“Damn it, you’re such a pain in the ass.” Why did that make her want to kiss him? What the hell was the matter with her?
“I’ve always had this ability and, consequently, this need, to solve mysteries. When I hear something and it’s not quite right, it makes my head hurt. A genuine throbbing pain in my temples. Evidently, dying and becoming Undead did not relieve me of this problem. The good news is I can usually sort it through, figure out what is happening. It’s what I have to do here. Your brother holds a piece to this puzzle, and I need to know what it is.”
“George.” She took her hand from his. He’d been right; she had no fear of him, but her hackles were back up. Fear? No. Frustration and anger? Oh, hell yeah. “You write fiction. Unless I missed something on your website,” and, yes, she had looked at it. “You haven’t been solving true crimes anywhere. The police are not calling you to find serial killers.”
He laughed and she fumed. The bastard had the audacity to find something amusing in this? “I can promise you this is a very real thing. Finding the truth in the midst of chaos is something I can do. Your brother is a missing element. I might be wrong. He could be as much a victim in this as you. We’ll see. James will be careful. Devin won’t get into trouble based on anything he’ll do. Trust me, he’s been sneaking around a long time.”
She didn’t want to know exactly how long. The fact that she would, in fact, age and die while he stayed at the peak of physical perfection bothered her when she thought about it, which was why she spent a great deal of time not focusing on the aging issue.
“You should have talked to me about this.” She shook her head. “You overstepped. This is my brother, and I don’t know why you thought it okay to do anything in regards to him without discussing it with me first.”
George fell silent for a second. “There are some things I don’t do well.”
“Obviously.” She raised her eyebrows. “This would be an example of bad.”
“Yes. Right.” He rubbed his eyes as if they hurt. “I don’t know how to argue well. I’m an only child. I’ve always been very good at expressing what I think. As a child, I could charm every adult in the room. But my lack of siblings meant I had no idea what to do when my peers got angry with me. I have a tendency to slash and burn when a slap of the hand would do the job.”
She tried to digest what he said. “And you’re used to doing and getting what you want.”
“For the most part. I did ask you out nine times. Does that seem like a guy used to taking no for an answer?”
She laughed, despite herself. “True. But this is my brother. I actually get how sibling relationships work. I know how to argue without saying things I can’t take back. You crossed a line. This is my brother.”
“Right.”
She waited for the sorry. George pulled the car out into traffic. Trudy continued to wait. And wait.
The four hours back home took a very long time.
They pulled up to his house slowly. He wouldn’t look at her but continued to stare straight down the street. They had an hour before sunrise.
“So I guess this is it.” His voice sounded choked. “Please be careful out there.”
It took her a second to realize what he’d said. “Oh, George. Seriously? Go fuck yourself.”
She slammed out of the car. He was done with her? Because she had dared to object about one thing he had done that had crossed a very big line? Well, screw him and the horse he came in on.
“Trudy.” He called after her a second before his hand came over her arm. “Stop.”
She wouldn’t let him see her cry. Somewhere deep inside, she must possess an ounce of pride to sustain her until she got away.
“Let me go, George. I’ll be careful out there, and you can forget you ever met me.”
“Trudy. Stop.” George growled, and she looked up at him. The gaze meeting hers spoke of pain and confusion. “Isn’t this what you want? You told me I crossed a line.”
“You did.”
He nodded. “And it’s unforgivable and you’ll want to go.”
“How did you make such a leap? It's worthy of an apology and maybe some make-up sex. I don’t want to not forgive you and leave.”
George dropped her arm. “Have I completely misread this situation? You said nothing for four hours.”
“I wanted an apology. And, I might point out, you didn’t say a word to me for four hours when we drove to Dallas.”
“Trudy.” He closed his eyes for a second. “I’m bad at this.”
“Clearly.” She sighed loudly. This would have all been amusing if it were happening to someone else. “Let’s start over. George, you did something dumb. I mean, way stupid. You need to apologize to me so we can go in your house and have hot sex before the sun comes up.”
“And you don’t want to leave me?”
“Not at the moment but if you keep this up….”
He held up his hands in surrender. “I get it. Trudy, I’m very sorry I overstepped boundaries. I still think it’s for your best interest, and I’m always going to want to keep you safe. But I am sorry it caused you so much anger.”
They needed to work on his asking for forgiveness.
“Am I forgiven?”
She nodded. “You are.”
He swept her off her feet and carried her toward the house. She squealed. “You were just dismissing me, sending me away, and wishing me well.”
“And contemplating a killing spree to numb the pain inside.”
She pinched his arm. “Don’t joke, Vampire.”
“Who said I was kidding?” He got them through the door and up the stairs to the bedroom. She bounced for a second when he laid her down on the springy mattress. Another thing they were fixing if she stayed. Assuming they both wanted to.
She touched his cool cheek, the feel of the scruff he would always have on his face scratching her palm. She loved the sensation. “You’re in this for the long run, aren’t you? I mean I need to know. Because if you’re feeling what I’m feeling, George, then you need to assume I’m never leaving and I need to believe the same about you, too. Or maybe this is all too quick? Would you prefer I took it slow?”
“Trudy.” He breathed out her name, and she shivered. “When I lived, when my heart still beat, I knew the second I saw you, it beat only for you. I told you. I wanted you to be my wife. It would have been a whirlwind courtship. Six months after our first date we never got to take, you would have been living here, pregnant with my baby, with two rings on your left hand.” He ran his hand down her nose toward the top of her neck. “But you have only me. The Undead guy who turned out to be bad at this relationship thing. Trudy, I’m Undead. I can’t be anyone’s idea of a perfect boyfriend.”
She kissed his cool chin. “Why don’t we figure it out as we go along and know we can count on each other?”
He pressed his nose against her neck and took a deep breath. She knew he inhaled her scent, and she closed her eyes with a smile on her face. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Open your eyes, sweetheart.”
She did as he instructed.
“I’m going to make love to you.”
He ran his hand down her stomach and unhooked her pants. They didn’t need words after that. Their clothes melted off until they pressed against each other naked. She ran her hands around his abdomen as he took her breast into his mouth. She shuddered, heat pooling between her legs.
Everywhere he touched her, goosebumps erupted on her skin. She gasped when he inserted a finger inside her, tears of pleasure pooling in her eyes.
The first time they had made love, it had been fast and furious. This time, George took his time, and, when it ended, when her legs were wrapped around his waist with his hips thrusting his cock in and out of her pussy at a torturously slow pace, she knew she had fallen head over heels in love with him.
Her body shook, small twitches continuing for minutes after they’d finished. He spoke words, mostly nonsense but she couldn’t c
are what he said as long as he kept saying something to her. He’d made her body sing and she could believe in the few minutes before sunlight this would work, they could be together despite everything that had gone horribly wrong in the world outside them.
“Trudy.” His voice sounded hoarse, and he rolled her over until she lay in the crook of his arm. “It’s daytime.”
“How do you know?” The room was pitch dark. It could be high noon or three in the morning; she’d have no idea.
“As soon as dawn hits, it nearly overwhelms me. It’ll get easier as I get to be an older Vampire. Time will help me. It’s as if I’ve personally drunk two bottles of wine.”
“So sleep.” She kissed his arm and snuggled against him. “Tomorrow will be soon enough for us to have more issues and the world to throw more problems our way.”
He laughed. “Well, when you put it that way….Hey, I have an idea.”
“What?”
“Let’s have a fight as soon as we get up, and then we can have make up sex again.”
Such a guy. She smiled. “I’ll be up hours before you. I’ll spend the time trying to figure out things for us to argue about.”
Trudy watched as he fell asleep, her eyes having adjusted to the darkness. George slept the sleep of the Vampire. He didn’t move, not even to expel a breath. She touched his cheek, and he never stirred.
She rubbed her nose and tried to ignore the heaviness descending on her shoulders. As she aged, every night, the man she loved would fall asleep at the touch of dawn and not move until sunset. He would be, for all intents and purposes, dead every morning. There would never be children. Vampires were sterile. She’d never wanted a baby. The world had enough of a population problem. Whatever maternal instincts other women had, she’d never possessed.
This had to work. One way or another. She loved him.
She tried to close her eyes, but an image of her brother Devin kept filling her mind. The way he’d looked before they’d fled the Hunter Council, when her father bled to death on the floor. He’d seemed…relieved.
Or maybe she’d imagined the whole thing. It had to all be in her head. Nothing else could be possible.
Hours passed before sleep came.
Chapter Seven
“Hey, babe?” George called to Trudy who ran on the treadmill while watching a soap opera she’d DVRd. She looked up and grinned at him.
“I have to go out tonight to the Farm and get some livestock.”
Kaden’s career made so much more sense to George now that he understood the man farmed livestock for the sole purpose of feeding vamps needing to supplement their blood supply. Before he’d known, Kaden had always seemed the worst rancher ever. Why had the man lost so many animals? Well, because the Undead drained them.
She shook her head and powered down the treadmill. “You’re going to have to wait until tomorrow. Four in the morning is too close to dawn. I don’t want you trapped out there.”
He loved how she cared about him. Hell, he loved every little thing about her, even the sweat pooling on her chest.
“I can make it there and back in plenty of time.”
“Please don’t risk it. I’ll worry about you endlessly.”
“All right.” He tugged her against him. “I’ll go first thing tomorrow.”
She patted him on the chest. “I’m all sweaty.”
“I know, and I enjoy it.”
She pressed her forehead against his chest. “How much overfeeding have you been doing?”
“A lot.”
He didn’t know exactly how much he had overdone. He’d still not bothered to count the bags. Every day it got a little worse and he knew the cause. Apparently, Vampires overfed from anxiety. Only there wasn’t a diet program or an exercise regime that would help him kick the problem.
The Werewolves still hadn’t shown up. This should have been a good thing but George couldn’t help but feel they were being lulled into a false sense of security. His head still hurt when he thought about Devin. James’ nightly check ins, which always said "still working on it," didn’t help.
George had to give Trudy's brother credit. The man knew how to cover his tracks.
He loved having Trudy with him, loved the smell of her in the house, loved her food in the fridge, and loved her skin products next to the sink. He adored the way she laughed at his bad jokes, and, even though he was still less productive than he’d been before the change, his writing had come back in a large part because of her goading him to try it again.
Trudy was the best thing to ever happen to him.
“Overfeeding doesn’t make any of it easier.” She kissed his chest and stepped back. Had she read his mind or had he become transparent to her? “I’m going to shower. It’s almost dawn. Get the house ready. We should have enough time to play.” She waggled her eyebrows, and he knew exactly what she meant.
“Love the idea.”
“Good because I’m so in love with you, and I want lots of playing. All the time.” She winked and took the stairs two at a time while he stood frozen to the floor. She’d never thrown the word out there so easily before. During sex or times of intimacy, sometimes it slipped out, but the carefree "I love you"? No, this constituted a first. He grinned, knowing he had to look a fool from the amount of happiness pouring through his body.
His phone dinged the arrival of a text, and he groaned. Whatever it said, he wished he didn’t have to see it. But he did.
James’ text stared up at him. Devin has a drug problem. A big one.
What kind? He needed specifics or he’d never get Trudy to believe him. And what has he been doing to support it? Or what did he do?
He waited a minute, and then the text signals came in bulk. James had lot of information, and none of it would make Trudy happy. Her brother swam with very dangerous sharks—or, in this case, Werewolves.
George had never hated being right before. He would have done anything to be wrong.
Trudy came out of the shower with a smile on her face, and the place where his heart used to beat panged. In a few seconds, Trudy wouldn’t be smiling. She stared at him, and, on cue, her good mood evaporated.
“Tell me.”
He gritted his teeth. “Trudy….”
She cut him off. “No platitudes, okay? Just tell me. It's Devin isn’t it? What did James find?”
“He’s in trouble, sweetheart. Has been for a very long time.”
She visibly swallowed, and her eyes dilated just a bit. No human would have noticed, but, thanks to his Vampire state, he picked up on the change immediately. Her adrenaline had just surged.
“What kind of trouble? We need to go help him.”
“We can go to him, sweetheart. But it’s not the kind of help you and I can give him. We can go get him, but he’ll need some medical intervention.”
“He’s sick?” Her voice hitched, and he crossed to her, needing her in his arms, needing to take some of the pain she carried as his own. He was strong —monster-tough—and he’d shoulder any burden she had. If only she would let him.
“He’s got a drug problem. A big one. He’s taking so much stuff I can’t even keep track of it all. James stopped telling me after about the fourth substance. Frankly, it’s amazing it hasn’t killed him the way this stuff tends to react together.”
Her heart skipped a beat, and she took a step back. “And you think he paid for it with the death of my father.”
George didn’t answer her. Why should he? Her smart mind had deduced exactly the same things he had been thinking. There was another step to take to complete the horror of this situation for her. He’d never had a sibling, which had probably been a good decision on his parents’ part. He never shared well. But Trudy loved her brother.
“And he might be feeding them information on me.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed and shrank inward. He hated seeing her this way. His woman exhibited strength and certainty.
He sat next to her and placed a hand on her
knee. George didn’t dare touch her more than that—she wasn’t giving off a strong touch-me vibe.
“And this is what you and James both think.” She rubbed at her red-tinged eyes.
Trudy looked tired. He’d known it on some level but now he couldn’t deny the obviousness of it. She remained human. Sleeping during the day or, in her case whatever version of not sleeping she did, and being up all night would eventually be too much for her. His fangs threatened to come down at the thought. One way or another, he would lose her to the inevitable impossibility of their joining.
But not today. He forced his monster to stay where it belonged, hidden where it couldn’t threaten the woman who every day made his existence worth it.
“More than that, sweetheart. You think so, too.”
She nodded. “I do. But I don’t think he’s such a criminal mastermind. I think I’d be dead if he were. I think he tells them about me, but gives me enough warning to run.”
“Like he’s keeping everyone in an endless loop of cat and mouse.” He nodded. She’d stated exactly what he had been thinking, too. “It needs to be stopped, and sooner rather than later.”
“I agree.” She sniffed. “I told him I quit running. He has to know it’s over.”
George brushed her hair off her face. “He’s still alive. Your announcing you were done being chased around has not gotten him killed.”
“Good.” She opened up he arms and he moved into them, placing her head on his shoulder. “Tell me the truth.”
“Always.” He inhaled her vanilla scent, wishing he could float in it for a while.
“When you came up here to tell me, did you think we would fight?” She ran her hand down his arm.
“I did, but you took it very differently than I expected.”
She sighed. “I hurt too badly to be angry. This will always be a big giant ache of pain for me.”
He stood up. There was something he could do for her. “Hit me.”
She sat back, an eyebrow raised. “Excuse me?”
“Hit me. Pound on me. Whatever you want. You can’t hurt me. It’ll make you feel better. Beat on my body as much as it hurts. I can be your Vampire punching bag.”
Bite Marks Page 7
