9781936653027BorntobeWildArsuaga (13 page)

He let out a low growl. With vampire quickness and
strength he pushed away, pushing her from his embrace, her feet dropped to the
floor, releasing his cock. Her hands clutched his biceps, her fingers curled
around his steely muscle, digging into his tense flesh.

Surprised, her reaction enabled him to regain
complete control of the raging beast within. He uttered an oath and pulled back
further. He licked the last drops of her blood off his lips. He lowered his
eyes, “I’m sorry, Alexandra. I broke my promise to you. I’m so sorry.”

“I didn’t stop you, did I? And if I remember
correctly, you broke your promise earlier tonight and I didn’t stop you then.
The psycho vamp bitch did.” Her eyes flashed an emerald green, deeper than the
usual light peridot. The intensity reflected her inner desire like never
before. Leaning forward, she grabbed him by his neck, pulling him closer.

Her sudden strength unbalanced him. Her breasts
massaged along his chest. “I forgive you Stefan. You just gave me the best sex
I’ve ever had these past two nights. I’ve broken god only knows how many rules,
and I’d do it again to be with you. All I ask is you not lie to me and not keep
anything from me. I trust you not to turn me. If you betray my trust, all bets
are off. I’ll turn on you so fast you’ll never know what hit you.”

“Big talk from such a wee one.”

“I learned quickly from my master.”

“Hmm.
Really
?”

“Yes, I did. So,
master
, why don’t you and I get to work and find out what this
Ecaterina vamp wants with you.” Retrieving her discarded clothes, she
readjusted the corset.
“Oh no.
What’s all this blood?
You’re a neat freak, not a messy eater. Besides, this is dry blood.” She glared
at Stefan demanding an immediate answer.

“Ecaterina did it when she attacked you…you lost a
lot of blood. I will get you another corset tomorrow.”

“I don’t want another one, Stefan. What else
happened? There’s something you’re leaving out. What is it?”

He hesitated. This was not the time or place he
wanted to tell her about what he did, and he’d just made another promise to
her.
Fuck!

“Stefan?”

“Before I could get to you, Ecaterina ripped you
and you lost blood, a lot of it. I had to give you some of mine to save you.
You drank my blood Alexandra.” His voice was low and apologetic. “Can you
forgive me? I know I opposed your wishes, but I couldn’t lose you. I…I am
falling in love with you.”

Staring at Stefan, no words came from her lips for
a long, uneasy minute. He wondered what was she thinking—Stake him or throw her
arms around
him?
Think with her head or follow her
heart? He could feel her emotions were bubbling up from her core and quickly
overtaking her.

“Say something, Alexandra.”

“I’m going to be sick.” She struggled to open the
door and ran out of the room. Stefan dressed, gathered her clothes, and
followed her to the bedroom. Finding the door closed, he waited outside.

A few minutes later, she appeared, pale and weak,
sobbing. Black mascara streaked down her cheeks in charcoal smudged rivers.

“I brought your clothes and your new things are in
the bag so you can change. I’m going to my other safe house. You and Jordan can
stay here if you like, or go. I’ll understand if you do leave.” He turned, but
she tapped his shoulder.

“Stefan, wait.”

“Yes.” His heart leapt in his throat and turned
back to face her.

“I need time to think about this. This has
happened way too fast for me to comprehend. I’m not blaming you. You did what
you thought was right at the time. I understand, but I…I’m scared…”

“Scared of what?
Us?”
Closing the distance between them, he said, “Whatever you decide,
prinţesa mea
, know I will always
love you. I know this is happening fast. I’ve never fallen for someone as fast
as I have you.” He ran his fingers along her cheeks wiping the black smudges
with his thumb. “Please don’t cry. I’ll take care of you.”

“It’s not you I’m afraid of. It’s that evil
vampire.”

“What does Ecaterina have to do with this?” His
brow curled.

“If she is the rogue and carries the virus, and
bit me, I could be…” her voice trailed off and the crying grew louder.

“No, it’s not possible. I would know it. I took
your blood and would be infected too.” He took her into his arms, embracing her
tightly. He stroked his hand through her hair as her head rested on his chest.

“I’ve got a gut feeling about her. I know she has
something to do with the virus.” Alexandra pushed back and intently looked at
him. “The virus could lie dormant in the bloodstream for a while before it can
be detected. It has only been a couple of hours. I still could be infected.”

“You’re worrying for nothing
prinţesa
. Ecaterina is not the rogue vampire. She wouldn’t
risk her existence by infecting herself with a deadly virus. She’s crazy, not
stupid. Knowing her, someone else was duped into transmitting the virus.”

“Someone else.
Of course.
Someone else.”

“What are you thinking?”

“Just thinking.”
Turning
away embarrassed, and realizing she wore only the blood-stained corset, “I need
to shower and dress, and maybe it’s best Jordy and I go back to our hotel.”

“I told you to stay here, I’ll go. Besides, Jordan
is completely out. You won’t be able to wake him.”

“I need time to think, Stefan. I’ve known you a
couple of days and things have moved too fast. I have to regroup and assess my
actions. I didn’t trust you at first, but now…I don’t know. I’m so confused.”

He swallowed hard. “I understand. The sun will
rise soon. I have to go now, but I’ll return this evening. Will you meet me
tonight to talk?”

“I don’t know. I want to continue hunting the
rogue, and working with you, I’m not sure what to do.”

“I don’t think it is Ecaterina, but I would like
to help, if you let me.”

“Open up the Syndicate files. Prove to me I can
trust you.”

He paced. His face grimaced and he ran his hands
through his hair before turning and speaking. “I agree on one condition. Only
you can look at the files and you can’t copy the files. Not even Jordan. Trust
is a two-way street.”

The corner of her mouth turned up slightly.
“Agreed.”

He nodded and turned to leave. He hesitated as he
approached the door with his back toward her. “Will I see you tonight?”

“I don’t know.”

He stepped out without turning around, whispering,
“I love you
prinţesa mea
.”

Chapter 12

Next Day,
South Interstate 95

“When do you want to stop for the night Alex? I
don’t want to drive at night if that Stefan dude might be looking for you,”
Jordan said over his cell phone.

“Why don’t we start looking in about twenty,
thirty minutes? That should put us about seven hours on the road tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.
I’m up for
a decent place, nothing cheesy. What do you say?”

“Sure. I’m signing off now. Signal when you want
to exit.”

Thirty minutes later they were checked into
separate rooms and freshening up for dinner. A loud knock rattled the room
door.

“I’ll be right there,” Alex called out patting the
water from her face with the white terrycloth towel. When they arrived at the
hotel, she had worn her sunglasses to hide red, tear-swollen eyes from Jordan.
Now, with night upon them, wearing the shades wasn’t possible. To calm the
redness, she splashed cold water on her face.

It didn’t work. Cold water on one’s face for
thirty seconds didn’t remove five hours of crying. At that moment, crawling
into bed and sleeping eight hours carried more appeal than going out in public.
However, a professional bounty hunter does not shirk responsibility.
Tough it up, Alex girl!
And she did.
Grabbing handbag and room keycard, she opened the door.

“Hey Jordy.
So where do
you want to go eat?” She lowered her head to avoid eye contact.

“I checked the hotel restaurant. They have a good
selection. We can stay in and eat here.”

“Sounds good to me.”

They walked down the hallway toward the elevator
lobby. As Jordan pressed the button to call the lift, he spoke in a low voice.
“By the way, you look like shit.”

Raising dark emerald eyes rimmed in scarlet, she
muttered, “Thanks dick head. I love you too.”

The elevator doors opened. The restaurant was off
the lobby, steps from the elevator.

The host, an older man seated them at a booth and
provided menus. “Your server tonight is Tammy. Enjoy your dinner.” He smiled
and left.

Looking down into the large menu, “So you want to
talk about it?” Jordan asked quietly.

“No,” she fired back curtly.

“Talking helps.” He put down the menu. “If you
didn’t want to leave, why are we here?”

“I have a job to do, a rogue to catch. I couldn’t
wait around that sleepy town anymore.”

“Mm-Hmm.
I hear ya. A
sleepy town where a certain tall, dark, and dangerous vampire resided of course
wouldn’t have anything to do with your decision to high tail it out of there,
would it?”

She glared at him over the menu. “I told you I
don’t want to talk about it.”

A young, twenty-something woman appeared at the
table. “Hey, I’m Tammy. Can I get you folks something to drink, maybe from the
bar?” Her southern drawl put a smile on Jordan’s face. Alex knew he was a
sucker for the cute southern girls. He’d loved the sweet belles since he
attended the University of Alabama. He met his first real sweetheart there.
Alex figured it must have created a soft spot in his memory for them.

“I’ll have whatever’s on tap.
How
‘bout you Alex?”
Jordan asked.

“Sure, me too.”

“Okay, two beers. You got it. Do you know what you
want to eat or do you want me to get your beers first?” the young waitress
asked, fluttering her lashes at Jordan.

He smiled up at her. “Naw, give us a few more
minutes.”

Dinner consisted of steak burgers, French fries,
and coleslaw, washed down with three more draft beers. Jordan finally coerced
Alex to loosen up.

“What did the vamp dude do to piss you off sis?”
He took a long sip of his draft.

“Give it a rest Jordy. I’m not telling you
anything.”

“Look, I know the two of you fucked. Just tell me
the dude didn’t take any of your blood.”

Her eyes widened. “Jesus, Jordan, do you have to
be so crude?”

“Okay, the two of you
made love
. So did he? Tell me you didn’t let him bite you?”

Looking off across the room, Alex took a sip
of beer, ignoring Jordan’s judgmental expression.

An answer to the question that Jordan the hunter
would understand didn’t exist, but maybe Jordan the big brother might. He lived
by the rules established years ago by the Bounty Hunter Council. Until this
past week spent with Stefan, she did too. Now nothing made sense and all the
rules lay shattered at her feet.
Grandfather would be ashamed. Damn!
So ashamed of me.

“You’re not answering me. Damn it Alex, he did
didn’t he?” He wasn’t quiet about asking because other patrons in the
restaurant turned to look at them.

“Jordy, keep your voice down. Fine, yes he did.
Satisfied?”

He pulled his fingers through his hair and gritted
his teeth. “Damn it Alex. Do you know what you’ve done?” He leaned over the
table toward her to try and keep their conversation more private. “He can track
you now. Do you know that?”

“Don’t you think I know? More reason for me to
leave Virginia.”

“He can still track you to Florida, Alex. A
thousand miles won’t stop him if wants to find you. The only way to stop him is
to stake him. No wonder he didn’t stay at the house with us last night. He
probably thought I’d find out and go after him. He’s not stupid, I’ll give him
that.”

“Jordy, that’s not why. He did it because…,” her
voice trailed off and she looked away.

He reached across the table and placed his hands
over hers. “Oh sis, tell me you didn’t exchange blood. Did you take his blood?”

Tears welled in her eyes, stinging the already
swollen orbs. “Don’t blame him. He had to. The psycho bitch attacked me and…and
he said I lost a lot of blood. He had to give me his blood to heal me or…or, he
said I was dying.”

“He said you were attacked, and he stopped the
bitch from getting to you. First, you tell me you bumped your head. Then the
story changes to an attack by a female vampire that Stefan prevented from
hurting you. Now, you’re telling me that she did actually attack you? And you
believed him? He probably created the whole thing to make you think it happened
when it actually didn’t.
An illusion.
It’s what
vampires do Alex. How many times did Dad and Grandpa teach us those are the
tricks vamps try and use to seduce humans into believing their shit to get our
blood? Huh? This is just fucking great.” He threw his napkin on the table.

“Jordy, I was attacked. Ecaterina does exist and
did come after me. I remember her charging toward me at the club. I just don’t
remember anything after until I woke up seeing you standing over me. I’m
telling you it wasn’t an illusion of Stefan’s creation.”

Throwing his arms up in the air, “Great, now you
have two vamps who can track you. A lovesick dude who probably wants you for
his sex slave and a psycho bitch who wants to kill you. Congratulations Alex,
you have broken Numbers One and Two of the Rules of Vamp Bounty Hunters—Do Not
Exchange Vampire and Human Blood.”

“I know, I know. And I intend to rectify the
situation. Trust me. Don’t you think I’ve beat myself up about this already? I
fucked up, but I’ll make it right by bagging this psycho bitch vamp and I’ll
deal with Stefan later.”

“You think she’s the rogue causing this virus
scare, don’t you? If that’s true and she bit you, you could be infected. Oh
fuck, Alex. This can’t be happening. He has to be lying about you being
attacked to throw you off his trail.”

“No. I showed you this morning what I found in
Stefan’s files.” Wiping the tears from her face with the dinner napkin, she
continued. “Ecaterina Tomescu, aka Cat Tomas, is the rogue, and she isn’t
carrying the virus. Her boy toy Gerry is. Somehow she gave him the virus and
uses him and the man that preceded him, before he died, to transmit the virus.
My guess is vamps became infected when they fed on him, and from there spread
the disease. Stefan told me there was no way he believed she could be the
rogue, except she would have someone else do the work. I got to thinking, who
could be foolish enough to do it? Or better yet, who did she have power over to
do her dirty work?”

“Sounds logical, but the question is, why and for
what purpose?
Revenge, money, the pure hell of it?
Why?”

“The missing piece of the puzzle I haven’t figured
out yet. When I researched the background files, I found articles and pictures
of her keeping company with a wealthy man. His name is Emil Dragomir, a
billionaire pharmaceutical giant from some European country I can’t remember
right now. It sort of fits together, viruses, pharmaceutical company, or at
least some of it does. There are still some pieces of the puzzle not fitting
together, but I’ll figure them out. I need to get to a computer and do more research.
And you,” Alex looked intently at Jordan, “were you able to get a hold of your
contacts in Miami, especially at the FBI? We need to find out what they know
about Cat Tomas or Ecaterina Tomescu, whatever the psycho bitch calls herself
these days, and this Emil Dragomir. He could be running the entire operation
for all we know.”

“I’ve already put a call in to a couple of my
hunter buddies in Miami. I called Dad to see if he could make a few calls to
his contacts at the local Bureau in Orlando. I don’t think we’ll hear anything
back until tomorrow.”

“If we leave around six-thirty or seven in the
morning, we should get home about two or three in the afternoon. We can rest up
and hit the road for Miami Beach the next day and by then we should have a
better plan in place and more information. What do you think?”

“I think you’re not working this bounty on your
own anymore. Are you splitting the reward if we nail this bitch vamp?”

“I guess I am, and as soon as I figured the Feds
were somehow involved, I knew it would be more complicated and I’d need help.
And who better to help than my big bro? Do you think Dad and Paul will want to
tag along on this one too?”

“Probably, but let’s keep it between us for right
now.”

“You’re not going to tell Mom and Dad about what
I’ve done with…you know, Stefan?”

“No, sis, I’m not. You’re a big girl and it’s your
business to tell them. But, if Stefan comes after you, you’ve got to promise me
you’ll let me know. You can’t fight him alone and you
may
need
all of us to help. You won’t be able to hide the truth.”

“Thanks. I guess we better get some rest. Dawn
comes early.”

They rose from the table to leave. Alex felt
lightheaded and grabbed the edge of the table for balance.

“You all right sis?”

“Yeah, too much to drink and not enough sleep I
think.” She jerked back and shivered. An intense throbbing burst into her head
and she grabbed her temples. “Ah, stop.”

“Alex, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.”

“I said get out of my head Stefan.” She gritted
her teeth, barely able to get the words out.

Jordan clutched her hands across the table,
concerned with what she was saying. “Alex, close your eyes. Don’t open them for
anything. Don’t give him any reference to track you. I’ll guide you back to
your room. Don’t talk and try and clear your mind. Think of anything except
where we are. How about singing nursery rhymes or your favorite songs or maybe
you can recite the vamp hunter rules? He’ll freak hearing those over and over.”
His arm gripped around her waist guiding her slowly through the restaurant and
out into the lobby to the elevator.

“Okay. Get me out of here quick. I need to
concentrate.”

Alex felt another shock ripple through her head.
Clutching Jordan’s arm in a death grip, she cried out tightly shutting her
eyes.

“Okay, that’s it. Where the hell are the stairs?
We don’t have time for this bullshit elevator.” He swept her up in his arms and
buried her face in his chest. “Alex, hold on.”

The elevator doors dinged open.

“Great timing.
See you
gotta talk tough to inanimate objects, or else they get the better of you.”

“
You trying
to cheer me
up?”

“Yeah.
Is it working?”

“No.”

The doors closed and reopened on the second floor.
He ran halfway down the hallway to her room and set her down. “Where’s your
room keycard?”

“In my pocket.”
Keeping
her eyes closed, she pulled it out and handed it to him. “The pain is easing up
Jordy. I think he’s gone.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. Come on, let’s get
inside.” He opened the door and flipped the switch on the wall for the dresser
lamp. “Keep your eyes closed and don’t move yet.”

“Why?”

“I want to make sure there is nothing in the room
to indicate where we’re at.”

“What would I do without you looking out for me?
Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Okay I think we’re good.”

She opened her eyes, no pain, and no voices in her
head.

“He’s gone. I think he’s upset with me.
And confused.
I hurt him. He’s hurt and in pain.” She sat
down on the edge of the floral bedspread covered bed. “I should have left him a
note or something Jordy. Not just up and leave without a hello, good-bye, or
kiss-my-ass, nice
knowin
’
ya,
or I can’t have sex with you anymore, you’re a vampire and I’m a human.” The
air in the room was warm and suffocating. The urge to get in her car and drive
back to Virginia nagged relentlessly in her mind.

Jordan knelt down in front of her. He reached out
and tightened his hands on her shoulders. “You’re being absurd, Alex. I can see
it in your eyes. It’s him. He’s still in your head trying to get you to come
back. Fight, Alex. He misses his meal ticket. No offense, sis, but that’s all
you were to him. He doesn’t care about anything except where his next blood
meal is coming from.” His words fell on her like blows, hard and compelling.