She looked up and caught him watching her closely. “Diego, just what are you?”
“Different.”
“Are you even human?”
He shrugged. “Mostly. Order your dinner.” And just like that, she knew he wouldn’t answer any more questions. She realized he was quite good at avoiding her questions altogether.
After staring at the menu with nothing appealing to her, she ordered a salad and hoped she’d have an appetite when it arrived. “There,” she said, replacing the phone. “Satisfied?”
“It is a start.”
She stretched out on the bed, stuffing pillows to relax against, and he claimed one of the chairs. “You know, sometimes, I hear an accent. You make my name sound so exotic, something foreign.”
He sprawled into the chair, threading his hands behind his head. His expression was one of mild surprised. “Really? I would think after all this time it would be long gone. I am from Spain. Andalusia originally.”
She wiggled her toes. Spotting him chuckling at her, she stopped. “Did you live there long?”
“Yes. I have been back and forth.”
“Do you speak more than Spanish, then?”
“Several languages.”
“Really?” she asked with a touch of excitement. “Do you speak French?”
“Fluently.” His grin was reawakening.
“I used to talk in French around Houston just to drive him nuts. Now there’s an overbearing control freak.”
His shoulders shook for a second. “Only because he has your interests to be responsible for.” His grin turned into a full-blown smirk, his pale eyes dancing in mischief. “After knowing you, I almost pity him.”
She threw a pillow at him that he easily dodged. “Not funny.”
White teeth flashed. “Yes it was. Hilarious.”
She needed more than pillows to throw at him. Maybe a brick or two.
“Not nice,” he chided her, swallowing his laughter.
She glared at him. “Get. Out. Of. My. Head.” She crossed her arms.
“Not on your life,
cara
.” A brisk knock a few minutes later brought him to his feet to answer the door.
“Eat, honey. I know you need it.” And just like that, she wasn’t angry. That tone of voice undid her every time. He was doing something to her that she just didn’t understand. She was melting even without his kiss.
She turned up to him with a weak smile. “All right. I’ll try.”
“Thank you.”
She wrinkled her nose, staring at the bowl of greens. “Maybe I am getting sick.” She looked up with imploring eyes. “Diego, I don’t know if I can do this.” She pushed a fist against her stomach even as it substantiated the argument.
He watched her closely for several seconds. “I think I saw a juice in the refrigerator.” He found one and offered it to her. “Sip this, then try the salad.”
“Do you think I’m getting sick?” She sipped gingerly at the juice, grateful when it stayed down. With that in her stomach, she managed a few bites of the salad. She pushed it away before she managed a respectable dent.
“I do not think so,” he said, distracted.
When she looked up, he seemed lost in thought. “Diego. Don’t you want to go to bed? Tomorrow’s going to be a long night.”
When he replied, his tone sounded absent. “You sleep. I will stay watch.” He gave her his full attention. “Titania, I meant what I said. I cannot be with you during the day, but Brakka cannot harm you then either. Just promise me you will stay with Houston until I am able.”
“Why, Diego?” she asked cautiously. “Why can’t you be with me? Do you have a job? A wife? I don’t understand how you could drop everything, how you managed to get here before us.”
His tight mouth softened. “I am not married,
cara
. As for the other, I control my life.” When she refused to let it drop, he asked her, “Are you sure you want to know,
cara
? Do you really want these answers tonight?” He hadn’t moved at all since she’d broken into his thoughts, but he exuded a strung tension. A strength of will that was beginning to overwhelm her. She hesitated.
“No, Diego. If you don’t want to tell me, then it isn’t necessary tonight.” He nodded his head in answer. “But I want you to promise me you will tell me the truth. All of it.”
He seemed to withdraw, growing pensive. “You may not like the answers.”
“That’s for me to decide, Diego. Right now, I’m putting my life in your hands. I want to trust you.” She stood before him, a raised hand resting on his arms where they were braced across his chest. “You need to trust me, too.”
He caressed her bottom lip with a gentle thumb, a slow swipe that made her breath grind to a halt. Her heart skipped, then raced until he stopped. His eyes, those pale gray eyes, watched her intently.
When he spoke, his words were cautious, resonating from the depths of his soul. “I do trust you, Titania. More and more each day. You are the only one I have shown myself to in centuries. If I could entrust myself to anyone, it would be you.”
She blinked. “Did you say centuries?”
His mouth tightened, lashes lowering, hiding him. “Go to bed,
cara
. I will be gone when you wake. Wait for Houston to escort you. That is an order.”
“You can’t distract me that easily.” She tugged at his arm. “You said centuries, didn’t you?”
“A slip. I meant years.” He put a hand to her shoulder. “Go to bed.”
She resisted. “Promise me.”
His fingers flexed, and she felt indecision racing through him. “I will tell you, but not tonight,” he relented. He tried once more. “Go to bed,
cara
. It is growing late.”
“I’m not used to sleeping with people in the room.”
“You will not even know I am here,” he replied. He brushed a few drying wisps of hair away from her face and gave her a tummy-warming smile.
Somehow, she wasn’t so certain of that. Diego wasn’t exactly the kind of person that could be ignored or forgotten.
“He did it,” she mused, staring around the room. Drawn drapes dimmed the sunlight, but there was no doubt. She was alone. She had somehow completely relaxed while he was there and had slept the day away. Glancing at the clock, Tani noted it was after four. “Time to get to work.”
She padded into the bathroom to clean up and was almost finished when there was a knock at her door.
She closed her eyes searching, remembering Diego’s warnings, and found only Houston. She turned the lock mentally from the bathroom while she wound her hair up into a knot.
“You ready?” Houston called.
“Just about.” She was humming under her breath when Houston’s broad body filled the doorway. Brown eyes assessed her in the reflection. “What’s up?”
“Where’s your great bodyguard?” Derision dripped from his words as he leaned against the frame and crossed his arms.
“He’ll be here tonight. He told me last night he can’t be around during the day, but he said I wasn’t in danger from Brakka during the day either.” She shrugged, then explained, “He knows this Brakka. They grew up together. After what happened at the last stop, I have to believe Diego may be right about this.”
Houston cleared his throat. He seemed to be watching her responses carefully in the mirror. “Did he tell you about himself?”
“A little.” She placed her brush down on the sink. “He’s wary, cautious.”
“I believe it,” Houston retorted. “Well, let’s get to the stadium.”
“Houston?” She couldn’t turn yet and face him. She loved Houston like her own brother, but for a reason she couldn’t name, she felt divided between him and Diego. “Do you really hate Diego? Why can’t you trust him?”
Houston’s brown gaze flared, then chilled to an ice brown. “I hate the fact that he will use you. You don’t know it, Tani, but he’s dangerous. Deadly. He could kill you, even take pleasure in it, without a thought or an ounce of remorse.” His hand sliced the air in severe punctuation.
She spun on a heel, shocked. His expression was harsh, matching the bitter cold glitter of his eyes.
“He is deadly,” she agreed evenly. “I knew that from the beginning, but I can’t believe—”
“Trust me on this, Tani. I know the kind of man he is, although I never thought I’d meet one like him. He’s a cold-blooded killer. You can’t ever let yourself forget it either.”
“He has given me his word,” she replied, hiding how much Houston’s anger was shredding her. Houston’s depth of hate and distrust for Diego was growing, and she couldn’t explain why.
“You better hope he knows how to keep it,” was all he said in answer.
* * * *
Diego drew his first breath of the evening. He was alone in the quiet of the world.
No.
He corrected the thought instantly. He was by himself, but no longer alone. He studied the night sky, the gray-pinks turning violet blue.
“
Cara, you are well?”
He could sense she waited in her dressing room, preparing for the night’s performance. The evening breezes blew around him and he shifted to rise on the updrafts, soaring toward the stadium where Titania was performing that night.
“I am.”
The hum of her voice made his blood boil. He had no idea how much longer he would be able to hold himself in restraint.
“
Take care. I will join you soon.”
The subtle touch of her sweet smile reached him in an encapsulating wave, and he almost fell from the sky in reaction. Needful hammers were slamming into his skull, demanding. The burn she created in him, in his blood, piled on top of his rising hunger. It did not matter how deeply he fed, he could not find satisfaction. His craving for her was becoming all-consuming.
He continued to connect with her, almost reflexively, as he left his prey comfortably against a building, checking for a pulse. Diego’s only option was to protect her from Brakka, then leave her to her life at his earliest possibility. He could not, would not, condemn her. No matter how badly his body, his deepest needs, cried out for her.
The night before, he had spent the darkest hours watching her sleep. He dreamed every dream, envisioned every touch, every caress, every sigh. The beating of the rising sun had been a relief, a reprieve from his own confusion, forcing him to leave her before he did the unthinkable, broke his promise and laid his claim on her. Before he stole her life from her.
Diego was thankful she had not grown so adept with her ability that she could reside in his own mind as he did as a shadow in hers. His desires were staggering and would likely frighten her.
“What makes you think I don’t?”
He stuttered in shock, barely maintaining control to stay aloft in the breeze when his wings jerked.
“
Cara?”
She laughed, a sweet, light sound, reminiscent of the softest bells.
“
Diego, I know you have, um, certain wants. I’m not that innocent,”
she teased him. He couldn’t miss the sense of her eyes rolling in punctuation as she laughed at him.
“
I told you, I believe in you. I know you would never intentionally harm me. If I know nothing else about you, I do know that.”
Her voice was melodious, and without effort he knew she was already onstage.
“
Now, hurry up and get here. You’re very distracting, and one of these days you’re going to have to tell me why it feels like you’re flying. That is a really cool feeling.”
The stadium appeared before him in a wash of bright lights. He streaked in through shadows until he stood just off stage, regaining his shape out of sight.
“
I am here, cara. Sing. For everyone.”
Diego spotted her walking with a seductive stride down a metal staircase that wound upward from the stage into the lights, letting her appear in a halo of illumination. It was a breathtaking effect. When she performed to larger audiences, she always wore long evening gowns, preferring the classic look to accentuate her harmonious, flowing style of music. That, and he knew she thought she was short. Barefoot, she hardly came to his chest. The gowns accented her body beautifully, elongating her, heels and all, and as always, Titania became his center of focus when he found her. He had never known such a beautiful woman.
Her beauty shined outward. Pure. Innocent.
His.
He shook his head in quick denial, but deep inside, he knew it would happen. It was such a fruitless fight. Even if he only had her lifetime to spend with her, he would never let her go. His words from the night before came back to him. It truly was as simple and as complicated as that.
Diego had to protect her from Brakka. Their war would never be over until one of them was killed. A sick feeling swamped him when he realized what that meant. Titania would never be safe so long as Brakka lived. He could never let his guard down. Not for an instant.
A roll of his shoulders forced himself to relax the tension building. No one would hurt her again. Sharp eyes strafed the crowd, beginning to comprehend the enormous danger she placed herself in to help others. Diego was not going to overlook anything this time.
He knew her emotional efforts were considerably less than the show where he had first encountered her. She was still doing what she naturally did, but the force behind it was gentler, as if she held a gate on the flow. Was she worried about discovery? Everyone from scientists to the occult would love to know how she did what she could do with her gifts.
Diego should have expected it when well into her second set, he felt the disturbance. He recovered quickly, tuning himself to the sensation, one he hadn’t anticipated, focused as he was on the human threats. There was a thickness in the air. A blankness. It meant only one thing.
One of the Brethren was in attendance, hunting for an easy meal with mayhem for dessert. There were nearly forty thousand there tonight, packed in tight. Easy marks for a lazy hunter. Unsuspecting.
Diego soared up from his spot, scanning the interior of the stadium, until he located the source. Near one of the restrooms, and whoever it was, was quick. He had already lured a victim to him.
Diego burst from the stage, shooting in the direction of the feeling, sending out warnings to security, directing them without hesitation, hoping they could disrupt the scenario before the vampire’s victim was killed. He knew by the hot, sweet scent of blood in the air that the vampire had already laid his mark.
“What is it?”
Titania demanded.
“Trouble in the halls. I have already called for help,”
Diego offered in an unruffled tone, not wanting to alarm her. He felt her mental angst when he slammed up the walls to keep her away from the truth. She believed he was gifted, exponentially. Different. He would prefer for her to remain ignorant, for both their sakes. As her strength grew, he could not take a chance on her discovering his secrets. He had already made mistakes. He could not afford to make more. With that resolve, he would do whatever it took to protect her, even if he had to protect her from himself. He just no longer knew how that was going to be possible.
Diego caught the concerned and angry exclamations when the guards reached the injured woman, their frantic and confused voices as they called for paramedics sharp and echoing in the hallways. Diego examined the terrified woman with a quick glance as he roared past. She would live. He had interrupted the cursed one in the act before he could do any real damage to the young woman. The guards had already managed to stifle the blood flow from the vampire’s hideous punctures.
His expression hardened. One had dared to intrude on his woman’s night, had threatened the very roof she was under. Fury like nothing he’d ever felt became a living entity in his soul. Something black and deadly coiled, grew with lethal intent. He found the distinct odor of new and old blood, following it through the ventilation system of the stadium, until he poured out into the early fall night. There was a distinct scent of saltwater from the breeze blowing in from the bay. It did little to disturb the heavy odor of blood. His only disappointment was that this was not Brakka.
Diego dissolved into mist, the expected attack useless as the dark one tried to spear him from behind when he emerged on the roof. Diego heard the enraged snarl as he faced his attacker, taking form quickly.
“How dare you?” he spat at Diego, dark eyes blazing with anger. “This is my territory.”
“Not for tonight. I claim it.” Diego’s voice was low, mesmerizing, and the other vampire shook his head to dislodge the hypnotic commands in the words.
A low snarl rumbled from his chest. “Do not dare use your tricks on me!”
“They are not tricks. You cannot win this fight.” Diego circled him patiently, claws growing in anticipation. Muscles flexed. “You are but a babe, are you not?”
“I am Trevayne, and you will treat me with respect!” Trevayne’s voice vibrated with malevolent intent.
“Why? You have made a poor choice for your hunting grounds this evening. It is my right to protect my territory. I claim it. Leave.” Diego dodged Trevayne’s first attack with ease, sidestepping a ripping, clawed thrust, scoring four furrows along Trevayne’s ribs in answer. Trevayne howled with rage.
“Who are you to make such a demand on me? You are no one.”
Diego almost laughed at the audacity. “I am Diego. Remember my name.” Diego stared him in the eye, unafraid of the coldness. It mirrored his own, except Diego had learned how to control it, how to feed it without the red stain of death coating his hands. The one before him had not learned much at all. He was young, barely a century old. He had just been lucky enough to find a feeding territory unchallenged. Amazing, considering it was San Francisco.
“I do not care who you are,” Trevayne snapped.
“You will,” was the only warning Diego gave him. He leaped with a blinding rush of speed, his hands finding their mark, snapping Trevayne’s neck with a single twist. Diego landed on silent feet behind him.