Death Calls

by Caridad Piñeiro

  “Don’t know where. That’ll be up to your team to find out. The CDA members have been in plain sight up until now. Follow them—”

  “And we’ll find the weapon.” She ate a piece of the succulent pork, considering his report. Considering him as he sat across from her.

  He looked up. “What?”

  “You couldn’t have found a secure line and relayed that information without a face-to-face?”

  Alex mixed together some rice and beans, forked up a good amount, but paused with the utensil halfway to his mouth. “I didn’t feel like eating dinner alone. How about you?”

  She didn’t know if she could call grabbing a sandwich at her desk dinner.

  “I didn’t feel like it, either,” she confessed.

  The conversation turned to slightly more personal things, although not anything too personal. She was grateful that Alex recognized the limits she had silently set.

  Dinner was close to complete when her cell phone chimed with the ringtone that identified her brother. As she opened the phone, the face urgently flashed the time. Nearly midnight…

  “Sebastian! Is she having the baby?”

  “We just got to the hospital, but you need to hurry. Melissa seems to be in a rush.”

  Sebastian was about to have a baby, but instead of happy images, visions of Sylvia lying dead with her child rushed to the forefront of Diana’s mind.

  “Diana?”

  “Go be with Melissa. I’ll be there…soon,” she replied, but could hear the hesitation in her own voice.

  “You are coming, right?”

  She forced a tight smile. “I’ll be there soon, hermanito. I promise.” She flipped her phone closed.

  “Something up?”

  “Sebastian’s having a baby,” she answered, unnerved by the emotions the call had roused almost as much as the realization that her brother was going to be a father. She had always imagined she’d be the first parent, being the oldest. As Alex squeezed her hand in reassurance, she thought about how often she had once imagined him as the father.

  “I assume it’s Sebastian’s wife who’s having the baby,” Alex quipped, trying to draw her out of her unusual mood.

  She chuckled as he intended and tugged on his hand in mock punishment. “Yes, Sebastian’s wife.”

  “Do you like her?” he asked, twining his fingers with hers to keep the connection she had allowed in her moment of distress.

  “Melissa’s the best. She’s made Sebastian very happy. Why do you ask?”

  His broad shoulders rose and fell in a hesitant shrug. “I just noticed something there. Words you weren’t saying.”

  Disturbed by his observation, she jerked her hand from his and stalked a few steps away from the table before she faced him again. Suddenly some of those words she hadn’t said spewed from her. “I worry about him and what he’s gotten himself into,” she said, although she couldn’t say that it was because Sebastian had married a vampire’s keeper. Or that Sebastian’s child would be next in line for the dubious honor of that position.

  “You and your dad always worried about Sebastian, but he’s a strong man with a good heart.”

  Funny that he had seen that so long ago when she hadn’t.

  “There’s more, isn’t there, amor?” Alex cradled her cheek. His palm, rough against her skin, unintentionally roused those earlier unwanted thoughts.

  “I…” She stopped, unsure of just what to say. “I saw Sylvia…When Sebastian first called, I saw her. Dead. With her dead baby.”

  He wrapped his arms around her. Comfort flooded her. Comfort and a sense of security she hadn’t felt in a long time. She slipped her hands to his back, tentative at first, but then gripped him harder, accepting the solace he offered.

  “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine how difficult this must be.”

  She said nothing. She couldn’t or she’d risk unleashing tears. Instead she screwed her eyes shut and buried her head against his chest, taking deep breaths until she regained balance. As she did so, he rubbed his hands up and down her back in a soothing gesture.

  Finally she skirted back a bit. “I’m okay now. I have to go.”

  “Do you want…company?” he questioned uncertainly, as if afraid she would push him away.

  “Can you risk it?” She hadn’t worried about meeting him at the safe house since it was supposed to be, well, safe. But out in public, someone might see them together. If they realized that she was FBI…

  He cupped her face in his hands, his touch tender. “No one is keeping an eye on me. After all, I’m just a lowly foot soldier. But just in case, tell me where to meet you.”

  Meeting his gaze, she knew he would keep his promise and, surprisingly, she needed him there. She didn’t know why, except that she was unprepared to meet the latest addition to the Reyes family alone. She blurted out the hospital’s address.

  He smiled and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “I’ll be there.”

  With that, he motioned to the table piled with their dirty dishes, grinned and said, “Sorry to force you to be domestic again.”

  “Now wait a second—” she began but didn’t get to finish as he strode out the door.

  She glared at the table. As she cleaned and provided Alex the time needed to put some distance between them, she considered how to read that man the riot act about what he could and could not expect her to do. Dishes being high on the list of did-not-dos.

  She just wasn’t good at domestic.

  By the time she finished making the list of all those did-not-dos, however, she was smiling.

  Chapter 14

  H is head pounded with the fury of a thousand drums beating at once. He grabbed it tightly, moaned and sat up. As he did so, the crisp sheets of his bed rubbed naked skin. The last thing he remembered was being in the club with…

  “Stacia.”

  “I’m right here, beloved.” She dragged his attention to the far corner of the room where she sat fully clothed, a glass of blood dangling loosely in her hand.

  Shit. What had happened? He couldn’t remember a thing beyond being on the dance floor, bathing in her sexual energy as he stood within her arms.

  “Nothing,” came her too quick reply.

  “Nothing?” he repeated since his body felt as if it had been pummeled and his dick…He almost reached down to make sure he still had it.

  “Nothing.” She placed the glass on a nearby table and rose. She walked toward him, her hips swaying enticingly, and images buffeted his mind of those hips moving on him. Riding him to a climax.

  “Wishful thinking,” she teased.

  Do you know everything I’m thinking?

  Everything. She sat on the edge of the bed and ran her thumb over his nipple. The movement created a need so strong, an erection immediately sprang to life between his legs.

  “Mercy, darlin’,” he said and fell back on the bed, breathing raggedly.

  “Call out all you want, Ryder. Plead to be free of this.” Stacia bent and licked his nipple.

  “Why?” he asked on a groan.

  “Because I can, beloved, only…”

  She stopped then, withdrawing from him completely, taking with her the passion that had enslaved him just a second before.

  Breathing erratically, his heart thrumming against his ribs, Ryder rose up on his elbows. “Why did you stop?”

  Stacia smiled slyly and returned to her position across the room.
“Because I can, which is why nothing happened tonight.”

  She didn’t want to tell him that her reasons for stopping now had more to do with her suspicion that his honor would rise to the forefront again, bringing guilt. She did not want to deal with any more guilt tonight. Not when she was feeling almost…satisfied from their lovemaking of the past few hours. And quite replete with the blood in her glass—his blood. She’d tasted him both during and after. He was deliciously full-bodied with all those human emotions still alive within him.

  Not that she had let him totally release those emotions this night. From the moment in the bar when she had unleashed her vamp power on him, she had known he couldn’t resist her. Surprisingly, taking him that way—with his will subjugated—had been unfulfilling. Especially when thoughts of her—of the human—swirled in his head.

  The annoying ringing of the phone shattered the moment. It had interrupted them before, while she had been in the midst of taking him. With a flick of her hand, she said, “Silence that.”

  The sharpness of her tone surprised Ryder, but he picked it up. Sebastian’s voice came across the line. “We’ve been trying to reach you.”

  Concern for his keeper drove away any other emotion Ryder was experiencing, including the disquiet that Stacia wasn’t being truthful about the events of the night. “Is Melissa okay?”

  “Melissa and the baby are doing fine. They’ll be bringing them up to the room soon.”

  “What did she have?” he asked, wondering what color flowers to bring, which just earned an annoyed sigh from the vamp across the room.

  “A girl. A beautiful girl,” Sebastian said, his voice brimming with a father’s pride.

  “I’ll be there in a bit. Is Diana…Is she there?”

  “Not yet, but I expect her soon.”

  If Ryder was going to keep things right between all of them, he had to be able to handle seeing her. “I’ll be there shortly.”

  “Running to her so soon like a good little pet?” Stacia asked, her tone filled with scorn.

  “Better to run to someone than away, don’t you think?” he parried, sensing she was hiding something beneath her surface.

  He knew he had struck home when she said, “Don’t presume to know anything about me, Ryder.”

  Rising, he grabbed at his clothes, which were strewn across the floor of his bedroom. “I know nothing about you because you won’t let me.”

  She slammed her glass down then exploded in a burst of vamp speed to stand in front of him. “Do you know what it’s like to be me? To have lived as long as I have with…” She closed her eyes and inclined her head away from him, as if afraid she revealed too much. He perceived her pain then, raw and infinitely alive. Like she was. Eternally in pain.

  “Eventually, you’ll let someone know. Maybe then, you won’t be so alone.”

  He didn’t wait for her reply or linger to offer any other solace. Instead, thoughts of seeing the new baby and Diana rushed him out the door.

  By the time Diana met Alex in the lobby of the hospital and they made it to the maternity ward, the newest Reyes was already with her mother and father. Melissa had the baby cradled to her breasts, a pale pink blanket swaddled around the child. Sebastian hovered nearby, peering at the newborn with unabashed glee.

  When her brother noticed her, he gave her a broad smile that turned to one of surprise when he saw her companion.

  “Alex. Long time no see.”

  She hugged her brother while Alex nodded at Melissa in greeting. “Alejandro Garcia. I’m an old family friend.”

  Melissa, tired but happy, smiled and looked at Diana. “We named her Mariel Elizabeth Reyes after the grandmas. Would you like to hold her?”

  Hold her?

  “Come on, big brave FBI agent sister. Mariel won’t break.”

  Hands shaky, she accepted the tiny bundle. “Make sure to support her head,” Melissa said.

  The baby had caramel-colored hair, a definite mix of her mother’s and father’s colors. Her small cupid’s bow lips puckered and opened as miniature fists boxed the air. Beneath the blanket, her legs squirmed, but quieted as Diana softly sang the opening verses of a lullaby. “Arruru mi niña, arruru mi amor.”

  At the sound of her low melodic voice, the baby’s eyes opened, surprisingly alert and a deep blue. “She’s beautiful,” Diana said, awe in her voice.

  Alex laid one hand on her shoulder. “So beautiful. Like her mother and aunt.”

  Weirdness settled in her gut. The strangeness of holding Mariel. Of having Alex beside her. Long ago, she had envisioned sharing such a moment with him, only the child had been theirs. She pushed that thought away, as she did thoughts of never holding Ryder’s child or sharing that joy with him.

  Eventually, Mariel complained in earnest, her legs kicking fitfully beneath the swaddling blanket.

  “I think it’s feeding time, Mom.” She passed the baby back to Melissa. “Let’s go, Alex.”

  At his puzzled look, she said, “Feeding time as in private time.”

  Outside in the hall, she faced him, both happy and unsure. “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?”

  “It is.” He rocked back and forth on his heels, also clearly conflicted. “You looked beautiful holding that baby.”

  Confession time, she thought. “It felt awkward at first, but right. Must be that clock ticking inside of me. Thirty will do that to a woman.”

  He brought his thumb to her lips, sending a blast of heat through her.

  “It felt weird for me, too. Seeing you like that, but the child not being mine.”

  “Alex—”

  He didn’t give her the chance to protest, replacing his finger with his mouth. Kissing her until her head was spinning and she had to grab his shoulders for stability.

  “Alex, this is crazy. Especially now,” she said, and yet she couldn’t keep herself from going on tiptoe and kissing him back.

  He wrapped his arms around her and dragged her tight to him. “Don’t push me away again.”

  His words shattered the moment and she did just that. They were both breathing roughly as they squared off. “I’m sorry, Alex.”

  “Don’t be sorry. Just be sure of what you want. There won’t be a third time for us.” He turned on his heel and stalked away.

  She watched his retreating back much as she had ten years earlier. Only this time…

  She couldn’t just stand there and let him walk out of her life. Not when he might be the one man who could help her forget a certain vampire. “Alex!”

  He turned, a look of surprise on his face.

  “Wait up!”

  Chapter 15

  A n errant thorn from one of the pink roses sank deep into Ryder’s palm when Diana kissed the man.

  A handsome Latino. Tall and strong-bodied. Clearly enamored of her. Human.

  Anger reared up in him, bringing an unwanted rush of heat. The vampire broke free, eager for blood. Ryder’s breathing was harsh and his body trembled with the savagery he subdued. He focused on the pain of the thorn in his palm to bring humanity back.

  A regular guy. Just what Diana needed, he told himself. As difficult as it was to behold their emotionally charged exchange, honor demanded he keep his distance and give her the space she had requested. Especially now, when Diana had discovered something that could give her the kind of life she wanted. The kind of life she deserved.

  A life unlike the one he could give
her.

  Taking a deep breath to drive away any lingering traces of the vampire, he walked to the door of Melissa’s room.

  When Sebastian opened the door he shot an uneasy look up and down the hall.

  “She’s gone. Left with her…friend.” The memory brought a rush of angry heat and Ryder took a deep breath to keep the vampire at bay as he stepped into the room.

  Melissa sat in bed, rearranging the front of her shirt. The faint smell of sweet mother’s milk teased his lingering vamp senses.

  He sat on the edge of the bed. “Are you okay?” he questioned, fatherly concern coloring his voice.

  “A little sore, but otherwise fine.” She held out the bundle of pink to him.

  He juggled the roses until Sebastian took them and walked out under the guise of finding a vase.

  Ryder took Melissa’s hand. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Melissa smiled tiredly. “I’m fine. This is a typical thing, you know.”

  He wanted to say that he did, only it had been a long time since he’d been in this position. “The last baby I held was you.”

  “Well, then. It’s time you held the next Danvers baby, isn’t it?” She thrust the baby out to him again, leaving him no choice. Carefully cradling the baby’s head, he nestled her to his chest and examined the newest Danvers. No, make that Reyes.

  “She’s beautiful.”

  “I think so, but I’m prejudiced, Uncle Ryder.”

  He smiled and repeated, “Uncle Ryder. I like the sound of that.” It occurred to him that this was as good a time as any to tell her. “I want to keep it to just that.”

  Melissa’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. “Huh? What do you—”

  “You’re the last Danvers. This Reyes baby won’t be burdened with the responsibility of being my keeper. I don’t need one now—”

  “That you’ve got Diana and a crew of undead friends?”

  “Let’s leave it at, I’ve got friends.”

  Too smart to miss anything, Melissa said, “You saw her with Alex?”