“He made no contact with Leah,” Rudolf pointed out quietly. “Let him go, Lucien.” It was a request, not a demand.
Lucien and Marcello glared at each other. Finally Lucien dropped his hand and stepped back.
He walked to me and again took my hand.
“If The Council wants this to go smoothly, control him,” Lucien warned Rudolf with a jerk of his head toward Marcello and Rudolf nodded.
Then Lucien turned us and guided me up the stairs.
As he did, he issued orders.
The minute I leave, call Stephanie, he told me.
Okay, I agreed promptly.
She’ll come immediately. You can trust her.
Okay, I repeated.
Don’t answer the phone. If it rings, Stephanie deals with it, he went on.
Okay, I repeated again
I don’t want you to be frightened, sweetheart. I’ll handle this.
I wanted to laugh. Not that it was funny just that I was scared out of my ever-loving mind and no order, even from the Mighty Lucien, was going to stop that.
What’s this about? I asked when we made it to the dressing room. Why are they here? Why are they taking you away?
I’ve broken the law, Lucien replied calmly, as if this wasn’t a scary-as-shit announcement. He took off his pajama bottoms and started to dress in one of his suits like he was doing nothing more important than preparing to go to work.
While he did this, I stared at him frozen in shock.
Then, my mind breathed to his, You’ve broken the law?
Yes.
What law?
I’ll explain later.
I didn’t want him to explain later.
What did it mean, he’d broken the law? Did that mean they were going to throw him in vampire jail? Did that mean he was going to have to hire a vampire attorney and stand vampire trial? He’d just admitted to doing it! Was he going to plead guilty?
I needed way more information.
Okay then at least tell me what kind of law? Was it like a jaywalking kind of law or a murder in the first degree kind of law?
Now dressed, he turned to me and lifted both hands to cup my face and bring me closer.
His eyes staring into mine, he repeated, I’ll explain later.
I felt my patience, already strained to the breaking point, snap.
Un-unh, my mind retorted, give me something to go on here.
He smiled like I was amusing.
Yes! Smiled!
I felt my eyes narrow.
He watched this, his eyes went that sexy-vampire-hooded I wished I didn’t like so much then he murmured, “Christ, you’re adorable.”
My temper flared and instead of shouting, out of necessity, I mumbled irately, “Boy, I wish I could kick your ass.”
His hands left my face, his arms blurring around me with vampire speed, caging me tight against his chest. He threw his head back and roared with laughter.
Usually, I liked his laughter. Okay, being honest with myself, usually, I loved it. And I hadn’t heard it in weeks. And, worse, even though I didn’t want to lament that loss, I did. Every day. For three stinking weeks.
However at that particular moment, I did not.
“This isn’t funny,” I muttered angrily to his chest.
I felt him kiss the top of my head.
It’s something between jaywalking and murder in the first degree, he told me.
That doesn’t tell me much.
It’s all you’re going to get, sweetling.
I had no chance to reply. He took my hand and walked us back downstairs.
The three vamps were waiting for us. I knew Cristiano and Rudolf heard the very little we spoke out loud. It would be hard to miss Lucien’s shout of laughter even if you didn’t have vampire hearing. Both of them looked highly amused.
Our whispered conversation made Marcello move from surly to openly hostile.
Casual as can be, Cristiano moved to and opened the door, walking through it. Rudolf and Marcello followed. All three stopped outside and waited.
Lucien walked me to the opened door.
Lock the door behind me. Stephanie has a key, he said.
Instead of nodding, I replied, Okay.
Then he demanded, Kiss me.
Did he just say what I thought he just said?
My eyes widened and I whispered, What?
Do it, now.
He told me to take my cues from him. That wasn’t exactly what one would call a cue, more like a command.
Still, in this troubling situation I felt it sensible to do as he ordered.
I leaned in, hands to his abs, getting up on tiptoe and tilting my head back. His own dipped down, I pressed my lips against his and his opened. Another cue I was forced to follow, my tongue slid into his mouth. The instant it touched his, his arms came around me like vices, pinning my hands between us, hauling me into his big, hard body.
It had been three weeks since he’d kissed me like this. For three weeks, even during feeding, he’d been the perfect gentleman. Often during those weeks he’d brush his lips against mine before going to sleep. Or he’d stop, bend and touch his mouth to the top of my head when he’d walk past me while I was reading. But he hadn’t really kissed me.
Clearly my body missed it, so much I forgot our audience. My head tilted to the side, my hands forced themselves from between us, one wrapping around his waist, the other one going into his hair to hold him to me. Our tongues dueled, taking, giving, making my body burn and my heart race.
Like his laughter, it gave me sustenance. I demanded it and took it and more of it and even more of it because it had been so long, I was starving.
He broke the kiss and when he did I sensed he didn’t like the fact that he had to.
“I’ll be back soon,” he murmured against my mouth and stepped away but only after I took a deep, calming breath and nodded.
He moved out the door and I finally felt the air. It was again thick with that seductive danger, so thick, the minute I sensed it, it nearly choked me.
All three vampires were watching me, now with no hostility and no humor. It didn’t take a mind reader to know they were hungry. For what, I wasn’t sure but my guess was it was me. It wasn’t my blood they were after but something far more profound.
Definitely a menace.
Lucien turned to me, Lock the door.
Then, whoosh, they were gone and all I saw or heard was the doors slamming on the car.
I closed and locked the door. Then as fast as my feet would carry me, I ran to the phone and called Stephanie.
* * * * *
Terror seared through me, all I could think was escape.
I collided with something strong, powerful, iron bands went around me, holding me imprisoned.
“Leah, honey, what on earth?”
Loss. Pain. Anguish. Fear. Too much. I couldn’t cope.
Burning, burning, the heat was too immense. Overwhelming. Scalding my eyes. Singeing my throat.
Falling, sharp, uncontrolled, something tightened around my neck. I couldn’t breathe.
I struggled against my gentle prison.
“Jesus, Leah, calm down. What’s the matter?”
Clawing at my bounds, I could hear my choking breaths hitching through my wracking sobs. Fingers forced open my mouth, pressed against my tongue, searching for the source of my suffocation.
Need. Need. Desperate need. Touch. Skin. Warmth. Strength. Power.
Him.
Needed him.
Needed his hands, his breath, his presence, him.
Soothing, soothing, soothing.
I had to have him. If I didn’t get him, the noose would tighten and I’d die.
“Please.” It was my voice but I didn’t recognize the rasping, raw, agonized noise.
“Oh my God.”
Somewhere far away, the phone rang. My prison moved and I struggled to no avail.
“Lucien, thank God. Something’s wrong with Leah. She can’t
breathe and I can’t find out why. She’s fighting me and if I let her go, I fear she’ll do herself more harm. You need to call an ambulance.”
I gasped for breath. My lungs were burning. The blackness was encroaching.
“What? Are you mad? She’s choking, goddamn it, call an ambulance!”
The noose tightened sharply. I feared it’d snap my neck and I sensed the sickening strangled noise I heard came from me.
“Listen, Leah, honey, please, listen to the phone…” the female voice implored urgently.
“Sweetling…” His voice sounded in my ear.
Breath filled my lungs.
I took it in in gulps.
“Hold on, I’m coming.”
My mind cocooned, nothing came in, nothing went out, nothing went on.
Catatonia.
Then he was there, his arms sliding around me, lifting me. I was cradled in his lap, his heat enveloping me, his hold fierce and protective.
The aftereffects of the hideous living nightmare still held me in their thrall and, although my senses were returning, I was utterly powerless. A blind, mute ragdoll in Lucien’s arms.
“How long has she been like this?” I heard him ask tersely.
“Since you talked with her on the phone but trust me, this is better. Before that, I swear, Lucien, it looked and sounded like she was dying,” Stephanie replied.
“Christ!” Lucien’s word was a subdued explosion. His arms got tight, painfully so. It hurt and at the same time it felt beautiful.
“Has this happened before?” Stephanie asked.
“She has bad dreams,” Lucien answered, his hand beginning to stroke my back.
“Bad dreams? Luce, that wasn’t a bad dream. That was completely fucked up. I’m seven hundred and fifty years old and I’ve seen some serious shit in my life but that was fucked up!”
Stephanie was in a state.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” Lucien demanded.
Stephanie didn’t hesitate.
“I heard her scream. It was intense. I came running just in time to catch her leaping out of bed. She was choking, crying. I thought she was just upset about what happened earlier,” Stephanie explained. “Then I realized it was something more. The crying stopped, the choking continued. She fought me like no mortal has fought me before. I almost couldn’t hold her. It was like she was being strangled by something invisible. She was fighting it and she was losing. Then you called and talked to her, the strangling stopped but she went limp and unresponsive. Honest to God, for a minute, I thought she was dead but I heard her heart beating and her breathing. I put her in bed and she just curled up, eyes open and staring at nothing. I think it’s safe to say she freaked me out!”
Lucien said nothing but he stopped stroking my back, his hand went under my hair and curled warmly around my neck.
“She’s still messed up. We need to call a doctor,” Stephanie announced.
“I’m fine,” I whispered and wished I didn’t.
My voice scared me. It scared me because it sounded like I’d just survived being strangled.
At the sound of my voice, Lucien’s body went solid.
“See!” Stephanie cried.
“Leah, sweetheart, can you look at me?” Lucien’s tone was gentle, his hand moving from my neck to grip my hair and carefully pull my head back.
I nodded, the effort at that simple movement felt like running a race but my eyes caught his.
“Do you remember anything?” he asked and I nodded again.
“All of it.” My voice still sounded painfully abrasive because it was painful and abrasive.
Lucien flinched when I spoke.
“Ow,” I whispered.
His face went hard before he commanded, “No more talking.”
I nodded again. I was happy with that. Way happy.
He let go of my hair but his fingers cupped the back of my head and pressed my face to his throat.
“We need to call a doctor,” Stephanie repeated.
“She’s fine now,” Lucien replied.
“I… do… not… think… so. She sounds like she’s been strangled!”
“Teffie, I’m here. She’s fine.”
The air in the room got thick. I tensed before Stephanie spoke angrily.
“I know pretty much everyone thinks you’re all that, including me most of the time. But as far as I know, you don’t have magical healing powers.”
“Teffie, leave us. Get some sleep,” Lucien ordered.
“You heard her voice!” Stephanie yelled and my body twitched at her anger.
I felt Lucien’s frame turn to stone.
His voice was ominous when he demanded, “Get the fuck out of here, now. You’re upsetting Leah.”
“I –”
“Now!” he barked and I jumped.
She must have left because the next second I was on the bed alone, bereft of Lucien. The second after that I felt his warm, naked body the length of mine, his arms tight around me, his heavy legs tangled with mine.
I felt the numbness go, my strength and wits returning but the exhaustion stayed heavy upon me.
I melted into his heat and he gathered me closer.
Sleep was coming and I hoped it was the good kind because I needed it. I was battling real and invisible demons and I’d need all the rest I could get to endure.
I was nearly to dreamland when I heard his soft voice make a vow.
“That won’t ever fucking happen again, Leah. You have my promise.”
Tears slid up my throat but silently I swallowed them down and burrowed closer.
He couldn’t promise that. Even though I had no freaking clue what happened, there was one thing I knew through an intuition the source of which escaped me. Coming straight from the core of me, I knew the only way he could make good that promise was never to leave me.
Never.
And that was not going to happen.
I had more than one menace (the gentle one, Lucien) and more than two menaces (the frightening one, personified by Marcello but also Rudolf and Cristiano), now I had three (my own mind, which freaked me out most of all).
I was dead woman walking one way or another.
And I was terrified out of my skull.
* * * * *
“I don’t want Leah to overhear.” Lucien’s voice was low but angry. I shifted out of sleep and my eyes opened, seeing nothing but Lucien’s vacant pillow.
“I’m thinking Leah should be in on this conversation,” Stephanie snapped back.
“Teffie.” Another voice, male, vaguely familiar. Cosmo.
“I don’t understand.” That was Edwina.
“Can we move to the kitchen?” Lucien asked a question which wasn’t a question as much as a politely formed demand.
Silence.
“I just went in there. She’s sleeping. She sleeps very soundly,” Edwina offered in a voice that said she was playing peacemaker.
I guessed Stephanie was digging in and Edwina was hoping she wouldn’t have to repair plaster in the upstairs hallway.
Lucien must have thought that slamming Stephanie into the upstairs wall would likely wake me anyway and probably upset me, so he spoke.
And what he said freaked me out.
“She has a dream. It’s recurring and it’s connected to me. I know this because I hear her words in my head while she’s dreaming.” Lucien’s voice was low, curt and impatient. “I spoke to her mother and these intense dreams have been happening her whole life.”
I was totally freaked about me talking to Lucien’s head when I was dreaming, about what I might have said and about the dream being about him at all considering what that dream did to me, both before my near death experience and during it.
But what he said after that took precedence.
He spoke to my mother?
Now that made me angry.
For the last three weeks I’d been calling all my family, even Aunt Kate. But not Myrna as I had enough of channeling Myrna in daily
life, I didn’t want to have to actually speak to her.
Desperate for advice, guidance and the lessons Lucien stopped giving me until last night; I was willing to talk to anyone. I’d even called Aunt Fiona twice.
Problem was, when they answered the phone, and I was suspecting they were avoiding that chore when they saw my name come up on their displays, they were busy.
Busy, busy, busy.
Even Lana, who could talk to a corpse until it reanimated, sat up and told her to shut the hell up.
This hurt.
I mean, I’d never moved away from home and I missed them a lot.
But it seemed like they were getting on with life without me just fine.
When Lana had been selected, she’d been lucky enough to move not that far away, a three hour drive. She was home all the time. My move was a two hour plane ride.
I thought they’d feel my absence but the whirlwind of “I have a lunch date…”, “We’re about to catch a movie…”, “I have a facial in twenty minutes…”, “If I don’t get to that sale, that pair of shoes is going to be gone and I’ll just die if I don’t own them…” (that was Aunt Nadia, she liked shoes nearly as much as me) was all I heard.
Not a single, “So, Leah, how are you getting on with the Mighty Vampire Lucien who you so desperately did not want to be separated from your adored family and pack of friends to go and service? Are you okay? Do you need, per chance, to talk to a beloved, trusted family member?”
Silly, mean, awful Buchanan bitches.
Now I find my mother, my mother, was chatting with Lucien.
I was going to disown her. As soon as she talked to me long enough for me to share that morsel that was.
Stephanie’s amazed words brought me back to my chore of just woken up eavesdropping.
“Like last night?”
“No, I talked to Lydia this morning and she said that never happened to Leah,” Cosmo put in. “She said often her dreams would be frightening and she’d be nearly inconsolable afterwards but she only cried or screamed, sometimes fought. Nothing like what you described last night.”
So, Mom was also not too busy to have a natter with Cosmo either.
Totally disowned.
“She’s very concerned,” Cosmo continued.
Yeah right, I seethed.
“She should be concerned,” Stephanie clipped. “It was fucking scary.”
“I’m concerned,” Edwina said quietly and I knew she meant it.