Fear. Relief. Safety. Passion. Lust. Shock. Fury.
Memories of the gentle way he held her hands, the passionate, insistent feel of his mouth on hers…all of it came flooding back in living color. For the first time since Maya had been turned, fear was drowned out by tenderness and she remembered what it felt like to be desired. To be desired for who she was, not what she looked like.
She fiddled with the handle of the wooden brush as she gazed at her reflection in the large mirror above her white dresser. The human men she hunted were easy prey and wanted her for her body, not that they ever got it, but Shane was different. Maya nibbled her lower lip and smiled wistfully. He wanted her physically, that was for sure, but there was more to it. Shane was concerned about her emotional well-being and her safety, which was evident in the way he intervened in the dreamscape.
The dreamscape. What the hell was he doing there? Not that she wanted to seem ungrateful—after all, he stopped the nightmare—but did his presence there mean what he said it did? Were they bloodmates? Her gut clenched at the mere idea of it and what it would mean.
From what Olivia said, there was a blood exchange and bonding, and then both would become daywalkers. But while he had tasted her blood, she hadn’t tasted his. Daywalking was fine, but Maya couldn’t quite get a grip on the whole bonded-for-eternity concept. In fact, the mere idea of it was terrifying. She would be trusting him with her life, and Maya never trusted men, other than Pete or Doug. They were like brothers, and it wasn’t the same thing.
A smile played at her lips and her fangs broke free while she recalled the way her stomach fluttered from that look in his eyes. Oh no, there was nothing brotherly about the way Shane made her feel.
Not. At. All.
A sudden knock at Maya’s front door captured her attention and tore her from her thoughts. With her brow furrowed, she tossed the brush on the dresser and went into the living room. It was probably Olivia or Doug because they were the only two vamps who had access to the apartments that Maya couldn’t telepath with.
Putting on a smile, she gripped the brass doorknob and prayed that they wouldn’t see through her bullshit and detect the swirl of confusion inside her. Since Olivia didn’t know about the nightmares, bringing up Shane’s surprise appearance would take more explanation than Maya was prepared to give at the moment.
Smiling, Maya pulled the door open, ready to greet Olivia or Doug, but to her great surprise she found herself face-to-face with Trixie and Sadie, both of whom looked concerned. The two women exchanged perplexed looks and then pushed past Maya into the apartment.
“Well, gee,” Maya said, shutting the door, “come on in? What’s your deal? If you two needed to talk to me so badly, why didn’t you just telepath?”
Trixie sat on the arm of the overstuffed, pink-and-white polka-dot chair and stared at Maya like she’d just burst into flames, but Sadie paced back and forth while nibbling on her thumb. If she kept it up, she was going to end up eating the fingerless lace gloves she wore.
“What?” Maya threw her hands up. “Why are you two acting so weird?”
“Ha.” Swinging her combat-boot-clad feet, Trixie sat perched on the edge of the chair. “You’re the one who’s gotten weird. Well, weirder.”
“You’re one to talk,” Maya teased good-naturedly. “I’m not the one with hair that looks like an Easter egg.”
Trixie smirked and flipped Maya the bird. “Suck it.”
“You didn’t hear us,” Sadie said quietly. She stopped pacing and folded her arms over her breasts. “Trixie and I have been trying to telepath to you for the past half hour, and when you didn’t respond, we got worried. We went to the Statue of Liberty and looked in your favorite hiding spot.”
“You were worried about me?”
“Well, yeah. So much so that I even flew over the river to check if you were hangin’ in Lady Liberty’s torch, and you know how much I hate the water.” Trixie shrugged. “You may have shitty taste in music”—she glanced around the pink and white decor of the apartment—“and pretty much everything else, but we still love ya. I was telepathing to you, trying to find out what time you were going over to Rat’s place, mostly to see if I could talk your cute blond butt into not going there. When you didn’t respond, I thought you were just being you.”
“Great minds think alike,” Sadie interjected. “I was hoping to do the same thing, and when we compared notes…”
“Y-you’ve been trying to talk to me?” Maya’s stomach clenched, and for the first time since being turned into a vampire, she thought she might actually barf. Everything Shane said came rushing into her mind, but bloodmate rose above the rest. She tried to remember the last time she telepathed with Trixie and Sadie and realized it was at the club last night—before Shane tasted her blood. If she still breathed, she’d probably have hyperventilated by now. Maya closed her eyes and waved for them to do it again. “Try now.”
Silence filled her head. The ticking of the clock in the kitchen echoed through the room like thunder. But in between each tick there was only terrifying silence. Tears pricked the back of Maya’s eyes and panic welled.
“Holy shit, you’re cut off from us,” Trixie whispered. “This is just like what happened when Olivia and Doug—”
“Shut up,” Maya shouted. She opened her eyes and pointed at her sisters. “Don’t say it. Don’t you dare say it. This is not the same thing.”
“Is it Quesada?” Sadie leaned both hands on the back of white couch and leveled a serious gaze at Maya. “Something happened with him, didn’t it?”
“No.” Maya shook her head and went to the closet to grab her black wrap. “Absolutely not.”
“If it’s not him…” Trixie grimaced and cracked her knuckles. “It’s not Rat, is it? He’s freaking gross.”
“Oh my God, no way.” Maya made a face of disgust and kept talking like her life depended on it. She worried that if she stopped, the world around her would cave in. “I’m going to work for him and that’s it. Speaking of which, I gotta get going. I’ll come see you girls when I get back, and I’m sure everything will be back to normal.”
Before she could leave, Sadie flew across the room and grabbed Maya by the arm. Letting out a sigh, Maya turned to face her fellow coven members and fought to keep from crying because deep in her gut, she knew it wasn’t just some fluke.
“Maya, you can’t run away from this.” Sadie was always the one to tell it like it is. She kept her voice gentle but her meaning was clear. She slipped her hand into Maya’s and squeezed as Trixie sidled up behind her and rested her chin on Sadie’s shoulder.
“Something happened between you and Shane. Come on, spill it. Listen, aside from the fact that the guy has been spending every free minute over the past few months buzzing around you at the bar, he chased you out of the club last night like the horny bastard you’ve turned him into.”
“Truth,” Trixie said with a wink. “He’s got it bad for you and everybody knows it. C’mon. What happened?”
Staring into the loving faces of her sisters, Maya felt her eyes fill with tears because the silence in her mind was deafening. Closing her eyes, she reached out to them again in one desperate attempt: Can you hear me now?
Isn’t that a line from a cell phone commercial?
Maya’s eyes flew open when Shane’s amused voice slipped into her mind with unsettling ease. Her sisters looked at each other and then at Maya, but before they could ask what was happening, someone knocked on the door.
“I thought it would be wise to escort you to the club.” Shane’s distinctive baritone boomed from the hallway. “I suggest you hurry up. You wouldn’t want to be late for your first day on the job, now would you?”
Maya’s jaw set and her eyes narrowed, but Trixie and Sadie looked thoroughly amused. Maya tugged the door open and prepared to give Shane a tongue-lashing, but every coherent thought was driven
from her mind when she set eyes on him. He wasn’t wearing the usual sentry uniform of head-to-toe leather, and based on the catcall whistle from Trixie, it was a definite improvement.
Clad in a pair of perfectly fitting jeans, brown cowboy boots, a Ralph Lauren button-down, and a brown leather bomber jacket, he looked every inch the sexy male specimen that he was. His thick, wavy hair curled over the collar and the top two buttons of his shirt were open, revealing a dusting of chest hair. Maya swallowed and fought the sudden, sharp pang of desire the flared through her.
The man was absolutely beautiful. Vampire. Warrior. Whatever. Shane Quesada was all man.
“Well,” Sadie said through a poorly veiled smile, “at least now we know Maya will stay out of trouble.”
“Ha,” Trixie snorted. “Don’t bet on it.”
Chapter 5
Maya hadn’t said more than two words to Shane from the moment he arrived at the door of her apartment. He tried to touch her mind again, but she slammed it shut, refusing to allow him entry. She probably hoped that would piss him off, but on the contrary, her refusal to talk to him turned him on. He enjoyed a challenge because after so many years of merely existing, Shane felt like he was finally living. Maya was a fighter, and if he could show her how to harness that power, she would be able to stop fighting herself.
From the look on her face when he’d arrived, his decision to change his attire was a good one. He could have gone to the club in his usual sentry uniform, but based on past experience, he knew that wouldn’t have been a good move. If he showed up in battle gear, the wolves might perceive it as an aggressive act by the Presidium and the czars, but dressed like any other clubgoer, he’d be able to convince them more easily that he was only there for the entertainment.
The one item he kept with him from his sentry garb was the semiautomatic pistol filled with silver bullets that was tucked safely inside his jacket. On most nights, it was packed with the ultraviolet ammunition designed by Xavier, the Presidium’s resident inventor and weapons master. That ammo could turn a vamp to dust but would prove ineffective on the wolves. Not that he was looking to start a fight and break the truce, but it was prudent to be prepared.
When they rounded the next corner, the blinking purple-and-red neon sign for The Dollhouse came into view as two yellow cabs whizzed past. Like all strip clubs, there were no windows, and a large, bulky fellow named TJ stood outside the door checking IDs and taking the cover charge from eager men. TJ was a vampire, one of Rat’s coven members, and though the big brute wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, he was a good fighter. If Rat was the brains behind his operation, then TJ was definitely the brawn.
“Wait.” Maya stopped before they crossed the street and grabbed Shane by the arm. When his eyes locked with hers, she quickly removed her hand. “We need to talk before we go inside.”
Shane tilted his head and smirked. “Agreed.”
“I know Olivia has hired you to be my babysitter, and she probably told you to say you were my bodyguard, but I’m not stupid. I know you’re here to keep an eye on me more than the werewolves who may or may not show up.”
“No one said you were stupid.” He lifted one shoulder. “Stubborn, yes. Stupid, no.”
“Fine.” Her blue eyes flashed at him while she adjusted her black wrap, which was being whipped around by the cold November wind. “Just keep your distance, okay? Wolves or not, I’d prefer not to get fired on my first day because my four-hundred-year-old babysitter is an overbearing nudge.”
“A nudge?” Shane’s brows flew up. “I don’t believe anyone has ever called me that before.”
“Maybe not to your face.” Maya batted her eyes and smiled sweetly. “Come on.”
Cars and taxis whisked by them, and he watched Maya as she waited for an opening in the busy downtown traffic. Her platinum blond hair whipped around her in the wind along with the ends of her wrap, and in this moment, she reminded him of a wild horse. Being spirited and unpredictable was sexy as hell, and it could also be a dangerous combination.
“You have nothing else to say to me?” he asked quietly from where he stood behind her on the sidewalk. Shane’s hands curled at his sides while he resisted the urge to brush her hair off her shoulders. “No comment about what happened in the dreamscape?”
Maya stilled but didn’t turn around. In a last-ditch effort, Shane reached out to touch her mind with his.
I was there, Maya. It was real.
He waited for what seemed like an eternity for her to respond, and when she finally turned around, the look of sadness on her face made his crusty old heart ache.
“I know you were.” She adjusted her wrap and hugged her arms around herself as though she was bracing against the cold. “I—I don’t want you to think I’m ungrateful, Shane. I appreciate what you did for me, but I’m not prepared to deal with anything else right now—other than starting my first day of work.”
Unable to stop himself, Shane pushed a strand of long, blond hair off Maya’s forehead and trailed his finger along the curve of her cheek. She shivered beneath his touch but didn’t resist it. Bathed in the light of the city street lamps, her blue eyes shimmered to the almost lavender color he so adored. Shane ran his thumb over her plump bottom lip and whispered, “You can’t avoid me forever.”
“Sure I can.” Maya stepped back and glanced toward the street. “I’m immortal. I’ve got nothing but time.”
Shane watched Maya give him a sassy smile before she ran across the street to the doors of the club. When she disappeared inside, he touched her mind with his. You and me both, youngling.
Sitting at a small table in the back of the club and pretending to nurse a beer, Shane had a clear view of Maya and the front door. So far, the wolf pack was a no-show, and since it was already midnight, Shane doubted they would be making an appearance tonight. The flickering lights from the stage were about the only source of illumination in the small space. The stage was at the center of the place, surrounded by round tables that all were filled.
Shane could tell by the scents in the room that a few vamps were mixed in with the humans among the customers and the dancers. To his relief, Maya was working behind the bar and not whirling around a stripper pole half-naked. Although the outfit Rat made her wear could hardly be described as clothing. It was more like a couple scraps of red leather held together by laces up the sides, which made it all too clear that Maya wasn’t wearing either a bra or underwear.
The only other item she wore was that emerald and gold necklace. Shane’s brow furrowed, recalling the single image he saw when drank Maya’s blood. He made a mental note to ask her about the old woman later. Perhaps Maya would feel safer if she could remember more about her past.
“Enjoying the view?” Rat asked. Sitting down at Shane’s table, he was clearly annoyed by the sentry’s presence.
“What can I do for you?” Shane asked without taking his eyes off Maya.
“Always a great conversationalist, aren’t you, Quesada?” Rat leaned back in his chair and laughed. “I thought you’d like to know that I just got a phone call from our wolf friends. They’re on their way over.”
“A phone call?” Shane’s brows knit together. “I didn’t realize you were in direct contact with them.”
“Viola gave me her boyfriend’s phone number so I could make sure I had a table ready when they arrived.” Rat’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t make a big thing out of it.”
“Yes, well, since you seem to be their NYC contact, it would be prudent to remind them that they should take time out of their visit to pay their respects to the czars.” Shane removed a business card from his shirt pocket and slid it across the table to Rat, who smirked when he picked it up and inspected it. “They can contact the czars’ secretary, Suzie, and she will arrange it for them.”
“Right.” Rat stuck the card in his jacket pocket. “From what Viola tells me, Horace isn�
��t much for pomp and circumstance. He’s second in line to the throne, and from what I gather, he leaves that official crap to his older brother. The heir gets all the work and the spare gets to party. You ask me, I’d rather be the spare.”
“Be that as it may,” Shane said evenly, “not paying their respects to the czars would be frowned upon. I can’t imagine King Heinrich would appreciate that. It’s bad enough they didn’t formally announce their visit.”
“I’ll be sure to relay the message.” Rat ran one hand over his bald head. “It’s not like they’re sticking to some formal schedule, man. Apparently they got sidetracked and arrived in the city later than they anticipated. I have a few of the girls setting up a VIP table for them now.”
Shane turned his gaze to Rat’s briefly before glancing at the two women, both human and scantily clad, who were scurrying around and setting up a table for six at the front edge of the stage. They were giggling and whispering to each other while they arranged the chairs. Shane could only assume that one of them was Viola, the woman Rat had mentioned last night, most likely the redhead who kept glancing at the door in clear anticipation.
“Thank you, Rat.” Shane turned his attention back to Maya, who was flirting with two human men seated at the bar and giving her their full attention. “I’ll be sure to let the czars know how forthcoming you’ve continued to be.”
“Well, it’s the least I can do, seeing how Olivia let the hot, little blond come work for me. When word gets out that she’s working here, my profits are gonna shoot through the fuckin’ roof. If I can get her to dance then I’ll make a fortune.”
Shane’s arm shot out like a lightning bolt, and he grabbed Rat by the lapel of his cheap jacket. Pulling the club owner to his feet, Shane leaned across the table and got right in Rat’s face. TJ appeared behind Rat in support of his boss but refrained from making a move when Shane caught the bouncer’s eye and shook his head slowly. TJ may have been a strong vampire, but Shane was older and a sentry for the Presidium. Attacking him would have far-reaching ramifications.
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