I’d lived centuries and somehow I found myself lounging against a yellowing plaster wall waiting for a woman I barely knew–a human woman. I felt its slight orange-peel texture through my tuxedo jacket and shirt. My sharpened senses were still in overdrive. I tapped a beat on the wall to dissipate my energy, surprised at how it absorbed the sound. Then again, theatres were known for good acoustics. No one wanted a flushing toilet to interrupt a performance. I glanced at the door of the ladies’ room, wondering how long she could possibly take, and began devising a three-step plan for dealing with my colossal fuck-up.
Step one: Get Thea away from the vampires here.
Step two: Compel her to forget everything that had happened tonight.
Step three: Fuck if I knew.
The problem was that I’d already tried compelling her. She resisted me entirely. If I hadn’t already used it on the bartender, I might have been worried that something was wrong with me. The last time my compulsion had failed was…never.
It had never happened to me, not once in all my centuries. And the fact that Thea could resist me made it even harder to get rid of her. I wanted to know why. What was so special about the petite human? Yes, she was breathtaking and played the cello with a passion I hadn’t experienced in ages. But she was also approximately the size of a teacup, and just as fragile.
I couldn’t satisfy my curiosity without putting her at risk, and that was a danger I was unwilling to accept.
“You know exactly what step three is,” I muttered to myself. “Forget about her.” If I could successfully compel her, I needed to walk away. I would provide her a new cello and see that she was never hired to play at another vampire function.
I glanced at my Rolex, relieved to see the cocktail party would be over soon. Minutes ticked by, and Thea didn’t appear. After being alive as long as I had, time rarely registered with me. But waiting out here for her was a different story. I moved closer to the door. I wouldn’t usually invade her privacy, but tonight was far from ordinary. After all, I’d just revealed the existence of vampires to a mortal. That was a decent justification for crossing the line. As I suspected, no sound came from inside. It was deadly quiet.
Maybe she was right. Maybe I’d gone insane during my extended break from the world. Perhaps I was breaking too many rules, but I couldn’t ignore the dread tugging my hand toward the door. I’d nearly given in to my weakness when I managed to get a hold of myself.
I was not going to interrupt a lady in the toilet.
But before I could step away, I heard a faint slurp. Instinct flared inside me, and I inhaled deeply, catching another scent drifting in the air. I’d missed it before, too intoxicated by Thea’s presence to realize I’d led her to another vampire. There was no time for second-guessing myself. My fangs extended instantly as I burst through the door.
Thea stood in the middle of the room, her body angled between the door and the stalls. Relief washed over me when I saw she was alone, but it was short-lived. Her eyes widened as I came into view, but she didn’t move or speak. Frantic energy poured from her, and instinct took over. I bounded toward her, needing to place her within reach. But as I came closer, a drawling voice called out from an open bathroom stall. “These ones are taken.”
I swiveled toward the vampire, placing myself between him and her. “I don’t think so.”
“Look, they’re not familiars, and the hors d’ oeuvres are seriously lacking here. I thought I was going to die of boredom.” He released the woman in his arms, and she slumped, unconscious, to the floor. Her head hit the toilet with a crack. “If you don’t mind, mate.”
He prowled toward me, obviously intent on finishing Thea off as well.
“I do, actually, and I’m not your mate,” I growled.
He smirked at me. I resisted the urge to take his head off. Barely. Tension gripped every muscle of my body. A low rumble started in my chest as I prepared to attack.
“Whoa!” He stopped and held his hands up. “I didn’t know.”
“Know what?” I spit the words at him but didn’t wait for him to respond. “That it’s bad manners to dine on a mortal at a party? Or that it’s illegal to drain one in public?”
“This is hardly public–”
I cut off the pitiful excuse. “Or maybe you simply didn’t realize who you’re speaking to.”
The vampire’s throat slid as he studied me. It was clear from his immaturity that he was young. He hadn’t been born a vampire, either. While plenty of purebloods flouted the rules, he wore no gloves at a party full of witches. That either meant he was turned or stupid. No pureblood would be caught without them at an event like this. None of us would take that risk. I considered asking him who his sire was. Technically, they should be the ones to deal with this mess.
But instead of falling into line, his eyes narrowed. “You’re one of them,” he said. “A filthy pureblood. You think you can just order me around?”
“I know I can,” I roared.
“I don’t give a shit who you are, granddad.” He charged toward me, another smirk twisting his lips.
He might have a hang-up about purebloods, but I was older and faster. Only his body shifted along with that cocky smile. He never made it a step closer to Thea. My gloves were off before he even blinked. One second I closed my fingers around his neck. The next his head was in my hands. His body swayed for a moment before crashing to the floor and leaking blood on the tile. I dropped his head next to the rest of him.
But I didn’t care about him or the mess killing another vampire–even a fledgling jackass like him–could cause. Whipping around, I reached for Thea.
“Are you okay?” I asked as she began to tremble. Soon tremors racked her whole body. Her face tipped up to answer me, but when she opened her mouth, an ear-splitting scream tore from it. I pulled away from the piercing noise. “Well, your lungs seem to be working.”
The cry finally died on her lips. She stared at me, then looked at the bloody remnants of the man who tried to attack her. “You killed him.”
“I did,” I said smoothly. She’d seen me do it, so there was no point debating the matter. Plus, it wasn’t like I could charm her into believing otherwise.
“Why?” She spoke so softly I wasn’t sure she meant to say it out loud.
I answered anyway. She was clearly in shock, so I tried to be gentle. Unfortunately, I was out of practice. “Because he deserved it,” I said in a gruff voice. “Do you have a problem with that?”
She considered for a moment before she slowly shook her head.
I blinked in surprise. The response caught me completely off guard after her scream.
“Do you tear heads off often?” Her head tilted as if she was really looking at me for the first time.
“Only when–”
“They deserve it,” she finished for me.
She was taking this remarkably well, but I suspected when the adrenaline wore off, she wouldn’t be so calm.
“Now, will you finally let me escort you home?” I struggled to make it sound like she had a choice. If I had to throw her back over my shoulder and lock her up at my place, I would.
“He’s dead.” She licked her lower lip. It glistened in invitation, and I looked away. “Why do I need to leave now?”
I raised my hand and pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering if she ever ran out of questions. “Because I’m a vampire.”
“I kinda figured that out when you, uh, ripped off his head.” She shifted on her feet, but, despite seeing what I was capable of, there wasn’t an ounce of fear on her face.
“And that doesn’t bother you? Because–and I realize this might be counterproductive to my plans–it should.”
She lifted her chin a little. The small act of defiance tugged at me. Thea was brave. “You said you wouldn’t hurt me.”
She obviously had zero survival instincts.
“The others might,” I reminded her.
“Others?” she echoed the word.
“The party.” I lifted the shoulder closest to the door as if pointing her toward the missing clue. “We’re all vampires.”
“Oh. That explains it!” It sounded like she wanted to giggle. Perhaps she was prone to hysterics. That was common in cases of shock. But she didn’t dissolve into a fit. She bit her lip like she was restraining a smile.
I needed her to stop doing interesting things with her mouth. It was giving me ideas. Bad ideas. Very, very bad ideas. Ideas we would both thoroughly enjoy.
“It explains what?” I forced myself to ask.
“Nothing!”
I arched an eyebrow. “I told you my secret.”
She considered for a moment, and then she answered me. Thea Melbourne might resist my efforts to compel her, but she obviously appreciated the concept of give and take.
“You’re all so good-looking,” she blurted out.
“That’s what you noticed?” Humanity was doomed. Still, I felt an unfamiliar twinge in my chest. Who else had she been looking at?
Before I could press her on it, a small moan interrupted us. I swiveled in surprise, and Thea took an unsteady step toward me. But she didn’t fall into my arms. She pushed by me and rushed straight to the woman in the toilet stall.
“Carmen?” she called in a panic. She turned to me with searching eyes. “Is she dead?”
I paused to listen for a heartbeat. I’d been too distracted by Thea to worry about the young vampire’s victim. I could hear the racing beat of Thea’s heart, the organ pumping so loudly that it took me a moment to make out the much fainter one in the room.
“She’s alive,” I said grimly.
“I thought he killed her,” Thea whispered. Guilt flitted over her pretty face but didn’t settle. When she continued, I understood why. “I didn’t even think to help her. I just stood here. I couldn’t move.”
There wasn’t time to explain compulsion to her. Her friend’s heartbeat was growing fainter. She was near death. Any moment now, she would pass into the next life. The jealousy I’d felt earlier was nothing compared to the bitterness taking hold of me now. But one more look at Thea’s stricken face erased it. She blamed herself. She shouldn’t, but humans were rarely rational creatures.
“I can heal her,” I said softly, ignoring the fact that I shouldn’t. Because it was definitely not part of my plan to get any deeper into the pile of shit I’d found myself in. “But I can’t let her remember any of this.”
Thea’s tongue darted over her lip, her shoulders setting with determination, as she nodded. She moved to the side, giving me enough room to reach the victim.
“How…” she began but trailed away as I drew one manicured finger across a vein on my wrist. Bringing it to the other woman’s lips, I held it there until she began to drink. I felt Thea’s eyes watching me as I fed my blood to her friend.
After a few sips, her dark eyes fluttered sleepily. I drew my wrist away and took a handkerchief from my pocket. Carmen bolted up–or tried to. Thea knelt quickly to steady her.
“What happened?” Carmen asked. She blinked a few times. Confusion was normal. She had lost a lot of blood, but there were also the aftereffects of feeding on vampire blood. “Why am I here?”
Thea chewed on her lower lip, searching for what to say. I tried to ignore the attention she was drawing to her mouth and failed. So I returned to dealing with the mess the reckless vampire had left behind.
“You fell,” I said. Carmen startled at the sound of my voice, but as soon as she looked at me, she relaxed.
“I did?”
“Yes.” Unlike Thea, she showed no resistance to my manipulations. “You tripped on your gown and hit your head on the toilet. Thea found you.”
Her eyes widened in horror, and she glared at Thea. “I fell on the toilet,” she shrieked, her voice hitting a pitch I hadn’t thought humanly possible until this moment, “and you brought a man to help me?”
“I can see you’re fine now,” Thea said with a sigh. She glanced over at me. “You can go. I’ll take care of her.”
“Not fucking likely,” I snapped. By my count, I’d saved her life twice tonight. I wasn’t letting her out of my sight.
Thea squared her petite shoulders and stared me down. “Then wait outside.”
I didn’t budge.
“Please,” she added.
“I’ll find someone to deal with this mess.” I turned back to the other woman. “You feel fine. You’ll walk out of here without noticing the body. You won’t remember the attack. You only remember smashing your head on the toilet.”
“Thank you. I’ve got it from here,” Thea’s voice shook a bit.
My eyes narrowed, but I stalked toward the door. Not only was this tiny mortal not afraid of me, but she was also giving me orders. I slammed the door behind me and melted into the shadows to wait. This time, she hurried. My blood has done its job. There was no sign that anything had happened to Carmen when they exited the restroom. I only hoped Thea hadn’t told her what really happened. Were they close?
I should find my brother. Sebastian had to be here by now. He could erase Thea’s memories of the night. She could continue her normal life. As for me, I would see to my obligations. I would settle on some perfectly adequate familiar and see to the family business of marrying. Somehow that plan felt even less appealing than before, and before, I would have rather been staked.
“Thank you for your assistance,” Carmen said, still avoiding my eyes. She was embarrassed by her understanding of tonight’s events. “I can see myself back from here.”
She glanced over at Thea and smiled tightly.
“Of course,” I said, letting her pass. She walked confidently but swiftly down the dark hall and back to the party. As soon as she disappeared into the shadows, I turned to offer Thea my arm.
She just glared at me, not moving an inch. “Wait, a second. Why can she just wander off without a chaperone?”
“She’s in no danger.”
“A vampire was drinking her like a milkshake five minutes ago.” She crossed her arms, still refusing to move.
“She drank my blood, and now she has my scent on her. No other vampire will lay a finger on her,” I said, my temper starting to rise. Why wouldn’t she just listen?
“It’s not your fingers I’m worried about,” she muttered. “Okay, then put your scent on me, so I can go find my cello and explain where I’ve been.”
A smile tugged at my lips, but I wouldn’t let it loose. “It’s not that simple.”
“Why not?” she challenged me.
“Would you like to ingest my blood?” I asked her.
Thea gulped and shook her head.
“Would you like me to drink your blood?” I imagined that was an even less appealing option.
“You can’t just rub against me or something?” Her hand flew to her mouth as soon as she realized what she had said.
“There is another way, but it would take a little more than rubbing, pet,” I purred, taking a step closer to her. Her remark was innocent, but my thoughts weren’t. Maybe all I needed was to get this unusual human out of my system.
But I knew that was a lie.
“What would it take?” she asked breathlessly.
I leaned down, lowering my voice to a murmur only she could hear. With vampires everywhere, I needed to be cautious. Bedding humans was frowned on, but during the social season, it was against every rule of etiquette to form a new attachment to a mortal. “I could take you to bed. No one would doubt you were mine after that.”
She gulped, a battle beginning in her eyes. “I’ve never–”
“There you are!” A sharp, imperious voice interrupted before she could finish. I straightened and shot Thea a warning look as a beautiful woman in a red silk gown sauntered toward us. Next to me, Thea gawked as she took her in. That was how people usually reacted when they saw Sabine. I’d been suffering through its effect on her ego for nearly a millennium.
“You didn’t come to the house,” she said, placing a possessive hand on my bicep. Thea stiffened next to me. I looked to discover her lips turned down in a sour expression.
“Because you’re avoiding me,” I reminded her.
“I’ve been busy.” She shrugged a shoulder dismissively. “Engagements don’t plan themselves.”
“I hope by engagements you mean parties.”
“Of course.” She blinked twice, a sure sign that she was lying. I’d learned to recognize her tells. It was why she always lost to me in games of poker. “What else would I mean?”
Thea cleared her throat politely. “I should be going. Thank you for your help.”
“Help?” Sabine repeated, curiosity tainting her voice.
“It’s nothing,” I said before Thea could repeat any of this evening’s disasters. It was bad enough that I’d gotten involved. It was worse that I’d nearly given in to my thirst for Thea. Sabine didn’t need to know any of that.
“Nonsense.” But she wasn’t the type of vampire to roll over and accept that answer. “How did my son help you?”
“Son?” Thea choked.
Had I actually thought things couldn’t get more complicated? Obviously, I’d forgotten how the world worked while I was desiccating alone in the Keys. This was a rather unpleasant reminder of who I was and of my duty.
Sabine waited expectantly for me to respond, and I knew I had no choice but to turn to Thea. “Allow me to introduce my mother.”
