Her Vampire Mate (5 page)

When the waitress stopped by later, Jennalynn said, “He called, the jerk. Said he’s on his way but won’t be here for another half hour or so. And of course he wants me to wait.”

Kent’s girlfriend made a face halfway between a scowl and an eye-roll. “Just like a man. My boyfriend’s the same. Everything’s gotta be on his schedule. Doesn’t matter what I might have going on. And now—get this. He moves in with me. Doesn’t ask or even let me know. A couple nights ago I get home from work and he’s there with a suitcase. Said he had to get out of his apartment but wouldn’t tell me why. Ain’t that great? Anyway, you’d be better off just leaving. Give him a taste of his own medicine.”

“I should, but…” Jennalynn noticed a slight movement behind the waitress and smelled that oh-so-delicious scent that engulfed her anytime Antonio was near. “You know what? You’re right. I should leave.” She grabbed her purse and stood.

The woman picked up the ten Jennalynn had left on the table. “You want change?”

“You keep it.” She touched the woman’s arm. “Thanks for giving me a kick in the pants.”

“You go get ‘em.” The waitress moved on to her next table and revealed Antonio.

“I heard that,” he said. “Do you really think men are as awful as all that?”

Jennalynn grinned. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Chapter 5

He would like to know. That’s why he asked. But he doubted Jennalynn would tell him. He leaned in to her as though to be heard over the throbbing bass. Really, he just wanted to be closer to her. “There’s got to be some reason you’re holding me at arm’s length besides the difference in our species.”

Sitting across the room from her, watching how adroitly she pulled the information on Kent’s whereabouts from his girlfriend, Antonio couldn’t help but be impressed by the wolf. Really, what harm would there be in a dalliance? The vampire council would never find out about it. And even if they did, what did he care? As long as he delivered the world-walker in the end they couldn’t fault his methods.

So he’d have her. Tonight. No matter what.

She didn’t answer his question, just gave him a look, her chin dipping while her eyebrows rose, then headed for the door.

He followed her. He didn’t bother talking again until they reached the sidewalk outside. “Maybe you didn’t hear my question.”

“I heard you.” She didn’t stop walking.

“You were magnificent tonight. I think we’d be magnificent in bed, too.”

“No doubt,” she said.

The odd thing was, her tone didn’t sound sarcastic. Instead, she sounded almost wistful. “Then why the hell not?”

“Sex means more to me than it apparently means to you.” She didn’t look at him as she veered toward her car.

Antonio grabbed her arm. “How would you know what it means to me?”

She sucked in a long, deep breath and then clenched her jaw. “You’re a player. What does sex mean to you? It means momentary pleasure in an extremely long life. Nothing more.”

Still holding her arm, he threaded the fingers of his other hand through her hair, pulling strands out of her braid, and held her head in place. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I’m drawn to you. I want to explore this, amore. Maybe this thing between us is more than momentary.”

She tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let her go. “I can’t.”

He almost couldn’t help himself as he leaned closer. He wanted to kiss her so badly.

“Stop! By all that’s holy, please stop. I can’t have you kiss me when I know you don’t mean it.”

Antonio pulled back. “What the hell does that mean?”

A light sheen covered her eyes. “You’re my mate.” Her voice sounded rough. “Get it? The fates matched me with my enemy. There’s no way we can be together and that means I’m about to go mad. So let me go and be done with it.”

Without even thinking, he released her. She gazed at him a moment then turned on her heel and hurried toward her car. He watched as she peeled out of the parking lot.

Mates. He knew about werewolf mates. They mated for life and if their mates died or rejected them, they went mad and usually killed themselves. Why on earth would his sexy little werewolf think they were mates?

A chill stole over him as he walked toward his motorcycle. Vampires had soulmates too, although he’d gone so long without finding his that he’d started to believe the whole thing a myth. Could Jennalynn be his? He didn’t feel the overwhelming certainty mated vampires talked about but he did feel more attracted to her than he ever had to anyone before.

Unfortunately, vampires had no sure way to know. Certainty, yes. But he’d talked to mated vampires who felt certain the first second they saw their mates. And others who didn’t feel certain until they’d had sex. Still others didn’t feel the certainty until they’d tasted their mates' blood. Jennalynn could be his but he might not know until he got much closer to her—and she didn’t seem about to let him do that.

Worse, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He liked his life. Being mated would change everything. He could still walk away.

But she couldn’t. If he walked away, she’d go mad and kill herself. The thought made him want to scream. What the hell was he going to do?

What did he want to do? He had never followed his head, always his heart. And his heart wanted that woman underneath him in bed as soon as possible. If there was a chance she was his soulmate he had to give it a try.

The hard part would be convincing Jennalynn.

***

Vicenzo was enjoying a nubile Asian-American woman when his progeny Robert called. The man should really know better than to call during dinner. “What?” Vicenzo said.

“I’m following Antonio, as you directed. He’s taken up with a werewolf. Pretty thing. I haven’t been able to get close enough to tell if he’s sharing information with her or just coaxing her into bed.”

“So he’s either distracted or a traitor,” Vicenzo said. “Good work. Keep following him. Let me know of any changes.”

After they hung up, he pulled his black-haired supper back into his arms. “Where were we?”

She smiled, a little glassy-eyed. When he’d first started to drink her, he’d been hungry and had gone straight for the blood. As a result, her bra and panties were still intact and in place. He’d have to remedy that.

Vicenzo pulled downward on her bra and her small, dark-tipped breasts sprang free. He sucked one nipple into his mouth then bit down on the delicate tit and sucked her sweet young blood.

Should he tell the Council about Antonio’s werewolf?

He extracted his teeth from her skin and licked the holes to help them heal, then moved to the other breast to do the same thing. God, he loved tits.

Overall, he’d be better off if Antonio completed his task. As long as Robert kept an eye on Antonio and let him know if the man went off the rails, Vicenzo would keep Antonio in play.

Vicenzo ripped the girl’s panties off her body and in a flash, spread her legs. He opened his pants and pushed them down just far enough to release his cock, then sunk deep inside her. As he thrust into her tight wet pussy he bit her throat, the taste of the blood making his cock that much harder.

Bliss. Being a vampire was bliss.

***

Jennalynn located Kent’s girlfriend’s apartment and went directly there. After prowling around enough to determine that Kent wasn’t home, she hunkered down in her car to wait.

Jennalynn had postponed telling Darius about Antonio because she didn’t want to deal with the fallout. Even if she managed to get Antonio to fall for her—which looked impossible now—Darius would have to kick her out of the Holding. She’d lose her rank. She’d lose everything.

Was it worse to go mad? She wasn’t sure. At least this way, the pain would end quickly.

She’d heard about how wonderful it was to find your mate. Why couldn’t it have been that way for her? Hell, even Darius had had an easier time and he’d had the worst mating she’d ever seen.

Until now.

With possibly hours to wait until Kent came back, she had no excuse for not calling Darius. She pulled out her cell and dialed.

“Jennalynn,” her brother said when he picked up. “How goes it?”

She took the coward’s way out and gave him an update on the tracking first, butterflies playing bumper cars in her stomach. “Kent seems to realize people might come after him. He ditched his apartment—cleared out everything. We tracked him to his girlfriend’s place. I’m waiting there now to see if he shows up.”

After a short pause, Darius said, “We?”

Had she said ‘we?’ Shit.

Jennalynn took a deep breath. “Yeah. I have some other news.” She took another breath. Gods, talking to her brother was never this hard.

“What is it?” Darius's voice had turned low and growly. “Jennalynn?”

“I found my mate.”

Air gushed out of Darius’s mouth in a rush. “That’s great! Why do you sound so upset?”

What was it they said about Band-aids? Just rip ‘em off? “He’s a vampire. Actually, he’s the vampire who’s tracking down the world-walker. And he’s a fucking playboy. He hits on every single female he gets near. I can’t be mates with him, Darius. He’s the enemy. I’m going to go mad.”

Darius took two loud breaths before saying anything. “No. You’re not going to go mad. We’ll figure something out.”

“You know there’s no way to break the mating. If there were, you would have found it with Aislinn.” Only a couple of months ago, Darius had found his mate and she’d turned out to be the daughter of their greatest enemy. He’d done everything he could to break the mating but it wasn’t possible.

“Maybe he’s not as bad as he seems.”

“He’s a vampire.”

“You’re my baby sister. Listen to me. If we have to capture his ass and lock him in a room so you can see him every day and not go mad, we will. In the meantime, don’t lose track of him.”

“This changes everything,” Jennalynn said. She wanted desperately to hear him say everything would be fine.

“It does. But we’ll get through it. Just keep track of him, got it? Give me his name. I’ll get Killion and Cael to research him.”

She should have known he wouldn’t comfort her. Then again, having someone fix the situation wasn’t such a bad idea. “Antonio de Marco. He told me he was turned in Italy during the Renaissance. But his accent is very faint, so I’m assuming he’s lived here for a while. You really think we could keep him locked in a room?”

“If he has any sense, he’ll fall madly in love with you. Once that happens, we’ll let him out once in a while. With a guard.”

She laughed, albeit quietly. “You have an answer to everything.”

“Yep. And if I don’t, I’ll just run it by Aislinn. She can solve the impossible.”

And once again, Jennalynn heard the love in her brother’s voice when he talked about his mate. Why couldn’t Jennalynn have that too? Why have a mate if you couldn’t have love?

Chapter 6

When he got there, Antonio saw Jennalynn’s car across the street and a little down the block from the entrance of the waitress’s apartment building. He had hoped he’d find her there. He parked his motorcycle a few spots behind her car and slipped into her passenger seat before she could react.

“I don’t know what to do with what you told me,” he said. “But I figure we should get to know each other better.”

Her mouth opened but nothing came out.

“I understand. I know enough about werewolves to know what mating means. Let’s just—let’s talk.” If he thought for a second that telling her he might recognize her as his soulmate if they slept together or if he drank from her would make her agree, he’d do it. But he was more likely to get slapped than anything else. Or slugged.

He motioned toward the apartment with his head. “You checked it out?”

“Yeah.”

“We’ve got a wait on our hands then.”

“Yeah.”

He slumped in the seat, making himself comfortable and gazing out the windshield. “I’ve been alone a long time. From the beginning. Most vampires are hand-picked by their sires, cultivated, and finally turned at exactly the right moment. They’re beautiful, intelligent, cultured and emotionless. I’m not. Know why?”

“You’re beautiful and intelligent,” she said softly.

He put his hand over hers. “I’m messy. Emotional. I let my heart lead my head. They can’t stand anything that doesn’t fit neatly into a plan.” He paused. “I’m a mistake.”

He rubbed his thumb across the backs of her fingers, feeling her soft skin. He couldn’t believe she hadn’t pulled away yet. “I told you I worked as a poisoner. I worked for the Medicis and from time to time they asked me to do away with someone. At one point, they asked me to kill a young man. I had fewer scruples back then and didn’t ask any questions. I killed him.”

“You have more scruples now?” she said.