Bit the Jackpot (6 page)

Seamus wondered yet again what Ethan saw in Alexis. To each his own, obviously, because Alexis grated on his nerves. In fact, most women annoyed him in some capacity or another. That was why he was celibate and a workaholic instead of a married vampire being nagged between sessions of sex.

Neither was a perfect existence, but listening to Alexis, he decided he'd made the right choice. He may be sexually frustrated, but at least he had peace.

"I'm leaving." He went for the balcony, knowing it was quicker to just jump down to his car than to take the elevator.

"Great. Take your time. No need to worry. Your new girlfriend and I will have fun getting to know each other. We can do each other's makeup and talk about faking orgasms. Complain about men, that sort of thing."

"Great. Thank you," he said, forcing himself to sound nonchalant. She was not going to get him angry. He refused. Instead of arguing with her, he opened the door and shot off the balcony, nervous energy pumping through his body.

What the hell had he done?

And how was he going to corral two Labs and a Chihuahua? He had raised hounds in the eighteenth century, but that had been in England, on Ethan's expansive estate with a multitude of servants and a stable.

What in hell was he supposed to do with animals in a Vegas casino?

Which was why he detoured to an all-night discount superstore and headed for the pet supply aisle.

The minute Seamus left the balcony, Alexis called her husband on his cell phone, watching the bathroom door to make sure Cara didn't come out.

"I'm in the middle of something, beautiful," Ethan said without a hello.

"So am I. Seamus has me baby-sitting his stripper while he goes to get her dogs for her. Her dogs, Ethan. Do this sound like your campaign manager to you? He hasn't even checked the polls once all night." It was starting to freak Alexis out. She could set her clock by Seamus's annoying political hourly updates. "And where is Kelsey?"

Before Alexis had married Ethan, she had been stabbed by a vampire, the same one who had attacked Kelsey. As a result, Alexis felt a certain affinity for Kelsey, since Ethan and Seamus had given them both life back on the same night. Granted, Kelsey had already been a vampire, but she had been drained of all her blood, and would have died, a vampire starvation, had Seamus not given her a significant amount of his blood. When Alexis had stumbled upon Kelsey's body that night, the vampire had still been there, and he stabbed her. Alexis would have died if Ethan hadn't turned her, and she was now worried that maybe there was more to their dual attacks than any of them had realized.

"I found Kelsey. She's at home, in her apartment. She appears to be fine, though quiet, which is odd for her. She doesn't remember getting home either."

"That's weird." Okay, so Kelsey was a little weird. And a ditz. But even she should be able to recall the trip from the strip club alley to her apartment.

The whole thing made Alexis uncomfortable. "Ethan, will you stop by and check on my sister?"

"Brittany? Why? Has she called you? It's almost four in the morning. Isn't she asleep?"

Alexis certainly hoped so. But she worried about her sister, who was the product of their mother's affair with a vampire. Seamus was determined to uncover his identity, and had considered Aunt Jodi a possible lead. Brittany had vampire blood, but no powers, and was trusting to an extreme. Alexis had made worrying for her practically a full-time job. "She hasn't called, but I don't know… this whole thing is making me nervous. And Brittany's been depressed since she had sex with Corbin and he disappeared like five minutes later."

"I still can't believe she slept with the Frenchman, arguably the most controversial vampire in the entire Vampire Nation."

That irritated Alexis. "Well, it's not like she knew! He didn't tell her he was a banished research scientist vampire, setting off un-dead debates about the ethics of immortality with his search for a 'cure' to vampirism. I guess that didn't pop up first thing, though I can't imagine why not. Please. You people walk around and act like you're normal, and the next thing we know, we're in bed with a vampire."

"Are you in bed with a vampire? Right now?" Ethan's voice got hard, jealous, violent like the warrior he'd been in his youth.

Please
. Alexis often marveled that even though he was nine hundred years old, Ethan could still act like he was a twenty-year-old frat boy in a bar brawl.

"Yes. So go check on my sister and hurry home so you can watch."

"Alexis…" he growled.

She made a kissy sound into the phone and said, "Love you," before hanging up on him.

That would light a fire under his ass.

"I need a cage and a leash for my girlfriend," Seamus told the store clerk, startled as hell when the word
girlfriend
just popped out of his mouth. He was attracted to Cara, he felt extremely guilty for the way the night had played out, but
girlfriend
was taking it too far, even if it was just easier to call her that than explain his whole life story to a stranger.

"Yeah, don't we all," the twenty-year-old clerk said, a grin splitting his wan face.

Huh? Seamus looked at the guy blankly for a second before realizing what exactly he'd said. "I mean for her dogs."

"Right." The guy's finger came out and he made a sound with his teeth. "Probably better to use handcuffs on the girlfriend anyway."

Seamus ignored that and pointed to a cage in front of him. "Is this big enough for a Lab, you think?"

The clerk scratched his chin, stroking his little fuzzy beard. "How long of a trip?"

"Just ten minutes. My girlfriend, she got hit by a car." Always go with the truth when you can. "And she's going to be moving in with me for a while until she's better. But she's insisting the pets come, too, and man, I'm just not sure this is such a good idea. Two Labs, a Chihuahua, and two cats."

He whistled. "Whoa. Major animal lover. But that's not really the problem, is it? I can tell. You're a little worried about the whole cohabitation thing, aren't you?"

Yes, he was. Terrified. "Well, you know, this is a big deal. It's a lot of responsibility, and we're going to be together all the time, and I'm used to my privacy…"

Seamus was whining to the store clerk. The night was officially complete.

"I hear ya. Nothing changes a relationship like living together. It's just one step away from walking down the aisle and that can be a little scary."

"Exactly." He was already responsible for Kelsey. For Ethan's presidential campaign. For finding Brittany's father. Now he was responsible for keeping Cara by his side until she was ready to live on her own. And Cara came with pets and an incredibly hot body. Together it was an overwhelming package.

"Are you in love with her?"

"No." He had been in love only once, with Marie, and look at how that had turned out. Subconsciously, he touched the scar on his neck. He could admit to some lust for Cara, but he wasn't taking the love train again.

"Then you're crazy letting all those damn dogs into your place."

He was starting to think he
had
lost his mind. Along with his common sense, his edge, and his rationale.

Not to mention the two hundred and thirty-two dollars he was spending on pet supplies.

Cara toweled herself dry, amazed at how every move felt sharper, crisper, like she had spent the first twenty-eight years of her life moving through mud and now she was free. Everything shifted faster, caught in her fingers quicker, and she felt vibrant, healthy, strong. That was interesting, appealing even.

But then there was the anger and embarrassment. Seamus Fox had wrecked her life. Flirted with her, tried to vampire mind control her, gotten her killed, and told her she had to stay with him, a virtual prisoner, until he said otherwise. And how had she reacted? By having an orgasm while humping his thigh.

She wanted to die.

Except she was dead already.

This was why she was still a virgin. Because sex was a way for men to control women. Keep them barefoot and pregnant and under their thumb. She wasn't going to buy into that. No matter how good it had felt.

And it had felt good.

Cara shivered as her body warmed in memory. She took the towel and wiped the steam off the mirror. Then screamed at the top of her lungs. She dropped the towel—which had been dangling in the air in the mirror with no hand attached to it—and backed up.

She had no reflection in the mirror. She really was dead. She really was a bloodsucking vampire. And she liked it. She'd had an orgasm while sucking blood. Her life as she knew it was totally over. How could she ever explain this to her grandmother?

There was a knock at the door. "Are you okay?"

It was a woman. "Yes." No. Cara grabbed her panties and slipped them on. "Umm… who are you? Where's Seamus?" So she could beat the crap out of him for ruining her life.

"I'm Alexis, Ethan's wife. Seamus went to get your dogs, but he thought it would be better if you weren't alone."

So he could keep her prisoner. "Are you a vampire, too?" Cara grabbed her pants and dragged them on, trying to ignore the blood crusted above the knee.

"Yes. I'm three months young." Alexis had a firm, no-nonsense voice that Cara appreciated even as she was feeling a bit hysterical.

"Cara, do you need some new clothes? Yours looked like they should be tossed in the trash."

Needing to see another vampire besides Seamus and the two loser thugs in the alley, Cara wrapped the bath towel around her chest and opened the door. "Thanks for the offer," she said to the petite woman with blond hair standing in front of her wearing sweatpants. Alexis looked so completely normal that Cara relaxed a little. "I could use a T-shirt."

"I thought so." Alexis held out a dark green shirt. "I tried to tell Seamus, but he swore he had it under control, then of course, he completely forgot, didn't he?" She shook her head. "He has tunnel vision—focuses on one thing and ignores everything else. And usually the tunnel vision is something he wants, you know what I mean?"

"No." Cara took the shirt and bunched it against her chest. "I don't know Seamus at all. I just met him tonight." And her entire future rested in his controlling, tunnel vision, firm, vampire hands.

She hated him at the same time she wanted him.

"Why don't you finish getting dressed and then come out into the living room? You can ask me anything you want about becoming a vampire. It's not so bad, really. It has some definite perks."

Cara had experienced one already. One she was going to have to resist in the future if she wanted to retain any sort of dignity whatsoever.

"I just want to know where I am and how I can get home."

Alexis rocked back on her heels. "Well… you're at the Ava, the casino and hotel owned by my husband. You're in Seamus's apartment. Ethan and I live down the hall, and there are approximately six vampire bodyguards living in between us and the elevator. Ethan is president of the Vampire Nation and Seamus is his campaign manager. We're six weeks out from the election and… sweetie?" Alexis shot her a look of sympathy.

"Yes?" Cara asked, heart pounding. Vampire elections? What the hell was that?

"Seamus doesn't want you to leave. Which means you'll have to get past him and the six bodyguards. A couple of them aren't the swiftest undead guys I've ever met, but pulling the wool over all six at once might be tough."

"So I'm a prisoner? Indefinitely?" She'd go insane. She didn't like being idle, she didn't like being told what to do, she didn't like her whole world turning upside down and being tossed out like yesterday's garbage.

"Give yourself a day or two to adjust to the change," Alexis said. "Then if the look on Seamus's face when he brought you in here is any indication, you could have him eating out of your hand in a week if you want to."

What she wanted him eating out of and what she wanted intellectually were two different things. Cara tightened the grip on her towel. "I'd rather beat the crap out of him."

"That could be fun, too."

"Okay, listen." Seamus got down on his hands and knees for the ninth time and peered under Cara's leather couch. Two pairs of cat eyes stared back at him. "I'm taking you to Cara. I swear. Vampire honor. But I can't do that if you don't come out."

All his encouraging pep talk earned him was a defiant hiss from the one on the left and a disdainful sneer from the one on the right. "This is ridiculous." Seamus stood up and picked up one end of the couch and flipped it right up on it's side. "What do you think of that, boys? No hiding place left."

He reached down for the orange tabby as the black one shot between his legs and tripped him. He slammed his shoulder into the couch he had just stood up and his hip knocked the undersprings, rocking the whole thing precariously. He grabbed at the orange cat again, out of balance, out of breath, and pissed off. He'd been playing this game for twenty minutes. He was a four-hundred-year-old vampire, with exceptional hearing, speed, and strength. Yet these cats were besting him because he was afraid to hurt them, and the whole thing was definitely getting old.

A fistful of fur and fat in his hand, he tried to drag the cat back toward him, but it bit his hand and wiggled away, leaping onto an end table and knocking Cara's glass-base lamp off.

"Shit." The lamp broke, spraying shards of glass all over the hardwood floor, and the two Labradors started barking loudly in the kitchen, where they were cowering away from him. The Chihuahua snarled and ran in hysterical laps back and forth on the dining room table, where Seamus had set it until he could figure out what to do with it. It couldn't get down off the high table with its short legs, but it was howling like an Irish banshee.

Seamus pulled himself back to full height, only to turn and find the black cat standing on the arm of the couch, four feet in the air. He reached out for it, and it bit him on the nose.

"Bastard!" That stung. Seamus blinked hard and abandoned the cat project.

He opened the door of the largest crate in preparation and went for the black Labs. They had the good sense to be afraid of him. They must have sensed his vampire blood, because they cowered and snarled and backed away a step for each he took in their direction. Seamus leaned over, stared into the one's eyes with all his concentration, and told him, "Get in the crate."