Kiss Me When the Sun Goes Down Read online

  “Okay, catch you later.”

  “And I’ve got some work to do before the sun comes up,” Felix said, pausing outside his door. “No rest for the wicked,” he grinned.

  “Goodnight, Felix. I’m sorry the night didn’t turn out as planned.”

  “Eh, you win some, you lose some. The real test will be how Bakareh takes it. We might want to make sure we’ve got all our security on standby tomorrow.”

  “Good idea, I’ll go stop in and mention something to Gunnar.”

  “’Night, boss.”

  I ran into Lee outside the security office, with an empty coffee cup in hand. “Hey, I’m surprised you’re still up and around,” I smiled.

  “I’ll stick around ’til the sun comes up and make sure they’re all buttoned away for the night, safe and sound. Long as I can get me another cup of coffee leastways.”

  “Thanks, Lee, I appreciate that.”

  “Sorry to hear Jennike didn’t pan out as a suspect.”

  He caught me by surprise there. “You heard about that? Did Carter say something to you?”

  “Naw, I just saw him in passin’. But he’s got this place rigged up tighter than a frog’s ass, if you’ll pardon my French. You might want to be careful what you talk about in the open around here.”

  Ugh, Carter and his damn audio surveillance. “I’ll have to remember that.” Suddenly, I wondered how much he’d heard. Did he know about my ability to compel other vampires? “Then you heard the, um… interrogation?”

  Lee’s lips pressed together as he gave a somber nod. “I heard what you can do, and you got no worries with me. I ain’t no blabbermouth.”

  “I know you’re not. But I would appreciate your discretion. I’d hate for it to get out that I can…”

  “Understood,” he nodded again. “And if I might offer a bit of unsolicited advice?”

  “Always.”

  “I think you’re on the right track sayin’ no to Jennike’s proposal. Just because a body can do somethin’, don’t mean they should. Even goin’ into a venture like that with the purest of intentions can go sour in a heartbeat, and I’d sure hate to see you with an even bigger target painted on your back.”

  “You and me both.”

  Gunnar appeared, his suit looking more rumpled, but thankfully, not blood stained. “You are ready for me to drive you home?”

  “Sure, if you’re ready to leave.” Most of the house had shut down for the night, the security staff the only ones walking the grounds.

  “Carter has things in good hands.”

  “Okay then, goodnight, Lee. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I leaned up to kiss his cheek, his moustache tickling as he repaid the gesture.

  I wasn’t super sleepy yet, but my mind churned with too much information, my fingers itching to get it compiled into neat lists to help sort it out. Gunnar didn’t say much in the car either, until I remembered to mention the extra security that Felix had suggested.

  “We’ll want to make sure we have plenty of security on hand tomorrow, okay? The last thing we need is another incident while we’ve got such high profile guests in the house.”

  “Sure, boss. I will have them there nice and early,” he smiled.

  “You seem like you’re in a pretty good mood for such a weird night.”

  “It was a good party.”

  I laughed when I saw he was absolutely serious. “How can you say that?”

  “There was good music, it ended early, and there was much entertainment.”

  “You have strange ideas about entertainment. They’re going to be scrubbing that ballroom down for a week.”

  “Yes, but it was nice to have something to do again, boss.”

  I hadn’t thought of it that way. “Are you bored working for me, Gunnar?”

  “No,” he answered too quickly, searching for the right words before he spoke again. “I’m glad you are safe, but I miss the old days a small bit.”

  “The days when someone was trying to kill me every time I left the house?”

  “It keep a guy on his toes,” he grinned, and I smiled in response.

  “That’s true, I suppose.”

  “Bishop will live with us soon?” He asked after a few turns through the darkened city streets.

  “Ah… what makes you ask that?”

  “The way he look at you.”

  “How does he look at me?”

  “Like he never want to let you go.”

  I had to smile at that. “I feel the same way about him.”

  “So he will live with us soon?”

  I let out a long breath. “I don’t know, we haven’t talked about it.”

  “It will not be so different to have another man around the house, I think. Not once Maggie and Tucker leave.”

  “Maggie and Tucker are leaving?” I gaped at him, and his eyes widened in horror.

  “You did not know this?”

  “I knew they were engaged. I guess, I always thought it was a possibility, but I didn’t know they’d made actual plans or anything. They’re definitely moving out?”

  Gunnar gripped the steering wheel tighter, his face etched with distress over his blunder. “I only know she talk to the same man who help you buy the new house, to find one of her own.”

  “Oh.” I wondered why she hadn’t said anything to me about it. Maybe because we’d been so busy getting the party put together? “Well, I can understand them wanting to be on their own.”

  “I like to live with more people. It’s a friendlier place that way.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes. In my family, we have fifteen of us share the same house with aunts and uncles and bedstefar.”

  “Beds…”

  “My grandfather.”

  “Fifteen. Wow, that’s a lot of people.”

  He shrugged. “Not so much. In my master’s house there are many of us as well. Isak and me, we share…” He fell silent, and I suspected it hurt him to think of his disgraced brother. “We share many things.”

  “Do you ever think about going home?”

  “Not so much. I like it here. Here I am my own person, not anybody’s property.”

  “Of course you are!” It floored me that anyone would think differently. “Does your Sire really treat you like his property?”

  He shrugged again. “My life belong to him.”

  “I happen to disagree. If anything, he took your old life. What you do with your afterlife is up to you,” I said, giving his hand a brief squeeze.

  “This is why I like you, boss,” he replied with a smile. “You give me much hope.”

  “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” I smiled back, blinking back tears. All things considered, it hadn’t been that bad of a night after all.

  *

  Maggie and Tucker had already gone up to bed, and Gunnar was quick to follow. There was less than an hour until sunrise, and I enjoyed the quiet in the house as I got ready for bed. Carter’s escape tunnel project had turned into a big muddy hole with the rains earlier in the week, and I was glad the party was over so he could get back to it soon. If he didn’t, I was going to order the whole thing filled in with concrete and he could start digging his tunnel from the garage side first.

  As I pulled on my pajamas and warm fuzzy socks, my thoughts turned to the evening’s events. Not so much the spewing of blood and plots I’d uncovered, but more of the stuff that came before that. The sweeter bits with Bishop, before we got so rudely interrupted. My only regret was that there hadn’t been time for me to show him what he did to me as well, or for us to spend the rest of the night together.

  As if he’d read my mind, my phone rang, Bishop’s profile popping up on the screen.

  “Hi, I was just thinking about you,” I smiled, hoping it was a good call, and not a bad one.”

  “Good thoughts, I hope.”

  “Very good. Is this call for business or pleasure?”

  “Ah, pure pleasure,” he sighed, and I got the
impression he’d just sat down for the first time in a while. “I don’t have any news from the lab yet, sorry.”

  “That’s okay, I don’t mind you calling me just because you want to. Not at all.” In fact, I preferred it. “I’m sorry we ran out of time tonight.”

  “Me too. I was just getting started making things up to you.”

  “I thought you already did.”

  “That was only the beginning.”

  The promise in his voice made my insides clench, and I sucked in a deep breath, stretching out on the bed. “I like the sound of that. Not just for the sexy bits, but the beginning for us.”

  “So do I.” The silence stretched between us, comfortable and drowsy, not at all awkward before he asked, “What are you doing?”

  “Lying here, waiting for the sun to come up.”

  “I could come over.”

  I heard the longing in his voice, and I felt it too. But it was late. “I’d be asleep by the time you got here.”

  “I wouldn’t mind. I’d just like to hold you.”

  “You would when you got here and I was too comatose to invite you in.”

  Bishop let out a low chuckle. “Ah, there is that. Another night then?”

  “Absolutely. I can’t wait.”

  “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple. “You mean besides trying to avoid an international incident over the fiasco tonight?”

  “Ah, I’m guessing your dance card is pretty full then.”

  “I’ll know more tomorrow night, but I’ll call you, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  My eyes grew heavier as the sun rose higher in the sky, but I wasn’t ready to let him go yet. “I miss you.”

  “I miss you too.”

  “Bishop?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Where do you see yourself in five years?” The question popped out without my thinking too much about it, partially prompted by Gunnar’s talk about shifting households, and the random thought about my interview with Kane.

  “With you,” Bishop answered without hesitation. “Wherever the world takes us.”

  “Wherever the world takes us, that sounds nice,” I smiled into my end of the phone. I was starting to fade away, my thoughts rapidly losing their cohesion. “Would you really follow me to the ends of the Earth?”

  “Sure, if you wanted me to. Maybe not all the time,” he added after a moment’s thought. “Maybe I could follow you around for five years, and then you can follow me for five? Or a decade, I’m flexible. There will be times when I’ve got my own responsibilities, but I’ve given over three hundred years in service to the Order, I’d say I have an extended vacation coming my way if you wanted to go exploring.”

  He threw around years like they were months, and I had to laugh. “I do love you, Bishop.”

  “I love you too, Anja. Now get some sleep. I’ll be there to pick you up when the sun goes down.”

  “Why? Gunnar will… will take me to the, um… the mansion.” I was quickly losing the power of speech, the dark reaching out to claim me.

  “I want you to invite me into your house.”

  “Wha for…?”

  “Because the next time you fall asleep, I want it to be in my arms.”

  And that’s what I dreamt of.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Unfortunately, as soon as I woke up the next night, Maggie waited for me with a mug of O positive, and a summons from Bakareh.

  “Aw, poop. I was hoping to go one night without drama,” I sighed, falling back against the pillow.

  “I’m afraid this isn’t the night,” she said with a rueful twist of the lips. “There’s a car standing by to take you to the mansion.”

  “Okay, give me ten minutes to splash some water on my face and change into something more appropriate.” Something told me he wouldn’t be impressed by toe socks and my R2D2 jammies.

  I sent a quick text to Bishop, telling him not to bother coming over, as I was already on my way to the mansion. Gunnar had his nose out of joint at not being required to drive me over, and vowed to follow along the limo, just in case. As it was, I was surprised to find a familiar face in the driver’s seat.

  “Kane? What are you doing playing chauffeur?”

  The shifter was dressed casually in a worn t-shirt, faded from many washings, and jeans, more appropriate for doing yard work, rather than driving a limo. “Beats the shit out of me, ma’am,” he shrugged. “Lee tells me to drive, I drive.”

  “What happened to the driver we got for Bakareh?”

  Another shrug. “I just work here.”

  That didn’t sound so good. “Anything you can tell me about the state of the house before I walk in there?”

  “There’s some sort of fuss about the staff, that’s all I know.”

  “The security staff?” I frowned.

  “Naw, something to do with that midget vamp’s staff.”

  “Do you mean Bakareh? He’s not a midget, he was turned at a young age.”

  “Whatever, he looks like a little midget Hare Krishna to me.”

  “Maybe don’t say something like that to his face,” I winced, imagining Bakareh might take it as insulting at the very least.

  Kane snorted. “I ain’t afraid of him.”

  “Then you’re stupid, because he’s one of the most powerful vamps on the planet. I’d watch what you say to him.”

  Under his breath, he muttered something about vampire politics, but all he said aloud was, “I don’t plan to say anything to him.”

  “Good. It’s probably for the best if you keep as far away from him as possible. Something tells me he’s not in the best mood today.”

  I wasn’t wrong, and the reason why became immediately apparent as soon as I got to the mansion. All of Bakareh’s people had deserted him. Every last one, from the guy who dressed him, to the two girls whose only purpose that I could figure out was to follow him everywhere he went, and bow and scrape over his magnificence. Just like that, with no notice, they’d all walked out some time during the day. My staff had scrambled to pick up the slack under Lee’s direction, but I could tell that the Child King was already working on his last nerve.

  “This is unacceptable!” Bakareh shrieked as soon as I entered his room, pointing a chubby finger in my direction. “Never have I been treated thus. I hold you personally responsible for their desertion.”

  “Me?” I gaped, taking an extra moment not to buy into his hysteria. I took a deep, cleansing breath, searching for a more level tone. “With all due respect, your staffing issues are hardly my fault.”

  “Who else is to blame then? I should’ve known when Amunet first returned from your infernal lands that all was not as it should be. Where are you hiding them?”

  Amunet was gone too? No wonder he was so upset “I’m not hiding anyone anywhere. This is the first I’m hearing of their disappearances.”

  “I will not be made to suffer because you can’t properly run a house.” Bakareh did everything but stamp his foot, and it put me on edge.

  “Hey, my staff isn’t the one that pulled a Houdini. If you’re looking to place the blame on someone, maybe you should ask yourself why they left?”

  “My people have been devoted to me since infancy. It is a great honor to serve in my court.”

  Was he seriously that deluded? “Is it? Or do you not give them much of a choice? I’ve seen your people, you treat them more like slaves than servants.”

  He shrugged a shoulder. “That is their station in life. Just as it is mine to rule, as I see fit.”

  “And it’s their right to exercise their free will if they don’t like that station. Maybe they decided they’d had enough of your rule?”

  “In favor of yours?” he scoffed. “If that fiasco last night is any indication, it’s a wonder you have a kingdom at all.”

  “Oh, because you’re such a genius at ruling others?” My voice rose, despite my best efforts to keep my temp
er in check. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe if you weren’t such a demanding baby all the time, your people wouldn’t have ditched you at their first chance?”

  “My people revere me! I am as a god to them!”

  “I know just what you do to exact that so called reverence, Bakareh, and we both know it’s not love that compels them to treat you with deference, don’t we?”

  I had a brief thought that he might lunge for my throat at any second, but instead, his high voice managed a low and deadly threat. “Did you or did you not compel my people to turn on me?”

  “I did not,” I shot back, meeting his gaze squarely. “I have better things to do with my day than play head games with your servants.”

  Bakareh was silent, weighing my response carefully, before he decided he believed me. “I require you to provide me with a new staff,” he said, reclining on his throne of pillows as if he was casually ordering a pizza for delivery. Evidently one servant was as good as another in his eyes, but it wasn’t all the same to me, especially when I’d seen how he treated them.

  “I’m not going to do that, but I will make arrangements to see you safely home.”

  “I said I want new attendants!” he wailed, and I forced a slow breath before I replied, of half a mind to call Carter in and borrow his crossbow.

  “Then hire some on your own, but you’re not taking my people.”

  “You will do as I say.”

  Something inside of me snapped at his imperious tone. I was done kissing up to Bakareh just because he was dangerous. This was my house and my lands, and I was sick and tired of walking on eggshells around him. “Look, I’ve had about as much as I can take from you. You clearly don’t like it here, so I see no reason for you to stay one moment longer. And we both know you can’t compel me to do your bidding, so stop making demands.”

  His eyes stretched wide before they narrowed to dangerous slits. “I don’t need to compel you, I could easily destroy you if you disobey me.”

  “Go ahead,” I called his bluff. “And then good luck finding a rock to hide under, because Jakob will scour this whole world to break you in half.”