Stefan (Lost Nights Series Book 1) (5 page)

My sympathy evaporated in an instant. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I haven’t done anything.”

“No, you have not. But my interest in you has captured their attention as well. It is unusual and they are now focused on you as a potential target.”

“What’s unusual? Your interest or their attention?”

“My interest. There has been no one since I rose to power and they are looking to see if my interest in you will make me vulnerable.”

A little laugh escaped me. The smile rising on my lips was tinged with a kind of desperation and panic. “But you’re not interested in me, right? You just wanted to do something nice for me and I made it blow up in our faces with my stupidity.”

Stefan gave me a little smile and I knew he was trying to reassure me. “I do not know.”

I wasn’t sure if that made me feel better or worse. Did I really want a vampire interested in me, as impossible as that sentence sounded? It’s wasn’t like we could really have all that much in common. He was old and dead. I was young and alive. He liked blood and I liked just anything but blood. Sure, I was unquestionably attracted to him, but the man ... err... vampire had a body like a GQ model and I wanted to kiss every inch of him.

And there’s your problem...

My decisions were being driven by my libido rather than my brain. Wow, I hadn’t been sure that women could do that. I thought only men did that. Stefan proved me wrong on that fact.

“You have the most interesting expressions crossing your face,” Stefan observed when the silence had stretched unnoticed by me.

I blushed lightly. My thoughts had detoured from a panic of how it was impossible for him to be interested in me to exactly how I was interested in him. “Sorry,” I murmured. “My thoughts wandered for a moment. What are we going to do?” There. That was back to the business at hand.

Stefan slowly closed the distance between us and I was grateful that I didn’t try to step away from him again. He lightly placed his hands on my shoulders and pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I will look into this matter and do what I can to safely remove you from their interest. You will not be harmed.”

“Am I in danger?” I asked, looking up at him.

He paused, carefully weighing his words. “Not tonight, but I will not lie to you. You could be while you are in Venice. I think they will lose interest once you leave.”

“I’m in town only for a couple weeks. I’m here for a job.”

Stefan nodded. “Then I will keep you safe while you are here.”

“And who will keep you safe?”

A broad smile crossed his face and he kissed my temple. “I can protect myself, but I thank you for your worry. I must go now. I will try to return later tonight.”

Winking at him, I gave Stefan my best saucy smile. “Right. Looking for a midnight snack before bed?”

A surprised chuckle rose from the vampire and he stepped away from me. “
Ma petite
, you are more than a snack. You are a feast for my soul.”

And on those sweet words, he slipped silently out the door and out of the building, off to wherever the vampires gathered for their important meetings in Venice.

I plopped on the sofa, my emotions a knotted mess that I hadn’t a hope in the world at untangling. If this job wasn’t paying so well, I was sorely tempted to pick up the phone and book myself on the next flight out of Venice.

But then Stefan had to make that sweet comment and I suddenly didn’t want to leave him. I liked listening to him speak and watching the way surprise regularly danced across his handsome face. He had called me unique and he was the same to me. I wanted to be near him so that I could learn more things about him and his people.

By the time the last of the trembling had subsided, I had convinced myself that I had nothing to worry about. Stefan would keep me safe and clear up this entire mess. If I was lucky we’d spend some time together while I was in Venice and then we’d go our separate ways as friends.

Yep, that was the depth of the delusion I was willing to cling to because I was that attracted to the man ...er... vampire
.

Chapter 3

Something was wrong. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I was suddenly awake when I had been in a deep sleep just a minute earlier. Lying still in my bed, I listened to the creaks in the building and the wind rattling the window in its frame. There were no odd sounds to indicate that I wasn’t completely alone in the apartment. Taking a deep breath, I tried to will myself into relaxing so I could return to sleep when the same scents that I associated with autumn filled my nose. It was spring in Venice and I wasn’t alone. Every muscle in my body stiffened and I strained to hear anything.

“Shh,
ma petite
,” whispered Stefan frighteningly close. “It is only me.” The bed shifted as Stefan curled up against me as I lie on my side.

I rolled over as far as I could so that my back was now pressed to his front while I looked up at him. The room was dark, but I could make out an outline of his face just above mine. He leaned up on his right arm in the pillow beside mine and the fingers of his left hand slowly threaded through my hair, brushing it away from my face in a gentle caress.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, inwardly wincing at the low husky tone of my voice caused by sleep.

“I said I would return tonight. I wished to watch you sleep.”

“I thought when you said you’d return, you meant before I went to bed.”

“Business took longer than I had anticipated,” Stefan grumbled.

Softly chuckling, I rolled back onto my side and closed my eyes. As I did, Stefan snuggled closer, keeping his long body pressed along the length of mine.

“What do you find so amusing?”

“A vampire with business,” I murmured, biting back a smile. “I never heard of any vampire having a job.”

Sleep was a lost cause now that I knew Stefan was here. How could anyone sleep when he was near? And it wasn’t fear talking. My heart picked up its pace every time he inched a little closer to me.

“I have a very important job,
ma petite
.” His deep voice was little more than a whisper, a gentle caress of my senses.

“And what would that be? Do you model capes?”

“Nightwalkers do not wear capes.” His tone became stiff and I could so easily imagine the affronted expression pulling at his features, thoroughly insulted by the idea. He must have seen a couple Bela Lugosi movies.

“Are you the main coffin tester for all the vampires in Italy?” I teased.

“I can’t say that I am fond of coffins. Beds have become far more comfortable over the centuries.” As he spoke, he snuggled down so that his head was lying on my pillow. I didn’t think he could get any closer and still remain a separate person. He was also not cool to the touch anymore. I wasn’t sure if he was leaching some of my own body heat or if he’d gained a little warmth from feeding prior to visiting me.

The thought gave me some pause as some uneasiness twisted in my stomach. The image of him holding another woman like he’d held me as he drank from her throat left me feeling ill. I no longer felt special to him. What’s worse, jealousy flared in my chest. How dare he feed from someone else and then come snuggle in bed with me! I knew that I couldn’t possibly supply him with blood every night. I wouldn’t be able to function after a couple days and he’d drain me dry in just over a week. But I still didn’t like the idea of him holding another woman.
Damn, I was so freaking screwed
.

Stefan sat up suddenly and leaned over me so that he could clearly see my face, assuming that he could even see anything in the dark. “Erin, what is wrong? Something is bothering you.”

I stared at his shadow-cloaked face, stunned that he’d picked up the shift in my emotions without me saying a word. “How...?”

“I can clearly feel your emotions and something has upset you.”

“You can read my mind?”

Stefan paused and he seemed to stare at me. After a couple seconds of tense silence, he shook his head. “No, and that’s a mystery to me. I can pick up the occasional stray thought, but I can’t read your mind when you should be an open book to me.”

“Can you read everyone’s mind?”

“Humans, yes. Most lycanthropes as well. Nightwalkers can be harder.”

“I hope that is not why you think I’m so special,” I muttered, glaring at the wall instead of looking up at him.

He captured my chin with two fingers and forced me to look up at him. “No. It makes you intriguing, but your actions are what make you so unique. Now tell me what is bothering you.”

“Did you... hunt tonight?” I asked, not really liking that word when it came to describing his feeding habits.

“There was no need. I fed from you last night. So long as I’m not injured, I won’t need to hunt for a few weeks.”

“Oh.”

“Is that what was disturbing you?”

“Yeah, just worried.” I burrowed down into the covers so that I no longer had to look up at him, but Stefan remained leaning over me as he weighed my response against the emotions he was picking up from me. He had to be getting acute embarrassment now.

“You’re jealous,” he whispered and there was no missing the wonder in his tone. “You thought I held another woman as I held you and it disturbs you.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I said between clenched teeth, feeling more and more like a total ass.

Stefan gave a triumphant laugh and dropped back into the bed, bouncing me on the mattress. Both his arms snaked around me and he easily turned me so that I was now facing him as I was pressed against his chest, a bundle of blankets trapped between us. He buried his face in my neck and I shivered at the touch of his lips against his bite mark. “It’s true,” he murmured. He kissed along the curve of my throat and across my shoulder, making me instantly grateful that I’d worn a tank top to sleep in rather than a bulky sweatshirt. “You are jealous. Do you think I spent my evenings in the beds of all those I feed from?”

“I have no idea how you spent your nights,” I groaned. This was where I was supposed to be saying that it didn’t matter what he did since I was just a warm meal to him. That we were just acquaintances, but I couldn’t complete a clear thought. I wished I had the strength to push away from him. But his lips felt so damn good on my skin. Hell, I wished I had the strength to undress the man so that all these clothes weren’t separating us.

“There is no one in my life. I told you that earlier this evening. No one else has my protection but you,” he said, lifting his face so that he could look me in the eye.

“Sorry. I don’t encounter a lot of people who feel the need to offer protection,” I said a bit breathlessly as I tried to get the wheels to turn in my brain again. “I think it would be best if we moved to the living room for the rest of your visit.”

“If we move to the living room, how am I going to watch you sleep?”

“We both know that sleep is not even close to possible with you in this bed,” I said, poking him in the chest with my index finger.

Stefan wrapped his longer fingers around my index finger and pressed a delicate kiss to the tip. “It was my desire upon arriving that if you were asleep, I’d watch you sleep. I wondered at the idea of you being still and quiet when you are always so full of energy. But lying beside you, the delicious smell of you, I can’t stop touching your soft skin. I wish to make you moan in my arms again.”

This time when Stefan brought my index finger to his lips, he slipped it inside of his mouth, sucking on it while his tongue swirled over the tip. My eyes rolled back in my head and what meager attempt I was making at putting some distance between us dissolved in an instance as the delicious rush of desire poured through my body. I wanted to roll him onto his back while I pulled his clothes off so I could finally get back to the strong chest and arms I remembered seeing last night.

As I pulled my finger free of his mouth, I touched the tip of his fang. It was amazingly sharp, which shouldn’t have surprised me since his fangs had already been embedded in my neck. I knew the moment that he tasted my blood because his entire body stiffened. He blinked and his eyes glowed bright bluish-gray in the darkness.

“Stefan?” I whispered, the desire I had felt disappearing in a sickening rush so that I now felt lightheaded.

The vampire released my finger and gave his head a little shake. “Forgive me. You... you taste amazing.”

I stared at him and the person that I was accustomed to speaking to returned to me, but there was a flicker, a heartbeat of time, when Stefan no longer seemed to be in the driver’s seat and it was frightening.

“What’s it like?” I asked. Scooting back a little, I leaned up on my elbow while lying on my side so that I could face him.

“What do you mean?”

“When you drink a person’s blood. What’s it like?”

Stefan remained quiet for a long time. I had started to think that he wasn’t going to tell me when his low voice rolled over me. “It’s intoxicating. That first taste is an amazing relief no matter how long it’s been since you last fed. It’s as if a large knot of fear and worry are finally released from your chest. At the same time, a wave of power sweeps through you. You feel as if you are the most powerful being in all of existence and that you can do anything.”

“It’s like that every time you feed?”

“Nearly. If you’re injured and low on blood, it eases the horrible pain.”

“If it’s so great, why don’t you feed every night?”

Stefan paused, shifting a little bit closer in the bed as he seemed to think about my question. His fingers lightly stroked up and down my arm, threatening to scramble my thoughts. “Sex feels very wonderful, does it not? Why do you not have it every night?” While I couldn’t clearly see his expression, I could hear the smile in his voice.

“I’m not dating anyone at the moment,” I said because it was the most obvious answer.

“You’re a lovely woman. I’m sure there are plenty of men around Venice who would be happy to see to your needs. Women, too, if that was your wish.”

“I don’t sleep around,” I snapped, sitting up in bed while drawing the covers more tightly around my waist.

Stefan stretched out across the top of the blankets, folding his hands behind his head as he lay back. “Why?”

“You mean other than the fact that it’s not safe and I don’t sleep with people that I don’t know or care about?”

But as I uttered those words, I wondered about my actions with Stefan. We were already in my bedroom and I wasn’t shoving him out. This didn’t feel like a one-night stand. Whether I wanted to or not, I cared about his happiness. I cared about his safety. I cared about whether he was smiling and who was putting the smile on his face. Yet even as those thoughts surfaced, I shoved them away, not ready to start working through that complication.

“That is why I don’t feed every night,” he said simply and my anger immediately started to subside. “Feeding can be a dangerous affair. Things go wrong all the time.”

“I can’t see how you could be hurt by a human.”

“It is unlikely, but it could happen. But a nightwalker is more likely to be hurt by one of his own kind. We are vulnerable when we feed. Nearly all of our attention is focused on our prey. Many nightwalkers and humans have been killed this way.”

“Oh.” I stared down at my hands, loosening them from where I had tightly balled them in my lap.

“It is also something of a hassle.” Stefan reached out and entwined his fingers with mine, pulling my right hand to his chest. With his free hand, he traced his fingertips along my wrist and down the inside of my arm, sending chills up and down my spine. “I would assume that with all your restaurants that there are nights that humans do not wish to cook.”

A soft snort escaped me at the thought. I hated to cook; hated it more when I was just cooking for myself. I could rationalize it a little better when I was having friends over to my place, but it just seemed like a giant pain in the ass when it was just me. “True.”

“Come, lay down beside me. Sleep. I did not intend to disturb you.”

I hesitated. Did I really think I could possibly sleep next to this vampire?
No, not at all.
And that answer had absolutely nothing to do with being afraid of him. Of course, if he was going to stay for a bit, I might as well ask him a few questions while I did have him next to me. “Are you going to behave yourself?”

“I have been doing an excellent job behaving myself,” Stefan said indignantly, sitting upright in a flash. “I have not tried to feed on you.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Oh? Do you feel that you are in danger of being seduced by me?” His voice dipped down to a low growl, raising goose bumps over my bare arms. He leaned close so that his lips brushed lightly against my cheek as they headed for my ear.

“But what’s the point?” I demanded, desperately clinging to the thought dancing through my brain as his touch attempted to scatter it to the wind. “You can’t have sex, right?”

Stefan jerked away from me so quickly that I shivered at the breeze he created as it rushed past me. I blinked and the vampire was standing on almost the opposite side of the room in a faint sliver of light that had crept through the curtains.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded in a hard, cold voice.