Real Vampires Have Curves (20 page)

“Flo, some cities do have covens,” Diana felt compelled to say. Flo gave her a withering look. “Not in Austin, though. Obviously.”

Tony wobbled and Blade shoved him into the chair again.

“What are we supposed to do with this list?” Blade glanced down at it.

“I figured you might get to one of Westwood's goons. Pay him off to take out Westwood.” More murmurs. Some vampires actually whipped out their checkbooks.

“I don't like it.” Mara looked around the room. “Are we going to rely on mortals to take our revenge?”

“I got other stuff. Valuable information.” Tony obviously saw his fat paycheck shrinking. “My contact says Westwood's got pictures. He's keeping a kind of shooting gallery.” Tony looked around the room. “It's his hit list.”

I shuddered. I bet I could name five on Westwood's list. Blade looked at me and moved closer. Mara stepped between us and grabbed Blade's arm.

“I have an idea.”

“She would.” Diana had just decided Mara was not so hot.

“Some of us can shape-shift. We go in as a flock of birds, though bats are common enough around here.”

“They are.” The scholar spoke up. “Millions live under the Congress Avenue bridge downtown.”

“Okay, then.” Mara walked over and patted the man's cheek. “You do the bat thing, honey?” She gave him a sultry look. “I'm sorry I don't know your name.”

“Jason. Jason Morgan.” He grinned. “Actually, I run with them sometimes. There's a great place called The Devil's Hole a few hundred miles from here—”

“Fine. Who else is up for a flight?” Mara looked at me. With pity? Or disdain? “Not you, of course, Gloriana. I know how you feel about shifting.”

“I'd like to shift
you.
” Flo, my new champion.

“I'm sure you'll have fun spying on Westwood.” I looked at Diana. “Di, Derek and I are working on a more technical approach.”

“Technical?” Blade looked interested.

“We think we've figured out how Westwood's vamp detector works. It's got to be a heat seeking device.” Derek stepped forward with a sheaf of papers in his hand. “He can make us because we don't give off enough heat.”

“So?” Mara looked around the room. “We can't raise our body heat, you know.” She glanced at me, then touched Blade's cheek. “Just slightly warm. Perfect for a healthy vampire. Heat us too much and we die. That's why sunlight fries us.”

“Not necessarily. Fire doesn't do us permanent harm.” Derek wasn't giving up. “I'm no scientist, but I'd say there's something special in the sun's rays that gets us.” Other vamps nodded.

Mara frowned. “Whatever. We still need to take out Westwood. ”

“I'm not disagreeing with you, Mara.” I touched Derek's arm to show my support. “But Westwood's not the only one out to stake us. We need to be able to protect ourselves.”

“I get that. But right now Westwood's our biggest threat.” Mara had her fierce warrior woman face on. “I say we fly out there. We may get lucky. Get the drop on Westwood.” Mara grabbed Blade's arm. “This man, at least, can change in an instant, tear Westwood apart and problem solved.”

“Westwood's pretty well protected.” Tony shrank back when Mara glared at him. “Good plan.”

“Sure. Go, Mara. Just watch out for the guano, bat girl.” I was pretty proud of that zinger until Blade shot me a warning look. “Oh, excuse me. Who's going with them?” Five more vamps stepped forward, including Flo.

“No, honey, stay here.” I grabbed her arm.

“The bastard shot at me, Glory. I get a chance to rip his throat out, I take it.” She walked over to Damian. “What are we waiting for?”

“I'm staying here.” Damian came over to my side. “I want to see what Glory's got.”

“I'm still going.” Flo tossed her hair and looked around. “Is this it?”

Tony jumped up and pulled another paper out of his pocket. “Here. A map. I marked the ranch with a red
X.
You guys can really change into bats?”

Mara took the map. “Vampires have many powers, mortal. You'd be smart to remember that.”

“Yes, ma'am.” Tony sat again and groped for his rosary.

Diana and I stayed out of the way. I'd had visions of being the heroine tonight. Screw that. At least Damian was being attentive, his hand on my shoulder as Derek laid out his papers on a mahogany table.

“This vest thing has possibilities, Glory. Let them go.” Derek grinned at me then turned to the vampires not eager to go batty. “Come look at this, people. There's protective gear available. Glory's idea.”

“I told Blade you had brains and beauty.” Damian's hand slid up to my neck to lightly stroke my jugular. I shivered and tried to ignore him without making a scene. Mara had done enough of that tonight.

The others crowded around us. But I managed to catch Blade's eye.

I nodded, message received. Then he and the rest of the bat patrol stepped outside. Oh, God, what if Westwood shot at bats too?

“Forget the bats. Feed with me, Glory.” Damian pulled me away from the crowd.

“Are you nuts?” I gestured toward my empty goblet. “I've fed.”

Damian pulled me out into the hall. “How can you live like that? Don't you ever thirst? For say,” he glanced back at Tony Crapetta who seemed afraid to move out of his chair, "O positive?”

I didn't want to think about it. Of course I could smell Tony's blood surging through his veins. The other vampires didn't spare us or Tony a glance, too absorbed in Derek's research. My gums swelled and I leaned closer to Damian.

“We can't.”

“Yes, we can.” He leaned closer and kissed my neck. “And after we have satisfied that urge”—he touched my breast, ever so lightly—“we can satisfy another.”

Why hadn't I knocked Damian on his ass? I shook my head.

“Not going to happen, Sabatini.”

He just smiled and looked into my eyes. Tony had worked up the nerve to approach us. Clueless.

“Uh, Mr. Sabatini, is there anything else tonight?” He wiped his hands on his pants. “There's the little matter of payment.”

With him so close I swear I could hear Tony's heart pumping.

“Come to my library, Tony, and I'll give you cash.”

“Where are you going, Blondie?”
Valdez had followed us to a door down the hall.

“Nowhere.” I tried to head back to the living room. Damian stopped me with a touch on my hand.

“Order him back to the living room.” Damian didn't spare the dog a glance.

“Will not.” I couldn't seem to look away from Damian's glowing emerald eyes.

“Yes, you will.” Damian smiled and opened the door.

“Go back, Valdez. I'm okay here.” Why had I said that?

“Blade doesn't have to know.” I ignored Valdez when I felt Damian's hand on my elbow, guiding me inside. The door shut gently behind us and I was in a library.

“Valdez?”

“He must obey you.” Damian was still smiling.

“Of course.” Something was off here. I didn't meekly follow Damian anywhere. I didn't trust him.

“Trust me, Glory.” His soothing voice shooed away my misgivings and I couldn't remember why I'd ever resisted him.

I looked around the library. Wow. It was a feudal lord's dream come true. Old and obviously expensive tapestries hung on the only wall not covered by built-in shelves. A heavy carved desk and massive red velvet armchairs faced an unlit fireplace. Of course no feudal lord had ever had books like those filling every inch of the shelves. Thousands of books, most leather bound. A few sat in glass cases. Treasures that were so old you wore gloves to touch them.

Damian had Tony in a trance. The man just stood there, motionless while Damian watched my reaction to his library.

“I'm very proud of it. I've been collecting for . . . centuries.”

“I can see that.” That's right. Concentrate on books. “Flo's missing a lot. Not reading.”

“You believed her?” Damian laughed and walked up behind me. “She plays the helpless female to perfection. And if you tell her I revealed her secret”—he licked a path up my neck to behind my ear—“I will have to kill you.”

I shivered and turned in his arms to look up at him. Was he using the vamp whammy on me? He had to be. I didn't—My eyes closed as his lips met mine, sucking away any thoughts of resisting. Casanova kisses. Mmmm.

I kissed him back, sending him a mental message that if he bit me again against my will, I'd have to kill
him.
He pushed me down to the rug. I felt heat and realized he'd started the fire in the fireplace with just a look. Neat trick.

My blouse was open and my bra. Another neat trick. Wait a minute. I shouldn't—Damian kissed my breasts and sucked a nipple into his mouth. I had a random thought and struggled to focus on it. We weren't alone. I looked over Damian's head to see Tony staring at us. Staring, but not seeing. Okay, it was kind of a turn-on. That and knowing that over a dozen vamps were down the hall and Valdez was less than twenty feet away.

Had Damian locked the door? Who cared? Damian pulled up my skirt, his hand pressing against me in a way guaranteed to break me apart. No. Wasn't breaking apart for him. Wasn't—He stroked me with clever fingers and I sighed. How had I gotten so lucky? With all those other beautiful female vamps to choose from, the most handsome man at the meeting had wanted Gloriana St. Clair.

Most handsome? I tried to open my eyes and couldn't. Instead, I pulled Damian's head up to kiss him again. His taste intoxicated me, otherwise why would I rake my fangs over his lips until I settled at his throat? I asked the question and he pressed my head to him, inviting me to feed. So I did, while he ran his hands over me, kneading my breasts and pushing his enormous arousal against me. He really wanted me.

Casanova. This had to be some kind of vamp whammy. I didn't do this. I didn't—Oh, the taste. Rich, warm, flooding my mouth until I tore myself away from drinking to rip open his shirt. I had to have him, his body. I opened his zipper and held him before I raked my fangs down his swollen length.

He gasped and lay back as I crawled over him with a wildness I'd never felt before. I shook my head. What was wrong with me? I wouldn't—I pulled up my skirt and jerked aside my thong to take him inside me. His thrust filled me, sending me close to the edge. I bit back a shriek of ecstasy.

Slow down, think.
I couldn't think of anything beyond prolonging the pleasure. I looked over my shoulder to see Tony, still staring.

“We have an audience.”

“I think an audience makes you hot. You
were
a performer. ” Damian pushed into me again, holding onto my breasts with both hands. He played my nipples like a virtuoso and my body hit high
C
. Insane, this was insane. I didn't even
like
Damian Sabatini.

“
You
make me hot,” I whispered as I leaned down to bite him again. I felt the first waves of a major orgasm crashing over me. I fed and felt Damian's hands on my ass, clutching me, urging me on. I needed no urging. I couldn't stop. Faster, harder, oh, God I can't—

He drove into me, touching me deep, deep, deeper inside until I gasped and sat up. This had to stop. I didn't want this. Suddenly still, Damian reached up and held my face in his hands.

“You
do
want this, Gloriana. You
own
me. Punish me.”

Yes, I wanted to make him suffer. So I rode him hard, punishing him and pushing toward my own satisfaction. I glanced down and his eyes met mine. He was in pain. He wanted to taste me.

“No.” I wasn't so far gone with orgasm number two that I didn't remember he
should
hurt.

“You're killing me, Gloriana.”

“Then die, vampire.” I gripped him with my thighs and moved faster. Damian thrust one more time, groaning as he came. I lay there, quivering inside and out. Damian ran his hands down my back to grip my ass again.

“Woman, you are magnificent.”

I just lay there. What had just happened? Who was this woman lying on top of Damian Sabatini with rug burns on her knees and postorgasmic quivers streaking through her limp body?

Damian touched my cheek. “Look at me, Gloriana.”

I found the will to refuse. Look at him? Face what I'd just done? I rolled off Damian and sat up. Suddenly I felt Tony's eyes on me. He was smiling.

“Damn it!” I jumped up and reached for my blouse. “Put him back under, Damian. Right. Now.”

“Holy moley, lady.” Tony clutched his crosses. “You vampires sure know how to get it on. If you could do it without the fang action . . .”

“Damian . . . I'm warning you.” I snapped my bra closed and buttoned my blouse.

Damian lay back, obviously very well satisfied. “And if I don't obey you?” He had the nerve to grin.

“This will never happen again.” For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how this had happened at all. I turned on my heel and strode to the door. I put my back to it and crossed my arms over my chest. My breasts were still tender and my almost-panties were damp. Had Damian used a whammy to give me those multiple orgasms? No wonder women found him irresistible.

“Take care of him, Damian.”

“I'm too weak.” He held out his arms. “Let me feed from you.”