care to be laughed at. He walks closer into the room and stands a mere five feet from me now. Good.
“Only a vampire master and another master can find true happiness together. The tribunal spreads the lies of mating with a human far and wide to keep the rest of us from getting too strong.” The lie trips off my silver-tipped tongue with ease.
Ivan’s face no longer holds the impassivity most vampires wear on a daily basis. The insanity he had before his imprisonment looks like it grew during his stay in the ancients’ jail. His eyes look wild, darting around the room, only to fall back on my lush curves like a moth drawn to flame. My pull on him through the illusion messes with his mind more than he can handle; he looks ready to snap.
“I don’t understand. Why would the tribunal lie to keep us weaker?”
“Haven’t you noticed most of them don’t have mates?” I ask, hoping to draw something useful from the psycho before his death.
“I was imprisoned below ground in a damp cell with silver chains. I didn’t see any of them much.” His traitorous body shows evidence of his arousal, though he ignores it, while I twist on the lounge to draw his attention.
“Much? That implies you saw some of them.” I smile again, this time pulling my arm back and sitting up a bit on the chaise.
Lush, perfect breasts are on display, a sight not many men could resist. Ivan proves to be like most men, giving me a long lingering stare.
“Emiko came down to see me the most near the end. She was the one assigned to set me free.”
“Did she bother to explain that I was saving Angie as food for another? Or did she imply I kept her for myself?” I snort to show the foolishness of this statement. “Or maybe she told you I let her live as part of your punishment?”
“No. She knew nothing of the reason for my confinement. I was there before she became an enforcer.”
He looks speculative now, maybe thinking back on his last days there. The clarity in his eyes plays hide and seek with his blatant craziness.
“She informed me that my Angie lived and was waiting for me in Chicago.”
Ah… so Emiko pointed him at the poor young woman. If she didn’t know why he was there, then someone pointed her at him with the information.
“Didn’t you wonder how she knew Angie was alive or how to tell you where she was?”
Ivan looks around the room, searching for answers in the green foliage of the plants.
“She mentioned a mentor on the tribunal on one of her visits. But never a name.” His roving eyes come back to land on me. “Are you trying to say I was set up? That someone used me?”
“Why, yes, you silly boy.” I’m actually amazed he was able to piece that together. “Angie’s mind had been wiped clean so she could continue to feed the community. You finding your way here was dumb luck.”
“Dumb luck?” Ivan scoffs out loud at that one. “I tracked that new husband of hers for months trying to kill him too. That no-good bastard left every town right when I pinpointed his daytime sleep location.” His eyes take on a new shine. “But I certainly enjoyed myself on the long journey here.”
I don’t want to think about the string of victims such as Sheba he’d have left in his wake. To do so now could break the web I’m trying to spin.
The sexual desires I’ve been pushing out finally penetrate the full-on layer of nutso he’s got going on. Good God, the crazy ones are hard to manipulate. His hunger for blood re-directs into one of sex and Ivan’s body language changes from one of rage-filled predator to that of horny jackass. His limbs loosen from the tight stance he held while his hands relax from fists. He smiles at me in a leer, as if he’s just now noticed I’m naked. I’m betting it was the reference to his kills that finally brought on the recognition of his body’s responses to my projections.
Ewww. The thought sickens me so much I don’t even want to contemplate it.
“I thought you hated me all those years ago,” Ivan says in a soft cadence. “You really only wanted me for yourself?”
“Yes. Like calls to like, baby. I knew you were strong. Together, with your power, I can direct all the fantasies here to go exactly as