Eternal Kiss of Darkness

Kira froze in midstride to the bathroom as a question that had been buried under an avalanche of shock finally surfaced in her mind.

If Mencheres could stop those ghouls so easily, why hadn't he done it before she arrived?

Mencheres felt Gorgon approach before his image appeared through the haze of water above him. He gave a mental sigh as he rose from his comfortable position at the bottom of the swimming pool. Being underwater was one of the few times he could enjoy relative quiet. The layers of water muted the sounds from the mortals in his house, and being enclosed in it had become a sort of meditation.

"Sire," Gorgon said, once Mencheres had surfaced. "Your human is requesting to speak with you."

Mencheres's gaze flicked behind Gorgon to Kira, whose expression said she didn't care for the term "your human." Once again, Mencheres probed at Kira's mind, and once again, he came up against a thick wall. The barest hint of confusion threaded through her scent, but the bewildering, impressive barriers that prevented him from hearing Kira's thoughts as easily as he heard her heartbeat were still there.

"Bring her forward," Mencheres said, balancing his arms against the side of the pool.

"Tinted glass," were Kira's first words as Gorgon beckoned her forward. "I thought you said vampires had no aversion to sunlight?"

Mencheres glanced around the enclosed pool area with a slight shrug. "Sunlight does not harm us as legends claim, but prolonged exposure does sap our strength, and we tend to sunburn easily."

Why am I explaining that to her? he wondered in the next moment. Every word he uttered to Kira would only be erased from her recall later. It was as senseless as speaking to the wind.

She sat a few feet from the pool's edge, folding her legs underneath her as if she were at a picnic. "Why not have real walls around your pool? Concrete blocks a lot more sunlight than opaque glass."

Mencheres gave a small, grim smile. "Because sometimes I enjoy things regardless if they are beneficial to me or not."

Speaking to Kira was another of those unbeneficial things he seemed to enjoy, because here he was, still answering her questions despite there being no sense in it.

Kira tilted her head, the muted sunlight highlighting the gold in her hair. She had on denim pants and a collared blouse that was a fraction too tight. Mencheres made a mental note to arrange for new clothes for Kira during her stay. She was wearing some of Selene's now, but Selene's br**sts weren't as generous as Kira's.

Mencheres's gaze lingered on her chest until Kira crossed her arms over it with obvious annoyance. She gave him a pointed look as his gaze traveled upward to meet hers. He glanced away, almost chuckling at this unexpected absurdity from him. How many centuries had it been since he'd been caught ogling a woman's br**sts? A woman's clothed br**sts, no less. His co-ruler, Bones, would fracture a rib laughing if he knew.

"Some things must never change," Kira muttered under her breath.

Mencheres found himself smiling. "It appears they do not."

Kira brushed a hand through her hair, giving him another feminine, censuring look before her expression became serious.

"Why didn't you stop those ghouls yesterday before I showed up? You - "

"Quiet," Mencheres said instantly. Gorgon had walked away out of eyesight, but he could still hear her.

"I've thought it over, but it makes no sense," Kira went on, completely ignoring his order to be quiet. For a stunned second, Mencheres didn't know how to react. It had to be centuries at least since a human had dared to ignore his commands. "You didn't even need to touch them to - whoa!"

He'd vaulted out of the pool to physically stop Kira from uttering more damning sentences by putting his finger to her mouth. Water dripped onto her clothes, and her pale green eyes widened as he loomed over her.

"Never speak about that again," Mencheres said, his voice soft but steely. He couldn't mesmerize her into silence, but if need be, he would gag Kira so Gorgon didn't find out about Mencheres's thwarted plan with the ghouls yesterday.

Her heartbeat had accelerated the moment he leapt from the water, and it stayed elevated when she looked away from his face at the rest of his body. Then she gasped.

Her warm breath vibrated against the finger he still held to her lips. Kira gasped again as her gaze dragged from his shoulders to his feet, then became fixated at the point between his legs. Abruptly, Mencheres's dark mood over her nearly spilling his secret changed to amusement when Kira didn't seem to be able to tear her eyes away.

When the vampire burst from the water to crouch over her, Kira's first thought had been, Uh-oh. She hadn't even seen him move before he was upon her, black eyes blazing with warning, water dripping down onto her. That single finger to her lips felt like a mini hammer, and Kira reminded herself that on the food chain, he was a predator, and she was prey. He really doesn't like this topic, so I'll shut up now, had been her very logical decision.

Then she'd looked down - and forgotten what she'd started to ask him about. Beads of water caressed down the hardest, tightest body she's ever seen. Mencheres's chest, arms, and stomach were corded with an intricate pattern of muscles that seemed too flawless to be real. His lightly tinted skin only emphasized how black his hair was, dripping in dark rivers past his shoulders. At some point since yesterday, he'd cut the uneven pieces so it was all the same length now. Her gaze swept lower, revealing that his legs were as deliciously sculpted as the rest of him. Nothing interrupted her view of his taut, rippled flesh, either, because Mencheres had been swimming naked. Kira was surprised to see that he was hairless everywhere, even between his thighs . . .

Kira's eyes fastened there, widening. Oh. My. If the vampire hadn't still had a finger to her lips, she would have licked them in reflex.

"Some things must never change," a deep voice noted, as his finger left her lips to raise her chin.

Kira reluctantly tore her gaze away to meet Mencheres's dark eyes. They were devoid of his former anger, and the corners of his mouth twitched. Her distracted mind finally translated that he'd repeated her earlier chastising remark, and she laughed.

"Guilty," she admitted, resisting the urge to drop her gaze again. No wonder the vampire didn't wear swim shorts.

He smiled as he sat back. "One could argue that I had it coming."

He reached behind him, pulling a white towel off a nearby chair and settling it around his hips with a casual unhurriedness that said the action was more for manners than modesty. Kira gave her head a slight shake. At least now with him covered below the waist, she should be able to keep her train of thought.