Leo could very well express concern over seeing her in an intimate clutch with Marcus. He was very outspoken and very protective of his cousin. In the past he had always passed harsh judgment on whomever she was seeing…more like an elder brother or father than a cousin. She knew he meant well. He was concerned for her well being as well as the well being of the vampire nation. Both were equally important to him. The only thing more important was perhaps his younger sister. Half sister. Leo did not make that distinction however. Simone’s cousin Arabelle was significantly younger than Leo, having been born to his mother a century after himself…and right before she had been murdered. Leo had raised Arabelle himself. She had been an infant when her mother had died so Leo was the only parent she had known. Leo had fed her every day, had carried her in his arms as he went about his business. Only his dangerous job had separated them. It was one of the reasons why he had gone into politics. He had wanted to make a difference without risking his safety and perhaps abandoning the child he considered a daughter if he should die in the line of his very dangerous duty. Leo had become prince when Arabelle had been a young child and had held the position in London ever since. He was, in fact, the longest reigning prince in the history of their people. As a result he was well known, well trusted and well and truly the only person on the planet perhaps more popular than she was. It was one of the reasons he would make a very good king when she stepped down. He was simply waiting for her to decide when exactly she would do that. He would never run against her. As long as she wanted to reign he was in her corner. She had always treasured his devotion.
But his devotion was a double-edged sword. Would he be the first to raise the hue and cry about her relationship with Marcus? Or would he remain silent out of loyalty to them both? It was hard to tell with Leo. Would he care for her by protecting her privacy or would he care for her by revealing the potential influence and the variable that Marcus was?
She would only know if she asked him. Asking him would show her cards. If he hadn’t seen them acting intimately with one another, she would be drawing his attention to things best left buried. She cast a dirty frown in Marcus’s direction, but he was too busy stepping forward and taking Leo’s hand in his. As he shook it he stepped in and hugged his friend in that brief, impactful, back slapping way men shared. That was when she realized there was far more between them than just former employer and employee. They were friends. Close friends. The best of friends if she was reading them right. They exchanged grins along with that hug and their handshake lasted a good long time.
“It’s good to see you my friend,” Leo said.
“You as well,” Marcus said.
“I’ve missed you. Can’t seem to find another ornery bastard quite like you to take your place,” he teased.
“There are plenty of my people ready for the job. I thought I recommended Gabriel?”
“And I did promote him. But as I said, it’s not the same. I shouldn’t have let you go,” he said fondly.
“Why did you then?” Simone asked curiously. She simply hadn’t realized the sacrifice both men had made in order for Marcus to come and serve her.
“Because I wanted you protected by the best. I wanted the best on the committee. It’s as simple as that,” Leo said.
“But to put yourself distant from a great friend,” she said a bit anxiously. They had engineered this together, she realized. She didn’t know how to feel about that. She felt slightly manipulated. Especially considering the development of the closeness of their relationship. Had that been engineered as well?
“It was worth the sacrifice. I knew you would be well suited to one another,” Leo said with a smile.
Simone felt that sickly sensation grow inside of her. All along she had thought their relationship to be a spontaneous one. Had she been played? Had Leo intended for Marcus to become her lover? Had Marcus been a party to such a plan?
“We are better suited than you can imagine,” Marcus said quickly as he turned a meaningful gaze onto her. His expression told her he knew what she was thinking and his eyes warned her away from the feelings. She accepted his intentions for now, putting her sense of betrayal at bay until she could talk to him in private. She would give him a chance to defend himself. She wouldn’t pass summary judgment against him. He had earned that much at the very least.
Leo and Marcus exchanged a few more words, but she tuned them out, instead looking around the room at everyone else. She was aware of a great many eyes on her and she was glad she had kept Marcus at bay in public. She didn’t want their relationship to be under a microscope. No more than she wanted it to be constructed out of some plan between Marcus and Leo. She had no taste for either event…and the possibility of both had dulled the shine of the evening for her.
She excused herself from them after a moment, moving away and into the crowd. But Marcus didn’t let her get two steps without falling into step beside her.
“You ought to spend time with Leo,” she said, a mixture of acid and generosity in her voice. “I’m sure you have much to tell him. You are such great friends after all.”
Marcus grabbed her by her elbow and by her waist and steered her back along the wall and into another dark corner.
“I knew it. I just knew you were going to jump to conclusions about Leo’s intentions and mine. I would be offended and tell you that you ought to know me better than that, and maybe you should, but I realize that a week is not long enough to develop that kind of trust and understanding of one another. Simone, I am not the sort of man who would take a woman as a lover as part of an agenda. I cannot speak to Leo’s intentions, it never occurred to me that he might be manipulating me as well as you, but for myself…I am innocent of that kind of trickery.”
She remained tense in spite of his reassurances, but it only took a moment of looking into his sincere face and eyes for her to tell he was imparting the truth. She did know him better than that. He was a man of integrity and honor. It was one of the things that had so attracted her to him. She couldn’t pretend otherwise just because of a few words exchanged that could be taken out of context.
“Of course,” she said softly, putting her hand on his arm and squeezing. “Of course you are. I shouldn’t have doubted you.”
“No. You shouldn’t have,” he said with a grim frown. “But I can understand why you would have. I have watched people try to manipulate you in one way or another all night. Why should Leo or I seem any different?”
“Because he is my beloved cousin and you are…trusted,” she said, steering herself away from showing all of her emotional cards to him. Now was not the time to exchange such intimacies. Those were better left to a time when she wasn't the center of attention. “Come. I ought to mingle. You’ve taken up a great deal of my time and I wouldn’t want people to get too nosy,” she said.
Again he frowned. She couldn’t imagine why.
It never once occurred to her that she might be hurting him.
Chapter Eighteen
Marcus’s thoughts and attention were brewing far too much over the idea that Simone didn’t want to be seen in public with him. It hurt, the way she dodged his every attempt to be warm, affectionate or any outright sexual intimacy. He stopped trying after her last snub. There was no sense in hurting his pride.
But why should it matter so much to him? He wondered at the intensity of the feeling. She had developed a certain power over him, he realized. She was compelling and drawing out parts of himself he had not examined in quite a long time. Possessiveness. Jealousy. Protectiveness. Obsessiveness. Devotion. He didn’t know how she managed to stimulate all of these feelings and more, and he wasn't certain if he liked it.
Oh, he liked her. He liked her very much. She was vital and alive, stunning and sensual. She had a sexuality that just wouldn’t quit. Even now, as she looked over her shoulder at him and let her eyes roam his body from head to toe, he knew what she was thinking and knew it had nothing to do with whatever conversation it was that she was h
aving. She wanted him. He made no mistake about that. But she apparently wanted him in her bed and in her employ and very little else.
He wasn't certain what else he wanted, but he wanted more. He wanted her to declare to others that she felt something for him. That he was there. That he meant more than just something to toy with and a source of orgasmic release. He felt used and he didn’t like it. Where was his self-respect? He had abandoned it…all for the sake of being near her. For feeling her warmth against him. For how alive she made him feel. More alive than he had felt in a very long time. He had not realized his life was missing vital things until she had woken him up to it.
Now that he was awake, he didn’t know what to do with his awareness. He didn’t know where to focus. He was drawn to her like a magnet. He was a compass and she was true north.
He was so obsessed with his thoughts that he almost missed seeing the vampires who were stalking her across the ballroom floor as she moved. He only noticed because as his eyes swept the crowd he saw them whispering to one another their eyes trained hard upon her. This shouldn’t have raised flags in a room where most people were paying attention to her, but it did. It felt off. Especially how they looked away when they realized he was watching them, and pretended as if the queen was not drawing their focus.
He excused himself from Simone’s immediate side and moved toward them. He had an ear bud and mike attached to his wrist and he activated it with a touch of his finger as he raised his wrist to his mouth and spoke clearly and quickly.
“Look sharp,” he warned the others on the other end of the mike. His entire team was wearing them. “Ronald, move in closer to the queen while I check these guys out.”
“Will do,” Ronald said in his ear.
Content to see Ronald moving toward the queen, seeing he would reach her in just a few more steps, he turned his attention to the couple he was approaching.
They were dressed as richly as every other human and vampire in the room. The male was in a tux and the female wore a short dress. Too short for such a cold night, he noted. Most of the women around her were in gowns. She stood out for more than her mode of dress, a style he noted would allow for ease of movement. She wasn't wearing heels. She was wearing a pair of flats. They were sparkling and unique, but they were flats just the same. Something else that allowed her ease of movement.
They saw him coming and immediately moved into the crowd of people on the dark dance floor. The male wasn’t particularly tall, so he lost sight of them quickly. Cursing under his breath, he quickened his pace and searched for them relentlessly. He warned the guards at the exits to be aware of them, gave them descriptions of the female as she stood out above everyone else. He then described the male, realizing that they might have split up. He cursed himself again for not thinking of it immediately. His responses were slow and dim, he thought irritably. He was letting too many other things crowd his mind. He glanced over his shoulder at Simone and saw Ronald standing beside her looking attentive. He barely knew the man, didn’t know how far he could trust him, didn’t know how capable he was. He was torn between trying to find the couple himself and staying close to his charge. He realized he was letting himself be drawn away. Not liking the feeling he turned back toward Simone and let the search for the suspicious couple continue on in the hands of others.
He had almost made it back to Simone’s side when he saw the female reappear. She had circled back around and was closing in on Simone faster than he was. She was going to reach her first.
“Ronald! To your left!” he exclaimed into the mike.
Ronald turned just in time to get a knife in his gut. The female vampire butchered Ronald quickly and harshly. It would not kill him of course, but it would certainly incapacitate him. Ronald fell to his knees and then hard on his face. No one in the room seemed to notice at first, then as Ronald began to bleed profusely, causing a puddle in which a woman slipped and fell. She fell on top of Ronald and seeing herself covered in blood she began to scream.
But before that could happen, the woman turned to Simone, knife blade flashing. She said something but Marcus was too far away to make it out. Then she lunged for Simone with her knife. Simone, encumbered by heels and a long gown, barely jumped back in time. Actually she wasn't in time. The woman’s follow through caught Simone’s forearm and open up a wide gash there.
By now the woman on the floor was screaming, the din of it combining with music and drawing attention. Marcus moved swiftly. He reached the battling women. Stepping over the woman on the floor and Ronald in a single bound, he plowed into the attacking creature and brought her down to the floor. All the while he kept his eyes roaming the crowd forming around them. The male half of the couple was still at large. As he pinned the female and disarmed her he knew the danger wasn't over. He flipped the battling creature over as he straddled her flailing body. He bent back her arm against her back and she cried out in pain.
“Settle down,” he warned her on a snarl. “I’m not above puncturing your spine right where we are,” he said.
“Our time is now!” the woman exclaimed savagely. “You can’t stop us. The world will know who we are and will bow down to us!”
“Someone call 911!” he heard someone cry out.
The music stopped as the crowd grew to full thickness in a circle around him. Two of Marcus’s men pushed through the crowd and took charge of the woman. Marcus was on his feet instantly and rushing to Simone’s side. She was surrounded by a sea of concerned people, a danger and a risk all on its own. The situation was rapidly spiraling out of control. If the human authorities got there before Marcus and his men could clean up this mess, there would be questions and plenty of them. He had no idea what the deranged woman was going to say.
Marcus reached Simone. Someone had handed her a while linen napkin to cover the profusely bleeding cut on her arm. It was already soaked through with her blood. Blood was energy. It carried the energy a vampire needed to stay alive and active. Like a human if they lost too much of it…torpor was quickly behind it.
“Simone,” he said softly as he wrapped an arm around her back and gently cradled her arm where she was holding pressure.
“I’m all right. Handle the situation. Don’t worry about me.”
“I am handling the situation. I’m getting you out of here before any well meaning emergency services can arrive. I can’t protect you in the emergency room of a human hospital.” This last he said in a whisper against her ear. She nodded and allowed him to draw her away through the crowd. More of his men came up from the sides, holding back the crowd and making way for them. Marcus called one to him with a jerk of his head.
“Handle Ronald. Get him out of here.”
If a human medical service got hold of Ronald and saw how quickly he could heal himself, it would reveal things about the vampires best left unseen. He had a feeling that was exactly the kind of chaos the attacking woman was looking for. Something that would expose them all.
The guard immediately withdrew his phone and called for the vampire ambulance kept at vampire central. The clinic there would be able to see to all of Ronald’s needs. The question was, which service would reach him first? Human or vampire? Luckily vampire central was very close by. Merely blocks away. The odds were in their favor.
He couldn’t afford to wait around and see what happened. He had other more pressing concerns. Like the crowd of concerned people following them out of the ballroom.
“Please!” he said loudly. “Let me care for her. I’ll bring her down to wait for the ambulance,” he told them. They backed off as he made his way to the elevator. However, the mayor of the city came up to him and interfered.
“Let my security detail come with you. Just in case there is a further threat.”
“We have our own men as you can see,” Marcus said, nodding to the four men protecting them from the mayor coming too close. The mayor and everybody else. No one was getting past them.
The mayor insisted, used to getting hi
s way, but Marcus refused him more sharply and that was the end of it. Marcus and his four protectors stepped onto the elevator.
Marcus pressed the button for the fourteenth floor.
As a matter of preparation, a room had been purchased from the hotel for the night. The name was Marcus’s and he had the key. It had been handed off to him earlier. They always kept a room on site just in case it was needed. It was purely a cautionary thing. It usually remained empty for the night having never been used.
The floor was a discreet floor, the room an ordinary room rather that some kind of expensive top floor suite. The object was to not draw attention to themselves.
They wouldn’t be staying there. They would simply hide there until the vampire ambulance could make it to them. The cameras in the elevator and in the hotel corridors would tell anyone who watched them exactly where they went, but luckily no one would come looking for them so soon that they wouldn’t make it to vampire central first. Simone would be treated there; would be safely locked away there. Let the human cops come and interview her there…as they were going to do. He had been aware of Renee Holden, the human detective, taking charge of the scene as they left. She would understand the delicate nature of this event and the risk to vampire secrecy that was involved. She would manage the scene to the best of her ability without exposing them or her involvement with them.
The biggest danger was Ronald. The vampire ambulance must reach him first. It wouldn’t be so bad if the humans reached him and treated him first, but he would heal at a phenomenal rate, no doubt being completely healed, without scarring, by the end of the day tomorrow. Getting Ronald out of the hospital before that happened and aroused suspicion would be a difficult trick. Not impossible, but difficult.
They would simply have to see what happened. They would worry about it when the time came to worry about it. Right then he was more concerned with Simone who was still bleeding profusely from the gash in her arm.
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