Harlequin Nocturne September 2014 Bundle: Beyond the Moon\Immortal Obsession (3 page)

“What the hell do you want?” She tried to say it with command, but without any magic to control, she had lost her only defense.

“Your blood, witch.” The vampire slammed his hands to either side of her shoulders and leaned in to sniff at her hair. “You burned me, so now I'm going to make you scream before you die.”

Before she could reward him with the scream he sought, the vampire sunk his fangs in her throat. Instinctively, Verity jammed her knee upward but only managed to connect with his thigh. The bloodsucker didn't even groan. She beat his chest with her fists, but he easily wrangled her hands with strong, pinching fingers.

The teeth in her neck tore at her skin. It hurt like nothing she'd ever experienced before. She'd never been bitten. Would not suffer a vampire to be so intimate with her, despite having once dated one. The creep sucking at her vein drew out her blood. He moaned as if in the throes of orgasm and—

A yell from down the alley stopped the vampire. He tore out his teeth from Verity's skin, twisting his head to pinpoint the origin of the shout. The wounds hurt so badly, the pain manifested as a scream. Slapping his hand to her cheek, the vampire mimed a goodbye kiss, but thankfully, his bloody lips did not touch hers.

As the vampire ran off, Verity sank against the wall. Grasping her neck, her fingers slipped in her blood.

The hunter lunged to a diving kneel before her and lifted her chin to peer at her neck. He inspected her cheek and swore. “Damn it. I didn't see that one get away!”

Eyelids fluttering, Verity tightened her jaw to keep back the tears that threatened. She wanted to beg him to save her, to make it all better, but she knew it was too late. She'd been bitten. And the vampire couldn't have had time to seal the wound. If the wound was not properly sealed, the victim risked becoming a vampire.

“You a witch?” the hunter asked quickly.

She nodded.

“Impressive fire magic back there. Are you going to be okay?”

“Of course,” she gasped. Dragging her knees up, she hugged her arms about her legs. “Just a little nibble.” It hurt to conceal the pain, but she was an expert at hiding her weaknesses.

“I think I got here in time.” The hunter stood.

He scanned down the street. She knew he wanted to go after the vampire—and he should. But he squatted again before her, drawing her in to his overwhelming presence. An easy authority that felt not too harsh and not too hesitant. When he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her against his chest, she sank into the comforting embrace.

How strange that he gave her the comfort she had craved, yet had thought to skillfully conceal that need.

You must get home and find a spell to counteract the bite!

But right now Verity could only tilt her head against the hunter's shoulder. She felt so good in his strong arms. He smoothed a hand over her hair. Perhaps a teardrop spilled down her cheek. Or it could be the repulsive heat of the blood the vampire had taken from her vein and smacked onto her cheek.

She clutched his jacket, and he suddenly tugged it away from her face. The Order knights wore blades at their collars to deflect vampire bites. Verity wished she'd worn more than the comfortable slip dress. Like full armor with a neck guard.

Get to safety!

She was safe in this man's arms. She knew it without doubt. That was her mother's voice prodding her to flee.
Never trust a man. Most especially a hunter
.

“Who are you?” she managed between sniffles and gasps for breath.

“Name's Rook,” he offered. “I'll see you home?”

“No, go after the vampire. He could harm someone else. And I need to fix this. To find a spell to stop the vampire taint from changing me.”

He bent to meet her eyes. Compelled to look into his eyes, Verity's breathing calmed. Despite the frail light from the distant streetlamp, she clearly saw his irises were blue. Intense, bright and true. Yet something about him was as far from the truth as it could ever be.

She had no idea what that meant.

“I felt…” He looked at her chest where he'd touched her earlier. “But not now.” He shook his head and stared at his hand, as if battling with an inner argument. Then he touched her cheek where the vampire had slapped her. “Zmaj.”

She knew that tribe. How did he know? He must have been tracking them.

“You sure you'll be okay if I go after the longtooth?”

She nodded fervently and looked at her shaking, bloody fingers. “Yes, you've a job to do.”

“I will—uh, what's your name?”

“Verity.”

He gave her the oddest look. “Your name means truth, yet…” Now he laid his hand against her chest again, and she wanted him to hold it there forever, imbuing his surprising coolness into her very being and stealing away her fears. “I can't read you. Strange.”

“Go,” she said against the screams from her heart that begged her to swoon into his arms so he'd have to carry her home.

He nodded and, helping her up, walked her to the end of the alley. “You live around here?”

“I—yes. I need to orient myself. Where is Les Invalides?” The military museum, which was also a hospital, always served as a navigation point for her.

“That way.”

“Then I can walk home in five minutes. I'm good now. Thank you, Rook. You're with Order of the Stake?”

“Yes.” He took out a metal stake and spun it between them. His body shifted as he stepped from foot to foot, eager to return to the chase. “Start walking. I want to make sure you can so I don't have to worry about you.”

Taking directions, she meekly turned the corner and scampered homeward, finding adrenaline carried her to the front door. Once inside, she raced upstairs to her attic bedroom and through to the bathroom.

Flicking on the light, she leaned toward the vanity mirror. A bloody handprint dripped down her cheek. But that wasn't half as disturbing as the actual bite mark. Panic rose at the sight of her bleeding neck—and then she adjusted that unnecessary fear into more helpful focus. She twisted on the faucet and sloshed hot water on the wound. Cleaning it wasn't important. Vampires rarely carried disease or anything communicable—save vampirism itself. Stopping the vampiric taint from entering her bloodstream was paramount.

Verity raced out into the attic bedroom, half of which was her spell area. The lofty room was dark, save for moonlight that beamed through the cathedral window on the south end and across the gray floorboards and walls. Silvery light glittered in the dozens of grounding crystals she'd strung from the ceiling beams, like stars to capture the night's enchantments.

Grabbing the centuries-old grimoire that she'd been writing in since she was a child and slamming the massive tome onto the floor, she then knelt over it and paged through the spells.

“Please let there be something in here to stop me from becoming a vampire.”

* * *

The bald vampire tossed the bloodied necklace onto the table before Slater.

“You did it?” Slater asked. He stood before the window, looking out at Sacre Coeur's multiple travertine domes, lit from below by spotlights.

The vampire nodded. “She's dead.”

“What's that thing?”

“A trophy. Ripped it off her neck after I bit her.”

Slater studied the simple wooden heart, stained with blood. A worn leather cord had been run through a small metal loop at the top. It felt warm, almost as if it possessed a pulse. He recalled Verity's skin had been warm and soft, electric against his skin. He inhaled the blood scent but didn't want his tribemate to see him devour her essence.

And then he remembered. She'd always worn this necklace. Had once even said something curious like, “I'm keeping it safe.”

For what, he often wondered. Heh. Guess she hadn't succeeded.

“That'll be all, Clas. Thanks.”

“No problem. Let me know when you need another favor.”

“You know I will.”

The vampire left, closing the door behind him, and Slater lashed his tongue over the bloodied heart. Verity's taste burst on his tongue. She'd never allowed him to bite her. He'd always known she'd taste sweet. Pity he only got to experience her sweetness postmortem.

“This is what happens when you piss me off, witch,” he muttered and tucked the necklace in his desk drawer.

Chapter 2

A
beam of morning sunshine prodded at Verity's eyelids. She popped upright from lying on her side in the middle of the hardwood floor. Looking about the attic bedroom, discombobulated by the sudden awakening, she winced as sunlight flashed through a crystal suspended overhead and lasered her directly in the eye.

With a yawn, she stretched her arms and legs, curling her toes inside her boots. She still wore her ankle boots? And her clothing from last night.

Her fingers landed on the open grimoire, a thick, centuries-old book that had been in the Von Velde family for six generations. Bound in blue leather, it was two feet long and almost as wide. Beside it sat black and red candles, both guttered to wax puddles that would leave a stain on the painted floor. Beside that lay a dead dove that she'd deftly eviscerated to get to the beating heart. The heart lay embedded in the guttered black wax.

The grimoire was opened to a blood-spattered (from the dove) page that detailed the spell for Fending Off Imminent Vampirism in Mortals. She wasn't mortal by any means, but it had been her only hope. In desperation she had recited the ancient Latin incantation and torn out the dove's heart.

Once bitten, the vampiric taint entered the victim's system. If the wound was not properly sealed with the vampire's saliva, the victim could then turn vampire by the next full moon if one of three things did not occur: the victim killed the vampire who had bitten them; the victim refused to drink mortal blood before the full moon (which generally resulted in madness because the blood hunger was relentless); the victim committed suicide.

Verity had walked through one and a half centuries and had not been bitten once. Hell, until two decades ago, vampires would have never dreamed of biting a witch because of the Great Protection spell enacted a thousand years earlier to safeguard witches from vampires enslaving them for their magic. It had made all witches' blood fatal to the vampire.

And then the spell had been lifted as a means to bring peace between the two breeds.

“Idiotic plan,” Verity muttered. “What witch had thought that a good idea?”

When the vampire she recently dated but had not allowed to bite her had turned on her after a month, she'd realized he'd been grooming her to steal her magic all along. The only way to do that was with bloodsexmagic. Lots of sex and biting and drinking blood imbued the vampire with the witch's magic. It also left the witch's magic drained and lacking.

Verity would have none of that and had broken it off with the vampire. She would never rule vampires out completely as dating prospects, but she would be much choosier next time she fell for a fanged one.

She rarely went beyond the three-date mark. It was safer that way. It was difficult to shake the mantra her mother had ingrained within her soul: Men were not to be trusted. But the three-date minimum had been stretched to a few more with the last guy. Rules were not meant to be rigid.

Her ex-vampire lover had stalked her for months after their breakup, but she'd thought he'd finally given up when she had been forced to move two months earlier. He hadn't found her new address.

Or had he? The hunter had said the vampires last night were from tribe Zmaj. Same tribe as her ex-lover.

“No, if he wanted to hurt me, he'd do it himself,” she said, stroking the rough wounds on her neck. “Blessed goddess, I hope the spell worked. What am I saying? It
did
work.” She tapped the grimoire. Never did her spellcraft fail her. “I'm fine. Just a little bite mark that should heal within a few days.”

As a witch, she didn't heal quickly—perhaps only fifty percent faster than a mortal. The healing arts had never been her talent. That was her friend, and fellow witch, Zoë's forte.

As she studied the wound with her fingers and trailed them over the dried bloodstains on the dress neckline, she realized something was missing.

“My necklace.”

The vampire must have torn it off as he'd ripped his teeth from her neck. Why would he take that precious bit of wood and leather from her? Or could it have simply fallen off during the attack? She'd had the necklace since early in the twentieth century. Had been waiting for its owner to come and claim not only the wooden heart, but also the very soul within.

“I have to go back and look for it.”

She had protected and cared for that soul too long to give up on it now. And because of what the hunter had said last night. Rook. She couldn't get his startled exclamation out of her head.

“His soul?” As bedraggled and exhausted as she felt, Verity couldn't help but smile. “Could he be the one?”

Sure she'd find the necklace lying in the alley near her dried bloodstains, she pushed to a stand and wobbled. Weak and drained, she felt as if she'd run two marathons. Curse her girlie need to always wear high heels.

“First a shower,” she muttered. Making a beeline for the bathroom, she stripped off her clothes along the way. “And then back to the scene of the crime.”

* * *

The Order had intel on the majority of vampires across the world. Rook wasn't a computer expert—he employed a team of IT techs for that—but he did use the database frequently. Actually the IT team was one man, and he was currently in the States setting up operations because the Order didn't have an official US headquarters yet. He and King hoped to open the New York base within a few years.

In the database, Rook located the
Other
section, which detailed all breeds not vampire. It was more a way to keep tabs on who was living where and associating with whom than a complete archive of every breed that trod mortal ground. Their files on faeries were sparse. Those creatures lived in an entirely different realm, yet the knights had occasion to deal with the sidhe who lived in FaeryTown. Mortal vampire sympathizers also were kept under close watch.

Under
Witches,
the database didn't list any more on Verity beyond her name, believed to be Veritas Von Velde. Or so he assumed she was the only witch named Verity who lived in Paris. Records guessed at her age as more than two centuries. Because she was associated with the Demon Arts Troupe, a known address was listed for her. A recent move within the past few months?

He made a note of her address and headed out. Half an hour later he stood in front of a pretty little walk-up townhome with a vast and lush herb garden out front, enclosed by a wrought-iron fence painted deep purple.

He clanked the greenman brass door knocker and after five tries decided she was either not home or not answering a hunter's raps. He didn't sense anyone inside; it wasn't a magical skill, he just felt as if the place was empty. So he scribbled a note and tucked it under the mat.

He'd wanted to see that she had survived the attack last night with little wear and tear and check that she had found a spell to counteract the bite. The last thing he needed on his watch was a witch turning vampire. The double-whammy of magical skills and the hunger for blood tended to make such a creature deadly and place them on top of the Order's
Most Wanted
list.

* * *

The field trip to search for the necklace resulted in disappointment. But stocking the pantry had been successful with a quick stroll down the Rue Cler.

“Wanted to know that you are okay,” Verity read from the note she'd found fluttering up from under the doormat. “Need to talk to you. Please meet me at the coffee shop on Quai d'Orsay at eight p.m. Rook.”

She fanned the note over her lips as she strode inside and set the reusable grocery bags on the kitchen counter. Drawing the multicolored silk Hermes scarf away from her neck, she touched the bite wounds. She'd applied her great-grandmother's ointment on the punctures, and the swelling had calmed nicely.

After putting away the groceries, she cut a head-sized watermelon into chunks, which she transferred into a glass container. She ate a few pieces, then picked up the note again and marveled over the precise, squared letters that reminded her of an architect's writing style.

It was already evening. Dare she meet the man? She had an idea what he wanted to talk about. Couldn't tell him she'd lost the thing, could she? No, she had to be certain of his identity before she started worrying about that.

And she did want to learn more about the man who had saved her. Sort of saved her. It would have been a hell of a lot better had he staked
all
the vamps before the bald one had bitten her. And she was just snarky enough to let him have it for that omission.

But should she meet a strange man out of the blue? Especially a hunter?

Though her mother had been dead for more than a century, her warning words still resounded clearly in Verity's memory. Amandine Von Velde had been betrayed by a hunter—a betrayal that had taken her life.

Sighing, Verity popped another watermelon cube in her mouth. Yet grandmother Freesia's entreaty to find the one man she could trust dallied with the learned maternal diatribe. Verity had lived alone for more than one hundred and sixty years. She'd had many lovers and a few boyfriends, but never had she allowed herself to completely let down her guard. To trust. Even her male friends she kept at a comfortable distance. A witch had to be cautious.

She wanted that trust. That moment of releasing her breath and just accepting. And she wanted love. What woman did not? Yet would she recognize it when finally it entered her life?

“I hope so. I don't want to die alone. Companionship sounds…lovely.”

Yes, she would go see the hunter named Rook. Because she wanted to look at him in the light and see if he had been as handsome as she'd remembered while in her fearful, panicked state. And if he embraced her again, maybe gave her a welcome hug, then her night would be complete.

Because his hug had made her feel safe. And that feeling was all too uncommon of late.

* * *

Rook paused mid-sip of his espresso. The witch striding across the street toward his table positioned out front of the café was the sexiest thing on two legs.

Shod in shiny black patent leather high heels, her long legs stroked the air sensuously. Those sexy gams were sheathed in sheer black thigh-high stockings that stopped about four inches below her skirt, and those four inches of skin made his mouth water.

He finished the sip and winced at its heat. Or was that the heat suddenly moving over his perpetually cool skin?

A miniskirt flirted with black ruffles at the hem, and above that, a plain white T-shirt emphasized her pert nipples as the swing of her long, curly, purple hair brushed over them. An unbuttoned gray sweater slouched off one of her shoulders and hung longer than the skirt length, giving her a tousled bedroom look. As if she'd just been given a sound tumbling between the sheets.

Fuck, she was gorgeous.

The dark eggplant hair was curious but not shocking, the color of a lush bloom one would nuzzle to their nose to smell the fragrant perfume. Something he wanted to push his fingers through and clutch to his face while he was giving her the tumble her sensual allure demanded.

And with that thought, Rook straightened and set down his coffee before he spilled it on his lap and singed the erection that had suddenly tightened his pants.

He stood and offered his hand, which she shook before sitting down in an elegant glide and crossing her legs beside the chair instead of under the table, giving him a great view of her gorgeous gams.

“Purple, eh?” he asked stupidly.

She swung thick ringlets over a shoulder. “It's natural.” With a gesture to the waiter, she confidently summoned him.

“I wasn't sure you'd come,” Rook offered, inwardly admonishing himself for his sudden timidity. He didn't do insecurity. He'd overcome that weakness, at the least, three centuries ago. “I'm glad you did.”

“I had to come. I wanted to thank you in a more coherent manner than I must have done last night.” She patted his hand before releasing it. “You're cold. It is a bit chilly this evening, isn't it?”

“It's the way I am. I've always been cooler than most. But I warm quickly when…” He stopped himself from saying
stroked properly
.

Just met the chick, Rook. Dial your lust down a notch
.

This one he did not want to scare off. She could help in his investigation.

The waiter stopped by, saving him from having to finish the sentence. Verity ordered mint tea and two vanilla macarons.

“So, thank you,” she said when the waiter walked away. “Did you stake the vampire who bit me?”

“I, uh…” He didn't want to answer that question but had known it was coming. “He got away. I'm sorry. By the time I left you, the longtooth had given me the slip. I searched the Order database but couldn't find him. I didn't get a good look at his face. All I know is that he's bald.”

She nodded and looked aside, tugging down her skirt in a nervous gesture. On her fingers glittered copper rings clasping amethysts. Witches were into gemstones and precious metals. He'd once known the meanings of the stones and how they could be utilized in magic. That had been so long ago.

“It's fine,” she offered sweetly. “You took out four others.”

“Were you able to find a spell to prevent the bite from…?” No way to put it gently so he would not even speak it.

“Performed it last night as soon as I got home. I'll be fine.”

Fluttering her fingers over the glass tabletop, she grasped the creamer with one hand while the other tugged up her sweater collar to hide the bite marks Rook managed to note with a glance.

“So, Order of the Stake. How long have you been a knight?”

“A long time.” And leave it at that. He never revealed the details unless he felt it was worth the trouble of helping the person through the shock. However, she was a witch and nothing should shock her when it came to paranormal particulars. “I'm actually the trainer and leader of the knights, just under the founder.”