She drew herself up, still searching for that deep betrayed feeling, and replied, “No.” Her fingers were shaking and her insides were doing unpleasant and pleasant things at the same time.
Handsome as sin he might be, familiar and beautifully-scented…but she couldn’t feel anything for him. Nothing but that old hatred and revulsion. She stoked it so that it burned stronger inside her, giving her a barrier behind which to hide.
She told herself that she had nothing to say to him, that she had no desire to even be near him, yet her mouth moved and the words came out before she could stop them. “Why are you following me? Surely you don’t think I need protection.”
“Are you going to Paris?” he asked, stepping closer, pinning her with his eyes.
“Are you mad? Go back there?Never.”
He nodded briefly. “I didn’t think you’d be that foolish.”
Giordan was very close now, standing so that his scent filled her every breath, overwhelming even that of the nearby sewer, battling for her consciousness. Her insides fluttered wildly and Narcise felt a rush of heat and desire. She swallowed hard, willing herself to step back and away…but her feet wouldn’t move.
His eyes found hers, holding her gaze and her heart thumped madly as he came nearer. She took a step back and he smiled knowingly.
“What are you afraid of, Narcise?” he taunted, his gaze melting into something hot and warm.
All she need do was turn and walk away from him. There was nothing more she needed or wanted to say to him. She didn’t want to even breathe him in the air.
But her knees trembled and she felt a rise of heat billowing, filling her. “I’m not afraid of you,” she replied, even though her veins were pounding and surging, reacting to his nearness. Her eyes were drawn to his mouth, his lips slightly parted, full and beautifully shaped in the silvery moonlight.No.
“No?” he asked sardonically.
“Why were you were following me? Because you thought I was going toParis?” she asked, desperate to change the subject…and to ease away from him. His glittering gaze made her insides tickle and flutter.
“Either that or you were making an escape from your vampire hunter,” Giordan replied. “Is that why you were sneaking off from Rubey’s? Have you tired of Chas Woodmore now that he’s served his purpose?”
She knew that to respond was just to bait him, to continue to keep him there, looking at her with his cold eyes. But, though she ignored his obvious lure into a discussion about Chas, she had to know something else. “Why would you think I’d go back to Paris?”
The moonbeams played over his face, swathing half of his square chin and mobile lips in silvery light and leaving the other side in shadow. His gaze searched hers and her heart skipped a little. She willed it to stop jumping around.
“Woodmore went to Scotland to see his sister. Weren’t you with him?”
“I couldn’t go into the convent,” she replied. “Luce’s hold is too strong for me to enter. But I’d like to know how you were able to enter the old monastery?—”
“So that’s why,” he murmured, half to himself. “He didn’t tell you what he learned about your brother.” A little ironic smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “He doesn’t trust you. Imagine that.”
“What are you talking about?” Narcise demanded stridently enough that a trio of passersby paused and looked over at them. She turned her back to them.
“Perhaps you’d best ask your lover what he doesn’t want you to know,” Giordan replied.
“How can you know about what happened in Scotland?” she said from between clenched teeth. How couldheknow when Chas hadn’t even toldher? He’d been vague when she asked, telling her that Sonia hadn’t had a clear vision and he hoped to get a message from her later with more information.
Which meant that Chas had either lied to her or…something.
“I know because he told Rubey, and Rubey tells me everything,” Giordan said. His accompanying smile was both condescending and meaningful. “She has nothing to hide from me.”
Rubey. A little shaft of pain zipped through her as she realized the layers of meaning there. Narcise struggled for something to say that would wound him right back. “Rubey?”
He merely held his smile in place and looked at her.
Narcise’s mouth tightened as a wave of memory and hatred rushed over her. She’d trusted him, opened herself up to caring about him…and he’d destroyed her. “I certainly hope she doesn’t have a brother,” she said stiffly. “I don’t think she’d take kindly to a betrayal when she’s servedherpurpose.”
Even in the faulty light, she saw his expression settle into one cold and hard. “There can be no betrayal, for there’s no love between us.”
Frustration and pain reared inside her and her vision tinged red. “There’s never any love with a Dracule. Lust and the moment of pleasure, yes, always…but love?” she scoffed. “Never.”
“I loved you.” He spoke so quietly his words were nearly lost by the sound of a passing carriage…yet they rang hard and cold and angry.
