Chapter Thirteen
Vlad stood for several minutes in the spot where Nita had been, listening to her crashing through the trees on her race to get away from him.
He glanced down at his still-hard cock, anger warring with amusement over her untimely escape.
Snatching up his clothes, he dressed in record time before donning his cloak.
Nita’s scent haunted him on his trek through the woods toward his castle. In all the years he’d been on the earth, Vlad had never imagined he would crave another like he did the Kiana leader.
“Frolicking with wolves?”
Vlad had been so caught up in his thoughts of Nita he hadn’t sensed Shon’s presence.
“I am in no mood for your jokes, young Shon. What are you doing out here?”
“Waiting for you,” Shon remarked, leaning against a tree. The smell of cigar permeated the air as smoke billowed out around him.
“Well, I am here. What can I do for you?”
Shon took another puff from the cigar before answering. “The council members have devised a plan to flush out the Seekers and hopefully expose their lair.”
“And you’re telling me this…why?”
“Because they plan to use your shifter as bait.”
That pulled Vlad up short. “Go on.”
“I don’t have all the details, but Atticus is working on the arrangements. He’ll be by to speak with you after all the wrinkles have been ironed out.”
Vlad raised an eyebrow. “Atticus?”
“That’s what I was told.”
“I don’t trust Atticus as far as I can throw him. And I can throw him clear to Canada if I take a mind to.”
Shon laughed. “I don’t like the little bastard either, but it won’t hurt to hear him out.”
Vlad nodded. “I have a glass of wine calling my name. Care to join me?”
“Does a bear shit in the woods?”
“Indeed,” Vlad affirmed. “As do wolves. I’d watch my step if I were you.”
Shon pushed off from the tree. “Nita Franks, I’m assuming?”
Vlad ignored his jab as well as his smirk. “Is Angelo aware of the council’s plan to use Nita as bait?”
“He is. And he doesn’t like it.” Shon fell into step beside Vlad.
Herman Mordecai was waiting at the door as Vlad and Shon approached. “My lord.”
“Good evening, Mordecai. Is something amiss?”
“Not at all,” Mordecai replied, stepping back and pulling the door open wide. “I thought I heard wolves howling in the distance.”
Vlad entered the foyer with Shon tight on his heels. “Probably just some coyotes hunting in the area. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”
Mordecai sniffed, closing the door behind them. “Coyotes, indeed.”
Vlad’s lips twitched on his way to the den. Clearly, Mordecai didn’t buy into the whole coyote story, if his mumbled words were any indication.
“Pour me one of those.” Shon sank heavily into a nearby chair as Vlad plucked a bottle of wine from the bar.
“You are looking a bit peaked,” Vlad teased, pouring them both a glass of wine and handing one to Shon.
Shon accepted the offering before taking a healthy drink. “Have you ever been mated?”
Vlad took a seat across from him. “Can’t say that I have.”
“You’ll understand when you do. I’m surprised I can walk upright.”
A vision of Nita coming apart in his arms, floated through Vlad’s mind. “I’m certain I can imagine.”
Shon grinned. “I’ll bet you can. At your age, I’m sure you’ve tried just about everything there is to try.”
After the night he’d had, Vlad would tend to agree with Shon. He changed the subject instead. “How is mated life treating you? Did you have a nice honeymoon?”
“Being mated to Laura is everything I always knew it would be. And Paris was incredible.”
“You should have seen it two hundred years ago,” Vlad murmured, watching the wine swirl in his glass. “Simply magnificent.”
Shon wrinkled his nose. “Back before air conditioning? No thanks. I don’t know how people survived before electricity. I bet body odor was thick as butter.”
A chuckle bubbled up in Vlad at Shon’s description. “Things were different back then, young Shon. Foods were natural, and the ozone still existed. It wasn’t as hot as it is today.”
“So you’re blaming body odor on the ozone?”
Vlad nodded. “And food. Food today is saturated with preservatives, toxins, hormones, and many more ingredients that rot the body from the inside out. But since you no longer consume such garbage, you have nothing to worry about.”
Shon sat up straighter. “Is that why vampires live as long as they do?”
“Among other things.”
“What about our strength and speed…aversion to light?”
Vlad looked up from his wine watching to meet Shon’s gaze. “That, young Shon, we owe to our creator—”
“Lilith,” Shon finished for him.
“As well as her demon sperm donor, Vrykolakas.”
Shon crossed his booted feet at the ankles. “What’s the deal with you and the shifter?”
“There is no deal. We’re acquaintances, nothing more.”
“Her scent is all over you, Drac. And not in a I’ve been running through the woods and rubbed up against you, kind of way.”
Vlad changed the subject before he lost his temper and messed up young Shon’s handsome face. “Where is your sweet bride?”
“Taking a bubble bath without me. I should probably join her.” Gaining his feet, Shon finished off his wine and winked in Vlad’s direction before sauntering from the room.
Vlad watched him go with a mixture of feelings. No vampire in history would have dared question the Impaler about his sex life. But Shon Wells did it with such ease that Vlad found himself rather enjoying the fledgling’s audacity.
Laying his head back against the chair cushion, Vlad closed his eyes, immediately recalling the look on Nita’s face as he pumped into her again and again.
He’d never seen anything as beautiful as the shifter in the throes of passion. The way her eyes changed colors as she fought to control her beast, the trembling of her body, the orgasm that triggered his own.
Vlad wanted her again. “Damn it.”
His cock pulsed behind his jeans, in need of something that only Nita could give.
With a silent curse, he set his drink aside and stood. A soak in the hot springs would do him some good.