Opal (Rare Gems Series Book 4) (8 page)

“
You have the most exquisite scent. Not like other scents that I smell on you, but here, right here where I enter you, you smell like the finest wine and the tastiest blood. It’s what calls to me when you’re needing me. I love the way you wrap around my cock and ripple around me when you come.” She moaned when he slid his fingers into her. “You’re so wet, baby. Wet and soaking my fingers as I move in and out of you. I’m going to drink very deeply of you.”

“
Will you bite me?” He stared at her for several seconds, then nodded. If he had set fire to her body, she couldn’t have gotten any hotter. The thought of him sinking his teeth into her, drinking not only her juices but her blood, made her nether lips swell around his working fingers until she thought she’d die from the feelings. “Will you drink my blood too?”

“
Yes.” He leaned forward and slowly licked her. Opal nearly came up off the table, but he settled her with his fingers again. When he opened her wider, sliding his hand under her ass and over her thighs, she knew that he was not going to let her go until he had his fill. This time when he lifted his head, she saw something that she’d never seen on him before. It was both frightening and somewhat arousing.

“
My beast wants you as well.” She nodded. The red of his eyes wasn’t frightening to her. On the contrary, her need for this part of him spiked. “Can anyone hear us?”

“
No.” He smiled then and she watched, mesmerized as he seemed to expand and shift. His fangs became longer, sharper, his eyes darker as they filled with blood. She heard his heart then; the hard yet steady pounding of it echoed her own. Her body seemed to cry out for his as he leaned down to her. Then he opened his mouth wide and bit.

Chapter
5

Rufus watched the house. He knew better than to engage on his own, but damn it all to hell and back, where the hell was his back-up? When he looked around again, he saw Sloan coming toward him, and the man looked like he’d just conquered the world…as well as smelling like his mate. Rufus was happy for the man. He wore being happy a hell of a lot better than Rufus ever would.

“
Been busy?” Sloan only nodded and leaned against the wall where Rufus had been hiding out for the past three hours. “I’ve been calling for you for some time. Did you have other things that were more important than getting this feller? You do ‘member what he done did to your mate and all, right?”

“
I do, as a matter of fact. But this was just as important. I needed to…Opal came up missing and I had to find her. And one thing led to another and….” Rufus could just bet a few things led to more things but said nothing. “She still doesn’t like me much. I don’t know what to do about that. But I’m beginning to see the appeal of having a mate. Especially one as lovely as her. But still, she does hate me, and I’m at a loss as to figuring out what to do about that.”

Fucking her came to mind
, but Rufus could see by the satisfied look on his friend’s face that he’d done that. A lot. Rufus looked back at the building that this here man was in. He tried to think what he could say to Sloan to get the sappy look off his face, but decided that he kinda liked it there. The man hadn’t looked this good in years. He hated seeing him tied up with a damned mate, but it coulda been worse, he supposed.

“
I remembered.” He glanced over at Sloan as he frowned, but he didn’t say nothing. “The jingle to my head. I remembered where the name had come from before. The one I telled you about.”

“
What was the name? I’m assuming that whoever he was, this is where Fleming is holding up now.” Rufus nodded, and Sloan started looking at their surroundings and then back at him. “Does he really live here?”

The place looked like a war zone when you first took a looksee
, Rufus thought. Then the longer you saw it, the more it began to take on some shape. The house wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked, first of all. It was about the only one that looked like a good wind wouldn’t take it out, at least on that side of the street. The yard had been mowed, but no flowers or those pretty things that women liked were there. Even the car, the one that rarely got moved, was in good shape. It was very manly in a very quiet way. If you just looked, Rufus knew, you’d think that the entire street was up for repairs, but it really wasn’t. It was done to keep others out. He wondered briefly if the place was as fancy on the inside as Sloan’s house was.

“
Yeah, he does have himself quite a place, huh?” Rufus laughed then. “I ain’t never seen a more pompous ass in all my years. Unless’n you count you. When I first met you, I thought you was a fop. Is that what they called dandies back then? Anyway, you was all dressed in that lace and silk. Wondered for a minute or two if you weren’t one of them funny guys.”

“
I have no idea what you’re talking about. Funny guys? And I was never a dandy. It was the early fourteenth century. I was in style.” Rufus snorted but said nothing as Sloan continued. “Anyway. This house of his…do you suppose he might have a bolt hole to go out if we were to go in the front door? I mean, for all we know, he could be living in all of them and have his room in each of them.”

“
Nah…he did live in that one there on the corner from what I can tell. It’s all boarded up now. I think it was condemned. He might could have a bolt hole, but I gots you a few guys wondering around the back on occasion. Just some bums I talked into helping out.” He laughed when Sloan winced. He loved making the man do that, and tried his best to speak as lowly as he could when they were together. “I did find me something you might be interested in. There’s been a van here right near every week for the past month, just going in and coming out with bags, like them there body bags. And they’d be full. This morning, they took out a nice round eleven.”

Sloan opened his mouth but said nothing. He shook his head
, and Rufus laughed. The man was in entirely too good a mood today. Rufus wanted to be jealous, but the alterative was finding a mate, and there was no fucking way he was going down that gravy train.

“
Do we know where the bodies—if that’s what they are—are being taken after they leave here?” Rufus told him where he’d followed the van to. “So he has a mortuary helping him out. And the clean-up service, do you know who owns that?”

This part he knew that Sloan was going to hate.
He’d tried since he’d figured it out to decide how to tell the man, but there was no help for it. Rufus reached into his pocket and pulled out the small scrap of paper and handed it to him. Then he waited for the fireworks. When they happened, Rufus smiled. Better them than him was his way of thinking.

“
You’re sure that this is the place I own?” Rufus only cocked a brow at him. “Sorry, but mother fuck. I own a service that is going in and disposing of bodies for him? What the hell is the council going to say about this one?”

“
I done told them.” Sloan stilled. “I didn’t have no choice and you know’d it. Beside, that broad that made you take a mate? She said that she’d help you in any way she could. I think she wants this ass bite out of the way as much as you do. And I don’t think she’s all that king on the fact that he’s doing it right under their noses. Did you notice the building over there?”

The building, a nondescript sort of color
, was across the street from the house that Fleming was living in. The windows and doors were all glass, but only the select few could see in…just shifters, and only if they had reason to be there. As it was, right now to a human the building simply looked like it was home to some fancy people that liked to look at a trash heap every day. There was even a nice car out front that daily moved to a different location. The Council of Vampires wasn’t advertising they were there, but they sure as shit weren’t hiding it either.

“
What did Delhi say when you told her where the rogue was staying?” He spoke softly and that had Rufus tensing up. Sloan only ever talked like that when he was gearing up something profound. He was more of a shouter than someone who got their underwear in a twist by being all quiet like. “This can’t be going over well with them all. I’m assuming you told her that I didn’t know.”

“
I did. And I gave her all we had on what he’s been doing, too. She…I just don’t understand them people. Anyway, she believed me, if that’s what’s got your panties in a fart. I mean, what do I look like, a fool?” When Sloan seemed to be considering his answer, Rufus glared. “Bastard. What I meant was, she done gave me clearance to kill him. But so’s you know, I am to wait until we have proof but not before. She don’t want another Pinwiggle on her hands, but she ain’t willing to take any chances this comes on back to bite her in the considerable ass either.”

Don Pinwiggle had been a bad seed even before somebody went and made him into a vamp
, and the man only got himself into more shit as he grew stronger. Killing humans ‘cause he could was just one of many things the man had been up to when he’d been hog tied and brought in. He’d been leaving behind a bloodbath wherever he went, yet it took them right about fifty years before someone got it in their heads to go and find the prick. The only reason he’d been caught at all was that he’d call in to say he’d done it so the clean-up crew could take care of it for him. The body count was nearly a thousand before she’d called in him and Sloan. In two days, not only had they found his lair, they’d been able to bring him in for his death killing too. Rufus shivered when he thought of the way the council took care of their own. It was not a pretty sight. Rufus stayed on their good side so he’d not have his head removed from his body, thank you very fucking much. He looked over at Sloan when he cleared his throat.

“
We can’t do this on our own, not even with the help of the bums you hired to help us. And we both know that no matter what the council says about us waiting, we’re going to end up getting hurt from this. And as much as I don’t mind me getting the shit knocked out of me once in a while, I can’t have Opal brought in on this. So I asked Blair and the others to come in and help us out. Fleming…Fleming did some damage to Blair’s house, so he has a vested interest in this too. We can’t watch him all the time and with a new mate….” Sloan looked lost for a second or two, and Rufus wanted to hunt the young pup down and kick her ass. “She really doesn’t like me. And when I tried to buy her something, she ranted at me for over an hour about it. Why can’t I do this for her when she wants it?”

“
Whatcha buy her? Her diamond not big enough or something?” Sloan didn’t say anything, and Rufus decided that he didn’t like the girl no more. “Want I should have a little talk with her?”

“
God, no.” Then he laughed. “I didn’t buy her a diamond. She…her name is Opal and her sister is Diamond. I should get her…never mind. No, I bought her a building. The one her sister said she was coveting for years. And it has a nice shop in it for her to sell her pretty things in too. I just…shit, I don’t know what to do.”

A building?
Seemed strange even to him, and Rufus knew shit about women. He could lay with one just fine. He’d never had any complaints, but to have one that you wanted to buy shit for? He’d be just as lost. But to turn down a building? He tried to think what to say when Sloan tensed up.

“
What is it?”

Sloan nodded to the
ir left, and there were five or six big wolves just standing there. Each of them were a little bit bigger than the next one, and he’d bet his life that the big dark one was this Blair. Rufus had heard nothing but great things about the alpha. Didn’t mean he trusted the big wolf, but he did have a better liking for him.

“
My new family.” As they skirted their way around the buildings toward them, Rufus had a moment of panic. He hated wolves almost as much as he did most humans. This particular group hadn’t done a damned thing to him, but he was still a mite on the feared side of them. The biggest one moved into the closest building and came out pulling a shirt over his head. He’d been right as snow about it: the big one was Blair. The others moved in one at a time and did the same thing.

“
Rufus, this is my brother-in-law, Blair Henson. His mate is expecting their first child any day now. She’s sister to my mate.” Rufus took his hand when it was offered and felt the connection like he’d drunk from him. He looked at Sloan. “I don’t know why that happens either, so don’t ask me. When you meet Quentin and the others, you’ll get a better understanding as to why I want to bring these men in. I think it has to do with them killing off Ballard and getting his magic.”

He shook hands with all the men
that had come with Henson, including the older man, Allen. He thought he knew the man, but he had a hard time remembering shit lately and thought it was his lack of proper rest. When Henson suggested they take over for now, he nodded. Rufus had no idea, but he thought these men were about as trustworthy as Sloan was, and that man he’d do just about anything for.

When he got to his lair, he settled into the bed and closed his eyes. But he heard
something right outside his door and tensed. It took him several seconds to realize it was the missus of the house and go to the door. He was glad then that he’d pulled on a pair of his pants. Usually if you came calling for him when the sun was up, you got what you got. She was standing there looking like she was well out of her element. If she was gonna ask him something to do with Sloan, he might well be too.