Eternal Hearts (4 page)

Chapter Three

Just after seven the
following evening, Nathaniel dragged a reluctant Michael into the same brothel
he always frequented. His mate needed to be completely under control when they
met Margaret again.

She truly did smell
like Heaven. Untold pleasure awaited them.

The Madame nodded at
Nathaniel, and he headed towards the room he knew she left open for her
“different” clientele. Michael followed close on his heels.

“What the hell are we
doing here, Nathaniel? I need to see Margaret.”

Nathaniel clenched his
jaw and groaned as his fangs extended over his bottom lip. The mere mention of
Margaret’s name had his blood-lust surging to the forefront of his mind.

“I know you do. I feel
it, too. But if we don’t feed before we see her, we will never be able to
control ourselves.”

Michael grunted and
threw himself into a nearby chair, the disgruntled picture of a thwarted child.

“We shouldn’t need to.
I could turn her tonight and then spend the rest of eternity making her love
us.”

Nathaniel rolled his
eyes. He had already tried to explain to Michael what they needed to do. Michael
wasn’t in total agreement. But what did he know about the emotional needs of
others? He had spent five hundred years taking Nathaniel’s love and never
returning it in a vocal sense. Nathaniel knew that Margaret would need
everything, soft touches, loving words, and the actions. Between them, they
could
woo her and win her.

“Michael, we don’t
want her turning spiteful and denying us. We know she is meant for us, but we
have to convince her of that.”

“Oh, bull. I shouldn’t
have to wait.” Michael jumped to his feet, as impatient as ever. He grabbed at
the door handle to leave, and Nathaniel lost his temper. He moved in front of
his mate and pushed him back with all the angry force he could master.

“Listen to me, you
selfish bastard. I have stayed in London for almost my entire five hundred
years.  I didn’t go missing on the Continent for a century. You were the
one who left Michael, not me. I have wanted her, needed her for as long as you
have, and I will not let you fuck this up!”

Michael’s mouth fell open,
and Nathaniel grunted as two whores walked into the room.

They were plain faced
but clean enough and smelled decent.

“Now let’s get this
over and done with so we can begin the rest of our lives.”

Michael’s blue eyes
shimmered with unshed tears, before nodding and sitting down in his chair.
Nathaniel’s relief was overwhelming. He had won.

“I’ll take the
brunette.”

The brown haired whore
sauntered towards Michael, and he looked her over with a very mild interest.
She sat in his lap and tilted her head for him. He exposed his fangs and held
her to him whilst he bit her, almost reluctantly.

Nathaniel had to laugh
as he pulled the blonde into his arms and sank his teeth into her neck. He
always preferred blondes.

****

Nathaniel was grateful that Margaret
was neither blonde nor a brunette. She was a fiery redhead. Nathaniel and
Michael had been waiting by the fire in her dining room for ten minutes when
she arrived.

They hadn’t gotten a perfect look at
her last night. They had both agreed that she was indeed beautiful, but nothing
could compare to the vision that glided into the room, her face, figure, and
bountiful hair lit up by the ample candlelight.

Michael groaned next to him, and
Nathaniel stepped forward, bowing deeply.

“Good evening, Margaret.”

She stopped a few feet away from
them, curtseying and giving them a bright smile.

“Nathaniel, Michael. It is lovely to
see you both again.”

The pleasure her presence gave him
was remarkable. As though his inner devil lay down and went to sleep. He was
both excited and overly calm. It was a strange coupling.

“Would either of you like something
to drink?”

Nathaniel looked over at
Michael,
and his eye brow quirked. He knew exactly what
Michael wanted to drink, and it wasn’t a whiskey.

“Michael.”

His mate shook his head avidly,
swallowing obviously. “No, thank you.”

Nathaniel smiled, pleased with his
lover and mate’s restraint.

“Please,
come
sit down with me.”

Margaret indicated a sitting area
with two chaise lounges and a single chair. Nathaniel had a vision of the three
of them naked and entwined, draped over the furniture. He groaned aloud as the
blood surged to his cock.

Michael looked at him with a knowing
grin, and Nathaniel hurried to sit down, crossing his ankle over his knee to
disguise the swelling at the front of his pants. How embarrassing. He was a
five hundred year old vampire who couldn’t control his cock. He felt like a
green lad with his first woman.

Margaret sat in the single chair and
tucked her ankles beneath her chair.
The perfect lady.

“Tell me how you got into and out of
my carriage without anyone seeing you.”

Nathaniel looked at Michael. They
hadn’t discussed how they were going to handle this.

“I won’t stand any of those looks,
gentlemen. Speak out loud or you may leave.”

Michael’s mouth
quirked up.

“We don’t read each other’s minds.”

Margaret huffed and rolled her eyes
at him. Nathaniel loved everything she did. She had attitude. Thank God fate
had not sent them a weak little female.

“Of course you don’t, but I can tell
you have known each other a long time and are communicating in a way I am
uncomfortable with.”

Nathaniel coughed to cover his
laugh. A long time was an understatement, but she was very perceptive. She
would keep them on their toes forever. He couldn’t wait.

“We apologise. Michael and I had not
discussed how much to tell you. Do you have a preference?”

She raised one eyebrow in a charming
way, her back ramrod straight. His question had surprised her. That was
obvious.

“A preference?”

Michael cleared his throat, joining
in where Nathaniel had left off.

“Yes, how much we tell you. Would
you like all the information first, or would you prefer a little tonight and
then more later?”

They watched as many emotions
flickered across Margaret’s face. Desire was there, fear, too, and so many emotions
in the middle that Nathaniel could barely keep up.

“I would ask for you to answer my
questions. I will decide as we go.”

Nathaniel looked at Michael, a smile
stretching across his face. She had surprised them again.
Amazing.

“You answer, Michael.”

Michael nodded and sat forward in
his chair.

Nathaniel sat back.
Clever woman
.

“We are very fast, barely
discernable to the human eye if we choose to be.”

Margaret nodded, her eyes narrowed.
Nathaniel could almost hear the cogs in her brain turning over.

“You aren’t human?”

Michael looked at Nathaniel, and he
nodded, a little shocked that she had worked that out already. But they may as
well be honest. It would be only one of the huge hurdles they would face
tonight.
 

“You can tell her.”

Michael swallowed, his eyes showing
concern.

“No, we’re not.”

Margaret nodded as though she
expected that. Fate had definitely sent them an amazing woman.

“What are you then?”

Michael looked over at him, his eyes
pleading. What could he do but answer that plea? Michael might top him, be more
arrogant and passionate, but he was also filled with fear and insecurity. In a
way, that made Nathaniel love him even more.

Nathaniel uncrossed his legs and
slid forward on his own chaise lounge.

“We are immortal blood drinkers.
Vampires.”

Margaret sat perfectly still as she
absorbed what he had said. Her breathing had even stopped.

Nathaniel waited for it to resume,
and with a squeak, it did.

“Vampires?” she
repeated,
her voice high and shrill.

Nathaniel nodded and waited again as
she processed the information.

“And what do you want from me?”

Nathaniel was surprised once again.
She believed them?
Without proof?
Nathaniel looked at
Michael for help this time. Margaret stood up and glared down at them.

“Michael,
answer.”
She pointed her finger at Michael,
and Nathaniel’s beautiful lover swallowed again.

“We want you to mate with us and
stay with us forever.”

Nathaniel groaned and stood up to
deal with Margaret’s reaction. Michael was insensitive sometimes, passionate
and selfish occasionally. But dishonest, he was not.

“I apologize, Margaret. Michael
should not have explained it like that.”

She turned blue eyes on him that
spat fire. He would have taken a step back if his legs weren’t already touching
the chaise.

“I asked Michael because I wanted a
real answer. Now sit down.”

Nathaniel sat, watching their human
in awe. She paced in front of the fire.

“You are both vampires, and you
think I will mate with you?”

They nodded and watched her. Her
breasts were heaving within her dress, and Nathaniel caught the slightest whiff
of arousal in the air. His body responded accordingly, and he clenched his
teeth to keep his fangs inside his mouth.

God, how he
wanted her.

“How old are you both?”

Michael cleared his throat. “We have
been vampires for almost five hundred years.”

She nodded and continued pacing.

“You are lovers?”

Michael looked straight at
Nathaniel, panic clear in his eyes. What would she think about that piece of
information? Nathaniel had been hoping to keep that secret until she was more
comfortable with them.

Unfortunately, their shared look
irritated their female mate, and she stamped her foot.

“Michael, you answer all the
following questions
without
looking
at Nathaniel!”

Michael nodded, his eyes burning
with something Nathaniel had never seen in all his years with his mate.

“Yes, Margaret, we are lovers.”

She nodded and focused all on her
intense attention on Michael.

“How long have you been together?”

“About three hundred and fifty
years.”

She arched an eyebrow.

“Straight?”

Michael shook his head, and
Nathaniel wanted to gasp. How did she know to ask such questions?

“No, on and off.
We have been apart for almost one hundred and fifty years in total.”

Margaret turned, her back to the
fire, a wreath of light haloing her. Now she looked more like an angel sent to
tempt them. Perhaps that’s what she was.

“Why would you repetitively break up
and get back together?
And for such a long period of time,
too.”

Nathaniel felt Michael’s reluctance
but knew his lover would answer. He was a braver man than Nathaniel was. That
was not a question he wanted to address.

“Because we are missing our third
mate, and we have both felt it the whole time. We are happy together, but we
feel the missing link. For years it tortured us so much we could not be
together.”

Nathaniel sat back in his chair,
watching the play of emotions on Michael’s face. Michael rarely spoke of their
relationship. It was wonderful yet heartbreaking to see.

“You love Nathaniel?”

Michael nodded.

“More than my own
life.”

Nathaniel gripped the side of the
plump chair he sat upon. He had never heard any such thing come out of
Michael’s mouth, yet Margaret had coaxed it from him in one meeting. What else
might she pull from them?

“Yet you chose to be apart from
him?”

Michael’s eyes dropped down, and his
huge shoulders slumped down as though the weight of the world had fallen on
him.

“Yes.” He whispered the word, and
Nathaniel moved to comfort his lover. This was enough.

“Nathaniel, stay
where you are.”
Margaret’s voice hit
him with the weight of lead. He collapsed back in the chair.

“Why me, Michael?
Tell me why you both believe I am this elusive third that you need.”