"Miss him already?"
Her eyes narrowed at his mocking tone.
But Rayce just smiled. "Why don"t you go get some rest?" He pointed to the side, down another snaking hallway. "Take the third door to the right. Use that room. When dawn comes, Julian should be back to his normal self. Sometimes, you just need to let your beast out."
She didn"t move. "And that"s what he"s doing...letting his beast out?"
"I think it was more that his beast took over. Happens, you know. The primitive side wins."
Rose bit her lip and glanced toward the front door. "I think I"ll wait out there for him to come back."
Rayce laughed-a deep, booming sound. She didn"t like his laugh.
Her gaze swung back toward him.
His laughter slowly faded, but he was still smiling as he said, "Julian"s little vampire..."
Rose stiffened. "I"m not his anything."
Rayce stalked toward her.
She backed up. A habit. When an unknown paranormal approached, she had a tendency to flee. She retreated until her back hit the table that was against the foyer wall. A vase wobbled behind her, and Rayce"s hands flew out, catching it before the vase could crash. Catching it-and trapping her with his body.
"Don"t want to p.i.s.s off Luke," he murmured. "That is a seriously bad mistake." He put the vase back into position. His hands slid back to his sides, but he didn"t move away from her. "Getting on the Lord of the Dark"s bad side is never a good plan."
"I shouldn"t be here." She should be living a nice, safe, normal life far away from this madness. She shouldn"t have spent months being tortured and starved. She shouldn"t always be so afraid.
"Where should you be, little vamp?" His voice had changed, gone soothing.
And that just scared her even more.
"I don"t want to be like this. I want to go back to the way things were before."
"Before?"
"Before Luke Thorne changed me."
He absorbed that but still stared at her quizzically. "Would it be better to go back before you met Julian?"
In the distance, she could have sworn that she heard a roar. Rose jumped.
Rayce sighed. "You"re a vamp now. There is no going back. And instead of being afraid, you need to make all of the other paranormals fear you. That"s the way it is in our world. Strength is prized. Weakness is used." His expression hardened. "You don"t want to be used."
She wanted out of there. Her gaze darted toward the front door once more.
"Julian isn"t the only beast running wild on the island. Plenty of others are out there. You don"t want to tangle with them. Very, very bad mistake."
She swallowed. "Who else is here?"
He took a step back. "Oh, you know, the worst of the worst. The dark paranormals that only Luke can keep in check. You make a deal with him, he owns your soul for a time...basic s.h.i.t."
"I never made a deal with him." She"d never asked for any of this. She"d never- "You didn"t need to. Julian traded for you. Blood and death and pain...so that you wouldn"t die."
His words made her heart ache. Rose shook her head.
He growled. Anger thickened that guttural sound.
She stopped shaking her head.
"I don"t have many friends," he said, his voice still deep and rumbling. "And don"t f.u.c.king tell Julian that I consider him to be one."
Uh, okay.
"But he has walked through h.e.l.l for you. And you are still afraid of him." His lips twisted in disgust. "I don"t get it. He"s always held himself back when he"s with you. You"re probably the safest person on earth when he"s near. You"re the only one he"ll never turn his claws on. Don"t you get that? Don"t you see?"
"You don"t understand..."
"No, you don"t. You"re still clinging to your human hope. Let that s.h.i.t go. Vamp up. Get your undead life together and throw the guy a bone." He raked a hand over his face. "Do you have any clue how many people he has killed, for you?"
Her heart nearly stopped. "What?"
The front door flew open and slammed against the wall. She didn"t scream-good for her. She did whirl toward the door and she saw a naked Julian standing there. His muscles bulged, his golden eyes blazed, and his claws were currently gripping the door frame.
"Shut...up...wolf," he gritted out, each word sounding like a struggle.
Rayce let out a long sigh. "Here we go..."
Julian shoved away from the door frame. "Your scent...is...on her."
"Right. I can explain that. She nearly broke a vase. I reached around her and-" He broke off. "Look, I think you need to run some more. I can still see your beast."
So could she.
Julian appeared...bigger...than before. Stronger. His face seemed carved from stone, his muscles heaved and his whole body shuddered as he stood there.
The man was fighting the beast. She could practically see it. Only...why? Why was he there? Why wasn"t he still out running? He needed that. She might not fully understand the shifter life, but it was obvious his panther was fighting for freedom.
"Heard you..." His breath rasped out. "Stop...scaring her..."
And her breath caught in her lungs. He"d come back, transformed, because he thought Rayce was frightening her?
Okay, truth time. The wolf did scare me. I don"t want Julian killing for me. I don"t want anyone killing for me. She"d had enough death to last several lifetimes.
But Rose found herself sliding away from Rayce and creeping toward the door-toward Julian.
"Uh, wait, maybe don"t do that right now-" Rayce very, very loudly whispered.
She shot him an irritated glare. "You just told me I was safe with him."
"He is going to change again any second. Let"s not tempt fate-"
She hated fate. Fate was mean and cruel. Fate could screw off. Rose inched closer to Julian. His chest heaved as her fingers reached up, hovering over his skin. She would not look down at the lower part of his body.
Her gaze dipped down.
Okay, maybe she would.
d.a.m.n. Some things are even better than you remember.
Her fingers skimmed over his chest. "You said I"d be safe here."
He gave a jerky nod.
"Then I won"t be afraid tonight." A little lie, but one he seemed to need.
His nostrils flared.
"Go run. Do what you need to do." Then come back to me. She wanted to say those words so badly, but she managed to hold them back.
His head lowered and he...he did that little nuzzle thing again. Where he rubbed his head against her neck. It was odd but sensual. She liked it. She found herself putting her arms on his shoulders. Holding him. And, surprisingly, she wasn"t afraid of him. Not of the sharp teeth or the enhanced strength-not of anything about him.
She just wanted to keep holding him.
But Rayce cleared his throat. "So, yeah, you"re naked and about to go all beast mode. This is the time when you need to step back."
She felt the rumble of Julian"s growl.
Only...he stepped back. He stared at her a moment more, then he whirled and ran back into the night. She took a step after him, but stopped when she heard the crunch of bones. Her stomach twisted. So much pain.
She didn"t like for Julian to feel pain.
"Told you," Rayce murmured, sounding pleased as h.e.l.l with himself. "He can"t hurt you. If anyone else had gone up to him right then, Julian would have sliced them right open."
Her hand lifted and her fingers trailed along the doorframe. His claws had left deep gouge marks along the wood. She traced them and her heart grew heavier in her chest. "How many people has he killed?"
"That"s a question for him, not me. I already did my over-sharing part for the night." Then his hands were on her waist and he pulled her back from the doorway.
She frowned at him.
But he just gave her his slow smile. The dimple winked again. "Told you, there are plenty of other bad things out there. Let"s not go drawing them in by dangling bait in front of their faces."
"So I"m bait now?"
"No, you"re Julian"s vamp. Thought we went over that. So if someone comes at you, he"ll freak and there will be a battle I"m not in the mood to stop tonight." He nudged her toward the hallway. "Go that way. Get changed. Sleep. When you wake up, Julian will be back. Minus his more beastly side."
She took a few steps toward that hallway. Then, unable to help herself, Rose glanced back at him. "He"s...talked to you? About me?"
Rayce laughed. "He"s told me as little as possible."
Oh.
"But sometimes, you don"t need words to see the truth. And I see how he looks at you."
Her throat went dry. "How is that?"
"Like someone who has been in h.e.l.l...and just had a glimpse of paradise."
No, he was wrong. Julian did not look at her like that.
"Sweet dreams, vamp," Rayce said.
She turned and shuffled down the hallway. Her dreams were never sweet. They hadn"t been since she"d become a vampire. She only had nightmares. Visions of herself dying-getting shot as Julian stared down at her in horror. Visions of being trapped in a tiny cell. Hunger. Pain.
Death.
No, there would be no sweet dreams for her. There never were.
She stopped in front of the third door on the right. Rose opened the door and stepped inside. Not a room, but a suite. One with heavy, cherry wood furniture. Dark, thick curtains hung over the windows. A ma.s.sive, four-poster bed had been positioned right in the middle of the suite- A bed that had claw marks on its wooden posts. Eyes widening, she rushed toward the bed. Her hand lifted and she traced the marks, just as she"d traced the ones on the door frame before.
Julian"s claw marks.
Julian"s room.
She turned around.
Rayce stood in the doorway. She hadn"t heard him follow her. Shifters can move way too quietly. He was staring at her, a slightly apologetic look on his face. "Yeah, sorry about this...but I am going to lock you in for the night."
"What?"
"And the room has been-well, let"s just say it"s been enhanced so that paranormals can"t get out. I mean, when Julian has his bad nights, we can"t have him busting loose. So vamp strength won"t help you. Julian wanted you safe for the night and that means we can"t risk you running around where the wild things are. So just shower, change into one of his shirts, and have those sweet-"
"I don"t have sweet dreams!" She ran for him.
He jerked the door shut before she could grab him. Rose heard the faint click of a lock sliding into place. She tried wrenching the door open. She tried slamming her body into the wood. Vamp strength. Vamp. Strength!
But nothing happened. Because the tricky jerk was right...there was some kind of enhancement in place. Still, she didn"t give up.
She screamed and pounded against the door.
She couldn"t be trapped. Not again.
She couldn"t be prisoner.
Not again.
The pretty vampiress slammed into the door once more. Rayce winced when he felt the vibrations of the wood. "Uh, Rose? If you hurt yourself, Julian is only going to be p.i.s.sed at me."