“Ugh,” I repeated I blinked in protest at the offensive light. As soon as I could focus, my attention fell on Betta whose mouth was already full even though she was now working on another fry. My stomach started to growl.
“Want some fries?” Betta asked. She lifted the fry in her hand a little higher, as if to give me a better view. “There’s also a turkey club sandwich, some cake, some chips, and a Coke.” She took a breath. “Oh, and you need to snort some more of the Protectant.”
“Okay,” I responded, thinking that was the first order of business I needed to address.
“And that nice old lady from downstairs also brought you a change of clothes,” Betta continued. “They’re folded on top of the dresser.”
“Where did all of this come from?” I asked, noticing the tray of food that was decoratively arranged beside the television, atop a wooden dresser. True to Betta’s word, there was also a pile of folded clothing beside the tray of food.
“Sinjin ordered it for us,” Betta reminded me with a shrug, popping another fry into her mouth. “He’s pretty nice … for a vampire.” She chewed the fry for a few seconds, not bothering to swallow it before talking again. “And talk about cute!”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled. My ensuing frown should have told her I was in no way encouraging the obvious crush she was developing on the incorrigible man. I stood up and rubbed the back of my neck as I inspected the club sandwich that, judging by the looks of it, was sitting there waiting to be eaten for more than a few hours.
“So, not to bombard you with questions since you did just wake up and all,” Betta said as she held the remote out in front of her and dropped the level of the volume.
“But you’re going to anyway,” I answered with a side glance at her. I took a bite of the club sandwich when my stomach continued to growl.
“You’re getting to know me well,” she replied with a laugh. Moments later, the laughter died and she faced me with a serious countenance. “If we aren’t going back to see your sister, where are we going?”
I was grateful for the huge bite of sandwich I’d just taken. At least it prohibited me from having to respond to her question right away. Instead, I made a big show of masticating my food before swallowing it down with a generous gulp of Coke. “I don’t know,” I answered with no trace of apology as soon as my mouth was empty.
“Hmm,” Betta said as she eyed her plate of french fries, and then apparently no longer hungry, she shifted the plate to the bedside table. “That doesn’t sound like much of a plan.”
“That’s because it isn’t much of one,” I concurred.
“Can I ask you why you don’t want to go back to see your sister?”
I suddenly felt like I couldn’t eat anymore. Even though I’d only taken three or less bites of the sandwich and my stomach was still grumbling like a son of a bitch, I was no longer hungry. “You can probably guess.”
Betta frowned before shaking her head. “I have no idea. I mean, it seems like you and your sister get along fine from what Sinjin said and what you’ve told me about her.”
“We do get along fine,” I answered with a shrug.
“So I don’t get it,” she finished.
“Things are different now,” I started, and my attention fell to the darkness outside my window. The streetlamps flickered on and bathed the parking lot in an ominous yellow. “I’m different now.”
“You are the same person you always were,” Betta argued, shaking her head emphatically as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked annoyed.
“No,” I answered immediately. “I’m not.”
“Yes, you are,” she insisted, sitting up straighter as she eyed me fiercely. “And if you allow what happened to you to change how you see yourself, all that means is that you’re letting them win.”
“I don’t even know what that means,” I grumbled with a deep breath. I exhaled it in a great show that suggested I didn’t want to continue our conversation.
“It means, what happened to you is wrong and inexcusable,” Betta answered, her tone of voice elevated with emotion. “And you can’t change that. But if you let it change how you view yourself, then Luce ultimately wins.”
“I don’t want to talk about this,” I replied as I stood up and my heartbeat began to race. I could see her point, but it didn’t make hearing it any easier. My wounds were still too fresh, and too raw, and I didn’t want to face them. Not yet. Not here and not now. Well, if I were truly honest with myself, I never wanted to discuss it. Ever.
Betta was about to open her mouth, seemingly to argue, but a strident knock on the door adjoining ours to Sinjin’s interrupted her.
“Come in,” I called out immediately, only too pleased for the distraction.
“I do hope you ladies are ready to continue our travels?” he said, and his English accent sounded particularly heavy.
“I just need to shower and then change into my new clothes and I’ll be ready to go,” I announced as I started for the bathroom door, not waiting for anyone to attempt to change my mind with more useless conversations.
ELEVEN
Sinjin turned on the ignition of the Porsche and the car hummed in a steady purr, sounding ready for whatever paces Sinjin intended to put it through. But, rather than taking off at a high speed or any speed at all, we all just sat in the parking lot, looking at each other. I turned from Sinjin to Betta and noticed she was watching him from where she sat in the backseat with her eyebrows furrowed. Obviously pleased at finding himself the object of our attention, Sinjin first glanced at me and then at her. His boyish and contented smile suggested he enjoyed being our focal point.
“Um, how come we aren’t moving?” Betta asked finally, a frown marring her otherwise pretty face. “Is there something wrong with the car?”
“The Porsche,” Sinjin corrected her before giving me a wink. It should have irritated me, but somehow, it didn’t.
“Isn’t a Porsche a car?” Betta asked me, shrugging.
“Don’t pay any attention to him,” I replied with a scowl at Sinjin.
Sinjin sighed like he was admitting defeat. “I suppose a rose by any other name would also smell as sweet.” Then he looked at Betta’s reflection in the rearview mirror, and added, “And, no, there is nothing wrong with the Porsche, at least, not that I am aware of.”
“Oh,” Betta said, biting her lip as she faced me. Arching her eyebrows, her expression said, I have no idea why we’re still sitting here then.
“And as to why we are not moving,” Sinjin continued with a brief glance at me before allowing his gaze to rest on Betta’s reflection again, “I am not certain where our next move should be.” He looked at me again and his eyebrows began to rise loftily. “You see, the third member of our motley crew has yet to inform me as to where I should deliver you both.”
I cleared my throat and didn’t feel at all comfortable. Sinjin was right. I had no idea where to tell him to take us because I didn’t know where I wanted to go. “Just drive,” I answered. Even though it wasn’t much of a plan, it was the only one I had, so I figured I’d better be okay with it.
“Very well,” Sinjin said as he shifted the Porsche into drive and headed for the driveway leading out of the motel parking lot. When he reached the road, he braked and turned to face me. “Shall I turn left? Or right?”
“Turn whichever direction will get us the hell out of Montana the fastest,” I responded. If I sounded very put out, it was because I wasn’t amused by his game. It also didn’t help that I had no idea which way he should turn because I didn’t know where we were headed, much less how to get there.
Sinjin shrugged. “One direction will take us to North Dakota and the other to Idaho, or possibly Wyoming.” Then he was quiet for a few seconds. “As you can see, both directions will lead us out of Rome, as it were.”
Betta giggled in the backseat, but grew quiet as her attention settled on me. I realized they were both awaiting my decision. A decision I felt unqualified
to make. “I don’t care which direction you go in,” I answered with my lips tight. “I just want to get as far away from here as fast as possible.”
And as far away from Luce too, I added to myself.
“Hmm,” Sinjin replied as he moved forward and swung a right turn onto the two-lane road. He revved the engine and seconds later, we flew down the street at a speed that I was more than sure was in conflict with the posted limit. He glanced over at me with a devilish smile and I wondered how any woman could ignore her baser needs when in the company of Sinjin.
“You are a seriously fast driver,” Betta said from the back seat. But rather than sounding concerned, she sounded impressed, excited even.
“Speed limits were designed by those who do not drive Porsches,” Sinjin responded to which I just groaned and Betta giggled. “And since it is quite a long drive to the land of ‘I do not yet know where we are going’, I figure I should make use of this automobile’s potential.”
Betta’s laugh was almost irritating.
“Yeah yeah,” I grumbled and then frowned, not wanting to encourage him in any way.
“Scotland is quite far from Montana, my little imp,” he continued, eyeing me with unconcealed zest. “Approximately seven thousand kilometers.”
“Ha-ha,” I answered with little humor.
“What’s that in miles?” Betta piped up.
“Nearly four thousand, two hundred,” Sinjin replied. I allowed my attention to rest on the darkness outside of my window. I couldn’t help wishing I had a better plan—that I had a clear destination set out in my head, a place that I wanted to make my own, a place I could call home. But the notion of a home was the farthest thing from my mind—so far, it was almost meaningless.
“Shall I just continue on this road then?” Sinjin asked as he turned to face me. “With no clear destination in mind?”
“Just drive,” I answered dryly. “Just keep going … straight.”
“Very well,” Sinjin replied, cocking his head to the side as he studied me for a few seconds, nodding his head as he took me in from head to waist.
“May I comment that you fill out those jeans quite nicely?” he asked as I frowned at him. Even though I was thrilled to have a new change of clothing, even if the blouse and the sweater were certainly matronly by anyone’s estimation (they were courtesy of an old lady, after all), they were far better than hospital scrubs.
“No,” I responded testily. “And keep your eyes on the road. You might be immortal, but don’t forget that Betta and I aren’t.”
“My sincere apologies if my driving frightens you,” he said with a chuckle. Then he flashed me a wide grin that made me feel like a hive of bees dropped into my stomach and were now buzzing around in a mad frenzy.
“It doesn’t frighten me,” I answered stiffly. “I’m just reminding you of your flesh and blood companions who, thankfully, don’t share your vampiric gifts.”
Sinjin nodded hurriedly while raising his eyebrows and tacitly suggesting I wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. “I am afraid that it is quite impossible for me not to be fully aware at all times that my companions are made of sweet flesh and mouth-watering blood,” he said softly. His tone of voice actually managed to instigate rows of goose bumps up and down my arms.
“Well, good …” I started, but he interrupted me.
“I can hear the blood pulsing through your veins.” He narrowed his gaze on me and I found myself suddenly gulping. “I hear your heart beating; no, it is thundering inside your chest. I hear the rush of your red, delicious blood traveling through your body.” I half-wondered if my heart stopped beating for a few seconds, such was the effect his words were having on me. “The sound is nearly deafening.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Betta piped up from the backseat, sounding somewhat alarmed.
“That, my dear, should convey the message that I have not supped in a long while. I am, quite honestly, growing rather ravenous,” Sinjin replied as he eyed her reflection in the rearview mirror.
“Bryn?” Betta asked as she turned to face me. The worry was almost comically evident in her wide eyes. I could tell she was apprehensive about being trapped in such a small, confined space with a hungry vampire. I wasn’t sure why it didn’t worry me …
“He’s not going to eat us,” I said, waving away her concern with my hand, while wondering if I were the more foolish one. I faced him and frowned. “Sinjin, stop scaring her.”
“I apologize, my dear,” Sinjin told Betta through the rearview mirror again. “I did not intend to frighten you; and of course, I do not plan to eat either of you. That sounds rather boorish and I am much more refined, I must admit.”
“Sometimes I think you go on and on just to hear yourself talk,” I grumbled, not meaning to sound so cross, but there it was.
Sinjin immediately fastened his delectable blue eyes on me and smiled even wider. He always appeared to be cool, calm and confident, no matter the situation. I could count on one hand the number of times I’d ever witnessed him actually losing his cool. “While I must confess to rather enjoying the intonation of my vocal chords, such is not the case … at the moment,” he continued, not appearing offended by my statement at all, in true Sinjin form. “At the moment, though, I am more concerned with my appetite; I have not swallowed my life’s fuel in quite a long while.”
“Great,” I muttered, shaking my head. I didn’t like the sound of that at all. “So what does that mean? Do you need to pull over and what? Hunt for a deer or something?”
Sinjin didn’t reply, but looked at me blankly for about three seconds. “A deer?” he finally said, and did sound offended this time.
“Well, I don’t know what all you feed on!” I railed back, feeling defensive and embarrassed both at once.
“I can assure you that I never feed on wild animals!” he growled at me, frowning, and then shook his head as he muttered under his breath: “A deer!”
“No need to get your tail feathers all ruffled,” I grumbled while Betta giggled from the backseat. “It was a legitimate mistake.”
“Legitimate mistake?” Sinjin repeated, his tail feathers obviously still very much ruffled. “Perhaps I need to enlighten you as to the many differences between a suave vampire and a primitive wolf!”
“No, you don’t,” I retorted, glaring at him. The last thing I wanted to get into was a full-blown debate over the finer qualities of a vampire when compared to the baser traits of the werewolf. We’d had that conversation way too many times already. “Please spare us another lengthy speech,” I started, rolling my eyes at him. “It’s not like you ever convinced me that a vampire is in any way superior to the werewolf in the first place! As far as I’m concerned, they’re equally degenerates.”
“Is that so?” Sinjin said with little humor.
“That’s so.”
“If you don’t eat animals …” Betta chimed in from the backseat. She apparently sensed the need to calm the air between us.
“I do not eat anything!” Sinjin insisted. His tone of voice was elevated with indignation as he slammed both of his palms into the steering wheel for added theatrics.
“Okay, so if you don’t suck the blood from animals,” Betta corrected herself, still completely unfazed by what she was asking, “from what or whom, exactly, do you … drink?”
“Us,” I interjected before allowing my gaze to rest on Sinjin. “He prefers drinking human blood.”
“You aren’t really a human,” Betta pointed out, frowning at me. “You’re an Elemental.”
“Well, you get what I mean,” I muttered, shaking my head.
“Your statement, my little imp, is not entirely accurate,” Sinjin countered, his eyebrows raised in amusement as he focused on me.
“What do you mean, not entirely accurate’?” I demanded, turning to face him. My eyebrows rose incredulously. “Since when do you not drink from humans?”
“I do not drink from just any human,” he expla
ined, smiling lasciviously. “Or just any Elemental, as the case may be.”
“So who or what do you drink from?” I persisted, crossing my arms over my chest because I had a feeling another Sinjin speech was about to rear its unwanted head.
“I only drink the blood of a human or Elemental of the female persuasion,” he informed us both. The look of unbridled hunger shone in his eyes when they came to rest on me. I immediately recalled the last time Sinjin drank my blood. He’d confessed that it was unlike the blood of any other woman he’d ever tasted. Apparently, it actually made him feel warm— and that was a comment I never would have believed if I hadn’t touched him, myself, and proved it.
“Oh,” Betta said before turning every shade of red.
“And, furthermore,” Sinjin continued, eyeing Betta in the mirror, “my hunger only results in pleasure to my … muse.”
“Don’t you mean your victim?” I asked with a facetious laugh. Sinjin frowned at me and I could tell by the expression on Betta’s face that she hadn’t even heard me.
“Pleasure?” she repeated, her eyes glued onto his. There was an expression of fear mixed with intrigue plastered on her face. Yep, Sinjin certainly knew how to trap them … I had to half wonder if he weren’t bewitching her through the mirror. However, I couldn’t imagine he’d have the gall to do that in my presence. He must’ve known that if he even attempted it, I’d grind him into vampire meat in two seconds flat. Well, maybe four.
“Don’t let him fool you,” I started. Glancing back at her, I shook my head, not wanting to encourage her in the least. “There’s nothing pleasurable about it. It doesn’t feel good at all.” I immediately shuddered as I recalled the feeling of his fangs sinking into my flesh and the intensity of the ensuing stinging pain. “In fact, it hurts like an SOB.”
“The only reason you experienced any pain from my bite was because you would not allow me to bewitch you, Princess,” Sinjin interjected before facing Betta again. “The third member of our trio would not have felt so much as a pin prick had she consented to allow me to use my … abilities to take the pain away. Instead, she preferred to play the part of a fearless warrior.” When he turned to face me again, he quirked an eyebrow in my direction. “A role she insists on assuming ad nauseum.”
The Scent (The Bryn and Sinjin Series Book 2) Page 14
