by Claudy Conn
He walked with easy grace, and yet his movements pulsed with power. He gave me a smirk and sat on a huge black leather sofa.
Absurdly, I stood. I wasn’t sure just how to behave. Why had he brought me to his home? He wasn’t making any sexual moves, so…that couldn’t be the reason. What the hell should I do?
“Sit,” he said softly. “Be comfortable.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. My heels were killing me. “Not happening,” I answered.
“What is not happening?” he asked calmly, his eyes narrowed and a slight sneer hovering over his sensual lips.
“Sitting or anything you want me to do. You brought me here against my will. I don’t take orders, not even from the Dark Lord, himself. Like I said. Want to zap me dead. Go ahead. I don’t care.”
“Orders? I haven’t given you any orders. First, I don’t remember you saying you wouldn’t come here with me. And asking you to sit and be comfortable is not an order but a polite invitation,” he said and his eyes glittered.
I couldn’t believe he just said that to me. What the hell? Oh no, he wasn’t turning this on me. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t come here with you because you didn’t give me the chance. You didn’t ask me. Plain and simple. As to sitting…I don’t want to.”
“If I had asked, you wouldn’t have come with me—even if I had asked politely, and I really—”
“Well now, we’ll never know,” I interrupted sharply, “If I would have agreed to visit with you here if you had asked politely…if you had told me why you wanted me here, if…”
He put up his hands, “I get it, but now that you are here, do sit and I will tell you why I brought you here,” his voice was still low, disarming and his smile charming enough to seduce a girl with more experience than I. However, I am stubborn.
I paced as I tried to think clearly. Everything about him drew me to him. It was ludicrous, but, it was a fact. I was totally aware of my attraction to him.
He patted the place next to him and said, “Smokie…I mean you no harm. Sit, we’ll talk.”
I stood still for a moment, glared at him and tapped my high-heeled aching foot.
“Right, you can stand if it makes you feel better,” he said resignedly. “I’ll do the talking. As it happens, you have made an enemy, Smokie McGuire. We both know why, but what you don’t know, is that enemy is at your little place in Metairie right this moment, waiting to surprise you.”
I froze. The thought of anyone in my home, my place of sanctuary was horrifying. “How do you know that?”
When you so hastily left the club, I saw him leave as well. Yes, he was there. He didn’t follow you because he already knew where you live. He went there ahead of you to wait your return.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw it on his face and when I followed you, I picked up on his scent. I know the direction he took…ahead of you.”
Now, I was interested, but I as I said, I have an obstinate streak. So I continued to stand, and yeah, I felt like a fool as I went from tapping my foot back to pacing the room. As I turned back and marched toward him, I got a whiff of his scent again. Tantalizing. The lure Wilder had over me was strong, like a magnet pulling me against my will into his aura. I had to fight it. I had heard all the rumors. This guy was class A badass I didn’t want to get too close to—oh no. Besides, did I believe him? How would the child-killer vamp I had stopped know where I live? I was a loner. I moved during daylight hours when 99% of all vamps were resting in the dark. What to do? I knew in my heart he was telling the truth. I knew that a child-killing vamp was the worst of the bloodsuckers and therefore would want revenge against me for my successful attack against him.
However, I wasn’t ready to give in, so I said, “I can’t imagine any vamp being interested in me in any possible way. I don’t mingle with vamps…at all. And if you are speaking about the vamp I stopped from killing the child…he must know that I am under a born vamp’s protection.”
He watched me silently for a moment. “I thought you smarter than that. Your rabid vamp is just that, rabid. He isn’t subject to logic.”
I chewed my bottom lip. He stared at me as though I was as mad as the rabid vamp he was talking about. No doubt he thought my obstinacy was idiotic.
I put up my chin and said, “Staring is rude.”
He chuckled.
That annoyed me. I am normally even-tempered, but he was an arrogant dick! I was seeing red everywhere even though his place was furnished in black, white and silver. Very masculine, not at all inviting.
“You think that is funny?” I didn’t give him a chance to respond. “Did I say you were out of line? Well, that isn’t just what you are!” I threw at him. “You are also egotistical. You think because you have all that Dark power you can do whatever you want to whoever. Well, you can’t. I want out of here, so I am leaving. Don’t follow me,” I snapped at him and started for the stairs across the room.
I didn’t even see him get up. He was faster than I could imagine and I had already witnessed his speed. This was faster, like in a blink of my eyes. Boom, I was wrapped in his arms so tightly that it was hard to breathe. I didn’t budge as he bent and whispered in my ear, “Don’t be so prickly sweetheart. I am trying to help you.”
I pushed hard against him and nearly fell backwards as he released me. “Why?” I shouted at him. “If I believe you when you say you want to help. Tell me why.”
“Not yet. We need to establish…an understanding,” he said.
“Oh, here it comes. Quid quo pro. I obviously can’t match you in dollars…so it isn’t money. I have no powers you can use, newbie vamp here…” I poked his chest, “Big Bad there. So what then, want a toss in bed? Not happening.” The notion of him tossing me into his bed, and making wild feral love with me, made me lick my lips. What the frig was wrong with me?
He smirked. “Like the money and the power I don’t need from you…don’t need that from you either.”
Conflicting reactions shot through me. It was insulting. When I turn someone down, I want them disappointed.
“So then, what do you want?” I pursued and I could feel the sulkiness that I heard in my voice.
“For now, I want to know a little more about you. That is where the quid quo pro comes in. You answer a few questions for me and then I’ll answer some for you.”
“No. I’m not cooperating with you. I don’t do cooperation under duress. If that means you are going to zap me dead, then go ahead.”
“I have no intention of er…zapping you dead. This world needs you. It may be that I will need you, but not in the manner you might imagine. Sit, please and I will explain, because you and I are part of a larger picture.”
What the hell did that mean? He had caught my interest, but there was that stubborn streak of mine again. “No.”
“Ah Smoke, let me tell you about the very first time I saw you. You were human then, and I was…taken,” he said wistfully and paused.
I waited because absurdly I wanted to hear more about me being human.
“You were walking out of class,” he continued. “I supposed, in the direction of your…apartment and everything about you was like a bright sun…too bright to even look directly at without blinking. I did though. In fact, I stared at you because something about you, your soul…was fresh and new. You were a breath of fresh air.” He looked away and paused again. I said nothing as I waited for him to proceed.
Finally he said, “You didn’t see me and I hung out of sight just so I could watch you. I saw at once that your smile came from your heart, and I drank it in as you laughed with your friends. You drew them to you. In that moment I wanted to get to know you, and wondered if I could without corrupting you,” he said softly with a look in his bright blues that made me tremble.
His scent came in waves and hauled me against my will into the realm of fantasy. I don’t want a fantasy. I am a practical kind of woman. My libido had to be contained. Since when did I ever want to fuck a stranger? That
just wasn’t me. Everything he had just said, confused me. He liked me as a human. Did that mean he didn’t like me now? And why should that matter to me? Did it, did it matter? Where was all of this going?
I sat down beside him on his sofa and ridiculously my first thought was, a girl could get mind-blowing sex on this sofa. He could give mind-blowing sex. What? Libido was taking control again.
I cleared my throat. “You saw me when I was human? But…the last time I was human was about two years ago,” I said frowning at him. “You actually noticed me at Tulane?”
“Why does that surprise you? I was at there on business. I am a major contributor, honorary alumni, if you will. I walked out of the building and there you were with your friends. You had all graduated and you were saying good-bye. Of course, I noticed you. Smokie, have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror? You are ravishing, but that isn’t what made me look twice.”
I said nothing to this. Beauty isn’t an achievement and I have never placed much importance on it. I am one of those who is corny to a fault and attracted to the beauty inside of a person.
“It was your glow,” he said quietly, “Even now, as a vampire, you have one you know, all golden, and then there was your scent. Then, like now, it was a strong aroma of vanilla and rosemary—a powerful supernatural’s scent, and yet, you were human.”
I felt my brows arch. “Sharon says my family on my mother’s side were witches. It skipped my mom, or she ignored that part of herself, but I…sometimes feel as though…” I waved the thought away. “It doesn’t matter. I doubt that my witchy side will emerge now that I am a vampire.”
“I disagree. Your grandmother was a mortal but powerful witch of the light. I believe you are now a hybrid and when you approach the time for your witch to emerge, it will.” He eyed me but I was busy thinking about this and didn’t respond.
He moved on and said, “I asked Sharon about you then. She told me to stay away from you. She said you were not a witch, not a supernatural, that you were just a sweet young woman, nothing more.” He inclined his head. “I knew that she knew otherwise and merely meant to protect you from me.” He gave me a rueful look, “I have a bad reputation, but the truth is, I never seduce women and I never lie to them. I make them no false promises.” He waved this away with a grimace, “At any rate, for a time, I stayed away from you.”
“I…had no idea. Sharon never told me a word,” I said as much to myself as to him.
“And then I heard you were turned by Sharon. She has never turned a human. I was saddened by the news. I continued to stay away from you, however, the next thing I knew…I picked up on your scent a week ago. It was intense…so intense. I saw a blur of color—you. I was a witness to you moving at vampire speed and you were chasing a rabid vamp who had just abducted a human child…a young boy.”
I tensed.
He eyed me and continued. “I followed your blur of color. I saw you break the vamp’s neck which stopped him but did not kill him. I thought you should have killed him. He was pure evil. But you didn’t kill. I realized you had retained your humanity through the turning. You are not a killer. I was stunned as I watched you take him temporarily out of commission and then compel the crying child to forget the experience. I watched as you returned him to his mother who had been searching frantically for him a few blocks away.”
“Yeah, so?” I said. I had to hold myself aloof from the Dark Lord. I was mystified by his interest in me.
“I am…enthralled with who you are and who you could be.”
I shrugged, “I’m happy with who I am.”
“Let me approach this differently,” he said on a soft sigh. “Tell me, because I am curious about your name, why are you named Smokie? Also, I want you to tell me about your parents. I need to know the details of your turning—how the lovely human became a vampire? Were you a willing participant or had Sharon forced this life on you?”
I looked away from him, “What difference does it all make. Why should it matter to you?”
“It matters, so tell me. This is where we get to know one another for the mission we are meant to complete. You tell me something I want to know and I will reciprocate.”
“Wait, what? Mission? What mission?” I was flabbergasted.
“Later. First answer me. Were you a willing participant?”
“Why should I tell you anything? I don’t know you.”
“As I said, this is where we get to know one another. You answer my question, I will answer yours.”
“I don’t want to know anything about you,” I can be snarky when annoyed.
He grinned and suddenly I was in his arms, and his lips crushed mine, parted them and his tongue, oh hot damn, his tongue found and teased mine into a response. My body was on fire. My mind was a mass of goo.
He was delicious and his kiss, his tongue, made erotic love to me in a tango of passion I never wanted to end. Hell yeah, I was kissing him back. I even had the urge to sink my canines into his neck.
That actually was what splashed cold water all over my brain.
Never drink from a live source.
I wanted to stop. I thought that I could. Hand up, I told myself. Push him away.
Can’t stop. His first kiss turned into another and then another.
I should stop. I had to stop, but, I couldn’t, and I didn’t want to. I was invested in those kisses, even against my better judgment…I wanted kissing, more of him, oh so much more.
I pressed into him for that more and holy hell, he blew my mind as his hand grabbed my ass and brought me against his crotch and I felt his arousal.
That was when something finally clicked in my brain and told me I was getting in too deep. Time to run. He was the Dark Lord. Danger signals began bleeping in my brain.
I have had sex just for fun only once in my life. No regrets, but it changed me, and I didn’t like the way I felt afterwards. It turned out that I didn’t really want sex just for fun. I discovered that I was a relationship kind of woman. Never found anyone I wanted a commitment from after that and then I became a vampire. Everything became complicated and so here I am, sex starved, though until he kissed me, I hadn’t felt I was missing anything.
I pulled out of his arms. I had to save face, because, well, we both knew I had been kissing him back and obviously liking those kisses. “You caught me by surprise…and you are a damn good kisser, but don’t get any ideas,” I told him.
“Too late,” he said and his voice was husky, dreamy husky. “The ideas…got ‘im.”
I almost laughed. I hadn’t expected him to sound and look…cute. Cute was a word that was difficult to associate with ‘the Dark Lord’. “Look,” I said, “I don’t need to ask you any questions. Every instinct tells me you are a taker. The problem with that is, I am a giver! Not liking my odds in that equation.” I clucked, “Tch, tch, no…not liking that scenario, so don’t do the kissing thing again.”
He smiled wickedly and said, “Not promising anything, but for now…I agree, no more kissing. Talking instead, so if you would, please, answer my questions.”
“Not inclined to answer your questions.”
He sighed, “You would do well to remember that I could actually in a fit of temper, zap you dead, if I so wished. I have generally found vampires in general, despicable creatures.”
I eyed him, “Oh? Sure didn’t just get that impression.”
He chuckled, “Granted, you are the exception. You know, don’t you that I have the ability to you to tell me what I want to know.”
“No, you don’t,” I said confidently.
“Don’t I?” he stared into my eyes/
I knew he was working his compulsion magic, but Sharon had taught me how to resist being compelled. I was a quick study.
He said, “Tell me your name.”
“No,” I said. “You already know it. And I can’t be compelled.”
He sighed, “Sharon, of course.”
I just smiled.
“You know, I hav
e far more effective ways of compelling—inducing you that you can’t impede with Sharon’s training. As those methods could leave you with memory confusion, I don’t ever wish to utilize any of those methods. So, as I would rather you converse with me willingly, please Smoke…let’s just talk,” he said softly. “Be rational. You must realize by now that I have very good reasons for my questions. Have you no curiosity about me—about why I want answers from you? Don’t you want to know why I have these questions? I believe it would behoove you to do so.”
“Behoove?” I snorted. “Who says behoove? Just how old are you?”
He laughed out loud and oh my, he probably is ancient but he looked, right then, like a boy—a gorgeous hunk of a man-boy, with a charming, mesmerizing smile. There was that cuteness again getting in my way.
I didn’t want to answer his questions. However, the problem here is the fact that not only was I curious by nature, I was damned curious about him. I eyed him for a long moment before I agreed, “Okay, if sitting and chatting for a few moments will get you to let me leave. Go ahead, chat, tell me why I am here and then I’ll answer your question.”
“Smokie McGuire, you are, as I suspected, quite a unique, if a somewhat annoying woman. First, shall we have tea?”
Tea appeared on his huge black enamel coffee table.
That got my eyebrows up. I looked at him and teased, “Can you whip up cake as well?”
As an answer, he did just that.
“Ha! I was only joking, but wow, they look delicious, are they safe to eat?” I am curious yes, but also suspicious.
He smiled, “And why wouldn’t they be?”
“Well…didn’t you just magically bake them or something?”
“No, I magically swiped them from the bakery down the street,” he said.
“Oh no, you stole them! Some poor hard working baker will be out his profits. That isn’t right!”
