Romeo (Blood Brothers) (8 page)

<><><>

Romeo couldn’t get her out of his mind and it was slowly driving him insane. When he’d stolen out of her home in the middle of the night, he’d longed to take her in his arms and reassure her... of what, he didn’t know. One thing he did know was that if he hadn’t left her right then, he wouldn’t have been able to.

Damn. He still couldn’t figure out how this was possible, that after all these centuries of carousing and literally thousands of women flitting in and out of life, Christine could have such a lasting effect on him. When he was with Christine, he had the urgent need to hold her and never let go. He got jealous at the mere thought of her past lovers or any ones she may have in the future. What puzzled him the most was the unfamiliar ache in his chest now that he wasn’t at her side.

Was it possible that
this
was the love he’d mocked and ridiculed his brothers about for so long? Was this what Marco felt for Maggie and Nico for Sasha? Hell. This love shit was for the birds. He could already picture his brothers laughing at him. It was a good thing that he’d gotten away from her when he did. This way, his heart wouldn’t be too gone.

Romeo stared out the window of the airplane and took off his headphones. Next to him, Wolf thumbed through a magazine he didn’t look to be interested in.

“You seem to have a lot on your mind, my friend,” Wolf said, not looking up. He was perceptive like that.

Romeo shrugged. “No more than usual. I’m just anxious to get there and take out Renault.”

“It seems like you have something else other than this mission on your mind. Would it have anything to do with the lovely Christine from the club?”

“What happened between me and Christine is none of your concern.” Romeo glared at his friend, his hackles rising at the mere whisper of her name on the other vampire’s lips.

Wolf’s eyebrows drew together, a tightness forming at his mouth. “Easy. I was only asking. What’s wrong with you? You’ve been abrupt with me since I met you at the airport... which is a day earlier than planned, by the way. We’re supposed to be friends, and if you can’t confide in your friends, who can you confide in? Or is this something you would rather discuss with one of your brothers?”

Romeo didn’t want to discuss this with anyone, but the thought of being hounded by his brothers didn’t sit well with him either. “Fine, if I tell you, will you get off my back?”

“I’m not twisting your arm, you know.” Wolf turned his attention back to his magazine.

Romeo shut his eyes and opened them again. He touched Wolf’s arm. “Look, I’m sorry. I know I’m being an ass, but I can’t really explain it.”

Wolf frowned, but remained silent.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is...damn. Have you ever been in love?”

Wolf looked around them as though he was searching for something.

“What are you doing, Wolf?”

“I was just checking for pods.”

“Pods?”

“You know, the kind aliens use to store the bodies after a swap, like in that old movie. Who are you and what did you do with my friend, Romeo?”

“Very cute, smartass. I swear to God if you start laughing, I’ll rip your damn heart out.”

Wolf clamped his lips shut but laughter twinkled in the vampire’s eyes. Romeo wanted to belt him one. “There’s no need for threats. Your question was surprising, is all.”

“Well?” Romeo practically growled.

“Well, what?”

“Have you ever been in love?” Romeo didn’t realize that his voice had risen to a level where the other first-class passengers could hear until the flight attendant walked by.

“Sirs, I’m going to have to ask you to keep it down as a courtesy to the other passengers.” She had incredibly long lashes and raven locks that fell over her shoulders. A gleam of appreciation entered her hazel eyes as she looked at them both. She was quite lovely, but Romeo felt unmoved by her charms.

“We apologize,” Romeo answered curtly, turning his head away to convey his disinterest. The flight attendant was pretty enough but she couldn’t hold a candle to Christine.

Wolf, on the other hand, didn’t seem so indifferent. “Don’t mind my friend,
fraulein
. I’ll make sure he keeps the volume down.”

Romeo glanced at Wolf, only to see him giving the woman his famous Wagner smile. He rolled his eyes. Wolf flirted with anything in a skirt.

“That was a little rude,” Wolf said when they were alone once more.

“How was it rude? I apologized.”

“It wasn’t what you said, it was how you said it. You must really have it bad for this woman.”

“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Oh, no, you don’t. You’re not going to bring up a subject, then drop it.”

“Funny, because I just did.”

A short silence followed before Wolf spoke again. “To answer your question, I have been in love before.”

Romeo swerved in his seat to face his friend. “You have? You never mentioned this before.”

“You never asked me before.”

“Are you going to elaborate or do you plan to leave me guessing.” Romeo prompted when the other vampire fell silent.

“It’s not my favorite topic of discussion but here it goes.” He took a deep breath. “It was a very long time ago, long before we met. I wasn’t quite fifty, when I met the woman with whom I wanted to spend all of eternity with. Her name was Elsa.”

“What happened?”

“She was human.”

“And? You keep stopping as if everything is self-explanatory.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken her name. I still think about her even though she’s been gone for a while.”

He had a point. “I’m sorry.”

An ironic smile twisted Wolf’s lips. “It’s okay. As you know, the church ruled everything years ago. Elsa was raised in a particularly devout home. Anything they were unable to understand, they deemed evil. She couldn’t accept the fact I am a vampire.”

“But if you loved her, then surely she loved you back.”

“I don’t know. I thought she did, but Elsa couldn’t reconcile her feelings for me and what had been hammered into her head all her life. She knew that to be with me, she would eventually have to be brought over and become one of us. She was agreeable to it at first but then doubt began to take over. I read her fears and I tried my best to reassure her, but in the end, my love wasn’t enough.”

“What happened?”

“Elsa jumped out of a window in her family’s country manor.” Wolf spoke the words without inflection, as if he were talking about some mundane topic instead of someone he’d loved who had chosen death over him. Romeo didn’t know what to say. Any words after such a revelation would seem trite and insincere.

“I didn’t know.”

“Why would you? I’ve told no one else.”

“Is that why you’ve always said humans are for fun?”

“Partly. Only fate can decide if I find a mate again. I hope to God it’s another immortal, be she vampire, witch or shifter, because I don’t ever want to go through that again.”

“Christine is not like that. She accepts me for who I am.”

Wolf raised a brow, “How can you be so sure? Did you tell her?”

“She already knew. I’m sure her friend told her about us.”

“And she wasn’t frightened?”

Romeo smiled when he thought of the way she’d exposed the lovely column of her throat to his gaze. “Not a bit. I mean, she was a little at first, but she eventually accepted my bite.”

“I see. It’s a very dangerous thing to tell a human of our existence without checking them out first.”

“I know, and yet she’s friends with another vampire. Some humans can be trusted.”

“I’m aware of this. I’m just proceeding on the side of caution for now.”

“In a way, I think it kind of excited her that I’m a vampire.”

“She isn’t one of those people fascinated by vampire culture based on what they’ve seen in movies, is she?”

“No. She, of course, had some misconceptions about our kind but she asked questions and listened with an open mind. She was very sweet about it.” He couldn’t help smiling as he thought about her.”

“You, my friend, have it bad.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. We spent an enjoyable time together and that’s it. I was only asking if you’d been in love because I was curious what it was like, not because I may have feelings for her.”

Wolf grinned, his expression smug. “If you say so, Romeo. But I’m wondering if you’re trying to convince me or yourself.”

“But I barely know her,” Romeo protested.

“Perhaps not up here,” Wolf tapped the side of Romeo’s head, “but apparently your heart and body do. When we leave Buenos Aires, you should go back to her and find out if this woman is your bloodmate. From the sound of it, she is.”

“But she can’t be. I just can’t fall in love.”

“Why not?”

“Because... well, for one thing, if I were to take a mate, I wouldn’t be able to do the things I like.”

The corners of Wolf’s lips tilted up. “Like hell-raising and bed-hopping?”

“Exactly.”

“Perhaps she will want to do some hell-raising and bed-hopping of her own.”

“Over my dead body! The only man she’ll ever be with again is me,” Romeo hissed before he could help himself. He knew he was caught the moment the words were out of his mouth. Wolf’s smile widened.

Romeo shook his head. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“What about my duties to the Underground?

Wolf wrinkled his nose. “What about them?”

“You’re really dense sometimes, you know that?”

Wolf laughed. “Maybe about some things, but I wonder why I can clearly see this issue for what it is when you cannot. So, I ask again, what about your Underground duties?”

“I can’t have a mate and still do what I need to do. Look at Marco. He’s become so utterly domesticated, it’s sickening. Nothing against his mate, but he’s given up a lot. I’m not about to do the same thing.”

“That’s bull and you know it, Romeo. The only reason Marco is not active with the Underground right now is because his wife is very pregnant and she’s still young for a vampire. Look at your other brother. Not only has Niccolo’s mate joined him, so has his son.”

“Yes, but he has to constantly baby-sit the two of them.”

“You do a disservice to Sasha and Jagger. I’ve seen those two in action. They may be young and somewhat inexperienced, but they handle themselves quite well. I daresay Sasha’s powers are beyond anything I’ve witnessed before from one her age.”

Wolf was right, of course. His sister-in-law, Sasha, and nephew, Jagger, could hold their own and, when she eventually had her baby and regained her strength, Maggie would be capable to as well. So why was he fighting his feelings for Christine so hard? And then it came to him.

He didn’t want to end up in the same predicament Nico and Marco had once found themselves in. They had been shattered over the loss of mates albeit Nico’s was temporary due to dark magic. Romeo wasn’t sure he was comfortable giving another person that much control over his heart. Sure, his brothers were happy now, but they’d also suffered great loss and pain before obtaining the happiness they now enjoyed.

Romeo couldn’t imagine going through all that with Christine. Furthermore, being with her would be the same as putting a target on her back. The Grimaldis had too many enemies. Who was to say that they wouldn’t try to get at him through her, the way rogue vampires had done to Nico with Sasha and Jagger?

Romeo didn’t know if he had the strength to love her.

Chapter Ten

“Are you sure this is the place?” Romeo turned to his companions. He and Wolf had been met at the airport by Aries Kyriakis, a shifter and sometimes agent in the Underground. Romeo liked the young man, who had not only proven to be valuable to the cause many times over, but also had a wild streak in him that Romeo liked. Wolf had escorted them to the compound they believed the target was hiding out in.

“Yes, I’m sure. This is where I last saw them. Renault is with two guards. There’s also a shifter and another vampire in there. No doubt he’s aware of the Council member terminations. You’ll need to be careful. Renault is crafty in his skills as a warlock. He can make you see things that aren’t there.”

Romeo tsked. “That doesn’t scare me.”

Aries shook his dark, shaggy head, his eyes narrowing in seriousness. “I wouldn’t take this so lightly, Romeo. I’ve seen him in action. It won’t be as easy as you think.”

“If you say so.” Romeo sighed heavily. He needed to break some heads to take his mind off his love life. Maybe when he was in the heat of battle again, things would go back to normal and Christine would be but a distant memory.

Dante was right. He should have taken care of this by now. So what if he’d spent two months trying to track these bastards down? He should have stuck to his task. The one thing that bothered him most about this mission was that it was taking so long to find each Council member.

The point of having a Council was to represent each branch of the immortal community and serve as peacekeepers. But the power had corrupted them and now they had to pay the price. After Romeo and Wolf had eliminated the first council member, the others must have gotten wind of what they were up to. They’d all scattered making this mission twice as difficult. Regardless of how long it took them, Romeo planned to find every single one of the bastards.

The more he thought on this, however, it came to him that the members he’d taken care of had been prepared for him to come to them. It was like they had known. There was only one conclusion he could draw from that. There had to be a leak in the Underground. Romeo thought about Trent Black, another agent who had been taken out by rogues. When he had been killed, it had looked like Trent was in cahoots with the bad guys, but who was the leak now? He vowed to find out.