His promise should have made her happy, but something in his tone still worried her. It was the same vague worry she’d had their first two days in Italy when he’d purposely hidden his fears from her. “What are you keeping from me?”
“Nothing, cara. I promise.” His smile warmed her, but darkness churned in the purple depths of his eyes. “Will you come back to the living room?”
As she let him help her up, the room tilted again, and she found herself pressed against his chest. The familiar scent of him, the feel of his muscles shifting under her hand, and the beat of his heart calmed her. “I miss…sensing you,” she whispered. “Every emotion. It’s like half of me is missing.”
His strong fingers curled under her chin, tipping her head back to look at him. “I know. We have been bonded for less than two weeks—”
“We were bonded.”
Nic pressed a firm kiss to her neck, over the new mark he’d made only an hour ago. A subtle warmth spread through her. Faint, but still present. “We are bonded. It may take some time for us to regain the closeness we shared, but perhaps having another bonding ceremony would not be all bad?” His smile melted the last of her fears away, at least for the moment, and she steadied.
“You could twist my arm.” Slanting her mouth over his, she kissed him, letting her tongue dance over the seam of his lips, probing, demanding until he parted for her, a low rumble of desire in his throat sending arousal thrumming in her core.
“Mine.”
The single word, so faint it might have only existed in her mind, had her drawing back, but before she could ask him if he’d tried to speak to her, Sylvie shouted from the next room.
“Get in here. We found something!”
Nic followed his life mate out into the main room. He should have told her. Everything. His fears that if he lost her, he would die not only of a broken heart, but also starvation. He’d felt nothing from the blood Antonio had forced him to drink. No slaking of his thirst, no strength flowing into his body. Nothing.
Her steps were still uneven. But she carried herself with a grace she hadn’t had before she’d been taken. Could her lingering illness be nothing more than her body adapting to enhanced strength and speed? Or had Luigi—and her mother—done more to her than she knew? That thought shifted his focus. He’d protect Evangeline, but they needed Marie. For more than one reason.
“Is there more coffee?” Evangeline asked as she eased herself down on the sofa. “I haven’t slept.” Her cheeks flushed, and Nic strode into the little kitchen to refill her mug.
“Thank you,” she said softly as their fingers brushed.
Nic pressed a kiss to her forehead after he took his seat next to her. “I will always take care of you.” For a brief moment, the connection between them flowed, Evangeline’s raw need, her insecurities, her love for him. Twining their fingers, Nic focused his tired gaze on Sylvie. “What did you find?”
With a flick of the remote control on the low table, Sylvie turned to the flat screen. “Rome has more traffic cameras than any other major city in Italy. But there are still huge areas with zero coverage.”
“And where Philipe and I escaped is one of those areas?” Evangeline asked.
“Yeah. Probably that bastard’s doing. He’d have known to pick a hideout where no one would see him coming or going. But even though Google is run by humans, they do a bloody brilliant job with their street view.” Sylvie tapped a few keys on her laptop, and a map appeared on the television. “We started with where we’d found you and brought up the street view in every direction.”
“I cannot be certain,” Philipe said as he leaned against Bayard, his haggard face looking ten years older than it had the last time Nic had seen him, “but I recognized several landmarks. Evangeline, perhaps you will also find them familiar.”
Giving the screen her full attention, Evangeline nodded. “Go ahead.”
Sylvie advanced the images.
“No,” she murmured. Another image had her shaking her head. But when a small shop selling pastries flashed by, she sat up a little straighter. “I think…that shop.”
“Good.” Sylvie made a note on a small pad of paper next to her. A dozen more images passed by without any other clues until Nic didn’t know if he could handle another minute of inaction.
“There. What’s that?” Evangeline asked. She rose, limped over to the television, and peered at the corner of an image of a dark stone building. “Can you enhance this at all?”
With her brows furrowed, Sylvie fiddled with her keyboard. “Maybe.”
“When we came up the stairs,” Evangeline said, turning to Philipe, “there was this…big thing in front of us. Did you see it? I don’t know what it was. I couldn’t focus very well.”
Philipe closed his eyes, his head resting on Bayard’s shoulder. “The guards shot me two steps from the top. I was…trying to stay upright.”
Disappointment flashed across Evangeline’s features, and she started chewing on her lower lip.
“You turned right. I…was facing whatever it was. I think…there was graffiti. A word I don’t know. But…it started with…the letter c, maybe?”
The image shifted, and though Nic couldn’t read the word painted on the side of a large, metal electrical box, the first letter bore a curve that looked vaguely like a c.
“I…think that’s it. Can you see what’s behind the camera?” Evangeline swayed slightly, and Nic leapt up to steady her.
“Come sit down, cara.”
With a sigh, Evangeline sank against him and let him guide her back to the couch. “Sorry.”
“Do not apologize. Will you eat more?” Nic picked up her still largely untouched plate of fruit and set it in her lap.
With trembling fingers, Evangeline snagged a small bunch of grapes. “I don’t think that’s it. But, I’ll try.”
Sylvie cursed under her breath. “This is the best I can do for an alternate camera angle.”
Nic peered at the screen. Only a small part of the building was visible, but he thought he saw dark shading that would indicate a stairwell.
With a grunt, Philipe sat up. “Help me?” he asked Bayard. “I need to get closer to see.”
His face a mask of emotional pain, Bayard slid his arm around his lover and lifted Philipe to his feet. He half-carried the male to the television, and Philipe pointed to a subtle discoloration on the ground. “There was a loose grate…I think. I almost tripped and dropped Evangeline. This could be the place.”
Sylvie stood and jammed her hands on her hips. “Then we’re going down there with as many guns as we can carry.”
39
“No.” Nic stood, glancing around their small little group until his gaze landed on Sylvie. “Evangeline and Philipe are exhausted and ill. You cannot tell me you and Bayard are feeling much better. If we go in now, not at our best, we will fail before we even get started. We will take four hours. I will call Carlo and see if he, Vittoria, and Antonio will join us. We need as much help as we can get.”
“Um, Nic?” Sylvie quirked her lips into a frown. “I know we decided to…mostly trust them, but I’d feel a lot better if you let me bring in some of my Network spooks instead. They’re better trained, and they don’t have any sort of stake in this. Beyond financial. They fail, they don’t get paid.”
With a slight eye roll, Nic said, “The last time we took Vittoria into a fight, she ended up with a silver rod through her stomach. You are probably right.”
“Yeah. My guys are better.” With a delicate snort, she snagged her phone and started texting.
Philipe and Bayard made their way back to their bedroom, and Nic snaked his arm around Evangeline’s waist as he helped her to her feet. “Once you make contact,” he said to Sylvie, “get some sleep yourself.”
“I will.”
Despite Sylvie’s words, Evangeline would bet money that the petite vampire would spend every moment working. But she was so tired, she wasn’t sure she could muster the energy to convi
nce her bodyguard to do anything else.
Once she and Nic closed themselves in the bedroom, Evangeline sank down onto the bed. “If Marie is still there…still alive…”
Nic brushed his fingers over her cheek, then tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. “We will get her out. I wish you could stay here, though.”
“Nic—”
“Could. Not would.” He cupped the back of her neck. “I am not letting you out of my sight, Evangeline. It seems every time we are parted, one or both of us is in danger. I will not take that chance again.”
A hint of their bond flared, and Evangeline wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. The steady beat of his heart thrummed under her cheek and she closed her eyes, savoring the sound, the familiarity of his arms around her. “You won’t lose me. Not…the way you think.”
“The way I think?” He tightened his embrace. “You are scaring me.”
Evangeline sighed. “I don’t mean to. I don’t feel like myself. Something inside me is…changing. Has changed.”
“Si. We have some idea what your father did to you. Mutating your DNA so that you would be stronger and faster than everyone else. So you could fight off vampires. But there is so much more we do not know. Until we can decrypt everything on the drive, we will not understand exactly what…either of us are. But despite his depravity, he made us for one another. Changed both of us so that we were unique in this world.” Nic kissed the top of her head. “Your father’s experiments started forging the bond between us.”
“What if we can’t remake it without—”
“We can, and we will. You do not feel the stirrings already?” He stroked the mark on her neck.
She did, the warmth spreading halfway down her shoulder and up to her ear. “I need you, Nic. I need to feel you. Your love. Your…heart.”
With a possessive growl, Nic scooped her up in his arms. “You will feel me, cara. All of me.”
Tenderly, Nic laid her on the bed and stripped off her sweatshirt. “Belissima,” he murmured, skating his thumb over one pert nipple. She shuddered against the pillows and couldn’t stop her hips from shifting, her legs parting.
“Your scent. Merda.” His fingers skimmed her waist as he eased the fleece pants lower, exposing her mound and the soft brown curls that covered her sex. Dipping inside, he found her wetness, groaned, and then sucked his index finger into his mouth, tasting her.
“One of us is wearing too many clothes,” she teased, and though a tremble of uncertainty tinged her voice, she knew what she wanted. Needed.
Him.
Tugging at his shirt, she was rewarded when he lifted his arms. Slowly, so she could savor every inch of his corded frame, she peeled the t-shirt away. Two new scars on his chest worried her. “What happened?”
With a glance, he grimaced. “Tasers. From when we were attacked in the piazza. I am not healing as quickly as I should.”
“Nic.” Evangeline angled her head, exposing her vein, but he shook his head. “Not until I am inside you, cara. So much sweeter that way. And…sweeter still if you can take from me at the same time.”
Despite fearing her new vampiric abilities, Evangeline’s arousal spiked at the idea of the two of them together as they were meant to be. “Then get those pants off.”
So quickly she saw only a blur, Nic shed his jeans and boxers, then climbed onto the bed, his cock jutting proudly from a patch of trim, black curls. A drop of his essence glistened at his crown, and Evangeline wriggled until she could clamp her hands around his hips and draw him into her mouth.
The taste of him: salty, rich, and very male, drew a moan from her throat. The vibration had his hips jerking, sending him deeper, and for a split second, she thought she’d gag, but hollowing out her cheeks, she sucked and licked, running her tongue over the thick vein on the underside of his cock.
“Dio, Evangeline. I will not last.” Withdrawing, Nic eased Evangeline back against the pillows. “And I need to taste you.”
She shuddered at his words. Sliding down her body, he kissed each breast, his fangs scraping gently across the taut nubs. When he nuzzled her curls, inhaling deeply, Evangeline thrust her hips forward.
“Nic. I need—”
Her words were lost as he flicked his tongue between her slick folds. She almost tumbled over the edge with that single touch, but when he fastened his hands around her hips and held her still, she let herself do nothing but feel.
Higher and higher, she soared, her cries no longer words, only desperate, needy keening. “You taste like a summer rain,” Nic says. “Trust me, Evangeline.”
“Uh huh.” She did, despite her lingering fears. Nic sank his fangs into the delicate flesh of her upper thigh as he plunged two fingers inside her, swirling until he found the spot that would send her flying.
Pure pleasure overtook her until there was nothing left, nothing but Nic and her and their love for one another.
Before her core stopped trembling, Nic kissed her thigh, sealing the wounds, and then he was on top of her, his cock nudging her entrance. “More?”
“Please,” she begged. She needed him filling her, consuming her, and as her teeth ached and her fangs descended, she licked her lips, desperate to taste him.
“Show me.” Nic thrust inside her in one fluid move, and as she arched her back, she bared her small fangs. His eyes churned with lust and something deeper, something more. The bond they both longed to feel between them once more.
With aching slowness, he pulled back, letting his cock rasp across her clit as he pressed down on her. “I’m scared,” she whispered, this new-found power terrifying, but also exhilarating.
“You will know what to do,” he said as he dipped his head to claim her mouth. And then he was everywhere. A hand in her hair, his tongue dancing along her teeth, curling around her fangs, his hips thrusting in time with hers. Evangeline wrapped her legs around his waist, digging her fingers into the muscles of his back.
“I need…” she managed. “Harder.”
“I will…hurt you.” Nic tried to pull away, but she tightened her legs, holding him in place.
All the uncertainty that surrounded them meant nothing to her now. This, she knew without a doubt. “You won’t. You couldn’t.”
The savage growl that escaped his lips thrilled her, and she feared she’d come off the bed—or crash through the headboard for a moment until her body thrummed with such pleasure that rational thought fled.
Nic bit her, hard, the pain mixing with the pleasure in her core to send her soaring. With one hand holding him close, she grabbed his hair and tilted his head just enough to expose his vein.
Instinct drove her on, and as her fangs broke the skin and his blood flowed over her tongue, pure, white light exploded behind her eyes.
Her entire world stopped as they came together, his seed spilling into her as she clenched around him. They drank, pull for pull, until Evangeline swiped her tongue gently over the wounds she’d caused, licked her lips, and let her head fall back.
Nic collapsed next to her, and though neither of them spoke, their bond flared bright, and for a brief moment, they were, once again, whole.
40
Evangeline whimpered in her sleep. “No. Please.”
“Shhh, cara. You are safe with me.” Nic nuzzled her neck, tightening his arm around her. “Come back now.”
She struggled, a few tears escaping her shuttered lids until Nic shook her gently. “Wake up, Evangeline.”
With a gasp, Evangeline jerked, and when she focused on Nic’s face, she blew out a breath. “Oh God. Nic.”
“Tell me.”
Shaking her head, she tried to pull away, but Nic held fast. “Tell me,” he said again, a firm edge to his tone.
Her cheeks flushed, and she wriggled out of his grip to sit up against the headboard. “Why? It won’t change what happened.”
Frustration churned in Nic’s gut. “We shared everything. The bond kept us connected. Without it, we c
annot keep secrets.” He tried not to think about his own secret…how dependent he was on her now for his very life.
“You said…” She touched the mark at her neck. Nic’s bonding marks twinged in answer.
“We strengthen the bond with every kiss. Every time we come together. But it will take time.” Nic pressed her hand to his heart. “Before, I could sense all of your emotions. Now…I only feel their ghosts. You are afraid, I think. Not only memories, but afraid for the future.”
She nodded. “He’ll come for me again. When he…fed…from me, I could feel his…” Chewing on her lip for a moment, she met Nic’s gaze. “I can’t explain it. Almost…like I could see into his head. His need for power. His fear of dying. The ugliness that runs all through him.”
With a shudder, Evangeline threw her legs over the side of the bed and turned away. “He hates you.”
Nic snorted. “He will hate me even more once I break both of his legs.”
The alarm on his phone started to beep, and Nic swiped it off the bedside table. “We should get dressed. Sylvie will want to leave soon.”
“Okay.” Her flat voice worried him, but Evangeline stood up without wavering on her feet and headed for the bathroom. Moments later, he heard the shower.
He found her huddled in the corner under the hot spray, drops of water streaming down her face. A tiny flinch shook her shoulders when he stepped in behind her, but she relaxed against him once he had his arms around her.
“If we are attacked again,” Nic said, smoothing soap down her arms, “run. Sylvie will not leave your side. Do not worry about me.”
“Nic.” Evangeline twisted around, her purple eyes flashing dangerously dark. “I won’t leave you.”
“You must. You are the one Luigi wants. The one he will torture until he breaks you.”
“And he’ll kill you. No, Nic. I won’t run if you’re not with me.” Evangeline pulled away, rinsed off, and stepped out of the shower. “Don’t ask me to do that again.”
Revelations in Blood Page 22
