This time, Stephen doesn’t press for me to go on. He lets me take my time, recompose myself. Are my emotions really this close to the surface or is it this place? I shrug away the sadness, concentrate on what happened next.
“I’ve distanced myself from them since then,” I say.
“Because you know you’ll eventually have to disappear when they realize you’re not aging?”
His grasp of the situation startles me. “Are you an empath?”
He laughs. “Hardly. I just know a little about vampires. Eternal life has its drawbacks. Watching living relatives grow old and die would be a big one.”
My insides grow still. Stephen understands so much. I meet his eyes. Will he understand the rest?
“I was turned against my will. Raped and beaten by a monster who thought he’d killed me. He hadn’t. During the fight, I bit him. That was the exchange of blood. When I woke in the hospital, a doctor, a vampire, took me under his wing, explained what had happened. It took time, but eventually I came to accept it, to learn to control the hunger, to make loyal friends.”
“But you are not just a vampire, are you? What does it mean to be the Chosen One?”
I expected the question, but it’s not an easy one to answer. It took me a year to discover the ramifications of a title I neither sought nor wanted. How do I explain it in one hundred words or less? I guess without bullshit. And quickly.
“My fate is to lead the vampire world, to determine what the relationship between mortals and vampires is to be. I don’t know why I’m the one. I don’t know how it’s determined, and so far no one can tell me who’s behind the decision. I just know there is a faction in the vampire world that wants vampires to assume what they see as their rightful place in the world—masters of the human race. For now, I have the power to stop them. That could all change, though, if my leadership is challenged.”
“Or if you and I are not freed to return to Earth.” Stephen says it softly.
He releases a breath, comes over to stand beside my chair. He kneels down, takes my hands. “I grew up in a household where consorting with supernaturals was the norm. I can’t believe how well you’ve adjusted to life as a vampire when you had no similar background. Before today, I’d never met a vampire, but I knew they existed, which was more than you knew before you were turned. We’ll get out of here. After all you’ve been through, there’s no way a bunch of walking skeletons can hold you.”
I feel color flood my cheeks. I have to force my words through a throat clogged up with embarrassment. “Did I just make a complete ass of myself?”
He shakes his head, pulls me to my feet. “Are you kidding? Wait until we get home and I tell you the story of my life. You think growing up with normal parents was a challenge? Try being the youngest in a family of witches. I can’t tell you the number of times I was turned into a frog.”
“You are so full of shit,” I say. “But thank you, anyway.”
We’re standing close—too close. I’m tempted to say the hell with it and wrap my arms around his neck and pull him even closer. His expression says he’d like to do the same thing.
Then I’m struck with a thought. I drop his hand and make myself step back. “Whoa. Stephen. I think Samual may be doing this.”
He looks around. “Samual is doing what?”
“This.” I waggle a finger between us. “Making us feel like—”
“Samual is making me want to kiss you? How exactly would he be doing that?”
“I think he’s an incubus.”
“An incubus.” His eyebrows ratchet upward. “An incubus? Why would you think that?”
No way I’m going to answer that. At least I don’t have to explain what an incubus is to Stephen. “Look at us. We’ve known each other, what? A few hours? And there’s this attraction. It’s unnatural.”
He smiles. “Unnatural? Why would two people being attracted to each other be unnatural?”
“You have to ask that? Look at where we are.”
The voice of reason takes this moment to thump me on the side of my head. Strategy, idiot. You need to talk strategy.
I take another step back. “We need to talk strategy,” mimicking the little voice that pulled me back from a delicious opportunity to taste those lips.
Stephen frowns. Now he looks confused. And disappointed. “Strategy?”
“They’re going to call us back soon and we need a plan. I can’t help feeling we’re missing something.”
I start to pace, as much to distance myself from Stephen as to jump-start the brain cells. Stephen still stands in the same place, his expression puzzled, his brow furrowed. I think he’s trying to process the last few minutes and having trouble sorting it out.
I don’t blame him. But I don’t know how much time we have before we’re pulled back, either.
“Listen, Samual is making what happened between Belinda Burke and me personal. Why would that be? She was an evil bitch. Even if there is some sort of sanctuary agreement, a system that has laws must recognize her threats constituted danger to innocents. Unless they’re completely without conscience, that can’t be acceptable.”
Stephen’s eyes focus again, narrow. He’s back with me. “You’re right. Maybe Samual has more at stake in the outcome of the trial than we know. The trick is finding what it is. Let’s start at the beginning. When you got here the first time.”
I feel a flush of excitement “No. Let’s start before that. How did I manage to slip undetected into what is supposed to be a protected environment? Who fucked up and let the barriers down?”
Stephen and I look at each other and smile.
It had to be.
Samual.
TWELVE
I CAN’T BELIEVE I DIDN’T THINK OF THIS before. Is Samual pursuing me with such vigor because he’s the one being held accountable for my breaching sanctuary?
Stephen is standing close again. My body likes it, though I’m still self-conscious. I can’t believe I just told him the story of my life.
I can’t believe how easy he is to talk to . . . and that he didn’t react to my story by shrieking in horror or laughing at the idiocy. I’ve been tempted to do both myself.
We’re standing face-to-face, grinning like idiots. I can tell if I moved just an inch closer, I’d be in his arms.
Damn it.
Get a grip. His presence makes my skin tingle and thinking more difficult than it should be. Is this more of Samual’s doing?
“It’s too early to be congratulating ourselves.” I make myself move away. Again. “I agree Samual is a little too eager to nail me but turning things around on him is not going to be easy.”
He follows me. “Might be easier than we think. I’m assuming you’ll get a chance to question him. Why not just ask him how he thinks you were able to get in, get close enough to kill Belinda Burke, and get out without anyone stopping you. See how he reacts.”
Stephen may be right. Samual is a slippery bugger, but he’s not the power. Those seven ghastly specters are the power. Especially the one Samual calls the Elder. If I can get them to. . .
Shit. One instant Stephen and I are considering our options, the next we’re back behind the desk in our astral courtroom. It happens in an eyeblink. If this keeps up, I’m going to ask for Dramamine.
Samual ignores us, no smirk, no snarky remark. He doesn’t even look our way. I’m not sure how to take his sudden ambivalence. Is he worried that we may have won a few points with his bosses or confident that his case is so strong it makes no difference?
I don’t like it either way. I much prefer the blustering asshole to the enigmatic demon.
The Elder waves a robed arm. “Proceed.”
Proceed? That’s it? I thought the whole idea of the break was for them to consider the things I said. I didn’t expect a resolution, but I was hoping for a hint, some indication that they might have understood why I felt justified killing Belinda Burke.