Deep Deception (21 page)

“You’ll be relearning balance and coordination, but for now it’s best if you take it slow.”

Adin scrubbed at his face with the heels of his hands. “Just get me the fuck out of here.”

Tuan and Santos opened the sliding door and wheeled him out. In the hallway, Boaz waited.

“I’ll be packing the things from your room, Dr. Tredeger.”

Adin glanced behind him, thinking about the trinkets Donte left for him. It didn’t matter how he’d gotten them in there, whether he’d smuggled them in through the nurses or had Boaz lay them out while he slept.

It wasn’t enough. It had never been enough, really, but Adin had fooled himself into thinking that someday it would be. That someday Donte might love him enough to forgive him his humanity and take him as he was.

That day had not come. In fact, Donte had handed him the betrayal of a lifetime, along with the tremendously thoughtful little gifts he no doubt imagined would make up for his callous disregard for Adin’s autonomy.

Adin looked back at Donte’s gifts, spread out on a rolling table intended for use by patients who could still eat food, and it broke his heart.

“There’s nothing in there I want to take with me.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tuan pushed Adin’s wheelchair toward the elevator with Santos following along behind them like a paid mourner at a funeral cortege. They made their way up from the dimly lit basement like moles. When the doors opened to the lobby, Adin blinked his eyes against the shocking, bright fluorescent lights. He knew Edward and Bran were in the hospital somewhere, but they wouldn’t come to him.

He would have liked to see them.

Tuan leaned over to speak to him. “I imagine this must seem like too much, but it’s the middle of the night and about as quiet as it’s going to be. Santos has a limousine waiting to take you someplace where you can get your bearings. Boaz has gone ahead to pull it around.”

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll go on some sort of rampage and the villagers will have to come with pitchforks and torches to put me down?”

Santos chuckled. “Those sorts of things are usually only required when someone is turned and abandoned.”

Tuan nodded his agreement. “Generally speaking, when the initial transition is medically supervised and the newly made vampire has a mentor, the most problematic results can be avoided.”

“Thank heavens I have a sponsor.” Adin tried not to point out that the subject they discussed with such sangfroid was his worst-case scenario. “Like AA. Will I get a chip? I’ve been in for a month. Shall I call you whenever I feel like a drink and I don’t know if I can say
when
?”

“There’s the Adin I know and want to bludgeon…” Santos placed a casual hand on his shoulder. They rolled past the sensor that triggered the automatic sliding doors, exiting into the night.

Once outside, Adin’s newly enhanced senses overwhelmed him. The chilly air hit him and every hair follicle tingled. Yet he didn’t feel the cold. The clouds filling the sky spattered rain intermittently and he heard each individual drop thunder onto the pavement.

He perceived everything Donte ever shared with him and more. He could see as if it were daylight and his sense of smell was so acute that he was aware of each and every individual odor; from the hospital laundry, to burning fuel from the highway, to the aroma of French fries, carried on the wind from a restaurant he couldn’t see. The darkness teemed with living things. Adin felt his predator’s instinct come to life at the faint scrabbling noise of insects and the sound of a thousand different heartbeats.

It was too much, though, too new. He felt inundated by it. He put his hands to his ears while he tried to accustom himself to the vast and varied sensory input. As Boaz edged the limousine to the curb, Adin had to pull deep within himself to keep sensation from swamping him.

Tuan put a hand on Adin’s arm to help him rise from the wheelchair. Adin tested his strength and his balance while Santos pushed the chair away.

Suddenly, Adin felt some imminent danger like an icy slap from behind. His newly honed senses went on red alert. He started to brush Tuan’s hands away in order to face the threat, except Tuan must have felt it too. He flanked Adin, crouching low, emitting a rumbling growl that made the hair on Adin’s arms stand up.

A ripple of air brushed Adin’s skin in the charged atmosphere, telling him Santos had moved to his other side in that instant. He’d moved so quickly Adin hadn’t seen him do it.

Adin’s skin tingled. It took a while before he realized he’d stopped breathing. They waited for what seemed like an eternity, watching the shadowy alley beyond the well-lit emergency room entrance. Adin couldn’t see anything but something was coming, an imminent menace, from the darkness there.

What finally materialized and stepped into the light didn’t make any sense. It was Donte as Adin had never seen him before, wearing a sleek black turtleneck and soft-looking leather pants that fit like skin. He wore nothing flowing or fashionable as he normally did, he was garbed for function, for ease of movement, and armed with a wicked-looking katana.

Donte was dressed for war.

“
Donte
.” Adin heard himself shout. He couldn’t believe the power of his voice. That one word blew out of him like thunder. Adin’s nascent inner monster was determined to protect itself.

Donte stopped where he was. “This is between Santos and me.”

Adin turned to Santos with a frown.

Santos froze. “I beg your pardon.”

“You heard me,” Donte growled. “You may arm yourself or you may die where you stand.”

In the blink of an eye, Tuan pulled a telescoping steel baton from his pocket and flicked his wrist to open it. “What’s this about, Fedeltà?”

“I should have killed you when you took Adin the first time, Christiano.” Donte didn’t take his eyes from Santos. “I should have let you die five centuries ago. I allowed sentimentality to cloud my thinking. This ends tonight.”

Santos stepped forward, still relaxed. He held his hand out for Tuan’s baton. Took it and hefted it, whipping it back and forth experimentally. “Good God, man. Have you nothing with a blade?”

Tuan shook his head. “Sorry.”

Santos turned to Donte. “While I can appreciate that you might wish to kill me, what can I have done to you that you feel it must be here and now?”

Donte didn’t answer Santos’s question. He merely lifted his sword in preparation to attack. “Tuan, take Adin and go.”

“I don’t think so.” Adin’s angry words ricocheted off the damp pavement. “Explain yourself, Donte.”

“Adin is right. I’m not going anywhere.” Tuan rolled his shoulders. “And I’m sure you know that I don’t need a sword to fight.”

“Do you defend Santos?” Donte asked Tuan incredulously. “After what he’s done?”

“What has he done? You make no sense, Fedeltà.”

Adin caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Boaz opened the driver’s side door of the limousine and got out. He came around the car to stand on the curb between them, but off to the side.

Santos stopped posturing with the baton and spoke. “From this day forward, Adin will be under my protection.”

“Like hell he will.” Wind whistled and the steel of Donte’s sword sang as he leaped forward.

“Stop!” Adin stepped between Donte and Santos, giving the latter a firm shove back toward Tuan, who stood, waiting. Donte barely had time to pull his strike. “Santos will see to my needs until I am less angry with you, Donte. You should thank him.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Donte’s dark eyes were angry and hurt. “You are angry with
me
?”

“Wait.” Tuan caught Adin’s arm when he would have turned away. “Donte, are you saying you didn’t turn Adin?”

Donte gripped his sword tighter. “I did not. You must know I did not.”

“How would I
know
that?” Tuan asked. “You haven’t been here to ask.”

“You never left his side while I was there.” Donte shook his head as if the question were ridiculous. “At any rate, I had no right to turn him. He told me he didn’t want—”

“You think
I
turned him?” Santos asked, genuinely shocked. “Why would he accept my protection if I turned him?”

Santos didn’t move, even as Donte advanced, even as the tip of Donte’s blade pressed against his throat. “If you lie—”

“I swear on my father’s soul—the soul of a man we both loved—that I did not,” Santos said evenly. “Can you say the same?”

“I can.” Donte lowered his sword. “On that same soul I swear. I did not turn Adin Tredeger.”

“What the fuck?” Adin sagged. Both Donte and Santos reached for him, although it was Tuan who finally thought to bring Adin the wheelchair. When Adin was seated he massaged his forehead absently. “I don’t understand.”

“This is troublesome.” Santos shot Donte a look loaded with meaning that Adin didn’t comprehend.

Adin looked up at his lover’s face. He stood tall and appeared more coldly unemotional than Adin had ever seen him. It was impossible to guess what he was thinking. It had been awful, trying to swallow the pain of his betrayal. If they’d all been wrong…

At that moment Edward emerged from the hospital with Bran in tow.

When he took in the scene at the curb where Donte and Santos stood, still armed, he froze.

“What’s going on here?”

“It seems—” Tuan frowned, “—we have a mystery on our hands. Donte and Santos insist they had nothing to do with turning Adin.”

“Well…
shit
.” Edward folded his arms and glared at both men. “He didn’t get it from a toilet seat. Who the hell else
could
have done it?”

As Donte sheathed his sword he turned to Edward. “Who knew he was here?”

“Just us.” Edward gestured toward the group of men who surrounded Adin and ticked them off on his fingers. “You. Tuan, me, Bran, Boaz, Santos and Adin himself.”

“Surely you don’t think I turned myself,” said Adin. “Is there any reason, any advantage for someone else to do it? One of the medical personnel?”

Adin looked up and saw Bran standing stock still under the overhead lighting, staring at Boaz with an expression of shock on his face. “Bran. What is it?”

“
Boaz.
Why?” Bran asked.

Everyone turned to Boaz at once. He gazed back at Bran without expression.

Edward was the first to break their shocked silence. “Boaz? Did you do this?”

Boaz sighed. “Do you mean did I put an end to Adin’s rubbish and move everyone forward to the inevitable outcome of the situation in order to protect Donte Fedeltà to whom I am sworn?
Yes
. I did.”

Adin had no words for the emotion that roiled through him.

“How?” Tuan asked.

Boaz held his hands out palm up. “I’m not without resources. This is a hospital full of vampires and vampire blood. How do you think?”

Adin gripped the arms of the wheelchair. “You wanted me to believe Santos did it.”

“Or Donte.” He nodded. “Frankly, I’m surprised that it matters one way or the other. However, it certainly wouldn’t do for Donte to kill Santos. I never expected that.”

“What did you expect?” Donte asked. “That I would welcome the violation of my lover in such a fashion?”

“Well. Frankly, yes.” Boaz eyed Donte. “Because he weakened you. And we couldn’t have that.”

“
We
couldn’t…” Donte’s voice failed him. Tuan’s hand dropped onto Adin’s shoulder when he would have risen from the wheelchair.

Santos turned to Boaz sadly. “This was a grave impertinence, Boaz, even for an imp. But it’s Donte’s to deal with. You are no longer welcome in my home. Don’t make it necessary for me to refuse you aid in the future, and steer well clear of my family.”

“I will,” Boaz said calmly.

Adin wanted to slip his hand into Donte’s, his face was so pained it was hard to look at him.

“Boaz,” Donte said finally. “Every breath you take from this moment on is the direct result of the love I bear your parents. I never want to see you again.”

“Fair enough,” Boaz agreed. “Because we both know that every breath Dr. Adin Tredeger has taken since he met you has cost you the respect of your peers, your time, your safety and every resource you have. We both know that the love of this human
pet
of yours would have been your undoing, and we both know that it was my loyalty to you, the love I bear you, and the responsibility my family undertook centuries ago to keep you safe that made me the only person—the only entity on the planet—who cared for you enough to do what was right in the face of what was comfortable and convenient.”

“Get out of my sight before I change my mind and tear you apart,” Donte spat.

“I’m going.” Boaz sauntered back around to the driver’s side door of the limousine and opened it. Before he got in he peered over the roof. “I’m sorry to say you’ll have to get another ride, Dr. Tredeger. I’m responsible for this vehicle and I have to return it before I go home.”

Adin shook his head.

Boaz hates me. Maybe he’s always hated me. How did I miss that?

The car’s engine started and Boaz drove sedately off, taillights winking in the shallow puddles left by the intermittent rain.

The six of them, Donte, Santos and Adin, Edward, Tuan and Bran watched it go. Adin realized that of all of them the only human—the most
normal
—was Edward.

Somewhere, the gods were probably having a good laugh at that.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Donte reached out to Adin and lifted him into his strong arms. Adin followed his instinct and pressed his face to the junction of Donte’s neck, where the silky turtleneck he wore hid the tendons and flesh Adin was aware of in a new and more profound, more sensual way.

“You smell good.” Adin closed his eyes. “Take me home, Donte. Please. Take me somewhere safe.”

“Caro,” Donte murmured against his skin. “If I could barter my life to return yours to you—”

“Don’t, Donte.”

“I’m so sorry. I never wanted for this to happen. No matter what you may believe. I could never have wished for this…”

“I know that. I know… I should have had more faith in you. I’m sorry.”

“Shh, caro. I’ll ask Tuan to bring my car.” Donte dug his keys out of a tight pocket and handed them off. It fell to the rest of them to wait until Tuan came back. No one spoke. There was little left for any of them to say. Adin noticed Bran hugged himself tightly against the cold and wished he could have put his arm around the boy. As it was, Edward filled in, drawing Bran close, patting his back, and giving him a reassuring smile.

It made Adin happy to see that, but he felt his own loss keenly. He liked Bran, and now he didn’t know what would happen between them.

Once Tuan brought the car around Edward and Donte helped Adin into the passenger seat. Edward took over the positioning of his seat belt, locking him in and then patting him as if he were a child. He brushed his lips across Adin’s forehead and murmured things in his ear that Adin didn’t understand because of all the other noises that crowded in on him.

Everything burned into his consciousness at once. It became his fondest wish to be isolated, somewhere outside of the city, away from the lights and the cacophony and the sensory overload for a while, if not forever, because even in the middle of the night, even in the dark, things were simply too much for him.

He suffered the terrifying desire to claw free of his skin and his body. Or to run and rut and feed like a feral animal.

As Donte keyed the ignition he seemed to read Adin’s mind. “I know how overwhelming everything is for you right now. I believe we should head for your home in Washington. I can make arrangements for another car and driver so we can travel comfortably.”

“All right.” As they pulled away from the curb, Adin turned to the side and waved to Edward and Bran. Bran looked like he was trying not to cry. Edward turned to him and said something, then chased the car a few feet until Adin rolled down the window and Donte applied the brakes.

“Bran will e-mail you first thing so you can keep in touch. You can video chat live and—”

“It will be all right, Bran.” Adin leaned out of the car. “I promise you. We’ll find a way to talk often while we’re trying to figure all this out.”

Bran’s face was so hopeful that Adin wanted to capture it and hold onto it. He wanted to imprint it on his heart so he would never allow himself to let Bran down again. He asked for Donte’s phone and used it to take Bran’s picture.

“I’m going to miss you,” Bran told him.

“I’m not going far. Promise me you’ll call me if you need to talk about anything. Anytime you want.”

Bran hesitated.

“Promise me.”

Adin got a smile and a nod from Bran as Edward put his arm around the boy. Adin waved once again and watched them as he and Donte edged out into the night.

When they could barely see the hospital in the distance, Adin remembered Donte’s gifts and sighed with regret.

“What?” Donte asked, taking his hand.

“I left your gifts behind. I thought—”


“I know what you thought.” Donte’s expression tightened.

“Now I wish I’d brought them with me. Now each one has new meaning, and I—”

“I’m sure Tuan can be persuaded to gather them up for you.”

Adin nodded. “I hope so.”

“And I have forever to find new things to gift you with,” he added. “If you’ll still let me.”

Adin squeezed Donte’s hand hard. “Who’s the
pazzo
now… Even if you had done this to me—”

“Don’t say anything you don’t mean, Adin.” Donte glanced at him, then back at the road.

“But I do mean it. I barely understand what’s happening to me. But even when I was furious with you, I loved you. I longed for you. I would have forgiven you eventually, if you’d done it. I know I would have… It might have taken time, but I would have.”

Donte’s voice grew hoarse. “I don’t deserve absolution. Even though I didn’t turn you, it was because of me that—”

“Maybe, but my forgiveness is mine to give along with my love and my future. It’s all yours, Donte. Everything.”

Donte was so silent Adin worried for a minute. “You said something like that before, when we first met.
‘My life is mine to give.’
”

Adin remembered. “For the record, I had already begun to change my mind about being turned.”

“What did you just say?” Donte asked.

“A lot of what I believed about love changed when I had to leave you in France,” Adin admitted.

“I don’t understand.”

“I thought then…what would I do for one more hour? What would I do if that was the last time…?” Adin’s throat closed.

“I didn’t know.” Donte pulled off the road, into the deserted parking lot of a closed restaurant.

“I’d have moved heaven and earth, let Peter break my other arm, every bone in my body—even turn me if it meant I could be with you again.”

“Caro. I had no idea. You left for America with Bran and I believed you understood that I would come when I could. When I spoke with Boaz I told him that I would be there as soon as it was safe for me to travel.”

Adin smiled bitterly. “I never got that message.”

“What?”

“Boaz told all of us you never called. He barely hinted that you might be on your way. Probably just to keep you from killing him when you finally got here.”

Donte’s face registered the pain of that betrayal. “I had no idea how deep his resentment went.”

“I’m sorry I came between you. He loved you in his own way.”

“He can’t have loved me if he harmed the person I cherish most. That’s not love.”

“He said you were a prince among men.”

Donte flashed his white smile. “I’m not even a count anymore.”

Adin felt the beginnings of a fathomless hunger bloom throughout his body. It made beads of cold sweat break out on his upper lip until he whispered aloud, “Donte…”

“Hungry?” Donte eyed Adin’s face, watching him with curiosity as the changes began. It seemed that Adin had his own blood song to sing. He felt it surge through his veins until it rang in his ears, driving him toward something he didn’t know how to find.

“Yes.” Adin hissed as his canines elongated. He shivered as the body hair rose on his skin, his teeth tore past his gums, and a desperate, wrenching emptiness clawed at his belly.

He hurt.

It hurts to want anything this much.
“Can you help me?”

“I can, caro. If you take a small amount from me, then it will stay your cravings until we can find something for the both of us. Shall I help you that way?”

Adin simply didn’t know. He’d never fed. He’d never had to. His needs were taken care of intravenously in the hospital and his cravings had been muted by medication. He still couldn’t make himself believe he’d ever use his teeth to tear someone’s flesh.

“Yes. But…”

“This first time I’ll open my own vein, here, on my arm, see?” Donte lifted the sleeve of his turtleneck, bringing his arm up and using his other hand to point out the place he planned to puncture. “When you get close to the skin you will feel it, press your lips just there…”

Adin did as he was told. He was shocked to feel blood beneath the surface of Donte’s skin like a hidden spring. He could smell it and it made his mouth water.

“I want it…” was all he could get out. The idea of tasting what he smelled made his eyes close in ecstasy.

“Ah, caro.” Donte bit his own wrist and Adin fell on it, lapping up the rich, red droplets until the wound closed.

Adin whimpered when he could find no more blood and Donte repeated the process twice more until Adin sighed happily.

“That’s right, caro. You don’t need much just yet.” Donte nuzzled him for a kiss and Adin knew they both tasted blood on his lips. Donte smiled indulgently at him, stroking a light finger over his cheek. “You—”

“What?” Adin asked. He was slightly ashamed of the greed with which he’d taken Donte’s blood, but discovered that beyond the need, beyond the thrill of having Donte’s flavor, his essence coursing through his veins, he felt nurtured in some indefinable way that made his love for Donte burn brighter than it ever had before.

“I would turn myself inside out for you,” Donte told him. “I find I very much enjoy feeding you this way for a change.”

“Ah, God. Me too.” Adin was so relaxed he felt boneless.

“But soon you’ll need others. It’s not a terrible thing if you learn to give pleasure while you take sustenance.”

Adin frowned. “I don’t want to give anyone pleasure but you.”

Donte laughed gently. “Do you want to know a secret?”

“Not if it means I have to—”

“Hush, caro.” Donte started the engine again. “You will not win this argument. Your body will demand blood. But there are ways of finding it without sharing intimacy with anyone. I save all my pleasure for you. I can give others pleasure for the gift of their blood, and remain completely unmoved.”

Adin leaned back in his seat, tired, replete for the moment, and happier than he’d been in a long time. “Bet you thought you could do that with me.”

“I admit, the thought occurred to me in the airplane when we first met.”

“Except I am
irresistible
.” Adin lifted the lever that caused the seat to sink backward.

“Of course you are.”

“I’m still vampire catnip.”

“Indeed.” Donte reached into the back seat and pulled his coat forward for Adin. “Here, pull this up over you, so you don’t get cold.”

“How often do you get cold?”

Donte stopped in the act of tucking Adin in. His hand still hovered over Adin’s chest. Adin caught it and kissed the knuckles, giving them a tiny nip in the process.

“This is going to take some getting used to, isn’t it, my lover?”

Donte smiled indulgently and continued to drive. The wipers picked up speed as the rain came down harder. “We have plenty of time, più amato.”