by Tina Folsom
Shit!
Abruptly, he released Katie. This was all wrong. Breathing hard, he stared at her. Her lips looked bruised from his kisses. Her hair now fell over her shoulders. Had he been the one to undo the medieval hairdo?
When he met her eyes, he could see it clearly: the lust and passion he’d awakened in her.
What the hell had come over him? He couldn’t even remember why he’d kissed her in the first place. But he knew why he had to stop: he had to stay away from women. A woman had been his doom once, and he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
“Go!” he demanded roughly, breaking eye contact. “Go home.”
“No fucking way!”
Her resolute answer made him snap his head back to her. He narrowed his eyes. “What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, drawing his attention away from her face and to her luscious breasts, which only moments ago had been crushed to his chest. Such softness, such comfort they’d provided him.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what you know about the guy who wrote those letters.”
Luther’s nostrils flared. “You’re not in a position to make demands. Besides, I have no idea who wrote the letters.”
He turned on his heel, ready to leave, because the longer he stayed in her company, the harder it would be to extricate himself from it. He knew himself too well; twenty years alone in a cell had made sure of that. Katie was the kind of woman who could get to him, and he wasn’t going to allow that.
“But you have a suspicion.”
He hesitated for a split-second, but it was enough for Katie to add, “I knew it!”
Luther pivoted and glared at her. “Listen to me. I think it’s better you go home and stay out of my business. And for what it’s worth, I apologize that I kissed you. Chalk it up to the fact that I was in prison for twenty years.” He paused for a moment, before adding a lie to his statement. “Frankly, I would have kissed anything with tits at this point. Nothing personal. Wrong place, wrong time.”
Katie pressed her lips together in obvious displeasure. Good, she’d finally gotten the message. Already relaxing, he made a motion to turn.
“Not so fast, buddy!” she said rather calmly. Much too calmly for a woman who’d just been told that the passionate kiss they’d shared meant nothing. “Samson is going to find out about this. I’ll show him the letters, and then he’s going to hunt you down like a dog.”
Luther tilted his head to the side, looking at her for a long moment, before opening his mouth. “May I point out one thing?”
Katie raised her eyebrows in curiosity.
He lifted his hand. “I’m the one who’s got the letters. So it appears you have nothing to back up your allegations.”
For an instant he thought he saw something flash in her eyes, but then it was gone again, and she even smiled. “Oh, I have copies at home. So do with those whatever you want.”
He growled in displeasure.
“Help us find Isabelle. You have the key. You know things we don’t,” she continued.
“Even if I had any information that could help you find her, Samson has made it clear that the next time he sees me, he’ll kill me. This time he won’t stop to ask questions. He’ll strike first. And despite everything, I rather value my life. So the answer is no.”
“If you don’t want to help us, I’m going to tell Samson that you lied to him. That you’re hiding the fact that you know who’s behind this.”
“I passed their fucking lie detector test!”
“I know for a fact that the machine isn’t all that accurate,” she claimed.
Luther narrowed his eyes, but couldn’t tell if she was bluffing or not. “Gabriel looked into my memories. He cleared me. So you’ve got nothing.”
Katie brought one hand up and pretended to inspect her fingernails. “You forget that I’m a witch.”
“What’s that got to do with my innocence?”
“What if I put a spell on you that makes you confess to the crime?”
He sucked air through his nostrils. Had he heard correctly? She was threatening him with witchcraft? No vampire had any defenses against it, and he feared it as much as the next guy. “You devious, little—”
“—bitch?” she offered politely. “Oh please, I’ve been called worse.”
“I was gonna say tramp,” Luther corrected her.
Katie pushed herself away from the car and came toward him. “Now here’s how this works: you’ll lead me to the man who wrote the letters, I’ll play bait, and you’ll catch the guy. If you don’t do it, I’ll set all of Scanguards on your tail.”
Luther shook his head in disbelief. “Oh my God, you’re actually crazy. I mean, bat-shit crazy! Do you have any idea what you’re doing? This kind of stuff can get you killed. Hell, it’ll get us both killed.”
“It won’t. Because you will keep us safe. You survived twenty years in a vampire prison. Can’t have been a cake walk.”
No, it hadn’t been easy. But right now he almost wished he were back inside and wouldn’t have to deal with crap like this.
“I’m sure you know how to protect yourself. Do it, or Samson will be hunting you.”
He scoffed. “Do you know what I was in prison for?”
“Attempted murder.”
“So you know. And still you won’t back down. What makes you think I’m not going to kill you before you can set Scanguards on my ass?”
“If you’d wanted to kill me, you would have done so already.” Then her eyes drifted lower and settled on his crotch. “And because you still have a hard on. My guess is you’d rather get into my pants than kill me. So I figure I’m safe as long as I don’t let you fuck me.”
Luther balled his hands into fists, fuming at her successful attempt at manipulating him. He let out a growl.
“Get in the fucking car! I’ll drive.”
“Of course you will,” Katie answered sweetly. “I guess you won’t be needing directions?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “And not another word out of your mouth until we’re out of the city, or I’ll be tempted to toss you over the Bay Bridge.”
12
Almost three hours later, Katie watched as Luther closed the entry door to a single family home and turned back to her.
“You can’t be serious. This is breaking and entering,” she whispered.
“The place is empty.” He jerked his thumb over his left shoulder, indicating the foyer. “Mail’s piling up. These people are probably on a cruise or beach vacation over the holidays.”
“You can’t know that. They could be back any moment.”
Luther marched into the living area. “No Christmas tree in sight. In this neighborhood, everybody has a Christmas tree—unless they’re not around over the holidays. All the shutters are closed, and the cars are in the garage. We’re safe here for today.”
Katie shook her head. “Why did we have to stop anyway? We’re nearly there.”
Luther rolled his eyes, tossing her an impatient glare. “Let me put it in words you’ll understand: ‘cause I don’t want the sun to fry my ass. We need to wait for nightfall to get into the prison.”
“We can’t waste time. You could stay in the car. It’s got blackout windows, just like all of Scanguards’ cars. You just tell me who to talk to. There must be guards there to let us in during the day.”
Suddenly he chuckled. “Let us in?”
“What’s so funny?”
Luther shook his head. “You really think we’re just gonna ring the doorbell and ask them to let us in? I spent twenty years in there. I have enemies. If the guards find out that I disclosed the location of the prison to an outsider, they’ll lock me up for another twenty.” He scoffed. “And once they figure out what your scent is, they’ll shoot you on sight. They don’t exactly like witches.”
“You said I don’t smell much like a witch.”
“It’s faint, yeah, but given
enough time, they’d figure it out. You can’t just walk in there and expect to come out unscathed.”
Katie’s heart started to pound in her chest, constricting at the realization that finding out who’d written those letters wasn’t quite as simple as she’d hoped. “But then how are we gonna get the information we need? How will we find the guy?”
“Don’t worry your pretty little brain with that. I’ll go in. You’ll be staying here, waiting for me.”
Katie braced her hands on her hips, glaring at him. This big bully was going to leave her behind? “That wasn’t the deal. I’m coming with you. Do you really think you can just drop me here and expect me to wait like some submissive little woman who doesn’t have two brain cells to rub together?”
He walked toward her until the tip of his boots almost touched her shoes. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m expecting. Though the word submissive doesn’t exactly come to mind when I think of you.”
Katie pulled in a breath of air. “Oh yeah, then what comes to mind? Go ahead, just say it. You’ve been holding it in during the entire car ride.” And she was sick of his brooding and the silence that had made the drive feel longer than the almost three hours it had taken them to reach the foothills.
That silence had contributed to the fact that she couldn’t think of anything else other than the kiss they’d shared. Damn it, she should have pushed him away and slapped him, rather than allowed him to kiss her like that. It had awakened things in her that she didn’t know how to handle.
“If you think you can manipulate me, you’re wrong. Maybe that works with the humans you normally date, but not with me.”
Annoyed by his accusation, she changed the subject. “We’re not talking about my love life. I’m coming with you, whether you like it or not.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, that would be not. As in—” He moved in closer, bringing his face within inches of hers. “—you’re staying put while I break into the prison and get what I need.”
“Not without me, you’re not.” She pressed her lips tightly together, ignoring his masculine scent that tempted her to do something stupid. “Or have you already forgotten that I’m a witch, and that I can make you do anything I want?” It was a bluff, but she hoped he was buying it just like he had before.
When his lips parted, she saw to her shock that Luther’s fangs had lengthened and the sharp tips were now protruding from their sockets. Her breath hitched at the sight, and her pulse began to drum excitedly, flooding her body with female awareness.
“Is that what you did earlier? Used your witchcraft to make me kiss you?” Luther narrowed his eyes, but she could see the orange glow around his irises nevertheless. His vampire side was emerging. “Don’t you get enough action as is? With those tits and those eyes you should have men lining up around the block. Guess that’s not enough. You’ve gotta force yourself on one who doesn’t want you.”
Without even realizing what she did, she slapped him so hard across his cheek that her palm stung from the impact. Rage careened through her. Forced herself on somebody? No, no. She was the last person to ever do that, because she of all people knew what it felt like. What it felt like to be forced to do something against her will.
~ ~ ~
Though Luther was used to pain—and a slap from a woman who weighed barely a hundred and thirty pounds wasn’t considered pain in his books—the ache from it spread through his entire body. Not physically, but in a different way. As if she’d slapped his heart.
He’d gone too far in his attempt to push her away. Why the hell did she have to push all his buttons?
“Guess I deserved that,” he said with a calm he didn’t possess and turned his face back to her. He was tempted to offer her the other cheek like he had Samson, but feared she wouldn’t get his dry sense of humor.
When she didn’t say anything, he searched for words. He was damned if he was going to apologize. Apologies were for wimps, and it would be a cold day in hell, before he apologized for something that she’d provoked.
“Why can’t you just accept that it’s too dangerous for you to come with me? If I get caught, at least then it’s just my ass on the line. But you. Do you have any idea what they’ll do to you?”
Shooting her would be the least of her problems. The guards would have a field day with her, playing with her before they killed her. And he sure didn’t need another death on his conscience.
“I can look after myself. My brother taught me.”
“He a witch too?”
She shook her head hesitantly, as if she wasn’t sure it was wise to tell him. “Haven is a vampire.”
Instinctively he took a step back. She had a vampire brother? If that wasn’t unusual, then he didn’t know what was. “So that’s why Samson tolerates your presence.” He nodded to himself. “And that other witch? Wesley? Are you related to him too, ‘cause as sure as shit he isn’t your lover.”
“How the hell…” She stopped, letting out a breath, before shaking her head. “Oh, why do I bother? Like I give a crap about what you think.”
He shrugged. “Likewise.” And he’d rather bite his tongue off than ask about that witch once more. However, judging by the way Katie had kissed him, he was certain she had no lover. No woman in an intimate relationship would kiss a stranger like that. Hell, no woman at all would kiss a stranger like that, particularly not one she knew to be an ex-con.
“Fine, now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s get back to our plan of getting into the prison. I’m assuming you have a plan?”
He scoffed. “Has anybody ever told you that you’re a pain in the butt?”
“It’s come up once or twice.”
“I have the feeling you’ve been around people who are way too polite to tell you the truth. Just to give you a heads-up: politeness isn’t my forte.”
She stepped closer, seemingly unafraid of him. God, how he admired a woman who didn’t back down at the first sign of trouble. Who stood her ground, even if that ground was shaky at best.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Katie said in a voice as soft as an angel’s, though he knew there was nothing angelic about her.
Well, nothing apart from her lush curves. Or her plump lips. Her sweet tongue.
Fuck!
She was doing it again: ensnaring him with her witchy wiles. Casting out her net. But this time he was on alert. He would be careful not to get drawn in by the seductive gaze of her green eyes that promised unimaginable pleasures. He’d survived twenty years without the touch of a woman, he could survive the next twelve hours until they could get to the prison, get the information they needed, and get out.
After that, she was on her own. Whatever she did with the information they found wasn’t his problem. He’d wash his hands of her. Be done with it.
He’d leave California, go north, maybe to Canada, start a new life. Far away from the vampires he’d once called brothers.
“Fine, we’ll leave at sunset. Get some rest. You’ll need it. We’ll have to hike in.”
“I’m not tired yet,” she claimed.
“Suit yourself.”
“I’d like to ask you something.” Her voice was even now, almost friendly. That alone made the hairs on his nape stand up in alert.
“I’m all out of answers today.”
She walked—no, sashayed—over to the large sofa and sat down in one corner, kicking off her shoes in the process, before folding her legs underneath her.
“You said you had a hunch who wrote the letters. Why?”
“I never said I had a hunch. You assumed it.”
“But you do have a suspicion. Was it something the guy said?”
“I never met him. Most times we were kept in solitary. So we couldn’t form alliances against the guards. There were strict protocols.”
“What kind of protocols?”
“How many V-CONs were allowed outside their cells at any one time.”
“V-CONs?”
“Vampire Convicts.”
She nodded, a serious look on her face. “It must have been lonely.”
“I prefer my own company to that of others.” It wasn’t even a lie. Though it didn’t mean that he hadn’t been lonely.
“I understand that,” she murmured and looked into the distance.
Surprised by her words, he eyed her. What did Katie know about loneliness? By all accounts she’d been a successful actress, adored by her fans, envied by her peers.
She suddenly turned her gaze back to him. “But if you say you never met him, why do you think he wrote those letters?”
“His cell. It was plastered with pictures of you, posters.” He pointed at her hair. “Your hair was different. Blonde. That’s why I didn’t immediately recognize you.”
She caught a strand of her hair between her thumb and index finger and twirled it. “I dyed it blonde for a long time. But this is my natural hair color.”
“It suits you better.” The words were out before he could take them back. To cover the compliment, he added quickly, “One of the guards was cleaning out his cell the day I was released.”
“And the V-CON? Didn’t you see him?”
“Apparently he was released a week earlier.”
Katie nodded to herself. “Enough time to plan this.” A haunted look crossed her face. “Stalkers. They love planning. They love the anticipation. It turns them on.”
With every word, Luther realized that Katie wasn’t talking to him anymore. She was reminding herself of something. Something she’d experienced before.
13
Blake entered a ten-digit code into the dashboard of his black-out SUV and waited for the garage door to Samson’s Nob Hill mansion to lift. As the head of Scanguards’ personal security, he had access to all the houses where his charges resided, including Samson’s.
The early morning sunlight did not penetrate through the specially tinted windows of his SUV, keeping him safe.
When the gate lifted, Blake drove inside the spacious underground garage. Samson’s house had changed significantly in the past twenty years. After Grayson’s birth, Samson had bought the neighboring house and combined the two houses into one in order to have enough space for his growing family. Now the old Victorian could truly be called a mansion. At over six thousand square feet, it not only housed the Woodford family, but also boasted a garage, which could accommodate up to eight cars, and a command center connected to Scanguards’ headquarters, as well as large entertainment and meeting areas on the first floor.
