Crimson Vengeance (13 page)

“You like the cock? You like the way I fuck you?”

“Yes.” She was breathless.

“Tell me what you want.”

Riah groaned, unable to say anything. She pushed back as much as she could.

“Tell me!” Adriana slapped her ass.

“I want it all.”

Adriana grabbed her hips and pulled, moving the cock faster and faster. Her wrists burned with the rub of the restraints. Heat built inside Riah, her nipples tender against the fabric of the bedspread.

She was as wet and hot as she’d ever been, so the cock slipped in and out with ease. She couldn’t take it, couldn’t stand the pressure a moment longer. Her breath seemed to catch in her throat. All of a sudden, everything exploded and she screamed.

W hat am I doing?

Ivy pulled away as her cheeks burned and her heart pounded. “I’m so sorry,” she sputtered.

His gaze was intense, his lips turned up in the slightest smile.

He looked sexy, which sent a brand-new flush up her face.

“Nothing to be sorry for, although I’ve got to say, you surprised the daylights out of me.”

“I surprised myself too.” She didn’t normally kiss strange men—even really good-looking strange men.

He slouched back against the sofa and stretched his legs out.

As he eyed her, he crossed one foot over the other. He didn’t look uncomfortable at all. In fact, he looked just the opposite.

“So what happened?” he asked as casual as if nothing had happened. “My stunning sex appeal? My smoky good looks? What?”

Ivy shifted on the sofa, pulling her legs up beneath her. She ran both hands through her hair and laughed. “No, none of that. It was more…I don’t know, I guess it was that you believed me.”

He raised both eyebrows. “Do you kiss everyone who agrees with you?”

She laughed softly and looked at her hands. “No.”

“Good.”

She snapped her gaze back to his face, and he studied her before saying, “Some people might misconstrue your intentions.”

“Did you?” She wasn’t sure what her intentions were. Only that they weren’t exactly what she’d classify as honorable in the strict sense of the word.

“No.”

Breathing seemed suddenly difficult and her thoughts raced back to that morning. Had she put on a decent pair of underwear?

Colin put his hand on hers once again. It was warm, comforting.

“Something’s here,” he said, validating what swirled around inside her. “But tonight isn’t the time to find out what it is.”

“You feel it too?”

His hand squeezed hers. “Oh, yeah.”

“Thank God.” A weight lifted from Ivy’s shoulders.

“I think it’d be a really good idea if I headed back to Spokane.”

Ivy jumped up. “That’s nuts. It’s late and that’s over an hour’s drive. You might as well stay here and sleep.”

He raised an eyebrow, a slow smile turning up the corners of his mouth. “You want me to stay here and…sleep?”

“Yes,” she said slowly. “Sleep as in head on a pillow, all alone, with your eyes closed and your clothes on.”

“Clothes on. You’re sure?”

She swatted him on the arm. “I’m sure. Come on, the guest room’s down here.”

Ivy was acutely aware of him as he walked behind her down the short hallway. In the tidy spare bedroom, she motioned to the bed. He slid by, not touching her, yet only a breath away. She almost gasped. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all.

“The bathroom is across the hall.” At least she sounded halfway normal.

“Thank you.” His gaze lingered on her face before she turned and nearly ran out.

In her room, Ivy rested her back against the closed door and let out a long breath. What a day. What could tomorrow possibly bring to top this? With a sigh, she pushed away from the door, stripped off her clothes, and crawled into her own bed. She usually slept in the buff and it usually felt great. Perhaps not such a great idea tonight.

After a minute, she got up, put on a nightshirt, then got back into bed. Naked, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to go to sleep with Colin right across the hall. She’d lie there imagining
him
likewise lying beneath the smooth sheets sans clothing. More to the point, imagining what his bare skin might feel like pressed against hers.

“Oh, Lord,” she muttered. “Not fair.”

The phone rang just as Riah and Adriana stepped out of the shower. Riah wrapped a towel around her and sprinted for the bedside table, leaving Adriana to dry off in the bathroom.

“Yes,” she said into the receiver as she watched Adriana stroll dry and naked from the bathroom, rubbing her damp hair with a towel. Her beauty nearly took Riah’s breath away.

For a moment, she was so focused on Adriana, the words coming from the other side of the phone line were an incoherent jumble. Something finally got through the desire fogging her mind.

It was two words: “dead” and “patrolman.”

“Repeat that.” She was no longer looking at Adriana and her body cooled as the import of the caller’s message hit home.

Five minutes later, Riah replaced the phone on the nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed. She closed her eyes and took a couple of long, deep breaths while rubbing her temples with the tips of her fingers. Headaches weren’t solely for the living.

“What’s happened?”

Adriana came up behind and wrapped her arms around Riah’s shoulders. Adriana’s full, warm breasts against her back were soothing and she smelled of mango shampoo. What Riah wouldn’t give to fall back against the pillows and make sweet love again. That would chase the headache far away. Except nothing was sweet right now, and making love wasn’t in the cards.

“A Stater has been murdered.” It didn’t sound any better coming from her lips. It sent a sick feeling deep into the pit of her stomach.

Adriana’s arms tightened around her. “How?”

Riah heard the note in Adriana’s rhetorical question. Death was on the wind heading their way. They all felt it.

What was going on? Vampires killing humans was nothing new.

She’d seen too many deaths like that to count over the years, yet the recent ones were odd. Particularly in the twenty-first century where experts questioned and studied death at the most minute levels.

Hundreds of years ago, leaving a dead body along the road wasn’t as dangerous as it was today. Certainly, people questioned the how and the why, but forensic science hadn’t advanced enough to track the nocturnal killers. Today, the true answers weren’t much easier, though following the evidence back to the killer was.

Most vampires in this century were smart enough to cover their movements and make bodies disappear. Vamps didn’t drop one out in the open—unless they wanted to.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” she finally admitted.

“I don’t either, but if we don’t get a little rest, neither of us will be any good.” Adriana slid off the bed and started out the door.

Riah cocked her head and watched in silence as Adriana disappeared, only to reappear a minute later wrapped in her coat, wearing her shoes, and clutching her bag slung over one shoulder.

“You’re leaving?” After Riah had made the huge step of allowing Adriana into her bedroom, it seemed impossible she’d just get up and leave.

Adriana nodded. “Yup.”

“Why?”

Adriana stepped closer and touched her face with the tips of her fingers. “Because, we both need time and space. You’re fantastic, Riah, and the kind of lover I only dreamed of. But I’m not stupid.

Expecting you to love me in return is wishful thinking.”

“Did I do something? Say something?”

The smile touching Adriana’s lips was a little sad. “No, you didn’t have to.”

Riah’s eyes narrowed. “Meaning?”

Adriana waved a hand toward the painting over the fireplace.

“This is a special place for you. I’d have to be blind not to see it and I can sure feel it. Why you allowed me in, I don’t know, and I’m not sure even you do. But you’re not ready for anything more, and I don’t intend to push.”

“You don’t have to go.” She wasn’t being polite, she really meant it. Everything Adriana said was true and, no, she didn’t understand why she’d decided tonight was the night. All that aside, she didn’t want Adriana to leave.

Adriana walked back to the door, her hand on the knob. “Yes, Riah, I do. I’ll come by the office later.”

Riah heard the front door open and close, then the faint sound of Adriana’s car as she drove into the night. Adriana wasn’t wrong about anything. This room was more than her bedroom; it was a shrine to a love many centuries in the past. She adored it, the color and texture of the room. The smell of the fabrics and the flowers.

In every place she’d lived over the last five centuries, her bedroom remained essentially the same. The furniture, the bedding, the portrait—all were the same. It was comfortable and soothing.

Now, as she lay in the silence of the empty room, she wondered if perhaps the time had finally come to move on.

Colin lay in the darkness, his mind spinning. It was hard to gauge the progress of this hunt. It shouldn’t be much different from any other hunt, yet it was. If only he could figure it out.

He already knew a couple of reasons why. One was Ivy, and the other a little more complex. This was the first time he’d run up against lay people who knew about vampires, who might be trying to do the same thing he was.

If most people were really honest, they’d admit they were aware of the preternatural creatures that lived among them. But the majority didn’t want to accept that level of awareness. Instead, they left it to those like him to clear the path and keep their world orderly. He was okay with that. He didn’t need to be called a hero, didn’t need the gratitude of the strangers he kept safe. He just went out and did his job.

In the past, he’d done the job alone. The slayers lived and worked in solitude. It was the nature of the mission. Now, things had shifted and he hadn’t quite adjusted. Of course, it was hard to adjust to something with an element of the unknown. He just had to keep his mind and eyes open, and his senses alert. The answer was out there and he’d find it one way or the other.

At the muted sounds of his cell phone, Colin jumped. For a moment, he was confused as he tried to remember where he’d left it.

In the inky darkness, he fumbled around until he found his discarded jeans. He stuffed his hand in the pocket and pulled out the compact phone.

The number that glowed from the front display was familiar.

“Yeah.”

“I have news for you.”

Colin was instantly awake, a feather-light chill racing up his arms. “Tell me, Monsignor.”

It didn’t occur to him until this moment that Monsignor had promised to call him yesterday. The monsignor always kept his word. So, why hadn’t he called earlier? Couldn’t be good.

“Your mystery woman is still a bit of a mystery.”

Why bother to call if he had nothing to share, unless… “I feel there’s a
but
coming?”

“But, I have a feeling,” Monsignor said.

Colin stood, the phone pressed to his ear, and moved to the door.

He peered out. The house was dark and quiet. Ivy must be asleep in her room. He hoped. As he walked to the window, he smacked his little toe on a chair he didn’t notice in the dark. It hurt like the devil and he sucked in a breath to keep from yelping. Probably broke the damn thing.

After the pain receded a little and he was able to breathe once more, he said, “Tell me.”

Colin opened the blinds. It was as smoky dark and quiet outside as in. The tall red-maple trees swayed as a light breeze blew silently through the night, causing shadows to dance on the ground. High in the sky, a filmy white cloud cover partially obscured the moon. No dogs barked, no cats ran. Nothing moved in the shadows.

“Your Dr. Preston seems to have appeared out of nowhere about fifty years ago.” The sound of shuffling papers came over the line.

At Monsignor’s words, Riah’s face flashed in his mind. So pretty, so young, her dark-hazel eyes alive with fire. “She doesn’t look like she could be more than about twenty-five, let alone fifty.”

Which really didn’t mean squat when talking about a vampire.

“Hear me out, son. I said she popped up about fifty years ago.

From all we can find, she’s been a vampire at least that long.”

At least?
“How much older?” If he were to guess, based on attitude alone, he’d put her way more than fifty. A hundred maybe?

Or even a hundred and fifty.

“My educated guess—five hundred years, give or take.”

Colin’s breath caught. “If that’s true…”

“I trust you’re following me.”

“Yes.” At about a hundred miles an hour.

“Too many timing coincidences. Our records have suspicious appearances and disappearances by a woman whose description matches your medical examiner. It could be more than one, but I don’t believe so.”

All the puzzle pieces clicked into place. “Catherine Tudor?”

Monsignor didn’t pause for even a second. “That’s what I believe, yes.”

It was too good to be true. Both the vampires he sought in one place? Destiny was almost in his crosshairs and he’d take her down soon. But Tudor? Though she was on his mind, as yet, she hadn’t even been on the radar. Sure, he’d imagined the moment he’d come face-to-face with her. He’d even imagined how he’d end her reign of terror. He’d just never imagined that he’d like her.

A sound in the hallway made him start. “I’ll need to call you back.”

He would have slipped the phone back in a pocket, except he wasn’t wearing any pants or underwear either since he usually went commando. He didn’t have time to dive for the bedcovers when, after a quick knock on the door, Ivy pushed it open. The light from the hallway spilled into the room, placing his naked body square in the middle of a golden slice of light.

Spokane was large enough, though it seemed subdued compared to other places she’d been. Too quiet for her tastes. Destiny liked places that popped, where people cruised all hours of the day and night. Where drinks flowed and laughter boomed. All the better for hunting.

Here, it was as if the streets rolled up at the first sign of darkness.