CHAPTER ELEVEN

The aroma of coffee wafted under her nose. Samantha’s eyes fluttered open; a broad smile spread across her face, seeing Luca holding a cup of coffee. He was already dressed; a casual black t-shirt teased the contours of his chest and his blue jeans hugged his tapered hips. She noticed he was wearing gray alligator boots that suited his personality: sleek and lethal.

“Come on, sleepy head. Time to eat and catch bad guys. It’s one o’clock in the afternoon. We’ve got to get goin’.”

She sat up, pulling the sheet up over her breasts, and he handed her the cup of café au lait. He’d placed a beautifully decorated breakfast tray in the middle of the bed.

“Mmmm…this is wonderful. You make this?” she asked.

“Oui Mademoiselle. I’ve been livin’ down here in New Orleans long enough to make a fine cup of chicory and steamed milk. I did not, however, make this delicious spread of eggs and bacon. Kade’s cook brought this over; Mandy makes a great southern breakfast,” He grabbed a piece of bacon off the plate and bit into it.

“Looks great. Hey, what are you doing stealing my bacon!” she joked as she picked up a piece for herself. “You know, I was wondering. What’s the deal with vampires and food anyway? I mean, I’ve seen you eat food but I know you need blood.” She lightly ran her fingers over the small bumps on her shoulder, remembering how he’d bitten her the night before, and then picked up her fork.

“Well, I can eat small amounts of food, but there’s no nutrition in it. It’s just like a comfort kind of thing, reminds us of our human life. But we don’t need it. And some vampires no longer eat human food at all.” He smiled slightly. “But they most assuredly do eat humans. The fact is that we need human blood to survive, but not every day and not a lot of it. At least a half cup or so every two to three days keeps us in fightin’ shape. If we don’t get it, we wither, die. For example, after they attacked us at the coven, the thugs starved me. I was silvered, so I couldn’t move, couldn’t communicate.”

Luca’s face hardened, remembering what had happened to him and what Kade and Sydney had done to save him. He hesitated. Luca did not relish telling Samantha the details of his recovery but didn’t want secrets between them.

“Listen Samantha, speaking of the attack, I don’t want there to be any secrets between us. I know we’ve just met over the past weeks, but you should know that when that happened - when I was attacked - I didn’t recover right away. Kade and Dominique gave me human blood, a donor, but it wasn’t enough.” Luca turned his head away.

Samantha put her hand on his arm. “Hey, it’s okay. I know what it’s like to have something happen that you can’t explain. You don’t need to tell me. What’s important is that you’re here now.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just Sydney. Kade.” He shouldn’t feel guilty. Yet that was exactly how he felt. “Sorry, I’m just not sure how to explain this but Sydney’s blood is special. It’s because she’s human, but not entirely anymore. She’s bonded with Kade.”

“Like you did with me?” She blushed, recalling their wild lovemaking the night before.

“Well, yes and no. You and I, last night, the bond began. When we made love and I bit you at the same time as we climaxed, it started the bond. So, soon I’ll be able to sense where you are, maybe sense your thoughts, but not entirely be able to read them. But we are not fully bonded. That only happens when I give you my blood when we’re making love. When that happens, it changes the human slightly. So Sydney, for example, will live as long as Kade. She’ll be immune to illness et cetera, but will not become vampire.”

“Okay,” Samantha was happily eating the last of her eggs, listening intently.

“Okay.” Luca laughed at her casual attitude. She was so brave and open to the unknown, quite unpredictably so at times. “What I’m saying is that Sydney’s blood is special, more powerful. So when no other human blood would revive me, Kade let me feed from Sydney.” Silence blanketed the room.

Samantha thought on it for a minute before commenting. Remembering how it had felt when Luca bit her and what Kat had told her happened at Eden, she was starting to put together what he was trying to tell her. Her stomach clenched in a pang of jealousy. What exactly was he trying to tell her? “So when you say feed, do you mean ‘I drank her blood’ or do you mean ‘I drank and had sex with Sydney’?”

Yes, she was definitely putting it all together.

Luca took her hand in his, craving contact with his lover. “Yes and no. We were all together in Kade’s house, his guest bedroom. If you’re asking if I had intercourse with Sydney, then no, I did not. But if you’re asking if I fed and it was an erotic experience? Yes. I’m not sure how to put this tactfully.” He chose his words carefully. “I experienced a release during the process. But it was once, and if they hadn’t done it, I could have died. The blood of people like Sydney, the bonded humans, it is rare. I’m sure Kade could have found someone else besides Sydney but it would have taken more time than I had. And besides, they are my friends.”

Samantha pondered his words. She wondered exactly what the three of them had done if it wasn’t intercourse, but it sounded like they engaged in some kind of a ménage; they all came. Samantha knew he needed the blood but still, what had he done with Sydney?

“Seriously? A release?” She laughed indignantly. “You mean you came? With both of them there?”

“I really don’t want to get into the details of the entire session but let’s just say it wasn’t intercourse and it wasn’t oral sex. But yes, the gist of what you are saying is correct. I fed from Sydney. I touched her, and she me. I came.” Luca prayed she wouldn’t freak out and take off running again. It wasn’t as if he’d exactly had a choice in the matter. He would have died without Sydney’s blood and was lacking any kind of control during their healing encounter.

“Is this experience something you intend to repeat with them? I mean, I may be experienced sexually, but I’m not that open. I have firm limits, Luca. And sharing is one of them. I won’t share you with other women if we are going to be in a relationship. Not an option, Luca.” She felt sick thinking that he might have to drink the blood of other women.

“No, no, no. Samantha. I would never ask that of you. It isn’t something I wanted. I just needed to be honest with you about how I healed, what happened. There can’t be secrets between us, especially when we will be with Kade and Sydney. Believe me, what happened with them, it will never happen again. And you should know that I don’t share either. Never,” he said through gritted teeth. He’d kill the next man who laid a finger on his woman. “I want you. I love you. And if you will agree, I want to fully bond with you.”

Relieved, Samantha jumped up out of bed naked and straddled the clothed Luca. He leaned his head against the back of the headboard, enjoying the view of his beautiful woman, resting his hands on her hips.

“Luca, I love you.” It felt strange saying those words yet Samantha couldn’t help but tell him how she felt. “Whatever you had to do to stay alive, I get it. But, I’m grateful Kade and Sydney saved you. Okay, I’m not crazy about the three of you in bed, but what’s done is done, and today, you’re here in bed with me. My vampire.”

“My witch.” Luca waited patiently as Samantha pressed her lips to his. Their tongues danced, gently tasting and exploring. Samantha began to grind into his hardness, eager to make love with him again.

Luca broke the kiss and threw his head back again. “You are tempting something fierce, darlin’, but we’ve got to go find ourselves an amulet. We can’t stay in bed all day.”

“Ugh. Hate that you are right.” Samantha pouted. “Okay, I’m getting in the shower but you owe me later.” She winked at him as she bounced off the bed and padded into the bathroom.

Luca smiled to himself, thinking that the woman was going to be the death of him, and what a sweet death it would be.

After getting dressed in jean shorts and a pink tank top, Samantha walked into the kitchen with a spring in her step. Her cell phone buzzed while she was lacing up her sneakers. She glanced at the message. “Luca! Someone accessed the coven’s database. I’m goin’ into your laptop,” she yelled up the stairs.

Luca ran down the steps, and sat next to Samantha as she opened up her program. She typed furiously.

“Ilsbeth went in this morning. Yes! Gotcha.” She brought up the coven’s website and quickly entered Ilsbeth’s ID and password, pressed enter and waited. “Okay, baby. Here we go. We’re in! Now let’s see how we can search. Looks like they have things categorized. We’ve got witchcraft by country. We’ve got witchcraft by modern types, Wicca, Stregheria…yadda, yadda, yadda. Okay, I see spell casting, ingredients, necromancy. Ew…so not ever doing that. Here’s book of shadows, demonology, ceremonial magick, scrying, shamanism. Come on, there’s got to be something here.” She kept scrolling down, hoping there’d be a category for the Hematilly Periapt. “Come to mama! Yes. Talismans. It’s an amulet. Does that sound right?” she questioned Luca.

“Yes, that should be it. A talisman usually guards against evil, but considering we’ve got no idea what it does, let’s give it a try.”

“There must be thousands of these things, but I’ll give it to the sisters, they have each one detailed: what it’s made of, purpose, who created it, how to make one. Looks like some of these are blank. They must still be in the process of creating this database. Oh my God, Luca. Here it is, the Hematilly Periapt. I can’t read this. Is this Latin? What is this?” The description was written in a foreign language:

Luca read the description and translated. “It’s Latin. So basically it says that the periapt was created by a powerful witch. Her name was Maria Voltaire. She made it in the seventeenth century to combat vampires, presumably during the great mass hysteria over vampires during that time. Anyway, it says that the periapt is made of the mineral hematite. The word, hematite is derived from the Greek word for blood. Then it describes it; it says the actual periapt is approximately two inches by one inch, in the shape of a tear drop. The owner of such a periapt must be a witch, warlock or mage. Here we go, here’s the crux of it. The periapt can control the actions of any vampire. But in order for the witch to activate the stone, it requires a drop of blood from the intended vampire and then the vampire shall be under the witch’s control as long as the witch keeps it on her person. It lists its current location as unknown.” Running through the scenarios in his head, Luca’s eyes narrowed in anger.

“Goddammit, now we know why the hell everyone seems to want it. Imagine if a witch got the amulet and the blood of a vampire. Like my blood, for example. Fuck.” He slammed his fist down on the counter, remembering what Kade and Sydney had told him about the needles all over the church where they’d found him. Perhaps someone had taken his blood for a different reason than they thought.

“What’s wrong?” Samantha watched Luca pace, visibly agitated.

“What’s wrong is that when we were attacked and I was taken, there were needles all over the floor. It’s a fairly good guess that someone has my blood. If the same person who took my blood gets the periapt, they could control me, according to what we just read,” he said, piqued.

“Okay, maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t. We’ll get it back. We’ll destroy it,” Samantha promised. Hoped.

“What I can’t figure out is why another vampire would want it? How does he even know about it? According to this notation, only a witch can use it.” He dragged his fingers through his hair.

“I don’t know, Luca. But we’ll get to it first and then we’ll get rid of it. If we can’t destroy it, we’ll take it out into the sea, and dispose of it there. We can do this.” She didn’t want to admit it to Luca but she was scared too. She prayed that she’d left a clue to its whereabouts.

“Well, thank God you took it from Asgear. And now that we know what it does, we know why someone wants it. We’d better get going to find out what’s at the Maid of Orleans. I sure as hell hope this leads us to the amulet. We also now need to find out who took my blood.” Luca would be damned before he let anyone control his actions. He knew better than anyone that he was a lethal killing machine when he needed to be. And so did the vampire who was trying to get the periapt. Maybe that vampire was working with a witch? He couldn’t focus on the myriad scenarios right now. The only thing that was important was locating the Hematilly Periapt, and he hoped the Maid of Orleans would be his savior.