“Who is this guy? What do you know about him? He isn’t even from this country. I think he’s dangerous, Jaxx. It’s in the way he moves, the way he holds himself. You don’t see through all that European charm. He could take you off to some foreign land and hide you away where no one could ever help you. There’s been too many cases of that kind of thing.”
“Seriously, Harold, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Jaxon tried not to laugh as she patted the older man’s arm affectionately. Lucian did rather look the type to secret her away in a harem. “I’m not some sweet victim who can’t defend herself. As it is, Lucian thinks I’m a bit of a lunatic. He says I own an arsenal.”
“I wish you’d listen to me, Jaxx. Don’t rush into anything. Take some time before you commit yourself. This guy is...”
“My fiancй, Harold. He only looks scary. He’s really a teddy bear,” she lied. Lucian reminded her more of a huge wolf, lean and mean and highly intelligent. Except with her. He was always unfailingly gentle with her. She wanted to defend Lucian. He had saved Barry. He had protected the human race for centuries. But she couldn’t say that, couldn’t explain to Harry that Lucian had dedicated his life to the safety of others.
She turned back to Lucian, who immediately walked across the room to her side. He enveloped her small hand in his, bringing her palm to his chest to hold it over his heart as they walked out of the station house together.
Chapter Eleven
“You are very easy in the company of men.”
Jaxon glanced up at Lucian’s face. His voice was velvet soft, with no inflection whatsoever. His features were free of expression, yet as harsh and relentless as the wind, carved in granite, yet so sensual he took her breath away. For some reason butterfly wings brushed insistently at her stomach, and she was instantly nervous. She made herself shrug casually, annoyed that she would react so to his simple statement. “I work with men all the time. I trained with them. Grew up around them. I don’t even know very many women.” Now she was irritated because she sounded like a defiant child. She had no reason to feel guilty. She hadn’t done anything wrong. He was the one acting like a jealous husband.
She bit at her lip. He hadn’t exactly
acted
that way; he was just so intimidating. Power clung to him, and he looked dangerous. So much so that sweet Harold had thought to warn her against him. Maybe Lucian didn’t mean anything by it, maybe it was merely his accent that made his words sound so frightening. Or his lack of expression. She glanced up at him again as they moved together to the waiting car. Antonio was holding the door, open, and, for once, he wasn’t smiling. He was shaking his head at her as if she had committed some grave sin.
“What?” she burst out, glaring from one man to the other. “What?”
Lucian’s hand came down on the nape of her neck, exerting enough pressure that she automatically climbed into the limousine.
“She is trouble, this one,” Antonio whispered loudly enough for her to hear.
Jaxon waited until Antonio was behind the wheel of the car and they were moving swiftly toward their home. “I am not. What does that mean? Those men are my friends, my colleagues. I work with them.”
“That is why the older gentleman took such care to tell you I was a dangerous man, one you had no business being with? I heard him quite clearly warning you away from me.” Again there was no inflection in his voice, only that soft, velvet whisper of trouble.
“Well, what do you expect when you stand there looking all intimidating and scary like a Mafia enforcer or a hit man or something? You need to look more... I don’t know, more something.”
“Foppish?” he supplied softly, a hint of compassion escaping into his voice.
“What kind of word is
foppish
? Antonio, have you ever heard of
foppish
?”
“Antonio cannot hear us,” Lucian pointed out.
Jaxon was busy stabbing at various buttons. “Which one of these things makes it so he can? You use mind control so easily, Lucian. Are you controlling me, too?”
Very gently Lucian laid a hand over hers to still her frantic fingers. “Be calm, Jaxon. You are suffering needlessly. I do not control your mind. If I did so, you would not be placing yourself in danger at every opportunity. Believe it or not, I am working at finding a balance with your nature. Carpathian males are not easy with other men around their women. That is a simple fact. There is no need to fear what is natural. My emotions are new and raw, but I would never harm you or someone you care for.”
“Well, I am not Carpathian, so you’ll just have to get used to it,” she muttered rebelliously. “And I’m not afraid of you.” In the close confines of the car, with his hand covering hers, his thumb sliding back and forth in a caress over her wrist, it was difficult to think of anything but Lucian. “I’m a cop. Those men are my partners. We watch each other’s backs. It’s how I live, how we all survive.” In spite of her determination not to, she found herself explaining.
“I knew there was a reason I did not want you to continue in your chosen profession,” Lucian said without expression. He leaned down to her, his palm finding her chin to force her head up. “I do not like to see you in danger. It is more than my heart can stand. Add your sorrow and the guilt you heap upon yourself, and my heart knows what it feels like to break. If another man, human or not, decides to look upon you with desire and then places his hands on you, I have a wish to lose my control for just a few minutes.”
Jaxon found herself managing a small smile at his complete sincerity. “Did you make Tom think I looked like a wrinkled old crone or something?”
“It was a temptation.” His hand slipped to the nape of her neck and found several tendrils of hair to caress. “I had a primitive urge to discourage him from coveting you.”
She blinked up at him suspiciously. “I don’t want to know what you mean, so don’t bother to explain.” A slow smile warmed the black ice of his eyes. “You are beginning to know me.”
“Thank you for saving Barry. The glimpse I caught of him, he looked to be in bad shape. I know it must have been difficult destroying the ghoul there, helping me, and working on him all at the same time.” She could feel his exhaustion. It didn’t show on his face, but it was in his mind. He was extremely tired. He had used tremendous energy tonight. Even someone as powerful as Lucian could get tired.
She was certain she was tired, too, but it manifested itself more as sorrow. It was almost too much to comprehend the loss of so many of the people she knew and cared about. For a moment the reality of it all touched her mind, and she couldn’t breathe, her lungs refusing to work properly. “If the man at the apartments wasn’t Drake, and the one at the station house wasn’t him either, who were they, and how did they know exactly what Drake did to his victims? How would they know whom to kill? And why would they even want to kill them, Lucian?”
“There is only one answer, angel.” Lucian’s voice was more expressionless than ever. It made Jaxon glance up at him in apprehension. “There must be a vampire involved here, a master vampire, one of the ancients. It is a creature capable of such things.”
“It has Drake? Is he dead?” There was almost a hopeful note in her voice.
Lucian shook his head. “More than likely Drake is still out there somewhere, probably puzzled by these murders. The vampire has read your mind, picked the details out of your head, and that is why you knew something was wrong. The details were not exactly Drake. The vampire created his ghouls and sent them out with orders to kill whoever had fond memories of you.”