The Fledgling (8 page)

“If you let her go, we can see about reducing your sentence.”

“If I don’t complete this, it won’t matter what you do to me. All will be lost.”

“What do you mean?” Jean Luc asked.

Talia took a step closer, held her breath, and swung the weight at the demon’s head with all of her vampire might.

The weight connected with a loud and sickening splat, as if she had smashed a melon. Townsend lurched to the side, and Jean Luc flashed, tackling him so he would not crush Deanna.

Talia dropped the bloody weight and caught the young woman before she crumpled to the floor.

Jean Luc wrestled with Townsend, who was still thrashing about. “Get her out of here, Talia!”

She lifted Deanna and carried her to the front, and then ran back into the exercise room. The demon morphed before their eyes, his skin turning purple. He launched himself at Jean Luc, who spun out of the way, but not soon enough to avoid his claws. They shredded his shirt, and Talia gasped as blood ran in lines across Jean Luc’s chest as he fell to the ground.

Before the demon could attack Jean Luc again, Talia yelled and tossed a barbell weight like a frisbee. It hit his back and he staggered and turned toward her, growling.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance.”

“Too late now.” She shrugged indifferently, hoping he would take the bait.

He sprang for her, and she backed out of his grip. She had to get him away from Deanna and Jean Luc.

He hissed, and she ran, his lumbering steps pounding close behind. Talia yanked open the door at the end of the hallway and stepped into a storage room. She whipped her head around and located another door she prayed led outside. She pushed it open and stumbled out, slamming the door shut.

She was in the alley where the men had attacked her days before. But instead of drunk humans, she had a powerful demon to defeat. She needed a weapon. A broken pallet lay against a dumpster, and she grabbed a long shard of wood, hiding it behind her leg. The demon burst into the alley, bricks crumbling as the door crashed into the wall.

“I’ve got you now.” He smiled and drummed his fingers together, his claws clicking loudly in the empty alley.

She took a deep breath as Jean Luc had taught her and concentrated on the demon in front of her. Even though he acted as if he were in control, she could hear his heart beat a rat-a-tat rhythm.

He frowned. “What do you have behind your back?”

She smiled even though she wanted to run. “Nothing.”

He paused for a moment as if deciding what to do. Talia watched the vein in his neck flutter, and she could not only hear his heartbeat but also his blood as it surged through his body. A flowing river that filled her senses. And in that moment, she knew when he would take his next breath and his next move.

She pulled the shard out from behind her leg a millisecond before he lunged and stabbed him, using his own momentum to drive it deep in his belly.

He howled and backhanded her. She crashed against the dumpster, grasped its metal lid, and ripped it off its hinges. When he advanced again, she swung it hard against his side.

“Bitch!” He yanked her hair and pulled her against him.

The air vibrated around them. Before Townsend could react, Jean Luc appeared, pupils blazing red and fangs elongated. Talia punched the demon in his stomach wound, and he lost his grip. Jean Luc reached for her, and they flashed. Seconds later, she was on the other side of the alley trying to get her bearings.

Jean Luc flashed again and met the demon head-on, ramming his hand into his chest. The demon grunted and lunged, but Jean Luc sidestepped him, whirled, and brought his elbow up full force into the demon’s back, knocking him to his knees.

Jean Luc grabbed the demon’s head from behind, and with a swift move, snapped his neck. Talia met Jean Luc’s blood-red gaze. He let go of the head and the body fell to the ground. Within seconds, the demon turned back into his human form.

Jean Luc’s gaze ran over her body quickly, stopping on her right cheek, which still stung where the demon had smacked her.

“He hurt you.”

His voice was no louder than a whisper, but it vibrated through her body as if he’d screamed.

Talia sucked air into her too-tight throat and lungs. “I’m okay.” She stepped up to him and opened his torn and bloody shirt. His chest had already started to heal. “How about you?”

Jean Luc closed his eyes for a moment, and when they opened again, they had returned to their brown color. “I will be fine. I am going to the car to gather some equipment. We have much to clean up before the police are called in.”

* * *

The flickering red and blue lights were giving Talia a headache. She wanted nothing more than to be away from the scene, breathing in the cool night air. Misha had shown up right before the ambulance and cops, cursing that he had missed all the fun again, and simultaneously taking care of both Simon and Deanna with amazing aptitude.

Misha helped the paramedics load Deanna into the ambulance. He gave Talia a big smile. “I’m going to follow them to the hospital. I have always wanted to watch a baby being born. Maybe I’ll get lucky.”

She chuckled, headed back into the building, and plopped down into the receptionist’s chair to wait for Jean Luc. It wasn’t long before he walked into the room with the medical examiner and a plain-clothes policeman. He looked strange in the gym logo T-shirt Talia had found for him to wear, but they had not wanted the police to see the blood on his shirt. Jean Luc wouldn’t have been able to explain how he had healed so quickly.

“So you’re telling me that was the killer?” the cop asked.

“Yes.”

“And you tracked him?”

“We followed a pattern. The Fitness Club was the connection.”

The medical examiner held up an evidence bag. In it was the metal, claw-like tool Jean Luc had planted next to the body. “This guy had to be pretty twisted to use a sharpened gardening hook.” She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and smiled at Jean Luc. Was she flirting with him? Here? “Promise me you’ll stop at the station tomorrow morning and give Charlie your statement.”

“You have my word, Muriel.”

* * *

Talia led the way into the house. Jean Luc dropped his car keys on the table, and the jingling scraped across her nerve endings.

“Are the cops really going to buy that David was a serial killer who used a gardening hook to kill his victims…because he thought he was some sort of animal?”

“They will do whatever is necessary to close the case. All they want is for the killings to stop.” He held up the notebook from David’s apartment. “Without this, they won’t be able to connect him to supernaturals.”

“Why do you think he killed Peter and Tony and tried to kill Deanna?”

“The notebook does not explain why. It just states his job was to eliminate the humans who glow.” Jean Luc’s mouth quirked up slightly. “I had hoped to find out more, but you smashed him over the head just when the conversation was getting interesting.”

Her mouth fell open. “What? Excuse me for saving you from a demented demon.”

“I told you that you were stronger than you realized. And you also saved that young girl and her baby.”

Warmth blossomed in Talia’s chest at his praise. “Well, you were the one who stopped him from hurting anyone else.” She frowned. “Wait a minute. What about his body? You can’t honestly think the M.E. won’t notice anything weird when she cuts him open. And what’s with her, is she an ex or something?”

“Muriel is scheduled to complete the autopsy tomorrow morning. Tonight, there will be an administrative screw-up, and the body will be cremated.” Jean Luc smirked. “And she is not an ex anything. She is simply a bit forward.”

Talia chuckled. “Right. How are you going to pull off the cremation?”

“We have supernaturals working in the police department and the morgue.”

She let out a deep breath. “Wow. I have no idea what to say. My brain is on overload.”

“It has been a long day.” Jean Luc’s gaze skimmed her face, and it felt like a caress. “Your cheek is almost healed.”

It was time to trust him. He was not the monster who had turned her. She stepped into his personal space. “I’ll be fine.” She leaned into him, and he stiffened. She closed her eyes and sniffed him the same way he had scented her in the past. His scent was woodsy with a hint of citrus.

He wrapped his hands around her upper arms, and her breath caught in anticipation, until he pushed her back gently. “Talia, you have had an emotional day. You must be exhausted. And you must long to wash off the blood.”

She glanced down at her blood-spattered clothes. It wasn’t exactly the most romantic of statements, even for a vampire. She nodded and he stepped away from her, breaking contact. She bit the inside of her bottom lip so she wouldn’t protest.

Minutes later, she stood under the warm shower spray and wanted to slam her head against the tiles. God, she had practically thrown herself at him. What had she been thinking?

In point of fact, she hadn’t been thinking. For the first time in the past five ridiculously lonely years she hadn’t been thinking about protecting herself or hiding from the world around her. Had she not made the decision to move forward? And he had pushed her away due to some stupid code.

It was time to figure out how to convince this stuffy, noble vampire that what he saw as a baby vamp was in actuality a fully grown female. A female who wanted him.

Chapter 12

Jean Luc stood in the shower wanting to beat his head against the tiles, repeatedly.

He was a fool! How could he have backed away from her downstairs? When she sniffed him, it had required every ounce of control not to grab her and ravish her lips.

He hadn’t wanted to take advantage of an emotional situation. But hadn’t Adam told him he wasn’t taking advantage if she felt the same way? If he couldn’t trust the advice of someone who was thousands of years old, whom could he trust?

It was time to allow someone to get close to him. He had lost Jacqueline. But she would not have wanted him to remain alone forever. He could not continue slogging through an endless life without at least the potential of love.

The phone rang in his bedroom, interrupting his self-imposed “soliloquy of misery.” Jean Luc turned off the shower and toweled himself off quickly. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he jerked open the door.

And froze.

Talia was lying on his bed with the phone against her ear. She wore nothing but the clean button-down shirt he had left on the bed.

She chuckled softly into the phone. “I’ll let him know, Misha. No, no need to rush home. We are fine.” Her eyes lifted, and she gazed into his face. “Not to worry, I’ll take care of him.” She disconnected the phone and placed it back into its cradle.

Jean Luc cleared his throat in an attempt to dislodge the sudden lump. “What did Misha have to say?”

Talia sat up and scooted to the foot of the bed. The bottom of his shirt edged further up her thighs. “He said he was waiting to see Deanna, so he is going to be gone for awhile.”

He took a step. “And why are you in my room?”

She stood. “I need some more schooling.”

“In what regard?”

“Regarding the whole heartbeat thing you taught me. I need some more practice.”

“After what you accomplished in the alley, I believe you have that skill mastered.”

“But my teacher says practice makes perfect.” She reached up and undid her top button, and then the next, exposing rich, dark skin…and he was lost. All the reasons why this shouldn’t happen deserted him.

She smirked while continuing to undo buttons. “Like right now, if I’m not mistaken, your heartbeat just sped up a teensy bit.”

He growled, and she laughed, the laugh of a female who had another being completely in her power. And he fell for her completely in that moment. His stubborn, beautiful, vampire charge. There would be no backing away now.

She unbuttoned the last button, and Jean Luc reached for her. She stepped into his arms, skin against skin. She was warm and still damp from her shower. He slipped the shirt from her shoulders, and it billowed to the floor.

Mon Dieu
, he had to taste her. He ran his tongue over her throat, her pulse drawing him in until his own heart beat in tandem with hers. She was as addictive as any drug. He sucked her neck hard enough to pool the blood just beneath her skin. She gasped. Without ingesting a drop, he could taste its sweetness. Lifting her into his arms, he carried her to the bed, setting her down gently. He stood back and studied her, her beauty literally making him weak in his knees.

She smiled when he yanked the towel off his waist, her eyes meandering slowly over his body while she looked her fill. He crawled up the bed, arms holding him barely an inch above her. So close the hairs on his body stood on end.

The gold in her eyes turned molten. She opened her legs to him, and he eased himself down on top of her, groaning as his groin fit against hers. She shuddered and traced her fingers over his back as though she wanted to memorize him through touch.