Heart and Soul (21 page)

“Really,” he drawled with complete disinterest.

“They wish to speak with you,” she said.

Was it him, or did she sound just a little irritated?

“Well, I’ve no wish to speak with them, sweet. You can go now.”

Oh, yes, she was irritated. She turned away from the fire, her pretty eyes flashing. “You are part of the Council, Malachi. You can’t just ignore them when it doesn’t appeal to you.”

Cocking a brow at her, he leaned against the mantel and studied her. “No?”

Her lips flattened into a grim line as she bit off, “No.”

“I will not return to Brendain,” Malachi said. Her eyes met his, and he added, “Not now. Maybe never.”

They’d been looking for him. He knew it—knew he should have sent some sort of message. But since Agnes’s death, he simply didn’t care about the Council and the causes he had spent so much of his life fighting for.

Very little mattered to him anymore. He wondered if anything mattered.

Then Kelsey spoke, her voice soft, sad. And he knew there was still one thing that mattered. Or at least one person.

“They need you, Mal.” She looked away, staring at the wall. “We need you.”

“I’ve given the Council enough of my life. I cannot keep giving when there’s nothing left.”

He watched as she turned away from the fire and moved toward him, her eyes sad. “So you plan to spend the rest of your life in solitude?”

Malachi lowered his gaze and stared at his hands. In his mind’s eye, he saw what had happened just a few months earlier. All she had been trying to do was keep him from doing something he would regret the rest of his cursed life.

He had grabbed her, had dug his fingers hard into her soft white flesh. He could remember how fragile her bones had felt under his hands, the heat of the fire she’d called, fully prepared to turn them both to cinders.

“It’s more than just Agnes’s death, Kelsey. More than a thousand years of serving the bloody Council, and those are just the years since I started keeping track,” he murmured, shaking his head. “I’ve served the Council for so long, I barely remember a life outside it. I’ve lost more friends than I can count. I am empty. Apart from the Council, I am no one. I have nothing.”

“You have your friends.”

Malachi smiled, a sad, bitter smile. “Friends that I can no longer face, Kelsey. Do you think I can look at Leandra again after what I did to her? To you? I can hardly stand to look at myself, much less a friend.”

She stood in front of him now, and he could barely bring himself to look into her eyes while the guilt flooded him. Stepping to the side, he tried to go around her, but she reached out, closing a hand around his arm. He stood frozen in his tracks. Her thumb stroked up and down the inside of his arm, and he found himself staring at her hand, mesmerized by that slow, gentle stroking.

Malachi could count on one hand the number of times she had voluntarily touched him, and still have fingers left over.

“You are needed, Malachi.”

Need
—

She spoke of the Council’s need for him. Aye, he knew they were floundering now, all of the remaining members young. Was there one among them who was fully prepared for the responsibility of governing over the legions of Hunters? One who could handle supervising the rest of the gifted men and women of the world?

If they hadn’t so recently lost Agnes, his absence wouldn’t be felt so much. But without them both, he knew they were in trouble. Tobias was capable, smart, and dedicated. As was Kelsey. But the Council was a responsibility meant to be shared by more than one or two people. And he doubted the other two who served alongside Tobias and Kelsey were prepared.

Niko and Andreas were hardly equipped for the responsibility that had been thrown at them. Malachi had suspected as much when they were appointed, but that had been before . . . Grief once more ripped through him as he thought of Nessa.

Malachi wondered if Kelsey even understood the word.

He did. He’d been living with a need for her for a decade now, a need that would go unanswered. Malachi seemed to be damned to spend his life needing women he could never have.

Perhaps he should be thankful for his dreams. At least there, he could have some sort of relief, although making love to a mysterious dream woman was an almost empty pleasure. When he was awake, he didn’t think of her as much.

Kelsey, though, she was a different story. Flesh and blood, living, breathing, haunting his thoughts, even his dreams on the rare occasion the other woman didn’t invade. At times, the dreams even blurred together until he could barely separate one woman from the other.

Hunger started to pulse inside of him, his cock pounding under the jeans he wore. As his hunger grew, the air around them began to heat, and he knew the moment Kelsey felt the change.

Soft pink lips parted as she inhaled slowly, and her lashes drooped low over her eyes. A soft flush stained her cheeks, but even without that visible sign, he could sense the telltale reaction of her body. She wanted him; whether she liked it or not, she wanted him.

Him
—not because of the blasted vampire magick, either. His shields were up. Kelsey’s shields were up, as well. He could feel them. There was no way the call was affecting her.

Even after what he’d nearly done, she still wanted him. Distantly, he knew she was still speaking, but he had no idea what she had said. All he could focus on were the signs he could read from her body. The increase in her heart rate, the unsteady rhythm of her breaths, the unmistakable scent of a woman’s hunger rising in the air.

She did want him. No matter how much she ignored him, she wanted him.

“You aren’t even listening to a damn thing I say.”

Malachi blinked and refocused on her face, staring at her grimly. Her eyes had gotten dark, and they glinted with frustration as she glared at him. As she held his gaze, her flush deepened, and he heard the erratic change in her breathing. A slow, bitter smile curled his lips as he stared at her.

“Oh, I heard you, love. The Council needs me. I know they’ve been looking for me. And if I wanted to go back, I would have already done so. I have no desire to go back to soddin’ old England right now.”

Her eyes narrowed on his face, and she planted her hands on her hips. That didn’t help any. It drew her shirt tight across her breasts, and he found himself staring at those soft, subtle curves as she said sarcastically, “And heaven knows that Malachi does only what he desires. Screw his responsibilities.”

Tearing his eyes from hers, Malachi shifted his gaze to stare at the ceiling. “You try answering to the Council for as long as I have, and then you can speak to me of responsibilities.” Then he grinned wickedly and looked back at her. “And I’d be very careful speaking to me of desires, Kelsey. One of these days, I just might act on the strongest one, and you’d end up burning me into a pile of ash. Maybe you should just do it and be done with it, sweet. Save us both.”

Her heartbeat kicked up even more; he could hear it. The scent of her body grew stronger as her flesh heated. Her hair, fiery golden-red locks, curled around her shoulders, framing the delicate oval of her face, spilling down over the soft curves of her breasts, and halfway down her back. His fingers itched. Malachi wanted to bury his hands in that hair, wind it around his fingers as he tilted her head back and kissed her senseless.

Looking at her, thinking what he was thinking, wasn’t doing a damn thing to cool the fire she caused in him. His cock swelled and began to pound in rhythm with his pulse. The ache spread throughout his body, and Mal knew from experience it would last for long after Kelsey had left. It was like a cancer that ate at him, this damned need he had for her.

“It’s time to come back, Malachi.”

Startled out of his daze, Malachi jerked his eyes back to her face. “No, it’s not,” he said slowly.

Her eyes narrowed a little, and she lifted her chin mutinously. “You can’t mean to stay away forever.”

Pushing away from the mantel, he strolled over to the couch and dropped down on it. He took his time as he settled down on the couch and stretched out his legs in front of him, crossing them at the ankle. He could feel her watching him. The devil in him had him wondering what she’d say if he told her he’d do anything she wanted, even come back to the Council for as long as they desired, in exchange for fifteen or twenty minutes with her naked.

He’d rather have days, but he could make do with much less time. Hell, he could make do with five minutes. Malachi had wanted her for too damn long, and if he ever got his hands on her, it would be like setting flame to a bucket of gasoline.

She groaned, and he looked up to find her staring at him in frustration, her hands on her hips, her eyes hot and annoyed. “I don’t know what in the hell is going on in your head, but can you pay attention to me for five minutes?”

Damn it, she was so damned adorable. The thought popped into his brain as a smile spread across his face. He wanted to get up and go over there, kiss that glare off of her face, strip her naked, watch her face as she came, listen to hear if she screamed or moaned.

What would she do this time if he touched her? Would she throw fire at him, like the first time? Would she turn to fire in his arms? She burned hot. He knew just how hot. And he wasn’t thinking of the actual fire she had lobbed at him the first time.

There had been one time when she had seemed to welcome his touch.

Malachi had tortured himself with the memories of that one time. Those moments at Eli’s when she had wrapped her arms around him, trying to ease the pain of Nessa’s passing, that had been the closest to paradise he had been in years.

Decades.

Centuries.

Quite possibly ever. At least outside his dreams.

The hunger inside him threatened to burn out of control. It felt like a fiery monster had settled under his skin, burning him from the inside out. It felt too big for his body to contain, and it spilled out, burning through his shields, heating the air around them. As his hunger grew, the air around them began to heat, affecting Kelsey as well.

Her soft pink lips parted as she inhaled slowly, and her lashes drooped low over her eyes. She reached up, scrubbing her hands over her face. When she looked back at him, her warm hazel-gold eyes were fogged by desire.

“Damn it, Malachi, don’t you get it? We
need
you,” she said, forcing the words out. Her voice was hesitant and husky.

Kelsey was getting damned tired of arguing with the stubborn vampire. Why in the hell had she been sent, anyway? She was getting absolutely nowhere.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She was getting extremely turned on. Malachi was making no attempt to mask the lust she could feel rolling from him, and even through her shields, the heat was getting to her. Scalding her. Burning her. It was intoxicating, and it was quickly turning her into a hot, mindless puddle of need.

If she didn’t get through to him soon, she was going to have to get out of here. Either that or strip down naked and beg him to put his hands on her. And she really didn’t want to do that. Damned if she’d become one of the dozens he’d left sexually satisfied and emotionally drained in his wake.

Said stubborn vampire merely cocked a dark red brow at her and smiled slightly as he mockingly drawled, “Damn it, Kelsey, don’t you get it? I don’t give a bloody damn.”

Spinning away, Kelsey fisted her hands in her hair, tempted to jerk some of it out by the roots to try to relieve some of her frustration.

Malachi said, “Just go on back to Brendain like a good little witch. They can do whatever it is without me. The Council doesn’t need me as badly as they think.”

“Malachi . . .”

Before she could figure out what she wanted to say, he closed his eyes and murmured, “Just go. I’m tired of all of this, Kelsey. So damned tired.” He stood up and moved away from her, crossing the room. She thought he was going to walk out, but he just stopped, facing the wall with his back to her.

As she watched, he sighed, reaching up to rub at the base of his neck.

Touching him was a bad idea. She knew that, even before she did it. Any time she touched him, it was like touching lightning: burning, electrifying. He had a weird effect on her, something that went deeper than just plain lust.

But she had to do something. Kelsey took one step, then another, moving until she could slide her arms around his waist. He held himself still and rigid. Kelsey started to stroke the taut line of his back with her hands.

She felt the soft brush of his breath against her temple as the tense muscles of his body relaxed. Her hands fell to her sides as he lifted his, rubbing his palms lightly up and down the outside of her arms. “Oh, Kelsey, you really shouldn’t have come here,” he muttered. “Not now.”

His lips brushed over her cheek, leaving a burning trail of sensation behind. As he bussed her mouth with his, Kelsey had to stifle a whimper in her throat.

His arms came around her. One big, hard hand pressed at her lower back, bringing her into full contact with his body. Against her belly, she could feel him; he was hard and full, throbbing against her.

From between her thighs came an answering throb. Heat suffused her skin, and the clothes she wore felt too thick, too heavy, too confining. She wanted to be naked, wanted to feel the long lines of his body against hers.

He hasn’t even kissed me.
That inane thought ran through her mind as his fingers threaded through her hair. Hadn’t even kissed her, and she was ready to strip out of her clothes, lie down, and pull him to her.

Or strip out of her clothes, tear his away, and push him to his back. She licked her lips as that image formed in her mind. Climbing astride that long, powerful body, taking him inside, staring down into his face as she rode him. A series of long, slow pulses started low in her belly, rippling through her body. Heat spread through her, and she clenched her thighs together in effort to ease the ache inside.