Damek's Redemption: Legacy, Book 6 (27 page)

“Power. There are powerful objects in this room. Let me go first.” He pushed open the door and stepped inside.

“Holy crap,” she whispered as she followed him, stopping just inside the door to look around. This was where the vampire hunter really lived. The room was covered with weapons and artifacts. She found herself drawn to a wall covered in swords. “Many of these go back hundreds of years. They’re not reproductions.” She’d seen many ancient weapons during her years of research, and the ones in this room were worth a small fortune.

“This is more valuable.” Damek stood beside Luther’s desk and thumbed through a book whose pages were old and brittle.

“What is it?” She hurried over to his side, wanting to see what he’d found.

“A personal history of vampire hunting dating back at least five hundred years.”

“Personal, as in his family.”

“Yes.” Damek shut the book and set it aside. “And there is more. Open your senses and look for an area where the energy is most concentrated.

Sonia focused all her power, wanting to learn how to use it. Every day was a learning experience for her, and while she didn’t have near the power Damek did, she was no slouch either.

“You know where it is, don’t you?” She scowled, drawing a slight smile from him.

“Of course.”

“Of course,” she mimicked. Shoving aside her frustration, she concentrated on the task at hand, letting her gaze flow over the desks, the walls and the bookcases. “There, behind that shelf.”

“Very good.” Damek walked to the bookshelf and felt behind it. She heard a click and then the entire thing swung outward.

“Wow, that’s cool.” It was like something out of a movie. A small steel door about two feet square was visible. “Can you open it?”

“Such insults.” Damek place his hand over the door and within seconds she could hear tumblers fall into place. He turned the handle and opened the door.

“I bow to your greatness,” she said, tongue firmly planted in her cheek.

“As you should,” came his quick reply. He reached in and drew out several leather-bound journals, a file and several boxes. He placed everything on the desk and began shuffling through it. The boxes were filled with old jewelry, a pocket watch and other memorabilia. They closed the boxes and Sonia carried them back to the safe.

Damek flipped through the journals. “We need to take these. This is information about the vampire hunters’ organization.” He opened the file and did a quick shuffle. “This is personal information, bills and such. This can go back.” He handed it to her and she took care of it.

Damek was right behind her and closed the safe with a thunk. He returned the bookshelf to its rightful place and took one last look around. “That’s all for this room.” He gathered the book and journals and ushered her out.

“What about his bedroom?” Sonia didn’t think they should leave any stone unturned. She didn’t want to have to come back. It was creepy enough being in a dead guy’s place, let alone going through his stuff. It would be more difficult if he hadn’t tried to kill her. Something like that tended to put things in perspective.

They went to the last door and opened it. Like most of the apartment, it was generic in nature. The bed and dresser were nothing special. Still, they looked through the closet and all the drawers, finding nothing.

“We need to leave. Now.”

She felt it too, a stirring in the air. Damek hustled her to the front door and out, pausing only to rest the locks. They started down the hallway toward the elevator, but he pulled her into the stairwell.

The elevator bell dinged and two men climbed out, walking to Luther Kostas’s front door. They banged on the door and waited. “Where in the hell is he?” one man asked the other. “It’s not like him to stay out of contact so long.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” the other said. The sound of locks being opened reached her ears and their voices faded as they entered the apartment. That was too close for comfort.

“Come.” Damek hurried her toward the elevator and she wasn’t surprised when the doors slid open the moment they stepped in front of them. They stepped inside and he pressed the button for the lobby. In no time they left the building and slid into the waiting limo.

Jerome pulled away, heading back toward her family home in Queens. She released a deep breath. “More hunters.”

“Yes.” He carefully set the books aside and reached for her. She went into his arms easily, loving how they felt around her. “We will watch and study them. As long as they are no threat to us we will leave them be.”

Sonia wasn’t certain that was the right thing to do but kept her own counsel for now. If any of the information they discovered might be helpful to The Keepers, she would convince Damek to pass it along to them.

When he kissed her, she forgot all about the hunters and her family waiting for them. There was only Damek. Their lips touched and tongues met and she lost herself in the heat between them.

His hand slid up her thigh to cup her butt as he deepened their kiss. Wanting to feel his hard flesh beneath his clothing, she flicked open the buttons on his shirt and found the sculpted muscles beneath it.

He settled her more securely in his lap so she was facing him and pulled her close until her pelvis was pressed against his erection. She broke their kiss, gasping for air. Her body still thought it was human and she didn’t mind. It was kind of freaky to think about not needing to actually breathe.

“I think we should see more of the city. Maybe drive around Central Park.” His hand slipped under her blouse and found her breast. He shoved her bra down and teased the pert nipple.

“Excellent idea.” No way could she wait until they got back to her apartment. With her luck, her family would catch them coming in and they’d have to spend more time at the party. And she needed Damek. Now.

He reached out and pressed the intercom button. “Drive around the city until I say otherwise.”

“Yes, sir.” Sonia could hear the slight laughter in Jerome’s voice and knew he was plenty aware of what was going on back here even though the privacy screen was firmly in place. Then Damek kissed her again and she didn’t care.

He teased her lips with kisses and then carefully raked his teeth over her jaw, raising goose bumps on her skin. “Now where was I?” He stripped her blouse off, tossed it aside and unhooked her bra, drawing it away from her body. It joined her blouse on the seat beside them. He cupped her bare breasts and smiled at her, flashing some sexy fang. “Ah, now I remember.”

Sonia’s laugh quickly turned to a gasp and it was a long, long time before they made their way back to her apartment.

Chapter Seventeen

Sonia smiled at Byron as she walked into Inhibitions. She couldn’t say she enjoyed it here, but she was getting used to it. The place was hopping, the music pounding, people dancing and liquor flowing. A hundred heartbeats echoed in her head and she could smell the faint tang of blood on the air.

“Evening, ma’am.” No matter how often she told him to call her Sonia, Byron insisted on being more formal with her. All the staff treated her as if she were made of gold and needed to be protected.

She glanced down at the huge diamond on her left hand and smiled. They’d gotten married in a small, intimate ceremony just two weeks ago, with only her immediate family in attendance. She still couldn’t believe they were married. Damek had stunned his staff when he’d informed them, and since then they’d all been extremely courteous and careful around her. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to it and hoped they’d lighten up over time.

She was still waiting to hear her new husband say those three little words, still waiting for him to tell her he loved her. But the ring on her finger was a solid commitment, a statement. A vampire as old as Damek didn’t convert and marry a woman if he didn’t care deeply for her, maybe even love her. She held tight to that thought every day.

Sonia had come to accept that he might never be able to make himself vulnerable enough to admit his feelings for her. He’d spent far too many years alone, her vampire, too many years of having no one to depend on, no one he could trust.

Things were different now. She had his back and always would. Maybe after a few hundred years or so he’d truly start to believe that and let down his guard.

She grinned. It was still startling to think in those terms. She was going to live for a long, long time. Her husband might think he was stubborn, but she was an Agostino and could out
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stubborn a donkey. She would eventually wear Damek down and have him professing his love on bended knee. The image almost made her laugh. She couldn’t imagine her proud vampire down on his knees, but it was something to shoot for.

“Hi, Byron. The boss in his office?” She already knew the answer to that but tried to keep up the façade of being human as best she could. She tried not to come here when it was so busy. Although she’d gained great control over her new vampire abilities, being around all these beating hearts and hearing the blood rushing through their veins made her hungry. Bloodlust hammered at her, causing her fangs to elongate.

She kept her mouth closed, not wanting to frighten everyone. She damned her lack of control and wondered if she’d ever find it again. She hated being a prisoner to her hunger.

“He sure is. You go on back.” He stuck out his huge arm to keep a patron from bumping into her and for that she was grateful.

She swallowed hard and started toward the office, keeping her head down and her eyes on the floor. She felt him before she saw him. Damek. His strong, protective arm came around her and he quickly guided her through the thrumming masses and into his office. She breathed a sigh of relief when the door shut behind them.

“You should have told me you were coming earlier,” he gently scolded. He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. “You push yourself too hard. You have remarkable command of your base instincts for one so newly made. Most vampires as young as you would have lured a patron to a dark corner and probably drained him dry.”

“I just hate feeling like this.” And she hated whining. She was alive and was very grateful for that. The rest would come in time.

“I know.” He flicked open the top three buttons of his shirt and exposed the long, strong column of his neck. Hunger erupted and she surged forward, sinking her fangs into his flesh. His blood flowed into her mouth, hot and potent. She drank greedily for several long seconds before she realized what she’d done.

She made a small sound of distress in the back of her throat and started to withdraw, but Damek’s hand cupped the back of her head, holding her to him. “Drink, my love. Let me provide what you need.”

Two tears trailed down her cheeks as she continued to drink. He always seemed to know what she needed even before she did and readily provided it without hesitation. He showed her a hundred times a day, in a hundred little ways how much he loved her. It was wrong of her to want more when he already gave so much.

Her love for Damek filled her to overflowing, but she wished she weren’t so needy, so dependent on him. It wasn’t fair to him.

She eased her fangs out and ran her tongue over the pinpricks, closing them. Carefully, she fastened his buttons and straightened his collar.

“Sonia.” Damek cupped her chin between his thumb and forefinger and tipped her face up. “So precious.” He leaned down and caught one tear on his tongue. “Don’t be so sad, my love. You are too hard on yourself. You have come so far in such a short time.”

“I know. It’s just…” She didn’t quite know how to explain it, but with Damek she didn’t need to.

“I know.” He hugged her and she wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tight. The world felt better, right, when she was with him. It was much harder when she was alone with her thoughts. “I heard from Craig.”

The caught her interest and she leaned back so she could see his face. “What did he say?” They’d searched all the apartments, gathering any information they could on the vampire-hunter organization.

Damek picked her up in his arms, walked back to his chair and sat with her in his lap. “Luther Kostas’s money came down in the family and they owned quite a bit of property. That gave him both the income and the time to allow him to hunt. His wealth is being left to a man named John Smith, which is obviously an alias. The other hunters had little money and worked odd jobs to finance their extra activities.”

“So what do we do now?” She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. Controlling the bloodlust was exhausting work. Better to focus on the mystery of the vampire hunters than the problems she was having adjusting to vampire life.

“I think you should go through all the diaries and journals we collected and write the comprehensive history of the vampire hunters, something that will allow the vampires to understand their enemies better.”

Sonia sat up straight. “Really?” All the apartments they’d searched had contained journals, personal memoirs of their lives as vampire hunters. This was something she could really sink her teeth into. She grinned at her unintentional pun.

Damek caught a hank of her hair in his hand and gave it a playful tug. “Why not? You’re the research expert. Who better to put all this together? We can keep a copy for ourselves and give one to The Keepers.”