“He will listen,” he snarled.
“Okay, okay. He’ll listen,” she croaked, sucking in a deep breath as his grip loosened. “But I’m telling you he’ll be a lot more forgiving if you release me.”
His fury eased as he was distracted by the softness of her skin beneath his fingers and the scent of plums teasing his nose.
“Clever and beautiful,” he muttered, lowering his hand so he could cup the ripe temptation of her breast.
She made a sound of distress. “Don’t.”
Her reluctance only fueled his stab of lust. “Does my touch repulse you?”
She shuddered. “Yes.”
“I can make you like it.” His grip tightened until she gave a small cry of pain. “I can make you beg for it.”
The emerald eyes flashed with hatred. “Not even in a million years,” she spat out, her chin inching higher. “I have royal blood flowing through my veins. I can’t be enthralled, vamp.”
“Royalty,” he sneered. The imp thought she was above him with her noble blood? He’d teach her just how worthless it was. “Such a proud imp.”
He could hear the leap of her pulse as he allowed his powers to fill the cellar.
“Stop . . .” Her magnificent eyes dilated with an uncontrollable lust. “I . . .”
He chuckled, running his tongue up and down his sensitive fang.
Maybe a small taste wouldn’t hurt.
“Yes, my beauty?”
A layer of sweat bloomed on her skin. “What are you doing to me?”
He tugged at the hardened tip of her breast. “Do you want me?”
“No.” She squeezed her eyes shut even as her body trembled with need. “You’re disgusting.”
He chuckled with cruel amusement, ignoring his weakness as he deliberately altered his appearance. In the distance he could feel his approaching guests and he intended to reveal the full glory of his new powers.
“Perhaps this shape will tempt you,” he murmured, giving her nipple a more painful tug. “Open your eyes, Tonya.”
Reluctantly lifting her lashes, she gave a gasp of shock as she caught sight of his features, which were now an exact duplicate of Santiago.
“Shit,” she breathed, but Gaius didn’t miss the increase in her pulse or the sudden shallowness to her breathing.
Her arousal wasn’t entirely due to the lust that pulsed through the air.
“Is this better?” He leaned down to savor the scent of her heated blood. “Are you in love with your employer?”
A low groan was wrenched from her throat as she arched toward him. “Please . . .”
“What do you want?” he urged.
“You,” she whispered, the chains rattling as she tried to reach for him. “I want you.”
He smiled at the sound of soft footsteps on the stairs.
“You want Santiago?” he cooed.
“Yes, please,” she moaned, panting with the desire that ran rampant through her blood. “Please.”
He allowed his fangs to scrape down the curve of her throat. “I told you I would make you beg.”
“Bastard,” a furious voice snapped from the doorway of the cellar. “Leave her alone.”
Gaius pulled back, but his gaze never strayed from the beautiful imp. It was unfortunate, but Santiago had to be reminded of Gaius’s superior position. Even among family the hierarchy had to be established.
“But she is so happy to be with you,” he murmured, turning her eager face so Santiago could see her pleading expression. “She’s wanted you for a very long time, haven’t you, imp?”
Santiago took a step forward, his fury a tangible force that beat through the cellar. “She has no part in this. Just let her go.”
“I’m not going to hurt her,” Gaius assured his companion. “I only wanted your attention.”
“You have it,” he snarled.
Straightening, Gaius allowed his shape to return to normal, a smile of warm greeting curving his lips.
First the stick and then the carrot.
It had always been his preferred style of leadership.
“My son.”
Santiago grimaced, his attention shifting to the imp who curled her shivering body into a small ball on the floor.
“Let me have Tonya.”
“Not yet.” Gaius stepped forward to block the imp from Santiago’s line of vision. “First we talk.”
“Then you’ll release her?”
“Perhaps.”
Gaius studied the vampire whom he’d claimed as his son so many centuries ago. There were few changes. A vampire didn’t age. But there was a hardness to the lean features that hadn’t been there before Dara’s death and a icy lack of pleasure in their long overdue reunion.
Stifling his stab of disappointment, Gaius glanced over Santiago’s shoulder. He could feel a tiny demon just outside the door. A . . . gargoyle? A meaningless pest. He was far more interested in the thundering pulse of Nefri’s power. His brows lifted as he realized she was moving away from the lair, not closer.
“Where is your companion going?”
Santiago grimaced. “She had a small task to finish.”
It took a second for Gaius to realize that his former chief wasn’t alone as she moved through the woods that surrounded the house.
“Ah.” His lips twisted. “The humans.”
“Nefri is surprisingly squeamish for a clan chief. She insisted that they be released.”
“A bother, but they can be replaced,” he murmured.
“You never kept a herd before,” Santiago accused him, displaying his aversion for keeping a group of humans or lesser demons caged like animals. “Why now?”
Gaius gave a restless shrug. This wasn’t what he wanted to discuss. “I must feed.”
“And the torture?” the younger vampire pressed. “Did you develop a taste for pain after you became a slave for the Dark Lord?”
Gaius flinched, deeply bothered by his son’s icy condemnation. “No,” he protested, taking a step forward. “It’s not for me.”
Santiago stilled. “Then who?”
“Dara.”
Chapter 25
Santiago narrowed his gaze.
What the hell?
Had Gaius gone bat-shit crazy?
It would, of course, explain his sire’s shockingly filthy appearance and the strange glitter in his dark eyes.
But Dara? Cristo.
“I don’t understand,” he at last managed to growl, shifting so he could catch a glimpse of Tonya as she shivered on the dirt floor.
She looked shaken, but unharmed. Not that the sight eased the fury that beat through his blood. Gaius was going to pay for every bruise on her delicate skin.
A demented joy twisted Gaius’s bloodstained face, filling the air with a dangerous sense of euphoria. “Dara,” the older vampire said in a reverent voice. “She’s been returned to me.”
Yeah. Bat-shit crazy.
Santiago might have felt pity for the pathetic bastard if he hadn’t betrayed everyone who had ever trusted him. Oh, and was even now threatening to destroy the world.
As it was, all Santiago wanted to do was chop off his head and be done with the nasty business.
But not yet, a voice warned in the back of his mind.
Nefri had insisted they needed information. And for now, Gaius was the only one who could tell him what the hell was going on.
“Dara has returned from the grave?” he repeated, making sure he hadn’t misunderstood.
“Yes.”
“You know that’s not possible.” He searched Gaius’s expression for some sign he was being controlled by another force. At the moment he couldn’t sense anything but the vampire’s seething madness. “You watched her burn.”
Gaius pressed a hand to his unbeating heart. “It’s a miracle.”
“Vampires aren’t capable of regenerating once they’re dead. They don’t even produce ghosts.”
An abrupt anger tightened Gaius’s gaunt face. “I was promised this. She is my reward for my faithful service.”
Santiago hissed in pain. Dara was a lovely, astonishingly gentle female who had blessed them all with her unwavering love. She wasn’t a damned reward.
“A reward from who?” he forced himself to ask.
“From the Dark Lord.”
Santiago shook his head. He’d known that Gaius had betrayed them to the evil deity for the opportunity to be reunited with his dead mate. But he still didn’t understand why.
“I know you were grieving, Gaius, but you’ve never been stupid,” he managed to point out, his voice coated with ice, but his weapons still sheathed. Kudos to him. “You had to suspect that it was a scam to lure you into the Dark Lord’s power.”
The once decisive, always-in-command vampire blinked as if confused by the question. “I had no choice. I had to . . .”
“What?”
“I had to bring her back.”
Santiago stiffened his spine, refusing to acknowledge the soul-deep loss that flickered through Gaius’s eyes. The same loss that he’d felt when Dara was taken from them.