Blood Revealed (3 page)

His eyes, of course, were his best feature. The intense darkness of them drew anyone’s gaze. He also had a square, sharply drawn jawline, softened by a scrubby beard and moustache that made his eyes seem even more intense by comparison.

Patrick couldn’t control his heart. He had spent weeks learning to keep it contained, to only let it beat when he absolutely must have a functioning heart. The intense training that Nial and Sebastian had pushed him through, that Garrett and Roman underlined whenever they could, centered around the conservation of energy, to extend feedings as far apart as possible. If he controlled his heart and only let it beat when he must, then he could stretch out the feedings far longer.

Patrick had been learning the way of it quite well, yet now his heart was a wild beast, not responding to him.

Now Roman lifted his head to look at Patrick sharply, as if his attention had been caught by a shout. Perhaps it had. Patrick was quite sure that his heartbeat was loud enough for Roman to hear it even across the room.

Thankfully, however, Dominic was completely unaware of any of it.

Patrick would’ve put that down to him being merely human, except that Dominic’s gaze, which had been roaming around the room, had focused with as much sharpness as Roman’s attention had been caught, except that his focus was on the far corner.

That entire corner of the room was taken up by a baby grand piano that stood with the lid down and covered with a brocade throw that had been artfully and casually tossed across it.

Because he was focused so much upon Dominic, Patrick was able to hear his heart beat loudly. It leapt in Dominic’s chest at a frantic pace. His breathing increased. Curiously, none of that showed. Dominic simply stood and looked at the piano with an expressionless face.

Kate, the one other human in the room at that moment, lifted her head from the sheet of paper and looked around. Her attention had been caught, too. Perhaps it was the silence that had settled over the room. Nevertheless, she spotted Dominic’s fierce concentration on the piano.

“Do you play, Dominic?” Her voice was soft, as if she was afraid she would startle him if she spoke any louder.

Dominic didn’t jump the way Patrick expected him to. Instead, he drew in a breath that was sharp and hard. He swallowed.

Then with casual indifference, he swiveled away from the piano, putting it at his back. He shrugged. “No, I don’t play.” Then he deliberately changed the subject. “I’d better get back. Nial is expecting me to return and confirm that you’ve got the information.”

“An email would’ve been much quicker,” Kate groused.

Dominic didn’t reply. Instead he turned and hurried out of the room, nodding at Efraim as he passed. The two guards shut the door behind him, yet Patrick could still hear his footsteps moving down the tiled corridor. He listened until they faded beyond reach of his hearing, which was so much more powerful than it used to be.

He blinked and let out a slow breath, as the aching need in his body slowly subsided. His crotch was a heated juncture and his cock was throbbing in a way he remembered from when he was an adolescent. This was different, though. He would have to think about this, when he was alone.

He looked up and around the room and realized that while the two guards were looking steadily into the middle of nowhere, Kate, Roman and Garrett were all looking at him expectantly.

Patrick swallowed again. The silence stretched on. So he cleared his throat. “I gave myself away, didn’t I? Even to Kate.”

Kate shook her head. “I can’t sense things the way these two can, but I know how to read Roman and Garrett. You have their full attention at the moment. That tells me that something is going on with you.”

Roman had been bending over the sofa with his head close to Kate’s. Now he stood up and stretched, making it look very casual.

Garrett gave Patrick a warm smile. “You can’t hide anything from us. That’s just the way it is.”

Patrick licked his lips, feeling awkward. “I’m not trying to hide it,” he said. “Especially not from you. The truth is, I’m not even sure what it is that I
should
hide. What happened then?”

“You met a human who aroused you,” Garrett said.

Roman snorted. “He’s being polite. Something about Dominic’s human trail appeals to your vampire senses. It made you want to fuck him.”

The crudeness jolted Patrick. At the same time confusion swamped his thoughts.

“That’s Roman for you,” Kate said, with a small sigh. “Subtle as a sledgehammer.”

“I… I don’t…” Patrick trailed off helplessly, not entirely sure what it was that he was trying to say, or not say. He had started to deny something, yet there was a raw truth in Roman’s words that he couldn’t refute, especially to these three. Denial would be hypocritical. So he stopped, cleared his throat again and fell silent.

“Are you about to say that you don’t bed men?” Garrett asked.

“Remember what I said about reassessing all your old human standards and values?” Roman said. “I wasn’t just talking about justice, honesty and all that good stuff. I meant everything.”

Patrick nodded. He had absorbed this interesting facet of becoming a vampire quite early on. In fact, he had used his fame and the influence that it wielded, to bring him to this point where he could be made a vampire himself, just so he could grasp the altered values becoming a vampire would give him. Altered values, altered consciousness, altered needs. Becoming a vampire offered him hope, when every human intervention had failed.

And because these three had been instrumental in giving him that hope, he tamped down his irritation at their assumptions. Instead he kept a mild expression on his face and answered evenly. “I’ve had sex with men before,” he said. “This is Hollywood. There were directors… And getting the parts I wanted didn’t always come easily for me.”

Kate gave a heavy sigh. She out of everyone in the room would understand this better than most.

Patrick shrugged, just a little. “I was trying to say, I think, that especially now, I don’t do relationships.”

There was a small silence as they absorbed that.

Then Kate smiled reassuringly. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” she told him. “Dominic gives off that air that he’s not interested in a relationship with anyone, either. He’s one of those loners who wander the world all by themselves.”

Patrick thought Kate’s simple observation came far closer to explaining Dominic’s nature than anyone else had managed.

“You did well containing it,” Garrett pointed out. “I don’t think Dominic noticed anything.”

Roman gave another small laugh. “He was too busy staring at the piano.”

“It wasn’t just staring,” Patrick said. “It was much more intense than that. It was much more important to him than that.”

Everyone was back to staring at him again, so he shrugged again, trying to pass it off as nothing important.

Roman nodded. “Garrett’s right. If this really is the first time you felt this, then you did well keeping it contained.”

Patrick coupled up the compliment with the implication behind it and felt his jaw sag a little bit. “You mean it’s always this intense, every time I find anyone even a little bit attractive?” The idea filled him with horror.

Garrett and Roman exchanged glances. Now it was they who looked uncomfortable.

“What am I missing?” Patrick demanded.

“I think,” Kate said slowly, “that they’re both being guys and don’t want to tell you the yucky truth.”

Roman crossed his arms defensively, in much the same way that Dominic had. The muscles on his arms rounded as he clenched his fists. “It’s only ever been that intense for me with two particular people.”

Garrett studied Roman with an expression that seemed neutral, except that Patrick could see a strange warmth and softness about his eyes. Then he understood, with a flash of insight. “You’ve only felt it with Garrett and Kate,” he said softly.

Roman rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, then gave a self-conscious little grin.

Having being put in the spotlight once or twice this morning already, Patrick empathized with Roman’s awkwardness. So he shifted the subject. “I keep being astonished by how different Dominic looks, now.”

Kate nodded. “It’s not like he’s run out and got a body’s worth of tattoos, or put on a ton of weight, or something like that. Yet I feel surprised every time I see him. Would regaining hearing make that much difference to a person?”

Patrick found his gaze returning to the piano that stood innocently in the corner, the keys untouched and the instrument silent. “It just might make the difference,” he said. “I’ve seen it sometimes with actors, when they finally figure out the core of their character. Dominic has found his key.”

“Key?” Roman repeated.

“The key that unlocks a character, that lets an actor portray them completely and properly,” Kate said.

“I think that whatever took away Dominic’s hearing also stirred up his self-identity. Now he has his hearing back, he’s finding himself again.”

Garrett shook his head. “Except that no one ever gets to go back to what they were. There are always changes.”

Kate picked up the clipboard, hesitated, then put it back down firmly on the cushion next to her. “So, Patrick, are you ready for tomorrow?”

Patrick suppressed the sigh that wanted to emerge. He looked her in the eye and lied without a quiver. “Absolutely.”

The Lobby Level Ballroom, Four Seasons Los Angeles at Beverley Hills

Dominic had never been afraid of cameras, until now. It wasn’t exactly fear. Yet the highly-focused activity waving across the room as dozens of journalists and cameramen set up the gear, quietly talking to themselves, made him uneasy.

He kept sidling away from the mass of bodies and equipment, over toward the fire escape door where the red light shone.

It took him a while to realize what he was doing. At first, he simply felt fidgety. It was only when he realized he was continuously looking toward the fire escape door, that he knew what was bugging him.

He silently laughed at himself. He only had to dip into the minds around him to know that he was absolutely the last person anyone would focus on in this room. The invitations to the press conferences had been phrased in such a way that the media had been compelled to come, to find out what this earth shattering news would be. That was all they were interested in.

Also from his discreet dipping into minds, Dominic knew that they were highly cynical about what was to come. They were wondering if their time was about to be wasted in a massive way. If that happened, Nial’s people here today would be skewered by the media and hung out to dry. They didn’t appreciate being messed with.

Oh, they are in for a surprise!
Dominic thought.

He set up the laptop on the table in front of the microphones. The laptop was hooked into a network that Sebastian had set up. The screen would let the four of them coordinate their announcement with London, Sydney, Washington, St. Petersburg and Delhi.

He fired up the laptop and called up the application that would display the five other conference rooms, then arrayed the feeds across the laptop screen so all of them could be seen at once. There were people moving about in front of the remote cameras, busy setting up just as he was.

As he worked, in the back of his mind Dominic gave thanks for Sebastian’s willingness to teach him a new trade. He had learned more in the last year about computers and the subdued artistry of a live network than he had thought could possibly exist.

That was what he was now, he thought, as he finished setting up. He was a computer hacker, one of thousands. It gave him a warm glow of belonging, at the same time he felt the usual dollop of regret for what might have been.

When the interviewees stepped out onto the low dais and the media straightened up and cameras began to snap, Dominic moved well out of the way to a dark corner where he would not be noticed and settled in to watch.

* * * * *

The Ritz Hotel, London, United Kingdom

The blazing camera lights created pockets of dark shadows. Marcus found one and put his back against the wall. He watched as Rick and Ilaria stepped out from the small green room the hotel had found them, following the distinguished gentleman in front of them.

Ilaria glowed. She was wearing a multihued dress that seemed to be made up of blues and greens and the dusky brown that played well against her skin and made the most of her eyes. Marcus forced himself to pull his gaze away from her in order to look around the room and try to measure the media’s reaction.

There was a low murmur of surprise and interest as they recognized the man with the silvered sideburns who was leading Rick and Ilaria over to the table.

“Sir Stephens-Bowes,” Marcus heard someone mutter. “What the hell?”

He kept his face expressionless even though a grin lit up his insides. They had fielded dozens of irate media calls demanding to know why they were being summoned to the Ritz, accompanied by veiled threats that if their time was being wasted they would rue the day. It was good to be able to surprise them in return.

James Stephens-Bowes stepped up behind the centralized microphones, while Rick and Ilaria stood behind him and to either side.

Rick looked calm and icily self-contained, as he always did when he was in public and Marcus marveled once more over his control. In the early hours of the morning, when Ilaria had been busy doing something that took her out of the room, Marcus had finally been able to get Rick to confess his fear over the upcoming revelation. He had spent dozens of human life-times keeping himself hidden, his true nature buried. In the next few hours all that was about to change. And despite the best political and analytical minds trying to figure it out, the vampires still were not entirely sure how humans would react to them.

Marcus admired Rick’s courage and a warm glow touched his chest as he realized he was probably the only one anywhere on the globe permitted to know that much about Rick, to see his vulnerabilities.