Enraptured (34 page)

“I can’t turn back, not now, not when I’m so
close,” Paige replied. He could feel the easing in her mind as she
regained control of herself. “He’s haunted my nightmares and been a
constant looming presence for the past four years. I can’t live
like that anymore.”

He’d tear her father limb from limb when
they found him, and he’d enjoy every second of it. Bloodlust
thrummed through his fangs; saliva rushed into his mouth. For the
first time, he actually felt gleeful about the idea of killing
someone. Apparently being mated had calmed him in some ways, but
had brought sadistic urges to the forefront that he’d never
experienced before. He shut part of his mind off to her, unwilling
to let her see this violent side of him.

“As the guy who’s still in complete control,
for now, can I make a suggestion?” Aiden asked.

Ian stopped at a red light and turned toward
his brother. “What?”

“Now hopefully neither one of you crazy
lovebirds jump on me for this one, but Paige can stay somewhere
else while we… Well, maybe not you either,” he said with a pointed
look at Ian. “The
rest
of us find him. We know what he looks
like, and apparently Brian’s a vampire homing device; it shouldn’t
be too difficult for us to locate your father and take him
out.”

Ian could already feel Paige gearing up for
a big old no, feel her mind rebelling against Aiden’s suggestion.
Aiden’s idea had been reasonable, but he had to admit he wanted to
be there when they found the man who had tried to kill Paige and
tormented her so ruthlessly.

“If he sees me, he’ll come for me,” Paige
said. “He may run from a group of male vampires.”

“But he won’t get far,” Aiden said.

“But someone might get hurt in the process.
I trust myself around people more than I trust him. I can, and
will, get through this.”

Ian hit the gas when the light turned green.
They continued down the main thoroughfare, following the limo
carrying David, Ethan, Emma, Ronan and Brian. David, Emma and Ethan
had originally flown to California and been met at the airport by
Ronan and Brian. From there they’d been driven into town by the car
and driver Ronan had arranged for them. The driver was human, but
Ronan had control of his mind, and he would remember none of
this.

David and Ethan had no idea if Brian and
Ronan had come from California or flown into the airport also. Ian
doubted Ronan would answer where they had originally come from if
asked. They could have all fit into the limo, but he wanted to keep
the pickup for a little longer; it had really started to grow on
him. Besides, he knew it would be easier on Paige not to be around
so many others right now.

“I love Elvis,” Paige said as they neared a
wedding chapel advertising Elvis as the minister. Lights flashed on
the billboard proclaiming the special being offered for the week.
Images of Elvis flashing within the lights made it look as if he
were actually dancing.

“Really?” Ian inquired. He could hear
Teddy
Bear
playing as they stopped at another red
light beside the chapel.

“Yeah. My mom loved music and she played
everything, but Elvis was her favorite. When we were still moving
around a lot, she took me to Graceland. It was bizarre in there,
but really interesting, and I got so I liked him a lot more
afterward.” Aiden looked at her as if she’d said she liked to eat
dog poop for breakfast. “He’s really good,” she insisted. “Far
better than your boy bands.”

“I do
not
listen to boy bands,” Aiden
said with a playful wag of a finger in her face.

Paige rolled her eyes and laughingly pushed
his finger away. She couldn’t help but smile at him, as for the
first time in her life, she felt like she had an annoying little
brother. “Anyway, Elvis is one of my favorites,” she continued.

“Favorite enough to be married in a chapel
by him?” Aiden inquired.

“It’s the only way I ever pictured getting
married,” she replied with a laugh.

Ian adjusted his hold on her so he could
look down at her. “Are you serious?”

Paige’s foot began to tap along with the
music. “Yeah. I never considered the possibility of getting married
anyway, not since I was a teenager, but I always thought eloping to
Vegas would be the way I’d go. Who doesn’t want to get married by
Elvis?”

“Wayne Newton fans,” Aiden replied with a
smile. “or anyone with taste.”

“Then just call me tasteless.”

“Oh, so that’s why you’re with this guy,”
Aiden said with an expression of dawning realization and pointed
toward Ian.

“Asshole,” Ian said and shoved his shoulder
while Paige laughed.

She rose up to press a kiss against Ian’s
cheek. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Ian glanced at the chapel again and then at
her. He rested his lips briefly on the top of her head and inhaled
her sweet scent. The apple aroma of her blood had faded away to be
replaced with a mixture of his blood and hers he found far more
tantalizing. They were forever entwined with each other.

The light turned green and they continued
down the road. The limo pulled into the entrance of a large hotel
and Ian followed behind. He ignored the raised brows of the valet
eyeing the rusting pickup distastefully. Ian climbed out of the
truck, handed over his keys, and gave the kid a twenty.

“I’ve called ahead and booked us rooms
here,” Ronan adjusted the lapels of his sport coat as they joined
him by the front door. “I have a friend here who will keep us off
of all the cameras and flying under the radar in case shit hits the
fan.”

“How do you know someone who works here?”
Paige inquired.

“You live as many years as I do, and you’ll
know someone almost everywhere,” Ronan replied. “And most of them
owe me a favor.”

She didn’t doubt that for a second. Ian kept
hold of her hand as they followed them into the main entrance of
the hotel. Paige had to force herself not to gawk at the elaborate,
arching entranceway done mostly in tones of red and gold. The
ringing and rattling of slot machines echoed through the entryway,
but she had a feeling she would barely be able to hear them if she
were still human.

Emma stopped walking to admire the numerous
photos of celebrities and entertainers lining the wall across from
the check-in point. Most of them were in black and white and
featured people Paige recognized. She smiled when she spotted
Elvis’s signed photo near the top.

Behind the people and computers lined up on
the elaborately carved, wooden reception desk, a full wall of glass
reflected the lights and colors of the main lobby in a dizzying
array that made her glad she was wearing sunglasses. Ronan
approached a man in his mid-fifties with salt and pepper hair.
Paige didn’t know how she knew it, but she recognized instantly
that the man Ronan spoke with wasn’t human. The other guys gathered
around Ronan to speak with the vampire behind the reception
desk.

“Amazing.” Emma’s murmured word drew Paige’s
attention away from the main desk and back to her.

Paige glanced at the mostly black and whites
photos before turning away to admire the colors and intricate
design of the moldings decorating the walls. Tilting her head back,
a trickle of amazement went through her when she spotted the
striking mural of fifties era Vegas above her. The colors were eye
catching enough, but it was the artist’s intricate attention to
detail that kept her riveted upon the old cars, signs, hotels, and
clothing depicted in the mural. She could spend hours looking at it
and still find something new within the work.

She felt Ian’s approach before he rested his
hands on her shoulders. “Nice.”

“It’s beautiful,” she murmured.

“I’ll let you paint my ceiling when we
finally get to see our new home.”

She laughed and turned to face him. “I’d
prefer a wall. Whoever painted that mural had to have a major kink
in the neck after.”

“Then you can paint my wall.” He brushed her
hair behind her shoulder and slid his arms over them until the
inside of his elbows rested near her ears. “Or you could paint
me.”

The lascivious smile he gave her caused a
quickening in her body. Her breasts tingled as they brushed against
his chest. She would love to take some paint to his body, to swirl
it over his chest, down across his abs, before going lower over his
throbbing cock and heavy balls. She’d follow the direction of the
paint with her tongue…

She hadn’t realized her eyes were following
the direction of her thoughts until she felt his amusement and lust
slithering through her mind. Her head shot up; she fought against
the color staining her cheeks. His grin revealed all of his teeth
as he took a step closer to her. “I think we’d both prefer it if
you painted me.”

“I think so too,” she admitted.

He laughed and pressed a kiss against her
forehead. “Come on, let’s go check out our room.”

“Aren’t we going to look for him?” she
asked, anxious to get this over with.

Ian shook his head. “No. Brian says he’s in
the city, but he doesn’t know where, and the sun is coming up.”

“Crap,” Paige muttered, she’d forgotten her
father wouldn’t be capable of walking about in the daytime. “He’ll
be going to ground.”

“He will,” Ian agreed.

“Would it be easier if we found him while he
was sleeping, or whatever it is he does during the day?”

“He could be in any of a thousand buildings
in the area. We’ll have better odds of finding him at night, when
he’s most likely hunting his prey.” Paige glanced at the doors; she
knew he was right, but she was eager to get this over with. “Come
on, we could both use some rest too.”

Paige leaned into his side as they walked
out of the main lobby and stepped into the hallway before the
elevators. The ringing slots and the crescendo of the voices in the
casino became louder. She glanced down the long hall to the casino
beyond. From here she could see the dim neon lights and the first
row of slot machines.

A slew of zombie-like people sat before the
slots. Their slack faces were highlighted by the splash of light
pouring from the machines; she wondered if they stopped to go to
the bathroom or continued to sit there. Then, one of them rose to
their feet, and another one passed out on top of the buttons of the
machine.

“I think I’m going to see what kind of
excitement I can find,” Aiden said. “It is the city that never
sleeps.”

“That’s New York,” Ethan told him.

“I think it’s both,” Aiden replied. “But you
know, what happens in Vegas…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah we get it, you know city
slogans. Just don’t get in any trouble,” Ian interrupted.

“I’ll join you.” Brian stepped away from the
elevators. The two of them made their way down the hall to the
adjoining casino, laughing as they went.

“Are those two
friends
?” David asked
incredulously.

“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Ethan
muttered.

“Why?” Ronan inquired and turned to face
them.

Paige couldn’t stop the small shiver that
ran through her when those strangely colored eyes skipped over her.
She’d felt his power as a human, now it radiated from him in
vibrant waves that rattled her bones and caused her teeth to
chatter. “Do you trust him?” she inquired.

“With my life.” A ripple of shock went
through Ian and into the connection linking their minds at Ronan’s
answer. “Annoying and lethal doesn’t equal untrustworthy. You feel
the same way, or you wouldn’t call him when you feel he could
help.”

Ethan bowed his head in agreement. “I’d like
to kill him eighty-five percent of the time, he put us all in
danger once. I don’t like him around Emma because of whatever it is
he’s still involved with, but he
is
trustworthy.”

“He’s not involved in anything other than
trying to keep our race safe. The same as me,” Ronan replied.

The elevator chimed, announcing its arrival
before the doors opened. Paige crowded into the elevator with them.
She felt like an ant compared to the group surrounding her; she
couldn’t imagine what Emma felt like as she stood against Ethan’s
side. Paige watched the floors tick by. When they hit the tenth
floor, she began to question if the elevator’s weight capacity was
right and if it would hold them. Maybe they weren’t close to the
weight limit, but the power within the car made it feel as if there
were twice as many people in it. The doors finally opened on floor
twenty-nine.

Emma, Ethan, David, and Ronan stepped out,
but Ian held her back when she went to follow them. “We’re on the
next floor,” he told her.

Emma let out a little squeal when Ethan
picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. “See you in the
afternoon,
late
afternoon,” Ethan said as he walked down the
hall with Emma laughing over his shoulder. Lifting her head, Emma
gave them a little wave before disappearing into the room with
him.

The doors slid shut and the elevator
continued upward. “Why are we on a different floor?” Paige asked
him.

Ian gave her a mischievous smile as the
doors opened. “I figured we’d get something a little fancier for
ourselves to celebrate becoming mated.”

Paige barely had a chance to register his
words before Ian bent and swung her into his arms. She laughed as
she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his
shoulder. He carried her down the hall holding her against his
chest. Adjusting his hold on her, he pulled the electronic card for
the room from his pocket. He swiped it through the keypad and
pushed the door to their room open.

She’d never seen a room so big or elaborate
before in her life. Her eyes went everywhere at once; she didn’t
think she’d ever be able to take it all in, there was
too
much. “Like it?” Ian inquired and nuzzled her hair.