Chapter Eight

When we walked out of the library a few minutes later, my face was still flushed, lips swollen, and legs rubbery. Charlemagne looked entirely too pleased with himself. I leaned against his side, our fingers tangled together, watching him, as he led me into the living room. I'd barely noticed that we'd been joined by two other vampires until he glanced down at me. "You have not heard a single word that has been said to you, have you?"

Oops. A blush warmed my face as I shook my head. "Sorry." I mumbled, straightening to face the room. "What'd I miss?"

Charlemagne unlaced our fingers to press his hand to the small of my back, guiding me forward towards Nickolas and the two new vampires. The man, another tall, handsome blonde, looked enough like Nickolas that they had to be related. Same blue eyes, easy smile, dimples. His hair was shaggier and curled under his ears. His suit was the same mauve color as the woman's dress.

She was lovely, almost as tall as the boys in her ballet flats. Her eyes were a warm hazel, and she had a corona of strawberry blonde curls around an angular, freckled face. They'd been sitting opposite Marcus and Bianca, who paused their chattering to stare.

The woman's smile widened, crinkling the corners of her eyes with genuine warmth. "Nick was right, cher, you are a lovely sight." She said cher the same way most native Louisianans did. The French rolling off her tongue airy, and too Southern to be proper. "I'm Madeline, and this is Beau and Nickolas Devereaux."

"I Made them."

I glanced up at Charlemagne, his voice still purring against my ear. The surprise must have registered clearly on my face because Madeline and the Devereaux Brothers chuckled. "Suppose he never mentioned us before?" Nick drawled.

I shook my head without looking away from Charlemagne's face. "I guess we hadn't gotten that far yet." I muttered. When we wrote, Charlemagne set the pace. It was his life, his stories, his secrets.

Charlemagne reached up to touch his hand to my cheek, his thumb slipping along my skin. "I must maintain some ere of mystery, ma cherie, to keep you coming back to me."

Exhaling, I softened and leaned into his hand. "For a second I forgot you were a total and complete drama queen." I teased.

His mouth twitched back into a grin before he dropped his head to kiss me. "I believe you find it endearing, non?" He murmured, brushing his nose against mine.

I grinned against his mouth. "You're lucky I like you, DiBaptiste." I leaned into him, wanting more of his taste in my mouth.

Charlemagne made a noise deep in his throat as he deepened our kiss, drowning the world in a warm, pink haze. It was enough to make a girl forget she was in a room full of vampires.

"Charlemagne. You're being rude."

Charley pulled back enough to kiss my upper lip and then my nose. "I'm being called rude in my own home." He murmured. "Can you believe?"

"Absolutely." I said, not paying Marcus any mind. He didn't like me and that was fine, if not totally and completely unfounded, but it gave me an excuse to ignore him and not feel bad about it. I kissed him again for good measure before I turned to Madeline and the boys. "I'm Abigail, exasperated writer." I smiled, extending my hand.

The three of them had been watching us curiously, but Nickolas recovered first, and took my hand. He brought my hand up to brush a kiss over my knuckles. "Pleasure to meet you, finally."

Beau took my hand from his brother to plant a firm kiss on the back of my fingers. "Read the book, petite, I'm a fan." His mouth tilted into an easy grin. "You ever wanna hear some stories, you just lemme know." He drawled.

"Oh, I will." I grinned at him. I definitely liked them more than Marcus. I wanted to know everything about them. When they'd met Charlemagne, when he'd decided to Change them, what their history was. Just looking at them, there was so much to unpack. The three of them obviously favored Charlemagne, but was that out of arrogance, or had he been searching for a familial connection?

I tilted my head back against Charlemagne's arm to find him watching me. "I have so many questions."

"Then my ploy to keep you here all night asking them is working." Charlemagne grinned.

"You are truly devious, baby." I teased, wanting to test out what a pet name might sound like on my tongue. I'd grown up hearing my parents call each other baby and giving it to Charlemagne felt right to me. Despite the massive age difference.

His features softened as he tilted his head at me. "I am your baby?"

"If that's okay?"

"More than."

"Then yes."

Charlemagne swooped down to kiss me hard. "Let's sit before I forget myself again and decide to end the evening early." He sighed, tilting his chin to kiss the tip of my nose.

I followed him to the loveseat, warmed by affection. You never realize how touch-starved you are until you're allowing someone to touch you. In the most terrifying way, I could get used to this. To him.

The evening wore on. In a few short hours, I'd learned that Charlemagne had met the Deveraux Brothers three years after the Battle of Yellow Bayou. The last battle fought in Louisiana towards the end of the Civil War. They'd been Union soldiers, their brother, Billy, had been one of the thirty-eight men killed during the finale of the Red River campaign.

They'd wandered afterwards. Taking odd jobs and causing trouble wherever they went. It'd been almost by pure chance that they'd come upon Fortuna. Charlemagne had been a vampire for nearly three hundred years by then, and he'd gone to Sleep during the height of the bloodshed. While he Slept, soldiers had burned Fortuna to the ground.

The Deveraux Brothers had found its husk standing empty and had decided to rebuild. Within a year of the project, they'd discovered Charlemagne and he'd discovered them. In a lot of ways, it'd been love at first sight. Nick and Beau had missed Billy and Charley had been alone long enough.

Madeline had come later. An actress traveling with a troupe at the turn of the 20th Century. The three of them had fallen in love with her as if love were an easy thing to fall into. But Beau had been the one to finally take her heart home. Now, they acted as Charlemagne's sentinels, running separate parts of the state and reporting back to him.

I was enraptured. Tucked into Charlemagne's side, I could listen to them talk for hours on end. "Are you hiding any more vampires from me?" I asked, tilting my head back to look up at Charley's face. I kept my tone light, teasing, but I was genuinely curious.

Charlemagne's fingers paused in their exploration of my hip and side. "Truth?" He murmured, curling his fingers in the ends of my hair as he brought his gaze to mine. "Too many." He said, lowering his head until we were at eye-level. "But do not worry, all in due time, mon coeur."

I bit my lower lip. I wanted to ask so many questions. Who was he hiding from me? Why? But I swallowed them and focused on his face. His pupils had dilated until there was only a thin, glowing blue line around them. He was blood-drunk on the wine Marcus had given him. I could smell copper on his breath, and something else, something floral. I reached up to touch his cheek, his skin was almost feverish against the back of my fingers. He usually ran cool to warm. "Are you okay, baby?"

Charlemagne nodded slowly, the tip of his nose brushing against mine. "I like being your baby." He mumbled, the words slurred at the edges. He leaned into me until our foreheads were touching. "I'm ready to be alone with you." He sighed, his lids heavy over his eyes.

I'd never seen Charlemagne drunk before, and I wasn't sure if I liked it. Something about the way he'd slowed down, the way he slurred his words worried me. I reached up with my other hand to slip my fingers into his hair. "Okay." I said, feeling a small flutter in my abdomen. "Do you want to go upstairs?"

He stood, moving too fast, and blinking hard as he rocked on his heels. "Come, ma cherie." He said, holding his hand out for mine. He glanced at Nick once I'd taken his hand and got to my feet. "See everyone out?"

"Course, boss."

"Charlemagne—"

"I'd like to be alone tonight, Marcus." Charlemagne said shooting his friend an unreadable glance. There was a moment of tense silence where something I wasn't privy too passed between them. "We will talk tomorrow." He promised, a sharp edge to his tone.

I glanced between them before turning to offer Madeline and the boys a soft smile. "It was nice meeting you. I hope we'll see each other again soon?"

"We'll be in town a few days, we'll see each other." Nick assured me, inclining his head as the three of them stood. "Take care of him." He said, eyeing Charlemagne. "You sure you're okay, boss?"

"I am." His features softened. "More than." He assured him, giving me a small tug to lead me towards the stairs.

Swallowing, the fluttering expanded into full blown nerves. I tried to focus on studying the walls, on the familiar portraits of Charlemagne done in every style from Baroque to watercolor, but all I could think of was where he was leading me. I'd been inside Charlemagne's room before, but never under this particular pretense.

I paused in the doorway, my eyes skipping over the furniture to settle on the four-poster bed. Charlemagne gave my hand a gentle tug, pulling me into the room to shut the door behind us. "Abigail." He said softly, dragging my gaze towards him. "Your heart sounds as if it is trying to escape your chest."

Swallowing, I stared up at him, aware that my eyes had widened. "I have to tell you something." I breathed out, my voice cracking around the edges.

Concern darkened his brow as he crossed the short distance between us to take my face between his hands. His thumbs slid along my cheekbones. "Tell me." He said. "You look terrified, mon coeur. What's wrong?"

I leaned into his touch, my eyes searching his face. "I've never... I'm..." Heat scalded my face as I bunched my shoulders up around my neck.

Charlemagne's eyes warmed as he bent his head to kiss my mouth, his skin was still feverish. "I can teach you." He murmured, his lips trailing from the corner of my mouth to my jawline to my ear. "I can show you the depth of my knowledge. Let me please you, Abigail."

A shiver ran through my body as my lips parted, a sharp ache had started between my legs. "Charley." I breathed out, brows pinching as his lips dropped to my neck. His nose trailed down the center of my chest, one his hands dropped to pluck at my poorly tied bow, exposing the top of my cleavage. I nearly came undone when he kissed the space between my breasts. "Charley."

"Hmm?" He sounded out, finally lifting his face back to mine, the blue ring of his iris had become non-existent. Hunger had blackened his eyes. He didn't look like my Charlemagne. He looked like a predator. A shark scenting blood in the water. My blood. "Why are you looking at me like that?" He rumbled, baring his teeth as he straightened.

The sudden shift in his mood made me blink and take a step back. "Your eyes." I whispered, keeping my gaze on his face, afraid to look away.

Charlemagne cocked his head to the side, the movement was too fast, too disjointed to be human. He took a step forward and then was suddenly across the room searching his reflection in the vanity mirror. I whirled around to watch him, my heart thumping, as he brought his hands up to touch his fingers to his lower lids. "What's wrong?" I asked, hating how much my tone wavered.

"It is nothing." Charlemagne murmured, straightening again to stalk past me towards the door. "Stay here." He tugged his door open and started to step into the hall.

"Wait!" I called out, hurrying across the space between us to curl my fingers in the back of his suit jacket. "Wait, are we okay? What's wrong?" I asked again, slipping my arms around his waist to tuck myself against his back.

An exhale rippled through his body as he dropped his head back. "Of course we are okay, mon coeur. I seem to be struggling tonight and I am unsure why. I find that I am starving. I can smell your blood and your arousal and if I stay one moment longer, I will lose control." He rumbled, hunger deepening his voice. "I just need to feed, and then I will return to you." He promised, slipping his hands over mine. "You smell so good to me." Charlemagne sighed, bringing one of my hands to his face.

A hot shiver rolled down my spine as his lips trailed over the fleshy part of my palm. I curled my fingers against his abdomen, my lips parted when I felt a sharp sting against my hand. "Charley?"

He let go of me immediately, stepping out of the range of my arms. He kept his back to me. "I'll be back soon." He said and was gone.