Last Enchantment

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

With the deafening sound ringing in her ears, Tegan rolled over on the soft surface that smelled vaguely of chemical. Chaos erupted around her, and her mind went into combat mode. She sat up, blinking, and the first thing she saw was a naked Oliver. Naked but not as wet as she was.

Shit, yes. Just before the big bang, he turned her in his arms, shielding her. Something must have alerted him to whatever had exploded, because his grip was protective and not lover-like. So why weren’t they both dead?

The same reason he was groaning and holding his hand over his eyes.

“Kill the overhead light,” she snapped, not caring who was there. Then she heard a voice she recognized as the light went off and two lower table lights came on.

“I’ll do what I can.”

“No,” said someone else, a female who sounded vaguely familiar. “That might be the plan. To flush us out. That hotel is only four stories high, and the fire service is on its way.”

“I can’t just watch.”

“Yes, you can.”

Now she knew why she recognized the voice. That brand of cool analysis. That was her, a year ago. Sorcerer.

She took swift stock. If she’d burned or suffered impact injuries, they were gone. “He flashed us,” she said dully.

During a mission, a vampire operative would memorize a few locations in case he or she needed to flash out in a hurry. It had saved lives before. It had certainly saved lives now. “How long have I been out?”

“Ten minutes, max,” the woman said. “I’m Daria Szabó, sorcerer. I know who you are, so let’s consider ourselves introduced.” She was slender, dressed simply and modestly, with a long dark braid halfway down her back and dark eyes. She stood by the side of the window, looking out. “Filthy fucks.”

“Fuck,” Tegan said. “My sister, Virginia.”

“Yeah.” The woman accepted what was, after all, the truth. A truth Tegan was still struggling to absorb. “I can’t sense anyone alive in that building. That hotel is resort-style, lots of separate buildings, which is just as well. Lots of access out. If they had any sense, they’d have jumped into the pool, but when bombs go off, people tend to lose their reason.”

“Bombs? You’re sure?”

“Bomb,” said Spartan, joining Daria at the window. “Only one explosion.”

“Enough to kill us.” Oliver sounded hoarse, but better, and when she turned to let him hold her, she saw that his wounds were already healing. “I’ll be fine.” He stroked her hair, just as he had before the world turned upside down. “Just fine. Relax and think.”

His weariness dragged at her, and without thinking, she gave him all the strength she could spare, forcing it on him when he showed signs of closing his barriers and pushing back. “No, take it. You need it.”

“Thanks.” He wouldn’t have given in if he hadn’t been so weak. “Can we assume Virginia was watching us all the time, led us into a trap?”

“No.” Events came back to her, and it made horrible sense. “She was getting rid of me, not you. She left me a letter. I shoved it in my bag, too eager to—” She buried her head in his neck, and he chuckled, the sound tired but far more as she was used to hearing him.

“That probably saved your life. I bet that was where the bomb was. Some plastic left under the flap—did it feel heavy to you?”

“I don’t know. I just stuffed it in my bag. It was written on good quality paper, and it was her writing, but I don’t remember any more. Hand delivered.” She looked up. Eyes widening.

“Which means she’s somewhere close by, watching the proceedings. We have to move fast if we’re to retrieve this situation.” Daria came away from the window and the sounds of screams and sirens outside. “If she thinks her plan worked, then why would it be at a different hotel?”

“Because she wanted some comfort,” Oliver answered immediately. He dragged the cover off the nearest bed and wrapped it around them while he spoke. “Tegan didn’t want to stay at the down-at-heel place and decided to check into the four-star along the street. As long as we can persuade the clerk on the desk that he or she only saw one person.”

“I’m on my way,” Daria said. “Only one person, check. Then I’ll go to the four-star and tell them that only Tegan checked in. I can fix that in twenty. Easy.” She strode out of the room, her sensible shoes beating a tattoo on the carpet.

“So she thinks she’s succeeded,” Oliver murmured. “First sleep, then clothes.”

Daria insisted on protocol, so she and Spartan checked in at a different hotel further up the street. There were a cluster of them at this location, but then, most of Orlando had an overabundance of hotels, from basic tourist complete with roaches and bedbugs to the reasonably luxurious. Though Tegan thought guiltily that she’d love the extra luxury of a five star.

They slept first, then showered, then slept some more, and still no sign of Virginia. But that note had been hand delivered, and under Daria’s gentle persuasion, the clerk gave a perfect description of Virginia. Not too perfect, and she found no sign of anyone tampering with the man’s mind. But she only obliterated the memory of Oliver, or that was what she reported when they woke up, showered, and dressed in the clothes she’d brought them.

They’d flashed with nothing—absolutely nothing. Passports, money, clothes, airline tickets, all destroyed in the explosion that destroyed that part of the hotel. Not too large an explosion, but the media was having a field day. They sat in front of the TV in their room with takeouts, watching the reports.

Now she’d slept and shaken off the jetlag, Tegan’s mind began to work properly again, and everything started to slot into place. She tucked into the carton of Chinese food Spartan brought back for them and felt the food fill what felt like a great void in her stomach. In about two hours, it would be night time and her digestive system would go into lockdown. What was there would stay there, and it wouldn’t accept any more until morning. Except blood, and older vampires could accept a little water, or even alcohol sometimes. And the other organ, the one that craved blood, would come into play.

She’d occasionally wondered what it felt like to ingest blood, wondering how they put up with the requirement. The answer was, she found, that they had no choice. They could do nothing else. It was that or starve to death. In any case, it didn’t feel as bad as she’d imagined, especially when the blood was Oliver’s. Tonight it wouldn’t be. He promised to take her out to feed and watch her, even though he claimed he would die of jealousy if she gave her prey one iota more pleasure than they needed to obliterate the memory and give them a thank you for the feed.

Although Spartan had fed her from his wrist before he left for the other hotel, they decided not to rely on him alone. He needed to keep peak strength. Vampires still fed in secret, for the most part, although clubs were growing where willing victims congregated, people who wanted to feel the thrill a feeding vampire could give them. Sorcerers never fed vampires, but then, she wasn’t a sorcerer anymore.

One TV commentator, standing not far from this hotel, by her judgment, snagged her attention. “It was rumored that international playboy and newly confessed vampire Lord Oliver Derrington was seen in the area, but nobody has confirmed it. Oliver, if you’re out there, come and talk to us.”

She put down her carton carefully, tucking the chopsticks inside the nearly empty container. “That’s not a bad idea.”

Oliver nearly dropped his spring roll but caught it before it reached the floor. He put it aside. “What did you say?”

“I said, that’s not a bad idea.” She faced him. “I finally worked out what Virginia wants. She wants you.”

“She’s a sociopath,” Spartan said quietly.

“That means she’s incapable of love,” Oliver pointed out.

Daria glanced at Tegan and nodded. “But it does mean she will want something and do anything to get it. She’ll get her kicks from domination and control, from owning. So what if she wants to own Oliver? Tegan’s death solves a few problems for her. It eliminates a possible witness to Marcus’s death. It also means she gets Tegan’s money, as her heir. Or a share of it. And she can have Tegan’s boyfriend, too, if she plays her cards right. She’s tried to kill Tegan twice.”

Tegan nodded. “That’s it, that’s what I meant. She won’t confess to controlling Marcus or sending the bomb. The police might find some evidence if it was in the note the doorman gave me.” Her face clouded. “We were in a small block belonging to a resort hotel when it happened. The hotel I checked into is one block. The casualty list could have been enormous.” She felt bleak inside until Oliver covered her hand with his own. It warmed a special place in her heart. His place. “Not that she’d have cared. She planned it for the daytime, when I’m weaker, and she knew I’d come alone, because she planted the compulsion in me via Marcus. When she sent the text that brought me here, that was the trigger.”

“I worried.”

“I know.” She bit her lip. “I know now.”

“You guys back together?”

She didn’t want to tell anyone that her memories of their previous affair had been burned out of her brain. So she just smiled and nodded at Spartan. “If we could get the police to say a body had been discovered, that might help the story. Then Oliver shows up. What’s the betting she comes out of hiding?”

She didn’t have to say any more. Oliver slowly nodded. “I’ll do it. I have to. I want this over with.” Savagery marked his face for a bare moment, revealing his nature, and what he would do to protect his own. And without asking, Tegan knew he thought of her as exactly that.

Spartan pulled out a cell. “I have the number of CAT US. They’ll arrange it.” He had them on speed dial, and a few sentences later, he nodded. “They can do it.”

****

Half an hour later, Oliver strolled out of a different hotel, all louche arrogance and menace. It had taken a bit of ingenuity to get him out of the hotel where he was actually staying, but a catering truck obliged for a handful of dollars, and Oliver ensured the man wouldn’t recognize him. Flashing would have weakened him. Get this done, and he could take Tegan out to feed. A journalist would do nicely and would be some kind of payback. The vultures deserved it.

But none of this showed as he strolled toward the pack of media standing listlessly outside the hotel. The entrance was guarded and blocked, but this being a resort hotel, spread out over a relatively large estate, a few would have found a way in. They always did. Well, fuck them, because they were about to miss this particular act in the show.

He dropped any attempt at fuzzing, and the result was almost instantaneous. First one noticed him, then another, then with a roar, they were off, about fifteen of them, snapping photos as they went. Oliver stuck his hands in his pockets and waited for them. Blinding flashes as they took photos, shouting and shrieking, but they couldn’t make out what he was saying until Daria found a channel on the TV that was relaying the events live.

Eventually the hubbub died down and one voice shouted a question. “Why are you here, Lord Derrington?”

He turned his head and fixed on the reporter but didn’t take off his sunglasses. “To identify the body of Tegan Gibbs. I discovered yesterday she was in the hotel when it exploded. As was her sister, Virginia Gibbs. She’d come here for a break from the relentless media pressure once our friendship came to light.”

“Did you know the police are refusing to say what caused the explosion?”

He nodded. “Yes, I did, and it concerns me deeply, but I know no more than you do.”

“Why the sunglasses, Oliver?” another voice yelled. “Does being a vampire make sunlight difficult?”

He slid off the sunglasses very, very slowly, so everyone could see his gaze fixed on the woman asking the question. No sign of the international playboy lurked in the blue depths, no otherworldliness either, just a concerned man. “No, it doesn’t.” He kept her attention, and the viewpoint on the TV switched to a camera close by the one he was staring into. “Ten minutes ago it was confirmed to me that Tegan was in the explosion and was killed. I came to talk to you because I want to be left alone to deal with the violent death of the woman I’ve fallen in love with and to decide what to do next.”

Tegan shivered. Would he care that much? Did he mean it?

“So would you have married her? Is she a vampire, too?”

“Yes, I would have married her if she’d have taken me, but I planned to ask her when she got back.” He put his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small box, opening to reveal a diamond solitaire ring.

Tegan caught her breath, but she still wasn’t sure if he meant it. It could be for the look, the story. That must be it. Make it real, otherwise Virginia wouldn’t take the bait. But Tegan found herself hoping, and she wasn’t sure why. Newly turned, how could she expect more or even deal with it? She shouldn’t want it so much.

“And no,” Oliver continued. “She isn’t a vampire.”

Lies, or rather, a story concocted for the press, to make up something to bring Virginia out of hiding.

A small commotion followed and a flurry of questions, many of them about vampires. The sun still beat down on them as it had the day before. Night would fall in about an hour, and until then, Oliver was vulnerable. Tegan wanted him to come in, stop standing in that blazing sunshine. It had to hurt. She winced in sympathy, but Daria gave her a wry smile. “Have you worked alongside many vampires in the past?”

“Yes, but on duty most of them preferred to turn nocturnal.”

“After around fifty years, they can stand sunshine fine. If this was midsummer, he’d have a problem, but then, so would I. March isn’t too bad. This sun is bright, not hot.”

She scoffed. “I was out in it for between five and ten minutes yesterday. It hurt, and I could hardly see.”

“I see,” Daria said. “That’s why you’re worried about him. You’re so newly turned, you’re a baby. Imagine putting a baby in the heat of the midday sun.” Tegan shuddered. “Exactly.”

That alleviated one of her concerns. She turned back to the screen where Oliver was still fielding questions. She figured he’d be done soon. Although he wasn’t communicating with her, he remained in her mind, like a radio that was on but the station had closed down for the night, a gentle, comforting hiss. Always there, always open to her. He was giving her so much, but he hadn’t said more than he was fond of her and they’d fucked before.

She was too vulnerable, too open to everything, not used to the emotions flooding her system, sending her nerves jagged. That was it. She desperately needed space of her own, a chance to settle down and get used to the new Tegan. The one she didn’t yet know properly.

So, the operation, the job. Get that done.

Quicker than she thought. A figure she knew almost as well as she knew her own strolled up the street. Short, sassy bob bouncing, light gleaming off its shiny dark crown, she lifted her chin and strode toward the crowd. Someone must have recognized her because she passed through the mob almost as if it didn’t exist, not stopping until she stood in front of him.

“Hello, Oliver,” she said in a hoarse voice, presenting her cheek for him to kiss.

****

Oliver felt a strange combination of violence and relief. Relief that their plan had worked, that Virginia had shown up. Violence because he pure and simple wanted to kill her. She didn’t deserve to live, didn’t deserve to exist after what she’d done. How many Talents had she betrayed in her selfish search for power and wealth? But most of all control. So the next part would be easy and incredibly difficult. He knew what she wanted, to take him, to replace her sister in his affections so she could take him for everything he had. Maybe get him, a mature vampire in control of his powers, to convert her. But she’d play with him first, because her need to control would want him to give it all to her.

He wanted to shake her warmly by the neck, but as soon as the gratifying thought occurred to him, he shoved the violent thoughts deep down. After all, she was a sorcerer. He couldn’t take any chances. Tegan was present all the time in him, but now Daria was, too, and Spartan had a lead, in case he needed to get in touch, fast. And Spartan was similarly bound to them, usual for CAT operatives, but more than necessary in this case, because a sorcerer was involved. The one standing before him, expecting his kiss.

He gave it, letting his lips tremble against her cheek. As he withdrew, he murmured to her. “You are so much like her.” It was true, she had similar facial features, although she’d never pass as Tegan, but they had the same build, the same coloring, and sometimes she had the same body language. Considering they’d been separated early on in their lives, that was saying something, although they’d worked hard to stay together. Tegan because she needed someone to love in her life of icy isolation. Virginia because she needed someone to care for her, to validate her while she was screwing everybody else she came into contact with.

And then it was Tegan’s turn. Except that it wasn’t. Virginia had to destroy her early in her vampire existence, because otherwise she’d learn how to flash and do what he did as an instinctive reaction to get out of trouble. He hadn’t thought when he’d flashed them both out of there, he’d just followed instinct. Bang and gone.

He made room for Virginia to stand next to him, but she wouldn’t speak, only clung to his arm as if it was the only thing holding her upright. And incidentally showing herself to the press as the stricken sister. After fielding a few more questions, he started to repeat himself, so he left, ignoring the mob clustering around him as he led the way back to the hotel.

This one was a three-star masquerading as four-star. But it worked. He couldn’t believe how many hotels there were on this stretch of road, but they were fortunate because it made their operation easier. He led her to his room, relieved when he opened the door to see a few items of luggage scattered about, none of them his. Spartan had been busy while he’d confronted the press, making the room appear more lived in. He crossed to the window and snatched the curtains closed, then turned to find her so close there was barely a foot between them. “I’m sorry, Virginia. Did the police give you the news?”

She nodded, and right on cue, her eyes filled with tears. “I needed someone to hold on to so I came out to you. How do you feel?”

Not tactless, as it sounded, the words of a sorcerer not entirely comfortable with normal emotions and feelings, but a woman determined to get him under her control. She entered his mind, softly, warmly, and he responded, mentally embracing her, but in fact, preventing her from going further. She’d put out tendrils, but they were ready for that, and Daria was on alert.

Daria was so good at melting into a man’s mind, he wondered if she’d done it with erotic intent. Except she was another virgin sorcerer, almost legendary in CAT circles. Her control was something else, but as in Tegan, he sensed hidden depths, levels of eroticism nobody had touched. That in itself was erotic. But he belonged to Tegan, heart and soul.

Daria blended like a soldier in the best camouflage, waiting for Virginia to move.

But it wouldn’t happen yet, and Virginia wasn’t a virgin. Even she wouldn’t try to seduce him so early, surely, although she’d try it sooner or later.

He wouldn’t let her hold him but made a show of crossing to the bar and opening a mini bottle of whisky. He knocked it back without bothering with a glass and offered her the contents of the bar. “Shall we just drink ourselves senseless?”

He glanced out the window. This room looked out over the street to a large open air restaurant, which was just gearing up for the evening’s business. People were strolling along the paths in the growing dusk, and the band was tuning up. Latin, from the number of percussion instruments. The bright shirts were a giveaway, too. Spartan sat there, waiting for his word or a mental signal, close enough to do some good, not close enough to drown Virginia in mental signals, although he knew fine how to close down.

The gentle touch on his back told him she’d begun her campaign. “Did you really love her?”

He didn’t have to think about that one, but he pushed away the truth. “You’re so like her.” He turned around, finding her close.

“You can’t drink yourself senseless, can you? It’ll be night soon, and you’ll need to feed.”

So would Tegan. Spartan had promised to watch her, but they’d wait a while until he’d done this. He needed to get her to open up, then his job was done. Daria would do the rest. And he’d be out of there faster than shit off a hot shovel.

He softened his voice and leaned a tiny bit closer. “You’re right.” Then he turned away. No sense making it too easy. “I lied to the press. They told me she’d died earlier, but I didn’t want to face them right away. I couldn’t bear it. I let her down after she put so much trust in me.” He added a crack in his voice.

She touched him again. She must have learned that touch worked better than most other things, especially in emotional situations. “I know. We used to meet in the old hotel further up the street, near the hotel where she died.” She gave a heartbroken smile. A good one. “She must have decided she wanted a bit more comfort, and since I was delayed, she might as well check in at the four-star.” She paused. “Were you with her?”

If he said yes, she’d know her plan had failed, because she’d planted the compulsion for Tegan to go alone. So he shook his head. “I saw her laptop, where she’d made the reservation for the flight. We argued before she went. Now I’ll never be able to tell her I’m sorry.” He buried his face in his hands and decided to capitalize on the story, get her wondering. “It was over you.”

“Me?” Her astonishment wasn’t feigned, he was sure, but a note of curiosity raised in her mind. She knew he was there.

He made a point of withdrawing quickly, making sure she couldn’t miss it. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to make things worse.”

“Tell me.” The pressure of her hand on his arm increased. “You shouldn’t brood. You should clear it out, or you’ll brood about it. It won’t do you any good at all.” She even sounded different than her sister, no doubt a product of them going to different schools in different places. Tegan’s sharp, clipped accent was absent here. Midwest, he guessed, but he couldn’t come any closer. Not the same charming precision that gave her voice color and tone.

He gazed at her, noting the differences between her eyes and Tegan’s. Tegan’s turned up a tiny bit at the corners, and their color was slightly lighter—velvet brown instead of verging on black. And she had golden glints. “I should, I guess. While it’s fresh.” He paused, bit his lip. “I still can’t believe she’s gone.”

Oliver forced himself to remember that Tegan was dead, pushing all other possibilities away, letting himself sink into the pain he’d feel if Virginia had succeeded in her plan. “G asked me to look after her when she came out of therapy. We got involved, and she clung. The first night we spent together, she told me she loved me. I didn’t know what to do, and eventually I decided to let her down lightly, but not just yet. She was still hurting when Marcus came on to us. I did it because I thought it would help her to understand there were more men in the world, and she did it because I wanted her to.” He bit his lip again, drew blood for good measure. To his shock, she reached up and traced the drop over his lip, spreading it like lip balm. He licked it off before she could.

She put her finger in her mouth and sucked, giving him a sexy pout as she did so. “It wasn’t your fault. Tegan was a lost soul. When she was raped, the bottom fell out of her world. The therapists helped her to survive, and I hoped, in time, she’d recover. I think you helped. I sent Marcus to you, just because he wanted it. But you didn’t want her, did you?”

He shook his head, keeping her attention. “I wanted you.”

He swung away, taking a couple of strides across the room. “God help me, we can never be together now. But you are all the things Tegan could have been. She was too damaged, too hurt by what had happened to her. It was as if she’d frozen.” And you, you misbegotten bitch, didn’t give a fuck. You were going to go at her until she was dead. But he shoved the thoughts aside fast. This was harder than he’d imagined it ever could be. Denying the strong woman he loved, the one he wanted forever, would kill him.

But he wouldn’t have to do it for long. He might have to take a few steps further. He needed Virginia to drop her barriers, as many as he could get her to do, and then Daria could move in. Her speed and precision in targeting were legendary. He just prayed the fact would live up to the legend, or it might be him who died in this anonymous room tonight. One hotel room after another. He never wanted to see a tourist hotel again.

She touched him again, one hand on his upper arm. Classy, because then he could turn around and take her into his arms, which he did. But he couldn’t get erect for her. Not looking into these cold, dead eyes and thinking of the loveliness of her sister’s.

Tegan’s voice shocked him into life. Do it, Oliver. Think of me. Remember when you sucked me, so beautiful. I want to do it to you. I want to touch my lips to your cock and feel your skin against mine. Hold you in my mouth until you come.

By concentrating on Tegan, he could do it. But he wouldn’t fuck Virginia. Couldn’t.

If you have to, you will. She’s a stone cold killer, selling Talents for her own game. Life’s nothing to her. If you need it, do it, but think of me all the time. Remember me.

Without her, he’d have been toast. But she sustained him, whispering dirty thoughts into the most secret recesses of his mind, inflaming his libido, reminding him about times she couldn’t remember. If he lived, he could have it all again, teach her all the things she’d learned before. That made everything worth fighting for. And he noted a touch of weakness in her voice. His lady needed to feed. The sooner this was over, the sooner he could take her out and get her what she needed to be strong.

So he pulled Virginia close and kissed her with all the desperation of a man half out of his mind with grief and guilt, letting the false emotions drive him. He urged her toward the bed, and she went willingly, half dragging him over her as she fell back on to the sheets. As he covered her face and neck with kisses, she gasped his name, held him in a tight grip, as if she’d never let him go. Had she held Marcus that way? Told him she loved him as he worshipped her? Because she did nothing to him, didn’t touch him except in that punishing hold, didn’t explore his body as a lover would. Instead, she let him do all the work. He was to adore her.

“I can’t stop. You taste so good.” He didn’t want to use any of the words he’d ever used with Tegan, because with her he meant every word. With Virginia he meant none of it. This close he felt her coldness, her total lack of feeling for anyone except herself.

“I wanted you always. I deserve you.” Strange words for a woman to say to her lover, but Oliver pretended to drink them up, feverishly kissing her.

“We should stop,” he murmured. “But I need to be close to someone. I need to be close to you.”

“Yes, that’s it.” She had his shirt off, dragging at the opening until the buttons popped off. He did the same for her, taking her T-shirt in both hands and tearing it up the middle. He made short work of her bra, biting the middle part, letting his fang graze her. Maybe he could defer this by feeding—that would weaken her. He nuzzled her, but she took his face in her hands and lifted him away, so he was staring down at her avid face.

“Yes, this is what I want. A vampire in his prime, not one just begun, or a new one. You. We could be such a team, Oliver.” He held his tongue. She had no intention of forming a team. But Marcus would have fallen for that line. He created teams around him, brought the best out of all his people. Except for the one. Her. She would have crept into Marcus’ mind, as she was doing to Oliver, now. Conquering a full-grown vampire would be a triumph indeed, would feed her ego until she went out of control. Did sociopaths ever get that far? That, surely, was something else.

Daria’s voice came dryly into his mind, deep down where Virginia hadn’t yet penetrated. Megalomaniac. Megalomaniacs are often sociopaths. Psychopaths, too.

He didn’t want to get into a discussion of the various types of mental conditions. Just the one. But no team Virginia. Not for much longer. He no longer cared if he took her alive. She’d be better dead, but he had just enough control left to ensure he didn’t kill her.

He touched her neck with his fangs, grazed it, murmured to her. “Let me. Let me taste you.”

“Yesss.”

He sank his fangs deep, not bothering to take care.

And she loved it. She screamed her approval, and too late, he realized this openness went two ways. A part of his mind opened, preparing to give his prey endorphins, happy hormones, and it was a part like an automatic reflex, something he couldn’t control, although he could decide whether to go through with it or not. That part opened anyway.

That was how she entered, how she sank deep, and how she nearly killed him.

When he felt the needle enter his mind through the feeding part, he knew how she’d trapped so many Talents. If he’d been a normal everyday vampire, she’d have had him, suffusing his mind with want and need, desires of things she wanted, but when she’d done, they would be his needs, too. That was how she’d trapped Marcus, a good man she’d forced to do her will.

She was forcing him, but Oliver was ready for her. When he opened, he did it with a suddenness that made her stumble, and in that instance, Daria was there.

He dragged his fangs free and watched the blood gush over the sheets, the analytical part of his mind thinking, shit, now we’ll have to clean up. Some part of him was usually separate, thinking. It was the glory of Tegan that he never felt like that when he was making love to her. She made him forget everything else.

Not Virginia. Her arrogance proved her downfall. So sure of herself, so positive this would work on him as it had with all the other Talents she’d trapped and sold. But not Oliver. He had too much to live for, too much to go back to.

Tegan.

I’m here.

She stayed with him as Daria swept in, taking Virginia’s momentary astonishment that he’d not succumbed like the others and using it to go deeper, pushing aside carefully constructed barriers as if they were flimsy amateur attempts, taking each part of Virginia as her own as she passed.

The door crashed open, but he didn’t have to look to know Spartan stood there. However, when he did, he saw the man nude. He must have flown here. “Daria says I have to force you to stop that wound.”

He shot Spartan a wicked grin. “Sure I will.”

“Do it.”

He watched Virginia gasp as the loss of blood chilled her, then shiver, as it worsened. He could let her drain, watch her die, and be absolutely sure she would never harm another Talent.

The fresh, bright red blood pumped out over the white pillows, staining them irrevocably. They might arrest him for murder. The first vampire murder to be brought to court. After all, millions of people had seen him with Virginia half an hour before.

When she’d lost a pint, maybe more, he bent and sealed the wounds, sweeping his tongue over her skin efficiently, slowing the gush to a trickle, then watching the scabs form over the slashes he’d made in her skin.

“I could have let you die,” he said. “But a lot of relatives need closure and a lot of crimes have to be expiated. Daria has you now. She’ll tell you what to do.”

Spartan handed him some cable ties. “Secure her. Daria will shut down her mind.”

“No!” Virginia found the strength to cry out. She knew what would happen. She wouldn’t be able to move without Daria’s permission. Daria would control her every action until Virginia had been brought to justice. A sorcerer as powerful as Daria could block her mind and leave controls that only she could operate. It would lock Virginia into her own mind as securely as if she were paralyzed from the neck down. “Please don’t do that, it’s not fair!”

They were her last words as Daria slowly bore down on her. Oliver left her mind as Daria coldly and efficiently did her job and Virginia lay on the bed, staring up at him, hatred in her eyes.

At least she could still hate.