Seeking Eternity Ch 04

With a heavy sigh, Myles slammed the door of her car and jogged over to the front door of the house. She desperately needed a drink. Her whole day was filled with overbearing men trying to make her do things she would rather not. From a man who should have been the least of her concerns to the foolish head of the slayer society – it was just sickening. Just one more fucking order and she would start snapping necks.

She was just about to open the door when a lone figure emerged from the shadows, the scent of blood all over him.

"What the

fuck

," she hissed, alarmed.

Even as she tried to reach for the daggers strapped to her back, Myles knew that it would be too late. The vampire moved too quickly in its desperation to feed. She would have no chance against it at all.

But just as the vampire was about to reach her, another figure appeared behind it. In mere seconds, the vampire's head was cleanly ripped off, rolling on the grass of her front yard.

"You seem to be losing focus, darling."

Myles grinned, shaking her head as she took in the sight of the man who saved her. In leather jacket and tight jeans, he was as much of a delectable son-of-a-bitch as the suited businessman she met more than four years ago.

"Ross," she purred, taking a step towards him to give him a hug. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Fancy saving your ass," he responded with a grin, swatting her backside at the same time. "What on earth made you slip so?"

Myles shrugged and stepped away, looking at the body of the vampire who attacked her. She produced a vial from her pocket and poured it into both the vampire's head and body. The serum, mass produced by the slayer society, would turn the vampire to ashes in mere minutes. Decapitating it would not necessarily kill the vampire, and there was no point in waiting for the sun to shine. As Myles had no desire of having policemen knocking on her door, asking why there was a decapitated body lying on her front yard, using the serum was the best course of action.

Once the body started to sizzle, Myles turned and opened the door, answering Ross's question. "I have just been through one hell of a day. Way too many men to please."

Ross chuckled. "Care to add one more?"

Stepping inside the house, Myles rolled her eyes at him. "That depends on whether or not you can please me in return."

"Ah, darling," Ross drawled, "when did I ever leave you unsatisfied?"

Myles grinned. When, indeed? Ross had always been a considerate lover – so considerate that he had even invited another man to sleep with them. It was Ross' considerate nature that gave Myles the three weeks of pure bliss that she experienced with the two men.

"I don't want to be merely satisfied," Myles told him, the challenge she issued apparent on the arch of her eyebrow. "I want to be utterly sated."

"It will be my pleasure to make you so," Ross replied.

Knowing that the man would be staying outside the house unless she said the word, Myles spoke the invitation that he was patiently waiting for. "Come in."

Ross slightly bowed his head to her. "Thank you, Myles."

She smiled slightly as Ross went straight to the table where some wine bottles were sitting. She had not seen him in quite a while, and Myles somewhat forgot just how easily Ross could ease himself into new environments without so much as a blink. He had always been so sure of himself, of his place in the world, that he dominated any space he was in as if he had owned it forever.

Not for the first time, Myles wondered why she decided to let him go. He was probably one of the best things that ever happened to her. He had offered her nothing but pure, brutal honesty from the very first moment they met. With him, Myles felt as if she could shed all the lies surrounding her life and just be who she was.

Oh, yes. Life with Ross had been bliss. She had no doubt that it would still be so if she let him back in. But Myles could not go on loving Ross when she had too much of his kind's blood on her hands.

Myles sighed heavily, trying to ignore the little stabs of pain that still penetrated her heart whenever she realized how different her and Ross's worlds were. If only she could somehow bridge the gap that existed between them, then, perhaps, she could be with him once more.

She shook her head, smiling sadly as she plopped down on the sofa and closed her eyes.

In a perfect world, slayers would never fall in love with vampires. Then again, in a perfect world, vampires would not even exist.

"Your thoughts wander too far, darling."

Ross's comment prompted Myles to open her eyes once again. He was standing by the sofa now, holding two glasses of red wine, one of which was being offered to her. His lips were curved up in the smile that once upon a time was enough to make her toes curl.

Not that it had completely lost the effect.

"Thank you," she said, taking the glass from his hand.

Ross sat down beside her. "You seem distracted."

Myles smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. "I am. There are just too many things going on at once. I don't know where to start."

"Probably by making sure that no vampire gets close to you again the way that the other one did earlier," he suggested.

A chuckle rose up Myles' throat as she pointed at him. "It's too late for that, I'm afraid."

Ross smiled. "I intend to get closer, but I don't think you will allow that."

She would, and Myles knew it well. Ross probably did, too. He was just too much of a gentleman to point it out. Oh, he would joke and tease her about it some other time – but not now. Not when he could sense the mood Myles was in.

"What's troubling you, darling?" Ross asked.

Myles groaned as she remembered why she was so upset in the first place. "Michael Gilford has been acting like a madman ever since Raine's disappearance. I have never seen him this discomfited." Narrowing her eyes, she looked at him. "You probably know why."

Ross nodded as he took a sip of wine. The way he was keeping mum told Myles that he would not voluntarily divulge the information. He had never lied to her, but it did not mean that he was not allowed to keep secrets.

"Fair enough," she continued. Then, still watching him, she added, "Ashford Hayes-Crowe also dropped by to ask me a favour."

"Did he?" Ross asked, looking amused.

"Uh-huh." Myles took a sip of wine. "Fancy that. I never thought I would ever meet the CEO of HC International. I also never imagined that he would be such charming and handsome creature."

"May I remind you, too, that he is a centuries-old vampire?" Ross drawled.

"So are you," Myles retorted.

"Five centuries and a few years only," Ross admitted. "My sire, however, has existed for far longer."

Myles shrugged and finished her wine in silence. She had known from the very first moment she laid eyes on Ross that he was a vampire. She did not kill him then, of course, as they were attending a formal charitable function, and, perhaps more importantly, because she was alone. Myles was never foolish enough to engage a powerful vampire in a single hand-to-hand combat. She had known she would die.

But Ross engaged her – in conversation. And an honest one, too. He introduced himself well – who he was before he was turned, what his aspirations had been. Thinking back, Myles realized that that was how he inched his way into her heart. It was one thing to know that he was a blood-sucking creature of the night; it was another to find out just how human he once was.

So, drinking wine by a fountain, talking like old friends – that was how their complicated relationship began.

"What did Ashford want?" Ross interrupted her reverie.

"Not what, but who."

"Ah." Ross chuckled. "Raine."

Myles frowned. "What's with his obsession with my best friend, anyway?"

"It's complicated," Ross answered slowly, obviously trying to figure out how much information he could share with Myles. "Ashford has claimed Raine, which basically means that, whether she knows it or not, Raine is now enjoying the protection of Ashford's name. Any vampire who would dare to hurt Raine will therefore have to answer to Ashford himself and to the rest of the coven he leads."

"That doesn't explain why he claimed her in the first place," Myles observed. She finished her glass of wine. "Claiming is not exactly something that can be done over and over, Ross. As you explained to me before, claiming a human is like signing a very special contract."

"One that tips the balance of power in favour of the claimed," Ross agreed.

"Why would your sire ever want to give that kind of power to a slayer?" she asked.

Ross shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. Myles knew better, and she would get to the bottom of this.

"If you were to claim a human, why would you do so?"

"If I love her enough, I would claim her," Ross answered, looking amused.

Myles' jaw dropped. "Are you telling me that Ashford fell in love with Raine?"

The laughter that followed her statement made Myles cringe. "Ashford's reasons run deeper than love, darling."

"What is it, then?" she asked, now more curious than ever.

"Duty."

His answer added to her confusion instead of lessening it. "I don't understand. How can duty run deeper than love?"

"Ashford is ancient, darling," Ross explained, slowly swirling the wine in his glass. "He is head of a coven for a long time, and he has loyally served vampirekind as a leader for as long as I have known him. Duty is his middle name. I don't know if he has ever fallen in love before, but his sense of duty is infallible."

"And Raine is his duty?"

"In a sense. She is his...well—" Ross shrugged. "Redemption. Your friend is my sire's salvation."

*****

Walking on tiptoes, Raine slipped out of the room, silently praying that she would not wake Ashford up. If she did, she would be dragged back to bed and made love to until she forgets exactly why she was trying to leave the room in the first place. Although she would definitely consent to such a scheme, Raine still recognized the needs of her body, and, right now, something to fill her belly seemed to be more appealing than another tumble on the bed. As soon as she had eaten, she would consider waking Ashford up herself, but for now...

After closing the door, Raine stopped in her tracks.

Ashford's room had mostly black, grey, brown or beige accents, and burgundy was the only burst of colour that she had seen so far – in his bathroom, nonetheless. Outside the master bedroom, however, that burgundy splash seemed to have become dominant, as the carpets and curtains on this part of the house were of that rich colour.

Yet, it was not the change of accent that made Raine pause. It was the portrait that hung across the hall. The portrait depicted an attractive man in his late thirties, with sleek blond hair and hauntingly blue eyes. For some inexplicable reasons, Raine was certain that she had seen the man before.

Where

, she could not recall – but that she

had

already seen him, she could not be mistaken.

"Mistress!"

The gasp from the grand staircase to the right snapped Raine's attention away from the portrait. A slim lady in her early twenties, wearing a maid's uniform, was standing there, feather duster on her hand. The shock in the maid's eyes made Raine feel so self-conscious that she hugged the robe closer around her, tightening the belt that was already secure around her waist.

Overcoming her shock and probably realizing the discomfort she put Raine in, the maid lowered her gaze. "Mistress. How can I help you?"

Raine remembered that this was the woman who brought breakfast to her the day before. Together with that breakfast was Raine's incessantly ringing cell phone. It had been through this maid's decision to give the phone to Raine that the latter was able to talk to her best friend.

"Agatha, isn't it?" Raine asked the maid now, smiling. When the maid nodded, she added, "I was just about to look for something to eat."

Agatha nodded and bowed her head. "Of course, Mistress. I will bring you breakfast."

Raine glanced at the portrait again, still racking her brains – to no avail. With a small frown, she started walking towards the grand staircase. "Thank you, Agatha, but I would rather eat in the dining hall if I could."

The maid bowed her head again. "As you wish, Mistress."

Agatha hurriedly went downstairs while Raine slowly followed. When Raine reached the bottom of the stairs, Agatha and a pair of fur slippers were waiting for her. The maid waited for Raine to put the slippers on before leading the way to the dining hall.

As she followed Agatha into the sparklingly clean room dominated by a long oak table, Raine's thoughts wandered back to the phone conversation that convinced her to stay in Ashford's house. It was Myles at the other end of the line, and her best friend sounded relieved when Raine finally answered her calls.

After a barrage of questions – mostly of how Raine had been and why she was unreachable until then, Myles had updated her on the goings-on within the slayer society.

"Gilford's anger seems to be unappeasable," her best friend had reported. "We could not even trace your phone. The signal seemed to come from millions of locations all around the globe."

That was when Raine told Myles that she was in Ashford Hayes-Crowe's house. "With the kind of money he has, I would not be surprised to find out that he had put hundreds of computer geniuses to keep you off my trail."

"Ashford Hayes-Crowe?" Myles had repeated, sounding utterly surprised. "The billionaire CEO of HC International?"

It was then that Raine decided to tell Myles everything – her first encounter with Ashford, their first night together, and the undeniable attraction between them. The only parts Raine omitted were those that were sources of confusion to her as well – Melisande and Seth's conversation, for one.

In the end, Myles had only one question, and it thankfully did not involve Raine's sanity or the soundness of her decision to bed a vampire: "The CEO of HC International is a vampire?"

After the discussion that followed, Myles and Raine had agreed not to tell anyone – especially Gilford – about what Ashford was. After all, if the CEO of HC International was a vampire, then, there could be others within the company that were vampires, too. The repercussions of revealing them as such, or of killing them, would be immense.

In the end, the only rational thing that they could do was to keep Ashford's secret. At least, for now.

*****

Amélie could barely contain her annoyance as she walked into Ashford's house. She did not need to see Raine to know that the woman had decided to stay; the slayer's scent was enough of an indication that she had not indeed left Ashford's lair.

Amélie swallowed back the growl that threatened to escape her throat. She might not agree with her brother's decisions lately, but she trusted Ashford to do the right thing – as he had done for the past centuries. It would be quite impertinent of her to question his decisions now. Indeed, it would be quite inconsiderate, too, as she realized how much stress Ashford was dealing with.

But holding her tongue did not mean that she would be friendly to the slayer.

The woman emerged from the dining room followed by one of Ashford's young servants just as Amélie was about to go up the grand staircase. Raine stopped in her tracks when their eyes met.

"I see that Ashford decided to keep you," said Amélie, looking at the slayer from head to toe. That the woman was beautiful was unquestionable, but what Amélie could not comprehend was why her brother seemed so drawn to this creature.

"You're wrong," Raine said, holding her head high and meeting Amélie's blazing gaze. "I decided to stay."

Of course, you did

, Amélie thought. Not that she would ever want to agree with this woman. "For what, I wonder?"

The answer came from the top of the staircase. "For the pleasure of my company, I hope."

Amélie rolled her eyes as she watched Ashford descend the staircase. Her brother, as always, looked smashing in expensive business suit. Studying him, Amélie understood why women find him appealing. His good looks, his powerful aura, his apparent wealth – any one of them was enough to attract a female's attention. And Ashford had them all.

His eyes held a note of warning when he glanced at Amélie. That look vanished, however, as soon as he turned to Raine.

"Forgive me, my love," Ashford told the slayer when he reached the bottom of the staircase. "I should have put some thought into nourishing you."

You should have put some thought into many things

, Amélie thought irately, doing her best to keep quiet.

Keeping the bitch here, for one.

Not that she would tell Ashford again. The warning in his eyes informed Amélie that he was quickly losing his patience with her incessant questioning of his decision. Besides, Amélie understood where Ashford was coming from. Indeed, she completely understood that having Raine with Ashford was the most logical move for them.

Then again, her dislike of the woman went beyond logic.

"We have a long day ahead, Ash," she reminded her brother, who, at the moment, already had his arms around the slayer. "It would be best to start early."

She did not wait for Ashford to make a comment. Instead, Amélie turned her back on him and walked away. It was a silent plea for him to follow. It was also Amélie's way of giving Ashford and Raine some much-needed privacy.

Outside, she paused by the porch swing that Melisande had insisted to add when the blonde vampire used to stay in Ashford's house. For Amélie, this specific piece of furniture added a more human touch to Ashford's imposing mansion. What self-loving vampire would decide to put such a cozy place of rest

outside

, anyway, when people knew that vampires hated the sun?

Curiously enough, it had been both Melisande's and Amélie's favourite spot, sun or no sun. They had shared countless afternoons and evenings on that swing, sipping proper cocktails or human blood, depending on their moods. They had bickered and pestered each other there just as much as they had shared their fears and worries. Indeed, that porch swing could probably become the symbol of their undeclared friendship: a constant fixture in the house, full of back and forth alliances and nerve-wracking ups and downs.

The thought made Amélie sigh.

She disliked the mellow feelings evoked by these kinds of memories, as they pointed out the nagging worry that haunted her day after day lately. As Melisande had told her more than once, when Amélie's fangs and claws were not bared, there was definitely something eating her.

And that

something

involved the slayer inside Ashford's house.

Before Amélie's annoyance had any chance to redevelop, her brother decided to finally step outside.

"Will she still be here when you return?" Amélie asked.

Ashford walked in front of her, heading for the car that would take them to HC International's headquarters. "She promised she will be."

Have a care, Ash

, Amélie wanted to say as she followed the man.

She could easily take your heart in her hands and crush it without mercy

.

But even then, she knew that it was already too late.

Once inside the car, Amélie reminded Ashford of what was on his schedule. Not that she thought the man needed any reminders. Her brother's memory was sharp. But having an administrative assistant made him look more human, and when you are definitely not one of them, looking more human could not hurt.

"Is that everything?" Ashford asked when she had finished enumerating the tasks that he needed to do.

Amélie took a deep breath and activated the window that separated them from the driver before answering. "About Raine..."