"What are you thinking about so intently?" He leaned across the table and kissed her bottom lip.
She couldn't find the smile he deserved to see. "The future." Her tone brought seriousness to the simple statement. "It's been a dangerous topic of thought for some time now."
"Do you see me when you think of your future?" He brushed her cheek.
"That was actually my very line of thought-you and the future. I've been too wrapped up in death and drama to imagine anything but surviving. I'm not even going to school anymore, with the exception of some online courses. It's going to take much longer to graduate if I'm forced to keep this pace. Today, I find myself imagining other possibilities." She held his hand to her cheek and turned her head to place a kiss in his palm. He closed his fingers, as if to save the kiss.
"Do you know that I adore you? This has been a huge adjustment for me. This relationship is like nothing I have ever known. I don't really know what I'm doing, but it feels good. I hope you can be patient while I figure out how to be a good boyfriend. Everyone is waiting for me to screw this up and fall off the wagon, so to speak. I do know that I'm not the best you could do in a guy, but you are the only female I think about anymore. I would do anything to make you feel the same way." Kayden was obviously referring to the ever-present shadow of Chase Deidrick.
It made her heart ache. She was doing them both an injustice by withholding pieces of herself for an engaged man. She had to break free of the limbo she'd been in to move on.
After lunch, they strolled through the park hand in hand, not really speaking much. They enjoyed each other's presence, both of them working through things in their own heads as they meandered. Dani's cell phone rang. She looked at Kayden and shook her head in disgust.
"Is it Darren?" he asked.
"Worse. It's Chase, again." She turned off her phone and dropped it in her purse. She would check for messages from her mom or Mason later.
When they arrived back at the hotel Dani almost felt like her old self again. The day of shopping, strolling, snacking, and otherwise just hanging out was such a relief from all the recent drama. Kayden deposited her bags in the room's closet while they talked about where to go for dinner. They saw a pub during their travels that he'd heard had the best wings in town. That sounded good to her. She rummaged in her overnight bag for a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and kicked off her heels. This day had been exactly what she needed and she wasn't ready for it to end.
She spun around to head into the bathroom to change out of her dress and slammed into Kayden's solid chest. He grabbed her shoulders to steady her, and they both laughed. When the laughter subsided, he was still holding her, and they just looked into each other's eyes. Lord, he was a beautiful man, and in that moment she wasn't thinking of school, or her mom, vampires, or humans, she only thought of how good it felt just to be with Kayden. Simultaneously they leaned forward and their mouths crashed into each other. It was a searching, frenzied kiss that had them both heaving in moments.
Kayden's hands roamed down her body and brushed back up her bared thighs. Her dress slid quickly over her head and sailed off to the corner, and she was laid out on the bed before any sane or logical thought had time to form. Kayden never left her mouth or gave her time to second-guess their impulsive actions.
Her taste and smell were so overwhelming to him. She was like the most fragrant summer meadow and the sweetest-smelling confection all at once. He had never wondered what another vamp would taste like, but he wanted to taste her. It was the undercurrent of hunger he had for humans, but it only happened when they were intimately kissing and touching. Her purely feminine heat brought out strange desires he couldn't understand.
Kissing him more deeply, her lithe body rose from the bed to rub against his. His insides turned molten with the need to finally claim her. She dug her fingers deep into his hair and clung to him. Kayden had her stripped to her panties, but he was still fully dressed. Her full breasts filled his hands while her mouth traveled up his neck to nip his ear. He ripped off his shirt and sent it flying.
Dani explored his chest with her hand when the sound of their mingled breathing became stereo in his head. Kayden shook his head when images of himself blinked behind his eyelids. The air between them became an earthy, woodsy, springtime scent mixed with leather and gunpowder from his time on the firing range that morning.
She rose up to kiss him, and Kayden tasted his own flavor on her tongue. Oh God! She was projecting. This would never last if he had to contend with both of their passions.
Dani didn't know she was projecting until Kayden told her with an aching moan. She was overwhelming him with a telepathic overflow of emotion and sensation. She was projecting her feeling into Kayden, so she concentrated on cutting off the connection between them. He sighed with relief. Then Dani felt an odd interference, like static on a radio, and the set of Kayden's face and his posture changed completely. His eyes went wide and he sat back on his knees.
"Are you okay?"
He didn't respond. He looked like he was struggling to get away from her but couldn't. She leaned up on her elbows and shook her head to clear the static and the confusion it caused.
That was when it happened. The experience went from frenzied and passionate to a nightmare in the space of a second. Kayden lurched forward and wrapped his hands around her neck, choking her. She pitched and bucked but he held her tight.
Dani looked into his eyes with betrayal and hurt overflowing and spilling in the form of tears. He was wringing the life from her body, painfully.
"Isn't this sweet?" a deep voice came from the bathroom. "You two look so much in love. Or maybe it's just good old-fashioned lust. It's too bad he's going to choke you with his bare hands. He'll live the rest of his life knowing he incapacitated you and watched while I carried you away to your death. However long that may be. Once you're disabled, I'll take you to the master. He'll drink in your energy and absorb your whole bag of tricks. I bet you don't even know half of what you're capable of yet."
A large male came around the side of the bed and sat in a chair across the room. Someone had been in the room that whole time. He'd been listening to everything.
Dani shifted her eyes to the chair but couldn't see the person in the shadows, except for his large mass and black clothes.
"Your lover is going to watch helplessly as you slip through his fingers yet again. Of course, he won't remember my face later. That would ruin my career. You know, I could make him not remember what's happening now, but that wouldn't be any fun at all. He should be made to suffer as you suffer under him. He has been quite a poor guardian indeed, hasn't he, Danielle?"
She looked back up at Kayden to see tears run down his face and drop onto her chest.
Can you hear me? she asked telepathically.
He blinked frantically at her in response, as if it was the only free movement he had left. He couldn't stop, and she couldn't force him off of her bodily. She was mentally strong but physically nowhere near a full-blooded vamp. Dani tried enthralling Kayden so he would release her. Then she used telekinesis to lift Kayden away, but his fingers didn't loosen their grip on her. When that didn't work, she tried to mentally push at their attacker. Nothing worked. The room began to fade around the edges. She gasped for air and fought against the steel grip of Kayden's fingers crushing her larynx.
"You see now that you're not the only vamp with the ability to control the minds of other vamps. There are a few others that I know of, but most of us don't make our abilities known, so we can't be exploited the way you will be. The master doesn't even know the extent of my ability. He only has my word that I'll bring you in at the first opportunity. I guess it couldn't hurt to give you a little Mind Control 101, since you're bashing at me so ineffectively. You're going to die today anyway. You see, once a vamp has another vamp under mind control, they block out everyone else. It's first come, first served, just like when we manipulate humans. So you can't overcome my grip on his mind. Thanks so much for releasing his mind at just the right time. You were blocking me.
"Also, the fact that you conduct mind control makes you impervious to it yourself, and likewise for me. So you can't control me in order to save yourself." He leaned forward and rested his forearm across his knee, bringing his face into light. He was a warrior. She'd seen him around the Enclave many times but had never been introduced to him. He'd seemed like one of the guys who didn't approve of a woman living among so many men. He smiled at her.