Haven (43 page)

I grabbed a bottle of water in the café and used the restroom before we headed to the Tranquilli collection. I wanted a look at my uncle-slash-father again, now that I remembered him.

Alexander halted us a short distance from the painting in question. “Sure you want to do this?”

I nodded. “C’mon.”

I pulled him to the bench in front of the paintings. Our legs touched as we sat and he slid a hand onto my thigh. A silent gesture of support. I gave him grateful eyes then focused on the painting. My father was a handsome man. Flawless pale skin, abundant dark brown hair, full red lips, intense, dark eyes. My
vampire
daddy. My
absentee
vampire daddy.

My anger flared. Where was he? What kind of parent doesn’t show up for a long overdue family reunion? Did he feel guilty? Was he sorry for the twenty-five years of secrets and lies? I stared at the tall, proud man in the painting, my uncle-turned-father and let myself feel the anger, the resentment, and…love.

I was happy and I did love him. But, still, I couldn’t imagine any excuse justifying his conspicuous absence at a time like this.

“He looks just like you.” Alexander curled his fingers around my chin and turned my head. “And you are beautiful.” His thumb traced my lower lip. My breath caught in my throat and some of the tension left my body.

“I’m half-vampire,” I murmured against his thumb.

“There’s a word for that, you know.” His free hand slid under my leg and pulled it across his lap.

“Oh?” My voice was breathy, my thoughts jumbled by the extra body contact.

Hellooo, inner cavewoman, welcome back. I draped my other leg across his lap and he curved an arm around my back.

“Dhampyre.” His fingers caressed my jaw and slid around my neck, sifting through the hair at my nape.

Shivers danced up my spine, but I tried to focus on his words. “Dhampyre,” I echoed, but my inner voice objected.
No. We are more
. “Don’t call me that. My inner vampire doesn’t like it.”

I curled my fingers around his wrist, checked his pulse. Wild and erratic. Like mine.

Alexander’s lips curled. “Oh yeah? What would she prefer?”

“Vampire princess,” I teased, though I spoke the truth. My dad is a prince. “So that would make you...”

He sobered, the shift so abrupt it startled me, and I would have crawled off his lap, but his hands anchored me in place. “Yours. I’m yours, Carina Tranquilli. By blood, I am forever bound to you.”

“Till my death do we part, you mean,” I joked.

“Not even then.”

My lips parted, but no words came. It was the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me. I was elated. And terrified.

Fast. This is all happening soooo fast.

He buried his face in my neck, and my inner vampire purred.
Mine. Always.
I relaxed and enjoyed the trail of kisses down my neck. He lingered in the hollow of my shoulder, savoring my skin with tongue and teeth. My nails dug into his shoulders, scraping on the fabric of his jacket.

“Carina.” Alexander’s hot breath caressed my skin.

Shivers cascaded down my spine. My mouth was so dry I couldn’t speak. But I could do other things. I shifted on his lap, intent on straddling and kissing him senseless, but footsteps sounded behind us.

A security guard. He cleared his throat, eyeing a spot over my shoulder. “Excuse me, Miss Tranquilli. We’re closed.”

I disentangled myself from Alexander and we stood. “Okay, we’ll leave soon. I have my code for the back exit.” I tried for nonchalant, but my tomato face must’ve revealed the truth.

The guard left.

“So,” I began.

“So.” He grazed his knuckles down my hot cheek and my knees almost buckled.

“It’s not easy dating me.” I gave him a wry grin.

He cocked a brow.

“I mean there’s no privacy in my weird, messy world.” I’d meant it as a joke, but when the words left me, sadness struck, because it was so true. “People get hurt in my world. Because of me. Mark and Ren. Faith. My parents. You.” My eyes watered. Sure, Alexander declared himself my eternal love partner, but it didn’t negate the fact he’d been beaten up by Team Evil and tortured by my own surrogate mother.

My fault. All of it.

Alexander’s hands curled around my shoulders. “I do not accept your apology.”

My eyes widened.

“Because you’re not to blame. You hear me?”

I sniffed. “There’s no denying you’d be safer without me around.”

He cupped my face. Our eyes locked. “And lonely. And empty and,” his lips quirked. “Bored.”

I gave him a lopsided smile.

He kissed my forehead. “You’re wrong.” His breath was warm velvet against my skin. “We’re safer together. I repeat, forever bound to you.”

Forever bound.
The words seeped into my cells, bones, heart, soul.

His lips claimed mine. The kiss started gentle, almost chaste for a brief second, until his lips parted. I seized the moment, my tongue darting into his mouth, seeking, tasting. Sake. Soy. A hint of copper. He groaned. Our tongues clashed, danced. His hands roamed everywhere at once. Mine, too. His teeth latched onto my earlobe and I went boneless. He took us down to the bench when my legs forgot how to stand.

We paused to catch our breath, staring at each other wearing matching, goofy
I-like-you
grins.

I spoke first. “We should get going soon, but do you want to talk?”

Alexander’s grin widened and he chuckled, though it was more of a sexy growl. It touched me right where it counted. I squeezed my thighs together and squirmed.

“Stop,” I breathed.

“Stop what?” His voice slid over my skin, velvet and silk. Goosebumps broke out in its wake.

I gripped his arm and squeezed. “That whole touch-me-with-your-voice thing.”

“You don’t like it?” he teased.

“You know I do, and no, I’m not blushing for you this time. Ha.”

“Damn.”

“Anyway,” I fake punched his arm. “Tell me some little things. About you.”

“Little things?”

“Yeah, like what you do for fun, favorite color, movies you like, music, toothpaste flavor? You know, little things.”

He gave me a considering look. “I agree we’ve a lot to learn about each other. Earlier tonight I thought we should talk. But now...”

His eyes roamed over my body and he rubbed his jaw. When his eyes met mine, they flickered between vampire black and smoky blue. Both sexy as hell and irresistible.

“You win.” I crawled onto his lap, wrapping my legs around his torso.

His eyes blackened, blazing with sexual hunger, while his hands gripped my hips, pushing me against his obvious erection. I gasped and clutched his shoulders. Electric need sizzled through me. I arched into him causing more delicious friction in my groin, putting his face in my chest where my nipples ached for his teeth and tongue. He pushed under my shirt, fingers tweaking my nipple through my bra. I bucked on his lap, grinding myself into his hardness. Close. Already so close to release.

I clutched his head as his mouth trailed up to nip at my neck and managed to say, “We should go to my place.” My nails raked his scalp, eliciting a satisfied growl from him.

“No time.” He latched onto my neck. His fangs weren’t out but the sensation still made me writhe on his lap, desperate for naked flesh
. Privacy now.

“Go. My place,” I panted and reached between us, fingers searching, wanting, needing to grip him in my hand.

He released his hold on my neck to lave the tender spot with his wicked tongue. I moaned. My insides quivered and I almost came.

His naughty tongue swept down my neck. “Can’t.”

His fingers worked my nipple and his hips surged, hitting me just right through my jeans. I came. Didn’t matter we were putting on a great show for the museum’s security cameras. Didn’t matter Stella would come for us any minute now.

Only this mattered. This moment. This man.

He cupped me through my jeans, palm massaging my mound, making me ride him, wringing every last spasm out of me until I collapsed on him, spent.

His lips touched my ear. “I love it when you come for me.”

I almost exploded again from his words. I was still twitching when the lights went out.

~ * ~

Alexander growled and jumped to his feet, taking me with him.

“Don’t worry.” A mere second after I spoke, the after-hours lighting kicked in, a soft, mellow yellow. Alexander relaxed his death grip on my arms.

“Nice mood lighting.” He leaned in for a kiss. His fangs were out and the sight of them gleaming in the soft light sent a frisson down my spine. I wanted to trace them with my tongue, feel them graze along my skin to my neck, sink into my flesh...

My cell phone buzzed. We froze, lips close, breath mingling. My phone buzzed again. Alexander nipped my lower lip. Screw the phone. I pressed my body against his. Alexander chuckled and the sound slipped inside me, making me tremble with need. Another buzz from the pesky phone.

“Dammit.” I was in no mood for interruptions, but it might be Faith or Tony. Raging lust aside, I hadn’t forgotten they were missing in action.

I put some space between us and fished the phone out of my jacket pocket.

It was Mark. “We can’t find Faith. We’re coming to get you.”

My stomach twitched at the worry in his voice. Things were bad when calm-and-collected Mark sounded upset. “Don’t bother. I’m with Alexander. And Stella, sort of.”

“We’re coming to get you.” Things were crazy bad when he repeated himself.

“Okay.”

I started to update Alexander, but he glared at the entryway, fangs bared, body tense.

“Alexander, what—?”

I didn’t get to finish. Power blew us off our feet. I collided with the painting of my father before crumpling to the floor. Black dots filled my vision.

Alexander crouched over me. “Stay here,” he growled and disappeared.

From across the room, animalistic roars blended with the tinkling of glass breaking. Several quick, muffled gunshots sounded, followed by a choked cry of rage and a thud. A jolt of fear ripped through me. Had security arrived and, oh God, had they shot Alexander?

Adrenaline pushed me onto all fours. When my vision cleared, I spotted two men in black tactical boots, BDU pants and jackets, combat caps pulled low over their faces, guns trained on Alexander,
my man
, an unmoving lump at their feet.

A strangled sound escaped me. Heads swiveled in my direction and my worry morphed into rage.
Not
security. Paolo and Greg.
Bastards.
Betrayed by the family
bodyguards. My dislike for them aside, I didn’t want to believe they would side with Team Evil, but I couldn’t deny the evidence—my boyfriend-slash-husband unconscious and bleeding at their feet.

My inner vampire roared.
Traitors! Punish!

A switch flipped inside me, the floodgate opening, the fire beast lunging out of her cave in my core. I climbed to my feet, body aching, head throbbing, grateful I could move at all after a supernatural cyclone hurled me into a wall.
Thanks, vampire genes
. My eyes shifted to black and power flowed through me, spilling out of my pores, bubbling over me and stretching, seeking targets. I stalked across the room.

Punish! Burn!
“You are so dead.”

Both men watched my approach, but kept their guns trained on Alexander. I took that as a good sign he was still undead. Apparently they believed the one hundred percent vampire, even unconscious, trumped the fifty percent vampire headed their way.

Idiots.

Greg scowled. “What the fuck, witch? Why is she awake? I thought you were good.”

“I am,” a female voice replied behind me.

I turned too late. Ambushed. The witch blasted me off my feet—again, dammit—snuffing out my power in the process, like it was some wimpy, candle flame. I slid along the smooth, marble floor until a stone bench stopped me. White-hot pain seared my head and rib cage.

My attacker laughed. I glared. She was dressed like Paolo and Greg, and due to the non-designer clothes and combat cap obscuring her hair, it took me a second to recognize Adrian’s ex, Witch Barbie, Tiffany. She was weaker at my house, easily
subdued, but now someone—or something—had clearly
given her a power boost.
Shit.

I sat up, clutching my side. Blood trickled down the side of my face and I swiped at it with the back of my free hand. Great, two head wounds now, and three bad guys to take out.

Tiffany’s gaze locked with mine. Words, an old language, maybe Latin, spilled out of her mouth, filling the air with electric energy.

Paolo and Greg crouched next to Alexander. Paolo held a gun to Alexander’s temple—though my man wasn’t moving at all—while Greg unzipped a long black duffel bag, stretching it out next to Alexander’s body.
Oh.
Not a duffel. A body bag as in dead-body-goes-in-here bag.

Oh, God. What if Alexander was
really
dead?

Terror pushed me to my feet. Must get to Alexander. If he was still undead-alive, maybe I could wake him up with a touch. Or a kiss. It worked before. I started across the room, fighting the pain, fighting to get to my man.

Greg glanced up. “Stop her, witch.”

“She’s not going anywhere.” Tiffany produced a black ball out of nowhere and flung it at me.

I tried to dodge it, but it tracked me, like a magical heat seeking missile and struck my chest. I braced for pain, but I was merely…wet? “You threw a
water
balloon at me?”

She smirked. I didn’t understand why until the acrid smell hit me. Not water. A potion, with a familiar scent of patchouli and lemon mixed with rotten egg. She’d tried to fell me with this potion at my house and failed. But this time, right on target.