"Who bit you?" he demanded. Trust Gavin to skirt the issue and go straight to the one that was triggering his jealousy.
"Somebody named Brock," I snapped. "And he told me he was gay. Now, answer my question."
"I know Brock; he's an Enforcer now," Gavin said, sighing a little. "Lissa, I did bite you. I couldn't help myself. I just couldn't handle your scent any longer. It was a moment of weakness and I told you afterward that it wouldn't happen again. Not while you were rogue and I was watching you."
"And there I thought I disappointed you somehow or messed the date up by fainting on you," I turned my head away.
"No, Lissa. I knew if I did it again, I wouldn't be able to stop myself. I almost didn't that night. I wanted to couple with you and that would have been unethical. Disappoint me?" he snorted.
"What was I supposed to think?" I tossed up a hand in confusion. "You placed compulsion; I know that, now. Jerk."
"Lissa, you may call me anything you like over that." Gavin reached out and gently turned my face toward his with a finger. "I know you were miserable. You retaliated by going out immediately with the man you met at the bookstore. I was so eaten up with jealousy I wanted to track him and place compulsion for him to leave you alone." Gavin's brows were drawn together in a severe frown. And compulsion? Who was Gavin kidding? He probably wanted to beat Tony into pulp. It was probably a good thing Gavin didn't know who Tony was, other than a potential rival.
"You have such faith in me," I retorted. "Even I knew that relationship was doomed from the start. It was just somebody who didn't know who or what I was that made me laugh, Gavin. Is it wrong to want to forget that the werewolves are blackmailing you and the Council wants you dead?"
"I know you didn't go to bed with him," Gavin was the one to turn his head, now. "I would have smelled it if you had."
That was such a comforting thought. He'd checked. Great. "So, are you telling me that I can't ever date anyone else again? Is that what you're saying?"
"Lissa, I have no hold over you now. You are free to do as you please. I am terrified that you will accept advances from this one or that; I have a feeling that offers are coming in already, both to Wlodek and your sire. And these are vampires who have yet to see you. All of them wish to meet with you."
"Oh, good grief," I muttered in alarm. Wlodek and Merrill were getting requests? What did that mean? And what did they want, these nameless, faceless vampires? The thought of it made me shiver. "I don't want to meet them, Gavin. Not that way. Good grief."
"This frightens you." He made it a statement.
"Of course it does." I wanted to pull my knees to my chest. I forced myself to leave them where they were.
"Will you sit with me?" He patted his knee. Sit with him? I wanted to crawl into his lap and huddle against him. Ask him to fend off this horde of vampires that had appeared from nowhere, asking to meet with me. Gavin ended up coming to me instead. "If I had known this information would frighten you, I wouldn't have told you," he whispered against my hair.
"Gavin, I don't have many pleasant memories of being around vampires," I mumbled, my head buried against his shoulder. "So far, they've either wanted to kill me or place compulsion. And they can all do it. I have no way of defending myself if they decide they want to toss the law aside and just tell me whatever they want me to do."
"You should not be this frightened," he said, rubbing the back of my neck with his fingers. "Not all vampires are that way. You were rogue so you were treated differently than you would normally be treated."
"Yeah. How about that?" I said.
"There wasn't any justice in it for you, my little angel. None at all."
"So, now vampires may come knocking who may be no different from Edward and Sergio. What do you suggest I do about that? If I tell them to take a hike, are they going to get all pissy about it and try to retaliate? Get me into trouble, somehow, so Wlodek will be sure and not hold you back next time? I don't know this race of yours, Gavin. I don't know how to react to this."
"This is your race, too, Lissa; you are just new to it. Most vampires will accept that they don't have any chance with you and leave it at that if you do not wish to see them."
"And the others?"
"Vampires are unpredictable at times. And the older they are, the more likely that may surface. The Council has been in place for six hundred years. Many of our race are much older than that and did not accept the new law graciously. Those may be the ones to watch for."
"You're not making me feel better about any of this," I burrowed against his chest.
"I don't wish to frighten you," he said, pulling his arms tighter around me. "I should not have said anything."
"What if I don't want anyone?" My words were spoken against his chest, causing Gavin to go still for a moment.
"Then that may be your choice, but the Council's decision may be otherwise. Lissa, I am begging you now to give me a chance. Give me a little time, angel. Then tell me if you don't want to see me again." His fingers were stroking my hair. "I cannot tell you what I would give to go back to the night when I kissed and drank from you. I'd never had the opportunity to taste a female of our race. Your blood was so sweet, love. You gave yourself so willingly to my kiss; you trusted me at that moment. Now, that is all destroyed and I must rebuild it if I can."
"Gavin, if you hadn't chained me to the chair on that jet, or at least reassured me a little or told me where we were going, even, that might have gone a long way. But you didn't. I may never trust another vampire in my life. Not ever." I crawled out of his lap. We were done for the evening, he and I.
I saw him to the door; he turned to me as he was walking out. "Do we have some time, Lissa? Will you see me during that time so I may attempt to rebuild your trust?"
"Gavin, you have no idea how much I'd like to trust someone. To tell them what my worries and concerns are, ask them stupid questions and not have them look at me like I'm an idiot or something. I don’t think that's possible." His face turned gray at my words. "That doesn't mean I won't give you a little time," I sighed. "I'll give you a little time. I'll give us a little time. Goodnight, Gavin." I shut the door on him.
* * *
Franklin was coming downstairs for all his meals now and said he would be more than happy to take over his normal duties in another week. I handed him a bowl of beef stew and crackers. We talked while he and Lena sat there eating. "I never thought about putting pasta or rice in my beef stew," Franklin said. "This is really good."
"My mother put everything except the kitchen sink in her stew. I always liked the pasta and rice. The trick is, just don't go overboard with it. A little will do of each."
Merrill wandered in while they were eating and I was cleaning the kitchen. "Wlodek wishes to see you," he said when I straightened up after putting the stew pot in the dishwasher.
I wanted to mutter something long-suffering such as "not again," but didn't. I wouldn't be able to tell Wlodek no, no matter what it was that he wanted. "Let me go change," I said, wiping my hands on a kitchen towel.
I'd never seen Wlodek in anything except a suit and tie. If the man wore jeans, I probably wasn't destined to see it. Merrill also dressed most of the time but I did see him upon occasion in slacks and a nice pullover. Jeans, too, once in a while. Therefore, I dressed nicely for this occasion, in a calf-length silk dress. I hoped I wouldn't be running across the English countryside as I slipped into low-heeled sandals. The dress was a deep green; one of my favorite colors next to blue. I even wore my gold hoop earrings, one of the two pairs I actually owned. Merrill was waiting for me at the door when I was ready, and we went out to the garage together. He drove the Bentley, and it was a pleasure to ride in that luxury.
"You look beautiful, Lissa," Merrill said when he opened my door and helped me out of the car roughly half an hour later.
"Thanks," I said and followed him to the door of Wlodek's manor. Rolfe let us in as usual; Charles stood behind Rolfe, waiting to take us to Wlodek's o
ffice. Wlodek was busy signing papers when we walked in and didn't glance up for several seconds. For a moment, I wondered if he were signing termination papers on anyone before shoving that thought aside. Eventually Wlodek laid his pen aside and turned his attention to Merrill and me; we were sitting in the two chairs before his desk.
"Something came up missing recently," he said, in lieu of a greeting.
If I'd been talking to Don, I would have said automatically, "I'm innocent, as usual," and given him a smile. The Head of the Vampire Council, however, was as far removed from Don as I could possibly get. Instead of explaining what that something was, Wlodek lifted a paper from his desk and handed it to Merrill, who glanced at it briefly, raised his eyebrows slightly and then passed the paper over to me. It was a photograph of the Cambridge Lover's Knot tiara and the Spencer family tiara. Holy crap.
"It has come to my attention that these items may be somewhere in France," Wlodek went on. "Lissa, I desire that you to fly to Paris with Russell and Radomir. While there, I wish for you to learn if these items are indeed where we think and retrieve them if you can. They will be returned to their rightful owners if you are successful."
There was only one reason I could see that Wlodek, Head of the Vampire Council, would involve two Enforcers and a mister in the theft of two tiaras and that was if they were stolen by a vampire in the first place. And the fact that he wasn't intending to bring the vampire in for doing this meant that the vampire had to be important and the whole thing was probably going to be hushed up. Great. This involved vampire politics and intrigue, and I was being shoved into the middle of it.
Merrill asked the question before I could. "When?" he inquired.
"Tomorrow evening. Have her at the airport at nine."
"Very well," Merrill nodded.
"The annual meeting is also approaching," Wlodek said, flipping his gold pen in his fingers.
"I will be there," Merrill said, sounding as if that might be the last thing he wanted to do.
"I expect you to be there," Wlodek agreed. "I also expect you to bring Lissa. See that she is dressed appropriately for the ball. You look lovely tonight, my dear." He turned to me and almost smiled.
"Thank you, Honored One," I did what I'd seen some of the others do, dipping my head a little. No sense pissing off the King of the Vampires.
Charles hugged me before I got out the door, telling me he intended to call sometime so we could see a movie when I got back. I grinned at him and told him I'd look forward to it. I hadn't gone to a movie since I'd seen one with Winkler, Gavin and the werewolf bodyguards in Corpus Christi. It seemed a lifetime ago, although it was only a bit over three months.
"If you were human, I'd take you for ice cream," Merrill said, once we were loaded into the car and driving through the huge iron gate that guarded Wlodek's drive.
"And if I were human, I'd eat it," I said.
"Franklin, what are you doing still up?" I scolded him when we walked into the kitchen half an hour later.
"Waiting on you," he said.
"Did you drink your berry smoothie and take the flaxseed oil?"
"I did. I never thought I'd see a vampire so health conscious, before," he laughed.
"Those berries have antioxidants and the flaxseed oil does the same thing the fish oil does, it just doesn’t have the taste to it," I said. "And even you can't stand there and say they aren't good for you."
"I'm convinced." He came over and hugged me. "I just want my goodnight kiss before I go to bed."
I kissed his cheek and watched him walk toward the stairs. "He's in great shape, I just want to keep him that way," I sighed as he walked out of earshot.
"I've offered to turn him many times," Merrill said. "He refuses every time and gets a bit testy over it, too. He tells me he likes to cook and to taste what he cooks."
"I'm right there with him on that," I said. "I only have the memory of what it tasted like. And that may go someday, too."
"Little girl, are you prepared for tomorrow evening? You should pack. Probably for four days, at least. I don't believe it will take that long but one can never tell."
"All right," I nodded. "Goodnight, Merrill."
"Goodnight, child."
Merrill drove the Range Rover to the airport. It was a stormy night and rain was pelting us as we made our way to the Council's private strip outside London. My passport and other important ID was in my purse; Merrill had scrounged up a wad of euros and handed them to me before we left the house. I probably had twelve hundred euros in my purse when I left the house, in addition to my credit card. Russell and Radomir were standing beside the steps leading to the Council's jet, waiting for me when Merrill and I arrived. My bags were loaded in while I boarded, and I sat down before my two flight companions did. Radomir ended up sitting next to me, Russell right across the aisle.
"Will wanted to come but I told him he had to stay home," Russell grinned.
"Will is guarding Wlodek while we are away," Radomir added. I just sat there between both of them, trying not to let my breaths sound too shaky. I liked Radomir, but maybe not that close. I hadn't forgotten what Merrill told me about Radomir, either; whatever you said to Radomir you said to Wlodek, since Wlodek was Radomir's sire.
"Have you done anything fun, lately?" Russell asked, reaching across the aisle to pat my hand. I think he may have recognized my discomfort.
"No. I did learn to drive on the wrong side of the road, but Merrill still doesn't trust me with his cars," I offered Russell a smile.
"You should come out with Will and me, sometime," Russell offered.
"And what do you do that's fun?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. I had no idea what vampires did for fun.
"Mostly they pick up women," Radomir said, a smile in his voice if not on his face.
"You pick up women? Do you put them down again?" It was out of my mouth before I thought.
"Oh, yeah," Russell was grinning.
"The Monet that you gave to the Honored One was a nice gift," I said, referring to the huge painting of water lilies that hung on a wall in Wlodek's study.
"He wanted it; I didn't particularly like it," Russell replied with a shrug. I knew it was a really nice gift; some of those paintings had sold for more than forty million pounds.
"So, did you hang up a print of dogs playing pool instead?" I asked. Radomir laughed.
"I did turn the space into a billiard room," Russell agreed with a stifled snicker.
"I knew it," I said, tossing up a hand. "And if you were human, your trash would be full of pizza boxes."
"I never got to taste a pizza," Russell observed.
"They're good," I said. "You strike me as a pepperoni kind of guy, leave the veggies off."
"Hear that, Rad?" Russell looked over my head at Radomir.
"Don't mess with him, he's the Italian sausage and extra cheese man," I said, pointing a thumb at Radomir.
"And what were you?" Russell was patting my hand again.
"Canadian bacon and mushroom," I said. "Thin crust. Thick was just too much bread for me."
"Charles told me you can't even finish a whole unit of blood," Russell teased.
"Does everybody talk about my eating habits?" I asked petulantly.
"Well, we don't have a lot of other information about you, so we have to discuss what we have," Russell said.
"This is a fact finding mission, so you can pass around the dirt?" I was teasing him right back.
"Oh, yeah," he said. "And the darker the dirt, the better."
Okay, I was really starting to like this guy. And he had no qualms over cracking the stone-faced façade that most vampires wore. "Did Brock tell you that one of my sins while I was human was glazed donuts?"
"Nah, Merrill doesn't let him gossip about anything that goes on inside the house," Russell grumped.
"I won't be discussing Merrill, either," I said. "I'll talk about me as long as it's harmless. That's all you get."
"Damn," Russell pretended to
be upset.
"You were married before?" Radomir asked.
"Yes. He's been dead eight months as of yesterday," I said. "As have I, I suppose. My ex sister-in law can't wait to put the date of death on my headstone so she can get her hands on my house and the insurance money."
"You already have a headstone?" Russell asked.
"It was one of those double ones and my husband's information is on one side. They put my name and date of birth on the other. I'd left my side blank. My sister-in-law will have to wait the standard seven years unless she gets a sympathetic judge or something."
"Does it make you want to go back and slap your sister-in-law around?"
"No. That part of my life is over," I answered Russell's question. "It's neither here nor there what she does with my stuff."
The plane trip was short and we landed at Charles de Gaulle International Airport in no time. A car waited there for us, complete with driver. We stowed our bags in the boot—that's what Russell calls the trunk, (he has such a nice British accent) and we were on our way.
The safe house was on the outskirts of Paris, in Bobigny. Once again, our accommodations were underground while the tastefully furnished ground floor was for appearances only. The entire place was alarmed, of course; we let ourselves into the basement through a hidden door in the floor of a closet, using a keypad code.
There were three bedrooms; I would have been forced to sleep on the small sofa, otherwise. The sofa wasn't long enough for either Russell or Radomir to sleep on comfortably, so I was thankful for the third small bedroom. Radomir got the suite with the bath; Russell and I shared the second bathroom.
Neither of my companions offered information on where we were going the following evening, and I didn't ask. Russell did ask me after we were settled in if I wanted to go sightseeing in Paris. Humorous, I know—only vampires might plan sightseeing trips after midnight. I did want to see as much of it as I could, so all three of us went out into a warm Paris evening. I'd never been anywhere near France before; I'd lived in Oklahoma all my life and the closest I'd gotten to a foreign country was Mexico. My British driver's license listed an address in Kent; the U.S. license gave an address in New York. Also somewhere I'd never really been. A car was available at the safe house for our use, so Radomir drove us around for a while. At times, I caught a slight smile playing about his mouth but didn't say anything. I honestly believed that Radomir was enjoying himself, and Russell certainly was. I saw the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomph and we passed close to Notre Dame de Paris; it was on an island, along with the Palais de Justice.
Blood Passage (Blood Destiny #2) Page 3
