Sleeping With The Vampire (Immortal Vampire #2)

Chapter 1

Izzy

I sense the danger before I see it.

It is the shift in the breeze, the way the air is suddenly filled with movement at the edge of the old graveyard where I have come to visit my father’s last resting place. It is a good place to think, and usually, peaceful.

But now, something – or someone – is coming for me.

I can feel there are eyes on me, drawing me out.

Without having to think about it, my posture changes to one of readiness. My knees soften, ready to jump or lunge out of the way, my hand sliding into my pocket for my dagger with the reinforced silver blade. I have various weapons, but the small dagger with the sharp blade is my favorite. I have trained with it since I was a little girl. Despite my mother’s fears, I have become a bounty hunter like my father before me and I can only hope to one day be as good at it as he was. Despite my size, or perhaps because of it, I have a high success rate. I am often underestimated. No-one thinks the pretty girl with the innocent blue eyes is capable of bringing big men into submission. But I can move fast, and I have unusual strength from being half-Guard, from my father’s side, a line of descendants of the Northern men, hard and tough folk, accustomed to a life of fighting.

I watch the far end of the graveyard where the trees are dense and dark and I see the shadows part for a tall man coming towards me. As he comes closer, I sense it is a vampire, from the athletic stride and the magnetic aura that surrounds him. I am immediately on edge. My father’s hatred of them has been bred into me, and I loathe them just as he did. It helps that I also inherited the Guard’s resistance to their charms, the pull that they exert over their prey. It is one of the reasons why I have been particularly good at hunting them.

As he comes closer, I notice his clothing, the fine cut of his jacket and the exquisite shirt underneath. His bearing is almost regal. He is unusually tall and yet of a slim build and I realize that this must be King Lucca Fallon, the head of the prominent d’Valleira family. He is known to have a certain allure, with his blonde hair the color of untarnished gold. He is said to be reclusive and is not often seen away from his home, a refuge deep in the Grey Mountains. I wonder where his guards are, the warriors who’d usually accompany him. He is alone and this strikes me as odd. His approach across the open churchyard is not accidental, he wants me to see him coming towards me openly. It is meant to reassure me, but it doesn’t work.

When he is a few yards away, he stops.

“Greetings, Miss Izzy Bonnici, I hope you don’t mind me dropping in on you like this, intruding on private time with your father.”

So courteous, so charming. I don’t fall for it for a second. I don’t respond but tighten the grip on my blade, which he must sense.

“I come in peace, I wish only to talk.” He looks around, “For me, graveyards are a second home. I couldn’t resist coming here.”

“Being dead, I can see why,” I can’t help but say.

A small smile plays around his lips.

“Well, I know some who rest here as well. When you have been around a while, you tend to… lose people,” his voice softens. He points towards some of the graves.

“I remember many of these men, good men.”

I bite my lip. “There are many Guards here, friends of my father’s.”

He is bloody good-looking, I will give him that, looking much younger than his around three hundred years, with blue eyes that sear through me like electric currents. There is a stillness about him that could have been menacing but doesn’t come across that way. I’ve had dealings with his eldest son, Ragnar. He recently stole one of my targets, taking the thief I was about to take to the Executive Council. I’d been tracking him for weeks when the vile Ragnar took advantage of me resting for the night to nab the mark. I blame myself for not noticing that Ragnar was tracking me, and for not taking in the thief as soon as I had located him, giving the opportunity to Ragnar to swoop in and take my bounty.

“I have a proposition for you,” the king says.

I snort. “I am not interested in any proposition from you or your family.” Ragnar’s wicked behavior is still fresh in my mind.

But I need to be careful. I can’t provoke him. He is old and much stronger than me. My biggest fighting advantage is the element of surprise and I don’t have that now. I don’t wish to die quite yet.

The king nods, and does not seem fazed.

He comes closer and I feel my heart beating faster.

“I heard about what Ragnar did, to be honest, that is what drew me to you. You see, I have a matter of urgency and secrecy and I need someone with a very special set of skills to look into it. The fact that you know Ragnar and have had dealings with him counts in your favor as you will know what to expect.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

The king takes a moment.

“My wife, the queen Tanata, was killed months ago. The Council investigated but ruled it an accident. I know it was no accident,” his voice becomes hard. “I have reason to believe there are some who are plotting against me. I have to be careful who I approach with this, as it is risky and the person needs to be discreet.”

“I am not that person,” I say quickly, and he nods, as if he was expecting this response.

"I am prepared to offer you some information about the death of your father in return for your help.”

I can’t believe what I am hearing. My father, an experienced bounty hunter, was killed years ago in an attack that also claimed the life of my younger brother and caused permanent injuries to my mother. We never found out who ordered or executed the attack, but I had always suspected that it was a vampire. My father liked hunting vampires, he called them vermin, said all of them needed to be exterminated.

“You know who killed him?!” I demand to know.

“I have some information that might help you,” he says carefully.

“How do I know that you are not just trying to trick me?”

He smiles, sending shivers down my spine. “Ah, Izzy, so distrustful.”

“But I understand, of course.” He sighs. “I will give you another bit of information, which you can check, if you are satisfied, it will show you my good intentions. I will tell you the rest once you have concluded the case.”

“What information?” I demand.

“You father came to see me on his last assignation.”

“He did?” This is news to me. I couldn’t imagine my father asking a vampire for advice on a job.

“He was ill, and he knew he didn’t have much time left, he wanted to consult me on a matter that was… delicate.”

“My father wasn’t sick!” I respond, sure that I would’ve known if he was. In the back of my mind, though, I wonder if I would have. My father was never easy to read, a man of few words.

Lucca nods. “He’d been exposed to amber water, as you know, it is highly toxic. He was keeping it from you and your mother, but the effects were beginning to take hold. I could see it in him and he admitted as much to me.”

Before I can deal with the thought that my father was dying before the event that actually killed him, something else happens.

King Lucca is suddenly beside me, his hand against my breast, protectively standing in front of me as his coat swirls around me. I find his proximity intoxicating, despite my ability to resist his charms. He appears unaware of me as he is facing the west of the graveyard.

“I think my royal guards are here,” he whispers. “I wanted to come alone as this matter needs to be dealt with… privately. I came early, but I knew they would find me eventually.”

The air fills with birds, black birds, like crows, but bigger and more threatening. They swoop through the air, screeching. Lucca holds up a hand and says something in a loud voice, a command that expands in the air, dispersing the crows and they vanish as if they’d never been there in the first place.

“I must go,” he says softly, stepping away from me. “I have so many enemies now, more than ever before. I had hoped… it would be less. But…” He seems tired, wiping his face.

It strikes me as a calculated move, designed to make me feel sympathy for him. It does not work.

“Send word to me as soon as you have decided. Use this phone,” he says, handing me a mobile device, before disappearing into the shadows.

My heart is still beating fast as I try to make sense of what just happened. But the graveyard is tranquil now again, no hint of birds or vampires.

I feel my body relax and I turn back to face my father’s grave.

I try to conjure up his face again, to access his presence but it is impossible now. The vampires have disturbed the atmosphere, and my mind is filled with information that I hardly know how to process. The fact that he had come onto holy ground says a lot about his personal power, as well as his arrogance. Ordinary vampires would not have been able to do it but it seemed not to affect him at all.

Also, his family is notorious and known widely. They had survived for many centuries, waged countless battles and always emerged victorious, usually due to some evil acts or activities. I recall my father saying that the vampire’s instinct for survival was eclipsed only by an insatiable hunger for power.

The Executive Council, our highest authority, consisted of five individuals who were meant to represent the many different beings and ways of living. It ruled over our lands and had done so for the last hundred years, bringing a kind of peace to a world that was torn apart by violence and war before.

My father believed in the Council and I did too, but I knew there were stories about some strange decisions and questionable outcomes. But was this not always the way with the highest level of government? Didn’t the people distrust those who made and kept the peace? Was there not always a cost involved?

I didn’t want to second-guess the Council. I also wanted nothing to do with the vampire king and his family. But I was intrigued by his story and compelled to find out if he spoke the truth about my father. Where he had touched me, my skin was tingling, almost burning. I have kept my distance from men, have never been in a relationship and I have not been touched by anyone. Being a virgin has been my choice, a way of keeping my body and mind clear.

But King Lucca is a threat.

I responded to him in a way that I had never done with another vampire.

I didn’t like that and couldn’t understand it, I had always been immune to their charms. It was a sign I needed to keep away from him. Perhaps he had found a way past my resistance, I didn’t like that.

Not at all.

I would not play his game.

But first I had to find out if what he said was true.