I Only Have Fangs For You (10 page)

"Excellent," he winked and strolled away to speak to a group near the podium at one end of the room.

Mina remained at the back, near one of the several brick supports throughout the room, hoping to hide as long as possible. But all too quickly, the meeting was called to order.

The Society's board members sat at a long table at the front of the room, and Jude Anthony, the vice-president, stood at the podium, waiting as the attendees hurried to find seats.

Jude was the opposite of Jackson. His appearance was that of a man in his early twenties, although he was actually much older than any of the preternaturals here. Or at least that was what Mina had heard; she wasn't sure of his actual age.

He was large and muscular with thick dark hair and piercing green eyes. The tall, suave vampire image created by Hollywood was blown by him. Jude looked like a tough and half-wild gladiator in a button-down shirt and faded jeans. Although Mina admired his work for the Society, he always made her nervous. He was going to make her really nervous tonight. Maybe it was a bad idea to come.

"Good evening," a smooth, almost oily voice said from beside her. Mina turned to see Daniel-she didn't know his last name. But she did know that if Jude made her nervous, Daniel made her downright jumpy.

Tall and thin, Daniel reminded her of the silent film vampires. A smile split his narrow face, making his slightly concave cheeks even more sunken. Definitely striking, but not necessarily in an appealing way. Yet, he was oddly mesmerizing.

"How are you tonight, sweet little Wilhelmina?"

Mina frowned at the strangely familiar greeting. But he always spoke to her that way, as if they were old friends rather than mere acquaintances, who only ever saw each other at these meetings and only spoke briefly.

As briefly as possible, she hoped.

"Have you been enjoying the warmer weather?" he asked, and again she felt as if ordinary small talk about the weather was referring to something she should but didn't understand.

"Yes, although I'm glad I didn't have to go out into the downpours earlier," she said, just to say something.

"I like the rain," he said with an enigmatic smile as if he was letting her in on a secret. Again, one that she didn't understand.

"It reminds me of the summers I used to spend on the coast," he said, a smile splitting his face again. "We had the most marvelous storms there. Very violent."

Mina stared at him, her breath catching in her throat. Suddenly she felt very threatened, but she couldn't say why.

"Welcome," Jude greeted the crowd and Mina released her pent-up breath, thankful that the meeting was beginning.

Daniel gave her one more inscrutable smile, then moved to sit up front.

Mina took a seat at the back, glad to be rid of him. She pulled in a calming breath, telling herself everything was fine.

That was until Jude said, "I'd like to get right to what our members have been doing since the last meeting."

Mina's stomach sank again.

Jackson pushed up from the table to join Jude, waiting, none too patiently, to speak. Jude gave the other vampire a sharp look, but he stepped back from the podium allowing the more flamboyant president to take the stage.

Jackson grinned at the crowd, a winsome flash of his perfect teeth.

"But before we get to the updates from the members on their assignments, I believe I see several new faces here tonight. So I would like to go over the Society of Preternaturals' mission."

Mina relaxed against the back of her metal folding chair. This would take awhile. Jackson was notoriously long-winded. Even though she'd heard the Society's philosophies and goals many times, she welcomed hearing them again. That was why she came tonight, to remember what she was working toward.

"We are a group of preternatural beings who believe that we can be accepted into mortal society. Although we are different from human beings, we have all made a solemn pact to live as closely as human as we can. That means we do not feed, hunt, or use humans for any type of preternatural sport.

"The Society has worked very hard to change the perception of our kinds. We are not monsters," he paused dramatically, "nor are humans our food source. We have a creed we all live by, which is…»

Again he stopped, to give his next words more impact.

"'Humans are super and natural, too. "

Mina paused. Even though she'd heard that motto many times before, she even had a mug with the phrase on it which she purchased at a fund-raiser, it suddenly struck her as a little silly.

She straightened in her chair. But the organization did have a wonderful goal. She had to remember that.

Sebastian coughed, fighting back a laugh.

Humans are super and natural, too. Catchy.

He shifted closer to the brick column he leaned on, hoping he hadn't drawn attention to himself. But as the room was suitably dim and gloomy, he imagined he had gone unnoticed.

Sebastian shook his head. Good Lord, these preternaturals were nuts.

"We also feel that it is our sworn duty to stop any injustices we see other preternaturals enacting on humans. Integration is not a possibility if we are feared by mortals. We cannot allow ourselves to be seen as fiends."

Sebastian frowned. Seen as fiends? He was pretty sure none of his mortal patrons saw his preternatural clientele as fiends. Okay, maybe as sex fiends, but he knew that was half the draw of Carfax Abbey. Great hookups.

And in truth, none of the humans at his bar saw the preternaturals as anything but human. After all, that's how vampires and shapeshifters had survived for thousands of years. What the hell were these wackos talking about? They were integrated. Or as integrated as they would ever get.

After watching the speaker, who looked like an undead Liberace, for a moment longer, he considered leaving. He couldn't stand listening to this nonsense any longer. Then two messy, knotted ponytails on the other side of the room caught his attention. Mina. And fortunately she was in the back row.

Carefully, he approached her, not wanting to draw the attention of the nutcase at the podium, or the large faery guarding the entrance.

He'd lucked out getting into the place by straggling in with another group, when he realized he had to know some sort of silly secret knock. The faery hadn't even glanced at him, but he didn't think it would take much to make the members here realize he wasn't one of them.

As the vampire at the podium droned on about the injustices perpetrated daily on humans, Sebastian crouched down near Mina's chair, touching her arm.

She turned, her eyes growing impossibly large behind her glasses. She opened her mouth as if she was going to scream. But before he could clap a hand to her mouth, her bowed lips snapped closed as if she didn't want to draw any attention to herself, either.

"Come with me," he whispered.

She hesitated, and he thought she was going to refuse, but instead she gave him a slight nod. Then she glanced around as if to be sure no one saw him, which they didn't. Everyone was focused on the speaker, who was saying something about vampires being just like humans, except for their fangs, their liquid diets, their inability to go into the sunlight, their shapeshifting abilities, their unnatural looks, and their immortality.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. Yes, we're practically humans.

Mina carefully stood up and tugged on his sleeve. She gestured to the door, and he could tell she was anxious. Obviously she wanted out of this place as much as he did.

Then he noticed her looking around again, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. No, she didn't want to leave, she just wanted to be sure he left before anyone saw him.

The idea pissed him off. She was embarrassed by him. When she was hanging out with these weirdos?

But he didn't react; he just turned and headed toward the door. They both slipped outside without incident.

Once they were around the corner from the door and in the dark, wet, smelly alley, Sebastian spun to face her.

"So is this group of loons the reason you were trying to sabotage my club?"

Wilhelmina gaped at Sebastian. When she'd turned to find him at the Society meeting, her first thought was she had to get him out of there. Since he was one of the Society's enemies, she didn't think he was safe. She didn't question why her first thought had been to protect him, but it had.

Now that she knew he was here about the sabotage, maybe she should have remained inside and let him fend for himself with the Society. Although she had to admit he appeared surprisingly calm.

"Did they convince you to do it?" he asked.

She considered playing stupid and denying everything, but she got the feeling he wouldn't buy it.

"No, I offered," she told him.

Sebastian's golden eyes flashed with surprise. "Why?"

"Because you use humans. You treat them like sport, existing solely for your entertainment. Because you are immoral and… " She struggled for an appropriately insulting word.

"Narcissistic?" he supplied.

"No! Well, yes. But that's not-"

"Depraved, then?" he suggested, and she realized that he was again making light of her insults. This man had a colossal ego.

She groaned, frustrated.

He leaned toward her, a sudden and beguiling smile curving his lips. "I love it when you do that."

She started to groan again, but caught herself. She'd be damned if she was going to do anything this egotist enjoyed. As weird as those things might be.

When he realized she wasn't going to speak, he shifted away from her and asked, "But why me? I know we've never met, so how did you choose me?"

"Are you sure we've never met?" she couldn't help asking. Given his memory, they could have met half a dozen times and he'd never recall.

She was surprised, when he shook his head with absolute certainty. "No. We've never met."

"Like you'd remember," she muttered.

He reached out and toyed with a piece of her hair sticking out of her twisted ponytails on the top of her head. "Believe me, I'd remember you, Mina."

Her knees grew weak as she felt the slight tug of her hair where his fingers continued to stroke the escaped strand. She told herself to move away from him. To put distance between herself and the out-of-control feelings he caused inside her. He was dangerous, but her legs wouldn't move, except to continue trembling.

"So why me?" His voice again a brush of warm velvet.

She swallowed, trying to ignore the fingers still playing with her hair. Then she made the mistake of looking in his eyes. Golden fire. Her knees wobbled.

"Because you were on the list," she told him. "That's all." Maybe if she just told him the truth, he'd leave her alone. Stop making her feel like her skin was sizzling.

"What list?"

"The Society of Preternaturals Against the Mistreatment of Mortals has created a list of the most dangerous preternatural beings."

Sebastian's eyes widened, and he stopped touching her hair. She closed her eyes briefly; the truth was working. She managed a shaky step back from him.

" I'm on that list?"

She nodded. "Number three."

"Number three! That's crazy. I'm not dangerous."

Mina frowned, slightly taken aback by his offended reaction. He seemed more upset by this news than by the fact that she'd been targeting his nightclub.

"Are you going to deny that you feed from mortals?" she asked. "You use them for the blood and the pleasure you get from them?"

"No," he said readily. "But I am a vampire. That's sort of what we're supposed to do."

She frowned at him, disgusted by his cavalier attitude.

"Come on, Mina, don't tell me that you don't love a nice… long," he stepped closer to her, his body nearly touching hers, his mouth practically brushing her ear, "slow… bite."

She shivered, tempted to lean against him. Instead she stepped back. "No."

"I don't believe that."

"Believe it," she said, meeting his eyes.

"So you are going to tell me that you don't bite, ever."

"Not just ever-never."

"You know that's not true. You bit me. Well, a nibble anyway."

She gritted her teeth. Of course he'd bring that up. "That-that was an accident. A reaction to being caught off-guard."

"Uh-huh." He looked thoroughly unconvinced.

"It's true. I don't bite. I don't… enjoy it."

"That's just wrong," he stated.

"Well, I think what you do is wrong."

"No," he said slowly. "What I do is normal. It's super and natural, if you will." He smiled, pleased with his joke.

She ground her molars, even as her body reacted to that beautiful smile. He really was impossible. She needed to get away from him. Even his lame jokes were making her insides do odd little flips.

"So you have the truth," she said. "I assume we're done."

Sebastian's smug smile disappeared. "I don't think so."

Her breath caught, apprehension filling her. Did he intend to punish her in some way for her attempts on the club? She stepped back from him, her bottom hitting a metal trash can. The lid slid off, clattering loudly in the narrow passage.

She jumped, and Sebastian reached out and caught her wrist.

"I really wish you would believe there is no reason to be scared of me," he said, his thumb rubbing the back of her hand in what he meant to be a soothing gesture. But the touch did anything but soothe her. Her skin felt electrified where he stroked her.

Oh, there were so many reasons to be scared of him.

"I'm assuming the Society is not pleased with the fact that you didn't stop me or my club in our dastardly deeds."

He waited for her to confirm.

"They don't know. I haven't told them yet."

"Well," he said, contemplating her, "I'll give you the out you need with them."

She frowned. Why would he do that? But she didn't ask; she waited for him to continue.

"I'll agree not to bite any humans for… " He thought for a moment. "For a month."

"And what do I have to do?" she asked, regarding him suspiciously.

He smiled, his lopsided, charming smile. A smile that made her very nervous.

"All you have to do is let me show you how much fun it is to be a vampire."

She frowned. Why on earth would he want to do that? And why would she consider agreeing?

She regarded him closely. He watched her with those intent eyes, no smug curve to his lips, no mocking light in his eyes. He was serious. And it appeared as if her answer was very important to him.

"I won't have to bite anyone?" she heard herself ask as if someone else was in control of her mouth.

"Not unless you want to."

"And I won't have to exploit mortals in anyway."

"Absolutely not," he assured her.

She considered him. Why was she even giving this crazy proposal any contemplation?

Because it would ultimately achieve what she wanted. Sebastian would bite no humans for a month. For thirty days, mortals would be safe from him. Not to mention, it would keep her from having to announce her hideous failure to the Society. And he was offering to show her how to be a vampire.

She did need help with that, she realized. She'd been so intent on being as «human» as she could that she hadn't seen how a better understanding of her vampire abilities could have helped her in her sabotage attempts. Like with the rat fiasco, for example. Learning more about her undead skills could be very useful the next time she went on a mission.

She smiled slightly. She could use his teachings against him. Oow, she liked that. But what was in it for him?

"Why would you want to show me the pluses of being a vampire?"

"Because I'm surrounded by vampires who don't understand how great it is to be undead. My brothers, to name two. They just don't get it. How thrilling it is. How empowering. Granted, their experiences as vampires haven't always been wonderful. Sometimes they have been downright terrible, but they are past that now. They have love and happiness and still they don't get it."

Mina stared at him, surprised by his candor. Surprised that the Sebastian Young she'd heard about was using words like love and happiness-and not sneering at the concepts.

"They are all into this Dr. Fowler guy," he paused, then glanced back toward the entrance of the meetingplace. "Is this that Fowler guy's idea?"

She shook her head. "No. Most of the members of the Society also follow Dr. Fowler's beliefs, but they feel that the doctor is too-passive in his ways of integrating into human society. Dr. Fowler promotes getting humans to understand that the differences between our species are all physiological. He's very keen on research and study. The Society endorses more proactive and assertive actions."

"Like sabotage," Sebastian said, looking a tad incredulous.

She supposed it did sound a little overzealous, but she knew that the Society's goals were good, although she didn't think she could convince Sebastian of that. Especially since he was one of their targets.

She considered that, then asked, "I really wouldn't have to hurt any mortals?"

"Not a single one."

Maybe she was looking at an even bigger coup than sabotaging Sebastian's club. If she could get him to see the importance of the Society's work, if she could convert him, wouldn't that be far more impressive? He did say again that she wouldn't have to harm anyone. And it would also give her a month in his company to sway him. This could work. And if it didn't, she'd be better prepared to take on the next immoral vampire. Maybe.

"Okay," she said, although her agreement wasn't as confident as she'd hoped.

He grinned and tugged her hand, leading her down the alley toward the road. "Good, let's go."

"Where are we going?" she asked, her voice even more uncertain, although she did fall in step with him.

"Away from here. If you are constantly hanging out in garbage-filled, stinky alleys, it's little wonder you don't enjoy being a vampire."

Sebastian reached the street and turned left, trying not to think about why he was so pleased that Mina had agreed to his deal. After all, he'd agreed to not bite for a month. That wasn't fun. And he was willingly hanging out with a woman who'd tried to close down his club. He should be very wary of her. He should be livid.

Yet, he wasn't. He was… pleased. Very pleased.

Weird.

For a moment, he wondered why she had agreed so easily, but he cast the thought aside. He was just glad she had. And of course, his pleasure was clearly derived from the opportunity to corrupt one of Dr. Fowler's followers. Bring her over to the dark side. No, to show her what she considered the dark side wasn't dark at all. And he planned to show her he wasn't dangerous. Which brought him back to this crazy Society. He definitely wanted to know more about them.

Even with the lateness of the hour and the rain, a few people hurried along the sidewalk. Sebastian made another turn, heading toward Central Park.

Since she had agreed, for whatever reason, he planned to start his work right away. He paused at the crosswalk directly across from the park. More people crowded around them, waiting for the WALK sign. He didn't release her hand, still thinking she might dart. She'd agreed too easily; he didn't trust her not to change her mind. And she did seem agitated, casting glances at the people around her.

The WALK sign lit, and the pedestrians moved in a herd off the sidewalk. He headed toward an entrance to the park. But as soon as Mina realized where he was going, she stopped. He did too, turning to look at her.

Sparks of fear flashed in the air between them. She tugged her hand from his hold. She was scared again, and he didn't know why. She hadn't been frightened in the alley with him, not like this, just her normal wariness. And that was when she discovered he knew about her sabotage. Certainly a more appropriate time to be scared than now. On the street, with people milling by.

"What's wrong?"

She looked at him, then glanced at the walkway that disappeared like a gray ribbon into the grass and trees of the park.

"Why are we going there?"

"I wanted to show you something." He'd wanted her to experience the grass and the trees and the rain with her vampire senses-something he had the feeling she'd never done. Too uptight for that. Plus he wanted to have her alone, but he didn't question that desire too much.

She shook her head. "It's late. Can't we start this experiment tomorrow night?"

He frowned, wanting to ask her why Central Park would cause her fear. Or maybe he was causing her fear. Maybe, unlike him, she had no desire to be alone. In fact, he'd bet money on that reason. But he also got the feeling that if he asked which of the above it was, she wouldn't tell him. He was going to have to go slow with her to get the answers he wanted.

"Sure, we can start tomorrow," he said, and immediately her fear waned.

Again he took her hand, feeling her stiffen for just a moment, but then she allowed him to link his fingers through hers. They started back down the street, avoiding other pedestrians and puddles. Neither spoke, and Sebastian could sense the uncertainty still encompassing her. He wondered what Mina was like when she wasn't so guarded. He'd experienced just a glimpse of it when they'd kissed. But he wanted to experience more.

He glanced at her, his eyes fastening on her red lips, moist from the misting rain. His body reacted immediately, his cock hardening against the length of his zipper.

He definitely wanted to experience a lot more with Mina. This agreement was going to be more fun than he'd had in ages.

"How did you know where I was?" she asked suddenly.

He didn't break stride as he considered what to tell her. Finally he decided there wasn't much point in not telling the truth.

"I went into your apartment and found your note."

She stopped, turning to him. "You went into my apartment? Was Lizzie there?"

"Sorry, no. I just sort of invited myself in."

He saw anger, real anger like he'd seen when she'd informed him of her high opinion of him. Her midnight blue eyes glittered, her jaw set. Oh yeah, she was pissed.

"You can't go into someone's home uninvited," she stated.