My Lord Vampire (Immortal Rogues #1)(56)

“Simone, are you harmed?” he demanded in rasping tones.

He felt her shiver as she leaned against him. “Nothing that will not heal.”

“Damnation,” he cursed his weakness at the sound of her strained voice. It was obvious her throat had been injured. “I was terrified Tristan would kill you before I could reach you. I had no choice but to throw the dagger and hope for the best.”

Her fingers rose to touch the amulet that lay upon her skin. “He was too determined to have the Medallion,” she husked.

Gideon gave a slow nod of his head. He was well aware that it had been Tristan’s obsession for the Medallion that had made him hesitate in striking Simone down.

He could only thank Nefri that he had paused.

“Yes. It was his downfall. That and his confidence that I would not choose to destroy him. I very nearly waited too long.”

Easily able to sense his inner turmoil, Simone raised her hand to gently lay it against his cheek.

“Gideon, do not.”

His lips thinned. “I allowed him to hurt you.”

“You attempted to give him an opportunity to save himself,” she argued in soft, but ruthless tones. “Had you simply killed him without remorse or regret you would be no better than he.”

Her words, of course, made sense, but he was not yet prepared to accept what he had done.

“He had become crazed with his lust for the Medallion.”

Simone slowly turned her head to regard the darkened stones. “What happened to him?”

With reluctance, Gideon reached out to retrieve the dagger that lay on the ground.

“The power of the blade destroyed his soul.”

Her breath caught. “His soul?”

“It is as if he never existed. A horrible fate for any vampire.”

As if at last truly comprehending just how final a death Tristan had suffered, Simone regarded him with sad eyes.

“I am sorry, Gideon.”

“As am I.” He briefly thought of his arrogant certainty when he had arrived in London. He had never thought that Tristan would prove so relentless. It had seemed a simple matter to convince him of the error of his ways, and to escort him to the Great Council. “I did not believe it would come to this.”

There was a faint pause as Simone studied his tortured expression.

“Why were you sent to face him?” she at last demanded. “Surely there were others more capable?”

His pride was ridiculously pricked by her abrupt question. Did she feel as if he had somehow failed her?

“More capable?”

“I presume that vampires can be as different from one another as humans are. There must have been another who would not have been so reluctant to face Tristan.”

He frowned at her perception, for the first time actually pondering the reason he had been called before the Great Council. It was true that there were those who would have been quite anxious to punish the renegades. Some far more talented in the arts of battle than he.

“I do not know,” he slowly confessed. “At the time I was told I had been chosen I presumed that it was because I was intelligent and always logical. Now ...”

“What is it?”

A niggling unease settled in the pit of his stomach. He knew that he must be overlooking something. Some vague sense that there was more to this than he could put his finger upon.

“It does not make sense,” he muttered in annoyance for his uncommon stupidity. “As you say, there were others that surely would have been far more capable of facing Tristan.”

Her expression abruptly melted as she gazed deep into his eyes. “Whatever the reason, I owe them a debt of gratitude. I would not have desired anyone but you to protect me.”

Gideon readily allowed himself to be distracted, and slipping the dagger beneath his coat he firmly returned his arms about her delicious form.

“No one else will ever be allowed to protect you. You belong to me.”

She arched her brows at his deliberately arrogant tone. “Belong?”

He breathed in her warm scent. “Can you not feel it deep within you?”

Her eyes briefly closed before they opened to regard him with shimmering love.

“Yes.”

Gideon gave a low groan as he pressed his lips to her forehead. The last three days had been the longest in his life as he waited for her to come to him. He’d wanted so desperately to force his way into her home where he could prove to her that his emotions were no different than any other gentleman’s. And that he would devote his life to making her happy.

Only the knowledge that he might very well force her even farther from him had kept him away.

“I thought I had driven you away when I confessed the truth.”

“It was difficult to accept,” she admitted.

“Yes, I know.”

She heaved a faint sigh. “I wanted to convince myself that you were mad and that my feelings for you had been those for a gentleman who did not exist.”

“But you came to me tonight.”

“I realized that there was no one else that I could trust,” she said simply.

He pulled back to study her pale features. It was past time for honesty between the two of them.

“Because of your secrets?” he demanded gently.

“In part. I thought ...” She gave a wry smile. “Rather, I hoped that you would not turn from me in disgust when you learned my true identity.”