Waiting in the Wings (Soulgirls) (16 page)

“Never again.” He shook his head. “You will never feel like I place others above you, I swear it.”

“Shh.” She caressed his cheek. “No foolish promises. I knew what you were—who you were—when I agreed to marry you. I have never wanted you to change, but sometimes…”

“…you were lonely, and I failed to see it.” He gathered her hands in his and kissed them. “You will never feel that loneliness again.”

“Damn right I won’t.” Her gaze sparked with renewed humor. “You’re going to buy me a Cabaret.”

He paused, frowning.

She pursed her lips and stared.

A cabaret? There were worse acquisitions.

“Nuh uh.” She tapped his lips. “You will buy it for me. It will be mine, no interference, and when I need to play, I’ll play.”

“Done.” She could have asked for his crown, and he would have given it to her.

“That was almost too easy.”

“You can persuade me on the terms of purchase later.” He teased, his heart lighter than it had been in years. He didn’t even care that they were necking in the back of the stage’s wings.

“And as soon as we can, I want to invite Pandora to go—”

“Mr. Casere.” The cool tones of the Argentinean intruded. Kristina whirled and Richard barely got an arm around her in time to keep her from launching at the vampire.

“Shh,” he murmured to her hair, but keeping his grip firm. “Overseer.”

“Your presence is requested.” The world slid sideways. Kristina’s hands closed on his. He hated magic. He hated anything to do with it.

They arrived in a sickening rush in the same plain paneled room he’d visited earlier in the evening. Four figures waited on the dais, not five. Nostrils flaring, he detected no hint of the witch. Too bad for her. She should have been friendlier when he stood there as a supplicant.

Kristina went still as she gazed from the gray figures to him and back. Tucking her firmly against his side, he freed his right arm. If this came to a fight, he suspected he could take at least two of them. That left Kristina to fend off another two. Not good odds when she still needed to feed. He didn’t have to look around to know neither Anton nor David had been invited to the private soiree.

He’d hoped they would accept his offer, but not this soon. He smoothed away the anxiety knotting inside. They would face the Prince of New York, not a husband facing separation from his wife for the second time in a century.

“What’s going on?” Kristina asked, her voice somber and quiet.

“What is going on, Mrs. Casere, is a rare event—one you are being invited to witness because of our complicity in your imprisonment.” This came from the fourth figure, the one who hadn’t spoken during the earlier conversation. Richard hated the gray faces and blurred appearances. Harder to judge words and actions when he couldn’t read the body language.

“Does that mean I’m free?” She found his left hand with her right, fingers threading through his. She rubbed against his wedding ring, and a small smile turned up the corners of her mouth.

“Conditionally.”

The single word erased Richard’s joy and hardened his resolve. The banked fires of his anger surged through his blood. “Conditionally?” He demanded, abandoning polite protocol.

“You made us a provocative offer, Prince Richard. We have one to make you in return.”

“What is he talking about?” Kristina hissed the words in a quiet whisper from the corner of her mouth.

“He offered to trade his freedom for yours.” The Argentinean answered before Richard could. Kristina stiffened. “We were intrigued—the Prince of a City, arguably one of the few truly elite vampires in the entire nation, with an army at his beckoning—and he supplicates himself to us.”

“Richard,” Kristina turned away from the Overseers and stared up at him. “You can’t—we just—”

“I know. But I want your freedom more than I want my own. You have been trapped here for decades, my love, and I blame myself for that.”

Her expression softened. “I blame me for that too. But what good does my freedom do if you’re here and I’m not?”

“What are a few decades when I know you are safe and I will be able to return to you?” He smiled. “You have given up everything for me time and again. How can I do less for you?”

“No, I forbid you to do this—”

“Forbid me?” The mild disapproval in his voice just incensed her.

“Yes, I forbid you. You promised to put no one else above me and now you’re just going to make this decision without me? Choose to give your life to these…these…chickenshit power mongers in their gray shrouds of oblivion? How the hell does that bring us together?” She waved a hand toward the Overseers. “You forget, I have been here for fifty years. No one gets the better end of a bargain with them. The house always wins—”

“Except when it doesn’t.” He bowed his head, meeting her gaze. “I know. I will not agree without your consent, but, Kristina, I must leave Las Vegas before the next sun sets. Please do not make me leave you here. I would do anything for you, but I can’t do that.” He could survive whatever hell they plunged him into, if he knew she was safe. Malcolm would watch over her, and the families would keep her safe until he could join her again.

“I didn’t remember you for fifty years, and in five minutes I fell in love with you all over again. Please don’t make me leave without you. I’d rather be here, at least then we’d be cursed together…”

One of the Overseers cleared their throat, and Richard glared at him. “What?”

“This is very sweet, the declarations and passion, but you haven’t heard our offer.”

Kristina scowled and leaned into his arm. “We don’t want to hear your offer unless it includes the two of us being together.”

“Sweetheart…” While he shared her desire, he didn’t want her in the casino—much less the meeting—and they didn’t need to risk pissing off the keepers to the keys of this particular kingdom.

“No.” She stomped her foot. “Just no. Together or not at all.”

“Very well.” He acquiesced. It was a hell of a lot easier than he expected, and didn’t leave him feeling weaker as it might have in the first centuries of their relationship. He’d tasted life without her—it wasn’t worth living. He turned his attention to the Overseers. “Grant your boon, and then make your offer.”

Their impatience seemed to color the air around them. “What we are about to share with you must never leave this chamber—to do so would be to court death. If you agree, then you will be geas’d against ever mentioning it again. Do you understand?”

All four spoke in unison, the varying intonations and accents creating an eerie stereo effect.

Kristina glanced up at him, and he smiled. The agreement cost them nothing. He inclined his head to her and she nodded. “Very well, we agree to accept the geas, but only on this matter we are about to discuss and only for the length of time until that matter is no longer the topic.”

His bride grinned. “What he said.”

“Our boon is Kristina Casere’s freedom from the curse and lease held by Andrew, Prince of Las Vegas. Her placement in the Midnight Mystery Lounge and her contract as a dancer.” A snap of fingers crinkled the air, and Kristina exhaled a startled breath. She leaned against Richard, her legs buckling, and he caught her.

Her fangs appeared and the starry black of her eyes deepened. Hunger struck in the same breath, and he didn’t hesitate to bite his own wrist and hold it to her mouth. She latched on, almost desperately. The connection sizzled to life, and the hard pulls of her sucking filled him with delight. She was still too underfed, but the curse was broken. His blood was more than strong enough to slake her—particularly after she’d drunk from him the night before. And since he’d fed up for the occasion.

Their witnesses served as his only resentment. The intimacy of the moment should have been reserved for a more private location, but her safety and well being overrode his need for seclusion. Holding her closely, he dared any of them to comment, but they waited patiently.

It was Kristina who halted her feed, lapping at his wrist with sensual little licks until the wound closed. She let out another ragged little breath and smiled. “Thank you.”

“Always.” Forever and always, his body and soul were hers to command.

“And thank you.” She leaned her head against his shoulder tiredly. They needed to wrap this up. She needed rest and he needed to make arrangements for transport.

“Your offer?” He turned an expectant eye on their judges and hosts.

The magic settled over him like fine mesh netting. He recognized the geas and didn’t fight it. Kristina barely stirred.

“The identification of Marguerite DuBois’ crimes leaves us an Overseer short. We would extend an invitation to you, Richard Casere, Prince of New York, to join us in oversight. Your abilities, your intelligence, your indomitable will would serve us all well.”

Of all the offers he’d expected, that was not even on his list. He stared at the creatures. The Overseers exerted incredible global influence, even in cities where they held no property. Offending them was considered the greatest of crimes, their punishments were whispered like tales of boogeymen in the dark to quiet irascible youths. The money associated with the facility, the power at their fingertips—it surrounded them everywhere in the casino. One could even argue the fanatical devotion of their gambling addicts increased their reach.

The offer tempted.

Kristina stirred against him and he looked down at the most precious being on the planet. “Would she stay with me?”

“As Overseer, you would create your own terms. Your bride is your own.” It wasn’t exactly an answer.

“Richard?”

“Yes, my love?”

“Fuck no.”

He laughed and kissed her nose. “As you wish.” Still amused, he glanced at the gray figures. “We must respectfully decline your most generous offer and further, deem the matter of offense against my bride settled. You will have no quarrel with New York.”

The Overseers took the news well enough—they vanished. The doors opened behind them, and he swept Kristina up into his arms.

“I want to go home,” she tucked her head to his shoulder.

“As soon as I can call a car for us, darling.”

“And I want to invite Minion to New York.” Kristina yawned. “So we can go shopping.”

“Anything you want.”

“Hmmm.” Her smile took on an almost satisfied purr. “I could get used to this.”

“Good. Because I plan to spoil you, so you will never run away again.”

Her eyes slitted open to stare at him. “Even if you’re a blockhead?”

“Especially when I’m a blockhead.”

“Deal.”

He pressed the button for the lobby and snuggled her closer. No matter what else happened, Kristina was his again.

All was right with his world.

Epilogue

New York, One Week Later

“So you like it?” Richard raised his arm as his bride twirled on their walk through the main doors of the Casere building. He maintained offices on several floors and allowed other vampires leases for apartments or businesses. The top three floors belonged to him and Kristina—their New York palace.

“I haven’t decided. I want it to have that cozy, yet exotic, dark, yet colorful atmosphere—more speakeasy than the girls are easy.” She skipped along beside him, her black boots clicking on the marble floor.

“We have plenty of properties to look at, and if you can’t find the one you like, we’ll build one.” He grinned.

She sprinted ahead and pressed the elevator button and beckoned him closer with a crook of her finger. He bent his head to hers—their mouths meshing together in a sweet kiss—and sighed. The trip home from the Arcana Royale was wildly uneventful, just the two of them making love every chance they could, and Kristina feeding more than she had since he’d turned her, but she glowed with vitality.

Her reunion with Pandora turned into squeals of laughter and shopping—which he was more than happy to indulge. Malcolm brought him up to speed on matters of business and helped him identify two lieutenants to shoulder the day-to-day burdens, freeing his time to spend with Kristina. He also instituted a no working after midnight rule. If his bride wanted to go somewhere, they went.

“Does it seem weird to feel like newlyweds again?” she murmured against his ear.

“Not at all. I am definitely the happy groom. We can even get married again if you like—invite anyone you want.”

The corner of her mouth quirked upwards and she slid a sideways glance at him. “I take it a Las Vegas chapel is out of the question?” The teasing glint in her eyes promised she wasn’t serious, but he nodded gravely nonetheless.

“Not even a remote possibility—I would rather live in sin.” The doors opened to their penthouse, and she danced out ahead of him. He followed, hands in his pockets and enjoying the whimsical joy she exuded.

“Speaking of sin…no more meetings tonight?”

“Just the quick check in with the boys, and then I’m all yours.”

“Perfect.” She made a show of looking at her watch. “My next performance begins in exactly thirty minutes. Don’t be late, or I’ll get started without you.”