Darkyn - Incarnatio Part 2

Chapter Three

Lucan watched seven different angles showing Jamys Durand standing outside the club. The wall of security monitors in his office provided him with a clear view of every area surrounding his unorthodox stronghold as well as every inch of the interior.

Behind the wall, recording devices soundlessly archived all of the images, which were also monitored by two of Lucan's guards three floors above him.

After seven hundred years and countless confrontations with hostile Kyn, murderous Brethren and even a few overly- ambitious mortals, Lucan had learned that there was no such thing as being too prepared.

He expected no trouble from Thierry Durand's son, however. The last time he had seen the boy, he had been hanging from a pair of meat hooks in a Brethren torture chamber. Lucan remembered the blank indifference in the boy's eyes when he had freed him; a stark contrast to the raging madness of his tortured, mutilated sire.

"My lord," Burke said over the intercom. "Our guest has arrived. Should I have the men a.s.semble in the club or the formal reception rooms?"

"Neither, Herbert." He switched off the monitors. "I will meet him alone."

"I will not remind you that such a informal meeting is not according to established protocols, my lord," his human servant murmured, "as you said the next time I nagged you about such things that you would carve out my liver with a dull spoon."

"Your wisdom increases by the hour." Lucan rose, and then hesitated. Before he had become suzerain, he had never bothered with being politic. No one had cared how politely he had killed them. Now as a ruling lord, he had to consider almost every word before it left his lips. "As he cannot or will not speak, doubtless young Durand will wish to avoid situations that would require a great deal of talk. I imagine that the men could be discreetly advised of this."

"I will see to it personally, my lord," his tresora a.s.sured him.

Lucan pulled on a pair of gloves before he walked out of the office and into the empty club. Samantha's young tresora in training, Chris, entered with Jamys at her side. As they came in, the faint scent of sandalwood colored the air.

Chris gave him one of her cheeky grins before she remembered to bow. "Suzerain Lucan," she said, "May I present Lord Jamys Durand?" "Welcome to South Florida." Lucan deliberately offered his gloved right hand, which the boy took without hesitation. "I trust your trip was without incident?"

Jamys inclined his head as he returned Lucan's polite grip. He then rested his left hand on the young mortal's shoulder.

"He says it was fine, and he slept most of the way," Chris said. "He's also grateful for your hospitality, hopes not to be any trouble, etc. etc."

Lucan glanced at the girl. "Indeed."

"It's the same boring stuff they always say," she told him. "Why can't you guys just settle for 'Hi, how are you?'"

"Seven centuries of inviolate tradition and custom cannot be distilled down into four words." He smiled a little. "There should be at least five, perhaps six."

Jamys s.h.i.+fted his hand on Chris's shoulder and studied her face.

"I keep telling you, I'm fine." She turned to Lucan. "He thinks if he uses me as a psychic interpreter for too long that I'm going to pa.s.s out. I never . . ." She swallowed and swayed. "Okay, maybe that's a good call."

Jamys guided her over to a chair and helped her to sit down before he took out a notepad and pen, wrote something on it and handed it to Lucan.

I am sorry. My talent does this to mortals. I cannot speak through them for very long.

"You cannot communicate through talent with Kyn?" When Jamys nodded, Lucan thought for a moment. "Other than a few inappropriate gestures, none of us know sign language."

"I think I can make myself understood," a cool voice said from behind Jamys.

Lucan regarded his sygkenis, who had her hand resting on the grip of her weapon. She appeared ready to employ it.

"Samantha. I expected you an hour ago. This overtime is becoming an annoyance."

She ignored him as she moved between Jamys and Chris. "Are you all right?" she asked the girl. "I'm fine." Chris stood. "You look p.i.s.sed off, though."

"We just recovered a body three blocks from here. Young guy in an old leisure suit. Some Kyn we don't know was involved. And guess what, there's only one Kyn we don't know in our territory right now." Sam s.h.i.+fted around until she blocked Lucan with her body. "Rafael?"

Lucan saw his seneschal, armed with a copper-edged sword, step up behind Jamys. His temper flared, causing several bottles of liquor behind the bar to shatter and spill "Have I perhaps been replaced as ruling lord and everyone has forgotten to tell me?"

Rafael breathed in and then lowered the blade. "His scent is not what the mortal described to us, my lady."

Sam didn't move. "Maybe he did some suggestion-planting before he left the bistro. Chris, get away from him," she added as the girl went to Jamys.

"He can't talk unless I help him." She gripped his hand and looked up at his face. "No, it's okay. I can do it." She turned to Samantha, and her eyes took on a curiously bright sheen as her voice dropped to a deeper register. "I have not harmed anyone, my lady. I was with Christian from the time I left the train to when I arrived here. I would not insult the suzerain by attacking anyone in his territory." She blinked, and in a more normal voice said, "He's telling the truth, Sam. I was with him the whole time."

"That's only what you remember." She flinched as Lucan took the weapon from her holster. "What are you doing?"

"Hopefully I am avoiding a grievous insult to the Durand family, and the son of the most efficient killer I know besides myself." Lucan pocketed the weapon. "Now, shall we sort this out like civilized folk?"

"I have a backup piece," she reminded him before she stared at Jamys. "You should know that I keep my weapons loaded with copper rounds. I don't care who your Daddy is, you try anything anything at all and I'll blow your head off."

The young Kyn male, who had not moved since the beginning of the confrontation, nodded slowly.

Despite the danger she had just put them all in, Lucan felt almost proud of her. His woman might not be the soul of diplomacy, but she would kill to protect what was theirs, and d.a.m.n the consequences. Not even Cyprien could boast of such a life companion. "Now that you have finished with the death threats, sweetheart, come and sit down and tell me about this killing." In terse fas.h.i.+on, Samantha related the tale of the body she and his seneschal had found in a nearby restaurant, and the statements made by the witnesses.

"Kyn do not feed on the dead.," he pointed out. "Nor do they drag them about Europe for three decades."

"Two years ago I chopped the tail off a Kyn who had spent a couple of centuries feeding on snake blood." Samantha eyed him. "Maybe this one uses the dead for dinner."

"How may I explain this to you?" Lucan thought for a moment. "When you were mortal, would you have eaten a maggot- ridden piece of rotting meat? No? That is what feeding on the blood of the dead is like for us."

Jamys took out his notepad and pen and wrote something quickly. He handed it to Rafael, who read it and shook his head.

Samantha frowned. "Mind sharing that with the rest of group?"

"He writes that the victim may have been taken from his grave to be used by a Kyn lord," Rafael said. "It is nothing but an old superst.i.tion among our kind."

"You think the boy we found was raised from the dead?" When Jamys shrugged, Samantha turned to Lucan. "Just when were you going to mention that you guys can make zombies?"

"Never, as we cannot. We have our own ridiculous folk lore, my darling, just as humans do." Lucan felt impatient now.

"There has to be another explanation. I have roamed every continent not covered by ice on this earth, and never once have I seen a mortal brought back to life as a revenant."

"Have you?" she asked Jamys, who reluctantly shook his head. "Good, because I'm not putting zombie on my report."

"He didn't hurt anyone," Chris said, her tone sharp. "Burke tested me before I signed on for this gig. You know I'm resistant to l'attrait."

"But not to talent." Samantha stood and addressed Jamys. "I know you're here as a guest, and I'm sorry you can't talk.

I know I've probably embarra.s.sed the h.e.l.l out of Lucan by questioning you. But my job is to find out who killed this boy. If it was you, or you were in any way involved, you and I are going to have a serious problem." Jamys took out two copper daggers and placed them on the table before he rose, bowed, and walked out of the club.

"What does that mean?" she asked Lucan.

"He is not insulted." He picked up the blades. "He disarmed." He looked at his sygkenis. "It means he agrees with what you've said."

"Then why did he leave?"

"That you will have to ask him," he advised her. "If he returns."

After sending Chris home, Sam went up alone to the penthouse suite she shared with Lucan. The smell from Wilson Carcher's body still clung to her; she needed a shower and a fresh change of clothes. After that she planned to head down to the morgue to see what Tenderson had found during the autopsy, and what she would probably have to compel him to forget. If she were quick, she might even avoid the reckless idiot she loved.

She didn't make it out of the shower.

"As erotic as I find your working garments," a silky voice said as a large shadow appeared on the other side of the frosted gla.s.s door, "I prefer to sleep with you in your skin."

She shut off the water. "I have to go back into work for a couple hours," she told him as she wrung out the long, dripping tail of her hair. I'll be sure to strip when I come home." She watched as a thin crack ran diagonally from the top of the shower door to the bottom. "Or not."

"You," he said pleasantly, "are not leaving. Come out of there."

Sam emerged to find her lover standing and holding a large black bath towel. The delicious scent of jasmine curled around her, which dispelled most of her remnant anger. "I suppose you want me to apologize."

"Not at all." He began drying her off as impersonally as a valet. "I've been despised among the Kyn for several lifetimes.

Another century or two of hostility will not make much difference." He draped the towel over her head and began to ma.s.sage it against her damp hair. "And I am sure the men will understand why my lady is acting in my place when it comes to territorial matters. Perhaps you can persuade them to name you suzeraina, as they did with Jayr of the Realm."

"Okay, I get it. I was out of line." She glanced up at his beautiful face, but his expression remained impa.s.sive. "Go ahead, yell."

"Why would I shout at my life companion, the woman I love above all others, whose love for and loyalty to me is as constant and unwavering as the sunrise?" His eyes glittered. "When she is not threatening to blow the head off the beloved, only son of a Kyn lord who single-handedly slew five hundred mortals, of course."

She swallowed. "That many?"

"That many." He kissed her brow. "On one of his bad days."

"I'll go after the kid and explain and apologize." Sam reached for her clothes.

"Rafael is already tracking him, and I think you have said enough for one evening." He swept her up in his arms and carried her out into their bedroom, where he sat down in his favorite oversize armchair with her. "Be still," he told her when she tried to get up. "I am still deciding whether or not to beat you."

Sam hid a smile. Lucan might be one of the most powerful Kyn in existence, with a talent that could cause a living being to literally explode, but he'd never hurt her. "Let me suggest some reasonable alternatives. You could give me a time out. Make me stand in the corner. Or have me write 'I will obey my lord and master without question' a couple hundred times."

"You are not a child, Samantha." He looked down his nose at her. "Although I confess, the thought of giving you a good, hard spanking appeals to me."

She angled her head to put her mouth a breath away from his. "Is that really the only good, hard thing you want to give me?"

He s.h.i.+fted under her, and then glancing down as she unfastened the front of his trousers. "You have another reasonable alternative to propose?"

She slid down from his lap, kneeling in front of him as she freed and cradled his shaft between her hands. Delicately she laved the smooth, engorged head of his p.e.n.i.s before parting her lips to take it in to suckle.

Velvet brushed against her scalp as he worked his gloved hand through the hair at the back of her head.

"I understand now." He m.u.f.fled a groan as she tugged rhythmically at him. "You mean to punish me."

Samantha felt her dents acerees push out of her palette, and gently scored him with the sharp tips as she drew her head back. He'd taught her the trick of how to do it without drawing blood, although in that moment she wanted nothing more than to bury her fangs in his flesh. She felt the same urge whenever they argued, although she didn't want to do it to hurt him. Somehow it was mixed up with her endless desire for his body as well as her longing for his love, a dual craving as constant as her need for blood as nourishment.

As always, Lucan seemed to read her thoughts, and dragged her up to his chest. This time, however, he didn't comfort her, or a.s.sure her that the s.e.x was enough.

"Again." He shook back his long fair hair to expose his throat. "Here."

Samantha pressed her forehead against his neck, struggling against the instinct. Knowing he offered his blood made the temptation to take it a thousand times worse. "I can't."

"It is what we both want, my lady," he murmured, kissing the curve of her shoulder as he spread her thighs and settled her against him. "It is what we are."

She could feel the blood beneath his skin, driven by the slow, heavy beat of his heart. Her throat tightened and her mouth ached, and then she couldn't think anymore. As he pushed his c.o.c.k into her body, she set her open mouth against him and drove her teeth deep.

As she drank from him, she felt his velvet glove spread over her spine, his fingers flexing like the claws of a cat. He didn't move inside her or permit her to move, but held her sheathed as he swelled and pulsed deep within. When she tore her mouth away he brought her face to his and took her lips, adding the heat of his kiss to the lingering dark wine of his blood.

When Sam drew back she saw the depth of need in his. "Is this my punishment?"

He slid his big hands down to grasp her hips. "If it is, you must never obey me again." He stood, holding her welded against him as he carried her to their bed. There he dropped down atop her and worked himself into her with hard, powerful strokes. Sam had already come but he brought her over again, and then a third time as he used his teeth on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

When she felt him slow and tense, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, using her inner muscles to clamp down and milk his c.o.c.k until he pumped his cool, thick s.e.m.e.n into her womb.

He collapsed on her for a moment before he rolled them to their sides. Sam combed the bright, soft hair back from his hard cheek and watched his pupils expand from thin slivers of hunger to the full roundness of satisfaction.

"I love this," she whispered, tracing his lower lip with a fingertip. "And I want this, all the time, so badly I can't begin to describe it. But in my heart, it's not about the blood or the amazing s.e.x or anything about being Kyn."

His eyes moved over her face. "Then what is in your heart, Samantha?"

"You." She rested her hand over his heart. "I love you, Lucan. That's why I forgot all the stupid f.u.c.king rules tonight. I was scared, and then when I came in all I could see was him between you and me."

"Jamys Durand did not come here to harm me or anyone," he said, covering her fingers with his. "He is in trouble, but it has nothing to do with the dead mortal you found. I think Alexandra sent him to me because she believes I can help bring him back to himself."

"Can you?"

"Nothing is certain," he admitted. "I rescued him from the Brethren who rendered him mute, so the boy may feel some grat.i.tude toward me. Then again, he was catatonic at the time."

"If Jamys isn't involved with my victim, then there's another strange Kyn in our territory," she said. "One who could have done this to get to you. Who could be hunting you right now."

"I've been hunted before, my love." He pressed her closer. "Many times."

"If anything were to happen to you . . . " unable to complete the thought, she closed her eyes. "Don't keep me out of this. Please."

"We will find the Kyn who did this together," he said against her hair. "I promise."