Rylan howled in laughter, nearly falling from the chair as he tried to contain himself.

"I still think there might be something back at the Book Nook," Simeon insisted aloud, not caring in the slightest both his brothers had a very clear idea of what it was he actually wanted to do. "Not to mention none of us have really searched Gav's lodgings or office over there. I think there's plenty there to keep us all busy."

He could feel Clare rolling her eyes at him, yet he didn't care. He pulled her closer to his body, needing the contact.

"We'd better get moving," he said hoa.r.s.ely, moving his arm from around Clare's shoulder to hold her hand and pull her up next to him. "Lots to do," he said unconvincingly.

As he ushered Clare out, he felt Michael grab the scruff of his neck.

"Mike wants a word with him," Rylan said charmingly to Clare. "Let me show you to the front door."

Simeon gritted his teeth as Rylan gently took Clare's arm out from his grip and led her away from the chamber. Simeon turned to his elder brother and barely kept himself from snapping out at him.

"What?" he said peevishly.

"You're in heat?" Mike said, not really asking but confirming.

"Yeah, so? You already knew that." Simeon hadn't felt so juvenile and pettish since he was a tiny kid.

"That means Ry will be, if he isn't already."

Simeon thought back to the restlessness Ry had been feeling of late. "I bet he's close. It's been...different for me this time. That said, maybe I could sense Clare around, close by, and it altered the heat's effect on me. I really don't know."

Michael merely nodded. "Chances are I will be entering heat sometime soon too. As we were all born the year following Gav's heat phases, we are all roughly in sync with each other's phases. But I haven't been feeling any of its effects recently, so maybe I have a couple of months still to go."

Simeon merely raised his eyebrow. Michael was over a hundred and fifty years older than both himself and Rylan. Likely he had a lot more control over his heat phase. Still, he let Mike's comment slide.

"Maybe blowing off some steam with Ruthie is exactly what Ry needs," Simeon suggested, his mind diverted from Clare for the first time since he had laid eyes on her. "Not even he can push the investigator around. Ruthie won't take any of his s.h.i.t."

"I'm glad you found such a nice girl to close your Soul's Circle with," Michael said slightly out of the blue, "but maybe once we've found Gav we could sit down and get to know her a bit better? Ry is positively panting with curiosity."

"s.h.i.t, Mike," Simeon complained, not surprised at all that either of his brothers were able to tell he had completed his Soul's Circle, or the ritual. "I am having enough troubles keeping my hands off her as it is, I really don't want to be feeling jealous of the two of you as well."

Simeon glared at his brother when he laughed.

"I seriously doubt Ry would poach," Michael insisted, "but a bit of healthy flirting won't hurt you. Besides, you're obviously besotted with her, and she feels the same in response-it's clearly written all over the two of you."

Simeon merely grunted and headed out the door of the chamber they had been conversing in. He heard Michael chuckling as he followed behind. Simeon headed in the direction of the front door, his excellent hearing able to catch the playful, seductive tone from his twin.

"And I should trust you to do this for me?" he heard Clare say, disbelief dripping from every word.

"But of course!"

Simeon hurried as he heard the teasing, flirty tone in Rylan's voice.

"It's not as if-oh, h.e.l.lo there, Si. You have a wonderful woman here, bro."

Simeon wrapped an arm around Clare's waist, managing to smile at last when he felt her soft mental fingers brush across his mind. She wasn't feeling uncomfortable, he realized, she was just hot for him. Clare had been enjoying the byplay between herself and Rylan, but he felt his whole demeanor settle down when he realized she wasn't attracted to his twin, it was him she burned for.

He smiled at Rylan, and opened the door to the street.

"Go hara.s.s poor Ruthie, you schmuck," he said cheerfully, most of his anger and jealousy abated with that simple gesture from his woman. "And give her my best. We have stuff to do," he added with a warning stare.

He ignored the laughter from both his brothers as he led Clare from his lodgings and headed back in the direction of the Book Nook.

Chapter Twelve.

Meanwhile, in the Colonial Vampiric Library of Owa.n.u.s Planet Owa.n.u.s

Chandra Tripplen stood just inside the door of the ma.s.sive library. Ancient bloodstone surrounded her, its black stone depths creating the eerie and hushed sense of atmosphere she had never found elsewhere across the immense galaxy.

It was old-world gothic. Ancient in the literal sense. No one even knew of a time when the vampire library had not stood here, monument to the thirst for knowledge many vampires, particularly the more elderly kind, always seemed to have possessed.

The sense of hushed atmosphere, the scent of sacred knowledge hung heavy in the air. Chandra took a deep, cleansing breath, bringing the familiar, much-loved smell of the old stone and ancient texts deep into her lungs.

She loved this place, for a mult.i.tude of reasons, but all of them boiled down to nowhere else came close to giving her the same sense of "home" as she felt here. She felt safe within these learned walls. The sense of feeling protected, cherished here, as if she truly were just one piece of an enormous puzzle even the vampiric mind was too tiny to behold.

Chandra could feel her destiny inside this cavernous room.

She cast her eyes over the private tables, recognized a number of the vampires studying tomes and texts. Refusing to let go of the task at hand, she hunted throughout the room, searching and discarding vampire after vampire.

And then she found the man she had been following, chasing-intellectually speaking-for at least the last few hundred years.

She watched as Gavreel Montague ran an agitated hand through his shortly cropped brown hair. His dark brown eyes scanned the words of the volume in front of him so lightning-fast it hardly looked as if he were reading at all.

Chandra knew he was absorbing the words at a supernaturally fast pace, superior even to many of the more learned vampires present in this sacred place of knowledge. Knowing she now had time, as Gavreel did not look to be moving anywhere fast if the number of tomes surrounding him were any indication, Chandra leaned against the wall and released a huge sigh of relief that had been pent-up inside her for what felt like an age.

She had been hot on Gavreel's trail for most of the last few weeks, following him from research center to library around the galaxy. It was obvious he was on to something big, and she fully intended to either help him or force him to let her in on the deal.

Chandra had a very good idea of what it was Gavreel sought, as most of their antagonism sprang from the fact they sought the same sort of goals, the same style of knowledge. If Gavreel truly was after what she thought he was, she would do practically anything to make sure she helped with her own five credits and saw this through to the very end.

Chandra took her own sweet time to survey the vampire who had driven her to screaming point any number of times over the last few decades.

Chandra frowned in annoyance as she once again recounted the litany she nearly knew by heart now. Gavreel refused to listen to her postulations, often making a mockery of her in his own journal articles and papers. They had been clashing over the more public journals over obscure references as well as challenging each other over the theory of whence the Vampire came from for many a decade.

Yet still she studied what she loved and gave more and more evidence for her own views as the examples came to hand. She refused to back down to the more accoladed Gavreel Montague, simply because her theories, which were just as well supported as his, were less traditional.

Chandra had no idea why she bothered fighting with the vampire, why she seemed to get so hot under the collar at his barbs and dismissals in their papers. It merely seemed to her mind that this particular vampire got under her skin in a way no one else had been able to in her three hundred and eight years.

Chandra mused on the subject a moment, enjoying watching Gavreel deep in his text. It wasn't as if she had never enjoyed the compet.i.tive nature of other academics in their circles, nor was it as if she had some silly, juvenile need to prove herself to the vampire-nor anyone else, for that matter.

Yet for some reason, she so often found herself swearing at the walls or mentally casting daggers toward Gavreel Montague after reading one of his papers. She frowned, wondered what odd magic it was that he more than anyone could pierce her usual cool, calm and collected armor.

Mentally throwing off the odd train of thought, as well as the rising annoyance she felt for Gavreel, Chandra pushed herself off the wall. She straightened, and ran a hand over her skinsuit. She had traveled hastily here when she realized the true subject Gavreel had found and would be researching.

Chandra only had time to pack a brief bag of items, and had not even bothered to change out of her traveling skinsuit when she had disembarked from the ship. She had wanted to check with her own eyes Gavreel was indeed in the library, and now she needed to plot her next movements carefully.

Chandra stalked tall and proudly toward Gavreel, tired of her own thoughts, doubts and worries. She smiled wryly to herself as the vampire didn't even notice her arrival until she was a mere pace or two away from him.

She quickly cast her eyes over the volumes he was reading. Many of them she owned herself, as she felt certain he did as well. Her eyes narrowed. What had brought him all the way out here, when many of these texts were in his own library, and all the other texts she could see were quite easily found over all the shared information systems.

And then her eyes rested on the volume he had opened before him. Her eyebrows rose in astonishment and some of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place for her.

He has found the ancient text! The lost volume of The Ancient Civilizations of the Early Vampires!

Chandra felt her blood thicken and heat up. She felt a tingling deep inside her p.u.s.s.y and her mouth watered, her throat parched from a sudden hormonal and adrenaline rush only a huge discovery could give to her.

She felt certain her pupils had dilated. The knowledge she stood so very close to the rare, lost tome had a potent s.e.xual as well as intellectual effect on her.

"Chandra, following me around like a lost little girl again?"

For once in her life, Gavreel Montague's teasing didn't pierce her armor in the slightest. She suddenly had a much higher agenda than prodding the beast.

"Not in the slightest," she said, amazed how feathery and light her voice sounded. She cleared her throat and prayed he hadn't been able to notice just how deep-seated her reaction to his tome was.

"As I banked into the port, I recognized your ship, red-parked as usual. Instead of tattling on you like some stupid youth, I decided to track you down. I was heading here anyway, I needed the text on Luther Bejonal for the paper I'm in the middle of."

Chandra shut her mouth, embarra.s.sed to have given so much information away, even if it were only a half-truth. Her mind had turned to mush the moment she recognized the tome. From the surprised, wary look on Gavreel's face, he, too, must have noticed her unusual sharing of information.

"There's no way in the five h.e.l.ls-"

Chandra didn't even let him finish his sentence. She sat beside him, and laid a hand on his arm.

"Oh, PLEASE. Gav. You know I'm pretty much the only other scholar in the entire galaxy who could understand how important this tome could be."

Seeing him seemingly unmoved, Chandra thought quickly.

"Just let me read the dedication, and I swear I will leave you and not divulge where you are to anyone."

Chandra reeled back at the suspicious glare he sent her.

"How the h.e.l.l do you know about the dedication?"

Chandra laughed mirthlessly.

"Don't be obtuse. I might be over two hundred and fifty years your junior, but I am not some ignorant little child as you seem to believe. I know exactly what the dedication is supposed to be the map for. What will I have to do for you to let me view the tome?"

Both vampires stared warily at each other, refusing to budge an inch. Chandra knew she needed to play her cards just right here to not be left in the cold.

Off the top of her head, she couldn't think of anything she wouldn't do to view the tome, but knowing Gavreel, he would pick the one thing certain to annoy the s.h.i.t out of her more than anything else.

The minutes ticked by, excruciatingly slowly, and still Chandra refused to back down. She knew sooner or later Gavreel would realize she was as serious about this as she was about most things. Finally, Gavreel turned in his seat to fully face her.

"I want your oath you will do what I say."

Chandra frowned, needing more than his decree.

"Is that the condition, or what?"

"Partially, you are right. I know of no other scholar who would be as dedicated to this cause as you. You irritate me, annoy the h.e.l.l out of me, but you are one of the finest in our field. If I let you read the dedication-read the entire tome, for that matter-you must swear a blood oath to follow my orders."

Chandra frowned. It was not the worst he could have done, but it was close.

"Follow your orders regarding the quest, yes. I agree. A blanket statement like follow your orders could have heinous repercussions in a blood oath."

Vampires could make or take blood oaths. The person making the oath slit a vein. The person to whom the oath was made drank from the cut then healed it. Both parties recited ritual words, explaining the oath and its conditions and limitations.

The oath was also utterly unbreakable.

Chandra thought through her options, and realized she didn't have any if she wanted to read that dedication. The knowledge she didn't have a choice and would certainly make the blood oath took a lot of the stress away from her.

Mentally she shrugged, it wasn't as if this was the worst thing he could have asked for. And the bonus of answering some of her own, most intensely private, personal and desperately wanted questions was something she had never truly thought she would have the chance to answer.

"Stroke of luck I needed that volume, huh?" she said cheerily, not wanting to say the words just yet. Wanting to feel free and safe just a moment or two longer.

"Lucky for you, maybe," Gavreel replied without any heat or sting, but still seemingly wary.

Chandra glared at the elder vampire and then stuck her tongue out at him. Did he have to be such a stick in the mud all the time, dammit?

"If you truly did not need help then there's no way you would have offered this, Gavreel," she said, hoping she didn't sound petulant. "Are your lodgings open? Let's borrow whatever you need from here and head back there. I refuse to do a blood oath out here in the Colonial Library. Particularly since I have the feeling the topic of the oath might be a tad sensitive."

When Gavreel merely nodded and began to gather his tomes, handing her a few extra to carry, she remained silent. His not rising to her bait merely confirmed there was far more afoot here than a simple quest, even one as monumental as finding and proving the origin of their species.

Chandra looked about the library, breathing in the wisdom of the ages, and tried to gain some of the knowledge encased in the huge room via osmosis.

If nothing else, she'd need every iota of brainpower to make sure she wasn't royally screwed in the blood oath she would be taking before the night was over.

Chandra watched as Gavreel scanned the lasers of the texts he required and then stood next to him as he nodded to her. Walking next to each other, Chandra and Gavreel left the sacred hush of the library and headed down the crowded streets toward his lodgings.

Chapter Thirteen.

Simeon shut the door with a most forceful slam and leaned against it with a huge sigh of relief. Clare had to giggle at his almost comedic expression of mingled hunger, impatience and relief.