“We have all we need, Daria!” Brandon countered. “See reason.”
“See reason?” She made a scoffing noise. “Have you ever seen a blood slave, Brandon? Blood slaves are a far cry from your average veilhounder. Slaves are drugged into docility, physically abused, often raped, and starved half to death. We can't ignore an opportunity to help them.”
“We don't even know if there are blood slaves,” Brandon shot back. “What I saw by the honey fields may well have been simply the paid blood donors being shuffled back to their quarters.”
“
Qué pasa contigo, tio?
What's wrong with you, man?” Alejandro rounded on him, patience at an end. “Then why all the guards? Why the seclusion, the secrecy over on that side of the dome?”
Brandon shook his head. “We take the bird in our hand and leave the rest. We take the sure thing and get the fuck out of here.”
“You aren't making any sense,” said Daria. “I
know
there are blood slaves just like I knew there was something illegal happening at the teddy bear factory.”
“I don't want to waste my time trusting your gut, Daria!” Brandon spat in a low, dangerous-sounding voice.
Alejandro took a couple of menacing steps toward him. “I don't know what your problem is, Brandon, but you're outnumbered. We're in a good position right now, and there's no reason to move in quickly on Sante. We've got the luxury to wait a little and investigate the slave possibility.”
“You're fucking her, so you're willing to go along with anything she says, is that it?” Brandon snorted. “Bloody hell, Alejandro, you're a pussy-whipped son of a bitch. You both do remember thatâ”
Alejandro cut him off. “I don't want to hear a fucking word about rank. It's two to one right now and we're miles from any ABI or GBC outpost.”
“So it's to be mutiny, then?”
Alejandro flashed fang. “We can make it a violent one, if you like.”
Brandon glared at them a moment, then turned on his heel and stomped out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.
Alejandro vibrated with rage, staring at the door.
“Thanks for backing me up.”
He glanced at her. “I trust your gut.”
Daria made fists at her sides. “The sooner this mission ends, the better. I don't like that guy.”
“What's to like?”
He glanced at her and did a double take. Damn it. She hadn't been feeding. “You're pale and shaking.”
She turned away. “I'm fine.”
“Fine, my ass.” He took her by the upper arm and spun her around to face him. “You haven't fed. Fuck, Daria. I knew you weren't feeding from me, but I thought you'd have sense enough to feed from someone.”
She yanked her arm away from him. “Leave off, I'll find a donor today.”
Overwhelming possessiveness swamped his brain and shut everything else off for a second, including logic. “The hell you will. I don't want your fangs in anyone but me.”
Daria glared up at him. “You just said you thought I'd been feeding elsewhere these past couple of days.”
“That was then. Now that I know you haven't been, your sweet ass is mine.”
“I'm not sleeping with you, Alejandro.”
He hitched one side of his mouth up in a wry smile. “Isn't it a little late for that? That deed's been done.” He paused and his grin widened. “Several times.”
She turned away from him. “I can't.”
The rejection stung. “Afraid you can't resist me?” He tried to sound cocky.
“Yes,” she answered honestly. “My libido has had a good taste of you, Alejandro, and it wants more.”
And, for whatever broken reason, she didn't want to indulge it. Daria didn't want a longer taste of him.
Alejandro went silent for a long time, processing her words. In a way, maybe he should be flattered. She considered him a threat to the walls she'd built around herself. That meant he'd done a good job with his original intentionâtearing them down.
It hadn't been enough, though. Alejandro was beginning to understand that Daria was too damaged to accept his love.
Then he finally said, “I promise not to push you, okay? Take my blood, and I won't touch you in any way not related to the feeding.”
She turned and looked at him.
“I'll be a perfect gentleman.” He raised his hands, palms out. “Swear.” He'd do his best, anyway.
“I would rather feed from you than a stranger.”
“That's a point we can both agree on.” He moved to sit on the plush, overstuffed burgundy couch. He stretched his large frame and groaned. “Better hurry up, though, it's almost time for us to head back over to Sante's.”
They'd agreed to watch over Ari Templeton ever since the explosion. Tonight they would sit with her and watch the asteroid shower, a magnificent yearly event.
She glanced at him, hesitating.
“Daria, you're going to do the biting, not me.”
She took a moment longer and then walked to the couch.
“It's not flattering to my ego to be treated like I'm an executioner.”
She only lowered her gaze and straddled him tentatively, not meeting his eyes.
His breath rushed out of him at the sensation of her cunt pressed against him, the warmth of it bleeding through his pants and touching his hard cock.
Alejandro knew she fought herself over him. Obscenely, that made him want to push her even though he'd promised not to.
Daria rested her hands on his shoulders and stared into his eyes. Shadows and uncertainty lurked in their depths. He'd vowed that if there wasn't a way into her heart, he'd find another way to get under her skin. Apparently he'd succeeded. But it wasn't enough. Alejandro wanted her love.
“Come on,
querida
,” he said softly. “Bite me.”
Her eyelids lowered a little as the invitation settled over her, likely the result of the acute hunger she must have been feeling. She leaned in toward him and he tipped his head to the side, offering her his throat. Daria hesitated, her gaze flicking to his eyes and then focusing on his jugular. She dipped her head, and her fangs scraped his skin, making pleasure flare throughout his body. Two sharp punctures, a stab of sweet pain, and her veil unfurled over him, making his body tense with sexual need.
Was it wrong that he wanted to ease her pants off and tease her until she yielded to him? The urge was strong. To keep his fingers from straying, he fisted her shirt in his hands and held on tight as she took what she needed from him.
Alejandro would always let her take what she needed from him.
The suction on his throat intensified. Her body trembled. She shifted her hips against him, rubbing herself like a cat along his body. Her hands fluttered from their place on his upper arms and eased downward.
“Don't,” he growled. The one word ripped through his throat.
He couldn't handle it if she touched him. He would strip her and fuck her right here on this couch for sure and break the promise he'd made.
She halted and a shudder ran through her body. Her hands gripped his waist and didn't move again.
Finally the suction at his throat eased, but not until he began to feel the strain of the blood loss in his body. Daria had waited far too long to feed.
She eased away from him, still not meeting his gaze. He grabbed her wrist before she could pull away.
Alejandro really didn't know why he did it, other than that he hated what lay between them right now. He wished he could force it to be another way, that he could erase parts of Daria's past and make her heart fit to love and trust again. He could feel her slipping away from him more and more.
Daria stilled, looked down where he'd trapped her wrist and then up at his face. Her color looked better now. She was flushed from the rush of his blood through her veins.
They remained that way for several moments, holding each other's gazeâhis jaw locked and fear flickering through her eyes.
Finally he released her and she snatched her arm away as if he'd burned her.
And that was that.
Daria was lost to him. Maybe she'd been lost from the beginning, and he'd been stupid to try and make her see he loved her.
25
ARI and Christopher Sante had moved across the dome to a small house on a huge hill. Guards roamed the forested perimeter, armed with fangs and artillery.
Daria and Alejandro parked their dune bikes and entered the house with absolute ease. They were considered two of Sante's most trusted people these days, an irony not lost on either of them.
Daria entered the room to see Ari sitting with her legs folded under her in a chair near a huge window that looked out over the dome and under a huge skylight that gave an excellent view of the expanse of the universe above.
Her long hair was now clipped close to her head, since the length had been badly singed in the fire. She wore her customary long, flowing skirt and loose blouse, making her appear ethereal.
Bandages wrapped her right hand and forearm. Daria knew she had another on her calf, covering the place where flame had pressed against delicate fleshâa kiss even darker than the Chosen could give.
Ari turned, and her face lit up as Daria and Alejandro entered the room. She seemed emotionally unaffected by the ordeal and, thanks to her Chosen-ness, her physical wounds would quickly heal.
Daria smiled and started toward her, but movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.
Christopher Sante stood in the dimly lit room, near the long, elegant dining room table that separated the living room from the kitchen. Daria had assumed he'd already left.
She stilled, and suppressed a glare at him. Rage simmered under her skin. If it was possible to hate him even more now that they'd found the carmin, she did.
Daria wondered if Ari knew.
“Ah, my babysitters have arrived,” said Ari. “You can leave now, my love.”
Sante walked across the room and laid a gentle kiss to Ari's forehead. “Not babysittersâbodyguards, my dear. I'm not taking any more chances with your precious life.”
“I'm not a bodyguard, you know,” answered Daria. “Alejandro has the training, but I don't. I'm just an out-of-work waitress.”
Sante straightened and regarded her for a moment. “You showed an incredible natural aptitude for it during the bombing. I trust you with Ari's life, Valerie.”
Christopher Sante trusted her to guard his precious mate's life.
Oh, joy.
How had she gotten herself into this situation?
Sante's gaze rested on her and then Alejandro briefly. “I'll be back in a couple of hours. You can watch the asteroid shower together, perhaps.”
The Aproheid asteroid shower was peaking tonight and Sante had ordered the dome opened for the spectacle.
Daria glanced up through the skylight. Beyond the limits of Sante's world, no moon shone in the night skies of the Logos Territory. The combination of the new moon and the complete and utter lack of light pollution created the perfect conditions for appreciating the beautiful flashes of light that zipped periodically through the atmosphere of Darpong.
Back on Earth, because of overpopulation, there were no spots to watch such displays without interference from mankind's need to push light into every corner of the world.
People paid lots of money to travel to the outreaches of the Logos Territory to watch them. Even on Angel One, only big money provided the kind of view they'd get tonight, courtesy of Christopher Sante and his penchant for windowed ceilings.
Because of the utter darkness, tonight was also the perfect night to go hunting for blood slaves near the honey fields. Unfortunately, they'd been charged with guarding Ari.
“We'll do that,” Alejandro put in casually, coming to stand near Ari under the skylight.
Daria watched him for a moment as he looked upward at the sky. Alejandro was a great actor. He could appear so harmless, so nonthreatening when he wanted to, as he frequently did around Sante. Yet, she knew all too well the temper he had when pushed too hard or when he was protecting someone from a threat.
She knew as well the power and speed housed in that long, strong, magnificent body. Her own body still carried the memory of the recent encounters they'd had. She responded from the mere remembrance of his breath along her skin. Daria shivered.
He was a dangerous addiction, one she couldn't afford.
“Will you walk me out, Alejandro?” asked Sante.
“Of course,” Alejandro answered.
They fell into step and traveled down the short staircase leading to the front door.
Daria settled into a soft chair next to Ari and watched the two men leave, trying not to appear curious about what they discussed in such low, secretive tones.
“Alejandro loves you so much.”
Startled by the sentence, she blinked at Ari. “Excuse me?”
“When you sat down next to me, he turned around and looked at you with the most loving expression on his face.”
“Did he?” She paused, smoothing a crease in her pant leg carefully as she digested Ari's observation. “Some days I'm not sure I'm worthy of his love.”
Any day, really. Why did he persist with her so when she'd made it clear she just wanted to be left alone?
“Love doesn't recognize our self-perceptions. You may feel that way sometimes, but it's clear that Alejandro doesn't. He looks at you only with eyes of love.”
Alejandro was blind.
Ari went silent for a moment, then added, “Look at Christopher and me. By all rights we never should have fallen in love, but love is wild and uncontrollable. You might try and plan out your life a certain way, but once you find the man or woman who is meant for you, you can forget about planning anymore. When that happens all you can do is relinquish control, hold on tight, and hope everything turns out all right.” She smiled. “And enjoy it while it lasts.”