Isadora (Masters Among Monsters Book 2) (8 page)

“And why’s that,
file mou
?”

“Because I…”
 

As Alasdair dragged his thumb down, pulling Leo’s lips farther apart, Leo sighed.
 

“I’m still learning about you. Where you’re from, what you were like as a human. What you’ve seen over the years. It’s fascinating.
You’re
fascinating. I want to know how you felt when you were turned and what Vasilios means to you. Yes, I want to know that too.”

“You want an awful lot, Leonidas Chapel.”

Leo’s hand came up to tighten around Alasdair’s wrist, halting it there. “I want you. And I know you want me too. You said yes to him to save me. Admit it.”

“So sure, aren’t you? Perhaps I gave you to him as a gift for my disobedience.”

Leo grinned at Alasdair’s blatant lie and then dropped his hand. “Okay.”

As they stood there, Alasdair still wrapped in a sheet and him fully clothed, Leo waited for what would come next.

“Okay?”

“Yes. Okay. If that’s what you want me to believe,” he said with a knowing smirk.

“What’s so funny?”

“I… Nothing.”

“What?” Alasdair growled and shoved his face in close.

“
You
,” he stressed, poking a finger against Alasdair’s chest. “You’re funny. You’re such a badass, right? But I was on that bed with you. And I was there when you told Vasilios I’d done nothing to deserve dying. You don’t want me dead. But
you
don’t admit it.”

Alasdair didn’t react at all. Didn’t flinch, didn’t move a damn muscle. He reminded Leo of one of those stone statues. Then, as if a switch had been flipped, he said, “Wait here. We leave in five minutes.”
 

AS ALASDAIR DRESSED, he tried to decide how to proceed with the infuriating man waiting on him. He hadn’t expected to deal with him at all after having spent the evening inside him. However, now that his and Vasilios’s scent was all over Leo’s body, it was all he could do not to fuck him every time he walked by.
 

He ground his teeth together as he recalled the way it’d felt to have Leo kneeling between him and his sire. If he’d thought taking him on his own was hazardous to his well-being, then watching Vasilios lust after him was like waiting for a fucking bomb to detonate. He was never sure if Vasilios was about to snap Leo’s neck or suck the man to an orgasm. It was hard to tell with the Ancient.
 

However, that didn’t stop Alasdair from wanting it all. He wanted that union. That full-on, uninterrupted mating between the three of them. And, with Leo’s enhanced attributes, he was now in a position to give as good as he would take. Alasdair had no trouble imagining taking that man over and over again, either.
 

But not now.
 

He’d been given instructions. Vasilios had been clear. No touching until they returned with Isadora.

He walked back out, dressed head to toe in black boots, pants, and a shirt, as Leo was rolling his sleeves up.

“So, what exactly is the plan once we find Elias and your cousin? Hey? Is she really your cousin?”

Alasdair crossed his arms. “We are to bring them back here to the lair. Isadora is weak. You can see it in Diomêdês. She doesn’t have much time. The human male is to be brought back and dealt with accordingly.”

“But not killed.”

Alasdair only stared at Leo, who was watching him with some kind of expectation in his eyes. If he thought he was going to protect this Elias, he needed to give way to that delusion and fast.
 

“The likelihood that he will live is slim.”

“But you promised—”

“I promised nothing.” Alasdair grabbed the jacket he’d tossed over his recliner. “That human almost killed Thanos, which in turn would’ve—” He stopped short of the major admission.

“Would’ve what?”

“Nothing.” He shrugged into his jacket and shoved his hands into the pockets. “We must leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere until you—”

Alasdair flashed over to where Leo was standing. “You are testing my patience, Leonidas.”

“Too bad,” Leo said. “I almost died tonight, and every night for the past couple of weeks. So the least you can do is fucking tell me what I’m handing
my
friend over for.”

Alasdair wasn’t about to tell Leo that, if Thanos died, Eton, his Ancient, would also. That would be all that would come from their deaths though. Unlike Vasilios and Diomêdês, there were no other vampires tied to Eton’s lineage. If the other two Ancients were to die, however, every vampire that had their blood running through their veins would perish also.
 

Then again, maybe that had been part of Vasilios’s plan all along. Tying Leo to them would be genius. He wouldn’t be able to kill them without ending his own life.
 

Hmm.
So what if he did have that knowledge? The human had been self-sacrificing, but would he really take it that far?
 

“This conversation is over.”

“Then I’m not leaving,” Leo announced.

Alasdair reached for him, and when Leo vanished out of his grip and over to the opposite side of the room, he cursed.

“Not so fun when the shoe’s on the other foot, is it?”

“You are wasting time.”

“No,
you
are.”

In a flash of movement, Alasdair was against Leo, crushing him to the wall of his bedchambers and kissing his obstinate mouth. When he raised his head, he clasped both sides of Leo’s neck.
 

Leo said, “Don’t you dare—”
 

It was too late though—they’d already faded from the room.

WHEN HE AND Alasdair appeared in his office at the museum, Leo blinked several times. He didn’t pass out from the transport, and his head didn’t hurt, but
by god
was he dizzy.
 

“I told you not to do that.”

“And I didn’t listen,” Alasdair said as he marched across the room.
 

“Why doesn’t that surprise me,” he muttered and followed close behind.
 

“Take me to this…Elias.”

Leo’s feet skidded to a halt. He’d known all along that that was the plan. But was he really willing to risk Elias’s life for his own?
 

“Not until you tell me you won’t hurt him.”

Without looking his way, Alasdair crouched and touched his fingers to the floor where several photos had fallen from the project board above. “You already know the bargain you struck, Leonidas.”

A war raged inside Leo, a battle between right and wrong. When he saw the photograph of the bathhouses crumpled and lying by Alasdair’s feet, he leaned down to pick it up. He ran his fingers over it and then tilted his head towards Alasdair, whose eyes were creased at the sides, consternation marring his serious expression.
 

“You’re worried,” he said as he dared to touch unsteady fingers to Alasdair’s cool cheek. “About your family. Isadora and Thanos. Am I right?”
 

When Alasdair glanced at him, the concern turned to caution as he slowly got to his feet.

“I understand. You’re scared. But you don’t need to—”

“You understand nothing.”

“Don’t I?”

“No, you do not.”

“Then help me. Explain it to me so I do.” Leo waited, tense with anticipation, hoping to somehow break through the steely reserve that surrounded Alasdair.

“What you are referring to, here and back in my chambers, I have not felt those kind of soft emotions in centuries.
Centuries,
Leonidas. I am not scared, nor am I worried.”

“Then what are you?” he asked as Alasdair’s fangs appeared and his lip drew back in a snarl.
 

“I am enraged. Now, take me to him.”

Present Day – Elias’s office

HE MUST’VE MISHEARD. That was all Paris could think as he kept his eyes locked with Elias’s.
 

Did he really just say she’s a vampire? Okay, someone is clearly overworked and slightly delusional.

“Elias, I think we should untie her, don’t you?”
 

“No. I don’t,” his boss snapped.
 

Paris reached for his arm and turned them away from the odd woman watching with overly perceptive eyes. “What’s the matter with you?” he demanded. “You can’t tie a woman to a chair. I mean, unless she’s into that kind of stuff.”

“I’m into a lot of things, handsome, but this is not one of them,” the woman cooed even though she seemed to be forcing it out.

Elias’s head jerked to the left, and he nailed the woman with a dark scowl that had Paris releasing his hold. “I told you to be quiet.”

“Elias,” he admonished.
 

Then his friend rounded back on him. “Stay out of this, Paris. You don’t know what’s going on.”

“Well,” he started and then thought about what Elias had said a moment ago. “I
do
know that vampires don’t exist.”

“Is that right?” Elias asked as he shook his head. “Jesus, what a fucking mess. Why the hell was I chosen to deliver this news?” The words were mumbled more to himself than anyone else, and then he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Elias, you’re not making any sense. Maybe we should call someone. We’ve all been under a lot of stress, and after Leo having gone missing and then coming back—”

“He wasn’t missing,” Elias fumed. “He was taken. By
them
.”

“By vampires?”

“Yes.”

Paris didn’t have anything to say to that, so he tried to process what Elias wanted him to understand. If he had it correct in his head, Elias was saying that…

“Leo was taken by a vampire? And you think she is
also
a vampire? Are you listening to yourself? You sound like a fucking lunatic.”

A deranged cackle behind them had both of them looking over to the woman. Her head was back as she laughed at the ceiling.

“He
is
a lunatic. He’s torturing me, for god’s sake. I was just out walking by the museum when he grabbed me and dragged me in here.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Elias ordered.

“Who should he listen to?
You
? Please. You have a poor, helpless woman bound to a chair. If he doesn’t call for help, I’m going to report you both to the police for kidnapping.”

Paris’s pulse increased in tempo. The woman was right. If Elias was holding her against her will, and it clearly appeared that way, then he could be an accessory to a kidnapping.

“Elias, you have to—”

“I don’t have to do anything. You aren’t listening to me. She’s manipulating you. She is a vampire.”
 

As that ludicrous word filled the air again, Elias left his side and stormed over to the woman. He took a fistful of her tousled hair and forced her face up to his.

“Stop! You’re hurting me,” the woman pleaded, and then she turned her wide eyes his way, begging for help.

“Let her go, Elias,” he said.

“Show him,” Elias growled as he leaned over the woman.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Fine. We’ll do this the hard way,” Elias said in a tone Paris had never heard him use. It was ominous and low, and it sounded like it was coming from the very bowels of the Earth.