“I didn’t want you to think—”
“What? That you wanted me for my position, not for me.”
“Well, yes.”
“Idiot,” I spit.
He stepped backward as if I struck him.
“I know why you want me, Arsen. We shared blood, remembered.” And another thought went through me. “Wait? We shared blood and I shared Niko’s blood. Does that automatically confer some ownership rights to the Baetal to you as my mate?”
If was possible for a vampire to turn paler Arsen did at that moment.
“It’s not what it sounds like.”
“Damn it, Arsen. Is there not a single thing you do that doesn’t have a double purpose?”
He closed his eyes.
“It’s not like that at all.”
“Says you. Can’t you be straight for me one time?”
“And how would I explain that to you? Vampire laws are complex.”
“And I’m not the smartest person in the room?”
Arsen cast his gaze to the floor and was silent. Then his sparkling blue eyes blazed and bore into mine. He grabbed my wrist and held it like a vise.
“There are some things smarts or book learning can't help you with. Understanding what it means to be a vampire is not something you can get from a book. It takes a long time. Some never get it before another vampire dispatches them. It means for as long as you live there will be another vampire who will seek your life and take your place. And when you are a prince, like I am, that makes for a very long list of people who want to off you. Anything anyone of us can do to secure and cement our place? We have to do it. That Niko gave you his blood, you are as powerful as you are as a fledgling, and you hold in your head and hands the power to cure our people? How can I not align with you? Sasha, if you don’t realize you are my queen, then as smart as you are, you are fool.”
I stood and stared at him, flattered and insulted at the same time. There were so many edges to this man, fearsome vampire, devoted leader, passionate lover, and more, they glittered as sharp and bright as diamonds. A light burned in his eyes that told me that he was as consumed with me as I was with him.
I leaned my head into his chest and stood and listened to his heart and realized that it beat for me.
“I’m not a fool, Arsen Eskandar.”
He straightened. “Good, then pack your things. I want to get this thing done with the Baetal quickly. I have a queen I want to pay court to.”
“Ah, that courting thing again.”
“Damn straight.”
After all those words, the ride to the Baetal compound was quiet. We kept our own thoughts and Arsen even drove like a sane person, which surprised me.
Arsen pulled the car up to the middle of the driveway that curved in a circle close the door., square in front of the door. I turned to pull my supply bag from the back seat when I see a flash of blonde hair scurrying away down the long driveway. She was running, which was odd, and from the back it looked like Claudette.
“Who’s that?” I say pointing down the driveway.
Arsen glanced in that direction.
“Who? What?”
“It looked like Claudette.”
“Sasha, Claudette wouldn’t be caught dead in a Baetal compound. Besides, she’s attending my sister.”
I do not understand Arsen continually defending this woman, but I scanned the driveway again and the woman was gone. Only a vampire moved that quickly. But what the hell would Claudette be doing here?
As if they all got the memo to be good little vampires, there was no drama when we arrived. Brady led me to a room where his brother and several Baetal lay tied to their beds, and my mind flashed to Arsen’s sister, laying near comatose on hers. I hadn’t checked on her, and I should have, though Arsen instructed Claudette to inform him of any change, so I had to assume there wasn’t one.
But what if she woke and no one was with her because Claudette was catting around?
This wasn’t a question I could answer, not now. Arsen murmured something in my ear about checking some things out while I worked. He left me alone with the Baetal, my subjects apparently. A couple had only just started showing signs of infection and hadn’t reached the stage for confinement.
“You can untie them,” I say to Brady.
Brady’s brother, Nathan, was different story. He was much like Arsen’s sister a couple weeks ago, flailing, and moaning.
“You have to hold his arm,” I said, “or I can’t get it into him.”
Brady steadied his brother and I got the needle in without breaking it or the vein even though the vampire howled, keened and shook his feet on the bed.
When pulled out the needle, the vampire quieted, and breathed in gasps, staring at the ceiling and I wondered if he had a bad reaction.
But Arsen returned then.
“We need to go. I just found out where Niko went. And you won’t believe it.”
Chapter 7
He’s right. I didn’t believe it.
We are in the car driving back to the Draugur mansion, our mansion.
“Why the hell would he go to Boston?
“One, it's one of the oldest cities in the United States and would be a place where Niko would have some holdings. It’s relatively close to New York, so it would be easy for him to deploy the virus from there and spread it through the North East. And he might think that we wouldn’t look for him in that town especially it is a town that’s not on the list where he has his holdings.
“And you got such a list where?”
“The Elders.”
I shot him a look.
“How do you think the Elders fund all their activities, Sasha? They tax us on what we own.”
“What?”
“Don’t be surprised. They call it tithing.”
“And that’s better?”
“It’s the price of not having another faction go after you. Money paves the way for peace.”
“Arsen, you blow my mind at least once every few hours.”
He smiled slyly.
“I hope so.”
“Everything is sex with you.”
“Well, almost everything. And thinking of, I have to arrange our ride.”
I rolled my eyes because it seems indeed every word that vaguely rings of sex seems to bring him around to that subject. Which isn’t a bad thing, except we were in motion.
Arsen called a private charter on his smart phone and arranged for a flight to Hartford. We waited a few minutes while the dispatcher checked on lift-off and landing windows, which was another thing I learned. You don’t just pop into an airport, even a private one without having a certain time to leave and land.
“We can get you into New Haven tomorrow morning at five AM EST, which means you need to board by 9PM here. Should I book it?”
“Go ahead,” says Arsen. They made a few arrangements including a limo
“Nine? That’s in a few hours.”
“No time for courting, sorry.”
“But why so early?”
“With your big brain, I’d thought you'd know. Time zones, darling. There is a three-hour difference between here and the East Coast. So we do not have time to even take a bathroom break. We need to pack and get to the airport.”
And everything was rush, rush. And when we got the bedroom, I found a bunch of boxes with my name on it.
“What’s this?”
“I had some of the boys pack up your things from your apartment. Sorry I didn’t tell you, but you were complaining you didn’t have clothes, and you would make the move anyway. I instructed them to label the boxes, but what you can’t find, we’ll buy when we get there.”
The walls crash in around me and I have to sit on the bed. This is too much. My whole life has been dictated by someone else for the past month and some change, and I have absolutely no say.
“I should stay here,” I said.
Arsen stopped packing a duffle and sat on the bed and put his arm around me.
<
br /> “I can’t do this without you.”
“Yes, you can. You’ve been doing it without me for centuries. I don’t know what I’m doing, or why, or where I’m going or what I will do when I get there.”
“Hey,” he says as he kisses my temple tenderly. “Where’s that bad-ass vampire who put Gheorghe in his place?”
“She’s taken a hike and left me here.”
“You’re going to do fine. I’m sure Miss Bad Ass will emerge when we need her. Is there anything I can get for you?”
“No. Wait. I should bring my notebook, just in case. I left it in the lab.”
“I’ll get it.”
“No. You finish packing. I’m taking you up on a shopping trip, because I don’t have the heart to go through boxes now.”
He smiled. “You got a deal.”
So I run off to the lab to collect my notebook. I don’t know if I need it or not, but it lends me a funky sense of security to know I do. And as I round the corner I run into the one person I don’t want to.
Claudette.
Surprised, she hissed at me, and honest to god, hiss.
“Watch it,” she snarled.
“You're the one that needs to watch it. What the hell were you doing at Niko’s compound?"
Her eyes narrowed.
“What you are talking about?”
“You sure as hell do. I spotted you are the Baetal compound.”
“You saw nothing.”
“Sure I did. And Arsen did too.”
Her lips curled in eerie delight. “That is where you are wrong. If I was there, which I wasn’t, Arsen would question me now. You overplayed your hand, just like you always do. One day, Arsen will see through you and discard you, just like every other woman.”
Sometimes you want to smash someone in the face, and this was one of those times. But a fight would only get Arsen pissed at both of us.
“Suit yourself. I’ll figure out what’s going on. In my heart you are a traitor, Claudette. I can wait to get proof.”
Claudette scoffed. “Go right ahead and collect your proof, fledgling. You and see I’m quaking in my shoes.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed past me hurrying to get nowhere fast.
Fuck her. I’ve got other things to do. And once we leave this house, I won’t have to deal that vicious woman for a while which made going to Boston worthwhile just for that.
When I return to the room, I find Jackson in deep discussion with Arsen, and for an irrational second I feel left out.”
“Hi,” I said.
“Hey,” says Jackson. “Okay, I’ll meet you there.”
“There?”
“Gotta go, Sasha. Arsen will fill you in.”
Jackson rushed past me like he had something better to do than acknowledge me and now I felt left out, or left behind.
“What was that about?”
“Jackson told me that he and some other vampire hunters got a tip that Niko was in Boston, like we thought. I feel better about going there now. They are taking a commercial flight and will be in Boston later tomorrow.”
“Why don’t they just come with us?”
Arsen gave me an indulgent glance. “Sasha, Jackson is fine hanging out with his sworn enemy but his compatriots are not.”
“Oh, I guess.” Still, it was weird to have Jackson ignore me like that and not even say a few words to me. It wasn’t like him at all.
More rushing, and Arsen shouting out orders to different people as we hurry to the car. Henri is driving us so we don’t leave the car behind, and a rental is waiting for us in Boston. I settle back in the leather seat of the Lincoln Town Car, and Arsen takes my hand as Henri drives us to the airport.
Arsen reaches into the jacket he’s wearing and hands me a black card.
“Here,” he said. “For anything you want. No limit.”
I turn it over.
“You’re shitting me.”
“No shit, Sasha.”
“So, if I like, want to buy a Porsche, this thing will go through.”
“It will, but why you would you need too? We have plenty of Porches.”
“Not the point, Arsen. It’s just I’ve had nothing like this.”
He drew me closer with his strong arm and kissed me.
“Stick with me, Babe and the sky’s the limit.”
“What? You haven’t diversified to space travel yet? I hear all the cool billionaires do.”
“Is that what it will take for you to consider me ‘cool?’ My vast diamond mines don’t do it for you?”
“Diamond mines are passé.”
“Well,” he says pursing his lips. “I’ll consider it.”
It wasn’t until we were on the plane, a light business class Cessna, and in the air that we could relax.
“Do you want a drink? There is a fully stocked bar.”
I yawned involuntarily. “It’s been a busy day. I’d like to sleep.”
“Go ahead. The seats tilt back, and I mean all the way.”
I didn’t lay it flat but a comfortable sixty degrees and it didn’t take long for me to go to sleep. But as I found out, sleeping in the dry, moving plane, and the little bumps and jolts that come from turbulence kept me in a strange state.
I jolt awake seeing Arsen laying in his bed, and I’m confused. We were on a plane. But no. This is Arsen’s room, and Arsen is so pale, his face is white and he shivers uncontrollably. He’s dying and there is nothing I can do about it.
Niko swaggers into the room. "Well, I'm finished infecting all the vampires. All I have to do is wait." He glanced casually at Arsen.
“Won’t be long now. He’ll die. Your bond will break and you’ll be mine.”
“No, you bastard. Where’s the cure? You have one.”
And he, incredibly sings an old Bee Gees song “How can You Mend a Broken Heart?”
“Stop it, stop it!” I scream. “You are no Barry Gibbs!”
I run to him and beat his chest.
“Stop it, stop it!”
“Sssh, sssh, sweetheart.” It’s Arsen’s honey gravel voice, but how can it be? Arsen’s on the bed dying.
“Wake up, sweetheart, you are having a bad dream.”
My eyes open and I find I’m on his lap and he’s holding me, stroking my hair. And I breathe with relief that the awful thing I saw wasn’t happening.
“Some bad ass vampire, I am,” I said. “Freaked out over a little dream.”
“Dreams are important,” says Arsen. “You can learn a lot from a dream. What did you see?”
“You, on the bed, from a virus Niko made.”
“Oh,” he whispered.
“And Niko was singing a Bee Gees song.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“He was? Which one was it?”
“‘How Do You Mend A Broken Heart.”
“I dimly remember it. But how would you? You weren't born then.”
“I had an aunt who was a big Bee Gees fan. Played their music all the time.”
He pulled me closer to his chest.
“Well, I’d say this dream is very serious.”
“You do?”
“Yes. It shows your abject fear of Bee Gees songs. Maybe there was some childhood trauma attached to one?”
I try to hit him but he catches my hand with those super-fast reflexes of his and then nips my wrist sending a shiver through me. Blood beads up and his tongue laps it up. “Mmmm, delicious.”
“Are you hungry?” I said. He fed yesterday and this morning, so he couldn’t be hungry, not that fast.
“I’m always hungry for you, sweetheart.”
His steely hard cock presses into my ass like a brand. He licks my wrist tenderly and I groan. He presses his lips to the mating mark on my neck and I squirm on his lap.
“I want you,” he whispers in my ear. It's a hot breeze that prickles and teases and just his words make me wet.
“Arsen,” I breathe, because he’s too sexy and my brain has ceased thinking function and
only the words “more” and “now” come to mind.
Vaguely I’m aware that there are two pilots in the forward cabin behind the shut hatch.
“I could have ordered a steward,” he whispered. “But I wanted us to have the cabin to ourselves.”
“Good planning,” I husked.
He unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it aside.
“I want you to feed from me, here, close to my heart.”
The idea shocked me. “Is that dangerous?”
“No. But I want to look down on your face and see your bliss as you suck.”
I put my mouth to his pec above the nipple and let my fangs slice slowly into his flesh. He gasped. “Sasha, that is so delicious how you do that.”
I drink, taking him in, his heart pulsing against my breast, and his cock pressing into me and I moan.
“That’s right, sweetheart.” Arsen bent his head and kissed my neck and lapped it with his tongue. Sweet fire spread through my neck as his fangs sliced into my flesh. Our heart beat in time as our blood flowed from one to another. I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding him closer, driving his fangs deeper. There is nothing that I did not want from this man. Time faded, and all that existed was me and him locked in a deathly embrace that only promised life.
Arsen moved under me and with his strong arms, pulled down my jeans, and lifted me to pull his khaki’s down. His shaft rubbed against my wet heat and I’m lost utterly. There is nothing but the beating of our hearts and the contact of our skin, and there wasn’t two people here, but two hearts joined as one.
He pushed up my hips and entered me by pulling them down on his cock. And we clung to each other, rocking back and forth, the cycle our sharing keeping us locked together.
Fire built in my core, because his movements were so gently it just barely satisfied my need for friction. Slowly he bucked his hips and the rhythm of him moving within me was delightful torture. He kept me hanging on the edge, every movement of his cock good and promising more.
My heart quickened, and I tried to move my hips, but he held them fast. My pleasure was his to command and he would give what I needed at the appropriate time. I made a mental note to have a chat with him about this domineering streak of his, but right now I gave in to his demands. He pinched both ass cheeks sharply as he drove his cock in me, and with my mouth full of blood I could make no sound.
Girl, Immortal (Girl, Vampire Book 3) Page 6
