He wanted his scent all over her.
He didn’t need to probe into the feeling to find the reason why. Hell, he didn’t even have to skim the surface of the desire. It was right there in flashing neon lights.
He was taking her to a Vehemens mansion, where many males resided, men more worthy of Eve than he was.
Tor had been a hunter from the moment he had completed his transition. His sire hadn’t taken even a single second to train him in things that most normal vampires received lessons about. His sire hadn’t taken a single second to do anything for him. He had handed him off to the group of men responsible for his training and hadn’t seen him after that.
That training hadn’t involved instruction on the correct behaviour in a number of social situations, or etiquette. It hadn’t taught him how to function like others did in his world, forming relationships and easily handling everyday situations. He didn’t know anything about addressing the different levels of vampires in pureblood society.
All he knew was a thousand ways to kill them.
He had screwed up countless times in social gatherings in the past and had quickly learned to avoid them, sparing himself the frustration and the comments, the snide remarks and disgusted looks.
Now, he had no way to avoid a social situation, one that loomed less than a mile away, almost visible in the thick darkness as they walked the country lane.
The moment he set foot in the mansion, Eve would leave him for someone who knew how shit like that worked. She would meet the more refined members of their bloodline, would take another look at him, and trade up.
He handed the phone to Eve, needing to do something to take his mind off his own failings.
“I put my number in it, and Lincoln’s too. You’ll be able to contact us if you ever get caught alone at any point.” Not that he was ever going to leave her alone.
At least not until she rejected him.
Tor shut that insidious voice out. He was stronger than this. He had tackled countless dire situations, had endured numerous rounds of torture at different hands, and had survived centuries as a hunter. He could handle Eve and the feelings she had awoken in him, things he had never felt as a vampire. He could prevail.
“Thank you.” Eve took the phone from him and toyed with it, nerves flowing from her. She had been like it since they had left the hotel, sneaking out via the fire escape to avoid the people at reception.
She fell silent again. Silence wasn’t going to help him ignore his troubling thoughts. He had to fill it with her beautiful, soft voice.
“Why did you freeze up in the fight?” he said.
Her gaze darted to him. “I’m sorry?”
She could play coy with him, but he had seen her freeze up, had been right there beside her while she had stared blankly ahead.
“When you knew Adam was coming, you froze up, Eve. I need to know.” Just in case the bastard showed up again. He had to know what triggered Eve to become a statue, placing herself in danger.
“It’s complicated.”
That was a nice way of saying that he didn’t want to know. His stomach clenched, a single thought rising above the rest, taunting him and tearing a growl from his throat, a possessive snarl that he couldn’t contain.
“He wasn’t just your partner,” he said in a thick growl, the sound loud in the moonlit darkness.
Eve slowly nodded.
Tor wasn’t sure how to process the knowledge that Adam had been Eve’s lover. He couldn’t believe anyone involved with her could set her up for their own personal gain. His blood turned to fire, curling through his veins, igniting a need to separate Adam’s head from his body and show the bastard that it had been a grave mistake to hurt Eve.
On that back of that feeling came another, one that reawakened his fears and built them up stronger.
Eve would never really want him, no matter how hard he tried to change for her and better himself, making himself a man worthy of her notice.
But it also gave him hope that she wouldn’t want any of the males at the mansion either.
She couldn’t want to be with anyone after how a man had treated her. Betrayed her.
Killed her.
“Will you be able to go through with this?” he said and she nodded, strong and beautiful as she held his gaze, determination flowing from her and sweeping around him, laced with cold fury.
“I won’t hesitate again.”
Tor stopped and turned to face her. He lifted his hand to her cheek, placed two fingers under her chin, and tilted it up. Moonlight bathed her face, increasing her beauty and stealing his breath.
“I will see to it you have the vengeance you need against the bastard who betrayed you. I swear it… and if you falter… I will tear the bastard’s intestines out and make a necklace out of them.”
Her eyes shot wide, a soft gasp leaving her lips, tempting his gaze down to them.
“Why?” she said and he knew what she was asking him with that single word.
Nothing he did was personal. He didn’t do things for his sake. He did things out of duty. She knew it, and she knew from his words that this was as personal as it got for him now.
“He made it personal.” Tor stroked her cheek, keeping her gaze on his, standing on the brink and fearing the inevitable fall. He could face a thousand enemies and not one could cut him as Eve could, cleaving out his heart with nothing more than words. He hoped she never did such a thing to him, even when he feared it would happen soon. He had given in to her, given so much of himself to her, and she would take it all with her and leave him empty when she turned her back on him. Tor took the leap regardless of the pain he felt awaited him. “It became personal for me the moment I set eyes on you in One.”
It was a veiled confession of his feelings, the best he could do right now. The warmth that glittered in her dark eyes as she looked up at him told him that it had touched her deep in her heart. She knew this was difficult for him. Just as he knew it was difficult for her.
He wasn’t used to feeling things like this, and she didn’t want to feel anything.
They made a terrible pair.
Both emotionally distant.
Both raised and trained to kill, to set aside their softer feelings and harden their hearts to the light in the world.
They weren’t right for each other.
Or at least he wasn’t right for her.
She needed a man who could reawaken the softness she had lost when the weaklings had killed her, inadvertently turning her. She needed a quiet, calm life away from death and bloodshed.
Death and bloodshed was all he knew.
He still didn’t want to think about what lay ahead for him and what would happen once they reached the mansion, and he had depleted one avenue of conversation that would distract him from those sombre thoughts. She didn’t want to talk about her relationship with Adam. He needed to find another way to take his mind off the inevitable separation, one that felt as if it would tear him asunder, ripping his heart from his chest and crushing it.
He silenced those fears, filling his mind with more positive thoughts and refusing to dwell on them. He was stronger than this, even after Eve had weakened him, softening his heart and reviving emotions best left dead.
“What happened to you?” He started walking again, leading the way along the country lane towards the distant mansion. He could see the lights now. Bright pinpricks in the inky darkness. They were the only lights for miles. Everything else was bathed in shadows, indistinct silhouettes of trees and hedges, and walls, and animals sleeping in their fields. “There’s more to your story than you’ve told me.”
Her emotions switched, becoming turbulent again, and he regretted asking, cursed his ridiculous need to fill the silence, fearing it.
“I’ve been alone since I escaped Adam around a year ago.” She slipped the phone into her jeans, adjusted her bag on her shoulder, and wrapped her arms around herself. “I was glad when I escaped them, wasn’t sure how much longer I could have taken the tests and the… things they did to me.”
Tor wanted to tell her to stop, wanted to apologise for ever bringing it up, but she continued speaking, her voice steadier now, gaining confidence as she poured her past out to him in the darkness.
“I was too afraid to return to Section Seven and Lilith. I thought they would kill me. I didn’t know anything about Oneiric other than his name, so I didn’t know where to find him. I kept my head down, stayed hidden and plotted Adam’s downfall. He will die. I will see to it.”
Tor didn’t doubt it. She grew stronger every day, surer of herself and her abilities, and more determined. He didn’t think she would freeze next time she came face to face with Adam.
“I lost track of them after overhearing them talking about what we now know was a location in Amsterdam, and found myself in a spot of trouble.” She rubbed her arms and exhaled, her cool breath slightly misting in the air. “I was captured by a Tenebrae scout in Paris.”
He hadn’t known that. The Tenebrae were as their name suggested—darkness embodied. They were the coldest, most violent of the seven pure bloodlines.
“What happened?” Tor moved nearer to her, his instinct to protect her driving him to close the small gap between them even though there was no immediate threat to her.
“He wanted information on my bloodline. I didn’t know anything but he didn’t believe me.” She let her arms fall to her side and looked away from him, out across the fields to her right. “I was so tired that I almost gave up. Back then, I couldn’t figure out why I was growing weaker when I had been drinking blood. Pig. Cow. Even deer. All of it disgusting.”
Her mention of blood played havoc with him, luring his eyes down to her throat. The smooth column was bright in the darkness when she had her deep brown hair twirled into a knot at the back of her head, exposing it. His fangs itched.
Her gaze swung his way and she smiled just as he darted his away. He sensed her amusement and cursed her for catching him staring.
“Oneiric saved me by killing the man and he took me to his club in Paris. I thought he was another bastard vampire wanting to hurt me but he explained that he knew Lilith and my bloodline, and that he was my father. I asked him his name and he told me, confirming a fact I knew and giving me a reason to trust him.” She sighed again, her shoulders shifting with it. Her bag fell off her right shoulder and she hoisted it back up into place. “He told me about how I came to be and that strengthened my trust in him. I was so weak when he found me.”
Tor wanted to mention that she would still be just as weak now if it wasn’t for the human blood he had managed to get into her, together with some of his own. He held his tongue though, letting her talk because she needed to tell someone about this, needed to put voice to everything that lurked inside her, and he wanted to be the one she shared herself with.
“Oneiric tried to make me feed. He even brought a human man to me but I refused to bite him. The thought of biting someone turned my stomach.”
Tor growled at the thought of her biting another man, tasting his blood and being intimately connected to him. She snuck a glance at him, a slow smile curling her kissable lips, speaking of her amusement again. She was enjoying taunting him this evening. Part of him enjoyed it too, found the alien camaraderie pleasurable.
He leaned over, bringing his mouth down to her ear.
“And the thought of biting someone now?” he husked, playing at her game.
Her eyes leaped to the marks on the right side of his throat and they tingled in response to the heat of her gaze. She dragged them away.
“I still can’t feed from someone.”
Tor pondered that. It wasn’t true.
“What about me?” he said.
She looked back at him. “What about you?”
He swore that if she could have, she would have been blushing.
He moved closer again and purred into her ear, “Could you feed from me again?”
She hesitated, swallowed hard and then nodded.
Tor straightened, pleased with her answer. “We can do that for now then. I know that Lady Lilith experienced the same issues when she turned. Your sister fed exclusively from Lincoln at first and then from blood bags too. Rumour has it that she is yet to bite a human.”
Eve stopped dead.
He looked over his shoulder at her.
The relief in her eyes hit him hard and he held his hand out to her, beckoning her to him. She didn’t hesitate. She stepped forwards and placed her hand into his, and he closed his fingers over the backs of hers.
Heat spread through him from the point where they touched.
He would have smiled but he couldn’t muster one.
Not when he could hear the voices of the guards at the mansion.
Not when he could sense the gatekeepers’ eyes on him.
It was time Eve met her people.
And he faded back into his place in the shadows.
E
ve battled her rising nerves as they passed two male vampires who were guarding the wrought iron gate of the beautiful house. It wasn’t as large or as grand as she had imagined it when Tor had said they were going to a mansion. It looked more like a country house to her, a two-storey stone building in typical European style, with elegant carving around the windows and a broad portico. It reminded her painfully of the Section Seven base that had been her home.
She tamped down the hurt that welled up inside her as she thought about that place and the decades she had spent there with her sister and forced herself to look forwards instead, towards the time she would spend with her sister in a new home.
One Tor would take her to after she had dealt vengeance on Adam.
Tor released her hand as they approached the main entrance of the building and the twin doors opened, revealing a bright warmly lit interior and several more vampires. Two women and one man. All three of them were dressed elegantly, the women wearing dark dresses while the man wore a suit that looked tailored.
She frowned as Tor fell back and a vast distance seemed to open between them, making her feel alone and adrift, as if he had just taken away her lifeline and cast her out onto a frigid and dangerous ocean.