Blood Ties (6 page)

She reached out and took one fisted hand in
hers. “How did she die?”

He laughed bitterly. “What makes you think
she’s dead?”

She just stared. There was no answer she
could give.

Finally, he spoke again. “I couldn’t stay
with them after that,” he said, his voice low and harsh. “I
renounced my Clan, my sire, every tie I’d ever had to the vampire
world. That night I swore I would never again kill my prey. I vowed
that I wouldn’t forget what Ellyra taught me, even if she had.”

Kira reached out and touched his shoulder.
The muscle was rock-hard beneath her hesitant hand. “I’m sorry,”
she whispered.

“So am I.”

This time she didn’t protest when he started
walking away, only hurried her steps to keep up with him. Her
thoughts spun so wildly she didn’t even pay attention to where he
led her. Wherever he took her, it was away from the Nighthawks, and
that was good enough for her.

They hadn’t even gone a full block when a
woman fell smoothly into step beside them.

Orion’s head snapped to the side. “Well,
well, well,” he drawled coldly. “You know what they say about
speaking of the devil.”

Kira stared at the newcomer in shock. Tall
and graceful with fiery curls cascading down her back, she was the
kind of woman that made every other female fade into the
background. “Ellyra?” she gasped, because who else could it be?

Completely ignoring Kira, the woman gave
Orion a tight smile that exposed straight white teeth without a
hint of fangs. “There is little time,” Ellyra murmured. “You are
being followed.”

“I’d expect nothing less.”

“You need help. I’m offering it.”

Orion laughed. “I need nothing from you.”

She raised an eyebrow at his flat statement.
“Don’t be a fool,” she said. “Your pride will not help your young
one any more than it helped me. Come with me. I have a safe place
for you and your fledgling to stay, and blood to restore her
strength.”

Kira had taken just about all she could stand
of being ignored. “And just why are you helping us, if that really
is what you’re doing?” she snapped, unable to keep silent any
longer. “You made your choice a long time ago, and you didn’t
choose Orion. What’s changed?”

Ellyra’s smile faded altogether. “This time
Gregori has taken my lover,” she hissed.

“Are you certain it wasn’t your lover’s
choice?” Kira shot back. “After all, you didn’t hesitate to fuck
yours over when Gregori crooked his finger at you.”

Her eyes flashed with red flames. “I
discovered the body in his chambers,” she snarled. “Not in his bed.
Gregori did not attain what he sought, and he kills those who tell
him no.”

Kira started to speak again, not trusting
this pronouncement one bit, but Orion squeezed her hand and
overrode her. “Tell us where you would have us go,” he said, “and
perhaps we’ll follow you.”

We have no safe haven. I can feel Ellyra’s
pain and anger. I don’t believe she’s lying, but even if she is, we
really have no better choices right now.

I don’t like it,
she replied, still eyeing Ellyra.

Neither do I. But if she does have a safe
hideout, I can always kill her and take it for my own. Don’t
underestimate me, Kira. Right now I am a cornered animal and I’ll
fight for anything we need.

Ellyra paused beneath a streetlamp, ignoring
their silence. “I’ve taken the penthouse suite at the
Ritz-Carlton,” she replied, answering Orion’s question.

She
turned and signaled toward the street, thankfully missing the
dumbfounded expression Kira couldn’t suppress no matter how hard
she tried. It was only when a black limousine pulled to the curb
that she found her voice again. “That’s your hideout? The
fucking
Ritz-Carlton?”

Ellyra gave her a cold smile. “You have an
objection, fledgling?”

A uniformed chauffeur got out and walked
around the car, making her suddenly conscious that people were
staring at them. She couldn’t blame them -- a beautiful woman in a
dress that probably cost more than what most people made in a year
had flagged down her personal limo for a couple in jeans and
sweaters? “For Christ’s sake,” she hissed as the chauffeur opened
the door for them, “This is your idea of keeping a low
profile?”

“No, Kira, she’s right,” Orion answered
before Ellyra could speak again. “Gregori already knows we can’t go
far tonight -- you don’t have the strength for a long run -- and
I’d be very surprised if he didn’t know that Ellyra has defected as
well. It’s not about keeping a low profile at this point. It’s
about finding a place that even Gregori would think twice about
attacking.”

Much as she hated to admit it, Kira had to
concede the point. She climbed into the limo, scowling. Shameless
and brazen as they were in their own club, even the Nighthawks were
careful to keep their existence a secret from humans. Attacking a
five-star hotel and murdering or kidnapping guests from the
penthouse would bring attention the Clan could ill afford.

The ride passed in uncomfortable silence.
Kira made no attempt to converse with either of them, instead
staring out the window and watching the traffic so she wouldn’t
have to see Orion look at the woman who had reawakened his heart,
only to break it.

The chauffeur opened the door when they
arrived at the hotel. Kira ignored the hand he offered to help her
climb out, taking Orion’s instead. She pretended not to see
Ellyra’s amused glance.

“Come, Carlo,” she murmured. “I have a use
for you.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

The chauffeur tossed the limo’s keys to a
surprised valet and followed them into the lobby. Orion didn’t
reply to Kira's mental questions and she finally gave up. Carlo
stood too close to her in the elevator, his spicy aftershave
tickling her senses, teasing the never-quiet bloodlust. When Orion
draped his arm around her shoulders and glared at the chauffeur,
she leaned against him and closed her eyes, comforted by his
possessiveness.

I’m hungry again,
she told him.
I never noticed you needing blood this often.
What’s wrong with me?

But it was Ellyra who answered her, not
Orion. “You are merely young,” she said. “Have no fear, fledgling.
Carlo will provide for you.”

Her eyes flew open and her spine went rigid.
How the hell was Ellyra eavesdropping on her mental communication
with Orion? But then her words sank in and Kira stared at the
chauffeur standing motionless beside her. He looked straight ahead,
showing no reaction to the fact that his blood had just been
offered to her so blithely. “Excuse me?”

Ellyra raised one perfect eyebrow at her
reaction. “I told you I had arranged blood for you. What were you
expecting?”

“I don’t want to bite him,” Kira said, fury
in every word. “And am I the only one who thinks Carlo ought to
have some say about this?”

Carlo blinked and turned his head, meeting
her eyes for the first time. He was handsome, tall and muscular and
blessed with a face so perfect he could make the gods weep with
envy, but there was something very wrong with his eyes.

They were empty, absolutely soulless.

“I live to do as my Mistress commands,” he
said in a deep, emotionless voice.

Orion’s disgust filled her mind. “A
bloodslave,” he spat. “You have fallen low, Ellyra.”

“You already knew that,” she replied,
shrugging. “Yet my offer stands. Your fledgling must learn to feed,
and Carlo wishes only to serve. He is the perfect way for her to
practice the skills she needs.”

“I have a name, you know, and it’s not
fledgling,” Kira interrupted. “And this entire thing is
disgusting!”

The ding of the elevator indicated they’d
arrived at the top floor, cutting through any reply she might have
made. As Ellyra and her bloodslave exited, Kira turned to Orion. “I
won’t bite him. Tell her, since I’m apparently beneath her
notice.”

Orion sighed and shook his head. “She’s
right,” he murmured. “You’ll have to learn to feed from others. You
need to take what has been offered.”

She stared at him, astonished that he would
take Ellyra’s side over her own wishes. “But I don’t want to feed
from others!”

He caught her elbow and drew her gently from
the elevator. “Kira, sweetheart,” he said, cupping her face in his
hands and looking into her eyes. “You’re newly made. You’ll need to
feed at least every night for a few months, and twice on nights
you’re particularly active, such as last night. I can’t provide all
the blood you need. You’ve learned a way to control the bloodlust.
You have to use that knowledge to feed from humans, and the
bloodslave is here and willing.”

“You mean brainwashed.” The very idea of
biting Carlo disgusted her. “It’s not right and you know it.”

He brushed a kiss over her lips. “It’s not
right,” he agreed softly. “But there is nothing we can do for him.
For good or for ill, he is Ellyra’s creature, and only she may
command or free him.” He kissed her again, tracing her lips with
his tongue this time before pulling away. “Please, take what she
offers. I need you to be strong, well-fed and healthy.”

Ahead of them, Carlo held the door to the
suite open, waiting patiently for them to follow Ellyra inside. He
showed no sign that he’d even noticed their conversation. Kira
avoided his empty eyes and made sure she didn’t brush against him
as she entered the suite. The scent of his cologne chased her as
Carlo closed the door, letting her know that he remained just a
step behind her.

So unsettled was Kira that the magnificence
of their suite hardly registered. Ellyra was at the bar, pouring a
glass of something from a decanter that glittered in the way that
only fine crystal can. She held it out to Orion. “You look like you
need this, darling.”

Trailing
behind him simply because she didn’t know what else to do, she
couldn’t keep herself from scowling as he took the glass without
comment.
Darling?
What
the hell was that? He bristled like a porcupine whenever Kira tried
to get close to him, yet this woman who’d betrayed him a century
ago called him
darling
and got
away with it?

Ellyra turned to her before she could think
of an adequately scathing way to put the vampiress in her place.
“Carlo will provide for you now, young one,” she said. “Use the
master bedroom if you wish. It is the finest of the rooms, and the
walls are thick enough that we won’t have to hear the sounds of
your… feeding.”

Orion stiffened and glared at Carlo. The
bloodslave took no notice. His eyes were fixed only on Kira, and
she fought not to shudder at the thought of letting the bloodlust
control her as she fed on him. Worse still was the idea of using
sex to keep from losing control of herself, especially if Ellyra
had ulterior motives for offering him.

Locked away from Orion, anything could
happen. She shuddered at the thought.

“Tell him to obey me,” she said suddenly,
meeting Ellyra’s coolly amused gaze. “I won’t go anywhere with him
unless he’s in my control, not yours.”

She smiled. “So distrustful, after what I’ve
done to aid you,” she murmured. “But I would expect no less from
Orion’s progeny.”

“Not Kira,” Orion interrupted. “Have him
answer to me, Ellyra. Not her.”

Ellyra’s laugh sounded utterly out of place
in the tense room. “Why not her? Afraid she’ll command him to
perform some sexual act you can’t match? Do you wish to order him
to remain impotent?”

He glowered, but Kira answered before he
could draw breath. “Unless you’re coming in that room with us, he’d
better obey me,” she snapped. “And if you’re in that room I’m
biting you, not him.”

Ellyra laughed again. “Go, fledgling,” she
said. “Carlo will do your bidding while you remain in the bedroom.
Once he returns, he is mine again. Do what you will with him so
long as you don’t damage him beyond repair. I have no desire to
train a new bloodslave.”

“Thank you.” It took all her control to force
the words past her lips. She couldn’t even look at Orion as Carlo
strode to one of the closed doors to open it for her. Dread swamped
her as she remembered their conversation above Club Nighthawk and
she couldn’t stop the plea from coming out. “Don’t leave while I’m
in there, please, Orion?”

His growl was the only warning she had before
Orion pulled her hard against him and kissed her fiercely. Her
squeak of surprise was muffled against his mouth. Tongue thrusting
deep, branding her with his taste and his passion, she could only
cling to his shoulders as his heat burned her entire body. Her
fangs lengthened and throbbed in time to her racing heartbeat.
Kissing him back with every bit of passion and lust inside her, her
pussy growing wet and her body hungering for his in every way, she
felt the bloodlust roar and writhe inside her. Need, hunger, desire
fused and demanded more.

“You think of that,” he growled against her
lips when he finally broke the kiss. “You just fucking keep that in
mind, Kira, you understand me?”

Breathless and burning, all she could do was
nod as she stepped out of his embrace.

Orion glared at the bloodslave as she forced
herself to walk to his side. She had just stepped into the opulent
master bedroom when she heard him snarl at Carlo. “You harm her and
I will tear you limb from limb,” he vowed.

And then the door closed behind her, locking
her in and bringing Carlo fully under her control.

He turned and smiled at her, giving her a
little half-bow. “How may I please you, mistress?” he asked.
“Command me, I beg you.”

Orion watched the door close and fought
against the red tide of fury threatening to choke him. He tossed
back his liquor in one swallow and hurled the glass into the
fireplace just for the satisfaction of watching it shatter.