by Judy Teel
With a kind of sick fascination, I watched Lord Bellmonte's mania recede and knew that I'd made a terrible mistake. Only the oldest vamps had that level of control. That made him stronger, faster and smarter than anything I'd ever encountered. If he'd wanted to kill me that first day, he would have crushed my throat before I knew what hit me.
My mouth went dry. Having the interest of a creature like that was not good. Not good at all.
He watched me processing all of this as his face smoothed back into human contours. His eyes returned to their cold, crystal blue and filled with satisfaction. Without taking his gaze from me, he licked the blood from around the wound on the neck of the girl, whose eyes had rolled back as she succumbed to ecstasy and oblivion.
My stomach churned and I tensed, preparing for retreat while I shifted my weight to shield my right hand. Rolling the needle-like dart from my palm to between thumb and forefinger, I pinched it firmly. If he charged, I might have a split second to defend myself, and I intended to make the most of it.
"How dare you," he said, his tone surprisingly mild as he leveraged the limp girl into a sitting position. He hoisted her into his arms as he stood. "Ms. Fairview will have to be reprimanded for allowing you to interrupt."
I pushed down my alarm for the older woman's likely fate and opted for a bravado I didn't feel. "Do you really think she could have stopped me?"
"I, myself, trained her how to shoot." He moved carefully around the desk and crossed to the high-backed sofa in the corner. After settling the unconscious girl against the sedately beige and gold pillows, he picked up the fur throw and draped it over the back.
"Boldness can be useful. Many find it irresistibly attractive," he commented as he spread the blanket over his donor. "It can also be dangerously rude." He strolled back to his desk. Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned his hip against the edge. "If you have news that pleases me, I may let you live."
The image of Marla's frightened face flashed across my mind. "Your lawyer goons showed up at the precinct tonight."
"Ah. And you don't appreciate them relieving you of your catch? Your fears are ungrounded, my hunter. Your fee for capturing the woman has already been deposited into your account."
A surge of molten fury swept over me. I forcefully reminded myself of what a dangerous monster Lord Bellmonte was so I wouldn't do anything stupid. "Thank you," I gritted out, nearly choking on the words. "But that's not why I'm here."
He watched me, a cruel kind of curiosity marking his features, reminding me of a child with a magnifying glass and a newly discovered ant hill.
"You have the wrong person," I said.
"The human arrested by you and Agent Daine tried to kill you with the same weapon that was used on my protégé and the bartender. Is this not correct?"
"Without the body of your protégé, we can't know that."
An unnerving smile swept his lips up, revealing the hint of white teeth and the small gaps that marked the exit points of his fangs. "My staff can easily determine that fact."
"I don't think it's her. There are too many contradictory stories, and I need time to sort through them. If she's not guilty and you kill her, we may never find who really did it."
"That's for me to determine, not you."
Frustration dissolved the latest shot of crisis-induced adrenalin in my bloodstream and a wave of exhaustion slammed into my shoulders and chest like wet cement. I rubbed the bridge of my nose with the wrist of my right hand and wondered how the hell I could convince him. If only I could get some sleep, I felt sure I'd be able to grab hold of whatever key detail kept eluding me.
A brush of air across my cheek was my only warning, and then hard hands gripped my upper arms, immobilizing me. I pulled back, but Bellmonte pressed forward, pushing my shoulders against the door and trapping my hand between our bodies. We were the same height and his face filled my vision as his eyes darkened with a different kind of hunger.
"I should kill you and be done with it," he hissed, his gaze flickering over my mouth before coming back to my eyes, "but then I would never know." He gave me a light shake. "Why do I tolerate your insolence? Why do you fascinate me?" His expression tightened as his fangs slid down. "I will know the truth of it. I will own you, or I will kill you."
I didn't waste time telling him he was delusional. With a flick of my wrist, I jabbed the needle deep into the base of his throat and snapped off the end. With the vacuum inside the hollow tube broken, the vamp poison released quickly into his bloodstream. His eyes widened in shock, and he stumbled away from me, clawing at his throat.
"Burns like a mother, doesn't it?" I slammed my palms into his chest, and he wobbled back another couple of feet. He lost his balance and caught himself on the edge of the desk. "Don't worry, it's not a fatal dose. I'm not ready to kill you yet. Just wanted to make a point."
I stalked after him, my anger mounting, and for the first time I saw a flicker of concern in his eyes. I pinned him to the desk, much like he'd trapped me against the door. Leaning in, I brought my face close to his, our lips nearly touching. "Listen up, Bellmonte. I. Am. Not. Prey."
The poison hit his brain, and I watched his eyes roll back as he slid to the floor. I wished for a moment that I had a PRC collar. Without the owner's code, it was hard as the devil to get them off, and I would have enjoyed thinking about him struggling with his former humanity for a couple of hours.
Instead, I dragged his body over to the sofa and propped him into a sitting position on the floor with his head resting on the girl's shoulder. Since that had taken less than a minute, I went over to his desk and did some rifling. After the insult I'd just delivered, my life was worth less than nothing anyway, so why not?
Like the police, the older vamps tended to mistrust modern technology, preferring to do things the old fashioned way. After a couple of minutes I lucked out and located exactly the papers I was hoping to find, plus a bonus that might buy me an extension on the whole inevitable assassination thing. Rolling up the reports, I stuffed one into each boot and got out of there.
When the door was barely open, I squeezed back into the waiting area the way I'd left it, hoping to minimize the chance that Ms. Fairview would see sleeping beauty. I shouldn't have worried. She was too busy pacing back and forth, her face seeming to have aged about ten years in the ten minutes I was in Bellmonte's inner sanctum.
She looked up in surprise and started to speak, but I held up my hand for silence. Bolting over to her desk, I got the door closed as fast as possible. "He doesn't want to be disturbed," I said in a hushed voice. "The news I gave him was a little shocking."
"Oh dear," she said, fear clouding her already worried eyes. She pulled in a breath and started wringing her hands. "He's going to kill me," she whispered. And she meant it.
If I'd entertained any thoughts that Ms. Fairview was the informant who'd told me about Laiyla, I dropped them on the spot. Her nerves couldn't have taken the strain.
"I told him I overpowered you," I said, heading for the elevator. I figured I had maybe seven minutes to get out of there before his Highness came to. "In light of some new information, I think he'll understand." I pushed the down button, anxious to be on my way.
She glanced back and forth between me and the closed door, and then seemed to deflate. "No, he's going to kill me," she said, resigned to her fate. "Quickly, if I'm lucky."
I glanced at the numbers counting up, willed them to move faster, and then turned to Ms. Fairview. She was trying hard to be brave.
With a sigh, I pulled out the card Cooper had handed me as a joke when we'd gotten on the hoverbus to go to the club. He'd said that if we wanted to make it believable, then I ought to have his private phone number.
"Go to a public place and call Agent Daine. Tell him Addison said she didn't want you to be collateral damage. Can you do that?"
Her hand trembled as she took the card. "I...always knew this day would come. You can't work for them and not risk—" She pressed her lips toge
ther into a hard, determined line. After taking a moment to compose herself, she straightened her shoulders. "Despite everything, I'm glad you didn't kill him."
"What makes you think I didn't?" I asked as a dignified chime announced the arrival of the elevator.
"We'd have no reason to run if you had," she responded.
Surprised by her insight, I gave her a sharp look as we stepped aboard. Rethinking my assessment of the woman, I casually put my back to the wall so that I could keep an eye on her. As we descended to freedom, I added a new how-to-stay-alive policy to my mental list: never underestimate a good executive assistant.
* * *
The sound of someone pounding on my front door dragged me from a near-comatose sleep, and I wasn't happy about it. I fumbled with the iC on my bedside table and squinted at the readout: June 21st, 7:13 AM.
Did I say not happy? Try livid.
When I saw who it was, I opened the door and caught Cooper with his fist in the air, preparing for the next strike. He glanced with interest at my rumpled T-shirt and running shorts and then barged past and into my living room.
Wizard gave him the evil eye from the doorway of the bedroom, turned around and sauntered back to bed with the haughty plume of her tail in the air. She didn't appreciate having her sleep interrupted any more than I did.
"Please come in," I said sarcastically as I closed and re-set the locks on the door.
"Did you know that your account has been drained?" he asked.
"Did you know that humans need more sleep than Weres?" I schlepped wearily into the kitchen to start the coffee.
"I said your account's been drained. As in zero. No money. We got a red flag on it this morning."
I paused in the act of measuring out grounds into my other retro coffee maker and squinted at him. "You monitor my bank account?"
He gritted his teeth and I could practically see the impatience radiating off of him. "After Lord Bellmonte registered you as one of his hunters, your name went on a watch list. It's one of the ways the FBI can track hits. In case you haven't noticed, we tend to frown on murder and mayhem."
"Still—"
"The point is someone drained it just after 3:00 AM. Ironically about the time I got an interesting call from Lord Bellmonte's secretary. Care to explain?"
"Which lie do you want first?" I wasn't keen to admit that Bellmonte, himself, was probably the cause.
Bracing his legs, he crossed his arms and glared at me. Nothing like an outraged, frustrated male filling your living room when you're barely conscious.
"Take your pick, except make it the truth," he said, his scowl deepening.
I weighed the wisdom of that choice and concluded that I had nothing to be ashamed of. "I forced my way into Bellmonte's office last night. Ms. Fairview failed to stop me. There would have been consequences."
"Forced your..." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay. What are we supposed to do with her?"
"Protect her from becoming the victim of murder and mayhem. Duh. She might even be an asset to you. She probably knows a lot about vamp business and picked up a few secrets along the way."
"The flaw in your solution is that Lord Bellmonte hasn't broken any laws that we're aware of, so his business isn't ours. Does your forced entry have anything to do with your money going missing?"
"Possibly." I shrugged. "Joke's on him, though. I never wanted his blood money in the first place."
"Which still doesn't explain why."
I wanted to pretend that I hadn't heard him, but his gaze blazed at me steadily until I felt a little squirmy. "Fine," I said in exasperation. "One thing led to another and I sort of had to put Bellmonte in his place."
"Care to elaborate?" he said tightly.
The coffee maker started sputtering and hissing, which meant that semi-alert thinking might soon be mine. I needed that badly. Cooper was out-maneuvering me at a fast clip. I eyed the pile of dirty coffee mugs in my sink. "Let's just say that I left him resting comfortably."
"By the moon, Addison!" he bellowed. He clamped his mouth shut, paced away from me and then charged into the kitchen. "You were supposed to convince him not to jump to conclusions about the case. Plain and simple."
"I didn't do a very good job, apparently. He jumped to a lot of conclusions." I inspected my favorite mug, found it to be acceptable and gave it a quick rinse.
"And the Regent got his revenge by draining your bank account?"
"Can't drain 'em one way, drain 'em another, I guess."
The emotions radiating off of him jumped to a new track and suddenly he was turning me away from the sink and cupping my face in gentle, warm hands. I didn't have time to brace myself for being that close to him and my heart jumped into my throat, sending the hyper butterflies that seemed to have permanently taken up residence in my stomach into a panic.
"He bit you?" Cooper rumbled.
"The option was on the table," I whispered, struggling to get the burst of feelings bunching around my heart under control.
His gaze narrowed. "He tried to feed on a Federal agent?"
"Um...among other things."
A wild fury flared in his silver-green eyes.
"Look on the bright side," I offered, trying to sound like I didn't care about any of this. "Now I'll have to work with you on the VR case to pay my bills."
"That's not the point," he said, his tone sharp. "He went too far. He'll want you dead for denying him." His gaze skated over my face and hair, and a look of pained tenderness softened his expression. Pulling away, he stared at the coffee maker as if he'd suddenly been caught out.
I wiped sweaty palms on my shorts and felt awkward. "He's just making a point. If he wanted me dead, I would be. But he doesn't. I, um, managed to get my hands on some information that he won't want getting out."
Cooper's momentary tenderness evaporated and his annoyed glare zeroed back on me. "Addison," he growled, "what else did you do?"
Turning my back on him, I filled up Betty Boop with steaming black coffee. "He didn't make any objections, so what's the big deal?" I faced him and leaned against the counter, cradling the coffee mug in my hands. "How's Marla doing?"
He frowned. "Going through withdrawal and still refusing to talk." Shouldering me aside, he selected a mug with a beach scene and started washing it out with dish soap.
I mentally breathed a sigh of relief that he was willing to change the subject. "I put in a couple of requests to Falcon last night. Hope to get the answers this morning." I took a gulp of coffee and let the bitterness and scalding heat of it fire up my brain cells.
"About?"
"Kathy also mentioned that she and Marla had worked in New York a few years ago. That's right before Marla showed up at Tasson's school. There might be a connection."
"I don't know how that could tie in with any of the murders. All I see is a paranoid donor who's fried her brain on VR and is capable of anything."
"What about the inter-dimensional whatever? That's part of this, too. "
He filled his cup with coffee and took a cautious sip. "Marla would have been a minor when she visited Tasson's school. Under the circumstances, he probably lied about her refusing to join. If she did attend, she could have picked up a few magic tricks, maybe done a little studying on her own, and then gotten someone with real abilities to poke a few holes between dimensions for her."
"That's a stretch."
"Exactly."
I bristled. "At least I'm trying to find answers instead of stuffing the case into a convenient 'drug addict' box and calling it a day."
"At least I'm not stubbornly ruffling dangerous feathers. Eventually you're going to go too far."
"Putting myself in danger is my own business, not yours."
He put his cup on the counter and stared down at me, his expression serious. "I care about you, Addison. A lot."
"And at least I'm keeping an open mi—" His words sank in and my annoyance crumpled with the shock. "What?"
"Let me take you ou
t. On a real date. Probably several of them."
"No. Absolutely not." My hand shook, sloshing drops of coffee all over Betty's face.
Cooper gently eased the cup out of my grip and set it next to his. He ran his palms up and down my bare arms, soothing and caressing and making heat spread into places that I didn't want to think about. "What are you afraid of?"
"Nothing much. Just the danger of breaking professional boundaries," I said with fierce bravado.
"I'm not proposing."
"I hear a 'yet' in there."
"I want to spend time with you that doesn't involve chasing down criminals. I want to get to know you."
Those soothing hands skated across my skin one last time, and then lightly cupped my face again. "You're going to kiss me, aren't you?" I accused, staring up into eyes the color of a moonlit meadow.
"I am. You won't shoot me will you?" He bent his head toward me, moving with slow deliberation.
"I might," I answered, mesmerized by the dip and curve of his lips and their velvet texture.
"We'll see," he murmured and his lips brushed across mine.
They felt soft and firm, just like I remembered. He hesitated, barely touching me, as if waiting to see if he was in for a fight. I held still, breathing him in as a place deep inside of me quivered with fear and longing.
Stepping closer, Cooper kissed me again, lingering over it like he was tasting the first strawberry of the season. My knees went to butter and a sigh caught in my throat. I grabbed his shoulders to keep from falling, and he wrapped his arms around me, securing me snugly against his chest.
An eternity later we pulled apart, breathless. My heart pounded and my body sang with something that might have been happiness. I felt my cheeks heating as he gazed down at me, triumph and wanting bright on his face.
"Think about it," he said, his voice husky.
I watched him let himself out of my apartment and knew I'd have a hard time thinking about anything else.
* * *
Later that morning, I sat at one of the outside tables of the bakery across from Falcon's shop, watching and waiting. Magical Bits, as I liked to think of it when I was desperate for entertainment, opened at ten. Falcon planned to arrive an hour early to meet with me. I hoped he came sooner because I wasn't enjoying having nothing better to do than watch the street for Bellmonte's thugs and struggle with my feelings for Cooper.
