"Yes. Didn't Alec tell you? I'm a Beloved, too, although the Dark One I was supposed to save ended up liking my roommate more than me."
Cora cast him a curious look. "Beloveds can do that? "
"No," he answered.
"Sometimes they can, yes," Noelle contradicted him. "Sebastian - he was the Dark One - said it had something to do with fate, that sometimes it got messed up, and assigned the wrong Beloved to a Dark One. Airport?"
"Please," Alec answered.
"You got it. I should return home, anyway."
"So this vampire you were supposed to hook up with ran off with your roomie? The dog!" Cora said, shooting him irritated glances just as if he were at fault. "I hope you let them know how you feel."
"Oh, I did. At first I was hurt, but I realized that they really were meant for one another. Besides, Belle - she was my roomie - promised to help find me a Dark One who doesn't have a Beloved."
Noelle's gaze in the mirror flickered to him.
Cora put her hand on his leg and glared at the mirror. You say one word, and I'll pop you on your incredibly gorgeous nose.
He put his hand over hers and stroked the backs of her fingers. I'm surprised you care enough to feel possessive, querida.
I'm not being possessive. I'm just protecting you because you let de Marco shoot you in the back in order to save me. Noelle wouldn't be right for you at all. You can thank me later for getting her off your back. "And I take it she hasn't found one yet?"
"No, although I've met just about every unredeemed Dark One in Europe." Noelle sighed.
"You'd think one of them would be happy to have you swoop in and save him," Cora said, drumming her fingers on his leg.
"You'd think so, but I guess not. I wouldn't mind, except Belle is constantly after me to try to meet more Dark Ones, and to be honest, I'm perfectly happy the way I am. And besides, men are like stray cats, you know? When one needs you, they find you."
Cora laughed. Alec refrained from making any comment, focusing his attention on more important matters. He had to figure out how he was going to convince Kristoff to go against the Moravian Council. Kris wasn't going to like it, but Alec had too much at stake to tolerate any refusal of help.
He had to protect Cora, and it was beginning to look like there was only one way to do that.
I spent the entire flight to Florence pretending to sleep. I wasn't proud of that fact, and I did actually snooze a goodly part of the time, thanks to some pain pills, but I had just reached a point where my mind seemed to be completely out of my control.
"I am going to sleep," I told Alec an hour after the private jet he had chartered took off. The fact that he had the resources to think nothing about hiring private jets to send him rocketing around the world was one of the things my mind had a hard time dealing with.
"I don't know why," he said without looking up from his laptop.
"I'm tired. And that dinner you insisted I eat was huge, and it made me sleepy."
"I meant that I don't know why you feel that traveling in a private jet is in any way outstanding. I assure you that the company that hires out this jet flies their clients all over the world."
"It may be standard operating policy where vamps are concerned," I said, dropping my voice so the stewardess at the other end of the cabin couldn't hear us, "but in my social circle, it's a big deal. I'm going to curl up on the couch, if you don't mind, and try to sleep off all that food."
"You needed to eat. I had taken too much blood," he said, his gaze still on the laptop that sat before him. "Why don't you sleep in the bed?"
I looked over at the long brown suede couch that was tucked against one side of the cabin. The whole interior was done in a lovely latte and cream color scheme, the six leather chairs made with butter-soft leather that was so comfortable, I could have slept sitting upright in them. "It turns into a bed?" I asked, nodding toward the couch.
"No. There's a bedroom in the back." He looked up, his green cat's eyes dancing with amusement. "I could show it to you if you like."
I leaned forward over the glossy inlaid wood table that sat between our facing chairs, my voice a whisper as the stewardess tidied up the remains of our dinner - Alec's having been eaten by me, since he evidently didn't eat food that didn't come straight from the vein. "I said no sex, and I mean it, buster. If you so much as think of seducing me again - "
"I believe the seduction in the Akasha was a mutual endeavor."
" - like you tried at my apartment - "
He smiled, the handsome bastard. "Ah. That was due to the fact that I thought you were stripping for me rather than simply changing your clothes. I apologized for that."