by Cat Devon
“Hunters can lie so well that they can’t be caught.”
“I’m not a hunter,” she said. “I’m a reporter.”
“Nick and Damon want to see you,” Pat told Alex. “Immediately.”
“Wait,” Keira said. “There must be a way to prove that I’m not lying.”
“There is one way,” Pat said.
“No,” Alex said. “I’m not putting her through that.”
“Through what?” she said.
“You don’t want to know,” Alex said.
“Of course I do. I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t.”
“This isn’t the time,” Alex told her curtly. “Go on,” he said to Pat. “I’ll follow in a moment.”
Pat looked like he might argue before turning and leaving.
Alex immediately grabbed Keira. “Hang on! We’re leaving.”
“What? Why?”
“Because it’s too dangerous here.”
She couldn’t voice another word because he took her in his arms and they were off. She rested her cheek against his shoulder and closed her eyes as buildings rushed by. She wondered how he made it out of the loft without being stopped by Pat but couldn’t ask him. She couldn’t ask him anything, like where they were going.
He held her securely, and she felt strangely safe—which was ridiculous, considering the fact that she was being transported at freaky-fast speed to who-knew-where by a vampire.
When he finally lowered her, she looked around in dazed amazement. “Where are we?”
“The Lovers Hideaway honeymoon suite.”
She looked at the mirrored ceiling. “Are we in Vegas?”
“No.”
“What are we doing here?” she asked nervously.
“Not what you think,” he retorted.
“Aren’t you going to get into trouble for taking off this way?”
“Hell yes.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“To save you.”
His words left her speechless.
“No one would think to look for us here,” he said.
“What are you saving me from?”
“My clan.”
“What were they going to do to me?”
“You don’t want to know.”
Probably not, but she had to ask anyway. “Were they going to kill me?”
“Yes.”
A shiver went down her spine. Not a happy shiver. This was a holy-shit-that-was-a-close-brush-with-death kind of shiver. Coldly scary. “But why?”
“Because you’re a threat.”
“I didn’t do anything. I gave them blood for them to test. Didn’t that prove anything?”
“It proved that you have the ability to be a good liar because of your powerful hunter blood.”
“Then why do you believe me?”
“Because we have a link,” Alex said.
“The sexual attraction between us.”
“No, it’s more than that.”
“Did you bring me here to have sex with me?”
He cupped her face with his hands and directed her attention away from the huge heart-shaped bed. “I told you, this isn’t about sex.”
“I heard you.”
Yeah, she heard him but now that his hands were on her it was very difficult to concentrate. Vampires weren’t just after her; now they wanted to kill her. And those were the friendly ones. God only knew what the enemy vamps wanted to do to her.
She started shaking and couldn’t seem to stop. Rubbing her hands up and down her arms helped, but when Alex did it she got warm very fast. She got downright hot, in fact.
Her surroundings weren’t helping. They weren’t in some clinical setting. They were in the middle of a love hotel. Not the kind of place that charged by the hour. It wasn’t that in-your-face obvious, although it was rather over-the-top with the heart-shaped bed and the mirrored ceiling. “Why did you pick this place? Did someone commit a murder here?”
“No. Damon and Neville might track former crime scenes. An acquaintance of mine in vice investigated an alleged high-end prostitution ring operating here.”
“High-end prostitution?” Keira pointed to the leopard-print wallpaper. “I find that highly unlikely.”
“She told me the place was interesting.”
“She? Was she a vampire acquaintance?”
“No, a human one.”
“Did you ever bring her here?”
“No. We have a working relationship, that’s all.”
“And what kind of relationship do we have?” Keira had to ask. She didn’t really want to … well, sort of she did. She wanted to know the answer even though she doubted she’d get one that she’d like.
“A complicated one.”
True enough. Yep, not the kind of answer she was hoping for. Nothing new to report there. It’s not like he went down on one knee and vowed his undying love for her. Undying being the key word. How did things work between a vampire and a human? And not just any human, but a human with vampire hunter blood and some mysterious kind of hybrid mix. She felt like one of those new gasoline mixes.
“This is all such a mess.” she said, shaking her head. “Is my grandfather really still alive?”
“My gut tells me it’s unlikely.”
“How accurate is your gut?”
“Fairly accurate.”
“Then why can’t you just tell your vampire friends that?”
“Because you’re being framed. Someone wants us to kill you. I think that’s why this entire issue about your grandfather has come up.”
“What does this have to do with the blood thefts?”
“It could be a distraction to keep our attention away from tracking down whoever is really stealing blood.”
“Nice to hear my death would be nothing more than a distraction.”
“It would be a hell of a lot more than that to me.”
“Why?”
Tilting up her chin with his index finger, he gazed down at her with those sexy dark eyes of his. “We have a connection. You feel it. So do I.” He gave her a brief but incredibly hot kiss with plenty of tongue action before setting her aside. “I don’t have time to go into the details now. I have to go compel the manager to register us for this room using fake names.”
“I’ll bet most people using this room use fake names,” she muttered before putting space between them so she wouldn’t throw herself into his arms and do something crazy involving handcuffs and nudity.
“Sorry it’s not the Four Seasons but that and the rest of the luxury hotels are too close to the Gold Coast clan for now.”
“Is this place in Vamptown?”
“No. We’d never allow a place like this in our neighborhood.”
“I rest my case.”
“We won’t be here long. We will need to keep moving until we get this thing figured out.” He turned her to face him. “I need your word that you won’t try to leave while I go compel the manager. This isn’t a game. Your life depends on this. It depends on you trusting me.”
“There’s no good reason why I should trust you given the fact that I’ve only known you for a day or two.” She put her fingers on his lips when he would have protested. “But I do. I’m trusting my gut, like you said. You have my word. We’re in this together now.”
“Good. And you do have plenty of reasons to trust me, like the fact that I’ve saved your life on more than one occasion,” he said before kissing her wrist.
She almost asked him if he was tempted to suck her blood when he was that close to her artery but remembered that her blood was toxic. She hoped the rest of their relationship wouldn’t be equally dangerous before silently admitting that it already was. She had feelings for him. Feelings that ran deeper and were more powerful than they should be.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
He looked up with a smile. “Are you thanking me for the kiss or for saving your life?”
“Both.”
He kissed the palm of her
hand and closed her fingers around it. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
He was true to his word. She’d barely had time to check out the bathroom when he returned.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
He reached into the back pocket of his black pants and pulled out a burner phone. “I keep this for emergencies.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
He frowned. “Sorry that I have a burner phone?”
“No, sorry that you have to use it. That I’ve put you in this position.” While he was gone, even though it was for a very short time, she’d been hit with a bout of guilt. “I shouldn’t have come to see you. I should have let the police do their thing.”
“Their thing is to ignore the blood thefts.”
“Are they being compelled to do so?”
“It’s a possibility,” he said.
“Which would mean that vampires are behind the thefts.” She paused as another thought occurred to her. “Why would the Vamptown vamps kill me when they want my grandfather’s journal? If they kill me, then they can’t get it.”
“You’re a more immediate risk. They figure they could eventually track down where you hid the journal by retracing your steps from the time you got it from the bank until you came to see me.”
“They can do that?”
“There are security cameras all over belonging to the city of Chicago or to private businesses. We hack into those and get the info we need.”
“But I thought you said the cameras were not functioning.”
“That was only for the thefts. We need to get that journal before someone else does.”
Red flags went up for her. What if he was only pretending to save her in order to gain her trust so she would reveal where the journal was. What if this was all an elaborate setup?
But Pat had come to the loft all furious and sending threatening vibes. Wait, what if Pat was part of the con? What if this was all an elaborate setup to get her to trust Alex and confide in him?
She was getting a headache. To trust Alex or not to trust him? To have sex with him or not to have sex with him? To love him or not to love him?
That last question frightened her the most. Which was stupid, because the trust thing involved her safety and this was all a matter of life and death so you’d think she’d be more focused on security issues than sensual ones.
But she was in a cheesy love hotel, after all. And just in case she forgot that fact, there were little placards on the table and the dresser to remind her.
“I’m hungry. I wonder what they have for room service.” She picked up the menu and opened it. “The daily special today is…,” she read aloud before abruptly stopping.
“Go on,” Alex said. “You talking about food won’t upset me.”
“What about oral sex?”
“I’m all for it,” he said. “Why do you ask?”
“Because it’s the daily special.”
“Really?” He flashed her a wicked grin. “Tell me more.”
“Read it for yourself.”
“I’d rather you read it to me.”
“Let’s just say it involves edible chocolate body lotion along with whipped cream.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“Can you do whipped cream?”
“Why are you asking? Are you interested in ordering the daily special?”
She used the closed menu as a fan to wave in front of her red face. “I was just curious, that’s all.”
“Right. Because you’re a reporter and reporters are naturally curious. So are vampires, by the way. Naturally curious, I mean.”
“There could be a story in this,” she said.
“I’m sure there is.”
She picked up a brochure from the table. “This says a love hotel is a place for secret assignations.”
“Really? They used the word assignations?” He came closer to read over her shoulder.
“They have them in Japan and Brazil.” She sounded breathless—but then who wouldn’t with a sexy badass vampire leaning over her shoulder. Actually his ass was mighty fine. She’d noticed that on numerous occasions.
“What do they have in Japan and Brazil?” His breath was warm against her ear, which tickled slightly and aroused mightily.
“Sex.”
He laughed. Had his laugh always sounded so sexy and sardonic? She’d read that casinos in Vegas piped oxygen into their gaming rooms to keep people alert. Was this place doing the same thing only with pheromones or some other sexual inducement? Or was Alex inducement enough?
“I figured they had sex in Japan and Brazil,” he said.
“I meant love hotels. You know … where people have…”
“Sex?”
She tossed the brochure back onto the table. “Never mind. What were we talking about before?”
“Before we got distracted by sex?”
“Yes, before that.”
“I have no idea,” he readily admitted.
“The case. We were talking about the case. So we both agree that we think vampires are behind the thefts?”
“That seems a likely scenario.”
“But not Vamptown vampires.”
“Correct.”
“Because they would never do something like that?”
“Also correct.”
“They’d only do nice things … like kill me.” She smacked her hand against the table, knocking that damn brochure on the floor. “I don’t see why you can eliminate them from the list of suspects when they are willing to resort to murder.”
“Only because they’ve been led to believe you are a threat.”
“So it’s okay to murder someone who is a threat?”
“It is in vampire culture,” Alex said.
“Well, it’s not in human cultures,” she said emphatically.
He gave her a look.
“Well, most human cultures,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow.
“Well, some human cultures,” she amended before waving her hands. “Never mind. I say we keep them on the suspect list. And what’s the deal with that funeral home?”
“Not that again.”
“Yes, that again.”
“You ask too many questions.”
“That’s my job.”
“No,” he immediately corrected her. “Your job is to stay alive. Keeping you alive is also part of my job, so forget about the funeral home.”
“You’re hiding something.”
“I’m hiding a lot of things,” he readily admitted.
“Because you don’t trust me?”
“Because it’s better that you don’t know some things.”
“Why?” she repeated.
“It’s for your own safety.”
“Not trusting me is for my own safety? I find that hard to believe.”
“Yet you found it easy to believe in vampires.”
“It wasn’t a matter of believing. It was a matter of being convinced by my grandfather.”
“By his journal, you mean?”
She nodded.
“Everything seems to bring us back to that journal.”
“Not everything. This thing between you and me … that isn’t connected to the journal, is it?” Her direct stare dared him to confirm it.
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“What kind of answer is that?” she demanded.
“The only kind you are going to get for now.”
“Which implies that this thing between us is involved with my grandfather’s journal,” she said.
“Since I don’t know what’s in your grandfather’s journal, I can neither deny or confirm that.”
“Oh.” She guessed that made sense in a vampire kind of way.
“You said you trusted me. You said we were in this together now,” he reminded her.
“I know.” She rubbed her forehead. “I need some fresh air. I’ve been locked up in your loft for ages.” She pointed to the window, where a slas
h of sunshine came in. “Do these rooms open to the outside?”
“Yes.”
“Then can we just open the door for a minute? I promise not to run.”
“I’d catch you if you did.”
“I know. I’d let you. Because I’m safer with you than without you. I know that. I’m not sure I like it, but I do know it.”
“As long as you know that, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to open the door.” He turned the knob. “Don’t make me regret this,” he warned her.
She reached up to kiss him. “I won’t.”
Alex opened the door. The first thing she noticed was the cool breeze, which felt so good against her face. She drew in a deep breath then frowned. “I smell something strange. Do you smell it, too?”
His face darkened.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
A millisecond later she saw what was wrong. A vampire stood a few feet away with an ice bucket in his hands and blood dripping from his fangs. “I came here for the daily special. This place is a fave of mine. I never expected to find you here, Sanchez. There’s a bounty on your head,” the vamp said, licking his lips and showing his fangs even more with a hiss. “On both your heads. This must be my lucky day.”
“Or not,” Alex growled, launching himself at his adversary.
Chapter Fifteen
Keira watched with stunned horror as Alex changed before her very eyes. Any trace of the Chicago cop was gone, replaced with a feral warrior whose fangs were fully emerged. His growl was duplicated by the vampire with the ice bucket, who threw it at Alex before grabbing a dagger from his boot.
The other vampire wielded his weapon with fury. Alex reached for his own dagger from his boot. He slashed with precision and power, using martial arts techniques that Keira had only seen in the movies. Then, with one raw slice of the other vampire’s throat, it was all over. An instant later the vampire disintegrated.
Alex kept his face turned away from her as he returned to the doorway. “Get inside,” he growled.
“Are you okay?” she whispered even as she obeyed.
“I didn’t want you to see that.”
She sensed a certain disgust in his voice. Was he upset that she’d seen him go full vamp, so to speak? While the violence had shaken her, the fact that Alex was safe was all that mattered to her.
“My grandfather described vampire fights in his journal.”
