man without a single qualm if it came to that. Nobody would be allowed to hurt
Delight again.
Stefan nodded and echoed his thoughts. "Prince and Smith will have to be taken
care of."
Lucian knew he could count on Stefan's help in protecting Delight. He had claimed
her, and as such, she was under Dalakis protection and all that it entailed.
Stefan's voice broke into his thoughts. "You can let her know that the night janitor
was just wounded. He will be fine in a few weeks, but they hit him from behind so he
does not know anything. I also visited her brother while he slept and planted the
suggestion that Delight was fine and that they did not expect to see her until tomorrow
night because she was staying with a friend."
Stefan glanced at the covered windows and Lucian knew that his brother was
feeling the same lethargy spreading throughout his own body as he was, heralding the
coming sunrise.
"Thank you." Lucian didn't have to say anything more. They were so close, he
knew that Stefan understood everything that went unsaid between them.
Stefan rose from his chair and headed towards one of several hidden passageways
that connected their two houses. "Keep her close and we will deal with this tomorrow
night."
Before Lucian could speak, his brother was gone. He could sense him moving
swiftly through the hidden tunnel towards his own home. Lucian did a mental sweep of
the house, making sure everything was locked up tight. He knew that Stefan would
have already done this, but he wasn't taking any chances with Delight's safety.
As he climbed the stairs towards his bedroom, he could hear the soft sounds of
Delight's breathing and the gentle rhythm of her heart. Having her in his bed, waiting
for him, filled him with a strange combination of lust and tenderness that was almost
overwhelming. In his short time with her, she had managed to make him feel more
emotions than he had in several hundred years. Without even trying, she had laid a
gentle siege and claimed his heart.
Closing the door to the bedroom, he secured it before removing his bathrobe and
slipping under the covers. Delight rolled towards him, seeking his warmth and comfort.
Wrapping her in his arms, he eased her head down onto his chest. Her breath tickled his
chest hairs and his cock twitched in response to her nearness.
The dawn was just breaking, but he had one last thing to do before he could sleep.
Cupping the back of her head, he focused all his mental power on Delight. "You will
sleep until I awake tomorrow night."
Satisfied, he settled himself in the comfort of his bed, and with Delight clasped tight
in his arms, he awaited sleep. The moment the sun crossed the horizon, he felt a deep
lassitude fill him and gave himself over to rest. His body stilled, his breathing stopped,
and his body ceased to function. Knowing Delight would be here when he awoke, he
allowed himself to sleep deeply.
Chapter Eight
Delight fought her way out of sleep. She usually awoke easily, alert and energized
to start her day. But for some reason, this morning it felt as if she was trying to swim
through quicksand just to scratch the surface of wakefulness. Her limbs were heavy and
her eyes felt as if they had lead weights attached to them.
It would be so easy to drift back to sleep, towards the beckoning darkness, but she
resisted. In the back of her mind, something was nagging her. There was something she
had to do. Something important.
She frowned as she desperately tried to remember what it was that she needed to
know. A dull throbbing behind her eyes made it almost impossible to think. That in
itself was strange as she rarely ever had a headache.
Taking a deep breath, she forced her eyes to open. Squinting into the darkness she
looked around and could just make out the shapes of the furniture. Immediately
alarmed, she tried to sit up in bed and found that she couldn't move. This was not her
room!
She began to struggle against the covers and the weight that kept her pinned to the
bed. It was then she noticed a man's arm wrapped tight around her waist, manacling
All at once, memories began to flood back into her brain. Her hand went to her
head, as if it could somehow stop the pounding rhythm and the pictures that filled her
mind. Sinking back into the pillows, she inhaled deeply, forcing herself to breathe,
trying to remain calm.
That was a mistake. With the first breath she took, Delight was filled with the
masculine scent of the man lying next to her, a kind of combination of sex, male, and
just a hint of brandy. Lucian Dalakis.
How could she have forgotten, even for a moment, the events of last night? The
murder, the harrowing race for her life, and then there was Lucian. Delight was
appalled at how quickly and easily she'd fallen into bed with a man who was little more
than a stranger. She just didn't do things like that. And the things they had done!
Delight could feel the heat warm her cheeks at the memory of their sexual encounter.
Right now, she needed to go home. Chase and Miss Nadine would be frantic by
now and had probably already called the police. She felt guilty about last night. A man
had been killed, her family had to be worried sick about her, and she'd spent the night
having the most fantastic sex of her entire life.
She chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about it. The only excuse she could
come up with was that she must have been more shaken and muddled by the events of
last night than she'd thought. Otherwise, she would have called the authorities
immediately and then gone straight home to reassure her family that she was fine.
It took her a while to get her body to cooperate, but Delight finally managed to roll
out from under the male arm. Sitting on the side of the bed, she stared down at his
sleeping figure. He was so gorgeous. Lucian's long, black hair was pushed back from
his face and rested on the plump pillow under his head. Even in sleep, his face looked
stern with its severe lines and angles.
Reaching out, she placed a hand in the center of his chest. The sheet had slipped to
his waist when she'd moved from his embrace and she couldn't resist touching the hard
planes of his torso. The man was hard everywhere. She kept her touch light so as not to
wake him. The last thing she wanted was to have to deal with what they had done last
night. Moving her hand, she placed it over his heart, wanting to feel its steady beating
once more before she left him.
Frowning, she shifted her hand a little to the left. Nothing. Leaning down, she
placed her ear on his chest, no longer worried about waking him. Nothing.
"Lucian." She shook him slightly and got no reaction. He didn't seem to be
breathing. "Lucian!" Her voice was louder now and had a slight hysterical edge to it.
He couldn't be dead. She'd seen three dead men last night and that was more than
enough for her to have to deal with.
As she opened his mouth and tilted back his head, she glanced around the room,
frantically searching for a telephone. Reaching across Lucian, she clicked on the bedside
lamp and flinched when the light hit her eyes. Her worried gaz
ed went back to him and
she froze. Lying on his back in the bed, he looked dead. There was no sign of life in him
at all.
There was no phone and she didn't have time to try and find one. Trying to
remember everything she'd learned about first aid, she began to give him CPR. As she
blew into his mouth, she felt his lungs rise. When her lips touched his, an elusive
memory floated to the surface.
She could hear Lucian's voice telling her that she wouldn't remember what had
happened. Her own reply echoed in her brain. She would remember. She started chest
compressions. "Come on. Breathe!"
It hit her suddenly. Pulling back so quickly she almost fell off the bed, visions of
herself totally naked, offering herself to Lucian, flooded her. She'd not only offered her
body, but her blood. And he had taken both.
Shaking now, she concentrated on the growing memory. Two of his teeth had
grown into fangs, and he'd sucked the blood from her body. Her tongue tingled as she
remembered drinking his blood in return.
Clapping her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, she launched herself
from the bed, stumbling down off the platform. Slowly, she backed away from the still
body lying there. Vampire. The word was loud and clear in her head. This was no
dream, but a living nightmare. She had escaped being murdered by local killers just to
end up with a vampire.
Clutching her chest, she realized that she was beginning to hyperventilate and
forced herself to control her breathing. Everything was okay. If Lucian had meant her
any harm, she'd already be dead. As strange as it all seemed, she still wasn't really
afraid of him. She was more afraid of what he was. Deep inside, she felt she knew
Lucian and trusted him. Which was crazy and showed her just how precarious her
mental state was at the moment. This was all just too much for her to take in.
Needing to be home among everything and everyone that was familiar to her,
Delight groped around the room until she found her soiled clothing from the night
before. Wrinkling her nose in distaste, she pulled on her underwear before tugging on
the ruined pants and blouse. Most of the buttons were gone from the blouse, so she tied
the tails together as tight as she could. Slipping on her shoes, she sent up a prayer of
gratitude before bending down and scooping up her purse, which had been lying next
to them.
As much as she wanted to be gone from here, a part of her didn't want to leave
Lucian. Just the thought of leaving made her break out into a cold sweat. No matter
what he was, Lucian had saved her and given her the best sexual experience of her life.
Just watching him lie there made her breasts swell and she could feel moisture pooling
between her thighs. That only confused her more.
Padding silently back to the bed, she stepped up onto the platform, bent down and
kissed his lips softly. "Goodbye and thank you." As she pulled back, she thought she
saw his eye twitch, but when a minute passed and he didn't move, she convinced
herself that she'd been mistaken.
Walking to the bedroom door was one of the hardest things she'd ever done. The
farther away she got from Lucian, the worse she felt. It was as if his soul was calling to
hers, pleading with her to stay. Tears filled her eyes and she dashed them angrily away.
She'd only met him last night. There was no way she could be this attached to him.
But she was. Her heart was pounding and she rubbed at the pain in her chest as she
moved one step at a time to the doorway. Placing her hand on the doorknob, she turned
it quietly. She could hear his voice in her head, commanding her to stay. She hesitated,
but pushed onward, determined to find the space she needed to try and understand
what had happened to her.
Pulling it open, she slipped through the opening and carefully closed the door
behind her. She felt like a thief and a traitor as she crept down the stairs to the front
door. She expected the bedroom door to slam open at any minute and have Lucian stop
her from leaving. But that didn't happen.
Her hands were shaking so badly that it took her a few tries to open all the locks on
the front door. When the door closed and she heard the lock click behind her, she
almost cried out in distress. She had to fight the urge to turn around and pound on the
door until Lucian let her back into his home and into his life.
Gritting her teeth against the grief that threatened to swamp her, Delight looked
around the neighborhood. She had no idea where she was. From the position of the sun,
she could tell that it was late afternoon. Appalled that she'd slept the day away, she
hurried down the front steps and started up the sidewalk. At the corner she glanced at
the street sign and was relieved when she recognized it immediately. She was only a
few blocks from home. That gave her the small boost of energy she needed to get her
moving again.
Home was close now, so she kept putting one foot in front of the other and ignoring
the part of her that felt as if she was really moving further from home with every step
she took away from Lucian.
As she trudged up the steps to The Grande, Delight finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Right now, she wanted a long, hot shower, clean clothing, and food. She knew she was
putting off the inevitable. The police would have to be called and she would have to
give her statement. She'd already decided not to tell the police about Lucian. She would
say that a stranger saved her and that she remembered nothing. They might not believe
her, but that was their problem. Delight would protect Lucian at all costs. That he was a
vampire didn't seem to matter and that was something else she really had to think
about. But not now.
The door opened just as she reached for the handle. "Child, you look like something
the cat dragged home."
Delight took one look at the concern on Miss Nadine's face and burst into tears.
Saying nothing, the older woman just wrapped her arm around Delight and led her into
the parlor. Sinking down into the sofa, Miss Nadine held her in her comforting embrace
and rocked her back and forth, crooning a soft lullaby.
When she had no tears left, Delight lifted her head. "I don't know where to begin."
"At the beginning, child." Sitting back, she quietly waited as the story came
pouring out of Delight. She didn't interrupt as Delight told her about the murder and
about Lucian.
As much as she loved and trusted Miss Nadine, she couldn't bring herself to tell her
about the steamy lovemaking she and Lucian had shared or the fact that he was a
vampire.
Now that she was away from him, Delight could hardly believe it herself. It
wouldn't be too hard to convince herself that she was wrong about Lucian and it had all
been brought on by the stress of what had happened to her, except for one thing.
Delight wasn't a weak-willed woman, nor was she prone to hysterics or exaggerations.
She'd always been strong and dealt with life's problems head on. And this would be no
different.
Delight sighed, knowing that Miss Nadine was smart enough to fill in many of the
blanks in her story, but she wouldn't ask many questions. For that, she wa
s very
grateful.
"I didn't believe that story that your brother spun this morning." Reaching out, she
clasped Delight's hand in hers.
"What story?"
"That you were staying with a friend last night after work and that you wouldn't be
home until late today." Miss Nadine shook her head. "I asked him how he knew that,
but he couldn't tell me. It seemed to come out of thin air, but Chase was adamant that it
was the truth." She watched Delight, waiting for her reaction.
Delight's head was spinning with the implications. Were Lucian's powers so great
that he could plant a suggestion in someone's mind? The answer was, of course, a
resounding yes. She'd seen for herself last night just how powerful and dangerous a
man he was.
The other woman was still waiting for an explanation. Giving her a half smile, she
shrugged. "Chase wouldn't lie. Maybe he just got mixed up." It was a lame excuse, but
it was all she had.
"Uh-huh." From the tone of her voice, she could tell that Miss Nadine didn't believe
her, but would let it go for now. "No matter." Briskly, she rose from the sofa. "First
thing is to get you a shower and some hot food. I'll call the police and then we'll see
what's to be done."
Nodding gratefully, she rose and followed Miss Nadine back to the kitchen. "I'll be
back down in twenty minutes."
"Take your time, child. I'll have some hot chicken soup and warm fresh, sourdough
rolls for you when you're ready. That and a hot cup of tea will help put you to rights."
Delight trudged up the stairs. She let her mind go blank and concentrated totally on
her physical needs. Pulling off her clothing, she stuffed it all in the garbage. Turning,
she headed towards the bathroom and suddenly stopped. Her head fell to her chest and
she sighed deeply. As much as she wanted to toss all the clothing, she knew she
couldn't. Turning, she went back to the pail and pulled every soiled item of clothing out
again and laid it carefully aside just in case the police wanted it for evidence.
Leaving it behind, she padded into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
Stepping under the hot spray, she allowed it to clean her body and wipe the cobwebs
from her mind. The hot beads of water pummeled her skin and it was only then that she