Sex, Lies, and Vampires

given up trying to make sense of it and am now going with the flow. Look, Christian—'

He frowned, his warm, strong fingers flexing into the soft pudge of my arm. 'Why do you call me that? I am not Christian Dante.'

I went still, very still, bunny-rabbit-spotted-by-a-dangerous-predator still. I didn't even chance breathing. 'You're not?'

'No.'

'But you're a vamp.'

An annoyed look passed across his face. 'Dark One. I am a Dark One.'

'Whatever. What are you doing here if you're not Christian, the guy who owns the place?'

'The same might be asked of you. More, since I would like to know why you have the ability to hear my thoughts, and how it is you can see the curse that binds me.'

'Yeah, but I asked first. Who are you, and what are you doing here?'

He eyed me for another minute, then released my arm and spun around to look around the library. 'Melissande hired you. You are here, obviously seeking the same as I. You can hear my thoughts. You can see my curse.' He stopped and pointed to a sea-green vase on a bookshelf. 'What do you see there?'

'A vase?' He stalked toward me until I scurried in the opposite direction, which just happened to be toward the vase. 'It's a green vase. Pretty. Looks like it's valuable.'

'Look closer,' he commanded, his eyes turning to an indigo color. I looked away, curious as to how he did the eye thing, but figured now was probably not the best time to question him about vampiric skills and abilities. Glancing at the vase again, idly I wondered if it was possible to knock out a vampire by cracking him on the head with a vase.

'It would take much more than a vase to render me unconscious. Do not even think of trying. Now look at it again and tell me what you see.'

I bit back the words of surprise that he knew what I was thinking and toyed with the thought of refusing him outright, but the few steps he took toward me, menace all but pouring off him, had me changing my mind. I hurried to do as he commanded. 'It's just a vase. About twelve inches high, with a gold rim and faint pattern etched into the sides.'

'Describe the pattern,' he demanded, his gaze boring into mine.

'Fish,' I said desperately, just wanting to get the hell out of there, away from the frightening—and bossy— fanged mystery vampire. 'It has fish on it. Looks Greek or something.'

He half turned away, disappointment flashing across his face. A brief stab of guilt flared within me, as if I had let him down somehow. What on earth was I thinking? He was a vampire! Bad news no matter how you looked at it. It didn't matter that somehow, what I had said had not been what he'd hoped to hear. Except… somehow, it did matter. Sympathy rose within me as I caught another glimpse of the red curse binding him. I supposed even a vampire has a right to be crotchety if he's bound by a demon lord's curse.

I glanced back at the vase, keeping one eye on the vamp in case he should try to grab me and make me a late-night dinner. I might feel sorry for him, but I wasn't completely stupid. 'The fish are swimming in a couple of schools. The waves they are swimming on are curvy, turning back upon themselves. Kind of like the pattern I saw on the book—' I clamped my mouth shut, horrified with both what I said, and what it meant.

The vampire spun around, pinning me back against the wall with the force of his gaze. 'You can see the ward?'

'Uh… maybe.'

'Melissande,' he murmured as he glanced down at himself to where the curse flickered red. 'She found a Charmer. I didn't think she'd find one who has the power to help.'

'Well, she hasn't. That is,' I said quickly when his blue-eyed gaze was back to goring me, 'I would be more than happy to help, but I can't. Charm, that is. I never could. My Charming skills are stunted, you see. But I did promise to help her find her nephew by poking around Christian's library, and that's what I'm doing here. Now that I've spilled my info, it's your turn.'

'Damian,' he said, his eyes doing the indigo thing again. I was just about to throw caution to the wind and ask him how he did it, when he moved. I didn't even see it coming—one minute I was standing near a bookcase, the next I was slammed back against the wall, pinned by two arms of steel attached to one very large vampire. 'You will relay everything to me, from the beginning. What did Melissande tell you?'

'I should warn you, I'm an expert on vampires. I've seen every episode made of Buffy, Angel, and Forever Knight, so don't think a little fang-flashing is going to scare me,' I started to say, but an up-close look at those sharp white incisors sent my bravado flying out the window, leaving me babbling like a brook. Power and desperation rolled off him, swamping me with the knowledge that this man would kill to find out what he wanted to know. Had I any state secrets to hand over, I would have gladly given them. 'She hired me to charm a curse, but I don't do that sort of thing, so she promised me a breastplate if I would break in here and find some notes her brother had found that told where Damian was, only I didn't know it was breaking in, because she said the castle belonged to a cousin vamp who evidently wouldn't mind, although he went and left the door warded so she couldn't enter the castle, and come to think of it, since you're a vamp too, shouldn't you be, you know, locked out? Ward-wise?'

'Only the doors and windows were warded. I entered through neither.'

'Oh. So how did you get in?'

He ignored my question, his brows pulling together in another frown. My mind warred with my body at his nearness. I kept telling myself that he was a vampire, a man whose prey tendencies didn't stop at wanting a date. I could be his dinner, for Pete's sake! I tried pointing that out to my libido, but all it saw was one extremely dishy guy. He was tall, taller than me and I'm no slouch, with lovely broad shoulders and a chest that had my Inner Nell doing a girlish swoon. His hair, a thick, heavy auburn, brushed the top of his collar. Reddish stubble grazed his lower cheeks and chin, turning my girlish swoon into a full-fledged strumpet-attack. His eyes changed from a light sky blue to a blue-black that was almost indistinguishable from his pupils. But it was something else, something more profound, that kept me from fighting him or trying to escape. Somewhere deep within this man, this vampire, I sensed a need, a cry for help that struck an answering chord inside me. I looked into his beautiful eyes and for a moment, for a breathless moment of time between seconds, I glimpsed the true nature of the darkness within him.

Life as I knew it ceased to be.

'Take slow breaths and keep your head down.'

The words, rough and abrasive, were oddly calming as awareness returned to me. I was sitting on the floor, my head between my knees. All I could see were two booted feet swimming in a nauseating spinning pattern until slowly they settled into unmoving solidity. I lifted my head and looked at the vampire. 'You don't have a soul.'

'No,' he said dryly. 'Are you better now?'

'Yeah. I've never fainted before. Then again, I've never looked into a man's eyes and seen nothing but hell, either, so I guess this is a first all around. Since I don't hurt anywhere, I take it you caught me when I passed out?'

'Yes. Can you stand?' He held out his hand for me to take.

I beat down the warm thought of what it must be like to be held in his arms, and got to my feet. 'Yep. A little wobbly in the knee department, but other than that, everything is OK. Listen, I'm sorry about the soulless thing. I'm sure it's nothing you care to be reminded of.'

'Come,' was all he said to my apology, holding open the door to the library.

'Sure. Oh, just let me grab the notes. I think they say something about where her nephew is being held.' The torn sheets of paper lay scattered on the floor. I had no idea how they had fallen out of my pocket, but my brain, jet-lagged and paranormaled within an inch of insanity, decided it wasn't important.

The vamp glanced at the window. Through a crack in the heavy curtain I could see that the sky was starting to lighten. 'Leave them. I don't need the notes. I know where Damian is being kept.'

'You do? Great! You can tell Melissande. She's outside, waiting for me. Uh… we're going the wrong way. Her car is behind the castle, by a big crypt thingy.'

'We're not going to Melissande.'

I put the brakes on. The vampire snared my wrist in one of his steely grips and tugged me forward. 'Wait a