Claire pulled away, looked Vanessa in the eye. “Why would you ask that?”
“One of them said that no one should hurt me because I was special. Are they going to try to put me in jail?” Her voice broke, and for the first time Claire sensed her fear. “Or foster care?”
Claire thought back, slogging through the haze of her muddled human memory. Gregor had forbidden the other slayers from killing Vanessa. But why? What did they know about her that Claire didn’t? How did this innocent child who wasn’t even old enough for her first kiss fit into their grand notions of Fate?
“Don’t worry about them,” Claire said. A low growl vibrated in her throat and Vanessa’s brow furrowed. Whoops. She was going to have to learn how to control her new animal impulses. Pushing thoughts of violence against the Sortiari to the back of her mind, she gave Vanessa a reassuring smile. “No one’s going to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Can I stay here?”
The hope in Vanessa’s voice twisted Claire’s heart in her chest. How could she answer that when she wasn’t entirely sure if she was staying here? And for that matter, she couldn’t just invite Vanessa to stay in a house that wasn’t hers. “I’ll talk to Mikhail about it,” she said. “We’ll figure it all out, don’t worry.”
Vanessa let out a sigh much too heavy for such a little girl. “Okay.”
“Okay. You watch TV for a bit and I’m going to go find Mikhail. Holler if you need anything.”
Vanessa flopped down on her tummy in front of the TV. “I will. But I pretty much already know where everything is.”
The tether that bound Claire to Mikhail tugged at her chest and she let it lead her to her mate. Mate. The word was so foreign, even to her new vampire mind. But it rang with so much truth that it stole the air from her lungs. Like a mouse after a piece of cheese in a maze, she crossed the foyer, went past the staircase and down a long hallway, her feet taking her where she needed to go even though this was a section of the house she’d barely had time to explore when she’d been there last.
She turned toward a set of sliding doors and smiled. He was in that room. His presence burned in her soul like a flame.
* * *
Mikhail stopped midsentence and smiled. Her steps had been so light he hadn’t heard her approach. But his mate stood on the other side of those doors just the same. He held up a hand to Jenner and said, “Come in, Claire.”
She walked into the room, beaming. Mikhail’s blood stirred at the sight of her, and any thought of business took a backseat to his lust. Their moments in the shower had been far too fleeting to fully satisfy him, and he couldn’t wait to take Claire back to their bedroom, where he could strip her bare and enjoy her body until the sun rose.
Jenner cleared his throat, breaking the spell, and Mikhail shifted in his seat, his hardening cock causing him discomfort in the restrictive cut of his pants. Damn it. “How are you feeling?”
“Good.” She graced him with a knowing smile and a rush of pleasure flooded him.#p#分页标题#e#
“I’m glad.”
“I just saw Vanessa.” Claire gave Jenner a wide berth as she approached Mikhail’s desk, as though she sensed that it would ignite tension to see her standing so close to another male. Mikhail marveled at her intuitiveness. Claire had indeed been born to become a vampire. “She’s afraid that the Sortiari are going to take her away. Or that someone is going to make her go into foster care. I wasn’t sure what to tell her—”
“The child can stay for as long as it pleases you, love.” Mikhail leaned back in his chair and studied Claire. How could she think that he would turn away anyone she cared about? “This is her home as much as it is yours.”
Claire smiled wide, the tiny tips of her fangs brushing her full bottom lip. Mikhail thought of those fangs scraping along his shaft and suppressed a pleasant shudder.
“Thank you.” Her voice lowered an octave and the husky tone vibrated along his skin.
Jenner cleared his throat once again and shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “Mikhail, if it’s all right with you, I’d like to keep an eye on Siobhan. If you’re right, she won’t waste any time in going after Gregor.”
“Yes.” With Claire so close, it was hard for Mikhail to remember that there were other people in the world, let alone the same room. “Go. We’ll discuss the rest later.”
Jenner gave a curt nod, turned toward Claire and nodded again, and took his leave.
“Come here,” Mikhail commanded as soon as the doors were closed. It had only been a couple of hours since he’d taken her in the shower, but it felt like centuries. “Let me smell you, touch you, put my lips on your skin.”