Love is Darkness (A Valerie Dearborn Novel) (27 page)

Neither held any appeal.

 
Why
would someone
be that vulnerable, put themselves in a vampire's possession and hope they wouldn't get carried away and kill them? Wasn't it akin to an attempted suicide or Russian roulette? People could be so stupid. Then she thought of herself here with Lucas, how she was being dragged into his world and was even attracted to him.
I’m stupid too.

“How did it go so wrong with the ring?”

He dropped his hand back to his side. “I do not know. But I have returned the ring to its case. The silver contains its
power,
silver has an effect on most mystical things.”

He unbuttoned his jacket and pulled out a silver ring box from the inside pocket. He held it lightly in his fingers, showing it to her. The metal was dented and dull.

“How old is that thing?”

“I do not know. It was a gift from the
Fey
king a very long time ago.”

He stood, extending his hand to her, apparently deciding the conversation was at an end and he was ready to go.
Men!

“Hold up, Fabio.” She put out a hand to keep him at bay. “I am not your companion. You cannot have my blood and I will
never
want to give it to you. So why do you want me to go to this…this…
bloodfest
?”

His fingers clasped hers, soft and warm, his fingers threading through hers tenderly. “Your safety, Valerie, is paramount to me. I need the others to know you are protected by me. By accompanying me tonight, a vampire will not dare touch you.”

Val’s stomach did a little flip flop. She was such a chump for falling for this.

His arm wrapped around her and he pulled her tight before taking them to the ball. “The ring will stay behind. You now have no excuse to draw my blood. As endearing as it was.”

Val felt herself blush and spoke quickly. “I was just trying to kill you, don't be too pleased with yourself. That's not a great effect to have on the ladies, you know.”

His head moved down so that his lips were inches from hers, his scent and power enveloping her like a blanket. Both of his hands, warm now, cupped her jaw, tilting her face up to his. She swayed forward a little, her body arching towards him. “You also said you wanted to sleep with me.”

Now she wanted to smack him. “Thank you for the painful reminder. I also want to go skydiving,
but I won't
. I have some sense of self-preservation.”

His voice was dark as she felt the wind begin to whip around them, “So do I, my Valkyrie, so do I.”

They materialized next to a building. The weather was chilly and Val was glad for her cloak. She felt the fur slide against her bare arms and suddenly understood why people had fur coats.
Cruel but fabulous.
Actually that kind of summed up vampires too.

It was pitch black but she could hear traffic and people nearby. He took her hand is his and she felt small and delicate. They twisted through alleys, the lights in the distance coming closer. The buildings two to three stories high but crowding close in the narrow streets.

Suddenly, they were on a main street and she looked around her. “Where are we?”

Lucas stood next to her, his body behind hers, one arm coming over her shoulder to point to something in the distance. If she turned her head she could kiss him, he was so close. What was he trying to show her?

“Is that the Coliseum? We're in Rome?”
Oh, culture.

“Yes.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Rome is a city of change. They all are, I suppose,” he said in an odd tone, wistful perhaps.

They entered a very expensive hotel situated on a cobbled stone plaza, huge chandeliers dangling overhead from the high ceilings. Gold gilt and cherubs adorned the walls.
Hello, rococo
.

Liveried
staff were
unobtrusively stationed around the entryway or scurrying around with luggage, juggling patrons. Cockroaches would be envious of their stealth. Richly dressed guests were crossing the floor—staying and leaving, but Lucas pulled her through them all, noticing that most of them moved away when they caught sight of him.

He had that effect on people, made them run away. She wondered if it was an unconscious act of self-preservation. Maybe on a fundamental level people registered him as a predator.

Two
footman
stood before massive carved wooden doors, pale and expressionless. Their outfits were made of velvet, the colors maroon and forest green, different than the hotel employees. When Lucas approached, they bowed, opened the doors, and scurried out of the way.

Her hand rested on his arm as he came to a halt just inside the door. Scanning the room, Val tried to let go but his other hand came atop hers, holding her in place, his hands cold again. Lucas leaned towards her ear and whispered quietly, “Do not relinquish my hold else I cannot keep you safe. There is something here. One circuit of the room and then I shall return you to London.”

He stood upright and continued to slowly search the room as he led them towards a wall filled with open verandas, gold curtains rustling in the breeze. The ballroom was large, over two hundred people filling the space. Most everyone had a glass of champagne and Val was happy there were no obvious goblets of blood being drunk as the sight might have been more than she could handle.

Couples danced on the floor, the women in long gowns, the men in tuxedos like Lucas. In every pair, she could identify the vampire easily. Their paleness and speed was slightly off, the humans radiated life and something indefinable in comparison to the vampires beside them.
Vitality, perhaps?
Valerlie
didn't see as many puncture wounds as she would have expected and some wore high collars which made it hard to tell.

Fascinated, Val looked around her, the humans were all at ease, the vampires looking at their partners with affection, like a normal date should. Really, the number of people laughing and chatting was surprising. Everything was so
normal
.

As they neared an alcove, Valerie saw a couple in an embrace. The woman was blond and
petite,
her companion had skin the color of coffee with cream. His hair was short and he towered over her. Despite his muscular build and height, the woman was clearly the one to watch out for. He looked like he should be on Wall Street instead of at the Vampire Debutante Ball, or whatever this was.

She raised herself up on her tiptoes and put her arms around his neck while the man scooped her up, twirling her around playfully before bringing her higher, towards his neck. She laughed as he spun her and then she struck, sinking her fangs into his throat. His eyes closed and he smiled in pleasure. He sat them down on a chair, taking care to arrange her carefully on his lap so she wouldn't have to stop drinking and reposition herself.

His arms wrapped around her protectively, cradling her, and Valerie was both fascinated and repulsed. The woman pulled away from his neck, licked him lingeringly and raised a happy gaze to his. If she'd only seen a photo of that moment, the woman's adoring gaze as she looked into her suitor's smiling eyes, Val might have been envious at the obvious love and happiness they had for each other. But she knew what the woman was. Were any of their feelings real?

The blond put her finger in her mouth, the gesture slightly obscene, then she bit her finger and Val saw blood glinting in the light. The vampire's gaze never left her lover's, his mouth opening promptly, sucking her finger greedily. His cheeks hollowed out as he sucked hard on her finger.

His eyes closed again and he pulled her hand from his mouth, kissed her eagerly, his hands frantically lifting layers and layers of her dress until the woman's legs were exposed, the pink garters she wore on her thighs visible. His hand followed her leg and he gripped her high, his hand disappearing under her dress. He stood, quickly walking further into the alcove where it was dark.

The vampire woman laughed as they disappeared into the shadows.

Val blinked and blushed, realizing that she'd been stopped and staring. Lucas was watching her, his expression unreadable. He quirked a brow at her, waiting to see what she would have to say about the lovers she had seen. She shook her head, at a loss to say anything and they continued around the ballroom.

Lucas transferred her hand from his left to his right and moved so that she was closest to the windows and he faced the crowd.

A tall woman with auburn hair in loose curls came towards them. Her hair was long, halfway down her back and glossy. Her face was narrow, lips thin. She was pretty but there was something hard about her, and almost fevered.

Her eyes were a tawny gold and had a scorching quality. She raked Valerie with her golden gaze, and Val felt like she was being measured and dissected, as though the woman were imagining how she would cut her up, which limb might come off first and how much of it.

Valerie stepped back a pace, tucking herself into Lucas so that her body was close to his. The woman smiled like a villain, as though Valerie had done just what she'd hoped for.

Lightly, she held the arm of an elegantly dressed woman in a narrow cut, black tuxedo. The woman in the tuxedo was tall, a few inches taller than the vampire beside her. She was fresh and pretty, her brown hair had a light wave, hidden beneath a jaunty feminized top hat. Her eyes were brown, with thick fake lashes that made her look like a doll and accentuated an air of innocence. But the eyes themselves were hard. She’d seen a lot, the eyes said. This was a mask. The woman’s lips were bright crimson and would have made Robert Smith from The Cure swoon with envy.

Lucas gave her hand a squeeze and she tried to make her expression as bland as possible, feeling the subtle tension go through him. The auburn haired vampire turned her menacing smile to Lucas.

“Lucas, my darling!
I did not expect to see you here with a companion. What has it been? At least a hundred and fifty years since....” She stopped talking, letting the sentence trail off and Val thought it was meant to be a little malicious, the implication being that companions were forgettable.

Valerie felt dread come over her. Oh no, she thought. She wanted to back up further and move away. Flee from here with or without Lucas.

Marion.

Lucas confirmed her fears, “Marion, Rachel, allow me to introduce you to Valerie. Valerie, Marion and
her
consort Rachel.”

Oh, shit! Valerie tried to keep her emotions from rushing across her face. She was standing in front of the woman who'd murdered Jack's family, who Lucas now wanted dead. And Rachel was her consort, whatever that meant, who was giving information to Jack about Lucas.

An inferno of anger rolled through Val. Lucas and Marion both wanted the other dead and instead of confronting each other directly they were getting humans to try to do their dirty work for them, making her and her family pawns in their stupid political games.

Rachel's eyes were cold and unusually distant, even as she watched Valerie closely. She held out a white gloved hand towards Valerie, and Valerie looked to Lucas who nodded in consent. She put her hand out to Rachel and was surprised it wasn't shaking. Rachel grasped it in hard cold fingers and brought her hand to her lips. She wanted to yank her hand away and realized she was gripping Lucas hard. She didn't loosen her grip, didn't even breathe,
just
waited to see what Rachel was going to do.