Sebastian waited at the gate before it opened quietly. And ominously. She was about to comment on being let in without having to go through some sort of checkpoint when she noticed another camera mounted on a tree beside the entrance. The sudden creepy feeling of being watched by some all-seeing eye prickled her skin. He drove to an underground garage, the downward slope not helping the butterflies looping in her stomach any.
“So what’s my cover story supposed to be?” she asked to start him talking again and hopefully rid herself of the sensation.
“I’m still thinking about it,” he replied. “Some sort of liaison between humans and vampires, I’m guessing. Someone important enough to be worthy of a vampire guard.”
She fell back against the seat, closing her eyes. “This is crazy.”
“I know,” he said softly. “If you don’t want to do it, I’ll understand.”
Alice thought about it for a second before facing him. “It’s important to you, so I’ll do my best. But you’ve gotta know how scared shitless I am.”
He reached for her hand and pulled it to his mouth. The kiss he placed on it was as tender as a cloud. “You will never be out of my sight. At worst, I’ll never be more than three steps away from you. I promise you that.”
“And these men of yours. Anything like that Cicero guy?”
Sebastian had the decency to wince. “He’s one of them. Let’s go inside and meet the others. They’re not like him.”
“Then what’s his deal?”
“He and I...we have issues. But in a fight, he’s someone I’d want on my side.”
“Tell me the people on the Council aren’t like him either.”
“Well...I wouldn’t say that exactly.”
Great. The first time she’d met another vampire, and his first instinct had been to bite her. And now that same vampire was supposed to be one of the ones who’d be watching over her in a nest full of them?
“And you can trust him?” she asked incredulously, not bothering to wait for him to help her out of the car, despite the stilts he’d placed her on. Sebastian hustled to her side and offered an arm, which she took. No sense in ending up with a broken ankle—or two—just to prove a point. “Do you recall that he wanted to feed from me the first time he saw me? And if your half of the conversation was any indication, perhaps kill me?”
“But he didn’t, because I would never let him. This isn’t much different. He reports to me, and I have complete faith in every single one of my men.” They walked along a narrow corridor from the car to a nondescript gray door. “Look up for a sec.”
She followed his gaze to the camera peering down on them, forcing herself not to visibly react. Based on everything else she’d seen so far, there was no reason for this to be a surprise. He’d glanced toward the eye and then splayed a hand against a flat gunmetal gray box next to the door. Something clicked, and he pulled on the knob. When the door swung his way, Alice placed a mental bet that it had been locked tight seconds before. Between the visual confirmation, along with a finger or palm print of some kind, he’d been allowed in. The complexity of it all amazed her.
“But it’s not just him this time,” she said, blowing out a breath. “There will be others there. Peop—vampires who might not care what you have to say about the matter. Can you stop them all?”
He stopped so suddenly, she almost wobbled off balance. Sebastian whirled her into his embrace and, straight out of the movies, tilted her entire body back until she could do nothing but fall into his hold and stare into fathomless eyes. The world around them tumbled away as she listened to the smooth rhythm of her heart. Her breathing was easy. Steady.
His gaze did a slow crawl from her face, down the skin of her neck and between her breasts before returning at an equally glacial pace. There wasn’t an ounce of strain on his face or in the way he held her. Seconds passed—maybe even a full minute. Never, not once, did she think he couldn’t hold her there for another hundred years if determined to do so.