Of Blood and Passion (10 page)

As she watched, Arturo slowly loosened his grip on the sorcerer’s throat. “You almost killed her yesterday in the Focus,” Arturo growled.

Grant glanced at Quinn. “Not…my intent. Just wanted…her…to fail.”

“I found the words,” Quinn told him. “They came to me eventually. If my magic had been free, I could have saved V.C.” It gave her a measure of satisfaction to tell him that.

Slowly, Arturo released Grant, but he kept him pinned by his gaze. “And why should you help us, Blackstone, when our goal is to save this world and yours is to see it die?”

Grant straightened his shirt, meeting the vampires’ gaze. “Because as much as I want Vamp City to die, I want Cristoff to suffer more. And watching his favorite sons conspire against him is the most fun I’ve had in one hundred forty years.”

Arturo stared at him. “As I said, Quinn will use your likeness. You will remain hidden. If she is seen and your safety compromised, you may escape. Or die. I care not which.”

Grant’s expression turned bitter, but he didn’t argue.

Arturo turned to Bram who was still being threatened by his friends’ knives. “Kassius, too, will need a glamour that won’t be compromised. Someone else who will remain out of sight.”

“He’s welcome to take my face.” Bram nodded toward the closed door. “Or that of any of the vampires’ with me.”

Arturo studied Bram for several minutes more, then finally motioned Kassius and Micah to put their weapons away.

“How is it that Cristoff’s snake now betrays him?” Grant asked, his tone challenging.

Arturo sent him a hard look even as he answered. “I do not betray the master I loved, only the monster who now wears his face.”

Grant’s expression turned thoughtful. “My father hated Cristoff above all others for forcing him to renew the magic in the way he did.” Grant lifted his hand, waving the three fingers that remained. “I believe he tied the magic most tightly to Cristoff, separating him from his soul most completely.”

“Your father did not separate us from our souls,” Arturo snapped. “No matter how much he might have desired to. But he took many of our souls hostage to varying degrees. Cristoff’s has been bound more tightly than most.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Bram muttered.

Quinn hated that Arturo continued to hold out hope that Cristoff, too, would return to the man he’d once been. Even if Cristoff did, she wouldn’t be safe from him. Even when he supposedly had honor, he was ruthless to his enemies. Grant’s missing fingers were testament to that. And, having escaped him twice, she had no illusions. She was number one on his hit list.

The thought did nothing to calm nerves already stretched tight at the knowledge that Cristoff’s house of horrors lay virtually on top of her right now.

“It’s time to get moving,” Micah said, rising. “The night won’t last forever.”

Quinn’s pulse shot straight to the ceiling. As one, Kassius and Arturo swung her way as if they’d felt that jolt of anxiety. And of course they had, fear feeders that they were.

“I need to feed,” Micah continued. “My stores are depleted from all the glamouring and unglamouring.” Unfortunately, it was pleasure Micah needed, not fear, or he’d be feeding just fine right now.

“I’m sure a couple of our number would be willing to pair off to accommodate you,” Bram said.

It took Quinn a moment for his meaning to sink in. Pair off. When it did, her eyes widened.

“No need. I’ve got the best source I’ve found in a while right here, if they’ll kiss and make up.” Micah’s gaze moved from her to Arturo and back again, a question in his eyes.

Quinn knew he meant the ‘kiss’ literally. When she and Arturo kissed in his presence…or anything more intimate…they apparently fed Micah thoroughly.

“But I will need blood,” he added.

“One of the Slavas will accommodate you.” Bram looked to Arturo. “Are we through here?”

At Arturo’s nod, Bram turned and exited through the low door, Grant following behind him.

Kassius eyed her, Arturo, and Micah with a hint of amusement. “Is it safe to leave you three alone?”

Quinn grunted. “Are you worried about them or me?”

“Them.”

A badly-needed laugh burst from her throat. “Go. I won’t kill them, I promise.”

With a chuckle, Kassius ducked out through the doorway after Grant.

Quinn rose, crossing her arms over her chest and turned to Arturo. She could refuse to kiss him, of course. And part of her wanted to do just that, even if it would be foolish when they needed Micah’s glamour to proceed.

For several moments they just watched one another, neither making the first move. No, she realized. He watched her. The first move was hers to make.

Slowly she uncrossed her arms and walked to him, stopping a hand’s breadth away.

“
Tesoro.
” He lifted a hand and brushed back a lock of her hair, then slowly raised both hands to cup her cheeks. Deep within those cool, strong hands, she could feel the slightest tremor.

Quinn frowned and covered his hands with her own. “You’re shaking.”

A tiny scowl formed between his eyebrows. “I do not shake.”

“Of course not.” But he was. And his being this unsettled unnerved her even more. “Vampire…”

Still holding her face in his hands, he tilted his forehead against hers. “The thought of you walking through this castle without me…” A shudder tore through him. “If he catches you…”

“Turo,” she said softly, moved by the depth of his concern, then slid her arms around him and brushed his lips with her own.

The kiss started out tender, a caress, a promise, before slowly catching fire. Within moments, his mouth was plundering hers, and hers his, flames bursting to life all down the length of her body and deep, deep inside. Her breath grew ragged, her flesh burning as his lips trailed across her cheek, and down to the base of her neck.

Tilting her head to the side, she gave him access, a thrill of anticipation leaping within her.

She felt his tongue tease the tender flesh between her neck and her shoulder, and her fingers reflexively fisted in his shirt. His lips turned warm as they brushed her neck. A moment later, she felt his fangs sink into her on a painless slide. As she shivered with expectation, he took one long, perfect pull of her blood. She gasped, her body reacting as it always did to his bite, and his bite alone—with a violent, glorious orgasm.

She cried out in pleasure, her legs turning weak beneath her. Arturo pulled her tight against him, burying one hand in her hair as his mouth returned to hers and he kissed her fiercely.

“Thanks, kids,” Micah said somewhere behind her in a voice rough with arousal. “That did the trick. I’ll be back after I’ve found a blood donor.”

She’d completely forgotten Micah was there. The moment he was gone, Arturo pulled away from her, removed his shirt, then reached for hers. Within moments, he had her jeans and panties pushed down below her knees and was entering her from the front on one long, glorious stroke.

Quinn cried out and Arturo covered her mouth with his own, drinking her cries even as he gripped her buttocks and thrust into her, over and over, each stroke more perfect than the last. Within moments she was once again climbing, this time not alone.

Higher and higher they rose, Arturo driving into her, filling her with heat and passion, until she felt as if the sun caressed her face, drenching her in its perfect warmth. Suddenly, as one, they shattered, the sun bursting, blinding, healing.

They clung to one another as Quinn’s heart rate slowly descended from the stratosphere, Arturo stroking her hair with the most gentle of hands. Within the curve of his strong arms, beneath his tender touch, the last of her doubts fell away. He would never let anything or anyone harm her. He’d die before he let that happen, which terrified her in an entirely different way. Because she couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.
 
With a kiss to her temple, he pulled away and began to adjust his clothes, and she did the same.

“Every pleasure feeder in the castle probably felt that,” she murmured wryly.

Arturo threw her a knowing look, hot laughter in his eyes. “You can be sure Micah did. I suspect he waited outside the door and is only now going to look for that blood donor.”

When they were both dressed, Arturo pulled her close once more. “I’m changing the plan. I shall accompany you to Cristoff’s private study, not Kassius.”

She looked at him, shaken by how rattled this mission had him. “Turo…”

“I do not want you out of my sight.”

“I know.” And that knowledge warmed her. “But we need you to keep an eye on Cristoff and to run interference if anything goes wrong. I’ll be fine. I have power of my own and Kassius to watch my back. He won’t let anything happen to me.” She had no doubt of that.

Arturo took her hand and placed a kiss in her palm, watching her with dark, fathomless eyes, setting butterflies to flight in her chest. He’d always had this effect on her, this ability to send her careening off her axis. She wasn’t entirely sure what she felt for him—heaven knew, her emotions had always been jumbled where he was concerned. But the one thing she was certain of was that he had far more of a claim on her mind, her emotions, her heart, than she was comfortable with. And as long as he remained her partner and companion, she feared he always would.

“Everything’s going to go without a hitch,” she promised him. Even though deep in her gut, she knew that was a lie.

Chapter 11

M
icah joined them in the cave a short while later. He was smiling, his eyes bright even as shadows moved in their depths. He knew the dangers that faced them as well as anyone.

“Let’s turn you into Grant Blackstone, Miss Quinn.”

“If we must,” Quinn replied. And, of course, they must. Her best defense was a good disguise even if it meant wearing the face of a man she held little love for.

As before, she stepped in front of Micah and let him run his fingers along the planes of her face, and felt the tingle of magic. She watched him as he worked, his expression sober, his eyes intent with focus. Finally, he stepped back with a satisfied nod.

Quinn turned to Arturo. “What do you think?” She even sounded like Grant.

“I do not care for your glamour,
tesoro
.”

Micah scowled. “What’s the matter with it? It’s a perfect likeness.”

“Precisely.”

Quinn laughed.

As Micah rolled his eyes and turned to work his magic on Kassius, Arturo walked over to her, cupping the back of her neck with his hand.

A smile lit his gaze. “How I love the sound of your laughter,” he said quietly. “Even if it sounds like Grant’s.”

“I’m kind of amazed I can laugh, under the circumstances.”

He gathered her close and held her against him, as she wrapped her arms around his waist. They stood there, entwined, soaking up one another’s warmth, for Arturo had yet to lose the unnatural warmth he always acquired when they kissed. He’d told her that he’d never heard of it happening before—a vampire growing warm. He called her his sunshine and there really did appear to be something in her magic that warmed him as if he stood in a healing sun, instead of the real one that would kill him in an instant.

“They’re done,” Arturo said, finally, kissing her hair.

Quinn pulled back and turned to find that Kassius now looked exactly like one of the vampires waiting for them in the tunnels outside, a stocky, blond-haired male.

Micah was staring at her as if he’d just bit into a lemon.

“What?” she asked him.

He made a funny sound, half choke, half laugh. “It’s going to take me years to get that image out of my head.”

Amusement pulled at her mouth. “What image?” But she thought she knew. “Arturo and Grant?”

“More like Arturo tenderly kissing Grant’s hair.”

Quinn smirked. “You’re living in the wrong century, Micah.”

The vampire lifted an eyebrow. “It’s not the fact that Grant’s male. It’s that he’s Grant.”

She couldn’t argue with that.

Kassius met her gaze. “Are you ready, sorceress?”

Quinn nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

One by one, they filed out of the cave and joined the others gathered further down the tunnel.

Bram stepped forward and Arturo shook his hand. “Cristoff must continue to believe me loyal, Bram. Word cannot get out that I am otherwise.”

“Nor I. We’re all in the same boat, Ax. All betraying him.”

Arturo nodded, shook hands with a couple of the other vampires, then turned and met Quinn’s gaze. “Be careful,
tesoro.
”

“You, too.”

She watched as he turned and disappeared back down the tunnel, the way they’d come. The plan was for him to walk into Gonzaga Castle through the front door, Cristoff’s snake come to report on his hunt for the missing sorceress. As long as his cover hadn’t been blown, he’d be fine. If it had, he’d soon be dead.

That was something she couldn’t let herself think about.

Meanwhile, she and Kassius would make their way to the stairs directly below the castle and wait for Arturo to tell her, telepathically, that he was in place and it was time to move. The original plan was for Micah to keep to the shadows within the castle in case he was needed, but there was risk in that since he was supposed to be searching for the sorceress, too. Now that Bram was in on the plan, it would be he who would keep an ear out within the castle and report to those below.