Blood and Kisses (5 page)

“You don’t kill an elephant with a BB gun.”

Thalia opened her mouth at that statement and shut it just as quickly. She didn’t know how to respond to that.

She studied him for a moment. There was something about the grim lines of his face, something that nagged at her. She felt her eyes widen. “You think you know who it was, don’t you?”

He nodded. “I had a little discussion with another vampire the night we met. He wasn’t too happy I was associating with you.”

“Who is it?”

“His name is Robert Fletcher. I’ll tell you all about him tomorrow.” Gideon turned and continued up the stairs. “It’s almost dawn.” He gained the landing and put his hand on the knob of the closest door. Four more doors stretched ahead. “Take any room you want. I’ll see you at sunset.”

“My Lord, child. I didn’t know anyone was in here!”

Thalia woke with a start. The speaker, an older woman with a sassy modern hairstyle, came to stand at the end of Thalia’s bed. She wore a red T-shirt and blue jeans and held the handle of a vacuum cleaner in one hand. Thalia blinked at the light and ran a hand through her rumpled hair. She sat up. The bright red and green patchwork quilt whispered as it slid to her waist, revealing the gray tank top she had slept in. “I take it Gideon isn’t much for guests.”

The woman shook her head. “He insists these rooms be kept ready, but they haven’t been used since I’ve worked here.”

“How long has that been?”

The woman’s attractive face scrunched as she apparently accessed her memory. “Twenty years or more now.” She tilted her head, dark eyes curious. “You’re not one of them, are you child?”

Thalia didn’t bother pretending she misunderstood. The woman’s meaning was clear. “No, I’m not.” She swiftly introduced herself and held out her hand. “And you are?”

“Camille Delgado. You can call me Cam.” Cam took her hand and Thalia smiled, seized by the absurdity of shaking someone’s hand from the confines of a bed. She dropped the other woman’s hand and scanned the room for a clock.

She’d been too exhausted to see anything but the bed the night before. Now, she saw the room was painted a charming light green and furnished in the mission style. The bed was placed at an angle to the door. She found the clock, an exquisite crystal anniversary clock, on a cherry four-drawer chest beside the door to the hall. Ten o’clock. She’d been asleep for almost six hours.

“I’d better be going.” It was against the plan they’d made the night before, but suddenly Thalia wanted nothing more than to go home and think things over.

“No, no. I’ll go. I can finish the upstairs tomorrow. Make yourself at home.” Cam dragged the vacuum, wheels whining in protest as if begging to complete its job, out of the room, and shut the door behind her. Thalia lay back against the soft pillows. She still felt tired, but she’d feel better once she’d talked to Lily.

Lily. A soft cry escaped her. How could she have forgotten?

She pressed a hand to the ache in chest. Lily was gone. She would never be able to call Lily again. The grinding sorrow returned with her memory, and she stifled a sob.

She quickly mastered her grief with anger. Despite the inner sense that longed to believe Gideon was innocent, he was just as much a suspect as any of the other vampires in the community. More, since Thalia had found the paper with his name on it with Lily’s things. She would be a fool not to take this opportunity to search the house.

She slipped out of the high, carved bed and padded across the oriental area rug to the adjoining bathroom.

Freshly showered and dressed in the rather wrinkled khakis and white blouse she’d worn the night before, Thalia ventured cautiously down the stairs.

“Cam?” she called softly. She had no idea whether it was even possible to wake a vampire during the day, but she was taking no chances. There was an elemental wildness about Gideon. A sense that his quiet restraint hid a savage soul. He both drew her and terrified her. She shivered at the idea of being caught. His anger would be terrible.

Come on, Thalia, get some guts!
She stuck out her chin. It wasn’t like she hadn’t done this many times before in the course of her job. But then again, none of her other subjects had been super-powerful vampires who could rip a person’s throat out with all the effort it took to squash a bug.

She brushed away that thought with a shake of her head and stepped onto the landing.

The house was curiously dark, much darker than the time of day would suggest, as dark as it would be at night. The weather must still be nasty.

Thalia located light switches and turned on the lights as she went. Despite the apparent age of the house, the rooms were large and airy. Probably remodeled at some point. She passed through spacious rooms filled with beautiful furnishings, stopping occasionally to take everything in. Crown moldings and cove ceilings, area rugs that probably cost more than she made in a year, artifacts from many cultures sprinkled throughout. She wondered if Gideon had decorated the rooms himself. She couldn’t imagine him in a home improvement store, but she could easily see him saving a few of his favorite belongings over the years.

Thalia went to the closest window to look outside. She pulled back the curtains and found a metal shade. She tried to lift it, but it wouldn’t budge. Her heart jumped for a second as she realized all the windows were like that. Had she walked into some sort of trap? She ran to the front door. It swung open effortlessly.

Her heartbeat settled back into its normal meter, and she laughed at herself. Naturally, a vampire would make sure he was safe from the sun in every room in his house. But the reminder of her host’s true nature brought her mind back to her original task.

Maybe it was useless to try to investigate a vampire using her private investigating techniques, but it was all she had.

She moved toward the back of the house accompanied only by the creak of the wood floors beneath her feet and the waxing and waning of the ticking clocks in the various rooms she passed.

“Hello,” she called again.

The odor of lemon wood polish lingered in the air, but Cam was nowhere to be found. Thalia relaxed. Assuming Gideon was dead to the world—she groaned inwardly at the accidental pun—until sunset, she had hours to investigate.

She entered a room that was clearly an office and went to the massive mahogany desk. She crushed the burgeoning tendril of conscience that cried out against such an invasion of privacy and reached for the brass pull punctuating the thin center drawer.

It slid open.

Empty.

She checked drawer after drawer, but they were all the same. The leather wingback chair behind the desk sighed as she sank into it. Everyone had
some
paperwork. He had to pay taxes like everyone else. It wasn’t like he actually needed health insurance, but not having it would certainly draw attention. He had a car. Where was the paperwork involved with ownership, maintenance and insurance?

His bedroom.

Dare she? Vampires were said to go into a heavy sleep, not unlike a coma, during the day. If she were careful, he would never know she was there. She bit her lip and forced herself to remember Lily’s ashen face as she lay on the cold table at the city morgue.

A face that would never see children of her own, a face that would never laugh or cry or sing again. A face she would miss for the rest of her life.

It wasn’t sunset. Far from it. Gideon knew that. More like late morning. What had awakened him? He listened for a minute. His preternaturally acute hearing sorted through the myriad sounds he normally blocked.

Thalia. He heard her speaking with Cam. He could hear the surprise in Cam’s voice as she greeted the little witch. He hardly made a practice of having houseguests.

He lay there as Thalia left the bed, and soon he could hear her moving around in the bathroom. The soft ruffle of each item of clothing hitting the floor triggered a vivid picture in his mind. He groaned, imagining each inch of creamy skin as it was exposed.

The shower started. He could hear it hiss and sputter as the pipes did their thing. Thalia gave a moan of pleasure as the steaming water hit her body, and Gideon closed his eyes, biting back another groan, unable to prevent himself from imagining the cascading flow over her body. Crystal water flowing over milky flesh. A sparkling stream sleeking her hair against her smooth shoulders and following the curves of her full breasts, the hollow of her belly, until sliding into the soft dark hair guarding her sex.

He sucked in a deep breath. His body hardened and the bloodlust, never far from the surface, surged through his veins. His fangs extended.

Beneath the sound of the water he could hear her breathing, feel the beat of her heart moving the sweet blood through her veins.

The water stopped.

He struggled to regain control as his rebellious mind furnished the image of her stepping from the marble shower stall, her skin flushed pink from the heat of the water, droplets gleaming on her rosy skin.

Even if she weren’t a witch, she wasn’t for him.

No one was for him. Passion was much too close to violence. He could never forget that the monster lurked, omnipresent, waiting for his opportunity to take over. His opportunity to destroy.

The hairdryer turned on, purring industriously. Several minutes passed.

Before sleep could take him again, her door opened. He listened to her progress throughout the house, jolting upright when he heard her run for the front door. It opened and closed, but she didn’t leave. She called out for Cam.

Footsteps entered his study. He heard drawers slide open.

She was going through his desk.

Anger twisted the threads of desire still entangling him.

So, the little witch thought to take advantage of him while he slept. Well, she wouldn’t find anything.

Her footsteps on the stairs brought him back to the moment. What was she up to now? The floor creaked outside his door. Her heart was pounding now. He could smell the adrenaline flavoring her blood. She was going to come in. The little fool.

He should end this right now. Instead he lay back on the bed and pretended to sleep.

Thalia licked her dry lips and placed her hand on the brass door handle of Gideon’s door. She pressed the other hand against the wood. For a moment, she imagined she could feel heat on the other side, as if there were a fire. Her witch senses warning her?

There might not be a fire, but danger sure as hell lurked on the other side.

She hesitated. He’d saved her bacon last night, brought her into his home.
Snap out of it, Kent! He’s still a vampire.
She blew out a gust of air.

Sure, he was hot, but the strange connection she felt to him was a biological advantage of vampires, nothing more. Without their magnetism, where would they get their next meal?

Gideon, like all vampires, was a predator. Only her poisonous blood prevented her from being a vampy snack. What made it so hard for her to remember that?

She couldn’t afford to trust him. Might just as well plant his teeth in her own neck, metaphorically speaking. Lily had no doubt trusted the monster who’d tapped her dry like a beer keg at a frat party.

Evoking the image of her cousin’s lifeless face once more, lips tinted blue, skin blanched, Thalia huffed, once twice, three tines. She could do this. She had to do this.

Pep talk over, she took one more deep breath, turned the handle, and stepped cautiously into the predator’s lair.