Cake (44 page)

I actually felt kind of dirty when the photographer called a break. Dirty, a little sweaty, and kind of hot and thirsty. I went to grab my discarded mug again, but remembered that it was empty.

“
Here, take this.” Claudius said, handing me a bottle of water. “How is your head?”

“
Okay, I suppose,” I told him, pushing the water back at him.

“
Drink your water and then go change,” he told me, forcing the bottle on me. “We are almost done here.” He touched my cheek and ran his fingers up to my temple. I leaned into him, and he jerked his hand back.

“
What?” I asked, puzzled at his behaviour.

He rubbed his fingers together for a moment and then frowned at me. “What the hell do you have in your hair?”

“
I don’t know, but look,” I said, taking out the clip and grabbing at a fistful of hair. I pulled it straight out from my head and when I let it go, it stayed there.

“
You are supposed to look alluring for your last session, not alarming,” Claudius lamented. “Go change.”

I sauntered off and looked down at the clothes Claudius had laid out from Frederick’s selections. The final shoot was the Slut Look, and one piece of clothing immediately caught my eye.

“
I’m not wearing a skirt!”

“
It is a kilt” Frederick corrected. “Put it on.”

Kilt, my ass. No matter how it was spelled, it was still a skirt. And putting it on, I discovered that it felt different to wearing pants…kind of like walking around with your lower half naked.

The shirt that was paired with it was a long sleeved nylon thing with black markings running through it that didn’t look like anything special…until you put the shirt on, and then the markings made it look like they had been tattooed onto the skin. I wanted this shirt.

I take it you’re not going traditional?

I pushed Shade’s face out from under my skirt…uh, kilt.

“
You perverted little cat,” I scolded.

You learn quickly. There is hope for you yet. Hurry up. It is getting late, and you need to feed on more than just blood packs. You are running out of essence. And…you don’t know how to hunt. How did you manage to live this long?

Blind luck and sheer force of will, kitty cat.

That, I believe.

Shade turned and stalked back to her claimed territory of the catering table but not before giving me a parting goose with her tail.

By the way, you wear the slut look well.

Talk about a back-tailed compliment! I sneered after her and then went across to the waiting hands of the mad hairdresser. I don’t know what the hell he gave me, aside from a headache resulting from his yanking on my hair, but I think the style I ended up with was based on Johnny-Depp-type dreadlocks, or it could have been Medusa snakes. But for me, this shoot had gone from being something novel to get-it-over-with-already.

Claudius was closing up his mobile phone when I came back into the room. “Nice. These are for you,” he said, giving me a pair of gold sunglasses.

Shade, honest opinion needed
.

Her great amber eyes opened, and she assessed me.

I’m not going to be able to teach you anything if you’re on your back all the time, Sex. That outfit would tempt an Ancient into running you to ground.

The photographer called out to his crew. “Okay, we’re ready. Cue the music.”

“
Music?” I frowned.

“
Oh yes, they want you dancing sexily,” Frederick related, doing his own little two-step as a demonstration. I didn’t know if he were excited or needed to go to the bathroom.

“
Well that ain’t going to happen,” I huffed, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

“
You danced before,” Claudius refuted, matching my pose.

“
I wasn’t thinking with my right head last time.”

“
And you will not soon enough.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “Claudius?”

“
You are ready to Flame,” Claudius sighed. “Why, I do not know. But all the signs are there. I have put a call to Marcus and left a message for him. He must still be working. He knows where you are. You will just have to endure until he gets here.”

“
No…I don’t like this,” I protested. “I don’t want to Flame in front of all these people.”

Claudius reached out and cupped my cheek, his stroking thumb sending tingles through my flesh. “You are a vampire. The Flaming is part of the whole experience. You should not fear it. You should revel in it. If Marcus has spoiled this for you, I will take him to task over it.”

I laughed out loud. I really couldn’t see anyone taking Marcus Du Bussey, Master of the Territory, to task, though it was actually rather touching to hear it offered.

“
They want sexy. Go into Flame and dance for them, Xavier. Just make sure to keep your glasses on,” Claudius urged.

Shade?

Her feline nose twitched in the air.

Have fun.

That’s not what I wanted to hear.

You are too long between Flames. Hence your body has forced one on you. If you eat at regular intervals, you can control the Flame. This one is going to be wicked. Sorry…sexy.

Claudius came around behind me, one arm coming to rest over my shoulder, his fingers brushing at my nipples through the thin material of the shirt, his other hand sliding along my hip, tracing around to the front of me.

“
You bastard,” I hissed, as I felt myself growing hard. Then the crystal vision slammed down into place, and my skin danced with flames and sensation.

“
Show them what they cannot have, Sex,” Claudius whispered in my ear, his soft, seductive tone entangling my brain and blowing on the glowing embers of my lust.

He released me from his hold, heading over to the music system and killing the music that was currently playing. Then, taking a different CD out of his jacket pocket, he placed it in the slot of the machine, saying, “I know you like this one, Xavier.”

It was the same song that I’d been gyrating to when he and Marcus had brought the councilor home, and I felt my face flush at the memory.

By now the photographer was getting fed up with the whole thing. There was always a drawback to working with amateurs, and my inhibitions didn’t seem to be helping. “Come on,” he called out to me. “We’ve all got places we would rather be.”

Climbing onto the small stage that had been set up, I sneered down at the man. Places you’re rather be, eh, I thought. I’ll show you a place you can never be. Nightshade snickered in my head.

Oooh, this is going to be good.

I began grinding my hips to the slow, sexy bass and found that it felt a little more natural and free in the kilt. My eyes were burning, my skin felt super-sensitive, and I let myself enjoy the tingling my hand caused as it crossed over my leather-clad waist, running up inside my sheer shirt, lingering on my stomach before reaching higher and brushing teasingly past my nipples, which were hard and protruding. My other hand was lower, rubbing on my thighs, my fingers teasing but not touching my groin.

All the while my hips continuously swayed in a leisurely figure eight, and as the tempo of the music increased, I let my head fall back and then whipped it sideways, causing my dreadlocks to fly and wrap around my face. Turning around, I saw the photographer just standing there, open-mouthed, holding the camera away from his eye. I stopped dancing.

“
I can’t keep this up all night. Are you going to take pictures or not?”

Claudius bit back a smile, while Frederick just stood behind the photographer, a dumbfounded look on his face.

You have a cruel streak in you. I like it.

Come here, kitty, kitty, kitty. Come dance with me.

Hell no. That is kitten abuse.

I laughed out loud, gesturing at Claudius. He shook his head, but I jumped down and grabbed his wrist anyway. “You’ll dance with me, Grandfather, won’t you?” I purred seductively.

Pulling him back on the stage with me I started my motor up again, bringing his arm over my shoulder and draping it down across my chest, his sleeve rubbing so deliciously against my tight nipple. The photographer moved around us, taking his shots.

“
Oh yeah, this makes it look like you’re someone’s dirty little secret.”

“
You are a naughty tease, Grandson. What am I going to do about this?” Claudius breathed huskily, as I rotated my ass into his groin.

“
That’s for the CD,” I told him, reaching up and pulling his head down for a kiss.

My lips had barely touched his when the music stopped abruptly. I looked over at the table and saw Marcus standing there with one eyebrow cocked in question.

“
I know I just got the message, but did you really have to start without me?”

“
Pretty!” I was happy to see him…or was it because I was in Flame?

Oh god. It’s positively pornographic in your head.

Shut up, Shade.

Frederick, sensing an atmosphere, spoke up. “That’s a wrap. Uh…leave everything. We can tear it down tomorrow. Come on. Move it.”

I went to move off the stage and approach Marcus, but Claudius held his arm around my neck and pinned me to him, glancing at the stairs and waiting until everyone had cleared out before saying to the Hellcat, “Nightshade, make sure that we have some privacy.”

Marcus watched cautiously as the panther slinked from her resting place by the catering table, moving with grace and ease up the stairs, where Shade lay down on the top landing, her ears flicked to the stairs above, but her golden eyes intent on the scene below.

“
Claudius?” I looked at him over my shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“
Shush, little Grandson. You are not thinking clearly right now. I am simply looking out for your interests.” The warm indulgence that had colored his voice all evening had now faded to a definite chilly tone.

“
His
interests?” Marcus came towards the end of the stage.

“
I know it was you who left him in that coma, Marcus. You deliberately misled me,” Claudius accused. “You could have done more damage than could be fixed. Precious time was wasted because of this.”

Marcus’s voice turned dark. “I was the one who got him the Hellcat. I started searching for it as soon as I realized that I could not heal him.”

He sounded so despondent that I went to move towards him again, but Claudius tightened his grip around me further, preventing me from leaving him.

“
He is supposed to be your Cherished One, and yet you broke him as easily as if you were a toddler in the sandbox, and you left him laying there.” Claudius’s damning words filled the room of the basement. “He was little more than a drone for three days. He had to be under constant supervision. He could not even eat on his own. Your fledgling was only four days old, and you
abandoned
him.”

Marcus let loose a deep breath. “I know. I did it without thinking,” he tried explaining. “When I heard that some upstart vampire group had dared to attack my Little One…”

“
You decided to finish the job,” Claudius snapped, cutting him off.