A Mermaid's Ransom (20 page)

He didn't speak in her mind or say anything to confirm or deny as he returned, but she'd already noted how little he spoke unless addressed directly, or he felt a command or directive was needed. Where Dante had been, idle chitchat wasn't a way to pass the time; scoping his surroundings for threat and information was. While she wondered what he gathered about her place, she considered how many years it would take him to relax and enjoy a setting, rather than assessing it. She'd seen police officers from urban war zones do the same when supposedly relaxing with family at a park or restaurant.

If Clara didn't speak, she was going to scream. There was nothing definitive coming from her yet, though. The girl had curled up in Lex's papasan chair to listen while Lex sat on the bed. She had her arms wrapped around her knees, her chin on them, eyes downcast as she thought.

Lex turned her attention back to Dante. The sunglasses they'd picked up, along with the silence of his emotions, made him disturb ingly unreadable.
Are you okay?

Instead of replying, he rose and moved across her room to the pile of stuffed animals. Squatting in front of them, he reached out and touched Eeyore's wide, pink plush nose. Then he closed his hand over the creature's entire face and lifted the toy, holding it in both hands. The two stared at one another, Eeyore with soulful, sad plastic eyes, and Dante in sunglasses, just as monochrome in his expression.

"I always knew it was something." Clara spoke at last. Alexis snapped her attention back to her. "I'm glad I finally know."

Easy as that, the girl uncoiled from the chair to lean forward and cover Lex's hand with her own. "Mind you, for the next few days, I'm going to be thinking 'no freaking way.' It'll take a little bit to get my mind around it. But I think if that angel comes and stands in the corner of my bedroom, it will help me accept the situation more quickly."

Lex grinned, squeezing her fingers hard in response, holding her friend's gaze long enough to convey her gratitude. What came from Clara were the same waves of friendship and love she'd always shared, laced with a liberal curiosity Lex was sure meant she'd eventually have a million questions to answer. "Trust me, stick with Greek professors. Much easier to deal with."

Clara smiled back, but as her gaze moved to Dante, her sober expression returned. "Lex . . ." She bit her lip, obviously realizing there was no way to speak her concerns, because Lex had made it clear that Dante was in her head. Not to mention he was in the same room.

"I know what you see, Clara." Lex retained her hand. "Trust me. The Dark Ones are terrible beings. Until about twenty years ago, it was assumed that any of their offspring were just as evil. But my godmother is a Dark Spawn. There is a terrible darkness to her, but a great goodness as well, a strong power she used to save the world before you and I were born. My gift is feeling emotions. Most of the time I know what he feels as he's feeling it. He's not evil."
Just a tad dangerous and unpredictable right now
, she added to herself silently.

"So when he gets a sudden urge to murder you, you'll know right ahead of time?" Though Clara muttered it, the ominous presence behind Alexis flickered with warning, no matter his apparently harmless examination of her stuffed animal collection.

"Dante won't hurt me. Not on purpose."

"He's . . . like you. I can't feel anything from him. He's got psychic shields like Fort Knox."

"I know. Sometimes I have a hard time reading him as well. It's like his emotions are all there, but they're a big ball of yarn."

"Leave it to you to pick the most complex male in the whole universe." Lex was relieved to feel Clara push back her worry. "What can I do?"

"Well, I'd kind of like you two to meet each other formally." But when Alexis shifted around, she stopped, blinking.

He'd picked up several more animals, and was bringing them to his face, rubbing the soft fur there. Giving Clara a reassuring look, she rose, circled the bed and kneeled next to him. As he looked toward her, she slid the glasses off his face, because she wanted to see the swirling flame of his eyes. "These are toys," he said.

She nodded. He held Tigger in one hand and Pooh in the other, Eeyore balanced on his knees. Alexis took the Eeyore and closed her arms around the donkey, giving him a hug. "I sleep with him sometimes. His sad eyes make me feel better if I feel lonely."

He took that one back from her. It should have looked odd, the tall man with a stern expression and frightening eyes holding a trio of stuffed animals, but the wave of jumbled responses from him told her differently. He studied Eeyore. "You hold him while you sleep. In one of those large shirts that hides your body." His distaste for that was so obvious she caught Clara's surprised quirk of mouth.

"Yes. They're comfortable."

"Mmm."
He brought the Eeyore back to his face, stroked the plush once again across his jaw. When he leaned forward, Alexis held still as he rubbed his jaw against her skin, his nose teasing her hair.

"I'm not as soft and furry," she attempted to smile, though her heart was in her throat.

He shook his head, leaned back. "Just as soft, a different way. There is nothing soft, where I am from. The closest to it are not close at all. They are . . ."

"Squishy?" she supplied helpfully. He nodded.

"Yes. Many of them bite, or their skin is poisoned." Dropping Tigger to the floor, he ran a thumb over her bottom lip, then down her throat to the vee of her shirt. As if Clara's presence was inconsequential, he grazed his knuckles over the rise of her breast. "If I sleep with you in my arms, will I feel less lonely?"

"I hope so. I don't want you to be lonely anymore. Ever again." Her passion surprised her, rising hot and sure from her heart. Also unexpected was a sudden surge of anger toward Mina. Why had she left him there?

"She owed me nothing." He cocked his head, his gaze penetrating. "Neither do you. Why do you help me, Alexis? What is it you wish from me, other than the pleasure of my body?"

Alexis's face flamed. Clara cleared her throat. "
Er
, do you want me to take off now? I do have a Chem test, but if there's anything you need from me . . ."

Alexis straightened, and Dante rose with her, blocking her way. "You did not answer me." The crimson eyes flamed in warning, though she'd already felt the darkness swell within him, goaded in some way by the direction of his thoughts, his question. Clara registered it as well, for she was casting about for something to use as a weapon.

Dante turned on his heel. Lex caught his sleeve. "No, she doesn't mean you any harm. She's--"

Curling his lip he hissed, showing off the prominent fangs, and giving Clara a direct view of his otherworldly gaze. The girl gasped, but she held her ground, closing her hands into fists. "You try to hurt her, you'll have to take us both."

"No one is hurting anyone." Alexis kept a firm grasp on Dante's sleeve, though she knew that would be no physical deterrent at all. Fear flooded her.
Please, don't hurt her. Dante, why are you angry?

He vibrated with barely leashed violence, so malevolent everything in Alexis demanded she withdraw her hand and escape the room with Clara. Instead, she tightened her grip.
You're scaring me. Scaring us both. We've been through this before. You're much stronger and faster than either one of us. You could kill us before we could blink. We're not a threat. Please stop.

Slowly, some of the tension left the arm beneath her grip. He held his gaze on Clara's pale face another second before he turned his attention back to Lex. "I want her to leave," he said.

"She's my friend. She wants to be sure I'm okay, and safe."

"I will protect you."

"Yeah, that's definitely the impression I just got. You can't control what's in you," Clara retorted. "She just told me Dark One blood is hard to contain. How do you know for sure you won't hurt her? What's stopping you?"

"Clara," Alexis said sharply. "Don't." Goddess, why was Clara goading him?

"This." He tapped the steel on his neck with a short, jerky movement. "A collar to contain the beast's madness, until she decides I am useless and they kill me. That is why her motives are important to me."

"Please look at me, then. Let me answer you." Alexis held her breath until he stared down into her face. Those eyes could laser right through her flesh, open her up, but she held his gaze. "You have a right to live here, not to be trapped in a Dark One world. The collar is for your protection."

"I need no protection," he snarled, and Clara jumped. "I need nothing. I got here--"

"Because I risked my life to pull you through," she shot back. "Because I believe you have a right to live. Why isn't that enough of a reason for you?"

"Because no one risks their life like that. No one."

"You did. For your mother."

He went still then, his body turning into a rigid statue. In contrast, the energy building around him eased off enough that Lex dared to look at Clara. "I'm all right," she said calmly. "I'll call you tomorrow if I can. Okay?"

Please don't argue, she thought, not sure if she could talk Dante down from that ledge when he was still standing so close to it. "Okay," her friend responded after a tense pause. "But I'm close by if you need me."

"I know." Alexis sent her a distracted smile. She held her focus on Dante as Clara left the room, and they heard the door close.

"You know nothing of that," he said.

"Yes, I do. I felt it, when you spoke of her, when you said you killed her. Feelings are a map, Dante. Even though yours are pretty tangled, a few of them come through so strong they practically come with pictures. They chained her, you said. She kept you alive by letting you feed on her. They tortured her, used her. And one day, despite the fact you knew you would be punished for it, you couldn't bear it any longer. Her mind was gone, broken, and so you ended her life. They hurt you badly for it, but they didn't kill you, though you wished they had, for a while. You had nothing to gain for yourself by taking her life."

"You are wrong. I did not like the way her pain made me feel. So I killed her, and felt better." But Dante shifted his glance back to the stuffed animals.
Toys. Things given to children and even adults for amusement, comfort.
Earlier, he'd heard Lex's thoughts, wondering how to teach him about emotions he'd never experienced. Some of them were apparently imprinted on the soul at birth, because coming in contact with them now was like the return of sensation in extremities long ago frozen, burned or even amputated. The thawing of this memory brought sharp agony, almost worse than physical torment.

He hadn't wanted to remember the reasons he took his mother's life. He'd blocked out everything but the actual deed, that savage thrust into his mother's heart with the blackwood stake he'd sharpened. He'd hacked off her head as well, using his fangs as needed, so there was no way they could revive her. They'd likely eaten her, but he never knew. They were removing her chains when he was first beaten to unconsciousness, the last escape he experienced from pain for a long time after that.

She hadn't been lucid in months, his mother. The last time she'd spoken to him, recognized him as her son and not one of the Dark Ones, she'd said little. Simply shuddered with pain and repeated the name he'd chosen for himself, over and over. He'd curled up at her feet, laying his head against her bare thigh. She never minded him staying close, though most times the Dark Ones drove him away from her. They only let him feed off her blood while they violated her, and they made sure he was so ravenous he couldn't refuse his own hunger. He'd had to shut his ears to her cries of pain as he was drinking, the grunting of the Dark One and rapid flap of leathery wings. She would speak in his mind, the one thing they couldn't take from them, and tell him it was all right, to take his fill, even though her thoughts were broken into halting pieces by her own agony.

Why had she never given him a name herself? Or had she, and she just refused to tell him, not wanting to give him something else they could take away?

"Dante."

Somehow he'd gone back to the stuffed animals. Alexis was kneeling next to him. He gripped one of the toys, the yellow bear with a red shirt and a bewildered expression.

"I'm hungry," he said without inflection. It was the only certain thing.

Taking the bear from him with gentle hands, she rose to her feet and drew him with her. Sitting down on the bed, she moved her lustrous fall of brown hair over her right shoulder, baring the left to him as she pulled her shirt off of it.

Instead of accepting that offer, he put a knee on the bed and took her to her back. He curved a hand over her throat, holding her down and feeling the pulse of her life beneath his palm as she stared up at him. She didn't know what he was going to do, and that worried her a little, but she was choosing to trust him, a decision that angered and aroused him at once.

"Lift your skirt so I can see your cunt," he said crudely. Her flush, the way she moistened her lips, goaded him further.

"I like your touch," she whispered against his hold.

"Do as I say."

Gathering up the hem of her skirt, she worked it up until he saw the swatch of panties covering the plump line of her sex. As he watched, a drop of moisture bloomed on the silken crotch.

It inflamed him, her trust, her desire. He bent, increasing his grip at her throat as he closed his mouth over the filmy cloth, tasting her through it. Emitting one of those gasps that rippled through him, hardened his cock, she arched up into his face. He rubbed his cheek along the tender flesh of her inner thigh, pressed the points of his canines into softness, hearing the rush of the femoral artery.

Spread your legs wider for me.

She trembled, but complied. Savage monsters rose from the darkness of his subconscious, but they didn't intend to harm or kill. They simply wanted, with an avarice concentrated on this moment only, this room. They wanted to drain not only her blood, but the life energy that swirled through her, warming him, confusing him.