Chapter 11 #2
“I promise you that won’t happen.”
He nodded, his mouth too dry to say anything in reply.
“I won’t give up on you, El,” she said firmly. “Don’t you dare give up on me, or I’ll hunt you down and bite you with my fangs.”
Elijah was still smiling when they reached the city limits.
Vash crossed her arms and studied Syre’s face. His posture was different, his carriage lighter. His eyes were less shadowed than they’d been just that afternoon.
“You look better,” she said.
“I feel better.” From their position just outside of Syre’s warehouse office, they watched minions quietly make the necessary preparations for the sleeping lycans to head out at daybreak.
They’d work in the field the same way—the lycans taking the day shift and the minions the night.
“Are you certain it was a good idea to allow Elijah to escort Lindsay back?”
She shifted on her feet, hating to hear her own concern voiced aloud. “I can’t allow or disallow Elijah anything. And if he’s going to have second thoughts about this alliance, better he has them now instead of later.”
“Hmm…the Vash I know would kill a lycan she couldn’t trust rather than test him.”
“Ha! If that was true, they’d all be dead. Besides, we don’t have that option. He’s the only Alpha around.”
“You want him to choose you.”
“Isn’t that why you sent me to him to begin with?”
Syre turned so that he stood directly in front of her, forcing her to look at him. “I sent you to strengthen our position. Instead, you very nearly kicked off a war today.”
She met his gaze, letting him see her disquiet. “The Sentinels aren’t in any position to attack us. There are too few of them.”
“You believe they’d wage a battle instead of a war. You’re wrong. They won’t come at us in a swarm. They’ll pick away at us, hitting strategic targets and individuals, excising the most valuable players with surgical precision. What’s left of us will be chaotic and easily overwhelmed.”
“You’re guessing,” she shot back. “Adrian isn’t at the top of his game now. He attacked me in full daylight on a public street! He’s reckless and emotional.”
“Yet he risked his most valuable possession, putting his mission first yet again—something I’ve always relied on you doing…until today.”
“Elijah is pivotal to our plans. You said it yourself.”
“Your responses are making me wonder if the Alpha is more of a liability than an asset,” he said softly.
Vash schooled her features to show no emotion, even though the elevated rhythm of her heartbeat betrayed her. “It’s not the Alpha you’re worried about—it’s me. If you think I’m compromised, you should assign someone else to deal with him as I suggested in the beginning.”
His arms crossed. “You misunderstand me, perhaps deliberately. I don’t want to separate you from anything that makes you happy, and frankly, the Alpha’s fascination for you works to my benefit.
His hunger for you is a weakness. If we can control him with it, we’ll have an even stronger advantage.
But I can’t allow anything or anyone to jeopardize the vampire nation, including you.
Enjoy your lycan, Vashti, but don’t forget where your priorities lie.
As you said, the time to have second thoughts is now. ”
Pressing the heels of her palms against her eyes, she cursed under her breath. Everything was screwed up. She was screwed up. Her priorities had shifted from the past to her present. Now the thought of manipulating Elijah like a puppet made her sick.
She dropped her arms and looked at him. “Pair him with Raze. It’ll be best for everyone.”
“Thank you,” he said softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Perhaps a bit of distance will clear your perspective, and you’ll be able to revisit. Do you want to tell him or should I?”
That Syre made the offer told her how shaky the ground she walked on was. For him to step up personally rather than delegate meant he took the matter seriously.
“No, I’ll do it.”
“He won’t take it well.” It wasn’t a question.
Remembering how Elijah had responded the last time she tried to gain a little space, she smiled ruefully. “I don’t know, but probably not.”
“Use me if you need me.” He dug into his pocket, and she heard the rattle of keys. “I’m heading to Shred with some of the others. You’re welcome to come.”
“No, thanks. I’ll see to the final prep here. I want to get this entire crew out tomorrow, so we can get the next wave in and debriefed. Hopefully, we’ll pick up some strays while we’re out in the field; we need more than one outpost’s worth of lycans.”
“We’ll dig into that in the morning. See you then.”
Remembering something she should never have forgotten, Vash called after him. “Commander. Adrian took my blood.”
He turned slowly back to her. “Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“We need to know. Something with the Wraith virus, perhaps?”
“What else?”
“Find out.” He left, his stride clipped with repressed violence.
Vash got to work on the composition of the teams she’d be sending out into the field in the morning. She’d hoped to tap Elijah for assistance with that, but he was still gone, and they were already a day behind schedule.
Sitting at one of the computer workstations, she started creating groups based on physical characteristics, trying to create well-rounded teams of short and tall, big and small, heavy and slender.
The moment El returned, she felt it. The air in the room became charged with his energy…and the stirring animosity of the vampires who smelled him approaching.
He came back.
A shiver of excitement coursed through her, along with a flood of relief that nearly made her dizzy. She watched him approach with eyes that devoured every breathtakingly sexy inch, eyeing his confident stride and the sleek fluidity of his movements.
And she wasn’t the only one awed by the air of command that clung to him. His path across the open space between them was tracked by everyone, but his eyes were locked on her. Hot and fiercely determined. Filled with admiration, but nothing close to deference.
God, he was gorgeous. Beautiful, really, although she’d never call him that to his face.
He was too fiercely masculine to be even remotely pretty.
And his body…so hard and strong. Defined by slabs of powerful muscle.
She remembered how it felt to have all that power against her. Over her. Inside her…
The other vampresses in the room eyed him with equal avidness, lust burning along with distrust and lingering resentment.
She wasn’t completely off her rocker for being sexually attracted to a lycan, but the quantity of female attention Elijah received was beginning to chafe.
He wasn’t available for that kind of interest, and she wanted everyone to know it. To respect it.
He paused by a table of vamps putting together travel packets of cash, debit cards, IDs, and phones. He thanked them for their hard work, offered to help, and smiled genuinely when it was refused with less hostility than had been displayed when he’d walked in.
The smile stayed in place as he headed toward her, but it took on a wicked, sexy edge that sizzled through her.
“Hey,” he said when he stopped beside her. He looked at the computer screen and shook his head. “You can’t put Luke and Thomas in the same group. They’ll fight. And Nicodemus has a thing for Bethany, and so does Horatio. It’s best if you don’t put her in a group with either one of them.”
“Fuck it all.” She pushed back from the desk. Of course, he knew such personal details. He took the time to know everyone. “I’ve been working on this for over an hour.”
“You got the vamps lined up straight? Then don’t worry about the rest. I’ll make the adjustments to the lycans.”
“By morning?” Studying him up close, she noted the exhaustion that rimmed his eyes and mouth. “You’re beat.”
“I could use sleep,” he agreed. “But it won’t take much.”
She stood and rocked back on her heels. What she really wanted to do was step forward into him. He smelled delicious. She knew he tasted that way, too. All over. Inside and out. “Can I talk to you a moment?”
She led the way to one of the offices. It was dark inside, as was most of the warehouse, to accommodate the sleeping lycans.
Neither she nor Elijah required light to see, which was working to her benefit now.
By keeping the lights off, he would be less likely to read anything on her face she didn’t want him to.
The door had barely shut behind them when she found herself in his arms, his lips cool and firm on hers. Caught at the waist and nape, she was held immobile against him. Claimed.
She gasped in surprised pleasure, and the kiss swiftly heated. His tongue slid deep and slow into her mouth, thrusting in a steady, unhurried rhythm that made her ache for more. Much more, damn it.
She slid one hand through his hair and the other up beneath his shirt. He arched and groaned at her touch, as responsive to her as she was to him.
“Thank you,” he whispered huskily against her parted lips.
Vash swallowed, trying to hang on to the wits that would enable her to tell him about their altered working relationship. The exquisite taste of him sidetracked her, scattering her reason.
He nuzzled his nose against hers. “I brought back some news that might make you happier about keeping me alive.”
She was too happy about that. Already she was dreading his getting on a separate plane from her tomorrow, one that would take him to the opposite side of the country from where she’d be.
She was glad now that she hadn’t plugged either of their names into her outlined groups.
He would have seen straightaway, and they might be arguing now instead of kissing.
Elijah was a damned good kisser. He took his time with it, as he did with everything, savoring the act as if he didn’t care if anything more intimate followed it.
But she cared. Sixty years without sexual desire and suddenly being naked with Elijah was damn near all she thought about.