Martin pushed himself up out of the chair and thrust out his hand toward Nicolae. “I was feeling pretty hopeless until I talked with you. Thanks, man. I think you’re right. I saw Mary Ann going in the direction of her office. Maybe I’ll go hash this out with her.”
You summoned me?
The words were bit out. Destiny wasn’t happy with the way he had drawn her to him. Or the fact that he could draw her.
His
blood ran in her body, yet he was the one who commanded her.
“Excellent idea, Martin.” Nicolae lifted a hand in farewell and sauntered around the corner out of sight. He knew exactly where she waited for him, seething and determined to pick a fight.
Destiny glared at him when Nicolae appeared next to her, shimmering into solid form on the highest rooftop above the neighborhood. “Would you like to explain your arrogant behavior to me?”
Her eyes were smoky green, with turbulence swirling in their depths. She looked wild and unpredictable. Her body was poised and ready to fight, coiled like a spring, yet as still and as watchful as a tigress. The wind was ruffling her hair like the touch of fingers and her mouth was... tempting. His gaze dropped to her full lower lip. Its slight pout didn’t mean she was sulking. It meant trouble for someone.
His entire being reacted to the sight of that pouty lower lip. His arousal was swift and hard, accompanied by a punishing ache that wouldn’t quite leave him even when he was away from her.
Destiny was furious. Not just furious. She was frustrated and restless and strung tighter than a bow. Anger roiled in the pit of her stomach, mixed with an age-old excitement she couldn’t contain. It was a reaction to the way he was looking at her, his hooded gaze hot with desire and an intensity of need and hunger he didn’t bother to try to hide.
“Was my behavior arrogant?” His gaze never lifted from her mouth.
The power of his voice sizzled in her stomach, throbbed lower. She recognized need for what it was, and it frightened her that she could be so caught up in the force of his power. His voice stroked her skin like a velvet glove, making her intensely aware of every inch of her skin.
“Are we going to talk about this?” Her own voice sounded husky, strangled, as if she couldn’t catch her breath. “You used your power against me. That’s entirely unacceptable.” She had to look away from him. Up close he was stealing her very reason, putting erotic ideas in her mind that should never have been there. Destiny closed her eyes and inhaled, hoping the cool, crisp air would clear her head.
“Is that what you think I did? Used my power
against
you? When has anything I have ever done been against you? I have lived for you for more years than I care to consider, Destiny. You have to meet me somewhere, if not halfway then at least make a few concessions, take a few steps toward me.”
She inhaled his scent. The beckoning call of male to female. Her breath exploded out of her. “Nicolae.” His name came out an aching whisper. “I have tried. I swear to you, I have tried.”
He reached for her, unable to prevent himself when there was raw pain etched into her face and such urgent need in her eyes. “Come here to me. Nothing can be done until we resolve what is between us.” His hands settled around her, gathered her into the shelter of his body, and he took to the air.
She knew she should protest. Wherever he was taking her was a place in which they would be alone. She couldn’t afford to be alone with him and the temptation he represented. Her hand was already splayed over his chest, feeling the heat of his skin through his thin silk shirt. She reached around his neck to loosen the mass of his long, thick hair so that strands blew around her face and over her arms.
Nicolae felt the shiver that ran through Destiny as he took them far out away from the city to one of the larger underground chambers he had found in his explorations of the area. His lips skimmed her throat, lingered for a moment over her frantically beating pulse, feathered up her neck to press against her ear.
“We need a private place to speak on this matter. I do not altogether trust what is happening within the neighborhood. Anything could be listening to us.”
He placed her on her feet, waving his hand so that flames leapt to life in the carved urn he had left behind days earlier. Golden light flickered and danced on the walls of the cave, illuminating gems buried in the rock so that the chamber seemed to sparkle. A ring of boulders captured a pool of shimmering water that bubbled up from the ground and fizzed like a Jacuzzi.
Destiny moved away from the sheer potency of his larger, masculine frame. “What happened back there with Velda? Is she like me?”
Her eyes were begging him to give her the right answer. Nicolae touched her mind very gently as she shared with him that first dangerous memory. The little girl with a mass of ringlets falling around her shoulders and eyes too big for her face smiling up at a handsome man. The stranger bent down to her level, speaking softly, and her smile widened. She nodded her head several times, took his hand and walked him back to a small house. A woman stood on the porch, frowning a little as she watched her daughter speaking animatedly to a tall, rather beautiful man who slowly took on the form of a monster. His perfect skin became gray. His thick dark hair grew white and hung in strings. The slash of his mouth revealed jagged teeth stained black with blood, and long, sharp talons bit into the child’s arm.
Immediately, Nicolae realized he was looking at the vampire through the eyes of the child Destiny had once been. “How could a child of six recognize a vampire? How could she know that one even existed? A child is innocent of such things.”
“I drew him to my family. You can’t say different. Velda is in her seventies. In all this time, why hasn’t she drawn a vampire to her or her family? And what of Mary Ann? She is also psychic. We’ve destroyed several vampires in this area, yet none of them were drawn to these women.”
Nicolae could feel the tears burning behind her eyes, although she held her chin up and her blue-green gaze was as steady as ever. “A better question might be why are all the vampires congregating here? That disturbs me immensely. Three women with varying psychic talents are here together. Is that really a coincidence? And Father Mulligan knows about our people, and he just happens to be here too. In this city of so many, we just happen to meet him and become involved in his life. Does that not disturb you? And we have two men, John Paul and Martin, behaving in a manner totally out of character for either one of them. I examined Martin. He has no darkness in him at all. He is incapable of harming another human being, yet he must have assaulted the priest. Or someone pretending to be him did so. How could one person play the part of John Paul, a large, muscular man, as well as Martin Wright, a slender, much shorter man?”
“A vampire could. He could assume any shape, any role,” Destiny pointed out.
“And play the part well enough to fool Father Mulligan?” Nicolae’s eyebrow shot up. “A man of the church? A man of such wisdom?”
“Of course, a vampire could fool Father Mulligan. I could do it. I could take your shape and make anyone believe I was you.” She shrugged her shoulders with casual disdain. “Well, almost anyone. Maybe not Vikirnoff.”
There was a small silence while Nicolae watched her closely with his unblinking stare. He saw the moment she understood what he was getting at. A vampire could fool any human. There was no way that she, an innocent child of six, could have recognized the monster who’d destroyed her family.
“I see what you’re saying, Nicolae, and I know you’re right. In my head I know you’re right. I tell myself to stop placing the blame for my parents’ deaths on my shoulders, but my heart doesn’t listen.”
“At least you are hearing me,” he said quietly. “It was not a vampire that entered the church. No vampire would do so, nor would one of their ghouls. They are unclean and would not dare to enter a sanctified place.”