Part 8 (1/2)
He had genuinely expected this task to take but a few mere minutes-walk in, ask his questions and walk straight back out again.
Instead of following his usual logical, utterly sane path of rationality he had stood like a dork, watching her like some lovesick puppy, his tongue tied into knots and his c.o.c.k hardening as if he were some rampant, untried green youth.
Rylan and Michael would both certainly have hysterics if they ever knew. Not to mention the eternal, never-ending teasing Vasili would give to him.
Simeon snapped back to attention when he realized he had been staring at Alderic for a short while like a gauche youth. He knew his eyes would have likely been unfocused, as he had not been seeing the elderly vampire, but when Alderic cleared his throat slightly, Simeon noticed the slightly raised eyebrow.
Simeon nodded, acknowledging the elder, and bowed gracefully and respectfully to the vampire sitting at the desk in the cluttered study. His half-moon spectacles rested on his nose, his hands idly touching the pages of the three different volumes he had evidently been researching.
”Yes, Simeon? I do hope you haven't been hara.s.sing our poor guest.”
Simeon felt as if he were six years old again and being chastised by the old man. It didn't matter that Alderic didn't look like his many centuries, Simeon could feel the press of the vampire's age on him.
”He's been asking about Gavreel, Alderic, but he hasn't been hara.s.sing me.” Simeon felt a faint flush cross his cheekbones as Clare defended him.
d.a.m.ned if he'd needed defending since he was a youth. The mixture of his mind and body seemingly going insane on him, as well as the ”naughty schoolboy” treatment he felt like he was getting had him acting like the youth he knew he wasn't. He blurted out the one thing he hadn't been meaning to ask.
”Alderic, I can't read her mind. I mean...” He felt his blush increase as he almost stammered. What the five h.e.l.ls was the matter with him? ”I have just been concerned about Gav, you know he never goes long stretches without saying h.e.l.lo. And it's been over two months now.”
Alderic shrugged and Simeon felt the pressure in his mind threaten to explode. What the h.e.l.l was Alderic doing, merely shrugging at his concern?
”Gavreel has gone on a quest,” the elder said calmly. Simeon released a pent-up breath and felt the almost unbearable pressure in his head lessen. ”He swore dear Clare here to secrecy as he doesn't want Chandra stealing a march on him. He left after last speaking with you. Has it really been that long?”
Simeon felt his stomach roll as Alderic removed his gla.s.ses and rubbed his eyes and nose. Simeon merely nodded, not wanting to halt the elderly man's train of thought, or lead him unknowingly to change the topic of conversation.
”Dear me, he hasn't checked in with us either. More than two months, eh? Time really does fly by, doesn't it?”
Clare, he noticed, seemed relieved. Simeon turned to her and asked rather more harshly than he had intended, ”Where did my father go?” His frustration, both with her as well as himself, melted away and he smiled as she looked down her nose at him, pressing those luscious lips together tightly.
He nearly burst into laughter at the sight she made. He was a good couple of inches taller than her, and even with her lush curves he knew he easily outweighed her any way she wanted to look at it.
Besides, the snotty, almost aristocratic manner she tried to peer down at him had him wanting to simultaneously turn her over his knee as well as drag her into his arms. d.a.m.ned if he didn't want to kiss that lush mouth of hers.
He blinked, surprised at his rush of l.u.s.t. It was utterly unlike him. He usually only focused on one thing at a time, and he had definitely been focusing on Gavreel and not much else of late.
While he had spent far more than his fair share of time focusing on a woman and the enticing games men and women played together, it was highly unusual for him to be sidetracked with s.e.xual thoughts and feelings while concentrating on something different. Particularly when that something else was his family, usually nothing could distract him from that.
So what was it about her?
He s.h.i.+fted his weight uncomfortably, wis.h.i.+ng the room were not quite so warm. He snapped his attention back to the sensual woman beside him as she spoke.
”Gavreel didn't tell me where he was going. He's just chasing a reference in a book I seem to have accidentally brought him. Truly, I think he'll be fine, he just seems to have a tendency to get lost in his studies.”
Simeon heard her words, but the tone of her voice seemed to distract him from what she actually said.
”I know that,” he replied after a moment, ”but it's not like him to not contact us. You really don't know where he's gone?”
He nearly smiled as she looked angrily at him. ”I just said so, didn't I? I am not in the habit of lying, you know.”
He watched her, utterly entranced as she whirled angrily to Alderic.
”I need to get back to work.”
The old man smiled and nodded and didn't say a thing as she left the office. Simeon sat down with a huge exhalation of breath.
”When did you go into heat, son?”
As soon as the words left the old man's mouth, Simeon felt his body begin to sweat once again. It was almost as if hearing the words from Alderic's lips shed light on his subconscious and gave his body permission to show its telltale signs in full force.
”I have no idea,” he said softly, wiping a palm across his forehead. Simeon wasn't even certain if he was telling the elder vamp he wasn't sure he'd been in heat at all, or whether he simply didn't know when he had gone into the state of fertility.
This wasn't his first run-through with his heat phase, yet somehow this time around seemed far more sneaky, more complicated than it had ever felt before. Simeon thought for a moment, fitting together the pieces of the puzzle that was his mind and body.
”Maybe at the start of the week, around the D and D ball?” Simeon said idly, still feeling shocked and reeling from the knowledge he was entering heat. So this is what Michael had picked up on. This also explained why Rylan was acting like a hormonal teenage human boy.
”Interesting,” the old man murmured. Simeon looked at him as he ran his eyes head to foot over him.
”What's interesting? I am not some d.a.m.n organism under a microscope, I have no idea how this all happened. I've been through heat before, so how could I not recognize the signs? How could...” He trailed off as he thought of Clare and felt an incredible flare of heat run straight though him, causing every muscle to spasm and shake.
Numerous fantasies, each one more decadent, heated and lush ran though his mind. Licking along the weeping opening of Clare's c.u.n.t, sucking all the juices from her lips, having her mouth stretch wide around his c.o.c.k as he thrust inside her. Images ran through his mind, one after another, searing him with their intensity.
”Son, believe it or not I am not treating you like an experiment. I just found it interesting that your symptoms were mild, or mildish until you met Clare. And you know what being unable to penetrate her mind means...”
Simeon nodded, knew full well that meant she was a compatible mate, maybe even able to complete his Soul's Circle. ”But you haven't told her...”
He winced as Alderic snorted and turned back to his tome.
”Of course we haven't told her. Neither Gavreel nor I had any idea she might be compatible with a vampire. We both were ungentlemanly enough to scan her superficially, but neither one of us wanted to try and penetrate far enough to see if she had the makeup needed to complete some other lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d's Circle. You know the rules as well as I do. Just because we, or any other vamp, can superficially read her mind doesn't mean you will necessarily be able to.”
Simeon nodded, knowing the truth of his friend's words.
”Indeed,” Alderic continued, ”the fact you can't read her mind speaks plainly for itself. But Gav and I decided her first night here we wouldn't make her undertake a deeper psyche testing to see if she was compatible with any vampire in existence. We figured she had been through enough already, and left her fate in Destiny and Clare's own hands.”
Simeon wanted to ask more about what Alderic meant by Clare had already been through enough, but it would be the height of rudeness to ask. Simeon and everyone in most of the known galaxy knew that while vampires could graze anyone's mind, and almost always read the thoughts, only a couple who had the potential to complete each other's Soul's Circle could not penetrate each other's mind.
Until the ritual was complete, that is. Any vampire could force his way far enough into a woman's mind to see if she were compatible with a vampire, but often it caused damage and had been outlawed by the vampiric race for centuries. Vampires had long ago decided either a man, or woman, could search for their own mate, or simply wait for Fate.
More often than not a pair who completed each other's soul was simply drawn together through destiny and the hands of Fate anyway. So why bother to fight with it?
”I think you might want to take her out for a bite to eat, young man.” Simeon snapped out of his scrambled thoughts by Alderic's stern tone of voice. ”You both have a lot of conversation ahead of you.”
Simeon smiled wryly and managed, though with some difficulty, to rein in the anger and fierce surge of possessiveness he had felt at Alderic's very casual mention of Clare being compatible to any other vampire. She was his. He knew it deep in his soul.
Problem was, did she know or feel it?
Simeon bowed respectfully to the elder vampire, catching the glint of humor and mischievousness in his eyes, and turned to leave the office. Out in the hallway he took a few deep, calming breaths before heading back down the hallway to meet Clare.