by K. F. Breene
“Why is she a hermit?” I speared a carrot.
“I did not ask.”
Not inquisitive, this vampire. “So what did you ask her?”
“How a vampire could travel into the heart of the Dark Kingdom.”
I slowed my chewing. He stared at me silently. Clearly he needed prodding to continue. “And did she have an answer? Inquiring minds, and all that.”
“Yes. As far as she was concerned, it was simple. Bond a demon.”
“Ew. I hope there are some nicer-looking ones than I’ve seen. Although, if you go after it in monster form, it will be tough to say who is grosser.”
“When we bond with another being, we impart some of our vampire traits and strengths to that being, like seeing in the dark, increased speed, things like that. From those we bond, we often get an increased sense of emotion and empathy. If we bond with a stronger species, it has been said that we can last in the sunlight a hair longer. Certainly we can withstand the glow a bit better. Higher-powered demons certainly count as a strong species, and therefore, we are apparently imparted some of their gifts, one of which is the ability to travel across the river.”
“If that were true, Vlad would be shacking up with a demon already. Or can he already travel those lands?”
Darius shook his head, watching me closely. “He cannot. While it is not written in our laws, it is socially forbidden to bond a demon. Taboo. This I heard from Ja—”
“Ja?”
“That is the vampire’s name.” He waited for me to nod before continuing. “I did not even know it could be done. It has been out of favor for so long, I bet only a very few know it is a possibility.”
“Why wouldn’t that occur to you? Or are there other magical creatures you can’t bond?”
He rose and reached for my plate. I scooped up the last morsel of sauce-soaked potato before letting him get me seconds. “I’m sure there are, though I don’t know which. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me. With such a social stigma, one would think a rebellious sort of vampire would question. But then again, the demons are mostly confined to their world, whether because they want to be, because they are forced to be, or because Lucifer has made it so following an agreement with the elves. Out of sight, out of mind.”
“Maybe the idea will cross Vlad’s mind eventually,” I said, sitting back and rubbing my belly. I was almost full, but I would do my best to have more. Darius really did put on the best dinners in town. And in New Orleans, that was saying something.
“Perhaps. Regardless, the ability to enter the Dark Kingdom is within my grasp. Ja has been there.”
I grimaced on his behalf. “Easy-peasy lemon squeezy, except for the fact that you’d have to call a level-five demon, somehow convince it to swap blood, actually swap blood with a gross creature, because it wouldn’t be able to stay in human form when giving a lot of blood, and then be bonded to—”
The words died on my lips. A moment later, the moisture dried up in my mouth and reappeared on my forehead…and between my thighs. My heart started to hammer and the fight-or-flight reflex kicked into high gear.
“Stupid me,” I whispered, realizing what he meant.
“Yes, Reagan.” He set my plate down in front of me, his gaze probing mine. He lingered for just a moment, and I breathed in his spicy, masculine scent tinged with divine cologne. “You were being incredibly dull-witted just now.”
I let out a quivering breath as the implications dawned on me. My arousal rose, matching the potency of my need to run really fast out of the room. Then the house. Then the whole dang town.
I had sworn I would never go down this road. Sworn it. Feeling things for a vampire was one thing. Dating him, sharing his bed, spending large quantities of time with him—all of those things were temporary. They ended when I wanted them to. I was in control.
Bonding took the control away. Burned up the temporary status. All the fail safes.
Bonding was forever.
I shook my head, everything in me wanting to back away (except for the distinctly feminine parts, which I worked hard to ignore).
“No,” I blurted. “I can’t.”
“Regardless of the fact that you don’t yet know how to use all of your power…” He sat down slowly, his eyes hungry yet soft. Sparkling with lust and emotion. “You are an extremely powerful creature. If you don’t rival the elves now, you will when you grow into your birthright. You will impart to me more than the level-five demon that bonded Ja. You can get me into the Dark Kingdom.”
“But…I can’t.”
He entwined his fingers and pushed his chair back so he could cross an ankle over his knee. “I know this frightens you. I also know that if I had a group of mages summon a level-five demon so I could bond with it, you would convince yourself my going with you would be blood on your hands.” My eye twitched with the ease of him getting that saying correct. “You would wish to protect me. You’d be long gone by the time I bonded with the creature, and sick with jealousy if—when you got back.”
I narrowed my eyes at the jealousy comment. I continued to ignore the distinctly feminine parts of me begging for his everlasting kiss, and now the emotional parts that wanted to knife a bitch if she/he/it touched my man.
“Look.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “I know you think this is a perfect solution. That you’d gladly go with me in spite of the danger. I know that. But I just can’t give myself to you in that way, Darius. While I would gratefully accept your help, I can’t in good conscience do it. I’m sorry.”
He held up a hand to stop me. I didn’t like his calm assurance, like he’d already mapped out this game of chess, and he was waiting for me to make the necessary moves to assure his win.
“Can I present to you my thoughts?” he asked eloquently.
I clenched my jaw. Oh yeah, he had the game mapped, all right.
He ignored my shaking head. “Without me, you will go alone into an extremely dangerous situation that you aren’t prepared for.”
“I’ve been alone for a great many dangerous situations,” I shot back lamely. We both knew this was vastly different. I wondered if he knew how afraid I was. I hadn’t even totally admitted it to myself, besides the fear that my ice magic would take over and eat away my humanity.
His voice softened, as if he did know. As if he could read me better than I could read myself. Which was annoying just now. “I realize that you would rather work alone. But we have learned to work together well, have we not? It was a boon to us in Seattle. I have learned when to back off, like with your decision to go into the Dark Kingdom, and when to push, which I won’t give you an example of or I will have to develop another tactic.”
I quirked my eyebrow at him and earned a gorgeous smile. My expression turned into a glower. Now wasn’t the time to flash his handsome at me. Or his charm. When it came to bonding, he was the enemy.
“Your next concern is that the connection will trap you to vampires,” he went on. “But you are already trapped. You can’t know about the unicorns and expect to go on your merry way. You will be watched for the rest of your life. It is not in my power to release you of that. I know what you’ll say.” He held up his hand to forestall the argument. “That connection isn’t personal. It’s business. It’s not a bond, but a liability.” I nodded, because yes, that was true. Very, very true. “Which is correct,” he went on. “However, you and I have already established a deep personal connection.”
I tightened my lips, because I was damned if I would admit that.
His teasing smile earned another glower. “Will you not agree?” He paused, saw I would not, and continued. “Love, Reagan.”
My stomach fluttered and my chest tightened. Warmth overflowed from my heart and burned down to my feet. I could scarcely breathe around the depth of what I felt, triggered by that one word and the emotion soaking through his gaze. By his desire to risk death to follow me into the Dark Kingdom, not wanting to leave my side in my greatest hour of need.
> “What I had hoped for has come to pass,” he said softly. “For the first time in all of history, I am in love, Reagan. With you.”
Chapter Nine
Sparklers went off in my stomach, and the pull of emotion sucked me under, drowning me. I wiped my forehead of moisture and took a gulp of wine, not sure what to think, not wanting to admit how deeply this was affecting me, let alone the fact that I was undeniably in the same boat.
“You feel it, too,” he murmured, “but you do not need to admit it. I mention it merely to prove a point. Right now we wish to be near each other at all times, and when we aren’t, we long for our missing halves. We are not whole without each other. If we bond, only our physical selves will be separated when we part. Our hearts and souls will forever be one.”
Warmth filled me to the brim, surging through my heart.
“There is no downside to bonding,” he said.
There were downsides. I knew there were. I just couldn’t think of them right then.
He watched me patiently and finally I came up with a new argument. “But if you die, I’ll go crazy, right? Isn’t that what happens?”
It wasn’t a great argument, I grant you.
“You’ll feel pain, but you would anyway if I were to die. Nothing will change that for you. Nor for me if something were to happen to you. We are currently bonded with love, a more powerful connection than a mere blood bond. For you and me, bonding will make what we already have much sweeter.”
A tear overflowed from my eye. I blinked the others away.
“I told myself I absolutely would not do this,” I reminded myself. The last holdout before letting this surging emotion consume me. “I would not.”
“And if it weren’t to help you in the most dangerous endeavor of your life, I would not push as I am now. This past month I have been content to keep things as they were. As you wanted them. Love is extremely powerful. I had no idea. It is unlike anything I have ever felt. I would bend the worlds to make you happy, mon ange, and my not mentioning my desire to take our connection one step farther was a small price to pay for your smiles.
“But things have changed. You cannot go into the Dark Kingdom alone, Reagan. You will be putting yourself into the hands of those who wish to use you. And if by some miracle you happen upon a sect of demons that only wishes to turn you over to Lucifer, you will still be trapped down there for as long as your father chooses. You need help, and though I will not be nearly enough, I am the only one in a position to provide it.”
I cleared my throat and wiped away another tear. The man was smooth, sexy, and deep. I’d never stood a chance where it concerned him. I doubted there was anyone who could resist him. “I can’t believe I am actually asking this, but what is involved in bonding?”
“It takes six days. Five days of feeding from each other, and the last for the connection to finish taking root.”
Damn the tears! Why wouldn’t they stop? And why did I have a sudden, devastating need for my mother to know this man, followed by the soul-crushing realization that she never would…
“That’s it?” I asked weakly. “Feeding from each other?”
His eyes stayed rooted to mine. It was the most intimate moment I’d ever experienced. “Each night, I will deplete you nearly to your threshold, past your tolerance.”
I struggled to get myself under control. “What do you mean, my tolerance?”
“When a vampire takes enough blood to deplete a person to the brink of death, what we call the threshold, the person will do one of two things. They will either succumb and die, or—if their survival instinct is at all reasonable—they will try to fight off the predator. This is why vampires have heightened strength. If our prey fights, we can easily overpower them. You, however, are not prey. And you are extremely dangerous, even to me. When your survival instinct kicks in, you will want to kill me. And you will most likely be able to.”
“And yet you still want to bond me,” I whispered.
“With great risk comes great reward.” He threw me that mouthwatering smile. Foul play. “You have nearly killed me before, most recently in the warehouse the other day, and yet you always pull back at the last moment. Your compassion will overcome your rage.”
“You’ve admitting to taking too much of my blood a couple of times,” I said. “But I didn’t flip out. Or even notice.”
“Even at those times, and there were three, I was nowhere near your threshold. And no, before you ask, I don’t know what your threshold is. I don’t know when the pleasure will cease and the fear turned aggression will start. We’ll find that out together.”
I traced the base of my wine glass, breaking eye contact. “After I am nearly drained dry, and obviously weak, then what?”
“You feed from me to revive yourself. After that, we make love or sleep, depending on how we feel, and wake up to do it all over again.”
“That’s it? Swap blood, sex, sleep, and lie in bed? Do people bring cards or something? Surely that has to get boring after a while.”
He gave me a small smile, but didn’t comment.
I shook my head and had a sudden urge to shove my plate away. Maybe even surge to my feet, knocking over my chair. Turn over the table. Kick down the door. Stain the cream rug.
“I can’t.” I was back to that again. That was all I had. My very last holdout, other than hiding in a closet under a blanket while rocking back and forth. “I can’t. My mother would be so disappointed in me.”
“I imagine she would rather you bond me and have someone to protect you in the underworld than for you to go down there alone.”
“She would rather I didn’t go at all.”
“Precisely, but you will go anyway.”
Yes, I would.
The need for my mom to know Darius surged again, drowning me. It wasn’t the reaction I’d expected to have when faced with this situation.
“Okay,” I said, turning my face away. I couldn’t believe I was agreeing to it, and knew absolutely it wasn’t because of the desire for someone to go with me. It was because of him. “Okay. Please don’t make me regret it.”
“I would never. You are the most precious thing in the world to me. I would never tarnish that. Not for anything.”
We would see, but the decision was made.
I was a fool.
“When?” I asked so quietly that the word barely left my mouth.
“Tonight. Now. We have little time to lose. I suspect only this sect’s commanders or leaders know the sensitive information about you, but as they develop plans to go to the surface and capture you, they will need to share the information. We need to get in there before that happens. You should know that I also spoke with Ja at length about the nature of the underworld. And while many things could have changed, the magic probably won’t have. I am as prepared as I can be.”
I nodded with my heart in my throat. That would be very comforting information later, I was sure, but right now, I couldn’t think about anything other than what I was about to do. It had happened so suddenly. Given how opposed I’d been to the very notion, I’d agreed so easily.
Are you sure, Reagan?
I wanted to say no to myself. To change my mind. But I knew the answer was yes. I wanted him every bit as much as he wanted me. I felt as deeply as he did.
He stood, extending his hand. “Come.”
“I’d be careful with the commands, if I were you. I’m not one of those docile bond-mates you’ve probably heard about.”
His laugh eased my nerves. “I am well aware. I would not be pleased if you were.”
“What about formal approval?” I asked as he led me to the door. “Don’t you have to get a green light from someone?”
“The paperwork has been submitted, but there is no time to wait for a decision. Besides, you will easily be approved. It is just a formality at this point.”
He opened the door and stepped out. “Mr. LaRay,” he called.
“Yes, sir,” came Moss’s voice.
>
“Is the country estate ready?”
“Of course, sir.”
“Good. We will head there now.”
“Which car would you like?”
“The Hennessey.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Mr. LaRay?” Darius said.
“Yes, sir?”
“I do not want us disturbed. Post sentries. No one goes into that house while we are there.”
“You will remain in the Brink for this, sir?” Moss asked in a low tone.
“Yes. There is nowhere else. We cannot go to the lair and risk someone finding out.”
“That doesn’t sound like just a formality to me,” I mumbled.
“I will see it done. Good luck, sir,” Moss said, his voice moving away.
“Neither does that…” I frowned hard at Darius when he turned toward me. “It sounds an awful lot like you are going rogue, Darius.”
“It does, doesn’t it? Have no fear. This is all just a precaution.” He held out his hand to me. “Let’s get moving. We are running out of night.”
I found myself jogging toward him, the worry at what I was walking into overshadowed by his anxiety to get moving. He was acting like we were criminals with cops on our heels.
The car out front took my breath away. Sleek, gray, and squashed like a giant had stepped on a normal car, flattening it. The thing screamed fast.
“Wow,” I said, pausing on the sidewalk. “Can I drive?”
“Not on your life. Please hurry, my love.”
The urgency in Darius’s voice started me forward. Moss climbed out of the driver’s side and left the door open.
“Oh, but he gets to drive it, does he?” I couldn’t help sounding like a petulant child.
Moss must’ve sensed the extent of my pining, because he smirked at me, the jerk. Darius had already opened the passenger door for me.
“What about all my stuff? Will we pick that up later?” I asked, sitting on the passenger seat. He’d used his vampire speed to get situated on the driver’s side. “And I need to leave an apology note for Callie and Dizzy.”
