She was on unfamiliar ground, facing an unknown future. A future filled with vampires. Vampires! Dear heaven, did she really believe in vampires?
She shut her eyes for a second, wishing she could shut out the unwanted thoughts, then wearily opened them and checked her watch. The bar would have been open for nearly an hour. It was Friday night, and as Mike had reminded her just that morning, one of the busiest nights of the week.
Ignoring the beginning of a headache, she went into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. If only she could wash away the memory of what she’d seen as easily as she could wash the tears from her face.
She looked closely at herself in the mirror. Unable to do anything about her red-rimmed eyes, she concentrated instead on refreshing her makeup.
Determined to confront Julian about what she’d seen earlier, she left the apartment and walked stoically down the stairs.
WHEN SIMONE entered the bar, Julian and Mike were huddled together at the other end of the room. She walked over to them.
“This came for you,” Mike said, holding out a folded piece of paper. She reached for the note, and when he flexed his arm to hand it to her, the edge of his long sleeve shirt rode up, exposing a gauze bandage.
She looked suspiciously from Mike to Julian and back to Mike again. The answer to her silent question flashed in his eyes. He was the animal that had been injured in the courtyard. They looked at each other for another second, then he gave her a knowing smile and moved away to take care of customers.
She wondered how seriously he was wounded. He certainly didn’t look any the worse for wear.
“Michael wasn’t badly injured. He’ll be fine,” Julian said. That was it. No explanation of what she had witnessed. Just an assurance that Mike’s wound wasn’t serious. Like what she’d seen was an everyday occurrence. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she uttered a sound, he lowered his head. “Aren’t you going to read that?”
She followed his gaze to the note in her hand.
After the unsettling discovery of Mike’s alternate identity, she’d temporarily forgotten the piece of paper. She opened it and moved closer to one of the overhead lights. The note was from Deke Williams. He had some news for her. She suppressed a gasp and quickly shoved the paper in her pocket.
“Anything I can help with?” Julian asked.
She remembered that Julian couldn’t forcibly link their minds and that she could block any thoughts she wished from him. She mentally barred all thoughts connected to Deke and the note before she said, “What? Oh, no. Just a message from my stepsister’s landlord letting me know I can come for the last of her things.”
Before Julian could comment, she rushed on, “I’m glad Mike’s okay.” She looked deeply into Julian’s eyes, entranced as always by their startling difference. She felt the now recognizable brush of his mind against hers and let him open the channel between them. She was the first to begin their silent conversation.
Were you hurt?
Not a scratch.
She lifted her chin toward the back of the building. What was that all about?
I’ll tell you later. After we close. And we’re alone.
She was amazed at how easily she had fallen into switching back and forth from silent to vocal conversation with Julian. Although the telepathy between them was still difficult to accept, it couldn’t be denied. It was real. What she still had trouble accepting was his being a vampire.
She was unable to stop visions of the scenes she’d witnessed when Julian had been in his vampire state. They intruded on her thoughts when she least expected them and still upset her greatly. She wondered if she would ever be able to accept that part of Julian’s nature without profound fear and revulsion. For now she could only wait and see.
She had more questions for Julian, but his attention was diverted to an area behind her. He waved to someone then returned his attention to her.
“After we close,” he repeated, and walked off to the other end of the bar. The place was near capacity already and a young man she didn’t recognize was taking orders at the tables. At the bar, Mike was working furiously to fill the orders, and he made room quickly when Julian joined him.
As Simone checked the bar area in front of her to see what needed to be done, Julian’s words came rushing back to her. I’ll tell you later. After we close. That meant he’d be coming to her tonight.
A rush of heat swept through her when she remembered the last time he’d come to her, the time she’d thought she was dreaming. She put her hand to her face. It felt hot to the touch. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when she’d felt such desire. No, be honest. Not desire. Lust, pure and simple. She was lusting after a . . . a vampire. A vampire who could be as cruel and merciless as any of the other monsters she’d watched doing battle in the courtyard. She could not let herself forget that one important point.
Angrily, she gripped the bowl of peanuts she was about to refill and, for a brief moment, considered hurling it across the room. Fortunately, a lifetime of self-control came to the forefront and quelled the impulse before she could act on it.
Relaxing her hold on the wooden bowl she followed through with several calming breaths. At odds with this new, irrational side of her nature, she knew there could be only one of two explanations for the way she was reacting to events of late.
She had either entered a new reality or the reality she had always known was slipping farther and farther away from her. Either way she had to know for sure. She had so many questions.
And Julian, she was certain, had all the answers.
WHEN HE STEPPED into Simone’s living room, Julian bypassed any preliminaries and lifted her into his arms, his mouth claiming hers. He’d thought of little else but this moment since she’d come downstairs after the battle.
He’d felt her heat, her desire for him, even when distance had separated them while they worked. His heart swelled with joy at the knowledge. She was responding to him faster and with more intensity than he’d imagined in his most optimistic moments.
Before he’d completed the thought to take her at that very moment, he found himself in Simone’s bedroom standing next to her bed. Reluctantly ending their kiss, he placed her in the middle of the soft mattress and laid down beside her, turning her face to his. She was so beautiful, so obviously vulnerable it caused a momentary ache in his heart. Seconds seemed like years as he debated with himself how best to continue with her seduction.
Through the decades of waiting for this woman, she had always been nameless and faceless. Now that she was here, a living, breathing human being, it gave him pause. Perhaps he was rushing things. Maybe he should be a little more cautious. He was too close now to make a mistake that could cancel out the advances he’d made.
When the need for another taste of her lips overcame any thought of proceeding with caution, he took her mouth again. When she met his tongue with her own, he drew it into his mouth carefully, so as not to accidentally cut it with one of his incisors. Even retracted they were sharp enough to wound her. And it was much too early to give her even the slightest reason to fear him. Not now, not when he had made such swift and fruitful progress.
He ran his fingers lightly up and down her arm. She sighed and arched her body into his. Her willingness to let him take the lead and set the pace for what she must consider the prelude to sex both surprised and excited him. He had expected more resistance, but the way her body was responding to his lovemaking told a different story.
When he’d pleasured her the other night he’d denied himself even a small taste of her blood. He’d been afraid of losing control, of crossing the line before she’d begun to trust him. But it was different now, wasn’t it? She was fully aware of what was happening between them. She might still have a few reservations about having sex with him, but she definitely wasn’t averse to
it. It wasn’t as if he was taking unfair advantage of her, was it?
For the first time he could remember, he began to second-guess the past decades of imposed abstinence. He couldn’t deny that his hiatus from sex had served a very important purpose. There had been no mornings after with memories of having taken one drop of blood more than he needed from the woman he’d used the night before.
But wasn’t he paying too high a price now for that abstinence? With his emotions much more volatile than ever before, could he trust himself not to misstep with Simone? So much depended on this relationship that he couldn’t afford any mistakes.
Would one surface bite on a spot of skin not highly susceptible to his sting do any real harm? Wasn’t it worth taking a slight risk now before his desires turned dark and the risk of losing control mounted? After all, if she even slightly recoiled, he would stop immediately.
He pressed his body closer to hers until there was no doubt she felt how hard he was, or that his shaft was considerably larger than any mortal’s. Surely she must be expecting that they would continue to the inevitable joining of their bodies. Perhaps he could . . .
Mentally, he skidded to a stop. No, he could not go that far. Not yet. If he had sex with her and tasted one drop of her blood before she was emotionally committed to him, he wouldn’t be able to fulfill the Legacy. If that happened, he’d not only jeopardize his and his brothers’ lives, but the entire human race as well. There was no option but the one that would ensure the best possibility of fulfilling his destiny. The risk of failure was too great. He had to deny himself until she came to him voluntarily, ready and willing to sacrifice herself for him.
He tried to link their minds, but failed. He felt her body tense. His own body tensed in reaction. He was just about to ask her what was wrong when she suddenly sat up and placed a hand on each side of her head, as if trying to drown out an unwanted noise.
He put his arm around her shoulder. “What is it, Simone? What’s wrong?”
Simone shook her head. “I feel like I’m losing my mind.”
“What—”
She cut him off quickly. “I have to know the truth about what’s happening. All of it. I have to know.”
Since it was important that she accept her circumstances completely so he could accomplish what had to be done, it was necessary to calm her fears and gain her trust.
“What is it you want to know?” he asked, applying a gentle pressure to her shoulder turning her toward him.
WHAT IS IT YOU want to know?
Simone repeated Julian’s question in her head. What she wanted to know was everything. Everything that had impacted her life these past few days and changed it forever. Most importantly, she wanted to know everything about Julian.
She was still having difficulty accepting that not only were there really vampires, but that Julian was one of them. How had he become one? And how did his being one affect her? Were her feelings toward him real, or was he manipulating her? She didn’t want to believe he would do such a thing, but she had just lost herself moments before in his intoxicating kiss. And last night she’d let him do intimate things to her. Even now her heart was racing more from the memory of her body’s response to him than with the fear of what he might reveal to her.
“I’ll gladly tell you whatever you need to know about how I became what I am. As for the kiss and the intimacy we shared, you’re a woman and I’m a man. Is that so difficult to understand and accept?”
She felt her face flame as his words brought back the memory in full Technicolor.
Julian’s mind brushed hers and she allowed him entrance.
Well? Is it so hard to accept this passion between us?
She never considered denying it. No.
And now, your questions.
She was ready with her questions. But she had to ask them aloud, hear them answered aloud. She had to at least feel there was still some normalcy left in her life. First of all, she needed an answer to the thing that concerned her most.
Chapter Nine
“IF YOU’RE REALLY a vampire, how did you get that way?” Before Julian could answer Simone rushed on. “And if there really are others, how many others are there? And Mike? How in hell does a person become a shapeshifter? What is happening to me? To the world?”
She was aware that she was babbling like an hysterical woman, but didn’t she deserve a little hysteria after what she’d witnessed?
She must have been in emotional shock after the private war that had taken place practically under her window. But now that some time had passed and she’d had the opportunity to physically work off most of her anxiety and fear in the bar, her thoughts were clearer and the pictures whizzing around in her head were beginning to coalesce.
Her fleeing the apartment when the alarm sounded. Her first sight of Julian in the courtyard dancing around the weapons aimed at him. Julian’s hands wrapped around the throats of the ghoulish enemy vampires. Mike, the animal that had leaped into the fray.
“The attack in the courtyard . . .” she started.
“It wasn’t much of an attack. Actually we were expecting something on a grander scale. This was just a tidbit to throw us off. I thought we took care of it damned quick.”
Her heart bumped against her chest. Tidbit? He sounded as if he was talking about the appetizer before a grand meal. “You were expecting them? And you know they’ll be back?”
“Yes. And yes. They’re not about to stop until they either take what they’ve come for or destroy it in the process.”
Her heart gave another hard thump. “Which is . . .?”
“HerediPlas, the synthetic blood Michael makes in the lab downstairs.” He gave her a sly grin. “You’ve seen it in the special Double B that Michael and I make.”
Oh, God, she should have known there was something strange in the drink that only certain people ordered. Only certain vampires ordered! They’d been right here under her nose all the time. Had she deliberately closed her eyes and her mind to them?
She needed to know. She needed to get to the root of all this . . . this mess before it drove her crazy.
“To reference another old story, the root of all this is what has plagued mankind since the proverbial first angel fell,” Julian said, reading her thought easily through the link that neither of them had closed. “Good versus evil. In my realm, that translates to the good vampires versus the evil ones.”
Calling any vampire “good” was something she still had trouble dealing with even though she didn’t believe Julian was evil. He couldn’t be faulted for what had happened in the courtyard tonight. After all, he had simply been defending his home. And in her vision the other night where he’d destroyed that monster, he’d been fighting to save a woman’s life.
“You’ll have to humor me, Julian. Until you came along, I didn’t believe there was such a thing as vampires, much less good ones.”
“Everything you’ve always been told about vampires is a myth spread by uninformed mortals who refuse to believe we exist. Well, we do exist, and we are no different than you. There are good and bad among us, just as there are among your kind.”
Julian took her hands in his and looked at her steadily. A slow warmth flowed through her body. “Some of us were even mortal once, with human families.” His voice trailed off and she thought he might be finished, but instead he gave her hands a gentle squeeze and went on. “There are ways for us to control our need for blood. One of them is Michael’s discovery of HerediPlas. Some of us are grateful for it. Some of us, like some humans, like to kill for the sport of it and they aren’t interested in anything that would destroy their blood lust.”
“I take it the ones you fought last night were evil.” When Julian nodded, she continued, “And by stealing or destroying the synthetic blood they take away your ability to . . .” There was no need fo
r her to complete the sentence. She knew the answer. Without the synthetic substitute, all the vampires would need blood. Involuntarily, she shivered from an inner cold that spread quickly throughout her body.
Julian rubbed her hands as if to warm them. “It’s complicated, Simone. I can’t explain everything in just a few short minutes. Suffice it to say that there are those who drain the blood from humans for the sport of it. Some take only enough to control a person’s will.” He paused for a couple of seconds and stared at her intently as if willing her to understand. “And occasionally some are forced to take just enough to keep them physically and mentally alert. And sane,” he added grimly
He closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, he asked, “Have you ever thought of what it would be like to have New Orleans under the control of a group of people with absolutely no morals, no sense of decency?”
“Are you telling me that the evil vampires want to take over the city, and you and your group plan to stop them?”
Julian smiled. “Actually what you call a group is considered an extended family. A clan, or a cadre, if that makes it easier to understand.” The smile faded and his expression turned serious. “We are no different than those of you who are willing to fight for what you believe in. We’re willing to kill the enemy, to sacrifice our lives if it comes to that. The only difference between us is that you’re in the mainstream. We have to take our fight underground.”
She felt the blood drain from her face as the significance of what he’d just said hit her. “Do you think Dottie could have fallen prey to one of those . . . those . . .” She couldn’t finish the question. Dottie had to be all right. She just had to be!
Julian leaned in close to her. “I won’t insult you with anything but what I consider the truth. Obviously, I have no way of knowing the answer to your question, but there are several possibilities. She could have been injured, or worse, during the hurricane’s wrath.” He paused as if trying to assess her response, then continued, “She could be in one of the many shelters across the country and, for some reason, unable to contact you.”
The Vampire Julian Page 8
