Undying Desire (18 page)

“So unique…simply divine.” Seth licked his lips, and his eyelids popped open. “What was it like, fucking the hybrid, Guerino?” His pupils had dilated, erasing the green of his irises and leaving a barely visible line of white at the perimeter.

Guerin’s fangs burst through his gums. Adrenaline surged, tightening his biceps, once again testing the strength of the shackles and rattling the chains. He snarled. “Go to hell.”

The blond growled in response as his palm impacted Guerin’s face with an ear-popping
whack
. The warm, copper flavor of blood seeped onto Guerin’s tongue. He straightened his head, slinging strands of hair that had fallen into his eyes back over his forehead. How the hell did the bastard know who he was?
Markus?
But how?

“Too late.” Seth grabbed Guerin’s chin, locking their gazes. “We’re already there,” he whispered, his elongated fangs glinting in the harsh beams. Guerin twisted free of his grip. Seth laughed and reversed his step. “Oh, but Eve will soon change everything.”

“You’re no closer to getting your hands on her than yesterday, you crazy son of a bitch. What the hell makes you think holding me changes anything for you?” Guerin knew the amount of blood they’d exchanged would keep them connected for several days at least. But that didn’t mean she’d try to find him. He’d betrayed her, and he wouldn’t blame Eve for allowing him to rot and die at Seth’s hand.

A loud
crack
inside his skull was the only indication that Seth had moved. A half second later, Guerin realized it had been the sound of his head meeting the rock wall behind him. The force of Seth’s grip on Guerin’s jaw held him there.

“Never underestimate me or take me for a fool, Lombardi.” A low growl followed his warning. “Her scent covers you like a provocative cloak. You reek of sex. And judging by the number of bite marks”—Seth yanked Guerin’s head to the left, then right—“she’s filled her gut on your blood.” He released his hold and reversed his step.

“You are a fool if you think she’ll give herself over to you because of me,” Guerin scoffed.

A sick grin formed on Seth’s face, and he shook his head. “You know what they say about those who doth protest too much.”

“I was nothing to her, Keller. You’re wasting your time.” Sadly, Guerin knew he was right.

“Perhaps.” He shrugged. “But I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy every second of trying to get her attention, anyway.”

…

Eve punched the mound of foam under her head, then collapsed back down onto the lumpy excuse for a pillow.
Sleep.
Please.
God, why couldn’t she pass out and forget about the last ten hours? Forget about the pained looked in the blue eyes that bore a striking resemblance to her own. Forget about the pleading sound in Guerin’s voice as he’d called out to her…

“Stop it!” Eve cried out into darkened expanse of her rented room. “Let it go. It was all a plan to trap and destroy you, Eve Devonshire. Lies. All of it. Don’t you forget.” She rolled to her side and sighed. More than likely the males from the Enclave had caught up with Seth’s minions, retrieved Guerin, and they were all in their beds sound asleep.

Unlike her.

Last night hadn’t been her proudest moment, watching them drug Guerin and take him away. Her stomach roiled at the memory. But two of Seth’s DEADs had circled Guerin on the outside, and the Enclave duo had huddled on the inside. What other option had there been for her other than to run?

Kenric wanted her dead. Except it hadn’t made any sense since he’d refused to fight her, attack her, when she’d done everything she could to taunt him into doing so.

He’d killed her mother, so why else had he come to find his long-lost child other than to take her down as well? Eve worried her lip, her mind spinning with scenarios. Perhaps he hadn’t fought her because he’d wanted to lure her into lowering her guard. Yet he was a master vampire. If he’d wanted her dead, he could have crushed any resistance against him she could have mustered, especially with two of his team at his side. What did Kenric want from her? Because he couldn’t possibly want his daughter in his life now.

Her heart pounded in her throat—every beat feeling as if it were larger than the last. She gasped and sprang up, clutching the scratchy cotton sheet to her chest.

Get a grip
. She pulled in a deep breath past the constriction.
Get a grip.

She’d known her whole life that her father hadn’t wanted her. So why should today be any different? Eve flopped back onto the mattress and stared up at the small stream of daylight flickering across the dingy ceiling tiles. Her mother would have never lied to her on such an epic scale. Right? That would have been too cruel—on so many levels. She rubbed her eyes. Why did she suddenly doubt the few things she knew to be the truth?

You know why.

Guerin’s face loomed to the forefront of her mind. His warm, dark gaze melting her as he’d offered to hold her as long as she’d needed him to. Eve groaned.
No.
She’d be a fool to begin questioning her life because of the touch and feel of a man she’d known for less than a week, and the words of another man—a stranger—who’d abandoned her before she’d been born.

Unbidden, her eyelids drifted closed. Images of multiple dark skylines speckled with diamonds zoomed by in her mind. Faces of strangers, too numerous to count, shuttled past as if on fast-forward.

So many places.

But not a single connection to anyone.

Exactly the way her mother said it had to be to keep her baby alive. The all-too-familiar ache swelled in her stomach. The one she’d carried with her for as long as she could remember. Years later, she’d learned the pain had a name: loneliness.

“Stay in here, Eve,” her mother demanded in a hushed voice as she shoved the little girl inside the tiny bedroom. “No one can ever know you exist. Listen to me, and if you want to live, you’ll keep your mouth shut.” Marguerite backed away and the door released with a soft
click
, as a key rattled in the lock,
clunk
.

Eve’s lip trembled, but she didn’t dare cry. It hadn’t taken long to learn that tears never helped. They only clogged her nose.

Voices approached outside her door. Eve scurried closer to the wood and crouched, placing her ear to the surface. Mother would be so mad if she knew Eve listened to her with her guests sometimes. But there was no way she’d ever find out. It was usually hours before she’d return, and Eve was always fast asleep by then. Mother would stroke her hair, waking her for a moment, then whisper in her ear, “Mommy’s secret treasure. Sweet dreams.”

Their murmurings grew more distant as their footsteps trailed down the hall. Eve pressed her ear closer to the door. Her mother treated her more like a human, coddling her as if she would break. But Eve’s hearing was better than Marguerite knew. Some things Eve had learned were best kept to herself.

“This is Andre, Marguerite.”

“A pleasure…madam,” the deep male responded, his words sounding slurred. Was he drunk?

“Mmm. Indeed,” her mother cooed. “What brings you both here tonight, Ana? I wasn’t expecting you.”

“I want him, Marguerite.”

Her mother chuckled. “Well, dear…I am not keeping you from him. Have him.”

“No. I mean I want him how you took Kenric.”

“Shhh!” Her mother nearly screeched, “Do not speak of this again. Or am I to regret ever divulging my deepest secret to you?”

“I’ve never betrayed you, nor do I plan to.”

“Very wise.”

“But it’s not fair, Marguerite. You keep this secret of how you conceived only to yourself.”

“No!” Marguerite bellowed, and a loud crash rang out. “She’s mine! I am her creator, and like my daughter, that knowledge is mine alone.”

“It’s cruel, Marguerite. I’m your one and only confidant. I deserve this. Give me the chance to try. I’ve honored your wishes, and I’ve told no one. For God’s sake, you trusted me over her own father. It takes two to create a child. You didn’t create her by yourself, and he doesn’t even know she exists!”

Eve gasped and jumped away from the wood, knocking over the small table by the door with a
bang
in the process. Her heart raced. He doesn’t know?

A loud
smack
of flesh against flesh ricocheted through the air. “You fool!”

Seconds later, the key rattled inside the lock to Eve’s bedroom door. Eve picked herself up and hurried to her bed. She jumped onto her quilt as her mother entered. Her heart was in the back of her throat, making it hard to swallow.

“Eve, darling.” Her mother lifted her skirts and glided across the wood floor to Eve’s bedside. “You were listening at the door, weren’t you?”

A lie was on the tip of Eve’s tongue, but when she looked up into her mother’s green eyes, there was no use trying to dodge the truth.

“Yes.” Eve nodded and drew her legs under her nightgown. The bed dipped with her mother’s added weight, and Marguerite lifted Eve’s chin, holding their gazes locked.

“That was very naughty, Eve.” She sighed. “And you’re going to have to forget everything you heard.” A ring of fire swirled around her mother’s pupils.

Eve’s eyelids sprang open and she shot forward in bed. Her chest was too tight as if there was no room for the air to squeeze past the pain inside. She darted from the mattress and rushed to the dingy bathroom. Eve hit the light switch, twisted on the cold water, leaned over the sink, and splashed a handful into her face. The chilled liquid wrung a gasp from her throat, jarring her lungs into action.

She snatched a towel from the shelf over the toilet and stared at her reflection in the mirror. Blue eyes instead of her mother’s green glared backed at her. Except for the irises, she was her mother’s spitting image. Her stomach rebelled, bile eroding the tissue at the back of her throat.

“Nearly three centuries,” she whispered into the empty space. “All these years…was there ever a moment when anything you told me was the truth, Mother?” Eve rammed her fist into the glass, shattering the large rectangle into tiny fragments. Shards hit the laminated counter and showered the basin in reflective confetti.

Violated.

Eve stabbed her fingers into hair, holding on to her head. Her mother had manipulated her mind. Altered her memories to reflect her own version of reality.

No, no, no!
It was a dream. She was falling apart for nothing. It had to be her mind playing tricks on her.

Kenric couldn’t have been telling the truth. Tears welled, blurring her vision. Eve stumbled from the bathroom and made her way to the end of her bed. She plopped onto the edge of the mattress. If what he’d said was true, then her whole life had been a lie. All her mother had fed her for as long as she could remember were lies.

“Oh, God,” she groaned. How did one digest something like that and move on? But deep inside, Eve had a feeling she was about to learn.

Her so-called “dream” hadn’t felt like a mismatch of images constructed from her imagination. No. The event had unraveled inside her head as if someone had pulled a string from the fabric holding together a veil of memories her mother had tried to keep hidden.

Too real.

“What do I do now?” she whispered. So much damage lay between her and her father, a river of deceit Eve had no idea how to cross.

Chapter Sixteen

It was another long night for the record books.

Pulling back the heavy drapes in the hotel suite, Arran took in the city of Nuremberg, its lights awakening in the setting sun. Guerin was out there—somewhere. But this time, Arran didn’t have a damn clue where to begin their search.

Eve had escaped only moments before the DEADs had arrived. She couldn’t have had time to arrange his abduction. So who the hell in Germany wanted the Enclave’s second-in-command?

“You ready to go?”

“Yeah.” Arran pivoted, grabbed his daggers from the end of the bed, and stowed them, one in his boot, the other in the sleeve strapped to his thigh. Kenric tossed him his coat, then slid his own over his shoulders.

“The sun should be well below the horizon by the time we reach the airport,” Kenric said on the way out the door. “According to the text, Emily’s jet arrives in an hour.”

“So you haven’t spoken to her yet?”

“No.” Kenric hit the down button to call the elevator. A bell dinged and the doors slid open. Both men stepped into the empty box and rode the seven stories down to the garage level. Neither spoke. The tension in the air did all the talking. Other than Emily, Guerin was the closest thing Kenric had to family. And even though Arran and Guerin had broken Kenric’s trust with the Eve situation, nothing had changed. They wouldn’t stop until Guerin was found.

At their rented Jag, Arran slipped in behind the wheel, shut the door, and pressed the start button.

“After we pick up Emily, what’s our next move to find Guerin?” Arran shot a glance toward the master vampire in the passenger seat.

“We find Eve.”

Shit.
How in the hell were they supposed to convince her to give them a hand?

“Based on the bites on their necks, Eve and Guerin have shared each other’s blood. She’s our best chance at getting him back. Besides that, my gut says she’s the reason he was taken in the first place. Somebody wants my daughter.” Kenric’s head cranked in Arran’s direction. “But they’re going to have to come through me first.”

After a forty-five-minute drive, Arran maneuvered the vehicle within a few feet of the G450. Their timing had been perfect. According to the text message Kenric had received a few seconds ago from Emily, the Enclave’s jet had arrived only moments before.

Minutes later, Emily appeared at the top of the steps and Kenric exited the Jag. Kenric’s female was a beautiful woman with long dark-auburn hair, hazel eyes, and full curves. At the bottom of the stairs, Kenric placed a protective arm around his mate’s shoulder and guided her toward their ride. Emily was a little shorter than his Gabrielle. But Arran had a preference for women closer to his height. Arran smiled, his mind pulling up the image of his own female. Gabrielle fit him perfectly. In every way.