Part 44 (1/2)

”Go with them,” Leandro said to an amply curved redhead.

”Yes, my lord,” the woman answered with an inviting smile. He watched as Jiri led the two women up the stairs, his arm about the slender blonde's narrow waist.

Then, turning, Leandro said, ”You three, stay with me.”

The unchosen women turned to go, leaving the way they came. Leandro let a slow smile curl his lips in invitation. He spread his arms and the three women he'd picked rushed to him with feminine pants of excitement. Their hands grabbed hold of his body, willingly touching and caressing him as if he were a G.o.d. He did not lead them from the hall, knowing they wouldn't be disturbed.

One very pretty girl wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s firmly against him. Feeling his arousal, she moaned and settled her hips into it. With a twist she offered her neck.

”Take what you need, my lord,” she whispered in a sultry vixen's tone. ”I offer it to you freely.”

Leandro bit into her neck and she moaned, loud and long. His fingers tore the gown from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, baring them. His cool fingers curled around the globes, feeling their weight, ma.s.saging pa.s.sion into her blood so that he may taste of it. The second woman moved along his back, hugging herself to him as she ran her fingers over his shoulders, chest, into hair. The third servant knelt, moving herself between Leandro and his meal. Her hands ran up his thighs to his waistband only to free his long erection to view. She instantly took it into her mouth, sucking her master with pleasure. Leandro groaned, euphoric, drinking deeper.

”Did you miss me at all?” Tatiana stared at Marcello, wondering where the question had come from. She did not mean to say the words aloud, but now that they were out, she couldn't take them back.

Marcello looked at her, eyeing her pale face, so changed, so beautiful still. Slowly, he turned his back to her and whispered, ”Yes.”

Tatiana felt as if her heart was about to fall from her chest. There was so much she wanted to say, to know from him. At the moment, she couldn't force the words past her lips. None of it mattered. Not her death and rebirth, not the past between them. She needed him as he needed her. They were connected. She felt his blood within her, stirring her pa.s.sion, her longing.

”Marcello,” she whispered, going to him. She took his arm and pulled. His eyes met hers in a locked embrace. ”I am glad it wasn't you who killed me.”

He started to pull away, but Tatiana refused to let him go. She rose up on her toes, thrusting forward so hard that she knocked him back across the floor. He remained on his feet, skidding over the hard stone as she kissed him with fiery longing. Her fangs nicked his lips and she deepened her a.s.sault with a moan of pleasure.

”I love your taste,” she whispered pa.s.sionately into his mouth. ”I want more of it. I want all of it. Give it to me.”

Marcello growled and pushed her roughly back. He glared at her, the red of blood filling his gaze. She could see that he wanted her, but was torn. ”You taste of my brother's blood. You reek of him!”

”It was destiny for the three of us to join. Leandro has taken my mortal life. You have everything else of me,” Tatiana said. Her lips trembled and she would've cried if her eyes had been able to tear. They stayed steady and dry, though there was sadness in them when she looked at him. ”I have nothing left for myself.”

Marcello looked at her. Her body was slender, stronger. Her black hair had grown longer, falling down over her hips. Her jade eyes sparkled with their power--more power than before. He wondered how she wasn't mad with it.

”I am mad,” Tatiana said, answering his thought. ”I can feel it in me, the insanity, just at the corner waiting for me to stumble. I hear the voices of the past knocking in my brain. They want to show me what it is they have done. They want to show me their deaths. I dreamt of them last night--so many, so much, too much. I don't want them there. I don't want to see them. I want to go home again. I want to go to a party in my green silk dress and I want to come home to find Alice sitting in my room waiting for me to tell her all about it. I want....” She stopped talking to look him over. Quietly, her heart breaking because she loved him and couldn't have him, she asked, ”But, I can't have what I want, can I, Marcello?”

”There will be parties,” he said quietly. ”But, they will not be the same. You will not glean the same simple pleasure from them. There will be as many green silk dresses as you wish, changing in make and style as the time changes around you. But, they will not give you the same feeling they once did. There will be Alice to whom to speak, but she is now dead and lingering.

She is lost, trapped, because you wished it of her that night we buried her. That thought will drive you to distraction, eating at you. As to home, you are home,bella mia . There will be many more homes for you. Many crypts and coffins, countries and places--much more than you could ever image now.”

Tatiana screamed, hating him for his words, knowing them to be truths. Her expression changed from sadness to anger. Her eyes darted around. Seeing a knife on the wall, she grabbed it and rushed at him. Her eyes bled with tears and her lips quivered as the sound of the beast surged forth in her words, ”Why did you have to come that night? Why did Henry have to kill her? I want my life back. I don't want any of this. Give me back my life!”

Tatiana slammed into him, wielding the blade near his heart. Marcello didn't fight. She shoved him into the stone wall, knocking the tapestry loose with the force. It fell on them. Tatiana jerked him forward, pulling free of the heavy material so she could see his face. She slammed him into the wall again and again, threatening him with the knife, as she yelled, ”Give it back. Give it back.”

”Do it,” Marcello growled. He ripped open his jacket, waistcoat, and s.h.i.+rt in one pull. b.u.t.tons flew, but they didn't care, didn't hear them. Their eyes warred. Growling, he ordered her, ”If my death will bring you peace, then do it. Finish me!”

Tatiana screamed again, loud and piercing, shaking the furniture with the force of her torment. With a slash, she cut him, ripping into his flesh so that it bled deep. Marcello flinched, but did not move to stop her. His eyes closed as he waited for death.

”Into the heart,” he said. ”Then drag me into the sun. That is how you will kill me. Do it,bella mia . Do it!”

With a low grumble coming from deep within her, Tatiana dropped the knife and licked his wound instead. His chest tensed and his eyes opened in pleasure to watch her tongue flicking across him.

”I can't,” she whispered, moaning in pleasure to feel him inside her mouth, next to her sensitive skin. ”To kill you would be to kill myself.”

”What are you saying?” Marcello tensed. She s.h.i.+vered as she stood before him, his crimson blood staining her lips. The wound on his chest healed.