by A. C. Arthur
“I need answers this time. I can’t go back and tell them you’re just giving us this information out of the goodness of your frozen heart.”
Ziva’s words snapped her from the reverie and she turned slowly to see the woman she’d once thought she could love standing near the window. Moonlight fell over her already honey-glazed skin. The red skirt she wore was skintight and short, revealing long legs covered in tights, but since the outline of them was so starkly apparent they may as well have been bare. Her blouse was red too, sheer so the black lace bra easily showed. Damn, she was gorgeous without even trying.
“I told you I wanted to help you.” It was flimsy and she’d known that Ziva would push the matter. Or Theo and his minions would push. They did that a lot and it wore on Enes’s nerves.
Somebody was always pushing her around. First her grandmother, then her ex-boyfriend and finally Warrick. When he died, she’d sworn he would be the last one to have control over her. Yet, here she was now standing in Twilight’s very small storeroom with the one being that made her otherwise chilly soul feel what could only be described as warm.
“I don’t know what he’s looking for. I just heard about the meeting and gave you the information.” She shrugged, knowing Ziva was going to ask again.
“Why’d you tell me anything? You know we’ll kill him and any other vampires that attempt to raise that army.”
“Why? You don’t even know if an army exists? You could all just be running in circles.”
“But you know we’re not. And even if we were, six bodies completely drained of blood were found in a warehouse just last week. A notable doctor went missing for a full week, only to show up at work one day and attacked three nurses. All of them were found in an empty operating room with bite marks on their neck. He killed them because he’s an out of control newborn. The brutal violence at the hands of the vamps has been going on for weeks with no signs of stopping. How do you defend that?” Ziva stepped toward her and she didn’t back away.
A very real part of her warned it wasn’t the smart thing to do, but another part—the one that couldn’t let go—met her halfway. This time she even reached out to touch the skin of her cheek that had been tempting her since Ziva walked into the club.
Ziva accepted the touch but kept her gaze focused. “Tell me what’s really going on, Enes. You know you can trust me.”
“Can I, Ziva?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? I never lied to you.”
“No. But you did walk away from me and you never looked back.”
“You weren’t ready. I asked the question and you gave the answer.” Ziva licked her lips and desire flooded Enes. The sight of her tongue easing over the plump skin evoked more memories, ones she couldn’t forget. Even after being turned into a vampire.
“I needed you to wait, to give me time.” She paused because her voice wavered. “I needed you, Ziva.”
That may have been too much because Ziva backed away. She ran a hand over the side of her head where her hair was cut short and smoothed back in the chic style she wore. For a few moments she simply watched her blink. Long lashes, hazel eyes, pert lips. This woman was all she could think about, when she wasn’t thinking about making the worst mistake of her life.
“If you’re going to continue helping us, I’ll need to know why.” Ziva’s tone was cool and Enes bristled.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Ziva. Take the information I give you and do what you need to do with it. Or don’t take it, I don’t care.” She headed to the door.
“I’ve seen us,” Ziva said.
Those three simple words stopped her departure but she didn’t turn around. Ziva’s clairvoyance was her Drakon power.
“Together. You and me, the way we were before. I’ve seen it.”
If she’d had a heart this was where it would begin thumping wildly in her chest. But she didn’t. Still her fingers clenched at her sides as something akin to hope brushed over her skin.
“I don’t know why or how. I’m not even sure it’s what I want, but I’ve never lied to you.” Ziva let out a huff of breath. “The two don’t mix. What we were, or are, or whatever. And stopping this vampire army from rising. The conflict is staring us both in the face and it’s better if we don’t forget it.”
“I’m not with them. I wasn’t born into the Royal Blood and the bastard that changed me wasn’t accepted by them, so that’s that. I’m doomed to be at the bottom of their food chain forever.” That’s why she didn’t give a damn if their plan to bring hundreds of ancient vampires into the world to slaughter every species was foiled because of the information she gave to the dragons. After all she’d been through, Enes couldn’t muster up the strength to give a damn about the death toll on either end. Nobody had given a damn about her as she’d bled to death in that alley years ago.
“But you still work for them by being here at Twilight. So what are you, one foot in and one out? Make me understand how this works and I’ll make Theo and the others understand.” Damn, she loved the sound of Ziva’s voice. She heard it in her sleep through the long hours of daylight and yearned for it the moment she woke at nightfall.
“I’m on my own,” she said. “As always.”
The touch was unexpected. She let down her guard whenever Ziva was around, so she’d been able to move, approach, touch her and Enes didn’t know until it was too late. The second Ziva’s fingers moved from her shoulder to the bare skin of her neck, walking away was a no-go.
“I’m here now.” The touch of her fingers easing around to cup her chin had Enes sucking in a breath.
Enes turned, she couldn’t help it. Ziva leaned in, their lips touched. Just a quick brush of softness. Of the sweetness she’d missed, with every bit of life she had left.
“I don’t want them to kill you.” It was an admission she hadn’t thought she’d ever make, but this, the feel of Ziva so close, the scent of her hair, her skin, her blood. She couldn’t lose her, not again.
“Shhhhh.” Ziva stopped her words with another kiss. “Neither of us will die.”
Their lips touched again, this time her tongue stroking over Ziva’s. “No, I won’t let you die,” she whispered when they broke apart momentarily. “But they won’t let both of us live, not together. When the Royal Blood finds out what I’ve done, they’ll kill me.”
“I won’t let them kill you.”
Enes shook her head. She was through cheating death. It hadn’t paid off in the way she’d wanted it to. The urge to kiss Ziva again was too strong to resist. The very real possibility that this might be the last chance for them to share this intimacy was too much for her to ignore.
“I’ll do whatever I can to keep that army from being raised, as long as I can.” She kissed her again, this time pulling Ziva’s body tight against hers, reveling in the feeling that washed over her, the feeling that filled her with heat and strength and passion. It was love, she knew. She’d always known.
* * *
Theo walked into the room and took a seat in an ornately designed high-backed chair that was fit for a king—or an emperor, Mel corrected. To be fair, all twenty-two chairs surrounding this massive wood table were the exact same design as the one the Drakon emperor occupied now. His was at the head of the table, his wife, Shola, coming to sit in the first seat on the side to his right.
The others she’d already met were also seated along the sides, including the two new ones—Steele and his girlfriend, Ravyn. Moments before they’d all begun to file into this room Aiken had introduced Ravyn as Steele’s mate. The woman with the startlingly pretty smile and slick-ass hairstyle seemed content with the title while something inside Mel chafed at the thought.
Here was another part of the whole selection/mate scenario that she just didn’t understand. To her, the term mate implied ownership. Ownership meant she was beholden to whatever someone else said or
ordered her to do. Is that what Aiken ultimately wanted? To own her? Nothing in their past relationship had ever given her that impression. Still, the possibility swirled in her mind, making this situation all the more difficult to deal with.
“Tell me what happened.” Theo’s slowly spoken words brought everyone in the room to attention.
As Mel’s presence was that of a contractor, she’d let her gaze wander off to the smooth walls of this room, painted a tree bark brown color. Paintings hung on these walls, similar to the way they did in the main foyer and the one closest to the library. Those were a couple of the places she remembered so far in this fortress.
“We visited the species leaders, gave them the gist of what was going on and asked them to keep an ear to the streets for any chatter about Duncan or what the Royal Blood was up to. They’re all on board.” Aiken gave a recap of the early part of their day.
“That’s good. The last thing we need is any resistance from another group. Then we’d be fighting two wars.” Magnum spoke in his deep commanding tone. He had to be third in line of authority after Theo and Shola, of course. The way the others looked to him when he talked spoke of unwavering respect, and a touch of brotherly admiration. The latter came whenever she looked at Reese who’d agreed with what Magnum said by nodding, but still held that bit of mischief in his eyes.
“Tell him about the attack from the vamps and how you went into hiding instead of burning those bastards to the ground.” Reese came through with the grin as he basically snitched on Aiken to the Drakon emperor. His comments brought the immediate stare of every Drakon in this room to Aiken and a quick flash of defensiveness moved through Mel.
Aiken didn’t spare Reese a very heated glare through his Drakon eyes before turning his attention to Theo. “As I told you when I reported in, we decided to do a stakeout. We parked a block away from the Royal Blood headquarters and waited to see if Duncan came in or went out. I wasn’t really expecting either but I thought we’d see some type of action since it was about an hour after nightfall when we first arrived. All who were inside would want to come out for the evening.”
“And did they?” Bleu asked from the corner of the room where he stood. The guy obviously didn’t like to sit often.
“No. Not for the first two hours. We sat there and absolutely nothing happened. There weren’t even any streetlights on.” That comment had Mel thinking back to that blast of light that had come out of nowhere and brought her back to reality with a resounding jolt.
What the hell had she been doing straddling Aiken and kissing him like she was really planning to ride him until they both found release in that truck? A movement beneath her skin had her shifting in her seat. The instant dose of longing that came next was familiar and annoying and she cleared her throat in the hope of getting rid of it.
“Were you falling asleep? Did you get some dinner before the stakeout and it made you tired? That happens to me whenever I eat heavy after nine. Like that triple-stack burger with all the toppings from the Fry Guy food truck on Lincoln Boulevard. You know the one I’m talkin’ about?” Reese nodded and grinned while he talked, and she felt the waves of anger drifting from Aiken across the table to where the other Drakon sat.
Part of her wanted to warn Reese that he was going too far. Aiken’s irritation was only being ratcheted higher the longer he sat there in front of what she figured had to seem like a firing squad.
“The light came out of nowhere. We got out of the truck to investigate and when the light was gone, the vampires appeared. Twenty-five to fifty of them,” Aiken told Theo. “Two options existed: shift and burn them to the ground like Smartass over there so eloquently put it or take cover and see what we could find out. That’s what we did, thanks to Mel’s powers.”
And just like that every set of Drakon eyes flipped to her direction. She met the gaze of the two women in the room first, and then found Theo’s, which was that intense sapphire blue again.
“You have the chameleon power. Drakon born in the waterfall region of the Far Realm were said to possess that power, as it aided in concealing them in the forested area when needed.”
The emperor knew too much. She’d felt it last night in the way he stared at her. “I can’t believe you told him.” The words she’d meant for only Aiken slipped out and were obviously louder than she’d intended, because Theo was the one who responded.
“He doesn’t have to tell me anything. I saw all I needed to see last night,” Theo announced, flaunting not only his superiority in that moment, but also her obvious ignorance as to how he could know these things.
A few minutes had passed so it was clearly Reese’s turn to speak again. “Oh, Aiken didn’t tell you? Theo’s a soul identifier. He can see whatever you are even when you lie and tell him you’re not a Drakon. That’s how we all knew this morning.” This time there was no smile on Reese’s face.
She inhaled slowly, counting down from ten to give herself time to calm and think of what she was going to say. Unlike Aiken’s charming personality, words didn’t always come smoothly for her, mainly because she had a habit of speaking her mind, consequences be damned. In this instance, however, she attempted to be a little more guarded. If not for the sake of being able to eventually claim her pay for finding Duncan, but to also spare Aiken any backlash he might get because of her. Nobody needed to answer for who and what she’d made herself into, especially not him.
“We were able to listen to a conversation we never would’ve heard if Aiken had burned all the vampires to the ground.” It came out just as tersely as it had sounded in her mind and she wasn’t apologizing for that. “Duncan pulled up in a car and gave the directive to kill the dragons because they were getting in his way. So while you’re sitting here trying to figure out what he’s doing, he’s planning to exterminate all of you and go on with his life.”
Again, terse, full of contempt, and probably skating the line of disrespect.
“It was the right call,” Shola said as she stared down the table to Mel.
“I agree.” That was Ziva, who’d just walked into the room, sunglasses covering her eyes, and that arrogant sway of her hips as she moved to take a seat beside Reese.
Steele eyed her suspiciously. “You’re late and you didn’t respond to my messages.”
Ziva didn’t even look in his direction. “I was busy.”
“And your partner was in trouble,” Steele snapped. He had thick black locs too, shorter than Magnum’s, but there were other similarities between the two that had Mel thinking they were probably blood related.
“He’s got another partner now.” Ziva nodded toward Mel, contempt dripping from her words. “Besides, I was getting more information from Enes.”
That announcement quickly changed the mood of the room.
“Duncan’s assigned a team to hunt us while he continues working out some type of agreement with Montoy. They’re both scheduled to leave the country in one week. The consensus is when they come back it’ll be with the full weight of an ancient vampire army behind them.”
“Great, so now we’re dealing with two separate sets of vampires in Burgess? And this Duncan person must be some powerful Lord to command his own following and bring them into Montoy’s city without Montoy immediately snapping his neck.” Magnum leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table.
“It makes sense. Montoy must need Duncan, the same way Temptra needed you,” Shola said to Ravyn. She stood slowly, rising up from the chair like some ethereal being and moving quietly to stand next to her husband. Her hand moved slowly to rest on Theo’s shoulder in a move that seemed to solidify their roles here—him as the emperor and her as his mate. For a brief moment Mel wondered if that were the only dynamic at play in their relationship.
* * *
“You’re right. Temptra needed me to use the dagger to raise the dead. Duncan must only have a piece to the puzzle too.” This was R
avyn. Her voice was a slightly huskier timbre than Shola’s and she didn’t seem to be so regally connected to Steele. At least they weren’t acting like Shola and Theo. Perhaps because they weren’t the leaders of this little group. “If he had the means to get to the army and raise it on his own, he wouldn’t be here.”
“But what piece? Another dagger? A map? Maybe we’ve been so focused on figuring out a way to stop them from raising the army, we haven’t given enough thought to where the burial site is,” Shola added.
Reese sat back in his chair and shrugged. “Temptra knew where it was. Maybe she told Duncan or Montoy. Maybe the key to stopping all this is the burial ground itself.”
It was a bit of a task following their conversation when she knew they were talking about things that had happened before she came to town, but Mel picked up on the key parts. “Wait.” She interrupted and dismissed the look of shock on everyone’s face. She didn’t ask anyone for permission to speak and she didn’t give a damn what their title was. “Riya said Duncan was in Africa. Isn’t that where you think the army’s buried?” Steele and Reese had been talking during their ride back to the Office and she’d been listening. Aiken had been brooding in his corner of the backseat. He’d probably been recalling their interrupted interlude, but as far as she was concerned he could forget about that, because it was never happening again.
As if he somehow knew what she was thinking, Aiken immediately looked over at her. The heated gaze in his eyes was nothing new, he was both irritated with her and aroused by her. Once upon a time that had been an enticing combo. That slithering sensation rippling beneath her skin increased until she trembled all over.
“Duncan’s not a Lord. At least not in the way the Royal Blood defines them. He and his sister Riya were bitten a few years ago. He was changed into a vampire.” He’d looked away from her before he started speaking but that feeling as if she weren’t alone in her own body only increased.
