To Love and Serve (14 page)

Chapter Twenty-three

Michaela was as fast as any vampire, and following her proved a demanding chase through Central Park, across town, and down the West Side, to the World Trade Center area.

If Michaela knew they were after her, she gave no hint of it—until the 9-11 Memorial. There, she stopped abruptly and waited for them. She stood akimbo, her arms braced on her hips and a disgusted look on her face as they dropped down in front of her.

“You have no reason to follow me,” she challenged and glanced around, as if checking for possible collateral damage if a battle ensued.

Ryder did the same. At this time of night, the area was deserted. But he had no intention of starting a fight.

“Who are you going to see, Michaela?” Diego asked.

“You expect me to tell you the location of one of our Council members?”

Ryder chuckled. “You know where we live. Who our wives and lovers are. Our friends. But you still don’t trust us.”

She frowned for a moment, then tilted her head defiantly. “There are many reasons I don’t trust vampires.”

Diego blew out a disgusted breath. “Another unreasonable spawn of the Slayer Council. Do you think everything they do is above reproach?”

Michaela lost some of her bravado. “You can’t begin to understand.”

“But I do, slayer,” Diego said, his voice intense. “I know what they are. The only reason I survived the hate of people like them during the Inquisition was because of a vampire’s love.”

Michaela barked a laugh, and dragged a hand through her short strands of hair. She paced for a moment before facing them, hands on her hips. She motioned to Ryder. “Fine. I can’t take an elder with me, but I’ll take him.”

Ryder was relieved when Diego agreed. “A fair compromise. But if anything happens to my friend,
anything
, there will be hell to pay.” He jammed his face close to hers and released the vampire.

Michaela didn’t even flinch.

Ryder admired her courage, even if he felt uncomfortable with the slayer’s distrust and impulsiveness. But she was involved with Jesus, and the ADIC’s judgment and friendship with Diana had to count for something.

Even if it only meant he wouldn’t get a stake through the back.

Ryder patted Diego on the shoulder. “I’ll call you later.”

“Within the hour,” Diego instructed.

Michaela confirmed it with a nod. “This won’t take long.”

In a blur of speed, Diego took off, leaving Michaela and Ryder staring at each other, awkward as two people on a blind date.

“We both know something clicked with you after Detective Daly’s report. Mind telling me what, and where we’re going?”

“We’ll walk there. It’ll give me time to fill you in.” She jerked her chin at some waterside apartment buildings several blocks away.

“Okay.” Ryder matched his stride to her shorter one.

“How much do you know about the slayers and the Council?” she asked.

“Not a great deal. I haven’t spent much time in the vampire world.”

“The slayers are elite, extreme, and ruthless, even toward their own. The penalty for the most serious infractions is almost always death.”

“Nice crowd you hang with, Michaela,” he said wryly.

A small smile played about her lips.

“It was either join them or continue the search for my mother’s killer on my own. As it is, I’m both hunter and hunted.”

She stopped short in front of what looked to be luxury condos, but instead of entering through the doorman-protected doors, she scooted around the side of the building and picked her way down to the water’s edge.

At the corner of the property, a couple of utilitarian-style metal doors were guarded by several locks and roving security cameras. She approached one door and pushed an intercom button. The camera on the wall shifted in their direction, its one-eyed stare almost condemning.

The intercom crackled to life. “Are you crazy? You brought him here?”

Michaela shot Ryder a passing glance, then answered, “I trust him.”

“Your mistake,” the voice said, and the metal door remained closed.

She lifted her face toward the camera and stood on tiptoe so it would be impossible not to see her determination. “You need to hear what I have to say.”

“Why?”

“It’s about Bartholomew.”

That must have been the equivalent of “Open Sesame,” since the lock immediately
snick
ed. She flung open the door so they could pass. Beyond was an antiseptic foyer in glaring white light and devoid of any furnishings. At the far wall was an elevator guarded by more cameras, and as they neared, the lenses focused on them. After a slight pause, the elevator door opened.

Inside, there were no buttons with which to choose floors, and as the doors closed, a jolt of speed had them racing upward.

“Talk about overkill,” Ryder murmured.

“Benjamin has always been overly cautious. Most of his family was killed in a vampire attack when he was a young boy.”

“When you say most—”

“His parents and sisters were murdered after vampires raped the women. He and his little brother survived.”

“This Bartholomew you mentioned is Benjamin’s little brother?”

Michaela nodded. The elevator jerked to an abrupt halt, as if designed to unsettle anyone in it. When the doors opened, Benjamin stood there, a crossbow in hand and a muscle shirt barely covering his torso. The tattoo of a Celtic cross across his large chest was visible beneath the edges of the shirt.

As Ryder stepped out of the elevator, Benjamin trained the crossbow on the middle of his chest. “Watch your step, Ryder. This has a hair trigger.” With a very lethal-looking silver-tipped arrow, nocked and ready to fire. Ryder had no doubt it was laced with silver nitrate for additional suffering. He held his hands in the air and inclined his head at Michaela.

“I’m just here as backup,” he said.

Benjamin nodded and turned his gaze on her. She walked over to the coffee table in the middle of a living room that lacked a female touch and screamed of interior designer. Big leather chairs done in white and a collection of bright artwork gave it a high-fashion look, but the flat-screen television that covered almost an entire wall made the space a little more human.

Sitting on the edge of the couch with a squeak as leather met leather, she laid the photos on the table and Benjamin walked over, the crossbow still aimed for Ryder’s heart. But as Benjamin examined the photos, his hand visibly shook, and little by little the weapon lowered.

Ryder kept his distance as the thirty-something man sat next to Michaela, laid down the crossbow, and examined the photos with unsteady hands. The ones that seemed to intrigue him most were those of the footprints and sole patterns.

As Benjamin analyzed them, Michaela explained.

“A homeless man was killed last night. Throat slashed like the two dead vampires. These photos are from the crime scene.”

“It’s not possible, Mikey. Bartholomew couldn’t have done this.”

“Afraid to admit humans can be as horrible as us monsters?” Ryder asked.

Benjamin surged off the sofa, his slate blue eyes swimming with pain. His fists clenched at his side while his body vibrated with anger and the muscles of his jaw worked furiously. “Bartholomew couldn’t have done this because my brother is dead.”

Okay, Ryder totally had not expected that.

He glanced past the man to Michaela, who had risen and come to stand by her Council member. In an awkward gesture, as if she was unused to offering comfort, she patted Benjamin’s arm.

“Did you intervene, Benjamin?” she asked. “Is that what Evangeline wanted to talk to you about earlier?”

“Evangeline claimed she wanted a report. I think she just wanted to hang you out to dry with the vampires. As for Bartholomew, I don’t break the rules for anyone, not even my brother.”

“Care to fill me in, Michaela?” Ryder was clearly missing a vital piece of the puzzle.

“Few are accepted as slayer novitiates. The training is rigorous and many are lost in battle along the way,” she began. Benjamin jumped in.

“Very few reach the final initiation. Even then, they’re carefully selected, and any who fail…” He sucked in a deep breath and fought the emotion threatening to overwhelm. “Those who fail are terminated, to protect the secrets of the slayers and to keep them from misusing the powers they’ve earned along the initiation steps.”

“And you call
us
evil.” Ryder would have rather killed himself than hurt anyone he cared about.

The man lunged at him, but Michaela jerked him back. “This accomplishes nothing, Benjamin.”

The man yanked free of Michaela’s restraint, then marched back to the coffee table and dropped down on the sofa. He picked up the photos again and rubbed the back of his neck, his agitation still running high.

Michaela approached him and laid a hand on his shoulder. “How can we find out who was supposed to do the termination?”

In a weary voice, Benjamin said, “We can’t.”

“So you don’t really know if someone carried out the death order?” Ryder asked.

Benjamin’s head bowed and his shoulders sagged. Defeat filled his voice. “Every now and then I thought I sensed him, but I told myself it was just my imagination. My guilt at having failed him. For not standing up for him. He was my brother and I should have done something to protect him.”

“Did Bartholomew have a special connection to any of the Council members? Enough that they would break the rules if they were chosen?” Michaela asked.

He jerked his head up. “And risk their own death sentence?”

“How long has it been since Bartholomew was supposed to be executed?” Ryder asked, needing Benjamin to move away from an emotional response and back to a logical one.

“Two years.”

Two years in which Bartholomew had been in hiding, biding his time. Planning his killing campaign. “You said you sensed him. Where?”

Benjamin rubbed his nape, rose, and looked around the room blindly. “About a year ago in Central Park. I was with Evangeline. We had caught the scent of a shifter not far from the site of an attack.”

“You have a truce with them as well?” Ryder wondered aloud.

“Maintaining balance between all the worlds is a tricky thing,” Michaela said.

“Did Evangeline sense your brother?” Ryder asked, trying to interrogate the way Diana might.

Benjamin shook his head. “I don’t think she did. Since he wasn’t a full slayer, his energy wasn’t as strong as ours. But I could sense him because we spent so much time together.”

It hadn’t occurred to Ryder that each level of slayer would have a different life force, just as the undead did due to age. Opening his vampire senses, he reached out and felt Michaela’s power. It was already familiar to him from the time he’d spent with her. As he tagged Benjamin, he noticed the differences between her hybrid life force and full slayer energy.

Benjamin was completely human, but possessed great power. It beat heavily against Ryder’s senses, like the consistent pounding of surf against the shore, rather than Michaela’s more erratic energy. But like the tides that created the waves, the push of the power was strong, warning him not to underestimate the boyish-looking slayer.

“The human was killed in the park as well. That’s too much coincidence for me,” Michaela said.

“Me too,” Ryder confirmed. “Which Slayer Council member lives near the park?”

Benjamin responded as Michaela had earlier. Distrust tightened every line of his body. “We won’t compromise our leadership. It’s bad enough Michaela brought you here.”

Ryder pushed out a breath of annoyance. “But we’ve taken Michaela to our homes and those of our friends. We supposedly have a truce. But without trust, how useful is it?”

Michaela came to Benjamin’s side and slipped her hand into his, the gesture familiar, without the gawkiness of her earlier attempt to comfort. They’d been involved, Ryder guessed.

“We’ll handle this internally,” Benjamin said, foreclosing any further discussion.

“This is a mistake, Benjamin. They have resources—”

“So do we,” Benjamin shot back, glaring at her.

Michaela shook her head. She cradled his cheek, this time with the sureness of an ex-lover.“I’ll do as you ask, even if it’s wrong. But the Council asked us to track down this killer, and if it takes joining with the vampires to do it, I will. I know in your heart, you know it’s the right thing also.”

Without waiting for his reply, she strode out the door and to the elevators. She stood there, her back to them.

Ryder glanced at the other man. On his face, wistfulness mingled with sadness and anger. Possibly even love. As Benjamin met Ryder’s gaze, he murmured, “I could never stomach how headstrong Mikey was. Is.”

Funny, Ryder had always loved Diana’s determined ways. With a dip of his head, he turned and joined Michaela. He stood silently beside her, until Benjamin hit the switch to open the elevator doors.

They stepped inside in unison and she shot him a sideways look. They both understood that things had just changed, not only between them, but in the balance between the vampires and slayers.

Maybe forever.

Chapter Twenty-four

Diana roused at the squeak of the entry door as it opened. She’d fallen asleep on the couch in front of the TV after finishing a cup of tea.

“Everything okay?” She leaned into Ryder when he came to sit beside her.

He smiled, wrapped his arm around her, and urged her into his lap. With a kiss against her hair, he said, “It is now.”

“Definitely,” she said, relaxing against him. Hoping he would not pick up on the slight weirdness that had not diminished since her earlier bout of nausea and vomiting.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, dashing her hope.

She couldn’t lie to him, but she didn’t want him to worry. Turning in his lap, she straddled his thighs and held his face between her hands. “I was sick again tonight. Had the same strange feeling as last night, but I’m fine now.”

His battle to hold back any comment was obvious, and she was grateful for it. As afraid as she was of what was going on in her body, of the fact that she was probably dying, she didn’t want that fear to color the rest of her mortal life. Especially now that she’d regained some balance that would give her the strength to join Ryder in eternal life.

“I’d like to go to bed, if you’re ready,” she said.

The hint of his dimple surfaced first, then his smile emerged. “I’m always ready to sleep with you.”

He came to his feet smoothly and she locked her legs around his waist. He cupped her buttocks to keep her close.

With a blast of vampire speed he rushed them to their bedroom. At the edge of their bed, she slipped down his body, and it was impossible to miss his state of arousal. There was no holding back that she wanted to share life with him instead of fear.

She shrugged off her robe and tugged at him to sit on the bed. She grasped his black sweater and dragged it over his head, baring his marvelous torso. She laid her hands on his shoulders and skimmed them back and forth, savoring his strength.

“You’re so beautiful.” The sight of him, feel of him beneath her hands, never failed to move her.

He grinned, laid his hands on her hips, and pulled her into the vee of his legs. “So are you, darlin’. I can’t ever get enough of you.”

He moved his hands up to her breasts and she jumped at the brush of his fingertip along her sensitive nipples.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked, tempering his touch.

She shook her head. “No, they’re just… tender.”

His response was delicate as he whispered his lips across her nipples and they immediately puckered into hard points. The kisses awakened a heavy pulse beat of need between her legs. He could make her come with just that touch. But he clearly had other ideas in mind.

Rising, he shucked off the rest of the clothes and scooted into the center of the bed, pulling her along with him. She knew just what he wanted.

He rested his back against the headboard and she climbed into his lap, poised above his erection.

With her gaze locked on his, she slowly sank down onto him.

He filled her. Physically. Emotionally.

She held herself still, wanting to savor that feeling for forever.

Yes, forever.

…

Ryder wouldn’t move, even if he could. The sense of oneness with Diana was too precious to lose. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her, explored the shape and feel of her mouth over and over, and enjoyed the brush of her full breasts along his chest.

Her smile erupted against his lips before he pulled away, and he opened his eyes to see it. “You’re happy.”

“I am. I know everything else in our lives is crazy, but this… what we have together is right, and I have to trust it will still be that way if you turn me.”

Ryder couldn’t hide his shock at her admission. “Do you mean that? That you’ll stay with me—”

“Forever, Ryder. I need to have faith that with our love, I can keep the darkness away. That I can keep on doing what I was meant to do.”

In that instant, he knew of only one thing that could make this moment even more right. “Diana. Will you marry me?”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “D—do you really mean that?”

He reached up and traced the edges of her smile with his thumb, wanting to memorize the feel of it. “I do, Diana. I know this wasn’t very romantic and I have to get a ring and everything—”

She silenced him with a kiss so joyous his heart swelled with wonder, and emotion nearly choked off his breath.

When she finally shifted away for a shaky breath, she was smiling even more broadly, and her gold-green eyes were alive in a way he hadn’t seen in far too long. He knew, then, his impromptu proposal had been the right thing to do. That whatever time was promised to them would be better spent together.

“I take it that’s a ‘yes’?”

“It’s a ‘yes.’ ” She leaned forward to kiss him again, the smile still on her lips.

He answered the kiss, teasing her mouth with his. He slipped one hand between their bodies and cradled her breast, gently played with the hard point of her nipple, and a pleased sigh escaped her.

He lifted her up to taste her and the movement dragged her over his cock, tightening his balls with the feel of her sliding slick along him. The movement pulled a rough rumble from deep inside, and as his gaze skipped over her, a sexy, knowing smile was on her face.

As he loved her breasts with his mouth and hands, she rocked her hips, riding him. Each subtle stroke brought him ever closer to release. But her body told him with each little shudder and sigh that she was along for the ride. Then with her urgent cries as he suckled her nipples and bit down gently on one, drawing a strangled moan from her. And with the grind of her hips hard against him as she sought that final push to climax.

He gave it to her, easing one hand down and parting her with his fingers, pressing up against the nub at her center with his thumb as she rode him one last time, then shattered in his arms.

He swallowed her cry of pleasure, taking it deep inside. Then waited as her climax washed through her and caressed him, her muscles moving along his erection, milking him. But he gritted his teeth and held back. He wanted to give her more. Her body slowly returned to normal, and he shifted her to lie on the bed. Her hands were on his shoulders, stroking along skin dampened from their passion. Her eyes were wide and fixed on his face as he moved, drawing her up once more. The heat built up again between them as she raised her knees and deepened his penetration.

As his pleasure grew, he sensed the demon awakening as passion called to it. He knew it would want a bite of her. But not this time, he vowed, driving it back as he made love to her.

This time, as special as it was, the demon would not intrude.

He bent and kissed her, darting his tongue in to dance with hers, sharing his breath as it grew ever shorter. She held him to her, whispering his name as he brought her ever closer.

With one powerful stroke, he pushed her over the edge again.

She bit her bottom lip and held her breath, arched her back as another climax slammed through her. And this time he couldn’t keep from coming. The joy of her surrounding him, of seeing the pleasure on her face, was too great.

He shuddered and closed his eyes as release swept over him. And breathed her name on a long sigh.

“Diana.”

She ran her hands down his body, her touch gentle, calming him. Inviting him down onto her as their heartbeats slowly returned to normal.

…

Diana shivered as the night air chilled her sweat-dampened skin. Above her Ryder’s body warmed, and she realized he’d released a bit of the vampire. She met his gaze and tendrils of neon bled into his dark eyes.

He had kept the demon at bay the entire time, and she knew he’d done it for her. “Thank you. I know it isn’t easy to fight the demon.”

He shrugged, but she wasn’t fooled. He had battled that side of him for a long time—even before they’d come to know one another. But he swore the battle had ended with her arrival in his life. Even before her desperate need for his keeper’s kiss.

She ran her hands through his hair, smoothing the short strands she’d rumpled during their lovemaking. She wanted to soothe his inner conflict as well. “It’s okay to let me see that side of you, Ryder.”

His struggle was evident from the tension radiating across his body. “I’ve always been afraid of that part of me, darlin’. I’m more afraid now than ever.”

She got that. His keeper’s kiss the other night had almost turned to something more. Now that he was involved with the Vampire Council, they likely expected him to use his powers more often than he cared to. But despite all that, and the fear she’d felt the other night, she knew one thing.

“We both have to trust that you’re its master,” she said, “because I suspect that what we will have to face together in the future will test your control, probably more than we’d wish.”

He met her gaze and nodded. “Probably. But it’s getting late and we both need to rest now.”

She didn’t protest, so they slipped beneath the covers and lay there, silent. Thoughtful.

They’d just agreed to a commitment, but one that would be severely tested. And often. It had been that way from the first, and she suspected it would be that way even after she joined him for eternity.

“Rest, darlin’,” he said, and stroked his hand along her hip.

He’d accepted her just as she was. Maybe that was why she’d been drawn to him. Because Ryder was the one person who had truly seen who and what she was beneath the armor she strapped on to face the world.

“I love you,” she said, wanting that to be the last thing he heard before sleep claimed them.

“I know,” he said, a hint of playfulness in his voice that banished the worry from her and brought a smile to her face.