“You are just as capable of speaking to me in the same way, honey,” he replied, his voice soothing. “Jaxon, look at me. Do not hide from this. What would be the point?” Lucian found she was turning him inside out. She brought such joy into his formerly bleak, violent world.
She raised her head so that her large chocolate-brown eyes could meet his black ones.
“You are not afraid of me,” he insisted. “Search inside yourself. The knowledge that there are things in your world you knew nothing about is understandably frightening, but you do not fear me.”
“And how do you know that?” She would not fall into his eyes and allow him to mesmerize her. That was it, right? He had some kind of black magic spell thing he did with his eyes. She just wouldn’t look into them again.
His perfect mouth curved into a smile. “I have shared your mind. I know all kinds of things about you. Just as you know all manner of things about me.”
“Well, I don’t want to know them,” she snapped. “I don’t want any part of any of this. I shot that thing right in the middle of his forehead, dead center, and he didn’t die.”
“There is only one way to kill a vampire and ensure that he does not rise again. You must extract his heart and incinerate it. His blood acts like tainted acid on the skin or poison if ingested into the bloodstream. It must also be destroyed. Even after death a vampire can cause tremendous damage if not disposed of properly.”
She glared at him. “I told you I didn’t want to know any more.”
He began to undo the buttons of her shirt, slipping each one carefully from the buttonhole. His fingers brushed warmth over her soft skin, leaving behind tiny dancing flames. She caught at his hands, stilling their actions. “Just what do you think you’re doing?” She tried to look outraged instead of shocked and horrified by her own body’s reaction to him.
“I am removing your wet clothes. They are not doing you much good, honey, if your intention is to hide your body from me. The rain-soaked shirt is now completely transparent.” He pointed out the obvious without any inflection in his velvet-soft voice. “You are very cold, and you need to warm up. I thought this was the best way. But I would be most happy to choose another, if you wish.”
She pushed at the wall of his chest, turning bright red at his implication. He was right; the wet silk shirt revealed everything. “Go away. I am absolutely not taking a bath with you in the room.”
He studied her face. She was very pale. All eyes. In her mind was confusion and fear but no real resistance. She was not the type to throw herself out a window. “I would not like it if you slipped and fell, young one.”
“It’s insulting to have you refer to me as ‘young one,’ as if I were a child. I’m a grown woman,” she informed him haughtily.
His smile nearly took her breath away. “That is what I am afraid of,” he said.
“What does that mean?”
“It means, Jaxon, that I am much too old for you.” Lucian’s black eyes moved over her face with that possessive glint very much in evidence. “And yet there is no other for me, for either of us. We are stuck with each other.”
“Go away.” She pushed impotently at his broad chest again. “I’m going to soak in the bathtub for a very long time and convince myself none of this happened. I must be on drugs or something. Or the blow to my head has left me very confused.”
“You never received a blow to the head.” Amusement turned the warm velvet of his voice to pure seduction. “That was your partner.”
“Go!” This time she pointed to the door.
He gently allowed her feet to touch the tiles. Shaking his head at her silliness, he glided casually out of the room.
Jaxon took a deep, calming breath and let it out slowly. There simply were no such things as vampires in the world. It just wasn’t so. She tossed the wet shirt aside and slipped thankfully down into the hot water.
Yes, there are. You just saw one. His name was Henrique, and he was not very skilled. There are many more. Do not worry, Jaxon. I am a hunter of the undead, and I will protect you.
He was in her mind again. She shook her head as if that would remove him. “I don’t want to know anything about vampires. I could go my entire life without that information and be perfectly happy. I don’t want to know.” What if Lucian was a vampire himself? He had gotten from the courtyard to the door she was fleeing out of, and the entire huge house had been between them. How had he managed it? “And what about all my dreams of dark princes and blood and icky things like that?” she murmured aloud to herself.
Icky things?
He was definitely laughing at her.
I am no vampire, although I pretended to be for a few centuries to help out my brother. I am a Carpathian, a hunter of vampires, those of my kind who have surrendered their souls to the darkness that exists within all Carpathian males
.
“A few
centuries
? Just how old are you, anyway? Wait! Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know. Just stop talking to me. This is crazy. I must be on very powerful drugs, and soon I’ll wake up in the hospital, and everything will be back to normal. I made you up. What I’m going to do is ignore you and take a bath. Vampires and you are gone forever from my mind. So don’t talk to me.”
Lucian found himself laughing aloud. The sound startled him. He couldn’t remember laughter. It felt good. He placed a palm on the bathroom door. He had endured nearly two thousand years of emptiness, of darkness and violence. No emotions. Nothing. His own people, those he had protected, had been so afraid of his power and skill that they whispered his name and hid when he passed through the land. Yet one small human woman had worked a miracle and brought laughter into his life.
He had no qualms about what he was. A killing machine designed to protect Carpathians and humans alike from evil. He was more than good at his role. He destroyed easily without anger or remorse.
But Jaxon Montgomery was the most beautiful thing he had ever encountered. She was his, and he would never give her up. But was she changing him? His palm caressed the door behind which she bathed, his heart turning over strangely, unexpectedly.
The hot water warmed Jaxon’s insides but stung her healing wounds. She frowned down at the evidence of the recent shoot-out at the warehouse. She should have died from those grave wounds. And all her misery finally would have been over. She drew up her knees and rested her head on top of them. Now her burden of responsibility was worse than ever. She would have to protect the world not only from human criminals but from the things of nightmares. She couldn’t do it. Not anymore. She just couldn’t be in this world anymore and be so completely alone. The mere thought of it left her raw and aching.
You will never be alone again, honey.
The voice, so soft and beautiful, was filled with compassion. Jaxon made every effort to rally. “I told you not to talk to me.”
I am thinking, not talking.
The tenderness mixed with amusement in his voice made her heart turn over, made her feel all the more vulnerable.
“Well, don’t think either.” She ran a hand through her wet hair. This kind of thing just didn’t happen to normal people. Why did she attract such weird things?
I am not a thing.
“I can’t hear you.” She was smiling in spite of herself. There was something almost endearing about him, if such a frightening creature could be called endearing. Her eyes suddenly widened. He had known she was out there. The entire time. He had known she was on that balcony.