Infamous: (A Bad Boy Romantic Suspense) (43 page)

They bit and then sucked, draining the life out of me. And I loved it. I loved the sensation of being consumed. Their lips pulled at my skin, their tongues pressed, their mouths drank. Each made a small groaning sound of satisfaction.

My eyelids fluttered, wanting to close. To give over and just float, then fade. If this was what death was like, this ecstasy, I couldn’t wait for it.

I felt their teeth retract, their lips pull back. I whimpered a little, wanting them to stay. To finish me.

Soft words in my ear. Soothing. Comforting. A cool hand on my face. I was being rocked, slowly, as my life finally, inevitably dropped away. I took one last human breath.

And died.

Pain. Like white heat and birth. Everything came alive at once, rushing up, taking flight. Nerves sang, fresh and sharp. Senses were honed now, hearing water miles away, feelings roots digging into the earth. My eyes saw past the darkness to the detail of every stone, every hair and pore.

I felt myself begin again. A new me. Not alive. Undead.

I stood and they fell back, Robert and Dimitri discreetly licking their lips. I felt really…good.

Looking down at my hands, I could see the veins, the blood not pumping, hear the silence of my heart. But I could hear Tina’s beating fast, like a bird’s. I staggered a little, feeling overwhelmed. It was like my mind was opening up to everything in an intense new way. I was taking everything in, every texture, nuance of sound, color, light.

“Wow,” I said.

I looked down at my hands and flexed. All my limbs felt tingly, almost like pins and needles, but more…alive than asleep. Like I was waking up for the very first time and the whole world was new.

“How do you feel?” asked Tina.

“Like I can do anything,” I said, and then laughed.

“Not…hungry?” she asked.

“No, not yet. Will it be bad?” I asked. Robert and Dimitri had stood up and were looking at me with something like wonder.

“It’s usually pretty intense, the need for the first feeding. It gets easier after,” Robert offered.

“She’s…,” Dimitri started.

“I know.” Robert smiled.

“What?” I looked at them both in confusion.

“You’re breathtaking, Emma,” Robert said.

“Oh. Well…thank you.”

We all stood there in a weirdly awkward, but still comrade-in-arms-like silence. We’d survived. Well, sort of. I felt like being a vampire counted as “surviving,” very technically.

“Er, we should probably go get Tasha. Since that werewolf friend of yours betrayed us, I’m a little worried,” I said. Tina nodded.

“Yeah, I’m going to kick his ass the next time I see him.” And off we went.

We went to a small farmhouse that was about as BBC Period Drama as you could get and found Tasha, wrapped up in blankets, sleeping by a fire. Someone had cleaned her face and rubbed stuff on her bruised eye. She looked much better than she had in the basement. Which probably goes without saying.

There were a bunch of burly men, and two women, watching out for her. Including the betrayer, Sam, who was in a corner, a silver chain around his neck. We could hear him whimpering.

“We don’t know what to do with him,” said a man with long blond hair. His name was Matthew and he looked to be the leader of the pack. Tina looked at Sam.

“Why did he do it? He can’t stand vampires generally, and House Dracul was responsible for a lot of the worst persecution of werewolves back in the day,” she said.

“I…had…to. They…had my…brother,” Sam said from the corner. He was only half-transformed. The silver seemed to keep him from going either full wolf or full human.

“Do they still?” I asked. He shook his head.

“The pack got him out,” Matthew said. “Once we realized what had happened, we went back. They had him in a cell not far from Robert and Dimitri.” He looked at Sam with disgust. “If you’d just told us, we could have helped sooner.”

Sam hung his head in shame. I felt sorry for him.

“I think he’s learned his lesson. He didn’t do it to be evil. I know what it’s like to have someone you care about used to threaten you,” I said.

“He could have gotten you killed,” Robert said. Dimitri looked ready to tear out his throat.

“But I wasn’t. Well, not exactly. In any case, it’s over. If we hurt him in some way we’re no better than the people we’re fighting. Just keep an eye on him. Can you do that?” I asked. Matthew nodded. They took the silver off him and Sam transformed, gratefully, into his full human form. And it was pretty cute, too, with long brown hair and just the right amount of stubble. He grinned at me.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re welcome. Do something like that again to me or my friends and I’ll take your head off,” I said. He nodded, bowed, and left. The rest of the pack exited after, with only Matthew and his mate, Cora, staying behind.

“Thank you,” I said, putting out my hand. Cora took it first with a little grin. She was adorable, with wild red hair and the perfect amount of freckles.

“You’re quite new, aren’t you?” she said, sniffing me. I smiled.

“Newly minted and dewy fresh,” I said. Matthew was looking at me speculatively.

“You smell—” he started.

“If you say ‘different’ or ‘special,’ I will slap you,” I said. He laughed.

“I was going to say you smelled like dead spider and bug spray, actually,” he said. I blushed.

“Er, yes. Yes I do.” He was right, I kind of reeked of the stuff. Or maybe that was just my heightened sense of smell. I’d thought it would mostly be for, like, blood. Nope. I could smell sweat and the fact that, sometime the day before, Matthew and Cora had had sex. Which was a pretty weird thing to suddenly realize I could tell. I think Cora knew because she gave me a little wink.

“Can we go home now?” asked Tina, yawning hugely. She looked pretty wiped. Dimitri and Robert smiled at her fondly and I realized I wasn’t tired at all. Not even a little. In fact, I had never felt more awake in my life.

We said our goodbyes to the werewolves and headed back to London. Robert called his people who had picked up Alexis from the rendezvous. They’d taken her to a safe house and would get to her. Eventually. For now, things were quiet, and all-out war had been narrowly averted. How long it would last, we didn’t know. House Dracul would clearly need to be dealt with, but carefully. The political game was going to get more complicated from here.

Frankly, though, I didn’t give much of a damn. I was on sensory overload, practically twitching from all the new sensations. I felt like I was vibrating in the car seat, staring out the window and being able to see for miles and miles because the rain had cleared up and everything was now sharp and clean. Even though it was dark I felt like I was seeing new colors, shadows, shades, and textures. I could see the wolf pack over the moors even though they were at least twenty miles away. I could see the moonlight on their fur.

When I opened the window I heard the wind rushing, but now I heard voices in it. And I thought of Solosha.

“Is Solosha alright?” I asked, turning to Dimitri and Robert. They nodded.

“She’s keeping watch on the safe house, making sure Alexis is well hidden and…taken care of,” Robert said. I was relieved. I still felt badly for getting her hurt.

“Is there anything sylphs really love?” I asked.

“Scents. Anything that smells good,” said Tina from the front of the car. She was driving at a good clip and seemed to particularly enjoy taking corners at a sharp speed. With all vamps in the car, I guessed she didn’t have to worry as much about accidents. Maybe. We could probably still get our heads cut off in a bad enough wreck. I’d have to keep that in mind.

“So. What do you want to do first?” asked Dimitri.

“As a vampire? I don’t know. Run over rooftops, leap tall buildings…wait, can we fly?” I asked. Dimitri laughed.

“No, but we can move pretty fast, as you can see. We can influence people,” he said.

“And we look really good in suits,” said Robert. Dimitri barked laughter, it was such a rare joke.

“You’re bringing out the more relaxed Lord Ellory, Emma. I can’t wait to see what comes next,” he said. I looked at them both, sitting and relaxing, almost friendly.

“What’s up with you two? You look…different,” I said.

“We feel different. Right, Robert?” Dimitri said.

“Very,” Robert said. I quirked a brow but they didn’t share. I let it go, but would definitely be prying again later. For two guys who had been ready to at least get into a battle of fisticuffs over me a few weeks ago, they were suddenly very chummy. Was it that they’d both bitten me?

I searched my new feelings, wondering if I still had this “no influence” ability.

“You need to try and influence me the way a maker usually does. Both of you. We have to test this sucker out,” I said, wincing slightly at the inadvertent pun. I guess some things don’t die even when you do.

I waited. They looked at me. Their eyes were shiny obsidian, then an almost glittering, black diamond shade. They smiled. I smiled back.

And that was it. I didn’t feel compelled to do anything. They looked at one another.

“Well?” I asked.

“Looks like you can’t be influenced,” said Dimitri, grinning wide. “I’m glad.”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Yes. You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t a spectacular pain in the ass sometimes.” I stuck my tongue out at him and Robert laughed. It was lighter now, less gravelly. Like a real laugh, with joy in it.

This time I sat between them, draping my legs over Dimitri and putting my head in Robert’s lap.

“It’s going to be something special, isn’t it,” I said, but it wasn’t a question. I knew it.

Robert kissed me softly on the corner of the mouth, Dimitri on my wrist.

“Yes,” they both said. “This is something very special.”

Immortality is, in a word: awesome. Were you expecting something broody and dark about the precious vulnerability of a finite life? Well, that’s all true, too. But so far I like this whole undead thing.

It helps that I’m having a lot of earth-shattering sex.

Dimitri, Robert, and I are kind of a vampire trio of badassery. We’ve made a lot of progress politically. The rest of the vampire houses weren’t real happy with the Dracul. Turned out a lot of other vampires were sort of tired of ye old hack and slash and power trips. Most wanted to be left alone and enjoy their immortality in peace.

Of course, there were some holdouts. Edward of the council clearly wished we would all go back to olden times but he was soundly rejected. Solosha, much to my surprise, even congratulated me on my newfound vampire state. It was a bit of a whirlwind.

Alexis was hauled before the council and, I believe, was set to spend the two centuries in a vampire time-out. Some kind of sensory deprivation cell that made them…docile. Apparently. I’d believe that when she got out in two hundred years. Something about the way she looked at me didn’t suggest she was going to be easily cowed no matter how long she was locked away. There was pure hate there.

After that, we all went back to Paris. Me, Tina, Robert and Dimitri. They didn’t want to leave my side. Seemed compelled somehow to always be near, in fact. I was a little surprised; Dimitri at least I had thought might go off on his own for a while in spite of his declaration. But he didn’t seem to want to.

There were no more fights or squabbles about time with me, carnal or otherwise. There was simply passion and easy camaraderie. We went to museums, had fancy dinners, toured crypts and all the usual vampiric haunts. Anything I wanted to do, they wanted to do.

And that’s when I realized: my “ability” to not be influenced by vampires had transferred to being able to influence them. But my lovers didn’t seem to be aware of it. It was a heady thing to realize. That I could exert that kind of power and will without them knowing.

Unfortunately I have a sense of the ethics and couldn’t let it continue. It didn’t seem fair.

I took them both up to the roof one night when the moon was half-full and the air was warm over the city. I told them what I’d discovered. And they laughed.

“Oh, Emma. The only influence you have over us is our love for you,” said Robert, whirling me around.

“Are you sure?” I asked, feeling dizzy.

“Even if we weren’t, it wouldn’t matter. You had us under your spell from the moment we laid eyes on you. And then, when your blood passed our lips? We were gone for good,” said Dimitri, taking me into his arms.

We danced like that, me switching partners, swirling and whirling above the City of Love. It was a dream, a moment, a lifetime.

“I love you,” I said, finally, to them both. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

I made love to Dimitri there on the roof while Robert went and prepared something he wouldn’t say. Dimitri took me in the moonlight, hard, thrusting deep and daring. Our bodies were pale limbs merging, blended and blurring, crying out in the heat of the night.

When I went inside, kissing Dimitri, who smiled and whispered, “I love you, Ems.” I skipped down the stairs and into the main room, where a fire was raging. Candles lined the walls, aglow on every surface.

Robert stood in the middle of the room, splendidly naked. His long limbs were golden in the light, buttocks round, stomach a perfect V. He looked at me with a heat that made the fire look pale and cold in comparison.

I peeled off my clothing and stood before him.

And then we were together, another blending, another heat, another coming undone, then complete again.

We had all stopped sleeping in separate rooms by now, me in the middle of an enormous bed, my two loves by my sides. We slept and avoided the light, and woke together in darkness. We ran the night, we sipped our blood, we lived and loved and lived again.

We will explore the world together, again and again, discovering and exploring and finding something new every day, year, and century. That’s what I hope. I don’t really know. I don’t want to plan too far ahead. Ahead stretches before me like a road without end. It’s daunting but beautiful. Terrifying and breathtaking. Everything is full of potential.

I don’t know what the future holds except for this: my men will love me forever, the best they can. And I will love them, the best I can. Always. And forever.