Claiming the Vampire (4 page)

“Who’s the bloke with her?” Hawk asked. She’d turned her back on him to peer out from behind the tree, and he spoke from behind her left shoulder.

His nearness made her tremble, and she prayed he didn’t know it.

“My fiancé,” she answered, staring at the stranger. She wished she could see him better, but it was impossible to distinguish his features from this distance and with no light but that of the moon. “At least I think it is.”

There was a short silence before Hawk spoke. “You
think
it is?”

Jessica swallowed. “I…haven’t actually met him yet.”

There was another silence, which gave Jessica enough time to remember the fiery trail that Hawk’s hands had left on her body—and to wonder again what she’d been thinking. How could she have let him touch her like that? He was a stranger—and she was engaged to be married.

She took a deep breath, and another. The only thing to do was forget everything that had happened with Hawk. All of it, from the time she’d come out here tonight. She’d been out of her mind, but now it was time to be sane again.

“They’re coming closer,” Hawk said. His voice was cool, and it was hard to believe that minutes ago that same voice had growled possessively as he touched her. “Shall we go and meet them together?”

His voice was ironic, and Jessica flushed. Obviously she’d much rather not have Hawk beside her when she met her fiancé for the first time…especially considering what Hawk could say about her, if he chose.

He was going on. “How do you want to manage this? I intend to speak with the queen tonight, but I don’t much care when that conversation takes place. If you’d prefer, I can stay concealed here for now while you go to meet Talia and your…intended. But decide quickly. They’ll be here in a minute.”

She looked at him for the first time since they’d broken apart. “How will you get inside later on? There will be guards at the doors.”

“I’ll manage.”

She was sure he would. And as much as she wished she could just leave him here in the shadows while she went to meet her mother and her husband-to-be, she couldn’t. He might have saved her life, and she might have let him put his hands all over her, but neither of those things absolved her of her responsibility to ensure the safety of this house.

“I can’t allow that. I’m sorry. I can’t leave you here unattended, knowing what you are—”

“You knew what I was a few minutes ago, didn’t you? When I had my hands on your breasts?”

He asked the question carelessly, as if the answer didn’t matter very much.

She chose to ignore it, but she couldn’t control the rush of blood to her cheeks. “We’ll go and meet them, and you can address the queen. Remember that you’re unarmed and that her guards are within striking distance, so don’t do anything stupid. I can’t promise you she’ll grant you an audience, but—”

“Leave that to me. But if you don’t trust me enough to leave me alone on your mother’s grounds, how can you trust me not to tell the queen—and your fiancé—everything that’s passed between us?”

He asked that carelessly, too.

She lifted her chin. “I can’t. But that’s out of my control. You can tell them, or not, as you choose. Now, let’s go.”

And after taking one more deep breath, Jessica stepped out from behind the tree and strode towards her mother and the prince.

She didn’t look over her shoulder to see if Hawk was following her, but she knew he was. She knew by the way her scalp tingled and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

It was only a few seconds before Talia caught sight of them. She noticed her daughter first, which wasn’t surprising—in her white dress she stood out in the darkness like a neon light. “Jessica! My dear, I had expected this introduction to take place in the ballroom, but I suppose there’s no need to stand on ceremony. Allow me to—”

Then her eyes widened, and Jessica knew she’d spotted the vampire behind her.

So had the guards. Their weapons were at the ready, and they looked to the queen for their orders.

Jessica held up a hand, hoping she appeared calm and in control. “This vampire says he has urgent business with you, Mother, and that you will want to speak with him. He’s unarmed. He—”

Her words trailed off as she felt the bite of steel on her neck.

“Not quite unarmed, I’m afraid,” Hawk said pleasantly. “I guess you missed one after all.”

He wrapped one arm around her waist and the other around her shoulders, holding his blade to her throat.

Jessica didn’t move a muscle. In front of her, her mother and the prince were as frozen as she was, and the guards as well.

Hawk, on the other hand, seemed completely at ease. “All right, everyone, let’s stay calm. I have no desire to harm anyone here, and certainly not this young lady. She’s got her whole life in front of her—marriage and children and all that. Speaking of which, I understand congratulations are in order. Allow me to wish you joy.”

Jessica’s eyes flashed to Prince Kel. He was handsome, as her mother had said—tall and well-muscled, with thick blond hair and blue eyes. He was dressed in black and silver, and his face was as cold as if it had been carved out of ice.

“Are you speaking to me, vampire?”

His voice was as cold as his face. Jessica shivered when she heard it, and she felt Hawk’s arm tighten around her waist.

“I am. You’re a very lucky man. I envy you your wedding night, with a bride as lovely as this.”

“How is it that you know of my daughter’s engagement?” Talia asked sharply.

Her mother looked magnificent tonight—every inch the Faery Queen in a gown of midnight blue, a sapphire diadem her only adornment. She didn’t look frightened for her daughter’s safety, but then Jessica had never seen Talia look frightened. She did, however, look furious.

“Your daughter happened to mention it when we…ran into each other this evening.”

Now her mother would ask how that meeting had come about. How he’d gotten onto her property. That was something Jessica wondered, too. Hawk could have bought some kind of magical charm, but something powerful enough to get past Talia’s protection spells would cost a small fortune. Of course, a professional assassin would be able to amass a small fortune—or a large one.

She’d kept her eyes open for any kind of charm when she’d searched him, but had found nothing. Which meant either that the charm was concealed by magic, or that she had, as Hawk had said, been too distracted to do her job properly.

She remembered running her hands over the hardness straining against his jeans, and hoping he couldn’t see her blush.

Jessica was an accomplished warrior with more than fifty demon kills to her credit. But when it came to men…to physical passion…she was completely inexperienced. Of course she knew—in theory, at least—what an erection was. But this was the first time she’d ever actually seen, much less touched, the evidence of a man’s arousal.

So yes, she’d been a little distracted.

Of course it was obvious now that all of that was just part of his plan. He’d pretended to care about her state of mind when he first met her. Pretended to be attracted to her. He must have sensed, or guessed at, her inexperience, and used that to his advantage. It had all been a ploy to get her let down her guard, to throw her off balance—all so he could maneuver her into precisely this position.

Tactically, it had been brilliant. Cold and heartless, but brilliant.

It occurred to her that Hawk had a lot in common with the Fae—and especially her mother. At the moment Talia was looking icily calm as she stared over Jessica’s shoulder at the vampire holding her daughter at knife point, no doubt seeking tactical advantages of her own.

“What else did you talk to my daughter about?”

Jessica frowned. That wasn’t the question she’d expected her mother to ask.

But when she heard Hawk’s voice turn deadly, she knew that this was exactly the question he’d been waiting for.

“That’s just it, Your Highness. We didn’t have time to talk to any purpose. But that can change—unless you agree to meet with me privately.”

Talia’s eyes flashed. “When?”

“Right now. Your people will back off to a distance where we can speak without being overheard. Your archers can keep their weapons trained on me if you like.”

The queen smiled without humor. “That’s remarkably trusting of you. What’s to prevent them from killing you the moment my daughter is free?”

“This will.” Hawk shifted behind her, and the arm around her waist was gone. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him holding something in his hand for the queen to see. Whatever it was, it was small…which still didn’t excuse the fact that she’d overlooked it when she’d searched him.

“And what is that?” the queen asked coldly.

“Poison.”

Almost before the word was out of his mouth Jessica felt something jab her right forearm, and she looked down in time to see Hawk withdraw a silver needle from her skin.

“Unless I tell you the antidote within twenty minutes, your daughter will die. All I ask is five minutes’ conversation, Your Highness. Surely your daughter’s life is worth that?”

Talia’s gaze flickered once to Jessica, but there was no emotion in her face. “Very well. Guards, back away a hundred paces. Prince Kel, please escort my daughter.”

“Of course,” Kel said immediately. As he came towards them, Hawk murmured in her ear, “Don’t be afraid. You’ll feel no ill effects while I speak to your mother. Everything will be all right, I promise.” Then he withdrew the knife from her neck and stepped back.

Jessica felt strangely detached from everything that was happening. She let Prince Kel take her arm and lead her after the retreating guards, as Hawk and her mother drew close together and began to speak. It was impossible to hear their conversation, but the tension between them was palpable.

“Are you in any pain, Your Highness?”

It took her a second to realize that it was Prince Kel who had spoken. He still had his arm around her shoulders.

“No, I’m not in pain.”

She kept her eyes fixed on her mother and Hawk as she addressed one of her mother’s guards, a man she’d known all her life.

“Mark—give me your bow.”

He complied without hesitation, handing her the bow and slipping the quiver over her shoulder.

“You can’t shoot the vampire,” Kel said sharply. “If he dies before telling us the antidote—”

“I won’t shoot him yet,” Jessica said, fitting an arrow to the string. “But if he so much as touches my mother, he’ll be dead the second afterward. You think I care if I die? It’s my fault the queen is in this position. I was the one who searched him for weapons. I was the one who believed he wasn’t a threat. I was a fool.”

Her voice shook a little, and she bit her lip. One more reason to curse Hawk was that because of him, she was now betraying emotion in front of her husband-to-be. If her people valued discipline and self-control, how much more so must the Dark Fae, who were all purebloods? Among the Earth Fae, emotion was viewed as a human attribute and a weakness. And the Dark Fae were supposed to be both heartless and soulless…according to legend, anyway.

She tried to speak more lightly. “I’m sorry that your introduction to our world…and to me…should have begun like this. You must be regretting our betrothal already.”

She kept her gaze trained on her mother and Hawk but she was aware of Kel’s eyes on her.

“You think this situation is lessening my opinion of you?”

He sounded surprised, and Jessica couldn’t stop herself from turning her head to look at him. “Yes,” she said.

He shook his head. “I’ve known you for less than ten minutes, Your Highness. In that time, I’ve seen that you are fearless in the face of danger and that you value the lives of others more than your own. I’ve also seen that you’re even more beautiful than your mother claimed. Believe me, none of these discoveries have made me regret our betrothal.”

She stared at him, and he met her gaze coolly. There was nothing in his expression to give away whatever he was feeling at the moment, if anything. But his words had sounded sincere.

And he had spoken of her courage. If he valued that…was it possible that he might, after all, allow her to be a warrior in his world?

For the first time since her mother had told her of the bargain she’d made with the Dark Fae queen, a spark of hope flickered to life inside her.

* * *

“It’s very simple, Talia. Honor your side of the bargain, and I’ll never darken your door again.”

“You must see that recent developments will make that difficult.”

Hawk glanced over at Jessica, who was being led away by the Dark Fae prince. The sight of his black-clad arm around her bare shoulders made him want to kill something, but that atavistic response wouldn’t do anyone any good.

Least of all him.

“I assume by ‘recent developments’ you’re referring to this disgusting engagement?”

“What’s disgusting about it?”

“The fact that you sold your daughter to save your own skin.”

Talia stiffened, and her aquamarine eyes—so like her daughter’s in color, but so different in expression—narrowed with hate. “I didn’t sell her. This arrangement was entered into freely by all parties.”

Sure it was. That’s why Jessica had been contemplating suicide—because she’d entered into this arrangement freely.

“You should be as pleased by this solution as any of us,” the queen was saying now. “With this new treaty between our peoples, the portals between the two worlds will remain open. And that means that you vampires will retain your powers—and your lives.”

That was one of the things Talia had told him when she took out the contract on Celia’s life. When the young spellcaster had learned that Dark Fae planned to invade Earth to take slaves for breeding, she’d proposed that the Fae absinthe be destroyed and the portals to the Dark Fae realm be closed. But since the Dark Fae realm was the source of supernatural energy and power, such a remedy would have meant the decline of the Earth Fae until they were no more than human—and the death of the vampires.

“Yes, I’m sure you had the vampires’ interests at heart when you pimped your daughter out to that—”