“Sure, I like it. It’s recently been sold, though.”
“I know. It was sold to me.”
My eyes widened at that. “You bought a vampire club?”
He nodded. “I did.”
“Why?”
He leaned against the bar. “You wouldn’t take the earrings I wanted to give you. I thought I might give you something a bit more practical.”
I blinked hard. “You bought me a nightclub? Because I said no to some earrings?”
“I got a very good deal on it. The papers are in your name. The transfer of ownership will be next week. It’s a gift to thank you for helping me. Do you like it?”
“If I say no will you get me a private jet instead?” I drew in a slow breath. “I don’t want gifts or money. The only thing you had that I wanted was that grimoire and now it’s gone.” I felt sick to my stomach as I said it. “I just want you to leave me and my friends alone after tonight.”
I was about to say something else when he tensed and his face convulsed. He let out a gasp and grabbed hold of the side of the bar top. A shudder went through his body.
I resisted moving any closer to him. “What’s wrong?”
“The pain from the hellfire has returned even worse than before,” he managed. “Your blood wasn’t strong enough to keep it away for long.”
Every muscle in my body was tense. “What does that mean?”
“It means your blood may be strong enough for some things, but not strong enough to fully heal my particular injuries during the ritual.”
“Unfortunately I don’t offer a money-back guarantee.”
“No, I’m sure you don’t.” He remained hunched over for another minute before he slowly straightened up. There was a sheen of perspiration on his forehead. “Come with me. I have someone I want you to see.”
“Who is it?” I asked, my mouth feeling very dry.
Gideon turned and walked away without giving me a detailed description of our destination. He moved across the dance floor and toward a hallway leading toward the restrooms. I followed him at a safe distance, and he glanced over his shoulder at me.
Gideon used a key to unlock a door and push it open. The small storage room held a woman whose dark eyes flashed with anger. Her left wrist was shackled to the wall.
Otherwise, she looked as composed and beautiful and, well, perfect as she always did.
Veronique’s gaze moved to me and widened.
“Sarah!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
My eyebrows shot up with surprise. “I was about to ask you the same question.”
“Gideon kidnapped me. I assumed he meant to hold me for ransom for a large sum of money.”
Gideon braced himself against the doorway, still weakened by his blast of pain. “Not exactly.”
My stomach really couldn’t sink any lower than it already was. “Why can’t you leave my friends alone?”
“You consider this one a friend?” he asked with mild surprise.
I glanced at Thierry’s wife, a woman who’d given me a huge pain in my neck—no vampire pun intended—from the moment I first met her. “Sure, she’s my friend.”
Veronique smiled. “What a dear, sweet girl you are. We really should spend a great deal more time together, yes?”
A wave of pain shadowed Gideon’s face for a moment. “I’ve suspected your blood isn’t strong enough to fully cure me. So, I want to make sure it is.”
I really didn’t like the way that sounded. “Which means what?”
“Your blood is filled with power because, as a developing fledgling, you’ve drunk from two master vampires. Today you’ll drink from a third.”
Veronique and I exchanged a glance.
“I’m not really all that thirsty right now,” I said weakly.
His jaw tensed. “Despite her youthful appearance, she is one of the most ancient vampires in the entire world.”
Veronique’s cheeks flushed and her eyes narrowed. She tapped her stiletto-clad foot angrily. I don’t think she was upset that he was suggesting that I drink her blood. No, I think he just made her feel old. Well, she was seven hundred. Whether she needed Botox to retain her late-twenties appearance was another issue. Maybe her wrinkles were only on the inside.
“I’m not biting Veronique.” My stomach churned at the horrible thought.
Gideon’s eyes narrowed with pain and frustration. “You should thank me. Other than the vast power her blood will give you, this is the woman who keeps you from a commitment with your lover for her own selfish reasons. This is your opportunity to drain her. After all, dead wives don’t stand in the way of true love.”
Veronique frowned. “Sarah and my husband have ended their relationship.”
“All lies.” Gideon raised an eyebrow at me. “They’ve been keeping their continued affair a secret, even from you.”
Veronique made a small, annoyed sound at the back of her throat. “I thought we were friends, my dear. You could have told me.”
I shrugged. There were more important issues on the table at the moment than keeping a secret from her. I wasn’t biting Veronique. It wasn’t in my nature to gnaw on necks 24/7.
I wasn’t going to do it and he couldn’t make me.
Unless…
“If I refuse to drink from her, will you hurt Amy?” I asked quietly.
He shook his head. “Of course not. What kind of a monster do you take me for?”
Hope swelled inside me again. “You won’t?”
“Of course not.” He brushed the dark hair off my forehead and pushed it behind my ear before stroking my cheek gently. Then he smiled at me. “I’m saving your little blond friend for tonight. If you give me any more problems, I will slice her open from bottom—” he moved his hand down to my stomach as I stood frozen in place, and then skimmed his fingers up between my breasts to spread around my throat “—to top. But that’s then, and this is now.”
I swallowed hard. “Gideon—”