Alasdair backed away from his cousin and the Ancients, and as his back hit the door, Vasilios said to Eton, “Don’t let him move. This is going to fucking hurt.”
THE SMELL OF burning flesh, where the silver was seeping through her skin and poisoning her forearms, was starting to make Isadora’s stomach turn. Her head felt fuzzy, her limbs weak, and as her vision blurred, she said, “Tell me who sent you. How did you know what would stop us?”
The man she’d once thought would be her perfect equal came over to stand behind her. He leaned down and when his warm breath breezed over the back of her hair, she shut her eyes and remembered another time they’d been alone together in an office of his.
Ten years earlier
“DON'T TEASE ME, Elias.”
The sexy man in front of her slowly got to his knees. Then he raised his head and gave her a grin that could rival the most immoral sinner—and she should know, having been sired by one.
“Don’t tell me you aren’t enjoying yourself, Isadora. Your sweet pussy tells me otherwise.”
The door to his office was locked, and she had her back against it and a leg over one of his wide shoulders. Her black skirt was scrunched up to her waist, and when he’d gotten on his knees and pulled her lace panties to the side, a delicious throb had pulsed between her legs.
His tie was shoved over his other shoulder, and with his black hair mussed from her hands, he looked sexy as fuck.
“It’s talking to you?”
One of his fingers traced a teasing line between her soaked lips and then dipped inside before he pulled it out and sucked on the tip. “Oh, it’s saying something, all right.”
A seductive laugh slipped free of her lips. “And what’s that, Mr. Fontana?”
He grinned, the expression so fucking filthy she wanted to push him on the ground, rip his pants off, and sink her teeth into his neck. Then she wanted to ride the thick cock she’d swallowed only last night until she reached the orgasm he was withholding from her.
“It’s saying,” he whispered, angling his head until she couldn’t see his eyes and could only hear him say against her pulsing cunt, “eat me.”
“YOU AND I are made much the same, Isadora.”
His voice in her ear pulled her from her memories, and she twisted her head until they were practically nose to nose. His eyes, that same unnatural silver they’d been when he’d realized what she was, still shone at her, and it reminded her that this was not the same man she’d once known.
“We are nothing alike.”
“Ahh, but that’s where you’re wrong.”
She pulled her face back from his. “Are you saying that you too are…vampire?”
The smirk on his face made her want to rip it off, even if it meant taking his head with it.
“No, but I’m happy to hear you finally admitting to it.”
She swallowed. Fuck him for having all the control. And fuck him for smelling so delicious. “Then what are you?”
“Today, I am your master.”
LEO SPRINTED DOWN the hall to the room he’d stepped out of minutes ago. He shoved at the door and thanked God that it opened. Then he slammed it shut and leaned back against it. His breathing came in rapid bursts as he tried to banish the image of blood and gore from his mind.
Jesus. How the fuck can I ever banish that? And how the hell am I ever going to get out of here?
Not only had the three with the black eyes looked like they wanted to murder him, but Alasdair’s voice when he’d told him to run had been full of…anxiety. Which was worrisome. Alasdair wasn’t one to worry. He was usually confident and ready to tell him that he wanted to kill him.
So, if he felt his life was in danger, the threat must’ve been real.
He let his eyes scan around the room again, searching for something he could push or drag over by the door to keep them out—but then he thought better of it.
They can fucking appear in a room. Like a bookcase is going to keep them out. He shook his head and decided to hide on the far side of the bed instead.
It was a useless attempt to avoid his inevitable death, he was sure. They would no doubt smell where he was the second they were in the room, or maybe even from outside, but he had to try. He huddled down and thought back to the erratic dreams he’d woken from.
What had they all meant? And if someone out there in the cosmos really thought he could stop the beings down the hall, they were fucking insane.
“Leonidas?”
Alasdair.
Leo didn’t move a muscle as he sat with his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them.
“I know you are in here, file mou. I can hear your heart like the first night we met. Remember?”
Leo remembered, all right. He was starting to wonder if he’d ever be able to forget. The way Alasdair had chased him through the bathhouse and pinned him against the column would be forever engrained in his mind. As was the way his body seemed to respond whenever the vampire was near.
That night, Alasdair had told him that his heartbeat was like a beautiful melody as it beat: Thump, Thump—
“Thump.”
The word was said so close to his ear that Leo’s head snapped up, and he saw Alasdair standing directly beside him.
He looked awful. Leo took in the blood all over the chest and the arms of his shirt, and tendrils of fear twined around his nerves. He wondered what was about to happen as he stared up at Alasdair, but he didn’t have the courage to ask. They hadn’t exactly parted on great terms, and after what he’d seen in those visions, he wasn’t sure what to expect next.
Sure, before he’d passed out in his kitchen, they’d been about to, as far as he was aware, make out. But before that, Alasdair had been accusing him of being someone he wasn’t.
Fuck, maybe he was right.
“I am right. The question is: Who and what are you?”
The clipped and calm way he’d said that had Leo thinking his time was limited, and before he thought better of it, he scrambled up to his knees. Maybe begging would help, and fuck it, after what he’d seen and heard, he wasn’t too proud, knowing death was likely coming for him next.
“I don’t know. I swear. I have no clue what’s happening to me. Or…or how I see the things I see.”
Alasdair crouched so they were on the same level. “You know, I almost believe you.”
“Because it’s the truth,” Leo rushed out, and then he did something he never would’ve dared to days earlier. He grabbed hold of Alasdair’s shirt, not caring that it was covered in blood. “Earlier, when we…when I passed out, I had no control over that. I don’t even know how it happened. Usually, it’s quick, like a flash of a vision. But this time, I saw days. Different times, different moments. Why would I tell you that if I was trying to hide something?”
When Alasdair said nothing, Leo continued.
“I saw you in Greece. I saw your fiancée, for Christ’s sake. Then I saw you with Vasilios, when you vowed to be his.” Leo paused and twisted his hands in the material, pleading with Alasdair to hear the truth in his words. “I also saw you with the Duke of Essex.”