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I swallow down my desire, watching his backside as his boots scuff against the black marble floor on his way to a bar that sits in the corner of the spacious room. He leans down and opens the glass case next to it, takes a quart of what looks to be blood, and pours it into a large glass, and then shows me two bottles. "Red or white," he asks.
Alcohol, come to mamma. “The white will be fine."
He smirks. "Of course, it will," he says, pouring it into a long-stemmed crystal glass before handing it to me as I reach his side.
Calabrea pours a red into a wider wine glass for himself. I follow his lead, swirling the wine, inhaling, swirling again before taking a sip of the complex bouquet. “This is delicious and unique. I may not be a worldly expert on wines, but I know a good one when I taste it.”
He smiles at me. “Thank you. We pride ourselves with making one of the best wines in the country. If I might be so bold, across the entire globe.”
I nod, having heard many of the vampire masters from this area had large vineyards and produced not only wine but their mixture of blood and wine, the Descallia Red. “What do youthink Matilda was talking about back there; I mean, about me? I would know if I had magic or powers of sight, right?”
Calabrea shrugs. "You're Embry's cousin, and you share a grandmother. I don't recall a lot about the stories Lucas told, but the woman who helped fight the vampires could see the future. You’re related to her. It’s not that far of a stretch.”
I need to talk with Embry. She would listen to these stories that her mother told all night for as long as Mom would let her stay up. I don't think my mother ever believed any of it. Hell, I seriously don't even know if she really believed in vampires until they started coming out and all of society learned the truth and had to adjust.
He suddenly puts a finger to his lips and sets down his glass of wine on the bar. "Quiet."
Calabrea takes my hand and walks me toward a set of double doors and opens them, and we step into an old world-like elevator. “Go upstairs, but do not turn on the lights. When the door opens, be on your knees and crawl to the end of the bedroom at the very end of that hall. I want you to slide underneath my bed, right into the middle, and don't get out until I come for you. Am I clear?" he says, caressing my cheek with a finger.
I don’t answer him because I think I’m in shock. We’re supposed to be hunting them, and now they’re hunting us?
“I need words, Tansia?”
My head finally moves at the same time I get my voice. "Yes."
“Good, get in and on the floor, now.”
I drop to my knees as the elevator doors close, leaving me alone in the small space, taking me upstairs. When the door opens, I crawl along the dimly lit hall, just the way he instructed me to do, keeping my eyes peeled in front of me and on the door at the end of the hall. I try hard not to concentrate onthe vampire who scares the hell out of me and keeps me safely protected at the very same time.
The door creaks slightly as it opens, and I swallow down fear of the unknown. Embry trusts Master Calabrea with my life, or she would have said something to me. I barely know the man, but for some reason, I trust that he will fight whatever evil lurks outside of these walls.
I close the creaky door behind me before crawling underneath the bed, listening carefully, and imagining every little noise I hear is someone right outside the door.
Chapter
Nine
The minute Tansia is safely on her way upstairs, I transport to the outer gardens, behind one of the large concrete statues depicting a large bat with wings open and ready to hunt his prey. My fangs descend, and my chest pumps with unprecedented rage. A rogue shifter dares enter my estate, stupid enough not to stay down wind, their raunchy odor floating on the very air I breathe.
I stalk toward the guard house, careful to stay under the trees thick canopy lest the sun suddenly begins to rise over the horizon. Shelter behind one of the mammoth, century old trunks is needed. The mangy shifters should have waited half an hour longer, and then I wouldn't have ventured out. I would have had the human day guardsmen take care of them, but they weren't that smart, and now they're going to wish they had never set foot on my property.
Because they’re going to deal with me…
I watch as a lone wolf comes into sight. A scout for the pack, making its way closer to the house, making sure it's safe for the rest of his brothers to follow. When he thinks it's safe, a swish of his tail goes up, and before long two more shifters come intosight. I transport behind the two shifters with my long sword in one hand and my dagger in the other. "Looking for me?"
Both shifters spin, and the other one, the one that is out there by himself on point howls. He’s calling for backups that won't have time to save their friends. The minute the first one jumps into the air, my long sword raises and slices off his mangy head, leaving a blood spattering across the lawn as his head bounces onto the ground.
The shifter behind his dead brother stalks carefully, his yellow eyes watching the blade of my long sword, gauging his timing as we move in circles. That won’t help him at all. The minute his feet leave the ground his fate is sealed because the long sword was never the plan for him. I thrust the dagger with my left arm up into his chest, pull it down and out quickly as his body falls to the ground in front of me.
I look to the horizon. "Come closer, you mangy shifter," I call, but he turns, tucks his tail, and dashes into the woods just as the slight tinge of pink creates a line on the horizon. I swear under my breath, the imminent light forcing me to let him escape before transporting into the safety of the darkened home, and into my bedroom where I've left Tansia.
The minute I walk through the door, I can smell her fear. “Everything's clear, Tansia. You can come out now," I tell her, my chest tightening with angst when she doesn't immediately slide from beneath my bed. "Tansia," I call again, dropping to my knees to look underneath.
Her large wide eyes are open and watching me with question. "Are you okay?" I ask.
She nods, but she’s trembling and looks far from okay. I take her by the hand, and then her arm and slide her toward me, but she’s so rigid, and the smell of her fear permeates the air. "Tansia, what's the matter?"
“I’m not really sure. I saw you fighting.”
