CHAPTER SIX

A ri lay dozing beside Sage, wondering what the hell he was still doing here. He should be on his way home, and yet he hadn’t moved.

The truth was, he liked the feeling of her lying on his chest and the way her little fingers were gently, even in sleep, drawing little circles on his chest.

Light from the living area bled through into the bedroom. He intended they turn off and darkness replaced the light. Ari was the only vampire capable of telekinesis, and no one knew he could do it. At least, not since Giorgio had died a thousand years ago.

Ari lifted his arm and checked the time on his watch. It was two in the morning. He had work to do, and it was important he get back to The Institute even if Sage’s warm soft body was where he wanted to stay.

He couldn’t remember feeling like this before.

It’ll pass. It always does.

As he slid out of bed, Sage wriggled and pulled a pillow to her chest as a replacement.

Ari retrieved his clothes from around the house and quickly dressed. He threw his jacket on the arm of the sofa and made his way back into Sage’s bedroom. He stood on the side of the bed and stared down at the little human with her auburn hair splayed over the pillow.

She was deliciously naked under the covers, and while he’d already tasted every inch of her, he found himself wanting more.

He should just leave.

Instead, he nudged the covers and sat down, slipping his hand underneath until he found her legs. Sage mumbled and he leaned closer, gently touching his lips to hers. Then he nudged her legs apart.

“Amungishung,” Sage muttered as he circled over her clit. Her eyes flickered open and then abruptly pressed closed as he slipped a thick finger inside her. “Ohgoddd.”

Thumb and finger going, he took her mouth in his and greedily fucked her with his hand until she cried out.

Sliding out, he sat up slightly and licked her juice from his fingers. “Sage, you have a delicious pussy.”

She tipped her head into the pillow and turned on her side, smiling, looking like a woman completely and utterly pleasured. His chest filled with what he could only assume was pride.

Weird.

“Are you leaving now?” she asked softly.

“Yes, I have to go,” Ari said, and the vulnerability in her eyes touched a part of him he was rarely aware of. “You were simply beautiful.”

He was waiting for the usual questions, the phone number swap, the anger when she realized this was it. And none of them came.

Instead, she smiled at him.

“Thank you. I never thought I could do that, not in a million years. You were both amazing. I will treasure the memory.”

He stared at her as a chill brushed over his skin.

“And the orgasms.” She grinned.

Ari frowned. Sage wasn’t the kind of girl to sleep with a man and happily watch him walk away. He wasn’t buying it.

Or was he the one having trouble leaving?

Jesus.

He ran a thumb over her cheekbone, then walked to the door. In a few steps, he would teleport back to the Institute and never see her again.

Never?

Never was a long time. If anyone knew that, he did.

“Goodbye, Sage,” he said, and they both gazed at each other across the room for a long moment before he turned and left.

ARI STRAPPED ON HIS watch and then took another look in the mirror. Yep, he looked the same as he had for over fifteen hundred years.

Roughly.

He’d started his life as a human and had never been able to shake the unnatural sense of living so long and not aging.

For natural-born vampires, it was normal. They grew up watching those around them age until their thirtieth birthday, when they were classed as a mature vampire.

Aging did happen, but damn slowly.

Like really fucking slowly.

They called themselves immortal, but they weren’t.

Vampires could die.

Step out into the sun and you were toast. Burned toast. Removing the head was quicker and less painful. A stab to the heart sat somewhere in between.

He’d never contemplated taking his life. Ever. Until recently.

Ari felt he had done his time, but life without a mate after fifteen hundred damn years was asking a lot. He didn’t want to live another five hundred, let alone a thousand years alone.

There wasn’t exactly anyone he could talk to about it. He’d found over the years that most vampires, mated or otherwise, got to around their millennium birthday and began to make exit plans.

Eternity was overrated.

He’d hoped to meet his mate and one day create his own line of Moretti’s. Giorgio and Frances, he knew, had held a deep fear he would challenge them in their position of leadership. It was why his existence had been kept quiet and eventually so silent even the current king had not known who he was.

Now he did.

Ari had gone to Italy after his head assassin, Ben, had gone AWOL over his mate, and re-introduced himself.

They had known him as the commander of the royal army—a position he’d held for many centuries before they had been born. He’d trained his nephews, Vincent and Brayden Moretti, even when they only knew him as Ari.

Just Ari.

Not Ari Moretti.

It was only the power of the Moretti blood that had convinced them he was family.

King Vincent wanted to know if he was a threat—he’d seen it in his eyes—but Ari wasn’t interested in discussing that with him. His focus was on ridding the world of any threats to vampires, and then he’d go on his merry way into the sun.

At least that’s what he’d thought.

Ari wanted to see another sunrise and feel the heat on his skin. The last time he’d felt it had been 522AD. At best, he’d probably get twenty minutes before it painfully—he assumed—turned him to dust.

An image of sitting next to Sage on the beach as the sun rose flashed before his eyes.

The hell?

Okay fine, so he hadn’t completely stopped thinking about her all morning. And yes, he had already jerked off. But hell, he could still taste her on his tongue.

It wasn’t like she was the first female to capture his attention over the many years, so he wasn’t going to fall into that old she’s my mate myth. She was simply a sexy-as-hell little kitten who was unaware of her allure.

The mixture was intoxicating.

Ari had long ago accepted there was no mate for him. He yelled and begged at the God who had created him and promised him a mate, and who remained silent.

At times, he sounded like a childish brat. He’d screamed, asking why Gio had lived such a rich life full of love and family when he’d endured such loneliness.

Ben had asked him once why he had never resisted his brother’s request to hide his identity. Hindsight was a great thing.

Ari had questioned himself over and over until he turned himself inside out.

It didn’t make him wrong or right.

It didn’t make his brother wrong—hell, Ari had often wondered if he would have done the same thing.

Every time he landed on the same answer: no.

At the heart of it, Gio had feared he was more powerful, and he was right. Ari had always been the alpha of the two, but he was also respectful of his brother. It was his bloodline. He had no interest in taking that away from Gio.

If only Gio had been secure in his own power and leadership and seen there was space enough for both of them in this world.

Fortunately, in some ways, he had never mated during those first one hundred years to populate his own bloodline. God only knows what would have happened if he had. Would the two of them have warred?

It was a strong possibility.

By then, it was clear. If he’d tried to stake a claim, it would’ve been seen as treason. With no mate or reason to reveal his true identity, Ari had remained silent.

Not that anyone would be able to actually kill him.

Gio could have tried and was likely the only vampire ever capable of succeeding due to their undiluted original Moretti blood. It was possible he would have overpowered him and then what? Kill the king? His brother?

No. That was never his desire or goal.

So, he had remained silent.

Over time, baby Frances had grown into a fine king, mated, and had his own sons, Brayden and Vincent. Gio had passed his fears down to Frances, who had all but eliminated Ari’s existence as a Moretti.

He held the title of captain of the army, which allowed him to spend time with his family, even if they didn’t know he was their uncle.

Right up until the day he had left.

Ari had roamed the earth aimlessly until he’d settled in the United States and created The Institute. It had been a gift giving him a purpose and place to be recognized for who he truly was, even if only by a trusted few.

To everyone else, he was known as Ari.

Their customers only knew him as the director. Many of them were leaders in top global positions and those contacts were coming in handy since vampires had been exposed to the world.

And wasn’t that a huge fuck up?

It was something he and his brother had fought to protect since the moment they were turned vampire. They’d experienced firsthand how humans reacted to their existence, and it had been ugly.

As technology and science evolved, so did the atrocious opportunities for humans to literally pull a living thing to pieces to study it.

Fortunately, thanks to some fast thinking by Vincent Moretti, his social team had turned a media frenzy into a “fake news” campaign, almost shutting the whole thing down.

Almost.

In the shadows, small groups were still looking for proof. Fortunately, most people were calling them crazy conspiracy theorists. His team was keeping an eye on them. Sometimes they’d had to intervene.

That didn’t mean flying in with guns and killing them all. This wasn’t the movies. His team was made up of all kinds of skilled vampires. Assassins, yes, but also black ops, digital and technical guys, pilots, administration, engineers... it was a whole operation.

They got paid well for what they did by people who had all the money you could imagine at their disposal. And more.

Ari only worked for the good guys, but figuring out who the good guys were took a shit ton of research and access to stuff most people should never have access to.

But it was how his people did their job better than anyone else.

Ari had seen a lot of life over the past fifteen centuries and what he saw was a race of humans who had never learned from their mistakes and kept repeating them.

They posed a great risk to the vampire race.

Vampires had spent a long time living peacefully alongside humans, hidden, and Ari had watched as the age of communication developed, knowing their time was nearly up.

In Italy, he’d sat down with Vincent and shared what he knew about the situation. Yes, exposure was a big one, but in the shadows was a group of evil fuckers who needed to be stopped.

Ben had taken care of one of them: Diego Lombardo, the Italian president. He’d been a large investor and instigator responsible for experiments on over a dozen kidnapped vampires.

A few had been recovered; some hadn’t made it. Anna, who was now Ben’s mate, was one of the lucky ones.

Central to this group was a pharmaceutical company. No fucking surprise there—those assholes were mixed up in pretty much every bad thing going on around the planet, under the guise of healthcare.

Ari snorted.

Fuckers.

He was glad he wasn’t human.

A big focus for them right now was finding the main laboratory where they knew, or believed, they still held a single vampire. He had been the first, according to the intel his team had recovered, and they had reason to believe he was still alive.

Poor damn guy—he’d be fucked up if he was.

Or they could have dumped him outside into the sun. The thing about vampire bodies is they were easy to get rid of.

Ash disappeared into the wind.

Ari was determined to find him before he departed this earth himself. No human, or vampire, should be subjected to experimentation.

It was utter fucking evil.

Trust was low still between Ari and the royal family, but he hoped they could overcome that and work together on this common goal.

Today they were meeting via video conference to discuss their next steps. Ben, his former head assassin, was now working for the Moretti family, after he and Anna had decided to stay in Italy, so when the screen lit up it was his mug grinning back at him. He was head to toe in the iconic black Moretti uniform vampires around the world recognized and respected.

“Hey boss.”

“Not anymore. Where are the royals?”

“I’m here,” Brayden said, adjusting the camera so the rest of the room was visible. “Vincent’s on his way. Something about nappies and, yeah, I didn’t want to ask.”

Ari scrunched his nose. “No.”

The king and queen had recently welcomed a baby boy, the new prince, into the world. A celebration for the entire race, but it had been extra special to meet Lucas Moretti.

Ari never thought he’d meet his newest nephew when his birth was announced on VampNet, the secure vampire web, and he’d be lying if he said it hadn’t caused a big fucking lump in his chest.

Lucas was only the sixth pureblood Moretti to be born.

“You remember Craig,” Brayden, the other Moretti prince, said.

“Commander,” Ari said in greeting.

“Ari. Good to see you,” Craig replied.

“Christ, did you have cornflakes for breakfast? That was so polite I nearly fell off my chair,” Ben asked, mocking shock and surprise.

“I can knock you off if you like.” Craig sneered.

Ari smirked.

“Jesus. It’s not even midnight. At least give us a few hours before you two start,” Brayden said, shaking his head. “You want him back?”

“No,” Ari lied.

He’d take Ben back in a second. Not only was Ben the best assassin he’d ever had, but he was also extremely close to the young vampire.

But Ben had mated, and he would stay with his mate until his dying breath. Plus, the assassin life was no life for Anna or Ben now. They had a no-female policy at the mansion for that very reason.

“I’m here!” came the booming sound of the king. “Ari, sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Your Majesty.” He lifted his coffee to his lips. “How is the little prince?”

Vincent pulled up a chair and sat. Even though the male was no bigger, in fact marginally slighter than Brayden, Craig and Ben, he had a presence about him. He was a king, there was no question about it.

“Smelly,” he replied, bunching his lips. “I was not prepared for that side of fatherhood. Nor my queen insisting I take part in the resolution of said smell.”

Ari watched Brayden barely contain a grin.

“Anyway, where are we at?” Vincent said, giving the prince a sideways glance.

Ari placed his coffee on the desk and clicked the mouse to bring up a document on his second screen. His eyes flicked over the live data from his team. He’d been briefed, but things could change on a dime.

“Right now, we don’t know where Xander is, but that won’t last for long. We’re following a strong lead and have boots ready to go when we do,” he replied.

Craig then shared some of the data their team had begun to decipher after the raid on the pharma executive’s house.

“We think we might have a location, but the details are shaky,” Craig said.

“My team can follow it up if you send me the details,” Ari said, taking notes.

“Anything you can find would be helpful,” Brayden replied. “However, Craig and I are heading back to the United States with a crew, so we’ll check in when we land.”

Ari frowned.

“Back to Maine?” he asked. The Moretti’s had built an enormous castle in the late nineteenth century where they had lived until last year.

“No. We’ll be in your neck of the woods,” Brayden replied. “Washington State. The location we have is in Seattle.”

Shit.

“The labs are here?” he asked.

“Potentially,” Craig replied, nodding.

“Right under our fucking noses.” Ari scowled. “Well, that will save on fuel, I guess.”

Craig snorted.

BioZen had offices and laboratories all over the world, so he’d known there was a Seattle location, but there had been nothing to indicate it should be on their radar. He’d thought they were simply offices. Admin shit.

“Do you need accommodation?” Ari asked, surprising himself. He’d hidden his existence from the Moretti family for over four hundred years and here he was inviting them for a sleepover.

Having the Moretti prince stay in The Institute’s mansion might cause a stir, but his vampires were all highly trained and used to working in the highest levels of confidence.

“Thank you, but we have a property close to you. It would be great to check out your operation, though,” Brayden said. “Ben still won’t tell us a fucking thing.”

Ben shrugged.

Ari expected nothing less.

“That’s why he was the best.” Ari smiled.

“Hey, I’m not dead. I’m still the best,” Ben said, mocking offense.

“Debatable,” Craig added, deadpan.

“Anyyyway... I’ll be heading to DC,” Vincent said. “To meet with POTUS and the other members of Operation Daylight.”

The king had shared basic information about the project team, which had been set up to prepare for the inevitable exposure of vampires to humans. It was all the high-level paperwork and legal shit Ari couldn’t stand.

Like Brayden, Ari was a hands-on soldier and left all that legislative stuff to the kings. He knew it was important; it just wasn’t his thing.

He’d much rather be swinging a sword.

“I still think this is a bad time to travel,” Craig said. “I’m not sure if it’s safe, my lord.”

“Then make it safe. That’s your job, Craig.” Vincent stood and slapped him on the shoulder. “I have complete faith in you.”

Brayden and Craig shared a glance.

“I’ll leave you with my team, and the prince, to nut out the details and perhaps I will swing by on my way back to Italy,” Vincent said, as Craig ran a hand over his face.

“Nice to see you again, Your Majesty. It would be my honor to host you if you find yourself in Seattle,” Ari said. “You are all welcome at The Institute.”

Vincent disappeared from the screen, and he heard the door click.

Craig leaned forward and looked him dead in the eye through the screen. “Ari, can you send a team to spec out DC before he gets there? We have guys on the ground, but they’re not our senior crew.”

“No problem. Ben, link up with Jason and brief him to send a team. He’ll run it past me, and I’ll approve it,” Ari said.

“Got it,” Ben replied, tapping on his smartphone.

“Update me when it’s done,” Craig instructed the new senior lieutenant commander, or SLC.

“Yes, sir,” Ben said.

While the two vampires wound each other up, Ari had no doubt Ben was very clear where those boundaries were and acted professionally when it came to the important stuff.

Ari missed working with the powerful vampire, but Oliver was an excellent replacement. He’d worked with Ben for many years and was a highly skilled assassin and respected teammate.

It was a reminder he owed Oliver an explanation for last night. Ari just wasn’t sure he had one yet.

When the call ended, Ari leaned back in his large executive chair and spun away from his desk, looking out into the night sky full of stars. Soon the sun would rise, and Sage would start her day.

Would she be sore?

A smile began to form on his lips.

Would she feel regret or shame? He hoped not. She had been incredible. A desire to see that blush on her cheeks again rushed over him.

He let out a long breath.

A female invading his thoughts when he was working wasn’t normal. He had to admit it. Sage had gotten under his skin.

He felt this nagging sense he’d opened her up and left her vulnerable. He wanted to know she was okay with what they had done. Watching her with Oliver had been sexy as fuck, but the moment she had come, a protectiveness triggered within him.

He’d never felt that way before.

No, it wasn’t protectiveness, although that was there. It was possession.

The words on the tip of his tongue were foreign to him, but Sage was his, and he wasn’t happy about sharing her.

Oliver had been wise to leave fast and not ask any more questions.

And yet Ari had also left her.

Sage would carry on with her life, and date, fuck and marry eventually. Some man would spread her legs and use his tongue on her wet sweet flesh that had felt like it belonged to him.

Ari gripped the arms of his chair and the metal bent.

Fuck.

Matteo, his assistant, would have to order him another one. Or he’d get Alice to do it. They had both worked for him for a long time and wouldn’t blink an eye.

“Fuck!” Ari refused to go down the path of wondering if Sage was his mate. Not again. He just fucking wouldn’t.

He’d done it dozens of times, only to be disappointed. Each one harder and more painful.

No.

He’d made his decision. He was departing this world when the current danger for his race was over.

In the meantime, perhaps he could spend some more delicious time with Sage, enjoying her body and sharing carnal pleasure.

The trouble was, she didn’t seem interested beyond the one night.