by Lisa Edmonds
Malcolm, needless to say, was extremely unhappy about the entire situation. He’d already voiced his objections back at home, so he had nothing to add now except to glare in the direction of the bedroom. Even my assurance that I was fine with the way our negotiations had turned out wasn’t enough to lessen his anger at Charles. I figured I’d be hearing about all this later too.
I washed my hands, turned the light off, and opened the bathroom door.
I’d half-expected Charles to have changed into a silk robe and turned the room into a candlelit, rose-petal-strewn love nest while I’d been in the bathroom. Indeed, he’d turned off the overhead light in favor of a bedside Tiffany lamp that cast a rosy glow, but there were no candles and no actual roses. Nor was he undressed, other than he’d removed his suit jacket and tie and draped them neatly over the back of a chair. His shoes waited next to the bed.
He stood in his socks, collar unbuttoned and hands behind his back, as I emerged from the bathroom. At my surprise, the corners of his mouth turned up. “You were expecting something quite different?”
“I wasn’t expecting you to be wearing checkered socks.”
He glanced at his feet. “I do allow myself a bit of whimsy on occasion.”
“You’re on a slippery slope with this, Charles. Today, it’s checkered socks. Tomorrow, who knows, a polka-dot bow tie?”
“I said whimsy, Alice, not lunacy.” He gestured grandly at the bed. “Please, be comfortable.”
I intended to stay fully dressed, but I couldn’t bring myself to put my dirty boots on the very expensive-looking comforter. I unzipped them and steadied myself against one of the bedposts as I toed them off. I wasn’t exactly stalling, but I didn’t rush the process either.
With my boots lying beside Charles’s shoes on the floor, I sat on the side of the bed. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“You should lie down,” Charles advised gently. “If you remain sitting up, you may faint.”
That was a fair point. Feeling self-conscious, I swung my feet up onto the bed and lay back, my head resting on a pillow as light and airy as a cloud. The comforter was silk and velvet and somehow almost as weightless as the pillow. I lay with my arms at my sides and spine as straight as a board, my gaze fixed on the ceiling.
His eyes glowing softly, Charles walked around to the other side of the bed. He moved like silk himself, somehow making the climb onto and across the bed look elegant instead of awkward. Despite everything, my heart raced as he lay down at my side.
I cursed my failure to think about where he would want to be while he bit me and returned my gaze to the ceiling. Trying to slow my heart rate, I pictured myself standing in an ice-cold shower while someone read me baseball scores.
He chuckled. “A cold shower, Alice?”
Too late, I realized I might have been focusing a little too hard on that image. “Damn it, Charles, stay out of my head,” I snapped.
“You broadcast your thoughts,” he countered. “I made no attempt to eavesdrop, as you call it.”
“Whatever. Let’s just do this.” I turned my face away.
Carefully, he used his fingertips to turn my head back. “I am open to renegotiating our terms,” he said quietly. “Specifically, your edict that I cannot mitigate the pain of the bite. I have not bitten anyone in such a way in a very long time. I told you that I do not wish to hurt you, and I spoke the truth.”
He might truly not want to hurt me, but he was willing to do so to get what he wanted. I would not have expected any different. “You’ve seen the scars on my back. You know I’m no stranger to pain.”
His eyes darkened. “If I ever encounter the person or persons who inflicted those wounds on you, I will show them their own entrails before they die. I have no desire to be remembered in the same category as your past tormentors.”
I kept my mind carefully blank so Charles didn’t catch any stray memories or thoughts of Moses. “I offered you my throat, Charles. It’s not the same category at all.” I turned my head again. “Please just bite me and let’s get this over with. I have a life to save.”
He brushed hair back from my neck and leaned close, his lips cool against my skin. My pulse raced and I knew he could sense my blood rushing millimeters away from his fangs. I shivered.
“Sweet Alice,” he murmured, and bit me.
The pain of his fangs piercing my skin made my vision go white. I managed not to cry out but I couldn’t do anything about my flinch. He held me still so I didn’t jerk away and tear my own flesh.
The agony did not lessen; if anything, it increased. My chest heaved and my breathing became ragged, almost like sobs. I felt a strange pulling sensation in the midst of the pain and realized Charles was drinking.
The pain was so great that I almost told him I’d changed my mind about the pleasure, but I pictured Sean and that killed the impulse. If I could withstand hours of torture by a blood mage, I could hold up under a few minutes of pain from a vampire bite, or had I grown weak? The fear that I’d become cowardly was enough to banish all thoughts of asking him to ease the pain.
Charles made a sound low in his throat. I’d heard it once or twice before, a kind of sensual growl. I realized my body was responding in a very unexpected way to the pain of his bite. Whether my arousal was a result of his or vice-versa, no amount of imagining a cold shower had any effect on the growing heat between my legs.
At first, I thought he’d broken his word and given me pleasure, but there was nothing but pain. I’d always liked a little pain with my pleasure—sometimes more than a little—but this was the first time I’d become so aroused by pain alone. I’d experienced agony before and never had this reaction.
Unless it was Charles I was reacting to.
I banished the thought as quickly as it popped into my head. We were lying in bed and he was drinking my blood. It was by definition an intimate act and it had triggered an automatic response. There was nothing more to it than that.
Then why was my hand on his, where it rested on my hip?
I wanted to let go of him, but I couldn’t. My hand wouldn’t obey; instead, my fingers tightened around his and he made that low sound again. Dimly, I realized the pain had indeed diminished as endorphins kicked in and my arousal grew. I couldn’t stifle a moan. His hand squeezed my hip, though I had long since stopped struggling to get away.
I lost track of time as he drank, drifting in and out of awareness and caught between pain and pleasure. It was something of a surprise when his fangs slid out of my flesh. His cool tongue laved my neck, cleaning up the blood that trickled from the bite and healing the punctures. I realized then that I’d forgotten a second item while negotiating. Vampires often branded their cattle by leaving visible bite marks. Charles had healed the wound of his own accord.
I sensed my magic coursing through his body, blending with his own. He would be stronger for a time because of it. More importantly, my influence over him increased as well, and that would not fade away. It shifted the balance of power between us ever so slightly in my favor—another reason I’d been willing to make this trade.
Finally, he raised his head. His eyes were deep black. He looked fully sated, his skin slightly pink. He was also quite aroused, but so was I, so I couldn’t fault him for it. To his credit, he kept a little space between us and ignored the visible evidence of his excitement.
I wanted to get up and leave, but I couldn’t, not just yet. Not until I thought I could stand up without falling.
He took my warm hand in his cool one. “Your blood tasted slightly of whisky.”
“I wondered why you gave me a glass of that fifty-year single malt to seal our agreement. Now I understand.” My voice was stronger than I would have expected, all things considered.
We stared at each other. I wondered if he would mention my reaction to his bite.
Instead, he raised my hand to his lips and kissed it. “I would give you the world, if you would take it from me.”
“I don’t want the worl
d,” I said, pulling my hand out of his grip. “I’ve been offered that before and turned it down. It would never be worth the price I’d have to pay.”
“Perhaps the price is negotiable. You drive a hard bargain, as they say. I have no doubt you would come out the winner.”
“I highly doubt I would.” I pushed myself up until I was sitting. I had a moment of lightheadedness and then it passed.
Charles watched as I swung my legs over the side of the bed, picked up my boots, and put them on. When I started to stand, he rose and moved vamp-fast around to my side. “Slowly,” he cautioned me.
“It ain’t my first rodeo with blood loss,” I told him. I lowered my feet to the floor and carefully stood.
He cupped my face with his hand. “You should eat a meal and drink water. May I call for some food?”
“No, thank you. I have to be going.” I pushed his hand away. “Can I have the cuff, please?”
“It is on its way. I can have a light meal here in moments.”
“I really don’t have time. Sean’s dying, remember? I’m in a bit of a rush.”
“What will you do with the cuff once you have it?”
“Whatever I have to do to save Sean.”
He studied me. “Perhaps it would best not to disclose how you came into possession of the cuff. I am sure you can concoct a reasonable explanation for obtaining it that does not mention my name.”
“I’m sure I can.”
Someone knocked at the door. I suspected it was Bryan, and when the door opened, I found I was right.
He didn’t look surprised or relieved, so I assumed Charles had already told him that I was fine. He carried a wooden box with runes inscribed on all six sides.
Charles took the box and handed it to me. “The spellwork hides the contents from tracking spells until the box is opened. As such, you should not open the box until you reach your destination.”
At my raised eyebrow, he sighed. “I give you my word the cuff is in the box.”
“Good.” I picked up my messenger bag and put the box inside it. I touched my right earring, as if checking to make sure it was still there. At that prearranged signal, Malcolm jumped into the earring.
With my ghost safely stashed, I turned to Charles. “I’ll be in touch.”
“I have no doubt we will speak again soon.” He glanced at Bryan. “Please escort Alice to her car.”
“Yes, sir.” Bryan headed for the door. “Miss Alice, please follow me.”
I headed for the door. At the threshold, I paused and turned back. Charles was watching me, standing in his checkered socks next to the rumpled bed.
I didn’t thank him, nor did I tell him what a bastard he was for keeping the information about the cuff from me. He knew how I felt and that I wouldn’t forget or forgive what he’d done anytime soon. He didn’t tell me he didn’t think I’d put the cuff on, or that he wouldn’t forget my reaction to his bite. Everything we didn’t say hung in the air between us.
“Good night, Charles,” I said finally.
“Good night, Alice.”
I followed Bryan into the hall and closed the door behind me.
20
About ninety minutes later, scrubbed clean and wearing different clothes, I pulled up in front of another enormous gate and rolled down my window.
A black-clad Court enforcer approached my vehicle. “Ms. Worth, what brings you to Northbourne tonight?”
I recognized him. “Hello, Carlos. I’d like to see Valas.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
He knew very well I didn’t, or I’d have been expected. “No, I don’t, but I have with me the only way to save Sean Maclin’s life and if I don’t see her, he’ll die.”
He got a faraway look that told me he was speaking to someone telepathically. I waited.
The metal barricades in front of the gate retracted into the ground and the gate began to swing open. “Proceed directly to the main entrance,” he instructed me. “Someone will meet you there.”
I thanked him and passed through the gate. Northbourne’s driveway was nearly a quarter of a mile long. As I drove, my earring buzzed reassuringly, reminding me that I was not going into Northbourne alone.
I’d let Malcolm out when we got home. To his credit, he’d said nothing about what he’d seen and heard while Charles was drinking from me. Instead, he asked me if I was sure I was going through with my “crazy” plan to ask Valas for help. When I said yes, he told me in no uncertain terms that he was coming along. I surprised him by readily agreeing. If any part of my plan did go sideways, I might need his help just to survive.
While I showered, I’d sent Malcolm to do a quick check on Sean’s condition. He reported that Sean was weak but aware enough that when Malcolm got near him he raised his head slightly and appeared to hear the ghost when he spoke. Malcolm told the wolf that I was coming and that he needed to hang on. The wolf seemed to understand.
He’d also overheard Jack shouting at someone on the phone, a mage he’d hired to locate the other cuff. The hired mage wasn’t having any luck. According to Malcolm, Jack and Delia were discussing whether I had the cuff and had found some way of hiding it from anyone else. That was uncomfortably accurate. They were debating whether to come to my house looking for it when Malcolm jumped home to warn me that we’d better get moving.
Ahead loomed Northbourne, the headquarters of the Vampire Court of the Northwestern United States. The estate had once belonged to a shipping magnate. The Court had renovated it into a fortress that was part residence, part courthouse, part magic workshop, and part prison. Though Valas was the only member of the Court who resided there full time, the others had apartments where they stayed when they needed additional security or when their Court duties required them to be close at hand.
From what I understood, Valas had not left Northbourne in years. How many was a matter of conjecture, but the consensus was that she did not pass its gate except on the rarest of occasions.
I was hoping that tonight would be one of those occasions.
When I parked in front of the estate’s wide front steps, a Court enforcer I didn’t recognize opened my door. “Ms. Worth, this way, please.”
We entered Northbourne’s enormous main lobby, with its marble floor, soaring rotunda, and sweeping grand staircase. The enforcer led me to the right of the stairs and down a long hall lined with artwork. I’d never been down this corridor before.
“What’s your name?” I asked, scurrying to keep up with his long strides.
He looked straight ahead. “Hanson, like the band.”
“There’s a band called Hanson?”
A pause. “Never mind.”
“Okay. Where are we headed, Hanson?”
“You asked to see Valas. We are going to her audience chamber.”
Of course Valas had an audience chamber.
At the end of the hallway we encountered a pair of doors. Hanson paused outside, presumably asking permission to enter. After a moment, he turned the handles and swung them open.
The room was less ostentatious than I had imagined, but it still made Charles’s home office look like a broom closet by comparison. High above us, the chandelier glowed dimly, leaving the room in near darkness. Two large chairs sat in front of an enormous stone fireplace. Despite the warm night, a fire burned in the fireplace. A long and very heavy-looking conference table ringed with ornately carved chairs took up a good part of the other side of the room. The large open area in between must be for gatherings or ceremonies. The deep carpet seemed to swallow my boots.
I expected to be led to the conference table. Instead, Hanson directed me to sit in one of the chairs by the fire. I wondered at this choice of seating. The conference table signaled a business meeting; the chairs, a cozy fireside chat. I doubted my conversation with Valas would be anything close to cozy.
I perched on the edge of the chair. “Shouldn’t I stand and wait for Valas?”
Before Hanson could reply, a fami
liar voice answered from the shadows. “I do not think you care much for such proprieties.”
Hanson bowed in the direction of the voice. “Madame Valas, Ms. Worth.”
I rose as the tall, slim vampire seemed to appear out of the shadows themselves. Her long, straight black hair framed her hawklike face. Tonight, she wore a floor-length midnight-blue dress. Her slippered feet made no noise as she crossed the floor.
The one and only time I had met her before now was when I gave a progress report to the entire Court during my investigation into the West-Addison harnad. At that time, I’d been some twenty feet away, far enough that I hadn’t sensed her dark magic until she wished for me to do so—and then she almost crushed me with it, or tried to.
Tonight, as she sat in the chair across from me, her power felt like I was standing too near an open furnace. As she was perfectly capable of containing her magic behind her shields, I assumed she was reminding me, and none too subtly, of her power.
“Please sit,” Valas said graciously, indicating my chair.
It was a far cry from the last time, when she’d used her power to drop me into a chair like a marionette with its strings cut. She’d been trying to make a point then. Tonight, she’d agreed to see me without an appointment. I must have piqued her interest when we’d met before, or perhaps my reference to saving Sean’s life had been intriguing. Either way, I had my audience. Now I had to make it count.
Unlike Charles and Niara and every other vamp I’d ever encountered, the head of the Court had not one scent but many. She was ancient. Before I’d met her, I’d heard she was at least a thousand years old, but her power felt much older than that. Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern or eastern European. I had not been able to identify her accent, probably because the language she had spoken when alive no longer existed.
“You have come to me for help,” she said without preamble.
When I started to object, she raised her hand. “Ms. Worth, your situation is a desperate one. You have obtained the cuff that is the mate to the one currently draining the life from your lover, but his beta, Jack Hastings, has declared you persona non grata. You cannot reach him without risking great harm to yourself or members of his pack. All this is known to me. What I do not know is why you have come to me, or what you believe I can or will do to assist you. The Court, as you know, cannot interfere in a pack matter.”
