The Dark Vampire: Last True Vampire 3 (8 page)

“I have an apartment downtown,” Jenner remarked. He stood from the love seat and paced the confines of the room as though his proximity to Bria made him uncomfortable. “I haven’t been there in a while, though.”

“Oh.” She tried not to be hurt that he’d never offered to take her to his apartment. They were tethered, true, but he’d never made any pledge to her otherwise. It wasn’t as though they were required to live together.

“What did you do last night?” Jenner turned the intensity of his stare on her and Bria tried not to lose herself in it.

His eyes were fathomless and soulful. Gold flecks glinted in their depths that shone even brighter when his irises gave way to silver. Like when he fed. A thrill raced through Bria’s body at the memory of his silver gaze and the way it had focused on her throat moments before he’d taken the vein at her wrist just minutes ago.

“I read,” Bria said with a shrug. She regarded Jenner from the corner of her eye as she tried to gauge whether or not he picked up on the lie. “Watched TV with Claire. My life isn’t quite as exciting as yours.”

Jenner’s stare burned through her. Bria didn’t know why she felt the need to hide what she’d done from him. She certainly wasn’t a prisoner in the king’s home, but she’d still snuck out without telling anyone. Last night had been a particularly adventurous treasure hunt. Not all canisters contained more than a logbook and pencil, but the geocache she’d found near a police station in the valley contained a baseball card, an old pocket watch that no longer worked, and a tiny bottle that had at one time contained perfume. Nothing valuable per se, but she’d had fun anyway. Only when the sky began to grow light with the
coming dawn had she raced back to the house and snuck in just as silently as she’d left.

After a long, quiet moment, Jenner glanced away and cupped the back of his neck with one large palm. Tension sizzled in the space between them and his voice grew tight. “Have you talked to your uncle?”

“No. He’s called a couple of times, but I’ve told Mikhail to tell him I’m not up for talking.”

“Why?” Jenner turned to her, curious. “You’ve mastered control over your thirst. Do you still feel volatile?”

“I don’t want to talk to him because he’s going to try to convince me to go home with him,” she said. “And I don’t want to.”

Jenner’s eyes flashed feral silver. “Why would you have to?”

“It’s complicated,” she said low. In truth, Bria was ashamed to admit to Jenner that she’d spent decades inside of the stronghold that housed her uncle’s coven with little freedom save the moments she’d stolen for herself under the cover of darkness. She was doing her best to show Jenner that she was strong, and that knowledge would only undermine that. “He’s very protective of me.”

“I can protect you,” Jenner said.

She didn’t doubt it. She’d never known a male as innately fierce as Jenner. But she didn’t want his protection. She didn’t want anyone’s protection. All Bria had ever wanted was the opportunity to prove that she was capable of standing on her own two feet. She wanted Jenner to see her as an equal, not a stone around his neck.

Bria knocked her chin up. “I can protect myself.”

Jenner’s arrogant smirk coaxed a swarm of butterflies to take flight in Bria’s stomach. “You think so? Maybe we should put you to the test.”

She’d be up for any test as long as it ended with his mouth at her throat and his big body between her thighs.
Her transition had awakened Bria’s desires to the point that she could think of little else lately. She used
Jenner’s words against him as she infused her voice with what she hoped was sensuality. “I’m up for the challenge. Try me.”

Quicksilver flashed in his eyes and a low growl gathered in his chest. Bria loved that sound. He was an animal and he’d awakened the animal in her. She wished he’d give her the opportunity to show him just how he affected her.

“Will you take me out?” she asked. “Tonight?”

“Out?” His brow furrowed. “Where?”

“Anywhere.” Excitement gathered inside of her at the prospect of being let loose in the city with him at her side. A night out with Jenner would surely prove to be more of an adventure than geocaching. “Are you working? I could come along. I’ll stay out of the way.”

“I’m not working tonight,” Jenner replied. “Mikhail has tasks set out for me, though.”

“Oh.” Bria fought to keep her expression passive, but the air soured with his words.
A lie?
“What are you doing? I could help.”

“No.” Jenner’s harsh voice cut through the quiet like a blade. “That’s not a good idea.”

“That’s fine.” Bria was quick to mask her disappointment. “I’ve never really seen the city, that’s all.” She risked another lie. Her occasional jaunts into the city had been her own private secret for decades. She wasn’t ready to share that part of her with Jenner. Not when he insisted on treating their relationship as though it were nothing more than a casual acquaintance. “I thought it might be fun.”

The crease cut deeper into Jenner’s brow. “You’ve never seen the city?” he asked. “At all?”

“Not for more than a quick glance. And never alone. Like I said, my uncle is very protective.”

“Why?”

Jenner’s intensity should have frightened her, but it instead caused a rush of excitement to race through her veins. She didn’t want to admit to Jenner that a vindictive witch stalked her. Maybe he wouldn’t want to bother with a mate who needed constant looking after. Not that Bria expected him to. She could take care of herself now. How could a witch possibly be a match for a vampire?

“Both my mother and father were killed,” she said. “I was entrusted to his care and he takes my protection seriously. He loves me.”

Jenner took a step toward her and delicious anticipation gathered in Bria’s stomach. The world melted away when he looked at her with such singular focus. She wondered, was it the same for him? He stopped just short of the love seat when a loud knock came at the door.

“Yeah?” Jenner barked

Ronan’s voice came through the wooden panels: “I need you for a sec.”

“All right!” Jenner called back. His lips pursed as though he wanted to say something, but instead he turned to leave the room. “I won’t be far if you need me,” he said, as he closed the door behind him. “Just call.”

So close and yet so far away.
Bria gave a rueful laugh. Did Jenner realize how his very presence made her yearn for him as he left her with nothing but longing night after night? If so, he was a cruel male indeed.

“Jesus, you look like shit.”

Jenner strode down the hallway beside Ronan. He was getting tired of everyone making the same observation about his appearance. Ronan’s expression grew serious and the male stopped mere feet from the door that separated Jenner from Bria. Frustration and want pooled in his gut, creating an acid that ate away at him. She’d lied to him tonight. More than once. Bria was hiding something
from him, and the need to uncover her secrets caused his stomach to churn and his blood to pump in his veins. She’d claimed to have spent the evening with Claire, but that wasn’t true. She claimed her uncle protected her for no other reason than love, but Jenner had smelled that lie on her skin. She said she’d never seen the city, but that was a lie as well. Or, at the very least, a white lie. Her duplicity piqued his curiosity. The fact that she’d left the house the moment he’d been away proved her uncle had been right in assuming she’d need looking after. Jenner had told her he had duties for Mikhail tonight, but it was his job to watch over her. Protect her. Tonight he planned to do a little recon on his mate.

Jenner met Ronan’s curious stare head-on. “She’s fine,” Jenner said with a sneer. “Fairchild’s getting his money’s worth.”

It had been days since Jenner had first fed from her and he had proved that he could play nice despite the dark urges that reared their ugly heads whenever he was in the same room with her. Ronan didn’t need to know that Jenner’s control was tenuous, though. His every waking thought was of Bria. Keeping his distance from her slowly ate away at him. With each passing day he grew more disdainful of piercing the vein at her wrist. He played nice to honor the bargain struck between Ronan and Fairchild as well as to preserve what innocence she had left when all he wanted to do was defile her. Ronan knew everything about Jenner’s history. His friend had every right to be concerned, and yet Jenner couldn’t help but feel the sting of Ronan’s suspicions. “Do you really still think I’d harm her?”

“No,” Ronan said, and Jenner raised a dubious brow. “All right, maybe. We both know about your control issues. And you have to admit you’ve been off the rails for the past several months. I’m concerned, that’s all.”

Over the course of Jenner’s transition, Ronan had got
ten a glimpse of the monster even the vampires had feared. His unchecked need was a living, breathing creature that writhed beneath the surface of his skin, desperate to get out. For months Jenner had fucked and fed from every eager female from one end of the city to the next in an effort to appease that dark need inside of him. He hadn’t harmed a single one of them. He’d yet to drink any dhampir—or even Bria—dry. In fact, he’d left most of his blood donors begging for more. Did that not show some measure of control?

“My shit’s tight,” he growled. It wasn’t too far from the truth. He still fought the urge to barge back into the guest room and strip Bria bare, to bury his fangs deep into her soft skin. But despite those urges, his thirst no longer burned in his throat. For the first time in months, one of his cravings seemed to be under control.

“Good,” Ronan remarked. “Because Thomas Fairchild has requested a meeting with us as well as an audience with Mikhail. He’ll be here tomorrow after sundown.”

Great.
“Why?”

“I assume he wants to kill two birds with one stone. You have to admit our arrangement with him has become complicated since Bria’s transition. We’re not simply hired to protect her anymore. She’s sort of a member of the secret club, know what I mean? Aside from our deal with Fairchild, Mikhail thinks he’s genuinely concerned for his niece, but you and I both know that Fairchild is a tough male to gauge. I guess Bria’s been dodging his phone calls? Apparently it’s given him cause for alarm. He probably wants a status update.”

Ronan posed the question about Bria dodging her uncle’s calls as though Jenner should know why Bria distanced herself from him. In truth, Jenner kept their interaction to a minimum. The more he knew about her, the more interested he became, and his interest only served
to further ignite his attraction. The intensity of that attraction was a threat to his carefully maintained control and Jenner couldn’t afford to slip.

Ronan wasn’t the only one who didn’t fully trust Thomas Fairchild. Bria was wary of her uncle and her claim that he was overprotective caused Jenner’s hackles to rise. He’d hired them to follow her, protect her, take out her alleged stalker. Was that all there was to it? “Mikhail told him about the tether?”

Ronan nodded.

Super.

“The members of his coven are recluses. Some say as fanatical as Siobhan’s coven. If he knows about the tether, I’d assume he’s probably pissed.”

“I don’t know why he would be.” Ronan continued down the hallway and Jenner fell into step beside him. “I mean, he might ask for a refund since you’re technically his family now, but it’s not like you knocked his niece up at the prom or some shit. You’re tethered. It’s as much a part of our biology as drinking blood.”

Part of the family?
Jenner snorted. He doubted an entitled male like Fairchild would ever lower himself to allow someone like Jenner into his coven. “That might’ve been true a few centuries ago,” Jenner said. “I’d say there’s a bit of a disconnect between our world and theirs, wouldn’t you? What if her uncle doesn’t buy it?”

Ronan shrugged. “Doesn’t change anything. Fairchild will just have to accept it. Besides, he’s sworn fealty to Mikhail. If he says you’re tethered, you’re tethered. Fairchild can’t dispute a royal mandate.”

Jenner wasn’t so sure. “What bought Mikhail Fairchild’s allegiance?”

“His niece’s life,” Ronan said with a smirk. “He begged Mikhail to turn her. Offered him everything he had in return.”

Exactly.
It had been an offer made out of desperation, which made his allegiance dubious. The tether that bound him to Bria tugged from the center of Jenner’s being and his step faltered. Ronan gave him a sidelong glance. “Thank gods you’ve been tethered.” Ronan continued down the stairs and Jenner followed. “That female is going to be your salvation, my friend.”

Right now he felt anything but saved.

The tether gave another tug and Jenner stopped dead in his tracks. Ronan turned to look back at him, his brow raised in question.

“Tell Mikhail I’ll be here at sundown tomorrow to meet with Fairchild.”

“Can’t you tell him yourself?”

A sense of urgency expanded Jenner’s chest and he let out a gust of breath. His mate was up to something and he was going to get to the bottom of what it was.

“Gotta deal with something right now.”

“All right,” Ronan said slowly. “Anything you need help with?”

“Nah. I’ve got this.” The urge to sprint back down the hall to Bria’s room consumed him. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

Ronan’s brow furrowed. “Call me if you need anything, okay?”

Jenner paused in the foyer as though he was headed out the door. “Yeah. Sure.”

Ronan hung a left and headed toward Mikhail’s study. As soon as he rounded the corner, Jenner flew back up the stairs and down the hallway. He threw open the door to find Bria’s room empty.

“Gods-damn it,” he said under his breath.

Bria was certainly full of surprises.

Bria wondered
if Mikhail realized how easy his security system was to circumvent. Of course, it’s not like the king was trying to keep anyone in, just the slayers out. Once outside the perimeter of the fenced property, Bria paused to check her bag. With tonight’s treasure safely stowed away and no one to miss her she should have felt a sense of elation.