A Mermaid's Ransom (25 page)

"I get it. You've lived in this awful world where you couldn't count on anyone. But you do not get to do what we just did, and then sit there with that stupid, horrible arrogance and calmly state that my feelings are a phase of lust and shallow infatuation. Like I would abandon you like that. Look at me." She jerked away from him and gestured to her shirt, still in dishabille, breasts nearly exposed. She'd pulled her skirt back down when they'd sensed the disturbing presence, but her panties were in shambles in the car and his seed was damp on her thighs. His fingers had speared through her hair, mussing it, and his paint was stiff upon her skin, like a light rope restraint twining around her throat and arms. "You are a complete . . . ass."

Turning, she stomped away from him. Rationally, she understood he couldn't help it. For Goddess's sake, he put the capital letters in Dysfunctional Childhood, and had been exposed to a semblance of normalcy for less than forty-eight hours. If her feelings weren't far more involved than they should be, she could accept that. Trust took time. Even when rehabilitating a manatee, she had to win that to heal his or her wounds. Huge leaps forward could be followed by huge leaps backward.

But she wasn't detached. She knew his feelings, and his marks had tightened those ropes even further, binding her to his mind and body. Half the time she embraced his thoughts and emotions, reveling in their dark pleasures, and other times they frightened her. Anger fell somewhere in between, but she preferred it to the fear.

She was the only one who sensed that one spark within him. No matter how faint its flicker, its very existence was an indication of how strong it was, how strong it could be. She knew evil could triumph over a spark of good, no matter her influence, if the person's will was already drawn irrevocably toward that darkness. But she wasn't losing Dante to that.

Ah, Goddess.
This was impossible. She needed some way to vent. Unfortunately, she didn't have the option Clara did, arriving at Lex's town house with ice cream and Kleenex to spend a self-indulgent night lamenting a boyfriend's betrayal, berating him as a complete bastard. Yeah, she could see that happening.

See, I brought this guy back from this horrible hell-planet and he's got enough baggage to fill up a 747, but the sex is so hot I'm having a hard time kicking him to the curb. And even if I could, I can't, because I'm supposed to make sure he doesn't wreak havoc on the world . . .

When his hand closed on her wrist again, she stopped, stiffly facing away from him. He stepped around to her front, and she pivoted on her toe. Yes, it was childish, but her feelings were going to strangle her. She was all alone in this. Her father was hoping to see Dante a corpse before it was all over. Her mother was supportive, but too worried for Alexis to burden her. And Dante, he was the problem, wasn't he? It was hard to lean on the problem.

"I've upset you."

"You think?" She managed the sarcastic reply through a throat thick with tears. "Just go back to the car for a few minutes. I'll pull it together. Just leave me alone."

"No," he said. "I've upset you, and it bothers me."

She lifted her face to him then.
Damn it, Alexis, be better than this. Stronger.
Fighting out of the thicket of her own feelings, she focused on his. Confusion again, and a tugging that could be regret, if he knew to call it that. "When someone does something here that hurts your feelings, they say they're sorry." She swiped at her cheek, frustrated with more stupid tears. "And really mean it. You don't say it just so everything will be less awkward."

"Does being sorry mean I am admitting I was wrong?"

She choked on a chuckle and a sob together. It made her lungs hurt. She bent her head, pressing her forehead against his chest, and drew a deep breath. "Sometimes. Sometimes not. You can think you're right, but still be sorry that you hurt someone. I wish you didn't think you were right, though. I wish you had faith in me, in my father."

His arms slid around her. He was somewhat stiff, as if he wasn't sure how this nonsexual gesture would be received. She recalled then how he'd watched the children and parents at the craft room, and in the park. He would have noted how parents hugged their child if he fell down and cried, or was getting fussy, and as she'd said, he was quick to adapt. Swallowing, she slid her arms up his back, clutched his shirt. His arms were a comfort, as long as she could push aside the reality that he was imitating the behavior, rather than understanding what a hug was supposed to convey.

No, that wasn't true. He did have an indefinable need to soothe her, to make her happy. He truly didn't want her to cry or be angry with him. Thinking about his world, that might be a first as well, because the only reason to avoid anger in his world was to prevent physical retribution. He knew he was in no danger of that from her.

Dante eased her back from him and traced the track of a tear. "I was cruel."

When she nodded, a muscle flexed in his jaw. "I am sorry, Alexis. I . . . It is difficult for me. Your world . . ." He glanced around them. "It's so quiet here."

Alexis tuned in to the sounds of birds, the light whisper of the wind, a far away murmur of traffic. He shook his head. "You remember the roaring in the Dark One world?"

A low, incessant current of thunder, the sound of flames, punctuated by screams and shrill cries from the Dark Ones. She remembered. It was part of what had frayed her nerves while she was there, like a horror movie soundtrack on a continuous loop.

"In that world--" That muscle jumped again, and she sensed a struggle going on inside of him, something he didn't necessarily feel comfortable saying. "It was as Mina said to you. I was different, for a very long time. I was always . . . afraid. Or hurt, from whatever they were able to do to me when they caught me, which was often. But because of the Mountain Battle, many of them were gone. So I grew stronger, more determined, more clever. Eventually, I hurt them. Made them afraid of me."

His hands flexed on her arms, and when she shivered, he stepped back. "But I never stopped being on guard. Expecting to be hurt and afraid again made me determined to do whatever was necessary to keep that from happening. You don't live like that, so I can't believe you would endure much discomfort on my behalf, for no gain to yourself. But there are many things about you I have never experienced before."

He raised his hand as if to touch her, but then, as if he also remembered her flinch, he dropped it. Alexis not only felt his mental struggle, but saw it, in the flexing of his jaw, in how long the silence drew out between them before he spoke again. His voice was rough. "I have no experience with asking for anything. But I need to ask you . . . to have faith in me, as you say, until I learn what that is myself. And," he added, his voice lowering, "I may be wrong. I think it is possible your fate does matter to me. Very much."

Alexis had seen her share of male and female relationships. With her unique insights, she knew that men and women had difficulty being entirely truthful with one another, and sometimes lied to keep peace between them, to push away the problems or worries when they rubbed one another the wrong way. But even if she couldn't sense his emotions, she knew Dante didn't lie. Not about things like this.

What was the matter with her? He was struggling with feelings he'd never handled, and she was being almost as self-absorbed as he expected. She needed to--

"Do exactly as you are doing." His eyes sparked, and now he tilted her chin up to hold her gaze. "I learned how to fight by being beaten, Alexis. I learned how to steal by being hungry. I learned how to seek out power by being helpless. Perhaps the only way I can learn about these emotions you experience is by running afoul of them. And," he added, his face hardening, "I strongly dislike the idea of you treating me like one of your wounded animals. I allowed this." He touched the collar with distaste. "But I will not be treated as inferior or weak, someone not deserving your full respect. You will not be successful in being emotionally detached from me. I will not permit it."

He was so difficult to keep up with. It was a struggle to get her mind around the alternating currents of emotions, some anger, some far deeper, coaxing her into the darkness of his soul where she sometimes became as lost as he might be. He was on target, though. To do this right, she couldn't be emotionally detached, so she had to accept and deal with her own turbulent surf. The hug had been new for him, but she'd sensed he'd liked it.

"I like the way your body relaxed into mine," he confirmed. "It was different from what we did before."

"It's affection," she explained. "The desire to touch for emotional connection. Which the other has as well," she added with a touch of a flush rising in her cheeks, "But this is . . . quieter."

"Like holding hands," he said shrewdly. She nodded. "What other things show affection?"

"You saw some of them today, between the parents and children."

"I am more interested what those who know each other as we have do."

"Oh. Well, all right. Can you hold still?" At his amusingly wary nod, she rose on tiptoe to reach his face. Putting a hand against his cheek, she slid her fingertips into his hair, slow and easy. Then she laid her lips on his. True to his word, he remained immobile as she brushed his mouth in a tender caress and then went back to her heels again. "Gentle kisses like those can be another way. Then there's lying together, without sex. I see lovers all the time lying on blankets on the beach at sunrise, watching the tide roll in and out. Spooning together, dozing." She gave him that image in her mind, and was intrigued by the flicker of interest in his eyes. "Lovers also do things for companionship. Read or watch TV, playing games and sports together. If there's emotion beyond merely sex, you want to spend time with that person."

"Like us at the craft room?"

"Yes and no," she said, managing a strained smile.
Keep the fantasy away from the reality, Lex.
"In our case, that was getting you used to things here, so it's functional first, rather than romantic." As his gaze strayed lower, Alexis cleared her throat. "I guess I better put myself back together if we're going to go other places today."

"That might be wise," came a voice behind them.

Twenty

DANTE and Alexis turned together to see Mina leaning against the car. The black-haired witch was in human form, of course, clad in a velvet skirt and a T-shirt printed with two lop-eared rabbits sleeping amid a cluster of purple violets. Her long hair was braided down her back. She looked like a college student with a bohemian fashion sense, as long as one didn't look at her bicolored eyes, or the fathomless layers of power residing in them.

Her glance passed over Alexis, dismissing her state of dress, though Alexis self-consciously refastened her clothes and gave a tug to bring her bra back in place. Mina focused on Dante instead.

"We've located a vampire who might have known your mother. We're here to take you to her."

Dante turned defensively as David landed a few feet behind him. While the angel spent enough time with Mina in Nevada that Alexis often saw him in casual human clothes like the witch was wearing now, today he was with his Legion, for the short red half-tunic he wore as a battle skirt and wide belt were his only garments. Unless one counted the weapons harness that held his daggers. Alexis wondered if the display was to keep Dante mindful of his manners, or something else.

"The vampire we're going to see is one of the most powerful of her kind," Mina said, picking up the direction of her thoughts. "It's important at least one of us appears worthy of the audience."

David's mouth tugged in a slight smile. "I tried to convince her to wear striped stockings and a pointy hat."

The humor eased Alexis's concerns, but she could see the tension in Dante and slid her hand into his. "I'll go with you."

"No, you won't. Your parents want to see you." Mina straightened from the car. "Dealing with your father is a pain in my ass. Go ease their concerns."

"She is not yours to command, witch," Dante said sharply.

"As my goddaughter, the right is more mine than yours." Mina's gaze flashed. "Do not press me, vampire."

"Stop," Alexis interrupted. "Mina, my parents will certainly understand if I go see them tomorrow. How can I help if I'm not allowed to be with him when he learns more about who he is?"

"He can tell you when he gets back. There is some danger involved in this." Mina's expression reflected irony at Dante's forbidding expression. "Vampires are not highly social outside their own kind, and can be unpredictable, the oldest ones most of all."

"More than a witch with Dark One blood?"

Mina's gaze snapped back to Alexis. Some of her courage withered under that stare, but she managed to keep her chin up, her expression resolute. She thought she heard a muffled chuckle from David. "You'll be with us, right? Please let me go with him, Mina. This is about Pyel, isn't it? He didn't want me to go."

"You underestimate the power of your mother's guilt. When she wields it, it's a weapon even more formidable than your father's overly eager sword." Mina sighed irritably. "Fine. Go, then. But you go as an observer only. Be silent unless spoken to."

"I will permit no harm to come to her," Dante declared.

The witch gave him a gimlet eye. "You know nothing of what you are about to face, so you have no idea if you can protect her or not."

"He can," Alexis said firmly. "With the three of you, I couldn't be safer."

"We go to see the eldest of the vampire kind. Assume nothing." Mina began to etch a circle around them, presumably to transport them to the vampire in question.

As Alexis retrieved Dante's drawing, locked the car then returned to the circle, she sensed Dante's tension had moved to what lay ahead. She took his hand again, risking that he might pull away. While he didn't, his fingers were tense, unresponsive, his body prepared for the possibility of another threat. It made it all the more critical she go with him.

You're going to find out more about your kind, Dante. That's a good thing. And I
will
have faith in you. Try to have faith in yourself.

It will not be my kind. No species welcomes half-breeds.

MINA grouped them around her and ordered everyone to grip her arms, Dante and Alexis's hands on her right, David's on her left. Alexis noticed his thumb caressed his mate's elbow, then Mina uttered a short enchantment and the world spun.

She knew the witch was powerful, but her command of magic was always breathtaking in its effortlessness. While there was the brief sensation of traveling in a tunnel, it was barely a blink of time, before it was over. Alexis swayed, disoriented, as they materialized outside a wrought iron gate.

"We're at Lady Lyssa's Atlanta home," Mina explained. The gate buzzed, as if someone was watching for their arrival, and she pushed it open, guiding them in. Dusk was drawing in, but the drive was well lit, leading them up a paved, long driveway to a plantation house with graceful columns and stunning roses clustered along the borders and against the foundation of the estate. "She's of royal blood," Mina was continuing, "the last queen of the Far East clan of vampires, and over a thousand years old. I'd be careful of that attitude of yours." She shot Dante a warning glance. "Much as I'd enjoy seeing her knock it out of you, the point is to find out about your mother and background. Her willingness to help can vanish if she's provoked."

In response, Dante stopped and spun on his heel, bringing Alexis behind him in the same movement. He'd removed the sunglasses for the transport, and now his eyes glowed like embers in the shadows of twilight, light glistening off bared fangs.

When an ominous pair of growls answered out of the darkness, David put his hands to his daggers and stepped in front of Mina, presenting a solid male front.

A short command and the growling subsided. A man stepped out of the darkness with two Irish wolfhounds at his heels. Tall and handsome, with reddish-brown hair and blue eyes, his aura, similar to Dante's, told Alexis they were facing a vampire. While he wore jeans and a T-shirt, it was deceptively casual, like Mina's. It would be unwise to overlook the vibrant focus of his eyes, the otherworldly strength emanating from the lean body.

"You asked to meet with my lady as guests, but your behavior suggests something different," he said, a faint Irish lilt in his voice. Though there were a variety of powers before him, he accurately kept his gaze pinned on Dante as the most unpredictable threat. "I'd take the witch's advice and tone it down, if you have any desire to meet with her."

"He's new to your ways," Alexis spoke up. But when she moved to stand beside Dante, he blocked her.

Stay where you are, and do not speak, Alexis.

"Which is why I gave him the courtesy of the warning," the other vampire replied. He changed his attention to Mina, though he paused for an intrigued assessment of David, particularly the one black and one white wing the angel possessed. "I'm Jacob, Lady Lyssa's servant. We spoke before."

"I figured." Mina nodded. "She's correct. Dante isn't used to being around your kind . . . or anyone much other than Dark Ones. He's not housebroken."

"Which means, like the dogs, he won't be permitted into my house until he learns manners." The shadows moved, and materialized into a woman.

Lex, still getting her mind wrapped around the idea that Lady Lyssa had a vampire as her servant, rather than a human, tilted further on her axis. The woman in front of her had a vampire vibration, but it was like a memory. Something far different and more conspicuous ran through her veins.

Lex was used to being around powerful entities. Mina was probably the strongest, with her father a close second, close enough she'd always hoped they would never be on opposing battle lines. While the vampire queen was not on par with those two, there was a heady, exotic perfume to the forces that swirled around her that gave Alexis pause. Jacob's energy imprint meshed unexpectedly with them, as if they shared the same power source. Apart, she wouldn't want to anger either of them. Together, she suspected they could have an impact similar to a category five hurricane.

Aside from the powers of destruction she might harbor, Lyssa had another potent weapon. Long black hair and jade eyes with a hint of Asian ancestry complimented a petite, graceful frame that emitted an overwhelming wave of sensuality. While the two males remained in alert posture, a simmering violence from Dante and calm readiness from David, Alexis picked up an additional attentiveness toward the vampire queen that made her grimace.

Surprisingly, Lady Lyssa ignored Dante and Alexis, riveted on David instead. Lex remembered how Jacob had paused on his wings, and now her jade eyes focused there as well, only for a more lingering regard. "How amazing," the vampire queen noted at last. "A thousand years, and there is always more to see. I remember the Mountain Battle, of course, and saw your kind then, but there was little time to observe you before you were gone. Would you be offended if I touched one of your wings?"

Her tone remained as royal and remote as if she'd commanded it, but David shook his head and stepped forward several paces. He stretched out the white one, so it curved forward over his bare shoulder. Alexis noted that the position kept him facing both Jacob and Lyssa. His left hand remained on the hilt of one of his daggers. Jacob noted it as well, for he stepped forward, closer to his lady.

"I mean her no harm if she does none to me or mine," David said.

"I would say the same."

David nodded, the two males apparently in accord. Lex glanced at Dante. He was radiating the most tension of the group. It wasn't hard to understand why. They were surrounded by incredibly potent energies. Dante's might be at a lower decibel, but possessed a far more erratic tempo, which she suspected was why Jacob's regard remained on him, even with a watchful eye on David.

Lyssa laid her hand on the wing, stroking her finger through the feathers. A look of wonder appeared on her face as she glanced toward Jacob. "You can feel the heat coming from them, the light energy." Drifting down, she followed the feathers to the ends and grazed David's forearm, the silver arm brace he wore there, engraved with praises to the Goddess. The opposite one had a dragon engraving, which Alexis knew was his tribute to Mina. Lyssa cocked her head, as if someone had spoken to her, and her eyes glinted.

"My mate says I cannot resist touching," she said.

"Try."

Mina's voice was every bit as remote as the vampire queen's, but there was a power resonance to it that shuddered through the ground, sending a chill breeze rippling through the trees above them. It shifted Jacob's attention from Dante to Mina instantly. Alexis was so accustomed to Mina's general scariness, it was a surprise to see Jacob had assumed David and Dante were the ones to be reckoned with, overlooking who the strongest force for destruction was in this gathering. Lyssa's gaze had locked with the witch's. After a long, testing moment, she inclined her head with a feral smile and withdrew her hand. Alexis admired her unruffled demeanor.

"You are most fortunate. Things are not always as they seem." The vampire queen gave David a second, more assessing look. "But then, who holds the reins isn't always about who has the most power, is it?"

Mina blinked once. "No, it's not. But either one of us is more than capable of curing you of your need to touch."

The queen laughed then, a silvery sound that whispered along nerve endings and made Alexis think of secret desires, caresses in the dark. "Your power is great, witch, but you cannot have a jewel like that and not expect him to be desired." She glanced then toward her mate, meeting Jacob's intent blue eyes, her gaze lingering on his serious mouth. "I have no designs on your mate, except for how the pleasure of his body makes me think of the pleasure of the one that belongs to me."

Now her gaze returned to Dante, and Alexis's stomach tightened with anxiety. "You are vampire, and yet other," she observed. She glanced at Alexis. "And you are his fully marked servant. The form of it is different, because of the Dark One blood. Or perhaps because of what
you
are."

Dante shifted, blocking her view, and Lyssa came back to him. "Your face is familiar," she said.

"We have a drawing of his mother." Alexis spoke up again, but when she tried to move out of Dante's shadow once more, he recaptured her arm, only this time his grip was less controlled, biting into the bone like a bear trap. She gasped, and if she'd held the paper in that hand she would have dropped it.

"Ease off." The warning came from Jacob and David at the same time. Lyssa stepped forward, but whatever she communicated to Jacob stayed his forward progress. Alexis bit her lip against the pain, trying to control her reaction so things didn't escalate. The challenge from both males had Dante's power rushing to the forefront like an approaching torpedo, alarms blaring louder and faster in her head. Mina might have been correct, that her presence was more detrimental than useful here. The smell of singed flesh told her the collar was working. She wasn't sure if she was more concerned about it hurting Dante, or Mina realizing how little of a deterrent it was to him.

Lyssa cocked her head, her expression that dispassionate mask that Alexis knew could hide so much. She felt little from the queen but calm readiness, however. "A vampire's servant is his to command, Dante. To punish if he sees fit. But there is a bond there that should never be abused. It is the one constant in a vampire's life. Do you understand me? Of course you don't. But you will." She held out her hand. "You are trying to protect her, but maiming her is not the way to do it. Release her and let her hand me this picture."