TWENTY
Tess slept for over thirty hours. When she woke up, she felt incredible. All of the myriad aches and pains she had accumulated over the last several weeks had vanished completely. She felt healthy, strong, fit and energetic.
Wow.
She rolled over to find Xavier sprawled on his stomach, fast asleep. Somehow he managed to take up most of the bed, while she had moved over to the edge of the mattress.
The discovery made her smile. She studied him with a drowsy kind of glee—it was the first time she had ever had the opportunity to watch him sleep.
His hair tumbled about his head and shoulders, the dark, glossy length shadowing his sleeping face. He had the gift that nature gave some men, ridiculously lush, long eyelashes that brushed his skin. His graceful, lean form disguised how defined his musculature was. Now she saw him nude, she could tell how much work had gone into the strength in his back and shoulders. He had flung one arm along the bed, as if he reached out to her.
From the terrifying monster she had first seen on the mezzanine level at the Vampyre’s Ball, he had grown truly beautiful to her. She could no longer connect to the person she had been then, and she didn’t want to.
She was tempted to take his hand but refrained. While she wanted to touch him, she didn’t want to disturb him. Instead, she slipped out of bed and went exploring in his walk-in closet. When she discovered a terry-cloth robe she quite liked, she slipped it on and went in search of food.
She found the kitchen by trial and error, and there she discovered Raoul sitting at a large, country-style table with several strangers. Outside two large windows, late afternoon sunlight shone on a well-tended, colorful garden.
Overcome with self-consciousness, she started to back away from the doorway, but it was too late. They had seen her.
Chairs scraped across the floor as they all shot to their feet. Raoul was the quickest. He strode over to her, grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into a hug. Remarkably moved by the gesture and somewhat uncomfortable, she patted his back awkwardly.
He pulled back, his face tense. “How is he?”
“He’s wonderful,” she said.
When she heard herself, she turned scarlet, but nobody gave her a chance to dwell on it for long. They were much too relieved, and they laughed, all these strangers who cared about her Xavier so much, so she relaxed and let Raoul pull her to the table, where she sat.
Eduardo, the cook, piled a huge plate of delicious seafood crepes in front of her. She met all eight of Xavier’s attendants who lived in San Francisco—Foster, Xavier’s secretary, Russell, the estate manager, Sergio, Jaime, Sidney, Ciaran and Mika.
“I’m not going to remember whose name goes with which face,” she said around a mouthful of creamy lobster. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay, nobody expects you to,” Raoul said. “There’s plenty of time for you to get to know everybody.”
He shooed everybody else out, and they went reluctantly, although Eduardo tried to insist he needed to stay in the kitchen to serve her more food. When they were gone, the tension between Tess’s shoulders eased somewhat.
“Better?” Raoul asked.
She gave him a grateful smile. “Yeah.”
He settled back in his chair. While she thought he might pelt her with questions, he didn’t. Instead, he watched her polish off the huge plate of food in silence.
Today, although he still didn’t look anywhere near seventy, he showed more of his age than usual. The way the lighting touched him showed the faint lines on his face and how the short hair at his temples was almost white.
Gradually the quiet in the kitchen sank in, and she sighed. When she pushed her plate away, he nodded to it. “Would you like more?”
“No, thanks, I’m stuffed.” She pulled her cup of coffee toward her and cradled it between her hands, savoring the warmth.
“I brought you a couple changes of clothes,” he told her.
“Thanks,” she said again. She searched his face. “Are . . . we okay?”
“Do you mean you and me?” he asked.
She nodded.
He gave her a smile that deepened the lines at the corners of his face. “We’re far better than okay. I’m really proud of you, Tess. You stepped up so much more than I thought you might. Thank you for caring about him, and for saving his life.”
So, okay. That happened.
She finally got Raoul’s approval when she wasn’t looking.
She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face, but it twisted and turned insouciant. “Well, I didn’t do it for you,” she said.
His smile turned into a grin. “But I’m grateful, all the same.”
She nodded and examined the contents of her coffee cup. “I sort of fell in love with him. I don’t want to talk about it.”
He burst out laughing. “I promise, it’s okay.”
“We’re going to work out a definition of it, together.” She looked at him sidelong and clocked the expression on his face. “Yeah, I don’t know what that means, either.”
He cocked his head. “I thought you said you didn’t want to talk about it.”
Her shoulders crept up toward her ears. “I’m just saying. We agreed I’m coming back to the estate, and I’m going to continue lessons with you. That’s all I know.”
“You made the blood offering, didn’t you?”
The memory of Xavier biting her while they tangled in bed seared her mind, and she angled her face away quickly to hide how her cheeks darkened. She nodded.
He laughed again, quietly. “Good for you. And I can’t wait to see how you move on the training floor now. You’ll be so much faster. I’m going to teach you good things.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” She glanced back at him and grinned. “Now I might get a real chance at beating you someday.”
“Not for a long time,” he said gently. “But you’re very welcome to keep trying.”
She sobered. “Is there any news about . . . well, anything?”
He sat forward and propped his elbows on the table, sobering as well. “Julian has gone after Justine, and Evenfall is on lockdown. Nobody goes in, nobody comes out. The demesne is under martial law, which essentially means none of the heads of Vampyre houses can travel farther than ten miles from their homes on pain of death. That applies to Justine too.”
She felt her eyes widen. “How long will martial law be in effect?”
“Not long—at most a week or two.” He looked grim. “Since there was an attack on one of Julian’s progeny, who is also a senior member of the Nightkind government, right now, Julian can justify martial law, but it can’t last. The elder Vampyres will comply, but only up to a point. Right now we have a criminal on the loose, but if Julian doesn’t find Justine soon and if the elder Vampyres revolt, there’ll be civil war.”
Xavier’s voice came from the doorway. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Both Raoul and Tess turned and rose to their feet. Xavier had dressed in the most casual outfit she’d ever seen him wear, jeans and a soft gray, cotton shirt, and he had brushed and tied his hair back.
She held back as Raoul stepped forward to hug Xavier fiercely. After returning the hug, Xavier stepped toward Tess to give her a kiss. She saw with concern that he moved stiffly, without his usual grace, but his mouth on hers was firm and warm.
As he pulled back, he paused to look deep into her eyes, his expression warm and intimate. Gazing back, she saw the full knowledge of what they had done together, and an internal glow lit her from within.
He turned to Raoul. “Close up the town house until further notice. It’s just a precaution, but I would feel better doing it, at least until things blow over. Everyone based here can either take a month’s vacation, as long as they go out of state, or they can come back to the estate with us. Now that the five recruits are gone, we’ve got more space available.” He didn’t mention Marc, and neither did Raoul or Tess. “We can use the bedrooms in the main house, and of course, the guesthouse. There’s also Tess’s bedroom in the attendants’ house.” He looked at Tess. “You’ll stay with me.”