Unending Desire: Outlawed Realm, Book 1 (20 page)

With more than a little lust whipping through her, Regina asked, “Have you ever had peanut butter and chocolate?”

He regarded the bag she held. “What is it?”

“Heaven.” Pulling off her gloves, she unwrapped one of the red-foiled treats, bit half off, moaned in delight, then went to him, offering what remained.

Studying the candy, he lowered his head and sniffed. Instantly, the blood drained from his face. He straightened and stepped back.

“What is it?” Regina asked. “Are you allergic to peanut butter? I thought you had no allergies.”

“I don’t.”

Confused, she asked, “Then you don’t have peanut butter on your side? You’ve never smelled it before? You find it distasteful?”

“I’ve eaten it many times, but never that dark brown coating over it.”

“You mean chocolate?”

“That’s not what we call it.”

His voice had an edgy quality Regina had never heard before. Padding to the sink, she dropped the half-eaten candy into the disposal and turned it on.

Nikoli stared at the traces of chocolate on her fingers, his expression filled with dread.

Shutting off the disposal, Regina asked, “What’s wrong? Why does chocolate frighten you?”

He shook his head, dismissing her question.

It made her more determined. “Tell me,” she insisted. “I want to know. Now.”

“What you call chocolate is used on E2 to execute traitors. The element has a pleasant flavor, but our physiology has been altered so that one taste of the chocolate results in a slow, painful death.”

Regina stared, unable to believe it. Quickly, she hid her hand behind herself. “I see.” She cleared the catch in her throat and continued. “Is that the only food that’s used to execute prisoners?”

“Others are used to control the populace to avoid the necessity of what you know as prisons.”

Was he serious? Not only had his people eliminated passion, they’d used the comfort of food to annihilate and control? She wanted to curse the bastards, to tell Nikoli they were no different from the monsters on her side, human or otherwise.

Nikoli’s expression, his obvious acceptance of what was normal for him, stopped her, leading Regina to another question. “What food do they use to keep you from having children?”

Color rose to his face. He glanced to the side. “It’s what you would refer to as a berry.”

“Is it available in this realm?”

“Only in a few countries, not where you live.”

Regina pushed away from the sink and went to him. “I’m so sorry.”

“There’s no need to be.” There wasn’t a hint of sorrow on his face. “It’s what I’ve grown up with. What I’m used to.”

She cupped his face in her clean hand and pressed her cheek to his, afraid for their lips to touch should any traces of the candy remain. “Not anymore,” she murmured.

Nikoli heard her determination and the desperation beneath it. He noted how Regina washed her hands for minutes, pausing repeatedly to smell them to make certain that none of the chocolate remained. Three times, she ran what he knew to be toothpaste over her teeth and lips to remove all traces of the food.

Its absence didn’t relax her. During the rest of their cleanup, Nikoli felt Regina studying him, attuned to each breath he took, every move he made, her manner overly concerned.

What he’d faced on E2 in the past, what he’d confront tonight at her house, was nothing compared to the possibility of losing her to Andris or Sazaar. Fragments of his nightmare returned, quickening his pulse, churning his belly.

“Nikoli.”

Regina stood in the doorway to the hall. His pulse didn’t slow. Wonderfully nude, her skin glowed with the work she’d done, her cheeks flushing a darker pink than the rest of her body. Her nipples had tightened to hard buds. In the wan morning light, her hair appeared especially fiery, the same as the reddish curls between her legs.

“I’ll be right back,” she said. “Will you be okay?”

“I’m fine.”

She seemed doubtful but asked no more.

Listening to her padding down the hall, Nikoli removed his rubber gloves, dropping them in the trash bag she’d provided for that purpose. He heard her closing a drawer in one of the rooms, then the floor creaking slightly beneath her weight as she entered the area where they’d made love most of last night.

It seemed a lifetime ago. A dream that wouldn’t return or last.

“I never meant for matters to get this far,”
he’d said.

Gripping the edges of the counter, Nikoli stared at the clock on the wall. Like everything else on this plane, its second hand moved too swiftly, counting down the hours they had left.

A wave of dizziness washed over him, making the room lurch. Fighting to steady himself, he inhaled as deeply as he could, his mind racing over all that could go wrong this evening. The vampires’ swiftness. Their seductive lure. Andris’s unwavering desire. His brutal intent to return to E2 no matter what it took or whom he had to destroy.

In the hall, the hardwood recorded Regina’s return.

If anything happened to her…

Nikoli couldn’t complete the thought. He pushed away his emotions, burying them as he always had, and glanced to the side as Regina entered the kitchen.

She’d draped her clothes and his over the crook of her arm, which she held against her chest to anchor their shoes. In her free hand, Nikoli saw his device.

Extending her arm, she offered him the instrument.

“Take it,” she said. “I don’t know how to use it to its best advantage. You do.”

He stared at the device, thinking how easy it would be to activate, to leave here and go to the vampires’ lair as they slept. To destroy them. To free her of the monsters and him.

Her earlier accusation filled his mind.

“What if you fail?
What happens if their protectors kill you first and you leave me here alone to face what the night will surely bring?”

“Go on,” she said, her words cutting into his thoughts. “I trust you, Nikoli. I know even though you believe it’s best, you won’t leave me.”

Her lingering hope, what seemed to be her growing feelings for him, banished whatever argument he might have had. Wrapping his fingers around hers, he took the device.

At the last moment, she stopped him from pulling back his hand and kissed the wounds on his wrist. The torn skin seemed to be lighter this morning, though far from healed.

In silence, they dressed. With the trash bag and iPhone in hand, taken so the authorities couldn’t immediately check her call, Regina glanced around the kitchen one last time. “Ready?” she asked.

Nikoli held out his arm. She slipped into his embrace, her body pressed close, her cheek on his shoulder.

His heart pounded wildly at what he was about to do, the course they would take.

Regina placed her free hand on his belly. She curled her fingers in his sweater, offering him more comfort than words ever could.

With his thumb, Nikoli activated and controlled the handheld device so it would open a path to her home. Upon finding the correct target, the instrument vibrated slightly, sending a ripple of energy through his fingers. He pointed it at the kitchen wall where the clock hung. The item shimmered for a moment, then turned transparent, revealing the portal. He led Regina toward it.

She shivered at the cold.

Not waiting for her to grow accustomed to the change in temperature, Nikoli urged her forward, through the gateway.

Chapter Thirteen

In the middle of her bedroom, he stopped and took in a space he’d seen repeatedly and yet didn’t know at all.

The area seemed smaller than he’d imagined, more intimate and welcoming than he’d ever dreamed. Plump pillows and an ivory comforter decorated her brass bed. A patterned rug in shades of gold and red lay beneath two crimson chairs that stood in front of the large window. Through the sheer curtains and panes, Nikoli saw a wide expanse of vegetation. Its deep green color bordered the sea that had taken on a light pewter hue, mirroring the sky blanketed with a fresh layer of clouds.

Inhaling deeply, he hoped to smell the metallic scent of coming rain that would continue long past the night, protecting them, contradicting what the weather report had claimed. It didn’t happen. Disheartened, he caught only Regina’s peaches-and-vanilla scent he knew and loved, along with the lingering fragrance of soap.

He glanced to the left, toward the bathroom, recounting those times he’d watched Regina shower or soak in the tub, her attention turned inward, her expression wanting.

No different from his.

Swallowing at the memories, he glanced to the right, noting the pale stone fireplace, pictures arranged on its mantel. In most, Regina hugged an older woman who resembled her, no doubt her mother. The photographs recorded the time from when Regina had been a child to her current age. Details Nikoli had missed while observing her from E2…ones that captivated him now.

In her earliest baby picture, Regina’s red hair was wispy and adorned with a bright yellow ribbon. Eyes huge with wonder, she’d opened her mouth in surprise at the animal her mother held. What Nikoli knew was a young cat, its fur a mixture of black and white. In the next photo, the cat and Regina were older. She smiled widely, showing her missing front teeth.

A mixture of awe and sadness twisted his gut at the thought of them having a child, of pouring their love into an infant he knew would never be. Turning away from her past, reminding himself they had no future, he glanced farther to the right. A dresser of dark wood took up most of that wall. On one end stood a small TV. Above it hung a mirror.

Nikoli stared at his and Regina’s reflections, the lacerations on his throat and cheeks, his arm draped around her shoulders, her fingers clutching his sweater. She glanced around the room as though expecting the vampires to be here, waiting for them.

“They have to be invited in,” he reminded her.

Regina lifted her face to his, then glanced behind them at the gateway.

He noted the portal had closed, taking the cold with it.

“You’re certain no one on your side has one of these?” she asked, touching the device. “No one from E2 can come in here?”

“My father won’t know of my absence until tonight, after the vampires have arrived.”

Her face didn’t regain any of its color.

“Even if he learns what I’ve done earlier than that and warns our people, only a traitor would think to build—”

“Stop it.” Frowning, Regina rested her fingertips on his lips. “Don’t ever say that again. Don’t refer to yourself that way.”

She refused to face reality. She wanted to believe he was something he’d ceased to be the moment he’d crossed over, choosing her above all those in his realm.

Waiting until she removed her hand, Nikoli reassured her as best he could. “I built a warning system within the instrument. If a portal occurs spontaneously—if it were possible for one to open deliberately—an alarm will sound. Well before any gateway exists, we’ll be warned.” Releasing her, he went to the dresser, placing the device on it, the sensors facing all possible points of entry.

She crossed the room and turned on the TV.

“It’s not going to rain,” he said.

Regina continued to change channels, stopping when Seattle’s weather filled the screen. Although the satellite pictures predicted more clouds throughout the day, the chance of precipitation at dusk, when the sky would be clear, was nonexistent.

“It’s all right to be afraid,” Nikoli said. “Tell me to leave and I will. There’s still time for me to go to their—”

“No.” Shutting off the set, she pulled in a shallow breath.

He saw her shoulders tensing. He imagined her fear and cursed himself for bringing such misery into her life. “Regina, don’t fight me on this. I understand what you’re feeling.”

“No you don’t,” she snapped. “You haven’t a clue.” Turning to him, she growled, “I’m not afraid, Nikoli. I’m pissed.”

He regarded her frown. “Pissed?”

“Angry. Enraged.” She went to him. “You and I want so fucking little, we’ve experienced so few moments of joy. How dare anyone try to take that from us? I don’t give a damn how powerful Andris believes he is, no one—nothing—is invincible. If he were, we’d all be dead by now and he’d rule the world.”

Nikoli tried to reason. “Sunlight is his weakness.”

“Arrogance is.” Her jaw tightened. “He’ll come here tonight, and he’ll bring the others, but he’s not going to win. He’s not stealing our future. And I’m not going to let him ruin these next few hours for us.”

She laced her fingers through his and headed for the bath. When Nikoli didn’t follow, Regina glanced over.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

As quickly as it had come, the anger drained from her. Lifting his fingers to her mouth, she kissed each knuckle and murmured, “I’m going to take care of you as I promised.”

She was going to give him a glimpse of their future that no one—not his people, not Andris or Sazaar—could take from them or destroy.

For Nikoli, Regina wanted to fight. No matter what happened at dusk, she wouldn’t be left alone. Not again.

In the bath, she released his hand and turned on the faucets in the tub. Pressure from the water rattled the pipes. Peering past her arm at him, she asked, “How do you like your bath? Hot? Warm? Cool?”

Surprise lifted his dark brows. “You’re going to bathe me?”

A smile cut across her lips. She murmured, “I’m going to do a whole lot more than that. How’s really warm sound? Is that all right?”

He watched the water spilling into the tub, the frail threads of steam rising from it. Nodding, he stared as she went to him, slipping her hands beneath his topcoat and jacket, coaxing them from his shoulders and arms, tossing the items past the doorway into the bedroom.

Next, Regina pulled his sweater off, flinging it aside. It landed to the right of his jacket. With one hand on his naked pec, she pushed him toward the toilet.

“Sit,” she instructed, her finger playing with his nipple.

He sank to the seat, watching as she removed his shoes and socks, casting them aside. She reached for his belt.

Hands around her wrists, he kept her from unfastening it. “No.”