Vampire's Companion

by Jory Strong

  “No buts.”

  “Moving on then, I gather your partner is dating Skye.”

  Israel’s laugh was met by Cia’s scowl. He sent her a smile that was equal parts challenge and wicked satisfaction. “More than dating. Only death will separate the three of them.”

  “Three?” Tessa stood. “Now it’s killing me that I don’t have time to hear all the details. I should already be on my way to the airport.”

  “You want me to drive you?” Cia asked.

  “No. I’m good.” Tessa fished a set of keys from her pocket, handing them to Cia. “Donna Kramer’s phone number and address are on my desk. Walk me to my car?”

  Cia left the kitchen table. Israel followed, stopping in the house doorway.

  The two of them continued to Tessa’s car, a hybrid like Cia’s, except a Prius instead of a LEAF. Under normal circumstances he wouldn’t have been able to hear Tessa’s reassurance that Cia would ultimately be able to handle having taken a life in the course of doing her job.

  The blood connection changed that. His to Terach’s. Terach’s to Cia. As if the leash of his slavery had been transferred from vampire to companion.

  His lips pulled back at the analogy. The lingering taste of macaroni salad turned bitter on his tongue, only fading when the topic of conversation changed.

  “You don’t have a thing for your partner, do you?”

  He might have laughed at the way Cia’s spine straightened except the possibility of it made him ache. He’d wanted Terach long before he knew about vampires, would have gladly accepted a wedding band where now he craved the companion necklace he couldn’t even be sure Cia wore.

  “We’re just partners, that’s all.”

  Truth. Reluctant truth from the sound of her voice. She stood in profile and he couldn’t be certain without reading her expression.

  “Good. Because I really like Israel. He’s a keeper.”

  “You just met him.”

  “So? I’m a good judge of character. My gift and lucky for me it comes in handy in my line of work. Whatever you two are fighting about, kiss and make up. I changed the sheets by the way.”

  His cock pulsed, desire moving through him. Cia’s slim figure appealed to him. She was small-breasted, her hair worn short, emphasizing her femininity rather than masking it.

  They hugged.

  “Have fun,” Cia said.

  “You too.”

  Tessa got in her car. Cia watched her drive away, giving him another glimpse at what it might be like to be cared about by her.

  Join us, Terach had said, and he could more readily imagine her lying on the bed between them, his hands and mouth exploring her, the two of them discovering the ways she liked to be touched.

  She turned, catching him looking and accurately reading his thoughts.

  Heat sparked between them with memories of what she’d witnessed.

  He touched his chest, fingers brushing across a nipple bar. A blush spread across her cheeks before her chin lifted and she became tight-lipped again. Prickly.

  Too late. The damage was already done.

  Now the challenge was how far would he get with her before nightfall arrived? And Terach soon after?

  Cia managed to suppress a shiver of need. Barely. But the rest of her body betrayed her.

  Heat coiled in her stomach, sliding downward to dampen her panties. Her nipples ached, wanting the same attention he was giving his own.

  His thin black tank top did nothing to hide the taut muscles or that both his nipples were pierced. He could earn a living as a gigolo, not that Terach needed to pay for sex. He probably had his share of offers from both sexes every night at Fangs.

  Her lips mashed together further. She refused to think about his asking anyone else to his room, though clearly he had and that person was blocking the doorway.

  Answers. That’s all I want.

  She just had to endure Israel’s company until nightfall.

  This time she couldn’t suppress the shiver. It didn’t take a great leap of imagination or even much in the way of deductive ability to figure out that Terach would come to Ventura.

  Not my problem.

  The lie didn’t even have the grace to harden into resolve.

  “Move,” she said at reaching the door.

  He yielded just enough space for her to pass, but not enough to avoid brushing against him and inhaling Terach’s cologne, either because they used the same brand or it still clung to Israel’s skin.

  Her nipples tightened. She clamped her jaw but caught the flash of a knowing smile. She ignored it the same way she tried to do him, finding Tessa’s office and tearing the top page off a legal tablet in the center of the desk.

  Donna Kramer answered immediately, her gratitude pulsing through the phone when Cia identified herself and said she could start looking for Kadence as soon as they met.

  “My car or yours?” Israel asked when the called ended. He lounged in the office doorway as seductively as he’d done at the front door.

  “Mine.”

  She punched Donna’s address into the GPS then started the car.

  This was a mistake. Yards from the end of the long driveway she rolled down the window in the hope that his scent and smoldering sensuality would be sucked out of the car and replaced by normalcy.

  It didn’t help.

  He asked, “Why did Tessa think you had a thing for Rico?”

  The car jerked to the side as if a student driver was behind the wheel.

  “Eavesdropping is considered rude.”

  He laughed. “Oh, that’s right, you’re a woman who sees the world in black and white.”

  So what? She refused to defend herself.

  He leaned in, voice dropping. “I meant what I said at the table. Only death breaks the bond between an Angelini and either of their mates.”

  A chill swept over her despite the warm air blowing into the car. He was baiting her. She knew it.

  Angelini wasn’t anywhere in the captain’s file on Skye.

  Maybe it needed to be.

  And what would that mean for my relationship with Rico?

  Her fingernails dug into the steering wheel. He’d made his choice.

  “Angelini?”

  “Hunters.”

  “Killers.”

  The female voice on the GPS indicated a turn.

  Israel shrugged. “It’s your bullet that ended a man’s life.”

  She stopped hard at the corner, rocking the car.

  Get out!

  The words shouted across her tongue but her locked jaw prevented their escape.

  The mechanized female voice said, “Turn right.”

  She turned. Managed a full block of silence before a response erupted. “I was justified.”

  “Absolutely, and no doubt Gian considers himself in your debt. That’s no small thing.”

  The tightness in her chest eased. It lasted until he said, “The actions of the Angelini are also viewed as justified.”

  The implication momentarily trapped her breath in her throat.

  “You’re talking about a group of vigilantes. If there’s any such thing as an Angelini.”

  “You assume human law is the relevant law.”

  It was nearly too much. Worse, she couldn’t deny the surge of disappointment, though she should have known better.

  “So you’re like the kids who hang out at Fangs. You believe in vampires and other things that go bump in the night?”

  He turned toward her, breaching her personal space with just the merest shift of his body and the challenging intensity of his gaze.

  “Didn’t anything you encountered when you worked the Armstrong case make you question your beliefs or consider the existence of the supernatural?”

  Sweat trickled down her sides.

  Skye Delano had. First on the night Brittany Armstrong’s body was found. Then later, when she’d read the transcripts and afterward watched the interrogation room recording and seen for herself S
kye’s ability to hypnotize using nothing more than voice and eyes.

  In hindsight, Cia could cede that she’d been wrong that day at the police station. It embarrassed her that she’d let her anger at Rico’s involvement with Skye, and her own uneasiness—admit it, fear—give her tunnel vision, so instead of seeing a child’s suffering eased, she’d cared only about solving the case.

  She tried for a calming breath but her chest was too constricted. “How did Terach save my life?”

  Israel laughed. “Oh no, if I tell you now, I’ll end up dumped out along the curb.”

  Yeah. Probably.

  Her lips twitched. Damn it. She wanted to be totally impervious to him. The same way she wanted to have no reaction to Terach.

  Israel leaned in, close enough to swamp her in scent and heat, to spread needy ache through her breasts and warmth through her belly, to make her flash back to Terach’s bed and the night she’d been the one in it.

  “Aren’t you going to ask how Terach and I know one another?” he asked.

  “I think that’s pretty obvious.”

  “We met years ago in LA. We weren’t lovers until last night.”

  “So I’ve got no one to blame but myself for not inviting him in when he followed me home?”

  The whole situation left her feeling confused. Why wasn’t she more angry and jealous?

  Maybe because I don’t have a penis. It’s not like I can compete with Israel on that playing field.

  And it’s not like I even want to compete with him.

  She shifted in her seat.

  “If that’s what happened then I’m eternally grateful to you.” Not mocking. Not gloating. Not anything but deadly serious.

  She glanced at him. A shiver of desire went through her at having his mouth only inches from hers, at the absolutely sincerity in eyes too easy to get permanently lost in. She couldn’t blame Terach.

  She wrenched her attention back to the road, heart traveling faster than they were.

  “For the record, unlike me, Terach leans more toward women than men. But that doesn’t mean I’m totally uninterested in the opposite sex. They’re just the exception rather than the rule for me.” Israel’s voice dropped. “Want to know if you qualify, Cia?”

  She looked up in a deer in the headlights kind of way. “No.”

  He laughed. “Liar.”

  Gratitude buzzed through her when the mechanized female voice said, “Arriving at destination in point one mile.”

  They parked and got out.

  Israel was still smiling at the front door. Cia wasn’t immune to him. But if he was seducing her, she was seducing him as well.

  Works for me.

  The bell brought Donna to the door. She was petite, her face haggard and her movements sharp.

  She led them into a cramped living room with worn furniture. “Can I get you a drink?”

  The slight tremor in her voice and hands gave her away. He wondered how many days of sobriety she had.

  It was a downside to bar tending, being able to identify the alcoholics, and worse, to spot the ones relapsing.

  “I’m fine,” Cia said.

  He echoed it.

  The three of them sat. Donna perched at the edge of a chair. He and Cia side-by-side on the couch.

  Donna had prepared for their arrival. A picture of Kadence was on the coffee table. Next to it was a notepad sheet with sunshine and rainbows along the border. A name and address had been printed neatly near the top edge. Below it was written KADENCE with a cell number.

  Donna picked up the third item on the table, a page ripped out of a notebook. “She left this on her bed for me to find.”

  Cia took it, both of them reading it. I’M NOT GIVING YOU A CHANCE TO SEND ME AWAY!!! JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN’T HANDLE A DRINK OR TWO DOESN’T MEAN I CAN’T. I’M LEAVING!!!!!

  Fidgeting drew his eyes to Donna.

  “I’m a recovering alcoholic. Two years, five months, two days.”

  “You’re doing great. I’ve known hundreds of people who haven’t made it beyond the first year.”

  Some of the brittleness left her. She offered a tentative smile.

  It disappeared when Cia asked, “What caused the note?”

  Donna folded her arms across her stomach. “Kadence was at a friend’s house. Chloe’s house.”

  The name on the sunshine and rainbow piece of stationary.

  “I…I had this idea to take them out to dinner. It just occurred to me on the way home from work. I stopped by without calling first. I could smell liquor on their breaths.”

  “Were you worried she might be drinking?” Cia asked, and he gave her credit for lobbing a softball question rather than directly accusing Donna of checking up on her daughter.

  “No.” Donna dropped her gaze, directing it at her knees. “No. I just wanted to spend some time with her. It’s always been just the two of us, but… Every week it just seems she’s getting further and further away.”

  “No father in the picture?” he asked.

  “No. He was never in it. For all I know he’s dead or in jail. He was an alcoholic and a drug user, sometimes a violent one. I never told him I was pregnant.”

  Cia placed the note back on the coffee table. “What happened after you discovered Kadence had been drinking?”

  “I waited until we got home. I knew she’d never forgive me if I embarrassed her in front of Chloe. We fought. I threatened to send her to rehab.” Donna drew a shaky breath. “She stormed out but came back an hour later.”

  “Acting normal?” he asked.

  She rubbed her knees. “She gave me the silent treatment. She was still in bed when I left for work. I couldn’t take Saturday off. When I came home, she was gone.”

  “Can I check her room?” Cia asked.

  We. But Israel didn’t call her on it.

  “The police didn’t find anything. I called them after finding the note.”

  “The detective left you a card?” Cia asked.

  “Yes. I’ll get it for you.” She led them to Kadence’s room first.

  He followed Cia in. Clothes were thrown on the bed and on the floor. “Kadence went through her things and chose her favorites,” he said.

  Cia nodded and opened several dresser drawers. They were crammed with Victoria’s Secret lingerie.

  Glancing over her shoulder, he gave a soft whistle. “Unless she works there, that’s a lot of money.” He couldn’t resist asking, “You happen to shop there?”

  She averted her face, but not soon enough to hide the tinges of pink.

  So did that mean she did?

  He narrowed his eyes like an artist considering a blank canvas. With her coloring she’d look good in pale blue or light green. A smile formed at imagining her in something feminine with flowers, something in total defiance of button-down shirts and khakis that were practically an invitation to be ignored. Or maybe it was camouflage because she was a cop who never let herself go off duty.

  His smile widened into a grin. Yeah, the prickly ones could definitely be more interesting, and she was getting more so by the minute.

  What would it be like to be the man who made her lose all that precious control? To experience her vulnerability knowing just what it took for her to trust?

  Donna joined them, passing the detective’s card to Cia.

  “Does Kadence have a job?” Cia asked.

  “No. I want her to concentrate on school.”

  “So she gets an allowance?”

  “Forty dollars a week. Sometimes more if I’ve got it.”

  “She has a lot of nice clothes,” Cia said.

  Donna crossed her arms over her chest. “Chloe gave them to her. Or at least that’s what Kadence told me. But now I don’t know what to believe.”

  “Boyfriends?”

  “Not that I know about.”

  Israel’s gaze swept the desk. “Does she have a laptop?”

  “Yes.”

  “A Facebook page?”

  “Yes.
I checked it first thing. She doesn’t post very often on it. What’s there is almost all school related.” She rubbed her arms. “Do you think you can find her?”

  “We’ll do our best,” Cia said at the same time he answered, “Yes.”

  It gained him a thin-lipped glance. He expected a follow-up tongue lashing, but when they returned to the car he was treated to silence instead. That was a challenge he couldn’t resist.

  “Finding the girl is a given once Terach’s in Ventura. He’s not Angelini, but he does possess useful talents beyond the strictly carnal.”

  Chapter Five

  Heat engulfed Cia, not that she needed the drop of Israel’s voice when he mentioned carnal skills to readily call back what she’d witnessed and experienced in Terach’s bed. It was like she had some kind of giant hot button where Terach was concerned.

  She slapped the detective’s card down in the console tray between the seats and pulled out her phone, punching in Tessa’s number.

  “Just about to board the plane. You find her already?”

  “No. Detective Lawson caught the case. I’m just about to contact him. Have you dealt with him?”

  “Matt. He’s a straight-shooter, not territorial at all. Go for it.”

  She called Lawson’s direct line.

  He answered. She presented her credentials, discovering they had her captain in common, which smoothed the way into the reason for her involvement and the call.

  “Dead-end so far,” he said. “Scrolled through Facebook pages, and other than feeling sorry for a bunch of parents who’re probably clueless about what their kids are up to, didn’t exit with anything relevant to Kadence. Hit the school. Nada. Teachers and principal didn’t have anything to offer. Neither did the students.”

  “Popular kid?”

  “No. But not unpopular. A follower. Side-kick material. That’s my take.”

  “What about her phone?”

  He gave a heartfelt sigh. “Too much information out there for kids and criminals alike. She’s kept it off, or gotten rid of it, so we can’t use it to track her down.”

  “Phone records?”

  “Calls and texts to her mother and friends in the area. Nothing that leads anywhere.”

  About what Cia had expected.

  She hung up and programmed the GPS for Chloe Meyer’s house.