He gave a sharp, bitter laugh. “He has every right to be.”
“Perhaps.” There was a misty brush against his naked shoulder. Dara’s touch? “But Nefri has used his emotions to manipulate him into becoming our enemy.”
“I doubt it took much manipulation.”
“You can’t believe that. You know Santiago,” she whispered directly into his ear. “No matter what you’ve done, if he’s coerced into harming his sire he will be tortured by guilt. It will eventually destroy him.”
Gaius tried to shut out her words.
The last time there was a whisper in his ear, the Dark Lord persuaded him to betray his son, his clan, and eventually the entire world.
He wouldn’t be fooled again.
But then he turned his head to catch sight of the delicate, honey-tinted face and his logic sizzled beneath the burst of intense yearning.
Once he’d been happy.
Centuries ago he’d been a powerful clan chief with a devoted mate and a fiercely loyal son he was training to follow in his footsteps.
He wanted that back.
He wanted it with a hunger that destroyed any lingering threads of sanity.
“What can we do?” he at last rasped.
Dara smiled, pleased with his capitulation. “We must convince him that he’s still our son and that all we want is to be a family again.”
“A family.”
“The three of us together,” she continued, weaving her web of temptation. “Just imagine, habibi.”
He frowned. “What if it’s too late? I cut all ties with Santiago when I abandoned him.”
“It’s never too late,” she assured him. “He’s following our trail even as we speak.”
He gave a slow nod. “Then, we can speak when he arrives. I can apologize and tell him how much I regret leaving him.”
“Yes, yes, but first you must make him help us,” Dara said impatiently, interrupting his fantasy of the long overdue reunion with Santiago.
“What do you mean?” he asked in confusion. “Help us with what?”
“I have something that needs to be retrieved and he’s the only one who can get his hands on”—there was a faint hesitation—“it.”
Gaius flinched. “We can’t ask him to help as soon as he arrives.”
“Why not? You said yourself that he’s family.”
“He’ll assume that we just want to use him.”
Dara studied him with an unblinking gaze. “I don’t have time to wait. Unless you want to put me back in my grave, then we must force him to help.”
Gaius shook his head. “I won’t hurt him.”
“Of course not,” she swiftly agreed. “But we’ll need leverage.”
He paused. Once upon a time he’d been the master of strategy, the one who made the plans and was the driving force that made sure they were accomplished. Dara had always deferred to his stronger will, supporting him with her gentle belief he was always right.
Until that god-awful night when the neighboring vampire clan had come to seek vengeance.
Now . . . well, she’d obviously changed.
“What kind of leverage?” he found himself asking, accepting that for now Dara was in command.
“Let me consider.” Her eyes grew distant again, as if she were seeing beyond the cellar. “Yes,” she at last murmured.
“Dara?”
The dark gaze locked on him, sending a chill down his spine.
“You’ll need your medallion.”
Summerset House
Nefri glared at the piles of expensive boxes with fancy bows and silver tissue that were spread across the room. She felt her annoyance rising as each box was opened to reveal yet another slinky gown or scraps of lace that Santiago assured her were negligees. Clothing that ranged from the impractical to the ludicrous.
Standing across the room, Santiago pulled another box from the stack that had been delivered as soon as the sun had set.
Tossing off the lid, he pulled out a skirt that was barely long enough to cover her butt and sparkling with silver sequins. “What about this one?”
Her eyes narrowed at the amusement shimmering in his dark eyes. The male was taking an inordinate amount of pleasure in displaying one worthless garment after another.
“No,” she ground out.
He reached for a tube of stretchy silk that she assumed was intended to be worn as a dress. “This one?”
She shoved her hands in the pockets of the robe she’d found in the bathroom. Santiago was wearing a matching robe, although he’d left it open to reveal the hard perfection of his bronzed body.
A body she now knew with a delectable intimacy.
A blissful shiver ran through her as her gaze slid over the lean, beautiful features that were framed by the hair that was left to fall in a smooth river of ebony over his shoulders and down his back.
His smile widened, revealing a hint of fang as the air became perfumed with her stirring arousal.
She gave an impatient click of her tongue. They’d just spent the past ten hours sating their seemingly endless desire. How could she possibly be hungry for more?