Embrace the Heat (8 page)

He’d rarely even touched his favorite toy.
Certainly, he’d never had sex with him. It hadn’t taken long to
discover the best way to break Simon. Roger got off on getting
other blood whores to pleasure his toy. He got others to come in
and make his toy feel like he was the one victimizing other blood
whores. No one brought him quite the same joy, but he wasn’t going
to risk it all to get that back.

Looking around at his new compound, he was
pleased. Anyone who passed by would see a burnt out old town, never
noticing Roger’s empire hidden within. The town had once been
called Emeryville, and some of the older buildings, like the town
hall, were still in relatively good repair. The real benefit was
the underground tunnels which were built nearly two hundred
years ago. Those had been expanded upon to provide hiding places
and a way to get to other buildings if they ever needed to evacuate
quickly.

The blood whores didn’t come near this place
because of the bad memories. Even the ones who hadn’t been alive
back when the reservation was still in use feared this place. It
wasn’t close to any other settlements, so they didn’t attract
attention. Roger felt it was much more secure than the island
they’d lived on for more than eighty years.

If he was the sentimental sort, he’d probably
be emotional about being in the place where his father had been
killed. Of course, to feel that kind of emotional reaction he would
have needed to give a fuck about his father. He hadn’t. Most of
Roger’s childhood had been spent in east coast boarding
schools.

Still, he could respect his father’s legacy.
His father had been a brilliant visionary who had established one
of the largest vampire reservations and bribed inspectors to claim
the vampires were all treated well. He’d let Roger use the blood
whores at his leisure. Yes, his father had been a man to
admire.

“You wanted to see me,” said the nervous head
of the lab. Craig Adler was nothing compared to Bethany St. James,
and that made Roger want to kill Graham all over again. Bethany had
created the serum to give him eternal youth and altered the Moon
virus so it could be used to build a biddable vampire army. She
would have been able to solve their dilemma much faster than Craig.
Graham, the moron, had killed her.

Craig pushed his glasses up onto his nose
with one chubby finger. His curly brown hair was damp with sweat,
as usual, and he looked like he might faint. His eyes moved around
the room quickly as if trying hard to avoid looking at Roger.

“Tell me the situation with our supply of
nymph blood,” Roger ordered. “Do we have enough to continue the
experiments with the vampires and keep up with our own
treatments?”

Craig sighed and shook his head. “We should
probably stop the vampire experiments for the time being.”

Miles sat across the room, looking completely
bored until that moment. “That’s the only chance we have of
matching the strength of the blood brats. If we stop the
experiments, we’ll be forced to hide like rats forever.”

“There must be something else we can use to
control the vampires,” Roger said. “Although I’ve been thinking
about our treatments, and I believe we should consider an alternate
method of maintaining our youth.”

“We haven’t found anything that can maintain
our youth without the nymph blood,” Craig argued.

“Vampires don’t get old,” Roger said and
watched the shock flash across Miles’ face.

“I thought we all agreed that there was no
need to become one of those disgusting creatures,” Miles said
nervously.

Roger couldn’t help noticing that Miles
sounded more like he was parroting Graham’s sentiments. There was
no conviction behind his words. “Graham always believed that. My
only concern is regaining power. The means to the end don’t concern
me much.”

“I don’t want to die,” Miles said in a whiny
voice.

“Don’t be so melodramatic, Miles.” Roger
turned his attention to Craig. “Find a way to keep the heart
beating indefinitely after the change. Find out what causes it to
stop. We already know the new virus doesn’t cause a quick death
like the old one did. We just need to find out how to avoid the
death part completely.”

Craig opened his mouth to argue, but Roger
put a hand up to silence him. “I don’t want to hear any excuses. We
keep you alive for one reason only. If you cease to be useful in
the lab, I will feed you to the vampires.”

Craig swallowed hard before answering. “I’ll
start working on it right away.” He scurried out of the room as if
he were being chased by rabid vampires.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Miles
asked anxiously.

“Graham was a fool for refusing to consider
it earlier. This is a new era, and vampires rule this land. It’s
time for us to embrace the future. Once we regain control we’ll
move on to securing a place as a world power. I’m sure the right
countries will pay a great deal to get their hands on this version
of the virus. They’ll be eager to build stronger armies. Their
leaders will clamor at the chance to have eternal youth.”

Miles still looked nervous. “I just want to
be safe. I’m not sure I really care that much about having power in
other countries.”

Roger laughed. “You’re lucky I’m so devoted
to you, Cousin. There are days when I get really tired of your
pathetic whining.”

Miles sighed. “You’re right, I guess. If
you’ll excuse me, I’m going for a walk.”

Roger watched Miles leave and wondered if
he’d end up having to kill his own cousin eventually. Strange how
that thought bothered him on some level. Not enough to prevent him
from doing it, or even to prevent him from enjoying it. Still, it
was strange that he felt even a hint of emotion.

Simon hated being in charge, and he didn’t
miss the irony in that realization. For more than a decade, he’d
tried to take over as leader of their settlement. Now, he was only
in charge for a few weeks, and he was about ready to lose it. No
wonder Connor was an irritable bastard most of the time.

Normally, Connor left Shelby in charge when
he had to go to Fangri La, and Simon was really wishing she
was in charge this time. There was a lot of work under normal
circumstances, but with the Moon virus outbreak at Camp Parks and
whatever was going on with Layla, Simon was exhausted.

Ian was waiting at his front door when he got
home.

“What’s up with the little blonde human?” Ian
asked.

Ian had warmed up to Raven’s humans, but he
still tried to distance himself most of the time. He never called
them by their names. He’d go out and fight with them, but they all
had nicknames of sorts. Most of those nicknames had the word
‘human’ tagged onto the end. The exception was Danny, who Ian
seemed to like and respect. Of course, there was also the fact that
Danny had called Ian ‘the moody blood sucker’ until Ian started
using his actual name. Danny had a knack for being annoying in an
almost endearing way.

“I have no idea what’s going on with Layla,”
Simon said as he ran one hand through his hair. “She’s giving off
some smell that makes every male vampire who gets anywhere near her
want to jump her.”

“Like hurt her?” Ian asked with obvious
concern, something he wouldn’t have felt for any human a year
ago.

“Like screw her brains out,” Simon said
irritably.

Ian surprised Simon when he started
laughing.

“It’s not funny,” Simon grumbled.

“Yes, it is,” Ian said. “She’s like a walking
aphrodisiac. Maybe she’s wearing something that causes it. How are
the humans around her?”

“The humans are fine, and it’s not something
she’s wearing. This is her. I don’t even know how to explain
it.”

“So,” Ian began, his catlike green eyes alive
with mirth, “how is this affecting you? Near as I could tell, you
wanted to jump her before this happened.”

Simon glared at him. “I did not want to jump
Layla. Humans are good for one thing only and Raven’s humans are
off limits for blood donation.”
Unless they volunteer,
Simon
added to himself. Would Layla ever let him take her blood? Just
thinking about getting close enough to slide his fangs into her
throat got him hard. Maybe he’d take it from her inner thigh.
Giving himself a mental smack, he tried to get his thoughts under
control. He needed to stop with those inner musings before he ended
up doing something stupid.

“I never said you were going to do anything
about it,” Ian said as he made himself at home on Simon’s sofa. “I
just said you wanted to do something about it.”

While Simon hated to admit it, Ian was right.
He’d wanted Layla for a long time. Still, it was never going to
happen.

“You know, I like the little blonde human,”
Ian said thoughtfully.

“So do I,” Simon said. “That’s the reason it
doesn’t matter if I want her. Sex would mean more to her, and I’m
not going to hurt her like that. She’d be devastated when she
realized that we had no future together.”

“You think quite a bit of yourself, don’t
you?” Ian asked with an amused smile playing on his lips.

Simon had to admit that his statement
probably sounded pretty arrogant. “I’m not trying to say Layla
would fall in love with me because I’m so great in bed. It’s just
that she hasn’t been with any man since she’s been living here.
Obviously, she’s one of those women who want a relationship. She’s
waiting to find the right man.”

“Funny how you know she hasn’t been with a
man since she moved here,” Ian pointed out. “I mean, I didn’t know
that, and I like her too. It seems like we like her in different
ways.”

“Did you need something?” Simon asked.
“Otherwise, I need to call Connor about what’s going on with
Layla.”

“It can wait until you’re done,” Ian said and
closed his eyes.

Simon figured Mitchell must be off doing
something Ian was worried about. That was the only explanation for
his lingering presence. They were friends, good friends actually.
Still, neither was the type to sit around and talk about feelings
or crap like that. That was one of the reasons they’d become good
friends in the first place.

Simon took out his phone and called
Connor.

Connor answered after three rings. “What’s up
Si?” he asked by way of greeting.

That was Connor. No need for pleasantries or
wasted words.

“We’ve got a situation here,” he said. “I’m
not sure how to deal with it, and I thought you and Raven could
help.”

“Raven’s asleep, and I’m not planning to wake
her up,” Connor said. “This has been a really rough trip for her.
Tell me what’s going on.”

Simon sighed. By now, everyone in
Fangri La should be over the newness of Raven. Of course, if
that were the case, Connor likely would have left her at home for
this meeting with the main vampire council. She didn’t travel well.
As a wood nymph, Raven had to be close to her spirit tree and
animal. Now that Connor and Raven had two live in wolves, it
was easy to remedy the part about the spirit animal. The tree was
another matter. Fangri La was in the desert. It had been built
on the sight formerly known as Las Vegas and there weren’t a lot of
trees, not since the human society fell. To complicate matters, not
just any tree would do. Raven needed an oak tree. To get around the
problem, they traveled with a sapling, but Raven was still weak
when they went on these trips.

“It’s about Layla,” Simon warned.

Connor was silent for a short while,
obviously considering Raven’s reaction to him leaving her out of
the loop. “She can hear about it when we get back. I don’t care how
pissed she gets. The little nymph really needs rest right now.
What’s going on with Layla?”

“I’m not really sure how to explain this,”
Simon said.

“Please tell me you didn’t have sex with
her,” Connor said irritably.

“What?” Simon nearly shouted. “Why would you
think I’d slept with her?”

Ian snickered from the sofa but didn’t open
his eyes.

“Just tell me what happened,” Connor
pushed.

“When Layla came to the training center
today, she had a strange smell,” he explained.

“You called to talk to me about the way she
smells?” Connor sounded annoyed.

“Every male vampire who gets anywhere near
her is instantly hard,” Simon said. No way to sugar coat or ease
into this.

Connor was quiet for a long time. Simon
understood why. This was one of the craziest things he’d ever
experienced, and that really said a lot. Okay, it wasn’t as
shocking as meeting Raven. Finding out wood nymphs were real was a
much bigger shock, but this was still pretty crazy.

“Can you repeat that?” Connor asked after a
long pause.

“I know it sounds insane, but when I walked
her home from the training center about a dozen horny male vampires
followed us. Layla insists it’s just some new soap she tried. She
thinks it’ll wash off in the shower.”

“She might be right,” Connor said
thoughtfully. “It seems strange that the soap would only affect her
that way though. It’s certainly been used by others at the
settlement without anything like this happening. Of course, it
could just be something about her body chemistry.”

“I don’t think so,” Simon said. “It’s her
scent that’s changed, not a scent she’s wearing.”

“Raven can put off pheromones,” Connor said
thoughtfully. “It’s a wood nymph thing, but Layla isn’t a wood
nymph. She doesn’t need contact with nature, and she clearly can’t
see the areas of the woods the nymphs can. If she had even a little
nymph blood she’d be able to see those areas of the woods.”

“She also hasn’t had sex since she’s been
here,” Simon pointed out. “She’d need a man in that time if she was
a nymph.”

There was a beat of silence. “How would you
know how long it’s been since she had sex?” Connor asked. If Simon
wasn’t mistaken, Connor sounded like he was fighting back
laughter.