Heir to the Coven (13 page)

“You feel bad about it? I mean, you’re not here because you’re mad he pried. You want to know how to fix this.”

“Can this be fixed?” Do I want to fix it? That was the better question. Emotional attachments were messy as my friendships with Mercy, Dawn and Kain proved. It was so much easier to be cut and dry, all business, but was that really a life? I was starting to miss the simple days before I came back.

Mercy lounged back next to me and studied my face like she could see what I was feeling if she looked at my features long enough. “Here’s my non-expert advice. Call him.”

“That’s it?”

“What more did you want?”

“I don’t know. More than ‘call him’.”

“I’m a half-caste foot soldier shacked up with an enforcer, not a relationship counselor Tash. When Kain and I fight I throw things at his head, he shouts, eventually I manage to hit him with one of my missiles because he’s too busy ranting to get out of the way and we wind up having wild hot monkey sex. I don’t think Chris’ reflexes are that good so I can’t recommend throwing stuff at him, you might kill him.”

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for that monkey image.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

“Mmmm. Warn me the next time you two fight. Ok? I really don’t want to turn a corner and walk in on
that
.”

Mercy reached over to grab her cell phone off the nightstand and handed it to me. “Call the guy. Then come find me and tell me all about it.”

“I’ll go, this is your room.”

“Exactly. This is my room so no one will barge in to interrupt you, which is what you are hoping for so you can get out of this. Look, Natasha, he seems like a decent guy. Either try to make it work or cut him loose before he invests in it.”

I smiled at her. “See you know more than throwing things and monkey sex.”

“Who’s having monkey sex?” Kain asked as he barged in.

Mercy gritted her teeth. “Once again your timing is impeccable my love. You vanish this morning when you’re needed and show up now when men are unwelcome. I’d say she put you up to it, but I know you were patrolling the city since sun fall.”

“What did I do?”

I laughed. “Nothing. How did it go?”

Kain shot Mercy a look as she muttered about people stalling, but he focused on my question instead of his glaring girlfriend. Looks like I should beware what corner I turned tonight. Kain said, “It was an interesting evening. I killed a vampire.”

“What?”

“I was on Sixth Street and I found a vampire feeding on a human. I told him to back off, but he didn’t so I got him off her. We fought. He lost.”

“One of Anton’s vampires was going for a kill in our territory?” I could feel my blood rising. If one of his people were that brazen I wouldn’t put it past them to have created that half-caste baby after all. They could use Kain’s kill as an excuse to attack us if they accused him of lying. “Did you secure the woman as proof?”

“I took her to the hospital for a transfusion, but the vampire I killed wasn’t one of Anton’s.”

“Are you sure?”

Kain nodded. “I know most of his people and they all wear his crest. This guy didn’t have it and I never saw him before.”

“Were there any identifying marks so we know who to thank?”

“Didn’t really get to check before he burst into flame, but jewelry usually survives the implosion and there were only ashes left.”

Mercy cursed softly. “It could be a set up. All he had to do was take the crest medallion off.”

“True, but if one of us saw him before he started feeding and he didn’t have it we would have given him a very difficult night,” Kain said. He glanced over at me. “You’re very quiet. What’s cooking in that brain of yours Little One?”

“That someone wants us to jump to the conclusion that Anton or one of his caste is behind this to sow discord and distrust between us at the very least. And at the most to provoke a battle.” Most likely the same someone that sent outside vampires to guard Megan McCoy and cross my path the other night. Or else Kain was trying to throw me off his trail by saying he was attacked, but I had not told anyone about my adventures with the two vampires, unless his rumored new friend Megan told him.

Kain said, “You think this is connected?”

“Very much so.”

Mercy spoke up. “Sorry, but what are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kain said.

Ignoring the new tension in the room, I said, “I want a double guard on the house and extra men in the streets. Tell Rainor what happened and that I’ll talk to him about it when I get back.”

“Where are you going?”

“To see Anton.”

Chapter 14

When Anton returned from his evening out, I was waiting for him in his living room after I helped myself to a pint of cookie dough ice cream I found in his kitchen. I could tell he was irritated by the way his body tensed and his jaw clenched. I wasn’t sure if his irritation was my presence, my petty larceny, that I had roamed his house to find the kitchen or the way I was sitting sideways in his armchair with my feet dangling over the side; he hated sloppy posture.

“Hello, brother dear,” I greeted him while waving the spoon at him. We had the relationship we had whether Rainor liked it or not. I had to obey Rainor to a point, but at the end of the day I was free to leave any time I wanted and if I was going to run things the coven was going to have to get used to the way I was, not the other way around. I would try to keep the sexual goading out of it so long as Anton did, but I liked to bait people and that wasn’t going to change.

“How the hell did you get in here?” Anton asked.

I glanced down at the floor where two of his guards lay unconscious. The first one had tried to take the ice cream. The second one had tried to restrain me after I knocked the first one out. “If you want to keep me out you’re going to have to do better.”

“So I see,” he said in a grumpy tone. “At least you didn’t kill them.”

“I’ve matured.”

“That remains to be seen considering you are eating ice cream out of the container while slouching in my favorite chair like a child, Natasha.”

I smirked at him. “Well at least I’ve stopped sucking my thumb.”

He laughed heartily. Anton rarely gave such a full-throated laugh, but when he did it made my stomach lurch. Eh, maybe it was the ice cream? I checked the expiration date. It was fine. I guess it was his laughter after all. Anton took the carton from me and placed it on top of a stack of magazines. I think he didn’t trust me not to put it on his cherry wood table and make a condensation mark.

“Hey! I wasn’t done with that,” I said. “Although while were on the subject could you ask the dessert to start stocking the kind with the brownie pieces in it? That’s really good.”

“Her name is Ashley as you well know.”

“You’re right, I do know, but it’s so much fun to irritate you by calling her the dessert. Besides, what is she to me? I’m a soon to be coven Mistress and she’s your private whore.”

Anton moved very quickly. So quickly I barely had time to swing my feet down to the floor before he was face to face with me. “Are you jealous? Is that why you disparage her? Because Ashley can be gone in a heartbeat if you’d like to take her place Natasha.”

Now it was my turn to show off. Before he had a chance to move I was on my feet so that I towered over him. “As your dessert? I think not. I prefer it when you keep your distance.”

He shrugged and stood up. “I could force the issue.”

“Fine. Right here, right now. Top or bottom Anton? Or would you prefer it against the wall?” I started to reach for the hem of my shirt to pull it off like it was so ho hum to me if we went at it on his floor, or wall, right that second.

“Enough.”

“What?” I asked with feigned innocence. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“Why must you try my patience?”

He looked weary and I almost felt sorry for him. Almost. “I’m not the one that just threatened rape.”

Now that provoked a snarl before he said, “I did not threaten to rape you!”

“I believe the word force came out of your mouth, vampire, not mine. We could go at it another way if it’s not sex you’re after. How about it, brother? You and me hand to hand combat?” I knew my eyes had changed to blood red. Just the thought of what that fight would be like gave me chills. How screwed up did you have to be to get hotter over battle than sex?

Instead of backing away from me, Anton reached out and tipped up my chin so he could stare down into my eyes. I could have pulled away, but I stood my ground, daring him to push the game farther. He said, “Her eyes were rubies set in snow, her tongue sharper than her taloned hands. She prefers the heat of combat to the warmth of the bed, and men who risk the taste of her lips are bound to wind up dead.”

I stared up into his dark gaze like one in a trance. It was no longer bravado that kept me glued in place, it was the desire to be this close to him. My mouth fell slightly open so that my breath came out from between my lips. “That was beautiful. You’re a poet Anton. I never would have guessed.”

“Why does that surprise you?”

“Poetry is about the depths of the soul and you are about the cold calculations of the mind.”

“You inspire me.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you start spouting
To His Coy Mistress
I am going to laugh in your face.”

“I hardly see the parallels.”

“Well the point of that poem was to get in someone’s pantalets and that
is
your goal here isn’t it? Unless you literally want us to try to make the sun run away from its blue berth in the heavens, but I don’t think that would end well for one us.”

“Who read you that poem the first time you heard it Natasha?”

Honestly I did not remember, but since Anton was asking I assumed the answer was him. “Being able to recite does not mean you can compose.”

“There is much you do not know about me. As there is much I do not know about you.”

“Such as?” I was still standing there with my chin held up by his hand. I knew I should move away, but this was a new side to him. Who knew accusing a man of threatening rape would lead here?

“Such as where you vanished off to after we got the enemy off our door step? Where your little blond playmate went since you used to be joined at the hip and you are here and he is not? And most tantalizingly, why you have eaten enough sweet garbage that I can smell the sugar exuding from your pores?”

Suddenly we were on dangerous ground and I had stupidly let him lead me here. Two of the questions I really could not answer for him unless I outright lied and one I could sort of answer with a simple, “my playmate and I parted ways,” but that still left a door open that needed to remain closed. Instead I said, “That’s easy. I vanished off to join the circus. I made a real attraction in the freak show. My playmate, as you called him, is hidden away in a nice little condo two towns over so that you think you’ve got a shot with me while we meet up to screw each others’ brains out every other night.”

I knew I took it too far when his hand moved from my chin to my throat and his eyes turned crimson to match mine. “Lies! If you had a lover I would smell him on you.”

“I scrub up real nice before I come to visit you. In fact that’s why I’m such a chocoholic these days, he knocked me up.” I regretted it the instant I said it because I could feel the hand at my throat begin to quiver.

“You are not with child. Tell me you are not!”

Anton had a reason to be freaked; well he would if he cared about more than getting in my pants. It was a very rare thing for a half-caste woman to get pregnant, especially if she were strong. Only one kind of immortality the saying went; eternal youth or children. If she got pregnant past the normal child bearing age of a human woman it usually led to a miscarriage or death for the mother before the child was born. At my age a pregnancy was a death sentence. It was a strange way to find out I registered as more than the chase. “I’m sorry, Anton. That was unkind.”

He pulled away from me. I could see he was visibly shaking now and I felt horrible. He cared. He truly cared. I moved slowly so he did not think I was going to attack him from behind and placed my hand on his shoulder. I felt awkward and uncomfortable trying to comfort him over the hurt I had caused, I was used to killing vampires not wiping their noses. He turned to face me and all I could do was whisper over and over that I was sorry. I don’t know how it happened because I am not the hugging type, but I found my arms were wrapped around him and I was rubbing his back. His hold on me was tentative at first and then his arms clamped down around me like vices as if he would pull me inside his chest. After a few moments I pulled my head back to ask if he was ok now and our gazes locked. Anton leaned down towards me and -

The door banged open.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!” Tristan roared. He pelted across the room towards us.

As I prepared to defend myself, I realized I had the perfect view of Anton’s back as he stepped in front of me. Calmly, yet forcefully he said, “Control yourself Tristan.”

The other vampire froze in his tracks. “Master?”

“You will turn around and walk back out that door. You will shut it behind you and tell no one of what you saw.”

“She attacked five of our men; three at the gate and those two imbeciles on the floor. This is all part of her game to cloud your judgment while she makes you, and by extension us, her playthings. Do not let her do it!”

“I repeat, you will turn around and walk out that door. You will not speak of this to anyone or I will make sure you never speak of anything again. Am I understood Tristan?”

“Please, Master.”

“NOW!” Anton’s voice echoed off the walls. I was tempted to hold my hands over my ears to block the sound.

“Yes, Master.” Tristan bowed and did as he was told.

I resisted the urge to say what I would have done instead of the second warning and used the opportunity to put some distance between Anton and myself. He could cross the distance in the time it took me to inhale, but my head was clearer away from him. I could see the annoyance on his face when he turned back to me and saw I was halfway across the room.