She sniffed his fingers. “You smell like herbs, like something I’d put in a soup to give it a strong edge. And I’m in heaven.”

He kissed her cheek gently. “Me, too. Thank you for all of this, Lily, especially your blood. You’ve saved my life repeatedly this night, and I owe you.”

She finally shifted her head on the pillow so she could look at him. Tears welled. “I have you bound in chains, Adrien. You can’t be grateful to me or owe me. You’re probably going to die because of this. Kiernan and Daniel won’t let you live once they’ve gotten their hands on the weapon.”

“I’m not going to die. You should know this about me. I have a strong will to live.”

“I know. I can sense it in you.” She caressed his cheek. “I haven’t told you everything.”

“I hope you’ll be able to.”

Her thoughts turned to her family and to Josh, the hope that he truly was still alive. Maybe it was her fatigue or the simple reality of her situation, but the pain of her loss suddenly overwhelmed her.

Tears streamed down her face and with Adrien still buried inside her, she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, wept, and cried out. The sounds came from so deep inside her they didn’t seem to come from her at all.

Adrien held her fast in return. He let her cry and groan and shout and weep some more.

The only thing he did was occasionally thumb tears away from her cheeks.

“Lily,” he murmured softly now and then. “So much pain.”

His tenderness, so completely unexpected because of her opinion of his kind, kept the tears coming. She wanted to tell him the truth about Josh, but the words wouldn’t come. Kiernan’s orders were clear: No one must know about Josh.

“I miss my family so much.”

He lifted her to a sitting position, held her close, and rocked her in his arms.

“I am ashamed of my kind right now. Your family should still be alive.”

She nodded against him as she continued to weep.

* * *

Adrien petted her head, rubbed her neck. So unnecessary, these deaths.

He understood earth-based accidents like an unexpected ocean wave that took down a ship or a bolt of lightning or an earthquake that closed up a living cavern. But acts of evil, designed by men whether vampires or humans, that took the lives of the innocent were among the most abhorred in his world, in both their worlds.

He continued to rock her until she ceased crying, until her hips began to move against his, until she lifted up and suddenly her mouth was on his and her tongue teased him to firmness once more.

He lowered her carefully onto her back yet again, needing the deep connection, and rolled his hips to give her pleasure. Her soft womanly scent floated around him and made his jaw tremble. He pushed and felt her depths pull on him. She moaned and he understood her moans, her need, that her grief had turned and become a cry for connection and life and release.

For hope.

He drove into her and kissed her. He plunged his tongue deep and felt her suckle just as her depths suckled his cock and worked him to a frenzy all over again.

He didn’t understand what was happening, either. What was between them was something that, if Sebastien was right, had little to do with the chains, which only enhanced what already existed.

Was this the potential, then, between Lily and him? A profound depth of understanding, of passion and desire, of need? Because that’s what pummeled him as he made love to Lily, as he drove into her again: that he needed this woman, this human, who siphoned his power and behaved at times like a vampire, who responded to his body as though she’d always been with him, who wept at the loss of her family.

He’d never known a human, not like this, not a woman like Lily. He felt the sincerity of her grief, that what she’d lost had been more important to her than her own life.

Which made him wonder all over again the why of her present mission: What was Kiernan giving her, or holding over her head, that she risked her own life to go after a vampire extinction weapon?

He no longer believed that she did so for monetary gain, but something else had her hooked into the mission and his instinct told him she didn’t trust him enough yet to share that information with him. Whatever her reasons, he still had to figure out a way to get his brothers out of prison before Daniel finished them off.

He took her to the edge of ecstasy once more and brought her again, releasing into her, savoring every moment.

CHAPTER 8

Half an hour later, after cleaning up, Lily lay beside the vampire, her heart now calm, her chest eased of the usual constriction, her body empty, her mind as well. She dozed off and on restlessly, worried about Josh, about the extinction weapon, and about her growing, powerful feelings for Adrien.

She would fall asleep then awaken, uneasy sensations refusing to let her sleep.

When she woke and tried to pull away, thinking she needed to get moving, needed to find her son, Adrien would grunt his disapproval and hold her close, keeping her next to him. She relented each time, relaxing against the heat of his body. The rise and fall of his chest soothed her and she slept some more.

Dawn came and went.

She remained cocooned in bed with him as each hour passed. More than once she felt a pressing need to get up, to start a new list, to make a new plan to find the weapon and to find Josh, but over and over, he pulled her against him until finally she fell into the deep void of sleep, the warmth of his skin soothing her against the cold rain that still hit the windows.

Later, much later, the faint stormy light of day disappeared, giving way to dark gray evening and finally the black of another rainy Paris night. This time when she awoke, her eyes remained open and she no longer felt the draw of lethargy.

She felt rested, an unusual state. Almost calm. Almost normal.

This time, when she pulled away, Adrien shifted to look at her. She sat back on her knees, aware of her nakedness yet somehow very comfortable with him. Still, she knew men, and the sight of her bare breasts would invite a different kind of interaction, so she pulled the sheet up to her neck, tucking it around her.

She touched the chain at her neck. The soft vibrations comforted her now. He stared at her, his expression almost solemn, no smile, just something close to determination.

She leaned down and kissed him. “Thank you,” she said, “for so much compassion, for holding me, for letting me cry, for helping me to sleep. Though I buried my husband and daughter two years ago, my son’s body was never found. I’ve struggled since, with all of it, hating your kind.”

“I know.”

She nodded several times then glanced in the direction of the window. “I tried to wake up earlier. Several times.”

“That was my fault. I needed sleep and I wanted you beside me, for the comfort of it.”

She shook her head. “It wasn’t entirely your fault. I needed the rest as well, so I acquiesced each time.”

Then he smiled, another faint curving up of his lips. “Several times? I remember pulling you back once.”

At that she smiled. “Half a dozen, at least.”

“I was damn tired, then, because I don’t remember any of those. Just the one.”

“You’ve been through hell,” she said. She could feel the pinch between her brows as memories returned, of being in the Himalayan cave and seeing him hanging in chains. Her jaw grew tight.

He leaned forward, shifting on his elbow. She thought maybe he meant to kiss her in return. Instead, he said in a strong voice, “There’s a way to change the experience of travel for you, and Alfonse alluded to it. There’s a double-chain I could take on that would make my power greater, but I’m unwilling to go that far.” He seemed so solemn as he continued, “I know traveling is hard on you and puts us both at greater risk, but I need you to understand that accepting a more powerful chain will do something to me that I’ve rejected for as long as I can remember. Unlike this chain, which could be removed, the double-chain can’t. I just need you to understand that it isn’t as simple as the single-chains we both wear.” He lifted his blood-chain.

She met his gaze and felt his distress, even his hostility. “What exactly would accepting the double-chain mean for you that you’ve rejected so long?”

He shifted his gaze away from her, scowling and silent. After a moment, and still not looking at her, he said, “I’d be taking the first step to achieving Ancestral status.”

“And that would increase your power?”

“More than you can imagine. The gift is rare, but my brothers and I all have that capacity. It’s just that our father was a monster and none of us wants to be like him.”

“Then you can’t do it.”

He still leaned up on his elbow, his fingers playing over her arm, his thick, dark hair rumpled from sleep. She marveled at the tender feelings this closeness aroused in her—like she wanted to smooth away the furrow between his brows.

“Several of the Council of Ancestrals have been begging for me to step up for the last two centuries, to embrace my power.”

“You seem to despise the Council.”

He blinked a couple of times before adding, “I can’t believe how easy it is to talk to you.” He still rubbed her arm, and it felt good.

“I know,” she said.

He smiled suddenly, a real, full curving of his lips. “My God, I’m almost happy. It must be you.”

She laughed. Oh, my God, she laughed. When was the last time that had happened?

Her heart blossomed, a sensation that swelled and swelled.

At a moment like this, she could almost forget what he was.

And yet looking at him, his beauty, the strength of him, his tenderness with her, a spattering of gooseflesh rippled down her back and sides. She started to pull away, but he reached up, caught her lips with his, and kissed her, so of course she stayed put.

When he drew back, he added, “Don’t get ahead of this, Lily. Try not to think too far into the future. You’ll go crazy and I need you close right now. What we’re doing right now, this is good.”