Rogue the Redeemer

by Rhiannon Neeley

  The storm of their passion abated, leaving them both breathless. Rogue rolled off her, taking the vibrator with him. They lay side-by-side, each quietly regaining their breath.

  Kaitlyn was content. Her body was warm and alive, her gnawing hunger satisfied. The feel of Rogue’s hard muscled body against her side was delicious. She didn’t want to move, didn’t want this to end.

  Rogue cleared his throat. “Did you call work and tell them you were sick?”

  Kaitlyn nodded. “Yes. I told them I’d be out tonight and wasn’t sure when I’d be back. But I do have to go back soon.”

  “No.”

  Kaitlyn frowned and rose up on her elbow so she could see his face. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

  “I don’t want you going back.”

  Kaitlyn laughed. “Rogue—who died and said you were boss? If I want to go back, I will.”

  “No. You won’t.” He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “It’s not safe.”

  Kaitlyn sat up. Indignation filled her. Who did he think he was? “I have work to do there. Testing. I have got to find out how to reverse whatever it is that has happened to me.” She got to her feet and stood in front of him, hands on her hips. “I don’t have the equipment here to do it. I have to go back to the hospital and you,” she said, poking his chest with a finger, “are not going to stop me.”

  Rogue grinned up at her. “You are absolutely gorgeous when you’re naked and mad as a wet hen at the same time.”

  Kaitlyn clenched her hands into fists to keep herself from hitting him. “I like you,” she said, her jaw tight. “Matter of fact, I could very well be in love with you. But—I will not be ordered around. Do I make myself clear?”

  Rogue’s grin had softened to a smile. “Love me, huh?”

  Kaitlyn swallowed. Had she said that? She shuffled her feet. “Um, I think I…” She sighed. “Yes, Rogue. I love you.”

  Rogue stood and took her in his arms. His lips brushed her in a tender kiss. “I love you too, Kaitlyn.”

  Her heart almost beat. If only they weren’t both … what they were.

  “Listen,” he said, stroking her cheek. “We’ll talk about all this testing you need to do later. I have somewhere I need to be.”

  “Can I go with you?” She would love to get out of the prison of this house.

  “Not this time,” he said, shaking his head. “But I’ll be back in a few hours.”

  Kaitlyn sighed. “Promise?”

  “Nothing could keep me away.”

  *

  Rogue pulled out of Kaitlyn’s driveway and was on his cell phone before he made it two blocks. He called information and got the number of a local wrecker service then quickly called and made arrangements for Kaitlyn’s car to be towed out of the hospital parking lot. That done, he kicked the ‘Vette down and raced across town, heading for the hospital.

  He made it in time to punch the time clock. Within five minutes, Rogue was in janitor mode.

  Twenty minutes later, he parked his cart at the nurses’ station and leaned over the high counter. “Hey, Rachel,” he said, making sure his smile covered his fangs. “Quiet night?”

  Rachel looked up from her book and immediately went doe-eyed. “Rogue, hey. I missed you last night. Everything okay?”

  Rogue waved a hand. “Just getting used to working nights. I tried to sleep during the day, but it was just impossible.” He winked at her. “Didn’t fall asleep until evening and then, well, didn’t wake up.”

  Rachel nodded. “I know how it is. Did you stay up all day today then?”

  Rogue knew he had her by the way her eyes were shining, pupils dilated to the maximum. Time to kick in the charm. “I did just that.” He crossed his arms on the counter and rested his chin on them. “I dreamed about you last night.”

  Rachel blinked. “What? Really?” A blush flowed into her cheeks. “I hope it was a good one.”

  “Mmm hmm. It was.”

  She tilted her head coyly. “I thought you were—you know—attracted to Kaitlyn.”

  Rogue raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

  Rachel grinned. “What time are you taking your break?”

  “That depends. What time is yours?” Lord, he knew he was pouring it on thick but this was an easy way to get what he needed. What Kaitlyn needed.

  Rachel checked her watch. “I’ll be taking a twenty-minute break in half an hour.” She looked at him with hope gleaming in her eyes.

  Rogue pushed off the counter. “Half an hour. I’ll meet you right here.”

  Rachel smiled so wide Rogue could see her molars. “I’ll be waiting.”

  He gave her a wink then started pushing his cart down the hall.

  Rogue decided to make a pass down the rooms where the seven long-term patients were. He knew it was a waste of time but then John had been at the hospital today. Rogue had no idea whether John had divulged Rogue’s true reason for being at the hospital. John had said that there were four people keeping an eye on the patients’ rooms and one of the people was Rachel. If Rachel had gotten word that Rogue was in on the surveillance, he needed to make it look like he was doing his job.

  As he moved down the dimly lit hall, he could hear the sounds of monitors beeping inside the rooms with the half-closed doors. The sound was eerie. Each beep seemed to be someone’s heartbeat, ticking away in the darkness.

  Rogue shook his head. He didn’t like being here. Didn’t like the thought of so many folks being so sick. Rogue was young and healthy, never sick a day in his life. Unless you count being lovesick.

  Lovesick over Kaitlyn. A vampire.

  The irony of it struck him like a sledgehammer. His stomach churned as he wondered just how he was going to get Kaitlyn back to Ravencrest. He knew that Lydia could help her. He’d heard that John’s aged mother, Lark, had performed transfusions on the Raven Clan when any of them had been bitten to the point that they were on the verge of turning. He hoped that between a transfusion and Lydia’s research something could be done to return Kaitlyn to what she should be—human.

  But getting past John would be the battle that could possibly end it all.

  And that was the first battle that Rogue would have to fight.

  * * * *

  Rogue showed up at Rachel’s station five minutes early. “Hey.”

  “Hey yourself.” Rachel got up from her chair. “It’ll be a minute before Crystal comes to take over.”

  “No problem.” He leaned on the countertop. “Any word on the thefts?”

  “Not that I’ve heard. There weren’t any last night.” She took the sweater from the back of her chair.

  Rogue moved around the counter and took it from her. “Here, let me help you.”

  “Thank you,” she said. Rogue held it for her while she slipped it on. “A gentleman. Imagine that,” she said, turning to face him.

  “You flatter me, ma’am.” Rogue replied, thickening his southern drawl. He could see her almost melt right in front of his eyes. “I wonder—where exactly does this blood keep disappearing from?”

  Rachel pointed down the hall. “There’s a room where we keep the trauma drugs, just off the emergency room. The blood is there. Why?”

  “Curious.” He moved closer to her. “You wouldn’t want to show it to me, would you?”

  “I don’t know. The room is kept locked.” She looked up at him.

  Rogue touched her hair. “You have keys, don’t you?”

  “Yes but…”

  “And we could be alone in there, couldn’t we?” He moved closer still. Then he ran his tongue over his lips while his eyes were trained on hers.

  “Rachel, I’m here,” a woman’s voice said.

  Rachel blinked, snapping out of the spell she seemed to be under.

  Rogue smiled when Rachel snatched her key ring off the desk. “Be back soon,” Rachel said, moving around the woman who was obviously Crystal. Rogue nodded at her as he followed Rachel down the hall.

  They were almost to the
end of the hall when Rachel placed a hand on his arm. “Here,” she said, stopping in front of a door. She glanced both ways down the hall, then shoved her key in the lock. “Come on,” she whispered, pulling him inside.

  Rogue looked around the room. There were cabinets with glass doors filled with small vials. A large door was at the back of the room. “That where they keep the blood?” he asked.

  Rachel came up to him and placed one hand on his chest. “Mmhmm. Want to see?”

  “Take me there,” he said, slipping his hand along her waist. Rogue followed her into the small room. It was chilly inside. Rogue was glad he had slipped on the green linen jacket before he had returned to Rachel’s station. The reason he had put it on in the first place was because it had large pockets.

  “What do you think?” Rachel asked, leaning back against one of the metal shelves that were lined with plastic bags of dark red liquid.

  “I think,” he said, moving up to her, “that you may be getting chilly.” He pressed against her, one hand on the shelf on either side of her.

  A few minutes and some wet kisses later, Rogue had a pint of blood in each of the pockets of his jacket and Rachel hadn’t noticed a thing.

  They left the room, Rachel locking the door. She smoothed down her hair again as they walked side-by-side back to the nurses’ station.

  Rogue kept his hands in the jacket pockets the whole time, even though Rachel kept looking up at him dreamily. Too bad, he thought, she is a cute thing. But there was no way. His heart belonged to Kaitlyn.

  “See you later?” Rachel asked, moving behind the counter when they got back. Crystal looked between the two of them with interest.

  “You can bet on it,” Rogue said, grabbing his cart. He gave her one last wink as he walked toward the hallway on the left.

  “Dang,” he heard Crystal say from behind him. “He’s a hottie.”

  “I know,” Rachel replied. “Boy, do I know.”

  Rogue smiled to himself and kept on walking, heading for the locker room. He wanted to be back at Kaitlyn’s before midnight.

  It looked like he was going to make it

  .

  *

  John’s cell phone chirped, waking him instantly. “Yes.” He sat up in bed.

  “Mr. Raven, this is Roy Haines at Garville Hospital. We’ve had another theft.”

  John glanced at the clock. Twelve-fifteen a.m. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “It’s the middle of the night. I thought you only inventoried the blood supply in the morning.”

  “Yes. That is what we normally do, but we had a car accident victim come into emergency. When one of the staff entered bloodstock, she noticed pints had been moved. She reported it and we did a quick inventory. Two pints are missing.”

  John reached over and grabbed his cigarettes from the nightstand. “Suspects?”

  “Well,” Haines replied, “after questioning the night staff, one of our charge nurses admitted to being in the room.”

  “And?” John lit up, drawing the cool menthol into his lungs.

  “She was very—shall we say—tearful in her admission. The nurse has been thoroughly searched. The person that she was with in the stock room has left the premises.”

  John had a sinking feeling. “And the person who was with this nurse?”

  Haines cleared his throat. “I’m afraid that it is your partner—Rogue Shanley.”

  John blew out cigarette smoke, a forbidding calm settling over him. “Where is he now?”

  “We were hoping you would know.”

  John stood. “I’ll get back to you. Thank you for calling, Mr. Haines.” He pushed END on the phone then immediately dialed another number.

  It rang four times before it was answered. “H’lo?”

  “Eric,” John said. “I need you here.”

  “What’s wrong, John?” his brother Eric asked, his voice thick with sleep.

  “I need backup.” John stubbed out his cigarette. “Rogue has gone over.”

  A heavy sigh came through the phone. “I’ll be there in about … five hours.”

  “Make it four.”

  Chapter Seven

  Rogue arrived back at Kaitlyn’s at the stroke of midnight, blood in hand.

  He found her sitting on the couch, dressed in her robe, with her feet curled underneath her. “Brought you some dinner,” he said, laying the plastic pints of blood on the coffee table.

  Kaitlyn shrugged.

  Rogue sat down beside her and placed his hand on her knee. “You’re mad at me aren’t you?”

  Her eyes flashed. “You can’t tell me where I can go or when I can go.”

  Rogue waited, figuring that keeping silent right now was in his best interest. Instead he tilted his chin down and looked up at her.

  Kaitlyn let out a sigh, then rubbed her hands over her face. “What am I going to do?” she asked, her voice strained. “I can’t keep living like this.” She dropped her hands. “And you—Mr. Puppy Dog Eyes—I can’t stay mad at you either.”

  Rogue smiled and reached for her. She came into his arms easily. He hugged her close. She curled against him, a perfect fit. “I’m just trying to keep you safe, Kaitlyn,” he said, kissing the top of her head.

  She looked up into his face. “There is no ‘safe.’ Not anymore.”

  “We’ll fix it.” He kissed her softly, his body reacting to the connection.

  One kiss from those luscious lips of hers and his sex drive went into overdrive. He pulled back before he ended up ravishing her right here on the couch. “Eat,” he said, nodding toward the coffee table.

  Kaitlyn sat up. “I am hungry.” She picked up one pint of the blood. “Rogue—you got this from the hospital.”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  She looked back at him, frowning. “How? This is kept locked up. You didn’t break in did you?”

  He leaned back, raised his arms and laced his fingers together behind his head. “Didn’t have to.”

  She glared at him. “That does not tell me what I want to know.”

  Rogue started to grin. She wasn’t really angry with him, just ticked off because he was giving her short answers. His Aunt Grace was the same way. Kaitlyn was really a lot like Grace. He liked that in her. “Okay, don’t get all upset on me now,” he said, dropping his arms. “I talked your friend Rachel into letting me in.”

  “How?” Kaitlyn’s eyes narrowed.

  “I just used my southern charm,” he said, kicking in his accent. “You’d be surprised what some woman will do for a good ole southern boy.”

  Kaitlyn punched him in the leg. Hard.

  “Ow! Why’d you do that?” He rubbed at his thigh. She packed as much wallop as a heavyweight boxer in the slender arms of hers.

  “You keep that charm under wraps, boy. So, did she see you take this?” She held the blood in the palm of her hand.

  “No…” Now what was he going to say? Kaitlyn was already showing signs of jealousy. “…she didn’t.”

  Kaitlyn cocked her head and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “I don’t think I’m going to ask just how you distracted her. It may make me want to sink these ever-growing teeth into one of your body parts.”

  Rogue leaned forward and looked deep into those silver-tinged midnight eyes of hers. “Baby, you don’t have a thing to worry about. You’re the most beautiful thing this side of heaven.”

  A smile played on her lips, than she burst out laughing. “Boy, you can lay it on thick, can’t you?”

  “I’m serious. There’s no one who can hold a candle to you.”

  *

  Kaitlyn sobered. He was being serious. Looking into his eyes right now she saw an ocean of love. He loved her. “I believe you,” she whispered.

  One corner of his mouth quirked up. “So drink your dinner then and after that, well, we’ll see what happens.”

  “Are you sure no one saw you take this, because, Rogue,they’ve been looking…”

  “Hush,
” he said, putting a finger to her lips. “Stop worrying. We’ll be fine.”

  Kaitlyn wanted to believe that. She really did. But “fine” was no longer in her vocabulary. She doubted that anything would be fine ever again unless she could get herself back to normal. And after she got herself back to normal—there was Rogue to worry about.

  She raised the pint of blood to her lips. Already her mouth watered at the thought of the life-giving liquid flowing down her throat. Her teeth itched, her canines elongating by a fraction. Her eyes glued to Rogue’s clear blue ocean eyes, Kaitlyn opened her mouth and bit down, piercing through the plastic as if it were warm butter. A tingling began as she sucked the blood into her mouth, a rushing through her as her body absorbed the thick liquid like a dry sponge. It was as if the main current switch that ran her body was suddenly turned on, electricity coursing through every muscle. Kaitlyn moaned, closing her eyes. Feeding on lukewarm blood brought her gratification almost as good as sex.

  The pint bag empty, Kaitlyn opened her eyes and tossed it on the coffee table. She snatched the other quickly to her mouth as she drew the second bag down her throat. Kaitlyn watched Rogue. He was leaning back on the couch, watching her with a heated gaze. It was evident that the sight of her feeding had aroused him. The bulge in his pants could not be denied.

  The pint of blood was half-gone. Kaitlyn disengaged her fangs, holding the bag carefully so it didn’t leak any of the precious fluid, and offered it to him.

  He slowly shook his head. “Finish it. There’s something else that I’m hungry for,” he said in a voice so low that it seemed to curl around her in an embrace.

  A flame licked to life at her core. She drained the bag and tossed it away. Her senses were heightened. The yellowish glow of the lamp on the end table washed Rogue with golden light. She could smell his scent—almost taste it—as she moved up his body. The satin of her robe slithered over her body like a million butterfly wings softly kissing her skin. “You are such an addiction,” she breathed when she reached his mouth. “One thing that I don’t want to be cured of.”