As Midnight Loves the Moon (7 page)

Guess he’d have to prove his innocence.

Chapter Nine

Alex managed to make it out of
Tartarus, although his legs were still wobbly from the incredible orgasm he’d
had only moments before. He walked into the alley and promptly collapsed
against the building, forcing himself to take deep and steady breaths.

What
the fuck was that?

He tried to remember what made him
go to Tartarus in the first place. He’d been unsettled, restless from his kiss
with Daphne, and had wanted to blow a little steam. Instead, he’d blown his
load in
Wayde’s
hand and had watched the man lick it
off his fingers. It had been one of the hottest things he’d ever seen. Even now
the memory made his dick stir to life.

No! No, he would not think of that
man again! He had to eliminate him. Neutralize the effect to his senses. The
man was a menace to his equilibrium, his work, and his life. Hell, he’d be
doing the universe a favor.
Right?

Right.

Alex’s mind flashed to
Wayde’s
soft lips, his long tongue. The man definitely knew
how to work that tongue. What would it feel like as it licked his cock? Rimmed
his hole? The thoughts turned his semi-hard shaft into a pulsing, needy hard-on
that made him want to go searching for Wayde.

Maybe he shouldn’t shoot the fucker
until after he’d had a blow job.

Yeah. That’s what he’d do. Blow job
first.
Shooting his brains out second.

****

Wayde slammed his front door behind
him with great satisfaction. He was horny and pissed off, which made a helluva
combination. Why the fuck did Alexander Malden believe him guilty?
Because the asshole was in lust?
Shit.

He did have one thing right. He
pushed away from the door and headed down the hallway where Daphne’s bedroom
was located. He placed his ear to her door but didn’t hear anything. Slowly, he
turned the knob and the door quietly swung open.

Her bedroom had a window and the
moon hung low in the sky, already beginning it’s waning decent toward the next
new moon. He knew the cycle intimately. Out of all the Shade species, vampires
and werewolves were the only two cursed with living by the moon. In that
regard, he somewhat envied the fairies, warlocks, and witches.
Even the demons and angels to some extent.

In any case he only had about
another half an hour before daybreak. He looked down upon Daphne’s serene face,
tenderly tracing over her features as if memorizing them. Perhaps he was. He’d
been avoiding her lately, because he’d been so confused about his feelings. He’d
get up and greet her, pretend to drink the coffee she made for him before
heading to his store to work. After several intense hours restoring his books,
he would find something else to occupy his time. Each time he came home, food
would be wrapped up waiting for him in the refrigerator. He would take it,
discard it and place the empty plate in the sink as a gesture that he’d enjoyed
her cooking.

He bent over and kissed her softly
on the lips, hating when he felt how cold her skin was. He listened hard and hated
how thready her heart sounded. One day she would go to sleep and not wake up.

Or she would have cardiac arrest
during the day and he’d be unable to help her. Maybe he should take her to
Dove
Hollow
Hospital
in
Los Angeles
. Perhaps
there was something from Shade medicine that could help her that human medicine
could not. Of course, that meant he’d have to come clean about who he was and
who the Shade were.

But if he didn’t and she ended up
dying, the question was, could he live with that guilt?

Could he live without her?

She and Alex were fast becoming special
to him. He was going to have to figure this out, and figure it out
fast,
because he had a feeling time was running out. He went
to bed still indecisive. His dreams were filled with lustful images of Alex and
Daphne, in some they were even intertwined and holding out their hands for him
to join.

The moment the sun set, his eyes opened,
but they felt gritty and tired. All he wanted to do was pull the sheet over his
head and fall back into slumber, but he had a rogue vampire to catch and damned
if he knew how he was going to do it.

As usual, Daphne was in the kitchen
and coffee’s brew cycle was finishing. She looked bright and sweet, and he
realized how much he valued the sunshine in his life. He had never really
missed the sun since he’d been born to darkness, but he knew that
when…if…Daphne should die, then she’d be taking an important part of his
existence with her.

He didn’t want to lose her.

So first, he had to catch this
rogue vampire, and then tell Daphne about himself, and then save her, either by
turning her or finding a cure at the Shade hospital. Easy as pie and absolutely
no stress…yeah, right.

He captured Daphne’s hand and
brought her over to the table, pulling out a chair and helping her sit as he
took the one next to her. She looked at him in surprise, her big blue eyes huge
in her pale face. He immediately saw that she was having a difficult time. Her
skin felt cold and he could hear her labored breathing.

“I think I should call the doctor,”
he said, all other thoughts fleeing his mind.

She smiled a little forlornly at
him. “We both know that’s not going to be much help,” she said softly.

“I
can
help you, Daphne,” he stated. “There’s something wrong with
your heart, isn’t there?”

She nodded. “I have some valve
defects.”

“Medicine or surgery—”

“Didn’t work,” she interrupted. She
pulled her shirt down a little, low enough to show him the top of the scar that
dissected her chest.

“Daphne—”

“Is there something you wanted to
tell me?” she asked, interrupting him again. He saw her force a big smile on
her face and his own heart stuttered with pain.

His poor girl.
His poor, brave girl.

“Yes,” he acknowledged, allowing
her to change the subject. “I need for you to stay in these next few nights.”

“I don’t go anywhere, anyway.”

“Good,” he said and started to rise,
but she grabbed hold of his arm and made him sit again.

“Why?”

“Because…I don’t want to tell you
why,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow.
“Wayde?”

“Okay,” he replied, caving easily. All
she had to do was
stare
at him with those big blue
eyes and he’d give her anything. “I’m going to catch the murderer.”

She blinked at him. “What?”

“I said—”

“I heard what you said.
No, absolutely not!”

He sighed. He shouldn‘t have said
anything. “Daphne, I have certain skills that will be useful in tracking the
monster down.”

She clutched the material on his
arms, as if that would be enough to keep him next to her. He liked how
concerned she was for him.

“What skills could a book dealer
have against a murderer?”

“Just trust me.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want
to lose you.”

“I know exactly how you feel,” he
said softly.

Her eyes turned misty at his words.
He reached over and unclenched her fist that had balled up in the sleeve of his
shirt and brought it up to his lips. He kissed her hand and then placed it on
his chest, holding it tightly against his heart.

“I’m falling for you, Daphne,” he
murmured. “And you’re sick. I have an idea on how to get you well, but first, I
have to take care of this monster hurting people because Alex Malden thinks I’m
the killer.”

“Alex? No, he’d never think that.”

His eyebrow went up. “There are
things you don’t understand yet.”

She hesitated for a moment.
“Things about you and Alex?”

“Yes,” he replied steadily.

She bit her lip and he saw that her
mind had to be racing over his words. He waited for her next conclusion. “Are
you and he…involved?”

“Yes,” he answered, and then gave a
little shrug. “No.
Well, somewhat.”

“But…you said you’re falling for
me?”

He nodded.

“Oh,” she said. “I think I’m
confused.”

“I’m falling for both of you,” he
surmised. “Perhaps you can fall for both of us as well.”

He could see that it just wasn’t
clicking for her, but that was okay. He’d planted the seed, so he’d let it take
root for now. He bent and kissed her, licking her lips until her mouth parted
so he could slide his tongue inside her warmth. She responded immediately,
pressing closer to him, and he wrapped one arm around her shoulders. Even
through the kiss he could feel her fragility and knew that he had to do
anything possible to save her.

When he finally pulled back, she
was breathless and his cock was straining against his zipper. But she’d never
be able to hold up to the pleasure he wanted to give her, to the desires he
knew existed between them.

One day.

“There’s much I have to tell you,
Daphne,” he said and he hugged her close. “I want to be honest with you about
everything. But I have to clear my name with Alex and then we can all try to
work out this thing between us.”

“All of us,” she whispered.

“Yes, Daphne.
All three of us.
All right?”

“O—Okay.”

He smiled into her hair and took
one last deep breath of her light floral scent. “I’ll be calling you later tonight
to check on you. I would feel safer if you’d allow me to bring in someone to
watch over you.”

“No,” she stated firmly.

He chuckled. “You interrupt me a
lot.”

“You tend to push a lot.”

“That I do.
All
right.
But if you start feeling worse, or faint, call 911 and then call
me. Understand?”

“I can do that. But I’m going to be
worried about you tonight.”

“That’s one thing you don’t have to
worry about,” he assured her. “Like I said, I have a way of finding that
asshole and I’m pretty tough.”

“He could have a gun!”

“I could have a gun.”

“I see I’m not going to win this
argument, am I?”

“No, because it
has to be done.
Otherwise, more women are going to die and I can’t let
that happen.”

She cupped his face. “Please be
careful.”

He placed his hand on top of hers
and looked deep into her eyes. “There’s nothing on this earth that will stop me
from returning to you, Daphne
Sabella
. You and I will
make a life together.”

“And Alex?”

“Well, we’ll see about Alex.”

He kissed her one more time, rose,
and left to prepare, not giving her time to question him further about Alex’s
role in their life together. Of course, he and Alex had to explain who and what
the Shade were, and he could only hope that Daphne didn’t freak the hell out
when they sat down for that little talk.

****

Once he had left the apartment,
Daphne sat at the kitchen table thinking about everything he’d said. She may be
a virgin, but she wasn’t ignorant to the ways of sex. Was Wayde telling her he
wanted a threesome or did he want something more?
Something
deeper?
And what did Alex think about this? She was attracted to both
men, but surely this didn’t mean she had to act upon that attraction.

Did she want both of them?

She tried to take a deep breath and
ended up having a coughing fit. When it was over, she lay her head down upon
the table, tears falling from her eyes. Of course, she may not have to worry
much about sex or threesomes for too long. She was progressively getting
weaker. It was one of the reasons why she hadn’t pressed Wayde too hard about
her leaving.

She’d always known she was going to
have a short life. In fact, the doctors had predicted she wouldn’t make it out
of her teens. But she’d proved them wrong. She was twenty-three and every day
was precious. Was it fair to have Wayde find her one day, to make him deal with
her corpse? Truth be told, she was selfish. She didn’t want to die alone and
not be found for days or weeks.

He talked about saving her, finding
something to heal her, but she’d already run the gamut of doctors and hospitals
and all they gave her was either false hope or grim news. She didn’t want to go
down that path again. She’d had enough of reality.

Daphne pushed back from the table
and stood, pausing as a dizzy spell washed over. Once it passed, she
straightened and headed for her bedroom. Something made her stop and turn to
look down the hallway that housed
Wayde’s
bedroom. What
did he have that made him able to track a killer?

Knowing she had no right to invade
his private domain, she tried to push away the curiosity that ran through her. In
the weeks she’d been living here, she’d never had the desire to invade his
bedroom, but his words wouldn’t leave her. So she walked toward his room and
gently turned the knob on his door.

The door was heavy and required
that she actually push it open. As she stepped into the room, the first thing
she realized was that there weren’t any windows. If she closed the door behind
her, this room would be a tomb. The second thing she noticed was the bed was
very large. She wondered what the thread count on the Egyptian cotton sheets were,
something astronomical by the feel of them.

The furniture was black and steel. Everything
had a feeling of modern coolness about it, but what drew her was the floor to
ceiling bookshelves. As she got closer, she realized they were filled with all
types of antiques.
Music boxes, clocks, books, paintings,
statues, feather quills and parchment papers.
Rolled
up scrolls, coins that depicted only heads of men with wreaths.
Gold jewelry and weapons.
Daphne had a hard time seeing it
all and trying to figure out what it all meant. Some of this stuff had to be
priceless. Was Wayde really this wealthy?