he had to do for the Dark Angels without regrets. He certainly didn’t regret making love to Francesca.
He still couldn’t tell what she was thinking. “You’ve known all along?”
A faint smile flashed across her features. “It was easy to guess what she was up to when she asked you to come to the clinic with us. We’ve been playing this game for years; it was time for her to start another round.”
“Game?”
“It’s been one game after another between us.”
“I get the feeling you don’t have a good relationship with your mother.”
“I don’t have a good relationship with my Matri. There are some decisions about her heir that I can’t forgive my Matri for. It’s a pity my Matri is also my mother.”
“She does what’s best for the Clan, but you know that already,” he added at Francesca’s cynical grimace.
“She used you,” she told him. “Of course, so did I.”
“Really?” he asked. “How? As a sex toy?”
She ran her gaze over him so hotly, he almost blushed. “You started the seduction, Tobias. As you were commanded to do.”
“I wanted you.”
She shrugged. “I’m so unimpressed by being wanted. So bored with it.”
“Oh, you poor thing.”
“I know I’m jaded, but I’m not bored with you,” she added. “My mother sensed I wouldn’t be. She knew I’d want you as much as you want me. I thought I could avoid falling for her trap because I knew it was there. And I wanted the chance to play at being a Dark Angel for a while.”
“One of the reasons I went along with Lady Anjelica’s plan was because I had my own plans for you.”
“So we all used each other.”
“I’m not upset about that. Are you?”
She shook her head. “We’re all grown-ups. We thought we knew what we were doing. Only it turns out that instinctual mating drive thing is very real.”
He was caught off guard by her bitter attitude. “You don’t want to believe in bonding?”
“Who would? It takes our freedom of choice away from us, doesn’t it?”
“But bondmates are perfect for each other.”
“That’s what all the boys believe.”
“I thought the Clans made a cult out of the search for bondmates.”
“Yeah, it’s part of the chivalry games Primes play. We females aren’t allowed to be all that romantic. We’re encouraged to have children with several Primes before bonding. And if we never find a bondmate, that’s even better.”
“The continuation of the species rests with you.”
She held up a hand. “Please! I’ve heard that speech daily since I hit puberty. Try walking around in a female’s sling-back stiletto pumps for a few days, and you wouldn’t find that call to reproductive duty so easy to swallow.”
“I’d also have terrible blisters.”
“Wimp.”
Tobias nodded in concession, but they’d wasted too much time on personal matters. They’d deal with this, all right, but not now.
“We should go.” He took her by the arm to lead her out of the room. “It’s time you had that talk with Rose Cameron for me.”
She tried to give him a casual smile, but he sensed a deep, resigned sadness behind it. “Yes,” she agreed. “Let’s get this over with. You can brief me on what ex
actly I’m supposed to ask this woman on the way.”
Chapter Thirty-one
“So, are you coming?” Saffie’s roommate asked.
No, she was going. Why was she suddenly so sad about the decision? It’s only a few days until the holiday break and I’ve been asked—
Don’t think before you jump. Plan. Prepare. Do it.
Saffie stopped staring at the whiteout snowstorm outside the bedroom window long enough to say to her suitemate, Ayslyn, “I’m not feeling very well. Maybe I’ll come later.”
The event was the annual school Christmas Tea, given by the students for the faculty. Everyone dressed and acted like a lady, down to wearing a hat and white gloves. It was kind of fun, really, in a costume-party sort of way. It was so not part of the world where she belonged.
Nice try at making me normal, Dad, she thought. Not compatible with human DNA.
Saffie’s hands bunched into fists as those words rolled over and over through her head. What was she, then? Did her father know? Had he lied to her all her life? She found that so hard to believe. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to ask him. She had to see him face-to-face for that.
Not compatible with human DNA.
“You don’t look good,” Ayslyn said.
Saffie let her shoulders droop and sighed. “Flu, maybe?”
“You’re awful pale. Do you want me to walk with you to the infirmary?”
Saffie held up a hand. “What if I’m contagious? You go on to the party. If I’m not here when you get back it’ll mean I’ve been quarantined.”
There had been an outbreak of H1N1 early in the term and everyone was nervous about it happening again.
Ayslyn’s eyes grew wide. “I’m out of here. Don’t touch anything,” she called as she closed the door. “I am not getting stuck here over Christmas break because of the flu.”
Saffie grinned at the closed door. Her suitemate had unknowingly helped in slowing down the inevitable search for her. She posted the excuse that she’d decided to head home early to make sure she didn’t infect anyone else on Ayslyn’s Facebook wall and sent it to her as an e-mail for good measure.
“I suppose leaving a note on her bed would be a bit of overkill,” Saffie said as she began looking through her closet.
Stupid snowstorm.
Not that it didn’t have its uses. The whiteout would mess up the security cameras and cover her footprints within minutes. But it was cold and nasty out there. Saffie considered stealing a school car but decided it would be more trouble than it was worth. She’d have to get the car through the gate, which would require messing with the security system. And all the cars were equipped with theft recovery devices. Better just to sneak past the dogs and climb the wall.
But she didn’t have to like it.
Once she had a pack filled with the few absolutely necessary items she couldn’t leave behind, Saffie checked her phone one last time. No sips, no texts, no voice mails. She swore in frustration, turned off the device, and tucked it into an inside pocket of her coat. She was on her own now and she could take care of herself.
But why’d it have to be snowing so hard?
Nothing about this day had gone easily, and Gregor was seriously considering killing something to make himself feel better. He despised being given an assignment that had nothing to do with the Master’s real business. It was a waste of time, energy, and the valuable resource that was himself. Worst of all, it appeared to be merely a regression into the Tribes’ old, fatal feuding ways. It made it hard for Gregor to believe the Master was really the one in control of the intricate long-term plan to take over the world. Was he working for the wrong player?
Mine is not to reason why, he told himself with a cynical smile.
He’d been told to fetch the girl, and fetch her he would. Although he regretted that he’d insisted the private jet pilot land on the icy runway of the small Cageville airport. No one had died, but the skid into a hangar was going to attract media attention he would have to elude. He had planned to kidnap the girl and fly away with her. Now something more inconvenient would have to suffice.
He was currently driving a stolen SUV at a crawl along a narrow lakeside road that was drifting over in the blizzard. The windshield wipers were fighting a losing battle against the heavy, wind-driven snow. He could see in the dark, but what he saw in the dark was a whole lot of white.
Why couldn’t the school be somewhere warm and easily accessible? A week before he never would have had to take weather into account in carrying out his orders.
It was a good thing he could see in the dark when he spotted the figure in the center of the road trudging toward the vehicle.
The brakes didn’t want to stop the car. The wheel whirled in his hands and the big SUV slid sideways and spun once around as it continued to move forward. Gregor caught a glimpse of a young mortal wearing a sky blue coat. The person looked out of a fur-trimmed hood with huge dark eyes but didn’t try to move out of the way.
The vehicle came to a stop sideways on the road; the driver’s-side window was inches away from the girl. Gregor put the window down to get a clearer look.
“Nice save,” the girl said. “Did my dad send you?”
“I was sent,” he answered. “You are Saffron?”
She grinned and nodded. He unlocked the car doors. She clambered over rising snow and into the passenger’s side, sighing with pleasure when she settled into the heated seat.
“I knew Dad wouldn’t let me down,” she said. “Who are you? Clan or Family? How long have you been with the Crew?”
Gregor put the vehicle in gear and slowly turned it back the way he’d come. Having the victim cooperate with an abduction was a first and the best thing that had happened to him all day.
“Call me Uncle Greg,” he told her. “And be quiet while I drive so I can concentrate on the road.”
Chapter Thirty-two
With Tobias standing close behind her, Francesca leaned forward and put her ear to Rose’s door. “It’s quiet in there,” she reported in a whisper after a moment.
Tobias put a hand on her shoulder. “There are three vampires in the vicinity,” he whispered back. “We’re all aware of each other.”
She turned her head to look at him. Amusement lit his dark eyes. “Yes, but physical eavesdropping is more polite than telepathy.”
He nodded. “But less fun.”
Francesca could not stop her giggle. He began to laugh.
The door opened, and Anthony Crowe said, “What is the matter with you two? We’re trying to sleep in here.”
“It’s late afternoon,” Tobias said. “Time for you to come out and make yourself useful, Tony.”
Tony glanced back into the room. He blew a kiss to the woman inside. A faint laugh drifted back. “I’m busy, son.”
Tobias’s hand stroked sensuously down Francesca’s arm. She almost blew him a kiss. Damned bonding.
“My lady and I would like to be busy in a similar manner, Tony, but duty calls.”
“There are plenty of empty rooms in the clinic if you want to take some time off, Tobias.”
“It’s the clinic I need your help with, Tony. You are the security chief around here?”
“I’m on vacation,” Tony said.
Francesca didn’t like the escalating energy bouncing between the two Primes. They sounded friendly for now, but she sensed that aggression could flare at any moment. At least with each of them immersed in the bonding pattern for his own female, they weren’t likely to get into a nasty fight. Or so she hoped, because she was standing right between the two dangerous males. There were good reasons that the females ruled the Clans and Families. Somebody had to be able to keep their head when psychic energy and pheromones started bouncing around among their kind.
“Excuse me,” she said to Crowe. “May I have a word?”
Always the perfect gentleman, Tony Crowe switched his complete concentration to her. “Forgive me, Lady Francesca. What can I do for you?”<
br />
Only now that she had Tony’s attention did she notice what he was wearing. “Why are you in a pink bathrobe?”
This time the feminine laugh from the room was more raucous.
“It’s a long story, Lady Francesca.”
“I’d love to hear it. May I come in?”
She stepped closer, but Tony didn’t budge from blocking the doorway. “Rose really does need her rest, Lady, and—”
“Let the girl in, Anthony,” Rose Cameron called. “I wouldn’t mind having some company.”
He gave Rose a crestfallen look. “But you have me.”
“And I will love you forever—because you are a gallant gentleman,” the woman added pointedly.
At this, Tony stepped out of her way and gestured for Francesca to enter. “Stay where you are,” he told Tobias, and closed the door in Strahan’s face.
Unlike the high-security rooms in the clinic, which were set up for violent and dangerously sick vampires, this was more of a guest room. The walls were a pale blue, and the furniture was of light wood. There was a floral rug by the double bed and there were pictures on the walls. A sliding glass door opened onto a small patio, with a view of the clinic’s grounds beyond. A huge vase of red roses on a chest brought vibrant color and scent to the room. Francesca instantly thought of it as a honeymoon suite, and almost as instantly wondered what it would be like to have time alone with Tobias in a room like this.
Focus, she told herself.
“The Dark Angels really could use your help,” Francesca told Tony before she turned to Rose. “And so could the clinic staff.”
“Fine,” he grumbled. He couldn’t resist a female’s request. He grabbed up some clothes off a chair and left the room.
“There’s always a lot of coming and going around here,” Rose Cameron said, and Francesca finally turned toward where the mortal woman sat on the edge of the bed, a sheet decorously wrapped around her body. “Welcome. Flare, isn’t it? I saw you during all the commotion yesterday. How’s your friend Sid doing?”
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