Eversong (Midnight Playground) (2 page)

“Come, sit down,” Ever told his friend. “Shall I call for drinks?”

“No, thank you.” Aleron’s voice still held a faint trace of a French accent, even though he’d been in London for some time, had traveled all over Europe in his three hundred years. “Calam met me downstairs to let me know they’ll be arriving in a few minutes. Is there anything I should know before they come?”

“No, no more than we’d already spoken of.” He listed the facts aloud, if only to force himself to focus on the task at hand, to shift his mind from his morbid musings. “That this girl, Mercy, was Turned by a rogue who abandoned her almost immediately. That she met and Turned her companion Deo only days later. I hear they are both quite young. Innocents, especially the girl. That they didn’t even know how to feed properly.”

Aleron shook his head. “A terrible state of affairs.”

“She has no idea of our rules, I am certain.”

“No, of course not. Tragic, that any of our kind would Turn another and leave them so suddenly.”

“That is why they’re known as rogues, my friend.” Ever smiled at Aleron. “A different sort of rogue than you were known for being in your day,” he said.

“Ah, my Meeraj has cured me of that.” A smile spread over Aleron’s face.

“I am glad to see you happy.”

“So am I. I would wish the same for you, Ever.”

“That is not meant for me.”

Aleron raised one pale brow. “Never?”

“I’ve lived for over a thousand years. If it hasn’t happened yet, then…”

“One never knows.”

“Perhaps.” Ever shrugged, not really believing it.

“Perhaps.”

Aleron smiled again, his eyeteeth catching the light, and Ever felt once more that small spark of desire for the alluring, masculine vampire.

No, perhaps not dead yet…

Not entirely. But he’d
felt
dead for months. Had felt that fear of his mind going. Had those moments when, alone in the darkest part of the night, he almost thought it might be best if his mind
did
go and he slipped into some sort of dream. Or sought a true death the way his dear Vérún had.

He ran a hand over his sleek ponytail, straightened his posture. Tonight, however, would not be that night. He had responsibilities. And as he tuned his mind’s ear, he heard that they were just about to come through the door.

Chapter Two

It was all so confusing. The last months, wandering through Spain with Deo. Ramsey, the darkly beautiful vampire who ran the Madrid club they’d wandered into, hoping for help. The long trip from Madrid to England in the heavily armored car that was pure luxury inside.

Through the tinted, slatted, bulletproof windows, Mercy could make out the tall buildings, their grandeur barely reduced by the occasional bombed-out structure. Even in this elegant part of town, the gangs of street kids, the morphies, huddled in doorways.

The sky was clouded—with fog, with smoke. Yet behind the clouds she could see with her new eyes how the sun tried to shine through, its rays almost white through the dark glass. As a child in the United States, she’d read about London, about its history that didn’t seem to matter anymore. Not to humans. Certainly not to the vampires.

To her, now.

The car slowed and she caught a trace of Ramsey’s thoughts. Their trip was almost over.

Mercy couldn’t get her hands to stop shaking.

Ramsey had been unbelievably kind, yet she was still afraid. Frightened of what they might do to her—the vampire council they’d been told had been called in order to decide what to do with them, two young vampires who had been created in some outlaw fashion.

She glanced at Deo beside her. Her lover. Her only friend, despite the fact that she had Turned him unwillingly, as she had been Turned. He was so beautiful, his profile silhouetted against the dim morning light filtering in through the tinted windows. As a human, he’d been devastating, with his curling black hair, his soft blue-green eyes that looked like two aquamarines when they caught the light. As a vampire he was so exquisitely gorgeous, she thought there could never be another creature on the Earth as beautiful as he was. She loved his face, his lush mouth, his long, tapered fingers. And his perfect, muscled body. Flawless. Hard. Like hers.

The hardness of their bodies had shocked them, at first. But she’d come to know the sleek velvet of his skin. The sweetness that was his vampiric body. That was
him
.

Deo had accepted what she’d done to him. Had come to love her, as she loved him. She was so incredibly grateful he’d stayed with her. But what else would he have done? They were lost together in this strange existence neither had known much about until they’d become immortal, felt the preternatural strength, the incredibly heightened senses, the driving need for sex. The even more powerful driving need for blood.

She felt him watching her and smiled at him, squeezed his hand for comfort. He squeezed back. Even now, through the unease, the confusion, she felt that sharp, lovely stab of desire. Felt his, like a wave of pure heat rolling off his body. Heard an echo of it in his mind.

He leaned in to her, whispered in her ear, “Yes, love, I want you. But it will have to wait.”

She shivered, bit the need down hard.

“We’re nearly there,” Ramsey told them, his tone low.

Mercy nodded.

He was magnificent, this old vampire, with his velvety, coffee-colored skin, his gleaming green eyes. His hair was a cap of short dreadlocks, his body impossibly graceful. Although he looked to be no more than thirty, perhaps, he’d mentioned that he was hundreds of years old. Hundreds! Hard to absorb. Hard to imagine that she and Deo could live that long, as long as Ramsey had.

He emanated power in a way she’d never encountered before. He’d been gentle with them. But she still wasn’t certain they wouldn’t be punished, she and Deo. She’d heard the whispers between Ramsey and the other vampires at his club. The questions about how she and Deo had come to be vampires. She’d heard the terms outlaw, rogue. Retribution. And as much as Deo had since become her protector, she’d sworn to herself that Deo would not be made to pay for what she’d done to him.

The car pulled up in front of the club. As the chauffer, a handsome human male, held the door open, she caught the scents of damp pavement, gunpowder and wood smoke. Ramsey stepped from the car, held a hand out for her. Not that it was necessary, given what she’d come to know was her low station among the hierarchy of vampires. But she’d always loved this sort of rare graciousness the human race seemed to have lost, and which, she’d recently found, the vampires still possessed. Those other than the outlaw who had Turned her.

Gauis…

Why did she feel some small trace of adoration for him still?

But she didn’t have time to think about it. Deo was right behind her, taking her hand once more as they moved toward the front doors of London’s Midnight Playground. The building was grand, with its pale red bricks and soaring arched windows, its turreted façade. Her nerves drawn tight, she focused her gaze on the fine white linen of Ramsey’s shirt stretched across his wide back as he led the way into the club, past a pair of burly human doormen who nodded respectfully at the older vampire.

Inside, the light was dim, burning red and amber as though it were still nighttime. And she realized right away that in some way it was, inside the club. That it had been the same in what little she’d seen of the Madrid club before they’d been taken to Ramsey, secreted away until the car had arrived to bring them here to London. As they moved through another pair of inner doors flanked by another set of human doormen, she could feel the low throb of music coming from somewhere, smelled the metallic scent of human blood. She felt the sexual hum of bodies coming together, blood being drunk. Still, as titillating as the idea was, she was too distracted by worry to allow her mind to indulge in the sensual scents and sounds assaulting her from every direction, as though she were one raw nerve ending. Maybe she was.

She hung on tighter to Deo’s strong hand as Ramsey led them down a hallway that seemed to be made all of black marble. She was vaguely aware of those they passed—humans and vampires, all of them gorgeous, unbelievably beautiful. Her heart hammered in her chest. She was overwhelmed by it all. Fear and desire. Stimulation overload. Emotional overload. Her fingers dug into Deo’s hard, silky flesh.

“It’ll be all right, Mercy,” he murmured, leaning in to press his lips to her temple.

Still, she was glad when they stepped into a quiet elevator. It was paneled in sleek wood, as fine and luxurious as the walls of any mansion might be, making a soft whirring as it rose several floors.

Her pulse sped up as the doors opened on to a long hall and Ramsey gestured for them to step out of the elevator. He took them to a pair of doors decorated with two dragon heads, gilded and jeweled.

“Deo…”

“Shh, love. Don’t be frightened,” he assured her. “I’m right here. We’ll be fine, I’ll make sure of it.” But she felt in his touch that his heart was beating with the same racing doubt as hers.

Would they be punished? Separated? She couldn’t stand to think of that. Being left alone again, as she had been those first days after being Turned. After Gaius had abandoned her.

Ramsey turned to her then, his accent a soft rumble of Spanish and a touch of Southern French from his life in New Orleans centuries earlier. “Mercy, you will never have to be alone again. That is our purpose here. One of them, anyway. They will not take you from your companion. I can promise you that.”

He smiled, his teeth a stunning flash of white. He really was beautiful, his green eyes brilliant, his dusky skin so sleek. She wanted to touch him, just his cheek, to feel that gorgeous skin. Or maybe more…

His smile widened and she knew he felt her desire for him. She couldn’t help it. Lust was barely within her grasp, something she could control only with great effort since her Turning. She nodded, but she couldn’t seem to calm down—desire or nerves—as Ramsey opened the door and led them through.

She felt the grandeur of the room more than she saw it. She had a vague impression of the same black-and-white marble-paneled walls she’d seen in the rest of the building. The same ornately gilded mirrors everywhere that caught the misty morning light coming in through high, arched windows. But what really caught her attention was the two vampires.

Both of them unbelievably pale, as milk-white as Ramsey was dark, with skin like softly gleaming porcelain. They were tall, one with short, spiky platinum hair, while the other had his smooth, blond locks tied back from a face so exquisite she could barely look at it. The flawless features and eyes that were black as night and just as deep, just as mysterious. She could read the centuries there. He’d seen more than she could even begin to imagine.

Her body surged with a hot, hammering desire so fierce she felt her lips begin to draw back, baring her fangs. She clamped a hand over her mouth, and Deo’s grasp on her hand tightened.

“I feel it too,” he whispered.

The ancient vampire was watching them, those black eyes taking in every motion, Deo’s whispered words. His nostrils flared the tiniest bit, and she knew he could smell her. Her fear. The damp heat between her thighs.

When he smiled, her body wanted to melt, wanted to just sink into the floor. But Deo held on tightly.

“I am Ever, the owner of this club,” the ancient one said.

Oh yes, he was old. Years and years, more than she could possibly guess. She could
feel
it. And she could feel the desire rising in him, mirroring hers.

Next to her, Deo’s skin was growing warmer by the moment, but whether with his own need or his sense of hers, she couldn’t tell. Her mind was spinning.

“Don’t be afraid,” Ever said, stepping from behind an enormous desk to approach them. He stopped and laid a hand on the other vampire’s shoulder. She’d forgotten he was there. Forgotten about Ramsey, who stood on her other side. Forgotten everything but Ever for the moment, and Deo’s hand in hers.

“I am Aleron,” the other vampire introduced himself.

He was handsome too. Spectacular, really. She’d been too blinded, too stunned by Ever to see him at first.

She nodded, ducking her head, her cheeks flaming. What a foolish girl these two amazing beings must think her!

“Come,” Ever said. “Sit down. We will talk with you.”

She looked at Deo and he gave a small nod of his head. She felt his nerves, like a small electric current running just beneath his skin. She was grateful for his solid presence beside her as they sat on a couch upholstered in creamy damask. Ramsey and Aleron seated themselves in a pair of velvet chairs, and to her surprise, Ever came to sit next to her.

He brushed her shoulder with his fingertips, and she shivered.

Need him…

She swallowed, wondering if Deo could feel the intensity of her desire for this vampire. She didn’t want him to be hurt by it, but she couldn’t control it.

“Beauties, both of them, do you not think so, Aleron?” Ever asked.

“Yes. Absolutely. Such beautiful long hair she has…golden and red. The English call it strawberry blonde, I think.”

“Yes,” Ever agreed. “And eyes like the sky…the palest blue. The sweetest face.” He paused, brushed her jawline with one fingertip, making her shiver once more. “And Deo, you would have been irresistible as a mortal. Now you are glorious.” He touched Deo’s shoulder briefly, let his hand trail down over his arm. “But I know the two of you appreciate each other’s beauty. And we have important matters to discuss. The other elders of the Council will be here soon. We must decide what is to be done about you. This is a highly unusual situation. Not that it never happens. In the past, when we were hidden in the shadows like the dangerous secrets we were…but in these times, it is rare. Now that we have the Council to govern. But do not worry—we don’t hold you responsible for Gaius’s actions. Or you, Mercy, for Turning Deo. We understand why you must have done it. You were lonely, yes? Frightened?”