Текст книги "Midnight's Kiss"
Автор книги: Thea Harrison
сообщить о нарушении
Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 18 страниц)
But she already knew the answer to that. She could not look at one without the other, because they were both the same man. It was just that the bastard Julian was so much easier to live with when he wasn’t so furious with her.
She felt exposed, euphoric. She felt disturbed at how easily she had given in to her desire for him, when just a short while ago, she had been so determined to never let him near her again.
And circumstances and surroundings be damned. She wanted to wrap her arms around his neck, pull him down to her and make love to him all over again. She wanted to tear off the rest of her clothes just to feel his calloused hands running over her bare skin.
When he lifted his mouth from her forehead, she said, “We shouldn’t take any more time. We need to go.”
A softer, more modern man might have frowned at her for being so abrupt, but Julian had spent his formative years owning nothing but his wits and his ability to kill, and he had lived too many centuries as a fighter.
“You’re right,” he said. Pulling away, he rolled off her and came to his feet. Matter-of-factly tucking himself inside of his boxers, he held out a broad, scarred hand to her.
She put her hand in his, and he lifted her effortlessly to her feet. While she found another rag from his shredded T-shirt and cleaned her inner thighs, he buttoned and zipped his jeans and collected her trousers and underwear.
She watched as he frowned down at the wadded-up feminine clothing in his hands, puzzling how to turn it right side out again for her. The slanted light from the heavy flashlight made flecks of silver in his salt-and-pepper hair shine.
He had an undeniably Roman profile with a nose that had been broken more than once, blunt, high cheekbones, and a strong jaw that more often than not revealed the determination of the man. Somehow he never managed to look quite civilized when he dressed in formal black tie. Now, standing shirtless in his battered jeans, he was the epitome of raw, lethal masculinity.
If his sire Carling hadn’t seen his potential and turned him, he would have died almost two thousand years ago. Melly was under three hundred years old, and she would never have met him.
If she would have heard anything about him – highly doubtful – anything she might have learned would have been from human history books. And while she was well versed in the history of all the Elder Races, she hadn’t studied much human history.
Chances are, she would have known nothing about his existence, nothing about his struggles or triumphs.
Or how he would have died.
Finding the thought deeply disturbing, she took her clothes from his outstretched hand without meeting his gaze. Quickly she pulled on her underwear and trousers, and slipped her feet into her ballet shoes.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she muttered. His gaze was too penetrating at the best of times. The last thing she wanted was for him to dissect her right now.
Somehow he managed to make his answering grunt sound entirely skeptical, but he didn’t push it.
She finished off another bottle of water and ate the second banana, which meant there were two less things they needed to carry. Working together, they gathered everything up within a matter of moments.
He hesitated only once, when he rolled up the cot mattress and blanket again and tied the bedding with the strip, then slung it onto his shoulder. She didn’t have to ask why. Hopefully they wouldn’t need the bedding and they would find their way out quickly enough.
As she tucked the revolver into the grocery bag along with the last two bottles of water and remaining food, Julian arched an eyebrow at her.
“Why hold on to the gun now?” he said. “We’re out of bullets.”
She lifted her chin. “I’m not letting go of a single potential resource until I know for sure it’s no longer of any use to me. Maybe Anthony has a car outside the tunnels, and maybe he has a box of extra bullets in the car.”
A quick smile creased his face. “Good point. Damn, I never thought of that. Are you ready?”
She cast a final glance around. Not that long ago, she had thought for certain she was going to die down here. “Oh, hell yeah.”
“Come on.” He tucked his stakes at the back of his waistband, took the large flashlight and led the way down to the gate. She carried the smaller flashlight, the grocery bag with the food and water, the gun, and her own stake in one hand.
After hearing so many ferals in the background for so long, the area seemed eerily empty. Looking quickly down both directions of the intersecting tunnel, he unlocked the gate, then paused to look at her.
“What?” she said.
Taking her chin in his hard fingers, he kissed her swiftly. “What happened back there – it wasn’t a fluke, Melly. We didn’t have sex because of the danger or because we got carried away by my bite. When we get out of here, we’re going to do it again. And again.”
Anger kindled at his words, and she jerked her chin out of his grasp. “You know what? You don’t get to screw me when you want, if you want. I’ll tell you if we’re going to have sex again or not – and with that highhanded, primitive caveman attitude of yours, it’s not looking very likely.”
She meant every damn word. He shouldn’t have smiled at that, but he did. As his lips slowly widened, his eyelids lowered and he gave her a look that was knowledgeable and full of intent.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” she snapped.
“Like what?” he asked, sounding almost lazy.
“Mister I’ll-come-after-you-and-you’ll-like-it. Fuck you.”
His smile turned into an outright grin.
Gah, he looked so sexy. He made her crazy, and she still had a right hook with his name on it.
Then he snapped his head around and lost his smile, and at his hard, predatory expression, her stomach clenched.
She hadn’t heard anything, but she had been preoccupied with being mad at him, and his senses were so much sharper than hers.
She switched to telepathy. What is it?
Someone’s trying to be stealthy.
She strained to hear whatever it was that he heard. Do you think it’s one of the ferals?
Yes. Justine would be more quiet. He wrapped a hand around her forearm.
Pushing the gate open, he stepped out. He kept a strong grip on her so that she nearly tripped on his heels. For once, she didn’t mind his highhandedness. The tunnels seemed extra dark and menacing outside the protection of the locked gate.
Reluctantly, she said, You have to let go. I can’t use my stake when you’re holding on to my arm like that.
He frowned at her. I’m taking point, but I still want you to stay as close to me as you can.
Don’t worry, she told him grimly. I have no intention of lagging behind.
When his fingers loosened, she missed the comfort of his touch immediately and grew annoyed with herself. As they came to the first intersection, she remembered her first foray out into the tunnels, before she had known anything about the ferals. It seemed like it had happened ages ago.
She told Julian, When I first got out, I went exploring and I found a large, cavernous room. The ferals were there, feeding on a couple of people. They chased me back to my cell. I barely got it locked in time.
He shook his head. The thought makes me shudder.
It was the worst few minutes of my life. She paused, thinking. But here’s the thing – if Justine and Anthony have been bringing victims in for the ferals to feed on, then doesn’t it sound logical that one of the tunnels leading from that room can get us out?
It does, indeed, he told her. It might take us a while to find the right tunnel, but if we keep the room as our reference point, sooner or later, we’ll be able to find the right one. Can you get us back there?
She nodded. I kept mental track of my turns.
There was approval in his gaze when he glanced at her. Good job.
When he started forward again, he followed her directions. Right, right and across. At that latest one, he cocked his head. Why didn’t you go right again?
She shook her head with a shrug. I didn’t realize at first how big the tunnel system was, so I was making decisions on instinct instead of some kind of well-thought-out plan. I was afraid if I took too many rights, it would lead me back to where I started.
Fair enough. He shone the flashlight both ways down the intersecting tunnel.
What happened to the stealthy someone? she asked.
I don’t know. There’s an echo down here. It could have come from farther away than I thought. Or he might have stopped moving.
That sounded a lot more sinister than she would have liked. If the feral had stopped moving, that might mean he was lying in wait somewhere.
She glanced over her shoulder. Beyond the range of her flashlight, the darkness looked as solid as a curtain. It seemed to have personality, like it was watching her. She studied the darkness carefully but saw nothing.
For the first time, she realized the ferals had to exist in total darkness most of the time. The cavern where they had been feeding had been lit, but she suspected the torches had been more for Justine and Anthony’s benefit, whereas the feral Vampyres would know every nook and cranny in the tunnels like the back of their hands.
After checking both ways, Julian stepped forward, and she followed.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of movement. Even as she turned her head to look at the feral that had dropped from a shadowed hollow in the ceiling, Julian sprang forward to engage.
Another feral dropped down and leaped after Julian. They had coordinated an ambush.
As soon as the realization hit, she whirled in a complete circle, her stake out and ready as she looked for the third.
He rushed out of the darkness, not from behind her, but from the tunnel ahead. She had never faced one without the barrier of bars between them. Terror flared, followed by a surge of rage.
She was done with being scared of these things. Done.
He came at her so fast, she wasn’t sure she could stake him accurately in the heart – and she didn’t dare get into such close quarters with him and miss, or risk getting her stake caught in his chest.
Leaping and pivoting at the hip, she went into a roundhouse kick that clipped the feral in the chin and knocked him back against the tunnel wall. He rebounded immediately – but that time she was ready for him. Even as he reached for her, she grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him toward her while she drove the stake into his chest.
For a moment she stared into the feral’s red gaze. She found herself searching for any sign of the personality he had once had, yet she saw nothing but madness in his eyes. As he bared his fangs at her, he collapsed into dust.
She turned just in time to see a snarling Julian in midlaunch toward her, easily two-hundred-plus pounds of deadly Vampyre male, complete with red eyes and fangs.
Flinching back against the wall, she gasped, “Holy shit.”
He landed in front of her, slapping one hand against the wall, so close that his body pressed hers against the cold stone.
“Jesus,” he said roughly. “I thought he had you. I thought I was going to be too late.”
Any other time, she might have slapped him with a retort for thinking she couldn’t take care of herself. But this time, she felt a shudder wrack his powerful frame as he sucked in an unsteady breath, and she realized he had been terrified for her sake.
Leaning forward, she put her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m all right,” she told him in a soft voice as she rubbed his broad back. “Everything’s okay.”
Still breathing hard, he buried his face in her hair and held her tight.
An odd kind of peace stole over her.
Maybe they weren’t going to have sex again. Or even if they did, maybe they wouldn’t be together for long.
Maybe they would never get over what had happened before. Earlier, when she had given him her truth, he hadn’t said whether or not he had believed her. Even now, after so long, their conversation remained unfinished.
But she did believe in one thing now.
Wherever she was, and whatever kind of trouble she might get into, he would always come for her to make sure she was all right.
Because he really did care for her at least that much.
Eleven
After a moment, she lifted her head.
He had calmed down enough so that he looked human again. She told him, “At least they’re all gone now, and we don’t have to watch over our shoulders for them.”
He nodded. “And I know I don’t have to come back to clean them out.”
This time, instead of taking point, he took her hand, lacing his long fingers between hers. The gesture stole into her heart, damn him, and she couldn’t make herself pull away. Instead, she fell into step beside him.
As they walked in silence for several minutes, she found herself thinking ahead. “Justine has to be local, doesn’t she?” she said. “Somewhere in the city, so that she can get back and forth from the tunnels.”
His attention sharpened on her. “Yes, unless she has come to some kind of agreement with Malphas. I wanted to ask you about that. Did you overhear them making plans or setting up some kind of arrangement?”
Biting her lip, she shook her head. “The only thing I heard them discuss was him getting you in the cell, and they weren’t careful about what they said in front of me, so I think it’s likely he’s still helping her, but I can’t say for sure.”
“Fair enough.” He frowned. “As soon as I can, I need to set up road barriers and search the city block by block if I have to. Maybe I can flush her out, unless she can fly.”
She raised her eyebrows. She would love to hear he was making a joke about that, but he sounded dead serious. “What do you mean?”
His mouth tightened. “We have all her assets frozen, at least those assets that we could find, but she might still have the funds to hire a helicopter. Either that or one of her allies on the council might have agreed to help her.”
Staring at his profile, she asked, “By now her allies must know what she did to her own household. Do you really think they would continue to support her?”
His expression turned cynical. “Anything is possible, including that.”
She tried to keep her response as quiet and noncommittal as possible. “You sound pretty fed up.”
He bit out, “I’m sick to death of the lot of them. Every year the council goes through the same damn arguments. Even Dominic is interested only in doing what is best for him.”
Unsettled, she chewed her lip. After a moment, she said gently, “Since it makes you so unhappy, would you ever consider stepping down?”
“What makes you think I can?” The sharp bitterness in his look lanced through her. “My sire set me on this task, remember?”
Melly sucked in a breath. Carling, his sire, had once been Queen of the Nightkind demesne, but a long time ago, she had set Julian to be Nightkind King while she became a member of the Elder tribunal.
So very much had happened since that long-ago political maneuver. Melly was sure she had only heard a fraction of the entire story. When she and Julian had been together, he hadn’t discussed it much, but even then she could tell there was tension between him and Carling.
Then last year, a series of fast-paced events had jolted through the demesnes of the Elder Races. Some of it had involved the Nightkind. Melly had heard the news from a distance.
All she really knew for certain was that Carling and Julian had had some kind of falling out, and he had banished Carling from the demesne. Carling had also lost her seat on the Elder tribunal, and she had even been incarcerated for several months, while Rune, one of the most Powerful sentinels from the Wyr demesne, had left his service and mated with her.
Since Carling was Julian’s sire, the only way his banishment of her could be effective is if he never saw her again, because with one meeting and a single order, Carling could take control of him again.
That also meant that he would continue to carry out whatever orders Carling had already given him. He would never have any choice. He would never be able to walk away. He would work and work at those orders, until either somebody killed him, or Carling herself released him.
Horrified pity shook through Melly. She whispered, “Would you want to step down, if you could?”
His expression went blank, and for a moment, he looked utterly empty.
“I have no idea what I would want to do, if I could.” His brows drew together. “But I think I would like to take a vacation and find out.”
She tightened her hand on his. “What happened last year between you and Carling?”
“That’s a long story, and neither one of us came out of it looking good.”
“Whatever happened, it was a strong enough disagreement for you to banish her.”
“I had to.” His reply was as harsh as his expression. “Her behavior had gotten too erratic. Sometimes it happens with very old Vampyres, and she’s one of the oldest. She kept giving me contradictory orders, and they were literally tearing me apart. At least by banishing her from the Nightkind demesne, I can keep her from telling me to do anything else.”
She said, “Julian, I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t feel too sorry for me. When Carling’s attendant Rhoswen came to me with stories of how dangerous she had become, I didn’t question her very closely. Instead I went to the Elder tribunal, even though I knew they would probably issue a kill order. I was right, and they did.”
Her hand tightened on his as she worked to absorb that. “Wait a minute. The tribunal doesn’t issue kill orders for no reason.”
“No, they don’t,” he said. “There was ample reason. There was also more going on underneath the surface. Long story short, Carling’s attendant was acting out of spite and ended up getting herself killed, while Carling managed to convince the tribunal to put her in quarantine instead of enacting the kill order. Apparently she found some way to stabilize her condition. I don’t know for certain. She and I don’t talk. I don’t dare risk it.”
“Good gods,” she whispered.
“Enough about that.” His hard mouth twisted. “We’re getting close to your cavern. Can you smell it?”
She could.
Before, when she had been exploring without any idea of what lay ahead, she had thought the stink might have come from a sewer line.
Now she had a different idea of what caused it, and her stomach rebelled. She had to breathe through her mouth to get past a wave of nausea.
“It’s not my cavern,” she said tightly. “And yeah, I can smell it. I would appreciate it if we could get through the next bit as fast as we can.”
He gave her a sharp look. “Of course.”
They finally came to the archway she remembered so well. This time there weren’t any lit torches in the wall sconces, nor was there any other kind of illumination. The cavern looked black as a pit.
As she braced herself, Julian directed the beam from his flashlight into the open space.
There were corpses everywhere. In grim silence, Julian sent the light over the massive open space. Skeletal remains had been pushed to the edges of the cavern, against the walls, while fresher bodies littered the open expanse of the rocky floor.
She had never seen anything like it. Not in person, not right in front of her. For a brief, stricken moment, her gaze strained to find the body of a woman in a black pencil skirt, who was missing a shoe.
Then a low, shaking moan broke out of her. Pulling her hand from Julian’s grasp, she let the things she had been carrying slide to the floor, and bent at the waist and wrapped her arms around her middle.
Julian’s broad hand came to rest on her back. He didn’t try to say anything or attempt to make things better, and she was glad for that. Sometimes things couldn’t be made better.
Instead, he gave her what she needed, which was time. Rubbing her back, he waited until she was finally able to straighten up again. With the back of one hand she wiped at her wet eyes.
“Are you okay?” he murmured.
She would not let the gentleness in his voice break her down again. Gritting her teeth, she nodded. Her voice was hoarse as she said, “I’m fine.”
“I count four other tunnel entrances that open into the cavern,” he said. “And we know one thing for sure – the way out isn’t going to be back the way we came.”
She glanced at him. The slanted beam from the flashlight distorted how everything looked, including his face. The crags and the hollows of his face were accentuated, and he looked tired and angry.
He met her gaze. “We have to go through. We can’t go around.”
“I know.” Bending, she snatched up the grocery bag, and when she straightened again, she stiffened her back. “Let’s go.”
He hesitated long enough that it brought her attention back to him. “What?”
With a quick shake of his head, he said, “Never mind, it will wait.”
But he had caught her attention now, and she cocked her head. “You can’t bring something up only to drop it again like that. Tell me quickly, and if we have to, we can discuss it in more depth later. What is it?”
At that, he shook his head and gave her a small not-quite smile. He told her, “No big discussion necessary. I just realized, there isn’t anybody else I would have wanted at my back down here, aside from you.”
Rough and outspoken as he was, his quiet statement hit her all the harder because of it. Despite the silent horror of what waited for them in the cavern, she felt her spirits lift, not a lot, but just enough.
She said softly, “I feel the same way. Julian, thank you so much for coming to get me. I’ll be grateful to you for the rest of my life. Now, let’s get the hell out of here.”
Inclining his head, he strode forward. She followed as close as she could on his heels without actually treading on him.
In order to see where to walk, he had to keep the flashlight trained on the floor. She tried not to look down, but after she stumbled twice, she was forced to watch where she put her feet as well. The images burned into her brain.
The cavern was so large, filled with tragedy and implacably silent. It was the hardest walk she had ever taken, and she felt sick and saddened to the bottom of her soul.
Julian said gently, Okay with you if we start with the left tunnel? If it doesn’t lead to the way out, we can work our way around the cavern clockwise.
For some reason he had asked it telepathically. Maybe he felt the weight of silence was what the dead deserved. If so, she couldn’t argue with that. Breathing through her mouth, she nodded then realized he couldn’t see her.
Yes, she said shortly.
He adjusted course, and she followed. After a moment, he held one hand behind him, fingers open in invitation.
“I told you I’m fine.” She spoke out loud, but if she had known how thin and strained her voice would sound, she wouldn’t have.
“Maybe I’m not,” he said very quietly. “I’ve seen horrible things before, and some were just as bad if not worse than this. But none of them makes this any less horrible.”
She grabbed his hand, and he squeezed hers so tightly she felt the blood pound in her fingers.
“It’s not right that they’ve been thrown aside like this,” she whispered. “They were people.”
“I’ll make sure each one gets identified so they can go home to their families.” Like her, he kept his voice low. “If they don’t have families, I’ll see they get proper burials.”
“Thank you.”
After what seemed like forever, they finally came close to the opening of the first tunnel. Julian came to a stop, which meant she did too, but she didn’t stop until she had walked right up to his back. Then she leaned against him, burying her face between his shoulder blades. She had no idea why they had stopped but trusted that Julian would let her know when they could move forward again.
“All right,” he said. “We’re moving on to the second tunnel now.”
She lifted her head. “Why?”
“There are a couple of bodies across the mouth of that entrance,” he told her. “They’re pretty decayed. It looks like the passageway isn’t used very often. We can come back to it if we have to.”
“That makes sense. Maybe we can be quicker if we check out the entrances to all the tunnels.” She tried to reclaim her hand, but his hold on her was like iron. “You can let go now. I’ll work from the right, and you can work from the left.”
He turned to face her, keeping his body close in front of hers. “As quickly as I want to get out of here, and I know you do too, I would rather we stay close. I don’t want to have to get all the way across the cavern to you if something happens.”
When she tilted her head back to look into his face, she found herself nose-to-nose with him. His proximity, along with the force of his personality, helped to push back the rest of the scene. Again, not much, but just enough.
“I didn’t think of that,” she muttered.
He put a hand on her shoulder, pressing down so she felt the heavy, solid weight of his touch.
“Only a few more moments,” he told her. “We’re very close now.”
“I believe you,” she said. And she did.
He looked calm, strong and steady. He looked nothing like how she felt, which was strung out and heartsick, and half-crazed to be anywhere else but standing where she was in a giant, delinquent tomb. Looking up at him, she saw another glimpse of why he would have been such a good general and leader in times of war.
He would have been a rock for people to look to when everything in their world went to hell. He would have been the person that people focused on when things had become unendurable, because somehow, they knew he would find a path to get them through.
He had become that person now, for her.
When he held out his hand to her again, she took it.
A very long time ago, when he had still been a young human, Julian had become experienced at putting certain barriers up between him and the rest of the world. Dealing with the constant realities of single combat, and then the more global consequences of war, meant keeping a tight rein on any impulse to empathize.
Even so, when crimes occurred, he never, ever blamed the victim. If you did bad shit, that was squarely on you, and you had better be running hard and watching over your shoulder if it was his job to bring you down.
The whole time he had been down here in the tunnels, he had kept the blame squarely where he believed it belonged – on Justine. And he was determined to get her for it, with a wrath as righteous as any of the gods.
But in that moment, as they stood in the company of the rotting dead and he looked down into Melly’s face, everything in his head and his heart underwent a complete reversal.
She wore a determined expression, her features set tight with endurance, but the shadows around her beautiful eyes were dark with hollows, and something grieving and fragile hovered underneath the surface.
Her expression filleted him.
He thought, this is my fault. All of these dead, all of the trauma that Melly has endured.
I should have known better. I knew Justine was creating some kind of trouble, but I didn’t have any kind of proof that the Nightkind council would accept, so I did nothing. If it wasn’t in my face, I could pretend that I didn’t have to do anything about it.
So everything that Melly has endured and all the damage Justine has caused, it’s all on me.
He had no words that could possibly make anything better. The only thing he could do was get Melly out as fast as he could, catch Justine and bury the dead.
Turning, he picked a path between the bodies to the next tunnel entrance. This time Melly joined him, and together they studied the floor around the entrance carefully.
He was about to suggest that they explore at least partway down the length of the tunnel when she released his hand, walked forward several feet past the entrance and knelt. Spitting on the tip of one forefinger, she ran it lightly across the middle of the floor and settled back on her heels to study the result.
Then she stood and showed him the filthy tip of her finger. “We can go down this way if you believe we should, but I think it hasn’t been used very much. If it had been, the middle of the floor would be worn cleaner than this, don’t you think?”
He did. Giving her an approving smile, he said, “I do, and I think we should move on too.”
She gave him a crooked smile in reply and took his hand again when he offered it. They made their way to the third entrance.
This time, he knew immediately.
The scent of fresh air wafted against his cheek. He strode forward, tugging on her arm. “Come on. I think it’s this way.”
She increased her pace until she was almost running, and it was her turn to tug on his arm. He was more than happy to match her speed. They came to a few more forks, but now the current of fresh air was strong on both their faces.
He caught a hint of briny salt. “We’re somewhere near the shoreline. Can you smell that?”
Her face brightened. “Yes. Oh gods, we’re almost there.”
They came to a curve that was so sharp it was almost a switchback, like a hairpin turn on a mountainside. Rounding the curve, he thought he saw something independent of the illumination from the flashlight.
“Hold up a second,” he said.
With obvious reluctance, she pulled to a stop. He switched off the flashlight, and they waited.
Blackness so dense it was almost velvety pressed against his eyes, until…
Ahead, a lighter gray appeared as his eyes adjusted to the lack of light.
“There!” Melly exclaimed. She clutched his arm. “Do you see it?”
“I do.” Jubilant, he swept her into his arms and hugged her tight.
As the light grew stronger, some of Julian’s jubilation faded. The growing illumination was diffuse and pale, not the sharp halogen glow of streetlamps at night.
If it wasn’t daylight outside, then it would be daylight soon – perhaps too soon for him to be able to leave the protection of the tunnel. He had no protective clothing with him and couldn’t afford to be caught outside without it. Melly might have to go on without him.
From her excitement, he could tell that the thought hadn’t occurred to her yet, so he said nothing. They would have to face the reality of it all too soon.
As they walked on, the tunnel began to shrink in size. The walls on either side of them narrowed, and Julian had to duck his head in order to continue.
