Blood Life Seeker (34 page)

“Who are you?” And somehow I managed to keep my voice level, no fear. Must be years of practice.

“It doesn't matter who I am. But, if you stop us tonight, you will not have your prayers answered. You want free of her, let us go about our plans unhindered.”

You'd think I'd be tempted. He was of course talking about the Champion. If I could have her killed off by someone other than myself, then maybe, just maybe, the
Iunctio
would stop gunning for my death. But, I'm not stupid, I may have wanted to believe that, but I knew better. There are twelve members of the
Iunctio's
High Council and I've only met four, including Gregor. The two vampires with the Champion earlier tonight, were undoubtedly council members. The Diviner, I now knew, but the other one, I didn't even have his name yet and there was still so many more to meet. Somehow, I didn't think the death of the Champion was necessarily going to make the others less threatened by me remaining alive. At least right now the Champion couldn't rightly kill me, or pass an order to have me killed. Nut would make sure she didn't succeed.

So, scary monster here didn't have a convincing argument for the lives of five human beings.

He must have seen something on my face, I was slipping, getting tired and not controlling my facial features as well as I usually do. It was not a good sign. But he tensed slightly, looked surprised and then simply threw the human he was holding up and over the side of the railing.

It all happened in slow motion. The unconscious body floating up through the air, like a loose limbed manikin; arms flailing, legs spreading wide out of control, head lolling back and then it was out of sight. I screamed and ran towards the vampire, shouting in my head for Gregor to catch the body before it hit the ground.

He hesitated, not wanting to leave me, but felt my panic at the loss of a human life and so flew. He was out of sight over the side of the
Arc
in a blink and I was already on the vampire in front of me.

Of course, it was what he had planned. Get rid of Gregor and then it's five to one. The one being me, one stake in my hand, one Nosferatin and five master vampires. The others dropped their dinners, not throwing them over the side, simply dropping them at their feet on the roof. Where they lay perfectly still, even those conscious, not daring to move.

I managed to get my stake across the leader's chest, ripping his shirt and laying a gash in his flesh, before he flung me backwards. I think he was surprised, perhaps none of the French Nosferatin have been joined, or perhaps my strength and speed is much more now, that he hadn't expected it. I'm guessing he did his homework and knew what to expect when he entered the city, but he hadn't expected me.

I spun in the air as I flew backwards from his thrust and landed a direct hit on an approaching vampire before hitting the ground. Dust swelled around me like a blizzard. The other vampires paused. This was
so
not what they had expected. I centred myself quickly, gathering my strength and pushing out to the side as a vampire regained composure and rushed me from the left. I pushed off to the right in a spin through the air, away from his claws and teeth. My feet leaving the roof top, my body suspended in mid air, my arms in tight against my chest, as the world spun around me.

It's a nifty trick, one Nero can do with ease, but has taken me a little longer to perfect. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't, but when it does, boy, do the vamps go crazy. I have to admit, the first time I watched Nero do this spin thing, my mouth was open and I was frozen to the spot in utter disbelief. I had no idea we were capable of such a beautiful move and judging by the expressions of the vampires around me, neither did they.

I sensed, rather than saw, Gregor land on the rooftop to the left of me. I could almost feel the weight of his eyes on my body, but distractions are bad, when spin fighting, so I blocked him out and thrust out my right hand, the one holding the stake, as I passed a vampire, connecting with his chest and dancing in the air again a split second later, before he'd even burst into dust. It was as if I hadn't even paused for a breath.

By this time the other vampires had woken from their shocked state and started to round on me. Gregor grabbed the one that had come up to me on my left before I did my spin routine and simply twisted his head right off. That'll do it every time. Either a silver stake to the heart, or decapitation. Both work. I'm more of a traditionalist though, so I avoid the head off the shoulders thing. I'm not even sure I have the strength, but truthfully, I've never tried, so I can't be sure. But with that one swift motion, the vampire Gregor had parted from his head, burst into dust, followed shortly thereafter by the head itself.

So, three down, two to go. My next vampire just happened to be the leader and he was ready. He'd had time to adjust to the sight of me spinning, to gauge me speed and trajectory and he simply flung a hand out at the right moment, connecting with my arm and making me lose the grip on my stake. The momentum causing it to spin across the roof top to the corner and the force of his strike making me crash to the ground in a heap. Gregor of course, was busy with the other vampire, who seemed to be better at hand to hand combat than the others and was keeping Gregor's attention away from me.

That just left me and leader vamp. And I was on the ground. Not the best place to be, trust me. He flew at me and I mean literally flew, like superman, horizontal to the rooftop floor. I braced myself, as best I could, but the weight of his body still threw me off balance and sent me flying out beneath him, crashing my head against the concrete parapet, making stars appear before my eyes and a wave of nausea flush up my body. I gasped, but couldn't see straight, everything blurring and on a tilt. It didn't matter, I knew what was going to happen next, I'd seen this movie. Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt to prove it too.

Leader Vamp picked me up like I weighed as much as a bag of potato crisps. One handed too, just to rub it in some more. His free hand going to my head, pulling it sideways by my hair. Why do they always grab the hair? Sadistic bastards. Serves me right, I should cut it, or at least tie it back, but I can't. If you want to threaten me with something, don't make it my death, make it the chopping of my hair. That'll work every time. His fangs slid out in a menacing flick and he smiled at the look in my face.

“I don't know what you are, Nosferatin, but you are no more.”

If he had just gone in for the bite, I may have remained in shock and not fought him, but the snide comment was like a mental slap to the face and my own smart-ass personality rose to the bait, like a hungry little fish.

“Right back at you, vampire.”

I raised my hand to his face, covering his nose and mouth and almost his eyes. My hands are small, his face a bit bigger, so I couldn't cover it all, but it would do. It would do nicely. I centred myself, while he laughed and slowly pushed against my hand, his fangs pricking my palm. But, he wasn't even bothering to seek blood, he wanted the neck and thought he could have it despite my hand in his face. And then, I gathered all my Light towards me, holding it close. This time when I sent it out, it wasn't with lust, or desire, or a sexual need. It wasn't even a safety, or a warmth, or a love, or a happiness. This vampire had only Darkness in him, the Light took over and I was no longer in control. It responded to his Darkness with a Light just as bright and crashed through his shields to get to him.

I'm not sure I would have killed, not like this. With a stake, for sure, but with my Light? No. I didn't want to use it that way again. I have before, twice, both times as my absolute last line of defence, rather like now. But, I had sworn that I would never place myself in that same position again, never cause the death of another simply with my Light. It was wrong. The Light to me meant everything good in this world, good things don't kill. But, it was as if I was no longer in the driver's seat and the Light just whispered through my mind,
You tried little one, now let me do this last.

I think I screamed
No!
I think I tried to remove my hand, tried to push the vampire away for real this time, using both arms and my legs, but it was too late. The Light had already left me, it had already done what it had set out to do. The vampire shone an iridescent rainbow of colours and simply burst apart, floating down around me as dust.

I heard myself saying, “No. No. No. No. No.” Over and over again softly, under my breath as I frantically tried to gather the vampire's dust together in my hands, as if that would bring him back to life.

Gregor was beside me calling my name, trying to grab my hands out of the pile of dust in front of me, but I kept pushing him away, kept trying to get to all the dust. Trying to mould it back together like you would
Play Doh
,
but it wasn't working. Nothing would.

“It's not meant to kill. It's not meant to kill. It's good, not bad. It's not meant to kill.” I almost groaned the words out.

Gregor had managed to get my arms under control and had pulled me into his lap, rocking me, soothing me, kissing my cheek and neck, whispering, “It's OK. It's OK. It's OK.” Over and over, trying to drown out my words, making me hear his and bringing me back to reality.

I stopped saying useless words, stopped crying wasted tears and just sunk into his arms in defeat. For the first time since I had found my Light, I didn't like it much.

For the first time, I really wished I was dead.

Gregor handled the clean-up. Getting a few from his line to tend to the humans, to get them to hospital, so we could escape without the
Iunctio
knowing I was out of the
Palais
. He carried me down the stairs and got me settled in the back of the car, the one with the same driver, who didn't look at me, who pretended I didn't exist at all. Maybe if he didn't look at me it would be easier to lie when faced with an
Iunctio
council member trying to find the truth. Whatever, I didn't care. I didn't care about much really.

Warm arms wrapped around me on the back seat of the car pulling me close. I couldn't fight, nor did I want to, being held sounded about OK. I was finding it difficult to feel much of anything though. I could feel his warmth, his breath against my head, but I couldn't feel enough to care, or not to care.

I heard Gregor tell the driver to just drive, anywhere, but keep driving. He didn't want to take me back to the
Palais
like this. I understood. I vaguely acknowledged I needed to pull myself together. I just didn't know how. I didn't even know where to begin.

He softly lifted me up in his arms, sitting me across his lap, kind of like a child, but I couldn't even get angry about that. It just was. His hands pushing my hair out of my eyes, touching my face, stroking my now dry cheeks. I couldn't even get upset enough to cry.

“Are you in there, Lucinda?”

I just nodded.

“I don't believe you. Come back to me.”

I didn't say or do anything, just sat on his lap and breathed. I thought that was pretty clever actually. Breathing.

He sighed and said softly, “Forgive me,
ma cherie
.”

Then his lips met mine, softly at first, a little hesitantly, then more demanding, more hungry, more forceful. I vaguely thought,
how nice
and then shut the door on that feeling too. It was too strong, I didn't want to feel. To feel would be to remember what I had just done and I didn't want that. That would be bad.

But Gregor is nothing if not persistent and he slipped my jacket off my shoulders letting it fall to the footwell between the seats and ran his hands up my arms, into my hair and back down again. All the while devouring me with his soft mouth and warm tongue. When I didn't respond he lay me down on the long seat, pressing his body on top of mine, biting gently on my neck. No fangs, just teeth, not breaking flesh, just marking gently, trying to get a response. I didn't fight him, I didn't want him to stop, but I also wasn't participating. Just existing right now was OK.

He groaned in frustration. “Come on, Lucinda. Don't make me take this further. Fight back.”

I just looked at him, not taking him in, just seeing him, but not
seeing
him, if you know what I mean. He lowered his head against my chest for a moment breathing hard, then lifted it to see the driver flicking a glance in the rear view mirror. His hand came down on the button that made the divider rise up and block his view of us, and he turned to me with liquid silver swirling in his eyes.

“I am not complaining, little Hunter, but usually you are slightly more of a challenge than this. I like challenges, I like them a lot. So, why don't you come out and play, for me. Make me work for this, Lucinda, don't just hand it to me on a platter. Make me want to take you. Make it worth my while.”

His eyes flashed and I felt something stir inside me, just a little swirl of desire, just a hint of something more than nothing. He smiled and slowly removed my T-Shirt, up over my head, throwing it away in the corner on the other seat.

His eyes travelled down from mine, taking in my bare skin, across my clavicle, down between my breasts, over my stomach, my arms and back up to my eyes. His held a challenge. Part of me knew what he was asking, but I wasn't there yet, I couldn't open my mouth, let alone form the words. So, he slid his hand behind my back and undid my bra, slowly, so slowly, sliding the fabric away, to bare me completely from the hips up. He sucked in a breath at the sight of me, platinum now swirling in with the silver.

“Stop me, Lucinda. Stop me.” It was whispered, not convincingly, he didn't really want to stop, but I still couldn't find the energy to fight. His head came down between my breasts. His lips lightly touching my skin, tongue lashing out in a wet streak, hot breath sending shivers across the path his tongue had left and I realised I
was
feeling. And it was better than OK, it was good. And it wasn't making me remember, it was filling me with other thoughts and other images, all mine, all OK, if not a little naughty, but perfectly good, in a healthy have-a-sexy-vampire-lavishing-attention-on-me kind of way.

I let a breath of air out. “Gregor.”

His head came up and his eyes met mine. “Do you wish for me to stop?”

And that's a doozy of a question right there, because (1) I so did not want him to stop, but (2) This was wrong, I was with Michel and sure he had just fed off another woman, but I had kind of forced him into it, so I said, “Yes.” And immediately wanted to take it back.

“That,
ma petite chasseuse
, is more like it.” He wasn't angry, he was perhaps a little disappointed, but I think also relieved. And part of me realised, he didn't want to just take from me, he wanted me to offer it willingly, on my terms.

I thought a lot better of him in that instant.

He turned away from me and handed me my T-Shirt and bra. I quickly got myself in order and sat back on my side of the seat. He turned back, sensing I was presentable again, a small smile playing on his lips.

“You had me worried there.”

I let a little huff out, a semi laugh. I must be doing better. “What, you didn't want to lose your virtue so easily?”

His smile widened. “I have pictured the moment many times and in all of them, you were doing more than just lying there. Trust me, the reality just now did not fit the fantasy. I want the fantasy.”

His eyes bore into mine. I licked my lips. Damn. But he didn't miss it.

“Would you like to reconsider your answer?” His voice was husky and low.

Yes. No. Hell I don't know.

He laughed, a full body laugh, making his shoulders shake and his eyes shine.

“Don't laugh at me and stop reading my mind!”

He just laughed more.

I crossed my arms under my breasts, but I was also having trouble keeping the smile off my face. His hand came out and took one of my arms, slowly untangling it, and letting my hand fall into his. His fingers lacing with mine. It was such an intimate thing to do, but so simple. How many people do you lace your fingers with? Normally only your lover, Gregor was not mine. He'd almost been, on a couple of occasions, but he wasn't really. Just because I wanted him and lusted after him, didn't make it so. Or right. But, I didn't pull away, I held his hand back, I enjoyed the sensations of his fingers in mine.

“
Dawn is approaching,
ma cherie
. We must return to the
Palais
.
”

I didn't want to go back, I didn't want to face Michel. Part of me thought that the donor would still be there, but the other part of me just scoffed,
don't be silly, it's been at least two hours since you left, he's probably worried sick
.
That made me feel better, but it also made me think about what he was doing right now. Pacing the chamber, sounding an alarm and letting the
Iunctio
know I was missing, presumed kidnapped.

The thought of what he might be doing right this instant made something happen, something that had never happened before. I don't know if it was the Bond, it certainly hadn't done anything like this before, but all of a sudden I could see him. Like a movie in my mind, but I knew instantly that this was live, this was a window through space and over distance, directly to my kindred vampire. And I momentarily got excited, because it's Michel and I can't help it, he does it to me every time.

So, it took me a moment to get the picture straight in my head, because he was naked. I recognised the bed in the chamber, the duvet; a rich forest green, was on the floor at the foot of the bed. The white sheets all twisted and down passed his hips, showing bare skin from his face to his thigh. His eyes were closed, like he was sleeping, his skin still slightly flushed, as though he had just fed, or done something that made his blood pump. And that's when I noticed he wasn't alone.

I wanted to pull back from the image then, I wanted to stop seeing what it was I was seeing, I didn't want to look, I didn't want to see, but I couldn't stop it. My eyes moved of their own accord and there she was. Naked too. All her curves and soft pale perfect skin, one arm holding his as it draped over her chest, his leg draped over hers. And when my eyes trailed down the length of his body, so familiar, so mine, I couldn't help noticing the two little marks at the crease at the top of her right leg, in close to that perfect little triangle of auburn hair. Two slow moving lines of blood flowing away from the site and I knew. I knew he had chosen to feed from her femoral artery, the most intimate of places, and I knew he had done more than just that.

But my heart didn't break, it turned to stone.  So heavy in my chest.

Somehow he felt me, or sensed me, because his eyes opened and it was as though he
could
see me, as though he was looking right at me. The shock on his face didn't touch me, the sudden look of despair, didn't even come close. I just pushed away from that image, but before it completely disappeared I heard him whisper, “Lucinda. No.”

I came back to the long seat in the limousine, Gregor watching me closely. I have no idea if he saw in my mind what I did. Whether his ability to read my thoughts extended to the pictures too, but he didn't give me sympathy, he didn't ask, he just opened his arms with a look of understanding and I went straight to him.

“You can stay with me for the day, Lucinda.” He was very careful not to use a pet name, not to touch me too much, just arms around me, making me safe. He didn't kiss me, he didn't try to smell my hair, he just sat there, holding me, while silent tears streamed down my face and I cursed everything I ever loved about Michel to Hell and beyond.

We entered through a back door, servants entrance I think. I was walking, I didn't really need his support, but I was clinging to him all the same. He let me, not saying a word and simply steered me down the various small corridors. Down a flight of stairs, quickly across another larger, wider and brighter corridor, then through more mazes, until we finally reached wherever the hell we were going and hadn't seen a soul.

He unlocked the door to his chamber and led me inside. The lights came on automatically, showing a tastefully decorated room, not too dissimilar to the one I had Dream Walked to him in Rome. His taste obviously trending towards fine antiques and soft colours. Artwork adorned the walls, all beautiful, all no doubt originals, but I just stood there, unsure of what to do next.

Gregor took his jacket off and laid it across the back of a couch. The layout of his chambers was pretty much the same as the one Michel was in. Bedroom to the side, kitchenette at the back, bathroom off the bedroom and large comfortable lounge. He came and stood in front of me.

“You are tired, you need to sleep. I'll stay out here, you take the bed.”

I just nodded. He followed me into the bedroom, rifled through a chest of drawers and brought out a large T-Shirt. He placed it on the end of the bed and then slipped out the door, closing it softly behind him. Nothing said, no quick glance my way, just privacy, respect. I didn't know he had it in him.

I picked up the T-Shirt and had to smile. Amazing, I know, but it had a picture of
Sylvester the Cat
on it. It looked like he was dancing, a look of happiness across his feline face. No saying or phrase, just the picture. It said everything that words could and more.

I slipped out of my clothes, leaving my knickers on and pulled the T-Shirt on over my head. It was so big, it was like a nightdress, down to mid thigh. I folded my clothes and placed them in the corner on a chair, then climbed in under the sheets and blankets. I lay there for quite a while, maybe half an hour, unable to get the images of Michel and French Pretty out of my head. My mind wandering to dangerous thoughts. What had they done? How had it happened? How could he have done it at all?

I know, I thought about how close I had come with Gregor, how easy it would have been and then I thought, well now it doesn't matter, does it? That last little bit of me, I'd been holding in check, no longer existed. There was no reason for me to fight what I felt for Gregor any more. Michel had made it quite clear how he felt. What I meant to him. I denied him one meal, turned him away to another's vein and he cast me aside completely.

Yes, I was hurting, I acknowledged that, but I was also relieved. Relieved that it had been him first who had made that move, not me. Relieved because now it was so much easier for me. I'd been fighting my attraction to Gregor for some time, telling myself it was wrong. But it wasn't wrong any more, was it? I was free.

I sat up in bed, unable to sleep, my heart thumping in my chest, my breath a little rapid. The thought of being able to follow my desire for Gregor to completion sending a wave of heat through me. There was a soft knock at the door, I just about jumped out of my skin. Nervous, me? Yep.