Something Wanton (Mystics & Mayhem) (45 page)

“We’re about to get interrupted again,” I whispered, still staring at him.

“Huh?” Nathan grunted.

“We have company,” I said, nodding over his shoulder at the group of people watching us with blatant curiosity.  “The vampire variety this time.”

Nathan took a deep breath and his eyes went cold.  Then, very slowly, he turned around to face the waiting vampire coven behind him.  There had to have been fifty of them, all of them dressed in black and wearing long trench coats that made them look like they had just stepped out of the Matrix.  They fanned out in precise formation behind the vampire in front. 

I focused on the leader, dismissing the others for the moment.  As I studied him, he was studying me.  There was a look in his eyes I
really
didn’t like.    When his eyes fell on my mark, he looked like Christmas had come early. 

Now, why didn’t I think that was a good thing?

“Mikhail,” Nathan said smoothly, with a stiff nod of greeting.

“Nate! It’s been too long!” the silver-haired vampire crowed, finally tearing his eyes away from me.  His voice was like honeyed sunlight, so silky that you couldn’t help but respond to it.  Just for the record, nobody
should be that smooth.  It isn’t fair to the rest of the human—or inhuman—race.  “You look good, kid.  Much better than you did the last time I saw you.  How long has it been, a century now?”

“Something like that,” Nathan said, his hand tightening around mine like he needed the support.  “Thank you for coming on such short notice.”

“That’s what friends are for, Nate,” he said, waving off Nathan’s thanks like it was nothing.  “Honestly, I’m flattered that you have finally found some use for me.  I am…  Oh, what is the word I’m looking for?  Humbled.  Yes.  That will suffice.”

I barely choked back a snort of disbelief.  I doubted this guy even knew what the word ‘humble’ meant.  Nathan must have heard more in his phony speech than I had, though, because his hand tightened around mine even more and he went rigid.  This situation was looking worse and worse by the second.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your beautiful friend?” Mikhail asked, moving forward until he was mere feet away from me.  Up close, I could see that his eyes were deep sapphire blue, just a shade darker than mine.  They were beautiful—and colder than ice, despite the warm smile on his lips.

“Em, this is Mikhail Ivanov,” Nathan murmured, never taking his eyes off Mikhail. “Mikhail, this is my mate, Ember Blaylock.”

“Ember,” Mikhail said, still smiling sweetly at me.  “She is stunning, Nate!  Simply stunning!  You’re a lucky man, buddy.”

He was charming, there was no doubt about that, but there was something about him I didn’t like.  He set my asshole radar off, for one thing.  For another, I had never been overly fond of being looked at like I was a choice cut of steak. It was creepy.

“Nathan always was a lucky little shit,” another vampire said, stepping forward.  He had long, silky-looking, brown hair and an impish smile.  His eyes were warm as he looked at Nathan, and I was surprised when Nathan let go of my hand and walked over to hug him, laughing.

“When did you crawl out of your hole, Kellum?” Nathan hooted, backing up and looking the new vamp over.  “I thought you said you were never getting back up.
What changed your mind? No, wait. Let me guess. Blonde or brunette?”

“Blonde,” a woman’s voice rang out in answer before Kellum could say a word. 

I glanced her way to find her walking over to join Nathan and Kellum.  She was very blonde, very tall, and very beautiful.  I was instantly jealous.  What I wouldn’t give to be tall…

She slipped her arm around Kellum’s waist and her full lips poked out in a pout when she asked, “Why? Who was the brunette?”

“Nate, this is Claire,” Kellum said, smiling down at her. “I’m her current plaything.”

“Heads up, Ember,” one of my ghosts whispered just as a hand touched the small of my back.

I had been so busy watching Nathan doing the male bonding thing—definition: insulting each other to show affection—with Kellum that I had forgotten to keep an eye on Mikhail.  He had taken advantage of my distraction to move closer to me.  I moved away from his touch and he smiled down at me slyly before turning back to watch the rest of his group, the ones who remembered Nathan from the good old days, greet their lost comrade and introduce him to the newer members.

“There is something very odd about you, Ember,” he said, conversationally.  I arched an eyebrow at him and his smile widened.  “I’m not being rude, I just find the fact
that I can’t sense you strange.  I can’t even smell you.  Don’t
you
think that’s strange?”

“Not really,” I told him, shrugging.  “Then, I don’t go around sniffing people.  Is that some kind of vampire custom I should know about?”

Caution dictated that I watch myself, but I had never been all that cautious.  No, I was more the speak first, regret it later type.  It was obvious to me within seconds that Mikhail was no more used to having someone be a smartass to him than Skippy was.  He honestly looked like he didn’t know what to say for a second and then he started to laugh like I was the most adorable thing he had ever encountered.

“Oh, I
like
you!” he said, still chuckling.  “You have spirit.  That’s good.  Our way of life is not for the fainthearted. You’re strong enough to handle immortality, though.  I don’t have to be able to sense you to know that.  It’s very evident in the way you hold yourself, the way you speak.”

“That’s not strength, it’s sarcasm,” I told him, rolling my eyes.  “You
do
know the difference, right?”

“That’s precisely what I mean, actually.”

He stopped to smile at Nathan when he turned around to check on me, and Nathan frowned back before Kellum drew his attention back to him with a whispered comment that I didn’t catch.  I had to give him kudos for not hovering.  I could take care of myself, after all. My days of needing a bodyguard—and my ghosts didn’t count—had disappeared with my pulse.

“There aren’t many who are brave enough to stand up to somebody like me,” Mikhail continued, turning back to me.  “I bet you’ve been giving Skipper fits!”

“Not really,” I shrugged, hugging my arms again for warmth.  I hadn’t felt the cold energy of my ghosts when I’d been kissing Nathan—for obvious reasons—but I was definitely starting to feel the chill without the…um…stimulation.  “Skippy likes me.  We only annoyed each other for an hour or two.”

“He lets you call him
Skippy
?” Mikhail asked, laughing in genuine surprise.  “Well, that’s new.  Not many would dare.  He tends to make the people who do vanish, never to be seen again.  Then, I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that you would dare to show such insolence.  I doubt there is anything
you
wouldn’t dare to do if the mood struck you.”

I rolled my eyes
again, but chose not to answer.  My teeth were clenched together to keep them from chattering and I was trying to hold myself as stiffly as possible so I wouldn’t shiver.  If Mikhail thought the fact that he couldn’t smell me was odd, he would find the fact that I was warm totally bizarre.  I didn’t want to give him any more reasons than necessary to find me interesting.

I watched Nathan, waiting for a chance to catch his eye.  I needed to get back inside, and sooner was definitely preferable to later.  Unfortunately, Kellum was doing a killer job of keeping Nathan’s attention focused anywhere but on me and Mikhail.   

Nathan, I’m freezing,
I finally thought, dropping my mental shields so he would hear me.

He turned around, eyes wide and panicked, just as Mikhail wrapped his heavy trench coat around me.  He wasn’t the only one who turned, either.  I realized then that I hadn’t done it right.  There were obviously more than a couple of telepaths among the group of vampires Mikhail traveled with, including Mikhail himself.  They were staring at me with expressions that ranged from incredulous to downright suspicious.

“A warm darkling,” Mikhail breathed, his hands still on my shoulders.  “You
are
a mystery, aren’t you, my little beauty?  I like mysteries, they fascinate me.”

I pinned Nathan with a look that positively screamed for him to come help me.  Kellum had his hand
on his arm and his grip tightened when Nathan, expression stony, stepped forward.  Nathan turned his glare on him and Kellum shook his head.  Nathan looked at him for a second before glancing over at me and nodding.  Kellum let go of his arm and strolled toward me and Mikhail, a goofy grin on his handsome face.

“Leave the poor girl alone, Mick,” he said, rolling his eyes.  “Ember, at the risk of pissing off my girl, would you do me the honor of giving me a tour while these two Neanderthals talk business? 
Palatial homes
fascinate
me.”

He gave Mikhail a hard look as he said that and his hands slid off my shoulders slowly.  I quickly stepped away from him, shrugging his coat off as I went.  When I turned to hand it back to him, he just smiled and waved it away.

“Keep it until you get warm again,” he said, smiling widely. “I think you need it a lot more than I do.”

It was downright predatory, that smile.  I didn’t react to it on the surface, but I felt my stomach knot up.  I had given him more than a reason to be interested in me.  I had just become his most wanted toy.  I could see it in his eyes.  I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature go down my back when his smile widened even more.  Not only did I know it, but he knew that I knew it.

“I have one inside, thanks,” I told him, tossing it to him.  I couldn’t let him see how afraid I was of him.  It would only encourage him.  No, I had to play it cool.  Pasting a smile on my face, I held out my hand to Kellum.  “Ready, Kellum?”

“To explore dark corners with a beautiful woman?” he asked, winking and taking my hand.  “
Absolutely
!  Lead the way!”

I took his hand and saw his eyes flare in real surprise when he realized Mikhail hadn’t just been blowing hot air and I really
was
warm.  To him, anyway.  I was still having a hard time keeping my teeth from chattering. 

Nathan’s hand brushed mine as I passed him, and I smiled at him to reassure him.  Kellum caught his eye, too, shaking his head again.  I didn’t know what to make of that, so I just led the way inside and breathed a sigh of relief when the door closed behind me.

The heating system was kicking out puffs of warm air through the vent close to the door and I went and stood over it, waiting for my nose and fingers to thaw. 

“Better?” Kellum asked, very softly, after I had stood over the vent for a few minutes.

“Yeah, a little.”  I looked up and smiled at him weakly.  “I just made one epic mistake, didn’t I?”

“That remains to be seen,” he said, grinning.  “You can’t blame him for being curious about you.  Darklings are naturally cold.  They’re even colder than vampires.  It’s not every day you run into a warm one, Ember.”

“No, I guess not,” I sighed, sagging against the wall behind me.

I didn’t want Mikhail to be curious.  I wanted him to ignore me, forget he had ever laid eyes on me.  I got a creepy feeling from him, like he was waiting for me to screw up so that he could swoop in and devour me whole.  I couldn’t really say what brought that feeling on, but it didn’t keep me from feeling it.

“Why were you shaking your head at Nathan back there?” I asked. 

“Mick would have taken it as a personal challenge if Nate hovered too much over you,” Kellum explained with a shrug that didn’t quite match the worried look in his eyes.  “The less Nate provokes that response in him, the better.  For all of us.”

Well, wasn’t that just grand.  If my boyfriend protected me, that creeper would try even harder to get to me.  If he didn’t, it would just make it
easier
for him to get to me.

Anybody else think I was going to be the loser in that scenario?

“Mick was right about one thing, you know?” Kellum said,
distracting me from my unpleasant thoughts as he leaned against the doorframe next to him and gave me a curious look.  “Nate really did luck up this time.  You’ll be good for him.  He’s been sad for way too long.  You’ll keep things interesting, I have no doubt.”

“You’ve known each other for a long time, haven’t you?”

“We grew up on neighboring estates,” he said with a rueful grin.  “He was a hellion then, too.  He was noble by birth, but I don’t think anyone ever bothered to tell Nate that.  He spent his time running wild with the children of the village instead.  I envied the hell out of him, I won’t lie.  I was my father’s only son, so I didn’t have the freedom Nate had.  Not that I didn’t press my boundaries every chance I got.  Nate and I got into more than our fair share of trouble together.”

I smiled, imagining the two of them, scrawny little boys, getting into everything they weren’t supposed to and then trying to explain to their very angry fathers what they had been up to.  I didn’t know if I was right, though.  Nathan didn’t talk about his childhood.  I had always figured it was kind of a sore subject with him, so I’d left it alone.  Maybe I could get Kellum to tell me some stories sometime.  It would be nice to hear about what Nathan was like before he became…well, my Nathan.