"Sleep well, mi amore?"
Kate lifted her head and looked at him. He stared back at her with those piercing blue eyes. She remembered his anguish when he succumbed to the feeders, his anger with himself that he felt he’d betrayed her. She saw none of that now and was so confused. "No, I didn’t."
As he stared at her amber eyes, he also saw flecks of red, ready to flame into a full-blown beast. What the fuck did I do? She is still blocking me! "No? Is Lorenzo okay?"
Kate sighed in frustration and sat up, tossing the blankets aside as she slid from the bed, grabbing her robe from the foot of the bed. "Lorenzo is fine. It’s not Lorenzo that has me worried. I tried to reach you last night. You didn't answer me. Where were you?"
"First of all, woman, stop blocking me from your thoughts. I don’t like it. Get back in this bed, you are about ready to explode, and I don’t like that either. When did you try to reach me? I didn’t hear you. I was in D.C., I told you that, Kate." Cazzo, she is pushing me on this one.
She snapped her head around, her red hair flying, "You don’t like when I block you? Really? Exactly where in D.C., and please don't say the Dead House. I know better!"
Sitting up, slowly getting out of bed, he felt like hell, and this was the last thing he wanted to deal with. Putting his hands on his hips, his voice was low and quiet, because what he saw before him was one pissed off mate and that beast of hers was going to be aimed at him, and not in a good way.
"Oh, so you know better. That tells me you have been investigating, asking questions...whatever you want to call it. Means you do not trust me. You’re pissed off, so come out with it, and tell me what is really eating away at you. I have no time for these games, Kate."
He’d volunteer nothing. He was forcing her to make the accusation. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “Where do you go? Where do you go to feed? Are you hunting?"
Feed? Hunting? What in the hell? "Mi amore, you have this all wrong! I am not feeding anywhere. I do not hunt, ever. What in the hell has your mind been chewing on?" Rushing to the other side of the bed, he took her in his arms, but she struggled against him and that really threw him off. She’d never done this to him!
He took a step back. "Don’t do this, mi amore. Don’t. You can’t push me away when everything in your head is mixed up and confused. I know I haven’t been here. I know that upsets you. I promised you I would take you and Lorenzo anywhere you want to go, and we will be together, I still mean that. Please, bel. I only want to feed from you. You must know that."
She pulled away, but his words felt sincere and a part of her was relieved he wasn’t leaving her to feed, but there was still something he was hiding. "So, I’ll ask you then. What is it you’re hiding? Why have you blocked me?"
Sighing heavily, he walked to the window, the sun had set but the light in the sky was beautiful, the colors streaming across the horizon. He laid his forehead on the windowpane. He had no idea how to approach this. He couldn’t even look at her.
"I trust you with my heart and soul. Never doubt that. But I blocked you because of what I had to do, something I wished for you not to know. A job for Alec. I mulled it over a bit before I did it because it was something I wrestled with myself. I did not wish to do it, but in the end, I did it for our bambinos, for us, for our familia. I don’t expect you to understand some of the things I do and why I do them. Sometimes, they are heinous, but I assure you, I harmed no one physically. I blocked you from my thoughts because I never want you to see me in that way. It is so you never look at me in disgust or disappointment. It was wrong for me to do that to you. I have tried to involve you since you have become immortal, to include you in everything."
Kate looked at his back as he stood at the window. What deeds could be so horrible he wouldn’t share them? “Lover, my imagination is running wild. I’ve seen you on the battlefield. I’ve seen you kill. What could you do that you think you must hide from me? I assure you, the things running through my head could be no worse!"
Kate looked at him with hurt. "Shade..." She reached for him. "Please. No secrets. I don't want to fight. You said you didn’t feed, and I believe you. But something is bothering you. There’s something you hide from me."
Turning around, he saw how much she hurt. "Take a good look, you are looking at the soon to be Master of California. That is one secret."
Kate raised her eyebrows in surprise. "What? Doesn’t California belong to Alec? Did something happen to Alec?"
"No. But he asked me to do this one job. I bargained and that was my price to do it. He agreed but there is one condition. Rissa has to do her part. Once done, he gives me California. So, kiss me and tell me you still want your savage lover."
She went to him and slid into his embrace, but her mind was reeling. What job would be worth Alec's entire territory? She kissed him and saw the strain in his face. He was tired, and clearly, he hadn’t fed, and it was taking its toll. "Shade, what exactly did Alec ask you to do?"
Looking down at her, she still maintained the sweet innocence she’d held as a mortal, the face he fell in love with. How could he withhold this from her? "Can we please lie down? I will tell you. Bel, I am tired, I just want to hold you, si?"
She read the concern on his face and felt a sense of foreboding. Taking his hand, she led him back to their bed, climbing in ahead of him, and opening her arms to him. "Lay next to me, lover. I don't want secrets between us."
Climbing in without another thought, he snuggled into her neck. Her scent was intoxicating, and his mouth watered. He swallowed hard to keep from taking what he wanted.
"Alec wants to escalate his timetable. He wants to run in this election, but there is a major obstacle in his way, the President. He needs Ashton to withdraw, to not seek a second term. Alec has planned a scandal, a means to blackmail him. He has convinced Rissa to sleep with the President, get it on film. He will threaten to make it public if Ashton does not withdraw. He asked me to make sure the President is more than ready for whatever Rissa has planned. To use my gift of dream-walking to fill his head with visions of sexual depravity of him and Rissa together. That’s what I have been doing and where I have been." He leaned close to her ear and whispered softly saying, "Don’t hate me for this."
Kate pulled away, sitting up in their bed, absorbing what he’d said. "You dream-walked on the President? You were in the White House? Why would he ask you...no, never mind, I know why he asked."
She covered her face with her hands. Dream-walking was his gift, and he rarely used it, except to bring her dreams of pleasure. She knew it was designed as a weapon, just as her gift of animalism could be used as a weapon. She hated that he was pulled into Alec's world, that Alec had exploited him to achieve his own goals. She lay back down beside him. She couldn’t deny his nature, for she was vampire now too. She’d done things she never thought possible, but this was a bitter pill to swallow.
"Well, at least you extracted a high price. I wish you weren’t so aligned with him."
Rolling over on his stomach, he lifted his head and looked at her. "Alec was my way to make it here in the States. You use what you have, contacts. He was well established here, I was not. We go back a very long way. When I came here, it was to explore new territory. I bargained for everything I have here. The dream-walking was not a hard task, but it went against my grain to do it. But what I got in return builds upon our strength here. We have gained a lot of territory in the last year. But it also means more of my time away. I can’t change that. I can’t change how much I want to do well, see our bambinos have something. It is important to me to secure the future of our coven. This is my gift to my familia, my coven, to you, because I love you. I cherish you. I want you to be proud of me, proud of my accomplishments."