Blood Sin (22 page)

But Travis had considerable power here. He was intelligent; the theme of his club as well as his speech proclaimed a hint of humor. In fact, in time, Saloman might even like him.

“What can you do for me?” he repeated. “You could tell me what Senator Dante wanted with you.”

Travis’s eyelids didn’t flicker. “He’s looking for a sword.” He smiled. “Your sword.”

Saloman tapped his lips with one finger, contemplating the other vampire’s dishonesty until Travis shifted in his seat but still didn’t break eye contact.

Saloman smiled. “A wager would seem to be called for. You like games?”

Travis shrugged elaborately. “What else is there?”

“Good. You are aware of the powers attributed to my sword? Why it is that Senator Dante wants it?”

Travis inclined his head. “Of course.”

“Very well. Then let us race to find it. Since the sword is mine, as you acknowledge, the sword itself will be my stake, which you win if you find it first.”

Travis smiled as if amused, but this time he couldn’t hide the sparkle in his sharp blue eyes. “And my stake?”

Saloman smiled. “Overlordship of the North American vampires, of course.”

If Saloman “died” again, she wondered if she’d know. He’d been so firm in his telepathic instruction to go, so amused by the very idea that he could not deal with the American vampires, that despite the jagged fears in her heart, she’d left him in order to look after Josh. Shying away from the very idea that Saloman could be killed, she wondered instead what the consequences of his victory would be. Would the conflict spread out across the city, like the “gang fights,” leaving human as well as vampire casualties?

Elizabeth’s throat closed up in horror. Perhaps it would simply mean Saloman now controlled all the American vampires? Which might be more peaceful in the short term, but was the very thing she’d come here to prevent. Had she actually handed him more power on a platter by going to Travis’s? And doomed the human world to whatever rule Saloman chose to inflict?

“Was that Adam Simon?” Josh said abruptly, breaking into her bleak thoughts. They were back in his apartment, where Josh was ignoring the constant messages coming from his phone in order to make tea. Since his hands had stopped shaking, Elizabeth was happy to let him. He needed mundane tasks to counteract the weirdness of the day.

Elizabeth shook her head. “No.” It was the truth, looked at one way.

Josh frowned, handing her a mug of tea. “But you mentioned him. You said I should tell him what happened if I got out. Why? In Scotland, you told me not to trust him. What’s he to do with any of
this
?”

Elizabeth turned away from him to walk back into the spacious living room, where she took a seat on one of the leather sofas. “Nothing, really,” she said vaguely. “He’s just a man with a finger in lots of pies, useful to have on your side to get you out of a scrape.”
Like the one we were in.

Another thought occurred to her. In the heat of the moment, she’d sent Josh not to the hunters who should have been his first line of defense, but to Saloman, who wanted his blood. What sort of crazy instinct was that?

But Josh had moved on. While she absently sipped her tea, he said, “You couldn’t hurt them. No matter how hard you hit them, they just got back up. Except when you stabbed them, and then they disappeared.”

“That’s vampires for you,” she said flippantly. She became aware of his gaze on her, steady, fascinated, but no longer containing any trace of attraction. It wasn’t even friendly. Rather it was as if he were studying a particularly rare if ugly insect.

“You have hidden parts, Elizabeth Silk,” he said slowly. “Is anything I’ve seen before today actually real?”

“It’s all real. It’s all me. I just can’t marry it all up.” She set down her mug and jumped to her feet. “Look, Josh, I have to go. I’ll call you later. Don’t worry about this stuff; it gets to feel normal after a while. Mostly. For now, just remember you’re quite safe here.”
If Saloman isn’t dead. Or if Saloman doesn’t elect to go his own way and kill you anyway . . .

But she wouldn’t believe that. Any of that.

“We’ve alerted the local hunters and they’ve promised to watch your apartment,” she reminded him, as a half-anxious, half-annoyed frown re-formed on his brow. “Contact me anytime, Josh, but for now, can you call me a cab?”

He wasn’t in the room when she got back to the hotel. Telepathic queries bounced back at her. Restlessly, she walked to the big full-length window and gazed down at the greenery of Central Park. It would be dark soon, but tomorrow, whatever else she did, she’d walk in Central Park, maybe even go to the zoo.

Finding the remote control on the table beside her, she pointed it at the television, just to have some background noise while she paced. After a few circuits of the entire suite, she gave up and went for a shower. Staking vampires was a sweaty business. She’d just emerged from the bathroom in the hotel robe and slippers when the sound of a name brought her attention back to the television and she walked quickly through to the living area to see a close-up of a familiar face on the screen.

“. . . Dante has canceled his appointments for the next several days. According to his aides, the senator has been unwell since returning from his UK visit earlier this week. On to sports now . . .”

The suite door opened and closed behind Saloman, once more wearing the jacket that went with his suit. Where had he kept that while he battered his way into Travis’s casino and took on a dozen vampires?

She felt giddy with relief, with the surge of helpless desire that always swamped her in his presence. Yet she blurted only, “The news says Dante’s sick. He looked pretty fit to me as he legged it out of Travis’s place.”

Saloman walked toward her. “He’s giving himself time to act, and a cover story ready if he needs to bow out of the public arena for a longer period.”

“Do you think so?” Elizabeth asked doubtfully, hiding her perverse disappointment when he walked right past her into the bedroom. “Did he really go to Travis to ask for immortality?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“Did Travis tell you?” she asked, following to stand in the doorway.

“No.” He sank onto the bed and it struck her, almost with awe, that Saloman was tired. “I heard him. From above.”

Elizabeth walked toward him. “How did he know, Saloman?”

“Know what?”

“Everything! About the sword, about your awakening. How did he know where to find Travis?”

He smiled faintly, but appeared to be more intrigued by the shine on his smart black shoes. “I told you he was an interesting man.”

“Saloman, are you all right?” With sudden anxiety she dropped to her knees in front of him to peer up into his pale, handsome face. Although there was surprise in his dark eyes when they met her gaze, she could see no signs of illness, no shadow of exhaustion or flush of fever. But that meant nothing. He was a vampire. “Were you hurt back there?”

His eyes seemed to lighten, softening in the way that melted her heart. “Don’t be silly. I merely spent a little too much energy in a manly display of power.”

Her breath caught. “I hope it was as you left.”

“Not entirely,” he said, after a pause, and without meaning to, she caught his arms as if she meant to shake him.

“You stayed among them like that? Could they have killed you then?”

“Actually, they could have killed me anytime,” Saloman said, slipping his arms free, though only to take her hands. “Fortunately they didn’t know how. And now Travis and I are the best of friends. We’re even playing a game together. I didn’t know you worried about me.”

She tugged her hands free, as much in protest at his risk taking as at his accusation. “I’m not worried,” she muttered. “But what took you to Travis? I thought Severin was your best friend.”

His right eyebrow lifted. “Did you? I don’t recall telling you that.”

So he would know the hunters had. She didn’t think it mattered, and if it did, right now she didn’t care. “Are you playing them against each other so you can pick up the pieces?” she asked, eyes narrowed. Another thought struck her like a blow. “Saloman, you didn’t order Severin to come here and attack Travis?”

Saloman curled his lip. “Any attack under my orders is carried out with considerably more efficiency. Not to mention success.”

“Then Severin lost the fight? From what the—” Under Saloman’s sardonic smile, she broke off. “I thought he was still hanging around New York,” she finished defiantly. “Which doesn’t indicate defeat.”

“He stayed on in order to meet me, of course.”

“You’ve met him already? I thought you were visiting Dante Junior this morning.”

“I did that too. He and his sister were quite shocked about some of their father’s dealings, and quite amenable to my suggestions for the future.” His fingers gripped the bedclothes as if to anchor his thoughts. “I’m surprised no one told them before. I did some other things too, before your presence grew too close to Travis’s.” His eyes glinted. “As you know, I don’t care for other vampires stealing my dinner.”

“You’re trying to rile me,” she observed, though she couldn’t prevent her lips from curving into the faintest smile.

“Oh, no.” He lay back, stretching his long, lean body on the bed, and closed his eyes.

The smile died on Elizabeth’s lips. She swallowed. “Do you need to . . . drink?” she asked awkwardly.

“No. I drank on my way up.”

She frowned. “How did you do that?”

“I bit the parking attendant.”

Shockingly, she wanted to laugh, and the smile forming and fading on his lips betrayed that he knew it. Watching him, she asked, curious, “How did you get into Travis’s place?”

“Like Rumpelstiltskin, I stamped my angry foot.”

One stamp of his foot had done that? His power was terrifying, and yet now he looked no stronger than she. That was scary too, so she found other questions. “But how did you even get onto the roof in daylight?”

“It’s under a bridge—a flyover? I had to park very close. I’d have gotten a ticket if anyone were brave enough to police the neighborhood.”

He was silent and Elizabeth knew that he was waiting for her to ask where and how he’d learned to drive. She’d already resisted the same pressure as he’d driven her here from the airport in a hired car with blacked-out windows. Although curiosity niggled at her, she refused to ask, just because he wanted her to. Instead, she let her gaze drop from his calm face to his broad, muscled chest, the contours of which were quite clear through his shirt, and his stomach, then down his narrow hips to his thighs. At the juncture of his legs was a bulge she recognized, one that made her pulse race.

“Elizabeth.”

Guiltily, she dragged her gaze back to his face to find his eyes open and a smile playing on his sensual lips.

“We had fun at Travis’s, didn’t we?”

Outraged, she glared at him, her mouth already open to deny any such thing. Then she remembered the relief of his arrival, the blind faith that had lifted her spirits at the very sight of him, the certainty that now she and Josh were safe. And after that, it had been easy to fight, to feint and maneuver, back-to-back with him in perfect understanding of his next move and the purpose behind it. Like some intense, exhilarating game.

Something that was half laughter and half sob fought its way out of her throat.

“Yes,” she admitted. “We had fun.”

But his eyes were no longer laughing. The tiny flames she sometimes imagined burned there flickered yellow and amber in the darkness. “We should face the world together more often.”

Excitement leapt at his words, along with a surge of longing to make it happen. To enjoy all the new abilities of her body and the confidence of her mind side by side with him, fighting battles they could both believe in.

Only there weren’t so many of those. Her next battle would be as his enemy.

The truth was, the most powerful—and feared—vampire in the world had little common ground with her. Wishing for it wouldn’t change that. He wouldn’t falter in his pursuit of power, whatever the consequences for anyone, for the world itself. So she forced down the yearning, and the pain.

“No,” she said firmly. “We shouldn’t.”

Before she could change her mind, she stood up. Rudy and Cyn had offered to meet her in Central Park much later on, when, Elizabeth had hoped, Saloman would be out hunting. But she’d never have a better chance than now, when he was too weak to follow her. “I thought I might go down to the bar, maybe go for a walk. You can rest while I’m gone.”

“Thank you,” he said politely. “Are you going to dress first?”

“Of course,” she muttered, reaching for the jeans and T-shirt she’d laid out already on the chair.

Shouting from the bathroom seemed easier. Because she couldn’t see his face while she did her best to betray him.

“If Travis is based in Queens,” she called casually, zipping up her jeans and thrusting her feet into comfortable sneakers, “where is Severin hanging out?”

“I’ll take you,” Saloman said, his voice so unexpectedly close that she jumped and spun around to face him. “If you’re desperate to go.”