Lily looked over her shoulder. “I know, right? Oh, God, let’s eat.”
* * *
Lily had finished the chicken dinner Adrien had brought in from a local restaurant and now made some notes on a pad and paper she’d taken from one of the kitchen drawers. “So we’re headed to The Erotic Passage. Where exactly is it in Italy? Como, right?”
“Lake Como, in the north.”
“It’s beautiful there, lovely hills, even mountainous in places. Lots of wealth.”
“And one extensive vampire cavern system dedicated just to Rumy’s club.”
“An entire system? As big as Trevayne?”
Adrien chuckled. “No, but big enough.”
“And do you think Rumy can help?”
“Rumy knows everything. He’s one of the hubs of our world. He’s connected to our extensive underground, and I’m not talking about our caves.”
“You mean illegal stuff?”
“Yes and much worse as well. He’s on good terms with every terrorist cell in our world.”
“You’re kidding.”
“That’s the nature of Rumy’s business, that he deals with powerful criminals of all kinds. He’s known for keeping secrets but if you need information, and if he can get it without acting against one of his other clients, then he’ll deliver. Given his clientele, though, this trip of ours won’t be a picnic.”
“Does your kind deal in drugs?”
“Mostly human, imported from your world.”
“I can’t fault you there, Adrien. That’s well-deserved censure. We have a terrible drug problem in the human world.”
Adrien frowned suddenly, placed his hands flat on the table, and looked slowly around.
“What is it?”
He met her gaze. “No, don’t be afraid. It’s just that I’m remembering something, from decades ago.” He turned toward the fireplace and frowned.
Lily followed the line of his sight and noticed an antique clock.
Also, for the first time, probably because she was rested and had a full stomach, she actually looked around at Adrien’s apartment. The room was a strong combination of modern furniture mixed with a few antiques. The dark leather couch fit Adrien well.
“The clock must be very old,” she said.
“Not when I purchased it.”
And there it was again, his long-lived state. But as her gaze shifted back to the clock then once more to Adrien, she felt her chain vibrate softly. Suddenly images rushed at her, swirling at the edges as a new vision surfaced. And this time she was pretty sure the vision would involve Adrien.
Within the vision, the furniture was different and so was Adrien, but there he stood in this very room, near the fireplace, dressed in formal white silk breeches, white stockings, and a fitted black coat. He turned and looked in her direction, but she could tell that though he sensed something, he couldn’t see her.
Adrien stood up from the table. “What is that? What are you doing?” He even looked toward the fireplace. “It was you,” he said. “I felt something, a very long time ago, in this room, maybe two centuries ago. I was near the fireplace and you would have been right where you are now. I felt your presence. My God, Lily, it was you. I sensed your presence all the way from the past, yet you were looking at me just now.”
She rose as well. “Yes and you looked amazing in white breeches and a black coat. The room was full of important people, too.”
He stared at her as though amazed. “I carried that feeling around with me for days, that I was supposed to do something but couldn’t place it. Now I know why, because here you are. Lily, do you know what this is called? You have revisiting visions. You’re in the present and you see the past, people from the past.”
“I had one in the cavern just before I saw you hanging in chains. The vision was of you two hours before, when they first tortured you.”
“You saw that?”
She worked to keep the memories at bay. “Yes. All of it. It was horrible.”
He shook his head. “This world of ours must be a nightmare for you, something that won’t end, that keeps delivering.”
“But good things, too,” she said quickly. “Like making love with you. That was unexpected and wonderful.”
His chest rose and fell. His gaze had locked onto hers so that the last of the present vision faded.
A look came over his face that pushed the air from her lungs. His scent followed, suffusing the air with strong herbs and what she’d come to know as Adrien. The chains set up a vibration against her skin.
Once more, she felt his desire for her. Hers rose as well, along with the strange need her body felt to offer a vein. Could her life get any stranger?
She glanced down at her list. Her list-making was one of the things in her life that had kept her sane over the past two years. This list, though, had more to do with finding a killing machine: go to The Erotic Passage for more information, ask Adrien more about his brothers.
She’d left off the most important thing, the one thing she couldn’t write: Josh. Find him, save him, make a new life with him.
“We should go,” she said, rubbing her finger back and forth over the notepad.
“Lily,” he said softly, rounding the table so that he stood next to her. “I didn’t mean to upset you. My need for you is fierce and I know you can feel it through our connection. I blame these damn chains, which is one more reason I want to avoid adding a new layer of power. I can’t imagine what would happen with an even stronger bond.”
She nodded, but she felt dumbstruck all over again by his proximity. Her knees felt weak. Her gaze fell to his lips. He leaned in and as she closed her eyes, his lips touched hers, a moist pressure that didn’t help her knee-situation at all.
The kiss lingered and her heart began to set up its own demanding racket. Her hand slipped up and around his neck, beneath the long weight of his hair, then she was just in his arms, wrapped up in the cocoon of his phenomenal strength.
He could crush her and yet she knew him already, knew that he’d never hurt her. He was kind to children and respected women. She couldn’t believe how much she’d grown to trust him in twenty-four hours.
We should go. Her mind reached to his, but his arms tightened around her.
He deepened the kiss. Her body weakened further as she leaned into him. She parted her lips, needing air, which of course prompted his tongue to dip inside.
She moaned against his mouth.
Yes, we should go, he said mind to mind.