by Candy Crum
I saw the corners of Jacques’s mouth turn up in the hint of a smile. He was beautiful. He reminded me a little of Aeric. He was tall, though not quite as tall as Aeric. His hair was long, straight, and jet black. It reached the better part of the way down his back, and his eyes were almost as blue as Sayen’s. His face was soft, but masculine and medium complexioned. He wasn’t a Rogue like the rest of these guys.
He was alive.
Energy radiated from his soul, and I sensed something inside of him. He wasn’t a cruel soul, though he believed in this purpose. He’d been tortured throughout his long life. Maybe tortured was a strong word, but he’d seen terrible, terrible things that changed him. I sensed that good still resided in him, but it was buried under the need for vindication. Jacques stared at me, and I was enamored with him. There was something alluring about him for sure.
He stepped over next to Jeff. “Give me a few moments alone with her,” he said. His voice was smooth, yet deep, and radiated power.
“Excuse me? I will not risk anything happening that could jeopardize this again. We’ll all stay in here. If you want to talk to her, then do it with the rest of us in here. If it starts to go bad, we kill her and flee,” Jeff said.
Jacques looked back at me and his eyes softened a little, though, there was still obvious hardness behind them. He knelt before me and placed his hands on my thighs like Jeff had done, only he was warm and very gentle. His blue eyes were locked on mine as he used his thumbs to gently stroke the lower part of my thighs, just above my knees. He made me nervous, but his touch didn’t frighten me. I knew that he was only trying to comfort me, which I found strange, given what they were planning to do to me.
“Miss Clark,” he said in that, admittedly sexy, lightly accented, baritone voice of his.
“No need for formalities. Bitch will do just fine,” Jeff said.
In an instant Jacques was gone, and he had Jeff lifted from the ground by his throat. “The only other intelligent person in this room, other than myself, is this young woman. Though I realize what we are about to do is necessary for our cause, there is absolutely no reason to embarrass, degrade, or disrespect her. The only thing that she is guilty of is speaking the truth and calling you out as the manipulative dumbass that you are. If I ever hear you call her that again, I will tear your throat out with my bare hands. Do you understand?”
Jeff did his best to nod against Jacques’s hand. I couldn’t believe that he stuck up for me like that. He was a gentleman, though he was certainly rough around the edges. He certainly didn’t believe in mistreating women. That must have been the good place that I found in him. I hoped that he would be as gentlemanly whenever they decided to do whatever it is they planned.
“Now, seeing as how we did it your way, and it went as well as it did, I want all of you out. I want to speak with her alone,” Jacques said.
Everyone quickly scurried out of the room, except Jeff, his eyes lingering on me for a few moments. That was the second time that he had his weaknesses laid out in front of him tonight and both times were because of me. His plan was falling apart as far as the control part went. I had a feeling he wasn’t nearly done with me yet.
After a few moments, he looked away from me and headed out of the room with the rest of them. I looked back over to Jacques who made his way toward me after shutting the door.
“Thank you,” I said. It came out almost a choked whisper, but once again, the corners of his mouth slightly turned up. It seemed that he wasn’t completely capable of a smile, but I decided that I would certainly take what I could get. “You didn’t have to do that, so I really appreciate it.”
“You looked startled. Has no man defended your honor before?” he asked.
“Yes. No. I mean—kinda, I guess.”
I found him overwhelming and confusing, and it was clouding my thoughts.
“Then the real answer is, no. You would know if one had,” he said with another soft almost-smile. He walked behind me, and my body involuntarily stiffened as he knelt down. “Shh, easy. I’m untying you. I think we both know that I could catch you, so there’s no reason for you to run, nor is there a reason for you to be treated like a prisoner and tied to a chair. They’re all barbarians. None of them, save for one, are older than a decade or two, as far as being reborn goes, so they lack common sense as well as a sense of gentlemanly pride. Even the Rogue that is over three centuries old has lost his way.”
Once my wrists were free, I quickly pulled them in front of me and began massaging them. Jacques knelt down in front of me then, gently taking my wrists in his hands as he inspected them.
“Who tied you?” he asked.
“I honestly don’t know. I was passed out, but it was Jeff that brought me back here, so I would assume it was him.”
He shook his head lightly in disgust before placing a light kiss on the sensitive flesh under both of my wrists. “A woman should never be tied unless she requests her lover to do so and never with anything other than the finest silk.”
A guilty twinge of arousal rolled through with his suggestive statement. He was smooth. Very smooth.
“Come,” he said as he gently pulled me to my feet.
I followed him over to a large, seemingly expensive couch and sat with him. He was right. There was no doubt in my mind that man could catch me if he wanted to, so there was no point in running. And, if he wanted me dead, I more than likely would be already. Plus, he was the only one here that had shown me any respect. So, I didn’t mind sitting next to him. Part of me trusted him, and if I could make one of them like me, it certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Chapter Four
I didn’t trust him not to kill me per se; I just trusted him to be a gentleman and tell me first, I guess. I involuntarily jumped a bit as he ran his fingers through my hair around the back.
“How is your head? Are you in pain?” he asked.
“I think it’s okay. The energy that I gathered from the rain outside helped me heal.” I had no idea why I told him that, but I felt the need to. He looked toward the open window.
“I’m aware that it was more than likely Casi who opened the window for you, but I harbor no ill feelings toward her for doing so. There was no reason for you to be struck. I’m glad that you’re feeling better.”
“Thank you,” I said. Though I didn’t mean to, a smile crept across my face. My body had betrayed me, but it didn’t last long. “Why did you want to speak to me?” I asked.
He looked back to me, and his brows furrowed a little. “You have a choice to make, Miss Clark,” he said softly.
“What choice? And please, call me Kailah,” I said.
“As you wish, Kailah,” he said, bowing his head slightly. He looked back into my eyes and began again. “You have a choice to make. As Jeff pointed out, I am over five hundred years old. I am very powerful and so is my blood. Byron, the one who spoke out against Casi earlier, is a Rogue and is over three hundred years old. He is also very powerful, though not nearly as strong as I.”
“Wait, are you saying that I have to choose which one of you turn me?” I asked. This couldn’t possibly be happening.
He nodded. “Yes. I wanted you to have the choice. The obvious first choice was me. Jeff believes that I can accomplish our goal. But he also realized that there was no way you would possibly allow yourself to drink from me once I drained you. That is why Byron is here. Jeff thinks Byron is the best choice because he can simply bite you and turn you.”
“Well, no offense or anything, but Jeff was right. There’s no way I’m drinking from you.”
“None taken. But I knew that you’d say that. That’s why I wanted to speak to you alone. I am more than aware that they can hear us, but that is not my concern. I simply wanted you to feel as though you had some semblance of privacy so you could make this decision on your own.”
“I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but there’s no way that I could possibly do that,” I said. I couldn’t believe it. Not that
I was disgusted by the fact that he wanted me to have a choice; I suppose it was a nice gesture. It’s kind of like being given the option of being shot in the head or chest. Neither one was a good choice, but if I had to choose, in that situation I would choose to be shot in the head.
I suppose that was what Byron was to me, a bullet to the head. I wouldn’t have to take part in it myself. I was still praying that my power would return to me so that I could fight a little, or at least buy some time until help arrived.
“There are things I feel that I should bring to your attention, Kailah,” Jacques said.
“Like what?”
“This is not a simple decision, as you would choose to believe it is. I want you to listen carefully and think even more carefully about what I’m telling you.” I nodded.
“Okay.”
“Have you had the changes explained to you? The differences between the two races and how they turn their victims?” he asked.
“Yes, I have. Aeric explained it to me. Rogues have venom in their bite because of the high level of toxins in their blood and bodily fluids. The change is fast, but painful, and the human will be a Rogue. You guys drain then feed your blood back to humans to change them. The change is slower, but far less painful.”
He nodded. “Yes, that’s right. A Rogue’s bite is excruciatingly painful. It burns from the moment it sets in. It’s like the burn of dry ice flowing through the bite and into the veins of their victim, only worse. Would you want that for yourself?”
“No Jacques, but my only other choice is to help you do this to me. Do you understand what it would be for me to simply give in to you? You are asking me to kill myself. Don’t you realize that an Immortal has never survived being turned? I would be willingly committing suicide,” I said.
A tear rolled down my cheek. I couldn’t believe that I was sitting there casually talking about my death. Why had my powers abandoned me? Why did I have to be so weak?
Jacques leaned forward and gently wiped away my tear with the pad of his thumb as he stroked my face. The gesture was a small one, but it calmed me a little. “You should know that if it isn’t me, it will be him. You are pure of heart, and I can see that. You are nothing like your ancestors. So, I don’t even think that I could stick around to watch Byron tear into you.”
“It’s going to be terrible either way! I don’t understand what my choice is! Go with a quick and insanely painful change—until I die. Or go through a less painful, but much, much longer change—until I die. There is no choice!”
In an instant, his arms were around me, pulling me closer to him. I stiffened at the quick movement, but I quickly realized that he wasn’t going in for the bite. He had one arm wrapped around my waist, holding me closer to him, as the other hand gently tilted my head back so he could look down into my eyes. My heart started to pick up with the closeness. This was what I had always imagined a Vampire to be: charismatic and seductive. The fact that he was gorgeous wasn’t hurting.
“The choice is simple, Kailah. Do you want a cold, blood thirsty, incredibly powerful, and brutal Vampire to bite you and show you the absolute worst pain anyone could ever possibly feel in their entire life? Or would you rather it be me? I’m gentle, and I would show you an intimacy you’ve never seen. I would caress your skin as I held you. You would feel my heart beating against you as my body reacted to your taste, to your scent. You wouldn’t feel the pain of my bite; you would only feel my mouth move against your flesh. My tongue, gently stroking your skin as I tasted you. I would take great pride in giving you as much pleasure as the taste of you would bring me.”
I felt brain dead. I wasn’t affected by compulsion, so what was his hold on me? Maybe it was all those years of pent up, and severely neglected, sexual aggression. Maybe it was his power and seduction that I was getting lost in. Maybe it was the fact that this was exactly what I had wanted Aeric to do to me, but he said would never be possible. In the end, I found myself wanting Jacques, but feeling guilty for it because I had feelings for someone who told me that we could never be together.
How ridiculous was that?
“I can see the struggle on your face. Tell me, Kailah, is it because of this Aeric you spoke of? Is he your lover?” he asked. His voice was low and smooth. It was also a little breathless.
My brain started to come around a little. “No,” I said. “I don’t have one of those.”
He looked thoughtful. “When was the last time you were touched by a man who truly wanted you?” he asked.
Embarrassment flooded me, and I found myself looking down at my hands as I thought about the fact that I had never been touched by someone who really wanted me. No one had actually wanted me before. Aeric was the last person to kiss me, but even he said that it was just out of curiosity. Or, at least it seemed that he meant it that way.
“I’ve never been touched by a man that wanted me,” I said, looking even further down.
He quickly brought my face back up to his. “That, my dear, even breaks my heart. No woman should ever go through life feeling unwanted. Women are goddesses, especially one like you. You should have any man that you want, bowing at your feet, begging for the chance to taste and pleasure every hidden place on your body at any given moment.”
A chill ran through me with his words. I had never been spoken to like that. He noticed the reaction in me and smiled the first real smile that I’d seen from him. I saw his fangs and my breath involuntarily caught in my chest as I tried to force myself to think properly.
“The only men that have touched me,” I said, as I had to take another breath. My breathing had increased significantly. “They only wanted to use me. I was able to catch it in time before I allowed it to go too far, but you’re no different. You’re only using me for your cause.”
“That’s true. I am using you as a means to an end, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want you. Those men, did they make you feel wanted? Did they make you feel needed? Were they able to make your body react to them in any way?”
His warm breath brushed against my face and neck and sent chills running down my spine. I knew that I needed to get away from him. I felt terrible because a small part of me didn’t want to move out of greed. Part of me believed that feeling this good was owed to me, especially in the situation that I was in. The other part of me knew that he was dangerous and that he only had one goal, and that goal—though he may not have believed it—was going to kill me.
“No. I’ve never felt any of those things.”
“If you want truth, Kailah, I will give you the truth. In five hundred years, I’ve never met a woman like you. You have beauty that I’ve never seen and a life force so powerful that it beckons me closer. I’ve never wanted a woman so badly in all my years. If not for the situation that we find ourselves in, I would be on my knees in front of you right now, asking for you to allow me the next few hours to make certain that no place on your body was left unexplored by my mouth and hands. The truth is that, yes, I am seeking an end to this war, and I believe that you are the key. We all do. But there is another truth. You have the choice between Byron, who specifically chooses women as his victims and slaughters them without any remorse, or me, the only one here with any decency. The man that wants to pleasure you instead of hurt you. Please, help me help you.”
He paused for a moment as he moved his mouth next to my ear. I realized then that my right hand was wrapped around the very strong arm around my waist and my left hand rested on his strong chest. He inhaled and a soft, low growl escaped him. A shiver ran from head to toe as the sound radiated within me. I knew that he was after me for this convoluted plan of Jeff’s, but this was always what I wanted. I’d always wanted to feel a Vampire bite. I’d always wanted to feel the seduction, and my God, was I feeling it now. Using me or not, he was right. He was giving me exactly what I wanted. I hated him for making me feel that way, but a large part of me was begging for more. I don’t think there is a woman in the world that could resist his charm.
<
br /> “That was long enough,” Jeff said as he all but blew through the door. “I nearly had to kill myself listening to that hideous conversation from upstairs. How can you speak to her that way?” He was looking at Jacques now.
“I wasn’t anywhere near done,” Jacques said sternly. I heard the warning in it. There was no mistaking it.
“Oh, I bet you weren’t. I told you to turn her, not fuck her. You were taking too long and I was beginning to lose my patience,” Jeff said.
My skin began to burn a little as the air in the house grew even stronger. I stiffened and Jacques took notice. “Kailah,” he said softly in my ear.
“There are three more,” I said quietly.
I felt something different about the new group. Someone didn’t fit.
“Oh, my God.”
“Aw, what’s wrong, Kailah? Do you recognize someone?” Jeff asked condescendingly.
“Jeff. What’s going on?” Jacques asked.
“You bastard!” I yelled as I turned around and lunged for him. Jacques stood and easily caught me, pulling me back against his chest. He placed his hands on my waist to hold me to him.
“Easy, young one, you don’t want to do that. I can’t protect you if you lash out,” he whispered softly to me.
“The hell I don’t! Amanda!” I screamed. “Amanda!”
“Who—is Amanda?” Jacques growled in Jeff’s direction.
“Insurance. That, big boy, is Kailah’s younger sister,” Jeff said.
“Jeff!” Jacques’s voice boomed out and even rattled me as it reverberated from his chest and through my body. “That was not part of the deal. That was not part of the plan. One innocent girl is already here against her will. There is absolutely no reason to bring another in, especially if she has no power.”
“Oh, Jacques, how dumb you really are,” Jeff said with a crooked smile.
Jacques started to step forward, but I widened my stance and put just enough pressure on him that he stopped. He once again rested his hands softly on my waist.
