He shook his head, pushing off my suggestion. “What was that? What’re you trying to pull?”
I squirmed again, harder, more frantic like a bird with its wing caught under a cat’s paw. Something in my shoulder wrenched and sent a fresh jolt of pain slamming through my system. I gasped—stilled.
“Nothing. I’m not doing anything. Just…just let me go.” My head throbbed and a steady ache pulsed from my shoulder with each beat of my heart. My ability had never failed me. Never. What was going on?
Alex yanked me closer, bringing me farther onto the bar, so the edge pressed into my groin. He gripped my jaw so hard I’m sure he left red fingerprints on either side of my face, and jerked my head to the left. I stayed the way he posed me while he licked the fat part of his thumb. Before I could think to stop him, he rubbed the mark I’d made on my neck and brought his thumb back smeared with black eyeliner. He let me go and I stumbled back two steps before I caught myself.
“Get out.” He didn’t even look at me. His brow tightly wrinkled, he just stared at his thumb rubbing his fingers against it then pinched them clean on his apron.
I wiped at the spit he’d left on my neck even as my heart struggled for a steady beat. “What? No. Why? I didn’t do anything.”
Seconds were ticking by, but I couldn’t seem to calm myself. Why? With the two-foot-wide bar between us and a couple feet of open space, I was pretty sure I’d have time to dodge him if he came at me again. So why was my brain still scrambled like puzzle pieces and my breaths still shaking through my chest? In fact, it seemed to be getting worse.
With a hard swallow I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts, focus. “I want to speak with Mr. Edmunston.”
I could feel where Alex’s thumb had pressed against my neck. The skin tingled there, warmed as though his body heat continued to mingle with mine. My hand went to the spot, cupped my neck, and I closed my eyes.
“Mr. Edmunston doesn’t want to speak with you,” he said.
“Uhm…you…you don’t know…that.” I rolled my head, like a lazy cat stretching after a long sleep. Heat radiated from the spot on my neck spreading throughout my body. It felt…good, like a shot of brandy warming down my throat, buzzing my mind just enough to be fun without making me stupid. My skin tingled all over. I licked my lips feeling the tickle along my tongue. I couldn’t stop the dizzy smile that took hold.
“Get her out of here,” I heard Alex say, right before two people grabbed my arms. “Send Bruno in while you’re out there.”
I opened my eyes, my head snapping left and right. Two guys, both taller than me, both dressed in suits and all kinds of muscle, nearly lifted me off my feet. “Wait. Hey.”
Even with my weight thrown back and my toes digging against the carpet, I couldn’t stop our progression. I searched for help among the couples cuddling around the crush of tables before the door. Vacant unaffected eyes met mine, though most only glanced and turned back to their partner or fluttered closed as if in bliss. My mouth gaped, my heart squeezing in my chest. I couldn’t believe the apathy.
“What kinda place is this?” I bucked and jerked in the bouncers’ steel grip. “Where’s Mr. Edmunston? Does he know how you’re treating perfectly good customers? Mr. Edmunston. Mr. Edmunston!”
I spied a foot sticking out into the aisle. Nothing else registered, not the size, not the shoe, nothing. I kicked it. “Hey, you. You know Mr. Edmunston? Tell him Sophie Merlo wants to talk. Tell ’im I want to register a complaint. Tell him—”
My words choked at the back of my throat when pale, almost white eyes met mine. It was his foot I’d kicked, this guy with lips so red they looked black and moist enough they glistened in the dim light. He’d been cuddling with the woman beside him. She had the same vacant, blissful expression I’d seen on so many others. Then my gaze dropped to her neck where the man held back her hair and saw two tiny spots of blood beading, trickling, as I stared.
“Wha…what’re you doing?” My heart roared in my ears, drowning out the music. This wasn’t real, wasn’t happening. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t look away.
The woman shifted in the bench seat beside him, her hand coming up to cup the side of his face. She turned him back to her, guiding him to the crook of her neck. Her mouth opened on a moan as he nestled against her. She writhed in his embrace, rolling her hips, fisting his hair, holding him to her.
The bouncers kept me moving and as I passed, I glanced back at their laps, at the man’s hand between her legs, at how she’d spread her knees, how his arm pumped rhythmically under her hiked dress. What kind of place was this?
I stopped fighting my escorts. They couldn’t get me out fast enough.
Chapter Three
I locked my apartment door behind me—all three locks—and hooked my keys on the kitty key holder I’d bought at a yard sale. And then I exhaled. Finally. “That was totally whacked,” I said, laughing to myself. “What kind of freaky drugs and kinky sex games were those people into?”
Shaking my head, trying hard to rationalize, I walked two steps and turned the corner into my living room.
“You didn’t tell me you were a reporter, Sophie.”
My scream was loud and long and left my throat raw. Alex didn’t even flinch.
He sat on the other side of the room with one ankle crossed over his knee, his arms stretched to either side on the back of my couch. He waited until I’d finished and said, “Tell me what you did to my doorman.”
My head went stuffy, pressure filled, and a buzzing started in my ears. I opened my mouth to tell him that I’d used my ability on the guy, then realized I didn’t want to answer his question truthfully. So why was I about to? I closed my eyes, focused, and the pressure slowly lifted. When I opened them again, Alex was only three feet away, standing right in front of me.
“Holy crap.” The words gushed out on my breath. I stumbled back, my heart pounding. “How’d you do that? I didn’t hear you move.”
“How’d you convince Bruno to let you into my club?”
“Your club?” My mind shifted the new information around. “You’re Mr. Edmunston.”
Alex folded his arms across his belly, rocked back on his heels. “You control other’s minds?”
I lifted my chin. “How’d you find where I live?”
“Who told you about Il Piccolo Morso?”
“The Small Bite,” I scoffed. “Is that what that man was doing? Taking a little bite out of that woman? I saw him. His eyes were weird, just like yours were. And there was blood on his lips. And the woman looked…drugged. What kind of place are you running, Alex? Some sadistic sex cult?”
His exhale made his nostrils flare. “Why’d you draw that symbol on your neck? What do you know about it?”
“What do you know about the woman killed in the alley beside your club last night?”
“What are you?”
“What are you?”
His brows hiked high beneath the swag of his sun-bleached bangs, and I could’ve sworn he was fighting a smile. “I’m a vampire.”
“Oh shit.”
“Eloquent. Now, your turn.”
I blinked, gave myself a quick mental shake and waited for him to correct himself, or laugh or something. He didn’t. “Seriously?”
“Yes,” he said. “And so is the man you saw at my club, and so are my doorman and bouncers and the majority of my clientele. Which is why, dear Sophie Merlo, reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune, I’m curious to know how you managed to control their minds.”
“I didn’t. It’s not mind control. At least I don’t think of it that way. It’s more like the power of suggestion.” I shrugged, ignoring the stuffy pressure in my head. “I can’t make people do anything specific. I just suggest things, and they take the suggestion and make it their own.”
I blinked when my mouth finally stopped babbling and the buzzing left my ears. Why’d I say all that? A light went on in my sluggish brain. “But you can make people do things. Can’t you? Like s
pill their guts whenever you ask.”
He gave me one of those old-world nods, a small bow of his head. Looked odd on someone so…young. “But only the minds of our donors.”
“Donors?” I tried not to laugh, so it came out as a rude snort.
“Humans,” he amended. “I can’t affect the will of my own kind. None of us can. Which makes your ability particularly intriguing.”
I kind of sidestepped past him, keeping my body tight like maneuvering around a wild animal. “Except my suggestion didn’t work on you.”
“No. Not effectively.” He turned with me, following but not stopping me. “But it worked on Bruno and I felt the push of your power. That’s never happened before.”
“Why’s that? I mean, why didn’t it work on you?” I headed for the bedroom, walking a little faster than I needed to. Alex kept at my heels. I didn’t look back and I couldn’t hear him, but I knew he was right there. I could feel his presence like a warm pressure on my back.
“A man doesn’t live to my age, manipulating minds as a part of his daily survival, without building a bit of mental muscle of his own. You’re very powerful, Sophie. Quite unique.”
I spun in my bedroom doorway, and he flinched backward. Good to know I wasn’t completely predictable to the vampire. I blocked his entry with a hand on my door and the other on the door jam. “So it’s because you’re old. How old?”
He did that little head bow again. “I’m one hundred ninety-seven…next month.”
“Happy birthday.”
“Thank you.” His smile beamed and I think he even blushed a little, glancing away and back again. He looked like any twenty-five-year-old happily discussing his plans. “After a hundred and fifty, birthdays begin to regain their charm. We’re planning a birthday bash at the club and… Never mind.”
“Fascinating. But you drink blood. Right?” I’m not sure what I was hoping he’d say.
“Yes.”
That wasn’t it. “Perfect.”
“But we don’t kill to survive.”
“Uh-huh. Aren’t you worried I’ll tell?”
He shrugged. “Who’d believe you? Besides, we have the means to protect ourselves. We’ve survived for eons and will survive eons more. I doubt you’ll be our downfall.”
“Right. What about the other stuff? Sunlight, garlic, holy water, stake through the heart…”
“Sunlight…chafes a little. No worse than any hundred-plus-year-old skin.”
“Good to know. And the rest?”
He smiled, a mocking glint in his eyes. “How best can I harm you?”
Good point. “Whatever. I have to change. I’m closing this.”
“Of course.” He stepped back so the door wouldn’t smack him in the nose but didn’t make like he’d go any farther. Creepy.
I peeled out of my nightclub outfit as fast as I could, and scrambled to find sweats and a T-shirt. Smart or not, I felt a little safer with the door between us. I considered calling the cops, but my stubborn reporter’s curiosity got the better of me. Besides, he didn’t act like he wanted to suck my blood. “So, Mr. Vampire, you gonna tell me you had nothing to do with the dead girl they found in the alley beside your club? Y’know, the one who died of severe blood loss?”
“I didn’t kill her.” His voice whispered through my head triggering a wave of goose bumps shivering over my skin. I spun to check he wasn’t standing right behind me. He wasn’t.
“How’d you do that?”
“A gift of my kind,” he whispered through my thoughts again.
“Well, stop it. My head’s single occupancy only. Got it?”
“I’m being set up, Sophie,” Alex said, his voice muffled through the door. “That mark on your neck. I assume you copied it because of the girls.”
My hand went to my neck, my thoughts to the way my skin tingled and warmed after he’d touched me there. My body responded again at the simple memory, lower regions warming, wanting more. I closed my eyes, pushed the drug like desire from my mind. “Yeah. Uh, your…your man at the door made it sound like it was a mark of ownership or something. Your mark.”
When he didn’t answer after several seconds I opened the door. “Alex?”
My apartment’s not very big—bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen. My gaze found him on the other side of the living room almost instantly. He was staring out the window, his hands shoved into the front pockets of his jeans, his face stern, his brow creased. He must’ve sensed me staring. He just started talking.
“What do you know about snakes?”
“They’re long, squiggly and fanged.” I walked to the coffee table. Call me paranoid, but I liked to have something between us. “Oh. And they’re cold blooded.”
“Many snakes inject venom into their victims to either paralyze or kill. We, vampires, are not unlike snakes in that way.”
My hand went to my neck again, the memories vivid enough to tingle over my skin. “Your saliva. There’s something in it.”
“A healing agent along with a kind of narcotic. A hallucinogen. It heals the wound site within minutes as well as makes our donors…eager, willing.” He glanced my way. “You may have felt a hint of its effect when I wiped the mark off your neck.”
A hint? Holy Viagra, Batman! I shrugged. “Didn’t really notice. Maybe something…”
He swung his gaze back to the window. “Our saliva also acts as a sort of monitoring system. In the bloodstream, it causes the donor’s blood to pool at the wound sight and form a mark unique to the vampire. The more saliva in the donor’s body, the darker the mark. The darker the mark, the less blood in their veins and the closer they are to turning.”
“So the dead girls were all about to become vampires?”
He turned to face me, worry so clear in his blue eyes. “Maybe. It’s not an easy thing to turn a person. There has to be more venom in the blood stream than blood, and the person must be near death from the loss. Do you know how hard it is for a single vampire to drain an adult body of blood?”
“Uh…no.”
“Imagine eating an entire Thanksgiving meal made for ten by yourself. The human body is constantly making more blood, constantly working to replace blood for venom, diluting it until there’s no trace left.”
“And the mark fades away.” More puzzle pieces shifted into place. “That’s why your door guy told me to come back in a few days. To allow my body time to dilute the vamp venom so I wouldn’t turn.”
“Right. At a certain point the balance shifts. The body becomes so saturated with venom it stops producing new blood and makes venom instead. They become vampire. But the organs still need blood to remain viable. A new vampire must refill their body with blood and, the sire, having gorged himself on his fledgling, now has plenty to provide. Once full, a vampire only needs small amounts from then on to make up for our body’s lack of production.”
“So what happened with the dead girls?”
His gaze dropped, his voice softened. “They weren’t given blood and their bodies were left with only their sire’s venom in their veins.”
“So, what, they OD’d?”
“In a way, yes.”
My gut twisted. A disgusted snarl curled my lip. “Why would you let that happen?”
His gaze snapped to mine. “I didn’t. I told you, I’m being set up.”
“But the mark on the girls is yours. Can somebody fake another vamp’s mark?”
He shook his head. “Not that I know. Whosever saliva is most prevalent in the donor, his mark shows at the wound site. There’s nothing to stop or alter it. It’s a natural safety precaution. But…I never fed on any of those girls.”
Right. “Then how do you explain it?”
“I can’t.” He crossed the room to me before I could blink. So much for the coffee-table buffer. “But with your gift, you might be able to. This was the work of a vampire. I know it. But I can’t use my abilities on my own kind to discover the truth.”
“So you want me to use mine? Wh
at, just walk around talkin’ up vamps, asking questions? Right, ’cause I’ve heard they love sharing. But first why don’t I do something a little less stupid, liking poking a hungry lion with a stick. Wheeee…” I wanted to turn and walk away but Alex grabbed my arms, pulled me hard against him. My breath huffed out when my chest met the solid wall of his.
“I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t sure I could protect you.”
My hands had gone to his chest on reflex. I could feel his heart beating, the heat of his body radiating through his white cotton dress shirt warmed against my palms. If I looked close enough, I could see the pulse in his neck. “You’re not dead.”
“No.” He kept his gaze locked with mine as he spoke, making our closeness all the more intimate. “My heart beats…slowly. And when I rest, I can slow the beat even further. I can seem dead. But I’m alive.” His thumbs caressed in circles on my arms. His voice dropped. “I am very much…alive.”
My belly fluttered, feminine instincts reacting to the change in his voice, the look in his low-lidded eyes. “Alive as in you have the same human, uhm, needs? You know, food, sleep, sex…bathroom breaks?”
His gaze dropped to my mouth and I licked my lips. “Yes. But we think of them as more entertainment than needs.” He leaned a fraction closer. “Some more than others.”
Muscles low in my womb clenched. He pulled my body closer to his so I could feel the stiff line at his crotch. I wasn’t the only one sensing the energy zinging between us. My heart clogged my throat, anticipation humming along my skin. Granted, my sex life has been kind of stalled lately, and I’ve always been a little easier than my mother would’ve liked.
But everything about Alex Edmunston screamed mad skills between the sheets. The grace and strength in the way he moved, the masculine tone of his voice, the athletic shape of his body, the way his jaw clenched and relaxed as he drew closer to my lips. His sweet male cologne swam through my brain, demolishing any hope of restraint. His exhale warmed over my lips, the scent of his breath, of him, mixing to create an intoxicating rush of adrenaline storming through my blood.
I raised my chin and he touched his lips to mine, soft, moist, delicious. My mouth tingled, heat seeping through my flesh, rippling down my throat, spreading fast through my body. The gentle suction of his kiss as our lips pulled apart drew me closer, wanting more.
Gifted: Obey Me Page 3
