Incubus Moon (22 page)

He looked over his shoulder at me on the bed, a hint of that former smile returning. “You are the strangest creature, Austin Iverson.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“They were beautiful, you know,” he said, turning to scrutinizing some distant point out on the dark sea. “Though only the males carried enough magic to effectively seduce a vampire.”

I left the bed to bridge the gap separating us. There was so much I wanted to ask him, about who and what I was, so much pertaining to his long life.

“Even the strongest willed among us eventually succumbed to their call. Like the fabled Sirens of Greek Mythology, they sang to us in sleep, visited us in dreams, and we welcomed their carnal attacks. For that is what we experienced under incubus enchantment.” He paused, still focused on the sea. “Popular fiction may paint vampires as sexually free beings. In truth, we are not unlike humans, in that most prefer members of the opposite sex. We are also guilty of harboring many of the same fears and prejudices against that which is different.”

“So much for the whole Anne Rice spin, I take it.” I’d said it with a chuckle.

Dimitri spared me a wistful smile. “The author’s fiction is not with charm. I rather like her tales.” Then his expression grew solemn again. “You are not safe here. I sense that you are aware of this. My sister will return with Council assassins.”

He hadn’t begun to scratch the surface of what I wanted and needed to know about incubi and succubi, but I also knew that he’d
spoken the truth. Danger was coming for us. I could feel it in every fiber of my being.

“Kassandra was right to admonish my complicity in keeping you a secret. There can be no ambiguity for us. No deviation from our ancient code.”

It was a dicey move, but I stood next to him now and offered up my bare neck. “Go ahead. Uphold your ancient code to kill your enemy.”

Dimitri seized me by the arms and fixed me with those mesmerizing green eyes. “Part of me wants to.”

Instead of being afraid, the intense contact sent a cool thrill through me, rekindling something primal, something low in my body. I wanted his hands on me, wanted them to explore more of my skin, to travel every inch of my naked body. “And the other part?”

He released me. “From the day we met, I knew you were different. Curiosity blinded me to what a millennia of instinct had trained me to see and act upon.”

“What’s stopping you from acting on that right now?” But I already knew the answer.

Dimitri Ravello had no taste for killing me, because the man had developed genuine (albeit confused) feelings for me. He wasn’t alone in his confusion. Not that long ago, I would have laughed at someone asking me if I were bisexual, or decked them good and proper.

Everything had changed now, would continue to change. How was anyone’s guess.

Dimitri left my question unanswered and turned back to the bank of windows, pressing his palms against the dark glass, the muscles in his arms tensing. “When the last incubus fell—or so we believed—vast numbers of my brethren had also perished. The Incubi had turned their magics on us. Seasoned vampire warriors lowered their swords and shields to stare into the enemy’s face as though gazing into a lover’s. They were cut down without mercy, the battlefield drenched in
preternatural blood. Only the Elders amongst us survived, for we had learned to defend ourselves against such enchantment. I am one such Elder. The first Elder.”

I reached out to place a hand on his shoulder but let it drop. Dimitri was shutting down, had wrapped himself in his own psychic shields.

“The Council’s retaliation will be swift,” he announced.

Then, in a movement that would have fooled the human eye into believing that he had disappeared and reappeared at the nightstand, Dimitri picked up the telephone receiver and barked out a series of orders in Greek. Within seconds, the yacht’s engines roared to life and we began to move through the darkened sea, the floor gently rising and dipping beneath our feet.

When he took in my nakedness, his expression was no longer impassive. “Council assassins will be dispatched. We must see to it that they do not find us here.”

I approached him again, stopping so close that our bodies almost touched.

Dimitri visibly stiffened.

“We’re in this together now. Tell me what I can do to help, and I’ll do it.”

He gave me that wistful smile again. “Putting some clothes on would be a good start.”

I must have dozed off.

Dimitri was sleeping beside me, his bare chest rising and falling. Did vampires breathe? And why was he sleeping? It was still dark outside. Perhaps healing me had taken more out of him than he’d let on. It had certainly taken a helluva lot out of me.

The last thing I remembered was his wanting to stay close. Kassandra might return. He also wanted to ensure that there were no additional side-effects from the blood exchange.

I was just relieved to have him lying peacefully next to me like this. It gave me the chance to study his strong Roman nose and sensual mouth, his powerful arms and torso with its dusting of dark chest hair that converged into a single, narrow trail that disappeared into the waistband of his trousers. To think he’d looked like this for over two thousand years, that he’d actually lived that long. It was mind-boggling.

As a newbie supernatural being, would I age normally or not at all? Was I an immortal now, too? Dimitri and I definitely had a great deal to discuss.

But first, we had to get past the fact that Kassandra and her High Council of Vampires were out there somewhere gunning for us. We needed to reach safety—and fast.

I could tell from the gentle vibration in the hull and the lifting and dipping movement that the yacht was still in motion and headed toward whatever destination Dimitri had instructed the bridge to take us. But why do this? Why risk his own life to save a mortal enemy’s?

It had to run deeper than our blood-sharing. He was also immune to incubus seduction, or so he’d claimed. Not that I would use my gift against his will. I knew firsthand what it was like to be on the receiving end of someone else’s violent desires.

So, either my handsome vampire was more attached to me than even I imagined or he was hiding something. Maybe both.

I glanced over at him again and exhaled softly.

Something else Dimitri shared with me earlier was that several females, succubi, escaped the massacre a thousand years ago, but that no males had made it out alive. If this were true, succubi had to be able to procreate with human males, which would explain why I looked so
much like my father, Joshua. This hypothesis only deepened the mystery surrounding my birth, because if I was in fact Joshua Iverson’s legitimate son, why the whole adoption ruse?

In the middle of that thought, Kassandra materialized at the foot of the bed!

I bolted upright, ready to shake Dimitri awake, when I realized that she wasn’t really there. Rather, it was a holographic image of her traversing a phantom room.

Was this a new power I’d gained from ingesting Dimitri’s blood?

She paused before a large set of tall, ornate doors that stood open, focusing on the man seated in a wingback chair positioned before an immense fireplace. Orange and yellow flames licked at the blackened stone within and cast an eerie glow across the shadowy contents of the room. I could see only the top of this man’s shaved head above the upholstered back. On his middle finger he wore an onyx ring, which he tapped rhythmically against the armrest; a ring very similar to the one Dimitri wore.

Kassandra slinked over to him in the same outfit she’d worn earlier; a black and beige, knee-length dress that hugged every curve of her shapely body, her gold bracelets twinkling in the firelight as she approached him in high-heel sandals.

Perching on the other armrest, she gazed into his face with unconcealed excitement. “You’ll never guess who has him.”

Then her image flickered and dissolved.

I looked over at Dimitri once more, his profile etched by moonlight. Should I wake him, tell him about my dream? Something about the man was chillingly familiar.

A coldness began to take root inside me, and I worked myself against the line of Dimitri’s body. The contact did little to ease the intense sense of dread rising in me.

This had never happened before tonight. I’d never been awake during what, I prayed, was merely a bad dream. Maybe it was a direct result of the shock and stress created by what had happened to me today, or the healing effect of Dimitri’s preternatural blood coursing through my veins. Toss in Kassandra’s very real threat to kill us, and no wonder I was having nightmares.

“Quiet your thoughts, Austin,” Dimitri said in a sleepy voice. He opened his eyes and offered me a lazy smile. “They are loud enough to wake the dead.”

My breath caught in my throat and I began to tremble. “My God, I know who he is!” The alabaster skin. The shaved head and curious ring. “I know who the man with your sister is!”

Dimitri bolted upright, bringing me with him. “What man?”

The dream man was no longer hidden by the armchair. He was leering at me now from the foot of the bed, elongated black eyes glinting with malicious intent. “I see you, little incubus…”

“Haemon!” I shouted, the name forming like a cancer in my mind.

Dimitri gripped me by the shoulders. “How do you know this name?”

“He knows I’m with you, Dimitri. He sees us!” My mouth went dry. It was difficult to form words. “He’s coming for me!”

“Close your mind to him, Austin. Do it now!”

The commanding boom of Dimitri’s voice shattered the image of the grinning fiend. It wavered for an instant, then dissolved. My terror, unfortunately, did not.

“It is only a mind trick,” Dimitri said, rising to his feet and staring down at me shivering on the bed. “My sister has infiltrated your mind. She is making you see the dead.”

I shook my head emphatically. “No, she’s really with him.” Dimitri began to pace the room. “It’s the man from Prague. The one who—”

“Savaged you.” The look on Dimitri’s face was murderous. “I see it in your mind. But he failed to mark you.” Ready to tell Dimitri that he’d marked me plenty, he added, “Another vampire’s kiss I would have detected.”

“He did bite me,” I said. “But the scars healed.”

“Then he will have a connection to you.” Dimitri balled his hands into tight fists, his jaw clenching. “You have encountered not one but three vampires, and yet live to tell of it.”

“If you call this living…” My own anger was on the rise, which was a helluva lot better than being scared shitless. “Who is he?”

“A ghost,” Dimitri responded, walking to the foot of the bed where that other dream vampire had only just stood.

I scooted across the mattress to be closer to him. “This is no ghost. This guy’s alive, and he’s with your sister right now.”

“Haemon’s involvement greatly complicates matters.” He moved to sit on the bed again and rested a hand on my leg. “More than ever, you must bridle your emotions, or they will trace our location. Look at me, Austin.” And I did, because his voice held such conviction. “I swear I shall not allow any harm to come to you.”

I took in a deep breath and exhaled. “I believe you. I just don’t know if it’ll be enough.”

Haemon and Kassandra were out for blood. I also got the distinct impression they’d have fun spilling it. If the crazed look in Haemon’s soulless eyes was any indication, I had every reason to be worried. We both did.

“What else did you see in your vision? Were there other people?”

“No,” I answered. “Just Kassandra and Haemon in some big room with a lot of antiques.”

Dimitri’s face lit up. “With a large fireplace and single chair before it?”

I nodded. “A wingback, like at your place.”

He slapped his thigh. “They are not in Rome, as I feared, but at his residence in Prague.” I didn’t get the connection. “The Council sits in Rome. For whatever reason, they haven’t yet involved them.”

“So no assassins?” I heaved an audible sigh of relief. “And by the way, how did your sister get off this boat? We’re in the middle of the ocean.”

“She can fly.”

“She can what?”

“Fly,” he said with rising irritation. “Trust me when I say this, the worst is far from over. If Kassandra and Haemon have failed to inform the Council of your existence, you can wager they stand to gain a great deal more through their silence.”

I pressed fingertips to my throbbing temples. “And the fun just keeps coming.”

Dimitri eyes focused on the darkness beyond the stateroom windows. “I must leave you now. The sun will be up soon.”

“I’m sorry. Your flying vampire sister’s got an all-access pass to this floating bull’s-eye and you want to leave me alone? No fucking way!”

“There is no complete way to guard against the sunlight here. This holds true for my sister and Haemon. You will be safe here for the time being.”

I bolted out of bed and over to the curved wall of glass, tugging at the heavy silk panels to the bank of windows. They groaned in protest. “I’ll cover the windows and make the place a cozy coffin for two, okay?”

“I do not sleep in a coffin.” Dimitri depressed a button at the side of the bed. The drapes slid effortlessly closed across a hidden track in the ceiling. “And I cannot stay because of what I know, because of
this
,” he said, walking over to me and placing a hand on my forearm.