Amelia Elias - [Guardian's League 02] - Outcast Read online

  If only he hadn’t been the one who had bitten her, Renee might actually grow to like him.

  Eli caught the thought and sighed inwardly. The memory of being bitten was clearly traumatic for her. He wished again he’d thought to calm her during the wild attack, or at least to erase the memory promptly, but it was too late now. It was deeply embedded in her psyche, all entangled with her subsequent actions. Trying to erase it now would cause too much mental distress.

  He flatly refused to think about her liking him. No one liked him. No one had in more years than he cared to remember.

  He brought them to a landing on Diego’s vast front lawn and turned to Renee. “Why don’t you wait out here for me?” he said, remembering Diego’s reaction when he’d found Sian speaking with her. “I won’t be long, and it’s a nice night.”

  She wasn’t fooled by his light tone and shot him a speaking look. “Don’t bother with the niceties. I know I’m not welcome, and trust me, I have no desire to see that man again. He wants me dead and he’s not shy about letting me know it.”

  Eli ran a hand through his hair, hating that she was right. Hating this prejudice she would have to deal with for the rest of her life, however long it might turn out to be, and knowing he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. “Well, he might change his mind,” he replied, shrugging. He heard her mutter something about snowballs in hell and smiled a little. “But until he does, stay here.”

  “Happy to.”

  Eli walked onto the porch to knock, knowing Diego was likely already aware of his presence. Diego opened the door before his knuckles touched the wood and glared out into the night. “I know you didn’t bring that thing back to my home,” he growled, his sharp green eyes searching the darkness for Renee.

  Eli sent a cloaking spell out and made sure Diego didn’t find her. “I need to talk to you.” He ignored Diego’s reluctance to admit him and simply pushed his way inside. “I have a problem.”

  “Good! You should have a problem for once.” Diego slammed the door behind him and crossed his arms. “Well?”

  Sian emerged from the den and smiled at Eli. “Welcome, Eli,” she said, shooting her bondmate a quelling glare. “Where’s Renee?”

  “Outside,” Eli said, sending Diego a look of his own. “I need James to get some blood for me, Diego.”

  Diego rolled his eyes and let his head drop back, the very picture of exasperation. “He actually expects me to feed the Outcast again,” he told the ceiling. “He must be insane.”

  “Honey,” Sian murmured reproachfully. Then she turned to Eli. “Of course James will get you what you need,” she said, ignoring Diego’s look of outrage. “Now, you said there’s a problem. What is it?”

  “She won’t feed.”

  They both blinked at him. “What?”

  Eli sighed. “She won’t feed,” he repeated wearily, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve had to use compulsion twice to force her, and now she’s even resisting that. She’s so weak she’s on the verge of fainting all the damn time and she still won’t bite a human. I have to find some other way to feed her.”

  No one said a word for a moment. Diego stared in blatant shock. Eli couldn’t resist scowling at him. “So there’s your evil Outcast spawn, Diego, so afraid of hurting a human she’d rather starve than bite one. She’s clearly a danger to society and all we hold dear, wouldn’t you say?”

  Diego shook his head slowly. This was clearly the last thing he’d expected. “Well I’ll be damned.”

  “It’s likely,” Eli shot back.

  Sian ignored him and linked her arm through her mate’s. “I told you. I told you she’s harmless, but did you listen to me?” Diego shouted for James and didn’t answer her. She snorted. “He can never admit when he’s wrong,” she told Eli.

  “Woman, you’re pushing your luck.”

  “You say that like it’s something new,” Eli murmured.

  She laughed, completely unintimidated by her mate’s scowl. “I’m going to let her in. There’s no reason to make her stand out there in the cold.”

  Eli watched Diego release Sian, watched her slip through the front door. “Don’t you want to go out there and make sure my fledgling doesn’t rip your mate’s head off?” Eli asked acidly. “She’ll probably pass out when she’s done, but who knows what damage she could inflict first.”

  “All right, all right, enough already. I’m not going to apologize, if you’re waiting for one.”

  Eli raised an eyebrow. “The world might end before you apologize for anything. I would never think of asking you to do something so completely against your character.”

  “Yeah, well, I learned it from you, Eli.”

  Eli fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Give her a break, will you?” he said, tired of fighting with Diego. “It might turn out all right.” He desperately wanted it to be all right. Just once, let him train a fledgling and have it turn out all right. “Don’t make up your mind until you’ve given her a chance. That’s all I ask.”

  James stuck his head in through the doorway. “You need me, Diego?”

  Diego turned to him rather than answering Eli. “I need you to pack up all the spare units of blood we have and give them to Eli. You just went to the blood bank, didn’t you?”

  “This afternoon,” James confirmed. He looked concerned. “Who’s hurt?”

  “No one.”

  James looked from one to the other before walking toward the kitchen. “Okay,” he said as he passed them. “You two slow down now. This overload of information just has to stop. There’s only so much I can take in at once.” He was still muttering as he disappeared into the kitchen.

  Diego sighed. “There are times I truly wish that boy was afraid of me.”

  “It’ll never happen,” James called back from the kitchen.

  Sian came back inside, closing the front door quietly behind her, and glared at her mate. “Well, Renee’s afraid enough of you for both of them. She won’t come in.”

  Diego shifted uncomfortably at her obvious disapproval. “What do you want from me, Sian?” he asked, throwing up his hands. “You don’t want me to protect you? You want me to let an Outcast in the house and—”

  “I want you to go out there and invite her in!” Sian interrupted him.

  Eli shook his head. “I’m betting that’s not going to happen,” he said, watching Diego’s face darken. “Besides, I think there’s a very good chance she’ll bolt if Diego sets foot on the porch and I’d rather not have to chase her down. She doesn’t have the energy and I don’t have the time. Leave her be, and we’ll be gone in a minute.”

  Sian turned to Diego, hands on her hips. Diego glared at Eli. “You see the trouble you’ve caused?”

  James came back in carrying a cooler. “Here you go, vampire take-out.” He handed it to Eli. “Enjoy.”

  “Thanks,” Eli said, trying not to smile as Sian scowled at the much larger, much more powerful Diego. It wasn’t every day he watched a fledgling take a thousand-year-old high-blood vampire to task—in fact, it might be the first time anyone had dared take the Head of the Council to task. He wished he could stick around to watch Diego try to get out of this, but he had to take care of Renee. He opened the lid to the cooler and peeked inside to hide the amusement in his eyes.

  “Not enough?” James asked, misunderstanding his silence. “Come back tomorrow. I’ll have some more for you then if you need it.”

  Eli inclined his head to the Steward. He lost the battle to hide his amusement and grinned at Diego, who was still glaring as though Eli was the root of all evil. “Bye, Sian. Have a nice night, Diego.” He was out the door before Diego could reply.

  Renee stood to the side of the porch, rubbing her arms. Eli frowned. She truly must be weak if her body wasn’t regulating its temperature automatically. Vampires never felt the cold.

  “All done?” she asked, glancing down at the cooler in his hand. “What’s in there? You needed a six-pack for the football game tonight or some
thing?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “This is for you, not me,” he told her. He took her hand and launched them into the air.

  Renee clutched at him and gave a little squeak at the sudden rush of wind as their feet left the ground. He laughed again. “Mist doesn’t scare you, but this does?” he asked as she buried her face in his shoulder and tightened her arms around his neck in a virtual death-grip.

  “I can’t imagine it would hurt much to hit the ground when you have no body. Don’t you dare drop me!”

  “Drop you? I don’t think I could pry you off me with a crowbar,” he teased, but he wrapped his arm securely around her waist anyway. “Don’t worry, little one. I haven’t dropped anyone yet—at least, not accidentally.”

  “Oh, how reassuring,” she mumbled, wrapping her legs around his thighs.

  “What’s the problem? Don’t you trust me?”

  “Not even a little!”

  Eli tightened his grip on the handle of the cooler and fixed his mind on his destination. Joking with her wasn’t helping to distract him. She was all soft curves and warm skin. All her limbs wrapped around him, her breath tickling his neck and her heart thundering against his chest, he couldn’t help but notice her appeal. Her hair whipped in the wind, sliding over his face and throat like a thousand caresses and surrounding him with her scent. He couldn’t help but relish how perfectly his arm fit around her waist and how very good her legs felt around his.

  He scowled at himself. This was not the way he was supposed to think of her!

  When they landed near the stone outcropping in the cemetery, he expected her to leap away from him, but she didn’t loosen her grip one iota. He dropped the cooler and reached up to carefully unlock her arms from around his neck. “We’re back on the ground, little one. You can let go now.”

  Renee stumbled back and his arm shot out to steady her. She knocked it away and braced herself against a tombstone instead. “Has it ever occurred to you to warn someone before you do something like that?”

  He just shrugged in the face of her temper, pretending a coolness he didn’t feel. Nothing on him felt cool at the moment. “I suppose I could in the future,” he said, maintaining the detached façade with an effort. “Now I need you to move for a second.”

  She looked at him warily. “Move where?”

  He made a shooing motion with his hand. “Away from that particular grave. I need to open it.”

  Renee gaped at him for a moment before scrambling toward the outcropping. “I am stuck in a cemetery with a vampire grave-robber,” she muttered to herself as she leaned heavily on it. “This is going way too far. I know I do not want to see this.” But she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away and kept on staring, dismayed.

  Eli laughed, unable to resist needling her again. “Yes, stay over there. Be sure to keep your hand on the rock. The undead zombies can’t get you if you’re touching base.”

  She glared at him and invited him to do something very rude. He only laughed again and laid his hand on the tombstone. He spared a second to glance back at her once more. “You wanted to be warned before I did something,” he said, solemn but for his laughing eyes. “Have I warned you adequately?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “The intention was for you to tell me what you’re actually doing. I will be very surprised if an undead zombie really comes out of there.”

  He grinned. “See, you do trust me.”

  More aware of her gaze and amusement than he wanted to admit, he sent a little surge of power through the stone. The ground suddenly heaved, then erupted in a geyser of dark soil. Renee gasped behind him as an ancient-looking casket floated up to hover right in front of him. He reached out and casually opened the lid before placing the cooler inside. Another soft echo of power shot from his hand through the gravestone and the entire process reversed itself, the casket vanishing down into the dark hole, the scattered soil flying in to cover it. Within moments it was finished, leaving no sign the earth had ever been disturbed.

  Eli turned to look at Renee only to find her right beside him. She reached out and ran her hand over the tombstone. “That was very cool. How’d you do it?”

  He raised his eyebrows and tried not to notice how her touch on the stone was almost a caress. His body tightened as she trailed her fingertips over the engravings. Damn it all, was he jealous of a tombstone now? This was getting seriously out of hand. “It didn’t scare you?”

  Renee waved a hand dismissively, still examining the stone as though looking for a secret trigger. “The zombie thing was a bit much, even for you. It’s like a dumbwaiter, right? This is how you get stuff inside. I was wondering.”

  He smiled. “The zombies unload it for me downstairs,” he assured her. She stuck her tongue out at him and his laughter echoed around the deserted cemetery as two streams of mist disappeared into the fine crack in the stone outcropping.

  * * *

  Renee stumbled again when they reappeared in his entry hall but she quickly straightened when Eli turned his black eyes on her. Knowing another lecture about feeding was coming, she tried to change the subject. “How do you do the coffin thing?” she asked, saying the first thing that came to mind. “Can you teach me? It’s got to be a hit at all the parties.”

  He looked at her steadily. “You can’t learn anything while you’re weak and malnourished.”

  She sighed. She should have known he wouldn’t be distracted that easily. “I’m not biting anyone,” she told him, crossing her arms and lifting her chin. “I won’t do it and you can’t make me.” The words were out before she realized how childish they sounded but she didn’t bother trying to take them back. It wasn’t childish not to want to hurt people, no matter what he thought.

  “I don’t think you’re childish. Did I ever say you were childish?”

  She glared at him. “Get out of my mind, mister.” She imagined beating him over the head with a baseball bat, held the image hard in her mind. “Got it?”

  His lips twitched. “You are a violent creature,” he said, shaking his finger at her. “And here I am, doing something nice for you, trying to make your life easier.”

  He turned and walked down the hall. Renee followed, intrigued. “What’s going to make my life easier?” She knew she was doing exactly what he expected by following, but she couldn’t help her curiosity.

  He led her into a small den without answering. Candles flickered to life as he passed. She looked around. She’d never been in here. Two walls were covered in bookshelves while another was taken up by an enormous fireplace, the wood stacked inside awaiting only a match to flare to life. She briefly wondered where the smoke went as she admired the comfortable-looking overstuffed sofa and matching armchairs. Another exquisite Persian rug lay invitingly before the dark fireplace—he had quite a collection of them, it seemed. The entire room exuded calm, quiet, comfort. She liked it instantly.

  Eli walked to the far wall and pulled a tapestry aside, revealing packed earth instead of stone. He touched it with a fingertip and triggered a sudden explosion of dirt. The elegant room was abruptly full of flying soil, couches and bookshelves showered with wet earth. A huge splash of mud landed right in the middle of the priceless Persian rug. An arc of soil sprayed out into the hall, coating several of his statues and dripping down the walls. A few of the candles fell over and spluttered out as large clods hit them. Renee couldn’t even duck before she was covered from head to toe in muck. “Oh, ha ha,” she said as she wiped off her face, but she was grinning. “You’re messy, anyone ever tell you that?”

  Eli grinned back at her and held out his arms, turning in a complete circle. “I’m not messy, I’m perfectly clean,” he replied, all innocence. Not even a speck of the flying dirt had touched him. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Renee couldn’t help laughing at him. Right now he reminded her of a little kid, delighting in playing in the dirt. For someone who was supposed to be this all-powerful, terrifying an
cient vampire, Eli certainly liked to play. She wondered why Sian had told her Eli didn’t get along with anyone. Who wouldn’t like him when he acted like this?

  She stepped forward as he entered the shallow cave that had appeared in the wall and watched him lift the casket’s lid. He removed the cooler and stepped out, waving a hand to call the soil back into place. Renee lifted her arms as it flew off of her. Within seconds she was clean again and the room sparkled. Not even a trace remained of his rather spectacular mess. “Neat trick. Mothers of little boys would pay good money to have you teach them that.”

  “If I ever need a second job, I’ll keep it in mind.”

  Renee laughed again and walked over to him. “What’s in the cooler?”

  He smiled at her and opened it. She looked inside and saw several plastic bags of blood nestled between ice packs. “I told you, I’m trying to make your life a little easier.”

  Renee smiled gratefully, still staring hungrily at the bags of blood. She hadn’t wanted to admit to him how ravenous she really was, hoping to avoid another lecture on biting people, but the sight of the blood made her fangs lengthen and ache. “I can eat this way from now on?” she asked hopefully.

  He took her arm and led her to the couch. She sat and watched him go to a little bar built into one of the bookshelves. He stashed a couple of the bags in a little refrigerator there and grabbed a goblet from a rack before carrying the cooler back over to her. “Not forever,” he said as he pierced the corner of one of the bags with a lengthened fingernail. Renee couldn’t seem to look away as he poured it into the glass. “When humans donate blood, they have to put an anticoagulating agent into the bags. It’s not particularly good for us. Vampires don’t react well to most chemicals. It won’t hurt you every once in a while, but you don’t want too much of it in your body.”

  Renee took the goblet from him and raised it to her lips, drinking eagerly. The cold, metallic, slightly rubbery taste surprised her and she made a face. There was only the faintest hint of the flavor she had expected. “Ew,” she complained, but she drank the rest. She was too hungry not to.