Heir to the Coven (8 page)

“Or doing each other where you stand.”

“And they say I’m not one to sugar coat things.”

“Sorry, but if this is going anywhere we need to be honest.”

This is where I should tell him that hormones or not at some point I was going to have to fall on my back for Anton because of a deal I made nearly three decades back, but you see this is where I was a shit. “That’s about everything.”

For a little while Chris stood in silence; I think he was digesting everything I had said and that he had seen since knowing me. Then he grinned wickedly at me and said, “Do you know what my hormones are saying?”

“Do I dare ask?”

“That sex with any woman with a temper like yours is bound to be smokin’ so I might as well see where this goes because if I let you walk to try to prevent the broken heart I see written all over this for me, then I have no chance at that sex. Unless you want to go at on my desk so we get it out of our systems and then go our separate ways? Because I would be down with that.”

“I bet you would,” I said sarcastically, but with humor to my voice. “But before we do the desk thing how about we go on a date that we finish first?”

“I guess…”

I gave him a swat on the arm and caught sight of my watch. “How about I call you about the date? I have a meeting I need to get to.”

“Fine with me, but I owe you a romantic outing since the one I originally planned didn’t work out so well.”
“Because of Anton. Which reminds me, it’s probably better if you plan stuff for us outside the vampire quarter because I have to tell him when I’m entering his territory and that will just lead to a repeat of last night.”

“I don’t know what is or isn’t in the vampire quarter.”

“I’ll give you a map.”

“Not very romantic. I think I can plan a vampire free date without it.”

“I’ll leave you to it then.” I grabbed the doorknob, but paused to ask, “Oh, before I go, can I talk to the guy that ran the baby story? He needs to make sure he watches his back.”

“He’s on vacation right now, but I could let you know when he gets back.”

“Please do. Thanks.”

“One more thing,” Chris said. He walked over to me and smoothed the collar of my jacket. “This outfit is…ah…”

“What?”

“I’m afraid I’ll get my ass kicked if I say it.”

“Did it get kicked for that desk comment?”

“No and thanks for that by the way.”

“You’re welcome, but what about my outfit? I’ll be good I promise.”

“Being good is not what that outfit is saying.”

“And what is it saying?”

He grabbed the lapels of my jacket and pulled me towards him for a kiss. It was a soft kiss, the kind you end a first date that has gone successfully with. Chris’ lips were warm and gentle against mine. No one had ever kissed me this way, like I was a fragile creature that might break or run away if he applied too much physical or sexual pressure. It was sweet and completely at odds with his blatant words earlier. I didn’t know if I could do sweet. Gentleness was not something that I had ever been led to believe was useful or particularly fun, but part of me wanted to try. I kissed him back just as softly and let my hands slide up his arms, across his shoulders and down his back to rest at his waist.

One of Chris’ hands was at my waist, the other slid up my back to twine in the hair at the base of my skull. Then both hands came up to cup my face in his hands. He pulled back to smile at me. “I think this is going to work.”

It was a nice kiss, but I was not sure about anything in my life right now. I told him I would see him later and left.

Chapter 9

Freud would have had a field day with the house Anton built for himself. The estate I had spent my childhood in would have fit in half of this monstrosity and still left room for the mansion Vincent had lived in plus the coven house. I had inexplicably thought Anton would have taken over Vincent’s old abode along with the city. Maybe it was because I knew I would inherit Rainor’s house along with his portion of the city. Maybe I had too much damn time to think because Anton hadn’t bothered to show up on time for the meeting he asked for. How hard was it to get to a meeting held in your own house? Especially since it was daytime and that pretty much made him a prisoner in said house.

So here I sat pondering the square footage of the house that an inferiority complex built while gazing at the over furnished room I had been left to wait in. When I got bored with staring at the furniture, I studied my nails. Yep, they needed to be filed back down to look like nails instead of claws. But they made such a nice clicky sound when I tapped them on the wooden arm of my chair when they were pointy. And it annoyed the vampires standing vigil by the door awaiting their Master’s arrival.

Shortly after I had been shown to what I termed my holding pen, but what was most likely the living room, two male vampires had glided in and shut the door behind them. The one I nicknamed Leather, because he was in a motorcycle jacket, had told me “the Master” would be with me shortly and I was to wait here. The other guard, who had wheat colored hair and who was not a Hadi, I named the Ancient because he was giving off a vibe of great age. Despite the vague explanation I had been given, I was fairly certain Anton had ordered them to report on how long it took me to explode so he could laugh at how long I was willing to wait or chide me for my impatience when I was not getting any older. But I had a plan of my own; I was going to annoy them until they made him appear just to put an end to their torment. Next I was going to start chewing gum loudly if the nail tapping didn’t produce the desired effect.

“Must you do that?” asked Leather. We had a taker ladies and gentlemen! His eyes were red; they matched his crayon red hair. I think I was supposed to be afraid.

I ignored his question to ask one of my own. “How often do you have to dye your hair to keep it that color? I had mine purple once and I had to touch it up every two days because my body kept healing it back to my natural color. Finally I gave up.”

The Ancient’s blue eyes twinkled. He had a sense of humor, a rare thing in a vampire. He might actually be the only vampire walking the world to have one. Leather obviously didn’t have one since he was glaring at me. I wasn’t trying to be rude, I really wanted to know. That purple hair had been a pain in the ass to maintain.

“Tell her,” the Ancient said.

“No.”

“What does it hurt?”

“His vampire pride at talking to me,” I quipped. “Never mind. You can both go back to guarding the hall from my unexpected entry. Is Anton standing on the other side of that door waiting to see how long it takes before I kill you both and leave? This being his house I can’t sense him because his presence is everywhere.”

The Ancient was staring at me. “You think he is playing hide and seek with you?”

“He’s playing some game with me, one that’s not very amusing.”

“You are exactly what he said you were.”

“Anton has been talking about me?” That was surprising. “How did that conversation go? ‘She’s moody and rude and has abysmal taste.’ Oh, and if he said that purple hair was just to annoy him he was partially right. I did it for me, but I put up with the retouches because I knew he hated it.”

The Ancient laughed. I should have nicknamed him Cheerful instead, and then Leather could have been Grumpy. “He said you were beautiful, impatient, volatile and irritated people to amuse yourself.” His eyes were twinkling again.

I was going to like this one. I never expected to like a vampire. I got to my feet and walked over to him. His muscles tensed, but I held up my hands and said, “We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Natasha Carmichael.”

“Marcus. It’s a pleasure.”

He held out his hand and I hesitated. The closer I got the easier it was to see this one was older than I thought and that meant his reflexes would be better. I put my hand out, ready to snatch it back at the slightest hint of treachery, but he took my fingers in his and brought my hand to his lips to kiss it. “It’s been a long time since anyone kissed my hand.”

“A custom that has sadly gone by the wayside.”

I turned to Leather. “What should I call you?”

No response.

Marcus frowned at him. “His name is Raz and he needs a lesson in manners towards a guest in his Master’s home.”

“His Master also needs a lesson in manners towards a guest. I know Anton knows better, Lucius never would have put up with this.”

“Ah. I believe he was unexpectedly detained.”

Unexpectedly detained. Either he was feeding or… “Well then why doesn’t one of you go pull Ashley out from under him, clean him up and get him down here before I go do it myself?”

Marcus laughed.

Raz looked pissed.

Marcus said, “Easy Raz.”

“Where is my pal Tristan? Anton didn’t trust him to baby-sit me?” As Anton’s second Tristan should be the one entertaining me. I should be insulted that I was being kept company by underlings, but at least one of them was an amusing underling so I was over being insulted. “He refused didn’t he?”

“He was unavailable.”

“He refused.”

“He refused.”

“Thank you for your honesty Marcus.”

“1000,” Marcus said.

Even Raz was looking at him like he was insane and was not above sharing a look with me over the randomness of that comment. “Excuse me?”

“You are trying to figure out how old I am. I can feel you trying to sense it. I am 1000 years old.”

“You can feel it?”

“One of my powers is the ability to sense when another is trying to use vampire powers in my presence. You are very strong indeed if I can detect you.”

He could sense when others called on their powers and he was 1000 years old. Why wasn’t he in charge? I didn’t realize I had spoken that question aloud until he answered, “I am not in charge because I’ve lived long enough not to want the headache.”

“A lesson I’m slowly beginning to learn since I’ve returned.” I looked at the grandfather clock on the opposite wall. “I have other things to do today. Tell Anton to call me when he’s better able to keep his pants zipped.”

Caught off guard by my sudden movement, the vampires did not react in time to stop me from opening the door. As soon as I had it open a crack I knew why they had been positioned to try to keep me inside my holding pen. Ashley and Anton weren’t having sex; they were having a fight, which was unusual for a dessert and its keeper to have. Desserts were like pets and a pet did as it was told or it got put in a cage or sent to a shelter. And desserts were human which meant they often didn’t survive arguments with their vampires either. What were they fighting about? Enquiring minds wanted to know.

Ashley was storming down the stairs and shrieking, “She’s here isn’t she? I told you I didn’t want her in this house and you went ahead and invited her anyway. Can’t have Snow White miss out on previewing her future castle!”

“This is a business meeting,” Anton said.

“Bullshit Anton! You want her to see how well you’ve done so she’ll want to take my place.”

Oooooooooook.

You know that old cliché about being careful what you wish for? It was very, very true. I didn’t want to know any more about their fight. In fact I was all for shutting the door and jumping out the window so I didn’t have to hear a snippet more. I caught a glimpse of Anton speeding down the stairs after her to grab Ashley by her arm. Now I was in a really bad spot. It was against the rules for me to intervene, but no way in hell was I going to stand around and let him hurt her.

Do you really think he would harm her?
my blood asked. Vampires were made to cause harm, just like me and I knew that in a true fit of rage I was capable of a lot. But was he that angry?

“He will not harm her, he never has,” Marcus said as if he read my thoughts. “But she wants to make sure you know she’s not pleased. That’s why she’s parading this through the house. I would wager she knows you will hear and wants to make you uncomfortable enough not to return.”

Anton could have gotten ahead of her and trapped her upstairs if he didn’t want me to know he was willing to fight with her about me. But with the top volume tirade coming my way, there was no way I could tune my super hearing out and ignore what was going on. I was supposed to be flattered. I wasn’t.

Anton shouted, “I am Master here not you! I am through with this argument Ashley. You can go upstairs and wait for me or you can go upstairs and pack your bags!”

Now if I were Ashley, this is where things would have turned violent, but she opted to stomp back up the stairs, down the hall and slam a door shut. I listened for the sound of suitcases opening, but heard nothing. What little respect I had been gathering towards her for calling him on his crap vanished. She had a mansion to live in and access to the fountain of youth; no way she was leaving.

However, I was
really
regretting my outfit choice now. Provoking an already provoked vampire really was not a good move. Nor was being caught listening at the door even if you were sort of supposed to get an earful. Moving preternaturally fast, I returned to my previous seat and was yanking my skirt back down when Anton walked into the room. Marcus caught my furtive skirt action and grinned.

“Hello Natasha. Tell me about this club,” he paused when he caught a glimpse of Marcus’ mirth. “What is so amusing Marcus?”

Marcus cleared his throat. I wasn’t sure if vampires really needed to do that or if it was a nervous tick leftover from his human days. He said, “The lady had said something humorous right before you came in and I was reacting.”

Anton eyed me and damn him, I knew what he was going to ask, “What amusing thing did you say this time Natasha?”

“You had to be there.”

“I will be here when you tell it again.”

What the hell was I going to say? Oh. Oh, it was bad to say this, but it was all I had. I repeated the remark about pulling Ashley out from under him because I was tired of being kept waiting and watched the blood rise to his face. I was not sure if it was anger or embarrassment. The guy could proposition me in every possible way, every chance he got, but I was not supposed to know he actually had sex. Yes, he was Anton the 500 year old virgin. Or maybe he was embarrassed I knew sex existed? The ship had sailed on that one a long time ago. “Did I offend your delicate sensibilities?”