Tempt Me When the Sun Goes Down (18 page)

“It’s not that simple.”

“Yes, it is.”  He shook his head, arms crossing in front of his chest.  “Damn, I never thought you could be so selfish.”

“Me selfish?” I blinked in surprise.  “I’m willing to cut out a piece of my heart for him…”

“And crush the rest of ours in the process?  Yeah, that’s selfish,” he retorted with a scowl.

“No, see... it’ll work.  We already tested it on another vampire.”  I explained to him what Bishop and those guys had already tried, but Carter was unimpressed. 

“Big fucking deal.  I say it’s still too risky.”

“It’ll be fine, Carter.  I can do this, I’m tougher than I look.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.  Unless you’ve decided you want to fix things up with Rob and get your H.E.A.  Which I don’t believe in, by the way.”

“Well, I do.” 

“Then that’s what you’re doing?  You’ve decided to take his sorry ass back?”

Was I?  I felt like the longer I went on, the more muddled I felt about my feelings toward both men.  “I’m keeping my options open.”

“Sure, I guess there’s no point in sweating the decision too much if you might not even survive the whole thing, right?  Smart thinking, sunshine.  Top notch.”  He made an okay symbol with his fingers and I could’ve cut the sarcasm with a knife, it was so thick.

“I’m doing what I think is best.”

“Just once I wish you’d do what’s best for you.”

“I am.  I couldn’t live with myself if Rob died because of me.”

“It’s not because of you, dummy, it’s because of that prick, Jakob.  How about we pay that creep a visit when this is all over, you and me?  I’m thinking he might benefit from a flaming arrow or two.”  

“Yeah, maybe,” I smiled over the image of us stalking Jakob together.  “Let me get through this ordeal first before you start planning my next death defying stunt, okay?”

“Okay,” he agreed, letting out a long pent up breath.  “You’re not gonna get my blessing on this one.  You know that, right?”

“I know.”

“Keep me posted then, huh?”

“I’ll text you once we’re out of the woods.” 

“No chance you’ll let me tag along?”

“No, it’s for the best if you sit this one out.  It’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Keep telling yourself that, sunshine.  If you don’t survive this, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?”

“Nothing.”  He clammed up fast and I recognized that look.  It was the look he gave when he was about to do something he knew I wouldn’t approve of, so he tried to keep me in the dark so I wouldn’t compel him not to.  Not that I could compel him through the internet connection anyway.  “Good luck, Anja.  I’ll see you on the flip side.”

“You can count on it,” I promised, giving him what I hoped was an assured smile.  “Bye.” 

“He’s right you know.”  I’d thought Rob was already fast asleep on the sofa, but he propped himself up against my bedroom doorframe where he’d obviously been listening in.  “You shouldn’t be doing this.”

“We’ve already been over this.  You saw the vamp and talked to him yourself, he survived it.”

“Yeah, but he won’t be right for a while.  Who knows how long you’ll be weakened by this, if you even survive it at all?”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

“I’m not.  I’ve decided, I won’t do it.”  With that, he turned and stumbled back to the couch, falling back on it heavily.

“Oh, no you don’t,” I muttered stalking after him.  “Yes, you are,” I threw back at him along with a good dose of compulsion.  Maybe I was more like Carys than I liked to think.  “You’ll go along with this because you know deep down it’s the right thing to do, right?”

“Right,” he parroted back to me and I tried not to think about whether he meant it or not. 

I’d said it before and I meant it more than ever.  I was going to break that curse if it was the last thing I ever did.

Bishop waited outside Anja’s door, listening for a moment before he knocked, not wanting to interrupt anything too intimate.  It wasn’t too difficult to pick out the low murmur of conversation that sounded innocent enough, and he rapped softly on the door, smiling when Anja came to answer it herself. 

“Hey, I’m going out for a while and I wanted to make sure nothing had changed since we last talked,” he said, resisting the urge to reach out and touch her. 

Her head tilted to one side in confusion.  “Did you expect it would?”

“Well… you never know.  Sometimes you’re not the most forthcoming person when you think you know what’s best.”

“I could say the same for you,” she fired right back at him and he could only smile.

“You know me well.  But I also know you’d be the first one to jump into a live volcano if you thought you’d be saving us all by doing it.” 

Anja got an odd look on her face that made him think that he’d hit the nail right on the head.  That wasn’t a surprise and it was part of why he’d decided to stop by, to see if she’d concocted some other crazy scheme to break the curse.  So far the sacrifice seemed to be the plan of the moment and he was drawing a complete blank on how to talk her out of it.  He had an idea that all he had to do was tell Jakob about the plan and he’d keep it from happening.  But would she ever forgive him for bringing the
Ellri
into it and ruining her chances to save Rob?  It was a risk he wasn’t willing to take, not yet. 

Whatever martyr inspired thoughts were swirling around behind those pretty blue eyes, all she said was, “That’s not on the agenda for tonight, but thanks for stopping by.”

“What
is
on the agenda for tonight?”

“Not a whole lot.  Rob’s not…”  Her voice lowered.  “He’s getting weaker every day.  We’ll probably stick around here until he needs to feed again.”

“You’re not going to… do you…?”  He couldn’t say it, the idea of her feeding him distasteful to his tongue, but she shook her head, easing his discomfort.

“Not unless I don’t have another choice.  While I don’t normally like to use the room service here, we’ll probably take advantage of it while we can.” 

“Good.”  The idea of her sharing her blood with Rob made his boil, even though he knew he had no claim to her.  It was his own fault, he’d been stupid enough to let her go.  “If there’s anything else I can do to help…”

Anja waved away the offer.  “You’ve already done more than I could’ve asked for.  Thanks for that, by the way.  It means a lot that you’d go out of your way to help Rob.  I know the two of you haven’t always been the best of friends.”

That was an understatement.  “I’m not doing it for him.”

“Right, you’re doing it for Carys,” she nodded.  “How could I forget.”

Was that what she really thought?  “Anja, you must know I…”

“There you are, Ulrik,” Carys appeared at the end of the hallway, and Bishop spent the next ten seconds swearing in a half dozen languages inside his head while she sashayed down the hall to join them.  “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, just about,” he said, forcing a polite smile. 

“What are you two up to tonight?” Anja asked, her smile looking just as strained, but Carys either didn’t notice, or didn’t care. 

“We’re going hunting in town,” she beamed.  “It’s been an age since I roamed the London streets.  I can’t wait to recapture the pulse of the city.”

“You kids have fun with that.”  Anja retreated back into her room and Bishop took a half step forward before he caught himself from going farther. 

“So, call or text me if anything changes.  I want to be kept in the loop.”

“You got it, Cap’n,” Anja drawled, giving him a crisp but somewhat mocking salute.  “You go on and have fun, we’ll keep her flyin’.”

“
Xièxie
,” Bishop replied, enjoying the widening of her eyes at his semi-appropriate use of Chinese.  He got halfway down the main staircase with a silly grin on his face before he realized he still had Carys by his side, not Anja.  She was yammering on about something, and he forced himself to listen as they reached the grand foyer. 

“Where shall we go first?”  Carys was dressed in a slinky blue dress that hugged her curves, slit to show a scandalous amount of leg.  She certainly was adjusting to modern times.  Her blonde hair was still tucked up and away as it always had been, in an elaborate coiffure with a few springy curls against her neck.  One of his favorite things had been to pull out the pins and take her hair down.  It’d spilled over his fingers like cornsilk – but now his fingers itched to touch another blonde mane. 

“Ulrik?” she prompted, when he didn’t readily reply.    

“It doesn’t matter, wherever you want to go,” he replied picking up a set of keys from the board in the hall.  “Oh, there’s something I want to stop and check up on first though.”

“What?”

Bishop waited until they were settled in the car before he replied, pulling away from the mansion.  “We did a test run of cutting out a vampire’s heart last night and I want to check up on the guy and make sure he’s still doing fine.”  Though part of him secretly hoped the guy would’ve taken a turn for the worse in the hopes that it would convince Anja not to attempt it herself. 

“You cut open another vampire?” she blinked in surprise.  “When did this happen?”

“Ah, when you were off glomming onto father/daughter time with Jakob and Nelleke last night.”

“I thought you said you had important work to see to.” 

“And I did.  This is important.” 

The pucker of a frown marred her smooth forehead.  “Why are you going through so much effort with this curse business?  You’re suffering no ill effects from it, I’ve seen to that. I like things fine the way they are.”

Of course she did.  “It’s not all about you.  This curse is messing up Rob and Anja’s lives too.”  He could feel her staring at him in the darkened car, but didn’t offer up any other explanation. 

“What is she to you?” she finally asked.  “You never bothered yourself with Jakob’s leavings before.”

“Anja and I are… friends,” he replied, choosing his words carefully.  “Close friends.”

“How close?”

“She’s with Rob now, but there was a time when we were
very
close.”  There was no point in hiding it from her, there were any number of people who knew about it and might spill the beans if he tried to downplay it.   

“Surely not,” she laughed, sobering quickly when he didn’t rush to deny it.  “But she’s an infant.  I’ll admit she’s pretty enough in a common sort of way, but certainly beneath you in status and breeding.” 

“These are different times, Carys.  People are defined by their character and actions, not their breeding.  Besides, her status is nothing to shake a stick at.  There’s not another like her that’s risen to power even half as quickly.  I should remind you that my lineage isn’t all that impressive either when you talk about breeding.”

“You are the son of a Germanic noble.”

“According to my whore of a mother,” he pointed out.

“She was an entertainer, a flawless beauty,” she started to say, but Bishop interrupted her before she spun too many fairy tales. 

“I have no illusions of what my mother was and wasn’t and the same goes for me.  You picked me because I caught your eye, it’s as easy as that.  You admired my talents in and out of the bedroom and the way I jumped at your every command.  It had nothing to do with breeding or status, so don’t try to make it more than it was.”

“Ulrik, I…”

“My name is Bishop now.  I told you, I’m not that man anymore.  I don’t know you anymore either.”

“I haven’t changed, I sit before you, the same girl as I was the first night we met.” 

“Maybe that’s part of the problem.”  Time had stopped for her, but the years had marched on brutally for him.  Ulrik had died long ago, giving way to the man he’d become.  Even that man had radically changed in the past year alone, since Anja had come into his life. 

He’d rendered her speechless, and it took a few minutes for her to reply.  “You confound me, to be sure.  One might almost think you don’t love me at all anymore.”

“Do you honestly care?” Bishop challenged.  “Jakob compelled you not to love me, why should it matter if I love you or not?” 

“I may not feel that love any longer, but I remember it well enough,” she said softly.  “I remember clinging to that love with such a fiery passion that I’d have sacrificed anything to save you, even that love itself.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me about the curse back then?”

“You knew well enough when you were in the grip of it.  We spent many a night lamenting our doomed love affair and cursing Jakob’s name.” 

The fact that he couldn’t remember any of it rankled more than he liked for something that’d happened so long ago.  “Then why compel me to forget all about it?  If it was such a great love between us, why not keep fighting to beat the curse once and for all?”

“I couldn’t bear to and then I didn’t want to.  Jakob took that from me.  He took it from us.”

They sat in silence until the lights of the city beckoned, and Carys lost the gloomy mood.  “Let’s go hunting as we did in the old days.  Leave all this melancholy aside and recapture what it is to be alive and free.”

All Bishop could think was – this wasn’t freedom.  If he was truly free he’d be back at the house playing gin with Anja and thinking about deployment schedules.  But he also knew he had to maintain a delicate balance with Carys.  Upset her too deeply and she was likely to lash out, and the consequences wouldn’t be pretty.  “Sure, we can go hunting,” he agreed easily.  “As soon as I make this one stop.” 

* * *

The vamp holed up in his apartment was weak but alive when he went to check up on him.  He probably could’ve healed quicker if he’d had more powerful blood than the bagged blood Bishop left behind for him, but they’d wanted to make sure he’d survive without it.  Carys lost interest in the whole thing in less than two minutes after she walked through the door, declaring her boredom with the
squalid little hovel
.  With assurances that he’d be back with the balance of what he owed the guy, they left on foot, Carys dancing ahead as soon as they hit the street. 

Bishop followed along behind her, keeping her in his sights.  This was the game.  While technically hunting together, Carys preferred to make the first move on her own, making a show of it, knowing he watched.  He followed her into a busy pub, keeping his distance while she stood dazed by the noisy display of blaring televisions mounted to the walls.  This part was new for her, but she adapted quickly enough, taking a seat at the bar.

Much in the way he’d taught Anja to hunt, she selected a human that pleased her and set to charming him.  She was dazzling to behold, knowing the perfect angle to highlight her heart shaped face, the effect of her light touch on a man’s arm or thigh, the ideal position to display the slope of her breast.  Her laughter came high and sweet, but it rang false for him, knowing it was all an act. 

The man she’d chosen was handsome, of course, strong and powerful.  He’d already been talking to a blonde woman when they’d arrived, but that was simply more of the challenge Carys wanted.  Bishop watched as she lured him away from the blonde and then out of the bar.  He knew what it felt like to be captive to her charms, the guy never stood a chance. 

Bishop followed them out into the nearby alley, away from the bright lights and sounds.  He knew his part well enough.  Once she had the first taste he was to join her, and from there… anything could happen.  But Carys didn’t jump in and take what she wanted, not yet.  Instead, she allowed her victim the illusion of control, letting him be the one to press her against the cool bricks, letting his hands roam freely over her body while Bishop watched from the shadows.   

There was a sound of ripping fabric, and Carys’ slinky dress split even higher, the better to allow her to wrap her legs around the man’s waist.  Bishop steeled himself for what was to come next as Carys met his gaze over the guy’s shoulder, a curious smile of triumph on her lips as he surged into her.  Her head tipped back, fangs descending in a flash of white before she sank them into the strong cords of his neck.

The coppery scent of spilled blood filled the air and Bishop found himself drifting closer without having made the conscious decision to move.  He knew what was expected of him, and he stepped into place, feeling the call of the blood.  His fangs elongated with a slow, almost painful stretch, throbbing along with the beat of the man’s heart. 

A thin rivulet of blood escaped from where Cary’s mouth clamped against his neck, disappearing under the collar of his shirt, and Bishop reached out and split the fabric in two, mesmerized by the sight of the crimson drop.

The guy’s rhythm faltered as he realized they were no longer alone in the alley.  “Who the fuck is this?” he bit out harshly. 

“Shh, lover,” she whispered at his ear.  “This is Ulrik, and he will bring you untold delights.”  The man instantly eased, his thrusts resuming as Carys’ compulsion took hold.  Bishop stepped closer, his mouth closing over the spilled droplet, tracing its path back up to Carys’ waiting lips.  Their mouths fused together in a blood-tinged kiss that was half regret and half delight, the man’s body nothing more than a frustration for him and a source of pleasure for her.