Hunted_The Guardians' League Book One Page 25

  “No,” Sian said quickly, not trusting what would come out of Diego’s mouth if she didn’t beat him to the punch. “Come in, Eli. We really want to hear what you have to say, don’t we, Diego?”

  He shot her a look that clearly said he didn’t agree with her even a little bit but didn’t argue as Eli followed Sian into the living room. She bit her lip. Clearly Diego was more than a little ticked at her for running off and hadn’t forgotten it despite her saving his life in the warehouse. She couldn’t blame him. If their roles had been reversed and he’d left her right after she’d told him she loved him, she wouldn’t have been quick to forgive, either.

  “Don’t worry. He’ll get over it,” Eli said as she watched Diego disappear upstairs with James, his back to her as he surveyed the books on one of the bookshelves lining the walls. “Just don’t do it again.”

  She fought the urge to throw something at him. Did he have to pick on her while she was already sick with nerves? “It’s bad enough when Diego reads my mind,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest with the uncomfortable feeling she’d been x-rayed, “and I would prefer if you didn’t do it either.”

  He shrugged, moving to a different shelf and running a fingertip along the spines of the books. “James will be fine,” he told her, and grinned before she could snap at him for reading her mind again. His black eyes glinted with humor. “I didn’t read your mind for that one, it was a lucky guess.”

  She didn’t know if she believed him, but she did know she was way out of her depth with this man. Relief filled her when Diego arrived and she turned to him anxiously, but the feeling quickly died when Diego refused to look at her and sat in an armchair across the room, as far from her as possible. She sank down on the couch, feeling completely rebuffed and not knowing how to bridge this gulf between them. I’m sorry, Diego, she thought, hoping he would hear her.

  His face tightened until it looked carved from stone. I don’t want to hear those words in my head ever again, Sian, he replied, the tone of his voice cool even in her mind. And we’ll talk about it later.

  Without even glancing in her direction Diego looked at Eli. “All right, you wanted to talk to us,” he said. “So talk.”

  Eli grinned at his lack of manners and didn’t seem to take the slightest offense, but instead of answering Diego, he leaned against the fireplace and nodded to Sian. “Tell us about your family,” he invited.

  She stared for a minute, wondering if Eli had lost his mind. “What does my family have to do with anything?”

  “Tell us about them and we’ll see.”

  Sian couldn’t see what this would resolve but she didn’t quite dare look to Diego for guidance, not now while his hurt and anger buffeted her in waves. “Well, there’s none of them left now,” she said, not knowing where to start. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters. My dad raised me—he was a cop too. Is that the kind of stuff you want to know?”

  Eli smiled. “And your father was a very good policeman, because he had the same kind of intuition you have,” he said. “Isn’t that right?”

  She blinked in surprise. She’d never, never told anyone her family had shared the strange sixth sense she had, not even Diego. “How did you know that?”

  Eli just kept that enigmatic smile and didn’t bother answering. “You and your father weren’t the only ones,” he said. “It’s stronger in some, weaker in others, through generations of your family. It’s quite strong with you, isn’t it, and it’s been getting stronger every day.”

  “Yeah, and so what?” Sian snapped. She hated mind games and Eli seemed to specialize in it. “All right, pretty much everyone in my family has been a low-level psychic. You want to tell me how this relates to anything that’s been going on?” She suddenly remembered Santonyo and leapt to her feet, glancing out the door at Diego’s study. “And what are we going to do about—”

  Eli waved a hand dismissively. “We’ll get to that. Don’t worry about him for now,” he said. “Your family has quite a lot to do with everything that’s been happening. Everything, in fact. Doesn’t anyone in your family know why you all have this psychic power?”

  Sian sat again, not wanting to forget about her longtime nemesis tied up in the other room but reluctantly going along with Eli. “Not that they’re alive to talk about it with me,” she said pointedly, “but no, I don’t think anyone did. It’s just one of those things—weird, unexplainable, but basically harmless. Some families have birthmarks, we get premonitions.”

  “It’s actually quite common,” Eli replied, still lounging at ease against the fireplace. “Among dhampyrs, that is.”

  Diego sat straight up as though he’d been zapped by a bolt of electricity but Sian frowned. “I’m not a vampire,” she said. “I was out in the sun today and ate real food and everything.” All right, maybe she had turned into a fairly crispy critter, and her lunch had been a steak so rare she’d almost expected it to moo when she’d cut into it, but still—

  “Not vampire,” Eli told her. “Dhamypr. It’s an old term for a mortal descendant of a vampire.”

  “Dios,” Diego breathed, finally looking at Sian again, but his gaze brought her no comfort. He wasn’t looking at her like she was the woman he loved. He was looking at her like she was a particularly interesting exhibition in a freak show. “That explains—it explains everything.”

  “To you, maybe,” Sian said impatiently, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him for looking at her like that before glancing back at Eli. “You’re telling me I’ve got a vampire great-grandma or something? That’s nuts!”

  “It’d be a great-grandpa, if anything,” Eli told her. “The Change is a violent thing, Sian. Dhampyr women are fertile since they are born into it, but vampire women can’t have children, only the men—and not many of them. Diego’s High-blood, and like you he’s the last of his line. It only made sense to put you two together.” He glanced over at Diego when Sian looked even more confused at the mention of the words “High-blood.”

  “You really didn’t tell her any of this?”

  Diego’s eyes flashed as he returned the look. “It’s been an intense few days, Eli, and it didn’t exactly come up. How about cutting me some slack?”

  “How about you two quit talking over my head and explain this dhampyr business to me, in small words, without referring to any obscure vampire High-blood stuff?” Sian suggested, not liking where Eli was going with this “last of Diego’s line” business, especially when it was mentioned in conjunction with her fertility. She loved Diego, but she was no one’s brood mare.

  Eli laughed. Diego didn’t look amused. She wondered if they were both reading her mind now and started humming “It’s a Small World After All” in her head to chase them out. “High-blood is basically a fancy term for a vampire who was born instead of created,” Eli told her. “You’re one, too, or rather you will be once you finish what you started.”

  “And that would be?” Sian prompted, but in her heart she already knew. She remembered the rush of strength she’d felt when she’d bitten her attacker below the window, the way she now saw clearly in the dark and her sudden vicious hypersensitivity to the sun. “I’m not turning into a vampire,” she said, the denial instinctive. “I’m not! I like the beach, I like regular food at picnics and painting outside in the sunshine—”

  “You like something else more.” Eli’s voice cut across her protests with absolute surety, and though she saw his lips create the word something what she heard in his deep voice was someone. “This isn’t something that was done to you, Sian. It’s something all dhampyrs must choose, to embrace their mortal side or their vampire nature. No one forced you to pick the night.”

  And she had. Sian remembered the exact moment as she’d held Diego on the pool table. She’d have done anything to stay with him, including never seeing the sun again. “I really am becoming a vampire?”

  “You really are,” Eli said. “Which means you have a very long time in which to drive poor
, love-struck Diego insane, so slow down and pace yourself.”

  Diego glared at the suggestion. “I can’t wait to see the day you fall, Eli,” he growled. “I hope the poor woman turns you upside down and inside out, and I’m going to enjoy every second of it.”

  Eli laughed. “Never happen. What fool would have me?” He stood, stretched, and smiled at the two of them. “And with that, I’m off. I’ve got a care package to leave on the steps of the police station. Have a nice night, you two.”

  “Wait!” Sian cried, overflowing with questions and not wanting to be left alone with Diego’s wrath just yet. She was too late. Half a minute later, Eli was already out the door with Santonyo slung over his shoulder like Santa with a very strange bag of toys.

  There was no more putting it off. She turned to face Diego, but he merely brushed past her and started up the stairs.

  “Diego?” she said, wanting to follow him and wondering if he’d let her.

  He stopped without looking back. “I have to take care of James,” he said stiffly. “Be here when I get back, Sian. Don’t make me chase you down again or this time I might very well handcuff you to something to keep you from leaving.”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Sian whispered to his retreating back, but he either didn’t hear or pretended not to. She watched him until he disappeared at the top of the stairs and sighed miserably.

  Finally, having nothing else to do to occupy her until he was done with James, Sian went into the study and turned on the computer to search for information on dhampyrs. It took her several tries to get the spelling right and even when she did there wasn’t much information to be had. Most of it concerned the Spanish Inquisition, where people claiming to be dhampyrs had hunted vampires for money.

  Descended of a vampire father and mortal mother, often a gypsy, dhampyrs were said to be exceedingly rare. Legend held that they were able to detect a vampire no matter how the vampire tried to hide, and could destroy them with a word. Sian rolled her eyes at that but something was niggling in her brain. She remembered how her intuition had always clamored when Diego had claimed to be a vampire, even before she’d seen his fangs and truly believed him. Some part of her had known.

  The part about destroying vampires with a word, though, was ridiculous. She imagined some medieval vampire hunter battling an invisible vampire and saying some nonsense word, pretending to win the battle, collecting the village’s gold and moving on. No one could destroy with a word.

  “You’re right. Sometimes the lack of words destroys far better.”

  Sian looked up and found Diego leaning in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, and her heart ached. She’d really hurt him. She opened her mouth but he cut her off sharply.

  “If you say you’re sorry one more time I won’t be responsible for my actions,” he growled. “I don’t want apologies. I damn well want to know why I had to send James and Eli out to drag you home!”

  She stood and went around the desk even though her knees felt like water. She’d never seen him look more imposing. “At the time I thought I had to do it, Diego,” she told him softly. “I felt danger coming and I thought it was Santonyo closing in. I didn’t want to lead him to you.”

  “Damn it, Sian, why didn’t you just tell me?” he demanded, running a hand angrily through his hair. “I told you I would protect you from him!”

  “And I was trying to do the same thing for you,” she admitted. Now that she’d seen him in action it seemed a little silly, but it was the truth. She couldn’t hold his angry stare any longer and looked down at her hands as they knotted themselves together in front of her. She knew Diego was about to take her to task again for not believing he would protect her and explained her fears the only way she knew how. She opened her mind and gave him the memory of her father dying to save her, ready to relive each painful word, every agonizing moment of it if it would help him understand why she’d been so terrified of him getting caught in the crossfire, too.

  Diego was across the room in a second, pulling her into his arms and holding her tight. “Stop it, Sian, stop it, don’t hurt yourself like this for me,” he whispered fiercely in her hair. “You should have told me. You should’ve told me what you feared. Didn’t I tell you I’m not that easy to kill?”

  She put her arms around him and held on tight, but she knew things weren’t right between them yet. Despite his physical closeness, he was still holding himself apart where it counted—his heart. He’d hardly ever used her name before and she missed him calling her querida or wildcat. He hadn’t forgiven her yet.

  “I know that now,” she said softly, knowing she’d only relax when she heard him call her by one of his pet names for her again. “That’s why I came back.”

  Diego froze for a long moment, his cheek still against her hair. “You came back?”

  She nodded. “I came back,” she repeated. “Eli didn’t drag me anywhere, Diego. I was already here when he found me.” He didn’t speak and she rushed on, afraid to let the silence stretch out between them. “God, Diego, I was worried about you! When I came home and the gate was open, I thought—”

  Suddenly his hands framed her face, tilting her chin up until she met his surprised gaze. “You called this home,” Diego said, staring down at her in open shock.

  Sian reached up and covered one of his hands with hers. “Home is where the heart is, or so they say,” she said, hoping he’d understand what she was trying to tell him.

  He closed his eyes and shuddered. Sian wanted him to kiss her, wished he would, but he didn’t. Instead he whispered, “Say it, Sian. If you mean it, say it. Don’t make me guess.”

  He was asking more than he knew. She hadn’t said those words to anyone in more years than she wanted to remember, not since she’d said them to her father moments before he’d died. Saying them out loud made her commitment to Diego real in a way she couldn’t explain. Her heart pounded and she felt like she was standing at the edge of an abyss, but surely something she wanted this much was worth the risk. She took a deep breath and jumped.

  “I love you, Diego.”

  She hadn’t even gotten out his entire name before his mouth covered hers and he kissed her as though he were trying to taste the words on her lips, to draw them out and memorize the shape of them. He urged her back until her hips hit the computer desk and Sian wrapped herself around him, her entire body sparking with the sudden surge of pleasure his kiss always brought her. There was so much more she’d wanted to tell him but right now she couldn’t remember what it was. She could hardly remember to breathe. Sweet heaven, she’d never known a man who used his mouth so sensually, and she was more than willing to stop speaking altogether for the night and communicate with him on this much more enjoyable level.

  But Diego pulled away several long, hot minutes later and refused to let her pull him back down. “You’re going to have to say that to me several times a night for the next century or so to make up for scaring me to death today,” he told her sternly as he cradled her against his chest. “Don’t you ever leave me again, Sian. It totally wrecks my wicked, scary image to have you reduce me to a gibbering pile of nerves.”

  She laughed shakily against his chest and closed her eyes in relief at the warmth coming back into his voice. No querida yet, and he hadn’t said those three scary words back to her either. She clearly still had some more explaining to do. “If I didn’t love you, I never would have left you,” she said.

  He groaned. “I’m not even going to try to follow that logic. I think it would take considerably more than a thousand years for that to make any kind of sense, Sian.”

  “No, really,” she said, raising her head and meeting those intense green eyes. “I didn’t want Santonyo to come here because I was afraid you might get hurt—no, don’t go looking all offended like that, I hadn’t seen you fight before tonight,” she added when he frowned at her. She’d heard him do it in the alley, but she hadn’t seen a thing and those sounds might’ve been anything. “
If I didn’t care what happened to you, I’d have sat tight and let him come get you.”

  “Or you could have loved me enough to trust me,” Diego countered. “You could have loved me enough to tell me what was going on and trusted me to keep you safe. Did that ever cross your mind when you were planning on running off without even telling me goodbye?”

  She bit her lip, trying not to squirm. “I already apologized for that.”

  He gave her a look that said exactly how much he wanted to hear another apology and she decided not to say it again. He nodded once, clearly approving of her decision, before going on. “Would you like to explain the thing with Eli carrying Santonyo out of here over his shoulder now? I think I’ve waited very patiently but it’s really starting to bother me.”

  “He must have had someone follow my Mini when James brought it over. I don’t know how I got away without him seeing me and trying to catch me on the road, or how he got in here, but when I came back and the gates were wide open I knew something was wrong. I thought it was the Templars come for you until I got inside—”

  Diego let loose a stream of Spanish that didn’t sound anything like an endearment and spun away from her, running his hands through his hair again in agitation. “Dios, woman, you thought the Templars were in here and you just waltzed in anyway?” he practically shouted. “They are vampire hunters, Sian, and you’re standing there with a vampire’s bondmark on your arm. What the hell were you thinking?”

  She stayed where she was on the edge of his desk. “I was thinking you might need my help,” she answered honestly. “And you did need it in the warehouse. Which reminds me, you never said thank you for stopping that guy from staking you through the back.”

  Diego stared at her in utter disbelief and she smiled sweetly back. He was still mad enough to spit nails but his pain was fading. In that moment, she blessed her sixth sense for leveling the playing field a bit—Diego was able to read her mind, but she could read his feelings, and the knowledge helped immensely.