Good As Dead (Dying To Meet You Book 1) (2 page)

She had come-to briefly on the ride home, but he’d immediately put her to sleep because explaining why the world was whizzing past her in a blur of motion too fast to see wasn’t going to be a fun conversation. They’d save that shit for later. He considered keeping her permanently unconscious, to avoid all the inevitable rubbish that would ensue, but decided that even he wasn’t that mean. Besides, they’d have to work together to sort out her little
problem
which meant that at some point, he’d have to talk to her. If she wasn’t particularly entertaining, she could spend most of her time asleep, which would suit him perfectly.

Inside the shower, the water cascaded down upon him with scalding heat, which barely registered because hunger had begun to settle down upon his body, and it was going to be uppermost in his mind until he saw himself sated. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d fed and now that he had a human under his protection, it was time he took care of the problem. A hungry vampire was a dangerous beast.

Sliding a generous helping of shampoo through his dark hair, he threw his head back and soaped himself. He could hear her heartbeat, even under the pounding spray of the shower. Right now, she could be likened to
fast food
so he needed to get the hell out before he did something he’d regret. He would need to take her blood before he left though, just a mouthful so he could keep tabs on her. That was going to require some willpower because right now he wanted to suck her dry. On the plus side, he was as old as they came and she could be thankful that he had mastered the art of restraint. Even though he was a trained killer and skilled in the arts of death, in more ways than one, she’d be safe in his home. Much more than that, he could not guarantee until he had some facts with which to work. Whether HQ delivered them or whether he peeled them out of her head remained to be seen. The latter option would probably be more entertaining.

Turning the water temperature down to freezing cold in order to wake himself up, he ran his fingers through his hair as the water rinsed the suds clean. When it ran clear, he turned the faucet off and reached for a towel, rubbing himself down quickly. He desperately wanted to hit the vodka again, but that was no longer an option. He’d have to stay
compos mentis,
or clear of mind, until he managed to get rid of her after which he would then be able to make up for lost time with any luck. Alcohol, and alcohol alone, was the only thing that managed to take the edge off his grief. The ache was now going to be a permanent fixture to his life and it was almost unbearable. Currently, he didn’t have his shit together, and as the powers that be already knew all of that, they’d just have to take what was left of him and hope for the best.

After returning to his bedroom, he dragged on a clean pair of denim jeans and a thick black sweater. He didn’t feel in the mood for colours. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes as he prepared to face the inevitable—one probable harpy of a woman who was about to be sorely pissed at the downward direction her life had just taken. Oh well, he knew it couldn’t be helped. He plastered his trademark smile across his face and prepared himself for a whole bunch of ear-splitting histrionics. Vampiric hearing was not always an asset.

As he entered his lounge, he flicked the light switch just beside the oak panelled door. He might be able to see in the dark but the chances were she couldn’t, and what with the having been buried thing and all, he didn’t want any more theatrics than were absolutely necessary. Striding into the room, his bare feet hardly making a sound upon the polished wooden floor, he decided to examine his charge before she started shouting and waving her arms about.

Leaning his upper body over the couch and peering down, he hoped she wasn’t going to be attractive. It was going to make his life a whole lot more difficult if she was easy on the eyes, and he didn’t relish the thought of yet another challenge.

Starting at her feet, he noted she wore sensible flat pumps that once upon a time had been black, but were now a watery brown in colour. They’d obviously made her walk to the casket.
Ouch
. His eyes continued upwards taking in a set of long, shapely legs gloved in jeans so tight she’d need to peel them off to remove them, also covered in their fair share of mud. The tiniest sliver of bare flesh appeared, displaying a flat stomach with soft rounded curves before a dark black shirt came into view. The shirt had entirely too many buttons and unfortunately, all fastened tight.
Spoilsport
. For all the coverage, anyone would have thought it was a chilly December day outside.

Progressing upwards, he found a set of soft full lips that were much paler than they should have been and a pretty, straight-edged little nose. She had masses of long blonde, shiny hair, which splayed everywhere, framing her face in a bright halo. Finally, his gaze settled on a pair of striking blue eyes that were wide-open and staring back at him.

“Seen enough have we?”

The shock of her words sent him tumbling backwards. Falling over with a thud, he stared at her amazed disbelief.

“You were unconscious,” he whispered even as his mind was whirling. How on earth had she managed to wake herself from his trance? It should have been virtually impossible for any human to break it.

“And you regularly ogle sleeping ladies?”

The beautiful royal blue eyes that he had admired only seconds ago were not looking very friendly now.

He frowned. “Now hang on. I have just spent my evening in a very large, very muddy field searching for a ridiculously small box, which I then had to dig out by hand. Next, I had to lug you…”

His mouth snapped shut, halting his rant. She’d begun screaming and there wasn’t much point in continuing the conversation. Slowly counting to twenty in his head, he let her get rid of the worst of it, even though his ears were ringing with pain. When her time was up, he got on his feet, squatted down to her level and secured her eyes with his.

“Stop.” The command was no more than a whisper. His lips barely moved. They didn’t need to because eye contact alone should have done the job, but something was wrong. The screaming continued.

Annoyed, he slapped his hands against his thighs and wondered if someone had tossed him into an alternate universe just for laughs. Oh well, there was more than one-way to deal with problems such as these. Placing a hand around the delicate skin of her neck, he gently squeezed her Adam’s apple and got his face up close and personal with hers.

“Stop it.” This time he spoke with a good deal more volume, and he made sure the look in his eye was menacing as he tightened his grip around her neck. As soon as he put pressure against her windpipe, she quietened down quick enough. After a few hiccupping breaths, she squirmed herself backwards on the sofa, and pushed his hand away.

“You have such wonderful diplomacy skills, Mr. Sadistic-axe murdering-crazy-psychotic-sociopath-son of a bitch. Have you considered a career in counselling?” She grabbed her neck and rubbed at it with her fingertips. The action was strangely sexy. Throwing him a furious look, she coughed and spluttered as she recovered the use of her larynx.

His eyes were everywhere at once. He watched the pulse flicker in her neck, the dart of her tongue as it moistened her lips, and the slow blink of her long black feathery eyelashes. Her eyes were the clearest blue. They held his with the kind of chemistry someone was lucky enough to see once or twice in a lifetime…if that someone was a human, of course. The kind of chemistry he’d seen more than his fair share of and was more than happy to avoid. It was like a static charge, which seemed to appear out of nowhere. He stumbled backwards for the second time that evening and swore.

“Sadistic, yes…crazy, most certainly, but an axe murderer? Not yet but if you keep looking at me like you want to eat me alive, I might decide to invest in one.” He’d said it to goad her, because he wanted to know if she felt it too.

Her eyes widened. Her mouth formed a perfect, shocked little
O
and then fury replaced surprise as she spluttered. “Is arrogance another of your charming traits? They seem to be adding up at an alarming rate. As to eating you alive, I’d rather eat snails. Who the hell are you anyway? And where am I?”

She glared at him, waiting for an answer. He simply grinned at her and received a frown in response. Therefore, she felt the attraction too. Damn. This was exactly what he didn’t want happening. Getting to his feet, he scooped her up in his arms and was rewarded with yet more screaming.

Pinning her with a dark look, he snarled. “For God’s sake, stop with the caterwauling. I have very delicate hearing and it feels like you’re trying to rupture my eardrums. I’m going to put you to bed where hopefully, you’ll stay out of trouble, at least for the rest of this evening. I don’t think you need any more enemies right now, do you?”

She struggled in his arms at first, kicking, biting, and scratching until he tossed her over his shoulder and placed an arm over her backside.

“Another move from you and I’ll spank that backside until it’s blistered, darling.”

Another scream ensued, followed by an enraged, “You wouldn’t dare. And I’m not your darling.”

Not missing a beat, his feet flying up the stairs to the bedroom, he barked, “Feel free to test that theory, Lainey.”

He heard her gasp of surprise that he knew her name, confirming it to him since it was the only name he’d pulled from her mind. Gripping one of her ass cheeks, he squeezed it tightly, to let her know he was deadly serious about his earlier threat. The good news was the struggling stopped instantly. The bad news was that tears replaced it. Floods of the things, until she choked so much she could barely breathe.

Kicking the door to the guest bedroom open, he held her while rocking her gently until the worst of the tremors that shook her body subsided. A nagging sliver of guilt had started to worm its way inside him. He needed to go easy on her. She’d had a rough day. Chances were that things were shortly going to get a lot worse before they got better however, so the little chit needed to toughen up. To be fair to the girl, she didn’t waste too much time on tears. A few minutes later, there were a few more sniffs and snuffles, but then she stiffened in his arms.

He released his tight hold on her and laid her out flat on the bed. Keeping his voice devoid of any sympathy or pity, he looked down at her and said, “All cried out?”

There was a long pause before she finally answered. “I guess that depends on what you’re going to do to me.
What do you want?” Her voice was a whisper of a sound. His eardrums were thankful.

“To get you out of my life as quickly as possible but as that seems unlikely, I’ll settle for your co-operation as I try to get you out of the Grand Canyon sized hole you seem to have found yourself in. How can one little slip of a girl be wanted dead by so many people?” He gave her an enquiring look but it seemed the art of conversation was lost, at least for this evening in any case. Raising an eyebrow at her lack of communication, he then shook his head. “You’re going to have to talk to me sooner or later, darling. If you don’t, we’re really going to be up against the odds.” Lying down beside her, he rested his head on the chintz-patterned quilt as he studied her expression.

“I want to go to sleep,” she whimpered, backing away from him.

“You need to relax before you stand a chance of accomplishing that feat.”

“Exactly,” she bit back, “so get the hell out of here.”

He snorted. This might have been the first time ever a female had ejected him from a bedroom. He found it wasn’t a particularly pleasing experience.

“Roll over.”

“I’m not having sex with you.”

“I think I’d know if you were.”

There was an outraged pause. “You’re not funny. I mean it. Other women may fall at your feet but I don’t find you remotely attractive, so don’t bother with the bedroom
technique
. You’ll be wasting your time. If that’s what you want from me, you might as well kill me now.”

A ghost of a smile played across his lips. “So melodramatic, princess, relax…everyone else may want to kill you, but I have the unfortunate task of trying to keep you alive. So let me make this clear. I do not want to have sex with you. I have no designs on your body. I do not need another unwanted houseguest in my life. If you play nicely, I’ll play nicely. Do we understand each other?”

There was anger in her eyes, but she managed to acknowledge his question with a stiff nod of her head.

“Now roll over.”

“I thought you just said…”

“And I meant it. My body heat will help warm you up and if we spoon, my heart rate will help slow yours down.”

“Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before, vampire.”

He stiffened and his mouth opened in shock. “How on earth do you…?”

“I know a vampire when I see one and you tick all the boxes. Attractive...mesmerising…bossy...arrogant...annoying…”

Forcefully rolling her over, he brought the flat of his hand up to her chin and snapped her jaw shut. “Shut up and go to sleep.”

If necessary, they could discuss the finer points of the paranormal world tomorrow.

Feeling her mouth try to pry itself open to offer up yet another reprisal, he decided she’d be better off unconscious. Having had quite enough exertion for this evening, he didn’t want her awake for the bite he needed to render. He didn’t care what she thought she knew, he knew a bite from him was going to be memorable, too memorable so if he were able to commit the sensations to dreamland, so much the better. He pushed into her mind to complete the deed.