Templar Vampires - Midnight Sun Part 15

"I will. Get some rest."

Her eyes fluttered closed, yet when he went to leave, Allie whispered his name. He turned back to her.

"Are you coming back before I have to go?"

"Don't worry, Allie, I'll always come back to you."

She looked relieved as she snuggled into his bed and fell asleep almost instantly. Sebastian stood staring at her for the longest time, marveling at her. His eyes cut through the dark as he quietly left the room and made his way down to the den. He needed to put some small distance between Allie and himself for her sake. Already he wanted her again and hoped being away from her would allow him to gain control over his body.

He felt Constantine's presence in the house.b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l . The last thing he wanted was to deal with the Dragon.

Constantine reclined on the sofa, his jaw clenched and his anger palpable. The television was on but he wasn't watching it. He sat staring out into nothing.

"I thought you and Raphael were going out to hunt with Lucian," Sebastian remarked as he sank down on the couch.

Constantine slowly turned his head and pierced him with an icy glare. "You f.u.c.ked her and fed from her."

Sebastian flinched at that harsh accusation. "That's none of your G.o.dd.a.m.n business."

"c.o.c.ksucker." Constantine fisted his hands. He was barely holding onto his fury. "I should f.u.c.king end you right now."

Sebastian c.o.c.ked a brow at him. Of all the Templars, they were the most evenly matched. They both fought with the same level of ferocity. "You can try."

Fangs bared, Constantine leaned in close to him. "You had no right."

Yes, well, he already knew that, too bad he wasn't about to admit it to Constantine. "Believe me, C, she was more than willing."

A feral sound reverberated in the back of Constantine's throat. "I know. I heard."

Sebastian s.h.i.+fted uncomfortably. He didn't like that Constantine heard every one of Allie's whimpers and moans.

Letting out a loud sign, Sebastian leaned back on the couch. "I care about her, Constantine."

"No s.h.i.+t."

"You and that other a.s.shole knew this would happen if you got us together so what's the f.u.c.king problem? You and Raphael got exactly what you were hoping for."

Constantine stood and went to stalk from the room. "Fate's a funny b.i.t.c.h. She always finds a way. All we did was give you both a push." His eyes were haunted when they met his. "She's too f.u.c.king good for any of us."

"Don't you think I know that?"

Constantine stopped in the doorway and looked back at him. "Something's going to go down big, Sage.

Protect her." Sebastian knew better than to doubt Constantine's warnings. "You know I will."

Constantine nodded curtly. It was his way of accepting the situation.

The Dragon left the manor silently after that warning. Sebastian shut off the television and sat in the dark listening to Allie's soft breathing. She was all over him. He could feel her lifeforce thundering through him.

It made him feel alive again, and that was something he'd never come close to feeling since the night he died.

Actually, if the truth were known, he'd lost this feeling long before that day.

Sometime during his long captivity at Chinon, he lost his humanity alongside his spirit, a dead man years before they lit the fire and cheered his death. He died the night they broke him. The night his own screams nearly deafened him.

Tired of being alone, of fighting against his nature, Sebastian rose and went back upstairs. After laying out some things he thought Allie might need when she woke, he slipped into bed next to her. He felt an unfamiliar knot of emotion in his chest when she curled herself into him. He put his arms around her, holding her naked body against his.

It was as close to Heaven as he ever hoped to get.

Chapter Fifteen.

Though Allie warned her against going out, Lex felt as if the walls of Allie's house were closing in on her.

With Allie gone for the night, likely out with the Templar vampires, she didn't want to be alone. Having no one else to call here, she tracked down Patricia Olsen. Not Lex's first choice of friends, still, Patricia would do in a pinch.

What a bad idea it'd been to get together with that catty b.i.t.c.h. All it served was to remind Lex how different she was from the girls she'd considered her friends when she lived here.

Not that things were much better in Florida.

No matter where she went and who she was with, seemed Lex was destined to feel like the odd man out.

She'd driven Allie's old Dodge into Edessa, the next town over from Damascus, taking the dark and twisting roads cautiously. She'd spent barely an hour at Patricia's before she needed to go. Her friend hadn't changed a bit since high school. She still had the power to make Lex feel awkward. Freakish.

Seeing Patricia was a harsh reminder of how far removed Lex was from the "normal" world.

Unfortunately it left her with nowhere to fit in, since, thus far, Allie adamantly refused to allow her into the nighttime world where fairy tales were real and normalcy was the unusual.

Pa.s.sing Our Lady of Grace church, located ironically on Church Street, Lex felt compelled to go in.

Though it was late, she saw Father Phil smoking a cigarette outside the rectory and asked the friendly old priest if she could have a few minutes alone with G.o.d. More than happy to oblige a young person in their quest for the Lord, he'd opened the church to her. This was the first time since her brother's funeral she'd been in a church. Lex didn't know why she stayed away from G.o.d so long. After all, she knew for a fact He existed. Allie told her all about the Templars, how they died and were reborn as vampires and how G.o.d cursed them, their souls taken by an archangel.

If that wasn't proof of G.o.d she didn't know what was.

On her knees, forehead to her clasped hands, Lex was beyond prayer and beyond thought. She long since settled into a wonderful state of perfect peace, not even realizing an entire hour came and went until finally her tortured knees took her out of her trance.

Looking down at her watch she cringed with dread when she saw it was nearly eleven o'clock. Though Allie wouldn't be home yet, her sister was bound to call to check in on her. If she wasn't there, Allie would have a coronary, rush home, find her gone and kill her for leaving.

An angry Allie was the last thing Lex wanted to deal with.

Rising from her aching knees, Lex stretched and looked around for Father Phil, thinking to thank him for letting her linger so long. Seeing he was nowhere to be found, she left quietly.

She was coming out of the church when saw him standing at the foot of the stone steps.

Lex felt frozen to the spot by the sight of the man. Good G.o.d, he was huge. The expression of his face was enough to chill her despite the warm, humid air of the summer night.

Tall, broad, dangerous, and handsome as all get-out, he looked like the poster boy for Gothic fas.h.i.+on.

On him, the gothic clothes didn't come across as a costume. No, he owned the look, as if the whole look had been created solely for him.

He was staring at the church with oddest eyes she'd ever seen. They were silver and quite literally, glowed.

Oh G.o.d, he's a vampire.

By all rights Lex knew she should be terrified, knew she should retreat back into the church where she'd be safe. Yet her feet froze to the spot as excitement thundered through her.

How odd to find such a creature near a church. Weren't there rules preventing such a thing?

Maybe it was the fleeting look of dejection that pa.s.sed across his face. He stared at the church as if she wasn't there, as if it were only G.o.d and him and nothing else existed.

She knew the feeling. She'd indulged in it for the last hour.

Unsure what to do, Lex stood staring down at him and noticed the jagged scar that cut down the left side of his face. It should have made him ugly. It didn't. If anything, it made him more appealing.

This was a man who shook off the perfection of youth and settled into the wear and tear of adulthood.

His frosty stare s.h.i.+fted and settled on her. He c.o.c.ked a brow at her as his tongue ran over his bottom lip. "What have we here?" His voice was low and smooth. There was a hint of amus.e.m.e.nt in his tone that she chose to ignore.

"Are you alright?"

"I am now."

Something about the way he said that made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

As if he wasn't a threat to her life, Lex let the door close and began down the stairs. She knew with every step she took toward him it brought her closer to her mortality. Yet she felt no fear. She wondered if he'd put a spell on her, but dismissed the idea when she recalled Allie said vampires couldn't do that.

Standing on the last step, she still had to look up at him. "What are you doing standing outside the church?"

"What are you doing coming out of church?"

Good question. Lex wished she knew. "I guess I needed G.o.d."

The same despondent look pa.s.sed over him again. "Don't we all?" His tone was about as sarcastic as the s.h.i.+rt he wore that readIt's all about the pain (the ink and the jewelry are just souvenirs).

He looked like G.o.d was the last thing he needed. "I don't know. Do we?"

He actually seemed to think about that for a moment. "No. We don't."

By the way he said that, Lex believed he was lying. Though whether to her or himself, she didn't know.

Maybe he didn't know either.

She stood close enough for him to hurt her if he was of a mind to. And though she knew the danger she placed herself in, she didn't move away. Her curiosity about what he was and her attraction to him overrode common sense and kept her right where she was.

Normally someone who played it safe, who hid in the corner while life was lived all around her, something in Lex rebelled at the idea of retreating. She wanted to touch his pale skin, wanted to see if it was as cold as it looked. He stood so still it was creepy. And were those fangs peeking out from behind his lips?

He licked his lips. Yep. Those were definitely fangs.

Everything Allie warned her about earlier tonight came back to Lex in a rush. Still, something forced her to remain right where she was. In harm's way. She didn't want to leave him alone, not after seeing the lost and lonely look in his eyes. It seemed almost cruel to leave him. Like she'd be abandoning him.

"You're scared."

Well of course I am.Did he forget he was a vampire?

Yet a whispered voice a.s.sured Lex he wouldn't hurt her. As the melodious voice resonated in her mindan itch began right above her navel. She gave it a quick scratch though it did nothing to ease it.

"I know what you are, so yes, I'm afraid of you."

"Do you now?" One of his black brows rose in question. Then he looked at her all thoughtfully for a moment. "What am I, elf?"

"You're a vampire."

His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. "Someone's been telling you bedtime stories, have they?"

She swallowed hard when he leaned in close and inhaled the air around her. She swore she felt as if he was trying to push inside her mind. "Damascus isn't your average town."

"No it's not." Since he was so close to her, she was able to smell the scent of patchouli that clung to his pale flesh. She never been overly fond of the scent, but on him it smelled wonderful. "I don't want you to be afraid of me."

His voice wove through her, wrapped around her and touched her as if his hands were on her. She s.h.i.+vered as a delicious thrill crept up her spine.

If she weren't careful she'd give in to the odd sensations awakening within her, drawing her to him. "I have to go."

"So soon?"

She nodded, wondering if he was going to let her leave. "I have to get home."

He leaned in close. So close they were practically touching. "Stay," he whispered seductively in her ear.

Yes.Stay. She wanted to more than she was willing to admit. "It's bad enough my sister is going to freak since I went out after she warned me not to. If I'm any later she's going to kill me."

Lex didn't understand why she was treating him so casually. The man was a vampire. He was the very thing Allie warned her about.

The whispering in her head, a beautiful chorus of voices coming from somewhere far away, out of sight, told her she belonged in this moment.

These were the same voices that led her back to good any time she thought to veer from the path of pure. But not this time, now, they were telling her to stay with a creature who was sin incarnate.

Slapping a hand to her temple, she feared she was losing her mind.

And the itch-Oh G.o.d, the itch on her stomach was getting worse every day. A burning itch directly over her navel that no amount of scratching could relieve.

"Your sister is right. Bad things come out at night."

She let out a nervous laugh. "Does that include you?" "Especially me."