Love is a blanket that keeps you warm.
Lucien knew that to be true because of Maggie.
We’d talked a lot. He’d spent time educating me. He’d told me stories of his family.
But he’d never mentioned Maggie.
I fought the tears that filled my eyes.
I didn’t succeed.
And I hated it when Etienne grinned a triumphant, creepy grin when he saw them slide down my cheeks.
“I will educate you about our taming,” he said with false gentleness. “We have been forbidden to do this as well but we all yearn for it. We all enjoy it. But once a taming is complete, we will take pleasure in the spoils of our victory and then we will retreat. Move onto the next taming, the next meal, the next diversion that makes a vampire’s life sweet.”
Every word, every single word he said was killing me.
Lucien had lied. He’d not only broken promises, he’d flat out lied.
From the beginning. The very beginning.
He’d played with me like a toy.
Like his pet.
He’d played with me.
The tears kept coming.
“You are nothing, Leah,” he whispered, his eyes boring into me. “A plaything now and always a parasite. But in the end, in the course of a vampire’s life, a few years spent enjoying a morsel, we release you and in no time at all, we don’t remember how you taste, what you look like, even your name.”
More tears. That was all I had to give to what he was saying to me so that was all he got.
But he loved each salty drop.
“And now you understand your place, do you have any questions?” he asked.
“Is Edwina all right?” I asked in return and his eyes shifted behind me. Nestor must have made some nonverbal reply because they shifted back and he nodded.
I nodded back.
“That’s all you wish to know?” he prompted when I said no more.
“I think you’ve been thorough,” I whispered and heard Nestor’s chuckle from behind my back but I didn’t turn.
I kept my eyes on Etienne.
“I’m pleased you think so,” Etienne muttered, grinning his sadistic grin at me. “Now, we will be leaving.”
I blinked.
Was he high?
Break into the Mighty Lucien’s house and then just leave?
One could say I was thrilled beyond belief they were going but Lucien was going to lose his mind!
He must have read my face for he carried on.
“You can tell him what you wish. We’re prepared for his response.”
Oh shit. That didn’t sound good either.
“Yes, Leah, we are prepared. You can tell my son that too,” Etienne whispered menacingly.
I swallowed again.
He kept going.
“And tell your aunts, your cousin, your friends to enjoy their lives as they are to their fullest. The days when a concubine could provide us nourishment for a spell then suck from us for the rest of their days are numbered. Do you understand me?”
Oh yes. I understood him. Totally.
He didn’t like mortals. But he really didn’t like concubines.
Boy, I understood him all right.
I nodded.
“Good girl,” he murmured patronizingly and bile slid up my throat.
He studied me. I stood still and let him, just happy that I’d quit crying.
“You know,” he whispered thoughtfully, “it’s almost sad, you mortals handing your hearts to vampires. It has been a long time since I’ve seen that look on a mortal’s face after she learned of a vampire’s true nature.” He cocked his head to the side, his lips twitched and he finished, “Thank you, delicious Leah, for giving that back to me.”
And I knew it then. He’d played with many women, scores of them, maybe hundreds of them. All of them just like his son had played me.
God, I hated him.
Hated him.
More than I hated his son and that was saying something.
He jerked up his chin, my body swayed and my hair flew back when they all sped by me.
I stood solid and staring at nothing then it hit me.
Edwina.
I turned on my foot and ran to the dining room. I halted on a skid in the door when I saw her duct taped to a chair, more tape on her mouth, tears sliding down her cheeks, terror stamped on her features.
I shook myself out of my horror and dashed to her.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Edwina,” I whispered. “In the movies they do this fast. I’m going to do it fast. Get it over with. Please, forgive me.”
Then I tore the tape off her mouth. She cried out in pain and the sound cut through me.
“I’ll get these off,” I muttered, shaking the piece of tape away from my fingers and going to work on the tape at her wrists. “Are you okay?”
“I’m… no,” she answered shakily.
No. Of course not. She wouldn’t be.
“I’ll just… I’ll…” I stopped talking and my hands stopped moving.
You are nothing, Leah… a plaything… we don’t remember how you taste, what you look like, even your name.
My eyes moved to Edwina’s wet ones.
She read mine immediately.
“Leah, I heard him. Every word,” she whispered.
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.
“Leah, listen to me. Don’t believe what he says,” Edwina urged, her voice insistent.
That is what you are, Leah. A diversion. An enjoyable one, a succulent one, but simply a diversion.
“Those vampires with him, they are few,” Edwina kept whispering urgently. “Everyone knows of Etienne, no one respects him. Katrina was only here because she’s angry. A week, a month, she’ll rethink and she’ll retreat. Nestor, Marcello, they have been enemies to Lucien for years. Jealous of his fame, his abilities, his fortune. They have allied with Etienne for no other reasons then to make Lucien suffer. Don’t believe what he says, Leah. Not a word of it.”
I didn’t hear anything she said.
I heard Lucien telling me, It will still be beautiful.
I told him he had my love and he didn’t return it. Still, he thought he could talk me into continuing to service him by convincing me the emptiness he could give me was fucking beautiful.
He had the love of his life. It sucked she was tortured and killed but at least he had her.
I didn’t have anything.
Nothing.
Everything had been taken from me.
Everything I had, everything I owned, everything I was.
Taken by Lucien.
I focused on Edwina’s face.
“Please, someday, understand what I’m going to do now and forgive me,” I whispered.
Then I straightened away from her and ran out of the dining room on my high-heeled, kickass wedges.
“No!” she cried. “Leah! No! Don’t listen to him. Unbind me! We must call Lucien immediately!”
I ran to the phones first. Each one I grabbed and ripped free from the wall. Each one I ran to the pool and threw it in. Then I ran to the key hooks by the backdoor, grabbed Edwina’s keys, went to her purse, snatched out her cell and I took those to the pool too and threw them in.
I didn’t have much time.
I had to hurry.
I ran upstairs and found the two suitcases I brought with me stored in the hall closet. I dragged them to the wardrobe. Quickly but carefully I packed. Not the things Lucien bought for me (except my undies and nighties since I’d thrown all my old ones away seeing as the ones Lucien gave me were much nicer). Makeup. Shampoo. Lotion. Jewelry. Everything that was mine that I could see.
I shoved my phone in my bag, ran to the desk in the bedroom and grabbed my passport.
Then I dragged the bags down the stairs and didn’t look into the dining room as I rolled them right past.
r />
“Leah! Don’t! Please call Lucien! Don’t leave! If nothing else, it isn’t safe!” Edwina called after me.
I felt like a bitch. Worse than a bitch, leaving her tied there. That was mean. It was selfish. It was ugly.
But I had no choice.
I had to get away.
I had to escape.
And Lucien could be home any minute.
Edwina was a nice lady so I hoped to God one day she’d forgive me.
I went out to the Cayenne and loaded up my bags. I got in and hit the garage door opener. I buckled my seatbelt and noticed belatedly my hands were trembling.
This wasn’t the only thing trembling. My whole body was.
As were the tears in my eyes.
I forced my thoughts on what was next. Bank, drain the accounts where Lucien deposited my concubine plaything money. Find an ATM and take a maximum withdrawal from my account at home. Get out of Dragon Lake. Stop at the nearest used car dealership, ditch the Cayenne and get another car.
I made my plans then I executed them. Bank. Thank God, no line. ATM at the same place. Easy.
And as I drove out of Dragon Lake, I grabbed my cell and dialed 911.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” they answered.
“There’s been a break in…” I told them the address where to find Edwina. Then I whispered, “Hurry.”
I disconnected the call, hit the button to roll down my window and threw my cell phone out.
I didn’t know how it worked but on TV they could track you with phones.
Not mine.
Not anymore.
Lucien would hunt me and he was within his rights to kill me.
I knew I’d see him again. I knew when I did he’d be infuriated. I knew it would be done, one way or another.
Done.
Over.
And I would be free.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Secret
Lucien drove into the car park under his office building.
He was furious.
The drive to his office took well over an hour. A four car pileup causing a massive backup with subsequent delays. More times than he could count, he stopped himself from turning around and going back.
Back home.
Back to Leah.
Back to explain things to her, smooth that hideous look out of her features, the pain out of her eyes, inject the life back into her voice.
But he couldn’t. This was Gregor. Gregor was a member of The Council and with Gregor’s alliance he could assist with making Leah safe. Twice, he’d postponed a set meeting and he’d done it to spend time with Leah. He couldn’t delay again. Gregor was impatient, the meeting important, even imperative, he’d told Lucien through Avery.
He had to take the fucking meeting.
He guided the Porsche to its spot thinking she loved him. His Leah loved him.
He knew it. He knew it was happening. Not only because Stephanie warned him, Kate told him but because he felt it.
And that was why he’d done what he’d done. Selfish in the extreme but it was too beautiful, Leah’s love. Better than her beauty. Better than her smell. Even better than her blood. It was like a drug. The feeling of ecstasy. Constant, from waking until sleep and even in his dreams, having her close.
Fuck.
Fuck!
He should have talked to her as Kate asked. As a priority.
He should have talked to her.
He parked, shut the Porsche down and exited the car without delay.
He needed to get this meeting done. He needed to get back home.
Back to Leah.
I’m in love with you, Mighty Vampire Lucien.
The words pierced his brain as he closed the door to the car and he lost control. The door slammed to and the entire car shuddered and shifted four feet into the next, luckily vacant, spot.
He stared at his vehicle as it continued to rock then as it stopped. He closed his eyes, leaned into his forearms on the roof of the car and dropped his head.
Sweetling, look at me.
Please, get off me. Husky. Agonized.
Leah, sweetheart, please, look at me.
I shouldn’t have said it. Forget I said it.
Look at me.
It didn’t happen. Just wipe it from your mind. Go to your meeting. We’ll both forget it and everything will be okay. Whispered. Desperate.
Agonized. Desperate. He’d done that. He’d made her feel those things. Being selfish. Taking and forgetting he couldn’t give. Taking and forgetting his duty was to keep her safe. Taking what he couldn’t stop himself from taking and forgetting to protect her, causing her agony, just like at her Bloodletting.
He’d never forget she’d said it. He’d never be able to wipe it from his mind. It was burned there, literally for eternity.
“Fuck,” he whispered.
His eyes opened, he lifted his head and looked blindly through the car park.
Then he thought of Gregor. Not the impending meeting. Gregor’s decision five hundred years ago.
Lucien had three choices. Keep taking from Leah. Make her his mate and put her in even more danger, conceivably making their nightmares come real.
Or, for her sake, release her.
No. He had only one choice.
The last.
Fuck.
He sucked in breath, straightened from the car and eschewed the elevator in order to race up the forty flights of stairs with vampire speed. If a mortal saw him and it came to the attention of The Council, fuck it. Let them fine him. In mere hours he was losing everything.
Everything.
He slowed when he hit the hall and stayed slowed as he opened the door and moved through his busy offices. He took out his cell and turned it off in preparation for the meeting while employees nodded to him, lifted their chins, Lucien returning the gestures.
He saw Sally behind her desk through the glass wall that exposed her office. She’d been in his employ for ten years. In that time she’d met and married her husband, had two children and lost her mother. In that time, he hadn’t aged a day.
It was time to move on. Create new companies, sell his vast holdings to himself, distribute severance packages, references, let his workforce go and move. This time, he’d need to disappear, hire someone young and competent to act in his stead for twenty, thirty years. Then he’d need to go through the motions again, managing his holdings as a ghost. In sixty, seventy years, he’d resurface or perhaps continue as a phantom looking after his fortune.
He’d been considering it a while. He’d even planned to discuss the destination for their future home with Leah.
Now he decided Singapore. Magdalene had moved there three years ago. She loved it. And he’d never lived there. It was as good a place as any.
In order to protect the knowledge he was vampire, he’d done this times too numerous to count. It was a chore that was never less than trying. And every time he wished he could simply be who he fucking was and not be forced to engage in this aggravation.
He pushed through the glass doors to Sally’s outer office. Sally looked up and smiled. Then she read his face and the smile died.
Therefore, instantly, she reported, “I’ve given them coffee and bagels, told them you called and explained your delay.”
“Thank you, Sally,” he muttered, moving to the glossy, wood panel double doors that led to his office.
“Would you like fresh coffee?” she called to his back.
He’d had nothing but Leah’s blood and he’d had her blood not knowing it was the last taste of her he’d ever have. He always savored her. If he’d known, he would have taken the time to savor more. Not just her blood, all that was her when she gave it to him.
“No coffee and no interruptions,” Lucien answered, turning the knob and pushing open the door.
He took in the room before he closed the door behind him.
Cosmo leaning against the side of his desk, arms crossed, ankles crossed. St
ephanie lounging in an armchair in the seating area at the side of the room, legs crossed, coffee cup in hand. Avery and Gregor both seated on the couch, Avery’s posture relaxed but alert. Gregor, however, was lounged back like Stephanie, legs crossed, looking bored.
Lucien walked to the seating area as Cosmo pushed away from his desk and approached from the other side.
“I apologize for the delay. Traffic,” Lucien muttered, stopping at the back of the vacant armchair across from Stephanie.
“These things happen,” Gregor murmured, studying Lucien.
Lucien crossed his arms on his chest and leveled his eyes on Gregor, ignoring the others. Rude, he knew, but he didn’t give a fuck. He needed to get this done and he needed to go home and release Leah so she could begin healing from the wounds he’d willfully inflicted, enjoying every fucking second of it.
“Unfortunately I must apologize again. I know my postponements have been frustrating and today’s delay the same but the reasons for this meeting are now moot. This afternoon, I’ll be releasing Leah from her contract.”
He heard the swift hiss of Stephanie’s indrawn breath at the same time he heard Cosmo’s whispered, “What the fuck?” Both of these came with Avery growing more alert and Gregor’s gaze turning sharp.
“I’m sorry?” Gregor asked softly.
“I’m releasing Leah,” Lucien answered.
“Fucking hell, Lucien!” Stephanie snapped as she shot out of her chair. “What’s going on?”
Lucien looked to Stephanie. “It’s none of your concern.”
Her eyes got big. “None of my concern? Are you mad?”
Lucien took in a long, slow breath and held her eyes but he did not speak.
Stephanie didn’t like that, leaned forward and demanded, “Answer me! Are you mad?”
“I’ll repeat, Teffie, it’s none of your concern.”
“You are mad,” she whispered, her eyes narrowing.
“Lucien even you cannot expect to tip our culture on its head after five hundred years of convention then, weeks later, change your mind on a whim,” Cosmo put in, his voice low with anger.
Lucien’s eyes moved to Cosmo as he spoke and when he was done, he stated, “It’s not a whim.”