by Scott, Talyn
“First, tell me what’s got you worried.” She studied her glass a second before taking a gulp, no dainty sips for her. At least, not while her leg remained this painful.
“I’m in charge of laundry and Sayer is on kitchen detail.”
“That’s it? He forgot to clean up, and you think something’s wrong?”
“He always puts his soiled clothes in the hamper at night.”
The fragrance of sandalwood and musk drifted through her nose – Sayer’s scent. How would I remember someone’s scent? Better yet, how could any man’s scent linger if he’d been away all night? How could any man’s scent wake up her work-exhausted and sleep deprived body as if she’d swallowed twenty cups of espresso at once? How could he drench her panties when he wasn’t even here? Then again, after last night’s encounter played through her mind, how could she forget? She pursed her lips and met Nick’s full-on stare, forcing her body to snap out of it. “I know you’re not one who overreacts. But still.”
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “His bed wasn’t slept in, either.”
“How could you tell?” If she remembered about Sayer’s domestic skills, they were below average.
“He was reading one of my books, and it’s still there, frozen where he left it on his pillow. Besides, we have a sophisticated alarm system. His code was last entered before you two left on your date.”
“Our outing,” she corrected lamely, “for a charity gala.”
“You looked beautiful in Marco’s gown,” he added with a satisfied smile.
“A gown I now owe him for,” she said, worrying her bottom lip. “I have no idea what happened to it.”
“A little stain will come out,” he said distractedly. “We’ll take it to my cleaners.”
“Not possible since it’s totally gone,” she admitted with utter embarrassment, wishing she’d taken her few evening gowns from Will’s apartment before she’d moved out. The few he’d bought her. But she was so determined to leave the flashy life behind that she’d left the flashy gowns behind, as well.
“I’ll talk to Marco and see if he wants compensation. He’s a good friend, Azure. Don’t worry about the dress. Sounds like you shouldn’t get so drunk, though.”
She didn’t remember being drunk at all. “I guess…a lesson for next time, right?”
He downed his wine in two gulps, surprising her since he was a sipper, too. “Try Sayer from your cell. Maybe he’ll pick up if he sees your number.”
“He wouldn’t recognize my number,” she countered mildly. “You’re his friend. I’m the friend of a friend.”
“He’d recognize your name, though.”
“And he might pick up if he wanted to talk to me.” At his exasperated look, she caved, “Okay, okay, why not?” Azure rose to get her bag, but he stopped her.
“Rest your leg.” Nick stepped over her, kissing her head on the way. “I’ll dig for it.” She heard a weighty thump and her keys hit the tile along with the rest of her bag’s contents. “Don’t even think of getting up,” he ordered without turning around. “I’m putting everything back. No worries. Oh” – she heard more rustling – “I see you’ve bought the studded condoms. Enjoyable, effective, but a little pricey on your shoestring budget, you should always make the man pay.”
“Shut up, I don’t have…Are they really studded?” She’d bought them before her trip and hadn’t used a single one, even last night.
“Uh-huh,” he mumbled while pressing his ear to her phone.
She huffed, “That’s why the guy at the checkout gave me the wandering eye.”
“Bullshit,” he said while ending the call, “you were getting the eye because you’re gorgeous. Still no answer.” He eased her phone back into her bag. “It just goes to voice mail.”
“I know Sayer is young, but why are you so worried about what we did last night?”
“He just started his new job two weeks ago.”
“And?” She put her drink down. Already, its effects were too much for her.
Nick stood and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring out the slider into the setting sun. “He now works for Jordan Marketing.”
“He told me last night,” she said, truly mystified with his behavior, “but the company is so vast, there’s no -”
“He’s the new lead manager for Miami’s tight end: Ben Scalon,” he grumbled.
“How would he land that kind of position when he just started for Jordan? How old is he? Maybe twenty-one?”
“Just turned,” Nick answered and went on warily, “I don’t know whether you’ve kept up with Will’s extracurricular activities since your breakup -”
She cut him off, “I haven’t.” It was too painful.
“Well, supposedly, Ben’s his new bestie.”
“Maybe it’s the wine or lack of sleep, but I’m not following.”
“Was he there last night at the Everglades gala?”
“I never saw Will, but I’ll admit to keeping my head down.” She heard his scoffing tone, but continued as parts of the previous night unfolded, “Come to think of it, I did meet a guy named Ben, an exceptionally large man who could easily be a tight-end. He was dodging the paparazzi left and right. It was annoying standing next to him, to say the least. We ducked into a tent while he and Sayer chatted it up. It was a brief encounter. I doubt he recognized me as Will’s old girlfriend.”
She followed Nick’s gaze through the sliders. Shades of turquoise shimmered in the horizon, dotted with countless boats; their shapes and sizes determined by their owners’ wealth. The sun was setting low – nearly hidden, readying Miami for another busy night, where the sea would wash any serenity away while swirling with midnight blue and dark hedonism.
“Maybe I’m overthinking it, then.” Nick still didn’t sound convinced. “I just find it odd that he recently took a job that inevitably crosses paths with your old flame, and you two were seen last night together. Next day, he’s gone.”
“We can call the police,” she offered. “But as you said, more times than not, he’s a womanizer. It’s possible that he hooked up with someone after he brought me home.” She couldn’t recall him bringing her home at all. And the thought of him being with another made her stomach twist painfully.
“The police won’t investigate until twenty-four hours have passed.” He reminded her, and studied Azure in a way that made her feel raw. “How could a woman who looks like you - and that’s not even considering your intelligence and personality – have such a battered self-image?”
“Some things make us brittle right down to our bones.”
He decided to intrude. “You said your mother remained single all of your life?”
“She did.” Right up until she’d succumbed to breast cancer. Azure had moved into her small house after her break-up with Will. A constant reminder of her mother’s death that she’d just as soon avoid. Unfortunately, not a single buyer was willing to pay anything above peanuts in this downturned economy, so many times she’d nearly ripped the for sale sign off the front patch of grass and called things off with her realtor. But she kept her faith and slept in a tiny bed inside the Florida room, keeping her mother’s old bedroom closed.
He gathered her bag and picked his keys up off the snack bar. “You’ve never told me about your father.”
“How can I tell you about someone I don’t know?” She dutifully followed him out, looking away as he set the alarm and locked the door. A blacked-out SUV was perched around the corner, but in this neighborhood, it wasn’t that unusual. Sayer’s place was small, but beachfront property came with a mint price, and the wealthy always needed extra security. She pulled her gaze away from the vehicle and let Nick help her to the elevator since she couldn’t shake that annoying limp and its accompanying pain.
“Hmmm.”
“What? Don’t tell me that you subscribe to the whole ‘Daddy Issues’ theory.” She chewed her plump lips, fighting a giggle. “You are one empathetic psychiatrist.” Nick was still in h
is residency, working the private detox facility to get his hours in while pulling random shifts at the hospital. She didn’t know how he did it, or what she would have done if he hadn’t gotten her a job at the facility. After all, she was supposed to have a Master’s degree to work there, so he’d undoubtedly pulled some serious strings to put her in a position others were better qualified for.
He opened the passenger door for her, practically lifting her in and then adjusting her leg. After putting her purse in her lap, he replied, “I didn’t subscribe to that particular theory before I met you, Azure baby. Empathy is my calling. One of many. But I’m only inquiring as a friend.”
She watched him settle behind the wheel, putting on his practically retro wayfarers before starting up the engine. “It’s a lost cause,” she offered softly. “I don’t know who he is, and neither did Mom.” In later years, when Azure hit her twenties, her mother admitted she’d been binge drinking when Azure was conceived and had no clue whom her sperm donor was. Sperm Donor! That still smarted. “Even if Mom did, she sure kept it one hell of a secret.” One she took to the grave.
Although she couldn’t see his gray eyes behind his shades, she knew they were stormy, and his look of concern wasn’t hidden by the lenses. Translation: He wasn’t dropping this topic anytime soon. “Buckle up,” he sighed softly. “A fried grouper sandwich for me, fish tacos and key lime martinis for you - I’ll drive you home after dinner.”
“Music to my ears and a balm to my grumbling stomach,” she said with relief. Glad he changed the subject. “Let’s go.”
Gage shut his eyes against the sun’s setting rays. Another wave of pain shot through his head, though he was regenerating normally. He felt around for his sunglasses, keeping his lids slammed tight as he shoved them on his face. They’d been waiting for an hour outside Sayer’s Miami Beach apartment. “Two sets of feet stopped and then a car started. Tell me that’s them leaving.” They had to get moving. He had no problem spending a few minutes searching Sayer’s apartment before nightfall, but when the moon glowed overhead, his Beast was hunting its mate. He’d leave no pebble in Miami unturned.
“It would be so, Ancient One,” Health said tightly.
“If you call me that one more time,” he growled until the window next to him made a telltale tinkling sound. Apparently, bulletproof glass couldn’t hold up against his temper. “I’m going to cut your fucking tongue out.”
“Since you outrank me, I suppose I’ll have to let you,” he muttered vaguely, making a smacking sound with his lips. It would seem as though his mind was on other things. “But I wouldn’t mind a taste of her first. Might you postpone my torture so I can put my mouth on a bonny lass? A male’s dying wish and all.”
“Death by mutilation? Hardly. Like you wouldn’t grow your tongue back,” Gage snapped irritably, his head throbbing behind his eyes. “And all lasses are bonny to you. You said so yourself.”
“Aye, they are. All shapes, sizes, and colors. God’s painstaking creativity shows in every female. But I must say this one’s different. Mmmmm,” a heady rumble eased up his throat. “Wakin’ my Beast a wee bit. Thinkin’ he could fuck as the animal that he is with her takin’ a wild ride underneath him. Luscious body is a playground for my inhuman side.”
“But you’re entirely inhuman.” Gage didn’t want to talk. “I don’t scent a drop of human blood in you.”
“Just seein’ if you’re listen’.”
“Heath, when I fuck, I am an animal. One with a single-minded intensity who gives into the Beast or I don’t do it at all. I’ll be damned if I’m taking it easy on any female when I hurl us into the carnal apocalypse. I never back away from a religious experience, such as that. Believe me, if there are two pussies in my bed, one of them sure as hell isn’t me. ” Gage’s skin stretched across his bones right as he heard the car in question drive by. Hardened cock slammed against his straining zipper. He jumped up, tearing off his glasses, reaching a trembling hand for the door.
Three breaths in, one dangerous breath out.
A powerful arm pulled him back, curling around his throat, only because he allowed it. “Goin’ out in daylight when you’re no’ decent. Again. Forgettin’ there’ll be humans around?” Silver eyes flashed, canines dipping down over Heath’s chin. “What’s your hurry, Beast?”
Gage turned away, blanching as he caught a glimpse of the door. Claw marks ran deep and jagged until they hit metal. Fucking clawed the door as if he were a pup hitting puberty. After a few steadying breaths, he retracted nature’s weapons and waited for his canines to recede. Only after he settled his breathing did Heath pull himself back to his human facade.
“Very good, then,” Heath’s voice lost its warning edge. “Can we sniff around Sayer’s den or are you more likely to take a run?”
“Now,” Gage whispered. “We hit it now, and we hit it quickly. Or I’m out.”
“No’ without me,” Heath admitted as they left the vehicle. They walked across the road with as much casualness and two oversized males could pull off. A man walking his dog pulled to the left, avoiding them at all cost. A common occurrence they dealt with daily. Though humans found them attractive, they were afraid of them. Years of practice spent assimilating, mingling in with the weaker species, couldn’t change their minds. Fear fed fear. And when a predator passed them, they knew it.
“Not without you?”
“Alpha has me on your arse.”
“I’m the one that rides ass, not the other way around. You’re not shadowing me, Heath. Get that thought out of your head.”
“You were face-down when the Alpha found you, said he’d never seen you that way before.” He entered Sayer’s code, unlocking the elevator so they could head up. “Though you were left alive by your attackers, anythin’ could’ve killed you in that state, includin’ humans.”
“Attackers? You mean a pack of scent-free, immortal-fire-wielding leeches,” Gage corrected in a bored tone. He found it hard to believe that vampire rogues randomly attacked him. It felt as though it were a calculated warning. And bits and pieces in Kash’s report told him nothing.
“Did you really defang the Coven Master?”
“He went dental on Tatum. Practically shredded her throat, so I showed him what I thought of that.” Gage looked over his glasses, daring him to continue this conversation. Heath decided not to push it. Wise choice. The mirrored doors split, and they rounded the corner to investigate Sayer’s apartment.
Chapter Six
Sayer watched the vampire named Tare grip the bars that separated them. Bars he could break easily when he healed a bit more from his beating. But he needed blood to drink. And Tare knew it.
“Again, I ask you,” he hissed in the way vampires do. “Why were you chasing the female mixed-blood?”
“Or your assembly is going to descend again with your tire irons and immortal fire?” He asked, turning to face his captor. Half of his face remained burned. The tire irons he could endure. Fires of hell were another matter altogether, the only thing that managed to keep him from going back for his female. He refused to touch his face in front of them, refusing them their sadistic pleasure, but he imagined the freak he now was. Something Azure wouldn’t want to look at unless he healed first.
“You must want more of what you’ve already gotten. Last chance to answer before I burn more than your pretty-boy face,” Tare warned.
“Again, I answer you with the same response I’ve given countless times since being here.” Because she’s mine. “I wanted to get laid. In regards to powerful fucking, a mixed-blood’s body is more tolerable than a human is, and full-bloods are such a rarity, so there’s no room for pickiness in matters of the cock. She enjoys hard grind. I intended on delivering. We hooked up.”
“Frolicking in the swamp?”
“Nasty roughness was all we wanted. Something a full vamp like you wouldn’t appreciate without gallons of blood dripping from your dick.” A dangerous smile split Sayer’s face. “Being part Lyca
nthrope” – he patted his chest – “has its advantages.” His words echoed starkly in his stone enclosure. At Tare’s scoff, Sayer added just for fun, “By the way, only the elderly use the word frolicking anymore. Should brush up on your dialect,” he said with faux concern. “Fitting in with the present century is a must. Or don’t you want to do that.”
“And you prove that the young remain blindly stupid.”
“I suppose so since I’m still wondering why I’m here locked away by you.” He ran a fingertip down some loosening mortar anchoring less than solid stones. Apparently, the Captiva Coven didn’t run this operation. Maestru wouldn’t have such shoddy prisons erected. He did it right, or he didn’t do it, at least structurally – not so much ethically. “Talking about crossing lines you shouldn’t. Really shouldn’t.”
“Monstrosities like you shouldn’t walk the streets.”
“Said one species to another,” Sayer said carefully, weighing his words. “When in glass houses, how can one monster throw a stone without hitting the other?” Even humans could be monsters, especially against their own young. Where was his captor going with this? Unless. “Ah, monsters that you call aliens.”
“Aren’t you?” He said turning slightly as the one called Collin entered. “An alien, I mean.”
“Oh, now I’m feeling stupid,” he laughed mechanically, pressing his forehead against his palm. “I thought I was dealing with some dark vendetta between our factions when all my imprisonment amounts to is a simple case of bigotry.” Therefore, he would die painfully unless he escaped.
“Bigotry doesn’t count when dealing with aliens,” Tare sneered while Collin remained deathly quiet. “You are an abomination, not a race. Your kind will be stamped out and soon.”
Apparently, Tare didn’t read his history tomes. Toppling a race never worked out for those doing the toppling. “You’re keeping me here to find out if there are other Habalines wandering before you kill me, then?” Nothing made sense. Habalines were everywhere.
“Not pure Habalines. That’s a wasted effort. But Habalines bred with Species Vampires. You,” he said while wagging his finger. “You’re even worse. Throwing in werewolves with your genetics makes you the most dangerous: part Species Vampire, part Habaline Shapeshifter and part werewolf. You were cultivated by a modern-day mad scientist.”
