Amaury's Hellion (15 page)

She was exactly what he needed. With her blunt human teeth she’d bitten his nipples, and in that instant he’d hoped she would draw blood. He’d ached for her to bite him again when she’d worked her way up his body. Quite deliberately he had presented his neck to her, hoping, wanting, and baiting her to drink his blood. It was foolish. He’d never allowed any of his vampire lovers to bite him, never offered his blood to a human, but her tentative bite had awakened a desire in him he couldn’t quite explain, yet wanted to explore.

Wait until I find you.

But until then, he would have to figure out a way of getting out of his current predicament. Breaking the chain was not an option, even though it was not very thick. The fact it was made of silver made it impossible for him to do any damage to it. Every time he yanked on it, it only dug deeper into his flesh.

“Fuck!” Amaury cursed, feeling the pain more intensely now that Nina was gone and he had nobody but himself to focus on.

Amaury looked around his bedroom for anything he could use to rid himself of his chains. He shook his head. How could he have completely lost it and not have noticed her taking the chain and tying him up? No woman had ever gotten him into such a state that he’d completely lost all his senses.

In the last decades, he’d rarely had sex for the sake of sex. The only reason he’d had sex was to get relief from the pain in his head. But when Nina had started seducing him, all he had thought about was feeling her and enjoying her. Not because he had to have sex, but because he wanted to. And that hadn’t happened in ages.

With the silver eating away at his wrists, he couldn’t just lie here and wait until one of his friends came looking for him. There was no time to waste, or the healing process would take days, not hours. Besides, his hard-on wasn’t coming down by itself, especially since her scent still lingered in the bedroom. He needed to get out and start looking for her.

Amaury glanced at the phone which sat on the bedside table. It was several feet outside the reach of his hands. He tried to shift closer, but the chain would only go so far. The more the silver damaged his wrists and dissolved his skin, the more he started cursing her.

Wait until I get my hands on you,
chérie
.

And why was he still using the French word for sweetheart? He shook his head at his own stupidity and set his mind to the task at hand.

Twisting his body sideways, he stretched both his legs toward the cordless phone. If he pulled a muscle because of it, he would make her massage it with her tongue, he promised himself.

The image only intensified his erection which seemed to grow thicker by the minute.

With renewed determination, he grasped the receiver between his feet and pulled it onto the bed. His toes were too big to dial individual numbers, but if he could press redial, he would reach one of his friends. He wasn’t sure which one, but at least somebody would come to help him.

His big toe hit the button, and his sensitive hearing picked up the ringing sound. Even though he couldn’t put the call on speaker, it would be sufficient for him to communicate.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Great. Thomas? Really?

Somebody was having a joke at Amaury’s expense.

Thirteen

It was just Amaury’s luck that he was tied up in bed with a hard-on that could knock out a charging bull and had to ask his only gay friend to come and untie him. Perfect.

“Amaury?” Thomas’ voice came through the receiver again.

He swallowed before he spoke. “Thomas. I need your help.”

“Sure, what do you need?”

Amaury frowned. “I’m kind of tied up here. Would you mind coming over and helping me out of this jam?”

“What jam?”

“I’m tied up.” He tightened his jaw and closed his eyes in an attempt to breathe through the pain.

“Yeah, you said. But what jam?”

If this ever got out, Amaury would be the laughing stock in the vampire world.

“That’s the jam. I’m tied up.”

There was silence on the other end, then a stifled laugh. “Oh, I’ve got to see this. Be there in twenty minutes.”

The click in the line confirmed Thomas had hung up. Amaury could imagine the grin on his friend’s face right now. He looked at the clock. It was just past four in the morning.

Thomas was true to his word. Twenty minutes later Amaury heard the key turn in the lock and his friend enter with his heavy biker boots. For safety reasons they all had spare keys to each other’s homes.

Without much luck Amaury tried to cover himself with the tangled sheets, but they were twisted underneath him and didn’t reach to his midsection. He cursed under his breath. A moment later his friend, clad in his customary leathers, came through the door and perused him in all his naked glory.

“Now that’s a sight I haven’t had the pleasure to—”

Amaury shot him an annoyed look. It was embarrassing to be checked out by a gay guy, even if he was one of his friends. “Don’t even think about it.”

“No wonder the ladies are always after you.” Thomas clearly examined his erection.

Amaury rattled at the chain, trying to divert his attention. “Do you mind?” he pressed out through clenched teeth.

Thomas stepped closer and pulled his biker gloves from his leather jacket. “I knew you were into kinky shit, but silver?” He
tsk
ed as he slipped into the black gloves.

“This wasn’t of my own choosing.”

“Pray, tell.” His friend laughed.

“I don’t kiss and tell.” Amaury pressed his lips together into a thin line. “Are you gonna free me or did you come to stare?”

“I thought I’d just stare until you tell me how you got into this. I have time. It’s been a slow night. Besides, I’m bored.”

Thomas clearly enjoyed himself at his expense. His friend sat on the edge of the bed, and Amaury instantly moved in the opposite direction.

“Cover me up with the sheet, and maybe I’ll tell you what happened.”

“Maybe isn’t gonna get you anything. Hurts, huh?”

“The sheet,” Amaury insisted tersely.

“Which portion do you want covered?” Thomas grinned from one ear to the other.

Amaury graced him with a sour look, before Thomas finally complied and reached for the tangled sheet.

“And I don’t want your hands coming anywhere near my dick.”

“How about my mouth?”

“Thomas!”

“Just joking. You should see your face. Go on then, spill.” Thomas placed the bedsheet over Amaury’s lower body. “Which of your vamp ladies played this little prank on you? She must have been good, given the boner you’re still sporting.”

Amaury cringed. “You don’t know her.”

“I know every single vampire female in this town, not as intimately as you do, of course, but nevertheless I do know each one.”

“You don’t know her.”

Thomas took hold of the sheet at if to pull it off Amaury again.

“Keep that right there,” Amaury warned and motioned to the sheet Thomas used for his blackmail.

“New in town?”

Another tug at the bedsheet. Amaury shook his head, then he looked his friend right in the eye. “She’s not a vampire.”

Thomas let go of the bed linen.

“Not a …? Oh, Amaury, what the hell are you doing? A human? You let yourself be tied up by a
human
? Are you crazy?”

Probably
.

“Listen. It happened. I survived it. It’s over.” The less he made it sound like a big deal in front of his friend the better. “Now get that chain off me.”

Thomas held up his hand. “Hold on. Not so fast. Did you wipe her memory before she left?”

“Didn’t get a chance.” Truth be told, he hadn’t even thought of it, that’s how drugged with desire he’d been. And besides, he suspected it wouldn’t have worked. Somehow Nina had been able to resist his mind control. He’d never met a human who was immune to it. This fact intrigued him even more. Why was Nina so different?

“Do I need to remind you about the—”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m not deaf. First Samson, then Gabriel, now you. I know the rules. This is different.”

His friend raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“She knows who we are. She knew even before I met her.”

“What?” Disbelief and panic rolled off Thomas in spades.

“Okay, but this will stay between you and me. I’ll take care of this, but the others can’t find out. Are you with me?”

Their stares locked until Thomas finally nodded.

“She’s Edmund’s sister. The bodyguard who killed a client last month,” Amaury explained.

“Ah, shit!” Thomas jumped up.

“Exactly. She’s been snooping around. Thinks that Edmund couldn’t have done this, that he was coerced or something. Somehow she figured out what we are, and she’s blaming us. She wants revenge.”

How she’d figured them out, Amaury didn’t know yet. Frankly, he hadn’t even tried to question her, so obsessed had he been with getting her into bed.

“Shit, she could have killed you. Why didn’t she?”

Amaury could venture a guess. After all, the way she’d sucked his cock told him she wasn’t entirely unaffected by their encounter.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Thomas sounded skeptical and ventured another look at the spot where Amaury’s erection was tenting the sheet.

“Fine. There’s something going on between us, but it’s purely sexual.”

Who was he kidding? Whatever was between him and Nina went deeper than sex. Had it been merely sex, he would have fucked her in an alley and wiped her memory posthaste. That was the drill with all other women. Which reminded him: he hadn’t touched another woman since he’d met Nina.

“Amaury, you’re so full of crap.” He shook his head. “We’d better find her before she causes even more chaos.” Thomas used his gloved hands to loosen the silver chain and untied him.

Amaury stared at his injured wrists. They looked like a dog had chewed on them, the angry red flesh bleeding and only partially covered by skin.

“Fuck!”

“Serves you right.” Thomas’ reprimand stung even more than the effect of the silver.

“Help me find her, and I’ll take care of it. It shouldn’t be so hard. Log into the background checks. I’m sure Edmund’s file has something on her.”

Thomas pointed toward his injuries. “You’ll need blood.” He pulled out a flask from the inside pocket of his leather jacket and handed it to him.

Amaury hesitated, but took it. After the fiasco with Mrs. Reid he wasn’t prepared to put anybody else at risk. The guilt still gnawed at him. And his friend was right: he needed blood to heal.

He took several gulps and handed him back the empty flask. “Thanks. Let me get dressed. My computer is on. Can you start on it?”

“By the way, why didn’t you just break the wrought-iron bar to break free?” Thomas tilted his head to the bed.

Amaury followed his look and frowned. The headboard of his bed was an intricately woven iron tapestry. With his vampire strength it would have been possible to break it—not easy, but definitely doable. “It’s an antique. I bought it only a month ago.” There was no need destroying perfectly good furniture.

Thomas shook his head and headed for the door.

Amaury grabbed his clothes from where Nina had dropped them on the floor. Within seconds he was dressed. In hindsight, he was glad Thomas was the one who’d released him. At least he wasn’t as much of a stickler for rules as Ricky or Gabriel. And Samson would have really let him have it. He didn’t even want to think of Zane’s reaction.

By the time he entered the alcove in the living room which housed his little home office, Thomas had already pulled up Edmund’s background check.

“Here, next of kin. Nina Martens. Is that her?” His friend looked up from the computer.

“Yes, that’s her name. What’s her address?”

“None. Just a phone number. Local.”

“Can you find out where it’s registered?”

Thomas pulled up another window and started typing. Minutes passed. Amaury paced behind his friend.

“Would you stop that? It’s making me nervous.”

Amaury halted in midstride. “What’s taking so long?”

“Hmm.” Another minute passed. “Damn.”

“What?”

“It’s a cell phone. Registered address is a post box.”

“Try the DMV. She must have a driver’s license,” Amaury suggested. He had to find her, no matter what.

Another screen popped open. Amaury watched as his IT genius of a friend hacked into the system.

“Here we are. Welcome to the Department of Motor Vehicles.” Thomas grinned broadly. He was in his element. Unfortunately, minutes later he had to concede defeat.

“She doesn’t have a driver’s license, at least not in California.”

“What? How can that be?”

Thomas shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, she doesn’t live in LA where she’d have to drive to get around. San Francisco has public transportation.”

“What now?” Amaury frowned. He couldn’t give up.

“I can try to triangulate her cell phone, but I can’t do that from here. I need my equipment from home.” He looked at his wristwatch. “It’s getting late. Tell you what. I’ll drive home, try to find out where her cell phone is and give you an approximate area. You think you can work with that?”

Amaury nodded. “If you send me within a couple of blocks of where she is, I’ll find her.” With her blood still in his veins from the night before he would have no problem picking up on her scent if she was close.

Thomas tossed a glance at Amaury’s midsection. “And do something about that boner, will you? It’s downright distracting.”

Before Amaury could hit him over the head, his friend was gone.

By the time Thomas called him from his home, it was close to sunrise. And his friend had bad news.

“Her cell phone is either out of range or switched off.”

Amaury cursed under his breath.

“I’ll try again later. You can’t go out now anyway. We’ll have to wait till tonight. You’d better spend your time sleeping so your wrists can heal.”

Like Amaury needed a nurse. But there was no need pissing Thomas off with the comment currently sitting on his lips. “Fine. Call me as soon as you know where she is.”