After Sundown: Redemption (25 page)

Alyssa scooted back until she hit the wall behind her. She had nowhere else to go. Then her hand encountered something. As she felt around, Alyssa realized it was Tom’s miniature
Zen
sand garden. She had given it to him for Christmas last year. He hadn’t been overly impressed with it, but nevertheless kept it in his office so her feelings wouldn’t be hurt.

Bazhena was almost on her. Alyssa did the first thing that came to mind. Grabbing a handful of sand, she threw it in the vampire’s face. Bazhena recoiled with a shriek and tried to claw the sand from her eyes. Seeing this as her only chance at escape, Alyssa stood up, opened the door and ran out. She sprinted down the hallway, but glanced back when she heard a deafening roar.

“You will pay for that, human!”

Alyssa turned back around. Keep moving. Don’t stop. She couldn’t let fear overwhelm her. She had to find help. She had to get away.

She didn’t see the figure standing in the hallway until she ran straight into him. It felt like she smashed into a solid brick wall. She fell backwards and hit the floor, hard.

Dizziness assailed her, before everything went black.

Chapter Twelve

Christian barely had enough time to move Alyssa out of the way before Bazhena launched herself at them. He turned sideways. She slammed into the wall. Her head punched through the other side. She shrieked in rage, trying to pull it out, but couldn’t.

Christian pulled a metal stake out of his jacket and approached Bazhena. He twisted her body so that she was facing up instead of down. She screamed out in pain as the jagged edges of the wall cut into her neck. Blood streamed out of the deep wounds. Christian pushed her down so that her body was held back against the wall. This would have broken the neck of a human. Snapped it and killed them instantly. But Bazhena was no human. And she was still alive. Injured, yes, but far from dead.

“Now you’ll die, Bazhena,” Christian growled. “Your real death is long past due. You’re an abomination, even to our kind. It’s time you left this world.”

He raised the stake. Prepared to sink it deep into her heart, to finally rid the world of her evil. Then he made a mistake. He hesitated. His time spent with Vlad had made him loath to kill unless absolutely necessary. His hesitation lasted only a few seconds. But it was enough. One minute Bazhena was there, the next she was fog, slipping through his fingers.

Christian roared his outrage as she drifted away into the night. Her mocking laughter filled his head. He was amazed that she had the strength to transform in her condition. Vlad had been right. Bazhena was more powerful than he imagined. He should go after her. He knew she would be vulnerable. Weak from her injury, blood loss and the energy it took to transform. But Alyssa needed him right now.

He turned and lifted Alyssa into his arms, then carried her to her office. Gently laying her down on the couch, he felt her pulse. It was strong and steady. She would be okay. He walked to Tom’s office. When he studied the unconscious, bleeding man, he wasn’t too sure about Alyssa’s friend.

Her friend. Christian knelt down beside Tom and began his repair. First things first, he ran his tongue over the man’s wound, healing it with his saliva. Tom’s blood flow immediately slowed as it coagulated. Almost gagging, Christian spat out the taste of Bazhena that still remained on the man’s skin. It reeked of evil, decay and death.

Next, Christian made a small slit in his arm with his nail. He carefully lifted Tom’s head and brought his mouth to the now bleeding cut. He sent a mental suggestion and the man immediately latched onto his arm. He drank until Christian felt it was enough to replenish the blood loss and then he urged Tom to stop drinking and sleep. Alyssa’s friend immediately obeyed, falling into a deep slumber, as Christian gently lifted him and laid him down on his couch. He ran his tongue over his own wound. It would be healed before morning, as would Tom’s bite.

Christian implanted the idea into Tom’s mind that he had fallen asleep at the office, erasing all memory of Bazhena. Tom would remember saying goodnight to Alyssa, staying late at the office and falling asleep on the couch. That would be it. He would remember nothing more.

Yet there was so much more. Once a human drinks from a vampire, his or her physiology changed. What Alyssa’s friend might wonder about is why he suddenly can read without his reading glasses, why he’s slightly stronger than before and why he will end up living to almost one hundred years old. Tom would also have one other special trait. He would live the rest of his life as Christian’s human slave, if he should decide to make use of him. That meant that if Christian called to the human, he would have no other choice but to obey him, completely. He found this last detail abhorrent and would never make use of it, unless it came down to a life or death situation.

Next Christian considered how to cover up what had really happened. Damage control was one aspect of their business that Vlad insisted upon and had taught all the employees of Sundown Security. Eliminate all incriminating evidence.

Christian kept all the tools he needed either on him, or in his car. He put toppled furniture back where it belonged. Because he couldn’t do much to repair the hole in the wall, he hit it a couple of times, to make a crack appear from the ceiling. Then he tore out more pieces of the wall, so that it stretched to the floor. Now the damage looked more like a structural fault than a vampire or human one.

It was the best he could do. He would let Tom and his receptionist come to their own conclusions about the damage.

Christian used the various chemicals he had on hand to clean the blood from the office. Afterward he removed Tom’s shirt and pants and cleaned them too. He spread the clothes over a chair. They would be dry by morning. Tom would wake up in his underwear, but that was just too bad. Christian grinned with satisfaction at the image of Alyssa’s receptionist finding Tom undressed in his office tomorrow morning.

As he studied Alyssa’s unconscious friend, Christian grew serious. Anyone observing him would think he held no feeling other than bland boredom. They would be wrong. Dead wrong. Now that he had done what he swore to do so long ago, protect human life, his fingers curled with the need to wrap them around Tom’s neck and squeeze until his face turned blue, his eyes bulged out of his head and his struggles ceased. These savage thoughts filled his head as one fact slammed into him again and again. One thought tore at his mind. Alyssa was in love with this human. That knowledge cut him like a knife. Jealousy raged through his body, as did the instinct to kill.

Alyssa’s aunt had told him all about Tom. When Christian awoke this evening, he had quickly satisfied his hunger on a homeless man, then erased his memory of the event and sent him to a shelter for the night. Afterwards, he went directly to Alyssa’s apartment. He wanted, no, he had to see her. Making love to her the night before had only wetted his appetite. He needed to be with her. Right or wrong, she completed him. Filled a void inside him that he had never known was there.

When he discovered that Alyssa wasn’t home, he paged Vlad and found out where her aunt lived. Though she was probably fine, he needed to know for sure. It was his job. He was supposed to protect her. And until the last event tomorrow night was over, he would do just that. He tried to ignore the voice inside his head that told him his feelings involved so much more than just protection or sex.

When he arrived at Joyce’s house, she welcomed him into her home without a problem. For some reason, Alyssa and her aunt’s warm welcomes bothered him. They both needed to be more careful whom they let into their home. He should know. Under other circumstances, he would not be someone they should allow into their house, or into their heart.

Christian slammed the door shut on that thought. Alyssa didn’t have room in her heart for him, it was already occupied by Tom. Joyce had told him how Alyssa and Tom had shared this office for several years. How they became friends, then lovers.

“Well, Christian. I don’t know what to say. If Alyssa is staying late at the office, it’s probably for two reasons.”

“What reasons?” Christian eyes had narrowed suspiciously.

He hadn’t known about Tom then. Or that Alyssa shared an office space with someone. He should have known, he should have found out. His job was to not only protect his client, but also to find out as much as possible about them so that he could protect them in every way.

“One reason is because she is so backed up returning calls and seeing clients. My niece is a workaholic. She works until she’s exhausted. Oftentimes she works so hard she doesn’t take time to eat. Or she eats snack food when she remembers. I’ve told her again and again to slow things down, but she doesn’t listen. She always has to strive high and work hard. I think she got that from her father. He was in the military, you know.”

“I heard,” Christian said. “But what’s the other reason she would stay late?”

“The other reason?” Joyce had looked at him with wide, innocent eyes, yet Christian had felt like she wasn’t telling him the complete truth. He knew enough about the lady to know that she was very capable of manipulating people to do her bidding. Her motives were pure, but nevertheless she did try to control other people’s lives. What was she up to this time?

“The other reason she’s working late?” Christian had reminded her.

“Oh yes.” Joyce’s eyes had suddenly lit up as she paused and studied Christian. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”

Alarms had gone off inside Christian’s head. Whatever she was about to tell him, wasn’t good. He could sense it. He slowly nodded anyway.

“Tell me.”

“The other reason Alyssa may be staying at the office late is because of Tom.” Joyce had seemed to get much pleasure out of her words. When she stopped speaking, she looked at him with anticipation-filled eyes.

Christian had felt the hairs on his neck raise up. His body tensed. A growl from low in his throat rumbled softly.

“Tom? Is he a patient of hers?” Even as Christian had asked the question, he knew what her answer would be.

Joyce shook her head.

“No. He and Alyssa have known each other for years. Tom’s also a family therapist. He’s the man who shares her office space. And soon, I think, her bed.”

Jealousy crashed into Christian. He had clenched his hands into fists. His growl grew deeper. He clamped his mouth shut to hide the incisors he felt elongating. His first instinct was to kill Tom. To rip his throat open and watch him die. Alyssa belonged to him. Nobody else. She was his.

Christian had managed to rein in the beast. Barely. The urge had been so strong that it left him shaking.

I am in control, not the beast. Only me. I decide, not it. I am not a monster.

Christian had to say the words over and over inside his head until the beast became little more than a growling, hissing whisper in his mind.

“Are you okay, Christian?” Joyce’s voice had brought him back to himself. Her concerned expression told him that she was genuinely worried about him.

“Thank you for your concern, Joyce, but I’m fine,” he had assured her with a smile. “I think I’ll go check on Alyssa.”

“I think you should also.” Christian hadn’t missed the smug smile on Joyce’s face.

“Even though the stalker was caught last night, it’s still my job to protect your niece until tomorrow night. I’m just doing what I’m paid to do.”

Christian had winced as he heard the defensive tone of his own voice.

Joyce had given him a knowing smile and nodded.

“Of course you are, dear. And you’re doing an admirable job of protecting Alyssa.”

After an awkward goodbye, Christian had left in search of Alyssa. He followed the directions Joyce had given him to her office. He had tried to stay calm as he drove, but the thought of Alyssa with another man was almost too much for him. He imagined her naked in bed, her head thrown back in ecstasy as someone other than him brought her to her peak, again and again. He pictured her luscious mouth worshipping another man’s body and his body rocked with rage. Jealousy had started to overtake him once more until he pulled into the parking lot of her office.

His jealousy and rage disappeared in an instant. Fear had replaced it. Alyssa’s fear. He felt it coming at him in waves, as if she stood right beside him. Christian had sent her messages designed to soothe her and a command to stay where she was. Sensing her confusion and resistance, he had searched her mind. He wasn’t the only one inside Alyssa’s head.

Bazhena.

Her presence filled the air with its malevolent stench. He had streaked into the office as fast as his superhuman speed allowed. As he heard Bazhena’s screech of rage, he knew he was just in time.