Blood and Destiny (4 page)

Instead of reminding him of the obvious, I held out my hand. “Key.”

Without a word, he pulled the keys from his pocket and slowly extracted the one he had used on the front door. I watched and finally spoke up.

“Do you steal the keys for all your lovers?” It came out catty. I shouldn’t care, but it rankled to

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see that tiny string of keys. He let me stew a moment before extending the key with his own version of clarification.

“I have very few lovers, Destiny. But no, I don’t generally go through such effort.”

It made me feel petty for taking the key from him. Pushing away from the wall, I stalked through the door to my office. Business first, personal garbage later.

I walked over to pull out the center drawer of my desk. Dropping the key into it, I pulled LeCroy’s file. Moving back, I held the file out. I didn’t invite him to sit down because I knew better. Instead, I waited until he took the file and made myself comfortable in one of the armchairs arranged in front of my desk for clients. He joined me after a moment.

The chair across from him would have given me a clearer vantage of his face, but I doubted I would be able to tell if he decided to lie to me. I was good, but he was better. Age had advantages when it came to the lying game.

He opened the file and flipped through the pages. Picking up one of the glossy photos, he stared at it for a moment before moving on to another one. After the third, he closed the file, leaned forward and carefully placed it on my desk without looking through the rest.

“He’s not a pretender nor is he one of mine.”

“You’re sure?”

Sharp blue eyes blazed before his face softened to a smile. “From anyone else, that could be considered an insult to how well I manage my people. No, the vampire Ms. Vincent was seeing is very young and not one of mine. If he’s hunting here, it’s under the mentorship of an older soul.”

“He picked her up at the Vantage.”

Marcus gave a small shrug and settled back into his chair. I knew he was being artful to tempt me, but I refused to let myself get distracted from the job.

“It’s not unusual for young vampires newly on their own to make the rounds to several cities trying to find a place they feel comfortable. If he’s here, someone knows him.”

Marcus leaned forward to pick the file back up. He sorted through the pictures until he found one that showed little more than the young vampire’s face leaving his partner anonymous. Holding it up, he lifted a questioning brow.

“May I borrow this one? If anyone from my tribe knows him, we’ll find out when he arrived and with whom he’s associated beyond us.”

I nodded and watched as he sprang from the chair with a fluid grace that reminded me of things best left forgotten. The driver was still loitering on the sidewalk. Marcus opened the door and handed him the photograph.

“Make copies and find out who brought him into the Vantage. I want to speak to them tomorrow.”

The driver muttered something that I assumed was acknowledgement before the door closed again.

I turned to find Marcus leaning on the doorjamb.

“Business is concluded for the day. There isn’t anything left to do for Ms. Vincent until morning.”

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He held out his hand and I knew what he was asking. Marcus had made his intentions clear, but he wouldn’t take the evening one step further than I would let him. I understood how Eve felt in the Garden. Even wanting to turn him away, I knew I wouldn’t. When he left, it would be a microwave meal and a salad in front of the television. If nothing happened between us, the simple companionship he offered was too much to pass up.

After locking up and resetting the alarm, Marcus followed me to the tiny door at the back of the house on the first floor. Neither of us bothered with the light as we both had excellent night vision.

The top of the stairwell opened into the upstairs kitchen that still had the original outdated appliances. Someone had set the house up as a duplex years ago and it suited me to leave it that way. Yasmine had been an on-again, off-again roommate for years. The layout of the house had allowed us to coexist without stepping on each other’s toes.

I checked the back-door lock out of habit before turning to survey my guest. His smiling face was temptation incarnate. I was very conscious of the fact we were alone, in my apartment, where he knew the way to my bed. The thought made something low in my belly clench. He was obviously thinking the same thing from the way his smile faded to a far more sensuous expression.

He glided across the space between us and I didn’t back away. When he raised a gentle hand to my check, I found myself leaning into it. The move bared my throat to him. It wasn’t my intention to tempt him, or was it?

Desire chased away apprehension as he lowered his mouth to kiss the pounding pulse. Whether it was healthy or not, I wanted him for more than a roll on my clean cotton sheets. His kiss turned to the graze of teeth and he scraped them along my skin ever so lightly. In answer to his unspoken question, I leaned into him, pressing against the sharp points. He took me at my actions and bit.

I gasped at the immediate pain, but didn’t pull away. He sealed his mouth to my neck and drank with vigor. His hands pulled me closer, kneading into my softness with growing urgency. My own urgency rose to match his.

By the time Marcus sealed the wounds made by his teeth with a long drag of his tongue, we were both panting as if we had run a marathon. He stared at me for a moment before swooping down to kiss my mouth with the same fervor his hands had worked on my body.

I met his rush with my own, pushing up on tiptoe in my eagerness for that kiss. The months I had put between us washed away under the metallic taste of my blood on my tongue. The lioness inside me jumped up to join in, causing my own magic to flood into the charged atmosphere created by the feeding.

Suddenly, we were standing in the middle of a powder keg of possibilities. If I let him, we’d become lovers again. With this much magic, the sex would be explosive. The temptation almost made me forget my resolve.

Without consciously intending to, I pushed away from him and stumbled back a few paces. To the vampire’s credit, he let me go. I opened my eyes and stared at the world in hyperfocus. The colors were vivid, but it was more than that. Colorful waves of magic danced on the moonlight washing in through the window. Reds, blues and greens from every hue imaginable tempted me to cross that tiny distance, and the magic that released them onto the world pulsed with it.

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“No.” The breathy tone gave the word a distinctively insincere note. If he pushed, I’d give in. I think he knew it as well as I did.

Marcus’s face showed a momentary flash of temper, but he closed his eyes and got a handle on it.

Can’t say I blamed him, really. It’s hard to go from all systems blazing forward to full stop in a heartbeat. Settling my voice from the breathy quality of desire was easier after that first word.

Gently, I went on hoping he understood and wouldn’t push me.

If he decided to seduce me, it wouldn’t take very much to change my mind.

“Nothing’s changed. I can’t do this. If I fall back into bed with you, you’ll still carry on with your other mistresses and I’ll still hate myself for going along with it. I need something…more.”

He didn’t speak for a moment. The tension built over the silence. Finally, he opened his eyes and let his breath out in a long rush of exasperation. I could see the knowledge of my precarious resolve lurking in his gaze. I expected him to plead his case, but he surprised me.

“Okay. I understand your point and respect you enough to let it rest for now.”

For now, the man said. It was a temporary reprieve, but better than nothing. He turned and opened the cabinet that held my glasses. After removing two wineglasses, he reached up to one of the storage cabinets I never put things in because it was too high for me. He pulled out a bottle of wine I hadn’t known was there. The label was in Italian. I wondered how long it had been gathering dust.

He must have hidden it as one of those surprises he mentioned.

Marcus plucked the corkscrew from the canister of utensils on the counter and set about opening the wine. The ease in which he moved about my kitchen reminded me of how domestic he could be and that sent a shiver of unease through me. I didn’t want to be reminded how close he was to my ideal man since he couldn’t seem to embrace the idea of monogamy.

The lioness in me didn’t mind sharing, but she liked companionship, too. To have a mate who wouldn’t be faithful but was a good companion was one thing. Being a woman on a string was quite another. Neither of us liked that. The morality the nuns had beat into me was always at odds with my nature. It was one of those battles with myself that I faced on a regular basis.

“Maybe you should go.”

His hands froze over the wine bottle. Without turning, he resumed twisting the corkscrew into the wine cork.

“No car,” he reminded me.

Oh, right. He had sent the driver to find out news of the new vampire in town. Criminy. I latched on to the next solution.

“When did you tell Peter to bring my car home?”

“He’ll bring it after work tonight.”

Which meant not until the wee hours of the morning at best. I watched Marcus pour the rich red wine into the glasses.

“Cab?” I suggested out of desperation.

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The look he gave me as he turned to me with the glasses in hand was all the answer I needed. The idea of Marcus in a cab was a little bit ridiculous.

“I’ll grant that it may have been overly optimistic of me to assume I would be invited to stay the night. Nonetheless, you’re stuck with me for the moment. Come, have a glass of wine. Let’s not let my ego ruin this reunion. We can talk a bit and if you’re still anxious for me to leave, I’ll call the driver back.”

Why did the man have to be so reasonable? Simple. Time was on his side and he knew it. I would have loved to say his confidence was misplaced, but we both knew how much I wanted what he was offering. The question was if my strength of will was stronger than my desire?

I needed action. Walking past him, taking a glass from his hand as I went, I flipped on the outside light and kept moving to the living room. The apartment wasn’t very big, but it boasted a small dining room, a living room, a bedroom and a centrally located bath. Considering I spent most of my time downstairs, it was all I needed.

He followed like a shadow, not needing any more light than I did to travel the familiar path across the worn carpet. I skirted the doorway to the bedroom, grateful that I had closed it before heading out earlier, and led him to the couch and love seat. Pointedly not looking at the oil painting centered above the couch that Marcus had given me for my birthday last year, I leaned over to flip the lamp on low before settling into the corner next to it with my feet curled under me. It was a very catlike pose, but it was too late to change as Marcus settled close to me.

If he felt awkward, it didn’t show. He sat with a casual grace and surveyed the room with an imperial air. Considering nothing had changed since the last time he visited, the rush of anxiety I felt was totally absurd. Of course, my jumble of emotions may have been the kiss and the remaining hum of unfulfilled desire. My libido hadn’t quite realized I was going to be frustrated by morning and responded to the promise of his presence.

Hell, whom was I kidding? I was already frustrated and the solution was close enough to touch. I couldn’t have been more miserable if I were staring at a display of chocolate-covered strawberries behind the glass of a closed shop. Since breaking the glass wasn’t an option, I had to tough it out with the reminder that I had gone to him, after all.

I drank from the glass but couldn’t appreciate the rich taste of the wine. The quality of it indicated Marcus had my number on more than one level. The silence stretched from awkward into downright rude. When he finally spoke, I jumped, sloshing wine across my hand and onto my slacks. Even as his gaze dropped to the red staining the tan fabric and heated with all sorts of lascivious promises, his words registered.

“You’ve stayed away a long time, Destiny. I’ve missed you. My heart has been lonely.”

The tension shifted back to the sexual undertones and I had to beat back my libido. Grabbing on to the only lifeline I could find, I tried to pick a fight.

“I noticed you said your heart was lonely and not your bed.”

Months ago, it would have had the desired effect. Either Marcus had gotten wise to me or he had mellowed. Vampires as old as he was didn’t change readily, so I was betting on the former. Instead of rising to the bait, he met my challenging look with a contemplative gaze.

“Why is my lifestyle so repugnant when yours wouldn’t be very different if you followed your instincts?”

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Our time apart had made him smarter too. I was screwed and not in a good way. I sensed retreat might be in order, but argued anyway. “For starters, female lions are very selective in their breeding habits and don’t have a different male every night of the week.”

“So your objection isn’t to the other women, just the variety?”

On one hand, my ego was stroked that he’d wasted so much time thinking about why I’d left him.

On the other, it meant I was going to have to be totally honest with both of us. Since moral outrage hadn’t worked, maybe honesty would.

“I don’t know, Marcus. I wasn’t raised among lions, so my moral code doesn’t exactly jive with my genetic programming. Lionesses in the wild will commit to a male coalition if they’re strong enough to keep the pride safe and they’ll share those males among them. Do shapeshifting lions abide by that same code? You tell me since you’ve known more of them than I have.”