“There are vampires who have the gift of genekinesis and similar abilities which allow them to manipulate a person or animal’s DNA. In fact, my Sire’s life-partner – who you will meet at the informal gathering tomorrow evening – has such a gift. But these gifts would not work on vampires. It is a shame that the female Sventé in the cell was not able to tell us more.”
I thought about mentioning Luther’s earlier vision, but there was a good chance that Jared would kill him for not having warned him. Instead, I waited until Jared was in deep conversation with Antonio before approaching Gandalf’s doppelganger. He had remained uncharacteristically mute and made himself busy in the far corner of the room. “What’s going to happen to me, Luther? The vampires tried to change me in some way. What did they do?”
His expression was sad, apologetic, and anxious. “Do you know what one of the hardest things is about having my gift, Sam? That sometimes I can see a very trying time ahead, but I also know that to do something would be to affect the future.”
“There you go again with those sodding riddles. Is it something bad? At least tell me that much.”
“That depends on what way you look at it.”
“Oh for the love of God, Luther, throw me a bone here.”
He placed a hand on my shoulder. “All I can tell you without possibly meddling with the future is that you have a difficult time ahead of you, Sam. I know you do not like to rely on others, but you must accept what support Jared tries to give you. You’re going to need it.” And then the confusing bugger walked off.
CHAPTER THREE
(Sam)
Panting and shaking with the aftershocks of my orgasm, I griped, “Now will you untie me?”
“No,” mumbled Jared, who was using my breast as a pillow.
“You can’t leave me to sleep like this all day.”
“You’re so wrong about that.”
“We’ve had sex five times. You were supposed to have stopped brooding by now.” Although Jared had long ago stopped snapping at me and pacing like a caged tiger, he hadn’t quite calmed down. I could sense that he was trying to block what had happened from his mind in the hope of calming, but even five bouts of sex hadn’t been able to mellow him. “Untie me.”
“Could you shush? I’m trying to sleep here.”
“Jared.”
“Hey, I told you that if you got hurt I’d strap you to the bed. You knew I wasn’t kidding.”
Trying a different approach, I softened my voice and injected a little sensuality into it. “But if you leave me all tied up like this, I can’t wake you up in style at dusk.”
A snort. “I’m offended that you think I’d fall for that.”
“Well if you really insist on being a plonker…” Sucking the surrounding energy into my palm, I formed my whip and cracked it at him.
He flinched and rubbed the healing gash on his lower back. “Now that was just plain mean.”
“It’ll be your ears next.”
Grunting, he untied one wrist, leaving me to free my other wrist and then my ankles. The second I relaxed back into the bed, he rested his head on my chest again. Then he flung an arm over me, cupping my hip possessively.
Although I very much wanted to disappear to dreamland where I wouldn’t have to worry about anything, there was something nibbling at me. “I need to ask you something.”
“Hmmm?”
“Are you having doubts about the Binding?”
He lifted his head, frowning. “Baby, why in God’s name would you think—” As realisation dawned on him, he sighed. “I would never, ever have suggested postponing it if it hadn’t been for what happened tonight. I’m on edge right now, and I don’t like the idea of outsiders being around you.”
“Binding is a big thing,” I reminded him. “It’s a lifelong commitment, and considering we’re never going to die, you don’t get one more serious than that. I never would have envisioned you being prepared to make that kind of commitment to anyone.”
“In all honesty, neither had I, baby. But you’re it for me. I don’t think you get what it would do to me if you walked away. I’ll always remember something you once told me. You said that sometimes people only love each other for a little while and then it’s over. That plays on my mind all the time; I worry you might suddenly stop and decide to leave. Not that I’d let you leave me, but you get my point.”
I had to smile a little at that. “I’m not going to leave.”
“That’s good. I’d rather not have to keep you here against your will.”
“All that aside, I’d understand if you didn’t feel like celebrating when your mum’s just died.” And down went the shutters. “You have to stop doing that.”
He lowered his head to my breast again, nipping it lightly. “Sleep, baby.”
“Talk, Jared.”
A sigh. “Maybe tomorrow night. Now sleep. We only have one last evening to ourselves before all the guests arrive. After that, we’ve got a big week ahead with the Binding.”
If Luther’s vision was right, we had much more than a big week ahead of us. A part of me wanted to warn Jared, to talk to him about it. But doing that would risk Luther’s life, and talking in riddles wasn’t a reason to die. So I’d have to do as Antonio said…watch and wait.
(Jared)
“So you have an assignment for us.” Ordinarily, I’d be pleased. But this time, I didn’t have even an ounce of enthusiasm. After what had happened in the bungalow, the only thing I wanted was to lock Sam in a room where no one could reach her. Seeing her in pain had knocked me into a hyper vigilant state that I couldn’t snap out of, no matter how hard I tried. But the oh-so-stubborn female was insisting on going.
“Yes,” replied Antonio. “Luther had a vision. Unfortunately, it wasn’t entirely clear.”
Like that was anything new.
Luther spoke to Sam. “As I once told you, my visions do not always make much sense. Sometimes, it is the feel of the vision that I am left to rely on. What I do know is that this is something that hasn’t happened yet, but will happen very soon – in just a few hours’ time, in fact.
“In my vision, there was a park. It was the evening. There were two women; one was a vampire, one was a human. A pregnant human. I could feel that the vampire had every intention of murdering the human, who she had bound to a tree. The vampire’s rage and pain hit me hard.”
That wasn’t good. “Not to be disrespectful,” I said to Antonio, “but surely you could select another squad to deal with this.”
Antonio’s expression was apologetic. “Believe me when I say that I would have assigned this to another squad had it not been for one thing − you and Sam were in the vision. To remove you both from the equation might have a very negative impact on what happens.”
Fuck. Well now there was definitely no getting out of it. “Do you have any idea who the women are?”
Luther shook his head. “No. But when I have a vision about unfamiliar people, it means that one, or all, of the people in the vision will become important to The Hollow somehow.”
“And you think the human will be important?”
Luther sighed. “I do not know.”
I scrubbed my nape, agitated. “What is it you want us to do exactly? Obviously we can’t allow the vampire to kill the woman, but then what? Do you want us to bring one, or both, here?”
“I trust that you will know what train of action is appropriate once you decipher the situation,” said Antonio.