“I would look a lot more smug if you would…”
Before Cezar could finish his delicious suggestion, his head was slammed into the edge of the hot tub. His eyes squeezed shut as darkness surrounded him and then the sound of a familiar, rasping voice echoed through his mind.
Chapter 10
Anna felt as if she were floating.
Okay, she actually was floating in the deep, deliciously warm water. But it was more than that. It was as if her entire body had become a boneless mass of sated pleasure.
It was a sensation she hadn’t felt for two centuries and while she hadn’t lied to Cezar when she said that she should regret what had just happened between them, she just couldn’t stir up the least hint of remorse.
God…it had been fantastic.
The feel of him moving deep inside her at the same time he was taking her blood was an experience that went way beyond mere sex.
They had been connected so deeply that it had been as if they had been as one. Two halves that were only complete when they were together.
A terrifying thought.
But not as terrifying as the sight of the powerful vampire suddenly bowing backwards, his head smacking against the edge of the hot tub and his eyes squeezing shut as if he were in acute pain.
“Cezar?” She gripped his beautiful face in her hands, her heart halting in fear. Was he under some kind of attack? Some vampire thing that she couldn’t see or sense? Or could he be sick? “Dear God…Cezar.” She crawled onto his lap, her powers swirling through the room. Not that she noticed the heavy statues that tumbled and shattered beneath the force, or the pictures that crashed to the floor. Her attention was focused on Cezar as his face contorted with a flare of agony. “What’s wrong?”
After what seemed to be an eternity, Cezar slowly relaxed, his eyes fluttering open to regard her with a blank gaze.
“Anna?”
“Yes. Are you hurt? Do you need Viper?”
He lifted a hand to touch the back of his head, the dark eyes clearing as he surfaced from the strange power that had held him in thrall.
“Nothing more than a cracked skull and a raging frustration,” he muttered, his dark gaze skimming down her naked body still straddling his waist. “Typical of the Oracles.”
She stiffened, a very bad feeling replacing her fear. “The Oracles?”
“Si.” He grimaced, his hand shifting to push the damp strands of his hair from his face. “They have yet to catch on to the whole cell phone thing. Not that I could use one even if they did.”
Despite the heat of the water, Anna felt chilled as she slid off his lap and wrapped her arms around her waist.
“What did they say?”
His expression became shuttered. “I must leave you for a short time.”
“Leave me?”
“I hope I won’t be gone long, but…”
Anna surged to her feet, her stomach clenched with a sense of sick dread.
“Oh no, Conde Cezar, not again,” she hissed.
With a far more elegant motion, Cezar was standing directly before her, appearing like some god rising from the water as his bronzed skin glowed in the dim light.
“Anna, I must leave,” he said darkly. “When the Oracles call, no demon can ignore their commands. Not unless they’re in a hurry to be planted in their grave.”
She stepped back, until her legs hit the edge of the tub. She was furious, but the temptation to reach out and stroke that perfect bronze skin was nearly overwhelming.
“Oracles.” She gave a short, bitter laugh. “Jeez. At least think of a new excuse to dump me. God, I’m such an idiot. You’re the master of hit-and-run sex and still I let you…”
“God dammit, Anna, this is not some scheme to try to sneak away.” He easily closed the space between them, his hands reaching out to grasp her shoulders in a near painful grip. “If there were any way I could tell the Oracles to go to hell and stay here with you I would. And I swear on my very life that the moment I am free I will return to you here.”
“Like you did last time?”
He jerked as if she had slapped him, then without warning his hands lowered and he was sliding the heavy signet ring from his finger.
“Here.”
She frowned as he pressed the ring into her palm and closed her fingers tightly around it.
“What are you doing?”
“That ring has been upon my finger since I first awakened as a vampire. It’s an intimate part of me.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“You possess the blood of the ancients, elemental magic.” He peered deep into her eyes, his power tingling over her skin with a cool breeze. “With this ring you could find me no matter where I might be in the world. Just as Sybil was capable of following you. It would even call to me between dimensions.”
She frowned, glancing down at the heavy gold ring with its strange scrolling.
“How?”
“I have no talent for magic, but I know you possess the skills.” His finger slipped beneath her chin and tilted her face up to meet his stark expression. “Anna, I will return to you, I swear it.”
Instead of replying, Anna stepped out of the water and reached for one of the terry cloth robes that were placed neatly on a shelf. Tugging it on, she at last turned to regard him with a suspicious frown.
Deep inside, she knew innately that he wasn’t lying. She could physically sense the sincerity etched across his heart. But she had had two hundred years to build up a healthy distrust of this man. One bout of mind-blowing sex wasn’t going to erase that.
Maybe if they could have two or three bouts…
She abruptly thrust the distracting thought away.
“What do these Oracles want of you? And why now?”
“Who knows?” His expression hardened. “They rarely feel the need to explain their actions.”
“Are they very powerful?”
An odd, mysterious smile touched his lips. A smile that said he knew something she didn’t. “The most powerful of all demons.”
Powerful? She was suddenly struck with a brilliant thought. “Then maybe they could help me.”
Stepping from the tub, Cezar swiftly dried his smooth skin. “I will request their assistance, but don’t get your hopes up. The Oracles only interfere when they believe it their duty.”
The brief hope sputtered and died. “Convenient,” she retorted dryly.
The dark eyes flashed. “There’s nothing about the Commission that is convenient.”