~

 

“Do I look impressed with your antics?”

Morgana gave him a deathly stare and folded her arms for good measure, and he took a moment to study her. There was a hungry look within his eyes for just a second, and then it was gone.

He liked to stare at her – trying to psych her out, and it happened every chance that he got, but right then; she was in no mood to be played with. She turned for the door once more… 

“I didn’t call you here to recount my night of sinfully good pleasure…” he called after her, wincing on the inside at his own words, and she ground to a halt again.

Her top lip twitched with annoyance. Her eyes narrowed to slits in her head and she sighed inwardly.

The only thing worse than being in the presence of a vampire was being in the presence of a vampire that you owed a favour – a favour that could never be repaid – not until he said it was – and she got the distinct feeling that Nathaniel was going to drag it out for as long as humanly possible.

“With the bed bunny?”

She folded her arms across her chest, and berated him with just a look over her shoulder. She didn’t turn all the way back towards him because that would mean that he’d won a small victory, won the point, and she hated the thought of that.

Right then; she was neither in the room nor was she out of it – she was the Schrodinger’s Cat of blackmail – hovering on leaving, and keeping him on his toes to behave himself.

One wrong word and she would be gone, and he wanted something from her, but what would the price be to her moral compass?

“Meow – Morgana …” He made a show of thinking for one very long moment, considering something... “Morgana…”

“I think we both know my name, Nathaniel…”

“Why did your parents hang a big sign over your head saying; witch here?” He asked.

She slowly turned her body towards him, and her eyes took another flick down the hard ridges of his body again. There was a bubbling of nervous energy mixed with excitement inside of her that she wanted to take a really big sledgehammer to.

“My you are taking in your fair share of me today – wait…!”

He held up his finger and she frowned a little, twisting her head on her neck, and waiting for the punchline. Then he pointed downwards, and her eyes followed.

There he was, having risen to the occasion; rock hard, and the damn thing was twitching against the glass panel like it was tapping hello.

Morgana felt the rush of amusement rush to the surface. How she hated that the damn man could make her so mad one moment and then make her laugh the next.

She pressed her lips together so that she didn’t smile, and with it; she dug her fingernails into the palms of her hands for much the same effect. She wouldn’t let him win.

“I could make that go away permanently for you.” She didn’t know how she’d managed to get the threat out with a straight face.

One thing about Nathaniel was that he always managed to make her laugh. Even when she didn’t want to, he always came up with something. He was akin to that movie character that you loved to hate.

He’d made her laugh the very first time that they’d met. A time when she’d truly been at her lowest ebb, and for her sins he’d somehow managed to do it every time since.

The man was a vampire, yes, but he wasn’t all bad. That’s what she half hated about him – the fact that she couldn’t really hate him at all.

“Not permanently, but if you’d like to get in here with me and…”

“Nathaniel…” she bit out, feeling the heat reach her cheeks, as she forced her magic to glamour it away. “I have other things to do.” She offered with her best bored expression and hoped that it stuck.

“Of course you do, busy-busy witch,” he waved a hand, dismissing her protest, her excuse – she always seemed to have one for him.

“Did you call me here for a reason or just bragging rights?”

“Bragging rights … hmm … interesting choice of words.”

He considered that one for a long moment; while she resisted the urge to fidget from one foot to the other as she squirmed slightly under the scrutiny that he was giving her.

“I really don’t have time for this…” She turned to leave again…

“Bragging rights would imply that you were in some way interested in me or the female, and as you don’t know her then that could only mean that you were interested in – not so little old me…” He was back to toying with her again.

Cat and mouse. Tease and see what bobbed to the surface. It was his way, and a way that annoyed her so.

“Dream and on,” she said; turning back towards him at the doorway, and raising her eyebrows once more.

“We’ll put a pin in it,” Nathaniel offered back with the kind of smirk that she was tempted to zap right off of his face.

“Put a damn sledgehammer through it for all I care…”

“My, so feisty and fiery today. Did someone push you out of bed the wrong side this morning?” He couldn’t help but hate the thought of that. Morgana sharing time with another man.

It felt … wrong. Especially when he could have given her everything that she could ever want or need, and yet she resisted his attempts to charm her at every turn, until he’d changed tactics and decided that riling her up was much more productive…

“How attached to your fangs are you?” She asked with a no-nonsense raise of her perfect eyebrows again.

He liked that she talked with her eyebrows – it was like a roadmap to her feelings, and he knew them well.

“Witches – no sense of humour.”

“Vampires – allergic to sharp pointy wooden things.” She tossed back, determined not to take any of his BS.

“Alright – fine!” He tossed up a hand and gave her a point for that comeback line. He pointed down to his hard length again and her eyes followed. “You really can’t help but look, can you?”

“Lead a horse to water, Nathaniel.” She shrugged her shoulders.

The man was tall, dark, and extremely handsome. Apart from the whole vampire thing – which kind of ruined it for her – she might well have been interested in him.

But it was what it was – the man was a bloodsucker, a leech, and once he got a taste of her Fae blood – he’d be a stalker too.

It was bad enough that he was in her life and she was at his beck and call – she wasn’t about to be his booty call as well. She had her pride and a desperate need to keep her damn sanity and messing with Nathaniel was a sure fire way to lose both.

The man was nothing if not sarcastic, narcissistic, and a butthole of epic proportions when he wanted to be. Like parading his latest bed bunny in front of her…

“Strangely, that summoned up a few images in my mind of you on your knees, and I…”

“Give me the reason that you summoned me here.” She bit back.

She didn’t want to entertain that image…

“I’ll give you two.” He offered back to her as he flicked off the shower and pushed open the screen, stepping out, and dripping water all over the floor; as he reached for a towel, but didn’t cover himself with it.

He took a slow stroll towards her and she straightened her body to its full height, pulling her magical shields tighter around her, and using the glamour spell to make sure that she projected perfection and serenity, well, as serene as she could be considering the company that she was keeping, and his lack of attire.

Definitely his lack of attire.

“Firstly,” he said as he stopped right in front of her like temptation personified for her eyes. She looked straight back at his, determined not to look down at everything that he had to offer. “I was locked inside of a cellar for the last two days…”

Morgana’s lips parted in surprise. He watched her heartbeat quicken at the pulse in her neck, and he was happily satisfied that she had nothing to do with it.

Even more satisfied that the thought affected her in some way other than to cheer…

“I guess you satisfied your thirst,” she said.

Morgana’s eyes flicked sideways for just a second towards the bedroom where the human slept, and then back to him again.

She understood.

“Jealousy, and from you. Who’d have thought it?” He offered with something of a devilish grin.

“Don’t make the mistake of taking understanding for jealousy,” she offered back…

Good. All is forgiven with the human female, sort of ... that makes life easier.

“I want you to go to Maxi and see if she knows anything…” he grimaced just a little at the thought of the seer.

The woman hated him, and with good reason – he’d killed her brother, and in his defence; the man had been a Warlock … and it had been in self-defence.

“Maxi hates you. If she had a hand in it she won’t say, and if she didn’t but knows something, she won’t say either – she’d rather see you dead than help you.”

“We’ve had this talk before…” he offered back to her and she sighed.

“I can’t get blood out of a stone, Nathaniel. She knows I …” she waved a hand towards him. “Work for you at times when I can’t avoid it.” Morgana bit back.

“You make me sound like a tyrant…” he drew back in mock horror.

“Trust me when I say that you really don’t want to know what I think of you…” Morgana bit out.

He never would either – not with the spell that she’d woven and kept locked about her body; thanks to the pendant that hung between her breasts at all times. The man had no need to delve between her cleavage and no chance to read her mind…

“You know that’s like tempting the devilish little beast within me to find out…” When he wiggled his dark eyebrows at her; she rolled her eyes in her head.

“Give it your best shot, vampire,” she hissed back; with a big emphasis on his species, and made sure that it sounded like a dirty word.

“I might just…” his crooked smile enticed her.

Even she wasn’t immune to all the ways that a vampire had of getting inside a person’s mind and screwing with it…

“Nathaniel…” she bit out in frustration at trying – and failing – to be able to drag her eyes from his face.

“It’s like being dragged into a black hole against your will, don’t you think?” His voice was teasing, playful, and she knew that he enjoyed making her squirm…

Morgana let loose a magically crafted electric shock that ripped through his flesh and made his muscles lock up hard, and every hair on his body stood to attention.

“Who needs Viagra when you have a witch handy…?” He looked away from her first, breaking his bond of her, and she let her magic pull back from his body.

She couldn’t not look down to where his eyes were appreciating the fact that her magic had made him exceptionally hard – all over.