Deep Desire: The Deep Series, Book 1 (9 page)

This was something entirely new. Someone entirely different.

This was the devil Adin
didn’t
know.

Boaz dropped Adin off at the Kabuki, where he retreated immediately into his room. He showered quickly and slipped into the luxurious robe, which was large enough to drown him in its silk and terry opulence. He poured a Bushmills and looked out the window at the street below.

The week before, even the day before, this city seemed as familiar to him as an old pair of running shoes. Warm, recognizable and broken in to the shape of his foot, molded for his comfort. Now it was as if those same comfortable shoes had taken off running down the street by themselves.

What was out there in this city, arguably his hometown, that he never knew existed? How ignorant did he yet remain? Was there more lurking unnoticed in the alleys and side streets than vampires?

As Adin watched the street below, a man came around the corner. He was wearing a dark suit. He walked at a brisk pace, like a million other businessmen in the city at twilight. But when he was exactly across the street from Adin he stopped, looked up directly at Adin’s window, and smiled.

With shaking hands, Adin shut the shoji screens. It wasn’t the same man, but as he had with the others, Adin sensed the threat. The man from the liquor store, the man from Chinatown, and the man outside only moments before gave him some indefinable chill.

Like Donte.

Adin sat quietly on the velvet chaise longue, neither noticing nor caring that the light was fading, until he was left in almost-complete darkness.

A knock concussed the silence. Adin tied his robe tighter around him and answered it. Boaz stood there, a brown paper shopping bag in one hand and a bottle in the other.

“Dinner, sir—” he smiled “—compliments of your friend Edward.”

“Thank you.” Adin waved Boaz inside. “Come in, unless you have something else to do. You could join me.”

“Thank you, sir, that’s very kind of you.” Boaz placed the food on the low glass cocktail table. “But I’m afraid I can’t. You did say you wouldn’t require me this evening, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I’m not going out.”

“Very good, then. I’ll open the wine for you, if you like.” Boaz pulled a Swiss Army knife out of his jacket pocket.

“Thank you,” said Adin. “This is really the royal treatment.”

Boaz remained distantly polite. “I find having a wine opener useful, as no one can fly with one anymore.”

“I see. That’s good thinking.”

“I believe you’ll find I’m rather useful in lots of ways.” Boaz gave him an enigmatic smile and then started pulling out the food Edward sent. “Edward believed you might enjoy some seafood.”

“Did he?” Adin lifted the Styrofoam lid to uncover some sort of fish with a citrus glaze and vegetables. “Oh, yeah. He might have been right.”

“And sir?” Boaz frowned as he was about to open the door to leave. “Don’t hesitate to call me, even if…”

“Even if what?”

“Even if a request sounds crazy.”

Adin didn’t answer for a long time. He wondered what Boaz would say about the dark turn his life had taken.

“All right, I will.” He dismissed Boaz, and the frightening thought, for the night. “I’ll call if I need you.”

“Very good, sir.”

After Boaz left, Adin decided his formality must be as much a tease as it was the professional demeanor he presented to the world. Edward was right: Adin liked having a Boaz.

Much later that night, Adin tossed warmly in the extravagant bedding, listening to the music in his blood. This wasn’t Donte’s song; it didn’t speak to him of sun-warmed earth and sex. Of skin that smelled like herbs. It didn’t feel like Donte, like swimming naked in the Mediterranean amid a thousand silvery fish. The bloodsong this night was dark and angry and reeked of death. Several times, Adin woke, only to turn back over, disoriented, to sink into that dream-filled sleep again.

Adin woke at nine a.m. with a headache and dry mouth. He pulled on his robe and left the room to get coffee from the continental breakfast buffet. He smiled pleasantly at the maids as he left his room; they were just exiting the room next to his. Finding a newspaper to read while he sipped his coffee, he gave them time to do their work. Several of the hotel’s guests came and went, some chatting amiably, some quiet, until he finished his paper and a third cup of coffee. Adin hoped he didn’t look as bad as he felt. He folded the paper up under his arm and walked back to his room. He used his key card to enter and tossed the paper down on the desk.

It came as a terrible surprise when a hand snaked out from behind him and grabbed him by the neck.

Chapter Seven

Someone slammed Adin against the wall like a rag and held him there, his breath cut off by an arm across his throat.

“Where is it?” Someone asked through the little black spots dancing before his eyes. His attacker must have realized that he couldn’t speak, because the pressure on his neck was loosened slightly.

“Where is what?” croaked Adin, stunned.

“The manuscript.
Notturno.
What have you done with it?”

“Whoa,” Adin said, finally getting enough leverage to shove back a little. “You’re too late. It was stolen from me in Los Angeles.”

That hard hand slammed him back. “You lie!”

“The hell I do,” Adin snapped. “It’s gone. Somebody stole it.”

Adin was released as his attacker ran his hands through his dirty hair. “Oh shit,” the man muttered. Adin began to move, but instantly he was sorry. The man lashed out, punching him hard in the gut. Adin doubled over as the man began to pace.

Adin’s attacker grabbed hair and pulled it hard, yanking him to standing again, his face inches away. “You’d better not be fucking with me. Give. It. To. Me.”

To punctuate his words he gave Adin’s hair a vicious tug and slammed his head against the wall. The odor of coffee and something else, something rank like wet dog, came off the man. Adin winced. His hair was probably coming out in patches.

“It was stolen from my hotel room in Los Angeles,” he said again. “There’s a police report. Check if you don’t believe me.”

They hung there, suspended in time. Adin’s assailant shifted on his feet. Without a doubt the man meant to kill him. Hands wrapped around his throat, squeezing hard enough to bruise. Something desperate inside Adin came to life, and he grabbed the metal lamp on the hotel desk and swung it in a huge arc, using every ounce of strength he possessed. It crashed down on his attacker, who barely seemed fazed by the blow. The man hurled them both to the floor. There was a sound, something low and angry, a rumbling growl that didn’t sound human. For his part, Adin couldn’t speak, couldn’t make any noise at all, save a kind of mewling as he struggled to remain conscious.

Unexpectedly the terrible weight was gone. Adin blinked back tears. Boaz was pulling the bastard away, shouting something that sounded like “eyes” even as he shoved Adin away with his foot. With a
pop
, light so bright it blinded Adin filled the room. Things crashed and fell and roared, and when at last he could see again, his vision filled with floating black spots that obscured everything around him.

Boaz knelt over his attacker, who lay on the floor with a thick wooden stick protruding from his chest. Adin blinked his eyes rapidly to regain his sight. The contents of his stomach roiled, threatening to disgorge.

The man who’d jumped him dissolved into powdery grit on the richly carpeted hotel floor.

Boaz shook his head, disgusted. “Damn vampires. Are you all right, sir?”

Adin couldn’t reply; he just lay there, dazed.

“Sir? Sir, can you hear me?” Boaz leaned over him, rubbing circles in his hand.

“You…”

“You’ve had a terrible shock, sir.” Boaz helped Adin to sit upright. “Let me get you some water.” The little man left him sitting there, still dazed. When Boaz returned with a glass, Adin drank from it. He touched his sore throat gingerly. That was going to leave marks.

“How the hell did you get in here?”

Boaz shifted guilty, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I took the liberty of removing your spare key card from the little envelope on the desk last night. When I brought you your meal.”

“But…why?” Adin’s head hurt, and nothing since he’d woken up made any sense.

Boaz looked to where the vampire had been lying and shrugged.

“
Crap,
” muttered Adin.

“One good thing is no corpses,” Boaz said brightly. “You gotta love killing a vampire. Hardly any cleanup at all.”

There was nothing left but some granules of sandy dust. Adin shook his head. It didn’t bear thinking about for the moment. “Am I the only one on the planet who never knew they existed?”

The question was probably rhetorical.

“Oh no, sir,” said Boaz. “Most people never know. You don’t live to be five hundred years old like Donte by being high profile. Maybe one out of a thousand people ever find out…and most of them learn the hard way, if you know what I mean. Not just as a snack, which can be pleasant. Well, I’m sure you know. But as a
prix fixe
meal, if you get my meaning.”

Adin digested this. “Wait, you said Donte! Do you know—”

“Sir, please don’t get so overwrought. It would be best if you would lie down on the bed, don’t you think?”

“Oh, all right.” Adin allowed himself to be pulled up from the floor. Once he was comfortable on the bed, he asked, “But how did
he
get in here? I know Donte couldn’t come into my room unless I invited him.”

“Ah.” Boaz looked around. “Probably the maids. He only had to be invited in, after all. Not by you personally.”

Then what on earth had stopped Donte from…?

“Who the hell are you?” asked Adin. “You’re no limo driver.”

“No. Well. As to that, technically, I am. I was hired to drive you. You hired me yourself, remember?”

“Boaz…” Adin warned.

“Yes, all right. I was hired by Donte Fedeltà. I received a phone call…”

“How the hell did Donte know where I would be? I certainly didn’t tell him.” Adin stood up and paced in agitation.

“I imagine he overheard you. They have excellent hearing. He phoned me and told me to watch out for you. When I discovered that you were having the hotel car pick you up from the airport, I just… Well. Let’s say I impressed on the driver that he needed to go someplace else for a few days.”

“But—”

Boaz held his hand up. “I take it you’re new to all this?”

Adin nodded. “Yes, I’m new to all this. Explain it so I can understand.”

“Suffice it to say that there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are—”

“Oh, piss off! I want to know what you’re doing here.”

Boaz shot him a look. “I received a call from Donte, for whom my family has worked from time to time, telling me that he would like me to see that you stay out of trouble.”

“So he can go after my manuscript. You’re fired.”

“You can’t fire me. I don’t work for you. I work for Donte, and I understood him to mean that I should keep you safe. And look how things turned out. I’m awesome.”

“You should have mentioned that you were working for Donte,” Adin stated flatly, “before
I
paid you for your services.”

“Seriously, how would it have looked if I didn’t charge you money? Wouldn’t you have been a little suspicious?” He put out a placating hand. “Adin. I’m here to see to things like what just happened. You’d be dead right now if I hadn’t intervened.”

Adin slumped into the desk chair. “It seems I owe you my thanks.”

“I don’t need your thanks. Donte was concerned you might run into trouble. The manuscript that was stolen from you remains the prize in a contest between some very powerful entities.”

“But why?”

“That I couldn’t tell you.” He preempted the next logical question. “Not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t know. The only thing Donte told me when we spoke is that he would take it very much to heart if something bad were to happen to you.”

Adin stopped what he was doing. That Donte was concerned felt…kind of nice. Maybe even warm. “Boaz, can you explain…? When I’m near Donte, I feel something. It’s as though he calls me. The same feeling came over me when I saw someone yesterday on Sutter Street. This morning, though, I came into my room and felt absolutely nothing. No warning, no threat. As though I were completely alone.”

Boaz seemed to consider this. “Donte is a very old and powerful predator. For someone whom he has marked as his, it’s like a brand, yes?” He put his finger on Adin’s arm and mimicked the motion and the
sizzle
sound of burning iron on skin. “Other old vampires, like the one you saw yesterday, react to that. It may please them to test it, to see its strength. The man in your room was new, only a baby by any vampire standard. He had a job to do and wished to fulfill it. He had neither the subtlety nor the intuition of an older vampire. He would have killed you and not given it a second thought, simply because you didn’t provide what he was told to acquire.”

“Donte marked me?” Adin was incredulous and angry.

“Did he feed from you?”

“Well, yes. But—”

“Then he marked you.” Boaz got up. “Every vampire worth a damn in this city will know to whom you belong, and none will bother you…except those with a death wish.”

“What?”

“Never mind that, sir.” Boaz’s customary pleasant smile firmly affixed to his face. “Where to this morning?”

“I said you were fired.” Adin headed for his closet to find some clothes.

“That’s what I like about you, sir.” Boaz turned away with a smirk on his face. “So droll.”

They rode the elevator together. Boaz continued to deny pleasantly that he had any intention of leaving Adin’s employ. As the doors slid open, Boaz’s cell phone rang, and Boaz held a hand up and walked a short distance away to answer it. Adin went to the registration desk to pick up a complimentary green tea–flavored mint. He looked up to see Boaz coming toward him.

“It’s for you,” he said.

“Me?” asked Adin, perplexed. He took the phone. “Tredeger.”

“Caro,” said a rich voice. “Tell me you are unharmed.”

“I’m fine.” Adin lifted a wry eyebrow at Boaz as he checked to see if anyone else could listen in. “Didn’t Boaz tell you? He…eradicated the problem.”

“He told me.” Donte’s tone was grim. “I wanted to hear it from you. I shouldn’t like it at all if anything happened to you, Adin.”

“Why?” asked Adin. “I no longer have the manuscript.”

“Don’t be a shit, Adin,” said Donte impatiently. “You must know I care for you.”

“Is game suddenly scarce in L.A.?”

There was a protracted silence on the other end.

“I’m sorry.” Adin picked at a tiny thread that he needed to cut off the waistband of his trousers.

Donte sighed. “I wish we’d had more time together. You have no idea how rare that is for me.”

“I guess you usually just dine and dash? Me too.” Adin swallowed hard. “Donte, I just realized there is so much I didn’t know.”

“This frightens you, yes?” Adin could hear him smile. “Allow Boaz to watch over you, caro. For me. Do this, all right?”

“All right,” said Adin, stalling. He did not want to hang up. “Look, will you—”

“I have to go,” Donte said abruptly. “Please watch your surroundings. Don’t be an idiot, più amato.”

Adin closed his eyes at the endearment.
Best beloved.
He started to say something, but then Donte hung up. It worried him how much he felt like he’d been disconnected from the only important thing on earth.