“I know it’s true now,” he hissed at him. “But given enough time—”
“You saw the bite marks on her, my emblem on her choker. Say it!”
“I saw them. I know she’s about to give herself to you, if she hasn’t already.”
“Then you owe me for trying to taste her.”
“I owe you,” Devlin said grudgingly. “And I pay my debts. What do you want?”
“Get Tony and Thane to back off. I don’t care how. Get them to accept money instead. I want out of our arrangement.”
“Consider it done,” he said arrogantly. “Now get off me before you piss me off.”
I hoped Danial would slam the stake home and end him. Instead, he jerked it out, throwing it aside as they both got to their feet. Devlin’s shirt was ruined, but he appeared uninjured. Danial gestured for him to leave with him and they walked out of sight.
I went into the bedroom and slammed the door, pissed. The door didn’t latch and swung partly open.
“Don’t you think it’s time you let this go? I’ve apologized a hundred times for what I did with Annabelle.” Danial exposed real sorrow, real regret.
Who was Annabelle?
“You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s gone on long enough between us.” Devlin paused. “I hope she makes you happy, the way Anna and I were.”
I suddenly knew who Annabelle had to be. She had to be the woman Danial had seduced away from Devlin centuries ago.
Screw that Devlin sounded like he’d died along with her. I wasn’t letting him just walk out of there. I strode out as Danial opened the front door. Devlin turned to him just in time to put his face in line with my fist. My punch wasn’t nearly as strong as Danial's had been, but the solid steel rod I held in my hand helped. The blow was strong enough to knock Devlin off balance and down the stairs.
I tossed the metal rod to Danial and went into the kitchen. Cia lay where she had fallen. I checked for a heartbeat and found one, steady and strong.
Theo came through the door and kneeled beside me. “I saw Devlin fall down the stairs. What happened?”
I told him the story.
“Devlin’s his brother?”
“Yes. What can we do for her?”
“I need to straighten her neck.” He had me hold her still as best as I could while he grasped her head and yanked quickly. There was a horrible bone-grating-on-bone sound, but Cia’s neck looked more like it should.
“We wait,” he said. “In a few minutes, she’ll be okay. I need to speak to Danial. Wait here.”
He returned with Danial a few minutes later. Cia hadn’t changed position or opened her eyes, so I was worried. Theo saw my expression, and said “Don’t worry. She’ll be okay. This isn’t the first time he’s done something like this.”
“What?” I said furiously.
“He snapped her neck, but he didn’t kill her. All he did was incapacitate her. She couldn’t heal this without help, but as soon as we straightened out the break, she began recovering. It’s not a big deal for a were, trust me.”
“It had to hurt. She was fighting him.”
“It hurt, but she’ll be okay.” He actually patted me on the shoulder, in one of his nicer moods.
A few moments later, Cia opened her eyes and sat up. “Sar, are you okay? What happened?”
I soothed her as best I could. “It’s over now. Devlin’s gone. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Theo said. “You’re bleeding again.”
I reached up and felt the wetness on my neck. The same deeper bite. But it wasn’t bad, just a few drops. “It’s no big deal.”
“It is. Go take care of it. I’ll get Cia to bed. Her motor function is going to be impaired for a little while.” He lifted her with one arm to help her stand and they walked outside.
Danial brought me into the bathroom to attend my bite. “I should heal this one,” he said, apprehensive. “It’s deep. But I can’t risk poisoning you with my blood. Not after I took so much from you last night.”
“Can’t just your saliva help? There’s some of what makes you a vampire in that, right?”
“It helps, but it takes blood for major healing. A scratch could be healed with saliva, but a wound this deep needs blood to heal it.”
The phone rang. He answered it, then turned to me and mouthed, “Stephen.”
I took the phone. “Hello?”
“I was calling to tell you the results of that blood work I did for you. Your blood levels look fine. All the numbers are within normal limits; platelets, red blood cells, white blood cells. ”
“I’m glad to hear it,” I said, relieved.
“Ask Danial to get on the line, if you’ve no objections.”
“Get another line,” I said to Danial.
A moment later, I heard him pick up. “I’m here. What is it?”
“I’m going to write her a prescription for vitamins. She needs more iron, but all her vitals could use a little help. I’ll call it in to the Alan’s Creek pharmacy tonight. You can pick it up in an hour.”
“I’ll have someone pick it up,” Danial said. “Anything else?”
“She should come in for a checkup in a month.”
“You just looked me over a few days ago—”
“November thirtieth, at three in the afternoon?”
Stephen was concerned, and if he was, I probably should be, too. “Okay,” I said, grabbing a pencil and paper to jot down the information.
“Danial, I need a few words for you, too. Sar needs time to heal before you take anymore of her blood. Don’t drink from her until she comes in to see me in a month—”
“I drank from her last night. It was a large amount.”
“Look, both of you,” Stephen said, exasperated, “I’ll call in another prescription, something to help counteract the blood loss. But don’t do this again for at least a month. You’re risking her life if you do.”
“I understand,” Danial said apologetically. “I won’t.”
“By the way, Danial, your tests were negative. I’ll retest you again in a month.” He paused. “I’m sorry.” He said good-bye and hung up.
“What was that about?” I asked when Danial came back.
“Nothing,” he said, running his hands over his face.
“It didn’t sound like nothing.”
“You remember the potions I bought, the ones Terian made?” He sighed. “You said he mentioned them to you.”
“Yes.”
“They might have side effects; at least, that’s what I’ve been told. Stephen is making sure I’m okay. I’ve given him permission to let you know about it, which is why he didn’t ask to speak to me alone.” He abruptly grinned.
“What?” I said, smiling back at him.
“I can’t believe you punched Devlin.” He laughed. “Seriously, Sarelle, you probably shouldn’t have.”
“He apologized to you, not to me. Not to Cia.”
“Cia was doing her job. She knew what might happen if she went against him.”
“Why are you afraid of him? You just bested him—”
“I beat him because he was focused on you and he didn’t think I was going to attack—not like I did. I never have before, ever. I was lucky to catch him off guard. But he’ll remember this day forever. I won’t be able to turn the tables on him so easily again.”
I wanted to say, “then perhaps you should have staked him,” but it was his brother, so I kept my mouth shut.
“Besides, getting him to agree that I can stop killing for Thane and Tony is enough of a relief.”
“I’ll bet it is,” I said sarcastically. “I understand now why you said it would be in bad taste to dress as assassins for your party. Why dress up as an assassin when you are one in real life?”
“It’s true that I’ve killed people for money before. I was a mercenary back when that was an acceptable profession. But I’m done with that.”
“You killed someone in the last few days for money. That doesn’t so
und like you’re done.”
“I’d already agreed to do it, so I had to finish the job. This isn’t a movie, where if you suddenly decide you should have better morals, you just tell the people who hired you sorry, no deal. I’ve wanted that part of my life to be done with for a long time. Now it can be, with Dev’s intercession.” He looked at me earnestly, willing me to believe him.
“No more killing for hire?” I said. “Promise me now.”
“No more, I promise you.”
I changed the subject. “What’s the name of your company? I tried to locate it on the Internet, but couldn’t find anything under ‘Racklan’.”
He smiled. “Solutions Inc. I thought you knew.”
I’d expected something more edgy and otherworldly, but he did work mostly in the corporate world. It made sense.
“There’s no address linked to the company, just a P.O. Box.”
Theo strolled in. “Danial, you should know that Devlin took out two of the border guards we had around the house. He left his Hummer where the blacktop starts and circled around to come at the house from the side. Ivan and Demetri are okay. Devlin also snapped their necks, but they’re recovering.”
“He did it because he wasn’t here for an all-out attack. He was here to see if he could get Sar to submit to him. At least, that’s what I think. But instead of kissing him, she punched him in the face.” He snorted. “You should’ve seen it.”
“I did it for Cia.”
Theo looked amazed and proud. “So that’s why he fell down the stairs.” He cleared his throat. “Thank you for both the pies and the chicken. I’m surprised you bothered getting me anything. You know you don’t like me, really.”
I smiled sweetly at him. “I like you just fine when you aren’t being an ass.”
He laughed and walked out.
I focused again on Danial. “How does this work?”
He brushed the hair back from my face. “What?”
“I want to try living here with you because I think I’m ready. But I need help meshing our lives together, especially with my job. I want us to have time together, but I don’t want you to feel like I’m overwhelming you by being around all the time.”
“That’s not going to happen. I want you around. And you can work or not work, though it would be easier if you didn’t.”
He wasn’t getting it. “What about when you have to go out of town for a night or a few days? Would you want me with you or not? Would you be offended if I elected to stay here? Would you refuse if I wanted to go?”
He considered that. “I’d leave it up to you.”
“What about when you need blood? I can handle knowing that you need other women, but not seeing it each time and not having them in our bed. Because it is our bed now.”
“That’s an easier answer. There’s another bedroom in the basement. It was reserved for visitors who didn’t want to stay in the exposed upper room, on the second floor. I’ll take any of my blood donors there. Come with me.”
I took his hand, and he led me down to the basement. It was finished but spartan, having only a large wood wardrobe, a king-size bed, and a nightstand with some leather-bound first editions of poetry. I touched one gently.
“These were yours when you were mortal?”
“Yes. They were gifts from Devlin.” He opened the wardrobe. “These were mine over the years.”
I looked at the men’s clothes in many styles. There were mostly suits, but mixed in with those were ruffled shirts, breeches, and sword belts. Some swords of different styles were in the drawers, along with other period dress I recognized but didn’t know the name for.
“I only save a few. I had Tatiana enchant some of the older items so they’d last.”
“Do you wear them?”
“Not anymore. I keep them to remember.”
“Remember what?”
“I try to change as the world changes. Too many of us don’t. It used to be just an annoyance, in the old days, because man didn’t advance that fast. Vampires could choose not to change for years. But with each decade that passed, new ideas came into play. In the last hundred years, the advances have been phenomenal. Sometimes it also gets too much for me, how complicated the world has become. And I want to be who I was then, not who I am now. And in that way lies certain death. So I try not to dwell on my past. It’s easier.”
I hugged him to me and told him I understood.
Chapter Twenty-One
The following night, Danial took me ballroom dancing to celebrate us living together. We danced for hours, his skill and natural grace making me feel like a princess as we floated across the dance floor.
The night after, Demetri and Lander moved the wardrobe up from the basement while I took a quick trip home to get most of my warm clothes for winter. It took the rest of the evening, but I managed to organize and pack them away into the wardrobe.
I’d originally refused Danial’s offer to use it, telling him I could bring a dresser from home. “You shouldn’t have to pack away your stuff. It’s already in the basement—”
“I want you to use it. I’ll put my memory boxes down there, too.” He kissed my forehead. “My life is with you now.”
The gesture was sweet but too one-sided. As a concession, I moved his handful of poetry books to a small wooden shelf I’d brought from home, adding a few books I hadn’t read yet. I hung it within reach of the left side of the bed, the one I usually ended up sleeping on.
As I stood back to admire my work, it hit me; I had a side of the bed again. My emotions swelled and I sat down to think, fingering a shirt of Danial’s I’d found left in the wardrobe. It was red cotton and of an unfamiliar style, like something a poet might wear but without the ruffles.
He came in and took it from me. “I was looking for that. Thanks.”
“What is it?”
“A swordsman’s shirt. It’s close to the one I wore when I was mortal, except for the color. I had this one made for me.”
“Would you mind keeping it out? I’d like to see you wear it sometime.”
“Of course.” He handed it to me. “Put it in the wardrobe for now.”
* * * *
A few days later, I was talking to the werefoxes while we waited for a pan of brownies to bake. Suri, the hip-looking Asian with chunky-cut hair, was explaining to me that there was no correlation between the moon and changing form.
“There’s never been any correlation. But I think some people use it as an excuse to get violent. It is fun to run around in the moonlight.”
“But why do people believe so strongly that werewolves—sorry, werecreatures— had to change on the full moon if they don’t?”
“Simple superstition and observation. What night would be the easiest to spot a man changing to a fox and back? A night that was the brightest one in the month.”
“That was the night everyone learned to avoid changing on if they were really a were,” Janice added, laughing.
“It’s also the night wannabes roam around looking to become one.” Lander sighed. “Groupies.”
We all laughed.
“What do they do?” I asked. “Yell out, ‘please come and bite me’?”
“No, but some do lay there naked in the moonlight, waiting for something exciting to happen.”
I laughed. “And does it?”
“Those who want to get some, usually do. I’m a giver. ”He grinned at me.
I flushed, dropping my eyes from his. Suri grabbed his arm and whispered something in his ear. Lander didn’t say a word the rest of the night. In fact, he moved as far away as he could and didn’t even look at me.
“What did you say to him?” I asked her later.
“I reminded him to look at your neck so he’d remember who he was talking to. He’s just young. Forgive him his hormones.”
Lander had been bold, but I’d just been caught off guard, not insulted. Still, it was better not to set a precedent. “Thanks.”
“Thanks for the brow
nies. Call out if you need anything.” She walked out, the front door slamming behind her a few minutes later.
I turned off the light and went to bed, grateful that she’d said something. But I also felt alone in the midst of these people, like a queen bee with many minions but no real friends.
* * * *
The next morning I wandered out to the kitchen and was immediately besieged. Lander had been waiting for me.
“Uh...I...uh want to apologize for flirting with you last night. I didn’t mean it.”
I laughed. “You did mean it. But it’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
His face didn’t change. “So you accept my apology?”
“Yes.” I looked at him curiously, not understanding his problem.
“Thank you, Sarelle. It won’t happen again.” He left quickly, the front door slamming behind him.
Hormones, indeed.
I sat down and had breakfast, making sure to take the vitamins that Dr. Camlyn had prescribed for me. I had to take two of the huge pills whenever I first ate that day. I’d also taken the solution for counteracting blood loss the night before. It had come in a packet and was as thick as glue. It tasted awful, but I’d made myself swallow it because I trusted Dr. Camlyn.
* * * *
When I reached down to touch Danial awake the next morning, I recoiled in shock. His skin was warm like mine.
He’d taken at least one potion, and maybe the other, too. Remembering Terian’s words about how dangerous they were caused me concern. But it was his body and Stephen tested him for irregularities.
He pulled me closer and opened his eyes. “Do you like it?”
“I liked how you were. You don’t have to change for me. But yes, I like this, too.”
He kissed me, his hands sliding lower. “Show me.”
I sighed reluctantly. “We can’t.”
He froze. “Why not?”
“It’s Saturday. My parental units are waiting for us. We have to leave soon if we’re going to be there on time.”
I could feel him wanting to swear but he didn’t. “Give me five minutes.”
When we were nearly there, he dropped a bombshell.
Promise Me Page 27
