However at that particular moment, I did not.
“This isn’t funny,” I muttered angrily to his chest.
I felt him kiss the top of my head.
It’s something between jaywalking and murder in the first degree, he told me.
That doesn’t tell me much.
It’s all you’re going to get, sweetling.
I had no chance to reply. He took my hand and walked us back downstairs.
The three vamps were waiting for us. I knew Cristiano and Rudolf heard the very little we spoke out loud. It would be hard to miss Lucien’s shout of laughter even if you didn’t have vampire hearing. Both of them looked highly amused.
Our whispered conversation made Marcello move from surly to openly hostile.
Casual as can be, Cristiano moved to and opened the door, walking through it. Rudolf and Marcello followed. All three stopped outside and waited.
Lucien walked me to the opened door.
Lock the door behind me. Stephanie has a key, he said.
Instead of nodding, I replied, Okay.
Then he demanded, Kiss me.
Did he just say what I thought he just said?
My eyes widened and I whispered, What?
Do it, now.
He told me to take my cues from him. That wasn’t exactly what one would call a cue, more like a command.
Still, in this troubling situation I felt it sensible to do as he ordered.
I leaned in, hands to his abs, getting up on tiptoe and tilting my head back. His own dipped down, I pressed my lips against his and his opened. Another cue I was forced to follow, my tongue slid into his mouth. The instant it touched his, his arms came around me like vices, pinning my hands between us, hauling me into his big, hard body.
It had been three weeks since he’d kissed me like this. For three weeks, even during feeding, he’d been the perfect gentleman. Often during those weeks he’d brush his lips against mine before going to sleep. Or he’d stop, bend and touch his mouth to the top of my head when he’d walk past me while I was reading. But he hadn’t really kissed me.
Clearly my body missed it, so much I forgot our audience. My head tilted to the side, my hands forced themselves from between us, one wrapping around his waist, the other one going into his hair to hold him to me. Our tongues dueled, taking, giving, making my body burn and my heart race.
Like his laughter, it gave me sustenance. I demanded it and took it and more of it and even more of it because it had been so long, I was starving.
He broke the kiss and when he did I sensed he didn’t like the fact that he had to.
“I’ll be back soon,” he murmured against my mouth and stepped away but only after I took a deep, calming breath and nodded.
He moved out the door and I finally felt the air. It was again thick with that seductive danger, so thick, the minute I sensed it, it nearly choked me.
All three vampires were watching me, now with no hostility and no humor. It didn’t take a mind reader to know they were hungry. For what, I wasn’t sure but my guess was it was me. It wasn’t my blood they were after but something far more profound.
Definitely a menace.
Lucien turned to me, Lock the door.
Then, whoosh, they were gone and all I saw or heard was the doors slamming on the car.
I closed and locked the door. Then as fast as my feet would carry me, I ran to the phone and called Stephanie.
* * * * *
Terror seared through me, all I could think was escape.
I collided with something strong, powerful, iron bands went around me, holding me imprisoned.
“Leah, honey, what on earth?”
Loss. Pain. Anguish. Fear. Too much. I couldn’t cope.
Burning, burning, the heat was too immense. Overwhelming. Scalding my eyes. Singeing my throat.
Falling, sharp, uncontrolled, something tightened around my neck. I couldn’t breathe.
I struggled against my gentle prison.
“Jesus, Leah, calm down. What’s the matter?”
Clawing at my bounds, I could hear my choking breaths hitching through my wracking sobs. Fingers forced open my mouth, pressed against my tongue, searching for the source of my suffocation.
Need. Need. Desperate need. Touch. Skin. Warmth. Strength. Power.
Him.
Needed him.
Needed his hands, his breath, his presence, him.
Soothing, soothing, soothing.
I had to have him. If I didn’t get him, the noose would tighten and I’d die.
“Please.” It was my voice but I didn’t recognize the rasping, raw, agonized noise.
“Oh my God.”
Somewhere far away, the phone rang. My prison moved and I struggled to no avail.
“Lucien, thank God. Something’s wrong with Leah. She can’t breathe and I can’t find out why. She’s fighting me and if I let her go, I fear she’ll do herself more harm. You need to call an ambulance.”
I gasped for breath. My lungs were burning. The blackness was encroaching.
“What? Are you mad? She’s choking, goddamn it, call an ambulance!”
The noose tightened sharply. I feared it’d snap my neck and I sensed the sickening strangled noise I heard came from me.
“Listen, Leah, honey, please, listen to the phone…” the female voice implored urgently.
“Sweetling…” His voice sounded in my ear.
Breath filled my lungs.
I took it in in gulps.
“Hold on, I’m coming.”
My mind cocooned, nothing came in, nothing went out, nothing went on.
Catatonia.
Then he was there, his arms sliding around me, lifting me. I was cradled in his lap, his heat enveloping me, his hold fierce and protective.
The aftereffects of the hideous living nightmare still held me in their thrall and, although my senses were returning, I was utterly powerless. A blind, mute ragdoll in Lucien’s arms.
“How long has she been like this?” I heard him ask tersely.
“Since you talked with her on the phone but trust me, this is better. Before that, I swear, Lucien, it looked and sounded like she was dying,” Stephanie replied.
“Christ!” Lucien’s word was a subdued explosion. His arms got tight, painfully so. It hurt and at the same time it felt beautiful.
“Has this happened before?” Stephanie asked.
“She has bad dreams,” Lucien answered, his hand beginning to stroke my back.
“Bad dreams? Luce, that wasn’t a bad dream. That was completely f**ked up. I’m seven hundred and fifty years old and I’ve seen some serious shit in my life but that was f**ked up!”
Stephanie was in a state.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” Lucien demanded.