Midnight Soul (79 page)

I had to admit I was getting more than a
little bit sick of this Lucien business. Mostly not knowing what in
the hell everyone was talking about and especially now that I’d
laid eyes on him.

However, I wasn’t stupid. Stephanie was being
serious, she was also being real. She wasn’t trying to scare me,
she was telling me like it was. She was trying to protect me. Even
though she was a vampire, I decided not to throw that back in her
face. I might be a lot of things but I wasn’t someone who would do
that
.

“Now I’ll introduce you to one of my old
concubines,” she told me, her voice back to friendly and
cheerful.

She led me to a man who had to be seventy
years old—and, I will add, Stephanie looked about twenty-five—but
he was a fit, still handsome seventy year old with an even fitter,
more handsome thirty-something man with him. The younger was the
only man in the room wearing a red bow tie.

A blood red bow tie. Another Uninitiated. A
male one.

Wow.

I tried to be cool even though this was
something Mom hadn’t shared with me.

It was obvious Stephanie was fond of both the
men. They laughed. They chatted. They drew me into their
conversation.

After we said farewell, Stephanie led me
away, and I said, “I didn’t know there were male concubines.”

“There weren’t,” Stephanie replied. “But I
lobbied The Dominion, which means I bitched and moaned so much a
hundred and fifty years ago they recruited males, thank Christ.”
She turned to me, plucked my empty champagne glass out of my hand,
and exchanged it with a full one from the tray of a passing waiter.
“No offense.” She grinned as she gave me my new glass.

“No offense?” I asked.

She was still grinning when she said, “Girls
taste good. Boys taste better.”

“Oh,” I whispered, looking at the floor and
going back to being flipped out by this entire business.

“Not surprisingly a lot of female vamps were
pretty pleased at the new recruits. Also not surprisingly so were
some males.” She chuckled and the sound was nearly as beautiful as
she was. So much so, I lifted my eyes to her as she carried on,
“Though, some females still prefer their girls. It’s the way of the
world, no?”

I nodded because it was indeed.

Freakishly, I had to admit, I liked her.
Therefore, I got closer to tell her something. Something I hadn’t,
until that moment, admitted to myself.

“Something’s wrong,” I whispered and she
tensed.

“What?” she asked.

I shook my head and looked around.

Then I caught her eyes. “I don’t know. I feel
funny.” And I did.

After Nestor left…

No, it was before that. After Lucien arrived,
it happened. It wasn’t the hands at the throat and heart thing. It
was something else. Something that tugged at the edges of my
consciousness. Something that was making me feel weird, like I was
drugged.

I looked at my champagne. “I think I’ve been
drugged,” I breathed.

The rigidity left her body, her face grew
soft, and she got close. “You haven’t been drugged, Leah.”

“I haven’t?”

“No, you haven’t. He’s tracking you.”

I blinked then
I
went rigid. “What?
Who?”

“Lucien,” was all she said.

My eyes flew around the room. It wasn’t hard
to spot him. He was standing with and talking to two men and a
woman.

But his black eyes were on me.

“Tracking me?” I whispered, looking directly
into those eyes.

Yes, my pet. Tracking you. Marking you.
Mine.

I dropped my champagne flute.

In a flash of movement that didn’t register
on me, Stephanie’s hand shot out and caught the glass before it
fell to the carpet.

Those words, spoken in a deep, throaty voice,
sounded not aloud but
in my head
.

“Oh my God,” I was still whispering.

“Yes, honey, tracking you.” Stephanie’s voice
sounded amused and I tore my eyes from Lucien and looked at her.
The minute I did she smiled. “Oh, Leah, it’s good. When I say that,
I mean it’s
good
. The Buchanan women have been aiming for
Lucien for centuries.
Everyone
aims for him. The only catch
that comes close is Cosmo and your mother had him,” she paused then
grinned a cheeky grin, “and, of course, me.” She chuckled then
said, “You don’t have to look so scared.”

“He just…Stephanie, he just…”I stammered then
heard more words in my head.

No, Leah. Don’t tell her.

My mouth snapped shut. I didn’t snap it shut;
it just did what it was told.

Oh my God,
I repeated in my head,
panic overwhelming me.

Relax, my pet.
He spoke again,
also
in my head
.

Leave me alone!
I shouted, yes, yet
again, in my head.

I heard his laughter not with my ears. It was
even more beautiful than Stephanie’s. It was so beautiful, it was
enthralling. And it wasn’t just amused laughter, it sounded
slightly surprised, slightly expectant, even, I could sense,
slightly aroused.

What in
the
hell?

“I can hear it,” Stephanie said softly,
tearing me with a start from my nonverbal conversation. “And see
it,” she went on and I stared at her. “He’s marked your every
movement. Even the slightest movement you’ve made, Leah, he’s
marked it. His heart is beating in tandem with yours exactly.
Everyone knows, every vampire here that is, they can all hear it,
see it, sense it.” Her voice went softer, turning reverential.
“Nobody can do that like Lucien. It’s beautiful.”

She wasn’t talking about him speaking in my
head. She was explaining what tracking meant.

Still, I was stuck on another point.

“His heart is beating?” I asked her.

She nodded on another smile. “You’ve got lots
to learn, honey.”

I was so shocked at this news I forgot that a
vampire across a crowded room was speaking in my head.

“Vampires’ hearts don’t beat,” I told
Stephanie stupidly, since she was one, she should know.

“Oh yes they do. You’ll see,” she
sing-songed, grabbing my hand, and moved me around, heading in the
direction of Lucien. “I don’t know what he’s playing at but
enough’s enough. I’m hungry.”

She was moving us toward Lucien.

No. Really, really,
no
.

I dragged my feet and hissed, “What are you
doing?”

She didn’t answer my question, instead she
said, “I figure he’s showing you off. It’s his way which is
normally quite interesting but right now it’s annoying. I’m tired
of playing bodyguard. Again, no offense but I want to get to Reed
tonight.” Her fingers gave my arm an affectionate squeeze and her
strength didn’t allow me to drag my feet, powering me ever
forward.

I tugged at my arm. Her fingers gave me
another squeeze, this one different, telling me I would not get
away.

I tried something different. “Listen,
Stephanie, I don’t want to be selected tonight.”

“No chance of that,” she told me happily as
she drew me ever closer.

I stopped talking when I looked at Lucien.
His eyes were again locked on me, marking me, as Stephanie said,
and finally I got it.

They were possessive, declaring ownership,
bottom line, I was his. I could see this even from a distance.

I could even
sense
it.

Others watched, swinging their gazes between
him and me.

My heart started beating even faster as the
people he was standing with noticed our approach and stepped aside,
clearing a path to him.

No! No, no, no, no!
My mind shouted,
my eyes again locked on his.

Yes,
he said in my head.

Seriously, stop doing that!
My brain
yelled at him.

I heard another chuckle in my head.

I scowled at him.

He burst out laughing, this time not in my
head, but out loud.

This was, to all those around him, for no
apparent reason and they stared at him, stunned. But I knew the
reason.

My scowl was joined by my nose wrinkling in
irritation.

He shook his head, a smile still tugging at
his beautiful mouth.

Stephanie brought me to a halt right in front
of him.

He was taller than he seemed from a distance,
bigger, more powerful, completely overwhelming. He made me feel
small.

I wasn’t small, not by any stretch of the
imagination. I was five foot nine, over six foot in my blood red
shoes. I wore a C-cup bra. My ass was my nemesis, it always had
been. It was completely impervious to every diet known to man.

Your normal, average, every day guy couldn’t
pick me up, not for more than a couple of seconds anyway.

This man, even if he wasn’t a vampire, could
have done it. No doubt.

I felt fragile in the face of him. Breakable.
Delicate.

All conversation in the room had again
died.

The entire room was silent. Everyone was
watching.

I opened my mouth to say something, likely
something foolish, when Stephanie spoke.

“Lucien—” she began, her voice impatient.

He cut her off. Eyes locked on mine, he
didn’t lead into it, he didn’t even say “hello.”

Instead, his deep, strong, throaty voice
announced loudly, “I declare my intentions.”

Oh shit.

“Thank you, God,” my mother breathed happily
from behind me.

Until the Sun Falls From the
Sky
and the entirety of The Three Series

is currently available in eBook and
print.

You can learn all about The
Three series on Kristen’s website:
www.KristenAshley.net

******

Have you tried Kristen’s Ghosts &
Reincarnation Series?

If you haven’t here’s what you’re
missing…

Sommersgate House

Douglas Ashton is the cold and unfeeling
owner of the sprawling, gothic Victorian Mansion Sommersgate House.
Julia Fairfax is his stubborn American sister-in-law. After tragedy
strikes, Douglas and Julia are forced to live together at
Sommersgate and raise their newly-orphaned nieces and nephew.

Douglas has no desire to raise his dead
sister’s children nor does he want the distraction of the tempting
Julia living under his roof. Julia is struggling with grief and
trying to make a go in a new country without much help from
impossibly handsome but even more impossibly remote Douglas. Not to
mention, she has to deal with the active hostility of Douglas’s
frosty, Attila-the-Hun-in-a-skirt mother, Monique.

Douglas decides the best way to give the
children what they need, get his mother to behave and give himself
what he wants is to marry Julia. When he tells her
(yes, tells her) she will be his wife, Julia thinks
Douglas is (probably) insane. And anyway, she’s decided if she ever
has another husband (since the last one wasn’t so great), he was
going to be short, balding, have a paunch and worship the ground
she walks on (none of these characteristics define Douglas in the
slightest).

One more thing, Sommersgate House is haunted
by the ghosts of the man who built it and the woman who was
the love of his life. They both died mysteriously at Sommersgate
months after it was finished. When they did, a curse settled on the
house making it seem strangely alive. And the only way for the
beautiful but frightening house to rid itself of this curse is for
its owner to find true love.

Lacybourne Manor

In 1522, the very night they were wed, Royce
Morgan and his new bride, Beatrice Godwin, were murdered on their
way home to Lacybourne Manor. After the cruel deed was done, a
local witch came across their bodies, witnessing firsthand the
tragedy of star-crossed lovers. Vowing that Royce and Beatrice
would someday uncross those stars, using magic mixed with murder as
well as true love, she linked their spirits together with hers
(because someone had to protect them) forever…or until their
reincarnated souls find happily ever after.

Now arrogant, forbidding Colin Morgan lives
at Lacybourne. He knows from lore (as well as the portraits of
Royce and Beatrice that hang in Lacybourne’s hall and the
small fact that he looks exactly like Royce Morgan) that he’s the
reincarnated soul of his ancestor.

One stormy night, flighty, free-spirited,
scarily-kind-hearted Sibyl Godwin comes to Lacybourne and it
doesn’t escape Colin’s notice that Sibyl is the spitting image of
Beatrice. However murder, magic, a warrior’s heart beating in a
modern man’s chest, a woman bent on doing good deeds even if they
get her into loads of trouble, a good witch whose family has vowed
throughout the centuries to protect true love, distrust and revenge
make a volatile cocktail.

This means the path to happily ever after is
paved with tranquilizer darts, pensioners on a rampage, Sibyl’s bad
morning moods, heartbreaking misunderstandings and all kinds of
magic, good…and bad.

Penmort Castle

Cash Fraser is planning revenge and to get it
he needs the perfect woman.

So he hires her.

Abigail Butler has lost nearly everything in
her life and she’s about to lose the home she loves.

Cash meets Abby, who’s posing as a paid
escort, and the minute he does he knows he’s willing to pay for
more than Abby being his pretend girlfriend. A lot
more. Abby needs the money or the last thing that links her to
her dead family and husband will be gone.

The deal is struck but both Cash and Abby get
more than they bargained for.

Cash realizes very quickly that Abby isn’t
what she seems. And while he changes strategies, Abby finds out
that Cash’s legacy, Penmort Castle, is like all the tales
say—very, very haunted. Making matters worse, the ghost
in residence wants her dead.