Master of Ecstasy

by Nina Bangs

  He didn't meet her gaze as he rose and helped her to her feet. "Ye learn many things in five hundred years."

  What happened when he reached one thousand? No woman would survive sex with him, but at least those future lovers would have known—

  "Ecstasy." He touched the small charm at her throat.

  "What?" Was he in her mind again? She checked. Nope. Mind empty.

  "What we felt was true ecstasy, not this Ecstasy Incorporated ye work for." He returned his gaze to the ground and continued walking.

  Okay, she got the picture. He didn't want to discuss what had just happened. Fine with her. It was his loss. Now he'd never hear that she hadn't known the meaning of mind-blowing sex until him. She followed him on legs that still felt shaky.

  But that was all it had been. She wouldn't even consider that it had been something more. Stop thinking. Say something.

  "What about things that can harm you?" Can the trembling and throbbing still going on inside me do damage? She tried to remember the list she'd made after her research. "Holy water?"

  "No."

  "Crosses?"

  "No."

  "Fire?" How about the way I'm still burning for you, vampire? Is that terminal?

  "I would burn just as ye would burn."

  "Daylight?" She knew sunlight was a danger.

  "I wouldna burst into flame, but light causes terrible suffering. The pain would drive me mad, and if I stayed in the sunlight overlong, the pain would kill me."

  Blythe nodded. It had taken courage for him to walk out into the daylight this afternoon. She clamped down on her budding admiration. She had to keep thinking of him as only a sexual animal, one she had to make happy.

  He quickened his pace like a predator who senses his prey close by. Blythe smiled as she struggled to keep up. It was incongrous to think of an eight-foot-tall Viking, with an ax, as prey.

  She did have one last question. "What do you fear, Darach?"

  He offered her a long, hooded stare.

  "I fear ye, woman from another time."

  * * *

  Chapter Nine

  « ^ »

  "Me?" Blythe stared at him with wide eyes as she clutched her cloak tightly around her body to ward off the night's chill. "Why would you be afraid of me?"

  Because of how ye tempt me. Mayhap Blythe would do better to use her cloak as protection against him, for when his mouth touched her warm, bare flesh, it threatened to unleash the beast in him. Only centuries of practice controlling his hunger stood between Blythe and death. And yet, each time he had reached orgasm with her, the explosion of his senses had taken him beyond his desire to feed. In five hundred years, only Blythe had been able to do that.

  "Well, why do I make you afraid?" Her tone said that if her hands were free, she would place them on her hips.

  Darach smiled into the darkness. He sensed that he was close to the end of his hunt, but before continuing along the path, he would give her an answer.

  "Ye look at the world through different eyes. And sometimes when ye speak with me, your ideas make me think differently, act differently." He shrugged and glanced at her. "I have done things in a certain way for five hundred years. Ye disturb my life."

  Darach could see the white flash of her smile, and was reminded of the feel of his mouth on hers, the slide of his tongue across her teeth, the warm, wet tangle of her tongue with his. Odin's fire, a score of Valkyries could beckon to him and he would still think of this woman from Ecstasy.

  "Disturb your life? You mean that I take you out of your comfort zone?" She brushed her hair away from her eyes, and he followed the motion hungrily.

  Darach nodded. Absently he decided that he would feed tonight, sparingly, just to make sure his hunger was at its lowest when he was around Blythe. He would find someone completely undesirable, someone with huge warts and a love of garlic.

  "Interesting." She followed him as he moved warily down the path. "Just for your information, you take me out of my comfort zone, too. Big time."

  "Shh." He held his finger to his lips. What he sought was near. Strangely, he felt no danger. But he would not take any chances with Blythe's safety. "Ye must stay here while I go ahead. I will come for ye when 'tis safe."

  "Fine." She stopped walking.

  He narrowed his gaze on her. "Ye agreed verra quickly. 'Tis not in your nature to be left behind."

  She smiled at him, but Darach was not certain he believed that smile. "I'm not stupid. I don't want to have a front-row seat to the Ugly Viking versus Stupid Innkeeper grudge match. So long as you don't lock me in a room without a bathroom, I'm okay being left behind."

  Darach nodded and left her standing in the moonlight. He would not look back and be affected by her forlorn expression. He strode quickly away.

  He slowed as he entered a small clearing ringed by large boulders. Taller than a man, the stones could easily hide a waiting enemy. He did not worry overmuch, because even if the Northman caught him unawares, Darach would have little trouble defeating him. But years as a predator had taught him to prepare for the unexpected.

  Only the dead awaited him this night. Darach relaxed as he sensed no living thing in the clearing. Instinctively, he knew the innkeeper no longer lived.

  Within seconds he found the man's body. He was sprawled between two giant boulders, his face frozen forever in a twisted mask of unspeakable terror. Darach raked his fingers through his hair and fought back the guilt. It was always so. You would think after five hundred years he would no longer react like the human he had once been. He had done what he must. One man had died so that many could live.

  "Is he dead?" Blythe's quiet voice was right behind him.

  "Aye." Darach would not berate her for following him. He had expected nothing less. He only regretted that she should see this. "He bears no marks. His fear killed him."

  "A heart attack?" She did not sound frightened as she peered around Darach.

  This was not a woman who would run screaming into the night. He admired that in her, but also feared that her courage might eventually prove her undoing. Darach frowned at the thought.

  "Ye may call it what ye wish." Darach glanced down at the massive footprints of the Northman. They ended only a hand's span from the innkeeper's body.

  "And Black Varin?" She moved to his side, then slipped off her cloak.

  "Black Varin was the innkeeper's fear. He and his Northmen ceased to exist when the innkeeper died." It was done. He would guide Blythe home, then return the body to the kirk. Afterwards, he would feed, then begin the hunt for those who had killed the villagers. If they were vampires, he must destroy them.

  Darach usually felt no emotion when he knew he must hunt. It was merely a thing he had to do. But he felt a strange weariness of spirit tonight that tempted him to stay with Blythe, if only for her companionship. Ye never needed companionship before. Why do ye need it now? Darach had no answer.

  As Blythe bent down to lay her cloak over the dead man, Darach stopped her. "Ye need not do this. I will return to take him home."

  She didn't argue as she put her cloak back on. They walked silently to the castle, and Darach wondered if she wished she had chosen another place, another time, to visit. He would not blame her.

  Once inside her room, Blythe watched Darach leave. Would he come back after taking care of the innkeeper, or would he stay away until dawn? She wasn't sure which she wanted.

  She needed some time alone to regroup. Too much had happened, and she had to make peace with her warring emotions. She couldn't make anyone happy if she didn't know how she felt about anything. Calm was a prerequisite for any of Ecstasy's Happiness staff.

  But she'd avoided her job too long. Time was running out, and she had only reached his emotions once. Textron wouldn't count that once as any kind of success. And if she failed, she'd be failing her family as well as herself. Blythe frowned. Somehow that argument didn't pack the emotional punch it once had.

  But it would be better if he came
home tonight. After the day he'd had, he might be more open to her. She pushed aside a whisper of guilt. He'd be better off for her help.

  Blythe pulled her nightgown over her head—no more experimenting with naked nights—and propped herself up in bed to wait. Picking up the research notes she'd made on vampires, she crossed off holy water, crossed off fire, crossed—

  The demanding meow outside her door caught Blythe by surprise. Sparkle. For a moment, she considered ignoring it. Probably not a good idea. Sighing, she got out of bed, then pulled open the door.

  "Hey, sister, do I have some hot stuff for you." Sparkle stared up at Blythe with bright, excited eyes. "You want some dirt on your boss? Come with me." She started to turn away.

  "I can't." What kind of trouble was Sparkle trying to get her into now, because Sparkle Stardust was always about trouble. "I'm not dressed, and I'm waiting for—"

  "Forget dressed. Everyone's in bed. No one will see you." Sparkle's tone said that she'd be fine with Blythe running through the castle naked. "This is too great to miss. Did you bring anything to record sound?"

  "Well, yeah." Blythe touched the Ecstasy charm at her neck. "But—"

  Sparkle's gaze grew sly. "Here's how I see it. You want to get it on with the vampire, but you won't because of your boss. I don't know how he'd find out if you didn't tell him, but I guess you're all hung up on the honesty thing. Honesty's just plain dumb, but that's only my opinion. Anyway, your boss can make or break your career, but while he's telling you that sex on the job is bad, he's doing it with the underwear lady." She tried to mold her little cat face into a sympathetic expression, but the wicked glitter in her eyes negated the effort.

  "Now, if you had a recording that proved old horny Textron was also playing around on the job, it seems to me he couldn't say much about what you were doing. "

  "Blackmail?" Somehow it didn't sound so awful when Sparkle described it. Or maybe Blythe's moral fabric was unraveling as fast as her resistance to a certain sexy vampire. Because, heaven help her, she wanted to make love with Darach, not in her mind or while he shared her body, but in the time-honored normal way. She frowned. If the word "normal" could ever be attached to Darach.

  "Sure. If it works, do it. That's just me, of course." Sparkle seemed pretty sure of Blythe's response, because she started down the winding stone steps without a backward glance.

  Blythe watched her disappear around a curve in the stairwell. Sparkle didn't know that it wasn't all about Textron. It was about her family, her brother, and what had happened to them because she put pleasure before business.

  Sparkle padded back up the steps to stare at Blythe. "Look, sister, I know there's more to your story than what you've told me, but there're special times in your life that you can't let slip by, because they'll never come again. Live in the moment. Don't think about the past or the future. Drain every last drop from now, savor it, and remember it. You can beat yourself up over the 'big bad' you did tomorrow." She gazed at Blythe with her cat eyes that gave nothing away. "Go for it."

  Blythe thought about that. Yes, she'd always feel the guilt, but making love with Darach wouldn't kill her family again. In fact, Mandor would probably laugh and tell her to live her life to the fullest for all of them. So if she stripped off the hair shirt of guilt for her family, that left her job. And if no one but Textron would ever know, and he was afraid to tell on her…

  "Are you coming?" Sparkle's short well of patience sounded empty.

  For a mini-moment, Blythe balanced goodness, honesty, and fair play against making love with Darach. Okay, soul-searching over. She followed Sparkle down the steps.

  Once outside Sandy's room, Blythe looked to make sure no one was around, then put her ear to the door. "Drat. I can't make out what they're saying."

  "Give me your recorder." Sparkle's eyes gleamed wickedly in the darkened hallway.

  Blythe pressed the E on her Ecstasy charm to start the recording, then lifted the chain from around her neck. She put it on the floor in front of Sparkle.

  Sparkle carefully batted the charm under the door until only the chain remained in sight. "There. The recorder is inside and can pick up every grunt and moan." She stared up at Blythe, joy gleaming in her eyes.

  Blythe studied the cat. "You really get off on this kind of thing, don't you?" She kept her voice to a whisper, although she suspected Sandy and Textron wouldn't notice anything even if the whole MacKenzie clan marched down the hall playing their… She bit her lip trying to remember the ancient Scots' instrument of choice. Got it. Playing their bagpipes.

  Sparkle stared at her as though she'd said something really stupid. "Sure. Who wouldn't?"

  Half an hour later, Sparkle had wandered away and Blythe had resorted to sitting on the floor. Blythe leaned her head back against the wall and tried to decide if she'd recorded enough. Probably. She stood, then leaned down to—

  "Ye tempt me in any position, woman, but this…" Two large male hands cupped her behind. "This is beyond the power of even an immortal to resist." The hands glided over her nightgown—smoothing, heating, and obviously appreciating.

  Blythe straightened with a startled squeak. Darach. "Don't sneak up behind me like that." She retained enough sense to keep her voice to an angry whisper. She turned to face him.

  "Why would ye be here in your nightclothes?" His gaze was a mixture of amusement and suspicion.

  Lie. She needed a big believable lie. "I was on my way down to see if I could get something to eat when I dropped my charm." She searched her mind to make sure he wasn't in there taking notes. Nope. She could keep on lying.

  "In your nightclothes?" He bent down, pulled her charm from underneath Sandy's door, and handed it to her.

  "Yes, well…" She bit her lip. "I was really hungry, and I figured that no one would be up at this time of night." Quickly she put the chain around her neck and pressed the C to stop the recording.

  "Hmm." His gaze said he wasn't sure if he believed her, but that he would give her the benefit of the doubt. "Go back to your room, and I will bring food to ye."

  Blythe didn't need to be told twice. She almost ran up the stairs. If she were quick, she could take a little listen to Textron before Darach returned. She pressed the Y for play.

  "Oooh, I love your sexual package, Texy-poo. It's so… compact."

  Compact? Blythe did some mental eye-rolling. She didn't know how much of this she could listen to without gagging.

  "I can't believe you're naming a new product after me. I love you for that, Sandy." Unidentifiable sounds of passion. "The Textron Testicle Cup. It gives me shivers just thinking about it. Come here, baby." Moan, grunt, shriek, growl.

  Okay, heard enough. Blythe turned the recorder off. She smiled. Textron Testicle Cup? Probably the size of an egg cup. She sighed as she plunked herself on her bed. That was mean. She couldn't blame Textron for what he looked like, but she sure could blame him for being a jerk.

  Blythe didn't have long to think about what she'd done or what she planned to do before Darach returned from the kitchen with some bread, honey, and ale. He set everything on the table beside her bed and silently watched her eat.

  "You know, that tasted pretty good." She smiled at him, then glanced away. "Did you take care—"

  He returned her smile as he put his finger over her lips. "Dinna speak of it now. Think only of your senses and the pleasure they can bring you. The soft texture of the bread, the smooth sweetness of the honey, the quenching of your thirst. Feel the fire warming your skin and imagine the softness of your bed."

  "I understand what you're doing, but it doesn't work for me." She met his gaze directly. "I need to know what's happening."

  Darach studied her with hooded eyes. "Ye canna change what has happened, Blythe, and the future is always uncertain. Ye can only control what happens now, and I choose to feed my senses rather than dwell on sadness."

  Blythe sighed. Darach and Sparkle had the same message. Maybe she'd try the living-in-the-moment thing. "Wil
l you stay the night or go out again?"

  For someone who seemed intent on avoiding worry, he was looking troubled. " 'Tis not long till dawn so I willna go out again this night, but tomorrow night I must find what is killing so many."

  That didn't sound good. "Do you think the killers are vampires?"

  He glanced at her from those amazing blue eyes. "Aye."

  "Oh." Judging from the number killed, there had to be a lot of insane vampires out there. "Can you call in some help? You can't destroy all of them yourself."

  His smile returned. "Ye have little faith in my power. I need no help destroying them. And I must, or else people will eventually find enough courage to attack the castle again." He reached over and ran one finger the length of her clenched jaw. "This is my duty for the time I am here. I canna shirk it, ye ken."

  She stuck out her bottom lip. Just because she understood his duty, that didn't mean she had to like it. And why did she care anyway? She didn't know the answer to that.

  Blythe had planned to try to sneak up on his emotions tonight so that in some small way she could earn the big bucks Ecstasy Inc. was paying her. Okay, so Ecstasy wasn't paying her big bucks and all this sneaking around trying to catch Darach unawares was growing old. She'd just ask, he'd say no, and they could get on with the rest of the night.

  "Look, vampire-of-steel, I've got mental bruises from bouncing off your emotional wall, so I'm going to flat-out ask you this time. Will you open up your emotions and let me take a look so I can make you ha… cheerful, chirpy, and content?"

  Blythe was purposely staring into the fire so she didn't have to meet his long-suffering gaze.

  "Aye."

  "Hey, no is okay with me. I understand…" She widened her eyes as she turned to look at him. "Yes? Did you say yes?"

  His gaze met hers. "Ye may touch my emotions this night." His mouth softened and his eyes grew hungry, letting her know that he hoped she would touch other things as well.