Chapter 29
I had to tell myself to close my mouth when we pulled up to the Vlasé’s humongous mansion. Or was it a castle? God, the thing was ginormous.
Fancy coach-lights burned on the outside of the massive brick structure. The outside was perfectly landscaped with clean lines and popping color—I could even see the flowerbeds at night as they each had their own spotlights. The cobblestoned circular drive was manned by human valets who took Beckett’s BMW before we headed inside.
Just as in my vision, the inside was all white and black high-polished marble. Ostentatious gold-flecked Roman columns held up the second floor of the structure, and at the top of each column, cherubs engraved into each one watched us with their stony faces. People dressed in fancy clothes stood around drinking what was probably champagne. My and Sanja’s heels clacked on the blindingly shiny floors, but there was a lot of noise from the party, so I doubted we attracted that much attention.
I had been surprised to see Beckett in a three-piece suit. It wasn’t really him, but I guessed this shindig required something fancy. I was glad this damn dress still fit me.
Sanja looked gorgeous in a blood-red above-the-knee dress with silver heels, the whole ensemble contrasting beautifully with her olive skin.
As awed as I was with this house, and the whole idea of vampire hierarchy, I only had one thing on my mind. Okay, I had two things on my mind: First, find Elda and stab her through the heart with the metal stake I had strapped to my thigh under this dress. Second, find out if that piece-of-shit Linden was here, since I kept hearing he was pretty high up in this dumbass Vlasé organization. Well, I didn’t actually know if he was high up in this one, but from the way Beckett had spoken on the way here, there really wasn’t anything else. This company of highly organized vampires stretched worldwide, and that was just what they were called… the Vlasé. I was told each chapter held its own government. It was then that Beckett confessed that he had no idea who the president—or leader—of the Colorado Chapter was. I wanted to smack him.
An orchestra in the corner of the massive room played some kind of classical music. Not exactly dance tunes, but I refrained from rolling my eyes.
I nudged my friend. “What, exactly, are we supposed to be doing here?”
He looked around the crowded room with an equally fake smile on his flawless face, and said, “I don’t know. Dance? Eat caviar? Blend in? Network?”
Rolling my eyes, I murmured, “I’m too sober for this.”
My eyes scanned the room until I saw a server dressed in black and white walking around the room with a tray full of champagne flutes. I snatched one off the tray as he approached, and then downed the liquid in one gulp.
“You’re supposed to sip champagne, not slam it.” Beckett chuckled.
Sanja laughed as she held her flute between her dainty fingers. She sipped at her glass and said, “Yeah.”
“I’m gonna go take a walk,” I said, ignoring them both.
I hadn’t gone ten steps before I heard a familiar laugh. My skin broke out in goosebumps and I turned around to see Kellan standing in a circle of people. He held a dark-glass bottle of something in his hand and two of his strict-looking bodyguards stood nearby. He was talking to three women and two men, and they seemed to be having a great time. I might have stared a little too long at how handsome he looked in a black tuxedo, the arms of the black fabric stretched tight over his massive biceps. The white shirt under the suit jacket also seemed to be straining, its thin material showing every bump and ridge of his chest and stomach.
I swallowed hard and tried to tame the horny beast inside me.
As if on cue, he looked up to where I was, as I had climbed halfway up a ridiculously cliché spiraled staircase. I had planned on exploring up there, to see if I could locate my two targets.
Frozen in place, Kellan’s eyes met mine, and after a brief look of shock at seeing me here passed over his features, an amused smile lifted his lips as his gaze traveled from my face, all the way down to my shoes. Then he went back to the conversation with the circle he now stood in.
It was no shock he was here; after all, hadn’t the vision shown me that? I was going to try to change that vision, though.
Once I reached the top of the stairs, I pushed open the first door I came to. It seemed as though it was some sort of ballroom or something. The room was large but empty, save for a humongous built-in bookcase along the eastern wall. It even had one of those cool floor-to-ceiling ladders that slid along the cases. The floor was dark wood, polished to perfection. Guess the library doubled as a ballroom?
I closed that door and went to the next door. This was one was cracked, so I peered through the slit in the door and saw it was some kind of office. Slowly pushing the door open enough for me to slide inside, I looked around and saw a large wooden desk that smelled new, a leather sofa, a small bookcase, and an adjoining bathroom. My shoes whispered over new-looking plush, beige carpet and I longed to remove my heels so I could feel its softness under my feet. Walking over to the desk, I had to steady myself a little as the champagne I’d slammed sort of hit me.
“Whoa,” I whispered, placing my hand on the desk.
Looking at the books on the shelf, they all seem to be medical journals and textbooks. It was then I noticed shiny plaques on the credenza, all with the name Dr. John Stoker on them from varying hospitals. I briefly wondered if this doctor was also a vampire and how he avoided working during the daylight.
“What are you doing in my husband’s office?”
I turned to see Elda standing in the doorway, dressed in a long, blue, shimmering cocktail gown. She did not look angry, just curious.
I swallowed hard and smiled. “Sorry, I must be lost.”
“It’s okay,” she said in a sultry voice with a smile. She came toward me, and before I had blinked, she was in my space.
I now had my butt up against the edge of the credenza that held all the plaques and awards. I held strong and tried to show no fear as her cold arm snaked around my bare back.
“What’s your name, honey? You’re awfully pretty.” She ran a long, red nail down my cheek.
I lifted my chin. “Ayla. What’s yours?”
“Ah, Ayla. By the light of the moon. That is a beautiful name.”
I kept up the flirtatious banter, and was convinced I could change my visions; mold them to how I see fit. “Most people don’t know that my name means that.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, and I considered grabbing for my stake, but I said instead, “You never told me your name.”
With hooded eyes, she replied lazily, “It’s Elda, honey. Damn, you smell delicious.”
“I hear that a lot,” was all I could think to say. I had sprayed on my pheromone perfume so I hoped she was referring to that.
Now she was an inch from my face, staring into my eyes. “Kiss me,” she breathed.
With a shrug, I figured it would be a great way to disarm her. I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers, and all I could think about was the Katy Perry song, I Kissed A Girl, and I let her lips and tongue move around mine. I leaned down and inched my dress up in my thigh and pulled the sharpened metal shank from the strap there.
Elda’s breath picked up, and when she broke the kiss, I could see her chocolate-colored eyes had turned red, and her fangs were now out. I gasped out loud, and she smiled, gripping my chin. “Let me see if you taste as good as you smell.”
Since I had already been bitten by a vampire, and nothing really happened (well, I now smelled like one, and could fly, so I guessed something did happen), I let her sink her teeth into my neck. I could tell she was very old, as it barely stung, so she did it gently.
Before she could drain me, I groaned out a deep breath disguised as lust—and honestly, what she was doing was starting to feel real good. But I lifted the metal stake, pulled her flush against me, and then reached around with both hands to drive the stake into her back.
“What the fuck!” she screeched after removing her fangs from my neck.
I looked over to see Kellan walk into the study, right as Elda screamed and reached around to try to grasp the stake in her back. Slowly, she gave up the fight, and as the light died in her eyes, she began to crumble. I didn’t get to watch the rest as I was thrown onto the floor of the office, my head slamming on the hard wood of the desk leg.
“Ow!” I hissed.
Kellan was on top of me. “What in the fuck did you do that for?” he bellowed, pointing to Elda’s remains.
“She bit me!” I said.
“Nobody dislikes Elda’s bite. There is no way you killed her because of that,” he replied in his infuriatingly sexy accent.
“Get off me!” I yelled.
He jumped up, and with unnatural speed went to the door of the office and locked it.
I was up off the floor quickly and I swallowed hard as I realized he was locking us in. I made a beeline for the adjoining bathroom, but he blocked my way. Then I ran to Elda’s remains to retrieve my stake, but he was faster, reaching down and tossing it toward the restroom.
I lifted my chin, continuing to try to look brave, even though I was scared shitless and trembling at this point. I knew Kellan was old and could probably kill me in a split second. So I said, “How do you know her bite feels good? She do it to you often?”
The bastard had the nerve to laugh at my question. “No, little wolf, I don’t make it a habit to go shagging my boss’s wives, girlfriends, or otherwise.”
My eyes widened. “Something tells me she wasn’t a very good wife to the good doctor.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, she definitely likes women, so…”
He took his tux jacket off and removed the cufflinks from his wrists. He then unbuttoned the sleeves and rolled them to the elbow. He looked like he was preparing for a fight.
Oh crap…
“Some people do prefer both sexes. I would think a little millennial like yourself would know that.”
“You’re a dick. Let me out of here.”
“Uh, no. You just murdered my boss’s wife.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and lied, “It was self-defense.”
He looked down at her ashes, then back to me. “I didn’t particularly care for the woman myself, but you can’t go about killing people whenever you damn well please.”
“Okay. I promise not to do it again. Can I go now?”
“Not until you tell me why you killed her. The real reason.”
“No.”
He rushed over to me and slammed me onto the office’s sofa and pinned me there. I gasped at how quickly he’d done it. He murmured close to my ear, “I have been hearing whisperings that you are a hunter. Please tell me that it’s not true. You use that witch friend of yours to help you with your dirty work, do you?”
I couldn’t breathe at his close proximity. Because my legs had had nowhere else to go but spread apart, he used his hand to run it up the inside of my bare thigh as it was wrapped around his waist. I tried and failed to suppress the shiver that racked my entire body from his touch.
He then leaned down to whisper in my ear, and as he did, I could feel his hard arousal against the inside of my other thigh. “Maybe I should rip these panties from you and render you pliable and compliant, then after I make you come a few times, you’ll tell me why you murdered Elda.”
Before I could protest, he slammed his lips down on mine and molded them to my own. When his tongue licked the seam of my lips, I opened up for him and our tongues began to mingle. He tasted amazing and I soon realized I had never been this turned on, ever. He reached under my dress and yanked the thin lace panties from me and then wadded them up, shoving them in his pocket. Pushing my dress up higher, I felt his fingers graze up my inner thigh and then I gasped when he shoved two fingers inside of me. He used the pad of his thumb to press and circle on my most sensitive spot. I began to buck my hips as a blindingly fast orgasm ripped through me, and I screamed into his smiling mouth. He then leaned down and bit into my neck, and once he began to suck, I came again, or maybe I was still coming? All I knew was that it was so intense, I almost couldn’t handle it.
Slowly removing his fangs from my neck, he used his naughty fingers to wipe blood from his lip, and then he put both wet fingers into my mouth. “Taste yourself.”
Reaching down, he unbuttoned his pants. “Now I’m going to fuck you until you can’t move, little wolf.”
“Ayla!”
“Aylaaa!”
Voices echoed from the hallway outside the door and I recognized them to be Sanja’s and Beckett’s.
“Shit!” I said, sitting up. “What the hell are we doing?” I muttered the last part mostly to myself.
Kellan looked at me, amused. “We’re having fun, don’t you agree? The door is locked. Lie back and let me pleasure you some more.”
Damn, that sounded awesome, but I realized, for the second time since he’d made me weak and stupid, that I did still have a boyfriend. One I hadn’t spoken to in over a week because I was still mad at him. One I needed to make a serious decision about.
My friends continued to call my name and I ran into the bathroom to clean up. Then, quickly rummaging through the drawers, I found a large, almost empty pill bottle. I dumped the pills onto the counter and ran out and shoved as many of Elda’s ashes into it as I could.
Kellan had re-dressed and now had his hands in his pocket, and I could see he was still very much bulging and straining behind his zipper.
“What in bloody hell are you doing? Don’t touch those! Dr. Stoker needs to bury them.”
I stopped what I was doing. “Uh, I was just cleaning up for you. I feel bad for killing her now.”
No, no I didn’t, but if I didn’t bring Dean her ashes, I had just killed her for nothing.
“No, you don’t,” he said, mimicking my thoughts.
I paused and looked up at him. “Tell you what, let me bury them for you. Just tell me where.”
He shook his head. “You’re a terrible liar. You killed her for money and now have to deliver her ashes.”
I let myself fall onto the floor on my butt and sighed. “Okay you got me.”
“To whom and for how much?”
I shook my head and looked down. “I don’t think so.”
He crouched to my level and used his fingers to tilt my face to his. “No, I’m genuinely curious. Who wanted Elda dead?”
“Does it matter? I killed her, so you’ll have to punish me, I guess.” I was stalling, trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get out of there.
He laughed and stood, helping me to stand. “I’m going to give you a sixty-second head start. Take what you have, gather your friends, and get the hell out of here.”
Breathing in relief, I plunked the lid on the pill bottle and said, “And what are you going to do?”
He looked down at the rest of the ashes, then back to me. “Lie my arse off.”
I kissed him on the cheek and, shoving the pill bottle into my bra, I opened the door and saw my friends at the end of the hallway.
“There you are,” Sanja said, looking relieved.
“We need to leave now,” I whisper-yelled.
“But—” Beckett started.
“Now!” I hissed, looking around.
“Where were you—“ Sanja began.
“Later. I’ll tell you both everything later,” I promised.
We descended the stairs and walked as calmly and coolly as we could out the front door. Once we were outside, I glanced behind me, knowing my sixty seconds were over, and as the valet brought us Beckett’s BMW, I heard a man’s voice howling in grief from upstairs.