“Leah, did you hear me?” he asked.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“I’ll make this meeting short. I’ll get home as soon as I can and we’ll talk.”
“Okay,” I agreed knowing I’d take the time he was gone trying to figure out how I could get out of that talk even knowing I’d never get out of that talk.
“We should have talked before,” he told me, his thumb sweeping the apple of my cheek. “I knew that. We didn’t because I was enjoying you and I didn’t want that to interfere.”
He was enjoying me.
God, how could I forget? I was his meal. His fuck buddy. His pet.
God! How could I forget?
I should have remembered. I should never have fucking forgot.
It took everything I had, everything, but I fought back the sting of tears in my eyes and the ball of fire burning in my throat.
When I accomplished this herculean task, I whispered, “Go to your meeting. We’ll talk when you get back.”
“Back home,” he returned immediately and I blinked.
“What?”
“When I get back home.”
I knew what he was saying and it felt like he’d plunged a knife in my gut.
Why did he persist in this? Expecting me to give everything while holding himself away.
“Yes, when you get back home,” I forced out.
His face dipped closer and I braced, every part of me. I knew he felt it. I knew he heard my heart stuttering, my breath coming uneven. I knew he felt my body tightening. I knew it because I knew he had those abilities. And I knew it when I saw his face get even gentler, his eyes warmer and more troubled.
God, why wouldn’t he just go away?
“I told you what we had would be beautiful,” he reminded me, twisting that knife he left in my gut, making me bleed. “And I knew even before you said what you said earlier that you finally understood what I was giving to you. Now, you must understand our future.”
He was wrong.
I already understood it. I always understood it.
I just chose to ignore it.
Stupidly, as usual. Stupid, stupid, stupidly.
“Okay,” I agreed quietly.
His eyes roamed over my face as his thumb moved over my cheek then he captured my gaze and whispered, “It will still be beautiful.”
Wrong again.
“I promise, Leah,” he continued softly.
Fucking liar.
“Okay,” I repeated.
His eyes again roamed my face before coming back to mine.
Then, in perfect Lucien style, he demanded, “Kiss your vampire before I go.”
His words sliced that knife up from my gut right through me, carving me open, laying me bare.
But I did what I was told. Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I lifted my head the inch it needed to press my lips against his. His opened as did mine.
That was when I kissed him hard, wet, long, giving him everything I had, showing him exactly how I felt, offering him everything that was me. And I did it because that was how I’d been kissing him since this began, at first against my will then gleefully.
But that was the last.
He’d never get that from me again.
Never.
When he tore his mouth from mine, he immediately shoved his face in my neck. His arms again locked around me, his weight heavy on me and he growled, “Fuck, Leah,” against my skin.
He felt it, I knew it. Whether he understood that was the last he’d ever get from me I didn’t know. I also didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything. Not anymore.
My life yawned before me. Years of being forced to live with a man I loved but didn’t love me back and I could never really have. Then years of bitter memories taunting me.
I knew this. From the beginning I knew this.
But did that stop me?
No!
Stupid, stupid Leah.
I forced my arms to squeeze him and my lips to whisper, “You need to go.”
He lifted his head and looked down at me. Then he dipped it, touched his mouth to mine, pulled back slightly and murmured, “I need to go.”
I drew in breath.
Then I was no longer in his arms. With vamp speed, he left the bed.
Numb, I lay still and listened to him brush his teeth, his short shower. Before I knew it, he was wearing one of his fantastic suits, looking gorgeous standing by the bed. Then I was mostly out of bed, my legs dangling, my feet brushing the covers, my torso held close to his with his arms tight around me.
I looked up at him and blinked away the disorientation his speed created.
“I’ll be home soon,” he whispered.
“Okay,” I replied, my hands drifting to rest on his broad shoulders.
He closed his eyes and dropped his forehead to mine.
I used everything in my reserves to stop myself from sobbing.
He lifted his head and opened his eyes.
“Thank you, sweetling, for giving that to me.” He was still whispering, his voice deeper, again rough but now with a different kind of feeling. In any other circumstance, I would think it was beyond beautiful.
Then, obviously, I didn’t. Because he was expressing gratitude for me giving my love and outside of a great house, fabulous clothes, beautiful shoes and unbelievable orgasms, that was the only thing he would ever give to me.
“You’re welcome,” I replied, my voice strange, void, dead.
He didn’t miss it.
“Sweetling –” he whispered.
“You need to go,” I reminded him.
His arms gave me a squeeze before he ordered, “Busy yourself. Don’t think of this while I’m gone. When we talk, Leah, I promise, you won’t feel the way you feel right now.”
He was full of it. He’d promised me a lot. And all of it was bullshit.
“Lucien, you have to go,” I told him.
“Busy yourself and don’t think of this,” he repeated.
“Okay, I’ll busy myself and not think of this,” I lied.
He held my eyes.
Then he whispered, “You’re lying.”
Whatever!
Jeez!
Why wouldn’t he just go?
I held his eyes right back.
Lucien sighed.
Then he reiterated, “I’ll be home soon.”
“And I’ll be here.”
His arms spasmed around me again as his eyes continued to hold mine captive.
Then, if you can freaking believe, the big, fat, vampire jerk’s lips tipped up.
His lips tipped up!
“Yes, pet, you will,” he whispered then touched his mouth to mine.
Then he was gone.
* * * * *
It happened after I made my plans and executed them.
I couldn’t get out of the talk, this I knew.
So I would be prepared for it.
I did not cry. I did not curl up and give my mind over to contemplating my bleak future. I didn’t open up the forgotten Why I Hate Lucien Vault, catalog its multitudes and nurse my fury. I didn’t immediately hit the kitchen and consume everything edible within reach.
I took a shower. I took forever doing my hair. I spent a great deal of time on my makeup. I studied my vast wardrobe selection and picked the perfect outfit. And I strapped on a pair of fabulous shoes.
I did this with only the aid of coffee supplied by Edwina who took one look at me and knew things were not right. And fortunately she also knew that I was in no mood to discuss them. So she brought me coffee but otherwise let me be.
I was coiffed. I was made up. I was wearing a freaking great pair of dark, bootcut jeans that I paired with a fabulous dusky blue, somewhat see-through top that clung to my midriff and hips but had a deep scoop at the back. I had a white racerback tank under it. And my feet were in high-heeled, beige suede, wedge sandals that had a wide strap across the toe and a wide, sexy ankle strap. In this getup, mentally prepared for what lay ahead, I
walked downstairs.
My stomach felt hollow but I wasn’t hungry. This was unusual. Usually, when I stupidly broke my own heart by picking the way wrong guy to give it to, I could and did eat everything in sight but only if it wasn’t good for me.
Now it felt like I’d never feel hungry again.
And the alarming thing was, now it felt like I’d never feel anything again.
That was how deeply Lucien wounded me.
No. That wasn’t correct.
That was how deeply I allowed Lucien to wound me.
He fought to get in and I let him get in. But he knew he’d never give himself to me. And I knew he never could.
I just chose to ignore it.
My foot hit the floor of the foyer, my mind shoving away these thoughts, forcing itself toward eating something.
I needed to keep my strength up. Lucien had been gone for nearly an hour. His office was half an hour away if you didn’t drive a Porsche. He drove a Porsche and did it fast considering he couldn’t die unless his crash was fiery. So he could drive it in twenty minutes and he did. Regularly. He said he’d make the meeting short but I didn’t know what that meant. I just knew there was a probability he could be home any minute.
When my foot hit the floor of the foyer was when it happened.
The front door flew straight off its hinges. It blew right by me through the foyer at least ten feet to crash to the floor and skid down the hall.
Every molecule in my body froze for an instant then I turned to flee up the stairs. My cell was on my dressing table in the wardrobe.
I needed to call Lucien.
I got one step up and heard Edwina scream. Sheer dread coursed through my body but I had no chance to react. No chance to do anything.
There was movement everywhere but nothing I could see. Solid things dashing through the house causing blurs. One of them cut me off on the stairs. I ran into it and before I could see what it was, I fell back the step I took, landing painfully on my ass in the foyer.
Then I was up, my body like a rag doll, bent double at the waist, held tight to someone’s side, my hair blowing in the breeze created by our movement down the hall. As suddenly as we were moving, we stopped, my frame swaying with the rapidity of us halting. I was swung up and around, my body jerking unnaturally with the speed and it was sheer luck my neck or spine didn’t snap. Then I was held, my back to the front of someone, iron arms clamped around me, holding me captive, my arms held tight to my sides, rendered useless.
But I didn’t try to move. This was because, in the comfy seating area, I saw Nestor, the vampire that had words with Stephanie at my Selection. And he was holding Edwina like whoever was holding me except he had one big hand over her mouth.
Her eyes were wide and filled with fear.
“Tape her to a chair in the dining room.” I heard from behind me and I knew that voice.
Lucien’s father.
Etienne.
Oh my God!
What was happening?
Nestor and Edwina were there one second and I felt the gust of wind they created when they sped by Etienne and me. Then they were gone.
I heard movement in the dining room but my attention was caught on something else.
My head jerking around I saw Katrina, Lucien’s ex or soon-to-be-ex mate and Marcello from the night The Council sent vampires to collect Lucien. Katrina was standing in my kitchen staring daggers at me. Marcello was moving with a mortal’s speed toward Etienne and me. My tight body got tighter but he stopped five feet away.
Then my tight body got so tight I thought it would snap in half when, his eyes burning into me with a light I did not like, he muttered heatedly, “God, I want to drain her while I fuck that fear.”
“She is still my son’s concubine,” Etienne stated and Marcello’s eyes jerked over my shoulder.
“He’s taken her as lover. All bets are off,” he growled.
“We court his wrath already and you know it,” Etienne shot back. “Don’t be foolish.”
“Agreed so it should be worth my while,” Marcello returned.
“My brother,” Etienne said quietly, “in the coming war, we will need your strength. I ask you to restrain your instincts. Soon, all mortals will again be prey and you can take what you wish. My son falls or fails to protect his meal, you will have what you desire.”
His son falls?
Oh my God!
What was happening?
I breathed hard as Marcello held Etienne’s eyes. I felt no relief and kept breathing hard when he took a step back.
“Now, Leah,” Etienne whispered, his mouth at my ear, “I’m going to let you go and we’re going to talk. If you do anything unwise, I will let Marcello have you. Are you going to do anything unwise?”
Fuck no. These were vampires. No way I was going to do anything unwise.
I shook my head.
“Excellent,” he murmured then let me go.
I took two quick steps away then turned my back toward the hall and moved back two steps more. But it was there I stopped because I had three vampires’ eyes on me and I felt Nestor come out of the dining room behind me.
I looked amongst them, feeling my chest rise and fall, my fingers tingling, my legs quaking but I kept my shoulders straight and stood tall.
Then I moved my eyes to Etienne.
“What’s going on?” I asked and was pleased beyond reason my voice didn’t shake.
“We’ve decided it’s time you knew a few things,” Etienne answered.
I didn’t want to know a few things, of this I was certain. I also was certain I had no choice.
“What things?” I asked.
“Things about our culture. Things about your culture. Things about my son. And things about this world and your place in it,” Etienne replied.
That was a lot. Some of which I knew or thought I did.
Though, not their versions of it.
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Now be a good girl, Leah, and let your superior speak. I’ll tell you when and if you’re allowed to ask questions,” Etienne stated and I swallowed.
God, seriously. He was such a dick.
Still, with no other choice, I nodded.
“Very good,” he leaned in, his eyes lighting, creepy, amused and terrifying, before he finished, “pet.”
Oh God.
“Did you know,” he started, “that for five hundred years, it has been strictly forbidden for a vampire to take concubine as lover?”
I couldn’t help it. I wanted to but I couldn’t. My midsection swayed back like he’d struck me.
Etienne grinned.
I opened my mouth to say no but remembered his order and instead shook my head.
“I didn’t think so,” he muttered then spoke louder when he informed me, “But it’s true. No vampire has taken anything but blood from their concubine for centuries. Centuries. But my son had your contract altered. He did this without the knowledge or the assent of The Dominion. They’ve since found out and they are not happy.”
The rule he broke.
The not insignificant rule he broke.
And he broke it to have me.
Please tell me this wasn’t happening.
I stayed silent.
Etienne kept speaking.
“Vampires do not live with their concubines. They don’t kiss them at Feasts. And seeing as he’s obviously fucking you, he’s done whatever the fuck he wished to do prior to receiving permission from The Council. They will not take to this kindly.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded so he knew I heard him.
He went on.
“Whether willfully or coincidentally, this has made other vampires question this law. We,” he flung his arm out to indicate Marcello, Katrina and Nestor, “welcome this. Because this means war. And we are ready.”
Okay. Right.
This wasn’t just not good.
This was not good!
“It has been a long time comi
ng,” Etienne whispered. “Vampires hunt. Vampires feed. Immortals should rule this planet not be ruled by rules.”
I fought it but I couldn’t stop myself from trembling.
Etienne was far from done.
“We do not wish to take your kind as mates.” He spat out the last word and if I didn’t already have a fair inkling about how he felt about “my kind” I knew by the way he spat that word. “We simply wish to take your kind whatever way we like, whenever we like. And this is how it will be.”
Yes.
Not good.
I pressed my lips together.
Etienne kept going.
“Lucien, either wittingly or unwittingly, began that process. Everyone within our culture is positioning. Vampires who do not wish change and are willing to fight for status quo. Concubines who desire to keep their place as the parasites of our culture. Vampires who wish to be free to find their mates whatever form they take. And my brethren,” again with the sweep of his arm, “wishing simply to be free to be vampires.”
Well, one thing I could say about that. That was pure Lucien, doing what he wanted to do and damn the consequences.
When he stopped and didn’t start again, even though I didn’t want him to continue, I nodded anyway.
So he continued.
“Do not fool yourself into thinking my son cares about you. He wants you to believe this, of course, it is the way with a taming. But it is not real.”
Another body sway when the impact of his words slammed into me and he smiled. He was loving every second of this.
The bastard.
He went on but this time he did it quietly, slowly, savoring the pain he knew he was going to cause.
“He had his mortal mate. The delectable Maggie.”
God. God! God!
“Maggie was captured, tortured and killed during The Revolution.”
Oh no.
Oh God.
God. God! God!
“Maggie was my son’s one and only true love, as sickening as that may be, it is the truth. Maggie’s death was the reason Lucien was unstoppable during that conflict. Maggie’s death was the reason he was unstoppable in hunting his own who would plot to resurrect the conflict. Maggie was everything to him. Maggie was his reason for being. Without Maggie, he exists. He does it well, he enjoys his life and the fruits of his endeavors, but it is simply existence. Nothing more. You, delicious Leah, he is using. Our lives are long, we must have our challenges and even if you’re simply breathing, you must find diversions to break up the monotony. That is what you are, Leah. A diversion. An enjoyable one, a succulent one, but simply a diversion.”