Seduce (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series #3) (18 page)

Andreu was completely devoted to business full stop. Antoine could see it in the way he assessed everything, from the furnishings to the staff. Here was a man dedicated to making money, and lots of it, and God forbid anything tried to get in his way. He reminded Antoine of himself as a youth. Andreu was probably the same age as he had been back when his mind had been more on fast money and pleasure than anything of real worth.

Payne looked across his broad muscled shoulders as the double doors behind Antoine opened. Callum. Antoine didn’t need to look to know the young elite vampire had just walked in with a few performers tailing him.

He kept his gaze on Payne, intrigued by the way the coloured flecks in his eyes pierced the darkness in the moment before he turned his head away and fixed his gaze back on Javier.

Interesting.

Coupled with the tattoos and his all-too-clean background, it was enough to stir Antoine’s curiosity.

But not enough to keep his mind off his apartment and Sera.

Javier continued his tour and Antoine didn’t bother to follow them. He had met the males and had spent enough time with them. His concern shifted to Callum now. The black-haired elite male slouched into one of the front row seats and waved a hand at the performers on the stage. The trio immediately set into action, the two men stripping the woman, slowly peeling her clothes off and kissing each inch of skin they exposed.

“Are we hiring her?” Callum said and Antoine frowned, lost for a moment. “Elizabeth’s youngling.”

“Devil, no,” Antoine muttered and sat next to him in one of the red velvet seats. “If she even tries to get on that stage you are to come and tell me, understand?”

“Javier said you would respond with something like that.” Callum’s green eyes stayed fixed on the performers as they began to go through the more erotic side of their routine. He couldn’t fool Antoine. The elite vampire radiated tension, from his aura to the way he kept picking at the arm of the seat, intent on fraying the fabric.

“How did the scan go?” Antoine spoke low enough that the three performers wouldn’t hear.

Callum swallowed.

“Um, well... she is definitely pregnant.” He tapped his fingers on the seat arm now, his tension mounting.

Any moment now, he was going to explode. Why?

Callum shot around to face him, his eyes bright and wide. “Apparently we’re expecting twins.”

Ah. Antoine could see why that might be a problem. Two mixed breeds were more difficult to hide and protect from the uglier side of their world than one.

“I am sure that nothing bad will befall them, Callum. I would be more than happy to have them at the theatre. Kristina is welcome here any time she wishes to come. She would be safer here.” There was a time, probably little more than a few days ago, when he would have been surprised to hear himself saying such a thing to an elite, or any vampire. He smiled to himself. Not anymore. Sera had shown him that allowing others into his life wasn’t a bad thing and that company was good for his soul, and for his bloodlust. It was better to let his emotions out than struggle to keep them contained.

Callum was family, and so was Javier, and that bond extended to those the two elite males loved.

“I know she would,” Callum said on a sigh. “I am trying to convince her to come and stay in my apartment here, but she’s still not sure. She feels The Langham hotel is safer with all the humans around her. No vampire or werewolf would dare cause a ruckus in such a public place.”

“When the twins are born though—”

“I will have her move here. I will not let my children come to harm, and I know you will protect them.”

“Will they be hybrids?” Antoine had never heard of hybrids being born of a union between a vampire and a werewolf. He had heard tales of mixed couples producing offspring but normally those couples went into hiding and were never seen again.

Callum hesitated but then relief blossomed in his eyes. “No. Apparently not. The doctor has said that one will be born vampire and one born werewolf. One hundred percent. No crossover at all.”

Relief washed through Antoine too. “I am glad. It will be far easier to protect them, especially if their parentage remains anonymous. No one need know they were born of a vampire and a werewolf unless they wished to reveal it.”

“Javier was right.”

Antoine frowned. “About what?”

“She is good for you.” Callum grinned.

Antoine huffed. “That is yet to be seen.”

“I’m seeing it right now. The Antoine I left to audition Sera wouldn’t have sat here with me discussing babies.” Callum’s grin cracked even wider. “I presume you’ve been taking precautions in this love affair of yours?”

“Precautions?” Antoine blinked when it hit him. “Sera is not in heat. I would know if she was receptive.”

Callum laughed. “You would if she were an aristocrat.”

Antoine’s blood drained downwards and froze.

Callum laughed louder, drawing the attention of the three vampires on the stage, and clapped a hand down hard on his shoulder.

“I’m just kidding. Elite still have mating cycles, just like the aristocrats.”

Antoine rose from his seat and scowled at him. “I find your jokes quite distasteful. It is no wonder I have never taken the time to share a glass of blood with you.”

“Come on, Antoine,” Callum said but he cut him off with a glare. A reminder. Callum held his hands up and sighed in resignation. “Fine, I get it. You’re still the boss... no bad jokes.”

Antoine huffed again and stormed towards the double doors that led backstage, intent on heading to his office there and finding some peace so he could get his head straight at last. Sera was under his skin, intoxicated him whenever he was near her, but he still had his doubts about her and what he was doing. It would be too easy to go along with whatever was happening between them, blindly sinking deeper into something that could end up destroying him. Anya stood at the back of his mind and in his heart, a shadowy reminder that things he thought were going well could so easily go wrong.

“Antoine,” Callum called out and he stopped and looked back over his shoulder. “Thank you for everything though. I really do appreciate it.”

Antoine nodded and pushed the doors open. They swung shut behind him, closing with enough force that the sound echoed around the black-walled double-height room. What if Callum was wrong about mating cycles? He frowned. A thousand years old was too young for starting a family, especially with one who was probably not a day over thirty.

It wasn’t just the nine hundred odd years’ age gap that kept his blood cold in his veins though.

Bloodlust was genetic.

He would pass it on to any children he might produce.

The desire to be alone intensified but he ignored it, knowing what he really needed to soothe the tempest in his mind, and climbed the stairs to the second floor where his apartment and those of his three friends were. He paused outside his mahogany panelled door and then continued along the black and gold hallway to Snow’s.

“Enter,” Snow said before he even had time to knock. He twisted the brass knob and pushed the door open, revealing Snow reclining on the black covers of his bed in only his boxer shorts and an open black robe. “I wondered how long it would be before you came to check on me. You spiked a few minutes ago. Did Callum say something upsetting?”

Antoine would never get used to the incredible strength of his brother’s senses. It always astounded him when his brother told him everywhere he had been and who he had been speaking with while there.

He closed the door and crossed the wooden floor to Snow’s bed. Snow settled his open book on his stomach, pages face down. Antoine’s gaze flicked to it. War and Peace. A little light reading. The spine was cracked and worn. He would need to buy Snow a new copy soon. He wasn’t sure how many times Snow had read it now, or how he could stand to read the same novels over and over again when there were so many new ones out there. Snow liked the classics though. Antoine could remember his brother reading to him when he was a toddler, telling him Nordic stories of incredible gods and worlds beyond the imagination, and tales of things he had seen during his travels. Snow was more than just a brother to him. He had been like a father too, the age gap between them meaning that Snow had been fully grown long before Antoine had been born. Snow had raised him with his mother, leaving their father free to focus on his business and on protecting their entire family.

“How is your female?” Snow gave him an expectant look.

Antoine hadn’t come here to talk about her but he couldn’t help himself now that his brother had mentioned her.

He sat on the edge of the bed, side on to Snow, and rubbed his hand over his face and then his dark hair, trying to think about where to start.

“She is well... excited about the party tonight.”

“Something is troubling you, Brother.” Snow sat up and placed his book on the ebony bedside table. Antoine noticed the chafing on his wrist as the sleeve of his silk robe rode up his arm. Snow smiled. “Do not worry about me too. You have enough worries. You fear she will hurt you.”

Antoine had never been able to hide anything from his brother. Not his monumental joy at having found a woman he had thought would become his eternal mate, and not his crushing agony on discovering that she had disappeared without a trace.

“You feel everything so keenly.” Snow propped himself up on his right elbow. “Sometimes your feelings cannot be trusted though, Antoine.”

“What do you mean?” He frowned and looked across his shoulder at his brother.

Snow sighed and combed his fingers through his white hair, preening it back from his face. His pale eyes were like clear winter skies, no spot of cloud marring them. Antoine’s own eyes held pale flakes like snow and he had always thought his brother deserved them more than he did. They would have suited him. A vampire liked mystery and it was something Snow had never lacked. No one ever believed them when they said that his parents had named him Snow. They had, but not in English.

“You know what I mean.” Snow leaned back again, arranging himself against his black pillows. “She is not Anya.”

Didn’t he know it? Sera tied him in more knots than Anya had ever managed. He wasn’t sure whether he was coming or going where she was concerned. When he was with her, everything felt right and good, incredible, and he could even go as far as to say that he was happy for the first time in many long years. He had never felt so alive, so content, as he did when he was in her arms, and he had never felt so connected to anyone. When he was away from her though, the doubts began to creep in, the voices of his past whispering dark things to him, warnings about what could happen if he accepted Sera into his life and his heart.

“Do you think she loves you?” Snow said and Antoine frowned.

“I am not sure... not yet... I don’t think so. Maybe she would in time.”

Snow sighed again. “Good... I want you to have another chance at love. One of us deserves something good in our lives, and out of both of us, it should be you. You deserve it.”

Antoine hated the note of resignation that lined the edge of his brother’s voice. He was thinking about his death again, always seeking the easy way out. Antoine wouldn’t let that happen. He would help him defeat his bloodlust and would see him happy before he did anything about pursuing his own happiness.

He touched his brother’s hand and Snow met his gaze. “We both deserve someone who will love us for who we are and will not leave us, but it is not something I am looking for at this moment. I will not let anything stand between us, do you understand?”

Snow laughed mirthlessly. “I understand. You intend to make me keep that wretched promise. I grow tired of this hollow life, Brother... one day you will have to let me go.”

Antoine squeezed his hand, his throat constricting even as anger seeped into his veins. “Never. Do you hear me, Snow? I will never let you go. I will help you defeat your bloodlust or I will die trying with you.”

Snow closed his eyes and frowned. “I do not deserve such a sacrifice. I have seen the way you watch Javier with Lilah, and even Callum when he speaks with Kristina on his phone. I know you long for something good, warm and female in your life. Sera can be that woman for you. She can help heal your past and give you a future.”

“Without you... that’s what you are saying, is it not?” Antoine snapped and Snow’s frown hardened. Antoine grabbed his brother’s shoulders and shook him, intent on forcing him to open his eyes and look at him. He wanted to see the answer in his brother’s eyes. They opened and met his, the terrible longing for death shining in them. “I will not let that happen, so get it out of your damn stubborn mind!”

Snow smiled, a bare tilting of the corners of his lips. “A man can hope. It has been centuries, Antoine, and I am not getting better.”

“You are. You say I am too lost in my own pity to see when I am on to a good thing, that I want to cast aside all hope of finding someone who truly loves me and who will remain at my side forever... you are lost too, Brother. You are so convinced that your bloodlust is unbeatable that you do not see the progress you have made.” Antoine loosened his grip on Snow’s shoulders and raised one hand to his cheek, keeping his brother’s attention on him so he could see the honesty in his eyes as well as feel the truth in his blood. “You brought yourself back the other night. Lilah soothed you and you did not wish to hurt Sera. You care about them and that stopped you from hurting them. I had the same sort of experience. I bit Sera and I found I could control myself. I stopped myself because I care about her and I did not want to hurt her.”

Snow’s smile widened. “So you admit that you do care about her?”

Antoine sighed and nodded. He should have known Snow would be able to draw the truth out of him one way or another.

“I do. Deeply. But that only gives me more reason to keep my distance.”

Snow’s face fell and he shook his head. “No, it gives you reason to move closer to her, not further away. I do have more awareness and control in the presence of the females. You are right. I know what Lilah means to Javier, and what Sera means to you, and I have no desire to hurt those I love. Not again.”