Until the Sun Falls from the Sky (36 page)

“You’re already through,” I lied and he chuckled which made me want to throw something at him.

Of course, I didn’t.

“I’m not,” he declared.

“You are.”

“I’m not.”

I pushed against his arm, surprisingly it loosened and I turned to face him.

I looked up at him in the dark and I said my next in a whisper, “If you want me to beg you to fuck me, I will. I’ll do anything you want me to do. Try me. I’ll prove it to you. Lucien, you have me.”

I held my breath, not really wanting him to make me do anything he wanted me to do but prepared to do it nonetheless.

His face dipped closer to mine but stopped a breath away giving me the impression he could see in the dark.

“I don’t want you to beg, sweetling. It isn’t about that. That was just a test, which you failed. If you’d let go, just a little bit, I’ll show you what it
is
about.”

“Tell me,” I urged.

“There are no words.”

“Okay,
try
to tell me.”

He hesitated then he said, “Trust.”

I blinked in the dark. “Trust?”

“I’ve told you this before, you need to trust me, Leah.”

“With what?”

“With everything.”

Was he crazy?

He wanted me to trust him? With everything? Then, when he was sick of me, he’d let me go and move onto his next concubine, doing this for eternity.

He
had
to be crazy!

He would, of course, throw me birthday parties and maybe, as decades passed, recruit me to help him stalk his next obsession.

Boy,
that
would be fun.

It took a lot out of me and it was really not a nice thing to do but self-preservation forced me to curl closer to him and lie yet again.

“You have my trust.”

It was nearly imperceptible but I could swear I felt his body give a small jerk.

“You don’t think I know how it feels?” he asked and his voice was no longer mellow and amused, it was edging toward anger.

I had, inadvertently, made a tactical error.

I attempted to salvage the situation.

“Lucien –” I started.

I failed to salvage the situation. He kept right on talking.

“When the taming is complete, Leah, it isn’t completed with words or a ceremony. It happens through actions and feelings.”

His words took the breath out of me. Or, I should say, one particular word.

“The taming?”

“The taming,” he said calmly. “I’m taming you.”

I felt Old Leah slipping back into place.

“You’re
taming
me?”

His body tensed and his arm tightened around me in a way that felt like containment.

Even so, his voice was still calm when he replied, “Yes.”

“Taming,” I repeated.

Now he sounded like he was smiling when he repeated, “Yes.”

“Does that mean what I think it means?” I asked.

“I’m guessing that’s unlikely,” he answered.

This did not make me feel any better.

“Have you done this…” I could barely bring myself to say it but I forced myself to say it, “
taming
business a lot?”

“Not recently, no. But I used to do it before The Revolution on occasion. But only if my prey was special,” he held me closer and his voice got softer, “like you.”

I figured he thought that this was one of his profound compliments.

I did
not
.

“I’m tired,” I announced suddenly.

And I was. Very tired. Of my crazy life!

Most especially the crazy vampire who was sharing my crazy life (against my will, I might add).

He was silent for several moments.

Then his body moved like he was laughing. I ground my teeth together when I realized he was, indeed, laughing. He must have heard my teeth grinding because his laughter became vocal.

I visualized myself kicking him in the shin. It was childish, but it worked.

“That wouldn’t be a very nice thing to do, my pet,” he whispered and my body went still.

He’d seen me visualizing.

God, I hated him!

I tried to pull away but his arm locked.

“Will you please let me go?”

“Why?” he asked, still chuckling.

“So I can get comfortable,” I snapped.

Myrna would never snap but screw Myrna. If there was a snapping moment, this was it.

He settled his heavy weight into me, shifting me to my back, his legs tangling with mine, his arm still caging me in, keeping me close.

“This isn’t comfortable,” I declared on yet another lie.

“Mm,” he murmured against my temple and a happy trill glided across my skin (something else I ignored), “I disagree.”

Okay, I had to get control. As much as I detested asking it, I had to.

What would Myrna do?

I wracked my brain. Then I had it.

“Whatever you wish, Lucien,” I mumbled obediently.

He chuckled low yet again, kissed my temple then ordered, “Go to sleep, Leah.”

I didn’t answer. I also didn’t go to sleep.

I decided to fume.

This lasted for about five minutes.

Then his heat, his heaviness, his soft breath stirring my hair, his large, powerful body at rest by mine, a body which could likely keep me safe from just about anything in the world, permeated my subconscious and a second later, I was dead to the world.

The Explosion

“What’s happened to Leah?”

Even after hearing Stephanie’s whispered question, Lucien didn’t take his eyes from Leah as she slid away from them through the crowded room.

He heard Leah saying softly again and again, “Excuse me,” as she moved amongst the crush of opera patrons on her way to the restroom. Sometimes she would give them a small polite smile.

As she moved and spoke, the patrons turned to look.

The men would keep looking. The women would either stare or glare.

She disappeared from sight and Lucien’s eyes stayed where he last saw her.

Three weeks.

It had been three weeks since their Sunday together, a day that started unbelievably well and ended unbelievably badly.

And then she had her dream.

“Lucien?” Stephanie called but, lost in thought, Lucien didn’t respond. He continued to watch the entrance to the hall where he’d last seen Leah.

He feared he’d broken her. Not how he’d intended, in a way he could never have imagined nor would ever have wanted.

For the first week, he saw her come through every once in a while. Often her eyes would flash. Other times she’d look painfully and hilariously undecided, as if she had one reaction but was forcing herself to display another. She also lost her patience while attempting to make him some complicated soufflé that went tremendously badly however her foul-mouthed tirade after it collapsed was immensely entertaining.

The disastrous soufflé gave him hope.

So did the dreams.

She’d had four more, all the same. All of them starting with her moving, nearly writhing against him as if in ecstasy but this would end abruptly in a blood-chilling scream.

Seconds later, he’d hear her words whispered in his head.

I love you
.

Shortly after came the choking sobs, she’d wake and attempt to flee. He’d catch her and hold her until her trembling and tears ceased.

After the second dream they’d stopped talking about it. She would simply hold onto him in a way that felt desperate. He’d stroke her back or her hair until her body relaxed and she fell asleep in his arms.

Lucien closed his eyes tightly as the words sounded softly in his head.

I love you
.

Those words, those three
fucking
words, whispered in his head.

It wasn’t even the words, it was the way she said them. As if she’d pulled them out of her soul and offered them to him like a gift.

And he knew she was talking to him, dreaming of him. She wouldn’t be in his head if she wasn’t. He wouldn’t be able to hear it.

He also knew she wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t remember. Something was blocking the memory, likely the power behind the emotion of whatever made her scream and sob in such a fucking heartbroken way it was difficult to witness.

Lucien didn’t know what to make of the intensity of her dream and the aftermath or what they meant to him or Leah except it was pretty clear her earlier hostility toward him, and now her deference to him, were defense mechanisms. He’d managed to establish a connection but she wasn’t allowing herself to embrace it.

Even so, he didn’t like that Leah had them.

Her terror was stark, her pain palpable and he was powerless to stop them, a feeling he never felt and one he didn’t much like.

But he had to admit, he was intrigued by the words and the intensity with which she spoke them.

Even if he felt somehow tortured by them.

It was the dream, and the soufflé, that made him think she’d never be able to continue her latest game.

However, the last two weeks, except for when she had the dreams or when he was feeding and even then she seemed to hold herself back, all that was Leah had vanished. It appeared not to be a struggle in the slightest.

None of his Leah came shining through even for a moment.

She was like every concubine he’d had for five hundred years. Perhaps not as worshipful as some or as obviously greedy for the feeding as others but mostly just the same.

He missed her.

He actually missed their verbal tussles, her comical one-liners delivered when she was angry, her strength of will, her stubbornness, her curiosity, her spirit which filled the house.

All that was gone, including his anticipation of coming home to see what she’d be up to next.

“Lucien? Luce? Helloooo, Luce! Are you in there?” Stephanie called and Lucien’s gaze moved to her.

“Sorry,” he muttered and Stephanie’s eyes narrowed on his face.

“Something’s not right in Lucien and Leah Land,” Stephanie noted.

Lucien took a sip from his drink before saying, “Everything’s fine.”

“Doesn’t seem fine to me,” Stephanie shot back. “Leah
looks
like Leah, gorgeous as ever. And she
smells
like Leah. And she walks like Leah. And talks
somewhat
like Leah. But she’s
not
Leah.”

Finally Lucien’s eyes focused on his friend. “This isn’t any of your business, Teffie.”

Stephanie was one of the very few (in fact, there were only two, her and Cosmo) who would look at Lucien’s face at that moment and issue a challenge.

And that was what she did.

“Well, I beg to differ. Leah’s become my friend and I’m worried. I’ve been over there twice this week. It’s like I drove into Stepford and it’s
eerie
. I don’t like it and Edwina is none too happy either.”

“Everything will be fine,” Lucien said, turning to look back toward the hall.

“I hope so, Luce, and I hope you make it soon. Because there is no way a woman like that can hold back that much without exploding and I’m not certain even
you
will want to be around when she lets it all out.”

Lucien sliced a glance at her, the tone of his voice making his words crystal clear. “We’re done talking about this.”

Stephanie held his gaze for long moments then changed the subject to one that was only slightly less annoying.

“Rumors are flying,” she informed him.

“Rumors always fly,” Lucien returned dismissively.

“Not rumors like this,” she retorted. “Heard word that The Council is going to open an investigation tomorrow into what you’re doing with Leah.”

Lucien glanced back at the hall with unconcern. “I’ve heard that too.”

“Well, I bet you haven’t heard that Rafe told Dante who told Hamish who told
me
that he’s considering moving in with Lana Buchanan.”

Lucien’s narrowed eyes sliced back to Stephanie.

“Thought that’d get your attention,” she muttered.

“Tell me you’re joking,” he demanded.

She shook her head.

“What’s he thinking?” Lucien ground out.

“I’m guessing the same thing as you. He wants more than Lana’s blood. The Buchanans are a tasty lot. I had one myself years ago, I know. You boys like different smells though and you want to get yourselves some of
that
.”

Lucien’s body moved, turning toward Stephanie in a way that made her tense.