Reyna's Vampyr

by Zena Wynn

  Reyna jumped when she heard his voice, having forgotten Alvaro could telepathically speak directly to her.

  “Are you all right?” Tariq asked in her ear.

  “Fine,” she said quickly. Touched in spite of herself, she responded, Yes, he’s been very good to me. I want him, want us.

  Should the situation ever change, you let me know. You’re no longer alone, Alvaro said.

  “Thank you,” she said and relaxed into Tariq’s embrace.

  Quiet fell and father and daughter studied each other. Her father was handsome. She tried to imagine herself in Isabella’s shoes, being courted by such a man. However, she couldn’t. Her experience had been totally different. Instead, Reyna searched for questions to ask, conversation to make, but her mind was blank.

  Eventually, Alvaro shook his head. “It’s amazing. You’re the spitting image of Isabella. I don’t see anything of myself in you.”

  “Not completely,” Reyna said, and reached up to take out her brown contacts. When Alvaro saw her eyes, he sucked in a sharp breath. “You gave me these.”

  Obviously shocked and appearing enthralled, Alvaro merely stared.

  Tariq tilted her head back. “Your eyes mark you as Vampalien. Had I seen these earlier, I’d have known without a doubt who your father was. Only his clan has eyes this particular shade of silver.”

  Reyna shifted restlessly. Her eyes had been a sore spot for her most of her life. They’d highlighted her differences from everyone else. While growing up, Isabella had barely been able to look into them. She’d been the first to insist Reyna get contacts. It had been the same day Isabella had told Reyna it was time for her to leave the pride.

  In an attempt to refocus the conversation, she said, “If you’d like, while you’re in town I’ll give you a tour of our company, Illuminator Incorporated. Jorlan’s the brains of our operation. He’s the technical wizard that makes our displays happen.”

  Tariq gave into her subtle tugs and freed her chin. “You should feel honored, Alvaro. Even her Heart’s Blood has not received so gracious an invitation.”

  Frustrated, antsy, and more than willing for this interview to come to an end, Reyna gave a low hiss. Her cat fed into her agitation, doing a slow roll beneath her skin. It had been days since she’d allowed it out to play and now it was making its presence felt.

  Alvaro’s eyebrows shot up. “I thank you for the honor. Whenever it’s convenient for you, say the word and I’ll be there. And now, it’s time I leave before I wear out my welcome,” he said as he rose to his feet.

  Reyna didn’t make any polite noises about Alvaro’s presence not being an intrusion. She stood as Tariq did and trailed behind the men to the door.

  Before he exited Alvaro paused and said, “Isabella bade me to give both of you her regards. The last few days have been a shock and she’s still trying to adjust.”

  When Reyna said nothing, Tariq stepped into the breach. “We understand completely.”

  Alvaro made to leave but then hesitated, once more looking uncertain. “I look forward to hearing from you again, Reyna.”

  “I’ll be in touch,” she promised, silently urging him to go. It was taking all of her self-control to stand in one place.

  Alvaro and Tariq exchanged a few more comments she lacked the attention span to concentrate on, and then Alvaro was gone. The second the door closed, Reyna began stripping. She barely had time to toss Tariq’s shirt to the floor when the shift took her over. Lost in the change, all Reyna knew was that she needed out. Her cat needed to run, needed to feel the flex and flow of powerful muscles as it leapt and jumped.

  Reyna gave over to instinct and let the cat have its head. One second she was there. The next she was gone.

  

  “See, that wasn’t so bad,” Tariq said as he secured the door. He turned to see Reyna flinging off her shirt. Immediately his cock stiffened in anticipation and he reached for his belt buckle. “You were reading my mind.”

  His eyes widened when her knees buckled. Cursing, he leapt forward. The stress of meeting her father must have been too much for her delicate system. Tariq stretched out his arms and caught air. She was gone.

  Bemused, he glanced around, certain his eyes deceived him. No, he wasn’t mistaken. She’d teleported without a word to him of her intentions. Before he could panic, reason kicked in. He’d check their link, track her, and follow her to wherever she’d ‘ported.

  Tariq reached for their bond and got…nothing. She’d shifted into her feline form. Had she done it intentionally to keep him from pursuing her? Frowning ferociously Tariq wondered, had he told Reyna he couldn’t sense their bond when she was in her cat form?

  They had many conversations as she’d convalesced but it was the ‘get to know you’ type common among the newly bonded. They’d spoken of their likes and dislikes, their interests and business concerns. They’d talked about friends and family. For instance he knew how close Reyna felt to the four women she ate lunch with every day.

  Tariq had refrained from discussions about their relationship and what he expected from her as his blood mate. Since he was still trying to get Reyna to commit to him, there’d been no talks about their future together. No rules of what he considered acceptable behavior established. Everything had been tentative and exploratory. He’d gotten to know Reyna, the woman, and been happy with all he discovered.

  Now she’d gone and pulled a stunt like this.

  Didn’t Reyna realize they were now a unit—two halves of the same whole? Blood mates couldn’t be apart from each other for very long. The craving for the company of their other half became too intense. The bond between them created a magnetic field which was constantly at work, pulling them together.

  Tariq paced the living room.

  Maybe she simply needed space, he reasoned. Because she’d spent so much time isolated as a child, his Heart’s Blood was a bit of a loner. They’d spent the last seventy-two hours constantly in each other’s company. Partly out of fear on his part, Tariq admitted. He’d been afraid to leave her alone and her unstable medical condition had provided him the excuse he’d needed to keep her in sight.

  He’d give her a few minutes of privacy—thirty minutes max—and then he’d go looking for her. The most logical place to find her would be her lair. It was her safe haven, her refuge from the world. The more Tariq considered the more certain he became that’s where she’d headed.

  An hour later, Tariq returned from Reyna’s lair. His temper was stirred. She hadn’t been there. No one had seen any sign of her in days. There wasn’t a male or female over the age of twenty-five living in Reyna’s den, and they’d all been scared to death of him.

  He called Jorlan. Something he should have done to begin with.

  “Tariq, is something wrong with Reyna?” Jorlan asked, jumping straight to the point.

  “She’s not with you?” Tariq asked.

  “Reyna? No, I haven’t seen her since I left your place. Isn’t she there?” Jorlan asked, sounding concerned.

  “Reyna ‘ported out over an hour ago. She’s in cat form so I can’t track her,” Tariq said, allowing a hint of the frustration he felt to enter his voice. “Can you telepath her? I need to know that she’s safe.” Reyna had told him in their cat forms, the Felini spoke mind-to-mind.

  “I can try, but I doubt it will do any good. Our range is limited. If she’s more than a mile away, she won’t hear me. Reyna’s the only one who can broadcast unlimited distances,” Jorlan explained.

  “If you would, please. It would ease my mind. Alvaro stopped by to speak with her and Reyna disappeared immediately afterwards. I hate thinking of her out there alone somewhere, upset.”

  “All right. Give me a sec. I’m still at the office. Don’t want to have to explain the presence of a two hundred pound cougar in the building.” Tariq heard the sound of the phone being set on a hard surface, and then the muffle of clothing being removed. It took a few minutes before Jorlan returned to the phon
e. “She’s not answering. You said she’d shifted into her cat?”

  “Yes.”

  “Has she shifted any in the last couple of days?” Jorlan asked. He had the phone on speaker and from the sounds, Tariq assumed he was dressing.

  “No, not since she collapsed,” he said.

  “Then she probably went for a run. The cat doesn’t like to be cooped up. With Reyna I’m sure it’s even more of a problem because she only recently went through the change,” Jorlan said, relief in his voice.

  “Are you telling me there’s a cougar running through the streets of the city,” Tariq asked, outraged and astonished.

  Jorlan laughed. “No, we have woods and protected forests where we hunt and run. Reyna could have gone there, or she could have done what she did before, leapt to the main Felini hunting grounds in the desert. Either way, once she’s got it out of her system she’ll return. Be patient.”

  “That particular word is not in my dictionary,” Tariq snarled and disconnected the call.

  The need to find Reyna and be with her ate at him. Like an addict needing a hit, it crawled beneath his skin and plagued his mind. He stalked from one room to the other, unable to settle, barely able to focus.

  Knowing Enrique would have a shit fit if he took his frustration out on the furniture again, Tariq slammed out of his apartment and went looking for some business to occupy his mind. Maybe he could entice one of his masters into sparring with him. He could use a good fight.

  

  Tariq’s people took one look at him as he stalked through the corridors and scattered in the wind. Not even Conall, who was always up for a round, could be persuaded to accommodate him.

  “What, do I look like I have a death wish?” Conall asked.

  “I just want to spar,” Tariq assured him.

  “No, you want to rip someone’s head off. I’m not offering mine on a platter. If you want to sport, go find your blood mate. Maybe she can work off some of that aggression,” Conall advised.

  Tariq spun on one heel and stormed out of the training room. Trainees dodged right and left. Some literally jumped out of his way. He snarled as he made his way to the gym.

  Two hours later he’d completed a punishing run on the treadmill, annihilated a practice dummy, and obliterated a punching bag. Tariq looked around for something else to pound. Noting the freaked out looks his clutch was giving him, he sighed in defeat and decided it was time he took his foul mood back to his quarters. He still couldn’t sense his Heart’s Blood anywhere.

  Not in the mood to deal with anyone, Tariq teleported into his living room. He’d stripped off his t-shirt and was using it to wipe the sweat off his face and chest when he noticed her. A large, tawny cougar lay on his new leather couch, grooming herself.

  “Where the hell have you been? Have you any idea how worried I was?” Tariq bellowed.

  The cat gazed at him through slitted eyes, and then yawned broadly, exposing wicked fangs. From that Tariq concluded his Heart’s Blood wasn’t impressed.

  “Don’t scratch up the couch. It’s new. Enrique will be pissed if he has to replace it again,” he said, referring to cats’ tendencies to mark their territory.

  Reyna gave him a look of disdain, hopped off the couch, and padded silently into the bedroom. Her tail held high, it flicked lazily back and forth and her ears were turned back. He guessed his comment annoyed her.

  “Now where are you going? I swear if you disappear on me again, I’ll do like the humans do their animals and microchip you,” he warned, only half-jesting. “Might be the only way I can keep track of you,” he muttered, but his anger was leaving. Reyna was home and she was safe. It was all that mattered.

  Tariq trailed her into the bathroom, where she stopped by the pool-sized tub and yowled.

  “I suppose you want a bath?” he asked, beginning to be amused.

  She sat and watched him expectantly.

  Tariq filled the tub with water the way Reyna liked it. As the water ran he told her, “I suggest you change. I intend on sharing this with you, and I’m not interested in getting cat hair on me.”

  Reyna gave no indication she heard him. She sprang up to perch on the ledge of the tub. As soon as he cut off the spigot, Reyna slid into the water on her belly, paws extended, and surfaced, warm, wet female, slinging wet hair out of her face. Tariq hurriedly undressed and climbed in with her.

  She glided over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry I worried you. I couldn’t control the shift. My cat wanted out and I had no choice but to give into its demands. There was no time to warn you.”

  He nuzzled her neck and pulled her flush against his body, content now that she was back where she belonged—in his arms. “Jorlan said Felinis needed to shift often.”

  “Not having a feline of my own, I hadn’t given it much thought but growing up, pride members spent as much time in their feline form as they did their humanoid. Maybe more.” She buried her nose in his throat and purred. “You smell hot, and male, and sexy.”

  “When I couldn’t find you I went to the gym and worked out,” he said, relaxing into one of the tub’s Jacuzzi-styled seats with Reyna on his lap.

  She turned to straddle him and ran her tongue along the underside of his chin. “Mmm, tasty.”

  That quick he was hard for her. Tariq made a valiant effort and ignored his ever present desire for her. It was difficult with her silken sheath pressed so close to his rigid shaft. At this moment, talking was more important.

  Tariq needed to lay down some ground rules for their relationship. Reyna wasn’t one of his subordinates so he couldn’t simply give her a command and expect her to obey. Tact and diplomacy were needed, two things in which his experience was limited.

  He reached out to the dispenser, squirted a handful of herbal shampoo, and began to work it into Reyna’s hair. As he massaged her scalp he asked, “Where did you go?”

  Her eyelids slid to half-mast and she moaned her pleasure before answering. “There’s a state park just outside the city limits where the pride likes to run and hunt. I went there. It closes at night so there’s no one around.”

  “Did you hunt?” he asked, using his blunt nails to scratch her scalp.

  “No, mostly ran and climbed trees. Oh, do that again,” she ordered.

  Tariq repeated the motion in the same spot and she sagged, eyes closed, her head resting totally in his hands. The nipples on her pert breasts tightened into sweet little buds, tempting him to lean forward and taste them. Reminding himself he was on a mission, Tariq resisted.

  “Did I ever tell you that when you’re in your Felini form, I can’t feel the bond?” he asked, keeping all hint of emotion out of his voice.

  He must not have been too successful because she cracked one eye open to peer at him. “No, I don’t believe you did.”

  Keeping his gaze focused on her hair, he said neutrally, “It disappears, like it was never there. It’s…” Frustrating, distressing, panic inducing—Tariq searched for a word that didn’t make him sound like a punk. “…disturbing. If possible, I’d like to request you warn me before you change into your feline form. I’d be less perturbed if you did.”

  Enrique and the rest of his council would laugh their collected asses off at that massive understatement, Tariq mused.

  Both silver eyes were open and locked on his face now. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to distress you.”

  “Disturb, not distress,” he corrected. Distress was a sissy word.

  “I apologize for disturbing you,” she amended. She studied him. Tariq felt like an anomaly she was trying to decipher. “Okay.”

  “Okay?” he echoed cautiously.

  “Yes. If I can, I’ll warn you when I’m about to shift. It might not always be possible but I’ll try,” Reyna said.

  It was almost too easy. Since she was in an accommodating mood, Tariq decided to push. “When you go running, I’d like to come with you.”

  “Do you think you can k
eep up?” she asked.

  Tariq stopped fooling with her hair and glanced at her to see if she was messing with him. She appeared sincere. He checked the bond but found she was shielding so tightly, he couldn’t get a read on her.

  Reyna head-butted his hands, indicating for him to continue. The catlike movement reminded him there was still a lot they didn’t know about each other. Maybe she wasn’t deliberately trying to insult him or question his prowess.

  “Don’t worry. I won’t slow you down or get in the way,” he assured her. He finished with her hair and ordered, “Rinse.”

  She twisted to the side and bent over, ducking her head under water and swishing it around. Long tendrils of hair ghosted by to tickle his thigh. When she surfaced, Tariq had a hand towel waiting for her to dry her face. Reyna took it and wiped off the excess moisture. As she was wringing out her hair, she yawned so loudly her jaw cracked. “Sorry,” she murmured apologetically.

  “It’s been a long night.” He handed her a soapy washrag. “Here, you sit over there and finish washing. If I do it, it will be another hour before we get out of this tub.”

  They both finished bathing and exited the tub. While Tariq drained the water and tossed the wet linens in a corner for housekeeping to gather in the morning, Reyna blow dried her hair. Then she padded naked into the bedroom and climbed under the covers.

  Tariq made sure their quarters were secure and joined her in bed. As he tossed an arm around her waist to pull her in close, she said, “I’m going back to work tomorrow. I’m sure my work is piling up.”

  He frowned in the dark. “Are you sure you’re up to it? Maybe you could work remotely from here.”

  “I’m fine,” she said around another yawn. “I need to talk to Jorlan and arrange Alvaro’s tour.”

  “Don’t forget about me,” he reminded her.

  “Yes, you and Alvaro,” she agreed sleepily. Reyna snuggled closer. The hand she had resting on his chest lightly kneaded the muscle. “And we need to arrange for the rest of my things to be moved here before the week is out.”