Bloody Bones (36 page)

He stared at me with his blue, blue eyes, looking all scrumptious and wet. “You mean that, don't you?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

“I do not understand you,
ma petite.
I try, but still I do not.”

“You're pretty much a riddle to me, too. If that's any comfort.”

“It isn't. If you were a woman who had casual lusts, we would have been in bed long ago.” He sighed and sat up even straighter in the water so it hit him just above the waist. “Of course, if you were a woman of casual appetites, I don't think I would love you.”

“You enjoy the chase, the challenge,” I said.

“True, but it is more than that with you, if only you would believe me.” He leaned forward, drawing his knees to his naked chest, rounding his shoulders to hug himself. White scars dribbled down his back from his shoulders to vanish into the water, not a lot of them, but enough.

“What made the scars on your back? Unless it was a holy item, you should have been able to heal them.”

He laid his cheek on his knees so he could look at me. He looked younger, more human, vulnerable suddenly. “Not if the injury occurred before I died.”

“Who whipped you?”

“I was the whipping boy for an aristocrat's son.”

I stared at him. “You're telling me the truth, aren't you?”

“Yes.”

“Is that why Janos chose whips tonight, to remind you where you came from?”

“Yes.”

“You weren't born into the aristocracy?”

“I was born in a house with a dirt floor,
ma petite.”

I looked at him. “Yeah, right.”

He raised his head. “If I was going to make something up,
ma petite,
it would be more romantic, more entertaining than being a French peasant.”

“So you were a servant in the castle?”

“I was their only son's constant companion. When he had clothes made, so did I. His tutor was my tutor. His riding instructor, mine. I learned swordplay and dancing and the proper way to eat at table. And when he was bad I was punished, because he was their only child, their only heir to an old family name. People speak of child abuse now.” He leaned back in the tub, cuddling down into the warm water. “They complain of spanking. They have no idea what true abuse is. When I was a boy, parents thought nothing of taking a horse whip to a misbehaving child, or beating them bloody. Even the aristocrats beat their children. It was normal.

“But he was the only heir, the only child. So they paid money to my parents and took me. The lady of the manor
chose me because I was fair of face. When the vampire who made me sought me out, she said my beauty called to her.”

“Wait a minute.”

He turned his head to give me the full weight of those dark blue eyes. I worked hard at not looking away.

“This gorgeous body and face is all vampire illusion, right? I mean, no one's this beautiful.”

“I told you once that it was not my power that made you see me as you do, not most of the time at any rate.”

“Serephina said you were a catamount for any vampire that would have you. What did she mean?”

“Vampires kill for food, but they bring others over for many reasons. Some for money, wealth, even title, love, but I was brought over for lust. When I was young and weak, they passed me around among them. One would grow tired of me, but there was always another.”

I stared at him, horrified. “You're right. If you were going to make up a story, this wouldn't be it.”

“The truth is so often disappointing, or ugly; don't you find that,
ma petite?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Serephina was old. I thought vampires weren't supposed to age.”

“Whatever age we die at is the age we remain.”

“Did you know Serephina when you were young?”

“Yes.”

“Did you sleep with her?”

“Yes.”

“How could you let her touch you?”

“I was given to her as a gift by a master that makes even her new and improved powers seem weak. I had very little choice.” He stared at me. “She knows what you want. Your greatest need, your most treasured wish, and she'll make it come true, or seem to. What did she offer you,
ma petite?
What could she offer you that nearly won you tonight?”

I looked away then; I didn't want to meet his eyes. “What did she offer you all those years ago?”

“Power.”

I looked up at that. “Power?”

He nodded. “Power to escape them all.”

“But you had to have the ability to be a master vampire inside you from the beginning. No one can give that to you,” I said.

He smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. “I know that now, but then I thought only she could save me from an eternity of . . .” His words trailed off and he submerged, leaving only a few black locks floating on the top of the water. He sat up with a loud breath of air, blinking the water from his eyes. The water had clumped his thick, dark eyelashes. He ran his hands through his wet hair, and it trailed over his shoulders.

“Your hair wasn't this long when we first met.”

“You seem to prefer longer hair on your men.”

“If you're dead, how can your hair grow?”

“That is a question for you to answer,” he said. He ran his hands through his hair again, squeezing the ends out. He reached out a hand for a towel.

I scrambled to my feet. “I'll leave you to get dressed.”

“Have Jason and Larry returned?” he asked.

“No.”

“Then I won't be getting dressed.” He stood, drawing the towel towards him. I had a glimpse of one side of his pale naked body, water streaming from it. The towel moved into view just in time. I fled.

30

I
HUDDLED IN
the straight-back chair farthest from the bedroom. But I was staring at the doorway. Shit. I wanted to run from the room, but why? It wasn't Jean-Claude I didn't trust. It was me. Fuck.

I touched the gun in my robe pocket. It was smooth and hard and reassuring, but it wouldn't help me now. Violence I understood; sex gave me more problems.

I honestly didn't want to sleep with him, but part of me was hoping for another glimpse of naked flesh. A long line
of naked thigh, perhaps. Or maybe . . . I put the palms of my hands over my eyes, as if I could get the image out of my head by just pressing.

“Ma petite?”
His voice sounded closer than the bathroom.

I didn't want to look, as if, just as Grandma Blake had said, I'd be struck blind. I felt him standing in front of me. Felt the movement of air. I lowered my hands a millimeter at a time. He was kneeling in front of me, one of the thick white towels wrapped around his waist.

I lowered my hands to my lap. Beads of water still clung to his skin. He'd combed his hair, but it was wet, slicked back, leaving his face plainer, more unadorned than normal. His eyes seemed bluer without his hair to frame them.

He put a hand on each chair arm and raised himself up. His lips brushed mine in a soft, nearly chaste kiss. He moved back from me, letting go of the chair.

I could taste my heart in my throat, and it wasn't fear.

Jean-Claude touched my hands, lifted them up. He placed my hands on his bare shoulders. The skin was warm, smooth, wet. He held my wrists in his hands, lightly, very lightly. I could have pulled away at any time. He ran my hands down his slick body.

I pulled my hands free. He said nothing, did nothing. He stayed kneeling, looking at me. Waiting. I could see the pulse in his neck jumping against the skin, and I wanted to touch it.

I slid my hands across his shoulders and lowered my face to his. He started to move into me for a kiss, but I slid my hand along his jaw and turned his head away. I touched lips to his neck and slid my mouth down his skin, until I could taste his pulse beating against my tongue. He tasted of perfumed soap, water, and clean skin.

I slid from the chair to the floor, kneeling in front of him. He was taller now, but not too tall. I licked water off his chest, and let myself do something I'd wanted to do for months. I ran my tongue over his nipple, and he shuddered against me.

I licked water off the center of his chest and ran my hands along his waist up the damp curve of his back.

He pulled the sash of my robe, and I didn't protest. I let his hands slide under the robe, around my waist, with nothing but the t-shirt between his flesh and mine. He ran his hands up my sides, his thumbs playing over my rib cage. The gun swung heavily in the loose cloth. It was annoying.

I raised my face to his. His arms slid behind my back, pressing me against the long wet line of his body. The towel was perilously loose.

His lips brushed mine; then the kiss became something more. Harder, nearly bruising, with his arms locked behind my shoulders. My hands slid down his waist, rubbed the sliding top of the towel, and found it had already slipped. My hand touched the smooth top of his buttocks. Only the pressure of our bodies kept the towel in place.

He ate at my mouth and I felt something sharp, painful. I jerked back and tasted blood.

Jean-Claude let me go. He sat back on his heels, the towel gathered in his lap. “I am sorry,
ma petite.
I got carried away.”

I touched my mouth and came away with a spot of blood. “You nicked me.”

He nodded. “I am truly sorry.”

“I'll just bet you are,” I said.

“Do not go all self-righteous on me,
ma petite.
You have finally admitted to yourself, to me, that you feel the pull of my body.”

I sat on the floor by the chair with my robe in disarray. The t-shirt had ridden up to my waist. I guess it was a little too late to protest my innocence.

“Fine, lust; you happy?”

“Almost,” he said, and now there was something in his eyes. Something dark and drowning, and older than it should have been.

“I can offer you my mortal body, and more,
ma petite.
It can be between us much more than any human lover could offer.”

“Would I lose a little blood each time?”

“That was an accident,” he said.

I stared at him, all pale and damp, kneeling on the floor with the white towel bundled into his lap, leaving nearly every inch of him bare.

“This is the first time I've cheated on Richard,” I said.

“You have been dating me for weeks,” he said.

I shook my head. “But I haven't been cheating.
This
is cheating.”

“Then have you been cheating on me, with Richard?”

I didn't know what to say to that. “Go get dressed.”

“Do you really want me to dress?” he asked.

I looked away. I was embarrassed now and uncomfortable. “Yes, please.”

He stood up, the towel gripped in his hands. I looked down at the floor and didn't have to see his face to picture the smile on it.

He walked away from me, and didn't bother moving the towel around behind him. Muscles moved under his skin from calf to waist. He walked naked into the bedroom, and I enjoyed the view.

I touched my finger to my tongue. It was still bleeding. That's what I got for French kissing a vampire. Even thinking about it made me nervous.

“Ma petite?”
he called from the other room.

“Yeah.”

“Do you have a blow dryer?”

“In my suitcase. Help yourself.”

Thankfully, I'd dragged my suitcase into the bedroom beside the bathroom door. One point for laziness. I was spared another glimpse of his naked body. Now that hormones were receding, I was embarrassed.

I heard the dryer and wondered if he was standing naked in front of the bathroom mirror while he dried his hair. I was very aware that all I had to do was go to the doorway and I could see for myself.

I stood up, pulled my t-shirt down, tied my robe securely in place, and sat down on the couch. My back was to the bedroom. I wouldn't be seeing anything else. I took the Firestar out of my pocket and laid it on the coffee table in
front of me. The gun sat there looking very solid, very black, and somehow accusatory.

The dryer stopped, and he called to me again.
“Ma petite?”

“What?”

“Come talk to me as the sun rises.”

I glanced up at the window he had opened. The sky outside was less black, not light yet, but not pure darkness anymore. I closed the drapes and went to the bedroom. I left the gun on the table. The Browning was in the bedroom anyway.

Jean-Claude had neatly folded the bedspread and blanket at the foot of the bed. Only the wine-dark sheet covered him. He lay with his black hair soft and curling over the dark pillows. The sheet was bunched at his waist. “You can join me if you like.”

I leaned against the wall and shook my head.

“I'm not offering sex,
ma petite;
dawn is too close for that. I offer you your half of the bed.”

“I'll take the couch; thanks anyway.”

He smiled, a slow knowing curve of lips—his old arrogance peeking back out. It was almost comforting to know nothing had really changed. “It is not me that you do not trust. It is you.”

I shrugged.

He raised the sheet in front of his chest, an almost protective gesture. “It comes.” Fear in his voice.

“What comes?”

“The sun.”

I glanced at the closed drapes against the far wall. They were double thick, but a line of greyish light edged them. “You'll be alright like this without your coffin?”

“As long as no one opens the drapes.” He looked at me for a long moment. “I love you,
ma petite,
as much as I'm able.”

I didn't know what to say. Saying I lusted after him didn't seem appropriate. Saying I loved him would be a lie.

The light grew stronger, a white edge around the curtains. His body slumped back against the bed. He rolled onto his side, one hand outstretched, the other curling the sheets
against his chest. He stared at the growing light, and I could taste his fear.

I knelt beside the bed. I almost took his hand but didn't. “What happens now?”

“You want the truth, then watch.” I expected his eyes to flutter, his voice to grow sluggish as if he were falling asleep. It didn't happen that way. He closed his eyes all at once. Pain flashed across his face. He whispered, “It hurts.” His face went slack. I'd seen people die, watched the light fade from their bodies. Felt their souls slip away. That was what I saw. He died. The light grew against the drapes, and when it was a solid white line, he died. His breath went out of him in a long rattle.

I knelt beside the bed and stared. I knew dead when I saw it, and this was it. Shit.

I put my arms on the bed and propped my chin on them. I watched him, waiting for him to breathe, to twitch, something. But there was nothing. I reached out to his one outstretched arm. My fingers hovered above his skin, then I touched him. The skin was still warm, still human, but he did not move. I checked his wrist, and there was no pulse. No blood moved in this body.

Did he know I was here? Did he feel me touching him? I stared at him for what seemed like a long time. So this answered the question. Vampires were dead. Whatever animated them was like my own power, some sort of necromancy. But I knew death when I saw it. It gave necrophilia a whole new slant.

Had I only imagined that I felt the brush of his soul leave his body? Surely vampires had no souls—that was part of the point—but I'd felt something leave. If not a soul, what? If a soul, where did it go for the daylight hours? Who watched all the vampires' souls while they lay dead?

There was a knock at the door, probably the other boys. I stood up, pulling my robe in tight. I was cold, and wasn't sure why. I went to answer the door. The cut on my tongue had almost stopped bleeding.