“Then she wants something from you.” Payne came to lean against the wall behind him.
“She said she wanted a kiss. Something about not being able to get the taste of me out of her head.” Andreu still wasn’t sure whether to take that as a good sign and a compliment, or a bad one and something to be concerned about. Was he tasty in a sense that she might want to keep him alive so she could kiss him some more, or tasty in the sense that he was a meal at a Michelin starred restaurant and she wanted to devour him?
She had healed him, and he was still alive, so he clung to the hope that death by sex wasn’t on the cards.
“Maybe I should just fuck her.”
“What?” Payne spluttered from behind him. Javier echoed him as he opened the door in front of Andreu.
“I mean, if she wants a taste of me, why don’t I just give her one that she will never forget and then she’ll leave us alone.”
“She’s a succubus. You would need to be incredibly powerful to survive sex with her.” Payne sounded deadly serious.
Andreu glanced over his shoulder at the tall blond male. He looked it too. Maybe death by sex would be on the cards if he tried to satisfy whatever urge kept bringing her back into his life.
“I take it we need to wake Antoine?” Javier drew his black bathrobe closed around himself and smiled back into his room. “I will not be long.”
Guilt settled in Andreu’s stomach at Lilah’s soft and affectionate answer. He had never really bothered to get to know her in the weeks he had been at the theatre. They had barely said more than a handful of words to each other and it wasn’t for lack of trying on her part. She had struck up dozens of conversations that he had cut short with one-word answers. Now she had sent her mate on his way with a brief declaration that she would be fine and to be with his brother. They didn’t know whether Varya posed a threat to everyone at the theatre. She was taking a risk by letting her mate leave her alone, even for a short while.
Javier closed the door and started down the hall towards Antoine’s apartment. They passed Snow’s door and Andreu was thankful that he wasn’t going to wake the aristocrat vampire. From what Andreu had heard, Snow needed a lot of rest in order to retain some sense of control over his darker urges. Andreu didn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of those dark violent moments because he had awoken him.
Antoine opened his door, brown hair ruffled and wild, dressed in only his trousers.
Andreu had never seen such horrific scars as the ones that cut across and distorted some of the muscles of Antoine’s bare torso. He tried not to stare but the sight of them had him gaping. Whatever Antoine had been through, it had ravaged his body to the point where he had been unable to heal fully. Andreu had taken his fair share of blows in his time as a warrior, sword wounds that had hit bone, but had always healed, leaving only faint scars on otherwise perfect skin. Antoine looked as though someone had tried to flay his flesh right off his bones and had almost succeeded.
Antoine’s eyes bore into him and Andreu managed to drag his gaze up to meet them. The red edging them warned that his staring wasn’t appreciated and that he would be wise to find something else to fix his attention on before he ended up just as mutilated and scarred.
“I take it we had a visitor?” Antoine held his gaze and Andreu nodded. Antoine stepped back to allow everyone to file into his apartment. “Clearly this problem is not going to go away by itself.”
Sera sat in the middle of their four-poster bed, the dark red sheets wrapped around her and her long blonde hair twisted into a messy knot at the back of her head. She gave a little wave in Andreu’s direction, revealing a smudge of purple on her palm. Andreu’s gaze flickered to the black wall of the apartment to his right. There was a matching purple splotch there. Beside it were splotches of crimson, forest green and a deep shade of blue. Clearly, Sera was still in the process of changing Antoine and had moved into the decorating phase of her dastardly plan. Andreu could never understand why females couldn’t just accept males as they came. They always had to change something about them.
“Your succubus came back for another fix?” she said on a smile that brightened her deep green eyes and he guessed that of all the colours she wanted to use to redecorate Antoine’s apartment, the winner would be the one that matched her eyes. Antoine was so sickeningly in love with her that he would choose the colour that reminded him of his beauty.
Andreu shrugged. “It would appear I am addictive.”
“There has to be a reason she’s risking everything to reach you.” Payne closed the door and joined Antoine and Javier where they stood near the chest of drawers on the left of the room.
Antoine poured them each a glass of blood and handed one to Andreu first. He took it with a nod of gratitude and sipped it. Antoine frowned.
“You are not hungry? Did she not take energy from you?”
Andreu lowered the glass. “She did, but she can give it back too.”
Everyone stared at him.
Payne broke the heavy silence. “She gave you her energy?”
“I take it that’s not normal behaviour either?” Andreu frowned now. Varya had said that he vexed her. She was beginning to vex him too. He wanted to know the truth behind the reason for her visits. It couldn’t just be because she wanted to kiss him. There was more to it than that.
“No. Succubi don’t help their victims. Did she take too much energy and gave some back to keep you alive?” Payne again and Andreu had never seen him looking so serious.
“She broke my nose and kicked me in the balls, and then gave me some of her energy.”
“Are you alright?” Javier touched his arm and peered at his nose. “It seems fixed.”
Andreu sipped his glass of blood. “I told you, she fixed it. She said she didn’t want to hurt me. She just wanted to get free.”
Payne’s expression darkened. “Free?”
“She couldn’t disappear for some reason.” Andreu decided to give them the short version with all the wicked details omitted because every male in the room would think him insane if he confessed that he had come tantalisingly close to penetrating her and he still couldn’t shake the taste of her. “She spat in my face so I released one of her wrists, punched me, and fought me. When she kicked me, I let go of her and then she healed me and disappeared.”
“When you let go of her.” There was weight to those words as Payne stared at him, a heaviness that sank through Andreu and left him feeling as though he had missed something important.
Payne set his glass of blood down and frowned across the room at him, his gaze focused and intense, as though he was trying to see something in Andreu. No. Payne wasn’t looking at him. He was looking around him. Andreu looked at both of his shoulders and then tried to see behind himself. What was Payne looking for?
Payne stepped towards him, gaze locked on his now. “No one can contain a succubus, Andreu. Are you sure it was only when you let go of her that she could leave?”
“One hundred percent. She begged me to let her go.” And what a bastard he had been to lie to her and keep her trapped. He hadn’t wanted to release her though, had known on some level that she would disappear if he did.
“And what did you do?” The blue and gold flecks in Payne’s grey eyes seemed to brighten.
Varya’s eyes had done something similar when she had been looking at him, her face soft and beautiful, entrancing.
“I told her to give me her name and I would think about it. She gave it to me and I didn’t let her go. That’s when she spat in my face.” And what a delightful moment that had been, a precursor to a broken nose and bruised balls.
Payne rocked backwards as though he had punched him. “She gave you her name?”
It was said with so much disbelief that a flicker of how she had said it and her expression at the time surfaced in Andreu’s mind and lodged there, playing on repeat. She had been reluctant to surrender her name but had done so to gain her freedom, only he hadn’t given it to her
. He had tricked her and it had hurt her.
“What is it?” Antoine said and Payne turned a furious glare on the aristocrat vampire.
Andreu’s blood chilled and sank to his toes. Payne knew about succubi and when Andreu had been younger, he had heard rumours that a fae’s real name was secret, only he had never realised why before tonight. She had given it in exchange for her freedom, but something told him that she had paid a high price.
“I don’t remember,” Andreu lied without flinching. If knowing her name gave him some sort of power over her, then he wasn’t about to hand it out to everyone in this room. She had trusted him with it, which told him a few startling things about her.
She hadn’t lied—she had come to him because she wanted him, not because she wanted to kill him. She valued her freedom, enough to sacrifice something of much greater value to achieve it. She trusted him.
The last one shocked him the most.
Payne’s relief was palpable.
“We need to speak to her,” Antoine said. “She has to know that she isn’t welcome in the theatre, especially during the shows.”
“Then you will need to gain an audience with her and that won’t be easy.” Payne’s expression turned grim once more. “She might be tempted to visit Andreu again. He could convince her to confess what she really wants and tell her to leave the theatre alone.”
“I have spoken to some of my contacts already and have found a man who knows fae. I will speak with him tonight and then we will lure her back to the theatre after the show has ended and the building is empty.” Antoine swallowed his entire glass of blood in one gulp. “Javier, arrange for rooms at The Langham and make sure the staff go there with Callum after the show ends tonight.”
Javier nodded. “I can do that. They might have to double up but I am sure most of them will not mind. The presence of the succubus has unsettled Victor and some of the older elite performers. It is best they are away if she will be coming back.”
Andreu had thought that Victor would welcome a sex fae with open arms. The man had a voracious appetite. Payne’s words came back to him. A succubus normally killed all but her strongest hosts if she got down and dirty with them. Absolutely no comfort there if things went the way he expected, and wanted, them to go.
“Payne, we need you to focus on finding a way to lure her back to the theatre.” Antoine set his empty glass down on the tray on the chest of drawers.
“It shouldn’t be difficult. If she gave energy to Andreu, she will be hungry again. She’s obviously curious about him so she will return. I can help funnel her towards him though,” Payne drawled in a tone that would have covered his true feelings had Andreu not been watching him so closely. He didn’t like what they were doing.
They were only going to speak to her. He would ask her nicely to leave the theatre and him alone. Maybe she would get the message. If she didn’t, well, he wasn’t sure what Antoine had in mind.
“And Andreu will play the bait,” Antoine said and Andreu sighed.
“Where will I be playing bait?” He hoped it would be somewhere comfortable because he was sure it was going to be a long wait. He had tried to hurt her in the seconds before she had disappeared. He would be surprised if she came back at all. He hoped she didn’t.
His heart called him a liar. He was as curious about her now as she was about him. He wasn’t looking for a woman, business always came first after all and she was bad for business at the theatre, but there was something about her that said she might be fun to fool around with, if he was strong enough to survive sleeping with her.
Antoine smiled. “I think it is time you put on a grand performance.”
Andreu shared his smile.
He would put on a performance for her, one that she wouldn’t be able to resist.
And then he would kiss her again.
She wasn’t the only one who couldn’t shake the taste of the desire that sparked between them whenever they touched.
He looked down at the glass in his hand. Not even blood could compare to the sweet drug that was her kiss. She had given him a taste and had him hooked on her.
Now he wanted another fix.
And it wouldn’t stop at just a kiss.
* * *
CHAPTER 6
Varya glared down at the theatre below her and the vampires as they filed out of the building into the waiting night, their animated chatter drifting up to the rooftop where she perched. They broke into smaller groups as they reached the pavement, some heading off on foot while others stepped into chauffeur-driven black limousines. Elegantly dressed female vampires hung from the arms of their beautiful males, their eyes still bright with hunger.
Varya had managed to pass last night without coming within two hundred metres of the theatre and had fed by kissing a few choice males at an erotic club in the city’s Soho district. They hadn’t tasted good. None of them had compared to how Andreu tasted and more than once she had imagined it was his mouth she explored with her tongue, not a stranger’s welcoming one. She had left before she had fully replenished her energy, tired of kissing males who weren’t her vampire.
The vow she had made to never return to Vampirerotique had been too much for her to keep tonight. She had tried to stay away, had focused on how angry she was, not just with herself but with Andreu, and the dangers of setting foot in the theatre again. She had even recited the rules of her clan, paying specific attention to the ones regarding shadowed males and vampires.
Nothing she had tried had worked in the end.
The thought of seeing Andreu again and finally deciphering the mysteries that surrounded him had been too alluring, too enticing.
Too exciting.
Something about him stirred her soul and made her feel as she had in her youth, bubbling with excitement and fascinated by the world, seeing it through fresh bright eyes with only positive feelings in her heart. Only this time, the world hadn’t caught her attention. A single male had. A single beautiful, dark, enthralling male.
It was the thought of kissing him that had finally broken her. She had teleported straight to the roof where she now crouched, the wind buffeting her, chilling her skin even though she had dressed to suit the weather. The cold breeze cut through the long sleeves of her black bodice top, icy fingers caressing her legs through her stockings and creeping up her black ruffled skirt. The soft strands of her dark hair blew across her face but she didn’t push them behind her ear to clear her vision. She kept her focus on the glass doors of the theatre.
The final attendees left the building. A few minutes later, the bastard blond came out onto the columned porch. He jammed his hands into the pockets of his black jeans and rocked on his heels. As always, he wore the sleeves of his dark shirt rolled up his thick forearms, revealing the markings that tracked up their undersides. Was he proud of his heritage? Did the others know? She bore her teeth at him even though he couldn’t see her, a defensive reaction she couldn’t contain, and considered teleporting right in front of him to shock him and get him back for scaring her the other night in the theatre.
He jogged down the broad steps to the pavement, turned on his heel and strolled down the street. He was leaving?
Varya smiled and teleported straight into the theatre. The vestibule was quiet.
Too quiet.
It didn’t deter her. She knew where to find Andreu. She disappeared and set down in his apartment. The sumptuous crimson room was empty, the covers on the four-poster bed neat and straight. Her limited senses confirmed that he wasn’t in the apartment, or even on the same floor as she was.
She opened the door and almost skipped down the hall, feeling positive and carefree now that the bastard was out. All she had to do was avoid the beast and his brother, and she could have another taste of Andreu.
Had he thought about her as much as she had thought about him?
She had even dreamed of him.
Varya couldn’t remember a time when she had dreamed of a man before, but she had
dreamt of Andreu and it had been incredibly hot, a vision of wild lovemaking that would quench even the most carnal thirsts. A tangle of limbs and sweat-soaked skin, and deep rumbling moans of pleasure. An erotic dance that far surpassed any she had experienced and awakened hungers in her that had stayed with her when she had woken, leaving her heart pounding for more. It had been luscious and deeply satisfying. Would it feel that way in reality?
If she gave in to temptation and her desire for Andreu, would she be able to control her instincts to feed? She honestly didn’t want to kill Andreu.
She doubted she could even if she did lose control.
He was stronger than the fae king that she had bedded many times without killing.
Varya teleported down to the bottom of the double-height black room backstage and paused when her senses spiked. He was near. She kept herself veiled and approached the twin doors that led to the theatre. He was there on the other side. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she was in the box where she had been when she had first seen him.
Her eyes widened at the delicious and tempting display on the stage below her.
Andreu lay reclined on a red velvet chaise longue wearing only his black trousers. One leg stretched out along the length so his bare foot dangled over the end and the other was crooked at the knee. He rested a book on that knee, his brilliant blue gaze scanning the pages. When he flipped the page, every muscle in his arm shifted and flexed beneath his skin, delighting her eyes. He raked his fingers through his tawny hair and sighed.
Gods, he looked so good.
She needed him so much.
Varya disappeared and reappeared on the stage beside him. She walked around to the foot of the chaise longue, assessing him and drinking her fill of him at rest. When she revealed herself, he was sure to fly at her as he had before she had teleported from his room. She wanted to make the most of him as he was now.
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