Luscious Craving (23 page)

I had one more question. “If someone like you, someone who knows the technology, were going to pull a scam connected with the tournament, any ideas on how he might go about it?”

“That’s the kind of question we ask ourselves day in and day out,” Chet said. “Truthfully, anything that’s worked in the past, any new angle we can imagine—we’ve already taken steps to prevent it. Any con that works is going to have to be pretty darn original.”

“Thanks,” I said, not at all comforted.

I signed out of the computer center and went straight to the garage. I sat in my car but didn’t turn the ignition key. Crossing my arms on the steering wheel, I leaned forward and rested my head. I obviously wasn’t going to get anywhere by trying to chase down high-tech answers. The clock was ticking down to the final round of the tournament and New Year’s Eve—and, if what Blanchard said was even partially true, to a war in the vampire world. If the two events were connected, I couldn’t figure out how.

Focus, Candace
. I had to think about what I could do and forget about what I couldn’t. What I could do was concentrate on what Blanchard had told me before he skipped town. The Bat Pack had found a way to amp up their powers. They were going to make a move against someone high up in the hierarchy. Their action could cause a big power shift and enough
disturbance
that it could result in what he called a vampire war. What would it take to start a vampire war? Had it already started? Without Blanchard, who the hell could I ask?

The answer was so obvious.
Someone high up in the vampire hierarchy.
Someone with power.
I groaned.
Ash.
Ash would know if anything big was going down in the vampire world. As much as I wanted to avoid him, I needed to find out what was going on even more. Sometimes you have to do more than think outside the box; you have to think outside yourself.
Ash.
A new thought flicked across my mind. Could Ash be the Bat Pack’s target? Could he be the high-up vampire whose power they were after?

Collateral damage
, I thought once more. To avoid it, I was going to have to do the one thing I wanted least: ask for Ash’s help.

Fifteen

The sun had set behind the mountains ringing
Las Vegas
. A faint reddish glow outlined the peaks but was overpowered by the neon extravagance of the Strip. Each hotel and casino vied for attention. Loud music, flashy signs, hints of sex and cash, suggestions of the good life.

Even the
Beijing
with its understated elegance wasn’t immune. As I walked from the closest parking garage toward the casino, I was greeted by loud advertisements for its shows and restaurants. The music was glorious—a mixture of western and Asian influences—but it was way too loud.

Or was it my ears
? I was turned up on every frequency for any sign that I was being watched. As far as I knew, there was nothing to connect me to Ash, but I couldn’t be sure the Bat Pack hadn’t seen the two of us together at the
Beijing
or the Venetian.

Walking through the casino, I followed the discreet signs to the residential tower. The long hallway was as formal as the areas surrounding the casino. Rich, dark woods covered the lower half of the walls, and exquisite wallpapers in soothing shades of gold and cream reached toward the high barrel ceiling. Great brass chandeliers were set every ten feet along the corridor.

The carpet muffled my steps, but as I emerged from the corridor, a woman looked up from her desk with a practiced smile. The space was a perfect circle. Several elevator doors decorated with bas relief images of Chinese landscapes broke the walls. Between them were gilded chairs that looked as if nobody had ever sat on them. In the center beneath a smaller version of the grand chandeliers was a gilded desk ornately carved with birds and
vines.
The computer monitor sitting on top offered a single bit of practicality.

The beautiful, young Asian woman sitting at the desk had the poise and
sang-froid
of royalty. I could almost feel her assessing me in my faded jeans and striped sweater. Her suit was a pristine ivory with sateen lapels. A subtle nameplate on her left breast identified her as Su Li.

“Good evening,” Su Li said in a carefully modulated voice. “Welcome to the
Beijing
, ma’am. How may I help you?”

“I need to see Ash Donahue.”

Su Li glanced down, as if consulting some sort of guest log or appointment book. “Is he expecting you?”

“No,” I said. “But there must be some way you can let him know I’m here.”

“Of course,” Su Li replied.
“If I might have your name?”

“Candace,” I said. “Candace Steele.”

“Thank you, Miss Steele.
One moment.”
She tapped her keyboard,
then
said, “I am sorry, Miss Steele, but Mr. Donahue has left instructions that he not be disturbed tonight.”

Instantly, my head was filled with an image of Ash and Dune wrapped together in an embrace even more passionate than what I had witnessed at the Venetian. I pushed it from my mind. Tonight wasn’t about emotion. It was about getting information and letting Ash know what I had learned in case he was the Bat Pack’s target.

“This is an emergency,” I said. “I’m afraid I must insist I be allowed to speak with Mr. Donahue at once.”

Her gaze swept over me, assessing.
“Perhaps, if I might know the nature of the emergency?”

“Now look, I said it was an emergency,” I could feel myself losing control.

“Thank you, Su Li. I’ll take it from here,” Ash’s voice suddenly sounded. He had come down in the elevator without either of us noticing him. He wore a black cotton shirt and those well-worn jeans.

“If you’re quite certain, Mr. Donahue,” Su Li said.

“Quite certain, thank you,” Ash replied. He turned to me, made a gesture toward the elevator. “Well, Candace. Shall we go?”

I crossed to the elevator. As if motion sensitive, it slid open at our approach. And I discovered to my horror that I simply could not make my body move. I could not make myself get into an elevator alone with Ash. Last time I did I had almost lost my life.

“Actually, if you’ll excuse me for a moment,” Ash said. “There is one last item of business I should attend to while I’m downstairs.” He leaned into the elevator, punched in a code. “This will take you straight up. I have the whole floor. I’ll join you in a moment.”

He stepped back and I managed to propel my body forward. I let the elevator lift me, my mind high and blank. When the doors slid open again, I was in Ash’s condo. Before me was an enormous wall of glass.

I stepped out of the elevator, moving forward to admire the view, and heard the doors whisper closed behind me. The floors were smooth, polished wood beneath my feet.
Vegas at night before me, in all its glory.

Looking south, I could see most of the Strip.
The Wynn, its arc of floors rising from the pools surrounding it.
The Venetian’s canals were silvery fingers, calm compared to the pirates’ pyrotechnic battle of fireworks at
Treasure Island
. Caesar’s Palace and the
Bellagio
fought for the brightest lights, but were dwarfed by the rise of the
Eiffel
Tower
above the
Paris
casino. At the far end, beyond the bright green MGM Grand and the gaudy Vegas versions of the Chrysler and the Empire State buildings of New York–New York was the unmistakable blue-white light coming from the apex of the
Luxor’s
black glass pyramid. And connecting them all were moving streams of white headlights and red taillights.

“It’s dazzling.” Only when Ash spoke behind me did I realize I had spoken aloud.

“I’ve always thought so.” Ash came to stand beside me. He didn’t touch me, but every inch of my skin was aware of him. “I bought this place after seeing this view. I didn’t give a damn what the rest of the apartment was like.”

I turned my back against the cool glass wall, and my gaze took in the rest of the living room—a vast space broken by a low sofa and a number of Greek and Egyptian carvings, each on a pedestal illuminated by a recessed spotlight. Ash continued to gaze out the window, his profile lit by the reflected lights rising up from the Strip.

“Why are you here, Candace?” he asked.

Because I couldn’t stay away
, I thought.
Because the plain and simple truth is that I do not want to live without you
.

But I said neither of those things. If I did, everything I had fought so hard for would go up in smoke. The fact that I couldn’t always remember just why I was fighting was part of the reason I had to keep on doing so.

“To ask for your help,” I finally replied.
“And to offer it, if I can.
I came to warn you. It’s possible you may be in danger, Ash.”

He took a step closer then, so suddenly I didn’t even have time to step back, even if I had wanted to. Gently, he caught my chin in one hand, tilting my face up.

“I believe that you are genuinely concerned about me,” he said, and I thought I heard something in his voice that sounded remarkably like wonder. “Would you be sorry if something happened to me, Candace?”

It never occurred to me to lie. Never even occurred to me I could. “Of course I would, Ash,” I said. “I love you. The fact that I don’t always want to hasn’t managed to change that yet.”

His fingers tightened, involuntarily, I thought. Because, in the next instant, they were gentle once more.

“No, it hasn’t, has it?” he asked softly. He brought his own face closer. All I would have to do was rise to my toes for our lips to meet. “Doesn’t that tell you something?”

“Ash,” I
said,
my voice no more than a whisper. “Please. Don’t.”

For a moment, I thought he would protest. Then, he released me, stepped back, and turned away.

“If you say so.”

“Ash, please, you have to listen to me,” I said. I grasped his arm and turned him back to face me. “I didn’t come here to argue about us. I came here to talk to you. There’s a group of vampires calling themselves the Bat Pack.”

He made a derisive sound.
“Sounds appropriate for Vegas.”

“I know it sounds idiotic,” I said. “But they’re attempting some sort of power grab. I know the
Sher
is one of their targets. The other one could be you. You’ve got to tell me what you know.”

“So that’s what this is really about,” Ash said as he pulled away, and now I could hear anger in his voice. “You’re here because of the casino.”

“Yes,” I said at once. “No.
Both.
Shit!” I suddenly exploded. “Shit. Shit. Shit. Why must you always make everything so impossible? This was a mistake. I should never have come.”

“No,” Ash said. And, as abruptly as it had come, the anger seemed to go out of him. “No, I’m glad you came, Candace. And I appreciate the warning. I shouldn’t have taunted you. I apologize.”

“Okay, that does it,” I said. “Now I
know
there’s something wrong.” Ash lifted a brow and I answered his unspoken question. “You just apologized. You never do that.”

He laughed, and the sound was rich and warm. “Why is it,” he asked, “that I sometimes find you so surprising? I suppose I shouldn’t question it, as it’s one of the things I love best about you.”

“And Dune,” I said, despising the words even as I spoke them.
Despising myself.
“Does she surprise you?”

Ash sobered at once. “Dune was…a mistake,” he said quietly. “One I am trying to find a way to rectify, and that’s all I’m going to say about her.”