The Pursuit (10 page)

“You called and told me Renato was here. Where is he?” He glanced at Talia. “Why are you here?”

“Yes, tell him Talia, why you are here.”

Not like this.
“He is my…” She couldn’t say it. She choked on the word.

“Sire.” Chris finished for her. “She is mine, Jean Luc. I made her.”

Jean Luc flinched as if he had been slapped. His eyes narrowed and turned red and he growled. Low and hoarse. A growl full of fury and promise of retribution.

He took a step toward Chris.

“Ah, ah, ah, my friend. Remember your oath.” Chris grinned.

Oh, God.
“No, Chris!”

Jean Luc glanced at her, eyes flaring in surprise. “Chris?”

“That was the name I was using thirty years ago. When I met Talia.”

“You knew him before he turned you?”

Chris laughed out loud. “This is fabulous! You told him you didn’t know me?”

“I didn’t know you were a vampire. I didn’t know you would turn me against my will.”

Jean Luc went deathly still and stared at her, his jaw clenched, and his claws extended.

Talia’s claws extended, and she dug them into the palms of her hands. Now he would hate her forever. Now he would leave her alone. If she survived.

Chapter 16

Jean Luc forced himself to breathe slowly. His world was incinerating around him. Talia and Leo? Why had she not told him the truth? Had she been playing him the fool? And Leo. What had he become?

He looked at Annie, who stood beside Leo, taking the scene in like a bystander at a traffic accident. Her fresh scent had changed altogether into a spicy mixture of ginger that gagged him with its intensity. Was nothing real anymore?

Leo stepped around the bar. “Your oath is actually why I brought you here today. Talia has threatened me. So I invoke the oath, Jean Luc. You will protect me or die trying.”

Talia shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Don’t do this. Let him go.”

“What has happened to you, Leo?” Jean Luc asked.

“Don’t look at me like that. As though I disgust you. We are the same, you and I. Both turned to do a vampire’s bidding, and then what? We have spent centuries living by rules created to keep us in line. I was a soldier, Jean Luc. I was to live and die fighting, and then I was turned.”

“So you kill and turn people against their will?”

“I take the rights that should have been ours in the first place!”

“And what of this game with Renato?”

“Renato is a puppet. He always has been. He thinks he will be the next leader? He needs to think again. I am next in line, if he falls. And he will fall, and I will be a founding vampire and eventually leader of the vampires.”

Jean Luc grimaced. “You have become LeBlanc. He was everything we swore to destroy. And now he stands reincarnated in front of me.”

“No! Never speak his name to me!”

Jean Luc stepped closer, clenching his fists. “You forced Talia to become a vampire!”

Leo’s eyes glazed over. “She was my first. I had to have her. And after I turned her, I knew there was no going back. I shouldn’t have left her that day, but I panicked. I had taken that forbidden step.” He stared at Talia. “You were the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Still are.” Then he turned to Jean Luc with a twisted grin. “And she was amazing in bed. Is she still a back-scratcher? She was such a treat to fuck.”

An inhuman screech bounced off the walls and around the room as Annie charged at Leo, sword in hand. Jean Luc stepped in front of him, his body forcing him to protect. Fire pierced his shoulder as her sword connected.

Talia screamed.

Annie lunged again and swung the sword. Jean Luc pivoted. Crimson ran down his arm. He elbowed Annie in the face and grabbed the sword as it fell from her hands. He spun, using the momentum to take off her head in a clean sweep.

Her body crumpled to the floor.

Leo shrugged. “She was getting too clingy anyway.” He smiled. “Now kill Talia.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

Jean Luc stood taller even though the pain urged him to crumple to the floor. “The oath is a life for a life. I just saved you. We are even now.” He tossed the sword to Talia, who caught it with ease.

Leo grinned. “You would let a fledgling fight me?”

“It is her fight.”

“You would watch me kill her?”

Jean Luc flashed his fangs. “I will watch her wreak vengeance.”

Talia held the sword in her hands and advanced. Leo reached behind the bar and grabbed another sword.

“We need to make this a fair fight.”

Talia advanced on him. “Since when have you ever played fair?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t think you had it in you to kill your sire.”

“You bled me dry, Chris. But you’re not my sire. A sire is someone who stands by you and teaches you what it means to be a vampire.”

They circled each other, Leo with a cocky swagger, Talia with cautious, feline steps. After a few more seconds, Leo swung the sword, and Talia blocked it easily.

Leo’s eyes widened. “You have been practicing.”

Leo flashed, and Talia flashed with him. Metal clanged, sparks appearing in the air where they fought. Jean Luc tried to flash as well so he could see what was happening, but he could not make his body obey.

Leo slowed first and stood panting with blood running down his arm. Talia appeared next, and she did not appear to be hurt. Leo bellowed, charging her. She ducked out of the way, and he surged past her. She turned and swung down with a ferocious shout, connecting with his neck. The cut was clean.

Jean Luc fell to his knees. The adrenaline that had kept him on his feet had vanished.

Talia’s sword clattered to the floor, and she knelt beside him, holding him up.

“You let me kill him.”

“I was not in any shape to challenge him.”

“How did you know I would win?”

“Because he underestimated you. You are amazing, Talia. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“I’m so sorry, Jean Luc.”

He nodded, and his eyes closed. Everything would be all right now.

* * *

When he awoke, he was in a bed at the BSR facility. Talia was gone. He did not even attempt to stretch his senses to find her. His heart told him she was not there.

Kyle and Misha sat by his bed, and they both stood and smiled when they saw he was awake.

“It is about time you woke up, my friend.” Misha glanced at Kyle and she cleared her throat.

“Jean Luc…”

“I know. She has left.”

“She gave you blood and stayed here until Doc told her you were healing, then she left. I’m sorry.”

“It will be fine, Kyle.”

Kyle rushed on. “She’s scared and pushed you away to protect you. Don’t let her get away with it.”

“I do not plan to.”

Misha smiled. “You are going after her, yes?”

“
Oui.
” Talia had left him again. But this time he would not let her go.

Chapter 17

Jean Luc walked around tombstones and across the grass to reach the open grave. A priest stood with his hand on the casket, head bent forward in silent prayer. After a couple of seconds, he lifted his head and then shook the lone mourner’s hand before turning toward his car.

Jean Luc stepped up to the grave. “I thought I might find you here.”

Talia stared at the casket for a moment and then placed a single white rose on its bare top. “I couldn’t let Melanie be buried alone.”

“I understand.” And he did. He reached for her hand.

She stepped away from him. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Comfort you?”

She blew out a hard breath. “Comfort me? I don’t need comfort. I didn’t even know her.”

“But you empathize with her. Or is it more than that? Do you see yourself in her?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She strode away from the grave toward a newer area of the cemetery with no headstones.

Jean Luc walked up behind her. “Talia.”

“What?” she snapped, continuing to stare across the grass.

“You do not have to be alone like Melanie. Do not follow her path.”

She whirled to face him. “What the hell do you mean?”

“I don’t know what happened to Melanie to make her turn away from everyone. Caused her to believe money and blood could give her what she needed in this life, but she did. And nothing can change that. But you have a choice.”

A tear rolled down her cheek. “Why are you here, Jean Luc? What do you want?”

And there was that question again. They had come full circle, only this time he knew how to answer it.

“You. I want you, Talia.”

She shook her head. “How can you say that? I lied to you about Chris. Have been lying to you for thirty years. And you still want me?”

“I will always want you.”

Talia’s eyes glistened, and she blinked rapidly. “But…I pushed you away. I didn’t want you to fight my battles, to die for me…and you almost died anyway.”

He grabbed her shoulders. “
Femme stupide
!”

Gold shot through her pupils, and she glared at him.
Bien!
This was the Talia he was used to seeing.

“Did you just call me stupid?”

“
Oui.
You were willing to die for me. Yet you do not allow me the same choice? I would die for Misha and Kyle. They are my family.”

“And what am I?”

He cupped her face with his hands. “You are
mon coeur.
If you were to cease to exist, so would I. Of course I would die for you.”

Tears coursed down her cheeks, and he rubbed them away lightly with his thumbs.

“
Je t’aime
, Talia Walker.”

She hesitated, and then whispered, “I love you too.”

He leaned in and lightly brushed his lips over hers, savoring her flavor. He backed up to gauge her reaction. Her eyes sparked with heat.

He grasped her hand, and they walked toward the parking area. It was time to leave the cemetery and the past behind. “We need to talk about the future. Do you wish to stay in Las Vegas?”

Her eyes widened in shock. “You would come here with me? You would leave Kyle and Misha?”

“If you need to stay here, yes.”

“I’ll miss Will. But no, your home is with your family. Do you think they’ll be okay with me being there after everything that happened?”

“Misha…is Misha. Of course, he wants you to come to Cleveland. And Kyle told me not to return without you.”

Talia came to a stop. “Wait. I have to know. Why does she have your mark?”

“Last summer Sebastian decided he wanted Kyle as his own. He would do anything to have her, including biting her against her will to place her under his thrall. He wanted to control Kyle’s gift.”

Her eyes widened in understanding. “So you bit her to stop him. And you two have never…”

“
Non!
She is like a daughter to me.” He shook his head. “I cannot believe she was right.”

“About what?”

“Kyle told me you were angry when you saw her bite mark.”

“I wasn’t angry.”

“Jealous?”

“You cocky vamp!”

He grinned and nestled her against him. “
Oui,
but only when I see the truth with my own two eyes.”

Talia locked her arms around him. “We need to talk to Nicholas.”

Jean Luc pulled back a bit to look into her face. “I already did. I told him I would quit if he tried to keep us apart.”

“And what about the vampire tribunal?”

“When I informed Nicholas of the case, I told him about the founding vampires, and he warned Tobias. Tobias has gone on the offensive. He has attacked Renato’s credibility, asking why he allowed Leo to set him up as a killer. The others have pulled back for now.”

“You have been busy.” She smiled up into his face.

And it was
the
smile. The brilliant smile she had used to greet Misha. And it was just for him. Finally.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he groaned at the interruption. “I know who this is.” He eased back to pull it out, and Misha’s name flashed on the screen. “If I do not answer, he will keep calling every five minutes.”

Talia laughed, and the glorious sound sent warmth rushing through to his bones.

“Answer it.”

He hit the speaker button. “Hello, Misha.”

“Jean Luc, what’s going on? Have you seen Talia yet?”

“Yes.” He winked at her.

“And? Please tell me you didn’t screw it up again, vampire,” Kyle’s voice chimed in. Of course, they would call him together.

Talia stroked her hand across Jean Luc’s shoulder and down his arm, taking his hand as she spoke. “He didn’t screw it up again. I hope you have room for one more on your team.”

The phone went silent for a second and then voices erupted.

“Hot damn!” Kyle yelled.

“Thank God!” Misha gushed.

“When are you coming home?” Kyle and Misha chorused.

Jean Luc laughed.

“Holy shit. He just laughed. Did you hear him
laugh
?” Kyle blurted.

Misha’s belly laugh rang loud and clear. “It is music to my ears, my friend.”

Jean Luc wrapped his arm around Talia and pulled her to his side again. “I will stay here with Talia until she can move to Cleveland.”

“Okay,” Kyle replied. “But I want to hear all about what you said to Talia. Did you say what I told you to say, or did you improvise?”

Talia chuckled, and he squeezed her shoulder.

“Sorry, Kyle, but you are breaking up. I have to go now. Talk to you soon.”

“Are you giving me the brush-off, Jean Luc? You’re in so much trouble when you get—”

He hit the red button on his phone and then, just to be safe, powered it off.

Talia shook her head. “I thought Misha was bad enough all by himself, but with Kyle in the mix? They are going to take some getting used to.”

He quirked his eyebrow at her. “They were actually quite well behaved just now.”

“Well, I’m up for the challenge,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder.

He turned her toward him and cuddled her to his chest. “As am I,
mon coeur
. As am I.”