BloodGifted (37 page)

‘Don’t try that again. You’re mine, Laura, and I will take you from him by any means necessary. Kiss me back and remember the way it used to be between us.’

It was pathetic. He was both pleading and forcing me at the same time. I looked at him incredulously. ‘You think treating me like this will rekindle a past romance? That’s not going to happen!’

His pupils elongated into vertical, reptilian slits as the rest of his eyes paled. I baulked, but there was no way I was going to give in to him.

‘Kiss me back!’

‘You have drawings of me. Kiss them!’ I locked my lips together in a tight line.

His handsome features changed and revealed the monster within—fangs sliding out, lips pulled back in a snarl.

My blood chilled. I strained against him and tried to twist my head to the side, but he simply bunched my hair in his fist and dragged my face back to his.

‘Open. Your. Mouth,’ he slowly enunciated, his voice low and cold.

I sucked in my lower lip and bit down hard
while trying to control the terrified beating of my heart.

‘Have it your way then; but if I hurt you, you only have yourself to blame.’
He squeezed my hands painfully until I was forced to cry out. He swooped and his mouth was on mine, crushing, invading.

I tried to scream as his fangs sliced through my bottom lip, filling my mouth with blood. His tongue licked and sucked as tears of pain streamed down my cheeks.

There was a sudden loud crashing sound, wood splintering, and in an instant I was prised free only to collapse into Luc’s arms as Alec tackled Philippe to the floor.

Chapter 44

Declaration

LAURA

Luc carried me off the stage. ‘Laura,
ma petite
. I have you now. You’re safe.’ He held me tightly.

Blood dribbled down my chin,
onto my dress and I tried not to gag as some of it slid down my throat. I glanced up into Luc’s alarmed face. He sat me down on the ballroom floor and pressed a handkerchief to my mouth.

‘Is it true, what Philippe said? How could you do something like that?’ I managed to say, even though my
lip throbbed and I felt like throwing up. On top of that my body began to shudder uncontrollably.

‘Laura
, ma petite,
I didn’t want you to suffer the way your mother and I did. Please, believe me when I say I was only thinking of you.’

I wanted to say more, but l
oud growls and snarls filled the room as a barefoot and shirtless Alec engaged in a deadly struggle with Philippe—barred fangs, pale reptilian eyes.

I looked on as
the battle between them raged—two deadly predators circling each other—until Alec took advantage of an opening, grabbed Philippe, flung him onto the floor, wrenched his head back then violently twisted it until it snapped.

All went
still and I was sure Alec had killed him.

‘He’s not dead, just rendered helpless,’ my father said. ‘His body
will recover within the next fifteen, twenty minutes.’

Alec rose from the floor, leaving Philippe’s unconscious body
behind. The serpent tattoo on his muscled chest almost glowed as he strode toward us, and as he looked at me, his eyes returned to their normal shade of deep lavender. He was beautiful and I was in love with him, but he cared not a jolt for me.

My
body still shook from a combination of shock and anger and now tears threatened.

‘You can’t play with people’s lives like this!’ I told Luc and extricated myself from his arms, stumbled as I tried to rise from the floor and fell. Other hands
grabbed me, but I threw them off. ‘Don’t touch me!’ I screamed and got up and ran to the door.

‘Laura!’ Alec blocked my way
, and as I tried to push past him he locked me in a strong embrace.

‘Let g
o of me!’ I screamed and beat at his breast. 

‘You can hit me all you want, scream, kick, whatever, but I’m not releasing you till we talk this out.’

I squirmed and struggled, but he held me only tighter and I knew it was pointless to resist him. That’s when I broke down and sobbed into his chest, hating myself for being so weak and hating him for making me feel this way. Yet, I managed a few words. ‘There’s—nothing to—talk out. You did what Luc—told you. End—of story.’

Alec lifted my chin
even as I tried to evade his hand. His eyes lightened as he looked at my lip. He removed the handkerchief and examined my mouth. A deep snarl rumbled in his chest as he saw the damage and his hands shook with barely controlled rage. ‘I swear I’ll kill him for this!’

He
bent his head, as if to kiss me, and I tried to turn away. ‘Don’t fight me, Laura. I only want to lick your lip to speed up the healing process. Vampire saliva does that.’

I closed my eyes and
tried to pretend it was Matt’s tongue that gently laved my lower lip, first from one side and then from the other. As long as I kept telling myself that, I could remain calm. But it wasn’t Matt’s arms I wanted around me, nor his lips touching mine.

Within seconds
, the sting began to recede and even the painful throbbing ceased.

‘Thank you,’ I grudgingly said.

‘Laura, my darling, look at me.’

‘Don’t—
call me that! You don’t mean—it.’ I hiccupped and looked down at his bare feet.

‘Why does that suddenly matter to you?’

‘Please, just let me go.’

‘Not yet.’

I looked up and, through tear-stained eyes, gave him my coldest glare. ‘Job well done, Dr Munro. Now— you’re free to go and do—whatever it is you do. If I’m as fertile as you say I am, then—I’m probably already pregnant and you don’t need to hang around anymore!’
Damned hiccups!

Alec lifted an eyebrow.
‘Oh, but I very much do. I like to see a job through properly. It might take a few more times till I’m absolutely sure.’

‘You bastard!’ He had the effrontery to smile! ‘Go to hell!’ I slapped his face.

He caught my wrists and held them in front of me. ‘That’s twice now you’ve slapped my face and both times you’ve been wrong.’

I tried
to wriggle free. ‘Maybe the first time, but not now!’

‘You sure of that?’

‘Stop playing games with me, Alec and let me go.’ I contemplated kicking him in the shins.

‘Not till you tell me why you’re so upset. I know you’re not crying only because of Jean. There was a lot of emotion behind you telling me to go to hell!’

I shook my head. No way was I going to tell him how I felt.

‘In that case, I’ll say it.’

My head shot up. Was he about to humiliate me? How could he do such a thing?

‘I
love you.’

I gazed at him
—dumbfounded—as my body still heaved with sobs and hiccups. ‘You can’t be! You—want to leave me once the baby’s—born.’

‘I
only said that because I thought you were in love with Sommers.’

The proverbial pe
nny dropped. ‘Is that why you kept asking me if I loved him?’

‘
I didn’t want to hurt you. The whole time I hoped you’d decide on your own to leave him, so I made that crazy bargain hoping you’d never want to go back to him; that somehow you’d realise I was anything but indifferent. Tell me I was right, Laura. Do you love him?’

This time I had no hesitation answering.
‘No. I thought—’

‘Do you love me?’

‘Yes!’ The word leapt from my mouth so readily, for I’d never been surer of anything in my life.

‘That’s all I want to hear.’
Alec leaned down and kissed me tenderly, mindful of my sore lip.

He loves me!
My heart danced in my chest and my breathlessness had nothing to do with recent events. Alec released my hands and I ran them around his neck and pressed myself to him, revelling in the feel of his arms around me.

‘S
eeing you with Jean nearly sent me insane. I wanted to kill him. Still do.’ I didn’t doubt it. His voice was filled with deadly menace.

‘
Philippe said—’

‘I know and he h
eard right, but that was last week. A lot has happened since then.’ He looked past me, presumably to Luc then back to me. ‘As for Luc’s hold over me, I’ll just go to the Elders and they’ll overturn it. After all, I’m Princeps!’ He cracked a smile, then as we stood gazing at each other his expression sobered. ‘I love you, Laura. Now and for all eternity, my heart belongs to you. And if any man tries to take you from me, I swear I’ll kill him!’

I gasped at the depth of passion in his voice.

‘Marry me?’

The ground shifted beneath my feet and if Alec hadn’t been holding me
… a loud guffaw came from Luc. He’d been sitting on the small stage area and I turned to see him grinning at us. ‘I was right!’ He clapped his hands together in glee. ‘You do love her! If I hadn’t given you that little push, you would’ve done nothing about it!’ He looked at me. ‘I had no intention of keeping Alec in servitude,
ma petite
, but I had to do something drastic for him to act. He’s been in love with you for years but too blind to see it!’

‘Y
ou scheming old fox!’ Alec said. He didn’t appear to be angry at all. On the contrary, he was smiling. ‘Are you sure you didn’t inspire Machiavelli?’

‘Who do you think wrote,
The Prince
?’ He winked at us.

Alec’s thumb gently rubbed the tip of my nose. ‘You haven’t answered my question yet.’

It took a while for me to find my voice and all I could do was nod!

‘Is that a y
es, my darling?’

I nodded again.

‘Say the words, Laura. I want to hear them.’

I looked up into his eyes and t
hey were filled with such love as they gazed back down at me, that my words came tumbling out. ‘Yes, yes—’

His mouth effectively prevented me from
saying more. I melted into his embrace and returned his kiss with a hunger that matched his.

‘Ahem!’ Luc’s polite
interruption brought us both back to the present situation. ‘Now that that’s sorted out, we have another problem needs dealing with.’

I’d completely forgotten about Philippe, or Jean
-Philippe or whatever he called himself. It occurred to me he had tasted my blood and he was still alive. He hadn’t burnt up. Why? Not that I wanted it to happen. The thought of him dying the same way as Maris sickened me. I didn’t want him to die at all—just get over me and find someone else to be his muse for the next thousand years.

I s
hivered.

‘
He’ll never touch you again,’ Alec said, his voice grim.

‘Mon Dieu!’ I heard my father’s shocked voice. ‘Look at this.’
He’d risen from the stage area and was examining Jean-Philippe’s work, peering at the photos then as he crouched down to rifle through the myriad drawings scattered on the floor, he swore again. What would he do when he saw his latest one? As his gaze moved up to the easel, I stiffened. Luc straightened up, his eyes widened then quickly narrowed into pale slits as a deep snarl echoed around the room.

‘What is it?’ Alec asked.

Luc turned the drawing around for him to see.

I heard Alec’s sharp intake of breath. ‘Son of a bitch!’

‘He’s more unstable than I thought,’ Luc said.

‘You think? Look at those photos.’ Alec jerked his head toward the stage area. ‘He’s been stalking her for years!’

Luc growled and ripped the drawing into several pieces. ‘I’ll take him down to my study and get Cal to watch him. We’ll decide what to do later. And all this—’ he waved at Jean-Philippe’s work ‘—burn it! I want this room prepared for the Pledging ceremony on Sunday. Leave nothing!’

His words shocked me. It seemed savage; to destroy a man’s lifetime work. Some of the drawings were beautiful. If
Jean-Philippe hovered near the edge of instability, such an action would surely push him over the brink. But seeing Luc’s anger, I could understand why he gave such an order. Still….

He
bent and picked up Jean-Philippe’s limp form, slung him over his shoulder and then went out along the same dark passage from which he and Alec had emerged.

‘Are you ok
ay? And I don’t mean physically,’ Alec said as he brushed a few strands of hair off my face. I probably looked a mess. ‘No one should ever have to experience something like that.’ His eyes lightened.

‘I’m okay, though a little shaky.’ I shuddered. ‘It’s the photos and drawings that freak me out the most. What will Luc do to him?’

‘I don’t know. He can’t stay here anymore, nor can he be allowed to wander free. We’ll have to work something out. Now, where else did he hurt you, darling?’

‘Um… shoulders.’

Alec undid the buttons of my white blouse and slid it down off my shoulders. Immediately he went into physician mode, professionally examining my shoulders and upper arms for bruising.

‘Sorry
I slapped you.’

He gave me a dazzling smile. ‘It
told me all I needed to know!’

I winced slightly
when he pressed a particularly tender spot—where Jean-Philippe’s fingers had dug deep, leaving red inflamed marks.

Alec’s face became
thunderous. ‘You were supposed to be safe here,’ he said as he covered me up again and re-buttoned my blouse. ‘I never expected this!’

‘Neither did I. Not from someone I…’
With his vampire hearing, Alec had probably overheard everything so there was no need to explain my past relationship with Jean-Philippe.

‘You don’t need to explain.’
His hand brushed my cheek.

‘How did you get in?’

‘The old servants’ passages. They lead through the house and end up in the kitchen. One of them comes out behind the raised platform. Just there,’ he pointed. ‘Probably used by an orchestra so they could move discreetly between the ballroom and the kitchens without disturbing the guests.’

‘Y
ou couldn’t get that mirrored door open?’

‘No,
I think Jean tampered with the mechanism… somehow locked it from the inside so the hidden lever wouldn’t work. I was about to try that old passage when Luc came out of it.’ He turned to look at the wall behind us—where the entrance should be with the mirror on the other side. ‘So, what did Jean do to it?’ Alec said.

He went over to the
brass hook located about a metre and a half from the floor and raised it up. The wooden-panelled wall in front of us noiselessly divided, revealing the corridor and marble staircase. He pulled the hook downwards and it slid shut once again. I heard a slight click as his hand twisted the hook to the right and then to the left.