High Stakes (14 page)

He had found he could not stay there with her one moment longer. Something about her childlike enthusiasm, her guileless expressions, and her cheerful encouragement had set off a swell of emotions surprising in their intensity.Anger, annoyance, attraction had all risen in him, choking him into confusion.

Banished he was, and banished he would stay, and that silly girl would only distract him with her ridiculous AuntieBrittany talk.

Leaning against the wall, Corbin shifted his feet. The window ledge one floor down was not particularly comfortable, being only a dozen centimeters in width. He was certain a bird of some sort had roosted there recently, as suspicious-looking spots lingered near his elbow. He grimaced. The world was such a dirty place.

But from this position, he could listen for the girl, to make sure she found the stairwell. She did not look like the panicking sort, but then again, she didn't seem beset with survival instincts either. Look at how she had stayed with him so calmly, without fear, spouting all that nonsense about helping him.

"Bah," he said out loud, because it made him feel better.

A hundred years ago Corbin could not have imagined he would wind up in the desert surrounded by blazing electronic lights, clinging to a decorative faux window. This was his punishment for breaking the rules of his kind, and it was no less than he deserved-His keen hearing picked up the sound of Brittany moving around on the roof. She had only called out for him the one time,then had resorted to muttering about the rudeness of men in general, him in particular.

It had been ill-mannered to abandon her like that. But she had spoken about orgasms as if he were her maid, and contemplated kissing his forehead as if he were a boy in short pants. There were boundaries, and she had overstepped them.

"Alex? It's Brit."

Corbin frowned. Who was she talking to?

"I know it's late, but I thought you'd call me after your little soiree with Ethan. I want all thedets , and I'm not waiting until tomorrow, so spill."

Corbin didn't know who Alex was, or whatdets were, but he was curious howBrittany was carrying on a one-sided conversation with someone on the roof of the casino.

He jumped up the side of the building, grabbed the edge, and hovered where he could see her, just the
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top of his head clearing the roof.Brittany was chatting on her cell phone.

That should have occurred to him, but sometimes his brain still worked in a nineteenth-century fashion.

"You suck!" she said into her tiny pink phone.Brittany was lying on her back on the asphalt, staring up at the sky as she talked.

Her body was long, lean, her breasts obvious in a tight, molded T-shirt, her hips shapely. A ribbon of flesh showed above her waistband, and her thick, black hair hung down away from her face, a raven waterfall over her shoulders.

onewas a beautiful woman, and full of life, laughter. Even now she giggled, rolled on her side a little, and smiled for whomever she was talking to. The smell of her blood was enticing, rich, and her pulse beat strong and sure. There was vampire in her, on her, yet she seemed to know nothing about it.

This woman was why he had done what he did. For those like her, who flowed with humanlife.

For the ache inside him when he watched her.

It occurred to himBrittany would be perfect for his experiment.

"Would you care to tell me just what the fuck you're thinking?"

Ethan winced as Seamus railed at him. They were in Ethan's office, a large sumptuous room with thick faux suede easy chairs. He was settled comfortably in one, a glass of Diabetic '87 in one hand to give him a sugar boost.

Seamus was pacing back and forth in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, still wearing a tux from the dinner party, though his tie was dangling loose. They had been friends for a long time, he had actually been the one to turn Seamus, and he was sorry he had angered him.

But he didn't regret his actions. Not really. Not when he felt excited and reinvigorated for the first time in fifty years.

"I don't think this is the disaster you seem to think it is, Seamus.Brittany was not interested in me."

"You weren't even trying with her! And the sister doesn't work as a substitute, Ethan. She doesn't have vampire blood. That is the sole reason for you to be involved with a woman right now."

Ethan could think of a lot better reasons to be involved with a woman. "So Alexis isn't an Impure. Does it really matter? She is a mortal. I look good simply by having her next to me."

Seamus didn't look appeased. He waved his Sidekick at Ethan.

"The polls say they want you to be a reasonable, nonviolent president, that's true. But theImpures are restless and want to know you stand for them.That you care about their concerns. Making it with a mortal doesn't fix that very large problem. It's you, the old school, versusDonatelli , the new order. The Impure population is growing, as more and more are discovered and turned, and if they decide not to vote for you, the presidency is gone."

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"I understand that." And he cared. He did. "But I cannot seduce a woman because it is a good political maneuver. I can't make myself use a woman that way."

"You have a new woman every decade or so. Why isthis such a hardship to play court to a beautiful woman? She's sweet, thoughtful, a little naive, but charming. How hard can it be?"

Ethan frowned, tilting his glass to stare at the blood as it rolled across the inside of the flute. "But I wanted those women. I was attracted to them. I am not attracted toBrittany , and that makes me uncomfortable. I can't fake thatinterest, I can't sleep with a woman when I am being dishonest in my feelings for her."

"Well, aren't you the noble vampire?" Seamus had short dark hair, trimmed neatly, but he managed to muss it up by raking a hand through it.

"Hey, you wouldn't do it either. Admit it. It's wrong. If I were attracted toBrittany , it would be different, but I'm not. I'm attracted to Alexis."

Seamus made a face. "Damn it, you're right. I wouldn't do it either. But I suspect Alexis will be more detriment than asset. She is a bit…vocal."

Ethan laughed. That was a polite understatement. "It's that very thing that I find so incredibly arousing about her."

"I don't need any details about your arousal, thank you very much." Seamus threw his hand up in the air.

"But if Alexis already knows what we are, then that is a plus. Having a mortal wife is better than no wife at all, and her sister is an Impure. You needtc tell Alexis aboutBrittany , you know, or she'll be angry with you when she finds out."

"I need to tell her a lot of things. But I'm easing her into everything." And that night he had come perilously close to easing
himself
'into her. It was too soon for that, and he knew it intellectually, even if his body disagreed. He should be grateful Alexis had slammed the door in his face.

"Sit down, Seamus, and have a drink. You're much tootense, it's starting to grate on my nerves." He sipped and reflected on his friend's words. Even when he had discussed the strategy with Seamus regardingBrittany , he had never really believed he could marry her, even before he'd realized they wouldn't suit.

In more than nine hundred years he had not taken a wife, not even as a mortalman, and the thought of taking a mortal wife now did not appeal to him any more than it ever had. Some vampires did marry mortals for short periods of time—ten or twenty years—then left them or divorced when their spouses aged and became uncomfortable with their differences. Ethan had always thought it seemed so temporary, so unfulfilling.That at the end, it would leave you lonelier than when you started.

But vampire marriages were rarer still, because it was a bond that could not be broken. Once mated, the marriage lasted for eternity, and most of theirkind were unwilling to risk get ting stuck in a relationship for six hundred years after the bloom had worn off the rose. Those who did spoke ofa knowledge , a love, that told them this was their chosen one.Their destiny.Their love.

Ethan wanted that or nothing at all. Not a tepid, tomato juice marriage with a mortal when he could someday have a hot, satisfying pure blood passion for the rest of his undead life.

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"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Seamus. I'm not ready to talk marriage to anyone. At this moment, I am fascinated by AlexisBaldizzi, that is all."And suspicious. He'd felt something when he'd kissed her, something he never had before.Something that confused him. He'd felt… knowledge.A sense of Tightness.

Like he had met
his
chosen one.

Hands in his tuxedo pants pockets, Seamus studied him. "You could turn her."

Ethan couldn't deny the excitement that leaped in him at the thought.Or the fact that it had already occurred to him. That he had embraced it, dissected it,rejected it."Perhaps. But it would be wrong and you know it."

"This isn't about you,Ethan, this is about all of us.Our way of life.Our future."

That made him snort. "Don't be melodramatic. The end of the world as we know it does not rest on my love life. If it does, then we deserve to go extinct as a species."

Seamus didn't laugh, which made Ethan realize between the two of them, they had become very uptight vampires. Until Alexis had karate kicked her way into his life.

"So let's talk about something else then. Like who tried to kill you."

That sounds like fun. Give me thereport, I'm just dying to hear it."

"Cute, Carrick."Though Seamus didn't really look like he thought it was cute at all.

Ethan shook his head, amused. It seemed everything, every thought, circled him back to Alexis. "You're the second person to call me that today." And he had really liked it when Alexis had said it.

Astonished at himself, he rubbed his chin.

Good God, it was worse than a midlife crisis. He was falling in
love
.

If he wasn't careful, he'd be buying flowers and going down on one knee, making an ass of himself. He'd be spouting poetry and begging her for a lock of her hair. He'd trail after her like a faithful hunter and obsess over getting her into his bed.

It sounded like hell.

He wasn't doing any of that crap. He'd gone nine hundred years without falling inlove, he could damn well go another nine hundred unscathed.

Unless Alexis really was his chosen one. Then he might not have a choice in the matter.

He remembered the way his head had spun and his heart had swelled when his lips had touched hers.

The beautiful way she had sighed into him, and the way his body had pulled taut in anticipation. How much she fascinated him…

Shit. It looked like making an ass out of himself was in his future.

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"There's nothing to tell," Alexis toldBrittany for the third time as she paced her hotel suite, still wearing Ethan's sweatpants and shirt. "It was a reception kind of thing with a bunch of stuffed-shirt types running around in tuxedos."

Then Ethan had been shot, confessed his vampirism, and kissed Alexis, but nothing
major
had happened thatBrittany needed to know about.

"And where are you, Brit? It sounds like you're on the runway at the airport and a jumbo jet is flying over your head."

"I'm on my patio and a jumbo jet is flying over my head."

"Oh. Well, go to bed. Don't you have to work tomorrow?" Alexis was eternally grateful she didn't have to. There was no way she could wrap her brain around a molestation case that was on her desk when her head was full of the fantastical.Vampires up for reelection. Jesus.

"Tomorrow's Sunday, so no.And are you sure nothing interesting happened? I got the feeling that Ethan was attracted to you. He didn't even try to kiss you or anything?"

"Just once."She didn't want to admit to that little lip-touching episode, but she couldn't bring herself to lie straight out to her sister either. Their relationship was the most important one in Alexis's life, and she had always played it straight withBrittany , even when their mother had overdosed.

The excited scream that ripped through her cell phone almost shattered her eardrum. "Alex! So help me…"

There was a shuffling sound, and Alexis waited, rubbing her temples. This was so embarrassing. She had kissed a vampire. Celibacy did strange things to a woman."Brit? Did you drop the phone?"

No, I don't need help, it's my sister. But thank you,that's so sweet."

"Who the hell are you talking to?" It must be one ofBrittany 's neighbors in her apartment complex.

Probably wondering why she was screaming into her cell phone on her patio at one in the morning.

"Hmm?Oh, I'm so glad you and Ethan are getting along. I think he really needs someone like you."

According to Ethan, he needed a wife, and she wasn't going that route. Had always known she wasn't ever going to get married. Not that he had "suggested anything of the kind, but if she ever lost her mind enough to think she wanted marriage, it wouldn't be with a dead guy.

"Yeah, he's okay. Now let me go to bed, please."

"Sure thing, Alex.I'll see you tomorrow?" There was a rustling sound asBrittany shifted the phone and said, "Don't go. I'm hanging up now."

"Who are you talking to?" She'd forcibly removedBrittany from the company of vampires. If her sister now took up with some yahoo, Alexis was going to be seriously annoyed.

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"I'm talking to you."Brittany giggled."No, not you. Her."

Alexis groaned. "You know what? This conversation is beyond me right now. I love you, good night, lock your doors,see you tomorrow."

"Bye, Alex. I love you, too."

Hanging up the phone, Alexis went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth.