Until the Sun Falls from the Sky (50 page)

Shredded, shattered, sated and moved beyond anything I could imagine by the splendor of our joining, uncharacteristically of me I didn’t fight the feeling.

I drew it in, pulled it close, held it safe and I wrapped my limbs even tighter around my vampire.

* * * * *

My eyes opened when Lucien set me in bed.

I saw the sun peeking weakly through the curtains. It was nearly morning.

I’d been dozing or, more accurately, passed out.

He slid in behind me, his arm curling around my waist, pulling me to his heat, holding me close.

I settled against him.

After the first time, we’d done it four more times.

Four.

More.

Times.

That was five, in total.

The first was by far and away the best but it was up for grabs which reigned supreme of the other four. I could likely argue in favor (for hours) for all of them.

The last time was on the couch in the comfy seating area off the kitchen. We’d gone down to raid the fridge. Or I had, I was starved. Lucien had been feeding a lot, he couldn’t be hungry. And we got sidetracked.

It was the first time he let me be on top. After we were done, still joined, I rested my torso on his wide chest, burrowed my face into his neck and fell fast asleep.

I didn’t know how long ago that was. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. Now I was awake and, out of nowhere, it hit me.

And it felt like I’d been struck by lightning.

Lucien’s behavior was not about making me cow to him, to submit, to change, to be something he wanted to force me to be.

He’d said and demonstrated more than once that he always wanted me.

Just me.

It was about me submitting to what
he
was.

I had to accept
him
, in all his bossy, domineering vampire-ness and the other sweet or gentle or generous parts besides.

He wasn’t taming
me
.

He was taming that part in me that held me away from his differentness. He was showing me who he was, what he was, how he behaved and I had to accept it, all of it, without
him
being anything but Lucien.

You live your day-to-day life hiding the essence of who you are; you don’t want to let someone into that life who won’t accept you for that same thing.

Even embrace it. Even rejoice in the beauty of it.

I felt tears fill my eyes.

I was
such
a moron!

“Sweetheart?”

Oh my God.

Could he
hear
tears? That would suck!

“What?” I asked and I was pleased my voice sounded normal.

“You aren’t asleep.”

“Um…” I couldn’t answer. I was busy trying to control my tears and I succeeded but just barely.

“Is there something on your mind?” he queried gently.

Yes, many things were on my mind. Weighty things. Ayers Rock style weight or at least it felt like it.

“Not really,” I lied.

His arm grew tight. “You can sleep, Leah. What happened last night won’t happen again.”

He thought I was worried about my dream.

I wasn’t worried about my dream.

Though, now that he brought it up.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“I’m here,” he answered.

All right, so I pretty much believed that Lucien was big enough, bad enough, fast enough and strong enough to kick anyone’s ass but a phantasmagorical dream that mysteriously hangs its victim? I was thinking even he couldn’t beat that.

I made a decision. It was a scary decision but I made it and seeing as I was so freaking stubborn, once made I’d see it through, no matter that it scared the heck out of me.

“Are you tired?” I asked.

“Yes, pet.” I felt his face move into my hair before he muttered, all vampire sexy, “I’m very tired.”

Oh. Well then.

Maybe I couldn’t see it through.

Knowing I’d tired out the Mighty Vampire Lucien with all our sexual antics and thinking that was pretty cool thus being pretty pleased with myself, I decided I didn’t care.

He went on, “But if you wish to talk…”

As was my way, instantly, I changed my mind (again) and took my shot.

I turned in his arms so I was facing him.

It was time to get some questions answered.

I started with one that might not freak me out (much).

“Am I famous?” I asked.

“Pardon?” he asked back, seeming surprised by my question.

I explained, “Everyone I meet when I’m with you seems to know me. Even at The Selection people were looking at me like they knew me or at least were curious about me so they knew
of
me.”

“Most members of a concubine family are known by vampires, Leah.”

I studied him. He was
so
holding back.

“Not like me,” I whispered my challenge.

He blew out a sigh then curled me closer.

“No, my pet, not like you.”

I knew it!

“Why not like me?”

“Because of me.”

I held my breath. I didn’t know why, I just did.

I heard his chuckle. “You can breathe, sweetheart.”

I breathed. Then I wrinkled my nose.

“I’m so glad I amuse you.”

His mouth touched mine before he murmured, “Always.”

I shivered in his arms. Those arms grew tighter. Even though this felt good, curiosity was killing me.

“Well, are you going to explain?”

He rolled to his back taking me with him so I was pressed mostly to his side but partially lying on top of him. He tucked my forehead in his neck and started to play with my hair before he began.

“During The Revolution, I was a general. A very…” he hesitated then went on, “
successful
general.” I shivered at his words but this time reading the meaning behind them it was in a different way. He stopped playing with my hair and wrapped his arm around me before continuing, “After The Revolution I was a hunter.” His voice dipped low. “And very successful at that as well.”

I’d quit breathing again.

I did not like this.

At all.

He hunted mortal and immortal mates!

Oh. My.
God
.

His arm gave me a squeeze and he whispered, “Not that kind of hunter, Leah. Never that. I’d burn before doing that.”

I started breathing again. In fact my breath came out in an audible gush of relief.

Then I asked, “What kind of hunter were you?”

“I hunted the remainder of our enemy, my kind and those who allied with them. Once warriors they’d become renegades. They had to be found and stopped before they planned another revolution. I was the one who stopped them.”

I got up on an elbow and looked at his face in the weak light. I could tell something was not right.

“How many of you were there? Hunters, that is.”

“Just me.”

What? This didn’t make sense.

“Really?”

“They only needed me. I was good at what I did.”

Was he serious?

“How many renegades were there?” I asked.

“Thousands.”

My mouth dropped open. He couldn’t be for real.

If he was, this gave a whole new meaning to the words “Mighty Vampire Lucien”!

“Were there… were there…” I stammered, “any
other
kind of hunters as good as you?”

“You mean the hunters of mates?”

I nodded.

“No.”

“None?”

“There were at least twenty hunters, only hundreds of mates to be hunted.”

Wow.

“Why was it only you who hunted the renegades?”

“I wasn’t the only one at the beginning. The Dominion recruited and dispatched other hunters. Most of the others didn’t survive. As I mentioned, I not only survived, I excelled. They pulled the others back and sent only me.”

This was crazy. Lucien was Super-Vamp, singlehandedly crushing a possible rebellion!

This was remarkable, unbelievable and very, very cool. But that something that I sensed was wrong niggled at me, making me uncomfortable.

I watched him for a moment, thinking of his magnificence, Stephanie’s, Cosmo’s, Lucien’s obvious pride in his people and I said softly, “You hunted your own.”

His hand came up, fingers curling around my neck and he explained as if I’d made a gentle accusation which I hadn’t, “They were also hunting, Leah, and they were hunting mortals. Feeding and killing. Without thought or remorse. Making a point, living their lives in the old ways. They were not only murdering innocents, they were putting everything we vampires fought for at risk.”

I stared at him.

Then I guessed, “You didn’t like doing it.”

He shook his head. “Regardless if I didn’t believe in their way of life, enslaving your brethren and delivering them to their executions is not a fun job.”

He could say
that
again.

I understood what that something wrong was and it made me incredibly sad.

For Lucien.

Something I never expected to be but there it was.

I felt my body get soft and I pressed into him.

Lifting my hand to touch his face, I whispered, “Lucien.”

When my palm rested against his cheek, I saw his eyes close slowly and the deep feeling so obvious in his handsome face made me catch my breath.

He was immensely good-looking but looking at him in that moment, he’d never been more striking.

Not ever.

I felt my mouth part in awe and I desperately wanted to kiss him. And through my kiss I wanted to draw away his demons, absorb his emotion, take it away from him forever.

Before I got the chance to attempt this feat, his eyes opened and he murmured in a way that said he was trying to reassure
me
even though it was him I sensed reliving a nightmare, “It was a long time ago, sweetling.”

“It bothers you still.”

His hand went from my neck to my hand on his face. His long fingers curled around mine and he drew my knuckles to his lips, brushing them there.

Then his eyes locked on mine and he repeated, “It bothers me still.”

I understood then why people acted the way they did around him and I shared, “You’re a vampire hero. They admire you.”

“They do,” he agreed in a casual way that said it mattered very little to him and went on. “They also fear me.”

I was thinking they probably should. He could hunt down thousands of vampires on his own, that was pretty freaking scary.

“What does this have to do with me?” I asked.

He rested his hand still holding mine on his chest. “Because of the status they’ve placed on me, people take an interest in what I take an interest in. That, plus other annoying things, goes with the territory. However with you, I marked you twenty years ago and waited. This isn’t my usual behavior.
Your
behavior isn’t the usual concubine behavior either. This intrigued my people and they started watching and waiting to see what would happen. Now, I fear, they’re no less intrigued.”

“So, in a way, we’re like the mortal and vampire Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, without the weddings and such, of course,” I muttered.

I felt relief sweep through me when the air cleared, his face softened and his lips twitched.

“Something like that.”

Well, that was one question answered and, as usual, it made sense.

Now for the one that might freak me out, not that the last one didn’t.

“Why do you think you can make me safe from my dream?”

He rolled us to our sides, pulling me up so I was face-to-face with him and gathering me close.

“You remember the conversation you overheard this morning?” he asked and I nodded.

How could I forget?

He continued, “I think you’re attuning yourself to me.”

“Yes, I remember you saying that. What does that have to do with –?”

He interrupted me, saying, “You’re dreaming of The Sentence.”

I fell silent but my heart tripped.

His eyes grew contemplative. “Has your mother or one of your aunts explained The Sentence?”

They hadn’t, as such. I shook my head deciding not to lie out loud.

“Edwina? Stephanie?” he asked.

I shook my head again, this time not nonverbally lying.

When he spoke again, it sounded like he was speaking aloud to himself, not to me. “Then you must have somehow sensed it from me.”