Prince of Power (21 page)

Anton cursed and adjusted himself as he grabbed the phone from the nightstand. Fucking Thad. He was the king of thousands of vampires. When was that guy going to learn not to micromanage?

“Yeah?”

Mood broken, Tyra was already up and out of the bed.

“I'm sorry, Anton. Are you too busy to talk to me? Should I kick your ass back out of my estate and let you fend for yourself among the humans and all those wizards you've betrayed? It's just now mid-afternoon, probably shouldn't have to fend off too many of them until nightfall.”

Anton bared his teeth at the phone. “Gosh, I apologize, Thad. It's been something of a trying day.” He ought to have put a little effort into covering the sarcasm out of respect to the king, but he didn't give a shit.

He'd just killed his father. He'd gotten Tyra out of… whatever was wrong with her. Everyone and everything else could fuck off for a while. A long while.

After a long pause Thad finally said, “Yes, it has.” That was it.

Huh.

A shadow fell outside Tyra's window. She was hugging herself on the back patio, squinting at what was left of the sun as it dipped below the horizon. What the hell was she doing out there?

“Anyway,” Thad continued after the silence, “I called to see if there's been any change with Ty.”

“Actually,” Anton cleared his throat. Tyra looked so incredibly alone out there. He wanted to get to her. “She's been able to move her legs a little more,” he lied. “I think she might be getting her strength back. I'll keep you posted. If there's no change, I'll have you send the doctors back over.”

Thad's murmur of gratitude caused a guilty pang in Anton's chest. He wasn't going to win points by telling half-truths to the king. But Ty wasn't ready to see all those guys yet. If he were being honest with himself, Anton wasn't ready to let her be seen.

“Thad, I have to, uh, go use the bathroom.”

Thad cleared his throat. “Sure thing. Listen, I think I'll have someone by to check on her in a couple of hours anyway. Can't hurt.”

“Sure.” That was plenty of time. Anton hung up the phone, indulging in another second or two of voyeurism before heading to the living room and out the back door.

He stepped up behind her. His hands hovered, but he didn't touch her. Tyra didn't belong to him; the logical part of his brain knew that well enough. Still, standing right there behind her was the only place he ever wanted to be.

“That was Thad on the phone?” Her soft, brown curls blew in the gentle winter breeze.

“It was. He's been checking in quite a bit. I bought you a couple of hours before the curious eyes and the doctors return.” He placed a tentative hand on her shoulder. The connection that had been so strong between them inside her bedroom was more tenuous out here in the waning light. “I thought maybe you might want some time.”

She turned and kissed him. Hot damn, she kissed him hard, too.

That made him ten kinds of stupid when he pulled away and said, “You're feeling all right? I don't want you to strain yourself or anything.”

She kissed him again, so he stopped asking questions. He could admit to being frightened. A lot of scary shit had gone down, and he didn't know what they were getting into here.

If he were honorable, he would leave her to her world.

But right now, he was rock hard in his fatigues. Both his dick and the confident hands gripping his ass were insisting that he shut the hell up, so he did. The adrenaline, the loss of control, the fear, and everything that had come before, all of it channeled into a soul-rending urgency that he couldn't have controlled if his life had depended on it.

Already his body was heating and tingling. Some strange combination of his healing and heating powers. He said a quick prayer that he wouldn't do any harm to Tyra while he was making love to her.

They wound up rolling together on the flagstone, clothing coming off piece by piece. A loose paver jabbed into his back the first time they rolled together and then against his ass the second time.

He couldn't begin to care.

When he finally got her naked and underneath him, Tyra was magnificent. Spread out and ready for him, her golden skin glowing in the waning afternoon sun. Her breasts begged for attention as they rose and fell with each breath so he bent to the task, swirling a tongue around each nipple and biting gently. He did it again, harder, when her moans and gasps indicated that she liked it.

Both of their bodies glowed faintly. The heat from their powers. It wasn't only anger that brought it out, after all. He caressed her everywhere, taking his time, letting his fingers wander. The pinks and golds from the setting sun and the ethereal radiance from her skin… he could never have imagined anything so beautiful. He rubbed circles like before but sensuously, peppering kisses in their wake.

After another long look to drink her in, he covered his body with hers and slid inside.

She gasped. “Oh my God, Anton.”

He buried himself deep in her core. “God, you feel amazing.” He wanted her so much that his arms shook. Wanted to channel everything into raw and wild fucking. But at the same time he wanted to make love and spend forever worshipping her body the way she truly deserved.

He pulled out slowly and pushed home again the same way. It wasn't clear yet what the future held, and damned if he would waste it on base rutting. Her chocolate gaze met his as he pushed slow and deep, desperate to keep a slow burn going, to drag out every gasp from her lips and every widening of her eyes. He placed one hand behind her head to protect it from the hard stone, and even the silky threads of hair slipping through his fingers got him closer to getting off, if such a thing were possible.

Their tongues tasted each other slowly and he switched to shallow thrusts, which she protested by wrapping her legs around his waist and forcing him deeper. He must have hit some sort of magic angle this time, because she cried out with an “Oh, oh, yes,” and her sex squeezed around his cock hard enough that Anton thought he might pass out.

Nails raked over his back. Oh, he liked that. He
reeeally
liked that. “Tyra…”

Long, strong fingers kneaded his ass, and with another squeeze of those amazing muscles around his cock, Anton was totally done for. He exploded with a spark that came from nowhere and seemed to last an eternity. He clamped his teeth together and grunted hard, desperate to keep the volume down. Heaven forbid he wake a sleeping vampire and have somebody wonder what was going on out there.

Maybe sometime soon they could make love in a place, in a way where he could shout as loud as he wanted. He sure hoped so.

His soul spilled into her, along with his orgasm and every drop of his energy and his love. He did his best to collapse gently without smashing her against the flagstone, while he wondered if he hadn't permanently given away his heart.

Who the fuck was he kidding? He'd done that a long time ago.

***

They really ought to move, if for no other reason than the rock biting into Tyra's ass. But it was rather quiet out there. Their bodies fused together kept away most of the chill, and she was so at peace she didn't give a damn about the rest.

“You've really never done that before, huh?” she murmured.

He lifted his head and smiled shyly. “I'll take that as a compliment.” At any other time but one like this, it was easy to forget how inexperienced he was.

She ran a finger through his short, dark hair. It was a little bit salt and peppery, dark like his eyes with tiny bright flecks. It gave him a wise, distinguished look. “It was.”

“I'm sorry that I…” He gestured vaguely. “I couldn't help myself.”

She couldn't help but laugh at that. “Hey, what female doesn't love being wanted so much that a guy can't help himself, huh?” She cradled his stubbly jaw and pulled him to her for a kiss. “You don't have anything to worry about.”

The light was fading from the sky. Soon, the moon would be out. Waning, if she wasn't mistaken. It had been awhile since she'd needed to pay attention. She hadn't been in a serious relationship, hadn't had any kind of steady mate.

Her fingers traced over the muscles on his goose-bumpy arm. “You make me feel special.”

“I'm glad.”

When his lips brushed hers, she asked, “Do you think there's any chance this could work out?”

Raking a hand through his hair, he sat up on his knees. When he did, he pulled out of her body, leaving her empty in more ways than one. “I don't know. I'd like to think so. I want it to, but…” His lips pressed together so tightly that they turned white. “My living here with you may not even be an option. I mean, once everyone finds out who I am? What I am? You, they'll probably forgive. You're still one of them. Nothing can change the fact that you're part vampire. But nothing can change the fact that I'm my father's son, either.”

He shrugged his shoulders sadly. “And you can't tell me you would want to leave here only to be with me. Family means too much to you. I've been around you long enough to know that. You probably want someone you can have a family with, and I can't give that to you. I won't bring more wizards into the world.”

He grabbed her hands and rubbed brisk circles, not the slow, luxurious ones like before. “Come on, let's get you inside. I don't want you to get cold again.” He glanced up at the sky. “Besides, the sun is going down, and I don't want your brother to show up here with the doctor and find us like this. He's been on the fence about killing me enough times as it is.”

They both made a good show of smiling at the joke, but Anton's smile didn't reach his eyes, and Tyra suspected hers didn't, either.

She opted for a shower when they got back inside, while Anton dressed and called Thad to let him know that Tyra was up and around. Funny how making love in thirty-degree weather on a cold patio hadn't been uncomfortable, but now as the hot water sluiced over her body, she couldn't get warm enough.

It was hard to make sense of everything. Of what Anton had said outside. The gist seemed to be a very tragic “sorry babe, I have feelings for you, too, but because of our shitty luck with the gene pool we can never be together.”

Well, that was pretty much the worst kiss-off she'd ever gotten. And where did that leave her? Able to date only vampires in the hopes that she could override the wizard genes? Able to date only humans in the hope that she could
water
down
the wizard genes? Dating something that took C batteries for eternity?

Oddly, she'd always had the tragic idea that maybe she was destined to be alone for the long haul, but now the reality left her wanting to bite her own wrists open.

She slapped off the water and wrapped a fuzzy towel around herself. Anton's low rumble carried to her from another room, but she didn't know who he was talking to and she didn't bother trying to stretch her hearing so that she could find out. Maybe Anton was talking to Thad, or maybe he was calling his evil brother and making plans for the next family barbecue: main course, slow-roasted vampire with coleslaw on the side.

She sagged against the bathroom door, reluctant to leave the tiny room. Her stomach was full of knots, and her brain held nothing but static.

If there was any hope of a future with Tyra, Anton needed to prove himself—really prove himself—to these vampires. For reasons he understood all too well, the doubt ran long and deep. Killing his father had furthered his own cause of vengeance as much as theirs, if they wanted to see it that way. There was also the disheartening fact that killing the Master had done a questionable amount of good, given that Petros was still on the loose. Anton would set about tying up that loose end as soon as he found out what was on the drive Petros had thrown at him.

His head drooped unceremoniously toward his chest while he waited in what Thad had said was his house manager's office. It turned out the data on the drive was corrupted, but the queen's human friend was good with computers. He tried not to eye the clean, white, unmarked blotter on the cherry desk like it was a pillow while he waited for Alexia to pull up the files.

She eyeballed him sideways. “You okay?”

Anton shook his head. “I'm fine. Thanks for asking.”

He slapped what was meant to be a fraternal pat on Alexia's back. She flinched and muttered a quiet “ow” but didn't say much else. The edges of some kind of plastic bandage poked from above her tank top. Some kind of fresh injury or… there seemed to be a lot of ink on the girl's body. A new tattoo in the hours since he'd last seen her? Or had the bandages been there before and he hadn't noticed.

It seemed a good chance to kill two birds with one stone. He could practice control of his healing power while helping with whatever was hurting her back. While Alexia squinted at the screen, shoulders hunched horribly in concentration, Anton used the barest pressure to rest his fingertips against her shirt.

His fingers warmed and his eyes drifted shut of their own accord, and he was wholly unprepared for what he saw next: fences. High, ringed in barbed wire, and monochromatic like something from a depressing Nazi-era movie he'd seen once when he was very young. The only life was a small, skinny child standing inside the rings of fence after fence after fence.

Anton found himself pounding on the outermost barrier and finding the fences made of steel and not the wood they appeared to be fashioned from. He needed to get her out, his gut told him so, but he couldn't see a way in. She seemed so alone and frightened, and he couldn't heal her when she was so far away.

Pain exploded across Anton's jaw, and no sooner had he begun to commune with a cabbage-rose-covered area rug than a large boot connected with the soft part of his belly. He still didn't know what in the hell was going on. Part of his brain was stuck on helping that girl. Massive hands shoved underneath his arms, and he was pinned to the wall by a large, angry vampire. Anton thought he remembered this one's name was Lee?

“What the fuck did you do to her?”

Truthfully, Anton wasn't sure. “I didn't do anything.” He gazed across the room. Alexia remained seated at the desk, eyes wide. Siddoh clapped a protective hand on her shoulder. Something—some recognition—passed from her to Anton. That girl was there inside her eyes, and Alexia seemed to know that Anton had seen something important. And it frightened her. Maybe Anton had unwittingly gotten too close to something she tried to keep hidden. He could understand that, in a way. “I didn't mean to,” he finished lamely. That much was true. Whatever he'd done, he certainly hadn't meant it.

“Her back. She was hurt, and I was trying to help heal it. I don't know what happened.” Anton looked from Lee, who still held him with an iron grip, to Siddoh and to Alexia again. Then to Thad and Isabel and some female with long, dark hair who had entered the room, and a shorter male who was dressed in regular clothes rather than battle gear but seemed no less imposing under the circumstances. What the hell had happened? He shifted back to Alexia. “If I hurt you, I apologize. I was trying to help.”

She shook her head and made a weak show of a smile. “I'm fine.” She looked around at everyone, as if she'd suddenly realized how many eyes were on her in the room. Her pale skin blushed a deep red. “Honestly, guys, I'm sorry. I guess I'm still not used to the vampire voodoo. Or whatever voodoo that was. That's all, yeah? Sorry to get everyone worked up. Lee, let him go.”

She shooed Siddoh away and made a show of going back to the files Anton had given her, but clearly she was still out of sorts. Shaky. And it was equally clear from the jut of her chin and the set of her shoulders that she wasn't saying another word on the subject. What had happened to her? What had Anton unwittingly done to her?

Was Anton's healing power capable of sussing out much more than garden-variety cuts and scrapes? Whatever he'd seen in there was the kind of hurt that ran long and deep. And it wasn't physical. Anton knew all about that shit.

Lee let him go and stepped back reluctantly, taking a final look at Alexia before he left the room. Slowly everyone emptied out except Isabel, who sat by Alexia's side with a bag of knitting, and Thad, who stood in front of Anton and simply… stared.

Anton wasn't sure he really needed Thad to speak; they were both likely thinking the same thing. Anton thought of Tyra, who was probably out of the shower by now and getting dressed and wondering where he had gone.

He moved off to the side with Thad, whose face still held an icy glare. “I get it. There will always be mistrust here. Someone will always think Tyra's sleeping with the enemy, no matter what I do to prove otherwise.”

Thad's head dropped backward onto his shoulders. “I really am sorry about that. I appreciate what you've done for us, but you can understand where the fear is coming from.”

“I know.” He tapped his hand against the wall. “She's gonna be furious if I take off without saying anything.”

Thad nodded again. “She will be. But I think maybe it's better to avoid confrontation.”

Anton inclined his head toward Alexia and lowered his voice to a whisper. “It was my healing power. There's something deep inside of her, some sort of emotional hurt, I think. I really didn't intend to frighten her.”

Thad placed a hand on Anton's shoulder. “I appreciate your concern. I'll talk to Isabel.”

“Good.” Anton gestured toward Alexia again. “What she found on the drive might be an old address for my mother. I wanted to check it out anyway. It's a long shot, but you never know.”

“I'll have Ivy, my house manager, get you a car,” Thad said.

“Thank you.” Anton straightened his clothes as he stepped away from the wall. It wasn't his true motivation for leaving so easily, but he wouldn't say so to Thad. Not to anyone. That remaining loose end with his brother needed to be handled, and given what had just happened with Alexia, it was probably better that he handle it alone. This was the perfect opportunity to go.

Tyra was going to hate him for taking off like this, and it killed him to leave without saying good-bye. But if he said good-bye, she would try to stop him. Or come along. He couldn't risk her safety again, and he couldn't just sit back and let Petros get away without knowing he'd tried everything there was to try.

Thad was right; it was better this way. Better for Tyra to hate him. Chances were, by morning he'd be dead.

***

Alexia ran to grab Siddoh by the arm as he was ambling toward the hall stairwell that led to the underground tunnels. “Hey, are you off tonight?”

Her heart squeezed a little when it looked like his shoulders sagged. They were friends. She
wanted
to buy that he liked hanging out with her. The insecure teenager inside of her, though, was always afraid that her friends were tired of her shit and ready to dump her ass for something better. Convinced she was too obnoxious and too much of a pain to be worth their time. Like now.

But she needed to lean on someone solid right now, and she was hoping that Siddoh was still willing to be that someone.

He turned and raked a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I'm off tonight. You wanna go out, I assume?”

They both glanced up as Lee's boots echoed at the far end of the hall. He looked their way and kept going. She couldn't have read his expression from where they stood even if it had changed, which it probably hadn't. And it would be stupid, wishful thinking that the fact that she was still holding on to Siddoh's wrist might have made Lee jealous.

Isabel was right. It was time to grow up and let that shit go.

Siddoh's eyes narrowed and his stare slid her way. “Don't you think maybe you need to dial back on the partying a little?”

“I party far less here than I used to, you know.” She stuck out her tongue and put her hands on her hips. It was kind of a juvenile move, but screw that. She wasn't out to impress Siddoh anyway.

He cupped her chin. “I'm worried about you, you know. Don't suppose you want to tell me what really happened back there with Anton and you almost passing out on your keyboard?”

She smiled her best smile. “Maybe after you get a martini or two into me, I'll open up a little.” They both knew that was a crock.

He grumbled and rolled his eyes to the ceiling, and when he blew air hard enough that his scraggly brown hair flounced around on his forehead, she knew she had him. “Swear to God, Lex, if you get us kicked out, I'm done.”

“I'll be good. I promise.” His look was dubious, so she held up a hand with her little finger extended. “Pinkie swear.”

Siddoh shook his head and looped his arm around her neck. “What are you, twelve?”

“Sometimes, yeah.” It really did seem that way sometimes, didn't it?

“All right, look.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I gotta shower and rest a little, balance out from nearly getting flash-fried at the shelter this morning. I never did get a good nap after feeding. Been crazy around here. So let me do that, check in at the training center… think you can handle waiting around for a few hours?”

She was careful not to let her face fall. Honestly, she wasn't quite sure that she could. Generally she loved being single. She enjoyed her independence. But times like this? She would have loved having someone to cling to, koala style. And she could lean on Siddoh for a lot, but she couldn't turn to him that way. It wouldn't be fair to either of them.

She turned to cover her disappointment. “Sounds good. Come grab me when you're ready?”

Alexia skipped back to her room. Anything to cover the fear, the dread of what she didn't want to feel. And sure enough, it found her as soon as she closed the door and lay on the bed.

She had no clue what that wizard guy had done to her, but it had been suffocating. The second his hand had touched her back, a sensation had come over her like she was in a free fall. And Alexia had always been afraid of heights, so it wasn't a feeling she relished. Too bad she wasn't a bungee-jumping adrenaline junkie.

If only.

It had been like being tossed off a cliff head first and rushing through black nothingness. No bottom. No slowing down. Nothing but faster and faster and
faster.

She put her hands over her eyes, and it all started again. She wanted to pull her hands away to make it stop, but her body was frozen.

“Lex?” The bang on the door snapped her out of it. Siddoh.

She stumbled to the door, almost staggering, as if she were already drunk. “Hey, that was fast. I thought you said it would be a few hours.”

He pulled out his phone. “It's after ten. You okay?”

Suddenly her throat hurt and her eyes burned. It couldn't be that late. She'd done nothing more than lie on the bed. “Uh. Yeah. Let me just…” She glanced around her room, which was as disheveled as she must have been with its rumpled bed and piles of clothes. She held up a hand. “Two minutes, huh?”

He frowned but backed against the far wall of the hallway. She closed the door and sucked down a few gulps of air before scrabbling frantically to throw on clean clothes and dunk her head into the sink. For a moment she stared at the blinking readout on her alarm clock, like maybe it and Siddoh were both fucking with her. She'd lost more than four hours.

What the hell had happened?