Templar Vampires - Midnight Sun Part 11

Only sixteen when they went off to fight for G.o.d halfway across the world, in today's time it was unthinkable. Neither boy could resist when Guy Sinclair, a charismatic young lord, pa.s.sed through their lands in search of able bodies to join his army. They'd relinquished all they'd had, willing to sacrifice even their own lives, to travel to the Holy Land in search of glory.

To this day, he never returned to Rydon Castle.

The trek to the Holy Land was one Sebastian would never-could never-forget.

They traveled for six grueling months to reach a place so hot and dry, Tristan often joked Guy was leading them right into h.e.l.l. In retrospect, Tristan hadn't been off the mark about that.

h.e.l.l was exactly what they found.

The things he'd been forced to do while serving in the Order haunted him to this night. The blood he'd shed, both guilty and innocent alike, still stained his hands. When he closed his eyes he saw the mutilated bodies of those he'd killed in the name of G.o.d-even long after he stopped believing in the Lord.

Their d.a.m.nation came with few restrictions, unlike when they'd been in the Order. There were times the lack of s.e.x d.a.m.n near drove him mad. Thankfully, abstinence wasn't among their current precincts.

Forcing his body to move, Sebastian dragged himself out of bed. He flinched as the pain shot through him.Jesus Christ , he wanted to kick himself right in the a.s.s for putting himself through this torture. One quick feed and the pain would go and he'd be back to his full strength.

Sad green eyes kept him from it.

His body needed the blood of more than just the small and sickly animals he'd been feeding from these past nights. He needed strong blood. Human blood. Nothing less would ease the pain and fully sate his hunger.

Feeding from animals left him weak and vulnerable, which was a dangerous state given the threat allaround them.

It forced him to feed more often. Every night, actually, and still it wasn't enough.

Nevertheless, he couldn't bring himself to feed from a human. No matter how much his body needed it, he couldn't imagine touching any woman but Allie. The thought made his skin crawl with revulsion.

He missed her.

She was doing everything within her power to find the origins and location of the Daystar. Her perseverance was impressive. The woman was relentless.

The Templars, meanwhile, went out every night in search of the renegades responsible for the murders of those women. So far, they found nothing, which meant tonight was one more night Sebastian would have to go off and feed to have enough energy to go with the others on the hunt.

Heading into the bathroom, Sebastian took a hot shower, standing under the blistering water long enough to almost chase away the cold.

Almost.

Until G.o.d gifted him his soul back, the cold was part and parcel with the whole d.a.m.nation thing. Only human blood had the power to ease it, and then only for a short time.

In the middle of getting dressed, Sebastian felt Allie as keenly as if she were right beside him. He didn't bother to question the elation her presence filled him with.

A moment later he heard the doorbell ring. He felt the antic.i.p.ation surge through Allie as she waited none-too patiently for someone to let her in. He was about to go and do exactly that when he heard Raphael's door open and bang shut. He stomped down the stairs, muttering about needing more sleep as he went.

Like the storm she was, Allie blew into Randall Manor. "Hey, Red." Raphael sounded shot to h.e.l.l with exhaustion. "You're a welcome sight to wake to."

In her excitement, Allie pushed right past Raphael. She didn't even catch his complement. "Do you want to know how Paul Buckman died?"

Raphael, still groggy, rubbed the sleep from his eyes. She tried to ignore that he wore only dark gray sweat pants, the rest of his body on display in all its medieval muscular glory. Thank G.o.d her affections lay elsewhere or else Allie would be a goner.

Her gaze went directly to the puckered scar over his heart. She tried not to stare at the spot where Michael pierced him and took his soul.

All of the Templars bore the scar, same as they shared the identical brand on the top of their right hand.

"Who the h.e.l.l is Paul Buckman?" His voice was still gravelly from sleep.

"Alice Buckman's husband." Seeing he was still clueless, she added, "Alice as inGrandma Buckman." His brows shot up in surprise. "Kenny's grandmother?"

She brushed past him, striding through the house. "You know another Grandma Buckman?"

Pa.s.sing the stairs, Allie couldn't help but give a quick glance up them, wondering if Sebastian was awake yet or not.

G.o.d, how she missed him. If she possessed half the mettle she pretended to have, she'd march right into his room and lay claim to him once and for all.

The awful truth was, when it came to Sebastian, Allie was all bark and no bite. Drop her in a haunted house at midnight and she'd be fine, thank you very much. Put her alone in a room with Sebastian and she was awkward and unsure.

Storming into the kitchen, Allie flipped on the dim overhead and dropped down on a chair at the small, round breakfast table. "I paid Grandma Buckman a visit today. Can you guess what I found out?"

"I've no idea."

Raphael sat on the chair across from her. He ran a hand over his face, looking like she did when she was in need of a strong cup of coffee.

She leaned in close, as if she were about to reveal the secrets of the universe to him. "Her husband was killed by vampires. They came for a scroll he bought at an antique shop a year prior to his murder."

"Let me guess. This would be the same scroll that piece of parchment came from?"

Surprised to hear Sebastian's voice, Allie darted her gaze to the doorway. All the breath left her lungs when she saw how gorgeous he looked. Tired, but gorgeous.

A black b.u.t.ton down hung open to reveal a smooth expanse of pale, muscular chest. Her gaze locked on the scar over his heart long enough to wish she could kiss it away.

The snug blue jeans encasing those ma.s.sive tree-trunk legs rode low on trim hips. Following the length of those jeans down, she saw he was barefoot. Normally Allie couldn't stand feet, but seeing Sebastian's, she wasn't at all surprised to see even his feet were nice.

As she drew her gaze back up, she couldn't help but notice the bulge of his groin. The man was certainly blessed, she thought wickedly, remembering the feel of him when he'd ground his body into hers.

When she dragged her eyes back to his face, she nearly died of mortification at his knowing grin.

Leaning back, Allie did her best to maintain her composure after getting caught gawking at his crotch.

"You bet it is. When vampires tried to take the scroll, Paul fought them. In the scuffle, the bottom corner tore away. It's the same corner Kenny found."

Not a hint of reaction pa.s.sed over Sebastian's features. His expression might as well have been set in stone.

"What else did Grandma Buckman say?" Forcing her hungry gaze from Sebastian, Allie looked back at Raphael to answer his question. "Nothing.

As quick as her memory came, is as quick as it went. I was surprised I even got that much out of her. Do me a favor, guys. If I ever get that bad when I'm old, put me out of my misery. Don't let me suffer like that."

Her saying that finally put some expression on Sebastian's face. A flash of irritation crossed his features.

"How did she know it was vampires who killed her husband?"

"The poor woman went on and on about the demons who killed her Paul," she explained, ignoring the way Sebastian practically barked the question out at her. "She claimed they had unholy glowing eyes and fangs. I think it's safe to say she was talking about vampires."

Raphael sat back in the chair and stretched out his long legs. "So, what do we do now?"

"Nothing. We're back at square one," Sebastian announced, his tone laced with frustration.

"How so?" Allie countered. "At least we know there's a scroll floating around out there. That's more than we knew this morning."

He c.o.c.ked a brow at her. "Care to tell me where to begin looking for it?"

Good point. "Okay, so we're back at square one,"

Raphael stood and slapped his hands against his thighs with a huff. "Well, I'm going to get dressed.

You'll be home tonight, right, Sage?"

If Allie didn't know better she would swear Sebastian threw Raphael the hairy eyeball.

"You're not going out with them tonight?"

Sebastian released a long, drawn out sigh after a short, yet pregnant pause, almost as if he were resigning himself to the answer he planned on giving her. "No, I'm not."

"Oh."

After Raphael left to get dressed, Allie suddenly felt shy with Sebastian staring down at her. "I guess I'll go,"

She made no motion to stand. He made no motion to walk away. "How's your sister?"

"Good." Allie was pleasantly surprised he remembered that her sister was in town. "She wanted to go out tonight but I told her that wouldn't be a good idea. The last thing I need is for her to be running around unprotected."

"I'm sure she wasn't happy about that."

"Actually, once I told her about what's been going on, she understood."

"Smart girl."

"Yeah, well, Lex is the smart one." She stood; ready to leave Sebastian to whatever it was he plannedon doing tonight. "Out of the two of us, I got all the b.a.l.l.s and she got all the brains. Guess that's why I'm Crazy Allie."

"Prove it."

"Huh?" Allie was clearly bewildered.

Sebastian stalked over to her. He leaned down close to her ear and she shivered deliciously. "The logical thing would be for you to leave, sunshine. It would take b.a.l.l.s for you to stay here with me."

His hand reached out to her, the seal burned into his flesh drawing her attention. The stark reminder of his past and what he was might have frightened another woman. But not Allie. Looking back into his face, the sight of the fangs, which he made no attempt to conceal, caused her heart to race with excitement.

Any hint of resistance quickly melted away at the look of raw need burning in the depths of his silver eyes. The fire was for her, and with all of her soul, she wanted to be burned by it.

His eyes narrowed and he offered her the shadow of a wicked grin, holding the promise of the pleasure he planned on bringing her. At that moment she knew she'd rather be here with Sebastian than anywhere else in the world.

Taking his hand, she followed him up the stairs. Pa.s.sing the closed doors, she heard the Templars within moving around as they readied themselves for their hunt. Allie felt a stab of awkwardness at the fact that they weren't alone. Sebastian must have felt her unease since he gave her hand a gentle squeeze of rea.s.surance.

When they reached his room, he released her hand and stood aside to let her pa.s.s. She crossed the threshold with the distinct sensation things were never going to be the same for her after tonight.

Chapter Twelve.

Finality came over Allie when Sebastian closed and locked the door to his room. She felt lost to the world. Only the two of them mattered when he turned to her and pinned her with his profound stare. A single brow lifted at her, a silent dare. He waited to see what she would do, change her mind and leave or stay and open herself to him as he brought her deeper into his world.

Too deep to leave once this night played out.

The glow from the candles he'd lit gave a cozy atmosphere to an otherwise austere room. The vanilla aroma wafting from them, combined with the wonderful spicy scent belonging to Sebastian filled her head and made her giddy with antic.i.p.ation. The erotic art of Luis Royo staring down at her lent a wonderfully wicked feel to Sebastian's lair.

And Sebastian himself...

He was everything dark and mysterious, her most secret fantasies brought to reality in the form of a man so handsome it left her breathless. Raw s.e.x and strength, she wished to hold to this moment, a calm before the storm, always. "You can leave, Allie." His deep voice, resonating, flowed through her like a wonderfully warm wave.

"I'll never keep you here against your will."

"I know."

"I'll never hurt you."

She smiled. "I know that too."

He moved to the entertainment center dominating the wall opposite the bed, the focus of which was a huge plasma television. He turned on the stereo and Live's "I Alone" played low. One of Allie's favorite songs, it sang of all the things she felt but didn't dare to tell him.

He turned back to her, head lowered, and regarded her through intense eyes. Right then she knew exactly how prey felt being stalked by a predator.

"Come here."

Of course Sebastian would want her to come to him. More than merely his arrogance demanding it, he asked her for an acceptance of what he was that ran deeper than mere words.

She went to him without a hint of reservation.

Stepping into his arms felt like coming home. He wrapped around her in an embrace and she melted into him. Slipping her arms around his waist, she wanted to touch all of him to make sure this was all real.

To make surehe was real.

Allie was half afraid she'd wake alone in her room, this having been nothing more than a wonderful dream. The thought terrified her. Finally where she wanted to be, she hugged him tighter, wishing she could hold on to the moment forever.

Standing in his arms, Allie felt as if a million b.u.t.terflies were let loose in her stomach. Now that she was here with him, she had no idea what to do. This was no ordinary man. He had centuries of s.e.xual conquests to his credit. She didn't have an impressive list.

Her rep as a nutball limited her in the s.e.x department to the loser she gave her virginity to and Jude.

Neither was worth bragging about, nor did she have such extraordinary s.e.x with them that she walked away having learned a trick or two.