Tainted Blood (Hell's Belle Book 2) (22 page)

"Hey." Frankie pulled my head up, and looked me sleepily in the eye. "No crying, right?"

"No crying," I smiled. "Promise."

"Good, because that would be a total girl thing to do," he teased gently.

We sat there for a beat, his strong hands gently cupping my face. He looked at me with a tenderness I had never seen in him before. Slowly, he pulled my face closer to his until our lips were about an inch apart. Then he dropped his guard completely, allowing the binding to take over, flooding my body with sensations. I closed my eyes as the full force of his emotions crashed into me. Primal lust commingled with genuine affection. I shivered as my body responded to his mental touch. It slid down my neck, brushing gently across my breasts. His mind lingered on my stomach before moving to my upper thighs, where he held steady, anticipation building in both of us.

Then he snapped his mental guards back in place. He leaned his forehead against mine and gave his head a small shake.

"Go make the potion, Love," he whispered, his voice rough. "There are a lot more vampires counting on you."

I took a shaky breath and nodded, suddenly reluctant to break from this moment. My heart was racing, and I knew Frankie could hear the rush of blood coursing through my body. His blue eyes began to glow and he twitched just a bit as his fangs elongated as his control began to wane. My own control was on shaky ground right now.

"Oh hey, Nina." Chuck walked right in. "Whoa! Sorry, I'll just..."

He scooted out of the room quickly. I pulled away from Frankie almost as fast.

"It's okay, Chuck. What do you need?" I called after him.

"The sun's coming up. I'm not going to get home in time. Do you have a place I can crash?" He hovered in the hallway, not looking in the bedroom.

"Basement," I said. "I'll show you."

"I know where it is, remember?" he said, laughing nervously. "I'll just head on down there now. You just...carry on."

"Chuck, hang on. Let me get you a blanket, and I think Babe has an air bed somewhere."

I jumped up quickly, straightening out my clothes as I crossed to the door. Frankie winked and grinned, and my face grew hot. I had no idea what just happened between us. Suddenly, I didn't know how to act around him. Leaving seemed like the best plan.

"By the way, Frankie," I stopped at the door, remembering something. "The stakes were brilliant. One of them took out a demon."

Frankie's eyes went round in shock. "You're joking."

I shook my head. "Caught him in the eye socket, and he went down. True dead. If I wasn't running for my life, I wouldn't have been able to move from the shock."

"Do you remember which one you used?"

I shook my head. "The one that didn't spark me."

Frankie chuckled. "I'll check them out later."

"Get some sleep, okay?"

I stepped into the hall and turned right into Chuck. The vamp hovered.

"Ow," he stumbled back, catching himself before he fell over.

"Sorry, didn't see you," I said as I closed the bedroom door and swept down the hall. Chuck lagged behind. I yanked open the hall closet, where the box for the airbed was shoved into the back.

"So..." Chuck stood behind me awkwardly. "I always figured you and Max had a thing."

"Why'd you figure that?" I pulled out bottom-of-the-closet detritus — shoes, errant scarves, mismatched gloves. A bowling ball?

"I don't know, I guess. You guys just looked right together." Chuck caught himself and backtracked. "Not that you and Frankie don't look right. You look great. Beautiful. It's beautiful. You're both beautiful."

"Nothing is going on with anyone, Chuck," I said, finally liberating the box containing the airbed. I tossed the stray items back in the closet.

I handed Chuck the box and walked him to the door.

"Wait," I said, grabbing a folded quilt off the couch and putting it on top of the box. "Here. You remember how to get down there?"

"Yes, thank you for this." He started down the stairs.

I took a quick glance out the kitchen window. The sky was streaked with red.

"Hey Chuck," I called down after him. "You may want to put the blanket over your head before you go out to the patio."

"Right. Thanks Nina."

I closed the door. It was a close call, but he'd be fine.

"Well, girlfriend, do we have something to talk about or what?" Casper's voice thrilled through my head.

"You were in there the whole time?" I squeaked out. "Again?"

"Where the hell else am I supposed to go? We have spell work to do."

"Casper, we really have got to talk about boundaries." I huffed into the kitchen.

But not now. Now we needed to save some vampires and catch a killer.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The sun was setting when I gave the counter a final swipe with the sponge. It took Casper and me almost a full day to work up enough ash to take care of the 100 or so Betas in Chuck's nest. Not all of them were sick, but there were enough infected that I wanted to make sure we dosed all of them, as a precaution. The ashes were in three mason jars I dug out of the back of a cabinet. 

I flopped on the couch. It was close to 5 p.m., and in about an hour, we were all meeting to run through the night’s plan. Casper slipped away right after we were done, going off to recover. I think it took more out of him to do the spells then he let on, and it worried me.

Max recuperated from Berserker mode not too long after sunrise. Darcy and Matty were both at the factory apartment. He was holed up in Frankie's light-proof apartment, and, from her giggles during our 10 a.m. conversation, it was a safe bet that she was in there with him. Frankie was fast asleep in the guest room down the hall, still recuperating from his ordeal. I didn't think he should do the mission tonight, but I knew better then to question it. He'd be there, even if it killed him.

I texted Darcy and asked her to swing by Haven Brothers to bring me a double cheeseburger (rare enough to bleed) and fries. With 60 minutes to kill, I quickly debated the merits of sleep versus a shower.

I must have nodded off during that internal argument. The smell of fried potatoes and greasy meat snapped me awake at 5:55.

"Morning sunshine!" Darcy dropped the hot bag onto my chest. She flopped down on the couch beside me, sipping a soda.

"Darcy, you are a lifesaver. I am starving." I opened the bag and took a long sniff. "God, this is manna from heaven."

"Good stuff," Darcy agreed.

Matty was hovering in the kitchen. He opened the fridge and rummaged through it.

"You want to grab a beer for me while you're digging around in there, sport?" I called to him. The noise abruptly stopped.

"Sorry, I didn't mean..." he said sheepishly.

"To snoop? Yes, you did," I corrected him. "Now, how about that beer?"

I winked at Darcy, who shook her head and mouthed, "Stop."

Matty came into the room with three cans of Narragansett tall boys, handing one to me and one to Darcy. He sat on the arm of the sofa beside Darcy and slipped his arm around her. She nestled into the crook of his arm.

I popped open the beer with one hand and took a swig. "Better than coffee."

I laid out my fast food feast on the coffee table and tucked in, washing down the bloody beef and salt crusted fries with the cold brew.

Darcy pulled her laptop out of her bag and fired it up. "What's your Wi-Fi password?"

I stared at her blankly.

"Never mind," she sighed. "I'll hack it. It can't be that hard."

A few clicks and she sighed. "Nope, not hard at all. Nina, we really have to do something about that."

"Talk to Babe when she gets back," I shrugged. "Hell, we're lucky Babe has Internet access at all."

Darcy shook her head disapprovingly, muttering something about identity theft. She then buried her nose in the computer.

The door that led to the bar opened and Chuck peeked his head around. "Okay if I come in?"

"Come on in, Chuck," I called out, taking a huge bite of the burger. Matty stared at me with a mix of fascination and revulsion.

Chuck carried the airbed box with the quilt bunched up on top of it. "Thanks for the bed. It was more comfortable than I thought."

"Glad to hear it. You can leave it over there." I motioned for him to drop it by the closet door.

Once he dropped off the box, he joined us in the living room.

"Hi, I'm Chuck," he said as he extended his hand to Matty.

Matty gave him the rock star aloof business.

"Oh cut the crap," I said, rolling my eyes. "Chuck, that's Matty. He's a rock star. And my cousin. Matty, this is Chuck. Stop being a snot."

"It's that...he's..." Matty made a weird face.

"You’re unbelievable, Matty," I said. "He's like you. A Beta,
exactly
like you. So I suggest you lose the judgmental bullshit."

"Agreed," Darcy chimed in. "I'm Darcy, Chuck. It's a pleasure to meet you. Please forgive Matty's behavior. It's not you. It's his own self-loathing."

"I'm not self-loathing!" Matty objected.

"Matty, I love you," Darcy said. "But you have to recognize that this behavior is very unhealthy."

I should have laughed out loud at her armchair psychology, but I was still digesting her love comment. I guess the potion worked. Really, really well.

"It's okay," Chuck smiled affably. "We have plenty of Betas exactly like that in the nest. We even had a 12-step program modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous. It was a real success. Maybe, once we get better, you'll want to check it out."

"Maybe." Matty shrugged petulantly. He wasn't used to being called out on his shit. 

"Hey, Matty," I said. "You may not like it, but we won't let you behave like a diva. And that's what makes us your friends. And that could be the difference between life and death right now."

"Are you my friend?" Matty asked me. He wore a kicked puppy expression.

"Technically, I am family. They are your friends," I said, dodging his question. I wasn’t ready to feel solidarity with him just yet.

He seemed to accept that, and reached out and shook Chuck's hand. "Maybe I'll take a look at your program."

"But first, we have to get your nest decontaminated," I said as I crammed some fries in my mouth. I was starving. "What do you have, Darcy?"

"Okay, so this is the campsite," she said as she flipped her laptop towards me. Google Earth was up on the browser. "It looks like there's a log cabin, with two outbuildings beside it. One looks like a barn."

Chuck was nodding excitedly. "It's a werewolf pack's seasonal place. No one's been there since we showed up."

"Werewolves? You sure?" I hadn't heard about any in the area.

Chuck nodded. "It smells wolfy. And there's the cabin for the Alpha and his mate. Our tents aren't the first ones pitched in the area. There were so many tent-worn spots in the surrounding woods, it has to be a pack of werewolves."

"Oh Chuck," I sighed. "They are really territorial. Not the best place for you to lay low."

"They aren't even there," Chuck insisted.

"You think they aren't there," I corrected him. "But trust me, they know. For whatever reason, they are allowing it."

Chuck shrugged. "So they must be okay with it."

"They aren't," I said flatly.

"That's tomorrow's problem," Max said, peeking over Darcy's shoulder to look at her computer screen.

"Hey Max," Darcy smiled.

He winked in reply.

I eyed him over my beer as I took a sip. The last time I saw him, he was large and angry. "You feeling okay?"

"All good." He smiled, his eyes crinkling around the edges. It still dazzled. "So what's in the outbuildings?" he asked.

"One's an empty barn. The other is a two-car garage with no cars," Chuck explained.

"The only clearing is close to the barn," Darcy mused. "The rest is pretty thick forest."

Chuck nodded. "We have our tents near the clearing."

"I think the trees around the clearing are our best bet for the ops," Max said. "We want the tree cover."

"Where is this place, by the way?" I asked. I still couldn't shake the bad feeling I had about the werewolves.

"A little town up by the Connecticut border called..." Darcy looked at her computer. "Chepachet."

"Seriously?" I sighed.

"Yeah, why?" she asked.

"Is that where...?" Max stopped and looked at me.

"Where the farmhouse is? The one where my parents were killed?" I sighed. "The same."

"How much land do you have, Nina?" Darcy asked.

"Not sure," I said. "I've been meaning to make an appointment with the lawyer to figure out what I actually own, but I've been a little busy."

"So wait, are you rich?" Matty suddenly looked very interested.

"And like you're some poor relation?" I gave him a sour look. "I guess my dad was rich. Old-assed vampires tend to accumulate wealth over the centuries. As I am sure you know."

"I don't self-finance," Matty explained. "Killing Haley is always looking for investors."

Was he seriously hitting me up for money? "Thanks, but I'll pass," I said.

"What'd I miss?" Frankie asked as he stumbled out of the bedroom.

"Frankie!" Darcy smiled at the sight of him. "Good to see you up and around!" 

"Yeah, and not twice dead," I sassed, grateful to be able to do it.

Frankie winked at me and smiled. "I'm starving. Anyone want to donate?" The buzzing room went silent. "Just kidding!"

"That's a good point, though, Frankie. You should probably eat," Max said, being, as usual, the voice of reason. "I have two coolers full of blood bags in the car. You want one?"

Frankie's face darkened in disgust.

"Maybe if we nuke it, it'll be more palatable?" I suggested.

"You've got to eat," Darcy agreed.

"It's really not that bad," Chuck chimed in.

"That's because you've never had the real thing," Frankie said, not masking his revulsion at a blood bag dinner.

Chuck looked slightly crestfallen at Frankie's response. It had to be tough being a Beta around full vampires. Hell, I felt like crap when Frankie had to cover my ass because I wasn't undead enough to take out a monster. Betas can't protect themselves from anything. They're as fragile as humans, maybe more so since they can't tolerate the sun, and have to rely on a supply of pilfered blood bags to survive. And we saw how that worked out for them.

Matty, however, looked completely nonchalant about the whole thing. His ego wasn't wrapped up in his feeding methods, clearly. Of course, he was a rock star. His ego hinged on other things.

"Frankie, nutrition is nutrition, and after what you've been through..." I trailed off and considered offering some of my blood. We were already bound, so what was the big deal?

Frankie leaned over the back of the couch and whispered in my ear. "Thanks, darling, but no. I want to make sure I am indeed infection-free before we share blood again."

His words sent an electric pulse through my body, and I sighed deeply before I caught myself.

Darcy cocked an eyebrow at me knowingly.

"Blood bag it is," Max said. His voice was a little too loud for the enclosed space of the apartment. He turned on his heel and headed back out to the car to get the blood.

"Right, blood bag it is." Frankie echoed miserably, following Max out the door.

"Grab one for me while you're out there!" Matty yelled after them. "O negative!"

"I'll take one too," Chuck said. "I'm not picky."

"Hang on a second. Where's Dr. O? Why isn't he here yet?" Darcy asked.

"We can't seem to find him." I didn't want to admit he was missing, but lying about it was pointless.

"Oh, that's not good," she responded.

"No kidding," I said. "But like Max said, that's tomorrow's problem. First, let's fix the vampires, then we find Dr. O."

"Did you check with Babe?" Darcy didn't let up.

I stared at the partially eaten burger and fries on the coffee table, my appetite suddenly gone. "She's on vacation."

"Yeah, so?" Darcy's face twisted in confusion. "Maybe he joined her out there. You know they're...well, together."

I brightened. "Yes, maybe he did fly down there to see her. And he wouldn't tell us because they are keeping it a secret."

"Who's keeping what a secret?" Max asked as he and Frankie walked back in, blood bags in hand. Max handed one to Chuck, who opened it immediately.

Frankie puzzled over the microwave. "Nina, how does this thing work?"

"I'll take mine cold," Matty said. He gagged on the reheated blood I made him drink after Darcy and I raided the blood bank. The memory made me smirk.

Matty raised his hand and caught the bag Max tossed to him. I cringed, hoping it wouldn't explode and cover the living room in blood.

"Dr. O and Babe. They are having a thing," I said as I climbed over the back of the couch. With all the people in the living room, it was the fastest way.

Max looked incredulous. "Dr. O and Babe?"

"And why wouldn't they?" I took the bag from Frankie, bit the corner open, and spit the plastic out of my teeth into the sink. I pulled out a pint glass from the cabinet.