Honoria Ravena Page 16

  A stern looking woman with short-cropped hair crossed her arms over her chest. “You big pussy. I’ve been sleeping in worse places than alligator-infested Everglades—”

  Macon clapped his hands together once. “Hey, whiny babies! I didn’t ask your opinions. Do your boasting and bitching later. Go shower, sleep, get laid, do something. You should be preparing for the coming fight. Dismissed.”

  The chatter started as the Watchers broke into groups and dispersed. I decided I liked this ragtag group of vampires. They boasted and slapped each other. It was like being back in the midst of a giant vampire hunting party.

  Laedan glared at Macon. “You’re sure these werewolves are rogues?”

  Macon nodded. “They’re all kills you sanctioned yourself. I don’t assign a Watcher unless I have a kill order signed by you. Rest assured, Laedan, your people are not being unfairly prosecuted. Zarek put a stop to that.” He turned his attention to my brother and me. “But there are other things we need to discuss.”

  Zarek sighed and rubbed his forehead. “What now, Macon?”

  “These vampire hunters you’ve turned are your responsibility. If they continue to kill vampires without a kill order, they will be executed, and you will be fined. They cannot leave your custody unless they’re coming to work for me as Watchers.”

  Rage burned through me. “How dare you! I’m not five. I’m in the custody of no one.”

  Macon’s face went blank, but I saw fury blaze in his eyes. “You’ve killed enough vampires that if I gave a decree to kill you, not one of my Watchers would hesitate. I didn’t have to let you live, but I respect Zarek, so I’m leaving you alone, if you stay with him. If you’re outside this county without him, my Watchers can kill you legally and not even Zarek can protest.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Now, you can choose to serve me. You’d be killing vampires, but only those whom I tell you to. And only if your master agrees.”

  I glanced at my “master.” Amusement swam in his eyes, and his lips twitched like he was holding in a smile.

  “You bastard. You knew he would do this, didn’t you?”

  A close-lipped smile broke free. “I suspected. Similar things have happened to people who threaten Macon’s kingdom. Your dear Nathan, for example.” He glanced at Macon. “As for your proposition, Jason can be a Watcher if he pleases, but she’s mine. And please tell your Watchers that if they want to kill her, that’s their choice, but I would prefer it if she were brought back to me. That will hold some weight with most of them and hopefully keep her from getting killed.”

  “You don’t expect her to stay put.”

  “Are you watching her? She’s trembling with rage. She’s squeezing her fist so tight her knuckles are white. I’m waiting for her to take a swing at me.”

  I unclenched my fists. I hadn’t realized I’d tensed up enough to shake.

  “Oh, the hands popped open.” He flipped some hair behind my shoulder. “Good girl.”

  I glared at him from the corner of my eye. I couldn’t even look directly at him. “You really don’t want to touch me right now.”

  He groaned. “What’s the difference, Regan? I wasn’t going to let you go anyway, and you know it.”

  “Yes, but there was always the option of escape. Now I’ll be killed if I leave the county without you. I hate you, Zarek.”

  Macon smiled cruelly. “Well, I would be nice to him if I were you. If Zarek reports good behavior, maybe this limitation will be lifted. It’s all up to him, so I would try to play nice if I were you.”

  I shot to my feet and walked away. If I stayed, I was going to kill them both.

  “Laedan, go with her,” Zarek snapped.

  “I don’t want Laedan with me,” I shouted over my shoulder.

  I started upstairs. When I reached the landing, Laedan caught up with me.

  He grabbed my elbow and I rounded on him. “Look, I really don’t want to see anyone right now. I want to be alone so I don’t kill someone.”

  “And I’ll respect that after I show you something.”

  He took my hand and pulled me in the opposite direction of Zarek’s room.

  “Where are we going?”

  “My room.”

  “Uh—”

  “Not for anything dirty. Like I said, I have something you need to see.”

  We stopped at the door at the far end of the hallway. Laedan twisted the knob and pushed it open. It only opened enough to let one person slither through. He slipped in first.

  “Come on. Hurry up.”

  I started to slide my body through the crack. “Why the fuck doesn’t this door open all the way?”

  “Uh…you’ll see.”

  I managed to get through the door and immediately tripped over something. Laedan grabbed me before I hit the ground and set me back on my feet.

  I glanced around. The only furniture he had was a king-size bed and a large L-shaped desk with two computers on it. There was a very large plasma flat-screen hanging on the wall. There were books stacked everywhere, which was what I’d tripped over.

  There was a backpack on the floor with several pads of paper and books stacked around it. The parts of the floor that weren’t covered in books were covered in clothes, including the space behind the door. The garbage can was overflowing with fast food bags, and a pizza box sat on the foot of the bed.

  “Does the EPA know Zarek keeps a garbage dump up here?”

  “Ha ha. Zarek pays for college, so I went back not too long ago. It’s my last semester.”

  “And that’s supposed to excuse the dirty laundry and garbage?”

  He glanced down at the floor, scratched the back of his neck, and pushed some laundry to the side with his foot. “Well, no. I’m just a slob. But it explains the books.”

  Laedan didn’t bother kicking things out of his way as he walked to the closet; he just stepped on it all. He managed to open the closet door with surprising ease and reached for the top shelf. He pulled down a medium-sized picture and clutched it to his chest.

  “Do you know how Zarek and I met?”

  “No.”

  “Well, Zarek was a real asshole when I met him. He was hitting on a woman, and she wasn’t interested. As you know, he’s a little pushy, and I was more than a little wasted so I decked him. And boy was he pissed. But you know how he is. He likes anyone with the balls to stand up to him. He needed someone to run his bar on the days he didn’t want to.”

  “At first I said no, I was going through…this thing.” He shook his head roughly, and I opened my mouth to ask him about it. He held up his hands. “I don’t want to talk about it. This story isn’t about me anyway. Running this bar is damned good job. I was trying to start a wereanimal resistance, and I had no money or resources. No education. So eventually I accepted. As I got to know him, I saw just how much of a bitter bastard he was. And then one day I found this picture.”

  He turned the picture around. It was a small painting of a stunning woman. She was dressed in a fluffy red and maroon dress. The corset squished her boobs up high. Her pretty blonde hair was piled on her head, and the strands that hung down were in perfect little ringlet curls. She had on a small maroon hat with two red feathers sticking out of it.

  “At first, he was so pissed. He snatched the picture from me and shoved me out of his room. He stayed up there for two days without coming down to feed or check on the bar. When I went up to check on him, he was just sitting in bed, with that picture in his lap. He threw a glass of brandy at my head and told me to get the fuck out and—”

  I interrupted. “I thought vampires couldn’t get drunk.”

  He looked thoughtful for a second. “It takes a lot of booze, so much that I don’t think he was drunk. And Zarek is so ancient he could probably drown himself in a pool of hundred-proof and just get a little buzz. But maybe he was wishing he could. Hoping he could.”

  He shook his head. “I was deeply confused. This guy had been a cold, hard bastard the entire time I’d known h
im, but he was having a meltdown over a picture that was centuries old. So the second day, I went in and yanked the picture out of his hands and put it face down on the bed.” He raked his hands through his hair. “Zarek just sighed and banged his head against the headboard. He said thanks and told me to leave. I told him no, not till he explained.

  “I was truly afraid for my life at that moment. He’d never looked at me with that much hatred. Not even after I knocked him flat on his ass with that punch. But he calmed after a minute and grudgingly explained.”

  Laedan walked to the bed and lay down. He patted the spot next to him. I lay down next to him with a sigh. I was exhausted.

  “He’d fallen in love with a young French noblewoman, not long before the revolution. She was so sweet and innocent. She loved life and was very sympathetic to the plight of the commoners, though she didn’t know much about their problems. He decided he couldn’t turn her. It was her humanity that he loved. He still married her. He figured eventually he’d get up the nerve to tell her what he was and turn her.”

  He sighed. “He never got the chance to explain. Some thugs broke into their house while he wasn’t home and nearly raped her to death her. They meant to kill her, but they hadn’t. He came home and found her dying on the floor and asked her if she wanted to be a vampire. Panicked and probably a little delirious, she said yes. Things were terrible. She’d been violated. She was broken inside, and she just wasn’t strong enough to heal.

  “Back then Zarek killed when he hunted. It turned her stomach, she couldn’t do it, but Zarek believed it was the only way to survive. Only recently have vampires discovered that they don’t have to kill to live. One day she ran off. He found her days later. He believes she stopped feeding, and when she couldn’t take the hunger anymore, she shoved a knife through her heart. He found a note on her, apologizing. Saying that she still loved him, but just couldn’t take it anymore.”

  I swiped at the tears that were leaking from the corners of my eyes. Poor Zarek. His poor wife.

  “And I imagine that’s why he worries when you leave. Why he wants to keep you with him. He worries about his fledglings enough when he isn’t madly in love with them. Also keep in mind that Dorian kidnapped his sister when he was very young. I’m sure it’s scarred him.”

  “I’m not like his wife. And I know you don’t have to kill to live as a vampire.”

  “Yes, but he also knows you were a vampire hunter and that becoming a vampire is the worst thing that can happen to them. Worse than death even. Just try not to get too upset when he gets overprotective and acts like an ass.”

  I laughed, but it was short-lived. “I’ll try, but I really hate this shit.” I sat up and slid off the bed.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To shower and then I’m going to bed.”

  He wiggled his eyebrows. “Can I join you?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Nope, not unless you want Zarek to skin you. Besides, you need to clean your room.”

  “Pfft, yeah, Mom, like I’m going to do that.”

  I grinned at him before I walked back to the door. I slipped through and shut it behind me.

  I strode back to Zarek’s room. At this rate, Zarek would never let me out of his sight, even if Macon gave the okay. Surely he realized I wasn’t his wife. I wasn’t some innocent wallflower. Hell, I killed vampires for a living. And I didn’t have to kill humans to survive as a vampire.

  I stepped into his room and closed the door behind me. I stripped as I headed for the bathroom, leaving articles of clothing in my wake.

  I had to find a way to convince Zarek I wasn’t going to hurt myself if I was away from him. He’d still never let me go, but he might loosen the leash a little.

  I turned on the shower and waited for the water to heat. I stepped in and wet my hair, then grabbed the shampoo and started to bathe. Hearing the bedroom door open and close, I poked my head out of the shower door and shouted, “Zarek, is that you?”

  He appeared in the bathroom doorway, his muscular arms crossed over his chest. I crooked my finger at him. He frowned but came to me anyway.

  Sex wasn’t the way to convince him. I’d have to talk to him for that. But I wanted to comfort him after the story I’d heard, even if he had no idea why.

  I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and pulled him to me. I thrust my tongue into his mouth. He moaned and stepped into the shower. I slid my free hand to his fly and undid his jeans, freeing his erection.

  I slipped my hands under the wet material on either side of his lean waist. I broke the kiss as I slid down his body. I ran my tongue over his beautiful abs while I slid my hands down his powerful thighs.

  He stepped out of his pants and kicked them away. I stared up at him as I wrapped my hands around his cock. I gave the head a teasing lick before I took him into my mouth.

  His fingers tunneled through my hair as he began fucking my mouth in short, delicate digs. I sucked hard enough to hollow my cheeks. I gently massaged his balls, and he gasped, his dick jerking. My mouth flooded with semen, and I swallowed. He leaned against the wall of the shower, gasping.

  “You’re really good at that.”

  I smiled and kissed his trembling thigh before I stood. “Thank you.”

  He pushed himself off the wall and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Want to know what I’m good at?”

  I laughed. “I think I’ve got a good idea.”

  He pushed me against the shower wall. “I’d love to demonstrate.”

  And he’d have no problem demonstrating. His cock was already hardening.

  He dipped his head to my breasts and raked his fangs lightly across one nipple. He swirled his tongue across it before sucking it between his fangs while massaging my other breast with his hand.

  I groaned and threaded my fingers through his hair. He switched breasts. He skimmed his hand over my stomach. His hand slipped between my thighs and stroked my clit. I gasped and covered his hand with mine. I bucked against his probing fingers shamelessly.

  He groaned and traced the shell of my ear with his tongue. “God, you’re already wet, ready for me. I love that about you.”

  He pumped two fingers into me and strummed my clit with his thumb. I came on his hand, screaming my release. He grasped my thighs and lifted me. I wrapped my thighs around his hips, and he drove into me before I had recovered from my orgasm. I shouted his name, digging my heels into his ass as he pounded into me.

  His warm breath caressed my throat before his fangs sank in. Pleasure boiled up my spine, and I shouted his name.

  He broke away from my throat, his back arching as he spent himself before sinking to the ground with me in his arms and lying back under the shower spray. He licked the wounds on my throat lazily as the water beat on us.

  I ran my hands through his hair and hummed contentedly. “Babe, the water’s cold.”

  The shower immediately turned off.

  “You and your creepy Jedi mind powers.”

  He lifted his head and frowned at me. “What?”

  “You’ve never seen Star Wars? Surely you’ve heard it referenced at least.”

  “I haven’t seen a movie since the 1940s.”

  I gaped at him. “But…how? We watched all kinds of movies with Alaric. He said that movies and TV were invented for bored vampires.”

  He snorted and sat up, shifting me off him. He stood and stepped out of the shower before helping me to my feet. “More like vampires without lives. I’m a busy man. I don’t have time for frivolous things.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m so getting movies from Alaric and we can lay in bed and watch them.”

  He eyed me from head to toe. “If we’re laying in bed, I guarantee you I won’t pay attention to a movie for long.”

  I smacked his arm lightly.

  He grabbed me and tossed me over his shoulder. “Don’t hit me, wench.” He carried me to the bed and tossed me on before climbing in after me.

  I yawned. �
�I really don’t think I have energy for more sex.”

  His laugher rang in my ears. “I bet I could convince you otherwise. But we both need our rest. Who knows when that little puke, Navarro, will attack?”

  As he draped me across his chest, he cleared his throat.

  “So, I expected to get jumped when I came through the door, but not quite like that. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing better than a wet, willing woman waiting to blow you in the shower and then screw your brains out, but what’s made you so forgiving?”

  I bit my lip and lifted my head off his chest to look at him. “Laedan told me about your wife.”

  He thumped his head against the headboard. “I’m going to kill that asshole. He shouldn’t have told you.”

  I caressed his bicep. “I think it’s good that he did. I was very pissed at you. I wouldn’t have forgiven you if I hadn’t known why you were so…” I searched for the right word. “Paranoid.”

  “I don’t want to lose anything I love, ever again. I haven’t turned a woman since. I thought they were too weak for it. But then I met you. You’re as tough as most men I know. If anyone could survive the change, you would.” He sighed. “But I also know that becoming a vampire is the worst thing that can happen to you. I know you have the guts to commit suicide if you think it’s better than being one of us.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me killing myself, Zarek. You forget a vampire raised me. I hunt strictly for profit, not because I believe all vampires are evil and must die. Yeah, I definitely don’t like what you’ve done to me, but suicide is the coward’s way out.”

  “Other vampires might try to kill you if you aren’t near me. I don’t want you to die fighting them either.”

  “I’ve been fighting vampires all my life.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’m aware.”

  “Then can you relax?”

  “Eventually.”

  I sighed and laid my head on his chest. The urge to beat him almost overcame me. I tried to relax. He had his reasons. I had to remember that. When he felt comfortable, he would lighten up. I hoped…