Blood and Destiny by Kaye Chambers Page B

turned on his heel and strode toward the stairs leading to the exit, leaving the rest of us to follow. Luke closed the distance and was a warm heat against my back. It took some effort not to look at the stairwell at the front door to see if the impish child was still watching.
    Breathing in a deep breath of cool night air, I veered away from the vampires toward Luke’s car.
    After Marcus’s show of temper, I wasn’t about to be stuck in a car with him. Luke might drive like a maniac, but he was the lesser of the two evils.
    “Where are you going?” Marcus’s question didn’t slow my stride.
    “We’re going to follow you so try not to dust him off your seats before I have a chance to talk to him, okay?”
    “Destiny…”
    I kept walking and he didn’t push. Maybe he knew he was on thin ice with me and was being good. I was more inclined to believe he wanted to question the errant vampire without me in his way, though.
    Luke stepped around me to open the car door and I managed not to glare at him. Where, exactly, had he been while Marcus was being all dangerous-vampire-bent-on-murder? I waited until he slid behind the wheel before pursuing the topic. And they say I had no patience.
    “Were you going to let him kill the man?”
    “You had everything well in hand.”
    The engine started and he seemed totally unfazed by anything that had gone wrong in the last half hour.
    “Gee. Thanks for the backup, buddy. Way to be the muscle I thought I was taking in with me.”
    He pulled the car out of the parking spot and followed the black limousine. At my jibe, he slanted me a terse look and appeared to consider his words before he spoke.
    “Destiny, think about it. Marcus is a vampire powerful enough to maintain a firm hand over his tribe while letting them operate more freely than any other tribe I’ve ever seen. We could slug it out, but that wouldn’t have helped you because it was way too public. I’m not a fan of dying to keep a vampire king’s reputation intact, thank you. Besides, he was brewing for a fight and he didn’t come after me for the same reason. If we’d gotten to blows, one of us wasn’t walking away.
    So, he picked a fight with someone he had a real grievance with other than personal jealousy.
    Putting myself between him and how he manages his safe houses would have been enough reason for him to make an example out of me.”
    “You talk like you don’t think you can win.” I didn’t mean it as an insult and he didn’t take it as one. His laughter teased my skin while he settled deeper into the seat as if he had been gearing up for a fight and I’d surprised him out of it.
    “The man was born in an age where warfare and hand-to-hand combat were taught from the

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    cradle. I’m a realist. Fighting him with no-holds-barred? Only has one outcome and it’s not in my favor unless he’s feeling suicidal. Vampires that old always think they’re in the prime of their lives.
    They usually aren’t looking for a nice lion to put an end to them.”
    “I’m surprised your ego can take that kind of logic.”
    He glanced at me with a hint of the teasing grin I was coming to like. Well, honestly, the entire lion was beginning to grow on me.
    “Don’t get me wrong, Destiny. I think you’re the best thing I’ve seen in a really long time, but I’m secure enough in my own appeal not to pit myself against impossible odds to impress you. At this point, you’ve made up your mind as to how far this is going to go and are just playing the game.”
    “Why would you say that?” His analysis surprised me. I hadn’t reached any such conclusion, but he didn’t need to know that.
    “Because, unlike you, I was raised in a pride. The one thing you can count on with young lionesses is that they can string a male along until they have him right where they want him.”
    The way he said it gave me a clue so I guessed. “You have