Shadows of Eternity

Chapter Thirty-Three

L eia had intended to go lingerie shopping first thing Monday morning, but after making love to Rohan until the wee small hours of the morning, she got a rather late start. By the time she left the apartment, it was almost one when she reached the mall.

There were so many lovely nightgowns to choose from, so many styles and fabrics—long and slinky, short and sexy, silk and satin and nylon. Nighties that hid nothing at all, others made of soft flannel that hid everything.

It took her a while to choose. Even though she was no longer virginal, she picked out a long, filmy white gown for her wedding night, a sexy black satin one with a provocative slit on the side, and a hot-pink baby doll set. She bought slippers to match each nightie. She also bought a robe, as well as a very sexy bra and matching bikini panties.

After paying for her things, she wandered into the Ladies’ Department and spent an hour trying on dresses but couldn’t find anything she really liked.

Her next stop was the food court where she bought a decadent chocolate doughnut and a pint of milk. How did Rohan live without chocolate? she wondered. But then, a love for chocolate seemed to be more of a female thing.

She had to pass through the Men’s Department on the way to the parking garage. She paused in the underwear aisle. Rohan tended to wear a lot of black, she mused, as she looked at the briefs. Grinning inwardly, she bought him several pairs to match her nightgowns—a couple pairs of skimpy black briefs, a pair of white ones, and a pair in hot-pink.

Pleased with her purchases, she left the store, surprised to see that the sun was low in the sky. She hadn’t realized she’d been in the mall for so long.

Leia had just put her shopping bags in the trunk and closed the lid when she had the uneasy feeling she was being watched. Suddenly wary, she glanced over her shoulder, felt a trickle of alarm when she saw a tall man with brown hair standing a few feet from her car. She tried to look away and found that she couldn’t draw her gaze from his, nor could she move.

Fear sent a cold chill racing down her spine as he strode toward her. She recognized him then. It was the man who had been sitting behind her during two of Rohan’s performances in San Diego. The vampire who had turned him. Josiah .

“Leia, how nice to see you again.” His voice was without inflection.

She shivered violently as the wintry chill running down her spine turned to ice. “What do … do you want?”

“I merely wished to meet the woman who has stolen my fledgling’s heart.” Lifting his hand, he stroked his long, narrow fingers lightly over her cheek and down the length of her neck. “I wonder,” he mused. “Are you as tasty as you are lovely?”

Leia’s gaze darted wildly from side to side, desperately hoping to find help, but the parking garage was empty save for the two of them.

Her fear turned to horror when his hands folded over her shoulders, his nails digging painfully into her flesh. He smiled wolfishly as he leaned forward, his tongue laving the soft skin below her ear. Oh, Lord , she thought. He’s going to bite me.

The thought had no sooner crossed her mind than she felt the sharp prick of his fangs at her throat. There was no pleasure in his bite, merely a sharp pain that was quickly over.

The vampire licked her blood from his lips. “I can see why Rohan is so entranced with you,” he remarked. “I haven’t had a human companion in decades. Perhaps you and I … ”

She never knew what he’d been about to say. One minute they were alone, the next Rohan was there.

Fangs bared, he stepped between her and Josiah. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he snarled.

Josiah lifted one shoulder in a negligent shrug. “Merely taking a taste. Surely you don’t object?” he said, his voice thick with warning.

Leia bit down on her lower lip as the tension between the two vampires grew palpable.

“She’s mine, damn you!” Rohan growled. “Back off.”

Leia felt the power around Josiah grow stronger. It raised the hair along her arms and made her stomach churn.

“I’m your sire,” Josiah said. “Surely you remember that what is yours is also mine?”

“Go to hell.”

“Are you willing to fight me for her?”

Rohan nodded curtly. “Right here. Right now.”

Josiah glanced around. “Alas,” he said, with a wry grin. “We are no longer alone. Perhaps another time, in another place.”

Leia blinked and Josiah was gone. She gasped as all the strength went out of her legs. She would have fallen if Rohan hadn’t quickly turned and threw his arms around her. The next thing she knew, they were in her apartment.

She sagged in his arms.

“Shh, love, it’s all right now,” he whispered.

“He … he wanted me … to be his … his companion.”

“No way in hell,” Rohan said, and then swore a crude oath. “He bit you! Dammit, I’ll kill him for that.” Cradling her in his embrace, he sat on the sofa and rocked her back and forth until her trembling ceased.

“My car … ” Leia said.

“I’ll get it later. Right now, you could use a drink.” He settled her in a corner of the sofa, covered her with a throw, and went into the kitchen but found nothing stronger than soda. A thought took him to the nearest liquor store where he bought a bottle of port wine. He was back in the apartment before she knew he’d been gone. In the kitchen, he poured a glass of port, then carried it out to her. “Here, love, drink this.”

She sipped it slowly, then frowned. “Where did you get this? I don’t remember having any wine in the apartment.”

He shrugged. “I made a quick trip to the liquor store.”

“You’re so thoughtful,” she murmured, leaning against him.

“Drink it all, love.”

She did as he asked, sighed as a delightful warmth spread through her. “His bite wasn’t as nice as yours,” she murmured, her eyelids fluttering down as he spoke to her mind, willing her to sleep.

Rohan held her close, his hatred for his sire swelling within him. There was an unwritten law that vampires did not prey on humans who had been claimed by another. He swore again. “All that crap about what’s mine is his,” he growled, “I don’t think so. Not by a long shot.”

He stretched out of the sofa, content to hold Leia close to his side.

Sometime later, Leia woke to find herself alone on the sofa. She glanced around the room but there was no sign of Rohan. No doubt he had gone hunting

Sitting up, she lifted a hand to her neck, felt a wave of revulsion as she remembered Josiah biting her, drinking her blood. She had felt violated, unclean. Something she had never felt with Rohan. She had never been so frightened in her whole life. One thing for certain—Rohan’s sire was scary with a capital S.

What if Josiah came after her? She knew Rohan would fight for her, but could he win? Josiah was older, therefore stronger, according to what Rohan had told her. And like Rohan, Josiah could be awake during the day.

She put the troubling thought out of her mind. They were getting married in a few days. Rohan needed a tux. She needed to rent a hotel room for her parents. So much to do, she thought. So little time to do it. She shouldn’t have left everything until the last minute

Slipping off the sofa, she went into the bathroom to shower, hoping she could scrub away the memory of Josiah’s vile touch. She was drying off when her cell phone rang. Wrapped in a towel, she dashed into the living room and scooped it up. “Hi, Dad.”

“You sound out of breath,” Brian Winchester said. “Are you all right?”

“Of course I am. What’s up?”

“What are you doing?”

“I just got out of the shower.”

“We need to talk.”

The words poured over her like ice water. “Is something wrong? Is Mom all right? Luke?”

“They’re both fine,” he said, curtly. “Get dressed. I’m waiting out front.”

Leia’s hands were trembling as she pulled on a pair of jeans and a sweater, stepped into a pair of sandals. Her father had sounded so serious, all she could think was that something terrible had happened to her mom, or maybe her brother, and he didn’t want to tell her the bad news over the phone.

She found her father parked in front of her apartment. She took a deep breath as she opened the passenger door and settled into the seat. “What’s going on?”

Her father put the car in drive and pulled out of the apartment complex and into the street.

“Dad, you’re scaring me.”

He drove for another few minutes. Leia’s heart was pounding when he pulled up in front of the small park located not far from her apartment building. He switched off the engine, then turned in his seat to face her. “What do you know about this guy, Rohan?”

Leia frowned. “All I need to know. Why?”

“I had a friend of mine do a background check on him.” He held up his hand when he saw the protest in her eyes. “He checked the DMV records, birth records, voting records and LAPD’s database. All Rohan’s information is fake. Date of birth, parents’ names, social security number, driver’s license. There are no records of anyone known as Shadow Dancer, or Rohan Stillwater.”

Leia blinked at him. In the back of her mind, she heard Rohan’s voice telling her the police didn’t even know he existed. Apparently, neither did anyone else. It wasn’t surprising, she thought. He’d been born over three hundred years ago in an Indian village. It was likely that even Rohan didn’t know the exact year or date of his birth. Still, in this day and age, it was hard to believe even a vampire could stay under the radar. How did he get a driver’s license, credit cards? And then she frowned. She didn’t know if he had a license. She’d never seen him use a credit card. Only cash.

“You can’t marry him,” her father said flatly. “For all you know, he could be a serial killer, a rapist, who the hell knows what else. I’m taking you home with me.”

“But … ”

“There is no but,” Brian said as he put the car in gear. “I’m taking you home now.”

“This is kidnapping, you know,” Leia muttered irritably.

“So have me arrested,” her father retorted. “I’d happily go to jail to keep you from marrying that man until I know who he really is, and what he’s after.”

It wasn’t who Rohan was that had her worried, Leia thought. But what he was. There was just no way to explain that he was a vampire, let alone expect her parents to believe it. Or accept it.

Josiah grinned as he dissolved into mist and followed the blue Subaru. He had been determined to have the woman since that first taste only hours ago, and this seemed as good a time as any to take her and make her his.

Trent swore under his breath as he watched the vampire disappear. Dammit all to hell! He’d been so close to taking the bloodsucker’s head and now the chance was gone. Who knew when he’d get another?

He frowned as he got into his car and pulled out of the park behind the blue Subaru, curious to know where Leia was going and who she was with. It sure as hell wasn’t Rohan.

Trent took a deep breath and let it out in a long, slow sigh. What difference did it make who Leia was with? His whole world was falling apart. Janae was threatening to divorce him if he didn’t quit his job. They’d had a hell of a fight, with her screaming that she couldn’t live with a man who made his living killing other men. He should have lied when she asked if he’d ever killed anyone. Instead, he’d refused to answer and that had just made it worse. He had been sorely tempted to tell her the truth—which was, of course, forbidden—and in her current state of mind, it probably would have sent her over the edge. When she locked him out of the bedroom, he gave in and promised to quit, but only after he’d finished his current assignment, which meant destroying Rohan and his sire, no matter how long it took.

He swore long and loud. He was angry and frustrated with the day’s events. And horny as hell.

Sensing Leia’s anxiety, Rohan released his prey from his thrall and willed himself back to Leia’s apartment. He stood in the middle of the living room, every sense on alert. Leia had left the apartment a short time ago and she had been upset at the time, though he couldn’t determine why. Lifting his head, he closed his eyes, his senses moving outward from the apartment.

Her father had been here.

What the hell?. Why had Winchester spirited his daughter away?

He considered a moment, then grunted. He’d been well aware of Winchester’s suspicions, but that was to be expected. The man had been a detective for over twenty-five years. Being suspicious was second nature. A deep dive into his identity probably set off a lot of alarm bells in Winchester’s mind.

As soon as he stepped out of the apartment, he caught the lingering scents of both Josiah and Frumusanu.

Muttering an oath, he opened the blood link between himself and Leia.