Cody (6 page)

S
HE WAS THINKING ABOUT HIM.

Fantasizing.

Wanting.

The realization peeled back the edges of sleep and slithered down under the covers with him. Desire burned into Cody like a cattle brand as he found himself pulled into her fantasy.

They were smack dab in the middle of Town Square in a small, white gazebo. He peeled off his clothes and she peeled off hers, both of them oblivious to the occasional car that zipped up Main Street. That was half the fun. The spurt of excitement when they heard the grumble of an engine. The fear of discovery. The excitement.

His cock throbbed and he touched himself, stroking his length and mimicking the movement of her hand. He kissed her with all the desperation building in his body before she pulled away and slid down between his legs. Her mouth closed over the head of his erection. She licked, swirling her tongue and driving him crazy before sucking him deep into her mouth.

His fingers closed in her silky hair, holding her close as he bucked his hips and urged himself deeper into the wet heat of her mouth. She sucked. The back of her
throat rasped the head of his penis. His fingers tightened. His body went stiff and he exploded—

Cody’s eyes snapped open to find his hands clenched in the sheets and his body trembling.

He glanced at the digital alarm clock sitting on the scarred nightstand. It was barely noon. The truth registered and disbelief rushed through him. He didn’t wake up in the middle of the day. And he certainly didn’t have wet dreams. He was a vampire, for Christ’s sake. When he slept, he
slept.
There was no tossing and turning and dreaming. And he sure as hell did
not
jack-off.

He threw off the sheet and wiped at his gritty eyes. A bright yellow glow outlined the edges of the blinds and made a criss-cross pattern across the hardwood floor. He spared a glance at the door. The deadbolt was turned, still locked tight. A chair wedged under the door just in case the
Do Not Disturb
sign wasn’t enough to keep out the cleaning staff. Or, in this case, a nosy old woman who’d already warned him about tracking in mud.

Her name was Winona Adkins. She was an ancient lady with snow-white hair, glasses and white orthopedic shoes. She ran the town’s one and only motel with her grandson, Eldin. He handled the lobby area while she puttered around, cleaning rooms and handing out extra towels.

It wasn’t the type of place where Cody usually hung his hat. He liked his privacy and he sure as hell didn’t like the twenty questions directed at him when he’d checked in just minutes before daybreak.

Thanks to his preternatural speed, he’d made it to and from Austin to pick up his truck in record time. Still, he’d cut it close. The fanfare when he’d pulled out his driver’s license—who knew Eldin watched bullrid-ing?—had delayed him even longer.

Cody had gotten stuck signing a dozen autographs just to get his room key.

“I’m taking a little breather before I get back on the road,” he’d told the man to explain his sudden appearance in town. “You know how it is.”

“Don’t you worry, Mr. Boyd. We get celebrities in here all the time and I know just what to do. Why, I had me a fancy reporter here not very long ago. Name was Viv Darland and she wrote for some hotshot tabloid out in Holly wood. I kept the jackals away from her, you can best be sure. And if things get to out of hand, I can always call in the big guns. Sheriff Keller’s new in town, but he’s good.”

After escorting Cody to the one and only room in the motel that had its own toilet and shower, he’d pulled out a lounge chair and a BB gun and parked himself out on the walkway in front of Cody’s door.

Meanwhile, Winona had gotten on the phone and called someone named Gladys who’d called someone name Cheryl who’d called someone named Myrtle and so on.

Hence the chair wedged under the door and the lamp perched precariously on top. If the chair budged, the lamp would shatter and Cody would be awake in an instant.

Tired, but awake.

That’s the way it was for vamps during the day. It wasn’t that they couldn’t open their eyes. The daylight
drained their strength and made them vulnerable. Which was why they opted to sleep during that time.

That, and the sunlight, of course. Talk about a bitch to the complexion.

All the more reason to burrow deeper under the covers, away from the shafts of light pushing past the blinds, close his eyes and forget everything. He needed to rest. To regenerate. Particularly after offering up some of his precious energy to Miranda.

She’d drank his blood and he’d drank the sweet energy of her climax, and the damage was done. They were linked now.

The truth vibrated through him along with a swirl of emotions—her emotions. She felt everything from disbelief to anxiety to desperation as she tried to justify what had happened and come up with a plausible story that didn’t shake the foundation of her beliefs.

A vampire?

Insane. Impossible.

She fought the truth just as he fought the damned connection to her.

He focused on the steady
whirrrr
of the air conditioner. The drip-drop of water from the bathroom sink. The groaning of the lounge chair as Eldin abandoned his post to go in search of a bag of Doritos and a strawberry Crush.

As the outside world slipped into his head, Cody managed to ignore the constant buzz of her emotions and stop thinking about her.

For a little while.

Until he closed his eyes and found himself remembering
the past night. How warm she’d felt. How wet. How eager. She’d been that way from the very beginning with no influence from him. One glance and she’d wanted him.

He’d never encountered that before. True, he had dozens of buckle bunnies vying for his attention, but none of them really and truly wanted
him.
Cody Braddock. They were more interested in the infamous Cody Boyd. His fame. His money. That’s what gave them the courage to walk over to him. The lust didn’t hit until he stared deep into their eyes and mesmerized them with his vamp charm. Only then did they want to peel off their panties and climb into the saddle for a nice, long ride.

Not Miranda. She’d wanted him at first glance,
before
he’d worked any of his vamp mojo on her.

She still wanted him.

He knew the feeling.

The minute the thought struck, he sprawled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. His body throbbed and his cock bobbed, pushing against the crisp cotton sheet. A quick brush of his fingertips on the hard shaft and desire bolted through him. His stomach hollowed out. His fangs tingled.

Maybe he wasn’t feeling her so much as wanting her. He’d shared his blood with her last night, which made him at least a pint shy. He was weak again. Hungry.

The hunger.

That’s what had him tossing and turning and thinking that going back for seconds might not be such a bad thing. He needed all of his strength when he confronted Garret Sawyer and made him pay for his sins.

It sure as hell wasn’t because Miranda had felt different from any other woman he’d ever been with—hotter, wetter, wilder. Or because she’d stared up at him for those few seconds when he’d saved her from that young greedy vampire as if he were some kind of white knight instead of the devil himself.

No woman had ever seen the good in him. Except his mother, of course. No matter what bad thing he’d done, she’d dismissed it with a wink and a “You know how boys are,” or “He’s the baby of the bunch.”

He could still remember the way she’d stared up at him that tragic night, her eyes bright with love and hope.

As if he’d ridden up in time to save the day.

But he hadn’t been anyone’s hero that night. And he sure as hell wasn’t one now. He was something much darker and a hell of a lot more dangerous.

Miranda knew that and she still wanted him.

The truth haunted him for the rest of the day as he tried to rest and rejuvenate and forget about the fact that she was thinking about him.

And the sex.

And how he’d helped her cross one location off her
Hot Spots
List.

And
how he’d protected her after the fact and covered her up with that damned shirt.

He never should have left it.

It had been a moment of impulse. A crazy burst of ego that had kicked his common sense to the curb. It was better for her to reason it all away and convince herself nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He’d
known that, but deep down inside, he hadn’t wanted her to reason him away.

He wanted to live on in her thoughts long after she made the biggest mistake of her life and married the wrong man.

He knew that just as he knew that she wasn’t half as sure about Mr. Right as she should have been, otherwise she never would have been in that club in the first place.

Not that doubt was going to stop her. She was determined. Marriage. House with the white picket fence and the minivan and a couple of kids to distract her from the demons that pushed and pulled inside of her. The ones she’d unleashed last night for a precious few moments when she’d been with him.

She’d bottled it all back up inside now. She was now working in her garden and going through the motions and pretending that last night had never happened.

Exactly what he intended to do. They were over and done with. Finished.

Even if he was desperately hungry and she’d given him a burst of strength unlike any he’d ever felt before.

He’d get the same rush from anyone else.

That’s what he told himself when he finally hauled his ass out of bed at sunset.

Even more, he intended to prove it.

He grabbed his hat and headed for the bar and grill he’d passed on his way into town.

A quick lay, some sweet, energizing sex, and then he could get on with the business of killing Garret Sawyer.

C
ODY MEANT TO HEAD STRAIGHT
for the bar and grill, but instead found himself standing in front of Skull Creek’s one and only custom motorcycle shop.

Sweet, sweet revenge.

That was the reason he’d come here first. He’d waited a long time to confront his family’s killer and he wasn’t about to waste another second, even if he was weaker than he would have liked. He needed to lay the past to rest. He couldn’t change what happened that night, but he could make sure that Garret Sawyer never murdered again.

He could do something now when he’d been too late to do something then.

Shadows gathered around him as he stared up at the front of the building.

Other than the neon blue
Home of Skull Creek Choppers
that hummed in the front window and the hi-tech security pad that sat next to the entrance, the place looked like Mayberry.

The building was an old fifties service station complete with antique gas pumps and an orange and white Davey’s Fill-r-Up ball that rotated atop an iron pole. An ancient soda machine filled with glass bottles sat to the left of the front windows. Old-fashioned signs
for everything from Goo Goo Clusters to Husky Motor Oil hung here and there.

His vision sharpened as he stared through the front windows. The inside had been turned into an office area complete with several large filing cabinets and an impressive computer system. Framed pictures of various custom-made choppers lined the wall along with a DBA certificate and a sales tax permit. Behind the computer system stood another wall of windows that overlooked the actual machine shop.

Fluorescent lights blazed overhead, illuminating several stainless steel work tables and the bare bones frame of a current work in progress. An industrial strength welding unit sat nearby, along with a large grinder, several sprayers and an impressive assortment of tools that lined the walls. An array of saw blades covered one twelve-foot surface.

It looked like an average machine shop, not the hideout of a vicious, murdering vampire. Doubt niggled at Cody and stirred the one question that still remained unanswered about that night.

If Garret Sawyer had slaughtered the women and children and set the ranch on fire to cover his tracks after his feeding frenzy, then why hadn’t Sawyer done the same thing to the brothers? Why had he turned them instead?

Because he’s a ruthless, unpredictable, bloodthirsty vampire,
Cody told himself for the countless time.
He was there. Covered in blood. With the murder weapon in his hand. He’s guilty, all right.

Probably.

Cody ignored the last thought and concentrated on the sounds drifting from inside.

“If you don’t hurry up, they’re going to leave without us,” a soft, feminine voice said.

“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” came the deep reply.

A door creaked open somewhere and Cody felt a rush of tingling awareness. His muscles clenched and his gut tightened and he barely resisted the urge to put his fist through the glass and barrel in.

But there was a woman inside.

While Cody had every intention of ripping out Garret Sawyer’s black heart, he wasn’t losing control and taking out an innocent bystander.

“You’ve got a one-track brain,” the woman declared.

“You act like that’s a bad thing.”

“Actually,” the woman purred, “it’s a very good thing. It’s just that I’ve been wanting to see this movie for over three months…”

Cody blinked frantically against the red clouding his vision. A hundred years of regret had twisted and morphed into a living breathing monster even more vicious than the bloodlust.

Garret Sawyer had robbed him of his mother. His memories. And for that he would pay.

Cody hit the buzzer that sat next to the high-tech keypad and braced himself.

Immediately he felt the tension that rushed through the vampire inside as he became aware of another presence. A hiss sizzled through the air.

A split second later, a tall, muscular form appeared
in the doorway that separated the office from the machine shop. He wore blue jeans, a button-down black shirt that clung to his broad torso and a worn pair of cowboy boots. He had shoulder-length brown hair that had been pulled back into a ponytail. Red rimmed his dark pupils. The tips of his fangs gleamed in the fading dusk.

He was a vampire, all right.

But he wasn’t
the
vampire that haunted Cody’s memories.

“Yeah?” the vamp asked. “What can I do you for?”

“I’m looking for Garret Sawyer.”

“Why?”

Cody tamped down on the anger swirling inside him. “I’m an old friend. I saw his picture in a recent magazine and I thought I’d stop by to catch up.” It was part-truth and part-lie, but the vampire didn’t need to know that.

Vampires couldn’t read other vampires which made trust nearly impossible.

A vampire had to rely on his gut instincts when it came to those of his kind, and this one could obviously sense that Cody wanted more than to reminisce.

His eyes still glowed and his fangs still glittered and his entire body seemed poised, as if he waited for an attack. “Are you interested in a bike? If so, I can help you. I’m Jake McCann. I handle all the designs for Skull Creek Choppers.”

“I’m not here for a bike.”

“Then what do you want with Garret?”

“Jake? I didn’t realize you had an appointment.” The
voluptuous blonde came up short as she reached the doorway. Jake stepped in front of her, tucking her safely behind him as he faced off with Cody.

“Honey?” The female’s hand touched Jake’s arm. “What’s going on?”

He covered her fingers with his own and gave her an affectionate squeeze. “Nothing. This guy thought he had a meeting with Garret tonight, but he obviously made a mistake.” His gaze collided with Cody’s. “Right?”

Cody ignored the vampire and caught the gaze of the woman. Not that he expected to read her thoughts. She was a vampire. But sometimes with newly turned vamps he could pick up at least an impression or two.

She was definitely a babe in the woods. Otherwise, she would have sensed the threat that he posed.

Even so, he couldn’t catch even a glimpse of her thoughts.

“She’s used to nosy vampires.” Jake’s deep voice drew his attention.

“I live with one,” she added. Affection filled her voice as she slid an arm around Jake’s waist and regarded Cody with suspicious eyes. “I can block better than a Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman.”

“Where can I find Sawyer?” Cody pressed. When neither vampire replied, he added, “It’s not privileged information. Not in a small town like this.” He smiled, an easy, relaxed expression that contradicted the tense set of his muscles. “You know as well as I do that I can find him if I really want to.”

“Garret’s out of town on business,” Jake said after a long contemplative moment. “He flew out last night.”

“When is he coming back?”

The vampire didn’t look as if he wanted to answer. Instead he stared, as if he looked hard enough, he might be able to see what Cody had in mind. “Friday,” he finally said.

It wasn’t the news Cody had hoped for. It was only Sunday. He would have to stick around for five full days.

At the same time, he’d spent an afterlife waiting for this moment. Five days meant nothing. If anything, it would give him time to gather his strength. He would need it judging by the defiant vampires in front of them. They would stand by Garret.

Which meant that Cody needed to feed.

A lot.

He had a sudden vision of Miranda, her pale skin gleaming in the moonlight, her essence drenching his cock as he pumped inside of her. A growl vibrated up his throat.

Jake’s survival skills kicked in at the sound and his lips pulled back. His fangs glittered.

“Easy.” Cody threw up his hands. “I’ve got no beef with you. It’s your friend I’m after.” He tamped down on the tightening in his gut and gathered his control. “Tell Sawyer I’m coming for him.”

“What do you want with him?” the female asked.

“IRS.” Cody winked. “Your buddy owes a shitload and I’m here to collect.” He tipped his hat. “Sorry to keep you from your movie, ma’am.” And then he turned on his heel and walked away.

Five days.

Shit.

His insides clenched and his hunger stirred as he left Skull Creek Choppers and headed down Main Street. He meant to head for the nearest bar, but instead of going east, he found himself headed the opposite direction. To a small two-story house with a yard full of flowers.

Not that he was going to feed off Miranda. And make the connection that much stronger? Hell, no. Rather, he was going to do his damnedest to erase her memory. It might not work. It probably wouldn’t work, but he had to try. If he succeeded, then she would stop thinking about him. Then maybe, just maybe, he could stop thinking about her and keep his distance for the next few days.

Otherwise…

He ignored the lustful thought that slammed into him and picked up his steps. He was ending this.

Now.