Final Days (18 page)

“I don’t know.  You knew her, I could tell. 
Like you knew Lauren.  How is it you know these women?  And why is your reaction to them shock and awe?  I mean, I get that you’ve had women in your past, of course, but it’s the mystery around them that confounds me.  Should I worry about them?”

“You need worry about nothing and no one.  You are the woman, the only
woman, that I can see.  To answer your curiosity, though, I will tell you that I have had no relationship at all with either of those women.  They just weren’t supposed to be where they were.  That’s why I seem uneasy.  Alisa Ison, I would have chosen a different time to tell you this, but now seems the necessary moment.  I am in love with you.  I think I was from the first moment our eyes met.  Does that answer the question on whether you need to worry about them?”

Alisa closed her eyes.  Could there be a more perfect moment in a life?  Not that she could imagine.  When she opened them, her vision was filtered through a watery mist.

“Never again.  You might want a response to that statement, Koen…  I don’t know your last name.  God, I’ve fallen in love with you and I don’t even know your name.”

“
You love me. And that is all either of us needs to know.”  

Their eyes locked.  The moment had been made.  They had both declared their hearts.

“We need to get out of here,” Koen said suddenly, and threw down several hundred dollar bills, pulled Alisa out of her seat and out of the restaurant.  Once they passed the door, the crisp air hit them, but Alisa couldn’t feel the coolness.  She was only aware of the big man pulling her behind him to his car. 

Once they arrived, he turned around and pushed her against the passenger side door, an arm on each side of her, and leaned
into her.

“I love you.  You know what that means?  No more talk of leaving me.  Understand?”

“I couldn’t now.  You’ve weaved yourself into my heart and leaving would rip me apart.  You’re inside me.”

He lowered his head and nuzzled in under her hair, nipped at her neck.

“No more than you are for me.  And I don’t use a last name. You’ll understand why that is soon.  For now…”

His lips found hers and he kissed her slowly, as if he were making love, lingeringly, his fingers threaded through her hair, his body pressing her into the cold frame of the car.  Her hand
s were threaded into his belt, her fingers sliding past the zipper she’d pulled down, across smooth skin, to his cock, feeling it respond. 

Would she ever get enough of him?   She knew the answer to that question was “never.”

Suddenly he groaned.  “We need to be home. Now.”  He looked into Alisa’s eyes with his heart in his. 

“Now,” he said more urgently.

They got into the car and the tires squealed as he sped out of the lot.

Once they hit her apartment door, Koen swept her up into his arms, shoved the door closed with his foot, and rushed her into the bedroom beyond human speed.

But once he had her undressed, he stopped to watch her every movement as she undressed him, her hands sliding sensuously across his skin. 

They made love slowly, aware of every touch, every sensation.
   When he entered her, she lifted to him and saw the sky overhead, stars blinking at her, as if they were outside under the canopy of the black sky.   She felt connected to him through so much more than just their bodies.  Like the universe itself carried them to pleasures beyond anything possible on this small planet.

It seemed Windari stayed furious these days.  She arrived back to her warehouse dwelling and fucked Number One so hard that she was afraid she broke him.   She’d always had to remember to be careful with her strength with humans. It had just been so long since she’d actually fucked a man, she’d forgotten that. 

But he la
y on his side of the bed moaning, his hand wrapped around his penis.  She compelled him to forget her brutal treatment and sent him away.

She just could not believe that first blood male chose the human over her. 
Pacing back and forth in front of her mirrors naked, she watched herself. 
How?
 
How could
he?
  This was the last straw.  Ahmose choosing that small unremarkable vampire over her.  Now Koen choosing the human female.

Their race was getting weak! 

Well, it wasn’t her problem anymore.  She was unattached to the first blood community now.  Still, such an offense.  Nothing would give her greater pleasure right at this moment than to subdue that vampire and fuck him till the new moon.  Show him how wrong he was.  If there had been any way, she would have.  But none of her powers would work on him. 

Windari knew she would just have to accept it.  She would never have a first blood male again.  Staring at her naked image, she shook her head.  What a waste. He would never know what he was missing.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, gloriously naked, Koen was still, his eyes searching the air as he listened to someone on his cell phone.  Alisa could tell it was serious as she came back into the room from the bathroom after her shower.

She sat beside him, pulling her hair to her other side away from him, since it was still wet enough to drip water from the ends, and slid her hand into his for support.

He finished the call with a clipped, “Thanks.  I’ll let you know
.”  Then he shut the phone and threw it to the end of the bed.

Looking down at the damp, naked woman who held his hand, he rolled her into his arms and pulled them both back down onto the bed.

“That was a close friend in South Africa.  The woman you met last night, the one who asked to speak privately with me?”

“I remember.”

“She tried to murder his wife.”

“Oh, my
God, Koen.  We need to call the police.  This city has a lot of cameras, they may be able to track her.”

“Yeah, we’re on it.  Jake already has a team assessing feeds, and he’ll have another team on the ground within eight hours.  Damn it!  If someone had just let me know sooner, I could have taken her last night!”

“Koen, it’s best to let the authorities handle things like this.  Chicago has an excellent police force.  Obviously, she is highly dangerous.”

“That’s not how we do it where I’m from.  We take care of our own,” he said, almost under his breath like he wasn’t really even talking to her.  But Alisa understood.

“I don’t want you to get hurt, “ she said suddenly, worried that fate wasn’t through with her yet.

“No, it’s okay.  Really, we know what we’re doing.  We come from a long line of enforcement.”

“Oh, you’re in law enforcement!  That makes perfect sense.”  She paused.  “Is your friend’s wife all right?”

“She will be.”  He continued a moment later.  “She is with child.”

“Oh, Koen, how awful.  I assume the baby is okay, too?”

“Remarkably, he is.  Alisa, when night come
s, I’m going to need to leave you for a few hours.”

“I understand.  Do you need help from
Chicago’s detectives?  I know several in homicide.”

He didn’t like
that, but tamped down the jealousy gene that was too dominant in vampire DNA.  He trusted

this
woman who he would make his mate soon.

“Thank you, but no.   My team will handle everything.
”

“Are you sure you have jurisdictional clearance?”

“We don’t need it.  In my world we clean up our own messes.  She’s from our community.  We will deal with her.”

That sounded like vigilantism to her, but she needed to stay out of his business.  She trusted
he knew what he was doing.  Besides, if someone had tried to murder someone
she
cared about, she would feel the same way.

“Okay.  Percy has been asking me to meet him for dinner, so I think I’ll go while you’re out.”

“That’s good.  And don’t worry about me.”  His hand slipped down her side toward her thighs.

“She won’t even know we’re coming after her.  It will be too late by the time she does.   This will be a piece of cake.  And speaking of dessert…”

His fingers arrived at her thighs just as he slid down to cradle them in his hands and lift her up.   From that vantage point all she could see was the top half of his head with eyebrows raised, mischief sparkling from his emerald eyes.

“
I’m messing up another shower, sorry,” he whispered, and dived in, making her twist her body upward, but only so far, because he still had her thighs trapped in his powerful fingers.  Her hands shot behind her to grab the iron bedpost.  It reminded her of that night in Paris when she should have known this man would never let her walk away.  She succumbed to the moment then, and, swept into ecstasy, her body clenched, and as she came back down, she wondered if they would do this every night for the rest of their time together.  She couldn’t think of a better way to die.

Koen came back up to her and pulled her against him, ready to sleep.  She pushed back, her butt curved into his manhood, which poked at her, and she wondered if he wanted to make love again.  But she could tell he was already asleep, his face buried in her hair.  She had
discovered that when he fell asleep, it was quick and deep, almost as if someone gave him a sleeping pill that worked instantly.  She lay awake listening to him breathe for another half hour before she let herself fall asleep with him.

She’d intended to go down to her office while he slept this morning, and she still would, but for this moment, she couldn’t bring herself to leave him.

Samson whined on the floor beneath the bed, and she pulled out of Koen’s arms long enough to lift him into hers.  He nestled against Alisa under Koen’s arm, and the three of them, curled together, fell asleep.

When they rose, Koen kissed Alisa thoroughly and told her he needed to go.

“That’s fine.  I wish you luck.  Percy can’t join me tonight, so we’re meeting at Mama Giovanni’s tomorrow night.  I have a story I wanted to finish, so I’ll work on that while you’re gone.”

He held her face in his hands and looked into those blue eyes he loved so much.  “Tomorrow night, when Jacob and Ahmose take over the search, I need to talk with you.  There’s something important I want to tell you.”

Koen looked serious.  So did Alisa when she nodded.  “I have something I need to talk with you about, as well.”

“Okay.  Tomorrow night, we’ll meet back here as soon as things are settled with this search and you finish your dinner with Percy.”

Was
she finally going to tell him what was wrong?

EIGHTEEN

“Mistress Mercury?
”

Windari yawned.  What the hell did Number Two want now?  He took care of all the details of her life now.  Number One took care of sex, and any heavy lifting.  But sometimes Number Two just got on her nerves.

“What?” she called from her bed, since it was just past dawn and she had been nearly asleep.

“I wanted to show you something I found.
  It’s the surveillance you asked me to do.”

Pushing up from the bed, Windari let the sheet drop.  So did Number
Two’s eyes.

“What is it?” 
She asked impatiently.

“Someone is looking for you.  I was downtown tonight, making arrangements for your second residence, and a young woman came up to me with a photograph.  It was you, but with blonde hair.  She asked me if I’d seen you around.  I followed her and she met back up with that big man you came out of the restaurant with two nights ago.   He looked upset.”

Well, no surprise.  Windari had expected that eventually someone would let him know what happened in the village and then they would know she was here.  That was why she’d had Number Two setting up a second residence.  In Los Angeles.  She just really wanted to be somewhere where things were happening.  She
liked
these big cities full of busy people and exciting events.  The architecture alone was worth the visit.

This would change that for the time being.  If they were this close, they had a better chance of tracking her down.  Fucking Koen!  She would have to disappear, and not just to L.A.  She’d have to leave this country. 
Which pissed her off, because she really liked it here.  Someone as magnificent as she belonged here with what people called movers and shakers, people who shaped the world.  Windari wanted these people to see what she was capable of.  But now she’d have to consign her gorgeous self to some lousy bug-infested town in South America.  The last place they might look.  Ahmose knew she hated obscurity.  She’d complained enough about it around eight hundred years ago when she tried to convince him and the other first bloods that they were superior to the human race and should rule them.

“We are Gods to them,” she’d argued.

But Ahmose swayed them all to his way of thinking.

“
Vampires are honorable, gentle.  We have always known we are here to protect this world.  The Mother Earth needs allies, and that is why first bloods have the power that we do.  Not yet, but someday, the Mother will need us to intervene.  We must protect the Mother and all of her children.  We are not Gods.  We are sentries.  We are the just.”

He
had turned to Windari.  “Sister, you are confused.  See with your heart, with the light from the moon.  The humans are our brothers and sisters, and children of the Mother, as are we.  What can I do to help you see this?”

Windari knew she must submit.  She could see in their eyes, the others were with Ahmose.  His power and words were strong, and even she was in awe.  That was when she first realized he must be hers.

And now, all these centuries later, he hunted her.  Well, she’d vanish like smoke on the wind. 

“Well, Number
Two, it looks like I’m fucked.  Get me a vehicle, a common one no one would look twice at, and bring it under the building.  No one must see me enter it.  No camera must capture my image now.  We will leave at nightfall.  Pack everything you can into the vehicle.  Especially the clothes Number One bought.  As soon as I

awaken
, I’ll eat, and we’ll go.”

He nodded, and walked away.

Windari threw herself back down on the bed.  Like she’d sleep now anyway.

Darkness arrived, curling through the brightly lit streets and buildings in Chicago, filling spaces with black where it could. It was a vampire’s night, clear skies, cool air, and a full moon. 

Koen stood on the balcony watching the last of the pink fade from the horizon he could
see between the high buildings.  Alisa came up behind him and slipped between his arms that were pressed against the rail.  He looked down at her perfect face smiling at him.

“How long do you think you’ll be gone?” she asked.

“I really can’t say.  We need to find that murderous bitch as soon as possible.  Hell, she’s probably already gone.  If she had any sense, she headed out as soon as she saw me.  She had to know someone would fill me in.  I hope to hell she
didn’t
have enough sense, though, since she needs to be…”  He hesitated.  “Captured.”

He wouldn’t tell her that it was the ultimate crime in the first blood community to
kill another first blood.  Plus, this was personal.  Jacob had become a good friend, and so had Starla.  Then there was the first blood child she carried.  No.  Windari would not live through this betrayal if they found her.  No.
When
they found her
.

Alisa tilted her head. 
“Well, no rush.  Percy has reservations for 9, so I’ll be several hours beyond that.  I’ll just curl up here on the couch if you’re not home by then and catch a show.  Naked.”

Koen lifted her into his arms
, his head buried in her neck.  God, how he wanted to taste her.  “I will hurry.”

He tried to carry her back through the room, but Samson began to nip at his heels and he was afraid he would step on the overexcited pup.  He lowered Alisa and watched her drop to pick up the squirming pup who assaulted her entire face with his tongue.

She looked so happy.  He knew the puppy was a part of her joy, but it was this new love they had found with each other that made her shine. 

Standing, the pup cradled in her arms, Alisa looked at the clock on her DVR. 

“I’m out of time.  I’d better get dressed.  Here.”

She dumped the pup into Koen’s arms and hurried to the bedroom.

Samson looked at the big man, hanging suspended from his large hands, the whites of his eyes showing since his head was bowed.

“What?  You better get used to me, little guy.  I’m sharing her with you, not the other way around.”

The pup began to wiggle, and then crawled up to carefully lick Koen on the chin.

Alisa came out
of the room a few minutes later in a tight-fitting sweater dress that clung to her figure, her hair twisted high in some kind of fancy knot.

“I’m out of here.  Good luck tonight, baby.  Be careful.”

Koen stretched out on her couch, texting Jacob as she dropped into his lap to kiss him goodbye.  She walked to the door, stopped, turned back with a soft smile, and whispered “See you later,” then closed the door behind her.

With
his cell phone paused in mid-air, suddenly he found himself concerned.  She was fine, Windari had no reason to go after her.   Alisa would be at a restaurant with Percy, so Windari wouldn’t even know where she was.  Shaking his head to clear the worry, he returned his attention to the text to make sure he knew where to meet Jacob’s team.

Jacob had assembled a search team from local vampires who brought their well-trained blood-bonded soldiers.  Koen made sure they knew that they were searching for a woman with powers much stronger than any they had ever known, and that they were to do recon only, and report back to Koen if anyone sighted her.

Eillia would be arriving shortly with his daughter Park.  As one of the newest generation of first bloods, Park was more powerful than either Eillia or himself.  Together, Eillia and Park were a formidable force.  They had captured and contained Windari’s twin Tamesine when she was hell-bent on killing Eillia in Alaska less than a year ago.

Since then, things had gone bat-shit crazy.  Tamesine was now a guest in his home, the caretaker of
Eillia’s first blood child, and apparently, a whole lot less insane.  Koen still had trouble accepting that, but his head hurt when he thought about it, so he just trusted his daughter and Eillia, and accepted that everything in their lives was fluid and subject to change. 

At this moment, though, the one thing he would not change was that he planned to find that murderous bitch and let Park and Eillia put her down long enough to secure her to be returned to South Africa.  Ahmose was on his way here, so she might not even be taken from Chicago.  He may dispense justice right away rather than risk transporting her.  Even with Park and
Eillia’s skills, they could not be sure she would be one hundred percent secure, and he would not risk his family for Windari.

First, they had to find the bitch. 
With her life signal masked, she was invisible to them.  If she hadn’t run into him here in this city, they may never have known where she had gone.

Bas, Park’s husband, had an excellent IT guy.  Tim had already hacked the city’s security camera feeds and had been poring through it with facial recognition using
Tamesine’s face as criteria.   Now, with boots on the ground in every part of the city, men and women dressed like citizens combed every possible lead.

They all answered back to Koen until Ahmose could get here.  Koen would still help, but he wanted to speak with Alisa tonight.  As soon as he got back to her apartment, he planned to tell her what he was and let her know that he wanted her in his life for the many centuries they would have together once she was converted.

A vampire made by a normal vampire achieved very long life, possibly immortal, unchanged from the age they were when made vampire, enhanced sexuality, and increased strength and speed.  But when a human was changed by a first blood vampire, all those changes were intensified.   He thought Alisa was beyond beautiful as a human woman…he knew she would be beyond stunning made vampire.  He couldn’t keep his hands off of her now. He couldn’t imagine how he could ever let her leave their room in his villa after she was changed.

Koen stood outside an old office building downtown, where he had coordinated the search and met with Jacob’s search teams the night before.

So far, they had found no trace of Windari or anything that seemed unusual
which might reveal first blood powers.  The search continued as a black Mercedes SUV pulled up near Koen, and Eillia got out.

The petite woman with Asian features came quickly to him.  Eillia kissed Koen on each cheek and held him in an extended hug.  When she pulled away, he noticed the tears in her eyes.

“What?”  He barked in a gentle tone.

“You’re in love.  Oh, my dear friend, you are finally in love.”

Taking her face in both hands, he ran his thumbs gently under her eyes to wipe away the falling tears.  His smile was soul deep, Eillia could feel it.

“I am.”

He hadn’t told anyone what he was doing when he left France a few weeks earlier.  He’d just told them he had a matter to attend to.  At the time, he hadn’t been completely certain how this was going to turn out. 

“She’s the woman I crashed into in Paris about
three months ago when we found Jacob.”

“Ah,” Eillia said.  “I remember that both your auras looked intensely bright.  You were connecting even then.
”  She paused.  She also remembered there was something else about the woman’s aura that troubled her, she couldn’t remember what it was, but it concerned her.

“Everything is all right?  She is okay with what you are?”

“I plan to tell her tonight.  And yes, all is well.  I love her, and she admits she is in love with me.”

“But you haven’t revealed your nature?”

“No.  You know how it works.  I waited until I knew she would be in my life forever.  She will be.”

“Then I look forward to meeting her.  She must be extraordinary.”

“Absolutely.  Tomorrow night, though, Eillia.  I have arranged a protective room in one of this city’s finest hotels for you and Park.  After I let Alisa know what we are, I will bring her there and introduce her to my family.”

“I understand.  You two have an important night ahead.  Why don’t I finish this for you and you can go home to her?  Park will be here shortly.”

“Thank you.  I think I will.  But I’ll wait for Park to arrive first.  I’ve been away from her too long, too.”

As if ordered, another SUV pulled up and a gorgeous redhead with a long ponytail swinging wildly about her head, rushed up to him.

“Father,” she whispered with a soft smile.  It had been nearly three weeks since she’d seen him, their longest  separation since they found each other only about a year earlier.  She nudged Eillia aside and buried her face against his.

“Hey, sweet daughter.
  Did you leave my granddaughter at home?”

“I did.  Bas can take care of her.  And there’s watchdog Tamesine, who seems to have adopted both of our children.”

Eillia nodded.  “True.  And they love her just as much.  Koen, we haven’t told Tamesine about Windari yet.  We’re not sure how she will take it.  Obviously, she has no memory of her.”