As Midnight Loves the Moon (2 page)

“So you’ve been feeling better?” he
asked, as he moved to the dinning room. Sure enough, a nice meal was prepared. Chicken
it looked like, with corn, stuffing and biscuits. He’d set up a food delivery
when he’d brought her into his home and it looks like she utilized the service
today. He held out a chair for her and helped her sit down.

She nodded. “I still get tired
easily, but my lungs aren’t burning like before.”

“I’m glad. Perhaps you should go to
the hospital and get an x-ray or something,” he said as he sat down across from
her.
“For your lungs.”

“I’m okay,” she told him with a
gentle smile. “Besides, I can’t really afford going to the hospital.”

“Daphne,” he said with a frown. “I’ll
cover the cost.”

“Absolutely not,” she replied
firmly. “Wayde, you’ve already spent too much on me. You’re my friend. Not my
sugar daddy.”

He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t
say anything as she began to serve him food he neither wanted, nor could he
eat. But he didn’t say a word, even as she waited for him to take a bite, which
he did because he didn’t want to disappoint her. The food was tasteless and
felt like sawdust in his mouth. He only managed to swallow a few bites by
drinking gulps of red wine.

Finally, he couldn’t stand anymore
and pushed his plate away.

“You didn’t like it?” Daphne
asked,
a slight note of panic in her tone.

“I loved it,” he lied, smiling. “But
I ate before coming home. Had I known you were cooking, I would’ve abstained.”

“Oh,” she said and bit her bottom
lip. “Well, I’ll have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.”

He watched as she finished her
meal, satisfied with how much she ate. She was looking healthier every day,
although he could still hear her heart pumping a little off-kilter.

She stood and began clearing away
the dishes, and although he wanted to tell her to forget it, he knew she needed
to keep busy. She was one of those people who kept in constant motion, he’d
learned, even though she was weak. The week she’d been in bed had been a
testament to how sick she really was.

As she washed dishes and stored the
food, he casually went into his private bathroom and promptly threw up every
bit of human food he’d consumed. It wasn’t pretty and felt quite nasty, but
when his system was purged he felt much better. He brushed his teeth and
rejoined Daphne just as she turned out the lights in the kitchen. It was almost
four o’clock
in the
morning.

“You must be tired,” he said.

“I am,” she replied. “Would you
like for me to cook for you again tomorrow night?”

“I like eating at my office,” he
said instead of answering her. “Besides, I don’t want you working too hard.”

“I don’t like being idle,” she
murmured. “Why do you have to work at night?”

“The books I deal with are
fragile,” he answered. “Sunlight could destroy two-thousand-year-old vellum. I
still wish you would get checked out.”

“Are you offering to be my sugar
daddy?” she asked teasingly.

He leaned forward a little, until
his eyes were level with hers. “I would be happy to be your sugar daddy,” he
murmured and then watched in fascination as her blush engulfed every inch of
her body.

“Wayde?” she asked hesitantly and
took a step back.

He sighed and straightened. “I’m
sorry, Daphne. That was…uncalled for.”

He turned to walk into his library,
but her hand on his arm halted him. When he looked back at her, her eyes were
glued to the ground and her hand trembled a little. But her shoulders were set
firm.

“Did you mean it?”

“Excuse me?”

She took a deep breath and looked
up at him. “Did you mean what you said? About wanting to be my sugar daddy?”

The dynamics between them abruptly
changed and Wayde regarded her steadily, with narrowed eyes. “I hope you’re not
trying to sell yourself, Daphne. You’re a special woman and I’d be happy to
take care of you, no matter if our relationship turned physical or not. But not
until you’re completely well and not when you feel obligated to me.”

He reached out and brought her
flush against his body. He felt her breasts smash against his chest, her
softness melting into his strength, and he couldn’t help his reaction. Her eyes
widened as he ground his hard cock into her belly.

“Do you feel what you do to me?” he
asked.

She nodded and he watched as she
licked her lips with her delicate little tongue.

“For two weeks I’ve been thinking
of nothing but you. You in my bed as I sink into your tight little pussy or
lick you until you scream my name with pleasure. But there are things about me,
Daphne, which you should know first, because life with me would be different. Okay?”

Her wide blue eyes dilated and her
breath came in little heated puffs. He wanted so badly to kiss her but he knew
he wouldn’t stop, so reluctantly, he let go of her and walked toward his
bedroom.

****

Daphne watched him walk away, her
heart thundering in her chest as her body felt more alive now than it had in
twenty-three years of life. His words had turned her on like nothing else and
she wished he would’ve kissed her.

She wondered what he meant by
things she should know about him.

For two weeks she’d been living off
his generosity. Wayde had rescued her when she had collapsed and she’d woken up
in his extremely spacious penthouse condo. For a good week she’d been too weak
to do anything more than sip soup and walk to the bathroom. She’d learned a lot
about him in those two weeks. He worked at night and slept through the day. He
never ate in his home and occasionally drank red wine. He liked books, which
made sense since he was some type of rare-book expert. There were thousands in
his library and they covered almost every genre in print.

And he was incredibly sexy.

His dark hair, and blue eyes that dripped
sex appeal, had featured heavily in her dreams each night since her arrival. She
felt almost one hundred percent better and her fascination with Wayde Wallace
had only grown. She’d never been the type of girl who indulged in affairs, not
when her heart wasn’t working properly, but she wanted Wayde. She wanted to
experience what she’d been missing out on.

Tonight had been the first time
he’d given any hint about his desire for her, and just remembering his words
made her pussy ache with need. She clenched her thighs together and had to hold
back her moan, knowing it was only a matter of time before she let Wayde
Wallace claim her innocence.

Chapter Two

Alex melted back into the shadows
and waited. He had been tracking the rogue vampire for some time and thought
for sure he’d catch him in the act of taking a life, but the man just walked
home.
An innocent business man coming home from work.

Yeah, right
.

Born with the soul of a warrior,
Alex fought with a badge, living alongside humans to make sure the Shade didn’t
cause trouble. It was his duty to uphold the laws that forbade the citizens of
the Shade from interfering in human lives. Sure, they could live among them,
could befriend them, or even marry them, but it was forbidden to force human consent
or to kill them, which was what had happened twice already.

Alex would be the first to admit it
was a flawed system, like taking a junkie into a crack house. When rogue Shade
citizens ended up breaking the one and only law they had, they ended up on his
judicial radar. There were no second chances, no trial to stand for. His job
was judge and jury, just as he was the executioner. He’d been on the trail of a
rogue vampire and it looked like he might have found him.

Alex watched the building the man
had entered and something had him looking at the top floor, six flights up. His
sharp eyesight took in every detail. Black hair, sea-blue eyes, clean shaven
face and a muscular body. The vampire was standing there, looking, searching,
and Alex knew he had to stay sharp on this one, least he become ensnared in the
vampire’s seductive pheromones. With one touch, even with as much muscle and
strength as he had, he could just as easily succumb to lust as any human male.

Sighing, he turned and faded into
the fog, leaving the vampire behind for now. The rogue was safe in his home and,
with the sun rising in only a few minutes, he wasn’t worried about the man
sneaking out to find an unsuspecting victim. What Alex needed now was to sleep
so his senses would be sharp when he finally faced the vampire.

****

As Alex entered his home, he tossed
his keys and wallet on the foyer table.

He moved past the large formal
sitting room on his left and the dining room on his right to the staircase. He
jogged up them two at a time and hurried into the arsenal. Swords, daggers,
crossbows, guns, rifles, axes, and every other weapon imaginable lined the
walls and partitions. Alex went to the closet where the oddball armament was
kept and checked through chest after chest.

Nothing.
The
Blessed Blade wasn’t there and it annoyed the hell out of him. As he stood
there trying to figure out where it could be, a faint noise downstairs caught
his attention. Quietly, but quickly, he exited the room, closing the door
soundlessly, and headed for the stairs.

He followed the sounds of someone
walking into the kitchen. His colleague, Thomas, stood at the open refrigerator
door, piling items in his arms.

“Hungry?”

“Fuck!” Tommy yelled, jumping
slightly. A package of cheese fell from his overstuffed arms. “Don’t do that to
me, Alex!”

“Jumpy much?”

He walked over and picked up the
fallen cheese, balancing it on some packaged meat.

“I just got in from a stakeout,”
Tommy muttered. “I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I’m not in the best of moods right
now.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Oh?
Stakeout of whom?”

Tommy walked over to the kitchen
island, dumped his goodies and walked over to the pantry to grab the bread. “I
don’t know, really, but nothing happened.
Seb
had me
watch some place all night long.”

“And where is
Seb
?”

“Thank you! That’s what I’d like to
know. I can never seem to find him lately. Ever since he got back from that
Seattle
hunt, he’s been
acting strange.”

Alex watched Tommy make a sandwich,
piling several different flavors of meat, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, as well
as a large portion of chicken salad. He and
Seb
were Shade
police as well, working alongside humans. Tommy was the youngest of them, but
no one would ever call him little. In fact, he stood taller than both he and
Seb
, though the fact that they stood well over six feet
wasn’t something to be ashamed of.

“You’re putting chicken salad on a
turkey and ham sandwich?” Alex asked.

“Yeah.
So?”

“That’s just slightly gross.”

Tommy rolled his eyes and took a
huge bite out of the sandwich. Alex shook his head in bemusement.

“Do you know where
Seb
keeps the Blade?”

Tommy cocked his head, chewed, and
then swallowed after a minute. “What blade?”

“The Blessed Blade.”

“Oh! Um…nope,
haven’t
a clue
.
Possibly his room?”

“Would your better half know where
it is?”

“I don’t think so,” Tommy replied. “Josiah
hasn’t left our room all night. Why do you need it?”

“I think I found that rogue vampire.
I’m going to hunt him down tomorrow night.”

Tommy’s eyebrows shot up. “You
know, I’ve heard sex with a vampire is out of this world.”

“What’s your point?”

“When’s the last time you got
laid?”

“Focus, Tommy.”

Tommy picked up a towel and headed
for the table. He gave a one-shoulder shrug as he passed by Alex. “I do focus. Sex
is one of my focusing points.”

“You better go take that up with
Josiah.”

“Josiah knows he has nothing to
fear. I wouldn’t step out on him. So, do you need help on that vampire?”

“I think its best you leave my
vampire alone.”

He ignored Tommy’s raised brow as
he left the younger man to his mountain sandwich.

Chapter Three

The next evening, Wayde headed out
his door and started the long walk to his shop. Being surrounded by books and
doing meticulous restoration was better than sitting around with his cock
yearning for a woman he couldn’t have right now, not until she knew the truth
about him and willingly agreed to be his companion. There weren’t many Shade
laws he abided by, but that was the one he actually agreed with. A human’s life
was so short, and he’d lived among them for so long, that he wouldn’t be the
cause of Daphne ever regretting her decision.

For several hours, he poured over
an ancient European block printing from the
mid-1400’s
.
There were several religious images on the extremely delicate paper throughout
the block book, as it was commonly called, and he was working on it within the
safeguard of a glass chamber, his hands meticulously wrapped in white cotton. He
had taken a baby incubator and modified it with his own design. Attached to the
outside he had put several large magnifying glasses ready to be used at his
discretion.

The work was tedious. Each section
of paper had to be carefully, delicately cleaned with special substances. Only
the steadiest of hands, the sturdiest of backs, and the greatest of patience
could perform such a labor of love.

He had been living on earth a long
time. Time moved infinitely slower here than in the Shade realm, which was why
humans called his race immortal. Vampires weren’t immortal, of course. Nothing
could live forever, but they did have a very long life span when compared to
humans. Some of the books in his collection had been his own, purchased when
originally printed. He had always been a lover of words and took very good care
of his books. As time had moved forward, as the centuries had progressed and
technology changed the face of how books were made, Wayde had gradually
migrated to their preservation. He was proud that he was considered an expert
in the field, that in certain circles he was actually considered, well, a god.