by Elisa Adams
She started to turn away, but he grabbed her arm and hauled her back to face him. “We aren’t done here yet. You’ll stay until I tell you to go.” She opened her mouth to speak and he slammed his hand over it. “No talking. No arguing. You have a job to do, and you’re damned well going to do it.”
She bit him, hard enough to break through the skin. He cursed her name as he hauled back and slapped her another time. “Don’t do that again, bitch. You’re mine. You should never hurt me. Ever. You have to pay for your actions today, and your failure to dispose of Faith Richardson twice.”
He backed her into the wall, tearing at her pants as he went. Her eyes flashed hate and flames, her face reddening. It only spurred him on more. “Be angry all you want, sweet, but you know the truth. I’ll give you one more chance to do as I ask, and then you’ll lose your life. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she hissed. “Yes, I understand. But watch your back. The first chance I get, I’m going to kill you.”
She wouldn’t dare. She acted tough on the outside, but Aiala, like all women, didn’t have a truly assertive bone in her body. That was exactly how he wanted it. He preferred his women in his control at all times—demon and human alike. “No, sweet, I don’t think you will.”
* * * * *
The click of the door swinging open made Faith jump. Sam walked into the room, a couple of brown paper fast food sacks in one hand and a drink tray with four cups balanced on his arm. He gave her a half smile that made her stomach flutter and her mouth run dry as he shut the door with his foot. “I hope you’re hungry.”
How could he expect her to be hungry after all that had happened? She sat up on the bed and frowned. He acted like everything was perfectly normal when her world had just caved in around her. She hadn’t been able to shake the surreal feeling since finding out what Sam was, and she didn’t see it happening anytime soon.
He set the bags and the tray on the little table and started pulling out wrapped cheeseburgers and red cardboard boxes filled with French fries.
“There’s no way I can eat all that. I can’t believe you bought that all for me.”
He winked at her as he crumpled one of the bags and tossed it into the trashcan across the room. “It’s not all for you. Have as much as you can eat, but I have a feeling I’ll end up eating most of it.”
“I thought vampires didn’t eat anything but…” Her voice trailed off. Just the thought of drinking blood for nourishment turned her stomach.
It didn’t turn you off earlier.
No. It had the opposite effect, sending her into a fierce, spiraling climax that had shaken her very foundation. Even now she wondered if she’d wake up from this strange, erotic dream in her own bed, alone.
“Most don’t eat.”
“And you’re different?”
He shrugged, unwrapped a cheeseburger and took a big bite.
“What is that supposed to mean? Are you different, or not?”
“It’s a very long story. And you have to remember that what you know of vampires comes from books and television.” He picked up a burger from the stack and tossed it to her. “Think fast.”
The burger bounced off her hands and hit the mattress next to her. “Oh, that’s real mature. So tell me, Mr. Kincaid, what is true about real-life vampires?” She picked the burger up, hunger overriding manners. She flopped down on the bed and crossed her legs. “I think you need to explain yourself.” Before I call the nearest mental hospital and tell them to expect a new patient.
“You wouldn’t understand.” He polished off the burger and picked up another.
“Try me. I think I’ve been pretty understanding so far.”
“This isn’t a normal situation.”
“Ya think?” She was sitting in a hotel room in some little town in the middle of nowhere, eating fast food burgers with a vampire who had a way of turning her sexuality inside out like no man had ever been able to do. “Can it really get any weirder than this?”
“Oh, yeah.” Sam tore into a third burger.
“What’s with the closed-mouth crap? What exactly is it you’re hiding from me?”
“Eat something, Faith. You need to keep up your strength.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “I’ll eat after you tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t think so. You eat, and I’ll talk at the same time.”
“It isn’t nice to talk with your mouth full.” The words left her mouth before she had a chance to think about them. She winced, waiting for his reaction, but he just laughed.
“Sweetheart, no one has ever accused me of being nice.”
She couldn’t argue his point, so she didn’t reply at all. She unwrapped the crinkly paper from her burger and took a bite. She hadn’t eaten in so long the ninety-nine cent burger tasted like a gourmet meal. Running for one’s life had a way of making a person appreciate the little things in life. After she swallowed the bite, she turned her attention back to Sam.
“Can I ask you a question?”
He shrugged again, worked on polishing off a box of fries.
“How long have you been a vampire?”
“A vampire?” He glanced up at the ceiling with a frown on his face. “Just about five hundred years, I think.”
She let out a breath. At least he didn’t say five thousand. “So you were born in the sixteenth century?” Her question only added to the dreamlike quality of the day. Was she really talking to a man about being born five hundred years ago?
“I didn’t say that.”
She blinked at his words. “Actually, you did.”
He took a long draw of soda through a striped straw. “What I said was that I’ve been vampire for about five hundred years.”
“I realize that. Any fool who can do math can figure out…” She shook her head when she noticed his amused expression. “What is this, some kind of guessing game? Twenty questions?”
He said nothing, just stared at her with a blank look on his face.
“Okay. Fine. How about this question instead. Where did you live, when you were human?”
“I didn’t.”
She slapped her burger, wrapper and all, down on the bed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Stop it. What do you mean, you didn’t? I thought all vampires were human once.”
He shook his head, that sexy half smile back on his lips. “You’re assuming again. Most vampires are human. They started out that way, and even after the change they continue to be human, with a slight mutation to their DNA. They live, they breathe, some even have children. But there are a few vampires, very few, who didn’t start out as human.”
A cold chill crept its icy fingers up her spine. “Are you trying to tell me that you aren’t human?”
His gaze darkened. He gave a slight, slow nod of his head.
“You’ve never been human? Ever? Not even a little bit? Then what exactly are you, Sam?” Her blood froze in her veins. Her heart stopped. No. Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear it.
He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees. “Promise you won’t run away again when I tell you.”
Oh God. “I already know you’re a vampire. Could anything possibly be worse than that?”
“That depends on your outlook. What I am, for the most part, is called a Panthicenos. Ever heard of it?”
She shook her head.
“I’m not surprised. Demons tend to be dumped into one big category, even though there are hundreds of species.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but as his words hit she couldn’t get her voice to work. Demon? Demon? “Whoa. Wait a second. This is a joke, right?”
“No, Faith. It isn’t a joke. I’m very, very serious.” He got up and walked toward her. Instinct prodded her to run, to hide, but he’d find her. She stood and ran around the bed, putting as much distance between them as she could. Fear overwhelmed her common sense. A demon. The man was a demon. It wasn’t possible, yet somewhere in a dark corner of her mind, she acce
pted the truth.
Demons possessed. Demons hurt.
Demons killed.
Sam reached her, cornered her against the wall. “Do you remember all the times I told you I wouldn’t hurt you?”
He raised his hand to her face. She batted it away. “Don’t touch me.”
“Don’t do this, Faith.” His eyes grew nearly black. “I hadn’t wanted to tell you so soon. I’d wanted to make you understand first, but you didn’t give me much choice.”
He leaned in, his hot breath feathering her cheek. Her heart skidded to a stop and she couldn’t swallow past the lump in her throat. She tried to run, tried to scream, but her muscles refused to work. Her mind shut down and everything faded to black.
* * * * *
Faith woke up with a splitting headache and a mouth that felt like she’d been sucking cotton. She brought her hand to her lips and coughed. What had happened to her? Why did she feel like someone had pounded on her head with a sledgehammer?
“Faith?” Sam’s voice called her from somewhere far away.
Sam.
She shook her head from side to side, thrashed her body. No. Not Sam. She had to get away. What would he do to her, now that she knew the truth? Oh God. She’d had sex with a demon. Wouldn’t she go to hell for that?
Sam sighed. “There is no hell, Faith. There’s no absolute evil, just as there’s no absolute good.”
She snapped her gaze open to find him kneeling over her, his gaze searching, his expression worried. “Were you reading my mind?”
“Yes,” he answered as casually as if he’d just told her it was going to be sunny today.
She sat up and squirmed away from him. Her back hit the headboard and she curled her knees up to her chest. “Don’t ever do that again.”
He held his hands in front of him in surrender. “I won’t. I don’t make a habit of invading people’s thoughts, but I wanted to make sure you were okay. You scared me.”
“Okay? Okay? What happened to me that I wouldn’t be okay? What did you do to me?”
“Nothing. You passed out.”
She glared at him. “I do not pass out.”
“Well, you did.” Amusement laced his voice, sparkled in his eyes.
“No, I did not. You did something to me. You made me pass out. You put some kind of spell on me. You made me fall asleep.”
“I wouldn’t do that. Come on, Faith. You should know me better than that by now.” He scooted closer to her, crowding her with his big body and his intimidating presence.
She sucked in huge gulps of air, tried to control her raging pulse. “Are you crazy? I’ve known you for all of a few weeks, not much more. I obviously don’t know you at all.”
“You know me better than you think you do. Better than I’ve let anyone get to know me.” His voice, soft, low, mesmerizing, clenched something inside her. Something she had to ignore, or it might rip apart her sanity.
“Okay, we’re going to skip this conversation and just stick with the whole you protecting me scenario.”
He shrugged, though his expression was anything but casual. “Sure. Works for me.”
“Good.” She let out a breath. I’m sitting in a hotel room with a real, live demon. In the same bed as the demon. “You won’t hurt me or anything, right?”
His expression darkened, his gaze angry. He pushed away from the bed and paced the room.
“No. Fuck, no. Don’t you think, if I’d planned to hurt you, I would have done so by now?”
“I don’t know. Isn’t that what demons do?” She nearly choked on her words. Could any of this be real?
He stopped in front of her and scrubbed his hand down his face. He met her gaze with weary, tired eyes. “There are many types of demons, Faith. Not all demons are evil. Some are mostly good, some are mostly bad, and some are in between.”
She gulped. “I’m guessing by your tone of voice that you aren’t one of the good ones.”
“No, but I’m not one of the bad ones, either.”
“So you’re in between. Doesn’t that make you Switzerland or something?”
He laughed. “Not quite. Panthicenos, by nature, are mediators. Some are appointed balance keepers, to keep the balance even between good and evil in the world.”
“Is that what you are? A balance keeper?”
“Not anymore.”
“But you were. What happened?”
“Nothing you need to be concerned with.” He sat down on the end of the bed and pulled one knee up to his chest, draping his arm across his leg. “Exactly what happened isn’t important. Maybe someday, when I get you out of this mess, I’ll bore you with my mistakes. For now, why don’t we focus on what it’s going to take to save you from the things which are after you?”
“Sounds like a plan.” A crazy one, when she took into account the man she’d asked to be her bodyguard was a demon, but a plan nonetheless. “Where do we go from here?”
“You never got around to giving me the details of what happened with Paul,” Sam reminded her, his voice going soft. “I think we should start from there. Why is it that these demons are trying to kill you?”
A nervous laugh bubbled from her throat. He had to be kidding. He wanted her to think when he’d just sprung something so huge on her? A thought hit her, leaving her cold. “Um… I couldn’t be… We didn’t use any protection before. Can I…?”
“You couldn’t be pregnant. It isn’t possible.”
“Why not?”
“It’s just the way it is. We aren’t compatible in that way, okay?” A touch of annoyance laced his voice, but his words calmed a small part of her.
It was bad enough to think she’d slept with him, a…a…not a human. But to think of the possibility of getting pregnant with his child? She didn’t even want to go there.
“Do you have horns?” Her hand flew to her mouth when she realized what she’d said. “I mean, I’m assuming that you don’t look like this all the time.”
He smiled, shook his head. “Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t have horns. I have some pretty cool claws, though. Wanna see?”
Her eyes widened and she shook her head. Okay, enough crazy talk for the day. “I don’t think so. You’re right. We should figure this thing out before it gets too late. Paul told me about a rival company that wanted to steal his cancer cure and market it as their own. I think they had Paul killed, assuming they’d be able to find the formula and claim it as their own, but they didn’t find anything. He warned me about this. They probably think I have it.”
“Do you?”
She fought the urge to shift her eyes away. “What do you think?”
He searched her gaze, ignored the question. “Your theory is good, but it’s just that. A theory.”
“What are you saying?”
“I don’t buy it. This rival company, as your husband put it. What is its name?”
“Marganis Pharmaceuticals.”
Sam’s eyes darkened and he cursed under his breath.
“What’s the matter?”
He opened his mouth, shook his head. “Nothing. It isn’t important.” He flopped back onto the mattress. “I just realized how tired I am. Why don’t we get some sleep and we’ll talk about it in the morning.”
She snorted. The closed-mouth syndrome again. “Not gonna happen. We’re going to talk right now. You got very upset when I said the name of the company. Want to tell me why?”
“It might be nothing. I won’t know for sure until I get someone to look into it for me. I promise if I hear anything of interest, I’ll tell you about it.” He jumped off the bed and strode to the door. “I forgot something. Stay here for a second. I’ll be right back.”
He walked out the door, returning moments later with a huge plastic shopping bag. He dropped it onto the bed next to her. “Here. I had to guess at the sizes. I hope I got close enough.”
“What’s this?” She opened the bag and pulled out two pairs of jeans, a couple of t-shirts, a big hooded sweatshirt, and s
ome lingerie way too skimpy to be comfortable. “This is great, but I’m not so sure about the undergarments. I don’t wear stuff like this.”
“You do for now. It’s part of the deal.” He fixed her with a heated gaze. She trembled under his scrutiny.
She gulped, cleared her throat. No. Now that she knew what she did about him, she couldn’t continue with that. “You’re not still stuck on this deal thing, are you?”
“That depends. Are you still stuck on the bodyguard thing?”
Jerk. He didn’t mean it. She refused to dissect how she knew, but the knowledge was there, deep inside her. He didn’t care about the deal any more than she did. So why couldn’t he just let it go?
Because he was damned stubborn. She held a midnight blue thong between her thumb and forefinger, dangling it in the air in front of her face. Leave it to a man to pick out something like this. “Do me a favor, Kincaid.”
“Yeah?”
“Though I appreciate the effort, and you have no idea how much I appreciate the jeans and t-shirts, next time either take me shopping with you or stick to the granny panties and cotton bras.”
He flopped back down on the bed on his back and put his hands under his head. “What fun would that be?”
She didn’t even bother to answer. Apparently, the “men as pigs” theory extended to supernatural creatures as well.
* * * * *
Through half-closed lids, Sam watched Faith hurry into the bathroom and slam the door. His gut clenched and his cock tightened at the thought of her in the skimpy blue underwear. He’d grabbed it because it had looked expensive, like something Paul Richardson’s wife would wear, but also because the deep blue would look perfect against her fair skin and deep brown hair. He’d expected her to put up a fight over the casual clothes he’d bought, but she hadn’t. Why, when all he’d seen her in up until she’d come to him for help were designer outfits? Every time he expected something from her, he got the opposite. His fascination grew with everything he learned.
Stop. Keep it about the bargain. It’s the only safe way to deal with her for now.
