Chapter 11

Leandro

I had been in the hotel room Anais was using as her base of operations once already tonight, but I was soon in there again with her. This time I was waiting as she gathered up what she wanted to keep and take to my room.

There were quite a few well made blades that I encouraged her to keep. After that I didn't interfere at all. Being in a place where her smell was so strong had me thinking of enjoying her body again.

While we had been out of the hotel I had kept my hands to myself despite my desires. Finding one of her friends had also been killed had changed her mood and made her very quiet and thoughtful. It was understandable. Someone was hunting her as much as they were hunting Ludis and it was a scary thought.

Still, she appeared to be taking it reasonably well and was focusing on the task at hand. Packing up all her stuff to take to my suite.

Once it was all safely stowed, I would take her down to the private rooms we had downstairs and we would begin trying to get her to accept her new role as my enthralled. I knew there was some risk in going down to Ludis so soon, but I also knew that I should have checked he was safe before now.

Anais took several more minutes to cram what was left of her supplies and weaponry into the small rucksack and close it back up again.

When she was done and it was sitting on the bed, I frowned. She had packed barely any clothing and I had gotten the impression that this truly was pretty much everything she owned. It was a pitifully small amount of possessions and already had me trying to work out how we would get her some more decent clothing.

She was wearing one of the only sexy outfits she owned and the only reason she looked good enough to be beside me in it was because of the fit body it clung to. It was a problem I was going to rectify. And I would need to get her some suitcases. I couldn't have an enthralled that I was serious about showing off wearing the same outfit regularly.

I made a mental note to sort it out the next moment I got, even if I had to have some clothes options brought to the hotel for her before we left. This was important.

"Let's take that to my suite and then go find Ludis and the rest of the vampires I'm meant to be part of," I said, motioning for her to pick up the rucksack.

She hesitated, making me frown.

"What is it?" I asked, fearing that she was going to let her emotions get the better of her and cry or whine.

"Nothing really. Just seems like this is going to not appear very like an enthralled." She looked up at me. "And I'm not sure I want to leave all this somewhere I don't know.

"You can have a key to the suite and you have my word that I won't touch anything in there. I'm not a monster."

She chuckled as she finally picked up the rucksack. "A lot of other people would say otherwise."

"They'd be more wrong than you'd think. Some are, but a lot of us have lived too long to want to fight over much or scare anyone in particular."

Although I considered offering to take the bag from her, I didn't and simply took her hand again instead. We hurried up to my suite which was much higher up the hotel and I let her inside. Her eyes went wide in her head as she strode in and took in every bit of the luxury I commanded.

After placing her bag down on the edge of one of the sofas she went over to the window where she could look down on a significant portion of the city.

"It all looks so small from up here," she said. "So many people going about their lives not knowing the level of danger around them."

I followed her until I was standing closer behind her and slipped my arms around her waist. Feeling my body respond to the warmth of her pressed against me, I didn't hide the erection it caused.

She tried to shift, but I held my grip firm. "You're going to need to get comfortable with my desire for you."

Although she opened her mouth to reply no words came out. I ran my hands up her body until I was cupping her breasts for the first time. She didn't try to wriggle away this time and my hardness grew, pressed against her ass.

I wanted her and considered lifting her skirts and taking her from behind right here in the window. Duty still called, however.

"You feel good and I'm going to enjoy doing even more with you later, but for now just get used to knowing I will touch you. And it won't matter if we're alone, or if anyone sees. In fact I'll enjoy people watching me do things to you, wishing they could be doing it too.

She inhaled sharply as I pinched her nipples through the thin fabric of her clothing. I twisted them a little, knowing it would hurt her.

"Your pleasure and your pain belong to me now. Your whole body, and your every moment. I'd say you need to act like you enjoy this but I can smell your arousal. I know how wet you must be."

I leaned in toward her neck again as one hand went lower and reached between her legs. It didn't take me long to lift the front of the dress enough to get my hand between her thighs. I could feel her pussy dripping through her panties and I chuckled as she involuntarily flexed her hips to press herself against my hand.

With that I let go of her and backed up, taking away every bit of contact between us. She let out a soft moan and turned to try to pull me back in. As I chuckled again, I put even more distance between us.

"Come on. We have places to be." I grinned to myself, pleased with the result of the night, even if it hadn't gone according to her plan.

It took her another fraction of a second to recover from all of the teasing and then she followed me out of the suite. I took her hand again before we descended to the casino lobby. I was about to go to the main area where we had spent the early evening and look for Ludis when I caught his scent in the air.

He had clearly been up to the lobby and hotel clerk area, which was unlike him. Normally, he had me to handle travel arrangements for him and he barely had to think about it, but it appeared as if this was a moment where he had dealt with something himself.

I took Anais with me as I tried to trace the unhelpful vampire to his final destination. The trail was too fresh for me to think this wasn't recent. Ludis had done this while we had been gathering belongings and taking Anais to my suite.

To my dismay, his scent took us all the way to the parking lot where all but one of the cars was gone. The butch vampire was standing there, leaning against the only one that remained near mine.

"Wondered when you would bother to show up. Ludis has gone." The vampire stared at Anais as if he was unsure where he had seen her before.

"I'm still looking into the shooter and I have proved that my enthralled isn't a threat to us. She isn't a hunter." I smiled as if all this should have been obvious. It didn't matter if it wasn't the perfect opportunity to introduce Anais as mine, it was very much about the situation with Ludis, but if he was gone there wasn't much more I could do.

"Do you know where he went?" I asked, hoping that the meat shield would respond, but he didn't, only smiled, smug and clearly not intending to tell me anything.

After a few seconds he folded his arms across his chest and looked at me as if I was an amusing ant that he couldn't wait to step on. It took all my self control not to use my full strength to do something I might regret later. Rearranging his face didn't seem like a solid option.

"Come on, man. I'm meant to be taking the new enthralled to meet him and part of the team to keep Ludis safe. I can't do that if I don't know where he is." I tried to act like this was just an inconvenience and nothing to worry about but it was clear Ludis was now suspicious of me as well.

"Where were you when the boss needed you an hour ago."

I frowned and glanced toward Anais, hoping the dumb brute would get the hint that I was bonding in a new enthralled, but he didn't pick up on it.

"I was bonding," I said, hoping not to elaborate further.

"When the boss needed you."

"I was making sure he was protected and she wasn't a hunter like he feared." It was sort of the truth and this did make the brute relax a little finally.

"Well, he's gone back to the usual turf. And he didn't want everyone to know where it was."

"Fine. Write it down for me and I'll go meet him there." I shook my head as if I was more irritated than I was. The more offended I appeared by this the better. I should be trusted and I should be hoping to be in the circle of vamps around Ludis.

The brute looked between my and the enthralled a few times, but Anais only smiled back and leaned in closer to me as if she was very much part of the package now. I reached around and stroked her cheek again, showing her affection for now and just affection.

Not sure what else to do, the brute wrote down the destination for me on a piece of paper and handed it over. It was a port in Italy where we could get on a cruise ship.

I noticed that there wasn't a long time until the cruise boat left and we were going to be cutting it close to get there in time. I certainly wasn't likely to have time to get a private plane or anything that would allow me to be alone with Anais and properly fill her in, but there was almost certainly likely to be some first class tickets on one flight or another.

As I hurried away, Anais in tow, I took her back up to the suite.

"We need to pack and get in the air quickly," I told her on the way. You'll have to go to the airport dressed as you are and we'll get you some clothes on the other end."

"Get me some clothes?" she replied, struggling to keep up as I strode down the corridor and away from the elevators.

I didn't respond to that, thinking through what we had and what we would need.

"Please tell me that you have a passport and know where it is?" I said as we came up to the suite door.

"Yes. It's in the ruck."

"Good. I'll need the details to book flights. I need you to help pack my belongings. There isn't a lot and I'm mostly packed, but every minute could matter."

She nodded and gulped again, but she cooperated, heading to her ruck where she pulled out her passport. When I went to take it, she hesitated.

"I will give it back. You have my word. A vampire would normally keep their enthralled's passport, but I understand that you will want this and need it."

"Thank you," she replied, but it still took her a moment longer to let go of it and let me take it.

The reluctance was understandable, but as soon as she had decided to do it, she hurried to the bedroom and began packing my clothes up for me.

She clearly had skill and practice in packing up quickly, but also neatly and with little space to work with. While I booked a flight I thought we would be able to make, she grabbed everything, bringing out my suitcases as each one was filled.

Not once did she ask me a question, but every time I glanced her way she was putting options in sensible places.

By the time I had flights sorted, two first class tickets on my phone, she had all our luggage waiting for us. I grabbed the largest suitcase as she put her rucksack on her back.

I pulled out my passport and showed her that I was putting the two together in my pants pocket where it would remain safe.

Within another half an hour we had checked out of both of our rooms, the bill covered by me for both of them, and we were in the back of a taxi together.

It wasn't going to be long before sunrise either and I knew that it would be important to be in the air before that happened. There weren't many flights that set out at this time of the day, especially going the direction we wanted, but there were always a few open to people with enough money.

Our driver had clearly had enough of Vegas tonight and wasn't very chatty, but that wasn't a problem for us. Anais also didn't say much, no doubt shocked by the suddenness of this. She had thought she was doing a normal hunter mission tonight and now she was enthralled and being rushed to an airport to fly to Europe.

I also hadn't told her exactly where we were going or what to expect, but I knew there would be time for that once we were on the plane. She stuck close to me at the airport as well, but she knew enough of flying to be independent through security and use her passport to scan through all the different checkpoints.

Only once we were at the gate did she break the closeness, letting me know she was going to buy some water and a snack to keep herself going.

Without hesitation I reached into a pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. "Get whatever you need and bring it back."

She didn't take it at first. "This is going to take some getting used to."

"I'm paying for everything from now on. That's part of the deal."

"Thank you," she said again, the genuine gratitude on her face and in her voice more rewarding than I had thought possible.

I watched her sway her hips as she went to the nearest airport shop that sold some convenience foods and snacks she could enjoy. Still in the figure hugging dress from earlier she was drawing stares not just from me but other people as well and it made me grin.

It wouldn't be long now before I would enjoy her body as I wished.