The Way You Bite(9)

He should lie. He should reassure Eric he was fine. “The guys needed to believe I did. That I’m okay.”

Eric cursed in two languages. “I thought you were close to the ennui. I’ve heard the boredom can lead you to do extreme things. Suicidal things. Is this your way of acting out, your form of going insane? You convince a vampire she’s about to turn into one of us? If so, it ranks pretty high on the lost-your-mind scale.”

Lexan had been searching for an escape from his world-weariness. He basked in the sensations now streaking through him as he tracked her. Unlike any moment in the past half century, right now he was very interested in living.

Eric waved his hand in front of Lexan’s gaze. “Snap out of it. She’s a bloody vampire. If you’re horny, I’ll find you someone to work it off.”

“I don’t want another meaningless…forget it.” I want her.

Eric clapped his hands together so loudly that it echoed like a gunshot through the car. Lexan’s gaze snapped to his guard.

“Need I remind you what her people did to you? They kept you in chains for over a hundred years. They fought you against other wolves like a common dog.”

“I have forgotten nothing.”

“Now would be a good moment to tell me your plan. You’ve seen her. Now what?”

Lexan glanced away and pressed his eyes closed. At this point, he was so aroused that remaining still was agony. He fidgeted when base needs to possess, dominate, and mate swamped his brain. He fingered the ring again, remembering his days of enslavement, which ensured hatred for all females of the blood-sucking species. The humiliations he’d suffered at the hands of vampires still remained a festering wound.

“Get us out of here.” Before I do something I’ll regret, even if I might enjoy the hell out of it.

Eric pulled out. The SUV passed her right as she opened her car’s door. Her head turned in their direction. Lexan met her startled gaze. Time froze between them in a moment of connection. Those beautiful eyes widened, and her mouth parted. Her body swayed his way.

The wolf in him roared with need to go to her and answer her invitation.

Intuition blasted him with a premonition of foreboding. She shouldn’t attend the wedding.

He thought to her, even though she probably wouldn’t hear: “Go home. No wedding tonight.” It wouldn’t work. He hadn’t yet discovered her mental wavelength. It took a bit of time to find the right way to think to each individual before the person understood him.

“Stop. Maybe I should talk to her now,” he ordered.

Eric braked.

Vee already had her car cranked. She backed out and sped away.

“Do I pursue, sir?” Eric asked.

Lexan massaged his forehead. Had she heard him? They’d had no more than a moment. Would she listen, even if she had heard him? The need to follow her clawed at his mind. It hurt his chest. He rationalized himself back to sanity.

“No. I’ll find her later. After the wedding.” They couldn’t follow her to the wedding. If spotted, their presence would be a declaration of global war. He and his guard were good, but the eight of them couldn’t fight hundreds of vampires.

The wildness of his reaction to this particular woman troubled him. He couldn’t be into a vampire. Period.





Chapter Three


“Come on, come on. Answer the fricking phone, wolf.” Vee slammed on the brakes at a stoplight and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. Now fifteen minutes south of Charlotte, she still had another ten to fifteen minutes until she reached the wedding.

She disconnected and dialed again. Roman must be on shift tonight. Even so, he always had his phone on him. Always. Even in surgery.

Finally, on the sixth ring she got a hushed, “Hello?”

“Did you send someone my way tonight?”

Roman spoke in almost a whisper. “Why are you calling me? I was about to go into surgery.”

“I don’t care if it’s not a good time. If you’re going to send someone my way, especially your king, I need a head’s up.”

“What? Who? Hang on, let me go somewhere else.” There was a long pause. Then he spoke in a normal tone. “Okay, better. I haven’t sent anyone your way. After last month you said it was too dangerous for you to continue.”

“Your king, Aleksander Dimitrov, showed up to see me for gunshot wounds. He had one of his bodyguards with him, named Eric. Any comment?”

“I didn’t…I don’t know him. I’ve never met him. You met him? What was he like?”

“Roman! Seriously?”

“He’s like a mythological creature and probably as old as one. Maybe older. There are so many rumors. I’m just curious.”

“He’s not a myth, and he’s very much alive. He wants something but wouldn’t tell me what. He wanted to meet later but I said no. Do you know what he wants?

“No.”

“I don’t think he knew I helped you out from time to time. His visit wasn’t just about getting medical care. He targeted me. This isn’t good.”

“I can ask around. See what I can find out.”

“Thanks.” She disconnected the call.

Vee cornered onto the ostentatious driveway of the Scarpa estate, which sat in the middle of thousands of acres of reclaimed farmland. She braked before continuing to the gate, bringing the car to a halt. For the hundredth time, her mind reviewed Lexan driving by her. Of meeting his pale gaze, glowing in the ambient light from streetlamps. Had he tried to communicate something to her?