Bite Me (26 page)

“You did well,” I told him. “But if I were you I would prepare for the Spanish Inquisition when they find out I’m living here. Or maybe something more akin to the Salem Witch Trials.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I’ve only known you for about two months. They’re going to think that I acted impetuously.”

“You did,” he said simply.

I glared at him and change the subject. “Does this business include hunting down my ex-boss?”

“Yes,” he answered. “It also includes finding a way to prove that Vanessa was a part of it. If I can find that proof, then it will be so much easier to deal with her.”

“Deal with her how?” I asked.

He leveled his bright blue eyes at me and they were cold as the Antarctic. “Permanently.”

I shivered and watched him stride out of the room. That vampire was on a mission and God help Parker when Conner got his hands on him. I tried to summon some empathy for my ex-boss but was sadly short. He screwed me over and gotten me fired and then he kidnapped me and planned to do God knew what to me.

“Is this a party or what?” Shannon asked as she came out of the dressing room in her suit.

I hauled myself out of my chair and went to turn on some music. Soon we were all sitting in the enormous hot tub, catching up.

After a while, the girls focused their conversation on me.

“I bet it’s hard to go back to your apartment after spending a few nights here,” Ivie commented.

Shit. I had hoped I could skip telling the girls about moving in with Conner.

“I let the lease on the apartment go.” I took a huge gulp of my wine and waited.

“Well, where are you living?” Ricki asked.

“Here.”

“What?!” Shannon screeched.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” This was Ricki chiming in again. “You’ve known this guy, what, all of six weeks? And now you’re living with him?”

I drained the rest of my glass and reached out an arm to snag the pitcher holding the sangria. I refilled my glass.

“Yes, I’m living with him,” I answered.

Kerry interrupted the third degree. “Girls, leave Donna alone.”

The rest of the group gaped at her, me included.

“She never makes decisions without thinking them through. I’m sure she gave it a lot of thought before she took such a huge step.”

Kerry wasn’t exactly right, but I decided to take the out she was giving me.

“This is serious,” I said. “I’m in love with him.”

Even though I could tell that Ricki wanted to continue to lecture me, they all fell silent.

Shannon broke first, “How in the hell did you manage to snag such a sexy son of a bitch anyway? I’m tempted to knock you out and put you on a ship to Kathmandu so I can steal him.”

The tension of the moment disappeared and my perverted girlfriends were back.

“So… do you see God when you guys have sex?” Kerry asked with fake innocence.

Two hours later, the party was winding down. The plates of food had been consumed and the pitchers of sangria drained. I hadn’t realized how much I missed hanging out with my friends. I vowed to be sure and make time for them in the future when I didn’t have a psychotic vampire that wanted me dead and an ex-boss that had kidnapped me for reasons unknown.

Ivie and I waved as Kerry drove Shannon and Ricki away from the house. Ivie had driven her own vehicle since she lived in the opposite direction of the other girls.

I was walking her to her car when she stopped suddenly. “I’m sorry I gave you a hard time about living with Conner.”

I shrugged. “You really didn’t. I know you just don’t want me to get hurt.”

Ivie threw her bag in the passenger seat of her car. “I don’t, and this guy just seems so out of our league.”

“Our?” I asked.

She looked at me sideways. “You know what I mean.”

I did. Conner was out of my league. Way, way out. I made good money when I worked in advertising and I would again but I didn’t have the pedigree that someone with Conner’s money and standing normally would have socialized with. Though Conner was a vampire, which changed a lot. He hadn’t started out with this kind of money, and it had taken him centuries to acquire it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell her that. Instead I said, “I do know what you mean but understand me when I say that Conner’s different.”

She nodded. “Okay. You know him better than I do and he seems like an okay guy, so I trust your judgment.” She stopped and acted as though she wanted to say something. “There is something different about him, though.”

I froze. Surely she didn’t suspect. I mean it would be ludicrous for her to make the assumption that he was a vampire.

“The way he moves. It’s almost animalistic. So graceful and quick. Like a big cat.”

If she only knew. Conner was a predator down to his bones.

“You would tell me if something was going on, right?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Okay. Well, I’m going to head home.”

I leaned over and hugged her. “Text me when you get there. It’s late.”

She laughed and headed around the car. “Yes, Mom.”

I turned to go back into the house and heard a high pitched noise that made all the hair on my body stand up. I whirled around and saw the same huge guy that had been arguing with Parker on Friday. He had Ivie’s limp body draped over his shoulder.

“Ivie!” I screamed, running down the steps.

I saw another man turning toward me and the light glinting off his fangs. Shit. Vampires. I turned back to go into the house to get Conner. I hated to abandon her but there was no way I could rescue Ivie from two vampires by myself. Conner could, but I would only end up as a blood donor.

In less than two steps the other vampire was on me. His arms wrapped around me from behind.

“Where ya goin’ in such a hurry, girlie?” he whispered in my ear.

I opened my mouth to scream again, but his hand slapped over it.

“None of that. Now I’d love to stay and woo you more, but we need to get out of here before your man comes out. The boys in the house can only keep him occupied for so long.”

With that, he lifted me as though I were no heavier than a bag of potatoes and carried me to a van. He moved with supernatural speed, and I felt my stomach rise. For a moment I thought I would vomit, but I forced it back. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me weak.

He practically threw me in the back of the van next to Ivie’s limp body. I tried to sit up, to move back to the door, when I felt something jab my leg. I looked down and saw that he held a syringe in his hand, and the needle was buried in my thigh.

My head swam. “Motherfucking, cocksucking son of a bitch. Not again,” I said. Seriously, this had to stop.

The last thing I saw was his narrow, smiling face before the darkness closed over my head.

I heard the murmur of voices as I awoke. My stomach churned violently. I choked and gagged but somehow managed not to vomit. Jesus, what the fuck had they given me? My head rolled back on my shoulders, and I looked around the dim room.

“Ah, look who decided to join us.”

I turned my head toward the voice and blinked to clear my vision. I recognized the woman speaking but I wanted to look her in the eye. I might be in a position of weakness, but I wasn’t fucking weak.

The smug face of that bitch Vanessa Santino greeted me. She sat in a chair a few feet to my right, long legs crossed. The dark pink dress she wore looked phenomenal against her olive skin. It struck me that she would be an extremely beautiful woman if she wasn’t such a fucking psycho. Seeing that she had my full attention Vanessa rose from her chair and smoothed down her dress. I noticed that she was wearing gorgeous Louboutins. They were golden and glittery. I wanted those shoes badly.

I wondered if I had brain damage from being knocked out so many times recently. What woman in her right mind would covet expensive designer shoes when her life was in danger? Either I wasn’t in my right mind or those shoes were totally worth it.

Vanessa snapped her perfectly manicured fingers in front of my face and I had to squash the urge to bite them. The bitch had fangs, and it would hurt a lot more if she bit me back.

“I need your complete attention, dear.”

I gritted my teeth at her condescending tone. If she was going to kill me, my last wish was that I wouldn’t have to listen to her speak before she did so.

When she saw that my focus was back on her, Vanessa smiled a cat-like smile. “Thank you. I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

I stared at her. She honestly wanted to play this game? I decided that silence would be my friend here. I was afraid what I would say to her if I opened my mouth. I was also concerned what the consequences might be.

When I didn’t answer she just went on as though I had. “I’m glad you’re awake so that we can have a little chat.”

She prowled around my chair and the hair on the back of my neck stood up on end.

“Why, after my very explicit directive, did you continue to see Conner?” she asked. “You shouldn’t have been able to do that.” She bent over so that she was eye to eye with me. “Explain.”

I felt my heart jump into my throat and swallowed hard. Her dark eyes were devoid of emotion. They were dead, like a snake’s. Pure predatory, animalistic instinct. She would kill me and feel no shred of remorse because that’s just who she was.

“Um, what do you want me to explain?”

“I compelled you to stay away from Conner Savage, yet somehow you were Claimed by him. How did that happen?”

I decided my safest bet was to play dumb. I didn’t want her to understand that I could resist vampire mind control.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I only remember meeting you at Conner’s house a few weeks ago.” I sent a silent prayer to heaven that she would come to the conclusion I wanted her to.

She straightened and tapped the toe of her fabulous shoes. “It must have been Conner. He must have wiped our little meeting from your mind.”

Thank God. Vanessa really wasn’t as smart as she liked to think if she fell for that.

She crossed her arms. “It’s too bad that he couldn’t have just let you go. It would have been so much easier for everyone.”

I heard a scuffle. I looked around the room to see where the sound was coming from. I realized that I was in a plain cinder block room. The only furniture in it were the chairs that Vanessa and I had been sitting in.

The big vampire I had seen talking to Parker came through the door on the far wall. In front of him was Ivie. He shoved her through the door with a hand on the nape of her neck and another on her shoulder. She was trying to yank out of his grasp, but it was a futile effort. I wanted to tell her that but knew she wouldn’t understand why.

When Ivie saw me she cried out, “Oh thank God you’re okay!”

The big vampire released her and she dashed across the room to me. Vanessa watched her with absolutely no concern. She fell to her knees and threw her arms around me.

“Are you okay?” Ivie whispered.

I hugged her back. “I’m alright.”

She leaned back. “Do you know what they want?”

Unsure how to explain it, I shrugged. “I think they want money.”

Her face grew even more distressed. “We don’t have any money.”

I smiled sadly and smoothed a few sweaty strands of hair off her forehead. “We don’t, but Conner does. I wasn’t exactly honest with you guys tonight about our relationship. We’re kind of engaged. I think they want him to pay a ransom for us.”

Her eyes grew huge. “If we weren’t in deep shit right now, I would totally bitch slap you for not telling me. And what does ‘sort of engaged’ mean?”

I sighed. “We want to get married but we’re not in a huge hurry. I told him I didn’t want to jump into it and he’s respecting my wishes.”

Vanessa interrupted our whispered conversation. “This is touching, but we have other things to discuss.”

Ivie looked over at her. “Whatever you want, I’m sure that her man will pay it or get it for you.”

Vanessa’s answering smile was cold. “Oh I’m sure he will.” She looked over at the big vampire. “Otto, why don’t you make Donna’s little friend more comfortable?”