by Melody Raven
After all of these years of searching, she’d finally found a vampire. A vampire who knew Aleksander. Finding out what happened to Evie was no longer a distant dream, but a distinct possibility.
So here she was, walking side by side with a monster. A thought suddenly occurred to her. “My gun,” she said out loud.
“What about it?” he asked.
“I dropped it. We can’t leave it on the street. Who knows what type of criminal might find it?”
Nicolas opened up his coat and showed her the butt of her gun sticking out of the top of his jeans. She frowned. Not only had he easily caught up with her running at full speed, but he’d managed to retrieve the gun as well.
She looked up to stare at his features. Not beautiful, but still handsome. It wasn’t just his face, but the way he carried his tall frame. He walked as if he were royalty who owned the ground he walked on. If you added that to the superpowers, it added up to a very intimidating package.
“You are very scary,” she said out loud, in a voice that held a bit more awe than she wanted.
Apparently he picked up on that. “Are you jealous?”
Anna shrugged at the question, trying to act nonchalant. What she would give to have people move out of her way at the very sight of her. Instead, she had to push her way through crowds and live in fear of a supposedly dead man and evil black eyes.
Instead of revealing all that, she said, “Who wouldn’t want a little intimidation factor?”
“You don’t think you’re intimidating?”
Anna almost laughed at the idea of her appearing daunting to anyone. “No. Intimidating is not a word that could be used to describe me.”
He didn’t reply to that. They walked in silence for a couple of minutes. Soon they turned onto his street.
She felt a bit of apprehension as they got closer and closer to his building. Even though they had managed to go a whole ten minutes without her believing he was about to kill her, she was a long ways from that trust they’d recently joked about.
They stepped up to the door and he reached into his coat pocket for the keys. “I don’t think this is such a good idea,” she said.
He laid a gentle hand on her back and led her into the entryway after he’d gotten the door open. “We have a lot to talk about. I would like to get this over with.”
Anna gave a lingering glance to the exit. She sighed and headed up the stairs.
Nicolas could hardly believe the sight of this woman in his home. She looked nervous, and as if at the first sign of danger, she would run and jump out the nearest window.
Her scent filled his head, an intoxicating and addictive aroma. He was desperate for a taste. Of blood or sex, he really didn’t care. He just needed more.
He tried to act as casual as possible. He had a feeling if she knew what he was thinking, she would grab the sharpest item around and aim straight for his heart.
When he first sensed her following him, he’d been desperate to turn around to see her, but had forced himself to look straight ahead and give no indication she’d been found out. When he finally got a look at her on the crowded dance floor, he didn’t believe his eyes.
She’d obviously stood out from the crowd, but even from across the room he could recognize her scent.
Her eyes were large blue saucers in her head. They were behind glasses that did nothing to hide them. She had delicate facial features, but a good sturdy body honed with exercise. The small black top she’d revealed in the heat of the club showed off ample cleavage to anyone as tall as he was.
Her pants were baggy, but he could tell she had pleasing curves there as well. He’d been imagining her naked and in his bed ever since that moment.
However, with her fear of him, he wasn’t certain that even his sizable charm could convince her to trust him long enough to get her legs open.
He had to stop the direction his cock was taking him. There were much more important things to be thinking about. He needed to know why she was here and how she found out about him.
He walked over to his couch and moved some books off the seats to offer her room to sit. He took off his coat and hung it over one of the arms of the couch.
She broke the silence first. “Do you know anyone who goes by the name Mr. X?”
He furrowed his brow at the strange name. “No. Who is he to you?”
She sat down on the section of couch he’d cleared off for her and her arms went around herself as if she were cold. “He’s the one who told me about you.”
It took him a few seconds too long to respond. Her arms pushed her breasts together in a way that was all too visible from his standing position. He snapped back to reality and realized what she said.
“What did this man look like?” he asked.
“He only contacted me by phone. He called me yesterday when I was jogging by here. He said a vampire named Nicolas lived here and that you usually leave around eleven.”
That was disturbing. Not that the location of his home was a secret, but why would anyone out him to a human?
“Why would this man contact you?”
She looked up at him with a guilty expression. She let out a small laugh. “You’re going to think it’s really stupid.”
“I’m sure it’s no more stupid than following a vampire in the middle of the night.”
She smiled at his remark, but he could tell it also reminded her of the danger she was still in. She shot a not so subtle glance to the door. “I saw a vampire when I was younger. The experience left a distinct impression on me.”
He raised a brow at that new piece of information about her. He wanted to launch out with a whole list of questions, but figured it would be best if she finished her explanation first.
“A couple of years ago, I found some like-minded people on the Internet.”
“Like-minded?”
She chewed her lower lip. He immediately wanted to replace her teeth with his own.
“They also believed in the unbelievable. Vampires in particular.” She gave a pointed look to him.
“You’re in a group of people who searches out vampires?” The guilty look returned to her face. “What exactly were you planning on doing when you found one?”
“Well, as you know, I hadn’t planned that very well.”
He snorted at the understatement. “Where were these friends of yours tonight?”
“We have a lot of rules. One of them is that we can’t share our motives for searching for vampires.”
He sat down on the other end of the couch. He wanted to take the seat right next to her, but he also wanted to keep her talking, so he gave her space.
She continued, “I wasn’t lying when I said I never intended on hurting you, but I can’t guarantee any of the other members aren’t there for the purpose of killing your kind.” She looked at him, as if trying to gauge his reaction. His face gave nothing away.
“I need you to answer my questions. I couldn’t risk that one of them would try to kill you first.”
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. If he were nicer, he would offer her a blanket. However, he wasn’t a nice man, and he enjoyed looking at her bare skin.
“You need me to answer your questions about Aleksander?”
She nodded.
“Would you like to explain how it is you even have questions about him?”
She looked away from him and took a breath. “I saw him kill a man when I was younger.”
Well, she’d managed to impress him. “You saw that and you’re still alive? I’m shocked.”
“No more than me, I assure you. After seeing how fast you move, I’m sure he could’ve gotten to me, but that’s not the strangest part of that night.” His expression begged her to continue. “After that attack, there were a couple of disappearances. The man he killed had a daughter who was never seen again.” She paused and took a breath.
“Who else went missing?”
“My father.”
He absorbed that info
rmation. Tried to imagine a human witnessing a murder and losing her father at the same time. It couldn’t have been easy.
“What did your father have to do with anything that night?” he asked.
“Besides me, he had nothing to do with the attack.”
“Do you think he was sending a warning to you?” It didn’t sound like the Aleksander he remembered, but it had been a long time since they last met. Maybe he’d changed.
She shrugged. “I have no idea. That’s the whole problem. I just—I don’t know. It is why I need to find this Aleksander. He’s the only one who knows what really happened.”
“We are not friends, Aleksander and I. I cannot just call him up and arrange a meeting.”
Her face fell a bit. “Can you point me in the right direction? Maybe if I go and ask, he will help me.”
“You need to answer me something honestly. Do you intend to kill him?”
Their eyes met. His dark browns stared into her deep blues. “I—” She took a swallow. “I don’t know.”
“If he tells you he did kill your father, would you try to end him?”
She immediately broke off eye contact. He had a feeling there was much more to that disappearance than she was telling him.
She tentatively said, “I have a feeling that whether I want to kill him or not, I wouldn’t be able to anyway. So I’d like to assume that I wouldn’t.”
“Well, let me tell you something about me. The next time I see Aleksander, I’m going to kill him.”
His eyes were dark and completely serious. Anna shivered at the intensity of his words.
She’d never actually considered what she would do when she found her monster. Part of her believed she would never find him. The other part hoped he’d run away with Evie, and she would find them living happily together.
She knew that wasn’t the case. Evie promised that if she went, Anna would be going with her. Even if her plans had changed, Evie would have said good-bye. She wouldn’t have just abandoned her.
So would she kill Aleksander when he confirmed he’d killed her best friend?
Yes. She would. Anyone who could take someone so full of life from this world was a monster in the truest sense of the word. The vision of those black eyes came back to her. Instead of scaring her, it brought her back to reality.
“Why would his eyes be black?” she asked.
Nicolas seemed confused at her question that had nothing to do with his previous foreboding statement. “Why?”
She shrugged. “When I saw him killing that man, his eyes were black. I was wondering what that meant.”
“Our eyes will take on darker colors when we are very passionate about something. Feeding is a very passionate activity.” He paused. “So is sex.”
She immediately looked away, but a blush crept up her cheeks. “How could sex and murder have the same effect on you?”
He shifted his body so he leaned in closer to her. She leaned back to move away, but he laid his big hand on top of her wrist that rested atop her leg. His hand didn’t grab or forcefully keep her from moving away, but its presence there, his warmth seeping in through her skin, stopped her just as surely as him grabbing her.
He leaned his face closer to hers. “There is a reason the French nicknamed the orgasm ‘la petite mort’—the little death.”
She couldn’t meet his eyes. She focused on his chest. It was wide, and his shirt was stretched tight over what were sure to be beautiful, sculpted muscles.
She jumped off the couch at the realization she was imagining him shirtless. She closed her eyes for a second to clear her head. “What do you think you’re doing?”
When she opened them, he’d risen and stood in front of her. She took an instinctive step back.
“I—”
“No.” She held up her hands to keep him from coming any closer. “You almost killed me earlier tonight. I almost shot you! I’m not doing,” she waved her hand between them to emphasize her point, “this with you.”
“What is the ‘this’ you speak of?” he asked with an all too knowing smirk.
She narrowed her eyes at his pretend innocence. “I don’t take well to men pushing me around. I understand the earlier liberties you took were because of the invasion of your privacy, but if I’m going to stay here any longer, you can’t treat me like I’m your next snack.”
Silence hung in the air after her declaration. After a minute of contemplation, he asked, “Will you help me kill Aleksander?”
She was very aware of the fact he’d not addressed the boundaries she’d tried to establish. “Why do you want him dead?”
He smiled at her. “You have no idea how lucky you are that you came to me with your little quest.”
She bristled at the fact that he described her quest as being little, but she let him continue.
“Aleksander is a king. He is our king. He took that position with force about sixty years ago. He stole the throne by killing my king. That’s why he needs to die.”
Anna absorbed the fact that vampires had kings. “Who was your king?”
“The king I served was Kirill. I was his best general. Aleksander didn’t even do me the honor of killing me when he took over.”
Anna was surprised by the intensity in his tone, the pride in his voice as he mentioned his old position. “You’re upset because Aleksander didn’t kill you?”
“Oh, not for lack of trying. For decades they tried to kill me, while I had to survive in mountains and caves. Aleksander lived in Kirill’s home, with his stolen money and power, and I was banished into the wilderness. “Eventually he forgot about me. He knows I exist, but considers me a small enough threat he doesn’t even try.”
“So he just moved in and kicked you out?” she asked.
“If anyone helped me, it would be considered treason. Those who remained loyal to Kirill didn’t meet easy deaths. They were slow and painful. For that reason, my own people were so afraid of Aleksander that they wouldn’t think twice about turning me in. I had no money, no home, and no one to go to for help.”
“If you were that dangerous, how could he forget about you?”
“He never forgot about me, but he thinks that if I ever come after him, he will kill me before I ever get close.”
“But with my help, you’ll be able to get to him?”
He gave her a confident look. “I know I can get to him with your help. I’ve always known how to kill him. I’ve just never found anyone stupid enough to help me until I met you.”
She smiled sarcastically at him. “You have such a way with words.”
“In all honesty, this will be very dangerous. But you will get the answer to all of your questions.” Her uncertainty must’ve been evident, as he continued, “You’ll be safer with me than you would be with anyone else.”
She was skeptical about that. In his presence, she’d felt more fear than any other time in the past fifteen years. Anna couldn’t agree to go with him to kill this Aleksander. She wasn’t certain she could actually kill anything. The idea of it turned her stomach. “Can I think about it?”
He stepped closer, invading her personal space. “How much time would you like?”
She put a hand to her now throbbing head. “I don’t know. A day?”
“I can allow a day.”
She held back a laugh at the idea that he was “allowing” her time.
She crossed to the door and pulled it open, but turned back and took one long look at Nicolas. He looked so beautiful, standing there alone. So dangerous at the same time. The combination was frightening. It made her want to run to him and as far away as possible at the same time.
She took in his long legs, strong torso, the cords that stuck out in his neck, thick black hair, and finally the dark eyes that always drew her gaze.
She shook her head, turned and walked out the door, but something stopped it from shutting all the way. He’d put his hand on the door and held it open.
“One more thing.” Once again,
he stood too close.
“What’s up?” she asked, wishing she’d made a clean getaway.
“You never told me your name.”
“You never asked,” she shot back, remembering their awkward introduction.
He shot her a smile that she was sure had appeased his king many times in the past. “May I have the honor of knowing your name?”
“You don’t have to joke about it,” she said at his playful tone, almost wishing that knowing her name would honor him. “I’m Annabelle Roberts.”
Quick as lightning, he grasped one of her hands and lifted it to his mouth. His breath brushed over her knuckles. “My name is Nicolas Zolkin.”
He brought his lips to her knuckles and laid a gentle kiss on them. Anna felt like an electric current connected that small spot on her hands to more private parts that had not felt much of anything lately.
As his mouth started to lift, she felt the soft caress of his tongue. She jerked her hand away and almost ran out down the stairs. She was exceedingly proud of the fact that she never once turned back to see his reaction.
Nicolas was surprised to see how close Annabelle lived to him. He stood in the shadows as he watched her enter her building.
He was half tempted to bang the door open and take her up against the nearest wall. It was obvious enough he scared her, but he could tell there was more than fear when she looked at him. That hint of desire was a definite advantage.
He couldn’t scare her away yet. There were still too many questions. He said he would give her time to think, but one way or another she would help him get his vengeance. It would be easier on her if she offered herself out of her own free will, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’d taken the hard route.
He felt foolish for not offering her something more to wear on her way home. By the time she’d finished the two-mile walk to her apartment, she was shivering. He shook off the feelings of guilt. He’d not lied to her earlier when he said she would be safer with him than with anyone else on her mission to question Aleksander. He would keep her alive to question him, but he couldn’t promise that by the time Aleksander was dead, the intriguing Annabelle wouldn’t be a corpse right next to him.
