Blood Born (44 page)

That was pretty damn cold. If she hadn’t been able to hear the anger and confusion in his voice, she’d have been crushed. After all, bonding with her had been
his
suggestion. It wasn’t as if she’d even known such a thing was possible.

“Damn you,” she said, and went up on her toes and kissed him. After the night she’d had, it didn’t seem too much to ask: a kiss, a physical connection that could make her forget everything that had happened and what still might come. Luca was the one pleasure in a very unpleasant day … week …
life
. He was the one good thing to come out of her world being turned upside down.

For the first time, she fully accepted that she might not live to see the end of this war. Was that really any different from the life she’d lived to this point? Since she’d found out about the aneurysm, she’d known her life was uncertain. But for right now, she had this, and she had Luca.

No matter what it cost her, she didn’t want to give him up.

Maybe it was the bonding thing that made her so easily able to let go of all reservations. Once she and Luca touched they were one mind, one body. She felt his heartbeat, their breath was in sync, her desire and his were the same. She touched him, and all his reserve fell away. There was no awkwardness when she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her body against his, no fumbling, no second thoughts as the kiss deepened and he wrapped his arms around her. There was just him, the two of them together, their mouths clinging hungrily together, a meeting of skin beneath the spray of hot water.

Before she got entirely lost in sensation, Chloe had one last thought: it was worth every moment of terror she’d experienced to find Luca. He was worth the pain, the anxiety, even worth her life.

He lifted her up, pinned her to the shower wall with the hard press of his body. He nipped at her throat, at
her breasts, drawing drops of blood that he then licked away. There was no pain when he bit her, just a rush of pleasure, a deep tingling that shot through her body, a feeling of rightness in a place and time when it seemed that
nothing
was right.

Chloe Fallon, who was always so level-headed, who lived in the real world, who never leapt without looking fully and carefully, had no second thoughts about giving everything she had and everything she was to Luca.

    He was tired, but before he slept Luca propped himself on his elbow and watched Chloe for a while. The heavy curtains blocked out most of the light, making the room so dark he’d have no trouble sleeping. The Do Not Disturb sign was hanging on the door handle, so the maids wouldn’t bother them. There was no way to be certain they were completely safe, but he had to sleep, and there was no way he’d go off and leave Chloe alone.

He was completely pissed off. It wasn’t just the bonding. That was bad enough, but the fact that he’d even
thought
of offering bonding to her should have alerted him. There was nothing he could do about it now, though.

She was human. She was frail, mortal, delicate, and wouldn’t live nearly long enough. He’d been in love before. Love always ran its course, in time. It changed, morphed, died. A relationship with a human had always been impossible, but now it wasn’t, and he was caught.

It was too late. Love was rarely logical. Sometimes love was a choice, and other times it wasn’t. Sometimes it fell on a man like a ton of bricks, whether he wanted it to or not. She was human, he would inevitably lose her … and he loved her.

Fuck
.

* * *

Nevada crawled into bed. She couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. With the windows in her room boarded up, she hadn’t had a true sense of time since being brought here. She hadn’t been kidding when she’d told Sorin that she wanted a clock, though he hadn’t brought one. Still, the days and nights usually unfolded naturally enough. She slept when she was tired, she worked when the vampires were most active, which she assumed was after dark and before dawn. The house that sometimes bustled had grown quieter in the past little while, so she could assume it was morning. Not that it mattered; the magic and the excitement of seeing her family, too briefly, had drained her.

She was scared, as well. Sorin knew she’d been up to something, he just didn’t know what. If he found out she could travel beyond these walls, if he knew she could see her family and actually speak to Emily—if he found out she was capable of spying on them all, she’d be dead before her body hit the floor.

She
was
going to die. She’d accepted that long ago. But not until she saw her family free, dammit! And somehow she had to find a way
not
to let Sorin and Loman and others of their kind loose on the world. Whatever she did, she knew it wouldn’t go over well with her captors. No, she didn’t have much of a chance at all. She might as well not even hope for a happy ending.

Tired as she was, eyes heavy and scratchy, Nevada lay in the bed unable to sleep. Her heart was beating hard, her mind raced. She’d love to peek in on her family again, or allow her spirit to roam the building, searching, listening for clues as to how she might see her family freed, but she was too tired for magic, too exhausted to do anything except lie in bed, wishing for sleep and blinking tears from her eyes.

There had been a time when she’d slept in complete
darkness, secure in her own room, certain that nothing could touch her. That had been before she’d been taken, before she’d known who she was and what she could do … before she’d known that monsters were real. Now she slept with the bathroom light on and the door wide open, and a table lamp on—two lights shining, in case a lightbulb burned out in the night. She didn’t want to be in the dark ever again, didn’t want the freakily silent vampires to sneak up on her, not even Sorin. Maybe
especially
not Sorin.

Not that seeing the vampires coming would change where this was going. The end was coming. She felt it; she even embraced it. But was that end for her alone, or was it also coming for everything and everyone she loved?

    If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he never would’ve believed it. Jimmy followed the sword-toting man up the basement stairs, through the house, out the front door, where the sky was just turning gray with dawn.

Once outside, the man stopped, lifted his head, took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, as if the air smelled wonderful to him. Then he turned to Jimmy, his expression hard and serious. “We will need an army.”

“Uh, I don’t exactly have one of those handy. Who the hell are you?” He’d asked that question before, but hadn’t gotten an answer.

“I am Rurik.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured that out for myself, but that doesn’t really answer the question.” A name didn’t
begin
to answer all his questions. “I’m Jimmy, by the way. Jimmy Elliott.”

“I know,” Rurik responded impatiently. “You are my—” He paused, his brow furrowed. “You are mine,” he finished.

Oookay. Let’s don’t go there. “Why are you here?”

“To stop the vampires. To turn the tide. Without us, they will win.”

Jimmy scratched his jaw. He shouldn’t be surprised that Kate had been right. Vampires. He’d really wanted to believe that she was wrong on this one. “Without
who
?”

The sky was coming alive, the day beginning. The lightening sky washed across the strong lines of the man’s face as he answered. “The warriors who serve mankind for all eternity.”

“But …”

“No more questions.” Rurik turned toward the rising sun. “You must take me to Washington, D.C.”

“My father’s funeral is—”

“You will honor your father after the battle is done.” Rurik turned his head and glared at Jimmy. “You will honor his death by defeating those who took his life. Do you have a weapon?”

“Hell no!” Jimmy responded, glancing at the hilt of the warrior’s sword.

“You will need one.”

“I’m not … that’s not … I think there’s been a mistake. I’m not a warrior.”

Rurik smiled. It was white and wide and terrifying. “You will be before I am finished with you.”

    Melody was lying back on the hard hotel bed, waiting out the daylight hours, waiting for sleep to come, plotting how she might kill Jimmy Elliott the younger, when her cell phone rang. She couldn’t drain him, she reminded herself. There would be no more draining the conduits. She repeated that a couple of times, making it a mantra. From here on out she’d follow the rules. She’d have to, if she wanted to keep her head. She simply wouldn’t drink from the conduits at all, that way she couldn’t get carried away.

The cell rang again, and she grabbed it from the bedside table, smiled when she saw Sorin’s number. She missed him. Maybe he was a hard man—a hard vampire in the midst of hard vampires—but he was also hot. And great in bed. And powerful. With the coming of a new order, it couldn’t hurt to align herself with someone who was up there from the get-go.

“Miss me?” she asked as she answered the phone.

“You’re too late,” Sorin snapped.

“Too late for what?”

“The conduit you were sent to kill has brought his warrior through.”

Melody sat up, no longer at all tired. Daytime or not, she was fully awake. “Well, crapola. What do I do now?”

“He’ll be coming here,” Sorin said. “He’ll
try
. It’s your job to make sure he doesn’t make it.”

The one window in the room was covered with lined curtains, but Melody could see the tiny crack of light that edged the fabric. Daylight had arrived in full force.

“I’m not strong enough to go out in the daytime.”

“You’d better get strong enough,” Sorin said, his voice so soft she almost couldn’t hear him. “You can’t let the warrior have a twelve-hour head start.”

“He can’t fly, either without a plane or on one, not without ID and such. He won’t have time for rounding up a fake ID if he’s already headed your way,” Melody said as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. “He’ll be traveling by car, maybe with his conduit, maybe on his own, if he knows how to drive. Can Jonas still pinpoint him?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Melody threw her small suitcase onto the bed and opened it. The clothing she’d packed for this trip wasn’t sufficient for her to go out in the daytime, since most of her outfits were designed to show a lot
of skin, but she’d manage. She’d call the front desk. With a decent enough tip or a touch of glamouring, she could get someone to make a trip to WalMart for long pants, a floppy hat, a scarf, and gloves. The sparkly flip-flops she’d packed wouldn’t do, either. She couldn’t let the sun touch her toes. Talk about ruining a pedicure! “I won’t be at my best today, but I can make some headway.” She didn’t have any choice. “I’ll finish the job tonight.”

“You’d better, or don’t bother coming back.”

Melody wasn’t smiling, but she tried to put a hint of good humor into her voice. “Come on, sugar, you wouldn’t hurt me. I’m your own child.”

“You’re right. I couldn’t kill you.”

Now Melody managed a smile.

“But neither would I stop Regina from doing it.”

Sorin ended the call without even a simple “good-bye.” Great. Both as a human and a vampire, Melody had always been on much better terms with males than she had with females. Women never liked her; men always did. Regina wouldn’t hesitate to take Melody out if the warrior she’d been assigned to stop reached D.C.

Which meant if she didn’t complete her task tonight, she might as well get her ass as far away from Washington as possible. Not that she wasn’t going to try to do as she’d been ordered; the idea of being with Sorin was too attractive to give up without at least trying.

Melody put her cell on the bedside table, picked up the hotel phone, and dialed the front desk. She wished she had the power of Voice, the way some older vampires did, but she had to be looking into her subject’s eyes when she glamoured them. Luckily, she didn’t need any special powers to get men to do as she asked. All she had to do was get one of them to her door, and then she could do her thing and get what she needed.

“Hey, honey,” she said in a friendly tone, wondering if the man who answered the phone was the same one who’d checked her in, not too long ago. She hoped so; he’d been checking out her boobs and wouldn’t hesitate to rush to her room to get another look. “I need a really big favor …”

Luca woke early. Chloe slept against his side, her soft breath brushing over his chest, his arm around her. The sweet scent of her filled his senses. Lying there with her, he felt dangerously content. Contentment had no place in a battle; it dulled the edge that kept him alive. But with her, at this moment, he was content.

He allowed himself only a few moments to savor the feeling, then he turned his thoughts to Jonas. It bothered him that Jonas was involved with the rebels. Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised, but he was. Not only surprised, but worried, and with good reason. Jonas was capable of locating anyone, anytime. Which made him wonder: If Jonas had detected Chloe’s energy outside the rebel compound, why hadn’t he also realized that she wasn’t alone? That Luca, whose energy signature Jonas knew well and would surely recognize, was also nearby?

He had to at least consider the possibility that Jonas had known very well that he was sending those three vampires toward Luca, and that he hadn’t warned them they’d have something more than just a human to deal with. Was he working with the rebels or against them? That was two strong vampires dead and a weak one neutralized, and Luca didn’t imagine the rebels had a lot of members to spare.

Unexpected violence aside, the night had been successful. He’d gotten what he’d been looking for. He knew where the rebels were gathered, he had a good idea of their numbers, and he’d confirmed for himself that Jonas was involved. While he didn’t have a precise number, he’d detected enough energy within the mansion to realize that even with his enhanced abilities, he couldn’t take on that many vampires by himself.

Calling in the Council was out of the question. He didn’t trust them; hell, he’d turned them away when they’d tracked him down. Even Theodore, who’d sent him the warning to stay away from headquarters, wasn’t entirely trustworthy. The majority of Council members were likely steadfast and intent on stopping the revolution, dedicated to maintaining order as they knew it. The problem was, he didn’t know who those particular Council members were, and when dealing with vampires as individually powerful as they were, even he used caution. One on one he could handle them; if two of them came after him, that was a different story.