Ronan gave a half smile, then murmured, “Welcome to my home.”
Her throat went dry. A roar in her ears intensified then receded, dizziness assailing her as carefully withheld emotions spilled free, overwhelming and intense. She stumbled, and Ronan—Sean—steadied her with an iron grip.
“
You’re
Sean?” she whispered, dazed. But it all made so much sense in hindsight. She’d been so blinded by him, her thoughts so scattered, she’d never once registered that her senses didn’t buzz forewarning as they did with other nightwalkers.
Hysteria surged, a bitter laugh almost spilling free. He wasn’t just any other vampire. He was the Ancient One, a dark lord whose unearthly aura was effortlessly contained. He had more power, more control and more knowledge than she’d probably ever have even if she did happen to live to his present age.
It was rumored he was a freak of nature, a gifted elder vampire, to have thwarted so many enemies and survived such a lifespan.
“Sean Edward Ronan Maximillus—” he swept a theatrical bow “—at your service. But, please, call me Ronan.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice cracked. “Why play games with me?”
His hard stare appeared to soften. “It’s never been a game,” he rasped. “I desire you like no woman ever before.” Grooves etched into his smooth brow. “Is it so bad to have you want me, for me? And not because I’m the Ancient One?”
Something joyous quivered to life within her, but the emotion quickly dissolved, as the blood drained from her face. Light-headedness gradually receded, but her pulses jumped in alarm. Had she come all this way, searched frantically for the Ancient One, only to discover he couldn’t help her mother after all?
His frown deepened, a mocking glint in his stare. “I’m not that big a disappointment, surely?”
“I thought…I’d hoped, you could help me,” she whispered.
He stepped closer, his hand curling around her arm once again before he drew her to a low and comfy lounge. He sat beside her, all lean animal grace. “What makes you imagine I can’t?” he asked.
She pressed a hand to her brow, looking straight ahead. “I…I thought you’d be different.” She turned to him. Her hand dropped and she shrugged. “Older.”
“You expected some evil, pasty-faced vampire straight out of a horror novel?” At her silence he clucked his tongue and said, “You really have been kept in the dark. Such a shame.”
She raised her chin. How could he possibly understand her deep-seated mistrust of her own kind? She swallowed past the tightness in her throat and admitted, “My mother brought me up as mortal.”
If he disapproved, he didn’t show it. Even so, she found herself leaping to her mother’s defense. “If she hadn’t, vampires would have killed her—just for her awareness of the immortal race.”
He crooked a dark brow and said softly, “You don’t really believe your presence wasn’t noticed, do you?”
“What do you mean?” But the sinking feeling deep in her belly confirmed her growing suspicion.
“Youngling vampires may have been fooled by your
humanness
, but the elder of our species certainly weren’t.”
“So you
knew
about me?”
“Yes.” He smiled, completely unrepentant. “Half-breeds are extremely rare. We keep track.” His eyes darkened. “And we’ve never made it a practice to kill off mortal parents who know how to keep quiet.”
Kia’s mind swam. She didn’t know what to think, what to feel. In just the last few minutes alone she’d experienced every emotion possible. Her eyes closed momentarily. When she next looked at him, his smile had softened.
Her breath snagged. She wouldn’t be fooled, wouldn’t trust this man—this vampire—for even a second. He’d already let her assume he wasn’t immortal, wasn’t Sean. She’d be even more foolish to think he wouldn’t know every trick in the book and then some. He’d have practiced manipulation until it’d become a fine art.
Her shoulders sagged. Really, it was all irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things. “Then…you must know that my…my mother needs help.”
He didn’t reply. But once started, she couldn’t stop herself from speaking the awful truth. “She’s sick.
Dying
. The only possible cure is blood from the Ancient One.” Her insides raw, she linked her hands and clasped them, almost prayer-like, just beneath her breasts. “You.”
“You seem to know so little about my race. What makes you imagine elder blood, my ancient blood in particular, would help your mother?”
“I mightn’t know much about nightwalkers,” she admitted, “but I know a little. Even mortals have heard about the legendary healing properties of the Ancient One’s blood.”
He stared at her for a long moment, unblinking, his expression unfathomable. Then he stood, his face still unreadable. A mask. “You are willing to do…anything, for this cure?”
Her senses screamed warning, jangled like chimes before an approaching storm.
Oh, hell
. She had so easily misread him, trusted him. Right now she could see nothing yielding or kind to this vampire, nothing but pure self-interest governed by almost limitless power.
She jerked to her feet, backing away a few steps as growing anxiety clawed within.
Bitterness edged his voice, stopping her in her tracks as he drawled, “Your reaction is why I never told you who I was.”
She cast him a chilling glare and his lips curled at the edges, a smile that didn’t quite make it to his eyes when he added, “I prefer your hate to your fear.”
She didn’t fear him. Not really. Not deep down. But did she hate him? She should—perhaps she did. Yet she was drawn to him still, fascinated by him.
Her hands clenched into fists. “Vampires fear you for good reason.”
“Perhaps.” He shrugged, his mouth drawing tight. “I haven’t lived this many years by being soft. I’ve had to make difficult, even painful decisions. Being the Ancient One hasn’t come without a price.”
He raked a hand through his hair, emitting a sigh. “When you mistook me as a human and chose me as your lover, I knew right away I’d do everything in my power to keep my identity secret—stop who I was from coming between us.”
“At the expense of my mother?” she whispered, dazed, disbelieving.
“At first, yes.”
Her breath caught somewhere between her chest and throat. “And now?”
His eyes glittered in all their silver glory. “That all depends on you.”
She felt her eyes blaze in response as she lifted her chin. Her mother had made great sacrifices for her, now it was time to return the favor. Squaring her shoulders, she glided toward him. She stilled and looked up. “Then I say yes.” She took a deep, steadying breath. “Yes, I’m willing to do anything for her cure.”
He smiled, really smiled. And in that moment she read his satisfaction, and maybe even relief. The tips of his fangs appeared, and she knew he was aroused.
His stare possessive and steely and wise, and so very, very old, she saw the
real
him. The vampire who’d lived many centuries and experienced more than she could comprehend. A vampire with power and intelligence beyond anyone she’d met.
She couldn’t help but wonder again how she could have been so blind. Even after she’d discovered he wasn’t human, she’d never once questioned that he, a vampire, could be the Ancient One.
He nodded slowly. “I do believe you would.” He shrugged out of his jacket and leisurely slipped off his gaping shirt. Bare-chested, he tilted his head to the side, fully exposing his neck. “In that case, drink me.”
No! Not that
.
Her eyes widened. She reeled backward. Her calves hit the lounge and she thudded back onto her rear. Shit. She’d heard he was merciless and cold. Discreet whisperings of his cruelty had reached even her ears—but to ask
this
of her?
Words somehow churned past the thick lump wedged in her throat. “You’ve already drank from me. If I drink from you, we’ll be bonded,” she swallowed rising terror, “our shared blood linking us body and soul. Blood-tied!”
“For eternity.” He nodded sagely. “Yes.”
“You hardly know me.”
I don’t know you.
“I know enough.”
Of course he did. He’d been around long enough to know what he liked, what he didn’t.
He leaned down and grasped her hand. His touch sent a frisson along her skin before humming through her veins like electricity. “We have the rest of tonight. Tomorrow, you will take me to your mother.”
She jerked away, but paused when he sent a warning stare. And suddenly she knew this was her one and only opportunity—and she hated that he’d taken all choice away from her. Hated that he’d duped her again and again, and that she’d been naive enough to let him. Hated him for using her mother’s deadly illness to force her to his will.
Something improbably close to remorse flickered across his face, but she realized she’d been sadly mistaken, when he pulled her up and caught her close.
“Such passion,” he murmured. “I look forward to our time together.”
She trembled, despising him with all her being. And though his mouth settled onto hers like a rasp of silk, his tongue pressing past her lips and tasting within like an expert connoisseur, she wasn’t about to melt against him.
It took all her willpower to remain still, to not react and stay passive under the passionate mouth that so effortlessly claimed hers.
His head reared back, his eyes burning like hot coals. “
Dios
. You cannot fight against your blood instincts.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll sure have fun trying,” she hissed.
His eyes glazed red, and she realized her challenge had sent him over the edge. She smiled, her fangs pushing against her gums until they burned and ached while she fought, and won, control over her physical response.
Her downfall would be on her terms, not his.
She was strong, lethal, but she had no chance against him physically or mentally. He was the Ancient One, king of the vampires, lord of the secret race. He’d outlived many a cunning, powerful and swift nightwalker.
She knew hunger shone from her eyes as everything blurred red at the edges. He moved toward her, expectant, hungry, but she stepped aside. “Sit down,” she ordered.
A languid smile curled his lips, but he did as she asked. A thrill shot down her spine, seeping moisture between her thighs. She closed her eyes, feeling the moment, freeing her body’s inhibitions as she swayed to the silence.
She didn’t need music, simply writhed to her own rhythm, her arms lifting, turning, floating while her hips swiveled. She slipped her hands behind her head and under her hair, pulling it forward, across her breast.
She opened her eyes. Ronan…Sean, sat forward, his eyes burning hot, his fangs sharp, pointed, and ready to strike.
“How badly do you want me?” she breathed out.
His stare narrowed, but she read his strengthening arousal. “More than you know.”
She smiled, slowly twisting, shimmying. “Take my dress off,” she instructed huskily.
He climbed lithely to his feet, for the moment clearly happy to obey. His hands brushed her skin, sending skitters of sensation through her body even before he’d taken the hem of her dress and tugged it up.
She lifted suddenly boneless arms, the air a cool breath on her bare skin as he flicked the dress over her head and tossed it aside.
His stare flamed into bloodlust as he took his fill of her, raking over her naked form. He murmured something, an old language, she surmised, and then the tips of his fingers were grazing her bare skin, causing hot shivers to snake through her blood.
A moan slipped from her throat when his head dipped and he trailed kisses over her goose-bumped skin. Her entire body quaked with need, her mind disregarding everything but this moment.
He dropped into a crouch, and as she felt his hands part her thighs and expose her womanly flesh, her gaze slashed to meet his upturned stare. His lips quirked, then, with his eyes pinned to hers, he leaned forward and in one long, delicious stroke, licked her sensitive bud.
Oh, yes
.
Desire danced through her core and rippled out through every nerve ending in her body, making her weak. Her legs crumpled, but he held her upright with just a hand, his vampire strength and immortal age so suddenly telling.
He licked her again. She inhaled sharply, and when he marked her tender flesh with a scrape of his fangs, she gasped excruciating pleasure, bloodlust hurtling through her veins.
She was hazily aware of his dark head zeroing in on her center once more. But only after he took her aching bud into his mouth and suckled with expert precision, did she cry out, wave after wave of rapture crashing through her system before ever so slowly ebbing into heavy-limbed lethargy.
He pushed to his feet. Thumb and forefinger tilted up her chin. “Time for bed,” he rasped, every atom in his face conveying just how little sleep she’d get this night.
The realization made her woozy. Right now she may hate him with every fiber of her being, but this…this wasn’t just lust, it was more than that. She didn’t need to be blood-bonded to know he affected her on some deeply profound level.
Pity he’d never find out. Yes, he could read minds at will. But she wasn’t without her own gifts. After querying many suspicious and oftentimes dangerous vampires about the Ancient One, she’d quickly discovered a natural ability at shielding her thoughts from the nightwalkers.
That gift was a blessing. She doubted any full blood would know the meaning of warmth or affection. But she refused to play the victim. She’d accepted Ronan’s terms—and heaven help her—she’d make the most out of the deal.
His throat was tantalizingly close as he swung her up into his arms. With her arms draping around his shoulders, she pressed close, kissing his warm throat while her tongue traced his carotid artery.
She smiled at the sudden skip of his pulse, the quick and shallow rasps of his breath. It was a hollow and minor victory at best. Yes, he wanted her, badly—but mind-reading ability or not, he’d have to know she wanted him every bit as much.
If she hoped to gain even a scrap of control from this vampire elder, she’d have to play his game. Have to ensure it was
he
who never forgot how much he wanted
her
…