Last Vamp Standing (17 page)

Chapter Sixteen

R
ATIONAL THOUGHTS SLASHED
through Ariana’s mind like wet snowfall threatening to stick. But when Dante’s lips covered hers, those flakes of logic flew out her ears like they weren’t there at all. Before she knew it, she’d relaxed into his arms, her hands finding their way to the broad span of his shoulders.

What was she doing?

She shouldn’t be allowing Dante to kiss her this way. His eyes swirled gold with a dangerous intensity. It was alarming in the most enticing way. And his lips—good Lord, they were tender and soft, melting her insides, numbing her mind.

As Ariana’s stomach somersaulted, she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth. The fervor of his kiss increased, sending her world into a tailspin. Within seconds, she was drenched in him. In the woodsy scent of his cologne. In the strength of his arms and the passionate grip of his kiss.

She let herself get lost, only for a moment, then realized they were standing on the training ground, where the vamps in the haven lobby could see what was going on.

When their mouths closed, Ariana stole the moment and pulled back.

Dante tensed, made a sound that resembled “nuh-uh,” and dragged her into his arms again.

It would’ve been easy to lose herself in Dante completely. Let him kiss her until her feet drifted off the ground and into the clouds. Let him embrace her so tightly, she’d never want to leave his arms. But not under the watchful eyes of her khissmates. She knew they were watching her every move. They always did.

Ariana wasn’t sure what would happen with Dante, how high she’d let their sparks fly, but if she wanted to find out, she needed to get them somewhere private. There was only one place in Black Moon that fit the bill.

“Come on,” she mumbled and took his hand, pulling him across the grass.

“If you’re kicking me out, that’s a nasty trick you just pulled.”

Had she really been flipping between hot and cold so much that Dante thought she’d kiss him and ditch him? He obviously didn’t know how much of an impression he’d left upon her. How much her thoughts circled around him when he wasn’t near. How her body almost leaned against him without her realizing it when he stood at her side.

There was no way she was letting him get away. Not this time. Not until she’d explored more of the fire he’d ignited. And this time there was no denying that he wanted her.

“I want to show you something,” she whispered as they approached the haven doors.

“It better not be your room.” His lips quirked. “I’m not that easy.”

“Oh, just shut up.”

Ariana jerked open the door. The group of vamps standing inside quickly averted their gaze. They
had
been watching. Although they weren’t making eye contact, it was forced. Refusing to acknowledge their presence was acknowledgment in and of itself. They weren’t talking either—another dead giveaway.

Ariana bee-lined through the crowd, trying not to wonder if these city vamps would attach to her the same bizarre way the elders had. As it was, the elders were nowhere to be found. They’d been called into a very informational, and very calm, meeting in the gym.

How much bullshit was her Primus going to dish? Ariana wondered. And how much truth would be tinseled through it? Would he tell them Savage was coming for their death shades? Or simply that they’d soon have a fight on their hands?

She’d have to pick the brains of the elders in her training session tomorrow.

As she pushed from one group of whispering vamps to another, Ariana didn’t have to wonder if Dante was following her past the long stretch of windows and around the blazing hearth. She could feel the heat from his gaze radiating into her back as if there was a target drawn smack in the center.

When they reached the elevators, Ariana pressed the button and spun around. Dante’s eyes . . . they were more than yellow, eerier than gold. They were downright metallic, shimmering like flakes of gold dust had coated over them.

“How do your eyes do that?” she asked, fighting back the desire to stare into them until she went dizzy.

He rubbed the heels of his hands over them. Blinked hard. “Do what?”

“Change from black to gold. I’ve never seen anything like it before. After my training session tomorrow we should head back to the library and see if we can find a species that shows the same trait.”

“Species?” he snapped. “Glad to know you’re treating my time here as some sort of science experiment. You’re not going to slice and dice me like a toad if I follow you up there, are you?”

“I didn’t mean it that way and you know it.”

The elevator door opened and he followed her inside. “When I’m hungry, they change, just like yours. I can’t help that my eyes shift to gold instead of crimson.”

“You can lose the tone,” she said as the elevator doors shut. “When I said I’d never seen anything like it before, I meant it as a compliment, but you were too busy being defensive to catch it.”

“With you, Ariana, I’m never sure if I’m catching a feather or an arrow. Forgive me for being on edge.”

As the elevator whisked them up to the top floor, Dante leaned against the back wall, his arms folded over his chest. If he’d opened up at all, he just shut back down.

She should’ve kept her mouth closed. She should’ve walked into the elevator and slammed him against the wall the instant the doors closed. She could’ve been kissing those pillow-soft lips right now. He would’ve had his knee between her legs, his arms wrapped around her back . . .

But no.

She’d made him uncomfortable, ruining a perfectly good moment to slide next to him and brush her hands over the rock-hard ridges on his stomach.

Had Pike spoken the truth? Did Dante really think being different made him a freak? She supposed he was sifting through books in the library trying to dig up information about the Watchers, while trying to figure out more of his abilities and what he could do with them. She hadn’t really thought about the possibility that he didn’t know a thing about his heritage.

Soft strums of guilt played on Ariana’s heartstrings. If she’d never known her parents, never known where she fit in, and didn’t have a place to call home, the last thing she’d want is someone to point out all the ways she was different from her friends.

“If you’re hungry,” she said, lightening her tone, “we could go back down to the kitchen and grab you something. At this hour they should be starting to stock for breakfast.”

Face puzzling, he shook his head. “I’m not hungry.”

“But your eyes. You said they change when—”

As the doors slid open, Dante grabbed Ariana by the hand and pulled her out of the elevator, severing the rest of her thought.

On this level—her level—there was only one door, with two small tables flanking it. It was good that furniture was sparse and elders weren’t allowed up here, because Dante didn’t hesitate a beat. He spun her around and pressed her back flush against the door.

Uncertainty should’ve clawed its way through her. Anxiety should’ve buckled her knees and shot her spine straight. Instead, she melted against the wall, aching for Dante to explore her body with greedy hands.

“I said I’m not hungry and that’s the end of it.” Jaw clenched tight, he planted his hands on the door on either side of her head. He was drawn tight, his shoulders and chest a barricade she wanted crashing over her again and again. “If I think about it too much, I might not be able to do this.”

She couldn’t think about anything but the electricity sparking between them, the throbbing ache in her center that lifted her hips off the wall and against his body. What did he mean,
if I think too much
?

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s better that way.” As the gold in his eyes flared, he sucked in a shallow breath. “Now what was it you wanted to show me up here?”

There were a ton of things she wanted to show him—her bed being one of them. Since she’d met Dante, she couldn’t seem to fight the draw to him. Being near him felt right, the attraction undeniable. The thought of being alone with him now, in the privacy of her suite, sent tremors rocking through her body and pools of heat drenching her core.

Seemed the closer she got to the fire, the more she learned about Dante, the closer she wanted to be.

Ariana would’ve given anything to remain trapped inside the chiseled cage of his body, but there was a camera in the corner, monitoring their every move. Her Primus had had them installed in every hall, every corner, to observe possible suspicious behavior. She’d never minded someone knowing when she came and went from her room . . . until now.

She spun around and punched her code into the key lock. The tiny screen blinked green, and she pushed open the door.

A
RIANA’S ROOM WASN’T
like the other two Dante had seen in Black Moon. The chamber he’d awoken in had looked like a hotel room, with heavily oiled furniture that made the room reek of lemon Pledge. The Primus’s chamber was cold and spine-chilling, with slick leather seats Dante had to keep scooting his ass into.

Ariana’s room suited her perfectly.

It was simple. Understated. White couches boxed off the living room. Glass tables with white shaded lamps sat in the corners. It smelled of lavender. Fresh and crisp like a garden in spring. There wasn’t a lick of clutter. Nothing plastic or fake distracted from the stillness of the place.

It was just like her.

She didn’t plaster her face with makeup and didn’t look like the type who’d wear barely there miniskirts and racy tanks. When he’d first met her, it had taken a beat for Dante to realize she wasn’t plain but classically beautiful. Without the distractions of such fluff, her inner beauty shined for those who took the time to notice. And it hadn’t taken more than a minute for Dante to see Ariana for what she truly was: the most fascinating woman he’d ever met, tied with a big ole complex bow.

Speaking of bow . . . he’d forgotten all about it.

He clutched at his wrist, where the ribbon Ariana had tied around her braid had been. It was gone. It must’ve slipped off sometime during the commotion in the Watchers’ compound.

Damn it.

“Over here,” Ariana said, and he dropped his hand from his wrist.

She moved around the couch. Snatched a remote off the end table. Dante scoped out the walls for a flat screen and came up empty.

“I’m not really in the mood to snuggle watching
Pure Blood
with that overacting Alex fellow, if that’s what you had in mind.” As long as hunger pains weren’t pin-balling in his stomach, he’d planned on seducing Ariana the way he’d wanted to all along.

“Don’t worry.” She winked, hiding a delicious secret. “I don’t even own a television.”

She clicked the remote toward the strangely blank wall in front of them and turned toward Dante, the hint of a smile playing her mouth.

The entire wall buzzed to life, moving, opening. Dante couldn’t help but stalk forward as the wall folded back like an accordion.

“Holy hell,” he breathed, and stepped out onto a long, secluded balcony the length of her suite. “Is this—”

“The balcony we saw from down there,” she finished. “It is. And it’s all mine.” She stepped to the balcony and leaned over, pointing down to the grassy bluff. “You can see the world from up here.”

He went elbows down on the wall beside her, catching sight of Black Moon’s flag hanging just below them. If Dante wanted to, he could reach down and snatch that thing right off its mount. If only everything could be captured as simply.

After staring down at the emblem, and failing to catch a glimpse of the mark on Ariana’s arm, Dante took a sweeping glance of the landscape.

It really was magnificent.

The ocean seemed to go on forever before bending at the end of the earth. With every heavy crash of waves against the black-rocked bluff, sea breeze sailed right up to them, salty and fresh. Beyond the lawn, the dark of the forest sucked in every ounce of starlight and kept a thousand secrets.

“What’s through there?” Dante pointed to a parting between two massive fir trees.

“Our elder cemetery. It’s where I’m teaching class tomorrow.”

She’d be in the forest? Out in the open, where Watchers could observe her every move? Now that he thought of it . . .

He scanned the horizon, the forest, and around the east side of the building. “Where is Black Moon’s wall? How is this side protected?”

Surely they wouldn’t leave this entire wing vulnerable to attack.

“The wall runs deep into the forest that way.” She pointed past him to the east, then swept her arm toward the forest and sea. “And continues through, about fifty yards, and ends at the bluff.”

Dante pieced together scattered bits of information. Something wasn’t adding up, and last time he checked two plus two still made four.

“Elders train on the grounds, right?”

“Of course. It’s how we remain hidden.”

“Yet you astral-project from the rings in the forest.” Pausing, he turned toward her. “Why would you do that? Why not project from inside Black Moon? You’d be better protected that way.”

She tugged at her sleeve, covering the hilt of the branded sword. “I didn’t bring you up here to talk about my astral-projecting.”

“Why did you bring me up here? To rub in how great your view is compared to mine?”

“No.” She sighed, and Dante realized how utterly relaxed she looked in the simplicity of this place. It was as if all the wind had been sucked from her sails and she didn’t mind resting still in the sea. “I brought you up here because this is my personal space. This is where I recharge. No one comes up here. Ever.”

Dante looked at Ariana then, her hazelnut eyes sparkling in the twilight, the corners of her lips turning into a smile. A strange stirring rolled through his stomach, hardening into a knot when she placed her hand over his.

“I want you to know that you aren’t any different than the elders on our grounds who are learning about their mawares. You’re simply learning about a different part of you. You’re safe here.” She slid closer. “With me.”

The top of his hand burned from her caress. Why hadn’t she pulled her hand away? “Who says I want to be safe?”