Vampire Trinity Part 10

"The vampire who killed your Laura was one of my a.s.signments, Gideon," Daegan said softly. "I executed him six months after he took her life."

Everything stilled. He heard Anwyn's indrawn breath, but after that, nothing but a hushed silence. It was as if the musicians had stopped midchord and the breeze silenced its whisper. Even the lights dimmed. Everything in Gideon zeroed in on Daegan's face, the knowledge in his dark eyes.

"For her sake, and for yours, I wish I'd received those orders sooner."

When Gideon had faced the terrible truth that vampires existed, he'd had to swallow the bitter pill that he'd never know which one had taken Laura. So he'd resolved to kill them all. Somewhere, at some point, her murderer would fall. Yet her murderer had fallen a long time ago, at the hands of the male before him.

"Did he suffer?"

"Eli Wallace had impulse problems and an insatiable bloodl.u.s.t. He was a slight male, almost effeminate-looking, and so he'd found it was easier to lure females to follow him. My job is about justice, not vengeance, so I can't give you the gift of his pain. But he is gone. I put him down like a rabid animal, quick and clean."

Gideon swallowed. Swallowed again. Daegan's gaze remained on his face, the male's eyes as always seeing too much. "So you see," he continued in that gentle tone, "the blood vengeance is paid."

Gideon barely registered the words. He couldn't put his mind around it, hadn't realized how much of Laura's unavenged death lay at the heart of what he considered himself to be. It was ludicrous. He knew he couldn't kill them all, and yet . . . He wanted to get up, walk away into the night, get a deep, deep breath of air, maybe suffocate himself with oxygen. Pointless.

"I didn't expect to have another purpose. I didn't . . . I couldn't even kill the person who killed her. She died, and I couldn't help her. You killed her murderer. You . . ." Gideon shook his head. "Jesus, I was right. You really don't need me. I'm a liability to you both, if anything."

When he started to get up, Daegan caught his lapel with an oath. As he dragged him back down, the vampire met him eye to eye, warrior to warrior. "Why are you determined to be f.u.c.king inconsequential?" he asked quietly.

"Daegan." Anwyn's soft voice made him ease off, though he uttered a second quiet curse. His fingers squeezed Gideon's neck, a rough caress, before he sat back.

Anwyn's hand found Gideon's, forming a knot of fingers locked beneath his aching breastbone. She cradled Gideon's face with her other hand, forcing him to look at her when he just wanted to go, bolt, run back to the shadows. Daegan's keen gaze told him that wasn't going to happen, but it was moot. He couldn't move when Anwyn was touching him like this.

"You keep trying to quantify your worth based on some physical measurement," she murmured. "What you can give me; how well you can protect me. How many vampires you've killed. You won't accept that letting yourself be loved is a gift as well, one of the most valuable. It's one I want you to give me above all others. It will be harder than all the rest, because you don't think you're worth loving."

He shook his head, tried to pull back, but she held on, stubborn. "Gideon, no. You won't withdraw from me. You think the world wasn't pulled out from under my feet a month ago? You and Daegan, you told me I have to deal with it. I'm not going to let you do anything less. Yes, everything about your life is changing. Join the club. Don't leave it. Don't leave me."

Her gaze became flint then, and those fingers dug in. "I'm going to give you a command. You will will allow me to love you, in whatever manner, however deeply, I wish to do so. You will learn to surrender your heart to me, Gideon Green, and when you finally do that, you will understand your own worth." allow me to love you, in whatever manner, however deeply, I wish to do so. You will learn to surrender your heart to me, Gideon Green, and when you finally do that, you will understand your own worth."

"But I won't be here . . ."

"Time doesn't matter. That's another thing you need to learn. Whatever plans you have for the future, until then you'll put your trust in me, in a way you've never trusted anyone. Can you do that?"

She'd asked the question before, in a variety of ways, but not like this. There was broken gla.s.s in his chest. "I don't know." He closed his hands on her wrists. "Anwyn, I don't think I can give myself that. I don't think I can give myself anything."

"You're not giving it. I'm taking it." She stared at him, hard. "All right? Sit down now."

She eased him back into the chair with a firm hand, and then surprised him by sliding into his lap, bringing his arms around her so he cradled her there, feeling her soft body press against him, her arms wind around his neck as she laid her cheek on his shoulder.

"Don't think, Gideon. Just exist. Listen to the music, and the wind moving in the trees, and feel the connection between the three of us."

Daegan moved into the chair Anwyn had vacated, stretching an arm behind Gideon's chair. With shock, he realized they'd closed ranks to shelter him. To care for him. He wanted to be ashamed of his weakness, of this throbbing pain inside of him, but he couldn't breathe.

Laura was gone, and the blood debt was paid. Where did that leave him? Who and what was he now, if he wasn't sure he could be a vampire hunter?

"Shhh . . ." she murmured, and her lips were on his, coaxing them open, gently tangling with his tongue, catching an unexpected harsh sob. "Hold on to me, love. I'm yours. We're yours. We want you. You belong to us."

He knew it wasn't true, and even if it was, he couldn't be that forever. But for right now he was too overwhelmed to question or fight it. He needed the pressure of Daegan's hand on his back, his arm against his shoulders, the sheltering cant of his body. The curl of Anwyn's, like a beautiful pale seash.e.l.l curved over his exposed wounds, keeping them safe from swooping predators.

In time, he got his thundering heart, the terrifying desire to break down, under control, and he just sat quietly under their touch. He could hate Daegan for telling him, but he saw the vampire hadn't realized the effect it would have on him, how it would taint their evening. There was some small satisfaction in seeing Daegan screw up for once.

But he wished it could have lasted forever, that brief, magical connection right before, undisturbed by any trauma or terror that might lie ahead, or truths too difficult to face. As he let the world spin around him, Gideon wondered what would happen when it righted itself. Would he walk away from the grave he'd haunted in his mind for more than a decade? Finally say good-bye?

But to who or what?

8.

"WHY are you sent after vampires? What crimes can vampires commit, if they're allowed to kill up to twelve humans a year, including their annual kill?"

Over the next several nights, Anwyn continued to receive lessons from Daegan, as well as grill the vampire herself, on Council and vampire society. When she'd opened Atlantis, she'd learned the key to doing it successfully was to immerse herself in as much knowledge about how a club worked as possible, and then tailor it to her own personality. It was like making a dress. The fabric had to be there before the design could be cut. Understanding her need, and approving of it, Daegan patiently answered every question, as well as detailed the Council and the rules that governed the vampire world, a whole shadow society living beneath the radar of most humans.

Gideon remained quiet for much of it, and absented himself from their rooms for this or that reason on more than one occasion. Anwyn would have cornered him to draw him out, but she sensed he needed a few days' s.p.a.ce. She even helped him, sending him on errands to the club levels or in town, and didn't remark on it when he stayed away far longer than needed to complete her lists. A couple of times, she touched his mind and found him sitting in a park, or a coffee shop, his thoughts whirling in a slow, confused spin, processing the things he knew, that he was becoming.

When in the apartment, he spent a lot of time in Daegan's weapons and workout room, testing his strength and endurance incessantly. She bit back any smarta.s.s observations about a vampire hunter honing his skills to kill vampires while caring for one, because Gideon's sense of humor was out of order for the moment.

When they'd returned from the wine and cheese event, Gideon's emotions had been in such a turmoil that, by unspoken accord, she'd brought him to her bed, taken him into her body in simple, sweet lovemaking, let him fall asleep that way. Daegan had come to her later, slid in behind her, and their hands had rested on him together, stroking his hair. When she woke at dusk, Gideon was gone and she and Daegan had been twined together alone.

She tried to not intrude into the deeper layers of Gideon's mind, simply reaching out on occasion, a subtle caress to let him know she was there. Tonight he'd come back from his errands with groceries for himself, some new clips for his guns. Now he was listening to their conversation about Daegan's a.s.sa.s.sinations as he cleaned and sharpened his knives.

He was sitting on the floor, his back against his sofa. He did his guns on one night of the week, knives on another. The crossbows and wooden weapons were checked and oiled on yet another. Usually the cleaning was a calming exercise for him, but tonight he appeared to be getting more agitated. Confirming it, he rose abruptly. "I'm going to go practice."

Daegan didn't comment on it, she was sure because he a.s.sumed Gideon was just impatient, listening to what he called the "farce" of vampire civility. She understood that she had to learn as much as she could about that world, but as Daegan shared his insights, there was an unfortunate side effect. Gideon, having to attend the same lessons, learned about a world he'd spent much of his life trying to destroy, a world into which he was now integrating himself solely for her benefit and protection. It meant that each day, he faced that fork in his soul that had been ripped there by circ.u.mstances.

Despite the power of that struggle, it was the fuse winding amid it, the one most likely to set off the full powder keg, that worried her the most. His fiercely deliberate, unacknowledged desire for Daegan kept growing, almost faster than his deep concerns about her attending the Council, and the temporal nature of their relations.h.i.+p when she embraced a vampire's life fully.

While cleaning the blade, Gideon had been drifting into some rather graphic images of her body twined with his. At first it had been memory only, remembering the night after their dinner. The sweet lovemaking, his mouth on her breast, her hand pa.s.sing over his hair, the slick, easy penetration and tight clasp of her c.u.n.t around him, welcoming and holding him.

But as the memory spun into new imaginings, his hands performing the cleaning and sharpening by rote, he devised rougher, more demanding scenarios, things such as what they shared in the Queen's Chamber. It had distracted her enough to miss a couple points of Daegan's lecture. She'd wondered if Gideon was doing it on purpose, since she knew he could sense when she was in his mind, but he seemed trapped in his own head tonight, almost oblivious to her presence.

Her being in his mind wasn't a deep or intentional probe. It took so much effort to stay out of his head at this point, that he'd made it clear he was fine with her drifting in the upper layers if it was easier for her to focus on more important things, like controlling her bloodl.u.s.t and the shadow voices in her head. They'd also found that her drifting in his head helped keep those voices quiet.

That was how she knew what had disturbed Gideon enough to send him to the weapons room. It wasn't what Daegan was saying, but how he was saying it. The sensual lift and drop of the syllables was what bothered Gideon. As he'd listened, the vampire had become a third member of the carnal triangle in her vampire hunter's mind. Touching them both, gripping, demanding . . . taking control of Gideon's responses as the three of them gave and received pleasure.

When Gideon recognized the turn of his personal fantasy, he'd snapped to his feet as if he'd been bitten, retreating to the weapons room to exorcise the unwanted but undeniable desire.

Though he was never easy in it, Gideon was far less resistant to her dominance when Daegan was absent. In his soul, Gideon was a strangely conservative creature. But below that, where his s.e.xual self was laid bare, she knew he couldn't deny his fascination with the other male. How he couldn't quite keep himself from looking at the vampire. It amused her, because nothing with a pulse could help appreciating Daegan's s.e.xuality. She understood the vampire allure better now, because of how her staff had reacted to her before her bloodl.u.s.t attack. But vampire allure or no, Daegan had something extra.

The mystery, the aura of unquestionable command, the hard body, beautiful c.o.c.k and intriguing face, all sensual planes and shadows, dominated by the dark eyes and sinful mouth. She'd often wondered what he would look like with his hair long and silky, rather than cropped short the way he kept it for the work he did.

"At some point, the three of us need to cover servant etiquette. He'll need to observe it to avoid drawing more attention to him."

She tuned back in to Daegan. "But we won't be bringing him to the Council audience. He'll stay on the plane or somewhere farther away, where he can monitor my mind and give me the cues I need."

At Daegan's expression, she rose slowly. "He intends to go in there with us?"

"He does. I have not been able to dissuade him."

"It's not a matter of dissuading. He's not going."

"It will be dangerous for him, but he's resourceful-"

"Oh my G.o.d." She stared at him. "You've already agreed to this. Discussed it with him. I thought we'd agreed-"

"I did not break my promise to you, cher cher. It was his decision to share with you, not mine. He has waited too long, however, and I feel you need to know. To be prepared."

Letting Daegan get closer to her soul was another way to help her balance, like having Gideon in her mind or her in his, but at times like this it was a bittersweet pleasure. She'd wanted that closeness, and now doubted his heart far less, but residual anger could still flare when he made executive decisions like this one. "I may not know much about your world, but taking one of the most successful vampire hunters into Council headquarters seems like signing his death warrant."

"He'd be coming as your servant."

"And that will make it all okay? Can you guarantee he'll be safe the same way you've promised me that I will?"

"No, cher cher. But it's not my choice to make."

"d.a.m.n right it's not." She ignored the narrow warning glance he shot her way. "We'll call his brother and Lady Lyssa. Tell them what may happen. Surely the two of them will sit on him until we get back."

Daegan rose from the couch, his face getting that implacable set that made her want to simultaneously rage and despair. "They have a child, Anwyn. Vampire infants are rare and highly valued in our world. If the child has two parents, neither will leave him, nor bring him into a dangerous situation, until he is past the age where he could be taken and pa.s.sed off as another vampire's child."

"Gideon wouldn't hurt his own nephew, and I won't be a danger to them. I won't even be close to him."

Daegan raised his brow. "You'd take away his free will, just like that?"

"To save his life? Absolutely. You told me almost the same thing, when I tried to take my life. Is it so different because I'm a female, under your protection?"

His lips twisted. "My double standard toward women is hardly a revelation."

"Why do any of us have to go? Why not just send them a fax or an e-mail? Videoconference, for heavens' sake. This is the technology age."

"Because the Council is very rigid on certain things. When a vampire is made or killed, they require a personal audience."

Anwyn was watching his face, and now bit her lip. "So if punishment must be meted out, it can be done swiftly."

"No harm is going to come to you there," he said immediately, his expression hardening. "If I thought there was any any danger to you, I wouldn't take you, no matter their requirements." danger to you, I wouldn't take you, no matter their requirements."

"But risking Gideon is okay. G.o.d, he's right. You do think humans are expendable." She turned away, but he reached out, caught her wrist.

"I value Gideon. But anyone is expendable, when it comes to you. He agrees with me. He's doing this of his own free will."

"Neither of you has the right to make that choice." She resisted his grip, but he held on, giving her a level look.

"I make that kind of choice quite often, Anwyn. It doesn't mean I enjoy it. But you don't need to worry about what's going to happen. I'll handle whatever occurs at the Council."

Anwyn stared at him, yanked her hand back in an unexpected move. "You did not not just suggest I shouldn't worry my pretty little head about it." just suggest I shouldn't worry my pretty little head about it."

Daegan abruptly dropped, spinning back to his feet in a lithe move as a knife thumped into the wall behind him. Gideon leaned in the doorway, flipping his second blade in his hand. "Just making sure you're paying attention."

Anwyn turned her temper on him. "He shouldn't have to pay attention in his own home. What if you'd hit him with that?"

"He would have said 'ouch,' pulled it out, and promptly healed," Gideon observed mildly, though his eyes were far from casual. "I didn't use the crossbow or aim for the heart."

"Well, then, what am I worried about?" She cast an exasperated look at Daegan, who'd pulled the weapon out of her wall and sent it back to Gideon with a loose, twisting toss that the other male caught. He didn't look perturbed by Gideon's actions. But there was a tension to Gideon's body that showed he was perturbed about something.

"If it was my decision to tell her, you did a pretty good job of doing it yourself."

"Perhaps because it appeared you intended to tell her when we all got off the plane together in Berlin. Where the stress of such a revelation might send her into a seizure."

"I can't believe the two of you are actually talking about me like I'm not here." Anwyn stepped between the two men, interrupting the line of vision, and was incredibly irritated and amazed when Gideon merely s.h.i.+fted to reestablish it. The heat in the room was escalating, and while she was nursing her own anger, it didn't cloud the fact that something far more volatile was brewing.

"She's right." Gideon's eyes met Daegan's, a challenge. "You're the proverbial pot calling the kettle black. She deserves to know as much as possible about what to expect, even the things that will worry her, because knowing in advance will help her be prepared. If she thinks you're holding back on her, that's what will upset her."

"I expect you both to trust me on certain things," Daegan said stiffly.

"Sorry, Count Drac," Gideon said, eyes flas.h.i.+ng. "Long as you have those fangs, I'm not going to be turning my back on you anytime soon."

Anwyn flinched, and Gideon glanced toward her. "You're different, Anwyn."

"Of course I am," she said flatly, but she knew his mind. She'd put her life into his hands more than once now. He didn't trust her to do that for him. Not now, maybe not ever. With her blood, how could she blame him? It still hurt.

The vampire hunter sheathed the other blade, took a couple of steps in the room. "In the past, you've been handling the Council alone. But we'll be with you. You're taking troops, and they should know the terrain, your strategy. I chose to hunt vampires alone, but when I went with others, I never John McClane'd it. Unless you're Bruce Willis, that gets people killed."

Anwyn bit back an oath as Daegan turned a puzzled expression toward her. "It's a character from an action movie, an antihero who always goes in and single-handedly saves the day," she said between gritted teeth.

Daegan pressed his lips together. "I am not that person. However, since you're so eager to be in the loop, we were just talking about Council etiquette. You'll need to observe certain inviolate courtesies while we're there, in order to stay as un.o.btrusive as possible. And before you start being your typical smarta.s.s self," he interjected at Gideon's scowl, "it's for Anwyn's protection, not your own. She needs you, for good or ill, and if you shoot your mouth off and disrespect the Council, they will will kill you." kill you."

She'd asked for his bald honesty, but that hit her like a blow to the stomach. Daegan gave her a glance, his lips thinning, but turned back to Gideon. "They will not hesitate, give it a second thought, or feel a moment's remorse. You are a servant. In their eyes, you are property, subject to the will of your Mistress in all things. If she wanted to torture you to death, that would be no concern of theirs."

"Good to know," Anwyn said tightly. "In case I have the urge."

She wasn't done with this topic of Gideon going, not by a long shot. They were hoping to barrel right over her with their combined male intimidation routine, and she wasn't having it. However, she could set aside her own reaction for a moment, because the dangerous currents between them didn't bode well. She wondered if she needed to warn Daegan that Gideon might have other reasons for wanting to pick a fight.

"You follow three paces behind her at all times. Never beside her, never in front. You always address her as 'Mistress,' or 'ma'am.' Never meet a vampire's gaze directly unless he or she specifically commands it. Anything Anwyn tells you to do, you do it promptly. I know you give her pleasure with your resistance, but you need to shelve that kind of behavior at the Council." Gideon flushed, his eyes beginning to flash again, but Daegan pressed on. "Pretend to be what you are not. A well-trained, obedient servant. Perhaps they'll completely forget you were a vampire hunter, or be so impressed by Anwyn's skills at controlling you, they will focus on that instead."

"What if they threaten her?"

"Her protection is my job. Protecting your life so you can care for her, during and afterward, that is yours."

"What about you? Do I pretend to be your little dog on a leash as well?"

Daegan gave him a cool look. "You are Anwyn's servant, not mine. However, as I said, if any any vampire commands you, you must obey. Anwyn has no rank among them, which means at the moment her servant is subject to serve their whims as well." vampire commands you, you must obey. Anwyn has no rank among them, which means at the moment her servant is subject to serve their whims as well."

"Wait a minute." Anwyn broke in. "They can't-"