Heart of a Warrior (11 page)

“They would be the first to go. He probably drained your accounts.” Ivan shrugged. “At least you found your other stuff.” The tension between them from before seemed to dissipate. He walked over and kissed her.

“Yeah.”

“Hey, you’re beautiful without any makeup.” He touched her cheek with his fingertips.

Annie blushed and then kissed his cheek. She returned to work, and Ivan finished searching the cabinets.

Finally, everything they wanted was bagged. Annie went to the king-sized, brass bed Draco used and knelt down beside it. Reaching under, she pulled out a chest, opened it, and held up the Rolodex. “Here it is.” Her fingers flipped through it. What do you know? It’s right here under
B
for Board of Elders.”

“Great! We’ll get in touch with them when we get home.”

“Why not now?” Annie shrugged. “We can use one of his cell phones.” She rummaged through a box on the coffee table and held one up. She handed it to Ivan.

“Okay.” Ivan punched in the numbers. It had a Washington, D.C., area code. He waited with the phone to his ear. God, he loved technology. To hell with the “good old days.”

“Draco? Hell, is that you?”

Ivan didn’t recognize the voice on the other end, but he didn’t expect to. “No, Draco’s dead.” He held the phone so Annie could hear too.

“Then who the hell is this?”

“Ivan.”

“Ivan?” He sounded incredulous.

“Yeah, Ivan.”

The man on the other end spoke away from the phone and then came back on.

“What are you doing calling on Draco’s phone?”

“Listen, I need help. There are two assassins in town. They busted up the frenzy and killed everyone. I got away with Draco’s pet. She and I are at his lair right now.”

The silence lasted just a heartbeat.

The voice hissed. “Shit.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not too happy about it, either. Can you help me out? I’m going to need some muscle.”

“Can we meet? Somewhere safe. Let’s make it tomorrow night.” The voice was smooth now, under control.

“Sure, there’s an old warehouse behind the bread factory just as you come into town off the interstate. Midnight?”

“Right, midnight. Oh, and Ivan, bring the girl. If it’s too hot there, we may have to relocate her.”

“Sure, she’ll be with me.”

The line disconnected. Ivan sat back, puzzled.

“Great! They can help us,” Annie said.

“He didn’t say that. Something’s up, Annie. It smells.” He shook his head.

“We don’t have a choice, do we? We can’t tackle those two on our own.” Annie bit her lip. “We’ll have to trust them.”

“No, that’s a mistake, baby.
Never
trust the Elders. They have their own agendas.” Ivan hated getting involved in politics. Mortal politics were nothing compared to vampire politics. On their Board, if you lost your seat, your head usually went with it.

Ivan grew quiet. Annie got up and walked around the room making a last sweep.

“Guess we should get out of here?” She looked at Ivan.

“Right. Grab those bags, and I’ll get these.”

Together, they left the house, loaded the van, and drove home.

— • —

Marcos hung up the phone and swore.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

“What’s wrong now, Marcos?” Lila sounded irritated. He looked back at his current mistress, spread out on the bed. They’d been interrupted by the call. She caressed her breast, teasing him.

“The hit. It didn’t go down quite as planned.”

She sat up, her nipple still between her thumb and finger, her eyes narrowing. “What does that mean?”

“Ivan and some slave bitch are still alive.” Marcos lit a cigarette, inhaled, and scratched his stomach. He went back to the bed and lay down. Staring at the ceiling, he inhaled deeply and blew out a stream of blue-gray smoke from his nostrils. “That means the territory for Elsa isn’t open.” He sucked in another lungful.

“Uh-oh, she won’t like that. Not after you promised her the fourth spot.” Lila frowned, reached across, and plucked the cigarette from between Marcos’ lips. “You know I don’t like it when you smoke, darling.” She popped the lit end of the cigarette into her mouth and drowned its fire in her saliva.

“Bitch. Now I have to light up another one.” He rolled his eyes at the ceiling. Cigarettes weren’t cheap these days. “I’m meeting Ivan and the slave tomorrow. We’ll have to fly in after dark and rent vehicles.”

“Who do you want to come? They should all be there to take their places.” She sat up and began to brush her long, blonde hair. “Look, there’s no room for fuck-ups, darling. I worked damned hard on this deal, and I have a stake, pardon the pun, in the outcome. My firm’s percentage of our client’s fees is already in the bank.”

Marcos stood and began pacing. “Damn! If you can’t even count on a warrior to wipe out a handful of lazy, careless, dumb-fuck vampires, then who can you count on? I gave the Council those four gift-wrapped on a sterling silver platter!”

“Well, there is always a chance something will go wrong. Just plain, dumb luck. Best laid plans and all that.”

Marcos stopped and pointed to her. “You and all the other bitches are the cause of all this. Affirmative action, my ass! You forced the Elders into this spot. You know as well as I the Board hates action. They should call us the Inactive Board of Elders. ‘Safety in Consistency and Complacency’ should be our fucking motto.” He waved his arms.

“What about this Ivan? Who is he?”

“Ivan’s been around a long time. He turned down a position on the Board about two hundred years ago. I thought he was being stupid to give up all that power.” He shrugged. “He must be smarter than I thought to have survived the hit.”

“Or lucky.” Lila snorted.

“The last time I saw him, he was worrying about paying his taxes. As if the rich prick didn’t have investments and property scattered all over North America and Europe.” Marcos fumed as he walked over to his pack of smokes and pulled one out. He flicked open a sterling silver Dunhill lighter and lit up. After several deep drags, he turned back to Lila as she spoke.

“You have to turn over all of the deeds by the end of the month, you know that. If you don’t meet the deadline, we lawyers will have a field day. Four million extra in damages is nothing to sneeze at, Marcos. The Board doesn’t want to pay a dime; that’s why you were ordered to take care of this matter. With great discretion.” She patted the bed beside her.

“Don’t worry. You’ll get your fucking fees.” He continued to pace, puffing on the cigarette until the tip glowed red.

“I never doubted it. However, I do doubt whether you will survive this if it becomes public knowledge among the other males.” She looked at him and pouted. “I’d hate for that to happen, darling. I was just beginning to like you.”

Marcos opened his mouth and showed her his fangs in an unspoken threat.

“Yes, I know. You da man.” She rolled her eyes and grabbed herself between her legs as if she had a pair of balls there.

Marcos took his time finishing his cigarette before coming back to bed, just to show her he’d damn well smoke if he felt like it. Then he crawled to her on his hands and knees and flopped back on the bed. Her fingers brought him erect in moments.

She stroked his cock. She pinched its head between her fingers. He moaned for more. Taking her fingernail, she made a short scratch in the tip of his penis. He gasped as delicious pain shot over him. Blood welled and spilled over. She lowered her head and licked the rivulets of dark blood off the sides of his engorged cock.

“Ivan has no idea we set him up, right?” Lila looked up at him. There was a small drip of blood on her chin. Watching her as she tried to reach it with her tongue, he went crazy. He reached to wipe it off with his hand, but she bit his finger and drew more blood. A shudder of sexual arousal shot through his body.

“Right,” he gritted out. She was so damn good. She knew just the right amount of pain to inflict to achieve the most pleasure.

“So, kill him and the slave.” She shrugged as she squeezed the tip, making the blood well out. Another long, slow lick of her velvety tongue on his shaft. His cock jerked in her hand, and Marcos moaned again.

Speaking was difficult, but he managed it. “It’s not that easy. We went to a lot of trouble to ensure the Board couldn’t be linked in any way to those deaths. If we go in now and kill him, it will leave a trail anyone could follow. Paperwork, plane tickets, rental cars.” Oh shit, she was really working on his cock, sucking the blood from its swollen tip. It healed, and she made another excruciatingly delicious scratch. Again he moaned and his hips jerked. Warm blood flowed down his cock and was met by her eager tongue.

She looked up at him, pausing from her work. “Well, you better think of something. I don’t think he’s going to just walk away from his territory because you ask him nicely.” Wishing she’d just shut up and suck him off, Marcos guided her head back down.

“Let me come, bitch.” He rose up on his elbows.

“Not yet, darling. You haven’t suffered enough.”

Lying back, he had no idea how long he could hold off. To take his mind off the ache in his cock and the tightness of his balls, he thought about Ivan.

It worked better than baseball stats, for damn sure.

He didn’t have anything on Ivan he could use. A model citizen, Ivan had kept his nose clean for a long time. Played by the rules. Filled out all the proper forms. Paid his taxes and stayed in his own territory, with no complaints against him. No one could be that fucking boring. There had to be something he was overlooking.

Draco’s slave?

There’s always a back door. He smirked. He decided he’d check on her as soon as Lila finished with him.

“Now?” he groaned. The head of his cock was purple, engorged, aching…his balls tight and ready to unload.

Raising her head, she sighed in exasperation. “All right, now.” She resumed her position, head down, his cock in her mouth, and her pale white ass in the air.

For a moment, he couldn’t let go. Lila raked her fangs over his cock and his orgasm exploded. “Oh fuck!” He groaned as he came.

Lila swallowed his spunk like a pro. As she sucked him dry, he sighed.

Well, she was a lawyer, after all.

— • —

The football game was still on when they got back to the lair. Ivan kicked off his loafers and plopped onto the couch. He propped his socked feet up on a pillow on the coffee table.

They were down to the two-minute warning. He’d missed the entire game while they were at Draco’s. At least he’d remembered to set the TiVo before they left. Quickly scanning through the recording, he checked out the highlights.

The game had been unremarkable. His favorite team, the Browns, was down twenty-four to three. Chalk up another loss. He’d have to show his face at the sports bar later, pay off a few bets, and take the razzing by the mortals he hung with there.

“Damn, the Browns lost again! Do I have to live another four hundred fifty years to see them in the Super Bowl?” He hit the remote, turned off the television, and then looked up at Annie as if noticing her for the first time.

She hung up the last of the clothes Ivan had picked out for her and then slipped on the long, black nightgown. Sitting at the computer, she downloaded some music and then walked to the couch and stood in front of the television, her hands on her hips.

“You look very pretty, Annie.”

“I want to dance, Ivan.” She held out her hand to him.

“Dance? You want to dance?”

“You do know how to dance, don’t you?” The look on her face dared him.

Ivan stood and gave her a very formal bow.

“I’ll have you know I have danced the gavotte at the Palace at Versailles, waltzed in the finest ballrooms of Vienna, and done the polka in the lowest beer halls in Warsaw.” He lifted his chin, looked down his nose at her, and sniffed.

“I’ll settle for one slow dance, please.” She stepped to the computer, clicked the mouse, and the room filled with the soft notes of a lovely waltz.

Ivan took her hand, spun her, and caught her waist with his hand. Extending his other hand, palm up, he accepted her hand. They began to dance.

He waltzed her around the room, making ever-smaller circles. At first, she struggled to follow his lead. Pressing his hand in the center of her back, he guided her.

“Don’t fight me. Let me lead you.”

Annie nodded, relaxed, and followed. The circles got tighter, the spins faster. With the smoothness of an accomplished dancer, Ivan changed their turns into pivots. Annie picked it up as they spun.

Tighter circles, faster spins. The room flew past. Annie’s eyes shone, and a radiant smile lit her face. Ivan couldn’t keep his gaze off her.

Then she tipped her head back and laughed. Light, ethereal, like crystal breaking, her laughter echoed in the room. His ears rang with the music of her voice. She clung to him even as the forces of their motion tried to pull them apart and fling them away.

He wanted always to make her laugh. He grinned at her joy as her long hair stood out behind her. She looked like a child on a merry-go-round, all innocence and gaiety. Something built in his chest, a rising pressure he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Ivan laughed.

Annie’s eyes widened. His laugh built slowly, small bursts surprising them both. At last, bold, loud laughter exploded from deep inside him. She stared at him as if he’d gone mad. Then she joined him.

Together they spun, laughing, until she begged him to stop. In gradual circles, he slowed, at last changing back into the waltz. After several turns around the room, he pulled her in very close and felt their hearts hammering. She slipped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.

Now, he clung to her.

Ivan lowered his head and nuzzled her hair. He thought Annie should stay home tomorrow night. He had a very bad feeling about the meeting.

— • —

“So, do these guys send you a message or what?” Fiona asked. They had finished dinner and were just sitting around talking.

“Actually, they call me on my cell phone, tell me where to go, and I go.”