Unseen (12 page)

Just another one to add to the collection, I suppose.
But she didn’t have the time to do that right now. Instead took off her jacket and tore several strips from it that were long enough to use as makeshift bandages.

She might heal a hell of a lot quicker than the average human, but if she didn’t position this flap of skin back into place soon, it wouldn’t set properly.

She tossed the rest of her jacket aside, rolled up her shirtsleeve and pressed the skin firmly back into place. She inhaled sharply and winced at the discomfort. When everything was back where it was supposed to go, she wound fabric strips around her arm as tightly as she could. It would have to do for now.

She leaned over and picked up the remainder of her jacket, as well as the wooden stake, tucking it into the waistband of her jeans as she walked away.

Sighing, she threw the torn jacket into the nearest trash can and continued back the way she’d come, hoping to find Doug along the way.

A shiver raced down her spine at the thought of Doug. It made her entire body tremble as she walked. What was it about him that roused such a strange reaction? Maybe she just wasn’t listening to her instincts like she should. But as she passed the spot where she’d left him earlier and didn’t see any sign of him, Trina couldn’t pretend anymore. Something really strange was going on with Doug and she had to stop denying it.

Stop pretending you don’t know what he is. It’s time for you to face the truth.

Chapter Thirteen

“What a bust!” Trina stormed into her apartment, locked the door, and made her way toward the couch. She didn’t get a chance to plop onto it, though. First, the phone rang, making her jump and head for the light switch. Then someone grabbed hold of her upper arms so hard she cried out before she was tossed across the living room and her spine smacked against the front door. Someone was also knocking on the glass sliding door. “What the fuck?”

“You didn’t think I’d let you get away from me, did you?” Luis’s cunning voice echoed inside her living room.

“Is that all you know how to say?” she taunted as she forced herself to ignore all the different flares of pain spiking through her body and got to her feet. She switched the light on.

Luis flashed his bloodstained teeth and paced from one side of the living room to the other. Every now and then, he glanced towards the closed sliding door. She already knew who was standing out there all antsy and wanting to get inside. Doug.

Who’d handed out invitations to a party at her place and forgot to send her one? At least she now knew the welcome mat with the vamp message worked.

Trina didn’t move from her spot. She had a good view of both men. Doug was waiting for her to let him in, and Luis paced in front of her like the predator he wanted to believe he was.

She snuck a glance at the Allure Urn and felt a deep tug inside her gut. The proximity of Luis was driving the urn insane, and that, in turn, made her nuts with the need to end this. But he didn’t even spare one glance at the urn. As much as she hated to admit, it reminded her of Doug’s reaction. The revelation stabbed into her heart and she closed her eyes for a second to force it away. It was getting harder to deny what she suspected—or already knew—about Doug, and it hurt like hell.

I can’t deal with this at the moment.

First, she had to finish off this old bastard. The sooner Luis was gone, the sooner she’d be able to steal his vampiric power. Then she’d settle down on the couch with a nice cup of hot chocolate and a packet of Tim Tams on the side. Yeah, that sounded like a lot more fun than what she now faced. As for Doug . . . well, she’d handle him after she had some downtime.

Luis sneered, his upper lip curling as he glared at her with shiny eyes full of hunger. “Come here, little girl.”

The phone stopped ringing.
One less thing to worry about.

“You know, just because you keep calling me that
doesn’t
make it true.” Trina straightened, rolling her shoulders. “Actually, it sounds as if you haven’t heard the truth about me at all. Otherwise, you’d know better than to charge into my territory like this.”

Luis actually threw his head back and laughed. His oily, curly hair looked knotted and bloody. “It’s a shame I’ll have to hurt you before making you one of my vamps.”

“That’s not going to happen and you know it.” Trina took a step forward, ignoring the pain in her shoulder blades and back. “I am, however, curious. Why did you do it? Why bother turning people into monsters, if you’re just going to dump them?”

He shrugged, taking a single stride. “I did it because I can.”

“But you didn’t give a shit about any of them.”

“I still don’t.” His thin-lipped smile returned.

It was Trina who laughed now. “You’re a heartless fuck, aren’t you?”

She shot a sidelong look at Doug. He was positioned on the balcony, waiting on the other side of the glass. Judging by his posture and the way he seemed to be bouncing on his feet, he couldn’t wait to get inside. If she raced over and unlocked the door, he could get in. But would he help her? All of the short-lived faith she’d put in him had faded into oblivion. She didn’t understand why she’d bothered to listen to a word he’d said, or agreed to help him, for that matter.

Oh, right, she’d done it because the promise of old ash was too much to ignore, even on a subconscious level.

Once again her stupid instincts had landed her in a mess. And now the only way out was via a struggle inside her home. What would the neighbors think? Well, if she was honest, she didn’t give a crap. If it wasn’t for her, several of them might be just like the monster she now faced.

“Are we going to dance all night, or are you going to bite me?” she taunted with a grin.

Luis literally jumped at the chance, but she anticipated his move and crossed the room before he could grab her. He swung around, fangs at the ready and actually hissed like some rabid animal.

“I think you’re getting a little slow there.” She didn’t wait for his response, but raced toward the sliding door. She might not know whose side Doug was on, but she saw no point in leaving him out in the cold all night.

As she reached for the lock, Luis sprang out of nowhere and grabbed her from behind. He wrapped an arm around her front. Then, pressing his forearm under her chin—like she’d done to Millie only days ago—he lifted her feet off the ground.

“Now I’ve got you,” he growled in her ear, his cold breath making her skin crawl.

The toes of her boots skimmed the floor. “But can
you .
 . .  keep me?”

“Of course I can.”

She slammed the back of her head against his. His grip instantly loosened, and she stomped on his left foot with the heel of her boot. Not wasting another moment, she unlocked both the sliding and the screen doors in front of her. Doug rushed inside before Luis removed his hand from his bleeding nose.

She watched him, grinning. They always,
always,
underestimated her as smaller and weaker. It never failed to both amaze and amuse her. It also made taking them down that much sweeter.

“What the hell are
you
doing here?” Luis managed to snarl at Doug while wiping his bleeding nose on his sleeve. “She’s mine. You can’t have her.”

Trina’s stomach dropped at his words. Everything she’d been ignoring suddenly came to the forefront of her brain, and she couldn’t deny it any longer.

Doug was a vampire.

She gave a confused shake of her head. Why hadn’t she recognized what he was right away, instead of having to piece it together like a jigsaw puzzle? It didn’t make any sense.

She could feel Doug’s blue eyes focused on her, but she refused to look at him. Staying focused on Luis, she took her rage and anger with Doug out on him. She slammed one fist into Luis’s face, and the other into his stomach. She then kicked both of his kneecaps so hard they buckled beneath him. He wouldn’t be healing so quickly this time.

“That’ll teach you to play with little girls,” she said as she withdrew the stake from the back of her pants. Instead of stabbing him with it, she hammered the blunt end against his face again and again and again. She hit him so many times that when Doug grabbed her to physically stop her, Luis’s head looked like a squashed watermelon.

“Get off me!” She shrugged Doug’s hands off her, and he didn’t resist.

She stepped toward the downed body of the ancient vampire who’d believed he could defeat her, lifted the wooden stake with both hands, and slammed the spiked end right through his heart, following it down until she collapsed to her knees. He managed a sudden intake of breath before he began to decompose and turn to ash.

Slowly, she stood and stepped away from the bloodied carcass. Soon Luis would become a valuable pile of ash, and she would put it to good use.

“Trina.”

She closed her eyes. It wasn’t the urn who’d said her name, but she felt its demand, too.

“Trina!”

When he touched her shoulder, she spun around. “Don’t. Don’t you ever touch me
again.
”

Doug withdrew his hand and held up his palm. “I’m sorry.”

“Save it. Why do you all have to be the same?” It hurt to look into his eyes, and she was startled to feel the sting of tears. To keep from crying, she bit her bottom lip hard enough to make it bleed.

Doug shook his head, and for a long, silent moment they stood within arm’s length, both breathing a little too heavily and never breaking eye contact. It felt as if they were wordlessly saying so many things to each other, and yet they were saying nothing at all.

When he made a sudden movement toward her, she didn’t take on a defensive stance. She didn’t even push him away when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against his hard body. He was taller than her, which really wasn’t all that strange since most people were.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she should be smacking him. Hell, she should be killing him. Instead, she pressed her face against his shoulder, feeling the warmth of his body. She knew he shouldn’t feel human, nor should he feel or smell so good, but he did.

“Oh, Trina,” Doug whispered into her hair. “He hurt you.”

I’ll survive.
She couldn’t speak the words because her throat burned as much as her eyes.

“Trina, look at me.”

Like an idiot, she tilted her head enough to meet his lovely blue eyes. She should be yelling at him, beating him to a pulp, not responding like a . . . well, like a woman to a man.

“I’m so sorry.” He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, and she felt like an idiot for having blood drying on her face.

Before she got the chance to stop him, his lips met hers. He licked the fresh blood from her bottom lip, and then he kissed her slowly, as if unsure of how she would react. She knew this was wrong. It broke every single rule and belief she’d ever had about vampires, but she let the fingers of her left hand wind around the curls of his hair and kissed him back.

The kiss seemed to last forever. The rhythm of their mouths moved in perfect tandem, hungry for each other in a way she hadn’t expected. She didn’t even shy away when his tongue ventured into her mouth and touched hers. It felt so good, so right, and so pleasurable that, for just one tiny moment, she wondered if she could possibly enter into a relationship with this man.

But that was just wishful thinking because forever wasn’t something she could pursue with him. Not when he’d lied about what he really was. Not when he’d led her on and pretended he was human. And certainly not while the Allure Urn demanded she take him so strongly that even now her head throbbed with the pain of its demand.

What would happen if she just ignored it?
If, for once, she allowed her own reasoning to call the shots?
As soon as the thought entered her mind, the gut-wrenching pain tore through her insides so hard and fast she almost had to break away from the kiss.

I’m never as in control as the urn is.

As if Doug felt her pain, he tightened his hold on her.

With him rooting her to the spot, she lifted her right hand, the one still holding the stake she’d used on Luis, until it was situated behind him. Tears flowed from her eyes as soon as she stabbed him through his shoulder and felt the moment when the sharp point struck his heart.