How to play this? Stay in character or come clean?
“You caught me,” I said, trying to appear embarrassed as if caught in a lie. “I don’t know much about the band or the music. I heard you singing last night and wanted to talk to you. Asking for your autograph seemed like the best way to approach you.”
“Why not just say hi?”
“I don’t know. Good question.”
She tilted her head. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Something about you intrigued me. I wanted to get to know you better.”
She quirked a brow. “In other words, you’re just trying to sleep with me.”
“I didn’t say that,” I protested.
She appeared unconvinced. “What do you want to know?” She took a sip of her drink.
“It’s too loud in here. And it’s a beautiful night outside. Want to get outside for a minute?”
She hesitated, and I thought she was about to shoot me down, but then she said, “Just for a few minutes.” She looked around the club. “I’ll have to tell my bandmates. If they don’t see me here, they’ll worry.”
“I don’t blame them. Lots of creeps out there. I’ll wait for you out front.”
She walked to the guitarist. Figures, it had to be him. While she spoke to him, I made my way to the door. I’d bet he was shooting eye darts at my back. Out front, I counted slowly, trying to slow my racing heartbeat. Maybe the guitarist would change her mind. Or he’d come out here and tell me to stay away from her.
When I reached the number one hundred forty-five, Layla came out.
“You made it.”
“It wasn’t easy. My bandmate gave me a hard time about leaving with a stranger.”
“We won’t be long.” I motioned around us. “It’s a beautiful night.”
She scanned the warehouses surrounding us as if unconvinced about the scenery, but then closed her eyes and breathed in the air. “Yeah, it’s nice out.”
I reached for her hand again and was thrilled that she didn’t pull away. Her hand fit perfectly in mine. A small, warm thing that sent jolts of pleasure through me.
It’s only adrenaline. That’s all.
“Are you just visiting the US?” she asked.
“Yes.” With a casual stroll, I led us from the club, away from prying eyes.
“For how long?”
“Just a little while. Taking care of some business.”
“Oh,” she said and cocked her head. “What do you do for a living?”
“I work for myself.”
“Doing what?”
“I take care of my clients.”
Her brows furrowed. “Take care of them how?”
“Why? Are you in need of some help?”
“No. Just curious. And I find it odd that you haven’t answered me straight out.”
“My clients pay me good money for my discretion.”
“Hmm. Now I’m intrigued. Illegal off-shore accounts?” She appraised me. “You don’t look the type to want to deal with bank accounts all day. Drug deals?”
“I’m insulted,” I said in mock offense. While distracting her with small talk, I led us around the corner toward my car.
“You can’t blame me for being curious, can you?”
“Let’s talk about you. How did you end up the singer of a metal band?”
It was her turn to be evasive. “It just sort of—happened.”
“Hold on one sec. This is my car. Let me grab something.” I looked around to make sure nobody was watching us, especially the guitarist. I wouldn’t put it past him to follow us. But I didn’t see or sense any sign of him. I opened the back door on the passenger side.
The streets were empty. One good thing about the club being in the warehouse district was that most businesses were closed, and the neighborhood was quiet by night. The only people out here at this time were the clubgoers.
“What do you need to get?” she asked, inching closer.
She lowered her eyelids, glancing at me from under those dark lashes. Her eyelids widened. She was interested in me—and had no idea she was falling into a trap.
“First, I’d like a kiss.” I lowered my head, pausing when my lips hovered less than an inch from hers.
She tilted her head up, closing the distance. When our lips met, something strange happened. My body heated as if the touch had ignited something within. I wanted more of her.
Her lips were even softer than I imagined, and she tasted like sweet strawberries. Her scent was the one I’d picked up at Stefano’s place. Inhaling it from her, it had an even greater impact on me. Devastatingly disarming.
This was supposed to be part of my ruse, a simple tactic to distract her, but my mind went blank. I wanted to pull her closer and wrap her in my arms.
Focus. Get back in the game.
Right. I took her hands and moved them in between us, placing them on my chest. She stroked down my torso as I distracted her with the kiss. God, it felt good to have her touch me that way. But that wasn’t why I had her do it. With her hands where I wanted them, I pulled out the rope and wrapped it around both wrists.
She reacted as quickly as I expected of a vampire, but it was too late, the silver was already on her wrists, binding her.
“What are you doing!”
I pushed her into the backseat and climbed in, slamming the door shut. While she tried to unbind herself, I grabbed the duct tape I’d stashed beneath the seat.
“Who are you? Let me out of here! Help!” She extended her fangs and lunged forward to bite me.
After a more difficult struggle than I’d anticipated from someone so petite, I was able to subdue her enough to cover her mouth and fortify the restraints with duct tape. Her purse had fallen off her shoulder, dangling down her arm but not falling off due to the restraints. I unzipped it and pulled out her phone, stashing it in my pocket. She thrashed around in the backseat, kicking her combat boots my way.
My heart hammered. The thrill of the hunt pounded through me.
“Stop that or I’ll throw you in the trunk,” I warned. “I have plenty of silver back there.”
She stopped thrashing, panting wildly and spewing hatred from her eyes, now tinged with crimson.
“The calmer you are, the easier this will be for everyone. Especially you.”
She glanced around the streets. No one was around to help her.
“Sorry, sweetheart. But a job’s a job.”
I reached for a pair of handcuffs also beneath the seat and fastened one of her wrists to a handle on the back door. Then I took a pair of shackles to her ankles.
She couldn’t scream, but the mutinous look in her eyes promised she would kill me the second she had the chance.
Chapter 3
Joey
Angelica was going to be pissed if I went looking for her. I tapped my foot, trying to be patient, but kept checking the time. I tried to distract myself by scanning the club. Whoever designed this place had a thing for gargoyles.
A few more minutes passed. Enough, I’d waited long enough. When Studley asked me, “Where are you goin’?” I ignored him. He’d give me shit if I told him. I had to go and make sure she was all right.
On the way out, I asked the bouncer, “Did you see our singer come back in?”
“Who’s the singer? We have lots of bands playing these days.”
“A woman. Totally hot. Black hair on one side, white on the other, and all kinds of stripes thrown in. She was wearing a little white lacy dress. And combat boots.”
I was hoping by being that specific, it would ring a bell. A lot of women wore tiny outfits and had outrageous hairstyles tonight, so whether it would jolt any recollection might be a long shot.
“Oh yeah, the stripes in her hair. Some of these women do some crazy shit…” His voice trailed off.
“Well? Did you see her come back in?”
He grasped his chin and looked over at the front door. “I saw her leave and talk to some guy.”
“Did they come back?”
“Nah. I don’t think so.” He looked at his watch. “It wasn’t that long ago now that I think about it. They’ll probably be back soon.”
“I’ll be right back,” I said, rushing to the door.
“You need a stamp,” he called after me.
“I’m in the goddamn band,” I said. I pushed out the door and looked from left to right. A couple of smokers to my right, but no signs of them.
“Have you seen a woman with black-and-white hair walk by?”
“No. Just got out here, man,” one of the smokers said.
I tried not to run as I hustled down the pavement along the buildings. Which way had they gone?
A sleek black Nissan drove by. Although the windows were dark, I caught the eye of the driver. It was that guy she’d left with. At least, he was alone as she wasn’t in the passenger seat. I hated the thought of her going home with him. He looked away and sped up. I hope she told him to fuck off.
I must have gone in the wrong direction and missed Angelica on her way back to the club. Feeling somewhat foolish, I trekked back to Vamps. If anyone asked me where I’d been, I would say I went out for air.
Back inside, the bouncer said, “No luck?”
My face must have dropped at the same moment every muscle in my body tensed up.
“She didn’t come back?” I asked.
“Not yet.”
Where the fuck was she? I walked outside again and pulled out my cell phone. I hesitated for another second, knowing she’d give me a hard time for keeping tabs on her again, but I didn’t care. I called her.
Her phone rang and rang. Why wasn’t she answering? After several more rings, it went to her voicemail.
“Hi, this is Angelica. You know what to do.”
“Hey, Angelica, it’s me, Joey. Call me when you get this.”
Layla
Sonovabitch!
Who the fuck was this guy and what did he want with me?
My mind flickered over various options: rape, murder, kidnapping, extortion, robbery, blackmail, torture… Since he bound me with silver, did he know I was a vampire? Was he one of those freaks on a quest to stamp out all nonhumans? It couldn’t be Stefano’s doing all the way over here, could it?
When I heard my cell phone ring, I perked up. Someone was calling me. Then I realized I had no way of getting it, my mouth was taped shut.
“You’re not going to need this anymore,” he said, pulling over to the side of the road.
I maneuvered my body up for a second, straining against the restraints, to see where he’d parked. We appeared to be near a seawall.
I tried to ask, “What are you doing?” but with my mouth taped, my sentence resulted in an indecipherable mumble.
No, don’t throw it in.
He stepped out of the car and out of the corner of my eye I caught the throwing motion of his arm. I listened to hear the phone hitting the ocean, but never heard a thing. A tiny phone into an enormous ocean—it probably wouldn’t even register a sound.
He climbed back into the driver’s seat and drove again.
Where the fuck is he taking me?
I focused on landmarks, road signs, anything that would help me figure out where we were. At my angle lying down, it was difficult to make out much in the darkness of the night.
Night. It was still dark, but how much time did we have left before the dawn? The sun would burn me. Kill me as effectively as a stake through the heart. I’d never seen what happened to a vampire who faced sunlight, but imagined the pain involved in burning to death was not a good way to go.
Did we burst into flames? Or was it a slow, agonizing smolder from within, burning the vampire as the intense heat simmered from the inside out?
Was there even a body left once the sun had done its job? Maybe a pile of ashes? Or did the vampire disappear from existence?
A vision of a witch being burned at the stake formed.
My chest tightened as I envisioned a vampire’s death by sunlight—my potential end. I had to think of something other than my fiery destruction if we didn’t seek cover soon. More questions about my captor came up. Why had he kidnapped me? He hated vampires and wanted me to perish in the sun?
An image of my burning body entered my mind again, and I forced it out before I had a full-blown panic attack.
Or did he think I was human, and he took me for some other purpose? If so, how could I warn him about the sun before it was too late for me? I thrashed around on the backseat trying to get his attention.
“You’re just wasting energy,” he said. “You can move all you want back there, but it’s not going to help you escape.”
Fuck him. I thrashed around again, more out of frustration than anything else. He was right—I was bound so tightly I couldn’t get out. The silver drained me of strength, making me feel weak.
“Sweetheart,” he said. “I know you’re wondering what the fuck is going on and I’ll tell you in a minute. But you need to stop struggling back there. It won’t help your situation.”
“Fuck you!” I tried to say, but once again, it came out more of a moan than actual words.
I caught a sign for Boston, which meant we were heading south. It looked like we were headed for the highway.
“I know what you are. You’re a vampire and if I don’t get you under cover before sunrise, your hot little body will be fried to a messy crisp come dawn. Don’t worry, that’s not going to happen. I’m not here to murder you, and I’m not here to rape you or anything like that. What I am going to do is bring you back to the person who hired me.”
Fuck. Stefano. It had to be him.
“You stole from a vampire who isn’t very forgiving,” Devon said. If that was even his name. “And he paid me a lot of money to bring you back to him.”
He didn’t say anything for another minute or two. “Here’s a good spot.” I didn’t know if he was talking to himself or me. I glanced out the windows, but didn’t see anything besides trees and darkness.
Where the hell are we?
He stopped the car and turned back to face me. “If you tell me where Stefano’s painting is, it will make this trip a lot easier for you. I know you sold it by now. I could tell Stefano that I not only have you, but the money. Maybe he will be in a better mood by the time we arrive in London.”
He got out of the car and opened the back door. Then he tore the tape off my mouth and said, “Tell me where it is.”
With the freedom to speak again, I unleashed all my questions and terror and explanations.
“I don’t have the money. I didn’t take the painting. Who the fuck are you and where are you taking me? Take this shit off me and let me get out of this fucking car!”
“One more chance,” he said. “Where’s the money?”
“Go fuck yourself, you piece of shit!”
He laughed and tried to put the tape over my mouth again. I squirmed and attempted to bite his hands, but couldn’t get a grip on him. My fangs grew, and he said, “Get those nasty things away from me.” He covered my mouth with the tape despite me moving my head frantically to avoid it.
He left my line of vision and then I heard him open the trunk. I tried to see what he was doing, but could only see the open trunk door. After he slammed it shut, he came to the backseat again, this time with a needle in this hand.
I scrambled frantically to get away, which was useless.
“Sorry, sweetheart. You’re too feisty for the flight.” He stuck the needle into my arm, and I tried to scream. “Hey, it’ll actually be better for you. You get to sleep the whole way.”
I glared at him, but the world turned darker. Tired. Oh, so tired.
Must stay awake.
When I get the chance, I’m going to kill this guy with my bare hands!
No, I’ll suck every drop of blood out of him until he falls dead to the floor.
The drug overpowered me. Whatever it was had to be specially created for vampires since mo
st drugs didn’t have any effect on us.
The world turned black, and I was dead to the world.
Joey
Back in Vamps, I found the guys. “You haven’t seen Angelica, have you?”
“She was around earlier. She’s probably around here somewhere,” Mark said.
“No. She went outside to talk with that guy, the one I warned her about in the van yesterday. He came back tonight.”
“So, they’re probably talking,” Rocco said. Then he turned to Mark and in an exaggerated whisper said, “Code word for banging against the side of the building.”
Mark laughed. “Those are my favorite kinds of conversations. Hmm, I’m feeling kind of talkative right now. Let me see if there’s a fine-ass chick here who looks like she’d be a good conversationalist.”
“This is serious,” I said. “I went outside to make sure she was okay and—”
“Oh, come on,” Mark said. “You know she’s gonna freak when she hears you’re following her around like that.”
“Man, you two need to bang and get it over with. Get it out of your system,” Mark said. “Or you need to give up this obsession you have with her.”
“I’m not obsessed with her!” I sounded defensive even to myself. “Stop interrupting me. I went outside, and I didn’t see her. But I saw that guy driving away. Alone. And when I asked the bouncer if Angelica had come back in, he said no.”
“She probably went to get some air.”
“She didn’t answer her cell phone.”
Rocco coughed to cover him saying “stalker.”
“Shut up, Rocco. Obviously, something’s up. She’s in trouble.”
“How is that obvious?” Mark said. “She went for a walk to be alone and get a breather after a show. She sees you calling—harassing her—just when she’s trying to get away from everyone. So, she doesn’t answer the phone.”
Was I really that bad? So much of a bother that she’d ignore my calls?
“Maybe you’re right,” I said.
“Have a beer and relax, dude. You’re all hopped up after the show.”
Burn: A shifter and vampire rock star romance (Underground Encounters Book 4) Page 4
