Mistwalker (33 page)

Then Juliun appearing out of thin air, as menacing and intimidating as an angel of death.
Recognition of what he was. The total numbness and complete compliance of his orders, and then intense pain as Lars bit into Tammy’s neck.

Tammy screamed, and her body shook. She turned toward Simone and shivered with absolute fright at the blood covering her friend’s face and body.

Then darkness. Until…orange light hurt her eyes.

The sickening motion of her body disturbed her, and her eyelashes fluttered open to see a man’s arm flinging across her
middle. Impact. Pain exploded, and the darkness returned with relief.

Simone let go of Tammy’s head and rubbed a hand across her tired eyes. She wanted to think about it for a while, to understand how this might fit in with Witch’s warning.

Fatigue pulled at her eyelids, and she longed to sleep. Would it be safe enough in her apartment?

Juliun materialised in a cloud of black at the foot of Tammy’s bed. “You need to sleep, Simone.”

She stared up at him. Sometimes, he was so magnetic and gorgeous that he stopped her breath. Her eyelids were heavy. “I don’t think it would be a good idea to go home. I’d rather stay with Tammy.”

He nodded curtly. “I agree. It is far too dangerous at your apartment. Dravego has human blood-slaves working for him. You would be vulnerable in the daylight hours.”

She looked around. “So where do I crash? On one of the beds?” She walked to the nearest hospital bed and plumped a pillow. “This looks comfortable enough.” Fantastic compared to the cave and Vinnie’s cupboard.

“Perhaps you would be more comfortable in one of our guest rooms.”

She faced him with an arched brow. “Why?”

“You are going to need your strength tomorrow. There are other events happening that you need to be made aware of. Your friend will be under the best care with my medical team. Alec is seeing about donors, and he is calling upon the elders of the species, but for now, you need to sleep where no one can drain your blood. You can see Tammy again tomorrow night.”

Simone snuck a glance at Tammy—her friend’s face slackened, so lined and tired as if all the energy had been sucked right out of her. The thought of Dravego doing the same chilled Simone to the bone. “But what if she wakes and doesn’t know where she is?”

“She has seen Alec before in the hospital. He will make her feel safe.”

Simone dragged a hand through her hair. “I really can’t think right now, Juliun. I’m not sure if I should leave her.”

Alec walked back in the room with a flock of nurses behind him. He had a tea cup in his hand and kept tipping the lip up to his mouth.
The scent of the strong herbs drowned out the disinfectant. He looked at them in surprise. “Still here?”

“I…I don’t want to leave her.” Simone lifted her chin. “I don’t think I should. Tammy’s been through enough.”

Alec’s blue gaze softened and he smiled. “I swear on my honour that no harm will come to your friend.” He crossed the room. “As long as we follow my mother’s orders, Tammy will heal. As a mistwalker, you cannot become run down. You will need a good sleep after tonight, and when you’re strong, it means she will be strong. Tomorrow night her fever may be down, and you can help me procure more immortals to donate.”

Simone breathed in slowly. “Okay.
If you think so.” She nodded and looked up at Juliun. “If the castle is better for us all, I’ll go.”

“Excellent,” Juliun said, the smile reaching his eyes.

She stared into the light grey of his gaze, once again lost in the power of his allure. He made her think of long, hot kisses, endless nights, barely restrained power, and her heart thudded with an exciting intensity.

They materialised at the foot of a wide set of mahogany stairs. She grimaced, thinking of the effort to climb them. Oh, the mist was a wonderful thing at times, but before she could use it, Juliun caught her hand, swung an arm beneath her knees and pulled her close to his chest.

She slowly breathed in the achingly familiar scent of his musky skin and rich blood. “So tired.” 

“Hang on, love.” His breath wafted over her hair
..

To her surprise, he didn’t use the mist, and she rubbed her cheek against his chest, nestling into his warm, hard shoulder and closed her eyes. The fragrant scent of roses teased her nose, and the faint stirring of classical music wafted down the stairs.

“My mother,” he said. “She plays father’s records sometimes.”

Simone smiled, feeling something give way beneath her and softness pillowed her head and back.

“You are in the Rose room,” he whispered.

The bed dipped beside her, and gentle hands removed the plastic coat and unzipped her boots. The cool, thick softness of the quilt covered her. “Sleep well, Simone.
Do not fear, you are safe here.”

She snuggled into the blanket and reached out a hand to him. The
sensation of his fingers tightening around hers made her want to ask him to stay—if only for a little while. It boggled her mind how much her opinion of him was changing.

“Thank you for everything.” Her eyelids were so heavy she couldn’t open them.
“Thank you.”

A harsh breath echoed in the room. “I would do anything for you, my love.”

Chapter
Thirty-Six

Simone woke at the smooth roll of metal and gentle click of locks. She groaned and buried her face into the soft pillow. A cool, light breeze shocked her bare feet poking out from beneath the covers, and she lifted her head, licking her dry lips.

She supposed it was bad manners for a guest to sleep in, but then how did everyday manners fit in when her hosts were vampire royalty?

After stretching sore muscles, she turned over. She still wore her vampire hunting gear, although her feet were bare. Did using the mist drain her reserves of energy more than usual? She’d used the ability countless times last night.

The metal doors that shielded the room from sunlight were open, and a tangy night breeze floated through the stone archway. The scent of the sea energised her. She lay for a moment, staring up at the ceiling, thinking over her predicament. She’d been half asleep when Juliun carried her up to the room. Why hadn’t he used the mist to teleport them?

A thrill raced down her spine at the recollection of his firm arms and rock solid chest against her face. The fabric of his shirt, the scent of it. He’d felt so safe. The thought terrified her. He was slowly climbing into her heart in a way she couldn’t define. She doubted there could be a future for them—no matter what she was feeling or because she controlled the mist. How could it be possible? He was a vampire prince.

And she didn’t know if she could handle it—would want to cope with all that being with him would entail—a constant fight for
survival which seemed to be the price for being a part of his life.

If he’d asked her last night to lure tourists back to Ravenkeep to save Tammy’s life, Simone could not say that she wouldn’t have done it. When he’d proposed to her at
The Python
, it had been so off the cuff that she knew he couldn’t love her. He barely knew her. But now…everything was changing.

She took a deep breath, and Witch’s advice overtook her thoughts.
Decide with your heart. Remember your past.

It was hard to forget.

Being cut adrift as a child in a cruel world led to her training in cruelty, forming an impenetrable barrier deep inside she was sure no one could ever break. But there it was. A chink.

She climbed out from the blanket, remade the bed and finger combed her hair. Her clothes weren’t the best from sleeping in them, but they’d have to do. A fiery burn spread over her thighs, and she erupted into mist, appearing in front of a dark wall. Subdued, tasteful lighting illuminated the stone fireplace in the kitchen to her left, and her stomach grumbled in protest at the scent of blood.

Lissanne trudged, no other word for it, with one hand gripping her head, the usual blonde chignon a mass of disordered curls down her back. “Morning, Simone,” she groaned and entered the kitchen with careful steps, her burgundy silk dressing gown rippling out behind her.

Juliun sat at the top of a large breakfast table, dressed in casual black slacks and a grey wool sweater which perfectly matched his eyes. Simone’s heart beat so loud she was afraid he must hear it. A sudden wave of longing overwhelmed her, and like some kind of weak-kneed fan girl, she imagined for a moment that he truly belonged with her.

Reality was a bitch.

Crazy fantasies meshed with lifelong doubts and loss. The barrier inside her reinforced itself one more time.

Lissanne bee-lined for the fridge and pulled out a blood donor bag. “Not going to work, Juliun? Where’s the blood with painkillers?”

His gaze pinned Simone standing statue-still at the doorway. He rose from the table and wound his way toward her. “Not tonight. I must see to our new patient in the clinic. Good morning, Simone.”
His words were soft and dark. He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it.

It wasn’t right that he looked so damn sexy and dynamic after waking. He smelled of soap, toothpaste and expensive aftershave. The hair above his ears appeared damp; his eyes alight with gentle laughter.

She’d just tumbled out of bed and ran her fingers through her hair. She must look like hell. “Good morning.”

“How did you enjoy your first night here?”

She smiled. It had been her first night, hadn’t it? For a moment she’d forgotten the warnings she’d told herself in the bedroom. She rubbed at her forehead, trying to wake up and wishing she was able to drink coffee.

Sexy vampires and blood lust were all too much without a caffeine hit, and she would be this way for nearly an eternity or so the Cel Batrin book had said.
“Fine. I’m going to have to get used to functioning without coffee. Brain fog, you know?”

“Mmm…we have some here if you like?” Lissanne asked.

Simone shifted her attention to what Lissanne held between her hands. How did a jar of coffee transfer into a blood donor bag? “What do you mean?”

Lissanne grabbed a couple of glasses, muttering something about caffeine helping her,
‘wake the bloody hell up.’
She warmed up the liquid and placed a heated glass in front of Simone’s hand. “The donors drink plenty of gourmet roasts, and then they donate their blood.”

A chorus of angels broke into hallelujah. “You’re joking?”

Lissanne smiled in her carefree, gentle manner. “No. We pay humans handsomely to get bloated on Starbucks. You should get your caffeine hit.”

Simone rolled the warmed glass in her hands. Ravenkeep was definitely the place to be for breakfast. “Wonderful.”

Juliun strolled to the table and pulled out the chair next to his. “Forgive me,” he said, silkily. “Sit down and have some breakfast before you see your friend. I have some news to tell you.”

Simone made her way across the kitchen and sank onto the chair with a sigh. Tendrils of fire pushed at her left arm from his proximity to her, and the warmth spread out in her lower belly. She pushed
away her fall of red hair and looked at him.

He smiled, his eyes soft, arms outstretched over the table where a glass of blood rested on a newspaper showing the current stock prices. His mouth parted, but he didn’t speak. He just kept staring at her.

She tried not to grin.

“What’s your news, Juliun?” Lissanne asked. “Aha!” She turned over the bag. “This one has codeine in it.”

He frowned at his mother who sat on a stool at the counter. “Are you all right?” he asked her. “You do not look so well.”

“Oh.” Lissanne waved a hand in dismissal. “I was up late, drinking the last of the alcoholic blood and playing music. Kristoff brought it all back to me, you know, and I started remembering things about your father.”

A heavy silence constricted the air. Simone was amazed she’d slept so deeply while the vampires from Tammy’s kidnapping were imprisoned in the dungeons beneath them.

Juliun nodded. “Grandfather will deal with Kristoff, have no fear. I have news of the annual vampire ball. It is in under a week’s time in Vienna. We are all invited.”

Lissanne snorted. “Invited? You know they beg you to attend every year.” She groaned and hugged the glass in her hands like it was a lifeline. “Let’s see how I feel tomorrow.”

Which sounded like a flat ‘
no’
from Lissanne. “A vampire ball,” Simone echoed. “In Vienna? I have to stay here with Tammy.”

“The ball is a summons to the most powerful vampire families. It would be a disservice to you if you did not attend. You are too powerful and dangerous. Remember, you are a mistwalker. The Council would not be happy,” Juliun said.

Simone set her glass on the table. “Bully for them. Who’s going to protect Tammy? We need someone here if trouble starts. I will not lose her, too.”

“I have already talked to Witch.” Juliun leaned closer. “She cannot command the mist, but she can place a protection spell over the clinic, and no one will be able to enter. The whole of Ravenkeep is already under a spell.”