Force of Knight Magic (13 page)

“Probably. Or she knew where he was all along.
I’m not sure if I heard where he was staying
,
but she either followed him or she lives here too.”

She didn’t think that was right but said nothing.

“How far are they from here?”

“Less than two hours.
We need to get going.
They are holding the scene for me.
I have to talk to the locals there and my contact said that they are expecting me.
I’m going in as an expert on wild animals.”
She laughed at the irony of the situation.
“Will you mind being my assistant?”

He shook his head before asking her something else.
“How was he killed and why did they call you?
Do they normally have you do run of the mill killings involving animals?”

She’d never thought of that.
They hadn’t and she told him so.
“I don’t know why me.
They know that my main address is Ohio
,
but nothing more.
I’m going to be really pissed if nothing happened and they want to bring me there to end my contract with them.”
She headed for the car as he locked up.
“I have to go by my apartment.
I have some extra guns and ammo there that I’d like to bring along.”

She had more than ammo.
There was the specially made bulletproof vest that she wanted to put on
,
as well as a few tracking devices that she wanted to hook up to Phil.
She stopped in her tracks and had him bump into her from behind.

“Can you find me?”
He frowned at her question.
“I mean
,
if I’m not close to you, can you find me if
,
say
,
something happens?”

“Are you expecting something to happen?”
She nodded.
“Yes.
No matter where you are
,
I will be able to find you.
You’ve the ability to find me too.
Though I’m not sure how far reaching it is for you.”

Nodding again
,
she got into the passenger side of his car and turned to him in the seat.
“Are you attached to this thing?
The reason I’m asking is that I’d like to take something with a little more…well
,
a lot more safety measures in it.
I have a four-wheel drive baby that is plated with bulletproof glass and steel in the doors.
The gas mileage sucks
,
but it will keep us safe if something happens.”

Phil kissed her quickly on the mouth.
“Can I drive it?”
She laughed and told him yes.
“Then let’s go get the sucker.
It’s not a pretty pink or some girly color like that
,
is it?”

“No, it’s bright purple with yellow racing stripes.
I wanted it to blend.”
They were still laughing when they pulled into her parking lot ten minutes later.

“You don’t spend a lot of time here
,
do you?
Nothing here says you like it here.”

She looked around the two rooms that served as a living room and dining
/
kitchen area.
She supposed not.
She’d signed the lease to this apartment over seven years ago and had probably only stayed here a total of one year.
If that.
There was a couch and an end table.
A television set she wondered if she had ever turned on and a lamp. There were no magazines on the tables and no pictures on the wall.
The kitchen had nothing on the counters
,
not even a coffee pot, which she would never have used anyway.
The refrigerator was empty of everything with the exception of some hot sauce
,
a bottle of catsup
,
and some packets from a Chinese restaurant
where
she couldn’t remember if the food was any good. She moved to the bedroom and noticed that this room
,
too
,
was just as sparse.

There was a bed that had a rolled up sleeping bag and three pillows.
There was a closet that she knew had a few t
-
shirts and maybe a pair of pants.
She went to the closet
,
not wanting to see how depressing the bathroom was.

The wall behind the few bits of clothing was false.
She moved the clothes to the side
,
kneeled down onto the floor
,
and pulled up the carpet.
Under there was a floor safe.
But it
,
like the wall
,
wasn’t real either.
She pushed down on the dial and turned it until she heard a click then when the pad lit up
,
she punched in the code.
The entire top of the
“
safe
”
came off.

“Nice.
I should see about getting one of those put into our house.
Who designed it?”

She didn’t look up when she answered him
,
waiting for the next set of numbers to be put in.
“I did.
It was a combination of parts I picked up here and there.
I wanted someplace I could hide my guns and not have to worry about the housekeeper finding them.” She keyed in the last of the number
s
and the wall in front of her opened.
She stood and finished answering Phil.
“This wall is solid steel and was a bitch to get in here.
I told the landlord it was a backboard for my bed.
I was very careful not to let him help me carry it.”

The door slid to a silent stop and Phil whistled beside her.
“Christ.
You planning the next war
,
or do you just like guns
?
”

She pulled out the Mossberg five-ninety pump action shotgun and handed it to him.
“The shells are specially made with silver balls and liquid chaser.
I have used this thing a few times in combat and it’ll be a good gun to use on a vampire.”
He laid it on the floor and picked up a pair of Glocks.
“Those have the same ammo design
,
as does everything here.
I have them made for me or I make them myself.”

He put both
of them
on the floor and reached for a double harness.
She helped him put it on.
He put both guns in the holsters and she pulled out a duffle bag.

“How much of this are you taking with you?”
She started to open drawers and stack boxes of ammo into the bag.
“Once we get this thing taken care of with the girl we can move all this to our house and set up the same sort of locking system if you want.”

This time she said something.
She didn’t know how this whole mate thing worked just yet
,
but she wasn’t going to be doing everything he said.
She thought maybe now would be a good time to set up some ground rules.
“What if I don’t want to live in your house?”
She put enough emphasis on the word
“
your
”
that she knew he’d understand.
Apparently
,
he had.

He shrugged.
“If you don’t like th
at
house
,
then there are any number that I ow…we own that we can cho
ose
from
,
or we can buy or build whatever you want.
It matters little to me where
our
address is
,
Holly
,
so long as it’s one we share.”

She felt petty and small.
“I’d like to live near my family. And the pack.
Not too close
,
mind you
,
but…I’m sorry
,
Phil.
I was just trying to assert myself and I went about it the wrong way.”

“No you didn’t.
You’re right.
We have a lot of decisions to make.
And the important word there is ‘we
.
’ I shouldn’t have assumed anything.
We
can decide where
we
live
,
and
we
can decide what you take to the house from here.”
He pulled her up. “I’m sorry too.
I love you, Holly
,
and I only want what’s best for you.”

She kissed him.
The kiss was meant to be quick
,
but when he groaned she let him deepen it.
The wall behind her was suddenly pressed against her back and she tried to lift her leg up to wrap herself around his hips.
He pulled back from her and held her there when she tried to go after him again.

“We don’t have a lot of time.”
He let go of her one shoulder to adjust his cock.
“As much as I hate to say this, we can’t do this right now.
The others are waiting for us and we have to go.”
He took two steps back, letting her go completely.
“But know this.
As soon as we get to a place where we can, I’m going to fuck you until you can’t walk for a week.”

“Promise?”

They were both laughing when they started loading up her dark blue SUV.
He told her he was happy to see that it really wasn’t a bright color and was completely impressed with how much stuff she had in it
for an
emergency.

“I have to be ready all the time.
You should see what I have at other points across this state.”

At dusk
,
Theresa woke.
It took her several minutes to remember where she was and how she’d gotten there.
Before she could move out of the dark area where she was she noticed that she was covered in blood.
Hurrying out into the moonlight she could see that not only was it on her hands
,
but her clothes as well.
Scared now
,
she looked over her entire body for cuts or something that would tell her what she’d done.
She was pulling her pants down to get a look at her belly when she remembered.
Gregory.

He’d made her upset and she’d turned.
She really didn’t know what it was called when she went nuts like she did
,
but that’s more or less what she did
—
turned nuts.
Sitting down on the dry pavement she wondered if he’d been found yet and knew that he had.
That girl, the one he’d kept telling her not to hurt, Mary Kathleen he’d called her
,
would have gone up to see to him by now.

She’d wanted him to suffer. When he’d not given her the answers she’d wanted
,
even though she was sure he’d been telling her the truth
,
she’d started biting him.
First
,
she’d bitten his face.
Tore into his soft
,
fleshy cheek until she’d simply torn it away
,
and had spit it into his lap.
When he continued to tell her she’d posed for the picture all those years ago
,
she’d bitten his left ear off, then the other.
By the time he was begging her to finish him
,
she realized that he’d not once called out or made any other noise other than a small sound.
He’d not screamed as she’d hoped, but only whimpered, something that made her incredibly madder. And by now
he lay in pieces all over his bed.

He was near death when she’d taken his throat.
His blood was tainted with something, medications she supposed
,
because of the bottles on the bedside.
But she wanted to teach him a lesson and even though she’d forgotten what her purpose had been by then she’d just wanted him to beg.
And he had
,
just not for himself
,
but for the girl.

When he lay dying she thought about going to find the girl and bringing her to his room and killing her too
,
but there’d been no more time. She’d had to leave.
Picking up the letter opener on the desk on the other side of the room she’d plunged it into both his eyes.