The Better to Eat You With: The Red Journals (25 page)

Nah.

Fletch
pointed to where the USB slot was, and once I’d got it in, it opened instantly.
Fletch’s arms reached around me, his chin on my shoulder, and his long, elegant
fingers flew across the keyboard, typing a jumble of words, letters and symbols
that meant nothing to me, but had me fascinated all the same.

After a
few minutes of silence, watching boxes pop up, flash with writing, and then
disappear again, Fletch slumped back with a surprised grunt, and I turned on
his lap to look at him. His clear, pale purple eyes were distant, even as they
glowed in the light of his monitors. He was thinking, and I always found it
captivating to watch his facial expressions as his extraordinary mind worked
through some enigma he was figuring out how to solve.

“The
algorithms in this are just so…” He rubbed his palm over his mouth, his eyes
dancing as his mouth curved. “Complex! This was no slouch that encrypted this. This
was a professional, as in world-class hacking encryption professional. I
haven’t seen ciphers like this since I hacked into…” He cut off abruptly and
cast Vince a sidelong glance, suspicious as the Alpha blinked innocent blue
eyes right back at him. I smirked as Fletch cleared his throat and looked back
the screen of running data. “Whoever did this has taken the most simple of
symmetric keys and backed it up with the NASA equivalent of codes.” His smile
was huge, as if I couldn’t have given him something better if I’d tried.

“Can
you…break the code?” I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. I’m sure
they all added up to something really very simple, but I’d once asked Fletch
why Windows firewall always clashed with my other anti-virus programs, and I
ended up with a three page explanation via email. Well intended, but ultimately
pointless since I didn’t understand most of it. Not that I’d told him that. I’d
just smiled and said, "Yes, I got it, thank you.”

“Hell
yeah I can, but it’ll take me a couple days.” His hands curved around my waist,
big, warm and familiar. “Which is good, actually. Jade wants you over for
dinner. She’s got a new recipe for her lasagna she wants you to try.”

“I’m sure
I can manage to fit in at least one Duenos dinner night,” I mused. “If you
throw in black forest Gateau.”

Fletch’s
eyes narrowed. “Slave driver.”

“Harsh
mistress, thank you.”

“Bring
your fan club.” He grinned, and I left playful lavender eyes to meet the fiery
ice of an Alpha.

“Fan
club, eh?”

Vince
shrugged. “You have cute,” His eyes dipped to the barely-covering-anything hem
of my skirt, “feet.”

Heat
suffused my cheeks.
All this blushing is making me thirsty!

“So,”
Fletch said, one hand typing, his eyes on the screen. “Why do you have an
encrypted flash card, sweetheart?”

I
grinned. “I’ma huntin’.”

His
lashes flickered as he glanced at me. “And the info on this USB could help you,
right?” His lips, slightly on the full side, but nicely shaped, quirked at the
corners. “Do you know what this…guy? Looks like?”

I shook
my head. “I don’t, but I think Felix does.” All I had was a lousy description
and a scent.

“You
should check the LAC. You can put in the description and it’ll bring up every license
that matches, and then you can link it to our security system and check out the
recordings.”

“Which is
exactly what we did.” Jade beamed as she walked in.

“And we
got a hit, pet,” Felix added as he followed her in. His gaze swept me from head
to toe and back again before he met my eyes. His jaw went rigid for a moment,
and I frowned at him. “He’s going under an alias, one Adam Harris.”

I
snorted. “A name as common as muck. Any search for a name like that would have
had thousands of hits.”

“Which is
why I did the description instead. A club like this? Ambrose wouldn’t be able
to resist.” Felix shook his head. “He’s as much a politician as anything else.”

I nodded
in agreement. His ego would demand he be seen in the new hot spots, his image
made all the more inflated by association, and Jade’s clubs were always
ridiculously successful.

“According
to our records,” Jade explained, “his license is registered on our systems
every other Thursday.”

My whole
body tensed as I my breath caught and I sat up straight. “And he was here
last…?”

Jade
grinned. “Nearly two weeks ago.”

My heart
stopped and then pounded in my chest.
Tomorrow is Thursday…

“Why
every Thursday?” Vince asked.

“Lydia
dances the main stage every other Thursday,” Jade replied.

“Who’s
Lydia?”

“The
snake Shifter,” Fletch replied, and I arched a brow at him.

He smiled
charmingly back at me.

I rolled
my eyes.
Men.

“Ambrose
likes unusual things,” Felix murmured. His eyes met mine, and I saw in his gaze
what he was saying. Best keep my genetic cocktail under wraps.

“Does
Lydia know Ambrose?” I asked, wondering if the snake Shifter was a possible lead.

Jade
shrugged. “No more than I do. She just sees him as a well-paying fan.”

Damn.
“So he’s just here for the
entertainment? Never caused any trouble?”

“He got a
bit irate once when one of our security guys stopped his…” Fletch paused,
frowning. “Bodyguards?” Jade shrugged. “They had guns. We wouldn’t let them
in.”

Jade
snorted. “All very gangsta-mafia.”

“Yeah,
right.” Fletch shook his head. “They don’t bring anything with them now, and
are used to the routine of being thoroughly searched. No guns, no knives,
nothing now. They come in clean or they don’t come in at all.”

I glanced
at Felix, and his imperceptible nod told me this was
definitely
to our
advantage. “Looks like we’ll be back tomorrow night.” I grinned, hopping off
Fletch’s lap and heading for the door.

The
sooner we got this guy and handed him over to the council, the sooner Natasha’s
death could have some form of justice. Despite the fact that I never knew the
woman, Felix’s obvious grief was enough to stir even the most cold of hearts. And
if that’s what Ambrose did to someone who was merely a messenger, what the hell
would he do to someone who was outright trying to defy him? I wasn’t sure I
wanted to know. All I knew was that the sooner we caught this guy, the higher
the chances were I wouldn’t ever find mutilated bodies of innocent people.

“Ahem,
Miss Red.” I stopped and turned at Jade’s voice. She crossed her arms and
raised her brows, and I stiffened. I knew that look. “Don’t you have something
to do before you leave?”

Oh no.

“I don’t
know what you’re talking about,” I replied as primly as possible, tugging at
the hem of my blazer. Fact was, I knew exactly what she was talking about.

“You,”
Jade’s grin was positively malicious, “owe me a dance.”

She
said it. She actually said. And in front of the Vampire and the Alpha too! Kill
me. Kill me now.

“A
dance?” Vince asked. “You don’t like dancing, darlin’?”

“I—”

“She
dances
very
well,” Jade cut in. “She used to dance professionally.”

“Professionally?”
Vince’s grin was slow and hot, with interest. “I never would have guessed.”

I
bristled. “Why not?”

Red,
seriously, do you want to dance or don’t you?

Jade
shrugged. “Think of it as payment for services rendered to aid your hunt.”

Cow.

“Red’s
got moves that’ll leave you quite speechless,” Fletch drawled, smiling as
cunningly as his sister, and no doubt well attuned to my embarrassment,
indignation and intense reluctance. I scowled at him

“Jade,
I’m working. I really don’t think”

“It’s
been four years, Red.”

“What
has?” Felix asked.

I covered
my face with my hands, my stomach falling out at my feet.

“Red lost
a bet and now owes me a pole dance,” Jade replied, as if the concept of me
dancing on a stage with a pole while doffing clothes wasn’t the
massive
deal I was making it out to be.

“A bet?”
Vince’s brow arched. “Explain.”

Jade
beamed. “She underestimated me. I bet her I could find a Moonshine dealer even
in the middle of nowhere. Red scoffed, so I proved her wrong.”

“Moonshine?”
Felix arched a brow at me, and I tilted my chin a little higher.

“I can’t
get drunk,” I clipped. “Moonshine has an intoxicating effect.”

“Damn,
darlin’.” Vince grinned. “Moonshine kills every inhibition in you. The one and
only time I did it, I ended up cuffed buck naked to the back of my lieutenant’s
outhouse!” He chuckled at the memory.

“Oh man,”
Fletch laughed. “Red ended up—”

“Fletch.”

“—dancing
topless on—“

“Fletch!”

“—a bar
swinging her bra—”

“
Ohmygod
!”

“—over
her head.”

I could
see Fletch winging his hand above his head like a cowboy about to rope some
cattle through my fingers covering my burning face.
My humiliation couldn’t
be any more complete.

“Topless?”
Felix was grinning too; I could hear it in his voice. “And you looked so
indignant when I ripped your top clean down the middle and got a peak at your
bra, pet.”

My hands
dropped to my sides as everyone looked at me, and I stared at him, blinking
stupidly.
I take it back; it could get worse.

“I was
fighting.
He,”
I pointed at Felix, “was trying to undress me.”

“Uh-huh.”
Jade smirked.

“I don’t
know why I bother trying to defend myself. No one ever believes me.” I threw my
hands up and spun on my heel.

“Main
stage in cleared for one song, Red,” Jade called, and I jerked to a halt.

“You
already have a costume and a song picked out, don’t you?” I asked over my shoulder.

She
sauntered up to my side and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “You know it.”

I sighed,
“Fine.” I glanced at Felix and Vince, who were grinning like school boys who
just found a spy hole into the girls’ locker room. “But they don’t watch.”

“Oh, hell
no, darlin’.” Vince swaggered through the door. “I’m getting me a seat right in
front of that pole.”

“You
should relish this opportunity, pet.” Felix grinned, walking out backwards so
he could dimple at me. If I wasn’t so pissed off, I might have sighed. “You get
the chance to make me speechless.”

I glared
at him as he darted out after Vince.

Fuck
my life.

The sound
of my foot tapping on the linoleum floor echoed irritatingly down the hall as I
waited for the music to start, and yet I couldn’t get said foot to stay still. I’d
been scowling at the door in front of me for a good three minutes, and the
butterflies in my stomach were only fuelling how pissed off I was.

It didn’t
help that the ridiculous high platform of my shoe made the noise all the
sharper, especially since I couldn’t feel the damn floor. Damn stripper shoes
might look awesome, but I felt like I was
floating
when I walked.
Gah!
Why am I doing this? Because of some stupid bet? Are you freakin’ kidding me?
I’m over three hundred years old. I’m too old for this crap. Oh, woe is me… Big
girl pants now, Red.

That’s
when I heard it. The tapping out of synch with mine, the beat, and then the
guitar kicked in. My eyes closed briefly in despair. Of all the songs she could
pick. With a gusty sigh, I pushed the door open and walked across the crowded
club, heels clacking, hips swaying, nothing but an oversized men’s black shirt
with the cuffs undone covering a sparkly black string bikini to match my
ridiculous sparkly black stripper heels.

I headed
for the main stage, and plastered a decidedly sensual expression on my face. A
come-hither-if-you-dare smirk, smoky eyes sliding over Felix and Vince as they
sat front and center, waiting for me. If their expressions, when they finally
saw me, were anything to go by, they hadn’t expected me to show. In fact, they
barely even glanced my way until I mounted the steps at the front of the stage.

By the
time the lyrics kicked in, AC/DC’s “Back in Black” pumping loud and clear, my
legs were shoulder-width apart and I’d bent, hand touching the floor, meeting
the Vampire and the Alpha’s eyes between my legs. I’d flashed them a good one
of my tiny glittery panties and winked, before slowly straightening to go for
the bright polished pole.

Looks
like I have their attention now.

The dance
wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I got to use my claws, slowly shredding
the shirt, bit by bit, until nothing was left but the collar and shoulders from
the armpits up. I got to use some gymnastics too, which really is quite a fete
when wearing such high shoes. I got to totally molest a pole and call it
dancing, and
jeepers
, who gets to do that every day? I’d walked off
stage in my sparkly bikini set, hips swaying, pulling dollar bills from the
stringy edges and handing them to Jade who looked like she was having an
apoplectic fit she was laughing so hard. Fletch just looked stunned.

I also
got to shock the holy crappers out of that damn Vampire and that bloody Alpha. Totally
worth the degradation of removing my clothes in a sexual nature in public.

The drive
back to the hotel was quiet. Hell, it was utterly silent. Vince still wore a
slightly shell-shocked expression, although it was a definite improvement on
the wholly aghast look he had worn when I walked off stage. Every so often,
he’d look at me as if he wasn’t quite sure anything he thought he knew about me
was true. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but right then, I was too
elated to care.

Felix was
another matter. The male had looked ready to kill every mother F in the club by
the time the dance had finished. I think the only reason he didn’t was because
we needed Jade and Fletch’s good graces to come back the next night to look for
Ambrose. So, he settled for looking murderous, and staying murderous the whole
drive back. And then the whole way across the marbled foyer. The whole ride up
in the elevator. And then as long as it took for the elevator doors to close on
Vince’s startled expression.

“You,” He
said, his voice low and scathing, “are never to do that again.” Not a question.
Not a request. A command.

I
responded accordingly. “Excuse me?” I squawked, absolutely livid. Where did he
get off talking to me like that?
"I really don't see how that's any
of your business!" I gave him a haughty sniff and stalked off towards my
rooms the instant the elevator doors slid opened, my pretty shoes taking me there
much faster than those bloody stripper heels could any day. I was
so-o-o
not in the mood to be dealing with him if he was going to be saying stuff like
that. I mean, seriously, what the bloody hell? Did he seriously think I would
listen? I wasn’t his slave, or his companion. I was his partner, not his
girlfriend.

"What kind of impression do you
make on your clients when you do things like that?" he said to my back,
his tone harsh enough to strip skin from my hide.

"Oh, my God!" I spun on my
heel to gawk at him. "Are you seriously giving me the what-will-the-neighbors-think
talk? Have you even met me?" I snorted in disbelief. Had he learned
nothing? “I’m the girl who knocked you out with a baton for being in my
territory, rather than just ask. Since when would I ever consider what other
people thought of me?”

“I would have thought a little
self-respect.”

“I respect myself plenty, it’s every
other fucker.”

“Such a potty mouth.”

“What the bloody hell would you know
about my mouth?”

“A lot less than Vince, obviously.”

I sucked in an outraged breath and
felt my blood pressure shoot up. “Again, none of your damn business!” I stomped
my foot for emphasis, my heart pounding and my blood rushing with my
indignation.

“Why isn’t it?” He flung his arms
out. “I’m supposed to work with you. What you do reflects back on me. I have my
own reputation to uphold.”

“I’m an independent bounty hunter,
you stupid turd! Working with me has
already
damaged your reputation. Pull
up those big boy pants and deal with it!” I spun away again, my throat
constricting. Why was he being like this? “Besides,” I choked out, striding
away, “you had a front row seat, remember?”

"Indeed I did, pet," he
purred, tone menacingly smooth, making me slow. “A front row seat to witness
all the men in the club watch as the infamous Red Riding Hood disgraced herself
again.”

I stilled completely, his words
cutting me as deep as any blade he could wield. I doubt he even knew how deftly
he wielded it. How closely he cut to the heart.

Felix had no idea what I’d had to do
to get by after the change. Not many people did, since no one really new me
back then. I lived off the streets for years, begging. I spent more nights in
stocks and prison cells that Felix has had back ally sips from hookers. Dancing
for money was the least of my low times, but at least it paid well. I may have
danced for money, food and a roof over my head, but I never dipped low enough
to be anyone's play thing. The fact that, after the time we’d spent together
and the person I thought he thought I was, he actually didn't see me at all. It
hurt more than if he had just come out and called me exactly what he thought I
was.

"Oh, Felix," I breathed, my
anger and disappointment churning a ragged hole in my insides, making it hard
to swallow and my eyes burn. "I won't explain myself to you. Ever." I
took out my key card then, swiped my door, and entered my room. Just as the
door was closing, I caught a wispy scent of regret wafting up to me.

But it was too late.
The damage was done.

God
damn him.

Why
did he have to be this way? Why did he have to turn into such a righteous
prick? We were having fun, right? Even though Ambrose is a psycho, Natasha had died
and the whole of the Immortal world is at risk of enslavement, I thought we
were having fun.

A hunt
was a hunt, after all.

I heaved
a shaky sigh as I leaned back against the door, my insides shaking, making the
urge to vomit nearly undeniable. My dance-induced high had plummeted, and my
innards felt shredded with the unexpected confrontation with Felix. An argument
that left me as baffled as it did hurt, disappointed, and angry. He was acting
as if he had a right to dictate my behavior, as if he owned me.

Jeez.

So he was
technically my protector against the Vampire community until I decided whether
I wanted in on his clan or not, that didn’t mean I was his property, even if I
have taken his blood a few times.

Oh. Oh,
shit.

I felt my
face drain of color, and then flood with it until it burned.

I’d taken
Felix’s blood three times. The first time was before witnesses, when I had been
waking from him knocking me out and surrounded by the leading members of his
clan. The second time was on the plane, and resulted in—
gulp—
climax. And
the third was after my fight with Des.

Jeepers.
Blimey. Damn Vampire.

According
to him, I
was
his property. Every Vampire instinct in him was telling
him I belonged to him because his blood ran in my veins. I was not quite a
Slave, because only humans could be Slaves. Which isn’t as bad as it sounds,
since they have impeccable health and elongated lifespan from drinking Vampire
blood, and were generally treated like adored pets by their Master. But then, I
was also not quite a Consort, since we hadn’t finished the Consort Bond, which
involved the need for both his blood and his semen being inside me
simultaneously.

Holy
crap, I’m a potential life partner.

I groaned
and rubbed my temples. I did
not
need this kind of crap in my life. We’d
just have to deal with this until the call of his blood in me stopped beckoning.

Is his
blood in me the only reason he’s attracted to me? Oh, now there’s an ego
killer.

Feeling
about two feet tall, I pushed off the door, pulled it open, and headed for
Felix’s room. I wasn’t going to apologize for the dance, but I would apologize
for not realizing sooner.

Although,
how the hell was I supposed to know he was bonding me? Do I look like a
specialist in one specific species? I’m a multiples kinda gal.
Snicker, snicker.

I was
about three feet from Felix’s door when it opened, and Felix stepped out with
his duffel slung over one shoulder. I stopped dead and gaped.

“You’re
leaving?” I couldn’t believe it. He was skipping out on me. “You’re seriously
leaving me?”

“Red.”

“So I
danced, jeez, anyone would think I’d done it down to nothing instead of the
bikini.”

“Red,
please.”

“I can’t
believe you are leaving.”

He pulled
the door to. “We have to go.”

“Were you
even going to tell me?”

“Red.”

And then
I smelled it. A scent no wolf forgets after the first time. An aroma no Vampire
could mistake. Realization must have shown on my face, because Felix made a
grab for my arm.

“Red,
please.”

 I dodged
him and slid through his doorway, pushing it wide.

And
stopped in horror.

Blood was
everywhere. Coated everything. Rich and thick and warm. Glistening.

My hand
lifted to my mouth, shaking as my eyes focused on the bed and my mind tried to
make sense of what I was seeing. It was the maid. The maid who I thought Felix
had fooled around with. The same mussed blonde hair, the same glassy-eyed
expression, though this was one of utter fear and pain rather than
well-tumbled.

God,
she’s still gagged.

I
swallowed against the rising of my gorge as my eyes travelled down her. From
neck to wrists to ankles, she had been…skinned. Veins, blood, muscle, gristle
and fat, all exposed and shiny, just like the blood splattered across the room.
The skinning looked precise, and yet, it also looked brutal. As if the person
responsible knew exactly how to make it painless and quick, as well as
excruciatingly slow and agonizing.

If the
expression on her face was anything to go by, I think the killer went for the
latter. I could smell the pain, fear, anger and satisfaction still ripe in the
air, like week-old garbage left to rot in the sun. I could smell the faint
lingering aroma of Felix after his shower, and me.  Interspersed amid all the
scents in the room, I made out one, clear as day. It was the scent of her
killer, and I knew who the killer was.

Ambrose.