attention to them. She prayed to every god she could think of that they weren’t red. Only when it came to her heart did she ever wish she were human. Their hearts could shatter with no outward sign, hers could barely crack and those damn red tears would give her away every time. She double checked that the mental shield between them was firmly in place. Why wasn’t he leaving? Couldn’t he see she just wanted to get back to the other room?
A hand touched the side of her face and she opened her eyes to see Thomas crouched down to look at her face. “What is this?”
She tried to turn her face away, but he ran a thumb across her skin, collecting one of the tears. He pulled his hand back to look at it. For once the gods had listened and the tears bore not even a tinge of red.
“What did I say,
She sniffed and swiped the tears away, angry with herself for letting him get to her again. “Forget it. It’s not important. Let’s go.”
“No.”
Her eyebrows arched up to her hairline. Ordering her around wasn’t going to help his cause any, but it did dry up her lingering tears. She crossed her arms over her chest to wait for him to decide what he wanted to do. She wasn’t going to help him out.
He narrowed his eyes as he studied her face, doubtless looking for some clue to tell him where he went wrong. His eyes widened.
“You don’t think...” He looked at her a moment longer. “You do. You’ve thought it all along.” He closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “I’m an idiot.”
“Yes, you are.” She stepped past him and reached for the door.
He grasped her wrist and turned her, pressing her back against the wall. He put his hands on either side of her, boxing her in. His head dropped forward so their foreheads touched again. She closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of him. Cinnamon and cloves, he always smelled of cinnamon and cloves.
“What I feel for you has nothing to do with power. It never has.”
She laughed so she wouldn’t cry. “How am I supposed to believe that? How can I possibly believe that?”
“How can you not?”
“The morning after we were United, you started talking about presenting me to the Council, about me ruling the coven. It was all about your power. Your prestige.”
“I talked about these things because I wanted you by my side and I wanted everyone to know you were mine,” Thomas insisted.
She shook her head in denial. “You wanted them to know so they would fear you more than they already did. Than they already do.”
He sighed. “Sometimes I forget how very young you are.”
She would have jerked away if she had anywhere to go. She hated when he acted as if she couldn’t possibly understand something just because she wasn’t centuries old. She must have tensed anyway because he said, “Don’t be offended. I didn’t mean it that way.”
He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and stepped back so he could look in her eyes. “I am an incredibly old vampire, Juliana. I have only gotten that way by being ruthless and self-centered. If I only wanted you for the power our union gives me, I simply would have taken you. I could keep you locked up in a cell in the house, pulling you out only when I had use for you.”
He said it so matter-of-factly, so emotionless, that she didn’t doubt his words were true. Rather, she didn’t doubt he’d
He tightened his grip on her neck to make sure he had her attention. “Do not doubt what I tell you. If you proved difficult, I could keep you drugged. Your cooperation is not needed to increase my power, only your touch. The very fact that I left should prove to you that I care for you.” His eyes remained locked on hers. “Step back from the situation. Imagine me as every other vampire you know. What would they do to get what they wanted?”
She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “I’ll think about it and I’ll try to quit thinking the worst of you, okay?”
He smiled. “I couldn’t care less about me. You need to quit thinking the worst of yourself.”
She gasped. “I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. Or you wouldn’t find it so difficult to believe I want you simply because you are you.” He dropped his hand from her neck. “We’ll leave this conversation for now as the others are waiting, but we will return to it.” He led her back into the infirmary.
As soon as they entered the room, her boss and the elemental straightened from where they leaned against the edge of a bed, scowls marring their features. Juliana’s face flamed red and she took a step away from him. He arched a brow wondering where her mind was taking her. No one would think they’d been having sex in the other room. For one thing, they weren’t gone long enough. For another, he hadn’t made her scream. A smile crossed his face at the thought.
“As we were discussing before you two disappeared, did you witness the extraction?” The man’s voice was short and he sounded tired. “Knowing Juliana, there wasn’t a lot of finesse involved. The doctor still can’t get Nathaniel to respond. The more he knows the better.”
She frowned. “I’d like to see how much finesse you manage to have when you’re dealing with a demon- ridden werewolf.”
He gaped at her having heard them, accusation written all over his face. He knew Thomas had given Juliana the blood she needed to heal.
Thomas took his bride’s hand and squeezed it in warning before he spoke. This vampire was beginning to be a nuisance. Thomas needed to see who his sire and coven leader were. If they couldn’t get him in line, Thomas would do the job himself. “Unless I am mistaken, and I am not, the Council has yet to ban the exchange of blood between bed partners.”
The fact that Juliana hadn’t shared his bed in years was irrelevant. She was his mate, and that overrode everything else. Unfortunately, she still didn’t seem to want to share that information with anyone, so he was forced to talk his way around it. He glanced at his bride to find her face an even darker shade of red. She wanted to be healed. This was the price she had to pay.
Her boss looked between them. Finally, he dropped his head forward. “My apologies, my lord.” It was about time the man started to show the proper respect.
He turned to Juliana. “Walker Norris, please explain the process by which you extracted the demon from Walker West.”
The unexpected formality made Thomas frown.
“Well, I shoved him into a pool filled with holy water. The demon poured out of his mouth in cloud form. Not a lot to it.” Irritation sizzled under the surface of his mate’s voice.
“And how did you dispose of the demon?” The words were clipped.
“I sprayed it with a mouthful of holy Irish whiskey then sliced it with my sword,” she said. “It was a screamer. That’s how my ears got busted.”
The lesser vampire was visibly stunned. “Holy Irish whiskey?”
“Don’t ask,” the elemental said with a shake of his head.
She shrugged. “Holy water tastes metallic to me. The whiskey? Not so much.”
Her boss licked his lips and arched his brows. “May I ask why you felt the need to put it in your mouth at all?”
“Because I get a better spray that way, cover more mass. It’s not exactly convenient to carry a squirt bottle around.”
He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. He started to pace. “I don’t understand why Nathaniel won’t wake up. We can’t find many injuries. Certainly nothing major.”
“Maybe he’s just tired,” she suggested. “He’s been running around in his half form for days.”
“The drugs they’re giving him should override any natural fatigue his body would be feeling. The brain scans indicate that only the deepest parts of his mind are active.”
