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Authors: V.K. Forrest

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BOOK: Ravenous
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Liam knew something was wrong before Mai slipped her key into the lock of the back door. He laid his hand on hers. “Let me do that.”
She froze and looked up at him. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure.” He glanced over his shoulder at Corrato. The old man waited on the brick walk behind them while his dog nosed around in the grass, looking for a place to do his business. Liam never understood this thing humans had for pets. Maybe because as a shape-shifter, he could
technically
be one.
“Let me go in first.” Liam turned the key in the lock, wishing he’d brought a gun with him. He rarely used one; he preferred his own hands, or teeth. In official assignments for the sept, a ceremonial knife was required. There were rules, as he was frequently reminded. But he would have felt better walking into this situation with a good old-fashioned 9mm Glock tucked into the waistband of his waiter pants.
The first thing he saw inside the back door were the clothes from the dryer lying on the floor. Then a puddle and a laundry detergent bottle, lying uncapped on the tile.
Mai flipped on the light. “What the hell?”
If he’d been suspicious in the laundry room, the kitchen left no doubt. Cabinet doors had been left open; dishes lay broken on the floor. Even the refrigerator and freezer had been emptied. Obviously someone was looking for something.
“Oh, God,” Mai murmured, bringing her hands to her mouth.
“Shhh,” Liam said, listening carefully. Like any vampire, his senses were more acute than those of humans. He didn’t hear anyone in the house. He didn’t smell anyone, but he wanted to be sure. After a second, he held his hand out to her. “Stay right here. I’ll be back in a second.”
Liam covered the first floor, then went up to the second; he didn’t bother to turn on the lights. He didn’t need them. His vision in the dark was as good as his vision in broad daylight, maybe better because he could see shades of heat or the absence of it. The entire house was strewn with Mai’s and Corrato’s possessions. Furniture had been tipped over, cushions pulled off the couch and chairs. They’d been relatively thorough.
The last room he entered was Mai’s bedroom, upstairs. He didn’t need to see the floral sheets on the bed or the perfume bottles knocked over on the bathroom sink to know it was her room. It
smelled
like her. Next to the bed, Liam paused and closed his eyes. Images of her naked, in his arms, in the bed, flashed in his head. He felt the weight of her bare breast in his hand, the taste of a taut nipple, the scent of the sweet, moist place between her thighs.
His eyes flew open. He really needed to get laid. He needed to find a nice, willing vampire girl and get this out of his system.
“Liam?”
He heard her call him from the bottom of the steps. “Are you okay? I think they’re gone. They’re gone, aren’t they?” she asked.
He left her room, walking to the head of the stairs. The carved oak banister that ran down the length of the stairs was polished and smelled of linseed oil. “What are they looking for, Mai?”
“I don’t know.” She threw open her arms. “I swear I don’t.”
“I guess there’s no way you would know if anything was missing.”
She looked at him as if he was an idiot.
“All right. You should get your things. Some clothes, some toiletries,” he suggested. “A few days’ worth. Your father, too.”
“
Babbo!
” she called over her shoulder. “Be careful. Don’t trip over the seat cushions.” She grabbed one off the floor at the foot of the stairs and flung it carelessly into the living room. They had all been ripped open, leaving tufts of stuffing all over the floor.
“Bastards,” the old man muttered.
“
Babbo!
”
“They spilled Prince’s dog food in the kitchen. You see what a mess they made? As if a man would hide anything in dog food.” He passed Mai and slowly made his way up the stairs.
“Mr. Ricci,” Liam said when he reached the top, “you have any idea what whoever did this might be looking for?”
“Nope.” He brushed past Liam, going into his room.
“I’ll be quick,” Mai said, running up the steps. As she passed Liam, she drew her fingertips across his abdomen. It was an innocent gesture, but it set his skin on fire. Slowly, he walked down the steps. He surveyed one room after the other and decided after a couple of minutes that whoever had been there hadn’t really been all that thorough. No holes in the walls, no ceiling tiles removed, and no wooden floorboards jimmied up. So they weren’t absolutely sure whatever they were looking for was even there. . . .
Liam went out to Mai’s shop next. The back door was standing open. The shop has been searched, too, but whoever did it hadn’t made nearly the mess they had in the house. Liam locked the door and returned to the house.
As Liam entered the living room, Corrato came down the stairs carrying two plastic grocery bags, one in each hand, and a rattan dog bed under his arm.
“
Babbo,
I left a suitcase for you in the hall,” Mai called from the top of the steps.
“Don’t need a suitcase, got bags,” he muttered.
“You have to leave the dog bed.”
“Prince likes his bed,” Corrato insisted stubbornly.
“Prince can sleep with you at Suzy’s. We’ll only be there a night or two. You have to leave the bed.”
At the bottom of the steps, he reluctantly set down the dog bed. Then he headed for the kitchen. “Prince, come, boy. Prince, want a treat?”
Liam glanced over his shoulder, then took the steps two at a time. He found Mai in her bedroom, pulling a T-shirt over her head. She had taken off her bra and he caught a flash of breast as she spun around.
“Sorry,” he said instantly. “I didn’t mean to just walk in on you.” But he didn’t look away.
And Mai didn’t turn away as she slipped the shirt over her nakedness. “I needed to get out of that dress. The under-wire in my bra was killing me.” She pulled two more T-shirts out of a drawer and left it open. “Can you grab that gray sweatshirt for me off the back of the door?”
Not trusting himself to get close to her just this second, he tossed it to her. Her bed was unmade and way too inviting.
She pulled the hoodie over her head and her gaze met his, as she pulled her long, dark hair free. She was thinking about the bed, too. About making love to him. Liam wasn’t a mind reader like Kaleigh. He didn’t have to be, in this case.
She took a step toward him, still gazing into his eyes. He knew that look. One kiss and she was his, right here, right now. It was the vampire thing; humans couldn’t resist them.
“Mai!”
Corrato unintentionally saved Liam yet again. “Mai! Mai, he’s gone. They took him.”
Mai walked past Liam to stick her head out the doorway. “Who’s gone?” she hollered back.
“Prince.” The old man’s voice cracked with emotion. “They kidnapped the Prince of Dogs.”
Chapter 6
“B
abbo,
it’s okay. We’ll find him.” Mai went down the steps.
Liam grabbed the duffle bag she had packed and followed her. “I’m sure he’s around here somewhere,” she assured her father.
“No. He wouldn’t run away,” Corrato insisted, his eyes tearing up.
Liam felt a tightness in his chest and glanced away in embarrassment. He was a vampire. He wasn’t human. He had to remind himself sometimes that that meant he didn’t have the same feelings as humans. He didn’t really care if this man he didn’t know was missing a dog. Liam didn’t even particularly like the dog.
“Did you leave the back door open? Maybe he’s just in the yard waiting for you. You leave it open sometimes.” Mai rubbed Corrato’s shoulder as she walked past him, headed for the kitchen.
“That was Donato. I told him not to leave the door open. I told him Prince would get out and get hit by a car.”
Mai picked her way through the mess in the kitchen. In the laundry room, she stopped at the open back door. “Uncle Donato didn’t leave the back door open this time,
Babbo,
” she said gently.
“He’s not out there. I called him.” Corrato shuffled after his daughter. The porch lamp cast a net of light over the grass.
No dog.
“Prince! Prince, come on, boy,” Mai called, clapping her hands. Then she tried whistling. A dog down the street barked, but it was too big a bark to belong to the terrier.
Corrato clamped his hat on his head and headed down the brick sidewalk toward the driveway where the van was parked.
“
Babbo,
where are you going?”
“Where do you think?”
“No, you stay here. I’ll find Prince.”
Liam groaned inwardly. Exhaled. “No. Both of you go inside and lock the door.” He pushed the duffle bag into Mai’s hands, making no attempt to sound pleased. “
I’ll
find the dog.”
She looked up at him with those big, dark eyes and long lashes. “This isn’t your problem. You don’t have to—”
“Just get him inside. Finish packing what you need. The dog couldn’t have gotten far. He’s got short legs.”
“Call him nicely,” Corrato insisted as his daughter ushered him toward the back door. “He won’t come if you’re not nice to him. He’ll think you’re angry with him and he’ll run. “
“I got it.” Liam raised his hand.
It wasn’t hard to catch the scent of the little runt. It had not been kidnapped by Donato’s killer as feared but had merely wandered across the backyard in pursuit of fresh bunny. Liam picked up both scents right away and followed them down an alley, across a street, and into another yard.
The night air was chilly and it made Liam grumpy. It would be a wet ride home on his bike tonight. The smell of rain was in the air and it was damp. Thick, dark clouds hung low in the sky’s canopy and there was no moonlight. He had half a mind to just head for home. He could probably call Kaleigh and get her to steal Arlan’s truck and come get him. There were others in Clare Point he could call. There would be no questions asked. At least not until tomorrow.
After all, who was he kidding here? He was no rescuer of women in distress. He didn’t even want to rescue the stupid dog. He didn’t want to protect Mai or her father. He was just curious as to what had happened to the dead old man. Professional curiosity. That, and he wanted to screw the HF. That was all it was about.
“Prince,” he murmured, feeling like an idiot. As if he had conjured up the storm clouds himself, rain began to fall. “Come on, boy.” He was getting close. The rabbit had run in one direction at this point; the runaway dog had gone another.
At the corner of a six-foot-tall wooden privacy fence, he spotted a place where a board had been broken or kicked in. The hole was just big enough for a rat terrier to squeeze through. The dog had gone that way. He rolled his eyes. Of course it had. . . .
Liam had the ability to morph into almost any animal he wanted. Reptiles were hard, but in a tight spot, he could even manage a crocodile or a Gila monster. He’d have no problem slipping under the fence if he was a cat or a small dog.
He used the gate instead.
The minute he entered the fenced-in yard, he heard the guttural growl of a big dog. The growl was followed by a small yip.
“
Puh-lease,
” Liam muttered. On the opposite side of the yard, he spotted a big-ass pit bull. It had the Prince of Dogs cornered. The pit bull growled viciously and the terrier yipped back, the fence behind him, making his final stand.
As Liam crossed the bare dirt yard, he tried to avoid the piles of dog doo. A
pleasant
scent as it mixed with the falling rain. It smelled like it had been a long time since grass had grown here or someone had bothered to clean up the animal waste. It was a crime, people who kept their animals locked up like this. It turned them mean. He could hear the meanness, the deep sorrow, in the pit bull’s growl.
As he walked, he scanned the ground for a weapon. Leaning against a rusted clothes pole was a three-foot-long piece of two-by-four. He picked it up. “Okay, back off, big boy. I take the Prince of Dogs, I get out of here, and you go back to . . . whatever a dog does in a forty-by-forty space,” he said, using his best dog-negotiator’s tone.
At the sound of his voice, the pit bull looked over its massive, muscular shoulder and growled at Liam.
“You don’t want to go there,” he muttered. “Trust me.”
Realizing Liam was a true threat and the terrier was only a potential snack, the pit bull turned around, baring its teeth, staring with lifeless eyes.
“Just walk away,” Liam suggested, motioning with the two-by-four. “And no one gets hurt.
You,
in particular, don’t get hurt.”
The dog, the size of a small Volkswagen, lunged without warning. That was the problem with caged animals. They were unpredictable. Liam considered giving the canine a little tap with the two-by-four, but midair, he realized he’d have to break the board over the canine’s head to so much as get its attention.
So he morphed.
The Bengal tiger was an impulse. He could have just become a bigger pit bull than the VW and called it a day. But that seemed a dull option. The two-by-four went flying as Liam felt his body convulse. One minute he was leather jacket and waiter pants, the next, fur, stripes, and teeth.
He scared the hell out of the pit bull. They collided in midair and with a snarl, Liam brought one great paw across the dog’s shoulder. His claws barely connected, but the dog howled with pain and terror. They both hit the ground at approximately the same time. Four paws to the ground, Liam prepared for the dog to come at him again, but instead, it took off, headed for a plastic igloo doghouse. It yipped all the way to the shelter and crawled inside.
Easy enough,
Liam thought. Then, flicking his tail, he sauntered toward the rat terrier. To his surprise, the little dog didn’t run and cower, but instead, threw his shoulders back and bared his needle teeth. Well,
of course,
the dog was afraid of a tiger.
How many tigers did he know?
Liam morphed back to his human form. “Okay, Prince,” he said, glancing in the direction of the lights in the house. Fortunately, they had the TV so loud, they hadn’t heard their dog barking or the Bengal tiger kick its ass. “Let’s hit the road, Prince,” he said, trying to sound
nice
.
The terrier bared his teeth again and barked furiously.
Liam groaned. It wouldn’t take long for the pit bull to realize the tiger was gone and he’d been replaced by a man. “Prince! Come on, damn it! It’s raining out here and I’m standing in a pile of dog shit.”
But he wouldn’t come.
Liam glanced over his shoulder toward the gate. How did he get himself into these things? He knew the easiest way to get Prince home, but it was so . . .
emasculating
.
He gave the “nice dog” speech one last time. The dog took a step toward him, on the offensive now. If Liam wasn’t careful, he was going to get bitten.
“Fine,” Liam muttered. And morphed.
Prince took one look at him and lunged forward. Liam raced off. He hopped across the yard, through the hole in the fence, down the street, and into the alley that ran along Mai’s property. In the corner of her yard, just out of the circle of light from the porch lamp, he let the rat terrier get almost close enough to catch a mouthful of rabbit dinner and then he morphed. One minute he was a brown bunny, the next, a vampire hit man, pretending to be an antiques dealer, scooping up a rat terrier.
Either Prince had figured out Liam was a shape-shifter and it was best to go along with the plan, or he was so confused that he didn’t have time to react. At the back door, Liam knocked.
Corrato was there in an instant, pushing the yellow curtain aside, peering through the glass window. “Prince!” He unlocked the door.
Liam stepped in and pushed the dog into the old man’s arms. “Mai,” he called, “I’ve got him. Let’s go.”
“Thank you, thank you,” Corrato said. “We’ll never forget this, Prince and I. We got your back.” He waggled a gnarled finger under Liam’s nose. “You remember that.”
Mai walked into the kitchen, shutting the lights off behind her. “Thank God. Thank you, Liam.”
“So, you ready?” Standing in the doorway, Liam stuffed his hands into his pockets. He was cold now, wet from the rain. He just wanted to dump them off at Cousin Suzy’s and get home. On his bike. In the rain. With dog shit on his boots.
“We’re ready.
Babbo,
let’s go. No, don’t put Prince down. Just carry him to the car.” Halfway across the floor, she stopped and wrinkled her nose, looking around the kitchen. “Does it smell like wet cat in here?”
Mai stood at the window of Suzy’s living room, watching through the narrow opening in the drapes. Despite the pouring rain, Liam took his time walking to his bike. She felt bad that he was driving home in the rain. She’d offered to give him a ride to Clare Point, bring him back tomorrow to get his bike, but he seemed eager to just get out of Dodge.
Not that she blamed him. She’d be anywhere but here right now, if she had a choice.
The whole situation was crazy. It was crazy on every level imaginable. Uncle Donato murdered. The death threat. How could her life have turned upside down so quickly, just because she agreed to let an old man in failing health move into her home?
She watched Liam mount his motorcycle and pull the black helmet over his head. He was good-looking. More than good-looking—he was make-your-heart-thump-and-your-panties-damp hot. Those couple of kisses they had shared today were probably the best kisses she’d had in her life. She’d felt a connection with Liam from their first meeting, but when his lips touched hers, it was as if he was touching a part of her that no one had
ever
touched. As crazy as it sounded, even in her head, it was as if he could reach her soul.
Good kisser aside, what had possessed her to make him her knight in shining armor? Again? The first time, she had called him on impulse. But today, it hadn’t been impulse. She’d hung up the phone after the death threat, thought about it, and decided not to call the police, but to call him.
What made her think she could trust him?
She just
knew
. It was something in his sad, dark eyes. She had seen right through his tough exterior the day she met him in his antiques shop. He played a good enough game, but not good enough to fool her. He had a good heart and somehow, from the moment she met him, she had known he was the kind of guy you could depend on. No matter what.
So if he was such a good guy, why would she put his life in danger?
BOOK: Ravenous
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