Transfusion (Transfusion Saga #1)

Chapter 8

Hot and Cold

“Alone at last.”

The second his words were uttered I seemed frozen to the spot.

I watched in the reflection of the glass as he stepped closer towards me from behind and where he had remained hidden in the shadows.

I felt him getting closer until surely any second he would stop.

But stop he didn’t, not until his chest must have been a mere inch from my back.

He brought his arm around me from behind and I sucked in a sharp breath and held it captive as he placed his gloved left hand flat on the glass in front of us, so that it was situated next to mine.

Then I felt him lean down, getting closer to my neck, causing my questioning panic to double.

What was he doing? He had never voluntarily put himself this close to me before.

What did it mean?

Well, I was soon to find out.

He was currently looking down the front of me from behind, and I could see, thanks to his reflection in the glass, that he was grinning.

Then I felt the fingers from his free hand come to rest at my neck, his touch as gentle as a bird’s feather.

He skimmed the delicate skin there, travelling its length and brushing back the few loose hairs that had come free from Ben’s creation of gathered hair on the other side.

Then once he was done teasing my overheated skin, one that felt closer and closer to being burned by his touch, he whispered directly over my ear,

“I suggest you breathe for me, Princess, before I let you fall.”

The second he uttered these condescending words I released my held breath and took in another one quickly after it.

Then, at the same time, I ducked out of his hold.

I needed the space as he was once again getting inside my head and playing games with me.

“I told you not to call me that!”

I snapped in defiance, only it was backed up with nothing more than the steps between us and me unable to look him in the eye.

“But that is exactly what you are,”

he replied in a contemptuous way that had me clenching my teeth.

“No, not anymore I’m not,”

I said with determination coating my words, but the bastard just laughed at me.

“Then you are as foolish as you were that day,”

he replied, making me visibly jerk back, aghast in sheer disbelief, something he didn’t miss.

He looked ready to add something more when I held up my hand stopping him with a single worded warning,

“Don’t.”

The tone in which I said this must have made him realise that even for him he had gone too far, so instead he released a heavy weighted sigh, as if this was all very taxing for a being such as he.

As if he was thinking about the unfortunate task that had brought him here and the annoyance that once again forced him to deal with me.

The spoilt little princess he had declared I was and nothing more than a minor aggravation in his world.

“If you believe it that easy to walk away from the world in which you were born into, then your intelligence is back to being in question and thus shadowing your little endearing show of intellect,”

he said, motioning with his arm down the gallery where I had started my tour.

I swear for once I heard myself growl in response and it felt good but not half as good as when I shouted at him,

“Why you…you…”

I stuttered to find the right words and in the end it was the second his smug eyebrow went up in question that I finally finished my sentence,

“…Nasty bastard!”

I had my fists clenched at my sides as if any minute now I would let rip and punch him! He looked down a moment to take note of my anger before stepping up to me so quickly I had nowhere else to go but being backed up against the glass of the Rosetta stone.

Then he looked down at me with burning eyes the colour of hot molten lava before telling me with what sounded like an odd mixture of pure venom and lust,

“Nasty? Oh Sweetheart, you have no fucking idea.”

After this I let my impulses kick in and before I could stop them I found my hand rising just before I pulled it back.

Then I let it swing into action, that being in the direction of his face, to deliver my slap.

But it never made it that far.

As the second before it made contact with his cheek, it ended up making contact with something else instead.

He grabbed hold of my wrist, capturing it in his tight and unyielding grasp before using his hold on me to yank me forward.

I fell a step into him and he in turn bent lower, getting in my face and coming just a hairsbreadth away from my lips before he spoke,

“Try that again and see where it gets you, my little ?em?ā,”

he threatened, calling me something I had never heard before.

It certainly wasn’t from any language I knew and thanks to my dad I knew quite a few.

I swallowed hard, losing some of my bravery in sight of this locked battle we currently had going on.

And it wasn’t exactly hard to see who was winning, not considering Lucius was definitely the more intimidating of the two.

But still, my stubbornness wouldn’t let me fail just yet, so I pushed.

“And where will it get me, Lucius?”

I challenged tipping my chin up and showing him a slice of who I could be.

His eyes seemed to burn just that little bit brighter and the hopeful side of me could have sworn it was the tiniest show of respect for how I stood up to him.

That was until he told me exactly where it would get me, leaving me utterly dumbfounded.

“Bare, bound and across my knee ready for my palm if this childish behavior continues and you dare push me again,”

he warned making my mouth hang open in shock, so much so that I couldn’t even think of a single comeback or response to that.

I was too flabbergasted to even fully comprehend his words right now.

Thankfully, he must have thought it wise to give me space as I swear I wasn’t far from kicking him in the nuts and making a run for it.

“Now, I think it best to get this fucking night over with and you show me this box your father gave you before I do something I regret,”

he stated whilst casually pulling down on one of his cuffs through his suit jacket and twisting the cufflink that I now noticed was a small demonic symbol of some kind.

However, short of grabbing his hand and bringing it closer to my face, then I doubted I would ever know.

I quickly replayed his harsh words, wondering what in the world would a man like Lucius ever regret when it came to me? Did he mean he would regret hurting me physically, for he certainly didn’t give a shit enough about my feelings for fear of hurting them.

The proof of that was crystal clear considering he had already done that…ten times over in fact.

So, unless he did mean to hurt me physically, which even that I doubted.

Because even though he had just threatened to bend me over his knee like a naughty brat and spank me, deep down I knew he wouldn’t dare touch me.

No, he cared too much about my parents to do something like that.

Which, let’s face it, was the real reason he was here…because my father had asked him to.

I was so stupid I wanted to look myself in the nearest mirror and call myself a fool before slapping myself silly!

“Amelia.”

The sound of him saying my name yanked me out of my mental scolding as it was a sound I rarely heard.

No, it was usually princess or some other childish and patronizing name he used when referring to me.

Which was why the second he said it, I wanted to take hold of the memory and keep it safe, reserving it for my dreams, wherein this meeting would have gone quite differently.

But never the less, him saying it was enough to jar me in to action.

“I don’t have it here,”

I uttered in annoyance, knowing that because of my decision to take it home I now had unknowingly extended this painful experience.

“Excuse me?”

Lucius said in a disbelieving tone because even though I had merely whispered it, I knew that his supernatural hearing wouldn’t have missed it.

“I said I don’t have it here,”

I repeated louder this time making him look at me sternly.

“Then where is it?”

“I took it home with me,”

I told him, unable to ignore the roll of his eyes as if he were dealing with a simpleton.

“Why in the Devil would you have done that?”

he asked almost growling the question at me and making me fold my arms across my chest in response.

“And why not? I wanted to make sure it was safe!”

I snapped back making him look around the large space and as if to prove his point he said,

“And what, you believed your little flat in Twickenham to be a safer place than the Fort Knox you work in?”

he asked with a sarcastic tone making me feel foolish.

But then I thought about what he’d just said and couldn’t help myself.

“How do you know where I live?”

I questioned, catching him off guard.

I could tell this by the way he frowned at me and paused a second as if deciding how best to answer that.

When in the end he said,

“Your father told me… now why is it in your flat and not here?”

he asked again making me groan before throwing my hands up in frustration.

“No one even knows about it, Lucius, so I don’t see what your problem is?”

I said as part of my argument which from the look at his face, I would say wasn’t a good one.

“And what if someone did know about it and furthermore, wanted to get it… tell me, Princess, just how well do you think you would fare when they turned up at your door and you were without the museum’s security to call, or do you think they would simply wait for daddy to show up and save the fucking day?!”

he snapped back suddenly in outrage, making me flinch back in sight of his rage.

I didn’t know where it had come from and why he even cared so much, but the only thing I could put it down to was his worry over this box.

Which meant only one thing, he must have known about it longer than he was letting on.

“You know what, screw you, Lucius! I don’t need this shit!”

I barked at him before storming off to retrieve my purse from where I had left it at the start of the tour.

I didn’t think it would matter too much as it wasn’t like there were many people wandering around in here as no one had set foot inside.

However, I didn’t get far as a few seconds after a frustrated sound came from Lucius, I was suddenly gripped from behind and whipped back around to face him.

I was about to protest as I was suddenly pushed up against the red granite statue of one of the lions I had been talking about earlier.

Suddenly, I realized that I may have had the symbol for a relaxed king at my back, but the king I had in front of me now couldn’t have been further from the relaxed cat but was more of a snarling lion showing his teeth.

“Word of warning, Princess, it’s not wise to turn your back on a Vampire…ever.”

The last part of this threat was backed up with a hiss through gritted teeth and a pair of fangs that were lengthening dangerously.

“Yyy…you know, I am…am really getting tired of you threatening me,”

I told him trying to keep my voice as steady as I could in the face of such a beast, but from the very first second it had started to waver, he seemed pleased and a cocky smirk appeared at the corner of his lips showcasing more of one deadly fang.

“Then I suggest they start to sink in quickly before the use of another one is needed…now do I make myself clear?”

he said in a stern tone that demanded my submission.

I swallowed hard at the sheer depth of authority he held in his voice and the subtle action wasn’t lost on him.

He homed in on my neck and watched me with a grin after seeing the visible effect he was having on me and well…the bastard looked like he enjoyed it.

This then provoked me to respond.

“Why do you enjoy playing with me?”

I bravely asked in a barely heard whisper.

At this, his grin deepened, and it was both pure evil and bad to the bone.

Then he lowered his face and I froze, too frightened to even move for fear of what he was planning to do next.

At first, I even thought that the impossible was going to happen and he was going to kiss me.

But then he shifted his weight a little and ended up placing his lips against my cheek, speaking directly over the heated skin I could feel hot against his cooler lips.

“Oh Sweetheart, I haven’t even started playing with you yet,”

he whispered back before giving me a sweet and soft kiss, that only ended up cementing his words as a dark and menacing promise.

Then, as I was still trying to catch my breath, he was suddenly gone at an impossible speed I should have been used to seeing by now.

I merely managed a breathy gasp in surprise as my hand was in his and he was yanking me upright.

But then, just as I was about to fall into him from the speed, he spun me and placed a steadying hand at my hip so that my back was to him but in the direction of the exit.

“Now, let’s go,”

he ordered giving me a squeeze of my side in a possessive manner before letting me go.

I swear…

I felt like running.