Lady & the Vamp ib-3

by Мишель Роуэн

  Maybe I saw the same necklace for sale somewhere on the trip and it wedged its way into my subconscious."

  Janie's throat felt tight. Her necklace was handmade by an old woman she'd met on the beach in Mexico

  . There were probably only two like it in the world—she had one, and the other belonged to her sister.

  Her sister who just happened to have red hair.

  Who the hell was this guy?

  "Tell me more about the dream," she said.

  "Who cares about the stupid dream?" Quinn growled.

  She gave him a sharp look, then turned back to Barkley and poked him in the ribs with the gun. "Tell me."

  "Okay, okay. Uh… the redhead was wearing this black dress. Really expensive, I think. There were a lot of people around her. Somewhere inside. No windows. She played with the necklace, touching it like a good-luck charm."

  "Where?"

  "I don't know. It was a dream."

  "Oh, come on Barkley," Quinn said. "It may have been a prophetic one, what with the whole psychic werewolf deal you have going on."

  It sounded as if he was being sarcastic.

  "You're psychic?" Janie repeated.

  He blinked. "Sometimes."

  She clicked the safety back on the gun and put it into the shoulder holster under her jacket. Her palms were sweating. She'd visited countless psychics over the past five years. Not one of them had gotten a read on her sister. It had been so frustrating. Maybe she'd just gone to the wrong people, hadn't paid enough money, or asked the wrong questions. Professional psychics were notoriously temperamental.

  "I'm all done," Lenny announced, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

  "Just a minute." Janie held up a finger and then reached around to undo her necklace. It slipped off her neck and pooled into her hand. She thrust it toward Barkley. "Touch the necklace. Can you see anything?"

  Barkley and Quinn exchanged a look. Then Barkley tentatively reached out and took the necklace from her. He closed his eyes and rubbed his thumb over the turquoise.

  She watched him warily.

  His forehead creased. "I'm not getting anything about the dream, but I am getting something about…"

  His eyes opened slowly. "… about you . You're worried about somebody."

  She snatched the necklace back. "Forget it."

  "You're really worried. That's why you're doing this. Is the person you're worried about the redhead? Is that why you're here? Man, talk about destiny." He cupped his hand over the necklace again and closed his eyes for a moment. "And you weren't going to shoot me. You're not a bad person, Janie. You're not.

  You just need a chance to prove that to yourself."

  "If I shoot you right now, will that prove something?"

  Barkley's expression softened. "You know, if you really need somebody to help you, then me and Quinn can ... oh, shit!"

  She frowned. "What?"

  "Oh,shit! " Barkley repeated. "How the hell did they find us?"

  Quinn followed Barkley's gaze out of the diner's window. Four huge men had pulled up in the parking lot in a big black pickup truck. They got out simultaneously and moved toward Barkley and Quinn's rental car.

  "Who are they?" Lenny asked.

  Quinn sighed heavily. "They just happen to also be Barkley's destiny."

  "They're wrecking your car."

  He nodded. "Yes. Yes, they are."

  The men had baseball bats, and they were going to town on the Ford, bashing in the sides and breaking the windows. One whipped out a knife and slashed the tires. After only a minute had gone by, the car was definitely not roadworthy anymore. And the men hadn't even broken a sweat.

  Janie looked at the rampage blankly. Looked like a good way to let some frustrations out.

  She grabbed her beloved necklace from the table where Barkley had dropped it, and she put it back on.

  There was a very subtle trace of amusement in Quinn's expression. "I'm so not getting my security deposit back."

  Barkley slunk down in his seat. "They're going to kill me."

  "Who exactly are they?" Janie eyed the men, assessing if they were her problem and deciding that they weren't. At least not yet.

  "Pack. They hate me. Want to kill me. Why didn't we go farther than ten miles?"

  Quinn stared through the window. "You wanted the best hamburger in the state, remember?"

  "I take it that you don't want them to find you in here," Janie said.

  Barkley shuddered. "You take it correctly."

  A plan was quickly formulating in her mind. Not a good one by any stretch of the imagination, but it would have to do. As soon as those men strolled in the diner, that would be the end of her negotiation, or whatever this had turned into. A bust, most likely. But at least Lenny was fed.

  Why was nothing ever easy?

  "Lenny… take the keys." She tossed them to him.

  He caught them in his left hand and frowned. "What?"

  "Take wolf-boy out the back so his friends don't find him."

  Barkley turned to her with a tentative smile. "You'd help me? Thank you so much."

  She held up a hand. "Not so fast. Here's how this is going to work. Are you listening, Quinn?"

  He glowered at her. "I'm listening."

  "Lenny will take Barkley and keep him safe. For now. He will wait for my call. In the meantime, you will take me to the Eye."

  "I don't think that's a very good idea."

  "I disagree." She leaned across the table so they were eye to eye. "I may be a bit squeamish about shooting somebody in cold blood, it's true, but Lenny doesn't have a problem with it. So I strongly suggest you don't give me any problems today. Do you understand?"

  Barkley and Quinn exchanged glances.

  A small crowd had gathered near the front door as people watched the men finish destroying Quinn's rental car. Janie slipped out of the booth, but Barkley didn't make a move.

  "Don't have all day here," Janie prompted after another moment. "They're going to be coming in here any minute. Then again, if you two think you can take those boys, then have at it."

  "Quinn—" Barkley whimpered.

  Quinn's eyes narrowed, and he looked at Lenny as if assessing the brute power behind the bodybuilder's physique, then returned his gaze to Janie's to give her a truly withering look. "Fine. We'll do it your way."

  His words were so cold that they managed to freeze her just around the edges. She returned his look with a frosty one of her own. "That's good to hear."

  Barkley finally got up from the booth. Lenny stood up, twisting the key chain around his finger. He stared at Janie as if he was waiting for something.

  She raised her eyebrows. "Yes?"

  "Be careful."

  She nodded. "Of course."

  "I worry."

  She glanced at Quinn, whose blank expression held.

  "Would you two like to be alone?" he asked.

  "Go," Janie told Lenny. "I'll call."

  With a last longing look, Lenny turned away, grabbed Barkley by his elbow, and steered him toward the back entrance of the diner.

  Barkley looked over his shoulder. "I'll try to remember more of my dream."

  Before she could say anything in reply, they were gone. She quickly composed herself and sat back down in the booth across from Quinn.

  She glanced at him. "Now you're going to take me to the Eye."

  He nodded slowly. "And if I don't, you're going to get on the phone and tell that human Rottweiler to kill Barkley."

  She shrugged.

  His expression darkened. "What makes you think I give a damn what happens to him?"

  "Are you saying that you two aren't friends?"

  "I don't have any friends."

  "Oh come on, now. You were very popular back in the day."

  "Things have changed."

  "Yeah, I noticed." She glanced out of the window to where Barkley and Lenny were skulking toward the Mustang.

  Quinn eyed her with anything but friendliness. "And
I thought my day was a disaster to start with."

  "We'll give the boys a few minutes to make their getaway."

  "Whatever you say."

  She felt a chill go down her spine at his cold expression and struggled to keep her composure.

  What did she think she was doing, anyhow? Baiting a vampire like this? A lot of vamps were completely harmless, that was true. But some of them… some of them were as dangerous as anything she'd ever faced. She still had the marks on her neck to prove that little theory. Two weeks ago, a master vampire named Nicolai nearly ripped her throat. She'd trusted the bastard—even worked for him part-time—right up until she learned he was a serial killer.

  Had he fed on her any longer, she would have either been permanently dead or picking up her vampire membership card. She was in a business where it was easy to get jaded and unfazed by life-threatening situations, but that vampire had taken her by surprise, and she'd never been particularly fond of surprises—especially the kind that left scars behind.

  She studied the man in front of her for a moment as he looked away. She knew that Quinn was dangerous to start with. When he'd been a hunter, there were rumors that he would rise in the ranks and become a real leader. That's what his father had always groomed him for. From what she'd heard through the grapevine, Quinn was good at the job. Real good. But there was something missing. A lack of passion for it. He took no joy in slaying vamps.

  Now he was a man with nothing to lose. A wild tiger waiting to hunt his next meal. And she was sticking her hands in the cage and trying to take its catnip away.

  She frowned at the thought.Or something like that .

  The werewolves entered the diner. Janie didn't even have to turn around to see, she could feel it.

  Werewolves, especially in the company of other pack members, gave off a preternatural vibe—a pulse of energy that raised the hair on the back of a human's neck.

  Three years ago, on her very first assignment with the Company, she'd killed a werewolf. He was a bad guy, a lone wolf, and he had taken hostage the wife and three children of aU.S. congressman from Mississippi . The Company had sent Janie in on a rescue mission. Janie received her first of many scars, on her upper thigh, from that experience, but she'd lived.

  She'd managed to stare death in the eye. It had been terrifying and also rather ... furry. Before she pulled the trigger to send the silver bullet into the beast's heart, she vaguely recalled making a Little Red

  Riding Hood joke. Damned if she could remember what it was now. She did remember the fear that filled her and almost made her run away. But the thought of the woman and those innocent kids, and imagining what that monster planned to do to them, was enough to keep her moving.

  Yeah, she was such a hero.

  Sure.

  With that memory firmly fixed in her head, she turned to look. The werewolves had cornered the manager of the restaurant, who had his hands up and was talking to them with a panicked expression on his face. Panicked, but not surprised. Maybe the fur patrol were regulars at the Stardust Diner.

  The main werewolf grabbed the guy by his grease-stained apron and shoved him up against the cash register. The others stood back with their arms crossed in front of them. The manager was shaking now, and he turned and looked in Janie and Quinn's direction.

  Then he pointed.

  The werewolf dropped him and immediately came over to stand in front of Janie and Quinn's booth,

  followed by his friends.

  She pushed back the memory of the wolf's teeth in her leg and the sudden urge she got to run.

  "Where is he?" Werewolf number one growled.

  Janie's gaze shot to Quinn, who looked surprisingly calm.

  "Who?" he asked.

  "That damned coward Matthew Barkley. Where is he?"

  "I still don't know what you're talking about."

  Out of the corner of Janie's eye she noticed that the manager was approaching the werewolves with a tray.

  "I have t-two coffees, a c-c-cappuccino and a d-decaf here," he said with a distinct tremble to his words.

  The main werewolf turned and grabbed one of the mugs without a thank-you, then turned back to Quinn.

  "Look, I'm in a shitty mood today. Wife's got me on decaf, and I love my coffee. Something to do with it causing my migraines."

  "Sorry to hear that."

  He took a sip and grimaced. "Disgusting." He smashed the mug against the floor.

  "I'll g-go and make a f-fresh pot." The manager skulked away as the beast shot him a scowl.

  Quinn and Janie exchanged a look.

  "That your car?" The cranky, decaffeinated werewolf gestured out of the window toward the decimated car.

  Quinn shrugged. "If it was, I'd be pretty pissed about what you did to it, wouldn't I?"

  "'Cause that's the car that Barkley was in." His eyes narrowed. "And you were driving it."

  Janie let out a long, exasperated sigh. She didn't have time for this garbage. She stood up from the booth and looked up—way up—at the werewolf.

  "Why don't you go away now? Obviously the guy you're looking for isn't here."

  "Who asked you, bitch?"

  "How did you know my pet name?"

  The werewolf eyed Quinn. "This your girlfriend?"

  Quinn snorted at that. "Not by a long shot."

  The werewolf moved to face Janie completely and then backhanded her across her right cheek. She fell back into the booth and hit the wall, the back of her head smacking the window.

  Her eyes bugged. Why she hadn't expected that, she wasn't sure. Her cheek burned almost as much as her sudden surge of hot anger.

  But before she could get back up and cram her own mug of caffeine down wolf-dick's throat, Quinn sprang up to his feet.

  "That how you treat women around here?" There was a definite edge to his voice now.

  "Women who get in my way."

  Quinn glanced at the other men, who had placed their mugs down on the top of an adjacent table.

  They sized each other up, and Quinn's upper lip curled back from his fangs in a dangerous smile.

  The werewolf raised an eyebrow. "What are you going to do about it,vampire ?"

  "Nothing. I was just asking." He sat back down. "You okay, Janie?"

  "Just fine," she said calmly.

  The werewolf snorted and then turned back to look at Janie, who now had her gun out. This timeshe smiled. The werewolf's face fell.

  The familiar weight of theFirestar immediately calmed her. "In case you were wondering… yes, it is filled with silver bullets. And yes, I have killed a werewolf before. Sometimes I even get paid for it, and those aren't even the ones who lay a finger on me first. So you and your coffee-drinking friends should probably leave now, because oddly enough, I'm not in a very good mood anymore."

  He didn't flinch. "I've never met a woman who didn't back down when confronted with a big strong man."

  His eyes changed to wolf gold, and his lips curled back from rapidly sharpening teeth.

  She lowered the gun and shot him in the upper thigh.

  He howled in pain and staggered backward. The diner went completely silent.

  She held out her left hand, palm up. "Give me the keys to your truck."

  The other men eyed her and the gun warily.

  "Now," she added.

  A set of keys flew through the air, and she caught them with one hand. She tossed them at Quinn.

  "Oh, and in case you've never been shot before," she said to the whimpering werewolf, "a wound from a silver bullet will take nearly one year to fully heal."

  He glared at her, pain in his eyes. "I'm going to kill you."

  "Honey, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard that." She glanced at Quinn. "Let's go, handsome."

  He eyed her as he tossed a twenty on the table. "Yes, ma'am."

  They weren't followed to the parking lot. Quinn grabbed a duffel bag from the back of the decimated rental car, and they got into the Ford Ranger. The tires squealed as Q
uinn peeled out of the parking lot.

  Janie watched the Stardust Diner grow smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror and waited for her heart to stop pounding like a jackhammer.

  Chapter 5

  Quinn wasn't exactly sure if he should be pissed off or impressed. He wanted to be the former but was feeling that more of the latter than was probably healthy.

  Which left him with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was hoping for a chance to escape from

  Little MissMerc as soon as possible, but the way Janie handled that gun, the way she handled those werewolves…

  She was a professional. A cold, calculating professional, and she wanted the Eye. He had no idea how she knew about it. It was a secret, or at least he thought it was. He wasn't giving it up without a fight, but now that he'd seen a small bit of what she could do, he knew it was going to be a slightly more difficult one.

  However, Quinn was no pushover himself.

  She hadn't said anything since they'd left the diner and basically stolen the werewolves' truck. Not that he felt guilty about it. He wasn't going to take a baseball bat to it like they'd done with his rental. Then again, maybe he could let out a little stress when he was finished with it. It's not like it was a new model or anything.

  He gripped the steering wheel tightly when he thought about Barkley. Had he left him at the diner earlier as he'd planned, the werewolves would have gotten him. Now, instead, he was with Lenny. He wasn't sure what was worse.

  Three months ago he wouldn't have given a shit about the fate of a werewolf. But now things were different. Very different.

  Damn, he thought.Why does everything have to be so complicated ?

  Quinn glanced at Janie again and wracked his brain. How could he deal with this crazy chick? After going through a dozen scenarios, he decided there were only two courses of action that would potentially work.

  Kill her.

  That was the worst-case scenario. Was he willing to kill somebody to get to the Eye? How much did he want it? A lot. But enough to kill for it?