Seduce(27)

The bathroom door creaked open and Sera peeked out.

Antoine growled at Javier when he looked over his shoulder at her. If the Spaniard was looking at her bare legs, he was going to accidently-on-purpose hit him when Snow started misbehaving.

Snow perked up.

Lilah stood in the main doorway. She folded her arms across her chest, squashing her full breasts together in the small black tank she wore with her jeans. The tangled wet mess of her chestnut hair and the unimpressed look she tossed at both Antoine and Snow said that she had been showering with her mate, Javier, at the time of the disturbance.

Her golden eyes dropped back to Snow.

He purred.

She shook her head, calmly crossed the room to him, and ignored her mate’s warning to stay away. She came to a crouch in front of Snow.

“I think that is quite enough, don’t you?” She took the fractured bloody canister from him and set it down on the floor out of his reach.

Antoine tensed, waiting for his brother to explode and knock her aside, or worse, for taking away his favourite toy.

Snow lowered his head. Ashamed? That was a new one. Whatever dark power Lilah had over his brother, it was a gift given by the Devil himself. The woman was a witch when it came to Snow. No one could calm him as easily as she could.

Sera stepped out of the bathroom, a towel now wrapped around her waist to cover her partial nudity.

Snow looked towards her and tried to reach out to her but Javier’s grip on his cuffed wrist was too firm. He whined and kept reaching for her. When Javier moved behind Snow and pulled on the chain so his elbow bent and his hand hit his shoulder, Snow tried with the one Antoine held, another low whine escaping him. Perhaps it wasn’t just Lilah who had power over Snow. Perhaps all females possessed an ability to soothe the beast of his bloodlust.

“He won’t hurt you.” Lilah smiled at Sera. “He’s calm now. These two won’t let you believe it, but it’s true. See.”

“Lilah!” Javier snapped but his mate was already laying her hand on Snow’s bloodied cheek.

The large male vampire closed his eyes and leaned into the delicate hand on his face. He purred again, the deep rumbling sound filling the tense silence. Lilah stroked his cheek and exhaled a long sigh, her golden eyes glittering with concern and tenderness. It had been foolish of her to touch Snow when he was in such a strange mood. She seemed oblivious to how dangerous his brother was, her faith that he was still Snow inside when the bloodlust seized him blinding her. Antoine could only hope that Snow never proved her unwavering belief in him wrong. He would never forgive himself if Snow ever hurt her or any of the vampires he worked with at the theatre. He would feel responsible for his brother’s actions because it had been his decision to conceal how dangerous Snow could become when the bloodlust took hold of him.

“Come along.” Lilah rose to her feet and motioned for Snow to follow. He lumbered onto his feet and obeyed her with only a few snarls and growls in Antoine and Javier’s directions.

Antoine didn’t want to leave Sera alone, not even for the few minutes it would take to cross the corridor to Snow’s room and make sure that he was comfortable and secure, and had everything that he needed.

Lilah opened Snow’s apartment door and held her hand out to Antoine, as though she had sensed his desire to return to his own room as quickly as possible.

“I think there’s a young woman in your apartment. I’m not going to ask what she’s doing there, or mention how surprised I am, or how surprised Javier is too. I’m just going to say that I think we can handle things from here if you want to go back to her and make sure that she’s okay. I promise that I will take good care of Snow.” Lilah smiled broadly and as he set the chain into her hand, she added, “I will say that I think it’s nice you have some company.”

Antoine gritted his teeth and walked away, letting her have the last word. He would never hear the end of it if he tried to argue that Sera wasn’t going to be company in the way Lilah thought she was. There were enough women distracting the owners of the theatre already, without him adding to the list.





CHAPTER 8




Antoine stepped back into his apartment and the relief he felt on seeing that Sera was unharmed overwhelmed him. Without thinking, he shut the door, crossed the room to her where she was cleaning the blood off the floorboards and pulled her up into his arms.

“You should have done as I said.” The reprimand was supposed to come out strong and forceful, a scolding for her foolish actions. It didn’t. It came out hoarse and in a whisper full of feelings that shocked him. He hadn’t felt his fear in the moment but it crashed over him now, only strengthened by the delay in his feeling it. His worst nightmare had almost come true.