Until the Sun Falls from the Sky (63 page)

“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” they answered.

“There’s been a break in…” I told them the address where to find Edwina. Then I whispered, “Hurry.”

I disconnected the call, hit the button to roll down my window and threw my cell phone out.

I didn’t know how it worked but on TV they could track you with phones.

Not mine.

Not anymore.

Lucien would hunt me and he was within his rights to kill me.

I knew I’d see him again. I knew when I did he’d be infuriated. I knew it would be done, one way or another.

Done.

Over.

And I would be free.

The Secret

Lucien drove into the car park under his office building.

He was furious.

The drive to his office took well over an hour. A four car pileup causing a massive backup with subsequent delays. More times than he could count, he stopped himself from turning around and going back.

Back home.

Back to Leah.

Back to explain things to her, smooth that hideous look out of her features, the pain out of her eyes, inject the life back into her voice.

But he couldn’t. This was Gregor. Gregor was a member of The Council and with Gregor’s alliance he could assist with making Leah safe. Twice, he’d postponed a set meeting and he’d done it to spend time with Leah. He couldn’t delay again. Gregor was impatient, the meeting important, even imperative, he’d told Lucien through Avery.

He had to take the fucking meeting.

He guided the Porsche to its spot thinking she loved him. His Leah loved him.

He knew it. He knew it was happening. Not only because Stephanie warned him, Kate told him but because he felt it.

And that was why he’d done what he’d done. Selfish in the extreme but it was too beautiful, Leah’s love. Better than her beauty. Better than her smell. Even better than her blood. It was like a drug. The feeling of ecstasy. Constant, from waking until sleep and even in his dreams, having her close.

Fuck.

Fuck!

He should have talked to her as Kate asked. As a priority.

He should have talked to her.

He parked, shut the Porsche down and exited the car without delay.

He needed to get this meeting done. He needed to get back home.

Back to Leah.

I’m in love with you, Mighty Vampire Lucien.

The words pierced his brain as he closed the door to the car and he lost control. The door slammed to and the entire car shuddered and shifted four feet into the next, luckily vacant, spot.

He stared at his vehicle as it continued to rock then as it stopped. He closed his eyes, leaned into his forearms on the roof of the car and dropped his head.

Sweetling, look at me.

Please, get off me.
Husky. Agonized.

Leah, sweetheart, please, look at me.

I shouldn’t have said it. Forget I said it.

Look at me.

It didn’t happen. Just wipe it from your mind. Go to your meeting. We’ll both forget it and everything will be okay.
Whispered. Desperate.

Agonized. Desperate. He’d done that. He’d made her feel those things. Being selfish. Taking and forgetting he couldn’t give. Taking and forgetting his duty was to keep her safe. Taking what he couldn’t stop himself from taking and forgetting to protect her, causing her agony, just like at her Bloodletting.

He’d never forget she’d said it. He’d never be able to wipe it from his mind. It was burned there, literally for eternity.

“Fuck,” he whispered.

His eyes opened, he lifted his head and looked blindly through the car park.

Then he thought of Gregor. Not the impending meeting. Gregor’s decision five hundred years ago.

Lucien had three choices. Keep taking from Leah. Make her his mate and put her in even more danger, conceivably making their nightmares come real.

Or, for her sake, release her.

No. He had only one choice.

The last.

Fuck.

He sucked in breath, straightened from the car and eschewed the elevator in order to race up the forty flights of stairs with vampire speed. If a mortal saw him and it came to the attention of The Council, fuck it. Let them fine him. In mere hours he was losing everything.

Everything.

He slowed when he hit the hall and stayed slowed as he opened the door and moved through his busy offices. He took out his cell and turned it off in preparation for the meeting while employees nodded to him, lifted their chins, Lucien returning the gestures.

He saw Sally behind her desk through the glass wall that exposed her office. She’d been in his employ for ten years. In that time she’d met and married her husband, had two children and lost her mother. In that time, he hadn’t aged a day.

It was time to move on. Create new companies, sell his vast holdings to himself, distribute severance packages, references, let his workforce go and move. This time, he’d need to disappear, hire someone young and competent to act in his stead for twenty, thirty years. Then he’d need to go through the motions again, managing his holdings as a ghost. In sixty, seventy years, he’d resurface or perhaps continue as a phantom looking after his fortune.

He’d been considering it a while. He’d even planned to discuss the destination for their future home with Leah.

Now he decided Singapore. Magdalene had moved there three years ago. She loved it. And he’d never lived there. It was as good a place as any.

In order to protect the knowledge he was vampire, he’d done this times too numerous to count. It was a chore that was never less than trying. And every time he wished he could simply be who he fucking was and not be forced to engage in this aggravation.

He pushed through the glass doors to Sally’s outer office. Sally looked up and smiled. Then she read his face and the smile died.

Therefore, instantly, she reported, “I’ve given them coffee and bagels, told them you called and explained your delay.”

“Thank you, Sally,” he muttered, moving to the glossy, wood panel double doors that led to his office.

“Would you like fresh coffee?” she called to his back.

He’d had nothing but Leah’s blood and he’d had her blood not knowing it was the last taste of her he’d ever have. He always savored her. If he’d known, he would have taken the time to savor more. Not just her blood, all that was her when she gave it to him.

“No coffee and no interruptions,” Lucien answered, turning the knob and pushing open the door.

He took in the room before he closed the door behind him.

Cosmo leaning against the side of his desk, arms crossed, ankles crossed. Stephanie lounging in an armchair in the seating area at the side of the room, legs crossed, coffee cup in hand. Avery and Gregor both seated on the couch, Avery’s posture relaxed but alert. Gregor, however, was lounged back like Stephanie, legs crossed, looking bored.

Lucien walked to the seating area as Cosmo pushed away from his desk and approached from the other side.

“I apologize for the delay. Traffic,” Lucien muttered, stopping at the back of the vacant armchair across from Stephanie.

“These things happen,” Gregor murmured, studying Lucien.

Lucien crossed his arms on his chest and leveled his eyes on Gregor, ignoring the others. Rude, he knew, but he didn’t give a fuck. He needed to get this done and he needed to go home and release Leah so she could begin healing from the wounds he’d willfully inflicted, enjoying every fucking second of it.

“Unfortunately I must apologize again. I know my postponements have been frustrating and today’s delay the same but the reasons for this meeting are now moot. This afternoon, I’ll be releasing Leah from her contract.”

He heard the swift hiss of Stephanie’s indrawn breath at the same time he heard Cosmo’s whispered, “What the fuck?” Both of these came with Avery growing more alert and Gregor’s gaze turning sharp.

“I’m sorry?” Gregor asked softly.

“I’m releasing Leah,” Lucien answered.

“Fucking hell, Lucien!” Stephanie snapped as she shot out of her chair. “What’s going on?”

Lucien looked to Stephanie. “It’s none of your concern.”

Her eyes got big. “None of my concern? Are you
mad?
”

Lucien took in a long, slow breath and held her eyes but he did not speak.

Stephanie didn’t like that, leaned forward and demanded, “Answer me! Are you mad?”

“I’ll repeat, Teffie, it’s none of your concern.”

“You
are
mad,” she whispered, her eyes narrowing.

“Lucien even
you
cannot expect to tip our culture on its head after five hundred years of convention then, weeks later, change your mind on a whim,” Cosmo put in, his voice low with anger.

Lucien’s eyes moved to Cosmo as he spoke and when he was done, he stated, “It’s not a whim.”

“What is it then?” Cosmo retorted.

“What it is, is none of your
fucking
concern,” Lucien shot back.

“This is unbelievable,” Stephanie hissed and Lucien looked to her.

“Teffie, calm,” Avery murmured.

Stephanie’s head was a blur when she turned to Avery and shouted, “I will not be calm! We’re on the cuff of
war!
”

“You’re in love with her.”

The room went still when Gregor spoke these word and Lucien’s eyes moved to him.

“Yes,” he confirmed without hesitation.

“Oh my God,” Stephanie whispered.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Cosmo said softly.

“You know my choices Gregor,” Lucien stated calmly. “You’re the only one in this room who does. I can keep her safe but for how long? The feeding I’ve done from her, it won’t have had the chance to have much effect, give her a longer life. She has forty, fifty years left of mortal life. That’s better than living whatever length of time I can keep her alive, doing it on the run and her life ending on a scaffold while she watches me burn. You know that better than anyone in this room. Therefore, this afternoon, I’m releasing her.”

“How long have you known?” Stephanie asked quietly and Lucien’s gaze went to her.

“The minute I saw her twenty years ago,” Lucien answered.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Her voice was rising.

“Because I only admitted it to myself two minutes ago,” Lucien replied.

Stephanie closed her eyes and dropped her head.

“Why?” Cosmo asked and Lucien looked to him.

“Why?” he repeated.

“Yes, Lucien,
why?
If you love her, why are you releasing her?”

“You’ve never mated. Seven hundred and fifty-three years, Cosmo, you’ve been on this earth and not one woman, mortal or immortal, have you stood beside and exchanged blood and vows. When you do, you’ll know why,” Lucien returned.

“None of this was about the taming,” Cosmo accused. “It’s bullshit that you only knew two minutes ago you loved her. You’ve known it all along.”

Lucien inclined his head. “On some level, yes. But I was denying it for Leah’s safety. And bullshit it might have been Cosmo, but you knew too. So did Stephanie. And Isobel. And anyone who really knows me. If you’re honest, all of you knew I was doing this for more reasons than to tame and fuck a concubine.”

“So on some level you knew you couldn’t have her and she couldn’t have you and you did it anyway,” Cosmo reminded him.

“What I knew from what I had with Maggie was that having Leah for even a little while was better than not having her at all. Not only for me but for her. And our time together proved me right. And I knew, this time, our time together would be short. So I knew I couldn’t waste any. What I did not factor was that Leah would return my feelings so swiftly.”

At this, understanding dawned. Lucien knew it when Cosmo flinched and turned his head away.

Lucien looked to Gregor.

“She shared she was in love with me today. As The Council is considering my request, I’ve reflected on this. My first instinct was to talk logic to her in an effort to prolong our Arrangement. But this is Leah. I know her better than that. She consumes life, she’s ruled by emotion. She won’t enjoy what we have for a short time. And she cannot know I reciprocate her feelings. If she does, she’ll never let me go. And I’ll not want her to. Thinking I don’t share her love, she’s already shut down on me. She’s retreating in an effort to control the pain I’ve caused. I must release her for her sake. Therefore, I do not need The Council’s permission. That said, if other vampires wish to indulge in a taming, you should know I will champion them.”

“Please sit, Lucien,” Gregor requested quietly.

Lucien shook his head. “I must get back to Leah.”