Ulysses Exposed (Blaire Thorne Book 1) Read online

  My head started to ache thinking about it all, and I was no closer to discovering who I was or what I had been doing in that alley.

  When we arrived at Léon’s room, I had a full-blown headache and my mouth was dry. Sebastian pushed the door open, and we saw a naked woman sitting on someone with the silk sheets spilling around her body. She turned to us but didn’t cover herself.

  Léon peered around the naked woman’s body and smiled. “That was quick, Sebastian. I see that you two are already holding hands?”

  I didn’t know if he or I was embarrassed, but we let go of each other’s hand at the exact same time.

  “Don’t stop on my account,” Léon said through heavy breaths. He gripped the woman’s hips and started thrusting inside her. She arched backward as she screamed in pleasure. After she spasmed around him, Léon pushed her to one side, and she huddled in the sheets to bask in the afterglow. Léon climbed out of the bed and walked to us. I didn’t want to look anywhere except for his forehead.

  “I hope you don’t mind, my dear, but I will be here for the rest of the evening.” Léon had a grin splashed across his face as he stood in front of me.

  I stared at the fine lines of his forehead. “It’s your place.”

  “Sebastian, you don’t mind, do you?” Léon asked.

  The men leered at each other, their powers flaring up to the point that they felt almost tangible, like tiny insects biting across my skin. I gasped and stepped back until I knocked my head against the door frame.

  “Best you take her now before she hurts herself.” Léon turned toward the bathroom.

  “Come, let’s go,” Sebastian said, taking my hand.

  “What’s up with him?”

  “He gets like that sometimes. Just ignore it.”

  We walked to Sebastian’s room, which was only three doors down and looked identical to Léon’s. The only difference between the two was that Sebastian’s bathroom was smaller. When I entered the room from the bathroom, Sebastian was heading out the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  “You stay here, and I will bunk with one of the other leopards.”

  “Don’t be silly. You’ve slept beside me before when you healed me. It will be fine. We’re only sleeping next to each other.”

  What I didn’t say was that I might have a husband and a child somewhere and a casual anything isn’t what I needed right now. But that didn’t mean I wanted to be alone, either.

  “I don’t mind if you don’t?” he said.

  “No, I don’t mind.”

  I wanted to ask if Léon was always such an ass, but then I remembered the other vampires at the club. Sebastian sat on a chair with his back to me and removed his shoes. His shirt strained against his back, and it reminded me of Ralph, the man who pulled me aside at the club. He had said that I should ask Sebastian about his connection with Léon.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “What kind of relationship do you and Léon have?”

  “Why do you ask?” The lines between his eyes deepened, and his gaze intensified.

  I didn’t think that I could get away with feigning curiosity, but the alternative was admitting that Ralph had suggested it to me, and that he had warned me against trusting them. There was no way I was ready to tell Sebastian that.

  “The two of you seem to fight often? What is it with the two of you, or is that just the relationship you have with your master?”

  His body stiffened, and he gave a long sigh.

  “He is not my master. He is the master of the city. There is a difference.”

  I crossed my arms and leaned against the bedpost. “What does that mean?”

  His shoes fell to the floor, and he threw his socks into the laundry basket. He stood, a full head and shoulders taller than me at about six-foot-two. As he stepped closer, dark shadows played along his face, accentuating his high cheekbones. He closed the gap between us while I stepped away from the bed—away from him—until I had reached the wall near the door. I didn’t know why I did that; he had done nothing except help me, yet in that moment I knew I had to move away. When he realized that I was moving closer to the door, he stopped and lifted his hands to indicate he meant no harm. He sat on the bed and untucked his shirt.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. You don’t have to run for the door.” He sighed.

  “I’m just cautious, I guess. I mean, I don’t know you. Or Léon, for that matter. You welcomed me into your home, but I’m scared. I guess Ian attacking me earlier shook me up.” I stepped closer to him. “And the power unleashed between the two of you burns my skin and makes it hard for me to breathe around the two of you.”

  His brows furrowed. “What do you mean? You can feel our power?”

  “Yes.”

  His confusion was evident. “You are human; you shouldn’t feel anything.”

  Shit.

  “What do you mean—can’t everyone feel it?” I frowned. Why didn’t I know this? I knew enough information about vampires and were-animals, but I clearly knew little about their powers.

  “No, a human shouldn’t be able to pick up on any metaphysical power, unless they themselves have some kind of ability.”

  “But I don’t have any ability. Or, at least, not one that I can remember having.” I felt frustration burning inside me. “Your powers set me off so that I can’t breathe and my skin burns, but I don’t know why I can feel them.”

  He considered that for a moment. “That’s interesting.”

  I was hoping that he would share a little more, but one thing I knew about Sebastian was that he wasn’t one for words. I allowed him a moment to think before returning to the subject of Léon. “Come on, what’s the deal with the two of you? You are always fighting—like siblings.” I narrowed my eyes.

  “It’s a long story.”

  I pressed on. “I don’t have any other plans. And we have all night.”

  Sebastian remained hesitant, but eventually his shoulders sagged, and he gave in. “We are related.”

  “Related how?”

  “We’re brothers.”

  I choked back a laugh. “Are you serious?”

  The look he gave me told me that he was.

  “As in real brothers?”

  He nodded.

  “But he is a vampire and you are a were-leopard? How does something like that happen?”

  “It’s rare,” he admitted.

  I sat beside him on the bed and whispered, “Are you really blood brothers?”

  He smiled, almost laughing. “Blood brothers. That’s funny. We have the same father but different mothers. Our father became a vampire when he was twenty-eight and was still able to procreate. Léon was born a vampire and tore through his human mother’s womb, killing her. Two years later, I was born to a were-leopard.”

  My mouth gaped open for a heartbeat. I thought that I had heard it all, but this was beyond me. “But Léon is eight-hundred years old, and you just said that you are twenty-eight. I don’t understand how that can be? And I thought vampires were created, not born.”

  “When humans turn into vampires, some can still have babies with humans or were-animals in human form. Apparently, it’s rare for the babies to survive. After our father became a vampire, he had us. He became a legend within the vampire community, so to speak. Léon was born a vampire and didn’t have to be bitten. He grew up like a normal child, only instead of it taking twenty-eight years, he reached adulthood within five. Two years after Léon was born, our father fell in love with a were-leopard, and they conceived a child. Nine months later, I was born. I aged quickly during the first five years until I was twenty-eight, and I have appeared that age ever since.”

  “You are also around eight-hundred years old?”

  “Yes.”

  “I still don’t understand how that can be. The literature I remember said that were-animals aged slowly, but you aren’t aging at all.”

  “We thi
nk I have some of our father’s traits.”

  “But why do you hide?”

  “You mean, why do I work as Léon’s guard?”

  I nodded.

  “Practicality. Despite how things may appear, we’ve always been close. When he became Master of the City, he needed me and the were-animals to forge an alliance, and it made sense for me to be by his side. Together we are stronger; we are more powerful.”

  “So, people know you are related?”

  “Some do, I’m sure.” He shrugged. “It’s not a secret.”

  “People could use that against you, or more likely, against Léon. Aren’t you worried about that? Or about me? I could be one of those people sent to kill you.”

  “I don’t see you as a threat. Well—not yet.” He flashed a wide smile.

  His attempt at humor failed. I wasn’t happy. I stared at him.

  “You are way too serious now.”

  “And you aren’t serious enough, Sebastian. What if I hadn’t forgotten who I am? What if me being here means that you’re in danger?” I said, raising my voice, with my pulse raging in my ears.

  Power trickled off him until it seemed to fill the room. It swirled around me, through me, so that the tense muscles in my back and shoulders relaxed and I suddenly felt tired.

  I frowned at him. “What was that?”

  “You needed to calm down. You are a very angry person.” He pointed two fingers toward my heart. “There is something inside of you so similar to that of a glowing-red poking iron that it can scald everybody around you.”

  “What does that mean?” I sounded angry, even in spite of my tiredness.

  He didn’t answer, and the silence was deafening. He gave me cold green eyes like ice over a lake.

  My shoulders rounded and slumped forward. “Okay, all right. Stop whatever you are doing. I need to sleep.” My adrenaline rush was receding; it had kept me alive during the fight with the vampires at the club and had helped me to cope with the man who grabbed my hand. Instead, the power flare up from Sebastian had knocked the anger and the stubbornness right out of me, and all I could feel was exhaustion.

  I glanced around his room. My eyes scanned the cupboard where he kept his clothes, the two chairs near the table in the middle of the room and the large bed made from elegantly carved, vintage wood that I was sitting on, its four posts reaching toward the ceiling.

  “Why are there no clocks in any of the rooms? I keep having to ask you for the time.” I folded my arms across my chest, and as my right arm went under my left arm, I felt that I was missing something important. Something that I kept close to my heart.

  I gasped. “I was wearing a shoulder holster. I was wearing a gun that evening. When I saw Elena with her holster, it didn’t register. I didn’t remember, not until now.”

  “There was no gun on you when we brought you in, and your holster had to be cut away.”

  “Was there a phone?”

  His face thawed, the ice in his eyes melting as his mouth pressed into a straight line. He shook his head gently and said, “No, there wasn’t a phone either. It was just the key chain we found in the alley that we thought might be yours. There was nothing else on your person when we found you. Nothing.”

  I wiped tears from my eyes, and my breath shook.

  “We went through your car carefully and we found nothing of value and no personal belongings.”

  “And, the man in the trunk?”

  “So far, he is a torso and a severed hand, and that’s all. We still don’t know who he was, but Kit is looking into it.”

  “Did you say ‘severed hand’? I didn’t see one.”

  “We found it after we removed everything from the trunk. Kit is using the hand to take fingerprints.”

  “Did you pass this on to the police?”

  “No, they are … otherwise indisposed with other crimes, and this—even though there’s a victim—isn’t important enough. There are just too many politicians running the force at the moment.” Either his voice was tinged with sadness, or he was tired.

  The details were a little vague, but I started to remember something about a vampire trying to run for governor and wanted to cut funding at police stations. So, the humans and vampires were in a political battle of sorts. Interesting to know, but that was a problem for another time.

  I kicked my shoes off and climbed under the silk green sheets wearing my clothes, I was too tired to do anything else.

  Sebastian removed his clothing down to his boxers, pulled on a soft sleep t-shirt and climbed in beside me. He switched off the light on his side, and we both lay on our backs in the dark.

  Would it sound silly to ask him to hold me?

  “Would you mind if I snuggled against you until I fall asleep?”

  He moved to the middle of the bed and whispered, “Sure.”

  I came in closer and he opened his arm for me so that I could nestle my head between his shoulder and chest and he held me.

  It didn’t take long to fall sleep in his warm arms, listening to the strong beat of his heart.

  CHAPTER 8

  I STOOD IN front of a mirror with a tall green tree behind me. Léon was lying on the bed with crimson silk sheets spilled around him, covering him from the waist down. He held his hand out for me.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “No,” I repeated. I didn’t want to go to him.

  “Is this better?” He stood behind me dressed in a white dress shirt with gold cuff links and a golden tie. His dark hair hung in his face, and as he swept it aside, his blue eyes caressed my body as he watched me in the mirror.

  I spun around to face him. “Why are you in my dream, Léon?”

  “I wanted to see if I could.”

  “Okay, now you have, you can go. You said you wanted nothing from me. Have you changed your mind?”

  “No,” he said.

  I blinked, and suddenly I was sitting on warm sand under an umbrella, basking in the sunlight. I was in a one-piece bathing suite with a cocktail in my hand, the same mix as Sebastian had made at the club. As I took a sip, I saw Sebastian emerge from the cerulean sea. His blonde hair darker, water glistened off his toned body, his swim trunks fitting loosely around his hips. When he reached me, he bent down and picked up a towel, starting to dry the water off his body. The water shimmered as it dripped down his abdomen, and I wanted to lick it off. Still not completely dry, he lay the towel down beside me and sat on it.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he said, looking out onto the water.

  “Why are you in my dream?” I asked, frowning at him.

  “I wanted to see if I could.”

  He sounded just like Léon. He leaned closer to whisper in my ear, and as he did so, his left hand came near to my face. Only it wasn’t his hand—it was claws surrounded by black fur.

  I woke alone and in Sebastian’s room. My clothing was damp and my breathing was strained. I lay back down on the bed and rubbed the sides of my head with my middle fingers. Tears rolled down the side of my face and ran into my ears. The tree was gone; there was no mirror, no beach and no claws. I exhaled and sat up, seeing a clock on the other side of the bed that hadn’t been there last night. It was already after four in the afternoon. I climbed out of bed and ran a hot bath.

  There was a smell of trees after a storm, tall grass from wild fields and the smell of fog above moving water. The coarse fur brushed against my cheek but I couldn’t see it; I could only feel it. My eyes fluttered open at the sight of the familiar tiles, I was in Sebastian’s bathroom. Was I remembering something from the attack? The were-animal that hurt me; was I smelling what I remembered? Did I touch it during the attack? I saw black fur—or was it a dark charcoal color? Then I smelled the ocean with a hint of citrus. Was it Sebastian’s scent that I was smelling?

  I sank into the water until my whole body was submerged. When I surfaced I saw the soap was in the shower, along with the shampoo and conditioner; I had forgotten to fetch it
before I climbed into the bath. But I didn’t feel like getting out. The towels were also on the other side of the bathroom.

  Shit. I wasn’t thinking clearly. Did I lock the bathroom door? The dream must have affected me more than I thought. And did I dream of Léon and Sebastian, or had they really entered my dream themselves?

  There was a soft knock on the door.

  “Who is it?”

  “Sebastian. Can I come in?”

  “Hold on.”

  The bath was as full as it would get without spilling over the sides. How much would he see? I lifted my legs and sat up, huddled my arms around my legs until I was sure nothing could be seen and said, “Okay, you can come in now.”

  He came in holding two mugs, the aroma of coffee trailing behind him.

  “Hmm, that smells good.”

  He placed the cup on the edge of the bath, close enough for me to reach, and stood back.

  “Thanks,” I said. “How long have you been awake? I see it’s already late afternoon.”

  “I’ve been up for a while. You needed rest, so I left you to sleep.”

  “How did you know I was awake to bring me coffee?”

  “Léon told me.”

  “Doesn’t he need to sleep in his coffin?”

  His laugh was deep, with a hint of a growl. “No; as he is a master vampire, he need not stay in his coffin all day like the rest of them. He usually gets up around four. I was already in the kitchen when he told me you were awake and might need company.”

  “Oh,” I said, holding the mug with both hands, savoring each sip. I was slowly waking up and beginning to feel as normal as possible.

  Sebastian placed his mug on the basin and went to the shower to pick up the soap, shampoo and conditioner. He set them on the edge of the bath. “It’s only me who stays in this room and I prefer to shower. I don’t have extra goodies for the bath.”