Immortal Craving (Dark Dynasties) (15 page)

They were no longer alone.

Tasmin shoved her behind him, and Bay watched four shadows materialize from the darkness. Two men. Two women. All vampires… and none she’d seen before.

Tasmin hissed at them, hands hooking into claws, back hunching like a threatened cat. Bay’s eyes darted between the figures, blood pounding in her ears. Every primal instinct she had was screaming at her to escape… but there didn’t seem to be a way out. They were surrounded.

“That’s him,” a woman’s voice said. “He’s the one. Can’t you smell it?”

Bay couldn’t seem to find her breath as the four closed in around her and Tasmin. One of the men, slim and dark, looked at her with mild interest.

“Who gets the mortal?”

“Whoever gets the Rakshasa in chains.”

The vampires began to circle, slowly closing in. Tasmin’s skin began to glow as his eyes darted among their attackers. She could actually feel his power ramping up, charging the air around them. Maybe he would drive them insane, she thought. Maybe he would—

“Now!”

They moved so quickly that Bay saw little more than a blur. She heard his voice, a shout in her mind.

Run!

His hands were around her waist, and he tossed her away from him as though she weighed nothing. She didn’t even have time to gasp before she landed on her backside several feet away on the cold, hard ground with a harsh grunt. For a few seconds, she was frozen, transfixed by the sight of the blur of motion around Tasmin as the vampires attacked. They moved almost too fast for the human eye to see, leaving Tasmin at the center of a multicolored whirlwind, lashing out at motion trails. Bay had only fleeting impressions of dully glinting daggers, of teeth bared and biting. Tasmin roared in the voice of a lion, his head going back as the glow around him intensified. He lashed out with hands that were now tipped with long, thick claws. It was a strategy that seemed as ineffective as a giant swatting at gnats, though… The other vampires were simply too quick.

Bay finally snapped out of her daze enough to stagger to her feet. Blood spattered her chest, her face as Tasmin’s
claws finally tore someone open. There was a high-pitched scream, and then Tasmin’s voice sliced through the night air, no longer just in her head.

“Bailey! Run!”

It got her moving, though she nearly tripped over her own feet in her terror. She caught a final glimpse of two of the vampires being wrapped in the glow that was now pouring from Tasmin. One began to claw at her eyes, screaming. The other dropped to the ground and began writhing.

Tasmin caught her eye, and their gazes locked.

Tell Lily. These are Ptolemy. Hurry.

Bay was gripped by a furious sense of helplessness as she spun and ran. She didn’t want to leave him. But she was just an unarmed human, and it made no sense for her to get killed while they hauled Tasmin off. So she ran, sprinting across the field faster than she’d ever moved in her life. At least, it felt that way. She could see her car, could see the road.

Almost there
…

Then a hand fisted in her hair, snapping her head back so hard her teeth came together with a painful click. A voice whispered in her ear, “I don’t think so.”

There was another roar from where Tasmin was, the throaty bellow of an enraged lion. Bay was jerked backward again, crying out at the pain. Then she could move again, though there was still a hand tangled in her hair.

When she turned, the hand fell to the ground not far from the body of its owner.

Her mouth opened in a silent scream that caught in her throat as she watched the massive lion that was Tasmin tear the throat out of her attacker, then remove the head
completely, shaking it between his jaws and then tossing it to the side. She saw blood and sinew, the kind of gore you only got to look at in horror movies. Except this was real.

She fell to her knees and turned away as her stomach threatened to empty its contents. Somehow, she kept it all down, but when she tried to get up again, her legs didn’t seem to want to support her. Bay was light-headed, blood pumping through her veins so quickly that she felt strangely detached from her body.

A soft noise, the plaintive sound of a wounded beast, drew her attention back to the gruesome scene. It was Tasmin, the only creature left standing in the carnage. His golden fur was spattered with gore, and his muzzle was dark with blood. Bay started to shrink away, unthinking, too terrified to do anything but react to what she was seeing—until he made the sound again and tried to take a step toward her. He put one paw in front of the other but then his legs tangled together, and she saw the syringe sticking out of his shoulder. The plunger was fully depressed. Whatever these Ptolemy had planned to take him down with, they’d gotten it in him, even if they hadn’t lived to drag him away.

The lion’s legs gave out. He fell, eyes rolling back in his head, and collapsed on his side, breathing heavily. Bay crawled toward him, no longer afraid. The feel of him beneath her hand as she pressed it to his side was strangely reassuring, anchoring her here when so much of her would have preferred to curl up in a ball and check out.

Tasmin had just saved her life.

“It’s okay,” she sobbed out, more for her own benefit than his. “It’s going to be okay. They’re gone. It’s okay.”

She fumbled her cell phone out of the inner pocket of her jacket and dialed the only number she could, hoping that whatever had been done to Tasmin could be reversed… and knowing that after tonight, nothing in her world would be quite the same. The darkness pressing in around her friends had finally started to cross what were supposed to be sacred boundaries.

Her worst fears were finally coming to pass. She wasn’t safe. None of them were.

And tonight, she knew she might never be safe again.

W
HEN HE WOKE
up, the first thing he saw was Bailey.

She was asleep in a chair pulled up alongside the bed, bent so that her head and arms rested on the comforter near his hand. A single candle burned in the dark room, catching the gold of her hair where it spread out around her, hiding her face. He could hear each soft, deep breath she took.

Tasmin lifted his hand tentatively, taking a single wavy lock and stroking his fingers over it gently. Then he pulled his hand away. She wasn’t his. She couldn’t be his.

But after all that had happened, all she’d seen him do… she’d stayed.

More than that, her kiss had dragged him back from the edge of an abyss that could well have consumed them both. He wouldn’t have dreamed it possible… but it was an act of courage he wouldn’t soon forget. The darkness had come upon him so fast it had taken him under before he could try to fight. He had no memory of what he might
have said or done before the feel of Bailey’s mouth on his had pulled him to the surface, the fear he felt in her quickly melting into white-hot need.

Somehow, this slip of a mortal had saved him. The relief he felt at knowing he had protected her life in return was almost overwhelming. He was…
changing
. Growing stronger in his struggles against the demon within, when he’d been so sure he was sliding into an abyss he’d never be able to crawl out of. The first time he’d overcome the demon, in Bailey’s bedroom, he hadn’t understood why. Now, though, the answer was right in front of him.

Bailey
was the difference. Because she mattered to him.

Rattled, Tasmin turned his head to look around the room. He’d been brought back to the mansion, back to the room that contained the few possessions he’d brought with him to America. The heavy drapes were closed, giving him no clue as to how long he’d slept. Tasmin lifted his hands to examine them and saw that someone had cleaned the blood off. It had been wiped from his face as well, he realized as he rubbed a hand over his mouth and jaw.

Immediately, his eyes went back to Bailey. He knew, somehow, that she had done it. That was her way. It was far more than he deserved. Knowing how close he had likely come to taking Bailey’s life… it tore at whatever was left of his soul. He wanted her… but so did the ravenous darkness inside him.

Tasmin watched her, pushing aside the cacophony of his thoughts to focus on her slow, even breaths, the way the candlelight subtly shifted the highlights in her hair. Slowly, his mind cleared. Just being here with her in the
silence gave him a peace that nothing else had since he’d emerged from the cave in the Gir. He breathed in the light scent of her, allowing his breathing to fall into the same rhythm as hers.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when the door to the bedroom opened. Tasmin looked up to see Lily walk in. Her feet were bare, her auburn hair falling in loose waves over her shoulders. In that moment, her heritage was obvious. She looked every bit the child of a goddess.

He saw the love and concern in her glowing blue eyes as they lit on Bailey, and then saw something harder enter them as she focused on him. Warier. She was a kind woman, but a strong one. That much he had discovered quickly. If she decided that he was a threat to anything she loved, he wouldn’t last here… at least, not with his freedom intact.

He doubted she had decided quite
what
he was yet.

Lily came forward, her feet making no sound on the floor, until she reached the side of the bed. She looked at Bailey, looked at him, and then pressed a finger to her lips. He nodded. Neither of them wanted to wake her up. He considered sending her into deeper sleep, pushing her further into dreams… but knowing how it had infuriated her before, Tasmin set the idea aside.

She was not just another mortal, easily toyed with. She’d proven that. He would respect it.

Lily raised her voice over a whisper, but kept it soft when she spoke. “Kira, my healer, gave her an herbal tea that should keep her out for a while. Still, we should keep it down. She needs the rest.”

“You drug your friends?” he asked, surprised.

Lily snorted softly. “No, I value my life a little more than that. Bay asked for the tea. She was pretty shaken up when Ty and Eric got to you, Tasmin. Once she knew you were okay, she
wanted
to sleep.”

Tasmin looked at Bailey’s golden hair veiling her face, puzzled all over again.

“But… here? Like this?”

“She wouldn’t leave you,” Lily replied. There wasn’t exactly reproach in her voice, but again he sensed that wariness where he was concerned. And why not? He was no one to her. A dangerous drifter from a dead bloodline. Bailey was her closest friend. And she obviously sensed the connection between them, even though he would have preferred to ignore it himself.

It was difficult when the woman seemed to have appointed herself his protector.

“She has a good heart,” Tasmin said. It was one of the biggest reasons she unsettled him so. Just as it was one of the things that made her impossible to stay away from.

Lily nodded, and for just an instant he could see the sadness behind her composure. He thought he understood. Relationships between vampires and mortals, no matter how close, would never be easy ones. One would always be a danger to the other, whether or not it was intended. He’d seen the strain between Bailey and Lily firsthand. Only now did he realize the rift was hurting them both.

“Bay told us what happened.”

He had a brief instant of fear that she had told Lily
everything
, but he quickly saw that Lily knew nothing of his blackout. If she had, he had a feeling this meeting would be far less cordial. The relief was instant. As was his guilt.

Again, Bailey had protected him without his asking. Without his deserving it.

“There were four Ptolemy who came from the woods to attack,” Tasmin said. “Two I killed there.”

Lily raised her eyebrows. “And the others?”

“I drove them mad,” he said with a small shrug. “They may have recovered. But I doubt it. If they aren’t dead by now, they might as well be.”

Lily stared at him for a moment with the same mixture of fascination and revulsion that had marked so many of his interactions with both vampires and mortals outside his pride. It didn’t faze him—he was used to it.

Except… Bailey had never looked at him that way. It was a strange feeling to realize it.

Finally, Lily said, “I still can’t imagine how your bloodline ever lost the battle. Even against Arsinöe.”

“All vampires have their weaknesses,” Tasmin replied. “All of us can be defeated. Even the great Arsinöe.”

Lily’s expression wasn’t particularly hopeful. “I hope you’re right, because she’s obviously figured out that you’re here.”

“I’ll go,” Tasmin said. The decision was easy to make. He wouldn’t endanger an entire dynasty with his presence, no matter how far back it set his search for the truth. “I can find this Anura at her home, if she’ll see me. I think that would be best.”

Lily surprised him with an angry little shake of her head. “That isn’t the answer. Not this time. Arsinöe will expect that. She’ll be waiting for me to throw you out, and this whole thing will just play out the same way somewhere else.” Her eyes flashed. “She’s crossed my borders one too many times. Mormo, the Empusa, has kept her
protected with the Council, but she’s in no shape to protect her in any other way. I’m done.”

Her vehemence was a surprise that left Tasmin uneasy.

“I didn’t come here to start a war.”

Lily looked grim. “You didn’t start it. But she seems determined to finish it, even when she knows this is the one time we should all be standing together.”

He raised an eyebrow, but Lily simply shook her head again. “Later. It’s almost morning, and I need some sleep. Anura should be here this evening. At that point, there are things you need to know.”

“About what happened with the Grigori in the desert,” he said. He didn’t know what made him say it, but the surprise on Lily’s face was plain.

“How did you hear about that?” she said, her voice barely a whisper.

“Only rumors,” he replied. It was more than that, more about the pull he continued to feel toward the desert that had alternately fascinated and worried him. But his suspicions were tied to the darkness that kept surfacing in him… and he couldn’t share that with her.