"Don't pull this s.h.i.t with me, Tabitha. I'm pretty sure you and Darian were already quite familiar with one another." He started to leave and then he turned around. "The only difference is blood, isn't it?"

"It's none of your business." She quipped.

"That's where you're wrong and you're about to see how quickly the truth is going to set your little a.s.s on fire." He sneered.

Her brow creased and her lungs began to hurt with each sip of air. She felt like her heart was in the palm of his hand and he closed his fist around it to apply just the right amount of pressure.

"I want to see Natasha."

"Your sister isn't going to get you out of this mess. Unfortunately, Tabitha, I'm all you have and unless you start talking, I'm not sure what I want to do to help you."

Her eyes locked with his and her stubborn nature just came in and started kicking her a.s.s. Her will took over and her common sense flew straight to h.e.l.l. Heaven and earth would need to help Almonzo now because fury oozed through her blood and rage existed when she stepped from the dry bathtub.

Almonzo watched her. "Well?"

She stood in front of him. "Screw you!" Her blond hair framed her face and she moved rapidly to get away before he caught her around the waist and brought her back against his chest.

"I told you-"

Without warning, she drew back and smacked the s.h.i.t out of him. "I don't give a d.a.m.n what you told me, Almonzo Spenser. You are one arrogant a.s.s and if you think because I f.u.c.ked you that I'll take your s.h.i.t, remember this whenever you have nothing but the wind to keep you chilled at night. A woman brought you into this world and a woman can sure as h.e.l.l take your sorry a.s.s out! Now move out of my way!"

Why he moved, she was not sure. She didn't back down from a fight but he didn't move over for a woman. The Spenser men loved their women but the truth always stared back at them. They were a bit chauvinistic.

Bit, h.e.l.l.

She marched forward to face more of the same. Tabitha looked around the room. Suddenly, it hit her. She didn't come to Las Vegas of her own free will and because she'd been brought against her knowledge, she didn't have her personal effects. What few personal items she had, she wore. The handbag she clutched did not belong to her. Almonzo picked it up at a gift shop while she slept the day before and she certainly didn't want anything he bought for her. She tossed it to the floor and then stepped over it.

"I'm a survivor." She said the words to rea.s.sure herself more than him before she confidently walked past the bed where she'd given herself completely to a man, a hardened vampire, she thought would love and protect her. Glancing at it for a second, she looked back at him and noted he watched her with concern now.

It didn't matter. It was too late.

She headed straight into the living room, where she came face to face with Darian Sabbat and three older men. All eyes focused on her, and the men stood to welcome her.

She glared at them one by one. Individually, she took her time lingering over the older men. They all looked like affluent individuals, elders.

The tallest one extended his hand. "You must be Tabitha."

She glared across the room at Almonzo once he joined them. "I was Tabitha. Tabitha Spenser. The best thing all of you can do now is forget you ever knew me at all."

Through moist eyes, she turned one final time and looked into a face ridden by the pain she'd placed there. "The best I can hope for is to never have cause or reason to find any of you in front of me again."

She quickly glared at Darian before she pa.s.sed by him too. He was sprawled in a chair, his legs gently splayed out in front of him and she easily saw how Almonzo might be jealous. Each man certainly possessed his charms.

"Tabitha, hate me all you like but leave here and you will not survive." Darian's voice didn't hold compa.s.sion necessarily, but it did sound out with a fair enough warning.

She sneered. "I may not want a Spenser but I will never settle for you regardless of what I have to do in order to survive."

And just like that, she walked away from it all.

Almonzo didn't try to stop her and the elders didn't have the capacity to care one way or the other. They weren't in love with her. His concerns over her fidelity and devotion slapped him with all of the reasons why he didn't try to restrain her.

He'd rather lose her altogether, let her run from all of them, than watch Darian Sabbat take her for his own. By force, he shared her once, but he would not allow her to spend her life with a Sabbat or face the possibility of Darian becoming a secondary feeding mate.

He ran his hand over his face before he glared at those staring back at him. Almonzo decided if he didn't have a ready audience, he might have enjoyed a good fit of anger. Tears existed for her but the heartache he brought her wouldn't measure against his own if he had to hand her over to another.

Almonzo stood at the window where he'd braced himself against her response earlier. His chosen statement was sharp and pointed. "Sabbat, if you go after her, I will hunt you down like the animal you are and I will gut you with your own poisonous spears."

Darian chuckled. "She's a piece of a.s.s, Spenser, nothing more than a simple tramp with a tight s.n.a.t.c.h."

Rage, deadly and dangerous, took hold of Almonzo and he threw himself at Darian, fangs showing as he held him in a chokehold against the cold marble floor. The untamed hissing sound filled the room as the vampires struggled against the weight and venom of one of their own. Punches were thrown and biting began. Displaced furniture tilted with the scuffle before decorative pieces crashed to the floor.

"Sabbat! Spenser! On your feet!" One of the elders called out to them with a powerful voice. His tone demanded compliance. "I won't ask twice!" The end tables and ornaments on them rumbled throughout the room before breaking into scattered pieces.

Almonzo snapped his fangs two or three times. "Next time, I'll spear your heart with my own teeth providing the means." He released him and sat down on an oversized chair in between two of the elders.

"I'll wait for you, Spenser." He chuckled. "Yeah, you'll find me right outside of my matrimonial bedroom." He sneered, smirked and then looked down at his feet appearing quite satisfied but the smug impression he offered disappeared. His jaw twitched and he looked back at the door Tabitha went out of before he glanced at the men who were undoubtedly interested in what he wanted to say.

Almonzo studied him closer. He cares for her. He wondered if Tabitha realized it or if she was truly repulsed by him.

Darian's mouth dropped in what presented a facade of sadness. He took a deep breath and then he spoke his mind. "She's going to die without you and you don't care. You claim her as your mate but yet you don't protect her. When she walked out of here, she left you behind but you had the power to stop her. You made a choice, Spenser, and it was the wrong one. Now, who will take the blood from her pretty neck when it begins to clot and thicken with her pain? Not you. Oh no, you'll let her die first." He addressed one of the elders then. "I'm not sure I can let that happen."

The silence engulfed the room. The labor of tortured breathing divided men from their anger but it seethed on deep into the skins of two vampires.

"You will go after her and bring her back." One elder looked at Almonzo and demanded action.

"Gladly." Sabbat set his jaw.

Another of their superiors spoke up. "She doesn't trust you, Darian. Almonzo will find her. He is the only one who will be able to convince her to come back here."

"She will not return and I will not force her," Almonzo said.

"You do not have a choice in the matter. We need her as one of the virgin brides and you have already marked her. Without her, you will not survive."

"Then I will cease to exist." Almonzo glared at Darian.

"Good. I will look forward to the day of your death so I can take her." Darian snickered and snarled all at the same time.

"Boys! Enough!" The elders often referred to the twenty-something year old vampires as mere boys. Why wouldn't they? Many of the panelists were several hundred years old.

Another one confirmed Darian's earlier acknowledgement. "And...Tabitha will not survive."

Almonzo snapped his head upward. There were several things about his new mating relationship that he didn't know because it was a new experience for him. Darian understood more about the requirements for the mated vampires and their brides because from what Almonzo understood, Darian was a secondary for a number of the women.

"She's a feeder, and surely you know about the secondaries, Almonzo." One of the elders questioned and behind it was a significant message. If Almonzo didn't bring her back, the panel would require Darian to do it.

"I know about them but..."

"There isn't a timeline. Once she has the bite, she has the need to be a feeding bride and she will not be able to survive if she's not with a vampire. She will die."

"Does she know?" Darian narrowed his gaze on Almonzo. "Of course she doesn't." He shook his head in disgust as he more or less answered his own question.

One of the leaders continued, "Most of the mortal women figure it out when they experience swelling in the area which was first punctured but it is typically days before they realize they have a true need for a vampire. If they've left our families, then they often have no other choice but to go away to die. It's a horrific-"

"I don't want to hear this." Almonzo stormed across the room. "I will not allow her to suffer because of me but I will not allow Sabbat to have her."

He snickered. "Spenser, you may not have a choice."

The chatter began between the three elders and Almonzo listened to everything they said. He hung onto each syllable spoken.

"Almonzo took her by default." One of the panelist spoke in favor of Darian.

"We decided one sister for the Sabbats and one for the Spensers. It was determined over a decade ago. Through these girls, the division of two families would soon be brought back together as one."

"Darian had his chance, he ruined it." One voiced his approval of Almonzo.

"Someone should've told Almonzo he needed to wait for final permission."

"She lived with them for three months. What the h.e.l.l did you expect?" His supporter confirmed he wanted Tabitha to remain with the Spensers. "And his father confirmed his visions. She was the appropriate life partner for Almonzo from the beginning."

The elder who opposed Almonzo continued. "This wouldn't have been an issue if we required our own to stay out of the casinos. If we didn't need to enforce order and respectability among our youth, the mating would begin between a mature mortal and a developed vampire. Here is where the problems lie."

"Let's just admit it. We made a mistake. Panelists in the east wanted a vampire bride, as did those in the west. We each chose the same bride for two young males. We had her sister and wanted to finish it. The left hand didn't know what the right hand planned."

The chatter rolled on between the three older men, who seemed to have forgotten they had an audience. While anger still existed between a Sabbat and a Spenser, the two focused their attention on the conversation exchanged.

Almonzo listened to the elders as they tried to determine the fate of one woman, his young bride. The more he heard them discuss her, the angrier he became. Finally, he wheeled his own argument. "d.a.m.n you. I agree with something I once heard. You play with us like puppets, pull our strings like madmen and then when everything goes to h.e.l.l, you throw up your hands and yes indeed, you cry foul. Bulls.h.i.t! It stops now."

The elders stared at him with disapproval. Almonzo's phone rang. He didn't excuse himself but instead answered it quickly.

"Yes, Tate?" He smiled as he listened to the information the Spenser custodian relayed. "Okay, I'll be there." He shut his cell phone and without a word to the elders or Darian, he walked to the bedroom. He disappeared behind the door. Once there, his eyes lingered on the bed. d.a.m.n, he already missed her. A dull ache gnawed at his soul. His eyes darted around the suite. There wasn't a trace of her belongings or his. He could go and know he didn't leave anything behind.

The more authoritative elder stood to stop him. "If you know where she is, you will tell us. We have to negotiate her desires and introduce her to the possibility of spending time with Darian should-"

Almonzo's eyes narrowed. "If you do this, I will demolish all you set out to destroy in me." His fiery temper threatened to take down an empire and he knew what kind of war he would wage on his own people. He did not care.

Darian seemed to antic.i.p.ate a final decision. No one went up against the wrath of a Spenser. Typically, Samuel Spenser ran the family but more and more, the hot-headed older twin held the family reins. Some feared him and those who weren't smart enough to sense his danger, loathed him. Darian hated the ground Spensers tread across and Almonzo returned the sentiment.

The elders looked from one to the next. Finally, the older panelist spoke. "She has your mark?"

Almonzo nodded. "And..." he glared back at Darian before he continued, "she says she is untouched by him."

"Is this true?" One of the men asked Darian.

Darian looked over his shoulder and then yawned.

"Did you or did you not mate with Tabitha at the Dark Castle of the Desert?"

The room fell quiet. Almonzo knew he made a terrible mistake revealing false information. He watched Darian shrug off his malice with one wave of his hand.

"You will be punished accordingly if you don't answer us now. Did you take her as your own or not?"

Gritting his teeth against revealing the truth, Darian finally spat the words at them. "She is his in blood. She's mine too in every other way that matters but he can certainly have her for life. h.e.l.l hath no fury by the time she gets done with him now."

"In every way that matters." Almonzo winced as he thought about sharing the woman he loved with a creature he hated. He recognized what was required now. He realized Darian would become her secondary and in their world, it meant a trilogy of ceremonies-one which included a consenting vampire bride.

"You'll need more than the luck of Vegas on your side now, Spenser." He began to laugh out loud. "You know about the ceremonies, I'm a.s.suming?"

Almonzo didn't respond.

"A woman like Tabitha will never agree to such exposure." Darian grinned. "If she does, I won't complain."

Almonzo's anger burned only hotter. He may have won the battle for her hand but he wasn't sure she would agree with old customs and allow him to keep it. Now, he just had to go to her and see if he would ever be worthy of winning her love because after hearing their choices, he didn't have the luxury of time on his side.

Three elders nodded their approval before one gave his verbal consent. "So it seems two separate mating events took place during one season and because of it, Tabitha will have a secondary chosen for her. Go find your bride, Almonzo. I hope you will be able to work out your slight differences before the trilogy of ceremonies begins. Darian, are we in agreement to get this over with as soon as possible?"

"I can hardly wait." He glared at Almonzo. "Don't worry, honey." He drawled, "I don't kiss and tell."

Before Almonzo bounced forward and took his best shot, another elder offered his parting words. "You will find Tabitha and meet with Darian at an agreed upon time. Please pa.s.s along our most sincere apologies to Tabitha. Perhaps if someone had bothered to explain ..."

"Somehow, I don't think Tabitha cares about you or your so-called apologies." Almonzo just hoped like h.e.l.l she would be willing to hear one from him.

Chapter 11

Almonzo heard her screaming as he approached the property. It didn't matter. She needed to give her little lungs a workout and then after exhaustion set in, he'd try to explain. It wouldn't hurt her to lose some of her rage before he slipped into his room with her. By the sound of it, she missed him. Her yelling told quite the tale.

"I hate him! I hate him! d.a.m.n it, someone open up! He's nothing more than an arrogant a.s.s! I'm sorry little Constance. I really am. I hate your brother! This is a grownup situation and I cannot stand him! I'll explain if you'll let me out! Tate? Are you out there? Unlock this door!"

Obviously, no one wanted to form an alliance with her.

He rushed in and kissed his mother on the cheek. "She misses me, I see."

Marion Spenser seemed amused. "Yes, I think so."

He then ran a playful hand through Constance's hair. "Sometimes grownups act so silly."

"She's not really acting grown up, Almonzo." She snarled her little nose and her cheeks puffed out when she pursed her lips. "In fact, she is starting to get on my nerves some."