12. Chapter 12
12
D azed and incredibly aroused by the immortal blood coursing through me, I spent the entire elevator ride up to the seventeenth floor staring in awe at Gavin. His blood was changing me. Or, rather, it was changing how I saw him. Intricate sigils now marked all of his visible skin—his hands, neck, and face glowing sliver, like he was filled with moonlight and it was escaping through the markings. They glowed on the elevator walls as well, but I couldn’t tear my stare from him long enough to note more about them than that they were there.
A complex design in the shape of a crescent moon curved around the right side of his face, reaching from forehead to lower jaw. I studied the angles and swirls, completely mesmerized by their intricate beauty.
The elevator dinged, startling me out of my daze, and the doors slid open. Gavin left the elevator first, crossing a landing beyond, maybe twenty feet long, to the only other exit, a set of double doors, heavily warded with glowing sigils and guarded by a pair of mountainous vampires. They were nearly identical in size and attire, both wearing dark wash jeans, black combat boots, and black T-shirts that strained against their muscular shoulders and chests. In coloring, however, they were complete opposites.
Where one had pale skin, ice-blue eyes, a full beard, and dirty blond hair shaved along the sides but long enough on top to be pulled back and secured in a knot at the crown of his head, the other was clean-shaven, with skin like the darkest bronze and eyes like obsidian. The visible patches of skin on both men displayed more of the glowing, moonlit sigils, just like Gavin. Just like Javier. Which meant they weren’t just undead vampires, but guardians.
And I wasn’t positive, but I thought I recognized both from my scandalous dream. At that thought, a renewed flush heated my skin.
I stood in the elevator with Bastian, taking a moment to gather my wits about me. I was so turned on, and Gavin and the two new vampires looked so delicious standing there at the far end of the landing, that I didn’t trust myself not to do something embarrassing once I was close enough to touch them. Goddess, I wanted to act out the scenes from my dreams with them. Desperately.
The Viking-Oscar vampire’s nostrils flared, and his attention snapped toward the elevator. Toward me. His pupils dilated until his eyes were nearly as dark as his companion’s. I scanned down his body, noting the growing bulge in his jeans. A quick glance at Gavin and the other new vampire confirmed they were similarly impacted by the scent of my arousal.
My lips twisted into a pleased smirk, and I felt emboldened by their response to me. They watched me as I emerged from the elevator, Bastian trailing close behind me, utterly secure with himself despite his nudity. He wasn’t merely following me. He was shadowing me. Guarding me.
“Find some clothing for the shifter. He is to be held and guarded but not harmed,” Gavin told the pair of vampires at the door. “He is under the queen’s protection.”
Their focus shifted past me, to the man at my heels. When their focus returned to me, the queen, their stony expressions cracked, letting through hints of intrigue and curiosity.
I held my head a little higher, hoping a show of confidence might convince them my protection actually meant something. It was difficult to do while fighting off invasive visions of the darker of the two vampires feasting between my legs. He had definitely been in the dream. I was certain now.
My breaths came faster, and my belly tightened in anticipation. In memory. The closer I drew, the more clearly I could feel those big hands grasping my bare thighs and his tongue flicking over my aching clit.
“Sophie,” Gavin said, his voice a whip crack.
Only when Gavin said my name did I realize I had stopped in front of the darker vampire and was raising my hand, reaching for his face like I might stroke my fingers over his crescent sigil.
I pulled my hand away, blushing yet again. “Sorry,” I whispered, taking a step back and averting my gaze.
His paler companion pushed open the double doors, and Gavin crossed the threshold into the loft beyond.
I took one step, but before I could join him, the darker vampire caught my wrist. I glanced down at his hand, then up at his face.
He clenched and unclenched his jaw repeatedly, like he was barely controlling himself. Grip firm but gentle, he raised my hand toward his face, releasing me just shy of forcing contact. I completed the motion, brushing my fingertips over the side of his face, tracing the intricately swirling lines making up his crescent sigil. His eyelids drifted shut, and he leaned into my touch.
“What’s your name?” I asked, my voice breathy.
The vampire’s eyelids opened, his midnight eyes locking with mine. “Thane, my queen,” he said, his deep voice resonating with some secret, hidden part of me. He bowed his head. “May I serve you well.”
The corner of my mouth lifted as I thought back to the dream and how good his mouth had felt on me. “I’m sure you will,” I said, skimming the pad of my thumb over his full lips.
His breath escaped in a long, slow sigh, and his hand settled on the curve of my hip.
“Thane!” Gavin barked.
The vampire’s dark eyes widened, and his hand fell away from my hip.
“Sophie . . .” Gavin’s restrained voice dragged my attention back toward him. “You are not yet ready to commune with multiple immortals. The power will overwhelm you. It will destroy you.” His voice had a raw edge as he approached slowly but purposely. “So far as we know, you are the last living vampire queen. You are our people’s only hope to survive.” He stopped so close to me that I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. “We cannot lose you again.”
I swallowed roughly, sobered by his words. “I’m sorry,” I said again, my cheeks heating for about the thousandth time. I shook my head and looked down at our shoes. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“It’s my blood,” Gavin explained. “You’ve been deprived for so long that your body doesn’t know how to handle it. We have to ease you in. Build up your tolerance. When you can handle a full communion with one immortal, then we can discuss adding members to your harem, but it will take time.”
I nodded, still so confused about all of this and not fully understanding his meaning.
Gavin captured my hand and pulled me away from Thane and through the doorway, into a high-ceilinged, open-concept space filled with modern furniture and antiques that appeared both fragile and priceless. More sigils glowed on the walls, wards protecting this space.
“Take the shifter to the blue room and hold him there,” Gavin told Thane. “Full lockdown protocol on the entire floor until we’re ready to move Sophie to the Moon Sanctuary.”
“Understood,” Thane said, turning his attention to Bastian, who still followed close behind me. He took hold of Bastian’s upper arm and pulled the shifter around me and deeper into the loft, toward a hallway off to the left of the vaulted living area.
Bastian followed without struggle, but he continued to look back at me until Thane dragged him around a corner and out of sight.
I turned my attention to Gavin. “You swear you won’t hurt him?”
His stare seared into me, more gray than luminous silver now. His sigils seemed duller, as well. “Not unless you order me to,” he said.
The initial, blissful high from his blood had worn off, and the reality of my situation was sinking in. My arousal waned, and dread knotted in my gut. My life as I had known it—as I had built it—was over.
I crossed the spacious living room, passing between an armchair and a couch and winding around a glass-topped coffee table to make my way toward the wall of windows overlooking Elliott Bay. The sun shone merrily in a cloudless sky, and the water’s smooth surface gleamed like polished labradorite. I hugged my middle, drowning in uncertainty.
I heard Gavin’s slow approach behind me, but more than that, I felt him drawing nearer. It was as though the exchange of blood down in the parking garage had linked us somehow.
“I assume Javier is the one who made this for you,” Gavin said, coming to stand beside me and holding his hand out, palm up. One of the tiny vials containing the blood tincture rested on his palm. He must have taken it from my purse.
I nodded.
“What happened to him?”
I shrugged and shook my head. “He took care of me, kept me hidden and safe. And then, one day, he was just gone .” I glanced at Gavin. “And I was alone.”
“When was this?”
I returned to staring out the window, losing myself to the breathtaking view. “Almost twenty years ago.” I chewed on my lip, debating whether to ask for the one thing I needed. “I know you said we’re in lockdown, but I’d like to make a phone call.”
“That would be unwise,” Gavin said, his tone gentle. “The Sun assassins are likely watching anyone you might reach out to.”
I took a deep breath, debating revealing my final secret. But if I was going all in with this vampire, I would need to show him all my cards.
“I have to warn my son,” I said. The words hung in the air for long seconds.
Until, finally, Gavin spoke. “How old is he?”
“He’s seventeen, and he doesn’t know I’m his mother,” I said, my voice sounding hollow to my own ears. “I’ve been his tutor for the past three years. We meet twice a week.” I turned my face toward Gavin. “Bastian has been masquerading as my cat for three months, which means Sun has been watching me for at least that long. They’ll know Micah is important to me. He’s in danger, and I can’t—” My voice broke, an invisible fist clenching around my heart. “I have lost everyone I have ever loved. I will not survive losing him, too.”
Gavin inhaled deeply, releasing the breath slowly, his eyes searching mine. “I can have my people pick him up and bring him here, but what about his family?”
“They won’t be a problem,” I said, shaking my head. “He graduated from high school early and goes to UW now. He lives in the dorms and visits home maybe once a month.” I suppressed a weak laugh. “To do laundry.”
“If we bring him here, you’ll have to reveal who you really are to him,” Gavin said. “Are you ready to do that?”
I nodded without hesitation. I had been ready for my son to truly know me since our first tutoring session, when we sat in the public library together to prep for his first round of AP tests.
Gavin nodded, a single dip and rise of his chin. “When and where is your next meeting with him supposed to be?”
“Tomorrow,” I said, raising one hand to chew on my thumbnail. “On campus, but I don’t want to wait that long.”
Again, Gavin nodded. “Is there anyone who could get a message to him today? Someone you don’t usually interact with?” Someone who wasn’t likely to be under surveillance by the shifters, he meant.
At least a dozen professors and graduate students came to mind. “Yeah,” I told him confidently. “I know just who to call.”
Janice, the grad student who TA’d for Micah’s History of Genetics course. She had taken him under her wing, and she and I chatted briefly about him the last time she visited Special Collections.
Gavin handed me his phone, and I found her office number in the faculty directory. Thankfully, Janice answered the first time I called. I made up a story about losing my phone and not having internet access, then asked her to pass a message on to Micah at this afternoon’s lecture about changing the location of our tutoring session to a spot downtown. This spot. Today.
Now, it was only a matter of waiting for him to show up.
Of waiting to see if he would.