Blood Debt - By Tanya Huff Page 0,46

heard the chal?lenge. "Vicki ..."

One pale hand rose. A prince indicating there was no need for the masses to get involved. "I don't think so. No."

"Why not? Afraid of losing your vaunted control? Too old to cope?"

"Vicki!" He might as well have saved his breath. The words were thrown back with all the finesse of a school?yard taunt and were just as impossible to ignore.

His back against the wall, with Vicki between him and the exit, Celluci watched Henry advance toward the elevator. He wanted to grab her and shake her and demand to know what the hell she thought she was doing. Except he knew. Trust Vicki to drive her point home with a god-damned sledgehammer. I should've taken the fucking stairs....

When the doors closed, the fabric of Henry's blazer whispered against it. "Parking level one, please."

Head tilted slightly down, silvered eyes locked with shadow, Vicki pressed the button without looking at the panel.

It wasn't the elevator that lurched into motion, Cel?luci realized; it was his heart.

They shifted position simultaneously, too fast for a mere mortal to see them move. One moment they stood facing each other-Henry's back against the doors-the next Vicki stood to Celluci's left and Henry to his right. They continued to face each other but had gained what might be a survivable distance between them. A low, warning growl, felt not heard, vibrated through the enclosed space and lifted every hair on Celluci's body-not a pleasant sensation. Real?izing how little it would take to tip the balance into bloody chaos, he resisted the urge to scratch. Now if we can just make it to the lobby without anyone else getting...

The elevator stopped on the seventh floor.

The doors opened.

Both vampires whirled to face the intrusion.

Celluci didn't know exactly what the couple waiting at the seventh floor saw nor did he want to. Faces blanched of color and the spreading stain on the front of an expensive pair of silk pants gave his imagination information enough. Teeth clenched, he jerked for?ward and jabbed a finger at the panel.

The closing doors cut off a rising, mindless wail. All at once, he was no longer worried about either of his companions losing control. He lost it himself.

"That's it!" he snarled as he turned. "I've had it up to here ..." The edge of his hand chopped at the air over his head. "... with the two of you. You can both stuff that creature-of-the-night shit back where it be?longs! Did you see what you did to those two kids? Did you! Did either of you even notice they got in the way of your petty little power struggle?"

"Petty?" Vicki began, but he cut her off.

"Yeah. Petty. No one fucking cares which one of you's top ghoul except the two of you! And that'd be fine except there's a whole goddamned world around you and neither of you seems to give a fuck who gets hit with the shrapnel!"

"You're still alive.... "

He whirled toward Henry. "Well, whoop de fucking do!" Too furious to consider the consequences, he dared the dark gaze to do its worst.

Henry's lips drew off his teeth.

Vicki moved to deny him.

Celluci threw out both arms. Muscles strained as he held them apart, one hand on each chest, the utter audacity of the attempt allowing him to succeed for one heartbeat. Two. Three. Teeth clenched, he refused to give in. His vision started to blur.

Impossibly held, memory rose to overwhelm Hunger.

The three of them had just laid Vicki's mother to rest for a second time. The two men were physically wounded and emotionally flayed-but Vicki had been dying. Henry had done what he could, but he hadn't been strong enough to finish; he needed more blood. Michael Celluci had offered his, even though he be?lieved that it meant he'd lose everything.

In over four hundred and fifty years of living as an observer in humanity's midst, it had been the most amazing thing Henry Fitzroy had ever seen.

Until now.

Detective-Sergeant Michael Celluci was very large and very strong; but it wasn't his physical strength that stopped the Hunger. It was the attitude that dared to announce, "I will not allow this!" even knowing he didn't stand, as he himself might say, a snowflake's chance in hell of being listened to.

Once again, Henry was shown the quality of the man, and he was ashamed that he had to be reminded.

Eyes still locked with Henry's, Vicki remembered what he remembered and felt what he felt. For the first time in his presence