Talon/Xavier (Bayou Heat) (24 page)
Dressed in black and taller, wider and far more fearsome than any of his guests, the three males entered the Great Room, bringing with them, the winter chill, and a swimming pool’s worth of testosterone. Every set of human eyes widened, every pair of human feet drew back. His fingers still sliding over the keys, Synjon tracked the males, waited for them to spot him, scent him. It took no more than a moment before they did, before a pathway was created across the polished stone floor.
Syn continued to play as the Roman brothers moved toward him, almost stalking him like prey. They appeared rather tense. Syn wondered what that felt like.
“Welcome,” he said as they came to stand before him.
The one he knew best, a nearly albino vampire male with a perpetual sneer, spoke first. “Nice party. But I think our invitation got lost in the mail, Brit Boy.”
There was a time Syn had risen to the male’s caustic play. Reveled in it, in fact. He had no interest now. “You weren’t invited, Lucian. In fact, none of you were.”
The male turned to his skull-shaved brother, Alexander, and snorted. “Good to know the guy still has some asshole left in him.”
Alexander didn’t respond. His focus was entirely on Synjon, his tone serious as he spoke. “We have a problem.”
“We?” Synjon asked, his fingers moving into Bach’s concerto in F minor. He used to despise the piece, but now he felt only the smoothness of the keys against his skin.
Alexander’s voice dropped, and his eyes narrowed. “The veana who carries your child—”
“Petra,” Syn supplied, picturing the dark haired veana and feeling...nothing.
“Yes,” Alexander ground out. “She hasn’t gone through her
meta
. We didn’t know that before. When we brought her back home... And we didn’t know a
veana
in swell who hadn’t gone through her transition would react... She’s losing her mind, Syn.”
Synjon looked up, assessed the male. He couldn’t imagine why Alexander was telling him this. “Now that you’re here, would you like to stay? Join my guests?”
A growl rumbled in Alexander’s chest. “No.”
“Perhaps you’d like something to drink?”
“Christ,” Lucian uttered, leaning against the piano.
“Some
one
to drink, then?” Synjon caught the eye of one of the humans who enjoyed feeding his vampire guests. She grinned hopefully at him.
“We’re not here for a party,” Nicholas said tersely, moving around to the other side of the piano. “Petra is ill, Syn. She can’t control her emotions. She’s in pain. She’d going out of her mind. It happened soon after she returned to the Rainforest. You have to—”
“Attend to my guests,” Synjon said evenly. There was so much to do; select his blood donor for this evening, and his sexual conquests. He had discriminating tastes in both. But first, a little Prelude in C-sharp minor. Rachmaninoff used to make him snarl.
Times changed, it seemed.
Arching an eyebrow at the three males, he said, “If you’ll excuse me.”
“Excuse me?” Lucian repeated, giving Syn a disgusted look. “Whatever happened to get the fuck out of my way, you bleeding tossers?”
Useless. Words with emotions attached
.
“I don’t react to people and problems with threats and anger anymore, Lucian,” he said, his voice even. “I take care of them quietly, quickly.”
“That’s too bad,” Lucian muttered. “Merry fucking Christmas.”
“We should go, find another way to help her,” Nicholas said tightly. “This paven doesn’t give a shit about anything. And it’s our fault. We made him that way.”
“Cruen made him that way,” Alex amended.
“At our suggestion.”
“At
his
agreement.” Alex’s gaze slid away from Synjon. “No one wanted Petra or the child harmed. Including him.”
Lucian growled, pushed away from the piano. “Now he feels nothing for them, and Cruen got to run free.”
Not free, Synjon mused, closing in on the final seven-measure coda. “Well, gentlepaven, it was a grand bargain. I’ve never felt better.”
“You feel nothing,” Lucian returned.
“Oh I feel quite perfect where it matters — all things physical. I’m not burdened with tedious, irrational emotions. It’s all very civilized, really.” Rachmaninoff ceased to exist, and Synjon glanced up at Alexander. “I appreciate what was done to me.”
“What about all that is being done to Petra? All she can’t control?” Alexander returned with barely disguised menace. “She needs your blood. Now.”
“That’s unfortunate for her.” Syn jerked his chin in the direction of the Great Room. “As you can see, I am otherwise engaged.”
“He’s lost,” Luca uttered. “Fucking lost.”
Synjon stared at the three faces, all twisted into ravaged masks of worry. It suited them; that intensity, that feral predatory glare. But it held no interest for him. He was rather relaxed - though he could use a pint or two, perhaps a quick, hard fuck as he continued to wait for the inevitable. The one guest he wished to see above all others. The one who would come begging.
Alexander ground his teeth. “Syn, your child and Petra...they could both die without your help. Your blood.”
Done with this repetitive, pointless conversation, Synjon uttered a smooth, “Then I suppose they will die,” before he returned to the cool, white keys and another song from his past; Nirvana’s
Drain You
.
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