The Immortal Compromise (The Mortal One Series Book 3) (14 page)

“You are needed in Florence, Violante. I thank you for offering your services, but Costin needs them more than I do at the moment,” Nico said.

Violante stood up again and flipped up her hair. “You obviously don’t know what you’re saying right now. You’re tired.” She walked towards the front door. “I will talk to you tomorrow evening and we can get everything settled.”

“Violante,” Nico said as she walked out the door.  She didn’t turn around. “Damn it,” he yelled when the door closed.

I looked over at him. “Nico?”

“I don’t know how to get through to her,” he said, shaking his head.

I set my wine glass down and walked over to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Maybe it’s time to get Costin involved and have him rein her in. But let’s forget about all of them right now.”

“Oh,” he said, looking down at me. “What did you have in mind?”

I kissed him, letting him take control of my mouth as soon as our lips met. He let out a low, guttural groan and lifted me up in his arms. His hands lingered on my backside for a moment before he set me on top of the kitchen counter.

My legs spread of their own accord and Nico stepped into the opening. I felt his hands slide down my back and he plucked my bra strap so that it opened. He pulled my sweater off, and then slid my bra straps down my arms.

“I needed this,” I whispered, pushing myself up against him, kissing along his jaw line. He was my rock, the one I needed to feel whole and secure in the world. After what had taken place in Germany, I wanted nothing more than to be in his arms.

“I hate jeans,” he said as his hands came to rest at the top of them.

I laughed softly, wanting more contact with him and wishing I hadn’t worn them. I slid from the kitchen counter and quickly undid the button. I slid them down my legs and they came off, with some help from Nico.

Nico captured my bottom lip with his mouth and kissed me while his hands slid under the waistline of my panties and slid them down.

I undid the buckle of his pants, and then moved to the buttons of his shirt. He was wearing too much clothing and it was hard to decide what I wanted to reveal first. Out of frustration, I grabbed the open part of his shirt with both hands and pulled. Several buttons hit the floor with a
click-click.

“That was my favorite shirt,” Nico said, surprise in his voice.

“Shhh,” I said, “I’ll buy you a new one. I just want you. Now.”

Nico picked me up and set me on the kitchen counter with force. “Not yet,” he said, dipping his head down between my legs. He kissed my inner thighs and then moved his way, ever so slowly, up to the area that was throbbing with need.

“Oh,” I said, throwing my head back and plunging my hands into his hair.  He worked me over with his tongue and I couldn’t focus on anything else than the impending orgasm. He stuck his index finger deep inside me and it was enough to send me over the edge.

He slid me off the counter and carried me over to the couch. My legs were wrapped securely around his hips as he walked with me. I kissed his neck and kept my arms wrapped around him as he laid me down on the couch.

“We need to break the couch in as well,” he said, smiling.

“Oh, if you insist,” I said, allowing him to spread my legs.

He pushed his hips down and into me. “I do.”

“Oh!”

I heard it from nearby as I came down from my orgasm. It was Jen who had made the comment and Olivier stood right behind her.

“Give us a moment, please?” Nico said, lifting his head and doing his best to shield my body. He didn’t care if his ass was sticking up for the world to see and I knew that Jen was checking it out.

Jen laughed and went upstairs, as did Olivier.

“I forgot they were up there,” Nico said, looking down at me.

I laughed and swung my legs off of the couch. “I did, too.”  My clothes were thrown across the kitchen floor and I moved to go and collect them all, sliding on panties as I watched Nico do the same with his clothes.

“What are we going to do about Jen?” I asked.

“I believe Olivier is handling that,” Nico said, nodding to the stairs.

“He is going to mark her, but - ,”

“Then she is safe. Or as safe as she can be,” Nico said as he did the belt on his pants.

I nodded, supposing that he was right.

“We do have to figure out what is to be done with Violante,” Nico said. He frowned and his entire personality changed. “I have never seen her this hell-bent on not listening to authority.”

I rolled my eyes, not surprised in the least. “Are you going to call Costin?”

Nico nodded. “I don’t see any other option since she is refusing to listen to me. If I get another call from a vampire in Paris about her interfering with their personal affairs, I’m going to have to physically put her on a plane to Florence myself.”

I smiled, wondering what that would look like. The reality was that I wanted Violante gone however it happened. The easier option would be to call Costin and make him deal with it.

Chapter 18

“You marked her already?” Nico asked Olivier. He looked at Jen and obviously saw something that I didn’t.

Olivier nodded and seemed proud of himself. If only it had been that easy with me. The funny part was the reason that the mark was delayed was because of Olivier interfering with it all. I chose to keep my mouth shut about all of that.

“What were you worried about?” Jen asked me, rubbing her neck and looking at Olivier through her long eyelashes.

“There was no pain?” I asked. When I had been marked, Costin was there to watch. It was actually Costin who had to pull Nico off of me to ensure he didn’t take more blood than was safe.

She shook her head, but couldn’t remove her gaze from Olivier. She was smitten with him and had no desire to hide it from any of us.

“I want to keep her safe from all of this, so I plan on grooming her quickly and turning her by the end of the week,” Olivier said. He looked over at Jen. Oh, so the smitten thing was two-sided. This should be interesting.

“Excuse me?” Nico asked.

Olivier stared at Nico. “What?”

“One week is too soon. She won’t know enough of what it means to be one of us. She needs to be educated on the processes.”

“Ollie and I will put in some long hours to make it happen,” Jen said, sliding one of her hands up the length of his arm, coming to rest on the tribal tattoo that was on his bicep.

Ewww. Her nickname for Olivier was making me a bit queasy. He would never be an “Ollie” to me.

“It is ultimately your decision and I cannot stop you,” Nico said. “But the typical grooming is for a year. This means the grooming must continue after she has been turned.”

Olivier nodded his head in understanding. “It won’t be a problem.” He and Jen smiled at each other.

“Are you hunting tonight?” I turned to Nico.

He nodded. “Olivier and I need to do that sooner rather than later. We also need to discuss what we are doing about Violante.”

Nico laced up his boots and gave me a kiss on the forehead before walking towards the front door. He looked at Olivier, who took the hint to walk out the door as well.

“Bye Ollie,” Jen called.

I smiled at Nico.

“Don’t wait up,
mia mortale
,” he said with a hint of amusement and the door closed.

“This is all so much to take in,” Jen announced, leaning against the counter and feigning exhaustion.

“You think?” I asked. “It gets worse, so much worse.”

Her eyes sparkled. She always was one for the dramatic. “Worse how? We never even made it into Paris for clubbing,” she laughed.

I rolled my eyes. “You do realize you have agreed to become a vampire, right?”

“You do realize I’ve just agreed to eternity with men that look like Ollie, right?” She retaliated.

Oh, if Jen took the time to look at what was going on, she may not think it was so glamorous. I loved Nico and couldn’t wait to be turned so that we would be on level playing ground, but I wasn’t in any kind of hurry to give up my mortality, either. There was still a part of me, a rather large part of me, that liked being human. I enjoyed food and wine and daylight.

“So what are they doing?” Jen asked.

“They’re hunting.”

“For what?” She asked, clueless to the ninth degree.

I took a deep breath to explain what I thought was obvious. “They’re vampires, Jen. They survive on blood.”

She looked horrified. “Wait? What?” She laughed lightly, waiting for me to start laughing with her.

Jen never followed the vampire literature like I did. She didn’t know about all of what they could and couldn’t do according to folklore. Maybe that better prepared me for what would eventually be my fate that night in Florence. When Nico told me that he was a vampire, I knew what all of that meant. I had Jen standing here in my kitchen, who was already marked and who agreed to be a vampire, but she didn’t have the first clue as to what any of that meant. Not really.

“I don’t understand,” Jen finally said.

“They feed on humans. It is their life blood,” I tried to explain.

“Like Dracula?” She asked.

I shrugged. That was a good enough comparison as any. “Yes.”

“You mean they’re out there biting the necks of people and sucking their blood right now?” Her lip curled up in disgust and she was starting to pale through the conversation.

I nodded.

“And you’re okay with this?”

“I don’t have a choice, Jen. I knew what Nico was when I got involved with him. When he revealed what he was to me, I had a choice. I could die or become one. I chose to become one, which probably doesn’t surprise you considering how deep my obsession ran with them.”

“So they drink blood?”

I nodded.

“Human blood?”

I nodded again.

“You need to tell me more. You have had like twenty years to learn about vampires. I need a crash course before Ollie comes back,” Jen said, walking to the living room.

“Okay, but you have to stop calling him Ollie. At least when I’m around.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “I’ll do my best.”

I took my glass of wine over to the couch to sit next to her. It had already been a long night and it didn’t look like I would be getting any sleep until much, much later.

***

Jen and I finished off the first bottle of wine that had been opened. We were on our second bottle and had popped some popcorn to help absorb some of the alcohol. She was asking question after question and while it was frustrating that I had to be the one to tell her about all of this, it was nice to have my best friend back in my life.

“No one has to die?” Jen asked, trying to understand the idea of sipping the blood.

“Right. They take sips of blood, heal the wound, and then do a mind trick to ensure people don’t know what happened.”

“But how?”

Jen wanted answers I didn’t have. Those wouldn’t be revealed until after I was turned because it was easier to show than to explain. “I don’t know. You will find out when Olivier shows you how.”

She sighed out of frustration.

“Olivier needs to be the one to answer the rest of your questions. I don’t know all of them.”

“Why not? You have been with Nico for months.”

I shrugged again, feeling useless. “I know about what vampires are capable of. And the hierarchy. You’re asking me about things that aren’t told to pets until after they go through the change. Olivier will be grooming you over the next week to help prepare you. That should answer a lot of your other questions.

Jen threw herself against the back of the couch. She put her feet on the coffee table, nearly missing the wine glass that was there. She was tired and so was I. But we were doing our best to wait up for the men to find out what was going on with Violante and with everything in general.

Dawn was quickly approaching when the phone rang.

“What’s going on?” I greeted Nico.

“We’re not going to make it back to the house. I will stay at Olivier’s for the day and see you at sunset,” Nico explained.

“Did you find Violante?” I asked.

“We did, which is why we aren’t going to make it to you in time.”

“Oh,” I said, knowing that there was more to the story than that, but not enough time to get the details.

“I love you,” he said, preparing to end the call.

“Love you, too,” I said, hanging up the phone.

“Was that Nico?” Jen asked, sitting up.

I stood up and headed to the front door to lock up. “Yes. They’re not going to make it back tonight.”

“Oh,” Jen said, pouting.

“Let’s get some sleep,” I suggested, knowing that she wanted to say good night to Olivier, but I didn’t want to hear any of the details. I wanted my pillow, my bed, and some shut eye.

“It’s like four in the morning. I don’t sleep well during the day.”

“Get used to it,” I said. “Until you become a vampire, you will be expected to keep a lot of their hours. That means late nights like this. You learn to sleep during the day if you don’t want to miss out on what they’re doing.”

“Really?” Jen did not seem happy about any of that.

“Really,” I said, climbing the stairs.

She walked into the guest room where her luggage had been brought up and I walked into the master bedroom down the hall. She leaned against the door frame for a moment. “Dylan?”

I turned. “Yeah?”

“I can’t believe you have been dealing with all of this for months and couldn’t tell me.”

She had no idea, but I nodded. “I’m sorry that you’re being turned, but I’m glad to have you here.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I feel the same way.”

I smiled at her and she returned it. I closed the door to my bedroom and heard the door to hers click shut as well. My pillow was beckoning to me, so I made short work of getting into pajamas and climbed into the bed, giving into the sleep that was scratching close to the surface.