King of Darkness (34 page)

“No. Now I’m not going to ask you again, Agnessa. Please leave.” He was determined not to let her get a rise out of him. But damn, if she continued to slink around and rub her body against his, he was going to throw her out the old-fashioned way.

One error in judgment, and centuries later it was still haunting him.

“Mmm, what’s wrong, Leeland?” She sat back on her haunches and licked her paw in a delicate manner. Her head cocked to the side as she studied him, those glowing eyes boring into his skull. “You are so tense. Is it that human you were thinking of before? You know I could take better care of you than her.”

He pointed an accusing finger at the lioness in front of him. “Stay out of my head, Agnessa. I don’t want you there, and I don’t want you here. I am leaving now, and I expect you to be gone when I get back—or I will make goddamned sure you regret it.”

He grabbed blindly behind himself, relieved when his hand made contact with the doorknob. Twisting furiously, he pivoted on his still-booted heel and left the room. The door slammed behind him.

Of all the skeletons in his past, this was a particularly shitty one to rear its head, especially tonight. And damn it all to hell, why had he stormed out when his intention had been to kick her to the curb? Too late now. His only concern for the time being was to put distance between himself and the female in his room.

Lee remembered Thad’s request to clear out the office. It seemed like a fantastic rationalization for hiding out like a pansy while he waited for Agnessa to clear out. He headed to the basement and strode through the office doors. He paced the room, slowly at first, but it didn’t take long for his coordination to fail him.

“Fucking Agnessa,” he growled. Why the fuck had that bitch chosen tonight to show up? She had kept to herself on the other side of the estate for a long time now, and he damn well liked it that way. She had mentioned Lexi. Could she have shown up because of the human? He could add that to his list of reasons to stay away from the girl. He shuddered to think what Agnessa could do out of a sense of misguided jealousy.

That she’d sensed his arousal earlier was troubling. Disturbing on a couple of different levels. It indicated to Lee that enough of his blood was within her that she could still feel him, even after all these years of being apart. Moreover, it meant she’d been in tune with his emotions all these years and he’d never known.

Since the time he and Agnessa had split, Lee had gorged himself on the blood of enough other females to effectively purge his knowledge of her. It had given him the illusion that he was free and clear of her when clearly he wasn’t. In retrospect that wasn’t wise, but decisions made out of anger rarely were.

He needed to take a step back. From Agnessa. From Alexia. The way Siddoh had sauntered out of the girl’s room, laughing and—

Jealousy was a luxury he couldn’t afford.

He picked up the pace, but walking faster seemed to get him more lathered rather than calming him down. He wound his way past the wingback chairs and spindly Victorian writing desk, then back toward the double doors again.

Alexia… Siddoh… losing Eamon tonight… Tyra being MIA… Finding Agnessa camped out in his room was just craptastic icing on the cake. Mating Agnessa had landed him in Hell for the rest of eternity.

It was all too much.

The thrumming of blood in his ears and the bitter taste of his own self-loathing bore down on him. The impassive cloak of iron will that he so vigilantly maintained was on the brink of total collapse. Even before he’d finally manned up and left Agnessa, he had never been so out of his head.

His body shook until he couldn’t hold it all in anymore. As he turned on his heel, Lee let out a bellow that completely drowned out the splintering and cracking sounds of wood beneath his still-clenched fist. That poor froufrou desk never knew what hit it. The thing folded in on itself, and without any real comprehension, he brought his arm and foot down repeatedly until his blood began to splatter over the carpet and the fragments of wood.

He watched with curious detachment while his bleeding fist landed a final blow on the busted pile of sticks. Even though the poor thing was down for the count, Lee felt the need to start kicking, scattering the pieces around the room until finally his anger had diminished to a low simmer.

It was still there, though. It always would be.

With a groan, Lee dropped into one of the wingback chairs and flexed his hand. Gave it a shake. Ran it over the top of his head. The broken bits of desk now scattered before him, he gave a final halfhearted nudge at one piece with the toe of his boot.

What appeared to have been the bottom of a drawer skittered away from him. Even though he was loathe to do it, Lee knelt on the floor to gather the chunks of desk and pick up the large splinters that had embedded themselves into the carpet. He gathered most of it into a pile and shoveled it into a nearby trash can.

The larger pieces he broke efficiently over his upper thigh before stacking them beside the now full bin. When he prepared to do the same with the drawer, a tiny corner of paper poked out from between two pressed boards.

The envelope that slipped out didn’t look terribly old. The cream-colored paper was pristine with no dusty or musty odors. The seal looked and smelled fairly fresh. The ink—Lee’s name, written in the former king’s smooth script—was dark and bold.

What he saw on the crisp page inside nearly floored him. The letter explained a lot, and it changed everything. He needed to find Tyra and make sure she was okay, ASAP.

It was only a short while until dawn at this point, but he could move fast enough to make it to her office before the sun came up. He had to talk to her, make sure she was safe. Agnessa, Alexia, and his previous angry outburst would all just have to go get fucked.

He tapped his foot impatiently in the elevator. There was a lot to handle right now. Lee knew he could fix this and leave the bigger stuff to Thad. Bringing his friend into it would be too dangerous anyway. Odds were very good that this was what had gotten Thad’s father killed.

He dashed off a quick text on his phone, hitting Send as he stepped off the elevator. Everything would be under control. No problem.

“Shit,” Lee muttered. He stopped on the patio outside of the mansion’s back door. He had no jacket, no weapons. He’d dropped everything on the bed before running out of his room and away from Agnessa like a damn coward. He shook his head and slipped the note into his back pocket as he did a 180.

Thank all that was good and holy, Agnessa was gone when he got there. Lee grabbed his gear and bloody jacket in record time and sped briskly back out of the mansion. A din of voices floated from the front hall but he was out the door before anyone saw him.

Maybe he wasn’t done killing tonight after all.

***

The bed had been made in her absence. The broken glass in the bathroom had been cleaned up as well, and the towels and robe had been replaced.

Room service moved fast around here.

Isabel was just preparing to lie down on the freshly made bed when she heard a firm knock. Her blood rushed a little faster. She didn’t need to open the door to know Thad was on the other side.

He was braced in the doorway, looking like he’d aged a century or two in the past several minutes. What should she say? That he was in pain was as plain as the nose on his face and evidenced by the dark circles under his eyes and the bone-deep anguish that had welled up within her. Just from the one time he’d fed her, she could feel the exquisite knot of pain in his gut, twisting tighter and tighter.

“May I come in.” It was more of a statement than a question, posed flatly and without emotion. She stood back to allow him past her, closing the door behind him. He entered and paced quietly back and forth with his hands on his hips.

“Thad?” She approached slowly. What could she possibly do to assuage what he was feeling? What
she
was now feeling.

His nostrils flared as he stood before her, tracking her with his eyes. Fluttering to the surface from underneath all that agony was something else entirely. He wanted her.

A bright hope flared from deep within Isabel. Maybe it wasn’t too late after all. She closed her eyes as his hand slid along her jaw. Every cell in her body practically broke into song in response to the warmth in his fingers. How on earth had she thought she could live without this?

“I came to say good-bye.”

Oh. Isabel’s head snapped up. Her heart and her spirit had begun to swell and float like helium-filled balloons at the sight of Thad standing in the doorway, but now they popped and fizzled to the floor. “What?”

“I’ve got a car for you, if you want. If you prefer, Ivy can get you plane tickets.” His hand continued to stroke the side of her face in a lazy up-and-down motion. “I don’t want to force this,” he said softly. “Besides, it’s for the best. It’s not safe for you. I can’t make you a guarantee that what happened tonight wouldn’t happen again. Not without making you a prisoner in this house, and I don’t want that for you.”

It was stunning, the level of disappointment that she felt over losing something she hadn’t thought she’d even wanted. The sudden ache in her chest over losing something she had never actually had. Her breathing deepened in an effort to tamp down the rush of tears that welled up.

Bottom line, Isabel had screwed up. She had been right before: he was probably angry at her for leaving the estate. For getting captured. Or maybe she’d handled things badly with that room full of vampires earlier. She’d overstepped her bounds, or perhaps she’d been too harsh with them. She sighed. Maybe it didn’t even matter why.

Like
he
said, it’s for the best
. The reasons why she’d been hesitant at the outset hadn’t changed, after all. “Thad, I—”

Before she knew what had hit her, Thad’s mouth and body were on top of hers. Her breath was sucked out of her lungs. Despite the surprise and the fact that he crushed the wind out of her, she reveled in the comfort of his powerful embrace.

Her body melted into Thad’s. She clung to him for dear life as their bodies fell together onto the bed. There was no heated urgency as before. His kiss was slow and deep, while his hands wandered beneath the layers of her clothing and explored in a leisurely fashion.

Wherever his hands wandered, Isabel’s skin sizzled. From the sensitive patch of skin under her navel to her rib cage to the valley between her breasts. His hand lingered there, and her heart thumped against it. Hard. Like maybe it was going to miss him just as much as the rest of her was.

“Everything okay in there?”

No.
“Seems to be beating just fine.” And that was really all she could say for certain.

Thad nodded and kissed her again briefly. Fingers roamed, gently grazing over her nipples and leaving them hot, tight, and hard.

Aching.

This time, she lay back and drank in the hard body and warm skin. If this was good-bye, dammit, she was determined to savor the experience.

Isabel met Thad’s gaze as he pulled back long enough to divest himself of his clothes. His eyes barely left hers as he reached down to pull down her jeans and then push her sweatshirt up and over her head. The combination of despair and lust in his azure gaze nearly broke Isabel into pieces.

Whatever
you
do, don’t cry… it’ll totally kill the mood.

She shivered a little as that now-familiar chill returned to her body, but it was immediately chased away by the cozy blanket of Thad’s body on hers.

Isabel closed her eyes and sighed. Her arms encircled his back, and her legs wrapped themselves around his. For a moment, she was home. She allowed herself the foolish notion that they could stay wrapped around each other like this for an eternity.

“Thad,” she gasped. He entered her quickly. Their bodies melded together, surging in concert like a cresting wave as he made love to her, slow and deep. And this time, it really was making love. Every sigh and caress was filled with emotion, and for this moment, they both let go completely.

Impossibly, even without the aid of the wine or anything else to heighten their senses, it was better than before. Every nerve in her body and every receptor in her brain seemed wide open and set to receive only pleasure. Thad’s pleasure. In moments her skin was slicked with sweat—or maybe steam, thanks to the combination of his inner fire and her inner ice power. It made the slide of his body over hers smooth and effortless.

Thad’s blue eyes locked onto her face. His pupils, dilated with desire, were bottomless and mesmerizing. Isabel couldn’t have looked away, even if she had wanted to. With each thrust, each heartbeat, she silently projected all the things she couldn’t say aloud into those dark pools, like whispering wishes into a well.
I’ll miss you. I’m sorry… I wish you would ask me to stay again.

Her hips undulated, rising to meet his as he pumped into her. She clutched desperately at his back. Powerful muscles rippled and strained beneath her hands with each movement. His quiet grunts and pants in her ear seemed to make promises in a language only her body could understand.