Blood Life Seeker (30 page)

He'd turned back to look at the Champion, who actually looked a little pale, maybe a little sick. I didn't think she liked the idea of being connected to a Nosferatin. She may be power hungry, but she was not willing to share her own power to get it. She got all the power she needed by heading up the
Iunctio
and being able to tap into its deep pockets of stored Nosferatin powers. She didn't want me this close, but then, neither did I.

Her facial features changed then. It was like watching someone flick a switch. She'd come to a decision and she was ready to move forward with it, regardless of how uncomfortable she had been moments before.

“I cannot kill you, yet you pose a danger to my kind. Until we can discover what your threat is to me through this connection, you will remain here, in the
Palais
.”

The Diviner looked like he was going to say something, even the other vampire who had not yet spoken, came forward. Whether they were objecting to keeping us in the
Palais
or just objecting to the fact that we still existed, I couldn't tell, but they were both unhappy. Unhappy and scared. I didn't think I had ever seen vampires of their
Sanguis Vitam
level, so scared.

The Champion waved them both aside and stood to leave. “You will be escorted to your chamber and tomorrow evening when Michel has recovered we will dine and then we will see.”

She floated out of the room. Both the Diviner and the younger looking vampire paused to look at me, then followed on behind her like loyal little lap dogs.

I was left sitting there with my heart in my throat and my mind spinning out of control. I glanced at the two bodyguards, but they had turned their back to me and were standing in front of the open doors, blocking. I wasn't sure what, it wasn't like I could run and leave Michel here and escape on my own, so maybe they were blocking anyone else from getting to us. Not a nice thought.

I slid off the chair next to Michel and touched his shoulder. I could sense him there, but he felt so far away.

“Michel?” Nothing. He wasn't breathing, which isn't saying much, vampires don't need to breathe to survive. He didn't move.

“Michel, wake up!” Still nothing.

I hadn't reached the spot where I'd normally start wringing my hands yet, I was concerned, but not worried. I could feel Michel there, I just had to think of a way to reach him.

Michel. Come back to me.
Still nothing, no hint he had heard me in his mind. No hint he had felt me, nothing.

“Shit.”

“Your language has always been the most endearing feature of your character, little Hunter.”

I spun around and there was Gregor. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of him; tall, handsome, beautiful. His eyes flashing splashes of silver in amongst deeper greys, with the odd fleck of platinum. His smile beguiling. I don't think I even noticed the scar any more, hidden by his natural beauty and the sparkle of my
Sigillum
.

I found myself on my feet and in his arms before I even realised what I was doing. His laugh rumbling around the room as he spun me.

He gently placed me back on my feet in front of him and bent his head to my ear to whisper, “I do not think the
Iunctio
would be used to the Enforcer being greeted thus.”

I pulled back and whispered, “Oops.”

His eyes flashed, but his smile was wicked.

“I am here to escort you to your chamber.”

I let a breath out and glanced over my shoulder at Michel, still on the floor.

I guess we'd be unpacking after all.

“I can't wake him.”

Gregor and I had been in our chamber for about twenty minutes and I had done everything I could think of to reach Michel. I tried to talk to him, plead with him, shout at him. I'd sent thoughts and attempted to send images. I pulled on the connection we shared, tugged it, yanked it, shook it. I'd even gathered my Light and thrust it at him, against his shields, over the top of his walls. I thought that last would work, but all it did was bathe Gregor in it's afterglow and make him slump to the floor off the chair he had been sitting on. I didn't think he was complaining.

“He just won't wake.”

“Maybe, it's a time thing. Maybe you will have to let him rest and he will come to you when ready.” Gregor hadn't moved from the floor, his foot resting against my calf, where I was kneeling next to the bed.

The chamber was, in fact, more like a hotel suite and nothing like the utilitarian waiting room we had just come from. It consisted of a large lounge with luxurious furnishings and every amenity you could desire, a kitchenette, a bathroom and a large bedroom with equally large bed. We were in the bedroom, Gregor had Michel placed there. I was at his side and Gregor had been watching my attempts from a chair in the corner.

I sat back down on the floor and faced him. Maybe he was right, I'd tried everything I could think of, but although I could still sense Michel there, I just couldn't get him to come out.

“So, now what?”

“Be patient,
ma petite chasseuse
. You can sense him there, no?”

I nodded. He stood then, with that otherworldly grace and reached his hand down to me. I looked at it briefly and placed my hand in his, letting him pull me to my feet. He didn't try to pull too hard, to bring me against his chest. A part of me was disappointed and another part just thought how tacky that would have been right next to Michel lying unconscious in bed.

Gregor went to lead me out of the bedroom, but I pulled against his hold.

“I need to stay near him, watch him.” I couldn't think of leaving Michel.

“It's all right, Lucinda. We will watch him from in the lounge, but you are tired, you need rest and food, I think.”

He was right, I was feeling exhausted all of a sudden. He led me by my hand to the couch and sat me down, then disappeared into the kitchenette, returning a few minutes later with a plate with cheese and crackers and fresh fruit displayed on it. And a large glass of chilled water.

“It's not much,
ma cherie.
I am afraid my skills lie elsewhere. However, I would be more than happy to show you some time.” His face had taken on that slightly wicked look, eyebrows raised, crooked smile.

“Not now, Gregor.” There was just too much to think about right now, but I was smiling. Somehow Gregor always managed to make me smile.

He didn't argue, just sat down next to me on the couch and settled in to watch me eat. I got a strange sense of deja vu then, Michel liked to watch me eat too. I shook my head.

“So, you bathed the entire
Iunctio
in your Light and angered the Champion enough to see you dead, yet here you are. You are an enigma, my little Hunter. A beautiful, captivating enigma.”

I smiled. “That about sums it up.”

“I have one question for you.”

“Shoot.”

He smiled again. “Your Light was different from that which you have bathed myself and Michel in, how is that?”

I hadn't really thought about it before. When I'd shared my Light with both Michel and Gregor it had been instinctive, natural, it came from somewhere deep within me. But when I sent my Light out through the building, touching on every vampire in its path, I had controlled it, thought about how I wanted it to be received. I hadn't let it get out of hand, I suppose, kept it as a safety and a warmth and a love and a happiness, nothing more.

I blushed slightly as I realised that for both Michel and Gregor it had been much more intimate and I hadn't even been aware that was what I had sent out. I had thought that was just the way my Light appeared.

“I guess I'm learning control.” It was the only thing I could think of to say.

He laughed, that little huff of a laugh he does. “Please, don't feel the need to control anything when you are around me.”

I blushed further. “You didn't like my Light from earlier?”

He leaned forward and placed his hand gently on my cheek, letting it trace down the side of my face, until his fingers were cupping my chin. “It was wonderful, but I have tasted more and I hunger now for only that.”

His eyes were intense; swirls of silver in deep grey. They held me captive, stilling my breath, but making my heartbeat flutter like a butterfly caught in a jar.

I sensed Michel then, just a slight stir towards consciousness. My head swivelled towards the bedroom and Gregor let go of my chin. Sitting back against the pillows at his end of the couch.

“He's waking.” I couldn't hide my joy, my relief at knowing he was going to be OK.

“You love him very much.” It was a statement, but I felt he deserved an answer anyway.

“Yes, I do, but he frustrates me.” I laughed slightly, then took a breath in. “He challenges me and sometimes, I think, he believes he owns me.”

Gregor laughed at that. “You cannot blame him,
ma cherie
, you are a prize any man would wish to possess.”

“But I am not a possession, Gregor, you'd do well to remember that too.”

He nodded, a slow nod. “Still, we are vampyre.” I hadn't heard him use the old pronunciation before. Michel did, all the time, but Gregor had more of a modern turn of phrase, most of the time, occasionally he sounded old fashioned. “It is in our nature to amass power and you are power,
ma petite chasseuse.
You are an awful lot of power.”

Huh. “Is that all I am to him, to
you
?” I was looking at him closely, hoping to tell if he lied, to see a hint of something, but Gregor isn't a member of the
Iunctio
without having picked up a few diplomatic skills. He could hide his feelings just as well as the next.

His face was a pleasant smile, his eyes sparkling just a hint. He didn't answer straight away, just leaned forward and picked the tray of crackers and fruit off the couch, which had been sitting between us, and placed it on a low table to the side, then moved closer. I suddenly felt like a possum caught in the headlights of an on-coming car. I couldn't move or breath, but I knew I should stop him, I just didn't know how.

He ran a hand down my cheek, brushing my hair back from my face, his other hand taking one of my own and running small circles on my palm. I wasn't sure how he could do the two actions at the same time and not be jerky. You know, like when you rub a circle on your tummy and pat up and down on your head at the same time, it's harder than it sounds. But somehow he made each movement perfect, as though all of his attention was on that and not on my face, my mouth, my lips.

“Perhaps I should just show you, what it is you mean to me.”

And with that, he closed the gap between us, his hand at my face slipping behind my head, to rest at the base of my neck, so warm against the skin there, and pulled me towards him. His other hand, which had been holding mine, now slipping behind the small of my back and pulling me against his chest and his lips claiming me in a soft, eager, hungry pursuit.

I didn't stop him and I should have. I didn't push him away and I should have. I found my hands going up around his neck, into his hair, removing the clip at the base of his head and spreading my fingers through the strands. And then I kissed him back.

He tasted divine. Hints of chocolate and ice cream, I could smell strawberries and raspberries and I wanted more. God help me, but I wanted more. I was practically in his lap. He'd pulled me so tightly against his chest, but we were still sitting up on the couch, so the angle was all wrong, my back bending backwards, curving the wrong way, just to stay close to his body. He realised it would have been uncomfortable, but rather than releasing me, he simply lay back down on his back, on the couch, pulling me up his chest, so I was lying on the full length of him.

His tongue devouring me, his hands covering every inch of my back, up into my hair and down to my rear. Everywhere he touched felt wonderful, alive, calling for more. I could feel just how happy he was to have me there too, his hardness pressing against me, almost perfectly placed and I think that managed to break through a bit of the fog. I hesitated, stopped kissing him back, but he simply moved his hips against me, making my body respond all on its own.

My legs slid out to either side of him, so I was straddling him, almost kneeling over him, but still pressed firmly against every part of him. And he groaned as he moved against me, making me tight and wet, wanting more and more than I should ever have wanted from this man.

He didn't try to take it further, yet I wanted him to. He didn't try to get my clothes off, yet I was struggling to undo his shirt, slip my hand inside and feel his skin. It wasn't me that pulled back, but Gregor. And I whimpered in frustration and need.

Breathlessly, against my mouth, he said, “I would die for you, Lucinda. I would cast away everything I possess to be near you. I would take anything you willingly give and no more.
This
is what you mean to me.”

My mind was spinning, my heart thumping against the confines of my chest.
Then don't stop
. I managed to throw the thought to him.

He shuddered against me and crushed his lips to mine and just as I thought he was about to take it further, rip my clothes off and satisfy that hunger and need we both felt, I sensed Michel. Awake and aware.

I must have done something, or thought something, because Gregor stopped. We both lay there still. Me a wanton mess on the top of an extremely turned on vampire and said vampire's hands up under my skirt, holding the edge of my underwear, brushing against bare skin.

“I see you have been taking care of my kindred, Gregor.”

Oh shit. Big, big, big shit.

“I could not have said it better,
ma douce
.”

I raised my head up from Gregor and looked Michel directly in the eyes. They were calm pools of deep, deep blue, only the small flecks of violet and indigo in the mix gave anything away.

I had absolutely no idea what to say to him, but even if I did, I couldn't say it lying on top of Gregor. I sat up away from Gregor's chest, but that only left me straddling his waist, not much of an improvement then. I don't have the otherworldly grace and puppet-on-a-string moves the vampires have, so getting myself off of Gregor's groin was never going to be pretty. But somehow whilst trying to lift the leg against the couch back over his body, I got caught against his thigh and ended up toppled over on my back on the floor, banging into the low table in the process and making the tray of crackers fall off the other side in a loud crash.

I lay there stunned for a moment and then heard a low laughter coming from Michel. I glanced over at him standing in the doorway of the bedroom, with his fingers to the bridge of his nose, shaking his head.

“Only you could make such a move,
ma douce
and yet still be adorable.”

Huh, well at least I was still adorable and not dumped on my arse outside the door with a packed suitcase. I sat up slowly to find Gregor leaning over the side of the couch watching me calmly, a slight curve to his lips.

“Why are you so calm about this?” I was looking at Michel again as I asked that.

He came further into the room and sat down on an armchair just to the side of the couch, with a clear view of me on the floor. Crossed his legs and looked down at me. Gregor hadn't moved.

“Oh, I am not calm,
ma douce
, merely practical. I will not share you lightly, but.... I do believe I broke the treaty first, so it is only fair that Gregor has had his chance.”

Gregor sat up at that and turned to look at Michel, his head cocked to the side. “You broke the treaty?” His voice was low, even, the kind of voice vamps get when they're working to stay in control.

“What treaty?” That was me, still on the floor.

“Our agreement,
ma douce
. Have you forgotten it already?”

“What agreement?” Still confused, not quite on the same page.

“The agreement you made Gregor and myself subject to. To... now what were your exact words?
Give me space. I need to sort this out in my head. Please don't push me. Let me find my way.
That agreement. I do believe your intention was
not
to get pushed into a compromising position with either of us for a while. Would that be correct?”

Huh. That agreement. “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” he repeated. It sounded funny coming from him. “I merely assume you are levelling the battlefield with our dear Gregor here.

Levelling the what?

Michel sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose again, I suddenly realised he was probably not 100% after what had happened with the Champion. Man, did that make me feel worse.