Vigil (6 page)

“I—”

“Admit it, you have not one molecule of confidence that I can

take care of myself.”

“In the world you knew, yes. You had every right to feel like

the master of your fate. In my world…” Donte left his sentence

hanging as he pulled the phone from his pocket. He took only

a second to check his messages and put it back. “I know where

Boaz and your… What were you thinking, Adin? Buying that

boy?”

“I doubt it would make any sense in your world.”

“Nothing you do makes sense in my world.”

Adin frowned. “The boy—Bran—reminded me of my friend

Edward. I don’t know why. Edward never seemed lost like that

when we were growing up. Bran is almost feral. Yet something

about him felt familiar. And he was in trouble. I had to do it. You

didn’t see where they were keeping him.”

Donte went to the door of Adin’s hotel room. “If you want

your things you need to come with me.”

“I need to tell Monsieur Villiers I’m checking out so he can

fix the broken door.”

“The door
Santos
broke. Fine.”

Donte waited as patiently as he ever did while Adin

accomplished that. When Adin was through at the registration

desk, he turned just in time to see two stunning, dark haired

women engage Donte in conversation. As usual, Donte was his

charming self. He shot Adin an impatient glare when he walked

over to join them.

Vigil
35

“Ah, Adin. At last. Let’s go find out how much trouble you’ve

purchased.”

Adin followed Donte glumly out the door and just like that,

they were back where they’d begun when he left Spain, silent and

separate, walking the streets of the most romantic city on earth

without communicating.

Adin slipped his hand into Donte’s and they walked a few

more feet before Donte stopped and pulled Adin under his arm.

They walked the rest of the way to a taxi queue arm in arm like

that, laughing when someone honked and shouted the German

equivalent of “get a room.”

Once inside the taxi, Adin faced Donte. “Let me look at you

at least. Are you well?”

The expression on Donte’s face softened. “You are positively

the silliest man. Of course I’m well.”

“Did you get a lot of brooding done while I was gone?” Adin

teased. “How’s your chair, the one with the leather upholstery?

Did you sit by the fire and doodle pictures of bats with little heart

shaped eyes? I did.”

“I am not in the mood to be mocked.”

Adin framed Donte’s face with his hands, running his thumbs

over the bones of his cheeks and the arch of his brows. “Beloved,

I mock you only as a last resort.” He leaned in and whispered in

Donte’s ear, “Do you need me?”

Donte lowered his gaze. “I do. Always.”

“Feed,” Adin ordered. “I had Thai food for lunch before I

met Harwiche. Let’s see if you can tell me what I ate.”

Donte looked at the driver. “We could wait—”

“I’m sure you can make him believe he dropped Italian nuns

off at the Louvre. Now, come to me.” Adin’s voice roughened.

“Maybe I need
you
, lover.”

Donte allowed Adin to draw him in. In the end neither of

them could fight the attraction they felt. Adin’s heart quickened

as Donte pressed his lips to the pulse in his neck and a terrible

36 Z.A. Maxfield

excitement stole over him when he felt Donte’s teeth tease the

skin there. Donte could tear his throat out with little more than

the effort it would take Adin to place a chaste kiss on someone’s

nose, but maybe that was part of the thrill.

“I wish you didn’t like this so much, caro,” Donte murmured.

“I worry that you’ll be indiscriminate.”

Adin slapped both his hands to Donte’s face and held him

away. “You don’t mean that.” Fury brought a high color to his

cheeks. “I am no one’s
cheap eats
.”

Donte searched him for any sign of duplicity and Adin

wanted to scream. “Promise me? Santos—”

“Santos closed my wound without permission from me,”

Adin growled. “I will never willingly be with anyone else, in any

way, Donte as long as you and I... I don’t know what I have to do

to prove myself to you…”

Donte struck, his teeth sliding into Adin’s neck like ice picks,

quick and sure. Adin felt the sudden surge of hot lightning

throughout his body that began as searing pain, but brought him

almost instantly to an equal ecstasy.

“
Donte
.” Donte had to know that feeding brought Adin

a release that was both profoundly sexual and emotionally

gratifying. “Don’t you know how I feel? Don’t you understand

what it means to me to nourish you this way?”

Donte used his tongue to soothe away the pain and Adin

breathed in deeply, committing to memory the ambiance of Paris

as it mingled in his mind with Donte’s own deeply masculine

scent.

“Ah,
lover
.”

“Più amato.” Donte nuzzled him as Adin’s head swam. It

wasn’t unusual for him to get light-headed after Donte fed. He’d

grown to count on curling up in Donte’s arms afterwards and

letting the lassitude take him even as Donte’s body warmed and

quickened with borrowed life.

After a while Donte broke the silence. “Are you sure you want

Vigil
37

to go to Santos’s place?”

Adin opened his eyes. “Can you think of a logical reason why

I shouldn’t?”

Donte glared at him.

The familiar argument dragged Adin down far more than the

loss of blood. “If he wanted me dead, I’d be dead.”

“Who knows what he wants? What if he plans to kill you next

week? He could kill you—”

“At any time. So can anything. Accept that or don’t follow

me next time, Donte. I’m human; I will die. Accustom yourself

or walk away.” Donte’s hold tightened around him and Adin felt

unreasonably constricted. He pushed away from Donte who

glared at him, hurt and angry. Adin caught the door handle and

opened it to step out but Donte held him in place, his jaw tense.

“If I thought you meant that for one second I would have no

trouble killing you myself.” He gave Adin a shove that sent him

sprawling onto the pavement of the road in front of Santos’s

home and slammed the door, even as Adin heard him tell the

driver to go. The cab sped away, its taillights winking back as it

braked and surged into the Parisian traffic.

“Bastard.” Adin got up and dusted himself off, then walked

to the wrought iron gate of Santos’s impressive property. While

he waited for someone to answer the intercom he muttered,

“Time for a new Cosmo poll. Ten ways to tell if you’re boyfriend

is The One…Question #1. Is he willing to throw you from a

moving vehicle…?”

Boaz clucked like a mother hen as he took Adin’s arm to lead

him down the long hallway. “I settled the boy in the guest suite

and put your things in the adjoining room. I take it Donte found

you. You reek of jiz and blood and regret.”

“I want that for my epitaph, Boaz, please write it down, Adin

Tredeger, PhD. He reeked of—”

“All right, remind me later,” Boaz said gently as he opened the

38 Z.A. Maxfield

door to a beautifully decorated but simple bedroom in soothing

tones of green and gray.

Adin looked around. “I expected something more…

Versailles. I’m delighted to be disappointed. I envisioned Louis

XIV gilt furnishings and fleur de lis.”

“Santos is a monster, not an American.”

“Ah…” Adin allowed Boaz to help him off with his coat. The

knob of a door on the interior wall of his room turned and Bran’s

manacled hands appeared first and then his face. He appeared to

be more vibrant; the smudges under his eyes were fainter and the

drawn look had all but disappeared from his still-pale face.

“You’re back,” Bran said carefully, looking Adin over. His

nostrils flared and he turned his head slightly, his cheeks pinkening

in the light thrown from his room.

“Boaz, can you show me somewhere I can bathe?”

“With
pleasure
.” Boaz shot Bran a look that made him grin.

“Bran, you can wait here, and we’ll talk after I get cleaned up.”

Bran gave him a nod and then entered into the adjacent sitting

room where he sat in one of two elegant leather chairs.

Adin followed Boaz back out to the hallway. The hardwood

floors were old and rich, the walls decorated with black and white

photographs of stars from the silent era of American films. A

particularly fetching picture of Garbo as barely a girl caught his

eye and he stopped to admire it.

“Not what you expected is it, Dr. Tredeger?” Boaz asked.

“No.” Adin couldn’t quite put his finger on why that might

bother him. “So much nicer to picture the castle with walls that

drip blood.”

“Santos isn’t a monster any more than Donte is, except, they

all are. Which makes it difficult to explain.”

“You’re making my head ache.” Adin stopped when Boaz

paused near a door.

“You’ll find everything you need in here. Can you find your

Vigil
39

way back? I left the door to your room open and it’s the only

green one.”

“Is the boy safely locked in? What if he tries to escape?”

Boaz leaned in and whispered, “He has nowhere to go. I don’t

think he’ll leave. Especially not chained.”

Adin opened the door to the bathroom and entered it. “My

room is right after John Thierry but before Clara Bow. Are you

sure that Bran won’t try to run?”

Boaz smiled. “Bran and I have an understanding. He’s far

safer here than he would be anywhere else. Besides, I think he

likes you.”

“Likes me?” Adin thought of all the different things that

might mean to Boaz, and not a few of them involved things he

didn’t want to contemplate with regard to a boy Bran’s age.

“He realizes you saved him from Harwiche.” Boaz’s voice

betrayed his distaste. “And the men who kept him prisoner. He

saw how you held your own with Donte and Santos, I believe he

thinks you’re heroic.”

“Spare me.” Adin began to remove his clothing. “I’m sure

that since he probably saw Donte throw my jiz-covered ass out

of that cab he’s changed his mind.”

Boaz chuckled as he went to the tub and opened the taps.

“That was amusing, sir. In a kind of ‘
can this marriage be saved
’ sort

of way.”

“I’m not in the mood.” Adin barely folded his clothes as he

piled them on the wide marble counter. “It wouldn’t be so bad if

he was just angry with me, but I always seem to hurt him in some

profound new way.”

“He loves you, and he hates himself for it.”

“Cool. Just when I didn’t think I could feel worse.” Adin

stepped into the tub and sank into the shallow water. As more

water filled it and Boaz added some herb scented oils, Adin’s

tense muscles began to relax.

“Don’t fall asleep,” Boaz reached his hand down to slap a

40 Z.A. Maxfield

light splash of hot water into Adin’s face. “You’ll drown.”

“I’ll be fine,” Adin lied, even as he began to let himself drift.

He’d fallen asleep in a tub before and didn’t think he’d drown.

He had a moment of concern that the water would overflow but

even that left him as he sank dreamily into the comfort of heat

and coriander… maybe juniper berries and lime.

Like hot gin it went straight to his head. He heard Boaz turn

off the water, then murmur something before the door closed

behind him.

Adin let himself go completely and dreamed of driving an old-fashioned

metal pedal car, squeak-squeaking down the dirt road in front of his parents

rented home in Pakistan. When his father was working there on geological

studies, the families from his small company of surveyors and scientists all

lived in a rural outpost consisting of several low homes facing a courtyard just

outside of a small village. Crowds of ragged boys waited for their turn, and

Adin was ready to relinquish the car as soon as he reached the rusted paint

can that signified his trip around the property was over. Dust flew up from

the wheels, covering him with grime, and an occasional automobile snorted

its way past, forcing him to pull over and wait. Just as he reached the can

and began to step out, the Imam called the boys, his friends, to prayer. They

scattered to attend to their devotions with their families, and Adin left the car

where it was, assuming they’d return sooner or later to begin their play again.

He headed for the back door of his house, nearest his mother’s kitchen so

she or Yasmina, the teenage girl who watched him and cooked for them, could

scold him or feed him, whichever pleased them. Adin never knew beforehand

which they planned.

As he passed by the window to his parents’s bedroom, he heard laughter

drifting from within like music. Fascinated, he stepped up to the opening and