Reclaiming Angelica (6 page)

 
“Mate a human, and she’ll break your heart.”
His father’s words echoed in his mind.

“Raul, sit down and listen to me, boy!”

Raul flinched at the rarely heard sharpness in his uncle’s
tone and found himself scurrying over to the couch to sit as commanded.
Inwardly he sighed. Some alpha he was proving to be.

“Now, as I stated, it wasn’t that cut-and-dried. Your momma
wanted you. She did,” he added when he saw the skepticism Raul knew was visible
on his face. “Your parents managed to do a number on each other. Laura
confessed that she’d received a letter from Paul, apologizing for his lies and
asking her to return to him. It wasn’t the first that she’d received from him.
In this one he stated that he couldn’t live without her, the implication being
that if she didn’t return to him, he’d end his life. She didn’t believe him.
She said she thought it was another one of his lies. Being angry, hurt, and not
a little prideful—both your parents had more than their fair share of that
particular fault—she disregarded it and him, preferring instead to continue to
nurse her wounds.

“When I told her Paul was dead from suicide…” Uncle Joey
took a long, deep breath, his gaze faraway as though locked on to the past.
“She lost it. The shock, the guilt…it did a number on her. She had to be
hospitalized.”

Raul sat stunned, his thoughts chaotic, listening to his
uncle’s recitation of past events.

“Paul said once that Laura was sweet and loving, but she had
a fiery temper and once hurt, she was hard of heart. She had a tendency to hold
grudges and not let a matter go until she’d extracted her pound of flesh in
return. To my way of thinking those two temperaments don’t exactly mesh, but I
wasn’t the one mated to her. I suppose Paul knew what he was talking about
regarding her having a sweet nature.” Uncle Joey shook his head, his expression
showing he didn’t quite believe what he was saying but was willing to let it
go.

“Anyway, it took a long time for your momma to pull herself
together, and once she did? Well, we felt it best you remain with us. She
watched over you from a distance, but the sight of you looking so much like
your poppa? She couldn’t handle it. She sent money when she could to help with
your caretaking, came to all your important events, and in general, did as much
as she could handle,” Uncle Joey finished.

Raul asked the only question prevalent on his mind. “Where
is she? I want to see her.”

“I’m sorry, son. She died a few years back. Cancer. She
didn’t do much to fight it, feeling it was God’s justice coming to visit for
pushing your father to his death. I tried to get her to let you come see her,
talk to her one last time, but she didn’t feel deserving of you or your love.
Pushing the issue just made things worse, so I had to let it be.”

At the news, Raul’s wolf threw back its muzzle and howled, a
long mournful note. The man lurched to his feet and stumbled toward the door.
“I need some air.”

“Don’t leave,” his uncle commanded. “There’s more I haven’t
told you.”

Raul gave an abrupt nod before heading out the door and into
the night air.

* * * *

Sophie stalked past the long line of waiting humans,
ignoring their muttered curses and protests, Angelica trailing behind her like
a little waif. When Sophie reached the door, she hugged one of the big bruisers
stationed there and gave him a long, deep kiss that looked as though it had
plenty of tongue. “Hey, baby. Missed me?”

“Always,” he answered, cupping her ass familiarly. He nodded
in Angelica’s direction. “Bringing your food with you now?” he murmured so low
a human wouldn’t have heard him.

Sophie glanced over her shoulder, and her eyes widened.
“Her? No, she’s—”

Angelica cleared her throat loudly in warning, causing the
bruiser to look suspiciously back and forth between the two of them. The last
thing she wanted anyone here to know was who she was, or worse, who her father
was.

“—a friend of the family,” Sophie corrected hurriedly.
“Angelica, this is Stephen. Stephen, this is Angelica.”

Angelica nodded her head but ignored the hand offered. Some
vampires could determine what type of being a person was through touch. She
didn’t need Stephen knowing she was the only child of the head of the North
American vampire council. She liked keeping a low profile, and it helped that
she came across to most paranormal species’ senses as human.

As Stephen lowered his hand, he told Sophie, “Keep an eye on
her in there if you don’t want her being munched on.”

Her cousin’s smile looked more like a smirk. “Don’t worry. She
can handle herself, but I’ll stay close in case she needs me. How long you on
duty tonight?” Sophie ran her hand down his shoulder and rested it briefly on
Stephen’s chest.

The big vampire shuddered, and his eyelids lowered to
half-mast. “To closing.”

“Aww, that’s too bad. Maybe you can get away for a few,”
Sophie asked suggestively as that hand stroked lower until it cupped him
between the legs.

Angelica was used to the lack of inhibitions and overt
sexuality of vampires, but still found herself glancing around warily at the
steady stream of customers entering the club. Fortunately they were focused on
the goal of getting inside and seemed completely oblivious to the love play
going on right in front of them.

“You got it, baby,” Stephen assured Sophie before snatching
her up for another lingering kiss.

Angelica rolled her eyes. Her cousin’s family line fed on
sex as well as blood. Sophie looked like sex on a stick, and her sensuous
nature never left her lacking for lovers. For a moment, she almost pitied
Stephen. Her cousin wasn’t equipped to settle down with a mate, not for a long
time at least, and Stephen looked like he had it bad for her, if the glazed
expression in his eyes when the kiss ended was anything to go by.

Sophie wiggled her fingers at him, grabbed Angelica by the
arm, and said, “Later, lover,” as she towed Angelica through the black double
door.

Sounds and scents crashed over them like a big Hawaiian
wave. Heavy metal rock blasted her sensitive eardrums, and the scent of sex
with a metallic undertone of blood assaulted her nostrils. It was the emotional
backlash that rocked her and almost brought her to her knees. Angelica sent
more power to her empathic shields until on the psychic plane they took on a
diamond-like hardness. Sophie tugged on her arm and pointed up. Angelica
allowed her gaze to travel in the direction of her cousin’s finger and noticed
a set of stairs leading to an upper, glassed-in level. The bottom of the stairs
was roped off, and the upper room seemed, from this angle, to have less people.
She followed when Sophie turned and headed in that direction.

“Up here we can be ourselves,” her cousin shouted as she
unlatched the cord, waved Angelica past, and secured the cord again once she
was on the other side. As they walked up the stairs, Angelica could feel the
anticipation radiating off Sophie in waves.

She’d never before been to the Warehouse, being instead
inclined to shy away from places her kind haunted. Half-breeds like herself
were rare. In fact, Angelica was the only one of her kind that she knew about
in this generation, and on this continent. Therefore, it wouldn’t take long for
others to put two and two together and realize she was the daughter of an
extremely powerful vampire. Then any hint of anonymity and independence she’d
gained over the years would be lost.

Her father would assign guards to protect his fragile
half-human daughter from vampires willing to use her as a pawn against him. Not
to mention power-hungry male vampires would be coming out of the woodwork, attempting
to woo her with the idea of getting an in with her father. No thank you. She
hadn’t traveled thousands of miles from home and set up housekeeping only to
get dragged back into vampire politics and the power struggles that went hand
in hand with them.

Angelica pushed all that out of her mind as they went
through the double-wide opening at the top of the stairs. In here, the lighting
and sound was much more vampire friendly. The glass walls must have had some
type of soundproofing in them, because most of the noise from below was muted.
A quick glance showed several vampires feeding, from arms, necks, and even a
few inner thighs. The smell of sex was stronger up here than below. Sex did
make a feeding so much better.

In her element, Angelica cautiously dropped her shields and
let the emotions—lust, hunger, anticipation, greed, satiation—flow over her and
fill her. None but other members of her family caste knew she could feed from
emotions as well as from blood. She drew it in so deep her nipples puckered and
her sex swelled and moistened. Oh yes, this was more like it.

Angelica followed Sophie onto the dance floor. Before she
left tonight the Thirst would be well quenched. She thought back to earlier
that evening when she’d been making love with Raul. Since the beginning she’d
been aware of the physical signs of his wolf coming to the surface as his lust
raged almost out of control, but Raul had been so busy hiding what he was, he’d
never noticed her feeding off the sexual energy they’d created. Or the
appearance of her fangs as she’d fought the battle to feed from more than his
emotions.

She swayed her hips sensuously from side to side and let her
body issue its invitation.
Come to me.
Feel me. Feed me.

Fifteen minutes, an hour? Raul didn’t know how long he
prowled around outside. He
hurt
. He’d
always believed one day he’d find his mother and say…
what? I thought you loved me? If so, how could you just walk away from
me like old furniture that you no longer needed?
Or maybe he’d beg her
forgiveness for ruining his parents’ marriage? Whatever the case, it no longer
mattered, because she was dead.

Dead.

In the grand scheme of things, did knowledge of his mother’s
death change anything? No. That acknowledgment settled his queasy gut but did
nothing for the hollow feeling in his chest. Slowly Raul made his way back
inside to hear the rest of what his uncle wanted to say to him.

Uncle Joey waited until he was seated before continuing.
“You know, son, I’ve never liked speaking ill of the dead, but it’s past time
you knew all of it. When the situation with your parents first happened, you
were too young for us to fully explain. And later…well, you seemed to have
adjusted so completely to your parents’ abandonment that none of us wanted to
bring up painful memories. I’d always intended to revisit the issue when you
became older, but whenever I tried to ease into the subject, you blew me off.
Max finally convinced me to leave it alone. However, I’m guessing by your
reaction tonight that was a mistake. I should have pushed the issue, not let it
go.”

Raul shrugged. “For the most part I had, adjusted, that is.”

“But you blame yourself for your parents’ breakup and your
father’s death.”

“Because it’s my fault. Poppa told me not to tell Momma what
he could do, that it was a secret. I told. You saw what happened as a result,”
Raul stated.

Uncle Joey said some uncomplimentary things regarding his
father’s ancestry under his breath that Raul pretended not to hear.

“You know, your father wasn’t the only male in this family
to mate with a human.”

Shock replaced guilt as Raul jerked his head up from
contemplating his feet and made his uncle the focus of his complete attention.
He opened his mouth to pepper his uncle with questions, but Joey held up a
hand, forestalling him.

“You just listen now. You can ask questions after,” Uncle
Joey instructed.

Raul bit back his questions and waited.

“I know because of your father you’ve got the belief that
mating between shifters and human are doomed to fail. Maybe even forbidden, but
that’s simply not the case.”

He leaned forward, ready to dispute his uncle’s claim. Uncle
Joey lifted one dark eyebrow, nailing him with a look that said clearly as
words, “
Hush
.”

Raul subsided.

His uncle tapped a calloused forefinger on the family Bible
lying on the table between them. “The good book says a mate is ‘bone of my
bone, and flesh of my flesh.’ That means she’s a part of me. Lying to her is
like lying to myself. It will kill the love, destroy the relationship.”

“Where’s your mate?” The question burst out of Raul,
unbidden.

Fortunately his uncle didn’t take offense. “My Lily died,
victim of gang violence. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and a
stray bullet took her life. Because of Lily’s death, I can better understand
the pain your father felt at the loss of his mate. But the truth of the matter
is that Paul brought it upon himself. In the ten years your parents were
together, he had plenty of opportunity to tell your mother the truth. He chose,
instead, to live a lie. That lie eventually lost him his mate.”

His steady gaze held Raul’s. “I know you believe it was your
fault, but the truth would have come out eventually, even without your help.
It’s impossible to live with someone and hide who you are. There will be tells.
Son, you were only four. Your mother could have easily believed you saying Paul
turned into a wolf was the result of a fanciful imagination, except your words,
combined with all those tells your father couldn’t help giving, caused two and
two to add up to four in your mother’s mind and she discerned the truth.”

Raul blinked, and for the first time in his life, a bit of
doubt crept in. He’d always been so sure everything was his fault, but why had
his mother believed him instead of laughing it off? He’d been four, and
preschoolers were notorious for having vivid imaginations. Raul had been no
exception.

His uncle was still speaking. “Even when confronted with the
truth, Paul continued to lie, continued to hide.”