It was a three story drop to the ground from the east wing gallery and Charly’s heart went cold at the thought of what might have happened if Rafe had fallen. “Did Rafe learn to best his brother?”
Matt grinned. “Nah. He just learned to curb his temper.”
As the brothers seemed very close, Charly concluded that both of them had matured since those days. “So Jamie is over two hundred years old?” She wondered how old Matt was then. He looked about forty, but there was a hint of grey in his dark brown hair at the temples. “Is he married?”
Her question made Matt look serious and he considered his words carefully, giving her a notion that he was about to divulge something important. “He got married about thirty years ago, but it didn’t work out. She was human, you see, and she didn’t like to be married to the entire clan with its leader. She left, leaving their cub with him. Jamie took it badly.”
Matt’s hazel eyes regarded her steadily and she understood what he meant. He knew that she was drawn to Rafe and wanted to warn her about it. And she understood better why Rafe wouldn’t want a human spouse after an example like that. “Rafe told me he won’t date humans,” she assured him, although her heart seemed to break at the thought. But he shook his head.
“It’s not that simple for us,” he said, using the same words Rafe had when he’d tried to explain it. “His wolf has chosen you, and no matter how much he wants to resist, he won’t be able to. He’ll have to have you.”
That wasn’t what Rafe had told her. Charly didn’t know which was worse, that he didn’t want her because of what she was or that he was forced to want her despite knowing it would hurt him in the end. “What about love?”
Matt put his hand on her shoulder. “Shifter unions are about more than love. It’s a deep understanding of belonging to each other. Love is a human emotion.”
“But I am human.” And she needed that emotion to be reciprocated. “So you’re saying I shouldn’t expect anything from him?”
“No, the opposite,” he said, to her surprise. “You should understand that once he stakes his claim on you, he won’t let you go. You’ll be his for as long as you live and he’ll expect you to answer with similar devotion. If you cannot do that, just walk away now. But if you have your love to offer, give it to him fully.”
He had given her a lot to think about. “He hasn’t actually said he wants me other than in his bed.”
That made Matt laugh. “If you were a shifter, you would know that he intends to keep you.”
Charly had always taken pride in her strength, but she wondered now if she was strong enough to love a man who didn’t love her back and would keep her anyway. More importantly, would she be strong enough to walk away?
Chapter Eighteen
Unlike shifters, most vampires didn’t live in clans or other formally organised groups, but in smaller family units like humans. There had been a time when those families included many generations of its long-living members – a six-hundred-year-old great-great grandfather happily cohabiting with those barely into their fulfilment and looking the same age too – but, as with humans, a separation of generations had happened at some point. Vampires had integrated more and more into human society, living in cities instead of isolated manors that were easier to defend. Humans weren’t that great a threat to them anymore.
Crimson Circle was an exception to that trend. If not entirely secret, at least among the two-natured people, it was secretive and chose to keep itself apart from both human and two-natured societies. It couldn’t isolate itself completely – for example, most of its wealth was generated by one of the top firms listed in the London Stock Exchange – but it didn’t exactly advertise its existence or its involvement in the outside world either.
Crimson Circle consisted mostly of unmarried male warriors, some of whom had belonged to it for centuries. However, it didn’t exist to defend the two-natureds against bigoted humans anymore. Not because there weren’t any, but because they couldn’t deal with humans the way they used to, by killing them. Instead, they concentrated on defending vampires against their mortal enemy, renegades. Renegade vampires were such a mighty adversary that the Circle hadn’t eased its defensive stance against the outside world one iota.
It therefore spoke volumes about the good relations Jamie had with Lord Foley that only an hour later they were waiting in Jamie’s car outside the gates of the Circle Manor, or what the vampires wanted the world to believe were the gates. Their real location was hidden with powerful magic.
“They are able to meet us during the day?”
Raphael turned to Charly, who was sitting with him in the backseat, happy to tell her anything about the two-natureds she wanted to know. “Circle warriors are extremely strong in Might, no one more so than Foley. But even the weakest vampires are strong enough to face the sun by the time they turn two hundred at the latest.”
“So they don’t burn to crisp?”
She was only half serious with the question so he laughed. “No, they don’t burn. But they are dependent on Might; it activates them somehow, and because sunlight affects their connection with it, it forces the weak-ones into slumber during the day. That’s why most vampires are secretive about their daytime location even after they have won the sun.” All two-natureds were safety-oriented by necessity.
A car appeared before them as if out of thin air, driving through the magical barrier surrounding the manor, and Gabriel Hamilton, Foley’s First Son, exited it. He was a huge man, at least two inches taller than Jamie and Rafe, and he had a steely physique he didn’t bother covering with a jacket despite the cool day. The short sleeves of his t-shirt revealed bulging biceps, and circling his right bicep was a dark red tattoo of a thorn wreath, the emblem of the Crimson Circle. Like all vampires, he seemed ageless, somewhere between twenty-five and forty, depending on his mood. Rafe knew, however, that Gabe was born around the same time as Rafe’s father in the early sixteenth century, which made him about five hundred years old.
Charly inhaled sharply when she saw him, and when Rafe turned to look at her, she was staring at the bloodsucker in awe. Gabriel was a handsome bloke, something Rafe hadn’t really paid attention to before. He had the classical, chiselled features of Greek statues, with long black hair tied at the nape of his neck. The look on his face was arrogant and cold, but women probably found that enticing.
Rafe growled, the sound startling everyone in the car, but he didn’t care. That bastard had better keep his distance from Rafe’s woman.
Jamie just smiled. “If you think Gabe is beautiful, wait till you see Alexander,” he said. Then he exited the car to greet Gabriel. Rafe and Charly got out too and Rafe stayed near her, his stance both possessive and protective. Now that he had made up his mind, he wasn’t about to shy from claiming his woman before other males.
It didn’t go unnoticed, but Gabe only sneered. “I have to check you for weapons,” he said, deliberately provoking him. The jerk knew wolves had no use for knives or firearms. He just wanted to paw his female. No fucking way.
His possessiveness getting rapidly out of control, Rafe growled again and stepped towards Gabe. “You will not touch her.”
Gabe wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, and so he took a step forward too. But before either of them had a chance to act on their hostility, Charly put herself between the two of them. “For goodness sake, Rafe, he’s just doing his job.”
Rafe’s anger rose as he saw his female standing too close to the vampire. “You want his hands all over you, don’t you?” he growled with menace, never taking his eyes off his enemy.
Charly wasn’t intimidated by his anger at all. She walked to him, so close that her wonderful body almost pressed against his, and lifted a hand to rest on his cheek. Her cool touch was distracting, but not so much that he abandoned his watchful stance. She wouldn’t give up. Her dark eyes sought his gaze and she held it steadily until his rage subsided, exactly as a true wolf’s mate would do.
Ag
itated by the strength of his emotions, both possessiveness and rage, he pulled her into his arms and buried his face into her neck, breathing in her wonderful scent until he was calm again. He released her only reluctantly and shot a fierce look at Gabe. “Be quick about it then.”
Jamie took a good hold of Rafe while the vampire patted Charly’s body from shoulders to ankles with quick efficiency. Rafe didn’t fight Jamie, but he growled the whole time, unable to keep the sound in. The moment Gabe was done with Charly, Rafe pulled her back to him again, needing to banish the vampire’s scent from her. As he had known, Gabe didn’t bother searching him or Jamie, having scanned them all with magic already, Charly included.
They filed into Gabe’s black Audi and Gabe told them to hide their wolves. Then he handed them blindfolds and told them to put them on too. Rafe and Jamie obeyed, having done this numerous times before, but Charly stared at her blindfold, bemused. “Why do we need this? I can see the gate right there.”
“Are you sure it’s there?” Gabe asked, amused, baffling Charly even more. Rafe took her blindfold and helped her put it on.
“It’s magic,” he explained. She had a lot to learn about the world of Might, but he was willing to teach her. “Magic is second nature to vampires, and the Circle warriors are very good at it.”
It was a ten-minute drive to the front door of the huge Elizabethan manor the warriors called their home. They took their blindfolds off and entered the manor past a warrior on guard duty, a vampire easily as scary-looking as Gabriel, but far less handsome. That didn’t mean Rafe wasn’t prepared to beat the shit out of him if he so much as glanced at Charly, but luckily for them all, the bloke kept his eyes to himself. Rolling his tense shoulders, Rafe tried to calm down. Foley wasn’t someone you went to this agitated.
Charly seemed impressed by the formal foyer, a grand example of baroque pomp with dark ornamental hardwood panelling and gilded leather tapestries, but Gabriel didn’t give her time to admire the decor. He led them to a parlour on the ground floor where Foley normally received his guests, the only room in the manor Rafe had been to apart from a banquet hall where he had attended a few dinners. The parlour was done in an entirely different style, with light colours and dainty Regency furniture that looked too flimsy to sit on. In deference to their host’s nature, yellow satin curtains were drawn before the windows, although Rafe knew the vampire warlord didn’t need to hide from the sun.
Foley met them mid-floor. He was almost as tall as Gabriel, but built more leanly, although not with less strength. Rafe didn’t know his exact age, but he seemed to be in his mid-thirties. However, since he was Gabe’s father, and there was no age limit to vampire fertility, he could be centuries old. He was dressed in expensive, low-riding blue jeans, and a white shirt with its top buttons left open and its sleeves rolled up, which made him look youthful and harmless. The image of harmlessness was enhanced by a heavy cane he was leaning against because of some age-old injury he hadn’t bothered to heal properly. But no one paralleled him in Might and only a fool would underestimate him.
Moreover, Jamie had been right. The bastard was so handsome he was almost beautiful. He had the same refined features and dark colours as Gabe, but his hair had a short and fashionable cut. Even a scar that ran down the left side of his face from eyebrow to ear didn’t diminish his manly beauty. It just twisted his features a little, making him look a bit cruel.
That was until he smiled. “James and Raphael, welcome.” He spoke with his natural, low and cultured voice, but Rafe knew he was capable of infusing it with magic too and charming humans with mere words.
Then he turned to look at Charly and Rafe wanted to growl again, no matter how unwise it would be to challenge someone of Foley’s calibre. The only thing that kept the sound in was Charly’s hand wrapping around his arm, squeezing it tightly. Foley smiled at her warmly and executed a gallant bow that spoke of his upbringing in much older times. Even his modern clothing didn’t make the gesture seem out of place.
“Miss Thornton, a pleasure.”
Chapter Nineteen
Not since her childhood, when her father’s mere voice could make her freeze in dread, had Charlotte been as frightened of a person as she was by Lord Foley. He was every bit as beautiful as Jamie had promised, but inhumanely so. His face reminded her of a hawk. It was intelligent, alert, and utterly cruel. Even with deliberate physical flaws, the perfection of his features and body was almost otherworldly, the essence of him so extraordinary that she would have known him for a vampire even though she had never met one before.
Having been around shifters the whole day, she was able to detect in Foley the energy that separated the two-natured people from humans, but there was nothing of the shifters’ wild warmth in him. Even though he was perfectly nice to them, offering a mesmerising smile that befuddled her brain, the feel of his energy was cold. She knew vampires were just as alive as everyone else, but she could understand why people would believe them to be undead.
That didn’t mean Foley wouldn’t have been vibrant. On the contrary, he emanated such ancient power that even she was able to feel it. She knew she was in the presence of someone who had no trouble organising the world to his liking with a cold ruthlessness that didn’t take outsiders into consideration. That was what frightened her. She had never felt so insignificant, and what was worse, she had no strength to fight the feeling either. All she could do was sit petrified on a Regency sofa, holding Rafe’s hand tightly.
Rafe was edgy as well, but not because of their host. He had been taken up by a possessive rage, all because she had admired Gabriel. Was that what Matt had meant by Rafe staking a claim on her? She couldn’t afford to be annoyed by his proprietary behaviour though, for the fear of what might happen if he tried to challenge Foley too. So she set out to calm him by running her thumb slowly up and down his strong, wiry wrist. It seemed to work too, because his breathing eased and his muscles relaxed.
“What can I do for you?” Foley asked once they had all settled down with some tea, as if this was an ordinary society visit. Not that Charly was able to drink; she didn’t even dare to lift the cup, her hands were shaking too badly. Jamie didn’t have such problems and he explained the matter in a calm fashion whilst sipping his tea from the dainty china cup.
“Someone sold you a piece of my property?” The air seemed to grow heavy with Foley’s anger. It felt as if he was sucking it towards him, making it hard for Charly to breathe.
“Yes,” Jamie answered, unaffected by the tensing atmosphere. The vampire warlord might be more powerful and much scarier, but Jamie was here as an equal. “And we’d like to buy it from you, properly this time.”
Foley cocked a brow, stretching the scar, which added to his cruel look. “And will you deal with the perpetrators too?”
Jamie shrugged, as if it was just the same to him. “We understand that they are humans. We can deal with them, unless you absolutely want the honour yourself?”
Charly was new to this world, but she understood that the matter was about who had the greater right to punish the humans. She knew that she should be appalled that they were taking matters into their own hands, that she should at least demand that legal action be taken, but their way seemed perfectly fine to her. Those people had attacked Rafe, twice, and they should pay for it.
Jamie and Foley spent a moment listing their grievances, and the vampire acknowledged that Jamie’s clan had the stronger claim. But he wouldn’t simply agree to sell the land. “We’ll see about that,” he said curtly, but at least the angry atmosphere had eased. “I’ll need to think about it.” And just like that, the audience was over.
Jamie and Rafe got up, not pushing the issue, but Charly felt disappointed. Why couldn’t they just settle the sale right now? Foley seemed to sense her impatience and he smiled. “We’re old, Miss Thornton. We can take our time with this. The land will be there long after the humans are gone.”
They took formal leaves that didn’t seem at all out of
place in the grand manor. When it was her turn, Foley took her hand and she could almost feel the energy of him grazing her skin. It was all she could do not to snatch her hand away. “Please visit us again, Miss Thornton. It’s seldom that such a beautiful she-wolf graces my home.”
Charly recoiled physically, her hand dropping from his after all. “I’m not a shifter. I’m human.” Surely he was able to see that.
He regarded her with a great intensity that made her want to squirm. “Are you now?”
Wasn’t she?
Of course she was. Foley just had such power in his voice that she was ready to believe him. Even so, her bones turned to liquid as the unsettling idea began to sink in. Rafe’s heavy hand landed on her shoulder, pulling her towards him, offering her much needed support./p>
“She’s very dominant, but that doesn’t make her a shifter.”
Foley ignored Rafe’s denial and dealt her the worst blow of her adult life. “I scanned you when you entered this room. I can assure you that you’re a wolf. Someone has simply blocked your second nature with magic.”
He noticed her stunned expression and cocked his brow slightly, as if he hadn’t just turned her world upside down. “I take it you didn’t know about this?”
Charly wanted to shake her head, both in answer to him and in denial of his words, but the blood rushed from her face and the floor disappeared under her feet. Rafe caught her before she fell and helped her back to the sofa where he pressed her head gently between her knees. His hand rested on her shoulder again, offering comfort, but she could feel it shaking a bit. Was it in anger or in excitement? After all, if this was true, he wouldn’t have to deal with wanting a human anymore.
“Who would do something this awful to you?” His angry growl was almost incomprehensible.
Charly knew the answer with a clarity that penetrated even her shock. “My parents, of course.”
The Wolf's Call (Two-Natured London) Page 10
