Bloodlust Denied (16 page)

Awe inched along his spine. She had swallowed so little of his blood, and yet the result was astounding. How magnificent a vampire she would be.

Morana felt the brocaded cushions beneath her head, could feel the fine lawn of Alexius’ shirt beneath her hand. But they were distant, unconnected to her, physical sensations that meant nothing when inside her head and her heart and her soul the comfort of insanity shrieked.

“I hunt vampires.” The words were husky, her throat tight. She had been right about him from the start.

And yet she had been so horrifically, unbelievably wrong.

His brow knotted, but he didn’t knock her arm aside and plunge his fangs into her throat. She knew he could. Her strength was nothing compared to his.

And she’d let him. She had nothing left to live for. He could drain her and discard her and end this twisted farce forever.

“You don’t hunt vampires, Morana.” He threaded his fingers through hers, but didn’t pull her hand from his shoulder. She realized he was on his knees, and if she could believe the look on his face, was in grave discomfort.

How Fate must be laughing. She answered a wish but distorted it to such a degree, it gave nothing but despair.

She clenched her free hand and forced herself to focus.

“Three years ago Thanatos lured you to the alley with his music. Didn’t you wonder why you were compelled there, Alexius?” Gods, just saying his name drove a pain so acute into her heart she could scarcely breathe.

He was so still, he might have been carved from marble. “It wasn’t the violin that lured me, Morana.”

He could deny it all he wished. She knew the truth. “I performed the Dance of Death for you. I offered myself to you. Why didn’t you take me?”

But then she would have severed his spinal column, and Thanatos would have staked his heart and sent him into the fiery pits of damnation. The shriek of insanity opened welcomed arms and drew her farther into the numbing mists of oblivion.

His fingers crushed hers and the pain jerked her back to the present. Alexius’ fierce glare transfixed her.

“I did take you.”

“You took me as a man.” And she had let him. Had wanted him to. Had she somehow sensed, despite the clouds of obscurity hiding her memories, who Alexius really was?

“I wanted you as a vampire.” He leaned toward her, as if her restraining hand meant nothing. “But the man wanted you more.”

She wanted to close her eyes, to block out this nightmare, but she continued looking at him because she wanted to extend this moment for as long as she could before the inevitable end.

It was her duty to destroy him, but she would never destroy Alexius, her love. The one she had never stopped loving through all the centuries, the one whose identity had been concealed from her for reasons she couldn’t begin to comprehend.

The music room door cracked open. Without even turning Alexius’ features twisted with fury, his fangs a fearsome sight but she stared at them, for the first time fascinated instead of repelled.

Because they were Alexius’.

“Get the fuck out.” His roar was inhuman. But the elderly manservant stood his ground.

“There’s someone insisting on seeing you, Your Grace. And the Lady Morana.”

Still connected to Alexius by their entwined fingers Morana pushed herself upright, heart pounding. Thanatos stumbled into the room and she gasped in horror at his hideous state.

His long shining locks were dull and tangled, eyes glazed, his pallor tinged with gray. A black impenetrable cloak of despair enfolded her, sinking into the core of her being and she felt his agony as her own.

Alexius stood, and his grip on her hand tightened as though he expected her to rush from his side to comfort Thanatos.

“What’s consuming you?” His voice was harsh but she saw the flash of shock he smothered at the foul spiritual stench pulsating from Thanatos.

She struggled to her feet, fighting the urge to keel over, to succumb to the terrifying sense of isolation freezing her bloodstream and stumbled toward him, arm outstretched.

Alexius remained immobile, hampering her progress and she let out a shaky breath. The strength she’d recently regained sizzled through her limbs, collided in her heart, fighting against the insidious weakness snaking into her soul.

Thanatos reached her side and she wrapped her arm around him and rested her forehead against his shoulder.

“I thought I was too late.” His voice was hoarse. “Just moments before reaching you, I felt your soul die inside me. Vanish, as if your light had never been.”

“My soul vanished?” That was impossible. She frowned against his shoulder, and instinctively tightened her grip on Alexius’ hand.

“What are you saying?” Alexius’ rough demand cut through her swirling thoughts. “That you stole Morana’s soul so she had to stay with you?”

Thanatos looked at Alexius, his eyes no longer glazed, and Morana saw realization dawn. He shot her a probing glance.

“We weren’t mistaken.”

Her heart ached. “Yes, we were.”

Alexius grabbed the front of Thanatos’ shirt with his free hand and hoisted him up. “I asked you a question.”

In that split second, she guessed Thanatos’ thoughts and grabbed his wrist to prevent him from reaching his violin, for his bow that concealed its true function of staking a bloodsucker to perdition.

He glared at her, betrayal washing from him, before returning his attention to Alexius.

“Of course I didn’t steal her soul. Ours souls are one. You damn well nearly killed her by abducting her.”

Alexius released his grip and Thanatos crashed to the floor. As he got to his feet, he no longer trembled with exhaustion and was she imagining that his hair was regaining its usual lustrous sheen?

Alexius’ voice was deathly calm. “Then who connected your souls?”

“Death,” she said, and the full extent of the limitations of their existence slammed through her. “He chained us together so we could never sever our partnership.”

“Look at us, Morana.” Thanatos sounded bitter. “I’ve not been here five minutes and already we’re both back to full health.”

Ice trickled along her spine and she glanced at Alexius. He looked mad enough to rip the jugular from Thanatos’ throat.

“I was already back to full health before you arrived.”

“You can’t have been. I felt you inside me, dying as I was dying—” Thanatos bit off his words and narrowed his eyes. “Then nothing.” He pressed a hand against his heart. “You’ve gone, Morana.”

“Too fucking right she’s gone.” Alexius tugged her violently to his side. “She’s staying with me, so if you want to carry on with your hunt-down-the-vampire game, you can do it alone.”

Thanatos bared his teeth. “So that’s it? You’re going to let our bitterest enemy turn you into a creature of the damned? After everything we’ve been through together?”

Alexius stepped forward, dragging her with him. “If you don’t get the fuck out of here within the next two seconds, I’ll tear out your fucking heart.”

“Don’t you understand,
vampire
?” Thanatos spat the words in Alexius’ face. “If I go, Morana dies.”

Morana twisted in Alexius’ grasp, flattened her back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist. She looked directly into Thanatos’ infuriated eyes.

“It’s over, Thanatos.” She curled her fingers around Alexius’ wrists, felt the wound where he’d shared his blood to save her life. When he’d inadvertently healed her fractured soul. “I wanted vengeance against those who had taken my brother from me, but it wasn’t love for him that kept my soul burning in anguish after I died.” Futile rage at how she had been deceived echoed through her blood. “It was because vampires had taken my beloved.”

An odd wrenching sensation deep within her core caused her to gasp. It felt as if an extraneous fragment of her soul sought freedom.
Sought its true home
.

“Vampires killed your
brother
.” Confusion whipped across Thanatos’ features and then he stiffened, his hand once again pressed to his heart as if an unaccustomed pain pierced his core. “You had no beloved, Morana.”

“Why would Death hide my true memories, Thanatos? What memories of yours did he conceal?” She shivered, and drew comfort in the way Alexius molded her against his body. Despite learning what she truly was, he still wanted her. “I’m no longer a Maiden of Death. Whether I stay here with Alexius or leave, I’m finished with that contract. I’ll never hunt for
him
again.”

All these centuries she had performed her duties, thinking Death had granted her a favor by allowing her to seek revenge on those who had destroyed her brother. But all she’d been doing was Death’s dirty work. Seeking out those who eluded his cold touch, those who escaped the laws of nature by virtue of their unnatural creation.

And all this time Alexius, who she thought dead, had existed in that immortal world.

“Where’s this contract? I’d like to see it.” Alexius twisted her so she was facing him. “A pact with Death intrigues me.”

It might intrigue him, but he didn’t look especially benevolent. She glanced at Thanatos. “Do you agree?”

He glowered. “Why not? The vampire’s already found us. What difference does it make if we spill our blood in front of him?”

She ignored his jibe and picked up a bowl from one of the small tables. “This will do to catch the blood. Now I need something sharp to slit my wrist.”

Alexius clasped her arm. There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

“Allow me.” He lowered his head and as she caught sight of his fangs, she instinctively flinched. For too many years she had hunted his kind, despised everything about them. But as he pierced her wrist, a bolt of shocking pleasure seared through her blood. She gasped, caught his gaze, and as he tore his lips from her, she had to forcibly stop herself from whimpering with need.

He held her wrist over the bowl and she watched, mesmerized, as her crimson blood dripped. Then he raised her arm and slowly licked the wound. Desire blazed from the touch of his tongue on her skin, caused her nipples to tighten and ripples of lust claimed her pussy. She fought the urge to squirm with arousal, but the look in his eyes told her he knew exactly how her body reacted to his vampiric touch.

He turned to Thanatos, a mocking curl on his lips. “Ready?”

Thanatos whipped out his bow and sliced his wrist, never breaking eye contact with Alexius.

And as the contract unfolded in a swirling, crimson fog, she felt no sense of diminishing power. Another lie she and Thanatos had lived with for countless centuries.

In ancient Greek, it detailed their duties, their burdens and their limitations. Nothing they didn’t already know. Impatiently Morana scrolled through the nebulous document until Alexius jerked her hand aside.

“Release of souls. That’s what you’re after, isn’t it?” He fired the question at Thanatos who didn’t bother to respond. “It says here the terms of the contract will be nullified should either of you discover the true fate of your soul mate.” His lip curled in obvious disgust. “I never thought Death would sink to such romanticized shit.”

Morana cradled her wrist as molten rage scalded her veins. Death had entered this clause, and then tried to make it unbreakable by stealing the memories of her life with Alexius, by hiding the true fate of her brother and the reality of her own mortal demise.

“What does that even mean?” Thanatos frowned at the clause. “What does that have to do with the meshing of our souls?”

She gripped Thanatos’ arm and pulled him around.

“Our souls become whole when we discover the truth about the one we’ve always loved. And a healed soul can’t shelter a splintered fragment from another, Thanatos.” She shook him, trying to make him understand. “It means we’re free from each other. We don’t need to be together in order to survive.”

Thanatos glanced at Alexius then stared at her and she saw comprehension dawn in his eyes. Comprehension and horror and finally outrage at how they had been deceived.

She turned to Alexius. His face was an inscrutable mask.

“May Thanatos spend the night here, Alexius? Just one night.” He wouldn’t stay longer than one night, even if invited. She could see in his eyes how he ached to be gone, not because he no longer loved her but because there was nothing left for him here with her.

Alexius strode to the door and the manservant who had brought in Thanatos opened it without a word.

“Jane.” Alexius spoke to the housekeeper who was so much more than a housekeeper. “We have a guest for the night.” He jerked his head at Thanatos to follow Jane up the stairs and with one last glance at her, Thanatos obeyed.

She watched Alexius as he paused in front of the portrait of the golden-haired woman and slowly joined him. How different she had looked when she had been Alexius’ wife. Had Death given her this body for that very reason?

“So you have discovered the truth about the one you’ve always loved.” His voice was pure ice and she shivered, wrapping her arms around her waist. He obviously didn’t feel the same about her, was still obsessed with the Grecian perfection of her previous incarnation.