by Ts McKinney
With my captor’s attention focused on someone other than me, I ripped myself from his arms and dove for Gabriel. Before they could stop me, I straddled my fallen lover’s body and began licking the wounds on his face. My instinct kicking in again, I guessed.
When the two men saw I didn’t intend to harm the Législateur, their movements froze as they simply stood and watched me. Within seconds, Gabriel’s skin began to heal, and I could feel the life essence returning to his body. He hadn’t been dead when I’d started trying to soothe his wounds, but he’d been close. As I bathed him with my saliva, I felt his powerful magic begin to return. “That’s it, Poppet. Let me help you,” I whispered as I continued caressing his face with my tongue.
From behind me, I heard one of the men say, “He shouldn’t have been able to break my grip that way, and he should only be able to heal wounds he’s created. He tried to kill Gabriel Gaudet? Why? The Gaudet family are fair rulers of the Législateurs.”
“If he’s murdered or attempted to murder a Législateur, the warlock saw it. Find him and destroy him before he can tell anyone else.” The one that had held me back when he thought I meant to attack Gabriel told the other man.
“Yes, Julian.”
The handsome man disappeared with the same speed I’d used earlier, leaving me alone with Gabriel and the mysterious man who’d interrupted Roman. I sniffed the air like an animal, hunting for any indication of a threat. There wasn’t one. Whoever the man was, he didn’t mean me harm.
As I hunkered over Gabriel’s body, protecting him, I looked at the man who’d come to my rescue. He was handsome, in an aristocratic sort of way. He wore an expensive suit that looked like it had been made to fit every inch of his perfect flesh. His skin was pale, and he had striking blue eyes. In somewhat of a contrast to the rest of him, his inky black hair hung to his broad shoulders, almost defiantly. Oddly enough, he studied me as closely as I studied him. Another shocker—I didn’t feel threatened by him even though he’d just manhandled me and used nothing more than a haughty tone to get Roman to submit to his desire.
Tilting his head, he asked, “Why does your blood call to me, young one? With that hair and those eyes, I certainly would have remembered siring you. Yet, I have no memories of you at all.”
I frowned. He sounded as looney as Gabriel. Well, Gabriel didn’t actually sound so looney now that I’d exhibited some of those vampire skills he’d hinted at. You know, ripping somebody’s throat out and drinking their blood. There was that.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I answered. “I can’t hear my blood saying a fucking thing. Maybe you’re hearing things?”
Unlike with Gabriel, my sarcasm didn’t seem to work with this so-called Julian. His eyes glowed red as he glared down at me.
“Understand this, young one. I may not have figured out our connection yet, but I assure you I’m very capable of disciplining you if it is called for.”
“Fine. Sorry. No need to be an ass about it,” I countered. Trying to buy time until Gabriel was completely healed, I asked, “Who was the guy with you? Roman called him Valen?” Their conversation from seconds ago passed through my mind. “Shit. Is he really going to kill Roman?”
The man shrugged. “Valen is my lover and, yes, he will find and kill Roman. He’s doing it for your protection. If the warlock told anyone that you had attacked a Législateur, you’d be in serious trouble.”
“And this scares you?”
He made a very non aristocratic snorting sound. “Not the word I would use. I don’t bow to any governing body, especially the witch’s Législateurs.” His eyes focused on Gabriel. “But they would be powerful enemies that I have no intention of making. Which brings me to my next question. What in the hell are you doing with this witch, a member of the Législateurs who try to force our kind into submission?”
Scrambling for an answer, an answer I didn’t really have, I opened my mouth and said, “He’s my…”
“Yes, young one, I know what he is. I smell him inside of you. Of all the beautiful men and women in New Orleans, you chose a Gaudet?”
“Yeah, well, he kind of chose me,” I whispered. Gabriel’s heart beat soundly in his chest. He should be awake by now.
He reached a hand down to me and said, “Good. I’ll remedy that right now. You’ll come with me, child. You’ve managed to heal the Législateur. He’ll be fine now.”
Gabriel’s silver eyes flew open, and he pulled a huge gasp of air into his lungs. His gaze landed on me and then shifted to the man behind me. “Montague! What are you doing here? Why have you invaded our city?” His voice was weak but still held authority.
“Why have you…invaded…my child, Législateur?”
Instead of answering him, Gabriel whispered, “Domum.”
Before I could defend the man to Gabriel, a swirl of white smoke surrounded us. Dizziness swamped my senses, and everything turned black. Somewhere, in the far corners of my mind, I could hear the man yelling—demanding that Gabriel return me to him. Then there was nothing.
Chapter Five
Gabriel
I paced the length of my bedroom, back and forth, back and forth, while I waited on some great brilliant solution to push its way into my skull—some solution as to why Marchand, now a known vampire, his true nature exposed, was back in my home…back in my bed. What the fuck had I been thinking, bringing him back here? Still trapped in the sleeping spell I’d cast after I’d hustled us away from the Montague vampire family, he looked as innocent as he’d looked the night before—right before I’d fucked him. Now I had first-hand knowledge that the innocent act was that, an act. He was a bloodsucking vampire, with some sort of ties to one of the legendary vampire families in our country. Julian had referred to him as his child. While I’d only been awake for a split second after whatever Dom had used on me had tried to kill me, I’d seen Julian with my own eyes. I also knew that wherever Julian was, Valen would be nearby. The two most powerful vampires in this hemisphere. And they were lovers, which simply amplified everything.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
What did I think I was doing? Nic would be furious. All of the Législateurs would be most vindictive when they found out I’d come to close to being killed. Both of those things, however, were nothing compared to the ire I’d sensed from Julian Montague. Add angry warlocks into the mix, and I’d opened a cauldron of fuckery on the Quarter. My only job was to protect both the human citizens and supernatural community, and I’d broken every damn rule in the book.
I allowed my gaze to travel back to where Marchand rested peacefully on my bed. This time, there were magically enchanted iron shackles wrapped around his wrists, ankles, and neck, trapping him to the bed. I could have used silver to cause him pain and weaken him even more but hadn’t been able to allow myself to hurt him that way. Three weeks he’d spent trying to convince me he was good and pure. It was going to be hard to forget all his fanciful tales after just one encounter, however ugly the encounter happened to have been.
The thing was, I wanted to believe him. I wanted him to be the poster child for innocence and goodness. Even for a few moments when I’d been buried deep inside of him, I’d allowed the fairytale idea of him becoming my everything to enter my mind. I wanted what Nic and Thibeau had and I wanted it with him.
Of course, all the things I’d fallen prey to happened to be the very things vampires were notorious for—their allure, as I well knew, was deadly to all creatures, human or supernatural. Why in the bloody hell had I believed myself to be immune? I should have known better. I’d been trained better—been entrusted with the safety of New Orleans. When my eyes traveled back to Marchand, his lavender gaze was alert. He watched me pace, a frown on his face.
He looked around the room, noted where he was, and the look that swept across his face wasn’t one of worry. He looked relieved to be back in my suite as my prisoner. He did frown when he noted the shackles holding him immobile.
“I think I liked the magi
c trick of your invisible bindings much better than these.” He tested their strength. “Are you sure they’ll hold me?”
“It’s the magic that will hold you, not the iron, Darkness,” I retorted. My magic had entrapped vampires for years and I didn’t expect him to be any different. Walking closer to him, I asked, “Why did you lie to me? I gave you every chance to admit to your bloodlust, but you refused. Why?”
“Your face is healed. I’m glad. For a minute, I was afraid he’d been able to kill you with the liquid he’d thrown at you.”
The handsome fucker was trying to distract me by bringing up the mysterious blood Dominic had tossed in my face. One second I’d been about to knock Dominic on his ass with my magic and the next, I’d been in the most horrendous pain I’d ever endured. After that, my memory had gone black until the second that I’d awakened to find Marchand over me…about to feed from my throat.
What else could he have been doing?
“I asked you a question, Darkness. Why lie to me? More importantly, how did you hide your vampire side so damn well?” I sat on a chair next to the bed. “I have to admit, I’m quite impressed with your abilities. You’re the first vampire to ever fool me.” As one of my fingers toyed with the iron shackle around his right wrist, I added, “Of course, if you’re mixed with the Montague vampire family, I assume you’re well versed in the talent of deceit. You seemed so innocent, yet you’ve been around for centuries, yes?”
“Everything I told you was true, Poppet—at least the truth as I knew it. You have to believe me. When I explained to you about my memory loss due to my illness, I believed it with all my heart. Since this morning, I’m afraid, I’ve come to realize my error of accepting Dom at his word.”
I frowned. “Oh, how convenient. Now you suddenly remember? Now that I know what you are, that is.”
“No, not exactly. I do remember some things, though. They are slowly coming back to me.”
“Again, very convenient.”
“Not convenient, Poppet. True. When I killed Dom, part of my stolen memories flooded back to me. A few minutes ago, while I was still trapped in your sleeping spell, more memories returned. I suspect Roman is no longer alive and that’s why more are returning. It’s also a good thing. I hated that bastard.”
Wow, the boy could concoct stories better than the movie industry. I had a feeling this was about to get entertaining. “Please tell, Darkness. I’d love to hear your theory on your sudden recovery.” As I mocked him, something else occurred to me. He’d said he killed Dominic. “While you’re weaving your stories, please make sure you include how you bested a warlock, even one as weak as Dominic.”
“I killed him because he attacked you, asshole,” he snapped in anger. “When I saw him throw the blood at you and witnessed what it did to you, I couldn’t control myself. I attacked him and he died. End of story.”
His eyes shuttered closed and then opened again. “Oh, and I think you’re right about that whole vampire thing. The second I heard your heart beating this morning, I had a feeling I was in serious trouble.”
“Yes, you were.”
He tugged at the iron shackles, not very hard but gave them a cursory yank. “What did I do this morning, Poppet? Did I try to attack you? Did I try to suck your life’s blood out? Orrrrrr, did I warn you to run from me?”
“I don’t run from vampires,” I snapped.
“Of course, you don’t. That’s why I ran, because you wouldn’t. I didn’t trust that I would be able to control whatever was taking me over.” He shrugged as best the iron would allow. “Now, I know that I can.”
“Interesting,” I answered dryly. “How did you learn that nugget of knowledge?”
Irritation flashed in his eyes. “Several ways, Poppet. The first being that what I felt this morning was more of a…hunger. I wanted you. I wanted to taste you. I wanted you to become a part of me. You’d already been inside of me one way, and my body wanted you another way. With Dom?” he shrugged. “I just wanted to rip him apart—to drink his blood until his heart stopped beating. And I did.” A disgusted look crossed his face. “Don’t look at me that way! That filthy bastard used magic to convince me we were together—forced me to let him fuck me! He deserved to die.”
He had to be lying. “What’s another reason you think you can suddenly control yourself? You said there were several. Enlighten me.”
“I don’t want to. You aren’t going to like it.”
“Well, I don’t like you very much right now, Darkness. What’s one more piece of disappointment pie to add to my after-dinner dessert?” That was a flat-out lie—I liked him just as much now as I had when my cock had been buried inside him. What the hell was wrong with me that I couldn’t resist him? He had to be exerting some kind of power on me. Maybe something he’d learned from his “sire.”
“Promise you won’t go all Bewitched on me and try to hurt me before you take a few minutes and allow it all to soak in?”
I laughed. “You have my word—no magic mojo until I’ve thought things through.” I also knew I couldn’t hurt him, even if my life depended on it. And it just might.
Before I could even blink my eyes, he’d broken the shackles that held him to the bed. The spell-enhanced shackles! He didn’t move or try to run…or to attack me. He simply lay there, looked at me, and said, “I don’t think your magic will work on me anymore—not after Dominic and Roman’s deaths. There’s a link of three warlocks who bound my abilities and memories. I believe two of them are now dead, so my strength is returning.” He blushed. “I mean, I’ll do whatever you want me to do, just ask.”
The gravity of my situation weighed heavily on my chest. If he could snap the magic irons, I doubted any of my other magic could hold him back if he decided to end my existence. I forced myself to remain calm and stay in my seat. “What are you, Darkness? More than a vampire if you broke my magic so easily.” I answered my own question, or at least part of it.
“I don’t know, Gabriel,” he answered. “I have these fleeting memories ghosting through my brain, but they are all I have to work with. I mean, like crazy visions that are probably more like my imagination instead of anything that actually occurred. I have those…then darkness. After that, I only have memories of what happened while I was with Dominic—memories that hadn’t existed until he died today.”
What he was describing sounded like he’d been under a binding and cloaking spell. Why would warlocks use them on a vampire? I knew vampire blood was useful for performing dark magic, but not necessary. Why keep him? If Marchand was being honest, of course. Oh, how quickly I’d fallen back into the trap of believing every word that tumbled from his pretty lips.
“So, you expect me to believe that this morning was the first time you actually realized you were a vampire? And that you can control your bloodlust? And that you’re strong enough to break through my magic? And that you, of course, mean me absolutely no harm whatsoever.” I leaned in closer to him, determined I wouldn’t show any weakness, even in the very face of what might be pure evil, and said, “Oh, and don’t forget your connection to the Montague vampire family. How are you connected to them, Darkness?”
He frowned. “You know, when you called me Darkness before, I thought it was kind of cute. Now that there’s a chance I am the essence of darkness, I don’t think I care for the nickname anymore. Could we come up with another? Please.”
“Answer the question, Marchand,” I ordered. He might not realize it, but I still meant Darkness as a sign of affection. Hell, it was best he didn’t know it. It would be yet another one of my weaknesses for him to exploit.
“If you’re referring to the two men that showed up before I could make a snack out of Roman, I’ve never seen them before in my life. I didn’t even know they were vampires,” he argued. “Come to think of it, the one thought I was trying to attack you and he pulled me back. He said, “Never a Législateur.’” His eyes met mine again. “He tried to protect you.”
“From you? You
were trying to rip my throat out then, weren’t you, Marchand?”
His brow crinkled. “Absolutely not! Why would you accuse me of that?”
I shot to my feet. “Because you were hovering over me when I woke up, Darkness! Your mouth was open with your fangs extended. What the fuck else could you have been doing?”
He stood up, with vampire speed and grace, and walked away from me. Minutes passed as he stared out the window that was still shattered from his earlier escape. The curtains fluttered with the breeze, whipping around his legs and upper body. It occurred to me in that very second that whatever story Marchand was feeding to me, he believed it with all his heart. There was a chance he was still under the possession of warlocks or who the fuck knew what the vampires had done to his head, but he truly believed his own stories.
Even before he answered me, I knew what his response would be. A part of me, a huge part, wanted to believe him.
“I was trying to save you, Poppet.” His hand trembled slightly as he raked it through his shaggy hair. “I…I think the blood he threw on you was my blood. My instincts screamed for me to lick your wounds.” He turned around to face me. “And it worked. Your wounds healed as soon as my tongue touched them.”
I fingered the shackles he’d easily broken free from. Even now, I felt the magic flowing through them—magic that had meant nothing against Marchand’s power. What was he? The shackles were still warm from where they’d been wrapped around his flesh. “So…you don’t want to feed from me?” Where the fuck had that come from?
He crossed the floor and knelt in front of me, offering the most submissive pose possible. His striking eyes, beautiful enough to mesmerize me and stronger than any spell I’d ever cast, met my gaze as he answered, “I want to feed from you more than anything in this fucking world, Poppet.” His hand cupped the growing bulge at his crotch. “Just imagining how you would taste makes me hard.” He blinked slowly. “But I would never do that without your permission.”
