Cake (60 page)

“
I know that. I’m sorry.”

You have an expressive face, My Lord Emperor. It doesn’t take a Hellcat to read you. Your dreams leak outside. They are disturbing. You should let me in.

“
Get me loose, and I’ll feed you,” I told her, trying to get the subject away from what I had been dreaming about.

Shade climbed up on my chest and sat down, her tail flicking back and forth across my body.

You did what was right with the information that you had. Don’t let
him
tell you any different. You protected your family, using gifts you haven’t even mastered yet. Can you image what you will be capable of doing, once you get confidence in your abilities? I am proud to sit at your side and serve you, my Lord Emperor.

Her rough cat tongue swept up my nose, and I sneezed. “Sorry, I’m sorry. Not on purpose,” I apologized quickly.

Shade let her disgust show through all the fur that covered her face, and then she shook her front paw at me before placing it on my mouth.

Don’t ever try to die on us again, Xavier.

She licked at my nose again with her tongue and then jumped off the bed, going in search of someone.

Whatever Marcus had chained me down with wasn’t going to be broken easily, I discovered, as I pulled against my bindings. Either the links were extra strong, or else I was still too weak. I decided it was the latter, as I lay there and waited for Shade to bring somebody back.

Ten days. I had been out cold for ten days. What was it that Claudius had said, about me using up all my resources? He had to be right, because I couldn’t remember ever feeling so tired…and hungry. I needed essence. I’d have to go hunting tonight, for both Shade and myself.

Shade hopped back up on the bed, and Marcus came and stood behind her. His long, brown hair was pulled back away from his face, exposing the worry lines around his mouth, and there were signs of weariness around his eyes. I watched him as he walked up to me and ran the back of his hand gently down my cheek.

“
Have you slept at all, Pretty?” I asked him, my voice raspy. He glanced down at me, his eyes lingering on my lips, which made me recall how fascinated Monahan had been with them. A bad aftertaste filled my mouth. I wanted Marcus to take it away. I tried to lift my arms to him.

“
I will lay down by your side when you are better. But at the moment, you are sweaty and rank. You need to be cleaned,” he said, stepping closer towards me. “This will hurt, Little One.”

I sucked back a hiss as he pulled the intravenous drip out of my arm. Then he leaned over and lapped at the wound, his tongue gently flicking against my skin as he unclipped, unbuckled, and unlocked everything that held me in place. He dragged me towards the edge of the bed and started to lift me up in his arms. As he did so, Shade jumped down, morphing from her little kitty form to the red panther, a low growl issuing from her throat.

Marcus stilled as he looked over his shoulder at her. “You want to eat with him smelling like this?” he asked.

Nightshade, I’m fine.
I do need a shower.

To Marcus I said, “I can walk.”

“
I don’t want you to. Let me carry you, my Little One”

“
Marcus let me go,” I protested, licking at my dry lips.

Reluctantly he set me on my feet. I was weak but not shaking and falling down like a drunkard. I wobbled, yes. But with each step, my legs steadied. Even if I was walking like a geriatric patient in slow, shuffling steps, at least I was walking.

Marcus was right next to me, close but not touching, nearby in case I needed him. I didn’t. I got to the shower, set the temperature, and stepped into the warm spray all under my own power, though the force of the water drove me to my knees. Marcus got into the cubicle with me, holding me, his shirt and pants getting drenched in the process.

“
You are so weak, my Little One. Here, drink. Take what you need.” He flipped his wet hair back and brought his neck right against my mouth.

Xavier, do as he says, drink.

What the hell was this? I was slightly annoyed at having people and cats telling at me to chug, chug, chug. Still, that apple fragrance of Marcus’s was intoxicating.

Letting my fangs drop I carefully moved in closer to him and found his pulse. His special scent was in the air, filling my nostrils, but I wasn’t getting that familiar quiver of excitement or fear, whichever emotion it was that I felt for him. As I bit into him, I should have tasted apples. I should have had an orchard bursting on my taste buds…but there was nothing.

I drank from him until I felt a little stronger, and the force of the falling water turned into that of a gentle rain against my frail body. Laving his neck, I healed my fang marks and then traced his pulse up to his ear with my tongue, letting my arms wrap around his shoulders as I pressed my forehead into the crook of his neck.

“
Your clothes are ruined,” I told him as I buried my face against his wet shirt.

Marcus pushed me back a little until I was sitting on my haunches. He brushed my wet hair from my face, concern for me showing on his own. “Chesterton will take care of them,” he said. “I trust him with my life…”

I blinked at him as he blurred in my vision. Something was definitely out of sorts with me.

“
Nightshade!”

I jumped at his loud shout, which seemed to echo around the small tiled bathroom. The red panther padded quickly into the room, her yellow eyes glaring at him before centering on me.

“
Something is wrong with Xavier,” he told her urgently. “It is like he is only half here. A part of him seems to be missing.”

Xavier?

I could feel her kitty concern for my wellbeing as I continued to just lie there, resting heavily against Marcus. I stared back lazily at the Hellcat, not feeling anything. I mean, I knew the water which was falling on me felt warm…but I could feel nothing inside of me. No contentment. No anger. In fact, I didn’t feel any emotion of any kind.

Let me in, Xavier.

My hands clenched tight on Marcus’s shirt at Shade’s request.

I’m scared. I did all those things, and didn’t feel anything while I was doing so. I killed people, and I still don’t feel anything. I’m a psychopath, aren’t I?

Nightshade stepped closer to the shower.

Xavier, let me see. Open your shield. Let me walk with you.

“
I can’t,” I cried, tears beginning to stream down my face.

Then tell Marcus to drop his shield. I need to speak to him.

I frowned.

You can talk to him? I thought you had to be bonded with someone.

You are bonded with him. There is a blood tie of a sort here. It will be like me screaming into a tin can, and your bond with Marcus being the string. Whether or not he will understand anything from me, I don’t know. Most of the time, this doesn’t work. But I have to try.

That long red panther tail of hers flipped and swished impatiently against the tiled floor, and she tilted her head at me, waiting.

“
Marcus, Shade wants to talk to you,” I said nervously. “You’ll have to drop your shield for her.”

He gave me a helping hand back up to my feet, waiting to make sure I wasn’t going to fall back on my ass, before stepping out of the shower and nodding his consent. Nightshade didn’t waste any time, and he winced and grabbed at his temples, dropping to a knee as the Hellcat entered his mind.

I pressed myself heavily against the shower wall and had to laugh as I heard Shade screaming at him, berating him for his behavior towards me, for not taking better care of me. My laughter came out weakly though, as I still didn’t have any get-up-and-go. But at least, it was good to know that I wasn’t the only one she got pissed at.

It seemed as if their little meeting was going to last a while yet, and as I felt Marcus’s blood coursing through my system and pumping around my veins, I used up some of the energy it was giving me to wash my hair and body, scrubbing everywhere until I felt all shiny and new.

Grabbing my toothbrush, I cleaned my teeth, and as I spat down into the drain I felt someone come up behind me. Someone? Ha, I could tell it was that big monkey of a vampire simply by the way he touched me. He’d taken off his wet clothes, and now his bare skin pressed against my mine.

“
Let me take you,” Marcus breathed in my ear, running a single finger down my neck and across my shoulders. His lips pressed at my back, where I’d gotten shot, protecting him. “I humbly ask for your consent, Xavier. Please give it to me.”

“
Humbly? I don’t think you have a humble bone in your body,” I said, rinsing out my mouth and putting my toothbrush away.

He caught me under the chin and urged my face up. I turned, and my eyes found him looking down at me with a different expression on his face than normal. It was contemplative, pensive.

Bending over a little, he kissed the exit wound on the back of my shoulder. “You took a bullet for me, my Little One.”

“
You took a stake for me. We’re even,” I replied, my breath catching in my throat as he continued bestowing soft kisses against my injury, which had healed perfectly back to flawless skin during my lost ten days.

“
We are not even close, my Little One. You eliminated my enemies…I will hunt down yours, my Lord Emperor.” He kissed his way from my shoulder to my neck, nipping the flesh with his fangs teasingly. Then he got to my ear and sucked on the lobe, and my knees folded up on me. Holy crap,

“
I…I…stop it…Marcus.” He lifted his head and pulled me to his chest, my back hitting something hard and protruding as he did so. Oh yeah, he was up and ready to go. “I have to feed Shade,” I tried protesting. “I promised her.”

“
She had to go and prepare for something,” Marcus told me, his tongue tracing the curl of my ear. “She said that she would be back soon, and she would feed then. She does not like me much,” he said with a pout.

“
Well, you two didn’t meet under the best of circumstances,” I said, turning in his arms to press my lips to his wet chin. The scent of him was in my nostrils, the feel of him in my blood. I sighed as he kissed my temple and tightened his hug. Oh my God, he’s so damn strong.

Almost as if he knew he was crushing me, his arms relaxed. “Xavier, let me love you. Give me your consent,” he begged.

“
Consent me, Marcus. Consent me hard,” I granted, thinking that maybe, if we did our usual rough-and-tumble tango, I’d feel something a little more concrete than these fleeting emotions I was experiencing.

Marcus shut the shower off, and taking hold of my hand, he pulled me out of the cubicle after him. He picked up a towel and dried my hair, sweeping the damp locks behind my shoulders. Every part of me that he dried, he either kissed, or licked, or sucked, until I was shaking with need. This was a new kind of sensual torture. Where had he come up with this stuff?

He took my hand and brought it softly to his lips. “I will show you something you have never experienced before, my Little One. Do not be afraid to enjoy it.” I grabbed for his crotch, but he blocked my hand. “We are in no hurry. We have an eternity to linger over each and every one of your pleasure zones…and I intend to use the rest of eternity to do just that.”

Holy crap.

When Marcus wants hard and fast, we did hard and fast. And that was what I had been expecting. This slow and tantalizing dance was killing me, and as he laid me on the bed I arched into his every sweeping touch, writhing on the sheets as he began massaging my feet. No one had ever done that before, and I was boneless and full of desire when he was done. But he wouldn’t let me rush him. Even though I tried everything that had ever worked before, he simply smiled and continued kissing and sucking on my body. I had to slap him off my nipples. They were too sensitive and pointed to be teased that way. He laughed. Oh my God, he actually laughed.