Omara stared up from where she lay between his bed-sheets, mischief in her honey-colored eyes. She propped her head up, supporting herself on one elbow. "You know, you're a grouch first thing. Very entertaining."
Alessandro rubbed his face, wishing he could think faster. He conceded the point about his mood. A tangle of dark thoughts dragged at him, and his back hurt from sleeping on the couch. Immortality didn't preclude the need for a decent mattress. "I'll call her back."
"First I need to go back to the hotel." Omara sat up, the teasing over. "It's time to convene a council of the local leaders—the packs, the fey courts, the crows, whoever can be counted on to stand with us. Moving against the demon now may expose my vulnerabilities, but we cannot wait any longer to form a plan of action."
"Are you sure?"
"I cannot put my safety before the safety of an entire city. Even I am not that selfish."
The words were bold, but she looked small and vulnerable alone in his king-sized bed. She was drowning in one of his T-shirts, her slight figure lost beneath folds of gray cotton. Last night she had come to Alessandro for safety, slept under his roof—a vampire had no choice but to sleep in the daytime—but she had slept alone.
They had not felt the pull of the Desire. As he stood there looking at Omara now, he admired her courage, but the urge to touch her remained utterly dead. She saved me from a life of complete loneliness. She gave me a place in society when I lost my clan. She made me her champion. I owe it to her to fight at her side.
But sex—he wasn't so naive to believe it ever had been love—wasn't part of the bargain anymore. The queen held his fealty, but he loved Holly. The centuries-old on and off Desire between the queen and her champion was finished. Alessandro felt a door shutting on a part of his long life. He felt no real sense of regret, just an urge to move forward.
Which meant resolving a host of problems. The first was to get a half-naked vampire queen out of his bed. "Is it safe to go back to the hotel?"
"I don't know, but I need fresh clothes. I wasn't thinking about my wardrobe when I left."
Last night she had caught a cab to Alessandro's house, made herself at home, and waited for him to return from Sinsation. She had a key and the alarm codes to the house of every important member of her court. By vampire law they had to offer her sanctuary from the debilitating sun.
Omara went on. "The only thing I did was phone my security team to say I would not be back last night."
"Do they know where you are?"
"No. I don't trust them. Rather, I don't trust them to be stronger than Geneva." Omara's eyes grew dark. "She was waiting in the lobby, idling by the hotel doors. How did she know where I was?"
"The news of your arrival in town is hardly a secret. If I'm right, Geneva has been walking the streets for at least two days. Finding your location would have been simple."
"To what end? To challenge me now that I'm at a disadvantage? Does she know I no longer have The Book of Lies?" Omara pulled the covers closer, as if she meant to burrow under them. "She must. Whoever called her may well have used the spells on its pages."
"You are sure she didn't see you?"
The question seemed to steady Omara. "The moment I spotted her I went back into the elevator and left through the underground parking garage. I don't think she saw me."
Alessandro sat on the edge of the bed. "All right. Geneva is your enemy. You defeated her in a battle in Fairview in the 1880s. I wasn't there. Before we confront her, what else do I need to know about what happened?"
Omara hugged her knees, her cinnamon skin dark against the white sheets. "Our conflict was an old one. It began as a battle for hunting territory, but it escalated into a feud. Geneva loves destruction, the waste and evil of it. I finally trapped her here, at the edge of the ocean. She had run out of places to hide, but she made the town pay for her defeat in blood and fire."
"But you won. The victory assured your status as queen."
Omara nodded. "I stole The Book of Lies from Geneva and used it to shut her in the Castle. I believe that, more than anything, is the reason she would have her revenge. She wants to punish me in the same town where I wronged her. You know demons. They adore symbolism. She'll re-create the battle, but she'll win it this time."
They were back on well-trodden ground. "Which is why you want Holly's help, even if it might kill her."
Omara held his gaze for a long moment, and finally nodded. "I've been trying to think of another solution, but I can't. You see, she closed down the Flanders house, and from your description I'm sure that was a partial portal. Your Holly has the same natural abilities as her ancestor, even if she's not got full use of her powers."
My Holly. "But you don't have the book anymore."
"Someone is opening portals. I think we'll find the book right here in town and in the hands of your summoner."
"You overlook an important angle." Alessandro pointed to the phone. "I don't know if Holly's going to be willing to help now that she thinks you were in my bed."
"But I was." Omara shrugged. "Which is significant only if she expects exclusive rights to your affections. Have you finally had a taste of her?"
"No."
"Is that so?" She ran a finger down his chin. "You smelled of her last night."
"We were together."
Omara snatched her hand away and sat up straighten Alessandro sensed the first breath of a storm. "Together in the fleshly sense?"
He was too tired to lie. "Yes."
"Have you had her before?"
"No."
Her brows drew together. "You slept with her but you did not bite her?"
"Yes."
"That's impossible!"
Alessandro said nothing. It was impossible, and yet it had happened.
She leaned forward, the outline of her breasts briefly visible beneath the borrowed T-shirt. "Have you had anyone to eat since?"
"No."
Omara seemed to collapse, turning her face away. She ran a hand through her long dark hair and muttered something in a language he did not know.
"What of it?" he asked.
She pulled a pillow into her lap, hugging it. "Even I thought it was nothing but a legend."
"What?"
She lifted her head. The fine muscles around her eyes were tight with hurt and anger. "She's Chosen you!"
"What?" He stood up, taking a step back from the bed. "No, she didn't!"
"That's the only way that could have happened!"
Alessandro felt the thump of his heart. A long moment of surprise left him almost disembodied with shock. "Not possible."
"How else could you have a woman without taking her blood?"
"No."
A ruddy flush of emotion blotched her cheeks. "We're not wired any other way."
He felt as if he were standing beside his own body, looking on. "Give me some credit for self-control."
"Idiot!" She slammed the pillow aside. "See what is in front of you!"
"Fables are for fledglings." Alessandro slumped against the wall, his studied ease hiding the tremors racing through him. But what if it was possible? Something that could happen in the future? What then?
"Humans thought vampires were myths. That didn't make us vanish."
"I have lived for six centuries. I would know if I were released from this course."
Eyes narrowing, Omara raised her chin and sniffed the air. "Well, you smell the same, I'll give you that. You don't feel any different? Maybe it just takes time to take effect."
"No. And I nearly took her blood afterward. I was ravenous. The fact that I did not was an aberration. An act of willpower. Nothing more."