Finding Faerie (11 page)

“A
nyhow…” Leo continued, as if he hadn’t just told me that he slaughtered thirteen women that were responsible for saving his life. I knew he had killed people in the past; he told me so himself. But I always assumed that they were horrible people. Did that make it any better? I didn’t know. A year ago I would have firmly said no, but considering I’ve killed a woman, and now possibly a second, the lines were blurred. “Karli, are you listening to me?”

Crap! “Uh, sorry. Please continue.”

He cleared his throat. “As I was saying, after the bond was broken, I came out to Vegas as we had planned. It was quite isolated back then. The Strip was non-existent at that point. It was the perfect place for staying under the radar. I began construction on my home while waiting for her to join me.”

“Did she need to break her bond with him before she could come out?”

He shook his head. “No. As co-creators of our race, they had no physical obligation to one another. They were equals. Blood bonds, which typically signify subservience, didn’t come into play until they sired others.”

Okay, ignoring the subservient piece for now to stay on topic. “So why didn’t she just accompany you to New York?”

“Because when I went there, he could track
me
. She traveled extensively while I was in isolation, always making sure his men were following and reporting back to him. She was counting on his obsession with her. She figured that he wouldn’t be concerned with me if we were separated. She was right.”

“So if I understand the timeline correctly, about six months had passed at that point?”

“Correct. Slightly over.”

“When did she join you?”

“She didn’t.” His voice was so low I could barely hear him.

“Why not? You said that she was going to join you in Vegas.”

He looked up, sadness heavily reflected in his eyes. “Because she died. He killed her.”

“Oh, Leo, I’m so sorry.” Inadequate, I know, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

I knew there was more to the story when Leo first mentioned his relationship with Renata. He never told me why they split; I had assumed one or both had simply grown tired of their lengthy affair. I knew she had died somehow, but he made it seem like that happened after their relationship ended. I saw him differently now, knowing that her
death
had ended things. Leo was basically a widower. No, they hadn’t technically been married, but being with the same person for four
centuries
counted as marriage in my book. Hell, they’d probably still be together if Khonsu hadn’t taken action. I wasn’t ready to admit how I felt about that.

He cleared his throat. “Thank you, my love, but I’ve made peace with it. Would you like to hear the rest of the story?”

I didn’t believe for one second that he’d made peace with her death. “Yes, please do.”

“We had agreed to meet on the seventh moon,” he continued. “She didn’t make it, of course, but I decided to give her a little more time. International travel back then wasn’t as easy as it is today, especially for a vampire. When she didn’t show on the eighth moon, I made arrangements to return to our home in London.”

“What happened when you got there?”

“A package was waiting for me.”

“A package?” I repeated.

He gulped. “Yes. Our butler had remained behind to care for the house. He accepted delivery but we left no forwarding address so he stored it in the library.”

“What was in it?”

He stared at his clasped hands for a moment. “A letter.”

“From whom?”

“Khonsu. It only had two sentences written on it. It said Renata was
his
and if she were fool enough to think otherwise, she deserved to pay for it with her life.”

“But how do you know he
killed
her? That letter could be perceived as a threat, not necessarily an admission.”

He raised his head and looked me directly in the eye. “Because her severed head was with the letter.”

I slammed my hand over my mouth to stifle my gasp. “What’d you do? Did you look for him?” I could imagine Leo going on a rampage, hell bent on revenge.

He shook his head. “No. When Charles, our butler, saw what happened he brought me another letter. This one was from Renata. She had instructed him to deliver it to me upon her death. She foretold that Khonsu would end her life one day. If that happened, she wanted me to seek shelter, not vengeance. It was her dying wish that I move far away and continue to live my life.

“She said she had lived almost two thousand years and was at peace with her death, provided there was a good cause. She loved me more than her own life and needed my promise that I would follow her instruction so she could rest, knowing she died protecting me. She willed her entire estate to me, making me a very wealthy man. As much as it killed me to leave, I did so out of respect and love for her.”

Wow, talk about a tragic love story. “So…you came back to Vegas?”

“I did,” he confirmed. “I spent the next sixty years or so dealing with my grief in ways that will forever haunt me. I threw myself into building an empire, trying to fill the void with work, women, violence—you name it, I probably did it. It wasn’t until the incident with Maria that I woke up…that’s when the cloud was lifted.”

Leo and Maria had an affair while she was still married to Vance. He had turned her into a vampire as one final
fuck you
to Vance for messing with his shady business partners. She was a completely willing participant but unbeknownst to him, she was pregnant with Vance’s child at the time. To change, the person had to be drained almost completely of their blood. Their heart must be near the point of death before their sire’s blood can be mixed with their own. Leo felt the baby’s heart stop while he was drinking her blood. He’d never gotten over the guilt of taking such an innocent being’s life. He told me that had been the moment when he ended all ties to anyone that exploited or harmed others. He focused solely on running legitimate businesses and made it his mission in life to atone for his past behavior. I already knew this part of the story, but until now, I didn’t know what drove his nefarious behavior prior to that. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time grief made someone do something they’d later regret.

I didn’t realize I had been crying until Leo swiped a tear from my cheek. “I think that’s enough conversation for the evening, don’t you?”

I sniffed. “Yeah, I guess.”

He stood up from the couch and offered his hand. “Let’s go to sleep.”

The day’s events must’ve caught up with me at once because it only took a moment to drift off after I settled in Leo’s arms.

I
awoke sometime later when I heard a strange noise coming from the master bathroom. I rolled over and saw Leo moving around behind a small crack in the door. Normally, I’d give him his privacy, but it sounded like he was having trouble with something. He was grunting, but not in a good way. 

I tiptoed across the room so I could take a peek. I really didn’t want to interrupt him if it
was
the good kind of grunting. I gasped as soon as I saw his reflection in the mirror, totally busting myself in the process. “Oh, Leo, why didn’t you tell me?”

I pushed the door open. He was fully naked, which under any other circumstance would wreak havoc on my hormones. Bloodied bandages littered the pristine marble counter top. The right side of his body was still completely burned from his armpit down to his knee. He must have been examining his injuries in the mirror.

He hissed when I lightly touched his shoulder. Upon closer inspection, I could see that it was also burned, only not nearly as bad. The skin was an angry shade of red there, which was a major upgrade from the blistered, ashy flesh below.

He turned away from me and grabbed a robe hanging from a hook. “I’ll be fine, my love. Go back to bed. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Bullshit.” I grabbed the robe, silently playing tug-of-war with him. “You need more blood, Leo. You
were
in pain earlier. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I’ll order some from the blood bank later today.”

“Are you kidding me?” I shrieked. “
I
did this to you.
I
will be the one to make it right.”

He released the robe. “No.”

“No?” I repeated. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

“I will not take any more of your blood. I’ll get some from the bank later today and I’ll be good as new in no time.”

“You’re being ridiculous, Leo. I’m not going to let you sit here and suffer for one second longer than you have to. Especially not when I’m at fault.”

He puffed out his chest. “I’m not in any pain. I’ll be fine.”

“Oh, yeah, tough guy?” I jabbed a particularly nasty part with my finger. Harsh, I know, but I needed to win this any way I could.

“Karli,” he growled.

“See? You’re not fine!” I grabbed his face, forcing him to look me in the eyes. “Leo, I trust you. I know, without a doubt, that you will be able to stop drinking before you take too much. I need to do this.
Please
, let me do this for you.”

He sighed. “Fine, but only on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“That if I lose control, you will use
any weapon necessary
to defend yourself. Do you agree?”

The thought of doing that to him again made me sick, but I knew he wouldn’t let me help if I didn’t agree to his terms. “Fine.”

“I’m serious, Karli.”

“I am too,” I countered. “So, how do you want to do this? The neck is one of the best spots, right?”

He stared at the throbbing pulse point on my neck. “Yes, that would be fine.”

I pulled my hair over my shoulder and cocked my head to the side. “The neck it is then!”

He turned me towards the mirror by my shoulders. “You need to watch this.”

“Why?”

He met my eyes in the mirror. “Because you need to look for evidence that I might be losing control. Pay close attention to my body language; it would become more rigid in the early stages. You need to focus, my love. You cannot allow the pleasure of my bite to consume you.”

Oh cripes, why did he have to bring that up? Now all I could think about was chasing the Big O. “What if I can’t help it?”

His fingers bit into my shoulders. “You
must
. If you miss the early warning signs, then look for changes in my eye color. If I lose control, my irises will turn into a dark shade of red. If you see that, I’m not in my right mind. You need to promise me that you’ll do whatever is required to protect yourself.”

“What if your eyes are closed?”

“I will keep them open.”

“But what if you forget?”

He sighed. “You are exasperating, woman.”

I smirked. “I’m just trying to keep it real.”

He smiled. “If I forget, and that’s a
big if
, then ask me to open them. If I refuse, take that as a bad sign.”

I saluted. “Yes, sir!”

He rolled his eyes. “Are you done now?”

I caught a glimpse of his injuries as he shifted. Well, that sobered a girl right up. I nodded my head in agreement. “Let’s do this.”

He pulled back the collar of my robe. “Eyes on me, my dear.”

I did as I was told, and focused solely on what was happening through our reflections. His fangs lengthened as he brushed my hair to the side and traced a finger down the length of my neck, over the rise of my jugular. I may or may not have been a little turned on from that. Okay, there was no maybe about it.
Of course
I was.

“You ready?”

“Uh huh,” I whispered.

I felt a quick sting as his fangs penetrated my skin. That turned into unbelievable pleasure as he started to drink. Oh God,
so much fucking pleasure
. I had to grip the countertop to steady myself. A thin line of blood dripped down my neck. I was fascinated as it rolled past my collarbone, disappearing into the valley between my breasts. I knew that I was supposed to be watching him for safety purposes, but the mirror was only increasing the overwhelming lust that I was feeling. It felt like I was having an out of body experience. I was a voyeur into my own life and it was
hot
.

I was so turned on, I ached. The blood from earlier had soaked through every layer of clothing, so
all
I was wearing was this robe. I could feel my desire coating my inner thighs. I tried clenching my legs together to ease the ache, but that only made it worse as my needy parts now had some friction to work with. I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood, but a wanton moan still escaped.

Our eyes met in the mirror. I was watching him, and he was watching me. His body was molded to mine, his front to my back. There was nothing rigid about him at all. Well, that’s not entirely true. There
was
one particular body part that was as stiff as they come, insistently pressing into my behind.  His eyes were glazed over, but they were still a beautiful shade of blue. He appeared to be as lost in the moment as I was.

The burns were healing before my eyes. New skin had formed over his shoulder, down to his torso, ending at his sinewy thigh. There was no longer any charred flesh, but he was still pulling deeply from my vein. His hands had moved from my shoulders to my ribs; h
H
is fingers dug into my sides, holding me in place. The mother of all orgasms was close. So close. I didn’t want him to stop until she made an appearance. Hell, I didn’t know if I
ever
wanted him to
stop. This man owned me, body and soul.

I closed my eyes as he tugged deeper, grinding his erection into my backside. A moment later, his arms banded tightly around my torso.
Too tightly
. I opened my eyes and saw that his lids were now closed. “Leo, open your eyes.” No response. I reached back and tugged on his hair. “Leo!”

His eyes popped open and two perfectly round garnets were staring back at me.
Shit.