Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series) (18 page)

No, not her. She stared into Kearn’s eyes. These were his feelings again.

The tempo of the music increased. Her legs were growing tired but she kept going, determined to finish the dance.

“You must curtsey to the duke and allow him to place your hands. Do not speak unless spoken to and do not look him in the eye. Keep your gaze on his chest.” The warmth was gone from Kearn’s face and voice, but at least he wasn’t shutting her out again.

“Why?”

Kearn turned with her and she caught a glimpse of the duke. He was still watching her.

“Because regardless of what he said to you, you are beneath him, just as I am.”

Amber wanted to ask why he was beneath the duke but the hurt was back in his eyes. Would he really tell her later or had he been using it as an excuse to keep her quiet on the subject so she would forget about it? She would never forget the way the people had treated him tonight.

“Remain polite at all times and maintain the proper distance between you and him.”

Kearn’s hand slid around her back and he drew her closer to him, until their chests were against each other the whole time they danced. That wasn’t proper distance, but she didn’t care. It felt too good to be this close to him, in his arms. It didn’t matter that her feet were tired and her legs ached. She wanted to keep dancing so she could remain like this with him.

Her eyes met his just as he was about to speak and his mouth closed. He stared down into her eyes, warmth resurfacing in his. She was glad the loneliness was gone again. They shone now, and deep contentment filled her. It wasn’t only her feelings.

Kearn raised his left hand and trailed his fingertips down her bare arm and then over her long black satin glove. The touch was light and sensual, teasing her and stealing her breath. Her lips parted and her gaze fell to his mouth. His parted too, an invite to a kiss that she wanted to take more than anything. The world disappeared again and she was drifting with him with nothing but the sound of her heart beating and the light strings of the orchestra filling her ears.

She raised her gaze to his. Red tinted the edges of his irises. What was he thinking to make them look like that?

The dance ended.

He took her hand from his shoulder, raised it to his lips, bowed low and pressed a kiss to it.

Amber smiled, warm all over, and then realised that she wasn’t the only one looking at him. Half of the room had stopped to stare again and were whispering to each other. Her gaze stopped on Kyran. He stood a few metres away, blue eyes narrowed behind his black mask. The woman in his arms looked disgusted.

Kearn rose, turned Amber’s hand in his, and led her from the dance floor. Either he was oblivious to the dirty looks they were receiving or he didn’t care. They stopped in the spot where they had been before, near the wall and away from everyone.

“You danced well.” He smiled.

Amber smiled too and touched the spot on her glove that Kearn had kissed. Was the kiss why everyone looked so shocked? She had wanted far more than such a tame moment of intimacy. She had considered kissing him on the mouth.

“That was quite a spectacle.” Venom dripped from the male voice.

Amber looked up to see Kyran stood beside Kearn, glaring at him. Kearn’s expression was void of emotion as he stared back. The tension between them was palpable. Kyran’s red eyes darted to her and his lips compressed. None of the usual kindness and charm touched his face now.

“A Noble lowering himself to a human.” Pure disgust tainted his expression and his tone. She had been wrong. The kiss hadn’t shocked everyone. It was the fact that Kearn had bowed to her. Kyran smirked. “Do not expect such behaviour from Duke Montagu.”

She wasn’t sure how to react or what to say.

Kyran snorted in her direction and then grabbed Kearn’s upper arm.

“Excuse me, I must speak with my little brother before he ridicules the entire family.” He turned on his heel and dragged Kearn away.

Kearn didn’t seem to care that he was in for an earful. He looked back over his shoulder at her.

“Do not move from that spot. I will not be long. I will bring you a drink.” He actually smiled.

Amber’s eyebrows rose. She stood rooted to the spot, watching the brothers. Kyran jerked to a halt and shoved Kearn out in front of him, pushing him back towards the wall near the corner of the room. She was too far away to hear them but their thunderous expressions said they were arguing. Kearn threw Kyran’s hand from his arm and stepped up to him. She wanted to know what they were saying.

“That was quite a dance.”

Amber turned quickly to face the owner of the female voice.

A short dark haired young woman and two other women, both of them closer to Amber’s height, stood before her. They were all wearing black empire-line dresses with a lot of cleavage on show, and a lot of make-up in sombre tones. They looked like death, ashen and dull.

Amber smiled politely. Kearn had told her that there would be other humans at the ball and they might be unmasked. These women were going through the transition from human to vampire. If she were bitten, would she look this bad when changing?

Heat touched her cheeks when she thought about Kearn biting her. She had dreamt of it today while sleeping in his bed and had tossed and turned so much that Kearn had woken her by knocking hard on the door and asking whether something was wrong. She had blushed ten shades of red then and hadn’t been able to tell him the truth. Instead, she had said it was nothing and had hurried into the shower. He had gone out and when he had come back, he had given her the dress.

She felt incredibly sexy in it.

Especially when he told her that she looked beautiful.

“He is quite the catch.” The blonde woman in the group looked past Amber.

Amber followed her gaze. Kearn was still arguing with Kyran. The other vampires nearby had moved away and were warily watching them. What were they arguing about? It couldn’t just be about her. Was it about their family name too?

“And so subservient.”

She looked back at the three women. They all smiled at her. She didn’t think that Kearn was subservient but she smiled anyway.

“To think a Noble would behave such a way.” The short dark haired one cast a wistful look in Kearn’s direction and then her brown eyes found Amber’s again. “I have never seen anything like it.”

The third woman, a brunette with a bob, stepped forwards and looked Amber over. “How far along are you?”

Amber glanced down at her stomach. She looked pregnant?

“I thought the dress was quite flattering.” She skimmed her hands down her sides. Kearn definitely liked it, and she’d had a duke and Kyran call her beautiful too.

All three women laughed.

“In your turning.” The brunette smiled. “You must be far along for a Noble to behave in such a way. It shocked the crowd something terrible.”

Amber hadn’t failed to notice that.

The blonde twisted her hair around her fingers. “I’ve almost completed my transition but my Lesser Noble won’t even dance with me.”

Kearn had also warned Amber that humans going through the transition never danced. Most Nobles and Lesser Nobles didn’t associate with them until they had fully turned. It seemed strange that they went to the trouble of courting a human to convince them to become a vampire and then discarded them during their transition. It was almost cruel. Kearn hadn’t said what happened when they had finished becoming a vampire.

“So how far along are you?” the brunette prompted.

Amber smiled politely. “I’m not a vampire.”

They all laughed again.

“No.” The blonde took Amber’s black gloved hand and patted it. “You’re what my Lesser Noble refers to as a chrysalis—the transition from disgusting worm to beautiful butterfly—and you must be close to spreading your wings.”

Amber’s smile faltered at the corners. “I’m afraid you’re all quite mistaken. I’m the caterpillar.”

They gasped and backed off a step. The blonde woman dropped her hand and wiped hers on her dress, glaring at her as though she had been the one to take hold of her.

“A human.” The dark haired one sneered and flicked her long locks behind her shoulder, revealing a set of scars on her neck.

The three women turned their backs on her, looped their arms together, and moved off as one, disappearing into the black-clad crowd.

Heat burned through Amber, a remnant of her dream. Kearn had bitten her neck. She had worn marks just like that woman. If she did in reality, would Kearn treat her differently? Was he merely courting her with the intention of sending her through the transition and then discarding her until she had become like him?

No. He wanted to protect her, even from himself. He had slipped tonight and allowed a glimmer of his feelings to shine through, but she was sure that he wasn’t out to make her into a vampire.

She turned to look for Kearn and found Duke Montagu standing before her. Instinct whispered that it was dangerous for her to be alone with him. He frowned over her head towards the women and then at her, his red eyes intent and cold behind his black mask. He was over one thousand years old. How powerful did that make him?

“I hope they have not upset you,” he said with charm and grace. “If they have, I will see to it that the young Venator is punished.”

Amber’s eyes darted towards Kearn. He stood a few metres behind the duke, a glass of champagne in his hand. His eyes were wide. Stunned? She couldn’t feel anything of the sort. He could definitely control the connection between them and had shut her out again.

“I was not offended.” She smiled, not wanting him to punish Kearn for what he had done. It was an honour to have such a noble man lower himself to her regardless of the rules.

There wasn’t a trace of cruelty in the duke’s smile this time. His red eyes held hers.

“Jealousy is such an ugly thing.” His eyes narrowed as his smile widened. “The presence of such a beautiful creature will always upset those desiring to attain beauty beyond their grasp.”

Amber wished that Kearn had been the one to say those words. If he had been standing before her, telling her again how beautiful she was, she would have kissed him. She wouldn’t have cared if they had thrown them out for it either.

She glanced past the duke to Kearn. He no longer looked stunned. The warm edge to his eyes told her that he believed the duke’s words and what he had told her earlier. When he looked at her like that, with a shine to his green eyes and a smile starting to tease at his lips, she felt as beautiful as he painted her to be.

She blushed and looked back at the duke. He stared in the direction of the three women.

“They had hoped to believe you almost a vampire, desiring that they would become as beautiful as you on their transition, and that their master would show them such attention.” His gaze dropped to her and a serious look replaced his smile. “They are still foolish enough to believe it will happen. What they will find when they join us is nothing more than they have now—empty vanity and a male who will move on to a new female.”

The women had been nasty to her once they had realised that she was human but she felt sorry for them. They only wanted their vampire to love them. They were alike in that respect. She barely knew Kearn but she was falling for him, and she wanted him to fall for her too. She had come here tonight with the intention of keeping his attention on her, desiring him to be as lost in her as she felt in him. Regardless of their differences and the fact they walked in two different worlds, she wanted to be with him.

“But you,” Duke Montagu said. “If you changed, you
would
attain that beauty and the heart of your Noble. You would rule absolute.”

A shiver danced through her and her gaze roamed to Kearn. Would she really win his heart that way?

No trace of denial touched Kearn’s features. His eyes were open, allowing her to read his feelings in them, but she couldn’t decipher them and she desperately wanted to.

“I said a Noble.” Duke Montagu’s tone was darker, commanding, and her gaze snapped back to him. “Not a Venator. Such a creature is unworthy of you. I spoke of someone like myself.”

In the corner of her vision, Kearn’s eyes turned vivid red.

Duke Montagu raised an eyebrow and his gaze slid to the side, towards Kearn, but he didn’t turn to face him.

“You dare to threaten me, Venator?” The duke’s voice was pure ice. His red eyes narrowed behind his mask.

Kearn’s irises melted back to green and he lowered his head.

Duke Montagu held his hand out to one side, towards the dance floor.

The music stopped.

The crowd parted and left the large dance floor bare.

“Allow me to show you how a true Noble behaves.”

Amber looked at Kearn.

He cast his gaze to one side. She could feel hurt inside her, a dull ache in her chest, that wasn’t just hers.

She followed Duke Montagu onto the dance floor, her heart too heavy to care whether she made a fool of herself. When she stopped opposite the duke in the middle of the dance floor, she glanced back at Kearn.

He was watching her now.

She wanted to go to him and tell him that he was worthy of her.

She didn’t want the duke or anyone else for that matter.

She only wanted him.

CHAPTER 12

A
mber didn’t have much of a chance to ready herself. The moment the music started, Duke Montagu pulled her into his arms and swept her around the empty dance floor. The tempo was fast, the brass triumphant and the choir singing beautifully, but all of it was lost on her as she tried to focus on dancing. She lifted the hem of her black dress to stop herself from tripping on it and kept her gaze fixed on Duke Montagu’s chest.

Her focus slipped but her feet kept going, galloping to the music. The pace was at least twice the speed of her waltz with Kearn. She tried to see him but the people lining the edge of the dance floor created a black blurry wall.

Her legs were already beginning to tire.

“You dance rather well for a woman who has only had one lesson.”