The Darkening (21 page)

"Feeling better?" Darius asked when the bag was empty.

Martin looked lost, but he nodded.

"Good." Darius stood up, walked to the cell door and let himself out. The click of the bolt as it slid into place seemed to pierce Martin's daze. He looked around and finally seemed to notice his surroundings.

"Where am I?"

"Jail," Lexi told him. "I'm Lexi Corvin. I'm a bounty hunter. You failed to make your court appearance, so I was sent to bring you in." She paused. "There were ... complications."

"What kind of complications?" He sounded anxious, and Lexi was trying to decide the best way to break the news to him.

"What's the last thing you remember?" she asked.

"I don't know." He went to wipe his mouth and stopped short when he saw the back of his hand. "Is this blood?" There was panic in his voice. Then he saw the empty blood bag still in his lap, and she knew he was putting the clues together. "Nooooo," he cried. "I'm not a vampire." He threw the bag as far away from him as he could and then rushed to the cell bars, gripping them. "Please. There's been some kind of mistake. I'm not a vampire. I can't be."

"I'm sorry," Lexi said as kindly as she could. "I think that two nights ago you were lured into an initiation scam. Probably drugged so you'd be more compliant."

Understandably, he seemed to have a hard time focusing his thoughts and kept rubbing his head. "I can't remember anything."

"I talked to your wife, Martin. She said you had taken a cab to go to a doctor's appointment and never came back. Sound familiar?"

He shook his head. Just then, one of the police detectives poked his head in the room and beckoned to Lexi.

"We've got guys over at the fellowship hall now, taking a look around," he told her when she joined him. "But they found these." He handed her a stack of papers. She saw they were official ACFs, Authorization of Conversion Forms. She looked up, a question in her eyes.

The detective nodded. "Yeah, they're all signed and legal."

She flipped through the papers and found both Ironwood's and Mai's ACFs. Even though it was Mai's signature, Lexi refused to believe that her friend had knowingly entered into such a thing. She took Martin's form to him and held it up. "Do you remember signing this?"

He looked at it, and a horrified expression crossed his face. "No, but ... This can't be possible," he protested. "I would never. .." He shook his head, and a single blood-tear slipped from his eye and traveled down his cheek. "My wife. My life is ruined." He looked at Darius. "Kill me. Please. I don't want to live like this."

Darius seemed to consider his request and then, to Lexi's horror, he slapped a hand to his arm and brought forth his dagger. Before she could stop him, he'd opened the cell door, grabbed Martin by the scruff of his shirt and held the knife beneath his throat, letting the blade slice the skin enough for blood to well up.

"No, Darius, don't do it," she pleaded.

The police detective, who was still standing in the doorway, barged into the room, pulling his gun. "Put the weapon down or I'll shoot," he demanded.

Darius glanced at them both, his expression dark and fierce.

"Stay out of this-both of you. It is insightful of Martin to realize that he doesn't have what it takes to face his new life. His wife will understand. If the roles were reversed, he'd expect her to do the honorable thing and kill herself, rather than learn to control her bloodlust and return to a different, but still satisfying, life."

Lexi watched the man's expression change from defeat to hope. "No," Martin said, taking a breath and straightening. "I've changed my mind."

Darius withdrew his arm, but didn't put his knife away until after he'd stepped outside the cell.

Martin walked up to the bars, his expression grim. "I want to know who did this to me," he told Lexi. "I want to know who murdered me."

"You weren't the only victim of this initiation scam," the detective said, eyeing Darius warily, but holstering his weapon since Darius had put his dagger away. "Several of our recent missing persons were found tonight. Unfortunately, many of them, like you, had already been converted. We're looking into it, and when we find the ones who did it, they'll pay-provided they haven't paid already," he added with a side scowl at Darius.

Lexi looked pointedly at the bars of the cell between them before giving Martin her attention again. "I'm sorry I had to put you behind bars."

He shook his head. "It's probably just as well," he told her. "I'm going to need time to sort things out. Learn to control my appetite." He hesitated. "Would you mind calling my wife and telling her what happened? Tell her that I'll understand if she never wants to see me again, but that I'm sorry, and-I love her." He paused and took a deep breath. "I'd call her myself, but I'm not sure I can handle hearing her rejection."

"I'll call her and tell her what's going on," Lexi promised, though it wasn't a conversation she was looking forward to.

"What now?" she asked Darius as they left the vampire holding area.

"I've been thinking about those conversion papers. You said they're legitimate?"

She'd given the stack of ACFs back to the detective, but at Darius's question, she led him to the detective's desk so they could look at the papers again.

They'd only flipped through a couple of forms before Lexi noticed something she hadn't before. "Does it seem odd to you that the same physician signed all of these?"

She flipped through several more forms, but the name on them was the same.
Dr. D. Patrick.
Suddenly she knew why it seemed so familiar.

"Mai went to see a Dr. Patrick this morning," she said. "It has to be the same physician." She looked at Darius to see if he agreed, but he seemed lost in thought. "Darius?" He blinked, and then his gaze focused on her. "Yes, I agree. It makes sense that it's the same physician.

"Right. So we find the physician and get some answers."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Find the physician and get some answers. That was ex
actly
what Darius intended to do.

He was fairly certain that Lexi hadn't made the connection yet between Dr. D. Patrick and Paddy Darby. Only someone familiar with leprechaun culture and traditions would know that the "little people" followed a quirky naming convention. Their birth name was the one they used for formal occasions-but with friends and other acquaintances, they switched the order of their names, so their surname became their first name.

He left the police station with Lexi and stood with her while she hailed a cab. When it arrived, he held the door open for her, but instead of climbing in after her, he remained standing outside.

She looked up at him, confused. "Are you coming? I want to run by Mai's place and make sure she's okay, but then I thought we could go back to my place. We could order a pizza, watch TV-or whatever."

He wanted to smile. After last night, he never thought she'd invite him home with her. There was nothing like mortal combat to bring people together, he thought sarcastically. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"There's someone I need to talk to."

"Oh." She set her jaw. "Fine." Her expression became closed and unreadable, though he had a pretty good idea what thoughts were going through her head. She thought that he preferred other company to hers.

He heaved a sigh. The last thing he wanted was to get into lengthy conversations in front of the cab driver about why he would or would not have sex with her. "It's not what you think," he told her.

She leaned over and placed her hand on the door handle. "It never is. See you around." With that, she pulled the door closed and the cab driver took off.

Darius knew he was going to have to explain everything to her soon, before they reached a point of no return. Unfortunately, time was of the essence. The other night, when he'd been at Ricco's club, the vampire had introduced him to a friend of his-a young female leprechaun by the name of Alise Merriweather.

Hailing a cab, he instructed the driver to take him to the Blood Club. With any luck, Alise would be there tonight and he could ask her if she knew Paddy Darby. Then, if it wasn't too late, Darius intended to pay the leprechaun a little visit.

After stopping at her place to change clothes, Lexi was once again in the back of the cab feeling sullen and depressed. Was she crazy? Darius clearly wasn't interested in her-at least not sexually. How many times had he already made that quite clear? So why had she even hinted that they could have sex? Oh, yeah-because of the full moon, that's why. She was feeling as randy as a dog in heat. Oh, wait, she actually was in heat.

Several minutes later, she was standing at Mai's apartment door. She didn't knock right away, suddenly wondering if she was doing the right thing. After all, Mai was probably more exhausted than she was. Despite Mai's claim that she would be up the rest of the night working, she had probably fallen asleep.

Lexi knocked on the door anyway and waited. A few minutes later, she heard the sound of the chain being slid back and the deadbolt being thrown open.

"Is something wrong?" Mai asked as she opened the door, worry in her voice. Her hair looked mussed from sleeping, and her garnet silk nightshirt made the healing puncture marks and darkening bruises on her neck that much more noticeable.

"I'm sorry I woke you," Lexi said. "After everything that happened tonight, I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Mai waved away her concern as she stood back to let Lexi in. "I'm fine." She led the way through her living room to her kitchen. "You want something to drink? Maybe some coffee?"

Lexi thought about it, but shook her head. "No, thanks. I really just wanted to make sure you weren't suffering any side effects."

They sat down at the table, and Mai started rubbing the injured side of her neck. "Mostly, I'm fine," she began. "But there is one thing. It started about an hour ago and has me worried."

"What's that?" Lexi sat forward in her seat.

Mai's brow furrowed. "You're going to think it's sick," she warned. "But I have this craving for an extremely undercooked steak-bloodred in the center. The bloodier, the better."

"You're craving blood?" Lexi stared at her friend, hundreds of thoughts and concerns suddenly racing through her head. Had she gotten there too late when the vampire had attacked Mai? Had he somehow infused her with vampire-like tendencies without actually killing her?

Lexi was so deep in thought that at first she didn't recognize the small sound coming from Mai. When she did, she realized that Mai was giggling. Lexi rolled her eyes and pursed her lips. "That's not funny"

Mai continued to smile. "Yes, it is. I'm perfectly fine. But, hey, why aren't you with Darius? I certainly wouldn't be hanging out with you if I had a guy like that. I'd have him in bed, screwing him six ways to Sunday."

"Nice," Lexi said. "But for your information, he's not my guy."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow. "Then you won't mind if I give him a try?"

"Knock yourself out," Lexi grumbled, because the truth was that she did care. Standing up, she went around to where Mai was sitting and gave her a hug. "Good night, Mai."

Mai returned her hug and then walked her to the door. "Just remember, if you need anything, I'm here."

Lexi smiled. "I should be telling you that."

It wasn't until some time later, in the back seat of another cab, that Lexi remembered she'd forgotten to ask about Dr. Patrick. Well, she'd do that tomorrow

She stared out the window and found that she wanted to put her fist through it. Every time she thought about Darius turning her down and Mai wanting to make Darius her next sexual conquest, Lexi got angrier and angrier.

She was never going to get any sleep being wound as tight as she was. Leaning forward, she tapped the driver's shoulder. "I've changed my mind," she told him. "Can you take me to the Blood Club?"

She needed to siphon off some of the excess magic that was making her so edgy, and there was one proven way to do that spend some quality time with Ricco.

After the cab dropped her off, Lexi walked through the crowded room, unaware of her surroundings. Her sole focus was on getting to the back rooms and finding Ricco. She was almost there when a hand snaked out and pulled her to a stop. Already fuming, she whirled around to confront the person who dared to lay a hand on her.

"Easy, pet." Ricco's velvety voice washed over her as he held his hands up to show he meant no offense.

Lexi looked up into the blue eyes twinkling down at her. Before she'd met Darius, she'd thought Ricco was the most attractive man she'd ever been with. Now, for the first time, she found herself thinking that he wasn't all that tall, and while he was definitely in good shape, his body lacked a certain muscular definition and his complexion was maybe too pale.

She stopped, horrified to realize she was comparing him to Darius. Feeling a bit off balance, she forced herself to relax and gave him a smile. "Hi, I was looking for you."

He smiled. "Everyone else in the club will be relieved to hear that," he teased, gesturing to her clothes. "Not that I mind if you come dressed in your kick-ass leathers and don't-fuck-with-me attitude." He smiled at her. "I lust for danger."