by C. L. Quinn
144
Chapter Ten
Vancouver was quieter than he expected for such a busy city. And of course, he had no idea where to start. Zach pulled his cell out and texted Dwayne to let him know where he was and how he got his lead. Dwayne didn’t text him back, but it was pretty late by the time he arrived in Canada. But he thought someone should know where he was. In case something went wrong.
A good hotel was first order. He knew he was running on empty. A good night’s rest and he’d be able to begin figuring out how to try to find her in this city. For that, he was definitely going to engage a private detective. He’d already found one through the internet that had a good reputation in this area. Another quick search and he engaged a room at a medium level hotel just inside the city limits. And food. Aw, god, he wanted to eat everything in sight. But the classic, a fully loaded pizza, was what he really wanted, so after he checked in, dropped his small bag and made a call to his secretary, he locked up and went down to his car. On the way in he’d passed a late night pizzeria.
There were two young women ahead of him, so he waited patiently to place his order for a pizza they called the Great Northern Beast. He had them add a two liter bottle of coke to the order and stepped back to wait the twenty minutes until the huge pizza would be ready.
Three hulked up men came in after he’d finished his order, laughing riotously, hitting each other, and tripping each other. Rough play. One of them drew blood when he struck the other on the cheek. Zach stepped back as far against the wall to finish his wait. They ordered six of the Northern Beasts and stepped back to wait, too near to Zach.
One of them glanced at Zach and dismissed him immediately.
“Only place to get food this time of night. This city would suck for our kind. But, the pizza is pretty fucking nice,” the largest guy said to his companions.
Zach kept his eyes downcast, glad to hear at least his food would be fucking nice. His mind wondered to his purpose here and he pulled the photo out of his pocket and looked at the reason he’d gone off his grid. Where are you, he thought. Just please be alive when I find you.
He noticed one of the raucous guys staring at the picture. When he saw that Zach noticed him looking at it, he grinned.
“Pretty girl,” he said with an odd smile.
“Yeah,” Zach said and slid it back in his pocket. Bad vibes from these guys. Very bad vibes. He moved over to the other side of the eatery to wait. His pizza was ready a few minutes later and he left quickly. God, he hoped some asshole like them didn’t have Park.
The pizza was awesome. At least four different types of meat and three different types of cheese, loaded three inches deep. He’d have awful heartburn, but right now, it was so good, he didn’t care. He couldn’t find anything on the television that kept his interest, so when he’d killed three quarters of the Beast, he shut off the lights and lay down to get much needed rest. Almost as soon as he touched the cheap linen, he was out.
Somewhere in the night, from a deep dreamless sleep, Zach awakened to the sound of voices, whispers, but they woke him and he knew instantly he was in trouble. The door to his hotel room had been double locked with the safety chain on, but someone had broken in and he was unarmed and naked. In a strange city with no support, he couldn’t imagine this going well. When he opened his eyes, he saw the smaller man from the pizza joint grinning at him in that strange way he had earlier.
The man leaned in, his teeth bad and his breath worse. “You got bad luck, buddy. Bad timing, little human. We just need to send a little note to a friend. Sorry, but you’re it.” Zach tried to rise up, prepared to defend himself, when a sharp blow to the back of his head made the world spin. The last thing he saw was a sheet being pulled over his head.
Bernie lay prone on the hard concrete floor, rolled up on her side. She’d managed to tear part of her clothes off, the front of her shirt in tatters hanging from her side, the thin bra shredded and discarded on the floor. It was common. The transition was all about heat and fire as the cells transformed, but taking clothes off didn’t help…the heat was internal and relentless.
Vaz thought she had the most magnificent breasts he’d ever seen. They were really full, rounded, with no sag at all. When she was raging at him earlier he hadn’t been able to look at anything but the spectacular globes bouncing as she yanked the chains and suggested he do things that, even as a vampire, he didn’t think was possible. But looking at her body, he thought, once she finished the transition, and was less dangerous, he’d like to give a few of those suggestions a try.
She was dirty… covered in blood and drool. Her hair had been a bleached blonde, but was growing at an accelerated rate with the change, and was now its original color of dark honey blonde, still tipped with the platinum. Her eyes had finished the transition and were now milk chocolate brown. With her Scandinavian coloring, he didn’t think they would go black like so many of them did. Still, he thought she looked wildly sexy, and that made him sitting there on the bench, watching her, horny as hell.
Even though she was lying still at the moment, she was fully awake and staring at him.
Suddenly she lifted her head and stared at him.
“What the fuck. You have an erection.”
He didn’t answer, it was apparent he did.
She got up and pulled against the chains again, stretched as close to him as she could get.
“You want some of this. Come on, come and get it.”
He laughed. “You’d tear me apart right now. Ask me again when you’re sane.”
Bernie put her hands on her breasts and began to slowly roll her nipples around. Vaz felt his penis twitching. Man this was a hard job.
“Come on. Vampires are sex animals, I already got that. All you have to do is come over here and I’ll take you in my mouth. Come on, that you can’t refuse.”
He watched her, his pants so tight he was going to have to do something about it. Not what she suggested though.
“Lady, I can if I know you’ll bite it off.”
She continued to stare and then unsnapped her pants, unzipped them and let them drop. She was naked beneath them. Putting her finger in her mouth, she licked it sensually and then dropped it between her legs and fingered the slit that had all of Vaz’s attention now. He kept his eyes there as she kept hers on him. She started moving against the finger, slipping it in and out, faster and faster, watching his breathing become more rugged. And at some point she moaned and forgot she was doing it to punish him and dropped down on the floor, frantically working the area with her whole hand now, rubbing, twisting, until she came, hard and fast, with a scream right there on the floor in front of Vaz. He was on the floor now, too, closer than he should have been, nearly reached out to her, the top snap of his jeans undone, the zipper slid down to release the tightness. She reached for him and their fingers touched. She dove for him then, tried to grab him, but he rolled away, collapsing against the front of the concrete bench.
Bernie growled and yanked against her chains. “That could have been you in there. Fuck you. You won’t get another chance!”
God, she was magnificent, wild and fiery from the orgasm and anger.
He stood up and lowered his pants, let her see him.
“Yes, I will. When you are finished with this, I’ll come to you like this and you’ll want it. You haven’t had sex as vampire yet. There isn’t anything on this earth that feels like it. I’m going to be your first.”
He pulled his pants up and walked to the door. “I need to go take care of this. I’ll be back as soon as it’s done.”
Bernie was licking her lips. “Why don’t you do it here, right now, let me watch.”
He was huge, long and hard, and she did want it. Him.
“That’s a reward you’ll have to wait for. I mean it, baby vampire. I want to see you licking your lips like that again when you’re finished.” He left quickly, closing and locking the door behind him. Bernie stood quietly for a moment and then pulled again
st the chains so hard her wrists bled.
He could hear her shrieks through the heavily reinforced door and he smiled.
Jake carried the body into the foyer, being careful not to let the blood get on the carpets. He dropped it in the middle of the custom tile. Damn, he hoped the grout would clean up.
Bas had just arrived, Iain and Mick right behind him, Dez trailing them.
“Who is it, do we know?”
“No. Human. He’s done for. Like the others, torn to hell. Anyone recognize him? Is he anyone’s blood-bond?” Jake asked.
Iain, Dez, and Mick shook their heads. It was an odd warning. A human who had no connection to them? What was the message?
“I don’t understand,” Iain said. “What is he trying to tell us?”
“He’s a fucking nut. I hope he isn’t telling us he’s going to start killing random humans. If this becomes a blood bath, we won’t be able to contain it. It’ll go wide. The human authorities will be all over it. We can’t let that happen.” Bas squatted to get a look at the dying man who was gasping for his final breath. It wouldn’t be long now. He could smell death coming.
“Sorry, buddy. In the wrong place at the wrong time.” He stood back up.
“Well, if he’s not connected to us, that’s probably exactly what it means.”
A sharp snap on the stairwell behind them got everyone’s attention. And they turned to see Park coming toward them with a smile and a handful of Oreo cookies.
“Hi, guys, what…”
Her eyes suddenly caught the image of the man on the floor that had been obscured by the legs of the men. Oh, no…
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Stranger,” answered Jake. “Human. Well, dead human in a few moments.”
Park surged past Bas, even though he tried to grab her and stop her. He let his hands drop. It appeared she wasn’t going to let him protect her from the harsher elements of the vampire world.
The cookies shattered against the hard floor. Bas watched her go down on her knees in the blood beside the naked blonde man. Ah, hell.
“Zachary!” she said, looking back at Bas. “It’s the man I had a date with the night we…met. What’s he doing here?”
“We have no idea. But Shanks or his boys attacked him tonight and left him at the beginning of the lane.”
Jake lifted his eyebrows. “At least we know the connection now.”
A deep groan came from the man on the floor and his eyes opened a tiny bit. “Park,” he managed to get out. He stared at her without seeming to focus, and she leaned down to him.
“I found you.” Then his head dropped back and he was unconscious again.
Park stood up, her face white and expressionless. “It’s me. It’s my fault. He came looking for me.” She looked up at Bas, her eyes glistening.
Bas groaned. “Ah, hell!”
Tilting his head, he looked at the woman he was falling in love with and rolled his eyes. Falling in love with? Where did that come from?
“Jake, take him to a cell. I’ll be right there.”
Park smiled and gave him a kiss.
“Thank you. He’s a really good man. He’ll be an asset, I promise.”
Jake motioned for a guard to take him away. “Bas, you’re already giving large amounts of blood to the other one. It isn’t a good idea.”
Dez stepped forward. “I’ll do it. I haven’t sired one in over a hundred years. It’s past time.”
Park came toward the female vampire, a good six inches taller than her. Dez stepped back. “Uh, no…don’t need the hug. Got it covered.”
“Thank you anyway.”
Without responding, Dez followed the guard.
144
Chapter Eleven
Bas pulled Park with him as he headed up the stairs toward the kitchen. He called Cherise to bring Park a new dress since the one she was wearing was covered in her friend’s blood.
“Let’s get you something to eat. Eugene is already in the kitchen and he’s making a few of his favorites for you.”
She followed him, but slowly.
“Park, Dez is going to turn him,” he reassured her. “We’ll save him.”
“I know. Thank you. But it still feels horrible to know he was nearly killed for me. I didn’t pay enough attention. Bas, he said he found me. I forgot to call and let them know I was okay. Bennie must have called the police and reported me missing.” She gasped. “Oh, shit! I bet he was accused! Bennie knew I had a date with him, and then I came up missing. That’s why he was here. All of it. All of it is my fault. Bas, you have to get that monster before he kills anyone else!”
“That’s the plan. But right now, you and I need to discuss something else.” He paused as he led her into the plush breakfast area of the kitchen. It had a formal dining room adjacent to it, but Bas had them construct a cozy seating area with plush chairs and benches for informal meals. That was actually where they usually ate. The formal dining area sat abandoned except for the one or two times a year he entertained.
Park chose a long cushioned bench and curled up on it, pulling her legs up under her.
“Yes, Bas. What is so urgent?”
“You.”
It caused a frown on Park’s face. Was this where he came to his senses and realized she was just a dull ordinary human being and he wanted to send her home?
He felt her emotions and frowned back at her.
“This is what I mean. That flaming bitch took a gorgeous brilliant little girl and destroyed her. Park, I am going to make you understand how incredible you are. It breaks me when you lose yourself and think you’re disposable. You’re not.” He moved in close and took her face in his hands the way she loved, his dark eyes compelling her jade ones to look at him. This time she did not resist. “Listen to me. Hear me. I want you, I need you, and you are going nowhere. Not without me, anyway. What I want is to find your birth parents, both of them. Park, I know you don’t understand this, you don’t believe it, but you are not completely human. I’m serious when I tell you you’re something different, special. You healed from a gunshot wound and surgery to remove it, in minutes with no trace.. Even vampires can’t do that. Your blood is exceptional. Ambrosia to vampires. I’ve never felt stronger than when I was on your blood. But I don’t know what you are. It’s important that we find out. So I need to ask you some questions.”
She nodded, so grateful to not be sent away. “What do you want to know?”
“I need your names, your full name, your mother’s, your father’s, where you were born, where you lived. A friend your mother may have gone to stay with. Any place you can think she might have gone. If there is anything you can remember at all about your childhood that could shed light on your origins. And Park. We need to talk about your abilities. Your empathic touch, your telepathic skill…that thing you did in the vision I intercepted about the asshole in your bedroom. You threw him across the room with no more than a thought. Admit it, taken altogether, you are very unique.” He moved closer. She couldn’t keep her eyes off him. “I think your mother knew.”
That startled her. “You think my mother knew I was not normal?”
“I think she knew you were different. I’ve thought about this a lot. The way she kept you trapped in those apartments. Wouldn’t send you to school. She always told you that you couldn’t have sex, that it was wrong for you. When she sent that old bastard into your room with you, you probably don’t remember this, but I paid attention. She specifically told him no intercourse. Park, I think she was afraid of you getting pregnant. I think she was afraid of you. You’re powerful, and she knew why.”
Park was staring into space now, her mind searching her memories. “She always looked at me as if she didn’t know me, like she hated me.”
“I think it’s because she did know. We need to find her. What was her name?”
Park let herself calm back down and come back to the present. “Um, it was…Brenda Collier. I think her friends called her Rena. I don
’t know her birth year, but the day and month were November twenty eighth. I remember that well because every year on that day she would lock me in my room and go out to celebrate her birthday. She wouldn’t come back until the next day, and a few times, not until a couple of days. I always wondered what mine was, but I never knew back then. We, uh, never celebrated mine.”
Everything Park told him about her childhood shocked him. He wrote down the name. “So your name is Park Collier.” He started to write it down when she said, “No.” He looked up.
“No. My name on record is Punk. Punk Collier.”
“What? Officially?”
“Yeah. I guess she told them it was an old family name, European. They let her go ahead and name me that. It’s on my birth certificate.”
“And that’s what she called you?”
Park snorted. “No. She never called me that. There were a lot of other things…names…the nicest was little bitch. I sort of learned to like that one. I can’t believe I’m telling you this. Anyway, when I left and decided to go to college, I changed it to Park. It was close to the one on my birth certificate and I was able to convince them that it was a typo that never got fixed. I didn’t have any trouble after that. So I became Park.”
He stared at her and then pulled her into his arms, kissed her forehead. “You don’t realize how amazing you are that you lived like that and still became such an incredible woman. I bow down to you in awe.”
Without knowing it, Bas’s love and acceptance was working, and somewhere in a dark corner, where a little girl sat hiding, a light came on, and she thought that maybe…just maybe…there might be a place in this world where she could belong. Someone who would want her.
She pulled away and swiped the moisture beneath her eyes.
“Weren’t you going to feed me?”
