Vampire Forgotten (6 page)

“So what skills did you trade?” It didn’t surprise her that he didn’t offer condolences for the loss of her parents. Rhad apparently wasn’t a man who wasted many words.

She looked up.  “Obviously, not what you’re thinking.  He needed help with Algebra.”

Rhad placed one hand at the small of her back and guided her away from the fallen vampires.  “We should get going.”

“Where did those guys come from any way?”

A trail of blood seeped from the bottom vampire on the pile and created a pool amidst rocks and shrubs.  They stepped around the sticky fluid and continued up the path toward the mountain.

“They’re all around here,” Rhad finally responded.

Mischa shivered.  “I’ll have to admit.  For a minute there, I was scared.”

“That’s understandable.”

“But I’m not scared of you,” she pointed out.

Rhad slanted a look at her.  “Maybe you should be.”

She stuffed her hands into the pockets of the jeans the housekeeper had left inside the armoire.  She hadn’t thought to ask how the woman had known her size. 

“You think I should be scared of you because you’re a vampire?” There was a thought.

“Most people would be, yes.”

Falling into step beside him, she considered his words for a long moment before responding.  “Well, I’ll admit I was at first, but,” she nudged him in the side with her elbow, “I’ve seen your softer side.”

His brows lowered, giving him a darker look.  “My softer side?”

Mischa smiled.  “You don’t think you have a softer side?”

He met her gaze.  “No.  I don’t.”

“What makes you not want me the way those other vampires do?” An owl hooted in the distance, the sound an eerie testament to the night and their reliance on nature’s mercy.

She shivered, and Rhad took a step closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. Another strange moment to include in her journal.

To take her mind off the warmth of his arm, she continued the conversation. “You haven’t answered my question.”

“What makes you think I don’t want you?”

She swallowed hard.  Okay, so perhaps she should have changed the subject or simply remained silent. “You do?”

“I’m a vampire, Mischa.  You know what we need to exist.”

Her blood ran cold in her veins, and she pulled out of his embrace, coming to a stop a few feet away from him.  “So what are you doing?  Just toying with me until you decide it’s time for your next meal? If that’s the case, I say stop playing with your food and just make your move.  Because as you can see, I can hold my own in any fight.”

Rhad pivoted slowly, the movements controlled “Do you really think so?”     

“I survived those guys, didn’t I?” Her voice challenged him to deny the truth.

His lip curled. “Those vampires back there were new.  They’d probably only been turned a few months back, and they did not have the opportunity to acquaint themselves with their new skills.  In another year, you would have already been dead, with or without the black belt.”

“And I suppose you know they were new by the length of their teeth?” Her skin iced.  If Rhad was only trying to scare her, he was doing a damned fine job of it.

“Vampires know vampires, Mischa. Just as you can look at an elderly person and know they’ve lived a long life, we can judge one another, gauge the length of time since their spawning.”

Mischa dropped her hand to her side and nervously rubbed it against the side of her jeans. “If that’s the case, and seeing that you’re considerably older than those guys, why haven’t you made your move on me?”

Rhad walked toward her until his hip bumped hers.  “What kind of move would you like me to make?”

“I didn’t say I
wanted
you to make a move,” she snapped.

“Then why are you pushing me?”

She tried to shove him away, but the difference in their sizes and strength kept him firmly in place.  “I don’t think I want to have this conversation any longer.”

He yanked her closer, cupping one side of her face.  “Then perhaps you should think about the ramifications of a conversation before you begin it.” 

His lips came closer, yet she was powerless to stop him.  She didn’t deny she needed his touch, though she had no explanation for the craving. 

Meeting him halfway, she stood up on her tiptoes to slide her lips across his.  She knew the danger; yet, she didn’t deny the burning within her.  What was it about the man that could make her ignore the vampire?  Any ordinary woman would be running for her life. 

She slipped her hands around his back as he pulled her closer.  Her breasts pressed against his chest, and Mischa heard the low moan in the back of his throat.  Just as her toes began to ache, Rhad slid his hands to her hips and lifted, bringing her level.

His thick hair beckoned her touch, and she fisted her hands in the length.  She tasted him, and her heart pumped faster.  She felt him, and her temperature rose.  She pushed closer, willingly falling into the web he wove.  Without thought, she tipped her head back, her body aching, need a gnawing hunger in the pit of her stomach.

Instantly, Rhad lowered her to the ground and stepped back from her with a harsh, “no!”

Startled and confused, Mischa pressed her hands against her cheeks.  “What?  What happened?”

He stepped back, putting more distance between them.  “I should not allow myself to touch you.”

“Funny.   I didn’t seem distasteful a few moments ago.”

Rhad rubbed the back of his neck and spun around, presenting his back to her.  “This is not about whether or not I want you, Mischa.  This is about preservation.”

“For me?”

He began to walk.  “For both of us.”

“Wait a second.”  Mischa had never been one to let a matter drop, especially when the subject involved her.  She walked faster and caught up with him, grabbing his hand.  “I said, wait a second.”  When he stopped walking, she spoke again.  “What’s going on here?”

His eyes raked over her face, her hair, a lover’s caress.  She knew he wanted her.  She read everything she needed to know on his face.  He shook his head and removed her hand from his.  “Mischa, please.  Let us not discuss this further.  Though we want, we cannot have.”

She clamped her hands on her hips.  “So vampires don’t have sex?”

His eyes sparked.  “Is that what you’re offering?”

Her jaw clenched, and for a moment, she contemplated hitting him. “This isn’t about what I’m offering.”

“No?”  He circled around her.  “Then tell me you weren’t giving yourself to me when you tipped your head back, knowing it was an enticement?”

“Did it ever occur to you that I was in the moment, that maybe, just maybe I had forgotten you were a vampire?”

Rhad whipped back around, catching a hand full of her hair.  “Never.  I mean, never forget that I am a vampire.  Such a mistake could be detrimental to your health.”

She stared up at him, her eyes clashing with his.  Though his hand was a little tight in her hair, she didn’t try to break free.  Instead, she squared her shoulders and thrust out her chin. 

“Don’t try to threaten me, Rhad. 
You
offered to help me.  This was your decision, not mine.”

“I dare say ‘twas not so much my choice since you arrived at my doorstep in such a beguiling manner.”

The jibe was ignored. “So if you want to help me, fine, but you will not,” she thumped his chest, “and I repeat, will not, wave your blood-thirsty ways in my face in an attempt to keep me in line.”

Rhad released her as if her hair had just singed his hand.  “You know nothing of my ways.”

Snorting her derision, Mischa plunked herself down on the ground, drawing her knees closer to her chest.  “You’re a vampire.  What’s not to know?  You sleep during the day, hunt at night, and you snack on innocent people.  You can be killed with a stake to the heart, and sunlight isn’t particularly beneficial to your skin.” 

She peered up at him though the shadows hid his face from her eyesight.  “As those guys we left back there,” she thumbed back down the path, “you survive by drinking human blood.  Am I close?”

Rhad grabbed her upper arms and dragged her to her feet, pinning her between a tree and his body.  “As I said, you know nothing about me.  Nothing about my ways.  Do not attempt to segregate me into a category simply because I had the choice taken away from me. I didn’t get to decide how I would live the rest of my life, the rest of my very long life.”

Mischa struggled against him.  “Let go of me.”  She kicked at his shin, but he only held her higher.  Then, with only a small twinge of guilt, she resorted to the helpless female tactic.  “You’re hurting me.”  She injected just the right amount of fear into her voice. 

He released her immediately, carefully lowering her to the ground.  She rubbed her arms.  “What is it with you?”

Rhad ran his hands through his hair, and for a brief moment, Mischa thought she saw the sheen of tears on his face, but then she decided it must be the moonlight. 

“I do not drink the blood of humans,” he finally said in a low, guttural voice.

Mischa stared at him.  “That’s impossible.  How do you survive?”

“I did not choose to survive in this body, Mischa, but I can choose how I will live out the remainder of my life.”

“Which, as you said, could be a very long time.” A sense of uneasiness crept its way up her spine, like maybe there was something different about this vampire. Of course, she didn’t really know another vampire to compare him with, but Rhad wasn’t the every day garden variety she’d read about online.

He inclined his head shortly.  “I will not die by ordinary means.”

“But that doesn’t tell me how you live now.  Nor how you can choose not to give in to the vampire within you.”

“That’s a story for another day.”

Mischa stood in front of him.  “That’s it?  That’s all you’re going to say?” Did the man know how to finish a conversation?

“Do you still want to find your sister?”

“You know I do.”

“Then we should go.  The night draws on, and we will need to seek shelter soon.”

“You mean you will need to seek shelter soon.”

Rhad didn’t respond to the snide remark, and Mischa instantly regretted voicing it. She’d been thrown a curve ball with this different side of Rhad Valentine.  Having come to Romania to search for him, she’d never expected to end up outside his door in such an undignified manner. That one still bore some consideration.

Though Mischa considered herself a well-educated woman and a follower of the fates, she certainly didn’t believe in teleporting or any such nonsense which could have possibly explained her unceremonious arrival.

While her thoughts jumbled together in one mass, she slid a glance at Rhad’s stoic profile. She’d spent the night in the house with a vampire thinking she was taking her life in her own hands only to discover that he didn’t imbibe human blood.  More confused than ever, she shook her head and started to walk.

“I’m going to figure you out, Rhad Valentine.”

Towering over her, he walked beside her.  “You can try, meu dragoste.”

My love.
  The words echoed through her heart.  How could a vampire want her as much as Rhad wanted her and yet not drink the blood flowing so furiously within her veins?  It made no sense to her.

Mischa cleared her throat and tried a different topic.  “Why are we walking?”

“Because we cannot fly,” Rhad responded in a droll tone of voice.

She made a rude noise. Weren’t vampires supposed to be able to convert to bats and fly? Perhaps Rhad could, but his abilities didn’t allow him to take a passenger. That would mean he was actually being courteous.

Another glance at the side of his face told her that wasn’t a possibility. She couldn’t imagine the man was too familiar with courtesy.

 “I mean, why aren’t we taking a car?  I presume you do have one of those, don’t you?” She stopped walking and spun around to face the broken path they’d just traveled.  “We’ve been walking all this time, and I’m sure there’s a better way to get to where we’re going.”

“No.  There is not.”

“There are no roads?”

Rhad sighed and stopped to face her.  “Mischa, I know what I’m doing.”

She drew in a deep, steadying breath.  God save her from arrogant vampires.  “Then enlighten me because I don’t know why we’re trudging along when we could be motoring.”

“The roads are rural and unkempt, and the village we seek is practically uninhabited.”

Mischa clamped her hands on her hips and tilted her head toward the sky.  She muttered something derogatory under her breath before she fixed Rhad with a fulminating stare. 

“And tell me again how you know this village is where we will find my sister?”  She held up one hand.  “No, on second thought, don’t.  I don’t think I want to hear anymore about your second sight.”  She made another scoffing noise and walked past him.  “Of all the people to get stuck with, I have to find the only clairvoyant vampire.”